The ancient city of Sardis …

• … was a somewhat notorious city which Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, the noted Scottish archaeologist and New Testament scholar, described as “more like a robber’s stronghold than an abode of civilized men.” 
• Paige Patterson writes that “in the cities of Asia Minor, no city was as legendary as Sardis.” 
• Gordon Fee adds that: Of the seven cities to whose churches these letters are written, Sardis easily outstrips the others in terms of its antiquity and well-known history.
• And Warren Wiersbe tells us that: Ancient Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was a most important city. It lay about fifty miles east of Ephesus at the junction of five main roads; so it was a center for trade. It was also a military center, for it was located on an almost inaccessible plateau. The acropolis of Sardis was about 1,500 feet above the main roads, and it formed an impregnable fortress.
• Sardis was some kind of town. And the church in Sardis to which our letter in Revelation 3 is addressed was some kind of church. As it was with the church at Ephesus, if you were thinking about moving to Sardis around AD 95-96, this vibrant church would definitely have been on your radar.
• They had made quite a name for themselves. Whatever they were doing—which in today’s terms would be outreach, marketing, social media, needs-based programs—must have been the right things because they had built a reputation in the area as a church that was alive.
• Except it wasn’t. The church members were dead. It was a church of dead people.

—>The church at Sardis had three great needs:

• They needed to realize that they were dead.
• They needed to be brought to life.
• They needed to embrace the vision of an overcomer.

REVELATION MESSAGE 8 – Sardis – The Alive but Dead Church
Revelation 3-1-6

• ⁶⁴ Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches, 354.  Patterson, P. (2012). Revelation. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (Vol. 39, p. 118). Nashville, TN: B&H.
• [Patterson, P. (2012). Revelation. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (Vol. 39, p. 118). Nashville, TN: B&H.]
• Fee, G. D. (2011). Revelation (p. 44). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
• Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 576). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.