church at sardis

“So, imagine our church gets a letter. In a nice crisp, white envelope addressed to Trinity Baptist Church. And it's nothing super formal, just a handwritten letter, and it says “Hey yall I know yall are working hard, trying to do great things for God, and you know yall even have a reputation for being such a great church, that y'all are living and thriving, but… I gotta tell you something. You're dead. You. are. Dead. And you need to wake up. WAKE UP! Be on guard! Establish and strengthen the things that are about to collapse and die! Cause your works, they’re not good enough. They’re not perfect before the Father. Remember and don’t forget the things that you’ve been taught! Hold on to them and don’t let them go! Repent from your sins, cause, listen, I’m coming back soon. Quickly. But will you be ready? Will you receive me full of grace… or will you receive me full of shame? It’s up to you. Signed, Jesus Christ.”

To receive this letter would be… humbling. Eye opening. We’d probably all get off our high horse and get on our knees… or… so you'd think. Lets open our Bibles to Revelation chapter3.

Revelation chapter 3:1-3 says…

Lets set up a little background for this passage. Sardis was located in Modern day Turkey, much like most of the other early churches. It was at the crossroads of many trading routes. It was founded upon a hilltop with 4 sides. 3 sides were not climbable, so it was only accessible by one side of the hill, all the other sides were too steep to access the city. The Pactolus river ran right down the middle of town from the Aegean sea. And this river literally had gold flowing through it, so the people here would pan for gold to make easy money. So these people were used to being rich. It was the capital city of Lydia, a mighty mighty city. Because of its layout on top of a hill, it was nearly untouchable, until King Cyrus of Persia’s select troops climbed up the one scalable wall and found no one guarding the city. Everyone was asleep. So it was conquered by the persians. And if that's not bad enough, 200 years later the Greeks did the exact same thing and again everybody in the city was asleep. Eventually an earthquake would be the end to this city. So These were complacent, over confident people who were content living a life revolving around luxury. They were used to the easy life. This church (with the exception of Laodicea) was the least favoured of the seven churches. Jesus commended the other churches here in the first few chapters of Revelation, Ephesus for their hard work and perseverance, The church at Smyrna for enduring persecution, the church at Pergamos for their faithfulness, Thyatira for their love, and Philadelphia for their love and faithfulness. The only other church that Jesus didn’t commend was the church at Laodicea, the lukewarm church. So we see that this church at Sardis definitely had its troubles.

Revelation 3:1–5 KJV 1900

And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and 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.

First we see a

A DECEIVING REPUTATION.

When examined by man from the outside they looked great, like the ideal church.

When examined by God from the inside, all He saw was decaying fruit. People didn’t have a true desire to live for Jesus. They were living for themselves and for the world. They’re spirituality and walk with God, had become stagnant. It had become dead. The greek word for dead in this passage, here are you ready for it, this is so cool. It literally means… dead. That’s it. It means destitute of life, or inactiveness. And it’s even the same greek word that James uses in chapter 2 of his letter when he says “Faith without works is dead.” Now James isn’t preaching a “Works salvation”, but he is preaching that if you’re saved, if you claim to be a Christian, how you act and what you do ought to back that up. How you live your life ought to show that you’re a Christian. Now this church at Sardis had a reputation of being alive or even a thriving church. Yet Christ had nothing good to say about them. So it can be inferred that these Christians at Sardis were living a lie. How else could they have a reputation of being a living church but yet Christ tells them they are dead? They’re living a life of carnality, complacency, and hypocrisy, when they know they should be doing what Christ has asked of them. They look great on the outside yet are dying spiritually on the inside.

APPLICATION: What about us? Man sees us from the outside of those doors, what’s your reputation like? Is it a good reputation, or do people know you’re just another carnal Christian who puts on the Spiritual mask every sunday? If we have a good reputation, can God confirm it in our hearts? Does that good reputation outside match what God sees on the inside? You and I ought to quit living life how we want to live and truly serve God with our lives because of His love for us. You’re God died a terrible death on the cross so that you could live, what are you gonna do with this new life youve been given?

Verse number 2 and 3 says…

We see #2 a

A NEEDED PROCLAMATION

Christ here gives the church 4 commands to do in these couple verses here

Thats how us long winded preachers get ya is we have 3 main points but 4 or 5 sub points

#1 He says Be Watchful. We as Christians ought to always be on the lookout and always be ready to do spiritual battle. It’s kinda funny here Christ is telling them to be ready spiritually for battle, since in this city’s past the two times it’s been conquered was because the entire city was sleeping. So Christ is saying you know how that turned out for you before in the physical world, and it’s the exact same in the spiritual world! We cannot get so comfortable in our Christian walk that we become complacent and content staying in our stagnant state. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

In chapter 3 of 1 Peter and verse 15 it says “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”

The need for spiritual warriors is greatest now than it ever has been in history. Let me say that again, the need for spiritual warriors is greatest now than it ever has been in history. We cannot sit idly by while the devil influences and takes our community. We must stand up for the gospel of Christ and do something about it. 1 Timothy 6:12 says “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”

Ephesians 6:12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” ‭‭And if you continue reading on in chapter 6 of Ephesians you can read about all of our spiritual equipment to do spiritual battle like the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. We must always be ready for spiritual battle.

#2 the second thing Jesus says is to strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. This Church at Sardis had been trying to do so many things, that they couldn’t focus on just a core few. D. L. Moody said “I would rather say ‘This one thing I do’ than say, ‘these forty things I dabble with.” If the individuals of this church would’ve sought the Lord and His divine wisdom for what He would have them do, they wouldn’t have this problem of all these different parts of their church dying, maybe certain programs or certain ministries. Everybody has a role in the church and everyone can do something, everyone is needed. Jesus goes on to say in verse 2 “for I have not found thy works perfect before God.” They were trying to do all these different things for God in their own power. Folks I am nothing. I am a small life form, on a giant rock we call earth, spinning 1000 Miles an hour through a seemingly never ending universe. Yet I stress about things like what to wear. I can do nothing. So many times when writing this sermon I would break down and say “God I cannot do this” and finally I realized that that is the point. I cannot do this. I cannot do anything in my own power. But ohhh my God. Hear me now. My God can do anything and my God everything He wants to do. And I have to say God you have to write this message. You have to preach this message. When were visiting and witnessing We have to rely and lean on God and tell Him to talk to them and to give us the right words to say. Cause if I talked to them in my own power it would go horribly wrong. Y’all I’m so awkward, come up to me after the service and try to talk to me, I’m not good at it! I’d end up saying something stupid or making a fool of myself somehow when trying to witness to people in my own power. When we’re teaching a Sunday school class, or singing in the choir, or witnessing to somebody, or hey listen to this one - sitting in the audience listening to preaching- we ought to be talking to God asking for His power. When listening to preaching we ought to pray for God to show us something and be able to use it and apply it to our lives. If you come to church and expect to get nothing out of it, you know what you’re gonna get out of it? Nothing. We need to be completely yielded to God in every single aspect of our life. And we see here in these verses that the individuals of this church somewhat wanted to do something for God, but they were doing it in their own power, not relying on Him.

#3 the third thing he commanded them to do was to remember. To remember what they’ve been taught and to hold fast to it. To apply it to their lives again. It seems as if these people had gotten complacent in their listening to preaching. That they would hear messages from the Word of God, but they wouldn’t truly listen to these messages from the Word of God. They would go in one ear and out the other. When we come to the House of God, we should be ready to hear a Word from God. Not even ready, but excited to hear what God has for us. Like I mentioned earlier we ought to come to Sunday service prayed up and ready to listen. And here’s the key: not forget about it Monday morning. We should meditate throughout the week on messages from the Word of God. To “hold fast” to them as verse 2 says there. Hold fast means To have a death grip on it and to never ever let it go. To not forget about them, but to apply them to our lives.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 says “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Hebrews 10:23 says ““Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)”

Job 27:6 says “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.”

2 Timothy 1:13 says “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”

Hold fast to these things, and don’t let them go.

#4 Christ tells us to repent. This letter is written to the Church and also to the pastor of this church as it calls him “angel” there in verse one. So why would Christ, tell a pastor and his church to repent if they’re already saved? This used to be such a hard concept for me to understand but there are two different kinds of repentance. There is repentance for salvation- which happens one time, where you turn from your sin and ask God to save you, and then there is sanctifying repentance, which is to be in communion with God. If we sin and sin and sin we lose that fellowship with God. We don’t lose our salvation, but we just grow farther apart from Him and our relationship with Him is weakened. You either get closer to God through your obedience or the devil gets closer to you through your sin. Psalms 66:18 says “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” But 1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It’s like a husband and a wife. If the husband goes out and parties and does stupid stuff and comes home late and doesn’t talk to his wife, does that mean they’re now divorced? No! Just their relationship is weakened because of his sin. It’s the same way with us and God, we don’t lose our salvation, just our relationship is weakened. So Christ is telling this church basically that he misses the relationship he once had with them. What about you tonight? Honestly ask yourself how your relationship with Christ is. Is Christ missing the relationship he once had with you? Are you happy in your relationship with Christ? What’s missing?

Lastly here at the end of verse three we see

A CRUCIAL ADMONITION

Read verse 3

Again Jesus here is telling them if you don’t watch for my coming then I’m gonna come like a thief in the night, just like when your city was overtaken twice before at night because you weren’t ready. Jesus is coming back soon y’all. So often we too get complacent and forget about the fact that Jesus could come back right now. At this very moment. If he came back tonight would he find you full of sin or full of his spirit. Folks everybody is a sinner, everybody has broken Gods law. And we all need to be saved. Not only do we all need to be saved, but we all need to be working and serving Him. If He came back tonight Would Jesus be happy with your service to Him? Would he see that you’ve loved people and told them about Him? Will He tell you “Well done thou good and faithful servant?” Or Do you even care? are we just content with the fact that we’re going to heaven? “Well at least I made it even if I didn’t tell anyone else about it”. That’s just selfish.

On September 1st, 1894, two forest fires converged on the town of Hinckley, Minnesota, trapping more than 2,000 people. Whereas Oregon’s famous “Biscuit” fire of 2002 that burned 350,000 acres in one week, the Hinckley fire did in five hours. The fire created its own weather, including hurricane strength winds, bubbles of lava like gas and 200 foot tall flames. Fire whirles or tornadoes of fire danced out from the main body of the blaze easily knocking down buildings and carrying flaming debris into the sky. Temperatures reached 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit, the melting point of steel. As the fire paraded the town, the only means of escape was a train. Hundreds of people died being tortured in that fire. If only they would’ve heard about the train earlier they would’ve escaped. Folks the fires of hell are much worse than even this event. The fires of hell will happen much quicker than just five hours like in Hinckley. The fires of hell will claim more lives. But, there’s also a means of escape from Hell, and that’s Jesus Christ. But not everybody knows about Christ and His salvation. So it’s our duty to tell them about Him so that they may escape the blaze. You have the opportunity to impact someone’s eternity. Wont you tell them that there’s a fire coming and that they can escape it? we ought to be telling as many people as we can that Christ is coming back! Mark 16:15 says “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” That’s not just for the disciples or apostles, that’s for every Christian.

Will you obey what Jesus has asked of you? To be a real Christian, ready to serve for His sake and to spread His gospel message? Or will you remain the same, complacent Christian content in your walk who sometimes lives for God and sometimes doesn’t. It’s your choice. Let’s learn from this Church at Sardis and not make the same mistakes they made. And maybe if you’re not sure if you’re saved or if you’re going to heaven or hell when you die but you want to find out more won’t you come during the invitation and get it settled 100%.

If you keep reading the next couple verses it talks about how theres just a few people at the church of Sardis that have lived how they ought to be living. And how they will one day be clothed in white raiment in heaven with Christ. It says “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment”. When we get to heaven you can walk with Jesus and look like Jesus and be like Jesus, but it depends on how you represent his name here on earth. Those who walk worthy today will walk with Christ tomorrow

I know youve had a lot of information thrown at you tonight, and a lot of application thrown at you but if you remember one thing tonight just listen to this:

Lets take our Christianity seriously. Jesus took it so seriously that he died for you. Lets take it seriously enough that we truly live to glorify Him.