Church Health #5 - Sardis - The Importance of Keeping
Watch
Date: Sunday, February 4, 2007
Author: Rev.
Jonathan K. Twitchell
Listen
to this sermon
This week as we continue to look at the letters to the seven churches in
the book of Revelation, we come to our fifth letter.
This letter was sent to
Sardis
, a city whose history we will review in a few moments in the hopes that it will
help us understand the message of the letter a bit better.
As I worked with this letter over the past couple of weeks, I was
reminded of a story that I share with you this morning.
On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks were plentiful, there was a
small lifesaving station. The
building in which this station was housed was nothing more than just a little
hut. The station was constantly
manned by volunteers and boasted a single boat, a couple of emergency cots and a
coffee pot. The few members of the
lifesaving station were quite active and without thought of their own comfort
went out to rescue those whose ships had gotten into trouble.
As time went on, people became increasingly interested in the little
lifesaving station and came by offering to help and providing support.
These new members were trained and added into the rotation of the work.
The new members after a while became dissatisfied with their little hut
and began to work on it in their spare time.
They added a couple of room, brought in beds to replace the cots, bought
some new boats, installed a kitchen, warm shower.
All in all the little hut became quite a nice place to bring those who
needed to be rescued.
Soon this lifesaving station became a nice gathering place for the crews.
They met there for further training that they needed or just to discuss
the events of their last shift, or just to come and hang out for a while.
As time went on, the members grew in number, but fewer who were actually
trained for the rescue efforts. It
got to the point that the station had to hire crews to man the boats for the
rescue efforts. The station it self
became a place of some elegance with the decorations that had been added.
One night a rather large ship floundered and a large number of people who
were rescued. These people were
struggling, being cold and sick, wet and dirty.
They were all taken care of, but at the next meeting of the lifesaving
station membership this became an issue. On
one side of the issue were those who proposed stopping the rescues altogether
because of the interference with the clubs social life.
On the other side were those who strongly wanted to continue with the
main purpose of their club, the rescues. Ultimately,
it was decide that the club would split with the latter group establishing their
own lifesaving station down the coast a ways.
The new station was started and after a few years, the same thing
occurred. Now, if one were to visit
this particular coastline, they would see a whole line of exclusive clubs lining
the shore. There are still
shipwrecks and people drown because no one is keeping a watch.
The City of
Sardis
failed to learn from its own history and as such became a city that William
Barclay describes as being ‘…wealthy but degenerate.”
The city of
Sardis
was established on a high (perhaps about 1500 feet) plateau that overlooked the
river Hermus near
Mount
Tmolus
. It was early in its history
perhaps the wealthiest city there was. The
most renowned of the Sardian kings while acknowledging the wealth of his city,
sought for more and chose to engage in battle with the Persian king.
This battle was not well planned and
Sardis
had to retreat to their plateau. The
Persian army followed and besieged
Sardis
by conquering the lower portion of the city (the overgrowth from the plateau
had located at its base). The king
still confident in the natural defenses and resources of the city on the plateau
did not insist on a watchful army, for who would be able to get to the city
except by the well guarded road along the ridge from the mountain.
A soldier of the Persian army observed a Sardian soldier climb down the
plateau a ways to retrieve his dropped helmet.
After the discovery that the column forming the plateau could be scaled,
it didn’t take long for the Persian army to overrun
Sardis
. The army of
Sardis
had not kept watch at the perimeter of their plateau and the Persian army was
able to just walk into the city without a challenge.
Sardis
lost its splendor and place for many years.
Ultimately, Alexander the Great laid claim to
Sardis
and under the Greek rule,
Sardis
was restored to a city of great wealth, though by no means as magnificent as it
had been. Following the death of
Alexander,
Sardis
once again was overtaken and once again by virtue of not keeping watch.
Rome
eventually took
Sardis
over and the city continued to be a city of wealth.
In A.D. 17, apparently an earthquake destroyed the city.
The Roman emperor, Tiberius gave the city a 5 year period of tax amnesty
and the money with which to rebuild. The people of the city didn’t really have
to put forth any effort to rebuild. They
got out of this physical disaster easy. By
the time John, as the scribe of Christ wrote this letter to
Sardis
the city was as Barclay described it. The
church in
Sardis
was also in some trouble as is noted in the letter.
Let us now look at the letter itself.
1"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. 2Wake
up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your
deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember,
therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, 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. 4Yet
you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will
walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5He
who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his
name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and
his angels. 6He who has
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The words at the outset of this letter are strong, “you have the
reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
This describes the problem in the church at
Sardis
. Apparently, with the wealth of the
city and the lack of effort that they needed to take in rebuilding after the
earthquake, the Christians also kind of got caught up in the prevailing
attitude. The church had become
lethargic and lacked influence in
Sardis
.
How did the church get to this state of being?
By not keeping watch on their call, or their faith and by allowing the
influence of the society in which they lived to infiltrate the church itself.
Jesus, in beginning this letter is asserting his full authority and
letting the church at
Sardis
know that the Holy Spirit in His full presence, influence and power is calling
the church back to its work. The
Christians in
Sardis
needed to give this letter their full attention and hear what the Lord was
saying. The initial call to the
church is to wake up and get back to work. He
tells them clearly that they are not finished with the work to which He has
called them.
This almost sounds like a letter of last resort for the church at
Sardis
. They have already received what
they need to fulfill their purpose as a church and are being called to remember
what they had already received and learned.
The call to the church in this letter is to wake up!
This is particularly meaningful to the church given the history of
Sardis
itself, having been defeated twice due to the lack of watchfulness or
“sleepiness” of their army. It
seems that the church is well on its way to being defeated for much the same
reasons. Jesus tells them to Wake up
and strengthen that which remains and is about to die.
They are to remember what they had received and heard.
They had already received Christ Himself of course and the gift of
salvation that God has given to us all. They
had heard the gospel and the call of God on their lives.
In this act of remembering, they hopefully will experience again the
initial joy and thrill of knowing how much God loved them and still does.
They are once again being called to repent of their current ways of
living and to obey again the Risen Christ in all they do.
It is easy for one to be influenced by the culture in which they live,
particularly if they do not practice the disciplines of the Christian life.
These include keeping the Word of God a central part of their lives,
keeping the relationship with God much alive and continuing in the fellowship
with other believers.
The warning for the Sardian Christians is in keeping with Christ’s
teaching in Luke where he tells the parable of the thief in the night and tells
us that He too will come when we don’t expect him.
The intent of this warning in this fifth of the seven letters is to
remind the Sardis Christians to be watchful and ready for His coming.
There was much wrong with the church in
Sardis
. It was essentially a stagnant
church. It was not a church that one
would call healthy. So far, we have
seen the things that were wrong, primarily their lethargic state of affairs.
They were not being as principled as one might expect of the church and
their influence had all but disappeared.
We now move on in the letter and notice that there was some hope there in
Sardis
. The Risen Christ in writing this
letter notices that there are those in
Sardis
who are keeping things alive and active within the church.
These, He says, will be clothed in white and walk with Him, because they
are worthy. They have kept the Word
alive and have not strayed from their first love of Christ.
This good news of hope within the church is followed by even better news.
It is possible for those who had fallen by the wayside and become
lethargic and not watchful to become overcomers.
There are three promises here for those who overcome:
- The overcomers will also be clothed in
white. The white robes in the
times that this letter was written represented festivity, purity, victory
and for the Christian, the newness that the resurrection promises to us.
- The overcomer’s names will never be
blotted out of the book of life. To
have one’s name in the book of life is to be counted amongst the faithful
citizens of God’s kingdom.
- Jesus will proclaim the names of the
overcomers before God the Father and his angels.
These are awesome
promises. They each illuminate the
hope of being in Christ. The hope is
expressed in our freedom from and victory over sin, the promise ultimately
coming into the fullness of the
Kingdom
of
God
and the joy of being received as God’s children.
One of the things that didn’t happen in
Sardis
is that the believer’s failed to keep the spark of faith alive and it almost
died out. The importance of keeping
to the basics of our faith cannot be overstated.
If we allow our sight to be averted and pay undo attention to alternative
beliefs and values, we begin to dilute our faith and can become lethargic in the
process. If this happens, we void
our claim on the promises of the gospel and our hope.
The call to
Sardis
was to remember and repent. In so
doing, they would be able to be restored to the promises to which they once held
claim. We are blessed with the fact
that God is a God of great grace and that if we do at times fail to recall the
promises of the gospel, or the work that Christ has done for us, or even our
very salvation, we have the Holy Spirit who continues to walk with us and can
redirect our lives, enabling us to overcome.
The Spirit will be with us in the fullness of His power and presence.
We have only to avail ourselves of His Presence so that we might continue
to overcome and claim the ongoing victory that is ours in Christ.
We have only to keep watch and stay awake, awaiting the Risen Christ’s
return.
The lifesaving stations on that seacoast were guilty of not keeping watch
and failing to fulfill their purpose. The
church at
Sardis
all but failed to keep watch and therein did not fulfill its purpose.
A key principle of a healthy church is to keep watch and thereby keep the
faith fresh and vital. “He, who
has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.
Benediction: Now
to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according
to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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