Revelation 3:1-6 (Sardis)

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Introduction

To the Church in Sardis

3 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

This week we begin chapter 3 of John’s Apocalypse, to look specifically at Jesus’ letter to the church in Sardis. The church in Sardis is the 5th of the seven churches included here, and like the churches before it was suffering similar circumstances. These circumstances put pressure upon the church, social pressures to corrupt and compromise the churches. Like the other churches in Asia they faced opposition from the local Jewish population, pressure to worship Caesar, pressure to engage in sexual immorality, etc. However, no city was exactly the same, each one had it’s unique attributes or emphasis. Sometimes the Emperor Cult was more prominent in one city than another, some cities had a smaller or greater populations of Jews who opposed the church, and so on. Therefore, while the churches shared in similar circumstances, none of those circumstances were identical, and the churches responded to their circumstances in various ways. Sometimes they responded faithfully, and other times they succumb to corruption and compromise. Jesus usually, both, commends and rebukes the churches at various points. However, in his letter to Sardis there is no commendation, except the consolation in verse 4 that there are “still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments.”
Many historical artifacts from the city of Sardis still remain today, including the remains of a 4th century synagogue and a large temple to Artemis, the Greek goddess of nature and fertility, like the one found in Ephesus (built more than 200 years before Christ). The ancient city sat at the foot of a mountain near the modern city of Sart, Turkey, but no longer exists. It’s believed that the city was founded more than 1,400 years before Christ, and had been conquered repeatedly throughout history by the likes of Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great of Greece, and eventually Rome. In the days of Jesus, Sardis had lost to Smyrna the right to build Asia’s second imperial cult temple, because the Roman Senate believed the city’s financial resources were insufficient to the support the temple. Therefore, the temple to Artemis would later be divided in half to worship Zeus and the emperor [An-toh-ni-nus] Pius, and the other half for the worship of Artemis and Antoninus’s deceased wife, Fustina.

Alive, but dead

The fundamental problem with the church in Sardis was that while it appeared to be alive, Jesus tells us that it was dead. We read there beginning in verse 1,

3 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

The idea that one can have the appearance of being alive, yet dead, is found throughout the Scriptures. First, the fundamental principle that while man looks at outward appearances, but God looks at the heart is explicitly taught in 1 Samuel 16:7 when God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a king to replace Saul. Samuel was instructed to send for Jesse the Bethlehemite, because God had provided for himself a king among his sons. Jesse had 7 sons that were presented to Samuel from oldest to youngest, and we read that “When they came, [Samuel] looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.””
Throughout the OT, from Genesis to Malachi, we see examples of sacrifices offered in vain, from Cain to Israel’s priests. Their sacrifices gave the appearance of genuine obedience, but their sacrifices were not accepted. Why? Because their sacrifices were not done in faith, their sacrifices lacked a broken and contrite heart. In Psalm 51 King David recognized that empty sacrifices were not enough when he wrote,

16  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

It wasn’t that God didn’t required sacrifice at the time, it was that sacrifices devoid of a broken and contrite heart were worthless. That God didn’t delight in the mere practices of sacrifice, but sacrifices conducted with a heart of faith. In short, God is not pleased by mere appearances.
When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees at the Temple, the day before his betrayal, he said to them in Matthew 23:25-28,
Matthew 23:25–28 ESV
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
You see, the Pharisees had a reputation among the general public of godliness, they prayed more, fasted more, gave more, studied more, etc. Therefore, by all appearances they possessed spiritual vitality more than anyone, but Jesus exposed them, that while they appeared outwardly beautiful, within they were full of dead man’s bones and uncleanness.
And my point here, is that looks can be deceiving, and so it was at Sardis. Jesus told them,

“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

In other words, by all appearances you look alive, but you are dead. And there are many churches today that have the appearance of being alive, but are dead. They may look alive because of the amount of people who attend their services, they may look alive by their abundance of programs and activities, they may look alive because of their ability to put on a music concert for worship services, they may look alive because of the size of their youth group, they may look alive because of their buildings, they may look alive because of their popularity, they may look alive because of the world’s approval of them, as if gaining the approval of the culture meant we must be doing something right.
We’re very inclined to gauge the vitality of a church merely by its external activities. For instance, a church may be well known for its feeding of the poor, but this activity alone is not a sure way of discerning the life a church. There are countless humanitarian groups which are not churches, nor are many of them motivated by a love for Christ or to proclaim his Gospel. A church may have many hundreds or thousands of members, but it does not follow that the church is alive.

Faithful proclamation

Instead the hallmark of a church’s life is its faithfulness to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the commendations given to the church in Ephesus was that Jesus knew their works, their toil, and patient endurance. They had not shrunk back in their duty to proclaim the Gospel. Whereas, in Sardis, Jesus says, “I know you works, but I have found them incomplete”. We read there in verse 2,

2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

While the church may be involved corporately and individually in many good things, it’s central focus must always be the proclamation of the Gospel. The moment a church directs its primary focus elsewhere it ceases to be a church. This is how so many denominations and churches have become a haunt for unbelievers who seek merely to use the church as a platform for humanitarian efforts or social justice causes, as though this was Jesus’ mission.
No, Jesus came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus came offering forgiveness to all those who repent and believe in him, that he had been given the authority to forgive sin. That God so loved the world, the he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.” That “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” And all of Jesus’ miracles were intended to substantiate this message, not to become an end unto themselves. Christ and his gospel are fundamentally central to the life of the church.

Compromised proclamation

However, the church in Sardis had not fulfilled this duty (its work), and because their Gospel proclamation was incomplete, it was deficient. Jesus tells them there in verse 3,

3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.

What was it that they had received and heard? The Gospel! But what had been proclaimed to them was being proclaimed, only in part, by them. In some way their proclamation had been compromised. This is what Jesus seems to imply in the verses that follow. Look at verses 4-5,

4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

There are still some in Sardis, albeit a small number, who remain, who have not soiled their garments, and they’re promised two things 1) they will be clothed in white garments and walk with Christ, and 2) Jesus will never blot their names out of the book of life, but will confess their names before his Father and before his angels. These two promises are important because they gives us a clue as to what the church in Sardis was facing.

Soiled garments

The first promise is described as these members having not soiled their garments, but being clothed in white garments. The idea intended here is purity and righteousness, in other words, they haven’t defiled themselves or comprised their faith. The Greek word translated soiled here is used later in chapter 14 when the church is described as those who have not defiled themselves with women (i.e. sexual immorality, Rev. 14:4). This kind of compromise included the sexual immorality and the eating of foods sacrificed to idols seen in the other letters to the churches. In James 1:27 we read,

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

However, most of the members of the church in Sardis had not kept themselves unstained from the world. They had apparently engaged, to various degrees, in the pagan religious practices of their day, thereby soiling their garments and compromising their witness.
The church in Sardis was no longer salt and light, they had lost their saltiness, therefore their witness was no longer good for anything except, to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matt. 5:13) They were no longer a light, or a city set on a hill, there was no light to shine before others, or good works to give glory to God in heaven. (Matt. 5:14-16)
Today, many Christians wrongly believe that to win the world we must compromise our faith, and seek the world’s approval, to be respectable in the eyes of the world to win them. We want the world to respect us and many are willing to compromise their faith to get it. Today, multitudes of professing Christians have adopted compromising, worldly doctrines in order to garner the world’s approval and respect. We’re tempted to soften the biblical position on homosexuality and transgenderism, we’re tempted to adopt doctrines like evolution, critical race theory, intersectionality, and social justice, to cave in to the social pressures around us. We’re tempted to think that compromise is the best path forward. However, compromise doesn’t bolster our witness, it ruins it. Soon the church becomes indistinguishable from the world, and not a church at all.

Unwilling to confess

The second promise is described in terms of having their names confessed before God and his angels in heaven, and not being blotted out of the book of life. Now, within the Roman Empire the Roman Senate practiced what was called a condemnation of memory, where anyone who was considered an enemy of the state was erased from the public record after their death. Inscriptions of their name would be erased, and any images of them would be destroyed, writings mentioning them would be re-written, and their first name would be banned from being used in the family. For example, the emperors Caligula and Domitian faced having their names and images removed after their deaths. Archeological examples of this practice are still visible today where inscriptions have been visibly removed from chiseled stone.
What we have to realize is that faithfulness to Christ in Sardis could have resulted in being effectively erased from society and excluded from public life. Faithfulness to Jesus meant risking excommunication, and having your name blotted out from the civic rolls, and effectively losing your rights as a citizen. This undoubtedly lead to an unwillingness among many to proclaim faithfully the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only had most of the church compromised their witness by going along to get along, but their proclamation of the Gospel had been silenced, at least in part. They had become hesitant and unwilling to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. Their proclamation had effectively been muzzled by the pressures of having their names blotted out from the civic roles.
However, Jesus had told his disciples back in Matthew 10:32-33,
Matthew 10:32–33 ESV
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
The inevitable warning to those who are unwilling to acknowledge Jesus before men, is that Jesus will not acknowledge them before his Father and his angels in heaven.
How many times have we shared the Gospel with someone with little or no mention of God’s law, their sin, God’s just wrath, or their need for repentance, altogether skipping those elements, and telling them merely that God loves them, so that we don’t cause them any offense? Knowing that even the harshest of unbelievers probably wouldn’t be offended by that statement.
Now, if we’re really brave then we might tell them that God will forgive them, but nothing more than that, because we’d rather imply that they need forgiveness than to tell them they need forgiveness. We’d much rather have them figure that out on their own. We don’t want to tell them that they’re accountable to God’s law and that they’ve violated his law, that if God is just that he will punish them for their sin in Hell, and that they must turn and repent. We leave those elements out because it doesn’t sound very nice, because we don’t want to offend them, or lose their friendship. Therefore, we give them a deficient and watered down Gospel.
We believe that unless the Gospel is palatable to sinful man, that sinful man will never hear it. But the truth is when we water down the Gospel we end up preaching another Gospel, a Gospel that requires nothing of us, and a Gospel that costs us nothing, but is merely a ticket to heaven, a false assurance of peace and safety. And because of such a deficient Gospel proclamation there will be many on the last day who will say, “Lord, Lord, let us in,” but Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of iniquity.” (Matt. 7:21-23) We must learn to preach the whole Gospel, as Jesus and the Apostles did, calling men to repentance and faith in Christ that they might be reconciled to God.
The truth is we often back off from preaching the whole Gospel for fear of offense, as if love and giving offense were at odds with one another, having convinced ourselves that if we proclaim the whole Gospel that they’ll never hear us. But are we to believe that we serve such a puny and impotent God? There is no heart too hard, and nothing is impossible for him. The depravity and unbelief of man is not a hurdle too high. God is not waiting and begging men to come to him. You see repentance and faith are gifts, not something that sinner’s conjure up of their own volition, that we’re trying to convince them to do. No, salvation is wholly of God. Therefore, preach the whole Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation!
And we must not be afraid of the offense that the Gospel causes, we must not shrink back, we must be willing to acknowledge Jesus before men, otherwise we cannot expect that he will acknowledge us before his Father in heaven. And we must not fear the persecution that might come as a result of our witness. Now, this isn’t permission to be obnoxious or to club others over the head with the Gospel. There are obviously two ditches on either side of the road. The admonition here, is not to be a jerk, but to be a faithful witness, even in the face of persecution, to not shrink back from faithfully proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You see, if those in Sardis had refused to compromise their witness, that, while they might have had their names blotted out of the rolls of civic life, that Jesus would never blot their names out of the book of life, that he would confess their names before his Father in heaven. That if those in Sardis refused to compromise their faith, from soiling their garments, that they will walk with Christ, clothed in white.

Come like a thief

However, in verse 3 the church is told that,

If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

This picture of Jesus coming like a thief in the night is found throughout the NT. Jesus uses it to describe his judgement against those at this second coming in Matthew 24, and the Apostles repeat it later in their letters to the churches when they give similar warnings. The picture is meant to contrast those who are ready and dressed for action, against those who are not, and to admonish those at the church in Sardis to wake up!
I’ve often used the analogy of instructing my children to clean their bedroom before I get back, and closing their door behind me. They don’t know when I’ll be back, so they’re tempted to put off cleaning their room, hoping that I’ll tarry before returning, but at any moment I could burst into their bedroom unannounced. And when I do, will it be like a thief that comes upon them suddenly finding them unprepared, or when I come will I find them doing what I asked? In the first scenario my presence is sudden, but not welcome, and terrifying because they have not done what I’ve asked, therefore only judgement remains. In the second scenario my presence is sudden, but this time it’s welcome, because they have done what I have asked. And I tell them, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Conclusion

Like the second coming, none of us know when judgement could befall us. We don’t know whether we have tomorrow, therefore, like the Christians in Sardis, we must be quick to repent and seek to be found faithful at his coming, otherwise they too will be swept away with the wicked. The elders of the church in verse 2 are admonished to strengthen what remains and is about to die. Jesus’ letter to the church in Sardis is meant to wake them up, to save them from the consequences of their compromise. While judgement was coming upon Rome and Jerusalem, the church’s should not think themselves to be immune if they do not heed what the Spirit says to churches.

Prayer

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