Seven | Philadelphia - Revelation 3:7-12 | September 20

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All right. While the kids are shuffling about, I want to remind us a little

bit about kind of what we've been talking about, where we've been.

Not a full recap, but some words that we've encountered more than anything across

this. So we've been going through Revelation 1 through 3.

And we started just with an introduction in chapter 1, the description of Jesus,

and the introduction to these letters to the seven churches.

And so we've been going through each letter one by one.

And we're in chapter three, we're on the second to last letter,

the letter to the church in Philadelphia. But along the way,

we've heard in Ephesus, especially at the very beginning, we heard it again, I believe last week.

There's this idea that Jesus encourages his churches with in the face of their

tribulation, in the face of their difficulty, in a face of all that they're

facing that doesn't make any sense,

And that word is their encouragement is for them to remember.

And multiple times Jesus has instructed his people to remember.

And I was just reading John chapter two a couple of weeks ago.

And it struck me that as Jesus is ministering, as he's proclaiming the kingdom,

even as he's driving out the temple, clearing out the temple courts.

The disciples, John records, have this kind of like internal aside with themselves,

where it says twice back to back.

First, after he drives out the money changers that they remember,

it's written, zeal for your house will consume me.

And then the story goes on and Jesus talks about rebuilding the temple in three days.

And we get to the end of John 2, and it says again,

that after he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled,

they remembered what he had said, that he would rebuild this temple in three

days because he was speaking about his body.

And then they believed the scriptures and the words that Jesus had spoken.

And so when Jesus tells the churches, Ephesus, Sardis, to remember when he tells

us to remember, because these letters are not just written to these churches,

they're written to all churches and they're written to us as well.

He's telling us that it's important for his children, his people to have a good memory.

It's important for us to remember and that remembering actually leads to and results in belief.

We see all throughout Scripture, God imploring His people, imploring the Israelites,

imploring His people to not forget, to remember. In Proverbs, it says.

So there is a real thing that happens when we go about this life where we tend

to forget. And so it is so important for us to remember.

I just wanted to read a couple of verses in Colossians before we get to the

church in Philadelphia of what is so important for us to remember.

This is Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

And starting in verse 13, it says, When you were dead in your sins and in the

uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,

which stood against us and condemned us.

He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of

them, triumphing over them by the cross.

And so this is, as Jesus implores us, encourages us to remember,

this is what it is that we are remembering. That he has canceled the charge

of our legal indebtedness.

That he has disarmed the powers and authorities that rage against us, even those within us.

That he has made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

And so as we get into this letter, this second to last letter to the church in Philadelphia,

As we have seen two times already to remember, what we're going to see is a

church that was praised and not corrected.

Only two of the churches received no correction. This is one of them.

We're going to see a church that remained faithful and a church that remembered.

So Lord, I pray that you would teach us through this church,

this letter to this church in Philadelphia.

And as we have learned from the corrections that you have brought,

I pray that we would learn from the praises that you heap upon them and that

we would be encouraged as well.

Amen. If y'all would, again, just be Catholic with me for a second and stand up.

I'm going to read this letter.

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 claim 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 on the whole

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 and the new Jerusalem, which 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.

This is the word of God for the people of God. All the people said, Amen.

So like Smyrna that we saw several weeks ago, Philadelphia was a holy,

faithful church to the Lord. Not a perfect church.

There's no such thing as a perfect church. And as the saying goes,

if you find the perfect church, you better not go there because you'll ruin it.

So there are no perfect churches. But we can see that it is possible for a church,

though not perfect, to walk in faithfulness and in victory to the Lord.

Jesus says, I know, I see you, I know you, you are of little faith.

From the outside perspective, things weren't necessarily looking great for the

church in Philadelphia.

It is believed probably that they were a small congregation.

They were not big. They weren't influential. They have obviously been experiencing

some sort of tribulation, persecution,

especially from this local Jewish synagogue that Jesus refers to.

This is the second time he's referred to as the synagogue of Satan.

There were pressures to abandon Christ, to let go of His name,

but they refused, and so He praises them for it.

So even though from the outside, there was this pressure, and it might not have

looked very promising, still the Lord praises and encourages them. Only praise here.

Against all physical odds, this faithful group of believers was holding its

ground against forces stronger and more imposing than themselves.

And as we've been going through these letters, we've been following through,

the formula of the letters, which starts with a description of the Messiah.

It goes into praise. Often it's followed by correction and then encouragement

again, a call to endure, and for those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

So we're going to continue to follow in that today as we look at Him who is

holy and true, who holds the key of David. So there's kind of three descriptions here, right?

This is Jesus, most of the time, borrowing from his description of himself in chapter one.

He's going to go a little off script at the end here, but most of the time he's

reminding all of the churches, but specifically characteristics of himself that

are particularly relevant to that church.

So he starts off with this idea that he is holy, which is an Old Testament identity for God.

And it's more than just a characteristic trait of his purity, or of his.

I don't know, a set-apartness, we might say. It is often a description and exhortation,

of God as divine, as different, as transcendent.

We see it in Isaiah, all throughout Isaiah. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God

Almighty, so much so that John repeats that vision or sees that same vision,

the throne room of God here in Revelation.

He says, I am the Lord, your holy one, Israel's creator, your king.

So this is a foundational understanding of who God is, right?

It directs us towards the fear of God, the fear of God, which would prevent

these Philadelphians from compromising, from following in suit with some of

the other churches that we've seen.

They would hold them faithful as they stand faithfully to their God.

It also intensifies our understanding of all his other characteristics.

I've often said, I like to say that holiness is perhaps the foundational characteristic

of God because all of the other ones are intensified when we understand what

it means that God is holy.

His love is more intense when we realize that it is paired with his holiness,

his justice and is understood in light of his holiness.

Now, Jesus also says that he is the true one.

And we have said, but I've been bad at reminding you, that we have sought to

be real people who are part of a real family, who serve a real God.

And this is kind of what that heart of that means, what we're referring to when

we talk about what it means that God is a real God. Yes, that he exists, that he is true.

Over and over again, the Bible will refer to him in this way.

Even his name, Yahweh, the all existing one, points to the trueness,

the reality, the realness of God.

And John in Revelation repeats it over and over again, that they called out

in a loud voice, how long sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the

inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood.

Sovereign Lord, holy and true. And again in Revelation 19, I saw heaven standing

open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true.

And with justice as he judges and wages war.

And the heart of this is that we don't worship an idea. We don't come and bow

before an agreed-upon delusion that somehow benefits us psychologically.

I feel like most of the time when we think about the gospel,

and when we think about the Lord, we think about Him in reference to ourselves, which is good.

What all of the things that he has done.

The gospel, after all, is for us. It's good news for us that there's a coming King.

But I think that we forget in that, that even if we didn't experience any of

that benefit that the Lord promises, God is still God.

And he is still highly exalted. He is still holy and worthy of praise.

And his reality and his existence and

his trueness doesn't depend on our understanding of what he's done for us.

So I think that's such an important detail that he is real and true regardless,

of what we think or what we believe.

Now, here's where Jesus goes off script. He says that I am the one who holds

the key of David, which isn't what's mentioned in Revelation chapter one.

So he adds in a specific thing and he's gonna add in even more detail in just a second.

And both of these, He's just pouring in words from Isaiah.

Jesus' life and body, he quoted Isaiah more than any other book in the Bible.

And he continues to do it after he, risen from the dead in body,

gives this vision to John.

So he goes to the book of Isaiah.

In chapter 22, there's this story.

Where Hezekiah is king, and Hezekiah has beneath him a steward, if you will.

A leader who is irresponsible, who is out for selfish gain, who causes all sort

of grief for the people of God for his own benefit. And his name is Shebna.

He has neglected his duty to...

And so in Isaiah chapter 22, we see that the Lord, aware of all things,

Isaiah 22 · chapter mention

removes from Shebna his place as administrator.

It says in verse 14, the Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing till

your dying day and sin will not be atoned for, says the Lord Almighty.

This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty says.

Go say to this steward, to Shebna, the palace administrator,

what are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here?

Hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock.

He gave himself the benefits of high reward.

Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away,

you mighty man. He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a

large country. There you will die.

And there the chariots you are so proud of will become a disgrace to your master's house.

I will depose you from your office and you will be ousted from your position.

In that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah.

I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him.

He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah.

I will place on his shoulders the key to the house of David.

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

So Jesus points back to this history lesson in Isaiah of Shebna and Hezekiah's

rule and his unfaithfulness and how.

We see the charge against people like Shebna over and over again as bad shepherds

who are leading the people of Israel astray, or they're neglecting them.

Or if a robber comes or an animal comes, they are abandoning them.

And Jesus comes and takes upon himself that authority.

And he He offers in his full fulfillment of it as the good shepherd,

as the gate himself, as the one who holds the keys.

And by holding the keys of David, what he's acknowledging here is that he has authority.

To let in to the presence of the king any that he chooses.

He has the authority, the position of service to bridge that gap, to be a good mediator.

And then Jesus fulfills this fully to people who are small and waning in their

strength and are facing outside pressure. Jesus says, I have authority and no one can take you from me.

He acknowledges that they have little strength, which for me is perhaps one

of the most encouraging words in all of these letters to the churches.

It is the most encouraging encouragement in these letters for us.

I know, Jesus says, I know that you don't have much. He doesn't say that you

think you don't have much like he has said before, but you are rich.

He says, I know that you have little strength.

And he meets us in that. He meets us in that doubt that maybe we can be of any

use to God for whatever reason.

He meets us in our weakness and.

And maybe we have these doubts and these thoughts and this waning strength because

we think that we are insignificant.

Or maybe we think that we don't have enough resources. Or maybe we think that

we have failed him too many times.

Or maybe we're comparing ourselves to other people.

Maybe we don't feel qualified. Whatever the reason is that we feel that we have

too little strength, Jesus meets us in that and he says, I know that you have

little strength, but guess what? It's not too little.

It's not absent.

It's still there. And look what I can do with just a little bit,

just a little strength. Jesus said in one of the parables, right?

With the faith like a mustard seed, with just a little strength.

So I know that you have little faith, but that's enough.

Little strength, that's enough. You have kept my word and not denied my name.

Their little strength wasn't a disqualifier for them.

It was an encouragement that Jesus took up to say, all that you have to do,

all that you need to do is believe with all your heart that God can and wants to use you.

Though little you may feel you are, though weak you may feel you are.

Believe it, believe it like it's a true thing because it is.

This is one thing we need to do with the gospel a lot is we need to actually

believe the truth that we have been forgiven.

I think too easily we forget or we accept that without really believing and

understanding what that means. We have to believe.

And your faithfulness is what matters in the end, not how much strength,

how great you are, how many of you there are.

We just have to believe that God wants to use us.

They are commended in that for standing strong, even in their little strength on the word of God.

Loving the word of God. Oh, that we would be a people who are known for,

that we would be a church that is known for,

that we would be individuals that are known for loving the word of God,

that we would read it, that we would hear it, that we would teach it,

that we would sing the word of God.

I can think of no better reputation than being people who try to live by the

word of God with all that we have.

Such an encouragement this is from Jesus. And this is, as we talked about,

what it means that God is real and true.

This is what it means for us to be real people, to be true people,

to be people that the type of worshipers that Jesus is looking for,

as he said, those who worship in spirit and in truth, for us to be real people,

to be people who live by his word.

I want to read just a couple verses from Psalms.

That encourage us in this? The first is a few verses of Psalm 19,

a chapter that is about the word of God.

And then some from Psalm 119, which I was reading just the other day,

that are so encouraging for us.

This is a little bit of Psalm 19. It starts off, the heavens declare the glory of God.

The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech.

Night after night, they reveal knowledge.

And then it comes into his word. The law of the Lord is perfect,

and it refreshes the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, and they make wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. Some translations and say,

the fear of the Lord is clean.

The crees of the Lord are firm and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold.

And they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.

By them your servant is warm and keeping them there is great reward.

Psalm 19, Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, 176 verses all about the word of God.

Was just reading this a couple of days ago. This is verse 97 to 112. These two stanzas.

Oh, how I love your law.

I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me

wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers for I meditate on your statutes.

I have more understanding than the elders for I obey your precepts.

I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.

I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

I gain understanding from your precepts, therefore I hate every wrong path.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. I have taken an oath and

confirmed it that I will follow your righteous law.

I have suffered much. Preserve my life, Lord, according to your word.

Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth and teach me your laws.

Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law.

The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.

Your statutes are my heritage forever. They are the joy of my heart.

My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.

We should be people who can say that.

Should be people who don't merely possess the Bible, but inhabit its words in a way.

I was showing the kids something yesterday.

I don't know. People's assumptions or perceptions about AI is all over the place. I get that.

I'm trying to get Ron on board at work. He's fighting me tooth and nail.

But it was funny. I came across a video yesterday. So you know that old riddle

where a dad and his son are in a car accident and the dad dies and the son's

taken to the hospital and the surgeon says, I can't operate on this boy. He's my son. Right.

And we've, we've heard this a thousand times. ChatGPT has heard this a thousand

times. So it rightly says, oh, well the surgeon is his mother.

It gets it right because it's been trained on it.

This is how you drive AI crazy, because it's not intelligent at any point.

If you ask it, tell it the same riddle, but change it and say,

a mother and her boy were driving in a car. The mother died.

The boy's taken to the hospital.

And then you explicitly tell it, the surgeon, who is the boy's father,

says, I cannot operate on this child. He's my son.

And then you ask it how it's possible. The answer it will give you is,

the surgeon is the boy's mother, the other parent.

It doesn't know what to do if you change the parameters of the riddle.

It gets it wrong. And then of course, AI lies. It'll just tell you that,

oh, I'm sorry, I messed up. And it'll tell you the exact same answer, which is incorrect.

We can't be people like that with the word of God, who have heard it a hundred

times, a thousand times, and think we know it, but operate on these false assumptions.

We have to be people who are so ingrained with the word of God in our hearts,

that it affects us to the core and changes who we are, not so that we can give

all the right answers at the right time, but that we can live rightly.

In view of and commanded and ordered by the word of God in our lives.

Let's not feign intelligence like these computer programs that we're dealing

with and let us actually live by the word of God.

So, that's my exhortation here for the Word of God.

From there, Jesus shifts as He acknowledges the faithfulness of the Philadelphians,

who have stood firm. That's the word.

He then, after following what they have done for His namesake,

He shifts His focus to what He's going to now do for them.

Says that he will open a door that no one can shut, that he has placed before them.

This kind of means two things. In this context of the keys of David that are

placed on his shoulders, we just read,

it most readily means that Jesus has promised an entrance into the kingdom.

And when he has promised an interest into the kingdom, what he has promised,

no human being, no human authority, no,

human power, not the Roman Empire, not the Jews who are unwittingly doing the

work of the devil, no one has the power to shut a door that God has opened.

The door to God's kingdom is not something that we even have the power to shut.

But only God, only Jesus can open it and only he can shut it.

And we see this throughout the scriptures.

Jesus encourages his people.

Don't be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you

the kingdom. It is his pleasure to open this door for us.

He promises in John 7, 2, that he is the gate and that he opens the door.

And if he is the gate, if he is the door, then no one can shut it.

So when Jesus opens the door, no one can shut it. When he gives access to the

kingdom, human powers cannot revoke it.

But there is another aspect to consider when Jesus talks about opening a door.

We see the words open door in the New Testament.

And that is that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to him.

And he is the one who opens the various doors for that to occur.

For his gospel to go out, for his kingdom to be preached in the nations.

Paul frequently takes up this metaphor, this picture in Acts 14.

It says, on arriving there, they gathered the church together and imported all

that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

In 1 Corinthians 16, he says, because a great door of effective work was opened

to me and there are many who oppose me. Again, we see this verse quite a few times, right?

That Paul stays because there's an open door and he stays and the open door

is there in the face of oppositions, not in the absence of it.

In 2 Corinthians, now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and

found that the Lord had opened a door for me.

In Colossians, he says, pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message

so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains.

These doors are not held open by our own strength or willingness or desire for

them to be there, but the strength of the Son of God.

When we see these doors, when we walk through these doors, and we so often pray for open doors, right?

And we pray for them usually with regard to physical things.

We've been praying as we've been looking for a house, that if it's not the house

that we should buy, that God would close the door. So we think about that as

well, like for jobs, for houses, for relationships, whatever.

We think of this idea of God opening and closing a door.

But we don't take the step further and to say, okay, if God is opening this

door, then this thing is so that his name might be known among the nations.

That any door that Jesus opens for us is not just for our benefit.

It is for his name. It is for his benefit. it.

And so we shouldn't then treat God as some sort of magic genie to get what we

want or like a gift store clerk or.

Prayer like this vending machine,

that we put in our effort and we get out the gift poured out on us.

The door has been opened for God's purpose and for what his purpose is on the other side.

And we should make that extra step to understand what God has opened, no man can close.

And that is our entrance into the kingdom.

And that is an opportunity for his gospel to go out in the face of opposition,

in the face of the synagogue of Satan, in the face of the Roman empire who's

persecuting them, in the face of greatness, great adversity,

in the face of little strength,

what he opens is for his purpose in our life as well.

And to this, he encourages these Philadelphians and to us, I will make them

come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

To those who have little strength, Jesus is offering vindication.

He's offering acknowledging acknowledgments of His love, of their sonship,

of their identity, of their belonging.

I think it's just a cultural thing that it exists, but I couldn't put together the pieces in my mind.

But I think we all understand and know this vague story of someone claiming

to know somebody who is famous or of great stature, and no one believing you.

And then that person shows up and it's all justified, right?

These stories must exist because they're in the vague reaches of the back of my mind.

And the only one that I could piece together is not one that I've heard before,

but this woman, her name is, and I'm going to say it once because I'm going

to get it wrong, Memfela Remfela. That's probably not it.

She's a South African activist. And for years, after she had escaped and was

in America, people always asked her, it was the number one question,

do you know Nelson Mandela?

She was like, yeah, but nobody believed her because it's like, it's Nelson Mandela.

And then Nelson Mandela came to the US and put on a function and invited her.

And of course, everybody was like, oh, you weren't lying when you said that

you knew this great leader of the nation. Of course she wasn't lying.

She was proven right. she was vindicated. And so what Jesus' encouragement to

us and to these people is, in the end, no matter what you're facing,

no matter what strength you might think you have or need, no matter what external

pressures or internal pressures exist, I'm going to show up and make all things right.

I'm going to show up and you will be vindicated in my love.

For me, the thought is, what if we lived now in the presence of God before the world in that same way?

That yes, God knows me. I know God. That we would identify ourselves as his people.

That if someone asks us that we could name drop the Lord and know that in the

end, he's going to vindicate us in it.

I think about that funny story in Acts with the seven sons of Sceva, right?

Where they beat, the demons beat these seven dudes naked and their interactions.

It was a, it was a, it was a band of, of traveling exorcists and they come up

to these demons and they say, I, I implore you in the name of Jesus and Paul,

in the name of Paul and Jesus who preaches come out of this.

And the demons respond to them by saying, Jesus, we know, and Paul we've heard

of, but who are you? Right. And then they beat him up.

And it's always fascinating that, that these spiritual beings opposed to God know Paul's name.

That perhaps in not the greatest way, he's vindicated in his relationship and knowledge of God.

But that we would live before Jesus, before God in this world in the same way. That yes, I am his child.

I know Jesus. I identify myself as his child, his friend, his faithful follower.

That we would live as God's people truly, faithfully.

Also a direct admonition against this synagogue of Satan as Jesus pours in more words from Isaiah.

He's directly quoting Isaiah chapter 60 here, where he's saying the same thing

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

about the nation of Israel. Now he's applying it to the people of God as anyone,

regardless of Jew or Gentile, who is found to be my faithful follower,

I will vindicate in the Lord.

That the children of your oppressors will come bowing before you and all who

despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the city of the Lord,

Zion, the Holy One of Israel.

So Jesus says with his encouragement, I am coming soon. This is how the book of Revelation ends.

Maranatha. Yes, come Lord Jesus, come. I am coming soon.

Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown.

This word save that we have, salvation, what we cling to as believers,

what we hold on to, it strikes me that it has two meanings in English.

It has what we normally ascribe to it in our Christian way, this idea of rescue.

Jesus came to rescue us from the domain of darkness, from the dominion of darkness,

from our sin, from our selfishness.

He came to rescue us from the works of the enemy, from sin and death.

It also, in the English language, it strikes me that it has the definition,

the meaning of perseverance, of preserving.

We save things for later.

We preserve them. So the same Jesus who has rescued us is the same Jesus who now holds us secure.

And to this he says.

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

Now, Philadelphia, apparently, much of that region, probably because they're

close together, suffered from earthquakes.

Next week, as we look at Laodicea, and we have that famous line that everybody

remembers from these seven letters that we don't remember anything else of,

I wish that you were hot or cold, but because you were lukewarm, I will spit you out.

So you can see the city Hierapolis, which had all of these hot springs and volcanic

activity from Laodicea.

And you can see the sea at Colossae, and where those waters mixed was at Laodicea, where it was lukewarm.

So there's this volcanic activity in this region that caused earthquakes.

And Philadelphia would suffer these great earthquakes to the same degree that

we have seen in our recent history, like Venezuela,

where despite any resources you guys give them for many months and perhaps for

a long time, they're going to sleep outside the city because they're afraid

of it collapsing on them again.

Philadelphia was the same way. They suffered these great earthquakes and for

fear they were slow to return to the city for fear that it would collapse on them once again.

And to these people, to these faithful followers who had suffered these experiences,

Jesus says, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

And I will write on their name, the name of his God, the name of the city of his God.

Jesus promises to those who have experienced this great shaking,

something that cannot be shaken.

That even though everything here that we experience is temporary,

it is not permanent. It's not coming with us.

He says, I will make you, give you a name that is unshakable and a future that is firm.

What Jesus gives us is permanent. And these words, again, aren't just to those

in Philadelphia. It's not just to these seven churches. Revelation pronounces

this blessing on anyone who hears these words, anyone who reads these words,

anyone who does what they say.

So we got to remember who Jesus is. Holy, true. He holds the key.

He has the authority. Remember what he has done. He's opened the door.

He has rescued us. He has defeated the powers.

Remember what he is doing. He's building his church. He's opening doors for

the gospel that cannot be shut.

Remember what he has promised. He will keep his people. He will hold his people.

He will vindicate his people.

He is coming. He will make his people permanent pillars in his presence.

Remember so that we would love the word of God, that we would believe that God

can use us, the little strength we may have, that we might walk through in that

strength, the doors that he has opened for us,

that we would not expect a life without suffering.

That's not one of his promises. He promises to hold them in the day of tribulation,

but we can spend days and weeks talking about what that means.

Don't fixate on what's temporary. Remember, stay faithful and don't give up.

Your faith is not useless.

And you may have little power, little strength now, but you don't have too little.

Jesus knows your name. Jesus knows your faithfulness. He sees it. He holds the key.

Jesus opens the door and Jesus will keep you. Remember...