Sardis

Sardis—the Dead Church
Rev 3:1-6

 The Progression
o Pergamum—Being corrupted
o Thyatira—Corrupt
o Sardis—Dead

 In Ephesus, a solid orthodox church that put up with no nonsense had, nonetheless lost their first love.
 In Smyrna, persecution had purified the church.
 In Pergamum, the majority were true believers, but they were tolerating open gross sin.
 In Thyatira, the majority were lost church members, and the corruption had become institutionalized.
 And In Sardis, only a small remnant of the church were true believers.

1. Jesus to Them—(3:1) ""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…”

a. The ministry of the Holy Spirit—sent by the Father and the Son—

(1) This church was devoid of the Spirit, except for the remnant

(2) Christ is reminding those who are there and listening, that a church without the Spirit of God is not a church!

(3) We depend on Christ to be with us and be our Paraclete—(John 14:15-16) ""If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever;"

(4) The Father and Son sent the Spirit as the ultimate Teacher of the churches—

(a) (John 14:26) ""But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

(b) (John 15:26) ""But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me."

(5) The evangelistic ministry of the churches is impossible without the convicting power of the Holy Spirit—(John 16:8-12) ""And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 "of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 "of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged…”

(6) This dead church needs the enlivening power of the Holy Spirit to come back to life.

b. The ministry of Christ to the pastors—“…and the seven stars…”

(1) The Pastor of this church is either dead along with his members, or he is ministering to the remnant, frustrated and beaten

(2) Either way, Christ reminds the pastor that he is not working for man—he is working for God

(3) He either needs to get saved, as Steve Brown did, under his own preaching, or he needs to pray for revival of this dead church.

c. For us in the 21st century, how many dead churches are out there? Maybe most of them?


2. A Very Simple Condemnation, and a direct instruction—"3:1b …I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead…2 "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.”…3a "Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.

a. Their works—"3:1b …I know your works… I have not found your works perfect [complete] before God.”

(1) There were things going on—otherwise they would not have had a reputation of life.

(2) Christ knows about their works—but curiously, He does not mention knowing THEM…

(Mat 7:21-23) ""Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"

(John 10:26-27) ""But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

(3) It is not that He does not know about them—He just doesn’t know them—there is no relationship.

(4) But even here, there is failure—their works were not “perfect,” this is not Teleios, it is pleroo—completeness, or fullness—it is not that their works were immature, they were half-hearted at best, going through the motions.

(a) They went through the motions, but there was no fullness in what they were doing.

(b) Their works were without life, without feeling

(c) These works were good enough to fool those on the outside, and may be some on the inside, but you can’t fool God.

b. Their Reputation—a scary prospect here!

(1) They had the reputation of being alive

(2) This is not so much among their pagan neighbors, who could not have cared less

(3) This reputation was among the other churches—“Sardis, sure, great church, I hear…”

c. Their reality—their church was dead.

(1) Most of the members—dead

(2) Worship—dead

(3) Prayer—dead

(4) Outreach—dead

(5) Not that these things were absent from the services—they had the NAME of being alive—but there was no reality.

d. What could have caused this? Curiously, Jesus does not mention the specific problems that led to this, but since this is part of a progression, it is easy to see that a lack of love and progressively worse corruption would lead to this eventually.

e. But even here there were a few true believers—unlike Laodicea.

3. Some frightening Consequences— “…3b…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. …”

a. A curious parallel to the history of the city (summed up from MAC)

(1) Sardis was an ancient city—gold coins were first made there—there was so much gold available their that they had one of the richest of kingdoms. Croesus, one of their ancient kings, set the standard for wealth—if someone was really wealthy, it was said (almost up to our day) that he was “as rich as Croesus.”

(2) The city sat on a very high hill, with three deep 90 degree sides that were impossible to climb, and a fourth side where attackers could only climb in single file. It was considered beyond conquest.

(3) But twice in its long history it had been overthrown by enemies, and in both cases, it was their complacency that led to the overthrow. So confident were they that no one could take their city that they went to bed and left no sentries except on the side facing the narrow path. During the night, specially trained mountain climbers scaled the unguarded sides and in the morning light, the city fell—and again, this identical thing took place twice, separated by a couple of centuries.

b. Christ is coming to this church, and the implication is that He will shake it in a mighty way, and this coming in present judgment will happen without warning, just as the military overthrow of the city had hit without warning.

c. This is compared to the unexpected (by the world) coming of Christ—“…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…”

(1 Th 5:2) "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night."

(1 Th 5:4) "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief."

(2 Pet 3:10) "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…”

4. A Word to the Small and Faithful Remnant—

a. The remnant Identified—4 "You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments …”

(1) Even—even in Sardis there are true believers, perhaps as vexed as Lot, but they are there.

(2) A reality check—who is our Master? Jesus defines believers by their fruit, as in John 10:27

(3) Names—He is looking at a “book”, or a roster, and checking His list.

b. Promises to the Remnant—

(1) The Promises

(a) “…and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy

(b) 5 "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments…”


(2) They Shall—the security of the believer

(3) Walk with Him in white—dressed like Him, walking with Him as God’s people always have, but in That Day, we will walk as His brothers and sisters.

(4) Worthy—how can this be? He makes me worthy through the blood He shed for me, and by justification and imputation.

(5) The Issue of the Book and the Books “…and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life…”

(Exo 32:32) ""Yet now, if You will forgive their sin; but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.""

(Psa 56:8) "You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?"

(Psa 139:16) "Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them."

(Phil 4:3) "And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life."

(Rev 3:5) ""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."

(Luke 10:20) ""Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.""

(Rev 13:8) "All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

(Rev 17:8) ""The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."

(Rev 20:12) "And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books."

(Rev 20:15) "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."

(Rev 22:19) "and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."


(6) Christ’s Confession of MY Salvation—“…but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels….”


5. Encouragement From History—“6 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

a. Jesus is giving this church room to repent—did they?

b. Melito—pastor of Sardis 150 years later, was one of the great defenders of the faith

c. So, what happened? In my sanctified imagination, the pastor of Sardis received his copy of Revelation and took it to his church. Prayerfully, with trembling lips, he read it to the people, he repented of his poor leadership, the Spirit fell on all assembled there, and a great revival took place!.