Today we have the pleasure of starting chapter 3 in the book of Revelation. I have intentionally been moving very slow compared to my normal pace of studying one chapter a day and for a good reason. I have more people tell me that they are terrified or intimidated of Revelation that any other book in the Bible. So since this is the first time I am tackling it with the 5MC, my goal is to go slow and steady. If it seems a chapter or division needs more time I will slow down and take it. I believe this way we can deeply explore the countless nuggets of wisdom that God has just under the surface for us in this book.
I have thus far in our study of Revelation written an introduction, covered chapter one, and chapter two with 4 of the 7 churches. If you have missed any of these and are desiring a full study of Revelation, your timing is great, just jump over to The5MC.com and catch up. You can find all of the Revelation study under the Revelation tab.
The church at Sardis is known as the “dead church.” We looked a Thyatira yesterday and they were tolerating sin but the church at Sardis is dead to sin. They looked alive on the outside, but Christ declared they were dead on the inside. It’s important to remember that these 7 churches were actual existing churches in the day when John wrote this. The importance for us today is that each of these church models still exist. There is a Sardis on a street corner right in the middle of your city today. It’s also vital to think about what the church is. The church is not a building of brick and glass, but is a collection of believers in Jesus Christ. The body of Christ. If you break it down to the lowest common denominator, you and I are the church. As we study these 7 churches there is a very hard question we should be asking ourselves. Am I a Sardis? Do I walk and talk a good talk but am really dead to my life of sin on the inside? Am I a Thyatira? Do I allow sinful influences into my life that deter my walk with Christ. Am I a Pergamum? An Ephesus? You see it’s too easy to just read through the judgement of the 7 churches and say, “oh how sad for those old historic churches” and never make a parallel directly to our lives today. A major key to fully experiencing the impact of God’s Word is practical application to our lives. I need to make God’s Word real to my life today.
Let’s jump right in and look at the Jesus’ examination of the church at Sardis using the 5 point model we have been using thus far:
“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.”
Jesus’ description of Himself. “The words of Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” The seven spirits represent the Holy Spirit of God. This recalls the 7 headed gold lamp that is mentioned back in Zech 4:1-10. It is symbolic of the light that is given to the world through the Holy Spirit. The seven stars are the seven leaders/pastors of the seven churches. (Rev 1:16) Remember that Jesus custom tailors the description of himself to fit the judgment of each church. Since He declared the church at Sardis dead, He is addressing their greatest need, the power and the presence of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Concern or Condemnation. Notice here that the condemnation is flipped with the commendation. For the first 4 churches Jesus has introduced himself, moved to the commendation, the condemnation, the command, and then the promise. But here because of the intense problem in Sardis He skips the commendation and goes straight into the condemnation. “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” He starts by examination. “I know your works.” Notice that 5 of the 7 churches start with this same statement of “I know your works.” (The other 2 start with “I know where you dwell” and “I know your tribulation.”) In Revelation chapter 1 we see 2 instances where Jesus is walking amongst the lampstands which are the churches. Why is He walking in and through the lampstands? He is inspecting them, looking intently at them. And this is exactly what He is doing with the churches of the world today. He is inspecting the body of Christ in this world to see how it is working for Him. He “knows our works.” He also knows my works and your works. Is the love of Christ moving you into service today? Does the Love of Jesus move your hands to work in serving others in true love today? Jesus knows.
“You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” What an utter condemnation. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Think about what a reputation is. It’s defined as “a widespread belief that something has a particular habit or characteristic.” The church looked good. It sounded good. The building was clean and shiny. The parking lot was freshly striped. The preacher talked a good talk and the people seemed happy. But it was all a reputation. It was not real. They were merely going through the motions. Robots in a church.
The reason for a body of Christ existing entails 6 factors. 1. Proclaim and give out the Word of God. 2. Worship the Lord. 3. Disciple and build people up in their walk with God. 4. Offer blessed, true fellowship in the Lord. 5. Serve and love others in the name of Christ. 6. Take the Word of God to the world. It sounds silly to even say, but carefully notice the point of a Christian church being in existence is based upon Jesus Christ. If you miss this, you’re not a church at all.
There are churches all over this great nation that are the model of Sardis. They are dead in their Spirit. What’s ironic is Jesus says they have “a reputation of being alive.” The unbelieving world thought the church at Sardis was great. That’s a glaring statement that the world does not judge like the Lord does. God can judge our innermost thoughts, feelings and emotions. We can look good to the world yet be an abomination to the Lord. What a statement about trying to please the world. It can be very easy to please the world with our reputation, but fall very short of pleasing the Lord.
Command. This falls out of place too. Jesus starts out addressing Sardis with the problem and the solution. Pure and simple, He cuts to the chase. So, what is the solution for a church that Jesus calls dead? Well, if you have no Jesus, the only answer is to get some! “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.”
There’s 2 huge commands here to right the ship at Sardis. “Wake up” and “remember.” You can’t be awakened unless you are asleep right? It reminds me of a funny 3 Stooges skit where Curly is snoring his funny-sounding snore and it wakes up Moe. Moe shakes him hard and says “wake up and go to sleep!” Ha, the greatness of the 3 Stooges. You see the church at Sardis was asleep in the Spirit of God. When you’re asleep you are oblivious to whats around you. Your ‘out of it.’ When you wake up you come back to reality, you come back to what's real. The first command is for the church at Sardis to wake up and get real. They are to get serious about getting back to Jesus.
“Remember then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.” Folks this is a massive statement here and one that is and always will be our answer to feeling ourselves moving away from God or even feeling dead to God. The answer is the powerful, awe-inspiring, life changing Holy Word of God. I’m going to ask you a hard, even brutally honest question. You don’t have to answer me, but you do have to answer. What are doing with the Word of God? Do you spend anytime in God’s Word at all? Do you flip through it every once in a while and look for some motivational passages? Does it just sit on your shelf and gather dust? Do you carry it back and forth to church every Sunday as a prop but it never gets opened? Do you sit in a Bible study and just nod because you don’t know what the Word of God actually says? You might think that all of these are hard or even cruel questions but let me be brutally honest with you here. I have done every single one of these at one point in my life. There have been many points in my life where I was a Sardis. I knew Christ and I was saved by His precious Blood, nothing can ever change that, but I was dead to the Spirit of God because I was doing nothing with His Holy Word. This is a bold statement coming, but one based in my own life and I can attest to it. Read it slowly and read it carefully because it holds the truth of this verse. If you are not spending daily time studying God’s Word, you are missing the true presence of God and you are not growing in Christ which will result in you becoming dead to the Spirit of God.
I was doing some research the other day on Christians that spend little or no time in God’s Word and it got me to thinking. Thinking about myself many years ago and about so many people I see in the church today. So many people spend no time in God’s Word. I don’t mean a little or some, I mean none. They have no knowledge of God’s Word, they are ignorant of its primary principles and they have reaped nothing of its limitless knowledge which God promises to those who study it. It brought a phrase to my mind. Saved but Lost. People that at one point have called upon the name of Jesus to save them from the death of their sin. They are saved. But then they were forgotten. They were not discipled. They were not taught the Bible. They spent no time studying God’s Word. They did not become part of local body of believers and grow in Christ. They remained as Paul called it “a babe in Christ.” You see, they were, and always will be saved by the blood of Jesus, but they have never claimed the abundance of life that God promises us through His Word. They are Saved but Lost.
My friends, you don’t have to be saved but lost today. The Word of God is the answer for Sardis and it’s the answer for you. Jesus saw the dire situation that Sardis was in and His advice was simple. Get back into my Word. Remember it. Remember what you heard and what you received. Keep it and repent. They had been given the Word of God. They had heard the Word of God. But what happened to the Word of God? They forgot it. They moved away from the Word of God. Folks, if you want to be close to God today, get close to His Word. Start today. That’s the entire reason the 5MC exists (The 5 Minute Challenge). God started it to help me encourage young people to spend time in His Word. 5 minutes a day, every day. And the challenge is to do it for 30 days in a row. Along with this, you need an accountability group where you can discuss your daily findings. To read how to take the 5 minute challenge, go to The5MC.com and click on “What is the 5MC” at the top right.
Remember His Word today. If you find yourself drifting away from God, correct the course today. As the old saying goes, “if you find yourself far from God, He’s not the one that moved.” Right the ship today and start studying God’s Word each day. Feed your spirit every day just like you feed your body. "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." (James 4:8)
Lastly, we see a promise of judgement for those that refuse to repent and wake up. “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.” We serve a Holy, loving God, but we also serve a righteous God. One that judges our actions accordingly. For those that stay asleep in Sardis He will come to them in absolute judgment, quickly and silently.
Commendation. “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.” The commendation Jesus has for Sardis is that there are still a few that are holding tight to God, His Word and His commands. Out of the entire church, there a few who have not stained their garments. To stain the garment is indicative of sin in your life. A sin stained garment is a life riddled with sin.
When I was young and played football, we wore white pants and they would get tons of grass stains on them. One or two was no big deal but by the end of the week they looked more green than white. You see there are levels of staining. Your shirt can have a little spaghetti sauce stain from lunch, barely even noticeable, or it can have a stain where you spilled your Big Red all down the front of your white shirt rendering it almost useless. The answer? The cleansing power of Jesus. The blood of Jesus cleans us white as snow. The verse goes on to say that “they will walk with me in white” meaning they are walking in the cleansing power of Jesus. These were a righteous few that were fighting the good fight and standing firm as those around them were dead to Christ. A few shining beacons. Jesus says this is the only good thing at Sardis.
Promise. “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.” Jesus has a great promise for those that repent in Sardis. In ancient times white clothing was reserved for very special occasions such as weddings and banquets. It was also worn by those that were celebrating great victory in battle. I love the last one. It’s very symbolic of the struggle it would take to reclaim the church at Sardis. It would be a great battle to reclaim it from satan, but when they did, Christ would offer them a white robe to celebrate the great victory in battle.
The next part refers to the book of life. "and I will never blot his name out of the book of life." There are several 'books' mentioned in scripture, but the book of life mentioned here is used no less than 5 times in Revelation. The book of life holds the names of those that have accepted Chrost as their personal Lord and Savior. If you accept Christ, your name is confirmed. If you reject Christ, your name will be blotted out. If you accept Christ your salvation is eternal. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:28. Since this is addressed "to those who conquer" Jesus is saying that you are truly in Him according to your actions and faith and you give Him no reason to remove your name from the book of life. Much more will be discussed about the book of life as we move further into Revelation.
Jesus then goes on to say that He will also confess their names before God the Father and the angels. Wow. Did you know that if you are a child of God, that Jesus is in Heaven today talking about you today? He sits at the right hand of God today and He is speaking about you. All of the bad stuff that the devil is talking about you today will never get to the ears of God without first being filtered by the loving ears of Jesus. The love of Jesus protects us today in ways we cannot imagine.
What a great study of the church at Sardis. If you’re reading this, I prayed for you this morning and I hope that you are enjoying a thriving daily study in God’s Word and that as a result you are feeling His presence drawing nearer to you. I pray that you can feel the warmth of His nearness as He whispers the power of His knowledge and wisdom softly into your ear. It’s not a question of whether or not God is speaking, it’s a question of whether or not you are listening.
God bless you all, share the goodness of God’s Words with someone in your life today. You never know how much they might be needing them ~ Dan
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