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“Strengthen What Remains!” • 7.19.20 • Calvary
Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- We have come to the fifth of seven churches
that Jesus addressed at the end of the first century. Like the mail route that
it was on, we have turned south toward the end of our journey.
- As we've mentioned in our previous studies,
each letter follows a familiar construct, but is different in content. One
element remains a constant: God's invitation to hear the Spirit speaking.
- You have listened to the words, heard the heartbeat
of God for His church and have discovered what Jesus finds praiseworthy in our
practice.
- This morning, you will hear one of the more
challenging and difficult letters to corporately and personally access. What
constitutes a "dead" church in His eyes? Let's have a look. Verse 1.
Text
• Revelation
3:1 : "And
to the angel of the church in Sardis write," : The city of Sardis was once the capital of the Lydian Empire.
- At the same time that the Babylonians
conquered the Assyrians, the Lydians took control of this region. The city
itself is laid out in two distinct sectors, the lower region along the Pactolus
river.
- The homes at the end of the first century, were
very humble, built from materials that lined the river, a remnant of a much
more prosperous season.
- The Pactolus river was once filled with gold
to such a degree that Lydia became the first city to mint their own coins. The
lower region had been the site of that ancient gold rush!
- The city lay upon 5 different trade routes,
so money issued in luxury, which also issued in debauchery, as the city built a
reputation on pleasure fulfillment.
- By the end of the first century, with the
peace of Rome governing these lands, the lower region lived peacefully by the
river without even a wall. The upper region lay atop nearby Mt. Tmolus.
- The area was thought to be impregnable, as
the sheer cliff face hid the city's one hidden approach. We'll discuss that in
a moment. Aside from it's situation, Sardis was also a religious center.
- It was home to one of the seven wonders of
the ancient world in their Temple to Diana and was only supplanted by the more
recently built Ephesian model. It brought the usual degeneracy.
- It was as wicked and pagan as any other town,
but it seems to also have been tolerant, as Sardis was home to the largest
synogogue outside of Israel.
- The church then, would have been a diverse
group, made up of Jews, God fearing Gentiles and former pagans. Once again, we
are unsure of their spiritual roots.
- Nobody seems to be able to identify a leader,
nor determine a relationship to one. Yet, the church remained and stood in
Sardis.
- Whatever they were, it seems that like their
city, their church had seen better days! Verse 1.
• Revelation
3:1 : "These
things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven
stars:" : Jesus identifies Himself as He who
has the seven Spirits of God. Jesus has complete access to the full work of the
Holy Spirit, signified by the number seven.
- God's Spirit is tied to the very life of a
church. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no life! Their problem corporately
dealt with life and the Holy Spirit's presence would be their only solution!
- Our privilege as believers is found in the
invitation to be continually filled full of the Holy Spirit, that He might
guide, direct, convict and comfort us. (Ephesians
5:18)
- If a church is disconnected from His
presence, how could they have life? How could they receive guidance or know how
to operate?
- Jesus has the full counsel and power of the
Holy Spirit, as well as the seven stars or seven messengers to the churches. He
holds them. They are in His hand.
- When a church is operating under the Lord's
direction, Jesus is at the helm of the church! He is not dictated to by the
Pastors of that fellowship! He leads them!
- What is the connection between the two? Both
the Holy Spirit and the messengers of the churches are instruments of the
Lord's instruction to His people.
- The Holy Spirit lends an inner witness to the
word and work of Christ. He speaks to our minds and hearts, leading in a
dynamic, moment by moment way.
- The Lord's ministers are a public, external
witnesses of the Word of Christ, who aid in bringing forth the Word that the
Holy Spirit uses to conform our lives to His.
- When ministers are doing their job,
expositing, or administrating God's Word, the two witnesses are working in a
cooperative way, calling the church to life in Christ. Verse 1.
• Revelation
3:1 : "I
know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." : Jesus knows the character and the motivation for their works.
He dwells in the middle of all the churches.
- He has evaluated them with the same
efficiency as He has the other churches, but has found something odd about
them. The church of Sardis had a reputation for living.
- "Alive" is present tense and the
word comes from the word "zoe." It is description of the kind of full
life that Jesus gives to His church. It is the life that is connected with
"regeneration."
- It is the essence of eternal life, offered to
and conferred upon God's people when they confess Christ. All external signs
pointed to this being a model church.
- Most of the people around town believed that
the church possessed this kind of regeneration life. They had built a
reputation upon that concept, but there was a problem: They were dead!
- At the risk of insulting anyone's
intelligence, dead means dead! One commentator mentions that the word should be
rendered as "dying." I can't corroborate that point linguistically.
- What I can say is that the Lord might be
communicating that their reputation was one of life, but the actual operation
of the church produced death!
- Externally, the people would have given the
impression of possessing life, but before too long, a visiting Christian would
have thought that something was off.
- Right away, we are forced to a word of
exhortation: Are we individually actually what we think we are spiritually? Do
we have a reputation that can be backed up with reality?
- On a personal level, do people think you are
alive, when you are closer to dead? In any event, can you imagine the shock that
attended these words when they were heard?
- Jesus offers this church no commendation, but
is gracious enough to propose correction. V.2.
• Revelation
3:1,2 : "Be
watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I
have not found your works perfect before God." : Jesus commands this church, the individual members, to be on
the lookout!
- The church system may be dead, but the
individual church members have the opportunity to participate with the Lord in
restoring life! They must be on alert!
- The words lend an idea of waking oneself up
on a guard post. This is why you'll see this rendered "Wake Up!" in
several of the other orthodox translations.
- Many had fallen asleep to the downward spiral
of their church. They had let things degenerate. Jesus grabs them by the shoulders
and commands to "wake up!"
- When one studies the history of the city
Sardis, one will find an interesting correlation to these words from a powerful
historical event.
- As I mentioned earlier, Sardis believed
itself to be impregnable because of the height of it's upper region command
post.
- Hundreds of years earlier, when Sardis was
the Lydian capital, it entered into conflict with the Persians, led by King
Cyrus in nearby Cappadocia.
- Cyrus routed the Lydian cavalry and then
marched toward Sardis, where a stalemate ensued. King Croseus retreated to the
upper region post, while Cyrus conquered the lower region.
- After gaining control of the lower region,
the Persian army camped at the base of Mt. Tmolus and Cyrus began offering
reward to any that would find a way to reach the top.
- The army was stymied until one evening. A
Lydian soldier dropped his helmet from the top of the upper region. What
happens next is almost unbelieveable!
- Apparently unaware of the fact that the
opposing army could not figure a way up to their position 950 feet up the side
of the cliff, this soldier climbed down to retrieve his helmut.
- In doing so, he revealed the single route
available to their city's destruction! A Persian soldier by the name of
Hydroeades, noted his counterpart's moves which spelled doom for the Lydians.
- When the man was back up the mountainside and
the night passed into the darkest part of the evening, Hydroeades lead an
entire battalion into the sleeping city.
- Unbelieveably, nobody thought it important to
place a watch over the "secret passage!"
- This points to a tremendous arrogance, but it
also reeks of a historical ignorance as the same thing had happened nearly 300
years before!
- The city of Sardis was plagued by over
confidence and laziness because of their position.
- Like city, like church! The church was just
as arrogoant spiritually! They had come to rest upon their past
accomplishments, secure in their distant commitments, sadly, asleep in the
light!
- Some are asleep today, not worried much about
their own personal walks with the Lord because they belong to a
"healthy" church! Perhaps you need the same encouragement!
- "Wake up and strengthen the things which
remain!" To "strengthen" means to stand something up that has
fallen, to restore it to it's proper place.
- There were remnants of grace that had fallen
all around this church that they had let fall to the wayside. It was time to
look around and get busy in restoration!
- In our lives, there are pillars which ensure
our walks with the Lord remain grounded. These are essential activities or
characteristics that make for a healthy Christian walk.
- Taking in a steady diet of the Apostle's
doctrine, listening to and practicing Biblical truth begins the process. The
presence of a devotional life is essential.
- Confessing sin, airing our cares and
concerns, calling upon the Lord to act on our behalf as well as on the behalf
of our brothers in prayer, cannot be ignored!
- Loving service, which stems from a desire to
please the Lord, as well as to aid our brothers and fellow humans, must be
present for a spiritual life to flourish! We could go on and on.
- Whatever the church was doing, it had been doing
at the expense of that which brought the life of Christ into their congregation.
- We could gather many different examples today
of church buildings that stand and seem ornate, but whose members never hear
the gospel of Jesus, nor of their true spiritual state in sin!
- You have to wonder what many of the founders
of churches would think of the churches that began under their influence. I'm
sure many of them would lament their namesake's trajectory!
- Therefore, strengthen what remains, make it
stand again before it dies, before it's influence can no longer be a benefit to
you! Why? Because without these pillars, the work won't be complete!
- Jesus finds their work
"incomplete," "unfinished" before God. How was this
possible? Let's see if we don't get a clue from verse 3.
• Revelation
3:3,4 : "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. 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." : The church of Sardis had a history to recall. Like the church
of Ephesus, they were called by Jesus to bring their past to mind and to keep
thinking about it.
- They were to recall to mind, notice, HOW they
had received and heard. Why would that be the Lord's solution? Jesus wants them
to consider their earliest days.
- Remember what you were before you knew Him
and recall how simply your faith transfer occurred. None of us worked to obtain
righteousness for themselves. We all simply received.
- The radical change in our lives did not come
when we DID something, but when we HEARD the gospel of Jesus Christ! A child
can receive and hear.
- When they first received the gospel, when
they first heard the gospel cry, they began a life of complete dependancy upon
the Lord and were easily guided by the Holy Spirit.
- They were given power to live a life that
pleased God. They were endowed with peace and wisdom that they could not have
credited themselves with!
- The church in Sardis needed to go back to
simpler times and cling to their heart's response to Jesus and repent from
making Christianity something other than that!
• Revelation
3:3 (NLT) : "Go back
to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to
me again." : God doesn't want us to ever move
away from a simple relationship based upon His grace toward us! What could have
happened instead?
- We aren't told how this expressed itself in
Sardis, but one can understand what happens in any dying church. God's word and
gospel are replaced by moralism.
- Creeds that were once proclamations of
freedom are repeated in a robotic fashion. The songs that once raised the
congregation's spirits, are just nice lullabies.
- Nobody is converted or baptized because
nobody is concerned for their neighbor, nor would they bring them to pollute
their environment! This is why they had to wake up!
- If they would not take note of their
positions, Jesus would come upon them like a thief in the night when they did
not expect it! This was a direct call back to their city's history!
- Twice, the city of Sardis had fallen for a
lack of diligence related to their single weakness! The church did not have to
fall in the same manner but they had to look at the ones doing well!
- They had a few names there that Jesus knew
had not been defiled, literally "soiled" by sin. "Even in
Sardis."
- Jesus adds that in because even there, He
maintains some remnant of life. In every dead, or dying church, there are
people who long for better days, who hunger for spiritual renewal!
- These are often the old souls who mourn at
the sight of what their church has become!
- Like the church in Thyatira, the Lord knew
that these words did not apply to each member of the church. He saw the people
and knew their character individually.
- They were not going to suffer with the
church. They would walk with the Lord in white, brilliant garments. This likely
has a correlation to local idol worship practices.
- A white robe was necessary to have to walk
into an idol's presence. Here's an interesting by-product of a dying ministry:
Supposed Christians now have excessive freedoms!
- If you have ever encountered a Christian that
was able to freely enjoy every vice that you feel would be unwise to indulge,
be sure that they are part of a dying church!
- If these had been guilty of idol worship,
their white robes would have actually been the source of their defilement
before the Lord!
- These others who had not defiled themselves
would be given the true white garments of righteousness! Why? Because they were
worthy! This doesn't mean that they had worth to be saved.
- This word gives us our word "axiom"
which refers to having the weight of reality behind the claim of authenticity.
"Having the weight of another thing
of like value, worth as much." BLB
- The idea behind this concept is that their
true profession, backed up by their true possession, would issue in their
eternal reward.
- The ones that had not defiled themselves
didn't merely have words to back up their claim. Their actions proved their
claim and their reward would confirm it!
- Some in this church had become so deluded,
that they believed their claim alone would make an impression upon the Lord. It
did! Just not the impression that they wanted to convey! Verse 5.
• Revelation
3:5 : "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." : The person who overcomes this state of decay is a conqueror, a
person who stands as a victor over his enemy.
- In this case, there were those in the church
of Sardis who were being invited by Jesus to conquer their apathetic spiritual
existence. These would be clothed in white garments.
- To the eyes of the Romans, white garments
were worn by victors. To the mind of Christ, these victors are those that are
pure before Him! Those that are pure are conquerors!
- These will join those that are already
walking with the Lord in true righteous purity. You and I will one day be
clothed in much the same manner, when we are clothed for eternity.
- This is the positive side of a conqueror's
promise, to genuinely be clothed as a person in right standing with God should
be! He also avoids the negative side of this promise.
- He could stand secure in His position before
the Lord without fear of being "blotted out!"
- In ancient Rome, a city would remove, blot
out, a person's name from their books, if they died or if they committed a
crime. A Roman citizen of this time, would understand the parallel.
- To fail to conform our lives to Christ would
be an eternal crime of greatest consequence!
-
It would conclusively prove once and for all that this person was not merely
dying, but was in fact, dead in their sins and trespasses!
- The emphasis here is on the encouragement
that is given to those that went to the church of Sardis, who had not defiled
themselves and were still responsive to Jesus.
- They weren't going to lose anything, even
though their church would largely have been overthrown by it's lack of spritual
vigilance. But, the thought remains: Can a person be blotted out!?
- I would be lying to you if I said it was
impossible! There are 7 times in the New Testament where the phrase "book
of life" is used, six of those times occur here in Revelation!
- Of the seven, five speak of a person being
blotted out of this heavenly registry! How can we explain this?
- A person who calls themself a Christian, and
yet, refuses to heed the Lord's warning of duplicity, can't stand without
consequences!
- You can claim all day to be a Christian, but
if your life is cut off from obedience to the Holy Spirit, conformity to His
Word and a lack of concern for His holiness, you will die in unbelief!
- When it comes to salvation, a true Christian
can trust the Lord to keep His promise eternally. In this way, I don't believe
that a Christian can lose their salvation.
- However, let's say a person decides that they
are not willing to remain under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, turning back
toward the Temple of their old religion or refusing to repent.
- We looked at these options when we studied the
book of Hebrews and now, here, a
congregation is warned against living on a vibrant past without a vital
present!
- Can a person stand upon some distant past and
claim that their faith is a present reality? That person is incredibly
deceived! They have apostasized!
- They have not lost their salvation, they have
left it! They have made a choice to leave their salvation on the table and that
person's name is erased from the book of life!
- Nobody here needs to worry about this, if you
simply persevere in the faith to the end of your life, clinging to the
righteousness of Christ until your final breath!
- That person will have the privilege of having
the Lord proclaim their name to the Father and His angels! This pictures a
beautiful, heavenly reception that all of us want!
- The word "confess" speaks of a bold
proclamation of a friend, welcomed heartily into the presence of heaven by the
ultimate Host, Jesus Himself!
- Jesus is not only not ashamed to have you. He
is proud to call you His! Verse 6.
•
Revelation 3:6 : "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches." : Do you have an ear? Have
you been given the grace to actually listen to what the Spirit is saying? Is
there a check in your spirit, a question about where you stand?
-
Are there greater points of contact for your faith in your past or is there a
present vitality within you now? Do you have a reputation for life that is
betrayed by a sleeping heart?
-
Has your walk with God taken on a formality or ritualism, when all that God wants
is your humility and dependance?
-
Perhaps today, you will recall what it was like at the beginning, when you were
happy to be saved, willing to listen to anything that He told you and just
wishing to be found obedient to Him?
-
For those that have a dead faith or a dying spirit, know that your condition is
not hopeless, because the God that defeated death stands at the ready to bring
you to life!
-
I pray that you will trust Him to do this on your behalf and that your life
will not be one of distant memory and theory, but one of present truth!
Conclusion
- Let's pray!
- Let's pray!
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