Time to Wake Up

Monday, September 4, 2023

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis.  This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Revelation 3:1 

In Great Britain, each year since 1974, an average of 85 churches closes their doors for the last time; they go out of business.  As a result, there is an abundance of church furnishings being sold to commercial enterprises.  Christening fonts are sold as bird baths.  Pews and screens are used as restaurant decorations, and stained-glass windows are now household ornaments. 

We shake our heads at 85 British churches closing; and then stare in amazement when we are told that more than double that number are closing each year in America.  We should not be surprised.  Nearly 90% of America's churches are either plateaued or declining in membership.  You cannot decline without somehow decaying, and, eventually deceasing!  Some would suggest that the Christian Church is dying for the lack of Christian living. 

Our text tells us that Christianity in the church and the individual Christian can die.  The programs and services can be staffed and performed, but without life.  The blower in the furnace is on, but the fire has long since been extinguished!  Someone has said that if the Holy Spirit left most churches today, she wouldn't be missed.  Let's look at a church that had that very problem.

A reputation for being alive suggests vitality and authority.  Sardis was built on the top of a  90^o cliff that was totally inaccessible from three sides.  There was only one gateway into the city; the residents felt safe.  They were prosperous, and lived in an impregnable fortress.  However, the city was conquered and destroyed twice in its history.  In BC 549 the Medes under Cyrus came right through the front gate while the guards slept.  The same thing happened in BC 218.  Antiochus the Great caught the guards napping, and waltzed right in the front door.  This ancient city had a reputation for being impregnable to military conquest, but it went to sleep, and the fall was great.  In the same way, Jesus speaks to the fellowship of Christians at Sardis – a group without financial hardship, or persecution – a church of successful people, and he says:  "Your reputation is that of being strong, impregnable -- you are badly mistaken!"

Jesus then cautions them to wake up:

Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. 3 Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.  Revelation 3:2-3

If you have ever pulled guard duty in the Army, you know it requires considerable effort to keep the eyelids in function-mode for four long hours.  There's just something about someone saying, "Stay awake!" that just makes you want to immediately go to sleep.

The sense of these verses is that ministry which was ongoing and vital at Sardis had waned; it was fading fast, and would soon die altogether.  Jesus warns them to shake-out of the lethargy and turn around. 

For You Today 

The message of Jesus to Sardis rings as strongly today as it ever has in history. 

If you had a heart on-fire for God, it’s time to rekindle it; blow on those embers before it’s too late!  If you were an evangelistic soul-winner, get busy in the neighborhood knocking on doors.  Don't let the ministry die! 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Images:  Pixabay.com        Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

It's Just a Job

[1]

Thursday, May 19, 2016

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish that you were one or the other!  Revelation 3:15^(NLT)

Frank Donoroma was a friend, and a member of the church I served in 1990.  He was part of the lay leadership and sang in the choir.  Frank lived right behind the church, and for many years served as custodian.  He was the only one I knew who didn’t get dizzy climbing straight up a special ladder we had to change light bulbs in the 40’-high sanctuary ceiling.

My friend earned a living with a hammer in his hand, so it was no surprise that when he retired he took up woodworking as a hobby.  Often from my study on the second floor of the church, I could hear him using all sorts of machines to cut wood, or shape and smooth the contours of his latest project.  He was quite good.  I still use a wooden wastebasket he made for me.

As a craftsman who used wood for medium, it was natural that when the church decided one Advent Season to offer to our community an interactive “tour of Bethlehem,” Frank would play the part of the carpenter…his character’s specialty would be, as the contract-holder with the Roman officials, to make crosses for executions. 

With church members as tour-guides, visitors were taken to homes, shops, an over-crowded inn, and even a synagogue.  The guides would ask questions of the citizens, shop keepers and officials.  Some of the dialogue took on a life of its own!

Frank’s carpenter shop on the tour was right after the nativity.  He was supposed to have one line; when the tour guide asked:  And, what are you doing, sir?  Frank would respond, Oh, I make crosses; the Romans pay good money for my work. 

The tour guide would make a face for the visitors and tell them:  Those heartless Romans use those crosses to kill our citizens of Bethlehem; I hope that little baby we saw in the manger never has to face that.  Then she would turn back to our cross-making carpenter and say:  You should be ashamed…don’t you know those heathen Roman dogs would even put the Messiah on one of those things you’re making if he were here?

At that point Frank was supposed to shrug and go back to pounding on the wooden crossbeam.  But the words rolled out of his mouth before he could stop them…

Lady, it’s just a job!

The words came out so naturally and captured the spirit of indifference so well that we kept that dialogue throughout the two nights of tours.  Hundreds of people met a man who casually made death sentence apparatus seem just a part of normal living.

In a conversation weeks after the Bethlehem Walk, Frank told me that his role as the “lukewarm cross-maker” caused him to lose a few nights’ sleep.  He said that it was one thing to play a role in a pageant, saying that phrase over and over, it’s just a job.  But it started him thinking about how he lives and if he’s anything like that carpenter he played. 

Frank said he began to look at everything he did so differently.  He wanted to make certain he didn’t crucify Christ with his attitude and what he did every day.  Playing that role made him think hard about the way he lived his life.  He said to me at one point:  Preacher, whoever that guy was who made the cross they hung Jesus on…I don’t ever want to be him.

So…it wasn’t just a job after all!

For You Today

What’s it going to be like today?  Just a job…or white-hot for Jesus?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  By Martin-loewenstein Ölbild von Żaba, Hamburg 2010, via Wikimedia Commons