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BIBLE TEACHING DIET: Revelation 3:1aāJesus knows all that is going on everywhere including the condition of the messengers to each of the local gatherings. He knows what we are feeding our souls upon.
JESUS GIVES HONEST SPIRITUAL LIFE ASSESSMENTS: Revelation 3:1bāJesus knows whether our walk matches up to our talk. He saw that Sardian believers were dead. Isaiah 29:13; Mat. 7:23
Today Revelation 3 begins with the second shortest letter of Christās Seven, written to Sardis, the hometown of Aesopās Fables and Midasā Touch.
When we read these words we are not only hearing the report Jesus Christ gives after visiting the fifth of the seven churches, we also get the worst reported condition of any of the seven churches. The other churches were either given a perfect bill of health, or had some struggles with compromise, sin, and disobedience. But Sardis is different. Here:
From Alive in Christ To Dead as His Church
Christ’s report contains a tragic finding: the Body of Christ, the Church at Sardis, appeared dead at the moment. They no longer looked alive in Christ, their minds no longer fixed on Christ. They were walking corpses: acting, thinking, and responding just like all those who were dead in trespasses and sin around them.
Jesus demands that these āchurch-attendersā repent of just going through the motions of acting like Christians, and get His power at work within them. Sardis had a big name but no life; they were dead as last weekās cut flowers, cold and lifeless.
The saints at Sardis had gone āfrom holiness to phoninessā; they had āa nameā as Jesus said, but it was only talking, there was no life that backed up the claim.
Jesus spent most of His public ministry bumping up against lifeless religion. Jesus warned those closest to the things of God (the Temple serving priests and Bible-teaching Pharisees) that they were going to be cast out into outer darkness.
Note that Christ reports in v. 4 that there are a āfewā that are still alive as His born-again children, but they are living in a morgue. Like an old campfire that is cold and gray, when Jesus stirred around in the ashes He found a few that still glowed with life; but the rest were dead, cold, and lifeless.
There are two lines of interpretation that have been taught from this passage. The first is represented by the MacArthur Study Bible, and others who say that the church at Sardis was filled with lost, un-regenerated, unsaved people; and Christ is addressing the few believers in their midst.
The other view is clearly expressed by the editors of the ESV Study Bible who say that the church was filled with real but sick believers in a coma, near death, but capable of hearing and responding to Christ’s call.
Actually, both interpretations are reflected in this passage. When believers sin they act like unsaved people; and do get so weak and sick they are in a coma. But as Jesus said, only His sheep can hear His voice and follow Him. So, Jesus was saying to anyone who would and could hear: follow Me and turn from your sin. But, the few were the believers, and the many were either lost, or so steeped in their sins they acted lost, and looked dead. The sobering lesson from Christ is to beware of: