Salutation

The Lord Jesus now addresses “the angel of the church in Sardis” (verse 1).

The City of Sardis

Sardis was one of the oldest and had been one of the most important cities of Asia Minor. It stood on the northern slope of Mount Timolus, above the Hermus River valley, and its acropolis (citadel) occupied a spur of the mountain above a seemingly unscalable cliff. Its ancient inhabitants thought their city to be impregnable against invasion. Under King Croesus of legendary wealth, it was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, but Cyrus of Persia conquered Croesus in B.C. 549, when a Persian soldier found a way up the cliff, and a contingent of soldiers took the city from its inattentive defenders. Antiochus the Great repeated this feat in B.C. 218 under similar circumstances. Each time, due to an over confident attitude leading to failure to carefully watch, Sardis fell to its enemies. Sardis had a notable past but had declined to become a rather insignificant city. It was a generally immoral city dedicated to the worship of the nature goddess Cybele.

Self-Identification of Christ

Christ identifies Himself as “He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars” (verse 1; cf. 1:4,12-16,20).

Since John refers to the “seven Spirits” on an equality with the Father and Jesus Christ (1:4-5), this is a symbolic reference to the Holy Spirit. “Seven”is the symbolic number for perfection (cf. Psalm 12:6). At His baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ Jesus (Matthew 3:16). During His personal ministry, the Lord Jesus had the Spirit without measure (John 3:34), was led by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 4:1), and performed His miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:28). After His ascension to the right hand of God the glorified Son of God sent the Holy Spirit to His apostles to take His place as their Helper (John 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:7,13-15). The Spirit of God had the power to give life to this dead church if they would heed His word (John 6:63; Romans 8:2,11).

The “seven stars” are the seven churches of the province of Asia (1:4,16,20), which the Son of God held in His right hand (1:16) in that He owned, protected, and cared for them, even as He does His congregations today.

Condemnation

The church in Sardis had a “name,” i.e. reputation, that failed to match reality (verse 1). As with each local church, both then and now, The Lord Jesus truly knew their works, regardless of their reputation (John 2:24-25; Hebrews 4:13). Christians in other localities thought of them as a live church, but Christ knew they were dead. An individual who is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3) is “without Christ,” has “no hope,” and is “without God “ (Ephesians 2:12). A Christian who lives for pleasure is dead while he lives (1 Timothy 5:6; Ephesians 5:11-14). The congregation at Sardis was dominated by members who failed to find the time or determination to bring their work to perfection, i.e. completion, (verse 2; cf. Ephesians 4:11-16) and who were defiled, i.e., contaminated by sin (verse 4). A congregation filled with members who live for worldly pleasures is a dead church, regardless of its reputation among Christians in other places. Those pleasures may not be immoral in themselves, but if they dominate our time, attention, or resources, they cause us to be dead while we live. Is our time and attention so dominated by pleasures of this life that we fail to bring to completion the work the Lord expects of us?

Exhortation (Call to Repent)

Christ Jesus exhorted them to “be watchful” (verse 2). They knew their seemingly impregnable city had repeatedly fallen to foreign foes due to inattentive watchmen. We must not be overconfident of our spiritual strength and fail to watch against our enemy, Satan. “Be soberminded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, ESV). Christian, if you are lax in attending the worship assemblies and classes, if you fail to serve others, study your Bible, and pray, you have let your guard down and are easy prey for the enemy of the soul.

He also commanded the Christians in Sardis to “strengthen the things that remain” (verse 2). They still possessed some dedication to the Lord, and, as the last small amount of life remaining in a dying body, they needed to strengthen this to revive the church.

To accomplish this revival, they needed to do three things: “Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent” (verse 3). Christians who have become spiritually dead through failure to work for the Lord and immorality need to remember how they received and heard the gospel when they were converted to Christ (Acts 17:10-12; 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8; 2:13. They must hold fast to Christ and repent, i.e., turn from, their unconcern and immorality.

Commendation

But even in this dead church their were some whom the Lord commended (verse 4). They had not defiled their garments with the immorality of the majority (cf. James 1:27). As the result they would “walk with” Christ, i.e, share in His blessings and work (1 John 1:3,7). They were worthy of such fellowship. Our salvation is based on the grace, undeserved favor, of God (Ephesians 2:8-10), but our lives must be worthy of the name we wear in honor of Christ (Matthew 10:37-38; Ephesians 4:1-3; Philippians 1:27; Colossians 1:9-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12).

Further, their walk with Him would be “in white,” purity from the defilement of sin (Isaiah 1:18; Daniel 12:10), by the cleansing blood of Christ (1 John 1:7).