[Darris McNeely] Are you someone that has a feeling that you don't really wanna hear about
prophecy or are not interested in prophecy? Or maybe you just don't understand Bible prophecy
because it's never been something that you were really into? It's a common approach that I hear,
and have the opportunity actually to correct when I come to classes of teaching prophecy,
especially with young adults who come to our Ambassador Bible Center.
I always bring them back to the words of Christ, and what Christ says about the topic of prophecy.
And he says quite a bit. There's one statement, one message, Christ gives to His church. It's
actually one of His churches in the ancient world, in a city called Sardis. And it's recorded
in Revelation 3, one among seven different messages Christ gave to seven congregations
in that part of the world during the end of the first century. And to the church at Sardis, Christ
said something that I think helps us to appreciate the fact that we need to watch, understand, and in
a sense wake up to spiritual conditions affecting us, but also the big events in the world that are
transpiring that have prophetic implications that are taking place even right now. Like in Ukraine,
like with China, like with the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon that could transform the
Middle East and impact the entire world. Those are all big events that have prophetic implications.
To the church at Sardis in Revelation 3, Jesus made a statement beginning in verse 1. He said,
"These things says He who has the seven Spirits and the seven stars."
To the church there, He said, "I know your works, that you have a name."
They were the Church of God. "That you're alive, but you are dead." You're alive, but you're dead.
Interesting statement. Sometimes people just say, well, the church at Sardis was dead,
but it says you are alive, but you're dead. Maybe we could just say that Sardis was mostly dead.
He goes on. "Be watchful, strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die,
for I've not found your works perfect before God. Therefore, remember how you have received
and heard, hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch,
I will come to you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you." So, Christ
says very similar to what Paul writes back in 1 Thessalonians 5, that the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. Christ says here to the church, "I will come upon you as a thief
and you'll not know." This message to Sardis has very real-time implications for us today.
He goes on in verse 4 here, "You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their
garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. And he who overcomes will
be clothed with 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." And then he concludes with a familiar statement
to all the churches, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Christ is saying to the church here, and really to us today, repent, wake up, don't be complacent.
The problem with the members in Sardis, which is a problem that can fall upon any one of us
is complacency. Our life can be pretty good, our life can be very comfortable, and events that are
taking place in other parts of the world that may not seem relevant to us, we're not interested in,
and we don't want to hear too much about them for any number of different reasons about the
state of mind that either we're in individually, or let's say, in America, the entire nation
may be in as well. And yet, as I've said in previous BT Dailies, we don't get a holiday from
history. We don't get a holiday from prophecy. Christ's words here say to His disciples, to us,
that we don't get a holiday from being alert and aware, watchful, and understanding, so that we
don't fall asleep to the point of near-death. That's what He's saying to the church. Don't be
complacent and unaware of the world in which we live, and that world which we should understand.
Big events continue to take place. And if we don't want to hear about them, or if we can't
make the connection to what the Bible tells us prophetically, then we have a problem,
and we need to watch, and we need to understand that. Christ says to repent, to watch, and to not
be caught unaware. That's an important message for us today to understand and to listen to.
That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.