Bible Materials

WAKE UP!

by   05/08/2009   Revelation 3:1~6

Message


We thank the Risen Jesus who searches hearts and minds. Many think that no one knows and cares for what they are thinking and how they are living. But there is the heart and mind-searcher. He is a righteous judge. He wants his people and his church to be purified and remain holy by living in his sight and by holding to his words. Today’s passage is Jesus’ letter to the church in Sardis. This letter seems to be one of the most severe of the seven. Jesus says, “Wake up!” May God help us listen to him. Look at verse 1. “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” The seven spirits of God is the sevenfold Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit. The risen Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to his servants (Acts 2:32-33). Jesus said to his disciples in the upper room dialogue, “…the Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you…he will guide you into all truth” (Jn 14:26; 16:13). When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus, they became powerful and courageous to speak the word of God boldly to anyone. There are two kinds of spirits, evil spirits and the Holy Spirit. Evil spirits make people miserable. But the Holy Spirit makes God’s people loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, faithful, gentle and kind, and powerful and courageous (Gal 5:22,23). The Holy Spirit is so good. Jesus holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Look at verse 1b. “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” What a shocking rebuke! The reputation of being alive was quite different from the reality of being dead. The church of Sardis had acquired a name. Its reputation as a progressive church had evidently spread far and wide. It was well regarded in the city and in the neighbourhood. It was known by the other six churches in the province for its vitality. No false doctrine was taking root in its fellowship. We hear of neither Balaam, nor Nicolaitans, nor Jezebel. “What a live church you have in Sardis!” visitors would exclaim with admiration when they attended its services or watched its activities. Its congregation was probably quite large for those days, and growing, while its program doubtlessly included many excellent projects. It had no shortage of money, talent, or human resources. There was every indication of life and vigor. We can related this to the town of Sardis. Seven hundred years before this letter was written Sardis had been one of the greatest cities in the world. There the king of Lydia ruled over his empire in oriental splendor. The town of Sardis was situated at the foot of Mount Tmolus and in the fertile valley of the River Hermus. The name Sardis (Sardeis in Greek) is really a plural noun, for there were two towns, one on the plateau and one in the valley beneath. It was said that Sardis stood like some gigantic watch-tower guarding the Hermus valley. Sardis was almost impregnable. Greatest of the Sardis kings was Croesus. It was with him that Sardis reached its culmination and it was with him that it plunged to disaster. The fabulous King Croesus reigned amid his treasures until it fell to the swift attack of the Persian conqueror Cyrus. Later in history, Sardis had the distinction of being captured by both Alexander the Great and Antiochus the Great. But it gradually fell on evil days and lost its earlier renown, until in A.D. 17 it was devastated by an earthquake. The reputation that the church in Sardis had acquired was a reputation with human beings—but not with God. It was in the sight of God, Christ said, that he had found this church’s works deficient. They seemed solid and worthy enough to onlookers, but in God’s sight they were thoroughly defective. This distinction between reputation and reality, between what human beings see and what God sees, is of great importance to every age and place. Although we have responsibilities to others, we are primarily accountable to God. It is before him that we stand, and to him that one day we must give an account. We should not therefore rate human opinion too highly, becoming depressed when criticized and elated when flattered. Then what does it mean to be dead? According to the Bible, people are dead in sin (Eph 2:1). And those who are separate from God are spiritually dead. Romans 8:6a says, “The mind of sinful man is death.” So once Jesus said to a disciple, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (Mt 8:22), when he asked, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus also said in John 5:25, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” Paul also said in 1 Timothy 5:6, “…the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.” And James 2:26 says, “…the body without the spirit is dead…” The Christians of Sardis became like worldly people dead in sin. They soiled their clothes in the world with the cravings of sinful man the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does. We can imagine the atmosphere of the church in Sardis. As observed, there was no heresy, no gospel enemy in the church. It meant the church was so lifeless that it was not worth attacking. In the church no living word of God was heard. There was no obedience to the word of God and no repentance. There was no sincere prayer offered to God. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit was not there. Even in their singing hymns there was no liveliness. God’s flock of sheep were suffocated spiritually with no word and spirit. Each individual and church must watch out spiritually deadened state amid reputation and people’s praise. Then what message does Jesus give to the church in Sardis? Look at verses 2, 3. “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent.” Here are five staccato imperatives: Wake up! Strengthen what remains! Remember! Obey! Repent! First of all, Jesus said, “Wake up!” We say, “Wake up!” to those who slumber. We do not say, “Wake up!” to those who are dead. Jesus, however said, “Wake up!” What a hope! It is true that they were spiritually dead. But the risen Jesus calls them to arouse from their deadened state. The word, “wake up” is “gregoreuo” in Greek, and it has also the meaning of “be watchful”, “stay alert,” “be alert.” They must wake up and be watchful. It is noticeable that the once great Sardians had lost their city twice because they were too lazy to watch: one time by a Median solider under the Persian Cyrus in 549 B.C. and another time by a Cretan under Antiochus the Great in 218 B.C. They had thought themselves too safe to need a guard for their impregnable city; and so Sardis fell. This history of Sardis is a vivid example of what happens to the garrison whose watch is slack. Jesus’ command to be watchful was particularly appropriate to the church in Sardis. No commandment appears more frequently in the New Testament than that to watch. There are many differences between Jesus and Adam. But one clear difference is, we can say, that Jesus was watchful; Adam was not. When the devil came to tempt him, Jesus, in his watchfulness, Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan!” In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus said to Peter, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Mt 26:41). Temptation waits for our unguarded moments and then attacks. In the Christian life there must be unceasing vigilance against it. The Christians must be on the watch against the deceitful cunning of the devil. So Peter said in 1 Peter 5:8,9, “Be self-controlled (sober, sound-minded) and alert. Your enemy the devil prows around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 16:13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith…” He also said in 1 Thessalonians 5:6, “…Let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.” It has been said that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” and eternal watchfulness is the price of salvation. When we accept this one word deeply, “Wake up!” or “Be watchful,” our Christian life will be different and much better. It is good to know that while the Bible says clearly and repeatedly, “Watch”, Satan whispers, “Take it easy, man; relax.” We must wake up and be watchful to see the spiritual reality. Then Jesus said, “Strengthen what remains and is about to die.” How beautiful and important it is to strengthen the remaining weak and the dying. The weak can be made strong and the dying can be alive again. Matthew 12:20 says, “A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.” We should snuff out what remains and is about die in us and in God’s flock of sheep. What remained is very important and precious. What remained can be restored and strong and prosper. This is true in a person’s life and in God’s church. Look at verse 3. “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard, obey it, and repent.” The ascended Lord had told the church of Ephesus to remember. The church of Sardis is told to remember too. Memory is a precious and blessed gift. Nothing can stab the conscience so wide awake as memories of the past. The shortest road to repentance is remembrance. As Christians what we have received is very precious and great. We received God’ Son Jesus Christ and through him salvation and eternal life and the kingdom of God. When we heard the gospel of Jesus and accepted it, all these blessing came to us. And we also received the Holy Spirit when we repented of our sins and believed in Jesus who died for our sins and rose again. The world does not know the Holy Spirit, but we know him. Nothing or no one is more wonderful than the Holy Spirit we received from our Lord Jesus Christ. When we refer to Jesus’ introductory self-description to the church in Sardis as one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars”, Jesus wanted the church members to remember that they had received the Holy Spirit as well as the gospel. We also must remember that we have received the Holy Spirit. We must obey the Holy Spirit. But it is easy to ignore him and grieve him. So the Bible says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,” “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire” (Eph 4:30; 1 Thess 5:19). The word of God tells us that we must pray in the Spirit, preach in the Spirit, worship in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit” (Jude 20; 1 Thess. 1:5; Jn. 4:24; Ph. 3:3; Gal 5:16,25). God’s word commands us to “be filled with the Holy Spirit.”; Eph 5:18; Gal 5:16,25). Here we learn the deeper meaning of being watchful. It is to obey the Holy Spirit through his words and repent, that is, change our ways of living. It is live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit and continuously seek the Spirit’s fullness. It is true that spiritual revival can come to an individual and a church through the filling and ruling of the Holy Spirit. May we seek for this blessing. Jesus urges his church to wake up and be watchful. So he warns, “But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” Look at verse 4. “Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” While the majority of the church members soiled their clothes in the world, some did not. They were not contaminated in the corrupted world. They did not follow the trend of the world. They kept their pure love for Jesus. They fixed their eyes and thoughts on Jesus. They treasured the words of God having absolute faith in the words of the Scriptures. They were the remnant of God. As we learned, the history of God is the history of God’s remnant. How would Jesus bless them? He said, “They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” One whose walk with Christ is close on earth will enter into a nearer companionship with him when the end of life comes. Look at verse 5. “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” On one occasion Jesus’ disciples were excited to see that the demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name. Then Jesus said, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Lk 10:20). In this world people wish that their names be written in books or stones of the buildings or in the list of those who have made a great achievement. It will be good to be so. But most importantly our names must be written in the book of life in heaven. Otherwise, their destiny would be too tragic. Revelation 20:15 says, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Then what a promise it is that “I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” We must know that God’s register is different from the world’s register. In this world people’s reputation seems to matter. But God wants us to know the reality of ourselves and church and watch out spiritual deadness. May we wake up and be watchful and strengthen what remains and is about to die and live by the Spirit.



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