of Jesus Christ - House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

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of Jesus Christ

Outline - Chapter 2

Church of Ephesus (desirable) Rev 2:1-7

Church of Smyrna (myrrh) Rev 2:8-11

Church of Pergamos (exalted) Rev 2:12-17

Church of Thyatira (ruled by a woman/ sweet savor

of labor) Rev 2:18-29

Church of Sardis (renewal/revival/restoration) Rev 3:1-6

2 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

Church Age


City of Sardis


A Quick Analysis • The Dead Church - Protestant reformation , 1517 to 1750 • The seven churches in Asia Minor which John wrote to, are

representative of periods in church history. Based on the characteristics of the churches, the times they symbolize in the church history is identified.

• Ephesus - The early church, Apostolic church age AD 33 to 100 (Church that started well on the day of Pentecost, became cold hearted and sooner lost their first love)

• Smyrna - The church under pagan persecution, AD 100 to 312 (Many Christians were burnt alive at stake, were thrown into the boiling oil or thrown in to the coliseum for the hungry beast. During this period, the famous bishop of Christian church, Polycarp served in Smyrna was martyred in 156 AD)

• Pergamos - Paganism enters the church, AD 312 to 590s (Pergamum church was married to the world, Out of this alliance between the Roman emperor and the Christian church came the birth of Roman Catholicism.)

• Thyatira - Papal supremacy of Dark Ages, 590 to 1517 (927 Years) (Nothing good that happened, no missionary, no evangelism, no study of the Word just paganism, death and corruption)

• Sardis - Protestant reformation , 1517 to 1750 (233 Years) (represents a bunch of nominal Christians, they are Christians for name sake, Jesus says, you look like a church, act like a church, but you are dead) 5 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

City of Sardis • The capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia • Located 46 miles east of Smyrna, 28 miles west of

Philadelphia and 31 miles south of Thyatira • Located in the valley of the Hermus on the banks of

river Pactolus. • The acropolis or citadel or fortress was built about

1500 feet above the plain on a ridge of the 5,800 feet high Mount Tmolus (Tolamus).

• Seven hundred years before this letter was written Sardis had become one of the greatest cities of the world. Ruled over by the king of Lydia. Sardis had magnificence luxury and nearly unlimited wealth.


City of Sardis • Sardis was also a great military power. • It stood in the midst of a river plain on a plateau some

fifteen hundred feet above the valley. • The sides of the plateau were sheer cliffs. • An enemy could be seen approaching miles away. • Looking at Sardis from a distance was like looking at a

gigantic watchtower above the Hermus Valley. • Sardis grew until it could no longer fit on the plateau

and the building spilled over into the valley below. It became a two-tiered city - upper and lower Sardis.

• A river that was said to contain gold bisected Lower Sardis. The name of the king who lived at the time of the discovery of this gold was Croesus [kree-suhs]. (known as the richest man in the world) 7 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

City of Sardis • Croesus and his people were extremely rich and living

in luxury and splendor and became soft and flabby. • In his arrogance, Croesus recklessly declared war on

Cyrus of Persia and got defeated. • Cyrus laid siege to the city. He waited fourteen days,

then offered a special reward to anyone who could find an entry into Sardis.

• A soldier in the army of Cyrus noticed a Sardian soldier dropping his helmet off the edge. The helmet dropped deep down through one of these cracks. Solder made way to come down through the crack to take his helmet. Persian troops gain access through the crack and captured the city as the guards were found asleep.


City of Sardis • The city disappeared from history under Persian rule

for two centuries until it fell to Alexander the Great and became a Greek city.

• After Alexander died, Antiochus became the ruler of the area that included Sardis.

• Romans took over Sardis and it became a Roman town. In A.D. 17 it was hit by an earthquake and demolished.

• Tiberius the Roman Emperor made Sardis tax-exempt for five years and donated money to rebuild the city.

• By the time John wrote this letter, the city was again wealthy and severely degenerated. Once again, the Sardians were soft. Once again an attitude of smug (complacence) apathy(lack of interest) prevailed. 9 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

The church of Sardis • This church age is the beginning of the Protestant

church breaking away from Roman Catholicism. • Its time period is known as the Reformation

(restoration) . • The dark ages were coming to an end - that is, the dark

ages the Roman Catholic church. • This new time was also a period known as the

Renaissance (rebirth, revival) Period. • Let us be thankful to God for the Renaissance Period

as our lives are completely different today due to the events that took place on October 31st 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the 95th thesis to the Wittenberg Castle door.


The church of Sardis • Within the city was a church, the church of Christ of

Sardis. It too reflected the degeneracy of the time. It was lazy and apathetic. It too was not watching. It too was about to fall.

• The sin of Sardis was apathy. Apathy is unconcern. It is disinterest, and carelessness, all wrapped up together. It can include negligence, indifference, and lethargy.

• Its spiritual numbness that can eventually become paralysis. It is the temperature lukewarm.

• Apathy is a compound word: "a" meaning "without" and "pathy" meaning "feeling." It means literally, "without feeling."


The church of Sardis • It has no passion and no opinion. It is an attitude of:

– "I don't care" – "I don't want to be bothered." – "I don't know and I don't want to know."

• The members of the church of Christ in Sardis had a name and they were alive, Jesus said, but they were dead. We might call them "The Church of the Living Dead". They were dead because they didn't care. They had no passion anymore for the things of God. They were apathetic.

• The word Sardis means “escaping ones” or “those who come out.” The history of the city and church indicate a good start, but a bad finish - a change for the worse.


V3:1 1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

• 7 Spirits of God: 7 fold Spirit of the Lord -( Isaiah 11:2, The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

• 7 is the number of perfection. 7 fold spirit of God who wrote letter to the seven churches.

• 7 starts : we read that in Rev 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands which you saw are the seven churches.(Note:1)


V3:1 This letter has different tone from the previous letters. • For the poor, but rich church in Smyrna, our Lord has nothing but words of

praise. • For the churches of Ephesus, Pergamos, and Thyatira, He had a mixture of

praise and criticism. • To the majority of the church at Sardis, He said nothing praiseworthy. Sardis

may have been filled with what we call "nominal Christians". Nominal Christian is a Christians who lives as a Christian for name sake.

• Smyrna was put to death but lived. Sardis was alive but dead. • The members of this church was physically alive but spiritually dead. • People are outwardly worshiping the Lord. The Lord is never impressed by

the beauty of a well-kept mausoleum, knowing that inside are the bones of a dead man.

• The Lord knew about these worshippers and He says in Isaiah 29:13 • According to Jesus, these Pharisees gave arms, they said prayers, they even

disfigured their faces so as everybody know their spirituality during their fasting. But the Lord knowing what they did, and He says in Matthew 23:27

• The Sardian Christians were like the one Paul described in II Timothy 3:5 (Note-2) 14 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

V3:2-3 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

In the church of Sardis there were 3 different groups of people.

1. Who were not even Christians, not even believers, Un saved

2. Christians who were so carnal, you couldn't tell the difference between them and the unsaved

3. Little small group of people who love the Lord

To this mixed group of people Christ gives, 5 exhortations. Become Vigilant, Become Vigorous, Become Victorious, Be Vibrant, Become Virtuous.


V3:2-3 (Become Vigilant) • You as a church must become vigilant! Be watchful. • You are already dead. If you don’t wake up, you are about to

lose everything including the little remnant who are holding on to me.

How can a church die? • It dies not only because Christians are not awake. They allow

death to walk into the church and take their members away into dark, eventually to kill them.

• Even today, we think why church membership is required. Why teaching is required to become members. Why Bible Study, etc.

• It is important to ensure the right members are added into he church and they are strong in basic doctrine.

• The leadership of the church is chosen from the membership. • We don’t want the death to come inside the church, in the form

of wrong doctrine that spreads like a cancer within the church. Christ is telling the church of Sardis to be vigilant. 16 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

V3:2-3 (Become Vigorous) • Not only be vigilant by not allowing false teaching into the

church. Become vigorous in building up that little remnant within the church.

• There is a little group with in the church they have not committed the sin yet, they were not given to the devil yet. They are not dead but still alive. It is true even in today's church. People go to church for various reasons.

• But if we really find out what is happening in these churches, there is a great crowd on Sunday morning when great choir sings and a sermon is preached.

• But on the other days there could be seen a little group of individuals fasting, praying and studying God's Word together.

• It is the same situation here in Sardis, there is a little group still love the Lord. Christ is telling to the messenger, to strengthen these few individuals who are in the Lord and encourage them.


V3:2-3 (Become Victorious) • Now Christ is talking to the Christians within the church. Not

only be vigilant by not allowing false teaching into the church, not only become vigorous in building up the remnant within the church. Be victorious.

• What is death in a church?: Separation of the spirit from the body. When we die, the spirit leaves the body. When a church dies, the Holy Spirit and His ministry in the church ceased.

• When I become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes and resided within me. When the Spirit is gone, the church is dead.

• When a church is established, the way it becomes alive is by the Spirit that comes inside and resides.

• Victorious means remembering how the Spirit came and resided inside in the church and allowing the Spirit to minister continuously. 18 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

V3:2-3 (Be Vibrant) • (Hold fast, wherever we find this term in the Book of

Revelation, it often translated as Keep), hold fast that is written, hold fast the sound doctrine, hold fast good teaching.

• It is not enough to be vigilant by not allowing false teaching into the church, not enough to be vigorous in building up the remnant within the church, not enough to be victorious in remembering how you received the salvation and the holy spirit, you need to be vibrant.

• You must create within the church the vibrancy that comes by teaching sound doctrine. Vibrancy within the church comes by teaching the Word.


V3:2-3 (Become Virtuous) It is not enough to be vigilant by not allowing false teaching into the church, not enough to be vigorous in building up the remnant within the church, not enough to be victorious in remembering how you received the salvation and the holy spirit, not enough to be vibrant by teaching sound doctrines, You need to be virtuous and repent.

We need to be righteous, holy, pure and acceptable to the Lord.


V3:3b 3b Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

If you are not vigilant, not vigorous, not victorious, not vibrant and not virtuous or don’t repent, I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

Jesus Christ warns Sardians the consequences of “Not watching”. If Sardis does not watch they will not be taken when Christ appears.

Throughout the Gospels Christ stresses the need for the believer to be careful and keep watchful eye for his “Imminent return”. In the parable of the 10 virgins, five are prepared for the bridegroom and five are not. Jesus said in Matthew 25:13 "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.


V3:4 • 4 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they

shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

• Only a few in the church they are alive, what about the rest? The rest are all dead.

• Christ is telling the church in Sardis, it is not enough to keep the little group of believers who have not defiled their garments.

• The rest of the church has to repent and turn towards God. • The nominal Christians, namesake Christians, Christians who

come to the church only during festivals, the Christians who come to the church during birth, marriage and death, who come to the church to meet people, to find match for themselves or for their children, to attend committee and board meeting, who come to the church to vote for a leader or stand as a nominee in the election and who come to the church to find fault and criticize the preacher.

• Christ is telling all of these individuals must repent before they face the ultimate spiritual death.


V3:5 5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

1. Clothed in white

• Righteousness of the saints. When we get to heaven what we are going to wear. We are going to wear the righteousness. We will walk around in eternity clothed in white.

• The Lord says that these few are worthy and that therefore they will walk with Him in white (v.4). These are the ones who had obeyed the Lord’s exhortation in Luke 21:36

• And so they will walk in the white garments of the bride on the wedding-day of the Lamb.

• All overcomers are then promised the reward of being clothed in white garments (v.5). This indicates clearly that only overcomers will form the bride of Christ.


V3:5 2. Continue to keep in the book

• It doesn't say I will keep you in the book irrespective of what you do.

• Overcomers are also promised that their names will not be erased from the Lamb’s book of life (v.5).

• This makes it clear that a person’s name can be in the book of life and then be erased from it.

• The plain teaching of Scripture is that believers who live after the flesh will die spiritually (Rom.8:13).

• They will lose the salvation that they once had.

• The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of my book” (Ex.32:33). In Psalm 69:25-29 Judas Iscariot’s name being blotted out of the book of life. His name was once in that book and then it was erased. One has to be an overcomer to retain one’s name there. 24 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

V3:5 3. I will confess you before my father

• The Lord also promises to confess the overcomer’s name before the Father and before His angels.

• This is a reward promised to those who unashamedly confess His Name before men (Mt.10:32; Lk.12:8).

• The Lord places great value on our publicly confessing His name before our relatives, friends, neighbors and colleagues at work.

• What an honor it would be for our name to be publicly confessed by the Lord in that final day.

• Even if we have to bear shame and persecution for the Lord’s sake, every day for a hundred years on earth, it will still be worth it all, if the final reward is that the Lord proudly acknowledges us before the Father and His holy angels one day.

• One word of approval from His precious lips will erase from our minds the memories of a lifetime of suffering and ridicule.


How does a church die? • In order to apply these teachings in our life, we need to find out

the causes of the death of the Christians inside the church of Sardis by doing a spiritual autopsy or postmortem of the church.

• How does the church die? (eliminate the options) 1. Death from an outside enemy, impossible to kill a church by someone outside. Because persecution didn't stop the church, it helped to spread the gospel. We studied that in the church of Smyrna. By persecution and poverty we can not kill a church. Can't kill a church from outside. 2. Church cannot die on suicide. Church cannot call a meeting of the board members and pass a resolution to say from this day forward we all decide not to follow Jesus Christ and His doctrine. The Church cannot declare that the church of Sardis dies today. 3. Church did not die because it is not abandoned by God: There are few within the church who were live. So God did not reject the church. 26 House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

How does a church die? 1. Church dies through the death of its individual members.

Church is a collection of individuals. (Note-3)

2. Relied on past reputation

• Victories from yesterday, don’t count today. It doesn't matter really what we did in the past. How old are your illustrations. Your illustrations and experiences are Yesterday's, or today's or what happened 10 years or 15 years in some remote corner of the world? There is no point in talking about what we did for the Lord when we were in our youth. What we are doing now alone counts.


How does a church die? • A great southern Baptist minister often says,

• Every ministry goes through four stages , It starts with a Man, goes to a Movement, becomes a Machine, ultimately end up as a Monument.

• The Church in Sardis forgot what the ministry was and they were polishing the monument.

• In the athletic world the victory last time we had doesn't mean anything now, every time we have to win.

• The church in Sardis died in the same way the city died. The city soldiers kept the door open , enemy came inside. Over confidence and lack of vigilance.


How does a church die? 3. Because it is not conscience of its own death.

• Church is not sensual to its own spiritual condition. Week after week going through the motions, Christians may not lose their salvation, but they may not even know the Spirit God already stopped working within them.

• The spiritual numbness makes Christians senseless and paralyze them and eventually kill them. The risk here is, the physical numbness can be felt or identified, spiritual numbness can not be identified.


How does a church die? • Delilah put Samson to sleep on her lap in order to

shave his hair. When the Philistines came, Bible says, He woke from sleep and shook himself to be free, but he did not know that the Lord had already left him. Judges 16:19, 20

• King Saul did not know that the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. 1 Samuel 16:14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.

• This is the danger you and I can face at any time if we depart from the Lord.


of Jesus Christ - House of Intercessory Prayer Ministries

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