When The Church Becomes The Church Again

SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP SERVICE, 26 October 2025
Reformation Sunday
Sermon Text: Revelation 3:1-3
Main Points:
Introduction
I. Keep what we received and heard
II. And repent!
III. When the Church becomes the Church again!

Various recent studies report a steady decline in church attendance and a shrinking number of people in our societies identifying themselves as Christians. It sounds very much like the tide that the well-known 19th century poet Matthew Arnold described in his poem ‘Dover Beach’ – a tide that continues to withdraw towards its lowest point. Arnold wrote, “Listen! You hear the grating roar / Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling … The Sea of Faith / Was once … at the full … But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.”

Many of our own memories seem to agree with this picture of retreat. Throughout the 20th century, Sunday School classes or youth group gatherings were packed with young lives, and their parents had their own active fellowship groups. Sundays were the days of religion. How different things seem now. The withdrawing tide at Dover Beach seems to echo the tide along the beaches of Australia – and almost around the continents.

But is this truly a unique phenomenon of our time? Are we the generation that has failed to keep the church alive? Have we somehow lost the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ? I don’t believe that’s the case. In fact, few generations since Adam – since Noah and Abraham – could be said to have done any better.

In fact, Adam’s descendants have always been in rebellion, and only a few have bowed before God in worship. Even those few came to God only because God first visited them and called them to Himself. Those who had seen Adam and heard his testimony of the fall at the Garden of Eden were not slow to forsake their Creator; and those who had met the sons of Noah and heard from them the story of the flood were quick to forgot the sign of God’s covenant. Human history is, in essence, the history of rebels. God’s church has always been short of membership.

Then why, like Matthew Arnold the poet, do so many today hear this ‘withdrawing roar’? Why do we sense a shrinking of Christianity?

As members of the 21st-century Church, we need to grapple with questions like these – and there’s no better day to do it than today, on the 508th anniversary Sunday of the 16th century Reformation. To borrow the words of Matthew Arnold, October 31st, 1517, was the day the tide began to turn from its lowest point. Since then, that tide has been dramatically coming in, sweeping across the centuries and shaping the life of God’s Church.

But the questions I raised a moment ago ask whether, somehow, that tide has begun to ebb – quietly slipping away, almost out of sight. If that is the case, what could be causing such a disheartening pullback? I raise these questions because God calls us to see our failings and repent, just as v. 3 reminds us. It’s only when we honestly recognise what we’ve done wrong that we can turn back and allow God’s life-giving tide to fill His Church once again.

A hundred people might give a hundred different answers, but I’d point to one particular cause – the church’s attempt to reinvent itself according to secular culture. In other words, many churches have become ‘unchurched’; they have ‘de-churched’ themselves. They no longer look or sound like the church.

I’d like to consider this with you today through the words given to the church in Sardis. And we’ll go back to our sermon series on the book of Acts next week.

I. Keep What We Received And Heard

First, let’s think about what v. 3 means when it tells us to remember something and keep it. That ‘something’ is what the church in Sardis – one of the seven churches in Rev. chs. 2-3 – had received and heard. And what was that? Needless to say, it was the Word of God – the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what the church in Sardis had received and heard from the Lord. That’s what we have received and heard as well. So, we’re called to remember it and keep it.

Now, remembering is the easy part. Keeping it – that’s where the challenge begins. We know the Lord’s commandments, but living them out day by day is another story, isn’t it? Yet, the Lord calls us to take both seriously. As much as we know His Word, we are to live by it.

So, how do we keep it? The answer is simple – as much as we know it. As much as we’ve been taught, we follow. This is the classic Reformed principle, often expressed in words like these: ‘We must go as far as Scripture goes, and no further.’ Or, as John Calvin wrote in his Institutes: “We must not speak where the Lord has been silent.”

In the area of worship, this means we approach God only in the way He commands. So, we read and preach the Word; we pray and sing; we observe the sacraments the Lord has given – Baptism and the Lord’s Supper – and we give to God His tithes and our freewill offerings. We don’t invent new ceremonies or practices that Scripture doesn’t warrant.

In doctrine, we confess what Scripture clearly teaches – the Trinity, the incarnation, justification by faith, and so on. We refuse to build speculative or imaginative theories – whether that’s drawing fanciful maps of heaven, setting prophetic timelines for Christ’s return, or trying to blend biblical faith with modern theories like theistic evolution.

We also resist new trends that seek to reshape God’s Word – such as gender-neutralising the language of Scripture or redefining morality to suit cultural moods. When people tell us to ‘update’ the Bible to fit modern science, or to ‘reimagine’ faith in the name of progress – we say, No. We go as far as Scripture goes, and no further. God has spoken clearly, and our calling is not to add to or subtract from His Word, but to remember it and to keep it.

II. And Repent!

However, many Christians – and many churches – have drifted from this principle. Even some who call themselves Reformed and confessional have let it slip. Instead of holding fast to God’s Word, they’ve turned their gaze towards the culture of the day – chasing its fashions, its trends, even its illusions – rather than digging deeper into the riches of Scripture.

That, I believe, is one of the key reasons for the disheartening decline we see in the Church today. In a word, it’s the church’s attempt to reinvent itself according to the spirit of the age. Many churches have, in effect, ‘de-churched’ themselves – they no longer look or sound like the Church described in God’s Word.

What do I mean when I say that churches have ‘de-churched’ themselves? I mean that some churches have ceased to be recognisably the Church by abandoning or altering the gospel message – by treating Scripture as optional, outdated, or merely symbolic. In doing so, they have, in effect, rewritten the Bible. Redefining worship according to cultural taste is another form of the same thing.

The most recent example, as I see it – and as many other Reformed Christians also do – is the Church of England’s announcement of appointing a female as the head of the Church – that is, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This, too, signals a further shift away from the biblical teaching of church leadership. In short, churches today no longer look or sound like the Church described in the Bible.

The results are plain to see. The decline in church membership is not only immediate – it’s inevitable. When churches no longer look like churches, when what happens inside no longer feels like worship – true worship that gives ‘worth’ to God – people quickly lose interest in belonging – membership – let alone in gathering on Sundays. Churches cannot compete with social clubs or pubs for members. Why would anyone join a church that’s no different from the pub across the road? Perhaps they might visit three or four times, but not much more.

Repentance must take place, therefore. Churches must cease their attempts to ‘de-church’ themselves. They must turn from their wrongs and return to what they’ve received and heard from the Lord. Listen again to Rev. 3:3, “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent”!

III. When The Church Becomes The Church Again!

Truth is this: from the days of the apostles, whenever the church has looked ‘weird’ to the world – whenever its message has sounded ‘strange’ – that is precisely when the church has been the Church Scripture describes. That is when she has stood like a city on a hill, unmistakably visible to all, pointing to Christ.

A book published in 2023 titled ‘The Great Dechurching’ sheds light on this very point. Its authors interviewed new converts and discovered something striking: why did they join churches? They found ancient forms of worship and liturgy – rich in mystery and meaning. In other words, they found ‘otherness.’ These churches were not ashamed to preach and teach God’s Word without watering it down, to worship in the way Scripture directs, and to practise true fellowship and discipline among their members.

This is exactly what the Lord urges in Rev. 3:3, saying, “Remember … what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.” Remembering and holding fast to what we received and heard is, I believe, the source of a new tide – a swift and powerful tide – that will return Christ’s Church to her first look and her first message! In a word, it means keeping Christianity ‘weird’ in the eyes of the world, and its message ‘strange’ in the ears of the world. On an individual level, it means that you and I should appear ‘weird’ to the unbelieving world, and what we share should sound ‘strange’ to them. When we recover this ‘weirdness’ and ‘strangeness’ in Christ, the tide is on its way – not only to the shore, but to the tip of the world.

I truly believe that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, this work has begun among us. And I pray, alongside you – my fellow servants of the gospel – that what has begun in our midst may continue and grow, until we see the fullness of the knowledge of God and Christ covering the earth, bringing healing and restoration to all people.

May the Almighty guide and strengthen His Church, in the name of Jesus, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. ***