The Walking Dead
Last week I talked to yall about five signs that showed that we are spiritually alive. It’s good to be spiritually alive isn’t it? What about being spiritually dead? How much fun is that?
How many of us remember when we were still spiritually dead? All of us at one time or another were spiritually dead before we gave our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ when we got saved. In your mind, compare your life before Christ and after Christ. Which “life” do you like better?
Your life before Christ was literally a dead end wasn’t it? And your life after Christ is full of possibilities and blessings isn’t it. But not everyone around us is alive in Christ. Millions of people around us are dead in their sins and are therefore dead spiritually.
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1-5 we read this: 1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loves us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ…
There have been a lot of shows and movies in America that are about the walking dead or zombies as they are more commonly called. They are made up to look just horrific and gross. They have body parts missing, they are bleeding all over the place, and their clothes are nasty looking in other words they are just not pleasant to look at!
I described these zombies to you for a reason and that reason wasn’t just to gross you all out and make you feel uncomfortable I described them because the way that theses zombies look on the outside is how we looked on the inside when we were dead in our sins when we were the walking dead.
There is one big difference though in the way we look or looked as the walking dead and the zombies we see on T. V. or in the movies is that on the outside we look relatively normal don’t we? We have all of our body parts, or most of them anyway! We don’t have blood and stuff oozing out of our bodies onto our clothes. Our skin isn’t falling off of us, etc. We look like regular people don’t we?
But regardless of how we look or other people look we are most definitely constantly coming into contact with the walking dead of this world. From the outside it’s very difficult to tell who the walking dead are and who are the spiritually alive people isn’t it?
The walking dead though isn’t a new phenomenon there have been walking dead among spiritually alive people as long as there has been people on this planet. Jesus encountered the walking dead during His earthly ministry too.
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 23 verses 25-28 we read about this encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees: 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
I said a bit ago that it’s hard to determine who the walking dead among us are by their outward appearances but here Jesus shows how to spot theses spiritual zombies. Jesus knew their hearts and could read them clearly but we can’t do that. So, how do we learn to recognize the walking dead among us? We have to learn to watch what they say, what they do, and how they live their lives.
Outwardly they can be beautiful looking people; they can even say some of the right things. They can even claim to be Christians if they want to but Jesus said that they are blind people, and on the inside they are dead and full of all kinds of dead things. Jesus called them white washed tombs full of dead men’s bones. They were full of lawlessness and hypocrisy.
And while these people aren’t lurching around with all manner of gross stuff on them they are dead inside none the less. And a sad thing about the Pharisees and those who are in the same condition today is that they think that they are alive. And while it’s obvious that they are alive physically they just don’t seem to grasp or comprehend the fact that they are spiritually dead in their sins and their trespasses against God. They don’t quite understand that this deadness inside of them will lead to permanent death or eternal separation from God if they don’t get spiritual CPR from God’s Holy Spirit and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Right now they are living a shell of a life, a shadow of the life that they could have in Christ Jesus. When Jesus makes you alive you are truly alive. In the Gospel of John chapter 10 verse 10 we read this: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
We as individuals can trade our dead, zombie like insides for a life that is full and abundant. We can stop being like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. We can have both an abundant physical life and we can have an abundant spiritual life in Christ Jesus as well. But we have to be careful here because zombieism not just an individual problem. The local church can suffer from being the walking dead as well.
Jesus had a lot to say to the Church at Laodicea about being an ineffectual church. A dead church if you will that relied more on its wealth than on Jesus Christ. Here is what Jesus said to the Laodicean Church in Revelation chapter 3 verses 15-19: 15 ‘I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
This church is like a colony of zombies. They are all gathered together and because they all suffer from the same disease they are completely unaware of what is wrong with them. Just like the Pharisees these people are all white washed tombs of dead men’s bones. They are completely unaware of the fact that while they may have worldly wealth they lack spiritual life. They lack the abundant life that Jesus wants to give them and have them enjoy.
Jesus told them how to fix their internal deadness issues. He recommended that they buy gold from Jesus that was refined by fire and white garments to cover their shame and nakedness. Now, does this mean that Jesus is telling them to “buy” salvation? Absolutely not! He is talking to them in a way that can understand and what they will receive from Jesus is not physical gold or physical garments but rather spiritual gold and spiritual garments, in other words they will receive salvation and eternal life from Jesus and then they will no longer be wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
Jesus also said that they needed a salve for their eyes so that they might see. This isn’t a salve like we would get from a doctor. This salve comes in the form of the Holy Spirit who gives spiritual eyesight to those who are saved so that they can “see” the things of God and not only the things of this earth. Jesus wanted them to be able to see where they were and that there was an obvious need for some drastic and major changes within the church.
This scenario is being played out in churches all over the world today. There are a lot of churches that can’t make up their minds whether they want to be on fire for the Lord or be lukewarm. There are a lot of spiritually dead churches who for their own reasons either change the Word of God to suit their agenda or they water the Word of God down so much that that it doesn’t accomplish that which it is supposed to do and that is to first and foremost teach people that they need a Savior.
Jesus was pretty plain in this passage of Scripture about being neither hot nor cold but rather lukewarm. He said that because they were lukewarm that he would spew them out of His mouth. The word in the Greek is even stronger than this and you could really say I will vomit you out of my mouth. I understand what Jesus is saying here, I don’t know about yall but I like my cold drinks really cold and I like my hot drinks like coffee really hot. I really don’t like it when either one of these types of drinks get to be lukewarm. Jesus wants us all to be on fire for Him, to be alive in Him and for Him and not be like the walking dead that we see all around us.
This church was full of the walking dead and Jesus called them out on it. Where do we stand today? Are we like the lurching nasty, gross zombies that we see on T. V. and in the movies or are we living the abundant and spirit filled life that Jesus promises us both as individuals as well as corporately as a church family?
If Jesus were to perform a spiritual X-ray on all of us what would He find inside? Would He find the Holy Spirit sitting on the thrones of our hearts or would he find dead men’s bones inside of a white washed tomb?
I want Jesus to see Himself in me and in all of you too! I don’t want to be lukewarm in the mouth of God! I want us all as individuals and as a church family to be on fire for the Lord what about you?
