And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' (Rev. 3:l-6).
Many churches, as well as individual Christians, are afflicted with the Sardis Syndrome today. They have a reputation of being alive, but their inner life and strength do not match their claims to know the Lord. Their talk is full of Scriptures, but their walk is weak and wobbly.
The church in Sardis is called to repentance. It is called to an awakening. Awake (v. 2) is a command. God is calling the Sardis church to revival. A minority is walking in the Spirit of holiness - they have not soiled their garments - they have not compromised with the world, nor have they succumbed to the gravity of the flesh. They have resisted the temptation to join the majority to succumb to spiritual drowsiness, which leads to slumber. Spiritual slumber is a deep sleep reached gradually over a period of time by failing to respond to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Christians can reach a point in their process of resistance to the Spirit's stirrings within them until they lose the sense of hearing. That is why the Lord Jesus in His messages to the seven churches (Rev. 2:1 - 3:22) closes each message with this warning: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
All of us can recall early mornings when the alarm clock called us to awaken from our slumber, get out of bed and face the day. But most of us can also recall times when we resisted the call. Maybe it was not an alarm clock, but a parent's call, or maybe even our own conscience urging us to face responsibility and get going. But the comfort of a warm bed, the need of more rest, the dread of facing the day - all this built up a resistance to responsible action. So we just rolled over and went back to sleep.
In calling the Sardis church to repentance and an awakening, the Lord Jesus makes a promise to the one who conquers (v.5). He wanted His followers in Sardis who were slipping into spiritual drowsiness to realize they were in a major spiritual battle, one they were losing. But if they would repent of their selfish, irresponsible yielding to a slumbering spirit, they could be overcomers and move back into spiritual power and life in the Spirit.
Oh, how our enemy hates revival! He'll fight an entire denomination over the subject. Just let a pastor and a few board members get partially awake and begin to realize the need for revival, and Satan will unleash a thousand demons to overhaul their thinking and put a screeching halt to any effort that might wake up that congregation. Many programs and ministries being promoted today, however meaningful and relevant, are mere compromises Satan has made with congregations to prevent the Spirit-anointed revival that would have exploded and defeated the kingdom of darkness.
Let us hear the words of Jesus as He sounds a warning to believers facing the end-times: But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man (Luke 21:34-36).
Let us not miss Jesus' prescribed way of escape: praying! We overcome all of the enemy's temptations through prayer. And we overcome his most subtle temptation of drowsiness, which leads to slumber, by prayer - Spirit-anointed prayer, persistent prayer, joyous prayer, bold prayer, fasting and prayer.
May I also suggest that we overcome by associating with those who have a meaningful prayer life? How blessed I am to have associates and friends who are powerful overcomers. I spent a week in the Indianapolis area recently. On a Thursday noon, I met my friend Jack. Jack and I have known each other over fifty years. We have a lot in common. Both of us were born near the Arkansas River, he on the south side and I on the north side. We never met until we were in Bible College in Indiana. Both of us married Godly, faithful, devoted wives. Both of us overcame, at least to a degree, several obstacles: poverty, ignorance and obscurity. We are both unashamedly identified with the holiness movement. Jack is an overcomer even in this relationship. He has never allowed the shallowness and silliness and substitutes in the holiness movement to keep him from the true meaning of true, biblical holiness. Like me, his definition of holiness is not only an initial cleansing of the Holy Spirit but an ongoing work of continual cleansing in the heart of the believer. As Jack prayed for me and for himself, I sensed a great anointing resting upon him, and I praised the Lord for the great work he is doing in establishing schools and churches in South America, in the Caribbean and in India. I've been with him in most of these areas and see the fruit of his labors and the love and esteem in which he is held by the scores of pastors and hundreds of believers who serve under his leadership. What I really admire about Jack is his Spirit-given ability to tune out distractions and keep tuned in to the Holy Spirit. Like myself, Jack is in his late 70s, but so alive, alert and attentive to the things of the Spirit.
And then on Friday I drove to Anderson and had lunch with Mike, another one of my heroes. Mike is also an overcomer. He has overcome rejection. Just as the Scriptures tell us, A man's gift makes room for him (Prov. 18:16), Mike found himself pastoring a large, strong church in the Midwest. But when Mike's ability to preach the Gospel with fresh metaphors and definitions of holiness disappointed those who were obsessed with the old antiquated expressions of holiness, he soon found himself voted out. Mike was forced to leave the church, but he did not leave the ministry. Today, Mike heads a ministry of ministering to those spiritual leaders who are out of the ministry. He has an increasing ministry of loving, caring, counseling and rehabilitating those who have been wounded, burned out or lost their way in their call to serve. During that hour with him, I found a man, much younger than me, loving people who once turned against him, now living in the freedom of forgiveness, optimism and hope, believing that his best days for God are yet ahead of him. Mike is an overcomer - he has a burning heart of devotion to his Savior, a loving heart for his fellow pastors who have been thrown off course and a vision for revival for the sleeping American churches.
In closing, there's one more hero to whom I wish to pay tribute: Dr. William Greathouse is a good example of a man of God who is alive in the Spirit. He is an overcomer. His brilliance as a Bible scholar, his power as a preacher, his burdens and authority as a general superintendent, his freedom in retirement and his limitations in aging - none of these have cooled his fervor for Jesus Christ, nor have they lulled him into drowsiness. Just a few weeks ago I had a note from him in which he confessed that he missed going about "preaching the Word." Along with thousands of others, I am in debt to Dr. Greathouse for his powerful preaching and writings (I've just begun reading his new work on Romans, New Beacon Bible Commentary) and his warm heart and his encouraging counsel. He is living proof that one can stay alive in difficult times through any circumstances.
My dear brothers and sisters of this twenty-first century, we must awaken to the realization that we are all facing a major strategy of the enemy to chloroform the very atmosphere we breathe - the schools we attend, the television we watch, the literature we read, the worship services we attend, the conversations we have in our legitimate and necessary intercourse with the world - to deaden our spiritual sensitivities and conform us to the spirit of this present age. I never like to give the devil credit, but I must recognize his cleverness in seeking to maneuver me into a state of drowsiness so that I might grieve, quench or ignore the Holy Spirit in some way. He knows if he can sedate us to a state of slumber, we will not have an ear to hear the voice of the Spirit.
In order to resist the spirit of slumber, I suggest that we all wake up each morning, praying, Holy Spirit, breathe on me! Then get up and go about expecting definite leadings - constraints and restraints, inspiration and direction, blessings and burdens.
Pray often. Praise Him and give thanks. Watch for opportunities to witness. Rejoice in everything. Let's enjoy our relationship with the Holy Spirit in which we listen for His voice, obey His leadings, receive His new fillings and live for His times of refreshing and revival.
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