Coaching that comes from love

Pastor Max Lyons opens with a Little League coach who seemed to aim all his feedback at him. The coach explained that he only bothered because he cared and saw more in him. Jesus' letters in Revelation 2 and 3 are the same kind of coaching. The Bible is direct not because God wants to beat us up, but because He knows where we are and where we could be.

A church with no persecution

The series arrives at Sardis, a letter that draws heavily on the city's history. Every early Christian faced hatred from Rome and from the synagogue, yet the letter to Sardis never mentions persecution. The ancient synagogue in Sardis, the largest outside Israel, has a Roman eagle carved into its altar; the city had learned to embrace the culture to avoid trouble, and the Christians were doing the same, watering down Jesus' teaching to blend in. Jesus warns in Matthew 5 that salt that loses its flavor is good for nothing. Hence the title: if you blend in, you'll fade out.

Alive in reputation, dead in reality

Jesus, who holds the fullness of the Spirit and authority over every church leader, says, "You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead." It is possible to be incredibly busy for the Lord on the outside and incredibly distant from Him on the inside. As 1 Samuel 16 says, people look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. God does not measure reputation; He measures relationship.

Wake up and strengthen what remains

Sardis was once the proud capital of the Lydian Empire, but after an earthquake it was never rebuilt to its former glory. Pastor Max compares it to Rockford, Illinois, once booming and no longer what it was. Jesus says the church was living off its past reputation, and you cannot live today on yesterday's faith. Followers of Jesus go from strength to strength, so the best is always ahead. Jesus gives five commands: wake up, strengthen what remains, remember, obey, and repent. The warning that He will come like a thief points to Sardis' history: the cliff-top city was captured twice, by the Persians and the Greeks, because the night guards fell asleep and the enemy slipped in and opened the gates. First Peter 5:8 calls us to be alert and sober-minded, because a sleeping soul opens the door to the devil.

White garments, not perfect behavior

Sardis was famous for fine wool and dyed fabric, so Jesus speaks their language: soiled garments represent moral compromise and white garments purity and perseverance. Jesus is not demanding perfection, since all have sinned and even our righteous acts are filthy rags. We are not born good, as any parent knows; we are righteous only because of what Jesus did. Jesus is looking for devotion, not perfection. Samson is the cautionary tale: a man of enormous potential whose slow compromises left him unaware that the Lord had left him. When you fall asleep spiritually, you lose the power you once had.

Standing out instead of blending in

The overcomer will be clothed in white, kept in the book of life, and confessed before the Father. Like Pastor Max hitting a wall by sprinting through a forty-minute CrossFit workout, Sardis was so focused on short-term comfort that it lost sight of eternity. Sardis chose comfort over conviction, appearance over authenticity, and religion over relationship, and today nothing of that church remains. Pastor Max then tells of his first job in New York City, where he acted like his football-league friends to be accepted while living differently at church. Convicted by the fractured life, he chose to live the same way everywhere, and instead of losing his friends, several came to church and later gave him a WWMD wristband: what would Jesus in Max do?

The Bible does not change

The Bible offends every culture in every age, which is why Elan Church holds the core value of being Bible immersed. We do not modernize the Word to fit our lives; we bring our lives into alignment with the Word. Pastor Max closes with a once-booming church that slowly dropped the Bible and no longer exists. Elan Church must never become the church in Sardis. If we have fallen asleep, it is time to wake up; if we have blended in, it is time to stand out; if we have grown weary, it is time to strengthen what remains.