The question is, as He will challenge us in verse 6, do we have eyes to see and ears to hear? He uses His Word, the convicting work of the Spirit, and other agents (trials and members of the body of Christ) as mirrors of reproof to show us our need and draw us to Himself. The Church and its AffairsĪs with all the churches, the Lord declares, “I know your deeds.” That which is invisible to men is perfectly clear to the Lord who is in the business of revealing our true condition regardless of how spiritual we may think we are. Therefore, the two life-giving provisions of God for man-the Holy Spirit and the Word-were being neglected. Here, it appears, was another key area of weakness the failure to communicate and receive the Word in a consistent and an in-depth way with personal application and response of the mind, heart and will. In the introduction I shared my reasons why I, along with many others, have believed the seven stars referred to the spiritual leadership which is primarily responsible to hold forth the light of the Word to the local flock of believers. So part of the problem was the believers in the church at Sardis were grieving and quenching the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Eph. The responsibility is to walk by faith in His enabling power and to deal with the sin in their lives through honest confession or they will hinder (grieve and quench) the work of the Spirit. But believers have a responsibility to walk by the Spirit who indwells them. He is the Son’s gift to enable believers to experience genuine spirituality through the multiple ministries and work of the Spirit symbolized here in the number seven which is a clear allusion to the seven-fold ministries of the Spirit mentioned in Isaiah 11:2-5. “The seven Spirits of God” is a reference to the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son to the believer (John 7:37-39 15:16, 26). These two aspects of Christ’s ministry to the church are brought immediately to the forefront because they give us the key to both the problem of this church and its solution. The answer, as always, is centered in Who Christ is-The Savior who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. They were active, engaged in works, but temporally dead, out of fellowship with Christ (Eph.
More than likely, however, they were carnal believers who had made a good start, but had failed to move on, to grow and experience true spirituality. Some may have been only professing Christians engaged in religious activities who had never truly trusted in Jesus Christ. They were out of touch with elements of true spirituality. As Paul put it in 2 Timothy 3:5, they had a form of godliness, but, because of their failure to walk with the Lord, they were denying the real power of God through their hypocrisy.
Though filled with external works and activity, this church is known as the sleeping church. 52įrom this, you can see the obvious allusions to the historical setting in the Lord’s words in 3:4-5. Sins of the foulest and darkest impurity were committed on those occasions and when we think of a small community of Christians rescued from such abominable idolatry, living in the midst of scenes of the grossest depravity, with early associations, and companionships, and connections, all exerting a force in the direction of heathenism, it may be wondered that the few members of the church in Sardis were not drawn away altogether, and swallowed up in the great vortex. Her worship was of the most debasing character and orgies like those of Dionysos were practiced at the festivals held in her honour. Yet note the following account of the actual moral conditions of this idolatry. A white and clean robe was required to approach its so-called gods. Sardis was devoted to the worship of the mother-goddess Cybele and no temple worshipper was allowed to approach the temple of the gods with soiled or unclean garments. The city was also famous for its woolen, textile, and jewelry industry. Yet Sardis had been attacked and conquered twice because of its arrogance manifested in its lack of watchfulness (3:2-3). It sat on a hill or mountain surrounded by steep cliffs almost impossible to scale with only one narrow way of approach. Sardis had, at one time, been considered to be impregnable because of its ideal physical arrangement and topography for defense. Sardis was a city exceedingly fabled for its past wealth and splendor, but it had deteriorated greatly. “Deadness in the Church” The City and the Assembly
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