To the Angel of the Church in Sardis...

In my devotional reading since Easter I have been taking a slow journey through the Book of Revelation, one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Chapters 2 & 3 consist of letters that Jesus dictates to John to be sent to seven churches in Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey.

In these letters Jesus has positive things to say about most of the churches He addresses, things for which He can commend them. But most of them also have glaring problems. Jesus diagnoses the problems and prescribes the solutions for each individual congregation. He calls them to repentance and promises an eternal blessing to "the one who overcomes."

As I read the letter to the church in Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6), I recognized characteristics of a church in need of revitalization. The church needed to rediscover its mission to its community.

The characteristics that marked the church in Sardis included:

• Being near the end of its Life Cycle (“You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”)
• Not doing all that it could be doing in mission (“I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.”)
• Needing to recall its mission and repent of its complacency (“Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.”)

The church in Sardis is typical of many churches today that are in need of revitalization. I have been privileged to serve two such congregations.

I say that I have been privileged because revitalization ministry is exciting and, dare I say, even fun! That doesn't mean that it's easy, but anything worth doing well is rarely easy.

My best memories of ministry have come as a result of watching a church change from an inward to an outward focus and from being survival-minded to being mission-minded.

I have witnessed God's Spirit at work to move people beyond their comfort zones into ministry and mission that they never thought they could do.

I have watched men and women light up with a passion for discipleship when they see Jesus' work being done through them.

I you feel like you are in a Sardis situation, in need of personal or congregational revitalization, don't despair. Jesus first calls you to repentance for your complacency and urges you to remember the depths of His grace that you have received. Recalling that grace will lead you to grateful service and mission for others.

He also promises to His faithful disciple, "I will never blot out  [your] name from the book of life but will acknowledge [your] name before my Father and his angels" (Revelation 3:5). You can be assured that you belong to Jesus, and that confidence can liberate you to try new things and dare to step outside of your comfort zones.

Not a Perfect Prophet

Jonah on the beach after being in the great fish

Jonah: The reluctant prophet. Check!

Jonah: The bad luck charm in the movie "Master and Commander." Check!

Jonah: The portrait of Jesus. Whoa!

When Jesus was pressed to give a sign to validate His teachings, He offered only "the sign of Jonah." "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40).

Jesus was referring to His time in the tomb between Good Friday and Easter. Jesus interpreted Jonah's time in the fish's belly as a foreshadow of His own resurrection.

This reluctant prophet, however, reveals Jesus in other ways.

A Willing Sacrifice

When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah hopped on a ship headed in the opposite direction. As a consequence of Jonah's disobedience, "The Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up" (Jonah 1:4).

The sailors rightly believed that someone on the ship had angered his deity. When they all prayed to their respective gods and the storm didn't abate, the captain roused a sleeping Jonah and urged him to pray to his god for deliverance.

Eventually, the sailor's cast lots to determine who was responsible for their peril, and the lot fell to Jonah, who had previously explained why he came aboard their ship in the first place.

As the storm grew, the sailors asked Jonah what they should do to him to appease his god. He told them to throw him overboard. Horrified at the notion of consigning Jonah to the deep, the sailors tried to row to shore.

When that failed, they reluctantly cast Jonah overboard. Jonah became the willing sacrifice that delivered the ship and crew from certain death.

That's Jesus on Good Friday. Jesus was the willing sacrifice to atone for the sins of the whole world. He offered Himself in our place so that we would be spared the righteous wrath of God.

The Gift of Faith

Before Jonah was cast overboard, he told the sailors about the God he worshipped, "the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land" (Jonah 1:9). After they threw Jonah overboard, the sailors "feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him" (Jonah 1:16).

When Jonah finally arrived at Nineveh (after his time in the fish's belly), he proclaimed that Nineveh (which was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, the oppressors of Jonah and his fellow Israelites) would be overturned in forty days. To his shock, the king of Nineveh declared a time of repentance and Nineveh was spared God's wrath.

Jonah's less than charismatic preaching resulted in repentance and faith for both the sailors on the ship and the citizens of Nineveh.

Such is the power of God's Word to change hearts and lives. Jonah was no Billy Graham, but God worked through his feeble efforts to deliver thousands of people from God's judgment.

That's the soldier at the cross who, when he saw how Jesus died, declared, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" Jesus didn't preach from the cross, but His prayer to His Father at the end of His life as He was commending Himself into His Father's hands inspired faith in the heart of the Roman centurion.

Jonah may have been a reluctant prophet. He may have headed one way when God had directed him another. But God loved Jonah enough to put him in the belly of the fish where Jonah could repent of his disobedience. And God loved the sailors and the citizens of Nineveh enough to work through Jonah's reluctance to call them to faith and spare them from destruction.

Jonah, not a perfect prophet, but still a portrait of the true prophet of God, Jesus.