Revelation 3:7-13 - The Narrow Gate

Introduction

In his classic and timeless book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan (a Baptist pastor imprisoned in England in the mid 1600s) created a fictional character that represented the Christian on his journey from the City of Destruction toward the Celestial City. The main character is a man named Christian, and he meets with many others along the way.

Bunyan described spiritual conversion when he wrote of Christian’s vision of a “cross” along a highway called Salvation. Christian ran on the highway “till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross.” Then, “just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden [of sin and guilt] loosed from of his shoulders and fell from off his back.”

“Then,” wrote Bunyan, “Christian stood still a while to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.” Bunyan may have had Hebrews 12 in his mind here. The Scripture says, “let us… lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:1-2).

While Christian stood there, looking to the cross of Christ, a divine affirmation was given him of his conversion. He was told that he now had peace with God, he now had the forgiveness of sins, and he was given new clean clothes which represent the righteousness of Christ. So too, Christian was given a “mark on his forehead” and a “scroll with a seal upon it,” which he was to keep and to show at the “celestial gate.” In these ways, Christian was visibly set apart as a holy one, a repenting and believing sinner who would be welcome in the Celestial City.

But Christian still had to make his way along the pilgrim path for some time before he would arrive at the final destination. And he met others on the path who did not come through the narrow gate. Two in particular were named Formalist and Hypocrisy. These, wrote Bunyan, “were born in the land of Vain-glory,” a region where there was a great deal of legalism, and everyone considered the Celestial City their birthright.

Christian was concerned that these men did not enter the right way, so he asked them, “Why came you not in at the gate which stands at the beginning of the way?” “Don’t you know,” said Christian, “that it is written, ‘he that comes not in by the door, but climbs up some other way, that same is a thief and a robber?”

Formalist and Hypocrisy said that “to go to the gate for entrance was, by all their countrymen, counted too far about; and therefore their usual way was to make a short cut of it, and to climb over the wall as they had done.”

Christian asked, “But will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of the city… and thus a violation of his revealed will?”

Formalist and Hypocrisy told him that “he need not trouble his head on such things, for what they did they had custom for,” and they could list many others who had done the same. Indeed, Christian’s insistence on entering by the right way was considered impolite and unnecessary.

Nevertheless, Christian advised them one last time, “By [traditions and deeds] you will not be saved, since you came not in by the door.” He showed them his new clothes, and his scroll, and the mark upon his head, which was fixed there by the Lord. The other men had none of these things, because they had not entered by the narrow gate, and Christian warned them that the Lord of the City would count them as rebels. Christian said, if they came in by themselves, without the Lord’s direction, they would go out by themselves, without the Lord’s mercy.

Friends, today we are going to continue our study of the book of Revelation, and we have come to the sixth of the seven churches – Philadelphia. Each church heard Christ’s evaluation of them, and each one was commanded (in one way or another) to keep the word of Christ and persevere in following Him… all the way to the end.

The church in Philadelphia was, as we shall see, being hard-pressed to leave off the right road and to look for another way to enter the city of God. Their temptation is a perennial one for Christians of every generation, and we (if we’re honest) are liable to it as well.

Scripture Reading

Revelation 3:7–13 (ESV)

7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

8 “ ‘I know your works.

Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.

10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.

12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, 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 from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Sermon

1. Christ is the Door (v7)

As we have already seen (during our study of previous letters to other churches), Christ’s description at the top of each letter is fundamental to everything else we read in it. And this letter to the church of Philadelphia is no different. So, let’s start by looking closely at how Jesus is presented here.

Jesus is the (1) “holy one,” (2) the “true one,” and (3) the one who “has the key of David” (Rev. 3:7).

1. The “holy one.”

a. Throughout the OT, and especially in the Psalms and Isaiah, “the Holy One” always refers to Yahweh or the LORD… except on very rare occasions when it refers to a priest that is “the holy one of the Lord” (Ps. 106:16).

i. “‘To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?’ says the Holy One” (Is. 40:25).

ii. “I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Is. 43:3).

iii. “Our Redeemer – the LORD of hosts is his name – is the Holy One of Israel” (Is. 47:4).

b. In the NT, Jesus is affirmed as “the Holy One of God.”

i. The demons know it – “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God” (Mk. 1:24).

ii. The disciples confess it – “Lord… You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn. 6:68-69).

c. We have every reason to believe that what we see here (in the description of Jesus as “the holy one”) is an overt affirmation of His deity, His divinity, or His godness.

2. The “true one.”

a. Throughout the OT, Yahweh is known as the “true” God, as opposed to false gods who do not act or speak (Jer. 10:10).

i. Specifically…

1. “the word of the LORD proves true” (Ps. 18:30), because He acts in human history.

2. “the rules of the LORD are true” (Ps. 19:9), because His wisdom is perfect.

3. And “all” of the “commandments” of the LORD “are true” (Ps. 119:151), because He knows what is right.

b. In the NT, God the Father is affirmed as “true” (Jn. 7:28, 8:26), and Jesus (having been sent by the Father) bears “true” “testimony” or “witness” of God and His word (Jn. 7:18, 8:14, 8:26).

c. What’s really interesting in Revelation is that the only other time when someone is said to be both “holy” and “true” it’s clearly a reference to God.

i. Those who died in faith cry out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10).

d. Once again, to say that Jesus is “the true one” is (by itself) a strong emphasis on His deity or godness… but it is especially so when we see both of these together (“the holy one” and “the true one”).

So, Jesus is the “Holy One of Israel;” He is Yahweh of old; and He is “the true” God (A) who created at the beginning and (B) who will judge and remake all things in the end (Rev. 21:5-8). Jesus is not God the Father, but He is the incarnate God the Son… “truly God and truly man” as the Chalcedonian Creed affirms.[i]

What are we to make, then, of the “key of David”?

3. The one who “has the key of David.”

a. This is an allusion to an episode in OT history, when the people of Judah had a good king (Hezekiah), but they were attacked by Assyria because of their sin and because of God’s judgment.

i. You can read all about this in 2 Kings 18-19.

ii. And the phrase is nearly a direct citation of Isaiah 22.

b. Under King Hezekiah, there were three men – “Eliakim” (the steward of the “household” or “temple”), “Shebnah” (the secretary and military commander), and “Joah” (the recorder or clerk or historian).

c. It’s a longer story, but Shebnah (the secretary and commander) was apparently (at an earlier time) in the higher office of steward over the King’s household. However, because of his poor leadership and selfish use of his power, Shebnah was thrown out of office by God Himself, and Eliakim was put in his place.

i. Here’s how the prophet Isaiah spoke the word of the LORD to Shebnah (in Isaiah 22): “19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim… 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house.” (Isaiah 22:19-23).

d. Friends, this is an example of what is called telescopic prophecy.

i. Eliakim was God’s appointed man to shoulder the government of Judah, but God appointed another man upon whom He would set the government and authority of all creation (Is. 9:6; Matt. 28:18).

ii. Eliakim was to be a steward or keeper of the house of Judah, but God appointed another man who would not only steward and build God’s household, but He Himself would also be its very foundation or cornerstone (Eph. 2:18-22).

iii. Eliakim was to wield “the key of David,” such that he would decide who is in the kingdom of Judah and who is out; but God appointed another man who would wield “the key of David,” opening the door to God’s kingdom to whom He will and shutting the door against others.

In other words, Jesus is the true steward of God’s household (or God’s temple), and He is the one who decides who is in and who is out. As Jesus said of Himself, during His earthly ministry: “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (Jn. 10:9); and “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6).

Now, the reason that this picture of Jesus was so important to the church in Philadelphia is that there were many people around them telling them that the door of salvation was closed to them unless they embraced a distorted mixture of OT law and Jewish tradition.

It’s always tempting to look for outward behaviors either to justify or to condemn. This is a far easier way to settle the matter… “Am I following the rules? Or am I falling short?”

But Jesus teaches and reminds us here that the door of salvation is open to some and shut to others… not on the basis of the people themselves or their legalistic behavior, but on the basis of Christ’s love and decisive action on their behalf… which (of course) has implications for living… but we must not confuse the two or reverse the order.

Friends, those who know and believe the gospel will behave differently than those who do not. But no one has ever or will ever live in such a way so as to earn righteousness or holiness before God. No, if we are holy in God’s sight, it is Christ’s holiness we wear.

Jesus is “the holy one, the true one, [and the one] who has the key of David” (v7). He “opens and no one will shut,” and He “shuts and no one opens” (v7).

In other words, Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son, and He is in charge of who is in and out of God’s kingdom.

2. The Path and the Trial (v8-11)

Just like the other churches in Revelation, Jesus “knows” about the church in Philadelphia (v8). In fact, Jesus “knows” and mentions here at least three things about them: (1) that they have “kept” His “word” and “have not denied [His] name” (v8); (2) that they “have but little power” (v8); and (3) that some people are “lying” about them and/or “lying” to them (v9).

Let’s consider each one of these in turn.

1. The church in Philadelphia “kept” Christ’s “word” and they did “not deny” Christ’s “name” (v8).

a. Unlike the churches of Thyatira and Sardis, the church in Philadelphia was doing it right… they were walking the pilgrim path.

i. They weren’t dead in sin; they were “keeping” Christ’s “word.”

ii. They weren’t tolerating false teachers; they were staying true to Christ’s “name” and submitting to Christ’s rule among them.

iii. They weren’t even giving into pressure from the outside; Jesus says they “kept” His “word about patient endurance” (v10).

1. By all available data here, this was a faithful church!

a. What a testimony! May God grant us such a reputation under Christ here!

b. And may God help us to continually strive toward this same kind of faithfulness.

2. But the church in Philadelphia had “but little power” (v8).

a. Oh, brothers and sisters… do you ever feel this way? I know I do.

i. I read a newspaper headline this last week that said, “The American Evangelical Church is Breaking Up.”

ii. I recently listened to a documentary that claimed that every single day in the United States nine churches close their doors for good.

iii. I see what appears to be a juggernaut in our cultural sprint toward complete paganism and hostility toward Christ… and I also see the relatively small and comparatively insignificant people who gather in the name of Christ here each Sunday.

1. None of us write legislation… None of us create culture on the national stage… None of us hold the purse strings of multi-million-dollar corporations… Ha, most of us can’t even convince our friends and family and coworkers that what we’re doing here each Sunday is important enough to prioritize in any meaningful way.

b. The “little power” or small “strength” (KJV) of the church in Philadelphia cannot refer to their spiritual “power” or “strength,” since they were commended for their endurance and faithfulness.

i. It must then refer to their visible power or their worldly strength.

1. Were they small in number?

2. Did they have little economic power?

3. Were they politically insignificant?

4. Were they social outcasts in society?

a. Any and all of these are good possibilities, and Christ is well aware of their weakness.

c. Yet, Christ does not command them to grow stronger!

i. No, Jesus warns them that “the hour of trial” or “testing” (NASB) or “temptation” (KJV) is “coming” (v10); and He promises to “keep” them “from” it (v10).

1. Now, it seems to me that Christ is saying here that He will sustain them through the “trial,” and not that He is going to come and remove them out of it.

2. But you don’t have to agree with me on that to see that the imperative or command that Christ gave to the church in Philadelphia was to “hold fast [to] what you have” (v11), and not to strive for an increase of their worldly power.

a. Friends, it is a constant temptation for Christians to look around them and see their apparent weakness in the world as a reason to worry, a reason to lament, and a reason to employ worldly means to gain in strength.

b. But this is not what Christ commands for the church in Philadelphia… and it’s not what He commands us either.

c. In fact, Jesus turns this way of thinking on its head when He says what He does about those who are “lying” about Christians and/or “lying” to them (v9).

3. The church in Philadelphia had at least some people in their town “lying” about them and/or “lying” to them (v9).

a. We see here in v9 something very similar to what we already saw in the letter to the church in Smyrna.

i. Smyrna was “impoverished,” and they too had people “slandering” them… people who “say that they are Jews and are not” …people Jesus called “a synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9).

b. Like the church in Smyrna, the saints in Philadelphia were being “lied” about and they were being “lied” to by “those of the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 3:9).

i. There’s a lot to unpack here, but the reality is that first-century Jews were not happy to see Christians (both Jew and Gentile) claiming that Jesus was the true Messiah… and that it was belief or faith in Christ that made a sinner right with God.

ii. First-century Jews were often telling Christians that they had to become like Jews (following their corrupted traditions of the Mosaic covenantal laws) in order to be saved or justified.[ii]

iii. But, in our passage, Christ (in no uncertain terms) draws a hard line between those for whom the “door” is “open” and those who remain “shut” out in the “synagogue of Satan” (v8-9).

iv. The fact is that the church in Philadelphia were the ones for whom the “door” of God’s kingdom was “open” (v8)… but it is also true that they seemed to have “but little power” on the outside (v8).

1. Friends, Jesus didn’t tell them to get stronger… He told them that He is the only one who is able to open the door of God’s kingdom… and they needed to continue to rely upon, to trust in, to believe in Him… as they walked the path of “patient” or faithful “endurance” (v10).

a. Jesus is the one “who has the key of David” (v7)!

b. Jesus is the one who “set before [them] an open door” to the “city of God” (v8, 12).

4. In our day, there are very few legalists anymore.

a. Most everyone we know will accuse us of legalism if we say that Christ makes any claim on the way a person must believe or live.

b. No, our temptation today is lawlessness.

i. Those “Christians” that agree with the world about so-called marriage equality… about gender fluidity… about toxic masculinity… about a woman’s bodily autonomy… and a whole host of other radical catchphrases and concepts… Those “Christians” are applauded in our culture, they are celebrated as politicians, and they are praised as “good Christians.”

ii. It is the historically and biblically grounded Christians… those who actually believe and live according to a kind of Christianity that would be recognizable to our great-grandparents… It is those Christians who are demonized in our culture, they are mocked in the political arena, and they are condemned as bigoted or homophobic or patriarchal… or just plain idiots.

c. But you know… the lawlessness of our day is (in a way) a new kind of legalism.

i. The “good people”… the “heroes” of our day… they are those who don’t believe much of anything… and those who behave according to the radical ethics of our day.

1. Our temptation is to embrace the new legalism of our day.

2. And yet, our calling… our command from Christ… it is the same for us as it was the church in Philadelphia: “Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown” (v11).

Friends, because Christ is the door and the way, those who enter by faith in Him are assured a place in the Celestial City. But they must persevere on the path, holding fast to Christ and His word… This is the path that leads to the city of God.

3. True to the End (v12-13)

As we come now to the end of our passage and the end of my sermon, I am going to make this last point very brief. Let me make two observations about the way Jesus finishes His letter to the church in Philadelphia: (1) all the actions here are accomplished by Christ, and (2) Jesus is the one who gets the final say about who truly and eternally bears His name.

1. First, all the actions are accomplished by Christ.

a. As I’ve already pointed out, the only imperative in this whole passage is there in v11 – “Hold fast what you have.”

b. Jesus mostly described the church in Philadelphia in this letter… as weak by worldly standards but faithful and beloved by Christ Himself.

c. And here at the end, Jesus tells them that if they will “conquer” or “persevere” or “overcome” by remaining faithful and holding fast, then:

i. He will “make” them “a pillar in the temple.”

ii. He will “write” on them “the name of… God… and [Christ’s] own… name.”

iii. And He will “bring down” “the city of God” to them.

d. It is certainly true that Christians must “hold fast” to Christ and to His word, but the main emphasis of this letter is to encourage Christians to trust in the one who is “holy” and “true” and who holds the “keys.”

2. Second, Jesus decides who bears His name.

a. You’ve probably already noticed that “name” is a big theme in this letter (as it is throughout the book of Revelation).

i. The Philadelphian church did not “deny” Christ’s “name” (v8).

ii. Some outside the church were “lying” about who truly deserved to bear the name of God’s people, God’s household (v9).

iii. And Christ says that he Himself will “write… the name of… God” and “the name of the city of… God” and also His “own new name” upon the saints in Philadelphia… not because they were powerful or noteworthy or prestigious in the world… but because Christ “loved” them (v9)… and because Christ “kept” them (v10)… and because they “patiently endured” and “held fast” (v10-11).

He or she who has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And let us take heart today. Though we may seem small and of little power, if we are in Christ (if we have entered the pilgrim path by way of the narrow gate), then we are beloved by Him, we are being built into a dwelling place for God Himself, and we shall (with all certainty) be welcomed into God’s kingdom on the last day.

May Christ help us to be faithful with the time and resources He’s given us… may He help us to trust His providence and goodness when we endure the trials… and may we bear His name well in the world… until He comes.

Endnotes

[i] See this explanation of the Council of Chalcedon and of this particular phrase – “truly God and truly man” – here: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/truly-god-truly-man-council-chalcedon [ii] For a prime example of this sort of clash, read what happened in Acts 15. There the largely (maybe entirely) Jewish church in Jerusalem, along with the Apostles, considered the critical matter of what to require of Gentile converts to Christianity. Stories of God’s grace were told and arguments were made, and in the end the church and the Apostles decided that Gentiles were just as capable of being Christians as Jews without having to embrace the old covenant sign of circumcision or any of the other ceremonial and dietary laws. Because this episode is recorded in Acts, it is the divinely inspired verdict on the matter. God says that belief or faith in Christ is the definitive characteristic of Christian conversion, and the rest of Scripture attests to this same fact. Consider also Romans 1-3 and the following argument from Romans 4-8.