Sardis

Today we continue on our journey through the 7 churches in Revelation.

As you will recall, the message was given to John while imprisoned on the island of Patmos and the order of the letters follows a clear travel route, one that Jesus told us he had walked to see the situation at each Church. Let’s begin with a video introduction to the Church at number 5 on the journey, Sardis.

The main things to note from this video is that Sardis was a very wealthy city, a financial centre but the people were complacent about their security and this was the same in the Church. So understanding that important detail, let’s read what Jesus had to say to the Church.

Revelation 3:1-6

“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; 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. 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.” ’

As you will have noticed, each letter is addressed to the angels of the churches. This does not mean the letter is directed at the angel because they are the one in trouble. I’m sure you may have heard the phrase « don’t shoot the messenger ». Each church has a guardian angel, and these angels were responsible for delivering the letters to their Church. Remember, John was imprisoned on Patmos, he couldn’t do it, so it was these angels that ensured the letters were delivered, a miracle in itself and a witness of the reality of angels who help us. 

Hebrews 13:2

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.

To their shock, the Christians at Sardis who think their Church is doing well with attendance up, are told by Jesus that they are dead. Whatever life there is, is dying like a plant with dead branches and just a few green leaves. This Church needs a severe pruning and a weeding of the soil or it will die. The message from Jesus was just like going to the doctor’s and discovering you’re really sick when you’re feeling fine. 

The prescription Jesus gives for recovery is fourfold found in verses 2 and 3;

1. Be watchful, 

2. Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 

3. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; 

4. Hold fast and repent. 

Be watchful

The first thing Jesus warns the Christians at Sardis is to be watchful. They have become too comfortable, too lazy and were just like the city of Sardis that had been invaded twice before because complacency. They were not on guard.

 

One of the movies I remember from my youth was “Thief in the Night”. It told the story of a young woman who awakens from sleep to discover that the rapture has occurred and she has been left behind. Jesus will come as a thief in the night to those who are not watching and are not ready. But to those of us who keep watch, we will not be caught off guard. When you see the state of the world today and compare it to what the Bible says about the end times, I hope you have noticed how closely it matches and have realised that Jesus is coming very soon. Jesus told us to watch and pray, those are the 2 ways we can be on guard. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told his disciples to watch and pray because something terrible was about to happen but they weren’t ready and were fast asleep ! We need to be on guard and we need to be praying because we are in a spiritual battle as dangerous for us as Gethsemane was for Jesus. If we do not prepare this way, we are too weak to succeed against the devil. We will fall to temptation.

Revelation 16:15

“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

Jesus speaks of keeping our garments, by this he indicates to keep them clean and to look after them. I have a pair of timberland boots and I sometimes use them for golf. This week I was out playing and they got muddy. Now if I didn’t clean and polish them afterwards, it wouldn’t be too long before they start to deteriorate. Regular clean and polish is required in this World, it’s a dirty place. The Holy Spirit is going to tell us when we’re going off track and we have to be careful that our garments, our character, is kept clean. Facebook and YouTube are a trouble for me because it is very easy to start going through the shorts and watching them which can offend the Holy Spirit. So I need to be on guard and keep a watch on myself that I don’t go down that track and to pray about it if it’s a problem for me because it will effect my garments, my character. This is what Jesus means by watch and pray. 

Strengthen 

The second thing was to strengthen the things that remain. The great danger for the Christians in Sardis was they were mixing with the World and all its wealth and they didn’t realise how dirty they had become in God’s sight and how weak they’d become spiritually. Their boots were about to fall apart !

Jesus spoke of the deceitfulness of riches making us unfruitful in the parable of the sower;

Mark 4:18-19

Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Riches tend to make us feel secure but actually they are a weak defence from harm. The money we pay for insurance is a false security. Just ask the people who have lost their homes to flooding in Esk Valley or the fires in Europe or the people who paid big money to go on the Titan.

Sardis was famous for being the first city to mint coins and it was a city of wealth and luxury. The Christians there had been caught up in it, they were like the seeds sown amongst thorns. The Church appeared to be thriving but Jesus said it was dead. A church can spend a lot of money on programmes, on equipment and resources and look impressive but if we rely on these things, we won’t have success. The World may be impressed by our entertainment but it won’t be saved. We have to look to the Holy Spirit instead and preach the Gospel in its fullness. That is the difficult narrow way and it meets with hostility from the World. The World is hostile to the true Jesus.

John 15:18-19

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

So a Church needs to have a close look at what it is doing and ask honestly, is there a spiritual harvest?  The truth may be, that there is not despite the great events and programmes.

This year at PCC we have had to take a close look at what we’re doing after Bob and Tina left. We have stabilised the situation but we need to strengthen as well. We identified that we are a family church so we’re doing simple things to strengthen that. But there is more work to do in reaching unchurched families and in the areas of youth and children’s ministry. Here we have to strengthen.

Remember 

We are commanded many times to remember in the Bible, one count I saw was 352. 

Deuteronomy 32:7

“Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you:

Ask an old person if they remember the good old days and they’ll tell you. Remember what it was like when you were first a Christian or when you first came to PCC? What did we do then and are we doing it now? When a Church has a bad diagnosis from Jesus, it doesn’t need to do new things, the prescription is to go back to what it did at first. 

If you are older like me, I’m sure you will remember that life was a lot less complicated when you were young and I bet it was when you first became a Christian too. What did you do back then? Maybe you started going to a home group, or read your Bible and took notes or went to Church twice on a Sunday. Maybe you were involved in a youth group mission or witnessing.

My Dad recalled to me this week of when our family first started going to Papatoetoe Baptist in 1974 and a new minister came in 1975, Gerard Marks and his wife Heather from Balclutha. Papatoetoe Baptist was a church of 500 back then, so the previous minister Foster Sherburd had done an excellent job but it was a big job for Gerard and there was no one else. By the way, Foster Sherburd had introduced the idea of all age Sunday Schools throughout New Zealand which was for adults and kids outside of the regular Church service. It was kind of back to basics but it bore fruit which was evidenced at Papatoetoe. When Gerard came in, he slowly built a team of pastors and the Church was strengthened and we can see that strength continue to our day with Manukau City Baptist. I’m not saying PCC should do that but we should always remember what we did at the beginning of PCC because I remember walking into our Church and thinking it was breath of fresh air.

Hold Fast and Repent

Hold fast means to hold tightly and firmly. It means to stay strong, do what is right, see it through, no surrender, stay true, continue to believe, this too shall pass, grit it out. 

When you’ve ended up in hospital because you’re sick, the road to recovery can be long. Maybe you can only eat a little at first, maybe you can only walk to the letterbox without getting puffed out. But holding fast means persevering as you turn things around. It will be small steps at first, it will take time but you have to keep doing the right things to get well again.

Same with repentance. It’s a decision to walk the opposite way to the direction you were going. It doesn’t mean you are perfect from day one. It doesn’t mean you won’t stumble but it does mean you’re going away from the old ways towards Jesus. He is the Way the Truth and the Life and he is worth the struggle.

And Jesus does promise the power to overcome. The message of the early church was to repent and be baptised for your sins.

I know that some of you want to get baptised and we are having a baptismal service the last week in August on the 27th.

Romans 6:1-4

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Jesus makes a promise to the overcomers. 

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.

There is the promise for the overcomer that their name will remain in the book of life and not be erased. This warning of having your name blotted out appears in Exodus, in Deuteronomy, in Psalms and in Revelation so it is to be taken seriously. The overcomer will wear white garments that symbolise their pure character because their sins have been washed away. 

Yes, after the pruning in winter and the repentance from sin, we see a newness of life, we see new green shoots coming through in Spring.

Doctors orders. Let’s pray.