Teaching Elder Duke Shelley of Black Forest Chapel continues a series on Revelation. Part 13 explores further the letter to the Church at Sardis.

1. To the Church in Sardis
Revelation 3:1-6

2. • “But what about this one…a dead church? That has
to be the ultimate oxymoron—the greatest of all
contradictions. How can you have a dead church?
How can a congregation be dead if the living Lord
indwells it? You would think this would be
impossible. Sadly, it’s not. Many churches are
dead! Their sanctuary is a morgue with a steeple.
They are congregations of corpses. They have
undertakers for ushers, embalmers for elders,
morticians for ministers, and the pastor graduated
from the cemetery. Such churches lost vital signs
years ago.” (Keith Krell)

3. • (1a) To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He
who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven
stars says this.

5. • (1a) To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He
who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven
stars says this.
• Isaiah 11:2 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.

6. • (1b) I know your works, that you have a name that
you are alive, but you are dead.

7. • Matthew 23:27-28 "Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear
beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's
bones and all uncleanness. (28) "So
you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but
inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

8. • When it begins to worship its own past or history,
its reputation or name, or the names in the church.

9. • When it begins to worship its own past or history,
its reputation or name, or the names in the church.
• When it is more concerned with liturgical forms
than with function and life.

10. • When it begins to worship its own past or
history, its reputation or name, or the names in the
church.
• When it is more concerned with liturgical forms
than with function and life.
• When it is more concerned with numbers and
noses, than with the spiritual quality of life it is
producing in its people.

11. • When it is more concerned about finances than
ministry.

12. • When it is more concerned about finances than
ministry.
• When it is more concerned with social issues than
seeing people saved.

13. • When it is more concerned about finances than
ministry.
• When it is more concerned with social issues than
seeing people saved.
• When it is more concerned with being
“comfortable” than taking the Gospel to their
“Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even
to the remotest part of the earth.”

14. • When it is more concerned with what men think
than what God says.

15. • When it is more concerned with what men think
than what God says.
• When it no longer believes the Bible is the Word of
God.

16. • (2) '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.

17. • Ephesians 5:14 For this reason it says, "Awake,
sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will
shine on you.“

18. • Ephesians 5:14 For this reason it says, "Awake,
sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will
shine on you.“
• strengthen is sterizo

19. • (3) '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.

20. • (4) '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.

21. • (4) '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.
• Revelation 19:8 It was given to her to clothe
herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine
linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

22. • (5) '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. (6) 'He who has
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.'

23. • (5) '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. (6) 'He who has
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.'
• Revelation 16:15 ("Behold, I am coming like a thief.
Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his
clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and
men will not see his shame.")

24. • Hebrews 10:26-38 For if we go on sinning willfully
after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there
no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a
terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY
OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE
ADVERSARIES…(29) How much severer
punishment do you think he will deserve who has
trampled under foot the Son of God, and has
regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by
which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit
of grace?...

25. • (35) Therefore, do not throw away your
confidence, which has a great reward. (36) For
you have need of endurance, so that when you
have done the will of God, you may receive what
was promised. (37) FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE
WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND
WILL NOT DELAY. (38) BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE
SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK,
MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.

26. • John 10:27-29 "My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow Me; (28) and I give
eternal life to them, and they will never perish;
and no one will snatch them out of My hand. (29)
"My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater
than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of
the Father's hand.

27. • “No Christian will have his name blotted from that
book. His eternal identity rests on the fact that he
is an individual whose name is written in heaven.”
(Keith Krell)

28. • Luke 10:20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this,
that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that
your names are recorded in heaven."

29. • “Practically every city of that day kept a role or
register of its citizens…one who had performed
some great exploit, deserving of special
distinction, was honoured by having his name
inscribed in golden letters in the citizens’ roll. Our
Lord’s emphatic statement, therefore, implies not
merely that the name of the overcomer shall not
be expunged, but per contra that it shall be
inscribed in golden letters in the heavenly roll.”
(Fredk Tatford)

30. • Matthew 10:32 "Therefore everyone who
confesses Me before men, I will also confess him
before My Father who is in heaven.