The Book of Revelation: Revelation 3:3-13

Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: Revelation 3:3-13

THE IMPORTANCE OF HORIZONTAL RELATIONSHIPS

We’re back in Revelation chapter three, and we’re looking at the Church of Philadelphia. How many are aware of what the word “Philadelphia” means? Brotherly Love. It deals with not just brotherly love like we would treat it (Oh, yeah, that’s my friend), but it also deals with affection and the willingness to actually be tender, affectionate, and open.

I want to highlight that for a second, because I think it’s interesting. This is one of two churches that Jesus has nothing bad to say about. I wonder if there’s a connection between the way we handle each other and how He wants to handle us. For example, they did a great job of loving on each other. It’s what they were known for.

I want to highlight it because I think sometimes in our culture we miss that this might be one of the most important things we do in worship. Sometimes we fall into an illusion that we can be disconnected on a horizontal level and connected on a vertical level; that’s actually an illusion. Jesus says, “This is my commandment: that you love one another, that your joy may be full.” Maybe we rephrase that into our language: This is my commandment that you love one another. And if you don’t, you’re going to live a life that’s not full of joy. Almost to say, your willingness to handle each other well has a direct connection to your joy in the Kingdom.

Think on that for a second. Sometimes we want to assign the lack of joy to the circumstances around us or to the enemy, but in truth it might be indicative of how we handle each other. In other words, my responsibility before the Lord is to make sure that as far as it is unto me, I’m in control of my joy factor by making sure I’m good in all my horizontal relationships. Can you hear that today? How many instantly go, uh-oh?

REVELATION 3:3-13

Alright, that was not part of the notes. Here we go. “Write this letter to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the One who is holy and true. the One who has the key of David. What He opens, no one can close; and what He closes, no one can open. I know the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed My word and did not deny Me. Look, I will force those who belong to Satan’s synagogue—those liars who say they are Jews but are not—to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love. Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take away your crown. All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what He is saying to the churches.”

HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR THE LETTER TO PHILADELPHIA

I have the incredible honor of being the guy that has to follow Dr. Ian Paul. How many enjoyed that last Sunday? How many noticed something different about this man as he stood there? It struck me, I haven’t been around more than maybe one other guy in the Kingdom who had so much hope for what the Lord was going to do. I think Dr. J. LaRue, who comes and visits us often, is another man who when you get around him you can’t help but want to believe for the Kingdom. I loved it.

I’ll be totally honest, I had no idea what to expect. In my head was this little Pentecostal kid going, “You’re bringing in an Anglican bishop to your church?” I had Pastor Gary sitting across the seat going, “I hope he wears his clerical collar.” I’m like, “You just like to stir up trouble.”

It was so incredibly refreshing to see the same Spirit of God has been working in a man thousands of miles away. He walks in and instantly he talks about it: There’s this brotherhood. Wow, we have the same Holy Spirit. What do you know? We have the same Savior. What do you know? He does what He does in everybody.

I want to just give us a quick sense of what’s going on in an overview of this passage. If we study history, there’s a pretty heavy weight of textual support that would say that in Philadelphia was an incredibly large Jewish synagogue. And these synagogues, what they were doing is they were expelling Jews who’d accepted Jesus as the Messiah and they refused non-Jewish, or Gentile, believers to participate in the synagogue.

You have to understand we’re not in a time like it is in America, where if somebody steps on your toe, you go to another church. We’re in a time where the only real place they could meet was synagogue. If they were disfellowshipped from that synagogue, they were alone. They would have to figure out how to find people around them to meet with and build a new community. Has anyone ever moved from a city you grew up in to a city where you don’t know anybody? Most of us understand that the process of building community is incredibly difficult when you come into a new place. This is really what they were facing.

If we understand that historical reality, I think it unlocks much of what Jesus says using that lens. What He says to them is that He holds “the keys of David,” indicating His direct access to Yahweh as the one who was prophetically declared from David’s line. He’s just letting them know, I am the one. You’re not following the wrong one. “Holding the keys” is a statement that they would have understood to be familial authority. I am holding the keys to the house; it’s my house.

His ability to open and close is intended to be a comfort. Why? Hey, your doors have been closed to you. I want you to consider that because we’re going to talk about it later in the teaching. He says to them, I have the ability to open and close doors. Doors have been closed to them. Why would He remind them of that, if not to say, maybe you should consider those closed doors; I was part of it. I let it happen. All too often we want to react to circumstances instead of learning this incredible art of pushing pause and going, I don’t understand it, but I trust You. 

OUR FAITHFULNESS BRINGS HIS FAVOR

Okay, I want to go through a few phrases. First one: “I know the things you do, and I have opened a door…”. 

What He’s saying to the believers in Philadelphia, is that their faithfulness has not gone unnoticed. I know the things you do. Now He has said this in other places, and in context in other places when He says, “I know your deeds,” it wasn’t a good thing. But in this context, He’s saying to the Church of Philadelphia, I’ve been watching. We look at the seven messages and He says over and over again, I’m paying attention. What we should take out of this is He’s paying attention.

He knows what they’re doing, and He says that He’s made a way for them. I love this, if we just hear it. What He’s saying is, You in your faithfulness are not on your own. There will be times when you feel isolated and alone, but you’re not on your own.

I would imagine there was some pain stemming from their desire to be in the community of the synagogue. That’s not lost on Jesus, and His promise to them is, if you stay the course in your belief, eventually I’m going to restore to you what’s been taken away. How many have lost family relationships because of your belief in Jesus? I would advise you to hold on to this in that lens. There are things that we lose when we follow the Lord. Things that get taken away from us, things that we get wounded by.

If we can just push pause and say to the Lord, I trust that You see the end from the beginning. You’re watching, You will restore. That’s what He says to the Church of Philadelphia. I’ll restore this. I’ll put you in the Temple of My God. He’s promising restoration.

You see, faithfulness brings His favor into our lives. The problem with it is we don’t know when. If I told you right now, “Spend the next seven days being entirely faithful to the Lord, don’t miss anything, and on the next Monday, you’re going to see a favor index rise in your life,” everybody here would be like, I can hold the line. I can’t say that. I don’t control that, He does. All any of us could ever control is our relationship to faithfulness.

But there’s a promise in this word to Philadelphia that He’s watching and He is rewarding, not just in this life, but also in the one to come. They’ve been holding a line of discipline in the Kingdom. They’re remaining strong because of their love for Him.

Here would be my question for us: In what areas in your life are you remaining strong only because of your love for Him? What areas have you been holding the line, even if it doesn’t make sense, because you’re like, Lord, I love you? Maybe you’re in a marriage that you don’t want to be in and you’re like, Lord, I’m staying faithful in this marriage. I’m going to stay loving in this marriage because I love You and I’m committed to You.

My point is, being faithful to His Word and His Way brings His agency into our situation because He both sees it and rewards it.

But I believe the kingdom of darkness loves to whisper, there’s no benefit in following Him. You have an enemy who has emissaries that love to whisper things like, see, it doesn’t work. This enemy wants to call your attention to the circumstantial evidence in your life that would prove that God’s not for you. We cannot be a people that fall for that trap. All we have to be able to do is say, “You know what? I don’t see the quick evidence of His faithfulness. But I know He’s faithful and He cannot violate His own character, so His faithfulness is without question in my life.”

It’s a lie. There is benefit in the Kingdom for following Him, and Jesus finds great pleasure in opening doors for those who remain loyal to Him. I want to encourage us to stay faithful. 

Maybe you’re in here saying, “You know, I’ve been tempted to quit lately. I’ve just been tempted to go, I don’t think it matters. I just don’t think that it’s worth it anymore.” Just take a deep breath. Why would Jesus tell them to stay faithful? Because they were probably on the edge of not wanting to be faithful.

TRUSTING OPEN DOORS

One last thought for us. Jesus had opened doors for them, they hadn’t. All they had done is been faithful. I think it’s interesting that Jesus connects these two ideas: 1) they had been faithful, and 2) He was opening doors. Maybe we’ve made this thing way too difficult. Maybe there’s a link here that we could see, that walking faithful means we get to trust open doors.

How many have ever wrestled with making decisions in the Kingdom? Opportunities come and you’re like, I don’t know. It’s trepidation. I would love to submit that trepidation comes from a place that’s not Him. It comes out of a fear place. How many have ever had a great opportunity in front of you and wondered if it was a trap from the Lord? That’s bad theology. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

My bigger point is if we don’t open the doors and He does, maybe we just consider that our willingness to walk right before Him brings a certain protection to our pursuit. We don’t have to wrestle with, “Is it you or is it not?” when we’re walking right before him.

Can you imagine, those of you that are parents, if you were to put steak and lobster on the table in front of your kids for dinner and they stared at it. Not like the windy Cinnabon commercial, where they didn’t know which part to start with because it was all awesome. But they stared at it with this fear. And when you ask them why they’re not eating, they respond with, “I don’t know. Is it a trap? I thought maybe you were putting in front of me to see if I was gluttonous. I thought you’re putting it in front of me to see if I was maybe greedy.” As a parent, you’re like, “No, I put it there to eat. It’s getting cold. Eat!”

I think we do the same thing all the time to Him. He puts goodness in front of us and we let the enemy whisper, “He wants to see if you really love Him.” Church, just walk clean, walk pure, and trust the open doors.

HOLD THE LINE IN HARD TIMES

Okay, next phrase: “You have little strength, yet you obeyed My word and did not deny Me”.

I want to focus on the words that Jesus uses. Patient endurance and little strength are what they render in the Greek. One is hupomone which means “remaining put or staying under” and the other is mikran dunamin which means “little strength,” like you’re just barely hanging on but you’re staying in the situation.

I don’t think there’s anything less appealing, alluring, or exciting than being encouraged to remain in a place and staying under difficult situations and just embracing how insignificant you feel. How many would say, “Yeah, that doesn’t rank very high on my list of things I want to do?” And yet Jesus commands these attributes to the Philadelphian church. They felt defeated and small. 

Now we can imagine why, after being kicked out of the synagogue, they probably had emotional damage from being excommunicated. I mean, that feeling of rejection, that feeling of, we don’t want you here, get out—that’s not a great feeling anywhere. We could probably surmise that there was loneliness and sadness. They knew when everybody was gathering, they weren’t allowed to gather. There was this sense of not being invited to something, which is not a great feeling. 

Yet Jesus’ statement to them tells us something. In a strange way, He’s okay with those moments when we feel like that. They don’t freak Him out, and in fact, He kind of accolades them. He’s proud of them, saying, I’m proud of the fact that even though you feel this way, you’re holding the line. You’re still staying put in the Kingdom.

I think there’s a reality that we learn by being in situations where we feel incredibly overwhelmed or underpowered, and maybe even out of control, and yet we have the courage to stay the course. We continue to live like Him, we continue to carry His nature. What we learn from this is that’s what He’s looking for. And Church, I think we can understand that it’s more than just what He’s looking for, it’s what He expects. 

I want you to consider a thought with me. When we shift our obedience in the face of trouble and difficulty, when a situation comes in and we bail on our following of Him or our commitment to Him, when it gets too tough and we walk away—have you ever considered that perhaps, from His perspective, doing that is to shift our allegiance away from Him?

Instead, what I think we should do, and what I see Him encouraging Philadelphia to do, is move toward the places we feel weak. Those places where we feel insignificant, small, powerless, and like we don’t matter. In such places where we feel those things, and where that might even be the reality of the situation, what He invites us to do is lean into it and be honest with it. Lord, here’s where I’m at. Here’s how I feel. Here’s what’s going on. But I’m not going to leave You in this.

I think His admonition is simple: do not quit, no matter how hard it gets. Don’t let the difficulty around you cause you to let go of My nature.

REWARD COMES WITH REFUSING TO QUIT

Jesus makes the statement, “I am coming soon.” I would love to ask us to sit in that statement. I am coming soon. Regardless of your perspective on timeline or eschatology or the end times, what Jesus says here is, I am coming soon. And He said this a long time ago. What does that mean? I think the most academic answer to what that means is that He’s coming soon, that we know He’s returning.

Why would He say that? To the Philadelphian church, He’s saying that as an encouragement to hold on, to not quit. He’s doing it to give them a perspective to live from, which means for us, that statement has to do the same. For Him to say, I’m coming soon, must for us be something that gives us perspective, it gives us encouragement, it gives us a reason to stay the course.

So how do we live in light of this? I think the same way they did. I want to give you a thought: we recognize that wanting to quit and actually quitting are different. I want to encourage you and free you up to learn to go sit with the Lord and say, I want to quit. Why? Because Jesus did.

In the garden, Jesus tells the Father, I want out. I want to quit. I don’t want to do this. This is hard. If it’s possible, take this cup from Me. Don’t you dare try to nobelize that and be like, oh, that was more heavenly. It was not. It was Him saying, what you’ve asked me to do, I don’t want to do. This is awful. I want out. But then He comes back on the other side of it with this incredible statement that should be ours to live in every situation. I don’t care if it’s your marriage, or if it’s your job, or if it’s a friendship, I don’t care what it is. Nevertheless, not My will but Yours. 

The key to this is learning to submit what we want to Him. We don’t have to pretend it’s not there, we just have to submit it. You don’t have to lie when somebody says, “How are you doing?” You don’t have to say, “Oh, praise God brother, it’s been awesome.” Learn to say, “You know what? I’m struggling. I kind of want to quit right now.” How refreshing would that be?

You know, the Sunday morning thing? How are you doing? They say, “Great,” and you know they’re lying. What would it be like if we were honest enough that if someone asks how we’re doing, we say, “Honestly, I’m about ready to walk away from everything.” And then the right answer is: What can I do for you? Confess your faults one to another and be healed.

We’ve got to learn to lean in to the places we want to quit, because if we lean into them, in that leaning we find out the right answer. We say, “Lord, this is where I’m at, this is what I want.” Then it’s going to come out of you whether you like it or not, but the next thing you’re going to say is, “But you know what, Lord? It’s not about what I want. It’s about what You want. So Holy Spirit, would You just give me the strength to stay the course one more day?”

That’s what Jesus is saying to the church of Philadelphia. I would submit to you that there’s an incredible reward for refusing to quit when you want to. The only reason you would do that is because of your faith in Him.

So next time you want to quit fighting forward, take a deep breath and realize what you’ve actually been given is a great opportunity for reward. Learn to see those moments of weakness as a chance to earn reward. It’s okay to not want to keep going, it’s just not okay to not keep going. I think almost all the time the right answer is, Not what I want, but what do you want Lord? That’s exactly what Jesus is telling them.

WRAPPING UP

Okay, we are not done but we’re done for now. It is the gift of coming again next week.

Paul makes the statement: if there’s any encouragement in the Holy Spirit. Now I think we all know there is. I don’t know if you can sense it, but I feel like the encouragement of the Holy Spirit is, don’t quit. Take a deep breath. Shake it off. Do not let the wiles of the enemy and the stupidity of people around you cause you to lose your perspective. 

Your life is His; your life was given to you for reward. So stand your ground, carry His nature, and smile no matter how difficult it is. If you have to, go into the bathroom and look in the mirror fifteen times a day and say, hey, I’m not going to quit. Jesus, I’m not going to quit on You. I’m not a quitter. I want to, I want to kill them all, but I’m not a quitter. 

That’s what was going on in Philadelphia. They wanted to quit, and I love what He says, hey, I’m proud of you. You haven’t quit. Keep going.

Lord, we stand before You today in awe of Your great love for us. Lord, sometimes we get our perspective off of You. We get it on what’s around us. We get it on what’s going on inside of us, and it makes us want to quit. We just lay that down before You right now and say, Lord, we’re not going to quit. We’re going to stay faithful before You for all of our days. We want to be a people that You can say to us what You said to Philadelphia: I’m proud of you. I love where Paul says that when you consider what He’s done for you, is this too much to ask? And our answer is no. You gave Your life, You laid it down. What a privilege and honor to be invited to places of difficulty. So this week, there’s going to be moments we want to quit. There might be several. Would You give us the ability to laugh at that desire? To take a deep breath, strengthen ourselves in You, and keep going? We love You and we honor You. In Jesus’ name, amen.