AUDIO
REVELATION MESSAGE 8 – Sardis – The Alive but Dead Church
Revelation 3:1-6
The ancient city of Sardis …
- … was a somewhat notorious city which Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, the noted Scottish archaeologist and New Testament scholar, described as “more like a robber’s stronghold than an abode of civilized men.”
- Paige Patterson writes that “in the cities of Asia Minor, no city was as legendary as Sardis.”
- Gordon Fee adds that: Of the seven cities to whose churches these letters are written, Sardis easily outstrips the others in terms of its antiquity and well-known history.
- And Warren Wiersbe tells us that: Ancient Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was a most important city. It lay about fifty miles east of Ephesus at the junction of five main roads; so it was a center for trade. It was also a military center, for it was located on an almost inaccessible plateau. The acropolis of Sardis was about 1,500 feet above the main roads, and it formed an impregnable fortress.
- Sardis was some kind of town. And the church in Sardis to which our letter in Revelation 3 is addressed was some kind of church. As it was with the church at Ephesus, if you were thinking about moving to Sardis around AD 95-96, this vibrant church would definitely have been on your radar.
- They had made quite a name for themselves. Whatever they were doing—which in today’s terms would be outreach, marketing, social media, needs-based programs—must have been the right things because they had built a reputation in the area as a church that was alive.
- Except it wasn’t. The church members were dead. It was a church of dead people.
—>The church at Sardis had three great needs:
- They needed to realize that they were dead.
- They needed to be brought to life.
- They needed to embrace the vision of an overcomer.
They needed to realize that they were dead, 3:1-2, cf. Zechariah 4:6.
- Christ speaks to them from the fullness of the Spirit.
- They had built their church on the incomplete works of the flesh, aka “works salvation.”
- Dead Works: Works without the Spirit are works of human might and power and are likewise dead.
- Dead Works: Works without faith are dead works.
They needed to be brought to life, 3:3-4.
- They had the “man” gospel and needed the “God” gospel.
- Two fatal errors in the works salvation camp:
- Believing is not really necessary—Jesus is one way of many ways to heaven.
- Believing is too easy—“easy believism.”
- Impossible apart from God, cf. Matthew 19:26.
- They needed to go back to the gospel they received, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, John 1:12-13, Romans 3:24-25, Galatians 1:9, 11-12. [See on page below.]
They needed to embrace the vision of an overcomer, 3:5-6.
- A vision of salvation and service that finds you one day before God the Father, dressed in white robes of purity and righteousness and hearing your name confessed before our holy God by Jesus Christ himself.
CONCLUSION: Are you saved?
- Are you a dead person who has been brought to life in Jesus Christ?
- “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
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BELIEVE VERSES …
- (1 John 3:23 ESV) And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
- (John 1:12 ESV) But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
- (John 2:22 ESV) When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
- (John 3:14–15 ESV) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
- (John 3:16 ESV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
- (John 3:18 ESV) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
- (John 5:24 ESV) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
- (John 6:29 ESV) Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
- (John 6:40 ESV) For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
- (John 6:47 ESV) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
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Supplementary Scriptures …
By the Spirit …
- (Zechariah 4:6 ESV) Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”
Back to the gospel—what they received …
- (1 Corinthians 15:1–4 ESV) Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
- (Romans 3:24–25 ESV) And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
- (Galatians 1:9 ESV) As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
- (Galatians 1:11–12 ESV) For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
- 64 Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches, 354. Patterson, P. (2012). Revelation. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (Vol. 39, p. 118). Nashville, TN: B&H.
- [Patterson, P. (2012). Revelation. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (Vol. 39, p. 118). Nashville, TN: B&H.]
- Fee, G. D. (2011). Revelation (p. 44). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
- Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 576). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
