To the Church at Sardis
History
Sardis was named after a fiery red stone found near the city, and it also represented Israel’s firstborn son Reuben. In addition, it was the first stone used in the breastplate of the high priests. The city was 30 miles southeast of Thyatira in a fertile valley that meant “those escaping”. It was also on a hill 1,500 feet above the valley below, which meant it could only be attacked from the south and this made the residents of Sardis extremely overconfident. History shows that the city of Sardis was under constant conquest, and it was first taken over by the Cimmerians in the 7th Century, but later captured by the Persians. The Persians were empire builders so under their rule Sardis became the ending point for the Royal Road that led to Persepolis. Eventually it was surrendered to Alexander the Great, and later fell to Antiochus in 218 B.C. When this letter was written to the Church at Sardis it was securely in the hands of the Roman Empire, and it was the major hub between several major cities of its day. Having been built on a plateau high above the Hermus Valley, the city was a natural fortress with only one road leading into the city. However, it grew beyond the area that the plateau provided so a second city was built in the flatlands below it and this is why the name of the town went from “Sard” to “Sardeis” or “Sardis”. The city received gold from the Pactolus River and when mixed with silver it made Electrum, which was used to make plating for pagan statues and idols. The town was so wealthy just before the Persian takeover that King Croesus became the person behind the legend of ’King Midas’. However, the king was captured by Cyrus all his wealth was taken by the Persian Empire. During the reign of Tiberius Caesar (17 A.D) a massive earthquake destroyed both cities, however only the lower city was ever rebuilt. When John wrote his letter to the Church at Sardis in 96 A.D the population was roughly 120,000. According to some Biblical scholars Sardis was a representation of the Church from 1517 to 1750. In 1517 Martin Luther published his “Ninety- Five Theses” and put it on the door of the Church of Wittenberg in Germany. His “Theses” outlined his grievances against the Roman Catholic Church, and led to the Protestant Revolution and its breakaway from the Catholic Church.
To the Church at Sardis Write:
1) And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
2) Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
3) Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
4) Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5) He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 6) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Chapter 3 Verse 1
Jesus in this verse tells the Church at Sardis that it is He who holds the seven messengers and the seven Churches. However, he reveals to us that they are not obeying Him because this is the first Church that wasn’t commended for anything. If we look at the verse we see that right after Jesus declares His position he tells them that “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and are dead”. The first thing we notice is that Jesus tells them that even though they are physically “alive” they were in fact spiritually “dead”. If we look at the earlier Churches Ephesus had left its first love, Pergamum was known for its worldliness, Thyatira tolerated many sins, and finally they reached a new low at Sardis. Another aspect is that even though it isn’t written we can surmise that the Church of Sardis didn’t know that they were dead in His eyes. Finally, Jesus said by omission that the Church of Sardis had nothing good in their walk with God. Imagine that on the Day of Judgment that they as they plead their case the Lord’s reply is “Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you”. To me that is the scariest verse in the Bible because many on that day will say “But Lord we did this, and we did that”, and off they will go into eternity lost forever. So I have one question, are there churches like this is America today and if so would we recognize them? Remember the Church at Ephesus? Even though they had “left” their first love (became busy in the work and not in the relationship) they still on the whole doing the work of Jesus. However, Sardis not so much because once again Jesus said “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”.
Over time the Church of Sardis had compromised so much of itself with the pagan