The church in Sardis is presented as a stark warning against spiritual deadness, despite having a reputation for being alive. The sermon draws parallels between the historically impregnable yet twice-conquered city of Sardis and a church that, like the city, had a glorious past but a decaying present. Jesus' message to Sardis, "you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead," highlights the danger of outward appearances without inner spiritual vitality. The sermon urges believers to be watchful, strengthen what remains, remember their foundations, hold fast to truth, and repent, lest their spiritual witness be extinguished.
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I know that in some of those places we would just find a pile of stones. In other places like Izmir, which is the modern name for Smyrna, we would find one of the modern cities of Turkey. But it would be interesting to travel to those seven sites where approximately two thousand years ago there were churches witnessing for God under difficult circumstances. We're going to make our last visit this morning to the city of Sardis. And before we make mention of it, let's read the portion in Revelation chapter three, the first six verses.
Revelation three and the first six verses. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write these things, says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found your works perfect before gone. Remember, therefore, how you have heard, how you have received and heard.
Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Now as we visit this morning this church in the city of Sardis, We come again to a city of secondary importance. It does not belong to the three great cities, Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamus. It would be more like the city of Thyatira. It is a city that has one outstanding feature. You may remember that we talked about Smyrna. Smyrna was right on the coast, and there was an acropolis there, a hill in the city. It was known as the Crown of Smyrna.
Some called it the Crown of Asia because of the beautiful buildings built on the slopes of that Acropolis. The Acropolis stood about five hundred feet. Then in the city of Pergamus, we found that there was an Acropolis that was a thousand feet in height, much larger, and it was covered with all the temples to the gods of Greek mythology. Now we're coming to this second-rate city. and it has an acropolis of fifteen hundred feet, perhaps the largest acropolis in those that we know of in Asia two thousand years ago.
It was an unusual acropolis because the signs were almost perpendicular. There was only one sign that had a slope, but it was covered with great boulders and rocks. It was very difficult, almost impossible. for an army to come up that slope. And because of the high Acropolis and the fort on the top, there was the sense that this place could never be penetrated. But in the history of that city, on two occasions, the impossible happened. In the year, five hundred and forty-nine BC, the king of Persia, Cyprus, came.
And one brave man alone, he scaled those perpendicular walls, unnoticed by the inhabitants, and slipped into the city, and was able to open the gates, and other men came in, and they took that city. To the surprise of the inhabitants. You might have thought they would have learned from that experience, but many years later, in the year two hundred and sixteen, it happened again. with Antioch the Great. He came and fifteen brave men. They scaled those perpendicular walls and they got into the city and they opened the gates and it was taken for a second time by enemies.
So their security, their confidence placed in those perpendicular walls did not assure them of safety. I just briefly want to mention this morning that Sardis was recognized in ancient history as one of the most powerful and secure cities in the world. It had a glorious past. Great temples were built there. One was particularly large and archaeologists in modern times have found the ruins of that temple. It was dedicated to the goddess that became known eventually as Artemis in Greek mythology. So you have a city with a glorious past but in the present it's lost its glory.
It is a second-rate city. In its history it was a very proud city, one of the last cities to yield to the influence of Alexander the Great and fall under Greek influence. It resisted for a long time, but the present situation in apostolic times of that city is very sad. I repeat once more, it is a second-rate city. Now to this Church in Sardis, you have the most severe letter of the seven letters. And yet when you read this letter, you'll find that there is no reference made to persecution, and there is nothing about heresy.
There's no woman like Jezebel. There's no reference to the doctrine of Balaam. Nothing is said about the Nicolaitans. Nothing at all about heresy, and no reference is made to persecution. There was persecution in the other cities in Pergamus. Antipas had died. He was a martyr and probably died because he would not give his allegiance and worship to the emperor as a god. So you wonder why there was no persecution in the city of Sardis against the Christian church. There are two possibilities. One is it sometimes took a long time for decisions made in Rome and in Ephesus to filter down to the cities of less importance.
So maybe the authorities and Sardis had not heard that the in thing was to persecute the Christian church. The Jews had not reached them, and so they never bothered the Christian church. There was no open persecution. That's one possibility. The other possibility is that the Christian church was not that Christian. And because of that, there was no reason to persecute the Christian congregation in Sardis. I would think that most scholars would come to the conclusion that the second possibility corresponds to the reality of that city and that church two thousand years ago.
The Lord Jesus said, I know your works, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. Very similar to the city. The city had its fame, its reputation of the past. It was a dynamic, living city. In centuries gone by, at the present time, it was a very poor city, a very poor community. It had its name. But now the name did not correspond to the reality of the city. The church seems to be like that. We don't know anything about the beginning of this church. We would like to know more, but we come to the conclusion there was a name.
They had a testimony. They were a vibrant person. Witness for God in Sardis, the Lord Jesus says, I know your works, that you have a name, that you are alive, that must come from something about the past. But in the present moment, the Lord Jesus says, you are dead. Now that's history of two thousand years ago. We have a church that went through the motions, but it was spiritually dead. Let's think about today in our world. I do not like to be critical, but I have the opportunity of reading a debate that took place at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada in the last two or three years.
The debate was on the subject of homosexuality, and the two men that participated was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, Bishop Spong of the Episcopal Church, And the other man was John Stott of the Church of England, a great evangelical man in our generation. They met together and each had his opening statements, and I will never forget reading how Spong began his talk. He brought to the attention of those who were present that he was a man of the Bible, that he loved the Bible.
and that all of his writings were about the Bible. Then as he came into his introduction about the subject of homosexuality, he began with the subject of women and very clearly stated that women have suffered for years because of principles set out in the Bible. That in our generation, finally, we have overcome that prejudice And women have now a freedom they never had before, in spite of the Bible. And then moving from that point, he dealt with the subject of homosexuality and went as far as to say it will soon be accepted as normal in our society in spite of what the Bible says.
So you have a man who says he loves the Bible, but what he means. He loves the part of the Bible with which he agrees. And he simply rejects all the other parts of the Bible. He said today, ethical behavior, moral behavior in our society cannot be governed by the principles that come out of an outdated book that was written centuries ago in a male-dominated world. This is a bishop. of a Christian church in the United States of America. A church that has a glorious history in the past, and yet today there are segments of that church, and again I speak most kindly, they have a name, but they are spiritually dead.
So there's no point in just going back in a history lesson and remembering what things were like a long time ago. We live in a world and surrounded today in the Christian community in the widest possible aspect. And it is true today the Lord Jesus can say, I know your works. You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Listen to the Lord Jesus as he walks along the street or the road in Palestine and he comes across the fig tree. Looks beautiful. There are the leaves.
And Matthew says, And seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing. He found nothing on it, but leaves. And Jesus said to it, Let no fruit grow on you ever again. Immediately the fig tree withered away. That is a very sad comment. It is an object lesson. And he knows our works. He knows what goes on in our lives and in our congregations. And that is a very solemn object lesson of what happens when he finds only the appearance and no reality.
You have in this particular case what some have called a model, a perfect model, of inoffensive Christianity. Inoffensive Christianity? You go back and think about the Lord Jesus. He lived in this world two thousand years ago. Was He inoffensive? The Lord Jesus did not go looking for fights. He was not given the controversy, but He came into our world and He stood for the truth of God. And he spoke openly of those things that belong to the kingdom of God.
And because he did that, he was an offense to the religious leaders in his generation. And you remember many of the times when they challenged him. And you remember those times when Jesus would say with great force, hypocrites. Because he knew they had the appearance, but spiritually They were dead. This is the same Lord Jesus, who is head of the church today, and he looks down on those who call themselves Christians. They have the name, but they are spiritually dead. Now, why and when should we take a stand on controversial matters?
I raised that question this morning. I also know that Paul writes, the servant of the Lord should not be contentious. So I'm not advocating that we go out looking for fights. But I am raising the question, when and how should we take a stand on controversial issues? Paul says, do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed. by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Now how and when and where? Sometimes we think about our neighbors and those that surround us and the things that we see in the world and we want to stand up and criticize them and tell them they are wrong. Well, some people do that, but I remember the words that John wrote, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. That is not why he came. Rather, he came that the world through him might be saved.
So Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world. When you think about the world that surrounds you, I think it is important to remember that it never will be what you would like it to be. Peter says about the world, they stumble being disobedient to the world. And if you entertain the thought that the world in which you live is going to be what you want it to be, You will constantly be frustrated. It will never be what you want it to be. So to stand up and criticize your neighbor is not going to be very productive.
Where do you take a stand? Let me suggest in your own life. Where you live, what you are doing in your Christian congregation, that is where you take a stand. You may think, well, that is not always easy to do. Well, let's take a look at history. There are moments when God takes a man and he picks him up to do an outstanding work. I'm going to talk about slavery just for a moment. I'm going back to the Apostle Paul. He lived in the world and there were thousands and thousands, millions of slaves. You do not find that Paul is the great advocate for the abolition of slavery two thousand years ago.
It was one of the realities of the world in which he lived. But he did bring the Christian message to bear on owners of slaves and on slaves themselves. We have beautiful stories how he writes a letter to one man who owned a slave who ran away And he said, now receive him back and take him into your home as a brother in the Lord. He's bringing the power of the gospel into the mind of a slave owner and into a slave. And he's telling them in Christianity, you can live together as brothers in the Lord.
He goes so far as to say that in Christ, there is no such thing as a free man and a slave. We are all one in the Lord Jesus. Some people have gone back and thought about the world of two thousand years ago and wondered why Paul did not go around the Mediterranean and stand on the street corners and yell out at the top of his voice, slavery is wrong and it must be abolished. But he did not do that. We were in London last year, our third visit to London, England and We went again to Westminster Abbey, one of the great museums of the world, and in passing, a functioning church today.
And we walked quietly through that great building. I was looking for something, and I found it and knew where it was. There was the stone and the words William Wilberforce, one of the great men in English history. He was a young teenager when his family sent him down to one of the parks of London, just outside of London, and he came into contact with people that we now call Methodists. In those years, they were in the freshness of their first ministry, and this young boy, many of us believe, was converted at that time. He would go home on holidays, and his family noticed the difference, and they were so alarmed, They brought him back home to stay home.
And so he went into his latter teen years and into his early twenties. And it seems that in that period, taken away from his Christian friends, that first love for Christ waned, that almost seemed to have disappeared. He became again like all the rest in his family. He was in his early twenties when he was elected to the House of Parliament. There was a deep emptiness in his life. And finally he went to Europe with a friend, and there they spent some months and it was there. As they read a book and talked together that he was either converted or restored to the Lord.
There's not a doubt about it in the world. And the first thing he wanted to do was to turn his back on politics and become a man of the clock. There were in his family some of his uncles and so on who had been ministers in the Church of England, and that's what he wanted to do to serve God the rest of his life. It was difficult to know what to do, but he knew there was one man who could help him. And that man was John Newton, now an old man, the man who wrote those beautiful words, Amazing Grace, the song we all sing. who was once upon a time a slave, a captain of a slave ship, but who had been converted and brought into the kingdom of God.
William Wilberforce, belonging to the world of politics and power, and the upper classes of English society, to go into the home of John Newton was not easy to do. If he was seen there, it would spread all through the community. When the day came to go and visit him and ask him his advice, He came down the street and he kept walking. He walked around the block two or three times until he had the courage to knock on the door and he was welcomed by John Newton. And he went in there and he shared with that man of God his conversion. He belonged to the Lord Jesus and he wanted to serve God and he asked his advice.
And the old man looked at the young man and he said, you stay right in the house of Parliament. God has placed you there, and he's placed you there for a purpose. You stay there and you serve him. That may have been one of the greatest disappointments in the life of William Wilberforce. But he took that word of advice, and you know the rest of the story, within a few years he caught the vision of doing away with slavery in the British Empire, and he spent his whole life And he took a stand personally for that, and he worked, and he was on his deathbed, when finally it brought him news that the act of emancipation had been signed, and the slaves in the British Empire were free.
And then he went to be with the Lord. He was a man who took a stand in his own life at great personal cost, and he stood for what he believed was true. None of us will ever be in a position like that. But let me give you something that we can identify. Grace and I are in the city of Toronto, Canada. It's the month of June of last year. Beautiful day. The sun was shining. It's about four thirty in the afternoon. We're walking down Young Street and we're holding hands. I think they're allowed to do that when you're our age. And we were smiling and talking and they were coming out of the business offices And coming up towards us was a smartly dressed businesswoman with her briefcase in her hand.
And she looked at us, and when she went right past grace, she said in a clear voice, You too merit an award. And we looked at each other and wondered what the woman meant by that. And then we realized that probably that woman had gone through different affairs. Her heart had been broken more than once. And she saw two old people together, happy, and in love. And she said, you two need an award. We didn't know that day that we were standing for marriage and for family.
But someone looking at us realized that and made the comment. It was not long after that that we were down in Holiday, Florida. On Highway Nineteen, we had a free evening, and Grace and I went out for dinner together to a very nice restaurant. And I remember that the young man, the waiter, he hovered around our table more than was necessary. It was almost an embarrassment. And finally, he leaned over and he said to me, he said, Sir, you are married. And my wife... Spoke up, oh yes, he said we've been married for over forty-five years. He said, I knew it.
He said, I've been married four months, and I want my marriage to go the whole way like your marriage. And I thought to myself, not all young people in the world are satisfied with marriages and divorce and affairs and living together. And here was a young man. We didn't know that. He just looked at us. And he realized there's people that stand for marriage. So in that area, we take stands. Our lives, what we are and what we do, is a testimony often to people we don't even know. And they look at us and they receive a message of something that we stand for. You can go on and think of other illustrations.
When do you take a stand? Well, let me give you one or two illustrations from our own life. I remember that we were coming home on furlough years ago. We only had two little girls. One had just turned two. The other was four. From Santo Domingo to Vancouver is a long way. And we wondered about the finance, but we finally had the money. Grace said, go down and make the reservation. So I went down to the Pan American office in those days to make the reservation. I said, there are four of us, my wife and myself and our two little girls. And the gentleman said, what is the age of each of the girls?
Well, I said, the oldest one is four, and the other one is just turned two. He lowered his head, and he kind of leaned over the counter, and he said to me in a quiet voice, we'll just say she's not two yet. Now, in those days, if you're under two, you didn't pay. If you're being paid twelve, then you paid half fare. In a sense, my initial reaction was, that would be a tremendous financial blessing to us right now. But I looked that man right in the eye, and I realized, how would I ever witness to him about the Lord Jesus if I was willing to live a lie just for a few dollars?
And I said, Sir, My little girl turned two weeks ago and we paid the half fare. There are moments in the ordinary things of life where we have to take a stand. My son phoned me from British Columbia. It must be about eighteen months ago. He said, Dad, something happened to me in the office today and I need your help. So I asked him what happened. He said, my associates came in and they put on my desk time magazine. And on the front cover of Time magazine, it said, Jesus, plain and simple.
And its associate said to my son, Jim, now what do you say about that? And Jim had never read it. And I had never read it. I went out and bought the magazine and I read it. And it was one of these magazines and one of these articles picking up from recent publications about Jesus. And the general thrust is, you will never know Jesus if you read the Bible. If you really want to know Jesus, you have to go back beyond the Bible, and you have to find him, if you can, in those pre-Christian ages or years, and then you'll find the plain and simple Jesus.
Well, my son in his world had to take a stand in front of his associates and bring to them the message of the Bible concerning Jesus. That's the place where we have to stand. You may remember that in the great ecumenical councils of the church, this was the issue. Who is Jesus? In Alexandria, in Egypt, there was a very outstanding Deacon in the church, his name was Arius, and this man was eloquent, and in his preaching and teaching, he once said, referring to the word, once he was not.
Now when you say that, you are recognizing that Jesus had a beginning, because once he was not. And that message went right through the Christian community back in the fourth century, caused tremendous havoc and controversy. And finally, the first great council, they came together. And they came from as far away as Spain and from Persia. And the bishops met. And this was the theme. Is Jesus really God or not? They did not create the concept of the deity of Christ. They simply reaffirmed in all of their weaknesses.
They reaffirmed what Jesus taught and what the apostles taught. And they reaffirmed that He is very God of very God. That didn't stop Arianism. Those churches went on for some time until they finally disappeared. But there's been a resurgence in our lifetime. And again, I speak kindly this morning. They come to your door and they knock and they have their own Bible. And it reads, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was a God, a great created being. They're telling us today once he was not.
And we have to take a stand. You can go on. As a result of that counsel, then you have so much emphasis on the deity of Christ. that his humanity almost disappeared. And there was a theory that came in that he only appeared to be a man. And so they came, and in a second council, they reaffirmed his perfect humanity. Both thoughts were emphasized, very gone, perfect man, and the world ended up with two, one who is divine and one who is human. And so in the third council, the subject was, is he two or is he one?
And they came up with that great reaffirmation of the Christian message. There's only one personality, a single personality. You can go on and follow the controversy. It has not left us. We are still surrounded in the church, and I speak in the general sense, and outside in the secular world. with those who keep asking the question, who is Jesus? You have to take a stand. There are places in our lives as Christians where we must take a stand. As I close this morning, there seems to be in this church those who do not belong to the Lord Jesus and those who do.
Well, he talked about that, the tears and the wheat. They're all together. Sometimes you can't tell the difference. The Lord Jesus said, You have a few names even in sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are faithful. They are worthy. We'll talk about that tonight. But in our closing moments, here are five imperatives. Be watchful, strengthen, remember, hold fast, and repent. Those are the imperatives that the Lord gave to the church in Sardis, and they come to us fresh in our generation today.
There is so much that surrounds us that these words are important. We are to be watchful. Show yourself watchful. One translation reads, well, the church in a little town in British Columbia where my wife grew up, That church failed to be watchful. Something happened in the church. They let it get out of hand. A full-time worker came along and he didn't help one little bit. And within a short time, the church disappeared. And it all happened because there was not discernment.
They were not watchful. They were not careful. You have the second word strengthened. There are things that in the church in Sardis are ready to die. But then comes the message, strengthen the things that are good. It's a paradox there. The Lord Jesus says you have a name that you are alive but you are dead. But He also says there are things ready to die, not yet. And He encourages us to strengthen them. Then you have the word remember. May I suggest to you this morning that all of us are building on foundations that others have laid. In my case, I go back to the men I mentioned to you yesterday in my home church, the elders, ordinary working men who love the Bible and they put down the foundation we build on that foundation.
Remember, you're not a free agent. You belong to a great work that God is doing. Remember, and then you have hold fast. And finally, the need for repentance. And these are the words that I leave with you this morning. It's a warning that comes from the Lord. For you, for your home church, for your family. If you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief. And you will not know what hour I will come upon you. I don't think he's referring to his coming. That would not be. determined by the situation in the church and sardons.
But it does mean the Lord knows what is going on and he will come in judgment. And some of the other letters, references made that the candlestick will be removed, the witness will be gone. The church may go on, may go on through the motions, but it will not go on doing the work of God. In spite of all of that very serious message to this church, The Lord knew there were some there that belonged to Him. They had not defiled their garments with these things, and it's to them that He gives a glimpse of coming glory, one of the most beautiful glimpses of what lies beyond this world when we enter into His presence.
And we're going to talk about that this evening. Please take your hymn book now, and we'll just sing a verse or two. of number four three four as we conclude our service this morning four three four the well-known hymn more love to thee more love to thee we'll sing just verses one and four of number four hundred and thirty four verses one and four and we'll remain seated as we sing these two verses More love to thee, O plight, more love to thee.
Hear now the prayer, my faith, O blessed thee. Blessed is thy ear. Your love of Christ to thee. Your love to thee. Your love to thee. Then shall I lay his rest, whisper thy then to be the parting bride my heart shall reign this shall this shall be of Christ to thee, your love to thee, your love to thee.
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forever. Amen.