Today’s passage: Revelation 3:1-6
Helpful thoughts:
- Sardis as a city experienced two military defeats where the blame was placed on the failure of the watchmen to keep their eyes out. The church at Sardis was making the same mistake, so Jesus tells them to wake up.
- It is possible to have the reputation of being alive as a church but in truth be dead.
- To those in the visible church who are truly following Christ, His return is a joyful expectation full of reward and delight. To those in the visible church who are dead and not truly following Jesus, they are to hear the words, “you will not know at what hour I will come against you.”
Questions to consider:
- What are some things we might see a church doing that would make us consider it to be alive, even thriving, that are not actually things the Bible commands the church to do? Does that make all church activities not directly commanded in Scripture wrong? Are fun youth events, sewing groups, or basketball open gyms wrong?
- What do living healthy churches do that dead churches do not?
- In what ways are you participating in the things that make the church alive and healthy? How can you be a conqueror with the rest of Christ’s church today?