Dead or Alive
Revelation 3:1-6
September 24, 2006


In a fascinating book detailing the construction of Florence, Italy’s renowned Santa Maria del Fiore’s cathedral, Ross King tells of the Medieval Florentine practice of adding small chapels to the magnificent cathedrals of that era, offering, unknown to him, a parable of Christ’s rebuke of the church at Sardis. King explains that attached to the central sanctuary, sometime within, sometime outside could be as many as three dozen smaller chapels where the wealthy buried their dead in ornate splendor. “In fact,” he writes, “Florence’s churches were so crammed with tombs that during the fifteenth century one bishop voiced concerns about so many corpses defiling the House of God” [Ross King, Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture, (New York: Walker & Co., 2000), 119]. It seemed that the churches were attended by more of the dead than the living! Times have not necessarily changed.

It is ironic that the one place that ought to be characterized by life is often more known for death. Westminster Abbey, the site of British coronations, weddings, funerals, and worship services since the 11th century, contains the tombs of Chaucer, Cromwell, Queens Mary and Elizabeth, Tennyson, Darwin, and a host of other British notables. To be buried in Westminster Abbey is the hallmark of notoriety! Even the small chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula within the walls of the Tower of London houses the bones of Anne Boleyn, Kathryn Howard, and others that met their demise on the Tower “green.”

I’m not certain of the history of this practice, but I imagine that the idea of the dead buried among the worshiping living came about during the early days when Christians hid from their Roman persecutors among the catacombs. There the dead were buried where Christians engaged in lively worship of the risen Lord. But the catacombs were a far cry from the ornate chapels and burial crypts within the medieval churches. In the former, Christians worshiped among the dead out of necessity since public devotion to Christ met with hostility. In the latter, it seems that the spiritual condition of medieval Christians found kinship with the decaying corpses that filled their cathedrals.

Having attended many churches over the years, I have at times felt like taking the angelic declaration and misapplying it to what I’ve sensed: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” In those settings, “A Mighty Fortress” is sung like a funeral dirge. Passionate preaching of the gospel is met with only yawns and frowns. The charge to carry the gospel to the nations is completely ignored. Where life should be springing forth there is only deadness. That condition should never characterize a Christian church; yet in spite of the bustle of activity in many churches, some have a name that they are alive but are dead.

Jesus Christ has no tolerance for deadness in His churches. One would expect spiritual deadness among the political, social, and business gatherings of the world. But it should never be so among those who know Jesus Christ in the power of His resurrection.

As Jesus conquered death, so too, His churches must reflect His resurrection life. Otherwise, the church bears no resemblance to Him. It becomes no different than any other human institution that is destined to perish at the end of the age. Churches have sought to compete with the business and entertainment world, having forgotten that the church alone sits in eternity with the Bridegroom at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. How do we recognize when the church resembles a cemetery instead of a resurrection gathering?

I. Indictment delivered
No more stinging words could be uttered, “You have a name that you are alive but you are dead.” Though most of the churches, even the ones with false teaching disturbing them, have some word of commendation, no such word is offered to the church at Sardis. The omniscient Christ knows His church. Nothing escapes His gaze. He sees through all of the Christianized activity, the “bells and whistles” that seem to be the modern-day anointing of the church, and recognizes the spiritual deficiencies that mark it as dead.

When you think about it, you must admit that it ought to be a virtual impossibility for a church to be characterized as dead. We have a Savior who has risen with conquering life over death. We have a gospel that delivers us from death in trespasses and sins into the kingdom of light and life. We have a mission whose message spreads life everywhere it goes. Yet in spite of this, spiritual deadness often colors churches with its pale hues. How can it happen?

1. Deceiving appearance
Notice how Jesus explains for us the deceitfulness that can give a church the false impression of life. “You have a name that you are alive but you are dead,” He declares. The word “name” implies “reputation,” that is, the public persona that is conveyed. Others looked at the church at Sardis and thought that the signs of busyness and activity implied life. Jesus gave a different assessment. Though others, even other churches may have perceived their active church as spiritual life, Jesus disagreed. How does that fit into the present mindset among conservative and evangelical churches?

I remember thinking, as a young minister on staff in a church, that lots of activities on the calendar meant life. Yet I discovered that in the midst of filling every day with church activity, I could grow spiritually numb. Pastors can go through the weekly routine of preaching and teaching out of habit instead of Holy Spirit energized life. Choirs can hit crescendos with vigor yet do so simply out of training instead of as an act of praise. Worshipers can participate in the church’s liturgy, whether planned or spontaneous, and yet touch nothing but death while singing of resurrection life. It happened at Sardis. The notable necropolis of that city, the place of the dead, seemed to have morphed into the church. In spite of the reputation for being the happening, fully alive church, Jesus declares them to be dead. It happens in many ways.

Busyness without seriousness: I am amazed at the recommendations that I receive through telephone, mail, and email for engaging our church in new programs and ministries. It is no stretch to say that I receive hundreds of these kinds of solicitations each year. Additionally, the church is asked to promote various special events, organizations, and institutions as part of the church’s calendar. I’m not against programs and events as long as they do not confuse who we are as a mission outpost for the Kingdom; or convolute what we proclaim concerning the gospel and the body of biblical revelation; or distract us from living as salt and light in the world. The problem is when the busyness of activities and programs substitute for true spirituality.

Activity without reality: many churches that have no clear understanding of the gospel are noted for their activities. They advertise their activities to the community as the means of attracting others. Yet we see no model for this in the New Testament, where the reality of grace-filled, resurrection-enlivened people willingly laid down their lives for the gospel as the means to reach others. The treadmill of activities can never substitute for knowing and living out the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ.

Liturgy without worship: worship does not take place just because we have a good plan or good music or good preaching or good participation. Only when we meet the living God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24) do we worship. The human spirit must be alive by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Worship is vain without the Holy Spirit’s indwelling and enabling. God must be worshiped as He has revealed Himself in Holy Scripture. It’s never our plans or liturgy or spontaneity that coaxes God into accepting our worship.

Orthodoxy without practice: believing the right things without applying the doctrine to one’s life cannot be a substitute for true life. There’s plenty of dead orthodoxy among Christian churches, where outwardly one acknowledges the church’s confession or creed without truly embracing it in practice with one’s mind and heart. What happened at Sardis that left them under Christ’s indictment?

2. Death watch of a church
When I was a kid, I used to hear the occasional mention of someone being on a “death watch.” It usually meant that a relative or friend showed signs of nearing death, so others would sit by their side as they waited for them to draw their last breath. Just recently, when Fidel Castro’s illness was made public, some newspapers spoke of a “death watch” for Castro. The term is even used to refer to the anticipation of the demise of a dot.com company or a television show. Jesus Christ warned of a death watch for the Sardis’ church. What characterized their signs of death?

a. Partial obedience
Notice that Jesus pointed out, in verse 2, “I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.” The word for completed implies fulfillment. Christ repeatedly refers to the seven churches “deeds” or works. We find it used often in the New Testament, sometime negatively as “deeds of the flesh” (Gal. 5:19) and positively as the “good works” that God has prepared for us to walk in (Eph. 2:10). It’s the latter that explains the use of the term in our text. It’s the obedience to Christ’s commands, walking in love and service toward others, bearing witness to the gospel in the community, forgiving those that have wronged you, being tenderhearted toward your brothers, giving yourself to prayer, and such as this that the church had neglected. They feigned obedience. They picked out commands of what looked pleasurable to them in the same way that one might pick out his favorite foods in a cafeteria line. They lacked the seriousness that must mark disciples of Jesus Christ. Obedience appeared more of an option than a passion. That’s spiritual deadness.

b. Spiritual presumption
The Sardis church thought that they were alive but they were dead. So Jesus had to exhort them, “Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die.” This is one of the most searching points of this text. How easy it is for us to busy ourselves in nice things and think that all is well. We can be very nice people and yet be “a perfect model of ineffective Christianity,” like the church at Sardis [Caird quoted by R. Mounce, NICNT: Revelation, 110]. Do you evaluate yourself in light of God’s Word? Do you read the Scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart, to show you where you have pretended to be Christian or covered up your sin or neglected true discipleship?

c. Gospel negligence
At the heart of their deadness was their negligence of the gospel. “So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it and repent.” What was it that they had “received and heard”? I think we find a good clue in the way that Paul used the same terminology. “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). That’s New Testament code for “the gospel.” In all of their activity and church life, the church at Sardis had forgotten about the gospel. This happened in two glaring ways. First, they were to be living daily in the reality of the gospel, applying its truths in ongoing sanctification. The gospel comforts, directs, challenges, and strengthens us in living as Christians. These Christians had shifted their attention to busy activity and away from the gospel. Modern Christians appear to resemble them. Second, since they were not applying and thinking upon the gospel in their daily lives, they neglected talking about the gospel to others. Evangelism and missions were relics of the past instead of the spiritual fiber of their lives.

What are you doing with the gospel? Do you live daily in the gospel? Do you talk about the gospel with others? Gospel negligence leads to spiritual deadness.

d. Spiritual indifference
The Sardis church’s indifference was evident in that only “a few people in Sardis…have not soiled their garments.” Garments is used metaphorically for the Christian’s testimony. Soiled garments implies that the world had rubbed off on them so that they had lost the distinctiveness of being a holy people among idolaters. They may have compromised with the idolatry of the trade guilds as with Thyatira and Pergamum, though nothing is mentioned of this. Or, if the latter use of “clothed in white garments” refers to justification, it may be that they had confused justification and sanctification by muddling it with other religious practices. Or it may be that they had neglected holiness as the appropriate covering of the Christian. It’s strange that in spite of Sardis having a strong tradition of emperor worship and devotion to the goddess Cybele (or Artemis), nothing is mentioned about this church enduring persecution as we’ve noted in the other churches. One writer commented, “Content with mediocrity, lacking both the enthusiasm to entertain a heresy and the depth of conviction which provokes intolerance, it was too innocuous to be worth persecuting” [Caird quoted by L. Morris, TNTC: Revelation, 76]. Their spiritual indifference may have allowed them to fly under the radar of the idolatrous community but not the gaze of Jesus Christ. Only a few received the commendation of their Master as “worthy” by reason of faithfulness to Him.

II. Consider Christ
That’s what the text insists upon. The letters to the seven churches are not primarily about the church but instead about the church’s relationship to its Lord. In light of the spiritual deadness pervading the church at Sardis, they had to consider Christ. The prescription for dealing with deadness in the church points wholly to relationship with Christ.

1. Look at Him
Each of the seven letters offer a return glimpse of John’s vision of Christ from the opening chapter of Revelation. Each revelation to the individual churches brings to mind just what they need to recognize concerning Him. Look at how Christ reveals Himself to this church. First, He reveals Himself as Life-giver. “He who has the seven Spirits of God… says this.” The seven Spirits implies the fullness of the Holy Spirit or the plentitude of the Spirit’s gifts to the church. If one doesn’t have the Spirit then he doesn’t have life, according to Paul’s language (Rom. 8:6-11). Such language infers that unless the Spirit has brought one from spiritual death into life by union with Christ, then he continues in deadness. Christ gives life through the Spirit. The Spirit gives life by union with Christ. Those spiritually dead must look to Christ for the gift of life by His Spirit.

Second, He reveals Himself as Lord of the church. “He who has… the seven stars, says this.” The stars represented either the angels of the churches or their pastors or their heavenly identity. Christ holds the churches in His hand. They exist by His pleasure and for His glory. To find our identity in the world or by some ecclesiastical claim to fame is foolish when Christ alone is Lord of the church. Third, He reveals Himself as omniscient since He says, “I know your deeds,” that is, I know them through and through with perfect knowledge. Nothing good, bad, or indifferent escapes Him. So we must be honest about our spiritual condition before the One who sees and knows everything about us.

So often we think that by busy activity we can cover up our deadness. Perhaps we can with those about us, but not so with Christ. He sees through the fa�ade of good deeds to what motivates us, where our affections lie, and whose glory we seek.

2. Hear Him
The heart of the text has five imperative verbs that are divine calls to action for the church. First, “wake up,” Christ tells His church. The phrase is intensive and actually can be translated, “Become awakened ones!” The word “awake” often implies alertness or watchfulness. The people of Sardis understood the implications. The city of Sardis stood on a 1500 feet high mount with sheer drops on three sides. The fortress atop the city in ancient days proved impregnable. Gold dust passed through the river that ran through Sardis, making King Croesus renowned in the 6th century B.C. as having a touch of gold. Legend had it that everything he touched turned to gold. But he lost his Midas touch when he forgot to be watchful. Croesus tried to conquer King Cyrus of the Persians but was soundly defeated. Croesus retreated to his mountain citadel, thinking that the Persians could never gain access to defeat them. For two weeks the Persians surrounded the mountain below but with no success in storming the city. But atop the city wall along one of the sheer cliffs, a Sardian soldier dropped his helmet. One of the Persian soldiers watched as this soldier made his way down a hidden crevice in the rock wall to reclaim his helmet. He returned and the wall remained unguarded. The Persian led a small band up the secret path and over the city wall, where they quietly opened the city gates for the entire Persian army to enter. The city met its defeat when unguarded. The same thing happened again in the 3rd century when Antiochus’ soldiers climbed the same crevice to open the gates of the unguarded city.

“Wake up,” Christ declared. Your souls are unguarded. The enemy of your souls approaches, looking for that area of your lives where you are no longer vigilant. He will seize opportunity wherever you leave your post of spiritual diligence.

Second, “strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die.” The aorist imperative gives a note of urgency in this command. It’s not that the church had nothing going for it. Whatever remained of knowledge of Scripture, love for Christ, understanding of worship, passion for spreading the gospel must be strengthened or firmed up. Sometimes what we need as Christians is not some new methodology or new program. We just need to get serious about the basics of living the Christian life. Nothing improves upon the spiritual disciplines of the Word, prayer, fellowship, gospel witness, and faithfulness to church. I’ve found Christians thinking that they need some kind of new spiritual gadget to get their lives on track when what they really need is a return to the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life.

Third, “remember what you have received and heard.” How forgetful we are of those things most important! That’s why the Lord has given the church a remembrance meal in the Lord’s Supper. We “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” whenever we gather at the Lord’s Table (1 Cor. 11:26). Each Sunday we seat ourselves at the table of God’s Word to remember the death and resurrection of Christ. Each day we must, as Paul told Timothy, “remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead” (2 Tim. 2:8). Christ calls upon the churches to meditate regularly and intensively upon the gospel.

Fourth, “So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it.” That word, “keep,” means to guard or treasure something, to count it as valuable so that you give great care to it. What has the Christian “received and heard”? It’s the gospel, as we’ve already noted. Christ tells us to treasure it. Here’s where we see the very heart of the Sardis church’s failure. They had gotten busy in a thousand different things to the neglect of the gospel. They had not savored the gospel in their personal walks nor spread the gospel with their lives and lips. A church that does not demonstrate the centrality of the gospel is a dead church, regardless of its activities. That serves as a vital warning to our church in the days ahead.

Fifth, Jesus offered one final command: “repent.” Turn from the spiritual sluggishness that neglects guarding one’s Christian testimony. Turn from the laziness that fails to give attention to strengthening the disciplines of the Christian life. Turn from negligence of the gospel, both in applying it daily and spreading it across the world. Turn from a heart attitude that treasures the world’s applause and worldly things but finds little place for the gospel. Repentance is not a one-time event but an ongoing part of the Christian, as we regularly open ourselves to the searching gaze of our Lord through His Word.

3. Confess Him
The text leaves us with a definite picture of Christ as the righteous Judge. He assesses the condition of the church at Sardis, finding their “deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.” So Jesus warns that He “will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.” That coming refers to His coming specifically in an act of divine judgment against the church. Do you confess Jesus Christ as the Judge before whom all will one day give an account? We do not slide by His searching gaze.

We also must confess Him as intimate Friend. The few who had not soiled their garments or lost their testimony by compromise with the world, Jesus says, “they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.” It pictures the future when Christ will gather those who are true believers, who walk in white—that is, who have been declared righteous through His justifying work. Are you numbered among those who will walk in intimacy with Christ for eternity? Some among the Sardis church, perhaps most, were not true believers. They would not know the friendship of Christ for eternity but rather know Him only as Judge.

We must also confess Him as our heavenly Completer. The deeds of the Sardis church were found incomplete, but for the one “who overcomes [he] will thus be clothed in white garments.” That adds to the previous picture, pointing to the glorified condition of those who persevere as believers.

We must also confess Christ as personal Confessor. Here we find Christ giving assurance. First He states assurance negatively. “I will not erase his name from the book of life.” Revelation identifies three books: the book of life, the books that record men’s deeds from which they are judged, and the book that unfolds God’s providential decree. The “book of life” is mentioned in several places, showing that those recorded in it have “been written from the foundation of the world” (13:8; 17:8). The perfect tense in those verses emphasizes that what is written will forever stand. In light of the pathetic showing of those professing Christ in Sardis, Jesus assures those who walked with Him that their names are forever in the book of life. Then He adds, “And I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Literally, His confession will be “before the presence or face of My Father and His angels.” It is the same word that Jesus declared in Matthew 10:32. “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” That is the crowning point of our salvation, when Jesus Christ tells the Father, “My Father, this one is Mine, I secured him with My death and resurrection. Receive him as You have received Me.”

Conclusion
Dead or alive? That’s the question that each of us must ask ourselves. Am I a fake, a pretender who looks good outwardly but inwardly there’s no life? The day will come when that will be revealed. Heed the kind warning of Christ now. Wake up! Remember what you have received and heard in the gospel; treasure the gospel and repent of your hypocrisy. By God’s mercy, you can walk with Christ in white garments and hear the good confession of your name before the Father.

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