Revelation Lesson 10 : Little Strength, Big Job, Bigger God

Revelation 3: 7-13

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens:

“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Last week we looked at the church in Sardis. We saw a picture of a church that had some issues, a lot of them to be honest, and that was warned by Jesus to “stand fast and repent.” Well, obviously some of them did, and the Lord’s churches continue to exist until the churches we have today. The Lord is able to preserve His people. And as we look at the church at Philadelphia, we will find that the command to “stand fast” given to the Sardis church has resulted in strong, obedient and vibrant churches about whom our Lord has nothing bad to say.

What a turnaround; what a testimony to the Lord’s judgment and grace; what courage in the people of the Sardis church to first of all “stand fast,” and then to repent of their misdeeds and to allow the Lord to right their ship, so to speak! For all of us it is imperative that we seek repentance all the time and that we listen to the correction of the Lord. The book of Hebrews tells us that the Lord corrects the ones He loves:

Hebrews 12: 5-7 “And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or lose heart when He rebukes you. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.’ Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?”

God’s chastening, meaning to discipline or punish, is designed for our purity and to help us to grow in Christ. It is also a sign of ownership. God owns us; we are His children. And as His children He is required to chasten us to show His genuine love and care. Let that sink in.

We live in a time where the world says that if you love someone then let them be, even if they are wrong and doing harm to themselves, but true love must call out wrong actions and call for a change to what is right. This not popular today, ‘live and let live’ is not a Biblical rule for living. We are called to “stand fast” for the truth and to repent ourselves first, then call the world around us to repent.

Today we will look at the church at Philadelphia. This is a unique church in a unique city, given a unique promise from Jesus that he will keep them from the “hour of trial.” Let us look together and learn from the Lord.

Philadelphia, Revelation 3:7

Most of us in North America are familiar with the name Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love. The city in our lesson today was named after its founder Attalus the Second, who was nicknamed Philadephos. The city was a prosperous city that sat on the main highway from Europe to the East. It was an important city; it was originally founded to be a ‘missionary city’ for the Greek language, culture and Hellenist culture of ancient Greece. The city housed many temples and was the gateway to the East. It had frequent earthquakes and was often evacuated according to historical scholars. It was here that this church found its home.

Jesus has the keys of David, Revelation 3:7

Once we have met Philadelphia, we can now meet Jesus. He describes himself here as “He who is holy, he who is true.” These qualities are necessary for the Lord to reveal to us so that we can discern who we are listening to. Holiness and Truth do not describe Jesus’ activities but the very essence of who He is, and as such clearly declares that he is Yahweh, since only Yahweh is Holy.

In a city that was filled with idols and ‘religious’ worship, it was very important for the church there to be sure about whom they were listening to: from whom they took instruction and for whom they were working. This is still such a necessity today. There are so many ‘religions,’ many even that name the name of Jesus. But when we look at the Bible, the Jesus they worship is not the Yahweh of the Bible.

Some say he is a god, but not Yahweh. They are wrong; Jesus is Yahweh. Islam says he is a prophet, but Moses said He would be a Prophet, but he is first Yahweh. Some say he is Satan’s brother. No, He made Satan since he is the Creator Yahweh, and one day Satan will be eternally destroyed. The Pharisees accused him of being Satan; but no, He is Yahweh. In fact, to be saved one must come to the realization that Jesus is God, Yahweh and the holy Living God. There can be no salvation without this realization.

Then we see Him describe himself as “He who has the keys of David.” So, not only is Jesus Yahweh in the true sense, He is in complete control.

David was the king of Israel for 40 years; as such he was the absolute authority. He could bind and loose, he could spare a life or take a life without fear of judgment, and he did not require a vote to act. In the most perfect sense, Jesus is the Sovereign Ruler of the earth, the universe and each local church. He can do as He pleases, and no one has the right or the power to question Him. He goes on to say that He opens doors that no one can shut and shuts doors that no one can open. I am reminded of the Great Flood in Noah’s day:

Genesis 7:1-3, 16b “Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made…’ And the Lord shut him in.”

God told Noah and his family to enter the ark, then He left the door open for 7 more days. And at the end of the seven days, the Lord shut him in. No one could have closed the open door and no one could have opened the closed door. I cannot imagine what it was like to hear the cries of his neighbors clawing at the door, and there was nothing he could do. I shiver just thinking about it. How long did it take before things went silent outside and people stopped banging on the door?

We like to think that this current age of grace will go on and on forever and mankind can keep on denying and defying God and that God will take it. He is patient, NOT dead. One day the door on this age of grace will be closed, and no one else will be able to come into the New Testament church. The work of salvation will revert to the nation of Israel, and the billions of Gentiles will fall for the delusions of the Anti-Christ and his minions. Jesus is an Absolute God; He does not need counsel to make decisions, and he is never wrong. He is Holy and Truth.

A little strength, Revelation 3:8

David killed Goliath. Actually, God killed Goliath, but He allowed a young man to be used in His plan. As I was driving in today, I heard a song entitled “Dream Small” by Josh Wilson. It caught my attention as most of the time you hear about dreaming big, but the premise of the song is that the small things in God’s hand made big differences. A small stone in God’s hand killed a giant. This church in Philadelphia only had a little strength, but with that little strength they had ‘kept His word and not denied His name.’

Wow! What if this could be said about all of us? That we kept the Lord’s word, we obeyed and we did not deny Him in word or action. God is our power, and all we have is little strength, but we should use it for the Lord. Give all we have. Let us get to heaven spent for the obedience to the Lord and in standing fast for His name.

They had been persecuted by the Synagogue of Satan, a group who say that they are Jews but are not Jews at all. This is important to know that even Satan has ‘churches,’ places where people gather to worship him. These can often appear to be true churches; they have the pomp, use the Bible or a Bible, they sing the same songs we sing, and look very true but they are not. They are the enemies of the Lord’s churches. They deny Jesus; they have no spiritual connection to Abraham and are not true Jews.

One cannot love Jesus and hate Jews. In the same manner, a truly converted Jew cannot hate the Lord’s churches. One day these pretenders will come to worship Jesus; they will bow before the Lord’s people, not to worship them, but the Lord that we represent.

“I will keep you from the hour of trial” (verse 10). This is a prophetic look at the Tribulation that is coming on those that dwell on the earth. This church will be kept from that trial. This is also a reminder that the church age is coming to an end. None of the other churches had to be warned about the coming Tribulation. But this one was warned as we come closer to the end of time and the signs of the end begin to converge.

Like it was in the days of Noah, Jesus warns us, the people of the earth were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” right up until the flood hit. No amount of preaching, not even the sight of the ark being built could sway them. Just Noah and his band of 8 were saved.

The Lord’s churches have been through some ‘baptisms by fire’ down through the ages; they have been killed, persecuted, cheated, chased and imprisoned for the last 2,000 years. These treatments continue unabated even today in areas all around the world. But THE TRIBULATION is not for the Gentile church; it is for the people of the world and then at the end for the nation of Israel. But there is more to come about this as we move ahead. Just to restate, the church will be kept from the hour of trial that is coming.

An open door, Revelation 3:8-11

Jesus tells this church to “hold fast.” He tells them they have an open door that no one can shut. The city of Philadelphia was originally built to be a ‘mission work’ for the Greek language, Greek culture and the Greek Hellenist lifestyle. They were supposed to expand the influence of Greece into Asia Minor, but Jesus had other plans. This very conduit of paganism was going to be used by God to funnel the Gospel from Europe into Asia and beyond.

I am blessed to work with a group of churches that takes missionary work very seriously, as do other groups. The Biblical church associations, through the collective work of our churches, have missionaries in many of towns, cities, countries and continents. Next week, I have a friend who is going to South America with his brother to do some mission work. They will drive from Indiana to Toronto to fly from here to their destination. All they needed was a place to safely park a car, and we were able to help. Even that bit of help relieves one stressor so that he is free to work.

Do what you can, and let God do the rest; Dream Small.

You see, mission work is the lifeblood of the New Testament church. God has given us many open doors in this world: some to our neighbors and some to countries near and far. But they are open doors and no one can close them; however, we are required to do the work. The call to be ‘fishers of men’ will continue long after the church is raptured. After that, Jewish men—some 144,000, will become ‘fishers of men’ to the lost Jews all around the world.

God is always on the hunt to save men (women too). Two of the many things to overcome in our present age are fear and apathy – fear of reaching out and being rejected, and worse, just plain apathy, no longer caring that people are going to Hell. We stop preaching that sin is real, death is near and Hell is hot. For many of us that has become the problem; the door is open, salvation is free, and we are simply not interested in being ‘fishers of men.’

This church in Philadelphia was interested. Jesus had nothing bad to say about them.

Finally, we are challenged to hear what Jesus is saying—hearing, not for the sake of hearing, but to be obedient and right before our Holy God.

There is a lot more that we can explore about this church and any of the churches in these letters, but suffice it to say that this church had come out of a bad situation. The previous church age was fraught with false doctrine and compromise, but they had come out of it and left a legacy that was almost perfect for the final church age to follow. We will look at that next time.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Revelation Chapter 3:1-6

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. – Revelation Chapter 3:1-3

“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.’”  – Revelation Chapter 3:4-6

The church at Thyatira was a church steeped in sexual immorality, and they had a woman called Jezebel by Jesus who had led them astray in their worship as the Jezebel of the Old Testament had done to Israel. Jesus still had some good words for these folks. They had done some good things and had been through some battles that made them strong, patient and loving. Their service was good and they were still growing in these graces.

God always judges faithfully; He sees the good and the bad that we do. He is always ready to acknowledge the good and is just as ready to deal with the bad. He exercises grace and kindness in all areas, and His judgment is always tempered with time to repent. We/I need to learn this with others, my kids especially. I need to see the good in them, be ready to deal with the bad, and temper every punishment with grace and the time to repent. Maybe, for all of us this is good advice in our lives.

Today we move on to the church at Sardis. This is probably the harshest of the assessments that Jesus makes of any of these churches. In verse 1 He states, “You are alive, but you are dead.” In other words, you look like you are moving, but in reality you are dead. This is the hardest church to deal with because there is plenty of activity. They are serving the Lord, doing mission work, handing out Bibles, preaching, teaching and doing the things that a ‘living’ church should be doing; BUT, they are dead.

The City of Sardis, Revelation 3:1

Like this church, the city of Sardis was itself operating as if it were alive; but it was, for the most part, dead. According to one of the writers that I looked at, the city of Sardis was already in decline. It had seen better days. You would not know it to see it at the time, but they were dying as a city. Heavily loaded with debt and having been invaded twice, they were for all intents and purposes dead.

They were an affluent city; the people were accustomed to a pampered lifestyle. The city itself was the chief city of Asia Minor. History tells us that this was the first city in Asia that had been converted under John’s preaching. So, this must have been a hard letter to write and to be aware of their decline.

The city was known for its luxury and softness. The people were busy and went about their business unaware that their city was, for the most part, dead. The city of Sardis had been invaded and conquered twice in the history leading up to this letter. It would appear that a sense of apathy had set in, and the city had stopped being watchful. As such, they were conquered and yet still they remained cushioned in their luxury. As long as they had the appearance of life, they could not understand that they were actually dead.

This is a hard situation to be in, like a chicken with its head cut off; there is an appearance of life as the body moves but the chicken is dead. I have seen this firsthand as a lad. One of my uncles was a Muslim, and he had to kill his own meat back home in Barbados. He would go to the market and get 6 or 7 chickens, then he would pray over them and kill them in the back yard.  He would cut the heads off, but the chicken would still be moving. They were acting alive but were actually dead.

There are churches like this all the way through the church age. Obviously, some of the churches like this had repented, because we still have churches today that serve and love the Lord. But all was not yet lost in this church. Jesus, the righteous Judge, was going to give them some hope.

The Seven Spirits of God, Revelation 3:1

I remind you once again that the Revelation is about revealing Christ in all His glory, power and essence to us and the world around us. We have seen Him previously as the First and the Last; He has eyes of flames and feet of brass; He walks amongst the seven candle sticks; and He is the one who sees all that we do and judges even the intents of the heart.

Today we will see Him as “He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” There is only one Holy Spirit; He is God. But He operates in various fields, and He is the life blood of each New Testament church. It might appear that He is seven spirits, but He is just one who can be everywhere at once because He is God.

In the letter to the first church, Jesus addresses the elder as an “angel.” Here they are addressed as “stars.” There are seven stars to whom the Holy Spirit gives direction, and it is the pastor’s job to manage the local church and keep it in the right doctrine, the right purposes, and to judge its intents and actions. Maybe the pastor here had become apathetic as well; and as such, the church was following the leadership. Change would start from the leader and flow through the people.

I pastor a small church; we are not materially rich by any means. I often wonder if we are ‘poor’ because of my failings as a pastor. Trust me; I have failed. I told my wife when we began dating that all I have ever been good at was failing. I have to wonder if we are just going through the motions often or are we genuinely engaged to bring God the glory, and are we serving Him with all of our hearts, mind, body and strength.

I see our faithful few who have been with me for ages; they give beyond measure; they attend in rain, snow, sunshine and often in pain. Some work all night and then come to church in their work clothes. They are ready to share their goods as best they can, and they are ready to serve and meet the needs of a brother with what they have. I am blessed to serve them.

Jesus has perfect knowledge: “I know your works.” Jesus knows all about you and me. This should drive us and humble us. Sadly, many of us still look at the man in the mirror and forget that we are wretched and our only hope is in Jesus.

The city and it would appear the church at Sardis would not admit that they were in need of help. They looked in the mirror every day; they saw the cracks in their lives; they could see the results of death in their faces, and yet they walked out each day acting like they were alive. We live in a time much like this for the most part.

We live in a province in Ontario that has one of the largest debts for a non-nation. We spend billions more than we take in, and we continue to grow more and more debt. Our politicians promise free this and free that, but there is no such thing as free. Everything has to be paid for, if not now, then later; and it is the later that is killing us. I must admit that as a family we deal with debt; we have a mortgage, car payments and the like. For most of us, we see debt as a necessary evil; but it is not if we can learn to say no to ourselves.

The Bible allows for debt, and obviously even in Bible days people got into overwhelming debt that would cost them their lands and homes and maybe even their freedoms. But God established a Jubilee Year that allowed for all of the previous generation’s debt to be cancelled, and everyone started back where they were 50 years prior.

We may need to get to that in the near future. It is clear that the US cannot repay $21,000,000,000,000 in debt, Canada cannot repay its national debt, and for sure Ontario is struggling as well. But the banks that control our debts are not of a forgiving mind, and they would rather hold us ransom than forgive debt.

Sardis was not so blessed; they had racked up debts, and their society was falling apart even if it had the appearance of life. Jesus knew the truth. We CANNOT fool Jesus, we cannot pull the wool over His eyes, and He is not swayed by activity. He sees the emotion and motives as well.

My wife and I were talking just this morning about the ‘signs of the times.’ The players are all in the game. There is wickedness in the hearts of men continually, there is evil around us, and there is no more shame for sin. We live in a time when sin is celebrated and even legislated by law. Yet, the world around us goes on as if nothing and no One is to be feared; they have no fear of God and His judgment.

Like Lot, we watch; we fear God and understand that there is a great judgment coming; it will be fierce, swift and will cause such chaos and death like the world has never seen. And, if you tell people that what they are doing is an affront to a Holy God, they will scoff at you and maybe even try to silence you. We feel for them and we try to share the truth with the few who will listen, but it is hard and seemingly futile. However, there are still some to be saved.

Room to repent, Revelation 3:3

“Hold fast and repent” ( Revelation 3:3 ). Stop the slide; don’t go back any further than where you are. “Hold fast” is a military term that when commanded simply means don’t move back and don’t give ground to the enemy. In Philippians 4:1, we are encouraged to “stand fast in the Lord.”

“Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.”

To “stand fast” means to not be moved. But our power to stand fast must be in the Lord. The church at Sardis had moved back far enough; it was time to stop giving ground to the enemy, stop watering down the truth, stop going through the motions with no real commitment to the Lord, stop just acting like Christians and actually begin thinking like God’s people.

The folks at the church in Sardis had stopped trusting in the Lord; they had trusted in their luxuries and done their ‘duty’ but not to the Lord. They were not wholly invested mind, body and soul in the Kingdom. As such, they had compromised for the sake of comfort, the kind of comfort they were accustomed to in life.

Often, comfort is a cancer to Christianity. Churches only seem to thrive if they are going through tough times or are under persecution. Why is that?

Well, obviously, the first thing that happens is that the pretenders fall out. Those who are left are the ones that are the core of any growth. And this is where the church in Sardis had the opportunity to repent, “stand fast” stop the back-sliding, stop retreating on the truth, stop doing church and return to a real and intimate relationship with Jesus, and be the church. Jesus gives them room to repent, and He always gives us room to repent as well.

God loves to forgive; He loves to extend mercy and grace, and resorts to pain only when all attempts at grace, mercy and kindness have become futile.

We live in a time where the Lord’s churches need to “stand fast,” stand in the midst of the river of comfort that is plaguing the New Testament church. Too many have become comfortable with doing the acts of church and not being a church. Let me give you an example of how this might play out:

You are a church in a community, you serve an area of poorer people, and you try to serve them physically. You are blessed with material goods so you give of your food, clothing, goods, talents and the like, BUT never share the Gospel. You show no care for their eternal souls but you feed their bodies. This is an example of how a church can lose ground; it looks like they are doing church but they have forgotten their first calling – “make disciples.”

Our churches have a large group of ministries from youth camps to Emergency response teams, and we have a ministry that blitzes cities for four days at a time to share the love of Christ and win souls. That is the primary reason for any and all ministries. As we go about doing this ministry of making disciples, this will become an uphill battle sooner or later in North America, where we can do our ‘religion’ inside our homes but not be able to express our views outside our homes for fear of offending someone.

The Importance of Salvation, Revelation 3: 4-5

Sadly, there were a lot of people in the church at Sardis who were not saved. They were part of the church, they may have served and worked, but there was no genuine salvation. This would explain one of the reasons for moving backwards as a church, away from the truth. We must be “born again.”  This is a plague that has arisen in the Lord’s churches in our time as well – people who attend the church but are not saved, and as such, are not able to receive the spiritual food from the preaching.

We see that there were a few that were not involved in the fall of this church; they were truly saved; they had been washed and walked in white. They would have their names preserved in the Book of Life. Only Jesus could do this; notice “I will not blot them out.” Jesus is the only way to Heaven and to salvation.

Once of the hardest things to understand is that a person can pretend to be saved, but the truth will come out in the way that they ‘do church.’ It will show in the decisions that they make and the focus of their ‘ministry.’ Souls need to be saved, salvation needs to be preached, and being born again needs to be stressed in the Lord’s churches. All else is folly and a recipe for failure, and a lot of lost ‘church’ people. Lord, help us get back to the right way and to the business of winning souls for Him.

John 3: 1-5 “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

“Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca