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Sunday 9/06/26
Title: Wake up Sardis, remember & repent
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Wake up Sardis, remember & repent
Sardis
While in many of the 7 cities, Jesus addresses in Revelation, there is a connection between His concerns and the influence that their surrounding culture was having upon them – here in Sardis this concern runs deeper.
The inroads of the culture had already long been established there. The culture had already infected the church with its casual and opulent approach to life, and in that way, it makes this church at Sardis one of the most perfect fits for churches today in first world countries.
In addition to this, Sardis had long been a place of unwarranted overconfidence which twice in their history had been the cause of their defeat.
In His very somber address to this church, Jesus draws a very tight net around the culture of Sardis and the heart condition of the church in Sardis.
Some history regarding Sardis will be helpful for us here. I pieced the following together from the writings of Albert Barnes, David Guzik as well as my own past teachings:
The History and failings of Sardis
The name Sardis means “escaping ones”.
Sardis was a wealthy city known for its wool and dye industries.
By the time of the late first century church, Sardis was well past its prime. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the provinces of Asia Minor.
It was the capital where Croesus, who was known for his wealth, reigned in the 6th century BC.
It was during his reign that Saris became the birthplace of modern money in that the first minted gold coins with standardized purity for general circulation were made there. At that time Sardis was one of the most splendid and opulent cities of the East.
It was also a well fortified city. It sat atop a steep, high acropolis surrounded by sheer, near vertical and dangerous rocky cliffs, making it look completely impossible to conquer.
Nevertheless, it was taken by Cyrus the Great in 548 BC due to the over confidence in the city’s impregnability and that overconfidence was an ongoing problem in this city and eventually in the body of Christ which was established there in the first century.
Cyrus had offered a great reward for any of his soldiers who could discover a vulnerability into the city which they could exploit.
One of these soldiers had witnessed a city guard who dropped his helmet which went careening down the steep cliff-like edifice the city was built upon.
To this soldier’s surprise, the helmet was easily retrieved by a pathway down the cliff which was quite invisible to the eye of a distant onlooker.
The soldier tested the path the next day and discovered that the gate there was unguarded. It was through this gate that Cyrus mounted a covert attack in the middle of the night and took the city.
Not to learn from mistakes, this occurred again in 213 BC, when Antiochus III the Great (the Seleucid king) captured Sardis in exactly the same means as had Cyrus the Great.
In similar fashion, Jesus warns the believers in Sardis that His judgment on them, if they fail to repent, will be both unpredicted and sudden.
The inhabitants of Sardis were held in long standing ill repute among the ancients for their voluptuous modes of life.
At the time Jesus spoke these words to John, the ancient city of Sardis had seen its best days and had started to decline. Yet it was still a wealthy city. The connection between Sardis and money – easy money – was well known in the ancient world.
A large temple dedicated to the mother goddess Cybele (Sibily) stood over 60′ tall in which people honored & “worshiped” her with all kinds of sexual immorality and impurity.
In short, Sardis was a city well known for its softness and luxury, a city of loathsome decadence which even pagans spoke against.
It had a well-deserved reputation for apathy and immorality and this influence found expression in the church of Sardis.
Now many commentators will attempt to draw a line between the few faithful in Sardis as being “the real Church” and the rest as being Christians in name only. But people who are Christians in name only are never referred to as “the church” – especially by Jesus Who knows all and sees all. This is all the more true when you consider those defining characteristics Jesus points to regarding Himself in His address to this church.
So let it be known, that all those Jesus speaks to in this letter are in fact true Believers, the genuine believers who were the church in Sardis.
Verse 2 makes this clear as well in that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a work-centered gospel. Meaning “right standing” with God is not obtained through works. However our right standing with God is maintained through works in the same way that fruitfulness of a branch is directly tied to their connection to their host Vine.
As such, Jesus addresses these Saints in Sardis telling them to strengthen the things that remain BECAUSE their works or not perfect before God.
If these people were mere professors of Christianity, Jesus would not tell them to strengthen their “works”. To do so would be to counsel them to strengthen works of the flesh.
Rather Jesus is telling them to strengthen what fruit they do have that is in fact produced from their Union with Him, so that what they do have is not completely lost.
Going forward with the illustrative teaching Jesus gave in John 15:
God desires our fruit to “remain” which was a real concern for these saints in Sardis.
Jesus’ letter was a type of battlefield triage in that it was not immediately focused upon robust health so much as addressing what was hemmeraging.
For, if we become barren and produce absolutely no fruit out of our Union with Christ, then according to Jesus’ teaching in John 15 (as well as that in Hebrews 5-6), we learn that such as these are discarded as branches. THAT is the sobering warning being given here to this church in Sardis.
Jesus our Lord, also tells them to remember how they received & heard the gospel of their deliverance from sin and death and then hold fast and repent.
These are not words consistent with a non-believer’s association with the gospel.
The letter to Sardis
Now with all of this framework in place, let’s read the passage.
Revelation 3:1-6,
“(1) And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
‘The words of Him Who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
(2) Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of My God.
(3) Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.
If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
(4) Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
(5) The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
(6) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
Let’s work our way through this.
First off, we have Jesus’ introduction which, as I mentioned earlier, as I have in every letter, has direct bearing on What aspect of His person and authority are speaking to them as well as being that part of Him they need to reconcile with in order to regain the right path.
Jesus says,
“(1) And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
‘The words of Him Who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.”
I just cannot tell you how deep, rich and fulfilling this study was but you will get a feel for it before we are done with this church in Sardis!
As we know Jesus is referencing John’s description of Him in chapter 1. In this case the reference is attached to something very telling which helps us.
The quote is from Revelation 1:4-5a and says,
“John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come, and from the seven spirits Who are before his Throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness”
So we have the Father being addressed as the one ON the throne and Jesus as the faithful witness as those who are conveying grace and peace to all of these churches which includes Sardis. But mentioned also are the seven spirits before the Father’s throne who we’ve seen mentioned before in Isaiah.
The mention of these seven spirits only appears 5 times in all of scripture, 4 of which are in this book of Revelation and 2 are directed at the churches of Asia, with special mention to that in Sardis. So naturally this made it stand out like a neon sign being mentioned to Sardis specifically.
So I went to the only Old Testament example found in Isaiah 11 and man was it a rich study, but I will offer you only the hyper-condensed version here. The full study will be on the website for those hungry enough to be rewarded with that knowledge.
Let me quote the passage as it appears in Isaiah 11:1-4,
“(1) There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
(2) And 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 the fear of the LORD.
(3) And His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, (4) but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked.
(5) Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist, and faithfulness the belt of His loins.“
Now I had always wondered some things about this statement.
- Was Isaiah referring to 7 literal independent spirits who exist before God’s throne, making them creations of God?
OR,
- Are these all a description of the Holy Spirit?
Well the truth is found in the way Isaiah wrote the words AND in the way John, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, stated what he did in Revelation 1:4&5. What these reveal are amazing! [Additional notes on the 7 spirits study]
In Isaiah, the first spirit mentioned in the “Spirit of the Lord” and in the Hebrew there is a real break here. It represents a complete verbal clause. It has a verb (וְנָחָה, “and it will rest“), a prepositional phrase (עָלָיו, “upon him“), and a subject (יְרוּחַ הוָה, “the Spirit of YHWH“). It is grammatically closed.
This is followed by 3 sets of two types of spirits.
- The Spirit of wisdom and understanding
- The Spirit of counsel and might
- The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD
These following three pairs are noun phrases without a governing verb. They do not continue the syntax of that first clause. They sit in apposition to it. The Hebrew uses an atnach (aght- nah) which functions somewhat like a strong comma or half-stop used to create a deliberate pause between the mention of the Spirit of the Lord and the three pairs of spirits that follow. This makes “the Spirit of the Lord” stand apart from what follows, but it does NOT make it the one real Spirit being further defined by all that follows.
Now I don’t expect you to fully grasp the significance, brilliance or beauty of what Isaiah did here, but man did it help clarify a long standing question of mine.
The mention of these other 6 spirits follows a very interesting pattern.
You no doubt remember our lessons on parallelism when going through the poetic and prophetic books and the various types of parallelism represented in scripture?
Well this one is a meticulous, triadic parallelism.
Three pairs, each with their own construct relationship.
So to be clear, Isaiah is NOT saying “the Spirit of YHWH, which is wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear.” Rather he is enumerating a total of seven spirits, six of which come in complementary pairs under the headship of the first – “Spirit of the Lord“.
That these appear in sets of two is also super significant.
Seven is the number of completeness and totality in Jewish thought. The structure of one + three pairs producing seven is exactly the kind of structure a prophet of Isaiah’s era would use to signal comprehensive, complete endowment. The form itself is making a rhetorical argument.
Now, while these are descriptive, they are NOT being set forth as descriptive of these spirits themselves so much as what their possession offers to the one who has them upon him.
Now we are all, more or less, familiar with the Jehovah names of God. These are names where YHWH is compounded with another word to describe a character of God in greater detail. Like Jehovah Nissi or Jehovah Jireh…etc.
These are revelatory name-events — moments where a character facet of God is disclosed through circumstance and encoded in a compound name.
In Isaiah 11:2-3 we are not given compound divine names in the formal sense — but what Isaiah is doing is arguably more sophisticated: rather than compounding the name once, he is deploying a series of construct-state pairings that function like compound names stacked in sequence. Each spirit followed by a pair of words are essentially disclosing a facet of character.
Now I am going to go slow, because this is SOOOO rich!
This word “spirit” used here by Isaiah carries the semantic range of wind, breath, and spirit — but critically, it also carries the sense of animating force and executive presence.
When the word “spirit” is bound to YHWH in construct, it is not merely saying “a spirit that belongs to YHWH” or “an attribute of the Spirit of YHWH”. No, it is saying something infinitely more profound than that!
It is saying, the animating, executive, outward-moving presence of YHWH Himself — His active reach into the created order. It is God interacting with, influencing and expressing His power and authority in the natural realm.
In Isaiah’s theology specifically, the Spirit of the LORD (YHWH) is consistently associated with creative and judicial power — the force by which God acts throughout history.
Now, bringing Jesus into this is where the real meat is and where it intersects with our letter to Sardis.
Isaiah was saying that when the incarnate Christ came, He would rule with YHWH’s Own active, executive presence resting upon Him. Meaning that would be the umbrella under which everything else following Messiah did would flow.
Let’s consider these three sets of two… [Additional Notes on this example of triadic parallelism]
The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding
“Wisdom” here is practical, skilled wisdom. The word used of craftsmen who build the tabernacle (Exodus 31), of the wise administrator, of someone who knows how to act rightly in the real world. It is not an abstract philosophical wisdom like that of Plato or Aristotle. It is wisdom that produces right outcomes through skilled discernment of reality.
“Understanding” is from a root which means to discern, distinguish, perceive clearly. It is the capacity to see between things — to perceive distinctions that are not immediately obvious. To understand why something is as it is, to trace causes and its implications.
Where wisdom is knowing how to act, understanding is the penetrating insight that correctly reads the situation in the first place.
Together as a pair, as resting upon Jesus gives Him the character of being highlighted is a ruler who accurately perceives reality as it is and knows exactly what to do with that perception. This directly anticipates verse 3-4, where the ruler judges not by appearances but by what is actually true.
Spirit of Counsel and Might
“Counsel” is a concept which is much softer in English than in Hebrew. It is deliberate, purposeful planning that leads to decisive action. It is the word used for the counsel of a king’s war council, for the purposes of YHWH that cannot be thwarted (as in Isaiah 46:10 which uses the same root). It carries a sense of strategic intentionality — not merely advice given but a determined plan formed and held.
“Might” is strength coupled with heroic power. The word used of warriors and of acts of great power, but in Isaiah’s theological context, might being paired with counsel is doing something very special and specific. It is saying that Jesus‘ rule and counsel will not be impotent. The persistent failures accompanying human rulers is that they either plan without power to execute, or exert power without wisdom to direct it. This pairing explicitly closes both gaps — the plan and the power to carry it through to completion are both fully present.
The presents a Messianic ruler in whom strategic wisdom and executive force are unified — whose purposes cannot be frustrated because He possess both the mind to plan and the strength to act.
Finally the spirit of Knowledge and the Fear of the LORD (YHWH)
This third pair is the most theologically charged and the one that most directly engages the idea of the compound Jehovah names I mentioned earlier.
“Knowledge” here is intimate, relational, experiential knowledge. It is the deepest Hebrew word for knowing. It is the word used for the knowledge between a husband and wife, for the knowledge of God that is the goal of covenant relationship (Hosea 4:1, 6:6). This knowledge is not merely information about something — it is the knowledge that comes from being in genuine relationship with the thing known.
When applied to Jesus, it represents Him as a ruler who knows YHWH from the inside, not merely about him from the outside.
“Fear of the LORD” – These words function as a technical term meaning: the orientation of a person who is correctly aligned with who YHWH actually is. One who perceives His weight, His authority, His holiness accurately and orders their entire life in proper alignment and response to it.
Notice that in the very next verse in Isaiah 11:3, the text immediately addresses that the Messiah’s “delight will be in the fear of the LORD (YHWH)”.
This is where the word spirit as I defined it for you earlier is SO revealing of the heart and character of Jesus and offers a character portrait that is deeply compelling and worthy of eternal admiration.
The verb “delight” here is from the same root as the word ריח (riah), which means to smell, to scent, to catch the scent of.
It literally means Jesus will “delight/perception/discernment will be in the fear of YHWH” — or more literally, he will “scent” or “be attuned to” the fear of YHWH, with the sense of keen, intuitive discernment.
In a word play, clearly not intended by Isaiah, but still consistent with the thought is that “fearing the Lord” will be as natural and constant to Him as breathing.
This is the text itself underscoring that the Fear of God is not an external power enacted upon Jesus, nor some law which places a constraint on His person and rule, but represents the Fear of the Lord as Jesus‘ native atmosphere, His instinctive orientation.
The pairing of “Knowledge” and the “Fear of the LORD” is pointing to Jesus as the Ruler Who knows God (YHWH) relationally (IN HIM WAS LIFE AND THAT LIGHT WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN) and from the inside, and Whose entire character is shaped by a deep and penetratingly accurate perception of Who YHWH is — and furthermore that this is as natural and effortless to Him as breathing.
The Unified Character Portrait
When you read all three pairs as facets of a single character disclosure — which the grammar and structure support — what emerges is:
- He reads reality truly and acts in it skillfully
- His purposes are formed wisely and cannot be frustrated
- He knows God (YHWH) from within and is natively oriented to Him
And the Spirit of the Lord which stands above and before all of this is saying:
This is YHWH‘s own active presence resting on a human figure — which is precisely what makes the character portrait possible.
A man could not hold all of this by human capacity alone. The Spirit – that is, the Holy Spirit, is the explanation for why it coheres in one person.
Isaiah is essentially doing in narrative-poetic form what the compound divine names do in a single word: he is disclosing who this figure is by disclosing the Spirit Who rests upon Him.
Now again, that this is 7 expressions of the Holy Spirit is made clear by two facts:
- These spirits are said to rest upon Jesus and we actively see the “when” of that reality in Christ’s life in the river Jordan as He is baptized by John.
- “Grace and peace” are said to emanate from the throne of God, Jesus and THESE very 7 spirits. “Grace and peace” as set forth in the gospel are attributes of God and only come from Him.
Now back to Revelation 3 we see that Jesus claimed to possess the seven stars which we know are the angels and these seven spirits.
So when Jesus says,
“(1) And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
‘The words of Him Who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” – Revelation 3:1
This is a very weighty introduction. It is a burning bush, or a Mt. Sinai type of encounter.
The weight of this introduction makes me want to go back and look at the other introductions to see if there’s something really profound that I missed.
I say that because this introduction so outweighs and out shines the others that it indicates that what Jesus is saying to Sardis is so critical that it required an even greater and more powerful introduction to the person and character of Christ then was necessary to the other churches or what was said to the other churches was Stronger than my study and insight revealed.
So what Jesus is about to say is in view that He holds in His authority the messengers of God to the churches and He possesses the seven spirits of God spoken of In Isaiah which qualifies Him to…
- Grasp the reality of their condition as is truly is and act skillfully in regard to it.
- Form His purposes for them wisely and decisively His determination regarding them cannot be frustrated.
- From His perfect and intimate knowing of the Father Who sits on the throne of power, He moves in respect to Him and not man. He is oriented in the highest respect and deference to the Father and moves His church towards the same.
Then He says,
“(1) And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
‘The words of Him Who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
(2) Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of My God.
(3) Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.
If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
(4) Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
(5) The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
(6) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
We will address the contents of this letter next week.
