Be Encouraged by the Open Door
Letters to the Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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As we have been studying through Christ’s letters to the church in the book of Revelation, we have seen churches that were in trouble because of false teaching, because of failing to carry out church discipline, because of failing to love one another and because of having become complacent.
We have seen another church commended for its faithfulness and in the midst of persecution.
Today, we will continue our study by looking at what Jesus said through the Holy Spirit about the church in Philadelphia, Asia Minor’s “City of Brotherly Love,” whose believers were encouraged to seize the opportunities that lay before them, even though the church lacked significant power.
You know, today’s modern American church culture puts a lot of emphasis on numbers.
An annual survey by Outreach Magazine and Lifeway Research lists the nation’s largest church as the Church of the Highlands in Alabama as No. 1, with a membership of 43,030.
Andy Stanley’s North Point Ministries clocks in at No. 2, with 39,143, and there are many other familiar names in the top 100: Saddleback Church, Elevation Church, New Life Church, The Rock Church, McLean Bible Church, Shadow Mountain Community Church, Vineyard and more.
Put together the attendance of the top 10 churches in that list, and you get nearly 300,000 people.
And these numbers don’t even include the Joel Osteens, the T.D. Jakeses, the Creflo Dollars and the like, who were not included in the Outreach survey.
Christian pollster George Barna found in 2016 that about 8 percent of churchgoing Americans attend churches with more than 1,000 attendees. Another 9 percent attend churches with between 500 and 999 attendees.
That means that 87 percent of churchgoing Americans attend churches with fewer than 500 in average weekly attendance.
To bring the matter even closer to home, Barna found that 46 percent — nearly half — of those attending church in America do so at a church with fewer than 100 in attendance.
The megachurches get all the press, but it is the small churches — churches a lot like our own — where most of the nation’s practicing Christians are worshiping.
Our text today concerns a church that may have fit well within the context of that 46 percent. They were a small church in Philadelphia — a church without much power — but, as we shall see, their ability to impact their community was not connected to those characteristics that are normally used to judge success in our world.
Turn with me to , and let’s take a look at what Jesus had to say about Philadelphians. I believe there’s a special message here for our small church, as well.
As you’re turning to the passage, I’m going to do something I normally don’t do. I want to read this passage as it appears in The Message. Now, understand that this Bible version is not a translation, but a loose, modernized re-phrasing of Scripture. Therefore, it’s at least two steps removed from God’s inspired Word, and I would never recommend it as your only Bible.
However, The Message IS a good resource for getting the feel of a passage that you intend to study more deeply in one of the traditional translations, and I think it offers some great perspective on this particular passage.
Write this to Philadelphia, to the Angel of the church. The Holy, the True—David’s key in his hand, opening doors no one can lock, locking doors no one can open—speaks: “I see what you’ve done. Now see what I’ve done. I’ve opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don’t have much strength, I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn’t deny me when times were rough.
Rev 3:9-10
“And watch as I take those who call themselves true believers but are nothing of the kind, pretenders whose true membership is in the club of Satan—watch as I strip off their pretensions and they’re forced to acknowledge it’s you that I’ve loved. “Because you kept my Word in passionate patience, I’ll keep you safe in the time of testing that will be here soon, and all over the earth, every man, woman, and child put to the test.
Rev. 3:
“I’m on my way; I’ll be there soon. Keep a tight grip on what you have so no one distracts you and steals your crown. “I’ll make each conqueror a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, a permanent position of honor. Then I’ll write names on you, the pillars: the Name of my God, the Name of God’s City—the new Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven—and my new Name.
“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.”
Now, as usual, I’m going to give you a little context for this passage. Philadelphia comes from a Greek word that means “the city of him who loves his brother,” and it was named so by King Eumenes II of Pergamon, who founded it and named it for the love of his own brother, who was known for his loyalty and who would succeed him.
Philadelphia was located about 108 miles from Smyrna in modern-day Turkey. It was an important site in Orthodox Christianity until the 20th century. The remains of its domed Basilica of St. John, built about the year 600 AD, continue to be an archeological attraction there, along with the remnants of the wall that once surrounded the city.
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Today, the city is known as Allashehir, and in 2012 it had a population of more than 48,000.
Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994.
This is one of the two churches within this series of letters from Christ that receives only commendation and no condemnation. You’ll recall that Smyrna was the other church that received no criticism.