I hate rats ... there are good reasons for this, but I haven't got time
to tell you why.
I hate rats ... I know I shouldn't; I know that for some reason God made
rats ... but I cling to the truth that God has given us dominion over creation,
and I choose, quite incorrectly, to believe that because I hate rats, I can
kill them.
So ... we used to live in a home that was next to a pine forest and
linked to the harvesting of the trees one season we had an infestation of rats.
We put down Rattex and started to deal with the problem. One day I opened the
linen cupboard and there, on top of the white sheets, was a rat ... but it
wasn't dead, it was sleeping. I screamed and did what any full blooded South
African man would do ... I called Chris. "There's a rat sleeping in the
linen cupboard!" It was in such a deep sleep it didn't move. When Chris
had recovered from the shock that I had actually gone into the linen cupboard
... she came down. I in the meantime had run into the lounge.
"There's a rat sleeping in the linen cupboard!" ... I shouted
again ... "Do something!"
"It's not sleeping Dear ... it's dead."
"No, ... it's sleeping ... I saw it breathing."
She walked past the lounge door with the rat on the sheets ...
"it's not sleeping Dear, it's dead!"
These rats had such a reputation for being alive ... I couldn't believe
they could die. Worse ... I couldn't tell a dead rat from a living one. This
all came to mind this week as I pondered whether we know the difference between
a dead church and a living church.
To the angel of the church in Sardis
write:
These are the words of him who holds the
seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation
of being alive, but you are dead.
The church at Sardis, between 40 and 50 years old (but we can't be sure)
was, in the words of Jesus, dead. A dead church ... and obviously
Jesus is speaking of the spiritual, because they are still breathing, they are
"alive" ... but spiritually they are dead. They were once alive ...
we know that from chapter one of Revelation: this church had an angel and a
lampstand; and again there isn't time to go into that, but this church was once
very alive. We know from the first church we looked at a few weeks ago, the
church at Ephesus in Rev 2, that the Lord can and does take His lampstand away
from a church … that’s when a church is really dead. This doesn’t happen overnight;
the Lord is very gracious … He always warns and tells a church what to do in
order to avert dying … and gives them time to change. Always they are called to
“Repent” as a church … not as individuals, that is something else … churches are called to repent. I
remember the first time I taught this truth in a previous church and suggested
we, as the Elders and leaders confess our sin as a church before God … one
elder in particular was deeply offended and said “How dare you?” I was quite
taken aback and asked if he believed the church was perfect, to which he
replied “Of course not!”
“Well,” I said, “then we obviously have things to repent of.”
Five of the seven churches are called to repent. We don’t know how they
responded to these messages, but one would hope that they, as a church, humbled
themselves before the Lord with prayer and fasting, examined themselves,
confessed their sins and then repented. Scripture is abundantly clear that
individuals need to repent, churches need to repent and nations need to repent;
and the degree to which they repent is directly linked to the degree that God
can impart blessing.
So the church at Sardis is dead … and as with the other churches in
Revelation, Jesus bases His judgement on … their deeds. Once again, in 5 of the
7 churches, Jesus says: “I know your deeds” and then goes on to judge them,
naming their particular deeds, good and bad. But in Sardis He names nothing.
None of the other churches are dead at the time of writing, so if we look at
them we can see what can be going on in churches which are alive: in Ephesus
they have lost their first love, but that doesn’t make them dead … in others
there is some false teaching, there is tolerating what they should hate, there
is suffering, there is poverty, there’s persecution, weakness, there’s wealth.
But in Sardis, Jesus finds nothing to mention. We don’t know what they do, we
don’t know what they don’t do, we don’t know what they hate … what we do know
is that there is a good outer reputation but inner decay. They don’t know they are
dead … the process of decline had been so subtle that it was actually
unnoticed. Without a doubt they were doing church stuff … meeting regularly,
praising God, studying the Scriptures. In fact, they are probably a good
example of what Jesus had in mind when He said in Mt 7:21-23
‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will
enter the kingdom of heaven, … Many will say to me on
that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive
out demons and in your name perform many miracles?”
Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers!”
This church would be praising God, perhaps have what some would call
wonderful praise and worship … there might be lots of effective prophesy in
Jesus name … driving out demons and lots of miracles … such a church would
“have a reputation” … but these things, contrary to what the world might think,
say absolutely nothing about the aliveness of the church … they say something
about Jesus. A church can do all these things … and be dead … please note,
according to Jesus.
So, how do we tell the difference between a church that’s alive and one
that’s dead? Remember, the dead church of Sardis does have some saints in its
midst … it has some very deep and committed Christians:
Yet you have a few
people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me,
dressed in white, for they are worthy.
So, the presence of good, solid, pure Christians in
a church doesn’t mean the church is alive. Sardis was a church with Christians,
but not a Christian church in the eyes of Jesus. God will use even a dead church
to convert people if He wants to … it is God who converts … friends, our faith
must be in our message and not the messenger; our faith must be in our message
and not in how we package it. Paul grasped this truth and passed it on to us in
Phil 1:15-18
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but
others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of
love, …. The former preach Christ out of selfish
ambition, not sincerely,. But what does it matter? The
important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true,
Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
No one doubts that the gospel was preached at
Sardis … the gospel can be preached in a dead church by a dead preacher. I have
known some dead churches and dead preachers … the church which developed the
theology which formed the basis of apartheid became a dead church … Jesus
eventually removed His lampstand from the Dutch Reformed Church of SA ... it is
well recorded… and the gospel was preached even amid the false teaching of
racial segregation that was presented as God’s will for the land.
So … how are we to tell a dead or dying church from
one that is alive? You know the answer … it’s what the Elders decided should be
preached on for the first three months of this year. The answer is evangelism
and discipleship.
2000 years of church history shows that a church
committed to evangelism and discipleship cannot die. It might be persecuted out
of existence … but it will not be said that it died. Jesus will never remove His
lampstand from a church committed to evangelising its neighbourhood and
discipling its converts.
We can be sure that Sardis was not committed to
evangelism and discipleship … and so eventually, Jesus proclaims them dead.
BUT … the Lord Jesus Christ is an interesting
person to have around in the presence of death and more especially when He says
as He does in vs 2: “Wake up!”
This is pure grace, isn’t it? They have nothing to
commend them, but He proclaims a resurrection command over them: “Wake up!” and
in His ministry has shown what happens when He gives a resurrection command:
‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’ …. ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’ … ‘Lazarus,
come out!’ … and in each instance, dead people come to life.
Now, as I said earlier, we don’t know how the
church at Sardis responded. Did they recognize that they were dead, repent and
receive the word; or did they think: “How dare John speak to us like this?” and
carry on as before?
Chris carried the rat outside and I buried it
because I care about the birds and animals that might have died if they’d eaten
the poisoned rat … I care more about you. Where do you need to hear a
resurrection command to “Wake up!” in your life this morning?
To some:
Perhaps you need to wake up to the reality that
Jesus, who died for us, is alive and wants you to be alive … really alive,
whatever is going on in your life. Alive with the abundant life that comes
through faith in His life, death and resurrection. In a few moments we’ll sing
a song that celebrates that He is alive … we can sing it just as words, or we can
sing it as good news that we believe … and I invite you to sing it by faith.
To others:
Perhaps you’re falling asleep in your faith … and
as I said that you knew exactly where it is that God is saying “Wake up!”
To us as a church:
Meadow Way Chapel is not dead … MWC is not dying …
but, like every other church on the planet, we must hear at least some of
Jesus’ words to the church in Sardis in vs 2:
Wake
up! Strengthen what remains … for I have found your deeds unfinished in the
sight of my God.
Our deeds, our work is in no way finished … and this is true of every
church until Christ returns. So as we sing the second song … let’s sing it in
faith and as a call to press on.
