Revelation 3:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Sardis was fifty miles east of Ephesus. It was a most inaccessible city, 1500 feet above the valley, on top of the edge of the northern most spur of a mountain range. Almost perpendicular rock ascended to the old city, making it an impregnable citadel, as it has been described, and it was very prosperous.As might be expected, the people in the city were very complacent. They felt so secure. There was only a relatively narrow neck of mountain, a ridge way that gave access to the city on top of that hill. However in 549 BC the forces of Cyrus, leading the Persian army took the city, and they took it at night. Tradition says they took it because a single soldier from the Medo-Persian army found a route up the rock face and led the way up, and put in the ropes and the troops came up after him. The city had not even got a watch mounted, feeling so secure. So the troops of Cyrus took Sardis and humiliated it. The same thing happened again 218 BC, different forces, different land, different emperor, but the city fell for the second time, and that is reflected in this letter. In fact all the seven letters reflect something of the circumstances of the city of the church addressed. Here the Saviour says, ‘Be watchful … I will come on thee as a thief’; there is complacency also in the church.‘Unto the angel [the messenger, the pastor] of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God’ – having the power to stir and to give life. ‘I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.’ Sardis had a reputation for life, but it was dead. That does not mean that it was entirely spiritually dead; it means it was dead in respect to what is going to be pointed out in the following verses. It was dead in terms of fruitfulness and sincerity before God. With whom did it have a name? Certainly, with the other six churches. Had you been a visitor to Sardis, you would have had a very good impression. You would have seen a church that had no divisions, no troubles, no conflicts, no great sin or compromise with idolatry. After all, churches are able to discern obvious faults, but the inner spiritual life of the church was deficient.‘Unto the angel [the messenger, the pastor] of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God’ – having the power to stir and to give life. ‘I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.’ Sardis had a reputation for life, but it was dead. That does not mean that it was entirely spiritually dead; it means it was dead in respect to what is going to be pointed out in the following verses. It was dead in terms of fruitfulness and sincerity before God. With whom did it have a name? Certainly, with the other six churches. Had you been a visitor to Sardis, you would have had a very good impression. You would have seen a church that had no divisions, no troubles, no conflicts, no great sin or compromise with idolatry. After all, churches are not easily duped by each other, and Sardis had a name.