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. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
—Revelation 3:1
This church at Sardis looked alive with action, activity, motion, and machinery. But when Jesus took their pulse, dead! This can happen to a church, not only then, but it can happen now!
As a matter of fact in America alone, 3500 churches per year close their doors because they are dead. Once thriving and dynamic ministries, now dead! Shut the doors. Seventy to eighty percent of churches in this country are dead or are dying. Again, there may be activity, there maybe programming, there may be tradition and structure, but no life!
What’s happening to this church in Sardis that is so dead is there’s no spiritual life, there’s no breath! He’s going to be talking to this church about renewing and reviving and resuscitating their lives and their church, and so this is a church in need of revival. This is a church in need of the Holy Spirit. And every church is in need of the Holy Spirit.
Our traditions must be laid aside in favor of the truth. The church is all about Jesus! And when it’s no longer about Him, it’s over! You may keep meeting, you may still have a religious club, but if you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have a church!
There’s no life without the Spirit of Jesus!
