A Life God Respects

 August 21 2022

Revelation 3:1-6

         Well, it won’t be long until we at last have football to watch. The big news in the sports world right now is just how are the prospective players doing during summer camp. What every rookie, and let’s face it, every veteran player, is looking for right now is respect. There’s no player out there right now who wants to be humiliated whether it’s quarterbacks throwing interceptions or corners getting torched by a wide receiver because they all know somebody somewhere has a video of their blunder. So, it goes without saying that these players know that if they want respect they have to earn it, they have to do their job and live up to the hype that surrounds them. Even so, even the best of players go through times when nothing goes their way, when they find themselves hanging their heads as they leave the field, wanting to just head to the locker room out of the sight of all who just watched them crash and burn. They know that whatever respect they used to have has quickly faded and once again they find themselves having to go back out there and find a way and prove just what they can really do. They know that what is at stake is their name, their reputation, that is what is on the line.

         So, we understand what it means for an athlete to have a reputation, to have certain expectations that are tied to their name, but what does it mean for a church to have a reputation, a name that is associated with that church? This is what we are supposed to consider as we listen in on yet another address that the living Christ gives to one of the seven churches, this time the church at Sardis. He tells the church at Sardis that they are a church which has a reputation, a church that has made a name for itself. Now, this sounds like the living Christ is giving them a compliment, and we would expect that he would do so because this is how he begins the previous addresses to the other churches however as we stand back and look at what the living Christ is actually saying what we find is that there is no compliment for the church at Sardis, only condemnation. Sure they have a reputation, a reputation of being alive but as the living Christ points out that doesn’t count for much because in all actuality they are dead. Ouch! We have to pause right here and try and figure out just what we are being told. We have to ask ourselves just who is it that has given the church at Sardis this reputation for being alive in the first place? The only answer that fits is that it is the world, this is who the church at Sardis has impressed enough that they speak quite highly of them. Yet, what the world thought about who they were didn’t really matter much when the living Christ, who knew the church at Sardis intimately, showed up and said that far from being alive they were most assuredly the walking dead. As far as Jesus was concerned they might as well hang a sign on their church saying, “Welcome to the First Church of Zombieland”.

         You see, in a very subtle way, the living Christ has in his accusation against this church at Sardis, made a very important distinction which is that there is a big difference between what the world thinks of you and what the living Christ says you really are. The question is just which one is important to you? This is a crucial decision because it is the root of the problem that the living Christ states needs to be corrected which is that he has not found their works fully completed in the eyes of God. As we read this it is assumed that we know just what these works are that the church at Sardis was supposed to be doing, works apparently they didn’t get around to finishing. There is much speculation just what these works might be however when we find that the blessings found in the sixth chapter of Luke have helped explain what was happening in the previous churches it seems to make sense that those blessings will shed some light on what is being discussed here. In the sixth chapter of Luke, Jesus selects his disciples and the first instructions he gave them were this: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” I think, in our modern understanding, that we tend to see these as perhaps some nice sayings of Jesus but I believe that these are actually his core teachings. As a disciple, a follower of Jesus, these four statements are the essence of what we are to do in order to be under the blessing of God, to know that as these are our life then we are most assuredly in the presence of God. When we know this about this teaching of Jesus, I think we must understand the tie in that John gives at the beginning of the book of Revelation, where he writes at the beginning of the first chapter, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it…” This is why I believe that what the living Christ is speaking about in his addresses to the seven churches are how two of these churches are blessed and how five of these churches, through their actions, have forfeited the life of blessing promised to them by Jesus.

         The church at Sardis then, has failed to complete these works, these actions which must be done in order to be under the blessing of God. This means that, yes, they have embraced the life of giving of their abundance to those in need, not seeking to store their treasures up on earth. The church at Sardis have fed the hungry and clothed the naked and shown mercy, in the here and now just as it will be at the return of Jesus. They had suffered with the suffering people showing mercy as God had shown them mercy. So far, they had received a passing grade. But there was this bit at the end, that part about people hating you, people excluding you, people reviling you, you know, that part, this is what the church at Sardis has just somehow never got around to doing, their work left uncompleted. This is most painfully obvious in what Jesus teaches about what the world will do with the name, the reputation of those found to be associated with him, the Son of Man. Jesus teaches that they will reject  this person’s name, cast it away as being evil, thought of as being nothing more than a curse. How very different than having a name or a reputation of being what life is all about as the church as Sardis had a reputation for being.  When we compare what Jesus taught in the sixth chapter of Luke with what the living Christ has to say to the church at Sardis it becomes very clear that the influence of the world had affected just how far the church at Sardis was willing to go in their association with the living Christ. I believe that this is also alluded to in the description of the one speaking to the church at Sardis, that this is the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. These descriptions point us back to what was written in the first chapter where we are told that the seven spirits are before the throne of the one who is and who was and who is to come. The seven stars we are told are the angels of the seven churches. So, through these descriptions we get an image of being in the heavenly court, before the throne of Almighty God and his heavenly host. In the context of the rest of the letter, it seems that this description is pointing us to a teaching of Jesus found in the ninth chapter of Luke where he tells us, “For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” When I read this I can’t help but smile what pops up on social media from time to time, where there is a picture of Jesus and the words stating that the person who posted it is not ashamed of Jesus and that if the person who sees this posting is not ashamed of him they too should post this picture.  I smile because when Jesus teaches us to not be ashamed of him, he also says that we are to not be ashamed of what he teaches as well. In other words, we can post a million times that we are not ashamed of Jesus but what about living out what Jesus tells us to do? Will you be ashamed to live like Jesus, this is really what is at stake? You see, the context of this teaching of Jesus is his teaching that as his followers we are to deny ourselves, to say, “No”, to our needs, even our need to be respected by the world, and take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of Jesus will save it.” Is it becoming clearer why Jesus told the church at Sardis that instead of being alive as they had a reputation for being, they were in fact dead because what the world respects is self-preservation. Let’s face it, crosses are humiliating, opening yourself to hurt, pain and rejection in order to show mercy and love to people who quite rightly don’t deserve it, do you actually expect people to respect you when you do that? This then is what Jesus is getting at, this notion that we are willing to be humiliated and disrespected by the world if this is what is ours on account of making our life look like the life of Jesus.

         Yet, even if the world shows us no respect as those who are obedient to the words of Jesus, what we need to know is that there is one who is far greater than any in the world who does respect us when we follow Jesus. Listen to what Jesus tells us in the twelfth chapter of John where Jesus again tells us, “Whoever loves his life in this world will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor, he will respect, my servant.”  So, what life comes down to is just whose respect is most important to you? This is so crucial to understand when we begin to experience being hated, and excluded and reviled because we have made a choice to hang out with Jesus.  This is made abundantly clear at the end of the twelfth chapter of John where we are told that many of the Jewish authorities believed in Jesus, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess their belief, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. You see, they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. This is the choice that is ever before us, whether the respect we are given by God is worth more to us than the respect we have in the eyes of the world. If we long for the respect of the world then no doubt we will end up unable to complete the works Jesus calls us to fulfill just as what happened at the church at Sardis. Ultimately, as we face the question of whose respect is worth more to us, the respect of God or the respect of the world, what is at stake is nothing less than our very lives. This is why the living Christ urgently tells the church at Sardis to, “Wake up!”. What he means by saying this is as Paul teaches us in the thirteenth chapter of Romans, we need to wake up because “the night is far gone and the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness…” In other words, the church at Sardis needed to stop acting as if the coming of Jesus, with his dying on the cross, his being raised from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of the Father had not brought about a new age that is not only coming but is very much already here. If this new age has arrived then now is the time to leave the old age, the night behind and begin to live in the dawn of the age to come. The living Christ urges the church to be steadfast in their resolve to live as people of the light in what remains of the old age otherwise all that will be theirs is death.

         When we understand the critical nature of the decision all of us must make, to seek the respect of the world or to find our satisfaction in the respect and honor of our Heavenly Father, then it becomes clear why the living Christ doesn’t just give a simple command for the church at Sardis to repent. No, the living Christ tells them to first remember what they had received, the gospel of Jesus Christ that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures and that in accordance with those same scriptures he was raised on the third day. This is how Jesus Christ has set us free from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priests to God. So, we are to remember not only what Christ has done for us but also we are to remember how what Christ has done has transformed our very nature so that no longer are we enslaved to sin but we are set free to be the royal intercessors of God. The church at Sardis had not only received the gospel but they heard the very word of God, the teachings of Jesus, the necessary training for those who now serve as priests to God. Now, in remembrance of what they had received and heard, now was the time for the church at Sardis to obey, to change their mind concerning their craving for the world’s respect and begin anew to seek the life of serving God, a life that God respects and honors. 

         What should make us stop for a moment is that unlike the calls for repentance in the other addresses to the previous churches, this time the call for repentance is followed up by a warning that if they did not wake up, Jesus promises the church at Sardis that he would come like a thief and they would not know the hour that the living Christ would come against them. Here we hear echos of a teaching of Jesus found in the twelfth chapter of Luke where Jesus told his disciples that they were to “stay dressed for action and to keep their lamps burning and be like men waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door for him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are the servants the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he  will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them.But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.” Here Jesus makes it perfectly clear that we are to stay awake and be ready, to live knowing that the night is far gone and the day is at hand. To be awake is to live in this light of day, to no longer give heed to the opinions of a world which is passing away as we speak but to live life before the throne of God and the heavenly angels seeking his respect alone.

         Fortunately, there were a number of people at Sardis who in the words of Jesus had not soiled their garments, these are the ones who walk with Jesus in white garments for they are worthy. Here again, there is a lot of speculation about what is meant when we are told that some in the church at Sardis have muddied up their clothes. The best explanation is that their robes have gotten dirty because these are people who have not gathered their robes up and tucked them in their belt. They had not prepared themselves for work so that now their robes dragged along the ground getting dirty. You see, the point is that when they concerned themselves so much with how they might earn the respect of the world they lost their focus that what they were supposed to be doing is actively serving God. The word, “dressed” used here in this address to the church at Sardis means that their robes were pulled up, tucked in ready for them to get to work. The white robe mentioned here is the white robe worn by priests. As Jesus continues his teaching in the twelfth chapter of Luke,  the one who is the faithful and wise manager that the master will set over his household is the one who gives those in the house their portion of food. In other words, this is the one who the master who finds serving others when he arrives. This is the one who will be honored by the master.

         You see the world may very well hate us, exclude us and revile us on account that we serve the Son of Man. The world may even throw out our name as being evil but the name that the world disrespects is the same name that God most assuredly does respect. When we seek only the honor and respect of God then be assured that our name is written down in the book of life with permanent ink. We can know that our names will be talked about in the heavenly courts, before the angels and our Heavenly Father who loves us. May this knowledge bless our service of God! Amen!