To the Church of Sardis

Revelation 3:1-6

Immanuel – 12/19/21

Sardis is the fifth church out of the seven. Up to this point its situation is the most desperate.

The church in Ephesus had a strong commitment to doctrine, but they had forgotten to love one another. Smyrna faced persecutions, but they faithfully held on. Pergamum faced even worse persecutions, and they began to compromise the faith. Thyatira increasingly loved and served one another and their community, but their weak theology had given access to wolves.

So far, Christ has something encouraging to say about each one of these churches. The church in Sardis is another story. Sardis’ works and doctrine have atrophied so dangerously that they are slipping away. These final moments of theirs are filled with delusions of life, of vigor, of vibrancy; but they are not real. They are the mirages of the unconscious, the dreams of the dying.

Even still, there is a flickering hope left in Smyrna. It is the hope of a last-minute miracle, a hope like a defibrillator. Because there they lie, heart barely beating, eyes hardly seeing, and Christ ready to do what He does best: resurrection.

Purpose

What does a dying church look like?

What is the hope of a dying church?

4 Things that the message to Sardis teaches us.

Read Revelation 3:1-6

“To the pastor of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.’” Once more, Jesus identifies Himself with the very things that the church desperately needs.

Let us remember what the seven spirits of God and the seven stars symbolize. Of the seven stars, Jesus said:

“The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” -Revelation 1:20

I have shown numerous times that Jesus is not talking about heavenly beings called angels. The Greek word for angel is “messenger.” These are the seven messengers of the seven churches. Also, we saw at the opening of Revelation that this book is a message from Jesus to the churches, meant to be read aloud and listened to, and then taken into the heart for a blessing.

That is what happens in a church. The pastor receives the word of God, proclaims it, the congregation listens, and it is meant to impact the heart. The seven stars that Jesus holds are therefore the seven pastors of these seven churches.

We have also seen the seven spirits of God in chapter 1.

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, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

-Revelation 1:4-5

The 7 Spirits of God

Revelation is given to the church by each member of the Trinity: from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – as we see in these verses. But the only member of the Trinity explicitly named in this verse is Jesus Christ. The other two are given symbolic names first used in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit is here called the seven spirits who are before the throne.

Why is the one Holy Spirit called the seven spirits? Because of the symbolic meaning of the number seven in Scripture; and especially in Revelation where we have already seen seven churches, seven pastors, the seven spirits, and we will go on to see many more sevens. Seven is symbolic of completion, perfection, fullness.

Why is seven applied to the Holy Spirit? Because the Spirit completes the work that the Father has begun and that Jesus gave His life for.

The Holy Spirit is the One that sanctifies the saints. Here’s what I mean: when we believed in Jesus and were justified, the Father declared us righteous/holy. The Holy Spirit then takes that declaration and makes it become true in us. He is making us more and more righteous, more and more holy – like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). Everyday, the Spirit is saving us, more completely, more truly. It is the process of sanctification.

In Revelation 3:1, when Jesus says that He has the seven stars and the seven spirits, He is saying that He is the One who possesses them. He is the One with authority over them. For the seven pastors of the seven churches, the meaning there is obvious. Pastors are shepherds, but Jesus is the Over Shepherd. Even this message to the church of Sardis is Jesus exercising His authority over the seven stars.

But in what way does Jesus exercise authority over the Holy Spirit? Are they not equal? Absolutely, they are equal in their worth and divine essence, but they are different persons with distinct roles. There is a hierarchy in the Godhead, with the Father at the top. The Son submits to the Father, and the Spirit submits Himself to both Father and Son.

Therefore, Jesus exercises a loving authority over the Spirit, and it is the Spirit’s absolute joy to submit to the Son.

Here is a Scriptural example of how these roles work out between Son and Spirit. Jesus said:

“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.”

-John 15:26

The Spirit proceeds from the Father, but it is the Son who sends the Spirit. If the Holy Spirit resides within you, and has brought your dead heart to life, then it is because the Son has sent the Spirit to do it. Jesus sends the Spirit. This is just one example of how the Spirit submits to the Son, but it is especially pertinent for the message to Sardis, as we will see.

Look what is going on in the church of Sardis:

Read vs 1b

Alive but Dead

From the outside, everything looks to be thriving in Sardis. It is a church with a strong reputation and, presumably, its gatherings are quite full. It is even possible to deduce that the church was looked upon favorably by the community in which they were set. It is a good thing for a community to enjoy the presence of a faithful church. But Sardis was liked for all the wrong reasons.

Why? Because Jesus mentions nothing about persecution, and because of Caesar worship, every faithful church of that era was experiencing some measure of persecution.

As Paul said to Timothy, pastor of the church in Ephesus:

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

-2 Timothy 3:12-13

Do you see the link between persecution and false teachers? Again, in Sardis, Jesus says nothing about resisting false teaching, which was the struggle of nearly every other church.

It would seem that the church of Sardis did not face the twin struggles of persecution and infiltration because they had completely compromised the gospel. And when the gospel is compromised, all that remains is the curse of death.

Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

-Galatians 1:8-9

Paul’s language is much stronger than how the English reads. He is essentially saying, “If anyone preaches a different gospel, let them be damned.” A different gospel had taken root in Sardis. Paul would say they are damned. Jesus says they are dead. It means the same.

America is cursed by the same sort of churches: enormous churches, multiple campuses, engaging pastors, packed with people, all kinds of charity work, incredibly talented and dynamic music, lots of energy. It looks in every way that the church is alive. But the truth is that they are dead. We know they are dead because of the corrupted gospel around which all else is centered.

One of these churches is Elevation Church in South Carolina. I use this church as an example because of their wild popularity. You hear their music on K-Love. Elevation Church is attended in-person or virtually by 91,000 people every week. Their pastor – Steven Furtick – has 6.3 million Facebook followers.

And on October 24th of this year, to a roaring applause, Steven Furtick said this:

“Following Jesus doesn’t change you into something else, it reveals who you’ve been all along. What would it be like to see the you that God sees…”

Your authentic self is in there waiting to be released; a divine spark that just needs to be freed. The purpose of God is just to reveal your best possible self; the person you have been all along.

Such a public statement needs a public rebuke. That is Gnosticism. That is the religion of secularism in Christian wrapping paper. That is a different gospel. That is a damnable heresy.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. -2 Corinthians 5:17

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. -Galatians 6:15 (NIV)

Jesus absolutely does change us into something else. We were dead in our trespasses, children of wrath, deserving of eternal destruction. Not one of us did good. But Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, rips out our dead heart of stone and gives us a living and beating heart. He transforms our self-serving thoughts and works, and reorients all that we are unto God. From children of wrath to children of God. We were the walking dead. In Christ we are the eternally living.

Any church or pastor, no matter how famous and dynamic – or any angel from heaven – if they say otherwise, let them be damned!

Such was the condition in Sardis. They teetered on the edge of Hell and their hands had failed them.

Read vs 2

Notice the indictment of the Sardinian church. Their works were incomplete or unfinished. The King James Version says the works were imperfect. Based on the context, I understand this to mean two things.

There was still more work that needed to be done and they weren’t doing it.

The works that had been done, which were many, were done imperfectly. Meaning, their works were done to uphold the reputation of the church rather than glorify the Lord of the church.

Everything that the church does, all our service, all our ministries, all our acts of love; it is meant to point others towards reconciliation with God and what it means to be recreated by God. In other words, the works of the church point to recreation and are the means by which God recreates: first in human hearts, and as it spreads, then in societies. Recreation is another way to talk about the advancing kingdom of God.

For instance, if I (or a church) use some natural disaster purely as an opportunity to post pictures of myself dirty and working on social media, then I am just virtue signaling. It’s disgusting. My works are imperfect because they are only serving to boost my reputation. I want everybody to see how good I am.

But, if we go into the disaster aiming to bring recreation, then our works will honor God and be perfect. We genuinely want to see destroyed homes recreated; but we want to see more: we want to see recreated hearts. We want people to see the love of Jesus through our service. We want them to know what it is to be called a child of God. We want them to enter into a community of believers pursuing Christ. We want God to use us – as new creations – for purposes of recreation.

This is what Peter spoke about:

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and give glory to God on the day of visitation. -1 Peter 2:12

Or how about Jesus:

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” -Matthew 5:16

And as these good works, coupled with a faithful gospel, go out into all the world, a kingdom advances, heaven and earth draw a little closer; the old passes away and the new comes: a new creation.

Such is the purpose of the church. Such is the result of works that glorify Christ. Such works were not found in Sardis.

Now we can clearly see that the church of Sardis can be classified as a nominal church. The majority of the church was dead and dying, dabbling in heresy, filled with spiritual laziness, consumed with their own reputation. They didn’t know anything about the cost of discipleship. But they were nice. And their innocuous Christianity secured a life that was comfortable. Satan had little to worry about in Sardis.

In verse 3 Jesus says that if the church in Sardis did not repent, He would come like a thief, taking from them the little that they had. It’s much like the ending of Jesus’ parable of the talents.

“For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

-Matthew 25:29-30

It was a very serious situation in Sardis, with eternal consequences. But while they lay on a deathbed, with heart barely beating and eyes hardly seeing, there was yet hope: as I pray there is hope for places like Elevation Church and their pastor. They needed to wake up. Before it was too late, what little strength was left needed to get stronger.

Read vs 3-4a

The Faithful Few

You see in verse four that Sardis still has a few faithful followers of Christ; ones that love His words and faithfully do His works. Likely, the faithful few were ashamed of the state of their church. Likely they courageously stuck around to work from the inside, hoping and praying for their church to repent and revive.

How many today feel a slight offense and they are off to another church? Over a mild disagreement, people are ready to head out the door. How quickly we treat our church family, the Bride of Christ, like competing supermarkets. Can’t find what you like, and you drive down the street to the next one. What a plague on the American Church!

How absolutely courageous were those faithful few in Sardis! Sure, they didn’t have the church options like we have today, but even still, they hung on as they watched all that was beautiful crumble around them. And in spite of all of that, they did not become bitter or contentious, they stayed faithful to Jesus.

And consider for a moment the first effect when those faithful few heard Christ’s message to the church. We see it all over the Bible: those that are faithful will fall on their knees and cry out to God for repentance – like Daniel, like Ezra, like Moses – like so many more who stood in the gap and cried out to God on behalf of their people. They were not in deed of repentance, but they devoted themselves to pray for those who were.

And when such prayers were prayed, the defibrillator fell from heaven. Where there was death, the Holy Spirit breathed life. How much more is this possible in the new covenant of Christ, who sends not His Holy Spirit for a few more years of life, but to indwell and secure abounding life eternally.

John the Baptist’s ministry was entirely focused on leading the Jews towards repentance, to prepare them for the Messiah. Of the Messiah, the Baptizer said:

For He whom God has sent utters the words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure. -John 3:34

And to all those dying of thirst, Jesus said:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures have said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit. -John 7:37-39

After a Sunday service less than ten years ago, a few faithful women stood together in the Fellowship Hall of Immanuel, weeping. There were no more children to teach. Attendance was dismal. Decades of division, discouragement, gossip, mistrust, and other factors had this church on her deathbed. The reasons were different than they were for Sardis, but the situation was just as dire. The elders floated the idea of closing the doors of Immanuel forever.

But those faithful women, praying through their tears, asked God for a miracle, pleading that by the power of the Holy Spirit this church would come once again to life.

What an answer those prayers have received! Immanuel realized her sin and held a corporate day of repentance. A zeal for the word of God and gospel living was rekindled. God called more people to join this church family; I am one of them, so are most of you. There is activity in all kinds of places that not too long ago had lain lifeless. A sense of excitement and love and passion for Christ bounce off these walls. And in one week we will listen to a whole choir of children singing from this stage.

There is a lot more work to do at Immanuel, and a lot more life to be experienced, but praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Christ who died that we might have life! Praise the Spirit for taking what was dead and flooding us with rivers of living water!

Such is the hope of the nominal church/the desert church: rivers of living water/the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that breathes life into dusty lungs, that turns a flickering flame into a supernova, that turns a barren wasteland into a recreated paradise. And it is the Holy Spirit that Christ gives without measure.

Jesus is the great resurrector, the re-creator! He makes all things new, not by destroying them, but by flooding wastelands with rivers of living water. And this recreation is indeed how the book of Revelation will close.

This is what Sardis was in desperate need of: the One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. He has the power to take dying stars and make them shine like the Son. For this very purpose He sends the Spirit.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. -2 Corinthians 3:18

Clothed in Christ

Just as we saw Jesus shinning with the power of the mid-day sun back in Revelation 1:16, so will the Spirit give to us such brilliance of Jesus. We will be clothed not in the white of cotton robes, but in the brilliant, blazing white of an unfading supernova! Indeed, this is Christ’s promise to us.

Read vs 4b-5

These white robes are symbolic of worthiness, of righteousness, of holiness. It is not a righteousness or holiness of our own. We are not worthy, we have not earned anything except shame and wrath. So Jesus faced shame and wrath on the cross on our behalf. He faced it so we do not have to. If we believe that, if we trust in that with our lives, then He gives to us His own righteousness; or, He clothes us in His own robes of white.

For our sake [the Father] made [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. -2 Corinthians 5:21

What a glorious grace! The righteousness of God is given to us to such a degree that Paul says, “we might become the righteousness of God.” This is the worthiness and the righteousness and the holiness of Jesus; and it is given to us! Not because we have deserved it, or that there was some special divine spark within us; but purely because the God of all mercy – Father, Son, and Spirit – chose to do this and then did it!

Suddenly, the image of white robes seems dull in comparison. We who are clothed in Christ are clothed in such brilliance that a supernova looks dim.

Some see in verse 5 an evidence that people can lose their salvation. Once their names were written in the book of life, but because they have not overcome the world, their names get erased. No! That completely misses the point of the verse. The point is that the names will never be erased! The names in the Book of Life are the names of the overcomers.

For to the church in Smyrna Jesus said:

“The one who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.”

-Revelation 2:11

Again, the names in the Book of Life are the names of the overcomers, who will not taste the second death. The point is that nothing and no one will blot them out from that book! Once a name is recorded in that book, it is eternally secured. Nothing in all creation can separate that person from the love of God. Theirs are robes of white forever. Thiers is life eternally.

And Jesus will stand before the Father on the Last Day and say, “This one is mine.” He will speak your name before the Father and call you His own. And the Father will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

This promise is the converse of what Jesus once said:

“For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father and with the holy angels.” -Mark 8:38

There are four things I want you to remember from Sardis.

He who has the seven spirits of God has the power to take what is dead, and make it come alive. He has the power of resurrection/recreation.

Christ sees into this church and He knows who is dead, who is dying, and who is thriving. Repent and receive the Spirit!

The self-righteous, those who live for reputation, those who cannot be seen as weak or sinful or different, those who want the world to love them; they will not find their names written in the book of life.

Those who are unashamed lovers of Christ, who are passionate for His word, who worship Jesus with their works, they are the overcomers. Jesus will proudly and joyfully proclaim their names before the Father in Heaven!

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”