Sardis: A Call to Be Alert- Revelation 3:1-6

it says this, write to the angel of the church

in Sardis, thus says the one who has the seven

spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your

works, you have a reputation for being alive,

but you are dead. Be alert and strengthen what

remains, which is about to die, for I have not

found your works complete before my God. Remember

then what you have received and heard, keep it

and repent. If you are not alert, I will come

like a thief and you have no idea at what hour

I will come upon you. but you have a few people

in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes,

and they will walk with me in white because they

are worthy. In the same way, the one who conquers

will be dressed in white clothes, and I will

never erase his name from the book of life, but

will acknowledge his name before my Father and

before his angels. Let anyone who has ears to

hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much for

your word. And God, we come before you this morning

and we ask, would you give us ears to hear what

you have for us today, God? Help us to be a people

who has ears to hear what the Spirit says to

the churches, God. Lord, I ask that you would

encourage us, God, that you would challenge our

hearts in places where we need to be challenged,

God. Father, we recognize that we need you. We

recognize, God, our dependence upon you, Father.

And God, I ask now that you would just quiet

any distractions from our heart, any distractions

from our mind, God. You just bring us into this

time with a clear mind and ready to worship you,

Father. In your name we pray. Amen. You may be

seated. Jesus' fifth letter. to the churches

is to the church in Sardis. Sardis is an interesting

city. It was actually a very wealthy city that

was maybe a little bit overlooked in society,

at least that's how it always felt, kind of had

that chip on its shoulder that, you know, no

one took it quite as seriously as they should

have, but it was a really important city. It

was really important, though, until something

happened in 324 AD. This is where my history

teacher side gets to come out. See, when I was

a student teaching, I got to teach the events

of 324 AD. In 324 AD, a Roman emperor who's on

the throne, known as Constantine, goes to a little

patch of desert off of the Mediterranean Sea,

right off the Straits of Bosporus, and he begins

to lay out his dreams, his legacy. And that legacy

would become a city named Constantinople. Today,

we know that city is Istanbul. And see, when

Constantine did that, What he did not necessarily

knowingly do is he took Sardis from being a city

of prominence and economic importance and made

it completely irrelevant. When Constantine did

that, it lost its economic influence. And in

a similar way, when Constantine changed the state

religion and made the state religion of the Roman

Empire Christianity, Constantine also took away

the social and cultural influence of Sardis.

See, Sardis, similarly to Ephesus, was one of

the centers of worship for the goddess Artemis.

Had a lot of similarities to Ephesus, actually.

Socially, economically, the importance of worshiping

this god Artemis. In fact, this worship was everywhere.

It was the all -consuming theme of this city.

Had another similarity, similar to the city of

Colossae that we looked at last year in 2024.

It was similar in this sense. There were a number

of earthquakes, which is actually part of why

they rebuilt and went ahead and built Constantinople.

See, the city was actually completely destroyed

in 17 AD, so not that far before this letter

is written, and it was totally rebuilt off of

a major tax write -off from the Roman government.

Yes, there were tax write -offs back in the first

century. It was a real thing. And so as John

receives this vision, the city has been rebuilt.

It is wealthy. It is powerful. But it doesn't

last that way. See, it still actually exists

today. It's got a slightly different name. It's

called Sart now. But it still exists today. But

today, if you go to Sart, what you will find

is a small town of about 5 ,000 people, mostly

shepherds. So what was once this thriving social

and economic center is no longer. But we also

see that it's got a church of prominence. A church

that's so important that Jesus sends one of these

seven letters to their church in Sardis. So this

week as I was working on this message, as I was

praying about this and doing some research on

Sardis, I came across an article by the International

Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

They'd gone and visited the seven cities that

are talked about in Revelation 2 and 3. When

they came to Sardis, they did something a little

interesting. They went through and they worked

with some local missionaries and they started

doing surveys and other different ways to try

and figure out what was the Christian population

like. You know, Turkey's not the most open to

Jesus country in the world, so they started trying

to find the underground church. Where are they

meeting? Where can we get involved? How can we

support this once great church that's literally

mentioned in the Bible? Well, what they found

after weeks of work was that there was not a

single Christian living in the city of Sark.

Friends, this letter is a very somber letter.

You know, I know we always think of kind of the

bookends, the church in Ephesus, the church in

Laodicea, as Jesus giving these wake -up calls

to churches. That means we kind of skip over

Sardis a little bit. Friends, Sardis is unique

in this. Jesus really does not give a positive

about the church in Sardis. With all these other

churches, he says, hey, you're doing well with

this. You know, at the church in Ephesus, hey,

you've lost your first love, but at least you

hate heretics. I hate heretics too. You know,

at the church in Laodicea, he gives other encouragement.

At the church in Thyatira, he says, listen, you

guys have issues with sin inside the church?

But hey, we see your love, we see your faithfulness,

your service, your endurance, you're growing,

we see it. Stay strong. The church in Sardis?

Not the case. The church in Sardis, and also

the city, had a reputation of being alive. Because

we're going to see today, both the city and the

church were on their way to death. Friends, at

the very beginning of these letters, Jesus talks

about being the one who holds the seven lampstands

in his hand, that being the seven churches. and

that if the church in Ephesus does not repent

and wake up, that he will take away their lampstand.

And friends, the church in Sardis is a heartbreaking

letter, because we see what happens when Jesus

does take away a lampstand. We see what happens

when Jesus says, you did not listen, you did

not wake up. And we don't just see it past tense,

we see it present tense today, with a city without

a single Christian, with a city that had a legacy

for following Jesus, but in reality was dead

already. So let me encourage you with our main

point today, something that we're going to hit

on a lot this morning. Our main point is this,

we need to remember the gospel, we need to keep

it close to our hearts, and we need to repent

when we stray from it. This right here is the

best summary of this letter to the church in

Sardis. Remember the gospel, keep it close to

your heart, and repent when we stray from it.

Friends, that is what Jesus is calling this church

to, and for some of us, that is what Jesus is

calling us to this morning. Jesus is calling

us to look in the mirror and say, hey, I am not

following God in the way that I want to follow

God. I need to remember the gospel and remember

what it is that Jesus did for me. I need to keep

that close to my heart, which we'll talk about

more. I need to repent of how I've strayed away

from God. Friends, this is something that realistically

we all struggle with. We all fall short. We all

have times in life where we realize that maybe

we're not walking as close to God as we want

to be. So let me encourage you. Let's open our

hearts. Let's open our ears. Let's have ears

to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

And let's see what the Spirit says to the churches.

Starting in verse 1, it says this. Write to the

angel of the church in Sardis. Thus says the

one who has the seven spirits of God and the

seven stars. That is Jesus. That's Jesus addressing

himself. That's Jesus talking about how he has

complete authority over this church. How Jesus

has complete authority over the seven churches.

How Jesus has complete authority over the world.

He says this, I know your works. You have a reputation

for being alive, but you are dead. Well, typically

when we've seen I know your works, Jesus has

used that as a positive. Consider the church

in Thyatira like we saw last week. He says this,

I know your works, your love, your faithfulness

and service and endurance. I know that your last

works are greater than the first. I know that

you're growing. I'm encouraged by that. Well,

in this letter, it's not a positive. Please hear

this. Jesus knows our works and Jesus sees us.

He sees the positive, the love, the faithfulness,

the servants, the endurance of Thyatira, and

he sees the church in Sardis living on its reputation

alone. And understand that's what's going on

in Sardis. They're living off of what they used

to do. They're living off of the past tense.

We used to follow God so well. We used to be

so passionate. We used to be in our golden age.

And friends, having spent some time helping with

revitalization in some very rural communities

in Illinois. This is a type of an attitude you

hear pretty often. 30 years ago, we were the

biggest church in town. 30 years ago, we had

this incredible youth group. So why should we

change today? Everyone should change for us.

Friends, we cannot live in the past tense. We

just can't. See, on the surface, the church in

Sardis looks okay. You know, they still have

their programming going. They still have everything

going. The city of Sardis is still saying, hey,

they're alive. They're doing their thing over

there. Good for them. If you or me walked into

the church in Sardis on a Sunday morning, we

probably would have thought, well, this looks

pretty good. They've got a good worship band.

They've got good coffee. They've got good pastries.

There's action. There's things going on. They've

got their meetings. They've got all the stuff

going on. But inside, there's really nothing.

I was doing a commentary this weekend. A commentator,

I think describe the church in Sardis maybe my

favorite way. He said this, the church in Sardis

is like a morgue with a steeple. It's a morgue

with a steeple. On the outside, it looks like

a church, but on the inside, as we look at what's

going on, everyone's dead. They are spiritually

dead. They have the right techniques, the right

pathways. They look so good to their community,

but they're missing the single most important

thing. They are missing faith. They've become

so caught up in what they can do, they've forgotten

the most important thing, a relationship with

Jesus. They're gathering, they're going through

the motions, their reputation carries them forward.

They probably enjoy their reputation a little

bit, if we're honest. Their reputation is that

they're so solid. But their reality is something

totally different. Like I said, there's a lot

of similarities to the church in Ephesus, and

this is one of them. The church in Ephesus has

this great reputation for how deep their faith

is. But in reality, their faith is shallow. It's

the same for the church in Sardis. I know your

works, church in Sardis. You have a reputation

for being alive. You have a reputation for doing

the right thing. You have a reputation for spreading

the gospel. But you are dead. Friends, we can

apply that more personally also. It's easy for

us to live off of a reputation. For us to say,

I used to do all these things. I used to be so

on fire for Jesus. My faith used to be my priority.

Now I just kind of show up at church. I show

up at community group. I just kind of try to

float through this a little bit. We have a reputation

for being alive. But internally, we are dead

because we are not walking closely with Jesus.

And so let's go ahead and look at verses 2 and

3. where we see the solution to this problem,

because I think we can all agree this is a problem.

I know your works, you look alive, but really

you're dead. And here's the solution. Here's

three words there in your bulletin as blanks.

Remember, keep, and repent. That is the solution

that Jesus gives. Remember, keep, and repent.

Let's look, start in verse two. It says this,

be alert and strengthen what remains, which is

about to die, for I have not found your works

complete before my God. Remember then what you

have received and heard. there's that word remember.

Remember what you've received and what you've

heard. Remember the gospel. Keep it and repent.

And then Jesus gives this warning. If you are

not alert, if you do not wake up, if you do not

remember the gospel, if you do not keep the gospel

close, if you do not repent, this is the warning.

I will come like a thief and you have no idea

at what hour I will come upon you. When verse

2, Jesus continues his rebuke, he gives them

a challenge. He challenges the church to be alert

and to strengthen what remains because their

works are not complete. They're not doing everything

that they need to be doing. And let me be very

clear on this. Jesus is not saying that they

cannot be saved because of a lack of works. Jesus

is not saying, hey, actually, if you just did

a little more, if you just worked a little bit

harder, then maybe you could be saved. Instead,

this is Jesus rebuking the church for not living

out their faith. Their so -called faith has no

fruit. Their faith is able to be hidden whenever

they want to. They can have an awesome event

at the church in Sardis on Saturday and Sunday.

They can have the most amazing time on Friday,

which is typically when early churches would

fast. But then on Monday, it's right back to

business as usual and hiding that they know Jesus.

On Monday, it's right back to going back to work

and making those items for worship of Artemis.

On Monday, it's right back to work, encouraging

your neighbor to go to the temple. So the church

needs to do this. They need to be alert. They

need to wake up. You know, throughout all these

letters, Jesus links his comments to the city

itself. And Sardis is actually up on a hillside.

It's very highly defendable. Their slogan kind

of a thing when they were originally an independent

city was that they were uncapturable. They were

undefeatable. No one could ever beat them. But

that wasn't quite the case. See, they got so

proud of their defenses at one point. that they

stopped putting soldiers up on the wall when

they were under siege. I do have a degree in

history. I spent a lot of time. I actually took

military history through the U .S. military.

It's kind of a fun class, I'm not going to lie.

I don't have to be an expert, though, to tell

you it's a bad idea if you are under siege and

being attacked by another city to have zero soldiers

ready. That is a poor idea. So the city of Sardis

goes to sleep one night, and they wake up the

next morning, and they find an entire army inside

their city. See, overnight their enemies had

gone up and they had climbed the walls using

rope and they had brought their entire army into

the city. They didn't wake up. They weren't alert.

They were asleep at the wheel. They were just

floating through life. Friends, that's what this

church is doing. They are floating through life

on reputation alone. You know, other cities in

the area think that we're doing so good. And

all the while people are being born and people

are dying in their city. without having any idea

of who Jesus is. And this church is doing absolutely

nothing to reach them. So this church needs to

be alert. They need to wake up. They don't have

passion or zeal for the gospel anymore. They

want what's easiest and most convenient so they

can stay asleep, stay comfortable. And Jesus

calls this church to wake up. And then Jesus

calls them to strengthen what remains. See, understand

this. There are some real believers in this church.

There is a small fragment, a small little part

that's left of real believers who want to live

out their faith, who want to love Jesus, who

want to obey Jesus. They need to strengthen this.

I don't know if you've ever been out camping

before. I reference this sometimes. I'm not a

big camper, but I did teach outdoor education.

One of the most fun things I got to do was teach

five -year -olds to build a fire. It was a disaster,

but it's what I was told to do, so I did it.

And when you start a little fire, it starts really

small. We have to kind of protect it. We have

to fan the fire a little bit and start feeding

it small, small little logs and small little

pieces of wood, and eventually it becomes this

big burning fire. It's that same idea right here

going on in verse 2. We need to take this little

remnant. We need to strengthen it. Feed it. Get

in God's Word. Refocus on the Great Commission.

Refocus on their faith. Go and be a disciple.

Jesus is saying, listen, enough with convenient

Christianity. It's time to live it out day after

day. being and making disciples. Fan the flame.

Be alert and strengthen what remains. Because

their works aren't complete. They're not actually

living out their faith. And so Jesus gives them

three steps that they must take. First, they

need to remember what they've heard. Remember.

Now what have they heard? They've heard the gospel.

They've heard how they need to follow Jesus actively

day after day after day. And friends, this same

warning that we see in Sardis is true for us.

It's also very parallel, once again, to the church

in Ephesus. If you remember when we were talking

about the church in Ephesus, we said there are

kind of three steps that Jesus gave them. They

needed to wake up, they needed to repent, and

then they needed to renew their walk with God.

And here Jesus gives a very similar challenge,

but it's a little different. Jesus' challenge

starts with the first, most basic, most important

step. Remember what you've heard. Remember what

you've heard. What is it they've heard? He said,

it's the gospel. Let me summarize the gospel

like this. This is an old tool I used to use.

If you've ever seen a GMC Sierra, you can share

the gospel if you've got a GMC Sierra. It covers

all the major parts. First, they need to remember

who God is. That God is their creator who made

them, who loves them, who made the world. That

God made them in his very image, in his very

likeness he created them, and God called them

very good indeed. But then man did something.

Man sinned. Man fell short. Man decided in pride

that they could do things their own way. And

from the moment that Adam and Eve do that on,

man has a sin nature and has continued to rebel

against God. And friends, it's not just the church

in Sardis. It's not just those people. It's us

too. We sin on a daily basis. We take the wrong

tone with a family member or a friend. We get

angry at something we shouldn't get angry about.

We tell that lie to protect ourselves at work.

We do this, we do that, we do the other. You

know, we cheat off of our friend in school. If

we think way back to like second grade, we've

all been there. And we've all sinned. And when

we sin, we are separated entirely from God. But

there's more. Because Christ came to earth, lived

a perfect life, a life without sin. The only

person to ever do that. He was killed for us,

he was buried in the grave, and he rose again

on the third day giving us salvation, which is

our response to put our faith in Jesus. But it's

not just a, hey, mentally I think Jesus is pretty

cool. We put our faith in Jesus and we let Jesus

be the Lord of our life, running our life and

guiding our life on a day -to -day basis. That

is what they need to remember. They have to remember

the gospel at all times, and we need to do that

too. We need to remember the gospel at all times.

When we're home alone on a Thursday night, when

we get cut off in traffic, when we feel wronged,

when we're suffering, when everything feels awesome,

and we feel like we're on the top of the world,

at all of those times, we have to remember the

gospel. Because friends, I don't know about you,

but it's so easy when life seems to be going

great to kind of forget about Jesus a little

bit and to start sitting back on what we've done

and what we do. And God has a great way of waking

us up from that. But it's not always the most

fun way. So at all times, remember the gospel.

And that brings us to Jesus' second challenge.

They need to keep the gospel. They need to keep

it. They need to live it out. They need to hold

it close to them at all times. This needs to

become their most treasured possession in the

entire world. This last week, I was thinking

about the movie Sandlot, which if you've seen

it, is a great movie. If you've not seen it,

go watch it. Joe, do we need to go watch Sandlot?

Okay, we're going to go watch Sandlot at some

point. And in Sandlot, there's this scene where

Smalls takes a baseball from his dad's home,

from his office, and he doesn't think it's all

that important. It's signed by some person named

Baby Ruth. And what could matter so much about

that? And then Benny hits a home run with that

ball and it ends up in a terrible yard with a

big dog and it becomes this whole saga of them

trying to get the ball back. See, Smalls took

a treasured possession of his father and did

not keep it close to him. He didn't remember

the value. In that case, because he never asked

the value. But he also didn't keep it. He didn't

keep it close to him. He treated the baseball

like any other baseball you could get at a drugstore

or anywhere else. That's my understanding from

the movie. I was not alive back then, so correct

me afterwards if I'm wrong. Sometimes we do the

same thing with our faith. That we take it. And

we treat it like a red solo cup. Just throw it

out when we're done with it. Hey, this isn't

a convenient time for it. We'll just put it away.

Hey, this isn't the right time for me to bring

up that Jesus thing. We'll just hide it for a

little bit longer. Hey, you know, it would be

a lot of fun if I went and did this with my friends.

It would be a lot easier if I could just do this

or do that. And we stop keeping the gospel close

to us with our actions. We stop living it out.

We can also do this in a different way. We can

start to internally distance ourselves from the

gospel by saying, God, if you knew how great

my sin was, you wouldn't want any part of me,

God. And we start to forget part of the gospel.

We stop keeping the gospel and remembering that,

in fact, the gospel covers all sins, that Jesus

paid the price for every sin, not just for the

little sins. So we stop keeping the gospel close.

And so Jesus gives a solution to this church.

They need to repent. They need to repent. Simply

put, they need to turn back from where they are

and start walking with God. The church in Sardis

has lost the point of what they're doing. They

are totally lost. I don't know if you've ever

been on a hike and gotten lost. I actually don't

know if I've really gotten lost on a hike before,

technically. You guys kind of know where I'm

at. But when you get lost in the middle of the

woods, the first thing we would teach the kids

during outdoor ed is to turn around and go back

the way you came. Don't just sit there on the

top of the mountain. Turn around and go back

down the trail. It'll help you. Friends, that's

what the church in Sardis needs to do. They need

to turn back from where they're going, which

is this direction of destruction and being removed

by Jesus. They need to turn back to God. And

it's not just, hey God, I'm sorry I did that.

It's, hey God, I'm sorry I did that. Help me

to do this differently. Help me to live differently.

And here's the worst part about all of this with

this warning. The church in Sardis has no idea

what's going on. They're asleep. They're living

in delusion. And friends, delusion is not the

solution. Delusion is never the solution. The

church in Sardis, here's their reputation. We're

so good at this, we're so good at that. And they

live off of that, assuming that that's actually

the truth. But in reality, it's not. So right

after these three challenges, right after this

reminder to repent, to go back to God, to walk

with God, Jesus says this, if you are not alert,

I will come like a thief, and you have no idea

at what hour I will come upon you. That's not

a threat, that is an act of judgment. And like

we saw last week when we saw the church in Thyatira,

Jesus has perfect judgment, perfectly holy judgment.

And in Jesus' perfect judgment, he makes that

promise. If you are not alert, if you do not

wake up, if you do not remember the gospel, keep

the gospel, repent, I will come like a thief.

You have no idea at what hour I will come upon

you. It's a warning to the church. It's a warning

to the church that their star, their lampstand,

their church will be taken away. Let me remind

us of what we talked about at the beginning.

It's kind of the elephant of the room with Sardis.

They don't wake up. They're not alert. They don't

remember the gospel. They don't keep the gospel.

They don't repent. And so instead of a legacy

of believers today who can look back and say,

do you see what God did in our church and how

we're now on fire for God? Instead, we see a

town in Turkey with zero Christians, with no

gospel influence at all, with no gospel presence

even, and that has to break our hearts. Cornerstone,

it rocked me this week when I read that. Like,

it absolutely wrecked me. Reading that this church

goes from the legacy church in Revelation 3,

1 through 6. To a town with no believers. Lest

we ever think that maybe Jesus isn't serious

when he says things like what he just said in

verse 3. Let's be very clear. The church in Sardis

is a reminder. Jesus has perfect judgment and

Jesus will judge. On the outside, everything

looks great for this church, but inside the church,

everything is empty. And I've used the illustration

of a cavity before to describe this, but here's

another example of the church in Sardis. When

I was in seminary, I taught at a local Christian

high school. It was great. One of my students

gave me a Dunkin' Donuts gift card. They were

incredible students. And they knew that Hope

and I were going to be traveling soon. So it

was super sweet. It was really thoughtful. And

on the card, in super big numbers, like all over

it in Sharpie, she'd written 20, because it had

$20 on it. I was like, all right, shout out to

you. I appreciate that. So it kind of gained

a reputation, so to speak, between Hope and I.

This gift card had $20 on it. I said, okay, this

gift card has $20. How much does it have? It

has $20 on it. So we pull up to a Dunkin' Donuts

about a week later. We walk in. We order. We

pull out our gift card because it's got $20 on

it. And we go to pay with it. And we swipe it.

The card has no balance. I go, what? And they

try it again. The card has no balance. I'm like,

you've got to be kidding me. There's no way.

I actually have the card from the student in

my car, so I showed it to him. I'm like, it says

$20 right here. It's got a reputation for being

worth $20. They swipe it, and they swipe it,

and they swipe it. There's like a line forming

behind it, so he's super uncomfortable. And they

say, listen, there is nothing on this gift card.

Friends, the reputation was there, but there

was no money. There was no substance behind it.

The store they bought the gift card from didn't

actually load it correctly. Its reputation wasn't

reality. And that's the basic story of the church

in Sardis. Its reputation is one thing. Its reality

is something totally different. It's like what

Jesus said back in verse 1. Your reputation is

that you're alive. I'm telling you the truth.

You're dead. You're dead inside. Your reputation

is that you're so great and you're so holy. The

reality is that you don't follow me. Friends,

if the church in Thyatira was a warning not to

tolerate sin, if the church in Ephesus was a

warning for us to wake up and make sure that

our first love is Jesus, then the church in Sardis

is Jesus standing on the rooftop screaming, crying

out at us to follow him at all costs. It's Jesus

pleading with this church, turn away from your

sin and follow me. Wake up. Be alert. Remember,

keep the gospel and repent when you fall away.

Like I said, there's not a positive in this church,

but there is a group of people that hasn't walked

away from Jesus. This is kind of that undefiled

remnant that we see in verses 4 and honestly

in verse 5 also. It says this, you have a few

people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes

and they will walk with me in white because they

are worthy. Let's be clear, they're not worthy

because of works, they're worthy because they

follow Jesus. They're worthy because of Jesus

and their faith in Jesus. They're not worthy

because they're perfect. In the same way, the

one who conquers, that's Jesus. We dressed in

white clothes, and I will never erase his name

from the book of life, but will acknowledge his

name before my Father and before his angels.

Once again, there's that double fulfillment there.

There's going to be Jesus and then another fulfillment

that directly applies to the church in Sardis

that we'll see here in a minute. So in verse

4, Jesus switches gears just a little bit. See,

even in this dead church, even this church where

Jesus is saying there's really not much hope,

he says there's still a few people who have not

defiled their clothes. There's still a few people

who walk with me, and it reminds me a lot of

2 Timothy 2 .20. One of my last classes in seminary,

they made us write a paper on 2 Timothy 2 .20.

It says, now in a large house there are not only

gold and silver vessels, but also those of wood

and clay, some for honorable use and some for

dishonorable. You know, and kind of the idea

of the assignment was really that, you know,

we're not always going to be gold and silver

looking super shiny and bright and perfect. But

that doesn't make it any less important. Some

very weird analogies I came up with in that paper.

But listen, in the church in Sardis, some of

the members are using their lives for honorable

actions. They're those tools for honorable use.

But not all of them. On the other hand, there

are people who use their lives and everything

about them for dishonorable things. Those are

the people who it says have defiled their clothes.

And this week I really found myself wrestling

around with that phrasing. defiling their clothes.

It's pulled directly from Matthew 22, where Jesus

tells a parable about a wedding feast. At the

wedding feast, there's all these people invited,

and someone shows up not wearing wedding clothes.

They've defiled their clothes. It says that the

person running the wedding kicks them out. Tell

them to leave. And Jesus is drawing this same

analogy. There's people who are going to gather

with us, people who are going to claim Jesus.

But their lives don't say it, and they don't

actually have faith in Jesus. Friends, Jesus

is talking here about people, this defiled group,

people who are not walking with him. But what

is it more specifically? As I looked into this

passage, as I wrestled with it, as I wrestled

through some commentary work on this, I feel

really convicted there's two things that Jesus

is referencing here. First, Jesus is addressing

the sin of the church in Sardis. The church in

Sardis is full of sinners who are choosing not

to walk with God. Every church is full of sinners.

But it's our job to walk with God. The church

in Sardis says we don't need God anymore. Further,

they say it doesn't matter what I live like.

Jesus is my get -out -of -jail -free card. At

the end of my life, I will go to heaven. And

so what does it really matter what I do here

on earth? So what that I engage in sexual immorality?

So what that I engage in that behavior? So what

that I handle this like this? So what that I,

you know, go on Thursday and worship at the Temple

of Artemis? And that brings us to the second

thing that I think is going on here, that the

church in Sardis is engaging in a form of syncretism.

See, syncretism is where someone tries to mash

two religions together. We see this actually

pretty often now with some subsections of Gen

Z kind of mashing like some level of atheism

and Buddhism together and trying to kind of create

this new way of living. For the church in Sardis,

this would look like claiming to worship God

and worshiping God on Sunday, but then on Monday

through Saturday, worshiping Artemis through

how they lived. Engaging in the same behaviors,

going and eating the meat sacrificed to idols.

Encouraging their neighbors to do it because

it's their truth. And listen, these two issues,

and understand I think both of these are at play,

have weakened their stand for God, and they have

destroyed their reputation. They've totally destroyed

their reputation as a church. You know, people

look at this church in Sardis, and they're in

town, and they say, hey, why should I follow

Jesus? Because if I follow Jesus, nothing changes.

People who follow Jesus are all over the place.

They've literally brought dishonor, dishonor

to the name of Jesus. But there's that faithful

remnant. That faithful remnant who we see will

walk with Jesus forever wearing white robes.

Those white robes are a really beautiful picture.

White robes were a symbol of purification. It's

a symbol of the fact that these people have been

justified by God. And it's a preview of Revelation

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7 where believers from throughout the

ages, including the tribulation, come before

God wearing white robes and they cry out to God

and they worship God. being seen as they are

truly, fully redeemed, fully justified, fully

purified by God, with their sin removed as far

as the east is from the west. Friends, Jesus

is reminding us that if we know him, if we follow

him, we are secure, we are safe, we will be with

him forever. But Jesus will never erase our name

from the book of life. However, if we are not

like that, If we do not actually have faith in

Jesus, if we are actually more concerned with

our reputation, with doing whatever our friends

do, with our influence, our comfort, our control,

or anything other than knowing our Savior, then

we need to be alert. We need to remember the

gospel. We need to keep the gospel. We need to

repent. That promise in verse 5 is a really beautiful

thing. I will never erase his name from the book

of life. There's two reminders there. First,

if we know Jesus, then we will never be separated

from him. It's like Romans 8, 38 and 39. For

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor

things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

nor any other created thing will be able to separate

us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus,

our Lord. But secondly, it is a reminder of this.

If we do not know Jesus, then he will not acknowledge

us. We can fool a lot of people in life, let's

just be honest. In college, I kind of tested

this out one day, and I mentioned to somebody,

so ridiculous, I still don't know how people

believe this, I mentioned to somebody that Michael

Jordan died. Clearly he had not, right? This

is the most ridiculous thing to say. That would

be over every news outlet. By 8 o 'clock that

night, there was a wake going on in our study

area for Michael Jordan. Friends, we can fool

a lot of people with a lot of weird things. We

can fool people with the way that we live. People

will look at us and say, hey, well, they go to

church every Sunday. They must be a good person.

Hey, they seem like a nice guy. They must be

saved. But friends, as much as we can fool other

people, we cannot fool Jesus. And that's the

issue with the church in Sardis. They think they

can live however they want to and build their

kingdom, and they'll fool Jesus with their reputation.

To put it another way, the church in Sardis doesn't

think that they need Jesus. They think they can

save themselves. They think that their programs,

their reputation, all of that is enough to save

them. And this letter is a wake -up call to them,

but it's also a wake -up call to us. It's a wake

-up call and a warning to us. It's a reminder

to us as a church. We do a lot of really cool

things here, but everything that we do as a church

is secondary to the most important thing, which

is us knowing Jesus personally. Friends, verses

four and five are clear. knowing Jesus is what

matters, not our own perfection in our ministry

efforts or in our life or in anything else. So

let's be honest with ourselves and look internally.

Do we need to stop, remember the gospel, keep

the gospel close, and repent? That brings us

to verse 6, which is really a challenge to us.

Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what

the Spirit says to the churches. Just like every

other church, Jesus ends with the same ending.

It's a reminder to us. This letter was not only

for the church in Sardis, it's a letter for us.

It's a challenge to us. Are we relying on reputation

or programming or earthly authority or earthly

influence? Or are we reliant on the gospel? Do

we need to wake up? Do we need to remember the

gospel? Do we need to remember how we're saved?

Do we need to keep it close to our hearts? Or

do we need to repent? In Cornerstone, I'll be

totally honest. That's something we all need

to be reflecting on today. There's some weeks

in sermon prep where you kind of start wrapping

up your sermon and you're wrestling through with

application points and it's kind of easy. Like,

hey, this is pretty straightforward. Right? Don't

do that. Okay. I won't do that. You know, you

think about the Ten Commandments. Let's preach

through that and preach on do not murder. Okay,

great. Don't murder. Don't hate people. Cool.

I can do that. There's other weeks where it really

hits close to your heart. So as we move into

a time of application, I am preaching this to

myself and to you all at the same time. We all

need to be reflecting on this. Here's our first

point of application. Remember the gospel. Remember

the gospel. If we're going to remember the gospel,

let's make sure we know what the gospel is. The

gospel is good news that we find through Jesus

Christ. We see it in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. For

you are saved by grace through faith, and this

is not from yourselves. It is God's gift, not

from work, so that no one can boast. Friends,

we are saved by Jesus and Jesus only. If you

are here this morning, you have not put your

faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.

Today, let me call on you to do that. Let me

call on you to accept God's gift. I'm calling

you to remember the gospel. If you're here and

you've walked with Jesus for a long time, let

me encourage you to reflect internally. Do you

remember the gospel on a daily basis? I heard

somebody one time say to me, you should preach

the gospel to yourself every day like while you're

in the shower. Here's the issue for me. I'm not

fully awake when that's going on. So I'm like,

preach the gospel to myself. I'd love to go back

to bed for five more minutes. Maybe that's not

the right time, but friends, every day we should

be thinking about the gospel. Every day we should

stop, take a minute at some point throughout

your day, and just thank Jesus for what he did

for us. Because friends, it is a truly beautiful

thing what it is that Jesus did for us. It wasn't

just some accident, it wasn't something we could

do for ourselves. Jesus did not have to do it,

but yet he did come to earth, he did live a perfect

life, he did die for us, he did resurrect for

us, and he did it all to buy us back at a price.

knowing not only the good side of us but also

our deepest darkest secrets knowing the best

side of us that we want everyone to see and also

all of the sin that we deep down don't want people

to know about friends remember the gospel secondly

keep the gospel close we have to live out our

faith it's that simple the way that we live each

and every day impacts our witness the church

in sardis is rebuked over and over for defiling

their witness it's a powerful phrase It's a powerful

phrase when Jesus says they've defiled something.

It's not just a word we use often. You know,

if Illinois loses a football game this year,

I don't think their coaches are going to go into

the locker room and say, you defiled the jersey

today. That's what Jesus says here. This isn't

just a minor mistake. This is absolute, horrendous,

terrible, losing their witness entirely. They

have lost sight of what it actually is to live

out the gospel. So hear me, we need to keep the

gospel close. We need to live out our faith every

single day. Let me give you some kind of guided

questions for reflection today on this. When

your friend or spouse or both do something that

you know is wrong, what do you do? When your

friend or your spouse makes you angry, how do

you respond to that? Married people, let's just

be real for a second. We've all had that moment

where we're irritated with our spouse. But how

do we respond to that? What do we do? Do we keep

the gospel close in that moment? Or in our flesh,

do we respond and let everyone know that we've

been wronged? Let me ask you this. When you get

cut off in traffic, would your response right

after be one that points people to Jesus or not?

Or just some kind of harmless ones? Friends,

let me encourage you, really reflect on that

today. Do I keep the gospel close? I mentioned

that this was a pretty convicting thing for me.

This is one I have to remind myself of really

often. That when something doesn't go the way

I want it to, I need to keep the gospel close.

That instead of getting up in my feelings or

getting angry about something, I need to focus

on reflecting Jesus in that moment. That like

our Savior who sacrificed, Mark 10 45 says it

so well, for even the Son of Man did not come

to be served, but to serve and to give his life

as a ransom for many. Friends, are we living

that same way? Keeping the gospel close and living

as servants. Serving the people around us, serving

our Lord and Savior. Here's our final one. We

need to repent and rely on the gospel. Listen,

we all fall short. And if we're honest, we are

all here because we fall short. A church is not

a country club. It is a hospital for sinners.

And that's what we are. We fall short. We fail

to live out the gospels we should. But there

is hope. And here's why. Repentance leads to

hope. Repentance leads to hope because we are

looking at God and saying, God, I need you. God,

I understand that only through you can I experience

this freedom that I need. So we repent. We go

to God. We talk to God and we walk differently.

And then we rely on the gospel because we cannot

ever follow God on our own strength. We cannot

ever live the life that we want to honoring God

and reflecting God to the world around us on

our own strength. It might work for a day or

two, but eventually that kid's going to say something

to you at home and you're going to snap at them.

That person is going to do something you don't

want them to do and it's just going to be too

much for you to in that moment be like, I got

this. So friends, we rely on the gospel because

we can't do it on our own, but Jesus can absolutely

do it through us. The gospel gives us hope. Let

me close this out by reading a verse of one of

the songs we're going to close with. Probably

my favorite song in all the world with absolutely

no shame is yet not I but through Christ in me.

I love that song. This morning I had it on Spotify

and I thought it was looping the entire album.

It was looping just that one song. And I was

not the least bit upset about that. But I love

what the third verse says, because it really

hits on this theme. No fate I dread, I know I

am forgiven. Remember the gospel. The future's

sure, the price, it has been paid. For Jesus

bled and suffered for my pardon, and he was raised

to overthrow the grave. Remember the gospel.

Then it says this. To this I hold, my sin has

been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea.

Oh, the chains are released. I can sing. I am

free. Friends, that is what repentance does.

That is why we repent and rely on the gospel.

Because when we repent, when we go to God saying,

God, I need you, we can sing, we can state, we

can declare, we can yell in freedom, I am free.

Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Friends,

let me challenge you with that today. That was

the message that the church in Sardis needed.

They needed to remember the gospel, keep it close

to them, and they needed to repent so they could

have walked in freedom saying, I am free. I am

free from all of these other concerns. I'm free

from trying to impress this person or that person

or do this or do that. I am free from all of

that. I'm just going to follow my Savior. Let

me pray for us. Father God, we come before you

this morning so thankful to have been set free.

And God, I just ask that you would be with us

today, God. God, I ask that you would just help

us to remember the gospel, God. Help us to remember

what Jesus did for us. God, I ask that you would

help us not just to remember it, but to live

it out, to keep it close to our hearts so that

it guides us every single day, every step that

we take, God. Whether it seems like a big deal

or a small deal, God, whether it's just how we

talk to somebody or if it's a huge decision we're

making, God, help us to keep the gospel at the

center of our life at all times. And God, when

we fall short, and God, we know that we will

fall short, God, help us to be quick to come

to you in repentance, God. Because God, we know

that in you there is forgiveness of sins and

there is new hope. There's not shame and condemnation,

God. You tell us that in Romans 8 .1. As Paul

writes, therefore there is now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. God, help

us to really grasp what that means. Lord, help

us to learn from this church in Sardis. To not

rely on our reputation or anything like that,

God, but to instead rely entirely on our faith

in you at all times, God. We pray all this in

your name. Amen.