Well, this morning we're continuing our study of the seven churches of Revelation in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. And I invite you to open your Bible this morning with me to Revelation chapter 3 and find verses 7 and 8. We're beginning our look at the church at Philadelphia this morning. This is our sixth church in our seven church tour. Philadelphia, what a remarkable church. This church is like a shining city set on a hill whose light cannot be hid. It is a remarkable, joyful church for us to look at. Now there's no such thing as a perfect church, at least not on this side of glory. Like all churches, the one in Philadelphia had its problems, had its imperfections. And yet, our Lord commended this church and its members for their faithfulness and for their loyalty. This church and the church at Smyrna, which we considered earlier, were the only two of the seven churches that received absolutely no rebuke from the Lord. In spite of their struggles, in spite of their sinfulness, the Christians at Philadelphia were predominantly faithful. predominantly obedient and committed to Christ. They provide for us a model of a strong church. And while there are no perfect churches, there are healthy churches. There are strong churches, churches that adhere to biblical doctrine and faith and in practice and are willing not just to believe it in the pew, but to go out there and live it on the streets and where they work and in the home. A healthy church is simply one where the Bible is the standard for their leaders, for their members, for their personal and family life, for their finances and their giving, for their ministry goals, and especially for their theology. Because what you think about God is the most important thought you will ever think. The reason true Christians emphasize the Bible is frankly because our Lord Jesus emphasized the Bible. And as we begin our study of the church at Philadelphia this morning, we're going to find that their commitment to the Word of God, the written Word of God, is playing a dominant role in their approval from Jesus Christ. The single greatest feature of this church in Philadelphia was their unyielding commitment to the Word of God, and that was coupled with their not denying Christ's name in a community that was oppressive and hating the truth that they loved. Jesus twice mentions their adherence to His Word in this letter. He does so in verse 8, and then again down in verse 10. He says it again. The origins of the Philadelphia church was likely as an outreach based on the Apostle Paul's three-year ministry at the church in Ephesus. And if you look at Acts 19.10, you'll see a little summary verse that describes how the gospel spread out in that whole region as a result of Paul's ministry in Ephesus. I've said at other times that Ephesus is really the key church in Asia Minor. It was like the mother church that planted all the other churches that we've been studying. So that's a significant thing to remember about Ephesus. Philadelphia is one of the daughter churches that came from that evangelistic ministry. Philadelphia was located about 30 miles southeast of Sardis, and it was down towards where Laodicea is located. It was located near Mount Timolis. which was in an area that had been devastated by an earthquake earlier in the first century. Amazing devastation. It just wiped the whole area out. And this earthquake completely destroyed the city of Sardis, and it severely hurt Philadelphia, and yet these cities had already been rebuilt by the time John was writing. And that was a testimony for Christ to be spread through these churches. We have already considered how Sardis had already gone astray from the truth. They were the dead church that had a reputation for being alive, but it was a false reputation because Jesus said, you know what? You're dead. So even having new buildings, even having a cleaned infrastructure in a city does not mean the city is healthy, and it does not mean the gospel is being preached. But Philadelphia is a counterexample. It says, this church understood the gospel, and they were being faithful to the Word of God. Now I did some study about Philadelphia and this church and I found some interesting things. Did you know that a few years after John wrote Revelation, according to church history, the early church father named Ignatius passed through the city of Philadelphia? And he reportedly later wrote to this church, the same church of Philadelphia, a letter of encouragement and instruction, because at that time they were still remaining true to the gospel. They had not departed. Now, some Christians from Philadelphia were, in fact, martyred along with Polycarp at Smyrna. That was about 50 years after John recorded these words of Christ in Revelation. But this church in Philadelphia lasted for centuries. That's very unusual. When you have one of these early churches in Asia Minor, a lot of them went astray and began to die around the second and third centuries. This church kept the word. They kept the faith for centuries. In fact, the Christians in Philadelphia stood firm even after the region was overrun by the Muslims in the 7th and 8th centuries, and they finally succumbed in the mid-14th century. That's the region now known as Turkey. It's a heavily Muslim country. So that's a long track record of faithfulness and endurance over multiple generation after generation after generation of preaching the word, believing the word, passing it along to the next generation. And yet the long war against the truth of God's word continues right to this very hour. And Christ's people are called to stand in the gap. And now I want you to consider how the Word of God is directly linked to not only the future health and growth of every church, but also our ability to fortify our faith when we are facing cultural opposition to the Gospel and the truth of God's Word. We need this. We need to hear this. We need to fortify our hearts for the battle that rages around us. Revelation chapter 3, I'm looking at verses 7 and 8 as our introduction to the church at Philadelphia this morning. And now, in honor of God and His Word, I invite you to stand with me, if you would, for the reading of these verses. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Father, I pray that you would strengthen our faith this morning, that we would not deny your name, that we would keep your word and that we would live as ambassadors for Christ in the world around us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Now, the church at Philadelphia is a church that we would love to emulate as a church. And we can. We can if we keep His Word. And if we do not deny His name, no matter what. Jesus's encouragement to this faithful church begins with an assurance of his absolute supremacy over all things. This is something we should always find joy in. We should rejoice in the fact that Jesus is not handicapped in his ability to help people. He's not handicapped in his ability to intervene. When he doesn't intervene in a way that we think he should, it's not because he's not able. It's because it's not His purpose. He has purposes that are being fulfilled even in the things that we don't understand in the world around us. And we cannot use what we think should be as our definition of what God ought to do. Those are two different things. We are finite creatures. We have such limited understanding. God is perfectly wise. He is all good and He is unlimited in His ability to save and to do whatever He deigns to do. And so we're going to see how he presents this truth to the church at Philadelphia. And our first proposition comes from verse 7. I have this in the bulletin if you want to follow along. The first point is, in his supremacy, Jesus holds the key of David, allowing or preventing any action. He holds the key of David. Verse 7 is the formal address of Jesus to this church in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love, In the other letters that we've studied, Jesus introduces himself with a description of his character, but this description, this introduction, is slightly different from the others that we've seen so far. Unlike the other five letters, this one to Philadelphia does not draw on the earlier description of Jesus back in chapter 1. The descriptions of Jesus in the letter to Philadelphia are full of distinctly Old Testament imagery. Now take the first three images that are found in verse 7, where he says, the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David. Each of these images are drenched with symbolism from the Old Testament. Notice the first one, the Holy One. the Holy One. That refers to God. That was an expression that in the Old Testament was reserved for Yahweh alone. No one else could share that title, the Holy One. All the Jews realized this. Whenever a Jew would refer to the Holy One of Israel, it was an explicit reference to Yahweh, the God of Israel. The Old Testament repeatedly refers to God as the Holy One of Israel. So now watch what happens. Jesus takes that Old Testament reference to Yahweh and He applies it here to Himself. He says, I am the Holy One. I am one with Yahweh. It is a direct and an explicit claim to our Lord's deity. Now this is to say that the character of Jesus is absolutely unblemished, it's absolutely flawless, and because Christ is holy, He's saying His church must be holy also. And in Him, through faith, we are. Through faith we are, not in our own strength, but through Christ we are. In 1 Peter 1.15, the Apostle Peter wrote, And as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. And again, this is only possible through regeneration. We must be born again through faith to have this holiness spoken of in Scripture. Now this introduction from Jesus to the church at Philadelphia that is highlighting and emphasizing our Lord's holiness with no rebuke, with no warning, no condemnation to the church speaks very well of them indeed. I mean, He's stacking the deck showing how holy He is to say, in the light of my holiness as God, what I'm about to say should be a very good encouragement to you. He has no rebuke. And if there's anyone who could rebuke anything, it is the holy God of heaven and earth. And yet He tells them He has nothing of a rebuke to speak to them. Now the second image says the true one. The true one, meaning genuine, authentic, means real in contrast to falsehood or perversion and error that's in the world. This could also be taken to mean the main truth among subordinate truths. Because sometimes Jesus is not saying that there aren't other truths out there, but He's saying, I am the main truth among other things that are true in the world. Now, Jesus Christ is the standard of truth and the standard of trueness. Right now, the gospel is the most important thing in the world. It really is. Though it's not acknowledged as such, especially outside the church, but the gospel is the most important reality in the world. Now listen, the second you die, it will be the only important reality. it won't just be the first among many it will be the only important reality that you've ever considered because it will determine the difference between heaven and hell and that is determined now in this life so Jesus says I am the true one I am the truth with a capital T and then the third image says who has the key of David now this is very interesting the key of David is a is a symbol of the Davidic messianic kingdom The reference to David here is from an Old Testament figure of messianic rule, since the Messiah would be a descendant of King David. This is like Jesus saying, because he is the promised Messiah, the descendant of King David, he alone has the authority to determine who enters his messianic kingdom and who does not. He has universal authority as well. But he specifies the authority here to his messianic kingdom. Now throughout the Bible, a key represents authority over the thing that is opened or closed by the key. Whoever has the key to something has authority and control over the thing the key opens. You have keys, I have keys, and in a sense it means I have authority. Now in the biblical image it means much more than what we think of as being able to open a door. Like I can open the church door, I can open the door to my house or my car and things like that. Doesn't necessarily imply the full range of authority, but in the Bible it does. In the Bible there is this message and a symbol of authority. The gospel is a key. It unlocks the heart of the lost. It's only the hand of Jesus that can do it. It opens the doors of heaven to those who are redeemed. It's the gospel. So it's like saying He is the Messiah who has absolute authority over His messianic kingdom. Now, a passage that is explicitly a reference to what we're studying here is Isaiah 22, 22. That's a really a key passage, Isaiah 22, 22, where it says, and I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open. Our Lord Jesus is making an explicit reference to Isaiah 22, 22 by referring to himself in these terms. Now keep in mind, the reference in Isaiah originally referred to a man named Eliakim, who was the steward of Israel's king. And in his position, Eliakim controlled access to the monarch. He had the keys in that sense. And so Jesus is taking this scripture and he applies it to himself in verse 7. He says, I am the ultimate fulfillment of that verse. And now that text in Isaiah 22, 22 also has our next phrase. In Revelation 3, 7, he goes on to say, who opens and no one will shut. Who shuts and no one opens. That is a picture of absolute authority. This is a picture of supreme authority, and it describes the sovereign authority of Jesus Christ over all things, allowing or preventing any action to take place. Now, what Jesus does cannot be overturned or overthrown by someone or something that is more powerful. than He is, because there is nothing, there is no one more powerful, including the fallen will of man, including the hosts of hell. It's sort of like that ridiculous philosophical question, can God create a rock so big that even He can't move it? Ever heard that? It's supposed to be an unanswerable question because it pits two of God's attributes and aspects against each other. Namely, it pits God's ability to create over and against His ability to control. But the obvious and I think simple answer to the question is no, of course not. It's like asking, can God voluntarily cease to be God? Or can God create a more powerful God than He is? Or can God create something over which He is not God? And again, absolutely no is the answer to all of those questions. God is infinite. And whatever He creates is finite by definition. God has no beginning. Everything He creates has a beginning. Verse 7 is therefore telling us, and it's telling these Christians here in Philadelphia, that infinite, holy, sovereign, supreme Jesus is over everything in their lives. He's over the culture. He's over the community that's raging against them. He's over everything that is in creation, including Satan and those who are doing His bidding right now on the earth. Jesus created everything. He controls absolutely everything for His glory and for the ultimate good of His people. Otherwise, Romans 8.28 would have no basis in fact if it didn't apply to all of the wickedness, all the evil, all of the heartache that we see around us. If that isn't the all things that He makes good for those who love Him, then the verse has no meaning. He is absolutely sovereign over all things. Now in Isaiah 43, 13, God says, even from eternity, I am He. And there is none who can deliver out of my hand. I act and who can reverse it? Isaiah 43, 13. And so the emphasis in these Old Testament descriptions is about the sovereign control of Jesus Christ over his church and over his coming messianic kingdom. In His supremacy, Jesus holds the key of David, allowing or preventing any action of man or any entrance into His kingdom. But this also means that Jesus allows certain things to happen that make us uncomfortable, uneasy, things that trouble us, things that we absolutely do not understand right now why they're allowed to happen, even things that frankly break our hearts as Christians. That's why this is so important for the church at Philadelphia to understand what Jesus is saying here. And that's why, brothers and sisters, it is so important that we here right now understand what this verse is saying, lest we despair about all the bad things that are happening in the news and in the world all around us. The Philadelphians had to understand this truth because they were right in the middle of a very difficult, uncomfortable situation where they needed to receive this encouragement from Christ, because many of them would die for their faith. Many of them had already lost everything, and now they were about to lose their lives and watch their families suffer great deprivation and hardship because they loved Jesus. None of these things can hurt you in any way. Even though you may die, you won't be hurt. Now that's a paradox. Because if we're living only for this life, then death is the ultimate cash-in and there's nothing else you can do about it. That's the end. But in Jesus, He's the Lord of life. He has the control of everything. Death and Hades are in His hand. He has authority over the grave. He can raise a Lazarus if He wants to. He can raise a little girl who is sick. He can stop a funeral and interrupt the funeral and break it up by raising the dead body. He can do anything. And so when we're talking about Jesus, we can't rule out anything that is within the prospect of his will. But here he's encouraging them in that power. And he's telling his people, as bad as you feel right now, I want you to know that I am in control of everything. Nothing can happen to you unless I allow it. And he's reminding them that the reason his messianic reign hasn't begun to deliver them from their pain and their persecution isn't because human evil is preventing them. You see, they wanted the Messiah to come back now. They said, if there was ever a good time for Jesus to come back right now, to split the skies, to sound the trumpet, to have the voice of the archangel now, now, Lord Jesus, come now. That's what they wanted. And Jesus is saying, the reason I haven't begun my messianic reign now is not because it's out of my control. It's because it's not my purpose yet. It's not my purpose yet. I have a purpose and everything is going to happen according to my good and perfect will. He's saying, you trust me right where you are. You don't worry about my kingdom. I have the key to the kingdom. You don't worry about that. He's telling them he is in control of the timing of all the aspects of prophecy. He's in control of the timing of the end of the world. He's in absolute control of all the things that are going on in the nations and the dictators and the rulers who are raging against the Lord right now. That's verse 7. And by the way, that's still his message to us. The Lord is not slow about his promise. And then this powerful, omnipotent Jesus says to the church at Philadelphia in verse 8, notice verse 8, he says, I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. And so the second point this morning is this. Christ's weak people keep his word and honor his name he grants them irrevocable opportunities for his glory opportunities There's this familiar phrase at the beginning of verse 8 where he says I know your works in five of the other churches He said that, and it was not necessarily good news to the churches. A lot of the churches were a really mixed bag. Some of them had good works, but almost all of them had things that were not good. But in Philadelphia, this statement from Jesus is really very good news. He knows their works, and they're good. They're good works. And the word for knowledge here, again, is the familiar word used in all the other letters. We've talked about it before. It's the Greek word oida. It means supreme, sovereign knowledge over all things. It describes not something you learn, Like, we know things, we learn things. God doesn't learn things. He knows things in a comprehensive way. And that's the word here, oida. It's a reference to supreme, sovereign, comprehensive knowledge. He knows everything that somebody thinks. He knows every heart. He knows what somebody can do and what they didn't do. He knew what they could have done. He knows all the possibilities, all the contingencies. There's nothing that He doesn't know. And now in that reference, in verse 7, we saw that Jesus' reference to an open door meant some type of opportunity for His glory. And now here in verse 8, He's announcing, Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. And so this is an announcement of opportunity for this little faithful church in Philadelphia. And as we noted in the message to Thyatira, that word behold is an arresting exclamation. Behold means look. Think of it as a look with an exclamation point. It's saying look. Watch this. Don't miss this. It's intended to grab the reader's attention. In Thyatira, behold came right before some very bad news for a woman named Jezebel. Remember, he gave the prophecy that was about to be fulfilled regarding her sickness and death right after he said behold. But now it comes right before some very good news about a glorious opportunity. So Jesus is saying, behold, or look, I have ordained a glorious opportunity for you by my sovereign power and infinite knowledge of all things. And no earthly power can ever revoke that opportunity. This is very good news for the Philadelphia church. The metaphor of an open door in scripture is usually related to an opportunity for sharing the gospel. Open doors are so often in the New Testament related to sharing the gospel and thereby spreading the kingdom of Christ. In fact, the Apostle Paul uses that exact image for sharing the gospel in three places, 1 Corinthians 16, verses 8 and 9, 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 12 and Colossians chapter 4 verses 2 and 3 He talks about an open door in reference to the gospel now here. It suggests that Jesus will give them in Philadelphia supernatural liberty Supernatural freedom in this culture to openly declare his word to those who haven't yet believed and you know what brothers and sisters That's what they wanted That's what they wanted. You say, didn't they just want protection? Didn't they just want the suffering to end? Oh, of course they wanted that in a human sense, but they really wanted to spread the gospel because they loved Jesus and they knew this culture needed Jesus. Do you know our culture needs Jesus? They need the gospel out there and they need to hear it from people who believe it, from people who love the Lord. You know, some of you have a big heart for missions and a big heart for evangelism around the world, and I praise God that He has planted that motive in your heart. That's great. We want to encourage that. This has always been a missionary church. And by God's grace, we pray that that outreach and interest will only increase and thrive in the coming years. And I also know that some of you with young children especially want your children to experience missions as a part of the normal Christian life, that you don't just read about missionaries or talk about missionaries. You want to take your kids onto the mission field and actually give them some experience in short-term missions to say, this is what it looks like. This is what it means to spread the gospel in a culture where they don't believe in Jesus, or at least not the way the Bible proclaims Him. And we praise God for that desire too. We want the gospel to spread. God gave you that desire for your children, and we want to fan it into a flame for His glory. When Christ's people do have a burning passion and a desire to pursue any spiritual enterprise, really, that magnifies our Lord's name, that spreads His word and His worth to others, that desire will inevitably be accompanied by an open door to make it happen. And so you may right now have a burning desire, right now, to spread the gospel, but you don't sense an open door quite yet. You say, I don't know what to do with this desire. I don't know where the Lord is leading me. If that desire is from Jesus, you don't need to force a door open. You don't need to act in the flesh. You don't need to manipulate things to make things happen. You need to wait on the Lord, and you need to cultivate the desire while you're waiting. It's an active waiting, not a passive waiting. And at the right time, He will open that door if it's His will for you to go through. But until then, you should cultivate that desire, keep your heart and your eyes open for the opportunity to share your faith right where you are. Remember, God's will doesn't begin on the foreign soil. If God wants you to go overseas with the gospel, he'll begin right here. And if your heart is to spread the gospel, you don't have to wait until you get anywhere else. You and I are on the mission field right now. We were born on the mission field and we're not home yet. And so we are to spread the gospel. The world is our parish in that sense. And so our Lord Jesus is telling the Philadelphian church that His blessing to them is, because you have but little power, and yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name. Now I loved learning this as I studied the passage, that when Jesus says, you have but little power, He's actually paying them a compliment. He's saying something great about them here. This is a veiled way of reminding them of how powerful and influential they've been in relation to their small size as a church. He's saying, you don't realize how powerful you are in Philadelphia, even though you're just a little ragtag, poor bunch of people who feel abused and like you're just a little voiceless minority. He says, believe me, from heaven, we know exactly what's going on here. Heaven is aware of your reputation. You are known by the people in heaven, and we know that you're actually very powerful, and you don't realize it. Listen, when Jesus and His Word are central, small churches can be powerful. Never think that the power of your witness is related to the smallness of your size of your church, or the size of your ability to spread the gospel. Don't say, just because I don't have the gift of evangelism, therefore I can't evangelize. No. You step out in faith. You pray for that open door. Their little power here refers to their small numbers in the community. And so this was a small church, and yet they kept the word of Jesus. They never denied his name. And most of these Christians, again, I remind you, they were poor. Many were from the lower classes of society. And yet, in spite of their small size, the undeniable power of Jesus Christ surged through this little church, this little, healthy, faithful church. They were keeping His word. They were exalting His name. And so Jesus is going to give them an open door to spread his word through the power of his spirit. They have been striving in the dark. They have been striving through the storm for so long. And now Jesus is saying, the light is going to shine. And the storm is going to clear. And I am going to open a door for you and no one can shut it. I think we all want our church to be blessed like this church in Philadelphia was blessed. Don't we? We want this to happen here. Part of that means keeping God's Word. It means deliberately going to God's Word and finding what His will is and doing that will, putting it into practice, especially when it's hard, especially when it's against the grain, and especially when it is unpopular in the culture. We must stand for what is right, even when it is not popular. That's what Philadelphia did. And like them, we must all labor together, each according to our gifts, until in God's good time, that great door of opportunity swings open for our greatest days of ministry and service to this entire region, not only in this land, but beyond our region locally and around the world. By faith in Christ, brothers and sisters, we look for it, we pray for it, and we prepare for it. Let's close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for reminding us of your perfect timing, of your perfect purpose, and your supreme power over all things. We ask that you would grant us faith now and give us the courage we need to go through the doors that you open to spread your word abroad. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.