Chapter 8 Burning with Undying Perseverance

Revelation 3:1-6

On September 15, 1999, our nation mourned yet another violent tragedy. In a place where life is to be celebrated and enjoyed, death came roaring in. A man walked into a youth prayer gathering of teenagers at a church in Texas and opened fire with a pistol and set off at least one pipe bomb. Seven were killed and many were injured before the gunman sat down on the last pew and put the gun to his own head. Americans at the time wondered what this is showing about the state of our nation, and as many other dramatic mass deaths have occurred in our land since then many have continued to question. One of the surviving teens interviewed outside the terrible scene of this shooting gave an insight worth considering. Perhaps it is not the state of the nation but the state of the church that should be our first concern. For this student commented to the reporters, "We thought it was all part of a skit, a joke. But then Cassie got hit in the throat (with a bullet). She never got up."

Listen to that quote carefully like my wife asked me to do when she saw it. Then ask yourself the question, "Why would young people gathered for prayer at church think a deranged man firing a gun was part of a skit?" Should that not be the last thing someone would think, not the first? In other words, why would a murderous joke be considered part of a Christian worship service?

Tragically, the church-at-large has grown accustomed to seeing drama, skits, light shows, comedy acts, clowns and the like as regular Sunday morning fare in its worship services. It is understandable then that this young girl was not sure at first if what was happening was real or not. Yet what kind of comment is that on the state of the church today? Has anyone considered that the lack of seriousness in worship that pervades evangelical Christianity shows a lack of seriousness for the gospel?

In the worship of God there has been a terrible blending of the secular and sacred throughout our land. This blending is causing great confusion in the minds and hearts of people concerning who the true God really is and what He requires of us. The Word of God clearly defines how God is to be worshiped, and considers the items mentioned above not to be proper Christian practice but scandalous in nature. Yet many a preacher would be quick to use a Bible verse to defend any of these actions. They would insist their congregations are alive to Jesus Christ, and would point to the large attendance figures, boisterous singing, and impressive ministry statistics to make their case.

Yet as Christ looks at His church, He often sees things differently. Where people are claiming life exists, prayer is found, and holiness prevalent, Jesus looks and sees death present and reigning. Such was the case of the fifth church of Asia, the church at Sardis. The Lord Jesus possesses the seven Spirits of God (or the sevenfold Spirit) to remind this church that He sees and knows all about them. He holds the seven stars to remind every church that its life is in His hand. The Holy One comes to the church at Sardis and speaks three terse commandments to her because of her unfaithfulness.

Wake up!

Jesus tells the congregation at Sardis to wake up in verse 2. Why? We read in verse 1, "I know your deeds; you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." When Jesus says the church at Sardis has a name for being alive, He is speaking of her reputation. Churches get reputations in a community. Congregations are known for one thing or another in their towns. The Church at Sardis must have been thriving and popular, and been free from the attacks we have seen the other churches of Asia were facing. Yet Jesus pronounces her death sentence. “You are dead,” He states bluntly. To the members the congregation looked active and prosperous, but in the Lord’s eyes Sardis had slid into coma-like complacency. Her condition was fatal.

It is quite easy for churches to fall into a spiritual slumber. Having been faithful perhaps at one time, and successful in their ministry, congregations can fall asleep. They can host many social activities, but no true fellowship or sharing of one another’s needs and joys exists. Congregations can have many times reserved for prayer, but the petitions are cold, short and heartless, concerned with petty needs rather than kingdom advancement. The saints have a reverence for God’s Word but little practice of it. Money is given to poor ministry, but no one in the church is involved in it. New members are being added that give a false sense of growth, but no one remembers the last conversion or is involved in evangelistic efforts. The songs are still sung, but the zeal and heartiness of former years have left. The church’s bank balance grows year by year, and so does the pastoral staff’s wallets and waistlines. The congregation is busily asleep without anyone’s notice.

So with the same voice He used to call Lazarus from the grave, the Lord comes to Sardis and cries out, “Wake up!” Be alert, fresh, full of My vitality! You are dead, but all is not lost. To this church and every one like it, Christ tells us how we can wake up and avoid the trouble that is certainly to come on sleepy congregations.

Waking up involves strengthening the little life within you (verse 2). We see here the grace and patience of God. Though Sardis is “dead,” she is not completely lost or she would no longer exist. Her candlestick would have been removed. The fact that she still remains means it is not too late for her to seek deliverance from the Lord. People can drift into a spiritual complacency and feel hopelessly apart from God. Churches can be at the brink of death and think the end is inevitable. Yet the Lord is mighty to save! We are to “strengthen what remains” by looking where life still exists and encouraging it forward. If we still sense conviction for a sin we have been practicing for a long time, we should repent of it now. If we can still pray, we should do it now. If we have not done evangelism, we should find someone to get to it now. If the whole congregation appears apostate except for a few, we should work with them and start calling the rest back to faithfulness now. We are to stir up the little hope that remains by calling out to the Lord for strength, and bringing to completion the deeds we know we should have been doing all along (end of verse 2).

Waking up involves remembering what you have seen and heard (verse 3). Spiritual drowsiness usually results from a growing complacency that develops in those who forget the wonder of their salvation. You are never to forget the glorious grace of the gospel delivered to you. Jesus exhorts them then to “remember what you have received and heard.” The foolishness of the modern church is seen in her fascination with enjoying the things of this world and her failure to enjoy the things of God. She is to remember God by keeping a whole Sabbath Day to Him (Exodus 20:8-11), but she hurries through services so she will not be late to the sporting event that afternoon. She is to remember the beauty of fellowship with Christ through His atoning death by celebrating with joy and reverence the sacrament of communion (I Corinthians 11:25), but she lets this sacrament fall into disarray by offering it infrequently, offering it to saint and sinner alike, or offering it not at all. She is to remember the great wonders God has wrought for her (Psalm 105:4) by rejoicing and singing the Biblical praise to God found in the psalms, but she falls asleep by singing lullabies and love songs to a Jesus that has little to do with the glorious One standing here before John. Wake up, church, by renewing your practice of the ordained means of grace by which we can know the true Christ!

Waking up involves changing your life accordingly (verse 3). As you remember what you have received from Christ, and heard through the gospel, then you must actively keep these things by repenting. Your child can lie in bed in the morning when you have turned the lights on and tell you he is awake, but not until his feet hit the floor and he gets busy are you convinced of it. In the same way, do not only speak of what you know you should do, but change whatever it is that caused your spiritual slumber. As a watchman on the wall of Zion, my job as a preacher of the word is to call you to wake up, for the consequence of your sleepiness is severe.

Look for Me!

Friend, as you listen to these next words of warning from Christ in verse 3, remember that they are coming from the Fiery Flame of the Church. "If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you." Jesus is not warning the church at Sardis about His final coming (How much of a threat would that be, seeing that it has not occurred after 2,000 years?). Jesus is not pseudo-spiritualizing about what will happen to all Sardis-like churches or talking about some “Sardisian Period” of the church (Jesus says, “I know your deeds…you are dead”). Rather, Jesus is telling these saints at Sardis that He is coming in judgment on this slumbering church. This book of Revelation is a book explaining coming judgments on the apostasy and unfaithfulness that existed in the first century. Before Christ brings His judgments to bear on apostate Israel and cruel Rome, prophesied about through the rest of this book, Jesus starts with His church. “Judgment starts with the house of God” (I Peter 4:17). Sardis better be ready and look for Christ to come if she does not repent. In giving this warning, Jesus is apparently reminding them of a story well known in this city from their history.

Sardis was built on a mountain range, situated on one peak, Mt. Timolus, that was 1500 feet high. The sides of the ridge leading up to the city were sharp and smooth, making them nearly impossible to climb. Wealthy and powerful from antiquity, the kings of Sardis ruled from this mountain throne over the surrounding lands. This city had reached the height of its power under King Croesus in the sixth century B.C., but this is also when it fell into its ruin. Croesus had been warned by a wise man named Solon that his kingdom, wealthy and seeking to expand its power yet growing quickly degenerate, would one day crumble. He told Croesus what became a proverb to the Greeks: "Call no man happy until he is dead."

Croesus did not heed the counsel of Solon. Instead, he embarked on war with the Persian Empire, which under the Cyrus mentioned in the Old Testament was fast-becoming a world power. Croesus’ troops set out to attack the Persians, and they had to cross a river called Halys. Croesus had been given an oracle at the temple of Delphi: "Cross the river, and destroy a great empire." Thinking this was a sign for his success, Croesus eagerly took his troops across the Halys, yet they were routed and had to flee. Croesus discovered that the empire to be destroyed was his own. For the Persians pursued his army back to Sardis, where they laid siege to the city. Cyrus offered an award to the soldier who could figure a way to scale the steep side of the mount and find entrance into the city. Soon after a soldier named Hyeroeades saw a soldier of Sardis drop his helmet, then climb down over the walls along the cliffs and retrieve it. Hyeroeades investigated, and found cracks in the rock large enough to get the handholds they needed. At night he led a group up the mountainside, found the walls unguarded by the sleeping, complacent soldiers, and they were able to overcome the city and bring it under Persian domination.

Jesus says that like these unexpected soldiers, like a thief in the night, He will come when this church least expects it and remove their witness if they do not awaken. Just a brief survey of church history will show that congregations and entire denominations can have their lampstand removed. As the head of the church (Ephesians 1:22-23), Christ puts unfaithful bodies to death. That us what He is threatening here. This is why in worshipping the Lord and in preaching the gospel we must be serious! Life is on the line. The gospel not only promises blessing to those who obey, but threatens of terrible consequences even on the church – especially on the church- if we trifle with its message. As we will see in the study of this book, these threats include not only the ultimate judgment of hell but of Christ coming in judgment in this present world.

When the gunshots were fired in the congregation in Texas, the first thoughts were not serious. Some considered it to be a skit. Yet have the thoughts since that tragedy and the others that have followed it grown serious enough to consider questions we all need to be asking:

Could it be that these tragedies are not only the work of madmen, which they certainly are, but the judgment of God on our apostasy (Amos 3:6)?
Is the decaying, immoral culture around us due to the church’s unfaithfulness to be salt and light (Matthew 5:13)?
Is decreasing church attendance, multiplying doctrinal divisions, and the rise in cultic religions in our land evidences that Christ is displeased with and judging those called to represent His gospel to this world (I Corinthians 3:17)?

The sober, honest answer to questions like these is “yes.” So what are we to do?

Get dressed!

Or perhaps even better, “Be sure you are dressed appropriately!” For having uttered His warning, Jesus now offers His hope to us. In verse 4 He speaks of a remnant of Christians at Sardis who were still faithful to Him. “You have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.” A vital point of theology is packed into that sentence.

Many in the church today think that because they have accepted Christ, evidenced in their mind by having responded to an altar call, praying the sinner’s prayer or making some other similar response, they are eternally saved regardless of how they have lived since then. Yet Jesus says that it is only the one who overcomes that is clothed in white and whose name remains in the book of life (verse 5). The implication is that names can be erased or blotted out of the book of life.

This raises the question, "Can a believer lose his salvation?" The Bible teaches and reformed theology has upheld that God has chosen those who will be eternally saved and grants His grace to them, never to be withdrawn (John 10:27-30; Ephesians 1:3-6). God also determines who will be eternally damned and never receive His saving grace (Romans 9:6-23; Jude 4). Yet God also knows something else these verses teach. In this second category of people are those who are in the church but who are not in Christ. They have heard the gospel, professed faith in Christ, been baptized, dwelt in the church for a time, and even, like Judas, may have seemed like powerful servants of the Lord, but they are really apostate (Matthew 7:15-23; Hebrews 6:4-8; I John 2:18-19). Those whose names are erased from the book of life are not the elect, but these false churchgoers. Their false profession is eventually seen in that they deny Christ, go off into immorality, or fall asleep into a spiritual complacency from which they never awaken. On the positive side of this teaching, those who are truly in Christ will persevere. They will continue to profess Christ despite hardship and threat. Because Christ’s power dwells in them they resist the temptations by which others fall. They are not dead, but alive in Christ.

So how does one know if his name is written in Christ’s book? The assurance that your name will never be erased lies in looking at your clothing like Christ does. Are you dressed in white like the faithful in Sardis? What are these white garments? Actually, someone else in Revelation asks the same question. In a later vision John sees the scene in heaven where a great multitude dressed in white robes with palm branches are praising the Lamb. One of the twenty-four elders comes to him and asks, "Those who are clothed in white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?" John asks him what the answer is to his own question, and hears this response: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:13-14).

In other words, are you dressed in the righteousness of Christ and living like it? Are you trusting Him to cleanse you of your sins, and demonstrating that trust by living as a cleansed sinner? Recall the parable of the wedding banquet that Jesus told, about the man who came into the wedding feast of a great king. He was thrown out and punished for not wearing the appropriate wedding clothes. To mix the metaphor just a bit, those in the church cannot claim to belong to the bride of Christ and dress in black. The church is His pure bride, cleansed in the precious blood of the Lamb and “clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Revelation 19:8).

Conclusion

Friend, do you see? You who have an ear, do you hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches? You must wake up! You must do the deeds and acts becoming a Christian! You must overcome sin and tribulation! You must persevere in your walk with Christ! You must live as His bride! Jesus is watching His church to see if there is life here. Do not be caught unaware! Look to the One whose fire is never quenched and never stop burning with perseverance for the kingdom of God!