The letter to the church at Sardis is a gloomy and a heartbreaking letter, to a very gloomy and a heartbreaking church because this church, according to Jesus, is dead. At the end of Revelation 3, Verse 1 Jesus says, “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

This has to be the ultimate shame, to have the Lord Jesus Himself, declare that you are dead. By definition the church is a place where God lives, a place where Christ lives, a place where the Holy Spirit lives, a place where Christians are alive, but not in this church.

This church had a reputation that it was alive, but in fact it was dead.