Revelation 3:1-6 The Dying Church

Here are the discussion questions and notes from LightHouse recently:

“There is no such thing as harmonious co-existence between the church and the world, for where there is no conflict it is because the world has taken over”. Do you agree or disagree?

As Jesus writes to the church at Sardis he reveals himself as the one who holds the Seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. In other words he’s the one who holds the church in his hands, who is in control of it, who sees what is going on in it, whose Spirit is at work in it. The church will answer to him, he is its head and he knows it. But he also knows what privileges have been given to it, the Spirit is at work in the church, and in the Spirit the church has been given it everything it needs to flourish in godliness and to bring him glory.

But as Jesus reveals what he sees it does not make comfortable reading. This is a church that is on the edge of death, it’s in a coma and only a short step from the graveyard. There’s little to commend and even what there is to commend simply highlights the decay and death all around it. Sardis stands as a warning against the end result of a creeping spiritual complacency, of failing to live for Christ, of creeping compromise with the world.

Complacency always results in a drift towards death not life

Reputation matters, marketing matters, appearance matters. Bigger, glossier, louder, better. Everyone has a PR department, companies specialise in ensuring you have a positive on-line presence. Some even set themselves up specifically for churches. Your reputation matters. Sardis had the reputation side of things cracked. Whether it was how they thought of themselves or more likely the way others thought of them. They had the reputation of being alive.

So Jesus words would have hit them with a jolt! “I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.” Can you imagine the shock, the nodding heads followed by the dumbfounded expressions? Jesus sees through the reputation to the reality. That’s worth us remembering, whilst we may be able to fool those around us as to how we are spiritually, even where we are as a church – Jesus knows. He isn’t taken in, he doesn’t worry about our reputation he knows the reality. No matter how we try to keep things hidden Jesus knows.

We know that the believers in Sardis heard the gospel(3), that they began well(2) but now they have stalled, they have fallen into a coma. There is no progress, no desire, no appetite. And unlike the other churches there is no mention here of false teaching or of external persecution. They have stopped fighting the battle, they have compromised(4) the majority of the church have soiled their robes. They have settled in to the culture and because the culture doesn’t seem overtly hostile the culture has influenced and infected the church.

The church mirrors the city. Sardis was an amazing fortress, it was almost impregnable. It had huge walls and was surrounded by cliffs, in fact only twice in its history had it fallen to an enemy at its gates. And both times it was because of a lack of watchfulness. Twice watchman left a seemingly safe part of the city walls unguarded only for a small enemy force to scale the cliffs and open the doors to the city to the enemy. A lack of watchfulness has cost the city and led to its defeat and it is the same for the church.

It’s as if their safety and security has lulled them to sleep, it’s led them not to live a distinctively different gospel life. Their deeds are incomplete and they’ve stopped being different, they’ve stopped being alert and they’re in terrible danger.

The church has become a dormitory for sleepy saints, no longer fighting, no longer living distinctively. And it’s only a short step from being a dormitory to becoming a cemetery. And Jesus is horrified at what has happened to his church he died for. And he warns them that unless they recognise their state and do something he will come to them as judge. 

Don’t be too harsh on Sardis, don’t be too quick to condemn them. Because of all the churches this one perhaps most closely parallels the church in Britain. Comfort, ease and social acceptability leading the church to lack urgency, to fall into an evangelistic-less passionless, truth compromised stupor. And then to assume that’s the norm and settle into this comfort and begin to die.

It’s also a very real danger for us as a church and as individuals. To become complacent, to expect welcome and ease. And because we’ve become used to that not to be prepared for conflict, and when we experience it to be taken aback and instinctively want to appease, to compromise in order to enjoy the comfort and welcome we’ve become used to. To simply fit into the culture and mute distinctive Christ like living. To simply drift into spiritual apathy.

But complacency always results in a drift towards death not life. Compromise is dangerous, and apathy is a spiritual killer.

Wake Up!

Having delivered his loving warning Jesus exhorts this church to do five things in order to wake up. Because he is the one who can raise the dead, even dead churches!

a. Wake Up

They need to recognise reality, to accept Jesus diagnosis and throw off their spiritual sleepiness. They aren’t tired because they’re exhausted they are tired because they’re apathetic, they just aren’t bothered, and Jesus says wake up or else. There’s no room in the church for apathy! There is no way it is right to respond to the gospel with apathy. They need to be alert to the danger that they are in. If not they will never heed his warning.

b. Strengthen what remains

The church isn’t past the point of no return. They aren’t beyond rescue. There’s still a righteous remnant who have stayed faithful, who haven’t compromised, who have stayed awake, who are living out the gospel. The church is on the brink but not yet beyond it. If they will strengthen and support where it’s needed, if they will listen to this faithful few and live like them and learn from them then there is hope. But they need to act, they need to shake of their apathy and start being active.

c. Remember

Keep on remembering what you were taught. This church has heard the gospel, they responded to the gospel in the past. But time and complacency has led to compromise, forgetfulness and apathy. They need to remember what they were taught, and to keep on remembering it. They are to teach the gospel again and again. They are to recall what they have been taught, not just apathetically let it drift over them, but ensure they take it in and remember it. 

d. hold it fast

Means not just hear it but to put it into action, to obey what they remember, what they were taught. The gospel is not theory it is truth which brings radical practical transformation which impacts everything. It changes the way you see the world and calls you to live as Christ’s.

e. Repent

The church needs to be convicted of its sin and apathy and change. It needs to respond not just in action but from the heart. Jesus words should produce shock and godly sorrow for its apathy and complacency. It needs to turn around and live for its Saviour.

And it must do these things urgently or Christ will come and judge the church when they don’t expect it(3).

We need to stop here and ask ourselves both personally and as a church have I fallen asleep? Has apathy lulled us? Has complacency crept up on us?

Are we living for Christ? Are we living differently to those around me or are we compromising?

Am I spiritually apathetic? Am I continually learning more about what Christ has done for me and what it means to be in him? Is that fuelling my devotion and my love or are they just words and ideas on a page? Is that impacting my life? Am I putting it into action? Am I changing as I understand more of who I now am in Jesus? How have I changed in the last 6 months?

Or am drifting? And more worryingly am I content to drift? If we find we are we need to repent, to wake up, to put these things in place. Jesus is in the business of bring the dead to life of breathing life into dead bones. He lovingly warns because he longs for us to repent.

The Faithful few are not forgotten

I want you to notice very carefully that Jesus doesn’t condemn the whole church, Jesus knows not just the reputation and reality of the church but the reputation and reality of each individual part of that church. He knows some are comatose but some are living. Some have soiled their garments some have not. Some are apathetic whilst others are pressing on. I think there’s a lesson for us in that, don’t blanket condemn churches or denominations. That’s not our job.

In fact as Jesus encourages the faithful few that he will welcome them and they will be dressed in pure robes washed in his blood, that they’ll be welcomed and find their names in the book of life and be confessed and acknowledged on the last day. Just as Jesus knows the apathy and complacency of some he knows the faithful living of others. And notice he doesn’t tell them to leave the church. In fact they are the hope of the church for revival. Jesus sees this faithful few as the potential spark which could reignite the quickly cooling embers of the Church in Sardis.

The call is to live as the faithful few. Don’t compromise, recognise the battle, see the battle lines, listen and respond and follow your Saviour, longing for your victors welcome.

But we also need to pray for those who find themselves in sleeping churches, who are the faithful few. I think of a friend of mine who is a minister in a denomination which fits this image of Sardis. Who struggles with the compromise and decay he sees around him. But faithfully calls others back to Christ, who challenges other leaders within the denomination with the truth of the bible, and who teaches the gospel to his congregations. 

You can think of churches within denominations, of people within individual churches. Jesus knows, that is their comfort. As they labour to reignite a passion for Jesus, to turn around the compromise, to transform a church Jesus. We need to pray for them.

Jesus sees, Jesus knows, sometimes a church might be better off if it faced hardship and attack rather than comfort and security. But Jesus can raise a church to new life. He stands ready to warn, to forgive and to welcome.

What blind spots do you think we have in terms of compromising with the world?

Why do you think we fear persecution and false teaching? How might it be beneficial to us as a church and as individuals? How might it not?

When, and how, do you tend to drift towards spiritual complacency? How can others help wake you up?