God Speaks to the Church: Lesson 4; Section 1

We travel to Sardis today. Sardis was a thriving city situated on a natural acropolis that made it nearly impregnable. (The town of Sart, Turkey is near the site of ancient Sardis.) Around 1200 BC Sardis became the capital of the Lydian kingdom. However it fell to Cyrus of Persia and later fell again to Antiocus the Great. It never regained its prominence under Roman rule. The primary industry in the region was harvesting wool, dying it, and making garments. One interesting note - Aesop was from Sardis!

Read Revelation 3: 1 - 6

What a sad commentary! This church may have looked OK on the outside ... but it was dead on the inside. It seemed to be going through the motions but contained no regeneration and life. I am reminded of Jesus when he compared the Pharisees to "whitewashed tombs" - cleaned up on the outside but full of decaying flesh on the inside. (Matthew 23:27)

This collection of people contained a few faithful ones ... but it seems that the majority were counterfeit. They were doing deeds that they wanted to do ... not the good works that God had prepared for them to do. So Christ's call to them was to "Wake up!"

Do I need to wake up? Do you? We can get so wrapped up in our own little goings and comings that we miss the larger picture. We can miss the fact that God has called us to a higher purpose. Before you close your study time today ... carefully read ...
Ephesians 2: 8 - 10
Titus 3: 5 - 8
James 2: 14 - 16
Prayerfully, examine your life - your days - through these lenses. I must do the same! Any need to wake up?

As I think about my life in my church ... and my desire to be one of the "faithful ones" instead of one of the "others" ... I reflect on a few statements from Charles Swindoll. He challenges us to consider some of the signs of spiritual death in a church (always remembering that a church is a collection of individual people!)

worship of the past

greater concern with form than with life

love of tradition over love for Christ

inflexibility and resistance to change

loss of evangelistic and missionary fervor

Lord, give us eyes to see whenever seeds of these things are trying to take root in our lives. And give us ears to hear what You say to the 'church'.