Dennis Tuuri

kept my word and has not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee, because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Let’s pray. Father, we do ask the illumination of your Holy Spirit. We pray Lord God that I would have clarity of thought and tongue that you would open the ears of all of us, Father, to hear from your word and recognizing that it is a transforming word in the power of your spirit. We pray, Lord God, for that transformation work to be done today. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

That most honored of cemeteries in our land had been given up to those who were financial contributors to the Democratic Party. And for that reason primarily, as opposed to being there legitimately in honor for one’s service to one’s country, particularly in terms of military service. There was a particular individual who had come out, had lied about his military service, at least to some people, perhaps even to the president of the United States, and that lie was believed. And so as a result, this man was indeed buried at Arlington Cemetery. But because of the controversy that came out, the decision has been made, and I don’t know if he’s actually been disinterred, removed from the grave at Arlington or not yet.

Probably has been in the dead of night. I suppose the cameras wouldn’t roll. But this man is actually either now has been dug up or will be dug up from that grave site and transferred to a grave in his home state. He gave several hundred thousand to the Democratic Party for the re-election of President Clinton.

Now, I use that as an illustration of what we spoke about last week. We have modern day Shebnas who do not serve their king correctly.

Remember Shebna was the head of the servants of Hezekiah, but he really was serving for self-interest. And specifically, Shebna desired an honorable place of burial in the mountaintops, carving out a sepulcher for himself there as opposed to the common place where most people would be buried. So there are some very definite parallels between his case and that of this man whom I’ve just referenced.

God told Shebna that it’s not going to work out the way you thought it would. I’m going to wad you up like a ball, throw you out of the country, and you will be in dishonor. And the things that you built to honor you and glorify yourself, even those things, the chariots, etc., will be places of dishonor for you.

And so we have this modern-day example in the last month or two that we can point to our children and say, see what happens when men seek their own self-interest. God in his providence rolls back the cloak that we think hides our sins and reveals those sins and moves us from a place of honor—Arlington Cemetery—to dishonor, having our own body after we’ve dead and gone, dug up and removed from an honorable place of burial and put in a more common place.

We talked last week about Shebna and Eliakim as the two representatives from Isaiah 22 that are referenced by our savior in referring to himself as one who is holy, who is true, and who has the keys of David that opens and no man can shut and shuts and no man can open. A direct reference to Isaiah 22. Our savior seeing himself then as the greater Eliakim, and the church, understandably and correctly, seeing Eliakim as a type of our savior.

Remember we said that Eliakim had the key of David. Where did he have it? Where did he wear it? He wore it on his shoulder, symbolically at least, ceremonially. When he used it, of course, it would dangle at his side and he would open the doors to the king, grant entrance, etc. We drew correlations between that servant of the king to the servant or priest of God’s temple.

Remember the word for temple and the word for palace of the king are the same word in the Hebrew, and the word for priest and the word for servant are the same word. So you have the high priest and the high servant of God’s temple and the king’s palace. The king’s palace is subordinate to God’s temple, but nonetheless it is a place where God is very much seen as dwelling in the context of his people, civilly as well as religiously.

We talked a little bit about the pillars of the temple and how you had two big pillars. I’ll talk about that again at the end of our sermon today. One named Jachin and the other named Boaz. And the evidence from the scriptures seemed to be that when priests were installed into office, they would be anointed at one of the pillars, Jachin. And when kings were anointed, they would be anointed by the pillar that was named Boaz.

Boaz being the family line of David. And so you have this representation in this huge doorway to the temple of Jachin and Boaz of the double role of the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately as the priest and as king of his people. And so the civil implications are there. The obvious implications to us are that we’re to be true servants, as Eliakim was, of the greater Eliakim, not seeking self-interest but rather the interest of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He came as the servant of the Lord, and we are to walk in the power of the servant of the Lord. And all that context and background is brought into this passage that we’ll now deal with more directly than we did last week. Taking a digression into Isaiah 22 to bring in the knowledge of that to what we’re going to speak about in Revelation 3:7 through 13.

Now, a number of years ago, probably well over 10 years ago, Howard L. and I were driving back from a meeting. We’d been at Steve Samson’s place. He had a little apartment up by where Dan Drinkwater lives now in that area. And we had been there. At that time, Steve had a group, a little newsletter called Salt Shakers that he was starting to publish and distribute to church leaders in the greater Portland area. And we went to a little meeting there. I think there might have been four or five of us, and we were talking about the implications of God’s word for the city.

And as we drove back after that meeting, it was nighttime and we were in Howard’s little car. And we were driving across Portland, and I looked around from one of the bridges—I think we were going over one—and looked at this tremendous mass of people. It was a big mass back then, even a bigger mass now. And thinking that, you know, we think we have the answer for this city, and we just came from a meeting attended by all of four or five people, and we think that what we were talking about is absolutely critical for the well-being of the greater Portland area.

And I thought, you know, we’re going to take this city for Christ and be kept from God’s judgment and be established with permanence? It seemed a little like megalomania. Well, it seemed like we were exercising ourselves in megalomania.

Well, in a similar way, there was this church in Philadelphia, and it was small but it was significant. And I think that while certainly it’s easy to fall into the sin of pride, it is just as easy, and perhaps easier, to fall into the sin of not thinking that our works are important, as little as they may be in the context of a large metropolitan area.

Philadelphia was a big city in the context of the world then, and I’ll talk more about it at the end of the sermon as well. And God, the Lord Jesus Christ, delivered the sixth of seven letters to the church at Philadelphia.

Now, in your outline, I’ve called it the city of brother loyalty, or the church rather of brother loyalty. The letter to the brother loyal church at Philadelphia. We think of Philadelphia as the city of brotherly love because it comes from the two Greek words philos, meaning love, and then the word for brother. So love, brotherly love, and that’s true, but it has a different connotation. You know, this is not agape. This is a different word, and one of the connotations of the word used here for brotherly love is the sense of loyalty. And I think that as we develop the sermon, you’ll see why Jim B. Jordan originally, and I copying him in this outline, provide to you and call it the letter to the church of the brother loyal church.

We are commended for and exhorted to loyalness to the Lord Jesus Christ who calls himself our brother. And we’re commended by way of loyalty and love for our brothers in the context of the church as well. And so for that reason, I’ve decided to put that spin on the name as opposed to just leaving it brotherly love. You know, that’s so in our day and age with love being redefined so often. This part of it, loyalty, is really frequently left out of it.

So I’ve entitled it that, and we’ll go through, as we have before, the literary structures first of all. So we’ll begin in your outline now under general structure and literary observations and say again that these seven letters restate the creation week. I’ve given you the list of all seven days of creation there and what happened on those particular days. And it would be, I would hope, that soon all the children above say five or six years of age in this church would know the seven days of creation and what happened on them and what was created by God in them.

They’re so critical for understanding the rest of the scriptures. It’s the beginning of the scriptures for us, and it’s not hard. And I would venture to say that I’m not sure we’ve really done our job correctly in obedience to our baptismal vows if we have not at least taught the basic facts of the creation that God describes for us in Genesis 1 to our children. They’re so important for understanding the rest of scripture.

Having said that, the sixth day of creation is the one in which the beasts of the field are made. And of course, man is made on the sixth day. So the sixth day is always identified with the creation of man. But specifically, I want us to remember a particular aspect of that creation. We talked last week about Eliakim and about the proper use of the keys, and that is a direct reference to the keys given to Adam.

He was supposed to guard the garden. His two big jobs were to guard the garden and to nurture the garden, to cause it to grow, to be transformed and matured in glory. And we’ve said many times in this church that as husbands, we need to keep that model clearly in front of us when it comes to our wife preeminently, but also our children, also the elders of the church, the Eliakims and Hezekiahs of our day, for the civil function, etc., that there is this requirement of guarding and nurturing.

Now the church is more of a nurturing institution, and the state is more of a guarding institution. But both institutions have both things kind of going on. The state guards so that the nurturement of that goes on in the church. The church, in furtherance of nurturement, has to guard the doors of the church.

Well, in any event, so Adam is referred to here in this letter to the church at Philadelphia, the sixth letter, and particularly his guarding function. You remember that Adam didn’t do it right. You’ll remember from Genesis, the first couple of chapters, that in fact he sinned quite badly in letting his wife enter into a conversation with the serpent in his presence, failing to guard her correctly in terms of her discussion with this one who is tempting her to sin.

So Adam lost his capability of guarding. He sinned. He gave it all away. And as a result, then what happens? He’s kicked out of the garden. And he doesn’t guard the garden anymore. But the garden is still guarded. It’s guarded by angels now with flaming swords of fire that turn every which way.

Now, what happens with the Lord Jesus Christ who comes as the new humanity? He is now the greater Eliakim who will use the keys correctly. He is the true guardian of the church. And so in Christ, mankind is restored to its guardian function once more.

We talked last week about this a little bit, but turn if you will to John 20. We’ll look at verses 19 and 20. Jesus comes to them and he stands in the midst of them in chapter 20 at the end of verse 19. He says, “Peace be unto you.” The blessings of God be unto you. And in verse 20, when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord.

Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be unto you.” Twice repeating this command: Peace be unto you. As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. He’s been commissioned as the new Adam, the second Adam. And he sends them out now in the second Adam. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven unto them. Whosoever sins you retain, they are retained.

Now, that’s language that comes directly, by way of cross reference to the other gospels. That is key language. The exercise of the keys, the retention or the forgiveness of sins. So the Lord Jesus Christ comes as the second Adam. And when he completes his work, he then in his resurrection breathes upon the disciples the way that God breathed upon the lump of clay that was man after he had formed him, and they become new humanity in Christ and they are restored to what Adam was given by way of his calling. And that calling involves preeminently guarding, the use of the keys, retention of sins, and forgiveness of sins.

So the point here is that it’s very important to see this correlation at Philadelphia—that what’s being stressed here is the sixth day, the creation of man, and specifically the recalling and reempowerment of man in the new creation of Christ. They exercise that function correctly. That’s real important for us. It’s real important for husbands, and very hopefully you will meditate on that this week today, even as I’m speaking.

Perhaps the Spirit may bring to mind to you sins of failing to guard your family correctly. Well, it’s very important truth to see that and to see that this process has gone on. Remember we talked about the angels and mankind. Adam loses guarding. It’s given over to angels, but we retain it now. It’s been given back to man through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Revelation, the book of Revelation, shows this transference back from angelic control of all things—guarding functions—back to the church.

On the day of Pentecost, I heard James Montgomery Boyle speaking on Acts 2 this morning about tongues of fire. See, we have those flaming swords now given back to us in the power of the Spirit to guard correctly.

Okay. Secondly, the seven letters reprise, or restate, past history. And again, I give you the different days here, the different periods rather of time. We went through the garden, the patriarchal period, the wilderness period after the Exodus, the Davidic monarchy, the remnant period—remember Sardis, few, very few left, few left, a remnant left, the rest go into captivity—and then the restoration period of the Old Testament.

Again, I would hope that our children, by the time they’re maybe 10 or 11, have a pretty good understanding of the flow of Old Testament history. You know, I think it’s a little silly. I hope I’m not saying this too strongly, but I think it’s a little odd or peculiar that we train our children to know so much about American history. I mean, as important as that is, because it does link to the providence of God, but if they know a lot more about American history than they do about these obvious periods of Old Testament history, we’ve done something wrong.

This is the basis. The scriptures are the base from which everything else makes sense. And American history has to be interpreted by biblical history. And biblical history is this flow of these periods, and God reprises them for us here in Revelation as in other places of scripture. And our children should know something about the restoration period: the northern kingdom, southern kingdom were taken into captivity at different times, both by Assyria, then by Babylon, finally the southern kingdom.

But then after a period of being in exile, they come out. You know, they’re not in exile when Christ returns. They’ve been restored to the land. The book of Nehemiah is all about that, right? And the books of Ezekiel and Zechariah describe this for us: this restoration period in which the people of God are brought back into the land. And now they’re brought back, interestingly enough, in a fairly minor or insignificant way.

You read the account of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the temple, and it looks pretty humble. You know, they have a little strength, to quote our savior’s letter to the Philadelphians. But what happens? Well, we know that by the time of the writing of the New Testament, there are synagogues all over the world. And we know that God-fearers are everywhere. And guys are coming from Ethiopia and other places, the uttermost parts of the earth, to come and worship at Jerusalem.

Zechariah says specifically that the restoration of the temple and God’s people after the exile period would be one of great evangelism. There’d be this open door—again, to quote from the letter to Philadelphia. The restoration period was one of great success for the preaching of the faith of Yahweh and conversion of many people in lots of different areas.

We just had Christmas, and Vic at his communion talk last week reminded us of the Magi, the wise men who come—where they come from—Persia. Persia had, was still influenced by a knowledge of the scriptures in the time of our savior, and men come to worship the newborn king from Persia.

So the point is that there’s this correlation to the restoration of guarding authority given to mankind and the church at Philadelphia. There’s this connection between the Philadelphia church being pictured as a church that has that great opportunity for worldwide influence and evangelism that the restoration church had as it came out of exile. There’s this correlation. You can look at the restoration period of Old Testament history as a little precursor of what was to come when the Lord Jesus Christ in his fullness goes, is resurrected, ascended, sits at the right hand of the father as is pictured in the book of Revelation.

Now, there’s a seventh church that we’ll talk about next week. And there’s certainly a declension, a falling away, an apostasy at the end of the restoration period, just prior to the coming of Jesus and the apostles. But you don’t want to color that whole period with the apostasy at the end. You’re missing some very important truths which correlate to the work of the church and the promise of God that the work of the church will be effectual.

Okay, so the restoration period is being talked about here.

Third, these—I probably should have written this a little different—but the seven letters to the seven churches help us to remember what the book of Revelation is about. And we said that one way to think about that is the first four letters describe the four major enemies of Christ and covers chapters 2 through 18, the bulk of the book. And then the last three letters we could say correlate to chapters 19, 20, 21, and 22.

Remember, chapter 19 is where Jesus rides out and the men in white linen ride out behind him, the army of God, conquering and to conquer, preaching the word, the sword coming out of the mouth, preaching the word and praying to God, and that’s going to conquer the world.

Well, the Sardis church, while, you know, essentially mostly bad, had a few in it that had not defiled their garments and their garments were white. They’d be clothed in white linen. They’re that army that follow Christ in Revelation 19. There’s a correlation there.

Revelation 20 begins with the angel having the key to the bottomless pit and locking up Satan for a thousand years. It’s the period of the millennium. Well, the Philadelphia church is all about Jesus as the angel, the messenger of God, who has that key and exercises it with the restraint of the synagogue of Satan. He refers to the synagogue of Satan in this letter to the Philadelphians. But behind the Jews who are persecuting the church is Satan himself, but he has the keys and he’s going to lock him up. And that’s described in Revelation 20.

So it helps us to remember the flow of the book if we see the flow of these letters: the first four, the opponents to the church addressing various portions of Revelation, the last three letters, the last four chapters. Next week we’ll see the correlation of the letter to the church at Laodicea to chapters 21 and 22, the entrance into the throne city of God, the New Jerusalem. So that helps us to remember that and again gives us insight into what’s going on at the church of Philadelphia.

Works both ways, because if we see that correlation of Revelation 20, then what we see being pictured for us in the church at Philadelphia is this millennial period of the church, the growth of the church through evangelism and prayer.

Fourth, we said that these letters give us a picture of church discipline. And here I provided more detail by giving you all seven and the correlations. We’ve talked about this before, but it’s actually written out for you here, so you’ll see very clearly, hopefully, what I’m referring to when I say this.

There is this chiastic structure, which doesn’t have to be seven, but frequently is in the scriptures. And this chiastic structure, you know, you have bookends. It’s as if you’re—well, I’ve done it later in the outline in terms of the picture of Christ being the standard and then the means by which we see things. The Greek letter chi is an X. So a chiastic or a chiastic structure is that half of the X. It’s just an in, you know, it’s like a caret sign, I guess, is what it is on our typewriters.

So the one and seven of the seven work together. Both Ephesus and—we’ll see this more clearly next week—but Laodicea, both of those churches are unified. They’re not really divided, but they’re compromised. Ephesus had some big problems. And Jesus, as much as he commends them for their doctrinal integrity, he says, “Hey, I’m going to come and take the lampstand away from you. Your light’s going out unless you remember your first love and do what you first did for the savior that you love.” The desirable bride has kind of forgotten her first love. And Laodicea is the same way.

It’s unified. He doesn’t talk about division in the church, but they’re compromised.

Well, two and six go together as well. And that is the church at Smyrna, which we talked about, and now today the church at Philadelphia. They’re both unified, as Ephesus and Laodicea are, but they’re not compromised.

In both of these letters, there’s various correlations, and I provide them on your outline. There are parallels. First of all, there’s no citation of sin to either church. All the other letters say you’re doing this wrong. You know, you’re doing these things right; you’re doing this wrong. But to both Smyrna and now to Philadelphia, he says you’re doing this right, and you’re doing nothing wrong. Now, you know, everybody has sin. But essentially what Christ is saying here is they were a faithful, unified church, both Smyrna and Philadelphia.

Secondly, both suffer at the hands of the Jews. You know, they’re both under persecution by the Jews. And in both letters, Jesus identifies that persecution as really finding its source in Satan.

Okay. Why don’t you look at the letter to Smyrna? And we’ll see this. Maybe rather than just taking my word for it, you’ll see these correlations that I’ve drawn out here.

Chapter 2:8, “Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna, write these things the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, for thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

Well, that’s very similar language to Philadelphia, as I said: both in terms of citation of works that are good, no works that are bad. Secondly, the identification of the Jews motivated by Satan.

Third, you’ll notice there that the exhortation to Smyrna is simply to hold fast what you’re doing. Don’t make any big changes. Hold on to what you’re doing. And he tells Philadelphia the same thing. Hold on to what you have. Don’t let anybody take your crown away.

And that’s the fourth set of commonality between Smyrna and Philadelphia: the crown. That’s the reward of both of them. They get a crown. And I make reference to Psalm 8. God crowns man with glory and honor. And Smyrna and Philadelphia are in the process of being crowned with glory and honor.

And so there are these correlations. Another correlation I didn’t put here is that both are going to have to suffer for a little bit. Remember, we talked about Smyrna’s 10 days—short compared to the great amount of time that they’ll reign with Christ. And here in Philadelphia, instead of 10 days, it says the hour of trial that’s coming upon the earth. Now, it’s important to see these correlations.

For instance, in the letter to Philadelphia, he says he’ll keep them from the trial and tribulation that’s coming upon all the world to test the land or the earth. And we see what that means by seeing it correlated to Smyrna. It doesn’t mean they’re going to get out of the whole thing, but it means they’re going to be kept by God intact in the midst of that trial and tribulation to come. And we think that refers to AD 70.

Philadelphia will be okay. Some of them, a lot of them, may die, but they’ll be okay. God will keep them because they’ve persevered in keeping the commands of Christ.

So in terms of the characterization of this church, it is unified but faithful, as was Smyrna. And then the middle three churches—all are divided churches in varying states of disarray. And there’s a pattern there too in these middle three: Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis show a transition from a basically good church allowing some bad teaching, a church that was divided half and half with Jezebel and her band, and then finally, Sardis, a church that is mostly bad instead of being mostly good.

And so the need for discipline in the context of the church.

Okay. And then fifth—and this is where we’ll get into the bulk of the book now, or the bulk of the letter—the seven letters give us a model of how to one another one another. We always begin with Christ the measure.

When you discipline your children, you don’t have to do this formally, obviously, but you may want to formally at times remind them that the standard by which you measure their conduct is the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ in his word. It’s not our arbitrary decisions as parents. It is hopefully not. And following this model drives us to the standard of Christ as we interface with our children. We don’t want to create good moral people. We want to create image-bearers of Christ. Not create—we want to develop and mature image-bearers of Christ.

So it’s important to speak to ourselves, to speak to each other, to speak to our children about Jesus and the standard that he sets before us. And that’s what he does in these seven letters. He is the measure. He’s the canon. He’s the standard. The word is a reflection of that, of course, the written word. But ultimately, Jesus Christ himself is the standard or measure.

And Jesus gives us a trinitarian or a three-fold identification of who he is as that standard. We talked about this a little bit last week, but he is holy. Okay? Side rabbit trail that you can go on in your own studies: this is one whole train of apologetic work that you can do with someone who denies the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ—his declaration that he is the holy one. He is holy. God is holy. And there are identifications of Christ as being the holy one of God, the holy one of Israel. You can follow that through to a concordance search.

But in any event, Jesus is holy. And on the basis of that holiness, you know, I am holy. Be you holy because I’m holy. Okay? If you’re going to be a Christian, then you have to have a degree of holiness. He’s the standard for that. Jesus is holy, totally separated to the work of God, he’s the servant of the Lord (using the Eliakim reference).

Secondly, he is true, and the word here seems to have the connotation of firm. He is loyal to God the father, and he expects us to be true, to be firm and steadfast, cleaving to his word and the implications of that word in everything, but particularly in reference to our relationships with our brothers, who are the image-bearers of God. So Jesus is true.

And then third, he is the greater Eliakim. This is who Jesus as the measure presents himself to be: the greater Eliakim. And then in these epistles, in these seven letters, Jesus says, “I’m the standard.” And then he says, “What do I see when I look at you? Do I see good? Do I see bad? Do I see a little of both?”

And what does he see good that he speaks of to this church at Philadelphia?

So now, if you look at specifically the text, you’ll notice that he begins by saying, as I said, that he is the one that is holy. He that is true. He have the key of David, and that is described then as he that opens, no man shuts, shuts, no man opens.

I know thy works. And now I want you to think of this next phrase as a parenthetical phrase: Behold I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it, for thou hast a little strength.

The different translations—maybe the translation you’re reading doesn’t have that as a connection between having a little bit of strength and the setting in front of them the door. Really, I think the proper way to look at the verse is: he knows thy works. He has this parenthetical description that he has given them an open door. And then he lists the works. The works are threefold: you have a little strength, you have kept my word, and you’ve not denied my name. Those are the three works.

And then he says that on the basis of those three works, he’s going to do three things. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but they do lie. Behold, thou will make them to come. He’s going to call, have them come to church with them. Not only that, but he’s going to have them worship, fall down at your feet.

He tells the saints at this little tiny struggling church in this big metropolitan area, persecuted by this big group of Jews that were at Philadelphia: Those guys are going to come to church one Sunday. And not only are they going to come to church, secondly, they’re going to fall down at your feet. And not only that, third, they’re going to know that I have loved you.

See, so that you can correlate the three works of the Philadelphian church—a little strength, they’re going to come to worship with you; you’ve kept my word, and they’re going to come and bow down at your feet; and you’ve not denied my name, and they’re going to know on the basis of that I have loved you.

You see? So the good works that he sees essentially are those three.

Now, he also says that they have persevered. It goes on in the text to say verse 10: Because you have kept the word of my patience, as you have persevered, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world. So that’s the second—it’s a summation, is a way to think of it, of those three works. The works being which we have just articulated: that they have little strength, they have kept his word, and not denied his name, and they’ve persevered.

Well, what does Jesus say in terms of criticism? None. Just as I said with Smyrna, there’s no citation of sins of the Philadelphian church. Now, you know, I don’t want to—again, I don’t want to cause us to be prideful. But the fact is that God expects you when he comes on the Lord’s day to not be filled with the sense of all your sins.

I want to be careful how I say this, but see, it’s not impossible to live a life of basic uprightness before God. And in fact, it’s what he expects us to be like. He chastens the other churches so that when he comes back to them, he won’t have big things to tell him about what they’re doing wrong as a church.

You know, there’s one segment of the church in America today that is continually introspective, continually trying to figure out what we’re doing wrong. And that, you know, it’s good to be to evaluate oneself. We have that exhortation every Lord’s day when we come to the table. But don’t get unbalanced that way, because Jesus comes to two of these seven churches and gives them no rebuke, no correction. He just says, “Keep doing what you’re doing.”

Now, we know that ultimately they’re not perfectly meeting the standard of Christ. But we know too that God has used this kind of language before in the scriptures. He says of this person or that person, they were upright, keeping God’s law and everything. He doesn’t mean they’re perfect, but he means their life is characterized by a general sense of obedience to the Ten Commandments. And our life should be too.

Don’t think that if you’ve got, you know, a perpetual abiding sin that’s acceptable in the Christian life. Your life is supposed to not have a lot of sin. Now, you’re going to have sin, some degree of falling short, but do you get what I’m saying here? You should be able to demonstrate lives of basic obedience to God. And churches should have the same thing.

So he has no statements of seeing anything bad in the church. And then at the center of these letters is always an exhortation to do something. And just like Smyrna, here he basically tells them: hold firmly, hold real tight to what you’ve got. You’re going to get stormy. Batten down the hatches. What you’re doing right, keep on doing it. Don’t make any big changes here. Keep on doing what you’re doing.

They lived in the context of a world that was tremendously tempting them to make changes. And I’ll talk about that a little again at the end of the sermon. But in terms of application of some of these things, understand that in terms of the text itself, it tells them what they must do is simply maintain, to hold on firmly to what they were doing.

What will Christ do negatively to them? He doesn’t give any warnings to them about what he’s going to do negatively. You can say implied: if they don’t persevere, he’ll take away their crown. But essentially that’s an implication. But like he has no statement of critique for them. He has no statement of watch out, or I’m going to come and do this to you. He doesn’t do it.

What does he have to say positively? Well, look at all this stuff he says. This is what’s amazing about the epistle: the tremendous blessings built into this particular epistle.

If you look in your outline, it’s the big section there. This whole one-anothering one another. The big thing that God tells, that Jesus tells this church, is all the neat stuff he’s going to do for them. Now, see that? Again, it’s a reminder to us with our children and with each other and with our wives and wives with their husbands. If you see good, commend it. Remind them what God is doing for them. Let’s not always be hung up on what God is threatening them with.

Jesus here says over and over and over these many, many blessings that he does for them.

First of all, he says he gives them in that what I call the parenthetical expression: he gives them an open and unshuttable door. Now, what does this mean? This open door. People have disagreed about this, and I’m not sure we need to take one explanation contrary to the others.

I think that what’s stressed is one of these things. People say, “Oh, what does it mean an open door?” Well, Revelation 3:20, he says, “Behold, I come to the—I’m at the door and I’m knocking. Open up and I’ll come in and eat with you.” So there’s a sense in which the open door is representative of fellowship with Christ. And we don’t want to take that away. We want to recognize that Christ comes to the church and indeed the door is open by his grace, and he comes and dines with us every Lord’s day.

We also don’t want to take away the fact that these are writing to people who had been probably kicked out of a lot of synagogues. They’d had the door shut against them. But he was saying, “Well, don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about your excommunications from these synagogues—the doors shut against you—because I’ve got the open door. It’s my house.”

Okay. So we want to see that too. But I think primarily what this open door is correlating it to the restoration period is an open door of evangelism and witness. And let’s look at a few verses. I’ve got them on your outline.

In Acts 14:27, “Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” So the open door here is one of evangelism, and not just evangelism without results, but evangelism with positive results. The Gentiles were coming to the faith in large numbers, and that’s described in Acts 14 as well as other places in Acts as an open door of evangelism.

In 1 Corinthians 16:8-9, we read that “I will tarry in Ephesus,” Paul says, “until Pentecost, for a great and effective door has opened to me and there are many adversaries.” That’s interesting, is it? Because that’s kind of like what was going on here in Philadelphia. God says to this little struggling church, you’re going to have a great door opened here for you, and you’re going to have lots of converts, but you’re also in the midst of lots of struggles. And Paul said that he was going to stay at Ephesus for a while because a great and effectual door had opened up. Lots of people were coming to the Lord, although there were also many adversaries. And of course, that’s what we expect, isn’t it?

You know, if you watch any of these football games, these playoff games, you know, on those big third or fourth downs, that’s the point of real conflict. There was a fourth down standby. I don’t remember which team it was. I watched the last couple of days. Fourth down at the goal line, and oh, it was Pittsburgh. That’s who it was. I hate to bring it up. Mike Melo will hate me, but anyway—Pittsburgh. The Patriots did a wonderful job of focusing all their strength in maintaining this stand at the goal line on a fourth down and one. Pittsburgh could have kicked a field goal, gone up by over a field goal, made Patriots try for a touchdown, but instead they went for the touchdown. And I mean, right on the goal line, and the two teams go up. The quarterback goes up and the linebackers from New England go up and boom! They stop him. They stop him cold.

Well, this point of attack where the great evangelistic opportunities are opening up from God, we should expect to see satanic opposition. Okay? And that’s what Paul describes, and that’s what’s described as well in the book of the letter to Philadelphia: lots of adversaries, but a great and effectual door is opening up to them.

Colossians 4:2-4, he says, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak.”

So all these things I think say that when Jesus says that he gives them an open door before them, it refers to an open door of evangelism and witness. Now he goes on to say, and we’ve referred to this already, but I want you to see it in this context: How open of a door would it be? Lots of people come into the faith. That’s good. A lot of those Gentiles become God-fearers, become Christians, and those Frygians and those Lydians and those other groups in the east—they’re going to come and become Christians. But he doesn’t stop there. He says, “I’ll tell you how big a door this is going to be.”

Little struggling church at Philadelphia—it’s going to be so big that your worst opponents in this city, the ones who call you Antichrist, the ones who say you’re awful, those folks are going to show up at church soon. One Sunday, you’re going to come and wow, look at that. Those are the guys who hated us.

That’s a pretty big door of evangelistic opportunity: that if their preaching and the prayers of the church offered up produce that kind of response from even their worst enemies. You see what it means?

Romans 11: Paul says the fullness of the Jews will come in. And if the Jews in their fullness come in, what will that be but life from the dead for the whole world? The whole world’s going to come to Philadelphia and worship. Well, the whole world at Philadelphia will be converted. That’s what Christ is saying, I think. And I think Romans 11 is talking about this same thing: that the fullness of the Jews comes in prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Because then after that, the Jews no longer have a special place in the providence of God. We’ll talk about that in a little bit too.

But in any event, great door of opportunity. They’re going to come. And not only are they going to come—I mean, I know I’ve said this already, but think about it. You know, one of our great problems as Christians is not seeing justice from God immediately. We have problems. We have adversaries. We have difficulties. How long is this going to go on? The psalmist cries out all the time, “Deal with them. Deal with them, please.” God says he will deal with them. And he tells Philadelphia, he’s going to deal with them by means of evangelism. They’re going to come in. And they’re not just going to come in. When they come to church next Sunday, these guys who have been persecuting you so badly—they’re going to bow down at your feet and say, “You know, you were right all along. We are really sorry to God for offending him and for offending you.”

They’re going to bow down before you. And glory of glories, they’re going to say, “We know that you’re the beloved of the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a big door of evangelistic opportunity. This is quite a statement for God to make to a little tiny church comparable to a couple of guys driving across Portland late one night thinking, “Oh, what are we nuts? It’s Gospel of Christ. What does it mean?” The church of Philadelphia was being tried, and they were given tremendous encouragement from our savior in the context of this epistle.

Now, I want us to see also here that there is a reference to Isaiah 60. Please turn in your scriptures to Isaiah 60. As you’re turning, I’ll remind you what we said last week from Isaiah 9. Remember, the key of David on the shoulder? And what does the shoulder of Jesus Christ have upon it? Well, it has the names the high priest had the names of God’s people in prayer. He’s got the shoulder key of David also. Our savior does. He is high priest and Eliakim, and the government (it says in Isaiah 9:6) will be upon his shoulders, and of the increase of it there shall be no end. It starts small, but it grows big.

And Isaiah 60 was one of those passages that probably the Jews, until they’re converted here in Philadelphia, took great comfort in. But all of a sudden it kind of has turned around on its head relative to them.

Look at the correlations between Isaiah 60 and what we’re looking at here.

“Arise, arise,” in verse one. “Your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people.” Now, darkness has covered the Jews at the point at which this epistle is written to the church at Philadelphia. But the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you. “The Gentiles shall come to your light.”

Okay, so the Jews had this text. And they looked at the Christian church as Gentiles, goyim, outside of the synagogue, excommunicated. And the Jews were thinking, one day those guys will come to us. But what the text actually is interpreted by Christ is: those Jews themselves are the ones who are the Gentiles now, and they’re going to come to the true Israel of God in Philadelphia and worship with them. You see? It’s an irony here. But this is a text that’s being referenced by our savior in his letter to the church at Philadelphia.

Verse 5: “Then you shall see and become radiant. Your heart shall swell with joy because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.”

That’s what God is telling them at Philadelphia. Then drop down to verse