Cross Examined 6 | Flatlined

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know the hour that I 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. 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. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 3:1–6)

A church with a great reputation but no pulse—and the Savior who writes letters to the mostly dead.

Mostly Dead, Not All Dead

There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. That's the wisdom of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride—mostly dead is still slightly alive; all dead means there's usually only one thing to do, and that's go through their clothes for loose change.

Here in Revelation 3, Jesus addresses the fifth of seven churches in Asia—the church in Sardis, most commonly called the dead church. The indictment in verse one is that though they had a name that they were alive, they were in fact dead. And yet Jesus still has a word for them.

These letters have been heavy. Nearly every week as we've gone through them, people have come forward with tears, sensing conviction. This one is another heavy letter. But these words speak to us, because at the end of each letter Jesus says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches"—all of them.

The City of Sardis

Sardis lay about 35 miles southeast of Thyatira, 52 miles east of Smyrna, and 55 miles northeast of Ephesus. By the time Jesus writes this letter—probably around AD 95—the city had already existed for some 1,300 years. It had risen to prominence as the capital of the kingdom of Lydia under one of the wealthiest kings of the day, Croesus, thanks to its reserves of silver and gold.

The city sat high on a plateau about 1,500 feet above the Hermus valley, surrounded by steep cliffs. The people thought themselves secure and impenetrable. I'm always concerned when I hear about an unsinkable ship or an impenetrable city. Scripture says, "Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall," and "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

Croesus decided to attack Persia and King Cyrus in the sixth century BC, and got soundly defeated. He fled back to Sardis feeling secure, but Cyrus followed and surrounded the city. According to the historian Herodotus, while the king slept comfortably, the city was overtaken in the night. Cyrus's soldiers had watched a guard climb down a secret trail to retrieve a dropped helmet—and found a hidden way in.

You'd think they would learn. But 335 years later, after the city was rebuilt, Antiochus III of the Greek Empire laid siege and again came up by a secret way at night while they weren't watching. Twice in its history the city was taken like a thief in the night—which gives weight to Jesus's words to the church there.

The Church at Sardis

We don't know exactly when the church was founded, but it seems probable it came out of Paul's ministry. On his third missionary journey in the mid-50s AD, Paul taught for two years in Ephesus in the school of Tyrannus, and Acts 19:10 says that all who were in Asia—and Sardis was a chief city of Asia—heard the word of the Lord. Forty years later, Jesus has a word for the church that still exists there.

Like the previous letters, this one follows the same outline: the Revelation, the Commendation, the Indictment, the Summons, and the Promise.

The Revelation: He Who Has the Seven Spirits and the Seven Stars

Jesus reveals Himself as "he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars." This points back to Revelation 1, where John writes greetings "from the seven spirits who are before his throne," sees Jesus holding seven stars in His right hand, and is told the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

What are the seven spirits, when we know there is only one Holy Spirit? The number seven recurs more in Revelation than any other book—31 times. Throughout the world it carries significance: seven days in a week, seven colors in the rainbow, seven notes in the scale, seven seas and continents. In a recent poll of 30,000 people, the number one favorite number was seven. In Hebrew culture, seven carries the idea of completeness and perfection—God created in six days and rested on the seventh because creation was finished and "all good."

So the seven spirits of God most likely means that Jesus has the fullness of the Spirit of God. Paul writes in Colossians 2:9, "In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Jesus is the fullness of all that is God in bodily form, incarnate among humanity.

Jesus Is Complete and Whole—We Are Not

That's encouraging, because Jesus is complete and whole, and you and I are not. Our culture resists this; we prize independence, the self-made man, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. But we need to acknowledge our insufficiency. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." Later he says, "I will boast in my weakness," because when he sees his weakness, he finds Christ's strength.

The verse right after Colossians 2:9 says, "And you are complete in him." Apart from Christ we are lost and weak; in Him we can do all things through Him who gives us strength.

Isaiah 11:2 connects to this: "The Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD"—seven mentions of the Spirit, describing the fullness Jesus came to earth with. When John baptized Him, the Spirit descended like a dove and rested upon Him. Jesus has the fullness of the Spirit, and we are complete in Him.

The Church Is Jesus's Possession

Jesus also holds the seven stars, the churches. The church is Jesus's possession. There was a church at Sardis, but it wasn't their church—it was His. This is His church, His possession. Because we are His, He has the right to inspect us, to expect things of us, and to rebuke and discipline us when those expectations go unmet.

How are we His? We were bought with a price. 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, "You were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's." We were created in His image, but in Genesis 3 man went away and fell into slavery to sin. Jesus enters in and buys us back—Galatians 3:13, Acts 20:28, Hebrews 9:12, 1 Peter 1:18–19, Revelation 5:9—all telling us He purchased us with His own blood.

That makes you precious and valuable to Him. He wants you as His own special treasure, His work of art through which He displays His glory. I once saw a beautiful hourglass online—a foot and a half tall, filled with gold-coated micro balls—until I saw the price: $40,000. People put prized possessions in prominent places. Some who buy expensive art or jewelry keep the real piece in a vault and display only a copy because it's too valuable to risk. But you are so valuable to the Lord that He wants people to see your life. We have "this treasure in earthen vessels"—for all the world to see how awesome He is in and through us.

The Indictment: A Name, But No Substance

Every one of these letters begins, "I know your works," and then moves to commendation. But this letter is different: "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." There is no commendation for Sardis—nothing good Jesus could say.

That's striking, because to Ephesus, Pergamum, and even immoral Thyatira, He still had good things to say. But to Sardis: you have a reputation, but it's not a reality. It's a veneer with no substance. Just as the city had a name for wealth after its gold was depleted, and a name for security though it was twice overtaken, the church had a name but nothing behind it.

This is a form of Christian phariseeism. Jesus called the Pharisees "whitewashed tombs"—beautiful outside, full of dead men's bones inside. It's a form of godliness that denies the reality of God's power. It's like The Wizard of Oz: a terrifying presence behind a curtain, until Toto pulls it back to reveal a weak little man.

Don't Be Dead—Be Alive

Point three: don't be dead, be alive. How? Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), our life (Colossians 3:4). We have life in His name (John 20:31). Ephesians 2:1 says we were dead in trespasses and sins, and He made us alive. Every human is born spiritually dead, but Jesus, who has all fullness and is life, imparts life—living water, bread of life, source and sustainer of all life.

So He says, "Come to me if you want to live," and to those alive in Him, "Don't be dead again in sin." Sardis was apparently only mostly dead—because you don't write letters to dead people. (I read of an English family who buried their grandmother with her phone and texted her in grief; when the carrier reassigned the number, the granddaughter got a reply: "I'm watching out for you, it's going to be okay." The family wasn't too happy.) Whatever their exact state—whether they'd never been saved, or had grown cold—Jesus calls them His church and writes to them, so they must be only mostly dead. And He says: be alive.

The Summons: Seven Steps from Death to Life

In verses 2 and 3, Jesus gives seven steps to move from death to life. Point four: be watchful, strengthen what remains, complete your works, remember, hold fast, repent, and be ready for His return.

Be watchful. Revelation 16:15 says, "Blessed is he who watches." In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus twice tells His disciples to watch (Matthew 24:42; 25:13). Paul tells Ephesus to "walk circumspectly," with eyes wide open, because the days are evil. Peter says, "The end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers" (1 Peter 4:7).

Strengthen what remains. Build on whatever good is among you. Paul tells Timothy that bodily exercise profits little, but godliness is profitable for all things, in this life and the one to come (1 Timothy 4). He says reject foolish and false doctrines and exercise yourself toward godliness. And in 2 Timothy 2:15, be a workman rightly dividing the word of truth—one key way we strengthen what remains.

Complete your works. Jesus says, "I have not found your works perfect"—complete—"before God." Their works were only half done. We're not saved by works, but we are saved for works, and "faith without works is dead." Partial obedience is full disobedience; partial repentance is no repentance. This city knew all about half-done things—it only half-watched its walls.

Remember how you received and heard. Not what you received, but how—by faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Return to the basics, the simple things, just as He told Ephesus to repent and do the first works.

Hold fast. Pergamum held fast and did not deny His name (Revelation 2:13); Thyatira was told, "Hold fast until I come." To this church too: hold on to what you have.

Repent. As He says to five of the seven churches, repent—a change of mind that results in a change of action. It's like the GPS voice saying, "Recalculating." You're on the wrong road; it isn't working. Recalculate.

Be ready for His return. Twice the people of Sardis were overconfident and unprepared, and were destroyed when the thief came in the night. Jesus warns, "If you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief." This is the doctrine of imminency—Jesus could return at any time, as the angels promised at His ascension. Peter says the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night (2 Peter 3:10). But Paul tells the Thessalonians that day will not overtake them as a thief, because they are awake (1 Thessalonians 5). So wake up. Jesus says in Luke 12:40, "Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

The Promise: Walk in Purity

In verses 4–6 comes the promise—and the closest thing to a commendation Sardis receives: "You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments." A faithful remnant has not defiled their garments by sin. Their faith has works, so they will walk with Jesus in white, for they are worthy—they have walked worthy of their calling.

"He who overcomes" ties back to 1 John 5:4–5: we overcome by our faith that Jesus is the Son of God. The overcomer "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."

Point five: walk in purity. How? Read the Bible and do what it says. When it says don't lie, don't lie. When it says speak the truth, speak the truth. When it says be angry and do not sin, do that. You may say, "I've tried, I can't." But God makes us able. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves... but our sufficiency is of God." I can do all things through Him who strengthens me; He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. Jesus never commands us to do anything He will not first enable us to do.

Taking the Warning to Heart

The promise "I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life" causes consternation for many. Across Christianity there is a spectrum on how we're saved and how salvation is maintained; we seek balance here. Some fear the implication that they might be blotted out. But notice Jesus says, "I will not blot out" the names of those who overcome.

Does the warning imply some might be blotted out? Whatever your view on whether salvation can be lost, rejected, or compromised, when Scripture gives a caution or an implied warning, we should take it to heart. Jesus is pleading with the dead church because He loves them: "I want you to overcome, to be clothed in white, to have your name in the Book of Life, and I want to confess your name before my Father and the angels." Who wouldn't want to hear Jesus say their name before God and the angels?

A couple of months ago a police helicopter circled near our house, the loudspeaker booming: "Come out immediately or we will release the canine and he will find you and bite you." That's a warning. Jesus said, "I will come again." You've seen the bumper sticker—"Jesus is coming; look busy." It mocks us, but the truth stands: He is coming quickly, and He will come again.

Are you watchful? Are you ready? Do you need to repent? Are there things to complete, weaknesses to strengthen—impatience, rudeness, an unloving spirit—that the fruit of the Spirit should replace? Some of us need to recognize we may be Christians in name only, with a name that we're alive but in truth dead. Today you need to recalculate. These words are strong and heavy, but caution and warning are good. "For whom the Lord loves, He chastens"—and some of us need that chastening today.

Closing Prayer

Father God, these letters have been challenging, and You don't let Your church off easily, because You want Your church in the right place, shining brightly with truth and grace and the evidence of Your Spirit—love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control. Work these things into our lives. Lord, even as I've meditated on this, it's been convicting for me too, because I know there are things to strengthen and works to complete in my own life. We want to be ready when You return, so help us to hold fast, and if there needs to be repentance today—a recalculation—we thank You that You are just and merciful, that You forgive and cleanse the sin that is confessed. So we come and say, Jesus, clean us, make us white as snow. You said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." You alone can do that work in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.