7 - Week 6
March 15, 2009
Wake Up Call
Revelation 3:1-6

Seven churches, seven deadly viruses – Jesus addressing each one: Ephesus infected with lost love, Smyrna – unfaithfulness, Pergamum – false teaching, Thyatira-compromise, Today we are looking at the fifth church – Sardis.

CITY OF CONPLACENCY

For us to get a clear picture of what is going on here in this church, we have to understand the context of the city of Sardis. There was a strong similarity between the mindset of the city and the mindset of the church.

Sardis founded about 1200 BC, one of the greatest cities in the ancient world – once the capital city of the great Lydian Kingdom that encompassed all of modern day Turkey.

Known for two things:

Power. Positioned on top of a large mountain plateau – city set up on top, only accessible from the south by way of a steep winding tenuous climb, the other three sides steep drop 1500 feet drop off of smooth rock. Impenetrable fortress. Citadel – fortress.  It was great for protection, but not great for population. As city grew, no place to go. New city built at the base of the mountain –more accessible for trade and could retreat to the old city when threatened.

Wealth. Sardis was known for it’s great wealth. Legend has it that gold was found in the nearby Pactolus River, archaeologists have found hundreds of crucibles used for refining gold in the ruins of Sardis. Gold and silver coins were minted in Sardis. It was also positioned next to the Royal Road that led east to the Persian capital of Susa, where Nehemiah was from, and so benefited financially from the trade – even like today their success was all about location, location, location.

So in its day, Sardis was one of the most well known, wealthiest, strongest cities in the world. It had a strong reputation for being powerful and unbeatable. Even in the time when John was writing this letter, the phrase "to capture the acropolis of Sardis" was tantamount to saying that some was impossible. In every way, this city had physical security and financial security – it was set up. And because it lacked for nothing, the city was lulled into a deep sense of complacency and self-satisfaction. And that was ultimately its ruin.

Despite warning, Croesus, the king of Lydia, attached Cyrus king of Persia and was soundly defeated. So he retreated back to the city of Sardis because he knew he would be safe there. And while the Persians settled at the base of the mountain, Croesus and his men felt so incredibly safe that they all went to sleep. But the Persians, under the cover of night, began scaling the 1500 foot steep mountain side. The people of Sardis were so secure in themselves, that they didn’t even post a guard to watch of invaders! On that day, the great city of Sardis fell into the hands of the Persians. History repeated itself about 350 years later, the Persians were defeated at Sardis when Antiochus the Great sent sure footed climbers to scale the walls. There was something about that place that lulled people into a false sense of security. By the time the Romans took it over in 133 BC the old city of Sardis was, its greatness was in the past. The city on a hill was now more of an historical relic than a city of power and prosperity. It was living in the past.

THE STAR GRIPPER

Jesus is talking to the church in Sardis, and notice how he identifies himself in (v1) "These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars." This is a direct reference to the Holy Spirit. And the seven stars represent the godly leaders and pastors of the seven churches. Jesus is saying, "Hey, I’m the one who gives the Spirit, I’m the one that breaths the life of the Spirit, I’m the source of revival and awakening in your life AND I’m the one who holds your leaders- your pastors – in my hand. You belong to me!"

REPUTATION AND REALITY

And now look what he says, "I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive but you are dead." Jesus is saying, "I know what you are doing. I have evaluated your work and your ministry, and you have got a reputation– you’ve made a name for yourself in the past for being alive. The word translated "alive" here always refers to spiritual life. He doesn’t use the word bios (which means physical life, where we get word biology) It’s the word that means spiritual life. "You have done things in your past that have made a name for yourself as being alive spiritually…" But "…you are dead". There is no evidence of spiritual life or vitality in you. You may have done some good things in the past, but you have got no spiritual pulse now. There is nothing that breaks my heart more than to see a dead church.

PORTRAIT OF A DEAD CHURCH

I have a picture in my office I keep out – it’s a picture of a dead church. The church was just a few blocks from the church I pastured in OKC for ten years. At one point a group of people had a vision of how God could use them. They core group began to grow, they brought on a pastor to lead them, they raised money to build a building. I can imagine that when that new building opened the place was packed, so much excitement about what the future would bring, the difference they would make in the community, the lives that would be transformed for all eternity! But something happened, along the way they lost sight of that vision. Maybe they just lost sight of their love for God. Maybe they became more concerned with their own needs, wants that they stopped meeting the needs of people. Maybe they stopped preaching the gospel, reaching people, Maybe they allowed sin and compromised to come in and make itself at home. I don’t know what happened, but one day, the church died. And the building remained there – a shell – like the cadaver – lifeless, empty. It was put on the market, but no other church bought it. Finally a man bought the property and turned it into a night club, calling it Purgatory – mocking what it used to be. And in OKC that club had a reputation for being a vile, wicked, perverted, dark place. Even the police didn’t want to go into it. The light of the church went out, and the darkness rushed in! And that is what was happening at Sardis – at one time they were really walking with God -at one time they have a vision, they had passion, they had broken heart for people far from god – but over time they became ingrown, inward focused, they started padding their pews and catering to themselves and forgot why they were there, become complacent, apathetic to the needs of people, unwilling to change, indifferent to the world around them – and they were a dying church.

Long before a church closes it’s door, the people in the church give way to spiritual apathy. Before the church dies, the people in the church begin to loose their spiritual vitality. I heard a story of a pastor who told his church on Sunday morning that the church was dead and to come back that night for the funeral. Sunday night more people there than usual, casket at the front of the church – organ played funeral songs, Pastor gave a eulogy, invited people to come by and view the remains and what was dead in their church – as people filed by and peered into the casket, there was a mirror that reflected their own faces.

Let me ask you, when you look in the mirror, you see someone who is spiritual alive? When you see your reflection, do you see someone who has spiritual vitality? Or do you see someone who is dying on the inside? You say, "How do I know?"

DYING ON THE INSIDE

When your physical body dies, it gives off signs of death. Rigor Mortis sets in, the hardening of the tissues. That has been the classic sign of physical death. But there are also signs that a person is dying spiritually on the inside. what are the signs that This church provides us with some signs of loosing your spiritual vitality. Let me give them to you.

1. You are loosing your spiritual vitality when you are always looking to the past instead of living in the present. When a person is dying, all they have to hold on to is the past. Same is true spiritually. When all you talk about is how you used to be involved, used to pour into people’s lives. If you are not experiencing Christ now – if you don’t have current stories of how God is working in your life, if all of your experiences are in the past, then your loosing your spiritual vitality.
2. You are loosing your spiritual vitality when you have no hunger or appetite for God’s Word. Dead people don’t get hungry, they don’t have an appetite. You don’t see a hearse pulling through the drive through. When someone is dying one of the first things to go is their appetite. And the same is true spiritually. When you are dying on the inside you don’t care about God’s Word. 2 Peter 2.2 "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation…" Babies cry out for milk. Growing Christ followers hunger for God’s Word. But people who are dying on the inside, don’t.
3. You are loosing your spiritual vitality when you are no longer responsive to the spiritual conviction of sin in your life. There is a direct link to sin and loosing your spiritual vitality. Ephesians 2.1 "…you were dead in your transgressions and sin..." You cant’ hurt a dead person. They have no feeling of pain. They are unresponsive. And when a person is dead on the inside, they don’t feel the twinge of guilt, conviction. They have hardened their hearts, quieted their conscience, and silenced the voice of God in their mind.
4. You are loosing your spiritual vitality when you have no passion in worship. When you are alive it will show in your worship. Worship will be emotional, it will passionate, it will mean something. (2 Sam 6.14)David danced before the Lord "with all his might". And I have experienced those moments of exhilarating worship. But when worship become mechanical. When it’s something to get through. When you’re not connecting with God in worship –then that’s a sign of dead. I remember preaching at a church when I was in Seminary – worship was bland, no passion, no emotion, no vitality. Preached – no response. Church was dead, closed its door just a few year later.
5. You are loosing your spiritual vitality when you no longer serve God by serving others. (dead sea- stagnate because there is no outlet) James 2.26 "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
6. You are loosing your spiritual vitality when you are not concerned about people who are far from God. Dead people don’t reproduce – that is only for people who are alive. And spiritually dead people don’t reproduce either

When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you see these things? What we need is a fresh moving the Spirit of God in our lives! If you are here today, "I’m loosing my spiritual vitality, I’m growing dead and cold to the things of God, what do I do?" Jesus tells us to do.

RESUSITATION (v2-3)

We can’t do any of that, unless there is a sweeping movement of Christ in us! That is why we are so dependant on Him!

Jesus gave a warning. If you do this, there will be new fresh life poured on you, breathed into you. But if not – I’m coming like a thief. That means, he was going to take out this churches influence. According to church history, the church at Sardis did rally for a time, buy after the second century it fell back into indifference and eventually it’s light went out.