Confession time: I love medical drama shows. I’m going to say that again – I really love medical drama shows. Particularly Chicago Med but also others like New Amsterdam, Transplant and the like. I would never want to practise medicine myself but there is something so thrilling about seeing doctors in their element. As far as I am concerned, I currently have about 10 years of medical experience from watching these shows😅

Most of these medical drama shows are set up in emergency rooms. Speaking to medical professionals in my life, I have learnt that most of what they show is not a real depiction of what happens in real life but for the sake of this analogy, let’s assume it is all real. Often you see an ambulance rush into the hospital and paramedics quickly wheel in a patient into the emergency room who is in a critical condition. They have already commenced first aid on the way to the hospital but now the patient needs more urgent and critical care that can only happen in a hospital setting. What you often hear through the intercom is ‘Code Blue’ which is an alert to nurses and doctors that the patient needs life-saving intervention and all their attention and efforts needs to be directed towards this patient. Time is of the essence when it comes to the condition of this patient. How this patient is attended to is critical in determining whether the patient lives or dies.

In Revelation 3: 1-6, Jesus is sounding a ‘Code Blue’ on the church in Sardis.

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.

Revelation 3:1 NIV

In essence, Jesus is saying to the church in Sardis that they are in a critical condition. They are on life support. Like other churches, Jesus knows their deeds/works. Unlike the churches of Ephesus and Thyatira whom Jesus commended for their works, Jesus challenges the church in Sardis regarding their works.

Jesus knows their works (He has inspected and examined them) and has found that their works have earned them a reputation that is contrary to what Jesus knows about them. They have made a name for themselves as being alive but they are actually dead. Like those artificial plants that look healthy and alive and it’s not until you get close to them that you discover they are actually fake.

The church in Sardis may have been able to fool everyone else but Jesus knew their true condition. Isn’t that a mirroring of the modern day church? We have many who look alive but they are actually dead. You may ask, “how do you know if you are truly alive?” Jesus gave us the answer:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

John 15:4 NKJV

No plant can bear fruit unless it abides/remains in the vine. What fruit are we bearing? No, I am not talking about the fruit that we act or look like we are bearing. Not the fruit that our family, our church friends or even our pastor thinks we are bearing. Galatians 5:19-24 is clear about what fruit the works of the flesh produce and the what fruit the Holy Spirit produces in us. Unfortunately in the modern day church, we have many who used to produce the fruit of the Spirit but have now gotten detached from the vine. But because we know what fruit looks like, we have mastered the art of pretending like we are still bearing the fruit of the Spirit, deceiving many, even ourselves. Jesus says, it doesn’t matter what reputation we have managed to maintain in the world’s eyes. If Jesus says we are dead then we are truly DEAD!

Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

Revelation 3:2 NIV

Jesus never corrects us without showing us the path back to Him. He commands the church in Sardis to Wake Up! I don’t want you to read this as a gentle wake up call. I am a deep sleeper and sometimes it takes someone shouting at me, shaking me vigorously or an alarm to be blaring in my ear to get me to wake up. I imagine this is what Jesus is saying to this church. This church is not just dozing off, they are in such deep spiritual slumber that Jesus considers them to be DEAD!

There is still hope for this church though. There are parts of the church that are still alive that need to be strengthened. But these parts are still in critical condition and require urgent care otherwise they are going to die as well. One of the things that has caused this church’s critical condition is that they have unfinished works. They are doing something, they are just not doing it to completion. According to Jesus, unfinished works result in spiritual death.

This is an urgent call to the 21st century church. The church that has viewed repentance as merely feeling sorry for one’s sins rather than a complete 180° turn away from sin, making conscious decisions and taking onward steps towards Jesus. The church that has mastered faithfulness on a Sunday but has fallen away from Monday to Saturday. The church that has normalised having a Bible verse on Instagram but using the same Instagram to engage in sexual immorality. The church that has normalised partial and delayed obedience (which is disobedience) when God requires complete and timely obedience. The church that has used the excuse of ‘God knows my heart’ to ignore God’s warnings. Jesus says, Wake Up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die.

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 3:3 NIV

Just like the church in Ephesus, this church is not required to do completely new things. The instruction from Jesus is to go back to what they already know. The things they neglected and instead settled for a reputation of being Christ followers rather than being true Christ followers to their core. Jesus instructs them to hold fast, to pay attention and carefully attend to the teaching they had received, and repent. Not just say sorry or feel bad about their sin. The Amplified version explains the word ‘repent’ here to mean to ‘change your sinful way of thinking, and demonstrate your repentance with new behaviour that proves a conscious decision to turn away from sin.’

Jesus tells them that their repentance is time critical. Have you ever snoozed an alarm and then woke up 2 hours later? Maybe you missed an appointment, got late for work or like me, missed a marathon because you refused to heed the wake up call. Missing this wake up call for Jesus is not just a mere inconvenience to their day to day lives, it means eternal separation from Him.

The beauty about following Jesus is that He is the God who restores and redeems. Just like the dry bones in Ezekiel 37, Jesus is able to bring back to life (resuscitate) even the driest and deadest parts of us. The Holy Spirit is also the Strengthener (John 14:26 Amplified version) and is able to help us to strengthen those parts that are about to die. We repent, Jesus restores.

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.

Revelation 3:4 NIV

Jesus encourages the church in Sardis that they are not all in a critical condition. They are those among them who are still pure. They have not contaminated their character and personal integrity with sin (Revelation 3:4 Amplified version). These are the brothers and sisters in Christ who are able to encourage us, rebuke us in love, keep us accountable and help us return back to our walk of salvation. Now more than ever, the church needs the healthy parts of its body to support the failing parts. And it is up to the sick parts of the body not to receive this support as judgement but as critical care that will nurse them back to health.

I am not just talking about everyone else, I am talking about myself. Another confession time: out of all the 7 letters, this is the letter that mostly resonated to me and that God used first to convict me. I grew up in church and for majority of my life, I knew how to ‘play’ church. I went to all Christian schools and attended church almost every Sunday (because church was non-negotiable in my parents’ house). Meanwhile, especially in my teenage and most of my 20s, I was living a life completely opposite of the God I claimed to love and serve. But because I was able to still maintain a reputation of being Christian, I thought I was good.

In the last couple of years however, God has recaptured my heart and revealed to me how desperate my condition has been. Some things fell off immediately when I rededicated my life to Christ, some have taken some time and have required instituting daily disciplines as the Holy Spirit has guided me. An example of this is lust (pornography and masturbation) which had resulted in a 14 year addiction. However, because I had seen a reduction in frequency in engaging in lust, I had erroneously assumed that my condition at year 14 was not as critical as my condition in year 1. Unknowingly, my mindset had become, ‘If I am not sinning as much as I used to, then it’s not as serious as it used to be.’ However, sin is sin before God. Secret sin and exposed sin is sin. One time sin and habitual sin is sin. And all sin separates us from God. Lust was ruining my relationship with God the same way – whether I was engaging in it 5 times a week or only once in 5 months.

Then I started serving in church and I thought to myself, ‘See, I’m getting better because not only I am watching pornography less but I am also now serving in church. It’s bad but it’s not that bad because I have good works.’ Now, I don’t want to negate the process that the Holy Spirit takes all of us through to make us more like Jesus. We will forever be in a process of sanctification while we are here on earth. The problem is when we come into agreement with the devil, that reducing frequency of sin is ‘good enough’ yet Jesus wants us to be free and free indeed (John 8:36) Jesus wants us to be completely free, not free – ish.

Moreover, sin is not just about the things we are doing wrong. When we are dead in our sin, there is a spirit that is working in us.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

Ephesians 2:1-2 NIV

It was not until I experienced deliverance from the spirit of lust and homosexuality that my eyes were opened. Glory to God! It really grieved me to see how my sin affected my relationship with God. It was not until I stopped calling lust a struggle and truly acknowledged that it was sin. We never say someone is struggling with murder or robbery but we easily term lust as a struggle, which blinds us from realising how detrimental it is to our walk with God. It was not until then that I was able to see that all I had been doing was behaviour modification. As long as the devil kept me in a cycle of behaviour modification, I could never experience true spiritual transformation – which is what Jesus died for.

Jesus is not just coming back for an at least form of Christianity. Well, at least I go to church. At least I know a few verses. At least I have a Bible Verse on my Instagram Bio. No! Jesus is coming back for a church that is totally surrendered to Him. He is not impressed by the Christian resumés we have made, He is concerned about the heart posture behind everything that we do in His name. No wonder He says this:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 7:21-23 NIV

Over and over, Jesus assures the churches that their dedication, submission and surrender to Him is not in vain. To those who remain faithful in Sardis and in the world today, Jesus promises that He will never cast us away. We will get His forever stamp of approval and spend eternity with Him. This is worth living and dying for!

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.

Revelation 3:5 NIV

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Grace and peace,

Victor