This morning, I want to talk to you about a church that closed its doors.
-Where there had been a living, active family of God, now there’s nothing.
-It’s not only the church that has disappeared, but now the entire city lies in ruins.
-We understand full well that as Christians, we have God’s love and God’s favor.
-So when you think about a church where the doors are now closed, and there is no life, you wonder why God would let that happen.
-The lesson to be learned is that God expects his body to be living and active, just as God himself is living and active.
-Our God is not a God of low expectations, but of high expectations. He expects us to love him with the sincerity and the activeness with which he loves us…he took the initiative in revealing his will, in teaching us about sin and also forgiveness, in providing a way of salvation.
-There was a church that was once influential and effective, yet they forgot their purpose, and ultimately they themselves were forgotten by most people.
I’m talking about the church in Sardis. As Christ gives messages to the Seven churches in Asia Minor, the church at Sardis received one of the most severe rebukes.
(OPEN TO REVELATION 3)
Today, some historians call Sardis “The city that died”. Even today, Sardis is a pile of ruins that cannot be inhabited. Its dust and ashes is a testimony to the truth of Christ’s words in Revelation.
Sardis had been one of the largest, most wealthy cities in the region. It was founded around 1200 BC because of the discovery of gold and precious metals there.
-Sardis existed during much of times we read of in the Bible.
Sardis was a city of influence…even today, you are influenced by at least one of its innovations. (Get a dime or quarter out of pocket) Do you have any coins?
-Sardis is credited with inventing coinage.
-Used to, people would exchange gold measured in weight…it was Sardis that invented a system of currency specific to its region. Everyone who uses coins is copying Sardis.
At the writing of Revelation, Sardis was still a strong and powerful place, but Christ warned that its days were numbered if it didn’t make some changes.
(REV 3)
3:1-6
Here is a church that had forgotten its mission. It was no longer serving the purpose for which Christ died.
What are the symptoms of a church who has forgotten its mission?
1. The church is only alive in memory.
-Jesus said that they had the REPUTATION of being alive…everyone remembered what the church at Sardis had done….but they were content to brag about the good old days without doing anything new.
-ILLUS: I used to have a shirt that said, “The Older I get, The Better I was”
-Sardis was proud of what they had done, but they were ready to sit back and say, “mission accomplished”.
ILLUS: One of my favorite characters from any movie is a middle-aged guy in Napoleon Dynamite named Uncle Rico. (mentioned in class before) He is the perfect example of a guy who lives on a past reputation. He is stuck in the year 1982, when he had been a high-school quarterback. In nearly every conversation, he finds a way to bring 1982 into the discussion. “Back in ’82, I could throw a pigskin a quarter-mile” “Back in 82, if coach would have just put me in, we’d have won state…not a doubt in my mind.”
-At one point, he even tries to get a time machine he buys on e-bay to send him back to ’82 where he can relive those glory days.
-He sees himself as being a strong, young, athletic guy who could easily go pro.
-But who is he now? He’s a washed up middle-aged nobody. He lives in an old van, and peddles plastic Tupperware. He mooches off of his relatives as much as he can.
-I want you to think very seriously about yourself, and your involvement in the Lord’s church. What do you consider to be your involvement?
-You might say, “I used to be in charge of this. I used to be the go-to guy about this… I used to teach this class.”
-What are you doing RIGHT NOW? I’m not just talking about good intentions, I’m talking about actions…Jesus told Sardis that their works were coming up short.
-Are you stuck remembering the good old days, or are you making the present time the most important years of your Christian walk. Are you growing in faith, or just remembering past faith?
2. A second characteristic of a dying church was that they soiled their garments. (Don’t take that the wrong way…Jesus said it.)
-We all love to be present for baptisms. It’s wonderful to see someone come to faith, so that their sins are washed away. Though they had been crimson, they’re made white as snow. They clothe themselves with Christ. You think of purity and innocence.
-But a church who has forgotten its mission will take the pure sinlesness that Christ has given us, then continue to roll around in the sordid sins that we claimed to have repented of.
-When you became a Christian, you were made white as snow, but have you kept your life clean? Many Christians in Sardis thought they were devout. They remembered the good old days, but they were living just as badly and selfishly as everyone else.
3. A dying church never worries about growing…they just maintain the status quo.
-Jesus urges them to stop soiling their white robes…stop sinning…wake up and repent.
-He specifically says to “strengthen what remains.”
ILLUS: It has been said that, “Christ sends none away empty except for those who are full of themselves.”
-If all we do is float along, never trying to do anything requires faith, we’re not really floating…we’re ultimately sinking.
-A church can have the appearance of floating along, but if there is no strengthening of the body…no meaningful difference in the lives of people…that church is going to sink.
Jesus says to WAKE UP.
-In our Sunday school book a couple of weeks ago, we had a fantastic quote. It said we are to be “Fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium.”
We have a job to do!
Despite all the warnings, and despite the fact that there were many Christians in Sardis who WERE faithful, who DID do as God expected, many more were lazy and complacent.
-God saved those who were faithful, but eventually, the church in Sardis disappeared.
-That church forgot its mission.
To ensure that we don’t become like Sardis…that we remember who we are, and what our purpose is, I want us to look at the words of Jesus in Luke 5.
(Open to Luke 5)
How do we avoid becoming a dead church?
How can we be an active, thriving church?
1. God wants us to do things that require faith.
Luke 5:1-5
-They had been fishing all night. They knew the good spots. They were fishermen! This is how they survived and fed their families! If they couldn’t find the fish, nobody could.
-And as we find out, sometimes the experts don’t know everything.
-Jesus said, “put out your nets”. Peter said, “I don’t see how this could be worth it, but I’ll do what you tell me to, even though it doesn’t seem possible.”
-When we participate in Christ’s work, we know that it will always matter.
ILLUS: Woodrow Wilson once said, “I would rather fail in the cause that someday will triumph, then triumph in a cause that some day will fail.”
-It’s nice to have success in this life. It’s good to see your business succeed and the money role in, but eventually, someone is going to invent something better, something faster, something cheaper, and the old idea goes away, then the new idea triumphs.
-But in Christ, if you are giving him your all, there is no such thing as failure.
-Others might accept your invitation to church, or they might reject it, but if you did the right thing, you were 100% successful in being faithful.
-It doesn’t matter if some of our outreaches work better than others. It is OK if we make plans and spend money, and make the best effort we know how. Whether we get responses or not, what matters is that we sincerely try.
-Faith only grows if we do things that require faith.
2. To be a thriving church, we’ve God to do things as a family.
-Luke 5:5-10
-This is a great kind of problem to have. They had so many fish, they couldn’t handle the abundance. Peter was here working with James and John…they knew the importance of sticking together and working together.
-When one person began to sink, the others rushed to his aid to help with the burden.
-A church can only be a church if the members work together.
-We have got to be aware of each other…to send cards to those who are suffering or sick…to congratulate and celebrate with those who have cause for joy.
-Christ told them not to be afraid because just as they had been fishing for fish, they were going to continue to work together, as fisherS of men.
-Reaching people and caring for people isn’t just MY job or your job or his job. It is OUR job.
-Christ wants us to do things as a family. Through good times and bad, we need each other.
3. A healthy church has got to remain focused on saving the Lost.
10b-11
-If you remain too focused on building your business, or fixing up your property, or keeping up with your hobby, you will end up neglecting what really matters.
-It says when Jesus told them to be fishers of men, they left everything else behind.
-They didn’t forget how to do the other stuff. At the end of John’s gospel, we see Peter out in a boat fishing again. He didn’t forget how to fish, or who his family was, but he knew what his priorities needed to be.
ILLUS: Have you ever walked out to the mailbox, and gotten an envelope that when you opened it, has a fantastic coupon inside? Most of them I don’t use, but sometimes you get that coupon to the place you like to shop, and you are actually going to save some money…then you look at the fine print, and that coupon was already expired before you got it in your mailbox? Isn’t that frustrating?
-The Greek word that we translate as ‘gospel’ means “good news”.
-Have you ever considered that even if something is ‘good news’ like a coupon or a promotion, if that good news arrives too late, it isn’t good news anymore.
-What about your friends and family who still need to become Christians? Right now, you have good news for them. But if we don’t ever tell them the good news, on the day they stand before God, they’ll know beyond all doubt that they needed to repent of their sins…to be baptized into Christ, to support and encourage the church of Christ…but it’ll be too late.
If Good news doesn’t arrive on time, it isn’t good news anymore.
-God doesn’t want us to forget our mission. Let’s never be deceived and think that just because we have done some good things in the past, that excuses us from doing good right now. Let’s not turn back to sin, after we’ve been washed and forgiven. Let’s be determined to grow and strengthen, not just to maintain the status quo.
Let’s do things that require faith. Let’s remember that we are in this together, let’s not forget that there are lost people who urgently need the message we carry.
Let’s be fishers of men…not just keepers of the aquarium.
