Today we continue our teaching series called “The Seven Churches of Revelation”

Over the next several weeks we will seek to understand the importance and relevance of this text in our lives today. Just like the rest of our Bible, we believe that Revelation is valuable and integral to our faith- It’s there for a reason.

Through this study we want to hear and understand the warnings and instructions to these churches. As we do that, we also want to discern how we can learn from these warnings in our lives and through our local church.

Our desire is to renew and refine our vision of life and what the church should be. Our series is specifically focused on Jesus' words to the 7 Churches in Asia minor

Today we continue with the Church in Sardis found in Revelation 3:1-6

This fig tree, beautifully adorned in leaves, having all the appearances of life, failed to produce what mattered most.

This was exactly what Jesus saw in the temple at Jerusalem. A place with all the outward appearances of religious life and fervor, but void of the true life, the fruit of relationship with God.

The outside was beautiful, but the inside was dead.

What do you think mattered most to Jesus? What matters most to him today?

Can you imagine a more alarming or dreadful declaration from the Lord? You are dead… Think about that

Some of the other churches in revelation have received some harsh words, but Sardis is declared DEAD

“To be called dead by the one who brings LIFE, is a very serious inditement” - Beth Elyard

For the church, the people who are supposed to bear the name “Christian” to be declared dead by the giver of life, that is a serious problem.

Jesus said of himself in John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and that to the full”

So, what happened? Perhaps we might even ask- what was the cause of death?

What should we learn as we listen into the message to Sardis today?

Thankfully for you and for me- Jesus, the giver of life, is here. Speaking through is word, searching our hearts by his spirit- inviting us to partake in the life that only he can give.

As we would seek to understand the cause of death as it were for this church, it becomes tricky to nail down specifics.

In the scripture, there is no doctrinal error highlighted.
There is no specific heresy mentioned, when that was true for many of the other churches in Revelation.
There is not even any persecution or pressure.
Later, Jesus will refer to a few that have remained pure- so we can assume that sin has crept its way into the church- but we don’t know specifics.

Whatever happened in the first century church of Sardis, faces us with this truth today: Outward appearances are meaningless without true life in Christ.

All of the things a church can be known for, a warm welcome, big parking lot, dynamic band, awesome preacher, works in the community- all of those things are no substitute for relationship, earnest seeking of the person of Christ.

For the Church in Sardis, it was not that they never started the work- It’s not that they weren’t ever alive- it’s that they have stopped pursuing Christ and settled for religious busyness instead.

Jesus in rousting them from their slumber, calling them back to their life at the beginning.

Jesus calls the church in Sardis to remember the message, remember the life they experienced when they first encountered Christ.

The call out of a religious slumber is to remember and hold fast to intimacy with Christ Jesus.

Jesus says to the church- if you don’t wake up, if you don’t stand guard and be alert to this warning- I will come like a thief, when you least expect it. Wake up! Repent of your empty ways!

We begin to understand the desperate state of the church when we realize that there were only a few that had not embraced sin and forfeited their purity.

In the churches we have covered so far, it was only a few embracing the false teaching or idolatry. We begin to realize- Sardis was all but dead…

But Revelation is a Jesus letter- and in that there is hope for those who will seek Him. To this nearly fatal church, Jesus invites them back to life.

Whoever has ears let him hear- Wake up! Repent! Remember and return to the life you had at first.

The thought of looking alive and having great things happening, yet being dead causes me to come to a full stop and reflect on that possibility.

That was the message to Sardis, and the severity is still relevant for us today.

One of the most haunting passages in the new testament for me doesn’t come from revelation, but the sermon on the mount.

Do you think they realized that they were missing relationship with the Lord in the midst of all their success? Did the Church at Sardis realize anything was wrong amidst their seeming success?

Friend, would you want to know that hard truth today?

Would you want to know that the comfortable place you are in is actually void of the power and life of God?

Would you be willing to hear his call to purity, to leave sin behind in pursuit of him?

The very fact that you are here this morning says one thing: You aren’t dead yet. And the author and giver of life is holding out His hand…

His spirit is here, He is calling you to life- will you wake up and repent?