Rev 3:1 "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. "'I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Rev 3:2 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.
Rev 3:3 Then remember how you received and heard, and keep, and repent. If, then, you do not watch, I will come upon you like a thief and you will not at all know what hour I come upon you.
Rev 3:5 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.
Rev 3:6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'
As per my usual, I did a lot of studying on the city of Sardis, and a lot of digesting commentators, to share this lesson. And I found out I really didn't need to.
The commentators compare this lettered Church to the 16th century on Protestant mainline- just as politically motivated and void of substance as the Catholic structure they had escaped. They draw the comparison to what happened to Sardis itself way back in 547 BC. You see, the city's army had been defeated in the field by the Persian overlord Cyrus; but the city itself was near impregnable, high on a mountain. It got to a point Cyrus offered a bounty to anyone who could show him the secret way in and out that kept the city supplied. One night, a dimwitted Sardian soldier dropped his helmet over the side. Instead of yelling, "Hey Dimitrius, gimme a new lid!", he snuck down the secret path to retrieve it- in full view of a Persian soldier about to get very rich. Thing was, even after this defeat, they still prided themselves on being unassailable- despite the fact the Romans did almost the same thing to them some 400 years later.
So I am seeing a church that thinks it's one thing when it's really another. And knowing we're coming up on Laodicea, which is another example of the same thing, I wondered, "Then what's the difference?"
And God told me: The difference is, Sardis as a church- and an example- is DEAD. No hope, no escape, except for some individuals. What makes them dead? Better question, what makes one ALIVE.
For one thing, you need to be breathing. The breath of a church is the Holy Spirit, and they were no longer drawing Him in. No inspiration, no gifts, just another business. Slap the name of Jesus Christ on us, and we're impregnable. Until you're not.
Another sign of life is being able to consume- to eat. Our food is the Word, the Word is the Bible. They weren't reading the Scriptures, or the Letters. Oh, they had them- just like I used to, in the back window of my car, for easy take out every Sunday, and sitting in the sun untouched the rest of the week.
Another, the ability to reproduce themselves. Like Ephesus, they were NOT making new believers. Heck, they barely believed themselves.
Finally, an ability to move, to work for the benefit of the organism. When they went to church, they didn't serve, they didn't pray. They just sat there, did their minimum to "get credit", and left.
Oh, and one more: The unique aspect of personality, of self-awareness. There was already three temples for Caesar-worship, along with the largest Jewish synagogue on the planet at the time. Don't like us? Plenty of other birds out there.
So next question: Why was Jesus even bothering with them? Because, hidden in the carcass, were some who were still alive, still doing their part. One of them was the Bishop Melito, a second-generation disciple of John, who even wrote to Marcus Aurelius as an equal. He, more than most, raised the banner of celebrating Easter at the same time as the Jewish Passover. That he lost this battle to Rome, who wanted the floating Sunday, shows that Sardis wasn't the only place where faith was dying out. But for every Melito was a basilica full of "butts in the pews" looking at their watches to see how close to kickoff it was.
