The letter to the Church in Philadelphia
(Revelation 3:7-13)
This is the sixth letter to the seven churches in Asia that we find in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3.
It is written to the Church at Philadelphia.
It is one of the two Churches (the other being the letter to the Church in Smyrna) for which Jesus has no rebuke. So today I intend to focus on its positive aspects.
1. Introduction
We have been looking at the Churches of the Apocalypse during lockdown
This week we are looking at the sixth Church of the Apocalypse - the church of Philadelphia
And the catchword here is
“Endurance in Adversity”
The seven churches of Revelation are
1.) Ephesus Rev 2:1-7
2.) Smyrna Rev. 2:8-11
3.) Pergamum Rev. 2:12-17
4.) Thyatira Rev. 2:18-29
5.) Sardis Rev. 3:1-6
6.) Philadelphia Rev.3:7-13
7.) Laodicea Rev. 3:14-22
I believe that The Angel of the Church is the Bishop or the leader of the Church in the particular place.
Ephesus
Six weeks ago, we looked at the first Church of the Apocalypse - The Church of Ephesus and drew the lesson that we must come back to our first love.
It is good to have a Christian orthodoxy but in the end it the love of Christ that counts.
Ephesus was the church called back to its first love of Christ that it had lost
Smyrna
Five weeks ago, we looked at the Church of Smyrna and drew the lesson that loyalty to Christ is important - even if it means we die.
Pergamum
Four weeks ago, we looked at the third church of the Apocalypse, the Church at Pergamum
And the catchword there was
“Caesar or Christ
There is no compromise”
Thyatira
Two weeks ago, we looked at the Church of Thyatira
And the catchword for Thyatira was there can be
no compromise with false teaching
within the church
Sardis
Last week we looked at the Church of Sardis and the catchword for the Church at Sardis is
“Be alert and on your guard”
Philadelphia
This week we are looking at the sixth Church of the Apocalypse the Church of Philadelphia
It was a weak but loyal church and was commended for its witness and faithfulness to God’s Word.
It received no reproof.
The catchword for the Church in Philadelphia is "Endurance in Adversity"
1. Historical background
Philadelphia was a small town in the Roman province of Asia, a city plant you might say from Pergamum.
Its name meant “brotherly love” and it was grounded in the second century BC.
It was named after Attalus II, the brother of Eumenes, King of Pergamum.
Attalus was called “Philadelphus” because he showed so much brotherly love to Eumenes.
Philadelphia lies on the edge of a great plain called Kata kek aumene, which means Burnt land.
William Barclay describes it like this
“The Kata-kek-aumene was a great volcanic plain bearing the marks of lava and the ashes of volcanos then extinct.
Such land is fertile and Philadelphia was the centre of a great grape growing area and a famous producer of wines.” (William Barclay The Daily Study Bible Revised Edition Vol 1 page 125)
One of the great disadvantages of the city was that it was prone to
1.1. Earthquakes
The City was often rocked by earthquakes and in AD 17 Philadelphia was completely destroyed by an earthquake.
Strabo describes the scene in AD 17:
“Shocks were an everyday occurrence.
Gaping cracks appeared in the walls of the houses.
Now one part of the city was in ruins, now another.
Most of the population lived outside the city in huts and feared even to go on the city streets for fear of falling masonry.
And those who dared live in the city were considered mad; they spent their time shoring up the shaking buildings and every now and then fleeing to open spaces” (ibid p.126)
And even after the great earthquake - minor eruptions that were still going on.
The great earthquake had so got into the psyche of the Philadelphians that it was still thought about in in AD 95.
But we see a contrast between the City and the Church.
Following the earthquake of AD 17, the city was still unsafe due to follow up quakes.
And the citizens lived outside the City in tents.
In contrast Jesus promises that the members of the church will be kept safe by the Lord because of their faithfulness.
We read in Rev 3.v.11 & 12
To him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it.”
And a pillar in the Temple of my God would find resonance with the Philadelphians because in the culture around them, if a man led an extraordinary good life his friends would raise a pillar to him in the local pagan temple.
It is a bit like putting up a plaque in an Anglican Church for someone who has served the church well.
1.2. A New Name
The city was rebuilt with the help of the Roman emperor Tiberias and shortly after, as a mark of respect to Tiberias, it was renamed Neocaesarea.
And in fact, it was named again after the Emperor Vespasian and called Flavia after the emperor’s family name
But as Barclay tells us neither name survived and the city went back to being called Philadelphia
The people of Philadelphia knew what a new name signified
When Jesus said
I will write on them 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 them my new name. (Rev 3:12)
That would find resonance with the members of the Church
1.3. An open Door
Philadelphia had been built as a city on the edge of Lydia and Phrygia in order to spread the message of the Greek language and culture.
It had been so successful that by AD 19 the Lydians all but forgotten their original language
The city was an open door for promoting the Greek language and culture and now it was being commended as having a door that was open for missionary work - to proclaim to Christ to all passing through
Jesus said these words to them
See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. (Rev 3.8;)
Commentators have suggested that this could mean one of two things or indeed both
i) One meaning of a Door no one can shut is The Door of Evangelism
That the door for mission would be open to them and indeed the later history of Philadelphia supports that.
This is what Barclay records:
“When the Turks and Mohammedanism flooded across Asia Minor, and every other City had fallen Philadelphia stood erect.
For centuries it was a free Christian city among a pagan people.
It was the last bastion of Asian Christianity and it was not until midway in the 14th Century that it fell. (ibid 126-7) .
Today Philadelphia has a Christian bishop and a thousand Christians in it.
Of all the Churches of the Apocalypse, only the Cities of Smyra and Philadelphia survive
ii) The other meaning of the Door that no one can shut is That of Jesus is himself the Door
Jesus himself says
“I am the Door” (John 10:7, 9)
and that the door Jesus is promising the Philedelphians is Himself
2 The Author of the letter
As we have noticed in the other letters, the way Jesus introduces himself as the author of the letter tells us something about what is going on in the church
This is what Jesus says
7 “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. (Rev 3:7)
It has been suggested that The Key of David is a symbol of authority.
It may be that many of the converts came from Judaism in Philadelphia – hence the Jewish hatred of the church.
If I am right then many of the Philadelphian church would have been steeped in the Old Testament
And Jesus’ words would have conjured up the authority of Elaikim, Hezekiah’s steward, a man who was in charge of the King’s house and who alone have the privilege of granting people access into the King’s presence.
You could say Eliakim was a prefiguring in the Old Testament of Christ in the New Testament
Barclay puts it well when he says
“Isaiah heard God say of this this faithful Elaikim:
“and I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he will open and none shall shut and he will shut and none shall open (Is 22:22).
It is this picture the John probably had in mind.
Jesus alone has the authority to admit people to the new Jerusalem (ibid p. 128)”
3. The content of the Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
The Lord has a lot of positive things to say about the church
3.1 Their trust in God v.7
3.2 Their witness v.8
3.3 Their love and endurance v.9
I think that we, as a Church, can learn a lot from them.
3.1. Their reliance in God (v.7)
The Church had very clearly built its reliance on God
And we too have the same God - A POWERFUL God, who opens the “ door that no one can shut” (Rev 3..8).
And God is still presenting his Church with open doors for mission
We see a similar commitment to Christ of the apostles in John 6:60-68
Here the apostles stayed with Jesus when other fell away and found his words too hard.
And when Jesus said to them:
“Don’t you want to leave me as well”
Simon Peter answered.
“Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
The Church in Philadelphia knew that it had little power (v.8) but they trusted and loved God.
And they loved Jesus. How do I know that? Well Rev. 3:8 tells us that they kept God’s word.
In John’s Gospel we read of Jesus saying:
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:21
They showed they loved Jesus because they remained faithful to Jesus despite afflications.
It wasn’t easy.
And we read how it was the Jews in the Synagogue who led the persecution but the Church remained true.
3.2. Their witness (v.8)
It might seem easy to follow Jesus, but take my word for it – it isn’t easy.
The deeper I go into God’s word, the more I realise that it is hard to be separate from the world
Jesus praises them for two things:
1. That they have kept his word and
2. That they had not denied Him.
It is very easy to praise God in Church, with other Christians around you.
It is much more difficult in a hostile environment
I am sure the Church spent a lot of time in prayer, because when you love Jesus you will automatically want to spend time with Him.
Look at the example of Jesus.
He loved his Father and we see in Luke 6:12:
“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. “
This shows me of the great love of God that Jesus had.
If you are in love with someone, you want to spend time around him or her.
So, if we say, we love God – how come we don’t spend more time in prayer.
Perhaps it is because we haven’t learnt to endure yet. Or is our love for Him not deep enough yet?
God wants us to spend time with Him.
It is when we realise just how little power, we do have that we are forced to turn to him
3. 3. Their Love and endurance v.9
Jesus said this of the Philadelphian Church
10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
The Church’s endurance has impressed me a lot.
Nowadays we live in an “instant” society.
Everything has to be “fast” except perhaps when it comes to “fasting” !
We are called to work on our faith
Paul put it like this when he said in Philippians 2:12
“So then my beloved, just as you always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
Working out our salvation with fear and trembling means that we must learn to endure.
There will be times when we want to give up.
It is only then that we find that we can endure in HIS strength alone.
The Church in Philadelphia understood this dependence on their Lord, because of their “little power” (v.8)
And I see a lot of this endurance in those who come to our churches today
Abraham Lincoln was probably the greatest US President ever, yet his list of failures is embarrassing:
YEAR FAILURES or SETBACKS
1832 Lost job and was defeated for state
legislature
1833 Failed in business
1835 His Sweetheart died
1836 Had nervous breakdown
1838 Defeated for Illinois House Speaker
1843 Defeated for nomination for Congress
1846 Elected to Congress but lost renomination in
1848
1849 Rejected for land officer for Illinois
1854 Defeated for U.S. Senate
1856 Defeated for nomination for Vice President
1858 Again defeated for U.S. Senate
But in 1860 He was elected President of the United States of America.
I’d have given up long ago but Lincoln persevered.
He had a vision of what he wanted to do – and the setbacks that he had did not deflect him from his goal.
Was he a failure – no his success in being elected president overshadowed all his failure!
He got there in the end.
Lincoln turned his failures into success through perseverance.
We need to persevere in our faith, when we feel like giving up.
When we reach the final goal, all our failures along the way will be forgotten.
There is not a Christian who has not had reverses in his life.
There are times where things have gone wrong and he or she feels like giving up!
The Church of Philadelphia’s love for Jesus brought that PERSEVERANCE AND ENDURANCE.
God will build his Church on Christians who have perseverance.
We read in James 1: 2-8
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
The Church in Philadelphia probably had not done mighty things for God – for example like the Ephesian Church (in Rev.2:1-8) had done.
They did not have a lot of power but they had held on to their love for Jesus.
God isn’t interested in our works but in our love for Him – and in our obedience – like the love of the Church of Philadelphia
He wants us to exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5 22 et seq.)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
People are going to be saved when they see changed lives.
As the atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said words to the effect that
“when the redeemed start looking more redeemed, I’ll start believing in their Redeemer.”
Now that’s a challenge isn’t it?
The Church at Philadelphia had sussed that one out.
They persevered and were commended by Jesus
To recap the catchword for the Church of Philadelphia is “Endurance in Adversity”
