Sardis: the church with a name to live but dead

Full Rev 3:1–6. Title echo: "he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars" (3:1) re-cites Rev 1:4's greeting. City history: twice-fallen acropolis (Croesus to Cyrus 547 BC; again to Antiochus III in 214/213 BC) taken both times by stealth while its defenders slept, the local edge behind "be thou watchful" (3:2). Sparse commendation: only "a few names… that did not defile their garments" (3:4); the near-empty cell is itself the point. Rebuke: "thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead" (3:1). Promise: arrayed in white garments; name never blotted out of the book of life; Christ confessing the name before the Father and his angels (3:5).