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The Book of Revelation 3:1-6To the Church in Sardis Revelation 3:1-61. "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: "I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead. 2. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. 3. Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. 4. Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5. If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels. 6. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches." Centuries before Sardis became a part of the Roman Empire, it had a prestigious history. It used to be the capital of a past kingdom. Then it was the greatest city in western Asia Minor during the regime of the Persian Empire. Its fortress-like acropolis, the religious and civic center of the city, had never been captured by military assault but was captured twice by stealth without a fight as invaders secretly entered it at night when no one was watching. This historical background is significant for a fuller appreciation of Christ's command to the church in Sardis to wake up (v. 2). Christ's word to this church is one of strong rebuke, one of the severest of the seven messages to the churches. The message begins the same way as the message to the church in Ephesus: I know your works. But here the similarity ends. There is no initial commendation for the church in Sardis as there was for the Ephesian Christians. The tone is entirely one of rebuke: you have a name of being alive, but you are dead. Like the city of Sardis, this church had a vibrant past, but now it was alive in name only. In reality, it was dead. In what sense it was dead will become clearer as we note some of the things that Jesus will say to the church. The issue was not one of numerical decline. Jesus does not rebuke the church because it grew smaller. Nor was the issue about lack of enthusiasm in worship or absence of lively singing, as important as these are. Twice Jesus refers to the church's works. The deeds, the actions, the lifestyle of these Christians were not pleasing to Christ. What is so alarming about this church is that even though it was dead, it had a name of being alive. Something was missing. From all appearances, the church looked good to outsiders, or even to undiscerning insiders. But somehow it did not hold up under the scrutinizing gaze of the exalted Christ who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. John told us in 1:4 that there are seven spirits before God's throne. In 4:5 he will identify these seven spirits as seven torches, signifying the vibrant life of God in contrast to this church that is dead or about to die. If John was thinking of the text in Isaiah 11:1-2, perhaps the seven spirits would have added significance. In the Isaiah text, the prophet envisions a shoot from Jesse's stump, a son of David, a new branch, a new king anointed by God will ascend the throne. The New Testament understands this vision of Isaiah to have reached its fullest expression in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Isaiah says that the spirit of the LORD, the covenantal God Yahweh, will rest on him. This spirit of God is further identified as "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD." If anything could bring renewal and resuscitation to this church that was dead or about to die, it would be this One who had the seven spirits of God. What is said in verse 2 of our Revelation text does not come across in English translations as forcefully and as nuanced as the Greek text. Let me try to translate it somewhat awkwardly and laboriously in an attempt to catch the sense of the original language: "Become one who is continually awake, and strengthen, make firm, and establish what little remains, for even what is left has been at the point of death for some time, for I have not found your works fully completed in the sight of my God." The command to Christians to be continually awake occurs frequently in the New Testament. In the Gospels Jesus commanded his disciples to be awake, sometimes literally such as in Gethsemane, but often figuratively in a spiritual sense. Some of the parables of Jesus, such as the Ten Bridesmaids (Matthew 25) are on this topic. Paul often tells Christians to be awake and be ready for the return of Christ. The importance of being awake would be particularly poignant to the church in Sardis, as pointed out earlier, because of the disastrous consequences that the city had suffered in the past for its failure to be vigilant. The church in Sardis had a glorious past but lost something significant as the years went by. It is quite possible that people of the church were second or third generation Christians that somehow lost the vibrant faith, life, and witness of the first generation. So the call of Christ to the church is to strengthen and establish the little that remained. Jesus says that he has not found "your works perfect in the sight of my God." The word translated "perfect" has the meaning of being completed, finished, brought to fullness. These Christians failed to fulfill their calling to be the church of Jesus Christ to bear witness to Christ in the midst of a pagan culture. So what was the church to do? Jesus tells her to "remember then what you received and heard." A more literal meaning of the Greek word translated "what" is "how." In other words, the church was to remember how it received and heard the gospel when it was first brought to Sardis. We can only imagine what all is meant by that. Maybe this new group of Christians was fully willing at first to live out the gospel even though it meant ostracism, ridicule and persecution from the pagan citizens of Sardis. As time went on, later generations in the church must have decided to adopt a low profile to avoid the pressures that Christians would face in an idolatrous society. It is noteworthy that there is no mention of persecution and trying times for Christians in Sardis. Had the church become too cozy with the pagan culture? This church apparently decided to adapt to the culture rather than stand out in a countercultural manner. Remembering is a recurrent theme in the Bible, particularly remembering the story of God that has given birth to a community of faith. The story and sacred traditions of the past must be kept alive and nurtured so that new generations of believers can be shaped by them. The Passover celebration was an act of remembrance. So also the Lord's Supper. It is a tragedy when a church forgets what it was meant to be. The church in Sardis was to remember what it received and heard, that is, the gospel. It would have been more logical if the two verbs "received" and "heard" were in reverse order, since one would first hear and then receive the gospel. It may be that the reversal of the two verbs emphasizes the receiving of the gospel, rather than merely hearing it. The same thing can be said about the order of the next two verbs, obey it and repent. What this church needed was not just a little fixing, a bit of refocusing. It needed to repent of its sinful comfort in a pagan world. It needed a complete turnaround. Another thing that is absent in Christ's message to this church is commendation for resisting false teaching. Is it possible that this church was so bland that it did not carry on any kind of corrective teaching against false doctrine? Maybe this church did not even know the difference between good theology and bad theology. Jesus says to the church in Sardis, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. We know from other New Testament texts that the metaphor of thief is used to speak about the return of Jesus (Matthew 24:43-44; 1 Thess. 5:2-6; 2 Peter 3:10; Rev. 16:15). But commentators have pointed out that the coming of Jesus here in Revelation may not be the same thing as what we call the Second Coming. Jesus says to the church that he would come if you do not wake up. Here the coming of Jesus is for disciplining, judging, correcting the church. Jesus will come if the church does not wake up. This sort of coming seems different from the coming of Christ on the clouds of heaven at the climax of history. Jesus will continually come to his church throughout history in a thousand different ways before the final coming in the end. Sometimes he comes to encourage a church in a trying time. At other times he comes to discipline a church. Christ loves his church too much to leave it alone. In spite of the tragic condition of the majority of the people in the church, there were still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. The promise for these faithful people is that they will walk with me, dressed in white. The color white, a symbol of purity, occurs frequently in Revelation (cf. 7:9, 14; 21:14). It probably represents the white robes that Christians wore at baptism. A few Christians in Sardis kept their baptismal robes pure and white, figuratively speaking, and did not stain them by compromising their Christian convictions in order to be safe in a pagan society. However, there is still hope even for the majority in the Sardis church: If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes. Stained robes can be made white. There is still an opportunity to be a conqueror by remembering, repenting, waking up and obeying. If the church wakes up from its stupor and returns to a life of faithfulness, Christ makes this promise: I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels. The word "name" stands out in the message of Jesus to the church in Sardis. It occurs twice in this verse, in addition to two earlier occurrences. Jesus told the church that it had a name of being alive, but in reality it was dead (v. 1). When the name does not match the reality, it is useless. Another occurrence of "name" is in verse 4, but it does not show up in most English translations. The phrase a few persons in verse 4 is literally a few names in Greek. And now in verse 5, Jesus promises the conquerors that he will not (NIV more correctly has never) blot their names out of the book of life. Even though their names were written in the book of life before the world began (see Rev. 13:8 and 17:8), it is possible for one's name to be removed. This raises some significant theological issues. If our names are written in the book of life before the world began, it means that we are predestined to be saved. But if our names can be blotted out, it seems to cancel out predestination. Perhaps we ought to consider the notion of conditional predestination. This means that God from the very beginning has entered the names of all of humanity into the registry of invited guests to God's banquet, namely, Christ's marriage banquet. But God will not coerce anyone by sheer force to accept the invitation. Some may decide to opt out, as narrated in Jesus' Parable of the Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22:1-14. Christ makes another promise to the conqueror: I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels. What Christ will confess is not someone who has a name of being alive but in reality is dead. This is not someone who carries the name Christian in a low key to avoid social and economic sanctions. "Your name" that Christ will confess is the real you who is one hundred percent full of the life of Christ. These words in Revelation echo what Jesus says in Luke 12:8, "And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God." The church in Sardis is given a choice. It must decide whether it wants to be in the good graces of Caesar's empire or to live in fidelity to God's empire. Discussion Questions1. John wrote to a tiny group of Christians in Sardis that was trying to survive within the context of a powerful Roman Empire and a culture dominated by paganism. Was it fair to make the charge that this church was alive in name only? Was Christ being too hard on them when they were trying to survive in an unfriendly environment by taking a low-key approach to Christian living? 2. Are there people in our culture who think there are advantages in having the name Christian attached to them? What are some advantages? What do you think of politicians who claim the name Christian in order to get the votes of Christians? On the other hand, are there people in our culture who are genuine Christians but prefer not to make their faith public? Which of the two types of people is more pleasing to God? 3. How would you describe a church that is alive and well in our time and culture? How would you describe a dead church? Can a dead church be revived? How? 4. Think about the "coming" of Christ to the church in Sardis and its implications. Is it possible that Christ has come myriads of ways in the last two thousand years and will continue to come? Or should we interpret the coming of Christ in our Revelation text exclusively as "the Second Coming" even though this term is not used in Revelation? |
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