Sardis

“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. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 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. 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. 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. Re that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev 3:1-6).

A reputation that was deceiving

When the Lord wrote to Smyrna he didn’t have one bad thing to say to the ecclesia. But when he wrote to Sardis he didn’t have one good thing to say. Yet it might be the kind of ecclesia that we would like to belong to, the one that we might be impressed with. Things that often impress us do not impress the Lord. The externals often captivate us but God is more concerned what is happening inside. Never is that more evident than in this letter to Sardis. We would have said that it was alive. But Jesus said it was dead. The Lord usually began his letters by commending the ecclesial positives. But The Lord started this letter by condemning the negatives. Jesus is not impressed with labels. He is interested in life. He is not impressed with reputations. He is interested in reality. Someone once said: reputation is what people think you are. Reality is what Jesus knows you are. God does not want his ecclesia to be a form but an active force.

City of Sardis

Sardis was located about thirty-five miles south-east of Thyatira and was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia. Lydia was one of the richest kingdoms of the ancient world. The Lydians are reputed to have been the inventors of coined money. The ancient city of Sardis was built on a plateau of crumbling rock rising 1,500 feet above the plain. The plateau was a part of Mount Tomolus, whose height was 6,700 feet. The walls of the elevation on which the city was built were almost perpendicular, and the city was inaccessible except by one narrow passage which was steep and easily fortified and guarded. Sardis was considered an impregnable fortress.

Over-confidence

The natural defences of Sardis made the guards and citizens proud and over- confident. The walls were carelessly guarded, with sometimes-fatal results. Because of the failure of the guards to watch, Cyrus captured the city by a stratagem in 549 B.C. Solon had warned Croesus not to be too confident of safety from attack, but even after the army of Cyrus appeared on the plain below, he saw no reason for concern. But the unexpected happened. Sardis was taken, and given up entirely to plunder. Thus, Sardis was a city characterized by a complacent spirit.

Appropriate message

In the light of the historic background of the city of Sardis, the epistle of Christ to the Sardian ecclesia was very appropriate and its language very impressive. He told them to “be watchful, and 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 city had fallen and was finally destroyed because the ruler and citizens had been over-confident, and its watchmen had failed to maintain a diligent watch. The enemy took them off guard. Jesus warned the ecclesia that if they too failed to watch because of over confidence He would overtake them as a thief at the most unexpected moment. Over-confidence leading to neglect and slothfulness, is the worst of crimes. This has also been one of the greatest dangers of the ecclesia in all ages.

Sardis means those escaping or that which remains. The name, the message, and the subsequent history of the city and ecclesia, indicate a good start but a bad finish, a change for the worse. One author calls Sardis the city of death. Its history is just the opposite of that of Smyrna, which was dead and is alive; or is the city of life. Sardis had a name that thou lives, and art dead. Like Ephesus, the city and ecclesia of Sardis began with a glorious history and ended in a heap of ruins.

Sardis is a now heap of ruins, with no signs of life. It is indeed the city of death. What happened to the city was also the fate of the ecclesia. It began as a flourishing community and ended in nothing except the memory of a glory that was past. The mountains around Sardis have always been a favourite haunt for thieves, who swoop down unexpectedly upon unsuspecting travellers and villagers. No government had been able to fully subdue them. “Thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee” was an appropriate warning. Divine judgments, like the thief, approach silently and stealthily, and accomplish their mission suddenly and without warning on those who are not watching.

Ecclesia of the living dead

“I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” Sardis ecclesia had earned the reputation of being alive, maybe because of its outstanding deeds. If it was alive then certainly it must have been active, vibrant, and dynamic. In spite of its reputation Christ judged the ecclesia as being dead. Brothers and Sisters Living Dead Ecclesias are not limited to New Testament times. There will be living dead ecclesias at the time of our Lords return. Such ecclesias may have a large building, a big ecclesial fund a host of activities for all ages. It is the kind of ecclesia that many would like to join. Often these ecclesias are looked upon as model ecclesias envied by others who wish they had the same resources or numbers. These ecclesias carry weight in the brotherhood they are looked upon as role models. Almost everyone has a good opinion of these ecclesias, but it is only Jesus’s opinion that really matters.

Jesus Christ, who is the head of the ecclesia doesn’t base His opinion on outward appearances. He is not impressed with the size of the building, the number in attendance or how many activities a ecclesia may have (although in contrast the present author recognises that meeting twice a week may also constitute an ecclesia without life). Neither is He impressed by how many members an ecclesia may have, especially if they are living dead members. Christ evaluates each ecclesia on whether it is pleasing to God his Father. In essence, Christ says to the ecclesia in Sardis, I know your deeds and I have found them to be unacceptable. The reason they were not acceptable is that they lacked the thing that mattered most: life. There was plenty of physical life and activity, but there was no spiritual life. Surface appearance can easily mask the deadness.

Few living dead ecclesias are willing to remember, repent and change. Most would prefer to continue enjoying the reputation of being alive. An ecclesia is also in danger of death when it begins to worship its own past. When it is more concerned with forms than with life. When it loves systems more than it loves Christ. When the ecclesial constitution makes the decisions rather than the word of life.

When this epistle was written, the city was rapidly waning in prestige and glory, but its inhabitants were still boastful of the reputation and history of the past. Decay and death were inevitable, but the Sardians refused to recognise the fate of the city and continued to live on its ancient glory. The city had a name only, whereas in reality it was dead, or rapidly dying. There is nothing more desolate than a dead or dying city that once teemed with life and bustled with activity, and there are few things more pitiable than for the few remaining citizens of such a city to boast of the past and vainly hope that the future will restore what has departed forever. How apt of members of once large ecclesias.

The ecclesia had a name and reputation of life, but in reality they were dead. Every believer by the very nature of his or her baptism professes that he or she is alive and looks forward to the reward of eternal life. By calling himself or herself a Christadelphian, he or she is living on the name of Christ. If he is dead spiritually, he is making a false claim and is under a terrible deception, likened to a corpse making pretence of life. The ecclesia or the individual must guard against being spiritually dead. Remember Samson he wist not that the Lord was departed.

Nominal Christians

“I know your works.” In Sardis these were works done to impress people. They gave this ecclesia a name to live. They had a good reputation, but it was actually a dead ecclesia. The members for the most part were not spiritually alive. They were what we would call nominal Christians. Nominal comes from the word name i.e. someone who has a name for something. Our Lord declared, you have a name to live, but you are dead. This seems to indicate an ecclesia made up of members who outwardly professed Christ, but who actually possessed no spiritual life. They were Christians in name only. Are we Christadelphians in name only? Sardis was so devoid of life that it had no struggles going on within it. Notice the difference between Sardis and the other ecclesias. There were no Jewish accusers of this ecclesia even though there was a large colony of Jews in the city of Sardis. It seems they ignored the ecclesia or perhaps did not know of its existence. There were no false prophets here, no Nicolaitans to be guarded against, no Satan, no Jezebel, no nothing! That was the ministry of Sardis

A partial reformation?

“I have not found thy works perfect before God,” is the divine indictment. Perfect as used here means fulfilled, or up to the mark or standard. “I have found no works of thine perfected before my God” is the Revised Version. This indicates that the Reformation was started but not completed. It came to a standstill, and was not carried to its consummation. The good work of reform that was so nobly begun did not come to perfection, and Christ's people were therefore not complete before God. The great truths, which were received and heard, were not appreciated and remembered.

The new spiritual life engendered by the message of the gospel soon languished, and eventually ended in stagnation and death. With all the boasting and pretence of life there was little left except a hollow shell and a lifeless form. The Reformation cannot be completed until God's people are brought all the way back to the faith once delivered to the ecclesia by Christ and His apostles.

The statement ready to die indicates some signs of life. The elements of spiritual life, love, faith, and watchfulness were ready to die and would soon disappear if not revived and strengthened. The command is to awake and watch. Christ does not say, Arise from the dead, because there is some life left which might be ignited into a flame. The situation is not hopeless, because Christ is able to give life even to dead forms of religion. The Lord does not say I have nothing to do with you, he still reveals himself as Lord of this ecclesia and gives them a way of recovery.

The message to Sardis bears witness to a spiritual decline from a far better state. Are we today filled with members who are dead spiritually? There are still many works. In fact, works have supplanted faith, and have become to the majority the all-important thing in religion. But dead faith can only produce dead works. Such works may reach the standard of mans perfection, but they are not perfect before God. They do not measure up to His requirements. The call to us is to wake up and become watchful before being overtaken by sudden and unexpected disaster.

Strengthen the things that remain

Christ had something else to say to the ecclesia at Sardis. “Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found thy works fulfilled in the sight of my God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it and repent” (Rev.3:2,3). We might say that this was a call to wake up and consider seriously your life, your ecclesial life? There are two key words that our Lord employs, REMEMBER and REPENT. Christ does not instruct the ecclesia to come up with some new idea or some new technique. They were instructed to remember what they first received from the Lord (v3); His Word and the Holy Spirit. In order for a living dead ecclesia to become a truly living ecclesia, it needs to remember what it means to have Christ’s Word, the Bible, as its only authority for belief and practice and Gods power as the only source of spiritual life. Not only were they to remember, they were also to repent. In other words, they were to change their ways.

Further Reformation Demanded

A sleeping guard is considered a traitor. The same must be true of a sleeping elder, shepherd or watchman of the ecclesia. No person can reach such a privileged position in Christ and think that he is safe from the danger of falling and can with safety be off guard for a single moment. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” is the warning. Self-deception is perhaps the greatest of all sins. To boast of life when on the verge of death is a tragic state. The call of the Sardian message is to return to the spiritual experience and high standards of Christ. The appeal is summed up in the statement, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph.5:14).

The similarity between Ephesus and Sardis is striking. Both had a glorious beginning, with a corresponding spiritual decline to a condition of lukewarmness in affection and deadness in spiritual life. The Christians of both ecclesias are therefore urged to remember the past and to repent and return to the love and faith and practice of their fathers. Are there some amongst us who are modern day Sardians? We have no excuse, because for them Christ has no praise or commendation.

Thief in the Night

As an incentive to watchfulness Christ said to the Sardians, “You will certainly not know the hour at which I will come to judge you.” The Sardian condition reaches to the time of the judgment and the coming of Christ. The secret coming of judgment “in such an hour as ye think not” and as the visit of a thief in the night is referred to in Matt.24:40-44; Lk.21:34-36 (See also 1 Thess.5:3-5). Just as the over-confident and self-satisfied citizens of Sardis were suddenly surprised and overtaken by judgments, so the ecclesia in general will be caught in an overwhelming surprise if there is a failure to watch.

But there is to be a faithful remnant. Jesus declared that there are “a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.” The promise is, “and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy.” Names here has the meaning of' persons-a few souls. They are the people whose names are in the book of life. Christ knows His people by name. The reference may indicate a registry in the Sardis ecclesia (like our ecclesial registers) typical of the registry in heaven in which the names of the saints are enrolled.

There will be a remnant that will be watching and waiting when Jesus returns. Their character garments will not be defiled by sin. While Christendom as a whole will be unready for the crisis, a remnant will be prepared and saved (Joel 2:32; Rev.12:17). There can be living souls even in the midst of a dead ecclesia. Garments soiled by sin can be cleansed by the blood of Christ and made as white as snow. This remnant will walk with Christ in white in Paradise restored, for they are worthy. They are worthy on the basis of grace and God's acceptance.

White Robes

The promise to the faithful remnant in Sardis is threefold: clothed in the symbolic white robes of victory, their names will not be blotted out of the book of life, and Christ will confess their names before His Father and the angels. The Hebrews regarded holiness as a beautiful white robe that could be tainted by sin. When a white robed priest committed a sin that disqualified him for the duties of his sacred office, his white garment was taken from him and he was given a black robe in its place. His name was also stricken from the sacerdotal register. In the Scriptures white is used as the symbol of both purity and triumph (Zech.3:3-5; Rev.7:13,14; 19:7, 8, 11-14).

White garments (Rev.7:13,14) in scripture are a symbol of redemption. In Rev 7 we read of a great multitude that had washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Clearly white garments are a sign of being redeemed, being saved by the grace of God. That is what the blood of the Lamb can do. These are said to be worthy, not because they have lived good lives, many of them very likely had not. But because they had washed away their sins in the blood of the Lamb, they were found worthy and God had imparted to them the righteousness of Christ. That is the gift he gives to all those who come to him in faith. You need no longer try to earn your way, or work your way into eternal life. Yes we have obligations, responsibilities borne out of love but it is the Fathers good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

It was the custom of the early Christians who were candidates for baptism to put on white robes and march in a procession to the place where the baptism took place. This was the evidence to all that they had become Christians. The white robe of our text is the robe of righteousness and glory worn by the redeemed and furnished by the Divine Host. We are told that the Lord is clothed with honour and majesty, and covers Himself with light as with a garment (Ps.104:1,2). The symbol is doubtless that of the glittering and dazzling linen garments worn by the high priest on important occasions. Of the transfiguration of Jesus we read: “His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them” (Mk.9:3). The glorified saints are promised such a covering as they march in triumph through the gates of pearl into the celestial city and kingdom of glory.

In ancient Rome the white toga was symbolic of joy and victory, and black garments were symbolic of mourning and defeat. Captives and slaves wore Black. Successful candidates for office were clothed in white robes by their friends and marched in a triumphal procession to their new official headquarters. On days of a Roman triumph all citizens were dressed in white and Rome was called The White City. The victorious general and his staff wore white togas and rode on white horses or in chariots drawn by white horses.

Registered Citizens

In Greek and Roman cities the names of the citizens were registered as in modern times. It was a special privilege to be a registered citizen and a terrible disgrace to have the name expunged, or blotted out, because of unworthy conduct. The blotting out of the name from the citizenship registry was the preliminary step to the execution of the sentence of death or banishment for life. The names of the spiritually dead members of the Sardis ecclesia could not be retained in the book of life. When the investigative judgment is over, only the names of the spiritually alive will be found recorded. The book of life is for the names of the victors in the warfare against evil (Rev.20:12, 15; 21:27).

On the other hand the names of hypocrites and backsliders, together with their recorded good deeds, will be erased (Ex.32:32,33; Neh.13:14). Either the name is blotted out of the book of life or the sins are erased from the books of record. Peter said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). Only the sins of those who openly confess Christ as their Advocate will be blotted out (Matt.10:32,33). The promise of our text implies a solemn warning to those who do not confess sin. It indicates that it is possible to fall from grace. The picture is doubtless drawn from a Roman triumph given a victorious general and his army, which is used as a type of the final triumphal procession of Christ and the redeemed into the New Jerusalem. As they approach the city, the command goes forth to the angel gatekeepers, “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in” (Isa.26:2).

I will confess his name

Brothers and sisters are you frightened of appearing before the judgment seat of Christ? When we arrive and stand before the glorified Jesus, our lives will be visible to everybody. Nothing is hidden then. Jesus tells us there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid, that shall not be known. Every thing is wide open. No aspect of our lives can be hidden away. Knowing this, there may apprehension to appear before the risen Lord. We know truths about ourselves that we do not want known. But Jesus says, when you stand there with your whole life exposed for everybody to see. I will look at you and say, you are mine. I will acknowledge your name before my Father and all his angels. This sinner, this defiled person, this unworthy character, I want the whole of creation to know that he or she is mine. That is what he has promised to do.

So the closing word, as always in these letters, is to the one who has ears to hear. Listen the Lord says in each letter. All scripture is profitable to someone who has the life of Christ within. Have we come to life in Christ?