seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Revelation 3:1 To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.
3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
a. Revelation 3:1 Or messenger; also in verses 7 and 14b. Revelation 3:1 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
This is from the easy English site.The church in Sardis used to be a lively church. In other words, the members used to have strong faith. But by this time, it had lost its life. This means that their faith had become weak. This process was slow. They did not see it happen. The church still seemed to be full of life (faith). But the *Lord saw what it was really like. He could see that the church was dead. In other words, most of the Christians there had hardly any faith. So, they did not live as they should.
In Sardis, the people coloured wool and they made clothes. If the wool was dirty, it was not useful. So, the Lord said that these Christians were not useful to him.
A few people in the church did live clean (holy) lives. This means that they did not live by the standards of the local people. Instead, they lived by what they had learned from the word of God.
The Lord will give white clothes to these people. This means that they will be holy. God will free them from sin. They will walk with him. This means that their lives will please him. The ‘white clothes’ are the result of the good things that Jesus did. He gives to them the reward that he earned. They do not deserve it because of anything that they have done. They obtain it because they believe in Christ. What they believed changed their lives.
This is from bible-studys.org.
This church is very obvious to me. When I was a child, I went to a certain denomination church. This particular church was seemingly very strong in the Lord. People shouted and said amen. People were prayed for who were sick. Then all of a sudden, something called the National Council of Churches was formed and my church, I had loved so dearly, changed. The National Council of Churches seeks to physically make the church one. God's plan from the beginning has been for the churches to be one in Spirit. You cannot legislate Christianity.
In my church we no longer taught Sunday school from the Bible, but we got lessons from headquarters that we were to use. As best I could see, they had dropped many of the Biblical teachings and went more too teaching social reform.
What had been a way of life for me for nearly all my life had changed. The shouting stopped; the church became too formal for the amen corner. The first thing I knew, I found myself in a cold formal church, not the warm caring church I had loved so well. Church never dared run over fifteen minutes; we had to stay on schedule. Bible studies became fewer and fewer. The congregation was not even made aware of how important Bible reading and study at home was. It seemed my church, which loved all Christian people, had made a detour.
I really believe that churches like this, is what the church at Sardis is all about. They started out just great; but as time went on, they waned away.
Oh man.... I see a lot of churches described by John in this chapter.... but this section is about the "used up" church.... and "forcing" the church to change.What is it with some people and End Times? Are they trying to rush it up? I'm looking forward to seeing if I will wear white.... or if I will have a crown.... but I don't figure I will get that.... I'll be happy just to have that white rock with a new name on it.... and I'm really seeing that place Jesus was preparing for me.... but the world... the nations.... the people themselves.... are not ready for End Times.
When I was a child.... we had a board that was hung near the preacher but away from him [so as not to draw too much attention]. It had three or four spaces for the hymn numbers so we could sing along..... and then there were two more spots... the numbers for the people who attended Sunday School and the number of people who attended church. It was the "number to beat". We would have "bring a friend Sunday" when we were encouraged to talk to our friends and get them to join for just one Sunday..... I never missed.... but they were only coming to my church so I could get a prize for bringing someone.... they would return to their church the following Sunday.
See.... back when I was a kid... everyone went to church. We were either Baptist, Catholic, or Church of God..... or something else.... but we all went to some kind of church on Sunday. So when they declared it would be "bring a friend Sunday".... it was a chore to talk someone into going to church with us instead of with their family for the day. We had to get permission to get permission for that one.
Now.... even before COVID.... it's no big deal to stay home to watch the game.... or go play golf.... or skip today... we'll go next week.... or let's watch from home.... and the change in the church didn't happen over night... it took a while.... we didn't even notice.
See... the preacher needed a raise or the power company rates increased or the cleaning crew needed a better vacuum.... so they had to either get more members or squeeze the money from the empty wallets of the members. So... new members was the key... and to get knew members... they started to sing a different song.... a song of exclusiveness..... a song that "makes more sense". They started to leave out the parts of the Bible no one really believed anyway.... like the "Red Sea" became a marsh... because that's more believable.... and all the Bible Characters became holy.... No one in the Bible would do anything wrong... even Judas was a good guy..... Science over Faith.... that's was the new church..... explainable.... exclusive.... only a few can join... which made everyone want to be in their church.... Science over Faith.....
Sardis... use to be a great church.... and it changed... and the people didn't even see it... the people were still living in the past... thinking they were singing the right hymn and the thinking the numbers on the board were going up because of their marvelous works.... not a word about Christ... just them... their "council".
There were a few people who stayed faithful to the Gospel.... a few. And one day they will actually get to walk and talk with Jesus..... but only a few... that will stay faithful.....
Anyone who still believed there was a lively church in Sardis was living in the past.
