The Faithful Church, Part 3

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.’

Review

What insights or applications did you take away from last week’s sermon or small group discussion?

How did remembering the promise of God strengthen your walk with Christ this week?

How does the fact that we are not destined for wrath encourage you today?

This morning, as we come back to conclude this letter, we will see the command that Christ gives to the church at Philadelphia.

Body

Big Idea: Hold fast, Church, and so prove the authenticity of your faith and devotion.

The Concern

None.

Like Smyrna, Philadelphia recieved no rebuke. These two churches alone would receive no rebuke.

Though Philadelphia receives the designation of “The Faithful Church,” Smyrna also deserves such a designation. Smyrna was also faithful, to the point of persecution and death.

Both were faithful, and thus recieved no rebuke from the Lord.

Oh that we would be like Smyrna and Philadelphia as a church.

The Command

I am Coming Soon

Revelation 3:11.

Revelation 3:11 ESV

11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.

This is much different statement than that which Christ has made to the other churches.

How this statement different from Christ’s other statements of his coming to the churches and how do you know it is different?

You know this one is different because of the context. The others were made clear, I am coming in judgement if you do not repent. This one is a promise meant to encourage them to continue being faithful.

For the other churches, he was coming in temporal judgement over their sin, to rebuke and correct, to draw them back to righteousness.

Here, it is a promise of hope and encouragement.

His coming will BRING the hour of testing upon the earth. His coming wilL BEGIN the tribulation and the judgement that is about to fall.

His coming will DELIVER the church BEFORE that begins.

SOON

He is coming SOON.

His return is imminent. It can happen at any time.

To which, all God’s people say…AMEN, COME LORD JESUS, COME!

Hold Fast

What does it mean to HOLD FAST?

Means to accomplish something by overcoming obstacles, attain.

To use one’s hands to establish a close contact - hold

To take control of someone or something - seize, control

To hold up or serve as a foundation for something - hold upright or support

To control in such a way that something does not happen - hold back, restrain

To adhere to strongly

To cause something to continue - hold in place

POINT IS…this word has the idea of HOLDING SOMETHING CLOSE, maintaining CONTROL, adhering too STRONGLY, to HOLD IN PLACE something that was, that is.

Taking that understanding, what does it mean to “HOLD FAST” in terms of spiritual things?

CLING TO and HOLD TO me. To truth. Do not depart from it. Do not stray. Do not compromise. Do not waiver. Do not do as many of the other churches did, and permit sin and false teaching to infiltrate their ranks.

In order words, persevere to the end and so prove to by my disciples.

KEEP doing what you are doing. STAND FAST. They are doing it now. He is admonishing them to continue doing so.

Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:13.

Matthew 10:22 ESV

22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Matthew 24:13 ESV

13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The one who endures to the end WILL BE SAVED

Not as a result

Not as something earned

BUT as the evidence of the authenticity of one’s faith.

Holding fast to the end, through all opposition and hardship IS THE EVIDENCE that one has a truly saving faith versus an empty profession.

Christ tells them, HOLD FAST. Remain. Endure.

True believers ARE eternally secure by the power of God.

The evidence of that security, the evidence of God’s power at work in us, the proof that it is a genuine act of repentance and not a momentary mirage of one IS persevering faith.

Colossians 1:22-23.

Colossians 1:22–23 ESV

22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

And again 1 John 2:19.

1 John 2:19 ESV

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

What is so incredible is that God also gives us the faith to hold fast.

God in His grace gifts us that faith to not only believe, but to persevere.

Romans 12:3.

Romans 12:3 ESV

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

God truly is incredible. He gives us everything we need to be saved, including our faith to repent AND our faith to endure.

The encouraging thing when Philadelphia is told to HOLD FAST, when we are told to HOLD FAST, God empowers and enables us to do so. We do not have to conjure up strength on our own to do it. He gives us all we need.

How should our daily lives be affected by the truth that God gives us the faith to believe with AND the faith to endure with?

So that no one may seize your crown

Revelation 3:11 ESV

11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.

In his letter to Smyrna, the persecuted church, he told them to be faithful unto death and he would give them the crown of life.

This is the same crown he was referring to then.

Hold fast so that no one may seize your crown (of life)

Literally translated, Revelation 2;10 reads, “so that no one may seize your crown, which is life.

Life, eternal life.

Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of eternal life.

Hold fast to what you have so that no one can seize your crown (of eternal life).

This is not insinuating that one can “earn” or “lose” their eternal life, aka their salvation, once it has been given. Other passages of scripture make clear, you cannot.

What it is saying is this…

Enduring faith and obedience, especially under duress and trial, IS THE EVIDENCE of saving faith and one never need fear losing that or being found without it.

One who comes along and seizes another’s crowns, causing them to fall away and “lose their salvation” only reveals that the person never possessed it in the first place.

BUT, too many are convinced of their own salvation because they grew up in church, they go to church now, they read their bibles, the prayed a prayer sometime in the life and have the notation in their bible to prove it. They are relying upon externals to give them assurance all the while their passions and heart are SO FAR from God that there is no evidence, no true evidence of faith in their life. In short, they are the modern day pharisees.

Too many are content with a mediocre, comfortable Christianity.

Too many are trying to live with their earthly comforts AND their intimacy with Christ.

Too many are not living out their life with Christ with the masculine strength it demands in a world of counterfeit gods, counterfeit passions, counterfeit purpose.

Too many are wiling to buy into the lie of easy believism, casual Christianity, comfortable faith.

Church, in a world of sin, with an adversary such as Satan, following Christ is not easy.

BUT IT IS BLESSED and IT IS the ABUNDANT LIFE.

But please do not buy into the lies that it will come without waging all out war on yourself, your flesh, and the passions of the world.

If the letters to the churches in Revelation, if the letter of revelation tells us anything…it tells us that compromise with the world ends in disaster.

James 4 makes this sober warning…

James 4:1–4 ESV

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Those who would steal your crown are those that we deceive you into thinking that you can have the flesh and the world AND still have God too.

You cannot.

God is STILL infinitely more precious, more valuable, more desirable, more beautiful THAN ALL THE CREATED desires and pleasures of our existence.

From beginning of time, until the end

Even if you stacked them up all….they would not outweigh the preciousness and beauty, and worth of God.

So stop running after them and run to Christ alone.

HOLD FAST TO GOD…

And let NO ONE steal your crown.

Salvation is about making God our superior pleasure. Some who profess and claim the name of Jesus, lie. They never have.

Even for those of us who have, we still wrestle and battle the battle of the passions.

But may the passion for God win out and consume us, control us, and so prove the authenticity of our faith.

And no place better exposes and reveals that authenticity than in the crucible of suffering, sorrow, opposition, and adversity. It is here, in the fire, that the true passions of our hearts are exposed.

SO, church stand fast. Hold fast. Embrace the hardship, the brokenness, the suffering as the means to expose and strengthen the authentic desire and passion for the person of God.

Christ’s letter to the church, to us is reminding us, is showing us…if we endure, if we hold fast, if we cling to what we have, without wavering even in the face of persecution and death, we affirm that our faith is genuine, and we will have no fear of “losing” our crown

I put “losing” in quotations because you cannot lose something you never possessed, which would be the case for one who did “lose” it.

But because of one perception that they actually did have it, it will feel like losing it if it is “stripped” away or withheld from them.

How do we do this when life seems black and dark?

How do we do this when we face what seems to have relentless opposition and suffering?

J. Hampton Keathley gives us the answer…

Remembering and keeping one’s focus on God’s unchangeable character and His eternal faithfulness becomes one of our greatest resources for courage and the faithfulness we need to go on even when things seem their blackest.

J. Hampton Keathley

This is precisely what Philadelphia did. They stayed true to God by keeping their focus on God.

Let us hold fast and be found faithful.

Let us keep our gaze fixed upon Him.

The Counsel

Revelation 3:12-13.

Revelation 3:12–13 ESV

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.’

Again, read, meditate, and we will return here later with the rest.

Conclusion

Big Idea: Hold fast, Church, and so prove the authenticity of your faith and devotion.

Implicit in this charge is a total commitment. Not half hearted, not partial.

Hold fast….

A wife who is 85% faithful to her husband is not faithful at all. There is no such thing as part-time loyalty to Jesus Christ. Vance Havner

Church, the call is for ALL. Not partial.

Holding fast to the end will require ALL of us.

Church, hold fast.

May we be found faithful as we grow together to become more like Jesus for the glory of God.

Application

What does it mean to 'hold fast' to our faith in our daily lives?

How can we support each other in holding fast to our faith during challenging tines?

How does the promise to be kept from the coming trial coming on the whole world strengthen you to live more faithfully today?

How can we recognize and resist the influences of the 'synagogue of Satan' in our lives today?

How can we maintain our focus on God's unchangeable character in difficult circumstances?

What strategies can we use to strengthen our faith community against external pressures?

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