The Dead Church

INTRODUCTION

We are studying the fifth church in the book of Revelation tonight; THE DEAD CHURCH. This letter is addressed to the church in Sardis.

Sardis:

Sardis was one of the greatest cities in it s day founded around 1200 BC! It sat about 50 miles from Ephesus, at the junction of five main roads which made it a center for trade and very, very wealthy. Sardis wad the fist city to mint silver and gold coins and gold dust was found in the springs that ran through it adding to its wealth. The city was also located on a plateau about 1500 ft above the main roads making it a very powerful military center that was believed to be impossible to conquer and feared by all. Between its wealth, its famous kings that lived there, and its rich history, Sardis was a glorious city to the world around it.

BUT that was short lived. Sardis was conquered twice; once in 546 BC by King Cyrus, and again in 214 BC by Antiochus III. Both times men from the invading armies climbed up the plateau in an unguarded spot and opened the city gates to let the their armies in while the armies of Sardis only watched the main entrance into the city. In AD 17 huge earthquake hit Sardis and devastated it. After these disasters it was about 1/3 of its original size and nothing in comparison to its glory days. It was now just a shadow of its glory days.

Revelation 3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”

The church had become just like the city. At one time very much alive and doing well. But now it was just a shadow of its glory days. The great name the church of Sardis had made for itself because of its effectiveness, was living in the past. Its life was in its name only, it lived by memory of how good things used to be.

And there are many churches like that in our county today. Some are very old, some are not so old. At one time they were doing great things for the kingdom of God. They were making disciples, reaching their communities, thriving and growing, but now they were not just in decline but dead.

Jesus introduces Himself as “He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars”.

QUESTION: What does this description say to this church or to any church who is dead or about to die?

HINT: What is the spiritual role of the Holy Spirit?

ANSWER: The Spirit gives life. A body does not die until the spirit leaves.

Many times when I worked codes on the ambulance we would encounter people who were clinically dead. No pulse, No respirations, nothing. They were dead.

We would immediately begin CPR, hook them up to our cardiac monitors, start IV’s infuse drugs, intubate, respirate, and at times we would regain a pulse.

True death is when the spirit leaves the body.

The same is true for churches. The source of life in a church is not a set programs taking place, nor is it people showing up for service, nor is it singing, or preaching, or money in the bank. These are not bad things, BUT are not signs of spiritual life.

Spiritual life in a church is when the Spirit of God is present in the church. Life comes from the Spirit of God. Power in the church comes from the Spirit of God. Effective ministry in a church comes from the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God is not there, it is dead.

Since we are a new church, I want us to study this letter as things to avoid in our future. Things to watch out for. Places that we could stumble and may even be creeping into now.

Symptoms of a dying church

Revelation 3:1d-2 “‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.”

“I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead”

This church had a reputation around it as a church that was was alive and spiritually healthy. They may even have looked like they were thriving from the outside.

They possibly even had an opinion about themselves that they were doing well and that God was pleased with them.

But when they were put on the spiritual monitor, they showed no signs of real life. When the all seeing eyes of Jesus looked past all; the superficial stuff going on in this church, He diagnosed it as dead.

QUESTION: What do you think this looks like in a church today to have a name that they are alive but are dead? Look for clues from this verse.

ANSWER:

(1) Empty claims to true Christian Commitment or God’s Word. (No fruit)

(2) They do not walk by faith

John 14:21 ““He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.””

James 2:20 “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?”

1 John 3:9–10 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

Jesus knew their deeds, that they were not deeds of true spiritual life.

Application: We must understand and know what true Christianity is and teach that to others! It is being born again! It is not possessing a form of religion, it is being indwelled by power! And true Christianity always transforms the life! ALWASY!

“wake up”

This statement is significant to this church because of its history. Remember that it was conquered twice, and both times because the army who was supposed to be protecting the whole city was not doing its job! It was not watching both gates, but only the main gate!

Just like the soldiers were lethargic and slacking on the things they should be doing for their King, so the church members became lethargic and were slacking on their service to King Jesus.

They had gotten lazy, stopped doing what faithful churches ought to be doing!

QUESTION: What should churches be faithful doing?

ANSWER:

(1) Making disciples (Matt 28:18-20)

(2) Gathering regularly (Heb 10:25)

(3) Praying (Matt 21:13)

(4) Fellowship/Lord’s Supper (Acts 2)

“Strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die”

Some scholars say this refers to people, some say it refers to deeds, some say it refers to both.

I think in this context it would make best sense to say it refers to what they are doing.

Most likely they were at one time busy doing what we had just talked about. But they had gotten tired, even lethargic, comfortable, content with mediocre. They had just about stopped pulling the hard plow of ministry.

Application

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”

We have got to remain faithful to our core ministries.

Preaching/teaching

Praying

Fellowship

Evangelism

“for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God”

They may be seen by others as doing well, but not by God.

“In the sight of My God” means that God judges churches conduct according to His standards, His expectations of a church.

QUESTION: How do we know what God expects of us?

ANSWER: From God’s Word. We do not do ministry according to culture or what we think works. Bodies do not equal spiritual health or kingdom growth. We put our faith and trust in the Word of God and do what it says, because that is the standard God will hold us to.

The Bible is a mirror. It is a mirror to us personally and a mirror to us corporately. As we read, we must constantly align ourselves with it. If we ever stop that, we will be guilty of “deeds not completed in the sight of God”

The Solution

Revelation 3:3 “‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.”

Remember what you have received and heard

This call to remember the faithfulness of the past, and the Christian truths they have heard

Most likely this church was built upon sound teaching (just like this church) but drifted over the course of time. Perhaps leadership changed, perhaps the church got lazy. We do not know.

Keep it

Means not to just rekindle those good deeds that for a season, but make it an ongoing practice. It must not end.

Repent

I really want to focus here, because a key aspect of church health is not only to address past failures but to repent of them

If a church does not repent, I believe in all of my heart it will never be alive again. It may have its doors open, but real spiritual life will never exists there, at least not with those people.

New Palestine grudge against a former member

I wanted to sell him the parsonage, they told me they rather push it in a hole and burn it before selling it to him

(v 3b) “I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.”

QUESTION: This is a message of judgement. When do you think this will take place and why?

The faithful remnant

Revelation 3:4 “‘But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.”

I just briefly want to show you again that in every church, even dead churches their are a few faithful.

We must be careful to classify everyone on the actions of the majority in a church.

Revelation 3:5–6 “‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

QUESTION: Do you think Jesus is saying these will lose their salvation? Explain

ANSWER

This is imagery that we will see all throughout the book of Revelation. It is applied to this church because it would have well resonated with them. When Greek were convicted of serious crimes, their names were removed from the civic registry.

It cannot mean that we lose our salvation because later on in this book it will say our names were written in the book of life from the foundation of the world

Revelation 13:8 “All who dwell on the earth will worship him (The Beast from the Sea), everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.”

Truth 1: “and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels”

QUESTION: Why does Jesus mention this? Does this give us any insight into the problem at Sardis?

ANSWER: Evangelism (Matt 10:32)

TRUTH: The “he” here is singular.

This calls for individuals to hear and take action.

We can be spiritually dead in a living church and Jesus will overtake us like a thief in the night.

We can be spiritually alive in a dead church, and must not fall into their pattern of deeds.

And we are each accountable for being a witness for Christ! We must be sure that we are faithful with the opportunities Jesus gives us!