Book of Revelation: Chapter 3:7-13 "Philadelphia"

 A letter to the church of Philadelphia; the city of favor. Not only did this church live favorably in the midst of anti-Christian upheaval, but they were faithful ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Listen as we take a detailed look at the second of two churches that Jesus has only good things to address.

Transcript

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good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever or whenever you're listening to us right now and welcome to this bonus episode of the Churchosity podcast my name is Heath Brady and I'm Andrea Brady and we are your Churchosity podcast Personnel these are the types of episodes that we like to call the postscripts because these are the things that we like to think and talk about when the record button is off so thank you once again for listening and welcome to the Inner

Circle so Andy I got a question for you yeah are you enjoying this Revelation study as much as I am I am I'm really enjoying it so we are seven episodes in yeah we are five letters in uh-huh what's your favorite so far oh gee I really loved Ephesus yeah yeah cuz you know they're the darling the darling yeah the Beloved mhm what what's specifically about that one is your favorite would you say well I think you know because it's the first letter it was kind of the first church that you kind of exposed all of these little elements that you've been talking about this whole time yeah you know how Christ he gives himself a title and then he talks about knowing their deeds and things like that how you know there's the format right that we follow and just how the theme of the letter Falls in line with the name of the church and how cool that is so I just really like that one well cool yeah well you know which one is my favorite yes I know SST because of the cool story behind it too yeah I love that letter so much I know I like that one too that's a really cool story yeah isn't it fascinating I say this over and over again again how precise the scriptures are mhm how the theme of the letter like rides through every single aspect mhm yeah I liked how in Sardis they were you know referring to coming like a thief in the night and that would really resonate with them because of their history thought that was so cool yeah and you know I just think it's crazy how we can read six verses and talk about it for a whole hour I know right yeah we're talking indepth here yeah talk about an inductive Bible study yeah no kidding yeah but it's Rich there's so much to learn oh I know right and we're I just feel like we're barely scratching the surface CU we'd be here all day with each one of these episodes and that's why I continually want to encourage our listeners to do a study of this stuff on your own cuz there's a heck of a lot more than what we're providing I just have this fascination with the Book of Revelation it's my favorite book of the Bible it's I I just love this book so much and I feel like in the 21st century especially we need to thoroughly pick it apart yeah because there's so many differing views on a lot of stuff in this book MH and so many of us in the church have shied away Al together from The Book of Revelation that's me for all sorts of reasons and in in all actuality I feel like a large majority of churchgoing folk have been told how to read this book yeah how to study this book how to interpret this book if you will even to the point of arriving at certain doctrinal views without ever actually doing the homework remember at the beginning of this series I said we need to be like the bereans in Acts 17 M who receive the word with Readiness of heart but search the Scriptures Daily to prove whether those things were so true yeah so in essence that is your permission ladies and gentlemen to not take a word that I say seriously and go and do your own homework I'm glad you're here listening otherwise we wouldn't have a podcast and I hope that you find it entertaining and edifying but ultimately as I always like to say my passion is for people to fall in love with Jesus and to fall in love with the scriptures and so hopefully if none other than this my hope is that these episodes through the Book of Revelation are spurring you on to this even greater desire to get into and dissect the scriptures even more than you are right now mhm that's that's what that's what my chief hope is really as we approached this book we saw in chapter 1 that John had this Vision in verse two of chapter 1 the bonder servant John testifies to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw and later on throughout the book there's going to be a lot of things that John hears so literally every single verse verse that John pens in this entire book are things that he actually saw and actually heard mhm so this is real this is a real experience that John had while he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day right so remember that this isn't just some madeup thing this isn't just some mythological idea this isn't just some Vision John experienced this and saw and heard all of these things and so I keep coming back to this cuz we're in the middle we're we're soon to be wrapping up the portion of the book that deals with letters to seven churches MH and I keep asking the question why these seven churches because at the end of the first century around the time that John wrote this book there was well over a hundred flourishing churches and even probably the most prominent or I would argue important churches aren't even mentioned here like the Church of Jerusalem the Church of Rome right you know all all of the other six churches that Paul wrote to so there is a specific reason I believe that these seven churches were chosen to receive report cards from Jesus mhm and probably the most provocative of those reasons why is that prophetic level that I believe these letters are written on on and again I can't build Doctrine on it it's conjecture at best but it certainly is extremely provocative that when you look at these seven letters in the order that they are written they seem to lay out all of church history from the birth of the church at Pentecost all the way through today yeah and we've unpacked that as we've gone haven't we we have that's pretty cool the Church of Ephesus and its theme well that spoke to the early Apostolic era the apostolic church the church of Smyrna and its theme of persecution well that spoke to the roughly 250 years after the apostolic era where the church was persecuted heavily the church at pergamum its theme was it was married the church was married to the world and that took us all the way up through Constantine and the period of time where the church married the world the letter to church of thot Tyra and its theme of pagan practices we had that whole conversation about the Babylonian priesthood and its migration from Babylon to pergam eventually ended up in Rome that whole theme spoke to the next phase of church history which was the medeval era the medieval church and then in our last episode we talked about Sardis that had that Remnant that that was holding on and surviving in the midst of a church that had nothing good said about it and that spoke to the period of church history known as the Reformation where while the vast majority of the quote unquote church was hunting down trying to obliterate protestantism from the face of the planet there were these reformers these Protestant ambassadors who stuck to their guns and did not soil their garments and that took us all the way up to the 18th century in church history so on this episode we are going to take a look at the letter to the Church of Philadelphia which is the sixth of the seven letters and we're going to find some really fun and controversial and problematic things as we as we unpack this letter I've been warning you guys all along that throughout this series we are going to get ourselves into a lot of trouble uh we've kind of teetered around troublemaking up to this point I think on this episode we'll definitely get ourselves into some trouble but it's going to be fun cool we're going to have a good time so before we get into the meat and potatoes of Philadelphia why don't we go ahead and read the letter okay it's found in the Book of Revelation chter 3: 7-13 the letter to the Church of

Philadelphia and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write he who is Holy who is true who who has the Key of David who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one will open says this I know your Deeds behold I have put before you an Open Door which no one can shut because you have a little power and have kept my word and have not denied my name behold I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but lie I will make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know that I have loved you because you have kept my word of perseverance I will also keep you from the hour of testing that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth I am coming quickly hold fast to what you have so that no one will take your crown he who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he will not go out from it anymore 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 out of Heaven from my God and my new name he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches H the letter to the Church of Philadelphia ladies and gentlemen now right out of the gate yeah notice that there's something missing from the structure of this letter um I don't know what is nothing bad said about them oh yeah there's I knew that

already this is the second of the two churches that Jesus's report card has no demerits the first one was Smyrna and now here the second one Philadelphia Okay now what's interesting about that historically is that guess what two of these Seven Cities these seven churches are still in existence today Smyrna and Philadelphia Bingo oh their churches still exist but they are underground because it's in Turkey which is a very Muslim country H but yes these these cities these churches they still very much exist to this day they're fragmented and a lot smaller but needless to say their lampstands never went out so that's kind of cool that is cool so let's talk a little bit about the history of Philadelphia the City Philadelphia is probably the youngest of the cities that we know of it was built in the area acquired by pergamum in 189 BC UMES II who was the king of pergamum at the time he had a younger brother named atalis II who would end up becoming his successor essor but these two loved each other these two brothers absolutely loved each other and not only did they love each other they liked each other and they liked each other so much that everyone nicknamed them the brothers so much so that even on their very coins was the depiction of the two brothers together and they were always depicted as equals the way they dressed their stature ET Etc and it's because of their Mutual loyalty and affection for one another the area of Philadelphia was well favored for wine production so Andy we would have probably loved it in Philadelphia probably even to this very day H dionis or bakus the god of wine was the principal deity in Philadelphia the city was very well situated on the main road from Rome and traz to pergamum Sardis and the interior of Fria so it became the virtual getaway to the high Central plateau of Asia Minor and the Romans deliberately set up this location as an Outreach or missionary headquarters to promote Greek culture huh the spreading of the Greek language the Greek Customs all of those things and this city was very very near the Greco Asian border so this missional culture seems to fit even the mood of this letter mhm mind you this missionary effort historically is Greek but that theme you can still see that in some of the works of the Church of Philadelphia as well for many centuries the city of Philadelphia was known for this promot motion or mission of promoting Greek culture so there's this missionary mentality H well the city of Philadelphia went through some name changes over its history as well the area that surrounds the city of Philadelphia has a very long Greek name that I won't try to pronounce but it means the burned land because it's a highly volcanic region so even if you go there today there's tons of black lava rocks all over the place and because it's a highly volcanic region it suffered repeatedly from earthquakes over time oh dear and we've mentioned on previous episodes about this horrible earthquake that happened in the region in 17 ad well Philadelphia was also nearly destroyed in that same earthquake and the disaster of that 1780 earthquake devastated Sardis and 10 other cities and Tremors from this earthquake were reported for years afterwards so because of it the philadelphians over time became extremely insecure and afraid because of these constant volcanic Tremors that were happening as a result of that 1780 earthquake specifically Philadelphia suffered Civic and economic disruption for over 20 years but because of generous Financial relief that came from Tiberius in Rome they essentially were rescued and it caused the citizens of Philadelphia to rename the city neoc ciceria which means the new city of Caesar oh okay later on in the time of vaspian who was the successor of tiberias he changed the name to Flavia which was his family name but none of these name changes last for very long and eventually Philadelphia soon is revived and renamed Philadelphia today the name of the city is Allah shahu which means the city of God in Arabic so let's take a look at this letter and unpack it okay sound good yep all right in verse S to the angel the Angelas the messenger most likely the pastor of the church in Philadelphia right he who is Holy who is true who has the Key of David who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens says this I got to tell you when it comes to titles mhm this is a pretty darn good title yeah that's pretty awesome I mean this is essentially Jesus naming the unique Holiness of himself mhm that he is true and he is Holy and he has the king of David like these are all really incredible idioms you know when he says he who is Holy well we in the church we have a pretty good understanding of what Holiness is of what Holiness refers to to be set apart from the rest but specifically when it applies to God or Christ and his Holiness there's kind of this connotation of judgment and Authority that comes alongside it the kind of Holiness that we fear yeah not that we're afraid of God but we are reverent because of the reality that God is Holy and we are not and we stand bare mhm before him all of the time so he's asserting the fact that he is this Holy One he says that he is true and this Greek word here for True is really interesting it's althos which means real or Genuine and it's in contrast to falsehood and I just find it interesting that he chooses this as one of his identifying traits that he is that he is true the one who is true the one who is real and genuine as opposed to all of the other fake stuff that's going on and being worshiped in Philadelphia like dianis if you will oh I see yeah he says that he has the Key of David hm and let me tell you commentators yeah they really have a heck of a time trying to figure out what in the world that is talking about really and you know I wrestled with it over the years but I kind of think that the best way to have a better understanding of why Jesus picked this idiom as part of his title is to actually go back and practice the law of first mention and go look in the Old Testament okay so let's take a look at some verses in the book of Isaiah chapter 22 now I encourage our listeners to go back and study this passage on their own because to give you the whole context of what's going on here would take a really long time but essentially what's happening is that someone by the name of shebna who is the treasurer of the king K om mhm is about to be replaced okay and he's about to be replaced by elim the son of hila that's all I need to tell you to explain it right now okay but we pick it up in verse 19 Isaiah 22: 19 I will Depo this is the Lord speaking through the prophet Isaiah I will depose you from your office and I will pull you down from your station then it will come about in that day that I will summon my servant eliakim the son of hilia and I will clothe him in your tunic and tie your sash securely about him I will entrust him with your Authority and he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah verse 22 then I will set the key of the House of David on his shoulder H when he opens no one will shut when he shuts no one will will open and then it goes on from there with some Messianic titles that I don't have time to unpack here but this is the first place that this whole Key of David is mentioned now what you need to understand here is that this means that eliakim is being given full administrative Authority in Jerusalem mhm and this key was literally Lally a heavy key on a loop that hung over his shoulder oh wow so when people in Jerusalem throughout all the kingdom of Jerusalem would see him walking around with this key they knew that eliakim had the power to Grant or deny audience with the king in other words he alone provided access to merely the king's presence wow so when Jesus says that he that he has the Key of David mhm well take take that example from Isaiah he's saying that he has full administrative authority over everything and that he has the power to Grant or deny audience inside the King's throne room wow that he alone provides the mere access to be in the presence of the king that's what he saying in that idiom wow that's cool because he's you know he he repeats again what's in Isaiah he opens and no one will shut and he shuts and no one will open now that phrase might ring a bell to a lot of our listeners whether you're serious Bible student or not because you've heard this phrase the keys to the kingdom right it's in the scriptures okay the idea of the keys to the kingdom are in the scriptures in several places uh we can take a look at Matthew chapter 16 starting in verse 13 now when Jesus came into the District of ciceria Philippi he was asking his disciples who do the people say that the son of man is and they said some say John the Baptist and others Elijah but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets H and he said to them but who do you say that I am and Simon Peter answered you are the Christ the son of the Living God and Jesus said to him blessed are you Simon bar Jonah which means son of Jonah because Flesh and Blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven I also say to you that you are Peter now this is a funny play on words here okay okay he doesn't just rename him there's more going on here I also say to you that you are Peter and Upon This Rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it so Peter is Petros which means rock and rock in the Greek is pro which means Stone so you got rock and stone huh yeah it's it's really kind of funny mm but catch this verse 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on Earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on Earth shall have been loosed in heaven so here's the first place that we see Jesus granting the Keys of the Kingdom to somebody else but in all actuality he's not really giving the Keys of the Kingdom to Peter and I'll explain why in a minute because Peter actually validates this in his epistle if you flip to 1 Peter chap 2 starting in verse 4 Peter writes and coming to him this is the Lord as to a living Stone there's that word Pro which had been rejected by men he is choice and precious in the sight of God you also as living stones so this is everybody else MH are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ for this is contained in scripture behold I lay in Zion a choice Stone a precious Cornerstone and he who believes in him will not be disappointed this precious value then is for you who believe but for those who disbelieve the stone which the builders rejected this became the very Cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this Doom they were also appointed now catch this verse 9 but you are a chosen race race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for God's Own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light now just as a side note in that verse where Peter says that you the church yeah are a chosen race a royal priesthood mhm that's quite the Paradox because the Priestly line was from the tribe of Levi and the Royal Line was from the tribe of Judah they were separate oh so here he's saying that the church is both well what's interesting is that in judeo Christian history there are only three people who have been qualified to occupy both the Royal Line and the Priestly line the first one is melchisedek right the second one is Christ and guess who the third one is who the church oh cuz he's saying it right here okay so this is I I wanted to kind of derail our conversation just slightly to show you how Peter validates that the keys to the kingdom weren't just given to him they were given to Christ's bride as a whole mhm and another way to back that up flip back to the Book of Matthew in chapter 18 in the infam church discipline passage mhm Jesus says in Matthew 18:18 truly I say to you whatever you bind on Earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on Earth shall have been loosed in heaven so in other words in Matthew 16 Jesus says he's giving the Keys of the Kingdom to Peter the rock that he will build the church on but in 18 he's telling all of the Apostles that they have the keys to the kingdom and what they bind or loose will be bound and loosed in heaven H and then in First Peter he fully validates all of this by saying that we all are the royal priesthood that we all carry that key interesting wow Isn't that cool yeah that is cool I just think that's so cool so back to the letter in Revelation CH 3 all of these idioms they speak of the Lord's kingship they speak of his Sovereign rule his Messianic authority over all the Royal Riches of Heaven they are symbolic of his authority because he's the one alone who who grants access to the king's Chambers he's the one who opens and no one can shut and shuts and no one can open which speaks to his sovereignty in other words only he gets to decide who gets to enter the kingdom only he gets to decide who enters the throne room only he gets to decide who can come to him and all of the these are idioms of his authority alone to Grant access to God and he says that he's holy because there's none other like him there's no one else like him I just find all that amazing that is I mean you talk about titles mhm that's a good one that's a pretty darn good list of titles I I should say yeah all right so we managed to make it through one verse let's move on verse eight I know your Deeds mhm I saw what you did right behold I have put before you an Open Door which no one can shut there's that idiom again the open door which no one can shut mhm well this whole open door thing is pretty cool it's access that no one can take away it's access to him but it's also access to other places that nobody else can shut it's like a two-dimensional meaning here mhm and no one can take away this open door so like doors they're opened for Access into something or closed in order to keep those who are unwanted out of something and they're sealed in order to preserve what's inside of something but this Open Door could be idiomatic of the missional culture in Philadelphia the same could be very true of this church what's interesting though is that he says that they have a little power it's possible that this church was not very big yeah cuz it might be referring to the size of their membership mhm it could also be referring to their inability to open the door themselves yeah it could also be referring to the fact that they cannot come to Christ on their own and it also could be referring to the fact that they cannot access Christ's throne room on their own H in other words they know this they know that they need him to do it for them right he says you have kept my word they have stood firm in their position and belief that the scriptures are the inspired and authoritative word of God there must apparently have been some denial of the scriptures in

Philadelphia as Authority interesting yeah and that's kind of a theme that is synonymous with historical church ideologies that you know as we've discussed on previous episodes that for a major chunk of time there was a debate as to whether or not the scriptures had the final say which essentially spurred on the Reformation right right right there's a lot that you can safely assume here when he says you have kept my word but then he says and have not denied my name mhm this speaks of ambassadorship M now think about the Ten Commandments Andy yeah what's one of the Ten Commandments that pertains to a name Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain right and what do we tend to think that that means well we think that that means like swearing exactly yeah well I don't think that's what that that commandment is referring to at all H oh okay because this speaks of ambass sorship here in Revelation 3 mhm that when you say that you belong to Jesus there is the expectation that you represent him well mhh and so in regards to the Commandment of not taking the lord's name in Baine it's ambassadorship oh it's not being a false representation of God to others I like that better

but remember Jesus says in all these letters that he knows our works so he knows whether or not we are honoring his name and his and being good or bad ambassadors for him yeah I mean there are a lot of verses that talk about for his name's sake so I just think that that kind of intensifies the conversation a little bit more here that even though they have a little power here in this church in Philadelphia mhm and even though they've kept his word ultimately they have not denied the name of Christ they have remained good faithful Witnesses ambassadors for him mhm and then he goes on and says some weird stuff in verse 9 behold I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but lie now we've talked about these people before [Music] hm now we referenced this people group this Sy OG of Satan in the letter to the Church of

Smyrna and here again Jesus brings them up and again remember Smyrna is the first of the two letters that nothing bad is said about them oh yeah so it's kind of ironic that in the two churches that get positive report cards from beginning to end from the Lord himself are dealing with this group of individuals that Christ himself labels the quote synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews but really are not they lie and it's interesting because in Philadelphia's letter he adds the part they lie but in the letter to Smyrna he doesn't say that huh why is that interesting because in the letter to Philadelphia what's the first title that Jesus gives of himself well he's holy and true true versus the LIE of the synagogue of Satan mhm see how it all fits together yeah the Precision of scripture is ridiculous now there are are a lot of Scholars there are a lot of commentators that really in my opinion go off the deep end and try to say that the synagogue of Satan might be people who are reconstructionists or replacement theologians H in other words in our vernacular the best way to summarize that individuals in the church that believe that because the nation of Israel rejected Christ as their Messiah that they have forfeit all of God's promises to them and the church has now replaced Israel oh now all of that might be a possibility of who Jesus is referring to here I don't know but I still hold to the more likelihood that he's referring to the legalists of this time mhm these people who deny the finished work of Christ at Calvary think of the judaizers in the book of Galatians again right that whole letter to the Church of galatia is about dealing with legalism returning to this works oriented faith that Christ's death on the cross of Calvary was not enough for salvic work to be complete so it's it's my opinion that that is more likely who Jesus is referring to because at the time that John is writing this letter legalism is one of those four tears that is sewn into the church culture yeah that the church as a whole is having to face on pretty much a daily basis apparently in Smyrna and now in Philadelphia There's an abundance of this activity going on whichever it might be so glad we don't have to deal with that these days right yeah just kidding yeah that's for a whole different conversation right but he says that he will intervene on their behalf mhm he says I will make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know that I have loved you this speaks of this whole you know making the Earth your foot stol thing oh yeah that that you know Jesus is going to make the Earth his foot stol but here he's saying that he's going to make them literally come and bow down before their feet H and make them know that I have loved you it's it's kind of interesting eventually there's going to be this day of Vengeance that the Lord is going to have think about it this way you know back in Luke 4 where Jesus is in the synagogue and he reads from the Scrolls of Isaiah yeah and uh like in Isaiah chapter 61 veres 1 and 2 the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to The Afflicted he has sent me to bind up the Brokenhearted to Proclaim Liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and in Luke 4 Jesus stops there right in our English Bibles there's a comma oh okay what's interesting is that if Jesus would have read one more line from The Scroll of Isaiah this is what he would have read and the day of Vengeance of our God now why Jesus stopped before reading that line is because the very next thing he says in Luke 4 he closes the scroll and he says today these scriptures are fulfilled in your sight right he couldn't say that if he would have read that line mhm so when I talk about the Precision of scripture and the little yachts and titles and all that stuff this stuff excites me at how intricately detailed these conversations are these letters these instructions this these report cards there's going to come a point where there's going to be a day of Vengeance and part of that day of vengeance is the Fulfillment of what Jesus says here to the church in Philadelphia that he will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan to come and bow down at their feet and know that he's loved them the Philadelphian church folk now what's interesting and I'll get to this a little bit later historically in Philadelphia this actually happened for a very long time oh really literally happened for a very long time but we'll get to that in a little bit in a little while okay now we get ourselves into some trouble okay because verse 10 I believe has caused so many problems and so much friction based on secondary and tertiary issues within all of church culture specifically eschatological conversations mhm and so I feel the need to really unpack this verse to explain from the actual Greek so you know that it's not me talking and it's not the English talking it's the Greek talking we're going to take this verse almost word for word in the Greek okay and here it is because you have kept the word of my perseverance I will also keep you from the hour of testing that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth now first of all the easy part this is the good thing that you have done Church of Philadelphia you have kept the word of my perseverance literal patience in other words Jesus is saying I have been patient for a very long time in 2024 the Lord has been patient for about 2,000 years yeah and they have kept that patience in Philadelphia and because they have been faithful that they have kept his word that they have not denied his name that they have kept the word of his patience they have they have dug in Jesus says I will also keep you see kept and keep okay they go together mhm I will keep you from the hour of testing that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth now I'm going to say this and explain this as delicately as I possibly can okay if you just read this at face value which a lot of folks do and it's okay there are many who interpret this one verse as evidence and or proof of what's known as The Rapture okay that there are a specific group of Christians that the Lord is going to miraculously snatch from the earth now I'm not going to get into a Rapture conversation here but if that's the case then how come this church is still there yeah in 2024 H prophetically speaking you can read this at face value and assume I will keep you from the hour of testing translates into I'm going to snatch you out so that you don't have to go through testing this hour that's about to come upon the whole world that's fair I get that however this is one of those times where it's really unfortunate that the English Bible translators used the words that they used yeah because when you look at this verse in the Greek it actually says something very interesting because you have kept the word of my perseverance I also will keep you from now the Greek word there for keep it means to attend to carefully to take care of to guard in other words it's to preserve it isn't to take out of okay it isn't to remove from when he says keep it's like being protected inside of a keep mhm that you are going to be preserved while this time is occurring okay yeah again I didn't say it that's literally what the Greek says okay I will keep you I will preserve you through this time and what time is this this hour of testing now many many people want to say that this is the Tribulation and not just the tribulation but the Great Tribulation we've talked about this before that many Es es catological Scholars and commentators and preachers and teachers have this title for a specific period of time known as the quote Great Tribulation and many people want to attribute that to this phrase this time or hour of great testing there's two problems with that the first problem is we've already addressed the subject of tribulation which is phalus in the Greek that John is a fellow partaker of and that the Church of thyra was expressly promised that if they didn't repent they were going to face thyis in fact they were going to face Mega phalus Great Tribulation remember we talked about this uhuh so that's the first problem this isn't speaking of a period of quote Great Tribulation the second problem is is that this is a different Greek word here yeah it's not phus it's parmos which literally means a trial of man's Fidelity Integrity virtue and consistency it's an enticement to sin Temptation whether arising from the desires or from the outward circumstances it's an internal temptation to sin it's of the Temptation by which the devil sought to divert Jesus the Messiah from his Divine errand now that doesn't doesn't sound like tribulation no I mean did did Jesus go through Great Tribulation no he was tempted by the devil right right it speaks of adversity it speaks of Affliction it speaks of trouble sent by God and serving as a test to prove one's character faith and Holiness in other words ladies and gentlemen this doesn't sound at all like they're going to be removed from something this sounds completely like they are going to be preserved through this time of testing that God is sending to test the character on Earth that includes this temptation to sin now some might say Heath that sounds absolutely ridiculous that God would drive his people into this time of Great Tribulation it does sound ridiculous however didn't the Holy Spirit Drive Jesus out into the Wilderness to be tempted by the devil

H now don't get so cocky in the church to think that we are above this well I was also thinking of job absolutely good point I mean he did experience physical ailments as well but you know it kind of makes and he was being tting yeah and he was being poked and prodded by his wife and his closest friends Curse God and die right right so in the Greek this is not saying I'm going to remove you from in the Greek this is saying I'm going to preserve you through I'm going to keep

you while this time of mass temptation to sin is coming upon you now I want you to notice two things here he does say that I will keep you from it but he doesn't say I will keep you immune from it h I need you to catch that right because there are theologians that have the same view that I have but they take it to the extent that they aren't going to be affected by this time of great testing Jesus is not saying that what he is saying is that I'm going to preserve you through it nothing more than that think about it this way ladies and gentlemen when the flood happened Noah and his family were inside the ark 7 days before the rains came and then 40 days and 40 nights while it rained and then the extra amount of time until the waters were seeded and the boat landed on the Mountains of Ararat now I ask you two questions Andy yeah first of all do you think that that was a breeze no for them to experience even though they were safe inside the boat yeah it probably wasn't pleasant for lots of reasons yeah second question but did God preserve them yes did he keep them safe yes mhm you see the picture yeah you see the picture picture mhm now just as a side note Jesus refers to as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be when the son of man returns so he's talking about a period of time where he is going to keep certain group of people preserved through it interesting I'll just leave that there yeah the second thing that I want you to notice cuz this verse is very very important here this is probably the key verse in chapters 2 and 3 the second thing I want you to notice here he says I will keep you I will preserve you through the time of testing the hour of testing the hour which is about to come upon who the whole world the whole world not just unbelievers the whole world not just Americans although it feels like it sometimes the whole entire world but who is this temptation who is this testing who is this time of trial focused on those who dwell on the earth the earthwell those who dwell on the earth the earth dwellers correct this is a very common phrase used throughout Revelation and several times in the Old Testament that doesn't literally speak to where somebody lives but where their heart is MHM that they are focused their heart is focused on what is on the earth think about where Jesus says set your mind on things above where moth and rust do not destroy right things in heaven not on things of earth right yeah this is a time a specific period of time because there is the defant article in the Greek specific time that is about to come upon the whole world specifically to test the Earth dwellers those who are focused on the things of this world those are the main key points that I I want you to see in this verse this isn't talking about a people group being removed they're still there and they're going to be preserved through it it's a specific period of time and all of the main priority and focus of that time is towards those whose sole purpose and faith and existence revolves around anything that matters on Earth read that hedonistic yeah you catch what I'm saying yeah that's interesting this is a specific period of time when God will cause the rebellious heart of man to completely reveal itself in order to make it obvious who the true Christians are who are they who is being tested who's being put through it that's what you have to notice in that verse there mhm you see what I'm saying yeah six times in the Book of Revelation alone this phrase the Earth dwellers is used and it always refers to unbelievers always does H they are those who love making the world their home and who are we as Christians this world is not our home we are pilgrims passing through our home is in a kingdom that is not of this world right right so that's who this time is focused on to test hm and that's why those in Philadelphia will be preserved through it mhm make sense yeah okay now enough with that trouble verse 11 I am coming quickly boy those are some really great promising words aren't they yeah come Lord Jesus right I am coming quickly when I come it will happen quick like picture it this way since our Lord ascended and has sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God yeah he has been preparing to come now I I I can only imagine the emotional aspect of that waiting and that excitement from my human finite brain like chomping at the bit you know can't sit still can't stand still looking back over my shoulder like is it time is it time is it time and and as flippant and as irresponsible and borderline irreverent as all of that sounds you can't tell me for one second that the Lord isn't excited to come and rescue his people oh I'm sure I would think so and so he says I'm coming quickly when when all of this goes down I'm coming quickly now just as another side note this is the third time in one of these letters where he specifically mentions his coming H so which category does the letter to the Church of Philadelphia also fall into Group B so we have thyra we have Sardis and we have Philadelphia that all specifically speak to the Lord literally coming interesting I'll leave that there for now okay I am coming quickly hold fast to what you have so that no one will take your crown I love this verse so much I wish that I had all day to tell you why but this is that doctrine of imminence that the Lord could come at any time and when he comes it will be sudden mm he says hold fast now in the Greek this is a really interesting term it doesn't just mean to grab onto something it literally means to grab onto it and master it oh he says hold fast to what you have grab onto it and master it so that no one will take your crown mhm now this is the second time that we've had a crown mentioned in these letters oh guess which letter was the first time Smyrna Smyrna H but notice there's a major difference here in Smyrna if they pursue to death Jesus will give them the Stefanos the Victor's Crown here to the Church of Philadelphia he says hold fast take hold of and master what you have so that no one will take your stefanus oh in other words it implies they already have it yeah because how can someone take something away if they don't have it already H you follow me mhm like because of Christ because of his name because of his word because of his perseverance and the fact that the Philadelphian church has kept it this implies that they already have the Stefanos H that's staggering to me hold fast to what you have so that no one will take it as I said they must already have it this idea of holding fast well when you get to the 7th century the Muslims had pretty much risen up all over this area of what's modern day Turkey but Asia Minor and during The 14th Century Philadelphia stood alone against the entire Turkish Empire as a free self-governing Christian City in the midst of the entire Turkish land now you talk about holding fast yeah you talk about digging in talk about becoming a pro an expert a master at what you have so that no one will take your crown these people learned they learned how to fight they learned how to defend themselves they learned how to resist to the end they were besieged twice by the Turkish armies the people were even reduced to the verge of starvation but somehow they held fast and it wasn't until around 1390 that they finally succumbed to a combined military force of the Turkish and Byzantine armies that they fell H nearly 1,300 years after this letter was written they held fast wow so powerful that's a long time so powerful like I just love how all of this ties together in the literal sense to what the the church was dealing with literally to the history of the city and I'm going to show you prophetically how this fits in with with church history as well in a in a few minutes here okay but he says the message to the Overcomer verse 12 and again it's in the body of the letter another reason why this is in group b he who overcomes 1 John 5:4 I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God now just as a side note a pillar would be an interesting idiom here do you remember why H because in the area where Philadelphia was it was there was all that seismic activity that went on yep so if they were going to a pillar was was symbolic of something sturdy and firm that could not be moved right and and Jesus says to the Overcomer he will make them a pillar in the temple of my God and he will not go out from it anymore it's that speaks of security to me mhm 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 out of Heaven from my God and my new name boy that's a lot of amazing promises this is the promise to the ones who have overcome the world through their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and all of these idioms add up to this they will be with Christ forever they will be proudly put on display like a bride on her wedding day for everyone to see mhm because they have been labeled or identified as his and then he closes out the letter with he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches this is for everyone with an earlobe look at what's going on in this church this is a church that is pleasing to the Lord there's no condemnation there's no threats there's no warnings right you don't see them being praised for having all the right answers you don't see them being praised for having the correct doctrinal positions you don't see them being praised for having the best hot takes or having the best comebacks well they haven't denied his name yeah they've kept the word exactly they're not being praised because they're the most victimized or because they're the most outspoken or because they're the most popular or having the most followers now they weren't a perfect church because there's no such thing right right but they were faithful and true and loyal to Jesus they were his faithful Witnesses they were his ambassadors they lived up to his name and they were blessed by Jesus by having his kingdom opened up to them with all of its Treasures H that's the letter of the Church of Philadelphia [Music] this whole new name concept now remember in Sardis there was the name but that was the label you have this label that you want to identify yourself as but you're actually dead right right but here Jesus gives them the new name Jesus they like there's name name name name name all over the place in this letter too but it's different M it's the same word in the Greek anoma which means label but notice it's not a label that they pick for themselves like the church in Sardis it's a label or identity that's given to them by Christ right because they have been faithful I just find that amazing the contradiction here you can almost you can almost put Sardis and Philadelphia side by side and just look at this like serious contrast between the two of what they were dealing with and why and how the Lord dealt with them and what he thought of them and what their characteristics were it's just fascinating to me yeah it is now he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches so obviously in each one of these letters there's this ear statement so there has to be some sort of application to all of us to all of the churches of all time and to all of us throughout history mhm so in Ephesus the application was devotion not just Doctrine remember they were really good at Doctrine but they lost lost their first love and that the Lord demands devotion not just Doctrine and Smyrna endure persecution in pergamum stand against the world remember that was the church that married the world oh right right and Jesus's application to us is to not be married to the world but to oppose it to stand against it if you will in thyra the application is to abandon Pagan practices with Sardis the application is To Be watchful and diligent to wake up to snap out of it right mm and here in Philadelphia it would seem that the application is missionary Outreach it's to keep on keeping on doing what you're doing and hold fast and master [Music] it obviously the church in Philadelphia found all kinds of favors in the eyes of the Lord and this whole concept of an Open Door like not only is the Kingdom of Heaven open to them but the world is open to them as well because remember he says that I will make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know that I have loved you right like they have this open access to the world if you will guess what Philadelphia means the City of Brotherly Love well that's acceptable but that's not literally what it means what the it's two Greek words okay Deli or Delia meaning city uhhuh but Fela actually doesn't mean brotherly love it means favorable oh okay it means friendly or favorable so remember there was this whole culture because of the two brothers who liked each other so much that there was this whole kind ofat each other favorably kind of a thing right that was the culture there so this church found favor in the eyes of the Lord this is a city of favorable Behavior if you will mhm and you know probably the number one Temptation that the church in Philadelphia had to face was this temptation to go soft to like chill out in their faith you know what I mean yeah and yet they stood firm they had a little power but it was powerful enough for them to be masterful of it and the and and like the world was their oyster if you will with with missionary efforts this whole concept of open [Music] doors uh it makes me think of First Corinthians chapter 16 oh Paul says in verse 8 and9 he says I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost for a wide door for Effective service has open to me and there are many adversaries H you see even though the doors are open for Paul to go and be an evangelist and plant churches Etc because that's what Paul did right three missionary Journeys uhhuh he is aware that there are adversaries of all kinds everywhere no kidding and that's kind of an important point that when it comes to our Evangelistic efforts whatever that might look like when it comes to our gospel sharing efforts outside of the Four Walls of the church if you will there is an adversary there are adversaries I have some I have this one interesting little factoid that that I've been dying to share with everybody and I'm so glad that I finally get to bring this up here and has to do with the Philippines okay in the Philippines their economic situation is really really bad and it has been for a long time so much so that a lot of the young men and women leave the Philippines to go find work in other countries mhm and when they go to the other countries and find work they send you know a a portion of their wages back home so that their families can can survive right right well for the longest time even up till most recently the most popular place for the PE for the young men and women of the Philippines to go and find work is actually in Saudi Arabia oh okay and they've been doing this like this is where the majority of these displaced people from the Philippines are going to find work it's not America it's actually Saudi Arabia just out of curiosity Andy yeah ballpark figure how many Filipino people do you think have steady jobs in in the nation of Saudi Arabia all of them they wouldn't be there otherwise I know but give me a number like can can you guess what the number might be um gee I don't know like a million just shy of a million wow there are just shy of a million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia that are earning stable incomes and thriving H and the vast majority of them are Christians oh now remember this is in Saudi Arabia right wouldn't it be just like God to open a door in a hostile Muslim country like that H for Christian people from the Philippines to go in and do the work of an evangelist besides earning an honest living that's pretty interesting Well Point you might call me crazy but it kind of is in the Lord's nature I mean think about it this way yeah the Lord orchestrated Rome to tax everyone which caused Mary and Joseph to go down to Bethlehem mhm where Jesus would be born yeah oh or think about in Genesis with the famine over all the Earth that forced a group of 70 Israelites to move to Egypt so they wouldn't starve right so think about the increasing anti-christian movement of today uhhuh I would argue that the doors are wide open

everywhere so let's look at the prophetic application of this real quick up to this point we've gone through now uh six letters our previous five letters have brought us up through the Reformation period which is roughly uh the early 19th century well something interesting started happening in the church as a whole in the early 18th century there started this kind of reemergence of a focus on eschatology and what I mean by that is not the study of end times and you know the things that we in 21st century Church culture would associate with eschatology or the thought of eschatology but what was really The prominent idea was this focus on teaching about the second coming of Christ and that was a good thing but it was also a bad thing in some ways too because I mentioned this idea of the Rapture what's interesting is that the concept of the Rapture was not something that was being talked about in the church until the early 19th century so some people would say that that's new theology oh I didn't that's interesting yeah okay however it wasn't the prominent idea The prominent idea was focused on the teaching of the second coming of Christ in general mhm and what ended up happening was this movement this Resurgence of emphasis on not just soteriology or how a person is saved but also the end of all things with the Lord's return it caused what was labeled as a period of time called the Great Awakening oh yeah the Great Awakening and this was a series of religious revivals in Protestant churches that began around 1726 and peaked in the 174s is that like the Holiness movement that was towards the end okay but yes that's part of it too the Holiness movement uh begins in the early 1900s give or take 10 years some say at the at the end of the of the of the 1800s some say at the beginning of the 1900s so right around the turn of the century is when the Holy Holiness movement uh kicked in okay but it's interesting this concept of these quote unquote religious revivals mhm remember earlier I talked about the renaming of the city of Philadelphia yeah and I used a specific word when I mentioned that it went back to being called Philadelphia because this whole idea of favorable behavior and treatment of one another caused a Revival in their culture and they went back to the name Philadelphia oh neat yeah so it's funny how that literal history of Philadelphia mirrors church history in that coming out of the Reformation period which was a focus on proper Doctrine and theology around soteriology and then on the coattails of that with that Remnant you have this little power wink wink that is Rev vied into this overall conversation of not just the salvation of Jesus Christ but the return of Jesus Christ and it thrusts the church as a whole specifically in Europe and especially in China all of this incredible missionary work oh yeah yeah and it's fascinating and and I I encourage all of you go back and study grab that Haley's Bible Handbook go on the internet do whatever you got to do when you see what was going on in the church worldwide globally from the end of the 18th century for about a thousand years it's pretty incredible and yet it's just these little small pockets of little power if you will yeah that's interesting that's so it's a s the Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals it began in 1726 peaked in the 1740s it was revived again in the 1790s but less emotionally charged and then there was a third movement that was give or take around the 1850s which led into the early 20th century and then you enter into the Holiness movement in the early 1900s H so it would seem that once again we have an overall theme of a letter here yeah that speaks to a period of time in church history in order it does correspond doesn't it it's starting to creep me out starting yeah if it hasn't already I I'm I'm starting to become thoroughly creeped out by this but in a good way yes but I want you to notice two things first thing and I'm going to get myself into trouble here right in the letter to the Church of Philadelphia in verse 12 the message to the Overcomer yeah you have this name this label this identity that Jesus gives to his Overcomers mhm in other words the Lord's servants are marked now I ask you are they literally marked with something or is it a spiritual identification well spiritual I would yeah spiritual hm interesting we'll we'll talk more about that when we get to chapter 13 oh okay oh dear the second and more important thing that I want to say in closing is that ladies and gentlemen in 2024 even in the midst of all of this anti-christian upheaval and Uprising that in and of itself is a sign that the missional work of the Gospel has an open door and I would argue that it's more wide open than it ever has been the question that I have are we going to go through it and that's all we have to say about that thank you for listening to the Churchosity podcast the post scripts on our next episode we'll be taking a look at the letter to the Church of Laodicea which is the seventh and final letter that's going to imply some pretty interesting things but until next time this is the Churchosity podcast Personnel saying [Music] peace