The Amen

Rev.3:14-16, ‘And to the angel of the church ^[j]of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: ¹⁵ “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither ^[k]cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.’

 The word ‘amen’  is a declaration of affirmation. It refers to be trust worthy i.e can be trusted without any doubt.  It is found as a concluding word or response to prayers. Besides, its  used colloquially to express strong agreement. It’s a word which we use so often to express our agreement, which seals the words with great faith and assurance over which  ‘amen’ has been proclaimed . And that’s powerful.  Here, the Lord has been called as ‘the Amen.’ In fact, He calls Himself as ‘the Amen’.

The Lord being the beginning and the end, He being the alpha and the omega, He confirms and affirms that every word that has come out of His mouth is the truth and all of them by all means will come to pass. Mt.24:35, ‘ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.’  There is no greater assurance than these words in this world, that keeps our heart anchored to Him, refusing to flow away as per the waves of the world around. This  in turn is the secret of the great peace, that passeth every understanding. Is.26;3,’ You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.’  Trusting the Lord with all our heart is the greatest asset we have in this world, the returns of which can never be limited in counts. Its always innumerable and can never be contained and constrained. The Lord also calls Himself as ‘the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God’. All these follows the great title of ‘the Amen’. In other words, they all describe ‘the Amen’ from different perspectives. A reliable person is always faithful and only truth is reliable. And there is only one person i.e the Word of God, who is with God, and who is God, who created all things from the beginning who is true and is the truth.

The church in Laodicea was rich in terms of wealth and possessions. This place was a centre of trading and banking and was located in the modern Turkey. The largest church at Laodicea, called the Church of Laodicea took up an entire city block and dates to the beginning of the fourth century. Roman emperors ruled this place during the time when the book of Revelation was being written. Domitian, who was the 1^st Roman emperor persecuted the church for not worshipping the emperors and dynastic families. The persecution involved their ability to buy and sell, which started impacting their faith life.

The charge against this church was of being ‘lukewarm’. It’s a condition which is neither cold nor hot. It’s a mixture of all things with nothingness in particular. That’s the best way to describe ‘lukewarm’. This is the true scene of spirituality today, where believers are in a comfort zone. Both, hot and  cold does not make a person comfortable. This is the last scene of church when we  see the 7 churches as eras. There can be no worser  &  deceiving scenario, where identifying a genuine child of God is like looking for one pearl in the midst of a heap of rubbish. V 17 –‘Because 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—‘ See the depth of deception here. This church was wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked and they DID NOT KNOW IT. Not realizing one’s actual identity in God’s sight shows one’s blindness. Dear friends, we all have shortcomings and are on the way towards perfection. During  any  time period, if we see that the Spirit of the Lord is not convicting us of any sins, we need to be careful, because there can be no way that any of us can be perfect in God’s sight (1 Jn.1:8-9). Once we overcome the sins we are convicted of, the Spirit of the Lord reveals the next series of sins present within us and this process continues till we meet our Lord in glory. But if we say that we are rich and wealthy spiritually, lacking nothing, ‘spiritually blind’ is our true identity & knowingly or unknowingly, we have shaken hands with sin. Compromises always makes us feel comfortable. Lets keep examining ourselves in the sight of God’s Word time and again.

The phrase ‘I will vomit you out of My mouth’  depicts the extreme hatred for such lives. God always loves the humble ones who openly confesses their lacks and downfalls with a repentant heart, which takes all efforts not to repeat the sins which he or she was convicted of and were confessed. In Lk.18:10-14, the Pharisee presents before God his worthiness while the publican presents his unworthiness. This is what differentiates between spiritual insight and spiritual blindness. Whatever we do for the Lord can never make us worthy for the Lord. They are only small tokens of  love for the great love displayed for us on the  cross of Calvary. Its only the blood of Christ that washes us from all transgressions which makes us worthy  to stand before the Holy one. May we fear His holiness and be humble.

Rev.3:18-19, ‘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. ¹⁹ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.’  How much ever the Lord rebukes, it always has a note of love, compassion and a call to return back. The Lord expressed His hatred for the lukewarm condition of this church very openly but then stops to counsel them and restore them. This is the heart of our Lord for all souls. He loves all alike and does not want to see a single soul perish. He counsels the church to buy gold refined in fire which refers to faith tested and proved through fiery trails of life (1 Pet.1:7). He offers white garments, the garment of righteousness which comes through regular examining and washing of our sins

through blood of Christ (Rev.19:8). He then counsels the church to anoint their eyes with eye salve, which refers to the opening of our spiritual eyes to see ourselves through the eyes of our Lord. Only this can humble ourselves before the Lord. Prophet Isaiah prophesied during the 1^st six chapters. Yet, his spiritual eyes opened to see a new realm in the spiritual world in chapter 6 which caused him to humble himself much more before the Lord and in turn, the Lord exalted his ministry to deeper realm to prophesy about the Messiah himself.

The world today is currently moving through this last era of lukewarm stage of the church, where the church is comfortable with compromises. But lets not loose our heart. The Lord calls the remnant  to be rich, clothed and anointed. Lets  be set apart to be the remnant, waiting and watching over our own souls through continuous prayer to be zealous, so that we do not miss the trumpet call. The last era of the church will see the glorious coming of our Lord.

v 20, ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock….’  The church thought that the Lord stood in the midst of them but this message made them realize that the Lord was standing outside knocking at the door of the hearts of all lukewarm souls. May we not be amazed and ashamed to see the Lord out of our life when we assume Him to be the centre of our life. We can escape such surprises if we choose to be zealous for the Lord. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me”. The Lord has given us freedom of choice. He won’t come in till we allow Him to come in. Salvation is a gift and our response to this gift determines our destiny. The right response makes us overcomers who will sit with the Lord in His throne (Rev.3:21). May we respond rightly and be blessed. The Lord will come just as He promised and He will judge just as He said. Rev.22:20, “He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

 God bless us all

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