“These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.” Revelation 3:1
As He does to each of the seven churches, the Lord reveals Himself to the church at Sardis. This is a mild surprise because the church is almost dead. Why would the Lord show Himself to them? He does so
because this church is called by His name, it once was alive and even now a few flickers of life are inside it. We see the Lord’s long- suffering – He never gives up on any person turning to him until there is no more hope– when death actually occurs.
These things says He The Lord refers to the words that He is
about to say to this church. What He has to say will be hard to hear,
tough love at its best, and so the Lord establishes His authority.
Because of who He it, the church needs to pay attention to what he
has to say.
Who has The Lord makes the point that what He is about to say He possesses. He is God and this belongs to Him in its fullness. Seven in scripture is the number of perfection. (In Revelation the number seven is mentioned more than 50 times and in the Bible more than seven hundred times.) The first time we see the number seven in scripture is at the seven days of creation. God says of His creation that it is good and complete. Throughout scripture this is the meaning when the number seven is used – completeness or divine perfection. We see this perfection around the Lord’s worship and His commands to us. Animals that are to be used for sacrifice must be at least seven days old. Naaman was to bathe in the Jordan River seven times in order to complete His cleansing. Joshua was to lead Israel around Jericho for seven days (and on the seventh day to make seven circuits) after which seven priests blew seven trumpets.
Everything God does is complete, whole and perfect. Therefore we find things associated with Him described in “7’s”. Christ is introduced as the seven-fold “I Am”, the forgiveness of God is seventy times seven and the judgment of God is seven years on Israel. This is in contrast with man who was created on the 6th day. We find in Revelation that the full depravity of man is signified by 666.
What can we learn? When the Lord speaks to the church at Sardis He is addressing a church that needs complete revival. What started out at Ephesus with the church leaving its love for Christ leads to spiritual death. The local assembly of believers is about to
die. (Note this is not to say a believer can lose their salvation. This describes the local assembly of believers. When a believer
sinks into severe “backsliding” from the Lord he appears to be spiritually dead.)
The church at Sardis cannot be saved from its deadness with halfway measures. They need the wholeness, the completeness of God in their lives. By this time in their deadness, they were “playing church”. God had a little part of their lives but after Sunday morning church (never more than that) He was placed on the back burner (along with
their Bibles) never to be thought about again until the following Sunday. Spiritual life was almost gone. It could not be restored without obeying the command God gave at the beginning. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might.” Wholeness of spiritual life is found only in the Lord. Sardis needs resuscitation not a foot wash.