Dear Philadelphia | Dear Church | Trinity Sermons

Today's reading is from Revelation chapter 1

Revelation 1:4

verses 4 and 5 and Revelation 3 verses 7 to 13.

Revelation 3:7–13

John, to the seven churches in the province of

Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is

and who was. and who is to come, and from the

seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus

Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn

of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the

earth. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia

write, these are the words of him who is holy

and true, who holds the key of David. What he

opens, no one can shut. and what he shuts no

one can open i know your deeds see i have placed

before you an open door that no one can shut

i know that you have little strength yet you

have kept my word and have not denied my name

i will make those who are of the synagogue of

satan who claims to be jews though they are not

but are liars I will make them come and fall

down at your feet and acknowledge that I have

loved you. Since you have kept my command to

endure patiently, I will also keep you from the

hour of trial that is going to come to the world

to test the inhabitants of the earth. i am coming

soon hold on to what you have so that no one

will take your crown the one who is victorious

i will make a pillar in the temple of my god

never again will they leave it i will write on

them the name of my god and the name of the city

of my god the new jerusalem who is coming down

out of heaven from my God, and I will also write

on them my new name. Whoever has ears, let them

hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The

word of the Lord. What I would like you to do

is take a look at some pictures I'm going to

show you. These are famous doors that are taken

from movies or TV shows, and I want to see how

many of them you think you can identify. Here's

the first door. Where does this door come from?

You're right. Again, this is the Hobbit or the

Lord of the Rings. This is where Bilbo and Frodo

lived. What about this door? This is the famous

door. That's right. Who lived behind that door?

Monica. Yeah, good for you. Yes. What about this

door? Yes, there's Jabba's palace from Return

of the Jedi. What about this door? That's right.

Sherlock Holmes, 221B Baker Street. And now what

about this door? What was behind that door? That's

right. You guys are good. You guys are good.

And just because we're coming up to Halloween,

what about this door? Does anyone remember what

movie this was from? That's right. Here's Johnny.

There he is, right? Doors are powerful, powerful

symbols, right? I mean, if you think about the

doors you walk through all the time, every door

tells a story. Even that door that you rush out

of every single morning on your way to work,

it tells a story. You know, the door you dread

walking into, maybe it's a hospital door or something

like that, tells a story. When you're going to

class, maybe the first day of class in school

and you're walking through that door, these doors

all tell us a story. They all, doors are everything.

very, very symbolic. They can symbolize all sorts

of things. On the one hand, a door can symbolize

safety. It's a way of protecting us from things

that might be on the other side of that door.

That's why a lot of us will lock our doors at

night. Doors might represent boundaries and clearly

distinguish, you know, who's allowed in a certain

space and who's not allowed in a certain space.

And sometimes we need that, right? We need bedroom

doors and we need bathroom doors or boardroom

doors. But other times, Those boundaries maybe

aren't so helpful because they can create these

like divisions between us or hierarchies or even

classes amongst us, right, based on those boundaries.

Doors. Often symbolize opportunities. I'm sure

you've all heard that language of open doors

in your life or closed doors in your life. Maybe

it was an open door to a relationship or an open

door to a new job or maybe a door that closed

and forced you to wait or be a little patient.

Doors obviously are symbols of welcome. When

a friend opens their door to you and says, come

on in, you feel like you belong. But on the flip

side of that coin, doors can also be symbols

of exclusion and letting you know that you don't

belong or you're not wanted in this space. And

maybe some of you have experienced doors closing

in your face. Maybe even a church door that closed

in your face, right? I want to share with you

just a couple more pictures of doors. Here's

a couple more. Does anyone know where this famous

door is found? Where is it? That's right. That's

the Trinity front door. And now one last door.

Where is this famous door found? That's right.

It was a trick question. But yes, they're both

the same door. They're both the front door here

at Trinity. Only the first picture showed that

front door from the outside heading in. And the

second door here is the same door from the inside

heading out. And that is exactly the thing about

doors, is that they can actually do two things,

depending on how you look at them. They can be

outside doors heading in. They can be inside

doors heading out. I'll say more about that in

just a moment. But I want to just remind you

that today we have finally come to the end of

this long teaching series. It's been seven weeks

where we have been looking. These ancient letters

written to churches in the book of Revelation,

and if today you walked into church for the first

time, you've come in right at the tail end of

this teaching series, where we have been learning

about these old letters written to real churches,

real churches in real cities 2 ,000 years ago,

and realizing that they have a lot to teach real

churches in real cities today. And they might

even have a lot to teach our church in our city.

And today we're going to end by looking at this

church. It's the church in Philadelphia. And

as Bill said, no, not Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia. present day Turkey, right? Or Philadelphia,

ancient Asia minor. That's the Philadelphia we're

talking about. And I'm actually really glad that

we're going to end. In fact, we structured it

to end with this being the last church that we

look at because today is our annual general meeting.

after our second service, our vestry meeting.

And this letter, I think, has a lot to say to

us as we gather to consider the life and future

of our church. But also, this letter to the Church

of Philadelphia has a lot to say to you. And

it has a lot to say to me and how we live our

own lives. This letter that Jesus wrote to the

church in Philadelphia is all about doors. You

probably heard the language, open doors, close

doors. He talks about a key. He talks about,

you know, walking through doors or all that jazz.

This is basically how Jesus begins his letter

to this church in Philadelphia. He says, these

are the words of him who holds the key of David.

What he opens, no one can shut. And what he shuts,

no one can open. See, I've placed before you

an open door that no one can shut. This raises

all sorts of questions, doesn't it? What is this

door that Jesus is talking about? Where does

it lead? Who opened it? Why is it open? But most

of all, I want to ask, is this an outside door

going in? Or is this an inside door going out?

Well... Today I want to suggest to you that Jesus

is talking about both. He is actually talking

about both an outside door welcoming people in,

and he's also talking about an inside door that

is sending people out. They're both happening

at the same time. And I'll go on to explain that

right now, but I want to let you know I did give

you a few sermon notes there if you want to follow

along to get the most out of the message. So

first, the doors that Jesus has opened are clearly...

outside doors welcoming people in. And that was

such good news for the Christians in Philadelphia

because they had just gone through an experience

that was incredibly hurtful for them. They had

been shut out and excluded from one of the most

important institutions and one of the most important

parts of their lives in that city and in their

culture. They had been shut out from their local

synagogue. You probably wondered about that language

that Jesus was using in this letter. It was very,

very harsh. He talks about those of the synagogue

of Satan. That's a striking phrase. But what

it is doing is telling us that something was

going on in Philadelphia. There was a painful

and social and spiritual struggle that this little

first century church was going through. Here's

what you need to note. You know, for the first

few decades after the resurrection of Jesus,

just about all the followers of Jesus, the followers

of the way of Jesus, were Jewish people, faithful

Jews. And the thing is, they did not believe

that there was a conflict between their Jewish

faith and following Jesus. They believed the

Messiah, the long -awaited Jewish Messiah, had

come in Jesus. He was the fulfillment of their

Jewish faith. And so they, of course, continued

to attend the synagogue. with their friends,

and they kept the festivals, and they kept reading

the Torah, but they did it all now through this

new lens of Jesus Christ. As one scholar put

it, he said, in the late first century, Jewish

and Christian identities were not yet clearly

distinct. The communities were connected. They

had family ties. They did social things together.

They had the same social networks. They used

the same spaces for meeting, and that was true

in Philadelphia. as well. By the time the book

of Revelation is being written, that relationship

was stretched and frayed and now had reached

a breaking point. In many cities like Philadelphia,

Christians were being told, that's it. You're

no longer welcome in the synagogue. And in many

cities, the follower of Jesus actually formally

were now expelled. Enough of this talk about

Jesus. You know, you can't stay here any longer.

That's it. You're out. And so it was incredibly

hurtful because they didn't just end up losing

this sense of religious identity, but it was

central to their identity in the community and

their part in the social fabric of their world.

And now they had just been shut out from all

of it. That's why the language of this synagogue

of Satan is being used. He's describing this

sense of exclusion. It's just really important

we understand that language and don't go too

far with it. This is not an anti -Semitic kind

of statement. It's not a blanket attack on all

of Judaism. It simply means that when this local

Jewish synagogue excluded Christians from their

fellowship, that they were working against the

purposes of God. They were working against what

God wanted to do, and that is exactly Satan's

job description. Working against what God wants

to do. Therefore, a synagogue. of Satan. Now

do you see, though, why Jesus' words to those

Christians in Philadelphia are so powerful? I

have set before you an open door that no one

can shut. Man, now that is a powerful image if

you're one of those Philadelphian Christians,

right? These Jesus followers had been shut out

from one door, and Jesus says, I'm opening another

door. They may have the key to the synagogue.

He says, but I have the key of David. This is

a messianic title. And this key that I have,

Jesus says, opens an even bigger and an even

better door. It's the door to God's kingdom.

The door to the synagogue, yeah, it may be closed,

but the door to God's kingdom remains open to

you. And even though you feel excluded from your

community, you are never excluded by God. Some

of you here today, you know how it feels to be

shut out, excluded. Maybe you've been excluded

from a group of friends, and it doesn't just

have to be like something that happened at public

school or high school. No, people get excluded

from groups of friends all the time, even as

adults. Secondly, you may have been excluded

from your own family. I have heard some of your

stories. You have shared painful stories of your

own family members being divided and broken up,

and now you're excluded. Maybe you've been excluded

even from your last church. I don't know. Something

happened there, and they made it really clear

that you weren't welcome there anymore. Jesus

opens the doors that other people have closed.

If the door to friendship was closed to you,

Jesus opens it and says, come and enjoy friendship

with me. If the door to family was closed to

you, Jesus says, I'm building a brand new family,

and you're invited. If the door to a church was

ever closed to you, first of all, I'm so sorry,

but secondly, Jesus says, you are welcome in

my kingdom. Let me tell you the story. of Florence

Gallinger. Florence was a longtime member at

a church I previously worked at. She died at

the age of 93. I did her funeral about 10 years

ago. And Florence was one of the, I mean, Florence

was amazing. Good old Florence, right? Florence

was one of those people who was always at church,

like before anybody else was on a Sunday morning.

And she would just park herself by the front

door and watch every person who walked into the

service. She knew everybody in town. She knew

that she was one of those people. And anyways,

on one Sunday, this lady named Jennifer walked

into our church. And I didn't know Jennifer.

Oh, but Florence knew Jennifer. And Jennifer

had not been to church for a very long time because

she had been hurt by her previous church. And

that had caused her to walk away for years. But

Florence saw her. She made a beeline for her.

Florence recognized her, walked over, and gave

Jennifer this huge, huge hug. And she said, welcome

home. And Jennifer never left that church after

that, at least in my time. And she told me that

she never forgot that moment because thanks to

Florence, she felt included. And she knew there

was an open door for her there. Closer to home,

closer to home. Last week, I got an email. This

is an email I received from visitors who came

to Trinity from out of town last week. It was

a father and son. You know, again, we probably

won't see them again. They're from Ottawa. But

this is what they wrote. Thank you for the beautiful

service. It was a pleasure to worship with you.

My son and I both said we have never been welcomed

so warmly by so many people as we were this morning.

They found an open door here. They found a door

of hospitality and welcome into this community.

That's the gospel. The church in Philadelphia

reminds us that the gospel is an open door welcoming

people because Jesus was a savior who welcomed

people in friends our church has to live this

gospel message all the time every day every week

so many people out there in the world have had

doors slammed in their faces and all of us like

Florence Gallinger have a part to play in opening

the doors And I just want to say, maybe you're

one of those people who walked into Trinity for

the first time today. And I'm just going to tell

you, we're going to respect your personal space.

We're not going to give you a big hug like Florence

Gallinger did. But I do hope that one of us can

kind of be Florence Gallinger to you. But the

open door that Jesus is talking about isn't just

an outside door. that is welcoming people in.

It's also an inside door that is sending people

out. The same Jesus who says, come on in, also

says, go out. The door to the gospel actually

swings both ways. Throughout the New Testament,

the phrase open door often means an opportunity

to go out. An opportunity for outreach, an opportunity

for mission. Paul, who was the greatest missionary

in the whole Bible, several times used this phrase.

For example, once when he was in Ephesus, he

decided to stay in Ephesus because he said, a

great door for effective work has opened to me.

He had work he could do there in Ephesus. Another

time when he wrote this, he said, when I came

to Troas to preach the gospel, the Lord opened

a door for me. Another, an opportunity for ministry,

right? And once when Paul was in prison, he said,

please pray for me. Not pray that the prison

doors might open so that I can get out and I

can be free, but pray that God might open a door

for the message to get out. So when Jesus tells

the church in Philadelphia, see, I have placed

before you an open door. He's not just comforting

them. Oh, poor Philadelphia. He's not just saying,

welcome into my kingdom. He's commissioning them.

He's also sending them out. He's not just giving

them an outside door leading into his kingdom.

He is giving them an inside door leading out

to the world. He's saying, I'm giving you this

opportunity to spread. the gospel, to spread

the message, and I don't want you to be afraid

to walk through that door. Now, you need to know

that Philadelphia was literally a doorway city.

It was a gateway city, strategically, for several

reasons. The first was it was a geographic gateway.

Philadelphia sat on this major trade route. Just

think of it as like an ancient highway that connected

Europe and Asia. And it was really the last city

that travelers would go through as they went

up onto the great plateau of Asia Minor. And

so wherever you wanted to go in the east, you

had to go through Philadelphia. It was perfectly

positioned at the crossroads of trade and travel.

That's an open door. What an opportunity. But

secondly, it was also a cultural gateway. The

city had been founded to spread Greek language

and culture throughout these eastern provinces.

In fact, one historian said that Philadelphia

was built, quote, to be a center for the diffusion

of Greek civilization. So it was this cultural

gateway meant to spread Greek culture. But here's

the thing. Because it was strategic geographically

and because it was strategic culturally, that

meant that it was spiritually strategic too.

Spiritually, this was a gateway opportunity.

Jesus says to this little church, he even says,

I know you only have a little bit of strength,

he says, but I have opened a door for you. In

other words, you have been placed where you are

on purpose. Your geography and your culture and

your situation strategically positions you in

a perfect way to not spread Greek culture outward,

but to spread the gospel and good news of Jesus

Christ outward. This is a door of mission. This

is a door of opportunity that is open. was saying,

listen, I've given you, Philadelphia, everything

you need, right? I've given you the perfect location,

the perfect connections. I've given you this

calling. Now walk through that door that I have

set before you. The doors Jesus gives us aren't

just open doors welcoming us in, trying to comfort

us. They are also doors for calling us outward.

See, I am sending you out. Now, Today, as I've

mentioned, is our annual general meeting. It's

Vestry Sunday. And this is not just a business

meeting. It's not just an annual review. It's

not just voting on a budget. It's a chance to

sit down and listen and talk about what doors

Jesus might be opening for us. Maybe you have

a sense that God is opening a new door for us

to do church in a different way. I don't know.

right maybe it's a door of serving our community

in a different way maybe there's a way that god

is wanting us to go and reach our community maybe

the poor in our community the lonely in our community

or the young people in our community maybe it's

a door to be more compassionate some way maybe

it's a door to be more innovative in some way

maybe it's a door of leadership i don't know

but today we want to ask those questions we want

to say god Where have you placed us? Like Philadelphia,

strategically, where have you placed us? And

what doors, therefore, are you opening before

us at this time in the life of this church? That's

what it means to be a faithful church. We don't

just cling to the past. We don't just stay behind

these four walls, right? We look for the doors

that Jesus is opening and then we walk through

them. Even if we're not 100 % sure what's on

the other side. John Stott once wrote this. He

said, Christ has the keys and he opens the doors.

Then let us not barge our way unceremoniously

through doors which are still closed. We must

wait for him to make openings for us. That's

why we want to hear from you today. To help this

church discern. That's something we all have

to do together. Requires the... the whole community.

But whether it's God that is opening a door for

us as a church or God that is opening a door

for you in your life, do we have the courage

to walk through those doors, right? I mean, the

first question is, yes, what door has God opened

for you in your life? Some of you are sitting

here and you know darn well what that door is,

right? You've had a sense for a long time and

it might be a person that keeps asking you questions

about why you go to church and you know. That

God is putting an open door for a conversation

there. It might be this tug that you feel at

your heart to go and reconcile a broken relationship

in your life. And you know that that door is

opening up for you. Or it might be just something

very simple. It's a door for you to start being

more generous. A door to start praying more.

I don't know. That's the first question though.

What door? The second question is, do you have

the courage to walk through that door? Every

door that God places before you is an opportunity

for you to trust him. just a little bit more,

right? To walk with him just by one step of faith,

to love someone new, to serve in a new way, to

share the hope of Jesus with someone in your

circle of influence. It requires faith though.

It requires trust. Every open door is an opportunity

to trust the one who holds the key to the door,

Jesus Christ. John Ortberg, some of you know

this, he wrote a great little book. If you want

to walk on water, you've got to get out of the

boat. If you want to see what's on the other

side of God's open door, you've got to walk through

it. Or as Corrie Ten Boom once said, never be

afraid to trust an unknown future to a known

God. You might not know what awaits you beyond

that door that God is opening for you. That is

okay because you do know that Jesus will go with

you and you can trust. Him. So what's that door?

What door is God opening for you right now? And

what kind of courage do you have to go through

that door? Don't wait for the perfect conditions.

Don't just stand at the doorway staring at it.

Take the step of faith knowing that Jesus is

going to go through with you. So in a nutshell,

here's what followers of Jesus do. We open The

door to others. And we go through. The door for

others. Why don't we even just say that together.

We open the door to others. And we go through

the door. For others. We as a church. Need to

be a church of open doors. You. As a follower

of Jesus. Need to be a person. Of open doors.

The door of the gospel. It always swings both

ways. It's an outside door welcoming people in

and it is an inside door sending people out.

And if you're standing on the outside today and

you're wondering, gosh, is there a room for me?

Is there a room for me in God's family? Is there

a room for me in this church? Is there a room

for me in the kingdom? The answer is yes. And

if you're standing on the inside and you're staring

out and you're wondering, gosh, Can I really

trust God with where he wants to send me next?

The answer is also yes. Jesus has the keys. He

closes doors that no one can open. He opens the

doors that no one can shut. Thanks be to God.

Amen.