2. (Preview to a Vision week 2)
January 17, 2010
A Church without Faith is Dead
There was a 4 year old boy named Billy who had a pet cat. One day while Billy was at school his cat was run over by a car and died. Trying to protect her son from seeing his beloved kitty dead on the road his mother quickly disposed of the remains. A few days went by and Billy began asking what had happened to his cat. “Billy, the cat died,” his mother explained. She tried to comfort him by telling him: “It’s all right. Now he’s up in heaven with God.” Billy was puzzled by his mother’s statement. “What in the world would God want with a dead cat?” Have you ever noticed how kids have this strange ability to make these statements which force us to stop and reevaluate how we think? Putting aside the cat I do want to ask a similar question: what in the world would God want with a dead church?
Turn to Revelation 3:1. Last week we looked at James and how faith without works is dead. This week we are going to look at the book of Revelation and what it has to say about the church. In chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation we see seven sort of letters within the letter to seven different churches in Asia Minor. For some reason in my Bible these font in both of these chapters is all red. Does anyone know why that is? These are the words of Jesus. This is not an Epistle of John writing to the church, Jesus Himself is writing these letters to His churches and what you will find if you read these letters from Jesus to seven of His churches is that what Jesus has to say is very personal. In each of these letters Jesus says: I know. I know your deeds. I know your afflictions. This is very personal. Jesus says I know how you live. He is not fooled by our facades. He is not deceived by our titles or reputations, Jesus sees our hearts. He knows what we do and why we do it. Jesus knows us not for who we say we are, not for who we think we are, Jesus knows us for who we really are both as individuals and as churches. For me these two chapters of Revelation really bring the idea of a personal God into focus. You know? I have said God is a personal God I have accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior but it is these passages where Jesus simply says: I know that really helped me understand how personal Jesus really is.
Now for two of those churches Jesus has no condemnation. Of Smyrna and Philadelphia He says nothing bad to say to them. For two of the seven churches Jesus has no commendation. Of Sardis and Laodicea Jesus has nothing good to say about them. Can you imagine as a church getting a personal letter from Jesus only to find that He has nothing good to say about us? Ouch. We are going to see one of these churches this morning as we look at the church in Sardis.
Rev 3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Rev 3:2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Rev 3:3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Rev 3:4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. Rev 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Rev 3:6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Sardis was established in 2600 B.C. It was built on a mountain about 1500 feet above the valley floor. The only way you could even approach the city was from a steep path to the south. In 680 B.C it became the capital of Lydia. It was a wealthy and powerful city with mighty fortress walls. It was considered to be impossible to conquer. Yet in 546 B.C Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered it. But just wait until you hear how. When the people of Lydia went to war with the Persians they didn’t do very well. After begin defeated on a few occasions Croesus the Lydian general had all his forces withdraw inside the walls of Sardis. So the people of Sardis waiting within their mighty walls while the Persian army was at their gates. Croesus did not think the siege would last long he figured the soldiers would get tired and eventually they would go away so he planned to just wait them out in the city. The city was built into a mountain and had mighty walls why wouldn’t they feel safe inside of it. Now this is the really sad part. Here is how Sardis fell. Cyrus noticed that while the people were locked inside there were no guards along the walls. The soldiers were not at their post. They had fallen asleep on the job. They felt so safe and secure inside their impenetrable walls that the people stopped paying attention to the threat at their door. With an army of enemy soldiers at their gates their soldiers were not at their posts and they were not alert. So, completely unhindered the Persians climbed up the wall, opened the gates, and sacked the city. Croesus had ruled for 14 years and allowed his kingdom to fall after being under siege for only 14 days. That has to be one of the most embarrassing stories of defeat in military history. When I was in high school I broke my ankle. People would ask me how so I would tell them that I was walking down the street and saw a house was on fire. Smoke was billowing out the doors and windows as the flames covered the house. Then I heard the sound of a little puppy inside barking so I rushed into the house leap over burning debris rescued the dog but on my way out I had to jump over a flaming beam and in the process broke my ankle. I felt that was a good piece of manly fiction that made my injury sound good. What actually happened was I jumped over a mud puddle and missed the landing, fell and broke my ankle. That was embarrassing so I didn’t want to tell people that. Can you imagine trying to tell this story? Especially as a man we have all that pride and ego to protect. So how were your people conquered? We umm, well we fell asleep and the enemy climbed up our walls and opened the gates. In fact we lost without taking out any of their soldiers. How awesome is that? Sardis defeat was pretty embarrassing. The people of Sardis were asleep and so they were destroyed. That is the first time Sardis the unconquerable city was conquered but it was not the only time.
It’s bad enough to get conquered because you were asleep once. Antiochus the third conquered Sardis in 214 B.C because the people inside had fallen asleep. No one was at their guard station and so Antiochus’s soldiers climbed the wall, opened the gate, and conquered the city, again. Two times in their history Sardis had been defeated because they had fallen asleep. It is bad enough that it happened once but that they didn’t learn anything from it is tragic. I mean conquer me once because I am asleep shame on you, conquer me twice because I am asleep shame on me.
Look at the point that Jesus drives home in this letter: wake up! Jesus connects this letter to the history of the city. Here you are sitting inside your walls feeling so safe and secure. You feel safe. You think you’re strong. You think you’re alive but your not. If you don’t wake up if you don’t pay attention you are going to be destroyed. The church in Sardis was following the example of the history of its people. They were asleep. The church was dying and what in the world could God want with a dead church? Do you see how personal this letter is? Jesus connects it to the history of their people.
Here is the second important and very personal aspect of this letter to the church of Sardis. Sardis was the register of the Persian and Seleucid empires so anyone who was part of the empire had their names on record in Sardis. But if that person committed treason or died their name was blotted out of the register. Jesus says I have a book of life and if you overcome I will not blot your name out of my register. God is not getting His list of who will be saved from church rosters. For those who are Christian in name only will have a dead faith and will have their names blotted out of the book of life. They will be denied access to the kingdom of God. It is not enough to look alive if we do not have the life of God in us. The church is Sardis is not noted for any immorality or false teaching. We are not told of any great sin they were committing or given any specifics as to what they were doing wrong other than they were asleep. God isn’t interested in what you call yourself. He is interested in who you really are.
Just as faith without works is dead in that it has no power to save us or to give us life so a church without faith is dead and what could God possibly want with a dead church? We have a lot in common with the church of Sardis. We have built mighty walls in the fortresses of our church. There is a great army at our gates seeking to destroy us. In many church the guards have fallen asleep. If we want to survive we need to wake up. We must stay alert. I want you to close your eyes and picture what a dying church looks like take a moment and just envision it.
An artist was once asked to paint what he considered to best symbolize a dying church. After several months, he returned and reported that the task was finished. The hour finally arrived when the painting was to be unveiled. Crowds had gathered and many of the people had begun speculating what the picture would look like. Some had said it would be a rundown building in great need of repair and paint. Weeds would be growing in the church yard, and there would be some broken window panes. While some of the ideas and details were different everyone in the group seemed to have a similar picture in mind. However, when the cloth was removed, a hush fell over the group. Everyone was stunned. Before their eyes was an absolutely beautiful church building. The grounds were well kept and the exterior of the building was in excellent condition. After a few minutes, one person stepped forward and said to the artist, "I thought we asked you to paint a dying church?" The artist smiled and said, “That is exactly what I did!”
How many of you pictured what the audience in this story pictured, a building in disrepair? A dead church is not just a church of dwindling numbers in an old building that is falling apart. A dead church is one that has lost sight of the vision. A dead church has lost sight of the heart of God. A dead church is not dangerous nor is it desirable. A dead church is a church that just exists. A dead church can be a beautiful church but it will be church that is neglecting the local and global mission of God to save the lost. A church that has fallen asleep will eventually be destroyed. We need to wake up to the needs around us. We need to wake up to world we live in. You know that all the evil and depravity of the world is not because evil is overcoming good but because good isn’t fighting back. Light and dark are not equal and opposite forces in the world. Darkness does not overcome light darkness is just the absence of light. Darkness can only exist where the light has gone out. As Christians we are the light of the world. Our purpose is to shine in the darkness. We cannot shine in the darkness if we are locked away safely in our church walls. What we need to do is to go out into the world and to let our light shine before men. We need to show the world what Jesus looks like and to be light in their lives. I hear a lot of us talking about the decay of our culture and our economy. Such talk is common in the church. It doesn’t change anything though. What would be better is if we who have the light of life in our lives went out and gave it to the world. When Jesus says wake up He is calling the church to be the church. We need to let God into our lives and let Him fill us with so much love that we have no choice but to go into the world and to share it with others. A dead church is one that is not actively going out and being light in the darkness. Each of these mini-letters ends: he who has ears let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying to the church. Pay attention and be encouraged: to those who overcome and who live their lives for Jesus, their names will not be blotted out of His book of life. You see when we live as the light in a dark world we will receive the eternal life that Jesus gives. Take heart for in your faithfulness if you will step out and be light to the world you will be saved.
