Revelation 3:1-6, “Awakening to the Work of Jesus”

A Sleeping City Can be Conquered

Understanding the background of the city in which this church lived is helpful. Sardis was a city on a hill. One of the oldest cities in Asia Minor, built around 1200 BC, it had an easily defended fortress at the top of a cliff. This site was used as a fortress for almost 2,000 years by several kingdoms and empires. If it was so easily defended, why did it pass from one kingdom to another? Because the security created inattentiveness. Not once, but twice, the city was taken because a single soldier was able to climb the cliff, over the wall where the defenders weren’t watching, and open the gate to the enemy. This becomes the lesson for the church in this city. A sleeping city can be conquered.

A Sleeping Church Can Die of Inattentiveness

The Church in Sardis was asleep. They weren’t attentive to the Holy Spirit.

Revelation 3:1 ESV

“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.

Literally, “you have the name ‘living’, but you are dead.” A church can outlive its early vitality. Like a zombie, the church can continue with normal looking activities without any actual spiritual life. We’ve all known or been part of churches like this. Maybe they are busy doing lots of things. But they are not attentive to the Holy Spirit. For all intents and purposes they are asleep, unresponsive to their Head, Jesus Christ.

Grant Osborne says in his commentary, “Many churches, even entire denominations, have so compromised their beliefs and practices by accommodating to the fads of intelligentsia or the ways of the world that they have virtually ceased to be Christian.

There are at this moment over 100 properties for sale on the Church of Scotland website. You can have a beautiful building like this one for as little as 65,000 pounds ($80K). But maybe we should not criticize. We could celebrate the victories of our history or we could consider how to stay awake to Jesus until the end.

Osborne continues, “Every passage on the return of Christ in the NT (e.g., Rom. 13:11; James 5:8; 1 Pet. 4:7; 1 John 2:18) makes the point of living life from the perspective of future accountability to God.” We do not answer to any man. We answer to God.

Just because other people might praise us for being a vibrant church, we should not assume Jesus approves. The church in Sardis was known in their community as a happening place. But this was probably more due to the fact that they fit in with the culture around them. Verse 4 implies that most of the church had corrupted a pure and holy faith in Jesus with worldly ways. Just because other people speak well of us does not mean Jesus speaks well of us. Are we listening to the voices of men or the voice of the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ? He says,

Revelation 3:3 ESV

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.

A sleeping homeowner is in danger of thieves taking away what is theirs. For the sleeping church, Jesus will come unexpectedly and take what little they have left and make sure those resources are used elsewhere for the sake of His kingdom. Jesus loves the Church too much to let is fall asleep and die.

Jesus, by His Spirit, is Awakening Us to His Work

I believe this is happening for us and the church of southern Maine right now. We had been asleep for a long time, lamenting the days gone by when things were happening, or celebrating our history. But churches that mark their vitality by past victories are not awake to the leading of Jesus our Head by His Spirit.

Jesus is revealed in verse 1 as

Revelation 3:1 ESV

“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.

Jesus has the fullness of the Holy Spirit and is in control of the churches. He is the Head of the Church.

Grant Osborne says, “It is easy to get so caught up in the things of this life that we lose sight of the fact that only Christ controls the "stars"/churches. That is the heart of watchfulness, to acknowledge the supremacy of Christ in everything.”

And Christ gives the sleeping church five commands.

Revelation 3:2 ESV

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die,

“Wake up.” Jesus is still working through the Holy Spirit. In what ways have we become inattentive to Him? How can we awaken to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our own church?

“Strengthen what remains”. Jesus is filled with grace. There are a few in the church that have not accommodated their obedience to Jesus to the demands of their culture. Jesus can revitalize a church through a faithful few if we let them lead.

“In…churches [that have accommodated to the fads of the world instead of faithful obedience to Jesus], the righteous few…must stand up and be counted.

“They must consider themselves missionaries to their own church and wake up those who are about to die while there is still time. In fact, they are responsible before God to do so.“ - Grant Osborne

Revelation 3:3 ESV

Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.

3. “Remember what you have received and heard.” Go back to the gospel as you first received it and the teaching you heard from Jesus’ apostles. Keep it simple. The gospel is Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. It is as simple as God’s love for us demonstrated in Jesus, reconciling us to Himself. If we are listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, this is what He will call to mind.

But we don’t just remember to know the right doctrine. We call the gospel to mind so that we can live according to it.

4. “Keep it.” A church that only studies the Bible to grow in knowledge is already falling asleep. In the documentary “Sheep Among Wolves”, a Christian from Iran was able to get out of that country where she could was faced torture, imprisonment and death for her faith in Jesus. She came to America and joined a big church in the Bible belt. In this place where Christianity has such freedom, you would think she would thrive. But she asked her husband, “could we please move back to Iran. The Christians here are listening to a satanic lullaby. They are asleep. And I am falling asleep.”

When your faith in Jesus is measured in your willing obedience more than your knowledge of the Bible, it comes alive You become fully awake to the Holy Spirit. We are reading the Bible to listen to the voice of Jesus so that we can obey Him. Our works are not complete in the sight of God.

And this is when you are ready for the last command.

5. “Repent.” Repent means literally, change your mind. When we are awake to the Holy Spirit, strengthening the faithful, preaching the gospel to ourselves, and obeying Jesus’ word, our mind begins to change. And for a church doing this together, we begin to have the mind of Christ among us. And the downward spiral into death changes into new life.

When a church wakes up and repentance begins to take hold, the future becomes very bright.

An Awakened Church Has a Secure Future

Revelation 3:4 ESV

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.

Revelation 3:5 ESV

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.

Revelation 3:6 ESV

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Our victory in life is not that we have a good reputation with everyone around us. Your victory is that Jesus knows your name, He claims you as His own, and your faithfulness to Him demonstrates that He has won a victory over sin and death in your life.

Communion

And even for those faithful who continue to walk with Him. If He has left you on this earth, your work is not complete. But the promise here is that all your work for Christ will be victorious. And He will welcome you before His Father and the angels with, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Questions for Discussion

In what ways has God been strengthening you this week? In what ways are you in need of strength?

Can you share about a time when God awakened you to a spiritual reality that changed your life?

What seems to have happened to the church in Sardis, as you read Revelation 3:1-6? What are some ways churches can fall asleep and die?

What do we learn about God in this passage?

What are the commands of Jesus in this passage? Which of them does our church need to hear right now?

What are the promises of Jesus to the faithful remnant in the church? How would that help those people stand for Jesus in their own church?

When your church seems to be inattentive to the voice of Jesus and the leading of the Holy Spirit, what is a way to help wake them up?

What are the works God wants us to complete, and how can we stay attentive to those?

How will you respond to this passage this week?

Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?