CHAPTER NEXT Buy from Jesus
8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’
In our last chapter, we looked at how there is a cost to getting oil in your lamp. We spent extensive time studying Proverbs 2:1-5 and Isaiah 55 in view of Matthew 25:9. These passages make it abundantly clear that the wise virgins in Matthew 25 had paid the cost of personal humility by taking up their cross, submitting themselves to the word of God, His correction and instruction, and had trained themselves, therefore, to hunger after the things that are eternal. This isn’t an overnight payment we make, but a lifetime of investment into God’s ways. Oil, therefore, is deposited into our lamp with every single choice of obedience to the cross Christ has called us to take up. But this is not a journey we take alone - Jesus, himself, set the ultimate example of humility and self-denial for us to follow when He chose the cross. His cross became our cross – our example of obedience to shadow.
As the Son of God, Jesus humbled himself and became The Son of Man, taking on our form and showing us how to live as one buying oil for the darkest days. His dependence on the Father, His unwavering yieldedness to The Spirit, was the highest example of a man “buying oil.” Because of this ultimate sacrifice, Jesus is given the name above every other name (Phil. 2:9). This is why Jesus has the authority to call us to come to him and buy oil for our lamps. Just as the Spirit of God called in Isaiah 55 to come and buy from Him, Jesus calls to the church in Revelation 3 to do the same. In this fearful passage, Jesus comes to tell the Laodicean church that they are not who they think they are. He arrives on the door of their congregation and first points out the lack in their spiritual bank account. He says:
15“…I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm… I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked… (Rev. 3:15-17)
Look at that passage! What was the approval Jesus gave them? None. No approval at all. And yet, there is no mention of immorality in this church. There is not persecution coming towards them due to their pagan practices. There is no idolatry even mentioned. No false doctrine. In fact, it looks like they are a growing church! But in spite all this, Jesus highlights 3 vital errors in their lives that must be fixed:
1. They are Apathetic in their state
2. They are Arrogant about their state
3. They are Ignorant about their state
These same bankruptcy traps can befall any believer. Let us look at each of these issues in depth.
They are Apathetic in Their State
“You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm… I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
You can do something about someone who is cold or hot, but you can’t do anything with someone lukewarm because they are satisfied with where they are. Jesus says to them, “Be hot or be cold!” literally meaning boiling of freezing in the original Greek language. But instead, they are in-between. What does this speak of? Complacent, satisfied with the status-quo congregations; a people whose lifestyles and worship are just so-so. His desire for them was to be burning hot for His name! Passionate and full of zeal! But if they couldn’t be hot, He said He would rather them be freezing. But why? Why prefer freezing over lukewarm? Isn’t warm better than being freezing cold? No – because at least a cold person has truly chosen a side. Being warm is an offense to God. “Warmness” is half-hearted. Warmness says he’s not worth getting passionate about. Passionate people spread the gospel. Half-hearted do not. Passionate people pursue His heart. Half-hearted people do not. And before you start thinking, “I am not a passionate person by nature,” please understand, I am not talking about a personality type. You may be the quietest, mild-mannered worshipper in the world, but your heart can still burn for Jesus; you can still share His message with those around you, even if it is in small conversations and choices of love. Do not be quick to let youthful zeal define all zeal. The zeal God is looking for in His believers isn’t based on how loud you sing or how high you lift your hands in worship – biblical zeal is a zeal that will lay down its life for the sake of Christ. Be hot! Just don’t be lukewarm.
The language used here is very strong language: lukewarm people make Jesus’ heart sick. I don’t believe He is simply saying, “You repulse me and make me want to puke!” because in just a few short verses (vs 19), He will confess His love and devotion towards them. I believe He is saying that He is heart-sick over their condition. He is so sick and grieved about their state, he is nauseated… and there is nothing He can do to change it: they must respond. He cannot do it for them. Jesus knows that their condition has led them to believe a lie: that they are not cold, so they are therefore safe. But nothing could be further from the truth. This is why He urges those He loves to run to Him, the All-Consuming Fire, and let the flame burn away compromise, complacency, and chaff in all of its forms.
They are Arrogant about Their State
Jesus also rebukes them because they arrogantly say, “I’ve got it all together! Look how self-sufficient we are!” They had all kinds of riches in the natural and boasted about this prized condition. They probably thought that prosperity of riches equals God’s blessing as so many in the Western church think today. But true riches come to us, not because of the jingle in our pocket, but by the sound of chains breaking in our heart. We are rich in the Spirit because of what Jesus did.
Another word for arrogance is pride. Scripture warns us again and again that pride blinds us to the truth and inevitably leads to destruction. Do you see why humility is vital in attaining oil? Pride looks at the works of its hands and counts it as success. Pride looks at the bank-account overflowing and thinks it has arrived. Pride is a self-satisfied, self-sufficient ravenger masquerading as a restorer. It will kill you in the end. As long as we equate success with bigger numbers, bigger budgets, and bigger everything in the church, we will be one step closer to being vomited out of Jesus’ mouth. Blessed are the poor in spirit – those who know they are impoverished without Jesus’ grace in every aspect of life – for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven with all its true riches!
They are Ignorant about Their Condition
But then Jesus gives the biggest blow and tells this church they are guilty of the very thing we’ve been discussing in this chapter: they are ignorant of their own condition. He tells them, “You don’t know what you are really like! You are bankrupt, blind, bare, beggars!” The word Jesus uses for “beggars” is the worst kind – the wretched, putrid, disheveled kind. Here we see a church that thinks it is at the height of success in God’s Kingdom, only to be told they are at the bottom of the heap, festering in a pile of vomit. They are worlds apart from reality. This isn’t mere ignorance on their part: this is a people who are so far removed from the truth of God’s word and ways, they have willfully chosen self-deceit. Scripture warns us again and again about being deceived. Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. You will reap exactly what you plant.” Again, scripture warns us that all the flashy success of the world can be deceitfully seen as success in the church, but it leads to corruption:
3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3)
Since so many in the Western church have equated sensual success with godly success, I believe this is why there are many warnings about being deceived to the point of destruction in the last days. If we are deceived about how God even defines success in His kingdom, how can we stand when riches and numbers and microphones and stages fall away? In Matthew 24 alone, Jesus said:
Matthew 24:4-5 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and deceive many.
Matthew 24:11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Matthew 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to put a mirror in front of us and show us our true condition just like He did for the Laodicean church. We must be willing to unlearn what needs to be unlearned in order that we may embrace and learn what is true wisdom. The words Jesus spoke to Laodicea were shocking and painful but necessary to save them. Because Jesus loved this church, He said, “I am going to point out blind spots to wake you up to your real condition.” He doesn’t just point out the bad to condemn them; he points it out to call them higher into the good He longs them to embrace. He point it out, then goes on to tell them exactly what they need and how to get it: “buy from Me.”
18“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.” (Rev. 3:18-19)
Jesus says to them, “Come and buy from Me. You’ve been buying from the world for so long and didn’t even realize it. You thought it was me. It wasn’t. But come and do business with Me and you’ll be rewarded.” And what does He tell them to buy?
First off - Gold refined in the fire. This speaks of godly character that is formed through trial, obedience, and endurance. They think they are rich right now, but Jesus is telling them here that, in the Kingdom, you get rich by becoming poor enough to admit your nothingness. This reminds me of Isaiah 55 which we studied in our last chapter. In 1:2, God called, “Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat.” In the Kingdom, it is always the “poor in spirit” who have the most money. He tells the people to “earn things” by engaging in the God-ordained process of humble obedience. And remember – our spiritual bank account doesn’t automatically fill up overnight. There is a process of “earning our paycheck” in the Kingdom. We received the free down-payment at salvation of God investing in us…but now, we invest in HIS KINGDOM IN US and AROUND US by our humble obedience. This is not the same things as earning salvation. I know I’ve discussed this already at length, but understand it once more. Salvation is free. Getting into heaven is free. That comes through the price Jesus paid for you. But your reward and ranking in heaven comes by the work you do in tandem with God. This is a difficult concept for many in the church to grasp because they do not understand “true works” verse “false works”. The book of James drives this point home! “Show me your faith without your works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works,” James cried (2:18)! Matthew 25 makes is abundantly clear: Jesus expects a return on his investment in us.
14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods (investment) to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them…. 26 “But [the] lord said [to the one who hid the talent], ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.” (Matthew 25:14-27)
Hebrews warns us to “not neglect so great a salvation” (Heb. 2:3). This is the warning of the Talent Parable in Matthew 25. God invested His all in us: he expects us to do the same. If we “add more to our bank account” through obedient acts of love and sacrifice, image how much will be added in order to afford gold refined. This is no small purchase! Jesus didn’t tell them, “I want you to purchase a Dollar Store chocolate coin (symbolically speaking).” No, he said, “I want you to be so spiritually rich, you can afford to buy the finest, rarest of gold.”
Gold refined in the fire symbolically speaks of allowing the costly precious things in us that God has deposited there to go through the fires of testing. He wants that Kingdom in us to be worked out in our attitudes, our actions, our insights, our words….and refining is a continual process of being plunged again and again into hard situations that test and try each one of these attributes. In biblical times, there was a delicate process used to refine mined ore into purified gold.
“The initial step in the process was to pound, shatter and crush the ore into a fine powder. The elements that made up the ore—dirt, rock minerals, gold and whatever other metals and unwanted materials remained—were totally pulverized. In the physical gold-refining process, after the mined ore is crushed and pounded into powder, it then must go through frequent washings and cleansings. During these washings, the unwanted, non-metallic elements are, to a large extent, eliminated; only the metallic elements are left behind. At this point in the purification process, the crushed and cleansed ore is collected and placed in crucibles of clay; then it must be submitted to the furnace. The dross-filled gold ore melts at the extreme temperature of 1,948 degrees Fahrenheit (1,064 degrees Celsius). In order to raise the furnace to that white-hot temperature, bellows are used to pump oxygen into the raging fire. Once the ore melts, an amazing thing happens: The impurities in the gold begin to rise to the top. The refiner is then able to skim the impurities off the top of the molten metal. The more this process is repeated, the purer the gold becomes”. - Royal Vision, March-April 2003
This is what Jesus calls the Laodicean church to: this process of being beaten, purified, washed, and set in the fire again and again in order that the impurities of false doctrine, self-reliance, and sinful attitudes may be removed. This is what He calls us to today, just the same.
But Jesus didn’t stop there.
He also told them to buy from Him white garments. Why did He say they needed white garments? Because they were naked and exposed. They thought they were clothed in splendor but that was their own self-righteous delusion. Much like the old fable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the Laodicean people were walking around thinking they were covered in glory, but God said they were bare-bummed with nothing to cover them.
So, God saw them naked. Okay. But what do garments represent beyond covering? Why would Jesus tell them to buy garments? This theme tends to pop up a lot in Jesus’ teaching. A few other references include:
Revelation 3:4-5 - You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments.
Revelation 16:15 - Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”
Matthew 22:10-13- 10 So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Obviously, garments are very, very important to Jesus. Why? What do garments represent? What does being naked symbolize according to scripture? Revelation 19:8 tells us plainly:
And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen [garments], clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
According to scriptures, garments represent our righteous acts. So, if we are naked, that means we have no righteous acts. If our garments are “taken from us,” then that means we’ve allowed our righteous acts to be removed from our lives. And if we are clothed in white garments, that means we have lived a life worthy of what Jesus paid for through our actions. In ourselves, apart from Jesus, our righteousness is a filthy garment. But once Jesus clothes us in salvation, we keep our garment clean and bright in loving the precious blood He shed for us – a love that is demonstrated through our life’s choices. Even as Jesus told the churches to let “no one take your crown,” (Rev. 3:11) he calls to all of us today to let no false doctrine or complacency or self-reliance take our righteous acts from us. KEEP your garments, saints!
Then, lastly, Jesus told them to purchase eye salve for their blinded eyes.
What lack does this address in them? Their spiritual blindness. He was calling to them to come to Himself to rightly see themselves as they are and to rightly see Him as He is! Over and over in scripture, Jesus called to his followers, “He who has ears to hear AND eyes to see, let him do it!” But for us to see our own condition and the altogether holy condition of our God, we must first come to Him to have our eyes opened. We cannot do it on our own. Ephesians 1:17 says it is the Spirit of God who opens the eyes of our understanding. In John 9:39, Jesus says He is the one who gives true, spiritual sight to the blind. But this takes courage, friends. For a believer who has walked with the Lord for years, knowing the scriptures, hearing the sermons and all that comes with church-life, to suddenly admit, “I may not be clothed the way I think I am,”…well, that takes courage and humility of the rarest kind.
To summarize and close out, I almost feel that when Jesus listed these items to the Laodiceans, he went in reverse order, from last to first. If we reverse it, it would read:
I counsel you to buy from Me eye salve, that you may see…
This is where we all must begin: asking the Lord to show us His awesomeness and our need. Not just once at a salvation call, but over and over again.
…and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed…
Now that we know our condition, we ask the Lord to fill us with His ability to live rightly in every area where we are weak. We guard our choices, our words, our attitudes by His power.
…And gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich.
This is the greatest purchase of the maturing believer. Now that we have learned to continually check our eyes and check our actions, we make it our aim to be refined again and again, no matter the fire, in order that the most costly things can be purchased in His Kingdom.
Comments