Coronation: The Dying Church

Transcript

JRNT 507
04/06/2025
The Dying Church
Revelation 3:1-6
Jesse Randolph

Well, on Thursday mornings some of the men from our church and I are going through a book called “Dying Thoughts.” It was a book that was written by Richard Baxter who is an English theologian in the 1600s. And as the name suggests, this man Baxter, Richard Baxter, wrote this book “Dying Thoughts” as he prepared to face death. And he wrote this book, it was really a devotional treatment of Philippians 1:21, where Paul famously says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Here are a couple of quotes from Baxter’s book that I thought were worth sharing. He says this, again this is about the mid 1600s, “As much as I have loved -- and over-loved this body -- I must leave it to the grave. There must it lie and rot in darkness, as a neglected and loathful thing… but it is only my shell, my tabernacle, my clothing, and not my soul itself… it is but an instrument laid by, when all its work is done; a servant dismissed, when his service is ended… it is but as flowers die in autumn, and plants in winter. It is but a separation from a troublesome companion, and putting off a shoe that pinched me.” He then says this, “To leave my Bible and go to the God and heaven which the Bible reveals will be no otherwise my loss than to leave the picture for the presence of my friend.” Those are beautiful words, insightful words which were written not only in the spirit of Paul’s words in Philippians 1:21, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain, but also I think in the spirit of what the Psalmist says in Psalm 116:15, where he says, “Precious in the sight of,” the Lord, “Yahweh is the death of His holy ones.”

See it’s a noble thing, it’s a good thing, when an individual God-fearer, an individual follower of Jesus Christ dies. And why is that? Well, they are with the Lord! They have received their reward! Their faith has become sight! But the same cannot be said when a church dies. When a church, when a true church dies, it is nothing less than a tragedy. When a church which was once a faithful lampstand, has been put out, when it’s flame has stopped burning, something has gone horribly wrong. And it won’t always be immediately obvious that something has gone horribly wrong in a church which has died. The lights might still be on, the lawn might still be getting mowed, the roof might still be getting repaired, the people might still be attending, the pastor might still be preaching, the programs might still be running. But with all of that seeming life, the church may yet be dead.

The church we’ll be looking at this evening, the church at Sardis, was such a church. Everything appeared to be humming and functioning on the outside on first appearance. But on the inside it was a hollow shell. It was a spiritual graveyard. It was a religious morgue. It was a church that was still gathering, it was still collecting offerings, it was still meeting together. And we actually know from the letter that Jesus sent it, it was still getting the mail. But it was a dead church. I know I’ve titled this evening’s message “The Dying Church.” But probably in retrospect the better title would have been “The Dead Church,” because that’s what Sardis was. A dead church.

Let’s go ahead and look at the text we’ll be in this evening. Revelation 3:1-6. It says, “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: This is what He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says. ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Now, to remind you of some of the context here, the words of this letter that I’ve just read, like those contained in the other six letters, were written some time toward the end of the first century A.D, likely around the year 95 A.D. and during this time, it was not easy to be a follower of Christ, no matter where you lived. At this point in history Jesus had been rejected and crucified, His followers were being persecuted, each one of His apostles had been killed save one, John. As of the writing of this letter, or these words, John, the last living apostle, was a very old man. And He was an old man spending what was likely his 80s, not visiting the grandkids, not collecting sea shells, not checking items off his bucket list. But rather, he was spending his 80s in an unforgiving labor colony, on the desolate isle of Patmos, toiling to the point of exhaustion, with little food, little shelter, and little relief. And why? Well, for no other reason than His allegiance to Jesus Christ. His refusal to acknowledge anyone else, including the Emperor of the day or any other so called “god” of the day, as Lord.

And, as we’ve seen in our study of these letters so far, it was while he was there, John was there on Patmos, laboring and sweating and toiling, that He received from the risen and ascended Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ. the most extensive vision of future events that’s ever been given. All of which we now have in the book of Revelation. That vision is captured principally in Revelation chapter 1. That’s kind of the front door into the vision. And then here in chapters 2 and 3, we have these seven letters, written to these seven churches in this time. Churches which were made up of real people, real blood-bought sinners, led by real pastors who had been charged to shepherd real flocks. Flocks which faced real problems and real struggles not only in their communities but right there in their churches.

We’ve looked at four of these churches so far. Ephesus – the church which had lost its first love. Smyrna – the suffering saints there. Pergamum – the church which had compromised by allowing false teachers in their midst. Thyatira – the tolerating church which not only allowed false teachers to come in but allowed them to stay. And then the fifth church which is the one we’ll look at this evening, the church at Sardis. Now this church at Sardis, or the letter to this church at Sardis is a bit of a different letter than the other four we’ve looked at this far. You know in the first four letters, Jesus didn’t say only good things to those churches, but at least He had something good to say to each one of them. Not to Sardis. About this church Jesus had nothing good to say. Sardis was a dead church. It was a lifeless church. It appeared to have life, but it was all a mirage. The church in fact was dead.

Well, before we get into more of the text here and the deadness of this church, it’s important to get through some background because this background plays into some of the interpretive issues that we’ll see in this text. What do we know about this place Sardis? Well, first of all geographically speaking, Sardis was about 50 miles northeast of Ephesus, where the first letter was addressed. Sardis was about 35 miles south of Thyatira, the church we looked at last week. And this city Sardis, and this is important to note, was built up this natural granite plateau. It sat high on this ridge, about 1500 feet in elevation. It was this gigantic, naturally-fortified watch-tower. And it was built on a place where it could naturally guard the valley beneath it. And it was built there because of invaders and possible intruders. So to build high is important as you look down on those who might seek to conquer you or take you out.

Well, Sardis had this rich history from up high. It had a tremendous history. In fact it had great days of glory going back through the centuries. The city was founded around 1200 B.C., 1300 years before this letter is written. It experienced its heights of glory somewhere around 600 B.C. About 700 years before this letter was written. And back in those days, its glory days, it had a ruler named Croesus. And there was a saying back then which was, it was great to be as “rich as Croesus.” It was a very rich, wealthy time. During Croesus’ reign in Sardis, this city knew nothing but luxury and wealth. They dredged up a lot of gold from the surrounding rivers. They made additional money from dying wool. It was a wealthy, thriving, prosperous city.

So there sat Sardis, at peak form in terms of its wealth and industry. And at peak form in terms of its leadership and its prestige and the type of people who had ruled over it in its past. It was literally sitting geographically on a peak. Perched high up and protected from invaders and intruders.

But the city was not immune from troubles. Rather, in the years leading up to the birth of Christ, this once proud and impenetrable city, found itself hit with various issues and various difficulties. It was conquered twice militarily, once in 549 B.C. and once in 195 B.C. So certain armies were able to make their way up to that plateau and take over the city. And if that weren’t enough, as it was picking itself up from off the ground after that second military conquest, it was rocked by a devastating earthquake in 17 A.D. And that earthquake reduced the city to rubble, and required a total rebuild. You know, in wars and earthquakes are quite difficult to recover from economically so by the time we get to this time where it receives this letter, Sardis was not anywhere near the economic powerhouse it once was.

Now to make matters even worse, by the time Jesus addresses this to this church in Sardis, like some of these other cities we have looked at, this community was infected with pagan religion. It was a hotbed of false worship. It was known for worshiping Caesar, like some of the other cities, the Emperor. It had a major temple devoted to the worship of Diana, Artemis, like was seen in Ephesus. And they even had a local goddess named Cybelle, who was believed to possess the special power of raising the dead to life. She was worshipped there as well.

Well, we also know as we’ve seen in each of these cities and these letters, there was a church at Sardis. Hence, the letter we’re working through this evening. And what do we know about the church at Sardis? We know of the church’s existence primarily from the letter we have in Revelation 3, bearing its name. We know from Acts 19:10, that this church would have been established when all of Asia was reached with the gospel. We know the man named Melito of Sardis, who was a theologian in the second century A.D. who hailed from this city and interestingly, may have written the first commentary on the book of Revelation.

Other than that, we have very little information from the Scriptural account itself about this church. Very little to work with biblically speaking in terms of building out a profile of this church. There’s no mention of persecution against this church, though there could have been some in this time. There’s no mention of bad theology or false teachers swarming in on this church although there could have been that. There’s no mention of any compromise with the world though that certainly would have been a temptation for any church at this time. There’s no mention of sin, but sin much have existed as it existed in any church.

Simply put, the church at Sardis was the church that Jesus had nothing nice to say of. He had nothing nice to say so He didn’t. And one commentator notes, that Sardis “had become a model of inoffensive Christianity.” That’s not a good thing. It was a saltless, flavorless church. It added nothing to the society around it. Its light was so dim that it couldn’t penetrate the darkness of Sardis. It was a church which seemingly accomplished nothing for the glory of God. The city of Sardis was a city that had declined politically, and morally, and economically, and now this Christian church is there, and it’s degenerating as well. Rotting spiritually. Its vitality and its power were gone. This church had ceased to matter. It had had its heyday back in its glory days. But now those days were long since gone. It was a church which had its history but a church that had no future. This was a church though and it was a church which Jesus loved. A church that He died for, and a church clearly here He felt the need to address.

Let’s jump back into our text, Revelation 3:1, and it says, “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write.” As I’ve mentioned every time we’ve unpacked one of these letters, that word “angel” is a transliteration of the Greek word “angelo,” which simply means messenger. And in the context of these addresses to these seven churches I believe the contextually appropriate reading of that word messenger is pastor. In other words, this could be said as saying “and to the pastor of the church in Sardis write.”

And then as He does in each of the other letters after identifying the One to whom He is writing, our Lord notes something unique about Himself. He says next, “this is what He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says.” Christ is the One who has the seven Spirits of God. And Christ is also the One here who has the seven stars. And what do those two terms mean? We’ve actually covered both of those in our first few messages in Revelation 1. It would be helpful to review though. The “seven Spirits of God” harkens back to Revelation 1:4. In fact, you can turn there, that’s Revelation 1:4 where it says, “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from the One who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.”

You may recall that when I preached this passage a few weeks ago, that I noted how that plural reference there in Revelation 1:4 to “the seven Spirits” is actually a reference to the singular Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead. And as I mentioned when we first went over this, some commentators have pointed to Isaiah 11:2 as being the basis for this 7 fold reference to this Spirit. I take the position that the likely reference or the likely Old Testament link is back in Zechariah 4:5-6. I won’t read this as that whole line of argument. You can look up that message from early February and see how I get to that conclusion.

But the main idea here, back to our text, to grab onto this evening is that when Jesus addresses Himself here in Revelation 3:1, as the One who “has the seven Spirits of God,” He is referring to the Holy Spirit. This is what is being said here, God the Son has God the Spirit. He possesses the Spirit. He has the fullness of the Spirit. It was the Son, after all, who along with God the Father, sent the Spirit. John 15:26, Jesus says exactly that. He says, “When the Advocate comes,” speaking of the Holy Spirit, “whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me.” That text coming from our Lord’s lips directly, is teaching clearly that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Son. So the Holy Spirit proceeds from Christ. So it is right to say as Christ says here in Revelation 3:1, that He has the Holy Spirit. That He has the seven Spirits of God.

Also here, verse 1, we’re told that Christ has “the seven stars.” That’s a reference back to Revelation 1:20, which says, “the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” And as we’ve just seen, the angels of the seven churches are the pastors of the 7 churches. So, Christ is the One who possesses the fullness of the Holy Spirit and He also holds the leaders, the ministers, the pastors of these churches in His right hand.

Now note, there’s apparently a relationship between the Lord mentioning here in verse 1 of chapter 3, of Him mentioning the Holy Spirit and pastors of His churches in one breath. And what’s that relationship? Why does He mention the Holy Spirit and pastors of the churches all in one mix? Well, I think a reasonable conclusion to draw about this church at Sardis, is that starting at the very top of this church with its leadership, it had started to look inward. They had started to look inward to themselves for power and strength and wisdom, rather than relying upon the Spirit of God to lead them and to guide them.

This was the church that, like many churches in our day, was autonomous in the worst sense of the term, in that they were disconnected entirely from the power of Spirit of God. This was the church, like many churches in our day, which had forgotten that it’s the Spirit of God, as Romans 8:11 says, who “gives life to [our] mortal bodies.” They had forgotten that it’s the Spirit who is, 1 Corinthians 6:19, in us. They had forgotten that it’s the Spirit of God who, Romans 8:14, leads believers. They had forgotten that it’s the Spirit of God who produces fruit, Galatians 5:22-25, in us. They had forgotten that it’s the Spirit of God who, 1 Corinthians 12, distributes gifts to other believers for the building up and edification of the church. They had forgotten that it’s the Spirit of God, Ephesians 4:3, who produces unity within the church.

So this church at Sardis as it sat under the leadership there, had apparently ignored or minimized the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They no longer felt the need to pray, or open their Bibles, or serve or witness or carry out other basic spiritual responsibilities that any other Spirit-indwelt follower of Christ engages in. Now, everyone who had trusted in Christ there in Sardis had the Spirit. But because they were no longer truly Spirit-led this church was now anemic. This was a church now sputtering. This was a church now out of gas. It had completely stalled out.

Now I always have to come back to this and make this observation as we look at these letters. To remember, to remind all of us here that these churches like any church, are ultimately a sum of their parts. That was true of the church at Sardis. Its deadness was a reflection of the deadness of its members. And that’s true of any church. That’s true of our church, Indian Hills Community Church in Lincoln Nebraska.

See, who we are as a church is a reflection of who we are as individual Christians. And I know there is going to be somebody here thinking this evening, I mean, he’s talking to me. As I think about this church in Sardis, he’s describing my life right now, perfectly. Because I’m tired and I’m weary, and I don’t know how much longer I can go on, and I feel like I’m running out of gas. And I’m not sure if I can make it to the finish line. If that describes you, I want to encourage you this evening. I want to encourage you to pursue (this is the remedy here for Sardis and for us, for you) I want to encourage you to pursue Spirit-filled living. And before the pitchforks come out, I want to make sure I’m saying this right. I’m not going to say anything crazy about Spirit-filled living. Okay? We’re not going charismatically off a cliff.

No, to pursue Spirit-filled living is a pretty simple equation actually. To pursue Spirit-filled living first of all means to know what the Scripture teaches about how the Holy Spirit functions in the lives of believers. To know how the Spirit functions in the lives of believers today. That’s one aspect of Spirit-filled living. The second aspect once you have an understanding of how the Spirit functions in the lives of believers today, is to commit to living in subjection to the Holy Spirit’s will for you as it’s been revealed in His Word. That’s the equation for Spirit-filled living, to know what the Spirit’s ministry is today and then to commit to living in subjection to His will for you as revealed in His Word.

Let’s sort through what the Scriptures teach to take that definition now and flesh it out. Let’s look at what the Scriptures teach about how the Holy Spirit functions in the lives of believers today. Let’s do some Pneumatology 101. We’ll get into this in a lot more detail in about 7 weeks, when “Summer in the Systematics” kicks off and we will do 10 weeks of this, but let’s do it for a few minutes tonight.

First of all the Spirit of God comes to live in you the moment that you put your faith in Jesus Christ. At that moment, you get all of God’s Spirit that you’re ever going to get and all of God’s Spirit that you’ll ever need. At that moment, the moment you trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, you are immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit, just like that. And then Ephesians 1:13 says, you are sealed “with the Holy Spirit of promise.” And then 2 Corinthians 1:22 says, that God gives you the Holy Spirit. It’s “the pledge of the Spirit in [your[ hearts.” It’s that down payment on the eternal inheritance that is kept in heaven for you. Then after the Lord saves you, there are things the Holy Spirit does through you. And there are things the Holy Spirit does normatively in the life of the believer.

We’re called to pray in the Spirit, Ephesians 6:18, meaning with alertness, with perseverance. That’s the exact way it’s phrased there, it says, “praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit.” We’re called not to “quench the Spirit,”1 Thessalonians 5:19. How do we quench the Spirit? Well, by running back to our old, sinful habits and ways and practices from our old unregenerate lifestyle. Rather, instead what we’re to do as we submit to the Spirit is take in God’s Word. That’s this morning’s sermon from Dr. Goeman. Take in God’s Word which is the “sword of the Spirit.” Ephesians 6:17. We’re called to manifest certain Christian traits, godly virtues, the “fruit of the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-23. We are called to submit to men who have been set apart by the Spirit, to shepherd the flock of God as elders, as overseers. That’s Acts 20:28.

Now what I’ve just described in terms of what it means to have a Spirit- directed, Spirit-filled life, is not how the church at Sardis, getting back to our text, was living. It’s not how this church was functioning. No, this was a church that was just going through the motions. But don’t mistake the motions that they were going through as being evidence of true spiritual vitality. To the contrary, and in reality this church was dead.

Now without much in the way of transition and with no words here of commendation to precede them, Christ goes right into His words of criticism for this church, which we see at the end of verse 1. Look at the last part of verse 1, “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” No words of praise. No stickers on their chart. No pats on the back. No ‘atta boys.’ No, Christ launches right into His words of criticism for this church.

Now can you imagine being a part of this church at Sardis 94, 95, 96 A.D. somewhere in there, and your church receives this letter? I mean, just picture it for a moment. Word is spreading, I’m sure at this point, throughout Asia Minor as the letters are delivered according to that postal route. One goes to Ephesus, and one goes to Smyrna, and one goes to Pergamum, and one goes to Thyatira. They’ve all got their letters and surely word is getting around that while Christ has been hard on these churches, He’s criticized, He’s rebuked these churches, there’s also word trickling out that at least He’s given them some words of encouragement along the way. Words of affirmation. Words of commendation.

So now its Sardis’ turn. Now their letter arrives. And the pastor, the overseer, the messenger, the “angelo,” he opens his letter. The people that are there in his church, perhaps they’re gathered around. He scans the letter on this piece of papyrus. And as he does so his heart sinks. Because now he has to read this out loud. He’s read the words and now he’s got to read these words to his people. And as he reads these words out loud to his people we see what those words would have been here at the end of verse 1. He now says to them in public presence, “you have a name that you are alive.” The way to translate that or think of that, is what’s being said here is, “you say that you are alive.” You think you are alive. There’s like a subtle wink-wink built into this. But now look at the rest, “but you are dead.” “You, Sardis, are a dead church.” I mean, ouch, what a terrifying phrase, what a bone chilling phrase.

That’s the worst thing that could be said about any church, that it’s dead. I mean, think about it, churches by definition are places of life and vitality. Right? The church is, 1 Timothy 3:15, the “household of God.” He is a living God. They’re made up of believers, followers of Christ. The churches where Christ lives, the churches where the Holy Spirit lives. A church is made up of by definition those who are spiritually alive and that’s a reflection of the fact that they’ve been given new life, and they are now in fellowship with other people who have possessed now eternal life. God’s people are, 1 Peter 2:5, “living stones.” Sadly though that wasn’t the case at Sardis. The church at Sardis was dead.

Now, to be called dead as this church is being referred to, is quite the statement. It’s quite the indictment. And it’s an indictment modern churches, including churches like ours, want to avoid at any cost. So how can a church today, carrying it over to our context, how can a church like ours today or any church today tell if it’s dead? How can a church understand or see that it’s on life support? How can a church detect its own risk of dying?

I can give you a few ideas. In some cases, the dead church is the ‘we’ve always done it this way’ church. It’s the church that is concerned with tradition. A church that’s concerned with form. A church that’s concerned with keeping the train on the exact same tracks. The church that’s concerned with having the ship sail according to the same exact coordinates that it was sailing from 15 years ago or 25 years ago or 50 years ago or 150 years ago. That’s the church that refuses to examine itself. The church that refuses to ask hard questions of itself. And it doesn’t want to ask hard questions of itself because it’s easier not to ask those hard questions and stagnate, than to ask those hard questions and change.

There are the other cases of dead churches though, where there’s this intentional ‘build a bigger tent, preach a broader, more inclusive message’ kind of church. This is the church that is getting caught up with the things of the world. The church that’s more concerned with click-baity sermon titles and the preacher’s fashion sense, preachers in sneakers, than it is faithfully preaching the Word of God. To anyone on the outside it’s a mile wide, appealing to anyone and everyone. It’s an attractional. But inside, it’s an inch deep and there’s no substance to it. It’s like somebody (I forgot the author) once said of Oakland, “There’s no there there.”

Then there are those churches where the dead church is the liberal church. Their deadness is tied to their liberality, their pursuit of liberal theology. Those which deny the inerrancy of Scripture. Those which refuse to teach on doctrines which are plainly laid out in the Bible, predestination, election, hell, God’s design for marriage and family and sexuality. These are those churches that back off on preaching the whole counsel of God for fear of drawing bad press or offending their attendees, especially those attendees that have an especially deep pockets. They’re more afraid of convicting hearts, so instead, they tickle ears.

Those are all ways that churches, churches like the church at Sardis, can die. Now surely there are more ways that churches can die, but those represent some of the more common ways it can happen.

Now if those are the ways that a church might die or become a dead church, what are some of the marks of churches that are alive? Churches that are living? The other side of the coin. Well, a living church is a church that loves and submits to God’s Word. 1 Peter 2:2, “long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.” A living church is one that seeks God’s approval. 2 Corinthians 5:9, “we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” A living church is a church that strives for holiness. 1 Peter 1:15-16, “like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” A living church is a church that seeks to serve others. (Gosh, I love this passage I am about to read. I hope that maybe one day we can have this emblazed somewhere in this building.) Romans 12:10, “ being devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in affliction, being devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, pursuing hospitality.” A living church serves like that. Serves each other like that.

A living church is a church that faithfully proclaims the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15:3. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” A living church is one that emphasizes strong spiritual leadership, like we see in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, for the office of elder. A living church is one that is devoted to prayer, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray without ceasing.” A living church is one that is unwilling to compromise, Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

Now note what’s not on that list, by the way. What’s not on that list is the size of the church. The scale of the church. The reach of the church. See the “death” and “life” in a church are not dictated by the number of chairs in the auditorium. Life and death in a church are not dictated by the number rears in the seats. A church can have a handful of folks sitting in 2 rows. It can have 10 people in the church, 3 people in the church and still be a spiritually-vibrant church. And on the other hand, a church can be packing out weekend services and expanding their footprint and launching building campaigns and adding tons of staff and service times and yet still be a dead church.

The church at Sardis was not a living, thriving church. The church at Sardis was this decayed, and disintegrated, and dead church. In the words of Christ here in verse 1, “you have a name that you are alive,” wink-wink, “but you are dead.” This was a church full of unconverted people. This was a church, Ephesians 2:1, which was full of people who were “dead in [their] transgressions and sins.” This was a church that was going through the motions. It appeared to have life at least to the watching world, but it was an empty shell. The doors to the church were wide open but the hearts of the people were closed. They brought their Bibles to church but they weren’t living out the Bible.

This was no longer a church which was leaning forward eagerly when the Word of God was preached. Rather, this was a church that was sitting back, bored and comfortable. They were there for the busyness. They were there for the programs. They were there to keep themselves occupied. They were there to keep their kids out of trouble. They were there for the potluck and the punch and the cookies. No offense. I’m going to be there for the potluck and punch and cookies tonight. But they were not there for the supreme purpose of gathering to worship the living God.

They weren’t there serving one another faithfully and joyfully like they once did. The heart of service within this church was gone. This was a church that was full of spectators now and sideline-sitters and those who were serving, they were doing it with a spirit of being monotonous and joyless and dry. This was no longer a church that was regularly proclaiming the gospel to the lost. They had gotten lazy. They had stopped sharing their hope, their faith in Jesus Christ. They no longer pled with sinners to repent and believe in the gospel. The ‘good news’ had become ‘old news’ to them, and that was very much ‘bad news’ at this point.

Their regularity in prayer was at an all-time low. They were just dribbling out a few common rote prayers across their pursed lips. “Bless me, bless my family, bless the food, bless me, bless me, bless me, amen.” But that was it. They were no longer pursuing holiness, striving for Christlikeness. They were no longer concerned with what the Lord thought of their church. Instead they were seeking the approval of men. The approval of the community. They were toning down and taming the truth of God’s Word. This was a church which showed itself to be hallow and empty and hypocritical. It was the collective version of what Jesus calls the whitewashed tomb.

I’ve said it already this evening but it bears repeating. This church, meaning our church, Indian Hills Community Church, like any church is the sum of our parts. And I bring it up because that means that this evening we likely have representatives or delegates of each of the churches that we have looked at so far in our study of Revelation. We have some here who are loveless Ephesians. We have some here who are suffering Smyrans. We have some here who are compromising Pergamese. We have some here who are tolerating Thyatirans, and there are some of you here who are like the dead of Sardis. Meaning all seems to be okay on the outside, the show, the façade is there of who you’re telling people you are, but on the inside you’re totally different. And the story is much different in terms of where your heart is and your affections lie before the God of the universe.

Now obviously I don’t know who is who. I’m not omniscient. But the Lord is. The Lord knows. Remember what we’ve seen in this study so far, that His eyes are like flames of fire, scanning through His churches. Not just the churches of old but the churches today and He’s scanning for those whose hearts are in alignment with His and He’s scanning for the holiness and purity of His bride.

With that we turn to verses 2 and 3, where we see the Lord’s corrective words for this ancient church and for anyone here this evening whose heart is not right. He says verse 2, “wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.”

Here Jesus is saying to this church, “I want you to regain your life. I want you to get back to what you once were, and I’m going to help you do it. I’m going to point the way to you being able to do.” So this is the Lord offering spiritual rehabilitation to this church. And He does so in these five different ways, these five different parts, there’s five parts to His offer that we see here in verses 2 and 3.

First He says, “Wake up.” A better translation there would be, “become alert, be watchful.” That exhortation to be watchful would have carried special meaning to these people in this city of Sardis. Remember what this city’s geographical posture was? It sat on this 1500 foot in the air plateau like a watchtower, and in that position, it needed to be ever mindful of any activity in the valley below. And remember, two times in its history it had been sacked from invaders who came up to its peak. They knew what it meant to lack vigilance in protecting one’s self, protecting one’s walls.

So these words had a very unique, strategic military meaning to them. Christ is choosing His words to this church carefully. And we bring that over to our context, and we know that “watchfulness” is to be the constant posture of the Christian life. Romans 13:11 says, “it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.” 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” But first imperative, “Be watchful,” the Christian is to be watchful against the ways and the schemes of the devil. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The Christian is to be watchful for false teachers. Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29, he says, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be watchful.” Jesus called on His disciples in Matthew 26 to “keep watching and praying” that they not enter into temptation. And we are all called to watch with anticipation as we wait for the Lord’s return, 1 Thessalonians 5:6, “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us be awake and sober.” See, watchfulness is a hallmark of the Christian faith.

Now our letter here doesn’t tell us how this church at Sardis had fallen into this spiritual slumber. We are just told that they had. And Jesus here is saying snap out of it, come out of it, wake up. Remain watchful.

Second He says, still in verse 2, that they were to “strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God.” So in medical terminology, this church was flatlining. It was in the ICU. It was barely hanging on. It was on life support. Their light was about to go out. But there was still for some a faintly flickering flame. There was still time. Because as we’re going to see soon, there was still a faithful remnant there in Sardis who was holding fast to Christ. But even for them, time was running out. So Jesus here wants this church to wake up and be strengthened to fulfill the “good works,” Ephesians 2:10, “that God had prepared for them from beforehand.”

Third, as we drop down into verse 3, He calls, the Lord calls on the church to remember. “Remember what you have received,” He says. That’s a present-tense imperative which means keep on remembering. Remember every day. Never allow yourselves to forget. Their deadness had left them lethargic. So the Lord here is telling them to remember the thrill and the enthusiasm they once had when they first heard the message of the gospel of grace.

He’s implying here to remember that feeling they felt, we know this feeling, that ‘hurt so good’ feeling when you first heard the Word of God faithfully preached. And the Word as it was preached to you was cutting those channels of conviction in your hearts. And over time, growth happens. Not the good kind of growth, but overgrowth happens in those channels of conviction that somebody made, the Spirit made ultimately, but over time the worries of the world, the cares of the world, cover up those channels. The Lord here is saying clear the brush in those channels. Get back to that time as though when you first heard the Word preached, you were feeling those profitable pangs of conviction. Get back to that.

Fourth, He calls on this church, still in verse 3 here, to “keep it,” meaning the Word of God, to obey it. To go back to what was once their joy. To not just read the Word, but to delight in doing the Word. Living in light of what the Word reveals. Folks, if you here this evening are not who you once were, meaning you aren’t who you were right after you were saved. And I don’t mean that in a good way. If you aren’t here this evening the way you were when you were newly saved, freshly saved, freshly in the family of God. You know what I am talking about, you know that feeling. Jesus here is saying, “Remember.” He’s saying be true to Me and be true to My Word the way you once were. Come into this place and go out there with the zeal that you once had.

Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, Jesus calls on this church to “repent.” To repent. That’s another imperative. It’s describing this one-time definite action. Repent! To repent is to acknowledge before God: Lord, I have strayed. Lord, I am wrong. Lord, I have gone off the path. Lord, I need your forgiveness. Repentance is turning from something that’s wrong, and turning toward righteousness. It’s a decisive turn with the Spirit’s help, from an old way of living to now new ways of living.

Again, we have to continually bring this over and bridge this to our context. We aren’t reading these letters as though they’re just historical artifacts, that was interesting, I guess I will go on with my week now. No. These are applicable today. And the application this evening from that word from Jesus to this church and by extension to us, is that there is some of you here this evening who need to repent. You need to repent from looking at the things on the phone that you’re looking at. You need to repent of the lust that’s made its home in your heart. You need to repent of that inappropriate relationship that’s just starting to develop, just in seed form, nobody will know. You need to repent of that anger that’s bubbling inside. You need to repent of those pangs of envy which attack you when so-and-so has that thing or so-and-so bought that thing or so-and-so has that relationship that I wish I had. You need to repent of that critical, unloving, unforgiving spirit that nags you, and makes you a burr in the saddle of others here in this body.

You need to repent. You need to resolve to walk in a new manner worthy of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. And I’m not giving that charge here again because I’m omniscient. I’m not. I’m giving that charge because Jesus, the Lord of the church is omniscient. And again, He is scanning this church, any church, with those eyes like flame of fire, flames of fire, looking for purity. Demanding purity. Expecting holiness as it relates to His bride. That’s our Lord’s desire for His church. Ephesians 5. Holiness, purity in His church.

Back to our text. Here come the consequences. Here come the consequences for allowing an unrepentant, unholy deadness to pervade a church. Look at the “or else” statement, into verse 3. He says, “Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.” Now I don’t take that to be an eschatological statement. Meaning I don’t think this thief language is about a Rapture or a Second Coming. Those passages are in other places in the Bible.

I think what Jesus is saying here very simply is at a time unannounced, He will be on this church’s doorstep when they least expect it. They’ll be doing their thing, they’ll be going through general church busyness. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Bible study, Bible study, Bible study, program, program, program. They’ll think everything is going fine on the outside to mask the deadness on the inside. And that’s when He’ll show up. That’s when He’ll show up to put out their candlestick once and for good. To bury them and to put them into the grave.

Well, as bleak a picture as is being painted here, all hope in Sardis wasn’t lost. And that’s because, as I mentioned earlier, there apparently was a faithful remnant in this city or in this church, this dead church. Verse 4, He says, “But you have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.”

So, while Jesus has nothing positive to say to this church in terms of the good they were doing, He does go on to give them this sliver of hope to hang onto. Because apparently in this church, dead as it was, there were a handful, a smattering of true believers who had not soiled their garments, spiritually speaking, by falling into sin. That verb there for “soiled” means to stain, to defile, to smear, to pollute. It’s a word that would have meant something to this town because I mentioned at the beginning they had two sources of wealth: gold, and this was a big wool dying town. They knew what it meant to have a stained garment. And of course, garments in many places in Scripture characterized or speak to character. I’ll just mention Jude 23 where it says, “for others, save, snatching them out of the fire; and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic,” the garment, “polluted by the flesh.”

The point here is that there was a faithful remnant in Sardis. Just like there was in Sodom. Just like there was in Israel. Just as there are in many dying churches today. And this believing remnant is pictured here as walking with Christ in white. “They will walk with Me in white.” The white robes there described here as walking in, pictures the righteousness of the spotless Lamb which has been imputed to them, not because of His supposed Law-keeping on their behalf, but because He is perfect and righteous inherently. Their sin had been scrubbed away. Their sin had been taken care of by the One who paid their debt. Isaiah 1:18. “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” And those words, “walk with Me in white” describe the faithful living that this righteous remnant was now committed to living out. They were going to be “unstained by the world” as James 1:27 says. They wouldn’t be taken up with pagan impurity. They hadn’t fallen into the sinful practices of the church and the culture.

With that, we look at verse 5. And as He does in each of the letters to these churches, the Lord offers these promises and assurances to those who overcome, to those who conquer, to those that believe that Jesus is the Son of God. To those who overcome the Lord gives these promises. There’s three of them, three assurances in verse 5. He says, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

So the first promise or the first assurances that they will be these faithful ones, will “be clothed in white garments.” In the ancient world, white garments were worn for festive occasions like weddings. And that’s fitting because we know at the marriage supper of the Lamb from Revelation 19, that we will wear white garments on that feast day. Well, the white garments here in verse 5, display outwardly that the believer having been saved from sin is now cloaked with Christ’s perfect righteousness. Not His earned righteousness. Not His law-keeping righteousness. His inherent righteousness as the eternal Son of God.

Here comes the second promise He makes. He says, “and I will never erase his name from the book of life” there in verse 5. So those who overcome, those who conquer, those who believe in the name of Jesus Christ, will never have their names erased from the Book of Life. The Book of Life is that book in which God keeps the record of those who have eternal life. We see that book described in Philippians 4:3. The context there is Paul’s stepping in on that brewing conflict between Euodia and Syntyche. And he does say, “I ask you also, genuine companion, help these women who have contended together alongside of me in the gospel, with also Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” So there we go.

We also see the “Book of Life” mentioned in Revelation 20:12, there toward the end of our book. It says, “Then I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.” So the dead, the lost, the unconverted, they’re judged based on the record that has been kept of their sin. But the Christian’s name is in the “Book of Life.”

So if you’ve believed in the name of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the Savior, you will not only be eternally clothed in white garments, but when you die, you will have assurance that your name will never be erased from the “Book of Life.” God put it there. It will never be taken away.

Here’s the third promise or assurance into verse 5. He says, “and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Christ here is saying, if you overcome, if you conquer, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, “I will personally confess your name before My Father and before His angels.” This is right in line with what the Lord said some years before. Before His death, before His resurrection. You can jot down Matthew 10:32, where He says “everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.”

Last we get to verse 6 here in these final familiar words. He says, our Lord says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” If I can put that in kind of common speech for today, He’s say here to this church and I would argue bridging the context He’s saying to our church, “Are you listening? Are you processing this? Is it clicking? Is it sinking in? Are you heeding what I’m saying?”

Well, those final words from Jesus our Lord in verse 6, leave us, leave all of us with a challenge. And that challenge is this: to really think through with humble hearts, are there things in our church which bear resemblance to what was going on in Sardis? Are there marks of spiritual deadness which like dead branches are in our midst? If so, if the answer is yes, what are we willing to do about it? How are we willing to think about it? What changes are we willing to make to make sure that we don’t face ultimately the same fate as did Sardis?

Lots to think about. Lots to pray about. Lots to converse about in real, honest conversations to make sure that we heed these Words from the Lord of the church. Words that it’s too late for Sardis to heed, but not late for our church or any church today to heed. To make sure we don’t fall into the same trap.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for this time in Your Word. These are sobering words from the Lord of the church. These are frankly scary words from Jesus Christ our Savior. But yet we don’t need to shy away from these words. We ought not shy away from these words. We should run head long into these words and be willing to do the hard work to make sure that with the Spirit’s help, with Your guidance, with Your strength, we do not end with the same fate as this church in Sardis. May we learn the negative lesson from this church. May we learn the pitfalls that this church was prone to, the pits this church fell into, and may You keep us far clear of them. Help us to be a church that is alert. A church that is watchful. A church that is quick to repent. A church that is vibrant and full of life. Not so that we get any praise. Not so that we get any acclaim. Not so that every single seat in this auditorium is filled. But ultimately so that You get glory. That’s what we want, God. We want this church to be a pure church, which is what Christ expects of us. And we want You to receive glory. May You do so for Your name’s sake. In Your name we pray. Amen.