A Call to be Consumed by Christ #6

A Call to be Consumed by Christ

A Message to the Church in Sardis

Revelation 3:1-6

Intro:

Last week we looked at Christ's message to the church in Thyatira. He condemned the fact that the church had allowed false teachers to remain in the church and had not corrected professing believers who were living in unrepentant sin. Since the church had not dealt with these sin issues, Christ promised that He would deal with them. Christ Himself was going to remove the false teachers and the professing believers involved in unrepentant sin through sickness and tribulation. He concludes the personal message to the church in Thyatira by promising true believers eternal rewards in heaven.

Sardis, known as modern-day Sart (a small village among the ruins of the former city), was the ancient capital of Lydia. It was located in western Asia Minor about 50 miles east of Smyrna and 30 miles southeast of Thyatira. Sardis was a city of great wealth and fame. Much of its wealth came from its textile manufacturing, dye industry, and jewelry trade. The acropolis was a natural citadel on the northern spur of Mount Tmolus. It rose 1,500 feet above the lower valley. Most of the inhabitants of Sardis practiced paganism. There were many mystery cults or secret religious societies. The temple of Artemist/Diana was erected in the 4^th Century BC. and is still found in ruins there today. Near the temple is found the ruin of a church building. The church in Sardis continued until the 14^th Century AD. but was never prominent.

The people of Sardis worshiped the mother-goddess Cybele. The ruins of her temple still remain today. Cybele worship was composed of sexual orgies (like those of Dionysus) practiced at festivals held in her honor. Andrew Tait observes the following about Sardis, “Sins of the foulest and darkest impurity were committed on these occassions; and when we think of a small community of Christians rescued from such abominable idolatry, living in the midst of such gross depravity, with old friends and lifestyles trying to pull the believers toward wickedness, one wonders how the few believers in Sardis were not led astray and swallowed by the evil.”

I) Christ's self-description (1a)

Christ introduces Himself to the church in Sardis as the One who has the seven Spirits and the seven stars (1). The seven Spirits of God refers to the seven-fold Holy Spirit. The Spirit is referred to in the O.T. In a seven-fold way (Zech. 4:2-10). The Messiah is described in the O.T. as having the seven-fold Spirit on Him (Isa. 11:1-2; the Spirit of – the Lord; wisdom; understanding; counsel; strength; knowledge; and fear of the Lord). Christ says that He has possession of the Spirit of God and as a result knows and sees everything (cf. Rev. 4:5; 5:6). The passage in Zechariah 4 describes the Spirit of God knowing and seeing all things. The seven stars refer to the angels who are responsible for overseeing the local churches in each of the seven churches addressed in Revelation 2-3. Christ is intending to put the church in Sardis on notice that He knows all things and He is in charge of the church as its head (Eph. 1:22-23).

II) Christ's warning to the church in Sardis (1b-3)

Christ informs the church that He knows how they have been living (1b). Jesus says that the church has a reputation for being alive, but in fact it is dead. This is an astonishing statement by Jesus. This church gathers and functions, which makes onlookers believe that it is living. According to Christ, appearances are not the whole story. This church gathers and does things, but it is dead. It seems that Sardis has already experienced a judgment similar to that with which Christ threatened the church in Ephesus (2:5). Barclay observes, “a church is in danger of death whenever it begins to worship its own past...becomes more concerned with forms/traditions than life...when it loves systems/programs more than Christ...when it is more concerned with material things than spiritual things.”

Christ calls the church to wake up (2). He commands them to wake up and strengthen the few evidences of spiritual life that still remain in the church. Jesus says even these few evidences of life were about to die! Christ tells the that He recognizes they are not living up to their obligations as Christians. Christians are a part of the New Covenant through faith in Christ and as a result Christians obligations to God, which entail living according to His Word found in the N.T. The church at Sardis was not living in an obedient, devoted way for Christ. The Word of God details for us in the N.T. the kind of life that born-again Christians are to live. Christ sees the discrepancy between God's expectations and the way the church is actually living. God has a purpose for them and they aren't fulfilling it (Eph. 2:8-10).

Christ urges them to remember the truth they received through the apostles and prophets – N.T. Scriptures (3). He calls them to remember God's Word and obey it. This will require repentance on their part. If this church is to begin to function properly through obedience to God's Word, their hearts and minds will have to change – repentance. The church will need to stop its half-hearted devotion and begin to passionately obey God's Word. History has taught us that when the church/Christians repent, revival results. Christ tells them that if they don't repent He will come in judgment on the church and they won't know when it is coming. Again, we see in Scripture that repentance averts judgment. Jesus clearly warns the church in Sardis to repent and if they refuse, His judgment will come at an unexpected time.

III) Christ's encouragement to true believers (4-5)

Christ tells the church in Sardis that there are a few (who are true believers) in Sardis who haven't soiled their clothes with unrepentant, worldly living (4). These true believers lived faithfully in devoted obedience to God's Word, in-spite of the wickedness occurring around them. Jesus promises that these true believers will be clothed in white in heaven (5; cf. 19:8). True believers wearing white refers to purity of life. Jesus says that they are worthy of wearing white because they are true believers (6:11; 7:9). All true believers overcome through Christ (1 Jn. 5:4-5).

A second reward for all true believers is that their name will never be erased from the book of life. This refers to the names of the elect which are written in the book of life (Lk. 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 20:15). There is absolutely nothing that can remove the name of God's elect from this book (Jn. 6:35-40, 43-44; 10:24-30). Christ will confess the name of every true believer before God the Father with the angels present (5). Their names will be confessed by Christ because they are written in the book of life. God the Father chose the elect before the foundation of the world existed (Eph. 1:3-4). The process of election is described in Romans (8:28-39; 9:14-26). Christ taught that the Father gives the elect to Christ (Jn. 6:37) and the Father is the One who works out the process in life-events of drawing the elect to Christ (6:44). Jesus is not ashamed to call the elect brothers (Heb. 2:10-13). Jesus also mentioned this issue during His earthly ministry (Matt. 7:15-23; 10:32-33; Lk. 9:23-27). Christ will gladly confess the names of the elect as His own because their names are written in the book of life.

IV) Christ's invitation (6)

Christ concludes His personal message to the church in Sardis by inviting those who are spiritually capable to act upon the Words that the Holy Spirit is communicating. Jesus gives this invitation at the end of each personal message directed to the seven churches in Asia.

Conclusion:

Christ delivers a serious message filled with correction to the church in Sardis. He tells them that although outsiders believe the church is alive, He knows they are dead. Christ calls them to remember the Word of God or He is going to come and judge them. The church in Sardis gathered and did activities, but according to Christ they were spiritually ineffective and powerless. They need to repent and begin to obey God's Word. Even in the midst of this spiritually dead church, Christ states that He has a few who are true believers. He encourages these true believers by describing their future heavenly reward: clothed in white and confessed as Christ's own before the Father.

This message to the church in Sardis teaches us a very serious and sad truth. There are churches that gather and conduct programs which are spiritually ineffective and powerless – they are dead. One thing that is worth nothing – they aren't dead because they used AWANA Club instead of Word of Life curriculum! They aren't dead because they didn't have enough events on the social calendar! They aren't dead because of programming! They are dead because they haven't obeyed the timeless, non-negotiable truth of God's Word! Wow, did we all hear that? Programming is not the issue! Today we believe that if we have every program under the sun (which leads us to exhaustion and ineffectiveness) that our churches will be full. We view full as effective. We don't ask the right question which is, “Do we have people who are true believers becoming more like Christ and becoming more obedient to God's Word?” This is the question we should be asking. Are the believers in our church becoming more like Christ through obedience to God's Word? Jesus said that Sardis had programs but they weren't becoming more like Christ through obedience to God's Word. Christ commands them to repent and obey God's Word!