Message Notes on the Letter to Philadelphia. Revelation 3:7-13
Revelation, Sermon Nine - Letter to Philadelphia: Rev 3:7-13 - Church of the Open Door
Historical Notes - Philadelphia
Earthquakes - Beautiful city but built right next to an active Volcano. Frequent earthquakes, and the population frequently packed up and fled, returning when the rumbling stopped.
New Name - In AD 17, it was destroyed by an earthquake, but generously rebuilt by Tiberius, so the city fathers renamed it Neoceasarea (New Caesar). The new name didn’t stick in common usage, but it was the new city with a new name.
Temple Pillars - “Little Athens” (So many temples). When a citizen offered exemplary service or sacrifice, his name was engraved on a temple pillar as a memorial.
Biblical Notes
Whole world - In the Bible, used to designate the empire (Luke 2:1; Acts 11:28). More widely - Rev. 12:9 and 16:14 show that it extends to the entire planet and all human governments. A localized persecution, but it foreshadows times of tribulation and trouble
Those who dwell upon the earth - always used of unbelievers in Revelation: see 6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 13:8,12,14; 14:6; 17:2,8.
Kept from the trial - not spared persecution, but they are kept from being swept up in the enemy’s strategy to destroy their souls and witness. Daniel 12:1, 10. Note John 16:33; 17:15
I am coming soon - flow of history: The coming of Christ in judgment on Jerusalem and in his Church foreshadow
New Jerusalem - flow of Revelation from church under pressure to church filled with glory
1. The Key of Jesus - 3:7
The Key and 1:18/Isaiah 22
2. The Door of Jesus - 3:8-11
Gospel Welcome
Into the Kingdom of Heaven
Gospel Witness
Little Power but Huge Opportunity
Joseph's brothers come to him
God has set a great open door before the church. What will we do with it? 1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3).
David Nicholas - “SRC is a church that saw the need and refused to do nothing.”
That legacy has to remain our commitment and become our destiny.
CP Summit - Multiplication
Christian Education
Seminary Training and Ministry Equipping
Renewing and Extending the Campus
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin tried to sell Google to Excite CEO George Bell for a mere $750,000 in 1999. The latter rejected the offer. Google has a current market cap of 4.2 trillion.
In 2000, Netflix offered Blockbuster the chance to buy the business for $50m. In an estimate he’s sure regretted since, CEO John Antioco claimed that he saw Netflix and the entire concept of DVD-by-mail as more of a “niche business” that wouldn’t grow into anything as profitable as what he was doing.
In a garage in 1976, a group of guys started a computer company that would change the world. You've probably heard of the two Steves involved: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. However, there was a third founder of Apple (AAPL) who wrote the first partnership agreement, wrote the manual for the Apple I and even drew the first Apple logo. That man was Ronald Wayne.
You probably never heard of Wayne because, less than two weeks after founding Apple and receiving a 10% stake in the company, he sold his Apple stock for $800. (He reportedly got another check later for $1,500 to forfeit any claims he had against the company going forward.) Today, his stock would be worth more than $55 billion.
Decca Records owner Dick Rowe had the opportunity to sign the band he declined, claiming “guitar groups are on their way out.” Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison were later signed by EMI Records and subsequently went on to sell 178 million records. We’re sure that there were many twists and shouts as well as a few hard days’ nights at the Decca head office at the height of Beatlemania.
We want heaven to be SRO and we will do whatever it takes to get the gospel to everyone we know, everywhere we go, and plant new churches that proclaim the gospel of Jesus in all nations until Christ comes again.
3. The City of Jesus 3:12-13
The pillars we become are in union with the pillar that is the person of the Spirit (Fiery pillar in the wilderness)
The heavenly city comes down - The true New City isn’t built by Tiberius, and it will never be shaken. Never have to flee. We dwell securely in the New City of God
The open door is a narrow gate. There’s only one door and only one way through it. It's so narrow that to squeeze through it can only be done one way - by faith. Faith in the Door. Jesus not only opens the Door, he IS the Door (John 10). The greatest open door, the single greatest opportunity before every human being, has absolutely nothing to do with market caps, mergers and acquisitions, or signing the next Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, or Coldplay.
The opportunity, the open door to God’s kingdom, is set before you. Will you enter? Will you come to Christ?
Like the door to Noah’s ark, it will not always remain open. One day it will close. Come into the City of God by faith in Christ. Dwell securely in the heavenly city.