Sermon     

I heard recently on the radio a mental awareness advert in which two men were describing their week-ends. One was boasting about how he had scored six goals as a defender. The advert ended by suggesting that the man was depressed and that his outward boasting was a contradiction of his inward reality. As we come to study the church at Sardis we see a similar situation. Outwardly it looks as things were going well in this church a conclusion that would have been confirmed by other congregations. It was probably a large congregation for those days and growing, with lots of people and programmes. It was a church living on its past reputation but failing to look at its present reality. Here is a call to reality! To-day we are going to look at and learn from Christ’s rebuke, Christ’s remedy and Christ’s reward.

Firstly there is Christ’s rebuke in verse 1. This church at Sardis had acquired a name. Its reputation as a progressive church was well known in the area especially among the other six churches. No mention is made of people like Balaam or Jezebel, no there was every indication of life and vigour. But as noted in our introductory illustration outward appearances are notoriously deceptive and Jesus says to this church ‘you are dead.’v1. You see this reputation they had acquired was a reputation with human beings and not with God or to quote v2 ‘in the sight of my God.’ This distinction between reputation and reality is of great importance to every period and place. We need to remember the words in 1 Samuel 16; 7, ‘The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.’ The Bible says much about this distinction between reputation or reality, outward appearance and inwardly actuality, seen for example later in the OT with these words recorded by Isaiah 29; 13. ‘These people come near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’ Then progressing into the NT Jesus actually used these words to describe the Pharisees who had a reputation with no reality, religion but no relationship. Matthew 6; 1-6. Then even later in the Bible we read in 2 Timothy 3; 5, about some ‘having a form of godliness but denying its power.’ So we can trace this tendency throughout the bible, reputation without reality. The correct word for this behaviour is hypocrisy, originally the hypocrites was an actor who plays a part on the stage but the word can be applied to any charlatan or pretender. Hypocrisy is make believe and it can and does penetrate the church as we see in the Church at Sardis and so Christ’s rebuke. Now given that the church is Christians, the challenge is this; is their reality to our reputation of being a Christian seen in our behaviour? If not Jesus says to us as a church what he said to Sardis, ‘you are dead.’ Jesus himself acknowledged the possibility of being physically alive but spiritually dead when he said ‘let the dead bury their own dead.’ Paul described unbelievers as ‘dead in transgressions and sins.’ Jesus is the foundation and fount of all spiritual life. John the author of Revelation, the Epistles and the Gospel records these words of Jesus about Jesus. ‘I am the way the truth and the LIFE.’ 14; 6. ‘I tell you the truth a time is coming and now has come when the DEAD will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will LIVE.’ 5; 25. Are you hearing v6? Are you living? Is there a reality to your reputation of being a Christian seen in this congregation? Let’s get real and stop kidding ourselves. Yes we may kid others with our hypocrisy but not Jesus who sees and rebukes. Jesus’ rebuke!

With some relief we turn secondly from Jesus’ rebuke to Jesus’ remedy which includes five imperatives or commands which fall into two parts as seen in v2 and then v3. Firstly in v2 the church is commanded to, ‘Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die.’ Within this congregation there was a godly remnant, seen at the beginning of the Old Testament at the time of the flood with Noah and his family. And also in the NT with Jesus seen in his sayings of a ‘little flock’ in an ‘adulterous and sinful generation.’ In Sardis it was obviously a small flock seen in the words ‘few people’ in v4. While there is no condemnation of these people it is to these people that Christ gives this command, ‘Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die.’ Now notice how the metaphor has changed from death to sleep. You cannot appeal to a dead man to wake up and so some church members were sleep rather than dead. Again this is a reality call wake up out of your sleep. Some in Sardis and no doubt some here need to wake up to reality. To wake up means to be watchful. Jesus told his followers to watch, indeed to watch and pray, to be dressed ready for service with their lamps burning and be like people waiting and watching for their master to return. Luke 12; 35-37. The call is to wake up from sleep and strengthen what remains. The word used for strength here can mean nurture as seen in Acts 18; 23. Romans 1; 11. The strong mature Christians in any congregation are normally in the minority, but what a ministry of nurturing and maturity the majority. God often works through minorities and an alive and awake minority can be used not only to strengthen sleeping Christians but spread the gospel to dead unbelievers. There is a message here for those who belong to what is sometimes called a ‘dead church’ and who are tempted to leave it and go elsewhere. Off course we do have to leave a church which denies the fundamentals of the faith, because that is apostasy and no longer a church. But what about a church that is orthodox but sleeping seemingly dead? Christ says ‘strengthen what remains.’ A dynamic minority of awakened and strong Christians is able by prayer, love and witness both to preserve a sleeping/dying church from extinction and fan its flames into a fire. The second set of divine commands to the church at Sardis and to us in L/W is found in v3, ‘Remember therefore what you have received and heard; obey it and repent.’ There is a link between the first and final words remember and repent. ‘The shortest road to repentance is remembrance.’ Stott. However they are to remember what they received. What did they receive? Obviously they had received the scriptures, but some scholars suggest this includes the Spirit as suggested by the first verse of the chapter. But who are or what are ‘the seven spirits of God’? Answer; ‘There can be little doubt that it denotes none other than the Holy Spirit himself.’ Stott. Indeed more evidence for such an interpretation is found in chapter 1; 4 and the introductory words to all seven churches. Here the seven spirits are linked to God the Father and God the Son. This leads to the question; ‘why then is the expression “seven spirits” used when the Holy Spirit is one person in the Godhead?’ Answer; Trench. Such refers not so much to his personal unity as his many ministries. God the Holy Spirit convicts, conforms, inspires interprets, equips and enthuses. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ Romans 8; 9 and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of life. Romans 8; 2. He is the Life and life giver. This is the message that every sleeping Christian or church needs to hear. Christians and the Christian Church need to remember that we have received the Holy Spirit when we received Jesus as our Saviour. He the Holy Spirit enters our human personality and changes us from within, he subdues our passions, and transforms us to be more like Christ. He gives us the power to both believe and behave. Collectively as the church we need to be reminded that He the Holy Spirit can transform our worship, work and witness. Yes the scriptures which we also received tells us to pray in the Spirit, preach in the Spirit, worship in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit. Jude 20, 1 Thess.1; 5, John 4; 24, Phil 3; 3, Gal. 5; 25, 16. A stale church /Christian can be refreshed by the Spirit, a sleepy church/Christian awakened and a weak church/Christian strengthened. Remember what you have received! The Scriptures and the Spirit. Verse 2 speaks about the seven spirits but also the seven stars which we know from earlier studies refer to the churches. 1; 16 20. Yes the seven stars/churches are in God’s right hand. Are the seven spirits in his left? When the two hands come together we have a spirit filled church. God did this at Pentecost, once and for all and is adequate for all the church’s needs. There can be no repetition of Pentecost, when the Spirit came he came to stay forever. John 14; 16. However although He can never withdraw his presence altogether, He can be grieved and even quenched. Eph 4; 30 & 1 Thess. 5; 19. This was obviously a problem for some in the Church at Sardis. They had forgotten what they had received, the Holy Spirit. This is a timely reminder for to-day’s church and Paul’s command to Christians ‘Be filled with the Spirit.’ Eph 5; 18. This command is in the present imperative passive which means keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is not a single or separate experience it is to be an ongoing experience, ‘being in the state of being filled.’ We must ‘keep in step with the Spirit.’ Gal; 5; 25 and to do this we need daily to empty ourselves of self and sin and be filled with the Spirit. Such will revolutionise our lives as Christians and a Church. You don’t have to be a Pentecostal to believe in the Holy Spirit, yes as Presbyterians we don’t subscribe to their views on the all gifts of the Spirit and we perhaps have more emphasis on the fruits of the Spirit. No our emphasis is not on the spectacular and special gifts if they exist but rather the power the Holy Spirit gives to speak to our family and friends about Jesus and the power to speak to God in prayer at a prayer-meeting, which must include the sentiments of the song; ‘O breath of Life come sweeping through us, revive your church with life and power, O breath of life come cleanse renew us and fit your church to meet this hour.’

Christ’s rebuke v1, Christ’s remedy v2, thirdly and finally there is Christ’s reward v5. Once again the letter ends with a promise or rather promises. Both really have to do with destination, the first seen in the twice repeated term in v4&5 ‘dressed in white.’ White is a frequent colour of this Book of Revelation, where we read of a white stone, a white cloud, white horses and a great white throne 2;17, 14;14, 19;11 14;20&21. It’s a promise about the destination of heaven, but it’s only to use the later words of Revelation 7; 14 22; 14, for those who have been made white by the blood of the Lamb. The second promise of Christ’s reward is also the destination of heaven as we read in v5. Scripture tells us that God has a book. While so much in Revelation this is symbolic, there is here a serious truth. God is keeping a register in which the names of his people are enrolled. It is called ‘the book (God) has written and the book of life’, and so the names of the spiritually dead are not found in this book. It is also a ‘scroll of remembrance’ containing the names of those who ‘feared the Lord and honoured his name’ Sometimes it is just ‘the book’ but more often ‘the Lamb’s book of life.’ (Exodus 32; 32. Ps 69; 28. Mal 3; 16. Daniel 12; 1. Phil 4; 3. Rev 20; 15. 13; 8. 21; 27.) One day the books will be opened and the dead will be judged by what is written in the books and everyone whose name is not found written in the book of life will be ‘thrown into the lake of fire’ Rev 20;11-25. It is a solemn truth that we can have on names on a church communion roll but not in God’s register. Jesus told his disciples to rejoice that their names were ‘written in Heaven.’ Luke 10; 20/Heb. 12; 23. However Christ’s reward to his people is that he will not blot out their name from the book of life. The Greek has a double negative here and could read; ‘I will never by any means blot out his name.’ Toplady puts it like this; ‘My name from the palms of his hand eternity will not erase, impressed on his heart it remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes I to the end shall endure as sure as the earnest is given, more happy but not more secure the glorified spirits in heaven.’ Indeed far from removing his people name from the register of heaven, Christ promises to confess it before his father and the angels seen in his words in the gospels of Matthew 10;32 & Luke 12;8 ‘Whoever acknowledges me before men I will also acknowledge him before my Father in Heaven’ and ‘before the angels of God.’ So the letter closes with Christ’s reward having commenced with Christ’s rebuke and between the two Christ’s remedy. Is there reality to our reputation of being a Christian and a Christian church? The issues are too serious to play the hypocrite we cannot afford to trifle with God or dabble in religion. It’s all about a personal living relationship with Christ which must be seen collectively as a congregation. Let’s get real and stop kidding ourselves. Are you a Christian, filled with the living Spirit of God as seen in our worship, and witness, and then one day wearing white garments walking with Christ in heaven and our names indelibly inscribed in the book of life? Or are you not a Christian whose name is not found written in the book of life? Well the reality is and I quote the truth of scripture you will be ‘thrown into the lake of fire.’ But that need not be the case and so the call goes out again, God forbid the final call to someone, come to Christ and be part of his church in this congregation and then one day in his church in Heaven. To that end may God bless his words to the church at Sardis to the church in Loughmourne and Woodburn.