Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Revelation 3:1-6
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  September 1, 2019

John Wooden, the well known UCLA basketball coach, once told his players “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” Applying to Christian faith, I want you to think right now: What do other people say about your relationship with God? If I were to ask your friends, your family members, your neighbors, “What do you think about their Christianity?” What would they say about you?… Now I want you to think, What would God say about you? If God were to share about your faith in him right now, what would he say? Think about that for a second… How do they compare? Is what God would say about you the same thing that other people would say about you? Pretty similar? Or would there be a discrepancy? Are you publicly committed, but inwardly distant? Have you been keeping up a good reputation, but not considering your character, the inner integrity of your faith? 

This is what Jesus is warning us about in Revelation 3 as he addresses believers in ancient Sardis. “To the messenger of the church in Sardis write…I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what is left, which is about to die, for I have found that your works are not complete in the sight of my God.”  This is a frightening situation. Firstly, because there is nothing to indicate that congregation in Sardis had deviated from biblical teaching. There are other churches Jesus addresses in Rev 2-3 that were dealing with heresy and false teaching, with faith diluted by secular ideology. But there is no accusation of that sort here for Sardis. Secondly, it is frightening because this church has a great reputation! It was an active congregation, it had a good name in the community. Perhaps it was growing and flourishing by many standards. It had many deeds and it had a reputation of being alive. But even though they had a good reputation, Jesus said to them, “The way I look at you, at your character, at who you really are, you’re dead. So what about your reputation? So what about what others think? “I know your works. I see your heart and guess what? You are dead spiritually. As Jesus said of the pharisees, you are a white-washed tomb. Sardis was the church of the living dead. 

What can we learn from this? God cares about what goes on in the heart. He always does. And, so do we, right? Think about this: Imagine a married couple go to a dinner party and they have a great time together. Everybody there thinks their marriage is solid and that they are very much in love. But then they drive home and don’t say a word to each other. And they sleep in separate beds. And they never interact unless they are in public. If you could see the truth you’d say, “That’s not a healthy marriage.”  Because even though it looks good on the outside, there’s no corresponding love or understanding on the inside. That’s not a good marriage at all! This is what Jesus is saying to us, his Church. The biblical picture, rife in Revelation, is that of Christ as the groom and the Church as his bride. Jesus doesn’t just want to be married to us legally, he wants us to love and honor him in private too. In fact, genuine faith, powered by the Holy Spirit, is the only thing that rightly produces good outer deeds. Without an inner reality of faith, the  good things that we do degenerate. They become something we do simply for the reputation. They become empty. And though these kind actions may look good to the earthly eye, Jesus knows what they really have become: the actions of a spiritual zombie. “I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.”

But there is hope. Jesus continues speaking, “Wake up, and strengthen what is left…remember what you received and heard. Hold on to it and repent! Jesus says, “Repent.” Turn around, that’s the meaning of “repent”. Come back to me. Remember what you received and heard. Remember the gospel. The basics. Jesus, crucified and risen. Remember sin and grace. Remember the love and truth of God which you once received with awe and wonder. Hold on! Repent! Wake up!

Everyone in this room should consider this individually. But we also need to think about this as a church collectively because Jesus is talking to a congregation as a whole. Sardis was the church of the living dead. Is Eastside? I think it is a necessary question. Really, every church should be asking this question. We need to assume that we will naturally will grow tired spiritually. That we can forget what we first received, what first got us going. Because that’s what happens to everyone. Familiarity breeds contempt; love grows cold in a sinful world. Almost every secular organization starts out with this burning drive. They are serving a cause and they have a corresponding passion among the leadership and employees. But over the years people come and go, problems arise, and little by little, they forget why they started. And the stagnation becomes institutionalized. It can happen to churches too. 

What is our cause here at Eastside? What is our mission? Do you know it? Growing in Jesus; Telling of his love. I love that mission and it matches up perfectly with the mission of every true church. We grow corporately and personally in Jesus. We get to know him and then, again both corporately and personally, we go out and tell people about his love! Unless we continually go back to this mission, unless we corporately rededicate ourselves to this cause, we will slowly fall asleep. Assuming that we are, as the old hymnist writes, “prone to wander” we need to collectively repent and turn back to Jesus. We need to constantly rouse ourselves! Because churches fall asleep and it can be years before it starts to show on the outside. 

It reminds me of a star I was reading about that astronomers estimate is 33 light years away from earth. A light year is the distance light goes in a year, moving at 186,000 miles per second. Too fast for us to track with the human eye. So it’s kind of incredible to think about, but when that star dies, on earth we would still see it shining for 33 years. It would look like the star was still alive, but it could be dead. So, in fact, every night you look out at the stars, some of them are already dead. We just don’t see it yet. The same is true of some churches. The attendance may be good, there might be a lot of activity, a great reputation, and yet little to no spiritual vitality among its members. Like Sardis, there are churches of the living dead today who meet every week. And only years later can you see the actions slow down and the limbs grow cold. Only years later does the attendance decline and the property is sold. It’s like one of those majestic cathedrals over in Europe where they give tours, but no one actually worships anymore. It’s just a beautifully decorated casket in which lies the remains of a once vibrant congregation.

Jesus is so serious about this, he says: If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come upon you. These verses really strike me. It’s like Jesus is kneeling down and grabbing us by the shoulders, as a father would his child, saying, “Listen, this is real. This is going to happen. I am going to come back to judge heaven and earth and I want you to be ready! I want you to be alive spiritually! Wake up!” Jesus has used this metaphor of spiritual sleep in the gospels as well and it is always powerful. Because, you know the interesting thing about being asleep? While we sleep, our dreams seem more real than reality. Have you ever had a terrible dream, but then you wake up and you’re so relieved? “Ah, it was just a nightmare!” You might be getting chased by a bear in your dream, but in reality you’re safe and sound in your bed. Or, more dangerous, your house could actually be on fire, but if you’re dreaming you might think the heat is the warm sun on a tropical island. 

This is what it means to fall asleep spiritually. It means you don’t understand what is actually real. You are weighed down with worry and anxiety, because you problems seem more real than God’s promises. You may think your reputation is more important than your character, because peoples’ opinions seem more real than God’s approval. To be asleep spiritually, means that you’re stuck in an earthly dream and the reality of God’s love and care cannot break through. It means you stop praying and reading the Word personally. You don’t have an inner relationship with God, you just go through the motions. He doesn’t seem real to you, because you’re asleep. 

But isn’t that why we are here today? We come to worship, because the Spirit is able through Word and Sacrament to make Jesus become more real to us. This is why we come to worship. This is why we confess our sins. This is why we listen to God’s Word. This is why we pray together, why we wrestle with hard truths, why we sing praises to God. Because we are coming back to our senses. We wake up from the dream of our earthly lives and see the reality of forgiveness and salvation in Christ. We wake up! We realize that no matter what this world throws at us, our Jesus is real and his love and control are more real than our problems and fears. 

I know that there are a lot of people who need to hear this today. Because we all get tired spiritually. We are all somewhere on the spectrum. Maybe you have been struggling to stay awake. People on the outside know you’re a Chrisitan, but you know on the inside there’s a deadness, a stagnation, a lack of spiritual reality. Maybe you even feel like you are a member of the living dead and you are afraid for your soul. My friends, hear the good news of the Gospel: St. Paul writes, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” It is pure grace, God’s undeserved and unconditional love, that brings us to life spiritually. Remember how I asked at the beginning for you to think about your reputation as a Christian and compare that to the actual character of your faith? Well, the truth is, that at first you might have felt guilty because they do not match up. If we are all truly honest we understand the corrupted mentality and shortcomings which plauge our hearts. But the Gospel says, that when God looks at you, in Jesus, he says, “This person is the perfect child of God. They are worthy! They are righteous all the way through.” That’s the Gospel! Jesus has made us alive and has clothed us with righteousness. Your hope of heaven does not waver on your hearts’ shifting sincerity from one moment to another. It rests on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. Corporately and personally, let us look to him. Remember what you have received; hold on to this Gospel. Let us continually repent and turn back to our God of Grace. And through Word and Sacrament he will wake us up again and again to reality of our sure salvation in Jesus Christ. This is his promise for you, ironically about your reputation, and the final words of our text: The one who is victorious in this way will be clothed in white clothing. I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Amen.