THE CHURCH AT SARDIS ICU Notes

SEVEN KEYS: Living in Uncertain Times

ICU Group Notes

Session 5: February 25, 2018

"The Key of Life"

Revelation 3:1–6 (NKJV) 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. ²Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. ³Remember 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. ⁴You 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. ⁵He 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. ⁶“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Jack Hayford writes... Thirty miles southeast of Thyatira and fifty miles due east of Smyrna, was Sardis, a city renowned for its dyeing process and woolen industries.

In this series of letters, the pattern had been for Christ to offer a commendation to the congregation before stating His condemnation. However, in this letter to the church in Sardis any praise is missing. Instead, harsh evaluation is immediate. The problem was not sensuality, but spirituality. Here was a spiritually weak congregation living off the accolades of their past. Their spiritual service to Christ was in another day. Now they were nothing. They had a history, and reveled in their reputation, but for the most part the current congregation had one foot in the grave. They no doubt sang hymns together, prayed together, gave, taught, and talked together, yet they were declared “dead.”

The situation was dire, but not totally hopeless. If quick and decisive steps were taken, some people and the church’s ministry could be salvaged.

1. What was the problem in Thyatira?  They were spiritually dead.

2. What is the key?  Resurrection Life

3.  What is the process?

a. Wake up!

b. Remember!

c. Change

4.  What prize is promised?  Eternal life

5.  HASHTAG #life

To aid in your study and discussion, I am providing some additional material by Charlie Wolcott. The material has been adapted from Charlie's articles on the seven churches found on the "Worldview Warriors" webpage and has been edited for our purposes. You can read the entire article at http://worldviewwarriors.blogspot.com/2018/02/to-church-at-sardis.html.

To the Church at Sardis

Sardis was a dead church. They claimed to be alive, they had works, they boasted their name, but they were dead. How were they dead?

Death in Scripture is something more than just “lack of life.” It is a spirit of decay and dying. It is a spirit in which all it touches dies. It is plague and infirmity. Even if it is painted well and packaged well, it is still death. It can wear all kinds of perfume, but the stench is only masked, not removed. Sardis was a dead church.

What caused it to die? The Bible doesn’t say. However, churches have died for a variety of reasons. Gossip and slander are excellent church killers, frequently causing church fights and splits, and rarely does any side survive. Not tending to the younger generation is another church killer. Every year thousands of churches are closing, and many pastors are quitting. And the dead people from those churches just move on to a different church and never find life.

Jesus told Sardis they need to wake up, be watchful, and to strengthen that which remains. He does remember their works, but they are not perfect before God. When the church is sleeping on the watch, that is a result of laziness. The church has been sleeping. The watchmen have been few and those who are sounding the alarm are being laughed at. Jesus’ charge is to remember what they heard and received, to hold onto that truth and repent. A sleeping guard cannot retain that which he was committed to keep. It is hard to stay awake. The true prayer warriors have learned how to “pray through” and that often requires learning how to stay up through the night to learn it. It is no easy thing to stay up and join God in the night watch.

He said he is coming and it will be like a thief in the night, when the guard is less alert, sleeping, or has abandoned his post. That Jesus describes his coming like a thief would come is indicative that when he comes, few if any will have any clue until it is too late. Many are eager to watch for enemy invasions, but who is watching for Christ to return, let alone in anticipation? Jesus notes a few in Sardis who have stayed awake. They have not defiled themselves with laziness, gossip, slander, or participated in the deadly poison killing the church.

Sardis was dead. It needs life and it will not have life again unless Christ is present and working in and among them, and he won’t be there where sin is rampant. Wake up, church! Wake up! And that needs to start with me.

THE CHURCH AT SARDIS Handout

SEVEN KEYS: Handout

Living Life in Uncertain Times

Sardis: The Dead Church

CONNECT Where is the tombstone?

TEXT Revelations 3:1-6

TENSION How can we avoid dying spiritually!

SOLUTION Tap into resurrection life.

INSTRUCTION The Key of Life

PROCESS

1.  Wake up!

2.  Remember!

3.  Change!

PRIZE Eternal Life

HASHTAG #life

THE CHURCH AT SARDIS

Seven Keys: Living Life in Uncertain Times

RF, February 25, 2018

The Dead Church: Sardis

The Key of Life

CONNECT Kari Jobe’s grandparents, Walter and Francis Bragg, were good friends of ours.  One day, Walter was sharing his testimony at a church in Kentucky.  He said, "I have one question for you all.  I have been all over the campus and I can't find it.  Where did you hide the tombstone?  This is the deadest church I have ever been in!"

TEXT Revelation 3:1–6 (NKJV) 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. ²Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. ³Remember 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. ⁴You 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. ⁵He 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. ⁶“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

TENSION In mid-December, I read this passage in my daily devotions. Notice that this letter is addressed to the angel, the pastor. The first verse hit me like a rock:

Revelation 3:1a (NKJV) I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

God spoke to me that this was me. I was on the verge of death. I looked OK on the outside; I had a good reputation. But on the inside, I was dying! It reminded me of what Jesus said to the Pharisees:

Matthew 23:27–28 (NKJV) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

That encounter led to this series, “SEVEN KEYS”.  RF is a church with a great reputation, but, unknowingly, we may be on the verge of death. The church is people, so if the church is on the verge of death, then all of us may be on the verge of death. The question: How can we avoid dying spiritually!

SOLUTION The Lord gives us the “Key of Life” so that we can can enjoy life now and for all eternity!

INSTRUCTION The Bible talks about different forms of death: Vine's Expository Dictionary says nekros (νεκρός, G3498) is used of (a) the death of the body, cf. Jas. 2:26, its most frequent sense: (b) the actual spiritual condition of unsaved men, Matt. 8:22; John 5:25; Eph. 2:1, 5; 5:14; Phil. 3:11; Col. 2:13; cf. Luke 15:24: (c) a church in declension, inasmuch as it is inactive and barren, Rev. 3:1: (d) the faith that does not produce works, Jas. 2:17, 26; cf. v. 20.

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says that nekros can mean:

Physical death: One that has breathed his last, lifeless, deceased, departed, one whose soul is in heaven or hell, destitute of life, without life, inanimate.

Spiritual death: Destitute of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God, given up to trespasses and sins, inactive as to doing right, destitute of force or power, inactive, inoperative.

Let’s take a little test… The Scripture identifies at least four different kinds of spiritual death…

1. Ephesians 2:1 (NKJV) And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

The phrase, “dead in trespasses and sins”, is used at least three times by Paul to describe someone who has never met Christ, has never been born again. The Bible calls him a natural man, a lost man…

1 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The good news is that these are those who Jesus came to. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables about The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Lost Sons. He sums up His ministry by saying:

Luke 19:10 (NKJV) for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Are you lost today? Have you had a life-saving encounter with Jesus Christ? Jesus told Nicodemus that “you must be born again” …

John 3:1–7 (NKJV) There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ²This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” ³Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁴Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

2.     1 Timothy 5:6 (NKJV) But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.

What do you desire? Pleasure or Jesus?

1 John 3:3–9 (NKJV) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. ⁴Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. ⁶Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. ⁸He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil^{. 9}Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

3.     James 2:26 (NKJV) For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

What is your life producing? Does it look Like Jesus?

John 15:1–2 (NKJV) I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ²Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Galatians 5:16–23 (NKJV) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

4.     Psalms 115:17 (NKJV) The dead do not praise the LORD, nor any who go down into silence.

Do you live a life of worship and praise? Do you like to come to church and worship? Do you honor Him in your personal and private life?

How did you do on the test?  The intention here is not to make you feel terrible or guilty, but to do some honest investigation about our own lives.

2 Corinthians 13:5–6 (NKJV) Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you are disqualified. ⁶But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.

1 Peter 4:17 (NKJV) For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

APPLICATION Revelation 2:2-3 (NKJV) Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. ³Remember 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.

THE PROCESS

1.     Wake up! There are some things dying around you. There are things I want you to do that are not finished!

2.     Remember! What are those things that the Lord has revealed to you? Live in those things! Hold them close to you.

3.     Change! The word is repent, change direction.

THE KEY: LIFE!

Revelation 2:4-6 (NKJV) 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. ⁵He 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. ⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

RF Church, this is you! You have not defiled your garments; you walk in right standing with God; you are worthy. Why? God has given you life! The Key of Sardis is Life, Resurrection Life! Not just here, but for all eternity.

John 1:1–5 (NKJV)In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

John 8:12 (NKJV) Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”

Brothers and Sisters: Wherever there is death in your life, Jesus came to put His life there; wherever there is darkness, Jesus came to put His life there; wherever there is bondage, Jesus came to put His life there; wherever there is sickness, Jesus came to put His life there; wherever there is brokenness, Jesus came to put His life there! And you know what, death and darkness cannot overcome it!  Death and darkness cannot stand where there is the life of King Jesus.  He created everything in the beginning, and if you lack something, Jesus can make it again!

On His way to raise a girl from the dead, a sick woman reached out and touched Him.  Life flowed into her and she was instantly healed!  Another time he healed everyone...

Luke 6:17–19 (NKJV) And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, ¹⁸as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. ¹⁹And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

He has always been crashing death's party!

Elijah raises the widow’s son, 1 Kings 17:17–22

Elisha raises the Shunammite’s son, 2 Kings 4:32–35

Elisha's bones raise a man from Moab, 2 Kings 13:20, 21

Jesus raises Jairus’ daughter, Matthew 9:23–25

Jesus interrupted a funeral to raise the widow of Nain's only son, Luke 7:11–15

Jesus waited 'til Lazarus died, so He could raise him from the dead, John 11:43, 44

Many saints were raised when Jesus resurrected, Matthew 27:52, 53

Peter raises Dorcas, Acts 9:36–40

The two witnesses will be raised, Revelation 11:8, 11

1 John 5:12 (NKJV) ¹²He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Romans 8:11 (NKJV) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

John 10:10 (NKJV) The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Jesus came to give us abundant life, overcoming life, eternal life!  We will not settle for anything less than His life to the full!

Hebrews 10:35–39 (NKJV) Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. ³⁶For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ³⁷“For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. ³⁸Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” ³⁹But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

THE PRIZE Eternal Life!

HASHTAG #life