Revelation 3:1-6 "The Dead Church"

Tonight… Revelation 3:1-6 "The Dead Church"

As a reminder: in the letters of Chapters 2 & 3… Jesus’ provides some or all of the following notes to these churches:

Commendation

Correction / Rebuke

Exhortation/ Warning or Appeal

Invitation and Promise

The Dead Church

Revelation 3:1–6 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,

Jesus addresses the “angel” or messenger of the church… which in previous weeks… we established and provided scriptural support that it’s better to think of this messenger as the “Pastor” versus a heavenly angel.

Sardis: Important commercial city… a wealthy city… on an important trade route.

A Center of Pagan Worship: site of a temple of Artemis and other false gods… and during festivals… sin was practiced as a form of worship on a grand scale, and it would not be surprising is some of the church were lured away.

Archeologists located the ruins of a Christian church building next to the temple of Artemis.

‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars:

Here we have a description of Jesus:

The Seven Spirits point to Rev 1:4 an allusion to the sevenfold character of the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus as referenced in Isaiah 11:2-5.

Peter said Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit in Acts 10:38

Jesus once read from Isa 61 in part reading… “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor...” and Jesus said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Seven Stars point to Rev 1:16 where the star are in the right hand of Jesus and 1:20 tells us the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

He’s got the whole world in Hands… even the Pastors of these churches.

Commendation (barely… almost devoid of any commendation):

“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive,

This church had a reputation… they were regarded as an alive… as a church with effective ministry… a spiritual church…

But, looks can be deceiving… not even a single verse of commendation is completed before the rebuke comes…

Walvoord: “From the divine standpoint, however, it is considered as a church that had only a name of being alive and actually was dead as far as spiritual life and power were concerned

Barclay: “a church is in danger of death when it begins to worship its own past…when it is more concerned with forms than with life…when it loves systems more than it loves Jesus Christ…when it is more concerned with material than spiritual things.”

Many churches today appears alive, but are like this church is Sardis. And V1 ends with… rebuke…

Rebuke (Still V1) “… but you are dead.”

In just four words, Jesus shatters what the world and what they think of themselves.

“You have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead!” -CJB

Like Pharisees they were “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones...”

Exhortation (Appeal)

vv2-3 “Be watchful [wake up from your spiritual slumber], and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die,

What little life you have, strengthen those things for they are in danger of dying. Some in this church still had true life and spirituality.

...for I have not found your works perfect before God. V3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.

Their works were found to be imperfect before God. Their actions fell short of what God expected from a church.

God expects a church to: Love and abide in Jesus; Love others; Be led by the Holy Spirit; Teach His Word.

Uphold Jesus’ Great Commission: Make disciples & Preach the Gospel.

Uphold the ordinances of communion and baptism.

They are told to Repent. Repent of what?

Repentance unto salvation? No… this was a church. They were believers, though some had fallen into compromise.

Repentance in this context is not turning to God in faith.

Repentance here pertains to sanctification, not to justification.

They were to repent or “change their mind” as believers… about their dead ways… and turn back to what makes a church alive.

They were to “hold fast” or “guard over” what little life they had…

And, turn away from man made systems… possibly false doctrines and false gospels… and compromising practices.

Exhortation (Warning):

“Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.”

Like a thief comes unexpectedly in the night. Jesus would come upon them in judgment… and we can assume “remove your lampstand” as He warned the Ephesian church.

Twice in Sardis’ past… the city fell militarily due to not watching.

The city was ideal for defense as it stood high above a valley and was surrounded by steep cliffs, but the Persians in 549 B.C. … and the armies of Antiochus the Great III in 214 B.C. captured the city by scaling the cliffs at night… and infiltrating the city.

Their historical overconfidence and failure to watch was bleeding from their political history into their spiritual present.

Invitation and Promise to the Godly Remnant:

vv4-5 “You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

In this church are some who were walking faithfully and without compromise…

And, they are described as “worthy” to walk in white with Jesus.

To Overcomers three promises are extended: clothed in white garments… Jesus will not blot out their name from the Book of Life… Jesus will confess their name before His Father and His angels.

This is NOT a message to a special group of Christians distinguished by their spirituality and power.

Overcomers are normal Christians who believe in Jesus and especially follow Him as Lord.

1 John 5:5 “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

After justification and during sanctification… if Jesus is not Lord over our lives, we risk falling into carnality.

So, we overcome the world in a variety of ways… in part by submitting to Jesus as Lord.

Not to be saved, but because we are saved.

Not “Lordship salvation, but Lordship sanctification.”

Promise 1: White Garments:

Walvoord: “The thought seems to be that the righteousness of the saints bestowed in the form of a garment is a token of their acceptability to God and the divine recognition of their office and ministry as the priests of God.”

White robes are worn by believers. And we see this 4x in Revelation: By the Twenty-Four Elders, The Martyred Saints, The Bride of Christ, and The Armies in Heaven

The Twenty-four elders in Rev 4:4… which is a heavenly scene prior to the tribulation. A great support text for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church for not only do they were the white robes of believers…

… in the same verse they also wear victors wreaths (Stephanos crowns) which are awarded to believers at the Bema Seat Judgment.

Crowns in the New Testament (the Crown of Life, the crown of glory, the crown of righteousness, the crown of rejoicing, the imperishable crown… “crowns of gold” in the case of the twenty-four elders)… are always stephanos crowns…

NOT Royal Crowns… Gk. diadem (Rev 19:12)… Jesus wears “many crowns.”

Back to white robes… The Martyred Saints are clothed in white Rev 6:11, 7:14)

These are those who missed the rapture of the church through unbelief in Jesus Christ, but then believed during the tribulation and were justified… and then were killed because of their faith… or were beheaded for refusing the mark of the beast. (Rev 20:4)

The Bride of Christ at the Marriage of the Lamb is [key verse] “arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for [why it’s white] the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” (Rev 19:8)

The saints… you and I wear white… therefore the elders are saints… and this only comes by faith in Jesus Christ which is clearly shown in our Rev 3:4-5 verses.

Finally, the Armies in Heaven… who are believers (and likely Holy Angels) who return with Jesus at His Second Coming (at the end of seven year tribulation) and they will be clothed in white. Rev 19:14

Believers are clothed in white… because of faith… thus their name is in the Book of Life (for believers… as opposed to books of dead people judged for their works at the Great White Throne judgment Rev 20:11-15).

Promise 2: Name not blotted out of the Book of Life:

We’ve been discussing the Book of Life and the Blotting out of the Book of Life in men’s bible study, and it’s a debated topic.

The Book of Life is mentioned 8x in scripture. 7x in Revelation. 1x in Phil 4:3.

Questions: When are names written in the Book of Life? Were they always there and then some names are blotted out? If so, for what reason… for denying faith… for falling away from faith (can this happen)? Or are names written in the Book upon belief?

These are just some of the nuanced and debated questions.

It would seem that names were written in before the foundation of the world, and later names are blotted out for unbelief.

Here’s some verses on this topic in scripture:

In Rev 17, Unbelievers will be astonished in the future when the false religious and political systems, plus her world ruler falls… and the following verse tells us when names are written into the Book of Life:

Revelation 17:8 “And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

And it that verse we see names are NOT written into the Book of Life from the foundation of the world…

In a similar verse, it’s said of those who worship the beast… the Anti-Christ during the tribulation in Revelation 13:8 “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

BKC: “Some hold that the book of life originally contained the names of every living person to be born in the world, and that the names of the unsaved get blotted out when they die. Rev 13:8 probably means simply that those who are saved had their names written in the book of life in eternity past in anticipation of the death of Christ on the cross for them and that they will never be erased.”

When the 70 returned from their mission with joy, Jesus said in Luke 10:20 “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Again… which is from the foundation of the world.

So, there seems to be some evidence that before creation, God wrote names into the Book of Life.

Eph 1:4 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”

Which could lead us down the trail of predestination… and a debate on God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will…

Did He choose us or did we freely believe?

Lot’s of tension in that question. But, the answer is, “Yes.”

Being “Blot Out” is mentioned even back to Moses.

After the Gold Calf idolatry in Exodus 32:32 Moses interceded and served as a mediator, even will to be a substitute… to take Israel’s judgment saying, “Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”

To which God essentially says no… only those who sin against Him will be blotted out… and there is only one unpardonable sin- unbelief.

Under the Covenant with Israel… when God lays down blessings and curses…

Under curses: Deuteronomy 29:19–20 “… when he [any individual Israelite] hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, [stupidly] saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober. 20 “The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven.”

Which is due to unbelief in that context.

In a highly messianic psalm of David…

Psalm 69:28 “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous.”

Looking to the enemies of David in the near… and the murderers of Jesus in the far… unbelievers.

Also, in scripture “alive” and “dead” looks beyond physical life to eternal life. One is either living or dead based upon faith.

At the Great White Throne Judgment (the final judgment at the end of Jesus’ 1000 year reign just prior to Eternity)… there is a singular “Book of Life” and “Books” (plural) where the names of the dead are scribes and they are judged by their works:

Revelation 20:11–15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Finally, entering Eternity: Revelation 21:27 “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

Only believers enter eternity.

Here’s a long quote from Walvoord on Rev 3:5 that is a bit theological, but helpful on this topic of the Book of Life and names being “Blotted Out”:

“… it is promised, “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” This verse has troubled expositors in view of other promises of the Scripture which seem to indicate that a person who has once received Jesus Christ as Saviour is forever secure in his salvation. How then can his name be blotted out of the book of life?

Seiss [a Lutheran Pastor… who wrote a Revelation Commentary… and held a nuanced form of eternal security] interprets the expression “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life” as referring to the name of a believer as written in heaven. He writes, “There is a celestial roll-book of all those who name the name of Jesus. But it depends on the persevering fidelity of the individual whether his name is to continue on that roll or to be blotted out.”

Walvoord continues and disagrees writing, “To make the continuance of our salvation depend upon works, however, is gross failure to comprehend that salvation is by grace alone. If it depended upon the believer’s perseverance, the name would not have been written there in the first place.

Other explanations of the meaning of the book of life have been given which are more satisfactory. Some have indicated that there is no explicit statement here that anybody will have his name blotted out, but rather the promise that his name will not be blotted out because of his faith in Christ. The implication, however, is that such is a possibility. On the basis of this some have considered the book of life not as the roll of those who are saved but rather a list of those for whom Christ died, that is, all humanity who have possessed physical life. As they come to maturity and are faced with the responsibility of accepting or rejecting Christ, their names are blotted out if they fail to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour; whereas those who do accept Christ as Saviour are confirmed in their position in the book of life, and their names are confessed before the Father and the heavenly angels. In either interpretation the implication of the passage is that those who put their trust in Christ and thus overcome by faith have the privilege of being recognized as the saints of God throughout eternity even though they come from such a church as Sardis where the spiritual testimony was at a low ebb and much was offensive to their holy Lord.”

SO… deep dive on the Book of Life and Names being written in and blotted out. As Walvoord wrote, “This verse has troubled expositors...”

But, hopefully we feel a little more clear on a difficult topic.

Promise 3: Acknowledged in Heaven:

Jesus acknowledges believers as His own before His Father and His angels.

As we exit this life, we enter His presence. ‘To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’ we say based upon 2 Cor 5:8.

And then that familiar closing exhortation V6 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’

This is the common and repeated invitation extended by Jesus to the churches… encouraging them to respond to the exhortations of appeal and warning.