Messages to the Church Revealed (Sardis) ...

The fifth church of the seven that comprised the Church of Christ in His messages of revelation was that of Sardis.  The city of Sardis historically was said to have originated as the capital of the Lydian empire in long ago times.  It was famous for developing the ability to separate gold from silver sands and mint coins of pure gold or pure silver rather than a mixture of both.  From a commerce perspective, it relied on producing fine woolen garments and knits.  During the time of John, the city was part of the Roman Empire and generally had a climate of religious tolerance.  Archeological expeditions have unearthed evidence of a substantial Jewish synagogue, pagan temples, and evidence of a Christian church all present at the same period of time.  It was to the church in this city, and to the people who would live in the time period most closely associated with church’s period in history, and to us, that John penned the Revelation of Christ that was needed to be heard.

He begins in chapter three and verse one … “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”  Jesus begins by calling to our attention to that characteristic of Himself that is most relevant to this audience … “He that hath the seven Spirits of God” … and “the seven stars”.  The number seven representing perfection or wholeness from the point of God has already been demonstrated in how many churches compose His true church.  It also refers to the perfection of the Holy Spirit.  It is Christ who works in concert with the Holy Spirit to accomplish our salvation.  It is the influence of the Holy Spirit that keeps us on the path of truth, and when we realize our need of leadership and humble ourselves, we are then able to discern the truths He would reveal to us.  The seven stars are the seven angels of these churches.  The church of Christ is not left to encounter the enemy without assistance from the courts of heaven.  We are not left to our own strength, for it is clear, we have none.  Our salvation is wrought by the power of Christ.  We are changed from within, as we submit ourselves to Him, and permit Him to remake the entirety of who we are.  These are truths reflected in the seven spirits and seven angels, characteristics that seem most relevant now.

Jesus then proceeds to once again detail his discreet knowledge of the goings on in this particular church.  He declares … “I know thy works”.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives always has an immediate result, a change in how we think, what we want, and therefore what we do.  When we have received Christ into our lives and through humility have submitted our own will to His, it results in a change of who we are.  Sin loses its false appeal.  Love to others becomes more important to us.  And what we do for others becomes a reflection of He who is remaking us to be.  But where other churches are exhorted in the earliest part of the revelation of Christ, this church is not so richly blessed.  The revelation of our true condition is set clear … “that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”.  The profession to follow Christ cannot be substantiated by our actions which reflect the changes He would make in us.  Instead we reveal the death of our spiritual lives, as we appear to have rejected His Holy Spirit and instead embraced the death of trusting to our own wisdom.  We have the name of Christ, but not the heart of Christ.

He continues in verse 2 … “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.”  Immediately upon the revelation of our true spiritual condition, our great physician addresses our most critical need … stop the bleeding.  Before any other message is given, our great Doctor wishes for us to not lose any more to evil than has already been lost.  Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.  We must first be aware of the condition of death too many have already embraced.  We must be mindful and watchful to prevent further spread of the disease. 

Our works are the symptoms by which we can know the progression of our disease.  Our works are not perfect before God, because they do not come from a reformed heart, but rather from a guilty one, or an ambitious one.  We do “good deeds” like our Pharisee forefathers in order to be known well before men.  Or we do them because we fear without them we cannot be admitted into His kingdom to receive our eternal rewards.  In either case, they remain “good deeds” as others may benefit from them.  But in both cases, it is “we” who are missing the blessing, as it is “we” who do not experience the joy of serving others, for our hearts have never been transformed.  We see service to others as a hardship, an inconvenience, or a burden.  We temper our efforts for others, by attempting to have “balance” in our lives – some for them, some for me.  We perform what we feel obligated to do, but quickly seek credit for our actions either from God, or from our peers.  While we have works, they do not come from a heart that cannot help but to love others.  They come from a heart who is looking to preserve and promote itself.

Before all is lost in this church, our church, in ourselves; we must strengthen ourselves in His strength and not our own.  We must die to self, rather than have self cause Christ to die within us.  Jesus continues His message of revelation thru John in verse 3 saying … “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.”  The message of redemption and reconciliation continues, as we are told to “remember” how we have received and heard.  We do not find our own salvation because we take action to do so, but because our God came to us in love and service meeting our needs before we knew them.  We received because we accepted what we heard.  We received because we accepted His gift of salvation to us, not because we could earn it in any way. 

We are told to hold fast to this idea.  We are told to repent of trusting to self.  We are told to watch and be aware of the corruption to trusting to self.  What is less clear, is whether the consequences of not watching is that we meet our final condition unexpectedly, or whether His reform in our lives is experienced unexpectedly.  No man knows the hour of His returning, so this last admonition is not about knowing the exact date of His return.  But for each of us, we all rarely know what hour will be our last on this earth.  While trusting to self, we may find our lives ended without ever having experienced the liberating freedom from sin and experience of salvation, because our earthly time ends before we permit Christ to perform this work in us.  If we have rejected Christ entirely because of it, we would be lost.  Because we do not know the hour of His return, or the hour in which he comes upon us, we should not live as if we can delay His gift until some later date.  Instead we should embrace the freedom and life He wishes to make for us today, before we die, physically or spiritually.

Jesus continues in verse 4 … “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.”  White is the symbolic color of purity, from a practical standpoint, it is difficult to keep a white garment clean.  Readers from a city that produced fine woolen garments would be well aware of that analogy.  And here the message of hope continues to be extended as “even in Sardis” there are a “few names” which have not gotten their clothing dirty.  So it would seem that despite its lack of persecution and general religious tolerance Sardis is not a great place from a spiritual condition point of view.  The words “even in” seem to imply that this is particularly not a great place to be, and combined with “a few names” implies that is rare to find undefiled garments in this place or time. 

The time period most often associated with this church is the 200-300 years of the protestant reformation.  While this is not an advocacy to have remained content within Catholicism, it may well be a warning to those who broke away doctrinally but reflected the same spirit of intolerance to any who disagreed with themselves.  “Puritans” were not known for a spirit of tolerance and love to those who did not concur with their own ideas.  Persecution even of Catholics was a phenomenon that spread to this country as those seeking religious freedom left Europe for American shores.  “Dissent” itself seemed to be an enemy in this time, whether because it broke with tradition, or refused to accept the entirety of the doctrines of the group who broke away from those traditions.  One would think that the period of reformation would have been one of great spiritual enlightenment.  For many a doctrinal truth was uncovered in that time, and the spread of the word of God was made widely available to the people through the invention of the printing press.  Yet, despite the increase of religious freedom, and the availability to read the word of God; men seem to trust to their own wisdom and strength for their salvation and in so doing, remain with defiled garments.  Doctrines do not save us, Christ does.  Doctrines do not make us pure, Christ does.  We can only understand doctrines rightly, when following in submission to Christ, trusting in our own wisdom absent Christ, is what the Pharisees did and it led to the death of Christ.  So it would be in our own lives if we follow their course.

But “even in Sardis” and although it is only “a few names”, there are those who have held true to the reality of our salvation founded in Christ, and in our full submission to Him.  As such, these were found to have had their clothing (the robes of righteousness given to us by Christ, not earned of our own) remain undefiled.  This clothing remained white and allows us to “walk with Christ”, to go where He goes, and do the works of love for others He does.  For our hearts are in tune with His own, we see the extreme value in those we encounter, for in each one of them we see His sacrifice to redeem them.  We, like Christ, do not focus on the sins we find in others, but in connecting them with a love that will see that sin removed once and for all.  Instead of trying to compel the conscience and thoughts and motives of others, we connect them with the source of true reform and change in the person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus will remove the sins we see in others, in His own time, in His own method, our function is only to love them throughout the process, as He loves us throughout our own.

It is not our perfection that makes us “worthy” to walk with Christ and share in His ministry.  It is instead our willingness and submission to Him that make us “worthy”, for we are made “worthy” by Christ, not by self.  Our robes of white, our robes of righteousness are “given” to us by Christ.  We are changed within, because He changes us.  It is this change, that sees our works becomes symptoms of what has been done in our lives.  We do not work “to” achieve salvation, we work “because” salvation has been re-created within us, freeing us from our former sins, and transforming us into the new creations He wishes us to be.  Our works are a reflection of our new way of thinking, our new way of loving and serving.  They are a testament to His so great love.  The robes never belonged to us, they were given to us by Christ.  We can only keep them undefiled while we remain in Christ.  When we trust to self instead of Christ, we become like the Pharisees of old, and like the great majority in Sardis whose works are not perfect in God, for they are dead in the embrace of self.

Jesus continues with a promise in verse 5 … “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”  What must be overcome, is self.  What must be overcome, is that despite the lack of persecution, and a climate of religious tolerance, a trusting to our own wisdom, and a lack of the true reform that comes from being remade by Christ.  The early protestant church was hardly more tolerant than its predecessor.  And both tended to trust in the doctrines of the word, or of tradition, than in the full submission to Jesus Christ.  In so doing our garments were defiled by self.  But as we submit, we overcome the self that stands in the way of our salvation and freedom.  What is given to us, is to be clothed in white raiment.  Our purity becomes the purity of Christ, as we are remade from the inside out in His image.  Our names are not blotted out of the book of life, but instead we are hailed in front of God the Father and His angelic throngs as true followers of Jesus Christ.  This is done despite our unworthiness, but is accomplished because of His worthiness, and the depths of the sacrifice Love was willing to make to see us redeemed.  This is a promise that we will be known in heaven, not for the strength of our works, but for our submission to Christ, and our joining in His mission of love to the world.

If anything the time of the reformation, and the religious tolerance in the city of Sardis, presented an even more dangerous condition for the people of Christ.  Because instead of trusting to Christ alone, men were led to trust in the wisdom of the doctrines and truths they discovered in the word, at the expense of remaining fully submitted to the will of Christ.  Persecution can drive us to our only hope, but religious freedom can often make us lax in seeking in humility the source of our salvation.  We, like our Pharisee forefathers, trust more in our unique interpretations of scriptures, than in the God who inspired them and knows the truth of them as no one else can.  Our doctrinal purity is not what keeps our garments undefiled, but our unconditional love of others from a heart only He can remake, shows us to be clothed with His righteousness and not our own.  The truths found in scripture are important, but can only be rightly understood in the context of and submission to Jesus Christ.  Without this humility, we draft our own ideas, and find ourselves well outside of the meaning He longs to impart.

Jesus concludes this message in like manner as the others in verse 6 … “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”  The message was for those who made up the church in Sardis in the day of John.  It was to those who lived in the times of church history that corresponded to the conditions most like that of Sardis and reformation.  And perhaps most importantly, it was to us, to each reader who would hear what the Spirit said to the churches.  Each of the seven messages to His church applies to us in some manner.  Each has a common theme.  Each has a common appeal to bring us to Him, to be reconciled, and re-created.  To the believer of today, the message of Sardis reminds us not to allow our complacency and ease to think and worship to replace our dependency on Christ for our salvation.  If we are to have perfect works, they must be the works of Christ remade and re-created within us, as only He can do, and only as we allow Him to do it.  Even so, perform this work in us.

And the messages were not over yet …