The Church in Philadelphia

7“To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things: 8“I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn’t deny my name. 9Behold, I give some of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. 10Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown. 12He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. 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 own new name. 13He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

For believers, the world is full of temptation and full of persecution, a hard place in which to keep their faith. But for believers who hope for the kingdom of God, understand the word of truth and keep their faith, it is also a very good training ground where they can grow spiritually.

It is a problem when a comfortable life shakes believers’ faith, but people’s persecution of that faith is also a threat to keeping it. When a believer resolves to live by the word, Satan knows that resolve too and goes to work. Satan’s aim is for believers to leave God and fall into hell. If he uses circumstances and people as his tools and persecutes believers so that they cannot live their life of faith, believers may collapse under his many kinds of attack. Satan likes to make believers afraid. If they are afraid of losing their property, afraid their children will fall behind other children, afraid their worldly problems will never be solved, believers will in the end come to doubt God’s protection.

When believers do not fully understand God’s will and take up a faith that is only after blessings, they try to solve the problems of the world through God. If they come to think the way idol worshipers think, they will grumble against God for not solving their problems quickly, and they will go looking for human ways out.

But you must know what Satan is. He is a created being, an evil spirit who coveted the Creator’s place, rebelled against God and was driven out into darkness. Driven from God’s side, Satan has only one way to take revenge on God: dragging people into darkness. Satan can neither stand against God directly nor defeat him. That is why he corrupts people, to get in the way of God’s plan.

God knows all of Satan’s plans. So if you only strive to keep your faith, God will stop Satan from tormenting you. The Jesus Christ you believe in is the Almighty, who holds the key of David. He is the one of absolute authority, who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens. No one at all can stop what Jesus Christ does. Only when you believe this will you be able to live more strongly and boldly.

Satan may attack in many ways, but believers who trust that God rules over Satan do not have to take him on themselves. If they simply rely on God by faith, God will work, and he will help them win with the help of the Holy Spirit. But if believers who live relying on the Almighty like this give in to the world and give in to money, then when the whole world undergoes its great testing, they will perish along with it. To people who love the world, the words that we must cast the world out of our hearts may sound narrow and selfish.

But the world is like the waves that could not overturn the ark. That is why we must board the ark of Jesus Christ; only then can we be saved.

Matthew 16:18-19

18I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”

Jesus told Peter that he would build his church on this rock, and that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. And giving Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, he gave him a great grace: whatever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven, and whatever he released on earth would be released in heaven.

Look at how things are bound and released in heaven according to what is decided by faith on earth. Then you see how important your faith is. You must hold an even more precious faith, so that God can work to build your faith up more firmly. For only when you live by faith can God help you so that Satan cannot touch you. If anyone throws away their faith and turns traitor, God can do no work at all for that person.

When Jesus said he would build his church on this rock, he did not mean he would build it on the man Peter. He meant he would build it on the confession ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And he did not promise the keys of the kingdom of heaven to the man Peter. He promised them to the church built on the confession that the Lord is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He gave people with no merit at all this grace: if only they confess their faith, he will give them the key that lets them into heaven. Look at this, and you see what astonishing power the confession of faith has. And we must not forget that even this faith was given by God.

Do you truly believe this word that Jesus promised? Do you truly believe his promise to do the same work in heaven, releasing and binding there just as things are released and bound on earth? Such a work means that your problems have become God’s problems. In other words, it is a word like a miracle: every problem you meet as you live by faith is God’s problem, so God will solve it. It is a promise that if you live with a faith that resists Satan, God will bring Satan to his knees for you.

If you believe this promise of Jesus, your face should be full of assurance, and you should be filled with joy, thanks and a sense of mission. If you hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven yet cannot speak a single word of the gospel as you watch so many people heading toward death, what use is it to hold the key that opens heaven’s door? You are meant to preach the gospel. If you cannot entrust your worldly problems to God and cannot take a single step, like someone in shackles, then holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven will mean nothing.

Revelation 3:7

7“To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:

Philadelphia is a highland city about 40 kilometers southeast of Sardis, known for growing grapes. It was the first city a traveler had to pass through to go east from Smyrna and the kingdom of Lydia, so it was also called the gateway to the East. Its farming and trade flourished and it enjoyed considerable wealth, but sadly, frequent earthquakes did it severe damage.

With its many temples and religious festivals, Philadelphia was even called little Athens in the fifth century AD. The church in Philadelphia was founded in this place, called little Athens for its many idols, but Muslims persecuted Christianity severely. Yet even in the midst of great trials, the church in Philadelphia kept its faith through the fullness of the word. It is not well known, but it is said that at that time a prophetess named Ammia led the church in Philadelphia and brought about a spiritual revival. The harder the Jews persecuted them, the more the whole congregation united as one and pressed on with one mind toward the will of God, who is holy and true.

To the church in Philadelphia, Jesus Christ introduced himself as the one who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David. By saying this, he was letting them know that he alone can open the door of the kingdom of God. With these words he was telling them that their suffering persecution for Jesus Christ was worthy of praise, and that they receive eternal life as their reward.

He said that he opens and no one can shut, and shuts and no one opens. With this he was comforting believers: Jesus rules the whole universe, so they need not fear the evil one or evil spirits. Not even Satan can hinder what Jesus does, and no one on this earth can stop it.

But the Jews, who did not fully know God’s will, claimed that they alone had inherited the kingdom of David, and they persecuted the believers in Philadelphia. Jesus Christ would have spoken these words of comfort to ease the pain of the Philadelphian believers who were suffering persecution from such Jews. He was telling them that if the Jews claimed to have inherited David’s kingdom, he was the God who held sovereignty over that kingdom, so they should not be afraid.

Jesus Christ has put all things in subjection under his feet and has become the head of the church. The believers of the church in Philadelphia knew the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and they held the faith that salvation is by faith alone. The Holy Spirit protected such believers, and so they were well able to overcome the persecution of the Jews.

Isaiah 22:15-22

15Thus says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, 16‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” 17Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. 18He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your lord’s house. 19I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station. 20It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.

The words about the key quote Isaiah 22. Shebna, the treasurer, was a Gentile who had charge of the treasury of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Though he was a Gentile, Shebna had won Hezekiah’s trust, yet he was not truly thankful, and he tried to use the power he now enjoyed. He made himself a lavish tomb, and Isaiah rebuked him for it. With empty ambition Shebna lavishly made his own tomb in the highest place among the tombs of David’s descendants, and because of that, God’s wrath came on him.

We too, though we are Gentiles, have received God’s grace. If we forget to be thankful that he gave us the gospel and live as we please, God will be greatly angry. God rebuked Hezekiah, telling him that this fact alone should make him deeply ashamed: he had not judged people rightly and had put such a Gentile in office. Shebna, who chased his own advancement, met great disaster in the end. Because he was not thankful when he should have been, everything he had was taken from him.

Shebna’s office passed to Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. God calls Eliakim his servant, and that shows how faithful Eliakim was in his faith. God gave Eliakim authority, made him a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, and entrusted to him the most important thing, the key of David’s house. And God said that when Eliakim opened, no one would shut, and when he shut, no one would open.

Israel knew that Eliakim had held God’s absolute authority. That is why Jesus Christ likened himself to Eliakim. If Jesus Christ, who holds such absolute authority, is helping the church in Philadelphia, there would be no need for them to fear Satan’s attacks or the persecution of the Jews. Thankfully, the believers of the church in Philadelphia were full of love for Jesus, so they never betrayed him, right to the end.

Revelation 3:8

8“I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn’t deny my name.

With the words ‘you have a little power,’ he meant that the believers in Philadelphia had hardly any of the world’s power. Though they lived in a region with many wealthy people, their circumstances were very hard in the outward, visible things, such as social standing, position and money. Believers in today’s churches, when they lack money in the world or are low in position or standing, resent God and are ashamed. They think they are having difficulties because God has not blessed them, and so they cannot even live their life of faith properly.

But if Jesus holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven, then you must believe that the one you will meet at the end is Jesus Christ, and live with confidence. If you endure in faith, then however much Satan hinders your life of faith, Jesus Christ will protect you and save you.

You must never forget what the purpose of your faith is. Of course, life is hard and painful without money. But if heaven is where you must finally go, you must not make the foolish choice of betraying Jesus Christ for money, position, power or honor. Even under persecution, the members of the church in Philadelphia kept their faith and lived out the word.

Sadly, the Jews, chosen by God, judged wrongly, and so they kept the law only as outward deeds. They did not realize that the law exposes sin and that in the end they had to believe in the Messiah who would atone for that sin, and they killed Jesus. And now they were persecuting the believers who believed in Christ. The Jews show us how frightening it is to have no spiritual understanding. Because they denied that Jesus was the Messiah, they worshiped Satan without any sense of guilt, and so they even received the rebuke of being called the synagogue of Satan. With all their power and wealth, they took it for granted that they could persecute the believers in Philadelphia. It is not hard to imagine how much the believers suffered under the persecution of those who held the vain, empty strength and power of the world.

Yet even under persecution those believers never abandoned the word, and they did not deny the name of Jesus Christ. With death before their eyes, they did not betray Jesus Christ to the very end. That is a truly precious faith.

God is showing us the church in Philadelphia now because he is asking us, too, to live as this church did. Look at the way the world is going, and it may be that before long a day will come when the church and believers are persecuted. Those who would do it are deceiving people with false doctrines that twist the Bible, and they are preparing to use the world’s power to attack believers who live for the truth.

Just as the Holy Spirit leads you, Satan too gives the power of darkness to those who follow him and helps them hinder God’s work. But the Lord has promised that if you keep your faith through the word of truth as the church in Philadelphia did, he will give you a way of escape on the last day, when the world is judged. So hold a right faith for the day of salvation.

Revelation 3:12

12He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. 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 own new name.

Among his words of blessing to the church in Philadelphia, Jesus said that whoever endures in order to keep the word would not be snatched away by Satan, and would receive the blessing of becoming a pillar in the temple. Even if the temple falls, the pillar will never be pulled up. So this was the grace of his promise to protect them whatever happens. And he comforted them with the word that he would make some of the Jews come to the believers and bow before them. With this word he meant that he would show them a miracle: some of the Jews, moved by the faith of the Philadelphian believers who kept their faith to the end, would accept the gospel and come back. If Jews who had persecuted them repented and came back, the believers would be able to take heart all the more.

For example, before he received Christ the apostle Paul persecuted Christians, so believers were quite afraid of him. Even though Barnabas took Paul around with him and told them that Paul had received the Lord, the Christians doubted Paul and were afraid to meet him. But when they learned that his conversion was real, they rejoiced greatly and were comforted.

In light of events like this, some of the Jews who persecuted the believers of the church in Philadelphia were bound to turn and come back. As they watched the Philadelphian believers go on hoping for the eternal world even while they were persecuted, these Jews would have wondered who Christ was. This is how we must preach Christ: with our lives. Our duty as believers is to show a holy faith, so that those who persecute us may submit to the gospel of their own accord, as the Jews who repented did. And when Jews repent, it becomes evidence that Jesus Christ is working according to the faith of believers.

For poor people like the believers of the church in Philadelphia, preaching the gospel to the rich is very hard. Preaching the gospel to one’s master at the workplace where one must work to feed one’s family may be the most dangerous thing of all. But believers who hoped for the kingdom of God and believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah would have preached the gospel even knowing they would suffer for it. They endured, they did not fear death, they accepted persecution as a matter of course, and they kept their faith. To believers who kept their faith like this, God promised that he would keep them and keep them from the hour of testing. It was a promise that if the believers of the church in Philadelphia kept their faith with their very lives, God would protect them from his wrath and judgment at the Second Coming at the end. Look at this, and you see that faith leads straight to salvation.

Just living in that place, with its many pagan temples and religious festivals, was painful, and they had to endure the persecution of Muslims as well. How hard it must have been! But they were faithful to death in order to live by the word, and so Jesus commended them: with a little power they had kept his word and had not denied his name. Believers who are faithful like this will be clothed with the grace of Christ at the end time, and they will meet the Lord in the air as he calls their names.

Jesus said that he was coming quickly, and that they should hold firmly what they had, so that no one would take their crown. In the midst of ongoing poverty and persecution for their faith, they were to hold firmly what they had, that is, their faith in Jesus Christ. The faith they had is the blessing of being able to live as God’s people on this earth, and the channel of the blessing of receiving a crown from God one day.

For example, if a runner has not yet crossed the finish line but has been in the lead the whole way, the spectators already know that the runner will get the gold medal. In the same way, a faith that God approves is as good as having already received the crown of life.

Jesus Christ said that on the one who overcomes he would write the name of God, the name of the new Jerusalem and his own name.

Suppose you have endured all your life to keep your faith, and on the last day Jesus Christ gives you his own name, the name of God and the name of the new Jerusalem. How happy you would be! To receive the name of God means that all suffering is now over. It is a promise that there is no more need to fear, no more need to hurt, and no more attack from Satan. All that remains is to be clothed in God’s glory and to enjoy peace and rest in the eternal place where there is no darkness, no pain, no suffering, no poverty and no fear.

And Jesus promised the highest blessing: he would make the one who overcomes a pillar in the temple of God. Philadelphia had frequent earthquakes that left its buildings in ruins, and at such times the only things left standing were the stone pillars of the temples. The believers of the church in Philadelphia had seen this, and by promising to make them pillars in the temple of God, Jesus let them realize for themselves how great a blessing it is to keep the faith. This is how much God loves the faith of believers. That is why he has given them names that never change: the name of believer and the name of child of God.

Today this world has no fewer heresies, false pastors and false Christians than Philadelphia did. Even so, among them there are churches and Christians fighting Satan with all they have in order to live by faith, like the church in Philadelphia. There are people who persecute Christians who live by the word of truth, and there are heretics who have corrupted the truth. False teachers who have not understood God’s will and providence at all are standing in the way of people’s salvation in the church and defiling God’s name. That is why you must know the truth rightly and live by the word, as the church in Philadelphia did.

God told Joshua again and again to be strong and courageous. In the same way, when believers are strong and courageous in faith, those who preach a false gospel will not be able to take root in the church. When believers guard the church with the word of truth, God will make them pillars and give them his holy name.

We must overcome the power of Satan. We must overcome the persecution of the world’s rulers who block the truth. We must boldly preach the gospel to people headed for hell, so that they can come back to the shining kingdom of heaven. That is the way to repay the love we now receive from God and to give thanks for Jesus’ sacrifice.

When believers keep the faith God has given them, they will receive the name of God, the name of the new Jerusalem and the new name of Christ. Only those who receive the name can know it, and that is itself the blessing of salvation. For only believers who have been saved can recognize that name. Every church and every believer must imitate the faith of the Philadelphian believers who received such grace.

Just as the church in Philadelphia knew how good God’s love and his eternal kingdom are, may you love God alone, even if you have only a little power. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.