Accept His Challenge

July 31

"And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you,’” Revelation 3:1-3.

The Lord was not pleased with His Church in Sardis. He accused them of being virtually dead even as they went about their works. We can imagine that the works they did were admirable—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, taking in the refugee, guiding the blind, seeking the lost, lifting the down-trodden—but they were on the verge of spiritual death.

The risen Christ admonished them to strengthen themselves that they should not perish but live. He counseled them to “hold fast and repent,” so they would not be overtaken in their lostness, ensnared by their sin when He returned. If Jesus had this harsh criticism of the thriving body of believers at Sardis, can we not imagine what He would say to His people today!

How would He address the way we conduct ourselves as Christians? We fill our churches with songs of praise and words of admonishment, but what fills our hearts? Are we among others of like mind because we long to extol the virtue of our Savior and King or are we gathered together to enjoy the entertainment?

Do we sit in our pews to soak up the atmosphere produced by skilled musicians and expounders of the Word or do we join the congregation of the faithful that we might add to the praise and worship of the Savior who has died that we might live? Do we come in order to support the outreach of the Church in all its functions or do we come merely that we might be supported?

The Holy One does not want us to merely play church. He isn’t impressed by our raised hands and our vibrant singing or our enthusiastic hallelujahs if they do not emanate from hearts of surrender to the Lord and faith in His holy name. If our giving to the poor and needy does not flow from our understanding of the words of Paul that “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” Acts 20:35, then it is of no effect.

Indeed, we shall be among those who stand before Him on Judgment Day proclaiming, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?” And we shall hear those awful words, “Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity,” Matthew 7:22-23.

Jesus went on to explain in Matthew 7:24-25, “ Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken to a wise man, who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

If we are to please Him as a collective body of believers in Church or as individuals who profess faith in Him, we must give Jesus our all. We must not be mere Sunday morning believers; we must be people who live our faith and serve our King.

May He help us to take up the gauntlet He cast before the Church at Sardis—may we accept His challenge to “live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) in complete surrender to Jesus and in resolute faithfulness to the work He’s set before us to do.