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Dead While Still Alive
Revelation 3:1-6 To the Church in Sardis
Introduction: The letter to the church in Sardis challenges us with two questions: (1) “Is this church here dead or alive?” (2) “Are you personally dead or alive?”
Of the letters to the seven churches, there are two letters in which Jesus begins the letter by immediately exposing their flaws without any mention of something positive about the church. This is how Jesus starts with the church in Sardis: “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
Let’s not read over this too quickly. What is “dead?” Jesus is certainly not saying they are dead in a physical sense. The Christians in this church are physically alive. They are still meeting in their assemblies as all churches do. They hear sermons, pray together, study the Bible together, partake of the LS, and give as appropriate. But they are dead. Of course, if this is a dead church, most of the individuals in the church are dead.
To be dead spiritually indicates that we have a church that is in sin and in danger of permanent separation from any fellowship with the Lord. Their salvation is far from being assured. In verse 5, Jesus warned that their name could be blotted out of the book of life.
We have talked a lot about passages of scripture giving us assurance of our salvation. But we must not think that those assurances mean that we can just go into a spiritual sleep. The letter to the church in Sardis offers a grave warning!
- Reputation Versus Reality
- As we have seen at the beginning of each letter, Jesus’ self-introduction uniquely applies to the condition of the Sardis church. It is almost identical to his introduction in the Ephesus letter, adding, “who has the seven spirits of God.” The seven spirits refer to the Holy Spirit, who through his words cut to the thoughts and intents of our heart (Heb. 4:12). Jesus does not care about the reputation of a church. It may seem to all of those who knew of the Sardis church that they were a vibrant, active congregation. But Jesus knows better. They are dead.
- Since the Sardis church had a reputation of being alive, please imagine what they looked like to Christians on the outside. If you knew this church today, what would it look like? They just look like a church with a lot of great people who were personable and most likely treated each other an others with care and respect. They prayed and sang praises to God, and if you assembled with them you might not notice anything troubling. Their public worship simply looked good!
- Okay, the above is what we would see. What is Jesus seeing so that he describes them as dead? The easiest way to answer that question is to consider how Jesus described his churches. What did he call them? Lampstands. They are called lampstands in reference to the golden lampstand with its seven flaming wicks that God had Israel place in the Holy Place. Jesus refers to this picture in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, “You are the light of the world.”
- I’m sure most of us have been camping, and the best part of camping is a campfire. It provides light and warmth. But if someone does not tend to the fire, it will die out. The light ends and the warmth ends. Jesus said in Mark 4:21, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?” To put it under a basket hides the light, making it worthless.
- Notice in verse 5, Jesus said “The one who conquers…I will confess his name before my Father and before the angels.” Does that remind you of an earlier text given by Jesus while he was on the earth? Jesus warned of this in Matthew 10:25-39. Notice key principles in this text:
- If people maligned Jesus, they will malign his disciples. Accept it! Get used to it!
- Have no fear of them…everything will be revealed one day.
- What you hear in the dark, proclaim on the housetops.
- Don’t fear those who can kill the body. That’s all they can do. Besides, God is watching and God cares.
- Now our text: “Everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
- Jesus did not come to bring peace to the earth! If he didn’t bring peace, we certainly are not going to bring peace when we teach others about him; even among our own family members!
- Jesus gets very specific. We cannot show favoritism even to our mother, father, our son or daughter.
- And then the ultimate test: we are not worthy unless we take up our cross and follow him and unless we lose our lives for his sake.
- Therefore, how would we know when a church is dead? Its lamp no longer burns! The light is gone. Such a church has lost it purpose. They have become a glorified religious social club. This principle is not a surprise for anyone who is a student of the OT. Repeatedly, we are prophetically pictured as those who will call the world to come and hear (Isaiah 2:2-3). We are called the offspring of Abraham and the offspring of Jesus through whom the world is blessed (Galatians 3:29)
- When we look at the Lord’s churches throughout the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century, the overriding passion that drove the existence of every church was being a light to the world. Today it seems that in most churches, seeking the lost is at best a footnote, and at worst rarely ever mentioned.
- Please notice the words of verse 4. There were a few names in the church that hadn’t “soiled their garments.” The reward? “They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.” Follow that word “worthy.”
- In 5:9, 12 Jesus is called worthy because he gave up his life.
- We just read in Matthew 10:38 that whoever does not take up his cross is not worthy of him.
- The Sardis church had “soiled/stained their garments.” Since there is no mention of persecution, most likely the staining of their garments comes from the Christians maintaining a low profile so as not to draw attention from the Rome worshipers and the trade unions. If not that, it is just doing what we easily do today – think inwardly and make the focus on us. Either way, the garments were not white because we have not clothed ourselves with Christ before the world.
- We must remember what Jesus said in Luke 19:10 when he went to the house of Zacchaeus: “Today salvation has come to this house…for the Son of Man came to seek and to saved the lost.” If we are his disciple, this must be our mission at all cost.
- Wake Up, Remember, Keep It, Repent (3:3)
- If Jesus looked at you face to face and said, “You are dead,” would you wake up? Only you can answer that question. But answer it you must, because Jesus just appeared in a vision and called a whole church dead.
- “Your works are not complete.” In other words, just “going to church” isn’t going to cut it.
- “Remember” what you have learned in the scriptures about your mission in Christ, “and keep it.”
- Finally, the hardest part: “Repent.” Something has to change, and it is fairly easy to know what that is. It is what is done with your time. There are other things in your life that are more important. You are not taking up your cross.
- The end of verse 3 is interesting. If they don’t wake up, Jesus will come to them like a thief, and it will not be a good thing – “I will come against you.” That is probably not the final day, but the same kind of judgment when Jesus said he would come against Jerusalem and destroy it. Is Jesus saying, when a church/lampstand no longer has a light, I will fight against it? Please consider, a church that ignores its mission is worse than no church at all because Christians learn to think that such a condition is normal.
- The One Who Conquers/Overcomes
- Each of the seven letters concludes with a promise to the one who “conquers” (or some versions, “overcomes”), and then a unique promise for that church.
- Combine all of the promises made to the churches and be impressed with what Jesus is going to do for us if we conquer/overcome. These promises are far beyond anything we could imagine or anything that even the angels are offered. However, we must recognize that the overcoming must happen before the inheritance of the promises.
- There is a unique principle that is at play here. There are seven churches. Two of the churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, are overcoming. The other five churches are not overcoming. Smyrna and Philadelphia are being heavily persecuted. In other words, from a physical perspective, they are being conquered by the world. The five churches that are not overcoming, that is, they are compromising with their culture, and thus are not being physically conquered by the world.
- This is seen in 11:7; 13:7 – “And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them.” Notice that when these boldly testify, they are conquered in a physical sense on the earth. If we “testify” we will be conquered by the world. If we do not testify and overcome their threats, we will lose the promises.
- Please be aware that testifying about Jesus before the world is not the only problem within the five churches. The sins they have not overcome are affecting their testimony. In other words, you can’t have a “Jezebel” in the church and expect to preach Christ to the world.
- Compare this to the following texts which help us define what it means to conquer:
- 12:10-11 Note that “our accuser has been thrown down” by the power of Christ who overcame him through his death and his resurrection. In verse 11, we conquer by the blood of the Lamb (victory over sin), and by the word of our testimony, “for they loved not their lives even unto death. The conquering happens by not compromising, which happens by our testimony of Jesus regardless of the consequences.
- 15:2 In this text we see those who have conquered before the throne of God. They conquered “the beast, and its image and the number of its name.” Those words refer back to 13:17 where we are told “no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Again, just as we see in the five churches, there is fear of the world and thus compromise in order to fit into the culture and avoid persecution.
- Romans 8:35-39 Paul follows the same principle when he refers to conquering: “‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
- Obviously, it is not just those who are threatened with death that are the conquerors. The whole of a Christian’s life is to be characterized by “overcoming.”
Conclusion: 21:7 summarizes: “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the faithless…their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Sleeping Sardis needed to wake up and overcome. Are you conquering? Or, are you a sleeping Christian?
Berry Kercheville