Revelation 3:1-6 November 9, 2003
The Message To the Church in Sardis
The Dead Parrot Sketch – Monty Python - Taken from “Now for Something Completely Different”
A customer enters a pet shop.
Customer: ’Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(The owner does not respond.)
C: ’Ello, Miss?
Owner: What do you mean "miss"?
C: I’m sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
O: We’re closin’ for lunch.
C: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
O: Oh yes, the, uh, the Norwegian Blue...What’s,uh...What’s wrong with it?
C: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. ’E’s dead, that’s what’s wrong with it!
O: No, no, ’e’s uh,...he’s resting.
C: Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now.
O: No no he’s not dead, he’s, he’s restin’! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn’it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
C: The plumage don’t enter into it. It’s stone dead.
O: Nononono, no, no! ’E’s resting!
C: All right then, if he’s restin’, I’ll wake him up!
(shouting at the cage)
’Ello, Mister Polly Parrot! I’ve got a lovely fresh cuttle fish for you if you show...(owner hits the cage)
O: There, he moved!
C: No, he didn’t, that was you hitting the cage!
O: I never!!
C: Yes, you did!
O: I never, never did anything...
C: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) ’ELLO POLLY!!!!!
Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o’clock alarm call!
(Takes parrot out of the cage and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)
C: Now that’s what I call a dead parrot.
O: No, no.....No, ’e’s stunned!
C: STUNNED?!?
O: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin’ up! Norwegian Blues stun easily, major.
C: Um...now look...now look, mate, I’ve definitely ’ad enough of this. That parrot is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not ’alf an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein’ tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.
O: Well, he’s...he’s, ah...probably pining for the fjords.
C: PININ’ for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got ’im home?
O: The Norwegian Blue prefers kippin’ on it’s back! Remarkable bird, id’nit, squire? Lovely plumage!
C: Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.
(pause)
O: Well, o’course it was nailed there! If I hadn’t nailed that bird down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent ’em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!
C: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn’t "voom" if you put four million volts through it! ’E’s bleedin’ demised!
O: No no! ’E’s pining!
C: ’E’s not pinin’! ’E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ’E’s expired and gone to meet ’is maker!
’E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ’e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ’im to the perch ’e’d be pushing up the daisies!
’Is metabolic processes are now ’istory! ’E’s off the twig!
’E’s kicked the bucket, ’e’s shuffled off ’is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!!
THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
(pause)
O: Well, I’d better replace it, then.
(he takes a quick peek behind the counter)
O: Sorry squire, I’ve had a look ’round the back of the shop, and uh, we’re right out of parrots.
C: I see. I see, I get the picture.
O: I got a slug.
(pause)
C: (sweet as sugar) Pray, does it talk?
O: Nnnnot really.
C: WELL IT’S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!!???!!?
Sardis
Sardis had once been a great city, but by the time of Revelation, it had lost its past splendor. There was a temple to the God Artemis, who was believed to have the power to restore the dead to life. The strange thing was that the temple was never finished.
In the mid 6th century B.C. Sardis was at the height of its power and the king got a little big for his britches and challenged the Persians in war. Thy lost the battle and retreated to Sardis The Citadel upon a ridge fifteen hundred feet above the plains, with the ridge’s sides smooth and precipitous, Sardis was considered impregnable. The Persians came and set siege to the city. There seemed to be no way to take the city , high on its unassailable rock. Then, one day, a Persian soldier saw a Sardian soldier lose his helmet over the battlement. To the Persian’s disbelief, he watched the Sardian easily climb down the sheer rock cliff to retrieve his hat.
The Persian soldier checked and found a deep fissure which would allow a man to climb up and down. That night a party of Persian troops climbed up the fault, scaled the walls, found the battlements unguarded and the watches asleep, crept to the gates, and threw them open to admit the Persian army. And Sardis fell.
Amazingly, Sardis fell to the Seleucid army a second time two centuries later in the identical manner.
Jesus comes to the Church in Sardis and says “wake up!”
The Image of Jesus
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
Seven Spirits – the all seeing eyes of God
Revelation 5:6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits[1] of God sent out into all the earth.
In Revelations 1 we are told that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches – it speaks of the control that Jesus has over the cosmos and over these churches.
The Good News
There is no good news – there are only two churches where Jesus has nothing or little to say that is good – Sardis and Laodicea, the only good thing about Sardis is her reputation, and that is a thin perfume over the smell of death.
The Bad News
I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. "
The church in Sardis did not have a problem with persecution coming from the outside, nor heresy or sin from the inside – there was no apparent battle going on, so they had fallen asleep.
Do you remember the word that Hana had about clearing off the front of the church – first she cleaned up the garbage, then she removed the plastic plants – Sardis was a plastic plant – pretty to look at, but useless for food, or cleaning the air or anything that a live plant should be.
In Matthew 21:19 Jesus is walking into Jerusalem early in the morning, he is hungry and he sees a fig tree in full leaf he walks over to it and finds that it has no figs, he curses it and says “may you never bear fruit again!” and immediately the tree withered. It’s a strange story, but it relates well to the church in Sardis – they have every sign of life but they might as well be dead since they bear no fruit.
Jesus says in John 15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit”
Jesus is saying to the church in Sardis, you look alive, but you are dead, so I’m about to cut you off.
Sardis had a great reputation – it had all the right programs, a great preacher – probably uses power point – the people were more than friendly, they were the church that all the other churches wanted to be - but Jesus says they are dead.
Like the dead parrot sketch, the bird’s plumage is pretty meaningless if it is dead!
I think that this is a direct message to the church in the west – we’ve got incredible plumage, but we’re dead.
I remember Graham Cooke said something like, “ we are so irrelevant that no one wants to persecute us!” I think we have a great deal in common with Sardis
The Call
2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent
Wake Up
While the message for Laodicea hit a cord (or a sore spot) with us, I think that this message to Sardis is a great description of the western church. Like Sardis, we feel like we are impenetrable on our high hill and so we have fallen asleep out of lack of perceived danger.
Sleeping is a great temptation for us when we perceive no danger – when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemene before he went to the cross he was in great distress and he took Peter, James and John with him asking them to watch and pray, but three time he goes back to them and they are asleep when he needs them most.
In the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, El… the King of the Roans has a spell placed over him so that he feels older and vastly weaker than he is – he is in this gray haze caring more for his afternoon nap than the fact that evil is on the march and is destroying his kingdom.
Here is the church in Sardis living in relative ease and comfort and freedom while her six sister churches are fighting this great battle against persecution and heresy – they should be using their freedom to storm the gates of heaven in prayer on behalf of their brothers and sisters, but they have used the opportunity to catch up on their sleep.
Today we live in an age when there are millions, MILLIONS! of AIDS orphans in Africa – many of whom are Christian, churches are burning in Sri Lanka, the truth of Biblical ethics and morals are being attacked in the West, God’s creation is being ripped to pieces, and the biggest difficulty that we have in our prayers is distraction and nodding off!
We must shake off the sleep that has over taken us and get to the work of the kingdom!
When I preached on “Opening the Door to Jesus” a few of you shared about times in your life when you opened the door to Jesus. At that time Dawn Comber had some things to share that were really important, but she didn’t get a chance. I’m going to ask her to come and talk about the need to actively open the door…
You might say – Mike what do you mean sleep? I’d love to get some sleep! I’m so busy just looking after what I have to do, and doing the work of the kingdom I think I’ll only get a chance to sleep after I die.
Just because we are busy doesn’t mean we aren’t sleeping –
Just because we are busy doesn’t mean we aren’t dead
– I’ve butchered chickens the old fashioned way, with an axe out back of the shed. If you don’t hold on to them after you cut their heads of they will run around without their heads – their dead they just don’t know it yet! All of our busyness can still be the actions of someone who is dead.
This is how Eugene Peterson Translates the passage:
2"Up on your feet! Take a deep breath! Maybe there’s life in you yet. But I wouldn’t know it by looking at your busywork; nothing of God’s work has been completed. Your condition is desperate. 3Think of the gift you once had in your hands, the Message you heard with your ears--grasp it again and turn back to God.
Our busyness can be just as dead as inaction if it is not from God.
Matthew 7
21"Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Strengthen what you have left
The church in Sardis wasn’t completely dead, just “mostly dead” (to quote Billy Crystal in The Princess Bride) – there were still pieces that were just holding on – just about to die – There were a couple of branches that were still bearing fruit - they needed to grab on these things and strengthen them before they too died
Finish what you started
Sardis was known for never finishing the temple to Artemis, in the same way, the Church in Sardis had stalled out in its spiritual growth. They had begun the work of reconciliation with God and his people through Jesus Christ, but had fallen asleep and never got back to the important work.
As she got older my grandmother used to fall asleep in the middle of a sentence, she’d wake up a half an hour later and finish her sentence! This is what the church in Sardis needed to do – wake up and continue the work.
Remember what you received
This is a similar command to what Jesus gave the church at Ephesus when he tells them to return to their first love – go back to the basics – the basics of relationship with God, with listening for his will, with seeking peace with all those around you.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians echoes this passage with a call to holy living…
Eph 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
15Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Obey it
Jesus tells the story of two sons who are asked by their father to do some work in the fields. One son says “yes Sir!” and then forgets to do it, the other son says “no way!” but later decides differently and does what his father wants. Jesus is teaching us that obedience is not about saying the right thing – its about doing the right thing.
After Jesus says not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter, he gives this illustration:
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
Repent
Stop concentrating on creating a comfortable church that we can sleep in and concentrate of doing the will of God
The Warning
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.
Jesus is not necessarily talking about his final return, but that there is a time when his patience runs out and if the church would rather sleep than use what God has given, He will come in judgment and take it away from them.
Proverbs 6
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-
11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man. [1]
The Promise
4Yet 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. 5He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Matthew 10 32"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
Most of the times when Jesus talks about his coming return the point of the story is that we must be ready – he actually says “don’t let me catch you sleeping.” I want to find you going about the Lord’s work.
Are you awake?
Are we as a church awake?
What will it take for us to wake up to God?
