Spirit-filled or Spiritless?
Notes
Transcript
In January of 2020, the Houston Chronicle newspaper published an article on the riches cities in Texas. In this article they listed the richest cities by median income, population, and unemployment rate. Would anybody care to guess which city was ranked the wealthiest city in Texas was in 2020? The answer is Terrell Hills.
Terrell Hills is northeast of downtown San Antonio and boasts a population of about 5,300. The median income was reported as $175,913, and the unemployment rate was 1.2 percent. This is a very affluent area. Compare that to Three Rivers where the median income is $38,000. Terrell Hills took the #1 spot not because they had the highest median income, but because they had a combination of high median income, the lowest unemployment rate, and low population, so their per capita income was very high.
As we continue our tour of the seven churches in Asia Minor, which is now modern day Turkey, we are making our fifth stop in the city of Sardis. So if you have your Bible, turn with me over to Revelation chapter three. Sardis even further inland than Thyatira, and Sardis was the richest city of the seven and perhaps one of the richest in the Roman empire. It was the hub of a network of Roman highways bringing a ton of commerce to the city. In ancient times, the city was blessed with an abundance of gold found in the river nearby. This place had wealth but the church in Sardis was not free of trouble.
So let’s pick up in verse one of chapter three and see what the Lord has to say to the church in Sardis:
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
‘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.
‘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.
‘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.
‘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.
‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The Lord introduces himself in a peculiar manner here as the one who has the seven spirits of God. Now there is one Holy Spirit so we should not confuse these seven spirits as seven Holy Spirits. Further into Revelation, the seven Spirits of God are described as seven burning lamps (Rev. 4:5) and as seven eyes (Rev. 5:6). There are some who suggest that this is a symbolic representation of the Holy Spirit while understanding the number seven often represents the idea of perfection or completeness and that may be the case. Some have suggested that the seven spirits are angelic beings, but it seems difficult to suggest how that works with the other imagery presented. But Isaiah 11:2 may help shed some light on this.
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
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.
Isaiah chapter 10 speaks of the remnant of Israel that will return to the land and in chapter 11, we see that there is one who will come up from the roots of Jesse, the father of king David. This ties into the promise God made to David that one of his descendants will sit on the throne of Israel forever. We believe that Messiah has come and he is Jesus Christ. This person will have seven “spirits.” Look at what he will have: The Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of strength, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord. There is one Spirit of God and through Him we gain a spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, strength, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. Revelation 3:1 says that Jesus has these things. He is the owner of and giver of the Spirit which has a sevenfold ministry.
The seven stars according to Revelation 1:20 are the seven angels in which the letters are addressed to, which are the leaders of the respective churches.
Like we have seen in just about every letter, Jesus knows their deeds. There is nothing that escapes his notice. They have a name that they are alive, but they are dead. Jesus is saying, “Hey, I know that you have a reputation for being alive, but the bad news is you are dead. On the outside, things are going. Things are moving. The lights are on, there are events on the calendar, but that does not mean that there is life in the church.
Church, I want you to understand something:
It is entirely possible to do church absent of the Holy Spirit.
It is entirely possible to do church absent of the Holy Spirit.
The church in Sardis had a reputation for being alive, but the reality is that they were dead. Now we have to remember that the church in the first century did not gather like we do today. The church largely existed in house churches, so you might have one or several houses where the church would meet on a regular basis. A church that appears alive but is actually dead has movement. There are people coming and going. There are ministries taking place, the Bible is being taught, needs are being met, but there doesn’t appear to be much life there. When you enter the room, you don’t feel life, excitement, enthusiasm, a sense of purpose and mission. Rather, you feel like a part of a machine that constantly turns, but doesn’t seem to go anywhere. The programming wheel continues to turn, but seems to become less effective. A church that appears to be alive but is actually dead does the same thing over and over again, never achieving the results they expect to see.
We do church absent of the Holy Spirit when we stop listening to the Holy Spirit and think we can run the church in our own power, with our own wisdom, our own knowledge, our own counsel. When we let our dependency on the Lord slip and stop seeking the Lord’s guidance, when we think we have it all figured out, we have made a grave error and ave moved from spirit-filled to spiritless.
It is entirely possible to do church absent of the Holy Spirit. The church must be careful to maintain spiritual disciplines. Only through taking the time to cultivate our relationship with the Lord do we position ourselves to hear what he has to say and receive his guidance. It would seem that the church in Sardis may have forgotten that. The wealth they accumulated may have attributed to a level of comfort that lessened their dependency on the Lord, leading to complacency.
But Jesus still has a command for them. Wake up.
The church must evaluate effectiveness based not on reputation, but on reality.
The church must evaluate effectiveness based not on reputation, but on reality.
The reality for the church in Sardis is that they had fallen asleep on the job. The words wake up are two Greek verbs. The first is a word that means to become. The second is to be on the alert. They are both called imperatives. This means they are commands. Jesus is saying to them to become alert, to pay attention to reality. Jesus tells them to wake up and strengthen what remains because their work has not been completed in the eyes of God. There was still work to do in Sardis and if the church woke up and realized they had fallen asleep, they would see that there is still work to do.
Notice that while Jesus shows that the church is dead, they are not helpless. there are things that remain that are not dead and he calls on the church to strengthen those things that remain. Though the church is not where they thought they were, there is hope. To strengthen what remains requires the church to evaluate what they have. Then given what they have, they look for opportunity. Now, I wish that a worldwide pandemic had not occured, but since it did occur, there was an opportunity for everyone to evaluate what was important. There were many things we could not do, but there were many things we could do if we evaluated what is and looked for opportunities for what could be.
The Lord has blessed First Baptist Church of Three Rivers. When you walked through your transition in leadership, the Lord put the right men in place to help you. Mitch Kolenovsky helped you organize a pastor search committee and helped guide you in the way you should go. Robert Penley was your interim pastor and charged you to pray for your incoming pastor before you ever had a name. The Lord helped you evaluate programs and practices before I arrived and prepared you for the direction He would have us go before I ever sat at the dinner table in the Coquat’s house as a candidate. The strengthening of that which remained began before October. I can see right now how God has orchestrated things to prepare you to receive me and how he prepared us to receive you. The work of First Baptist Church is not done yet. You were honest about where you were and you were optimistic about what the Lord can do. Since October, I have seen a church, though small, come together to do big things. Easter was a wonderful picture of the things we can do if we all work together to achieve the mission of God.
We can remain a Spirit-filled people when we cling to the truth.
We can remain a Spirit-filled people when we cling to the truth.
Jesus commands the church in Sardis to remember what they have received and heard, to keep it and repent. What is it that they have received and heard but the gospel of Jesus Christ? I don’t know exactly how the gospel got to Sardis, but it is evident that faithful witnesses lived out the great commission and made disciples in Sardis, baptized them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and taught them to follow all of what Jesus commanded. The call is to keep it, that is to observe and follow what the Word of God says.
But there is a warning here: if the church chooses not to wake up, Jesus will come like a thief in the night. That is to say, that if the church is not going to do what Jesus wants them to do, he will remove their gospel witness. The church, absent of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, will not be effective where they have been planted.
But praise God that there were those among you that have not soiled their garments. You have held fast. You have not compromised. You have done well with what you have been given. You have held the line. There are more than a few faithful in the church today and we should praise God for that. Thank you for being a church body that has remained faithful to this day.
Those who overcome will be clothed in white garments and their name will not b erased from the book of life. Not that your name can be erased once written down, but this s a promise that your name will never be erased. And He will confess your name before the Father. In other words, he’s got your back. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
APPLICATION
Is your name written in the lamb’s book of life?
Praise the Lord for the blessings he has poured out on First Baptist Church and for sustaining us this far.
Where have you grown too comfortable? Has that comfort stood in the way of the mission? How can you get uncomfortable this week?
Are you Spirit-filled, or Spiritless?