Focus: Repent!

Text: Rev.3:3

"Repent."

John the Baptist preached repentance. Also, Jesus Christ, at the start of His ministry, preached repentance. Here in our text, Jesus Christ is telling the church in Sardis to repent of their pretense and false appearance.

The church in Sardis was giving people a false impression that they were alive, but they were indeed dead. They were looking flashy and fleshy, but they lacked substance and health. They had become a living corpse. Christ felt and checked them out, and certified them dead. Things had died, and other things still alive were gradually losing oxygen.

Paul says, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away" (2Tim.3:5). Moffatt translates, "Though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force." Phillips translates, "They will maintain a facade of religion,' but their conduct will deny its validity." This was exactly the situation in the Sardian church. They kept to a form of godliness, but in reality denied the power of it.

Today's church is full of entertainment. We know how to pretend. We know what to say, when, where and how to say it. We know prayer formulas and how to perfectly play religious gimmicks. We are so well organized even to the degree that we have organized the Holy Spirit out of His church.

In our way of doing church we have a whole lot of mix-ups. We have brought together things that have no business being together. We are practicing religious syncretism. Educational qualifications, titles and mantles are now the order of the day. 

Spirituality and the anointing have been substituted for things physical and material. We dish out human opinions from our pulpits in the name of truth.

Christ said to the church in Sardis, "Repent." Repent, and quit the pretense! In the Greek, it is a one time action, and the word is, metanoeō, which means to have a change of mind. Christ was saying to them, 'Decide to be done with certain things.' Repent at once. Change your mind and your conduct. Take a decision to move in a different direction. You can do something about your spiritual situation. Paul says, "Arise from the dead."

No one can truly repent of his evil ways until he or she has fully admitted his or her error or wrongdoing and cries out to God for change. Erwin W. Lutzer writes that "the difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind." A constant and ever-increasing intake of the word of God is what brings about a renewed mind. The mind cannot be renewed if we keep feeding it with garbage.

Check your life and see where you need to repent. Repent once and for all, and stop going back to your vomit. Let it be over once and for all! Let your prayer be: Lord, fix ME, and, Lord, help me to fix IT! This prayer is pertinent because whatever it is that God is doing, we have a role to play in it. God wants us changed, and we can do something to make it happen. Let us willingly welcome and yield to the change that God is willingly bringing about in our lives, regardless of how hard or painful. Repent!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter