Sardis: The Dead Church

Transcription

1 Sardis: The Dead Church Revelation 3:1-6 Snug Gospel Chapel: September 13 th, 2015 Good morning! We re going to be continuing this morning in our series through the book of Revelation. As you ll remember, we ve been progressing through the letters written to the seven churches in Asia Minor, which were in fact penned by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This morning, we ve reached the church of Sardis. Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1. Before we begin reading, let s open with a word of prayer. Father as we open your Word this morning, as we listen to what your Spirit has to say to the seven churches, it is my prayer that you will enable us to truly understand what it is that you are calling us to hear. Lord, do not let us leave this place without a very real, very vibrant sense of who the author of this incredible book is, and to be transformed by a deeper knowledge of our desperate need for you. Father, I ask that you would make us a people that are seeking the face of the Lord Jesus Christ both here in your word, and in prayer. I ask that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that your word would take root in us, and grow and flourish in our lives. Lord, grant us the joy and radiance of a people brought from death to life by the blood of the Lamb, a people transformed by this great, and glorious, and holy King, until He comes. Amen. What an amazing privilege it is to come to the Lord in prayer. We re going to be looking at the letter written by the Lord Jesus Christ to the church at Sardis today. Let s start by reading through the text. Revelation, chapter 3 and verse 1. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. 4 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they

2 shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Sardis: its History and Outlook To begin with, let s look at the history of the city of Sardis. In terms of the context for this letter, there are three major points that are significant, and I m going to outline each of them for you in turn, then look back to see how they impact on our understanding of the text. What we re going to see here, first historically, and then prophetically, is three blessings, and two great failures. Three blessings, and two great failures. Let s look at the first blessing: the impregnable position of Sardis. Sardis had a reputation for being impregnable. Situated 1,000 feet above the broad Hermus valley and surrounded by the river Pactolus, it enjoyed a particularly defensible location. Its skyline was dominated by Mount Tmolus, a steep and dramatic outcropping with a large plateau that overlooked the city and the valley below. This mountain was home to a series of forts, and later, temples, that were considered to be virtually impenetrable. While this was its reputation, however, the reality was distinctly less glamorous. Sardis had been conquered no less than four times in the centuries preceding the writing of this letter. It had been captured by the Simmerians in the 7 th Century BC, the Persians in the 6 th Century, the Athenians in the 5 th, and by Antiochus III the Great in the 3 rd Century. What is most important for our study, however, is the manner in which each of these conquests occurred. You see, while Sardis seemed to have been built in the perfect location geographically, the fact is that it was in a terrible location geologically. The massive cliffs of Mount Tmolus, which appeared to offer such an imposing challenge to any potential attacker, were in fact composed almost entirely of clay, which suffered continual erosion, and created large cracks in the hillside for an invading army to exploit. The city s defenders, however, seemed to repeat the mistakes of the past. They often left these cliffs entirely undefended, instead choosing to watch the less robust defenses of the city s entrance. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the siege of the Persian army in 549BC. Croesus, the King of Lydia, had such confidence in the location of his fort that he left three sides of the city unguarded. After a 14-day siege, the Persian King Cyrus (whom you may remember from the sermon on the church at Pergamos) offered a reward to any man who could find a way of scaling the cliffs. The story goes that one of Cyrus men noticed a Lydian soldier drop his helmet from the battlements, and noted the path he took to retrieve it. The following night, a group of 15 Persian soldiers scaled the cliffs using that same path, opened the gates of the city from within, and conquered it within hours.

3 Look to verse 2 of our passage. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. You can see the picture here, can t you. Sardis was a city that was characterized by an ill-placed sense of security. This was a city whose repeated failure to be watchful had caused numerous defeats, resulting in repeated conquest by invading armies. Her massive cliffs, which visually seemed to be so easily defensible, were in reality weak and in need of strengthening. In fact, they became a significant vulnerability, which led to the downfall of the city on more than one occasion. The second great blessing was the immense wealth of the city. Much like the cities that precede it in the book of Revelation, Sardis was an extremely wealthy city. There is, as is often the case in such matters, a mythology associated with the city, and with its river, which produced great quantities of gold. Ovid s Metamorphoses recounts the story, in which the Satyr Silenus (foster child of the god Dionysius), having been captured by the Phyrgians, was brought before King Midas of the Lydians. The king, recognizing Slienus as a friend and ally, joyfully led a celebration of the guest s arrival, lasting ten days and nights. After this celebration, Midas returned Silenus to Dionysus, who was so grateful and relieved at having his foster-child returned that he promised to grant Midas a single wish. Midas, as you may remember, loved nothing so much as he loved gold, and so requested, Make it that whatever I touch with my body turns to yellow gold. Now, whether you ve heard this story before or not, you can no doubt guess how it ends. What seemed like a blessing very quickly revealed itself to be a curse. Midas, at first overjoyed to see his gift turn ordinary objects into pure gold, soon discovered that he could neither eat, nor drink, nor enjoy anything his hands could touch or lips could taste. He cried out to heaven forgive me! I have sinned. Have pity on me, I beg you, and save me from this costly evil!. According to the writer Ovid, the god Bacchus gave Midas instructions for his own restoration. So that you do not remain coated with the gold you wished for so foolishly, he said, go to the river by great Sardis, make your way up to the bright ridge against the falling waters, until you come to the source of the stream, and plunge yourself into the foaming fountain, where it gushes out and wash away your sin. This, according to Ovid, Herodotus, and other writers from antiquity, was the source of Sardis great wealth. The gold washed from Midas body became a rich-flowing spring that filled the sands of the river and brought both riches and fame to Sardis. While this is obviously mere mythology, there is at least some truth to the story. The river Potolus did indeed have a great deal of gold in it, and this was the source of much of the city s wealth and in fact it is here, for the first time in history, that gold coins are minted, in the 6 th century BC.

4 This great wealth reinforces the sense in which the city felt secure. It was rich, impregnable, and strong, and at least on the surface appeared to lack for nothing. By the time of the letter written by the Lord Jesus, Sardis is very much at its peak. The invasions of the past were a distant memory, and even a massive earthquake, which struck in 17AD during the reign of Tiberius, had been brushed aside. The citizens of Sardis funded the rebuilding of the city in its entirety themselves, from their own great wealth. So by all accounts, and on all fronts, this is a city that seems to be prosperous and alive. Look again to verse 1. I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Sardis was a living, vibrant, wealthy community with a reputation stretching back to antiquity; even to mythology. Its vast financial resources had enabled it to become a beautiful city characterized by multiple temples, a gymnasium, a vast marketplace and a seemingly impregnable fortress. At least on the surface, everything about Sardis seemed to be moving in the right direction. This was true even in a spiritual sense, which brings us to our third blessing: great leadership. It was not just the city of Sardis that had a reputation for being alive. The church, too, seems to have had a lot going for it. The founder of the church in Sardis is actually referenced for us in Scripture, mentioned by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 4, verse 3). This man, Clement, is believed to have been the first gentile to believe in Jesus Christ, and was later appointed the Bishop of Sardis. Clement s successor, Melito, is known as one of the foremost apologists and writers of the 2 nd Century. While only one of his books survives complete, what remains is of such a standard that he is often mentioned in the same breath as men such as Polycarp, another of the early church s primary historians and writers. Melito organized missions to the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire, seeking to bring the gospel even to the barbarian tribes far to the north. One of Melito s contemporaries described him as being guided in all things by the operations of the Holy Spirit, and his writings, and what is known of his life, would seem to bear that out. Allow me to quote a portion of his writing for you. Speaking of the crucifixion, Melito says: The one who hung the earth in space, is himself hanged; the one who fixed the heavens in place, is himself impaled; the one who firmly fixed all things, is himself firmly fixed to the tree. The Lord is insulted, God has been murdered, the King of Israel has been destroyed by the right hand of Israel. 97. O frightful murder! O unheard of injustice! The Lord is disfigured and he is not deemed worthy of a cloak for his naked body, so that he might not be seen exposed. For this reason the stars turned and fled, and the day grew quite dark, in order to hide the naked person hanging on the tree, darkening not the body of the Lord, but the eyes of men. 98. Yes, even though the people did not tremble, the earth trembled instead; although the people were not afraid, the heavens grew frightened; although the people did not tear their garments, the angels tore theirs; although the people did not lament, the Lord thundered from heaven, and the most high uttered his voice.

5 101. [But] he rose up from the dead, and cried aloud with this voice: Who is he who contends with me? Let him stand in opposition to me. I set the condemned man free; I gave the dead man life; I raised up the one who had been entombed Who is my opponent? I, he says, am the Christ. What an amazing testimony to the glory and greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ! So what happened to this vibrant church, that it should become so despised by the Lord? The church at Sardis certainly started well enough. Her ministers were spiritual luminaries. Their preaching, as we ve just seen, was powerful. Their doctrine was beyond reproach, and their zeal unmatched. What went wrong? History answers this question for us and it s here that we encounter the two great failures of the church in Sardis. Melito s successors despised his adherence to sound doctrine and lacked his passion for the gospel. Within the space of a generation, the church at Sardis became characterized not by its faithfulness, but by the heretical doctrine of Arianism: the belief that Jesus Christ, while being the Son of God, was a created being, and was neither eternal, nor One - in substance or being - with the Father. The logical side-effect of this teaching was that the Holy Spirit was no longer recognized as a person, nor as a member of a divine Trinity, but merely as the imparted force of God a figurative reference to God s active work in the world. These, then, were the two great failures: - The abandonment of Jesus Christ as God; and - The rejection of the Holy Spirit as a person of the trinity. I ve no doubt you can anticipate the effect these doctrines had on the church at Sardis. Having abandoned the King of Kings and the Comforter He promised, they lost the power of their witness and the presence of the Holy Spirit. In fact, within another generation the church at Sardis had ceased to exist at all. When archaeologists excavated Sardis in the 1960 s they found two reminders of a church that had once been so vibrant and alive. The first was the ruins of the church itself which had actually been built into, and as a side room of, the temple to Artemis. The second piece of evidence is perhaps the most telling, and certainly more poetic. The final remnant of the church at Sardis was a graveyard, with a handful of Christian crosses scrawled on the walls of the temple and the gravestones of the dead not as memorials, but as graffiti.

6 So, we now understand the historical city of Sardis, but what then of the prophetic angle of this passage? Well, this shouldn t surprise you by now, but what we ll see here prophetically is the same pattern that we ve just found historically. The church at Sardis is representative of the Reformation, from 1517 to around This seems, at least at first, to be a somewhat unfair comparison. We often view the Reformation as a period through which the orthodoxy of the church was reclaimed from the corrupt and idolatrous practices of the Roman Catholic Church. While that was certainly true for a time, the church at the Reformation, like the church in Sardis, failed to cling to the many blessings that they had been given, and their downfall follows the same pattern we ve just seen: three blessings, and two great failures. First, the blessings. The reformation church, like Sardis, stood upon an impregnable foundation. During the Reformation, the church of Jesus Christ was blessed with a return to several key Biblical doctrines. When Martin Luther stumbled across Habbakuk s great declaration that the just shall live by faith, he rediscovered two truths at the very heart of the gospel: salvation by faith alone, through grace alone. The return to these doctrines was born out of another rediscovered truth, sola scriptura that is, Scripture alone the teaching that the Word of God was, and is, and shall always be the primary authority for the church here on earth. These doctrines formed the solid foundation for the church throughout the Reformation. but that wasn t the only blessing for the Reformation Church. It was also blessed with the great wealth of Scripture, available for the first time in people s native tongues. It is in this period that the Guternberg Press was invented, which, thanks to its movable type, was able to produce the entire body of Scripture in a short period of time. Previously, God s Word had been produced by the work of scribes in a meticulous and time-consuming process. The invention of the printing press enabled the gospel to be printed en masse and, even more importantly, in languages that lay people could understand. For the first time in many hundreds of years, the Word of God became freely available outside of the pulpit, and outside of the dominion of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Finally, this church was blessed spiritually with leadership that sought to restore the church to the fundamental principles of Scripture, and to reject the heresies of the Roman Catholic Church. These, then, were the three blessings of the Reformation Church: An impregnable doctrine of salvation, a wealth of Scripture, and a leadership that sought the face of God. Much like Sardis, however, the church during the Reformation

7 established a reputation through faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but failed to continue to live up to that reputation. The briefly flickering flame of revival, which drove out the spiritual darkness that had so pervaded the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira, was short-lived. The Reformation Church, like those that had preceded it, submitted itself to the state, or, as in the case of John Calvin, sought to create its own state based on legalistic spiritual principles, and suffered as a result. Factions arose that were unable to find common ground in Scripture, and a church that had begun the great work of reform failed miserably in completing it. Within a generation, this church, having failed to strengthen itself against complacency within and political pressures without, had succumbed to comfortable political Christianity in much the same way as the church it had tried so very hard to separate itself from. And so it was that the Lord said, verse 2, I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. I d like to draw your attention to a very specific doctrine that the Lord mentions repeatedly in this passage and this brings us to the first of the Reformation Church s great failures. Like Sardis, this church had lost sight of Jesus Christ. Look with me at verse 2. Be watchful. now to verse 3: Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. Now, those verses have a number of familiar phrases in them, and this is by no means accidental. When you see such things in Scripture, that s a challenge to head down the rabbit hole, as it were. So follow me into the book of 1 st Thessalonians, and chapter 5. 1 st Thessalonians, chapter 5. Beginning at verse 1. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. and now to verse 4:

8 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. So, why does the Lord Jesus use this reference for the Reformation Church? What is He saying here? I believe that there are two points that we need to take note of. The first is that this was a church that had forgotten to watch for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. This remains largely true of the churches that follow the Reformed tradition, even today. Such churches reject the teaching of a literal, 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem, and exchange the Blessed Hope for the vague teaching of a distant, far-off glory. These churches, from the Reformation right up to the present day, have lost the sense of the prophetic in the pages of Scripture, and have forsaken the teaching of God s Word in regard to the Revelation of the King and specifically to eschatology, and to the doctrine of the Rapture of the Church, which these passages are alluding to. That s what the Lord is saying here. Look at Revelation 3 and verse 3 again. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard. Hold fast, and repent. Now, certainly, in a general sense, the Lord is chastising this church for falling away so quickly from the truth of the gospel that they had first obtained and received but it cannot be denied that the verses that follow, and those that they connect to in 1 st Thessalonians are directly relating to the Rapture of the Church and the Revelation of the King. Now, I m not going to get into the details of the Rapture itself today (though we ll do that, God-willing, in a future sermon), but the clear point here is this: Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib whatever your belief regarding the Rapture of the Church and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory, if you re not watching, and you re not waiting, then Jesus Christ Himself commands you to repent! in fact, He takes things a step further, telling the believers to hold fast to the things that they had received and heard. Why does He do that? because He knows just how dark this world has become, how evil the days are in which we live, and how desperately important it is to cling to the cross of Jesus Christ, and the promise of His appearing. Even so, a command to repent and hold fast is a difficult thing to hear, and particularly when it comes to a teaching that gives rise to such widely varied opinions. This isn t a unique imperative, however - In fact, we could go back through the gospels and the epistles and see repeated commands to be watching and waiting for the return of the King. Those exhortations, coupled with this command to repent, demonstrate the urgency and importance of the message. We must be watching for the return of the King. The severity of the command may seem unusual, but I suspect the primary reason for it is this: It is nearly impossible to be focused on the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture, and remain apathetic about the person and power of the King.

9 Let me put it this way. A church awaiting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is a church that keeps its eyes on Him and a church that keeps its eyes on Jesus Christ is a church devoted to Jesus Christ. Now, this is going to sound tongue-in-cheek, but I mean every word. The church of Sardis may be dead, but it seems at times like there s one living on every street corner today. People are asleep both in the pews and in the pulpits. Ian Paisley put it like this. "The church of Jesus Christ is largely sleeping, like a great bedroom and you have all the Christians in bed and they re all sleeping and they re saying Please, don t wake me up! I want to sleep on!...and of course when God starts to operate a revival people cannot sleep. You can t sleep in church when the Spirit of God awakes the people. Look at the 1st verse of the 52nd chapter [of Isaiah]: "Awake! Awake! Put on strength! Wake up! You re sleepy Christians! "Awake thou that sleepeth! Arise from the dead! Christ will give you life!" This is the great indictment on the church at Sardis. They had lost sight of Jesus Christ, and fallen asleep in the light. They were dead, and dying, and living on little more than their reputation. but that s not the only indictment in this passage. In each of the previous churches, I have suggested to you that the Lord Jesus Himself anticipates the problems of the church and offers a solution through the Revelation of the King; that is, that the attributes that Jesus chooses in each letter are a direct parallel to the needs of each church. Sardis is no different. Look again at verse 1. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. There is an awful lot of argument and conjecture over this verse. Many good scholars have presented contrasting opinions on exactly who or what the seven Spirits of God are. I d like to suggest a fairly simple explanation to you. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 11.

10 Isaiah 11. There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 3 His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. There are two things that I want you to note here. The first is that the tone of this passage is distinctly Messianic: Jesus Christ is identified as the Rod from the stem of Jesse, and the BRANCH that shall grow out of His roots (this is, by the way, a great allusion to the eternity and deity of Christ no coincidence, given what we ve seen so far). The references to the rod of His mouth and ruling in righteousness are reminiscent of Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, each of which refer to the coming reign of Christ from Jerusalem. The context, then, is mirrored: both Revelation and Isaiah are Messianic in tone. but look at the description here of the Holy Spirit. There are seven unique attributes in this passage: The Spirit of the Lord; The Spirit of wisdom; The Spirit of understanding; The Spirit of counsel; The Spirit of might; The Spirit of knowledge; and The Spirit of the fear of the Lord. Now, there s an entire study in this, and we don t have the time to go into it today, but I d suggest to you that each of these elements is a unique aspect of the Holy Spirit, and indeed a unique aspect of His ministry in the life of the Christian....but Turn with me, briefly, to Revelation 5, and verse 6.

11 6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. What we see here in Revelation 5 is the same image the Lord employs in His letter to Sardis. There is one distinction made here, however. In Revelation 5, the seven spirits are actually within Jesus Christ Himself; a part of Him, and proceeding from Him. This same image of Christ is presented in the book of Zechariah, chapter 3 and verse 9, which reads: behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH. 9 For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription, Says the Lord of hosts, And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. The stone in this passage is, of course, Jesus Christ the Branch from the root of Jesse and the Chief Cornerstone, and the eyes are once again representative of the Holy Spirit Himself. Moving back to Revelation 3, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ presents the cure for the church at Sardis through the Revelation of Himself: First, that they should watch for His return, and Second, that they need to repent, and receive life through the power of the Holy Spirit. But if this church needs the Holy Spirit, and if, as Jesus so clearly states, this church is dead, what does that imply? The church at Sardis, both historically and prophetically, was a church that was spiritually dead. This was less about individual doctrines, faithfulness, or even watchfulness, and more about Jesus Christ Himself. The church at Sardis, once so vibrant and alive, now lived and died apart from Jesus Christ and knew nothing of the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. So what does this mean for us? The application of this passage for us, as Christians, is simple, and the blessings are great. What we re going to see here are the promises that the Lord Jesus makes to those who overcome. A quick reminder, for those who have forgotten 1 John 5:4 and 5 says Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the criteria; this is the standard. If you are in Christ today, these promises are yours.

12 Look with me at verse 4. You have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. There is great comfort in these verses. As in each of the previous churches here, the focus is squarely on Jesus Christ. Those who overcome will walk with Christ in the righteousness of Christ; declared worthy because of all that He has done. Turn with me, in closing, to Revelation chapter 4 and verse 4. We ll look at this in more detail, God willing, in a future sermon, but for now, I d just like to leave you with this hint of what is to come, bearing two things in mind: first, the white robes of the righteousness of Christ, and second, the crown of righteousness, described in 2 Timothy 4:8 as a reward for those who loved His appearing. Revelation 4, verse 4. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. 3 And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. This is the future and destiny of the church of Jesus Christ. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he said: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (1 Corinthians 2:9) This is the promise, and this is what s at stake. For the overcomer, Christ comes as King and as Saviour. We will be clothed in His righteousness, crowned with His promises, and we shall reign as Kings and Priests with Him. but for those who are not in Christ, who have not seen, who have not believed, Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. (Revelation 1:7)

13 For the church at Sardis, for those who are dead in sin, who have neither Jesus Christ as their righteousness, nor His Spirit as the promise of their salvation, Christ comes as judge, and He will be like a thief in the night, and you will not know what hour He comes upon you. If you re not resting in Him as your salvation today, take these words seriously. To you, Jesus says Behold, I am coming quickly. Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent. Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. The hour is late, and you are not promised tomorrow. and if you re in Christ today, if you are trusting in Him for your salvation, if you have received the free gift of the Holy Spirit and the promise of His coming, be comforted. Jesus Christ is coming soon, and He will confess your name before His father and before all the angels. The King is coming soon. Are you ready? Let s pray.