What kind of church is being built in the world today? One need only to look at chapters two and three of Revelation to see that the kind of church being built, is in the hands of those in leadership and laity, in each assembly.
To be truthful, we must remember that God’s design for His church is the same, fellowship to the fellowship. Yes, there can be colloquial differences, ethnic differences and language differences, but each fellowship is to be growing towards maturity in Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16).
When considering kind of church, who would want to be in a DEAD church?
Many would categorize a dead church as having boring music, little social activity, few programs, or milk toast preaching. To follow that line of thinking would imply that a living church is full of program, in the way of cool music, atmosphere, hip preaching and cool connective activities.
In this diagnostic, we can see the flaw of improper judgment. as activity does not always indicate life. Consider for a moment a person who has died of a heart attack, one hour earlier. Once at the hospital, a doctor may attempt to revive he who has died by using a automated external defibrillator.
Even if the body is dead for an hour, shocking it with electric current makes the body move, and if you hold the paddles on the body for a time, it would appear there is life, even though it’s just a dead body being moved by electricity.
Our Lord Jesus warned the pharisees, lawyers and religious of His day, that they were individuals, who thought they were alive but were actually dead.
Matthew 23:27-28 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
These people believe themselves to be righteous, by their adherence to their own theological norms and practice, which added to the Bible doctrine and theology; and eventually superseded it. Jesus declares to them not so fast… you are like nicely painted tombs, looking beautiful and good, but still filled with death on the inside.
To them the word “tomb” meant, an above ground sepulcher, like the picture on the side. In many places in our time, this is the case as well. These sepulchers were used for common people and as you can see are uninformedly white. The reason was to point toward their being with God, clothed in righteousness.
For those more well off the sepulchers were much more fancy, as seen below.
The point, Jesus was making, was that the apparent righteousness of the religious leaders of His day, was only makeup on a structure holding the decay of death, with no ability to give God’s life to a soul.
This meant they pretended to love God and follow His word, yet were lawless or disobedient to God’s moral law.
Our LORD Jesus’ point was that no matter how reverent, holy, or prettied up the religious leaders pretended to be, they would never be able to give God’s life to others, because they were spiritually dead. Although they appeared to be righteous and set apart to God, they were merely pretenders, either knowingly or unknowingly.
The religious leaders were…
- hypocrites, acting to be followers of God
- The played at outward devotion like tithing, praying and fasting; but it was only a for a show, to impress others.
- They exercised no love, justice, mercy, or faith.
- Although they looked as if they had the key to God’s live, they were empty wells, with no river of living water to even entice another soul to God’s love, in Christ.
Most Christians would not see the warning in this for themselves, but I assure you there is a warning. Christians can be accountable for the very same sin. Consider a few passages.
John 7:37-39 37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Let us not miss Christ’s point… It is His intention that each Christian, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit of God overflow our inner life, to be experienced by others. To say it another way, we are to have the Holy Spirit overflowing our life, with God’s life, for others to desire God’s life giving water.
It is possible for Christians to fall short of this consistently, or to never experience the fulness of the Holy Spirit at all. For the follower of Christ, both are untenable situations.
Ephesians 5:15-21 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
The complete translation is “be being filled with the Holy Spirit”. This means continuously. Is it possible to stray so far from Christ, while thinking we are close to Him, to where we are devoid of the life of God, in His Spirit? Yes.
We need only to look at the church of Ephesus or Laodicea, in Revelation 2 and 3, to see this danger. Yet, there was another church in Revelation 3, which was an actual lovely mausoleum, which may aid in our understanding even more.
Revelation 3:1-3 1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.
Before we break down this passage, it is imperative we acknowledge how church-like a mausoleum looks like a modern church building. It really is uncanny. Behind the house I live in, is a cemetery, and in that cemetery, there are two huge mausoleums, which are beautiful and reverent looking, but still only filled with the bones of the dead.
That said , our LORD Jesus states “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive…“. To translate this into modern speak, Jesus is saying “I know your works, that you have a name and that has convinced you that you are alive”. It would seem that because they had a unique Christian name associated with their fellowship, they believed they were a church alive in Jesus Christ.
This shouldn’t shock us, who have been formed in the church in America. In the United States, there are two things, which fellowships believe they need, in order to be an actual church: a building and a really good name. This may seem silly but it is true.
When it comes to a building, let me ask how many house churches there are in the United States, as opposed to church buildings. We are so focused on the spaces we worship in, that we make silly statements, like “I’m going to church” and that almost exclusively means a building.
This thinking is entirely unbiblical, for the church of Jesus Christ is not a building or worship space we meet in. The church is living stones, you and me, being placed next to other living stones (Ephesians 2:19-22; I Peter 2:1-10).
American Christians are also obsessed with choosing the correct name. Consider some of these names and how they are really marketing realities more than character definition…
- Velocity Church
- Little Hope Baptist
- Church by the Side of the Road
- Church of the Living Bread
- Cowboy Church
- 1st (insert your favorite denomination)
- Scum of the Earth Church
- Elevation Church
- Transformation Church
An article I found on church planting declares that naming a church is the most public and consequential decision a church planter will ever make. I find this kind of thinking so unbiblical and unnecessary.
In this logic we see the Church of Sardis, as not being far from our own obsession. Like the thinking that if there is activity it signals a living church, so Sardis believed that because they had a Christian name they were alive.
How wrong they were for they had little work of the Spirit that was maturing the body of Christ, ““I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. They were dead as Jesus declared “for I have not found your works perfect before God“.
Therefore, the Church of Sardis was a lovely mausoleum to those inside and outside, as it lacked progressive sanctification and the ability to give life.
Despite is dead nature, there were a few souls, who were alive, but being crushed by the deadness of the majority of the Church. Therefore the LORD instructs the messenger of the Church to “strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die“.
The Church in America, as a whole, and this is a broad brush stroke, is very much like Sardis. The Church in the U.S. is very immature in our needed sanctification, because we lack he fullness of the Holy Spirit. Without this sanctification, which comes from obedience, and brings the reception of the Fulness of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32), we are in a precarious and perilous position.
Which brings us back to the core of the what makes a church, a fellowship of Christians, a life giving entity; that of being filled with the Holy Spirit…
John 7:37-39 37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Let us leave behind distinctive doctrine on how we are filled with the Holy Spirit, for another discussion and focus on the results of being a Spirit filled person. The Spirit filled person, has the Holy Spirit, as a river of grace, love and power, flowing from them, to the other living stones and those who live in the world; a world which is a desert of sin.
Our greatest decision is not the name of our church, but are we going to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into fullness, which takes our meager lives and makes them meaningful to those around us.
This is accomplished because we are not only those from which the Living Water is supposed to flow, but also fruit bearing trees, which they are to sample and tase and see that the LORD is good.
Psalms 1:1-3 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
This jibes well with the imagery in Revelation 22, which speaks of our proximity to God, and our fruitfulness to heal the nations.
Revelation 22:1-2 1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
The Church in America needs to take stock inwardly, as to if we have life, or think we have life because of we have a name or a flurry of activity; but are actually devoid of life.
Our greatest decision is to deny the desire for name recognition or marketing, that we can embrace sanctification and discipleship, leading to effective gospel ministry among the lost.
That decision will mean the difference between death and our being those who give the life of Christ to a dying world. Sooner or later, the LORD will judge us as He did Sardis.
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