The Big Reveal:The In’s and Outs of the Life of Christ

 June 28 2026

Revelation 3:1-7, 10:8-10

         Well, we have at last come to one of my favorite times of the year, that time when the black raspberries and blackberries are at last in season. As a kid, I wasn’t very happy to find out that our whole family had to go out and pick berries on some hot evening. Perhaps it was just that I didn’t like having to pick enough berries to fill that gallon jug that I was given. But now that I can just find berries and eat them as I go, I love finding them as I take my dog, Mazy, for for a walk. As I have wandered out this past week, I have found that quite a few of the berry bushes I picked from last year died in the drought last fall. So I have had to widen my search to find a few more berry bushes to pick from. Now, not every berry bush I find has berries on them which is frustrating. I mean, blackberry stems and leaves are not what I’m after. In a way, these bushes which show no sign of bearing berries are about as worthless as the berry bushes which died last year. I mean, neither the ones that died nor the ones which have no berries really do me any good, do they?

         Well, in a very similar way, Jesus is a lot like I am when I go out to hunt for berries because he too desires to find those who call ourselves the church to be people who are bearing good fruit. This is what Jesus teaches us in the seventh chapter of Matthew, where he says this, “The trees that are beneficial are all those which bear good fruit. …If a tree bears rotten fruit it is not beneficial, so as a rule all trees that do not bear good fruit must be cut down and thrown into the fire.” And just so we do not think that Jesus is not just telling us how to tend fruit trees, he concludes by saying, ‘So, by your fruit, this is how you will be known.” This idea that we are people who will be known by the fruit which our lives produces, this is an important idea to hold on to as we come to one of the most disturbing reviews that Jesus gives to one of the seven churches he addresses in the book of Revelation. 

Today, we come to the review Jesus gives to the church at Sardis and it is a rather blunt appraisal by Jesus who is the one who possesses the seven Spirits of God, the very one who holds the seven stars in his hand. If we turn back to the first chapter, we find that these seven Spirits and seven stars are the eyes and ears watching the seven churches. So in this description of Jesus we are to know that whatever is going on at this church at Sardis, Jesus knows about it, it is not hidden from him. It is no surprise then that the first words of Jesus are that he is well aware of what is going on in this church at Sardis for he knows of their works. Secondly, we hear that Jesus knows of their of their belief that they are alive but the reality is that they are in fact dead. What Jesus is implying here is that he knows that the works this church are producing are not works which he has judged to be good. Therefore, as he has taught them in his core teachings, since they have not produced good fruit, they are as good as dead. The only conclusion that Jesus can make is that they are nothing but a barren tree, in need of being cut down and thrown in the fire, ouch!

You see, only as we become aware of the fruit we produce can we then return to bearing the fruit that Jesus desires us to produce. As Jesus continues to address this problem found at the church at Sardis, we begin to understand the reason why they have not produced good fruit. Jesus calls them back to life by telling them to once again be steadfast, to stand firm in their faith. This is the very same need that was found in he church being addressed in the book of Hebrews, where the writer of that letter tells his church at the end of the tenth chapter, ‘You have need of endurance so that after doing the will of God you might receive what is promised. For in just a little while, the one who is coming will arrive, he will not be delayed. But as scripture tells us, “My righteous people will live by faithfulness”.  So if we shrink back and waver in our faith then the soul of God will find no pleasure in us.” Those who shrink back and waver in their faith are hardly steadfast as Jesus expects. The cause of this unsteadiness in their faith, is found earlier in this same tenth chapter of Hebrews. The writer tells us that this church had gone through, “….a terrible struggle with much suffering. They had been made a public spectacle, being insulted and persecuted. They had also joined others who were enduring a similar fate. They had sympathized with those who had been imprisoned and with joy they even allowed others to confiscate their personal belongings since they knew that they had a better and abiding possession.” So it becomes clear that the reason why their faith had began to waver is that they have had to endure extreme hardship on account of their faith. 

Now it should come as no surprise though, that the church in the book of Hebrews suffered as they did because this is exactly what John explains will happen as we hear in the tenth chapter of this letter of Revelation.There we find that John hears a voice from heaven which says to him, “Go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and the land”. So John goes to the angel and he tells the angel to give him the,“little”, scroll. Now this mention of a little scroll is an important clue to help us figure out just what is happening in this scenario. This same word for little is found there in the seventh chapter of Matthew, where Jesus speaks about the narrow road. Jesus tells us, ‘How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life and little is the number of those who find it.” So the scroll is little because what is written on it are the small number of people who are walking on the narrow way.

What John also expects us to know is that this scroll is the book of life which is described at the beginning of the twelfth chapter of the book of Daniel. There we are told that, “…there will come a time of suffering and in that time the people of God will be delivered, every one who is written in the book, or scroll. Many of these who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake,  these in the book to everlasting life and others will awake to reproach and everlasting contempt.….’. So when John is handed the little scroll, he is being given the book which has the names of those going on to everlasting life. Now when the angel tells John to eat the scroll, what he is telling John is that the certainty of his eternity is to be for him a very sweet hope. Yet, as this scroll hits his stomach he finds that knowing that his name is in the book of life is, at the same time, a bitter experience. This bitter experience is the suffering that must be endured by those who live by the wisdom of the cross instead of living by the wisdom of this world.

Paul writes much about the sweetness and the bitterness found when we live by the wisdom of the cross. In the fourth chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, he praises God , because God has flooded our hearts the light of the glorious knowledge of God that is found when we live before the face of Jesus Christ. Paul goes on to say that this knowledge of God found by living before the face of Christ is a treasure which is found in the clay pots of our earthly existence. The reason why God has put his power within such fragile beings is so that it might be seen that the surpassing power witnessed in our life comes from God and not from us. Paul speaks of how this power is witnessed by the world. He writes,  “We are under pressure in all we do, but we are not crushed; we are in doubt and perplexity but we are not driven to despair; yes, we are persecuted, but God has not abandoned us; we are indeed thrown down but look, we are not destroyed. At all times we carry within our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be brought seen living in us. We who live are constantly handed over to death… so that the life of Jesus living in us might be brought to light in our mortal flesh.” What Paul describes here is what we might call, the in’s and outs of the life of Jesus. The true power that we receive from the life of Jesus living in us can only be displayed outwardly when we are willing to suffer for his sake. In other words, the goodness of the life that is ours when we live before the face of God is most clearly seen when the world is at its worst. Yet it is precisely when the world is at its worst that we are tempted to waver in our faith. This is what is known as the crisis of faith. When we are tempted to withdraw from this suffering we call into question the power of Christ that we say our faith is founded on. As John demonstrated for us, yes, it is sweet to know we have our names written in the book of life because of our faith in Jesus. But because of that same faith, we will be called to endure the bitterness of persecution at the hands of the world.

So the church at Sardis is found to be just like the church written about in the letter to the Hebrews. The church at Sardis has pulled back from living a life which demonstrated that the the power of Christ lived in them. They no longer were found faithfully living by the wisdom of the cross. When they withdrew from living by the wisdom of the cross then they withdrew from the very life of Jesus. A refusal to witness to the death of Jesus on the outside of their life meant that inwardly the life of Christ no longer lived within them. As Jesus teaches us at the beginning of the fifteenth chapter of John’s gospel, “Just as the branch is unable to bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you bear fruit unless you remain with me.” Jesus goes on to explain telling us, “The one who remains with me, the one I am found to be living within, these are the ones who bear much fruit. If you are separated from me you, your power will produce nothing. If anyone does not remain with me then they are like a cut off branch which is thrown away because it has dried up. These dry branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned.” When we hear this harsh warning from Jesus we can now understand why Jesus tells the church at Sardis that even though they were known to be a living church they were nonetheless, quite dead. When they had experienced suffering on account of their faith in Jesus they did not remain with Jesus. So like a branch which had been cut off from the vine, they had become withered and without life. Jesus could say that their works were not complete for while they professed to have the life of Christ inside of them, they had refused to demonstrate the death of Christ in their witness to the world. So the world did not witness in them the true power that is ours when Christ is alive and well within us. This power can only be known when in that moment when we face the crisis of faith, we stand fast, willing to suffer for Christ instead of withdrawing to safety. The problem, as Jesus tells the church at Sardis is that they needed to once more become steadfast, unmovable in their faithful living according to the wisdom of the cross.

Jesus also tells the church at Sardis that they were in need of doing three actions. They were to remember what they had received, to recall what they had heard and above all repent. What the church was to remember is found In the fifteenth chapter of the first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Paul tells us that what we have received as followers of Jesus is the gospel message. This message is this: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and then he appeared to Peter and to the twelve.” So we are to remember the one we follow, the one who was willing to suffer and die for our sins, this is the one who three days later was raised to life. If we say that we follow Christ, then the pattern of his life must become the pattern for our life. As he was willing to suffer at the hands of others in order to condemn the sin that lives in the desires of our flesh, so too we must be willing to suffer at the hands of the people of this world. In doing so, we will be an example to all of how the vulnerable and weak of this world suffer when they are crushed by those who live by the desires of their flesh. This is what the life of Christ calls us to do, to be be a witness to the suffering and agony that the world brings to bear on the innocent people of this world. And we must also demonstrate the power of forgiveness for those who bring such cruelty against us, so that our good might overcome their evil. In this way then, we follow Christ who gave his life for us at the cross. When we live like this then the gospel message can be said to be living within us. 

So by living a life that conforms to the life and death of Christ, we are living proof that not only have we received the gospel message, but that we also have chosen to obey what we have received. This is the way that we turn from living in fear of the world and the suffering we might receive at the hands of this world and turn to place our life in the hands of our living Savior. Repentance is more than mere admitting that we are living opposed to the way of Christ. No, repentance must be that we actually begin again to follow Christ on the narrow road. We must not forget that Jesus tells us right from the beginning of this journey, that this narrow way is the way of the cross, the way of suffering that leads to life.

Now when we rightly understand the difficult journey we face when we decide to walk on this narrow way, it should come as no surprise that we will need others who will walk with us so that we might bear each others burdens. I believe that Jesus understands this need because he does mention in his review of the church at Sardis that there are a few members of this church who have not defiled themselves. These are the ones Jesus tells us that do walk with him, those he can judge as being worthy to do so. What is interesting is that he does not tell these faithful few that they should separate themselves from the the rest of the church that has lost their way. I believe Jesus desires that these faithful few are to heed the wisdom found in the tenth chapter of Hebrews. There the church is told to not abandon meeting together, even with those who have lost their way. The reason for this is twofold. First, those who are faithfully walking on the narrow way are to encourage those who waver in their faith because of the suffering they are called to endure. We must continually remind each other the wisdom found in the fourth chapter of the first letter of John, that greater is the one who is in us, than he that is in the world. The one who is in the world causing all of the suffering and destruction that we see is Satan. Yet, as Jesus teaches us in the twelfth chapter of John, Satan has been defeated through Jesus bearing his cross for us. Secondly, in the tenth chapter of Hebrews these faithful few are also to consider how they can spur others to get busy bearing fruit. When the temptation arises to retreat, the faithful few are to incite others to advance the cause of Christ through the sharing of God’s unlimited love and the doing of the good we know to do. We must never forget that our faith is dead if we do not back it up with the bearing of good fruit, the good which overcomes the evil of this world. To God be the glory! Amen!