 |
|
| Volume 28 Number 2 February 2026
|
Page 4 |
|
|
| Volume 28 Number 2 February 2026
|
Page 4 |
Gary C. Hampton
Sardis was 35 miles southeast of Thyatira on a plateau at the foot of Mt. Timolous. Three sides of the plateau were perpendicular cliffs, so the inhabitants thought they only had to defend one side. The church in Sardis had a reputation of life, vigor and great spiritual strength. No false doctrine had taken root, but there was a heartless holding of truth. Her works looked like beautiful clothes to men, but the Lord saw them as grave clothes disguising a corpse, reminiscent of Jesus telling the spiritually dead to bury the physically dead (Revelation 3:1; Matthew 8:22).
Sardis was defeated in 549 and 218 B.C. when the cliffs were left unguarded. Jesus told an overconfident church to be watchful. Their lamp was growing dim and would go out if they did not act quickly. They needed to pump the bellows to rekindle the fire because the embers were ready to die. God had not found their works filled full or perfect. They were an empty shell that God wanted filled with His purpose (Revelation 3:2).
The Lord tried to put life back into a dead church by urging them to remember the excitement and joy that came when their sins were first washed away (Acts 2:41; 8:39; 16:33–34). He wanted to prick their consciences and rekindle their joy. They needed to lay down their inactivity and take up diligent watching since the Lord was going to come unannounced and unexpectedly for some (Revelation 3:3; Matthew 24:43).
Those who faithfully do God’s will are not lost in a dead crowd but are known by name by an ever watchful Lord. Those who had kept their spiritual garments clean could look forward to being clothed in the garments of purity in Heaven (Revelation 3:4).
Israel had a book of the living from which the names of the dead were removed (Isaiah 4:3; Ezekiel 13:9; Nehemiah 12:22ff.; Revelation 20:11–15). Sardis had many names on the “church roll” that were not written in God’s book of life. Those who kept on overcoming, on the other hand, would hear their names confessed by the Lord before the Father (Revelation 3:5–6; Matthew 10:32).
