“To the Angel of the church in Sardis write…” (Rev. 3:1a)
Sardis is the same city as the modern-day city of Sart. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia and was a city of great wealth and fame.
Sardis was filled with sophisticated paganism. It stood about thirty miles south-east of Thyatira, and was the home of Croesus. It stood at the crossing of Roman roads, in a plain watered by the River Pactolus. It was, according to Pliny, the place where the dyeing of wool was discovered. It was also the seat of the licentious worship of Cybele. The ruins of the temple are still there. It was called by some “the city of Death”, and was known as a city of softness and luxury, of apathy and immorality.
“These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” (Rev. 3:1b)
Rev. 1:20 tells us that the seven stars are the angels to the seven churches: “The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” (Rev 1:20 NKJV). In other words, Jesus is reminding us that He controls the angels! The message we receive comes directly from Him! Directly from God! We need to sit up and pay attention!
And what of commendations? There are none. God goes immediately to the heart of the problem: “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” (Rev. 3:1c).
It is interesting to note that there is no mention of persecution in the letter to the church of Sardis. We can assume from this that early Christians coexisted peacefully with the Jewish community and the city establishment. They were not accustomed to opposition, and as is the case wherever the church lives in peace, Christians tended to grow comfortable in their relationship with the world. Their spiritual state prevented them from realizing that Jesus’ power was available to them!
Does any of this sound familiar?
It is a perfect description of the Western church, friends! We are not accustomed to opposition, we live in peace with our non-Christian neighbours, and we are comfortable with our relationship with the world! So comfortable in fact, that it becomes harder and harder to believe that there is more to being a Follower of Christ than having simply accepted Jesus into our hearts! But there is more! Oh, so much more!
So, is there a consequence to this problem? Always! “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember what you have received and heard; obey it and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come as a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” (Rev. 3:2,3)
Friends, the consequence is this: If we don’t break out of our comfort zone, if we don’t come alive, if we don’t seek God to His fullest, then what remains of God in us will die! We need to continually seek Him, seek His face, seek His power and His voice! Otherwise, we, too, will grow too comfortable with our relationship with the world, and we will risk losing all that we have been given. We risk not being ready when Jesus returns!
But not everyone in Sardis had fallen away: “Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.” (Rev 3:4)
God always preserves a remnant people! And what is promised to them?
“They will walk with Me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” (Rev. 3:4)
Those who continually seek after God’s face and a closer relationship with Him are promised that they will be dressed in white, a reference to the book of Isaiah:
“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.‘” (Isa 1:18 NKJV); and “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness…“ (Isa 61:10 NKJV)
To be dressed in white means we are forgiven! Our sin is removed from us! We are covered in the robe of Christ’s righteousness!
But perhaps the most beautiful part of this promise is this: “They will walk with Me…” (Rev. 3:4)
Friends, there is no greater honour to be sought than to walk and talk with God! And that gift is ours. All we have to do is seek it!
And what about those who turn back to God? “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and His angels.” (Rev. 3:5)
Now I think that’s a promise worth working towards, don’t you?
Friends, the letter to the church of Sardis should shake us up! It should light a fire in our hearts to want to seek Him more and more! For when we do, we will truly walk with God, covered in His Robe of Righteousness!
Join us next week for Studies on the Seven Churches of Revelation, Part 7: To the Church in Philadelphia.
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries.
* Taken from commentary given in The Archaeological Study Bible, New International Version, Copyright ©
2005 by the Zondervan Corporation, pages 2050.
(To access the entire “Studies on the Seven Churches of Revelation” mini-series, please click here.)