What does it mean to be alive?

Revelation: All Things New • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Theme: To be alive as a church is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Purpose: To be alert to our tendency to do church under our power, and be empowered by the Spirit instead. Mission: Being a disciples is to be spirit empowered. Gospel: Jesus freely gives us the Spirit.

Notes

Transcript

Revelation 3:1–6 LEB

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: “This is what the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, and you are dead. Be on the alert and strengthen the remaining things that are about to die, for I have not found your works completed before my God. Therefore remember how you have received and heard, and observe it, and repent. If therefore you are not on the alert, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come against you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothing, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy. The one who conquers in this way will be dressed in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will declare his name before my Father and before his angels. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Introduction: One of these things is not like the other video

14 - What does it mean to be a dead church?

Description of Sardis: Wealthy City, Up against a mountain range. They believed they were invincible. For most of history they were unconquerable, however, twice they were. They thought they were greater than they were. This attitude may have crept into the church.

15 - Life-Cycle of Organizations - The Church.

Examples: - Growing in Number, but all human effort - What you attract people with is how people will stay. - Produce Nominal Christians not true disciples of Jesus.

- Some traditions require new members to be Baptized. This gives the impression that there are a lot of people coming to Christ, but in reality they are just recycling believers that have come from other churches.

Everything thing looks good, but it is coming from human effort, sales techniques, worldly business models, and reputation.

You can look good as a church, but still not be alive.

16 - Francis Chan - “One of the problems at our church is when I hear the words ‘Francis Chan’ more than I hear the words ‘Holy Spirit’.”

he often asks church leaders what their congregants expect on a Sunday. Typical replies include: “A really good service, strong age specific ministries, a certain style/ volume/length of singing, a well communicated sermon…parking… coffee.” He then asks the same leaders to list biblical commands about church. This time, the responses are: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12), “Look after widows and orphans in their distress” (James 1:27) and “Make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). “What would upset your people more?” Chan asks. “If you didn’t provide the things from the first list, or if you didn’t obey the biblical commandments on the second list?”

Next week we will see a church that is very much alive, but looks dead.

17 - Alive/Dead Quadrants - You look alive, but are Dead - Become poor in Spirit, You look Dead, but are alive - Be Encouraged, You look Dead, and Are Dead - Meeked, You are alive, and are Alive - Persevere.

Repentence - Remember how it all began - The Power of the Holy Spirit.

18 - To be Alive as a church is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Image of Jesus having the sevenfold Spirit, and the seven Stars.

"The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD, and He will delight in the fear of the Lord." Isaiah 11:2–3 (NASB). - Reference to the the “Branch” ie the Messiah, who will come to judge.

The Seven Stars are 7 Angels for the 7 Churches. OK, the word could mean messenger, so it is either, 7 human messengers, or supranatural messengers (likely the second as the bodies in the sky in ancient cultures often represented supranatural beings).

This misapplication of the Gospel is based on performance. When we have a performance based relationship with Jesus we will fail. We will get discouraged as we do not meet expectations. We will get exhausted trying to earn something that has already been paid for. Worst of All according to Galatians 3, it is a turning away from what Jesus did for us. We could not earn salvation in the first place, so Christ earned it for us through his death and resurrection. Trying to perform to earn God’s favor is like pretending Jesus never paid for our sin. This view of things can be a big boulder in our relationship with Christ.

Whereas the first misapplication of the Gospel is trying to perform for God’s favor, the second is being apathetic or lazy about our relationship with God. It can be easy to say, “Yay, great, I do not have to earn God’s favor, so I do not need to try anymore.” And then over time you begin to stop caring about God. It is like saying to someone, “I know you will always unconditionally love me, so I will not buy you any gifts, I will not show you any affection, In fact I will not put any effort into this relationship whatsoever.” The one who shows unconditional love may grow in their love, but the one with apathy and laziness will clearly drift away from the relationship. If you put nothing into your relationship with God, you will gain no fruit from your relationship with God.

Another way of looking at living by the Spirit is through the lens of love. When we love Christ (as the Holy Spirit shapes our heart to do so) then we do not do things out of obligation (performance), but we are motivated to grow closer to Christ out of our love for Christ. That motivation of love will also is the opposite of Apathy. When we love someone, it is not a chore, but rather a joy to work at the relationship.

19 - Movement: Show you’re not dead – Mike Breen says, “Movement is an indication of life and usually occurs in response to stimuli.” Animals move towards food and away from predators, plants slowly move toward sunlight, and move as they grow. The Old Testament is a series of stories about patriarchs, prophets, and people on the move. The Gospels are about Jesus on the Move, and Acts is about The Apostle’s and the Church on the move.

Check out Exodus 14: Why has the children of Israel stopped? What can cause us to stop moving when God says Go?

20 - Respiration: Breathing God’s Breath – Mike Breen says, “Respiration is not synonymous with breathing. Every cell in your body has a powerhouse called the mitochondrion that releases energy. This is respiration. The powerhouse is dependent on oxygen that is brought into the body through breathing. So breathing is absolutely necessary for respiration, and the respiration process is essential for energy to be released for the body to function. A living organism cannot “make” energy, it can only release it…Just as our breathing oxygen releases energy in our bodies, God’s breathing into us releases the energy of his Spirit in our lives…Ole Hallesby says that prayer is to the soul what breathing is to the body.” How deeply are we breathing in the breath of God?

21 - Sensitivity: The Pentagon at Work – Mike Breen says, “Your body is not a bunch of independent parts randomly stuck together. It all works as one unit…Sensitivity is what enables the body to sense the stimulation and know that it must move.” The Pentagon is another life-shape that describes the five-fold gifts of the Church. Turn to Ephesians 4.

Apostles (Sniff)– Are sensitive to the move of God to explore new territory for the Kingdom of God.

Prophets (Sight)- Are sensitive to the foresight and covenant of God.

Evangelists (Speech) – Are sensitive to sharing the Good news on any occasion.

Pastors (Touch) – Sensitive to the needs and pains of others, can laugh with those laughing and cry with those crying.

Teachers (Hearing) – Sensitive to hearing others, listening actively, and then instructing them on how to proceed.

Where are you sensitive to the Work of God?

22 - Growth: The inevitable result of a healthy life - Mike Breen says, “Growth is a natural process of living things. It is an expression of life…When you stop growing, you die…We are not told to work for our growth. God is the one who causes us to grow, but there are things we can do to create a growing environment. (The other six signs of life).” Read 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, and Colossians 2:19. Are you growing in your spiritual life?

23 - Reproduction: Creating the Future – Mike Breen says, “Reproduction is different from growth in that it is a multiplication of a life. All living things reproduce by bringing together two disparate elements and then fusing them together into a new element…God takes the raw materials of our lives and fuses them with the heart of a disciple who is open to receive the investment we are making. By his grace we are able to multiply our lives into others…If we look at Europe, children, teenagers, and young adults don’t attend church any longer. Why is that? It is because Christians in Europe have forsaken the reproduction of themselves into a new generation. Read Psalm 71. Are you reproducing your new disciples?

24 - Excretion: A Cleansed Life – Mike Breen says, “That’s just gross!...We see this natural part of life in the proclamation Jesus made at the beginning of his ministry: ‘Repent and believe the Good news.’ Every heart builds up a collection of junk throughout the day that needs to be emptied through the process of repentance. Toxins like sin, un-forgiveness, idolatries, etc… can build up and shut us down spiritually. These are the roadblocks we will talk about next week. Read 1 John 1:8-10. How are you doing at detoxing your spiritual life?

25 - Nutrition: The obedient Diet – Mike Breen says, “All living things must take in nutrients or they will die…For the spiritual diet, there is but one main course. “I am the bread of life,” declares Jesus. To live, we must dine on his words, his actions, his commands…We die if there is not a regular feeding on Jesus, the very Word of God. Read John 4, How is your spiritual diet? Are your regularly feeding on the Word, and obeying it?

26 - Jesus promises Eternal Life to those who are truly alive.

It is used of natural life, Ps. 69:28, where ‘let them be blotted out of the book of the living’ means ‘let them die’. cf. Ex. 32:32f., where Moses prays to be blotted out of God’s book if Israel is to be destroyed; Ps. 139:16 (‘in thy book were written … the days that were formed for me’); Dn. 12:1, where all the righteous who ‘shall be found written in the book’ will survive the eschatological tribulation.

2. In later Judaism and the NT it is used of the life of the age to come. Thus Is. 4:3, where ‘every one who has been enrolled for life in Jerusalem’ refers to natural life, is re-interpreted in the Targum as speaking of ‘eternal life’. So in the NT the book of life is the roster of believers, e.g. Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 22:19, etc. At the last judgment everyone not enrolled in the book of life is consigned to the fiery lake (Rev. 20:12, 15); this is the book of life of the slaughtered Lamb (Rev. 13:8; 21:27), in which the names of the elect have been inscribed ‘from the foundation of the world’ (17:8). The same idea is expressed in Lk. 10:20, ‘your names are written in heaven’; Acts 13:48, ‘as many as were ordained (i.e. inscribed) to eternal life believed’.