Revelation 3:1 – 6 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the One who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.”
In the ancient world, Sardis was the city that had it all! The original city sat on top of a mountain, making it almost impregnable. The River Pactolus running in the valley below had gold. Seven major roads came together at Sardis, making it an obvious center for trading. Seven hundred years before Revelation was written, King Croesus ruled over Sardis; even today, someone who is very wealthy is said to be “as rich as Croesus.” Sardis may have been the first place in the ancient world where money was coined.
But even in the time of Croesus, things were starting to go downhill. The citizens were becoming degenerate, relying on their riches. Croesus fought with Cyrus of Persia and had to retreat to Sardis. Feeling that the position of Sardis was impregnable, King Croesus did not put any watchmen on the city walls; meanwhile, soldiers from Cyrus’ army found a way up the cliffs and swarmed into the city. Sardis fell because its citizens failed to WATCH. Two centuries later, the same scenario repeated itself and Sardis fell again to its enemies. Again, those ruling the city failed to remember history and did not place watchmen on the walls.
William Barclay says in his commentary:
When John wrote his letter to Sardis, it was wealthy but degenerate. Even the once great citadel was now only an ancient monument on the hill top. There was no life or spirit there. The once great Sardians were soft, and twice they had lost their city because they were too lazy to watch. In that enervating atmosphere the Christian Church too had lost its vitality and was a corpse instead of a living Church. The Sardians had thought themselves too safe to need a guard; and so Sardis fell. A city with a history like that knew what the Risen Christ was talking about when he said: “Watch!”
“These are the words of the One who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.” Jesus Christ the Risen Lord is speaking. The number seven has traditionally been considered as the number of perfection. The seven Spirits of God referred to here can mean the Holy Spirit with His sevenfold gifts and operation. These letters are directed to seven different churches, but more broadly, they are directed to Christians throughout all time. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are complete and continue to act throughout the body of believers wherever they are. The seven stars represent the seven churches and their angels who have been assigned to guard them. Jesus is reminding the Church at Sardis of His Authority.
“I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.”
Barclay has this to say about sin and death:
(i) Sin is the death of the will. If a man accepts the invitations of sin for long enough, the time comes when he cannot accept anything else. Habits grow upon him until he can no longer break them. A man comes, as Seneca had it, to hate his sins and to love them at the same rime. There can be few of us who have not experienced the power of some habit into which we have fallen.
(ii) Sin is the death of the feelings. The process of becoming the slave of sin does not happen overnight. The first time a man sins he does so with many a qualm. But the day comes, if he goes on taking what is forbidden, when he does without a qualm that which once he would have been horrified to do. Sin, as Burns had it, “petrifies the feeling.”
(iii) Sin is the death of all loveliness. The terrible thing about sin is that it can take the loveliest things and turn them into ugliness. Through sin the yearning for the highest can become the craving for power; the wish to serve can become the intoxication of ambition; the desire of love can become the passion of lust. Sin is the killer of life’s loveliness. It is only by the grace of God that we can escape the death of sin.
The problem with the church at Sardis was that as a group, it didn’t bother about heresy because most of its members had subsided into spiritual death and didn’t care.
In addition, the church of Sardis wasn’t bothered by anyone attacking it because it wasn’t worth attacking! There is a legend about John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. Wesley was forced to preach in open fields because he was banned from preaching in churches. Many times, Wesley was attacked by mobs and had rotten vegetables, rocks, and other missiles thrown at him. One day, Wesley was riding down a country road and wondering if he was still preaching what God wanted him to; after all, he hadn’t been attacked for several days. A man on the other side of the hedge bordering the road heard Wesley and said to himself, “There’s that rascal Wesley! I’ll fix him!” The man heaved a large rock over the hedge in Wesley’s direction. Wesley is alleged to have responded, “Praise God! I must be doing something right!”
Barclay concludes his description of the spiritual lassitude at Sardis by observing “If anything is to be rescued from the impending ruin of the Church in Sardis the Christians there must wake from their deadly lethargy and watch. No commandment appears more frequently in the New Testament than that to watch.”
As we read these warnings to the Christians at Sardis, we need to search our hearts. Are we alive spiritually, or have we allowed our wills and our feelings to become numb? Do we appreciate loveliness, or are we emotionally frozen? If Christians were being persecuted, would there be enough evidence in our lives that we would be attacked, or would we be ignored?
PRAYER: Lord, set our hearts on fire for you! Don’t let our wills and our feelings die! Let us truly follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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