Today we will be looking at the message of the Exalted Christ to the church in Sardis. In the last two devotionals, we saw attacks come from both in and outside the church, and how those attacks ought to be resolved for the purity of Christ’s Church. Both of those churches still have commendations from Christ, while the church in Sardis does not, having instead a reputation similar to the hypercharismatic or Word of Faith churches that are the face of the professing church in the West. On the outside, they appear to be quite vibrant and alive to the world, but, in reality, they have let the excesses of the world and their personal experiences dictate what they believe and practice. Yet, the same can be said for any church that puts on a façade of being alive, while being dead. While appearing on the outside to be alive, their faith is only skin deep. These are those who boast about their experiences and excesses, while downplaying or omitting the love of Christ. They do not serve Christ, but their own appetites.
Jesus introduces Himself by saying, “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars’” (Rev. 3:1a). This introduction is significant, because it depicts Christ as the One who holds onto the seven churches. He is the One who chooses whether they stay or go, whether they have been faithful or not. In a manner of speaking, it is as though Christ is giving a warning to the church in Sardis that He, being the One who holds onto all churches, can just as well let them go if they show themselves to be none of His.
In verses 1-3, Jesus warns them of their spiritual state before Him,
I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
Notice that even many believers were fooled by their appearance of being alive. They have all form, but little to no substance of true faith. The fact that Christ has to command them to “strengthen what remains” shows that they have departed from true Christian teaching and practice. They have forgotten what they have seen and heard, which means that their practice is not genuine or true. We need to realize that true practice can only come out from true teaching. Whenever anyone departs from true teaching, then the inevitable result is that their practice will reflect whatever replaced that true teaching. For instance, if a person becomes convinced that suffering is not something that God ever expects for believers, and that it cannot be used for good, then this false belief will change how they view God. One example of this change is that they come to believe that God is not in control of the suffering that happens in the world (He does not bring all things for our good or His glory). God becomes needy, and not able to help people with their suffering unless they have enough faith. Even with this simple change, God becomes something finite—more akin to a creature, who depends on human beings for permission to act in the world. The gospel then becomes about relieving suffering and bringing heaven on earth, rather than dealing with sin or growing to become more like Christ (which is what God uses suffering for). You can then see how even one false idea coming in can radically alter one’s practice.
In the passage above (verses 1-3), Jesus used five imperatives (commands) to the church in Sardis, which highlights how far they have fallen from being faithful to Christ. These commands are, (1) “wake up,” (2) “strengthen what remains,” (3) “remember” what was seen and heard, (4) “keep it,” and (5) “repent.” The closest that another church got to this was the church in Ephesus, which had commands 3-5. Others were simply told to “repent.” Commands 1-2 show a deeper level of depravity in the church in Sardis than in Ephesus. Ephesus was not asleep with false teaching, and they were not regarded as dead. Rather, they were simply practicing the right things, but without their hearts showing love for Christ above all. In Sardis, however, the church was in a stupor, drunken with the things of the world, and so they lost sight of the gospel and the truth of God’s Word. Many of them chased after worldly things, as if those things were their gospel. Notice that “blindness” or being “asleep” are things usually attributed to non-believers, but are applied to professing believers here. We can easily become blinded by our own experiences and desires, treating them as a higher authority that God’s Word. The fact that they could “strengthen what remains” shows that at least some vestige of true Christian faith remained in the church of Sardis, but it was facing the threat of being erased altogether. The more liberal or progressive or worldly that a church becomes, the more that it leaves behind true faith and practice. Eventually, those things treat true faith as an enemy, and seek to remove what remains. Far from being a pure lump of dough, it becomes filled with the yeast of worldliness. This yeast needs to be purged or it will corrupt the whole (unless believers separate from false brethren). So, those in this situation need to wake up from their corruption, strengthen what remains of the truth, and remember what they have forgotten. This remembrance is a remembrance of all that God commands and desires of them. Once they remember what that is, then they are commanded to obey what they remember from God’s Word. Finally, they are to repent of their evil practices that led them away from God. Repent does not just mean to change one’s understanding, but to actually cease from their old practices. Hence, sometimes we need to repent more than once, such as when we fall into the same sin again. However, true repentance will lead to true change. Jesus did not have in mind merely that they understood what they should do and the rightness of it, but that they wholesale ceased from doing their false works; false works that were regarded by God as mixed with evil (incomplete in their loving obedience to Him, showing compromise), and thus were hated by Him.
In verse 3, Jesus threatened the church in Sardis that He will come suddenly against them as a thief—to destroy them. They were close to a full apostasy. Yet, despite this, Jesus noted,
Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. 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 (verses 4-6).
Those who “have not soiled their garments” are those who separated themselves from the evil that the rest of the church in Sardis was practicing. Often this meant that they were ostracized and even attacked by those affirming a false or weakened form of Christianity. There are times when we do need to separate ourselves from professing brethren who refuse to obey and affirm God’s teaching form His Word. Those who continue to stand on God’s Word and obey it—even when the rest of the church rejects sound teaching and practice—are those who conquer, and are thus blessed by God. God ensures that they persevere, since they have evidenced true saving faith from Him. While those opposing falsehood in compromised churches will often be rejected by them, the faithful will be declared righteous before the Father and His angels.
In light of the corruption in the church in Sardis, we need to be diligent to test our desires, practices, and experiences by the Word of God. If God’s Word teaches anything contrary, then we must be willing to follow the Word over anything else. This may initially sound obvious or easy, but few often realize how much their own thinking and beliefs actually affect their faith. There are often so many untested assumptions in our beliefs that come to corrupt our faith and practice. Rather, in order to avoid becoming like the church in Sardis, we need to diligently test and affirm the truth with God’s Word, and reject all that is contrary, regardless of how precious those things may seem to us. We may have a mistaken view of God, or of obeying His will, or of what a true relationship looks like with Him. We so often, without realizing it, simply bring in our own thoughts and human experiences, and assume that God is much the same as we are, rather than a transcendent and wholly other eternal God, who chooses to love man as God. So, I challenge you to examine your beloved and cherished beliefs (along with the church), testing and seeing them in the light of Scripture. Commit to only accepting what can be faithfully affirmed from Scripture. Let it mediate in all matters, and, by God’s grace, you can work to avoid the pitfalls that befell the church in Sardis.
Next time we will be looking at the church in Philadelphia.