Sardis: Waking the Dead
Series: The Church Restored
Sermon: Sardis: Waking the Dead
Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6
The problem with Sardis, like some of the other churches, begins with a deception. Only this time they’ve deceived themselves. They had deceived themselves into believing everything was well, when in fact, it was near death.
The very fact that Sardis had a reputation says what? That it had been around for a long time (as long as or longer than most churches at that time perhaps) and that during that time they had built a solid reputation for being alive.
Dr. Vance Havner has made the statement that spiritual ministries go through 4 stages: a man, a movement, a machine, and a monument. Sardis was at the monument stage. They had built their reputation and now they were simply living off their reputation.
This is a perfect description of the American church today. It ought to be a place of power and life, but it’s a place that is living on its reputation rather than remaining fully awake and fully alive. Jesus doesn’t mention any persecution of the Christians at Sardis. Could it be that the lack of persecution was caused by the believers lack of conviction?
They had also deceived others. They had a reputation for being alive. Someone looking in from the outside might conclude that the church in Sardis was really alive, when in fact it was really dead.
What causes a church to die? The church is often referred to as a body. What gives life to your body? Is it not the spirit that lives within you? What happens when the spirit leaves the body? The body dies. God’s Holy Spirit is what gives life to the church. When the Holy Spirit is grieved, the church begins to lose power and life. When sin is confessed and repentance is taken seriously then the Spirit infuses the church with new life—revival breaks out.
What cannot bring revival? Man-made programs, trusting in ourselves rather than trusting in God, pride, etc.
“If God called his Holy Spirit out of the world, about 95 percent of what we are doing would go on and we would brag about it.” --Dr. Carl Bates of Amarillo, Texas.
An equally blunt question was given to ministers at an annual Statewide Conference on Evangelism in Columbia, S. C. a few years ago: “What are you doing that you can’t get done unless the power of God falls on your ministry?”[1]
The truth is most of what we plan to do is built on the premise that we can only do what we have the strength to do ourselves, that we can only do what we have the resources to provide. When will we wake up, as Jesus told the Christians at Sardis, and realize that God is not going to step in and do anything that we can or are able to do in the strength of our own flesh. God will not step in until we actually attempt something that is completely beyond our power and our ability.
Remember young David going up against Goliath?
Remember Gideon and his 300-strong army?
Remember Nehemiah and the remnant who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem?
Over and over God steps in and does something immeasurably more than all we can think or imagine.
I would like to hear from you. Share with your family a time when God stepped in and did something more than you could have imagined?
(Tell the story of the $50,000 donation to Russia.)
Jesus gave the church at Sardis a wake-up call. Literally. He tells them what they can do to turn-around their dead church.
1. Wake up. Stop living in denial. Stop trusting in your own strength.
2. Start with what you have. “Strengthen what remains.” So you don’t have 300 people. Do you have 12? Do you have 30? Start with what you have?
3. Get back to the basics. “Go back to what you heard and believed at first.” That doesn’t mean we become spiritual infants again. It means we have become side-tracked by meaningless trivialities and forgotten what’s really important.
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[1]Tan, Paul Lee: Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers. Garland TX : Bible Communications, 1996, c1979