April 21 Sermon: Wake Up

This week, we look at Revelation 3:1-6 and explore the dangers of spiritual complacency and the importance of maintaining a genuine faith. In this passage see how external appearances can be deceiving, emphasizing the need for believers to wake up, remember foundational teachings, and pursue continual spiritual growth.

Consider these questions as we look at Revelation 3:1-6:

1. How does the admonition to the church in Sardis to "wake up" and strengthen what remains apply to our personal spiritual lives today?

2. What does it mean to remember and keep what we have received and heard, and how can this help prevent spiritual decay in our community?

3. In Revelation 3:1-6, Jesus promises that the faithful will not have their names blotted out of the book of life. How does this assurance impact our daily walk and commitment to Christ?

Transcript:

External appearances can be deceiving, can't they? I think we can all relatively quickly come up with an idea of something that seemed to be unshakable based upon its appearance, but then ended up not holding up. We wouldn't have too much difficulty, I don't think, brainstorming a few different examples of this. Arguably the most obvious example, and probably the example that is probably running through your mind, is the world-famous ocean liner, the Titanic. It's a notorious example of what I'm talking about. It seemed that this marvel of human ingenuity and modern engineering would be impossible to sink, but it didn't even make the journey it was set to do one time without sinking. Now, that is a big historical example, but I'm sure that we can also think of examples from our personal lives as well. We know someone who was strong and seemed that they could face anything that was thrown at them, but when a difficult circumstance happened them, but when a difficult circumstance happened they were not as strong as the front that they had put up. Now, I don't say that as a criticism of anyone that something like this has happened to, but instead it's a reminder to us that it's difficult to stand strong, and to do so we need more than just an eternal facade. Right, we need a foundation. We need a strong, consistent foundation if we're going to remain grounded, if we're going to remain steadfast and hold our ground.

Now we move from the second chapter of Revelation this week into the third and we're taking a look at another church in Asia that the Lord is addressing. Well, this time it is the church in Sardis. So let's line out our points here and then we'll get into the text and look at this call on them to wake up. The first thing that we're going to see is that there is danger in spiritual complacency. We must not only rely on, we must not just rely on past spiritual growth that we have had, but we need to be continually renewing and growing. Second, we must remain vigilant and continually turn to the Word of God, trusting in the Holy Spirit to do that good work of sanctification in us. And third, we once again see that our labor for the Lord is not in vain. We have an assurance of faithfulness being rewarded by God, of faithfulness being rewarded by God.

So I mentioned last week that we're getting familiar with the formula of these addresses to these churches in Asia. They all sort of start out in a similar way and they end in a similar way. We see here, as we we look, that the angel is addressing this church and then it calls back on some of the imagery that was used in chapter 1 to describe Jesus. Each church is getting a specific message and each one is from Jesus himself. And, just in case we forget, we're getting this imagery to remind us that Jesus is powerful and that Jesus has the authority to speak these messages to these churches, again reminded of this majestic portrayal of Jesus that we saw at the end of chapter 1. And here we're reminded that he is the one who has the seven spirits of God and holds the seven stars. It is a lofty image of power to call back upon this idea of him holding the seven stars or the seven churches. This is a lofty. The seven churches this is a lofty image. We're to understand who Jesus is here, how he is above all things.

But suddenly the message quickly gets to a sort of a harsh point, because Jesus makes a statement about the works of the church in Sardis. He tells them that he knows their works. Now, if you call back to the message to the church in Thyatira that we looked at last week, you might think that they're going to be commended. Remember the church in Thyatira? They were being commended for their good works at the beginning of this message to them. But here Jesus doesn't identify the works that he is referring to. He doesn't say whether they're good or bad. But the context lets us know that this message to this church in Sardis is not going to be necessarily a good message to them, because he says they have a reputation for being alive, but they are dead. That's not a good way to talk to someone, is it? In fact, that's really a pretty huge, I would say insult. Maybe that's really a pretty huge, I would say insult, maybe If somebody said to you hey, you look like you're alive, but on the inside you're dead. We're not going to see that as a compliment. Jesus knows their works and he knows that it's just a facade on the outside. He knows their works. They're not good works, and so what can be seen about them? Hey, it looks good, it's fine, but what's on the inside is rotting away.

Now, this is how death comes in most cases. Right, this is essentially what death is what's on the inside starts to fail, or we get sick, and you can put on a good appearance on the outside many times, despite your illness. But you can only dress it up for so long. You can only hide the fact that you aren't feeling well for so long. Eventually, if we're being destroyed on the inside, it's going to be visible on the outside.

Now, whether it's our health or whether it's the story of the fall of an empire, the usual story is that death begins from the inside out, right is that death begins from the inside out, right? And this is what is happening to the church in Sardis. And they are more than sick, jesus says. He says they are dead, despite how things appear to others. And the instructions of Jesus to this church are clear he tells them to wake up. Now, we've all heard those words and there are several different ways to say those two words aren't there.

There's that gentle nudge it's time to wake up, sweetie. We need to get going. You've got about an hour to get ready and then we'll head out. And then there's wake up. You've overslept and you're going to be late Now.

Of course, there are degrees in between, but the call of Jesus to the church in Sardis isn't my first example wake up, sweetie, is it? It's clearly my second example, it's the get out of bed right now type of wake-up call it is time to wake up Now. This is the type of wake-up call that we often need, right, because it's easy to become complacent and not even realize that it's time to wake up. You can become so warm and comfortable in bed and waking up becomes the last thing that you think you need to do. The alarm goes off and it doesn't matter so much if I just stay here for 10 more minutes. Isn't that why the snooze button was invented? But we soon become warm and we oversleep. We become comfortable, complacent.

But remember, the church in Sardis needs to wake up, not just because they've overslept and they're missing an important meeting. They need to get going. Jesus is telling them that they need to wake up because they're dead. But the words of Jesus here let us know that the cause is not hopeless for this church. Even though they need to wake up, even though they are told that they are dead, we see in this command to wake up that there's hope. He has not given up on them. Instead, he wants those parts of the body of this church that haven't died yet to rescue and restore this church, and we see this in the statement here, that their works are not complete in the sight of God. In other words, they aren't done yet. They have the opportunity for more works. They can show them and they can be good works. Notice that Jesus doesn't put a description on here about the type of works, of whether they're doing, whether they're good or bad. With the time that they have to do this, they have the opportunity. Their works can continue, their slide into death or they can wake up. They can show that they are alive. They can for lack of a better word resurrect this body of believers through their works.

As I've said many times, as we've been progressing through this first part of the book of Revelation, this book is directly written to these seven historical churches in Asia, but these are pressing messages for every church in every age. Now we know how easy it is to become complacent. We know how easy it is to rest on the past and in our spiritual lives we can easily look back to past vitality, past health and convince ourselves that things are fine. We can so easily become like the person whose health is declined, but up here they still think they're 17 years old, that they think that they're as healthy as they have ever been, but then they bend down to pick up a quarter and throw out their back. Things often aren't as they seem and we need to not rest on past spiritual growth, past spiritual health and vitality, but continually be exposing ourselves to the word of God and letting the Holy Spirit do the good work of sanctification in us. And we need this so badly because this is how we wake up. And we see that we have this need to wake up in our first point and as we move on to our second point, we see that it is the Word and the Spirit, that those are the means by which we wake up, the means by which we come back to life. And Jesus calls this church and serviceardis back to what they have received and to what they've heard. They're to go back to that faith, that faith that they received. Their faith is not built up and their church is not revived by mixing in the pagan practices of the world around them. They are not going to be made alive, come back from death by capitulating to the culture. They are revived by going back to what they have received and what they've heard, and that is the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, the truth that Jesus is Lord of all, the message that God in Christ has reconciled them to himself through the blood of the cross. They are called to keep that faith. They are to be vigilant in that belief.

We like to think. We like to think that we live in particularly unique and difficult times, don't we? That the world is falling apart around us, the world is filled with rampant immorality and we live with a great fear of oppression or pending persecution. We like to think that that's our time. The things have never been this bad, and all of those things are real concerns. I'm not trying to suggest they're not. I'm not trying to dismiss those feelings that we have. My point instead is that this is the story of history. It's the story of the people of God, regardless of time and regardless of place, whether it's 21st century Edgerton or late 1st century Asia.

The pressure of the world is going to press in on the people of God. We are going to feel this and the challenge for us is to return to what we have received and heard and keep it, and to daily turn to the Lord, jesus Christ, in repentance and faith, To be persistent in remembering that in this world, the only hope we have is the gospel. While the world distracts us from every angle, our greatest problem is truly the curse, because it's coming for us, each and every last one of us. We can't avoid it. And while the world continually offers us distractions from this fact that we are going to die, they are just that they are distractions. The only solution is the truth that we have been reconciled to God through the work of Jesus on our behalf.

His life, death, resurrection, ascension is not a distraction from our impending demise, it's the solution. That's what we have received and that is what we have heard. That is our hope. That is the cure, that is the remedy for what we face, regardless of time, regardless of place. That is the Christian hope. When we remember this truth, it will wake us up. It will wake us up. That is what brings us out of our slumber. That hope calls us back to the Lord, our God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Anything other than the gospel moves us to slumber. It'll put us to sleep, it'll make us complacent, but the story of God's grace wakes us and moves us to repentance. The gospel is our wake-up call, it is our alarm, and so may we remember this message that we have received and heard, and may we ground ourselves in the truth of God's word, because, as we see, there is a warning that Jesus has along with this call to repentance. Just as we have seen from the opening of the book of Revelation, there is caution from Jesus that he is going to come in judgment if they don't repent. There's a reminder of this all through what we have seen so far in Revelation, and in this message to the church in Sardis, we see some familiar language regarding judgment. It says that it will come like a thief and it will come on them at an hour that they do not know Now.

This is familiar biblical language. It's used in multiple places and it stresses to us that repentance is pressing. It is critical. We need to wake up from our complacency and turn to Christ in repentance and faith. But yet, even as this message that we read here has a stressing of urgency, there is also an assurance that we see in each of these messages to the churches. Jesus says that he is going to come in judgment if they don't repent, but at the same time, he gives them hope. There's not just a message of doom here, but a message of assurance, that message of hope. The threat of judgment is not meant here to cause them to despair. That's not the point. It's to move them closer to the Lord. It's to move them closer to the Lord, and we see this as our passage today closes up and we see the emphasis of our third point today. As we saw earlier, not every part of this church is dead. Jesus lets them know that there are still a few names in Sardis that have not become complacent. There are people there who are not spiritually dead and the imagery that is used here is really powerful because it's easy to visualize and it's something that we so easily understand. It says that they have not soiled their garments because they have held fast to the faith. Their garments remain white.

Now we've all had that moment where we've gone through the effort of getting dressed for the day and everything is good, we're all set and ready to go, and then something happens. Just this past week I've had this happen twice. First I was all ready to go to start the day and then a muddy paw went all the way down my jeans. I couldn't rub it off, I couldn't hide it, I had to change. Then, thursday, I was sitting in the office here talking with Chris and I tried to burn myself with coffee. I had to go change. It's great, being graceful, you know, but regardless, both of these incidents were not something that I could hide. I had to change. You know what I'm talking about. Even though I wasn't wearing white, it was apparent that my clothes had become soiled. But when we think about this here, this imagery of white robes makes this even more obvious. Imagine if I had been wearing white with both of those incidences.

Now, this idea of white robes is actually very familiar biblical imagery, and the idea is that this is righteousness, and it's a righteousness bestowed on the people of God from God. It's a gift from him, it's something that he gives us. The idea is that we have put off the old self and we receive white righteous robes because we have this new self in Jesus. Well, these people here who have held fast to the faith, who have remained strong in Sardis, they are found to be worthy because they've remained faithful to the one who has and we read here that, though judgment is coming to those who do not remain faithful, those who hold fast to Christ and are clothed in his righteous robes will never have their name blotted out of the book of life when they are clothed with his perfect righteousness, their salvation is secure. Their name is in the book of life and it will be confessed before the Father and his angels.

And the vital nature of this message is made abundantly apparent here by the familiar closing statement of this address to the church in Sardis. We've seen it with every one of these churches he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches. Listen up, return to the Lord, your God, in repentance and faith, and you have full assurance that he is faithful to you. And because you have this, you can remain faithful to him. And this is important for us to hear. We have ears and we have heard.

This message to the church in Sardis is a wake-up call to us as well, because we are so prone to thinking that messages like this are for someone else, that messages like this are for someone else. This message is for those people over there, or this person that I know who's off the rails. It's that church in that town who needs to wake up, or that group of people in our church, but not my group. The truth is that we all have outward appearances that are different than what's on the inside. We all need renewal of what's on the inside, and this message to the church in Sardis, it, comes to us today to wake us up, because it's so easy for us to become complacent in our slumber and, as I said in our first point, this complacency is something that happens far too easily. In fact, I think that it's so easy to fall into this that we don't even realize it's happening to us. It's like when you doze off in the chair and then you wake up and the movie or the football game is already over. We don't want that to happen in our spiritual lives. We don't want that to happen in our spiritual lives.

May this message from the book of Revelation today be a jolt that moves us to daily repentance, and may we do so in confidence that there is great blessing to holding fast in Christ, because he has given us his righteous white robes through faith in this work that he has done for us, that he has cleansed us, he has made us clean, he has written our names in the book of life and he will confess our name before the Father and before the angels of heaven.

So may the truth of this message, this confidence we have in the gospel, may it daily wake us up and may it move us to a life of holiness, to the glory of this one who has saved us from sin, death and hell. Amen, let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for the gift of your Word and we thank you that we not only have your Word as a wake-up call to us, but we have the gift of your Spirit. We pray that, as we have heard the Word today, your Holy Spirit would be at work in us, convicting us of areas where we are asleep or where we are dead. And may that same Spirit invigorate us to turn to you every day in repentance and faith that we might live our lives to your glory. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.