The Saints go Sleeping One by One

Have you ever been to a dead church? There's nothing on the marquee that says we're dead.

We just don't know it. You can sense it. Services take place. Some songs are sort of mumbled through. The lights are on.

The climate's controlled. There is a pastor who does his duty going through the motions, but the church has no spiritual vitality. You are visiting an indoor cemetery, and you move through the motions with a hushed sense as if you're afraid to wake anybody up. Have you ever used the phrase, that church is dead? When we say that, we don't necessarily mean that it shut its doors and discontinued its services. What we usually mean is that it's lost its passion for God.

It lost its effectiveness for God's kingdom. Well, how do you identify a dead church? How do you prevent a church from becoming a dead church? We're going to explore the answers to these questions next. Stephen Davey is taking you to Revelation, where we find a letter to a troubled church.

This message is called, The Saints Go Sleeping One by One. A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of touring some of the great places throughout Great Britain that represented our spiritual heritage. Places like Wesley's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, the cathedral where John Knox thundered the truth with great courage. It occurred to me that we were visiting churches that hardly, if at all, carried on with any vestige of power from their earlier gospel testimony. The truth was they were barely shadows of their great past. Another thing that struck me was that these cathedrals, which once housed congregations led by teachers of the word who taught the scriptures, had become over time nothing less than expensive mausoleums.

Visiting Westminster Abbey had nothing to do with a living testimony of a vibrant church or the declaration of the gospel. In fact, the visit struck me as nothing more than visiting an indoor cemetery with a roof over our head. It was beautiful with impressive architecture. In fact, you walk through it with a sense of hushed reverence, as if you might perhaps wake somebody up. I saw pulpits and ornately carved pews. Services were held. Ceremonies were played out. Prayers made.

Candles lit. But these churches were, for the most part, dead. Costly, manicured, magnificent, indoor cemeteries. If you traveled back in time and wanted to visit all the great churches of the land that birthed our heritage, you would no doubt sail around the Mediterranean Sea. You'd stop off in what we call Asia Minor in that day. You'd stop off at the great churches of Ephesus and Antioch, Jerusalem, Philadelphia. Their fortress sat on top of a mountain.

Three of its sides were sheer cliffs, naturally protected, undefeatable, incredibly prosperous. Sardis was the place to live. And the church at Sardis was the place to join. They knew their creeds. They recited their beliefs. They said their prayers. And they held their services.

In fact, they had a reputation around this world for being the place to belong to. But then, a letter arrived from God himself. And the congregation gathered to read the letter. It's recorded for us in Revelation chapter three. We've been preserved a copy of this first century letter so that every church since can read it to discover if they have also been deceived by appearances. Let's look at this letter together. And to the angel or the messenger, perhaps the leading elder 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 a reputation of being alive.

But you are dead. In other words, they had all of the appearances of life. But in the view of God's spirit, they had all the appearances of death. It tells us just in that brief phrase that they had a name that is a reputation for being the place to join.

But their nature wasn't matching up to their name. Now would you notice back in verse one how Christ introduces himself? He's effectively telling the church in Sardis, I have the fullness of the spirit of God discerning in its ability, his ability to know the spirit's vitality. I can take your spiritual pulse. I can check out your spiritual vital signs.

People think you're in great shape. But I want you to know that I know you are being prepared for the cemetery. You are, at this point, nearly spiritually flatlined. However, as Robert Thomas pointed out, conditions had not yet reached the point of no return in this church. Otherwise, Christ would not have added the words in verse two, strengthen those things which are about to die. In other words, there is yet enough hope for an appeal to arouse them to living spiritual vitality.

Now this term for death in this text I believe refers to spiritual ineffectiveness. Each of the churches we have studied together are in danger, aren't they, of having their candlestick removed? They are going to become churches with a past but no future testimony, no shining light.

They look alive. For the most part, they're dead. Have you ever been to a dead church? Now it didn't say you're about to enter a dead church. There's nothing on the marquee that says we're dead. We just don't know it.

Have you ever visited? You can smell it, can't you? You can sense it in the first five minutes or less. There are people there. Services take place. Some songs are sort of mumbled through. The lights are on.

The climate's controlled. There is a pastor who does his duty going through the motions, but the church has no spiritual vitality. You are visiting an indoor cemetery. And you move through the motions with a hushed sense as if you're afraid to wake anybody up.

Their favorite hymn is, and the saints go sleeping one by one. On the door of the sanctuary is a sign that reads, welcome. But underneath, in fine print, it says, do not disturb. That was the sign here.

Welcome. We've got a lot of stuff going on, but don't really engage in disturbing us. Away from our ceremony and our plan, we've got our watches set. So the Lord of the church comes and he's armed as he introduces himself with the power of the Spirit. Seven, referring to the fullness of his perceptive ability in his ministry. And I can judge, he says, the worthlessness of your works. They are not done in fresh faith and fresh glory. By the way, this is a church for which Jesus Christ commends nothing. Absolutely nothing. They were entirely ineffective spiritually.

Kamatos. They were nearing extinction. You know, as I studied this text and read everything I could get my hands on from pastors to Old Testament scholars, it struck me that several of them would touch on those kinds of things that would lull a church into spiritual death, the loss of vitality. Let me summarize what I have observed and what I have read here.

There are at least five stanzas to the saints go sleeping one by one. Number one, when it begins to worship its past. That is, they can tell you all about their former exploits for Christ, how they challenged themselves to do this or how they risked that, but their testimonies are all stale and you have to blow the dust off them because they all begin with somewhere in the past. How about your testimony?

How fresh is it? How far back do you have to go before you can discover some spiritual act of vitality where God was engaged? How old is our testimony for Christ? Second stanza would be when it protects its traditions rather than its doctrines. Third, when it is unwilling to take new steps of faith. I think with churches like these, the prevailing bucket of cold water that's thrown on any fire could be labeled, we've never done that before. The timing isn't right.

It's not safe. A fourth stanza would be relative to the lyrics of it's infatuated with itself rather than enamored by Christ. The symptoms of this kind of assembly is that all it does is take care of itself.

It focuses on itself. And the prevailing thought is people join because of what it can do for them. They like the programs, the climate, the music, the preaching every so often. So they're going to join it and they're going to watch it do for them rather than join it so that they with them can do for Christ. It's membership roles typically far outweigh those who even show up. Another stanza would be when it refuses to reach and welcome new people. It says things like, that's my seat, my parking spot. I don't think we have that problem here.

You can't find one, right? Somebody's eating my porridge, somebody's sitting in my chair. Trouble is that's not so much a fairy tale as it is the attitude of a dying church. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that every church is a decision or two away from learning how to sing.

The saints go sleeping one by one. Did you notice, if you take a quick look in this letter, that this church isn't fighting any battles. In every other church we've studied thus far, something's happening. It might be bad.

It might be good. There's tension, struggle, effort, warning relative to the things that they're facing. There's a measure of conflict and strife. Ray Stedman who'd pastored for 40 years wrote this, tension and struggle may be unpleasant but at least they are signs of life.

This church in Sardis was so devoid of spiritual life that it actually had no struggles going on anywhere within it. It was peace but it was the peace of a cemetery. It's true.

You look through here and consider the other letters. They aren't battling the evil doctrines of Balaam. They're not struggling over the licentious lure of the Nicolaitans. They're not suffering persecution for their testimony. They're not dueling it out with false apostles and teachers. They're not in danger of a Jezebel who has slipped in to seduce them into sinning. They literally have it made. No troubles.

But there are no triumphs either. This is the calm of hypnosis and it's as if the evil one is swinging his gold watch in front of the church and whispering, sleep, sleep, sleep. Not you. Wake up.

30 people dozed off when I did that. That's the first thing by the way Christ will say to them. Wake up. This is the challenge.

What begins with a deathbed scene suddenly shifts now to an emergency room drama. Rather than officiating over a funeral, Christ will make as it were one final effort to revive the hearts of the saints. Now five quick commands, imperatives. The first command is in verse two.

Literally, wake up. Now that command had incredible significance to the believers living in Sardis for no other reason than simply their own history as a city and their own downfall. 700 years before this letter arrived to the city of Sardis, it was one of the greatest cities of the world.

It stood like a gigantic watchtower guarding the Hermas Valley. But the king with the mightest touch, Croasis, decided to take on this king of Persia named Cyrus. He went to the Oracle of Delphi and the Oracle told him if you march out against Cyrus a great civilization will be destroyed. Nice prediction.

Either way it could be right. And it was true although it went against him. He was routed by Cyrus. He and his army fled back to this impregnable citadel that was 1,500 feet above the valley floor. Cyrus marched there as well but was stopped at the face of those sheer cliffs ordering three sides of this empire city.

There was just no way in. For 14 days Cyrus laid siege and in frustration offered this incredible reward to any soldier who could figure out a way to get in. One day an alert Persian soldier named Hyrades saw a Sardian soldier up on the battlement accidentally drop his helmet over the battlement and then make his way down the precipice to retrieve it.

Hyrades made a mental note of those places for the hands to grasp. There was evidently small footholds that had been chiseled away for the feet of some agile soldier. That night this Persian warrior led a small party of soldiers up by that same crevice in the rock and when they reached the top and hopped over the wall they found the battlement unguarded and the soldiers asleep. All they had to do is slip through in the evening dark and open the gates.

Cyrus marched through and Croesus surrendered without a sword being lifted. Not once but twice this same kind of event occurred. In fact 650 years later at the early dawning of the first century just 60 or 70 years before John writes this letter the city was overthrown again by the Roman general Antiochus whose soldiers also found the same crevice and when they reached the top found the guards asleep. So for Jesus Christ to tell this church to wake up it would be a stinging reminder of their own history, their own city's complacency and their overconfidence.

There are no conflicts. We've got it made. Let's sleep. But this was their danger. The second imperative in verse 2 again is the word strengthen. Wake up. Strengthen. Strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Those things that remain in the original language doesn't refer to strengthening people.

It's neuter. It refers to strengthening spiritual realities. In other words strengthen the spiritual realities of the church those things which truly matter.

Those things which make it distinctive and pure and focused and passionate. Those things need attention. By the way this challenge again is not just for the church in general but for every Christian in particular.

He's going to end this letter by saying is there anybody in the church listening? What are the weak spots in your life? What are the cracks in the fortress walls?

Where is it that the enemies seems to continually attempt to scale the walls and enter your life? Strengthen those things. Focus on those areas. Wake up.

Strengthen. Now thirdly our Lord goes on to add another imperative with the word of verse 3 remember. Remember then what you received and heard. Literally you could translate it keep on remembering. Don't allow yourself to forget what you have received. Don't forget the grace of God which saved you.

Maybe one of the best things that you could do to strengthen and to come out of your slumber is to remember the work of God in your own life and why it matters. Fourth word is the word keep it. Translated in verse 3 the middle part literally obey. In other words don't just remember all of the above.

Do it. The present tense of this imperative indicates continual action. It means don't ever stop obeying, keeping, guarding what you know to be true. A good memory means nothing for a church or a Christian unless it affects our feet and our hands and our hearts and our minds. Fifth Christ simply says while you're at it don't overlook your need to repent.

Literally change direction. He's challenging the believers in Sardis to confess their sin and to ask the Lord for forgiveness and with clear vision and clean hearts and hands begin to serve Christ with authentic lives and faith. Now the Lord warns them in verse 3 if you will not wake up I'm going to come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Now the picture of the Lord's coming as a thief always carries the idea of imminent judgment.

Matthew 24, Luke 12 and 1 Thessalonians 5. The threat here is not related to the rapture of the church or even the second coming. It's a reference to the suddenness of his judgment. A thief comes in to take away what is valuable. It's going to snatch away what you want.

For the church the thing that's valuable is an effective testimony in the sense of God using it for his glory. I'm just going to shut it down. My spirit will walk away and I don't know how long it will carry on before you realize you're doing it without me but it's over.

The believers in Sardis could easily get this picture just like the soldiers who stole into your city and took away your freedom. I'm going to slip in unaware and take away your testimony and since you have no need of the spirit and your complacency whom you ignore anyway your church will no longer have the presence and vitality of the spirit. You might hold services.

You might hand out bulletins. You might shake hands. You might listen to a sermon and sing some songs and hymns but you the famous church in Sardis will be pronounced irretrievably and permanently dead with no spiritual fruit or testimony. Now I will tell you this because I certainly wanted to know the fact that a godly man named Melito would serve as Bishop of Sardis 100 years up to 100 years after the reception of this letter is great news. An indication that there was revival and a return to the scriptures. In fact, it is Melito who wrote a defense of Christianity and sent it to the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It's also interesting to me that Melito wrote on the literal millennial reign of Jesus Christ. It's as if they all got captured once again in serving and defending the truth of Christianity and they were longing for his coming.

Now as our Lord's letter writing custom he offers some incentives to the church that has been trying. Those among them that are trying to live for Christ and will most likely heed his warnings. He refers to them in verse four as those few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments. Verse four, the middle part, they'll walk with me in white for they are worthy.

This is the second incentive, the promise of personal victory over the evil one. You see to the people in Sardis they immediately understood the white clothing to the victory celebration. Whenever Roman armies would return victorious from battle, all of the citizens as was their custom came out to celebrate in white clothing.

The city in fact was referred to in that victory moment as herbs candida. Literally the city is in white. Perhaps this to their minds immediately would recall the victory celebration over the enemy and this is why the believers are pictured wearing white garments and even riding what color horses?

White horses. When we return with Christ to battle the great enemy, we're fighting from the vantage point of victory. Revelation 19, 13, we are already wearing white and must that not be irritating and infuriating to the enemy to see us coming already, celebrating, wearing white and riding white horses. It is a demonstration of our victory in Christ.

Third, there is the personal security we have throughout eternity. Look at verse five, the middle part, I will never blot his name out of the book of life. Some argue that the mere mention of blotting someone's name out of the book of life means that God might do it or would do it. That isn't what the text is saying.

This is not a threat. This to them is a promise. In other words, the believer has no need to fear that some day in eternity somehow he will wake up to find that God has changed his mind and the eternal security of the believer is erased. To those in Sardis, perhaps they would more easily understand simply because the city had a register where everyone's name was listed and when that person died, their name was erased. The believer never has to fear after death that somehow his name will be removed from the ledger of heaven. It never will be. In fact, our names are written in the Lamb's book of life by the sovereign Lord before the foundation of the world was created.

It will never be erased. That's a promise. So we have the promise of personal companionship and personal victory and personal security and finally one more, a personal introduction to the court of heaven. I'm not going to wipe your name off the books ever, Christ says, but what I'm going to do, verse five, is confess your name before my father and before his angels.

Imagine that. I am going to introduce you, believer, personally to God the Father and to the hosts of heaven. Now let me provide some closing warnings from observing a church slipping into a spiritual coma. Number one, it's possible to have the appearances of spiritual life without the reality of spiritual life. If the Spirit of God no longer empowered you individually and disassembly, what could we do in our own personal lives? Could you face tomorrow? Would you want to? Would we as a church want to take one step?

Would we want to go one day without him? It's possible to perform for God without being transformed by God. To have that form of godliness without the power, the reforming power of God. Third, it's possible to regain spiritual consciousness and revive to a ministry of spiritual vitality.

In other words, it's possible to avoid the loss of a church's testimony and the death of a ministry and come back to life not only as a church but as believers. How? By repenting. God stops the clock from swinging and the whispering of the enemy to sleep on. Just enjoy peace.

No problems. No battles. No trials. No triumphs.

But we won't talk about that. Just settle back. Friends don't ever get caught learning the hymn, the saints go sleeping one by one. Wake up and remember and strengthen and repent and obey. I hope this time in God's word has helped you today. I also hope that you'll apply the truth that you've heard to your life.

This is wisdom for the heart. Your Bible teacher is Stephen Davey. Stephen is the president of Wisdom International. His passion is to help you walk wisely through life. That's why we produce this daily program as well as Stephen's second daily program called the Wisdom Journey. You can listen to past lessons from both of those teaching series on our website. You'll find us online at wisdomonline.org. Join us next time for more wisdom for the heart. We'll see you next time.