"The Walking Dead"...are they among us?

I remember as a young teenager going to the drive-in theatre and taking a "hot date" to see "Night of the Living Dead"(yes, the original version...I've been around for a while). I have never really been into the scary movie thing, but at that moment I thought if I took my date and she got scared...then she would hug me and all would be well (lol)...the logic of a man...isn't it a "piece of work?"
 What happened?..well, neither one of us really got into it, and I end up taking her home...and that was the one and only date we ever had together. Hug?...well...got one of those "formal hugs" when I walked her to her doorstep...the logic of a man...isn't it a "piece of work".

Dead people coming alive..."Zombies"...a popular trend these days...well, after "Vampires". I have read on numerous occassions where people actually think they are vampires, and even more gross...zombies. People will believe anything...even about themselves...if they have their heart set on it...that's what I think anyway.
 Yet as gross and abhorrent these things may be, you might have entertained the thought...Are there "dead people" walking among us?

 In Revelation 3, Christ Jesus makes a startling prognosis of a particular church...a church called Sardis. He declares that most of the people of this church are dead...stone dead. He isn't speaking like they are zombies or vampires...He is (in my humble opinion) talking of matters within their own hearts.

 Sardis, a town even when they are mentioned  in the book of  "The" Revelation, had been around for a while. It was a city on the side of a mountain and in 17 A.D. had suffered from a devastating earthquake. Through the generous aid of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, Sardis was restored to being a strong city once more. The people of Sardis were extremely grateful for the aid and swore allegiance to the Roman Empire.
 This is the only time in the Sacred Scriptures the city of Sardis is mentioned, and there is no clear cut evidence of how Christianity arrived there. None of the apostles give an indication they had travelled to Sardis, although in Matthew Henry's commentary, he eludes to the Apostle John as the founder of the church of Sardis.

 Sardis had been quite a trade center, with 5 major roads leading into Sardis. Two major religions of Sardis at the time of this writing in Revelation was the worship of 2 fertility goddesses, Cybele and Artemis. Both "goddesses" had temples built in honor of them.
 Sardis originally was a city which dealt with precious stones and was now a place for producing fine wool and clothing.
 So, what's up with Sardis...and why did Christ Jesus come down on them so hard as described in Revelation 3?

 In Revelation 3:1, it goes something like this: " I see right through you...and all your works. Your reputation speaks well of you...but I look on the inside...and what I see in you is nothing but deadness..stone cold deadness!"
 Now, this isn't the first time Jesus has encountered this sort of thing. While He was here on earth, He got down on one of His "favorite group of guys"...the Pharisees, and made this announcement to them. In Matthew 23:27 it comes across like this: " You guys are practically hopeless! You "famed religious scholars" are nothing more than pretenders and frauds. You walk around all "manicured", clean and neat in your appearance...like a...beautiful...grave plot! Your grass may be clipped, and the flower arrangement is beautiful...but 6 feet under?...there is nothing more than rotting bones and worm-eating flesh! People look at you on the outside and say: " These people are godly saints"...but if they only knew what was under your very skin...what lurks inside of you...nothing but impure and unclean filth...dead man's bones!"

 Another note on the Sardis believers: unlike the believers in not too far away towns like Ephesus, Smyrna, or Pergamum, where in all 3 of these cities the believers in Christ Jesus were suffering external persecution, Sardis believers were an accepted group of the local society. They were not under persecution...hmmm...I think I need to make this a little series on Revelation 3:1-6...for now...break time!