Letters to the 7 Churches: Sardis & Philadelphia - Revelation 3:7-13 | Pastor Daniel Reese

Welcome to 563 Church of Production of Cornerstone

Church in Eldridge, Iowa. Today's sermon is about

the church's Sardis and Philadelphia from Revelation

Revelation 3:7–13

3, verses 7 through 13. We are glad you are here

listening today. I'll give you a few minutes

to find that. So I've said the last few weeks,

and I'll say it again this morning, that you

and I are here for a reason. It's not an accident.

God has placed each and every one of us for some

purpose that He wants to accomplish here at Cornerstone.

And I don't know the full extent of it or what

it's really going to completely look like in

this place, but you and I are here for a reason

in this season at this time. So what we are looking

at is these churches in Revelation because these

churches of revelation that Jesus is addressing.

It gives us an idea of what Jesus considers really

good. And then it also tells us the things that

the churches ended up doing that led to their

destruction. And so my hope has been throughout

this study is that we can avoid what Jesus holds

against these churches. and chase the things

they did at first. Do those things really, really

well. And so for the past few weeks, we've kind

of gone one church at a time, but today we're

going to tackle two of the churches because I

feel like they, the Church of Philadelphia applies,

is the answer to the church in Sardis. And then

next week we will wrap up this series by looking

at the church of Laodicea. And so Revelation

chapter three, we're gonna look at the church

of Sardis here in just a... few minutes, but

real quick, just to give you some background,

Sardis is a church, and similar to the other

churches, they live in a culture that is prevalent

with worship to other gods. They're worshipping

every god they can think of in this place. Now,

from what we understand, Sardis is a large church,

and to be honest, Sardis is one of the biggest

fears of mine come true. Sardis is what I'm afraid

of here, and I pray hard against ever becoming

true in this place. And not only is it important

because of the fear, but what we will find in

the message of Jesus to the church in Sardis.

Now, one of the problems we have in our culture,

you might agree or disagree with me on this,

but one of the problems we have in our culture

today is that there's so much media. that the

message of Jesus has been lost in a fray of moralism.

And what I mean by that is that people want to

connect Jesus to one simple moral aspect and

boil down the gospel into one moral act. And

so what ends up happening is Jesus becomes a

political party. or a stance, or a social issue,

or whatever it is, and that in and of itself

is extremely dangerous. Anytime the word Christian

becomes an adjective instead of a noun, you begin

to live in some pretty dangerous waters. And

I use this example, there's no such thing as

Christian music, because music cannot be saved.

Only people can, right? There's no such thing

as a Christian auto shop because a shop cannot

understand the gospel, only the people who work

there. And when you begin to play that game...

And when Jesus becomes this just one act or one

stance or one social issue, you begin to be in

some dangerous areas. Like what do you do with

me right now who has access and was actually

listening to this week on my phone some music

that was not about Jesus? It was secular. Does

that mean I'm lost? Does that mean I'm in need

of a savior? Or what do you do with the so -called

Christian bands that say absolutely nothing about

who Jesus is and what He's done for them? Or

the mechanic that has a cross or a fish on their

logo, but does not operate their business in

a godly manner. Do you understand what I mean

when I'm talking about Christian adjectives as

opposed to Christian nouns? So when you take

a stance of a Christian adjective, the gospel

point gets missed altogether. We completely misunderstand

what the gospel is. And so what I love about

this text is you're going to see the gospel message

in the letter to Sardis. And I'll start in verse

one of chapter three. Jesus says, into 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 are dead. Now that verse

right there is my greatest fear. That we will

wear the banner of Jesus, we will wave the flag

of the cross, but inside we are dead. In essence,

they have learned the language of Christianity,

but the Holy Spirit of God is nowhere inside

of them. And so what has happened in Sardis is

they have conformed to a pattern of religion,

but have not been transformed by the message

of God and his gospel. Do you understand what's

going on in Sardis? that there's a major difference

between being conformed into a moral pattern

of behavior and being engaged with the living

Christ. There's a huge difference. And so Sardis

is my greatest fear because they are really well

put together. There's not a lot of rough edges.

People are coming to this church. Maybe they

have a great building. Maybe they have the best

looking people. Maybe they are growing in their

knowledge of God and it looks like a pretty place.

And Jesus says, although you look the part, you're

dead. You're not alive. And listen, if you've

grown up in church at all, you know how easy

it is to get sucked into this. Surely you know

how easy it is to play the game and not engage

with the living God. Surely you know the pain

of checking off all the Christian to -do lists,

your Christian checklists, and you get the whole

list done, and you feel good about yourself for

a second, but your soul is just shriveled up

and dead. Surely you understand what that's like.

Now this past week was a hard week for our country.

because it was a reminder that evil is prevalent

in this world. We remembered 9 -11, 24 years

since evil struck those towers and did that destruction.

There was another school shooting and then Charlie

Kirk was assassinated. Now I'm not surprised

by evil. It doesn't surprise me. Jesus said things

are going to get worse as we get closer to the

end times. And so this doesn't surprise me. I

hate it. I hate the evil, but I'm not surprised

by it. Here's what has been surprising and disappointing

to me. Now Charlie Kirk was not perfect. Maybe

you can find a sound bite of him. Maybe not reflecting

Jesus in the best light. But for a Christian

to dismiss him for that is wrong. He boldly proclaimed

the gospel across this country in front of hostile

crowds. He was a voice that stood up boldly for

the unborn. He advocated for Christian values

in the family. He challenged men to stand up

and fight against injustice and evil. He did

it better and more consistent than I've seen

anybody else do in my lifetime. And yet I've

seen and heard of so many different believers

in Jesus who want to disassociate themselves

from him because he might have offended somebody.

Well guess what? The gospel is offensive. When

Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the

life, that phrase, that verse, that statement

of truth is gonna be offensive to people who

think they're a good enough person and they can

earn their way to salvation. I don't need Jesus,

I can do it on my own. It's gonna be offensive.

What I have seen is so many articles and videos

this week of people saying, I took Charlie's

advice. And I got involved in a church and I've

surrendered my life to Jesus because of what

Charlie said to me. I've read a story of I was

a transgender person, but the influence of Charlie

made me get the help that I needed. My values

about family have changed because I wanted what

Charlie had in his life. I was pro -abortion

before I met Charlie, but now I march for life.

Now, I'm not glorifying Charlie, but using him

as an example of what it means to actually live

out our Christian faith. Now, I have been a Christian

for longer than Charlie was even alive, and yet

I have never been as bold and as impactful as

he was. Charlie didn't pretend. It was who he

was. He was alive and not dead. And this is the

issue with Sardis. This is what they're dealing

with, that they have learned to pretend. They

have learned to play the part so well that they

don't even realize that their souls are dried

up and dead. This pretending has caused their

souls to dry up. So Jesus says that even though

you bear my name, Even though on the outside

of your building you have a cross, you have a

church name, you have whatever it is, even though

you do all those things and you appear to be

alive, Jesus says, I'm afraid you're dead. And

maybe if you've been there, there was a time

in your life where you felt so far from God,

you felt so far from the reality of who he was,

you began to even wonder if he even existed.

But you were so entwined in the culture. You

were so entwined in the religion that you just

kept on pretending. Now the whole life and death

thing, he's not talking about physical death.

This is a very spiritual talking about your soul

text that Jesus has here with Sardis. He's going

to once again unpack this thing and it's his

message. He's going to say this is the invitation.

to real deep life, real deep living. This is

the invitation. And then there's this way to

live outside of it that's existence, but it's

not life. It's what Jesus is talking about when

he says that he came to give us life in abundance,

came to give us life in the full, meaning translation.

In Christ, there's life outside of Christ. all

you have is existence. And so many people who

claim Christ are just existing because they are

just pretending to follow. And this is the constant

message of Jesus in the gospels. This is what

we need to get into our hearts. Let me tell you

why this is so important. Because somewhere along

the way, the message of Jesus has been hijacked

by those who would say or teach or speak as if

the primary purpose of God in the universe is

judgment. There are so many people with that

message that the primary purpose of God is judgment,

instead of the glorious grace of Christ through

forgiveness and salvation. That's the message

of Christ. Now, I've experienced, I've experienced

the other options, right? I've experienced that

God is a God of judgment. I've experienced it,

you've experienced it, right? Where we fail to

meet the moral code of others and therefore we

become unacceptable to them. Because we didn't

hit some sort of standard so because of that

our reputations are dragged through the mud that

there is nothing that we will ever be able to

do that is correct until we reach the standard

that they have for morality. But here's what

I've learned throughout all my years. Here's

what I've learned. The law does not transform.

A human version of morality does not transform.

But rather, it is grace that transforms the heart.

That is the message of Jesus. Now I want you

to turn to Matthew chapter 7. Keep your finger

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

in Revelation 3, because we'll come back there,

but I want you to see this in Matthew chapter

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

7. Because I think this text will kind of show

you and help you understand, am I alive or am

I dead? Am I alive or am I... dead. This will

be a great litmus test to see where you are in

relation to this walk we have with the Lord.

And so, in Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

13, it's a well -known passage. I'll wait till

I stop hearing pages turn. I love that, by the

way. Matthew 7 13 says, enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide and the way is easy that

leads to destruction and those who enter by it

are many." Now, I want to define this. I'm going

to stop her there. I want to define this. Destruction

is not fire coming down from heaven and striking

you on the sidewalk. Instead, imagine a freshly

picked apple that you take off the tree. and

you throw it into the sun, and over a period

of hours or days, it just kinda shrivels up and

shrinks into nothing. Broad is the way of your

soul being shriveled up. Broad is the way of

you becoming dry and cold. So don't think of

destruction as this major catastrophic thing,

but think of it as your soul's... lack of ability,

or your soul losing its ability to breathe. That

kind of destruction does not happen overnight.

It's a day by day thing. And it can come in many

different forms. The destruction of your soul,

the hardness of your heart, can come in many

different forms. It can be coming to church and

not letting anything that you hear in this place

transform your heart. Of just coming in and doing

the routine. It has no impact on your attitude.

It has no impact on your behaviors. It can be

seeing everything wrong in other people and not

seeing it in yourself. It can be allowing your

heart to get hardened to the things of God and

to the things that you know to be true. Destruction

comes when we learn the language of Christianity,

but we don't implement or apply any of it. That's

how the destruction of our souls happen. Now

you can tell if you are on the road to destruction

If you rarely if ever deny your flesh If you

can look at your life and you can look back and

you're like very rarely Do I actually deny my

flesh? Meaning if something sounds good and you

can get instant satisfaction from it. You just

do it You just get it. Whether it be a drink,

whether it be a pill, whether it be pornography,

or a good meal, or shopping spree, or whatever

it is that it is, whatever it is, you are unable

to deny yourself of that instant gratification.

You are on that road to destruction. I don't

care how much scripture you know. I don't care

how many songs, worship songs you sing in your

car. The world chases instant gratification.

And we are called to be different. We are called

to seek God and his kingdom first, before we

chase after our comfort. Before we chase after

our pleasure. And so yesterday I had to call

Sina. And I had to, I told her, I was like, I

need you to talk me off the ledge. That is my

way of saying to her, I need you to help me not

walk in my flesh. I need you to talk me through

this thing, because my flesh wanted to react

a certain way to some things that were said.

But deep down in my heart, I knew it wasn't right.

If I reacted the way I wanted, there would have

been instant gratification. There would have

been five minutes of, oh, that feels good, right?

That feels good to say, that feels good to defend,

that feels good to whatever it is. But it wouldn't

have been what was right because I was I I was

acting in my flesh And I think sometimes as Christians

we view the wide road as as the rest of the world

because we grew up in the Christian faith And

because there's so many lost people that the

majority of the world is not born -again believers

We must be okay right, as Christians, because

many are on that road that are lost, like the

rest of the world is lost. We are in the minority

when it comes to Christianity. Now granted, that

is true. The rest of the world that is not proclaimed

faith in Jesus is lost. They are on the road

to destruction. But we also have to keep in mind

what Jesus says a few verses later. In Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7, he says, many will say to me on that

day, Lord, Lord, did we not do all these things?

Lord, did we not come to church every week? Lord,

did we not give? Lord, did we not serve? Lord,

did we not do all these things in your name?

And his response is going to be, depart from

me. I never knew you. You learned the game. You

never knew who I... was. Translation. You knew

about me. You knew some facts about me. You learned

the language of your church culture but you didn't

know me. That's the road to destruction. Verse

14 says, for the gate is narrow and the way is

hard that leads to life and those who find it

are few. And so here's the invitation that we

just heard from Jesus. I've got the keys. He's

saying, I got the keys to life. Let's lead you

out of the shallow water. Let's lead you to the

deep end of the pool. I know how to get us there.

I know how to lead you there. I know how to lead

you to life because I own it, because I sustain

it, because I create it. I know how to get us

there, right? And so you have a choice. Every

single one of us has a choice. You've got rich,

full life over here with Jesus. Or you've got

the shriveling and dying of your soul over here

apart from Him. The message of Jesus is not shame

on you. The message of Jesus is, hey, this way

to life. This way to life. Won't you come to

life? And He says it's hard. Fighting against

the flesh is hard. Denying our comfort is...

hard. Denying our flesh is hard. But it says,

but doing so. Doing so leads to life. I can't

think of anything of value in my life that has

come easy. My marriage has taken some really

hard work to be where we are today. Raising children

is not for the faint of heart. That is a daily

grind I've learned. My walk with the Lord, my

growing in Christ is like a roller coaster for

me. But all have immense value in my life and

I will continue to put in the work in those things

because it's worth it. Jesus continues in verse

16, you will recognize them by the fruits. Are

grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from

thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit,

but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy

tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased

tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not

bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the

fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their

fruits. So Jesus is gonna say, the best possible

life is with me. Now, I believe this, and I don't

think we say it enough because I think we just

have the wrong mindset, but you can have a good

marriage and not be a follower of Jesus. Like,

I legitimately have friends that are not walking

with the Lord, and I would say they have a good

marriage. Like, he even takes them on dates.

Like, he takes his wife on dates. He doesn't

physically abuse her. Right, they have what we

would consider a really good marriage. They love

each other very, very much. You can have a good

marriage and not know Jesus. But you will never

have what marriage is in its fullness without

Him. I think you can be wealthy, believe it or

not, and not know Jesus. But soul wealth is a

different animal, isn't it? I'd rather be wealthy

in my soul than wealthy in my bank account. Jesus

says that every tree is going to bear good or

bad fruit. Now, according to the scripture, good

fruit is defined as love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness. You know who was singing the song in

their head? You've heard this before. Now I want

to stop real quick and define what joy is. Because

sometimes I think we think of like the cheerleaders

that are still saying, you know, go team. when

your team is losing 83 to 6, right? Like that's

joy, they're still happy, but you know, true

joy is this deep confidence in the goodness of

God in our life's darkest hour. Elizabeth Elliott

said it this way, said, the secret of joy is

Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.

The secret to joy is Christ in me, not me in

a different set of circumstances. I believe our

generation's Elizabeth Elliot is now Erica Kirk,

who will continue the message of her husband

in boldly sharing the gospel to his audience.

So love, joy, peace. Patience, kindness, gentleness,

self -control, these are the fruits of living

with Jesus. Verse 24, everyone then who hears

these words of mine and does them will be like

a wise man who built his house on the rock. And

the rain fell and the floods came and the winds

blew and beat that house, but it did not fall

because it had been founded on the rock. So there's

two things to see just out of those verses. First,

the man decided to build his house on the rock.

It's important that you notice that. The second

thing you need to notice is the storm still came.

Building your life on the rock, building your

life on Jesus has not exempt you from the storm.

We can build on the rock or we can build on something

else according to verse 26. And everyone who

hears these words of mine and does not do them

will be like a foolish man who built his house

on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods

came and the winds blew and beat against that

house. And it fell and great was the fall of

it. And so Jesus invites us into life once again.

You can build on the rock, you can build on me,

and when the storm comes, and the storm always

comes, you will stand strong. Or you can build

on the sand, and when the storm comes, because

the storm will come, all you will have to stand

on is going to be your intellect. And intellect

will always fail when sorrow becomes too great.

Because there's things we just cannot understand.

This is the message of Jesus. Come to good fruit.

Come and build your house on the rock. Walk with

me. Swim with me in the deep waters. Let me lead

you to abundant life. And this is what the church

in Sardis forgot. They were just pretending.

So turn with me back to Revelation 3. So he says

you're alive. You think you're alive, but you're

dead. Verse two, 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. Remember

then what you have received and heard. Keep it

and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come

like you. I will come like a thief and you will

not know at what hour I will come against you.

Jesus says, Sardis church, you have forgotten.

You have forgotten. Wake up. Like, is this the

dream? Is this what you wanted when you started

this thing? When you surrendered your life, is

this what you were expecting? Wake up. He's saying

pay attention to your soul. Pay attention to

where you are. And so what if, what if we really

did pay attention? What if we decided to check

our hearts and begin to ask the question, are

we on the road to destruction? What if you asked

that about yourself this morning? He says, there's

a call to remember. Because surely when you signed

up for this thing, surely when you surrendered

your life, this isn't what you signed up for.

This isn't what you were chasing. Maybe you've

fallen into the pattern of just pretending. So

we're saying, wake up. That's the call. There's

a call to remember, and that leads me to Philadelphia.

Not Philadelphia, P .A. We know this, right?

Philadelphia, A's your minor. Philadelphia, where

Turkey is now. That Philadelphia. Verse seven,

he says, into the angel of the church of Philadelphia

write, the words of the holy one, the true one,

who has the key of David, who opens and no one

will shut, who shuts and no one opens. Now, what

is that open door? Because I think this is the

antidote to Sardis. The open door is the invitation

to life and depth and beauty. It's the invitation

from Christ for life. He says, I opened the door.

You didn't open the door. I opened the door and

no one can shut it. Why? Why can nobody else

shut it? Because you have such little power.

You're unable to. This is going to be the key

to save us as a church from Sardis. And I often

wonder how many, I often wonder when we sing

our songs in here, and y 'all sounded so good

today. You sounded so good today, but I wonder

how tiny and how small it must sound in heaven.

Because if all of creation proclaims the glory

of God, and you've got stars that are exploding,

that are twice the size of Earth, how small are

we? Why would he invite us to walk into life?

If you've ever stood on the coast, and you stood

with the ocean in front of you, and you hear

the roar, and you hear that that is declaring

the greatness and goodness of who God is. It

makes you feel small, because that thing could

eat you up and not think twice about it, right?

Or if you stand at the top of the Grand Canyon

and you look down into that massive creation,

you realize how small and insignificant you are

to the greatness of who God is. So how do we

make sure, how do we make sure and protect ourselves

that we do not become Sardis? We have to remember

that He is the one that opened the door. He is

the one that is inviting us into life. There's

nothing you can do to open the door. He's already

done it. There's nothing you can do to shut the

door because your sin is already forgiven if

you proclaim faith in Jesus. We have to remember

that. We have to go back to that and we have

to be obedient to the words of Christ. And I

think it's important because in our culture it

is so, so easy to pretend for decades at a time.

It's so easy to come to this level of morality

that we create in our own heads and we start

judging other people. and looking down on them

because they can't seem to get to our standard.

And when we do that, we fail to realize who we

are before Christ and all of us are insignificant.

All of us are sinners. All of us are in need

of a savior. And so when we begin to elevate

morality, we begin to forget about grace. And

grace becomes this thing we say and talk about

but don't practice. And so here's how we avoid

being Sardis, is we really begin to ask ourselves.

We really begin to ask ourselves, am I on the

road of destruction? What are those moments in

your life? If you think back to the last week

or the last month, those moments where you have

failed to deny your flesh. You fail to ask. God,

what do you want from me in this situation? Instead,

you just chase your comfort. You chase your preference.

You chase whatever, because this is going to

be a little hard. What is he calling you to do?

And what I love about Jesus is he doesn't sugarcoat

it. He says, he goes, you have to deny yourself.

He doesn't say deny yourself once. He says, you

have to deny yourself. Daily. Daily deny yourself.

Daily deny your flesh. Daily follow me. Take

up your cross. Daily. This is an every single

day battle. And so my question to you is when

was the last time you denied yourself and you

took up the cross? Not because it was easy, but

because it was hard. If we don't want to be Sardis.

We have to understand that we need the Lord to

speak and move in our heart Sardis is my greatest

fear Because one day I'm gonna stand before the

Lord I'm gonna stand before the Lord and I'm

gonna give an account for how I led every church

I ever stood in front of And I don't ever want

to lead a church down the path of destruction.

And so I'm pleading with you. I'm pleading with

you to check your heart, to humble yourself before

Him, to ask Him to reveal these things to you.

And so we'll invite the worship team up here.

Let me pray for us and I'll give you. We'll have

time to respond to whatever the Lord has for

us this morning. So if you bow your head and

pray with me, Father, I pray right now that you

will speak to our heart. I pray that you'll speak

to our souls this morning. God, I thank you.

I thank you that you didn't give up on Sardis.

You encourage them to wake up. You encourage

them to come back to this reality. You've invited

us into life, not just existence, but you've

invited us back into eternal life because of

what you've done for us, Father. I pray that

you will help us to quit pretending to not be

conformed to this world, but you will help us

renew our minds through your word. And so I pray

in this moment that you speak. You speak to our

hearts louder than anything we hear today. Give

us the confidence and the boldness to walk forward

in obedience. And so Father, I pray for those

that are just existing. I pray that you, they

hear the invitation to life, that they will call

upon your name, that they will be saved. that

you will transform their hearts because of the

grace that you have poured out on all of us.

So have your way in this place. In Jesus' name

I pray. Amen. I find my rest without you I fall

apart You're the one that guides my heart Lord

I need defense my righteousness oh god how i

need you where sin runs deep your grace is more

where grace is found is where you When I cannot

stand, I'll fall on you. Jesus, you're my hope

instead. So teach my song to rise to you. When

temptation comes my way. And when I cannot stand,

I'll fall on you. We're saying that in the first

service. I just felt impressed by the Lord When

I was singing Lord, I need you what it you know,

I just felt impressed by what does that actually

mean? And I just had this this vision of like

complete surrender is when we're is what we're

saying Lord I need you and I just had this picture

of You know essentially a criminal, you know

when they come in contact with the police and

They say put your hands in the air, right? Next,

show me that you're surrendering. Show me that

you don't have any more weapons. You're no longer

guarded, right? And we put our hands in the air

and then maybe they make you get on your knees.

And you get on your knees and you have your hands

in the air, you have your hands behind your head

and that is just a completely vulnerable position,

isn't it? You can't attack. It's just completely

surrendering and depending on the... depending

on the severity of the crime that they're, they

might even have them lay on the ground and just

have their own spread, just completely laying

flat on the ground before them, completely surrender.

And I think some of us, maybe that will be helpful

to you. It was helpful to me of what it looks

like to really say, Lord, I need you. This is

me completely surrendered up because I think

we guard ourselves. We guard ourselves. And so

maybe you're at the place where you're just ready

to surrender, God, this is for you, I need you.

Every single hour of the day, I need you. And

so I'm gonna ask Matthew to lead us in that one

more time and I'm just gonna be available up

here in front. I'm gonna ask Tim to be available

just to pray with you if we can. But maybe some

of you just need to get, you're at the end of

your road. You've realized you're on the road

to destruction and you just need to throw your

hands in the air and get on your knees and lay

on your face and say, Lord, I need you every

hour. I need you to get me through this because

my sheer willpower is not doing it anymore. And

so I'm going to dismiss you. I'm going to ask

you to leave quietly as we leave. But if you

want to stay and just continue to just be in

His presence in this place as Matthew sings over

us, then I want to invite you to do that. If

I can pray with you or Tim can pray with you,

then please, please take us up on that. We'd

love to walk with you on this journey. Other

than that, I hope you have a great week. It's

been a joy to worship with you in this place,

but for those of you that want to stay, we're

going to extend it a little bit longer just to

surrender ourselves before him. I hope you have

a good week.