The Letter to Philadelphia
Reading Rev 1:9-11 & 3:7-13
The city of Philadelphia was founded by King Eumenes about 200 years before the birth of Jesus. It was named after his brother who was called Attalus Philadelphus. The name of the town, which is Greek, means literally the City of brotherly Love.
It was only about 25 miles from Sardis, the last Church we looked at and about 10 miles from the neighbouring towns of Laodicea and Collosae. Most of the wealth of this town seems to have come from agriculture as it was situated on some of the most fertile land in the whole area.
The town was once known as the City of earthquakes. In AD 17 a very severe earthquake completely destroyed the town and the people had to live outside of the city in tents. Philadelphia was rebuilt after the Roman Emperor gave them the money to do so. So the people renamed it Neocaesarea, which means literally The New City of the Emperor. The city was really remarkable for it's huge number of Temples and religious festivals, far more than any other town in the area.
You may remember that the first letter was written to the Church in Ephesus which had many temples to all sorts of Gods. Well Philadelphia had even more.
In later years the Turks and the Muslims flooded the area but Philadelphia remained true to Christ and was in fact the last Christian Church in Asia when it was finally destroyed in AD 1390.
There is still a town on the site of the old city which is now known as Alashehir, which means City of God.
We know there was a Christian Church in the City from a very early date. There had been some recent persecution in the Church but the Christians had managed to stay true to their faith in Jesus.
Philadelphia, along with Smyrna, are the only two Churches in this series of letters which are not told to repent. For all of the others the Lord has said "repent or else! The Philadelphian Church is the one that knows the favour of the Lord, the one which He has chosen to bless.
As in all of the other letters the leaders and the people in the Church are challenged to keep their eyes on Jesus. This letter points out three things about Jesus.
Verse 7 describes Him as "He that is Holy, He that is true" which are divine qualities that define His character.
This is the living Christ we are talking about here, the holy one, and we should respond to Him with respect and awe as John did in chapter 1.
He is also described as "He who holds the key of David". This refers to the prophetic link between Jesus Christ and the Royal house of King David.
Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and has absolute authority over all things. He holds the keys to all of the doors anywhere in the universe What He opens no-one else can shut and what He shuts no-one else can open.
He has opened a door for the Church that no-one else could possibly have opened, the door to the kingdom of God. This could have several meanings but the first is obviously the door of opportunity. Not all Bible Commentators agree with this but we know that Jesus used the analogy of a doorway several times Himself.
During the Sermon on the Mount He says
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14:But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
In that particular scripture Jesus shows us two doors or gates. One is open wide onto a crowded street which slopes gently downhill and leads to hell and damnation.
The other opens into a sparsely populated and rarely used pathway which goes steeply uphill and leads to eternal life. So the door that Jesus has opened is not going to be the one that leads to hell, it will be a door leading to heaven. It's a door of opportunity, an opportunity that is not to be missed, it's the opportunity for salvation.
Another reason for this open door could be that it is an opportunity for Christian Service. All Christians have a deep concern about the spiritual needs of those around us.
After we have passed through the door of salvation we can go straight out through the door of service to tell others of what we have found.
One problem with the Church in Philadelphia was that it was physically weak. Verse 8 says that " I know that you have little strength".
This would have been partly because of the size of the congregation and partly because it seems to have had more than it's share of the lower and working classes. People without any influence in the city. We have seen that many other Churches in the area found favour with the City authorities because some of their members were highly respected civic leaders.
But this was apparently not the case in Philadelphia.
They have also undergone a fair amount of persecution and attack from the religious fringe group we have heard about before, the Judaisers.
This group of people wanted all Christians to be circumcised and follow all of the religious customs and festivals of the Jews. And yet they had not given in, even in their human weakness they were strong spiritually. These Judaisers are the people who Jesus calls a "synagogue of Satan". This is another reason for the door that Jesus had opened.
A door for evangelism, an opportunity to reach out to the synagogue of Satan with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verse 9 tells them that if they are obedient then these Judaisers will come and fall at the feet of the believers and acknowledge that Christianity is the only true way to salvation. That there is no need to follow the laws of the Jews.
There is also a promise to the Church from Jesus in verse 11 & 12.
I am coming soon, hold on to what you have so that no-one will take your crown" 12: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.
The Christians in Philadelphia are being told to stand firm in their faith, to stand firm against the persecutors of the Church, to stand firm against the Judaisers. To stand firm against those who attack and criticise them.
But they are also being told to move forward, to let no man rob them of their reward.
To the one who is able to overcome the temptations, the persecutions, without denying the name of Jesus, the promise is great.
First Christ will make the overcomer "a pillar in the Temple of my God" This is obviously not to be taken literally, I can't imagine for a minute that He will turn them into stone. No, this has links to the problems of the City. You may remember that I mentioned Earthquakes earlier.
Well quite often the only parts of a building left standing after an Earthquake would be the pillars, the huge stone columns that held up the Temples. Christ promises the believers that He will set them in His temple, the future Kingdom, in such a secure fashion that no disturbance can ever force them out.
This is Christ promising that these overcomers will be honoured in heaven. They will be treated as special citizens, as honoured guests in exactly the same way that the leaders of the town would have been in Philadelphia.
This is the most encouraging letter of all of the seven in the book of Revelation. Jesus can find nothing wrong with this Church. It has all of the marks of an effective Church. It's success is not dependant on it's size and it's a Church that is moving forward.
It is a church that is obedient to the Word of God and which stands true to the Name of Jesus Christ. And of course it's a Church that remains faithful to what it has.
God is emphasising here how important it is to keep holding onto the faith that we have. It can sometimes be so easy to let go.
Is this the letter that Jesus would write to us here? Will he really not be able to find anything against any of the Christians here.
Can we stand against persecution? Can we stand up against false teaching? Are we prepared to put ourselves on the front line of the spiritual and moral battles that are raging all around us? If we can do these things then we can expect God's blessings in the same way as the people in the Church at Philadelphia. Jesus will give us an open door, a door for effective work, a door for growth both numerically and spiritually. A door of faith and opportunity for preaching the gospel.
Jesus will give us deliverance from temptation and even deliverance from the time of tribulation that God has promise will come on the Earth immediately before he returns.
And of course He will bless us with rewards in the life that comes after this one. the life that we will spend in eternity with Him. But He will also give us His blessing and reward while we are still on this earth.
The Lord still gives victory to His Church today. Are we an effective Church? Can we possibly stand against the persecution and immorality of the world? If we can then we know that we will be rewarded by God. Our prayers will be answered.
If we are obedient to God, if we keep our lives holy and set apart for God, then we can expect the blessing which will follow.
That's a promise form God to any church that is prepared to give everything for Him.
Those of us who are here, who are called by God to be a part of this fellowship, need God. We can’t do anything on our own. We’ve been obedient to Him, we’ve made a lot of changes. We’ve done just about everything we can so far. We have a tremendous opportunity here to be overcomers. To overcome the temptation to sit back and do nothing. To overcome the temptation to say that it can’t be done, and just give up.
Pray every day for the people in the area, pray that they will be curious and want to know what is happening. Perhaps they will come in to see.
Pray that there will be people living around who don’t know Christ as their Saviour, who will see our efforts, and want to know more.
One thing we must be sure not to do is give in to the temptation to say those great old words
“It will never work” or “We’ve never done it that way before”
Pray that God will strengthen our faith to expect the impossible.
Pray that God will bless us and that His name will be glorified in this church and in this area.
