October 22, 2000

Philadelphia: A Role Model Church

Rev. 3:7-13

Last Sunday we spoke about the church at Sardis, and I have to admit, it was not my favorite church.
They had problems, the Lord had no words of praise or commendation for them at all, they just didn't have anything going for them. They are certainly profitable for us to study, as a good example for what we don't want to be, but aside from that, there was not a whole lot good to pick out from them.
Today is the opposite end of the spectrum, today is the church at Philadelphia, and they are about as close to a role model church as we could find.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Revelation 3, and verse 7: "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
:13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

We mentioned last week that there is a common pattern in all the letters to all the churches: first, the Lord identifies Himself to that church in a way that relates to something about that particular church. Next, He rebukes that church for what it is doing wrong, and then He admonishes the church concerning the areas it needs to improve in. The Lord follows the same pattern this time, except that this church is not doing anything wrong, and it gets no rebuke, just like the church at Smyrna.

We have mentioned before that each one of the names of the different churches means something, and the word Philadelphia means Brotherly Love. These were people that looked after each other, compassionate. If any of us had to be living in southern Turkey 1900 years ago, Philadelphia would have been the place to be. That would have been the church that we would have wanted to belong to. Their Christian testimony lasted for a long time in that city, up until the end of World War 1, when all the Christians that lived there moved to Greece.

Before we can understand why the Lord said what He did to those Christians, we need to know a little bit more about them. Philadelphia was a city at the end of a valley that ran down to the sea. There were some volcanoes nearby, and the soil was very fertile, the people grew a lot of grapes, and life should have been easy, except for the earthquakes. Philadelphia had a lot of earthquakes, and every time the city was destroyed by another earthquake, there was a tax put on the people to rebuild it, and that kept the Christians in the area poor. There was also a colony of Jews in the city, and there was an ongoing problem between the Jews and the Christians, just like at Smyrna, because the Jews thought of them as a blasphemous sect of Judaism. The city was on a major trade route, and it was the entranceway, or the door to the whole upper plateau of the country, and that helps us to understand why Jesus told them some of the things He did.

In verse 7, Jesus refers to Himself as the one that has the key of David, he that opens and no man shuts, he that shuts, and no man opens. That would have meant something to a church that was poor, because Jesus is referring here to a passage found in Isaiah 22 concerning wealth. During the days of king Hezekiah, there was a treasurer over the wealth of Israel named Shebna, he was a corrupt man, and God promised to overthrow him. God put in his place a man named Eliakim, and God made him this promise: "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open." He is talking about the key to the national treasury, and figuratively, the control of the government, because the one that controls the economy controls the government. That would have been encouraging to a church that was poverty stricken, and it also has a prophetic meaning, we'll get to that in a minute.

Jesus tells them that He knows their works, and He has set before them an open door that no one can shut. Where Philadelphia sat at the door to the whole upper plateau of that area, people and goods went out from there to all the surrounding area, so it was a good base for missionary operations, and in a minute we'll also relate that to our modern day church. Just like the church at Smyrna, the church at Philadelphia was troubled by the Jews that lived in the city. In verse 9, Jesus says; "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold I will make them to come and worship at thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." These people say they are Jews, Jesus says they're not. How can that be? If a person is a descendant of Abraham, how can he not be a Jew? Paul tells us in Romans 9:6; "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called."

Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, right? Only one of them was the child of the promise, Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau, right? Only one of them was the child of the promise, Jacob.
Just because a person is a child of Abraham doesn't mean that the person is going to inherit all the promises of God if that person lives in rebellion and unbelief. It makes no difference if a person has Abraham as their heritage, if they are in rebellion against God, if they are rejecting Christ, they are just like Jesus told the Pharisees: "You are of your father the devil." That same spirit that hated Jesus during His earthly ministry among the Jews was present in Smyrna, and also at Philadelphia.

In verse 10, Jesus promises to keep the church there from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon all the earth. The church at Philadelphia seems to have escaped the persecutions that affected most of the churches back then, but it also has a deeper prophetic meaning, and we'll get to that in a minute also. In verse 11, Jesus encourages them to maintain their testimony, and then in verse 12, the part about the pillar is kind of neat, because when there were earthquakes, a lot of the time the temples would be destroyed, and the only thing left would be the pillars still standing.
Also, when the city would be destroyed because of the earthquakes, it would be virtually uninhabitable until rebuilt, the people would have to go and live in the country to have food and avoid disease.

It seems that Jesus is contrasting the city and the situation that He will give them with the situation in the city that they were used to, but once again, this verse also has a prophetic meaning that applies to us as well, and we'll get to that in a minute. Bottom line, this church of Turkish Christians is doing pretty good, and Jesus gives them words of encouragement, with no reproach.

Now let's fast forward to the modern counterpart of that historic church, and that would be the next phase of the church age after the Protestant Reformation, it is the church in revival, starting about 1735, the beginning of what has come to be known as The Great Awakening. Beginning in the 1730's, along the east coast of the United States, a great revival broke out, people began to get saved by the thousands. A lot of those people were already church members, but had never been born again. It was during this time that the church also began to get back to a real grasp of taking the Bible seriously, letting it mean what it said, taking it at face value, people that we refer to today as fundamentalists. Today, liberals use the word fundamentalist as kind of a slur, the implication is that if you are a fundamentalist then you are not too bright, but it was during this period of great revival that our present understanding of all the great Bible doctrines including prophecy, the second coming of Christ, and God's future plans for Israel were recovered and understood.

During this time, the Methodist Church came into existence, the Baptist church made great gains, and many Bible colleges got their beginnings. The revival also spread into England and Scotland. Another great revival occurred beginning in 1790, and lasted until 1820, and during this time, the church began to have a great emphasis on missionaries, Christians going out all over the world taking the Gospel to places that had never heard it. A third revival took place starting around 1890, probably all of us have heard of D.L. Moody, and Moody Bible College, that revival lasted until around 1910. In the past 30 years there have been great revivals in South Korea, in Cambodia, in China, in Africa, and in South America, but because of the way the news media views things lately, we don't hear about "revivals" very often.

In our overview of church history, the church at Philadelphia is the church of recent history when it is in revival, that is the qualifier, and we can see it by comparing history with these verses. In verse 7, we read; "These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." Before the Great Awakening, churches put a lot of emphasis on proper decorum in church, having a good liturgy, and living a respectable life. There was no emphasis on believers studying the Bible for themselves and learning what was true or not, and there was no emphasis on personal holiness in the individual life. All that changed. The early Methodists started Bible societies and stressed personal sanctification, holy living. People began studying the Bible, and going over to the middle east and digging up the past to learn what had really happened. Archaeology began to verify that what the Bible had said for years was really true. Holiness and truth. The church began to put an emphasis on Bible truth and holy living.

At the same time, Christians began to pray and call on God to change things in society, slavery, child labor, abusive conditions of women, and even though politicians mocked them, called them "Bible thumpers," things began to change. These Christians that had no money, no place in high society, no political power, began to change the world. The Salvation Army came into existence in 1865, and the secular world made fun of them because they all dressed in military looking uniforms, they would go around to the poor parts of town with a little band, play music and preach. But they got a lot of people saved, and they did a lot of good. Jesus gave the church a love for truth and holiness, He had the keys to the wealth and power of the worlds kingdoms and nations, and he opened whatever doors He wanted, and He closed other doors as He pleased.

In verse 8 He says; "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name."
This was the time that many of the world's great missionary efforts and societies got started, the Lord opened them a door to go all over the world, and they went out, there was resistance, but nothing could stop them. A lot of those missionaries didn't make it. A lot of them would go overseas for a few years and die of diseases that they had no resistance to, or be put to death by tribal people that didn't appreciate their efforts, but the Gospel seeds got planted, and Christianity spread.

Jesus says; "You have a little strength", don't misunderstand what that means, He is not bragging on them because they have some, He is reminding them that they have almost none. The letter "a," a little strength, is not there in the Greek, He is telling them; "You have little strength, you don't have very much, you are weak," and that changes the whole flavor of that verse. Forgive me if I redo this verse into a Blountville paraphrase, but Jesus is telling them; "I know your works: look! I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it, because I know you don't have much strength, but you kept my word, and you haven't denied my name." If we keep His word, and proclaim His name, then we don't need much strength either, because those are all the requirements we need for having Him open us up a door too. Not because we have any strength, but because we keep His word, and proclaim His name, that's what it takes to have Jesus open us up a door.

What about verse 9? How does it fit into modern history? "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." Let me run an idea past you here on salvation. In John's Gospel, when Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, one of the things He tells her is: "we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews." God is a covenant making God, He makes covenants with men, He made covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and David, and those covenants all focused on the Jewish people, through whom Messiah would come. Under that covenant, salvation was narrow in it's focus. God also saved people from other races and cultures back then, but essentially, God's focus of salvation was with Israel during that dispensation or time period. The Jews back then, even the unbelievers, relied and depended on their covenant with God, we see that happening here as the unbelieving Jews hassled the church at Philadelphia.

We have already mentioned the last two weeks that there has been great confusion over the last 1900 years about who is really Israel and who isn't, is the church the same as Israel or not, I'll review that again next week. But because of that confusion, there have been various groups that have claimed that they had taken Israel's place in God's plans, they passed themselves off as God's new Israel, the inheritors of the promise and the covenant, when in reality, they were simply spiritual counterfeits. Let's put some names on the counterfeits.

In 1820 a man named Joseph Smith claimed that he had a vision in which God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that Christianity was completely apostate and that he was the one to reestablish the true Christian faith. These became known as Mormons. Among other things, the Mormons believe that there was a tribe of Jews not mentioned in the Bible who were called Nephites, and that they immigrated to the new world around 600 B.C., that Jesus Christ appeared to them, and that they are the true church, of which Mormonism is a part. Mormons deny the deity of Jesus Christ, or at least in the way the rest of Christianity understands deity, they refer to non-Mormons as Gentiles, they are ruled by a council of twelve apostles, and they believe that God desires for them to build Him a temple in Independence, Missouri. Notice any correlation between them and unbelieving Israel? Denying the deity of Jesus, need to build a temple, and all non Mormons are gentiles? Mormons in effect believe that their church has become the inheritors of the covenant of God with the Jews.

How about Jehovah's Witnesses? Once again a similar situation, a group that was started in 1870-same time frame- by a man named Charles Russell, a group that denies the Christian Church as apostate, denies the deity of Christ, teaches that being born again only applies to the 144,000 in Revelation that distinctly specifies the twelve tribes of Israel, and sees only itself as meeting the requirements for having a covenant relationship with Jehovah God. In modern history, the church of Philadelphia fits into the time frame of the last 300 years, you have this segment of the church fulfilling what Jesus said would happen with them, and simultaneously you have the appearance of cults that would think to take the place of Israel in God's plans and purposes. During this same time frame, the real Jews, Israelis, have not troubled the Christian church as a whole, but over the last 40 years there has been a great increase in Messianic Jews, Jews that confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah of Israel, and the rest of the Jews and the nation of Israel have given them a bad time, so they would fit into this picture as well. Jesus says that the time will come that He will cause all of them to come and bow and worship Him, and do it in our presence, before the feet of His church, and they will know that Jesus really does love us, His church, in spite of what they might say.

Verse 10 starts us off in a different direction, and this part is extra special, a real pleasure to look into, because this is current events, it could happen at any moment. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."

During the time of the apostles, it was no secret that some day Jesus was going to come back and take the church up to be with Himself, the event that we refer to today as the Rapture. But because of the misinterpretations and misunderstandings that the church got itself into during the Dark Ages, that concept was lost, buried under a bunch of mysticism, and the church came to believe that if Jesus ever came back at all, it would only be at the Last Judgement. Starting in the 1800's, the scholars and Bible students began to take a fresh look at what the Bible really had to say for itself, and also to start taking a fresh look at what some of the first century saints believed, and said and taught about the Second Coming of the Lord.
They began to realize that the tribulation didn't happen in 70 A.D., the book of Revelation didn't have anything to do with the Roman general Titus destroying Jerusalem back then, it was all still future, and Jesus had promised to come and take His Bride out of the picture before those future events in Revelation got started. They began to realize that when the Bible says Israel it means Israel, and when it says church it means church, and when they overlap once in a while, you can tell, it's not that difficult to understand.

With that in mind, it's not too hard to figure out what Jesus is saying in verse 10, He will keep us "from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them which dwell upon the earth."
When we get to chapter 7 of the book of Revelation, we will discover that the Lord promises to seal 144,000 of the true nation of Israel through the time of tribulation, but here he promises to keep His church from the time of tribulation, which shall come upon all the earth. During the tribulation period, many will come out of tribulation, but here the Lord promises to keep His church from tribulation, and there is a world of difference, especially if you happen to be in the generation that's around when it all starts to come down. Think about it: would you rather be saved from tribulation, or out of tribulation? A couple weeks ago there was a story on the news about an old man who had an outdoor privy, an outhouse, and the floor gave way underneath him. Would you rather be saved from, or out of? Big difference.

There is something else in this verse that is absolutely incredible, and that is the little phrase: "them that dwell on the earth." That phrase is repeated ten times in the book of Revelation, and each time, it has reference to those that are unsaved, those that are deceived by the Antichrist, those that need to hear the gospel and repent. Those that by definition, are not part of the church, the Bible calls them earth dwellers. Verse 10 says: "I will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Could we paraphrase that verse to say: "I will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that are not part of the church, to try or test the unsaved"? Is that what it's saying? Sure. So then if the test is coming upon all the world to test those that are not part of the church, is it reasonable to suppose that the Lord would exclude the church from the test? I think it is, and I believe that is exactly what the verse is saying. Before the test starts, we'll be gone.

In verse 11 the Lord tells us; "Behold I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown," lets talk about the part where He says: "I come quickly." It's coming up on 2,000 years, what does He mean by quickly? It has nothing to do with right away, or soon. What it means is that when things do start to happen, they will happen quickly. I think of a chameleon moving down a branch to catch a bug, it takes the chameleon five minutes to go six inches, but once he finally gets in place, that tongue goes out and back so quick you can't even see it. We will have no idea of the Lord's time frame for when He will come for His church and kick off the last days events, but once He decides it's time, the church will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Verse 12, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name," what does that mean? 1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." This is for those that have gone out and been faithful, those that loved the Lord, those that honored and proclaimed the name of Jesus everywhere they went, it will be a time of close intimacy and fellowship with Jesus, and they won't have to go and work any more, they can stay in the Father's house and kick back, and just enjoy being with God. I was counting up recently, Barbara and I know ten different families that have been missionaries, and some of the things they have had to go through and put up with were incredible, problems that we can't even imagine. Jesus says that those days are over, stay home, you went out for me, now stay here and fellowship with me. A special blessing.

Now we need to change gears, we have spoken over the last couple weeks about how the seven churches in Revelation relate to the parables that Jesus told in Matthew 13, which He described to the disciples as the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. The first four parables were four new things, and the last three parables were three old things. The sixth one in the series that Jesus told was the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, Matthew 13:45: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
:46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."

It was never any secret that God intended to call a people to Himself from all the gentile nations of the world, and that He would use His Messiah to do it, Isaiah 49:6 speaks of this when God says: "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth," the prophecy was old, the intention was known, but the method was hidden. It was a mystery of the kingdom of Heaven. Jesus likens it to a pearl. What causes a pearl? Why do some oysters have a pearl, and others don't? A pearl is the result of an injury. If a bit of sand or grit or something gets into the oyster shell, and gets trapped between different layers of the oyster's muscle to where the oyster can't get rid of it, it begins to build a layer of pearl around whatever is hurting it, layer by layer, slowly and constantly.
Jesus acquired His church just like the oyster acquires it's pearl, because of an injury.

Last week we said that the merchantman acquired his hidden treasure, which we said was Israel, by a purchase, and in this parable, once again it is a merchantman who acquires something by purchase, Jesus purchased every saved person on the cross at Calvary. The church is formed just like a pearl is formed, very slowly, a little at a time, one generation after another, like having one layer of pearl upon another.
And finally, the church is like a pearl in that it is only appreciated if you take it out of the place where it is formed, and put it somewhere else. If I got Barbara the prettiest pearl in the country, it wouldn't look very nice if I had to hang the oyster around her neck, and she would probably not really appreciate it.
What do I have to do to make it look the way it should? I would have to take it out of the place where it was formed in order to really appreciate it, and the same is true with the church. The church is not always in a pretty place down on this earth, sometimes it is in old buildings that look about as fancy as oyster shells, but it won't always be that way. The church itself is not always as pretty as it might be, sometimes we act kind of nasty and yuckky, like we are still belong in the middle of some bottom feeding crustacean.
Jesus will take us, His church, out of our earthly situation and put us with Himself, and we will be appreciated then, things will be wonderfully different, we'll probably even look a lot better, who knows?

So during this present age, Jesus is obtaining for Himself, purchasing two treasures, the nation of Israel hidden in the field of the world, and the church, a pearl of great price, brought into existence through His own wounding, and both treasures purchased on the cross of Calvary.

It is wonderful that in this letter to the church of Philadelphia, the church of Brotherly Love, the Lord has no word of rebuke, nothing to scold them about. This is the church that He approves of. So I think that it is real important for us to review just what it was that this church was doing right.
Verse 7: holy, and true. We can believe that the Bible is true, but if there is not personal holiness in our lives, we will come up short.
Verse 8: an open door. God has opened us a door that we can go and tell others the Gospel, to share with our families and friends, co workers, whoever, the Good News that Jesus has died and taken away their sins, but what will we do about it? Try and get them to come to church so that the preacher can tell them? What's wrong with your tongue? It works real well talking about anything else, why does it quit working when you need to be talking about Jesus, and what He did for you?
Verse 8: little strength. Do you think you will live the Christian life in your own strength? Tell others about Jesus in your own strength? Avoid temptations in your own strength? In 2 Corinthians 12:9 the Lord says: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Paul says: "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
And if that was the way that Paul obtained the power of Christ, why would you or I try and do it any different? We have little strength, let God perfect His power in our weakness.
Verse 8: they kept His Word. It doesn't say that they believed His Word, it says they kept it, there is a big difference. The devils in hell believe God's Word, but they don't keep it. If I stand up here and tell you things out of the Word of God and you sit there and nod and say; "That's right", and then go out and nothing changes, the Word of God has no effect on you, then you are not keeping God's Word. And if I do the same thing, then neither am I. The church at Philadelphia kept His Word.
Verse 8: they did not deny His name. What is the name of Jesus Christ to us? To a Hell's Angel, it is just another swear word. What do you think of when you think of the name of Jesus Christ? What is His name to you? What do you make of His name to other people? When other people are around you, what do they learn about His name because of you?

Church growth experts tell us that churches that have a vibrant testimony for Jesus Christ have four characteristics in common: They have a door of opportunity opened by God, a sense of their own powerlessness apart from God, a commitment to the word of God, and absolute doctrinal integrity, they say what they mean, they mean what they say, and they live up to it, they live holy lives. Those characteristics were all present at the church at Philadelphia, and they will be present in any church that God is using. We need to make real sure, individually and corporately, that they are present here. Is there something that needs to be different in your life to bring you into that place where God can use you more effectively? Is there something that God has spoken to you about that you need to give over to Him, so that He can use you where He wants you? Is there something that God wants you to do or be, and you are dragging your feet, and making excuses?

The church at Philadelphia was a church in revival, and that made all the difference in the world. That was what made it different from the other churches. What do we have going for us here that can make us different from other churches in the area? A green building? Folding chairs? What about a revival? I don't know about you, but I think a revival would be the best thing that could happen to our assembly here, and I don't mean something where we put out a sign, and invite a visiting speaker, but a work of God that starts inside, and works it's way out. And one of the best ways that can happen to a church is when everybody in it starts to pray; "Lord, send a revival, and let it start with me." Who will pray that prayer with me today? Then let's pray.