Christ's Message to His Church: Sardis Revelation 3:1-6

Christ Addresses the Seven Churches in Revelation

This is our sixth Sunday in our journey through the first several chapters of Revelation. In these chapters, what we see is that Jesus is addressing seven historical churches. To this point, we have seen him address four of these churches.

Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira. As he has addressed these churches, what we have seen are different levels of health. Ephesus was a church known for doctrine, and Jesus commends them for this.

But they were lacking in the most important area of all. They were lacking in the area of love, love for God, and love for the other people in their church. This was a cold church that needed to change.

Then Jesus addressed Smyrna. His address to them was different from Ephesus, in that he offered no criticism. They had stood with Jesus through persecution before, and Jesus commended them for this. And he told them that more persecution was coming, and that by enduring they would receive the crown of life.

Their endurance showed that they were true believers who were heaven-bound. Then Jesus addressed Pergamum. Similar to Ephesus, Jesus had some praise, but also some criticism. This church had endured persecution like Smyrna, for which Jesus praised them, but they tolerated way too much impurity.

Some in the church tied themselves to teachings that promoted using the grace of God as a license to sin. What Jesus told this church is that those committing these egregious sins needed to repent, and those tolerating this sin needed to repent also and deal with the problem.

Then as we saw one week ago, Jesus addressed Thyatira. This church in many ways was a healthy church. They were full of love, full of faith, full of faithful service, and they too endured persecution.

But there was a woman in their midst claiming to be a prophetess, and she had much influence over this church. The problem with Thyatira is that as they were doing all these good things, they did not do the hard thing, the hard thing of dealing with this so-called prophetess and those who were following her.

They were called to repent and change course. Now this leads us to the fifth church that Jesus addresses that we will look at this morning. The fifth church is the church in Sardis. Once again, Jesus has a message that he wants us to hear each of us individually and each of us as a church.

He makes this address in Revelation chapter 3 verses 1 through 6, so this time I encourage you to turn there with me. And if you do not have a Bible, we have the red Bibles in the pews. This sermon is once again titled Christ's Message to His Church, and this edition is Sardis.

And I'm going to begin by reading these verses. Revelation verses 1 through 6. These are the words of the Lord Jesus. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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

The Warning That Some Churches Only Appear Alive

Here's what this text, this sermon is calling each of you to do, and each of us as a church to do. Realize that some churches falsely have the appearance of being alive. Realize that some churches falsely have the appearance of being alive, and we're gonna see one reason why that I will reveal at the end of the text, at the end of this sermon.

As Jesus addresses this fifth church, he addresses them the same way he addresses all the seven churches. In verse 1, in the first half, he says, unto the angel of the church in Sardis, write. He starts off by addressing the angel of the church.

The angel, once again, is not a spirit being sent from heaven. This is the pastor, since the Greek word for angel means messenger. This pastor of the church is to receive the message from Jesus, and then the pastor is then to pass on this message to his church.

The specific church that Jesus is addressing is the church in Sardis. One week ago, we looked at Thyatira. Thyatira was the city in between Pergamum, which we looked at two weeks ago, and the church we're looking at today, Sardis.

So these three towns, these three cities, these three churches were right kind of next to each other. Now, what we saw one week ago is that Thyatira was located in a valley, and this was a bad location for a city in ancient times because it made the city vulnerable to hostile invaders.

Sardis, on the other hand, was not like Thyatira. It was on high ground. It was on an Acropolis, 1 ,500 feet higher than Thyatira. So this city was well protected. This city was located in Asia Minor, in modern-day Turkey.

It is still around today, but goes by a different name, Sart. In 1200 BC, Sardis was the capital of the Lydian Kingdom. The primary industry in this town was harvesting wood, and they would make clothing from this wood.

A couple of interesting facts about Sardis. This city had a major earthquake in AD 17, that wiped it out completely. So the impressive structures that are still there today, that people can go view, were built after this earthquake.

One other interesting fact about Sardis concerns a significant member from the church there. His name was Melito, and he lived in the 2nd century. Melito wrote the first commentary on the book of Revelation.

He would have been able to do that, because this church not only received this specific address to this church, but they also received the entire book of Revelation. In each of the four churches we have looked at thus far, Jesus has said something concerning himself.

In each case, what he said concerning himself had relevance to the specific church that he was addressing. Here Jesus keeps it very brief. He says in the second half of verse 1 here, the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

So what are the seven spirits that Jesus has a hold of? We already saw Jesus mention the seven spirits in chapter 1 in verse 4. There we saw Jesus describe that the message of Revelation that he was passing on to the seven churches was coming from the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

When describing the Holy Spirit, he called the spirit the seven spirits. This is not to say that there are seven different spirits that make up the Holy Spirit. Seven in ancient Hebrew meant completion.

It meant that the Holy Spirit was complete in his nature and his works. Once again, as with the other churches, this statement has relevance in his message to the church in Sarnas as we will see. In the introduction to this church in verse 1, Jesus also describes that he has the seven stars.

What we learn in chapter 1 verse 20 is that the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches that Jesus addresses. Once again, the angels are the seven pastors of the respective churches. In chapter 1 verse 20, Jesus says that he has these seven stars in his right hand.

What this means is that he has authority over them. They are his messengers. As these pastors, as these messengers, speak, they speak on behalf of Jesus to the church and the church must listen to them.

Christ’s Omniscient Evaluation of Sardis

Now we get to the specific message that Jesus has for this church. Let's focus on the second half of verse 1 to start here. He says, I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

What we see here is that once again, Jesus gets to the specific evaluation. He always starts with the same words. The words are, I know. That's significant. It's significant because he knows exactly what is going on at this church.

So as he offers an evaluation, no one can ever question him and say, oh, no, no, no. You're missing something here. He's not missing it. He knows everything that is going on at this church.