Have you ever watched the show "The Walking Dead"? If not, don’t watch it for my sake. It’s not for everyone, and it is certainly in the horror genre of shows – but as a die-hard comic book fan I feel it’s my duty to watch it. Zombies have certainly made a cultural impact lately. I’m not sure what the appeal is or why it seems like the rage, but a rage it is nonetheless. The premise of the show is that a mysterious virus has infected the earth and re-animated corpses – so that dead people walk around and seek to devour living humans. Oddly…Jesus sort of makes that kind of picture for us in the text we’ll be reading this Sunday, albeit, he’s speaking spiritually.

We’ll be continuing our study of Revelation, reading all of chapter 3 and finishing up the letters to the seven churches.

Jesus’ complaint against the church in Sardis was that they had the reputation for being alive…but they were the walking dead.

What sorts of things can you think of that would give a church a name for being alive and vibrant yet spiritually disconnected? How can we as the church and as the people who make up the church avoid such snares in our own communities and spiritual pursuits? As we read this letter, what do we discern that Jesus is expecting from the church in the last days?

The church of Philadelphia receives no correction – just encouragement to hold on even though they little influence (strength). Jesus promises vindication for them – but how does he envision that vindication coming about?

The church of Laodicea receives what is probably the most recognized rebuke. Being neither hot or cold, their lukewarm condition elicits the threat of being spit out. It’s harsh, right? They claim to be rich and needing nothing, but Christ sees them as poor, naked and blind. In what ways can we start drifting into a sense of self-sufficiency? How would we correlate Jesus’ offer of pure gold, white clothes and eye medicine with what he offers us in a redeemed life?

We’ll cover the promises made to the faithful on this study – but they are very encouraging to me. Hope you think so too!