He Knows Part 6

REVELATION Number 44
He Knows Part 6

In Revelation 3:1 the Lord speaks to the fellowship at Sardis. He tells them, “‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, and yet you are dead.” (NASB 2020)

The way of Christ is completely antithetical to the fleshly worldly methods and programs designed to keep up appearances that are all too common in the “church” today. Instead, the way of Christ is dependence on the Lord Jesus as Source and reliance on Holy Spirit as Leader and Guide.

Churches may be big and flashy on the outside. They may appear on initial inspection to be shiny and clean, but too many are much like the religious zealots, to whom Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

The Lord knows that many churches today are in the same state. The world sees it too. Far too often the Church is known for what they stand against, for being filled with hypocrites, for saying one thing and living another. So it was at Sardis. They claimed to be the Church, the Body of Christ, but they were not. This comment brings to mind “those who say they are Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” in Revelation 2:9 (NASB 2020). We find these folks mentioned again in the letter to Philadelphia in Revelation 3:9. There, the Lord says, “I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.”

Sardis helps us see that the Lord sees everything as it is. He sees “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Paradoxically, because this is true, we who are in Christ by faith can take great comfort. How so? Knowing that the Lord God is not faking Himself out, but sees everything as it truly is, we can trust Him when He calls us holy, blameless, and beyond reproach (Colossians 1:22, Philippians 2:15b). With His expressed view of Abraham in Romans 4:20 as having had unwavering faith, and this poignant view of the church at Sardis, we have strong confirmation that we actually are who He says we are; truly righteous, holy, and blameless. Not somewhere over the rainbow, but now. No wonder Romans 8:1 effervescently proclaims, “There is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus” (NASB 2020).