November 9

Transcript

Thank you, George and Alice, for doing the act of remembrance for us this morning. Thank you, Gerald, for playing the trumpet. I'm looking for you.

You disappeared in the glass there behind you. Thank you for always doing the last post, and if I say it correct, the reveille at the end, wake up again. Thank you.

Alice knows all about the war. We congratulated her on her 100th birthday this year, and she was in the Women's Land Army in the war, so thank you, Alice, for that, and thank you for reading this morning. Brother, when we open your word and we break the word, we're so blessed.

It is your gift to us where we can be fed, where we can learn, for your word guides us through all the paths of our lives, and as we've been walking from one city to another and one church to the other in this book of Revelation, we thank you for what we have learned. Thank you for the mirror that has held up in front of us to ask the questions of ourselves. As we walk into the Church of Sardis today, thank you that we might be quiet in a moment and look at them and then also look at ourselves.

Above all, Lord, we want to see Jesus, and only Jesus. Amen. Ted, can I mess you around for a second? Slide one, you want to put that up before we read.

That is a picture of the church in Sardis. I pray that we never have a picture like that for the church in Central. That is what they left behind.

Thanks, Ted. Now we can go to the scripture reading. Let me tell you, or I'm going to put you on the slides first.

Let me tell you a little bit about Sardis, and maybe go to slide two so we can see something of how this place looked like. I showed you how the church looked like. So there is Sardis.

So we've been going around. It's like a horseshoe. We have two left after this, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

Next slide, please. Sardis was a beautiful city. There's an image of how it would look like.

Right against the foot of the mountain there was the Temple of Artemis. I'll show you a picture of that in a second. It was a walled city that had its own Acropolis.

Remember I told you last time what Acropolis means? It means the city that is high or city on the hill. It comes from Acro and Polis in Greek. Polis is always city.

Beautiful city, walled all around. On the Acropolis, King Grisus had a fortress that was built for him that was extra walled even beyond the other walls. They felt that they could never be conquered.

Let's go to the next slide, Ted. So there's, if you look from the bottom up, there's the hill, the Acropolis, and below there, that was the Temple of Artemis. Next one.

So there's, on the Acropolis, you can see the walls that were still there from the fortress that was built on that hill. So now let me tell you a little story because the story behind all of this is very important to understand what God is writing because the congregation would understand this. Sardis was tremendously successful and rich.

It was rich because of all the gold that came from the river. They were also the first city that made gold coins, minted gold coins. There's a little story behind this and I'll just give you a touch.

You can go read it yourself. It's told. It's all fable, of course.

You remember King Midas? What happened with King Midas? Everything he touched became gold. So it was believed that King Midas had his kingdom upriver from Sardis. And when he said, I don't want this gold stuff anymore, the gods told him to go wash his hands in the river.

And then the gold flowed down the river and that ended up at Sardis. And that's where they got it. That's the story.

Okay, it's just a story. They had a lot of gold. So very successful, very strong, felt that everything was good.

That's why they could build this wall. And they felt that they could never be conquered. Many tried and they couldn't conquer them.

But that's where the problem came in. And remember this word, they became complacent. Because we have the walls, we have the city, we're strong, nothing can happen to us.

Until the year 547, a king from Persia by the name of Cyrus, which we know from the Bible. King Cyrus came and he wanted to conquer Sardis. For 10 days, they fought and they couldn't break through.

And then something happened. They had spies sitting around where the people from Sardis couldn't see them. One of the soldiers in Sardis leaned over the wall to look what's going on and his helmet fell off.

Helmets were very expensive. Helmets were very important. So they saw the soldier leave the wall and the next thing they saw a movement in the wall.

And there was this soldier coming through a crack in the foundation of the wall. Go down, get his helmet, put it on, go back through the crack and go back to his post. That night, the Persians went through the crack in the wall in the middle of the night.

And when the people of Sardis woke up the next morning, they were surrounded by Persian soldiers. Because the people of Sardis became complacent and didn't take care of their city and the foundation started crumbling and the cracks came in the wall and the next thing they were conquered. Now read with me the story and you will understand.

To the angel, and remember I said angel, angelos, messenger, pastor, leader. To the angel of the church in Sardis, write these words because these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Seven stars you read in chapter one verse 16 where Jesus says he's holding the seven stars and then he says this is the meaning verse 20 of the seven stars.

These are the leaders of the church. So those are the seven stars. Seven spirits you read a little bit later about them in chapter five where the seven spirits are the spirits that are in each of the churches talking about the fullness of the spirit of God.

So these are the words of him, Jesus, who has all the churches, their leaders in his hands and who has the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I know your deeds. That's how he starts every time.

I know you. I've checked you out. You have a reputation, a reputation of being alive but, and there's that biblical but that's so scary, but you are dead.

You have the reputation that you are alive, but actually you're dead. See here's the thing. When God looks at the church, God does not look at us like we look at ourselves because we can look at ourselves and be like them and say, man, we're good.

All's fine. All's dandy. We don't have to check the walls.

We don't have to do anything. We can just keep on going and kind of just float and do like we're doing. We're good.

We don't have to change anything. We don't have to change ourselves. We're fine.

Look at us, but that's not how God looks. The world might look in from the outside and say, man, central is so amazing, but God does not look at that. God looks at what we do, who we are, at our hearts, at our lives, and he measures that against his word and what he asks and what he wants from us.

He doesn't just want the name that we are the church of Jesus Christ. He wants to see the deeds of we are the church of Jesus Christ. Reputation means nothing.

It's here today and gone tomorrow. The thing that God measures when he looks at the church are the deeds. How do we love? How do we care? How do we give of ourselves graciously? How do we carry that light that we receive every week from the word of God? How do we carry that out into the world where we live, where we do? Do they see that? Do they taste that? Do they feel that? Otherwise, all God says, you've got a reputation.

I think you're alive, but when I look at you, you're dead. I'm not going to mess you around, Ted. I wanted to, but let's just stay with us.

There's a slide. Let me mess you around. Slide six.

So there's a picture of the city of Sardis. So the K that I read around there was the big old Acropolis where he had his fortress. Then you come down, I showed you the temple of Artemis, number G there.

But then there's a place, number E. And if you see that it's called Necropolis or Necropolis. Necro means dead and polis means city, the city of the dead. What God is saying, you think you're living in Sardis, but actually when I look at you, you're part of the city of the dead, the cemetery.

You've become so complacent that when I look at you, you look like in the word dead, in the Greek is the word for a corpse. I just see one dead body that has no breath in it. It's dead.

Now look again. I told you the story. You went through the wall, they went to bed, and they woke up the next morning and they were besieged.

Look what Jesus says. Wake up, strengthen what remains and he's about to die. For I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

Wake up. Be watchful. Be aware.

Do not be so complacent that you think you're okay. You know, in the Bible, there are two instances of people who fell asleep that was not cool and it didn't work out that well for them. I wonder if you remember them.

One from the old and one from the New Testament. There's a guy called Jonah. God called him to go speak and he didn't want to go to Nineveh.

Jonah went to the boat and he said, let me go down in the boat and then I'm going to go sleep there and I will sleep away the calling that God has given me. He ended up in the stomach of a fish. Sometimes we try and sleep away what God calls us to be because we think if I go sleep, it'll go away.

It won't. The other one was a few guys who were supposed to stay awake with Jesus and they fell asleep and they did not realise the danger that was coming their way. Wake up.

Wake up, says Jesus. Central, look at yourself. Are you complacent? Are you asleep? Or are the walls strong? Because I look at you and I look at the inside.

Then he gives advice. He says, strengthen what remains. The Greek word comes from the vineyards.

When the vines sometimes are not strong enough, they fall over. They fall on the ground and then all kinds of things come on them and then they die. So the word for strengthen was for this kind of a pole that they made and they put the vines around that and they tied that so the vine could stay strong and grow and become strong like the others.

That's the word he's using. He says, strengthen what remains. So if there's stuff that's lying, that's not working, that is going to die, it's time to pick them up and strengthen them.

How do we strengthen? By going right back into this and to start living this in everything we do, in all we are. I often say we're a Jesus church where everyone is welcome, where no one is perfect, where everyone is loved, and where anything is possible. Strengthen.

Strengthen what you have. Strengthen that love. Strengthen that care.

Strengthen who you are in Jesus Christ because otherwise it will die. Strengthen what remains and is about to die. If we do not live as the church of Jesus Christ, we will die.

What are we if we are not the church of Jesus? What are we if we are not salt and light to the world? What are we doing if we just keep each other warm and we do not go out into a world that is needy and broken and waiting for Jesus to come into their lives? It is our job central. We can't say we're okay. Thank God we're okay.

But that needs to go out, and it needs to change. It needs to change the world. I looked at your deeds, and I have found your deeds unfinished.

We can't start and then let go. You'll never finish the race that way. I need to hurry up because I'll keep you here the whole day.

Can I just play with the Greek with you again? I told you when I leave here, you're all going to be fluent in Greek. I told them the other day, Greek is my first language. Afrikaans is my second.

English is my third. No. I have found your deeds.

It's such a cool word. You all know that word. Does anyone know the man Archimedes? He's the guy who got in the tub, and then it displaced the water, and he jumped out, and what did he say? That's the Greek word for found.

I found your deeds. God does not say, Eureka, and the deeds are dead. But when God looks at us, and he says, I have found the good things.

I have found the love, and the grace, and the care, and the commitment. I have found that. God shouts, Eureka.

But when God looks, and he finds that they are unfinished, that's when the tears run down his cheeks. Let's finish this. Remember, therefore, stop.

Take time to think. Wake up from your spiritual amnesia. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard, and hold it fast.

Hold it fast is the military term again. Keep watch so that nothing can be stolen away. Be ready for anything.

Remember what you have received, and I think sometimes we have forgotten what we received, and what the foundation is, or maybe the five pillars is. Our foundation on which we build in the Church of Jesus Christ is who? Jesus. But in the reformed tradition, that's the slide that I sent last.

There are five pillars that we hold on to. Can you remember those days of your catechism? In the Church, we say we have five things that we hold on. Sola Scriptura, the Scripture.

This is what we have. This is where we live from. Sola Gratia, we are saved by grace, the grace of God alone.

Sola Fide, by faith we walk in Christ Jesus. Solus Christus, Jesus Christ is the first and the last, the one who is, and the one who is to come. And all of these things that God has given us, to God be the glory.

Soli Dea Gloria. Hold on. Thanks, Ted.

You can go back to the Scripture. Hold on to the things that God has given you. Your faith, God's grace, the Word, and Jesus Christ.

These are gifts. These are gifts. When I just think of grace, for me, it is one of the things that I struggle with the most, because I cannot grasp how God, in his holiness, can give so much grace into my life that is often so messed up and broken.

But it is also one thing that makes me stand on my knees in thanksgiving every day. Hold on to what God has given you. We can't, we can't become the world and let the world tell us what to do.

Sola Scriptura, this is where we live from, in Jesus, our Lord. I can go on for the whole day. Repent.

Remember, I've said that repent word more than once, because he says it in every one of these. And repent, we said, is not just remorse or saying, I'm sorry. Repent is to change your whole life, how you think and what you do, and then move in a different direction.

Turn away from what you've been doing. Repent, therefore, that I go too far. But if you do not wake up, then I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come.

But if you do not wake up, then there's an if and a then in there. If you choose not to listen to me, if you choose not to turn around, if you choose not to hold on to what I've given you, if you choose not to strengthen those walls, then I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come, like the Persians that came through the wall and caught you off guard. Yet, you have a few people, smaller number in Sardis, who have not soiled their clothes.

Sardis, they would have done well in New York. They loved their fancy clothes. They did.

They only wore designer clothes. Calvin Klein and what's the other stuff? Tommy Hilfiger and I don't know them. That's all they wore, because they had the money.

So, he's playing with that again. He says, look at you. There are some of you who have soiled.

It's kind of like the diaper thing that he's talking about, if you understand what I mean. He says, I will come. Yet, we have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled the others.

They're kind of dirty, and I don't want to come close to them. They've soiled everything. Those who did not, the few in number, they will walk with me dressed in white, for they are worthy.

The walk with Jesus is not just, yeah, let's have a walk. The walk with Jesus is that walk in fellowship, where I'm with him, where I'm learning from him, where I'm in his presence like the disciples were, and he's changing my life little by little. Please walk with me, is his call to us.

Then, he will close them with white clothes. What a beautiful image. Spoiled, white, dirty, clean, washed.

When they baptised in the New Testament times, when they baptised the pagans that came to Christ Jesus, they would let the folks go into the river with their clothes on, their old soiled clothes, and they would go in and they would baptise them. When they came out, the congregation stood and waited for them with white gowns that they then put over them as this image, you have been cleansed. Look at this beautiful image.

I will give you white clothes. You are washed. You are clean.

You can stand in the presence of your Lord, for they are worthy. Why? Because they held on to Jesus. Didn't become complacent.

They held tight. Then, oh boy, this is the part I love the most. I will never blot out the name.

I'm sorry, verse five, I started too far. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my father and these angels.

I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life. They had two books in every city. There was the book of life in which the names were written of all of the citizens, just the names, so that when they voted or when they were allowed to speak, they would check, is your name in the book of life? Okay, you can speak.

When you died, they had a book called the book of death, and your name was written in the book of death. So in the necropolis, your name would be written in the book of death. Jesus says, I will write your name in the book of life, and I will never blot it out.

Never blot it out means you're never gonna die, because your name's never gonna be in the book of death. It's gonna be there forever. That's what happens to those who stay faithful, for those who hold on, for those who do not spoil their clothes, but walk with Jesus and have company with Jesus.

I'll write your name in the book of life. A little later in the book of revelation, it's called the book of the lamb. And then right at the end, go read this this afternoon, chapter 17 and chapter 20.

You'll find this, 13, 17, 20, you'll find this, the book of the lamb, the book of life. It speaks, and it says, then at the end will come this moment where all the people will be there, and the books, books, plural, will be opened. And the people of the earth, the inhabitants of the earth, which in the book of revelation is always an image of those who do not belong to Jesus Christ, and the names of those who did not belong to Christ will be written in those books, and all their deeds will be written in those books.

See where it goes already. The book of life only has names. These has all the deeds.

And they will be, those people who did not know Christ, will be judged according to what was written in the books. And they will then end up in the second death. Those whose names are written in the book of the lamb will never taste that second death.

And all that is written there is your name. That's all. What a gift.

I'm not going to stand before my Lord, and he's going to say, Aubrey, let's open those books. Let's start April 2nd, 1958, when you were born. You were still okay, but boy, then stuff started happening.

And he's, I'm going to stand before my Lord, and he's going to look at me, and he's going to say, there's your name. Welcome, good, faithful servant. I gave you little, but you were faithful.

Didn't soil your clothes. You walked with me, coming to the house of your father. I will never blot out the names, but I will acknowledge your name before my father.

And the angels did. Slide seven says that more than once. Matthew 10, whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my father in heaven.

Luke 12, I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, son of man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. And then our passage this morning. Acknowledge means to live in such a way that Jesus is seen in what I do, what I say, where I go, what I see, and I will acknowledge you before my father and the angels.

May God help us not to be complacent. Help us to every day, seek to walk in his presence and strengthen that which is sometimes not that strong. And give thanks for our names in the book of the Lamb.

Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Thank you, Lord, for not giving up on us.

Thank you for reminding us who we are in you. For without you, Lord, we are nothing. If you are not the centre of all we do in this place,

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