What The Bible Say About The Dead Church

The "dead" church

The church at Sardis was described as being “dead” (3:1). It appeared to be alive – had “a reputation of being alive” – looked spiritually vibrant on the outside – but was spiritually lifeless. The church was Christian in name only. This recalls Christ’s scathing rebuke of the Pharisees who “look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” ( Matthew 23:27 ).

In Mount Gerizim, some are poor and want to be rich. Some cannot pay their rent and want to be able to do so. Some cannot pay their school-fees and are looking for ways and means to do so. Some don’t have cars and want to buy them. Some don’t have houses and desire to build them. Some are single and want to get married. Some are barren and want to have children. Some are unemployed and want to have jobs. Some are of a low estate and want to be promoted.
The church preaches a gospel that promises that the poor would become rich; the unmarried would get married; the barren would have children; and the jobless would get jobs. But their gospel does not tell the poor how to deal with poverty; it does not tell the unmarried how to deal with being single; it does not tell the barren how to deal with barrenness; and it does not tell the unemployed how to deal with joblessness.
For this reason, most members of Mount Gerizim are frustrated. In the church by the law of averages certain people succeed in business every year. Certain people buy cars every year. Certain people build houses every year. But for every person who builds a house, thousands more are homeless. For every person who buys a car, thousands more take the bus.
The situation is compounded because God’s providence ensures that some of the rich in the church become poor, some of the married get divorced, some of the parents lose their children, and some of the employed lose their jobs.
Therefore, the gospel preached in the church becomes a lie. When Job lost his job, the pastor told him it must be the result of his unrighteousness. The rumour went round that Job must have been keeping a mistress. When robbers attacked his trucking company, they said he must not have been paying his tithe. When Job’s seven children died in the Tsunami disaster, they said it must be because of his sins.

When a church is dead, it means we believers are dead spiritual. We keep on accommodating sin.

We always want new members in our churches but none are been called to repentance.