Part 10a Seven Churches In Revelation
GOD’S WAY BIBLE STUDY
The Seven Churches In the Book of Revelation... An Explanatory Case Study of Love Grown Cold
Part 10: The Dead Church In Sardis
Tuesday July 1, 2025
Revelation 3:1-6 LSB
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: This is what He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. [2] Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God. [3] So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. [4] But you have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. [5] He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. [6] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The church in Sardis… the dead church or Christian.
Revelation 3:1-6
Problem: reputed to be living, while in fact, dead.
Revelation 3:1 … I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
This is a church with a contemporary reputation of being alive. It is probably very active and busy doing a lot of things, but it has departed from the truth and is now keeping up with current trends, hence its popularity.
That Jesus called it dead would suggest that the Holy Spirit had been quenched.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 LSB
Do not quench the Spirit;
When the Spirit is not allowed to move, when the Spirit is stifled, death is inevitable.
John 6:63 LSB
The Spirit is the One who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Application:
In Matthew 16, Jesus asked His disciples about His reputation… his public face, what the people thought of him. He got a lot of confused answers. When He asked them their own views of Him, Apostle Peter spared them further confusion and spoke by Divine inspiration, “ You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus dismissed the opinions of men and confirmed the declaration of God through Peter. He told Peter in essence, “What you have said is not your opinion. You know not what you are saying, for My Father revealed that to you.”
Jesus knew He had two faces.. the face people saw and the face God saw. We are all two-faced people. We all have a face the world sees, and the face God sees.
1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his
physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
The church in Sardis looked alive to the world, but to God, the church was dead. To make matters worse, they valued the face the world saw and were oblivious of the face that God saw. That lack of sensitivity to God was what Jesus called dead. All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. All the previous churches at least felt a tension between where they were and where they were supposed to be. Jesus would say, “I know your works,” and mention several good things about them. Then He would say, “But I have a few things against you.” Therein lies the tension… a mix of good and bad.
The church in Sardis had no such tension. Please note that Jesus had no commendation for them at all… not a single one. They were settled in worldliness and had become insensitive to the Spirit of God. They had certainly quenched the Spirit by their disregard of His promptings. They were a church, but God was not in their thoughts.
How did the Church in Sardis get to this point?
When good deeds go wrong.
Remember Jesus addressed them as a Church. This suggests that they started out well as His true bride. However at some point, they must have gotten themselves entangled with something else or with somebody else. They had become distracted. Whenever one is distracted, the original purpose is suspended. Something else takes its place. They started well, but now Jesus says their work is incomplete.
[2] Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God.
Before everybody else, they were doing well but not in the sight of God.
They were no longer looking to please Jesus.
Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
Many ministers miss God when they become people-pleasers. They started out with a desire to help people. That sounds like a noble idea, but it is not worthy of the ministry. Ministry is not meeting the needs of people, rather it is answering the call of God.
Hebrews 5:4 NLT And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was.
The life of Moses provides a perfect illustration of this point. Moses knew he had a special assignment for his life. There was a calling on his life. At the age of forty, when he saw an Egyptian oppressing a Hebrew, his desire to help his people and the knowledge of his calling, made it impossible for him to stand by. He stepped in to fulfill his calling. What was wrong with that? What he did was what he was born to do; what he was gifted to do; what he was strategically positioned to do. Again, what was wrong with that?
Actually there was one little problem. Moses answered the call beforeGod actually called him. He was a soldier who did not wait for his deployment before starting to fight. He did not receive his Rules Of Engagement, so he acted willfully. He saw a need. He responded to the need.
Responding to a need is good. Responding to a need is philanthropy, but not ministry.
Responding to a need comes out of kindness, sympathy, generosity and goodness but not ministry.
Hebrews 5:4 NKJV And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
Ministry is answering the call of God.
Ministry is responding to the call of God.
2 Timothy 2:4 NKJV No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
Ministry is pleasing your commanding officer, not the people you are sent to serve.
Ministry is waiting until you are deployed.
The question is not who are you serving, but who are you pleasing?
Ministry is pleasing God. Of course you serve people but it is only because God ordered you to do so. When you respond to the call of God, people will be served, people will be blessed. God determines how to bless His people, not you. Not the people. God determines if the people should be encouraged or chastised; if they should be fed bread and fish or if they should be offered the flesh and blood of the Son of God.
The true minister of God, does not always please people. In fact, the name Minister means servant. A true servant seeks to please his master. Those who are in ministry will do what God wants. Sometimes what God wants will offend the people so much that they will crucify God’s messenger.
Man of the people, or Man of God.
Those who want to please people will always have to do what the people want. It doesn’t matter whether the people you want to please are others, or they are your own self, so long as you are no longer about pleasing God.
If you are trying to please people, we know whose servant you are. Do not call yourself a minister of God. You are a man of the people, not a man of God.
Living for self You may say, I am not an ordained minister, so how does this apply to me? Well, it actually does.
A Christian is a person who is not only redeemed through the blood of Jesus, but one who remains faithfully committed to living for Jesus. Instead, too many who claim to be Christians live for themselves. For as long as they get what they want from Jesus, they remain Christians. Many disciples leave and walk away from Jesus when He doesn't give them what they want.
John 6:66-69 LSB As a result of this many of His disciples went away and were not walking with Him anymore. [67] So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go?” [68] Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. [69] And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus was simply an option to them. He was simply one of many service providers and when one lets you down, you switch to its competitor.
They were not devoted to Him like Peter who said, “to whom shall we go?”
That rhetorical question is the mark of a true believer, a true disciple. We are done searching. It might have taken you a while, but as a true disciple, you can say with Peter, “You have the word of eternal life. And I have believed and have come to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
