In Revelation’s seven letters, Jesus speaks to seven churches linked with the aging apostle John. It’s a tough time: most situations aren’t going that well. The first pioneering excitements are past; believers are facing strong social pressures and financial loss if they don’t fit in with the lifestyle of those around them – plus false teachers telling them that doing so is actually okay. How, then, are they to be faithful, to `overcome`?
Chapter 3 presents us with contrasting situations. First, Sardis. Believers in other cities might have looked at their Sardis brothers and sisters with envy. Sardis was wealthy, and evidently had a religious freedom unusual in this region, since no social pressures are mentioned (nor are problems with false teaching). And the church had a great reputation, for being one that was `alive` (v2)! Who wouldn’t want to move to Sardis and join that church?
But Jesus sees something very different: `You are dead!` (v3). `Wake up!` (v4). Clearly this is serious! And – as part of Scripture – this letter poses a major question to us too, doesn’t it: am I like that? Evidently it’s not difficult to be spiritually asleep, even dead, even while having a reputation for vibrant spiritual life; particularly if (like Sardis but unlike believers elsewhere) we’re in a situation where it seems ok to go with the flow of the cultural pressures locally; where there seems no need to make the costly effort others must, of distinctiveness and consequent massive unpopularity and pressure.
But such a situation cannot last. Out of love for His people, Christ has to see to it that something changes. `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`, He says (v3, NIV as usual). If we want to grasp this more deeply we’ll turn our minds to other passages using this `thief` language: Matthew 24: `Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him!` Or 1 Thessalonians 5: ` You, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this Day should surprise you like a thief… So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep; but let us be awake and sober… putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation [that is, of Christ’s return, in this case] as a helmet!` Or 2 Peter 3: `The Day of the Lord will come like a thief… Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?` (Thought-provoking question!!) `… Since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless; blameless; and at peace with Him!` Plenty to pray about there, if we want not to be like Sardis! – Sardis, where there even seems a real risk of people’s names being `blotted out from the book of life` (v5).
There’s always reason for hope. Jesus describes Himself as the One who `holds the sevenfold Spirit of God, and the seven stars` (the embodiments of the churches). A complacent, apparently vibrant, but actually nearly-dead church needs that sense renewed of Christ `holding` them, His presence, His lordship – and indeed His eventual judgment, that `We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… Each of us will give an account of themselves to God` (2 Cor 5:10, Rom 12:12). But as Wilcock observes, that’s not all: the great thing here is that `Christ has in his hands both the needy church, and the life-giving Spirit. He can bring the two together… and we may be sure that if Sardis remembers and heeds and repents, He will do so!`
So then for us: how do we `wake up`? Let’s notice what Christ focuses on: `Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent` (v3). How then to `remember`? Our goal in personal Bible reading, and group Bible studies, and church teaching, must be for that to happen. But never merely as ideas: `Obey it, and repent!` Lord, please help me!
And let’s note that, if we do, there’s a terrific promise from Jesus: `He who overcomes will … be dressed in white`, the idea here being, Tatford notes, one of dazzling glory; perhaps like the Mount of Transfiguration where Christ’s face `shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light`. Lord, please help me want that, that and nothing less; and therefore to wake up, to repent…
We can learn what all this means from the letter to the next church, Philadelphia, which is far closer to Jesus’ desires than Sardis. (`I have loved you`, v9!) And yet we don’t read that this one had the reputation of being `spiritually live`. Indeed, it only has a `little strength` (v8). That may have been because of the personality types of its members; or even their average age, who knows; but maybe good churches are quite often so? `God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise`, says 1 Corinthians 1; `God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things!` (Compare, in contrast, His forceful words to self-sufficient Laodicea in Rev 3:17.) So –- if God chooses the weak things of the world, where does that leave big churches? Perhaps they – we – need (as I remember feeling called to say to the largest IFES group I ever spoke to, when they were 1500 strong in just one university) to seek out a task so challenging – world mission being an obvious place to look – that even they, we, are weak before it; and forced therefore to live by faith?
But since Philadelphia, though they have `endured patiently`, truly only have a `little strength`, Jesus promises, `I will also keep you from the hour of trial`. Thankyou Lord! I’m reminded of 1 Corinthians again: `God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear` (10:13). Still there is a crown (no less!) that they need to make sure they don’t forfeit (cf 1 Cor 3:12-15): `You have kept my command to endure patiently… Hold on to what you have!`
I found William Kelly really helpful on these verses. He sees in Philadelphia `a testimony feeble` (unlike Sardis, then), but precisely because of that `dependent on Christ; cleaving to His word, and not denying His name; with “that blessed hope”` (of Jesus’ coming, v11) kept `full in view… The Lord here presents Himself personally more than in any other of these epistles` [Kelly notes the repeated “my” in v12]… So `The first thing that strikes us here is not what the Lord does or has, but what the Lord is Himself`; and `The moment we see the Lord Himself, there is strength, to serve Him with gladness!` And so Philadelphia’s reward will be, uniquely, to know His `new name`, and to be forever in His temple (v12), the place of rejoicing forever in all that Jesus is…
Lord, I want that! I want that!
