We've been going through a series of the seven churches of Revelation, and today we are back in Revelation chapter 3, and I want you to look at verses 9 and 10. We were continuing our study of the church at Philadelphia this morning. Philadelphia is that rare, wonderful, faithful church. While there are some things in Scripture that are hard to understand, and by the way, the Apostle Peter alludes to this in 2 Peter 3.16, that verse always encourages me because he acknowledges that there are things that Paul has written that are hard to understand, and those of us who have taught through Paul's letters say, Amen. I can relate to that. But the main things in Scripture tend to be the plain things. That's a glorious observation and a truth to remember, that the main things in Scripture tend to be the plain things. God is so gracious to make the great truths of Scripture so basic that even a small child can see the meaning. And you don't need to think that you have to be a scholar or have doctorates to understand the basic meaning of most of the Bible. Now when I teach or preach, I want to understand a passage. And I want to understand it not only for my own life, but I want to understand it well enough that I can teach someone else what it means. Just as a side note, if you ever want to grow deep in the Scripture, find someone else that you can teach, even one other person. Because when you teach a passage of the Bible, it forces you to learn it, I think, at a deeper level. Nothing has caused me to go deep in God's Word like trying to teach it to someone else. Because it uses a different part of your brain to think through, what do I need to explain that I might assume someone knows that they might not know? And so just going through that whole process will help you to grow deeper. I know that I found that to be true for myself. But understanding the intended meaning of a passage really is the goal of exposition. To exposit literally means to explain what the text means. However, understanding the Bible isn't the hardest part of teaching. It's doing what it says. That's the hardest part of living the Christian life, is not just understanding it up here, but understanding it here in the heart and actually living it in the home and in the community where we live and work. Understanding, therefore, is really only a means of being changed by what God says. You know, it's like understanding what it takes to lose weight. You know, my doctor tells me it's very simple. He says you just eat less and you exercise more. I get that. That sounds very easy, but putting it into practice is another matter entirely. And that's the way it is with Christian truth. We may understand certain principles quite well, but actually putting it into practice becomes another matter entirely. The hardest part of all truth is personal application. This has always been true. This was true in the first century, by the way. It was true even for the Philadelphians who lived in Asia Minor. Since the beginning of the church, Christians have struggled with knowing and keeping God's word with obedience. But in God's grace, it does happen. Praise God, there are examples for us. And that's what makes our passage this morning, I think, so refreshing. It is here that the Christians in Philadelphia had victory. They were victorious in spite of all of the things that were assaulting them from the culture and within, not to mention their own sin nature. I mean, these people had sin, but Jesus didn't need to rebuke them for that because they were in the main living faithful lives in spite of everything going on around them. The triumph of faith is a battle. even under the best of circumstances, and yet the circumstances in first-century Philadelphia were far from ideal. This morning we're going to learn how these persecuted Christians kept the Word of Jesus while facing overwhelming odds where they lived. We'll see that they did it by faith, and they received breathtaking assurances from Jesus. This is the same battle. that you and I are called to face today. We desire the same rewards, and Jesus commands us to strive by faith to attain these rewards. Here's how they did it. Look at Revelation chapter 3. I'm going to be expositing verses 9 and 10 this morning, but since this is the exposition of Scripture, not merely a reading, in honor of God and His Word, would you stand with me now for the reading of these two verses? Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie, behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you." because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. Father, I pray that you would empower me to preach this truth and that you would enable all of us this morning to embrace the truth of your word and to live holy lives as a result, that you would fill us with hope this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. Last Sunday we talked about the open door that Jesus put before the Christians in Philadelphia, and this morning we're going to investigate two of the opportunities made available by that open door. The first opportunity involves their persecutors bowing down at their feet. bowing down at least in some sense, and I'll get into some of the difficulties of the passage in just a moment. But verse 9 is summarized in the first proposition, and these are recorded in your bulletin if you would like to follow along. Christians who keep Christ's Word against overwhelming odds will be vindicated by Jesus as a manifestation of His love for them. His love. Listen again as I read verse 9. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. What an interesting verse. What an interesting motive that they would bow down so that they would know that He has loved them. There's a lot of rich material here that we need to unpack. As in Smyrna, Philadelphia also had this contingent of Jews who were radically opposed to the church, radically opposed particularly to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they hated the Lord Jesus. They hated His people. Now this is the general response of unbelief, whether it's Jewish unbelief or otherwise. And yet, the first Christians, we need to remember, were all Jewish, right? The very first Christians were all Jewish. And it was the Jewish Messiah who is the Savior of the world. Christianity is for the Jews and for all the nations. Jesus is not just a Jewish Savior. He is the Savior of the world. He's the Savior of all the people who will ever be saved. There are not many ways to God. There is but one way to God. Jesus said, I am that way. And so we declare Him as the only way for Jews or Gentiles, for any race, any nation, any person to be saved is only through Christ. Now the true church has always loved the Jewish people. I need to say that because if you take that verse out of context, it can sound very anti-Jewish. And you can read that verse in such a way that it makes it sound like the Jewish people are all painted with a tarred brush. But that is not the purpose at all. And I should say that the true church has always, like Paul, had a deep love for the Jewish people, desiring them to be saved, wanting them, pleading that they might come to a knowledge of faith in Christ. Though we should also acknowledge that not everyone who represents the church over the years has rightly embodied or expressed that love, and that is a great tragedy. That has hurt our witness, I think, in many ways to the Jewish people, because we have to explain and help them to understand that that is not a reflection of the true heart of Christians, and certainly not of Christ. So our hope for the Jewish race and for all people is that they would come to a knowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. As the King of the Jews and the Lord of creation, Jesus calls one gospel-hating, God-hating group, the synagogue of Satan, quote unquote. That same phrase was used back in the letter to Smyrna. It's not the exact same group of people, and yet they represent the same hatred of Christ and His people. The Christians in Philadelphia suffered hostility from unbelieving Jews in particular. Now that's a statement. Because even the Roman culture would often persecute Christians, but here it seems in Philadelphia it was another group of religious people who differed from them. Not pagans, not people who were just completely antithetical to any type of religion, but Jews. Now that's a noteworthy thing when you have one group of a religious people who have so much in common with Christianity as far as the Old Testament goes, and having all the prophets. And by the way, in the New Testament, keep in mind that the Old Testament was the Bible. That was the Bible that they had in the New Testament before the epistles and the gospels were written. And so they had so much in common, but Jesus Christ is the dividing line of all opinions. Jesus Christ is the dividing line of history, is the dividing line of culture. And no one has ever brought more division than the person of Jesus Christ. Because we cannot be ambivalent about what we think of Jesus. He is who he said he was, or else he was a complete liar. And we should reject everything he said. because it all hinges on the veracity of His Word. And He validated and vindicated and verified everything He said. He proved it. He proved He was true. He proved that He was from God. Now apparently this hostility toward the church went on for decades, and it even went into the second century. In fact, according to church history, we read that Ignatius had to contend with some hostile Jews when he visited Philadelphia, you know, nearly a half a century after this letter was written. That was many years after Revelation had been recorded. And because this hostile group rejected Jesus as their Messiah, they were not at all a synagogue of God. They were not a real synagogue, because had they been true Jews, they would have embraced the true Messiah. That's the following. That's the logic. Oh, they were Jews outwardly. They were Jews culturally and ceremonially. They kept the ordinances in that external sense. But they were not Jews spiritually. That is, in the sense of Abraham. They were not sons of their father Abraham in terms of their faith. Romans 2.28 makes this remarkable statement. Romans 2.28 says, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart. by the Spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God. And so Jesus is saying, these aren't true Jews. They're just ethnic Jews, but they're not Jews in terms of spirit. And so Jesus says in verse nine, I am going to make these persecutors who say they are Jews, but are not, but lie, I will make them come and bow down before your feet. Now, understand that in this Eastern, Middle Eastern context, Bowing down at someone's feet symbolize total defeat and total submission. It symbolizes that to us too, even in our culture, but it really symbolizes this here in the Eastern view of being prostrated before another ruler, of doing obeisance to someone in terms of bowing down. Proverbs 14.19 says, the evil will bow down before the good. and the wicked at the gates of the righteous." So that will happen. And yet, we have to ask, in what sense is Jesus saying they will bow? What does he mean by that? Now here's where I got into some really deep study, because commentators take different views on what this means. And what I want to do this morning is to present to you the two most likely answers, which are the two dominant views of this passage. And then I will tell you which I prefer and why. But let's go over two prominent views that are taken by conservative Christian Bible scholars on what this means. On one hand, the context seems to require some form of retribution. Retribution on the enemies of Christ and his church. This would mean that the members of the synagogue of Satan would be defeated in some socio-political sense as literally bowing down in subjection to Christians. Underlying verse 9 of Revelation 3 is the same truth Paul expressed in Philippians 2 verses 10 and 11 where he says at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father You know some will do this joyfully in this life in repentance in And some will do this remorsefully in the future before the great white throne, not penitently, according to Revelation 6, 12 and following. So that's one view, that it has to do with, you know, what the context would seem to indicate, that it's a form of retribution. Now, others take the open door mentioned in verse 8 to be an evangelistic opportunity in verse 9. meaning that some of the very Jews who were persecuting the church would actually be saved and would be transformed through authentic faith in Jesus Christ. In that sense, they would bow down at their feet in learning and believing the gospel. they would be submitted to the church and learning about the Christian faith and learning how much Jesus loves his faithful people in Philadelphia. And so, in that sense, it would be their unbelief and it would be their hostility that was defeated and subdued through faith in Jesus Christ. Now both interpretations have pros and cons, both contextually and spiritually. And I have to confess that for a number of years, I really tried to take that second view, that it had to do with redemption, because that's a very attractive view to me. I mean, it's very appealing to me as a pastor who wants to see people come to faith. And I know, and you know, that God does many times bring enemies of Christ to faith. He does bring persecutors to faith, like Saul of Tarsus, for example. I know that there have been political leaders who have been brought to faith, who have been very antithetical to the gospel, and later they come to Christ because God changes their heart. And in that sense, they are not enemies of the cross because the enmity has been taken away through faith in Christ. But having said that, I believe the context here, and the plain reading of this verse, verse 9, strongly suggests to me punitive reading a punitive interpretation rather than a redemptive one look at the verse again verse 9 where he says I'm going to make these persecutors who say they are Jews but are not but lie I will make them come and bow down before your feet that does not sound voluntary that does not sound like their hearts have been changed that it speaks to me of a forced act that they have to do it. This is their punishment. They're now being brought to some bar of justice, and they can no longer deny that. They can no longer resist. And I do believe that that is an accurate interpretation in the context. I have to say that the Christian church greatly yearns for the redemption and the transformation of those who currently oppose God's truth. They are not our enemies. Those who oppose the gospel are not our enemies. They are the enemies of Christ. They are in many ways hostages of the enemy and we should pray for their release We should pray that they would be set free so that they could come to faith in Jesus Which is what? Anyone who had the ability would do if you could see Jesus as he is if you could worship him in his beauty and in his holiness He is so attractive Morally and and in every other way that anyone would be drawn to them if their eyes were opened If they could see Him as He truly is, that's the problem. The lost cannot, on their own, see Him as He is. And therefore we must pray that their eyes will be opened, that the scales of unbelief would fall from their eyes and that they would come to faith in Christ. So we should pray this for Christ's enemies. We should pray that they will be released from that bondage. They are not our enemies. They are His. But here in Revelation 3.9, the favored interpretation is that Jesus will cause the opponents of the gospel, this synagogue of Satan and the false church and all of its various manifestations, to one day acknowledge Jesus Christ as the one true King. And we know ultimately this is true. And apparently it would be true in a local sense immediately that they would be able to understand and say this fulfills that prophecy. Now, there will be a day of reckoning for the persecutors of the church. In fact, Revelation 3.9 may be an allusion to Isaiah 60, verse 14. Isaiah 60.14 says, The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet. They shall call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. That's a really close allusion. And also, it could be an allusion to Isaiah 49.23. Isaiah 49.23 says, with their faces to the ground, they shall bow down to you and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who wait for me shall not be put to shame. Now the last part of verse nine, explains the motive, and they will learn that I have loved you. Now, the vindication of Jesus for His people is apparently borne out in the punishment of their persecutors, as well as the salvation of some of their opponents as a manifestation of His love for the church. We don't deny that even if the interpretation of verse 9 is a punitive interpretation, that doesn't mean that He's still not going to bring some to faith. It doesn't mean that some of the enemies of Christ are not still going to come to faith. They will. And in fact, one commentator made this great point. How better for the enemies of Christ to know how much he loves the church than if he saves some of those enemies and they're still friends with people who hate the church. You see, it connects the enemies of Christ with somebody who's actually had their heart changed and they say, He changed me. I no longer hate the church. I love Jesus. I don't want to sin. I want to obey Him. They say, you used to be like us. What happened to you? Jesus loves the church. Jesus loves His people. And so what better way for them to know how much Jesus loves the church than for some of those enemies to have their hearts changed. And I think that's a very good point. Now, we have open doors like this as well. All throughout our community are men and women who don't know Jesus, who don't attend any church at all. Some of them are downright hostile to the church. They have no idea what we do here on Sunday. I know that many people think of the church as just a place where you go when you need financial help or you need food, and they call the church for physical resources all the time. But I doubt if very many of them have much of any understanding of what goes on in a church, that we are basically here to learn what our Lord has told us so that we can go out and obey Him and live a life that is pleasing to Him. He's left us here to be salt and light until he takes us to be with himself. But all throughout our community are men and women who don't understand why we're here. And again, they're not our enemies, though they may persecute us. They're really his enemies. But is it possible that some of these very people are ordained to inherit eternal life? I mean, some of those people who hate the church right now in our community may be among those that God says, they're my people. They need to hear the gospel. And when they hear the gospel, I will bring them to myself. Wouldn't it be a joy if you and I had the privilege of being that light bearer? If we were the ones who made the gospel known by forming a relationship in some way with someone who does not know Christ, so that they can come to faith in Christ through the gospel. through the means that God has ordained in His Word. This is an evangelistic opportunity that God has put before us in our community. You and I have the privilege of being the one who explains the gospel and being in the process of leading them to Christ. Now Jesus sets before us open doors of opportunity to magnify His love for us through the spreading of the gospel. Look at verse 10. Verse 10 helps us complete the thought. He says, Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. Now here's the second point. Christians who keep Christ's Word against overwhelming odds will also be kept from the hour of testing reserved for unbelievers. Unbelievers. I'll show you where I got that in the text. The condition set by Jesus for escaping the hour of testing is, quote, because you have kept my word about patient endurance. This is just one of the stated rewards about keeping his word with patient endurance. Not only do we find there to be an open door for evangelism, but that their enemies will bow at their feet, and some of them will even come to faith in Christ, and true Christians will be kept from this worldwide hour of testing, which is still future, according to verse 10. The ability to keep the Word of Christ is an ability that only He can give. We can't make that happen spontaneously. He has to grant that ability. But praise God, He does. Even the desire to keep His Word is from Him. You know, this is a wonderful evidence of genuine faith. One of the great evidences in my heart, when I know that nothing good dwells in me, when I see any desire to read His Word or any desire to do something to obey Christ, I know that did not originate with my nature. I know that that is the work of God in my heart. And that encourages me that He is still at work in the heart of sinners. He is still doing work to keep us drawing toward Him. And yet, we also should cultivate this desire. We should cultivate the habits that help us to discipline our faith and to grow in Christ. And we know this because of familiar verses like Philippians 2.12. Remember Philippians 2.12, where we are commanded to do this for our own assurance? Where he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work, for His good pleasure." So he's telling us to work it out, and then he says, because it's God working in you to do that. And so we are working out our salvation, but we can't do that unless He begins that work. He says, He who begins the good work in us will be faithful to complete it, even to the day of Jesus Christ. And so your obedience, my obedience to the Word of God, is strong evidence of Christ at work in our lives. Now in verse 10, the Christians in Philadelphia kept Christ's Word about patient endurance, or the Word of my steadfastness. And that means they obeyed His Word. thereby demonstrating his steadfastness, his steadfastness in their lives. It wasn't merely they were saying, we are steadfast or we have kept the faith, but they're showing that he has been steadfast in their lives. And that brings him glory. It brings him honor among those who do not know him. You know, the only merit in a believer's life is the merit of Christ. His merit saves us, not our own. But not everyone has this merit, only believers. And so who are the true believers? Verse 10 answers, True believers are those who keep His Word about patient endurance. That's a description of true Christians. They keep His Word. Not perfectly, of course. None of us perfectly keep His Word. But it is our great desire to grow in His Word. That's why we attend Sunday school. That's why we come to church. That's why we read the Bible. It's because we don't just want to be convicted and feel bad. We want to know how we ought to live our lives. Someone has said that the Bible was not written to fill our head with information. It was written to change our lives It was written to change the way we think and live Now the promise to these Christians extends to all Christians. This is not just a local thing for Philadelphia. This did not die out in the first century with Asia Minor. Rather, this is for all churches. And we know that in part because the Word of God is for the church in general, and because this promise is in the future tense. I want you to look at the verse, verse 10. I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. It's talking about something that has not yet happened. It's talking about something that for them was still yet future. Now there has been much debate about the implications of this verse. It's considered in the Bible one of the clearest statements that Christians will be kept from the future worldwide period of testing which will come upon all unbelievers, known as the Great Tribulation. And that it refers to the hour of trial upon unbelievers. If you wonder where I got the unbelievers part, that's from that phrase, those who dwell on the earth. At least in the ESV, it has that phrase, those who dwell on the earth. That phrase always refers to non-Christians in the Bible. Christians are never referred to with that phrase, those who dwell on the earth. It's always about the population at large, not the church of Christ. Now while many Bible scholars agree that this reference to the hour of testing refers to the Great Tribulation, of course not all agree to the timing of Christ's deliverance in what is called the rapture of the church, which would be involved in this text. In various ages of Christian history, Many believers have held to a pre-tribulation view of the rapture, for which I believe a strong biblical and exegetical case can be made. I should tell you that is the perspective from which I am coming, and I tend to grow in this perspective as I've studied the scripture. But, having said that, this is not an issue over which Christians should ever part fellowship with other believers. That is, we can disagree on something like this and still have beautiful Christian fellowship. But I want you to know which perspective I'm taking. Now, the pre-tribulation view has been the predominant view in the church from the apostolic age until just prior to the time of Augustine in the fifth century. But since that time, many counter views arose and have gained the ascendancy in our world and in the church, namely the mid-tribulational, the post-tribulational, and even amillennial views. Pre-tribulational deliverance would mean that Jesus would keep Christians from the hour of trial before it begins, before it comes upon the entire world of unbelievers. Now, frankly, when we read verse 10, plainly, we find that that's really what the verse is saying. Listen to verse 10 again. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. Now I want to point out several things in this verse that are worth noting. Some Christians believe that Christ will deliver his people through the tribulation. That is, they believe that Christians will still be on the earth during the tribulation period. Some believe that Christ will come back in the middle of the tribulation. Others believe that he will come back after the tribulation is over, mid-trib, post-trib, respectively. But those interpretations that he would deliver his people through the tribulation would require the preposition dia, dia, which is translated through, instead of ek, ek, which is from or out of the hour of trial. But I want you to note that in verse 10 we don't have a dia. There's no dia, it has ek, which is the preposition about from or out of, meaning Christians will be kept out of or from the hour of trial before it comes upon the world. And for that matter, the context of the verse doesn't lend much credence to the idea of deliverance through the tribulation either, at least in this immediate context. Now that also would not support the post-tribulation view either, since the emphasis of the verse is that Christians would be delivered before the hour of trial even begins. For this reason, the word hour is important to note. Because that word doesn't just mean Christians would be delivered from the trial of tribulation while going through the time of tribulation. That's one of the interpretations. That you'll be in the time of tribulation, but you'll be delivered from the actual trial while you're going through the tribulation. Like a special bubble. Like you'll be protected like on Noah's ark. Like the flood was all around them, but they were safe in the ark. That's one view that people take. But the word hour prevents that view, because this phrase about the hour actually means that Christians would be delivered not just from the circumstances, but from the actual time period during which this tribulation occurs. So it's referring to the hour of trial itself, which refers to the whole time. In all fairness, this is not a study of prophecy, per se. This is just an exposition of Scripture, and I'm going very quickly through these matters. But in all fairness, there are other verses of Scripture that are used to add strength to the other positions, but certainly not here in Revelation 3.10. This verse is a very strong case, I believe, for the pre-tribulation, pre-millennial view. Now this verse teaches us first that because of their patient endurance, believers will be kept from the hour of trial that is coming upon the entire world. Second, it's a specific period of time distinguished from other times of hardship, the hour of trial. Third, the time is set in the future. It hadn't happened yet. Fourth, it will cover the whole world, not just Asia Minor or the Middle East. And fifth, it will come upon unbelievers, those who dwell on the earth, the text says. So now having said all of that, what effect would verse 10 have on the Christians in Philadelphia? How were they to interpret this? Well, the immediate reference would be to the official Roman persecutions that were still coming upon them at the end of the first century, since Revelation was written well after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, 20 to 25 years after. But the ultimate reference here is to the Great Tribulation that will encompass the entire earth before Jesus returns to establish His millennial kingdom. This letter from Jesus has been full of promises It's been full of rewards for those who keep God's Word. But you know, there's even more in this text. And we're going to examine the final exhortation to the Church of Philadelphia, Lord willing, next week, because I want you to see the unfolding of these promises to this faithful group of believers. And we need that hope in our day. Let's close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for giving us a sure hope through your written word for the future and in the present. May we be faithful to keep the precepts of scripture with patient endurance, like this church at Philadelphia did, that we might receive your approval and the rewards at your hand. We love you. We praise you for what we do not understand. And we thank you for what you have made so plain in your word. In Jesus' name, amen.