When you read first three chapters of Revelation, Jesus speaks to John on the seven churches. One of my earlier blogs was on “Church of Laodicea” where I had written about “Lukewarm”. All the 7 churches are very relevant to today’s world out of which I found “Church of Sardis” more relevant to many of us, who live a Christian life which is dead without any action.
Jesus spoke the below words to John - The Church of Sardis which is explained in Revelation 3:1-6
' “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. ' Revelation 3:1-3
Sardis: the ancient city of Sardis, it’s the capital city of Lydia, we read about Lydia in Ezekiel 27:10, it had seen its best days and had started to decline. Yet it was a wealthy city, situated at the junction of several important roads and trade routes.
When we read these words about “church”, don’t understand these words to be for someone or some church. These are words of each of us as individuals who may have these characters that we live and exhibit.
Jesus View of Sardis Church
' “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ' Revelation 3:1
“I know your deeds”: As Jesus said to each church, He also said to Sardis. What a church is and what a church does is never hidden from Jesus. Same is true to us as well, who we are and what we do is never hidden from God. We may live a life in public and another in private, but he knows our external and internal side on each of us.
“You have reputation of being alive”: Jesus knew the church at Sardis had a name – that is, a reputation – of life and vitality. Each of us have different personalities, God sees our face of reputation that we have had and the good face that he thinks is still alive, but because the roots are not strong the reputation is not coming alive.
“But you are dead”: Jesus saw them for what they really were. But you are dead shows that a good reputation or name or recognition that people have is no guarantee of true spiritual character. Reputation is what everybody thinks you are. Integrity is what you are when you are all alone with God and God is interested not in our reputation rather, he is interested in our character. So, despite their good appearance, Jesus saw them as dead.
So, what makes us Dead when we still have a reputation of being alive in Christ?
The pleasures of Money and the pleasures of the world, we tend to think that the money and the blessing we get from Jesus will save us more than following Jesus.
There is a sense that many of us think that Jesus is telling he is coming, but he has never showed up, some of us may think I have heard his coming from my Childhood days still he has not come, so let me continue to live the life that’s attached to the world. We live two lives one for the world and one in the church. As we live a life close to world, the spiritual life is dead without any actions.
What are the signs of dead that Jesus calls in us?
Jesus has explained this with a simple parable in Matthew
' “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 'Matthew 13:18-21
You are excited when you hear the word of God, when someone preaches or when you read the word of God “The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.” This is what Jesus tells as the character of “You have reputation of being alive”
The word does not travel to us and creates the actions that God wants us to transform as we have lost the root of God. “But since they have no root, they last only a short time.”
When you walk with God Spiritually and obey his commands, the Peace of God guards you from being anxious on situation of persecution / trouble. His peace guards us from impulsive things that the world asks us to do. This is what Matthew explains as “When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away”
We turn to be like a hard soil that’s dead outside, as our dependence is on the world’s pleasures, we are dead spiritually but pretend to live a Godly life outside.
Jesus Warning for Sardis Church
'Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. ' Revelation 3:2
Wake Up - Be watchful: The first instruction from Jesus was “Strengthen what remains and is about to die “this tells us that though the spiritual condition of the church of Sardis was bad, it wasn’t hopeless. Spiritually, there were things which remain that could be strengthened. Jesus had not given up on them, and though it was late (that are ready to die) it was not too late. Same is true to us, we may have given up hope on ourselves, but Jesus sees many things in us that can be reviewed, as he sees many deeds that what we do are right in his eyes. It’s never too late, the reason he has delayed his 2nd coming is for us to come close to him. Your life may be like a hard soil, only the word of God can prune the hard soil and strengthen you to come close to him.
'Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 'Revelation 3:3
“Remember therefore what you have received and heard:” Very relevant to many of us, we tend to get excited when we hear the message, but we forget after some time. As you read the Bible / listen to the word that God has spoken, try to make small step to follow what you read or hear from God. It will be difficult in beginning, ask God’s help, he is waiting to help you turn what you hear to put that into action. All you need is to ask God.
“Hold it fast and repent”: As you read the Bible, read it in such a way that it reaches deep into your heart, Satan will try every way to make you forget /distract by bringing things of the world. Don’t get carried away by the worldly things. The next thing that’s said is repent, to repent you need to come to recognition that you live in a sinful ways or ways that’s not pleasing to God. This can happen only if you hold the word of God firmly. Examine yourself what actions you do, how you live? is this according to his plans? Repent is not about asking sorry to Jesus, it’s about repenting and turning to his ways and our actions to keep away from the Sins we have committed in the past and walking according to the plans of God.
“I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you”: I will come like a thief is written many times in Bible, no thief comes with warning, similarly the 2nd coming of Jesus will not have warnings, his coming will be sudden. If we are living a life according to the world, we will lose out and not get the eternal life God has planned. So heed to his warning and come back, God has not given hope, there are still roots that he sees in us which he wants us to revive and come back to him.
Turn your Christian life to an action filled life to make the roots revive again.
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