Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: Revelation 3:3-13

GOD IS IN CONTROL OF HIS KINGDOM

We’re going to tackle a lot today. I want to finish the overview of the church in Philadelphia if we can. So, let’s dive in here. 

If we study history, several texts and scholars will support that there was an incredibly large synagogue of Jews in Philadelphia. These synagogues were expelling Jews who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. They were also refusing non-Jewish or Gentile believers from participating in synagogues, so they were excommunicating them from culture.

If we understand this as historical reality, it becomes the lens we can use to discern the letter. What Jesus declares is that He holds the keys of David, indicating His direct access to Yahweh as the one who prophetically is declared to come from David’s throne. He’s just telling them, I’m in the line of David; you can keep following Me.

Why would He say that? In that culture, at that time, the synagogue was where those who were following Yahweh would go to worship. These people have been booted out, so Jesus is encouraging them saying, no, no, no, you are following the right one. He “holds the keys,” which is a declaration. In the ancient world, “holding the keys” is a declaration of family authority. 

If you remember the prodigal son story, when he comes back, one of the things that was restored to him was a ring. The ring was the key to the house. It was what gave him authority to make decisions for the house. So what Jesus is saying to them is, I’m the one that controls the Kingdom. No matter what you see going on around you, trust Me. I think we’re going to sense that in this text.

GOD IS HONORED BY OUR TRUST IN HIM

Jesus encourages them to keep trusting Him. I want to encourage us to grab onto that mindset: keep trusting Him. Keep that phrase in front of your mind, keep that phrase in front of your eyes, keep it playing in your heart. Keep trusting Him. Why? Because there will be challenges. There are going to be things in your life that are going to challenge your desire to trust Me. 

What are those things? What happens if I could tell you right now, “Hey, you’re going to show up tomorrow at work, and they’re going to lay you off.” Instantly, you’re like, can I trust the Lord? Some of you are like, praise God, let it come. There are things in life, circumstances, and difficulties that we go through that will challenge our ability to trust the Lord. He says to them, I’m the one who holds the authority. I am the one in the line of David. You can trust Me. I know the things you do. I have opened the door.

I love this because I think it’s a good reminder for us. How many have ever felt in life that sometimes being faithful gets unnoticed? How many grew up in a family where you felt like you were the one who always did things right, but you had a sibling who didn’t and they got all the attention? Anybody ever felt that before? 

What He’s saying to the believers in Philadelphia is that their faithfulness has not gone unnoticed. He knows what they’ve been doing, so He’s making a way for them. What I love about that is He’s telling them, hey, you’re not on your own. Could I encourage us to just grab onto this simple truth? We are not on our own. He didn’t orphan us into the world and say, good luck. Here’s the Bible, I hope it works. His covenant to them and His covenant to us is, I’m with you. I’m watching. I know what you’re doing.

Now, if you’re wired like me, for whatever reason, when I read Jesus say, I know the things you do, it just makes me want to make sure I do everything right. But what it also tells me is that His eye is on our lives from a “care” point of view, not from an “inspection” point of view.

How many parents have watched their children do the right thing and are really proud of them? How many would echo the fact that sometimes you have to remind yourself to encourage what was right because it’s so easy to critique what’s wrong? I love to hear that He’s encouraging what’s right. Hey, you’re doing a good job. I’m watching you.

STAYING THE COURSE

What He’s saying to the church in Philadelphia is you’ve been kicked out of synagogue, you’ve been excommunicated from the community. Imagine if you came to the doors of Vintage, and at the door, somebody said, no, you’re not allowed in. We don’t have a framework for that because it doesn’t happen in our culture much.

Imagine you say, I just deeply want to go worship the Lord with the people of God. I want to be in that moment where all of our voices are rising to Heaven. God is being enthroned on the praises of His people, and I want to be part of it. Imagine you say all that, and somebody’s at the door saying, you can’t be here. We don’t want you here. You don’t belong with us. That’s what’s going on for them. 

What He says to them is His promise of restoration. I love His statement: Stay the course, stay faithful, and full circle, you’ll look like you were in the right. That’s essentially what He says. I’m going to bring them to bow at your feet and tell you you were in the right.

There are those of us who have walked lines and are walking lines because of the stances we’ve taken to honor the Lord. We’ve been ostracized. Some of us have been really, really criticized by family for taking a Kingdom line. For just saying, “Hey this is what the Scriptures say.”

Right now, in our culture, there are a lot of places where to just stand with the Scriptures, clearly, as they’re taught, puts us in a line of fire in a lot of locations. There are lots of places where people criticize, saying, “How could you be that intolerant? How could you be that unloving?” And you’re like, “I’m just aligning with the Scriptures.”

Here’s what I want us to hear that He was saying to them: Stay the course. Trust me. I will vindicate you. Church, we have to decide early on whether we live for the approval of men or the approval of Him.

You may ask, “But what if we’re wrong?” Paul makes a statement in Corinthians that I don’t love, but I think it’s good that it’s in there. Essentially, he says, hey, if we’re wrong, and this isn’t real, we’re the biggest idiots in the world. You cannot attempt to think that away. You have to embrace it.

ENCOUNTERING GOD THROUGH WORSHIP

I would love to offer an idea about worship and one of the reasons I think it’s so important. I think worship affords us an opportunity to encounter the Lord, and that experience of the Lord builds our faith and our trust in who He is. It’s a great place for us to be able to walk away going, man, sometimes I feel like I’m crazy, but Lord, I know when I sense You and I know when I encounter You that it’s real. What happens when the church at large has lost her passion for worship is that she also loses her ability to encounter the Lord in worship.

There’s supposed to be something that happens in worship. When we come together, there’s a force and an energy that goes vertical to where God inhabits the praises of His people. He’s in the room and He’s mixed into all the situations, and healings are happening, and signs and wonders are happening. That’s supposed to be the norm for the church. And when we lose that, we rob ourselves of a place for our faith to be constantly reaffirmed.

You ask, “Well, how can I fix that?” Your worship is in your control. I can’t worship for you, and I can’t stop you from worshiping

My hope is that we have a hands-in covenant as a family. We walk through those doors, and mentally, we know it’s game time. We understand, as a family and as a team, when we come into this place it is supernaturally sacred. We come in with one agenda, and it’s Him. It’s holy ground. It’s a sacred space. It’s not just something where I’m going to come in and evaluate, going, I don’t know. Is it good? Is it not good? Not sure. What time’s lunch?

A REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS

I want us to consider something I think this passage reveals, and that’s faithfulness to Him brings favor into our lives. He essentially says to them, I know the things you do. I love the way you’re living, and I’ve opened doors for you. Church, don’t lose sight of the fact that being faithful brings open doors to your life.

It’s not a slot machine idea or a spiritual ATM, where if I do, He does. That’s the wrong mindset. But the right mindset is to understand that we serve a King who’s incredibly faithful, and He loves to dispense His favor on those who are faithful. So if you’ve wrestled at any point with, does this matter? What good is it doing me? It’s bringing His favor into your situation.

Philadelphia, as a church, was holding the line of discipline in the Kingdom. They were remaining strong because of their love for Him. Are there areas for you right now where you’re like, you know what? The only reason I’m staying strong right now in this situation, the only reason I’m hanging on, is because I love Jesus. Anybody have some of those going on? I want you to hear His encouragement that He gave to Philadelphia. Good job. I’m proud of you for wanting to quit but not, because you love Me. 

Being faithful to His word and His way brings His agency into our situation. He sees it; He rewards it. If you get nothing out of the letter to Philadelphia except that, please remember, Jesus sees our faithfulness, and He will reward it. He said He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

I believe the kingdom of darkness loves to whisper the opposite of that. There is no benefit. What good is it? You know what? Just make the choice you want to make. You deserve to live a life that you enjoy. You don’t deserve this difficulty. Anybody ever heard any of those whispers in your head? It’s a lie. Whether it’s in your marriage, or it’s in your church situation, or you’re worried about suicide. The lie from hell is that there’s no benefit in following Jesus. It’s a total fabrication. There is benefit, and there’s favor in following Him. What He reveals to them is He finds incredible pleasure in opening doors for those who stay loyal to Him.

FAITHFULNESS IN THE MIDST OF UNCERTAINTY

One last thought about open and closed doors. How many have ever struggled to make decisions in life? A door opens, you get opportunities, and you’re like, do I go? Do I not? Or a door closes and you’re like, I can’t believe the door is closing, so you’re just pounding on the door. Why is it closed? Philadelphia did not open the doors, nor did they close the doors as a church—Jesus did.

I think it’s interesting to consider His statement to them is, you’ve been faithful, so I’ve opened doors for you. There is favor when you’re walking in alignment with the Lord and you’re walking clean. If you think nobody walks clean, that’s not true. Paul actually says the opposite. It is possible to walk in total alignment with Jesus. That’s why He modeled it for us.

1 John will teach us that we are to be on a journey where we’re winning the battle with sin as we go through life and the older we get in our faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with age, it has to do with maturity and faith. So you can have eighteen-year-olds who are incredibly mature in their faith and they’ve already begun to win wars over sin.

The goal of the Kingdom is that we win the war against sin, and then we start walking in supernatural favor to where He can just keep dispensing favor because we keep walking in alignment. Where He starts to open doors for us and we just walk through them without second guessing whether it’s Him or not because we understand He’s the one who opens doors and closes doors.

So we can put away this double-mindedness of, what do I do? What do I not do? If you’re living in sin, don’t go anywhere. The only answer when you’re in sin is to get on your knees and repent. You shouldn’t be walking through any doors. You shouldn’t be arguing at any closed doors when you’re in sin. The only thing you should be doing is fixing your sin. But at the moment you walk pure with the Lord, you can say, I’m in alignment with the Lord. I repented from my wrong. I’m living in the Kingdom and I’m doing life the way Jesus said.

Church, we’re supposed to be able to trust the open doors and the closed doors. I think we just need to learn to trust His leadership. That’s why I love that He says to them, hey, I opened, I closed, you can trust Me.

PATIENT ENDURANCE DESPITE OUR WEAKNESSES

In Revelation chapter 3, Jesus says, “You have little strength, yet you obeyed My word and did not deny Me.” I want to focus on the words that Jesus uses in this phrase: patient endurance and little strength. Hupomone means “to remain put or under something.” It’s the idea of being placed and staying there. Mikran dunamin is a phrase that means “little strength.”

I think we could all agree that there’s nothing less appealing or alluring or exciting than being encouraged to remain in place, stay under difficulty, and step into the truth of feeling insignificant. Yet Jesus commends these attributes in Philadelphia; they felt defeated and small.

Now, I would imagine if you showed up here and we said, you can’t come in, you’re not one of us, you’d feel defeated and small. For this culture that’s going to transcend into the marketplace, it’s going to transcend into all the familiar relationships. Think about it: if you have unique relationships within the church, which we’re supposed to have, and all of a sudden you’re like, I can’t be connected to them because they said I don’t belong, there’s probably some emotional pain in that.

Jesus says, I’m proud of you for being willing to stay in the spot where you feel defeated and small and not bail on Me. Therefore, I think there’s a reality or an idea that we can learn from this. In situations where we feel incredibly overwhelmed, underpowered, or out of control, when we have the courage to stay the course—continuing to follow Jesus, continuing to live the way He wants—it brings His favor and His pleasure into our lives.

I would love to take it one step further: I actually think it’s what He expects. What we see in these messages is Jesus evaluating the church one at a time. He says to Philadelphia, I’m proud of you, keep it going.

Maybe we take it from a different lens. There are times where we shift our obedience in the face of trouble, and the moment we do that, we shift our allegiance. If trouble can cause us to stop following Him, maybe we weren’t really aligned with Him.

What I want to encourage you in is those places where you feel weak and powerless, the places where you feel out of control, places where you feel defeated and insignificant, those are actually the places for you to hold the line and earn favor. All you have to do in that moment is go, Lord, I don’t feel so great in this. This is awful. I kind of hate it, but I am not bailing on You. I am not leaving Your way because of how I feel.

I think His admonition to us would be very simple. Don’t quit, no matter how hard it gets. Don’t let difficulty cause you to let go of My nature. Why? He drops a bomb: I am coming soon. Regardless of our understanding of end times, I want to take that idea and throw it away. What Jesus declares here out of His own mouth is, I am coming soon. When? I don’t know, but I think the only way to discern what this means in the Greek is that He’s coming soon.

His encouragement to them is, I’m proud of you for doing this, and here’s why: I’m coming soon. Why would He say that? As an encouragement for them to hold on and to not quit. It was to give them a perspective to live from; therefore, His return is to give us a perspective. What that tells me is if we forget the eternal perspective, we’ll lose sight of how to live in the world today.

It also tells me that despite the circumstances around us on the earth, we are different people. That’s the message of the gospel; that we’re a new creation. While we live and breathe amongst other human beings, and while we share the human reality with them, we’re actually a different people that have become a new creation. We’re citizens of a new place. And so if we can remember that our King is coming, it allows us to understand that whatever’s going on around us is just temporary—even when it hurts. It’s not that big a deal. We just have to push pause and go, you know what? What are my circumstances telling me to do? What is Jesus telling me to do? Okay, Jesus wins.

FAITH IS REVEALED WHEN WE REFUSE TO QUIT

Here’s the next point: what He seems to be telling Philadelphia is, I see that you want to quit, and you didn’t. That tells me that wanting to quit and actually quitting are different. Church, I think there’s an incredible reward for us when we refuse to quit when we want to. In other words, it’s okay for you to look in the mirror and go, I really want to quit right now. I really want to walk away from everything I believe. I’m really questioning whether or not it’s worth it. It seems like it’s just a load of hokum. Lord, I’m not feeling it right now. 

Why is it okay? Because Jesus did it. In the garden, Jesus prays a prayer that we have to understand. We have these great Biblical inspirations when we’re like, oh, that was such a beautiful prayer. Lord, not my will but Yours be done. Let me translate that to modern English: Hey, this cross thing I think is really dumb. I don’t want to do it. But I’d rather be faithful to You. So I’ll do what You asked me to do, even though I don’t want to.

How does that not translate to every area of our life? Where our response should be is, this situation here? I hate it. I don’t want to stay in it. It hurts. It’s difficult. But Lord, it’s not about what my circumstances are like. It’s not about what You’re asking me to go through. What it’s about is what You asked of me. I’m going to go back to the scriptures and find out what they’ve asked of me, and I’m going to live it

When we refuse to quit when we want to, it reveals our faith in Him. It reveals that we are under His authority, not the authority of our circumstance. 

Think about this the next time you want to quit fighting forward and living in the Kingdom—whether it’s in your marriage, whether it’s at work, whether it’s in a relationship. We all have those moments. The next time you have one, take a deep breath and realize you are just being blessed with an opportunity to earn favor with your faithfulness. In every one of those situations, the right answer is, Lord, it’s not about what I want. It’s about what You want. Holy Spirit, will You lead me back to truth?

DISCIPLESHIP IN THE SCRIPTURE

I want to dig in on this a little bit. Don’t go to the scriptures and try to figure out how to make them say what you want them to say. Go to the Scriptures neutral and ask what they say. Go study the Scriptures with an eye to see what they say. Sit with the Lord in a place of neutrality. Lord, here I am. I have no lean. I’m stripping myself of desire. What do You want from me?

It’s easy to hear God say what You need Him to say when you want Him to say it. It takes true discipleship to allow the scriptures to have authority in your life when it’s opposite of what you want. I would offer that this is the definition of discipleship: a learner under discipline. What is the discipline? This text is how I’m going to live. I am subjecting myself to it, forcing it to lead me. I’m not coming to it with a bias or mindset, asking it to prove my opinion. I’m absolving myself of my opinions, and I’m letting it become my teacher.

I got lots more, but we don’t have lots more time. I do believe this issue is under attack right now. My dad used to quote a phrase to me all the time: In the last days, if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. It means there’s a deception that will have an impact on the church, and that idea comes from Paul’s teaching. That as we get to the last days, what we’re going to see is even the people of God wanting the scriptures to say what they need them to say instead of applying their lives to the scriptures and letting the scriptures lead them.

I’m not trying to take an encouraging word and make it tough, but I am trying to call something out that I think is dangerous in our culture. We have to come back to being a people who let the text govern our lives. Our lives don’t govern what the text says. That is what it means to follow Jesus. I align myself with how He says to live. There’s going to be several places where I don’t like it, and that’s okay. It’s okay not to like it–it’s just not okay not to do it. That’s what Jesus reveals in the cross.

Go home and tell your neighbors, “You should come to my church. My pastor can take an encouragement and make it tough.” Why would I say that? I want for us to be a people to whom He can say, I love the way you endure difficulty. I’m proud of you for not quitting when it was tough. This means we have to identify with the idea of, I want to quit, but Lord, I’m not going to because of my love for You.

Jesus, we love You. We honor You. Would You forgive us for ever trying to make this into an easy thing? The gospel is a stumbling block to wickedness. It gets in the way of the parts of us that want to do what we want. We love that, and we need it. Holy Spirit, will You take this message, and will You help us apply it? Will You help us evaluate our lives in those places where we’ve been willing to quit instead of staying the course? We want to be able to, like Philadelphia. hear You say, Hey, even when you felt weak and small and insignificant, I love that you didn’t deny Me. You stayed the course. So let Your face shine upon us and let Your kindness invade our lives. Give us a lot of grace for each other, and give us a lot of courage to discipline ourselves before You. In Jesus’ name, amen.