Letters From God: to the Church in Sardis
Sardis: Revelation 3:1-6
We have been through four of the
letters to the seven churches in Asia as found in Revelation 2 and 3, and today
we continue with Sardis. Before we get to the letter, a little about the city
of Sardis. Sardis was a city of wealth and fame. They were the first to make
gold and silver coins, as gold was mined there. They claimed
to be the first to discover the art
of dyeing wool.
So they were wealthy. They faced the
opposite trouble as the church in Smyrna, who was told, “I know your poverty,
but you are rich.” In Smyrna, as is often the case here, there were money
issues. The church didn’t have much money, but what they had was more important
spiritually. So much that in spite of their lack of monetary wealth, God
considered them rich. But this wasn’t the case for the church in Sardis. They
were comfortable. They lived in a place where it was OK to be Christian; they
didn’t face persecution from the outside, and they were free from heresy or
false teaching on the inside. It would seem like the perfect church.
I remember being moved from one
church to another, and I met with the previous pastor who was retiring. He was
excited to tell me about all the money the church had, and the plans for a new
building. But what he didn’t tell me was that the church was stuck and was in
the midst of its own civil war. He didn’t tell me that the leader of the food
pantry was mean and nasty. He didn’t tell me that one of the leaders was sowing
seeds of discontent and adultery. He was just excited that they had money.
Sardis was even worse. In the rest of
the letters to the churches, they all start out with a compliment. You’re doing
great here, but here is where you’re not doing so well. But in this letter, it
starts out: I know your deeds. You have a
reputation for being alive, but you’re dead. One church I served told me
they had been lulled to sleep. But they weren’t dead. Just sleeping. But I have
been in dead churches. There are dead churches that look dead. One church I
know of had dwindled down from being the
largest church in town to being unable to pay their bills. They hadn’t seen a
profession of faith or baptism in years. They were still hurt over a church
split that had happened 20 years before. And they were extremely angry when the
district superintendent closed the church. But they were a dead church.
But while those are the obviously
dead churches, Sardis doesn’t look like that. I’m sure Sardis had the best
building in town. They might have been full every week. But I’ve seen churches
that are full but they’re dead. When Jesus is never even mentioned in a church
service, you might wonder if you’re in a dead church. When the church is all
caught up in cultural issues but hasn’t seen a single person accept Jesus as
savior, they might be dead. When an attitude of “do whatever you want to” is
fostered in the church, it might be dead.
Even if it looks alive. In Mark 11,
Jesus and his disciples encounter a fig tree in leaf, but it had no fruit.
Jesus cursed the tree, and it withered. And many churches or professing
Christians have leaves – we look the part – but no fruit. The Bible tells us
that we will be known by our fruit. The church in Sardis had no fruit. That’s
what was supposed to differentiate a living church from a dead church.
Are we a living church, or are we,
too, dead? What is our fruit?
There is good news, though. We see in
this passage that the church in Sardis has been proclaimed dead, but we also
see that they have been given commands. You wouldn’t think someone who is dead
could respond to a command, but this is the joy of following Christ; he is a
God of second chances.
Although the church in Sardis has
been pronounced dead, it still had the possibility of restoration to life.[1] Christ, who knows their
deeds, has not found any of them carried out fully. They started right, but
then they gave up to accommodate the pagan culture around them. Their hearts
were lacking, and without the right heart, nothing they could do is enough. If
your heart is wrong, no amount of good works is enough. The church in Sardis
had built a name for themselves in the community, but in God’s eyes, they
hadn’t measured up.
So in verses 2-3, he tells the church
to: Be watchful. Strengthen what remains
and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my
God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and
repent.
I found the history very interesting
here. The first command, to be watchful, would carry special weight in Sardis. Twice
in its history the acropolis had fallen to the enemy due to a lack of vigilance
on the part of the defenders. In 549 b.c. Cyrus captured the acropolis by
deploying a climber to work his way up a crevice on one of the nearly
perpendicular walls of the mountain fortress. Late in the third century the
city was again captured in the same way. A Cretan by the name of Lagoras discovered
a vulnerable point and with a band of fifteen men made a daring climb, opened
the gates from within, and allowed the armies of Antiochus the Great to
overpower them. To consider oneself secure and fail to remain alert is to court
disaster,[2] and this is a main theme
throughout the Bible and especially Revelation.
So they are to be watchful. Watch
out.
They are also told to strengthen what
remains. Perhaps they started with good works and they are being commanded to
complete them. But the context is that they are to remember what they’ve been
taught – remember why they exist as a church in the first place. Why are they
there at all? What are the remedial, foundational teachings of the church? What
are their key beliefs?
Once they go back and remember why
they exist, and what they’re supposed to be doing then the next command is
clear; do what you’re supposed to be doing!
And the last command is repent! This
is illustrated in 2 Kings 22, where Hilkiah the High Priest found the book of
the Law in the Temple. King Josiah tore his robes in anguish and inquired of
the Lord. Then the people gathered together and renewed the covenant with God.
King Josiah destroyed the places where the people worshiped other gods and got
rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all
detestable things, and the people finally celebrated the Passover, which hadn’t
been done in years. Repenting means stopping what you are doing, turning 180
degrees around, and going in the opposite direction. It’s not enough just to
quit doing wrong, but instead, do what’s right.
And so, if the believers in Sardis are
willing to do this, if they become overcomers, Christ promises that he will
acknowledge their names before his Father and the angels. This is a clear reflection
of Matthew 10:32, where Jesus says, “Whoever
acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in
heaven.” Faithfulness in trial now is to be rewarded beyond measure in the
life to come.[3]
[1] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 94). Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[2] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (pp. 93–94).
Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[3] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 97). Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Comments