In Revelation 3:2-3, Jesus speaks to the church in Sardis about this incredible gap between reputation and reality and He says here’s what you do. “Wake up! Strengthen what remains. Remember what you’ve received and heard. You obey it and repent. If you don’t wake up I'm going to come like a thief.”
How do you revitalize faith? How do you revitalize a relationship? How do you revitalize a sense of closeness with God? Jesus says here’s how you do it. And He walks them and us through it. He says, “Wake up.”
This church at Sardis is a reflection of its city in many ways. The city of Sardis, the main portion of it, was built on a plateau about 1500 feet above the plain. There was only one narrow way to get into this city. It was very easily guarded. You could see anybody that was coming up. Yet twice in its history, once by the Persians and once by the Greeks, this city was taken. And you know how it was taken both times? Both times it was taken because a group of dedicated soldiers went up the side of a cliff. They saw some of the people of the city climbing up and down the cliffs and they figured out how to climb up the cliffs. They climbed up at night and when they got to the top there was no one guarding the city. No one. The reason why is because they were convinced that no one could attack the city. So they were all asleep.
So when Jesus writes to this church and He says, “Wake up!” Everyone in that church would have understood what He meant. If you’re not awake you’re very vulnerable to attack.
[callout]This city and the church in it is a perfect example of over confidence and arrogance and what it can do in our lives. The strange thing about this church, as you read about it, is did you notice it doesn’t have any of the problems that the other churches in Revelation did. It doesn’t have false teachers. They’re not suffering persecution. It’s not where Satan’s throne is. Yet this church above all the other churches is condemned by Jesus. Why? Because they’ve grown complacent. Everything was easy and maybe because everything was easy they’d grown complacent and their faith had become flabby.[/callout]
If you don’t think Sardis couldn’t be a little bit about America you’ve missed the point. It’s pretty easy for us sometimes, isn’t it? Our faith can grow flabby. We don’t have the same persecutions that maybe others in the world face. Even in the church we have clear teaching and we all have the Bible to read and we don't face some of the false teachings that sweep across the rest of the world. You and I can begin to have a faith, a sense of a relationship with God that grows weaker and weaker rather than stronger and stronger. Jesus writes and says, “Wake up. I still want to work in your life. I want to grow you in your life. Don’t let your spiritual muscles deteriorate. Wake up to what I want to do.”
This church in Sardis had become a part of a city that once had been a great city. It had stood as a centerpiece of power. But by the time this letter was written the city was instead a pleasure city – sort of a Las Vegas of its day. Lots of activity, lots of “lights” but it was all about pleasure and nothing about purpose.
I’ve found in my life that there are two points at which I'm most vulnerable to attack. And I’ve got to be real careful at these two points.
I’ve got to be very careful at my weakest point, at that place where I know I’ve fallen again and again. If I ever start to say to myself that place or that habit or that thought or that unforgiveness or bitterness or whatever it is where I’ve fallen again and again, if I start to say to myself, “I think I’ve got that one licked,” I notice that is the day I fall again. So I’ve got to be very careful about that place. I know I have a weakness. I say, “I know I have a weakness here. I'm going to have it the rest of my life.” And just like a city that needs to know the weakest place of attack I need to protect that place.
There’s a second area. We also need to protect our strongest place, the place in your life where you feel like you’re the strongest. That’s where pride gets in. That place in your life where you would say, “I might fall a lot of places, I might make a lot of mistakes, but I would never do ‘that’. I would never fall ‘there’.” That place needs to be protected. The truth is, given the right circumstances you and I as human beings can fall for any sin. Any sin. We need to be honest about that. We are not perfect. We need the forgiveness of Christ and the direction of Christ.
Strengthen what remains. It’s great advice. If you want to wake up a marriage, if you want to wake up a relationship, if you want to wake up your spiritual life you strengthen what remains. The reason that’s such great advice is we usually do the opposite. We feel like “I'm going downhill here. I'm going the wrong direction,” and we look at the thing we’re most depressed about that died, that didn’t work very well and we try to bring something back to life that’s not there any more because we’re grieving over it because it’s gone. Jesus says, “Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about the thing that’s gone.” Find the one little twig that’s alive on the tree and you water that and you take care of that, you spray that with Miracle Grow every day, and you get that thing growing. That’s what’s going to bring the whole tree back to life. You don’t start with something’s that dead. You start with something that’s alive. So if you’ve got a marriage that you want to bring back to life you don’t start with that thing that you’re grieving about that you don’t do anymore. You find the one place in your marriage where you’ve got a little bit of happiness and start there. Water it. Care for it. Strengthen what remains.
[callout]In your spiritual life: if you want to grow and you feel like, “I haven’t talked to God in years,” answer the question - what’s the one thing that remains? Maybe it’s worship for you. Maybe it’s prayer. Maybe it’s reading God’s word. Take that and pour yourself into that one thing that remains and watch God strengthen that like only He can.[/callout]
What do you still enjoy in your ministry? What’s the one thing you still enjoy? Pour yourself into that. That’s good advise from Jesus about how to revitalize something. You wake up. You strengthen what remains.
