Wake Up!
July 15, 2018
We look at the fifth of Jesus’ 7 letters to the churches, the letter to the church in Sardis. This church looks great. They have a reputation for being alive and yet Jesus’ damning indictment is they are in fact dead. The call to any who will hear is to wake up. The troubling thing when you’re asleep is that you often don’t realise it. This church may have had ‘good’ meetings, read the bible, prayed, served, looked to all intents & purposes like it was doing ok and yet they were in grave danger. This message is a call to examine ourselves, to repent, to seek God & strengthen ourselves in Him. For we are promised; if we conquer He will never blot our names out of the book of life. Amen.
Stephen Morrison
Revelation 3:1–6 (Listen)
To the Church in Sardis
3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
(ESV)
Revelation 3:1 (Listen)
To the Church in Sardis
3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
(ESV)
1 Thessalonians 5:2–6 (Listen)
2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children1 of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
Footnotes
[1] 5:5
(ESV)
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.
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