The Seven, part 11
Sardis: The Church of Inanimate Spirituality
Revelation 3:1-6
July 28, 2013
I have said the Revelation was written to address specific issues with seven churches in Asia Minor at the end of the first century yet they are as relevant to us today as they were to the church then. The letters have a consistent pattern that we are using as our outline – an introduction, an evaluation, an exhortation, and a benediction. Each church is given a diagnosis of their spiritual condition along with a prescription from the Great Physician as the antidote that will strengthen their witness in their city. Today Jesus diagnoses a comatose church who has so compromised with the surrounding culture they have lost any faithful and effective witness and need to desperately find their the way back.
Introduction (3:1)
This letter is the shortest and the sharpest because their light, their testimony and witness was barely smoldering. Smyrna was not experiencing any of the difficulties of the other churches: no persecution, no false teachers, no slander from Jews, were there any issues with the trade guilds or Rome. They had no conflicts with the unbelvieing world at all because they had so identitied with the surounding culture that everyone loved them; they had learned to get along with everyone. Sardis was located thirty five miles south of Thyatira. It had the reputation as the greatest city in the Ancient world. It was a great commercial city at the cross roads of five major trade routes. But by this time it had lost its luster and was living on its past glory and the church was mirroring this situation.
Jesus is described as having the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. If you remember, the seven spirits are symbolic for the fullness of the Spirit that is available to this church to regain an effective witness. Sardis desperately needed to hear this word from God and it desperately needed the Spirit to quicken it to them. Jesus also has the seven stars, symbolic for the seven churches. Remember the seven stars, like the seven lamp stands are the seven churches that he holds in his right hand. The Lord of the church loves his church, died for his church, and cares for his church. Jesus is all that this church needs to regain its effective testimony.
Evaluation (3:1)
The evaluation is both sudden and severe. “I know your works, you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” They had the reputation as a thriving church in Sardis. Anybody who was somebody went there and they had something for everyone. The pastors would be writing books on church growth and be in demand on the conference circuit. But it was all show and no substance. The life station had become a club, a morgue with a steeple. It is like Jesus' statement about the Jews in Smyrna who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. They are not the people of God! Spiritual death is a spiritual condition that the indescriminate mistake for life. The same is true with churches that have become secular, just like the culture around them, relying on gimicks to draw and entertain people, giving away prizes to visitors, numbers and size are everything. The church in Sardis had so compromised with the culture that the offense of the gospel had lost its edge. The result was that they had no effective or definitive witness. The same can be said for christians in their neghborhood, christians on campus, christians in the work place, and christians at the coffee shop.
Exhortation (3:2-4)
Here we have a beginning word and an ending word that is same word that are like two bookends defining the main point, wake up! “Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die because I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.” Jesus says they are dead and then what remains about to die. He is using hyperbole, overstatement, to stress the desperate situation demands that they act quickly. The exhortation has five commands that are meant to jolt the church out of their deadly slumber. Wake up is a verb in the present tense, meaning be spiritually vigilant, always watchful.
Next they are to strengthen what remains. That something remains means that they had started out as having a faithful and effective witness to the gospel but had lost it. This is why they are to strengthen it, regain it now. Why? Because Jesus has not found their works complete in the sight of God. Jesus has evaluated the church and they have not lived up to God's design, the task of being a lampstand, a faithful witness to the gospel.
Third, remember how you received and heard, pointing back to how they received the gospel message. Keep on remembering the early days when you first embraced the gospel, your enthusiasm and zeal to tell everyone the gospel. The passion and freshness of the faith is the pattern for following Christ rather than something you grow past.
Fourth, keep it. There is no object of the verb so you have to look back to the previous antecedent, strengthening the witness you have lost, that initial response of the gospel and the desire to tell everyone. Regain that lost joy, passion and the desire to tell everyone about Jesus.
Last, Repent. Turn away from compromising with the culture, stop being so careful and fearful of what others might say or do. Repent of your fearfulness, your silence, your tepid faith that ruins any effective witness. How serious is Jesus? “If you will not wake up then I will comes like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” This is not the second coming of Christ but a coming to this church, 'I will come against you.' I will come in judgment to the church in Sardis to purge and purify you. If this church fails to become watchful, allowing its present pattern of cultural compromise to undermine it's effective testimony to the gospel then Jesus will come in judgement to exercise his perogative as the Lord of the church. He does not tell us what that means but it could be to remove its lampstand completely.
Yet there is a faithful few who have not soiled their garments, who have not compromised with the culture so as to supress their effective witness. They have not adpoted the mindset of the culture. The promise for their faithful witness is that they will walk with Jesus in white because they are worthy. It is the promises of being in Christ's presence for all eternity.
Benediction (3:5-6)
The conquerer is one who is not ashamed of the gospel, maintaining an effective witness. The one who conquers inherits a three fold promise. First, they will be clothed in white, symbolizing the righteousness of Jesus Christ that will characterizes us for all eternity. Second Christ will never blot our names out of the book of life. The book of life is made up of those whose salvation is determined and secured because their names were written in the book of life before the foundation of the world. Saying I will never blot his name out of the the book of life is a negative way of saying that the overcomers names are secure in the book of life. Lastly, the conquer's name will be confessed by Jesus before his Father. Maintaining an effective and faithful witness by our lives and our words secures for us that Jesus will confess us before the Father.
Take aways:
• Is your faith smoldering?
• Are you compromising?
• Do you have an effective witness?
The Seven, part 11
Sardis: The Church of Inanimate Spirituality
Revelation 3:1-6
July 28, 2013
Introduction (3:1)
Evaluation (3:1)
Exhortation (3:2-4)
Benediction (3:5-6)
Take away:
