Revelation 3:1-6

Well, good morning, Saylorville! (audience member speaking off mic) I’m just going to get this little distraction out of the way right now. Everybody’s mad. How come you’re holding a microphone all? — ’cause it’s the cool thing to do now! I’m kidding! That’s not why we’re doing it. We’re actually working out some glitches with our new system, and so it is what it is here today.

That said, take your bibles and open them if you brought a bible with you and find Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter 3.

And what a great song we just sang! — And what a simple expression “I depend on You.” A great song leading in to an election year. Who are you depending on? Who am I depending on? What am I depending on? Let’s start with a word of prayer, shall we?

Our Father in Heaven, today we will be looking at the church that had a great reputation, but the reality was not what was boasted in their reputation. It’s a very haunting verse. It’s a haunting passage. But it’s also inspiring, Lord, and there’s hope here for those of us who have given into complacency and compromise, which killed this church that we’ll be looking at, and we pray would not kill us.

Lord, this is an election year and we recognize that, and we thank you for a great country and all the freedoms that we enjoy. And we will talk about this at the end of the message, but I pray Lord that you would be glorified within it and that our hearts would be truly challenged and our minds perhaps changed because only you can do that. You’re the one who grants repentance. We pray for our nation asking your mercy, your undeserved mercy upon it. Now we ask you to bless as we open up your word in Jesus name, amen.

Revelation chapter 3. How many of you like murder mysteries? Be honest. Raise your hand if you like murder mysteries. All right, there’s a bunch! Me too. I love murder mysteries! Somebody dies, some Sherlock shows up, you know? — And he goes into his investigative mode, and they try to determine motivation, that is the why, the means, how did that person die? Was it a gun? Was it a knife? Were they poisoned? And the big win occurs when Sherlock, or whoever he or she is, exposes the killer and the he gets captured. Unfortunately, the murdered person stays dead, but that’s a different story.

Something had killed the church at Sardis or was killing it. And it was beginning to look like suicide. Look with me if you will. Chapter 3 verse 1.

Some of you very astute are thinking, ‘Wait a minute! Didn’t he preach on chapter 3 verse 7 last week? Didn’t he jump over this? Yes I did… On purpose! That was the Mission’s Conference last week and so we’re coming back. Chapter 3 verse 1.

Revelation 3:1-6 (ESV)

1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him (This is Jesus describing Himself) who has the seven spirits of God (That’s an allusion to the fullness because seven is the number of completion, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You can write down if it’s not in your side note or cross reference in the Bible already, Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 2. But this is the fullness of the Spirit and) and (He holds) the seven stars. (Now we already know who the seven stars are. Chapter one at the very end says the seven stars are those seven messengers or pastors. They’re called angels. Remember the word angel here just in this sense just means “messenger.” So Jesus holds all seven messengers, seven pastors in the palm of His hand. These are seven churches remember, seven real churches in real time. They had real issues, and they are representative of the seven kinds of churches that have always existed and individuals who have always existed. In other words, there’s always been loveless individuals who are doctrinally sound, always been suffering churches and suffering individuals, always been evangelistic individuals in our churches. In this case, a church that calls itself alive or is called “alive” is actually dead, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Middle of verse 1)

“‘I know your works. You have (and this is the most haunting statement in all the New Testament!) “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, (What an expression!) and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

It was about 20, 21 years ago, it was a Sunday night, and I spotted at the end of the service a young man standing in the back over here. I recognized him. I didn’t know him personally, not yet anyway, but I knew of him. I knew he was on fire for God. I knew he wanted to minister. I knew he wanted to preach, and it was the first time I’d seen him here. So I walked up and we talked. He had a little family. He was a great athlete, and we’re talking back and forth, and he, over the last year or so, he and his little family had visited all of the evangelical churches in our area of our stripe, so to speak. And I could see it on his countenance, I could see it on his face, and I asked him, I said, “Oh, I get it, you were visiting in those churches. Let me guess. They were dead, weren’t they?” I’ll never forget what he said and how he said it. He said, “Pastor, yeah, a lot of them were dead, but what trouble me most was every one of them thought they were alive.”

That’s what we’re talking about here in Sardis. This is a church that had a reputation that they were alive, but they were dead. They were dying. And so the church at Sardis was dying from two self-inflicted wounds… (and you could be too! In fact, some of you probably are, so take this to heart) not just as a church, but churches are made up of individuals, and so if the shoe fits so to speak here, OK?) So the church as Sardis was dying from two self-inflicted wounds, and they were complacency and compromise. So let’s take them on one after the other.

The first was complacency. I don’t often put up English dictionary terms or definitions for words, but in this case it fits. The Oxford dictionary defines complacency or a complacent person as showing uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements. Let me give that to you again, because it’s really good! With your complacent, you show uncritical satisfaction with yourself or with your achievements. Of course, there’s no deceit like self-deceit, right? Remember what James said?

(James 1:22) “Be doers of the word, not hearers only (what?) deceiving your own selves.” Right?

Spiritual complacency occurs when you’re coasting. And by the way, when you’re coasting, you’re always going downhill. When struggles, resistance, pressure are almost nonexistent and we find ourselves not growing and not changing. You can’t grow without changing. And at the end of Peter’s second epistle, he says,

2 Peter 3:18a, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…” right?

And you can’t grow without changing. And if you have fallen into complacency, you’re not growing. You walk into a church that’ll hold 200 people and there’s eight people in the entire church and they all sit on the right side… (I was in one of these churches a while back) what do you conclude? ‘Oh… That’s a dead church!’ You walk into church on the other hand, that has a thousand or more… what do you conclude? They’re alive! Where did you get that assessment? What gives you the right to make such an assessment? I’ll tell you what the answer is. The answer lies in your Western mind… and mine! Our Western minds are programmed toward numbers. Numbers equate success or blessing, God’s blessing, of course! But the church at Sardis would beg to differ. Not only was Jesus not impressed by the reputation they had, his evaluation of them was the exact opposite of what others were saying! And when we talk about… by the way, where do reputations come from anyway? If you have a reputation, which all of us do, it’s coming from outside of ourselves, right? I’m not the one, I’m doing whatever I’m doing to get my reputation, but I’m not the one assessing the reputation. Where were they getting their reputation that they were alive? Were they getting it from other churches? Not likely. They were probably the only church in Sardis. Do you know where they were getting their reputation? — probably from the politic, the city, the people of Sardis itself! In other words, the unbelievers were giving them their reputation. Think about that for a moment. All of it… ALL of it, bread complacency to the church in Sardis. And if you look in the middle of [Revelation 3] verse 3, Jesus says, “If you don’t wake up and strengthen what remains, I will come” (Look at this!) like a thief and you will not know it what hour I come against you.” What was he doing with that? What did Jesus mean by this? And what do you suppose that conjured up in the minds of the people in Sardis, in particular with the church he was writing to? The answer is history… their history. He was invoking their history and how they had been defeated on at least two occasions because of their smugness, their pride, and their complacency.

George Santayana said over 100 years ago,

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to (what?) repeated it.”

George Santayana

David Moore in his book Stuck in the Present, (great book on how important it is for us to know history) says that many of us are deliberately forgetful.

So Jesus, when He says, “I’m going to come like a thief and I’m going to come against you,” they would have known immediately what He was referring to! — Because on two devastating occasions, moments in history, their complacency defeated them. You should know that the city of Sardis sat atop a hill, a steep hill, so steep it would take a sure-footed person just to make it up to the wall! So it was considered impenetrable and they got very proud. In 550 BC, King Cyrus laid a siege around the city, but they couldn’t get to it. And the soldiers, as legend has it, were looking up at the city wall and they only needed a couple of sentries guarding it. And apparently one sentry looked over the top but his helmet fell off and tumbled all the way down. And the soldier below in Cyrus’ army watched as that guy went down a secret set of steps to an open door, got his helmet, and went back up. Cyrus then created a distraction on the other side of the city. Special forces came in, sacked the city from their complacency! Lesson learned, amen? No! 300 years later another king, Antiochus III, also laid siege to the city. The city had been rebuilt, walls had been rebuilt, back to their smugness, back to their pride, back to their complacency. And they laid siege around the city and they noticed that there were vultures swirling around one area of the wall of the city and constantly! They never went away! The vultures would not go away for days and weeks. And so when they investigated it, they figured out why they never went away, because that’s where they threw the dead bodies over the side. There was always something for them to eat. They just threw the dead bodies… And why do I say that? — Because that was also an area of the wall that was compromised. It was lower. It made the city accessible. And that’s how they defeated the city. For Sardis, the church at Sardis, the vultures were swirling again, spiritually speaking.

Saylorville Church… don’t get complacent! Don’t forget your history! We have a great history here! Wonderful things! — Churches planted, people saved, souls baptized… The whole nine yards! But we’ve also learned lessons as a church and as individuals. I have been spanked by God Himself on more than one occasion for my own sins and so have you. Don’t forget them! Learn from them! Jesus says in verse two, “Wake up!” ‘Get out of your spiritual coma!’

And by the way, look at verse three. Look at what waking up involves. Waking up, if you look closely, waking up involves three things: Remembering, keeping and repenting. Really interesting to me the order. Remembering… keeping… and repenting. It sounds a little bit like what Jesus said to the church at Ephesus when he said, [Revelation 2:5] “Remember from where you have fallen; repent, and return to what you were doing.” Three Rs, remember that? Only this time Jesus puts the repenting on the backside. Why? —because it all starts with your history. It all starts with remembering, and when you remember, you’re going back. Am I right? When you remember, you’re considering your history. You will never, ever repent until you take your mind back to what made you fall to begin with.

And here’s my question to you. Have you repented anytime recently of anything? I want to focus on that word repent. It’s the Greek word “metanoia.” It’s the word almost always used… It’s always the word used for “repent.” And we know what comes to your mind when you think of repenting. ‘Oh, you turn around, great things are happening!’ Those are the results of repentance. Do you know what the word “metanoia” literally means? It means “to change your mind.”That’s literally what it means… to change your mind. And here, if you think deeply, when you change your mind… you change! Let that sink in for a moment. And here’s the question I have for you. When is the last time you repented about anything?

I was in a coffee shop just the other day. That’s where I hang out, and met a friend. I’ve been talking with him for the last several months. His name is Tom. He’s not a Christian, super nice guy! He is an expert and a teacher of Egyptian antiquity. He’s been to Egypt many times, been to the museum… there’s a giant museum being constructed now. He’s all about these things. He’s real geeky about it. We have a ton of fun talking… and I’ve been sharing the Gospel with him! He read my book recently. And I tell you that because he came to me just the other day, he said, “Okay, Pat, I got a question.” And I was reading your book and you mentioned, and I don’t remember where I put this, but something about the abortion issue. Anyway, he said, “Do you realize that Jewish people don’t consider a person a real person until they’re born?” And I said, “Really? I did not know that.” I said, “But if they’re a Jewish person that loves the Jewish Hebrew scriptures, that’s not what they believe.” He said, “What?” I said, “It couldn’t be what they believe.” He says, what do you mean? So we went to Psalm 139. And we started working through that where David describes himself as woven in his mother’s womb, you know, in the dark places before, you know, he even describes the Zygote stage, which takes place right after conception, proving from the scripture of life from conception. And I showed how David used the first person pronoun, repeatedly, “my,” “my,” “my,” “my.” He doesn’t call himself a ‘protoplasmic blob.’ And as we read through this, Tom was like, “You just…” — it was fascinating to see the look on his face! It was like, “Oh! I did not know that!” he said. Now, he wasn’t converted, but if he does it’ll be because his mind is changed!

I told you the story sometime back. It was several years ago, we led this guy to Christ; Rich. Some of you remember him. He came to Jesus… brand new Christian… invited him to our community group. He came into our community group and our community group had gotten smug. They’d gotten comfortable and maybe a little complacent. And in walks one individual and he… it was a political time, it was an election time. He said, “Can you believe those baby killers and all of people in the pro-choice movement?” And this and that. And I was just watching to see what would happen. And Rich looked at the group and he said, “Wow, what do you guys have against a woman and her choice?” You should have seen the blood rush out of everybody’s face right there. So I leaned back and I said, “This would be good to watch.” I said, “Let’s talk about that. Great question, Rich!” And someone in the group went to Psalm 139 and we went through it just like I did with Tom the other day. And I’ll never forget Rich looks at his Bible and he says, “I’ve never seen this before!” And he believed, “You know what he was doing?” He was repenting! That’s what he was doing! God was changing his mind!

And these people weren’t repenting. We are a stubborn people, aren’t we? Can I get an ‘amen’ to that?

Just the other day, the elders, our elders, were hanging out with a couple of young pastors who had come to us, they were asking, they wanted our advice on how you raise up spiritual leadership with both men and women. How do they ascend to leadership? And we gave them several ideas, several thoughts, and one of them was look for the ‘Aha!’ moment in their life. We said if the individual, male or female never have ‘Aha!’ moments, don’t bring them up. What I mean by that is the ‘aha’ moment is what you just heard described when you say, when you, when you, when they make a position, you have position and then you say, when you have an ‘aha’ moment, you’re the one who says, ‘Ahhh. I’ve never seen that before! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve changed my thinking on it!’ If you’re the person who always has the answer, who can never be corrected, who never has an ‘aha’ moment, you will never get anywhere in this church because we’re looking for humble people whose minds are moldable to the Word of God.

Sardis was dying of complacency… and they didn’t even know it! And it’s no surprise that Jesus doesn’t give them even one word of praise… not one! — not one word of praise goes to this church! So, the first self-inflicted wound that was killing them was complacency.

The second was compromise…. compromise. Archaeology has revealed that Sardis had given in to the culture. The church at Sardis had given in to the culture. There’s archaeology with even signs that there was a church there. There’s a large synagogue, one of the largest, except for the one in Jerusalem, in synagogue…  It’s been dug down, and it has all kinds of evidence that even the Jews had given in to the culture. There’s an altar there. You can see the altar. There’s actually in marble etched in the Roman eagle’s etched into it! Jewish names have been found in Sardis etched in that marble in Greek! A Godly Jew would never etch their name in Greek… unless they capitulated to the culture. The other evidence of compromise is in the text, of spiritual compromise, that is, and it’s seen in Jesus’ encouragement to the few who were still Godly that were left there. Look at

[Revelation 3] verse four, “Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.“

‘They’ve not soiled their garments.’ I’m sure you have that underlined as a life verse, right? I don’t know what you’re picturing in your mind, but it’s probably accurate. It literally, the Greek phrase, here pictures somebody smeared in mud. And it has moral implications.

I have a friend that I’ve mentored for years. He was pastoring in Ohio. My wife and I actually did a marriage retreat there several years ago, but he finally left that church utterly exasperated! — because it had systemic issues with immorality in the church. And when he got there, he found out the reason why even some of their pastors were involved in adultery! — currently serving! He had ’em fired. He dealt with it. He preached against it… and it just kept percolating! — to the place where he was exasperated! And in love said, “I’m gone!” And he took a church in Memphis, Tennessee that’s thriving today under his leadership! Two weeks ago, he got a phone call from the leadership of the church that he left. They said, “Will you please help us?” He’s telling me, that’s just the other day. He said, “What do you mean? I’ve been gone for four years. What do you want me to do? How can I help you?” “Well, we got another pastor. We thought he was a great person. He’s been our pastor for two years. And we found out he’s living in adultery! We need your advice.” You wanna know what advice he gave him? He said, “Close the doors! Your church is dead.“

Verse two says, look at verse two where Jesus says to them, tells them to “Wake up!” He says, verse three, rather. I’m sorry, verse two. [Revelation 3:2] ‘What remains you need to strengthen. What remains is about to die for I have not found your works complete in the sight of God… in the sight of my God.’ …which is the only sight that matters. Amen? Remember, we don’t worship Jesus as if he were here. We worship him (why?) because he’s here!

And Sardis, wasn’t completely dead though it was on life support. We know when Jesus said “You’re dead,” he’s using hyperbole, intended exaggeration. I know that because verse two says, “Wake up!“— and last I checked, dead people don’t wake up! But they were spiritually dead, and it was no exaggeration. Their compromising would lead to their death.

Just the other day in our Gospel Centered Recovery ministry that we host every Tuesday for those with addictive issues, Jacob Bear, one of our employees and a student, a theology student in our Bible college, spoke and he told a story that was… Wowser! — was it powerful! He told a story how one of his professors was in India, preaching to a sea of 12,000 Hindus, 12,000! — Hindus! — and he preached that “Christ died for their sins, that he was buried and that he rose again from the dead and if they would repent, they could be saved! Believe the Gospel! How many of you would like to believe?” 10,000 Hindus raised their hand! But he knew there had to be something wrong with that. Not the 10,000 Hindus who wanted to be saved, but maybe his message wasn’t going… He went through it again! “Christ died for you! He was buried for your sins! He rose again from the dead! You need to repent and believe the Gospel if you want to be saved! How many of you would like to be saved?” — and 10,000 raised their hand again! But there was something in him that made him think something’s not right here! — And he deferred to his mentor who then walked up to the platform and said the same thing! “You need to believe that Jesus died for your sins! He was buried! He rose again from the dead! You must repent and believe that Good News if you want to be saved!” And then he added, “… and leave your… forsake your gods! How many of you would like to be saved?” 12 people raised their hands.

Some of you are no different than those Hindus. You love Jesus. ‘Yeah, I’ll take Jesus!’ Just add him to your ‘little god’ shelf! Nothing changes! — even though, ‘if anyone’s in Christ, they’re a what? — they’re a new creation. Old things are what? — they’re past away. All things become what? — brand new.’ [2 Corinthians 5:17] And wouldn’t you know this is exactly the Gospel that changed and radically transformed the church in Thessalonica? Paul wrote to them and he said this in chapter one, verse nine. He said,

1 Thessalonians 1:9, “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

That is salvation!

The Sardis church was dying because while turning to Jesus, they refused to turn from their idols, and you can’t have one without the other! God says in

Isaiah 42:8, ‘I will not share my glory with anyone else.’

You can visit Sardis today, but you won’t find a church there. It died! The Good News is that spiritually dead people can wake up! As Paul said to the Ephesians,

Ephesians 2:5, ‘You who were dead in your trespasses and sins, God has made alive.’

That’s what he does. When you truly repent of your sins, turn from your idols and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and, according to [Revelation 3] verse 5, ‘You who are filthy will be cleansed. You’ll have white garments.’

That’s a sign of holiness and purity, and that which God does through the blood of Jesus. All I’m saying is, when you die, make sure you don’t show up at heaven’s gate underdressed. Have you ever been to a party or something and you didn’t, you underdressed? It’s kind of embarrassing! It’s nothing like this. Jesus gave a parable, Matthew 22 [1-14], of a wedding feast, and all that were invited and one guy makes it in… But he’s underdressed! He doesn’t have the clothing that was offered to him by the king. He refused it! And he even says, “Son, how did you get in here?” He has no word… and he’s cast out!

As we make our way to the Lord’s table, I want each of you to think deeply about your lives right now. If you’re a true follower of Jesus, is there complacency that’s crept in? Is there compromise percolating in your life? Have you ever truly been saved? Did you really turn to God and from your idols? And if you have, contemplate those things. And wake up! Jesus is coming again, amen? Let’s pray.

Father, as we go to the Lord’s table here, to you, the table of your Son, we want to say thank you. Thank you for the warning of this church at Sardis, the church that had a great reputation, but it did not match the evaluation of your Son. They capitulated, they became complacent and they gave in to the culture around them. And how easy it is for us to do that! — and so many of us have. Forgive us and help us to recalibrate ourselves as we spend time around your table, and some of us just need to repent… change our mind. And may you be glorified through this time. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.