WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHURCH IS DYING (6 OF 8)
by Drew Hunter
Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6
This content is part of a series.
What to Do If Your Church Is Dying (6 of 8)
Series: Seven Challenges Facing Every Church
Drew Hunter
Revelation 3:1-6
We're in the middle of sermon series considering seven challenges every church faces.
In the New Testament, we have Paul's messages to churches. We have Peter's messages to churches. We have James' message to a church. And here in Revelation 2-3, we have Jesus' messages to churches. All is God's word, but this is unique.
At the end of each message, he showed us that he didn't intend for those messages to be only for those individual churches. Each message is for all the churches to learn from.
Jesus Gives Hard Words and Hopeful Words
And Jesus's words are hard words hear-especially this message to Sardis.
So, before we look more closely, I want to give a note ahead of time.
Jesus is like a spiritual doctor in this text. He's diagnosing the church. And then he hurts the church with his words, but only to heal them. He calls his church to enter into a time of introspection; he wants them to see what he sees about the church; it is not alive; it is almost dead. But introspection is never the goal. We look inward at our lives and church in order to look out at Christ again and walk forward with fresh faith.
He gives warnings to his churches; and he also gives great promises.
I say this because with texts like these, there is a danger in treading on a tender conscience. Maybe you hear Jesus' words to these churches and you think-wow, I think I have all these problems. I'm guilty of everything Jesus is saying. And I'm scared about the warnings at the end of the texts.
And if that's you, I want to remind you of one main observation about all of these messages: Jesus doesn't assume that every church, or every Christian, is guilty of everything he addresses here. Every challenge he addresses is a real challenge for every church and every Christian. But that doesn't mean that every church or Christian is already guil ...
Series: Seven Challenges Facing Every Church
Drew Hunter
Revelation 3:1-6
We're in the middle of sermon series considering seven challenges every church faces.
In the New Testament, we have Paul's messages to churches. We have Peter's messages to churches. We have James' message to a church. And here in Revelation 2-3, we have Jesus' messages to churches. All is God's word, but this is unique.
At the end of each message, he showed us that he didn't intend for those messages to be only for those individual churches. Each message is for all the churches to learn from.
Jesus Gives Hard Words and Hopeful Words
And Jesus's words are hard words hear-especially this message to Sardis.
So, before we look more closely, I want to give a note ahead of time.
Jesus is like a spiritual doctor in this text. He's diagnosing the church. And then he hurts the church with his words, but only to heal them. He calls his church to enter into a time of introspection; he wants them to see what he sees about the church; it is not alive; it is almost dead. But introspection is never the goal. We look inward at our lives and church in order to look out at Christ again and walk forward with fresh faith.
He gives warnings to his churches; and he also gives great promises.
I say this because with texts like these, there is a danger in treading on a tender conscience. Maybe you hear Jesus' words to these churches and you think-wow, I think I have all these problems. I'm guilty of everything Jesus is saying. And I'm scared about the warnings at the end of the texts.
And if that's you, I want to remind you of one main observation about all of these messages: Jesus doesn't assume that every church, or every Christian, is guilty of everything he addresses here. Every challenge he addresses is a real challenge for every church and every Christian. But that doesn't mean that every church or Christian is already guil ...
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