Letter to the Dead Church at Sardis

Revelation 3:1–6 (ESV)

1“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

2Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

3Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

4Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

5The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

I. INTRODUCTION:

A. The Nazarene Research Center says a little over 75% of Nazarene Church had 99 people or less on average in weekly worship

B. 50% of those churches had 50 people or less on an average week

C. Just 20 years ago according to Nazarene Research, this church, Benton Church of the Nazarene had 110 attend weekly worship. But there has been a steady decline with up and downs ever since.

D. It wasn’t that long ago that every church had sunday morning, sunday evening and weds evening service where we would expect people to come. That’s not the case for us today though

E. Tom Rainer, a expert in Church leadership says “When the preferences of the Church members are greater than their passion for the gospel, the church is dying”.

F. I believe God isn’t done with his church and that he has a plan for us.

G. So how do we turn this around? Well we stop expecting people to just show up to the church and we start taking the church to them.

H. We engage with people outside the four walls of our building. We have conversations with people and share our God story with them.

1. This can happen at a coffee shop.

2. This can happen at work.

3. This can happen while we are at the pump at the gas station,

4. this can happen at the bank or when were checking out at the grocery store.

5. Wherever you are, the church can be also

I. Dr. Desmond Barrett, director of church revitalization on the kentucky district says in order for the church to make an impact in the world she needs to develop a missional mindset.

Create a Vision for Now

Focus on What Matters

. Every Member a Missionary

II. Background on Sardis

A. Sardis was a city that was really rich and was originally built on top of a mountain. It’s decline and downfall came when it started to become comeplacent.

B. Because of it’s past glory, riches and fame it thought that it had became untouchable.

C. Even to the point of not placing soldiers at it’s borders to keep watch for intruders and attacks.

III. Description of Jesus

A. He who has the seven Spirits of God

B. the seven stars

Are the angels of the churches which are the pastors, leaders, etc..

IIII. What Jesus says he knows about the Christians at the church of Sardis

A. Jesus knows the works at the church of Sardis

B. Jesus knows they have a reputation of being a church that is Alive

C. Jesus know that the church at Sardis is dead.

V. What Jesus instructs the dead church of Sardis to do.

A. Be Alert, wake up!

B. Strengthen what remains

C. Remember what you have recieved and heard in the Word

D. Repent

VI. What Jesus promises the faithful in Sardis

A. Jesus will give them white garments

B. Jesus says they will walk with him

C. Jesus says there name wont be erased from the book of life

i. There is a Book of Life, and it will be opened and referenced on the Day of Judgement.

a.This means that the Book of Life is real, and will be read.And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.

b. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. (Revelation 20:12)

ii. There is a Book of Life, and it determines if we go to heaven or hell.

a. This means that the Book of Life is important.

b. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

iii. There is a Book of Life, and knowing our names are written there should bring us great joy.

a. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20)

D. Jesus says that He will confess our name before the father and His angels

i. It is important for us to accept Jesus. But it is far more important to know if Jesus accepts us.

VII. APPLICATION

A. Tom Rainer in his book “Autopsy of a dead church” shares a story of a book he read called “Change or Die”.

It was both breathtaking and disturbing.

He says most people if given a choice between life and death would choose death if it meant choosing life would mean they would have to change.

Think about that, people would rather choose death than change.

B. Think about this, among 600,000 patients who undergo heart bypass surgery each year, a great number of them can be restored to health with changes in their lifestyle such as eating and exercise habits. But 90% of them choose to die!

It’s the same with churches. Many choose death because they don’t practice healthy spiritual habits.

C. Tom Rainer has analyzed over one hundred thousand churches and in his findings he found these common denominators in dying churches.

Dying churches take no responsibility and choose to blame others for their downfall.

Revived Churches accept blame and responsibility!

Other excuses are....

It’s the other churches fault!

its the worship style’s fault!

It’s the pastors fault!

It’s the denominations fault!

It’s the community’s fault!

Tom Rainer also in his studies noticed trends of turn-a-round churches. Church that were dead but now are Alive!

In these churches the people stopped playing the blame game and took responsibility

In one church a lay leader decided to set a side five hours a week to connect with people in the community who were not a part of the church.

Soon one other person joined him and so did others and they became an evangelical force in the community.

Another church had a faithful core who decided to pray every day at a specific time for revival and Gods

power in their church.

These are stories of hope, revival, and transformation. Let us be a church that chooses life instead of death!

In Ezekiel 37 it speaks about a vision recieved by the prophet. It was set in a valley of dry bones.

God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. As he did so these dry bones came to life. There was this rattling sound.

The bones started to form a corpse and flesh started to grow on each lim and ligament and every other part of the skeleton.

God breathed into them as they became alive again.

God can do the same for us and shake off the dust from our dryness if we allow Him.

David Guzik, Revelation, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Re 3:5.