Revelation 3, verses 7-13, these are God's words. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, These things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, and he who opens, and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it, for you have a little strength, have kept my word. and have not denied my name. Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept my commandment to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell in the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. 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 out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Praise God, he sustained the church in Philadelphia. to such an extent that just as the church in Smyrna, there is no critical word given to them at all. Smyrna was, remember, under intense persecution. The letter given to them was one just of comfort. But the letter now to the church in Philadelphia is even more glowing with commendation, with praise for the church in Philadelphia. In fact, the Lord Jesus does with the church in Philadelphia something similar here to what Haman was tricked into having the king of Persia do for Mordecai when he thought that it was for him, that he would make display of him and have it announced, you know, thus shall he be favored, or thus shall be done for the one upon whom the king's favor rests. Well, praise God, the letter to the church in Philadelphia does so, with much greater blessing, much greater favor, because it's an infinitely greater king, the Lord Jesus. Thus shall be done for them, upon whom the favor of King Jesus rests. And here Christ in his kingship as the son of David is very strongly emphasized, not only because you have the he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David. So he has the key of David. One of the distinctive features of this letter is how the Lord Jesus says over and over again, my God, reminding us that yes, he is the divine person, the second person of the Godhead. but he is also now, having taken to himself humanity, the God-man, and that in his humanity he views the triune God as his God, and he is therefore our representative, our prophet, priest, and king, our anointed, our Christ, and he addresses us in especially emphasizing that here. Now, this is basically a letter that makes a bunch of promises. It includes that praise in the promises, and we'll think through that a little bit here, but this is what the Lord Jesus does for those with whom he is pleased, and it is therefore what we should aspire to and desire. Just as he has said to all the other churches, and he will say also in the seventh and last letter in the next passage, I know your works. How important it is, not just that our works would appear to be good to men, but that they would be genuinely good, because even if we do not know the true nature of our works, the Lord does. And praise God, He so operates by His grace, even in sinners, even on this side of glory, that He is pleased with our works and responds to them with reward. not because we have done well enough to earn reward, but because the same grace that gives us to do good works at all gives us the reward by way of gift, and as that which the Lord Jesus has earned, so that we may receive it and enjoy it. And so, there is often this language in Scripture of an accord that the righteous receive gifts in accordance with their works, because first God gives them the good gift of being right with God, and then God gives them the good gift of having their character and conduct made more and more right, more righteous, and then they receive the good gift of rewards that are consistent with not only the standing that God has given them, but the sanctification that God has done in them. so he says, I know your works, and he starts to make these promises. He says, see, I have set before you an open door. And if we wonder what this is, and there are many who wonder what it is, well, the place you need to look is in the rest of the scripture, and especially in the New Testament, every single time the language of an open door is used. It is about evangelism that is going to produce conversions. And so, Acts 14, verse 27, and 1 Corinthians 16, verse 9, and 2 Corinthians 2, verses 12 through 13, and Colossians 4, verses 2 through 3, which helps us, protects us from coming and inventing all kinds of ideas of what this open door must be. It is an open door for evangelism that God uses to convert people. What a wonderful blessing for those whom the Lord has sanctified, and so they love the glory of God and the glory of Christ in redemption, and they love men's souls with the same love that God has for men's souls that we saw even this past week in Matthew 14, moving Jesus with compassion Even in the midst of his profound grief, real genuine human grief, and then seeing them who needed him, who needed to believe in him as the bread of life who came down from heaven for them. He had compassion for them. Well, one of the things that happens, the more sanctified we get. is the more that we love men's souls and therefore the greater this reward will seem in our eyes, will be in our eyes, an open door where we actually get to see people converted, saved through our ministering to them. I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it, which of course is true if God has decided to save someone. Even the devil can't stop them from being saved. Even they themselves can't stop themselves from being saved. And then notice the components that the Lord has worked in them to make them fit or proper for this open door. You have a little strength. He doesn't use those who are strong to themselves. He uses those who have weakness. Those whose strength is independence on Christ who is strong. And because they have little strength, and Christ has infinite strength, they stick to his word and they stick to his name. So it's not by their strength, and it's not by their ingenuity, and it's not by their appealing to the culture and making others feel good about themselves. Amazing that these are the two great errors in evangelism, church planting, and mission work to this day, that men, rather than sticking to the Word of God, come up with their own techniques and devices, and that men, rather than adhering to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and willing to be despised, if so be it, at least we will be despised with Him, they try to appeal to the culture and make the culture think that they are like them, but is exactly the opposite. Every one of these is counterintuitive to the flesh, isn't it? Not strength, but weakness. Not cleverness, but faithfulness to the word. Not appeal to the culture. but allegiance to the name of the Lord Jesus. And Jesus says, when he's worked that in somebody or in a church, he opens a door that no one can shut. So, if a church planter ever comes to Presbyterian and says, the techniques that we're going to use are 100% effective, he had better say, our strength is little, but we're going to keep to his word and we're going to keep to And so the first thing that the Lord Jesus promises here is the open door. The second thing that he promises is even the conversion of their enemies. Verse nine, indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. So how does a church go from being a more or less pure church to being a synagogue of Satan? To use the confessional language that comes from this passage, well, by the denial of Jesus Christ, by the denial of the triune God, by the denial of the gospel of grace. It says the triune God has saved by the son becoming a man to die and rise again according to the scriptures for the salvation of sinners. And that's what's happened to these who are still calling themselves Jews, but they have rejected the inheritance of the Jews. They have rejected the inheritance of Israel. How can you be a Jew if you are hostile to the King of the Jews? Pilate was correct, wasn't he, in the inscription that he had put above the cross of Jesus Christ? The King of the Jews. So much so that those who were in the process of becoming synagogue of Satan asked him to change it. Say he said, I am the King of the Jews. He said, what I have written I have written, used by God. Well, These Jews, of course, who rejected Jesus, they became hostile, some even as hostile as the one who ended up being the Apostle Paul. This is one of the first examples of God converting one of their enemies. He says, indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. And this language is exactly from or very, very close to a definite allusion to 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 25. And you remember in that chapter, the big question is, Doing things in a known tongue in an orderly manner because someone who is an outsider might come among you and you might have the secrets of his heart expose and Fall on his face before you and that's the word that's translated worship here. It is an ordinary Word for worship, but it's literal meaning and how it became the word for worship is to be to fall on one's face He will fall on his face and He will say, truly God is among you. And that's what's happening here. These persecutors from the synagogue of Satan come, and Jesus is going to make them come to the worship and have the secrets of their heart exposed by the Word of God preached and sung and prayed in a known tongue, and they are going to fall on their face. and know that Jesus has loved these people. That's why this anti-Christian Jew who's being converted is amazed. He understands that's why these Christians have stuck to this word and to this name, even though their strength is small, because Jesus has loved them. Jesus gave them perseverance. Jesus gave them conviction. and they're going to go to the worship, and they're going to find out Jesus loves the church and the city of the love of the brethren. That's what Philadelphia means. Jesus loves them, and they'll realize, and He loves me too, and He brought me here to have the secrets of my heart exposed and to offer the gospel to me. So, the first promise is an open door of evangelism. The second promise is that this evangelism will convert even their enemies. The third promise is that they will come out of their trial with a crown, verses 10-11. Everyone is in the midst of a trial. For everyone, it is true that the Lord Jesus is quickly coming to them. every one of these letters that we've heard to these churches tells about something that the Lord Jesus is about to do. And you remember at the very beginning of the book, he said, to show his servants That is, Christ has received this revelation from God about himself, which he's going to give to John by an angel for the churches, but to show his servants, Christ's servants, the things which must quickly take place. And I know we have this illusion because we are the oldest we have ever been. We have the illusion that our life on this earth is very long, but it is not. Not only in the sense that you don't know how long you have left, but that even if, according to God's ordinary working with men, you have what people consider to be a long life, you must quickly have eternal dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is true even in a corporate extent with the churches. Churches must realize that the Lord Jesus walks among the lampstands, that he is personally engaged and involved with his church. and that all of these things that have been addressed from how severely we're persecuted and what we do under the persecution to what sort of doctrine we tolerate or the extent to which we are devoted with that first love to the study of His Word and engagement with Him in His Word, He is responding to all of those things in His churches. Churches can't afford to coast, can't afford, must not act as if the Lord Jesus is not going to be responding to what we're doing. Well, there is this trial then that comes upon everyone on the earth. And the third thing that Jesus promises them is that he who has worked in them and is now promising this evangelism that is going to be fruitful and even with their persecutors, their Jewish persecutors, that he is going to preserve the Philadelphian Christians in the time between now and when he comes and responds to them and he is going to make sure they come through with their crown. He says, because you kept my command to persevere, verse 10, I will keep you out of, from within the hour of trial, which will come upon the earth. He says, I'm coming quickly, hold fast to what you have. Praise God, there's not this like higher level secret Christianity. there's maturing in the faith once delivered for all the saints. And a great part of the Christian life is just holding fast, holding fast to what you have, because you may think of what we have as the means and the methods of the Lord Jesus, the worship of the Lord Jesus, etc. But really, it's Him that we have in those things. Hold fast to what you have, that no one may take your crown. And so, He promises to keep us, or keep them, and us, if we, by His grace, are similar. He promises to keep them through their trial. And in the last place, he promises that the crown that they will receive then is his welcoming them and identifying with them. He who overcomes, he says, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Now, if you've just heard about those who were visible church, but are now called by Jesus himself, synagogue of Satan, one of your concerns might be, what if that happens to me? What if I think that I'm a Christian, but my idea about myself turns out to be a lie? What if we think that we are a church, but our idea that we are a Christian church turns out to be a lie? And the Lord Jesus comes and he says, no, if by grace you hold fast to what you have, if by his keeping you, you overcome, he makes you a pillar in his temple, immovable and useful. weight-bearing, as it were, by his grace. I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more." A million Bible prayers that you could make, but here's one of them. So preserve me in your grace, so sustain me to persevere in the faith, that when you come, you'll make me a pillar in the temple of your God. And so he promises to welcome them and to identify with them. What's going to be written on this pillar? The name of his God, the name of the new Jerusalem, and the name of King Jesus himself. So he's gonna literally write his signature on the pillar. How great is the generosity of our Savior. The Lord Jesus identifies those whom He keeps and thus who overcome as those who belong to God, as God's own city. in King Jesus Christ. And then, of course, verse 13 reminds us, as every one of these letters do at the end of the letter, reminds us that this isn't just a letter about that particular church at that particular time, or even this isn't just a letter about churches like this one throughout the ages, but that in each of these letters, Those who have spirit-given ears, he who has an ear, are to listen and take to heart and apply, even individually, what the Lord has said corporately to the churches. So he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. That you would say, this isn't just theology for every church and for Hopewell, This is theology for me. My strength is small. I need to not be over-clever for my own good, but stick to the Word of God. I need to not worry so much about whether other people feel like I'm with them, and be more concerned with adhering to the name of the Lord Jesus, even if I might come to be despised for that. I need to delight at the hope and prospect of others being converted as a result of what the Lord Jesus does with me in my life. I need to hold fast to what I have. And so let each of us not just learn here about proper theology of ministry for the churches, but individually how we will relate to the Lord, each one of us ourselves. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this passage. We thank you for your help in understanding it. Thank you for putting, using language here that corresponds to that which you've said in other places in the scripture so that we may not just interpret it well, but we pray that by your spirit we would also take it to heart and apply it and live it well. So grant all these things we ask in your own name, Lord Jesus. Amen.