Sardis: A Morgue with a Steeple by Woodrow Kroll 1 Sardis: A Morgue with a Steeple Today s Radio Study: Woodrow Kroll: Let s think a little bit about this town of Sardis and a little bit about the Then I want to make some comparisons with the 21st century church to the Church at Sardis. We re in the Book of Revelation, we ve moved on to chapter 3 today. Revelation 3, beginning at the very first verse describes for us the situation at Sardis. It says, And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Now think with me about this town of Sardis. This is a town that was conquered by Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Great was the Persian emperor 6th century B.C. And when Cyrus conquered Sardis it was a great embarrassment to the Greeks, because the Greeks had tried to conquer Lydia, this little kingdom in Asia Minor (Turkey) today, and they were unable to. So after Cyrus conquers the kingdom, 300 years later the Romans come along and conquer it as well. And the reason that s important is because Sardis was on a hill, it was an acropolis. It was almost impregnable. But even though it was a thriving community, the church was not thriving, and that s what we want to talk about today. It s a vibrant church, but it s a fruitless They had no outreach, they had made a name for themselves. But the church was just a facade, there was no interest in reaching out, no enthusiasm for lost souls. As someone has said, they were content to be keepers of the aquarium, and not fishers of men. They were just rolling on the way they had done for years. Now that s why I liken this church to a lot of modern churches today that did have a history but don t have a future. They re just an old building in which a few people are attending in a place that can hold hundreds, and as a result, they area morgue with a steeple. They are a dead Well, think with me about this The church of Sardis was a church that had glory at one time, but it lost that glory. And part of the reason it lost the glory was, nobody was active in this Now all along our study of the seven churches we have been likening each of these churches to the kinds of churches we find today. We ve talked about megachurches. We ve talked about big churches and small churches. You may be attending a church right now that is very much like the church of Sardis. You re there because your parents went there, and they went there because their parents went there. And they went there because their parents went there.
2 Sardis: A Morgue with a Steeple And it s a church that has lost its focus, but still continues because of family ties and family tradition. If that s the case in your life, you want to pay very close attention to what the Lord has to say to this church at Sardis. He said, These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. What do you say to a church that s well-known, has a great reputation, wonderful history just doesn t have much future? Well, notice what He says here to them in verses 1, 2 and 3. First of all let s notice that these are assessments of Lord Jesus. This is what Jesus says about the church of Sardis. It s not exactly what John has to say. All John is doing is recording what Jesus said. How do I know that? Well, look at verse 1. These things, says He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, this is talking about Jesus. So the voice that you see in these verses speaking is the verse of the Lord Jesus. Secondly, notice that Jesus already knows the truth about this He isn t here to do an investigation about what happened to this church, He knows exactly what s happened to the They tried to cover their dead spirit with a vibrant program (lots of churches do). Jesus cuts right through that and knows exactly what the issue is in the And then thirdly, notice that these people have a reputation for being alive, but verse 2 says, You aren t alive; you re dead. This is a church whose history is well behind it. So it s important for us not to judge the worth of a church based on the things that we tend to judge the worth of a church on. For example, attendance numbers. We don t want to judge the value of a church by attendance. We don t want to judge a church by its Easter performance or its Christmas cantata. You know, you can always get a lot of people in, but do you reach out to the community all the days of your life? You don t judge a church by the number on the pastoral staff or the talent of the worship team. The Bible often warns about outward appearance versus inward reality. And the problem with the church at Sardis seems to be, outwardly they looked like they were doing fine. Inwardly, they were as dead as a doornail. It says here in verse two, Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how you had 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. There are two messages in that verse. Let s look at them individually, one at a time. First of all, He says, Watch out! Dead church, a church that is a morgue with a steeple, first of all, watch out. You have to be concerned about the deplorable spiritual condition of a Just because you re meeting the budget doesn t mean that you re meeting the commands of the Lord Jesus. So He says wake up, first of all. Secondly, notice, strengthen the things that remain. You know, be aware of how serious your condition is, find out what s good in the church, and strengthen those things. And then thirdly, He says, Now look, I know that your service is incomplete. You re unresponsive to the value of your own ministry, you re looking at the things you don t have as opposed to the things you do. Strengthen the things that remain, make sure you make your service complete. And then he says this, and I like this. He says, now listen up here. You see, they were unappreciative of the Biblical truth that they once had in that And now it s gone, completely gone, from the And then He says, Shape up! They re unable to obey the Lord if they don t repent. So He says,
3 Sardis: A Morgue with a Steeple You must do these things: You must hear, hold fast, and repent. If a church does that, then, the chances are awfully good that that church will revive. That church is going to survive. If, however, you re in a part of a church where repentance is never preached, you re not recognizing the things that you hear from the Word of God if you re in a dead church, then there are a couple of things you need to do, and the reason you need to do these things is because, well, here s the warning: I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. Here s His warning. First of all He says watch out, be careful. Secondly, He says Christ is going to come as a thief. Now twice this City of Sardis, this impregnable fortress, twice, this city fell. Twice in its history. First time I mentioned, it was 700 years earlier by Cyrus the Persian. And then 320 years later, Antiochus the Greek came along, and he destroyed the city as well. Now here s the interesting thing, though. In both cases the attack was a surprise. And if you had a history in which you only fell twice, and both times it was a sneak attack, you would understand the message that Christ will come as a thief. He s speaking in the reality of what this church is going to understand. This dead church has lost its anticipation of the coming of the Lord. And as a result of that, they weren t looking for His return. They were continuing the program they always had, there was no life in the church, there was no outreach to the community. Christ was going to come as a thief and they understood that because they d fallen twice through a sneak attack. Christ will come and remove their land. And then this second thing he says here is this. Christ will not inform them of the time that He returns. Now you ve heard me say, as we ve been studying this for several weeks now, the Book of Revelation, that I m not going to engage in wild speculation about when the Lord comes back. And there s good reason for that: I don t know when the Lord is coming back. You know, I can figure out things just like everybody else can. I m just not willing to make wild, unfounded conclusions about when the Lord has to return. But notice that one of the reasons why He writes to this church in Sardis is, He wants the church in Sardis to know He s not going to tell them when He comes back. And that s important. That means that you and I in anticipating the return of the Lord, have to expect Him at any time. We can t say, You know what? I think Jesus is coming back in 2015 which gives me a few years to get ready. I can live my life the way I want to until then. That s why the imminent return of the Lord is an important doctrine in the Christian faith. In 2 Peter, 3:10, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare (NIV). Now I think the message that goes to the church at Sardis is a message the 21st century church needs to hear. And it s that if you re dead on the inside, but life on the outside, you re still dead, regardless of what the outside looks like. Tami Weissert: Appearances can be deceiving, even with churches. Wood, definitely bad news here. But as dead as this church seems to be, it s not the end of the line. It s not totally dead because Jesus challenges this church to strengthen what is there. All right, so what s it going to take to strengthen the remains of a dead church? WK: Well, for one thing you can t strengthen what you don t see as weak. So a dead church needs some insight into what has caused it to lose its heart for the Lord. And that s going to take people on their knees before God. After you know what is dead, know what is alive (notice I didn t say what is working and what is not working), I mean, many programs that
seem to work today don t actually produce eternal life. After you know what s dead and what s alive, you go to work on strengthening the things that remain. And that takes work. So prayer, confession of sin, a desire to change and the willingness to work, and changing I think those are the elements that strengthen a dead TW: Not everyone in the church at Sardis was spiritually dead. What did Jesus have to say about this? WK: Chapter 3, look at verse 4. He says to the church of Sardis, You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments. And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. And I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life, but 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. Now I think that s an encouragement. There are some people in this relatively dead church who still have the spirit of God in them, they re still longing for the Scriptures, and you may still be that person in your Look what He says here. He says some have maintained their spiritual purity. Not everybody in the church is dead, although the church by and large is dead. Their garments are not soiled, they re dressed in white. The white robes are always an indication in Scripture of purity. So it s not that these people are running around in white sheets, that s not the issuer at all. The issue here is that symbolically, He is saying to them, it s important for you to recognize there are people in your church in whom the spirit of God dwells, who want to hear the Word of God. And as long as that s true, there is hope for your As long as you are that person, there may be hope for yours. So some have indeed maintained their spiritual purity. Notice also He says some have overcome their deadness. Everybody in the church seems to be dead, but there are some who have overcome that. Revelation 7:13, at the throne of God, one of the elders asks, These in the white robes who are they? And the answer comes back and says, These are they who have come out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Even in dead churches there are some people who have recognized their need for salvation, and have had the blood of Jesus Christ applied to them, and are wearing white robes (not literal white robes, but they re being faithful to the Lord in their church). So that s a word of encouragement to the church of Sardis. Some of you have maintained your purity, you ve overcome the deadness of the church around you. And He says to these people, this remnant in the church, Your name is set in the Book of Life. Your name has not been blotted out. You re not going to end up at the Lake of Fire, (that s what Revelation 20:12, 15 talk about). He says, I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. If anyone s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire. Now here to the people of Sardis, He s saying, Look, there re some of you that that s not true. Your name is in the Book of Life, you are a believer, you ve been washed by the blood of the Lamb, and you ve maintained your purity. That means you are the hope for this Not a new pastor, not a new budget, not a new building. It s people who have been renewed by the Spirit of God that give hope to a dead 4 Sardis: A Morgue with a Steeple
How do you know when you should leave a church like this? Well, I think you leave a dead church when there is no life at all in that And as long as there s life in you and you find others that that life can extend to, you may want to stay there and be the life of that That s a decision I think we all have to make individually. So I m not going to tell you, stay or go. I am going to tell you this, though. If you are maintaining your purity, you ve overcome the deadness of those around you, your name is in the Lamb s Book of Life, you may be the only hope for your And notice also He says these people have acknowledged the Name of the Father. I will continue to confess His name before My Father and before His angels. Matthew 10:32, Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven (NIV). Now the church of Sardis is a church we like to talk about because most of the news for the church of Sardis is bad news. But I m here to say to you today that the lesson I learn from the church of Sardis in the first century, for the church of the Lord Jesus in the 21st century, is that when you are the key to life in a church, don t leave so quickly that the church dies around you. You know, often we say to ourselves, this church isn t meeting my needs, but maybe you are meeting the needs of the And isn t it true, God doesn t call us to church to meet our needs. God calls us to church to be a light sometimes in a very dark place. So wherever you are in your experience with the Lord today, wherever you are in your church experience, let me just give you this encouragement. You may be in a church that s really just a morgue with a steeple. And it may be that you ll have to leave that But until God makes that absolutely clear to you, make sure you re light in a dark place. Make sure you strengthen the things that remain. Make sure you maintain your spiritual purity. Make sure you insist on the Word of God being a part of your life, because if you do it as part of your life, who knows? You might just turn that church of Sardis around! Unless otherwise indicated, scripture references are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 2012 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Back to the Bible P.O. Box 82808 Lincoln, NE 68501 1-800-759-2425 backtothebible.org 5 Sardis: A Morgue with a Steeple