seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Revelation 3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits 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.
Here's the link to the commentary.According to the commentary, Sardis was the first city to mint coins to use for trade. It was also located on the top of a steep cliff. According to the commentary, it was such an unscalable cliff, they didn't even put a guard on it until one soldier proved it could be scaled using a hidden path. The soldier conquered the cliff for prize money. So, Sardis was pretty secure.
The church at Sardis was just like the city of Sardis. According to the commentary, it was a busy church. They had meetings every night. They had crowds of people that attended all the time. There were even a few real Christians in the church too. See, it's in verse 4. A few people actually worked at getting the Gospel out there, truthfully. I've been to mega churches that acted like the church at Sardis. On the outside, there were always cars in the parking lot. If no Bible Study was drawing a crowd, they were there to clean or to landscape. They were there to be seen so some of the coins in the pockets of the parishioners would be traded at their place of business. The church at Sardis was beautiful... even though it was starting to age. The city of Sardis itself was beginning to look old.
The town thought it was secure....
The church thought it was secure...
Jesus told John to tell the people in Sardis to wake up!
The people at Sardis went to church every day... but they neglected to accept Jesus as their personal Savior.
The people at Sardis were very proud of their church. They enjoyed the fellowship so much; they were there all the time. I bet a few business owners met quite a few of their clients in that church in Sardis. They didn't have to hide in home churches... they had a big one... surely this was a good safe place.
Jesus told John to warn them that most of them didn't have a clue. Jesus told John to warn the people of that busy church that they were being stupid.
Jesus said "wake up".
Just because you are in a high place, doesn't mean a culprit can't make it up to where you are and cause you to fall. There was a cliff near Nazareth too... and the people tried to throw Jesus off the cliff because they thought He was insane.
Jesus to John to send a letter to Sardis and tell them to wake up!
How's your church doing? Is it all shine and no Gospel? Are you one of a few who are really there to worship, rather than being there to be seen?
Jesus told John to warn the people at Sardis to wake up. They weren't guarding the Gospel.
Jesus says.... "Wake Up!"
