Sermon Title: The Hypocritical Church
Sermon Text: Revelation 3:1-6
Sermon Purpose: To call the hearer to revive themselves by repenting of their lifestyle of hypocrisy.
Sermon Proposition: There are 5 exhortations given to the hypocritical church.

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. 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. 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. 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. 6 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."' Revelation 3:1-6 (NKJV)

Introduction:

The Church in Sardis

Though the details are not recorded in Scripture, the church at Sardis was probably founded as an outreach of Paul's ministry at Ephesus (Acts 19:10). The most prominent person from the church at Sardis known to history is Melito. He was an apologist (one who wrote in defense of Christianity) who served as bishop of Sardis in the late second century. He also wrote the earliest known commentary on passages from Revelation. The letter does not speak of persecution (why would Satan bother to persecute a dead church?), false doctrine, false teachers, or corrupt living. Yet some combination of those things was obviously present at Sardis, since the church had died.

Sardis

To a striking degree, the history of the church at Sardis paralleled that of the city. Founded about 1200 B.C., Sardis had been one of the greatest cities in the ancient world, capital of the fabulously wealthy Lydian kingdom. (The name of that kingdom's most famous king, Croesus, lives on in the saying "As rich as Croesus.") Aesop, the famous writer of fables, may have been from Sardis. Much of Sardis' wealth came from gold taken from the nearby Pactolus River; archaeologists have found hundreds of crucibles, used for refining gold, in the ruins of Sardis. (Edwin M. Yamauchi, New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980], 65). Gold and silver coins were apparently first minted at Sardis. The city also benefited from its location at the western end of the royal road that led east to the Persian capital city of Susa, and from its proximity to other important trade routes. It was also a center for wool production and the garment industry; in fact, Sardis claimed to have discovered how to dye wool.

Saris was located about thirty miles south of Thyatira in the fertile valley of the Hermus River. A series of spurs or hills jutted out from the ridge of Mount Tmolus, south of the Hermus River. On one of those hills some fifteen hundred feet above the valley floor stood Sardis. Its location made the city all but impregnable. The hill on which Sardis was built had smooth, nearly perpendicular rock walls on three sides. Only from the south could the city be approached, via a steep, difficult path. The one drawback to an otherwise ideal site was that there was limited room for the city ot expand. Eventually, as Sardis grew, a new city sprang up at the foot of the hill. The old site remained a refuge to retreat into when danger threatened.

Its seemingly impregnable location caused the inhabitants of Sardis to become overconfident. That complacency eventually led to the city's downfall. Through carelessness, the unimaginable happened: Sardis was conquered. The news of its downfall sent shock waves through the Greek world. Even in John's day, several centuries later, a proverbial saying equated "to capture the acropolis of Sardis" with "to do the impossible" (Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting [Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986], 133). Dr. Robert L. Thomas relates the account of Sardis' fall:

Sardis never regained its independence, eventually coming under Roman control in 133 B.C. A catastrophic earthquake destroyed the city in A.D. 17, but it was rebuilt with the generous financial aid of Emperor Tiberius. In gratitude, the inhabitants of Sardis built a temple in his honor. The city's primary object of worship, however, was the goddess Cybele - the same goddess worshipped as Ephesus at Artemis (Diana). Hot springs not far from Sardis were celebrated as a spot in which the gods manifested their supposed power to give life to the dead - an ironic note for a city whose church was dead. In John's day Sardis was prosperous but decaying, its glory days long past. Both the city and the church it contained had lost their vitality.

Taken from: "The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Revelation 1-11, Moody Press/Chicago, 1999, pp.109-111.

The definition of hypocrisy is a showy, empty, display of religion, described as: self-righteous (Luke 18:11-12); Holier than you (Isaiah 65:5); blind (Matthew 23:17-26); covetous (2 Peter 2:3); showy (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16); highly critical (Matthew 7:3-5); indignant (Luke 13:14-15); bound by tradition (Matthew 15:1-9); neglectful of major duties (Matthew 23:23-24); pretended lust unpracticed (Ezekiel 33:31-32); interested in the external (Luke 20:46-47); fond of titles (Matthew 23:6-7); inwardly unregenerate (Luke 11:39).