SARDIS: ONE LAST CHANCE
#230a SARDIS: ONE LAST CHANCE
Scripture Revelation 3:1-6, NIV Orig. 2/13/1965
Rewr. 2/1982, 10/1/1986
Passage: “To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Purpose: Continuing the series on Revelation letters, so that my people may consider the deeper vitality of a faith that does not falter amidst easy living.
Keywords: Church Faithfulness Judgment Repentance
Timeline/Series: Revelation Letters Sardis
Introduction
Many of us watched the news report with a rather detached concern. It drew as much interest as it did because it happened in our nation’s capital. Another air disaster had claimed its victims. You remember Flight Florida back in January of ’82, seventy-five people were killed, at least one an infant. As I recall, some deaths occurred among motorists who happened to be on their way home at the wrong time. Lives were snuffed out in an instant. Perhaps some were oblivious to the danger they were suddenly in. It was winter, the tidal basin was iced over. The people on the plane were on their way to Florida, sunny Florida. In a matter of three hours they would have been there.
We were given all the gory details. There were heroes: [Lenny] Skutnik (Jackson, Miss.) who went into the water to help some who were out of the plane. A passenger from Atlanta gave up a ride on the rescue chopper several times, and when it went back the last time, he could not be found.
One of the news reports told about the little black boxes, recovered from the plane. The reconstructed flight took two minutes. As the plane, with ice covered wings lumbered down the runway, the report indicated a point just before take-off “The last point at which the flight could be aborted.” This was their last chance. One foot farther, and this ice-covered coffin would be 200 miles per hour pell-mell to disaster.
We don’t take “last chances” seriously, you and I. To us, it means “thirty more miles before you can buy gasoline.” It threatens us with a protracted distance before we find a rest-room. Or maybe, it’s no more than an empty threat that we use to our children when our patience is exhausted. Rarely, in our lives is it used in any life-threatening way. But, at Sardis, it meant exactly that. “Last chance coming up!”
I. Their Last Chance Involved Watchfulness. V2 KJV “Be watchful”—NIV “Wake up!”
They were to be “watchful” spiritually. Interesting how careful we can be about some things—schooling/nutrition/workplace—while totally detached from others. Scripture compels.
· Lamentations 3:40 “Let us search and try our ways.”
· Romans 13:11 “It is high time to wake out of sleep.”
· Philippians 4:8 “Whatever things are true, . . . honest, . . . just, . . . pure, . . . lovely, . . . are of good report; if there be any virtue, . . . praise, think on these things.”
What was basically wrong was that they were better starting than finishing; talking than doing.
Faith under stress was not exciting to them. Thought God owed them something; church organized to serve, but they wanted to enshrine the organization. We do well to remember that there are few things any better organized than cemeteries. Faith under fire does not appeal to most Christians today, but extracts a far greater price from the devil.
There was a history lesson that citizens of Sardis should remember. In 546 BC (Ezra led Israel back to the homeland) Sardis came under siege to Cyrus of Persia. The city was so thoroughly protected by battlement and walls, that when an entry was found, the Persians found no guard on the watchtower. The same thing 200 years later after Alexander the Great’s death in battle over territory.
They were to be watchful morally. At Sardis was Cybele worship, deified sensuality. The church in any age will begin to reflect what captures its interest. [Ex.] church in Gary, Ind., with the penchant for fishing trips.
The danger was not only the loss of spiritual respectability, but also the threat of judgment. V3 “I will come on thee as a thief.” By the way, you have heard about the cross-eyed javelin thrower, he never won any meets, but he sure kept the crowd alert.
They will be judged by the One who knows. V1 “These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God.” Every church is unique unto itself. God’s will is similar, but set apart. His judgment reflects faith amidst fortune. God warns of His “coming” “as a thief.” Matthew 24:42 “Watch therefore for ye know not at what hour your Lord shall come.” I Thessalonians 5:2 “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night . . . Ye are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief.”
II. In Addition to Being Watchful, They Were to be Careful about Their Works. V2 “. . . Establish the things that remain, which were ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.”
What kind of standard of measurement do we select for ourselves? Everything human and social suggests we judge additions/money/program. But God’s standard is the human heart. How we feel about His Word, about His church, about opportunities to help. [Nathaniel] Hawthorne “No man can for any considerable time, wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without getting bewildered as to which one is the true one.”1
Their imperfect works are to be reconsidered. V3 “Remember what you have received and heard.” “Perfected: simply means that they are not fulfilling their potential. They have slipped their priorities to “good” but unessential things. A church untroubled by heresy, undisturbed by persecution, unthreatened by the loss of goods/skills. What they are instructed to do: “Repent” because you love Jesus; “renew” (v2), “remain” (v3). Micah 6:8, “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before thy God.”
III. Finally, Then, Watchfulness and Works Result in a Worthy Walk of Faith. V4 “Thou has a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy.”
They were to be clothed in white raiment: The color of the apparel of heaven; the essence of the glorified body: Revelation 4:4 (24 elders wearing white), Revelation 6:11 (martyrs were wearing white), Revelation 7:4 (redeemed multitudes before the lamb in white robes). Luke 9:29 Transfiguration: “His raiment was white and glistening.” Special significance at Sardis—leading industry produced a bright-colored cloth.
Their names were to remain etched in the so-called Book of Life. Some to be removed, they were placed there without substance. Pretty easy to get name on roll. All who trust Christ have redeeming faith, some make more use of that faith than others. Great difference between intellectual and saving faith. Those names remaining suggest the true security of the believer, the one who truly “faithed” Christ is safe forever.
In these Roman states, it was possible to have one’s name removed from the municipal roll. It took away their sense of community, of who they were. But the believer could not be so torn. Young Mennonite in Transylvania.
Conclusion
In a vision, John Bunyan reported having seen a man standing over a flame trying to put out the fire by pouring water on it. It confused him that in spite of the man’s effort, the flame continued to burn. Then he saw, One almost hidden from view, pouring oil on the fire. Bunyan likened this to Satan’s effort to extinguish the flame that is the true symbol of the church in the world, but God’s never-ending grace keeps the flame burning strongly.
1Hawthorne, N. (1878) The Scarlet Letter. Boston, J.R. Osgood and Company.