A Dead Church

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Sterling)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Prayer of Praise (Daphne Brewton)

All My Boast Is in Jesus

Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy

Prayer of Confession (Colin Smith), Pride

Assurance of Pardon (Isaiah 57:15)

His Mercy Is More

Blessed Assurance

Scripture Reading (Revelation 3:1-6)—page 1220 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Sterling)

Prayer for PBC—Meaningful membership

Prayer for kingdom partner—Matt & Samara Wharton (Disciple the Nations)

Prayer for US—For Federal Judges

Prayer for the world—Guinea

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

Did you know it’s possible for something to look alive, and yet actually be dead?

Imagine a distant star, far away in some corner of the universe. It burned hot and bright for ages, but eventually, the star died. And yet, if you step outside tonight and look up, you might still see it.

Because that star is so far away that its light is still traveling toward us. Its light is still traveling across space. To our eyes, it still shines. It still looks alive and strong.

But in reality, it’s gone. What we’re seeing is not its present condition—it’s a delayed image of what it used to be. [1]

Did you know the same thing can happen in a local church?

From a distance, everything in a local church can look right: its reputation is still strong, its activity is still visible.

But Jesus can see what we cannot. The life is gone. The flame has already gone out.

It is possible for a local church to look vibrant and alive… while, in truth, it is actually dead.

Without God’s sustaining grace, even a once-vibrant church can eventually die.

That’s the Big idea I hope to communicate from God’s Word with His help this morning.

Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 3.

Jesus’ message to the church in Sardis is the fifth of seven messages He sent to real local churches near the end of the first century A.D.

SHOW 7 CHURCHES MAP

The church in Sardis looks like it’s alive, but it’s actually dead!

So as we study this passage this morning, I want to ask and answer Four Questions:

What is a Dead Church?

Why Do Churches Die?

How Must We Respond?

Where is Our Hope?

Alright, let’s begin with our first question...

1) What Is A Dead Church?

Have you ever heard someone describe a church as dead?

Some think a dead church is a church without a lot of passion. Maybe the worship services are somber and serious. Maybe there’s not a lot of people raising their hands in worship, or singing at the top of their lungs, or amen-ing the pastor when he preaches.

Others consider a church dead when it doesn’t have a lot of people. If you walk into a church service that’s sparsely attended, it just feels dead.

Still others believe a dead church is a church without a lot of progress. This church seems stuck in the past. They still sing the same songs and have the same style they’ve always had. Nothing seems to change.

Finally, some wonderful Bible scholars say Sardis was dead because they were a church without a lot of evangelism. They had neglected the importance of telling lost people the gospel. And that’s why they were dead.

When most people think of a dead church, they think of a church without passion, without people, without progress, or without proselytes. But far more important is what Jesus thinks.

Revelation 3:1—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.”

The church at Sardis had a great reputation. If you visited this church, you would surely say they were alive.

They don’t have problems with false teachers like the churches at Pergamum or Thyatira.

As William Hendriksen writes, “Sardis was a very ‘peaceful’ church. It enjoyed peace, but it was the peace of the cemetery!” [2]

They had a reputation of being alive, but they were dead.

But what does it actually mean for a church to be dead?

Obviously these people aren’t physically dead—otherwise there would be no need for Jesus to write them this message.

When this word “dead” is used symbolically, it almost always refers to someone being spiritually dead.

The clearest example is in…

Ephesians 2:1–5—And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

Paul’s meaning is clear: To be dead is to be lost and hell-bound. It’s to be cut off from God and deserving of His wrath.

Dear friend, this is the condition every single one of us was born into. You were not born with a right relationship with God. You were born spiritually dead, hell-bound, deserving God's wrath, and needing redemption.

Now here’s the really troubling thing. Jesus is talking to a church! If Jesus calls the church “dead” what does that mean?

At minimum, Jesus is describing a church whose spiritual life is so weak it is indistinguishable from spiritual death. But I am convinced the most likely explanation is that many, if not most, are in fact unregenerate. They’re not saved.

John MacArthur says this: “[Sardis] was basically populated by unredeemed, unregenerate people playing church.” [4]

Dear friend, did you know that you can be a member of a church with a great reputation, and still go to hell when you die?

Consider the words of Jesus…

Matthew 7:22–23—“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Notice that Jesus says there will be MANY on Judgment Day who claim to be Christians but actually aren’t.

If you were here a few weeks ago, you may remember Meghan Ratcliff’s testimony. She grew up around Christianity but only recently realized she had never truly trusted Christ.

The church at Sardis was filled with people like that, people with head knowledge about Jesus who had never given Him their heart.

Your head and heart are only about 18 inches apart, but some of you are in danger of missing heaven by 18 inches.

Let me ask you friend, do you have a reputation for being alive even though you’re actually dead?

A spiritually dead person is someone who hasn’t turned from their sins and trusted in Jesus alone for salvation.

A dead church is a congregation where the majority of its members are spiritually dead.

So how does that happen? Consider with me our next question...

2) Why Do Churches Die?

I told you a few weeks ago about our dog that died. People asked us, “How did she die?” The truth is, we don’t know. Without paying for an autopsy, we really had no way of knowing.

And the same is true in Sardis.

The truth is, we have no idea how this church reached the point where the majority of its members weren’t truly born again.

Jesus doesn’t tell us, there’s no other references to Sardis outside of Revelation, and there’s really not much in church history that explains how this church died.

While Jesus doesn’t tell us exactly why Sardis died, there are hints in Scripture that point to why some churches die.

If we’re going to protect our church from a similar fate, we must mark and avoid four characteristics of a spiritually dead church:

The first characteristic is…

A) A lack of expositional preaching

What is expositional preaching?

Mark Dever says: “Expositional preaching is preaching that takes for the point of a sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture.” [4]

Rather than starting with topics we want to talk about, expositional preaching starts with a text and explains what God has said.

I’m not saying it’s never appropriate to deal with important topics in the church, but the regular diet in a church should be studying verse-by-verse through books of the Bible.

Now why would a lack of expositional preaching eventually lead to a church filled with unbelieving members?

Because expositional preaching forces us to deal with topics that are crucial to Christian discipleship, topics that in our flesh we would prefer to avoid.

Just think about some of the difficult topics we’ve addressed over the past few years because we’re studying verse-by-verse through books of the Bible:

A few weeks ago we talked about church discipline.

When we studied Ecclesiastes we talked a lot about death.

When we studied 1-2 Thessalonians we talked about sexual purity.

None of those are topics will build a megachurch. But they’re topics every Christian needs to learn. And most Christians will never learn about these things unless they are in a church with a steady diet of expositional preaching.

A second characteristic of a spiritually dead church is…

B) A loose grip on the gospel

Our country is filled with churches in mainline denominations that have loosened their grip on the gospel.

Some do it by saying things like, “Maybe Jesus really isn’t the only way. Maybe the only thing that matters is your sincerity.”

Others do it by celebrating things that the Bible calls sin.

If you tell people that Jesus isn’t the only way, or if you tell people they don’t need to repent of this or that particular sin, you shouldn’t be surprised if over time your church is filled with people that aren’t even Christians.

So a faithful church must cling to the truth of the gospel at all costs.

At PBC, one way we do this is by ensuring the gospel is presented every single week. Because a church that assumes the gospel will quickly find that its members have forgotten it.

A third characteristic of a spiritually dead church is…

C) A lazy approach to membership

If you’ve become a member at PBC since 2016, you’ve gone through what we and many other churches call a membership interview.

Basically we sit down with someone who wants to join the church and we ask them questions about their faith. Questions like: What is the gospel? When and how did you become a Christian? Have you made your faith public through baptism?

Our goal is not to intimidate anybody, but to do our best to determine if the person is actually a Christian.

In his book, The Unsaved Christian, Dean Inserra writes: “A troubling reality in much of evangelical life is that convincing someone they are saved seems to take precedence over making sure someone actually is saved.” [5]

And a church that does that will find itself over time becoming populated by unbelievers.

A final characteristic of a spiritually dead church is…

D) A loss of church discipline

We talked about church discipline at length a few weeks ago when we studied the church at Thyatira, so I’ll be brief here.

Just like a garden needs to be weeded to remain a garden, a church needs discipline to remain alive.

What do we do when a church member starts acting like an unbeliever and refuses to repent? If we just respond, “Oh well! No church is perfect!” we’ll eventually become a church filled with lost people.

But if we obey the New Testament and discipline those who refuse to repent, we will preserve the health and life of the church.

We don’t know how the church in Sardis died, but we can observe how many churches die today.

A church can look alive, yet be filled with unbelievers, when it lacks expositional preaching, loosens its grip on the gospel, lazily approaches church membership, and loses the practice of church discipline.

PBC family: Let’s fight to continue each of these practices in our church, lest we too become like Sardis.

Which leads to our third question...

3) How Must We Respond?

Do you know anybody who is a nitpicker? Nitpickers are constantly pointing out everybody else’s flaws—not to help them improve, not to fix anything, but simply for the satisfaction of bringing other people down and helping themselves look better. Nitpickers are incredibly difficult people to be around, because no matter what it feels like you can never please them.

Here me clearly: Jesus is perfect, but He’s not a nitpicker. Yes, He’s more than willing to point out the flaws in churches like Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis. But He’s doing it with a clear goal in mind. He’s doing it in love so His people will respond.

I want you to notice Two Steps that Jesus urges us to take in response to what we’ve seen this morning.

First, before you can do anything else, you must…

A) Recognize where you stand

Even though the majority of the members at Sardis are unregenerate, there were some who were truly born again.

Revelation 3:4—Yet 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.

These are the remnant, the true believers who were genuine Christians in spite of their dead church.

But notice Jesus says there’s only a few of them.

The majority of the members are not saved.

To them Jesus says in...

Revelation 3:3b—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.

Whenever the Bible talks about Jesus coming “like a thief” it’s always a reference to judgment.

Nobody is excitedly looking forward to a thief coming to break into their house.

To the Christian, Jesus’ coming brings joy and relief. But to the unbeliever—even the unbeliever who claims to be a Christian and is a member in good standing at a church like Sardis—Jesus’ comes like a thief. He comes against unbelievers. But He comes for His people.

Let me ask you, friend, where do you stand before God? Would you examine yourself right now? Is your life marked by a love for Jesus, His Word, and His people? Are you trusting in yourself or in the work of Christ? Has your life been changed by the work of Jesus?

If you’re struggling through these questions, it might be helpful to sit down with a godly Christian friend and ask them to help you examine yourself. Often others can see things we cannot.

But before you can do anything else, you must determine where you stand before God.

Once you’ve done that, you can…

B) Receive regeneration (or revival)

If you’ve concluded that you’re not a Christian, you need REGENERATION.

Jesus put it this way to a religious man named Nicodemus, who thought he was spiritually alive…

John 3:3—… “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

But how can you be born again?

In one sense, you can’t make it happen any more than a sailor can make the wind blow.

In the same conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus says that the Spirit’s work of regeneration is like the wind.

You can’t make the wind blow and you can’t make yourself be born again. But you can ready the sails.

Believe that God created the world and everything in it. Believe that you are a sinner who has fallen short of His glory. Believe that you deserve His wrath. Believe that Jesus is the eternal Son of God who came to this earth, lived the sinless life you failed to live, died the sinner’s death you deserved to die, and rose from death on the third day. Turn from your sins and trust in Jesus. Cry out to Him and ask Him to save you.

Would you do that today before it’s too late? You can do it right in your seat quietly as you listen, or you can talk with me or with another one of the pastors after the service. But either way, if you do that today, would you talk to someone about it so we can help you take the next steps as a follower of Jesus.

If you’ve concluded that you are a Christian, your response will be different. You don’t need to “get saved” again. But you do have work to do. You need REVIVAL.

That’s what Jesus is calling for in…

Revelation 3:2–3b—Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.

I agree with James Montgomery Boice and John MacArthur who argue that these commands are directed to the remnant of true believers in Sardis. [6]

There’s no sense in telling a corpse to “wake up and strengthen what remains” because corpses can’t do anything!

So these instructions are for believers. They’re for people who are spiritually alive.

And what were the believers in Sardis commanded to do?

First, revival occurs when we wake up.

They had grown accustomed to the deadness around them. Over time it stopped bothering them. Jesus says they need to wake up and start caring again.

Is that you, Christian? Have you grown drowsy towards the health of your church? Are you less vigilant than you used to be? Are you engaged enough to know what’s going on? Are you awake?

Second, revival comes when we strengthen what remains.

Whatever was good at Sardis was on life support. The true believers there needed to take action.

They needed to grab the paddles and shock the heart of the church back to life again.

PBC member, how vibrant would our church be if its health was dependent on you? How joyful and exuberant would our singing be if the church was following your example? How sacrificial would our service in PBC Kids and other ministries be if everyone followed your example? How robust would our discipleship be through programs like Sunday School and Midweek be if you were the one “strengthening what remains”?

Third, revival comes when we remember the truth.

The Puritan pastor Stephen Charnock once wrote: “Remembrance is the chief work of a Christian; remembrance of sin to cause a self-abhorrence, . . . the remembrance of God for a deep humility, . . . remembrance of His name for keeping His law . . . remembrance of His judgments of old for comfort in afflictions . . . and remembrance of mercy for the establishment of faith.” [7]

So much of the Christian life isn’t learning new things, but remembering old things.

As our brother Cliff Hall used to say, “Christians leak.” So we have to fight to constantly fill up our hearts by remembering the truth.

Christian, are you fighting to remember? What daily practices have you put in your life to help you remember the truth?

Fourth, revival comes when we obey God’s Word.

It’s not enough to remember the truth, we must “keep” it.

The way to tell if you really want the type of revival Jesus is talking about here is by your willingness to obey.

Far too many of us are like the Meat Loaf song, “ I would do anything for love, but I won't do that.”

If that’s true for you, we need the final step for revival.

We must repent.

Repentance is not only something you do in order to become a Christian.

It’s a key part of the Christian life. Whenever we disobey God we must repent.

Repentance for the Christian should be as natural as breathing.

Is it for you, Christian? When was the last time you repented of a specific sin? You’ll never see spiritual revival in your heart or in the life of your church without it.

This has been a weighty sermon.

We’ve reckoned with the reality that even a once-vibrant church can eventually die.

We’ve heard from Jesus that there will be “many” on Judgment Day who call themselves Christians, but aren’t.

We’ve done an autopsy to consider what can cause a church to die.

We’ve pleaded with unbelievers to examine themselves and repent and believe in the gospel.

And we’ve considered how Jesus calls sleepy Christians to respond: wake up, strengthen what remains, remember, obey, and repent.

But before we conclude, I want the believers in this room to leave with hope.

So consider with me our final question…

4) Where Is Our Hope?

Without God’s sustaining grace, we can become a church just like Sardis—having a form of Christianity that looks alive… but is actually dead.

A Christianity that has the appearance of truth, but lacks the power to save and transform.

The most dangerous version of that false Christianity is the one that says, “Salvation is all about what I do. I must do something to become a Christian, and I must do something to stay a Christian.”

But what the Bible teaches is radically different. The consistent message of the Bible is that we are saved by Christ and we are kept by Christ.

This doesn’t mean our works aren’t important.

After all, we are commanded to repent and believe and we’re commanded to persevere. If we fail to do either, it shows we were never truly saved.

So our works are important, they are the fruit of our hope, but they’re not the root of our hope.

The root of our hope is Christ!

Look at…

Revelation 3:5-6—The 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. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Notice what Jesus is saying: “I will clothe my people in white garments.” You cannot clean yourself up enough to be welcomed into the Celestial City. But you can receive as a free gift the righteousness of Christ.

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne.

Our hope of becoming Christians isn’t ourselves, it’s Christ.

And listen, if you have to be good enough to earn your salvation, than you can also be bad enough to lose your salvation.

But Jesus says, “if you’re mine I will NEVER blot your name out of the book of life.”

The book of life is mentioned repeatedly in Revelation. It’s the record of those who will be welcomed into heaven.

In Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 17:8 we learn that our names are written in the book of life before “the foundation of the world.”

How many of you were alive back then, raise your hands. That’s what I thought.

Our hope of remaining Christians isn’t ourselves, it’s Christ.

Some of you may be like that distant star.

From the outside, everything looks fine.

You’re here. You sing. You serve. You have a good reputation.

But if Jesus were to speak over your life, would He call you “Dead” or “Alive”?

Friend, don’t trust your reputation. Don’t trust your past. Don’t trust your proximity to the church.

Trust Christ!

Because only Christ can make you alive, and only Christ can keep you alive to the end.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Come Let Us Return to the Lord

Benediction (1 Thess. 5:23-24)