Revelation 3:7-13

The Church Whom Jesus Loved

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on March 18, 2018 at Beacon Church

The main content of the book of Revelation begins with seven letters dictated by Jesus to the Apostle John, to be sent to seven real churches that existed in the Roman province of Asia at that time. This letter in chapter 3:7-13, to the church in Philadelphia, is the sixth of the seven letters—one of only two with no words of rebuke or correction from Christ. This message from Jesus Himself is a letter of assurance, an announcement of grace in the past, and a promise of grace in the future. And maybe more than any of the other letters, this message is built around the attributes of Jesus Himself in the introduction of verse 7. “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,” (Rev. 3:7 ESV). In His human nature, Jesus is holy, true, and has the royal authority of David.[i]

To set the stage though, let me give you a little bit of background. If the message of grace in the letter is shaped by the description of Jesus in verse 7, the imagery Jesus uses in this letter is neatly shaped by Philadelphia’s past. Philadelphia was founded by King Attilus II Philadelphus of Pergamon, Philadelphia was named in memory of his older brother, the previous king, who gave him the name, “Philadelphus”—“he who loves his brother”. King Attalus chose the site for this city with a strategy in mind—one that sheds light on what Jesus says in verse 8. But about 80 years or so before John wrote the book of Revelation, the city of Philadelphia had been destroyed by the same earthquake that ruined Sardis. Tiberius Caesar gave them a massive amount of money to help rebuild—just like he did for Sardis. The city was so grateful, they used their own money to build a little temple for people to worship Caesar, and so Caesar gave them the honour of allowing them to rename Philadelphia to Neocaesaria (New Caesaria). Some name changes stick—like Caryn Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg), and Mark Sinclair Vincent (Vin Diesel), but some don’t—like the Artist Formerly Known As Prince, or Snoop Lion (a.k.a., Snoop Dogg). By the time John wrote Revelation, nobody called it "New Caesaria" anymore--the old name Philadelphia was back. And the once zealous worship given to Caesar was mostly a memory. Caesar had helped them, but hadn’t been able to make the residents of Philadelphia feel safe. It is one of the most famous things about this city that the people who lived there lived in perpetual fear of sometimes daily earthquakes for some years during the first century. People would run out of the city afraid of being crushed by collapsing buildings. Many camped semi-permanently outside the city walls. That’s the background to Jesus’ words in verses 10 and 12. They needed a better Saviour than Caesar, and they found him in Jesus Christ.

Jesus had given them “an open door” (verse 8)

Verse 8 is connected to verse 7 because in verse 8 Jesus says He has placed an opened door before this church, and in verse 7 He describes Himself as the One who has the Key of David, who alone has the authority to open and shut doors. That phrase in verse 7 is a direct quote from Isaiah 22:22, which is a strange little prophecy about a man named Eliakim getting a promotion over his boss, Shebna, to become the new steward of the King’s household—sort of  like a Prime Minister.

19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.  20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,  21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.  22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. (Isa. 22:19-22 ESV)

Their names aren't mentioned again until 14 chapters later, where by that time in Isaiah 36, Eliakim was now in charge of the House of David (the name for government founded by King David). Three times in Isaiah 36-37, the reader is reminded that Eliakim was promoted, as a reminder that God was in control of the smallest details—like job promotions—and therefore also over the rise and fall of kingdoms.

In chapter 36, the Assyrian Emperor sent his giant army against the little city of Jerusalem. Eliakim and his men were the messengers who went back and forth between the Assyrian invaders and the besieged Jewish king. The Assyrians yelled and threatened and mocked God. But judging from the 3 reminders about Eliakim’s promotion, King Hezekiah was reminded that God was still in control. So each time he saw Eliakim bring another message from the Assyrians, he prayed. And God delivered Jerusalem when Hezekiah prayed. Not once, but twice. Why? Again going from the small to the big, the point is to trust that God who rules over things like job promotions, and also saves Jerusalem from its enemies, more importantly will keep His promise to David, who trusted God and sang, “For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his King, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever” (2 Sam 22:51). Jesus is that heir of King David, and Jesus is the Sovereign Lord God who delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians.

No army or power will stop our Lord’s strategy to spread His Gospel. This is the heart of what Jesus promises in verse 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,” (Rev. 3:8 ESV). When we remember that Attalus meant Philadelphia to be a strategic missionary city spreading the Greek way of life into the heartland of his kingdom, we can see why these words would have stood out to the Philadelphian church and their pastor. The city was established at the end of a long valley that reached into a large, rural territory where the people remained kind of isolated from that modern, Hellenizing Greek culture that was changing the world around them. Indeed, the strategy relied on this urban centre being a doorway for the new ways to penetrate into the old culture of the isolated population beyond it. By the year 19AD the Lydian language had died out there and everyone spoke Greek.[ii] King Jesus had much bigger, cosmic and eternal plans for Philadalphia.

Two points help to snap verse 8 into focus. First, Christ says He has set before them “a door having been opened” (v8). Paul used the imagery of an open door three times in his letters to describe missionary opportunities for spreading the Gospel (1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12, and Col 4:3). So by this time, “an open door” is thought to have become a kind of technical term for the church’s mission to preach the Gospel.[iii] And Jesus says He “had” placed the open door before them, meaning that for some time already they had had an effective Gospel outreach. Then second, it’s a better translation to say, with the KJV and the NASB, that Jesus had put the open door before them “because”, for the reason that, although they were so weak, they had kept on trusting in His strength. This means that their missionary outreach was a gift Jesus gave them as a result of their faithfulness to keep believing in Him. He says, “you have kept my word,” and, “have not denied my name.” They had hung onto the Gospel promises of God, and had not allowed anyone to move them one inch from the worship of Jesus Christ as “the Lord God… the Almighty” (1:8). It might be the highest honour I can think of, when Jesus rewards a church that has faithfully kept believing the Good News, by making their message bear fruit in their own surrounding area. But the not-so-subtle reference back to Eliakim’s promotion over his predecessor—borrowing the words, “which no one shall shut”, from Isa 22:22—hinted that the success of the Philadelphian Christians in preaching the Gospel to their countrymen, was a sore point with the local Jewish community.

Jesus is the TRUE Saviour (verse 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,” (Rev. 3:9 ESV). There’s an odd little translation detail in verse 9. The NASB has a footnote that draws attention to it: the original language has, “I will give (not make) of/from the synagogue of Satan…”. Most translations add a couple of words to help the sentence make sense in English. But two things are clear: Jesus is saying He will give something to the Philadelphian church, and He is saying He will take it from, or of, “the synagogue” of those who call themselves true Jews.[iv] This is a reversal of status. The Jews who were honoured and apparently more powerful in local society, who had persecuted and accused the struggling Christian population, they would eventually be humbled before their victims.[v] But although this could be predicting the ultimate vindication of the church at the second coming of Christ, I think it was fulfilled much sooner. A.T. Robertson thought the words, “I will give from the synagogue…” meant that some of the Jewish synagogue members were soon going to become followers of Jesus, and learn that their Messiah, the Son of David, loved this church.[vi] The promise of vindication is a sort of sweet justice, but the assurance of God’s love is much, much better. Romans 11:11, 14 repeat the idea that when Gentiles learn about the love of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that God loves us and saves us by His grace even while we are sinners, He will provoke some ethnic Jews to become jealous. They will realize Jesus is the TRUE ONE, the Saviour they had been waiting for, and they will believe the Gospel.

The HOLY One keeps His promises (verses 10-12)

There is a word play in verse 10 on the word, “keep”, which means to watch over, guard, or preserve.[vii] “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,” (Rev. 3:10 ESV).  Jesus again says, “because” when He makes a promise: because the church in Philadelphia had kept His Word in the past, Jesus was now going to keep His Word to them in the future. The word Jesus is talking about is the warning He gave His followers to repent and keep believing His Gospel in order that we bear fruit for His glory. Two weeks ago I pointed out the example of those who hear the Gospel but don’t keep being repentant, and don’t end up keeping it after all, that Jesus compared them to seed landing on shallow soil. This church is the opposite of Sardis: like Jesus describes in Luke 8:15, the Philadelphian believers, when they heard the Gospel, “they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance”. So Jesus is not saying that your obedience earns His promise-keeping, but rather that His gracious Gospel promises really do come true for those who keep trusting Him, whose faith in Him endures. But true faith in Jesus does endure.

"I will keep you from the hour of trial" refers to the promise in Revelation 7 that God will preserve His servants through the Great Tribulation--they are sealed by God as His servants, but it doesn't mean skip the “hour of trial”, or that their lives are spared. Rather they are the ones "coming out of the Great Tribulation" (Rev 7:14), emerging on the other side of it, since they have trusted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rev 7:15). The "hour of trial" then predicts the judgements upon the whole "Earth" included in the seven trumpets (c.f. Rev 8:6-9:21). And indeed, when the whole area was overrun by Islam under the Turkish invasion in the 14th century, only the churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia survived. The phrase "those who dwell upon the earth" is probably meant as a play on words. The phrase is used later in the book to symbolize the population of the Roman Empire. But the words are literally “who live on the ground”--that same ground that in Philadelphia was infamous for quaking under their feet. Philadelphia bordered an area famous for its unusual volcanic and seismic activity.[viii] The great earthquake in 17AD was the first, but it was not the last. Over the years that followed, there were so many aftershocks or quakes that many people refused to live in their homes, feeling it was safer to live in tents outside the city. Those that dared to go back to their homes, would run for their lives to get out of the danger of falling buildings every time the earth shook under their feet.[ix] That’s the fear Philadelphia knew too well. That’s the danger that Tiberius Caesar was powerless to save them from.

They needed a stronger, more gracious Saviour than Caesar. They needed a Saviour who is Holy and True, the One God promised David, “I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me” (Ps. 89:30-36 ESV). This is why faith in the Gospel of Christ is simply trusting the holy character and reliability of the person of Christ: “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown,” (Rev. 3:11 ESV). Jesus is coming soon, and that hope is why believers “hold fast” the Gospel we believe: because we believe Him. The kind of crown here is not the diadem of kings and queens, but the wreath worn by athletes.[x] Jesus is saying, “Don’t let anyone prevent you from reaching the finish line.” “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,” (Rev. 3:12 ESV). Every believer who holds fast to the Gospel, believing Jesus to the end, trusting His holy character and generous grace, is one who “conquers”. And Jesus will make you “a pillar in the Temple of my God”—a picture of standing firm in Christ when the world shakes around you: He will make you stand by His grace. He will cause you never to run out of His Temple, like the Philadelphians fled their crumbling city. You will be marked as belonging to God.[xi] But God’s seal on you will also prove you belong to His city, the New Jerusalem, which Jesus says, “is coming down from my God out of Heaven”, and then that the seal of that name will also be, “my own new name”. For a while after Caesar helped Philadelphia, they called themselves “New Caesarea”. But Caesar’s money couldn’t save them after all even from the quaking of the ground on which they lived. The New Jerusalem on the other hand, is from God. The name Jerusalem itself is, according to Fausset’s Bible Dictionary, Jeru-shalem¸a “foundation” (established by God), of “peace”.[xii] And finally, in Revelation 21:9-10, we learn that the New Jerusalem is the symbol for the Bride of Christ, the Church of those saved through faith in Jesus. And in verse 22, that there is no Temple in that City, because Christ the Lamb Himself will be with His Church in person.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” (Rev. 3:13 ESV). Jesus is the Lord the Spirit calls us to trust and worship: the HOLY ONE, the TRUE ONE, the everlasting Ruler of DAVID’S Kingdom.[xiii] Don’t close your ears to what the Spirit of God is saying to you. Do not harden your heart to the Good News of grace for weak sinners like you and me; of the love of Christ for us that rescues us from our sin, delivers us from death, and seals us for all time as those who belong to Jesus, and makes us able to stand. Behold! He is coming soon.