Can’t Wait for This Introduction
1 “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 reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.’”
Revelation 3:1–5 ESV Read More
These opening words to this church are really hard.
“You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead”
”What remains is about to die”
”Your works are not complete in the sight of my God”
That would be pretty discouraging. It is all too easy, when people hear bad news or correction, to spiral down and take it as a hit. “You did a bad job at this”, or “this is wrong” seldom bring somebody that is struggling to a point of motivation and accomplishment.
The Lord knows this, so He goes on to set the goal out in front of those that would listen. White garments are a pretty big deal. Not only does the original fabric need to be processed and bleached and made from the finest whitest fabric, but to keep something white in a world before Tide would be hard too. After living for years with low-quality water, my perception of what a white shirt looked like had changed. When I saw a white shirt again that had been washed in clear water with soap, it was amazing!
Those that have not soiled their garments, the people He describes in Sardis, stand out like no other. They are not just people with a reputation for being alive, it is obvious! The people of Sardis that Jesus is commending have a cleanliness of life that no one can argue with. They are referred to as people that conquer.
Rather than eating clean at Fazoli’s on a day that they wore a nice shirt, they didn’t even go near the place.
Those people, because of the way they followed Jesus, will hear their name spoken by Jesus before God. Can you imagine that? Not only will we confess the name of Jesus before all creation, but He will also introduce us!
”Father, this is (YOUR NAME HERE) that I’ve told you so much about.”
That is worth anything that would avoid a stain of sin on your clothes.
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