READING SOMEONE ELSE’S MAIL
Sardis: The Crippled Church
Rev. 3:1-6
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Sardis.html
Take your next vacation in London, and you could visit the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The tour guide would tell you that this is the place that the great Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to preach. He would tell you that the 5,000 seat auditorium there was never large enough…they packed it to overflowing Sunday after Sunday in Spurgeon’s day.
He would tell you how on Sunday nights, they would actually ask church members to stay home because so many visitors wanted to come and fill the building.
Today, that church is only a shadow of what it used to be. If you were to visit the Metropolitan Tabernacle, basically what you would hear is wonderful stories of “the way it used to be.” The good ole days…
Such is the case with the church at Sardis in Rev. 3. At one time they had a reputation for being exciting, alive, and vibrant / on fire for God!
When Jesus Christ writes to this church in Sardis, they were all reputation and no reality. They were all form, and no force. They were glorying in past splendor, and ignoring their present state. They focused on Past Reputation, rather than Present Reality.
v. 1b Do you see what the Lord is saying to this church? He is saying, you have a reputation for being alive, on fire for God, your past has some high marks…but I know the truth…you’re dead!
We should give special notice to the words of Jesus, church, for He’s talking directly to US. More than any other of these 7 letters, this letter is for us, for 2 reasons:
1. It’s happened before. (a fall)
Am I talking to the right church? Was not the slogan here “Famous for the Gospel”? I was around; my family had heard about it, we lived just 75 miles that way!
And what happened? The devil got his way. The devil attempted to ruin a good thing, and somebody let their guard down, and it worked! In the midst of success, the church thinks it stands…and it falls! And a place that was indeed famous for the gospel became famous for something else! And a generation has had to pass for the church to recover, for trust to be restored, and to start experiencing God’s blessings again.
And thru the years as a ministry grows and begins to find some success, Satan does it again and again, shooting his fiery darts at church leaders, at church people, and at church ministries. If you have good growth, he sets a fire to it / offerings increase / ss class expands / …he sets a fire to it…he wants to ruin a good thing!
Yes, this letter is to us because it’s happened before…
2. It can happen again!
Here we are in God’s blessings again, in unity / sensing God’s power again / good feeling in the air / increased offerings / more people serving / and we sense the best is just over the horizon!
Yes, here we are again! We can expect Satan to oppose us!
We need to pay special attention to Jesus’ words to us today.
Churches, unfortunately, go thru 3 stages:
Spirit filled men (and women) [dynamic]
A machine (on auto-pilot) [dying]
A monument (to the good ole days) [dead]
The greatness of GBC is not just a past reputation, it is a present reality! May it ever be!
By the way, Sardis represents church history from A.D. 1500-1700.
Sardis means “remnant”, or, those who have escaped. This is the reformed church of Martin Luther, who nailed his 95 thesis to the church door, rejecting the works salvation of the Thyatira church, proclaiming once again that salvation is thru faith alone!
This is the remnant who escaped the clutches of the Thyatira church.
2 points on Sardis: The problem and the prescription
1. The problem
In these 7 letters, the Lord presents Himself in different ways to each. This is significant.
v. 1 “I am the one who possesses the Holy Spirit (7 = perfection)”
Why present Himself like this? Because it’s what they were missing…the Holy Spirit…the power was missing…and Jesus reminds them that He holds the power in His hand…power to make this dead church live again…power to convict / guide / equip for ministry. It is the Holy Spirit that energizes the Church, and tragically, it was missing in Sardis.
Their first problem was that they were powerless! They were reformed, but they weren’t revived!
When Jesus labeled them a dead church, that was a sure sign that they needed the power of the Holy Spirit!
The church of the Reformation separated from the Catholic Church. These Protestants escaped…but quickly reverted to their former practices. This Lutheran assembly, and other Protestants of that day reverted to some of their old ways…infant baptism, ritualism, and more of a social gospel…a feel good gospel that eventually returned to works as the means of salvation.
They forgot where their power came from, which is from prayer and purity. You show me a church that is on fire for God, and I’ll show you a church paying the price thru prayer and purity every time!
Protestant churches today are far removed from where they once were.
In Acts 1-2, the disciples prayed for 10 long days, and Peter preached for 10 minutes, and 3,000 people got saved. Today we try to pray for 10 minutes, preach for 10 days, and we wonder why no one gets saved! What’s missing? I’ll tell you what’s missing, the power of the Holy Spirit of God!
If we want a church that is alive, and not dead, it will be because we get serious about paying the price in prayer and purity. When does the prayer take place…all the time! Not the least of which is when my prayer partners meet in the back room at 5:30 PM. That’s a good starting point for you, come join the 4 or 5 who are doing that which is least…and then let it grow to every day of the week, and every waking moment…a passion for prayer, for power, and for purity.
The purity happens as we listen to God, as we allow Him to change us on a daily basis. It happens at invitation time, if we’ll listen and focus on His still small voice. It happens thru His word, as it’s preached and proclaimed, and as we read it on our own in private devotions.
I remind you church, of our need for power, which comes thru prayer and purity! If we’ll get serious about that, there’s no limit to what our Great God can and will do, by the power of His Spirit!
That was their first problem, they were powerless!
Their second problem was that they were apathetic. The only thing that’s worse than being powerless is to be powerless and not know it, or, Lord help us, powerless and not care!
What’s the difference between ignorance and indifference? “I don’t know and I don’t care!”
v. 2 “Be watchful”
Could literally be translated, “wake up!”
Background on Sardis:
Sardis was located at the junction of 5 major roads, which made it a center of trade. The city of Sardis was built upon a plateau that was 1,500 feet above those roads. Three sides of that plateau were completely unapproachable. The cliffs were smooth and virtually unscalable. The only way you could get into Sardis was from the south side, and even that was a steep climb! And they considered their city to be impregnable. The leaders felt so secure, for all they had to do was post guards on the south side of the city.
Wouldn’t you know that as secular history records, Sardis was taken by the enemy on 2 different occasions. Once by Cyrus of Persia, and once by Alexander the Great.
Do you know how the city was taken? In both instances, the guards were asleep!
And in Godly irony Jesus proclaims: “Wake up!” What happened to the city of Sardis was about to happen to the church at Sardis. And I believe that God’s message to us at GBC is “don’t go to sleep!” Don’t let the blessings of God lull you into a restful sleep / false sense of security.
The guards of this city became apathetic and confident, and fell asleep, and the enemy entered in!
GBC, don’t be careless, don’t be comfortable, and don’t assume that all is well. Don’t be like the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, and be found sleeping when you’re supposed to be praying, and don’t be found resting against the back of your pew when you’re supposed to be kneeling at the altar!
Remember Samson? He just assumed God’s power would always be there, like it had been in the past, no matter what he did. He got careless and apathetic, and Judges 16:20 says he knew not that the Lord was departed from him! He lost his power and didn’t even know it.
Church, if we’re not careful, we’ll wake up one day and realize that all we have to talk is about is the good ole days, how it used to be!
The problem: They were powerless and apathetic.
2. Let’s look at the prescription:
v. 3 shows us how to keep a good church from dying…a 3 part prescription:
1. Remember
2. Hold fast
3. Repent
1. Remember—the Word of God, the foundation upon which you are built.
S.S. needs to be Bible centered / songs we sing / message we preach
The word of God does the work of God far better than we ever could!
2. Hold fast = Stand your ground (remain)
The problem w/ churches today is that they no longer take a stand. Churches today are easily ignored, because of a simple formula:
“No friction = No motion”
The unsaved people of the city of Sardis saw the local church there as being neither dangerous nor desirable. They were able to easily ignore it…for it had a dying witness and a decaying ministry. Nobody got saved, but at least no one got offended!
2. Repent
Overcome! Life overcomes death. That is the miracle of Easter / resurrection / being born again
Wake up! Be watchful!
v. 3b clear reference to rapture…return of Christ
Jesus is coming! Let’s not be found sleeping!
Far better than having a past reputation is having a present reality.
GBC has had a recent reformation, now we need a revival. May the Lord soon return and find us in better condition than ever in our history, as individuals, as a church!
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Sardis.html
