If you’ve been following along, we’re on week five of our seven week series about the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation. This week, we look at the letter to the church of Sardis. You can catch up with weeks one through four here, here, here, and here. The book of Revelation was written by the apostle John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. It includes Christ’s warnings to the seven churches as well as prophetic visions of the last days when God will restore the created order to the world and bind Satan for good. As we’ve said before, it is difficult to interpret prophecy because some things are meant to be taken literally and some things are meant to be taken figuratively. Without an authoritative statement by God on which is which, we need to exercise caution and use discernment when we’re trying to study prophetic texts.
The seven churches of Revelation are not a list of all the churches in existence at the time of John, nor are they a list of all the churches in existence at the end of time. They appear to be symbolic. These are actual churches that underwent actual events and had an actual cultural setting, but the letters written to them seem to also provide a framework of correction to various attitudes and mindsets present in the last days among all churches. By studying the letters to the churches, we can keep our hearts in order before God and insure that we are finishing our race as strongly as we can.
Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. It served as one of the important cities of the Persian empire, was the seat of a Seleucid satrap, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman empire, and later served as the metropolis of the province of Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine times. Sardis is located in the middle of the Hermus Valley at the food of Mount Tmolus about 2.5 miles south of the Hermus. It’s 32 miles from Pergamum and 27 miles from Philadelphia. Sardis was important because of its military strength. Located as it was, it was thought to be impregnable; however, a lack of watchfulness resulted in its capture more than once. Sardis was located on an important highway leading from the interior region of modern day Turkey to the Aegean coast. As such it had huge economic importance. Likewise, the city of Sardis commanded the wide, fertile plain of the Hermus, making it important agriculturally as well.
Legend says that the city of Sardis was founded by the Heraclides, the sons of Hercules. The earliest reference to Sardis is in The Persians of Aeschylus from 472 BC where it was referred to by the ancient name Hyde. Under the emperor Tiberius, Sardis was destroyed by an earthquake in 17 AD. It was rebuilt at the emperor’s expense and exempted from paying taxes for five years in order to recover; however, Sardis never regained its previous importance. Sardis was ultimately destroyed in 1402. A small village known as Sart is located among the ruins of the ancient city.
Sardis became famous for it’s unparalleled ability to purify gold and silver. Its coins were trusted throughout the known world for their purity. It was famed as the place where modern currency was invented. Gold found in the Pactolus river made the city wealthy. There were gold and silver mines in the surrounding region as well. Sardis made lavish use of semiprecious stones such as fire opal and banded agate and was known for its jewelry. It was also noted for its fruits and wools. Sardis boasted a temple to the pagan goddess Cybele whose worship was very similar to Diana/Artemis of Ephesus. Sardis was the first area to be converted by the preaching of the apostle John. There are no known Christians in the village of Sart today.
Let’s take a look at the letter to the church of Sardis:
“These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.”
Revelation 3:1a
As we’ve seen in past letters, Jesus always addresses the church in a way that has meaning for what they are dealing with or what He is going to correct them on. To the church of Ephesus (the educated church), he was “him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” To the church of Smyrna (the suffering church), he was “him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.” To the church of Pergamum (the compromising church), he was “him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.” To the church of Thyatira (the tolerant church) he was “the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” Now we see that his greeting to Sardis is similar to that of the church of Ephesus. The seven stars are the seven churches of Revelation, but was are the seven spirits of God (in some translations, the sevenfold Spirit of God)?
Isaiah 11:2 gives us a possible clue. It says: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him–the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.” So it looks as if these are the seven ministries of the Holy Spirit. Seven, of course, represents completion and perfection. We have:
- The Spirit of the Lord
- The Spirit of wisdom
- The Spirit of understanding
- The Spirit of counsel
- The Spirit of might
- The Spirit of the knowledge of the Lord
- The Spirit of the fear of the Lord
Why would Jesus mention the sevenfold spirit in his letter to Sardis? Because Sardis is the “dead church.” It’s the church who makes a good start, but never fully completes things. It’s a church that looks good on the outside, but lacks the vitality of the Holy Spirit on the inside. In short, the church of Sardis was all about image and not about substance.
“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.”
Revelation 3:1b-2
It seems that the church of Sardis had some type of deeds. Whatever they were doing, it had given them a good reputation in the surrounding area. They had a reputation of being alive because of their works, but Jesus saw them as spiritually dead. It seems that what they had was works of the flesh rather than works of the Spirit, but there was hope. Not everything was dead, and so Jesus admonished them to strengthen those things that remained alive and were about to die. They could fan the embers back into flames if they woke up and took things seriously. Jesus said that their deeds were unfinished. They had a good start, but they hadn’t brought it to completion in the sight of 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 of 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.”
Revelation 3:3-6
Jesus calls on the church of Sardis to remember the pure gospel that was taught to them, to hold fast to it and repent. The works they are doing may be good works, but they are being done for the wrong reasons. They may have a good reputation with the world around them, but their reputation before God is what matters most. Jesus’ call to them to wake up before he comes like a thief in the night would have reminded the church of Sardis of some of that cities most stunning defeats. If you recall, Sardis was located in a strong military position. It was thought to be impregnable. However, a lack of watchfulness resulted in its capture on more than one occasion. In 219 BC and again in 549 BC, Sardis was captured at night by an army that scaled the walls while the city slept. Jesus is reminding them that their lack of watchfulness will result in defeat.
Again, all hope is not lost. There are members of the church who are holding tight to God’s truth and are doing works with the right motivation. They are still clothed in purity and righteousness. Sardians as a whole recognized the significance of white clothing because in order to enter the presence of their pagan goddess, Cybele, they had to dress in white robes. Jesus is telling them that as the only true God, He will clothe them in the white robes of purity if they will hold fast to the gospel and rise to maturity in Him.
Jesus reminds them of His words in Matthew 7: 21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” The works of Sardis may be giving them a good reputation. These works may seem to suggest that they have are alive and bearing good fruit. They may be casing out demons, prophesying, and performing miracles, but Jesus is saying that they have lost relationship with Him. It is relationship with Jesus that is of the utmost importance. Without relationship, works are meaningless.
CORPORATE APPLICATION
With churches so focused on outreach and ministry opportunities, it’s easy to get caught up in the things we are “doing” as a church. It’s easy to associate our identity with our works and to focus on those as the “fruit.” The letter to the church of Sardis reminds us that unless we are doing those works out of an outpouring of relationship with God and through the power of His Spirit, we are doing them incompletely. It isn’t about our reputation with the world around us, with our community, or even with other churches. It’s about our reputation with God.
We need to be sure that we have the right motivation for what we are doing. We need to be sure that our services are focused on the Spirit, on the gospel, and on relationship rather than on works of the flesh that look good. What we start, we need to complete. It isn’t enough to have a superficial Christianity in our services. We can’t just go about doing good and converting people. We have to be committed to maturity in God. We need to complete the work God has given us to do. That kind of discipleship requires each of us to look to our individual relationships with God in order to pour that relationship into others.
INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION
It’s very easy for me to look at the things I do as a checklist of sorts and to evaluate my spirituality based on those things. It’s easy to say, “Well, I read my Bible every day. I pray. I go to church. I do such and such. Therefore, I am doing well in my Christian walk.” But the truth is that God never looks at outward things. God isn’t as concerned with my doing as He is with my being. I can follow a check list of good deeds all I want to, but if I’ve neglected right relationship with God, then I am spiritually dead.
That’s a hard truth. It’s a scary truth because if we only ever look at what we do, we may end up in the group that Jesus tells, “depart from me, you evildoers, for I never knew you.” I can see the truth of this when I consider some of my friends who are atheist or pagan. They do good things. They may give to the poor. They may do random acts of kindness to strangers. They believe in “being a good person,” but they have absolutely no relationship with God whatsoever. The motivation for their works is just to make the world better. They don’t have any kind of higher purpose.
God calls me to more. God calls me to love Him so deeply and so closely that I pour my heart out to Him and then allow Him to pour His heart into me. That’s the key. That’s the core of what He calls me to be. And when I do this, His love so fills me that it overflows into the places I go, the people I encounter, and the things I do. Will I do good works? Absolutely! But not in my own power. I will do them because I can’t help but allow God to flow out of me when I am filled to the max by His love and grace. It’s important that I look less at the checklist of things that I’m doing and more at how much I time I am spending with God. It’s more important that I look at how much I am being filled by Him, rather than what I am doing with my day. If my heart is focused on relationship, the rest will fall into place as it should.
A Beautiful Mess 