Revelation 3:2-3

Revelation 3:2-3; The Church of Sardis

There is an expression that I think many of us have heard, that goes like this, “he sure knows how to live.” In a lot of ways, man tries to do things they think will bring them happiness. Living life with all of the things we can buy, decorating our homes with objects of wealth, even going places that look amazing, just to make us feel alive, while in reality we’re dead.

Stickers on cars saying “church life”, shirts with a church name on, even programs that the community can see, all give the appearance of a church that is alive, but appearances can be deceiving. While many churches perceive themselves as a church with life, Jesus looks at them and says “they are dead.” That is why it is important that we evaluate ourselves, according to what the Lord is saying to these seven churches, that we may not find this church in the same predicament.

The opening verse of chapter 3, began with the church of Sardis, a congregation that to the community to be a thriving church with a growing congregation, but in reality, they had really died and what they were about was not in the life of Christ.

Yes, a dead church can have many people in it, and likewise, it can have hardly no one in it. A dead church is not dead based on its numbers, it is dead based on its reason for life. For example, when a church of many is existing for the activities and programs and events that it has, but never focuses in on Jesus, then it is a church that has no life. In addition, a church that may only have a few people, that refuse to change because they have made the church building or items in it holier than God, is a church that has no life. We have to be cautious that we do not follow suit, and also careful that we not look at other churches and say “they are dead”. We must examine ourselves and keep the Life of Christ, beating in our church.

Verse 2 - “Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.”

· The road to a dead church begins when we close our eyes. Since ancient times, there have been men and women, who have stood guard at the nation’s gates, keeping an eye open to the enemy. Making sure that no matter the time, they were awake to see the adversary coming.

· If a person were to fall asleep while the enemy was coming, they would have been the reason for the city to perish. Even today, this practice continues with our military services. Someone keeping watch, making sure that nothing gets through our defense.

· Here was a church were the congregation had let the church die, because they had closed their eyes to the Lord. The word sleep in the Bible is a word that is sometimes substituted for the word dead.

· Listen, if we go to sleep on the Lord, thinking that the ministries can just go on without our support, then we are a dead church.

· Sardis was a church that had begun with life, but within a short amount of time had died. Isn’t that how death comes? Thinking that we will just live on and on, and before you know it, death is there.

· I love to work with plants, I have planted many things in my yard over the years, and they are slowly growing. There have been some plants that I have planted begin to grow wonderfully and then all of a sudden, they appear to be dead. So I go to the branches, and I scrape a little part of the plant with my nail. If it is brown underneath, I break it off, then I check another, it might be the same. But every once in a while, I will scrape and there will be green. The plant may be dead everywhere else, but right there, is still life. Now, the best thing for me to do at that moment is to cut that plant and place that which is alive in new soil, and try to stimulate it to grow.

· Well, here was a church, were some of its branches had some life in it, but the main trunk had died. And Jesus speaks to this church saying, strengthen the things which remain. Obviously, there is some parts of this church that had not fully died, but were in jeopardy, if action wasn’t taken.

· Let me illustrate it this way, if a person were caught out in the freezing snow, eventually the body would begin to shut down. The blood would go to keep the vital organs protected. That is when frostbite would begin, the organs would still be going, but after a while only the critical organs would be cared for.

· Well, brothers and sisters, the church is in a critical zone, there are many churches across the land that are in jeopardy of dying, they are on life support and they are smoking cigarettes, not watching, not strengthening, they are playing with fire and it is about to fully consume them.

· The Lord tells them that he has found there works not perfect before God. This means they were not building it for the Lord.

· Think of it this way, what if a young lady made a gift for her boyfriend, say it is a sweater. She labored over it and it’s a beautiful sweater that she has knitted together, she even knitted his name into the sweater. She comes to her boyfriend and hands him that sweater, he opens it up and he sees it, and there is a problem with the sweater. It has someone else’s name on it. It might be beautiful and well made, but when it has the wrong name on it, it will never be worn.

· Listen, there are a lot of things that churches do and it has the wrong name on it. It doesn’t have the name of Jesus, it has the name of the church instead, it has the name of a member on it, it wasn’t for the Lord it was done to bring recognition to someone else. It might have had the appearance for the Lord, but in reality, it was done for someone else.

· The work that is done in the house of the Lord, needs to be done for Jesus Christ, for His name, and not for anyone else’s.

Verse 3 “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.”

· In life, when things don’t turn out the way we plan, we contemplate “where we went wrong”. We may labor over the thought for a long time, but let me ask you, what good does that do? What we need to do is remember when it was right and just go back to that.

· Sardis is told by the Lord to “remember”, the Lord has blessed us with a memory, some good memories and some bad memories, these thoughts that are in our memory serve as a reminder of where we have been.

· So, what is it that the Lord wants them to remember? He wants them to remember what they have received, and what they heard, and hold fast to it, and repent.

· What is it they have received? They had received the forgiveness of sin, they had received new life, they had received the Holy Spirit, they had received God’s mercy and grace, they had received so much, and they had forgotten what they had got.

· Let me ask you, do you remember what you received for your third Christmas? Most of us may not remember that, we forgot it. But let me ask you, do you remember when Jesus forgave you of your sins, and came into your life? That’s something we shouldn’t forget.

· We need to remember what we heard. It is amazing, how much people really don’t listen. It has been suggested that we only retain just a small portion of what we hear from people, and what we forgot, we may just replace with our own thoughts. I have had my parents tell me, Eric, that’s not what I told you to do, and I would say that’s what I thought I heard. Translation, I wasn’t listening to begin with.

· Listen we need to remember what the Lord has told us, don’t forget His words, when you’re lonely don’t forget that he said I will be with you always, when you’re afraid, don’t forget that he said he would protect you, when you’re helpless, don’t forget that he said, he would provide for your needs.

· There has been to much forgetting by God’s people, let’s remember what Jesus said to us. Didn’t he say he was coming again?

· I think a lot of people have forgotten that. They are focused on something else, but Jesus said he was coming again and we need to remember it.

· The world is not listening to the Lord, church we aren’t to be like the world. There are men and women who call themselves Christians who are starting to agree with the world. That the Lord isn’t coming back, and they can live like they want to. They are making life about themselves and what they want, remember when we are a child of God, we live with the expectation of the Lord’s return, that it could even be today.

· It seems like a lot of people will not be prepared for the Lord’s return, the Bible says here, that He will come like a thief, meaning there will be many who are unprepared. I think there will be a lot of churches unprepared for the Lord’s return, and will be sitting in the Lord’s House on the Sunday after his return and not even know it. Because they are dead and never really gave their heart to Christ.

· Listen, we aren’t going to know the time of His return, don’t let it be a surprise in your life, let’s not let it be a surprise to this church, let’s be ready for when that time comes.