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October 18 Sermon Notes & Quotes
“To the Church in Sardis”
Revelation 3:1-6

 

 

  • “The command to ‘wake up’ is a reminder that twice in its history Sardis had been sacked (in 547/546 C. by Cyrus II, and in 214 B.C. by Antiochus III) when the watchmen on the walls failed to detect an enemy army sneaking up its supposedly impregnable cliffs and walls” (Dennis Johnson, “Revelation” in ESV Study Bible, 2467: fn. 3:2-3).

 

  • A person (or a church) is spiritually asleep and/or spiritually dead if they possess:
    • No love for Jesus (1 Corinthians 16:22)
    • No love for His truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10; John 17:17)
    • No deep personal conviction of sin (1 John 1:8-10)
    • No boast in the cross (Galatians 6:14)
    • No Spirit-filled pursuit of holiness (Hebrews 12:12-14)

 

  • A person (or a church) is spiritually awake and/or spiritually alive if they are characterized by:
    • Love for Jesus (Matt. 22:37; Deut. 6:5)
    • Love for His truth (John 14:23)
    • Conviction of sin (1 John 1:8-10)
    • Boast in the cross (Galatians 6:14; 1 Cor. 1:18, 2:2)
    • Spirit-filled pursuit of holiness (Hebrews 12:12-14)

 

  • “A church is alive when it has a passion for the glory and the honor and the praise of Jesus Christ” (Schreiner, “How Can Dead Churches Be Revived,” 7:46).

 

  • “The church in Sardis is in a deep spiritual coma, approaching death but not beyond Christ’s summons to wake up, to strengthen what is about to die, to remember and keep the message of grace that the church had receive and heard, and to pursue holiness that flows from grace” (Dennis Johnson, “Revelation” in ESV Study Bible, 2467: fn. 3:2-3).

 

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”