How does a once thriving church end up dead? How did they arrive at their demise? In Sunday’s sermon, we looked at what Jesus had to say to the dead Sardian church. Today, I want to look at three things that led to their downfall.
THEY HAD A HISTORY
In His letter to the church at Sardis, Jesus speaks to their present situation, but also reaches back into the past of this very famous and ancient city. More than a thousand years before, Sardis was a chief city of the Lydian empire, ruled by one of the richest men of antiquity named Croesus. His wealth was remarkable; history books tell us he built a city outpost and palace fortress atop a nearby mountain to protect his wealth. According to legend, this fortress was utterly impenetrable. Three sides of the mountain were unclimbable due to massive cliffs and jagged rocks, and the fourth left an invading army totally exposed. It was so secure that the Sardian army rarely posted guards on the wall because it rested in the hilltop safety the mountain itself provided.
As you probably anticipated, the Sardians became incredibly negligent and careless in their security which led to their downfall. In 547 B.C., the great Persian army, led by Cyrus the Great, came against Sardis.
Instead of attempting to climb the mountain, they surrounded it. One night, a group of Cyrus’ elite troops were hiding out of sight, watching a lone guard on top of the wall who was scanning the horizon. As the guard leaned over the wall to check the rocks below, his helmet fell off his head. To the Persian army’s surprise, the guard nonchalantly opened a hidden door, climbed down a secret set of stairs, and retrieved his helmet safely. This was the break that Cyrus needed.
In immediate response, he repositioned the majority of his troops to the opposite side of the fortress, which caused enough of a ruckus to draw the guard off his post. Cyrus then sent a few of his soldiers right up those stairs where they proceeded to invade the sleeping outpost and leave no survivors. Sardis’ lack of vigilance gave the Persian thieves the opening they needed to slip in and kill them all.
Jesus reminds this city of its history and the punishment for becoming lackadaisical in their witness. He says: If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you – Revelation 3:3
THEY HAD A REPUTATION
Sardis had made a name for itself among all the towns of Asia minor, but not in the way anyone would want to be well-known. In Jesus’ time, the town had a lively hilltop marketplace and a bustling, vibrant community. It gave the appearance of great life and prosperity, but as lively as it was, a truer picture of the town existed in the valley below. That valley held the most famous and possibly the largest cemetery in the entire ancient world. In many ways, they lived in its shadow even though the city towered over it. It was a constant reminder of who they really were, and one of the reasons Jesus said: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead – Revelation 3:2
THEY HAD A PRESENCE
Most Christians in cities within Asia minor did not have a presence in their community. Their belief in the exclusivity of Christ pushed them to the peripheries of culture; it made them outsiders and targets for cultural abuse. Not so in Sardis. These Christians did not lean into their identity in Christ; they took on the pluralistic religious identity of the city. In Sardis, everyone’s ideas, thoughts, and beliefs were acceptable and tolerated as long as none of those ideas were exclusive. Everyone was right because nobody was told they were wrong.
Instead of maintaining their witness in the city, upholding the exclusivity of Christ, holding fast to true and right doctrine, and authentically living out their faith, the majority of the men and women in this church blended in with culture. Most compromised their witness in pursuit of safety, status, jobs, and promotions.
America today looks a lot like the ancient city of Sardis. There is the expectation that every point of view under the sun is tolerated as long as none of them make a claim of being absolute. We live in a culture where churches champion non-Biblical postures toward marriage, sex, and identity, and the great sin of our day is to believe that anything or anyone is wrong.
But the news isn’t all bad! Sardis was full of compromised Christians, yes. But there were some who remained faithful to Christ. Jesus said: But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy. – Revelation 3:4
Sardis became a dead church because it fell asleep and refused to wake up. It became dead because it forgot the gospel. It became dead because it loved culture more than it loved Jesus, and it refused to repent. My prayer is that their downfall would never become ours; that we would do all of the things Jesus says for us to do. Wake up. Remember. Repent.
