Revelation 3:1-? November 17, 2024

Congregational Scripture Reading

Revelation 3:1–6 ESV

1 “And to 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 you are dead. 2 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. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Introduction

Introduction: A Beautiful Candle Without a Flame

1. Start with the Candle:

Hold up the unlit candle.

• “Look at this candle. Isn’t it beautiful? It has the form of something useful and meaningful, but what is it missing?”

Allow for answers from the congregation (e.g., ‘It’s not lit’).

2. Explain the Condition of Sardis:

• “The church in Sardis was like this candle. It looked good on the outside—beautiful, maybe even impressive. But it was missing the most important thing: the flame. It wasn’t alive. It was just going through the motions.”

What was the city of Sardis

The city of sardis was the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia before the rise of the Persian Empire. It was 50 miles inland from the aging sea in 30 miles South of thyatira it was at the foot of mount Thomas that rose nearly 1500 feet above the hermus River Valley. Sardis fell to the Persian army of king Cyrus in 546 BC Alexander the Great also captured sardis and a variety of other people captured and claimed the city.

There was a massive earthquake in 8017 and it was rebuilt with a culminated marble road 50 feet wide and 4600 feet long. It was a city with a long and rich history and the city where the church needing the words of Christ.

Now I want to point out something an important reality here as we walk through these letters. In one sense I believe these are specifically written to a variety of churches. These are letters from Jesus to the churches revelations to these specific churches. But I don't think they are meant to be limited to them. They're in the word of God so you and I can look at them as people have done for nearly 2000 years and take the same words to our hearts and to our churches today. O let's dive into this warning this letter that is both ancient and yet completely relevant to our lives to day.

The Message to Sardis

Characteristic

Revelation 3:1 ESV

1 “And to 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 you are dead.

OK remember back in verse 20 of chapter 1 the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches. And the seven angels are references to the pastors of the churches.

Revelation 1:20 ESV

20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

And the seven spirits mentioned here are another reference to the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus has the Preachers to the churches in one hand and the Holy Spirit in the other hand.

Nothing was more needed for the church in Sardis than the life giving Spirit of God.

Criticism

As we get into what the Spirit says to the church in Sardis, we see there is no compliment given. There is only Criticism.

Revelation 3:1 ESV

1 “And to 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 you are dead.

Lighting the Flame: The Spirit Brings Life

3. Light the Candle:

Use the lighter or match to light the candle.

• “When Jesus spoke to the church in Sardis, He was calling them to light their flame again—to wake up and let the Holy Spirit ignite them into real life. The Holy Spirit is the flame that makes us alive as Christians.”

The Danger of Forgetting: The Flame Goes Out

5. Blow Out the Candle:

Blow gently to extinguish the large candle.

• “This is what happens when a church forgets to walk with the Spirit, when believers stop relying on God. The flame goes out. It may still look like a candle, but it’s no longer fulfilling its purpose. It’s dead.”

How sobering a description for the church?! People thought it was alive but really it was dead.

What would that look like today?

This is a church filled with Christians just going though the motions. It is a church with people in it but no one trusting and walking with God.

Command

Revelation 3:2–4 ESV

2 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. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

Wake up

Strengthen

Remember

Obey

Repent

OK now Jesus is going to give a warning a command to this church we're going to use a series of very important verbs wake up strength and remember obey repent. The reality is this city fell many times in its history in part because it didn't pay attention and it didn't watch. In the same way the church in sardis needs to pay attention.

And the problem is for this church it's a sneaky problem because it looked like they were doing good works and it looked like they were showing love but what they were doing was incomplete. They weren't accused of practicing heresy or entertaining sexual sin. But they simply had created a religion of rules. They hadn't offended the Romans or the unbelieving Jews but they had offended God by how they lived as his church.

The solution is to remember their past. When they received the Holy Spirit when they trust in Christ they were given new life. They weren't given a religion to follow they were given a relationship to live.

Ephesians 5:18 ESV

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Jesus called this church to repent of neglecting the Holy Spirit and become filled with the spirit.

Walking with the spirit throughout the scripture and being filled with the spirit means means an experience beyond our control and logic. Means trusting God beyond our control and our logic.

People get drunk with wine when they are trying to escape the reality they are in.

People allow the spirit to fill them when they're trying to allow God to transform their reality.

Remember how Christ threatened the unloving ephesian church

Revelation 2:5 ESV

5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

He promised to fight the heretics in Pergamum with the sword.

Now the threat against the lifeless Church of sardis is to come like a thief in the night.

Some people think that this is a reference to christ's second coming which is sometimes described like a thief in the night.

Matthew 24:43 ESV

43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

However in this the reality is in this context Jesus is threatening the church if they do not change he will show up like a thief in the night. There's no place in the scripture that talks about the return of Jesus as being conditional on oThe church

The city of sardis had experienced being captured unexpectedly quite a few times over its history. Because it was located in a well travelled valley it was desired by a number of different nations as they came through.

You know it's not unlike the country of Hungary. When our missionaries went there they came back and described a little bit of how different the country was. They talked about how citizens had been used to losing wars for thousands of years they were in the country that other countries took over.

The church in sardis was part of a city that knew what it was like to be defeated and to be conquered sometimes by surprise. And so this warning is as powerful. Sometimes the destruction of a city or church doesn't creep up and it doesn't happen slowly over the years through budget meetings and decisions by the church. Sometimes it changes in a moment.

Here's the crucial question for a church like sardis period. Can a dead church change?

I remember asking this question in seminary. Which kind of church is easier to be a pastor for? An established church or a church plant? My professor has told me you have to think of it this way do you want to raise the dead or give birth to a new life? Both have aches and pains and different problems.

For the church in sardis the good news is there were several people who had not soiled their garments.

Revelation 3:4 ESV

4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

4. Introduce the Tea Light (Spirit-Filled Believers):

Bring out the lit tea light.

• “Jesus also pointed out that there were a few believers in Sardis who were still faithful, like this tea light. They hadn’t let their flame go out. But Jesus didn’t want just a few small flames—He wanted the whole church to shine brightly.”

Soiling their garments means assuming that the appearance of true religion as a substitute for the reality. Jesus doesn't want us to look religious. He wants us to live out a relationship with him. The righteousness of these people was not in their appearance but the reality that they had placed their faith in the blood of the lamb.

Revelation 7:14 ESV

14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

These were people fully aware that their righteousness was because of the blood of the lamb and the sacrifice of Jesus not because of how they looked or how the church acted.

Commitment

Revelation 3:5–6 ESV

5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

In each of these 7 letters Jesus talks about overcoming and having an ear to hear living the Christian life and living as the Church of Jesus Christ means hearing what he is saying to this generation and being faithful to follow him.

This idea of a a Ledger or a book of life goes back all the way to the book of exodus.

Exodus 32:33 ESV

33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

The Lord reminded Moses the consequences of sin.

But in this text Jesus commits to the overcomers I will never block your names out of the book of life. And did you catch the second part Jesus talks about confessing their names before the father and his angels. These are symbols of eternal life.

In ancient times the citizens of a city would be listed in a citizenship registry and to be erased from the book means you would no longer be a citizen all the citizens had the right to be announced before the king and his court.

Overcomers show their faithfulness by confessing Jesus faithfully in a hostile world through the work of the spirit.

Remember what Jesus said during his earthly ministry?

Luke 12:8 ESV

8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God,

One more thing to note in this passage... The passage in revelation talks about one's names being erased from the book of life. And because this is a symbol for eternity some people worry about losing their salvation. What we have to remember when we read through the Book of Revelation is because there's so much symbolism we need to always take into account the rest of the Bible when thinking about questions like eternal security or losing your salvation. And the reality is the idea that we don't lose our salvation it's built on a number of other passages in the Bible that speak to God preserving those who trust in Him.

Conclusion

It’s scary. This church didn't face any big bad loud sin. They weren't so consumed by legalism that they forgot to love. They weren't consumed by sexual sin. They were just dead. They were just going through the motions. How can we guard against being this kind of church that's just going through the motions? I think we can take to heart the words and the lessons from this letter with several keywords

First of all,

“Wake up!”

That's what Jesus said to the church and that's something we need to take to heart sleepiness or drowsiness throughout the scriptures used to describe someone that's unprepared or unfocused and then maybe someone a believer that can see but is not prepared for what's going on.

Christians that ignore God's warnings about the dangers of sin and their own personal weaknesses need to remember we face a very real and very persistent enemy.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

We need to always be alert

The next thing and the next quote that we need to remember is this one

“Strengthen the things that remain”

Jesus assessed this church as dead in its sin. God is the one that has the power to bring dry bones to life. God is not beyond saving a sick or dying church. He's not beyond saving the life of a fading believer who is walking away from their faith in God when he spoke to this church he said there's a few members who are still holding on encourage them. His word to us would be hold on to the faith that we have cling to the relationship with God that we have banned the flame in our hearts of our relationship with God and allow him to guide us.

The next phrase is

“Remember the things you've received and heard.

It's easy for our lights like the churches light to fade when we forget God's truth. The church in sardis needed to return to the gospel and the teachings of the apostles northern more than they needed to to their own rituals and wisdom.

Jesus encourages all believers to remember what they have received and they have been taught from the word of God.

Psalm 1:2–3 ESV

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

The next challenge is to

“Keep and obey God's word”

True revival doesn't just come from hearing we also need to put into practice the things that we've heard and choose to obey God's word.

James 1:22–25 ESV

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

And last but not least

The church in sardis was called to

“Repent”

In order for this church to come alive the members had to confess and to turn from their sin. And their sin was not walking with the spirit.

We are going to walk into a season packed with tradition. Our Thanksgiving sermon is next Sunday and then we'll spend 5 weeks celebrating Christmas period our lives will be filled with wonderful good traditions.

God doesn't ask us to fill our lives with good traditions and holiday sermons he wants us to walk and live by the power of his spirit period to be truly alive. He wants a relationship with you through this season and every season.

The Call to Action: Wake Up and Shine

6. Relight the Candle:

Relight the large candle using the tea light.

• “But there’s hope! Jesus calls us to wake up, to strengthen what remains, and to let the Spirit bring us back to life. The Spirit is ready to reignite us if we repent, remember, and obey.”

• “When we walk with the Spirit, we don’t just flicker; we shine. Jesus wants us to be alive and vibrant in our faith—not just for ourselves but to bring light to the world around us.”

• “This is what Jesus wants for each of us and for our church—to be filled with the Spirit, alive in our faith, and shining brightly in a dark world. Let’s not settle for being a beautiful but unlit candle. Let’s wake up, strengthen what remains, and let the Spirit shine through us.”

Closing Congregational Prayer

Matthew 6:9–13 ESV

9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.