Revelation 3:1–6 (ESV) — 1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
I think of iconic moments in American history that are remembered by choice words or phrases. “Give me Liberty or give me death”; “Remember the Alamo”; and just say, “911” and nothing more needs said.
Sardis had a history with iconic moments that were just as moving and memorial. Knowing some background of the city, gives us a mindset of its citizens and an understanding of some of the language Jesus uses in his letter.
Sardis was known by its rich deposits of gold. There was a stream near Sardis that had gold dust in its silt.24 In fact, about 700 years earlier, King Croesus claimed Sardis as his capital and his wealth was legendary. 25 The king’s reign and his wealth ended with an event that Sardis could never forget. It was a mark in its history-its own 911.
The Persian Empire was pushing westward and settled before Sardis to take siege of this presumably impregnable fortress. Sardis was built into a mountain, surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs, 1500 feet above the floor of the valley. This gave it a reign of peace against all enemies for centuries. It was known to be impregnable, and “to capture Sardis” became a maxim for achieving an impossible feat.26 It was untouchable!
While camped before Sardis, Cyprus of Persia offered a reward to anyone who found a way to penetrate this fortress. One night, one of his officers caught eye of a watchman on the wall who fell asleep and dropped his bow over the wall. The officer watched this soldier go to certain place in the wall where no guard was stationed and climb down and retrieve his bow and climb back up. There it was! A place the wall could be scaled. This invincible fortress had a weakness. A plan was made and one night Persian soldiers scaled the wall, entered the city, and opened the way for the Persian army to enter and conqueror.
You would think that Sardis would learn from this. But, hundreds of years later, Alexander the Great marched across Asia Minor to Sardis and penetrated the fortress the same way. An unguarded area in the wall that could be scaled. No watchman. A second 911.
Why is this history important? The history of Sardis was never forgotten by his citizens, just as “911” will never be forgotten in America. It is unlikely that the church could have missed the direct allusion to these events. When Christ says to them that he will come upon them as a thief, His point was vivid, loud, clear, and it struck the hearts of the people. Just as 911 does to us.
I am going to go through what Jesus says, and then pull some application to us today. Let’s get started.
Vs.1, Jesus calls himself “he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” Remember Revelation 1:4, “… from the seven spirits who are before his throne.” In Revelation 5 John will see the Spirit of God symbolized as the Lamb’s seven eyes, which “are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth” (5:6; cf. Zech. 3:9; 4:10). This may confuse some of you: “seven spirits of God”? The number seven in scripture refers to completion or fullness. Therefore, the seven Spirits of God are God’s one Spirit, who is limitless, knowing all, present everywhere, and almighty.
Jesus is the one who has “the seven stars.” The Son of Man reminds them that He who sees his churches also holds their identity (stars/angels) securely in his hand. For more on the seven stars and seven lampstands, go part 5 of this sermon series, “Seven Stars and Seven Lampstands.”
Then Jesus says to the Church: “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” What an indictment! You think you have it all together. People look at you and you think you have it going for you. But, instead of being a biblical church full of life, Jesus says, you are spiritually lifeless.
G. Campbell Morgan wrote,
“His complaint is startling and terrible. “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.” With what changed emphasis we read the words “I know.” The whole tone of it has been full of tenderness and comfort. Now it is a trumpet-blast of terror. “I know thy works.” The church at Sardis is not devoid of works. Indeed it is so full of them as to give it a name of being alive. In all probability there was full and correct organization, the ordinances of the church were regularly observed. They gathered upon the first day of the week for worship. They contributed systematically to the necessities of the work. In brief, it is most likely that to all outward appearances they fulfilled the description of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles, in that they “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, in the breaking of bread, and in fellowship, and in prayers.
“Thou hast a name that thou livest.” That is to say, that there was everything in Sardis that would satisfy the outside observer. “And thou art dead.” That is to say, there was nothing in Sardis that could satisfy the heart of Christ. This seems difficult to comprehend, but the explanation is to be found in the further words of Christ. “I have found no works of thine fulfilled, before My God.
“The essence of worship is that while it begins in the church, it takes hold upon heaven. If the hymn is simply a musical expression of pleasant feeling, there is no worship in it. But if upon the wings of sacred song our spirits find their way into the Holy of Holies, then that song is fulfilled before God. If the prayer we utter is a compilation of sentences, spoken for the fulfilment of duty, it is not prayer. But if the prayer, expressing a sense of need, finds its way above the mists and the mysteries of life, to the throne, it is fulfilled before God. If our gifts are bestowed that we may be kept square with duty, they are utterly refused in heaven. But if they express a sacrifice and a sympathy, though they be but small according to the arithmetic of men, they are counted of great worth in that temple where gifts are valued according to the givers.”
This church was known for one thing but Jesus knew it for something else. “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” George Eldon Ladd described this church as “outwardly prosperous, busy with the externals of religious activity, but devoid of spiritual life and power.”
These words from Jesus was also a play on words that the citizens of Sardis would understand. Sardis was known as “the city of a thousand hills,” because of the burial grounds that marked its skyline. Jesus picks up on this history telling them, you consider yourself alive, but just as you are known for your cemetery on a thousand hills, you—church, can have a thousand (or more or less) members and still be as dead as the inhabitants of a cemetery.
We should read this today and remind ourselves that it is not what people say or think about MCBC; It’s not what we think about ourselves as a church. It’s what Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, thinks about MCBC. Are we following His Word to know what He says is a true Church?
Revelation 3:2–3, “Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.”
We need to remember, these are the direct words of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God. He has given the Church in Sardis the truth about their spiritual condition, hopefully they heeded it. In these words, He is now telling them and us how to revive a dead or dying Church.
The first command is: “Wake up” or (literally, become watching). Again, Jesus uses their history to drive home his rebuke. This so-called impregnable fortress of a city was conquered twice due to a false sense of security thinking it was invincible. So it is with this church, thinking it was doing all the right things outwardly and religiously, thought it was invincible and pleasing God. It wasn’t a false prophet spreading false teaching. It wasn’t political or financial pressure, or persecution. It was self-induced spiritual sleep. It was not an enemy from the outside, but from the inside.
Dennis E. Johnson wrote, “The letter pinpoints no specific cause of sleep unto death. No Nicolaitans were luring Christ’s servants in Sardis into immorality and idolatry. No Balaam-like prophet or Jezebel-like prophetess misled the unwary. Although Sardis is known to have had a strong Jewish community and vibrant paganism (the city’s patroness goddess was Cybele), the letter mentions no external sources of intimidation, social rejection, or persecution, such as other churches encountered from Satan’s throne or Satan’s synagogues. Nevertheless, this church was spiritually unconscious. Jesus’ repeated exhortation to “wake up” and his threat to break in on the congregation’s comatose comfort “like a thief” show that Sardis had lost consciousness of Jesus’ future return and its present implications (Rev. 3:2–3). The sleeping majority had also forgotten grace received in the past and the motivation for purity that grace supplies (3:4).29 Sardis had forgotten that it is engaged in spiritual, holy war.”
I think Ephesians 5:14, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” This command is to believers to wake up from spiritual slumber.
This is a good place to pause and ask. Would you diagnose yourself as fallen into a spiritual slumber?
Second, speaking to “awakened Christians”, Jesus says, “strengthen what remains and is about to die”. A common adage for us is, “Use or loose it.” That may be a very lose jump here, but I think it applies here. We need fresh spiritual food, continually, and if we do not strengthen our spiritual life, we will lose what we have. Just because a person has read and learned scripture and knows some biblical truths, does not mean they do not need to strengthen what they learned. You may have learned some truths years ago, but without exercising them, they will fade in their effecting your life.
In addition to God’s Word, Christians are strengthened through the vital ministry of prayer. In September 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier responded to America’s economic collapse by starting a prayer meeting in his Dutch Reformed Church in New York City. He printed a bulletin inviting businessmen to come and pray at noon. At the first meeting, Lanphier prayed alone for the first half hour, and then was joined by six other men for the second half hour. A week later he had twenty for prayer, and three weeks later there were forty. By the next spring, prayer meetings had gathered across New York and across the country. By Easter Sunday, New York City had to shut down every day at noon because of the tens of thousands gathering for prayer, with multitudes converted to Christ. Starting with the prayers of a few awakened believers, the 1858 Laymen’s Prayer Revival spread throughout the country and resulted in hundreds of thousands of conversions to faith in Christ.
Third, besides heeding Christ’s command to awaken and to strengthen what remains, Sardis was to “remember, then, what you received and heard”. The people were, of course, to remember the gospel truths that had brought them salvation. The Apostle Paul advised Timothy this same thing: “continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, … the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:14–15). Paul added that God’s outbreathed Word is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (3:16).
Finally, Jesus commands that his Word be obeyed and that sin be repented of: “Keep it, and repent.” This may be the most critical steps for many believers. What you learn and receive from the Word of God, you must obey. Hearing the Gospel, we are to obey by repenting of our sins and obeying the words Jesus Christ—the Scriptures. As a Christian, when we have sinned, we repent.
Moving along, the second part of verse three gives us the dire warning from Christ to those who refuse to repent and obey Him: “If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you”. They got the picture loud and clear. Just as the Persian army came like a thief unannounced, so will Christ to discipline them.
Jesus goes on to say (Vs.4), “Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Jesus says, “a few.” Most of the church of Sardis had defiled themselves with sin. Instead of being an influence on their culture, the church had become influenced by their culture. Those who stayed true, stayed faithful, walked in communion with Jesus. They were not stained by the culture, and Jesus walked in fellowship with them. The others were outside of His will. They needed to turn back to Him.
If we step back from the details, we see that this Church, by the majority members of the church, went to sleep ended up in ICU on life support. How does this happen? I see three things that brought this spiritual, self-induced sleep.
First by having a false sense of security. They were not being persecuted, they weren’t be thrown in jail. On the contrary, they were left alone to be Christians, meet together and worship, and do their thing. But this church in Sardis had forgotten that it is engaged in spiritual, holy war. They thought Satan had left them alone. But he had not. Satan was using a different tactic to bring down this fortress, this church. Satan lured them into a false sense of spiritual security.
Secondly, this church had a false idea of spiritual life. They thought they were alive, but they were dead. Too many churches defined spiritual life by how busy they are; how many activities they have; or how emotional their church services are. Nothing can be further from the truth. These are not gauges of spiritual life.
I think many Christians have been taught a false idea of spiritual life, which is why there are many Christians who struggle with their spiritual life. They keep wondering why they struggle to grow. They do all the right things, say all the right things, but continue to struggle in simple faith and faithfulness. I also think a watered-down version of the Gospel has left many unbelievers falsely thinking they have spiritual life, when they do not.
There are many people who think being Christian is going to church or being baptized. Afterall, this is what they see true Christians do. That is what they perceive of Christianity looking in the window from the outside. They look in the window of our Christian lives and see what we do and how we live, but never hear what made us who we are. They see the apples in the box, but never hear where the apples came from. What they don’t see is the life of Christ within our hearts. We have a love for Jesus and read our bibles and attend church and pray and love others because of the life of Jesus in us. The reading of scripture, meet with believers in worship, pray, etc., is the outward fruit of the life within. But all the unbeliever sees is the fruit. They need to know what produces the fruit.
Third, this church had a false understanding of what pleases God. Jesus tells them that their good works are not complete, not fulfilled, in the sight of God. He says, you think you are pleasing God, but you are not. You think that you are fulfilling what God has called this church to do in my name, but you are not. You do not understand what pleases God.
Again, this is not an isolated false understanding. Many, many Christians think that having a Bible on their coffee table, or giving a few dollars in the offering, or coming to church now and then, gets their hand stamped with, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” But what is it that pleases God? What is that God is calling us to do and be? If you don’t know, then you have a good reason to faithfully read your Bible, pray, join a Sunday School Bible study, and be a part of weekly worship services. It is because you need to learn that you seek to know.
Let’s turn the spotlight on MCBC. We enjoy the love we have here; the communion and fellowship we have with one another; the bible teaching, the unity and simplicity of faith and worship here; and we love Esther’s cooking. Amen. I love this church, as you do. When we meet here, it is like an oasis. Yet, we must be watchful. There is an enemy who is trying to penetrate this fortress to get a foothold. He is sly. He is looking for the weakness in the fortress.
A few questions we should ask ourselves on a regular basis are: While enjoying the fruit of spiritual life here, are we fulfilling what Jesus has called us to do? Are we influencing the culture or is the culture influencing us? Are we staying awake to the spiritual warfare going on?
“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. This should ring a bell in your school memory. During Columbus’ first voyage (the first of four) from Spain to the Indies, after a long few days visiting islands, Columbus gave a sailor the helm of the ship about midnight and went to bed. The ship was the Santa Maria. In the middle of the night, the sailor at the helm fell asleep. The ship drifted into some rocks. The waves and winds kept driving the ship again and again into the rocks. All the men survived, but the Santa Maria was done. According to Columbus’ journal, the sailor’s excuse was that he hadn’t slept for 36 hours. In other words, the sailor fell asleep at the helm. Falling asleep at the helm shipwreck the Santa Maria.
This will happen to the Christian, when he allows spiritual slumber to settle in. If it happens to Christians in the church, what happens to the church?
Now I want to speak to individuals whose faith has fallen asleep. Would you diagnose your spiritual condition as being asleep? I know that for some people it is not easy to reignite their spiritual candle within. And the longer it has been since your light was on fire, the harder it is. I understand.
Yet, you must push on. The alternative is that spiritual slumber will bring spiritual erosion, which causes spiritual drifting. Like the Santa Maria, your soul will drift into the rocks and wreck. This is not something we do not know will happen. We have seen it happen to others or ourselves. A Christian whose spiritual life is eroding will drift away from the Church life that helps feed it. A Christian whose spiritual life is eroding will drift away from prayer and Bible reading, and from Christian fellowship.
If this is you, Jesus gives you what to do. Begin with repenting. Take ownership of your neglect of your spiritual apathy. Then Jesus says, strengthen what remains. Remember the biblical truths that you had learned and received. Keep it. Build on it.
Now I want to speak to individuals who have not soiled their garments living in sin, or have fallen asleep. Keep up the faith. Continue growing. Remain faithful, and strengthen those who are weary. The reward of Jesus is (Rev. 3:4), “… they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.” Keep up the faith. Continue growing. Remain faithful, and strengthen those who are weary.
Think of a bumper sticker that says, “Watch – Strengthen – Live.”
I want to address some words of Jesus in this letter that I did not have time during my sermon. Jesus makes a statement that has some Christians confused. I would like to address it here. It is verse five, “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”
Some have read this and wonder if a person whose name is written in the book of life can have his/her name blotted out or erased from the book of life. Can a person who is in the book be blotted out of the book of life? Is Jesus threatening to remove these believers from the book if they do not repent?
The answer is, no. This statement by Jesus is not a threat. It is a promise that He will keep them. Jesus is not speaking to the believer whom he will discipline, which never includes Jesus or the Father kicking one His own out of his kingdom. Here, he is speaking encouragement to patiently endure, because their names are written in the book and he will keep them. We should not read a promise of eternal life with a negative view. This is a promise of eternal life to those who truly belong to Him.
For instance, if you say to your son or daughter, I will never stop loving you. Are you insinuating that you might stop loving them? Not at all. You are promising to love them forever. These are loving, comforting words to your child. When Jesus said, “I will never leave you or forsake you”, is he also saying, he might leave you or forsake you? Not at all. He is saying loving and comforting words. “Don’t ever, ever, ever worry that I might leave you or forsake you. Never!”
We have other scriptures to help us. Ephesians 1:4 says that the Father “chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. (vs.5) He predestined (predetermined) us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” He determined this. Did God make a mistake? Of course not. He established this before we were created, before anything was created.
Revelation 13:8 says, “ … everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” Read that carefully. The reference to the lamb is a reference to Jesus being the sacrifice for our sins. This verse is referring to the unbeliever who does not have a faith in Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for his sins. These are people whose names were never written in the book of life of the lamb because they never put their faith in him. But if your name was written in it “before the foundation of the world” then it remains.
There are many places in the Bible to support this, and Jesus makes is clear and indisputable. Jesus said (John 6:39) that all whom the Father has sent him, he will lose none of them. He will raise them up on the last day. Back up to John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” You can say, he will never blot out their names from the book of life of the lamb.
Back to Revelation 3:5. This is Jesus encouraging and reminding them that those who are truly his will always be his. “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” This is saying, “Nothing can separate you from the love God. Nothing! You are mine. I bought you with my blood. End of argument. You are mine forever.”
Heb. 10:10 tells us that “we have been sanctified (set apart unto God as holy) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Heb. 10:14, “For by a single offering (his life) he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
29 Pure garments symbolize hearts cleansed from defiling guilt by the Lamb’s blood (Rev. 7:14) but also upright actions that flow from hearts freed from sin’s enslavement (19:8).
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