Seven Churches of Revelation Series. Sermon 5: Sardis. "The Church of The Living Dead."

 

     

Introduction:  

A.   The old Western movies showed wanted posters which

often read, "Wanted - Dead or Alive!" There is even a

moving staring Steve McQueen entitled “Wanted – Dead

or Alive!”

 

A.      Sometimes, we live like we think God doesn't care if

we are dead or alive.

 

C.   Christ demands for His churches and His people to be

alive!  Our question for today is, "Are we Dead or

Alive?"

                            Prayer

                          Rev. 3:1-6

I.   Again, we are interpreting Revelation as either Historical

or Metaphorically!  Therefore, the messages to these

churches can be interpreted and are relevant to churches for today or any age!

 

II.  Sardis:  The City and Its Background.

A.   It was a growing trade city.  Five major Roman roads

          came into and left Sardis.

 

B.   Politically, it was allied to Rome.

1.   Even tried to get the right to build the temple

to the emperor which Smyrna finally got.

 

1.      Emperor worship never became a do or die

situation for these Christians.

 

C.   There were many religious and cultic groups in Sardis.

 

II.  Sardis:  The Church.

A.   Commendation.

1.   Sardis receives "no" commendation.

2.   The closest to it is the mention in verse 4 of

"those" who have not soiled their garments.

3.   I do think it is important to mention again that

All in these churches were judged individually. 

There is no need to finger point.  The question   becomes which are we individually: the ones being

reprimanded or those who were not.  The weeds and

the tares grow together in the kingdom of God!

 

B.   Reprimand.

1.   They claimed to be alive, but were Dead!

2.   No specific sins are mentioned; they must have

just slipped into indifference.

          3.   Indifference is a biggie!  We can’t make much

              difference for God with indifference!

Indifference is much akin to lack of vision and

unbelief in the power of God!

          4.   Indifference will slip up on us!

 

C.   Exhortation.

1.   Vs. 2     Wake Up! (NIV) and save what little

still was alive!

 

Like drawing the last coals of a fire                           together to rekindle it!

 

2.   Remember: what you did have. 

 

They had to do this to see how far they had

fallen. 

 

We start out with high hopes, but the world can

sap it out of us!

 

3.   Repent:  When they remembered what they had been,                they should see the need to repent.

 

D.   Promise: for those who repented and those who had not

soiled their garments or died spiritually!

1.   White garments:     seal of victory and eternal

life.

2.   Name will not be blotted out of the book of life.

3.   Christ will stand up for you at the judgement.

 

III. Sardis' message to Forsyth.

A.   Realize that we can die as a church. 

1.   Indifference creeps up on us; it doesn't hit us

all at once!

2.   Churches do have a natural life span just like

people: they are born, they have productive years

when they thrive on vision, they become

indifferent and slack off and kick into

maintenance mode, and they die.

2.      The only difference is that churches can be

reborn and start the cycle over again! They can

keep spiraling off of the curve with renewed

vision!

          4.   Are we spiraling off of the curve with renewed

vision?

 

B.   Be awake to the leadership of Christ.

1.      Let Christ restore the vision!

2.   Be ready to try new things with a belief that it

might work this time!

3.   Ready to go the second mile to serve Christ!

5.      Believing that with Christ we can make a

difference!

 

C.   Realize that we must confess Christ to the world if we

expect Christ to confess us.

1.   We need to daily live for Christ NOW!

2.   We will want Christ's approval when this life is

over!

Conclusion:

B.      Are we alive and growing, or are we dying spiritually?

 

B.   We need to heed the warning of Christ about our names

being removed from the book of life!

1.      United Methodist are Armenian in theology.  That

means we do believe that we can fall away! This

letter supports that theology!

2.      We don’t have to live in fear that Satan will

     snatch us away; Christ is able to keep us!

3.      But we do need to be serious about our

     Relationship with God.  We need to keep the fires

     kindled!  We need to strive to draw closer!  We

need to strive for renewed vision!  We don’t need

to become indifferent or take Christ for granted! 

We can turn away and our names be blotted out of

the book of life, but the decision is ours!

 

C.      We can be renewed, have our fire and vision rekindled, and we can draw closer today as we encounter Christ at the table in Communion.

 

                      Prayer of Confession

Service of Communion