So, where were we? Oh yeah, Sardis. We’ve looked at Ephesus, Pergamum, Smyrna and Thyatira and now we are on Sardis, which is the fifth of the seven churches that the letter in the Revelation was addressed to.
If we pull up our trusty map we discover that Sardis was located in what we know as modern Turkey but 2000 years ago was the Roman Province of Asia. Again on the circular route Sardis was located about eighty kilometres from Thyatira. The city of Sardis had once been one of the richest and most powerful cities in the known world. 700 years before this letter was written Sardis was unsurpassed as a commercial and cultural centre. You ever stop to get your head around things like that. This letter was written 2000 years ago, at that point the city had been around for 700 years. 700 years, thing about it, 700 years ago there was no protestant church, people thought the world was flat and it would be another 100 years before Columbus was born, the hundred year war was just starting and the black plague was decimating Europe. And that was just seven hundred years ago, 2700 years ago when Sardis was at it’s peak our ancestors were still painting their bodies and worshipping trees in England.
Sardis was situated at the junction of five main trading routes and was a major commercial centre overlooking the Hermus Valley. It was a rich city that really hadn’t had to do much to achieve it’s prosperity. And it was this sense of ease and apathy that eventually led to the down fall of Sardis. The city was located on the top of a hill that was so steep that it’s defences seemed impregnable but twice in 549 bc and again 300 years latter it’s enemy scaled the steep cliffs to discover that the Sardians were so confident they hadn’t even posted a guard.
It’s interested how the first conqueror, Cyrus of Persia, assured that there would be rebellion or uprising in the city. No one in the city was allowed to possess a weapon, he prohibited the people for wearing sandals instead they had wear the soft slipper type footwear favoured by actors. And then he ordered that the boys of Sardis be instructed in music, song and dance. The result was that the city lost it’s spirit.
In 17 ad an earthquake did major damage but the city was rebuilt primarily through the generosity of the Emperor Tiberius. The city was known for two things, firstly we are told that it was in Sardis that the process for dyeing wool was first discovered and secondly Sardis was known for it’s worship of the goddess Artemis, and you will remember that the worship of this Greek deity was often accompanied by immorality. This is all that remains of what had been an incredible temple. But there was no indication that there was any persecution of the church from this quarter.
By the time John wrote this letter the city was wealthy but soft and degenerate and it would appear the church was much the same. There is no evidence to suspect that there was either heresy or persecution in this congregation. That is to say there was no threat from inside or outside the church. One commentator remarked that the reason the church in Sardis was left alone was it’s lack of aggressive and positive Christianity. Content with mediocrity lacking both the enthusiasm to entertain a heresy and the depth of conviction which provokes intolerance, it was too innocuous to be worthy of persecution. When I was in high school I remember taking a gal out one evening and she said that normally she had to be home by ten but that her father had decreed that since she was going to be with me she could stay out until midnight. I was impressed and said “Is that because he trust’s me?” and she responded “No, it’s because he thinks you are harmless.” There was no persecution of the church in Sardis because it was considered harmless.
And so sheltered and unthreatened the Sardis church gradually wilted until there was no substance to it. As Jesus said “you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead”
Prophetically we are told that the Sardis Church represents the period in time between 1500 and 1700. Those of you who know your church history are aware that 1517 is the year a 30 year old monk by the name of Martin Luther challenged the Roman Catholic Church and began we now know as the Reformation. Thus the beginning of the Sardis era in Church history coincides with the birth of the Protestant Church. This period in the history of the church may have been marked with proper theology but the works and service that make love and faith practical was missing from the early protestant church. We have to remember that although the Reformation was a divine movement, inspired by the God and directed by the Holy Spirit that the resulting institutions were man made and as such were flawed.
The question however is not simply: How did this scripture relate 20 centuries ago? But what does it have to say to us today in 2003. Again it begins with that frightening Revelation by Christ “I know all the things you do.” Or in this case all the things you don’t do. The local church, the local body of Jesus will be examined to see what it accomplished while on this earth, what it had done.
What we do, why we do it and how it’s done will all be taken into consideration by the risen Christ. To claim that works and deeds and service are unnecessary under the New Testament is to use grace and faith as an excuse to do nothing and that is the ultimate heresy.
In Matthew 25:31-46 Christ tells of the shepherd who separates the goats from the sheep. What was the criteria used for the division? Matthew 25:35-36 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me. In verses 42 and 43 the same speech is repeated however this time with no food, no drinks, no visits and no hospitality. Now it’s assumed that because both groups addressed Christ as Lord that there were equal expectations. And I’m sure that one of the condemned probably stood up and said “Excuse me, what about, ah, Ephesians 2:8-9 Where it says God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
But what they failed to realize is that the change that Christ makes in our hearts will manifest itself ultimately in an expression of love most often identified with good works. Now these good works will not save you, you will never be good enough, do enough or give enough to get you into heaven. It however is the mystery of salvation that the things which do save you, namely grace and faith will ultimately produce the things that won’t save you, namely works and service. Therefore on the basis of that one statement which proceeds each of the seven letters “I know what you do” we need to ask ourselves as a church, what is it we do?
If Christ were to write to Denn Guptill, Pastor of the church in Bedford and begin his letter with the words “I know what you do” what would he identify as positive qualities or negative qualities within our congregation. Could we as a Christian Church, a Church of Christ, a body of believers be judged on the merits of our works if we had to be? Have we given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked? Have we sheltered the homeless and visited those who were sick and in prison? And if not, I wonder if we will end up with the sheep or the goats?
Jesus goes on to say “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive–” In 2003 if we asked you what churches were alive what would your response be? I hope the Wesleyans would be there, maybe the Baptists, the Pentecostals, and the Vineyard. The truth is that if you were asked that question you would probably have thought of evangelical or charismatic churches.
And certainly within the Evangelical community the Wesleyan Church has a reputation for being alive. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with having that type of reputation. The church in Sardis had a heritage behind them; they had been a powerful witness in their community and as such had acquired a reputation for being alive. The churches of the Reformation had made a clean break with the church of Rome and had a name of being alive.
The Wesleyan church has an eight year history in Bedford, a fifty year history in the HRM, a hundred and twenty year history in the Maritimes, a hundred and seventy year history in the US and a two hundred and fifty year history in the UK, a history and reputation that says “The Wesleyan Church is Alive!”
And yet the truth of the matter is that no matter how great our reputation is and no matter how wonderful our name as a denomination is, each individual church has a responsibility to prove itself. And folks here is something profound so write it down, “If you are going to stay alive then you gotta stay alive.” Because everyday there are people who arrive at funeral homes all over our city who had a reputation for being alive and that doesn’t help them now because now they are dead, and dead is dead.
Jesus went on to say pretty much the same thing when he said “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.” And we all know that after the But comes the ----- that’s right the truth. Shakespeare once wrote “But me no buts.” And I have no idea what that means but I always like to quote from someone famous in my messages. In my last message I talked about the implications of the words nevertheless and however. The word but fits into the same category. When something complimentary has been said and it’s followed by the word “but” don’t expect more compliments. If someone says “you have lovely blue eyes. . . but.” You can expect them to continue by saying “Your nose is too big, or your hair is too thin or your lips are too full.”
And so after the but comes the truth, “you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.” That’s gotta hurt.
Have you ever noticed the little sign at self serve gas stations that say “in case of a discrepancy between this register and the one inside the one at the pump will be considered correct.” Jesus is saying, “In case of a discrepancy between reputation and reality, reality will be considered correct.” Last years reputation is worthless if it doesn’t measure up to today’s reality.
Robert Schuman stated “there are two very difficult things in the world. One is to make a name for oneself and the other is to keep it.”
The church in Sardis had had an excellent name at one time. A name for being alive but Jesus says “I know better, I know that you are dead.” Not sick, not injured, not crippled, not faint, not weak but dead, and dead is dead. But what is dead? When we talk about a dead church what do we mean?
Well you know Pastor, dead. The music is slow and dreary, the preacher is slow and dreary and the entire worship service is slow and dreary. You know dead. And then perhaps you would say you know like such and such a church. But that type of definition of dead is personal and subjective. What’s dead to you may or may not be dead to me. And while we may define such and such a church as dead and slow and dreary there might be some people who would look at BCC and think that it was slow and dreary and dead.
And that isn’t the measure that Jesus uses. Collins dictionary defines dead as 1) No longer living. 2) Without life 3) death like 4) Lacking vitality, interest, warmth etc. 5) Without feeling, motion or power 6) extinguished or extinct.
So what makes a church dead. Here are three characteristics that in my mind signify that a person is dead and if these characteristics are present in a person or a church it probably indicates death. 1)If You’re Dead You Lack Compassion. There are no feelings in a dead person, no joy or sorrow, no happiness or anger, nothing. We could say that a dead person is apathetic. Sometimes we feel blue and depressed and say “I don’t care about anything.” The reality is that we probably care too much about everything. The dead person on the other hand just plain doesn’t care. And the dead church doesn’t care.
They don’t care about a persons physically wellness, there is no compassion in the church. It goes back to what Christ said about being hungry, thirsty, naked and sick and nobody cared. That is indicative of death. Jesus brother James talked about the same thing in his book, in James 2:15-17 Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all—it is dead and useless.
A church that is dead doesn’t care. It doesn’t care about people’s physical needs and it doesn’t care about people’s spiritual needs. When a church is dead there is no interest in outreach or evangelism. There are all kinds of reasons why not but bottom line is they don’t care.
2) If You’re Dead You Lack Warmth. Now I don’t mean you are just a little cool. My body temperature normally runs almost a full degree below what is considered normal. So if you were to take my temperature and it’s normal then it’s not. My temperature normally runs between 97 and 98 degrees. But I’m not dead just cool. However if instead of my temperature being 97.6 degrees it was 87.6 degrees I would definitely have a problem.
In the same way a church might be a little cool and that is just the personality of the church. Not every church is into hugging and gushing. But when there is no warmth or love at all then the church is dead. When people visit our church do they find it a warm and welcoming place? I don’t’ mean temperature wise. Do we make people feel welcome and cared for? I have visited churches where no one, no one has spoken to me and I felt like an intruder. That isn’t being a little cool that is being cold.
3) If You’re Dead You Lack Movement. You ever notice that about dead people, they don’t’ move. Oh sometimes when you are at visiting hours at the funeral home you hear someone say “They look so life like.” No they don’t cause they aren’t moving. Dead people do not move and dead churches do not move. Oh they offer up a lot of excuses about why they don’t move “We’ve never done it that way before.” “We are a traditional church” “We tried it once and it didn’t work” “Why bother changing.” “The last pastor didn’t do it that way.”
The truth of the matter is that if you aren’t moving ahead and growing then something is wrong, somewhere. What worked 100 years ago, or 20 years ago or 10 years ago or even last year won’t necessarily work this year. Businesses that refuse to change, update and modernize eventually fail. And churches that refuse to change, update and modernize eventually die.
Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean we change the message. The message, the word of God is timeless and applies equally today as it did when it was written. But the way we deliver it needs to change if we are to reach today’s generation.
When people are dead, I mean really dead they usually stay that way. And the same unfortunately is the same for churches. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Jesus tells
The church in Sardis to do three things.
1) Wake Up One of the first things that Christ was telling the church was to look around at where they were. In myriad of 12 step programs that exist today the first step is always the same, wake up and admit you have a problem. The first step for the dying church is to wake up and admit that things need to change. I’m pretty sure that up to this point most people in the Sardis Church would have thought that everything was going just fine, after all there was no persecution happening and no heresies. Jesus is saying wake up, look around see how far you’ve fallen.
2) Strengthen What Little Remains Obviously the church wasn’t a complete loss. We don’t know what remained but Jesus was basically telling them to build on their strengths. There may not have been much, but there was obviously something worth hanging on to. Jesus wasn’t telling them everything had to go. In our spiritual lives and in the life of our church we need to sometimes go back to the basics and focus on those things we do well. Which leads us to:
3) Go Back To What You Heard And Believed At First. Jesus is saying; go back to where you started. He the church in Ephesus to return to their first love. Remember when things were new and fresh and exciting? How your faith was when you first became a Christian? How exciting things were when the church was still young? We say you can’t go back, but sometimes you have to before you can go ahead.
So where are you at today? Where are we as a church at today? If Jesus was to look down and write a letter to the church in Bedford what would he be telling us? As individuals and as a church?
