The Seven Churches-Philadelphia
(Full disclosure: this message is based on a sermon I preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on November 23, 2025 but is not an exact transcription.)
Introduction: My paternal grandfather and one of Dad’s brothers were both pastors for many years. Grandpa always had that vibe or aura, such that you never really knew if he was being serious, humorous, or somewhere in-between. Dad’s brother was like Grandpa in a lot of ways, but had a very dry sense of humor. Dry is good, no?
Well, Phil (not my uncle’s real name) had, to me, one of the funniest Christmas-themed jokes ever. He said a man wanted to join a church and spoke to the pastor. This pastor said, we will welcome you but first you have to pass a test. The other man, flustered, asked, “What’s the test?” To which the pastor replied, “Where was Jesus born?” Thinking for a moment, he said, “Pittsburgh?” And the pastor’s reply was, “Sorry, we can’t let you join this church.”
As the story goes, the man went to a different denomination, was given the same requirements, a test to see if he knew where Jesus was born. This time he guessed, “Philadelphia?” And the same response: “Sorry, we can’t let you join this church.”
Third church now, and the pastor said, “Well, if you‘d like to join, no problem. We’re glad to have you!”The man replied, “You mean, there aren’t any tests or questions?” Pastor replied, nope, none whatsoever. Then the man asked, “Could you answer a question for me?” And the pastor replied, “I’ll do my best; what’s your question?” The man asked, “Could you tell me where Jesus was born?” The pastor’s reply: “Oh, in Bethlehem. It’s in the Gospel of Matthew.” The man was relieved! He said, “Great! I knew it was somewhere in Pennsylvania!”
Well, this morning’s message isn’t about Bethlehem or the Philadelphia in the Keystone State. But it is about a church in a relatively small city in what’s now western Turkey. We’ll read the text and then take a look at what the Lord said to them, and to us.
Text: Revelation 3:7-13, KJV: 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.
1 The Picture of Jesus
Verse 1 gives us several different things about our Lord Jesus Christ. First, He describes Himself as He that is holy. It goes without saying that none of us are holy; we can’t be; even Isaiah said that our righteousness was like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6).In fact, the only two humans to have ever been created without a sin nature were Adam and Eve—and we see how well THAT turned out! Even so, our Lord Jesus was, as the writer of Hebrews says, “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners (Heb. 7:26). And nobody else has, or ever can be, as holy as He was, is, and forever will be.
And not only is Jesus holy, He is true. This is important, because, first, even Jesus Himself said there would be false Christs (Matthew 24:24), even before He was crucified. John wrote (1 John 2) that some “went out from us, but were not of us”—clearly false and not true. Jesus had also told Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Let me add a little more to this.
How many of us have heard the word “sincere”? Oddly enough, that word is a combination of two words meaning, in Latin, “no wax”. Some, perhaps less than honest furniture dealers would use wax to fill in small holes or depressions in the wood. Honest dealers would not, and would advertise their products as “sine cere” or “without wax.” The furniture was, “true”. And so is Jesus, true in every sense of the word.
Now He says He has the key of David. There are a lot of opinions about what this means but He is probably not talking about a literal key. Chances are, the literal “key of David” disappeared long before Jesus walked this earth. There’s another use for keys, meaning symbols of power. For example, Jesus said He would give Peter the “keys of the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 16:19) but Jesus never gave Peter a literal key to a literal lock. The important thing here is that Jesus has a “key”, however it’s defined, and He alone has the right to use it as He sees fit.
The Lord also has power over something else, and that can be something to rejoice over, and at the same time repent over. He says He opens and no one shuts—but He also says He shuts, and no one opens. If nothing else, this shows He has absolute power. He can say go, or He can say no, and as hard as it may seem to us, it’s best if we accept what He determines. Sure, Paul had his own desire as to where he wanted to go, but the Holy Spirit said No (Acts 16:6). Paul and those with him took the direction which the Lord wanted them to go, and talk about an open door! Not only was Philippi reached for and with the Gospel—this was the springboard for all of Europe as well!
2 The Words of Praise
It’s encouraging to me that the Lord goes from “I’m the one that shuts and opens” to the words of praise in verse 8. Now He says “I know thy works”, and even though we don’t know what they were doing, the Lord did. Those deeds, these works that we do for the Lord—nobody outside our church or community may know about them, but that’s not our concern. So long as we do what we do for the Lord—that’s all that matters. He knows, and that’s enough.
What’s even more special is that the Lord here, and only here, promises these Philadelphia saints an open door! According to Dr. A. T. Robertson’s “Word Pictures in the New Testament”, the word “set” could also mean “given”. Either way, these saints here had a promise and an opportunity none of the other six churches ever received.
To add to the encouragement, the Lord adds, “you have a little strength” or, “you (only) have a little strength. It’s likely this church was small, not much and not many, but they were doing what they could. It may be in Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s edited “Thru the Bible” radio messages, or someplace else, where there’s a letter to “Jane Ordinary”, explaining that even though she’s not rich, like a wealthy man who gives lots of donations; and even though she may not be like famous Christian athletes, using their position as a means to share his faith, she’s still important to the Lord.
And—let me chase this rabbit for a moment. True, there were believers and disciples (not always the same) who were very wealthy. Others, not so much, and it’s encouraging to me that the Lord seemed to prefer ordinary people. Look at the Twelve Apostles: fishermen, a renegade Jew who became a tax collector for the Romans, a revolutionary (Simon the Zealot), and even a philosopher, sort of—Nathanael, who was under his fig tree when he met Jesus (see John 1:43-51 for that story).
None of them had a lot of anything to brag about but Jesus took them. And He made them better (except Judas Iscariot); good enough where He made them His apostles. Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China in the mid 1800’s. His story is fascinating reading. Someone, as the story goes, complimented him that he was someone strong enough for God to use. Brother Taylor replied, no, God found someone weak enough to use.
Now the Lord pulls back the curtain a little to share with us what these Philadelphia believers had endured: He said they “kept His word”, meaning perhaps that they not only had the Word, they were living it and defending it. Not only that: these Philadelphia saints had not denied the Lord’s name. This tells me they were enduring at least something similar to the believers in Smyrna, where persecution was on the way, and Pergamum, where Antipas was put to death for his faith. We’ll never meet them down here, but we’ll be rejoicing with our Lord together one day in the future.
3 The Words of Promise
When the Lord says, “Behold,” He’s giving a command. Sometimes He wants whosoever is reading or listening to take notice, like He is saying, “Look! Something’s important!” Other times, He’s saying, “Pay attention—I have something to say.” In verse 9, the Lord is telling His saints to pay attention: He does have something very important indeed to share with them.
Remember one of the problems in Smyrna, chapter 2? That city had a “synagogue of Satan”, where the Lord explained, “They say they are Jews, but are not”. As mentioned, Paul had written in Romans that it wasn’t enough to be born to Abraham to be considered a Jew—it had to be on the inside (Romans 2:17-29, paraphrased). Even though they were miles apart, Philadelphia had its own synagogue of Satan and the Lord promptly gives a word of promise to both parties.
He encouraged the believers, who, like other believers in other places in those days, that even though the ones persecuting them may have been Jewish by human birth, they certainly were not children of God by the new birth. This “synagogue of Satan” may have won the “Battle of Smyrna” but they were going to meet a true Force to be reckoned with when Jesus gave them a message they didn’t want to hear. He told the saints, “I’m going to make them come and worship before your feet, and they will also know I have loved you.” One preacher said it this way: “The Lord will tell these ‘members of the synagogue, “Here’s what you thought of them, and now here’s what I think of you.”’”
There’s another promise in verse 10, that the Lord will keep (preserve) the saints from “the hour of temptation” coming on the whole world. Some, like Jamiesson, Faucett, and Brown, believe this refers to the Great Tribulation (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jfb/revelation/3.htm) but others, like Benson, Barnes, and Clarke (see above for link, just change the last name) seem to think it refers to a coming persecution, such as the one by Emperor Trajan not long after Revelation was complete. Whether then, or in the future, we have our Lord’s promise that He will “keep” us in His care.
He’s still not done with the promises. There’s another one tucked into the first part of verse 11 where He says, “Behold, I come quickly”. That doesn’t mean something’s going to happen right away, only that when it does happen, it will happen rapidly. We could take the example of a manned space flight preparing to “blast off” the launching pad. The countdown seems to take forever, but when there’s ignition, and then lift-off, it doesn’t take long for that rocket to head for outer space! In less than a minute, that rocket is invisible to the naked eye!
4 The Words to the Overcomer
The last part of verse 11 has the Lord’s encouragement to the saints, then and now. He first says, “Hold fast (I’ve lost count of how many times He’s said that!) what you have so that nobody takes your crown.” This likely refers to any number of crowns a believer might earn as rewards for faithful service. Just as athletes and victors could have a crown taken away, that possibility is real for believers, too. How many have lost, or will lose, a crown is something we need to take very seriously. Paul had already written of rewards being lasting or being lost in 1 Corinthians 3. John had also mentioned this in his second epistle, to “look to yourselves . . . that we receive a full reward (2 John 8). It’s just as true today as when these words were written.
And the Lord closes His message to Philadelphia by giving them an illustration, which they knew very well. He says He will make “him that overcometh a pillar in the temple of My God”. These saints knew their history, that Sardis and Philadelphia had both been leveled by earthquakes. One severe quake had hit these cities about 80 years before John copied this letter from the Lord to Philadelphia. He also adds a few things and wraps it up with this rather unusual promise: “I will write on him My new name.”
That name certainly won’t be “Jesus” and, in fact, we have no idea what that name will be. He hasn’t revealed it to us yet. But just as He promised the saints in Philadelphia, where He will write His new name, and just as He promised the saints in Pergamum that He will give them a white stone with a new name on it, one day He will come with the saints back to this earth! Then He’ll reign as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19).
All the trials, the tests, the persecution (open or implied)—all of it, the Lord knows and will reward those who stay faithful and “hold fast”. That was a promise for the saints in Philadelphia and the same promise is for us wherever we live on this earth. Like the saints in Philadelphia, we may have only a little strength, but with our Lord we have enough to overcome!
My prayer is that we too will stand firm, hold fast, and live for Jesus every day until we are together with Him!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
