Ep 488 – Revelation 3:1-6

Spiritual deadness. What does that look like? It doesn’t sound too appealing though, does it? And when Jesus Christ accuses you of being spiritually dead, it’s not exactly a complement. But that’s exactly what the congregation in Sardis heard Jesus say about them. They had a reputation for being alive, but were really dead in the water spiritually. They were like a lifeless cadaver, painted up to look alive and well, and good enough to impress everybody but Jesus Himself. He saw through their hypocrisy. And He called them out for it. It wasn’t that the whole church was spiritually dead and without new life in Christ, but they had allowed the walking dead in their midst to have a negative influence on their congregation. And Jesus was particularly put out with the leadership in the church. They were responsible for the health and well-being of the church. But they had let their guard down and the unbelievers in. But while these lost individuals were giving the impression that they were saved, they were actually having a deadly influence on the health of the church. In Revelation 3:1-6, Jesus addresses the congregation in Sardis, providing the rest of us with some powerful warnings about spiritual complacency and the danger of moral infection from the presence of unbelievers masquerading as believers. Fake Christians can do some serious damage to a local fellowship, creating an atmosphere that wreaks of spiritual death and lulling the church into a state of spiritual stupor. Which is why Jesus says, yet again, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”