Sunday Worship Service September 17, 2017 Rev. YoungMin Kim Essence vs. Non-Essence Revelation 3:1-6 Before I start today s sermon, I would like to share something with you. First, last Sunday was special for me because our Sunday school for children and the youth group resumed. The Sunday school for children started with ten children, the youth group with six, and the Sunday school for adults with four members. For the educational ministries, I have no doubt that Karola, Jeff (Harding), Richard, and their assistant teachers are the most passionate, experienced, and knowledgeable members I have ever known. You can trust them and send your children to our Sunday school and youth group, and you can also join the adult class. I would like to exhort Karola, Jeff, and Richard that you, of course, are doing so, but please keep praying for your children, youth, and adult members for growth in faith. You are the shepherds, and they are your lambs that God assigned to you. Second, Greg and Lori s son, Grant Krause, was sworn into the Army last Wednesday and went to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for basic training. I know that some of our church members had served our nation and some of our children, including Ryan Blank, have been serving our nation in the US and outside the country. I appreciate your and their service, and let us keep praying for our children who are serving our nation. (1) Here are two small water bottles. This one I just opened and drank half of it. And this (another) one I opened and drank half last Sunday and left it during the week. It says, 1
purified water enhanced with minerals for taste. I heard from the news that there are no germs in a water bottle before it is opened, but once it is open and used, and tens of thousands of germs are formed within hours. These two water bottles look no different in our own eyes, but there is a decisive and essential difference: one is still drinkable and is able to supply water to our body, but the other is not drinkable and is able to ruin our health. At first, this (second bottle) was purified water enhanced with minerals for taste, but not any longer. The church of Sardis, as we will see today, was once a purified church enhanced with church ministries for the Kingdom of God, but not any longer. The church seemed to be a vigorous and passionate church from the viewpoint of men, but it was not in the sight of God. What happened to the church? Today, I would like to talk about the church of Sardis. Sardis was one of the two churches that Jesus Christ condemned most harshly. I especially want to focus on a sentence that Jesus Christ spoke, condemning the church, saying, You have a name of being alive, but you are dead (v. 1). Let us start with a brief context of the city and the church, and determine the meaning of alive but dead. Finally, let us take a spiritual lesson from failure of the church of Sardis. (2) Like many other cities at the time, Sardis also hosted many pagan cults, and its citizens worshiped typical Greek deities. Geographically, Sardis was surrounded by high, vertical rock faces. Due to its natural fortress, the city was conquered only twice throughout history. Sardis was literally an almost perfect city. The citizens did not have to make much effort to defend their city, and, as a result, they fell into idleness, were morally corrupted, and enjoyed decadent lifestyles. 1 1 Craig S. Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary (Inter Varsity Press: IL, 2014), 735. 2
Despite the paganism in the city, the Christian community in Sardis had experienced no persecution, even though other churches strongly suffered from paganism and had to face great persecution and martyrdom. In addition, the Christian believers in Sardis were not attacked by false teachers or heresies, even though the church of Pergamum suffered from Balaam and Nicolaitans. Without any external attack, ironically, Sardis believers did not have deep devotion to God and did not walk by faith. Under these circumstances, Jesus Christ condemned the church of Sardis, saying, I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead (v. 1b). The Message rephrases it this way: You have a reputation for vigor and zest, but you are dead, stonedead. The church of Sardis was founded by the price of Jesus blood at first. I believe that the church started with the pure purposes that made its citizens believers and disciples, follow Jesus teachings, and finally establish the Kingdom of God in Sardis. In the core of their worship services, meetings, outreaches, and community services, Jesus Christ was situated, and they glorified God with everything at first. However, one by one, and little by little, the believers were recognized by the community, received praise, and gained the reputation of vigor and zest. As time went by, Jesus Christ was kicked out from the core to the periphery, and they made themselves situated at the core; they made for themselves a name. Their pure purposes had faded out, and only their deeds remained. They lost their essentials of faith and held onto non-essentials. Without essentials of faith, any worship service, meeting, and community services were not able to be perfect in the sight of God (v. 2b). The church of Sardis had a large and beautiful church building, but there was no true life within the church. The church seemed splendid, but there was no spiritual earnestness 3
within the church. The church members enjoyed religious freedom, but there was no presence of the Holy Spirit and no labor of love within the church. If a church seems holy but has no holistic power, the church has a name of being alive, but it is literally dead. We can find examples of people who lost their essentials of faith and held onto nonessential in the Bible. One example is the Pharisees. In the time of Jesus, Pharisees relieved the poor, prayed for a long time, and fasted frequently in order to gain the reputation that they were devoted religious leaders. Jesus said to them, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Matthew 23:27-28). This is not only the problem of the church of Sardis, Pharisees, and scribes. This could be our problem, too. I read an online article titled 5 Reason People Have Stopped Attending Your Church. 2 The first reason is that the church is irrelevant, the leaders are hypocritical, and leaders have experienced too much moral failure. The second to the fifth reasons are the following: God is missing in the church ; legitimate doubt is prohibited ; they are not learning about God ; and, they are not finding community. I will not overgeneralize that all churches, including Nokesville UMC, are relevant. However, the responses at least give us something to think about between natural selves and ourselves as Christian believers in our lives in our church, home, and workplace. Do you feel a gap between your natural self and your Christian self? Is it wide? How wide? Is it narrow? How narrow? Or are they identical? 2 Carey Nieuwhof, 5 Reasons People Stopped Attending Your Church https://careynieuwhof.com/5reasonsmillennials/ 4
How can we narrow down the gap between our two identities as our natural selves and our Christian selves? For this, we need to think of the concept of salvation (or justification) in faith. Against the Catholic Church s teachings over a thousand years and especially the sale of indulgences, Martin Luther insisted that salvation is a gift of God s grace through Christ received by faith alone (sola fide), and he nailed the ninety-five theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. It was a great starting point of the Protestant Church, and almost all Protestant churches inherited Luther s legacy. However, 30-40 years later, after Luther insisted sola fide, he found that many Protestant Christians led dissolute lives, were morally corrupt, and enjoyed decadent lives even though they were justified by faith. Their faith did not follow their Christian deeds. God s grace became cheap. You know what? Salvation or justification is not our final destination in faith. If it is our destination, then we, as Christians who believed Jesus Christ as our Savior, are already justified, and whatever we do from now on is not relevant to our salvation. I believe this belief regarding salvation has brought us twofaced Christian lives. According to John Wesley, the founder of the United Methodist Church, Salvation is not a static, one-time event in our lives. It is the ongoing experience of God s gracious presence transforming us into whom God intends us to be. John Wesley calls this God s grace as sanctification or holiness. Through God s sanctifying grace, we grow and mature in our ability to live as Jesus lived. As we pray, study the Scriptures, fast, worship, and share in fellowship with other Christians, we deepen our knowledge of and love for God. As we respond with compassion to human need and work for justice in our communities, we strengthen our capacity to love our neighbors. Our inner thoughts and motives, as 5
well as our outer actions and behavior, are aligned with God s will and testify to our union with God. 3 Do you remember the vision that I have shared with you since I was appointed at Nokesville UMC? Let us be disciples of Jesus Christ by forming, deepening, and maturing our Christian faith, and transforming our community into the Kingdom of God through practice and realization of Jesus teachings. If you have ever experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit or the touching of the Holy Spirit during the worship service, or at least, if you like to come to church to worship God and to share fellowship with Christian brothers and sister, your faith is deepening and maturing. If you donated fund for the wall project or support children in Kenya, you have transformed the place in despair into the place of hope, the Kingdom of God. If we keep maintaining a balance between the formation of Christian faith and the transformation of our community and the world, we will have a name of being alive and we will actually be alive, too. Amen. 3 Our Wesley Heritage. http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/our-wesleyan-heritage 6