What if Jesus wrote your church a letter outlining the key areas of failure and key areas of success? Well, indirectly He has. In the book of Revelation we find the record of seven letters Jesus wrote to His churches. God has preserved these letters to teach 21st century churches to not fall into the same traps that the 1st century churches did.
There was a church in Sardis and Jesus had a bone to pick with them (Revelation 3:1-6). They were good at starting things but weren’t good at persevering in those works and completing them (:2). They were falling asleep on the job and Jesus shouts at them to wake up. His challenge to them is to remember what they were taught and obey it (:3). He warns them that if they don’t get their act together then He will come to them in judgment.
Not everyone in the church at Sardis was like this (:4) but many were and Jesus was not happy with them.
Are we like this? Are we all excited and involved at the beginning of something and somehow absent and distracted as the newness wears off. Yes we are and we need to repent of such a lack of perseverance. This isn’t the final judgment that Jesus warns about but it is a judgment and we need to heed the warning.
Would Jesus write this to our church?
