Revelation 3:1-6 And unto the angel
of the church in Sardis
write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name
that thou livest, and art dead. [2]
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for
I have not found thy works perfect before God. [3] Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold
fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. [4] Thou hast a few names even in Sardis
which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white:
for they are worthy. [5] He that
overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out
his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father,
and before his angels. [6] He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Paramedics arrive on the scene of an accident where the victim seems
to have crossed the barrier separating life and death. There is no heartbeat or respiration; all the vital signs of life are
absent, but the paramedic doesn’t accept this as final. They begin CPR and inject a drug that stimulates the heart. For a few frantic moments, nothing happens.
Then, the heart begins to beat,
pulsing life through the body; the victim begins to cough and takes a few
breaths. In a few minutes, the victim
is stabilized, and instead of sending a corpse to the morgue, the ambulance
takes a patient to the hospital.
That is the picture of the church at Sardis. Jesus says it is dead, but there is
hope that spiritual CPR may revive it. This
church, though dead, was still full of activity. It was still functioning like a church – it was still holding
services, singing hymns, offering prayers, delivering sermons, etc. Each week, a congregation gathered and
went through the motions of worship, but Jesus
said it wasn’t alive.
We need to understand what that means. We need to know
how to discern the difference between a living church and a dead one.
1.
Their Condition. Dead, Dying, Defiled.
Dead [nekros = lifeless, corpse
like, dormant] (v 1). “And unto the
angel of the church in Sardis
write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven
stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”
- Appearances can be deceiving. This church enjoyed a good reputation; the community respected it and its members. When men looked at it, they admired what they thought was the spiritual life of the church.
- Activity doesn’t equal life. A church doesn’t live by doing things that benefit the community. Life in a church can only come from the Spirit of God. The church at Sardis was socially active, but spiritually lifeless.
- This congregation outwardly professed to be Christians, but possessed no spiritual life within. They would be offended if you suggested that they weren’t Christians, but the majority had never been born again. They were Christian in name only.
Dying [apothnesko
= in the process of dying] (v 2). “Be
watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die:
for I have not found thy works perfect before God.”
When a paramedic arrives on the scene and finds a
victim with no pulse or respiration, they have to determine if there is any hope
of reviving the victim. If there is, we can say that the victim is in the
process of dying. He is ready to die
in the sense that unless the paramedics can get blood and oxygen to the vital
organs, they will be permanently damaged and any hope of revival will be lost.
It is the job of the emergency personnel to “strengthen
the things that remain;” to get blood and oxygen to the organs before they are terminally
damaged.
What remains in a dead church? The formalisms of
godliness.
1. Hymn books often preserve the great songs
of the faith.
2. Prayer and the Word of God.
3. The Confession of Faith preserves the
great doctrines of the Bible.
The truth is there, but is lost in ceremony, ritual,
and formalism.
Defiled (v 4).
“Thou
hast a few names even in Sardis
which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in
white: for they are worthy.”
- The good news? There were some in Sardis who walked with Jesus. There were still some born again believers there.
- The bad news! This represented the minority. For the majority, their brush with the truth through the forms and rituals made no difference in their lives.
2.
Their Diagnosis? Not without hope! The outlook for the
church didn’t look good, but Jesus tells them what to do to be revived.
Return to the Word of God (v 3a). “Remember
therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.”
- The words “heard” and “received” remind us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. At some point in the history of the church at Sardis, formalism replaced faith and dead works replaced the Spirit of God.
- This also explains why Jesus presented Himself as the one who held the seven stars in His hands. The seven stars represented the pastors. It is the responsibility of the pastor to be a man filled with the Spirit of God and lead by the Son of God when preaching the Word of God.
- There were three apparent faults in the preaching at Sardis!
1. It didn’t produce saving faith.
2. It didn’t equip people to live holy
lives.
3. It didn’t prepare people to meet the
Lord.
Recover the hope of the Lord’s return (v 13b). “If therefore thou
shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what
hour I will come upon thee.”
- The Return of Christ is called “the blessed hope of the church.” God wants us to take comfort and courage in the promise of His coming.
We are to live with
the realization that at any moment that Lord could return and we will be caught
up to meet Him in the air.
- For the unbeliever, Jesus will come as a thief. He’ll take His saints, and be gone and those who have never trusted Him as Savior will be left behind. Yet, there are churches full of people calling themselves Christians, who never give one thought to the coming of Christ. After He comes, they’ll probably continue going to church, performing their rituals, because they never came to a saving faith in Christ.
