Wake up and Smell the Savior

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:  These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, 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.

4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 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 his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Wake up and Smell the Savior

Many of us do not wake up and function in our daily lives until we smell brewing coffee. It makes many of us feel a little more alive. Jesus is telling many of us that we are asleep maybe even sleep walking. In Mark 14 we have the story of a woman who is awake. She pours ointment of Jesus’ body that is worth a year’s wages. The ointment poured upon Jesus in this passage would have lingered through the last supper, Gethsemane, the Via Dolorosa or the Way of Grief, The Cross and the removal and perparation of his body for the tomb. The company of people with her were sleeping. Truly they were sleep walking, but she was awake..

3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial

Yes she was awake! Simon and the disciples were asleep. The woman recognizes the signs that were coming. She was awake when Jesus, 21 …began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16. She was still awake when he said, “ The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.”

The scriptures tell us that at these words, “the disciples were filled with grief” but they were sleep walking. They were grieving for a kingdom of the earth that was passing away. They were not hearing that victory and salvation for men comes from a cross.

The church at Sardis had a reputation. It worship, its programs were in keeping with the times and were drawing people. They got people in the door, but the work was unfinished. They were not bringing themselves or their disciples to a cross.

Paul the Apostle could say, 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, Galatians 2:20.

They were too alive to be dead, and too dead to be alive. Jesus says to them. Remember! Remember that you are to preach the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Wake Up! Paul’s words again brew the coffee that fills the air.

Romans 6 “5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Sardis had believers who had not soiled their cloths. They had remained awake. They kept the smell of perfume and blood and the wood of a cross present with them in their being. If you have soiled your cloths there is time. Wake up! Remember that you have been saved, remember that you are save. Remember that you can be saved.

In order coffee to have its affect it must be drank and not just smelled. In order for the Christian to wake up he can not just point to a cross, he has to deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Jesus. Luke 9:23

If you are truly awake and you reach your destination you will grieve. The aroma of your life will remain on him, but the hands nailed to the cross and the blood poured out will be his. His punishment is for our sins not for his. Wake up and Smell the Savior.

Jesus Judges Jezebel

Revelations 2:18-29


18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Jesus appears as the glorified and ascended savior. John is doing is best to describe in words what he is experiencing in reality. The Lord’s eyes burn like blazing fire are to prepare the listener for the rebuke to come. The burnished bronze of his feet communicate a quality of endurance and strength witnessed in the metal bronze and the character of Jesus.

Bronze is a mental that does not rust and has an enduring quality of beauty to it. Such are the feet of Jesus, beautiful, strong and enduring. Bronze is a mixed mental generally 80 percent copper and 5 to 20 percent tin. It is a mixture that makes it’s the quality of the copper and tin into something more useful. Jesus knows the difference between mixture and compromise. It is compromise that he judges when he addresses the Jezebel question below.

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

The first thing that I want you to notice about the women Jezebel is that she is part of the church establishment. She calls herself a prophet and is tolerated as a prophet. Not accepted, not ordained but tolerated. A good definition of tolerate in this case is to; “withstand the unpleasant effects of something.” Even Jesus tolerated her for a short period of time, he says, “I have given her time to repent”

Idolatry and sexual immorality are serious sins in the eyes of the Lord. The Church at Thyatira was enduring the unpleasantness of the idolatry and sexual immorality this woman was promoting. However, Jesus knows that the wages of sin are death and therefore she is severely punished. Her punishment was weakness and the death of the fruit of her womb. She had grown strong through deception and she had perverted the gift of sex. The severity of her sin is based on her being part of the church not based on her being part of the world. She taught in the church not the temple of Zeus.

24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

Her deception of the church builds around so called “revelation” or “deep secrets”, beware my friends of truth that has been hidden. God has made him his word plane enough. Jesus is talking to a church, about a women, he is not talking about an age or about a spirit in this passage. Yes, we can make application to ours and past generation through this passage and yes we can witness the work of a malevolent spirit through this woman, but don’t confuse application with theology. When you do so you miss both the application and the theology!

There is great damage done to the church when we fall into such traps. The damage done the Church at Thyatira was so great that Jesus gave no further assignment to them. He simple said “hold on until I come.” He did not say evangelize, advance, go into the uttermost parts of the earth, no he said just hold on. The position of this church was made totally defensive. Yet, even in a defensive position the Lord grants them the possibility great and eternal rewards.

26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations, 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Satan and a White Stone

“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. ¹⁵ Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

Pergamum was a great political and cultural center in the Roman Empire.  It had a library of 200,000 books, and would have been filled with the arts, food, and all manner of entertainment.  It would have been a place much like our modern cities. David Guzik of the Blueletterbible.org states, “It had temples to the Greek and Roman gods Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, and Zeus. It also had three temples dedicated to the worship of the Roman Emperor.”    Satan liked the place so much that he set up a throne there.  Yet the people of Pergamum kept their faith. 

The faithfulness of the Pergamum church should slap Christian’s of our generation back to reality.  The church on the corner of this city was not that of a lukewarm Christian place of worship but an occult body filled with forms of worship that exalt the creation above the creator and make men gods. 

While the men of that city are making men gods, Jesus points to the faithfulness of one man, his name is Antipas. Church history knows nothing about the man, but God himself writes his name in the book that will never perish or fade away.

The Lord is always sitting choices before us.  They are not difficult choices.  They are the choices between right and wrong.  The sins of the flesh, like Balak, and Balaam’s, are obvious according the book of Galatians.  They are not hidden.  They do not have to be routed out.  They just have to stop. 

Mankind’s conscience is sufficient in and of itself to teach us not to kill, steal, and destroy.  God adds His Word to confirm what is already written on our hearts. From Adam to Mosses there was not written word, yet Noah and Abraham were righteous before God.

Men know they are not God and they are smart enough to know that something does not come from nothing.  If we persist in sin it is because the pleasure of sin has clouded the penalty of sin in our minds.  Jesus says of such people he will fight them himself, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.

To those who are faithful, he gives tokens of the rewards to come.  For this church it was a white stone.  “In the ancient world, the use of a white stone had many associations. A white stone could be a ticket to a banquet, a sign of friendship, evidence of having been counted, or as a sign of acquittal in a court of law. Jesus may have any one of these meanings in mind, but at the very least we know that it has the assurance of blessing.” (blueletterbible.org)

God wants to give us a new and great name in heaven.   I would recommend John Bevere, audio book Affabel, as a means for understanding this truth.  Antipas is described as a faithful martyr.  What a name that would be to carry for all of eternity.   The Lord is giving stones with names initially known to the one who receives it.  Listen to the Spirit, and ask the Lord what he is calling you today.  If you are not happy with it just remember others served him where Satan has his throne.  Let us be lights in a crooked and perverse generation, not reflections of the world around us.  The Church at Pergamum did it.  Jesus commended and rebuked this church. Let us learn from what he said to them.  

Smyrna’s Love

To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹ I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

¹¹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death

The Church at Smyrna was a great church.  It is one of two of the churches of Revelations that is not rebuked by the Lord.  The qualities that kept this church strong are personal and doctrinal.  Polycarp was the head of this church.  He was a direct disciple of the John the Apostle.  Being disciple by the apostle who wrote so much of love was a great advantage.  Polycarp had a devotion to him that extended throughout his life.  This devotion also led to an honoring of the Jewish roots of the faith including the keeping of the Sabbath and Passover.

When you do what is right there is generally a counterfeit that arises beside it.  Jesus the judge points his finger at those directly when he says, “I know about those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.”  Polycarp and the disciples of Smyrna must have taken great comfort in these words.  Obeying God can leave us feeling lonely, Elijah’s words, “I am the only one left” come to mind.  A modern way of feeling this same pain is to say; “maybe I really am the one who is crazy.”  Dear saint of God, you are not crazy and you are not alone.   

God is raising up in this day more than 7,000 who have not bent the knee to false relationships or false doctrine.  Polycarp fought the fight of faith until his martyrdom sometime between 150 and 170 AD.  Let us endure onto the end as he did and be provided the victors crown from the one who has earned our love and devotion through his incarnation, perfect life, and crucifixion.   

The Church at Ephesus Falls in Love

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Jesus writing to a local church as one that has authority over all local churches. His evaluation of this church is not based on words but deeds, work and perseverance. Sometimes work is in the resistance of something as much as the building of something. When the Royal Air Force was standing against Nazi fighters and bombers victory was not their goal but the defense of the British mainland. Winston Churchill could say of this group of young men “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

The church at Ephesus stood a great battle against false apostles. These false apostles may have been of two different types and is reflected in Jesus words when he says, “you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans.” There is not clear commentary on who the Nicolaitans were and what their sins were. However, there are only two main schools of thoughts around this Biblical question and both are applicable to our lives as believers. The first school of thought is that the sect exalted clergy authority and position to an unbiblical level. The second is that they allowed for an increased indulgence of sexual practices in the church community. To stand against one or the other could make a group of believers weary, but the church at Ephesus stood strong.

The above sins are prolific in our modern church. He who walks among the modern lamp stands certainly has a charge to level against us. We love to be called Pastor and Father and Prophet and Apostle when Jesus clearly admonished to “call no man Rabbi… or Father… or…” What Jesus was working toward was the development of a Christian community that was entirely engaged. Certainly, there are offices that need to be respected and honored, but not to the exclusion of the saints being involved in the ministry. The Church at Ephesus fought this battle and they fought against a culture that had stretched sexual practices to the point of idolatry. This too is a modern sin.

In our battle for correct practice we can lose track of the relational nature of our love for Jesus. It is only in loving relationship that we can truly live like Christians. Hearing this message can be difficult in the course of a long Christian life. The Lord does not allow for excuses but calls the church to a change of mind (repentance) and reminds us of a victory to come. All the might of Hitler’s evil was arrayed against the RAF as all of Hell is lined up against the Church. Britain experienced its finest hour and the Church’s best days are in front of us. We will shine as lights in a generation that seeks self satisfaction through empty sexuality and esteem through meaningless titles. We will eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God as we fall in Love with a savior again.