Revelation 3:1-6

The dead church.

Your outline is very simple. Condemnation and commendation. These passages can be broke down as such, the first three passages are condemnation, verses 1-3 and the next three passages we find some commendation, verses 4-6.

Revelation 3:1 ““To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”

This is written by John to send with the angel “messenger” most likely a pastor or lead elder in the church. In Revelation 1:20, the Lord describes the seven stars and the seven golden lampstands. ““As for the mystery of the seven stars which 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.”

concerning the angels of the seven churches, the word literally means “messenger.” Although it can mean angel and does throughout the book, here it is used for leaders in the church which angels are never referred to as leaders in the church. Most likely, these messengers are the 7 key elders who represent each of the 7 churches.

So the letter is written as commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to send with the lead elder or pastor of the church at Sardis to be read to the church.

The first thing we see that is written to this church is a description of the One who is giving this revelation to John. “He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says this.” What is meant by the “seven Spirits of God?” In Revelation 1:4 we read, “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,” Well there are 2 possibilities and both communicate the same meaning.

Isaiah 11:1–2 “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Isaiah’s prophecy is a reference to the 7-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit. Zechariah 4:1-6 Zechariah also has a vision in his prophecy of a lampstand with seven lamps and a bowl on top which is a reference to the Holy Spirit amply supplying the needs, the oil never runs out and the lamps always burn.

Either way both represent the fullness of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The number 7 is the number of completeness so the reference is of the fullness of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In our passage we see that the risen Lord in His blazing glory is represented as the One who has the fullness of the Holy Spirit, proving His Godhead, and the seven stars in His right hand which represent the messengers of the churches proving His power and control over His church and its leaders.

You have a church that has this reputation for being alive but is dead! the church by definition is life, as it is the ekklesia the called out one’s. Called out from death to life, from dark to light. Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,” Ephesians 2:5 “even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” The church is alive in reality. We were dead and are alive in Christ. This is more than a reputation, this is a reality. But to be called dead by our Lord is a staggering statement. This letter serves as a severe reminder of the dangers of complacency and spiritual apathy in the church.

I have a series of “R’s” for you as we work our way through this short letter to the church in Sardis.

Reputation: Here we come face to face with the harsh reality of a church that is known for being alive. They had a name that they are alive. They maintained only a reputation, but in reality they are dead! Jesus said to them that He knows their deeds. This is the all-knowing God the Son the second person of the Trinity who knows all things declaring to this church that He knows exactly what is going on and that by their deeds they have only a reputation and not full life in Christ. By our deeds are we judged.

Turn with me to Revelation 20:11–15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Romans 2:5–6 “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds:”

There will be judgment even for Christians where we will receive rewards as well based on our deeds. there will be rewards for good and a forfeiture thereof for bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

John 14:23–24 “Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

John MacArthur writes this: “Jesus emphasized the need for the habitual practice of obedience to His commands as evidence of the believer’s love for Him and the Father. This is consistent with the teaching of James 2:14-26 that true saving faith is manifest by works produced by God in the transforming regenerating power of the Spirit. Those works are expressions of the love which the Spirit pours into the believers heart (Rom. 5:5; Gal 5:22).

Maybe this is why Jesus introduces Himself in the way He does to this church, the One who has the 7 fold Spirit of God and the One who has the true elders in His right hand controlling the churches. When the leadership is corrupt then you have a corrupt church filled with dead people. You have a religious establishment that is nothing more then whitewashed tombs. The outside may have a fresh coat of paint but the inside is a filthy tomb full of dead man’s bones. This was the church at Sardis! They had a reputation but they are dead!

God works in His church through faithful leaders who submit themselves to the authority of Scripture. The Holy Spirit ministers in the church through the word taught and preached to the people. This church was lacking in true shepherds and in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Being a dead church is to say that the majority of the people in this church are unredeemed and unregenerate people.

Brethren, this is a call for us to examine our own lives and to examine our church for signs of spiritual deadness. This is a call for us to seek true revival amongst our congregation and to reignite our faith and love for Jesus Christ. We must push against the culture, we must push against spiritual apathy that can easily set in.

Sardis had a reputation that it was alive which means at one point and time it most likely was alive with a genuine love for their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but something happened in a short time, probably 33 years or so that this church was living only on a reputation of what once was, but they themselves were dead.

That is the reputation, Now we come to the next portion and that is rebuke.

Back to Revelation 3:2-3.

2. Rebuke Revelation 3:2–3 “‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. ‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.”

Wake up is rather be watchful! This rebuke had to be to the remaining believers in Sardis as Revelation 3:4 states. “‘But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.”

The dead must be brought to life and being that the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” this must be to the remnant as according to Scripture the unsaved in this church would of rebelled against this command with an attitude of liberal, fallen notions of unfairness, outright meanness, and the judge not attitude of the fallen churches that so commonly populate our world today.

Sardis had been captured twice in history due to their failure to keep watch.

Leon Morris writes in his commentary, “

Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary e. To the Church of Sardis (3:1–6)

2. Wake up! (cf.

Just a little history of Sardis.

Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary e. To the Church of Sardis (3:1–6)

Situated at the junction of five roads, and commanding the Hermus valley, Sardis was an active commercial city and very wealthy. It had been the capital of Croesus who was proverbial for his riches. The city’s easy wealth seems to have made for slackness. It was captured by Cyrus the Persian (549 BC) and by Antiochus (218 BC), both times because of its slackness. The city was built on a hill so steep that its defences seemed impregnable. On both occasions enemy troops scaled the precipice by night and found that the overconfident Sardians had set no guard. A great earthquake in AD 17 made a profound impression. But the city was soon rebuilt, partly owing to generous aid from the emperor Tiberius.

A city that was infiltrated twice in history due to their slackness to keep watch and now we see this church in Sardis that is rebuked for their slackness in keeping watch and keeping up with the things which they have learned and heard and received from the Lord.

Application: How about us brethren? Have we become slack in keeping watch? Is our Christianity truly the sum of our lives or is it a side-note? Does the truth of God’s word infiltrate and penetrate our hearts and minds daily leading us to keep watch, leading us to genuine worship, leading us to obedient lives? We don’t know much about this church but that it is filled with the unsaved and unredeemed. There is no mention of heresy like the Nocolatians , persecution like Smyrna or Pergamum and yet this is the dead church!

One Commentary states:

Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary e. To the Church of Sardis (3:1–6)

John does not mention anything like the persecutions at Smyrna and Pergamum or the heresies of the Nicolaitans. It may be that this church had not suffered disturbance from without and that its troubles stemmed from its comparatively sheltered existence. The temptation for the sheltered is always to take things easy, and they readily become slack. Like the churches at Pergamum and Thyatira this one has a mixed membership. But in those the faulty members are a minority. At Sardis they predominate. Only ‘a few people’ have not ‘soiled their clothes’.

Revelation 3:3 “‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.”

What is a church to do when they are confronted by the Lord? It’s simple, you obey the command.

Revelation 2:5 “‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.”

Whereas God’s judgment would bring an end to the Ephesian church so God’s judgment would bring harm as a thief in the night. His sudden coming to the church at Sardis would be unannounced would be sudden, unexpected, and would be to inflict harm and destruction to this unrepentant dead church.

The church at Sardis is warned and called to remember what they received and heard.

Colossians 2:6 “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,”

What they received was the Lord Christ and the command to walk in Him. That is to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and worthy of the gospel. The truest test of the Christian is endurance in keeping with the New Testament commands to obey the Word of God.

John 14:15 ““If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

John 10:27–30 ““My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. “I and the Father are one.””

Revelation 3:3 “‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.”

Now we turn in our study to the good news the commendation.

Revelation 3:4–6 “‘But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. ‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

You have the “few” people in Sardis. Is this surprising? Surprising that there is a church that exists that only a few are actually saved?

Matthew 7:13–14 ““Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

There are only few who have not soiled their garments, only few who maintain their witness boldly. There were 3 kinds of people in the church in Sardis, you have the unsaved and unredeemed, you had those who were saved but apathetic or lethargic, then you had those who were saved and bore witness of that salvation boldly to a lost and dying world.

One commentator states:

Revelation: Verse by Verse Promise and Challenge to Overcome (3:4–6)

The exalted Christ begins this section with a word of encouragement to the righteous remnant who are the only hope for this terminally ill church. There were only a few who had not “soiled their clothes,” a metaphor that builds on one of the major trades at Sardis, the wool industry. In a religious context this pictures a defiled life. The quasi-Christians of Sardis have become unclean, like soiled clothes, by being assimilated into the Roman worldview and becoming Christopagan—part Christian, part pagan. Their only hope lay in these few who could intervene and lift them out of the quicksand into which they had fallen.

Revelation: Verse by Verse Promise and Challenge to Overcome (3:4–6)

Turning to a positive image of garments, the few remaining faithful are told that they will walk with him in white, a powerful word picture of purity and victory, which is the meaning of “white” in the book. There are two ideas in this image: first, the white linen worn by angels and signifying glory and purity; second, the pure white toga worn at a Roman triumph and signifying victory (

Revelation 3:5 “‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

Who is the overcomer? The elect, the true believers in Christ, they are the overcomers because they are saved by grace through faith in Christ according to the foreknowledge of God and the predetermined plan of God to redeem those whom He has chosen from before the foundation of the world.

I will not erase his name from the book of life…

Revelation: Verse by Verse Promise and Challenge to Overcome (3:4–6)

Then, as forgiven and kept secure in Christ, their “name will never be erased from the book of life.” After the golden calf incident, Moses begs God to forgive Israel, stating he is willing for God to “blot me out of the book you have written,” namely the register of the citizens of Israel (

There are some who would try and say that this passage is clear that you can lose your salvation but clearly as seen in Sardis alone, the majority did not have salvation and just as you would have your name erased from the registry of the city for crimes against the city so it is with the unsaved and unredeemed, they are blotted out! One of two things would get your name blotted out of the registry, crimes against the city, capitol punishment, and death.

MacArthur writes: The Book of life is a divine journal that records the names of all those whom God has chosen to save and who, therefore, are to possess eternal life. Under no circumstances will He erase those names, as city officials often did of undesirable people on their roles.

Revelation 3:6 “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

My prayer is that we here today will truly hear what the Spirit says to this church. There are some even here today who are just playing church and may even be self-deceived. It is so important, life or death, that we would heed the words of this prophecy written over 2000 years ago and yet absolutely right on point even in our time, and even more so.

I pray that we will have hearts of repentance today and truly examine ourselves. I believe that there are three kinds of people in every church, those who are truly saved and will walk with the Lord in white garments, those who are apathetic and lethargic and need real examination and need to remember from where they have fallen, repent of their current circumstance and repeat the deeds that they once did when they were not so apathetic towards the things of God, and those who are not saved and need to be quickened by the Word of God and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that we as the church would truly learn to repent together as the church understanding that each of us break the greatest commandment of all everyday and that is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

Let us hear the Word of God and remain attentive to Christ’s voice, discerning spiritual truths, and embracing the life-giving messages of the Spirit of God, a move pivotal to true revival!

Let’s pray!