1 / 30

Sardis

Sardis. Sardis Bath House. Sardis Acropolis. Temple of Atermis. Letter to Sardis.

trent
Download Presentation

Sardis

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Sardis

  2. Sardis Bath House

  3. Sardis Acropolis

  4. Temple of Atermis

  5. Letter to Sardis • NIV Revelation 3:1 "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

  6. God can see on the inside • NIV 1 Samuel 16:7 The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.

  7. Letter to Sardis • 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

  8. Letter to Sardis • 4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

  9. Letter to Sardis • 5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

  10. Letter to Sardis • Sardis was an inland city in a deep valley. They had a tremendously successful wool (clothing and carpet) business from the many sheep all around them. • Is clothing imagery used for them???

  11. Letter to Sardis • The Christians there must have been envied by other congregations for their great labors and success. But the Lord knew their hearts. They were laboring for ulterior motives.

  12. Letter to Sardis • Interestingly, the synagogue is extremely well preserved (all things considering). This synagogue was an amazing and luxurious spa and retreat for Jewish men. A huge font adorned the center with water overflowing into a surrounding pool and distribution system. It definitely was not your average school for learning God’s Word.

  13. Letter to Sardis • Law.Don’t labor for Christ because You have to but because you want to. • NIV 2 Corinthians 8:12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. • There is a danger in just going through the motions.

  14. Letter to Sardis • Gospel. • Christ loves to lift up those who have their motives washed clean.

  15. Sardis • Under the emperor Tiberius, in 17 AD, Sardis was destroyed by an earthquake; but it was rebuilt. • It was one of the great cities of western Asia Minor until the later Byzantine period.

  16. Size Sardis Synagogue

  17. Sardis Synagogue

  18. Letter to Sardis • This city was once capital of Asia Minor when the Lydians reigns (from 4th – 8th century BC). • The glory had slowly eroded over time. • How was this a spiritual reality of their glorious love?

  19. Letter to Sardis

  20. Letter to Sardis • What happened to the congregation in Sardis? • Sardis became a powerful congregation that produced an influential teachers of the early Christian Church: • Melito

  21. Letter to Sardis • Melito of Sardis (died 180 A.D.) • Melito the Eunuch • Melito the Chaste

  22. Melito of Sardis • He probably knew Polycarp and his disciple Irenaeus. He is revered for the diligence with which he sought out the evidence which, in his day, established the Canon of the Old Testament used by Christ. • Melito travelled to Palestine to verify this. • Melito’s canon is used minus Wisdom and plus Esther.

  23. Melito of Sardis • For there is no need, to persons of intelligence, to attempt to prove, from the deeds of Christ subsequent to His baptism, that His soul and His body, His human nature like ours, were real, and no phantom of the imagination. For the deeds done by Christ after His baptism, and especially His miracles, gave indication and assurance to the world of the Deity hidden in His flesh. For, being at once both God and perfect man likewise, He gave us sure indications of His two natures: of His Deity, by His miracles during the three years that elapsed after His baptism; of His humanity, during the thirty similar periods which preceded His baptism, in which, by reason of His low estate as regards the flesh, He concealed the signs of His Deity, although He was the true God existing before all ages (Melito. On the Nature of Christ.)

  24. Melito of Sardis • God who is from God; He is the Son who is from the Father; Jesus Christ the King for evermore...He that bore up the earth was borne up on a tree. The Lord was subjected to ignominy with naked body--God put to death, the King of Israel slain! • THE TEACHING OF THE CROSS.

  25. Melito of Sardis • MELITO CLAIMED THAT NO IMAGE SHOULD ATTEMPT TO BE MADE OF GOD AT ALL! • There are, however, persons who say: It is for the honour of God that we make the image: in order, that is, that we may worship the God who is concealed from our view. But they are unaware that God is in every country, and in every place, and is never absent, and that there is not anything done and He knoweth it not. Yet thou, despicable man! Apology to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

  26. Christian Passover? • Passover also known as Pesach or Pesah (פסחpesaḥ), as a Christian holiday, was observed historically by a number of early Christians and is observed today by a small number of Christian groups. Unlike the JewishPassover which commemorates the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, the Christian Passover commemorates the deliverance from sin by the sacrifice of Jesus, the fulfillment of the prophetic Old Testament Passover. The Christian Passover begins on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan.

  27. Melito of Sardis • He also believed in the actual 1,000 year earthly reign of Christ as taught in the Book of Revelation.

  28. Eusebius’ stunning silence on Melito? • My personal opnion is that Eusebius did not like personal opinion taught as divine truth. Eusebius may have disagreed with Melito’s teachings. He hardly quotes his vast works and minimizes his influence. Eusebius who had seen images of Christ and the apostles may have disagreed with Melito’s views on them. He may have also disagreed with strict observance of the Passover and the Millenial reign of Christ taught by Melito.

  29. Application • Don’t go through the motions! • Christ loves to renew us to love as we are loved.

More Related