THE DEAD CHURCH
Revelation 3:1, ““And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”

Jesus Christ described one of the 7 churches here as a dead church. Even though they still claim to be a church of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, and may be growing in population and physically expanding, but spiritually they are dead church. To be dead means there was life before it was lost of given up. A dead church means it was alive and living before, but along the way it becomes dead. Jesus Christ, the Lord and Master of the church described the church of Sardis as a dead church.

When a church is born and established by the power of Holy Spirit in salvation and transformation of life and the members are regenerated and living in the newness of life, that is the beginning of a living church, starting in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit.

The priority of a living church is salvation of souls, righteousness and love of God and turning people from the kingdom of darkness to the light of Jesus Christ. The Sardis church was walking in the Spirit, preaching life given messages that established people in the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit. But along the way this church grew into complacency and turned into something else.

Dead Church
Jesus Christ said to the Sardis Church, “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” That is the sign of a dead church, a dead ministry or a dead minister, pursue after a name, making a name in the world. One of the focuses of dead church or dead minister is how to make a name in the world and not in heaven, how to become popular, how to become known to the world, how to have more members and more population. If the focus of your church is making name, your church is a dead church. If the focus or purpose of your ministry is to make a name, to make a population or popularity, then your ministry is a dead ministry. If your purpose as a minister of the gospel is to be trending and become a popular name, you are spiritually dead.

“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” This church still boasts of their beginning and yesterday’s glory, they still claim the name of the past, their pastors and members still rely on their past lively history but at the present they are dead. Let me tell you something, a spiritual dead church is not a church that closes down physically. A spiritually dead church will still be bumbling and growing physically, a spiritually dead church will still be making names, expanding and building more churches and branches; in fact a spiritually dead church can still be witnessing miracles, prosperity and popularity and more members every day. What made Jesus declared Sardis church dead was not because the church closed down physically or fold up, it was not because the church was not increasing in population or because the church was not making more money.

What Makes A Church DEAD?
What makes a church dead is when the church becomes worldly, when the church begins to conform with the world instead of conforming with the nature of Christ, when she cares for the things of the world than heavenly thing, then she is dead, when she focusses on physical growth than spiritual growth, she is dead. When she centers her attention on making names all over the world than making name in heaven, she is a dead church. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5:6, “But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives” though she is still living physically, she is still increasing branches and running different special programs but she is spiritually dead.

When a church begins to compromise God’s word to please the people of the world, that church is a dead church. When a church allows worldly dressings, different satanic makeup, that church is dead. When a church begins to give special honor to the rich members and ordaining them as ministers, that church is spiritually dead. When a church ordains ministers by their finances or level of education instead of their calling, that church is spiritually dead. A church that focusses more on physical building project than building people is a complete dead church. A church that spends more on building new and more auditoriums than providing for the needs of her members is a dead church. A church that invites comedians for her program is a dead church. A church that has millions or billions in her bank account and yet members are suffering in poverty is a dead church. A church whose General Overseer is flying with private jet without a free primary school or a primary healthcare is a complete dead church.

Listen to me, a church that has private primary school, secondary school or university and an average members of the same church cannot afford the school fees is a dead and satanic church. When your Federal Government is subsidizing their universities with tax money but your church is using tithe money to subsidize your daddy G.O’s private jet’s fuel, it simply means your church is a dead church. A church that runs expensive private school more than Federal Government school is a dead church.

Listen to me, when your church preaches more about prosperity than purity of heart, your church is a confirmed dead church. When your church prays “fall down and die prayers” and prays more that the witches in your family should die than it prays that the sinners in your family should be saves, your church is a dead church. When your church uses offerings to measure seriousness of members, it shows that your church is a dead church. When your church talks about grace without godliness, your church is a dead church. When your church preaches and prays more about financial breakthrough, blessings than fruit of the Spirit, it shows your church is a dead church. When your church cares more about sudden miracles than second coming of Jesus, your church is a dead church. A church that does not believe and teach restitution is a dead church. A church that care less about the rapture but repeatedly talk about robust harvest of abundance is a dead church. When your church emphasizes about praises without purity, giving without godliness, sowing seeds without sanctification, that your church is a living dead church. If your church emphasizes more about speaking in tongues than speaking the truth, your church is a dead church. A church that talks more about prophecy than the Holy Scripture is a living dead church.

Jesus Christ gave Himself for the church, “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” Ephesians 5:26, 27. But when a church is living in all uncleanness and worldliness and still continue to claim grace without work of righteousness, such a church is a dead church.

Many churches today are dead churches but they are still busy with different activities, boasting fire and thunder. But you need to know this, that in Christianity, it is not all about what you claim to be that really matters but what Jesus declare about you. A pastor or church can claim or even proof to Jesus that “We prophesied in Your name, we cast out demons in Your name, and we did so many signs and wonders in Your name” Yet, Jesus will declare to them, “I never knew you, depart from Me, you workers of iniquities.” That is in Matthew 7:22,23.

If you or your church is worldly and polluted with the things of this world, and yet you keep on speaking in tongues, doing miracles, prophesying and doing many wonders, as that is the focus and priority of many churches and ministers today, if your church continues to focus on physical expansion and you people continue building gigantic buildings here and there, Jesus will not deny that you do all that in His name but He will dash you to hell with all your claiming and blasting in tongue.

Run For Your Life!
If your church cannot change you, change your church. If your church cannot change you to become more like Jesus, don’t let your church change you to become like the world. If will be foolish for you to perish with your church in hell. Christian race is individual race, not collective responsibility. Because your church is doing it or allowing it does not make is right before God. Because your pastor’s wife or your bishop’s wife is wearing worldly dresses and makeup and down does not make it good, because your pastor is telling little lies and turning worldly, and committing sins, that will not make is right before God, and if you join your church’s worldly and sinful lifestyle, it only means you are going to perish with your church. That your daddy G.O is doing is will not justify it. That your GS is doing it will not make is right before God. God cannot change His standard of holiness because of your church’s compromise but you are the one who will run for your life.

Call To Repentance
A dead church can still be revived back to life, no matter how worst or how long they have gone with the world and Satan, all they need to do is to repent and turn back to God. Jesus called the dead church of Sardies to repent, and He is calling you into repentance also, He said, “Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” Revelation 3:3.

God is calling individuals into repentance, remember how you started with God when you first gave your life to Jesus Christ, remember your old love and simplicity and contentment, and also remember how you were carried away with strange doctrines and worldly ambitions, remember how you joined the modern worldly church and forfeited all your old time faith and virtues, remember how you fell away to permissiveness and perversion in your ministry and now center on prophesies and prosperity instead of preparation of the coming of Jesus Christ, remember how you changed your soul winning to churching winning. Repent today before it is too late.

Jesus is coming for a pure and blameless church, not a mansion-building church, not a 10-services in a Sunday church; pure church, not populated and polluted church. Repent and return to Bethel where you met Jesus, to your faith as old without compromise.

God bless you.

Gideon Akande
www.rtemoutreach.org