by Steven Chan
3 July 2011
It is probably shocking to some of us to read that there is such a situation where a church can be described as being dead! But such was the case with the church at Sardis as recorded in Rev 3:1-3:
”To the church at Sardis, the Lord warned thus: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.”
It is a terrible indictment by the Lord that the church at Sardis had a name that it is alive but in God’s sight it is dead! A Dead Church! Can this be said of churches today? That the church has a name that it is alive but in God’s sight it is dead.
How is that possible? According to the Lord, the church there had failed to “strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die”. The church at Sardis is described as failing to strengthen whatever is remaining in that church which are in fact in the process of also dying.
