The site visit to Sardis was quite impressive, and we enjoyed hearing Dr. John Yeatts talk to us while in the synagogue!
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| The students listening to Dr. Yeatts |
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| Dr. Yeatts in the synagogue, you can see the apse at the front of the building. |
The Witnessing Church V: Christians
in Name Only
“I know your works; you
have a name for being alive, but you are dead.
Wake up.”
Looking through a telescope on a clear night can reveal
the impressive golden rings of Saturn.
Among the planets of our solar system, Saturn is second in size only to
Jupiter, but in beauty, Saturn plays second fiddle to no other planet. The sparkling rings of Saturn glitter and
gleam with the brilliance of what seem to be millions of candles.
Saturn’s rings are wide, very thin, and far apart. The first ring hangs about six thousand miles
above the planet’s equator and extends some eleven thousand miles up. The next ring reaches up another eighteen
thousand miles. Above it is empty space,
two thousand miles wide. Then comes the
outer ring that rises another eleven thousand miles above the planet. The total picture makes up a planet of
indescribable beauty.
The truth is that the rings are only dead fragments of
ice, mixed with dust. Some of the fragments
are only specks; some are the size of pebbles or even boulders. They orbit like squadrons of little
satellites around the planet’s wide equator.
Yet, they only reflect the dazzling beams of the sun; they have no shine
of their own. They are dead fragments.
In that way, the church at Sardis was much like the
planet Saturn and its members were like the dead but sparkling particles
surrounding Saturn. The Christians at
Sardis glittered with the pretension of serving God, but with no reality in
their worship or witness. They had a
name for being alive. In the ancient
world, the name denoted character.
Christ, however, is using name ironically. The Sardians were Christian in name
only. They were like a corpse in a
funeral home – beautiful, but dead. They
had a reputation for life and vitality, but they were without strength and near
death. Sardis is the only church about
which Christ has nothing good to say.
Part of the problem was that they were not troubled with
persecution from without or heresy from within.
Heresy or persecution would at least have been an indication of
life. Both Smyrna, the persecuted
church, and Thyatira, the church that tolerated heresy, were better off than
Sardis. The church in North America
experienced almost no persecution in twentieth century when the church
worldwide suffered more martyrdoms than any previous century. At the same time the church in North America
has been labeled as dead compared to the church in those parts of the world
that have experience the most travail.
At least persecution and heresy make it evident that churches are
alive. Sardis had no conflict. Persecutors and unbelievers probably did not even know that the church
was there.
The name given to Christ in the letter to Sardis is appropriate
to this church: “him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven
stars.” The seven spirits are the
complete spirit, the Holy Spirit. What a
dead church needs is the Holy Spirit of God to give life. The seven stars are the guardian angels of the
seven churches. What the dead church at
Sardis needs is the empowering of the Holy Spirit and the care of the heavenly
angels.
In addition to pointing out the church’s weakness, Christ
suggests a remedy for spiritual lethargy: “Wake up and strengthen what
remains.” This was a particularly
appropriate admonition to a church in the city of Sardis. Seven hundred years before Revelation was
written, Sardis was one of the greatest cities in the world. Located on a hill fifteen hundred feet up, it
was impossible to attack. Therefore, the
city prospered. Gold and silver were
first made into coins in Sardis. Its
greatest leader, Croesus, became so prosperous that people to the present time
speak of being “as rich as Croesus.”
Over the years, the greatness of Sardis diminished. The people thought that their position made
them safe, but twice enemies climbed up by night through a fault in the rocks
to attack and overthrow Sardis. At one
point, Sardis seemed to vanish from history.
Yet, by the time Revelation was written, Sardis was wealthy and known
for luxurious and degenerate living.
So the admonition, “Wake up,” is appropriate for Sardis,
a town that was destroyed because it had not been watchful. Although the image of a thief in the night is
used elsewhere to speak of the second coming of Christ, here Christ employs it
to describe his coming to Sardis in judgment.
The image of a thief stresses the uncertainty of the time of the thief’s
arrival. That image is appropriate for a
city that was overcome at night by invaders.
Nevertheless, the situation at Sardis is not
hopeless. Although they are “on the
point of death” and in danger of losing what life they have, there is a spark
of vitality in this dead church.
Although their works are not perfect, full, or complete, life can be
rekindled through remembering, repenting, and obeying. In Revelation, this is the way to reestablish
a faithful witness that has been lost.
Indeed,
Christ knows a few Christians have remained alive. Sardis actually seems to be worse off than
the other churches where only a few have fallen away. Here only a few remain faithful. Nevertheless, the spiritually dead need not
remain eternally dead. Indeed, some
faithful Christians have not soiled their character or reputation and therefore
their witness. They are worthy to walk
with Christ in white because they have born faithful witness. White was the color that the conquering hero
wore in celebration of victory. Indeed,
if the witnesses are faithful to the end, Christ will give them a white
robe. Moreover, there names will remain
in the Lamb’s book of life, register of the citizens of heaven. The faithful witnesses will be rewarded with
eternal life when they come before the judgment of God. This reminds us that, although it is our
responsibility to conquer evil and keep ourselves pure and sinless, only Christ
the Lamb can give us white robes. Our
purity ultimately comes not from what we have done but what Christ did for us
on the cross. Our task is to be faithful
to the end so that our names are still in the book of life and so that Christ
will confess our names before God and the angels. Christ says that if we faithfully witness in
persecution, he will witness to our faithfulness before God and the
angels. In short, Christ will be
faithful to the one who is faithful to him.
Thus, the spiritually dead can be made eternally alive.
Alexander the Great once met a lazy, cowardly soldier who
was under his command. He asked the
soldier, “What is your name?”
The
soldier answered, “Alexander, sir.”
Alexander
the Great responded: “Change your name or change your ways.”
If it is our desire to bear the name Christian, we must
be faithful witnesses to Christ whose name we bear. Then we will no longer be Christians in name
only.
Sing: Take the Name of Jesus With You
Take the name of Jesus
with you, Child of sorrow and of woe;
It will joy and comfort
give you Take it, then, where'er you go.
Take the name of Jesus ever, As a shield from
ev'ry snare;
If temptations round you
gather, Breathe that holy Name in prayer.
O the precious name of
Jesus! How it thrills our souls with joy,
When His loving arms
receive us And His songs our tongues employ!
At the name of Jesus
bowing, Falling prostrate at His feet,
King of kings in heav'n
we'll crown Him, When our journey is complete.
Chorus: Precious name, O
how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heav'n;
Precious name, O how
sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heav'n.
Lyrics: Lydia Odell Baxter
Pray: O Christ, who
has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, may we not only have a name
for being alive. Help us to awaken and
strengthen what remains. May we remember
what we have been, obey your call to witness, and repent of our lethargy. Through keeping ourselves pure and conquering
persecution, may we be worthy for you to confess our names before your Father
and his angels. Amen.
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