REVEALING REVELATIONS -2
“Philadelphia”
October 4, 2009
"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelation 3:7-13
This letter was written by Christ to the Christians in the city of Philadelphia. It was the sixth of seven letters written to the churches in the area known then as the Province of Asia. Philadelphia is unique for a couple of reasons; first, they were the youngest of the seven cities. They were settled only 150 years before the birth of Christ. Secondly, the city was founded by Attalus the 2nd who the ruler of the city of Pergamum between 159 -138 BC. We are told that Attalus cared so much for his brother Eumenes that he was known as Philadelphos - which literally means “One who loves his brother.” And so the city was named Philadelphia, which means city of brotherly love. The Philadelphia in the US was named after this city, probably in hopes of it being a loving, kind, gentle city.
If we pull up a map - we discover that Philadelphia was located in what is now Modern Turkey about 50 miles Southeast of Sardis. It was actually established to be a centre for Greek culture for the area. The earthquake that destroyed Smyrna in 17 a.d. also did a lot of damage to Philadelphia.
Out of all the cities, it is Philadelphia that received the greatest praise from Jesus. There was no condemnation at all from the risen Christ. The church had such an impact in Philadelphia that long after the rest of Asia had fallen to the Muslims, Philadelphia remained a Free Christian City amidst a sea of pagan people. Philadelphia was the last bastion of Asian Christianity. It is one of only two cities that still remains today.
Christ begins by telling the church, “I know all the things you do”. Again we are reminded that Christians will be judged, not only on their individual salvation, which is based on God’s grace and our faith, but also on it’s works. The things it did and the things it didn’t do.
We need to remember that the church is not a comfort club for the Saints. We are not just here to provide a refuge from a hostile world. The church has a mission. 1) The Mission of the Church is to Change the World. And that happens when we stand up and say “This is the truth” and then demonstrate that truth by walking in it. And that not only involves what happens inside the walls of the church but also what happens outside the walls of the church. We need to speak out against social injustice. That may mean taking a public stand against pornography or against abortion or drunk driving. There will always be issues in this world that are diametrically opposed to the word of God. Whether it is the child labor that John Wesley preached against, or the slavery that Scott preached against, or the death of tens of thousand of innocent children through abortion today, or same sex-marriage and homosexuality. The church has to take a stand. We need to speak out against immorality. We need to say this is right and this is wrong. And those judgments are not to be based on what the world says is right or wrong, or what everyone is doing. They are to be based on the Word of God which is timeless and unchanging. The Word of God provided the moral compass that the Philadelphia church used to guide their actions- and it needs to be ours as well. The Bible is our foundation. The Bible is truth. Everything must be viewed through the truth of it’s pages.
Christ then goes on to say in Revelation 3:8 “ . . .and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut.” What door was it that was opened to church in Philadelphia? That question has been asked for 2000 years and there have been all kinds of answers suggested. One of the most logical answers would be that this represents the open door of evangelism. If that is the case, then secondly 2) The Mission of the Church is to Change People.
1 Corinthians 16:9 “for there is a wide-open door for a great work here, and many people are responding.”
In Colossians 4:3 Paul urges believers to pray for him that “God would open a door for our message.”
Because of the Philadelphia’s location on the road of the imperial postal service a great deal of traffic flowed through this city. It was to these people that the Philadelphian believers ministered. And by touching travelers from distant places they sent the gospel far and wide, while they remained at home. That’s kind of like us. We can touch people all over the world through our Alabaster Offerings and through giving to missions. The Church of the Nazarene has the best missionary program in the world. When you give to missions, on the two offerings we take on Thanksgiving and Easter, you are supporting mission work all around the world. And you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home.
In relating the Philadelphian letter to where we live, we have to notice the fact that if the door was the open door of evangelism, 3) it did not open accidentally or by itself. Jesus continues to say in Revelation 3:8 “ . . .You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.” The door of evangelism may have been opened by what the believers in the church said - but it was propped open by the way they lived. Oliver Goldsmith stated “You can preach a better sermon with your life then with your lips.” Although the Gospel has tremendous power - that power is unleashed primarily through the illustration of your life.
Francis Bacon said it best “He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.”
He that shares the gospel , builds with one hand; he that shares the gospel and lives the gospel, builds with both; but he that shares the gospel but doesn’t live the gospel, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other. Could it be that we build up the gospel with our lips and tear it down with our lives.
I have become convinced that the most effective form of evangelism is not that which is perpetrated on unknowing or unwitting strangers where we rattle off the four spiritual laws, then demand a spiritual response to the proposition we’ve made. If a response is given - too often it is in an attempt to ease the pressure which we’ve put our prospect under. I wonder if we are sincerely concerned with the person’s salvation or if we are just concerned about collecting spiritual scalps?
If we are going to see people effectively won to Jesus we are going to have to win our friends - and they will not be won by words alone. When your friends and family see the power of Jesus Christ exhibited in your life and hear the gospel that you share with them, out of love for them and concern for their souls, then we will see people come to the Lord.
When the Apostle Andrew first met Jesus -the first person he went to was his brother, not a stranger. And yet it seems that with the ones we claim to love the most, we are so afraid that we might offend them if we talk to them about Christianity, that we quietly watch them go to hell. When William Booth signed the guest book for King Edward the 7th he summed up his life’s work. “Your Majesty” he wrote “Some men’s ambition is art. Some men’s ambition is fame. Some men’s ambition is gold. My ambition is the souls of men.”
Is your ambition the souls of men, do you weep at the thought of your friends and family being lost for an eternity in a godless hell? Do you pray daily for them? Do you tenderly share your concern for their spiritual well-being?
In 1912, 39 year old Rev. John Harper, a Scottish preacher, was making a transatlantic trip to preach at Moody Church in Chicago. As fate would have it - the vessel he choice was the Titanic. We all know the story about the disaster but do you know the story of John Harper? Harper like many others ended up in the water, and as people desperately tried to survive in the icy waters, Harper swam to them.
The minister asked people in the water if they knew Jesus. Eventually, Harper approached a passenger clinging to a jagged piece of wood and he pleaded for the man to trust Christ. The minister was completely exhausted at this point. As he succumbed to the conditions and went under the water to his death, Harper said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."
A few years later at a meeting of survivors of the Titanic, the final man who encountered John Harper told the group that he had been saved twice that night. First, he had accepted Christ as his personal Savior because of Harper’s efforts. And, of course, he had been rescued from the deep Atlantic seas. He said “Alone in the night with two miles of water under me- I believed. I am John Harpers’ last convert.”
We need more John Harpers, more men and women who put the salvation of others ahead of everything else in their lives - including life itself. And yet if we are going to have that door of evangelism open to us then we need to live a life in which people see Christ.
I love the story of the pious old church member who asked the children in the junior Sunday School class “Why do you think people call me a Christian?” There was an embarrassing silence and then a small voice in the back piped up and said “Because they don’t know you.”
People may doubt what you say - but they will always believe what you do. If you claim to be a new creation, people won’t believe you until they see that you are a new creation. But there is more then simply living the life. There also has to be an invitation to experience what you have experienced. Although the value of a good example can never, never, never be over emphasized - people need to know ‘why’ and ‘how’ you live like that. In verse 9, the power of their influence is shown. Listen to the words of Jesus:
Revelation 3:9: “Look! I will force those who belong to Satan—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 the men and women of the Philadelphia church, not only preached their faith, but lived it as well, the nominal Jews in the community came to know Christ. When the example of your faith shines throughout our communities we shall see the nominal Christians in our community, those who say they are Christians but are not, we will see those men and women come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. How? By the sermons that Pastor Andy preaches? No. Most of those people will never hear me preach. They will come to know the living Christ through the sermons preached by your life.
Because when your life becomes an example to them of what a Christian ought to be - and that isn’t what they are - they will seek the truth. And that open door will be open to all in the community. People will only believe what Christ can do in your life when they can actually see what Christ has done in your life.
If you claim that Jesus gives you power in your life- but you remain powerless - what are people going to believe, your words or your life? If you talk about the joy that Christ gives you -but you walk around looking like your puppy just died, what are people going to believe, your words or your life?
It is no accident that the church which Christ praises the most had the greatest concern for reaching people with the good news. Throughout the New Testament Jesus spoke with praise of those things which were productive and with scorn of those things which were unproductive. Listen to his words in John 15:1-2
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.”
I heard someone say once that evangelism was like the weather. Everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. But we have to. Someone said that the church is only one generation from extinction. If we do not reproduce new Christians – we will die. Pretty sobering thought isn’t it? And Jesus has entrusted us with the future of the church in Mount Shasta. That future will only happen as we pass it on.
Many of us here believe our Church is here for some great spiritual purpose. Could it be that if we are in the end times as many believe, that God could use our church to minister to hurting and hungry people in a way the churches in the cities couldn’t? Could that be why God has kept us hanging on when we have struggled for so many years? I don’t know. But I know this. God has a purpose; God has a mission for this Church. It is to bring “Christ to the Community”. It is to lift up Jesus. It is to spread the holiness message. And we are going to do it!
This church in Philadelphia was known for love. It was the city of ‘brotherly love”. It was the church that loved, not only one another – but the lost, as well. Our challenge, above all, is to love. We are to love God with all our hearts, soul, minds and strength. We are to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves – and that’s a lot! We are to love one another. Jesus said,
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
John 13:35
The devil is in division. Death is in division. Death of a marriage; death of a friendship; death of a job; and death of a church. This church lived because they loved. There is power in unity. What was said about the New Testament Church was “They were all in one accord.” That’s our challenge. In spite of our differences – we must be in one accord on the important things – and agree to disagree on the minor things. The Power is in unity. The Power is in love.
The closing remarks to the Christians in Philadelphia echo the other six letters. They are told to hold fast, to persevere, and to overcome. Because it’s not just how your start the race that counts but also how you finish the race.
Where are you? Are you holding fast? Are you enduring? Are you overcoming – or are you overcome by sin and temptation. The Good News is that Jesus loves you and offers you a new beginning. 7 times 70. If you have drifted away, or if you have never accepted Christ as you Lord, or something has pushed the love out of your heart -Come to Him as we sing.
“They will know we are Christians by our love”
Dear Jesus,
Please forgive me for being unloving towards you and towards others. I have refused to follow you and have gone my own way. Please forgive me. From this point on, with your help, I am going to live for You. Restore the joy of salvation to me. Restore the relationships I have destroyed. Fill me with your love.
In Jesus’ Name,
