Reputation and Reality
July 18, 2021
Preached by Ben Bechtel
Scripture Reading
Revelation 3:1-6
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.’
Today we meet the church of Sardis, a church which had a reputation that preceded itself in the larger region. A reputation is something that one garners over years but can be lost in an instant. This may not be the best example, but I know my parents used to love going to the Mexican chain restaurant Chi-Chi’s growing up. Chi-Chi’s was a restaurant chain that grew steadily but over the course of years gaining a reputation of a place to get fairly average food was quickly brought down by an outbreak of Hepatitis A at different locations around the US.
Reputations are also interesting though in that people or corporations can take on a reputation in people’s minds that doesn’t match up with reality. Inevitably in the case of many crime dramas or podcasts, certain people are interviewed who say that Joe the criminal was a stand-up guy and a wonderful neighbor. We need not look much farther than the American church for examples of this, examples of well-loved pastors with the reputation of being trustworthy men of God who in reality were engrossed in sexual sin, greed, or abuse of power.
In our passage this morning Jesus comes to us with a reality check. Does the reality of our lives individually and our life together as a church match our reputation? Are we Christians in name only or in the character of our lives individually and corporately? This morning Jesus invites us all to get real with him, to stop keeping him at arm’s length, and to let him invade our reality.
1. Rebuke (vv. 1-2)
Jesus has some strong words for the church at Sardis. Let’s read verses 1-2 again:
1 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.
For those who have been with us throughout this sermon series, I have a question for you. What is missing here from the beginning of this letter from Jesus that we have come to expect from the other letters? Commendation. He doesn’t say anything positive. Even in Thyatira, Jesus gives a commendation to a church that was compromising greatly with sexual sin and idolatry. But here in Sardis, nothing. Let’s keep that in mind.
Jesus launches right into this rebuke of the church at Sardis. And what is his main point of rebuke? The church had a reputation of being alive, but they were dead. In the original Greek, that word translated reputation is actually the word name. The churches in surrounding region viewed Sardis as a church that was bubbling with activity and life. They ran great church programs, they were gathering crowds on Sunday morning, they all proudly displayed their First Church of Sardis decals on their cars. On the outside they had all the signs of life. And yet, they are called dead. As this letter was being circulated around to the churches, this statement probably made their jaws drop. “Really?! Sardis?! It can’t be!” Their name did not match up with reality.
What was it then that warranted Jesus calling them dead? What was the reality of the spiritual condition at Sardis that warranted this direct rebuke? Well, the text is not very specific. However, there are certain things we can gather. In verse 2, the command given to this church, which we will look at more in depth in the next point is to wake up. This implies that they were asleep or dosing off to sleep. This church’s heart had grown spiritually drowsy toward God. In other words, this church, while bustling with life on the outside, had grown apathetic toward God in their hearts. They had all the things that make a “good church” on the outside, but their hearts were sound asleep.
They were like an antique car which had beautifully been preserved on the outside, shiny red exterior, polished tires, the whole bit. However, if you opened up the hood it would reveal a car that is a car in name only, because the engine isn’t functional. The thing that truly gives the car life is not functioning, therefore it is a car in name only. Polished on the outside, dead on the inside.
Church let’s open up the hood of our car. I don’t think any of us who know this church believe that we have a poor reputation. I’ve had three or four conversations with people in the last few weeks that have talked about how our church is known around the community for many good things. But are we alive? Is this all spiritually decorated hustle and bustle? What about your own life? Do people know you as an upstanding Christian because your life is busy with religious activity but your heart is dead toward God?
One helpful question we might ask ourselves to see if this is the state of our lives and of our church is to ask, what types of spiritually vital activities make an apathetic church flinch. As you listen to this list, which of these make you squirm?
Deep, honest prayer and dependence on God
Recognition of spiritual warfare
Ruthless pursuit of holiness and the spiritual disciplines
Radical commands of Jesus (loving your enemy, giving to the poor)
Forgiveness
Relationships with people who are not just like us
Engagement in both personal evangelism and world missions
Church, we are all tempted to fall asleep to the reality of who Jesus is and who we are in light of that. How do we fight this temptation towards spiritual sleepiness?
2. Command (vv. 2-3)
We have to stand up and face reality about Jesus and ourselves. Look with me again at verses 2-3:
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.
To this spiritually drowsy church, Jesus comes with a blaring alarm clock and a cup of coffee. “Wake up” he commands. That command is the governing command of the many commands he gives to the church. That verb “wake up” is actually the word used in several other texts in the New Testament that talk about spiritual warfare (1 Peter 5:8; Eph. 6:18). In other words, Jesus is telling the church to wake up because it is time for war! It’s no time to sleep when the battle is at hand. The people of Sardis, given their background, would have felt the force of this command. You see, Sardis was located up on a hill, which worked to their advantage militarily speaking. Sardis was near impossible to overthrow. However, due to the false sense of security this induced, twice in the city’s history a military commander surprised them, took the hill, and captured the city. This people, like their ancestors, needed to wake up to the reality that they were living not in peace time, but war time. It was not a time for sloth but for action.
Church, the same is true for us. Many of us, particularly in America have let our comfortable circumstances drown out the spiritual urgency of our lives. As we talked about at the beginning of Revelation 1, we have been living in the last days since Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. One of the characteristics of the last days is the testing and trial of the church at the hands of the enemy. Satan wants nothing more for us an American church to live secure lives, thinking we are at peace when actually the battle is upon us. He wants us to settle for religious games. He wants us to neglect prayer and the preaching of the gospel. Church, we must wake up!
The other central commands in this text further flesh out what must happen for the church to wake up, specifically the commands to strengthen what remains and to remember what they had received. One of my favorite things about summertime is the ability to sit around a fire with good friends into the evening. There are few things better on this earth. There comes that point of decision at every fire when it’s getting kind of late, and the fire is about to die: do we throw another log on and stoke it up or do we let it die and head to bed? This is precisely the decision which Jesus gives to the church at Sardis. This church has received the gospel, the flame in their lampstand was lit. However, unbeknownst to them, that fire has been slowly dying and if they do not stoke it and throw more logs on it, it will die.
So, into this context, he calls them to throw more logs on the fire by returning to the fuel of spiritual life, that which verse 3 says they have received, the truth of the gospel. You see, the gospel, the good news about Jesus, is the only fuel for spiritual power and spiritual life because it forces us to take a look at the reality of our own lives. The gospel tells us that the God who made all things is a beautifully holy God, unique and set apart as the standard of love, righteousness, and truth. Yet the gospel also tells us that we human beings do not reflect this same character, that we fall short of living lives that reflect the holy character of our God. You are fatally flawed and there is nothing you can do on your own to fix it. And we all feel that to be true in our lives. In addition to wreaking havoc on your own life and the lives of others, our sin results in the right eternal judgment of God. The gospel says that the reality of your situation is dire! As it says in verse 3, for those who continue in sin and are not awake to the gospel, Jesus will come against them judgment.
But the gospel also tells you that it doesn’t have to be this way. The gospel tells us that we are not damned to this reality because God himself has stepped into our time and space reality to do something about it. Out of love Jesus went to the cross sacrificially to take the punishment your sin deserves. And now, to anyone who trusts in him, the gospel says that they can receive a new name: “righteous,” “saint.” Not only that, but the gospel also promises that your name will one day fully match your reality as God changes you to look more and more like him. The gospel tells us that on our own our reality looks bleak but through trust in Jesus a whole new reality opens up to us, one of life, transformation, and relationship with God.
Church, when we return to the reality of who God is, who we are, and what he has done for us in the gospel, it ought to swallow up our spiritual lethargy and drowsiness! The good news of Jesus is caffeine for our sleepy hearts. Return to it this morning. The command of this passage is simple, but it is the most difficult thing in this world to do: wake up and get real with God. Stop hiding. Stop pretending. Stop going through the motions. Repent of your sins and follow Jesus with your whole self. Repentance of sins and trust in Christ are the preconditions and essentials for spiritual life. They are the bread and butter of your Christian life.
Repentance and faith are the foundational dynamics of vibrant life with Christ. As you grow in your Christian life, you begin to notice more and more the areas where you sin and fall short. You see in big bold letters, like the big E at the eye doctor, your propensity toward sin and the ways in which that sin harms you and others, and offends God. But as you grow in your knowledge of sin, the spiritually vital Christian and the spiritually vital church also grows in its knowledge of Jesus’s work to cover that sin. As sin grows in our eyes so too does the cross of Christ! And we rejoice and worship and give of our lives with abandon to the one who freed us from our sins. We delight to be in prayer, talking to this God who loved us like this. We delight to pursue holiness, to become like this God who gave everything for us. We delight to share this good news with others so that they can get in on it with us. We delight to forgive others because we recognize ourselves as chief of sinners in need of forgiveness. The gospel changes everything and we appropriate that good news into our daily lives through honest repentance and trust in Jesus. See our sin for what it is; see Jesus for who he is; flee from sin and run to Jesus. Repeat.
3. Promise (vv. 4-6)
To all who pay attention to their hearts, to those who continue to fuel the fire of their spiritual life with the gospel, to those who persevere in living like the gospel is actually true, this is the promise of Jesus (vv. 4-5):
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.
Although this church broadly was alive in name only, there are a few for whom their name matched their reality. There were a few who were truly alive. There were a few who did not soil themselves by forsaking the gospel and growing cold.
Look at what we are promised if we, like the few in Sardis who were alive, continue to pursue life in the gospel through repentance and faith. For those who pursue Jesus not just in name only but in reality, for those who sacrifice their own name and reputation in this world for the sake of the name of Jesus, their name is secure in heaven. And not only that, but Jesus delights also to declare these names in heaven before his Father. For those who remain alive to God, who grasp the gospel of grace and let it inflame every part of their lives in service to God, your name is known in heaven before the throne of the universe.
Some of you here this morning have been in church for years, have called yourself a Christian for your whole life, and yet you have never said to God, “I am helpless in this and this way. I cannot fix myself. My actions destroy myself and others. I need Jesus.” I am a notoriously heavy sleeper. When I was in college, I once slept through a final exam. I woke up, looked at the clock and saw that there was 30 minutes left until the end of my exam slot. I rushed to the classroom and the professor graciously gave me time to complete the exam. We all know that feeling of panic that ensues when we wake up late. Some of us in here this morning have grown spiritually drowsy. We have overslept our alarm. However, we have not yet overslept our exam. There is still time to wake up and to get real with God. Jesus this morning wants to jolt you out of your sleep with the goodness of his gospel and reinvigorate your heart for him. Do not ignore him this morning. As verse 3 says, there will come a day when we get jolted out of sleep only to find out the exam is over, and judgment is upon us. If we sleep through these alarms throughout our life, we will miss the reality of Jesus’s grace. Wake up!
Let me conclude with this promise of God through the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:14:
Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
