I'll never forget one day in my High School English Literature class. One of my good friends, Lee had a habit of falling asleep in class. Well, Lee's desk was right in the middle of the room and our class was the last one of the day, the room was warm, and the teacher wasn't so exciting. Lee fell sound asleep with his head lying on his desk. He proceeded to sleep through the entire class and when the bell rang Lee was still sound asleep. Everyone in the class including the teacher decided to quietly leave the room and watch what happens as Lee wakes up in an empty room and an empty school. There was Lee sleeping on his desk in the middle of the empty room, and suddenly, 5 minutes after class was over he wakes up in a panic, eyes as big as saucers, and bolts out of the room as fast as he could.
Are we ready for the Lord to return? If he were to return today would you have any regrets? And most importantly, would you be ready to meet him face to face? Even as Christians, it’s very easy and very tempting to simply sleep our spiritual lives away. We can get all comfortable that we are members in good standing, that we know the right doctrine, know the words and the places to go and not to go, to say and not to say. And we just simply coast through life.
Today we're looking at Jesus message to one of seven early churches of Asia Minor which are recorded in the book of Revelation. This one is found in Chapter 3 and it is to the church in Sardis. The church in Sardis had been a strong one in the past. It still had a few strong believers. Jesus knew their deeds of the past here and he knows the deeds of every church. The first church of Sardis was in trouble though. It was in big trouble. It's not that it was threatened by any enemies. No one in town was attacking the church. There weren't any pagans or heresies that threatened the life of this church.
Sardis was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia. We don’t know when and how this congregation was founded but it had a famous impregnable fortress and therefore it was a military center of security. Only twice in its history had this fortress been taken and both times were the result of sentries who failed to do their jobs.
So the church was very similar as well. It had no outside threats. No false teachings. It was its own enemy – asleep in the light! It was suffering from its own condition of spiritual deadness. Although there was a lot of church activity going on, it was not because of spiritual life, but because they had a reputation to keep up in the community. They had the name of "Christian" so they must act like a "Christian." But it was only outward behavior, they didn't come to worship because of their great love for Jesus, they didn't tithe their money because of their great thankfulness to the Lord, they did these outward things so others could see. Jesus is returning - What will he find? Verse 1 says it clearly "I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead."
Jesus is ringing the school bell today, he's sounding the alarm, he's turning on the alarm clock. He's saying "it's time to wake up." Jesus is returning and what will he find?
First, Jesus will return and find sleeping people.
He will return and find people sleeping with a job to be done. He says "Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of God." He says to us: “You are sleeping on the job!”
The prophet Elijah slept on the job once. The book of 1 Kings tells us how Elijah stood on Mount Carmel and stood against all the false prophets of Baal, he stood in faith and saw God defeat them as fire descended from the sky that day showed that God is the true God. It was a great victory. (Maybe you can think of a great time in your life when your faith was so strong, when you believed God could do anything. You were bold, confident, trusting in Jesus every day) Soon we have another picture of Elijah. It's found in the next chapter. This time he's sitting in a cave . . . hiding. He is running from the same enemies he just defeated. He is afraid to stand up for his Lord. He's lost his confidence in God. He still believes but he's not willing to act in faith. He's hiding . . . he's sleeping on the job. God finds him and says "What are you doing Elijah?" "You have a job to be done!" What did Elijah do when he heard God's voice when he was hiding in that cave? He obeyed! He walked out of that cave of fear and anointed a new prophet and a new king and once again walked in faith.
God knows the exact condition of your heart. You can't hide it from him. He knows if you are pretending to be a strong Christian on the outside while your heart is hiding from him in fear. Fear keeps us from doing the will of God.
1 Timothy 6:10 tells us that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” We not only get filled with greed through the love of money, but we become filled with FEAR through the love of money. We can be so filled with the fear of money that we cannot walk in the faith of God. We keep saying things like: that can never happen! We don’t have money for that!
At the Annual Conference this week there was quite a bit of talk about a continuing vision for expanding our Bible School and Seminary campus. This was started over 10 years ago with a great vision. Part of it has been completed and now we have a beautiful campus center and 3 new seminary housing. But again, we’re down to no money and the vision is to build a multi-purpose facility and to build another dorm. How can we do it? We can’t! But the God who gives a vision, fulfills the vision!
If we don’t follow God’s vision because of fear and because we want to stay comfortable, then we will never see great things happen.
We have no business being sleeping Christians. We don’t need to be afraid of stepping out in faith to do what God calls us to do. Pray to him. He will provide. He has a special ministry only you can do. Maybe it's not preaching or teaching, maybe it's a ministry of prayer for others, maybe its writing, maybe it's in encouraging others, maybe it’s in serving. Whatever it may be, don't let your fears keep you asleep and away from the Lord because Jesus is coming - what will he find?
He is not only coming to sleeping people, but he is coming like a thief, we will not know the hour he will come. It will be unexpected. (vs. 3)
It’s amazing what people do today to stay safe. There is such a great fear of the next big earthquake or the next big flood or nuclear meltdown that people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building bunkers or other elaborate safety measures today. Companies are making millions on people who are afraid of disaster.
Today people protect themselves from that coming day of Jesus return with many things. Let me list for you the safety guards people use today: church membership, time – some feel safe because Jesus return is so far away, church attendance, doing a good deed for their neighbor, loyal financial support of the church, reciting the Creed and Lord's Prayer.
Those are all good things, but NONE of them can protect you from the thief in the night! Jesus says he is coming like a thief. A successful thief can break through any safety measures – why? To get in and steal! What will he steal? Your valuables!
When you get to your last breath in life, will it really matter how nice your home is? Will it really matter how much jewelry you have or your clothing, your treasures saved through the years? It will probably be sold in an estate sale or donated to the Salvation Army and sold for a few dollars. Sooner or later every one of us will breathe our last and everything we have will slip through our fingers. And the thief will have arrived – the thief of death.
The Day of the Lord can occur today or in a year or many years. But you cannot predict and cannot escape. The Lord will return himself or call you to your last day. Are you ready?
Jesus is coming to sleeping people. Jesus is coming unexpectedly. And Jesus is also coming to with a job to do. He is coming to do one of two things, either he will confess your name before God, or he will erase your name from the book of life.
When we lived in Poland, I walked through one of the cemeteries in one of the cities. And as I was looking at the stones I was surprised to see many of the smooth stones scarred with a roughness right in the middle. Later I found out that the names had been gouged out because they were German - they were erased. Because of the war, people wanted nothing to remind themselves of the terrible Nazi regime. A little later I noticed also many of the monuments had also been "erased" from any Russian language or red stars. Now that Poland is free from the oppression of communism, people want nothing to remind them of this terrible time of persecution. No one wants to admire something so terrible from the past that was so destructive to their country.
On the Day Jesus returns, I'm afraid he will have a lot of erasing to do. I don't say this with joy or with satisfaction but with great sadness. Whoever is not covered by the righteousness of Christ will be erased from God's book of life, forever. God not only will not but he CANNOT allow any impurity into heaven, he can't allow sin, he can't stand to even look at sin.
Recently I was listening to the story of a young 4 year old boy who had a near death experience. He actually was taken to heaven and as he put it: went to school with Jesus as his teacher. Several months after this experience the little boy, Colston, was at his dad’s church which was preparing a funeral visitation. Colston didn’t know anything about funerals and had never seen a casket. So as he was there with his parents he asked his dad what that was and he replied that that was a box which contained the body of the man who had died. Colston got a serious look on his face and asked “Did that man have Jesus in his heart?” “I hope so – I’ve talked to a lot of the family and they think he did.” “That man better have Jesus in his heart.” And he went on and on and was so adamant that his dad had to rush his little boy out of the chapel so as not to embarrass the family.
That’s the bottom line isn’t it??? Where is Jesus? Do we realize how important that is? Then, let’s let him rule! Let’s not just be satisfied with the status quo. Let’s not just be satisfied with the Christian club. Let’s not just be satisfied with being comfortable Christians. Let’s wake up to bigger things!
So let’s get down to three concrete words to us from the Lord:
1. Wake up and strengthen the things that remain.
The first thing, is to wake up and realize that something is wrong! If you wake up after a great night’s sleep and are just about to go and start your normal day but then you look at the clock on your nightstand. You notice it is 8:00 and you start your work at 8:00. Seeing the clock is the reality check! You are in trouble and you better do something right away about it or you are going to lose your job! “Wake up and strengthen the things that remain” is a way of saying “get moving before it’s too late!”
2. Remember.
“Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it”
Remember what your spiritual life was like at one point! Get back on track! Return to where you once were. We sometimes think that the past was the past and we can never go back. We’re grown up now and beyond those childish things. I never want to be grown up if it means that I will not grow in my relationship with the Lord! You can remember your story. Just think right now about the high point in your relationship with God. Maybe that’s where you are right now – praise God! But if that’s a time in the past, then ask yourself WHY. Why have I changed? Why am I not growing like I used to? Don’t give the excuse of the church you go to, the place you live, the people you know, the tragedies in your life. Those are excuses. You spiritually fell asleep!
3. Repent.
The Lord says, “Remember” and now he says “repent”. Which means turn around from the road you are going and go back to what you were. It’s ALWAYS possible to make a fresh start spiritually. It’s NEVER too late. This is a lie that the devil wants us to believe: “Oh, you’re too old for change! You’ve failed too many times to go back to God like before. You’re not a youth anymore. You can’t go back to the past.” These are pure lies!
4. RECEIVE! What the Lord wants to pour out upon you! (5)
First, he will clothe you in white garments - you will be totally righteous - you will be covered by the holiness of Jesus Christ - your filth and sins and your failure will be covered over and not seen again. God doesn't have to look upon sin or a sinner because you will have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You will have no shame in front of God.
Second, your name will be written in that Book of life. That book of membership into the heavenly kingdom. It means an eternal life of unending joy. It means that you need not have fear of death. That you will rise just as Jesus did on Easter day. Your name is in the book!
And third, Jesus will go before the Father and confess your name as one of his. Imagine your name being confessed in front of that heavenly throne.
If you live to be 70, almost ΒΌ of your life is spent just sleeping. That means that if you could live to the age of 47 without sleep, the rest of your life would be one long nap!
Friends, don’t miss out on the greatest adventure, the greatest gift, the greatest blessing of life by sleeping through it! God has so much for each of us and it all begins with the gift of forgiveness and salvation. It’s only the beginning!
