To the Church in SardisRevelation 3:1-6

• “But what about this one…a dead church? That has to be the ultimate oxymoron—the greatest of all contradictions. How can you have a dead church? How can a congregation be dead if the living Lord indwells it? You would think this would be impossible. Sadly, it’s not. Many churches are dead! Their sanctuary is a morgue with a steeple. They are congregations of corpses. They have undertakers for ushers, embalmers for elders, morticians for ministers, and the pastor graduated from the cemetery. Such churches lost vital signs years ago.” (Keith Krell)

• (1a) To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says this.

• (1a) To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says this.

• Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

• (1b) I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

• Matthew 23:27-28 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. (28) "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

• When it begins to worship its own past or history, its reputation or name, or the names in the church.

• When it begins to worship its own past or history, its reputation or name, or the names in the church.

• When it is more concerned with liturgical forms than with function and life.

• When it begins to worship its own past or history, its reputation or name, or the names in the church.

• When it is more concerned with liturgical forms than with function and life.

• When it is more concerned with numbers and noses, than with the spiritual quality of life it is producing in its people.

• When it is more concerned about finances than ministry.

• When it is more concerned about finances than ministry.

• When it is more concerned with social issues than seeing people saved.

• When it is more concerned about finances than ministry.

• When it is more concerned with social issues than seeing people saved.

• When it is more concerned with being “comfortable” than taking the Gospel to their “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

• When it is more concerned with what men think than what God says.

• When it is more concerned with what men think than what God says.

• When it no longer believes the Bible is the Word of God.

• (2) 'Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.

• Ephesians 5:14 For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.“

• Ephesians 5:14 For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.“

• strengthen is sterizo

• (3) 'So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.

• (4) 'But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

• (4) 'But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

• Revelation 19:8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

• (5) 'He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (6) 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

• (5) 'He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (6) 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

• Revelation 16:15 ("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.")

• Hebrews 10:26-38 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES…(29) How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?...

• (35) Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. (36) For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. (37) FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. (38) BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.

• John 10:27-29 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; (28) and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. (29) "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

• “No Christian will have his name blotted from that book. His eternal identity rests on the fact that he is an individual whose name is written in heaven.” (Keith Krell)

• Luke 10:20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

• “Practically every city of that day kept a role or register of its citizens…one who had performed some great exploit, deserving of special distinction, was honoured by having his name inscribed in golden letters in the citizens’ roll. Our Lord’s emphatic statement, therefore, implies not merely that the name of the overcomer shall not be expunged, but per contra that it shall be inscribed in golden letters in the heavenly roll.” (Fredk Tatford)

• Matthew 10:32 "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.