The Dying Church INTRODUCTION disillusionment. anger. Eugene Peterson Peterson

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1 Revelation 3:1-6 God on the Throne February 7, 2016 am Revelation The Dying Church INTRODUCTION: It is truly amazing that we Christians can spend all our lives in church and never really come to know the Church! 1. We tend to think of the church in either of two extremes: a. Idealization: A fantasy view of the church which will lead to disillusionment. (This may be the failure of youth) b. Criticism: A negative assessment of everything the church is and does will lead to anger. (This is the sin of the elderly) 2. Eugene Peterson was the pastor of one small church, in BelAir, Maryland for 29 years, until he retired. a. One church, three decades, a protracted ministry b. He was a model of his book: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. c. Peterson loves the church, but without the gilded notions of idealization or the sour soul of criticism. d. He loves the church as Christ does: realistically but devotedly. 3. His commentary on Revelation is one of my favorites: Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination. (1988) a. Buy it. b. Read it. c. You ll love it. 4. Peterson writes graciously and honestly about the Church (pp. 54). a. The church isn t a showcase but a house for a messy family. The churches of the Revelation show us that churches are not Victorian parlors where everything is always picked up and ready for guests. They are messy family rooms. Entering a person s house unexpectedly, we are sometimes met with a barrage of apologies. St. John does not apologize. Things are out of order, to be sure, but that is what happens to churches that are lived in. They are not show rooms. They are living rooms, and if the persons living in them are sinners, there are going to be clothes scattered about, handprints on the woodwork, and mud on the carpet. For as long as Jesus insists on calling sinners and not the righteous to repentance and there is no indication as yet that He has changed His policy in that regard churches are going to be an embarrassment to the fastidious and an affront to the upright. b. Embarrassment? Yep! It leads to the disillusionment of those with idealized notions of a pure church. c. An affront? Yes! It leads to anger on the part of the critical soul whose idea of the church isn t realized and the mess others leave instead irritates them! d. Tell me? Honestly? Which person are you? Disillusioned idealist? Or angry critic? 1

2 2 e. If you don t know, ask me! I can tell you which you are! 5. The problem is our expectations. Peterson lays them out in brutally frank order (p. 55). Much anger towards the church and most disappointments in the church are because of failed expectations. We expect a disciplined army of committed men and women who courageously lay siege to the worldly powers; instead we find some people who are more concerned with getting rid of the crabgrass in their lawns. We expect to meet minds that are informed and shaped by the great truths and rhythms of Scripture, and find persons whose intellectual energy is barely sufficient to get them from the comics to the sports page. 6. What s the solution? The way back to falling in love with the Bride of Christ all over again? a. To see the church for what it truly is really! b. Not a project we organize, but a divine gift which God gives to His Son, Jesus Christ not to us! c. Peterson states this truth in these words (p. 55). At such times it is more important to examine and change our expectations than to change the church, for the church is not what we organize but what God gives, not the people we want to be with but the people God gives us to be with a community created by the descent of the Holy Spirit in which we submit ourselves to the Spirit s affirmation, reformation, and motivation. There must be no idealization of the church. And lamentation ought to be restrained. Eulogy and anguish are alike misplaced. Churches are not little Jerusalems, either old or new. 7. Wow! Churches are not little Jerusalems, either old or new. a. No, they are the Kingdom of God, Household of God, Bride of Christ, Temple of the Spirit, and Assembly of the Saints b. God s workmanship in progress c. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10) d. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:9) 8. It s really not wise to speak badly about God s wife or Christ s bride. 9. I ve had to learn this the hard way; over a lifetime in one church or another (66 years), over 40 years of service in local Evangelical Churches, and over 34 years of pastoral ministry in three vastly different churches a. When people ask, Is Christ Covenant your church? I will answer: No, it s Christ s church, but I live there. b. When people ask, Are you the pastor of this church? I ll answer, No, I m one of several, but I work here. c. When people say to me, How do you think our church is doing? I answer, matter of factly, Well, God is at work in her.

3 3 d. And when people probe, Pastor, do you ever get fed up with and disappointed by the Church? I smile and say, Well, about every week! But I d rather be employed in Christ s Church than be paid a $billion to do anything else! e. I truly believe The Church of Jesus Christ is absolutely amazing both in concept and in congregations! 10. I feel this way because Jesus does. He spends His life both in love with and in the midst of His local churches all over the world. a. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. (Revelation 1:10-13) As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. (Revelation 1:20) b. And if that s the lifestyle Jesus chooses for Himself, then that s the way I want my life to be lived. c. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 11. One more thing: Don t speak about the church in the third person. The church is YOU this people! 12. One of the worst things people can ever say about a church is this: Our church is dying or Such-andsuch church is a dead church. a. First of all, you are not qualified to make that assessment. What do you know about building a church? b. Second, all churches wax and wane, experience revitalization and even revival. It s the pattern of life! c. Third, as long as Jesus is alive and in the church, no church will ever truly die. Resurrection life is her s in Christ. d. Lastly, as long as Jesus is in charge of the church, the Head will animate the Body! And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23) And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) 13. The fifth church in Asia Minor that Christ addresses is the Church in Sardis; a church that appeared to be a dying (dead) church. (Rev. 3:1-6) a. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight

4 of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 3:1-6) b. you are dead! Jesus said of Sardis. c. Some will say, I thought you said we should not make such a pronouncement upon our churches! d. I did. And you (and I) are not authorized to state this with accuracy. But Jesus is! 4 I. THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF SARDIS (Rev. 3:1-6) 1. A relatively short letter, but nevertheless with the standard 7 parts. 2. The Identity of Christ (3:1a): The Giver of the Holy Spirit. a. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. (Revelation 3:1a) b. him who has the seven spirits of God = the Holy Spirit i. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. (Revelation 1:4-5) ii. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. (Revelation 4:5) iii. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And 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 the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:1-2) iv. Seven: symbolical number of God s perfection c. the seven stars = 7 angels (angeloi) i. angelos = messenger or angel (a messenger of God) ii. The 7 pastors of the 7 churches

5 5 d. Here is a picture of Jesus Christ able and willing to pour forth His Holy Spirit in renewal, revitalization, revival, reformation, on both pastors and people alike. 3. The Admonition or Rebuke: You are a dying church! (3:1b-2) a. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. (Revelation 3:1b-2) b. but you are dead (v. 1b) c. strengthen what remains and is about to die. (v. 2) d. They had a reputation of being a Gospel, evangelical, biblical church, but they had lost their spiritual life! e. I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. (v. 2) f. Sardis had once been a truly great city. i. 30 miles SE of Thyatira and 50 miles due east of Smyrna ii. Located at the foot of Mount Timolus, in the fertile valley of the River Hermus iii. Where five major roads converged; a trade center iv. Once the capital of the old Kingdom of Lydia, where the King Croesus reigned in great wealth and splendor v. But conquered by the Persian King Cyrus vi. It was a city that lived in the past glory of by-gone days. g. Wm. Barclay: Letters to the Seven Churches; p. 84. But the great characteristic of Sardis was that, even on pagan lips, Sardis was a name of contempt. Its people were notoriously loose-living, notoriously pleasure and luxury-loving. Sardis was a city of the decadence. In the old days it had been a frontier town on the borders of Phrygia, but now it was a by-word for slack and effeminate living. Every day Sardis grew wealthier, but the more wealthy it grew, the more it lost all claim to greatness. h. The ancient historian, Herodotus wrote this about Sardis. The tender-footed Lydians, who can only play on the cithara, strike the guitar, and sell by retail. i. i.e., in Wm. Barclay s paraphrase Sardis had become a city of amateur dance-band musicians and shopkeepers. Even the heathen would have known what the Risen Christ meant, when He said that Sardis had a name that it was living, but was dead. 4. The Exhortation: Wake up! Remember! Repent! (3:2-3) a. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. (Revelation 3:2-3)

6 6 b. Wake up! As if speaking to a church asleep but not on guard. Another allusion to Sardis history. c. Sardis was regarded as impregnable; her citadel sitting on a promenade of Mount Timolus. d. When Cyrus invaded Lydia and besieged Sardis, one of his soldiers, named Hyeroeades watched a Lydian soldier accidentally drop his helmet over the well and then exit and re-enter the citadel by a concealed door. He marked the spot. That night, Hyeroeades led a small band of Persian soldiers through that secret door, only to find the city unguarded. The Persians opened the gates, and Sardis fell! e. 200 years later, in a campaign against Antiochus of Syria, the same thing happened! f. Jesus warns this smug church, Wake up! (i.e., Watch!) i. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. (Revelation 3:2) ii. KJV: Be watchful! (like a sentry on duty) g. Remember, then, what you have received and heard i. Received? The gift of the Holy Spirit ii. Heard? The good news of the Gospel iii. Keep it. = The Spirit-filled faith of the Gospel h. Repent : Change your mind/lifestyle (metanāeō) 5. The Warning: A surprise invasion by Christ (3:3b) a. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. (3:3b) b. Two parables about the Second Coming Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, My master is delayed, and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:42-51) c. Warning: Don t be caught sleeping on the job as Christians. (The Church) 6. The Commendation: There is a faithful remnant (3:4)

7 7 a. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. (Revelation 3:4) b. Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:11) c. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (Revelation 7:9-10) d. Adornment with the Robe of Righteousness for faithful martyrs and saints. 7. The Reward: Christ s endorsement at the judgment seat of God (3:5) a. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. (Revelation 3:5) b. White garments: glorification c. Never blot his name out of the Book of Life: assurance d. I will confess His name before my Father: vindication i. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) ii. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33) iii. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2) 8. The Final Statement: He who has an ear (3:6) II. THE MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH OF SARDIS 1. Vern S. Poythress: The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of Revelation, p. 90. Sardis is dead, though still with a chance of reviving life (v. 2) and a few at Sardis remain faithful (v. 4). But the situation is all the more dangerous because the Christians at Sardis are deluded about their true state (v. 1). They are unconcerned. This lesson is devastatingly relevant for us. Groups can bear the name of church, and have a certain reputation, when it is doubtful that they are truly churches at all. The essence of a church is not its programs, buildings, past achievements, reputation, institutional greatness, or formal doctrinal correctness, but its spiritual life. This life comes only through fellowship with the living Christ, and is demonstrated through the seriousness of repentance and obedience. Only

8 through the Holy Spirit, represented by the figure of seven spirits (1:4), do we receive life in God. The church at Sardis once did have life (v. 3). Spiritual decline is a real possibility, then and now. 2. First: Churches in spiritual decline always idolize the past and focus more on their past legacy than their present faithfulness. They live in some imagined glory days. a. They see themselves as a great church. b. The community sees them quite differently. c. Harry Reeder: The Pastor-Evangelist; p The longer the church follows a pattern of decline, the worse it is for the public image and reputation of the church. The community at large and the neighboring churches form opinions as to the church s condition. The people who do the most damage to the church s reputation are the ones who have left the church and gone to other communions. Their inside information and horror stories about the decline of the church, dangers in the neighborhood, and lack of resources in the congregation, do a great deal of harm. The longer a church remains in decline, the longer the list of evil rumors becomes, and the harder the task of revitalization. One of the most destructive dynamics is that of a group of people living in the past. In fact, you will probably find that you were not called with the hope of moving the church forward, but backward, to recapture the glory days. My response to this expectation was that we were called to forget what lies behind and press on. Specifically, I said, If yesteryear was so great, why are we in the shape that we find ourselves in today? The river of nostalgia has a sweeping current that takes the church backward and downward to destruction. 3. Second: Churches that are dying are smug. They have no sense of the danger, difficulties and demonic opposition that always accompanies living faith, Gospel churches and spiritual impact. They choose to settle for programs over progress. 4. Third: Dying churches live out their faith vicariously through either dynamic pastors or fruitful ministries. They actually think a. They are an evangelistic church because the pastor is a soul-winner. b. They are a theologically strong church because of the WCF and BCO. c. They are a Biblical church because of the preaching and teaching at their church. d. But these people have never led another to Christ, brought no one to their church, don t know or really embrace the Reformed Faith and are incompetent in the Word. e. But they go to the show (most) every Sunday and feel smug about themselves and their church. 5. Four: People with dead faith fall into one of four patterns: a. Church-hopping: looking for a church that excites their faith once again. b. Inactive: They are on the role of the church but uninvolved, uninvested and irregular. They are avoiding living faith. 8

9 c. Critical Spirits: They re never happy, always critical of both the leaders and the congregation, and inevitably angry at someone or something. Their unhappy souls seek to project their misery on others. d. Disillusioned and bitter (angry): They honestly believe the church, elders or pastors have let them down. They are blind to how they have not fulfilled one of their church vows! 6. Fifth: Dying churches have always taken their eyes off Jesus Christ and put them on the pastor. Always! They want someone to blame, and they can t do that to Christ. The pastor is the ordained scapegoat. Your arms are too short to box with God. So 7. This is the root problem: Pretending with God! And the Lord said: Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. (Isaiah 29:13) You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:7-9) But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. (James 1:22-24) 8. Spiritual death, for individual Christians and particular congregations, is a process that unfolds over years, even decades. 9 CONCLUSION: The solution is found in Jesus Christ 1. Look at how Christ presents Himself a. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. (Revelation 3:1) b. In one hand the Holy Spirit c. In the other hand the churches (pastors) d. All He has to do is to bring two hands together!

10 i. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17) ii. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27) iii. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:7-11) iv. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8) 2. Churches die for one reason, when it all boils down to the root cause: They thought they could reach the lost, build the church, manage sacred affairs and change the world without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. 3. Wake up from your apathy and spiritual stupor. Strengthen what remains of the faith you still possess. Remember the days when amazing things were happening by the power of the Spirit. What you received and heard keep it; the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Repent! Face reality; confess your own lethargy, ask God to give you and your church revival again Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation. (Psalm 85:6-7) 4. This will not happen overnight, with a change of pastors or new initiatives, or by changing churches. Revival only comes to those who pray and wait and open their souls to the Holy Spirit and who are willing to give the Spirit control of their lives and their churches. 5. Sardis is the American Church. In many ways. Let s face reality, and turn to the Spirit of God. 6. John Stott: What Christ Thinks of the Church; pp a. God gives the Spirit; we receive Him. Indeed, the greatest gift the Christian has ever received, ever will or could receive, is the Spirit of God Himself. He enters our human personality and changes us from within. He fills us with love, joy and peace. He subdues our passions and transforms our characters into the likeness of Christ. Today there is no man-made temple in which God dwells. Instead, His temple is His people. He inhabits both the individual believer and the Christian community. 10

11 b. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11) c. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) d. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) 7. When I was in high school, we sang or prayed these words everyday (Veni, Creator Spiritus). Come, O Creator Spirit blest, And in our souls take up Thy rest; Come, with Thy grace and heavenly aid, To fill the hearts which Thou hast made. Great Paraclete, to Thee we cry; O highest gift of God most high, Fount of life, O Fire of love, And sweet anointing from above! Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts art known, The finger of God s hand we own; The promise of the Father Thou, Who dost the tongue with power endow. All glory, while the world runs on, Be to the Father and the Son, Who rose from death; all laud to Thee, O Holy Ghost, eternally. 8. Need Revival? That prayer is a good place to start! 11