A corporate executive lost his job. He was so depressed that he could not go home and tell his family what had happened. Instead, he took a long walk in a park and found a bench where he could sit and bemoan his sad fate.

After a while, another man, equally depressed, came along and sat at the other end of the same bench. He looked over and saw the corporate executive with his head in his hands moaning and groaning to himself, and he could not help but ask, "What’s wrong with you?" The executive said, "I’ve lost my job. I can’t go home and tell my family what’s happened. They depend on me, and I won’t be able to be the good provider I’ve always been. So what’s your problem?"

The second man said, "I run a circus and the main attraction has been a huge and threatening gorilla. People came from all over to watch that gorilla rant and rage at them. Two days ago the gorilla died, and I know my circus won’t be able to survive the loss."

After awhile the corporate executive said he had an idea. He said, "You need a gorilla and I need a job. Why don’t we take the gorilla hide, dress me up in it and let me take a try at pretending. We’ve got nothing to lose. Why not take the chance?"

The agreement was made and the deed was done. In the days that followed, the corporate executive dressed in the gorilla’s hide and raged more than the real gorilla ever had. His antics were such that the crowds coming to the circus grew larger and larger. Both men were making a fortune.

Then one day, by sheer accident, a lion ended up in the same cage with the phony gorilla. The crowds gathered to see this incredible confrontation. The lion and the gorilla circled each other as the people waited to see what would happen.

Finally, the gorilla realized he was cornered. There was no escape, and he yelled at the top of his lungs, "HELP!" The lion shouted back, "Shut up! You’re not the only one out of work!"

Sooner or later, relying on our past achievements - our pretenses, if you will, will be stripped away and we are exposed for who -or what- we really are. Hear what Jesus says to the church at Sardis, from Revelation, about pretense and growing complacent, as He exposes them for what they truly are....

The city of Sardis is a city of decline. A true and deep melancholy has set in and about the city. This depression and decline is in such contrast to its former splendor. Sardis was once one of the greatest cities in the world. It was once the capital of the Lydian kingdom, which boasted the fabulously rich King Croesus.

In its heyday, (700 years before this letter was written), Sardis was thought to be impregnable. It stood at the top of one of the many mountain spurs 1500 feet above the plains below. Sardis (in Greek) is a plural noun. Meaning there were two towns. One at the plateau and one in the valley below. There was a secret path that led from the city below to the city at the top. Twice in the history of Sardis the people did not keep watch. Twice the city fell - not through battle with its enemies. But twice it was totally surprised and humiliated by military defeat by the stealth of its captors. Both times the enemy kept watch and found that "not-so-secret" path. Jesus’ command to the church at Sardis to watch and be prepared, spans the many years and history in His meaning.

The church at Sardis was not much different. There is nothing wrong - really. Outwardly it seems alive. Its reputation was life. The problem is, it is living on that pretense. In the other seven churches there is something happening, there is tension, even struggle or conflict. We will see that Ephesus lacks love, but Sardis lacks life. As a matter of fact, of the seven sermons this one was more difficult to prepare, because it felt the least inspiring. This church seems to be the least interesting. Even Jesus doesn’t have much to say about the church. What can be said about a dead body - It’s dead!! This lifeless, Zombie-like church is not worth getting excited about, it was not worth persecuting. The Christians at Sardis are coasting on past achievements.

These Christians at Sardis are going through the motions of doing the right things, feeling and caring in the right "Christian ways". But the church is still living on its good reputation. We would be accurate if we said that, for the most part, they were not even believers. Today we would call those at the church at Sardis "nominal Christians." They were Christian in name only. This tells us that the church at Sardis is made up largely of people who outwardly profess Christ, but who possess no real spiritual life. Jesus condemns the church at Sardis for their "lifeless profession," for growing complacent. And even though there are a relatively few - a precious few - faithful persons for Jesus to praise, He says the church’s true condition is dead.

Then Jesus surprises us by calling the dead - the remaining believers - at Sardis, and us, to repent. Now this surprise warning to repent holds a threat for the unrepentant person or have their name "blotted out of the book." But their names will not be blotted from the Book of Life if they repent. This is a certainty of God’s promise of salvation that is received and heard and it is kept by the faith of those who do repent. And who are the ones who are to repent? You and me! We, the believers, are to repent. Repentance is not a one-time thing. We are continually to turn from the world’s ways, from sin. We are continually to turn to Christ and Christ’s ways. The names of those who do repent will not only be in the book of life, but our names will not be blotted from the Book of Life.

Now along with this warning, Jesus strongly urges Sardis to watch and be prepared and to remember what it had received and heard in the first days of their Christian experience. Jesus tells us to be watchful at our weakest point- that which is the point of death. This we are to strengthen: Be it our struggle against different temptations before us, ambition, jealousy, indecision, a peculiarity of temperament, a habit, a relationship, a complacent spirit-not enough time with God. That great quiet time we had with the Lord a month ago, and nothing since, is not helping us today. Satan will always attack our weakest point. By Satan’s stealth he tries to capture and make a stronghold. Whatever our weakness, we must be honest enough to recognize it and at that point, be on our guard. Ask God to help us with Christ’ strength. And when we have been strengthened through Christ, then we can help strengthen others.

Jesus also tells us to be watchful at our strongest point - and be vigilant - and ever stronger. In our characters and personalities, you are no doubt aware, that our strongest character, taken to its most stressed point, could be our weakest link. The city of Sardis was taken in stealth - though she never thought she would fall. But fall she did, twice. The church at Sardis had forgotten its stronghold - what it first received. The light, love and life of Christ. It was living on its former newness and strength in Christ. It had forgotten to grow and continue to be strengthened in Christ. We are to be ever watchful so that complacency in our strongest point will not make us slip. We are to strengthen and grow in the life of Christ. I urge you to allow God to strip you of your weakness, in all its different coverings, and be strengthened, so that you might receive that white robe that has been washed in the blood of Christ.

Our thirtieth president, Calvin Coolidge, was an extremely quiet and reserved man. When questioned, he rarely answered in more than two or three words - a tendency which earned him the nickname "Silent Cal." The public saw him as a stiff and emotionless man, causing the remark, "He looks as if he’d been weaned on a pickle."

In 1933, the radio airwaves crackled with the news of Coolidge’s death. A columnist for The New Yorker, Dorothy Parker, was in her office when a colleague flung open the door and blurted, "Dottie, did you hear? Coolidge is dead!" Endowed with a quick but acid wit, Dottie shot back, "How can they tell?" How can people tell we are alive in Christ? Jesus wants people on the outside, those coming into this community, to be able to tell, to really know, to have no doubts, that we are alive for Christ.

I know that you know that houses are literally popping up all around us. New businesses are going before City Council all the time for entrance into the city. People are streaming in/out up and down our roads - right in front of our very doors. Jesus warns us against being totally unaware and untouched by the bustling, growing city outside our walls and windows. We are to beware of falling into a spiritual stupor. We are to always be growing through hearing the preached Word, and growing through personal devotional time with Christ, and learning together through small groups. We do not want to ever grow overly comfortable and spiritually unexciting. We are not to turn inside.

We are always to be reaching out to new people, sharing Christ with others. We are not to grow smug or complacent in spirit. Our worship should not be the mechanical singing of hymns and praise songs and anemic rituals. We are to celebrate and be jubilant in our living relationship and worship of the God of the universe. Let’s be sure through these and other ways, that the teaming, bustling world around us is able to tell - really feel - that we are alive, that we have life in Christ.