Rev.3:1-3 – Write the following to the messenger of the congregation in Sardis, for these are the words of the one who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars:
I know all that you do and I know that you have a reputation for being really “alive,” but you’re actually dead! Wake up and strengthen all that remains before it dies, for I haven’t found your works to be perfect in the sight of my God. So remember all the things you’ve received and heard, then turn back to God and obey them. For if you continue to slumber, I will come to you like a thief, and you’ll have no idea at what hour I will come.
I have been concerned for several years about the spiritual decline I have seen in many evangelical and Spiritual filled churches. I am not talking about a decline in numbers per se but a decline of authentic spiritual life. Whereas in times past it was not uncommon for churches to have services with extended worship and ministry today you are more likely to find shorter and shorter services. It’s kind of like the old adage, what came first the chicken or the egg. Are the services shorter because people are bored or are the services shorter because nothing was going on. Either way the pastors and leaders should take a long look at the letter to the church in Sardis. Maybe its time for the people in charge to wake up. Here is how Matthew Henry describes this letter.
“In this letter he begins with a rebuke, and a very severe one. Hypocrisy and a lamentable decline in religious faith are the sins that this church is accused of. It had gained a great reputation; it had a name of being a flourishing church. We do not read about any unhappy divisions among them. Everything appeared to be going fine on the surface, as far as could be seen by ordinary human observation. Yet this church was not really what it was reputed to be. There was a form of godliness, but not the power, a reputation for being alive, but not an authentic life. What little life was still left among them was expiring, on the point of dying.”
This letter terrifies me maybe more than all of the others. The church had tasted the greatness of God and was now slipping back into the sleep of death. This generation needs to take heed, maybe we need a fresh awakening that brings a total change in our spiritual climate. Maybe its time for a true move of the Spirit of God.
