It Starts Small

Philadelphia is the second church (Smyrna is the first) that Jesus does not rebuke. We will break Jesus message down verse by verse.

Every open door of service is a gift from God – vs. 8

Jesus begins by telling the church, I know your works. Nothing escapes the notice of Jesus. Nothing has ever gone unnoticed. Jesus knows.

When Jesus says he knows their works, He knows how they produce. Jesus knows the fruit we produce in our lives, nothing gets passed Him that we do.

Jesus is faithful to provide favorable conditions to those who are serving Him with a pure heart. IN the face of adversaries, He gives us opportunities to serve Him. The words “have set” or “have placed” literally mean to give.

Jesus says open doors are something HE gives out of His grace. We do not earn favor, deserve, or are entitled to serve Him. Our opportunities for service are gifts of grace from Jesus.

It is interesting to note that the word “open” is a verb. It means a door that Jesus opened in the past with the result that the door is still open (notice the perfect tense). God opens the door. For example look at Nineveh and Jonah. God called him to preach revival and repentance to the people of Nineveh. Even though Jonah initially refused, after three nights on a blubbery mattress, he went to Nineveh and the entire city repented. He keeps the door open.

Not only is the door open, no one can shut it. No man or evil can shut the door that Jesus opens. The gates of hell cannot prevail against God’s people or the church.

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Matthew 16:18

The strength of the believers was not as strong as the wide door, Jesus, but what they had was true to His name. The people did not depend upon human ingenuity of human power. Jesus was their strength and they kept His word. They stayed faithful to Christ in the face of all opposition. They never denied Him and kept faithful to truth and the Word of God. The word “kept” means to guard. They stood guard for the Word of God.

If Jesus was to appraise you and your church, how would He view you?

Do you seize opportunities to share Him with others? Would he he see you as true to the truth in the face of opposition?

At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains,

Colossians 4:3

Do you pray for opportunities?

God is responsible for opening doors of opportunity if people open their hearts to Him. When God opens these doors, no opposition will stop our witness. Although you may not have much strength, God will use you.

Religion is Satan’s ace playing card – vs 9

Our enemy are those of the “synagogue of Satan.” those are some pretty descriptive and powerful, yet revealing words. The enemies of the church in Philadelphia were the Jews, or the leglists, who condemned those who preached the gospel. Religion is an arch enemy of the truth.

I read a commentary that said, for Jews in the first century, synagogues were for lost religious Jews. While they were not pagan, they were spiritually lost. Physically they were descendants of Abraham, but they never knew his faith. It is a lie to claim a person can know God without knowing Jesus.

Jesus says, I will make them worship at your feet. The word “worship” here means to make obeisance, or do reverence to. The word comes from two words: towards and kiss. It is the idea to give respect by prostrating yourself before a person and kissing his feet. People can give respect by attitude and activity. One day the enemy of the church will acknowledge with respect that the church was right. The religionist, legalists, will admit they were wrong and acknowledge that God opens and shuts the doors through the church. They will also know that God loves HIs church and He intervenes by His love for the church.

Some of us have gotten caught up in believing anything that comes from religion. Religion is designed by Satan and Satan has churches as well as Jesus.

¹³ For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

Christians will not go through the tribulation – vs10

Jesus tells the church:

¹⁰ Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

Revelation 3:10

Jesus speaks of the church’s perseverance under trial. The church had remained faithful when they faced trials. This perseverance serves Jesus. They did not fall into the seduction of immorality and pagan worship.

Persevere means to endure under. Like their Lord Jesus Christ, they hung in there. They kept Jesus’ command to stay under pressure. They did not cave to the temptations or evil pressures around them. This makes the promise in this verse very valid. Jesus says, you are a brave people. A brave persevering people who are able to maintain faithfulness tot he Word under all sorts of pressure.

²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

1 Corinthians 1:23

They clung faithfully to the Word that deals with Christ and never denied His name.

The “hour of trial” is the tribulation period (Revelation 6-19). There is a word in Greek that English uses two: Keep and from. It is a compound Greek word uses both terms: keep and out of. The Greek word for “from” (literally, out of) indicates this church will not enter the tribulation period. This is a guarding from rather than a guarding through. Those in the tribulation will clearly go through this time of trouble (Revelation 7:4). We can then infer that God must have raptured the church before the hour of the trial. The whole point of the tribulation is to get the attention of Israel that Jesus is the Messiah.

God not only keeps this church from the trial but from a worldwide hour of trial. He delivers His people from the trial and delivers us from a specific time of trial. We call that time the tribulation period.

At that time
Michael, the great prince
who stands watch over your people, will rise up.
There will be a time of distress
such as never has occurred
since nations came into being until that time.
But at that time all your people
who are found written in the book will escape.

Daniel 12:1

How awful that day will be!
There will be no other like it!
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,
but he will be saved out of it.

Jeremiah 30:1

For at that time there will be great distress,^[a] the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again.

Matthew 24:21

Jesus promises to save the church from this time of trouble.

The words “shall come” signify both intention and necessity and, therefore, the certainty of what will occur. This is a word of purpose, certainty, compulsion, or necessity. The Greek word gives the idea of occurring at a point of time in the future that is subsequent to another event and closely related to it. We can translate the word “to be about to, to be inevitable, with respect to future developments – “must be, has to be.” God is speaking of something inevitable in the future. God is about to do something. God is forming a design for the world.

The best explanation I have heard is this: suppose a hockey coach tells the goalie that he will take him from the game. That is different that telling him he will keep him from the game. The game is a known factor. The coach takes him out vs keeps him from. Keeping us from tribulation is the idea in this passage. we will be held from this period of unprecedented apostasy and the greatest horror the world will have ever known.

How do we know?

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters, ² not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy^[c] comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. ⁴ He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.

⁵ Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I used to tell you about this? ⁶ And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, ⁸ and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie, ¹⁰ and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved. ¹¹ For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie, ¹² so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

The presence of the Holy Spirit will be removed from the earth during the tribulation. The Holy Spirit is the one restraining the world from being worse than it is. Once God has removed Him, all evil will break loose. The world will destroy itself through religion in seven years. Religion tends to destroy human freedoms. Religion is the root of evil in the world today as well.   Satan is the head of religion.

Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” Behold, I am coming quickely!

When Jesus spoke to the church, did this mean that He must come shortly within the lifetime of the Philadelphia church?  John wrote the book of Revelation 2000 years ago.  How can 2000 years be “quickly?”  In context, He is speaking of the tribulation.  He will come quickly in relation to the seven-year tribulation.

The word “quickly” means swift, speedy.  When He comes, the event will unfold rapidly.  It will happen in one fell swoop.  His coming will take place in a short time.  It will be sudden and unexpected but not inevitably in a short time.  When Jesus comes, He will come suddenly.

The coming of Christ is our incentive for perseverance under pressure.  The constant expectation of the imminent coming of Christ keeps us on the tiptoe of expectancy for His coming.  He will not announce His coming.  It will come when we least expect it.

Jesus calls the church to continue to persevere.  This is a warning against caving to pressures that violate integrity.  Jesus says in effect, “Hang in there with Me.  Don’t cave in toward the end of the race.  We will do this together.”

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,² keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1

When Jesus does come, He will dispense His just rewards. He will examine the quality of our lives and reward us accordingly.

Times will get more difficult as we progress forward to the return of Christ. It can become arduous to serve Christ faithfully. He is not going announce His coming. It will be unexpectant and sudden. As hostility towards believers becomes more aggressive, it is going to come to a point of it being forbidden to stand for Christ. We need to chose between our business and Jesus. The pressure of society, satan’s world, is going to force us to choose between status or scripture. Possessions or fidelity.

Our crown is not salvation. Our crown is our reward for faithfully serving Him.

¹⁰ According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one is to be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³ each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. ¹⁴ If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15