Turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 3 as we continue working through the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Tonight we're looking at the letter to Sardis. Revelation chapter 3, verses 1 to 6. I'll just read beginning in verse 1 at Revelation 3.
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things says he who has the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard.
Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but 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. Amen. Steve, can I ask you to pray? of your career as a student, or a student in the classroom, or a youth, or an entrepreneur, it's the merits of the work you're made of, or the work you're proud of, the work of a student, or a living artist, or a worker, or a business person. Dr.
Bob Gallagher appreciates this work, and will often strengthen it as he appears to it. He won't work, he will work, a student will work, and he will work here, and the message is contained in this class. the church starts to be burdened with, and we've been blessed by it, and we've been honored by it, and we pray that we are able to accommodate that, as we go over our obstacles, and as we go through the lessons of this church, that we might seek to avoid their errors, and we might seek to erase things that they are committed to doing. Amen. Lesartes and Laodicea of the seven churches received the sharpest rebukes from Jesus Christ, and for that reason are probably the most terrifying of these seven letters.
If a lack of love characterized Ephesus and doctrinal compromise infected Pergamos and Thyatira, we would have to say of Sardis and Laodicea that decline and decay were the besetting sins of those particular churches. decline and decay. Now the city of Sardis itself had a past splendor and a present decline, or at least at the time that this was penned. It was the capital of the ancient Lydian kingdom and reached its pinnacle of fame in the 6th century BC. The city, which was supposed to be impregnable, that means they thought it could not be defeated, it could not be destroyed, was attacked on two separate occasions.
In 549 BC by Cyrus, the leader of the Persian Empire, and in 218 BC by Antiochus. In the words of R. Charles, no city in Asia presented a more deplorable contrast of past splendor and present unresting decline. And the church was very much like the city.
We see in the reading that they had a reputation that they were alive, but Jesus says you're dead. So for all intents and appearances, at least from those outside, when they looked upon this group of believers, or this group of professing believers, it appeared that they were a church. It appeared that they were doing the right things. It appeared that they were going through the motions.
But Jesus condemns them and says that they are not doing what they should be. They did not have the heart. They were not engaged internally. They may have went through motions, but that was all it was.
Religious externalism and formal obeying of the outward things does not avail with Christ. Christ looks upon the heart. Christ is about internal religion. We remember this morning in Matthew 15, that debate or that confrontation that Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees.
They said, why does your master eat with unwashed hands? Or why do the disciples of your master eat with unwashed hands? Why do they transgress the tradition of the elders? In other words, if you just did those outward things, you were fine.
Jesus says, you guys are violating the very commandment of God. That's a much bigger problem. This letter follows the same pattern. There is a self-description of Jesus in verse 1 that answers specifically to the condition of the church.
There is a condemnation of the church in verses 1b and 2. An exhortation to the church on how they are to get their act together. And then there's a qualification given by Christ in verse 4. He goes on in verse 4 to say, you have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments.
That's good news. So in the midst of a context where there is general decay and decline, there are nevertheless a group of faithful ones within that congregation. And Jesus sees that, Jesus acknowledges their existence, and Jesus encourages them with great reward and great benefit. And as all the letters do, this one ends also with a promise made to overcomers in verse 5.
Christ's Self-Description
Let's look at the self-description again. It answers very specifically to what the situation was there in Sardis. Verse 1, these things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. He who has the seven spirits of God.
We saw that reference already in our reading of chapter 1 and verse 4. It's a reference to the Holy Spirit. The number 7 in the book of Revelation is often times the number of completeness or of perfection. So it refers to the fullness of the Holy Spirit and His gift. and His power and His grace and His kindness.
And it's very interesting, this does answer to the need in this church. The need is life. The Spirit gives life. You remember that vision that the prophet Ezekiel had back in Ezekiel 37.
There was a valley of dry bones, and the way that those dry bones came to life was through the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 3, Jesus says that you must be born again. The idea being, you're dead in your trespasses and sins. In order to be born, you must have the Holy Spirit.
So for this church that professed, this church that had a reputation, but this church that really didn't have life, Christ comes as the one who has the seven spirits of God. So he's not coming just to upbraid. He's not coming just to condemn. He's coming to aid.
He's coming to assist. He's coming with the very thing that this church needs. Again, this demonstrates the mercy and the kindness and the graciousness of our Savior. Throughout the Bible, the Spirit of God is the one who gives life.
That is especially what the church in Sardis needed. And Christ, as the Lord of the church, comes fully equipped with those resources that the Sardis church needed. He says that he has the seven stars. We saw the seven stars, according to chapter one, are the angels of the churches.
The angels are probably the human messengers, the pastors, or the overseers. And this may cut one of two ways. Perhaps the minister here was seeking to be faithful, and Christ is giving him reassurance of his presence. As if to say, I hold you in my hand, and even though there's things that are messed up in the congregation, I've not cast you off, I've not cast you away, I am here as your comforter, as your helper, as your assistant.
Or it could mean that he was an unfaithful man, and Christ is stressing this. Christ is acknowledging that there is one of these seven angels that is in his hand that is not towing the line, that is not faithful, that is not preaching properly, that is not living out the gospel in the context there in Sardis. Whichever way it is, it does tell us and highlight the fact that Christ is conscious of his churches. He's conscious of men of God.
When James says, let not many of you be teachers, for we shall incur a stricter judgment, we see that in this kind of reference. Christ doesn't just give gifts to men and then look the other way. Christ superintends. Christ in the language of 1 Peter is the chief shepherd.
All pastors, all ministers of the gospel are under shepherds. Christ himself being the chief, he maintains accountability, he maintains watch, he maintains his finger on the pulse in the life of local churches.
The Indictment of Sardis
And then he comes to condemn for their particular sin. And that brings us to verses 1b and 2. Notice their reputation. These things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. You have a name that you are alive. Again, they had the reputation. They had the profession.
They had all of the appearance in place. They had profession of Christ and as a church, but their possession of Christ was not lively, zealous, vibrant, or anything noteworthy. I believe that there is a bit of hyperbole here when he says that you are dead, because later on he'll encourage them to strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. The hyperbole simply illustrates just how bad the problem is here in Sardis.
Beasley Murray comments, observers of this fellowship see all the signs of a prosperous community. You have the name of being alive, but the appearance is that of a beautifully adorned corpse in a funeral parlor and the Lord is not deceived. That's cutting. I mean, you may have all the bells and whistles, you may have all the programs, you may have all the people and everything in place, but if there isn't love to Christ, there isn't love to one another, obedience to the Word of God, and a love for the Word of God, it's just like he says.
It is a beautifully adorned corpse. in a funeral parlor. Hendrickson says Sardis enjoyed a good reputation, but it did not deserve this reputation. So all that glitters is not gold, according to the Lord Jesus Christ. And while Sardis may have glittered, while onlookers may have thought that they were doing the right thing, and using the right programs, and doing the right performance before the Lord, the Lord comes and says, you're dead.
You're as good as dead. You're like a beautifully adorned corpse in a funeral parlor. Christ sees where it counts.
Decay and Declining Works
Notice, we see that they were decaying and declining based on Christ's statement in verse 2. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain. Love this. Strengthen the things which remain.
He doesn't tell them to start a bunch of new stuff. Go to the latest conference and learn how to do church. He says, be watchful, be on the alert, be looking out for the difficulties. In another way, he may be saying, wake up to the reality that you are a beautifully adorned corpse. in a funeral parlor.
In other words, get sight of what's really going on in your midst. Wake up and smell the coffee. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Strengthen the things that remain seems to carry the idea that they had been fizzling out.
It wasn't as if they just adopted Jezebel's doctrine. It wasn't as if they just threw off all profession of faith in Christ. They were not hard-hearted apostates. He calls them to take the things which remain and strengthen them.
In other words, blow them back into being. Go back to the beginning and grab a hold of those things which were your foundation as a church. And instead of replacing them, revive them. Instead of being novel or new, go to those things which are already there and improve upon them.
The perfection in view here has the idea of being complete or fulfilled. When Jesus says, I have found your works, I have not found your works perfect before God. It's not saying that he thinks that churches will offer perfect obedience. The idea is whole or complete.
And then the standard, notice, by which this church's works are measured before my God. That's the variant reading in the New King James that says, I have not found your words perfect before God. There's a reading that says, before my God. The idea is the same in either case.
Outsiders may have looked in and saw the church and said, hey, that's a good place to be. Outsiders may have looked in or even come in among them and said, hey, this is a good place to be. Everything's in order. Everything's in place.
They're doing a lot of vibrant, or at least apparently vibrant things. But Christ says the genuine measuring standard for all church life is God. The genuine measuring standard by which an activity conducted is successful or not is God. That's what he says.
Chilton said the church had become, as Mounce correctly observes, secularized. Its fundamental worldview was no different from that of the surrounding pagan culture. They were not different, they were not holy, they were not a righteous community, they were not loving Christ, loving one another, delighting in the truth of God. They looked just like the world that they were in.
That cannot be the case. We must be different. Not different like, look at those weirdos, but different in terms of orientation. We are in the world, but we mustn't be of the world.
And in our attempts to win the world, we still must, by the grace of God, maintain holiness and righteousness and godliness. When Jesus went to eat with sinners, He didn't sin. When Jesus received prostitutes, he didn't lay with them. When Paul said he became all things to all men, that he might win some, he did it without sinning.
So we know that it can be done.
Exhortation: Watch, Remember, Repent
And then notice, thirdly, the exhortation to the church. He first, as we've said, said, be watchful, wake up. The present tense indicates a continual habit of life. A church can never settle on its lease or it will be a dying thing.
He says, strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. Identify those things that you are doing that are biblical, that are pleasing to God. Instead of discarding them or replacing them, strengthen them. If they laid off the Apostles' doctrine, get back to it.
Get back to the Word. Get back to the Scriptures. They had laid off the sacraments and they were not commuting at the Lord's table. He says strengthen those things which remain.
If their prayer meetings were no longer attended, or if in their church life or their individual lives, prayer never occupied a place of prestige or a place of priority, Jesus says strengthen those things. That's the admonition here. It's not always about starting new things. It may be about identifying those things that you are not doing properly and then do them the way you are supposed to.
The things which remain were obviously those things in place that still meant that they were a church. They were to strengthen them. They were to come to Christ. They were to pray for more of the Spirit.
They were to seek that life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, so that when they studied the Bible, so that when they prayed together, so that when they had fellowship, so that when they broke bread, they weren't just going through a lifeless form, but because the Spirit was upon them, they were worshiping God. and they were encouraging one another. He says, remember therefore how you have received and heard. I love that. Remember therefore how you have received and heard.
Remember. What got you to be a church? What got you into Christianity? Remember those things.
See, sometimes in our Christian life, again, it's not, you know, we might get convicted in our individual life. I just need to do something new in order to please the Lord. It may be you need to do something you did at the beginning, but you don't do anymore. Sometimes people get converted and they commit a certain amount of time to reading their Bible and praying.
And then about five, ten years as a Christian, they don't do that anymore. And then about five or ten years as a Christian, they identify something missing in their lives. I've got to do something. I've got to get that healing back.
I've got to get that warmth back. Well, it may be you need to read your Bible and pray. That may be it. I'm not saying we can't introduce new forms of worship, you know, biblically defined.
You want to take a hymn book in your time of worship and praise God through song? By all means, do that. That's great, that's fantastic. But sometimes the answer isn't, what new thing can I do?
Sometimes the answer is, I need the Spirit to do what God has given me to do, and to do it in a spirit that is proper, that is righteous, that is worshipful, that is God-honoring, that is holy. In the sound doctrine we have received and heard, which drives living, hearty, and God-honoring churchmanship. And then notice he says, hold fast and repent. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard, hold fast and repent.
We have seen several times in our study in these letters, repentance from Christ here is another sign of his mercy. He's giving them time. He's giving them grace. He's calling them to repent.
He is calling them to change their minds. He is calling them to manifest fruits of repentance. They are to hold fast. They are to persevere.
They are to repent. He threatens judgment upon them. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. I think the coming upon you in that section is similar to what we've seen already.
He will come and he will fight against them. He will close their church down. He will remove their lampstand. while they're going through the motions, while they're playing church, while they're professing without possessing, Christ will come and he will shut them down once and for all. And it will be manifest that they did not repent, they did not hold fast, they did not do those things that he called them to.
The Faithful Remnant in Sardis
The qualification, as we saw in verse 4, you have a few names even in Sardis. Hence, there was still a church. He didn't shut them down yet because there was still a people there. There was still a church there.
Now, consider this. We've already seen Pergamos. They dwelt where Satan's throne was. Right?
Consider this church in Sardis. There's a pagan culture outside their church. There's unbelieving Jews with a lot of synagogues outside their church. Inside their church is a bunch of zombies.
You know what the zombies are? Zombies are the living dead. They walk around real slow and they got gazes in their eyes and they eat each other and do all that sort of thing. There's not really zombies, kids.
That's just a fictional character. That's kind of how these people were. They were in the church. They were professing.
They professed to be alive. And yet there was no spiritual life in them. There was no vitality. You talk to them about Christ, and they would talk to you about, you know, work.
Not that it's always wrong to talk about work, but if that's all you ever talk about, that's not Christian fellowship. You would talk to them about spiritual verities and truth and God-honoring things and worship, and they would just look at you with this gaze, because they had no life in themselves. So the faithful Christians in Sardis had a pagan culture outside to contend with, had unbelieving Jews to contend with, and had a church full of people that were not honoring God, and yet, Christ says, you have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments. Kudos to these brethren.
David Clark. little book called The Message from Patmos. There's a copy in there. It's a very excellent treatment of the book of Revelation. Very thin, very easy to read.
He said, Christian life and character are possible in difficult places. Let no Christian give over his effort because of the unfriendliness of his environment, nor fail in faith and faithfulness when all is dark and discouraging. You can't use this as an argument. Oh Lord, it's so hard.
We've got a pagan culture. We've got unbelieving Jews. And we've got a bunch of people in our church that don't care about you. I'm going to go sin because I deserve it.
Or I'm not going to be holy because I deserve it. No, Christ comes and he says, you have a few names. And I love this. Even in Sardis.
What an indictment, man! You have a few names, even in Sardis! That's how that reads! That's like saying to someone, man, you're pretty decent, even with your disability.
You've done well, even with your lack of mental perception. You're doing well, even though you have this handicap. That's what he says. You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments.
They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. They are pure. They avoided the compromise and the hypocrisy of others. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father is this, to visit widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
They did that, even in Sardis. That's great. That's an accomplishment. That's a blessed statement.
Jesus said, they shall walk with me in white.
Promise of Communion to the Faithful
Comparing this and Revelation 3.20, I genuinely believe that the church, by and large, you get out of it what you put into it. Notice in chapter 3, verse 20, Jesus' statement to the church in Laodicea, which we will see, God willing, next Sunday night, is not a gospel invitation. I know that it's been preached that way. I know that it's been handled that way in the history of the church.
I know that there's a famous painting where Jesus is standing at a door. There's no handle because he could never bust through. You, however, on the other side have the handle and you must open up to him in order to be saved. That is not what Revelation 3.20 teaches.
It is a promise to a church. It is a promise to the corporate body. It is a promise to those within a church that is punctuated with dead people, that is punctuated with lukewarm religion, who nevertheless hear the truth of God and respond favorably to Christ. Even in the midst of that dead and dying society, Christ will come and will commune with you. blessed, blessed promise.
I really and honestly believe that we will get from the church what we put into the church. Kennedy said it about statism this way, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. We all want everything given to us, and we want to be special and blessed and all of that, but at times we're not giving. It's a fundamental issue in the scriptures.
It says we are to give first. And in this section, in both these letters, in Sardis and Laodicea, the faithful in the midst of a compromised situation are given this blessed promise, that those who have not defiled their garments, they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Christ will commune, even with those who are in Sardis. It's amazing.
Amazing. Now, that's not to say if you're in a dead church and you want to go somewhere else, this ain't the Hotel California. An old song said about the Hotel California, once you check in, you can never check out. Church membership is voluntary.
Not to say there's only one church. That's not what I'm saying. But whatever church you're in, you need to give yourself in that body and seek God's grace and blessing in that context for His glory, for His honor, and for your soul's well-being. This is not a rant that you have to be here and you have.
No. General statement about church life and churchmanship.
Promise to Overcomers
And then notice, finally, the promise to overcomers in verse 5. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. It's beautiful. Later on in the book of Revelation, we see that very thing.
The armies of the Lord of hosts, those who follow the Lamb, the one who rides on the white horse, they are clothed in white linen. They are clothed by God's grace and for His glory. It is the fruition, it is the fulfillment of the promise. So much of the promises made in Revelation 2 and 3 are developed later in the book of Revelation, so that we see Jesus is not just giving an empty promise.
But what He is saying, He delivers. What he says, he makes good on, and such is the case in this instance. Albert Barnes says, the expression, I will not blot out, means that the names would be found there on the great day of final account and would be found there forever. It may be remarked that as no one can have access to that book, but he who keeps it, there is the most positive assurance that it will never be done, and the salvation of the redeemed will be, therefore, secure.
I'm sorry, that it will never be undone. God tends to this book. No one's going to unwrite your name in it. And then Jesus makes that blessed statement at the end of verse 5.
But I will confess his name before my Father. and before His angels. Beautiful. Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of Him, the Son of Man, will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father. Mark 8, 38.
If we are faithful by God's grace, He will confess our worthless names, as the hymn writer says, to His Father. He will confess our names before His God. Isn't that blessed? We confess His name on earth.
He confesses our name before His Father in heaven.
Application: Spirit and Word
Brethren, we need to entreat Christ for the life-giving Spirit. The Holy Spirit grants life. He sustains life. He revives life.
In order to avoid the decay and decline of Sardis, we must implore Christ to send His Spirit upon us. I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you. Do not wake up on a Sunday morning and come to church without first having asked God to give us His Spirit.
We can look at our church and say, man, I could shoot a shotgun right now and not hit anybody. But how many of us this morning prayed that God would send His Spirit? How many of you, each and every day, pray that God will send His Spirit? We need to love the Word of God.
Consider the necessity of the Word with reference to the Lord's statement in verse 1. He says, these things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Spirit of God gives life. The seven stars, the preachers in the church preach the word of life.
Spirit and word together gives life. Hendrickson said, he also has in his right hand the seven stars. By means of the ministers of the Word and their message, the life-giving Spirit is able to revive a dead church. So the Spirit and the Word.
On Sunday morning, throughout the week, pray, God, send your Holy Spirit powerfully. And God, cause the Word to be preached. Testimonies are good, witness is good, love is good, but of his will, by the word of truth he brought us forth. The scriptures are absolutely essential for the salvation of sinners.
If we don't have the gospel, sinners will go to hell. Therefore, the teaching ministry, the preaching ministry of the church is very vital for salvation to the lost and for sustenance to the saved. For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So we need to understand that Christ comes with all the equipment necessary to revive a dead church.
And it is the Spirit and it is the Word. And if we're not praying for God to give us the Spirit and the Word, we're really not serious about revival. And then we need to hear, as Jesus says in this letter, what he says to the churches. You shouldn't fall on a deaf ear.
Chapter 3, verses 1-6 is very relevant to the Free Grace Baptist Church in Chilliwack in British Columbia. Let us not turn a deaf ear to these exhortations. Let us not leave here without having been affected by the Living Word. We are spending considerable amount of time on these letters because of their importance to us.
If we were to characterize our church, if we were to characterize Reformed churches, It is probably decay and decline that is our besetting sin. Generally speaking, ministers don't get in the pulpit and say Jesus Christ was created. That's not generally our problem. We don't usually have Bible studies looking at Joel Osteen's book on how to be a better you.
Rank heresy is not generally, it can be. I'm not saying we're immune to that, but as a general rule, in Reformed churches, it isn't rank heresy that we have to deal with. And it's usually not rank, open, flagrant sin that isn't being dealt with. Not to say we don't have flagrant sin.
Not to say we don't have bad things going on. But hopefully, if we get wind of it, we try to do something about it. So if it's not rank heresy and it's not open, vile, heinous sin, I suspect that the sin of Sardis is more often than not true of our church and other Reformed churches. Decay and decline.
Decay and decline. And the answer to decay and decline is the Lord Jesus Christ who holds in His hand the seven spirits and the seven stars. the Lord Jesus who has the Spirit and the life-giving Word and who promises to give those things to those who ask. Let it not be said that we have not because we ask not. Let us pray, let us seek, and let us implore the Lord God to fill us with His Spirit and to give us a love for His truth.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Father, we thank you for these letters, and we thank you for their unique application in the life of our church. We pray, God, that you would help us to shake off decay and decline. Help us, God, to have that zeal to seek the Spirit of the living God, to seek that Word that is a life-changing, a life-altering, a life-giving Word.
And give us zeal, Father, to serve you with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. I pray that you would go with each one of us now, that you would watch over us in this coming week. God, guide us and direct us according to your most holy will and cause us to be good lightbearers for you. And we ask through Christ our Lord.
Amen.