Sardis: The Protestant Reformation Church [1517-1730 AD]
Revelation 3:1-6
1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The Sardian church age began with the dawn of the Reformation in 1517 and continued well into the eighteenth century. When looking over the entire Sardis age, Jesus judged the church as “dead.” In verse three, he reminds the Sardians to remember what they had “received and heard,” as he wanted the Christians living at the end of this church age to recall the messages received at its start. The earliest Protestants identified many of the conflicts between Catholicism and scripture and advocated for a return to a Bible-based faith rather than a ritualistic, idolatrous religion. These Christian thought leaders used the printing press to distribute their religious ideas to the public widely. The start of the Sardis age would have certainly made Jesus optimistic.
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However, the hope brought by the Reformation gradually degraded until it simply replaced one faulty religious doctrine with several. New Protestant denominations soon formed around the ideas of the early Reformers. Many of these new religions would become as doctrinally corrupt as the Catholic dogma the Reformers objected to. The vitality that characterized the start of the Reformation gradually disappeared until most Protestant denominations became just as formalized and ritualistic as Catholicism. During this age, the ecclesiastical battle between Catholics and Protestants would intensify into several full-scale conflicts now known as the European Wars of Religion. The Reformation’s failure to make meaningful change fulfilled the prophecy of Revelation 3:2, which predicted Christianity was “ready to die.”
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Jesus did not compliment the Sardis church. He used the phrase “I know thy works” to praise several church ages, but here he followed it by adding, “I have not found thy works perfect before God.” Jesus’ examination of the works of the Sardis church had resulted in his disapproval. Satan had thrown all he had at the Protestants and nearly killed the promise of the Reformation.
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Again, Jesus reprimanded the church and told it how to self-correct. In verse three, he advised, “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.” Jesus was pleading with the members of the Sardis church to leave the construct of organized, ritualistic religion and go back to their roots—the organic, foundational Christian faith.
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While Jesus chastised the Sardis church era, he recognized that not all Christians in this church age were dead. He described those who desired to return to the basic tenets of Christianity as “clothed in white”—a symbol of purity and virtuousness used throughout Revelation. Jesus explained that the Christians in Sardis who faithfully followed him would not have their names blotted out of the Book of Life.
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Conditions in the Sardian church era would continue to deteriorate until the time of John and Charles Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent, and other evangelists. These men, the “few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments,” protested against Catholicism and Protestantism, as the movement had fallen so far from the original intents of its founders. This new brand of Protestant leaders would ignite the First Great Awakening revival and the missionary period—the Philadelphian age of the church.