Please have your Bibles open and stand with me for the reading of God's Word. This morning we are going to continue our study in the book of Revelation chapter 3, and our passage for this morning is the sixth address of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Church of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, from the two Greek words phileo and adelphos means brotherly love. Good name, as the Lord commends this church and urges her to remain steadfast and persevere. This is the reading of God's Word. Revelation 3, beginning with verse 7, And to the Angelos, the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, This is what he who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says, I know your deeds. Behold, I have given before you an open door which no one can shut because you have little power and have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I am giving up those of the synagogue of Satan, those who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and make them know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have so that no one will take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, and he will never go out from it anymore. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God and my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Amen. Please be seated. Now this band of brothers of seven messengers who had received this divine revelation from the Apostle John at Island of Patmos have now dwindled down to the last two. In a circular route in the Roman road starting at Ephesus, they went in a clockwise direction and they continued on and now they are at their sixth city at Philadelphia. Philadelphia is entirely a Greek city. It was like a new city, a planned city if you will. It was founded by a Seleucid king in the second century and he named it in honor of his brother. That's why he named it Philadelphia because of his love for his brother and his honor. And so it was an entirely Greek-speaking city But that region really belonged to the ancient kingdom of Lydia. We know Lydia the Seller of Purple Cloth from the Book of Acts. Her name comes from this entire region of the kings who ruled there, specifically the Pergamemum kings from Pergamon. And this Lydian culture dominated this area for centuries and centuries until the Persians in the 5th century BC, shall we say more technically 6th century BC when they overthrow Babylon, the Persians were in control for the next 250 years. So in the Persian control, basically the Lydian kingdom was remained intact. They were left to speak their own language, promote their own culture, do their own business, etc. That was the Persian foreign policy. As long as they paid taxes, they left the cultures and the languages and the religions alone. That was Persian foreign policy. But then the Greeks conquered that entire region under Alexander in the 4th century, more like the 330s. And so when he took control The Greeks were very proud people, and they wanted to Hellenize. They were sophisticated people. They were the people who gave us Euclidean geometry and Aristotelian logic, as well as tremendous culture with music, arts, and so forth. And so when the Greeks came, they wanted to Hellenize everybody. So this entire region was dominated by the Greeks who controlled that region, which was formerly Anatolia and the ancient civilizations were great kingdoms like the Hittites and the Lydians dominated. But now no longer in the 4th century, up until the very end of the 1st century, the Greeks dominated that area. So you can tell even by biblical times in the 1st century AD, that this entire area is entirely Greek. No city was more Greek than Philadelphia, and no city was more important in that commercial area, even though it wasn't the richest, it wasn't the most powerful, it wasn't the most prominent, it was the most strategic. So this city, Philadelphia, was a very strategic center. It was both used in the Greek culture, but now in the Roman system, all the roads, the Roman road, connected, and from Philadelphia became a great launch point. In the 2nd century during the Greek occupation, Philadelphia became a missionary city. Now when you think of missionary city, what city comes to your mind? Probably not much, but you should know by your church history Geneva, Switzerland should come to your mind. Because from Geneva, Really the Protestant Reformation took on fire and spread all over the world. This is when John Calvin was teaching in Geneva. This is when John Knox from Scotland came over there, sat under Calvin's preaching and teaching for a little over a year and his heart was ignited with fire. He didn't care if he would die. He went back to Scotland Bloody Mary, the Mary Queen of Scots, was put to death, and now there was freedom for him to preach. And the Scottish Reformation was caught on fire, which brought forth the English Reformation. And the Puritan ancestors, who wanted to preserve their pure faith, they moved over to Holland, and from Holland they came to the Americas. This is how we have inherited the Puritan spiritual heritage. And where did it all happen? It happened in Geneva, Switzerland. They sent missionaries from Geneva with men who are just set on fire down all the way to South America. All over the world they went as missionaries. So if you think of a missionary city for us as evangelical Protestants, think of Geneva, Switzerland. Now if you were to say what is a missionary country of Buddhism, I would have to say it has to be Taiwan. They export more U.S. dollars to promote Buddhism all around the world than any other country in the world. That's hard to believe, but it's true. Hundreds of millions of United States dollars to promote Buddhism. Now, if you say, what country is a missionary country of Roman Catholicism? Well, it has to be Italy. What city? The Vatican, Rome. If you were to say, what city is responsible for promoting the Greek culture in this region? Today we call it Turkey, but back then it was the entire ancient region of Lydian Empire or Anatolia, the Western Turkey. This was this city, Philadelphia. Philadelphia was known to be a city that's very proud of their language and culture and they exported it all over, all over that region. So Hellenization, to get people to speak the Greek language and get people to adopt the Greek culture and get people to gradually abandon their old archaic culture and to adopt a greek polytheistic religion, greek language, greek architecture, greek music, etc. etc. continued from the city. So it became a very important prominent city in that way. Well, what Jesus says to the church of Philippi rings true in every detail as we see. He says what he says specifically for them But then what he says that applies to all the churches and all the believers throughout all the ages applies to every church in every generation. And that message can be encapsulated into one word. Persevere. Persevere. We're critters. by nature. We don't like pain. We don't like difficulty. We like ease. We like comfort. We like to be done in a short amount of time in the easiest way. We don't like to wait long for anything. We don't like to work hard for anything. This is basic human nature. Because of sin, we tend to become both soft and lazy and fearful. And so we don't like to persevere. It takes tremendous amount of conviction of faith and courage to persevere through difficult times because you know and you trust in the truth that there's something there in your future that is much more valuable than the conditions that you are going through now. And therefore, this command to persevere must be a command that we wholeheartedly receive with eagerness and that we would be committed to practicing perseverance, to committed to not giving up and not quitting, because a lot of people do, we must be the people who would say, no, never, because I will always trust in the Lord. I will always cling to the Lord. And then we need to be able to pray, Lord, I am weak. I want to give up. My hope is dwindling. Help me, Lord. Strengthen my faith. Take away all the distractions and give me clarity of the coming kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be dependent upon the Lord so that we can last. Christianity is a long marathon run and we must last. We cannot quit. And so if you have this commitment and conviction, no matter what happens, I will remain steadfast. Then you are an overcomer. You are victorious. You are a man or woman of faith. And this is what the Lord is doing in your life. You've endured much, and the Lord will say to you, as he said to the Church of Philadelphia, continue to persevere. Now if you were to go visit Philadelphia today in modern-day Turkey, There will be very little left there. You see, the Ottoman Turks, as well as the Muslims, saw any vestige of Christian architecture as an affront to their religion and to their culture. So therefore, they got rid of it. We saw recently through the media that Muslims were destroying images of Buddha and other religions. Obviously, if you believe that your religion is the true religion, is the superior religion, and you have all the firepower, then you use that firepower to eliminate any other competition. That is the history of Islam. So you would not be able to find any remains except for what the local Turkish government thought, hey we get all these tourists from all over the world visiting our country and this is good for tourism. So what do they do? They go around and see if they can find any remnant from around the first century. dig it up or find it. It can be just a piece of a rock with some Roman inscription in it. Well, they just put it down there. It could be a part of a column that once stood from the 1st or 2nd century. They take that and put it down there. And so most of these so-called archaeological sites is just in shambles. They have not seen any value of these things. It's just a matter of debris for them. But only recently did they see, oh, people are coming from all over the world because of the Bible and Christians, and because of history and archeology, they're coming to tour our land. This is good for business. So if you were to go to Philadelphia today, you would go to an area in the middle of the town, and you would think, where is any ancient remnant of the city of Philadelphia? Well, all of a sudden you drive right down the little narrow street, and you find a little area that looks like the size of a children's playground. and you find a man-made sign and monument and a little plaque and with description. This is a site of the ancient Philadelphian city. There was some remains of some churches that met here, etc, etc, etc. That's about it. As a matter of fact, that's what you're going to find in most of these areas. Only Ephesus is pretty much well preserved. There's some archaeological value of study there. But in most of these cities, Nothing much. So what is that teaching us? It taught us that no matter how good your ambitions and your desires to honor God were back in those days, and you spent all your money building fancy buildings, having a nice location, even a large gathering of people, what happens? When they lost their witness, when they lost their evangelistic zeal and missionary focus, There were no more. When politics changed, when economies changed, where did all the Christians go? There were no more. That is also part of human nature. People would rather flee to a safer place, and a more comfortable place, and a more affluent place, than stay in a more dangerous area, in a more oppressive area, in a more impoverished area. That is also human nature. Just as water flows to its own level downward, It's not going to flow upward. So human nature and human tendency is to gravitate toward these things. Sometimes it happens in groups, sometimes it happens by individuals. That's what happens. And so we need to recognize that the eternal Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus addressing this church is what remains of what happened at one time With one congregation in Philadelphia, that's what remains. What God does with genuine people, with genuine faith, genuinely committed to the Lord, They're the ones who honor the Lord, and those whom the Lord chooses to honor and to use to instruct all of His churches throughout all the ages, that's what remains. God's purposes. God's will. God's glory. His word. This is what we need to be committed to. And so I know a lot of us spend a lot of time, a lot of resources, aiming at different things and thinking that this is how I'm going to glorify God. Keep your focus on the Lord and the glory of God. Recognize what he is doing. And we can learn a lot from what he says to Philadelphia. What is it that we are supposed to continue in? This passage answers that question really well. Now what happened to this glorious city that one Greek king, the Seleucid king, built in honor of his brother? That was the event that gave birth to the city of Philadelphia. What happened? Well, obviously, there was tremendous commerce. There was wealth, there was business. Christians came over there and got saved there. Perhaps they moved there. We don't know. There was a community of faith. They gathered together to worship. But there was also a Jewish synagogue, the Jews who gathered there to worship. Well, what happened? Well, there's a natural disaster. You would say in a typical city, like we pray today, like Tampa, there's going to be a Jewish synagogue there. It's going to be Roman Catholic churches there. There may even be a Buddhist temple there. There are certainly many Christian churches. It's the Bible bell. It's Florida. What happens when there's a devastating natural disaster where everything gets wiped out? And that's what happened many times in this region. earthquakes were very frequent. And so really the beautiful city of Philadelphia were in ruins like many other towns and cities in that time. The recent one was in AD 17. AD 17. This is when the Lord Jesus was growing up in Nazareth. As a young lad, a large earthquake destroyed 12 cities in that entire region. That was devastating, including Sardis and Philadelphia. And so what happens when you have great earthquakes like this? You have an incredibly depressed economy. Everybody's in subsistence mode. They're crying over the loss of their loved ones. They're trying to get the rubble out so they can rebuild. It's gonna take a long time for them to do that. And so who came in? The Roman Emperor. Titus came in and gave a very handsome sum to the Philadelphians to rebuild and he helped other cities too. And so in a typical Roman fashion, they honored the Roman Emperor by setting up a little shrine, a little temple in honor of Rome. Emperor worshipped was something that Rome used religion and politics to control the opinions and the sentiment of the masses because Rome wanted to have favorable presentation of its central power of empire in Rome to all the people that they control via satellite. And so being a typical Greek city with all the pagan Greek deities, Greek gods, Philadelphia was no different. It had not only the Roman emperor worship, but it had the chief worship of Dionysus, the god of wine and mirth, as well as a female deity, Aenitus. Well, thankfully, over much time, even though they were mourning over their dead, and those survivors were rebuilding, due to fertile soil and ideal climate, they had a tremendous economic growth, but it was steady. Until AD 92, this is the time when the Book of Revelation was written, Emperor Domitian, the very man, the very Caesar who sent John to the island of Patmos to silence him, that's his administration, not he himself, his administration sent him, a half of the vineyards were commanded by the Roman Caesar in Philadelphia to be ripped off, the soil prepared to plant wheat because the empire was having grain problems, feeding problems. So they commanded all these regions to turn it into farm fields to force labor so they can grow crops to meet the needs of the Roman Empire. So what happened there? Well, they were hopeless. I mean, this was the place where they worshiped their god of mirth, the god of wine, Dionysus, and they had a very fertile soil that was great for grapes. Now the government is telling them to get rid of 50% of their economy. Well, what can they do? They didn't have much political power, so they have to yield. And so what about all those people who lived their lives as grape farmers? Well, too bad. It's a government edict. And so they became very hopeless. Now that's the economic and political religious condition of Philadelphia. Now what Jesus says to them is amazingly personally applicable to their situation. The Lord knows what's going on. And so let's take a look with that in mind as the backdrop. Verse 7, we see Christ and his church at Philadelphia as we follow our familiar outline. By now you're probably very familiar and even memorized the outline. Verse 7, and to the Angelos, the angel of the church of Philadelphia, right? You see that? You saw that phrase? Very familiar phrase in the opening line. And you should already be mindful. Okay, I know the preacher said that there's two Greek words that opens up each one of these lines, and it's ta-de-le-ge. Ta-de-le-ge. Thus says. And so for English vernacular, it is split up into two parts, right? And to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia, right. This is what he And then it's split up to the very end, says at the very end of the sentence. That's how we do it in English. But in Greek it's thus says, giving the absolute authoritative address of the Lord Jesus to his audience, the church. Now there are several titles given here. First he is holy. This is a reference to Yahweh, the God of Israel in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 40 verse 25, Isaiah 43 verse 15, Habakkuk 3.3, it says, the Holy One, the Holy One, the Holy One. And when it's attached to the Holy One of Israel, then it's very personal. But this is a title given to Yahweh. It means to be set apart or to be unique. That's what it means to be holy. The second title is who is true. Again the title the one true God is a title for Yahweh. So the Holy One of Israel and the one true God is the same God but these are titles for the God of the Old Testament. This is what the Lord Jesus says in John 17 3 and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 1 John 5 20 says, And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God in eternal life. Three times in this one verse John says God is true, God is true, God is true. So the first two titles, holy and true, are distinct characteristics which are completely different than all the gods and the idols that the nations worship. This is why Christians are attacked and hated because we say God is true and he is holy and we look at all the world religions and your gods are and your religion is not true and your deities are unholy. Here is the next phrase, points to the messianic sovereignty and control over eternal destiny of all people of all ages. Who has the key of David? Who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says. This is a direct allusion to the Old Testament. Let's take a look in Isaiah chapter 22. Isaiah 22. Now go to verse 22, so this is easy. Isaiah 22, 22, verse 22. And notice Jesus is basically rephrasing and quoting Isaiah 22, 22 here. And notice what God revealed to Isaiah. Chapter 22, verse 22. Who is the key of the house of David? That's the Mashiach. That's Christ, the Messiah. And so who says here? Jesus says, I have. But he's speaking in the third person. Who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens. The first two titles can be attributed to God of the Old Testament, Yahweh. This title is attributed to the Messiah. So in the Jewish mind there was this disconnect. How is Messiah like God and how is God demonstrating himself in this messianic way. So the rabbis throughout the ages were very confused. They thought that this is somehow connected. Later on, the Son of God idea emerged and somehow God communicates through his Mediatory angel, the angel of Yahweh. Sometimes Messiah, could he be the son of God, could be related to Yahweh. There's all kinds of discussion and confusion among the rabbis throughout the centuries. Of course, one group believe, no, no, no, Messiah is just a human figure. Another group believe, no, Messiah could be a divine figure in a way that we do not understand. Other people say, well, no, Messiah is probably going to be an angel, like the angel of Yahweh. Here it's very clear. Jesus says, I am Yahweh, but I am not same as the Father, and I have the key of David. He has the right to rule. Notice this is what Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 16. Let's go there. Verse 19. This is on the road to Caesarea Philippi. Jesus said to his disciples, who do men say that I am? And then he asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? And Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And this is what the Lord Jesus said to Peter after he blessed him. Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed these things to you, but my Father in heaven. And notice what he says in verse 19. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. What kind of language is this? This is a synonymous language of the very language we just read in Isaiah. He who opens, no one will shut, and when he shuts, no one will open. That is the same language that Jesus uses, quotation of Isaiah, is the same language from the same person. And so we can safely say that in Matthew 16, 19, the speaker is the Lord Jesus. In Revelation 3, the speaker is the Lord Jesus. Now you fill in the blank. Who is the speaker in Isaiah 22, 22? That's right. It's the Lord Jesus, pre-incarnate Christ. Yahweh, God of Israel. So what is he saying? He's saying that I am fully in control. No one will thwart my purposes and you will know that I am the one who is speaking to you. Now that we've seen Christ and His address to the Church of Philadelphia, let's take a look at verse 8, His commendation to the Church of Philadelphia. Verse 8, again we saw this phrase, I know your deeds. His perfect, complete knowledge of not only who they are but what they have done. He says, I know your works, your deeds. And here's the attention-grabbing word. Behold, I have given before you an open door. Given points to the fact that the Lord Jesus gave it to them and they still have it. What is this open door? This is an amazing promise of access and opportunity of the gospel of eternal life given to this little insignificant church that cannot be quenched. An open door language is that of access and opportunity. He just said that what I've opened no one can shut and what I shut no one can open. Then he says I've given you this access, this opportunity. Remember what we learned about Philadelphia? That it was a place, a launching area of the missionary work of the Greek culture and language? are many, many people that believe they're so proud of their culture and even their language that they're exporting it all over the world. The South Koreans are doing that through their media and their music and their movies. And so, you know, when I went to college, there was no Korean language that was offered. There's no one wanted to learn. And now most universities offer Korean language as a language elective. Why is that? Because it's a popular culture, so I'm told. The Greek culture was very popular and Greeks were very proud people. They wanted to evangelize their culture, their language, their music, their arts, their science, show the sophistication and the glory. Now take a look at what Jesus says, I've given you an open door. Let's take a look at some of the biblical passages and see what the Bible says This is a biblical language the Bible uses for the access and the opportunity, especially in evangelism. First, Acts 14, verse 27. Acts 14, 27. It says, And when they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all the things that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 9 as Apostle Paul is sharing this with the Corinthians. He says, Wow. With a wide and open access to the gospel, Apostle Paul says, 2nd corinthians chapter 2 verse 12 says now when i came to troas for the gospel of christ and when a door was open for me in the lord a door was open for me in the lord you get a sense that apostle paul was very in tune with what the lord was doing giving him access and opportunity for gospel evangelism Yeah, very in tune. And look at Colossians 4, 3. Colossians 4, verse 3. We'll conclude with this. Now he's requesting prayer, prayer support to the Colossians. Praying at the same time for us as well, he says that God will open up to us a door for the Word. Now what is he saying here? In the other passages he says God opened a great door, an opportunity. past tense, God has already done it, he's reporting. What is he doing now? He's saying pray for us so that God will open opportunities. And here's the purpose, so that we may speak the mystery of Christ for which I have also been bound. And as you know Colossians is one of the four prison epistles that Paul was writing from prison. He's like, pray that I would get set out of here free fast. No, he's not asking for that prayer. He's saying pray that the Lord would open opportunities for the gospel. Wow. Philadelphia was a place for the missionary work, if you will, of the Greeks, who were proud of their Lydian heritage, their Greek culture and language, and wanted to promote it far and wide. Similarly, in a greater way, the Lord Jesus gave these small churches, these particular individuals, opportunity for gospel witness. Where? All over. And this is the blessing that the Church of Philadelphia had received. And the Lord assures them that no matter what happens, the gospel opportunity will not be shut for them, but it'll be left open. Until when? Until all of them fulfill the Lord's mission. That is a amazing blessing. Despite the fact that believers in Philadelphia had no worldly status, no worldly strength, no great wealth, And so can a small group of believers with no worldly status or strength or resources, can they be used by the Lord with a wide open access and opportunity for the gospel? Well, here is what the Lord commends the Philadelphian Christians. You know what Jesus says here? Because you have little power. That means, well, I gave you this wide open for access, Because you're nobody. You have no power. Wow. Shouldn't this be because you have much power? No, Jesus says the opposite. Because you have little power, I know that you will be dependent on me and my power will be manifested through your weakness. That's exactly what it is. Brothers and sisters, we are not witnessing because we are witty, winsome, we're wise and knowledgeable. We have degrees and we know the original languages. No, not at all. Because we're dependent on the Lord and His Holy Spirit to change hearts and transform lives when we proclaim, when we witness. Because we believe the salvation is of the Lord. We're simply His mouthpieces. Because you have little power. They have little earthly power. But here we see that they had great spiritual power that the world does not have. They had it. And kept my word. Philadelphian believers were consistently obedient to Christ and his word. So this is how you know you can be an effective witnessing community when you're obedient Christians. You know, part of disciple-making. Well, what do you do when you share the gospel and they say, yuck, and they repent? Yes, I'm a sinner. I need the Lord. Okay, great. Trust in Jesus as your Savior. Yes, I know. He's my Savior. He died for my sins. Praise the Lord. Well, what do you do after that? Well, the Great Commission says baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then teaching them to obey everything. Can you do that? Can you teach? Your life of obedience can be something that a young believer can emulate, learn from. When he asks, well, how do I pray? How do I read the Bible? What do I do? How do I share my faith with my family members? Can you show them, help them, walk them through? If you are, you're keeping God's Word, and you can help others keep God's Word. and have not denied my name." There must be a lot of pressure in Philadelphia in a pagan city. They worship the Roman emperor, worship pagan deities. Pressure's all around. There's a rival religious faction, the Jewish synagogue. And here's a mostly Gentile church, small group of believers. But they did not repudiate or renounce their loyal allegiance to Christ, no matter what the pressure. This is where most people give up when they face pressure. They say, yeah, I'll go to church, I'm gonna be a Christian, I'm gonna have Christian friendship and fellowship as long as people leave me alone. As soon as my safety is on the line, my job is on the line, my comfort is on the line, all bets are off. This is where a lot of religious people are. That's not the Philadelphian church. Nothing is worth doing when it's easy. Only those things that honor the Lord that are true and good are worth doing. They're going to be difficult and it's going to cost us. It's the cost of discipleship. But these are glorious words of the Lord's commendation to the faithful little church at Philadelphia. And so we need to be encouraged by that. God's not looking for some extraordinary abilities or powers or size. He's commending a faithful church who are obedient to His Word and does not deny His name. And because they're small and have little power, the Lord chooses to use them because of their faithfulness. Now let's take a look at verses 9 to 12. The biggest bulk of this passage is Christ and His commitments. So we saw Christ in His church at Philadelphia, Christ in His commendation to the Philadelphian Christians, and here, thirdly, Christ and His commitments. Here's the attention-grabbing word again, The Lord Jesus promises to vindicate and exempt the genuine believers at Philadelphia. I am giving up those of the synagogue of Satan. If you look at the up those, if you take that away, because that's not in the original Greek, it simply says, I am giving the synagogue of Satan. How is the Lord going to give a synagogue and why they're called the synagogue of Satan? Well, these were ethnic Jews. They're gathered together. They're synagogue. But spiritually, they were not true spiritual Jews of the faith of Abraham. Since they rejected Jesus as their Mashiach, well, Abraham looked forward to the days of the Mashiach. And so they gather together in their corporate gatherings and use their corporate strength and power to persecute Christians. Specifically to slander them and saying, you are a cult. We are the genuine deal. We are the real deal. We are the true people of God. We are the remnant of Israel. We are the seed of Abraham. You are just a riffraff cult or following that heretic Jesus of Nazareth. You are nobody. We represent Yahweh, God of Israel. You, you are following a cult leader. That's the slander. Notice Jesus said, those who say that they are Jews but are not. One New Testament commentator, Bruce Fanning, comments, it is likely that these two minority religious groups in Philadelphia, that is the Jewish and the Christian, competed for influence in the wider pagan culture. That makes perfect sense, because Jesus just commended them for keeping his word and not denying him. Those are activities and commitments in evangelism, in their witness. They say, we are the people of the Messiah. We proclaim to you that Jesus is the promised Messiah. And so what were the Jews doing? No, we're still waiting for the true Messiah. Jesus is not the Messiah. So one was affirming Jesus as the Messiah, the other was denying Jesus as the Messiah. But they're both claiming they belong to the Lord. But Jesus says that they lie. They lie with a strong a positive but that contradicts their self-claim to be Jews. Jesus called them they're liars. They're not true Jews. This strong statement may indicate that what the Jews were claiming that they were and they alone are God's true people. They're the chosen. And that these cult followers, Christians, are false. When a divine ironic twist, the Lord Jesus promises his Gentile believers at Philadelphia with an attention-grabbing surprise with another, behold, behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet. First he says, I will give, I'm giving the synagogue of Satan who say that they're Jews but they're liars Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet." Wow! What an imagery! That imagery comes from the great role reversal passages in the Old Testament that we've studied such as Isaiah 49 verse 23. Let me read it for you. Isaiah 49 23 says, Kings will be your guardians and their princesses will be your nurses. and they will bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick the dust of your feet. And you will know that I am Yahweh. Those who hope in me will not be put to shame." Wow. The faithful Israelites looked at that and saying, wow, in the future, Yahweh will do this. Our overlords are powerful. All the empires that rise around us are powerful. There were the powerful Egyptians, powerful Assyrians, powerful Babylonians, Isaiah prophesied later on other kingdoms. Daniel prophesied that a Medo-Persian empire will rise. And after that, the Greek empire will rise. And even the most ferocious empire, the Roman empire, they were all powerful. And Israel was nothing and nobody. They were tossed here and there. And they looked at these promises and they say, whoa, the Lord's gonna completely reverse the roles. We who are weak and nothing and nobody, we will be powerful and they will lick the dust off of our feet. They will kiss our feet. The Lord will do this for us. And what did Jesus say? Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet. Listen to another passage in Isaiah 60 verse 14. The sons of those who afflict you will come bowing to you and all those who spurn you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet and they will call you the city of Yahweh. the Tzion of the Holy One of Israel. Again, the faithful Israelites look at this promise and saying, there's going to be a glorious day for us. Let's encourage one another. We're oppressed now by powerful enemies, but Yahweh will make those come. and bow themselves at the soles of our feet, those who spurned us, those who mocked, ridiculed us, those who slandered us and saying that our God is a wimpy God, that their gods defeated our God. We have to bear all this reproach now, but God will usher in a glorious day. What is Jesus saying? I'm going to do that to you because you are my beloved people. I'm going to make these religious Jews who call themselves Jews but are liars. They're gathering place of the archenemy Satan because they're opposing Christ. And so it says, and make them know, notice make them is italicized, and know that I have loved you. Those unbelieving Jews who have persecuted the Gentile believers of the Messiah, of Christ, will be forced to recognize that the Lord God of Israel had favor upon these Gentile believers in the Messiah more than those professing ethnic boasters. Wow, what a role reversal. The love of God solely directed towards them, assumed by the religious Jews who are actually doing the bidding of their spiritual ancestor Satan, would be in for a rude awakening. There's a lot of religious people who believe that they are the frozen chosen, they are the chosen few, that only they, they are beloved by God. Every major religion claims exclusivity. We are the right ones. Yes, other people may have some agreements with us, but God has made us his people. Every religion says that, by the way. If they didn't, they would denounce their religion and join the right one. But they don't. They say, no, we have the truth. We have the only way. We have the right God. We have the right religion. No, you need to come and join us, is what they say. What did Jesus say? I will make them know that I have loved you. You see, brothers and sisters, you and I can find comfort and joy in the fact that not only that we love the Lord, but the Lord says to his faithful ones, I love you. That gives us great joy. Notice also the great exemption of verse 10. Because you have kept the word of my perseverance. Now first, notice the repetition of the verb kept. I will also keep you from the hour of testing. That's the same verb used twice. The logic is clear. Because you kept, I will keep. It's like for like. Because you did this, I will do this. What did Jesus say? You kept the word of my perseverance, meaning I commanded you to remain faithful to the end and persevere under difficulty and stand as witnesses for me in this generation. Because you kept the word of my perseverance, Jesus says, so I will keep my word to keep you away from the unique and terrifying time of judgment, which is the hour of testing. Notice this is not a general period of difficulty that people go through. It's a specific time. It's the hour of testing. And notice what Jesus says, which is about to come upon the whole world. This is a unique time of the end of ages designed to test all of God's enemies in the whole world at the same time. That's why this is the hour of testing upon the whole world. Revelation chapter 6 to all the way to 1910, the bulk of the book is about this testing. It's what we call the tribulation period. It is the telescoping intensity of God's judgments. To test those who dwell on the earth. Notice the previous phrase, the whole world is implicated and now the earth dwellers, those who dwell on the earth are implicated. Both nature, geography, topography, as well as the creatures of the world and all of human beings will be tested. This is a global cataclysmic test. These earth dwellers are the objects of God's wrath because they rebel against him. So if this hour of testing is applied to the whole world and the dwellers of the earth are all implicated, there's only one way to keep believers out of such an hour and that is removal. Removal. Listen to what Theologian and commentator Robert Thomas writes, That's the sense of what Jesus is saying here. I will Keep you from the hour of testing. Keep you from. You kept the word of my perseverance, I will keep you from. So, since the New Testament teaches that the Those who keep the word of the Lord's perseverance will be kept from the hour of testing. The two particular rescue missions in the Old Testament serve as proper themes and allusions to show this kinds of exemption. So let's take a look at what the Bible teaches. First let's take a look at 2nd Peter chapter 2. Here in 2 Peter 2, you're going to see two historical allusions that Peter makes. Two. One is of Noah's flood, and the second is of the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Both were complete judgments of destruction, but there is a small exception. This is what God revealed to Peter in 2 Peter 2. Look at verse 5. talking about the judgment of Noah, and he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness. What was he doing? He was witnessing. Witnessing with seven others. Who are they? They were the only people who sided with the truth and obeyed and kept the word of the Lord's perseverance. seven others whom he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. How extensive was the judgment? Was it local? Was it individualized? No. Was it general? It was completely, it was pervasive, it was global. Verse 6, and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction There was not even 10 righteous, only the family of law. By reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives hereafter. What was that? That was a demonstration of the hour of testing. They were found greatly deficient, incredibly immoral, begging God for judgment. And here it is, next verse, verse 7. Man, isn't it hard to be around immoral people, godless people who practice immorality, who speak immorality constantly around you? It's very vexing to the soul. This is what Lot had to deal with day after day. Oh, the Lord is expert in a rescue mission, rescuing the godly from trial. So I will keep you from this hour of testing that's coming upon the whole world and all dwellers of the earth. So how does this revelation comfort the believers of Philadelphia? The Lord is telling the entire church they will not be around. None of the people who are hearing the Lord's words will be around to experience the coming hour of judgment. Now you say well that that's true about all the churches. of all that generation. Well, we know that now because time has elapsed. But if you were living in the first century, you didn't know when the Lord's return was going to be. As a matter of fact, the Thessalonian church thought the day of the Lord had already come. His judgment had come. They missed the rapture. They were panicking. They were living unprincipled lives. So Apostle Paul had to write them two letters telling them, no, no, no. Remember, I taught you. I taught you this. So let me refresh your memory. He talked to them about the rapture. He talked to them about the appearance of the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist. Well, these things must happen before the rapture. Rapture must happen and then these things must happen. And this is the day of the Lord. This is how you know that you're under the tribulation period. But it hasn't happened yet. So the rapture hasn't happened yet. That was the message that Paul sent to the Thessalonians who were panicking. So let me read for you what he said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16 and 17. That is comforting. This is what Jesus saying to the believers at Philadelphia, Christian, I will keep you away. There's only one way to keep them away from the coming judgment and that is to remove them completely. That's why we look at the biblical teaching, the doctrine of the rapture of the church. They will not be around as the Thessalonian believers won't be around. You see the Thessalonians believers? No. What happened? None of them experience this frightening judgment of God that God says will come upon the whole world Now look at our generation. How many Christians are living holy lives fearful, knowing that, oh, that could come at any minute? A rapture could happen any time, and we may find ourselves right in the tribulation period. Now if you're skeptical, if you don't believe in the imminent return of Jesus, you're going to say, yeah, Christians have been saying that for 2,000 years. It's not going to happen in my lifetime. And what kind of life do you think a person who thinks like this, who believes this, will live? Is he the kind of person who will keep the word of the Lord's perseverance? When the pressure really comes, do you think that this is the kind of person who would hold on to the word? Hold on to his name and not deny him? Will they escape? The Lord knows who are His and who are faithful. So the final generation of believers are going to be like the Philadelphian believers who are exempt from the hour of testing upon the whole world and its dwellers. This is very encouraging news. those of you who love the Lord and who long for His appearing and who are currently now busy about the Master's business, who are holding on to the word of His perseverance, that you want Him to be glorified as He works out His will in the world to save souls. He's on a rescue mission. He knows how to rescue the righteous among the ungodly. He did it in Noah's day. He did it in Lot's day. You don't think he will be able to do it in our day? He says he will, and he promises this to the Philadelphians. That's why Philadelphia is a model church. It's a church that the Lord Jesus wants all the churches throughout the ages to emulate. There's only two churches that receive commendations and zero criticisms, and that's the Philadelphian church and the church at Smyrna, the persecuted church. small, powerless church that seem to have very little in the things of the world, tough economy, tough environment, and yet they're faithful and they're persevering. And those who are undergoing death, even one of them, their own, have died for the witness and the Smyrna churches were persecuted, and yet the Lord promises to bring them back from life and give them a witness. Verse 11 says he's coming quickly. Again the suddenness of the Lord's return is being emphasized here and therefore it can only refer to the rapture since the Lord's return from heaven to judge the inhabitants of the earth in chapter 19 will be clearly preceded by all the previous chapters describing the details of the seven-year tribulation period. So hold fast what you have. See this command hold fast means to maintain. What you have is good. What you've been taught is good. The new life that you have in Christ is from Him. The truth that you have been inculcated with and educated with and discipled with, that is good. And the good works that you are performing now, that's good. Hold on to it. Continue, maintain their spiritual and moral course until the Lord returns. And then, so that no one will take your crown. The crown here refers to the great honor and joy that accompanies that honor and the celebration at the Lord's return. The Lord applies the negative expression in a rhetorical sense in order to emphasize the positive. This rhetorical device is called the litotes in literature. And so what's being emphasized? What's the negative? So that no one will take your crown. What's the emphasis? The positive. You better be certain that you're going to receive the crown. To emphasize the positive, the negative is mentioned. That's the result of believers' steady maintenance of their faith and spiritual moral devotion to the Lord so that they will be certain. What is this doctrine called? The assurance of salvation and the perseverance of the saints. You can be certain. You can be assured. to receive honor and glory that the Lord has in store for you when you maintain, hold fast to what he has given you. That's the positive emphasis. The fact that no one will be able to take it away means you can be certain you have it. Verse 12 says, He who overcomes, we see this designation for Christians again, those who are victorious, the overcomers, from the nikah over, we are more than conquerors in Christ. I will make them a pillar in the sanctuary of my God. Notice this commitment from the Lord Jesus. This metaphorical imagery pictures believers as part of the permanent structure of the temple, not just any temple, the sanctuary, that's the inner sanctum. the most holy, the holy of holies called the na'as here, the sanctuary of my God. Notice how many personal pronouns, my God, my name. It's consistent here. Jesus is saying, you who overcome because you persevere by faith and receive honor and privileged position of importance as pillars in the most intimate place where you will have fellowship with God. And he will never go out from it anymore. This privileged position of importance as pillars in the innermost sanctuary of God's most holy assembly will never ever, that's the double negative, in both conditions, whether real or potential, will be taken away from him, never ever. This is the doctrine of the eternal security of believers. This is why Christians are confident. We're not cocky. No, we're not arrogant. We don't deserve this. Because we believe the Lord who is certain, who does not lie. Look how emphatic his words are. Never ever. I will make you pillars in the sanctuary of my God. How close is the Lord with his God? He's one in essence. He's father and son in relationship. He's saying, I will never ever remove it. You will always enjoy it. He will never go out from it anymore. And then notice what else he promises. Three names of great honor and privilege is mentioned here, and I will write on him the name of my God. And what does this mean? Is this tattoo? Is this spiritual tattoo? No. The first name is the honor and privilege of carrying God's name as a member of God's divine family. There are five people in my family, and if you check all of our IDs, they will all have the same last name. Same last name. And then you check another identification, the passports, it will all have the same name, but the same last name, but it will be in a nice blue booklet called the United States of America passport. One says California. driver's license. The other says United States passport. Both our identification in the family and our identification in the nation as citizens is the same. How did that happen? Well, you know how. How did this happen? Because Jesus says, I will write on him the name of my God. That's the grace for the persevering faithful believer who overcomes the world through faith in the Lord. He will discover that his name is written in the book of life and his eternal genealogies in heaven is spiritually related to God in his family. And the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem, praise God. The old Jerusalem was filled with immorality, idolatry, unrighteousness, religious hypocrisy. but the New Jerusalem, the holy city, prepared by God. Those who overcome will automatically be given full access and right to dwell eternally in the holy future city. The perfect successor of the old Jerusalem is the New Jerusalem, from heaven, not from earth. Filled with sin and unrighteousness was the old city of Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is holiness, glory. This will happen after the Millennial Kingdom. This is not even the promise of the Millennial Kingdom entrance. This is the promise of the after. This is not just the promise of the honeymoon. This is the promise of a life together forever, happily ever after, after the honeymoon. Oh yes, wedding has taken place. Oh yes, Christ is coming for his bride. Oh yes, they're going to enjoy a thousand year of honeymoon. And yes, they will live happily ever after in the new Jerusalem for all of eternity. That's after the Millennium Kingdom, after the Great White Throne Judgment. There's nothing that would shake up the eternal security of the believers to whom Jesus makes these secure promises. You're going to have the name of my God on you, the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. Notice the personal pronouns again, my, my, my God, my God, and then, and my new name. my new name now we know what the whole new jerusalem is that's in revelation 21 too and i saw the holy city new jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god made ready as a bride adorned for her husband that what is my new name what jesus we know jesus's old name jesus we know the name christ but that's not what it means it's not it doesn't mean just a simple label but it means his entire character How much of Jesus do you really know? Not much. Not much. It's limited. Even though we are given new hearts to believe in Jesus, no Christian in this side of eternity can grasp the fullness of Christ, his being. It's like saying to the new bride, how much of your husband do you really know? Well, she's gonna say, well, I know him enough to say yes to him in marriage. but I have the rest of my life to find out. I think I will know more of Him and discover a lot of things, surprising things, pleasant things, difficult things, but I will know Him more, absolutely. You have to go through much of life experience to get to know each other, all the good, bad, and the ugly, right? And continue to love. Now look at this. In this side of eternity, what bad can you find in Christ? I mean, nothing. He's perfect. He is the perfect. He's the second and the last Adam. He's the true man, the way that God had intended, without sin. And yet look at his character. What did he do with his perfection, with his power and abilities? He laid it all down. He set it aside. The Kena'o, the kenosis theory. And he took upon himself weakness of a human body so he can die for us to deal with our greatest need, the need for forgiveness of sin. And so that through his glorious resurrection that he can credit to all of the beloved, all the perfect works that he has earned that we could never earn. Not even one before God, but he did. So what would we discover on that side of eternity when we are glorified? All of a sudden we will be beholding our Lord clearly, perfectly. we will discover every nuance about him. When we're glorified, we will not only be able to bear the new name of Jesus because he said he's going to give us his new name, but fully appreciate all the blessing that entails. Let's take a look at 1 John 3 2 and we'll conclude with this 1 John 3 2. There's great limitations for us. You can understand that there's great physical limitations for us. I don't think anybody here can lift 1,000 pounds unaided. So it's very heavy. 1,000 pounds is very heavy. I don't think there's anyone here who could run 1,000 miles without resting. So we're physically limited. Well, that's Herculean, OK? I don't think anyone here has x-ray vision. and you can see through walls. I don't think there's anyone here who could hear better than the dogs who can hear ultra high-pitched sounds that we can't hear. I don't think there's anyone here who has the intellectual capacity of 500 IQ plus. We're just happy we get triple digits. See, we are all limited in so many different ways. We are not super duper human beings at all. No matter how wonderful, amazing, strong, powerful, and smart people think that they are in comparison. But when we look at Christ, a thousand pounds, He commanded the storms and the waves. Storms and the waves that devastated an entire state, the Lord Jesus calmed with the word. That's awesome power. He sees, He hears, He knows, He's ever-present. We're gonna know a lot more about Him. 1 John 3 verse 2, Isn't this wonderful? We're gonna be like Jesus because we will see Him just as He is. Isn't this amazing vision? This is when we are glorified without sin and when we are endowed with supernatural abilities to perceive the infinite glory of our infinite God who had become man, the infinite God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ as he is. As he is. Have you ever met your favorite celebrity? Have you talked to someone that you really admire, that you had dreamed to one day meet? Have you ever had that kind of experience? Some of you have, others of you say, oh no, not yet. How do you think you would feel? That's just another sinful human being, just like you, who has to go to the bathroom in the morning, just like you, who has to brush his teeth, and just like you, who's feeble, wrinkly, just like you. And yet, there's something about this person that you admire, that your hand would be shaking or palmy when you shake his hand, if you will. How would you feel if he invited you and called you by name saying, you are my friend? Well, that would be a great honor. This is how people describe being honored by someone. Now, take a look at this from the one who says, I love you and you will know me as I know you without sin. He's going to remove your sin because he died for your sin. He's going to reveal himself to you in a way that you've never known him. You're going to discover the One who truly loves you, who made you, and who blessed you, and who prepared you to be with Him in perfection for all of glory. How do you think you're going to feel? Quite excited. Something that I look forward to. Right now, if I met the Lord in my sinful state, I think I would tremble and fall on my face to the ground, begging for His mercy. But on that day, when sin is removed, when all shame and baggage and all the burden removed, and then my scales of my eyes are open and I have a glorified vision to behold Him as He is, wow. That's got to be much better than my wedding day, for sure. This is going to be the eternal, perpetual highlight of my entire life for all of eternity. This is what it means to have His name, the name of His God. and to be known by Him. We can only have this when we're glorified. He's saying, I will keep you from the hour of this testing and I'm going to prepare you so that I'm going to give you all these blessings so that you will know me as I know you and we will be eternally enraptured in one another's mutual love and affection. I will honor you and you will honor me. That's what Jesus is saying. Now friends, you want to turn that down for a career? For a paycheck? For a 9 to 5? For a nice house in a nice neighborhood? Please take a look at what Jesus is saying and look at what he's saying to the church at Philadelphia, the faithful church. What is the motivation for us to continue to persevere? It's His glory. It's to be with Him. It's to behold Him. Sometimes I'm ashamed that my inner drive to be with the Lord, to behold His glory, is not as strong as it ought to be. At the same time, when I look at Jesus and His Word, the anticipation of meeting Him increases. It's not much here. I don't want to live long. I want the Lord to return, to make me like this so that I can behold Him, to be with Him, to be with other believers, perfected without sin in eternal blessing and glory. I don't want to be fighting anymore. The longer I live, there are greater disappointments in life, burdensome. I don't know about you. But what a glorious future we have. This is what we need to fix our gaze. That's why we want the Lord to return. We want this. We want the Lord's promises and His commitments to be realized and actualized as soon as possible. That's the kind of yearning and the desire that is provoked in me when I behold His Word. When I stay away from His Word and the glory of who He is, yeah, I lose sight of Him just like anybody else and all of a sudden everything that is unimportant all of a sudden seems to preoccupy my mind. And that's when I lose joy and hope. When the situations look bleak instead of looking glorious, Because my focus is here and now rather than future and eternal. So we have to conclude now with the final verse, the verse that we have heard five times before now, six times. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The Lord is commanding every believer and every church in every generation to heed the scriptures. Because that's what the Spirit is saying to us through his word. We've seen Christ and his church at Philadelphia. Christ and his commendation of their faithfulness. Christ and his commitments to them for the rewards. And we saw, finally, verse 13, Christ and his call to pay attention, to pay heed, not to ignore what he said. We've heard it so many times. But I know, again, human nature for being is we're forgetful. We probably forgot what we learned last week and previous passage. And so we need reminders. So brothers and sisters, keep reminding each other. Hey, don't get too serious about that. Your life here, that's not that important. Your life eternally, that's important. Let's set our focus on the Lord. Let's keep reminding each other that. Remember? Remember what Jesus said? Remember? He's going to give us his name. Remember? We're going to be glorified. Remember? This is temporal. Remember, we need to be faithful and persevere. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The Lord's blessing for open doors for evangelism has been given to us. What a great blessing. Salvation of sinners. You know the trillions of dollars of the world and its mighty armies cannot save a single sinner. You know His power of His Word can, His Spirit can. He's given that to us, little us, who are us. We're nobody. Eternal rewards, deliverance from the coming tribulation, all because we choose to be faithful and continue to persevere and keep what has been entrusted to us. That's it. May the Lord make you a faithful, persevering Christian and not a quitter. For his namesake, let's pray. Father, thank you for giving us the word of life, giving us Christ and his eternity. Thank you, Lord, for reminding us once again who you are, who he is, and what you're doing in the world and who we are in him. Help us to be reminded over and over again for we are quick to forget. You have granted us great honor and privilege already, and you have given us eternal security in your certain word. May we fix our thoughts and our gaze upon the glorious future that you have in store for us, and we ask that you would be honored and glorified as your people continue to persevere in their faith. In Jesus' precious name, amen.