We are in the midst of our study of the seven churches of Revelation. Today we will examine what Jesus has to say to the fifth of these, the Church at Sardis. Listen for God’s word to you from Revelation 3:1-6…
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Context
Sardis was the capital of the Lydian kingdom of Croesus in the sixth century BC. It was during the reign of King Croesus that the metallurgists of Sardis discovered the secret of separating gold from silver, thereby producing both metals of a purity never known before. This was an economic revolution, for while gold nuggets panned or mined were used as currency, their purity was always suspect and thus a hindrance to trade. Such nuggets or coinage were naturally occurring alloys of gold and silver known as electrum and one could never know how much of it was gold and how much was silver. Sardis now could mint nearly pure silver and gold coins, the value of which could be trusted throughout the known world. This revolution made Sardis rich and Croesus’ name synonymous with wealth itself. For this reason, Sardis is famed in history as the place where modern currency was invented. (Wikipedia)
Sardis was also known for its almost impregnable acropolis. The city had cliffs on three sides that dropped 1500 feet to the valley below. The acropolis was accessible only by a narrow approach from the south. Thus, it had never been captured by assault; but twice it had been captured by stealth without resistance, once by Cyrus in 546 B.C. and once by Antiochus the Great in 218 B.C. On both occasions the invader had come like a thief in the night, and the defenders had not known the hour of the enemy’s coming.
During the Persian period, Sardis was the greatest city in Asia Minor, the western terminus of the Great King’s highway from Susa. However, by the time of John’s writing, Sardis was a city of departed glory. In AD 17 there was an earthquake that destroyed the city. After the earthquake, Sardis struggled to regain its previous stature. It was rebuilt with money from the Roman emperor and didn’t have to pay taxes for five years. But it never again became what it once was.
According to tradition, Sardis was the first city in Asia Minor to be converted by the preaching of the Apostle John.
Chief Characteristic of Christ Applied
What is Jesus’ main message to the Church at Sardis? He wants them to know that he alone brings life. Money can’t do that. Power can’t do that. Earthly kings can’t bring life. Only King Jesus can do that. That is why Jesus says to the Church at Sardis, “These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.”
God alone who can bring a church or an individual to spiritual life. The way that happens is through the power of his sevenfold Spirit.
Jesus reminds the Church at Sardis that he holds the seven stars in his hands. The seven stars, as you may remember from chapter one, represent the angels, the messengers, of the seven churches. Jesus holds pastors in his hand, even the pastors of dead churches. And because of that, there is hope. Death is not the end for the One who overcame death on the third day. The same Jesus who rose again from the dead has the power, by his sevenfold Spirit, to bring dead churches and dead Christians to life.
Critique
Jesus says to the Church at Sardis, “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
This church is in so much trouble that Jesus dispenses with his normal pattern of commendation before critique, and he goes right to the critique.
The Greek word ὄνομα, which means “name”, is repeated four times in this letter. The Church at Sardis has a “name” for being alive, but they are dead. Then in verse four we learn that there are a few “names” in Sardis that have not defiled their garments. Jesus says in verse five that he will by no means blot out the “names” of these few from the book of life. Furthermore, he will confess their “names” before his Father and before his angels. Names were very important in the ancient world and represented the character of the person. To know someone’s name was to possess a certain power. Jesus knows your name and he knows mine.
This letter to the Church at Sardis is silent about any pressure on this church from pagan religion. Here no outward signs betray the activity of Satan. Here there are no Jewish accusers, no apostolic impostors, no fraternizing Nicolaitans, no prophetic ecstasy. This is a church which everyone speaks well of; it is the perfect model of inoffensive Christianity, unable to distinguish between the peace of well-being and the peace of death. (G. B. Caird)
After graduating from seminary, I had an internship at a large church outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. As you may know, Charlotte is a city with a lot of churches. At that time, Charlotte rivaled Dallas, Texas for being the buckle on the Bible Belt. Near the church we served there was a street called Sardis Road. What fascinated me about that street was that there was more than one church on it that was named after the road. There was Sardis Baptist Church. And then, not to be outdone, the Presbyterians thought it would be good to name their church after the road it was on. I was mystified. Had these Baptists and Presbyterians not read the book of Revelation? Didn’t they know that the Church at Sardis was a dead church? Who would want to name their church after this one in the book of Revelation? I never figured out why those two churches so named themselves.
The original Sardis Church was just as clueless. They had no idea that they were a dead church. They thought they were alive. They were not an elderly and dwindling congregation, unable either to maintain their previous activities or to make new converts. They probably had all sorts of great programs. They probably had a wonderful youth pastor. They probably had a senior pastor who preached great sermons every Sunday. Who knows, maybe they even livestreamed their services. Of course, the Church at Sardis was an alive church. Everybody said so.
Well, not everybody. Jesus said they were dead. And if Jesus says you’re dead, then he is probably right.
Unfortunately, sometimes we feel comfortable in our spiritual deadness, comfortable in our spiritual slumber. If that is the case, then we need to hear Jesus’ counsel just as the Church at Sardis did…
Counsel
Jesus counsels the Church at Sardis with five key words: watch, strengthen, remember, keep, and repent. Let’s look at each of these in turn.
First, Jesus says, “Watch!” or “Wake Up!” as it is in some translations. This is a command that a watchman in the night needs to hear.
My best friend in seminary, Richard Burnett, worked a part-time job as a security guard in order to pay for seminary. Many a night he guarded the building of his employer, Martin Marietta, while no one else was there. Richard would use some of his time to read, study, and do homework for his classes. I have no idea how he stayed awake through the night and still was able to attend class by day.
When I was in high school one of my favorite Christian singer/songwriters was Keith Green. He had a song called Asleep in the Light that I quoted in the first sermon I ever preached. I was in 11th grade and I was one of the preachers for Youth Sunday in our church. Part of Green’s song goes like this…
The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can’t fight
‘Cause it’s asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you’ve been so well fed?
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, ya can’t even get out of bed
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on, get out of your bed
I think, perhaps, I was trying to get a rise out of the frozen chosen at my Presbyterian Church by quoting that song. But it ties in so well to our text for today. Jesus does not want us to be a church asleep in the light. Rather, he wants us to be reflecting his light to the world.
Our church is built on a hill just like the Church at Sardis. We are known as “God’s light on the Hill”. We need to wake up every day to being that light individually and corporately.
The second word of counsel that Jesus gives is strengthen. This word probably envisions an acropolis, like the one in Sardis that was built strong to protect its citizens from outside invasion. The Church at Sardis needed to strengthen, shore up, what little remained of their spiritual vitality.
Jesus found the deeds of the Sardis Church incomplete. It is important to remember that until we die and stand before God our work in this world is never complete. There is always something more that we can do to grow in grace. We need to remain vigilant and not fall asleep in the light. Rather, we need to keep working for the Lord.
The third key word of counsel is: remember. Jesus tells the Church at Sardis that they need to remember what they have received and heard.
Did you know that most people remember only 10% of what they hear? If that is true, and I think it is, then simply hearing the Scriptures is not enough.
That’s why Jesus tells the Church at Sardis not only to remember what they have received and heard, but to also keep it. How do we keep what we have received and heard?
To hearing we need to add reading the Scriptures on our own. To reading we need to add study. To study we need to add memorization. And to memorization we need to add meditation. If we do all five of those things it will give us a better grip on the word we have received from God.
Do you want to know how you can remember 100% of what we have received and heard from the Lord? You will remember 100% of what you obey. James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
I remember when I taught one of my sons to drive; I won’t tell you which one! Anyway, he had his learner’s permit but not his driver’s license. As you know, teaching your child to drive can be a scary experience. As we were going along, I would often say to my son, “You know, the speed limit here is such and such.” Invariably he would say to me, “I know.” Eventually I got tired of hearing him say “I know” and I would usually raise my voice and say, “Then do it!”
Now, I wonder how often the Lord is saying that to me. I am in a dangerous position as one who has spent his life studying the Scriptures. I know a whole lot more than what I practice. However, when I obey what I have received and heard from the Lord, that adds palm-action to my grip on the Bible so that I have a firm hold on it and then nothing can wrench it out of my hand.
That’s what repentance is all about. That is Jesus’ fifth key word of counsel here: repent. Repentance means a change of mind that results in a change in direction. It is all about action; it is all about obeying God’s word to us.
Now, Jesus promises the Church at Sardis that if they don’t wake up, he will come like a thief in the night. The New Testament repeatedly refers to Jesus’ second coming being like a thief in the night. Christ is going to return at the end of time to judge all the nations and to establish his eternal kingdom on a renewed earth. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t come to us at other times and in other ways. We always need to be on the lookout for the Lord and be ready for him to visit us. We need to be awake.
How do we stay spiritually awake? One way is by taking time on a regular basis to worship the Lord. In his book, Reflections on the Psalms, C. S. Lewis talks about how praising God keeps us spiritually awake. He says that God “is that Object to admire which (or, if you like, to appreciate which) is simply to be awake, to have entered the real world; not to appreciate which is to have lost the greatest experience, and in the end to have lost all.”[1]
The bottom line is this, if you are walking hand in hand with Jesus every day, through reading the Bible, through prayer, through worship, then you will never be surprised at his coming. You will always be awake and ready for him.
Commendation
Finally, we come to Jesus’ words of commendation for the Church at Sardis. He says, “Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.”
God never abandons his search for the faithful few. They are never lost to his sight. In the midst of judgment, Jesus remembers and shows mercy to this church. The situation at Sardis was critical but not hopeless.
What does Jesus mean when he says there are a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes? There is a lot behind this image.
Ancient pagan worship required clean clothes to approach the temple. Archaeologists have found inscriptions posted in pagan shrines in Asia Minor that indicate that those who wore dirty clothing were excluded from worship because they were an insult to the gods.
Members of the Jewish sect of the Essenes at Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered) wore white garments as a symbol of their inner purity.
But perhaps most importantly, adults who were baptized in the early church put on white garments after their baptism.
We need to remember that it is Jesus who makes us pure. We don’t make ourselves pure. We don’t have to clean up our act before coming to Jesus. We come to Jesus so that he can clean up our act.
Confirming Word to Conquerors
After his commendation of the few in Sardis who had not soiled their clothes, Jesus delivers some wonderful confirming words to conquerors. He says,
They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
In Persian culture those who were favorites of the king got to walk with him in his royal garden. They were called “companions of the garden”.
In Genesis 5:24 we read that “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” If we walk with God here on earth, then one day we will walk with him in eternity.
Some Christian once said about his impending death, “I will change my place but not my companion.”
Jesus makes a threefold promise here to the faithful at Sardis and to us. First, he tells them they will walk with him dressed in white. White is a symbol of both victory and purity. One day Jesus is going to purify us completely from sin and he will dress us in spotless clothes that will never need to be washed again.
Secondly, Jesus says that the one who is victorious will never have their name blotted out of the book of life. All ancient cities kept a civic register in which the names of the citizens were inscribed. The book of life that Jesus talks about is the register of the citizens of the heavenly city. It is one thing to have your name on the roll as a citizen of an earthly city, or even on the roll of a church, but it is quite another to have your name written in the book of life.
Finally, Jesus says that he will acknowledge before the Father and the angels the names of those who are victorious.
Do you want to know how you can have your name written in the book of life? Do you want to know how you can have Jesus acknowledge you before his heavenly Father? Jesus tells us how this can happen. Jesus says, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” Can you imagine that? Every time that you acknowledge your relationship with Jesus before other people, Jesus acknowledges you, he names your name as one of his before his Father in heaven. Let’s acknowledge Jesus in prayer right now…
[1] C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1958, pp. 107-108.
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