Ryan Hale

There was quite a lot going on in Herod the tetrarch’s world. As the son of Herod the Great, he had inherited a part of his father’s kingdom and now ruled over the regions of Galilee and Perea, exactly the areas where Jesus and John the Baptist, respectively, had been doing their work.

Herod the tetrach was also known as Herod Antipas.

John had gone to do his work, baptizing people “beyond” the Jordan River, which landed him directly in the region of Perea, within Antipas’s governance, which ultimately had placed Herod within John’s crosshairs. John’s work, his ministry, was to call the people to repentance, and of course Herod Antipas had sent away his wife Phasa’el in favor of his half-brother’s wife Herodias, wrecking both his brother’s marriage as that of his own and even going to war King Aretas because of his disloyalty to his wife.

Then, here comes John. John the Baptist now is a type of celebrity in Antipas’s world and he starts criticizing Antipas for his divorce and remarriage to Herodias, calling him out as being illegitimately married and for having sinned in doing this. Antipas throws John in prison as a result of his criticism, thinking that the problem was now solved. Yet, now what happens? Now there is suddenly a movement of people talking about a new kingdom that is about to spring up. And it is happening right under his nose!

Jesus had, of course, also been calling people to repentance, so it might have been easy to confuse John’s work with that of Jesus. Except now, it is ramping up even more. Jesus is healing people, performing miracles as he speaks about the kingdom of God so as to confirm what he is saying. A new kingdom, the kingdom of God, is coming, and now it isn’t just a localized discussion near the Jordan river or up in Galilee, but the discussion is everywhere!

Jesus’s disciples had been following him, but now Jesus sent them out to go and proclaim the kingdom of God. He sent them to heal the sick and to drive out demons. The disciples went from village to village to tell everyone about the kingdom and to heal people. And now, word was getting back to Herod Antipas:

Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.

Luke 9:7-9

Antipas couldn’t figure it out. I thought I already dealt with this problem, he seems to have thought. Didn’t I already throw John into prison and cut off his head? Why do I keep hearing about this same problem?

Little did he know, it wasn’t John, but someone even greater than John had arrived, and the word was going out.

In the time of the pandemic, and even today, looking back on that time, one of the complaints that I have heard from pastors is with regard to the restrictions that were placed upon the church by governments around the world. The government said that the churches couldn’t meet and this became a problem. At the time, several of the churches complained that they were dying as a result of the restrictions.

There are several things that could be discussed related to this concern, but certainly one lesson that we could learn is that we should consider decentralizing the church. We should prepare our people to carry on the work of the church where they are such that, if the government were to come to shut down the church, the people should be able to carry on the work of Christ where they are. People within the church should continue to grow in their relationship with Christ because they are equipped to be able to do so. Disciples should be made because the people in the church are equipped to make disciples. Churches should be started anew because, even though the government has closed the centralized church, the Church, the individual people within each of the local churches, continue to operate within the kingdom of God.

This is how the church continues to work and grow where there is persecution. As we look to China or to Iran, or in any of the countries where the church is growing in the midst of persecution, it is because the people have been equipped. It is because disciples have been made who have carried the Gospel to others. Not from a centralized work in one or more larger churches, but the strengthening of the disciples to go and be the Church, carrying the message of the kingdom of God with them, making disciples and gathering new believers wherever they go.

This is what got Antipas’s attention. Suddenly, even after he thought that he had dealt with the situation with John by killing off this person who was critizing his actions, Jesus unleashes the disciples. Now, instead of there being one person proclaiming the kingdom of God, there are 12. And the message and the miracles are everywhere! It has become decentralized. The message and the works of God are traveling everywhere.

Herod Antipas can’t keep up. He is receiving a report from one area, and then he receives a report from another area. And another. And another. Who is this, he asks?

What Jesus did with his disciples is what we must also do today. We must make disciples here in our day, in our time, so that the message will be heard everywhere. We aren’t looking for a fight with the government. We aren’t looking to disobey, but we are looking to serve the one true king, Christ himself, and have his message taken everywhere. And there is only one way to do that: To send out the disciples who will proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom such that people will ask the same question that Antipas asked: Who is this?

For the last nine years, we have lived upon nothing more than donations of people, both individuals and churches, who have supported our family to do the work that God has called us to do. Generally speaking, I have found that we do not like to talk much in the church about money and its use, but I will say that I believe that it is one of the most important topics that we should be discussing.

Why?

Because from my experience, there have been few things that have stretched me and grown my own faith than to have to live based on the donations that others have given so that we can live and do the work that we are doing.

For nearly 20 years, I worked in a corporate job, working my way through various jobs and roles, earning a salary and various bonuses as a result of my work performance. I knew and acknowledged God’s provision, but if I am being honest, I rarely thought of it. I was the one earning the money and the one upon whom my livelihood depended. I was providing for myself and for my family.

But when we sensed a call to change careers and move to Sicily to work here, to make disciples and plant churches amongst the unreached, amongst those who have not known Christ, everything changed. No one came to me asking if they could give me money. No one suggested that they had a bunch of money, and if I just was willing to move to Sicily to plant churches, then they would give it to me. No, it doesn’t work like that.

Instead, it is a discussion related to the vision that God has given to you. God had put his heart for the unreached within us, a heart to see those who have not heard the name of Jesus truly know him, and we needed to communicate that heart, that vision, to others who would listen, who would partner with us and send us. Yes, that meant prayer. We needed people to pray for us. But that also meant that we practically needed to be supported to be able to go and do the work. Money must be involved, or nothing of this vision that God had laid upon our hearts would become a reality.

I was reminded of this as I read the first few verses of Luke 8 today. Jesus was traveling from town to town and doing his work full time. How did he do it? How did he live, and for that matter, how did his disciples live and eat while they did the work? Both Jesus and the disciples were supported by those who shared the vision of what God was doing through his Son to reestablish his kingdom:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Luke 8:1-3

The women were helping to support Jesus and all of the other disciples out of their own means! They had received from God and wanted to give to him. They wanted to provide, not only for Jesus, but also for the disciples and the others that were traveling with Jesus.

Without these funds, Jesus and the disciples would not have been able to go. He would not have been able to teach. He would not have been able to heal all of the people, demonstrating that he is the Messiah. It is a result of these funds, this support, that Jesus and his disciples were able to live and thus do the work that we read about today.

God puts vision on the hearts of the people who will go, but he also puts a vision on the hearts of the people who will send, who will support, who will make sure that those who go can live and continue to do the work that they have been called to do.

I am very thankful to the people who have listened to God’s prompting to support us. It has increased my own faith in ways that I could have never imagined as I worked in my corporate role previously. But I am reminded that this is a calling from God, not only for us, but also for each of those who support us. It is HIS work, not ours. Not those who support us, but God’s work, and he uses each of us to complete the role that he has for us.

Now, may we do even more. We must pray for more workers to enter into the harvest fields. We must teach more people to listen to the Lord’s prompting, to his calling, and to be ready and willing to give to the work of the kingdom of God, to see his work go forward, to see his kingdom continue to expand.

The centurion didn’t even show up. He didn’t even come himself. He sent some of the Jewish elders to Jesus to ask him to heal one of his servants. And then the centurion subsequently sent two more servants to say that he shouldn’t come.

If I were Jesus, frankly, I might have been a little annoyed. First, he sends someone else to ask me to come, and I do. Then I come and get close to his home and he says don’t come. What’s the deal?

The Jews in that area liked this centurion, certainly an uncommon scenario. Generally, the Romans hated the Jews and the Jews hated the Romans. It was a pretty mutual feeling between them!

But here, when the Jewish elders from that area come to Jesus, they say that this centurion “deserves” for Jesus to come. The centurion had built their synagogue and was a friend to the Jewish people. That qualified him for Jesus to do a miracle for the centurion they said. He has done good things for us, so could you help him out? Could you do just this one little tiny miracle for him?

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them.

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Luke 7:1-10

Hmm… I’m not sure whether or not Jesus bought this “he deserves it” argument, but he did go.

But as they approached the centurion’s house, the two other servants come with the message that Jesus doesn’t actually have to come. He can just say the word. The centurion understands that Jesus has the authority to speak and it will be done.

Now Jesus is truly astonished. Although I can be convinced otherwise, maybe now Jesus believes that the centurion “deserves it”. Why? Because the centurion had done good things for the Jewish people? No, in fact, Jesus says that this centurion has done much more than the Jewish people had done. He wasn’t even a Jew and the centurion actually had faith in who Jesus is. Jesus had never even found anyone in all of Israel who had the faith that this man had.

Why would Jesus say that?

Jesus said that this man had more faith than anyone in all of Israel because he had truly recognized who Jesus was. Yes, the centurion knew that Jesus could heal his servant. The Jewish elders also believed this, but they didn’t believe that Jesus could just say the word. They saw Jesus as a mere prophet. They saw him as one who one need to show up, on site, and talk to God about the centurion’s servant.

Yet the centurion saw the situation differently. He knew that Jesus could merely say the word and his servant would be healed. He saw Jesus is a completely different light. Only God would be able to do what the centurion knew that Jesus could do. Only God would be able to simply say the word and it would be done. Only God would be able to command spiritual forces in the way that the centurion believed Jesus could do.

And so it was for this reason that Jesus stops and commends the centurion’s faith. Wow! Jesus hadn’t heard of this kind of faith in all of Israel! This man believes! This man actually realizes that I am who I have been showing myself to be: God who has come in the flesh.

So Jesus cures the centurion’s servant. Right then and there. In fact, we don’t even see that Jesus says anything more other than commending the centurion’s faith. He thinks it and it is done. No magic words. No on-the-spot rituals. A thought and it is done.

It is interesting that this Roman centurion came to the conclusion of who Jesus truly was on his own. Today, we frequently hear people repeat what others have told them. The Muslims repeat what they heard in their mosque. The Catholics repeat what they have been told from their catechism.

This Roman centurion didn’t have anyone else to tell him what he should think. He came to the conclusion on his own. He figured it out by simply observing Jesus, by simply listening to him and seeing the works that he was doing, and he learned that God was walking around on the earth in the form of a man. He knew that the things that Jesus was doing were things that only God could do.

And what about each of us? This is the most important question: Who is Jesus? We must not only explore this question, but we must dig into it deeply. And we must look to see Jesus for who he shows himself to be. He is God, who has come as Immanuel, God with us, here on the earth. That is who he has shown himself to be, that is who he claimed to be, and he is the one around whom we must orient our lives, because he truly deserves it.

Jesus is teaching the crowds with a sermon that, today, we call the Sermon on the Mount. He has called his disciples and now he is teaching the people what it means to live as one within the kingdom of God.

As he is wrapping up his teaching, Jesus admonishes and warns the crowd that they shouldn’t just listen to what he has to say and move on. No, instead, they should go and do what he said, and if they do, then they will be building their lives on a strong foundation:

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Luke 6:46-49

I have a couple of thoughts on what Jesus is saying here:

First, as the crowds frequently noted, Jesus teaches quite differently than the Pharisees or teachers of the law. Jesus says that the people must do what he says. Note the emphasis here. Jesus isn’t just reading the scripture and telling the people to do what it says. He is telling the people directly, using his own words, what they must do.

This is very different than what a regular person would do. This is different from what a teacher would do. And furthermore, this is very different from what a true prophet would do! Each of these would recognize that there is an authority much greater than themselves and that they are simply a teacher or a carrier of a message instead of the authority themselves.

But that is not how Jesus speaks. He speaks with authority. He says that the people must put his words into practice. This is not how a teacher teaches. This is how God speaks. He speaks with authority. He is the Sovereign. He is the Lord, and when the Lord speaks, that is what must be done.

So there is an issue of identity for Jesus in what he is saying here. Jesus truly is Lord. He is God who has come to earth to show himself in the flesh, amongst his people. He is Immanuel, God with us.

Second, Jesus says that we must do. We must act. We must put his words into practice. That is how we can stand upon a firm foundation. We don’t stand firmly because we have a good philosophy, or even because we understand all of the right teachings. The knowledge of Christ will give you a good start. It helps you know what to do. But the practice is what will allow you to have the foundation upon which you can stand.

Jesus says that you can weather the storm. You can stand even when you are beaten down. But you can only do these things if you know Jesus’s words, and you do Jesus’s words. If you put them into practice. Only in this way can you truly stand upon a foundation that will not move. Otherwise, if you know what Jesus says but you haven’t actually put them into practice, you will be destroyed. The sands will shift underneath you and you will collapse. And you will be destroyed.

So, let’s not simply call Jesus Lord, Lord. Instead, let us be a people who do what he says, who put into practice what Jesus has called us to do, and in this way, when the storms come, we will stand.

Luke has written an account of Jesus’s life, but as we already saw in Luke 1, even before Jesus, Luke wrote about John the Baptist, who would play a critically important role in Jesus’s ministry. John’s role was to prepare the way for Jesus to come.

Luke quotes Isaiah, saying that John was the one that Isaiah wrote about in Isaiah 40 when he said:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

Luke 3:4-6

Isaiah had written this originally to the people of Israel in Isaiah chapter 40. Just before he had written that, though, in chapter 39, Isaiah had written about the coming of the Babylonians who would come to destroy Jerusalem and conquer the Israelites, including, this time, the Kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom of the two Israelite kingdoms. The Babylonians were to come as a punishment upon the Israelites for their infidelity to God and for the sin that was rampant amongst them.

Yet now, in Isaiah 40, Isaiah says that the Israelites should be comforted. They should know that the Lord is coming. Their sins have been paid for, twice over in fact, and their Lord is coming to them. It is a picture of a coming king, a conquering king. One who is worthy to have all imperfections of the road upon which he is striding be prepared and repaired prior to him coming so that his travel will be smooth and his glory to be clearly seen. This is the king that will be coming to the Israelites.

And yet now, Luke says that John is the one that Isaiah is speaking of when he talked about the one who would come. John is the one who is announcing that the Lord is coming. He is the one calling for the valleys to be filled in. He is the one crying for the hills and mountains to be made low. He is the one shouting for every crooked road to be made straight.

But what does that mean? Did that ever happen? Did John get the Romans to go out and knock down the hills? Or fill in the valleys? Or make the windy roads of Israel straight?

No, this is a reference to the spiritual reality of our lives. John’s message was of repentance. He called the people to repent, to leave behind their wicked ways, to leave behind the sinfulness of their lives. John called them a brood of vipers and he called them to come to God in repentance.

By repenting, the hills and mountains in their lives would be made low. By repenting, the valleys would be filled in. By repenting, the crooked paths of the people’s lives would be made straight. And by repenting, the way of the Lord would be prepared so that he could come. Jesus would come to the people who have prepared the way for him to come, in repentance. And Jesus’s glory would be made known both within them as well as through them.

This, in fact, was the same message that Jesus gave to the people as he came:

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Mark 1:15

If we want to prepare the way of the Lord, there is one way to do it. It starts with repentance. It starts with leaving behind the sin of our lives. It starts with declaring that we no longer want the things of this world, but instead wanting God himself. We prepare the way of the Lord, the coming of Christ in our lives, in one way: through repentance.

Yesterday, I noted and wrote about the fact that God had given John the Baptist his name. I learned that the name John means

Yahweh is gracious.

The angel Gabriel had come and announced John’s birth to Zecchariah, the father in John’s case. But in Jesus’s case, Gabriel comes to Mary, the mother, to announce Jesus’s birth.

Reading in Luke 2 today, I noted the reference back to Gabriel’s discussion with Mary where Luke says:

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Luke 2:21

God, through the angel Gabriel, has now named both John and Jesus. He is clearly sending a message to his people. The name Jesus means

Yahweh saves.

So there is a clear message. God’s people have been rebellious toward him, but God is sending John, a man who will prepare the way for the Messiah, and his name means Yahweh is gracious.

But what is even more, and of even greater importance, is that the one who will save the people from their sins will be named Jesus whose name means Yahweh saves.

God named both of these children before they were conceived. They were given the names that God himself had given them so that the Lord’s message is clear. God is coming. Yahweh himself. He is gracious. And he is here to save his people.

This is the same message that we receive today. Just a few days ago, we celebrated Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s birth, the celebration of God’s entrance into the world in the form of a man, in the person of Jesus. This is the reality that we live within today. Jesus has come and so we must look to him, give ourselves to him, and live for him. His name and its meaning, as well as that of the name of John, is clear. Yahweh has come, and if you will let him, he has come to save.

We haven’t even come to the worst yet. Even though the seventh seal has been opened and four of the angels have blown their trumpets…

Even though fire and blood have been hurled onto the earth…

Even though a third of the earth was burned up…

Even though a third of the seas were destroyed along with the fish and creatures within them and the ships upon them…

Even though a third of all of the fresh water sources, the rivers and the springs of water, were destroyed…

Even though a third of the moon, a third of the stars, and a third of the day and the night were now without light…

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

Revelation 8:13

…Despite all of this, in his vision, John saw an eagle fly over and heard him crying out woes upon the earth in advance of the last three angels yet to sound their trumpets.

What could be worse? The earth and the universe are not only destroyed, those that are left are suffering because of the lack of one-third of the entire ecosystem required to maintain balance and live. It is gone and nothing will work correctly. And yet there is more to come?

Woe to us here on the earth that won’t heed God’s direction and acknowledge him for who he truly is, the creator and king over all things! God’s judgment and wrath are coming. Let us be prepared for it in Christ!

Following the opening of the six seals, John remains in the throne room where he sees 144,000 people, 12,000 from each of the various tribes of Israel, who have been sealed as servants of God.

Beyond this, suddenly, he also then sees a multitude of people from each of the other groups of people across the world, all in white robes. An elder from that throne room explains to John that these are people that have come from the great tribulation.

The Lamb, Jesus himself, in Revelation 6, has just opened six different seals which unleashed this tribulation upon the earth, the wrath of God that came as a wave upon another wave. Now, those who have come from that time have arrived in the throne room in these white robes:

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes —who are they, and where did they come from?”

I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:13-14

It is a type of paradox that, having washed their robes in blood, they could turn out white. Blood on clothes would stain them red, but yet in the blood of the Lamb, it is made white.

Those that are standing in the throne room praising God, serving him night and day, sheltering in his presence and being led by the Lamb, these people are the ones that have washed their clothes, making them white, in the blood of the Lamb.

We can do the same. We can be cleansed. We can be made clean and white as we stand before God by placing our faith in Jesus. We can come to Christ with our dirty garments, those that have been made dirty by our disobedience, our rebellion against God, our sin, and we can wash them in the blood of Christ. By placing our faith in his sacrifice, we can be cleansed of our sins and be reconciled with God. If we want to be among those who are able to stand in God’s presence one day, we can be washed, making our clothes white again, in the blood of the Lamb.

In Revelation 5, John saw a vision of a Lamb who had come forward in front of the throne and before the elders and creatures in heaven, a Lamb who had been slain so that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation could become priests in the kingdom of God.

So this is a beautiful, conquering, and mercy-filled vision that John had received, but unfortunately, it is not the end of the story.

The Lamb had come forward because he was worthy to open the seals of the scroll, the scroll of the wrath that was to come upon the world.

And so as we read forward into Revelation 6, we see that is what happens. The Lamb begins to open those scrolls and the wrath of the Lamb begins to be poured out upon the world.

Upon opening the sixth seal, the sky became black, the moon like blood, the stars falls to the earth, the sky vanished, and the mountains and islands were removed. And what is more…

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Revelation 6:15-17

The leaders of the earth placed themselves in caves. They preferred that the rocks fall down upon them rather than even seeing the face of God, rather than even see the wrath of the Lamb. It would have been a terrible sight.

John’s vision is a vision of the future. It is a vision of what is yet to come. This is a time that is coming for us.

We often prefer to think of Revelation 5, where the Lamb comes to gather the people for his kingdom, but we rarely speak of Revelation 6, where the Lamb comes in wrath.

This is what we mean when we say that we are saved. Saved from what? Saved from the wrath that is coming. The Lamb will unleash the wrath of God upon the earth, in fact upon the entire universe, and those that are not found within the kingdom will not be saved. Like the kings and the generals mentioned in the passage above, they will be destroyed as a result of the coming wrath.

So let us place our faith in the one who promises salvation. Let us not be so proud to think that we can stand up to the wrath of the Lamb or that it will not come. It will come. Let us instead place our faith in the one who was slain and has paid the price to allow us to be part of his kingdom and enter, saving us from the coming wrath of the Lamb.

One of the most common things that I hear from Christians is the need to be able to give a “good testimony”. Another way that we might say that and explain to someone is that we need to have a good reputation as Christians within our community. In this way, so it is thought, we won’t be accused of something that we have done wrong. Or we won’t bring disgrace to the name of Christ because of the sin that we have committed.

And I can, of course, affirm that this is correct. As we follow Christ, we need to leave behind our life of sin, both sins that we commit publicly as well as privately, and move forward to a life that completely honors Christ, both within the church as well as to the rest of the community.

But while affirming this idea, I can also say that I don’t believe that it is complete. We can easily have a good testimony, or a good reputation, within the community while still being far from God. We can be known as a church that is constantly meeting, constantly worshiping, constantly preaching, and still have people within it that hate one another. We can be a church that seems to be alive, and yet in reality is dead.

As John writes down Jesus’s words to the church in Sardis as he tells them exactly this:

I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 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.

Revelation 1:1-3

The church in Sardis has a reputation for being alive.

Thinking about this statement, we can first of all say that the church has a reputation. They are known within their community. In many places today, a church would be happy to know this, that they they are known within a community. They have a reputation. Great news, the people around us know that we are here!

And what is more, the reputation is good. The church has a “good testimony”. Wow, that is even better news! We are not only known, but we are known for being alive. Wonderful!

But now Jesus finishes the statement and says what is actually true about this church. While their reputation, their “good testimony”, says that they are alive, in reality, they are dead.

How are they dead?

Jesus doesn’t say exactly, but how could we possibly have a reputation for being alive but in reality we are dead? Let me pose a couple of possibilities.

First, as mentioned previously, we can have a lot of activity, and yet at the same time, the activity is with people who actually hate one another. They hold animosity toward one another. They don’t actually like to be together.

From the outside, it looks like they are alive, but in reality, they are dead. They could never be the people that Jesus called them to be because Jesus’s command to his disciples was to love one another. And yet, they are dead because instead of love, there is hate.

I think that there is a second, very important way, in which we could say that we are alive, but instead, we are actually dead. Jesus has called us to be about his work. He intends to redeem the whole world to himself. People from every tribe, tongue, and nation, reconciling them back to God. And yet there are churches that do not join him in his plan.

We hold meetings. It looks like we are busy. It looks like we are alive. We have a “good testimony”, and yet we aren’t actively doing what Jesus said that we should be doing.

What is more, we don’t necessarily do anything about it either. We don’t teach people about God’s mission. We don’t teach people about Jesus’s redemptive priorities. We don’t teach them how to do the work that Jesus called us to do.

While these are two ways in which this can be a reality in our churches, there are many, many other ways that we can have a reputation for being alive and yet we are dead.

Our “good testimony” only goes so far. Our “good testimony” assumes that other people in our community are our judge. Our “good testimony” is only a reputation. It is not a reality.

We need to make sure that we are looking in the mirror. We need to to confirm that we are going beyond a “good testimony” or a good reputation to truly living in the way that Christ has called us to live. To be the community of believers that Christ has called us to be.

In short, we need to wake up. Just as Jesus told the church in Sardis, we must wake up. We need to stop saying that we are OK with having a “good testimony” and that is enough for us, but instead determine that we are not finished until we are living as Jesus has called us to live. We need to complete the work that he has called us to do. Fully complete the work, with no deeds left unfinished. All that he has called us to be and do, that is what we must pursue. Not someday. Not in some fashion. Fully and completely. Now.

We may very well believe our own reputation. We might be thinking that we are alive because of what others have said about us. But that is not enough. Jesus knows whether we are truly alive or actually dead. So let us examine ourselves fully and determine whether we are truly alive. And if not, let us repent. Let us wake up.