“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. “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. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’”

We are not perfect – in fact, we’re the opposite of perfect, in that we are stained by sin. God, in His holiness, in His righteousness that defines His very nature, is perfect. As we who are imperfect, worship He who is perfect, we of course do so imperfectly. We don’t bridge this gap ourselves, but rather God, through His Spirit and sanctifying power purifies us, refines us and brings us closer to Him. Paul writes in Romans 7:22–25

“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

So long as we are in this life we find ourselves at war – at war with the spirit of the world, and at war with the passions of our flesh, though we are drawn from the perversions of our fallen nature, toward righteousness through Christ. I bring this up, because while Christ serves as our example, as the highest point to which we aim, it is helpful, and quite necessary, to see and learn from the struggles and triumphs of our brothers and sisters as we all strive together. Hebrews 4:15,

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus was tempted as we are, and beyond what we are, in that He held the power of God within the flesh of man and yet did not display greed, tyranny, or the lust for power that is on display in every level of humanity. Rather when facing temptation from Satan himself, when faced with the prospect of the brutal and shameful death on the cross, He showed His perfect oneness with God – His will was the Father’s will, because the two are One. And so we have the example of the Great High Priest, the spotless Lamb of God who has taken away our sin, and we aspire to this example, we run the race that leads to a finish line of eternal glory, and as we run and stumble, God guides, corrects, and sanctifies our stride. The seven churches that we see Jesus address in Revelation give us an exceptionally wide scope for how we might run our race. Of the seven, three are caught in a sort of middle ground – Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatira all have qualities that are admirable, things that testify to the work that God has done among them, and some degree of obedience to His will. But they also have pitfalls in their midst, stumbling blocks that, if not dealt with, will lead to judgement, and possibly losing their status as a church altogether. Two of the seven have essentially nothing good to be said of them – Sardis, the dead church, who we looked at last week, and Laodicea, the lukewarm, last addressed of the seven churches. These churches are hollow shells, and if Life does not fill them through true obedience to the Spirit of God, they will be reduced to nothing. Finally, there are the two churches who are without reproach – Smyrna, and the church we look at today, Philadelphia. It’s important to understand that while Jesus commends both churches and gives no fault requiring corrective measures, neither church has finished their work. Neither is told, “Good job, you can stop now.” Rather the encouraging command is to continue in their work, in their devotion and obedience to God, and that they will be delivered to certain victory. Smyrna helped us see and appreciate the promise of eternal life that God offers. Jesus says in Revelation 2:10,

“Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Even when the persecution is unending, even to the point of death, we are not forgotten or forsaken, but rather God has laid up for us the hope of salvation, the glory of the crown of life. As we look at Philadelphia we can understand that while the world will bring persecution, just because it’s fallen doesn’t mean that God is not unable to deliver us from it, even while we’re in the world. Philadelphia also gives us a deeper insight into the vastness of the eternal life that we saw promised to those in Smyrna – the certainty of the glory that He has set aside for us in His presence, and what it means to call the Holy One of Israel our Father.

The Seven Churches – The Eternal Family of the Living God

1. Eternal Power in the Family of God

I have a theory (and to be clear, it’s only a theory), that a large portion of the people at the church at Philadelphia were Jewish converts. I’m not entirely alone in thinking this may have been the case, some commentators seem to think along these same lines, but I didn’t arrive at this conclusion by reading commentary, and I stress that it’s just a theory. Partly because Scripture doesn’t explicitly state this, and also because there’s no clear historical consensus that points to this being the case. My reason for thinking it may have been so is because what Jesus says to them has a flavor that would have meant more to those who were Jewish rather than gentile. If this is the case, it gives us something more to take into consideration and appreciate, but it also changes nothing in terms of the relevance of the message. It is commonly held that Matthew’s gospel was written with certain details to convey the message of Christ to the Jews – this doesn’t mean that Matthew’s gospel account is only for those who were raised traditionally Jewish, simply that they may take more from his detail than someone unfamiliar with their history and traditions. As Jesus makes His introduction to Philadelphia, He does what He has with the other churches and affirms the place of authority that He speaks from, which all reference back to the beginning of Revelation when John first beheld the glorified Christ. After John falls to the ground as thought dead, Jesus says to him in Revelation 1:17–18

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

For every other church, there’s almost an exact quote of what Jesus has said of Himself, or what John has written of Him in the introduction of Revelation. To Philadelphia however, we see the mention of a key, which would reference us back to the keys of Death and Hades, but it’s not a direct quote, rather Jesus draws attention to the key of David that He holds. This is a hope to us all, but it has a quality that it seems would have spoken more deeply to some Jewish converts than gentile ones. This is interesting because, as was the case with Smyrna, the believers at Philadelphia are being persecuted by professing Jews, who are nothing but wicked hypocrites, called the synagogue of Satan. To Smyrna, Jesus offers the hope of the eternal life that He holds, the Life that He gives to those who conquer, speaking from the authority of His own death and eternal life. But to Philadelphia, Jesus cites a station and title that appeals to His own fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy as the Messiah, as well as His oneness with God.

“The holy one, the true one, who has the key of David.”

 The Old Testament refers to God as “the Holy One of Israel,” 31 times – 25 of which are in the book of Isaiah. Of the four major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel), Isaiah is the one with the most Messianic prophecies, which include the Christ’s Davidic lineage. Isaiah 11:1–10 says of the coming Messiah,

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.”

The One who holds the key of David is the One who holds the keys to Death and Hades, just as He’s the one who gives the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, because He is the One who holds all authority. The reference to David however reminds us that Jesus is the One who is, but also the One who was foretold, the prophesied hope of all humanity.

“… who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.”

Jerusalem held great significance from very early on in Scripture. Genesis 14:18 tells us that Melchizedek, who is “the priest of God Most High,” is also the king of Salem. This carries symbolic connotations, as “Salem” translates as “peace,” but also has a literal meaning in that Salem is believed to have been an older name for Jerusalem. This means that before the Jews were established as a people, and before the Law was given, the priest of God lived and ruled over Jerusalem. In the many intervening years between Abram’s meeting with Melchizedek and Joshua’s conquest of the promised land, Jerusalem had come under the control of the Jebusites. Joshua 10 records the king of Jerusalem calling together the kings of four other cities to stand against Joshua, all of whom are defeated. After their defeat, there’s explicit record of three of the cities (Hebron, Lachish, and Eglon) being captured by the Israelites. The fourth city that the king of Jerusalem called into the coalition, Jarmuth, is considered to have met the same fate as the other three despite not being explicitly named, as we later see under the control of Israel and given to the Levites in Joshua 21:29. Jerusalem however, despite losing its king, remained under the control of the Jebusites. After the conquest of the promised land was mostly complete, and the land was divided between the tribes, Jerusalem sat on the border between Judah and Benjamin. Judges 1 shows Judah capture and burn Jerusalem, but even then it’s not a complete victory, as we see in Judges 1:21,

“But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.”

Sometimes it’s explicitly stated, sometimes it’s implied, but a consistent theme throughout the Old Testament is that whenever Israel fails at something, or whenever their success is somewhat less than it could have been, the cause is rooted in their less than perfect obedience. And so for hundreds of years, as Israel’s control of the promised land waxed and waned as God punished and restored them, Jerusalem, this city which was once presided over by the priest of God, remained under the control of the Jebusites. This is relevant, as God did not deliver the city into the hands of His people until He raised David up as king, and when David captured Jerusalem it was not some near thing, but a landslide victory. 2 Samuel 5:6–10 tells us,

“And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, ‘You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off’—thinking, ‘David cannot come in here.’ Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. And David said on that day, ‘Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack “the lame and the blind,” who are hated by David’s soul.’ Therefore it is said, ‘The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.’ And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city all around from the Millo inward. And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him.”

After hundreds of years holding their position, the Jebusites were arrogant and with great faith in their fortifications, they mocked David that even their crippled could repel his attack. But David, despite his flaws and errors, was a man that Scripture cites as having a heart that pursued the heart of God without turning. His strength was not his own, rather his aim was surrendered to the Lord. We can see through the example of Jerusalem the door that was shut that no one could open, the city that could not be conquered – and the door that was opened that no one could shut, as God delivered the city into the hands of His servant David. God’s power, which He displays at times through those who are obedient to Him, is all encompassing and unstoppable. There is no one who can stem the tide He has brought forward, and no one who can tear down the dam He has set in place. This also helps us understand the finality of hell, and the certainty of heaven. In Matthew 25 in the Parable of the Talents, both servant who have been faithful with what their master has given them are told,

“… Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

But to the servant who has been unfaithful, who has been lazy, cowardly, and misrepresents his master, it’s not a mixed message, a watered-down reproof, or a “you’ll do better next time.” Rather this man is told in verses 26-30,

“… You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. [28] So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

There are two paths – one that ends in eternal joy in the presence of the Father, and another that ends in eternal suffering, barred from His presence, exiled in never ending torment. God is not limited, and He is not deceived, but is perfect in all His works. God says to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7,

“… Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

God is more than able to open the gates to His eternal glory to even the lowest beggar, and to bar the loftiest, powerful, and most prideful among humanity from entering His kingdom, exiled to the outer darkness.

“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.”

Those in Philadelphia have reason to understand Jesus as the great One who is able to hold open the path forward, as He’s done this among them. This is commonly read as the open door being the opportunity to share the gospel, and while this is relevant, and likely a part of what is given here, there’s no reason to limit what God is doing. The door that He opens is the door of His will – whether this be to evangelize, to endure persecution, to thrive within a community, or to gain victory in battle, God opens the door to the fruition of His will, and to His ultimate glory. This idea of success and perseverance despite limited power is again something we see fleshed out repeatedly in Scripture. Israel was a nation of freed slaves, delivered from captivity only to rebel against God and endure a forty-year exile in the wilderness. At the end of their forty years they enter into the land that God has promised them to wage a war of conquest against races of giants – Israel was always the underdog, but when they claimed victory it was not by their own might, but by and through the unstoppable, unshakeable power of God. In Philadelphia we see as God again provides, working through a people who, despite their heavily limited power, are enduring and clinging to the only power that matters. Despite their seemingly compromised position, they have not turned from God’s Word or denied His name. In Matthew 13:31–33 Jesus gives two parables,

“He put another parable before them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.’”

We cannot look to the flesh, to our earthly standing and think to limit what God might do with us, how He might work in our lives. As children of God, those at Philadelphia have clung to their Father, and their Father has made a way for them. This is what is offered to us all – the hope, the power that we know in being delivered into the family of God.

• Eternal Deliverance in the Family of God

“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.”

Paul writes in Romans 2:28–29,

“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”

In many ways, being a Christian is the most Jewish thing you could be – because Judaism was never about the Law, it was never about the promised land, the nation of Israel, the feast days, or the rites and rituals – rather it was about God, and all these things factored into honoring and worshiping Him. Sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice, circumcision for the sake of circumcision – it’s all meaningless if God is not at the heart of things. So to claim to be Jewish, to claim to be one of God’s people, to serve and worship Him, yet to deny His Son, the Son of Man who has been given all authority, the prophesied Messiah who has come to bring peace and deliverance, is completely backward. A step farther is to do as those self-professing Jews in Smyrna and Philadelphia have done, and to not only deny Christ, but to persecute Christians. Despite being in different environments, both the churches who receive no condemnation are also contending with what Jesus calls the synagogue of Satan, those who call themselves Jews, but whose hearts are exceedingly far from God. Smyrna was warned that their persecution would increase, that their reprieve awaited in eternity, which shows us one kind of comfort offered by God. What is offered to Philadelphia is similar in that reprieve is coming, but with more detail concerning the justice coming to the enemies of God and His church, as well as what would have been amazing validation to a group that (going back to my theory) may have been predominately Jewish. To the Jews, the gentiles were always lost pagans. For them to convert to Christianity is problematic, but only because Christianity clearly grows out of Judaism. But for self-professing Jews who have denied Christ, to see those who are supposed to be their brothers, fellow sons of Abraham, and inheritors of the kingdom acknowledge Jesus as Messiah, profess His resurrection, and praise Him as God would create a wholly different degree of tension. The Christian converts would be persecuted by those who culturally were their own people, and could have faced a kind of social ruin that’s unique among one’s own group. We should appreciate that, even if my theory is completely off, and we’re speaking of gentile converts, these Jews who knew the Scriptures, who should have been the very first to see Jesus for who He was should have been the Christian’s greatest champions, and instead are doing all they can to tear them down. What we see is Jesus delivering those who follow Him from persecution by bringing them alongside Himself. Paul writes in Romans 14:10–12, quoting Isaiah 45:23,

“Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,       and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

Every single person – those who have glorified Him, and those who have cursed Him, will all stand before God. The false Jews of the synagogue of Satan would likely expect to stand before God and receive commendation and reward for their lineage and their adherence to the Law as they saw it. Instead they will bow at the feet of Christ, and uncovered in their sin, confess Him as Lord, caught in the ruin of their denial of His Truth. What’s more, Jesus brings us alongside Him – our account is paid, we are redeemed and spoken for, we are beloved in the sight of God. And this is what our enemies are made to know in the final judgement, the depth of their wrongness, the vastness of their folly, and the lack of separation the have from the sin that plagued and corrupted their lives – while those they persecuted with such venom and hypocrisy are lifted up, washed in the blood of the Lamb of God.

“Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon.”

There are those who will tell you that this deliverance pertains to the end of days, the tribulation, and the chaos and destruction that will reign on earth. There are others who will tell you that this pertains to a historical event that the church at Philadelphia was delivered from, and it has little or nothing to do with the tribulation. I have a hot take for you – it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t really matter because what we have to understand is that this communicates Christ’s ability to deliver us from trials and suffering. Smyrna got the news that their reprieve awaited in death. This is heavy, but it’s not the same as a worldly understanding of pain ending in the dark void of death – while greatly counterintuitive to our mortal bodies, we who are redeemed in Jesus know the promise that we will be more alive after removing this tent than we ever were inside it. What Jesus is showing us through His message to Philadelphia is that He is not limited in this – our only path out of suffering and persecution isn’t death, rather God can deliver us from where we are. Cataclysmic, world-ending events? He can deliver. War-raging, nation ending periods? God can deliver His people. God can see you, and hear you, and know you in the deepest depths of your most private pains and struggles – through health crises, and abuse, and addiction – there is not a circumstance He can’t deliver His children from. Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:31–33,

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

And in Matthew 18:12–14,

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

Jesus’ words in today’s passage, “I am coming soon,” are repeated elsewhere in Revelation. People again will take this and only want to make this about the second coming, about His triumphant return, and they may fail to realize all the other implications of these words. You could meet Jesus any minute now – whether that be from His glorious return, from your life ending, or because through the workings of His Spirit, He brings His will to fruition in your life. Regardless, we have to know that in whatever case and whatever circumstance, in the patient endurance we are given by the Spirit, we are seen, and heard, and kept, and loved – we are not forgotten, we are not forsaken, our God is coming for us, and coming soon, and by whatever means He moves, we will be delivered, to our good, and His glory.

• Eternal Glory in the Family of God

“The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

To eat of the tree of life; to not be hurt by the second death; some hidden manna, a white stone, and a new name; authority over the nations, and the morning star; white garments and eternal entry in the book of life. These are the things that have been promised to the ones who conquer of the churches we’ve seen so far. Comparatively, the promise of being made a pillar may seem strange, but this is just as wonderful, glorious, and filled with hope as all the others. While contemplating just how much this means I was struck by something – what did it mean that Lot’s wife was turned to a pillar of salt? After Lot lingers in Sodom, the Lord shows extreme mercy in His angels escorting Lot, his wife, and their daughters out of the city. In Genesis 19:17 one angel says to them,

“Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

Genesis 19:23–26 goes on to say,

“The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

I’ve thought on the punishment that Lot’s wife received, as some will use this as an example to unfairly paint God as overly harsh. First we have to consider that in all of Sodom there was only one righteous person, and that was Lot. His wife and daughters were delivered from the city, not on their own righteousness but on his. I also think that the context supports that Lot’s wife looking back wasn’t just an act of disobedience, it wasn’t just a physical act of turning to look, rather it was an act of the heart. God had delivered them from Sodom, from the wicked cesspool of a city, and rather than remain on the path that He has given them, she disobeys, stops, and looks back on what they’ve left behind. The text doesn’t state this, but I read this as a look of longing, and the corresponding punishment for desiring the sin you’ve been freed from. But I’ve never had a clear picture of why it was salt, until thinking about things through the lens of Revelation, and what it means to be a pillar in the temple of the Living God. A pillar of salt is temporary. Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:13,

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

A pillar of salt left out in the open, exposed to the elements will dissolve. Under sun, and wind, and rain it will erode into nothing. This is the stability of sin’s fleeting pleasures, it is the standing given by the rewards of the flesh – it’s nothing. It’s salt that has melted into the mud, that has lost its saltiness, that is good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum we see what Jesus promise to those who conquer,

“I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it…”

This is a permanent fixture, a stable column set on the foundation of Christ, standing in the glorious presence of God forever.

“… 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.”

You write your name on things that belong to you – you mark them as your own. Jesus promises that in eternity, standing in the glory of the temple we will have written upon us the name of the Lord, God Most High, the name of the holy city, new Jerusalem, perfect and newly made, and the new name of Jesus Himself. Revelation 19:12 describes the returning Christ saying,

“His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.”

It seems that in eternity this new, secret name is written on the conquerors as well. We do not enter heaven as imposters, faking it until we make it, or slipping in unnoticed. We are made more than conquerors, not by our own works but by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are transformed, made new, and adopted into the family of the Living God, we are welcome in His glorious presence. We are not transitory, not temporary – rather we are a permanent fixture in the house of God – we are welcome, we are loved, and by His boundless provision, we belong.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAU2XKEYbKk