Seven Churches - Sardis
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Sardis
Sardis
We are entering the last phase of church history
We have seen Ephesus - Lost first love; Smyrna - Persecution; Pergamos - Compromising; Thyatira - Corrupt
Sardis - The dead church representing the post reformation period of history
Sardis is the oldest city addressed by the Lord in His messages to the church. Once the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia
The city was almost impenetrable but a failure of the watchman allowed for troops to enter the city and capture it in 549. Hence we see in verses 1&3 a warning about a failure to watch!
The charge - they hand a name but no substance to its reference!
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
The church was riding the wave of its past works. It had lost focus of its purpose and power
“You have a name that you are alive but you are dead!
We are looking at the age of Protestantism - Look to Europe and you will see a dead religious system pretending to herald the name of Christ but far from that reality
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
We are kept and identified by “The name of the Father” - God’s people but it is clear here that although they had the “name” physically they were dead Spiritually!
God expects more than a “label” for one to be identified as His own
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
It was their “works” that were the identifying proof of their condition
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.
Literally “to keep zealous (active) watch over” of men and lurking beasts planning for devour
Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Even though the city of Sardis was impenetrable, it twice fell due to the watchman not being alert and vigilant. The enemy was able to enter the inside of the city and open the gates of destruction of the city!
We saw last week that the enemy had penetrated the very heart of the church and turned it into a dead, bondage-riden system of compromise!
The watchman were asleep and allowed the practice of the world into the church leading to its corruption
Strengthen the things that remain!
“Make fast” “to fix something so that it stands upright and immovable”
Put your feet on the rock! The immovable, incorruptible perfect Word of God!
The focus isn’t on the ability of the object but rather the foundation upon which it stands!
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
“That are ready to die” - two possibilities - those whom would suffer death for their defense of the true word of God
Protestants in England and Wales were executed under legislation that punished anyone judged guilty of heresy against Catholicism. Although the standard penalty for those convicted of treason in England at the time was execution by being hanged, drawn and quartered, this legislation adopted the punishment of burning the condemned. At least 300 people were recognised as burned over the five years of Mary I's reign by contemporary sources.
Queen Mary I to the English throne in 1553 Her repeal of all religious legislation passed under Edward VI, Protestants facing a choice: exile, reconciliation/conversion, or punishment. Protestants opposed Mary's actions. Many people were exiled, and hundreds of dissenters were burned at the stake, earning her the nickname of "Bloody Mary
Or the truth of the Word of God - I would suggest that both are covered. The purity of the message of the Word of God - Repent and be saved - was lost in the churches mission thereby leading to the persecution of those who would stand true.
The charge: “I have not found your works perfect - Literally “not complete”
The reformers had the right idea but failed to totally break the chains of connection to the former Babylonian ritual practices. They kept all the festivals and celebrations of the pagans and accepted them into the church.
The Word of God began to fall out of favor for acceptance of worldly understanding p the church normalized sin!
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. 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.
A call again to return and hold fast their first love
Pew Gallop Pole - only 56% of those proclaiming to be Christian say they the Bible is the inerrant Word of God
28% say they pray - 47% pray but do not believe God talks to them! 15% say they don’t talk to God or that He talks to them!
SO there is a call to hold fast to the truth - to repent - and to watch! If not the rapture will suddenly overtake them because they were not prepared!
Again an indication that those who are His, holding fast to the truth of His Word will be delivered out of the judgement to come!
But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.
You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
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.
White garment - the robe worn bu the people in celebration of triumph also of righteousness
And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.
Not blotted out of the book! Reference to Exodus
Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous.
The reality is that there is a “book of citizenship” for the Kingdom of God
In the past, when a criminal’s name was removed from the civic register of an Asiatic town, he lost his citizenship and the rights carried by it! Interesting that all names are written in the book and then removed if acceptance of the terms of citizenship - repentance — are not acknowledged!
The choice of eternal destiny is in the hands of the individual
Confessing Christ before men equals His acknowledgement before His Father!
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
Lessons: Those who claim to be of Christ yet deny the truth of God’s Word are not of the family of God
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
We have seen a progressive strategy of Satan to water down and pervert the Word of God
Progressive Christianity
Believe that following the path of the teacher Jesus can lead to healing and wholeness, a mystical connection to “God,” as well as an awareness and experience of not only the Sacred, but the Oneness and Unity of all life
Affirm that the teachings of Jesus provide but one of many ways to experience “God,” the Sacredness, Oneness and Unity of life, and that we can draw from diverse sources of wisdom, including Mother Earth, in our spiritual journey
I “the emerging church.” At the heart of these movements was the desire to articulate a way of being Christian that was an alternative to the Christian faith portrayed in the public realm. The leaders of Progressive Christianity had grown weary of defining their Christian faith in negative terms: “We aren’t fundamentalists. We don’t believe the Bible is the inerrant or infallible word of God. We don’t agree that Creationism should replace the science of evolution in public schools. We don’t believe that God hates gays. We don’t believe that people of other faiths are going to hell unless they convert to Christianity. We don’t deny the right of women to choose what happens to their bodies.”
Unfortunately, the Gospel is offensive to the sinner, we must hold fast to the truth of God’s Word until the end!