Asleep

Revelation: Our Hope Revealed • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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In the fifth letter to the churches found in Revelation, the word being presented throughout the letter is to awaken. Jesus calls out the people of the church from falling asleep in their faith. When faithfulness becomes nothing more than the mere checking off of deeds, the faith has become dead and is worth nothing.

Notes

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Sardis

Ephesus had lost their first love - focus on Christ

Smyrna - Persecution was coming - Put to the Test

Pergamum - Repent - Syncretism

Thyatira - False Prophets - led astray by the world

The archaeologist Sir William Ramsay said of Sardis that nowhere was there a greater example of the melancholy contrast between past splendor and present decay. Sardis was a city of degeneration.

Seven centuries before the writing of this letter, Sardis was one of the greatest cities in the world. The King of Lydia ruled over his empire in splendor. Sardis stood in the middle of the plain of the valley of the River Hermus. The original site of the city lied on a spur about 1500 feet up the ridge of Mount Tmolus. The citadel of the city was built on this spur which made the city nearly impregnable. As the city grew though, the spur could not contain its growth so it expanded to the plateau below. The word Sardis in Greek is a plural noun, which fit for there were two cities.

According to legend, the lower portion of the town of Sardis was divided by the River Pactolus which was teaming with gold. This brought great wealth to the city. As a result of the amassed wealth of the city and the providence for which it afforded them, Croesus, the king of Sardis, entered into a war with Cyrus of Persia. To attack Cyrus’ army, Croesus would have to lead his army across the River Halys. To gain favor, Croesus consulted the oracle of Delphi who told him that if he crosses the river, he would destroy a great empire. Little did he know that the great empire that would meet its fate would be his own.

As the legend goes, after crossing the river, Croesus army did not find victory, but rather were routed by the enemy. Croesus, still arrogant that fate was on his side, knew that all he had to do was retreat to his impregnable citadel and regroup before another attack. Cyrus would make chase and begin the impossible seige on Sardis. After 14 days, Cyrus offered a handsome reward to whoever could find entrance into the city. One man, Hyeroeades, noticed a Sardian soldier drop his helmet off the edge of the battlement. He retrieved the helmet somehow so Hyeroeades knew there must be a means by which to make his way into the city. So he met a team of Persian soldier and found the crack used to retrieve the helmet and when they climbed up the crack, they found the entrance to the city unguarded.

This same circumstance came later in Sardis history. After the Persians were conquered by Alexander the great and the Greeks, the city once again grew in prestige, but after Alexander the Greats death, many tried to take power in Sardis. Once again, the crack in the ridge was used to gain access into the city after a year long seige against Antiochus, and the city fell to its enemies a second time. The city lost the will to stay on watch and to continue to fight.

The Church of Sardis

Revelation 3:1–6 (NIV)

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The church in Sardis is spiritually dead even though it looks alive. Throughout Scripture, the picture of being dead is seen as one who has given themselves over to sin. This picture of being alive but truly being dead would have spoken very clearly to the Sardinians as they have experienced this state often in their history. They were living and breathing but they had lost with will to fight. They were in a state of degeneration.

Sin is the death of the will. When we give ourselves over to sin time and time again, we begin to identify with that sin. We believe that we need that sin and to repent of it is to lose a portion of ourselves. While we hate it, we also love it. We long for its cold embrace because it brings comfort even if that comfort is fleeting and leaves death in its wake.

As a result of sin, the church in Sardis is left lifeless. While they possessed orthodox practices, they had lost the motivation or even the reason for why they did the works that they did.

The church is therefore called to wake up and take watch.

What does it mean to take watch: As Christians, our watch is not on events, the coming age or the movement of the world, our steadfast gaze is to be fixed upon Christ. If we do not, he will pass us like a thief in the night. But if we remain alert and in tune with the Lord, we will walk in perfect step with him. We become so consumed with being in the right place at the right time, but what is more important is to be with the right person in every moment.

Where are you just going through the motions? What is distracting you from keeping your focus on Christ?