The Church of Philadelphia: Revelation 3:7-13
- Tim Cain
- Nov 15, 2009
- Series: Revelations
The Church of Philadelphia: Revelation 3:7-13
November 13-14, 2009
Kaleo El Cajon and Kaleo Linda Vista
Tim Cain
Last week we talked about the danger of self-reliance. We talked about Jesus’ call for us to remember the truth that we are weak and needy and cannot make it on our own. It was a hard message to hear and preach. We love self-reliance so much. We trust ourselves to do what’s best, but we struggle so much with trusting others. We struggle with being weak and needing others. We hate dependence don’t we?
But we are weak aren’t we? God has been gracious to me this week. This week he has given me more than I could bear. He has brought me to my knees knowing I don’t have the answers for everyone and everything and I desperately need him. He has reminded me how he alone can change people. All week long I have been faced with situations I couldn’t fix, people I couldn’t change, and a heart that struggles to accept these realities. God has reminded me how much I need him. He has allowed me to experience the truths we talked about last week. So this week I find myself tired. I have felt with this deep longing a desire for Jesus to come. I have wanted him to come and fix everything. I have wanted him to come and save me once and for all from my pathetic sin. I have wanted him to come with all the answers, to fix everything that is broken. This week I have realized how sweet the promises of God are for the weak and the needy. Some of you know what I am talking about. You know times in your life, maybe even right now, when the promises of Jesus have been your only hope. When your smiles have not been based on your circumstances but on your trust that your God was in control and that would soon come and fix everything. When you felt like all you could do was grab your bible and go read some psalms. There have been times in my life I can distinctly remember when I felt so helpless, so needy I would grab my bible and get off alone and just cling to God’s promises. It is in those times that I have found my God to be so precious, and his promises so sweet.
I pray that some of us can experience that today. Today we are going to savor the goodness of our Jesus. Here, in the midst of hard texts on the compromises of his church, there is a text of promises for the weak. Here, in the midst of Jesus telling us that he is coming like a thief so we need to be ready, he tells the weak that he is coming to fix everything and that they have nothing to fear.
Today’s message is for the weak. It’s for all of you whom God has been bringing to repentance over the past few weeks. It’s to all of us who have had our eyes open to our great need for Jesus. This text is for weak people who need Jesus, and I pray that you will be one of them. I pray that you will not miss out on the sweetness of our savior by refusing to acknowledge how much you need him.
The reason that I say this message is for the weak is because the church of Philadelphia was a weak church. It wasn’t like Sardis. It didn’t have a reputation for being alive; it had a reputation for being weak and small. It struggled when it heard about churches like Sardis that seemed to be doing so well because it seemed like this church was always struggling. They were constantly being persecuted by the Jews and this persecution was so difficult to take because it was from people who claimed to know and worship God. The Jews who claimed to know God and to be truly serving him had kicked all the Christians out of their synagogue. They had told the Christians that they were wrong and the Jews were constantly deriding them for believing in Jesus. They told the people that they had no place in the kingdom of God because they believed in Jesus. This church’s name was dragged through the mud. They were called blasphemers. They were constantly faced with the challenge to just deny Jesus and enjoy a peaceful life like they had before or to cling to him and endure the persecution and slander of others. This church chose to cling to Jesus because they knew they needed him more. They needed him more than peace with the Jews, more than a comfortable life, and more than a good reputation. They knew that they were weak and that his grace alone was enough. They knew that they were sinners and that his blood alone could rescue them from the wrath of God and give them peace with him. They realized that peace with God, not a good reputation, was their deepest need and so they clung to Jesus. And they experienced persecution. However, for this church, the persecution did not pull them away from Jesus but caused them to need him more. This church knew they needed Jesus because they knew that he alone would never leave them or forsake them. However, when they actually came to Jesus they found that everyone else, their old friends, family, even the Jews who claimed to worship the same God, all turned on them. Wisely, this church realized that Jesus was not worth giving up to keep these friendships. They realized that Jesus was better than their old friends and family because he would never abandon them as their family and friends had.
So Jesus comes to this weak church that has given up everything in order to cling to him, and he lavishes them with his love. He comes to encourage his church. His church needs him and Jesus loves those who need him. He loves those who cling to him above all else. No one whose hope is in Jesus will ever be disappointed, so Jesus comes to show them why they have chosen wisely. He comes to show them why he is better than everything else.
Jesus says, “And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia write: ‘the words of the holy one, the true one.’” He wants them to know that He is holy. He is not like anything else in this world. He is unique, he is different, he is above, he is absolutely pure. He comes and says that he knows they have given up so much for him, but he is worth it, for he alone is holy. Holiness is found in him and not in anything in this world. What good does it do for you to gain this whole world which will one day burn if you have to forfeit him, the holy one? And then he says, “I am true.” This word for truth actually has two different connotations both of which are probably meant here. First, He is genuine, he is real, he is not a deception, he is no mirage, the satisfaction he gives is real. Second, this word speaks of being faithful. So he is saying that he is the true one. He is faithful, he will never leave you nor forsake you. His promises are real. He will keep them. He can be trusted. He is not like your family. He is not like your old friends. He is not like the Jews who claim to worship the true God. He is not like any of them; he will be true. He is the true one.
Years ago there was a movie in which a woman boxer worked really hard to make money boxing. She worked so hard because she always wanted to give something to her mother. She longed for her mother to love and appreciate her. So finally, after working really hard with her coach Clint Eastwood and making some money, she bought a house for her mom who was on welfare. She took her mom and her sister there and gave her mom the keys and excitedly told her mom that she had bought her a house. And her mom just went off on her. She yelled at her, called her stupid, and asked why she couldn’t have just given her the money. She said it would ruin her welfare and that she had ruined everything, that she had always been a screw up and now she had done it again. The scene was devastating. Everything she had done had been to gain the love of her mother and after giving all she had, she failed. She got back in the car to go home. She and Clint Eastwood were driving, it was dark out and the rain was pouring on the windshield as they drove in silence. Finally, the silence was broken. She said with a voice of despair, “I got nobody but you boss, nobody but you?” And Clint Eastwood looked over and said, “But you got me, you got me.”
That is what Jesus is saying here. He is saying that he is the true one. You may have no one but him, but you got him. He will never leave you. He will be true to all his promises. He will not treat you as you have been treated by others. He is like no one else you have ever met. Don’t compare him to your family. Don’t think he will abandon you like your father. Don’t think he will manipulate you like your mother. No, he is the true one. He can be trusted; he will never let you down. That is what Jesus is saying to the church of Philadelphia and that is what he is saying to all of us today. He is the true one; you can trust him.
He goes on to say, “I am the one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.” He says that he is in total control and is the only one who holds the keys to eternal life. He holds the keys to the kingdom of God. He holds the keys to their satisfaction, to their eternal joy, and to everything that is beautiful and good. Him, not the Jews. The Jews had kicked them out of the synagogue. The Jews had laughed at them and told them that they had no place in the kingdom of God. The Jews had said that they were wasting their lives and that they were fools. But Jesus says, “I hold the keys.” He alone will determine who enters the kingdom of God. “I am the way the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father except through me.” That is what he is saying to this church. In their weakness, they have looked to him and chosen wisely, for he holds the keys.
He goes on and says, “I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.” Jesus is saying that not only does he hold the keys, not only is he the exclusive, powerful one who alone controls all things, but he will use his power for their good. The one who holds the keys is for them. He has used his keys to open a door for them. Do you hear that? Jesus uses his power for his people. Isn’t that crazy? Jesus is for his people. He uses his power for their good. He is telling them that he holds the keys to eternal life and he is admitting them. He has opened the door for them to come to God and no one can shut it. It is similar to his promise in Romans 8 where he declares that no can separate his people from his love. No one, no matter how hard they try, whatever force they may try to use, Jesus is for his people and no one can separate them from his love.
Jesus continues by saying, “I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” Here Jesus acknowledges that his church is weak. He says, “I know you are weak.” He knows that they have little power, and he is not disappointed. He is not disappointed in their weakness because in it they have turned to him. Where the church of Sardis was known for their strength and had been blinded by it so that they did not look to Jesus, the church of Philadelphia had embraced their weakness and in it they had clung to Jesus. Clinging to Jesus does not require strength but weakness. In desperation and dependence we cling to Jesus. If you are being saved by a lifeguard, you’re not supposed to flail around. You just lay there and let them save you. That is what it means to cling to Jesus: to look to him, to listen to him, to depend on him, not to hold him in our strength, but to stop flailing and let him save us with his strength. Clinging to Jesus is actually to depend upon his grip. It’s to look to him and his power to save us. That is what faith is. Faith is the product of weakness, it is the product of need, it comes from a place of desperation and it puts its hope in the strength of another. That is why the question is not how great is your faith, but how great is your God. That is what matters because your God holds you in his hand, not your faith. Your God will save you, not your faith. Jesus commends this church for trusting him, for refusing to deny his name, and for clinging to him as their only hope.
They have clung to Jesus in the face of persecution. They have clung to him despite temptations and trials to leave him. In fact, the temptations and trials that Satan has thrown at them have backfired on him, for their trials have made them look to Jesus even more. So Jesus says that he knows it’s been hard. He knows that clinging to his name has cost them dearly. He knows that at times they have wondered if it is worth it. He knows that there have been times when they have wondered if what everyone else says is true and they are being fools to cling to him. He knows that they have had to endure being seen and treated as weak. Jesus knows how hard it is to admit our weakness, how the world persecutes the weak. He knows their trials, and he says, “I will vindicate you before your enemies.” One day he will show the entire world that they were right in depending upon him. One day everyone will see. He tells the church of Philadelphia that their enemies, the Jews who have been constantly persecuting them, one day He will make them bow before them and they will learn that Jesus has loved his church. The persecutors of God’s people, all those who laugh and mock and jeer, all those who wage war against God’s people, one day they will learn that Jesus has loved his people. All those who have depended upon Jesus have chosen wisely. One day the world will know, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. One day all those who thought that Christianity was for fools on this earth will realize that they have been the fools, that they have missed out on the only love that could have ever satisfied them. One day the world which laughs at all the sacrifices Christians make for their savior will know that the Christians have chosen wisely. One day Jesus will come and make everything right. Let that sink in: Jesus is coming to make everything right. Isn’t that amazing? This is for all of us who find ourselves constantly fighting the sin within us, fighting our own stupid thoughts, fighting at work where we are mocked, battling with our friends who think we are foolish for loving Jesus so much, and fighting to help explain why we believe what we believe but finding time and again people just think we are stupid. One day the holy and true one will make everything right and the world will know that we have been loved by our God.
Jesus goes on to commend them again for keeping “the word of my faithful endurance.” The word “my” is not supposed to modify the word “word” but it is meant to modify Jesus’ faithful endurance. So it should read “Because you have kept the word of my faithful endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.” What is the word “of Jesus’ faithful endurance”? It is the Gospel. It is the message of Jesus’ faithful death on the cross for his people. What is it specifically that Jesus is going to keep his people from? Throughout the book of Revelation, we see that the trial that God is going to send to all those who dwell on the earth is his wrath. The book of Revelation speaks a lot about the wrath of God which he is going to pour out against, “those who dwell on the earth.”
The book of Revelation is a book full of suffering, and there are two types of suffering in this book. One type is the suffering of God’s people who are being persecuted by the beast and other enemies of God. This book is full of martyrs, people dying for their faith, and yet these people are not to be pitied. The book of Revelation speaks of these people as heroes. The attitude of Revelation toward those who suffer for their faith is the same as the rest of the New Testament. They are heroes, for them to die is gain. Hebrews 11:35bff says, “Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves in the earth.”
These are the heroes, men and women of whom the world is unworthy. Yes they suffered, but their suffering was for their good and not for their destruction. Their suffering increased their faith, and showed the world that they believed in a better place. Their suffering proclaimed loud and clear just how precious Jesus was. Their suffering showed the world that they considered everything rubbish compared to the all-surpassing value of knowing Jesus. This type of suffering is promised for all who truly love Jesus. Paul writes, “indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Jesus is not promising to keep his people from this. This suffering is seen as discipline from God, it is given to strengthen our faith. It is for our benefit, so that we might better understand our desperate need for Jesus, so that we might love him more as we fellowship with him in his suffering.
However, he is promising to keep his people from the wrath of God. This is such an amazing promise. Revelation is a scary book, and one of the reasons it is so scary is because it speaks so plainly about the wrath of God against sin that is going to come upon all those who are not clinging to Jesus. Listen to Revelation 6:12-17. Listen to how intense the wrath of God against sin is. He hates sin. He is the holy one; he hates sin. He is the true one; he hates lies and deception. He holds the keys; he hates it when people believe that they are in control and refuse to submit to him. He is pure and holy and cannot look at sin. He graciously created everything and made people in his image, and yet we have all chosen to turn our back on him and to live for ourselves. We have sought to be free from his kind rule and instead have willingly enslaved ourselves to sin, and now we are called to pay the price. All those who dwell on the earth will one day be called to pay the price of their sin and that price is death, eternal death, separation from God, isolation, loneliness, pain, suffering, decay, and anguish eternally. This is the wages of sin and it is deserved by all those who dwell on the earth. It is our just lot. It’s what we deserve.
Listen to Jesus’ promise. He says that for those who believe in the Gospel, for those who cling to him and his faithful endurance on the cross, for them he says, “I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole earth.” This isn’t referring to some rapture where God’s people get to miss out on the great tribulation. This is a promise to all his people throughout all time. He is saying that he will keep his people from the wrath of God. This is huge. This is crazy. We need this so bad. Please, don’t play games with the wrath of God. Don’t be like the kings of the earth who waited too long and when God’s wrath came, they were found hiding in caves begging for the rocks to come down and crush them because they knew that they could not endure the just wrath of God against their sin. Jesus has come to save us from the wrath of God.
How you might ask? How does Jesus save us from the wrath of God? The answer is that he took the wrath of God for us. That is the message of his patient endurance. Jesus patiently endured the full and just wrath of God against our sin. He died our death. Not just our physical death, but he bore in his body all the wrath of hell for our sins. He bore our hell, our eternal isolation, our perpetual anguish, the screams, the gnashing of teeth, all of it was patiently endured by Jesus on the cross. You might wonder why Jesus describes it as patient endurance. For the most part the words seem to mean about the same thing. If you are patient with someone you could also say you endured that person. Why both words? I think that what Jesus did was so exceptional that it takes both words to even begin to understand it. We often endure things, but we endure things that we have to. We endure things we deserve, we endure things only when there is no other way out of it. I endure a headache only when I don’t have any Tylenol, and if I had a choice, headache or no headache, I would always choose no headache. Here is the difference. Here is why patience is added to endurance. Jesus endured the anguish of hell, he endured the total wrath of God but he didn’t have to. It wasn’t for his sin that he endured it, it was for ours. At any moment Jesus could have gotten off the cross, could have said, “Enough. Hell and the wrath of the Father that I love so much—I no longer wish to bear it for a bunch of punks who like TV better than me.” That is what he could have done. But he didn’t. He hung on the cross, hour after hour, patiently enduring what he did not deserve so that he might write this letter to his church and say, if you will cling to me, to my righteousness, if you will wash yourself in my blood, you will find that I have patiently endured the wrath of God for you so that now I can save you from the dreadful day. That is what his patient endurance means. Isn’t that amazing? That is why we love him so. He has come and forgiven our sins and so we love him. Forgiven people love Jesus. Those who are keeping the word of his faithful endurance love him, worship him, and know how worthless everything must be compared to him. Those who have tasted the sweet taste of Jesus’ amazing love, follow him, they love him, they hold fast to him.
Jesus goes on to tell the church of Philadelphia that he is coming soon. Jesus has spoken to many of these churches about his coming, but this is the first time that his coming is spoken of as a good thing, not as a threat. For the weak, for those who understand what their sins deserve and who are clinging to Jesus as their only hope, for all those, Jesus’ coming is the greatest news in the world. They love his coming, they long for his coming, they want to see face–to-face the holy one, the true one, the one who went to the cross to open up a way for them to come to God, the one who has been their strength when they were weak, they can’t wait to see this one. Jesus encourages his church that is weak and suffering by telling them that he is coming soon and they have nothing to fear, for he has saved them from the wrath of God.
So he ends this section with a final exhortation. The exhortation is this: “Hold fast to what you have so that no one may seize your crown.” He is saying that it’s not over yet. They have not arrived yet. He is asking that they don’t forget what they are remembering. They have Jesus, his righteousness, his forgiveness, and his promises. This letter has been full of amazing promises. It has been all about how beautiful and worthy Jesus is, and then it has told us that this amazing Jesus who will keep all his amazing promises is coming soon so please be ready. Please don’t go to sleep, don’t grow comfortable in your Christian life, don’t think that you have arrived, don’t let your guard down, don’t begin to coast. Finish strong. Don’t let up, look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Continue to fight sin, continue to repent of everything that comes up that threatens to distract you. Paul says, “I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” What he is saying is, don’t let go of Jesus. Don’t rest in your past faith; rest in Jesus. Don’t rest in the fruits of the past few years of your life; rest in Jesus. Don’t rest in your church attendance, your small group attendance, don’t rest in how good of husband or father or mother you are; rest in Jesus. Hold on to Jesus, don’t ever let go of Jesus. He is so worth it.
The letter ends with a promise for all who overcome, for the conquers, for those who hold fast, for all who are faithful unto death. For you, the promise is this, “I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall you go out of it.” Listen to that amazing promise.
The city of Philadelphia was on a fault line and it had been wracked with earthquakes and aftershocks. There was a massive earthquake in AD17, and over half of the city had been forced to permanently leave and take up residence in the surrounding country. The people knew how unstable their city was. They knew that at any moment it could crumble and fall and they would be left with nothing. They had seen it happen before. When this earthquake came only one thing remained. The massive pillars in their temple had remained standing, they had been unshakable. Jesus says that if you will hold fast in this roller coaster world, in your Christian life where your feelings often rise and fall, where you find yourself overwhelmed with how beautiful Jesus is one moment and then enamored with some pathetic sin the next—for all who will hold fast to him until the end, and fight the rise and fall of their feelings with the truths of the Gospel, Jesus has a promise. One day your fight will be over. One day you will no longer battle your sin. One day the roller coaster will stop and it will stop higher then it has ever been in this life. It will stop in the presence of God himself and it will remain there forever. You will never forget Jesus again, struggle with sin, be abandoned by anyone, be lonely, confused, afraid, sad, angry, or frustrated ever again. In Jesus’ presence are pleasures forevermore, in him is the fullness of joy and you will live with him forever. For the day when we are pillars in the temple of our God, hold on tight to your savior until that day. You are almost there, he is coming soon, hold on.
Jesus will write on us the name of his God. He will be our God and we will be his people. God himself will be a father to us, and we will bear his name. He will call us by his name and it will be permanent, secure. We will be his children and never again will we forget, never again will we feel or act like orphans, never again will we feel abandoned or forgotten. Our God will be our Father and we will have his name written upon us. We will be made citizens of his city. The name of his city will be written on us. We will have citizenship with him. Hebrews 13:13-14 exhorts us saying, “Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Here we have no lasting city, but if we cling to Jesus, if we will go to him outside the camp, if we will bear the reproach that he bore, if we will reject this world as our permanent home and live like pilgrims, then we will find that we will be welcomed as citizens into that heavenly city that will never be destroyed.
All these promises are for the weak. They are for pilgrims, for those who have repented of everything else they have ever clung to in order to have Jesus. It is for those who know that without him they are absolutely hopeless. These promises are for those who need Jesus. These promises are huge and amazing. They were purchased for us at the cross, bought with the precious blood of our savior. Ultimately, the promise to all of us who are weak is that we can have Jesus. We can have him now, even though we don’t always see him clearly, we can believe in him, we can love him, we can wait upon him, we can desperately depend upon him, we can hold fast to him and if we do, we will find that we will never be disappointed. He is better than anything else this world might ever offer us. Don’t try to earn these promises, don’t try to deserve them, don’t work for them, cling to Jesus, look to his righteousness, wash yourselves in his blood, he is the only one who has earned these promises, and it is only through him that we can have them.
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Psalms 27:4 where David says, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” Let that be our goal. Let us long for one thing only, to dwell in the house of God and to gaze upon the beauty of our savior. If we will hold fast to him, if we will depend upon him, if we will seek to worship him in his temple for all eternity, we will never be disappointed, for he will make us a pillar in his temple. He will give us our heart’s desire. One day, if we seek it now, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. One day we will be able to gaze upon his beauty, enamored eternally with his glory. One day.
0 Comments | Login to Post Comments