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WEEKLY
Volume 2 Number 5
1 July 2007
Be Watchful
(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, June 24, 2007)
Text:
Rev 3:1-6
What does it mean to be a living church? Many believers are deceived by their feelings, saying “We go to that church because it is full of life! It is exciting and interesting. The church is always crowded. The preaching and singing are powerful. There are many sign gifts and various church activities! We feel good, happy and edified!” Oh, no! It is a charismatic church! It is full of life and energy but not from the Holy Spirit, it is from the flesh!
A living church must have spiritually living members in Christ according to God’s Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If the Lord Jesus is not the centre of the worship, there will be no life, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). If God’s Word is not preached with faith and submission, there will be no life, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me” (Ps 119:50). If the worshippers do not humbly trust in the Holy Spirit to worship according to God’s will and God’s way, but trust in their ability, strength and plans, there will be no life, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Knowing this truth, we shall “have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil 3:3), but humbly trust in the Lord Jesus, His Word and the Holy Spirit, without whom, our worship, singing, praying and preaching are dead!
Our Lord Jesus rebuked the church in Sardis because she only had a name, a reputation in the past while she is now dead! The Bible says, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof” (Eccl 7:8). May the Lord keep you and me alive in Him until the end.
Jesus’ Words to the Church in Sardis
Recipient: to the messenger of the church in Sardis.
Sardis was an important city in the Roman province of Asia. It was once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. It was a cultural, religious, and commercial center. Sardis was situated on the east bank of the Pactolus River about 80 kilometers east of Smyrna.
In the sixth century B. C. the Lydians controlled most of the coast of Asia Minor and the islands offshore. Its wealth and prosperity, especially under the emperor Croesus, became a byword for wealth. That was her golden age! However, the end of a thing is better than the beginning thereof. Later it was dominated by the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans of the ancient world. An earthquake destroyed it in the reign of Tiberius in A.D. 17, but it was rebuilt.
The church in Sardis was founded upon the ministry of the apostle Paul to his disciples at the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus for two years. In Roman times, Sardis became an important Christian center. However, the church at Sardis was evidently affected by the complacency of the city and its reliance on past glory, “that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Rev. 3:1), as the people there were proud of their once golden age under the name of the emperor Croesus.
Extensive excavations in recent years have identified many Roman public buildings, a big amphitheater, an impressive temple of Artemis, a gymnasium, and a big late-Jewish synagogue, suggesting that it became an important center for the Jewish Diaspora. The art of dyeing wool was discovered here. There are still considerable remains of the ancient city at Sert-Kalessi.
Author: To a dead church, our Lord Jesus manifests Himself as “he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars” (v 1).
Number seven is the number of perfection. The truth that our Lord Jesus has the seven Spirits of God does not mean He has seven different Spirits, but one Holy Spirit with His perfect fullness. The Bible says, “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him (Jesus), the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD” (Isa 11:2). Here we see one Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of the LORD, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge, and the Spirit of the fear of the LORD, and who rests upon the Lord Jesus Christ with His perfect fullness. The Bible confirms, “For he (Jesus) whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him” (John 3:34).
The seven stars refer to the seven messengers or the seven servants of the Lord ( Rev 1:20). Then our Lord Jesus Christ has the perfect fullness of the Holy Spirit, the source of spiritual life to the dead church, and His servants, who belong to Him, are sent to convey His message to their churches. May the Lord help you and me realize that we must be always attached to the Lord, our spiritual Life, as the branch to the Vine all the time with our full trust, dependence and submission as well as help us faithfully convey His exact message from the Bible to His churches.
Jesus’ Words of Rebuke
Our Lord has no words of praise to the church in Sardis, except to a few names who have not defiled their garments (v 4). To the rest, our Lord rebuked them, “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (v 1) and “for I have not found thy works perfect before God” (v 2). How about you and me? Do we have only a name that we are spiritually living and faithful while we are dead and unfaithful? Do we sing to the Lord with our lips while our hearts are far from Him? Is our worship only a routine or ritual? Our Lord says, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt 15:8-9). And if we have not done our best to the Lord with our love and our heart and zeal, our works are not perfect or complete before Him.
Jesus’ Words of Warning
Our Lord warned the dead church in Sardis with five commandments: (1) Be watchful; (2) Strengthen the things which remain; (3) Remember how thou hast received and heard; (4) Hold fast; and (5) Repent.
Be Watchful: Here our Lord does not mean our physical alert, as He asked His disciples to watch and pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:40-41), but it is our spiritual alert. We have to arise from our sleepy spirit and be spiritually alert:
(a) to make sure that our works are perfect before the Lord (Rev 3:2);
(b) to pray and stand firm in temptations, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41);
(c) to be sober and be vigilant to defend ourselves from our spiritual foes, either false prophets and wrong doctrines (Acts 20:29-31) or our “adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”
(1 Peter 5:8); and
(d) to be ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching… Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:37, 40).
This command is in the present tense, denoting a continuous action, “Keep on becoming watchful.” Then are you and I watchful now? When we are working in the sight of our boss, we cannot be sleepy. When we are informed that tonight a thief will break into our house, we cannot be sleepy. When we see a lion walking around us, we cannot be sleepy. Are our works perfect before the Lord? Is our spiritual life alert to the snares and attacks from Satan? Are we always ready for our Lord’s return? What happen if we fail to do this? “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee” (v 3).
Strengthen the Things Which Remain that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. The Lord commands us to strengthen, establish, and confirm what remains in our spiritual life that is about to die: our faith in Him and His Word, our zeal and love for Him and His Word, and our service to Him.
Remember How Thou Hast Received and Heard: This refers to the Word of God. This command is in the present tense, denoting “Keep on remembering, keeping in mind, thinking of.” We have received and heard His Word, but do we still remember it and keep on thinking of it?
Hold Fast: This command is also in the present tense, denoting “Keep on holding
fast, observing, obeying” God’s Word. It is sad that many do not honour God’s Word, treasure it, obey it, live by it and submit to it. Are you and I holding God’s Word fast now?
Repent: if we only have a name without our reality, if our works are not perfect before the Lord, if we are not watchful, and if we do not remember God’s Word and hold it fast, then we have to come back to the Lord in repentance.
Rewards for Those Who Overcome
Our Lord says, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels” (v 5). To the believers in Sardis who rested in their empty “name” without reality, our Lord reminds them of the far much more important name that they should aim for: The name that is written in the book of life and will be confessed before God the Father and before the angels! How great is the honour, privilege and blessing! Furthermore, it is a great honour to “be clothed in white raiment” (v 5) and “walk with” the Lord of lords and King of kings in white (v 4). Shall we not watchfully live for the Lord and His Word and overcome Satan and our self-complacency and say like Paul, “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14)?
Conclusion
My friends, our Lord is still speaking to all the churches and to each one of us today. To be blessed, we must keep on becoming watchful to make sure our lives and service are perfect before the Lord, to pray and stand firm in temptations, to guard ourselves against wrong doctrines and Satan’s attacks and to be always ready for our Lord’s coming. May the Lord help us keep His Word and overcome Satan so that our names in the book of life will be confessed before the Father and angels and that we shall walk with our Lord in white. “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments” ( Rev 16:15).
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