Not Your Bare Minimum Baptist Church: Rev. 3:1-13

I. What A Bare Minimum Baptist Church Looks Like vs. 1

A. The Seven Spirits of God is a reference to the seven aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, as detailed in Isaiah 11:2. Jesus perfectly embodied these seven aspects. We’ll see this in greater detail later.

B. The seven stars are the pastors of the seven churches in Asia.

C. Sardis was a church that was the “use to be”. We “use to be...” They lived in the past. It was always about what the “use to be” instead of who they were in the present, and what they could be in the future.

D. Yet they were dead as a door nail! If you spend all of your time in the past, you will be gone just like the past.

II. What A Spirit Filled Church Looks Like vs. 7-13

A. Philadelphia was in a city named after brotherly love and they embodied it!

B. The Lord had given them ample opportunity, and they were taking it, even though they were small in number. (“Get used to Different” ex). Methods will change, but the message never will. We don’t change our identity, but we let some tightly held traditions loose. We focus on relationship with Jesus, over religion.

Isaiah 43:19 ESV

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

C. We must follow scripture. We do this by being filled with the Spirit.

Isaiah 11:2 NASB95

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Ephesians 5:18 NASB95

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

D. Religious people will come after us, just like they did Jesus.

E. We overcome by persevering through faith. This could set families against each other, if you let it. Close friends will break fellowship. But it will be worth it. Revival isn’t being free from problems, but rather growing and making a difference in the midst of them.

Acts 17:6 KJV 1900

And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

III. Which Road Do We Take, And How Do We Get There vs. 2-6

A. We wake up. We truly see ourselves for how we truly are.

B. We strengthen what remains. We pour into those we’ve got here already. We don’t change everything, just the things that need it. Things that need will biblically liven things up, and those traditions that don’t line up with scripture.

C. Remember what made the good old days so good. Not a man, not a personality, but a surrendered church.

D. So which road do we take?