“You think you are alive, but you are dead.” -Jesus
(Rev. 3:1-6)
*Commendation: Works, reputation of being “alive.”
*Condemnation: You are dead, works not complete.
*Counsel: Watch, strengthen what good remains, hold fast and repent.
*Challenge: “To him who overcomes…” will be clothed in white, name not blotted from Book of Life.
Sardis, a city of commerce and industry, simultaneously boasted strength and weakness. Enjoying the status of one of the world’s mightiest cities in the sixth century BC under King Croesus (better known as the Greek King Midas), the progressive history of Sardis fell to repetitive conquest. Cyrus the Great of Persia overthrew Croesus; Alexander the Great conquered without bloodshed; Antiochus the Great later won the city; and in AD 17 the city fell to an earthquake but was restored by Roman emperor Tiberius Caesar, then was definitively sacked by Tamerlane in the early fifteenth century AD.
Like the city, the church in Sardis displayed both strength and weakness. First, it was recognized for its works and its reputation for being “alive.” Second, Christ condemned it as being “dead,” in that its works were not complete, thus Sardis’ ministry was illusory at best.
Prophetically, Sardis represents the condition of Christendom just prior to and transitioning into the Reformation. The Protestant Reformation itself was a response to the Papal church’s adoption of and continual emphasis on pagan doctrines (see Thyatira) rather than strict emphasis on Scripture. The local church in Sardis must have offered an enticing ministry on the surface, but at its heart possessed no true power and suffered from spiritual want. William Barclay offers commentary concerning dead churches:
The church at Sardis was untroubled by any heresy… It was troubled neither by heathen attack and persecution, nor by Jewish slander and calumny. The truth was that the church in Sardis had ceased to matter.[1]
This brings to mind Paul’s exhortation to Timothy that there would be souls who would have a form of godliness but would deny its power by refusing to live by the Spirit (2 Timothy 3:5). Also worth noting is Jesus’ warning, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you!” (Luke 6:26)
A State of Death
The Reformation church earned the Lord’s condemnation of being “dead” for two reasons: 1) They became state churches, seeking approval from political personas and the government rather than the approval of God; 2) the Reformation churches, though starting off well-intentioned, did not sufficiently change or sever pagan-infested customs, rituals, and doctrines of the Roman Church.
This failure led to many eventual divisions within the Protestant movement, such as the splintering legacy of the Anglican Church of Henry VIII and the Elizabethan Settlement, bogged down as they were with the burden of ultra-legalism. The infamous date of October 31, AD 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg Church in Germany, surely heralded an era of encouragement and spiritual liberty (due to widespread circulation of Holy Scripture), but the battle for spiritual liberty sadly dissolved into a battle for political liberty, primarily for Christians anxious to escape the political “beast” that the Roman Church had become. This reality stunted the far-reaching vision that originally sparked the Reformation.
Though Reformation leaders initiated the movement with ideal intentions, the work of actually “reforming” the church fell far short of the biblical ideal, revealing the human tendency to rely on its own understanding, thus forsaking the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This incompetence resulted in Christ counseling the church to wake up from its spiritual stupor, to be watchful as to its true condition, to strengthen the failing areas, to remember righteous practices and the “first love,” to hold fast to truth, and to repent of apostasy so that a true reordering of the church could be manifest (Rev. 3:2-3).
Furthermore, Jesus warned that if the church did not wake up, or was not watchful, He would appear to them as a thief, unexpectedly. This admonition to be watchful so as to not become complacent or dead was also encouragement toward anticipation of Christ’s return! And since the Reformation legacy has produced ever-increasing liberal theology and clerical compromise, the institutionalized churches of the modern era will be largely caught unawares when Christ appears in the clouds to gather His true Church unto Him.
Dead Disciples Walking?
Consider that as we are watchful for Jesus, He is watching us. We routinely petition Him for His strength, comfort, and direction; yet He expects our love, loyalty, and service. Are we lenient or decisive in our discipleship? Do we act righteously one day and unrighteously the next? Are we selfless for a season and selfish for the next? If we indeed love and are loyal to Jesus Christ, then we will serve Him in season and out of season. If we do any less, then our devotion and Spirit-drivenness are suspect (1 John 3:6, 9; 5:18).
The true Body of Christ certainly has some of its numbers scattered amidst the Papal, Protestant, Orthodox, and modern trends of institutionalized ecclesia; however, the predominant houses of worship encompassing the true Church exist independently and in often unorthodox (as compared with mainstream denominationalism) situations, not unlike the first-century church which operated as smaller home and communal groups. Also, the strongest disciples are predominantly found in areas of the world where believers are under fiercely violent and continual physical persecution, a foreign concept to the “soft” existence experienced in North America, though completely in keeping with how the Church was born and flourished (see Ephesus and Smyrna).
Despite the “deadness” of Sardis, a small remnant in this church is noted as not having “defiled their garments” (Rev. 3:4; James 1:27), meaning that they have not turned their hearts and ears to apostate teaching and doctrine. In light of this it is interesting that Sardis, literally sardeis in Greek, means “escaping ones, or remnant.”
This remnant that “overcomes” will be “dressed in white,” signifying Christ’s righteousness, and will not have their names struck from the Book of Life (Rev. 3:5; Daniel 12:10). This assures believers of the security of being saved from spiritual death and eternal torment (Rev. 20:11-15). Note that there are two books of life–the Book of Life, which is a record of all who have ever been born (Rev. 3:5), and the Lamb’s Book of Life, a record of all who have ever called upon the name of Jesus Christ for salvation (Rev. 13:8; 21:27).
Burning the Midnight Oil
The parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) offers a striking circumstantial evaluation of the church today; the ten virgins represent the kingdom of heaven (represented by the Church on earth), their lamps represent the Gospel–the light of the world–as well as “watchfulness” (not unlike the lampstands of the seven churches), and the Bridegroom they are desirous to meet is Christ Himself.
The five foolish virgins who awaited the Bridegroom did not carry a surplus of oil for their lamps should He tarry. Tarry He does, and so the wise virgins, well into burning their surplus oil, are prepared when a cry announces the arrival of the Bridegroom. As the ten virgins awake from their slumber and prepare to meet Him, the wise rebut the foolish for neglecting to be vigilant, as their lamps have gone dark.
Straightaway the foolish ones endeavor to purchase more oil, yet while they are away the Bridegroom arrives and the wise who were prepared went away with Him to the marriage “and the door was shut.” Upon discovering their misfortune, the foolish virgins petition the Lord to let them in also. His reply is “Nay, I know you not.”
The true Church, the Body of Christ, are the wise virgins who keep their lamps lit and are always watchful and prepared for the arrival of Christ in the clouds to catch them away to the Judgment Seat and Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The Papal/Catholic and Reformed/Protestant institutionalized churches are the foolish virgins who have lost their zeal for His arrival, tending primarily to their own affairs to which they are more faithful than they are to their Lord. Again, I will note that members of the true Church are indeed to be found within these denominational institutions and churches; it is the overall spiritual blindness of the institutions themselves that renders them “dead.”
At the rapture of the Church, the mainstream ecclesiastical institutions (and likely much of their clergy) will be largely left intact (left behind) and will begin the polarizing shift toward apostate consolidation at the behest of the Antichrist’s unitarian ecumenical push toward a one-world religion.
Of course, there is sure to be a vast number of new believers that genuinely repent upon missing the rapture, realizing that their prior presumptive faith was merely a fleshly hope born more of a desire to escape hell than to love and serve God. It is such souls who will largely become the multitude of “tribulation saints,” killed for their zealous testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 7:14).
Notes:
1. William Barclay, The Revelation of John, Vol. 1, (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1960), p148.