Amazing Facts
Living in Name Only.
Present-day Sardis is an archaeological site, home to restored ruins—restored as much as possible, you might say—including a temple to the pagan goddess Artemis and what was the largest Jewish synagogue of that era. As with other early Christian congregations, it’s fair to suggest many new believers were recruited from that synagogue’s ranks.
“He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars” is a reference to what we read in Revelation 1:20: the “seven stars” are the angels, or messengers, of the seven churches, and “the seven Spirits of God” refers to the Holy Spirit, which empowered Jesus and which He gave to the church at the first Pentecost. The church at Sardis was supposed to be filled with the Spirit, but while it had “a name that you are alive … you are dead.”
How was it dead? By not being fully alive spiritually! Many members of the Sardis church were apparently too comfortable with sin, too unfamiliar with repentance and reformation. If your daily life doesn’t reflect Christ’s life, doesn’t show His love to others, then what use is a pious display?
Merely going to church doesn’t make one a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a Ford or a Subaru. Being a Christian involves more than attending worship services or putting a bumper sticker on your car. It involves a change of heart, a change of life, a change that can come only in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The question, as we shall see in subsequent verses about Sardis, is whether the church was united in seeking that power. Yes, the members had found the truth of Jesus as Messiah. But what were they doing with it? What impact was it having in their lives and their community?
Lord Jesus, keep me mindful that being Your follower isn’t a “label” but a way of life. Keep me close to You, fill me with the Holy Spirit, and enable me to turn away from sin towards life!
For Further Study: Deuteronomy 5:29; Colossians 2:9; James 2:26
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Revelation 3:1
Living in Name Only.
Present-day Sardis is an archaeological site, home to restored ruins—restored as much as possible, you might say—including a temple to the pagan goddess Artemis and what was the largest Jewish synagogue of that era. As with other early Christian congregations, it’s fair to suggest many new believers were recruited from that synagogue’s ranks.
“He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars” is a reference to what we read in Revelation 1:20: the “seven stars” are the angels, or messengers, of the seven churches, and “the seven Spirits of God” refers to the Holy Spirit, which empowered Jesus and which He gave to the church at the first Pentecost. The church at Sardis was supposed to be filled with the Spirit, but while it had “a name that you are alive … you are dead.”
How was it dead? By not being fully alive spiritually! Many members of the Sardis church were apparently too comfortable with sin, too unfamiliar with repentance and reformation. If your daily life doesn’t reflect Christ’s life, doesn’t show His love to others, then what use is a pious display?
Merely going to church doesn’t make one a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a Ford or a Subaru. Being a Christian involves more than attending worship services or putting a bumper sticker on your car. It involves a change of heart, a change of life, a change that can come only in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The question, as we shall see in subsequent verses about Sardis, is whether the church was united in seeking that power. Yes, the members had found the truth of Jesus as Messiah. But what were they doing with it? What impact was it having in their lives and their community?
Lord Jesus, keep me mindful that being Your follower isn’t a “label” but a way of life. Keep me close to You, fill me with the Holy Spirit, and enable me to turn away from sin towards life!
For Further Study: Deuteronomy 5:29; Colossians 2:9; James 2:26
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Revelation 3:1
Amazing Facts
Living in Name Only.
Present-day Sardis is an archaeological site, home to restored ruins—restored as much as possible, you might say—including a temple to the pagan goddess Artemis and what was the largest Jewish synagogue of that era. As with other early Christian congregations, it’s fair to suggest many new believers were recruited from that synagogue’s ranks.
“He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars” is a reference to what we read in Revelation 1:20: the “seven stars” are the angels, or messengers, of the seven churches, and “the seven Spirits of God” refers to the Holy Spirit, which empowered Jesus and which He gave to the church at the first Pentecost. The church at Sardis was supposed to be filled with the Spirit, but while it had “a name that you are alive … you are dead.”
How was it dead? By not being fully alive spiritually! Many members of the Sardis church were apparently too comfortable with sin, too unfamiliar with repentance and reformation. If your daily life doesn’t reflect Christ’s life, doesn’t show His love to others, then what use is a pious display?
Merely going to church doesn’t make one a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a Ford or a Subaru. Being a Christian involves more than attending worship services or putting a bumper sticker on your car. It involves a change of heart, a change of life, a change that can come only in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The question, as we shall see in subsequent verses about Sardis, is whether the church was united in seeking that power. Yes, the members had found the truth of Jesus as Messiah. But what were they doing with it? What impact was it having in their lives and their community?
Lord Jesus, keep me mindful that being Your follower isn’t a “label” but a way of life. Keep me close to You, fill me with the Holy Spirit, and enable me to turn away from sin towards life!
For Further Study: Deuteronomy 5:29; Colossians 2:9; James 2:26
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Revelation 3:1
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