Jesus has messages for seven churches. Here is his message to the fifth church, Sardis. Sardis was an ancient city, the center of the Lydian empire, prior to the arrival of the Persians and then the Greeks and finally, in the time of this writing, the Romans. It was famous, previously, for developing the ability to separate silver from gold and thus create pure gold and silver. (See this Wikipedia site.) It is now ruins; a small village of Sart (or Sartmahmut), with about 5000 residents, is nearby.
Revelation 3: 1-6, The message to Sardis
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.
3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.
6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.
3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.
6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
(Throughout this book, the term translated "angels" is ambiguous, merely meaning "messenger". And the phrase "the seven spirits" could be translated "the sevenfold Spirit". Translations, here from Greek to English, always require some type of interpretation.)
This church has all the appearances of being on fire but instead is mere glowing embers. But there is hope -- the residents are to fan the flames, to revive and strengthen their commitment to God. Like the readers of the book of Hebrews, this church is to recall what they have learned, to repent and return to that early understanding of Jesus and the gospel.
To what does the paragraph on "come like a thief" allude? Jesus spoke in parables about returning "like a thief" (see Matthew 24: 42-44) but is that what is really meant here? That they will be surprised, caught off guard, by Jesus' return? (If so, this interpretation should correct those who see the seven churches as a string of ages of time.)
The people in each church are promised certain characteristics if they stay strong. Here they are told they will be "dressed in white" (in clean clothes, not "soiled".) And that their name will be in the book of life, acknowledged before God and the angels.
We end with the reoccurring phrase, "Whoever has ears...", reminding the readers that this is an important message from the Spirit.
This church has all the appearances of being on fire but instead is mere glowing embers. But there is hope -- the residents are to fan the flames, to revive and strengthen their commitment to God. Like the readers of the book of Hebrews, this church is to recall what they have learned, to repent and return to that early understanding of Jesus and the gospel.
To what does the paragraph on "come like a thief" allude? Jesus spoke in parables about returning "like a thief" (see Matthew 24: 42-44) but is that what is really meant here? That they will be surprised, caught off guard, by Jesus' return? (If so, this interpretation should correct those who see the seven churches as a string of ages of time.)
The people in each church are promised certain characteristics if they stay strong. Here they are told they will be "dressed in white" (in clean clothes, not "soiled".) And that their name will be in the book of life, acknowledged before God and the angels.
We end with the reoccurring phrase, "Whoever has ears...", reminding the readers that this is an important message from the Spirit.
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