Aug 25, 2019
by: Jack Lash Series: The Epistles of Jesus | Category: NT books | Scripture: Revelation 3:7–13
- Introduction – There are three points about these epistles as a whole I’d like to make before we read.
A. These epistles of Jesus are a glimpse of His heart.
1. In every generation there are favorite ways to portray Jesus. But what protects us from having a skewed perception of who He really is? Looking back at who He actually is in the NT.
2. Not always pleased, He often has things against His people.
a. Philadelphia: one of two letters with only commendation
b. The danger of positive-only Christianity: Some preachers take what’s written about those who are seeking Him first and apply it to all, ignoring what is said about those who aren’t doing so well.
c. It’s pretty clear that the churches which received strong rebukes from Jesus were not thinking they needed to be strongly rebuked. This is nowhere clearer than in the final letter, to Laodicea: “You say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Rev.3:17) If we’re not determined to listen, we won’t be able to hear.
B. I’d like to remind us about where we started.
1. In Revelation 1 the apostle of John had a vision of Jesus walking in the midst of seven lampstands representing these seven churches. He is depicted in His high priestly role as the One who oversees the lampstands as the priest did in the temple. He would fuel them and repair them as necessary and even remove them and replace them if they weren’t functioning properly.
2. And so we see that Jesus is tending to His churches in this way.
3. How does Jesus perform this work on the seven churches? Through these seven letters. He rebukes them and corrects them. He encourages them and affirms them. He challenges them to stand firm and not grow weary in the face of opposition, persecution, false teaching and trouble.
4. Think about the significance of these words of Jesus in these epistles. Here is Jesus who comes to earth and does mighty miracles and teaches for three years. Then He dies on the cross and is raised on the 3rd day. Then He spends 40 more days teaching his disciples and preparing them to be sent out as His apostles. Then He ascends to heaven, and ten days later pours out His Spirit at Pentecost. And for the next 60+ years the apostles labor by the power of the HS to plant churches all over the Roman world, to make foundational decisions, and to write the NT. All through this time Jesus is still speaking, but through His apostles. But then right before the last apostle dies, right before the last piece of the NT is put in place, Jesus speaks directly/personally one final time.
5. And who does He speak to? He writes to local churches.
6. And what is the nature of what He says? What is He concerned about? How the local churches are doing, how they’re being faithful, and how they’ve gotten off track.
7. Of all of the problems in the world, all the diseases, wars, injustices, poverty. What is Jesus worrying about? The state of His churches. How they’re doing, what they’re believing, how they’re acting, who they’re listening to, what they’re focused on
8. Do you see how close to the heart of Jesus is the welfare of His local churches?
a. He is always in the midst of His churches and keenly aware of how they are doing.
C. There were two primary problems facing these seven churches, according to these letters:
1. The two problems
a. The opposition and persecution of a society hostile to Christ,
b. The temptation to indulge in the sinful securities and pleasures of that society
2. These same two problems are depicted in Christ’s parable of the sower.
a. The seed falls in 4 places: the roadside represents those who never listen/respond in the first place.
b. The good soil represents those who respond and continue undeterred.
c. But the other two represent these two problems:
(1) The rocky soil represents the persecution of the hostile society, as Jesus Himself said in Matt. 13:21 “He has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”
(2) The seed sown among the thorns represents the person who is overcome by the temptation to indulge in the pleasures and securities of the world, as Jesus said in Matt.13:22, “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”
II. Revelation 3:7–13 “And to 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. 8 “ ‘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 name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. 10 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. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 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. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
A. Our theme today comes from v.7-9.
B. The first thing we notice here is about the door. Jesus first introduces Himself as the One “who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens,” which is a quote from Isaiah 22:22.
C. And then He goes on to say, “I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.”
1. He has nothing negative to say. ‘I know your works and therefore I have set before you an open door.’ He clearly thinks very highly of them.
D. This is the heart of this letter, but what is his open door? There are two things we need to know:
1. We need to understand the gospel background for what He says.
2. We need to understand the circumstance background for what He says.
III. The gospel background — When Jesus calls Himself the Key of David, and the One who shall open and none shall shut, when Jesus says to the believers in Philadelphia that He has “set before [them] an open door, which no one is able to shut,” we can only understand what He means if we understand that this is gospel imagery, salvation imagery.
A. You see, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, God cast them out of the garden and placed an angel at the entrance with a flaming sword to prevent them from coming back in.
B. The way into the presence was closed. And for centuries, this separation remained in place.
C. Then, when Moses was given instructions for building the tabernacle, it included directions for making a curtain or veil (Ex. 26:30–35). This veil was to be embroidered with cherubim, representing the cherubim of Eden, keeping mankind away from the presence of God.
D. But then, astonishingly, at the moment Jesus died on the cross, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom (Matt.27:50-51), symbolizing God finally opening the door. Why at that moment? Because the door is opened by means of the atoning death of Christ.
E. This is why Jesus said “I am the door.” (John 10:9)
F. Hebrews 10:19–22 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
G. But there’s more to why Jesus specifically says He’ll open a door to the Christians at Philadelphia...
IV. The circumstance background
A. There is a circumstance the believers of Philadelphia seem to be experiencing which we have only subtle hints of in this letter, but which explains perfectly everything Jesus says.
B. The first hint is that – like the believers at Smyrna – they are suffering persecution.
1. We see this in v.8, where He commends them for their behavior in persecution: “I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”
C. The second hint is that their persecutors are referred to as “those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie.”
1. We already saw from the letter to Smyrna that this refers to Jews who reject Jesus as their messiah and set themselves against the gospel of Christ, and against the people of Christ.
2. So, they’re being persecuted by the Jews.
D. How were the unbelieving Jews persecuting them? We’re not told specifically here, but I don’t think it’s too hard to figure out.
1. What was the pattern from the rest of the NT?
2. One of the main tools of persecution which the Jews used against those who had become Christians was excommunication. They kicked them out of the synagogue.
a. John 9:22 “The Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.”
b. John 12:42 “Many even of the authorities believed in [Jesus], but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.”
c. John 16:2 “They will put you out of the synagogues.”
3. The membership of the synagogue was supposed to represent being a part of God’s people, one of God’s children. And being put out was supposed to represent being cut off from God.
4. If we suppose that the unbelieving Jews of Philadelphia have rejected and excommunicated the Christians from the synagogue, then Jesus’ response about opening a door makes perfect sense.
E. What is Jesus going to do about this exclusion from the synagogue? How is Jesus going to respond when His people have been cast out and the door slammed behind them? He will set before them “an open door which no one is able to shut.”
1. “They may have slammed the door in your face, but I am throwing open the door to you!”
F. And then He says, “Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.”
1. Jesus assures them that not only will He keep the door open for them, but He will personally make sure that in the end their excommunicators will bow down to them and acknowledge that they are not rejected by God but greatly loved by God.
2. What a marvelous promise Jesus gives to His people! Not only will we know that we are the ones the Lord loves, but even those who spent their lives telling us we were what was wrong with the world will know not only that we were right about God, but that we are His beloved people.
3. “The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” – Isaiah 60:14
V. Application
A. Have you noticed that most of the time Jesus commends someone in the NT, it is because they are trusting Him in the face of persecution or suffering or temptation? They are not resentful or bitter. They are not compromising His commandments in order to avoid the hardship. They are accepting the trouble and enduring it faithfully, with their eyes on Him. Who in the Bible gets praised for being happy when everything is going well?
1. If you are a true follower of Christ you will have doors shut to you for the rest of your life. There will be people who will not want to be your friend or even to associate with you. There will be companies who won’t want to have you as an employee. There will be groups who never invite you to hang out with them. Even your siblings or parents may be aloof or insult you. Even your own children may turn away from you – or even your spouse.
2. Jesus says, “Rejoice and be glad! For your reward is great in heaven. For “blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” – Matthew 5:11–12
3. Why should you rejoice when people revile you and persecute you and make all kinds of false accusations against you because of Christ? Because when the world rejects you on account of Christ, it means that Christ welcomes you with open arms.
B. Ultimately you have to choose between two doors. Door #1 is the world’s door, the door of the world’s favor and approval. Door #2 is Christ’s door, the door of His approval and favor.
1. John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
2. You may wish to have both, but that is impossible. You can only have one. Which will it be?
3. Matthew 7:13–14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
4. When you say no to door #1, then God will open door #2 to you.
C. Not just open, but unshuttable
1. If you are willing to accept the rejection and hatred of the world which comes with living as a Christian in an alien society, Jesus will personally hold the door open for you and prevent anyone from closing it.
2. Many may want to close that door, many may try to close it. Many may try to separate you from the love of Christ. But if Jesus is for you, who can be against you?
3. Romans 8:33-39 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? ...Who is to condemn? ...Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us... For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
D. Hold fast what you have