Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Scripture | Revelation 3:1-6 (NIV)
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of Him Who holds the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. 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. 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. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before My Father and His angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
We’re moving right along in our sermon series looking at the Book of Revelation. We’re exploring the seven letters Christ writes to seven churches in the ancient world, giving them instructions as to how they can revive their churches and their spirits. Through them, we’re listening to how Jesus is teaching us, today, on how we can spark revival in our lives and in our churches.
So far, it’s been pretty incredible how these letters have spoken to us up to this point. Despite them being written some 1,900 years ago, they have the eerie ability to know us today. Like our letter for today – I was reminded of its importance and its message this morning as I was getting ready to come to the church building. I went to bed early last night, as I do before most Sundays, so that it will be easier for me to wake up early and get the things done that I need to get done before worship starts. This morning, as almost every Sunday morning goes, I heard my alarm go off and sat there for almost five minutes fighting my body to actually get out of bed!
It’s not that I don’t like mornings! In fact, I am a morning person. It’s when I do my best thinking and writing. But there is something wonderful about cuddly blanket and a cozy bed that makes it so hard to wake up and get going in the mornings. There are some Saturdays when I don’t get up until around 10 or 11 in the morning. If you think that’s bad, in college I was even worse! I would stay up until three or four in the morning, talking with friends, watching movies, going to Walmart, and doing all kinds of things that were fun. Then, when I had to get up to go to church, or to class, or to do anything before noon, I could barely do it.
In fact, my senior year, I made sure that I didn’t have a single commitment before 11 a.m. for my entire last semester of school. To this day, there is a certain note on the piano that, whenever it is played, makes me cringe because it is the first note played by my alarm. Why? Because waking up is hard – especially when you haven’t done what you’re supposed to in order to get the right kind of rest and replenishment that should come with sleep. Most of the time, I would rather just be late to something than get up.
For some of our brothers and sisters here, the opposite is true. Getting up in the morning is the easy part of the day. Staying up at night is the hard struggle. Everyone else is ready to watch a three-hour movie, and 15 minutes in, you’re passed out! Especially if there’s a soft recliner or couch involved. In any case, sleep is a powerful force that can make doing things difficult when its calling to you.
We all know that, and the Christians living in Sardis knew this too. In fact, the people of Sardis knew all about the allure of sleep. Sardis was a power and wealthy city in Asia Minor which had built itself as a fortress. Powerful walls surrounded the city, with towers and gates and guards all working to ensure that the wealth and the power of this city would not fall to a foreign power. In many ways, the city was impenetrable. Yet, during his conquest of the area to expand Persia, king Cyprus sent in a lone man who slipped over the wall and opened the gates to let in the armies of Persia. Then, in 218 B.C., the Greeks did the same thing with 15 men and took the city. How were they able to do this? Because the leadership and guards of the city had relaxed their worries and while the city, its leaders, and its guards slept, the city fell to foreign invaders.
The city had a history of falling to invaders as it fell asleep. It seems that the church in Sardis had the same problem. Jesus, in His letter to the Christians living there, says,
“I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. 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.”
This is a pretty potent rebuke from Jesus. Unlike the churches we’ve explored before this point, Jesus does not find anything good to say about the church here to begin His letter. His gets right to the point. Jesus says, there is a reputation that you are alive, but you’re dead. You think you’re awake, but you’re asleep! It can’t be more clear. The disciples of Christ in this place are not living into their calling. They’ve fallen away from their love of Christ, their perseverance, their chosen wrong loyalties, and they’re no longer seeking and sharing the free and open Good News of Jesus Christ. And what is worse is that they don’t see what’s wrong. In fact, it sounds like they’re completely clueless that anything has changed in the spirit of their church!
From the letter, it is clear that the church was struggling. It had probably seen people leave it, and was struggling to continue forward. It didn’t know where to go because it couldn’t see what the problem was. The implications of this letter are clear. The church is asleep, and history was going to repeat itself. Just as the city of Sardis had been conquered in its sleep, so too would the church of Sardis meet its end as it continued to slumber.
For me, this letter is a scary one. It frightens me because I can see how easily it can become the reality that a church is living in – or more appropriately, sleeping in. For some of us it is hard to stay awake – it’s hard to keep alive the flame of faith which was set in our souls. We get comfortable in the routines of the church and of faith life and no longer allow for ourselves to be transformed by the actions we take. We might even do everything we’re supposed to do as Christians: go to worship, give, read scripture, pray, etc. But, we’ve fallen asleep because we’ve closed ourselves off from the transforming power of these actions. And, as anyone who’s been to a slumber party knows, if everyone else around you is falling asleep, its hard to not join in.
That’s how churches fall asleep – they not longer are being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. They no longer expect for miracles to take place, for prayer to hold any power, for sermons to move their soul to change, or for anything really to come from worship except time spent with friends. These churches close up their ministries, they shutter their doors to the outside world, they claim hospitality as their battle cry, but shun anything and anyone that changes their comfort meaning nothing and no one new can enter their midst.
My friends, this is scary because this is the reality of so many of our churches, and so many of us. And the question which this brings is even more daunting than the reality: what is to be done!? Jesus makes it simple: He says, “Wake up!” Wake up and hear the alarm going off! Look around you and realize what reality you’re living in and ask yourself, am I really awake?!
Moreover, Christ has given us a tool to liven us. In the weeks after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the disciples were faced with a similar question: “What do we do now?” They feared for the future, not knowing how they could continue in their current state and without Jesus’ leadership. They huddled scared into a room with locked doors, afraid of the outside world and afraid of their future.
It was in this space that a mighty wind came out of nowhere. It blew threw the place and lifted their faces to see the flames of fire descending on them. In that moment, the Spirit of God came upon them and gave them the courage, knowledge, guidance, and peace to address the future. The doors were flung open and the disciples proclaimed the Gospel to the world. No longer were they asleep, afraid of their future, dead. They were alive in the Spirit.
This is what we celebrate today on Pentecost: the birth of the Church. For about 1,985 years, the Church has been empowered by the Holy Spirit to wake up! To live into its call to be real Christians. To be followers of Christ in every way. Not just by our actions, or where we go on Sundays, or who we call our friends, but by the fact that we are being transformed by the living Spirit of God. This is what it means to be alive and awake and it can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus promises that,
“The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before My Father and His angels.”
In the ancient world, when a person was executed, their name would be blotted out from the register of that city – as if they had never existed. But Jesus has given us a promise. For those who choose to hear the alarm, to wake up and hear the call of the Holy Spirit; for those who are willing to be transformed by the Power of the Most High God, Jesus will never allow for our names to be blotted out. We will be made pure before His sight and come to live with Him for eternity.
There is life in being transformed by the giver of life. There is eternal joy in allowing yourself to be changed by the One Who is joy. That is why we celebrate the transforming gift of the Spirit given on this day those thousands of years ago and why we choose again, today, to wake up. We choose to be alive in the Spirit. Jesus says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Let that be so. If you have ears, let you hear what the Spirit says to you this day. May you wake up and be transformed by the power of that same Spirit. Amen.