SPEAKER_01: One said we will be in Revelation 3, verses 1 to 6.
SPEAKER_01: And to the angel of the church in Sardis, write, the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
SPEAKER_01: I know your works.
SPEAKER_01: You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
SPEAKER_01: Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
SPEAKER_01: Remember then what you have received and heard.
SPEAKER_01: Keep it and repent.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk in white, for they are worthy.
SPEAKER_01: The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot out his name out of the books of life.
SPEAKER_01: I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.
SPEAKER_01: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, and so reads God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Please take a seat, everybody.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to you if you join us while we're singing.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Mark.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the uh the pastors here at City.
SPEAKER_02: Let me begin by reading uh to you an obituary.
SPEAKER_02: City Church Dublin, founded 2013, closed 2063.
SPEAKER_02: After 50 years, City Church Dublin has closed its doors this week.
SPEAKER_02: Founded by a small group of people with a vision to reach Dublin and the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ, City Church quickly became known for its warmth, its biblical preaching, and its commitment to church planting, and its passion for making disciples.
SPEAKER_02: In the early years of City, people came to faith on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_02: Leaders were raised up, churches were planted, missionaries were sent, baptisms celebrated, and the prayer meeting thrived.
SPEAKER_02: There was a deep sense that God was at work amongst his people.
SPEAKER_02: The church became widely respected in Dublin and beyond.
SPEAKER_02: As the years passed, however, things began to wane.
SPEAKER_02: There was no scandal, no great heresy, no persecution forcing the church underground, but over time the church slowly drifted into irrelevance.
SPEAKER_02: Stories of what God had done gradually replaced prayers for what God would yet do.
SPEAKER_02: Maintaining ministry programs became more important than making disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Comfort became more precious than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: The church became introspective.
SPEAKER_02: Retaining its reputation, visitors admired its history.
SPEAKER_02: Former members still spoke of it fondly and remembered its influence, but underneath the reputation, any spiritual vitality had long since faded.
SPEAKER_02: At the final service of City Church Dublin, thirty-two people were in attendance.
SPEAKER_02: No baptisms had taken place in over a decade, no church had been planted in twenty three years, and no one could remember the last person who had come to faith through the ministry of the church.
SPEAKER_02: The few who were gathered sang all glory be to Christ as their final hymn.
SPEAKER_02: They locked the doors and quietly went home.
SPEAKER_02: The memories remain, the reputation remains, but City Church Dublin is gone.
SPEAKER_02: It is survived by its sermon archives, social media posts, and the stories held by the few who remember.
SPEAKER_02: Every church that is dead today thought that it never would be.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis certainly didn't think that it was dying.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, Jesus says that it had a reputation for being alive.
SPEAKER_02: But reputation and reality are not always the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus comes to this church in some senses to perform an autopsy before the funeral.
SPEAKER_02: Not because he wants to bury this church, but actually because he wants to revive it.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis was a city, again, in the ancient world in modern day Turkey, and it was famous for its wealth.
SPEAKER_02: It was a prestigious city.
SPEAKER_02: But by the first century, its glory days were behind it.
SPEAKER_02: It was like an old European capital, like walking the streets of Budapest or Prague, those old empires that the world has moved on from.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis was still living on its ancient prestige rather than its present reality.
SPEAKER_02: Even more striking was the fact that in Sardis's history, the city had been conquered, completely leveled twice, with about 200 years between the two times, and both of them happened at nighttime while everyone was asleep.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis was a city that had become famous for complacency, and now the church was becoming like the city.
SPEAKER_02: The letter to the church in Sardis this morning teaches us two things.
SPEAKER_02: One, how churches die, and two, how Jesus revives them.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at that first part under two points.
SPEAKER_02: The first is churches die when reputation replaces reality.
SPEAKER_02: Churches die when reputation replaces reality.
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, there's a time when Sardis thrived, a time when reputation and reality were aligned together, a time when people looked at the church and said, God has it worked there.
SPEAKER_02: And they were right.
SPEAKER_02: But that season had long since passed, and all that remained were its historic reputation.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone thought that the church was alive, the programs were probably still running, services were probably still happening, the doors were still open, the machinery and functions of the church were carrying on.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus sees what nobody else sees.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus looks at them and says, You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.
SPEAKER_02: The terrifying thing about Sardis is nobody seemed to realize.
SPEAKER_02: Christchurch, St.
SPEAKER_02: Patrick's, Notre Dame, Canterbury Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, Sure Cathedral scattered all through France, Germany, Spain.
SPEAKER_02: Beautiful architecture.
SPEAKER_02: Rich history.
SPEAKER_02: Tourists everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: School kids all with the same color backpack, usually from Spain.
SPEAKER_02: Clogging up the uh the precinct around Christchurch Cathedral.
SPEAKER_02: But there's no spiritual life.
SPEAKER_02: Long since gone.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone who walks through those buildings is looking back to a lost time.
SPEAKER_02: The past is all that those buildings have left.
SPEAKER_02: When you're driving in your car, how frequently do you look in the rearview mirror?
SPEAKER_02: That's the word mirror.
SPEAKER_02: Speaking of, there should be a is there the uh Glosso QR code?
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, up on the if you have no idea what I'm saying, you can scan that and it'll uh it'll translate it into English uh for you.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine you were driving your car and you only looked in the rearview mirror.
SPEAKER_02: Well what uh what would happen in your journey?
SPEAKER_02: It would not go well for you.
SPEAKER_02: The rear view mirror matters.
SPEAKER_02: You need it.
SPEAKER_02: That's why you adjust it uh so that you can see out the back.
SPEAKER_02: You need to know what's behind you, where you've come from.
SPEAKER_02: You need to remember, of course, God's faithfulness to you.
SPEAKER_02: But if you stare in the rearview mirror, if you're only looking back, you eventually go off the road.
SPEAKER_02: Churches, of course, should celebrate what God has done.
SPEAKER_02: That celebration, though, is supposed to fuel expectation for what he will do.
SPEAKER_02: Past fruitfulness should give us confidence in our present faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: And so the question then is are we simply celebrating what God has done amongst us?
SPEAKER_02: We're just looking, you know, City's gonna be 13 years old in September.
SPEAKER_02: We planted a church three years ago.
SPEAKER_02: Those are great things to be celebrated.
SPEAKER_02: But are we asking?
SPEAKER_02: What's God doing amongst us now?
SPEAKER_02: What's he calling us into now?
SPEAKER_02: What's he leading us towards now?
SPEAKER_02: What are the the gospel-shaped risks and sacrifices that we might make for him now, grounded on his past faithfulness to us, but moving forward into the future?
SPEAKER_02: We are not called to preserve a monument, we're called to participate in a mission.
SPEAKER_02: We're not called to curate memories, we're called to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps you're trading on reputation.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps you're very good at looking like you're okay, at looking like you're spiritually healthy, and you know that if Jesus sat down in front of you, he's like, There's a mask going on here.
SPEAKER_02: You know, Owen referenced it wonderfully when we were confessing.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus sees behind the mask, he sees what's going on.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're very good at keeping up appearances, but underneath it all, you know you're running on fumes.
SPEAKER_02: If that's you, I would have you take heart this morning.
SPEAKER_02: You see, Jesus doesn't expose Sardis, and Jesus doesn't expose us in order to shame Sardis or in order to shame us.
SPEAKER_02: He exposes Sardis in order to revive her.
SPEAKER_02: He wants her to recover that past vitality, and he wants that for you.
SPEAKER_02: But for now, you need to know that one of the reasons why churches die is because reputation replaces reality.
SPEAKER_02: Another reason why churches die is because comfort quietly replaces mission.
SPEAKER_02: That's our second point.
SPEAKER_02: Churches die when comfort replaces mission.
SPEAKER_02: Notice what Jesus accuses them of here.
SPEAKER_02: It's not heresy.
SPEAKER_02: They're not like Pergamon, they're not like Thyatara, there's no Jezebel, no Balaam, no false teaching.
SPEAKER_02: The problem is subtler and maybe more insidious that it's gone unnoticed.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Your works are incomplete.
SPEAKER_02: There's still more to do.
SPEAKER_02: The word here for works carries the idea of unfinished obedience, unfulfilled purpose.
SPEAKER_02: Because the church had fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_02: They'd fallen asleep at their post.
SPEAKER_02: Like I said in our introduction, twice Sardis in its history was leveled by foreign invaders who had attacked at night because the guards slept.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis on one side had a huge cliff around it, and they thought, nothing's gonna come over them the uh the cliff and attack us.
SPEAKER_02: But that's exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_02: The guards were like, oh, we're probably grand.
SPEAKER_02: And so they took a nap, and the city was sacked.
SPEAKER_02: Twice enemies had scaled those impregnable cliffs while the city was asleep.
SPEAKER_02: The city guards failed in their mission.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is saying, the church is failing in its mission too.
SPEAKER_02: That's why you need to wake up.
SPEAKER_02: There's still more to do.
SPEAKER_02: What were the works that they were missing?
SPEAKER_02: We're not told specifically, but I think that we get the strongest clue down in verse 5, because it's the it's kind of the mirror image of what Jesus promises.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see it there?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus promises that he's going to confess their names before his father.
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus promises to confess those who confess him.
SPEAKER_02: And I wonder if the uncomplete works of Sardis were just that.
SPEAKER_02: That Sardis had become silent.
SPEAKER_02: It had become respectable and accepted, it became safe in the world.
SPEAKER_02: There was no opposition to the church in Sardis because there was no bold witness in Sardis.
SPEAKER_02: Churches often die when we turn our focus inward, where mission gets squeezed out in favor of maintenance, where the great commission becomes the great omission from our lives and discipleship.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not through rebellion, it's just through neglect.
SPEAKER_02: So we should ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions as a church.
SPEAKER_02: Are we more excited about maintaining ministries than we are making disciples?
SPEAKER_02: Do we have a lack of confidence that has infiltrated our evangelism and stilted it?
SPEAKER_02: Are we praying for gospel conversations with our friends and colleagues, our family members?
SPEAKER_02: Are we raising them up by name, knowing that we can't save them?
SPEAKER_02: We often lose the arguments that we get into.
SPEAKER_02: But salvation really does belong to the Lord, and he can take our cotton mouth witness and blow the doors off somebody's hard heart.
SPEAKER_02: But are we praying for them?
SPEAKER_02: Has comfort taken priority over our generosity?
SPEAKER_02: Are we taking risks for the sake of the gospel?
SPEAKER_02: And what's true corporately is true for us individually.
SPEAKER_02: Where's comfort replaced obedience in your life?
SPEAKER_02: Where have you settled for a version of Christianity that actually costs you very little?
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps there was a time when you spoke more freely about Jesus, more boldly, you served more sacrificially, you prayed more fervently, you worshiped more expectantly, but they're all in the review mirror.
SPEAKER_02: You've settled.
SPEAKER_02: You've become comfortable.
SPEAKER_02: Comfort can be dangerous because it feels so reasonable.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody wakes up one day and says, You know what?
SPEAKER_02: I fancy completely abandoning Jesus' mission.
SPEAKER_02: No, it's more subtle than that.
SPEAKER_02: We simply become preoccupied with other things.
SPEAKER_02: And what does Jesus say to the Christians in Sardis?
SPEAKER_02: Wake up.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody's nodded off in the darkness.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to City Church Tell them.
SPEAKER_02: If there's a sleeping baby in the back.
SPEAKER_02: Shh sorry.
SPEAKER_02: He says there's still something remaining.
SPEAKER_02: There's more to be done.
SPEAKER_02: There's still hope.
SPEAKER_02: So if comfort and mission drift are the disease, then what's the cure?
SPEAKER_02: How do you move from here?
SPEAKER_02: How do you get from where you are?
SPEAKER_02: Well, Jesus' answer is actually surprisingly simple.
SPEAKER_02: He says, remember what you've received, keep it, and repent.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, this is where we turn.
SPEAKER_02: How does Jesus revive his church?
SPEAKER_02: Well, churches revive when they recover the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That's point three.
SPEAKER_02: Churches revive when they recover the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Verse three, remember then what you received and heard, keep it and repent.
SPEAKER_02: If Sardis had drifted from life, where does Jesus tell them to begin in order to find life again?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not with a new program, it's not with a new leader, it's not with a new strategy for church growth and for mission.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, he tells them to look backwards, but it's not just to their glory days, it's not to their reputation in the city, it's to the good news of Jesus that they've already received.
SPEAKER_02: This command is striking, is it?
SPEAKER_02: Remember, keep, repent.
SPEAKER_02: Those three commands describe the pathway for every one of us back into a life of spiritual vitality.
SPEAKER_02: So if you think, if you're running on fumes, Jesus says to you, remember, keep and repent.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at those three briefly.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, remember what you received and heard.
SPEAKER_02: What had they received?
SPEAKER_02: The good news that Jesus came for sinners like you and me, that he rose again from the dead, and that he offers you life eternal.
SPEAKER_02: The good news that salvation is by grace and not by the efforts of your own hands.
SPEAKER_02: The good news that we are accepted, not on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what Christ has done.
SPEAKER_02: The good news that we are adopted, loved forever in the family of our God, that God is our Father and that He accepts us, despite our faults and failures and the things that we are ashamed of, but on the basis of His spotless, sinless Son, who has robed us in His righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: The good news that Jesus has done for each one of us what we could never do for ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus here calls the Christians, said you want to live again?
SPEAKER_02: Come back to first principles.
SPEAKER_02: Back to the foundations of your faith.
SPEAKER_02: One of the great ironies of the Christian life is that we never really get beyond the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And remember some evangelists, it might have been John Chapman, the Aussie evangelist, who said that it is perilously dangerous to move more than six inches from the cross.
SPEAKER_02: We never get beyond the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: We spend our entire lives going deeper into it.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Paul says in Colossians 2, 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_02: He says, You've received Christ Jesus the Lord, and I live in him, rooted in him.
SPEAKER_02: Put the roots deeper down into Christ.
SPEAKER_02: You don't go, okay, well, I've come to Jesus, and so I've got my ticket to ride when I die, and I'm going to go on and be excited about a whole bunch of other things.
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
SPEAKER_02: You go deeper into Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Martin Luther, the German reformer, said that we we need to hear the gospel every day.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because we forget it every day, he said.
SPEAKER_02: We forget, don't we?
SPEAKER_02: We forget his grace to us.
SPEAKER_02: We start thinking that he only loves us when we are when we are going well and listening to him.
SPEAKER_02: And so when we fail or we struggle, we think that he's disappointed in us.
SPEAKER_02: That he's angry with us.
SPEAKER_02: And churches forget the gospel too.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not always by denying it.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis Sardis probably had a perfectly serviceable doctrinal basis on their website.
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe in the do you believe in the Holy Trinity?
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe in the inspiration and infallibility of the scriptures?
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe in the hypostatic union that God is, that Jesus is both fully God and fully man?
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe that he died for our sins?
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe that he rose again on the third day?
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe that there's a future hope for us in heaven?
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe that human beings are image bearers of God?
SPEAKER_02: They'd go, yeah, absolutely, of course we do.
SPEAKER_02: Tick, tick, tick, tick, tech.
SPEAKER_02: The problem was not that the gospel had disappeared.
SPEAKER_02: The problem was that it had stopped driving everything.
SPEAKER_02: It stopped driving the discipleship in people's lives where they think, I need to live into this, put my roots down into it.
SPEAKER_02: How does this shape how I think and feel and act and use my money and use my love life and all of those things?
SPEAKER_02: It stopped driving it.
SPEAKER_02: It remained their statement of faith, but it no longer shaped their urgency.
SPEAKER_02: It no longer fueled their mission, it no longer created any wonder.
SPEAKER_02: It no longer produced any dependence.
SPEAKER_02: Remember.
SPEAKER_02: He says, keep it.
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't simply say remember, he says, keep it.
SPEAKER_02: And that has the idea of both guard and treasure.
SPEAKER_02: Guard it.
SPEAKER_02: We, you and I, like one day, like one day we will all be gone from city church, right?
SPEAKER_02: I will one day be gone from city church.
SPEAKER_02: And so you ask yourself, well, what's our duty now?
SPEAKER_02: Here it is.
SPEAKER_02: We're stewards.
SPEAKER_02: We steward the gospel in our generation and we pass it on to others.
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
SPEAKER_02: We steward the gospel and we pass it on.
SPEAKER_02: That's why actually, do you know the only the only place in this building where something more important is happening than in here?
SPEAKER_02: It's happening in the mezzanine and it's happening in screen six.
SPEAKER_02: Because we steward the gospel and we pass it on.
SPEAKER_02: We guard it.
SPEAKER_02: We keep it in trust for future generations.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, treasure it, delight in it.
SPEAKER_02: Enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel is always under pressure, and there's a constant temptation to add something to it or to subtract something from it to make it more acceptable, more fashionable, more comfortable, more respectable.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, no, no, guard it.
SPEAKER_02: Hold on to what you've received.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, repent.
SPEAKER_02: We've talked a lot about repentance in this series.
SPEAKER_02: But you need to know that repentance is not merely where the Christian life begins, it's how the Christian life continues.
SPEAKER_02: Healthy Christians repent.
SPEAKER_02: Healthy churches repent.
SPEAKER_02: You might not be used to coming to a church where we all say out loud what is called the general confession, right?
SPEAKER_02: The reason why we do that is because we are training ourselves to think that actually my whole life is one of dependence upon God.
SPEAKER_02: That week by week there are ways in which I have failed God in thought and word and deed and the things that I have done, the things that I shouldn't have done, and the things that I have left undone that I should have done.
SPEAKER_02: And we're saying all of my life is one of dependence on the grace of God for me.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the real great reasons why we say it all together is because it's a great leveler.
SPEAKER_02: We're all saying, do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I have come here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know your journey.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how hard it was for you to walk in through this building, these doors this morning.
SPEAKER_02: It might have been incredibly difficult.
SPEAKER_02: But one of the things that saying something like the confession together does, it goes, oh, do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I'm on I'm on a level ground here with everybody else because we're all coming with empty hands looking for grace.
SPEAKER_02: We're all coming as sinners in need of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: We're all coming with hearts and wounds in our hearts that need the balm of the gospel to be applied and massaged into them.
SPEAKER_02: That's one of the things that confession does.
SPEAKER_02: To say nothing of the fact that revival always begins with repentance.
SPEAKER_02: It always begins with a dependence upon God and a turning towards Him.
SPEAKER_02: Not because repentance earns God's favor, but because repentance is always the way in which we clear away those sins that Hebrew says that cling so closely to us that we might enjoy God's fatherly delight in us.
SPEAKER_02: You think about the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_02: The turning point of his story is not when he arrives home, the turning point of the story is when he decides that he's gonna leave the pig style.
SPEAKER_02: Repentance is the moment where we stop running from God and stop running back towards him.
SPEAKER_02: And friends, his arms are wide open.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad to see you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad that you have come home.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps that's exactly what you need to hear today.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you identify with Sardis.
SPEAKER_02: You're not hostile to God, you're not rejecting Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: There's a there's a drift.
SPEAKER_02: You're running on fumes.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's just apathy, maybe it's sadness.
SPEAKER_02: You know what do you know what Jesus' answer to you is?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus' answer is not try harder.
SPEAKER_02: His answer is come back to me.
SPEAKER_02: Remember me.
SPEAKER_02: Hold on to me.
SPEAKER_02: What would happen if City Church Dolan recovered?
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not saying I don't think that we have lost it, but I'll still use that word.
SPEAKER_02: A wonder for the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Would mission flow from gratitude?
SPEAKER_02: Would prayer become joyful dependence?
SPEAKER_02: Would worship exude from a place of delight?
SPEAKER_02: But there's still a problem here.
SPEAKER_02: And the problem is this.
SPEAKER_02: Dead things don't become alive on their own.
SPEAKER_02: Dead churches don't revive themselves.
SPEAKER_02: Spiritually sleepy Christians do not wake themselves up through their own effort.
SPEAKER_02: Which raises an important question.
SPEAKER_02: Where does the power come from for the renewal that is necessary?
SPEAKER_02: This is why Jesus introduces himself the way he does, and I've skipped over it.
SPEAKER_02: This is why Jesus introduces himself in verse one as the one who possesses the seven spirits of God.
SPEAKER_02: He introduces himself in this way, because fourthly, of five, fourthly, churches revive when they depend on the spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: Churches revive when they depend on the spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: Before Jesus says a single word to the church, he introduces himself.
SPEAKER_02: The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
SPEAKER_02: Seven stars are he holds the church, as we know that from previously in the earlier chapters of the book of Revelation, the seven uh stars are the ums of the churches.
SPEAKER_02: And at a first glance, you kind of think, well, this is an unusual way to begin.
SPEAKER_02: Why this description, but we were talking about this in staff, why does he describe himself in this way?
SPEAKER_02: And I think it is because the description addresses exactly what Sardis lacks.
SPEAKER_02: The seven spirits of God are not referring to seven separate spirits that are somehow kind of flying around the throne.
SPEAKER_02: That's not the image at all.
SPEAKER_02: No, throughout Revelation 7 is the number of perfection, it's the number of fullness, the number of completeness.
SPEAKER_02: And so it's a picture, an image, a word picture of the Holy Spirit in all of his fullness.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is saying, I have the Holy Spirit as in his hand.
SPEAKER_02: Why is it in his hand?
SPEAKER_02: Why is he in his hand?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's because he's going to give it.
SPEAKER_02: He's going to give you this gift.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit who hovered over creation, the spirit who raised Christ from the dead, the spirit who brings dead sinners to life, the spirit who empowers the mission for the church.
SPEAKER_02: That is who Jesus will give to this sleepy, dying, dead church.
SPEAKER_02: There's a contrast here.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see it?
SPEAKER_02: Christ possesses the fullness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis possessed a great reputation.
SPEAKER_02: Christ possesses fullness of life.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis was dead.
SPEAKER_02: Christ possesses resurrection power.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis was running on fumes and happy thoughts.
SPEAKER_02: The church desperately needs what only Christ can give it.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is not merely diagnosing a problem, he is presenting himself as the solution.
SPEAKER_02: He is saying, he isn't saying just wake up, sort yourselves out, try harder, come on, let's go.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, wake up, because the one who gives you life is standing right here before you.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like Ezekiel's vision, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: We read it the other night in our kids' Bible, and uh both of our kids were like, Valley of the Dry Bones.
SPEAKER_02: That's my favorite story, Dad.
SPEAKER_02: I like Elijah and the prophets of Baal, but that's just me.
SPEAKER_02: I like fire from heaven and you know all that jazz.
SPEAKER_02: But they really love the Valley of Dry Bones.
SPEAKER_02: Why do they love it?
SPEAKER_02: Because well, because it's a very evocative image, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Ezekiel is there, and you imagine how just kind of horrific the scene would be to see all of these bleached white corpses stretched as far as the eye can see.
SPEAKER_02: And the word of God coming to this prophet and saying, Can these bones live, O Son of Man?
SPEAKER_02: Humanly speaking, the answer is, no, they're dead.
SPEAKER_02: Not even a little bit dead, very dead.
SPEAKER_02: And then God commands Ezekiel and says, Prophesy to the breath, to the Spirit of God, to the Ruach.
SPEAKER_02: And the breath of God enters these bones, and what happens?
SPEAKER_02: The ears are rattling in the distance, and they come together again, and sinew and muscle and skin is formed on the bones, and a great multitude is presented before him.
SPEAKER_02: This large army of human beings brought back from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: And what made the difference?
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: It was the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: This is what our church needs.
SPEAKER_02: This is what you need.
SPEAKER_02: This is what all the churches in our land need.
SPEAKER_02: This is why a culture of prayerful dependence is so vital for us as a church.
SPEAKER_02: Because prayer is an admission that we cannot revive ourselves, that we need the Spirit of God to come.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer is confessing that we cannot do this, we cannot change our own hearts, we cannot change the hearts of those whom we love.
SPEAKER_02: We cannot save people, we cannot sustain spiritual life.
SPEAKER_02: But God can.
SPEAKER_02: And He does by His Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Comfortable churches slowly lose that sense of dependence.
SPEAKER_02: It was meant to be powered by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit reminds us of Christ and what He has done and who He is and His love for us.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit applies the gospel to our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit empowers our obedience.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit produces holiness.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit emboldens our witness.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit creates life where life is fading or has faded.
SPEAKER_02: Sardis didn't need a better reputation.
SPEAKER_02: It needed the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: City Church Dublin is the same.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever our reputation is, I don't even know.
SPEAKER_02: We need the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: Because without him, we can do many impressive things.
SPEAKER_02: But what we cannot do is produce spiritual life.
SPEAKER_02: And so here's what our prayer should be.
SPEAKER_02: Lord Jesus, you possess the fullness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We do not.
SPEAKER_02: We are weak.
SPEAKER_02: We are needy.
SPEAKER_02: We are dependent.
SPEAKER_02: Breathe fresh life into us.
SPEAKER_02: Wake us up.
SPEAKER_02: Strengthen what remains and make us alive again for your glory.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not finished.
SPEAKER_02: I'm nearly finished.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will be glad to know that I actually now have a timer here.
SPEAKER_02: That's the sit down and shut up mark timer.
SPEAKER_02: So we're nearly there.
SPEAKER_02: And why should Sardis, why should we expect Jesus to answer such a prayer?
SPEAKER_02: After all, the church in Sardis had almost nothing to commend it.
SPEAKER_02: It's a church that's asleep at the wheel.
SPEAKER_02: It's a church that's dying.
SPEAKER_02: It's a church that has squandered its opportunities.
SPEAKER_02: Why doesn't Jesus simply say, do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to take your lampstand now.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks very much.
SPEAKER_02: Why doesn't Jesus abandon them and say, well, you're done?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the answer is found in the last and final section.
SPEAKER_02: And this is our fifth and final point.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know why churches revive?
SPEAKER_02: Here's the answer.
SPEAKER_02: Churches revive because Jesus loves to bring dead things back to life.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus loves the dying.
SPEAKER_02: One of the most surprising things about this letter is that it exists at all.
SPEAKER_02: Think about everything that Jesus could have done.
SPEAKER_02: He could have abandoned Sardis, he could have walked away.
SPEAKER_02: After all, there's nothing positive in this letter.
SPEAKER_02: There's no commendation.
SPEAKER_02: There's no celebration of endurance, no praise of faithfulness, no acknowledgement of suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus simply says, You've a reputation for being alive, but you're dead.
SPEAKER_02: And yet Jesus keeps on speaking.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because he loves the church in Sardis.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we imagine Jesus' relationship with the church as though he were some sort of frustrated regional manager who had come to do an inspection and was finding that the storeroom was dirty and that there was corruption in the management level.
SPEAKER_02: People were stealing the stationery, and so he's disappointed and he's exasperated and he's ready to move on.
SPEAKER_02: But the picture that the book of Revelation gives in these seven letters is very different.
SPEAKER_02: It's a picture of a bridegroom who loves his bride.
SPEAKER_02: It's a picture of a shepherd who is pursuing wandering sheep.
SPEAKER_02: It's a picture of a savior who seeks and saves the lost.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, when we look at Sardis, when Jesus looks at Sardis, he sees something that others might miss.
SPEAKER_02: It's there in verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: Where he says to them, yet you still have a few names in Sardis.
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
SPEAKER_02: Not a few members, not a few attendees, a few names.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus knows them personally.
SPEAKER_02: That's true of us.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus knows who belongs to him.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus knows everyone here who is struggling.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus knows everyone here who is weary.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus knows everyone here who is holding on by their fingertips.
SPEAKER_02: He knows every act of hidden faithfulness, every unseen prayer, every quiet act of obedience, every tear shed in secret.
SPEAKER_02: The church at large may barely notice them, but Christ sees them completely.
SPEAKER_02: And because Christ knows them, Christ refuses to abandon them.
SPEAKER_02: Which means that the dominant note, actually, of his letter to the church in Sardis is not one of judgment, but one of mercy.
SPEAKER_02: The warning to wake up, the warning to act is a mercy.
SPEAKER_02: The rebuke is a mercy.
SPEAKER_02: The call to repentance is a mercy.
SPEAKER_02: Every single sentence in this letter is evidence that Jesus has not given up on his church and he has not given up on his people.
SPEAKER_02: Cast your mind back to his earthly ministry in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_02: Name me a time when Jesus ever abandoned those who came to him.
SPEAKER_02: Like the woman caught in adultery.
SPEAKER_02: Even Peter, after his denial, again and again, we find Jesus moving towards broken people, not away from them.
SPEAKER_02: And perhaps that's most important because some people hearing this letter will identify with Sardis.
SPEAKER_02: Not because they're rebellious, not because they've renounced Jesus, but because they're tired.
SPEAKER_02: Because you're spiritually dry.
SPEAKER_02: Wondering if you have drifted too far, wondering whether God has lost his patience with you, wondering whether what you're feeling is the final word.
SPEAKER_02: This letter says that it isn't.
SPEAKER_02: The final word here is Christ's invitation.
SPEAKER_02: He invites them to three things very briefly.
SPEAKER_02: He says, You'll be clothed in white.
SPEAKER_02: The faithful will walk with Jesus, clothed in white.
SPEAKER_02: That is an image not primarily of their own achievement, but that they will be robed by Jesus in his perfect righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: It's acceptance.
SPEAKER_02: Christ covering his people.
SPEAKER_02: It's the final future of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: The final future for you is not one of shame, but of purity and of righteousness, of holiness and joy in the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He says that their names will remain in the book of life.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I will never blot his name, her name, out of the book of life.
SPEAKER_02: Notice what Jesus emphasizes here.
SPEAKER_02: Not uncertainty, but certainty.
SPEAKER_02: Not danger, but security.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't say, well, maybe you'll make it.
SPEAKER_02: He says, those who belong to me are mine forever.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, I will confess their names before my Father.
SPEAKER_02: And isn't this the most beautiful promise at all?
SPEAKER_02: Sardis was tempted to seek the reputation of people, the praise of people, and Jesus offers him something infinitely greater.
SPEAKER_02: The recognition of heaven itself.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine that day.
SPEAKER_02: Project yourself forward.
SPEAKER_02: Don't look in the rearview mirror.
SPEAKER_02: Look straight ahead to the furthest horizon that you can see.
SPEAKER_02: And beyond it, even, look beyond this veil of tears to that far green country that awaits us under a swift sunrise.
SPEAKER_02: And to that day when Jesus will say your name will say to his father, she's mine.
SPEAKER_02: He belongs to me.
SPEAKER_02: I know him.
SPEAKER_02: They're mine.
SPEAKER_02: If you are running on fumes of spa past spiritual highs, my dear brother, my dear sister, Jesus has hope for you this morning.
SPEAKER_02: That there is more to come, there is more growth to come.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit is ready.
SPEAKER_02: He is willing.
SPEAKER_02: There is more joy to discover.
SPEAKER_02: There is more fruit to bear.
SPEAKER_02: Do not pretend that you are okay if you are not.
SPEAKER_02: Come and pray with us.
SPEAKER_02: The prayer team will be dying here after the service.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody will pray with you.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to go into all of the ins and outs if you don't want to.
SPEAKER_02: Things will be kept in confidence, be just like.
SPEAKER_02: The sermon spoke to me in ways that I'm not ready to articulate.
SPEAKER_02: Would you just pray for me?
SPEAKER_02: They will pray for you this morning.
SPEAKER_02: One day, Cities Obituary might be written for Sardis.
SPEAKER_02: But this letter reminds us.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
SPEAKER_02: Cities of obituary might be written for us.
SPEAKER_02: But Sardis reminds us that it doesn't have to be.
SPEAKER_02: Because the church's future is not ultimately dependent upon us, but dependent upon Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The Christ who walks amongst the lampstands, the Christ who possesses the Spirit of God, who knows his people by name, who refuses to abandon dying churches, who refuses to abandon dying people, and who brings the death to dead to life.
SPEAKER_02: Are we alive?
SPEAKER_02: Are you alive?
SPEAKER_02: If you're surviving on yesterday's experience, if comfort has replaced mission, if the gospel has come familiar rather than precious, if you have been trying to live in your own strength, then hear the good news of Sardis.
SPEAKER_02: The life giver is speaking to you this morning.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Remember who I am.
SPEAKER_02: Come to me, cling to me.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe there need to be prayers of repentance.
SPEAKER_02: Coming back saying, I need the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: I have no strength left in myself.
SPEAKER_02: I need you to breathe life into me again.
SPEAKER_02: A moment of silence, and then I will lead us to our Father, hear the prayers of your people.
SPEAKER_02: Hear and act, O God, according to your great love for us.
SPEAKER_02: Restore to us the joy of your salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Revive us, we ask, by your Spirit, that we may walk in your ways.
SPEAKER_02: We ask it all for Christ's sake.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you find this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, visit our website find in the links below.