If I could go ahead and ruin the punch line to this sermon, it's really my great hope and prayer for you guys this morning that you and I would actually believe the words that we just sang. Because when darkness closes in on us, when tribulation or distress comes, it's really easy for us to question what God is doing or where God is. But rest assured, our God knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. Right? In every single way, in every single action, our god is good.
Speaker 1:He will prove himself faithful. He's never gonna let us down. I love the way that Psalm 25 puts it. Says that all the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness. Not some, not even most, but literally every single thing that the Lord does is in perfect love.
Speaker 1:Man, what comfort. I want you to bear those truths in mind as we turn our attention to God's word and look at the letter to the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3. And listen closely, for these are God's own words. 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, I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.
Speaker 1:I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 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. 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. I am coming soon.
Speaker 1:Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. 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 in my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would make us a people who are not surprised when fiery ordeals come on us to test us as though something strange were happening to us. I pray that you would make us a people who paradoxically rejoice in our sufferings, not for suffering's sake, but because we know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And no one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. So, lord, this morning, I pray that you would lead us to a place where we place all of our hope in you, And that you would teach us according to your word because these people gathered here, they don't need to hear from a mere man, but from the very God who made them and loves them.
Speaker 1:So speak we pray. In Christ's name. Amen. If you guys were here last week, you heard Thomas Ritchie preach on the letter to the church in Sardis. Outwardly, Sardis seemed to be a really strong church.
Speaker 1:Right? They had everything going for them, but man looks at the outward appearance while god looks at the heart. And when God looked at the heart of the church of Sardis, what he saw was dead. And so they received his harshest rebuke. The letter in Philadelphia, it's meant to stand in sharp contrast to the letter in the church at Sardis.
Speaker 1:It was a church that had but little power. A church that is fighting for its life in the midst of great suffering and persecution. And yet in spite of everything, they have kept God's word and they have not denied his name. While Sardis had absolutely everything except for Jesus, the Philadelphians had nothing but Jesus. And Jesus, therefore, has nothing but words of condimate, commendation and encouragement for them.
Speaker 1:Did you notice that? That means that we ought to pay very close attention to what Jesus says here, to figure out why Jesus commended them, to see how we can be a church like this Philadelphian church. So why does Jesus commend this church? I think the key is found in verse 10, so look with me. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance.
Speaker 1:As the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, and this is just a little tidbit of information for you guys, Nietzsche is also the name of my 2 year old stuffed zebra because I'm a cruel father. Nietzsche famously wrote, he who has a why to live can bear with almost any how. He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how. And today, I wanna look at 3 things to help give us a why to bear with almost any how that we too might keep god's word about patient endurance. So first, the certainty of adversity.
Speaker 1:2nd, our certain hope in adversity. And 3rd, how to get it. So first, the certainty of adversity. It seems that many of these Philadelphian believers, they had been a part of the synagogue. But now that they were proclaiming that Jesus was in fact a long awaited for promised Jewish messiah, they had been kicked out, and the door had been shut on them.
Speaker 1:Now imagine, these Christians thought that their eyes had been opened to the most wonderful, beautiful truth imaginable. That God himself had become a man and come to rescue them. That their sins could be forgiven by the blood of his son. And yet when they started to tell other people about their new found faith, they found that every door that had previously been opened to them was now closed as those with whom they previously worshiped alongside, fellowship with, and presumably had done most of their lives with, now we're turning their backs on them. These believers were quickly and utterly disconnected from their previous lives.
Speaker 1:From their friends and families that they had known and loved. Following Jesus had made these Philadelphian believers strangers in a very strange land. Now just a brief word on this synagogue of Satan here because I really don't want you to get hung up on it. Later, I encourage you to go look up John 839 to 44 or Romans 2 or Galatians 6. And you'll see that throughout the new testament, the true Israel, the true people of God is no longer this group of people who are ethnically Jews.
Speaker 1:Right? But it's the people that look to Jesus as the fulfillment of everything that the old testament promised. And anyone who looks at Jesus, his works, his teachings, and his life and says, God is not in this. This is not good. Is in fact against Jesus.
Speaker 1:And the synagogue of Philadelphia was most certainly against Jesus. And why were they against Jesus? Because the gospel itself is inherently divisive. Right? Because Jesus' claims, when you take them at face value, are pretty outrageous and offensive.
Speaker 1:I mean, let's just take a look back at verse 7 to see how Jesus identifies himself here in this passage. Here he's called the holy one, The true one. What does it mean to call Jesus the holy one? Well, God's holiness, it's his absolute perfection. Right?
Speaker 1:In a very real sense, this is his godness. It's what utterly separates him from man. I mean, remember Isaiah 6. There's these angels flying around the throne. They're covering their eyes.
Speaker 1:They're covering their feet. And presumably, they could have praised God for any of his attributes, for his great love, for his mercy, for his justice. But instead, what they praise God for is his absolutely infinite and unapproachable holiness. Therefore, to call Jesus the holy one is to imply that this man, who grew up in a family just like we did, who had to deal with those family members just like we do, who got hungry like we do, who had to sleep like we do, was not only morally perfect in absolutely every one of his actions, but that he was on equal standing with this unapproachably holy God. When we really get that, we start to see how offensive declaring that Jesus is the holy one really is.
Speaker 1:This is a message that is offensive to everyone. And since Jesus is equated with a holy one whose eyes, Habakkuk tells us, are too pure to look upon evil, his message, this divisive gospel says, if you wanna be acceptable before God, you have to be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. And I don't think I'm probably gonna be the one to break this news to you, but that means not you and not me. What the bible tells us is that because god is so holy and we are so broken, we cannot hope to clean our lives up well enough to suddenly become acceptable before God. No.
Speaker 1:Our sinfulness means that we deserve to be condemned. This is a message that is offensive to everyone everywhere. But not only is Jesus the holy one, he is the true one. And here Jesus isn't simply claiming to know the truth or to point to the truth, but to actually be the source and the fountain of all truth. And while other religious leaders and teachers throughout the history of the world might have pointed to a truth or claimed to know the truth, what Jesus is saying here is absolutely different.
Speaker 1:It's categorically different. He's not pointing to a path and saying follow it. He's pointing to himself, Which if not true, is unbelievably arrogant. Right? And as he said in John 14, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and no one comes to the father except through me.
Speaker 1:In saying that he is the true one, Jesus is saying that that you cannot understand truth. You cannot know God. You cannot know what mankind is for. You cannot know your purpose in life or how to find peace apart from relationship with him. When the gospel ceases to be offensive like this, as it ceased to be offensive in Sardis, it ceases to be the gospel.
Speaker 1:If we would be people who would not deny his name by proclaiming that God is holy, that we are condemned sinners, and that Jesus is the truth, we are going to offend and we're going to be misunderstood. This means we have all the more reason to work faithfully against injustice, to give generously, to love and serve our neighbors so that a world that loathes our narrow mindedness doesn't have an answer for our loving actions. And if people aren't confused by us, we need to search our hearts and see where we're not living in line of the gospel. Where do we need to be more bold in telling other people about who Jesus really is? Where do we need to more faithfully serve our neighbors and our city?
Speaker 1:If we hold to these exclusive claims of Christ, we can be certain of adversity. As Jesus said in John 1633, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. And then he immediately goes on to remind them to take heart. But how do we take heart in the midst of certain adversity?
Speaker 1:We take heart because of our certain hope in adversity. Because Jesus being the true one doesn't simply mean that he's the source of all truth. Right? But that he is utterly trustworthy. Listen to these words from numbers 23.
Speaker 1:God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? So this means that when God makes a promise, these aren't words of a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a politician or an employee or a salesman. Right?
Speaker 1:These are the words of the one who threw out all the stars and calls them out by name and who actually knows the number of the hairs on your head. He's trustworthy because there's literally nothing he doesn't know. And there's literally nothing he can't do. And he will never ever change. Not only that, but verse 7 reminds us that Jesus has the key of David.
Speaker 1:Now this key of David, it's an allusion to Isaiah 2222 where a man named Eliakim, he's raised up to serve as the gatekeeper for the king. And this is what verse 22 says. 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. What Isaiah 22 is saying here is that Elohim and Elohim alone decided who could enter the king's presence, who had access to the throne of Israel.
Speaker 1:So this key was a symbol of access and authority and power. But when Jesus here is saying that he has the key of David, he's not simply saying that he has the rights over Israel. Right? He's reminding the Philadelphians that he is absolutely sovereign over absolutely everything. There's nothing that is beyond his control including the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:That Jesus and Jesus alone decides who gets to enter the kingdom of God and who may approach the throne of that sovereign God and find it a throne of grace. What kind words these must have been to these Philadelphian believers who had seen the door of the synagogue shut in their faces because of their beliefs. And here, they're reminded that Jesus has opened a door and literally nothing and no one can shut it. Jesus is promising that they would be forever welcomed into God's own house. In Romans 8, we believers here, we're reminded that we may face tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, But neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ.
Speaker 1:Nothing and no one will be able to shut the door on us Because Jesus alone holds the keys. So let us take great comfort in that. Let us take heart. But the problem, as you guys know, is that when tribulation or distress or persecution comes, most of us have trouble remembering these things or believing Jesus' promises. Though we may know that God loves us, though we may know that he is trustworthy, What many of us actually believe in those moments is if I am on God's team, if we're a part of God's team, then he'll take care of us.
Speaker 1:In other words, basically, that he's gonna let our plan succeed. He's gonna make our diseases be healed. He's gonna keep our relationships intact. He's gonna keep us happy and keep our loved ones safe. But when trial and persecutions come and those things don't happen, we can start to wonder whether God could have a good reason for letting these things happen at all.
Speaker 1:Or in especially dark moments, whether God is there at all. Right? And in those moments, we're especially prone to believe the same lie that was whispered into the ear of Eve in the garden. God doesn't love you. God isn't for you.
Speaker 1:You cannot trust him. You better find another door. And many of us, if we're honest with ourselves, when we start to really reflect on our lives, when we think about the cancer that maybe ravaged somebody in our family, when we think about divorce, when we think about terrible tragedies or failed business endeavors, how we've been grievously sinned against our uncertain futures or finances, maybe unrelenting loneliness. We can start to subtly, maybe even subconsciously think, you know what? God really hasn't been good.
Speaker 1:If he's there at all, it feels like he shut the door on me. And even if we know better, we can start to think that if God really loved me, then he would. And in those moments, our hearts are fully exposed. Because whatever follows the then he would is what our hearts are really after. Right?
Speaker 1:It's the thing that we really love. It's the thing that we are really worshiping God to get. It's the deepest love of our hearts. And when these things that we're after are suddenly in danger of being lost, it becomes easier and easier for us to compromise. It becomes easier for us to shut our mouths because we're afraid of what might come back against us.
Speaker 1:It becomes easier for us to make compromises in relationships because we're tired of being alone or scared of being alone. We can hide sin from our spouses or from other people because we're afraid of what will happen if we expose it. We can keep a mercilessly tight fist on our finances. We can manipulate other people to get ahead. We can cheat on tests or papers to ensure our future success.
Speaker 1:We can try to insulate our kids from danger or failure. You see, when we no longer trust that Jesus is the holy one and the true one, we will inevitably try to grab the keys from his hand, and we'll try to prop the door open ourselves so that we can run through it and chase after the things our heart truly loves. Because we're no longer sure that he loves us. But what is love? Love is an unrelenting commitment to someone else's ultimate good.
Speaker 1:Sometimes alongside our desires and sometimes totally in spite of them. And because God loves us, in his wisdom, he will do whatever he has to do to get our hearts. This means that nothing that happens to you or me is ever random or meaningless, but everything is specifically designed to make us more like Jesus and to increase our capacity to have more of him. Suffering is always meant to bring us to the place where we can say like Paul, I count all things lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. Everything else is rubbish.
Speaker 1:And to those who finally reach that place, to those who in persecution and distress hold fast to Jesus, who keep God's word about patient endurance, beautiful things are promised. I mean, look back at verse 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 in my own new name.
Speaker 1:Can you just imagine for a second how comforting these words must have been to the Philadelphian believers? Those who were weak were told that they would become immovable, unshakable pillars. Those who had been barred from the synagogue were told that they wouldn't only be welcome in God's future temple, They would be foundational to it. It would be impossible for them to leave. They would be inscribed with God's own name inscribed with the name of the city of that god, signifying that they belong there.
Speaker 1:They belong to God and no one can tell them otherwise. They are his, and it will be impossible for them and all of us who patiently endure to ever be outside of god's presence again. For all those whose hope is in Christ, god himself will be our eternal home, and we will hear him declare before the world his great love for us. And we will never again be able to doubt it. Isn't that beautiful?
Speaker 1:Aren't all things lost compared to that? And if that's true, then how do we get there? How do we endure? In the present, we remember the past as we look to the future. You see this word patient endurance, it comes from the Greek word houppimeno.
Speaker 1:It's the very same word that's describing Jesus in Hebrews 12. Listen closely to these beautiful words. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. 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, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Speaker 1:So how do we endure? We remember the cross. We consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. We remember that he was betrayed by a very dear friend and he was abandoned by all the rest. We remember that he was beaten, that he was whipped, that he was scorned, that he suffered a gross miscarriage of justice, that they nailed nails into his hands and into his feet, and thorns went into his brow, that he was hung up on a cross to suffocate between thieves, and that he drank the very wrath of God all the way down to its dregs.
Speaker 1:So how can you and I not grow weary or fainthearted? First and foremost, we remember that Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. You see, he who has a why can bear with almost any how. And Jesus' why, the joy set before him was you and me. As crazy as that sounds, He said that He would have us, we would be His treasured possession no matter what He had to go through to have us.
Speaker 1:Though we are like sheep have gone astray, though we chased after the love of our own hearts, Jesus, this good shepherd, he laid down his life for His sheep, the love of His heart. He lived the life that we couldn't live and He died the death that we deserve to die so that we who were locked out rebels, we could enter by Jesus who not only holds the keys, but through whom by his death has actually become our door into the kingdom of god so that we could be welcomed into his father's house as his own sons and daughters. If we can really fix our eyes on Christ in the midst of our suffering, we can truly begin to say, if you endured that for me and if all that good came out of the horror of your crucifixion, then I know that you love me. I know that you are trustworthy. But the cross not only enables us to look the past and our present with hope and enables us to look to the future because we can rest assure that our victory has been won, that our future is absolutely secure.
Speaker 1:Revelation paints us this picture of the end, right, where Jesus comes back, and he wipes away every single tear from every eye. He says that all suffering will cease, all sin will cease, all sickness will be done away with, And the lame will run like a deer and the blind will see. And we will see Him as He is and we will know Him even as we are known. And in the meantime, we live our lives on a tape delay. It's like we already know the final score of the game.
Speaker 1:We may not know exactly how our team's gonna come through or all the plays that are gonna be run. We know our team wins. And in the finale of history, Jesus reigns. And every believer will hear Jesus say, I love you. And now we rest in the promise that Jesus says, I am coming soon.
Speaker 1:And so we, the church, say amen. Come quickly, lord Jesus. Let us pray. Jesus, I pray that you would remind us that where we are suffering, where there is injustice, or persecution, or brokenness, you are there. Even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will be with us.
Speaker 1:And we don't have to fear any evil because your rod and your staff, they will comfort us. And surely goodness and mercy will be with us, will chase us down all the days of our lives. Lord, let us take heart that a day is coming where there will be no more suffering or sorrow or persecution or nakedness or danger or sword because you or yourself will come to set every wrong thing right. And we will know how greatly you've loved us. But until then, lord, I pray that you would give us your grace to sustain us as we endure and help us remember how you endured for us.
Speaker 1:Let us take heart in the promise that you say, surely, I'm coming soon. But in the meantime, help us to patiently endure. Because our hope is in the holy one, the true one, the one who holds the keys. The only saving name of Jesus. Amen.