Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Anne Starks grabbed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go bungee jumping with a group of college friends during their spring break in Cancun.

She found herself being fitted in a harness at the top of a bridge that stood 200ft above a peninsula bordering the Caribbean Sea.

As her best friend was recording this unforgettable trip, a local boy went over all the safety rules and checklist as the excitement grew for the moment of the plunge.

As he gives Anne the okay to jump, she inches to the edge of the platform with a racing heartbeat with the sweat on her brow to match the intense emotions.

She takes her last step out and hops off.

The excitement immediately turns to horror as the friends noticed a panic look in the local boy’s eyes.

He didn’t need to say anything because with each passing second and became painfully obvious to see that the bungee cord wasn’t moving.

Somehow lost within all the excitement, the local boy had forgotten to attach the bungee cord to her harness.

It was as this point in the video, that the camera drops to the floor and desperate gasps from her closest friends cut out.

With all the trust that these college students had in the bungee jumping instructor, in the strength of the cord and harness to support her, and in their friend’s ability, they abruptly learned on that day, it takes more than just trust to secure one’s life.

Transition:

The next church addressed in our journey through the Book of Revelation gets more than just trust to secure their eternity.

The message to the church at Philadelphia is in some ways one of the most interesting of all the messages to the churches.

Here is a church which was faithful to Christ and to the Word of God.

Jesus gives this church an almost cryptic message with symbolic doors and a sure out from some sort of hour of trial that is to come.

Scripture Reading:

Revelation 3:7–13

This message has the unusual characteristic of being almost entirely a word of praise, similar to the letter to the church at Smyrna, but very dissimilar to the messages to the churches of Sardis and Laodicea.

The city of Philadelphia had been founded by the citizens of Pergamum in a prime area as a main route to the central plateau of Asia Minor.

Rome’s imperial postal route also went through Philadelphia, earning the city the name “Gateway to the East.”

An earthquake of A.D. 17 that had destroyed Sardis had also been particularly devastating to Philadelphia because the city was near a fault line, and it had suffered many aftershocks.

This kept the people worried, causing most of them to live outside of the city limits.

Transition:

The church of Philadelphia was a small church in a difficult area with no prestige and no wealth, and likely discouraged because it hadn’t grown—do we know of any churches today like this?

Thus, this congregation could use exactly what Jesus says here starting in verse 7

I.

The Proficiency of Christ (vv.7-8a)

He begins, just as with the other letters, describing Himself to the church in Philadelphia as the one who is holy and true.

“The words of the holy one, the true one”

This title should sound familiar, because you find this title for YHWH once again confirming over and over that Jesus is GOD.

Verse 7 is a series of four descriptive clauses describing Jesus with titles for YHWH.

“Holy” was used 30 times in Isaiah to describe YHWH.

John uses the term “righteous” a bit later in this book.

“True” was often used of YHWH.

The term “true” in Greek meant “true as over against false,” but in Hebrew it meant “faithful or trustworthy.”

Jesus is surely both.

And it is used again in this Book as the dead saints speak to the Father!

[[Rev.

6:10]]

The more you read closely in Revelation, the clearer it is that Jesus is God!

“who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens”

What an odd phrase to use!

What does this mean?

Open what?

shut what?

For Christ to hold the key of David really means that he has the authority to open the door to his future Kingdom.

This alludes to the royal Davidic Messiah prophesied of in 2 Sam. 7, but particularly we know this is true because this here is words from an event recorded in Isaiah 22:15–25 when the official position of secretary of state in Judah was taken from Shebna and given to Eliakim.

Isaiah 22:20-25

God through Isaiah said to Eliakim: “I will give him the key to the house of David—the highest position in the royal court.

He will open doors, and no one will be able to shut them; he will close doors, and no one will be able to open them”.

For believers who have been expelled from the local synagogue for believing Jesus as the Messiah, the knowledge that Christ alone holds the power to grant entrance into God’s kingdom is deeply reassuring.

Christ holds absolute power and authority over entrance into his future Kingdom.

After the door is opened, no one can shut it—salvation is assured.

Once it is shut, no one can open it—judgment is certain.

Here we are again with the doors

The phrase, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut, has a couple possible meanings.

A popular interpretation is that the church had a perfect location for missionary activity—they had an open door that no one could shut--preaching opportunities to spread the Gospel further!

The meaning, however, more likely refers to the Jewish believers who had been excommunicated from the synagogue for their faith in Christ.

While the door to the synagogue may have been closed to them, Christ had opened the door to eternal life.

No one could keep them out if they trusted in Christ.

This makes better sense considering the context.

The immediate context suggests even more so that it refers to entrance into God’s kingdom that Christ alone can provide (3:7).

Jesus now assures the believers in Philadelphia that he has opened the door of the kingdom to them, and no one—not even the local synagogue rulers or the Roman emperor himself—will be able to keep them from entering.

The context of verse 9 which we’ll see in a moment strengthens this interpretation.

Illustration:

William Mitchell Ramsay, a Christian archaeologist explains the reference to the door as arising from the geographical situation of the city of Philadelphia.

He states,

The situation of the city fully explains this saying.

Philadelphia lay at the upper extremity of a long valley, which opens back from the sea.

After passing Philadelphia the road along this valley ascends to the Phrygian land and the great Central Plateau, the main mass of Asia Minor.

This road was the one which led from the harbour of Smyrna to the north-eastern parts of Asia Minor and the East in general, the one rival to the great route connecting Ephesus with the East, and the greatest Asian trade-route of Mediaeval times… Philadelphia, therefore, was the keeper of the gateway to the plateau.

Transition:

But there’s a problem!

II.

The Problem at Church (vv.

8b-9)

Christ had no words of rebuke for this small, seemingly insignificant church, yet He did critique them through His perspective:

“you have but little power”

This is the first of three reasons why Jesus opened such a wonderful door.

The church may have been small, perhaps not too different from Grace, and may have had little impact upon the city, but it had obeyed and had not denied God.

Their faith could have been little as well, but they had great faithfulness in a difficult area.

God’s strength shines brightly through our weakness

Illustration:

Going back to the introduction here for a moment, who here has gone bungee jumping?

Me neither!

(same here, wife wont let me!).

No, but we tend to focus on the courage of the person jumping (and for good reason—it takes courage), and we focus on the skill of the bungee jump employee and his keen sense of safety.

The employee will coach you on what to do to be safe and also to enjoy the jump.

The company will buy and use the strongest harnesses for the employees and jumpers and thoroughly train their employees.

But the real strength rests ultimately in the cord holding up to the pressure and weight of the jumper.

First, a jumper must be attached to the cord, then the cord’s strength is brightly displayed when the jumper is at his/her most weakest, vulnerable moment.

Are you attached to the cord?

If so, God’s strength will show unmistakably through your weakness.

“and have kept My word”

They had “little faith,” but they used it well!

Apparently there was significant conflict between the Christians and the Jews in Philadelphia.

As in the letter to the church in Smyrna (2:9), Christ referred to those who called themselves Jews but who were really liars and those who belong to Satan.

These people, descended from Abraham and Jews by birth, vehemently opposed and persecuted the Christians for their belief that Jesus was the Messiah.

Because of their opposition, Christ considered them as belonging to Satan.

True Jews (God’s people) have accepted Jesus as Messiah and Savior (see Romans 2:28–29; Galatians 3:29; 6:16).