LETTER TO A DEAD CHURCH

Revelation 3:1-6

The original city of Sardis was built atop Mount Tomulus, a sharp peak that overlooks the joining of the Hermus and the Pactolus River. By the first century A.D., the city had grown down both sides of the mountain and had become a trading center.

There was a large Jewish population in Sardis. This may have contributed to the early growth of the church since this would have provided a ready group who were already familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures.

There is a mall in the city. In the shops, there is evidence of both Jewish as well as Christian shops. One shop has a menorah on the inside of the shop while another has a cross on the outside of the shop. The shop owners made it clear that they stood for God. They announced it to the world.

But that is not all. They also took pagan articles and scratched off the pagan markings and placed crosses over them. It was as if they were going to redeem for the Lord that which had been previously given over to paganism.

It is to this church that Jesus now turns His attention.

Jesus describes Himself in a twofold way to this church. Both of these aspects are found back in Revelation 1 and they are both found in the Old Testament.

1. He who has the seven Spirits of God... (Revelation 3:1).

2. He who has... the seven stars... (Revelation 3:1).

The church looked alive. It did all of the things we normally associate with a living church. They had regular church meetings. The collected an offering. They sang hymns. They listened to the preaching of a sermon.

They had a reputation for being alive. They did all of the outward things a church is thought to do. These things do not guarantee a living church. It is like a stuffed animal. It may look very nice, but it is dead.

Sardis was a dead church. It was full of people who were spiritually dead. It was full of unbelievers.

Part of the problem at Sardis was not only that it was dead, but that it did not look dead. The members there had learned to "play the game" so that they could appear to be alive.

Most of us take some concern over what others think of us. That isn’t necessarily a good thing. When it takes place within the church, it can be tragic. It is like the fellow who goes to his doctor and his doctor asks, "How are you?" The patient replies, "I’m fine," even though he is in agonizing pain. Why does he do such a thing? Because he doesn’t want his doctor to think badly of him.

It is interesting to note that Sardis is not said to be under any sort of attack or persecution. There is a reason for this. The world never persecutes a dead church. Satan doesn’t mind having a church like this on every street corner. This kind of church poses no threat to Satan or to his world system. He likes to have people vaccinated with a little religion -- it keeps them from catching the real thing.

To fully appreciate this passage, you have to know something about the history of the city of Sardis. This city had once been the home of Croesus, the king of Lydia. You might know him as Midas. Later legend had it that everything Midas touched turned to gold. It was a byword in the ancient world to refer to someone as being "as rich as Croesus."

Herodotus tells the story of the Persian attack against the kingdom of Croesus. The attack came from Cyrus the Great, king of the Medes and the Persians. As the Persians invaded his land, Croesus set up his defenses atop the fortress at Sardis. The defensive walls atop the steep cliff was considered virtually impregnable. The Persians set up their siege, but could do nothing more.

Then one day a Persian happened to notice that a Lydian soldier had dropped his helmet off the wall and it went bouncing down the mountain. Thinking that no one was looking, the Lydian soldier climbed down the wall and made his way down the steep cliff to retrieve his helmet and then went back up the same way. What had previously been invisible to the Persians now became apparent -- there was a narrow and virtually unknown path leading up to the Lydian fortifications. On the following night, a squad of Persians took the same route up the mountain, climbing over the city walls to open the gates of the besieged city while the guards slept at their posts.

In light of this story, the words of Jesus take on a new light. He tells the people of Sardis to wake up because He is going to come as a thief.

What were these things that were about to die? I think it might be a reference to the influence of those few remaining believers within the church. In verse 4 we shall see that there were still a few believers left in Sardis. Their influence was greatly diminished. They were only hanging on by their fingernails, but they were hanging on.

1. Remember what you have received and heard: The people of Sardis had not so much turned their back upon the truth as much as they had merely forgotten. They had allowed other things to capture their attention until they had lost sight of the gospel. It was a case of the immediate capturing the attention of the important.
2. Keep it: They are to guard and to keep the truth of the gospel. How do you do that? By going back day after day to sit in the shadow of the cross. By constantly remembering the sacrifice that was made on our behalf.
3. Repent: What is repentance? It involves a change of mind (this is the strict definition of the word), but it is more than a mere mental assent. It also involves a change of attitude. It involves turning from your own agenda to turn toward God.

All of these passages point to the same thing. They point to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the judgment He shall bring at that time. Notice this last passage also states that Jesus is coming as a thief. But this coming is certainly not going to be quiet or in secret. To the contrary, it arrives with a roar and with intense heat.

There is a reason I point this out. It is because of a popular teaching among many churches that says when Jesus returns, it will be to secretly snatch believers away. This reference to His "coming like a thief" has been taken to mean that His coming will go unnoticed. This is not the case. The fact that He is coming like a thief means that His coming will be unexpected in the world.

You might be inclined to ask, "Why didn’t they change churches? Why didn’t they leave and go to the Baptist church down the street?" The answer is that this was the only church in town. You could either meet with the church or else you could stay home. Jesus commends those who have remained.

They had not soiled their garments -- that is, they had not allowed the sinful spirit of the church to affect their own character.

In addition to the textile manufacturing, there was a great gymnasium in the city of Sardis. The Greeks believed the ultimate beauty was the human body, so they practiced their exercises in the nude.

This gymnasium was also the place of higher education. It was in the gymnasium that the Greeks passed to others their world view. The Greeks believed that man is the center of the universe. Christianity, by contrast, held that God is the center of the universe.

I have been to the gymnasium of Sardis. In a corner of that gymnasium has been found the remains of the largest synagogue ever to be found. The bema faces Jerusalem and there are 4 stones that stand at the front and some chief seats. There is a table there with two eagles and a lion on either side. What are these symbols doing in a synagogue and what is a synagogue doing in a gymnasium?

We do not know. It could be that the symbols that once stood for paganism were used by the Jews as symbols for God. If that is true, then it tells me that these Jews were seeking to redeem the city. Or were these Jewish people so comfortable with paganism that such proximity did not matter?

If you go along the bank of the Pactolus River, you find the most ancient ruins of Sardis. There is an open air shrine to Ashera. She brought fertility through sexual activities. The Greeks built a temple to Artemis here. The columns of this temple stand more than 55 feet high. In the corner of this temple there is a little church. To get into the door of the church, you have to walk between the columns of the temple.

The same question we have of the synagogue must also be asked of the church. Were they seeking to redeem their culture, or was it that they had become comfortable with the surrounding paganism?

I do not know. But I do not that God has called us to be in the world yet not of the world. We ought to be placing our churches at the very center of the place that was previously given over to paganism. But in doing so, there is a warning. It is that we do not let that paganism affect our Christian life.

This passage has been addressed to a church that has been infected with a certain deadness. Nothing seems more hopeless than death. But we worship One who is able to raise the dead. He is able to raise those who are physically dead, He is able to raise those who are spiritually dead and He is able to raise dead churches. In light of such possibilities, a promise is given. It is a promise to the one who overcomes.

Each of the seven letters in Revelation 2-3 close with a promise to the one who overcomes. This is a promise given to the one who repents and who believes the gospel. John has said elsewhere that whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith (1 John 5:4). The one who overcomes in such a way is given three promises.

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