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Introduction
I want to welcome you again this morning.
First, to those joining us online, we are so thankful for our online technology that allows you to be a part of our church family today.
I also want to welcome those who may be joining us for the first time today.
I hope your time with us today is encouraging and helpful, and I look forward to meeting you.
I would also say if you are new to our church today, it would be helpful for you to know that we practice a form of preaching called “Expository Preaching”.
What that means, is we believe the Bible is best taught by taking books of the Bible and then breaking them down from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
Our goal, to better understand not only what God’s Word says, but what it means in our lives today.
That being said, if you’re just joining us, we are just a few weeks into a new series called the “The Seven Letters”.
A series that is based on the first three chapters of the book of Revelation.
And we’ve called it the seven letters because the book of Revelation was written to seven specific churches that existed at the end of the first century.
And it’s in the first three chapters of Revelation that Jesus personally addresses each of these churches.
And that’s important for us for a couple of key reasons:
First, as we’ve learned, the churches that Jesus addresses are meant to represent the universal church.
Which means, the book of Revelation wasn’t just written for those 7 churches, but for all churches of all time.
Second, in addressing these churches, Jesus either addresses them as a church He is pleased with, unpleased with, or somewhat pleased with.
And then based on the condition of each church, Jesus addresses them accordingly.
Which means, if we want to be a church that is pleasing to Jesus then we need to know what is and isn’t pleasing to Him.
So, if you haven’t been with us, I’d encourage you to download the app so you can listen to the previous messages leading up to today.
Today however we are picking up with church #6 of the 7 churches, the church in Philadelphia.
And like the church in Smyrna, this is a church that Jesus is well pleased with.
Which should grab our attention this morning, because I don’t know about you, but if this is a church that Jesus is well pleased with, then I want to know what this church is doing.
And so to help us determine that, I have three goals this morning.
First, we are going to spend a few moments looking at what life was like in the city of Philadelphia at the end of the 1st century.
This is important because it gives us the context of what the early Christians were facing in Philadelphia.
Second, we are going to look at what Jesus liked and didn’t like about the church in Philadelphia.
Finally, after looking at what Jesus has to say to this church, we are going to look at how His words apply to our church in our context.
In other words, we are going to ask ourselves, “How do we compare to the church in Philadelphia?”
And so to get us started this morning, I want to begin by painting a picture for you of what life was like for early Christians in the city of Philadelphia.
So, what was it like?
Well, like all Roman cities of this time, Philadelphia was a city committed to worshiping the Greek and Roman gods.
Which means living for Jesus in Philadelphia would have come at great risk.
However, there were some advantages to being a Christian in Philadelphia that Christians in other Roman cities didn’t have.
Because in many ways Philadelphia was not your typical Roman city.
Typical in that it wasn’t a destination point or even a city Rome gave much credence to.
This was largely due to the fact that just like the city of Sardis, Philadelphia had nearly been destroyed by the earthquake of 17 A.D.
You may recall we referenced that earthquake last week and how it nearly destroyed 7 prominent cities in Asia at that time, Philadelphia being one of those cities.
As a result, due to the level of destruction, Rome for the most part had abandoned the city of Philadelphia and its citizens.
One indication of this is that they quit requiring the city to pay tribute, which meant they weren’t seen as a productive city in the eyes of the Empire.
Not only that, but in order to further down grade the status of the city, the Roman Emperor Domitian tore out all the vineyards, which was the financial backbone of the economy in Philadelphia.
It would be like Marysville losing Landoll, GP, and the Railroad all at once.
It would be devastating to our economy.
So as you can imagine, this left the city of Philadelphia with a little bit of a bitterness towards the Emperor.
And so add that all together and living as a Christian in Philadelphia would have been different than living as a Christian in Ephesus or one of the other prominent Roman cities.
Because in Philadelphia you were kind of off the radar.
Now, did that mean the Christians in Philadelphia didn’t face persecution?
Of course not.
Christians will always face persecution.
But what’s interesting is that the persecution they were facing wasn’t necessarily coming from the Greek world as much as it was the Jewish world.
Because like all Roman cities, Philadelphia had a Jewish population and a Jewish Synagogue where Jews would come to worship.
And its from this group that the Christians in Philadelphia were facing their greatest challenge.
How do we know that?
We know that based on what Jesus is about to say to this church.
And so to help us get a better understanding of what was going on, let’s jump into our passage as Jesus addresses this church.
Beginning in verse 7 Jesus says this:
In this opening statement Jesus begins to identify the challenge that the Christians in Philadelphia are facing, and He does it by the way He introduces Himself to this church.
Let me show you what I’m talking about.
Notice first that Jesus says He is the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David...
So, what does that mean?
It means that as Jesus comes to this church, He begins by clarifying that He is a Deity.
But He’s not just any Deity, He’s the holy one, which is a direct reference to the God of the Bible, to Yahweh Himself.
Why is this important?
It’s important because it identifies Jesus not only as the God of the Bible, but of the God of the Jewish nation.
The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.
The God of Judaism so to speak.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there.
Because He says He’s not only the Holy One, He’s the true one as well.
So, what does that mean?
The idea of “true” here implies that not only is Jesus the God of the Bible, but He’s the true Messiah.
The promised Messiah that the people of Israel had been waiting for.
But unfortunately the Jews had rejected Jesus as not only being God, but they had rejected Him as the promised Messiah.
How do we know the rejected Him?
We know because instead of putting their hope in Him, they nailed Him to a cross.
This leads us to a final detail I want you to notice, because not only does Jesus say He’s the Holy and the true Messiah, Jesus says He’s the one who has the key of David.
So, what’s the key of David?
The key of David is meant to point us back to Revelation 1:18 and John’s physical description of the resurrected Jesus.
And so to refresh our memory, let’s jump back to Revelation 1:18 where we are given the imagery of the resurrected Jesus.
John writes:
In this description Jesus declares that He’s the one who holds the keys of death and hades.
If you recall, what that means is that Jesus is the one who has authority over salvation and judgment.
That Jesus is the one who judges and saves mankind.
But apparently Jesus as another key, and it’s called the key of David.
So, imagine if you will a key ring, and on this key ring are the keys of death and Hades, along with another key, the key of David.
So, a great question would be, “What does this key do?”
The Key of David is a key that works in unison with the keys of death and hades.
Because not only does Jesus have authority over salvation and judgment, but Jesus is the gate keeper.
In other words, He is the one who gets to decide who comes in to His Kingdom and who does not.
Why does Jesus have that authority?
He has it because He’s the fulfillment of the promise that God made to David.
That through the seed of David would come the Messiah whose throne would be established forever.
We read about this promise in 2 Samuel 7 where the prophet says to David:
In this passage the prophet is declaring to David that through His offspring the promised Messiah will come.
And so what Jesus is declaring here is that He is that promised one.
The one whose throne is established forever.
That He is King Jesus.
And that as King, He has the key to the Kingdom.
And that He’s the one who gets to decide who comes into His Kingdom.
So, why this introduction?
Why is it so important that the church in Philadelphia be reminded that Jesus is the God of Israel.
That Jesus is the True Messiah.
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