Jesus' Letter to Sardis
Here what the Spirit says to the Churches • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro:
Intro:
This morning we are going to dig into the church of Sardis, now this church was missing something absolutely needed to be a part of God’s Kingdom, of course as we dig into this today, it is absolutely important for all of us here at FBC to take heed of what the Lord is saying not because we are in the same boat, but because we can be if we aren’t paying attention. but I realize that some may join us online, or watch this later, and they aren’t a part of this church, this message is certainly not just for our church, but for all churches that seek to be a part of God’s Kingdom, and for all people who realize that the church is us, not the building, not just the pastors, but we are the church, so lets dive in.
1 “Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: “The One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.
This church was dead my friends from the top down. Remember that the 7 stars signify the leaders of the churches. Absolutely we can pull from this the shepherds or pastors signified by this meaning, and in this instance even the Pastor was spiritually dead here. The church was spiritually dead.
What did the church lack?
This church lacked the Spirit of God
and even the leader, or leaders were lacking the spirit of God.
This is why it is so important that we always give the spirit latitude to work, and to move, this is why for a church to remain healthy, listen to this, we must allow our pastors to be lead by the Spirit of God! In to many places, instead of allowing the pastors to be lead by the spirit, the church wants the pastor to lead how they want. No, pastor you must do these things, and do them how I want you to or your not accomplishing your duty, we need to draw in more people to survive, the 10% per centers churches, we need a net gain of people every year, blah blah blah. Friends, if your pastors don’t have the latitude to lead by the spirit, then your church will die. If your church leaders aren't leading by the Spirit of God, its gonna get ugly, and the church is gonna die.
I have heard to many sad stories, of churches where people not lead by the spirit got into positions of leadership, they pushed their own wills into the church, it caused painful church splits, wounded the people and its a ripple effect friends.
Sardis got no commendation from Jesus, only rebuke
This church had a reputation of being lively apparently, but the only one whose opinion mattered said it was dead.
Listen, just because you have a bunch of cars in a parking lot, or a huge set of programs, ministries, and activities, and a large number of people coming on a Sunday doesn’t mean your church is alive.
Why do we need the Spirit of God?
He teaches and helps us (ref John 14:26)
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
2. He sanctifies us (ref Galatians 5:16-18)
3. He distributes gifts to be used for God’s Kingdom (ref 1 Corinthians 12:4)
4. He anoints us to do what we are meant to do (ref Isaiah 61:1)
The spirit of God is essential, and where He exists their is life, but where He is not, it is dead.
But this particular church was dead Jesus tells us
Holman Illustrated Commentary
Revelation A. Message to Sardis: Return to Spiritual Life (3:1–6)
A corpse may be beautiful, but it is still dead.
2 Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before My God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. But if you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come against you.
5 Commands are given here: (A solution for the dead church)
Wake up-
Apparently in their history, this city had been captured twice by foreign armies because they weren’t watching carefully. The failure to be alert to the presence of the enemy is deadly. They were commanded to be Alert, to WAKE UP! Their lack of spiritual vigilance could result in a spiritual fate like the cities past failures. Notice that Jesus found none of their works complete, they did what looked good on the outside to man, but Jesus saw the inside, and it was incomplete. This is why you can’t plug a business model into a church and expect it to flourish. On the outside these plans to draw more in work, but it’s incomplete, why? Because it zaps the spirit out of the church! You don’t believe me? look to Bill Hybels church, and read his associate pastors book called “Move” they were suffering a similar experience, business model driven with programs, activities, all these things that looked great on the outside, their numbers were increasing all the time, but a spiritual health check of the church found a serious problem.
DO this with me, put out your right arm, check your pulse, do you have a pulse? Good! lol, they were missing a pulse as a church, the Holy Spirit is the heartbeat of the church friends, its our pulse.
They had to get back to the basics, back to letting the Spirit of God lead. Their story makes me think the Lord was revealing to them what He revealed to the Church of Sardis.
Strengthen-
A fire that is burning out has merely some embers left, to reignite that fire, you must fan that flame, fuel it, strengthen it. They had only a remnant their, but those still led by the Spirit of God needed to dig their heels in deep, stand tall, and reignite the flame of the Holy Spirit in that place
Remember-
Our responsibility to remember what the Lord has done is so crucial friends, so important. Jesus calls upon them to go back to the moment they heard the Gospel, recieved it, and received the Holy Spirit, and then next ........
Obey-
The Holman Translation uses the word “keep” which is probably a better translation here, because it was a calling to a continual pattern of upholding the Spirit of God in that place. To follow in obedience with the Spirit of God, and the Word of God isn’t a 1 and done thing friends. It is continual, to keep from getting to a place of being spiritually dead, we must continually obey, continually keep latitude for the Spirit of God to move in us through the word of God.
Repent-
Mat a noel- Pastor Ron will appreciate this Greek translation haha.
Lexham Theological Wordbook μετανοέω
μετανοέω (metanoeō). vb. to repent, change one’s mind. In the NT, generally refers not simply to changing one’s mind but to turning back to God.
A 180 is needed friends when we leave God behind because we think we know what’s best for the church or its people. God must be included, and when we get off track we need to turn back to God and be filled by the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:18
4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with Me in white, because they are worthy. 5 In the same way, the victor will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before My Father and before His angels.
Now the whole church wasn’t dead, their was a small remnant that still walked in the Spirit of God, like they did when they first received the Gospel message and the Holy Spirit, but they had a duty to hold on, to be faithful, to be a witness to a majority that have lost their way becoming religious fakes, forgetting the Spirit of God to look spiritual in appearance only.
How we look and act on the outside, is often now how we look on the inside is it? We can come to church, all put together, everything is perfect, nothing is ever wrong, and put on a good front. But friends, what we put so much effort to doing on the outside, needs to be who we truly are on the inside.
The church doesn’t need religious fakes, that is what Jesus is calling out in the phony reputation of Sardis, what it needs is real people, who are broken sinners like the rest of us, but that lean on the Holy Spirit to lead, that let Christ be the head of the church.
6 “Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
Jesus concludes this letter like the rest, calling upon all who hear the Word of God to do what? To Hear what the Spirit says to the churches. But I like this translation, even though hear what the spirit says sounds better, we are to listen.
It’s not enough to just hear, we need to listen. I can hear a sound while sitting in my living room and go on about my business, but when I am listening to the sound, I’m investigating it, I want to know what the sound is, where it is coming from, why its making a sound. We must listen to what the Lord is saying, pay attention, give it our attention.
When someone says to you, you’re not hearing me! what they really mean is, your not listening to me. Listen to what the Spirit is saying to you today, and listen to what the Word of God says, they will line up.
So let us commit ourselves to Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches, and what it is saying to us, that we may live by the spirit, not by the praise of man.