Revelation 3:7-13 The Church on Mission

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan.

Neediness, Connection, and Church Announcements

Good morning. Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here. I hope that you've arrived here this morning because you actually need something. To be quite honest, if you don't need something from the church, then you probably don't need to be here.

I mean, it's one of those things that we all are needy, and that's part of the reason and the purpose that God has given us the church and given us to each other. Right, dude? So, that's part of the whole reason that we're here.

And the honest person is going to acknowledge that they're needy. Now, some of us were raised in a church where it's unspiritual to say, I came for something. You're supposed to write, answer is, I came to church to give something or whatever.

And I'm actually here as your pastor saying, come needy. Come needy and recognizing that you have a need for connection with others. Come needy, recognizing that you need a connection with God to start off your week.

And so, I want to encourage you in that direction, remembering that the church is a hospital for hurting people who don't have it all together. So, welcome to the beautiful mess called Recast Church this morning.

That's what we are. But I'm glad that you're here and we are all connecting together to Jesus Christ, and that's the purpose of our gathering. So, be sure to fill out the connection card that you received when you walked in.

You can turn that in in the black box that's out on the welcome table on your way out. Any offerings you choose to give, go also in that same black box. There's an envelope provided. You can recycle that if you're not going to use that this morning.

But that's available for you out there as well. And then, if it's your first time with us, stop by and see Haley for a gift, just our way of saying thanks and glad that you're here. And so, take advantage of that and go out there and check that out.

And any offerings that are marked expansion fund go towards our goal of flying this coop and heading to our own facility. And so, our goal is to eventually build a building. I think most all of you probably know that we've already purchased property.

We own it free and clear. We own 12 acres out on East McGillan. And the goal is that we would eventually be able to build a building on that property. And so, we are churning towards that. We are in a position right now, just to clarify on that, we have had banks willing to say that they would loan us money, basically right around the point where we're at savings-wise, just give or take a little bit.

And so, but we're still in that process of kind of thinking through and figuring out what it is that we actually want to build, and then bringing before you as the congregation your thoughts about that.

And so, we're probably in the next month or two going to be forming a building committee and working through that. And if that's something you're interested in, you can come and see me or one of the elders and let us know that you'd be interested in being a part of that process of figuring out the building and working forward from there.

Christ’s Audit of the Seven Churches and the Church of Philadelphia

So this morning, we're going to be back in the book of Revelation, which is really, we're looking at the sixth of seven churches that are getting a direct audit from Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is writing to those churches through John, real literal churches that met together in various places, probably met in some homes and some different things in the different cities.

But all of them, each from a different city, and he's going to identify to them a variety of different things as we've been seeing. And so, this is the sixth of seven. Next week is going to be the last one.

And then, I just want to be clear that I'm going to be out for a few weeks. The elders have graciously offered to give me a sabbatical for the month of November. And so, I'm going to be out for the month of November, and we're going to be bringing in other speakers, and it's going to be good, so I'd encourage you to hang in there and keep coming and listening in.

Zach Lloyd is going to be preaching. My friend and missionary from Turkey, Dale Kurdi, is going to be preaching a few of those. And so, we're going to have a variety of different speakers coming in. And so, take advantage of that.

And I want to just point out that the word sabbatical, kind of a confusing thing. I mean, maybe some of you have that, or you have some notion of that. But what they're doing is they're giving me a time to kind of just for myself to be able to reconnect with God.

And it's not, fortunately, it's not disciplinary or anything like that. But it's just a time of refreshment for me, an opportunity for me to connect with him. Not necessarily a time for me to sit on the sofa and eat chips, but I am going to be focusing in on specific areas of study.

I'm getting my sermon scheduled together for the remainder of this year, or really the next year, and doing a variety of things. So if you could pray for me. And then also, during sabbatical, that doesn't mean that I want to be a stranger.

I won't be attending here during that month time. But if you see me at the grocery store, I don't feel like you have to run the other way or whatever. We're friends, and I would love to see you. So that's not a problem there.

But we'll be putting together a schedule for emergencies and things like that during that month so that you're aware of how that goes. But this morning, the sixth of seven churches, and he has given an assessment.

Jesus has given an assessment of a church so far in the past five that lacked love. He talked about a church that lacked love. He spoke to a church that was going through suffering. He rebuked a church that had been polluted with too much compromise.

And he addressed a church last week with one foot in the grave. So he's addressed a smattering of different styles and types and places that a church can be in its life cycle. And now we come to the Church of Philadelphia.

And Philadelphia is kind of cool because all of a sudden you start thinking Pennsylvania, and you're like, oh, I know where that is. But you don't really know where that is. It's named after this city in ancient Rome, Philadelphia.

And how many of you would have some semblance of understanding what the word Philadelphia means? The city of brotherly shove, right? That's the Pennsylvania one. The city of brotherly love is what it means.

And it's just completely a compound word in Greek that comes from the word for brotherly love, philia, and then also comes from the word city, delphos. So city of brotherly love is what Philadelphia means.

And Philadelphia is an amazing contrast to what we saw. Those of you who were here last week looking at the Church of Sardis, remember Sardis had a great reputation in their community. People in their community thought they were fabulous, and they were like, they're alive.

That is a happening church. I mean, people who didn't attend the church were talking highly about the church. Great reputation for life, great reputation for vibrancy. But Jesus told them that they were in shambles and were about to die.

So they had one foot in the grave, and they didn't have spiritual life in them, even though the culture around them loved them. But they had it wrong. Lots of activities and community aid does not equal spiritual life, according to the text last week.

But now with the Church of Philadelphia, we find that things are quite the opposite with this church. The Church of Philadelphia is identified as small and weak, and the word that's used there has the implication of little influence in its culture.

It doesn't have a lot of power in the culture around it. Not a lot of clout, not a lot of people are talking about the church in Philadelphia around their community. And Jesus, in our text this morning, says he's going to open the doors wide to their influence.

And what we see in our text this morning is a church on mission. A church on the mission of God. And what I mean by on mission is that the church in Philadelphia had right belief and right behavior that made them a useful tool in the hand of Jesus Christ.

They weren't too cool to follow Jesus. They were not loveless like Ephesus. They were not compromised like Pergamum. They were a church poised to see God open doors for them in outreach around them. And the beauty is they never even saw it coming.

It wasn't their crafty and trend-setting outreach efforts. It wasn't their charismatic and flashy preaching. It wasn't their relevant and hip worship style. It wasn't their tricked-out facility like this that opened the doors to outreach.

That wasn't it. It was their mundane faithfulness in the day-to-day to keep the word, the text tells us, and they held fast to the name of Jesus. Those two things made them useful in the hands of God.

Kept the word and held on faithfully, like held on tenaciously, like with white knuckles to the name of Jesus Christ. Wouldn't let it go. God can do amazing things through anybody who will keep his word and stick close to Jesus.

So if you would, whip out your Bibles and open them to Revelation 3, 7 through 13. Revelation 3, 7 through 13. And if you need a Bible, you can go ahead and raise your hand. A couple of the teens know what I just did and the rest of you have no clue at all.

There's a little dance thing right now. I'm not going to do the little dance thing, but it's the whip, okay? So, sorry. I'm just trying to catch you adults up to speed on what the teens are talking about these days.

So this is, okay, yeah.

And Dave. The teens and Dave.

Got it.

So there you go. But Revelation 3, 7 through 13. If you don't have a Bible on your lap or some means to navigate to an app, I mean to the Bible, then raise your hand and Mike is back here with a stack of Bibles.

He'll bring you one and just go ahead and take that home with you if you need it. We don't have, if you don't have a copy of the Word of God, we want you to have a copy. But I want you to have the Bible open on your lap to follow along.

Revelation 3, 7 through 13 to the church in Philadelphia, but actually also to Recast Church. This is something that God wants us to listen to. He wants us to hear this this morning. So listen in. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right?

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.

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.

Behold, 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 those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. 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 God out of heaven and my own new name.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray as Ben comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I thank you for the example that we see in these various churches, the example that we see here in Philadelphia of a church that is identified as lacking in power in their community.

They don't have a lot of clout and yet they are useful in your hands because they hold fast to your word and they do not deny your name. Father, I pray that we would take an understanding from these churches, take an understanding from Philadelphia and apply that in our situation and in our context to be able to identify what you desire for us as individuals.

Father, some of us walk through these doors discouraged and broken over our own sin. Father, I pray that you would provide encouragement through your cross. Father, some of us walk through these doors and felt just fine, thank you very much, and we are not just fine, but we are broken.

So Father, provide conviction where we need conviction, encouragement where we need encouragement, strength and boldness where we are lacking courage and fearful. Father, as we have an opportunity to worship you through song, another very powerful opportunity, the music has a power in our hearts and in our souls, I pray that we would be moved in our emotions, not just strictly in our heads, but our minds would indeed apprehend the things that we're singing about you and the things that we're saying, but that we'd be moved in our spirits with joy and delight, Father, that we would both worship you in spirit and in truth this morning, in Jesus' name.

Faithfulness Over Strength in the Open Door of Mission

Well, I want to start off just by thanking the band for leading us this morning, and I just love how Dave's really flexible. Our drummer called in sick this morning, so he just got a way about him to roll with that, and I just really appreciate the flexibility and the gifts that God has given to the team up there, so thankful for them.

I encourage you to get comfortable as much as possible. I know we just took a break a minute ago, but if at any time during the message it starts to run long and you're, that would happen, but you need more caffeine to keep your focus, is what I meant, then feel free to get more coffee or more juice or more donuts over there.

But keep your Bibles open to Revelation 3, 7 through 13, in case you lost that spot and didn't have a bookmark in there, Revelation 3, 7 through 13, that's what we're going to walk through this morning.

So starting off, I just want you to think about a couple things. Little David and huge Goliath. The faith as small as a mustard seed that moves mountains. Mary, a nobody in a backwater part of the ancient world, chosen to give birth to the Messiah.

A couple of fishermen on the shore of Galilee, called by Jesus to shake up the entire world. God uses small and seemingly insignificant things to get his stuff done. You see that in Scripture? Do you see that as a common theme, God using the small things, the seemingly insignificant things, to accomplish his will?

And in this audit here in the book of Revelation of the church of Philadelphia, Jesus gives another example of something that is little, something that is small, something that is weak. One of his gatherings, a gathering of his people.

A weak church with a huge door of opportunity in front of them. And I believe that what Jesus is going to communicate to us this morning drives a nail into the heart of the way that many of us in the American church view the church.

The way that we think about it. We think of church as primarily doing stuff for Jesus. We come up with super slick programs to do stuff for Jesus. We come up with awesome plans to do stuff for Jesus. And then God can really use us, right?

Then he can really use us if we get it all slick and well polished and well put together. And so from the start, Jesus says, Hey John, to the church of Philadelphia, to this small and weak church, write this.

The words of the Holy One, who's writing to you? The Holy One. Who wants to communicate with you this morning? The Holy One. The true one. The one who knows the truth. That's a little bit intimidating when you realize he knows the truth about you.

He knows you better than you know yourself. You ever question your own motives? You ever struggle to know why you just did what you did? Jesus even knows that. He's got the right answer to that question that you don't even know.

So he's the Holy One. He's the true one. Who holds the keys of David. David is only mentioned here in this context to identify. Jesus ties back into that royal line from which it was promised a Messiah would come.

So he ties into that, but he also is identifying. How many of you know that in a kingdom, the king has access to every room? In a kingdom, there is not a room that is barred or shut from the king. He's allowed in.

He goes in where he wants to. His key chain is full of all the keys necessary to open all the doors. And that's why he's identifying himself with King David. He says, like a king, like royalty over a kingdom.

I have all of the keys to all of the doors. And when I open it, it stays open. And when I close it, it stays closed. When I want to open a door, it is a wide open door. And nobody can close the doors that Jesus opens.

Nobody can open the doors.

You're getting it.

Nobody can close anything that Jesus wants to stay open. And this converse is equally true. From the remainder of this letter, I don't think that Jesus reveals himself in this way, by the way, to correct the church in Philadelphia.

I think it was a subtle reminder to a church that already knew that Jesus was powerful. I think they already understood this about him. I don't think he's correcting them, saying, you don't recognize how powerful I am.

But how many of you know that you might know how powerful Jesus is and still need a reminder of that? Just like you might know that he saved you, but you need to hear that regularly, don't you? Because even though you know it, it doesn't settle in to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, when crises happen in your life or when it's difficult or when you're under a time crunch and all of a sudden you're forgetful of these things.

And so we need constant reminders. And I think he's just simply reminding the church in Philadelphia that he is powerful. He holds the keys. He's in charge. He's in control. To a church that is weak in number and likely weak in community influence, he reminds them that this is not about their might.

It's not about their power, but it is about his will. When he wants it accomplished, he will get it done. And Jesus says, I'm about to open a door of opportunity for you. I'm going to open a door. Now the ancient city of Philadelphia was called, interestingly, one of the ancient titles of it had the idea of door or gateway.

It was called the Gateway to the East in the Roman Empire. Most roads coming from the western reaches of the Roman Empire found their way to Philadelphia before continuing to the east because it was set on a plateau where there was a nice valley carved in it that would allow you access down into the plains.

And so all the roads up on the high country would filter down through and come down through the valley right through the city of Philadelphia. This made the city a significant melting pot of people. It was a bustling place of trade.

It sat on a fault line and so it had fertile volcanic soil that made excellent farming there. The downside of being on a fault line, however, is exactly what you might think. There's a reality of many earthquakes still common in that part of the world, still regularly occur.

But there were a couple of earthquakes that struck that all but decimated the entire city and it had to be rebuilt at least two times in ancient history. It often suffered damage, according to historical documents.

And an earthquake that actually rocked and partially destroyed Sardis completely wiped out Philadelphia at one point in history. So it had to be rebuilt several times. It's even said that the people in Philadelphia would often have a secondary home or take tents outside of the city at times, a frequent seismic activity.

They would actually vacate the city. How many of you would like to be in a city with buildings and rock over your head during an earthquake? So what they would do is when there was a lot of tremors, they probably didn't understand scientifically aftershocks and things like that, but what they did know is, hey, these babies come in bunches.

And so when a big one would hit, they would take off and head out into the countryside and wait it out. And they had farms and all different kinds of stuff to do out there anyways. So they would often have to leave their homes in order to avoid the earthquakes.

Philadelphia also had a significant Jewish population, as recorded, like Smyrna. The church here suffered persecution from these Jews. It's not given as much detail as it was in Smyrna, but there's some indications that the Jews were lying about who they were, and equally were also persecuting the Church of Christ there in Philadelphia.

And it may come as a surprise to us that a small church with little influence, God is the one that God entrusts with his grand mission. The one that he chooses among all of these seven churches, this is the one that he zeros in on and uses as his example, his model, of a church that is going to have an opportunity to reach out in significant ways.

It's the outreach church, if you will, where you might say Ephesus was, how many of you would rather be that than the loveless church? Or the polluted church, like Thyatira, or the compromised church, like Pergamum?

I mean, how many of you would like this better than that? Or a suffering church like Smyrna? Okay, none of us are really signing up for that, right? But this is the mission church. This is the outreach-oriented church.

The one that's given opportunities to reach out to their community. So it might come as a surprise that this is the one. To use this church as a model for missions would probably come to us as a surprise if we could travel back and see those actual churches before we read anything about them.

If we visited them on a Sunday morning, we hung out with them for a couple of weeks, checked out what they do, how they rolled, what their MO was, what they were like in their corporate gathering, what their reputation was like out in their community.

I mean, what would we choose? Which of these seven churches would we use as our model, our example for outreach? And I would dare say that many of us in America would choose Sardis, straight up. The only problem is that on the outside, we'd look at Sardis and we'd go, man, this church has it going on.

They've got a relationship with their community where there's communication flowing back and forth. The community says, man, this church is alive. They love you. You're doing great works for the community.

They love your engagement. But Jesus, who knows the truth, who is the true one, says of them, yeah, but they're dead. But I would often say that if we were just looking at the externals, we might find ourselves choosing a dead church to be his platform for outreach.

I think oftentimes that is the case. Oftentimes that is reality. It's a scary thought. Sardis has a great reputation. It might catch our eye as being really useful to God. And he says, but you're dead, so that doesn't help.

Pergamum might have looked like a church that wasn't afraid to engage their culture. They were compromised, but people liked them too because they were out engaged and they weren't afraid to get their hands dirty for the cause of Christ.

Lots of heavy quotes on that one, the cause of Christ. But they were going to the parties. They had a lot of influence in the community because they were compromised enough that they were actually willing to engage in sin in their community for the, hey, but we're getting chances to share the gospel with people, so we sin.

Ooh, how does that work? So maybe we would be tempted to use Pergamum without this revelation, without understanding who they are. But instead, Jesus, who knows much more than you and I, who judges much more than just on the outside, says this is the church that I want to model as a model for church on mission.

This is a church that models what it looks like to be useful to God in his great and awesome kingdom mission in this world. So the first point, I'm going to have four points this morning. The first point that I found in this text is that God, that a church on mission doesn't depend on its own strength.

And you get that from verses 7 and 8. A church on mission, on the mission of God, doesn't depend on its own strength. And I want to be clear here. These four points are not just for the church in general, although I'm going to be talking about the churches because that's who he's writing to, so that's what makes sense.

But as you work to allow the Holy Spirit opening your heart and your mind to what this is saying, you can personalize this. You can bring this down to where you live because guess what, church? We are the church.

A bunch of people gathered together in this place makes us the church. And so because of that, these things are being asked of us. So for me to say, you know, a church that is on mission, well, the same could be said for a person in a church that's on mission.

They do not depend on their own strength. So go ahead and feel free to make it personal in your application. But Jesus gives this church in Philadelphia a reminder that he is the one in charge of doors.

Very clearly, I'm in charge of doors. If doors are opened, it is his opening and nobody can shut it. If he closes a door, nobody can open it. And further he tells them, I've opened before you a door. I've given you an open door in front of you, and nobody can shut that door.

It's very important for us in this context to identify what this door looks like. What is that open door that he's given to the church in Philadelphia? Well, in verse 9, there's a mention of the Jews in Philadelphia who he says are like a synagogue of Satan.

He's mentioned that before, talking about certain Jews in that context and using that phrase. And basically what he's saying is there's a group of Jews that are ultimately doing the bidding of Satan himself.

They're doing his work for him. They're not doing God's work because they're rejecting the Christians that are there. And since most Christians, you've got to put yourself in this mindset. You've got to understand a little bit of the history here.

When I said history, some of you just glazed over. You were like, I remember history when I was in high school. But this is important for us to grab a little bit of this on the way by so that we can actually understand what's going on here.

Most Christians during this era were former Jews. So they were practicing Jews. They went to the synagogue on a regular basis. And when they accepted Jesus as their Messiah, they did not see any inconsistency with still going to the synagogue.

So they would still go to the synagogue because guess what? They still worship the same God. It's just that they were in belief that now we have a complete understanding of who that Messiah was. Who did the Old Testament talk about?

Who was the Torah pointing to? Who was this Messiah that was promised all the way back to Abraham? All the way back, really, to Adam and Eve? Who is this one who's going to crush the head of the serpent?

Well, we know who he is now. So they would naturally still consider themselves to be Jews, just Jews with understanding. Jews with a new understanding of the way that things rolled. And so you can imagine what kind of turmoil and strife that might make in a community when you've got people who all of a sudden have had their eyes opened to, on a personal level, recognizing Jesus as their Messiah.

And so things got dicey. When a husband followed Jesus as the Messiah and his wife did not. You can imagine all kinds of painful problems that might arise in a community when some are coming to the realization and their eyes are open to the light that this is the Messiah and others are completely rejecting him as Messiah.

Can you understand how things might get dodgy within family context? Within the fabric of community on that? And people are still coming into the synagogue teaching that Jesus is the Messiah and some were not having it.

Often things boiled so far out of hand that Christians got kicked out of the synagogues and the doors were shut behind them and they were not welcome to come back in. That would make some sense about the talk of doors in this community.

Doors that had been shut to them. Jesus says, whoa, wait a minute, but I'm the one in charge of doors. I'm the one who opens and nobody can shut it if I so choose. And so if these scholars are right that have kind of identified this theme for me in this letter, this specific part of the letter of Revelation, then Jesus here is saying one door has been shut to you, Philadelphia, but I have opened a door for you that no one can shut.

You can't be shut out of this one. And that door is the kingdom of God. They have an open door set before them. It's open to them and through them. It's also open to others as well. I've opened a door for you and you can invite others to come through with you.

The end of verse 8 keys in on the most, I think, culturally challenging part of this text for us here in America. Jesus knows that they lack power. He knows that they're weak and it appears that he has set a door before them of opportunity because they lack clout, because they lack significance in their community, but they have kept his word and have not denied him.

God is much more concerned with the character of the heart of his people than he is with the externals, with how much strength you have, with how big your bank account is, with how skilled you are. In other words, he didn't offer them this opportunity because they won the fastest growing church of the year award.

He didn't offer it to them because their praise team won a Dove award. He didn't offer this to them because they were a powerful force on the world scene. He offered it to them because they kept his word and held fast to the name of Jesus.

So ask yourself, what does faithfulness and usefulness look like to God? What does it look like for me to be useful to him in his mission? What does it look like for me? And certainly for some of us, it is a recognition that our gifts come from him and then honing those skills for his glory and for his honor.

There's room for that in the kingdom. But ultimately, it is a recognition that all that we have comes from him. Keeping his word, which is an unpopular way to translate that now, is obey his word. Keep his word, obey his word, and hold fast to Jesus.

Holding fast to him means that he's everything to you. Holding fast to Jesus means that you're not ashamed to mention his name. Now, some of us, you might work in a place where it's really comfortable and okay to talk about God.

But what about Jesus? It's comfortable to talk about God at the coffee shop. That's the kind of culture we live in. I sit at the coffee shop and work on my sermon and read and meet with people on a regular basis throughout the week and stuff.

It's okay to talk about God there. But watch people's faces change when you mention Jesus. Have you ever noticed Jesus is polarizing? Either you really love him or you can't stand him and you use his name as a curse word.

It seems like there's just opposite ends of the spectrum regarding Jesus. You can tell where somebody stands when you mention his name. So thinking that through and understanding what it is that he's called us to, holding fast to him, holding fast to his name, and keeping his word.

A church on the right mission does not depend, however, on its own strength, but on the strength of the Lord.

That's the first point.

Trusting God with Reputation and Enduring Rejection

The second, a church on mission trusts their reputation to God, verse 9. Church on mission trusts their reputation to God. An individual on mission trusts their reputation to God. In verse 9, Jesus once again identifies that there are some religious people who oppose the true work of God.

There will always be some who think that they are working for the cause of God and are really working against him. Have you ever noticed that? That is a reality in life. And quite often in our brash culture of individualism, when the church is opposed or when we're opposed, we have a culture of rampant revenge.

Our movies are full of rampant revenge, right? Just watch our action flicks. What's the goal at the end? The demise of the bad guy, right? That's the point. And so we tend to tell our kids things like, don't start any fights, but if someone starts one with you, you finish it.

You ever heard that? Anybody ever told that? Not good advice. Not biblical advice, anyways. Somebody starts a fight, you finish it. I don't hear Jesus saying that. Something about it resonates with me.

Anybody, if you're honest, that resonates with you? Go ahead and raise your hand. No, you don't want to raise your hand. I get it. It resonates with me. I'm willing to say that. There's something about it that resonates with me, and I don't believe it's right.

I believe that that's my flesh that that resonates with. I believe that there's something in me that is very prone to rationalize and to reason, and even now I can think of arguments for why you might want to defend yourself, or why you might want to fight back, or why you might want to do this, and it's tough.

It's tough to wrestle through. If somebody starts a fight with you, you finish it, is not quite what Jesus said when he said something about turn the other cheek. That might be one of the toughest things for us to apply as Americans.