Spiritual Resurrection – Awakening the Dying Church
1. Spiritual CPR
Revelation 3:1
“Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 CSB
1 But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.
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2. Wake Up
Revelation 3:2-3
2 “Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. 3 “Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.
1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 CSB
5 For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. 6 So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled.
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3. Be Faithful
Revelation 3:4-6 CSB – 4 “But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy. 5 “In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
Daniel 12:1:
“Everyone found written in the book will be rescued.”
Revelation 21:27
Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.
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Community Life Group Questions
1. What does it mean for a church to have a “reputation for being alive, but be dead”? Can you identify any signs of this in the modern church? Revelation 3:1
2.How do the characteristics listed in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (lovers of self, money, pleasure, etc.) contribute to a church’s spiritual death?
3.Revelation 3:3 mentions “remembering what you have received and heard.” What are the core truths of the Gospel that we, as believers, need to constantly remember and hold on to?
4.The passage says the faithful in Sardis are “worthy.” What does this worthiness refer to? Is it a worthiness we earn, or is it a result of our faithfulness to Christ? Revelation 3:4
5. Daniel 12:1 speaks of being “written in the book.” What is this book, and why is it so important to be found in it?
How can we pray for you?