A Faithful Church Needs to Keep God's Word (Revelation 3:7-13)

Hi, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsong Churches Podcast.

We're a biblically faithful, gospel-centered Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

You can learn more about us at newsongportperry.ca.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

And do 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 word.

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.

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.

I am coming soon.

Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Never shall he go out of it, 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 from my God, out of heaven, and my own new name.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, the word of the Lord.

And Jesus said, I know your works.

Behold, I've set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have little power, and yet you have kept my word and not denied my name.

Lord, as in our gospel reading, help us discover this pearl of great value in your word to us, and let us treasure it for all time.

We ask this in your name.

Amen.

An open door, little power, and keeping his word.

How does this lead to a faithful church?

I hope in the time allotted, and I hope I don't go too long, that we will discover that together once again and discover what it means.

We are studying this second last letter to the churches that Jesus spoke to John to write to them.

We've seen a pattern, and uh Reverend Creighton has led us through beautifully what this pattern is.

There's typically the title or credentials.

I've tried to keep C's, but I can't get all C's.

Credentials, in this case, especially.

There's the commendation, what they did really well.

There's the condemnation, I love that word because it's the reverse almost.

There's the solution to this condemnation and the subsequent reward or promise, and finally a caution, a warning to hear what he says to the churches.

And that's the pattern of each letter.

And this one does not differ, except for one point.

Like Smyrna, the second church, there is no condemnation.

This is a great church.

Why?

Because they're faithful.

Now that's an assumption, and you probably know that already, but we'll go through and discover through Jesus' words about the faithful church.

Faithful, I had to go to the dictionary to see exactly what it says.

I have my own thoughts, but it says the Oxford Dictionary, having or showing true and constant support or loyalty, staying with or supporting a particular person, organization or belief.

And the Oxford Learner's Dictionary adds this who will not change their views.

I have to say it slowly sinks into my brain.

It takes a little while.

Who will not change their views?

So either we're pretty silly that we don't change our views because we know better than before.

Culture changes and it helps us learn more.

We're brainier than ever before.

Or we better be darn sure of what it is we believe in.

And I think that is probably the case, that is the case certainly here.

So as we explore this together, there are three questions.

The problem I have is the first two questions are inextricably intertwined.

I love that word too, inextricably.

You can't pull them apart.

So first off, what is a faithful church?

And secondly, what does the faithful church do?

It keeps his word.

How?

How do they keep his word?

Do we really know?

And can we explore that?

And then what is the consequence of being a faithful church, keeping the word, not denying his name?

All that should be here.

Let's explore and see.

At the beginning, Jesus says, at the beginning of this letter, Jesus says to John and to the end 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 will open.

We see here is the other letters, the credentials, there's much here, and I was speaking with the Reverend Creighton.

We could spend all our time on this alone.

There's so much there.

I will try to be brief here to spend more time later.

The Holy One.

Remember in Mark, when Jesus is casting out demons, the demons recognize Jesus.

In fact, they call him in Mark the Holy One and the True One.

Even the demons know him.

If we're not demons, do we know him too?

And I think we do.

Scripture points to that.

We've heard so much preaching about that, we say that every time.

We know him as the Holy One.

But his credentials are there again.

Everything the Holy One and the True One says is true.

The door.

The water is the key of David.

The key of David goes back to, well, many things.

David had the city, obviously.

David owned the city, and there were the two cities, the one and the second.

But David had the keys, and back in those days, the keys were big, heavy things.

They would put on their shoulders and then carry along.

It was quite a responsibility.

Jesus has the keys of David.

Jesus has the keys to the whole new Jerusalem, the old and the new.

Jesus is the holder of the keys.

But is that the only thing for a door?

Well, there's a couple of things.

The one, I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Isaiah refers to the keys of the door and also to the door that is open and no one can shut.

Shuts and no one can open.

This is a reference, as Reverend Creighton has mentioned before.

Revelation ties in people's knowledge and understanding of all the Old Testament that they would have studied and had in their hearts.

They would have known this passage from Isaiah as well.

It identifies God through Isaiah's prophecies.

The question for me here is: do I truly understand as they did who Jesus is, what his credentials are, and that he truly is the holder of the keys and has that door open and no one can shut.

Or when he does shut, no one will open.

Back to the faithful church then.

I know your works.

Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

Reinforces that.

I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word.

Jesus knows his people and he knows his churches.

We've heard that many times.

Jesus knows every church.

He knows Philadelphia, he knows Newsong.

He knows the people who are the church in Philadelphia, and he knows the people here at Newsong.

He knows our hearts, he knows what we are.

He knows our works, he knows what we have done.

And our works our works do not get us to heaven.

It's not our works that get us there.

It's his grace, his mercy, and our faith in him.

Our works are our response to him.

But he knows our works, and therefore he knows our hearts.

Unlike the church in Sardis, the work not being found incomplete in Philadelphia.

Jesus says after, Behold, I've set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

Here I apologize, there's so much.

Behold, and there are two more beholds, and there are probably about 30 in Revelation.

And when something is repeated, all those who are expert theologians say this is a critical matter, Michael.

Remember it.

Michael, when he repeats it, it means it's so important you better take note.

We'll take note, but I'm afraid we can't spend too much time, or we're going to be here till supper.

And I don't think that's a good thing.

But the open door.

Philadelphia was founded as part of a gateway to deliver the Greek culture and language to the cities beyond.

It was actually one of the newest of the seven cities, probably the youngest, only a couple hundred years old.

It was so successful in passing on the culture that the Lydians within 150 years, those just passed there, had forgotten their language and culture and had adopted Greek as their language.

The geography is such that Philadelphia was the gateway, the door from Rome to Tarsus and beyond.

So the people in Philadelphia would be well aware of what the door and gateway there was.

This city was this door and the gateway.

And originally designed for Greek culture and language propagation, now it had become a gateway and a door for the Great Commission to pass this word along.

And these are the works that Christ was commending, not condemning, commending the people for.

And is there another door?

Well, back in John, Jesus says, I am the door.

Jesus is not only the door, but he's the doorkeeper as well.

He is God, he can do anything, but he is the door.

So we have here both the door that's open for them to use to go out, but also the door of Jesus of salvation.

And so we have both one and the other.

We have the two at the same time, which is perhaps a little hard for my little mind to comprehend.

But if we can just assume that they are there, then people have used both doors of salvation and the door to go out to spread the gospel.

And we know it was spread and spread far and wide.

As Philadelphia had that door that is open and could not be shut.

Is there one here in Newsaw?

One that open and no one can shut.

And I think if there is one, Jake, you might not want it left open because it'll let the cold air in in the wintertime and the hot air in the summer.

But I don't think that's the door we're talking about.

We're talking about a door to spread his word.

What would that door look like if there is one?

Now, the Bible is full of symbolism and revelation, even more so, I think, from my little understanding of it.

But could that door be a prayer walk?

Could that door be a Bible study?

Could that door be a coffee with a friend who's wondering, who's a little open, or who's gone through a really tough time and needs some support and doesn't know where to turn because the whole world is against them?

What do I need to do or to know to use that door?

I know you have but little power, Jesus says, understanding the issues of the Roman rule.

There was this huge influence of culture, the building of many temples to the Roman gods in Philadelphia itself, and as always, the push to make money.

The people of his church, of Jesus' church in Philadelphia, had little control over that.

The city was successful, it was thriving in a secular sense.

But it had a thriving church.

Yet paganism abounded.

Does this sound familiar?

It seems to, doesn't it?

Having little power might also mean not just a big church or a little church, but it might also mean instead of 5,050 people, sound familiar.

But the influence these people had, despite having little power, what does Jesus say?

I know your works.

What does Paul say about strength and about power?

In Corinthians, he writes to them in his second letter, the Lord said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power, Jesus' power, is made perfect in weakness.

So in the case of a small church with little power, where paganism and culture is so strong and abides, Jesus has the highest commendation.

What is that?

Is it because they're faithful?

It's certainly looking that way.

And what makes them faithful, I think that's the next area to go to.

What would make these people faithful?

Jesus' words are what?

Oh, sorry, I should repeat what he says.

He says, Yet you have kept my word and not denied my name.

What word have they kept?

What word have they retained in their hearts?

What word have maybe they shared?

Okay, what is Jesus' word?

Well, um, several things.

The first one that I have written down, we repeated, we recited, we said together was the summary of the law.

And the summary of the law that Jesus had the Ten Commandments into the two areas, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

And the second is like under.

This is the great and first commandment.

The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And on these commandments, I always have to say hang the law and the prophets.

We use depend now, but hang just seems to grab it for me.

The two summaries of the law are Jesus' word.

So I would think if Jesus says, You have kept my word, certainly they would have kept the commandments.

They would have kept his word here.

But note here, and we'll come back to it in a minute, the words that jump out love.

You shall love the Lord your God, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And then you may remember too, that Jesus, when he had the disciples at the Last Supper, gave them a third commandment.

You shall love one another as I have loved you.

That love keeps on repeating.

That is a critical word when it comes to the word.

What else is Jesus' word?

If we read John chapter 1, verse 1, what does that say?

John 1:1

In the beginning was the word.

And the word was with God, and the word was God.

So, in an absolute sense, here, if the people of Philadelphia kept his word, they kept Jesus.

And they kept Jesus in their hearts.

And that also meant the commandments, and it meant love.

They kept Jesus in their hearts.

So every day, every hour, every minute.

It's hard to do it every minute.

It's hard to do every, it's hard to do every day for me.

But somehow they did.

They kept his word.

Back to love.

Philadelphia, according to the historians, was founded, as I said, 200 years ago, prior to the writing of this book of Revelation.

The city was founded by settlers from Pergamon, under the rule of Attalus II, called him Philadelphos.

He was fond of his brother Eumenes.

And the name of the city took on this meaning, the city of brotherly love.

In Scripture, and even much today, when a name is given, people live up to that name.

And the people of Philadelphia, I am sure, lived up to that name, brotherly love, which also refers back to keeping his word.

They kept his word, they kept Jesus, they kept the love.

They kept the love of God and they kept it in their hearts, but they also shared it.

The commands we've heard are to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

Do I show this in every part of my life?

Do I show this in some of my life?

Do I show it in any of my life?

That's a good question.

How about here in Newsong?

Are we known for our love?

Are we known how we love each other and take care of each other?

Do our outreach efforts to others outside of New Song show this?

I think the answer is yes.

Yes, we do.

But there's always a caution that we get a little arrogant.

There's always a caution that pride takes over.

We think we're so good that I think I'm so good I pat myself on the back.

We have to be careful with that.

How can I stay grounded?

How can I stay in his word?

How can I keep his word every day?

As I said, it's hard enough to do it every day, every hour.

To know Jesus, we have to be immersed in his word.

Paul says to the Romans, so faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

In Psalm 19, we we read a part of before.

There's another part.

None says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

We need to have his word every day.

And that's what we do here at Newsong on Sundays.

Our liturgy is full of his word.

We have the readings of his word.

We have excellent preaching, maybe not today, but other days we have excellent preaching on his word.

It brings it to light.

It helps us understand more of Scripture.

It helps us apply it to our lives.

What about the rest of the week?

What do I do?

Do I make it a habit of continuing my prayers and Bible reading all week long?

Do I avail myself of the several studies we have here, the Wednesday morning or the evening discussion?

On the incarnation by Athanasius.

Is there one more of these that I should take to keep myself fully immersed in his word, so that I can have it on my heart, as he commands and wants us to do?

Jesus continues, the other two beholds, 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.

Because you've 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 earth.

Talked about behold, I talked about having to save time.

This is another area.

We could spend several sermons on this several times together.

I'm afraid I have to bypass it a little bit.

But Jesus says that those of the synagogue of Satan will come down and bow down.

They will learn that Jesus loved the people of Philadelphia.

They will learn that Jesus loved the faithful.

And once again, it's not because we love Jesus, but we love him as he loved us first.

And we respond with love.

And the people have kept his word.

And in keeping his word, they have not denied him.

Though I must say, sometimes I think I deny him with my discussions, my attitude.

I've talked about my driving before, and I like driving.

I've driven for many years.

I'm old, so just that alone I should have driven.

And I think I know how to drive.

And I have had accidents.

I was counting them by the way here, just to remember.

I've had one that was my fault.

I was inattentive.

But the problem with my driving is that I think I'm a great driver, and I know the others are not.

And the issue is I don't make allowance for them, whereas others I'm sure I know make allowance for me.

So am I truly keeping his word in my heart when I drive?

But I'm a good driver.

You should have seen this morning what that guy did.

It was dead wrong.

But that's not what I'm supposed to be doing.

I'm supposed to take it with grace.

I'm supposed to give them allowance.

Who knows what trauma they've gone through recently?

Who knows what terrible issues they have and their mind is gone?

You should have seen me uh two months ago, forgetting things and not remembering to do things.

Oh my gosh, people were graceful to me.

Am I retaining that grace for others?

Whatever the consequence of the reward, Jesus continues, I am coming soon.

Hold fast to what you have so that no one may seize your crown.

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in my temple of God, in the temple of my God.

Never shall he go out of it, 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 from God out of heaven, and my own new name.

Jesus speaks of his coming soon.

Scripture advises us we do not know when, we must always be ready, and there's a caution for us.

And the one who conquers, well, Jesus is ultimately the one who conquers.

Any victory he has, though, we share in with him.

So the one who conquers, if we abide by his word and we keep it in our hearts and we don't deny his name, we can share in that victory as well.

Now, once again, Jesus puts this in the context for the people of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, that gateway city, had many temples built in it to the many gods of the Roman Empire.

These temples had magnificent pillars, massive things.

These pillars measured meters across.

Anyone want yards across?

And meters high, just massive things.

They would be seen and admired by all.

And people who had done some magnificent deed had their names inscribed on the pillars.

And all would have seen that.

The names on these massive pillars in these temples.

We know that the new temple is our body.

We know that we are of the body of Christ.

We're in his temple.

If Jesus makes the faithful people the pillars in his temple, that's an everlasting gift.

Can you imagine?

But I don't think I'm worthy to be a name on a pillar.

But there's hope for me.

All I need to do is keep his word.

As far as never going out of it, according to one commentator, the land around Philadelphia was extremely fertile.

They had grapes there.

A fabulous, famous uh wine.

As it sat on the edge of an active volcanic area, it was prone to earthquakes and many tremors and aftershocks on a regular basis.

This meant that the people had to evacuate or go out regularly.

In fact, it became so bad, the aftershocks, that many people did not return.

They were so afraid.

Those who did had to shore up the buildings that were there.

Can you imagine what it would mean to be told you would never have to go out again?

The security in our Lord, the security in Christ, being able to rely on Him to have faith, never having to leave again.

Around 17 A.D., Philadelphia was so destroyed by an earthquake, as Sardis was and some others, that the Emperor Tiberius provided funds to assist in its rebuilding.

They changed the name of the city to honor him, to Neo Caesarea, and later on to honor Flavia.

Flavius.

They called her Flavia.

But eventually the name of Philadelphia was restored.

So the people of Philadelphia were used to having names changed for a good reason.

And Jesus writes, I will change the name.

He ties into what they're already familiar with.

What do we have here?

We have New Song.

Would he change that name?

Maybe.

Would he change the name Michael?

Maybe.

Whatever the case would be, to the people of Philadelphia, to the faithful of Philadelphia, to those who kept his word, he would change the name.

He would change the name where they reside.

Citizens of the new city of God, New Jerusalem.

And as we know from Ezekiel, the name would be the Lord is there.

And Emmanuel means the Lord with us.

Imagine talking about life everlasting, that great reward with our God.

All because he loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

He who died upon that cross and conquered death that we might live.

And he finishes with a caution.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to all the churches.

I know your works.

Behold, I've 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 not denied my name.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

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If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to Newsongportperry.ca giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.