Arise From the Dead

Awake, Oh Sleeper, arise from the dead!

Today we explore falling spiritually asleep and becoming spiritually dead. (You can probably already tell this is not a good state to be in.)

In the book of Revelation, John shares the revelation "from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants" (Revelation 1:1a) and he writes seven letters to the churches in the province of Asia (in chapters 2 & 3).

We are looking at the fifth church John writes to, the church of Sardis. In Revelation 3:1-2 Jesus said, "I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive--but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God."

The people in the church in Sardis had become spiritually dead.  They were active in deeds, making them look good on the outside, but on the inside they were corrupt. Probably their intentions weren't in the right places--doing good deeds for the purpose of what they could get out of it and not for God.

Sardis was full of prosperous Jews so it may have been their wealth giving them an overconfident sense of security or maybe their self-satisfaction that lulled them to sleep and lead to their spiritual death. Whatever the case, they stopped depending on God and putting him first in their lives.    

The people of Sardis weren't the only ones with this issue; Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians on the same subject.

In Ephesians 5:10-15 Paul advises, "Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, 'Awake, O Sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.' So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise."

When we make excuses or tolerate sinful behavior or compromise our beliefs we start sliding down a slippery slope. Most likely it starts off gradual, with something small; something that could be overlooked as "no big deal." But like a small snowball rolled down a hill it grows bigger and gains momentum as it goes. As the snowball travels downward, it becomes harder to stop and harder to carry back up the hill.

Once you start down a downhill slope, it's hard to stop and get back to where you were when you started. When you ignore sins you start to roll down that hill and fall spiritually asleep.

Unless you do something to change your ways.

So what can we do to avoid becoming spiritually dead? Or how do we wake up if we are already spiritually dead? The Bible shows us what is sin and gives us instructions on which path to take and which to avoid. Revelation 3:3 instructs, "Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again."

Go back to the fundamentals of faith, back to the basics, and from there grow in your knowledge of God--by reading the Bible and applying it to your life. If we hold firmly to these truths, not making excuses for sin or tolerating sin or compromising our beliefs for sin, we will keep ourselves from falling asleep into a spiritual death.

When we repent, we turn from the darkness of sin and live in the light of Christ.

Ephesians 4:22-24 says, "Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God--truly righteous and holy."

We need God to truly live.

In Ezekiel 37, the Lord carries Ezekiel to a valley filled with dry bones and God asks him if the bones can become living people again. Ezekiel wisely answered, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know the answer to that." Then comes my favorite part.

Ezekiel 37:4-6 says: Then [God] said to [Ezekiel], "Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, 'Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'

And do you know what happens next? Ezekiel spoke the message, just as God told him too, and as he spoke he heard a rattling sound and the bones came together, and muscles and flesh and skin formed over the bones. God put breath into them and they came to life and stood up on their feet.

When you don't have the spirit of God working in you, you are like those dry dead bones laying in the valley. We need God to breath life into us and make us live again.

I tell you again: Awake, oh sleeper, arise from the dead.


What we talked about today echoes what we learned studying Psalm 1:1-3. If you are to be like the blessed one then you need to be spiritually alive. (If you missed the posts you can read the first one here and the second one here.)