Sardis: Alive But Dead
How to revive a dying church
Introduction
3 “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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The City of Sardis
Sardis was the story of a city famed for wealth and power that lost both. Among its features was a necropolis known as “the city of a thousand hills,” so named because of the burial grounds that marked its skyline. Jesus picks up on this history in rebuking the church of Sardis in Revelation 3:1: “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” Just as Sardis’s famous cemetery had a thousand hills, Jesus reminds us that “a church can have a thousand (or more) members and still be as dead as the inhabitants of a cemetery.”
Jesus’ Commendation to Sardis
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. 2
Jesus’ Command to Sardis
2 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. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.
1. Wake up.
14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
2. Strengthen What Remains.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
3. Remember what you have received and what you have heard.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
4. Keep it.
62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God
5. Repent.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
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.
Jesus’ Commitment to Sardis
4 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. 5 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.
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
Conclusion
6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’