Inactive Christianity (2)

Revelation 3:1-6

Wake up and live the life God has for you!

Sleeping on the Job

We hired an employee recently at AlphaTRAC, at my day job. Really promising young employee for a Junior Programmer position. She had a great resume, seemed to click well in interviews, smart and quick and demonstrated a good grasp of the necessary skills. All good. Hired.

She shows up for her first day of work ready to go and we have things all scheduled out to show her around, show her what we do, how we work, etc... Well, first day, a couple people are giving her a demo of our flagship software product and she is listening intently, or deeply, nodding... nodding... nodding... asleep. Out cold. Awkward. They wake her up and we chalk it up to first day jitters.

Next day we have some more tutorials and she keeps nodding... jerking her head up... and several times that day walking by her cubicle. She is out. She takes to wearing sunglasses (because the lights are so bright) and clearly sleeping behind the sunglasses. Every day, through her first week.

First week of work. Last week of work too, as it happens. The boss had a chat with her, understanding but firm that you have to find a way to stay awake during work hours... it continued... but her employment contract did not. It was a shame because she had potential and it was a great opportunity for her. To work at what I think is an incredible company on exciting and meaningful projects... it was a shame.

I started to wonder, how long could I get away with sleeping all day work, not getting anything done. Quite awhile, actually, just living on my good reputation.

Coasting for Jesus

We can take that question into the things of God. Having done something "super spiritual," how long could we coast on that reputation?

Can't we just coast for awhile? I have been doing this "religious" thing pretty intensely. Two weeks ago we had a great weekend with youth sharing and singing and dancing and getting baptized. Really good service: incredible day. Can't we just coast? Take it easy? Let's just live off the glow of that for a few months.

This morning we look at a church that seems to have tried exactly that. The church at Sardis Jesus speaks, through the letter we call Revelation, in Chapter 3, verse 1.

Revelation 3:1-6

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. 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.

4 Yet 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. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Sardis

Jesus seems to be trying to teach the church in Sardis a lesson from the history of their own city. The parallels are too many too ignore.

Sardis was a powerful and wealthy city back in the day. It was capital of Lydia which rivaled Ancient Greece in power and had this huge impregnable fortress-castle thing with cliffs all around. It was so impregnable, actually, that they pretty much only guarded the gate and the city was capture by Cyrus of Persia by sending a few men to scale the cliffs, and take the gate. They got lazy and were caught napping by men who came as thieves in the night.

This was such a miraculous achievement that "capturing Sardis" become a phrase for achieving the impossible. Apparently Sardis thought it was still impossible, became lazy again, and were captured again and again, once in exactly the same method Cyrus used when Lagoras climbed the cliffs and opened the gates.

Sardis was a city living in the glory of days past when it was rich and powerful. It was comfortable, but never achieved its past glory.

Apparently alive, actually dead.

What was the problem in Sardis? Church in Sardis, you are asleep or dead or about to die... all three are mentioned here.

Well in Greek thought, life essentially equals activity. If a thing moves around on its own, it is alive. Life is activity, it is motion and movement. You can see then the strong parallel of sleep to death. Sleep is like a mini death, and people who sleep too long die. I imagine that's what a coma looks like, right? Someone goes to sleep and never wakes up.

The church in Sardis had a name or a reputation for being alive... but actually they are dead. So word on the street was that this was a living church, perhaps a great growing church. Probably they had activities or things going on that kept that reputation going... but it was a hollow thing. Just like Sardis had a reputation for being impregnable but... really not so much.

Clothes soiling

They were dead, dying, sleeping...

Apparently there is another way of putting it and I love this, because there are a few exceptions Jesus mentioned. Those who have no soiled their clothes.

4a Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.

I have thought for hours this week about hilarious stories, pictures, phrases... let's talk about those who have soiled their clothes for a minute. How deeply were they sleeping that they soiled themselves?

Sadly, I have to change your visual. There is no hint that they were soiling their clothes in quite the way I immediately imagine. Sardis was the most prominent city in dying cloth, in fact they invented the process, and so this would have been a powerful image to them. Also, "soiling the clothes" was used to indicate ritual impurity, usually due to sin.

This was church sitting back on its reputation. At some point it must have done something good. It got a reputation somehow, it looked good for awhile. People started talking about that "living, active church in Sardis." It had a good resume, hired. It believed its own press and decided to settle in for a nice nap. Just coast for awhile.

You're not done

Jesus says, "WAKE UP!

2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

You aren't done, not by a long shot.

It certainly doesn't sound like Thyatira: your love, your faith, your service, your endurance, and greater now than at first. Because that is what God has for us. Ever greater blessings. Ever greater callings. Ever growing, always reaching, always learning, always discovering, always creating, always being challenged in faith and love.

Jesus says, Wake Up, you're not done. What is the implication? I have more for you. I have more life for you to live.

Wake UP and live the life God has for you.

Strengthen what remains and is about to die. How does one do that?

3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. 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.

Remember and repent. Like Jesus told Ephesus, do the things you did at first. I expect knowing what to do wasn't the problem, Sardis earned the reputation in the first place, but they had been lulled to sleep. Apparently no persecution in Sardis. Apparently no great struggle. Apparently no false teachers in their midst, no Jezebel, no Nicolaitans. Things were peaceful and calm. Warm and cozy.

Man I feel sleepy just thinking about that. The church at Sardis was lulled into sleep in the midst of peace and prosperity.

Makes sense, right, when do you feel sleepy? After Thanksgiving dinner? After lunch at work? Perhaps Sardis had a great event, baptized some folks and decided to coast for awhile. Perhaps they built a new building, started a couple ministries and decided to take a nap...

Things are more urgent than you think

But the truth is that things are more urgent that they thought. Jesus comes with his words of redeeming judgment.

3b 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.

The way that is phrased, I don't think it's talking about future day of judgment. I think Jesus came like a thief in the night to Sardis and judged it. In fact, the two churches Jesus speaks most harshly to in Revelation here are the only two cities no longer around today. Sardis is one. Laodicea is the other. Game over.

Dead or Alive - It's about relationship

The question is, why is Jesus being such a punk about Sardis' little beauty rest? What is the big deal if Sardis wants to sleep it out?

It comes down to this. Jesus isn't the employer firing an employee for sleeping on the job. Christianity isn't about working hard or diligently. It is a love relationship. It is a friendship. The Bible uses the language of marriage with Jesus the groom and the Church the Bride.

Funny thing about relationships: you are either growing closer together, or you are drifting apart. The motion in either direction might be slow, but if you don't talk to your best friend for a few years, you won't be as close as you are today. You can't be, they are growing, you are growing, and your relationship has to grow with that. And besides, you want to be with that person. You love them, you love spending time together, growing together, sharing experiences together, challenging each other. That's why your best friends.

Gethsemane

Wake up and live the life God has for you.

I have been thinking all week of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. All night, he is praying, because he knows what tomorrow holds. He knows what's coming. Imagine that, I am getting crucified tomorrow. But not just that, tomorrow I am going to take on the sins of the world, throughout time and space, all of the ugliness and brutality that humanity ever has and ever will create... and my Father will have to look away, and I will die. Praying to God "If there's any other way..."

But at least he has his three closest friends with him. Peter, James and John. But they fell asleep. Again. and again. "Are you asleep? Couldn't you keep watch for one hour?"

It is deeply relational. That isn't a work violation, that is a betrayal of friendship, a lack of faithful love.

More than religion

All the "religion" stuff is just there to facilitate and nurture the growing relationship between you and God. The miracle of Christianity is that God wants a relationship with you and has made everything possible. Created you, rescued you from sin, made communication and time with Him as easy as possible, sending the Holy Spirit to you...

It is bizarre that he gives us a choice, but He does, and He wants your choice to be life and life with Him. Life awake and alive and meaningful and abundant, life that grabs hold of all the blessings He has for you. Life that struggles through challenges, even through tragedy, to become the beautiful, brilliant, eternal persons He envisions and intends for us to be. Don't go to sleep! Are you kidding, WAKE UP!

There is no such thing as an inactive Christian. You are either pursuing God, or you are pursuing something else that leads you away from God. WAKE UP! and live the life God has for you.

WAKE UP! and live the life God has for you.

Rest

That doesn't mean that you are always busy doing stuff! Sometimes God says, "be still and know that I am God." Jesus was going off by himself regularly to pray, silence and solitude!

It isn't that you don't get periods of rest. God is a huge fan of rest. "Six days you shall work... on the Sabbath day you shall rest..." sound familiar? Jesus says, "Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden... I will give you rest." God is a big fan of rest. But there is a difference between rest that restores and prepares you for the next challenge, and lethargic sleep that imitates death until death is the reality.

I am a huge fan of that. It isn't doing stuff, it is relational. God has more for you. He isn't done loving you, and teaching you and working in you and with you. God has more life for you.

Back to sleeping at work. I realized, thinking about how long I could get away with sleeping through the day at work: Why would I want to? I would miss out on being a part of the team, being a part of the company, being a part of all the exciting projects we are working on. I would miss the challenge and the victory.

The life God has for you

Wake up! and live the life God has for you. God is not done with you. He is not done with you. He has more life for you.

God's Calling on You

Is it possible God is calling you to the Next Thing, the next challenge, the next leap of faith, the next service or ministry... is it possible God is calling you and you are hitting the snooze button? "No, God, call back later. I did something for you yesterday... or last month..."

Wake up and live the life God has for you. It is so much better than sleeping. So much richer and deeper. Thinking through all the ways I have spent too much time asleep, video games and books, tv shows and movies... the best of them don't even compare to the life God has for me. Two weeks ago, watching youth kids share and sing and dance... and getting to be a part of 10 kids getting baptized. Holy, blessed, God. That is life worth living! My heart is still full, but anticipating what God has for me next. What God has for us next.

I don't want to sleep through any of it. I don't want to miss it. If you see me sleeping through life, slap me awake!

Falling asleep

How do I fall asleep? I shared some. I spent my early teen years asleep. About half the day, literally, then I read a million books, played video games, watched movies and tv., my days just slipped by. I got slightly older, that was my only accomplishment. 2-3 lost years. Those things can all be fine in moderation. God isn't opposed to naps or rest, but it isn't a lifestyle. It isn't life. God has more life for me than that. He did then and He does now.

How many people trudge through work as a distraction from the entertainment they fill the rest of their every waking moment with? That isn't life. That is a coma with a laugh track in the background.

Wake up and live the life God has for you.

To the one who is victorious

I want to be one of those dressed in white. That is a symbol of victory and celebration. Also, I look really good in white.

4b They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

I want to be worthy. I want God to say of me "I know your deeds, your love and faithfulness, your service, your perseverance, and you are now doing more than you did at first."

The life God has for us

Imagine if all the churches in SDB were fully Active. That is thinking small, actually. Imagine if all the churches in America were fully Active. Still small, imagine if all the churches in all the world, everyone who called themselves "Christian" would WAKE UP!

God's calling on Next Step church

Is God calling us, Next Step Church to the next thing? When we moved here almost five years ago, this church was in the midst of an exciting vision. Moving to Thornton, writing vision statements, bylaws, forming the Advisory Board and creating ministry positions to reflect aspect of vision. Exciting vision, part of our calling to this church was the excitement of being a part of that.

Guess what, four and half years later. We are living that vision. But God is not done with us.

Wake up and live the life God has for us. I don't think we are sleeping, but let's never be caught napping. Next week, Pastor Rod is sharing a Vision for 2013-2015. Be there. God has more for us. There are next steps.

One day, Jesus will come, and the whole world will see him. A trumpet will blast like the ultimate wake-up call. WAKE UP!!! and all the faithful, from all the ages, will rise to life, to reign, dressed in white.

Don't miss out on the victory celebration.

Don't miss out on the life God has for you... it's too good to miss. Don't soil your clothes. Wake up and live the life God has for you.

Whoever has ears... let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.