Praise God and welcome back! Today I want us to look at the fifth of seven Churches in Revelation 2-3. The Church at Sardis is the next one in line and it is one that represents many Churches and Church members that I know. Let’s look at the scriptures and see what similarities they have with our current day.
1. The Church at Sardis
Revelation 3:1 says, "... I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and [but] art dead."
Have you ever been to a dead Church? The Church at Sardis was dead. What makes a dead Church? Dead members who have no desire to change create a dead atmosphere. This was exactly the problem at Sardis. They had the make up of what people would consider to Church, but there is no passion. Today we have Churches that have somebody to do all the different roles, the bulletin gets printed, the sanctuary gets decorated, the Church gets cleaned, the sermon gets preached, the Sunday School lesson gets taught, and all the things that we consider Church get done. The Problem is that nothing happens. There is no movement of the spirit and Christ is not glorified.
For some reason we overlook the serious of this condition. In my opinion this is one of the most serious conditions that a Church or a Church member can possibly be in. We look at the obvious outspoken sin and clearly identify there is a problem, but when people look like Christians and are not causing a problem their just inactive and have no passion we overlook the seriousness of the condition. It is not ok to be dead. If a person is dead there is one of two reasons they are in that condition.
1. The most likely reason is they are not saved. To be saved means that the Holy Spirit resides inside of a person. They are reborn and the old man is dead. It is the old man that is controlled by desires and who Satan has power over. Paul describes in Romans 6 after the old man is dead the new man is resurrected just as Christ was resurrected. The Holy Spirit controls the new man unlike the old man, which is controlled by desires and evil influences of the prince of darkness. Jesus told his disciples that he was leaving them but the Father would send unto them the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit. Christ lives inside of us through the Holy Spirit. Now if someone acts if they are dead then what man is resembled the old or the new? Paul says the sin equals death. It is the reward, wage, or payment of sin. So if someone acts dead spiritually this cannot resemble the new man. The Holy Spirit does not make men act like knots on a log. He gives men life not death. When a person is saved they may make mistakes and have down days, but living a spiritually dead life is not a characteristic of salvation. I will cover more of this subject down the road when I go over the fruits of the spirit.
2. The other way a person can be in this position is that they are saved but are in a backslidden lifestyle and have separated themselves from God. This is a temporary place for someone to be. You cannot stay there long if you are in this category. Israel found themselves in backslidden positions often. Some generations repented and came back to God and some did not. In the scripture here in Revelation Christ has sent the message to them to repent or unexpected “thief” judgment would come upon them.
The Lord says in Genesis 6:3 that “his spirit will not dwell with man forever”. There is an end to all things that we know of as the normal world in which we live. To many people go to Church and think they have done God a favor. I do not understand why people go to Church and are dead. Personally I would go and do something I enjoyed instead of going to Church and not enjoying it. For so many people the only joy that get out of going to Church is seeing people, hearing the gossip, going out to eat later, or some other lame form of fun. Church should be a place to rejoice the risen Savior who was beaten for our transgressions. It is a place that we should be able to sing his songs read his word and testify his works in our life. It is the place that we should go to prepare ourselves for the fields that we will enter into during the week and help all that we can. Anyone who is not excited about going to Church has an issue with God and they need to fix it!
Look forward to sharing more of God’s word this week for his glory!
Jesus Saves,
RR
Amen....
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