Sermon Tone Analysis

How to save a dying Church

You think that you are alive, but you are dead.

A conundrum.

Something that is very difficult to understand.

How could something be dead, but think that it is still alive?

This reminds me of this TV show that I used to watch.

Basically, the main character woke up from a coma in a hospital bed.

He got out of bed and immediately started searching for other people.

He was searching for some other life around him, and as he searched and searched he got very sad because he did not find any other humans around in this hospital.

He finally found his way outside of the hospital and to his dismay he ran into some people who were dead, but thought they were alive.

He had actually woken up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

These zombies were dead, but they were acting as if they were alive.

So this leads me to Sardis in the text.

See Jesus tells the people of Sardis that they are acting similarly to the people in this TV show.

The people in Sardis are professing to be Christians, but really they are acting more like zombies than Christians.

The Church of Sardis had made a name for themselves as being a Christian Church.

They had gone out and done Bible studies.

They had fed the poor.

They had preached weeks of prayers and hosted camp meetings with tents pitched.

They had been itching to tell the entire world about Jesus.

Key word in those statements is that they had been doing these things.

Unknown to themselves, they were no longer doing these things.

The Church of Sardis stopped influencing the communities around them, and therefore, they were acting more like zombies, believing that they were alive, rather than Christians who were alive in Christ.

They had become Christians in name only and no longer in action or in faith!

How many times have we been just like the Church of Sardis?

We plan weeks of prayer and revivals and all these other great programs, but we only seem to attract the people who are already within our walls.

We bring in great speakers and wonderful singers to attract people from outside our walls, but we end up attracting the same kinds of people every time; people who are already in the church and people who already know Jesus.

The Church of Sardis started as a great Church who continuously attracted people to a saving relationship with Christ, but now they are just a former shell of who they once were.

Likewise, we are not bringing people to Christ like we used to do.

Jesus is telling the Church of Sardis that He knows of their former glory as great Christians, who were willing to go out into the trenches to save even one soul, but now Jesus is telling them that they have become lackluster in their efforts and therefore, they are only Christians in name.

A scholar explains that the stars referenced in verse 1 attest to the cities former glory as the chief city of Lydia.

In that same verse Christ exposes a key point on their condition that they had not realized.

He tells them that He owns these past glories.

This means that in the past, when they were fruitful and multiplying and saving souls daily, Christ was the focus of their work.

He was the one holding them up and sustaining their missionary efforts.

Christ was the one that gave them the Spirit that they needed to do the good works that He instructed them to do.

Now, Christ is letting them know that they have tried to do the same thing without Him and that is why they are failing.

This Church was so hung up on their past glories, that they were unable to see that they were dead, and they thought that they were still alive.

It took an intervention by Jesus Himself to change their minds.

Transition 1: There are three key things that Christ told this church that they needed to change if they were to become alive again.

Point 1: They need to change their state of slumber!

They need to wake up!

This Church was spiritually asleep.

They had almost clocked out from the work of the Spirit.

So much so that one commentator even said that the Church in Sardis was not blamed for any specific sin or heresy, but for being lifeless.

This shows that these Christians were in need of a wake up call!

Something that would get their attention and make them recognize what they have been doing wrong for so long.

The Greek word translated as wake up was meant to convey the idea of being constantly ready and alert.

Jesus is telling this Church to be constantly alert in the presence of adversaries who are constantly ready and alert.

The significance of this word signaled constant alertness especially while in prayer.

It potentially signals that the Church of Sardis had ceased in this important action.

That they were once alert and ready against the enemy because they were constantly and consistently in prayer, but now they have lost their zeal in prayer and most likely have done away with the practice altogether!

How many times do we fall short and forget to pray?

There are mornings that we wake up late and we have to move some things over so that we can get ready and make it to work on time.

Or there are evenings we get caught up with family and friends and we forget to pray.

This Church’s first problem was that they forgot what it looked like to be in constant communication with Jesus.

When we lack communication with Jesus, we open ourselves up to the attacks of the enemy!

One of the main issues that was facing Sardis was that the Christians in the Church were as morally corrupt as the people who were on the streets.

A commentator explained that most believers in Sardis had compromised with their pagan environment and because of this, had lost their loyalty to Christ and that’s why they were in a spiritual sleep, being Christians in name and not deed.

These people were dead because they chose to live in sin, rather than to live in Christ!

Christ tells them that their works are not complete before God.

The Greek word for complete means “with rich fullness.”

Their works for Jesus had stopped and therefore they were at the point of death.

The work that was dying was the work of intercession.

The work of praying for one another in the Spirit.

The work of praying and having communion with God.

The Sardians had lost their power because they had lost their prayer.

The death referenced here is not a physical death, but a spiritual, transcendent death.

This death is the loss of eternal life.

Simply translated, THE LACK OF PRAYER EQUALS THE LOSS OF ETERNAL LIFE!

Jesus tells them to strengthen those who are left still alive.

How do we strengthen those who are still alive you might be wondering?

Jesus tells them to do two things.

Firstly, He tells them to remember what they have heard and received and keep these things in the forefront of their minds; this being the Gospel of Christ Jesus and their first love of Christ.

A commentator explains that they have not forgotten these things, but that they need to keep remembering these things and never allow themselves to forget their first love for Christ and their former devotion to Him.

Simply having memory of such things is not enough, but continuous remembering means more than simply recalling the past.

It means keeping these memories fresh in your mind and replaying these memories daily.

1.

It means taking an hour a day to meditate on the Crucifixion story and to meditate on the love required to willingly go to a cross.

2. It means remembering daily the love that Christ has for you and developing a love back for Him and for others.

3. It means remembering what Jesus has done for you and applying it daily to your life.

The second thing that Jesus tells them to do is to repent.

The Greek word used here means to feel remorse and be convicted.

Furthermore, it means to repent with a sincere heart and take counsel with yourself.

Jesus expects them to turn from the sin that they are currently committing.

He wants them to forsake the Pagan influence that has been destroying them morally.

A commentator explained that this was a decisive turning around.

Jesus wants them to come to repentance so that He can restore them to their former glory!

Point 2: They need to change the focus of their waiting!

Christ is coming back!

As we have seen, the Church of Sardis is living as if they do not believe that Christ is coming back.

When a Church loses its focus on Christ, especially His soon return, they start to compromise on their beliefs and actions.

Christ had a few choice words to say to this Church and Churches that are suffering from this condition.

Christ reminds them of His swift return.

He uses the idea of coming like a thief.

This was extremely significant to the Church in Sardis because it had historical significance.

See Sardis was built on a hill so steep that it was considered a natural citadel, and its defenses seemed secure.

The location of the city made the citizens overconfident; as a result, the city walls were carelessly guarded.

The city was captured twice by surprise, first by Cyrus the Persian (549 B.C.) and later by Antiochus (218 B.C.).

On both occasions, enemy troops climbed the precipice by night and found that the Sardians had set no guard.

The city was captured and destroyed because of the overconfidence of the citizens and the failure of the guards to watch.