Continuous Revival: Fake Reputation
If you or the church you attend received a letter from Jesus, what would it say? Would He caution us? Would He commend us? Would He command us? Would He tell us that things are better than they really are so as to not offend us? What would He say? In this text, we are going to see that Jesus has something infinitely more important to say to you than what you will hear on the nightly news or anywhere else. And as Jesus repeated in His letter to the seven churches in Asia, I pray that we would have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us.
The main idea is this: when continuous spiritual renewal isn’t the normative experience of a church, spiritual decline is the inevitable result. In these next 4 devotionals, we are going to look at what Jesus said about a church in decline and what they needed to do to turn things around before it was too late.
“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. 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. Remember, then, what you 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. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. 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.’” Revelation 3:1-6
Fake Reputation
The first thing Jesus pointed out to the church in Sardis is what I’m calling their fake reputation. Sardis, which was once the capital city of the Lydian empire in the 8th century BC, was an important and wealthy city in John’s day. It was located in modern day Turkey, about 15 miles east of Ephesus. After being conquered by Alexander the Great and later the Roman Empire, it remained an important city due to its location near key trade routes and its pagan temple, which was built there to the goddess Artemis. In His commentary, John MacArthur points out, “In John’s day, Sardis was prosperous, but decaying, it’s glory days long past. Both the city and church it contained had lost their vitality.”
Now with that backdrop in mind, remember that Jesus, who can see past all the glitter and gold, all the hustle and bustle, said to the church in this prosperous pagan city, “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” It appears that the church in Sardis at one time was a spiritually thriving church—a church that was experiencing revival.
Those of us who are older in the Lord may be more familiar with the term revival. Whether or not we are familiar with the term, it’s important to consider how it has been used throughout church history. For example, when I first got saved, I attended a Baptist church that sometimes hosted what we called a revival meeting. Some would argue that revival is not a meeting that we can schedule or plan, rather it’s a sovereign work of the Spirit of God by which He exerts greater influence upon the Church and increases its vitality for greater gospel impact in the world.
In His book, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, Robert Lovelace describes renewals and revivals as “broad-scale movements of the Holy Spirit’s work in renewing spiritual vitality in the church and in fostering its expansion in mission and evangelism.” Although history records such broad-scale movements of the Holy Spirt, which have impacted large segments of society, it’s important that we never lose the hope and expectation that God can do it again. As Norman Grubb puts it: “Revival in its truest sense is an everyday affair right down within the reach of everyday folk—to be experienced each day in our hearts, homes, churches and fields of service…When revival does burst forth in greater and more public ways, thank God! But meanwhile we should see to it that we are being ourselves constantly revived persons.”
Revival is not only God’s desire for the church in Sardis, which was dying, it’s God desire for all churches. And God doesn’t just want us to seek it when we are in crisis, He wants us to seek it continuously so that we don’t end up in a spiritual crisis. As the apostle Paul wrote, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)
One of the hindrances to board-scale revival is a defeatist mentality that revival is something that God did in the past, but not really something He desires to do again in the present. Another hindrance to revival is to see it only as a broad-scale movement of the Holy Spirt and not as an inner work of renewal in our hearts that we need to seek every day, which can lead to the outworking of a broad scale revival. Another hindrance is to be deceived into thinking you’re experiencing revival when you’re not—to have the reputation that you’re alive, but in fact you’re dead or dying. This was the condition of many in the church of Sardis.
What gave them the reputation of being alive? It could have been the gospel impact, which they made in the past, and gloried in at that present time. Or perhaps it was some false signs of revival—counterfeit revival. We learned earlier that Sardis was a prosperous city, and no doubt the church benefitted from its prosperity. Did the church, like many churches today, falsely equate material wealth and prosperity with revival?
It’s possible that the church had religious formalism—a form of godliness, without spiritual reality and power. They went to church and practiced the ordinances, but because their hearts where not gripped by spiritual realities and the eternal life and death implications of the gospel, they made little or no gospel impact on the people in their city. There is also no mention in our text that the church in Sardis experienced persecution. The impression is that there was no persecution because they were not actively engaged in sharing the gospel. There was no opposition from the enemy because they were not invading his territory. You’re not going to clash with the enemy if you’re going in the same direction.
If the church in Sardis was dying and didn’t know it because they were blinded by their prosperity and false signs of revival, what about the church in America today? How many Christians are actually being persecuted for sharing the gospel? Not many. On the contrary, many Christians in America attend churches with comfortable facilities, technology, laser lights, smoke machines, state of the art sound equipment, motivational speakers, slick programming and entertaining music. How easy it is in some church environments today to mistake revival for mere emotionalism and formalism. I’ve heard it said that the reason many churches today are not experiencing a real move of the Spirit is because they figured out how to draw a crowd without depending on the Holy Spirit.
True revival, which increases our awareness of the holiness and love of God in Christ, will affect our emotions for sure, but it will do much more than that. When we encounter the true and living God in the face of Jesus, which is the heart of revival, we will experience an increase love for God, an increase hatred for sin, a greater longing for His word and a greater urgency to share the hope of the gospel in a lost and dying world.
Does God want us to experience revival today corporately and personally or are the glory days behind us? I’m suggesting to you that He wants us to experience revival at some level on a daily basis.
In your service,
Pastor Marco
The main idea is this: when continuous spiritual renewal isn’t the normative experience of a church, spiritual decline is the inevitable result. In these next 4 devotionals, we are going to look at what Jesus said about a church in decline and what they needed to do to turn things around before it was too late.
“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. 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. Remember, then, what you 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. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. 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.’” Revelation 3:1-6
Fake Reputation
The first thing Jesus pointed out to the church in Sardis is what I’m calling their fake reputation. Sardis, which was once the capital city of the Lydian empire in the 8th century BC, was an important and wealthy city in John’s day. It was located in modern day Turkey, about 15 miles east of Ephesus. After being conquered by Alexander the Great and later the Roman Empire, it remained an important city due to its location near key trade routes and its pagan temple, which was built there to the goddess Artemis. In His commentary, John MacArthur points out, “In John’s day, Sardis was prosperous, but decaying, it’s glory days long past. Both the city and church it contained had lost their vitality.”
Now with that backdrop in mind, remember that Jesus, who can see past all the glitter and gold, all the hustle and bustle, said to the church in this prosperous pagan city, “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” It appears that the church in Sardis at one time was a spiritually thriving church—a church that was experiencing revival.
Those of us who are older in the Lord may be more familiar with the term revival. Whether or not we are familiar with the term, it’s important to consider how it has been used throughout church history. For example, when I first got saved, I attended a Baptist church that sometimes hosted what we called a revival meeting. Some would argue that revival is not a meeting that we can schedule or plan, rather it’s a sovereign work of the Spirit of God by which He exerts greater influence upon the Church and increases its vitality for greater gospel impact in the world.
In His book, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, Robert Lovelace describes renewals and revivals as “broad-scale movements of the Holy Spirit’s work in renewing spiritual vitality in the church and in fostering its expansion in mission and evangelism.” Although history records such broad-scale movements of the Holy Spirt, which have impacted large segments of society, it’s important that we never lose the hope and expectation that God can do it again. As Norman Grubb puts it: “Revival in its truest sense is an everyday affair right down within the reach of everyday folk—to be experienced each day in our hearts, homes, churches and fields of service…When revival does burst forth in greater and more public ways, thank God! But meanwhile we should see to it that we are being ourselves constantly revived persons.”
Revival is not only God’s desire for the church in Sardis, which was dying, it’s God desire for all churches. And God doesn’t just want us to seek it when we are in crisis, He wants us to seek it continuously so that we don’t end up in a spiritual crisis. As the apostle Paul wrote, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)
One of the hindrances to board-scale revival is a defeatist mentality that revival is something that God did in the past, but not really something He desires to do again in the present. Another hindrance to revival is to see it only as a broad-scale movement of the Holy Spirt and not as an inner work of renewal in our hearts that we need to seek every day, which can lead to the outworking of a broad scale revival. Another hindrance is to be deceived into thinking you’re experiencing revival when you’re not—to have the reputation that you’re alive, but in fact you’re dead or dying. This was the condition of many in the church of Sardis.
What gave them the reputation of being alive? It could have been the gospel impact, which they made in the past, and gloried in at that present time. Or perhaps it was some false signs of revival—counterfeit revival. We learned earlier that Sardis was a prosperous city, and no doubt the church benefitted from its prosperity. Did the church, like many churches today, falsely equate material wealth and prosperity with revival?
It’s possible that the church had religious formalism—a form of godliness, without spiritual reality and power. They went to church and practiced the ordinances, but because their hearts where not gripped by spiritual realities and the eternal life and death implications of the gospel, they made little or no gospel impact on the people in their city. There is also no mention in our text that the church in Sardis experienced persecution. The impression is that there was no persecution because they were not actively engaged in sharing the gospel. There was no opposition from the enemy because they were not invading his territory. You’re not going to clash with the enemy if you’re going in the same direction.
If the church in Sardis was dying and didn’t know it because they were blinded by their prosperity and false signs of revival, what about the church in America today? How many Christians are actually being persecuted for sharing the gospel? Not many. On the contrary, many Christians in America attend churches with comfortable facilities, technology, laser lights, smoke machines, state of the art sound equipment, motivational speakers, slick programming and entertaining music. How easy it is in some church environments today to mistake revival for mere emotionalism and formalism. I’ve heard it said that the reason many churches today are not experiencing a real move of the Spirit is because they figured out how to draw a crowd without depending on the Holy Spirit.
True revival, which increases our awareness of the holiness and love of God in Christ, will affect our emotions for sure, but it will do much more than that. When we encounter the true and living God in the face of Jesus, which is the heart of revival, we will experience an increase love for God, an increase hatred for sin, a greater longing for His word and a greater urgency to share the hope of the gospel in a lost and dying world.
Does God want us to experience revival today corporately and personally or are the glory days behind us? I’m suggesting to you that He wants us to experience revival at some level on a daily basis.
In your service,
Pastor Marco