Have you ever looked up at the stars at night and thought about how far away they really are? We measure distance in space by “light years”. One light year is the distance light travels in one year at 186,000 miles per second. (That’s a long way!) If a star that is thirty light years away from earth stopped shining five years ago we would still see the light from it for another twenty-five years. It would be dead, but to us would appear alive for a very long time. This can happen to a church as well. According to Jesus, a church can appear alive, but really be dead.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus talks to church just like this. It was a church that lived in the past and had become comfortable and lazy. They were living off of past accomplishments and light that had shined years ago. Why did Jesus call them dead, and what did He tell them to do about their condition? What kind of preventive maintenance must we do to avoid the same fate?