When Are We Now?
The first of three studies of The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Paige Ramsey
The Church of Sardis – Lesson 9
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Revelation 3:1-6 – "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,
‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have
received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. 4 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but 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.”’
Sardis
This city, which sits at the side of Mount Tmolus, thirty-three miles from Thyatira, was at one time the metropolis of the
country of Lydia and the seat of King Croesus. Now it is an obscure village whose inhabitants are shepherds and cattlemen. The pastor “angel” of the church at the time John sent this letter is unknown. According to Dr. John Gill, in the second century, just after the letter was sent, a man named Melito was the pastor. Some believe this may be the man to whom the term “angel” was intended, as he contributed some significant writings on the Book of the Revelation and Christian apologetics.
The Letter
These things say He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars – There are not seven individual, distinct Holy Spirits.
Isaiah 11:1-2 names them as: the Spirit of the Lord, Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Knowledge, and Fear of the Lord. The seven Spirits of God represent the fullness of the Holy Spirit – His full work, His empowering, His teaching, His wisdom-giving.[i] Seven is the number of completion (once something is complete, it is perfect, whole).
In his letter to the Romans, Paul shares with us the seven Grace Gifts of the Spirit, and lists them as such: Prophecy,
Ministry, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leadership, and Mercy. A spiritual gift is given to each believer, and each individual church needs a variety of believers who each hold one of the seven gifts. These seven gifts complete the body. Of course, Jesus has all seven of these gifts, and as we are to strive to be like Him, we should try to perfect the areas where we are obviously lacking, but one gift should be effortlessly apparent in each of us. For instance, I have the gift of teaching – it is fulfilling to me – never a burden, but always a joy to teach others. It is more difficult for me to operate in the area of mercy – I tend to forget that I need to fix a meal for someone in need or to visit someone who is sick. As a Christian, it is my duty to show mercy, and I work constantly to do better in that area, but I just migrate to teaching opportunities.
Perhaps the Lord mentions this aspect of Himself (He who has the seven Spirits of God) because this church was dead – there was no evidence of the Spirit working in any capacity. The Lord wants us to be part of a living church – where the Spirit is at work in the congregation.
The seven stars, as we’ve studied before, are the seven pastors of the church. “The pastors belong to God. They are the messengers of God to the church. It does not mean that whatever the pastor says is always true. But God speaks His Word through His man, and His man gives His Word to the people.”[ii] Remember 1 Chronicles 16:22 – Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
Commendation – none! Only the churches of Sardis and Laodicea have nothing good for the Lord to mention.
Complaint
I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. This was a congregation of
unregenerated people who were playing church. Jesus once came upon a fig tree that had no fruit, only leaves – He cursed it because it bore lots of leaves – looking like it was alive and well, but no fruit. The church at Sardis had the appearance of life but they were dead.
Light travels 186,000 per second = 6 trillion miles per year. That’s too far for me to fathom. Astonomers tell us that it takes a Polar Star 33 years to reach the earth. In other words, if that star dies today, it would no longer even be there, and yet it would continue to shine on earth for 33 more years, looking just as brilliant as before it died. Sardis was dead, yet her past
was still shining.
In our day, we are very familiar with the idea of the dead acting like they are alive. This was not such a common topic
when Samuel Taylor Colridge in 1779 wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner depicting corpses of dead men who sailed a ship back home to return its Captain, the only one who had not perished. From this literary work, we now have the Disney movie series called Pirates of the Carribean. We have M. Night Shyamalan’s movie The Sixth Sense where a disturbed young boy whispers a confession, “I see dead people… walking around like regular people… they don’t know that they’re dead.”
We have television series such as “Ghost Whisperer” and reality shows like “Ghost Hunters.” The whole idea of the dead walking among the living intrigues us.
Artificiality had taken over Sardis. They did not even realize they were dead. They were still going through the motions,
force-operating the machinery of the church that had died and was no longer a living, breathing organism – like a dead body kept alive on artificial life-support. Artificial flowers are beautifully arranged to decorate our homes and churches. They look very real and alive, especially from a distance. They don’t need water. They don’t need food. We can look very much alive to those in the church and to those on looking. If we have never been born-again, we don’t need the Holy Spirit to keep us watered, we don’t need the Word of God to keep us fed. We’ll look pretty good to others, and yet, we would not be real. We'd be fake, dead, with no hope. As I look around at many churches today, I see a trend to replace true, spiritual life with a fake, artificial replica. There are no tears for the lost on the altars. There are no hunger pains that create digging into the Word of God to be fed. There is no thirst for the Holy Spirit of Truth. Instead, there is an artificial, programmed method designed for physical growth. There are mood-setting devices to activate the emotions so that people can “feel good.” There are positive-thinking type sermons to give a false hope.
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.
There was a slight essence still left in Sardis – but it was ready to die. Like a plant that was beyond withered – already dried that had a slight vein of green left. My granddad, Aden Beatty Silvius, after whom we named our son, was a farmer for the first forty years of his life. He could make anything grow. He would put what looked like a dead, dried stick in the ground and fertilize it, water it, pamper it, and it would become a full, blooming bush the next season. I was always amazed by his way with plants. I, on the other hand, can take a vibrant, blooming plant and manage to watch as it withers and dies, feeling
helpless to do anything for it. As a church, we must watch and strengthen and pamper the areas where true spiritual life is evident. We cannot trade the true life for the artificial life!
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. – We must remember how we received the grace of God! This was also the counsel in Ephesus, who had lost their first love. Remember.
Remembering does two things – it revives the living, and it exposes the dead. As those of us who are born-again remember how we received the Lord – the conflict of conviction, the sorrowful knowledge of our sin in front of a Holy God, the
joyful enlightenment that our sin was forgiven, and the peaceful relief of the burden of guilt – we are revived, ready to tell others, eager to be filled with all God has for us in His Word, open to the filling of the Holy Spirit and His leading, excited to walk daily with the Lord and build our relationship.
Do you remember how you received the grace of God? _________ If so, jot down a few things the Lord used to bring you to a saving knowledge of His Son:
1. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you can't remember any details, you need to spend some time asking the Lord to reveal to you whether or not you have ever truly believed in His saving power for payment of your personal sins. Ask Him to reveal the details. If you still struggle with this, you need to repent (turn away) from your sins, and accept the death of Jesus on the cross as payment for those sins. Only His payment can satisfy the requirements that God has set forth. Death (eternal separation from God) is the requirement. Jesus died for you, and went to hell (Sheol-Hades, in the center of this earth). Because He had no sin of His own, Jesus conquered death and hell (He now has those keys) and rose again! Praise God!! If you do not accept His death as payment, you will have to make that payment yourself and be separated from God for eternity. Ask the Lord to reveal this truth to you. We all have sinned - we were born in sin because we come from Adam and Eve who sinned. Sin must be paid. Jesus loved us so much He was willing to die for us. Accept Him now as your Lord (the Master of your life) and Savior. Tell Him now that you accept Him - He can hear you and will change your life, and will empower you with His Holy Spirit to live for Him.
You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. A few names… Apparently, these few Believers among the dead had very little influence. But… they are worthy!! Wow! What a compliment coming from our Glorified Lord! These few never dirtied themselves with the fake, artificial front like the dead who were running things in the church. Watch out for lifelessness! Watch for the leading of the Holy Spirit and not the leading of men. Keep your spirit in tune with God’s Spirit and not with the dead spirit of the world!
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
God’s people will never be blotted out of the Book of Life! God’s people are overcomers. They cannot be deceived into unbelief. (Matthew 24:24)
A register was kept in ancient cities of their citizens: the names of the dead were of course erased. So those who have a
name that they live and are dead (Rev_3:1), are blotted out of God’s roll of the heavenly citizens and heirs of eternal life; not that in God’s electing decree they ever were in His book of life.[iii]
And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life; by which is meant the choice of persons to everlasting life
and salvation; and this being signified by a book, and by writing names in it, shows the exact knowledge God has of his elect, the value he has for them, his remembrance of them, his love to them, and care for them; and that this election is of particular persons by name, and is sure and certain; for those whose names are written in it shall never be blotted out, they will always remain in the number of God's elect, and can never become reprobates, or shall ever perish; because of the unchangeableness of the nature and love of God, the firmness of his purposes, the omnipotence of his arm, the death and intercession of Christ for them, their union to him, and being in him, the impossibility of their seduction by false teachers, and the security of their persons, grace, and glory in Christ, and in whose keeping this book of life is…[iv]
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. – Again, the continual reminder that not everyone has the spiritual ears to hear what the Spirit says.
Do you hear with spiritual ears? Do you understand what God is saying to you? ______ Is He tugging at your heart? ______
In this study, we are searching out a theory that the seven churches of the Revelation are representative of the
different phases in the completed Church Age.
In the preceding era represented by the Church of Thyatira, the Roman religion took over the church – the beginning of
the popery & laity. No longer were the members on equal footing – there was a showy distinction and power of the clergy, putting them on a higher plane than the common members. Traditions and dogma were added to the church.
“The church that had emerged out of the Dark Ages may not have had the gross corruption and idolatry, but soon began to slumber and die, and this seems to be the church of Sardis.”[v]
The Church of Sardis represents the time period of 1517 AD – 1720’s AD. I found a very interesting quote by Dr. John
Gill, who lived from 1690-1771, in his Exposition of the Entire Bible:
This church represents the state of the church from the time of the Reformation by Luther and others, until a more
glorious state of the church appears, or until the spiritual reign of Christ in the Philadelphian period; under the
Sardian church state we now are: (this was published in 1747, Ed.) that this church is an emblem of the
reformed churches from Popery, is evident not only from its following the Thyatirian state, which expresses the
darkness of Popery, and the depths of Satan in it; but from its being clear of Balaam, and those that held his
doctrine; and from the Nicolaitans and their tenets, and from Jezebel, and those that committed adultery with her;
things which the two former churches are charged with; but from these the present church reformed.[vi] (emphasis
mine)
Dr. Gill shows an amazing insight into the Church Age and how the seven churches of Revelation depict it! Though when he
wrote this, he was twenty years into the Philadelphian period and had not yet detected the change, he knew he was not living in the last of the end times! He accurately pinpointed the approximate era and recognized that the Philadelphian
period had to come before the Laodicean period could emerge. This concept began to ring true for many others after the Reformation – after the Dark Ages of the lack of God’s Word. Suddenly, the prophecy became clear in the light of the Gospel!
The European General Renaissance period from the end of the 14th Century through the late 16th Century was a rebirth of education in Europe. Beginning among the wealthy by returning to earlier forms of education, such as the logic of the Greeks, linguistics, and rediscovering the arts and architecture of former days, slowly, the social culture and posture of the
people began to change. Though among the peasants, life remained virtually unchanged for most of this period, the wealthier paved a way for dramatic changes to take place. Some significant discoveries that affected change were:
1. Discovery of America
2. Invention of the printing press–invented by Johanna Gutenberg
3. Printed Word of God – “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free!”
The Reformation – 1517-1750 AD – exposed the heresy of the Roman Church. Different denominations
appeared as they came out of the Roman Church. It began when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five thesis on the door of his church, using scripture to expose the Roman Church’s misleading, and ended.
The Scientific Revolution – 1545-1790’s AD – was the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, medicine, and chemistry transformed views of society and nature.[vii]
Some who stand out in the Reformation:
Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Felix Manz, and many others. Some who paved the way for the Reformation to occur are:
Peter Waldo – He appears on the scene of history in 1170, long before the Reformation in Lyons as a successful businessman who, touched to his core by a traveling minstrel's religious ballad, gave away his money to live in poverty as a preacher of the Gospel. Having persuaded a sympathetic priest to translate large sections of the New Testament from Latin into the regional language, Provençal, Peter wandered through Lyons, bringing the message of Christ to anyone who would listen to him. He soon had the Gospels memorized. A number of young men, impressed by his intelligence and sincerity, followed him in giving away their possessions and found a new joy and freedom in living according to the spirit of the Gospels.[viii] In 1208 a third of the Waldenses and Albigenses had been murdered by the Church of Rome.
John Wycliff – b. 1320 AD – two hundred years before Luther posted his 95 Thesis. “Believing that every Christian should have access to Scripture (only Latin translations were available at the time), he began translating the Bible into English, with the help of his good friend John Purvey.”[ix] He opposed many of the Roman Church doctrines, and died before he could be sentenced to death by the church. “43 years after his death, officials dug up his body, burned his remains, and threw the ashes into the river Swift. Still, they couldn't get rid of him. Wycliffe's teachings, though suppressed, continued to spread.”[x]
John Huss – heard the gospel through the writings of John Wycliff. Upon finding his writings, Martin Luther proclaimed, "I was overwhelmed with astonishment! I could not understand for what cause they had burnt so great a man, who explained the Scriptures with so much gravity and skill." “Huss preached key Reformation themes (like hostility to indulgences) a century before Luther drew up his 95 Theses. But the Reformers also looked to Huss's life, in particular, his steadfast commitment in the face of the church's cunning brutality.”[xi]
Marks of a Living Church:
“There are four evidences of spiritual life. In a living church there will be growth, compassion, unity, and love; and the Lord
missed all these and bitterly lamented their absence.”[xii]
1. Growth – not always physical growth (truth has a way of driving people off – lies have a way of drawing people
in) Paul – “Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Not always physical growth, but individual,
spiritual growth. There ought to be some way of telling if the people are responding to the leadership of the Holy
Spirit and growing inn their relationship with Christ.
2. Compassion – desire to reach other people. Dan Cozart relayed a story that Lester Roloff told him. He was in
revival, and a family of the church said they loved him so much they didn’t want him to stay in a hotel, but
wanted him to stay in their home. Upon entering the home they told him they wanted him to treat this home just
like his own and not to be inhibited in any way. The next night, after the service, Lester Roloff came home
with three drunks off the street. He said, “Hello, everyone! I want you to meet my new friends!” The family was
appalled.
They said, “But Bro. Roloff, these are drunk men!” to which Brother Roloff replied, “Well, you said to treat this
house as I would my own home. That’s what I do. I find people who need the Lord and bring them home, help
them all I can, and give them the gospel of Christ.”[xiii]
3. Union, Harmony, Accord – a living church will work together and find ways of cooperating, even when there are
differences of opinions. Our pastor, Bro. Bryan Lipscomb wrote a great article on “To Forgive and Forget” that is
very worth your time to read. It is by this that men will know we are children of God – that we love one another.
That love is shown in working together, forgiving each other, helping each other, looking for the good in each
other, supporting each other, lifting each other up in prayer, in the good times and in the bad times.
4. Emotion –Psalm 115:17-18 – The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence. But we will
bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord! Biblical centered emotion is a natural
response from humans who have been affected by the power of God. We are emotional beings. If a church is so
stiff that emotions cannot be a part of your expression of faith, there’s the sign of a dead church. We need to
have repentant sinners crying over their sins, Believers sincerely weeping for lost loved ones, exuberant over the
forgiveness of their sins, passionately praising God for His wonderful blessings. Without the freedom to express
your feelings, how can you fully pour out your heart and praise the Lord?
[i] Cozart, Dan W., Sermon: The Church of Sardis, 6/28/2009
[ii] Cozart, Dan W., Sermon: The Church of Sardis, 6/28/2009
[iii] Jameison, Robert; Fausset, A.R.; and Brown, David; A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, 1871, public domain.
[iv] Gill, Dr. John, John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible, published 1747, public domain.
[v] Cozart, Dan W., Sermon: The Church of Sardis, 6/28/2009
[vi] Gill, Dr. John, John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible, published 1747, public domain.
[vii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Revolution
[viii] http://www.answers.com/topic/peter-waldo
[ix] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/moversandshakers/wycliffe.html?
[x] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/moversandshakers/wycliffe.html?
[xi] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/martyrs/huss.html
[xii] Meyer, F.B., Through the Bible by Day – A Devotional Commentary, Rev. 3:1-6, published 1914.
[xiii] Cozart, Dan W., Sermon: The Church of Sardis, 6/28/2009