"The Church in Sardis", Revelation 3:1–6

The Church of Sardis and to the Angel of the church and Sardis

right these things, says he who has the seven spirits of God and

the seven stars. We know what they are because

chapter 1 tells us what are they, the churches remember,

where is Jesus in the midst of the churches?

Here's what Jesus says to this church.

Remember this letter was to be written read out in the church

at Sardis, modern Turkey today. I know your works, that you have

a name, that you are alive now here this, but you're dead.

Can you imagine that being read out from the pulpit?

You're dead. Be watchful, interesting, he

says. Be watchful.

Sardis fell a number of times. It was had high place, great

fortification. And on one occasion those who

are attacking the land, we're trying to work out how to get

in. And they saw this guy lost his

helmet, fell over the side and he climbed down.

They watched him climb down, down, down.

They noted how he went back up. And that's how they entered the

city of Silas and the city of Salas had no Watchmen because

they felt that their, their, their place was impregnable.

That's why Jesus says here be watchful and strengthen the

things which remain that are ready to die.

For I have not found your works perfect.

That is complete mature before God.

Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard.

Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not

watch, I'll come upon you as a thief, and you will not know

what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in

Sardis, who have not defiled their garments, and they shall

walk with me in white, for thou are worthy.

He whoever comes shall be clothed in white garments.

I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I

will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

He was an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit

says to the churches. Jesus here makes a call on his

own church and sawdust, much like a divine coroner.

I spent, I have spent over the past 20 something years, a lot

of time at the morgue with the police and the work of the

coroner. And here Jesus comes across as

the coroner making a call and he pronounces that this church, he

says it's dead. The message of Jesus to Sardis

is one of the most severe of the seven for the poor and

persecuted people of the church at Smyrna.

Remember, Jesus had nothing but price, but for Cyrus, Jesus had

nothing commendable to say, which is quite amazing as this

church had a great reputation in the area.

This church, Jesus does not mention any false doctrine.

Notice there's no Lincoln, Nicolaitans, none of that going

on, no Jezebel there. It does not mention any

persecution. They don't have people, you

know, you're not killing them like Smyrna did.

The church was just comfortable. It was wealthy.

Sardis, the area of Sardis is very wealthy.

It was content. It was coasting, you might say,

and living up it's good reputation.

But Sardis was a cold church. Not cold in temperature, but it

was cold like a dead body. No life, no warmth.

But even in this church, not, not everyone was guilty of that.

Not all the congregation had died in the sense of the walk

with God. Sara still had a chance.

God was giving this church a chance, chance for revival.

A miracle could still happen. But for the most part, this

church amounted to a morgue with a steeple.

And across the top of it, Jesus has spoken fairly harshly.

You'll remember to the church fire Tyre we covered, but at

least they had a few good things to say to the people there.

Not so with Sardis. Jesus jumps right in with a

warning and an exhortation. Sardis was among the most

important and wealthy cities in ancient Asia.

It was the first place that coinage was actually printed

because of its wealth in Asia Minor.

It's location set at the junction what was called the

Imperial Highway that connected Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamos

with the inland cities of Asia Minor, modern Turkey.

There were two main features to Sardis that distinguished it

from others. It had a an Acropolis, you know,

this big citadel building and that function, however, as a

necropolis. What is that?

That is a graveyard, the cemetery it was called it was

called the cemetery of 1000 hills from over 7 miles away.

As you viewed Sardis, you could not only see the temple of

Diana, this great temple that there was built there same Diana

is also Artemis atop the the Acropolis.

Some of you have been to Greece, you've seen the work there.

But secondly, this cemetery was filled with hundreds of burial

mounds and tombstones. So it was truly, as they say,

the dead, dead centre of the of, of the city, the city Saras, it

was occupied with death, significant.

So it's significant that Jesus tells this church you're dead,

there's no life in you. In other words, Sardis was a

church full of hypocrites. Hypocrites.

The term hypocrite comes from the term hoopocrites.

During the Greek plays and everything that were written,

the hoopocrites, the actors would have a face mask of the,

the part that they're playing on a, on a stick, and they would

speak and act with the mask in front of them of the part

they're playing. They were called hoopocrites.

So Jesus is saying to this church, you guys, you know,

people said well the church is full of hypocrites.

Well, Sardis was. Paul calls such people that

Jesus is Speaking of in Two Timothy 3/5.

He says it would be like this in the last days there will be

people who have a form of godliness.

They know all the words but have denied its power.

They know all the words you know, carry Bibles maybe, maybe

serve and only but they deny the power of God.

We cannot see the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

It's not evidenced saddest as a church lacked the one thing it

needed the most, life, which is the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus introduced himself. Revelation 31 did the church and

the Angel of the church and Sardis write these things, says

he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

I know your works, that you have a name, that you're alive, but

you're dead. Apparently many people in this

church, Sardis, profess to be Christians, but we're unsaved.

How many people do you talk to often when you're talking about

the Bible or Christianity or something like, well, I'm a

Christian too, and you, you go, oh, are you?

Because you know, it's probably a long call to say such.

Jesus, the great Physician, takes the pulse of this church

and spiritually speaking, he finds there's nothing there.

But the church itself had a great reputation in the city of

Sardis for being alive, man. You want to know where?

What church should I go to? Sardis.

It's happened in it. Go there, man.

There's always people there. They're coming and go on.

They always got this on and that on.

That was Sardis. Jesus is using an idiom here.

What's an idiom? An idiom is a group of words

which when used together have a different meaning from the one

suggested by the individual words.

And Jesus quotes, he has the seven spirits of God.

He quotes from Isaiah Chapter 11 verses one to two.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

Isaiah said out of the stump of David's family will grow a

chute, yes, a new branch bearing the fruit from the old root, and

the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and

understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of

knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

The seven functions of 7 powers. The number 7 denotes here, and

the terms used. We see 7 descriptions there

denote the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

And so here Sardis as a church needed the infusion of the

sevenfold Spirit of God. What is that?

Just as an individual needs, you know, how do you become born

again? You can't be born again without

you must be born again without the Spirit of God.

Remember, Nicodemus said, how does that happen?

Like that's a bit weird what you're saying.

Jesus, I'm an old man. I'm not going to go back and

have that happen again. No, Nicodemus, you don't

understand. You must be born again.

The Spirit of God must become in must come in you and change your

heart. In the book of Genesis when God

created man, when he created Adam, remember there was just a

pile of dirt, pile of clay looked good, looked great, just

looked like a a person Adam first one, but it was dead

wasn't alive. Then it says God breathed in

humour the breath of life, Genesis 27.

And it says that then man became a living being.

Only then was he alive. The church at Sardis had become

so much like the world. This is what Jesus is saying

about this church so much alike the world around it in the way

that it behaved. It thought that it spoke that it

could no longer confronted society.

You know, we often have people come say, well, it's I'm finding

it difficult being a Christian. I go out and people have a go at

me at work and people say this and you know, and I and I I feel

pressure because now that I'm a Christian, this is happening and

in my class and the teacher has a crack at me at the university,

the lecturer has a crack at me. Guess what, it's because you're

different. You're alive and you're hanging

out with dead people and they see you as something that's not

like them because you're you confront society.

I remember Helen doing a further studies in studies in

anthropology, doing a master's and going on and the lecturer

said, she said to her, I'm not going to write about evolution

because I don't believe evolution.

I will write my answers according to creation.

Oh, well, that's the way you go. So she did you see you, you

confront society. That's why when you are around a

group of people, all of a sudden you get picked on or, or or

you're the square peg, the round hole.

It's because you you you're full of the Spirit of God, but Sardis

no longer confronted in society. This is what being spiritually

dead means. If if when you're out in your

sporting group, in your woman's group, in your men's group or

and then and you're getting along with everybody and you

just blend in with everybody else.

Be careful. It could be that you're

spiritually dead, but you don't have the Holy Spirit alive

within you. There are three factors that had

contributed contributed to Christ's sobering assessment of

Silas. Just what did Jesus spiritual

post mortem reveal? 1 The Church died because its

members relied upon their past successes.

Well, I've been baptised. I've, I've done this, I, I've

been through Holy Communion, I, I've been confirmed, I've, I've

done the catechism. I, I, I go to church.

None of those make you a Christian.

And the past successes. It's a sure sign of death when a

church worships its past, it's history and it's tradition.

This is how we've done it always.

We've always done it this way. Secondly, this church lived on

the surface of things. It's members cared more about

their reputation than the reality that was taking place

around them. We had a little note left on our

servery here during the week one of the guys picked up.

It was about to from the river to the sea about Palestine

people. You know, we had a the Israeli

flag at in one morning when we're setting it up, guys, you

can have that flag up there, but you can't have that flag out the

front. You see, if you, if you stand

for Israel, you're standing for God and you're going to be

different. The reason that you stand for

Israel is not because I think they're a great people because

the Bible says they just, they weren't anything great about

them. We stand for Israel because the

Bible says stand for Israel, pray for them, love them.

They're my people. But the Church of Sardis was

more concerned about their reputation than the reality that

was taking place around them. And whilst they he said, Jesus

says you have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled

their garments. They shall walk with me and

white for thou worthy those who were saved.

So while the church at Sardis had a great exterior and

supposedly sound reputation, underneath he was dead.

Filth and spiritual death lay underneath.

You'd say the church was wearing a beautiful burial garment.

Historian Herodotus said of Sardis that it had become LAX in

its moral standards and open in licentiousness.

What is that saying? In other words, the world had

invited that church. That's why the church was

thought. That's a great church, man.

That's a Oh yeah, we all go there, they hang out with us.

We because it was the same. It wasn't any different.

It didn't confront you could live how you please and you

could fellowship there. The world invited it with its

morals and behaviour. The members of the church became

so concerned with their reputation, what others thought

about them. That's what reputation is, that

they lost all their character. They blended.

You and I, we, we're never going to blend.

I always run into people when when you're a pastor and you run

into different pastors and ministers, they go, oh, what you

do? You don't believe you're not

teaching Genesis, are you? You know, that's just there

because it's, we don't really know if it's Scripture.

I go what? Yes, and they're behind pulpits

and churches today. You're not one of those born

again, Isaiah. Well, actually, yeah, because

John chapter 3 says I have to be Jesus said so.

John 3 · chapter mention

Reputation is an interesting word.

What another's opinion is of a personal thing is what

reputation is. It's how you're being perceived.

And you know what, there's too many people who come to church

and go to church who are more concerned about their reputation

with people than they are concerned about their their walk

with God. Paul just nailed that.

He said, I don't care what you say about me.

God's my witness. God's my witness.

Character is how you are really living.

It's who you really are. So saddest was a church filled

with nominal Christians who were living superficially for God.

Thirdly, the congregation that Sardis became satisfied with

aimless activity. That's one thing we've really

focused on here. You go, well, you don't have too

many programmes here, correct? Correct.

Because a lot of programmes that occur are aimless activity.

If you want a programme you can go to the Golf Club, the surf

club, the Mccramy club, the Bowling Club, local community

centre, the sewing centre, whatever.

You can do all those things, you go, we'll keep the same, just

listen to me. The cooking club, the muffin

club, whatever, You can do all those things at those places.

It's funny how Jesus said, but my house shall be a House of

prayer. When it was a marketplace.

You see aimless activity. What's the sense of doing what

we're doing? Is it going to win souls?

Is it going to tell people about Christ?

Is it going to impact the community?

What we got? A lot of people come along.

Great, let's have free beer, free hamburgers.

You know, we'll pack the joint every Wednesday.

Hey, it's free beer and free hamburgers across the road.

We pack it out. That church is an awesome place.

Jesus told the people their works were imperfect or

incomplete. They served and worked with no

heart, no life in what they did. And what I'm saying here is that

Jesus saying is the Holy Spirit was not driving these

activities. You know what?

When we should do something is when God says do this.

Because I know what it's like in my early years as a young

minister, I go, here's a good idea, let's do this.

God says over the years I learnt that's good, I don't want you

doing that. I'm not interested in that.

You see, the Bible is very clear what the early church did.

Holy Spirit driven activities is what we need.

Whilst the surrounding community saw Sardis as a great church,

they had the reputation. Jesus saw them as empty,

lifeless shell. It had a lot of irons in the

fire, but none were hot, none had life.

Well, what's the antidotes of such a spiritual, spiritual,

serious spiritual malaise? 1 realised Firstly something is

wrong that's the first thing. Isn't that what Alcoholics and

non obstique realise first I got a problem realise first thing

Realise firstly something is wrong.

So Jesus tells those who still had a little lie for them wake

up. Verse 2 strengthen what remains

and is about to die for I found what your deeds unfinished in

the sight of my God. Wake up, the NIV says I think

wake up, realise there's something wrong.

Secondly, Jesus then says strengthen what remains and it

is about to die. The Greek word used here means

stabilise that which is frail. Paul used the same term when he

was on his third missionary journey through Galatia, when he

said in Acts 1823, after he had spent some time there, he

departed, went over the region of Galatia and for India in

order strengthening all the disciples.

This is the same word. I will go and strengthen the

brothers. Paul wanted to return to these

Christians and strengthen them lest they fall away.

Thirdly, this church, they would have called to memory the basics

once again. What are we supposed to be

doing? That's what you and I should

always be asking yourself. You know, that's a good thing in

a role of a husband, the role of a wife, the role of a mother and

a father, the role of a Christian.

What is it that I'm supposed to be doing?

We should always go back. What actually is it that I

should be doing? We can only assume that they had

received the core things of the faith, such as the gospel and

the Holy Spirit. Jesus instructed the church

members at Sardis to look to their past and get in touch with

their heritage. Look how far you've drifted from

where you began. Similar to the church at

Ephesus, that which had once made them great, the foundation

on which they built was a wise one originally member, wise

builder, foundation. Who's the foundation?

The rock. Who's the rock?

Christ, the unwise builder, just continues building and building

and building on sand. Yet Jesus urged them to use

those things of their past as a guidepost.

Remember what we used to do? That's what we should be doing.

Not a hitching post. Oh yeah, this church.

I remember when in 45 when the revival swept through.

Only we had a revival. We had a revival once.

You know Revelation 3/5 heathen overcomes 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. This verse at times confuses

many because it appears, it seems to imply that a genuine

believer can lose his or her salvation.

But this is not what the text teaches at all, nor does any

scripture as such. What is meant by the Book of

Life? Well, some believe the Book of

Life is a register in which the names of people are added the

moment they receive Christ. Others believe it's a record of

every person who has ever been born since the time Christ died,

and that their names are removed at the end of their lives if

they die in their sins. Well, the Bible tells us there

are in fact two books. As a matter of fact, the Bible

tells us a lot of books, doesn't it?

It's going to be books opened. Books opened in heaven.

The Bible tells us there are in fact two books that we need to

look at tonight. The book of the living one.

Secondly, the book of life 2, The book of the living is the

record of every person who was born.

When a person dies, his or her name is removed from the book of

the living. In Exodus chapter 32, you

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

remember the children of Israel have sinned.

They've done just just golden calves.

They've just carried on. Moses goes back up onto the

mountain to speak to God, and there Moses intercedes on behalf

of the people of Israel because of their sin with the golden

calf. Moses essentially said to God,

God, please forgive your people. Don't wipe me out.

And if you'll not forgive them, then blot me out of your book

which you've written. In other words, take my life

instead. Now Moses was willing to have

his life cut short in order to save the people who had sinned.

But God responded, Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot

him out of my book. He's a holy God.

God was going to punish the guilty with physical death, and

it happened. In Psalm 6928, David makes a

similar statement about God punishing his enemies by

blotting their names out of the book of the living.

In other words, take them out, Lord.

Psalm 6928 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living

and not be written with the righteous.

But here in our text tonight, verse 5, Jesus is talking about

the book of life. This is a record of every

genuine believer. In Philippians chapter 4 verse

Philippians 4:3

3, Paul mentions this while describing genuine believers who

were fellow workers. Paul says that their names are

in the book of life. Philippians 4 three.

And I urge you also, True Companion, help these women who

laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest

of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

Later on in the Book of Revelation chapter 13, verse 8,

Revelation 13:8

this record is described as being the book of life of the

Lamb. Same Then in Revelation chapter

Revelation 20:15

20 verse 15, at the judgement of the unsaved, the great white

Throne judgement all the dead second resurrection erased.

At the judgement of the unsaved we read that their names were

what not found in the book of life.

Finally in Revelation 2127 we read that heaven will be

inhabited only by those whose names are written in the Lamb's

book of life. So whilst some have attempted to

interpret Revelation 3/5 as the possibility of losing 1's

salvation, it actually teaches the opposite.

Genuine believers, like the Remnant in Sardis, can never

have their names blotted out of the Book of Life, which is the

book that records the name of every true believer.

Your salvation is sure. Otherwise, you know, you go to

bed. How would you wake up?

You can't go to bed. Well, that's pretty, pretty good

tomorrow. Well, Gee, I hope I'm good

tomorrow. It's eternal life.

Not not possible eternal life, not considerable with with a

few, you know, bits and pieces here Jesus told his disciples,

remember they came back rejoicing.

Wow, Jesus, you know this happened and that happened.

We did miracles and then Jesus that that's not what you should

be rejoicing about. He says rejoice because your

name is written in heaven. You know how it's written in

permanent marker. In permanent marker.

John chapter 10, my favourite chapter in the Gospel of John,

John 10 · chapter mention

probably my one of my favourite chapters over all in the Bible.

John chapter 10 verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I

John 10:27

know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life,

and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them

out of my hand, Paul says in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

What shall separate us from the love of God?

Nothing. Death, Height, length, breadth,

anything created in the universe under the universe you know man

nothing. And here when it says, and they

shall never perish, in the Greek it actually says this.

You shall never know, never know, never know, never perish.

He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the

churches. The key is to having your name

written in the Lamb's book of life.

How does that happen? Jesus, I come to you as a

Sinner. I confess my sins before you.

I know that I'm worthy of judgement.

But Lord, I call upon you now. I asked.

And in the name of Jesus, your Son, I believe that he died on

the cross for me. I believe that He died for the

penalty of my sins. I accept that and by faith now I

ask you to come into my life and be now my Lord and Saviour.

I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. That's all you do.