CHURCH IN A COMA “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Ephesians 5:14 KJV)
“Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.” (Mark 13:35, 36 KJV)
Recently, when visiting with a colleague for mentoring and prayer, I was struck with the fact that THE CHURCH…GENERALLY…IS IN A SPIRITUAL COMA. As I have thought on this unexpected description of His Church, I am reminded that the church has a history of doing this, with sudden, but brief, bursts of renewal, revival fire, and altars where sinners come to repent of their sins and receive Christ. But then, she drifts back into her spiritual coma.
I said to my colleague, “when I walk in here I do not feel anything…it feels like a morgue.” He agreed! Why is this brother reaching out to me? He freely admits that for ten years his payer life has been almost non-existent, that he isn’t motivated, is undisciplined, etc. Thankfully, he is concerned enough to meet on a regular basis for counsel and prayer. We are united in prayer and counsel, believing GOD to set a blaze in this pastor’s heart and to let that fire spread to every member of his congregation.
Nothing in the way of the supernatural is happening in far too many churches today. Church services are predictable. The message is about as dry as corn shucks in August. The altars are empty and sinners – at least the ones that will admit it – are nowhere to be found. They would not come under conviction anyway if they were there. In line with what I just said about sinners, I am reminded of Herbert Lockyer’s book, The Sins of the Saints, in which he outlines a very long list of them.
This old-timer has been concerned for a very long time. Mrs. Jones and I knew that it would be difficult to find a church where the moment you walk in the door you know that you have walked into the presence of Almighty God. We found it on a Sunday morning a few years ago when we walked into the Assembly of God Church in Gulfport, Mississippi. We knew that we were on holy ground. God bless Pastor Norwood Seymour and his fabulous group of people. Further back than the Gulfport experience, while on vacation, we dropped into the First Church of the Nazarene in Danville, Illinois. We knew that we were on holy ground when we stepped inside a church we knew nothing about and had never been to before (or since).
You see, in these two instances, it was clear that GOD WAS IN HIS CHURCH! It is not possible to come into His presence and not know it, not feel it, or not respond to it.
We knew that it would be difficult to find a church where the pastor’s sermons were prayed down, red hot coals from off the altar of God, where God’s power was on display in every service. We knew it would be difficult, we just didn’t know that it would be this close to impossible.
Are we discouraged? Indeed we are. Is our heart crying out to God for divine intervention? It is…with passionate pleading to God. This preacher is reminded of something that the Cornish miner, Billy Bray, said. He said, “I was born in the fire and I cannot live in the smoke.” He also said, “if they should put me a barrel and nail the lid shut, I would yell ‘glory’ through the bung hole.” Please, I’m not talking about a bunch of screaming, falling out in the floor, running the aisles and jumping over pews. I am talking about people living a life that clearly and powerfully exhibits the presence and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, lives that truly reveal a good prayer life, a life lived in the presence of God, lives that frequently visit the bush that the God of fire dwells in. Indeed, there are many bushes in the desert called life, but there is only one bush that the God of heaven dwells in. When we get there, it will be holy ground and we will gladly remove our sandals and prostrate ourselves in His awesome presence.
People who are in a coma do not respond. They just lie there motionless, as if dead, yet their heart is still beating and their vital signs are still acceptable. They are simply unresponsive. For loved ones and friends, it must be very difficult to stand by the bedside of someone in a coma, talking to the person, holding their hand, yet getting no response. Try, if you will, to see today’s church in that condition. God speaks…they do not respond. It is as if His voice is not being heard. People in a coma are often asked to “squeeze my hand if you are hearing me,” or “move your foot,” or some other instruction. Nothing happens! It is no wonder that so much discouragement prevails and loved ones and friends leave wondering if there is any hope. It is no wonder that this aged preacher leaves church wondering if there is any hope.
THERE IS HOPE! Now and then the news breaks the story of a person who has mysteriously, and suddenly, come out of a coma. Some say that they could hear what people were saying but could not respond at the time. Each is always very thankful for family and friends that came, talked to them, and prayed for them. They came out of their coma!
This doesn’t happen very often. Neither has real, heaven-sent, Holy Ghost, Hell-shaking, revival come very often…BUT…it has happened. When revival has come, it has come because of people whose heart yearned to be in His presence. When it has come, it has come because of people who were extremely burdened for lost loved one and friends, who really didn’t want to see these be eternally lost when they leave this world. When real revival has come it has come because preachers walked into the pulpit with fear and trembling, unafraid to preach the unadulterated Word of God and then open the altars for people to seek HIM. It was not uncommon to hear messages on the Second Coming of Christ, messages on being eternally lost in the fires of Hell, and certainly messages that challenged people to walk in holiness before the Lord.
How near the end of the age are we? We don’t know, but what we do know is that we live in “perilous times” and this is what Paul prophesied in his second letter to the young preacher Timothy (A. D. 66, just before his death at the hands of Nero) saying, “This know also, that in the last days perilous (m. dangerous) times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent (m. without self control), fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:1-5 KJV). Paul goes on in Verse 8 to speak of two people whose names were Jannes and Jambres “who withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds (m. without good sense), reprobate concerning the faith”.
Is it not fair that I ask if these verses paint a clear picture of conditions as they are at this time in our world? It is a fair challenge. Which one of the conditions that Paul predicted is not blatantly obvious in our world today?
It is also true that this preacher has an obligation – since the blood of the people will be required at my hands if I do not sound the warning – to speak the truth in love, caring for the souls of men and women, teens and young children, realizing that eternity is a long time to either be saved…or lost. It is still a matter of choice…HEAVEN or HELL. The destination that people reach at the end of life’s journey is clearly a matter of choice. The road to Heaven is the straight path, the narrow way. The road to Hell is the broad way, the way described by Paul to Timothy.
The message that God’s Word gives us – in my textural reading – is WAKE UP…COME OUT OF YOUR COMA, and the message is to individuals and to the church at large. To the Church at Ephesus, Paul wrote: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Ephesians 5:14). The word light probably has a twofold meaning: LIFE and UNDERSTANDING. Look at the word REVIVAL. Let’s break it down – revival. Viva is the Spanish word for life. The re has to do with restoring, reviving, or bringing back to the original position. Thus, REVIVAL is an awakening, a return from a dead condition to a living condition. REVIVAL IS THE RESTORATION OF LIFE TO AN INDIVIDUAL OR TO THE CHURCH AS A WHOLE.
In closing, I would call your attention to the two verses noted in Mark’s gospel. The opening instructions are WATCH. Why? The answer: “for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning” (Mark 13:35). Clearly, this is a reference to the return of our Lord Jesus to receive His Bride…the Church.
The message is clearly…WAKE UP…COME OUT OF YOUR SPIRITUAL COMA. Why? Again, the answer is given in Verse 36: “lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping”.
This is a serious matter. I do not know where Mrs. Jones and I could go and hear a sermon that addresses just how serious the problems are in these perilous times. It is heart-breaking to go to church week in and week out and watch the people come in and go out…the same. They come with sin in their life and leave the same. They come with sickness and disease and leave the same way. They come befuddled, confused, and depressed and leave the same way. This is NOT the church that Christ died to establish.
I am strongly impressed to share a vision that the Lord gave me some years ago in one of my early morning prayer sessions. I saw the church full of well-dressed people. The preacher was in the pulpit well-dressed in his black suit and white shirt. As I surveyed the auditorium filled with people, I noticed that a seat was empty here and there, and elsewhere a couple of people’s seats were empty. The preacher was in the pulpit delivering his sermon, apparently oblivious to the fact that there were empty seats. The scene changed and I saw myself with a small group of people suspended in the air above this church. I had counted the empty seats in the otherwise full church. I then counted the small group that was hovering above the church. The number was the same. As I sought the Lord for an explanation, I was made to realize that many are called but few are chosen, that, percentage-wise, there are few that be saved (the words of Jesus).
It was amazing to me that nobody seemed to know what had happened. It didn’t seem to matter. The Lord had come and the remnant had been saved. It is true that the Lord “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). It is true that multitudes will, as Paul told Timothy, “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” and, like the five foolish virgins will be locked out when the Bridegroom cometh. The Christian life should never be taken lightly. Apart from faith in Jesus we have no life. Such persons are still dead in their trespasses and sins. Sadly, millions do not know it. These ARE dangerous times in which we live. The church should be sounding the alarm, opening the altars, and calling people to repentance. How much is a soul worth? I reminded my colleague, as we talked, that the blood of those to whom we speak each time we step into the pulpit will be on our hands and their souls required of us when we stand before the Great Judge of all the earth. I choose not to stand before my Lord with bloody hands. I have also had a vision of Hell many years ago, early in my evangelistic ministry, and this very day, as I write, I can hear the screams coming out of the place of fire and brimstone, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. WAKE UP SAINTS! COME OUT OF YOUR COMA! The Lord is coming!
Just in case some further biblical evidence of the church being in a coma…for all practical purposes and intents…spiritually dead, let me end (it is true) by calling your attention to the final book in our Bible…The Revelation of Jesus Christ…Chapter 3. In chapters two and three of this ending book in our Bible, seven churches are listed by name. Jesus, speaking to John on the Isle of Patmos, reveals the condition of each of these churches. Five of the seven are told to repent…or else. These churches are truly reflective of the degeneration in the church world through the two millennia since Jesus left earth for heaven. The fifth church in the list is Sardis. I will share verse 1 of chapter 3 with you: “And unto the angel (pastor) of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” That there was (is) hope for that church in a coma is reflected in verse 2: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect (m. as they should be) before God.”
Church number seven in the list is Laodicea and this church is also very reflective of today’s comatose church…a living corpse. Please note: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing: AND KNOWEST NOT that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked…Behold, I stand at the door and knock…” (3:17, 201 KJV). How sad that the Head over the Church, the Foundation and Chief Cornerstone, is on the outside, knocking, trying to regain entrance into His church. Locked out!
Please do not argue with this preacher. Ask yourself if the Word of God is true. And, I would ask you to ask yourself, very candidly and honestly, “when I walk into my church am I walking into the awesome presence of God, feeling as if I should take off my shoes and fall prostrate at the altar, or am I walking into a church that has a name that it is alive, but if God’s verdict is to be accepted, is not alive but in a spiritual coma. And, bring it even closer to home. Ask yourself if you are really alive spiritually or personally in a spiritually comatose condition. Go ahead…this is a dare! If you feel “not so good about things” seek the Lord until HE comes back in and does His work. The message today is still the same…REPENT!
Is there hope? Let the word of God spoken by Ezekiel the prophet answer: “Dry bones, listen to what the Lord is saying to you. I, the Lord God, will put breath into you, and once again you will live. I will wrap you with muscles and skin and breathe life into you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:4-6 CEV) This will not happen against our will. We must hear the Word of the LORD and do what He says. “If my people will humble themselves and pray, and confess their sin, and turn from their wicked way…THEN WILL I HEAR FROM HEAVEN…and forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). The question is, “do we want to awake from this spiritual coma?” God is able to restore that which the locust, and the canker worm, and the palmer worms have destroyed (the prophet Joel).
