The Church in Sardis

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 8
• Hymn — How Great Thou Art
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Heidelberg Catechism, Question and Answer 1
• Reception of Communicant Members
• Prayer
• Hymn — We Can Run to Jesus
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Preparation
• Hymn — Shepherd of Souls, Refresh and Bless
• Sermon
• Hymn — My Faith Looks Up to Thee
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14
• Doxology

Sermon Title: The Church in Sardis

Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6

I. A Lifeless Name

• A. Christ addresses the church in Sardis as one that has a reputation for being alive but is spiritually dead (Revelation 3:1)

  1. The city of Sardis was historically known for easy wealth, overconfidence, and slumber — considered impregnable on its high hill
  2. Despite its reputation, Sardis was conquered by Cyrus in the 6th century BC, by Antiochus in 218 BC, and devastated by an earthquake in AD 17
  3. The church in Sardis has taken on the same presumptuous, spiritually complacent character as the city around it

• B. This is the reverse pattern from the other churches — here the majority is unfaithful, not just a troublesome minority

  1. The church resembles whitewashed tombs: outward appearance of life, inward spiritual death (Matthew 23)
  2. Formalism may include community gatherings, youth groups, and kind words while the inner life is dead
  3. One commentator notes: content with mediocrity, lacking conviction, too innocuous to be worth persecuting — as if Satan has no need to trouble them

• C. Christ's warning of coming "like a thief" (Revelation 3:3) refers here not primarily to the Second Coming but to temporal judgment on the church

  1. Similar warnings were given to the church in Thyatira regarding Jezebel and to the church in Corinth regarding unworthy participation at the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11)
  2. Christ currently rules his church by his Spirit and brings foretaste judgments that anticipate the final judgment

• D. The Greek word onoma (name) appears throughout this passage — translated "reputation" in verse 1 (ESV) but "name" in the NASB — unifying the letter's theme around the question: what does your life say about the name you bear?

  1. "Christian" (Christianos) means "belonging to Christ" — a name first used mockingly by outsiders who could see how fully these people lived for Christ
  2. The question put to the church: does your life contradict the name you claim?

II. A Living Name

• A. Christ acknowledges a faithful remnant: "you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments" (Revelation 3:4)

  1. This echoes Abraham's intercession for Sodom in Genesis 18, where God agrees to spare the city for the sake of even a few righteous — God preserves his elect even amid surrounding filth
  2. Christ's parable of the wheat and tares likewise reflects God's patience in staying his hand of judgment

• B. 2 Timothy 2:16-19 speaks to this same situation: false teaching spreads like gangrene, yet "God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: the Lord knows those who are his"

  1. Amidst a church on the brink of spiritual death, Christ knows those who have departed from iniquity
  2. The faithful are those who have not soiled their garments — those in whom genuine, inward purity is present

• C. The promise that the faithful "will walk with me in white" (Revelation 3:4) carries both present and future dimensions

  1. "Walking with me" is pilgrimage language — faithful companionship with Christ now
  2. The white garment points forward to glorification, as seen at the Transfiguration where Christ's face shone like the sun and his garments were white as light (Matthew 17:2)
  3. The whiteness of the garment signifies that glory comes by way of purity — Christ is no whitewashed tomb; what shines outwardly reflects what is true within

• D. The glory of the saints is currently veiled, as Christ's glory was veiled in his humiliation, but will be fully revealed at his return

  1. Believers are called to seek inward purity that comes only by the Spirit through the crucified Christ
  2. Do not be a whitewashed tomb — pursue purity from within

III. A Lasting Name

• A. The promise: "I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5)

• B. This passage is sometimes used to argue for the possibility of losing one's salvation, but the text does not support that reading

  1. On the surface, it says only that those who persevere will not be blotted out — it does not say that any names are in fact blotted out; that is an argument from silence
  2. Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 17:8 both state explicitly that names are written in the book of life "before the foundation of the world"
  3. Election and perseverance are both/and realities: eternal security does not nullify the call to obey — obedience confirms assurance

• C. Christ's own words confirm the eternal security of the elect

  1. In John 6 and John 10, Christ declares that those the Father has given him he will never lose
  2. In judgment, Christ does not say "I once knew you" but "I never knew you" — indicating names were never written, not that they were erased
  3. Daniel 7:10 depicts two books at the final judgment: a book of life for the justified and a book of condemnation for those Christ never knew

• D. Ancient Greek cities erased citizens' names from the public register upon their death — but Christ promises the opposite: those who die in the Lord have their heavenly citizenship not erased but secured forever

• E. The call to confess Christ's name publicly is drawn from Matthew 10:32 and Luke 12:8: "Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven"

  1. The story of Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire illustrates costly confession: handed a note reading "He who honors me, I will honor"
  2. John Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible refuses to sign a false confession: "Because it is my name… How may I live without my name?"
  3. Thomas Cranmer, facing Bloody Mary's threat of execution, briefly recanted but then recanted his recantation — and asked that the hand which had signed the false confession be burned first

• F. Closing exhortation: live for the name that is above all names; let your conduct proclaim that you belong to Christ in every sphere of life, whatever the cost, and enter glory with your heavenly citizenship secure