Revelation 3: 1-6 Message to Sardis

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and 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.’ This is a warning. A church is in danger of death: when it begins to worship its own past or history, its reputation or name, or the names in the church, when it is more concerned with forms than with function and life, when it is more concerned with numbers and noses than with the spiritual quality of life it is producing in its people, when it is more involved with management than with ministry or with the physical over the spiritual. Interestingly, most churches do not die in one fell swoop. They die gradually. Almost all liberal churches today started as evangelical churches. Churches die by degree. It is rather startling to realize that there can be such a contrast between what people say about a church and what Jesus might say about the same church. This truth is also relevant to every individual Christian. Friends may think that we are spiritually alive by what they see us do, but it is possible for us to be spiritually dead in the eyes of the Lord, no matter what others say. Here is a good lesson: don’t be too quick to judge outward appearances or performance. The important questions deal with the inward man, the realm of the unseen, the heart of the individual. Are we really in fellowship with the Lord in the innermost recesses of our hearts? The Correction (3:2-3). In life, identifying the problem is the first step toward solving it. The problem with the church in Sardis was that she was dead. But as hopeless as that sounds, all was not lost. Jesus saw the glow of embers among the ashes and exhorted the believers in Sardis to fan the flame with renewed commitment to Him. How could they do this? What steps were they to take? Christ gave them five directives that, if obeyed, would burn new life into their church.