Wake Up!
1. What Is Your Name?
What is your name? There is more to a name than mere identification. When we know someone, we know more than just his name. A name carries and conveys a person’s character and reputation, what they are known for. Someone can have a good or a bad name, a good or bad reputation.
Jesus Christ has sovereign control over his church through the Spirit of God and the angels of the churches. As Sovereign Lord, He confronts the church in Sardis, you have the name, the reputation of being alive but you are dead. Once this church had a reputation for being alive for Christ but their present deeds show a different picture. They are dead and dying.
Their main problem is not false teachings or persecution but wholesale assimilation to the surrounding culture. They got along with their society and these comfortable conditions led to complacency. They have fallen asleep. They rely on their past reputation to pull them through. They compromised so much that they look like and lived like everyone else. Satan did not have to pressure them with persecution or temptation. They are already dead. They are no longer offensive because they are no longer witnessing to the one and only Lord, Jesus Christ. Don’t rock the boat. Keep the peace. And so, they stopped being the salt and light of the world. In the eyes of others, they may have the name, Alive, but in the eyes of Christ, they are dead.
What is our name? What will Jesus say about our name? Are we dead or alive? Are we Christian in name only? Are we nominal Christians who have so much compromised our beliefs and practices by accommodating to the ways of the culture that we have virtually ceased to be Christian? Or, are we worthy of having the name, Christian? Are we faithfully living out the radically different, counter-cultural kingdom life, witnessing in word and in deed to our Lord Jesus Christ no matter the circumstances and no matter what price we have to pay for Him?
2. Wake Up & Repent!
This letter speaks to a dead church. They have become so complacent and comfortable with the world that they are spiritually asleep and dying. He calls them to wake up and repent. Jesus gives five commands to shock them back to life.
Wake up or a better translation, be watchful! He calls a sleeping church to wake up. If they don’t wake up and remain awake, they will be taken by surprise. They must wake up and remain watchful, and maintain spiritual vigilance to be ready for the Lord’s return.
Strengthen what remains. All is not lost. Most of the church is dead but there is a small remnant of faithful with some life. However, even this small part is on the verge of dying. So they must wake up and act fast. Those on the verge of spiritual death must be strengthened, supported, and helped to stand strong. It is so easy to lose focus and forget what is important. The struggles of daily living and surviving in this world are right in our faces. And so we put off dealing with the essential and life-giving matters of God’s kingdom. There is time for that later. But Jesus tells us, to wake up; there is no time.
Why should they wake up and strengthen what remains? They are dead and asleep because their works are incomplete before God. Jesus investigated their works and found them wanting. Their deeds may seem acceptable to the surrounding society, but not in the eyes of God. Their Christian life and their proclamation of the gospel are not meeting God’s standards. Their works are incomplete because they stopped witnessing. The Christian faith is all or nothing. Jesus is our Lord and asks for our absolute allegiance. It simply won’t do to bumble on, looking busy but achieving little or nothing. It simply won’t do to be Christian in name only. If Christian is our name, we must be Christian, followers of Jesus, in word and in deed in all areas of our lives.
3. Stay Awake
Jesus’ next three commands tell us how to wake up and how to stay awake, how to remain spiritually watchful — remember, keep, and repent.
Remember what you have received and heard — This is the truth of the gospel and the Christian faith taught by Jesus, passed on through his apostles, and taught by the church. It is the Bible, the Word of God. It is Jesus Christ himself, the living Word. We heard it but we do not just listen. We believe and act on this teaching.
Therefore, we keep it. We obey and put it into practice. It is not sufficient to merely know the right theology and teachings. It is not enough to claim the name, Christian. We must also do the right things. We must live out everything which the name Christian entails. To stay awake we must persevere in obedience to our Lord, his teachings, and his Word.
Repent — This sums up all the other commands. In order to wake up, remember, obey, and strengthen one another the church must repent. They must change their downward spiral and get right with God. When we are asleep or dying, when we have strayed from the Lord’s way, the only way we can wake up is to repent. We must change course and turn back to our Lord.
If we don’t wake up and stay awake, Jesus will come like a thief and we will never know when He is coming against us. Jesus’ words had special meaning for Sardis. The main city center was built and fortified on top of a hill with 1,500 feet of cliffs on three sides and only one steep approach on the south side. They thought they were safe and impregnable. Their attention was focused on only one side. The watchmen were not alert on the other sides. The attackers climbed the cliffs, entered the city, and opened the gates. This happened twice in their history — in 546 BC, Persian king Cyrus and again in 214 BC, Antiochus III. If the church does not wake up, if it fails to maintain watchfulness, the same fate will happen to them. A “thief,” the Lord, will come and destroy them.
These words reflect Jesus’ teachings — “But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Mt 24:43-44). And then Revelation 16:15 — “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
Waking up and staying awake is the only way revival will come to a dying and sleeping church. It is also the only way to be ready for Jesus all the time. If not, we will fall asleep, and in our slumber, we become negligent and complacent. Temptations will overcome us. We begin to compromise and accommodate to the world, and gradually we become like the world. And like Sardis we may think we are alive and well while we are actually asleep, dying, or already dead.
This coming of Jesus refers not only to his return and the final judgment but also to his comings to his church in history to judge, restore, and encourage. Throughout church history, many churches have experienced the coming and judgment of Jesus in this life. Churches died torn apart by conflict and disunity. They died because they tolerated sin and compromised with the world. Jesus removed their lampstands. This letter speaks to us, the church in North America — the church that was known as and had the name, Alive but now seems to be dying and among some already has the name, Dead.
4. So, What Is Our Name?
And this brings us back to the question, what is our name? Alive? Christian? By what name and reputation does Christ know us? We must wake up and stay awake to ensure that Jesus says to us the same words He said to the faithful remnant in Sardis. You have a few names among you, the righteous few, who have not soiled their clothes. They have resisted moral and spiritual compromise. They have stayed awake, and remained focused on Jesus.
They will walk with Jesus in white because they are worthy. They are worthy because their deeds are complete. They remained pure, loyal to Christ, persevered in faithful witness, and refused to be polluted by the idols and immorality of the surrounding culture. In those days, people wore white robes when they walked in the victory processions. The faithful will walk with Christ in the triumphal procession of his final victory in the end.
When we overcome, when we remain awake in a constant state of spiritual vigilance, we will be dressed in white. White also signifies purity, righteousness, holiness, glory, and celebration. “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14). Our bleaching, our cleansing agent is the powerful blood of the Lamb, and our pure, clean garments represent our uncompromising discipleship. The sins of this world may rub off on us and soil our clothes but when we are awake, we will repent immediately, and wash our clothes, our souls, in the blood of Christ so that they remain white.
When we stay awake and overcome our names will be in the book of life and Jesus will verify it before the Father. “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). The “book of life” is the register of all true believers, those who have been granted kingdom citizenship (Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; cf. Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Heb. 12:23). Jesus promises the faithful believers that he will never erase their names out of the kingdom’s register. He secures our eternal citizenship in his kingdom.
So, what is our name? Those who claim the name, Christian, but continue to compromise their witness will be exposed as having no true Christian name to recognize on the final day of judgment. But those who remain faithful to their name, who have demonstrated that they have authentic Christian names, the name of Christ, their names will be erased in the book of life. This is a warning against nominal Christians who think that belonging to the church and claiming the name of Christian are all that is required. It is not enough to just say I believe. Faith that does not translate into changed lives and kingdom living is not true, authentic faith. We are required to give up our old lives and live the new life in Christ.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). . However, in today’s relativistic culture, like in Sardis, it’s easy to stop witnessing to Jesus Christ as the only true Lord and Savior of the world. We do so in order to get along with and be acceptable to the world. When we do so we kill the power of the gospel. Jesus did not come to collaborate with the religious, ideological, or political systems of this world. He came to conquer them all to save and rescue lives out of them to himself and to eternal life. Jesus is different, distinct, and unique. He is the only way, and His way is right and all others are wrong. They may seem to be doing well now. They may seem to be winning, but in the end, Jesus wins.
The world may call us all kinds of names. The world may write us off as Jesus freaks. But Jesus ensures us that He will never write us off. He will not erase our names. To have him acknowledge us before the Father and the angels will be the moment of all moments. So, fellow Christians, name-bearers of Jesus Christ, let’s wake up before it’s too late. And let us stay awake because our Lord is coming soon. Come, Lord Jesus.