Text: Revelation 3:1-6

My purpose for this message: Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith.

Delivered: June 27, 2010

PR when CPR is Needed

Invite God to speak to you this morning.

FIND Revelation 3:1-6. This is a warning to a church full of pretend Christians; imitation, false, fake, whatever you want to call them. People who thought they were saved, but weren’t.

READ. Friday was the first anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death. For many years reporters were obsessed with Jackson: where he performed, who he hung out with, who he married, his surgeries, his ranch, accusations against him. Although in the final years, the reports were less and less flattering, throughout much of his life Jackson benefited from the PR. During his life he sold over 391 million albums, singles and videos.

Last June he went into cardiac arrest from the sedative propofol. His personal physician Dr. Murray did CPR but it was no use. At just 50 years old, the master musician and dancer died, leaving a musical legacy unparalleled except perhaps by Elvis or the Beatles. Jackson had been successfully marketed but in the end it was CPR—not PR that offered him a shot at living.

This church in Sardis had good PR: it had …a reputation of being alive…, but what it really needed was CPR: you are dead. You belong in body bags, you are already in the second stage of rigor mortis.

Remember in school when the math teacher gave you a bad grade? You didn’t want to admit to mom and dad that you didn’t study at all or enough, so you’d blame the teacher: she didn’t explain things properly; or gave trick questions or used material we hadn’t studied.

Imagine if instead of getting a bad grade from your school teacher, you got it from the Creator of the universe: how would you explain that away? Jesus in whom is the 7-fold Holy Spirit, Jesus the exalted Son of God to whom the angel of every church, answers (3:1), gave the Sardis church an “F-”, a grade worse than any other Asian church. Not everyone in that church got an indictment, but most did.

Unlike other Asian cities, Sardis was a place of religious tolerance. Among pagan temples in the city, was a Jewish synagogue the size of a football field. Jews had lived in Sardis long before any Christians arrived but it’s doubtful the local pagans could distinguish between them. In their minds since both groups worshiped a single God they were same even though they quibbled about some religious teacher named Jesus.

Just 50 miles away in Ephesus pagans persecuted Christians, but here, pagan, Jew, and Christian lived side-by-side in peace. One wonders why? Jesus mentions no efforts by Satan her; one wonders why? Since Satan regards all believers as traitors and fair game, why no opposition from him?

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes (3:4). There were only a few faithful Christ-followers here. What had happened to the rest? Why was this church dead?

I suspect the church had some history to it—maybe 50 years or so. One, since nobody plants a dead church something had obviously happened between when this one was planted and was alive, and now. Two, the church still had a reputation of being alive (3:1). While a good reputation can vaporize in an instant it takes time to establish one so I suspect this local fellowship had been around for a while. And was well polished. Looked good to friend and foe alike. Only Jesus saw the critical condition beneath the polish. Good PR, but this church was in desperate need of CPR.

I know your deeds. Without any other qualification, that could be good or bad. I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God (3:2). There’s the qualifier: it’s bad. The church probably still had programs going to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, youth ministry going strong, and maybe the church’s neighbors’ liked them because they were nice people. Pillars in the community, upstanding folks.

Sometimes Sardis is preached as a lackluster church; “dead” as in boring music, boring sermons, not much enthusiasm. But what boring church has a great reputation? This church had a great reputation. Its problem was not energy or enthusiasm—it wasn’t some external issue, it was an internal one; a heart problem. And like a rash on the skin exposes the inner virus, this hidden heart problem was exposed by their deeds. What deeds, and what was the problem with them?

This matter of deeds/works/actions can be very confusing. On the one hand, to God, everyone’s righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). A homemaker who invites a homeless woman in will not—by doing a good deed like that—or a 100 deeds like that, cancel out God’s justifiable wrath against her due to her sin. Which is why the most moral person in the world must put faith in Jesus to be saved.

God says imitate Abraham, and forget working to earn My favor; trust Me, have faith that I”ll forgive you through Jesus, and I will count or regard that faith as if you actually are righteous (Romans 4:4-5). Deeds don’t save.

On the other hand, God says again and again that the evidence that you have faith, is deeds. James 2:14: What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him? Or, They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him (Titus 1:16). Or Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self… (Colossians 3:9). Works cannot substitute for faith, but genuine faith produces works. The faith that saves, works.

The Sardis church didn’t lack energy, but apparently was very busy with lots of programs and activities. But when God pulled out His microscope to look at those works, He saw every flaw, every ulterior motive, every self-serving objective, every refusal to direct fame to Christ. Every compromise with the world, every gospel-ignoring, Christ-diminishing impurity lit up like phosphorous. …everything exposed by the light becomes visible… (Ephesians 5:13).

Just what were the problems? Not sexual impurity; when that was the case in Thyatira and Pergamum, Jesus said so. Not idolatry; He pointed that out in those churches as well. I believe this church had ever so slowly lost sight of why it existed, which was for the glory of God, and to be a vehicle in which people loved Jesus Christ and spurred fellow saints as well as the lost toward Jesus Christ. It was once a strong Christ-centered church but gradually over time—perhaps it took a generation—most in this church had replaced Jesus with…, something or someone else. Still doing good things—and their pagan neighbors probably approved. But they had lost sight of why they were a church. Based on the severity of Jesus’ warning, I think the people of this church had disowned Jesus: most of this generation didn’t think about Him, didn’t pray in His name, didn’t speak about Jesus, didn’t worship Him, didn’t proclaim Him, didn’t see Him as the Great Answer.

You are dead! That’s not simply a metaphor for being apathetic, disinterested, or uninspired. READ Ephesians 2:1. You are dead means you are lost, unconverted, headed for hell. You ask, are you sure?

In vv.4-5 Jesus makes 2 promises to those who are currently faithful to Christ, and to those who will repent and turn to Him in faith: you’ll walk with me dressed in pure white robes; I will never blot out your name from God’s book of life, but acknowledge it before my Father and His angels.

Reassurance for the faithful and those who will repent in alarm at Jesus’ warning. But lurking in the shadows were 2 dark counterpromises for false Christians who ignored His warning:

• You will not walk with me

• Not have your name in the book of life, nor will I acknowledge you before the Father and His angels. (Matthew 10:32-33.) Damnation.

(No, this doesn’t mean sometime after you come to Christ, you can somehow screw up and have your name removed from the book of life. As Revelation 17:8 shows, God put the name of everyone who is saved or will be—all the regenerate—in His book of life before any of us were born. All Jesus is doing in v.5 is reassuring the overcomers that they need not fear losing their hope.)

To the rest, Wake up; if you’re nearly dead—in other words, a Christian, but one so influenced by unregenerate church members that you’re in a coma yourself, strengthen what’s left. Remember what you’ve been taught; obey the Word of God. Repent, turn and go the other direction.

What’s this say to American churches? Typically good churches don’t die or start declining by refusing to change, or failing to influence the culture, or by not having enough programs. These and other realities, are all sideshows. Churches mostly die because they diminish, distort, or replace Jesus Christ. In the early 1900’s well-meaning Protestants replaced Him by their social gospel. They failed to make the crucified Son of God the reason to feed the hungry and care for the poor, and the gospel reason was soon shoved aside by brotherhood of man reasons.

In the last 30 years some churches—some entire denominations—are diminishing him claiming He is simply one of many ways God will save people.

And distorting Jesus is a significant problem. Some megachurches with thousands of attendees are preaching a Jesus who’s not the one depicted in the Bible. Growing ignorance of what’s in the Bible means some people are playing pin the tail on the donkey with Jesus; they’re just guessing at what He’s like. Or, fashioning Him the way they’d like Him to be. Jesus becomes a one-size-fits-all king who welcomes you unconditionally whether you are repentant or not. Which makes the cross unnecessary, and in the next evolutionary stage, makes Jesus unnecessary.

A warning to a church full of false Christians. Are you a false Christian? Someone who does not know and love and serve Jesus Christ? Know about Him; love to sing about Him or hang with His people, and after all, you serve as a church greeter, or at the fire hall or local school.

Wonderful! But do you know, love and serve Jesus Christ? Does He matter to you, is His glory important to you, do you do what you do inside and out of the church, on His behalf? Look for clues: do you find yourself increasingly hating your sin—sins which pinned Jesus to the cross? Do you long to see people come to repentance and faith, do you love the church, are you increasingly thankful for the blood Jesus spilled for you while you were a sinner? Are you increasingly eager to give away money to His work or serve his people?

Or is this hour and fifteen minutes Sunday morning pretty much the only time that the name Jesus crosses your mind or lips? Is the church simply something to attach yourself to for some self-serving reason? Have you downgraded your sins to “mistakes”; doesn’t everyone make them? Do you view lost people as simply folks with a different point of view?

2 Corinthians 13:5 says, Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. We’re going to end the service by giving you several quiet minutes to answer the question: am I a true or false Christian. If you’re confident, good! Spend the time praying for others.

And if you are troubled by the thoughts that arise, don’t ignore them. It could be the Holy Spirit and trying to silence Him could be disastrous. Don’t quench him; pray for clarity.

I’ll stay up front to talk with any of you, or just ask the person beside you if you can speak with them; they’ll help.