And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' (Rev. 3:l-6).
Many churches, as well as individual Christians, are afflicted with the Sardis Syndrome today. They have a reputation of being alive, but their inner life and strength do not match their claims to know the Lord. Their talk is full of Scriptures, but their walk is weak and wobbly.
The church in Sardis is called to repentance. It is called to an awakening. Awake (v. 2) is a command. God is calling the Sardis church to revival. A minority is walking in the Spirit of holiness - they have not soiled their garments - they have not compromised with the world, nor have they succumbed to the gravity of the flesh. They have resisted the temptation to join the majority to succumb to spiritual drowsiness, which leads to slumber. Spiritual slumber is a deep sleep reached gradually over a period of time by failing to respond to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Christians can reach a point in their process of resistance to the Spirit's stirrings within them until they lose the sense of hearing. That is why the Lord Jesus in His messages to the seven churches (Rev. 2:1 - 3:22) closes each message with this warning: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
All of us can recall early mornings when the alarm clock called us to awaken from our slumber, get out of bed and face the day. But most of us can also recall times when we resisted the call.
