Sermon Notes

February 18, 2024

The Church in Sardis

Revelation 3:1-6

There is an old saying that goes, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”. If the ancient city of Sardis had a slogan, that should have been it. You see, this city had a strange history that seemed to keep repeating itself over and over again. The city of Sardis was known as a very well fortified city ― a city that looked like it would be all but impossible to conquer. However, in 549 BC, the unthinkable happened. The guards on the city’s mighty watchtowers had gotten lax and had fallen asleep during their watch and Cyrus the Great took the city while they were sleeping. The city was once again conquered in 218 BC by Antiochus III supposedly because of the exact same situation ― the guards had once again fallen asleep on their watch. This city had an outward appearance and a reputation that made it seem impossible to overtake, but history says otherwise. It’s in this context of the history of Sardis that Jesus references when He writes to the church in Sardis.

Revelation 3:1-6
Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis. This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold onto it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief. Yet there are some in the church in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes with evil. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

The church had the same problem as the city they were located in. From the outside they looked like they had everything together, but in reality they were in a lot of trouble. Jesus told them that they had a good reputation from those looking on from the outside, but in fact when you looked at them on the inside they were dead. Unlike the other churches that we have looked at, Jesus had nothing good to say about the church located in Sardis. He tells them that they are not living up to the standard that God has set for His church. This was serious because it does not matter what the world or the surrounding community thinks of a church, the only thing that matters is what God thinks of a church. These believers are part of His church and He promises them that He will discipline them when needed and it will come at a time they are not expecting it. Jesus is a God of second chances, so despite the fact that He sees them as dead, He tells them how to fix their issue with a simple command ― WAKE UP!!!

How can one wake the dead? Isn’t that impossible? Not with Jesus. It's a command that only Jesus can give and cause the dead to respond. It was a similar command that Jesus gave to Lazarus as he laid in his grave. It’s the command that Jesus gave to us who were once dead in our sins and He calls us to come alive. This is the same command Jesus is giving to this church in Sardis. Come alive and take over the watch once again (referring to the folly of those who watched over the city). Something had caused this church to die and in the context of the entire letter it seems very probable that it was because they kept doing church without the Holy Spirit leading them. Maybe they just kept doing things the way they always had, not because it pleased God but because it had worked in the past. This would look great to outsiders, but not so much to the one who declares that He knows their very intentions and their every thought. The great pastor of old, Vance Havner once wrote concerning churches: God chooses a man, God uses that man and it turns into a movement. That movement will then turn into a machine, and that machine will fail and the only thing that will be left is a monument. It seemed this was a good description of the church in Sardis. They had left behind any movement of God in their midst and were either in the machine or monument stage. The worst part of all is that, for the most part, those who were part of that church were fine with it. Like we said before, praise God that He is a God of second chances. Jesus told the church what they must do in order to come back to life and meet the standards God has set for His church ― that was to go back to what they had heard and believed at first and hold to it firmly. That’s the cure for a dead church, that’s Jesus’ cure for a dead church and it's the solution to make sure that we, as members of God’s church, don't find ourselves in the same place that the church in Sardis did. How are we supposed to do this? What are we supposed to hold onto? In order to answer this, we need to go back to the first church, the church in Acts 2 that was formed right after Pentecost. It’s in this church that we will see what Jesus was calling the church at Sardis to and what we need to hold fast to in order to make sure we will never be labeled a dead church.

A Church that is Alive is Devoted to God’s Word. - Acts 2:42a

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching …

At the end of Peter's first sermon that was recorded in the first part of Acts 2, we see that about 3,000 people responded to the Gospel and were miraculously saved. The Gospel that moved these 3,000 was the same Gospel that those who made up the church in Sardis had heard and believed in at first. The Gospel was what Jesus was commanding them to go back for. It's the Gospel that brings life to all churches through the Holy Spirit. Being all about the Gospel should be the primary focus of every church. It’s this focus on the Gospel that will drive the church into behaviors that are pleasing to God and that is what we should be clinging to. What are some of those things that we need to make sure we never neglect and cling to in our churches? Again, we can look at what the Gospel motivated the church to first do in the later part of Acts 2.

The first thing we are told the Act 2 church did was to devote themselves to the apostles' teachings. This church did not have the Scriptures like we do, they didn’t even have Paul’s epistles yet. What they did have were eyewitnesses to the resurrection that were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were the ones that taught them the truths that they had heard first hand from Jesus during His earthly ministry and from the risen Savior. That’s exactly what Peter’s sermon was and they devoted themselves to it. Notice that they were not just learning these teachings, but were devoted to them. Devotion to something is much more significant because devotion changes your behavior, just like the Gospel did to these new believers. Why were they so devoted to these teachings? I think there is a word that we see mentioned over and over again in relation to the church in the book of Acts that will help us to understand why they were so devoted to Biblical Teachings and that word is “Daily”.

They met daily (Acts 2:46).
Won souls daily (Acts 2:47).
Cared daily (Acts 6:1).
Increased in number daily (Acts 16:5).
Searched the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11).

This wasn’t only a weekly thing they did, it was something they focused on daily. They did it daily because the Gospel was a reality to them and a part of their everyday lives. They had experienced resurrection power in their lives through the Holy Spirit and they were changed forever. That’s why they were so devoted to God’s Word, because they knew there was power in those words and they were 100% sold out for its message. That’s why Jesus told the church to go back to the beginning, so they would remember the power that is in the Gospel and how it had changed them forever. They would be devoted to it and not in anything else that was motivating them at the moment. This is not the only place in the New Testament that we see the church or its leaders commanded to hold onto God's Word and sound doctrine. We see Paul mention it many times in his Pastoral epistles (Titus 1:9-2:1,1 Timothy 6:3-4, 2 Timothy 3:15-17). As we have said many times, God’s Word is the most important foundational principle that the church must hold tight to and never make concessions for it. Like we mentioned, a devotion to God’s Word changes behavior and this wasn’t the only thing that the Act 2 church did as a result of the Gospel. It’s not the only thing that Jesus wants us to hold on to as His church.

2. A Church that is Alive is committed to Worship. - Acts 2:42
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
The next thing that is mentioned is an overflow of the Acts 2 church’s understanding of the reality of the Gospel. It happens because of their devotion to it, and that overflow we call worship. Their worship in Acts 2 takes a few different forms. We see it manifest itself in fellowship, participation in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, and in prayer. Since we will be visiting fellowship a little more in depth as this chapter concludes, I want to focus on the two other things that are mentioned here in the 42nd verse. The first thing that is mentioned is the Lord’s Supper, which is one of two ordinances that Jesus passed on to the Apostles and was recorded in detail in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 13. It was given so that we remember what Jesus has done for us on the cross and that we are under a new covenant of grace. The Acts 2 church didn’t participate in the Lord’s Supper because they had to, they did it because they wanted to. They wanted to be reminded over and over what Jesus had done for them and how it had changed them forever. It was an act of worship to carry out the Lord’s Supper when they gathered together. The Lord’s Supper provided a moment of quiet reflection and thanksgiving for what Jesus did for them when He shed His blood on the cross. It was part of the overflow of the Gospel. They wanted to be reminded and never forget the sacrifice of Jesus for which they were eternally grateful. There was another form of worship, some say the highest form of worship, that came out of the Acts 2 church and that was prayer. Many times we don’t think about prayer as worship, but it is. It’s an acknowledgement that we are dependent on God for everything. It’s an acknowledgement that we look to God for our future (hope), it’s an acknowledgement of who God is and we praise Him for that. This is what Jesus laid out for us when He taught His disciples how to pray in what we call the Lord’s Prayer. At its core, when we pray correctly, we are worshiping God. When the church forgets what Jesus did for us and the weight of that sacrifice, we will tend to lose true worship and we will find ourselves just going through the motions of worship in all its forms. Anytime we lose true worship in our hearts, we are at risk of being dead. We need to return and hold onto the Gospel and let it lead us into true worship. Church, WAKE UP!!!

3. A Church that is Alive is committed to Fellowship. - Acts 2:42-47
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity. All the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

The other thing mentioned in verse 42 was the church devoted themselves to fellowship. This is the first time we see the word fellowship or “koinonia” used in scripture. It’s because this type of fellowship only happens when it is Spirit led. Most of the time when we think of fellowship we think of just coming together and hanging out and having a good time, but when we look at scripture we see fellowship as something that is a little different. Paul tells us in

2 Corinthians 13:14 that it is a work of the Holy Spirit. That’s something that I’m not sure we would ever equate with fellowship ― it being a work of the Spirit. 1 John 1:3 tells us that in order to have fellowship within the church, you must first have fellowship with God. That means you must be saved in order to have the type of fellowship that the church was participating in. Here in these verses we also see something that is key when it comes to fellowship in the church. It requires giving and sharing experiences together. True fellowship costs something. It's service to one another, it’s hurting when others hurt, it’s celebrating when others celebrate and it’s everyone coming together to give generously to one another. When they do, they experience Spirit-led fellowship. We live in a consumer driven society and that bleeds over a lot into our churches more than it should. Many times we come to church to see what we can get, but we never think “What can I give or how can I serve someone else today?”. This is something the church at Sardis was evidently missing. I worry it is something our churches today are starting to miss. We are missing true fellowship. Church, WAKE UP!!!

4. A Church that is Alive is committed to Evangelism. - Acts 2:47
all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

The most important characteristic of a church that is alive is mentioned to finish out this chapter. Everyday the Lord was adding to the church's numbers and it wasn’t because they were just faithful in all the things we have spoken of so far, but rather it was because they were also faithful to the great commission. In the first chapter of Acts as Jesus ascended, the angel that was addressing the Apostles told them ― Jesus is coming back, NOW GO! This church did just that. To go means that you can’t just be inwardly focused but rather you must go unto all nations and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teach them all the things of Jesus. This was a command this church was taking to heart. They wanted others to know the life changing power of the Gospel of Jesus. We need to notice it was the Lord who was saving people not the people. It was the church who was being faithful to share the Gospel just as Jesus told them to. Their motivation for evangelism was just like their motivation for everything else we had seen them do. They were motivated by the reality of what they had experienced when they were saved. People being saved is always a sign of a healthy church. A church whose members are always sharing their faith in obedience will always see lives changed. The Acts 2 churches were focused outwardly knowing that there is a world that needs Jesus and they didn’t want to keep the truth of His Gospel to themselves.

It’s in the Acts 2 church that we see what Jesus was calling the church in Sardis to do in order to come back to life and that was to be Spirit-led into obedience. There was an unnamed author who once wrote a great synopsis of what the church in Sardis needed. They said, where the Spirit reigns, believers relate to the Word through teaching. Where the Spirit reigns, believers relate to each other through fellowship. Where the Spirit reigns, believers relate to God through worship. Where the Spirit reigns, believers relate to the world through evangelism. That’s what the church needed to do to come alive. That’s what we as His church need to do, in order to stay alive and not just look like it. When we find ourselves in a place where we are dead or dying, we need to do just as Jesus commanded the church then, we need to ― WAKE UP!!!

« Previous 1 … 78 79 80 81 82 … 195 Next »

Sermon Notes

The Church in Sardis

Revelation 3:1-6

GATHER | GROW | SERVE | SHARE

MENU

RESOURCES

MINISTRIES