Sardis - Wake Up, Church

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, or simply “Revelation” in your bible, is an often misunderstood book. It is a largely prophetic book, making it the only of its type in the New Testament. Prophecy is often difficult to interpret, and Revelation is no different. Add to this that Revelation is not simply prophecy, but it is apocalyptic prophecy and you add an additional layer of interpretive difficulty. Apocalyptic prophecy in scripture uses imagery that is, at the very least, unusual in our minds. We see beasts, astronomical events, warfare on large scales, and many other things that have left men scratching their heads and searching for answers.

The book of Revelation is not given to us to confound our sensibilities. In fact, it is there to reveal things to us - that is what a Revelation is, after all. Inside the book of revelation, with everything else we see, are a set of letters to real churches.

Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation provide us with seven letters to seven churches. Now, many have suggested that these churches represent some age of the church in history or future, or that they stand as representative of every church in every age. I’d ask you first to consider these letters as real letters to real churches at a real time dealing with very real issues.

The issues dealt with in these letters can be explored, in a real way, and we can learn basic principles that may apply to us.

Today, I want to take you to Revelation chapter 3 as we read about the church in Sardis.

Revelation 3:1–6 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Prayer

I Know Your Works

I want to call your attention to verse 1.

This letter is addressed to the church in Sardis, which at the time this is written, was a wealthy place. It was a walled city that enjoyed abundance resulting from trade. We could suggest that those in the city lived relatively comfortable lives. I think we can draw some parallels here already, that our churches in our land are also comfortable.

But with comfort comes complacency. A church that is comfortable will often find itself to be much like the culture, much like the people, and much like the mentality of those that surround it.

Christ reminds the church here in Sardis that He knows their works. This can cause comfort or it can cause fear. And for the church in Sardis, gathered and reading this letter, it will most certainly bring a strong response.

Before we go on to any additional detail here, this principle is critically important in our lives, and in the life of the Church.

God KNOWS our works.

Psalm 139:1–4 ESV

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

His knowledge is complete and perfect, ours, even regarding ourselves, is imperfect and incomplete.

God knows the works of those in Sardis, and he brings up their reputation. You have the reputation of being alive.

Reputation versus reality

But you are dead.

The works are not complete - they fit in with the world or they have become a reflection that is not discernable from those who surround them.

Verse 2 is especially poingniant - Wake Up.

Sardis history as a gated city - 2x overtaken because of sleeping guards.

For us, it’s the call from culture to wake up.

We can be awake to the things of God, or we can be “woke” in terms of culture.

You see, the sin in Sardis was becoming like culture - be on guard.

Modern “wokism” is rooted in a Marxist philosophy.

Critical Race Theory and intersectionality seeks to divide us into unbiblical categories. The intent is to separate and find the most marginalized of any of us. Intersectionality means that we have mulitiple “aggressed” classes. Then, we seek to elevate the voice of that marginalized one.

The gospel presents something entirely different

Colossians 3:11 ESV

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

But in the end, it’s a Marxist philosophy built where no lives actually matter. Marxism, and the socialist and communist mentalities that flow from it, have led to the slaughter of countless millions in the last century. No worldview has taken so many lives. It is an antibiblical worldview best on theft and statist control.

In other words, the Black Lives Matter movement is contra-christian.

It was to the shame of the SBC, the largest protestant denomination when they adopted CRT and Intersectionality as analytical tools.

Black Lives can’t matter in a Marxist worldview. In fact, no lives can matter apart from the Christian worldview. There’s some direct application for today.

But there’s always a remnant. In Sardis there was, and here there is. Look at vv4

Christ says, wake Up.

Wake Up

Christ calls us to repentance. Wake up, return to what we recieved. VV3

This is a clarion call back to the gospel. False churches, cults, false philosophies worship false gods and preach a false gospel.

Cults almost always deny the deity of Christ or the trinitarian nature of God. They almost always pollute the gospel with a list of add-ons or remove the centrality of the cross from it.

We must wake up and hold fast.

Repent. This is a call for us, and a christian should live a life of repentance.

2 Corinthians 7:9–10 ESV

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.