The Inclusive Church: Philadelphia-Rev 3:7-13

Revelation 3:7-13; Key Verse: 3:8

“See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” So far we have addressed 5 churches: a loveless church (Ephesus), a suffering church (Smyrna), a compromising church (Pergamum) and an elitist church (Thyatira), and a dishonest church (Sardis). The sixth church, Philadelphia, is one of the best of the seven churches (along with Smyrna). She is a faithful persevering church, for though they had little strength, they kept the faith. Their church was like an open door, for their hearts and their church were open wide to inclusively welcome anyone and everyone. My title is “The Inclusive Church.”Exclusivity. This past week, I was surprised to read that the most liked song of Keith and Kristyn Getty–“In Christ Alone”–has been banned from the PCUSA (Presbyterian Church, USA). It means that this song has been officially barred and cannot be sung in 10,000 plus PCUSA churches. Why? They objected to a phrase of the song that speaks about the orthodox view of substitutionary atonement: “Till on that cross as Jesus died/The wrath of God was satisfied.” They did not like the words “the wrath of God.” Why? Their reasons were based on the so-called “controversial atonement theology” of penal substitution, which is the perspective captured in “In Christ Alone.” But more fundamentally, I think it is because of our inclination to perceive that our perspective and preference is better and superior to that of others. As a result, we communicate a spirit of exclusivity that is distasteful to others.   Default toward exclusivity and awful sanctimony. It is the natural default for people to be exclusive. Ethic minorities flock together to feel secure among themselves and also to distinguish themselves from others. Sadly, Christians also tend to communicate an air of exclusivity, not only toward non-Christians, but even to other denomination of Christians. Armenians, who champion free will, might accuse Calvinists of promoting passivity and inactivity. Calvinists, who emphasize predestination, might accuse Armenians of depending on their works and performance. Catholics accuse Protestants of breaking unity and obsessing with doctrine, while Protestants accuse Catholics of not studying the Bible and worshiping the saints. Churches also feel exclusive in that they regard their method of serving Christ as being superior to that of others, be it for social justice, or discipleship, or evangelism, or doctrine. Inadvertently, often without realizing it, we are awfully sanctimonious (holier than thou; hypocritically devout)!   Inclusivity. But Jesus commended the church at Philadelphia for being an inclusive church, which is like that of an open door. Jesus was pleased with this church for her spirit of inclusivity. How can we be such an inclusive church? We need to know three things:

1. Who holds the key (Rev 3:7).
2. Who opens the door (Rev 3:8-11).
3. Who makes us a pillar (Rev 3:12-13).

After the prologue (Rev 1:1-8), the opening section concerns John’s vision of the resurrected Christ who walks in the midst of his church (Rev 1:12-16). This first vision includes letters by Christ to the 7 churches scattered throughout western Asia Minor. In each letter Jesus reveals an aspect of himself in his post-resurrection glory as described in the vision John saw (Rev 1:12-20). Jesus reinforces the fact that he is the head and Lord of his church. Next, Jesus speaks directly to the churches, promising blessing for faithfulness, protection from danger, and warns them of their need to repent when they sin lest they face immediate judgment. He commends 5 of them with 2 receiving no commendation (Sardis and Laodicea). He rebukes 5 of them with 2 receiving none (Smyrna and Philadelphia). Despite the efforts of those who oppose the gospel and seek to harm them, all 7 letters end with a glorious blessed promise to all who are faithful and overcome through faith in him. Using the template and pattern for all 7 churches, an overview of the church in Philadelphia may be considered as such:

1. The Church: Inclusive (Rev 3:8).
2. The Christ: Sovereign King who opens and shuts doors (Rev 3:7).
3. The Commendation: “…you have little strength, yet you have kept my word” (Rev 3:8).
4. The Condemnation (Rebuke): None.
5. The Command: “Hold on” (Rev 3:11).
6. The Caution: None.
7. The Consummation: “I will make a pillar in the temple of my God… I will also write on them my new name” (Rev 3:12).

I. Who Holds The Key (Rev 3:7) Jesus is holy and true. He “who is holy and true” (Rev 3:7a) speaks to this church. The fire and light radiating from the Son of Man in the opening vision symbolized divine holiness (Rev 1:14). Jesus alludes to the OT title of Yahweh, the holy One of Israel (2 Ki 19:22; Job 6:10; Ps 71:22; 78:41; Isa 40:25). “Holy” is thus a title for God. Holy means that God is completely separate from sin. “True” in Greek would mean “genuine.” It indicates that Jesus is completely reliable. God promises that his people’s oppressors will bow at their feet and call them “the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 60:14). Likewise, Jesus the true holy One will bring opponents to bow at the church’s feet and confess that she is the Lord’s beloved (Rev 3:9; Isa 43:4). Jesus (not man) holds the keys to the kingdom. Jesus emphasizes that he “holds the key of David” (Rev 3:7a). He has unchallengeable authority, so that “what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open” (Rev 3:7b). In the opening vision he held “the keys of death and Hades” (Rev 1:18), signifying his right to unlock the grave and release its captives. But Jesus’ authority is also as the royal heir of David (Isa 22:22). Those “who claim to be Jews though they are not” (Rev 3:9) likely claimed that the Christians at Philadelphia are locked out from the people of God. But Jesus, not they, holds David’s key, the key to the kingdom. People become exclusive when they think and act as though they hold the key. Only my family and I have the keys to my house. I do have exclusive rights to my house. By God’s grace alone, we were given the keys to the kingdom, though we have done nothing to earn or deserve it. But for various reasons, some Christians then give the impression that they alone have exclusive rights to God, and inadvertently look down on those who they regard as less than them. Sadly, Christians become exclusive. No one likes an exclusive person. Christians have been accused of being snobbish and sanctimonious, among other things. An exclusive Christian does not communicate the inclusive God who spreads his arms wide open to receive and embrace anyone and everyone. In the gospel accounts, the religious elite were the most exclusive people. They acted and thought as though they alone held the keys to the kingdom. In sharp contrast to them, Jesus’ spirit of inclusivity welcomed the “sinners” whom the religious leaders rejected and excluded (Lk 15:1-2).   II. Who Opens The Door (Rev 3:8-11) Why do Christians tend to be like the exclusive religious leaders rather than like Jesus who was inclusive? They do not like to endure something they are not comfortable with. Sadly, arrogant people tend to be ignorant people. They are ignorant because they are not willing to get outside of their own self-imposed box and their own comfort zone. The religious leader’s thought that their exclusivity revealed their superiority. But Jesus showed them that though he is the exclusive one as the one and only Son, yet he came not with any spirit of exclusivity, but as an incognito common man. To do so, he “endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Heb 12:2). But Christians who are not willing to endure wind up being like the exclusive Pharisees and religious leaders. But not so the church in Philadelphia. It is because they “endured patiently” (Rev 3:10) as Jesus commended them, and then Jesus commanded them to “hold on” (Rev 3:11). Endure, open, inclusive. The Greek word for “endure” (hypomenō) means steadfastness, constancy, endurance, abide, not recede, to bear bravely and calmly, not swerved from one’s deliberate purpose and loyalty. When one endures ill treatment and suffering with faith, hope, and love, God changes us from being narrow-minded, exclusive and closed people, to open, inclusive-minded people like the Christians in Philadelphia. To endure something painful feels like a closed door. But the way one handles the closed doors of our lives will open others. Think of what causes you pain, discomfort and suffering. Do you endure it with faith, hope and love? Or do you allow your anger and bitterness to get the better of you? When a closed door closes our hearts, we become hard. But when we see through a closed door to the God who holds the key, then the closed door becomes like an open door. You know your true self when you have little strength, not when things are going well! No one knows their true self when things things fall in their proper place, when we feel stress free, and when life is treating us right. But if anyone will know their true self, it will be clearly expressed when we have little strength. We know our true self when we are discouraged, angry, upset, and when we feel as though we have been treated poorly, unfairly and unjustly. Our true selves invariably reveals itself when we have reached our limit of our ability to endure. The church in Philadelphia revealed her true self when she held on to Jesus and his word when they reached their limit and had little strength left.   Weak yet holding fast and enduring patiently. To the church in Philadelphia, as to Smyrna (Rev 2:8-11), Jesus speaks commendation without rebuke. As in Smyrna, the challenge confronting them was external opposition from the Jewish community who had rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They proved to be not true Jews but a “synagogue of Satan” (Rev 3:9, 2:9). Both these churches lacked needed resources: the Smyrnan church was poor, and the Philadelphian church had little strength (Rev 3:8). Yet each held fast its confession despite adversity. “…you have kept my command to endure patiently” (Rev 3:10). Despite pressure to renounce their allegiance, the believers had not denied Jesus’ name (Rev 3:8). Permanent access to God’s presence. Jesus has put an “open door” before his church by unlocking it with David’s key (Rev 3:8). This may be an open door and an opportunity for mission and evangelism, for Paul uses the image in this way (1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3). The context, however, shows that the open door is the door into the kingdom of God, which cannot be shut against them even when “the synagogue of Satan” (Rev 3:9) excludes and repudiates them. They will enjoy permanent access to God’s presence as a pillar built into the structure of God’s sanctuary, never to leave his holy presence (Rev 3:12). The next door John will see is the door into heaven, through which John will enter to see the One seated on the throne and the Lamb (Rev 4:1; 5:6). Because Jesus holds David’s key, no one can lock Jesus’ people out of the sanctuary of God. Jesus’ open door is our Christian witness; Jews humbled before Christians. Jesus has opened the door to the Father. Yet it is related to our witness as Christians. Jesus promises an open door into heaven to those who have kept his word, and he promises that their word of witness will bear fruit even in their enemies. Jesus says, “I have placed before you an open door” (Rev 3:8). Then Jesus says regarding some of their enemies from among the synagogue of Satan that “I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you” (Rev 3:9). In Isaiah’s prophetic imagery the Gentiles were to be saved as they comes to bow at Israel’s feet and to confess, “Surely God is with you, and there is no other;there is no other god” (Isa 45:14; 49:23; 1 Cor 14:25). Now the tables are turned: It is to the multiethnic church to whom Jews will bow, confessing that here alone can the love of Israel’s holy One be found. This is how Paul expected his mission to the Gentiles to work: Christ’s mercy, extended to the Gentiles in the gospel , evokes envy among Jews, who by God’s severe mercy are regrafted by faith into the tree of God’s covenant (Rom 10:19-11:32). Jesus will reciprocate their faithfulness in keeping his word. The Philadelphians have kept Jesus’ word (Rev 3:8), and Jesus will keep them “from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth” (Rev 3:10). What is this hour? 3 features:

1. It’s brevity. Longer time periods are described later–3 and a half, 42 months, 1,000 years–one hour points to a brief time of trauma.
2. It’s target: the whole world, the inhabitants of the earth. They are God’s human enemies who murder the martyrs (Rev 6:10; 11:10). worship the beast (Rev 13:8), and get drunk on the harlot’s wine (Rev 17:2).
3. It’s restraint: Jesus will keep his people from this hour of trial. How is not disclosed. God promises to protect his church not from suffering but from apostasy. Thus it should not be assumed that Jesus would keep believers by shielding them from pain or suffering. Jesus had prayed to keep Christians from the evil one (Jn 17:15). Whatever the hour of trial is, Jesus’ people know that no one can snatch us from the almighty hands of Jesus and his Father (Jn 10:28-29) and nothing can separate us from God’s love (Rom 8:39).

III. Who Makes Us A Pillar (Rev 3:12-13)

We become exclusive when we think that we have to make a pillar for ourselves. The Jews thought of themselves as chosen people. It made them exclusive and offensive people. They clung to their own identity and insisted on demanding their own specialness. They became exclusive. They even hated the Christians, because they regarded them as having abandoned their own ethnic identity. “The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God” (Rev 3:12). God’s promise is great to those who overcome and are victorious. God promises to make us a pillar. A pillar represents stability and permanence. They can also represent honor. The Christians in Philadelphia was persecuted by both their own people, the Jews, and also by the Romans. They had no security or stability. But Jesus promised to make them a pillar in the temple of God.

Three new names. To the victor who overcomes Jesus will “write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name” (Rev 3:12). In the new Jerusalem God’s people “will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Rev 22:4). But victors already bear God’s name as a seal that shields them from his coming wrath (Rev 7:3; 14:1). Remember who holds the key, who opens the door and who makes you a pillar, and hold on. Do you hold on to your faith even when you have little strength? God protects those who are his, even in the midst of the hour of trial. Christ promises us to protect us from Satan, and preserve us in the hour of trial whenever it comes. Through his death and resurrection Jesus has given us an open door into his kingdom, a door which no one can close. Even now, Jesus prepares for us that heavenly city which cannot be shaken and where we will dwell in his presence for ever and ever! Therefore, hold on to that which we have been given–the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. By doing so, we will overcome and dwell in the heavenly temple for ever and ever! For the exclusive One to became inclusive, the One with the key was locked out. All religions of the world say that God has the key, and that God is the ultimate supreme majestic one. Only Christianity says that though this great God has the key, yet he was locked out. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed that the cup may be taken away from him. It meant, “Don’t lock me out!” On the Cross Jesus cried out for being locked out. Why does the One with the key allow Himself to be locked out? It was to allow those who are locked out to enter in freely by His grace. If Jesus was not locked out, we would forever be locked out. But because Jesus was locked out, we are able to enter in to be make a pillar and be given the most glorious three new names (Rev 3:12). Thank and praise God for such a gracious gift! Are you exclusive or inclusive? Do you exclude others because they do not measure up to your expectation? Do you understand that the One with the key was locked out so that we–who should be locked out–may enter in? Questions:

1. What do the churches of Philadelphia and Smyrna (Rev 2:8-11) share in common? What do the words “holy” and “true” mean (Rev 3:7)? What does “the key of David” refer to (Isa 22:22; Mt 16:19)?
2. What does “God promised an open door” mean (Rev 3:8a)? Does God give us an open door? (Jesus taught that the fields were ripe for harvest (Jn 4:35; Mt 9:37; Lk 10:2). Are people interested in spiritual things? What are some ways to talk to people about Christ? Do you feel confident talking to people about Jesus? What are some ways you can contribute to the advancement of the kingdom? The Gospel is good news. Normally, good news spreads fast. Is the Gospel spreading rapidly (2 Th 3:1)?
3. What does having “little strength” mean (Rev 3:8b)? How do you keep Jesus’ word and did not deny His name with little strength?
4. Who is the “synagogue of Satan” (Rev 3:9; 2:9)? Who will “bow down” before the church (Isa 45:14; 49:23; Rom 10:19-11:32)?
5. What is the “hour” (Rev 3:10; 7:14; Mt 24:21)? What does “I am coming quickly” mean (Rev 3:11)? How does this serve as an incentive for Christians (1 Jn 2:28)?
6. What is the significance of a “pillar” (Isa 22:23)? What does it mean, “Never again will they leave [the temple]” (Jn 10:28-29; Rom 8:39)? How is the church like a “temple” (3:12; cf. Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:5)? What does Rev 21:22 tell us about a future temple?

References:

1. Johnson, Dennis E. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation. Pillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company. 2001.
2. Sermons on the Book of Revelation. Kim Riddlebarger, Sr. Pastor, Christ Reformed Church. Anaheim.
3. Letter on Mission (Rev 3:7-13). Tim Keller, 6/13/1993.
4. The Letter to the Church at Philadelphia (Rev 3:7-13). Sam Storms.