“The greatest criticism of the Church today is that no one wants to persecute it: because there is nothing very much to persecute it about.” – George MacLeod
What a statement this statement could be the story of the church that we are going to look at over this week the church at Sardis. One I think most us know all too well. As you may know the other letters that God have written, you will notice each of the churches this far have been experiencing hard times. They were being persecuted because of their faith. Even though those churches had some problems, they were for the most part suffering for being “different”; (Note that word Different I want to come back to that later in the week) they were suffering for their FAITH.
As we know this was not the case for the church at Sardis, something was happening to them and they did not even know it. The city of Sardis was a very wealthy or can I say rich city. The city was known for its loose-living, pleasure seeking, luxury lifestyle. The city got a great deal of wealth from the gold found in a near by river and from the trade industry. Hello trading! Reminds me of the traders in the game Fable. The church did not face a lot of opposition, there were no trade guilds, rules to deal with, no pressure to worship false gods. The people of this church had it relatively easy when compared to the other churches if you look back in the other letters. Something was happening to the church and for the most part, they did not even realize it! Most of these kind of churches today DON’T realize it. The church was dying; they needed a wake up call or as I like to say a little bit of the Holy Sprit Shake up! The number one cause of death in the USA is some form of heart disease or heart related problems. I know so many people who have died from these problems and I have had even family members face this. Many times we do not even know we have a problem until we drop dead one day. If we see a person who is dying, we usually do what we can to “revive” them (note the wording). If a person has stopped breathing, we will try to beat the life back into them with CPR in an effort to revive them. The church needs to be beat back to life before time is up and the last breath has been given. Hopefully we can take a few days to talk about some ways in doing this and something’s Christ said to the church in Sardis.
As we know this was not the case for the church at Sardis, something was happening to them and they did not even know it. The city of Sardis was a very wealthy or can I say rich city. The city was known for its loose-living, pleasure seeking, luxury lifestyle. The city got a great deal of wealth from the gold found in a near by river and from the trade industry. Hello trading! Reminds me of the traders in the game Fable. The church did not face a lot of opposition, there were no trade guilds, rules to deal with, no pressure to worship false gods. The people of this church had it relatively easy when compared to the other churches if you look back in the other letters. Something was happening to the church and for the most part, they did not even realize it! Most of these kind of churches today DON’T realize it. The church was dying; they needed a wake up call or as I like to say a little bit of the Holy Sprit Shake up! The number one cause of death in the USA is some form of heart disease or heart related problems. I know so many people who have died from these problems and I have had even family members face this. Many times we do not even know we have a problem until we drop dead one day. If we see a person who is dying, we usually do what we can to “revive” them (note the wording). If a person has stopped breathing, we will try to beat the life back into them with CPR in an effort to revive them. The church needs to be beat back to life before time is up and the last breath has been given. Hopefully we can take a few days to talk about some ways in doing this and something’s Christ said to the church in Sardis.
In His Grip
-Pastor J
-Pastor J
