January 12 - Revelation. Sardis (pt. 2)

January 12 – Revelation. Sardis (pt. 2)
Revelation 3:1-6

“Wake Up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” (Revelation 3:2-3)

Sometimes it just seems to be an impossible task to revive ourselves when we face those feelings of exhaustion, failure, frustration … death in our spirit.

My father told a story of a friend of ours who called him late in the night from a beach in Florida. He was ready to walk into the ocean and end his life. Dad asked him to write down ten things he was thankful for before doing anything else. The friend called back to tell him he had done the exercise and walked away from the beach. He did it again the next day and each day following. He became a new man. He came home to his family, entered into the life of the church like never before and became a spiritual pillar for that church.

What can God do with you when you re-awaken the joy inside?

I want to point out again that Jesus continues to use word pictures. In two separate incidents in the history of Sardis, the conquerors found the kinks and cracks in a seemingly impossible wall, they snuck into the city and overthrew it – all under the cover of darkness.

Jesus tells this church that He would come like a thief (Rev. 3:3). This was a phrase He had used before. In Matthew 24:43-44, Jesus tells us that we must be ready after saying that if the owner of the house had known when the thief was coming, he would have kept watch. It is our responsibility to be ready!

The remnant in Sardis is promised a chnce to walk with Jesus, dressed in white. The overcomer also has this promise.

They also have the promise that their name will never be erased from the Book of Life.

In Exodus 32:31-33, Moses pleads with God to forgive the people of Israel, but if He can’t then please blot Moses’ name from the book God has written. God’s response is, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.” Instead of doing this, though, God sent a plague to the people because they had built the golden calf.

Daniel tells us that everyone whose name is found written in the book will be delivered (Daniel 12:1).

One of the assurances that we have is knowing our names are in the Book of Life. It is not a difficult or arduous task. All we have to do is acknowledge that we are sinners, that we need Jesus to pay the enormous penalty for our sins and that we trust in Him alone to bring us into relationship with God. We can’t do it on our own.

That’s all. It seems so impossible, though to give up ourselves and allow the Messiah to be that bridge between us and God. We think we can do it on our own. It’s not anything we can achieve. It’s already been done, we just have to bow before the One who did it for us.