As the world slowly recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, global leaders are calling for a “Great Reset” to further evolve the international community and financial system, but our Lord Jesus Christ has planned a much more revolutionary reset for us—His Church—before He destroys Satan’s “kingdom of the world” and establishes the “Kingdom of our Lord” forever—Revelation 11:15-18. In the Book of Revelation, the Lord reveals His plans for an “hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those that live on the earth”—Revelation 3:10. In Matthew 24, Jesus also warns us of this trial of testing—the “great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be”—Matthew 24:21. Jesus clearly declares that this “great tribulation” will come to test mankind just before He returns in “power and great glory” to “gather his elect from the four winds”—Matthew 24:29-31. The Lord has declared it to us beforehand so that we can be ready because He plans to use this time of tribulation and testing to purify His Bride, the Church. As the days draw near, the Lord is already moving to prepare His Church for this “great tribulation.” He is calling us to a life-giving reset, which necessarily starts with each one of us humbling ourselves in repentance before our King, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Almost two thousand years ago, the Lord sent John the Baptist with a prophetic revelation to prepare the hearts of His people to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The message was simple: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”—Matthew 3:2. The Lord knew that this message of repentance was necessary, because repentance was required to reset Israel’s heart and soul back to God and realize their desperate need for the Messiah to come to be their Savior. Likewise, repentance is necessary for us to inherit the Kingdom of God because it turns our hearts back to our Lord Jesus Christ to worship and obey Him alone as our Lord and King! Unfortunately, the central importance of repentance has been largely lost as a critical message, so we all need a healthy reminder of why the Lord considers repentance so central to His Church.

Let me show you what I mean by asking what seems like a simple question. Do we truly know our Lord Jesus Christ and does He know us? Of course, we will immediately say that we believe and know Him by faith, but how can we know for sure? These questions should give us at least a little pause as we search our hearts for the truth. However, we often gloss over the reality of our relationship with religious words that we often repeat, without realizing our hearts have been hardened to the truth. This is the reason that Jesus directly challenged his disciples in a seemingly harsh and heart-wrenching way as He brought to a close His Sermon on the Mount:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” — MATTHEW 7:21-23

Ouch! Jesus certainly doesn’t pull any punches! Like us, I’m sure that His “disciples” were shocked at His harsh words, but Jesus was deadly serious and the eternal consequences of His challenge demanded it! Jesus looked directly into the hearts of His so-called “disciples” and purposely shook them to their core. His words should shake us too. Notice that Jesus never uses the word “faith” in this rebuke. His test was simple for entering the kingdom of heaven—“only the one who does the will of my Father.” So clearly what we do—our deeds—matters much more to Jesus than what we say we believe in faith. In fact, to drive His point home, He actually called these false disciples “evildoers!” The reality is that good intentions don’t matter—we too are “evildoers” if we don’t actually “do the will of the Father.” Jesus is driving home a central truth about our faith—our deeds reveal the true character of our faith and whether we truly know Him as our Lord and Savior. Therefore, our deeds—the spiritual fruit that we produce by His Spirit—truly reveal what is deep in our hearts. Simply put: Our Deeds Do Not LIE! So, let me ask the question again in a different way: What do our daily deeds truly reveal about our faith and the reality of our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ? Now we are starting to get real—the real heart of repentance and the revelation required to really drive us to our knees! Just as in the days of John the Baptist, the Lord has given us a revelation for these dark days to drive us to repentance, and prepare our hearts for what is to come.

Today, the Lord has graciously given us all the Book of Revelation to prophetically reveal our deeds to prepare the hearts of everyone in His Church to repent before His glorious return. Though the book is primarily a final revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His divine glory, it is also a last and final call for repentance. The Lord knows that repentance is required in order to reset and purify His Church before He returns to finally destroy all evildoers and establish His Kingdom with His Bride forever. The Lord’s pastoral words and prophetic warnings to each of the 7 churches in Revelation leave no doubt that He knows these Churches and He knows their deeds. In fact, the most common phrase He used in His opening statement to each of the churches was: “I know your deeds.” His calls for them to repent were all because He knew their deeds, and He was giving them the opportunity to love Him by being obedient to His Word. This call to repentance is for all of us as well. Although, the Lord is clearly speaking directly to each one of the historic 7 Churches that existed during John’s time of exile on the isle of Patmos, the Lord is also directly talking to us today. He drives this point home 7 times by repeating “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” after His message to each Church.

I strongly encourage you to read for yourselves what the Spirit is saying to you personally in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3. However, I want to call to your attention here to three major reasons the Lord calls His Churches to repent:

  1. Cold, loveless legalism;
  2. Hot, loving lawlessness; and
  3. Lukewarm, selfish sinfulness.

3 Reasons We Are Called to Repent

1. Cold, Loveless Legalism

The Lord’s first call is for His Church to repent from cold, loveless legalism, where rules and religion replaced a warm, intimate relationship with the Lord and caused the love of the Church of Ephesus to grow cold. Listen to how the Lord describes their deeds:

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” — REVELATION 2:2-4

Jesus knows exactly what we are currently facing and what we will face in the future. However, no matter what we face, we must not lose our love, because “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We have no excuse, because He warned us as His disciples of all that we would face and that the increasing wickedness of this world will naturally push us to become cold.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” — MATTHEW 24:9-14

Though the wickedness of this world often reminds us that we are at war with Satan and the kingdom of this world, we cannot let the love in our heart grow cold. We must stand firm in our relationship with the Lord and continue to bear the fruit of the Spirit, because God is love and love is the heart of His gospel of salvation. Therefore, love is at the very center of our mission to live out the gospel of the kingdom of the Lord! We may be at war, but we are not at war with the people being deceived by Satan. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”—Ephesians 6:12. Therefore, we are in a war with Satan and his demonic forces, so we need to daily put on the Armor of God described in Ephesians 6:10-18 to stay holy and remain filled with the love of His Spirit. The Lord in His love has indeed promised to provide all that we need in the “valley of the shadow of death,” and He is faithful. However, He has also called us to sacrificially engage on the spiritual battlefield in a rescue mission of love to save as many people as can be saved. We may be called to hate the sin, but we are also called to love the sinner—“Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh”—Jude 22-23. Therefore, remember this as His holy people in the midst of the wickedness: we must continue to repent of our coldness and continue to do great deeds of love for His great glory.

2. Hot, Loving, Lawlessness

The Lord also calls His churches to repent from hot, loving lawlessness where passionate idolatry and unrestrained immorality replaced sacrificial love and righteous deeds. The churches of Pergamum and Thyatira were praised for their faith, love and perseverance. However, their holiness was compromised by their tolerance of idolatry and sexual immorality among the members of the church. The Lord specifically hates the “teachings of Balaam” and the doctrine and “deeds of the Nicolatians,” which referred to heretical cults in the church that were leading the people into unbridled idolatry and sexual immorality. The teaching of Balaam refers to Balaam’s advice to Moab and Midian women to seduce Israelite men into sexual immorality to turn away from the Lord and worship other gods—Numbers 25:1-3; 31:16. Similarly, the heretical Nicolaitans taught a form of carnal spirituality that wrongly encouraged uninhibited liberty and license to freely engage in sin, immorality and idolatry with reckless abandon. They wrongly taught that the deeds of the flesh did not corrupt their spiritual faith and that sin had no consequences. In fact, they were deceiving the Church to sinfully violate their marriage covenant with the Lord through their idolatry and sexual immorality.

We rarely think of sin today as idolatry, but it is a sin that is pervasive, and it has certainly corrupted churches in this day and age. Basically, idolatry is anything or anyone that we serve or worship other than our Lord Jesus Christ, including ourselves. Self-worship is actually rampant in today’s culture because many people just want to be their own god and do whatever they want to do. That is just as much idolatry as it was for Israel to worship other gods in the Old Testament. Idolatry is also the pathway for all other sins that plague the church today, especially sexual immorality in all of its insidious, seductive and destructive forms. Paul reveals the Lord’s perspective on idolatry and sexual immorality in the first chapter of Romans:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” — ROMANS 1:18-25

Our Sinful Deeds

Our sinful deeds reveal our heart and lead us further away from the Lord and deeper into sin. This is the reason the Lord exposes our deeds to reveal the reality in our hearts and soften us towards repentance. A true relationship with Christ puts us in step with the Holy Spirit within us, which empowers our flesh to live out a loving and selfless form of spirituality. Anything else we set our heart on is contrary to the Holy Spirit and puts us on the path to slavishly follow the selfish and destructive desires of our flesh. The Lord revealed this truth to Paul to warn us that those who consistently choose to practice the deeds of the flesh will NOT inherit the kingdom of God!

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” — GALATIANS 5:16-21

The Lord disciplines and punishes such unrepentant sin and deeds of the flesh and He intends those consequences to serve as a direct message to all the Churches from the Lord: “Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds”—Revelation 2:23. True wisdom is learning through the misdeeds of others versus stupidly continuing to sin and suffering the consequences of our own misdeeds. Therefore, if we want to be true to our faith and our inheritance in Jesus Christ, then we will humbly repent and confess our sin. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”—1 John 1:9. The Lord has given us the Spirit and the capability to choose to live each day by the Spirit so that our deeds consistently bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit instead of the deeds of the flesh:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” — GALATIANS 5:22-25

The Lord uses a fruit tree to demonstrate the principle that the fruit tree and the root determine the fruit, so if we live by the Spirit, we will bear the fruits of the Spirit through our deeds. In the same way, if we live by the flesh, our fruit—our deeds—will reflect the sinful flesh we choose to live by each day. The next two churches the Lord confronts had certainly chosen to live by the flesh, and the Lord mercifully calls them, and us, to repent.

3. Lukewarm, Selfish Sinfulness

The Lord’s last main reason for the Churches to repent is for those that are neither hot nor cold, but they are lukewarm, lifeless and selfishly sinful. Listen to what the Lord says to the church of Sardis, who are dead without a daily relationship with the Lord, and so they have naturally failed to bear any fruits of the Spirit, either deeds of righteousness or loving kindness.

“I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.” — REVELATION 3:1-3

The Church of Sardis seems to care more about their reputation among men than their standing before the Lord. Their reputation certainly does not reflect the reality of their heart. Their claims of faith are wholly unsupported by any deeds that truly confirm that faith. James describes that kind of empty faith as “dead” and unable to save them. Repentance is their only hope and recourse!

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” — JAMES 2:14-26

Likewise, the church of Laodicea is so selfishly focused on their current “blessings” of health, wealth and prosperity to notice their truly pitiful spiritual state.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” — REVELATION 3:15-17

It seemed like the Church of Laodicea thought that everything was fine with so many great blessings in their life to confirm all that they believed in their deceptively selfish idolatry. We often deceive ourselves until the Lord shakes us out of our fantasy world. The Lord often uses the disruptive storms of persecution or tribulation to burst our carefully inflated bubble of personal happiness on the rocks of reality. Though it seems harsh, the most loving thing that the Lord can do is to announce to them—and us—a little tough love: “I am about to spit you out of my mouth” so that they truly realize the reality of their situation—that they are “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked”—before it is too late. The Lord may be speaking to them, but He is warning us all to repent before the storm of trial and tribulation comes, so that we will humbly seek the Lord’s wisdom and not suffer the fate of the “foolish man who built his house on the sand.”

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” — MATTHEW 7:24-27

A Last & Final Warning to Repent

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” — I JOHN 1:9

The Lord gave us the Revelation of Jesus Christ as a final revelation to show us His divine glory and “what must soon take place,” but it is also a last and final warning for His Church to repent. The Lord’s call for His Church to repent demands that we truly search our heart with a spirit of humility. The Lord knows our heart! The Lord also clearly knows our deeds as well—the good, the bad and the ugly. This calls for an honest look into our own heart as we answer some very hard questions about our faith, our deeds and the life we are living.

When we are truly honest with ourselves, what do our deeds reveal about us deep inside our hearts? Do they truly reveal that we love the Lord with all of our heart and with all of our soul? Or, do they reveal a need to truly repent of our sin and idolatry and reset our heart and soul back fully on our Lord Jesus Christ?

If you feel rebuked and deeply feel the need to repent, you are not alone! We all do and should because He loves us enough to shake us in order to draw us closer to Him. The Lord’s rebuke and His call for repentance are a healthy part of our relationship with a Holy God, the Creator of the Universe, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Yet, despite His perfect holiness, He loves us like a father loves his child. A father understands his children need direction and correction to grow in strength and wisdom. As our Good Father, the Lord reminds us all in His Church that:

“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.” — REVELATION 3:19-21

This is His message to the churches, and more importantly, to each one of us individually. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”—REVELATION 3:22

He is calling each one of us to truly repent, and that calling comes with a promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” — I JOHN 1:9

So, be earnest and repent! Open the door and invite Him in to eat with you every day. Only then will we truly know Him and He will truly know us. He stands right now at the door and knocks, calling to you by name. Open the door and invite Him inside.

A Prayer

Lord, I invite you into my heart as my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You and you alone are worthy of my praise and worship, and I humbly submit to you and bow before you as my King! Thank you for being right here with me. You love me and welcome me despite my sin. Thank you for loving me enough to meet me where I am and draw me closer to you. Lord, you know my deeds and what they reveal about my heart. Search my heart and convict me of my sin. Convict me of anyone or anything I treasure in my heart above you, Lord, because you are truly the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings! I confess to you my sin and my idolatry. Please forgive me and cleanse me from all my unrighteousness. Empower me by your Holy Spirit and pour out your faith, hope and love in me so that I may overcome the world as you have already overcame it. Lord, I invite you to come into my life and commit to seek you and walk with you each and every day of my life. My heart’s desire is to truly know you and to be known by You. You and you alone are worthy of my praise and worship! Thank you for your great love and grace! Amen!

Our humble repentance is the only way for God to begin to reset His Church—one heart and soul at a time. One by one, His Church will grow in numbers as well as in the power of our testimony, even in our death. This is how we take up our cross and follow Him. This is how we are purified. This is how we become His radiant Bride—until the only one truly worthy of our worship—our Lord Jesus Christ—returns to establish and reign in His kingdom forever. Listen to our future hope as His radiant Bride in His eternal kingdom:

“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous deeds of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’”

In our repentance, we will be reset in His righteousness, and be lovingly invited to the wedding supper of the Lord, dressed in the fine, white linen of our righteous deeds, as His radiant Bride to reign together forever with Jesus Christ in His glorious Kingdom! Joyfully fling open the door now and invite Him in to eat together with you for the rest of your life and let our hearts rejoice that we will all eat with Him together throughout eternity! As we humbly repent, our hearts will be reset to long for our Lord Jesus Christ until He returns in His glory to restore His Kingdom and reign forever. Until that glorious day, I pray that His Church will all continue to cry out with one voice: Come Lord Jesus, Come!

Part of Dan Waters’ four-part Reset & Repent study, read in order. Continue reading: II — The Great Reset to Overcome the Great Tribulation.