A Dying Church Needs to Wake Up and Remember the Gospel (Revelation 3:1-6)

Hi, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsong Churches Podcast.

We're a biblically faithful, gospel-centered Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

You can learn more about us at newsongportperry.ca.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

A reading from the third chapter of Revelation, starting at the first verse.

And to the angel of the church has started us from the words of him as the seven spirits of God.

And the seven stars.

I know your works.

You have to be interpretation of the angel.

Remember.

What you receive?

Keep it.

If you will love some like a fee.

And you will love some again.

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.

The word of the Lord.

Wake up, Jesus says, and strengthen what remains, and is about to die.

Well, we should pray.

Gracious Lord Jesus, there is not a word you speak to your church which you do not intend for good.

You speak life to us, you speak health to us.

You desire us to follow you and know eternal life.

And so, Lord, we pray that you would prepare our hearts and minds once again to receive your word.

That you would speak to us through this text and revelation.

And Lord, implant that truth deep in our hearts, that it would bear much fruit.

And in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, as we've been going through the early chapters here of the book of Revelation, our question has been: what does Jesus say to his church?

In chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, we have seven letters addressed to seven churches in this Roman province of Asia Minor.

These seven churches are real churches, real congregations, real Christians gathered in worship just like we are right now.

And those seven churches are stand-ins for the church of all time, the church that goes out and carries the gospel with it.

If we want to know what Jesus has to say to his church, even what he has to say to our church, we ought to pay attention to what Jesus says to these churches.

Both in his affirmation, because he does have affirmations to speak over these churches, the things that they're doing well, the things that exemplify their faithfulness, but he also has cautions and warnings for these churches.

And I don't think Jesus delights to speak harsh words to his church, but he loves his church too much to not get real, to not speak what's true, to call them back to himself.

And here we have a letter addressed to the church in Sardis, which is maybe 30 miles or so south of Thyatira, which we looked at last week.

To Sardis, he says this a dying church needs to wake up and remember the gospel.

A dying church needs to wake up and remember the gospel.

So if that's what Jesus has to say to this church, I want us to ask these three questions and consider what this might mean for our church.

Question number one, what makes for a dying church?

Question two.

What should a dying church do?

And question three, what hope does a dying church have?

A dying church needs to wake up and remember the gospel, so says our Lord Jesus.

And what I hope we find as we dive into this letter addressed to Sardis, the church in Sardis, this morning, I hope we find that the gospel of Jesus, the good news of our Lord and Savior, offers hope and security, which nothing else can.

It offers a hope and it offers a security for those who feel spiritually lifeless and anxious.

So let's discover that for ourselves this morning.

Open your Bibles, if you will, to page 966 in the Pew Bibles in front of you, or open your order of service to Revelation chapter 2, pardon me, chapter 3.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

And let's look at what Jesus has to say to this church in Sardis.

Question one.

And to the angel of the church in Sardis, write this.

Jesus, remember, is dictating this letter to John, who's writing it down.

Jesus says, the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

I know your works.

You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

So remember John 1.

John sees Jesus standing among these seven lampstands representing the fullness of Christ's church.

And he has seven spirits before him, right, symbolizing the fullness of God's one Holy Spirit.

And he holds seven stars in his hand, which tell us that he has complete authority over the cosmos.

Our risen Lord Jesus reigns over all creation.

And he knows his church perfectly, beyond mere appearances.

But he's got a harsh word for Sardis, doesn't he?

You are dead.

Outwardly, Sardis appears to be very healthy, to be very successful, a model of church or mission or what have you.

But in reality, it is a church that is dying from the inside out.

This is a devastating diagnosis, isn't it?

Why is this church dying?

I think we see at least two reasons here.

First, it's dying because of its incomplete works.

Jesus says, verse 1, I know your works.

So this is not an inactive church, is it?

It's up to stuff.

It's doing stuff.

It's almost certainly busy with its ministry, its worship, its serving.

And yet in verse 2, Jesus says this about their works I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

Do you see that?

In what sense is this church's works incomplete?

Well, perhaps it's that they never finish what they start.

They have a good idea but never follow through.

Or perhaps they settle for mediocrity.

But probably the deeper problem is that they seem to have lost sight of the purpose of their works.

See, Jesus gave his church a mission, didn't he?

He's given us as a church a mission.

We see that mission in Matthew chapter 28, don't we?

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you.

Right?

The church is meant to carry the gospel out and minister the gospel to the world.

A church can be busy doing many good things, but if it loses sight of the mission that Christ has given it to proclaim the gospel, even good works that the church might do will be incomplete.

Without the gospel, no matter how good church activities may be, no matter how good church ministries may be, churches will die spiritually.

They will die without the gospel.

That's the first reason this church seems to be dying.

Its works are incomplete.

They lack the gospel.

But here's a second reason, reason, pardon me.

It has a misleading reputation.

Did you notice that?

Jesus says, you have the reputation of being alive, but in fact, you are dead.

See, their reputation probably grew out of their activity.

Others looked at this church in Sardis and saw a thriving church.

But we know that appearances can deceive.

Jesus sees what no one else can see, and because he loves his church, he wants to tell them the truth.

And the truth is this: their reputation isn't worth much if they are a spiritually dead church.

I think this temptation has never disappeared for the church, by the way.

Churches naturally care about their reputation.

And in some ways that's a good thing.

In other ways, it can become disordered.

Churches want to appear healthy and growing and successful, and sometimes we want to appear these things at all costs.

Pastors and leaders want to be admired for the work that they do, and so we put on a false front.

See, Sardis shows us that it is possible to show all the outward signs of a successful church, and yet to have lost the most important thing: one's vital connection to Jesus, who vitalizes his church, who gives his church life, as vines give life to the branches.

Sardis has to choose.

Will it keep advancing its reputation or will it listen to the call of Jesus?

See, what makes for a dying church?

Works that lack the gospel and an outward reputation that lacks any real inward connection to Jesus.

I think some of the most heartbreaking examples of churches that I saw, especially in my time down in the in the States.

Now I love the States, and I love the church in the States, but in Texas there's a lot of big churches.

And, you know, there's nothing wrong with a big church.

In Canada, we go to a church, and if it's a hundred people, we go, oh, this is a big church.

In Texas, it could be a church of a thousand, and you go, This is a small church, you know.

Churches had large numbers, big programs, huge outreach into their community.

And yet, it could become clear over the course of a sermon series or getting no leadership or what have you, that the gospel is something that's left far behind.

Preaching Jesus isn't front, row, and center.

The success of the church is.

And I don't say this to be boastful, as though new song, we have it all figured out, and everyone needs to pay attention to us.

I don't mean that to be boastful.

I say it to be, it's it's a heartbreaking reality.

And if we've seen a church like that for ourselves, we know how heartbreaking it is to see a church miss the main thing and major on minors.

We drift, we lose our vitality.

And no church is immune from this.

So how does a church, or how does a Christian, keep its works complete, right?

Not lose the most important thing, maintain its gospel-centeredness.

There's a lot of good things churches can do, right?

There's a lot of good things we as a church do in our concerts, in our community dinners, in our prayer walks, in our book clubs, all these things that we run, which are great things, and I'm glad to be a part of them.

We can miss the main thing if the success of any of our programs becomes the intended outcome.

Advancing our reputation, building up our profile, suddenly we may have all the appearances of success, but we're missing Jesus at the heart of it.

All of these good things we can do are only good insofar as they bear witness to the Lord and Savior who loves his church, the Lord and Savior who loves our community even more than we can.

All of these good things we can and should do for the sake of Jesus.

And perhaps that's the most important thing for a church to ask itself.

Why are we doing these things?

For what purpose?

I read one commentator who suggests that it might be healthy for churches to shut down all of their ministries every five years until their leadership can justify these ministries' existence.

Why should we continue doing fill in the blank?

Right?

I don't, I'm, I suspect he's speaking hyperbolically, but I was a little shocked to read it at all.

Why?

And maybe as Christians, maybe as a Christian, I need to ask myself, why am I doing fill in the blank every once in a while?

Is it for my sake?

Is it for my reputation?

Or is it for Christ?

See, I think no church is immune from drifting in this way.

No church is immune from this sort of slow creep of spiritual death when we neglect the main thing, which is Jesus.

What makes for a dying church incomplete works, misleading reputation that does not point us to Jesus?

That's question one.

Let's ask question two.

What should a dying church do?

Let's look at verse two.

Jesus says, Wake up, strengthen what remains, and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

Remember then what you have received and heard.

Keep it and repent.

If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

So if more work and stronger reputation on their own won't be enough to revive a church or a congregation, what will?

Jesus gives five commands that every church, I think including our own, ought to pay attention to for the sake of our own vitality.

Here's command number one: wake up.

Did you see that?

Some translators say this keep on being watchful.

And I suspect this command had a special resonance in Sardis.

Twice in the history of this city, it was captured because its watchman neglected its duty, assuming that the city was secure.

Jesus warns his church in Sardis not to make the same mistake spiritually.

Never assume that a church is invulnerable to lethargy and drift.

Stay vigilant for the sake of the gospel.

That's what Jesus is saying.

That's number one.

Number two, strengthen what remains.

Sardis is dying, spiritually comatose, suggests one commentator, but it seems like this church is not dead yet.

There is still something worth strengthening.

So what remains?

Well, Jesus has already given his church everything he needs, everything it needs, hasn't he?

He's given it the gospel.

He's given it the Holy Spirit.

He's given it the ordinary means of grace like baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Perhaps church revival doesn't require a new program or a clever strategy.

But perhaps it requires a renewed dependence on the grace that Jesus Christ has already provided.

Strengthen what remains.

Number three, remember what you have received and heard.

And what's that?

Simply put, the gospel.

The good news that God loves the world and has sent his son to pay the penalty for our sin and rise to new life so that we can have eternal life through him.

See, the church exists as a living witness to the fact that Jesus, who was crucified and was dead, is now alive and he reigns.

The gospel is all about bringing dead things to life.

Do you know that?

That's hope for a dying church, don't you think?

A dying church does not need a new or innovative message.

It needs to remember the good news that it is already received.

And therefore, number four, it needs to keep it.

It needs to hold fast to the gospel.

Churches can be consumed with worthwhile ministries, discipleship programs, serving the community, all these sorts of activities which are good.

But all of these activities can come to the foreground and the gospel starts to creep and fade further and further into the background.

Others, perhaps, might treat the gospel as something elementary, something so basic, assuming that we should move on to more and more advanced doctrine, preached from the pulpit or in Bible studies, whatever.

Jesus says the opposite, doesn't he?

A healthy church never outgrows the gospel.

A healthy church grows deeper into the gospel.

It keeps the gospel at the very center of its life and ministry.

It is the rich soil in which our roots go deep.

Wake up, strengthen what remains, remember what you've received and heard, keep it, and finally, number five, repent.

Turn away from misplaced confidence in your works and in your reputation, and turn back to Christ, who, as we've seen as recently as last Sunday's letter to Thyatira, is eager to forgive sinners who turn to him.

Now is the time.

Don't put it off, Jesus says.

I will come upon you like a thief when you least expect me.

Don't put it off.

Now's the time.

So what's a dying church to do?

Obey Jesus.

Obey Jesus.

Wake up, strengthen what remains, remember the gospel, keep it front and center, and repent.

These are basic building blocks, aren't they, for the Christian life?

And we don't graduate from them.

We go deeper into them.

Now, New Song, we are far from a dying church, I think.

And one of the reasons I feel so privileged to be a part of New Song is to see the renewing and revitalizing work that God is doing in our midst.

To see new disciples, new baptisms, right?

New families joining us, to see new life and a fresh sense of mission cropping up all around us.

All these things get me really excited and really proud to be a part of New Song and really excited about what the Lord can do in and through us.

We are far from a dying church, but we ought always to keep in mind the gospel, the good news.

Lest all of these good things that we do start to become the primary and the gospel fades into the background.

We have to keep the gospel always front and center, always as the purpose of everything that we do.

And we need always to be ready to repent.

If ever we've deviated, if ever we've substituted something else for the gospel, there's lots of good we can do, isn't there, new song?

There's lots of good that we do.

And yet, if those things supplant the gospel, we need to turn back to Jesus.

I think it's not an accident that we as a congregation practice a corporate confession every Sunday.

Yeah, it's the design of the liturgy that we've inherited as Anglicans, but it's so crucial to the Christian life, isn't it?

Because perpetually, as a sinner, at least on this side of eternity, I am perpetually placings of lesser importance to greater importance than Jesus.

And I need that opportunity to turn my heart once again over to the one who loves me and saves me and calls me to himself.

We as a church always need to do that too.

Now, maybe there are some listening to all of this, and you think that sounds well and good.

And sure, it's important that the church keeps its spiritual vitality, that a church doesn't die.

But maybe there are some here thinking, the truth is I feel pretty spiritually dead.

And I don't have much bandwidth to think about whether or not the church is spiritually dying.

I feel spiritually lifeless.

What should I do?

Well, let's bear in mind that as Jesus writes this letter to a church, and he does write this letter to a church, churches are made up of individual Christians, aren't they?

And Jesus' word for the Church, I think, can point something out that's very important for us as individual Christians, which is this.

Often when we feel most spiritually dead, we feel like we have a lot of work to do, and that's pretty burdensome, isn't it?

We better really pull up our bootstraps this time and show Jesus we mean it if we want that feeling back, you know.

Maybe Jesus' word to this church is Jesus' word to you and I who might feel spiritually dead this morning, and the word is this: remember the gospel.

Keep it in your mind.

Remember how much Jesus loves you.

Do you remember that Jesus loves you?

You are his beloved.

He went to the cross for you.

He is risen for you.

Remember the gospel.

When we come to the Lord's table, we hear these words, remember, and that's intentional.

We need tangible proof that Jesus is for us and that his promises are for you and for me.

We need to remember the gospel.

There is no amount of work that we can do to vivify ourselves.

We need to come to the one who gives us life.

We need to be branches that draw deep from the life of our vine.

And so, as you come to the Lord's table today, come with a fresh desire for that life that only Jesus gives.

Have ears to hear the promises that he speaks over you and over me.

If we feel spiritually dead, the answer isn't found inside of us.

The answer is only found in Christ.

And so we turn to him.

That's what lifeless Christians ought to do.

That's what dying churches need to do.

Turn to Christ and obey him.

Now, question three What hope does a dying church have?

This is the good stuff.

Christians in Sardis may well have been thinking, perhaps what we're thinking right now, boy, things are a lot worse than we've realized.

But Jesus does not leave his people in despair.

He gives them three reasons, three solid reasons to have hope.

And the first reason is this there are still persevering Christians.

There are a few names in Sardis, Jesus says.

Christians whom Jesus, pardon me, Christians whom Jesus knows by name, who have not, he says, soiled their garments.

They have remained faithful instead of succumbing to this to spiritual compromise and pressures of the world around them.

See, there's good news here.

No matter how comatose a church becomes, how lifeless things may seem, Christ is still able to preserve his people.

The presence of even a few faithful Christians is a sign that he has not abandoned his church.

One commentator writes, Hope for revival is in the face.

Pardon me.

Who knows what I typed here?

All right.

Wherever there are faithful Christians, there's hope for revival.

That's the bottom line.

See, these persevering believers, pardon me, to these persevering believers, Jesus makes two important promises.

And here's our two other reasons to have hope.

Promise number one, white garments.

They, that is, those who haven't soiled their garments, Jesus says, will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

To the one who conquers, pardon me, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments.

So if soiled garments represent spiritual compromise and spiritual death, these white robes represent spiritual vitality, radiance, moral purity, a persevering Christian's consistent obedience and courageous faith.

Their steadfast obedience is not the cause of their salvation, mind you, but rather it is a result and evidence to the fact that they belong to Jesus.

They are worthy to commune with Jesus in radiant glory because they walk with Jesus now in the midst of dire circumstances.

So remember the drumbeat we keep hearing over and over again from the book of Revelation.

Don't give up.

Persevere.

Jesus has glory in store for us.

That's promise number one.

Here's promise number two to persevering Christians: a secure name.

Verse 5, I will never blot out his, that is the Christian who conquers his or her name out of the book of life.

But I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

See, names matter, don't they?

We get irritated when people don't know our names.

Names matter.

In a previous letter, Jesus promised persevering Christians in Pergamum a new name etched into a white stone.

Jesus knows our name.

He knows our truest name, our truest self.

The person we so often try and keep hidden from everyone else, lest they discover who we really are and want nothing to do with us.

Jesus knows that person and he loves that person.

He loves that person.

He loves you, he loves me, and he will not forget our names.

So Jesus is promising something unbelievably comforting here, isn't he?

Those who belong to Jesus, who have their trust in him, have placed their faith in him, have their names right now written in his book of life.

And he will never erase them.

More than that, just as they confess the name of Jesus before the world, they can rest assured that Jesus confesses their names before God the Father.

No matter how bleak the circumstances are, no matter how weak the church may seem, our security rests not in what we ought to do for Jesus, but what Jesus has promised to do for us.

His promises, pardon me, he promises that he knows us by name and he will keep us secure for all eternity.

And one day you and I will walk with him clothed in glory.

So there is much hope for a seemingly dying church, isn't there?

Jesus will preserve faithful Christians as the seed for revival.

And Jesus will clothe persevering Christians in glory and secure our names for eternity.

There is much hope to be had here.

But probably the question I get asked a lot as a pastor, as a pastor, is this something like this.

That's well and good, but how do I know my name is in the list?

I mean, how do I know my name is on the list?

Many Christians live in anxiety about this.

At least if we take it seriously, right?

Now, those who are a little bit more theologically minded know that what we're talking about here is what's often called the doctrine of predestination or the doctrine of election.

And this is a cause for great anxiety for many Christians who wonder: am I predestined to salvation?

Am I among God's elect?

Is there any assurance to be had?

Because it seems to me that if I get what I deserve, my name won't be on that list.

So think many Christians, right?

Now, as Anglicans, we have a foundational theological document called the 39 Articles, which is like 39 points of doctrine.

It's really worth the read if you haven't read it before.

Article 17 is the longest, and it's an article about predestination.

By the way, Christians believe in predestination.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

We'll debate what exactly predestination entails, but predestination is very much in the Bible, right?

God is sovereign and accomplishes our salvation for us.

So how do we understand predestination?

Article 17 tells us this: not only how we understand it, but what its value is.

Listen to this.

The godly consideration of predestination and our election in Christ, right, having our names written in the book of life, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons.

If you're like me and you get anxious thinking about your election, that's a surprise to read that this doctrine should be full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comforts.

Why?

Why would it be full of those things?

Number one, because it doth greatly establish and confirm the faith of a Christian, their faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as number two, because it doth fervently kindle their love toward God.

Okay, love the Elizabethan English.

What's it saying there?

Here's what it's saying.

Knowing that our name, pardon me, the doctrine of election, this idea that the names of God's elect, of the saved, are in the book of life is a comforting, sweet, and pleasant doctrine when we contemplate this idea of election only in Christ.

Apart from Christ, if we think about this idea apart from Christ as though I somehow need to make sure my name is in the book, then it's going to be full of anxiety.

It's going to be full of peril.

And we are always going to be wondering whether or not we measure up.

But if I think about this idea through the lens of Christ, through the lens of the cross, not through what I accomplished for him, but what he's accomplished for me, well, suddenly this is a great comfort to me.

Because surely Christ is sovereign and can accomplish what he promises.

And if he has promised that the names of his faithful are in the book, then he is the most capable one to make sure that that is the case.

If my confidence is in Christ and not in myself, well, this is a very comforting idea indeed.

I have only to look to Christ for my assurance, not to myself.

To contemplate God's great love for me rather than whatever works I can try and muster up for God.

Do you see the difference?

This is how we persevere as Christians, friends.

Not with confidence in what we do for Jesus, but in confidence for what He has done for us.

And if He is promised our name are in the book of life, then we by faith will say, Lord Jesus, make it so.

You have made it so.

What hope does a dying church have?

Much hope indeed, if our hope is in Christ.

So, friends, a dying church, incomplete in its works, misleading in its reputation, needs to heed Jesus' call, doesn't it?

To wake up, to remember the gospel and the eternal glory that and security that that gospel promises.

I hope today that you see the hope that the gospel offers you.

If you are spiritually lifeless and you feel dry and empty inside, I hope that you come by faith to the table once again and receive the promise of life that Jesus has in store for you.

And I hope you see the security that the gospel offers you if you are ever spiritually anxious or you feel accused.

Jesus promises that by faith your name is written in his book, and so we go to him who makes the promise for our assurance.

Jesus says, Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, because the one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot out his name from the book of life.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

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Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.