Dead Church
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We have reached the fifth Church of seven churches that Jesus addressed in the book of Revelation.
I have laid out in detail the four major views on the Book of Revelation.
Preterist View
Historical View
Allegorical View
4. The Futurist or Prophetic View
These past weeks in our walk together through the Book of Revelation, we have been taking the Prophetic or Futurist view.
Which view takes the seven letters to the seven churches as a detailed and prophetic profile of the entire church age,
From the beginning of the Church, in the upper room where the book of Acts, tells us there were over 100 people who were present when the Holy Spirit was given.
1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
All the way through out the rest of the church age up to the eventual Rapture of the church, the rise of the anti-christ and the false prophet.
The fist of the church ages was the Apostolic church of Ephesus,
This was the beginning of the church age, which cause the explosion of the Gospel.
Then came the second period, or age which was dubbed the persecuted church of Smyrna.
Then after persecution ended by Imperial decree, Christianity eventually became the official Church or Catholic, church of the empire.
Catholic means the “Official or the General” in the age of Pergamos when the church mingled with Paganism
Then we came to the church age of Thyatira, where not only did the church mingle with Paganism, but actually allowed the penetration of Pagan practices and people into the faith.
To wit, we have arrived at the fifth church age,
Dubbed the Dead Church
The letter to the church of Sardis.
1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. 4 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
Sardis, aka, the dead church.
The church of Sardis is considered today one of the oldest cities in the world.
Having been settled sometime around 1500 BC.
A period just before Moses was preparing to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
The site of the city of Sardis was virtually impenetrable.
Meaning, militarily, it was un conquerable.
The reason for this sense of security, was because of its locality.
You see, Sardis was situated high upon a cliff, there were three sides of sheer drop off cliffs.
Leaving only one entrance into the front of the city, which was heavily guarded.
The people in Sardis rested easily and slept well at night trusting in the impenetrable nature of their city.
But, as God warns us about trusting in the things of the world, they eventually learn the hard way,
Not once, but twice.
The first time they were invaded was 549 BC by Cyrus.
Then again for the second time, in 214 BC by Antiochus the great.
Both times, because they were resting in the protection of their cliffs, the enemy came through like the proverbial thief in the night.
Both times, catching unaware, By surprise.
So, in verse one to the letter to the church of Sardis, it says.
1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
We know from the previous church letters, we’ve uncovered that the seven spirits of God are found in Isaiah 11.2
The Spirit of the Lord
The Spirit of Wisdom
The Spirit of Understanding
The Spirit of Counsel
The Spirit of Might
The Spirit of Knowledge
The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord
Then he says, “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
And continuing on in
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.
If we recall, we left the last church age around the time of the Protestant Reformation in 1517
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 page Thesis to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg.
When men like Martin Luther and the many others finally stood up the what had become the grotesquely corrupt Catholic church,
This gave rise to many others.
To which became the beginning of denominationalism.
From the earliest of the reformation period came
Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Anabaptism, Calvinism, and Quakerism.
From Anabaptism we eventually see, Quakers, Baptists, Mennonites, and Hutterites
I mention these because they may be most familiar to us today.
Speaking of Today, of those mentioned, in our day, the five most prominent protestant out workings from this period are:
Pentecostal,
Baptist,
Methodist,
Presbyterian,
Non-denominational,
Evangelical Free,
and Church of Christ
Jesus is telling these new denominations essentially,
“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
He is saying,
“Okay, you have your own name now, You are no longer worshipping how others compel you to. You are your own denomination now, worshipping how you choose. But its of no use, because you have all become spiritually dead.”
In the fight of anonymity from the other churches of the day.
Each church was trying its best to stand out, and then eventually against every other denomination of its time,
They many no longer defined themselves as Christian, but rather identified by the loyalty they had in their respective denominations.
Meaning, he’s a Baptist, or no, he’s a Pentecostal, or he’s a Methodist, etc.
Even though, most people probably don’t know this but the Pentecostal movement came out the Methodist church.
So, one spawned the other and so on.
And so the church of Christ, became divided
And so it became dead.
Stagnant.
One denomination wants to do this, but that denomination is against it, hence, nothing gets done, and the spread of the Gospel suffers for it.
It has become a them against us Movement.
He said at the end of verse
3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.
Here he is saying,
“Get back to what drove you to believe in me in the first place. When you do, don’t move from there, stay. And of course, Repent of what you have already done or have been doing.
Unfortunately even in our modern churches of today, we see the absolute opposite of what Jesus said,
He said get back to the origin of your faith, ME!. then stay there, don’t move.
But what people ended up doing instead was, digging their heels into their specific denominations and or their respective church creeds and traditions, and then stayed their instead of seeking out Christ or even spreading the Gospel.
To which the church exist in the first place, to spread the Gospel.
Or when people get so full of their religiosity defining what is acceptable worship, IE: raising hands, contemporary vs, traditional hymns, etc.
They forget about whom they are supposed to be worshipping in the first place.
When this happens, the church is doomed to die.
There are thousands of churches that have bitten the dust and died out, because they became to focused on the way they do things according to their denominations.
And missed the big picture, the spread of the Gospel.
A church is in danger of death when it begins to worship its own past… When it is more concerned with forms than with life… When it loves systems more than it loves Jesus Christ… When it is more concerned with material than spiritual things.
(William Barclay, Letters to the Seven Churches (London: S.C.M. Press Limited, 1957), 87-88.)
Every day it seems when I come into my office, I see Sister Sharon has several more books waiting for me on my desk.
I tease her by telling her that Ill have a triple doctorate if I ever have the time to read them all.
But that last quote came from one of her books I was able to read from.
I think its such a shame that there are millions of people who have come to church faithfully every Sunday, and are never changed.
Because that’s not the way they did things.
Let me be clear to everyone listening.
It does absolutely no good whatsoever, to spend years in church hearing the word of God, which will lead to change, and not change.
Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
Here he is saying that just like Sardis, if you aren’t watching the gate, of your heart, and turn back to the object of your worship,
And stop trusting in your religiosity of your denomination to get you to heaven, He will come like a thief in the night.
You see, again this reference to Sardis here is fitting.
Those in Sardis rested in their way of doing things,
They had been doing things that way for a long time without issue.
So, because of this, those in Sardis stopped guarding the three cliff sides, and instead concentrated all of their
guards at the front entrance,
Not realizing the enemies tenacity and lust for control, they were asleep at the wheel.
Legend has it that as King Cyrus was trying to figure out how at all if it were even possible to scale the cliffs
They happened to catch a soldier of Sardis drop his helmet from the wall down the cliff,
When the soldier went to retrieve his helmet, he gave away their secret way up the cliffs into the city of Sardis.
Then, one night, when everyone was asleep in their beds, the enemy scaled the cliffs, and over took the city.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ hearing me right now where ever you are across the world.
If you don’t wake up, and regain the devotion to the object of your worship, and I mean Jesus the Son of God, who gave up His life for you and I on the cross.
You too are going to find yourself one morning overtaken by the enemy of your soul.
Had the army in Sardis been guarding every which way in, they would have stayed impenetrable.
The sad thing is, this happened to Sardis not once, but twice,
It appears, they weren’t in the habit of learning from their mistakes,
Even today we have people like that don’t we?
Even some churches can still be this way can’t they?
In the closing to the letter to the church of Sardis,
Jesus says it again,
6 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
Notice how he continues to use the term, What the Spirit says to the churches.
This will become more interesting in the weeks to come.
But for now,
If there is any one here who isn’t sure they right with Jesus,
Then now would be the time set your heart right.
Because if you believe the Bible, the end of the church age is rapidly approaching.
If you don’t want your name blotted out of the Lamb’s book of Life, now is the time to receive Him,
