Sermon Series: Misconceptions About Christianity 

It's Irrelevant 

Revelation 3:1-6 

CBC Bishop, 9/28/03

In a nutshell: If Christianity seems irrelevant, it's because Christians have allowed themselves to become irrelevant. The words of Jesus to the church at Sardis gives us 5 things to do in order to remain relevant to our culture and the location in which we live.

I. Introduction

A. Irrelevant Church

There was a story that appeared a couple of years ago in a small Midwestern weekly newspaper which started like this…, "We are pleased to announce that the cyclone which blew away the Methodist church last Friday did no real damage to the town."

Now folks, that's a very scary sentence to me! Because it's saying that the church in that town was a church that had become irrelevant and had no impact for Jesus Christ.

William Barclay, the well known theologian of the past century said the words I put on the front of your worship folders this morning… The problem is not hostility to the church; it is indifference. For many the church is simply irrelevant; it is not even worth criticizing, it is simply to be ignored.

B. How did it become that way?

So how did we go from the description of Christianity in…

Acts 17:6 These that have turned the world upside down are come here also; (KJV)

…to not even being worthwhile to criticize-or in other words,…irrelevant? What changed? Did Christianity change, or did Christians change? Well, to answer that question, I want to go to the last book of the Bible (Revelation), and look closely at a church that had descended into irrelevancy.

Revelation 3:1-3 & 6 1 "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 not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, 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. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

II. The History of Sardis

There's a good chance you don't know very much about Sardis, so, let me give you a short history lesson. Because it really is an incredible tale.

A. Started out Great

Seven hundred years before these words were written (which was around 95 A.D.), Sardis was one of the greatest cities in the world. It was a magnificent city filled with all kinds of luxuries and almost unlimited wealth.

Sardis was also a great military power, which you can understand if you can picture it. It was built on a plateau about fifteen hundred feet above a valley. The sides of the plateau were sheer rock cliffs. Any enemy could be seen for miles in all directions. Because of this, the city was nearly impregnable.

The greatest of the kings of Sardis was a man by the name of Croesus. Even though Croesus and his people were extremely rich, it was their wealth that was their demise. The wealthier the people of Sardis became, the more degenerate they became in their morality. They became over-confident and thought their wealth would last forever.

B. War with Cyrus of Persia

In his pride, Croesus decided to declare war on Cyrus of Persia who is mentioned in the book of Daniel. In order to get to the armies of Cyrus, Croesus had to leave his walled city and cross the river below the plateau where Sardis sat. But when he crossed the river, Croesus and his army got pretty beat up by the Persian troops. However, this didn't phase Croesus. He simply retreated to his high walled city, where he planned to recoup, refit his troops, rest, and get ready to fight again.

But Cyrus of Persia, laid siege to the city of Saris. After fourteen days, he offered a special reward to anyone who could discover a way to get into the city of Sardis. Well, one evening, one of Cyrus' soldiers was watching the wall above, and he saw a Sardian soldier drop his helmet off the edge of the wall.

A few minutes later, this Persian soldier saw the same Sardian soldier emerge from a crack in the rock below the city wall, and retrieve his helmet, then he disappeared back into that same crack in the rock. The next night that Persian soldier led a party of Persian troops up through that crack in the rock and right into an unguarded corner of the city. So, under the cover of darkness, while the guards were all sleeping, this Persian soldier and the men that were with him opened the gates of the city and allowed Cyrus' troops to enter, and the city of Sardis was captured that night.

C. It happened again!

But that isn't the end of Sardis' story. The city disappeared from history under Persian rule for two centuries until Alexander the Great conquered Persia, and Sardis became a Greek city.

It's been said that any people who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. Well, the people of Sardis forgot, and history did repeat. After Alexander died, his generals fought each other to determine who would become the next ruler of Greece. One of the generals, Antiochus, eventually became the ruler of the area that included Sardis.

While he was fighting one of his rivals, that rival general took refuge in the city of Sardis. And for a year he managed to defend the city against Antiochus. But, then one of the soldiers of Antiochus discovered the secret crack in the rock, and at night a band of soldiers crept up the steep cliffs and entered the city. And just like had happened 200 years before, everyone in the city was sleeping and there were no guards. So, the city fell because they were not watching.

D. Roman times

Later, when Rome ruled the world, Sardis became a Roman city. But in A.D. 17 it was hit by an earthquake and was almost completely leveled. Tiberius the Roman Emperor at the time liked the location of the city so much that he made Sardis tax-exempt for five years and donated money from the Roman treasury to rebuild the city. So, Sardis had a pretty easy time of recovery.

And after nearly 80 years, at the time Jesus told John to write the words of the book of Revelation, the city was again wealthy and had become quite morally perverse.

It amazes me friends, even as I tell this story, to think that on two different occasions, this city had been captured because its inhabitants were too apathetic to keep watch. And in 95 AD, apathy was setting in for a third time. Even the church in that city reflected this characteristic. It was lazy and dead. In the words of William Barclay, it was "not even worth criticizing." The Church was simply something that the general population of Sardis ignored because it was irrelevant.

The bottom line to the sin of Sardis was it's irrelevance. It was dying. It had no passion and it had no influence for Jesus Christ. It could have been called "The Church of the Living Dead". -They were dead because they didn't care. -They had no passion for the things of God. -And they were irrelevant to answering the needs of people who didn't know Jesus Christ.

So, how do we here at CBC, keep from falling into the same trap of irrelevancy as Sardis did? How do we make keep this mis-conception about the Christian faith-that it's irrelevant-from becoming truth in the lives of this church family, here?

Well, I'll tell you…We pay close attention to the five warnings that Jesus gave to the church of Sardis, and commit to not letting those same apathetic problems take root in our lives. Let's look at what Jesus told this church…

III. 5 Warnings from Jesus against irrelevancy

A. Wake Up!

If you look at the beginning words of verse two, you see the first warning. "Wake up!" If you have the KJV you see it says, "be watchful." That puts it pretty well. This phrase carries with it the idea of urgency. Because a person can be watchful and yet be half-asleep.

Illustration: I love watching football on Sunday afternoons, if I don't have meetings. But sometimes I fall asleep while I'm watching a game. There have been times when Diane saw me sleeping, and she took the remote and started surfing the channels to see what else was on. Now, usually, if I'm sleeping like that, I don't have a clue what's going on in the game. But that won't stop me from saying in my sleepy stupor, "Don't change the channel, I was watching that."

Contrast that to a time when we were living in Missouri, and Jori had just come home from college for "Spring Break", and we went to bed relatively early. At 2AM, the smoke detector went off. I jumped out of bed, Diane jumped out of bed. Jori jumped out of bed. I ran to the basement door and opened it, only to be greeted by a wall of smoke from a fire down there. We threw on some clothes and ran outside and called the fire department on our cordless phone. We weren't groggy at all! We were really awake!

Well, when Jesus told the church at Sardis to wake up, He wasn't talking about the half-wakeup stupor during a football game on Sunday afternoon. He's talking about smoke-detector, get yourself out of the house, open up your eyes and call the fire department… wakeup.

In other words, open your eyes and realize your irrelevance. Then start doing something about the problem. Start caring about the things God cares about. Start making the things that are important to God, important to you!

Friends, if the church is irrelevant, if Christianity isn't exciting, if lives aren't being changed through the ministries and programs and relationships that are in the church…then wake up! And do something about it! If lives aren't being changed in a community from the gospel of Jesus Christ, then there is an urgent problem. Don't expect someone else to fix the problem. You have to do something about it in your life, NOW! Wake up!

B. Strengthen What Remains

The next phrase in verse two is the second warning we need to pay attention to-strengthen what remains!

If you look at verse one of this chapter, you'll see Jesus says that this church had a reputation of being alive, but it's really dead. In other words, they were doing good things, but there was no power in what they were doing. So, Jesus was saying that they didn't have to come up with all kinds of new, or catchy programs and strategies to be relevant to the people of Sardis. They didn't need to re-invent themselves and become something they weren't. Rather, they needed to get underneath the surface of their deeds and begin examining their motives.

In other words, their actions were right, but their motives were wrong. They were serving God, doing ministry, and having church, but all for the wrong reasons. In essence, Jesus was saying, "Keep doing the good things you're doing, but do those good things for the right reasons." The wrong reasons are things like… …we've always done it that way before; or …we want people to think good about us; or …we're doing what we think is right, without having clear direction from God.

The right reasons for doing good things have to do solely with pleasing God.

I read something this week that was written by Coach Bill McCartney, the founder of the Promise Keeper organization. Listen to this…

Illustration: Recently I spoke at a large arena. The moment I stepped off the stage, I began asking friends and associates how I'd done. There were high fives, back slaps, encouraging compliments to the effect that I'd "hit a home run." I went back to the hotel quite pleased with myself.

The next morning, early, I went to my knees. God wasn't to be found. I asked, "Lord, where are You? I rose early to meet with You. I spoke of Your wonder and glory last night. I praised You with all of my heart. I thought You would be pleased. What have I done? Where are You?"

In that very instant, I sensed God was asking me a direct question: "Last night, when you finished your message, why didn't you ask Me how you did? You came to Me for anointing to speak, but you went to your friends seeking their opinions. Why did you not seek Mine first?"

It broke my heart to hear it. But it was true. I'd spent weeks seeking God's heart for that message. And it was a home run; the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon that arena--not because of anything I said, but because God showed up. And yet I didn't seek God's affirmation first. I sought the approval of men. I confessed my sin and repented. Immediately God's sweetness returned. It shocked me into seeing that the only One I've ever needed to please is God. (from Sold Out, by Bill McCartney, Word, 1997).

We become irrelevant when we operate on our own agenda instead of God's. So, strengthen what remains.

C. Remember how you received and heard

A third warning is found in verse 3. In some of your translations it says to "remember what you have received and heard." Actually, a better way to translate this is "remember HOW you have received and heard", like it says in the old King James Version. The word in Greek can be translated either way-what or how-but I think the message Jesus wants to communicate makes more sense using the word How, rather than What.

Now, here's why that's important. What these Christians in Sardis had heard was the gospel. -They had heard the message of Jesus; -His crucifixion on behalf of sinners; -of His resurrection; -of His availability to human beings through prayer; -about the Spirit who strengthened them, and equipped them for ministry. They had heard all that.

But what they were not remembering was, how did it come to them? What He's referring to was the empowerment for ministry that the Holy Spirit of God had in the lives of the early missionaries who came to Sardis to speak God's truth. Through that power alone, the people of Sardis understood the good news of Jesus Christ and accepted it. It made sense to them. The power of God made the message of the gospel relevant. It wasn't the persuasive power of human beings. It was the power of God!

Friends, this isn't rocket science. It really is very simple. But even as simple as it is, it is crucially foundational to making Christianity relevant to every culture down through the centuries. If you try to do church or do ministry without the Holy Spirit's power, you have a human endeavor, not a divine one. And a human endeavor will never ever have eternal consequences or be relevant. Only a divine one will.

D. Make IT Yours!

The fourth warning is to Make it Yours! Or as it says in verse 3, Obey IT or Keep IT.

But what is IT? What are we to make ours? What are we supposed to keep? What are we supposed to obey? Well, very simply, what Jesus talked about in the words just before this phrase…the power of God's Holy Spirit in our lives.

In…John 15:26. Jesus talks about this Holy Spirit. He says…

26 "When the Counselor (the Greek word is paraclete) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

Illustration: This word paraclete is an ancient warrior's term. Greek soldiers went into battle in pairs, so when the enemy attacked, they could do their hand to hand fighting while they were together, back-to-back. They each covered the other's blind side. If you were a soldier, your battle partner was your paraclete.

Well, Jesus doesn't send us into the world alone. The Holy Spirit is our battle partner who covers our blind side and fights for our well being.

And the warning is…don't lose your battle partner. Keep it! -Don't go into battle, -don't try being the church, -don't plan ministries, -don't volunteer to help, -don't play an instrument on the worship team, -or try to teach Sunday School, -or serve as a leader in AWANA, -or help people through God's Closet, -or do anything that has to do with the action of your faith… …without the power of the Holy Spirit watching your backside.

Team up with God. Don't try to do anything without a partnership where you're prayed up, and depending on the Holy Spirit for your power, rather than yourself. Without the Holy Spirit's backing, you're nothing. You won't accomplish anything significant. You will be irrelevant to the needs of the people around you.

Illustration: Imagine a soldier who never engages the enemy. This soldier drills and drills until he's bored stiff. He marches. He shines the chrome in the bathroom, cleans the barracks, and oils his gun. He says "Yes Sir" a hundred times a day. Only one thing he doesn't do. He doesn't fight. He never experiences the fear of the battle that makes him realize what all the training is about. I'm afraid that's where some in this room are and have been.

I've heard a lot of Christians here in Bishop, say by their actions, "Church is irrelevant." I say that because so many only go to church when it's convenient to their schedules. Anything else holds a higher priority than attending Sunday morning worship.

Do you know why that is? Because they're not in the battle. They're just sitting around the barracks thinking there is nothing to do so their training has no purpose. From their perspective, Christianity and the church are irrelevant.

Listen to me. If you want to energize your Christian life, figure out some ground that Satan now owns and begin to do something to take it for Christ. I guarantee that after you have ducked the hail of bullets that come your way because you had the audacity to enter the territory of Satan, your boredom will vanish and "church" will become relevant.

E. Repent!

But there's one last warning that Jesus gave to the church at Sardis, and it's a very good one for us to follow. In order to be relevant to our culture, we need to repent.

In the Greek, this word "repent" is in what is called the aorist imperative. That means it describes a determined, definite point of action. So, repentance is the act -or the determination to change.

Sometimes people think they've repented when they agree with what I say on a Sunday morning. Folks, that's not repentance. If I'm teaching from the word of God, did you know that the devil agrees with what I'm saying on Sunday morning? Satan's also agreeing with what Jesus is saying here in this passage about our faith being relevant. That's why he is working so hard at this moment to keep you and me from doing anything about it. The question is are you and I willing to let Satan keep us irrelevant? Or do we want to change?

When we live with unconfessed sin and no repentance…we are irrelevant Our faith is irrelevant, our words are irrelevant, and our Christianity is irrelevant.

Illustration: In an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip, the little boy, Calvin, says to his tiger friend, Hobbes, "I feel bad that I called Susie names and hurt her feelings. I'm sorry I did it."

"Maybe you should apologize to her," Hobbes suggests.

Calvin thinks about this for a moment and then replies, "I keep hoping there's a less obvious solution."

Well, friends, when we want to restore our relationship with God, we need to remember that He really likes the obvious solution. Because without a restored relationship, where we are in agreement with God on what is right and wrong in our life, we become irrelevant to showing the world that a relationship with God really does make a difference in a person's life.

IV. Conclusion

So, the truth of the matter is really this: It is a misconception to think that Christianity is irrelevant. Afterall, something that speaks of… -God's personal love for a person, -His providing a way of salvation from sin, -His provision of a full and abundant life, and -His offer of eternity in heaven rather than an eternity in Hell… …can't be irrelevant. Those things are vitally important to every man woman and child on the face of the earth.

But what is irrelevant is a messenger of this faith who doesn't deliver the message. And I'm not talking about words here. I'm talking about a life. Is the relevance of your life lining up with the relevance of your faith?

Or does that newspaper line speak of your life? "We are pleased to announce that the cyclone which blew away Calvary Baptist church last Friday did no real damage to the town of Bishop."

Friends, we need to: 1, Wake up; 2. Strengthen What Remains; 3. Remember How You Received and Heard; 4. Make the Holy Spirit Yours; and 5. Repent when we need to get back on track with God.

Otherwise, we're going to become like Sardis. A church that was simply irrelevant; not even worth criticizing, and something to be simply ignored.

Amen.

Now, every journey begins with a "first step". Look at these 5. Which is the area your need the most improvement in. Identify that and start praying for that to become stronger. Do that this morning as we close.