Revelation 3:7-13 The Church on Mission

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

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, a missionary from Turkey, Dale Curdy 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 is 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 is, 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, 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. So, 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. And 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 trendsetting 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 let's, if you would, whip out your Bibles and open them to Revelation 3, 7 through 13.

Yep, Revelation 3, 7 through 13. And if you need a Bible, you can go ahead and raise your hand. And uh, what?

You got, you got that? Okay, uh, all right. A couple of the teens know what I just did, and the rest of you have no clue at all.

But um, there's just, there's a little dance thing right now. And I'm not going to do the little dance thing, but it's, it's the whip, okay?

So, sorry. I'm just trying to keep, I'm kind of trying to catch you adults up to speed on what the teens are talking about these days.

So there's this, okay, yeah. And Dave. The teens and Dave. Got it. So uh, there you go.

But uh, 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. 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 the band 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 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.

And Father, as we have an opportunity to worship you through song, another very powerful opportunity.

The music has a power in our hearts and our souls. I pray that it would be moved. 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. Amen. 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, he's 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.

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, you're, you're, 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 of things. A 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.

How many of you, 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 it doesn't, nobody can close the doors that Jesus opens. Nobody can close, nobody can open the doors.

Wait, I didn't say that. Nobody, 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 into 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, like, when there was a lot of tremors, they know that, I mean, 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, we're 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, 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 zeroes 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 you 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, you know, 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. And 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 their community, 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.

It wasn't afraid to engage their culture. They were compromised, but people like them too, because they were out engaging.

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 out, 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 seven and eight. 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.

And 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 was 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. Says I've opened a door for you and you can invite others to come through with you.

The end of verse eight 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.

And 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, and 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.

Seems like there's just opposite ends of the spectrum regarding Jesus. The minute 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. The second, a church on mission trust their reputation to God.

Verse nine. Church on mission trust their reputation to God. An individual on mission trust their reputation to God.

In verse nine, 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 individuals and when the church is opposed or when we're opposed, we have a culture, excuse me, 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? 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. When somebody starts a fight with you, you finish it. It's 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.

To the weak church that's getting bullied, Jesus says to the church, sue them, right?

Is that what it says in the text? Sue them, get back at them. Come on, it wasn't an

American church so he didn't say that, right? If it was an American church, maybe. Or he says, fight back, right?

No, he says, I will make your enemies bow down before your feet. Leave it up to me and I'll take care of this.

Leave it up to me and they will come to you someday in the future and bow at your feet and they will come to understand that I, the true one, the holy one, the one who holds the keys of all power,

I love you and I will make that known to them. Now, I don't believe that this phrase at the end of verse nine is

Jesus exacting revenge on the enemies of the Church of Philadelphia. I don't think it's like,

I'm gonna take them by the scruff of the neck and throw them down at your feet and they're gonna bow there before you and abject fear and no,

I don't think that's it. I think he's here declaring that their mission will result even in some of their enemies humbly coming to love

Jesus. The church that is on mission will leave its reputation up to the Lord and will even share the gospel with those who oppose her.

And by God's amazing grace, even some Saul's will be turned into Paul's.

Even some who oppose the church will through the mission of the church come to recognize the love of God towards his people in Jesus Christ.

That's the beautiful glory of the gospel that no one is beyond the reach and the scope of this message that we have to bring.

The third thing, a church on mission has endurance. They have endurance, verses 10 and 11.

In verse 10, the Church of Philadelphia is commended for keeping Christ's word about patient endurance.

It's an incredible need for a church on mission. A church that is taking opportunities to reach out to the lost culture around them with the truth of the kingdom of God, a church like that needs patient endurance.

A person on the mission of God with a boldness in their faith needs patient endurance.

If you're gonna bring the gospel to your neighborhood, you need patient endurance. If you're gonna bring the gospel to your workplace, you need patient endurance.

If you're going to bring the gospel to your family reunion or your class reunion, you need patient endurance.

But let me offer a word of caution as I've said the words a lot in the last minute, patient endurance.

Often we think of that phrase as coming before we drop the gospel bomb, patiently enduring for the right opportunity to share the gospel, right?

Isn't that what we often think of when we think of patience and evangelism? In the same sentence, we're thinking about finding the right time for the zinger to come in.

We're trying to find that right opportunity, but that's not what Jesus means by this phrase, patient endurance in this context.

Patience in our mind might be some sort of like hanging out with someone several times patiently looking for a chance to share the gospel.

That's not what he's saying. The concept here is it's used in the text is a patient endurance once you have shared the gospel and found the results to be less than ideal.

It's about being willing to let the results go there. And I think that's one of the biggest problems in evangelism in America is that we don't let the results go there.

If we think that the results are gonna go there to a negative response, we don't bring it up. We walk away from the conversation.

We step out of it, right? Because we don't like people to reject us, partly because we don't have patient endurance.

We don't really endure well in America. We don't endure suffering. We don't do people not liking us or people rejecting

Christ and them knowing we're Christians and them not liking us because of it. The Jews in Philadelphia who were persecuting the church in Philadelphia knew and understood clearly where the

Christians stood regarding Jesus. They knew where these people were regarding Christ as the

Messiah. And it's because of this that the church needed patient endurance.

Are you guys getting this? Getting this is because they had shared the gospel, because people knew that they thought

Jesus was the Messiah, that they needed it. One of the biggest problems, I think, in the modern church has been friendship evangelism, which amounts to a lot of friendship and not much evangelism, if any, right?

And so it's just like, I'm just gonna become friends with people and I'm just gonna keep being friends and I'm gonna keep being friends.

And then one day I'm gonna totally take a hammer and smash my friendship with the gospel. Right? And then they're gonna be like, dude, for real?

This was a long setup. This is the long con, right? Instead of just saying, look, man,

I am what I am and Christ is central to me and I kind of come as a full package and Christ kind of is a big deal to me.

And so I'd love to hang out with you and I'd love to spend time with you, but know that this is something that's central to me and you're gonna hear about it from time to time.

It's just gonna be part of the way that this friendship rolls. And if they reject you at that point, guess what?

It wasn't gonna be a really good friendship anyways. Did you know that? So it's this whole friendship thing is,

I mean, back up and say, should you care about people? Should that just be, I mean, should we be going out and getting scalps for the kingdom?

Is that the point? No, don't hear me say the opposite, that we're just going out and, you know, well,

I'm done with you because you rejected the gospel. On to the next, on to the next, on to the next. No, it's about loving people

It's about loving people. And I am encouraging you to be sensitive to the relationships that you have.

But let me just tell you that it's insensitive for you to have a long setup for somebody and be looking for the awkward opportunity to share the gospel with somebody instead of just going for it.

Just going for it with boldness and letting the basis of your relationships be founded on the truth.

I like it how a pastor that I listen to regularly named Matt Chandler talks about how he approaches evangelism in his neighborhood and amongst his friends and amongst his coworkers.

It's a little bit easier for a pastor like me because we can do things like this. How many of you, when you share your occupation, people like turn from you or like look at you awkwardly and then it kills the conversation?

Probably not many of you. I have that privilege. So when people ask me finally, they get around to me in the circle at the party and they ask me, so what do you do,

Don? I'm a pastor, I'm a pastor. Okay, and then they're off somewhere. I was kind of wandering, trying to get away, right?

But there's a, I'm not looking for pity, you guys, but it's kind of fun sometimes.

But what Matt Chandler does is he actually, he actually will say this. So I'm a pastor and you know we're going to go to this conversation so I'll give you the chance to do it on your terms.

Do you want to talk now about Christ or do you want to set up a time and you can come over for dinner and we can talk about it at my place?

But this conversation is going to happen so let's just do this. I'm a

Christian and I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. If that makes me weird, so be it, but let's, let me, can I, can I just take a minute to share with you what

I believe about that and just kind of kill that like awkwardness of like trying to fit it in after the fact or sometime later or subsequent.

So I kind of like that, that model and that example that Matt Chandler gives of that. And that was a little off.

But I think it was on topic. Um, we were talking about a church on mission has endurance.

It's willing to stand long. The concept of patient endurance is used in the text in the concept of having shared the gospel already with someone.

So a church on mission lets the good news of the kingdom of God, they let it fly, ready to withstand the results.

That's the point. And for this particular church in this context, Jesus promised to keep them from the hour of trial that was coming on the whole world.

Talking about endurance. I believe that this phrase had a significance for this ancient church where our minds might turn immediately to our context.

We've got to remember that he's writing this to a specific church at a specific time. And when they read it, they would have sat up a bit and assumed some kind of cataclysmic, catastrophic geopolitical issue was going to happen or something big that was going to affect the whole world.

That's what they would have read when they saw this in verse 10. Look at it with me for a second.

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you, speaking to this specific church,

I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.

He's saying this to a specific church at a specific time. And many of us have taken the second half of verse 10 or many churches take the second half of verse 10 out of context and draw deep conclusions about a pre -tribulational rapture.

And when I mentioned pre -tribulational, some of you are like, what just happened there? How many of you know the concept of rapture?

You understand that concept? How many of you read the Left Behind series? Okay, so, okay, we're all up to speed on that then.

But a pre -tribulational rapture is a belief that a time of terrible testing is gonna come on the earth.

It's gonna last about seven years, sometime out in the future. Many are believing that it's gonna be soon.

I don't know, and I'm not about to predict. Okay, that's not gonna happen. But many believe that this verse here in verse 10 teaches that Christians will be raptured or taken to heaven prior to that great hour of trial.

Look at it. I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world. On the whole world.

To try those who dwell on the earth. There's a time of trial that is coming, he says.

He's speaking to the specific church. And I lean towards this understanding. I actually do believe that there is going to be a rapture.

I do believe that there's going to be a time of literal tribulation on the world. I lean towards that belief that Jesus will return for his children prior to the great tribulation.

But I do not base that on this passage. This is not the passage that I would turn to to identify that and to spell that out.

It's quite possible that Jesus here in this text was referring to a specific tragedy that occurred in ancient

Rome that the Church of Philadelphia was in some way protected from. Maybe there was a massive persecution that swept across Rome during this time, but it never quite reached

Philadelphia. I don't know. But I want to be clear that the Greek in this text, to be fair to the other side that doesn't believe that Christians will be swept out of the rapture, it's very important to understand that technically the phrase in Greek, keep you from, in verse 10, could just as easily be translated, sustain you through, which seems a lot like Jesus and God's MO throughout the history of the world.

I don't know if you noticed that, but it's not very often that he pulls the people out of persecution, but often gives them the strength to withstand in the midst of it.

So I think we've got to be careful drawing hard and fast lines. I hope you can be comfortable here at Recast with people who don't see eye to eye on this end time stuff, pre -tribulational, mid -tribulational, pre -millennial, amillennial.

There's all different kinds of theological names that we give to a variety of views. If you're kind of confused about those things, you can certainly set up a meeting and come and talk with me.

I'd love to talk theology with anybody. But there's a quote that I've heard, and I've heard it a couple times, credited to D .L.

Moody, and I can't ever find where D .L. Moody said. And I think D .L. Moody is a great catch -all person.

Like, you know, just credit him with it if you want to get some attention for your quote. I don't know if he said it.

I like it. Whoever said it should have taken credit for it because it's super cool. D .L.

Moody is credited with saying, I believe in a pre -tribulational rapture and I hope that Jesus does too.

You know what I'm saying? I agree with that. That's a great statement of where I stand theologically on the subject.

I lean in that direction. I believe that that's the case. And I really hope that Jesus is in line with that too because I know that if he's not, then

I'm wrong. Okay, he's the one that's true. He's the one who's got this going on. So a church useful to the mission of God in this world, number one, doesn't depend on their own strength.

Number two, they trust their reputation to God. Number three, they show endurance.

And lastly, my fourth point is that a church on mission or an individual in the mission of God will be rewarded.

Will be rewarded, verses 11 and 12. The one who conquers, that is the one who holds fast, enduring so that they receive the victor's crown, that one will be eternally integrated into the temple of God.

A people who had been shunned, think about this. Think about what Jesus is saying here in this reward. A people who had been shunned and kicked out of the synagogue by family and friends for the cause of Christ.

A church that found itself in a city that often had to flee outside of their own homes for fear that their houses would fall on them.

These people will never be kicked out of the temple of God himself. They will be a foundation of the worship of God on the new earth.

By the way, I don't, they're not gonna be literally turned into pillars, okay?

That would be kind of lame. New earth, you're saying, I'm holding up while other people are out running around having fun.

You're like, I'm holding the temple. It's not a literal pillar, it's a metaphor. We see a lot of metaphorical language, but I think it ultimately is that they will be in some sense the foundation of the worship of God on the new earth.

And they will have a mark of God's very name on them. They will have the mark of and the name of God's new city on them, the new

Jerusalem. And they will have the new name of the son of God upon them, a name which the text tells us none of us know.

There's something crazy about that. I was talking with a men's group yesterday about that. There's this notion that there is a name of Jesus that none of us know, which means that there's a facet of Jesus that none of us know.

There is more for us to learn about God than we have. And I think we can state that in general terms, right?

Like how many of you would say, there's things about God I don't know, but here is a specific name of Jesus that's going to reveal something about him that we don't even get yet.

And these people are going to have that name, the name of Christ, this new name upon them. And in verse 12, there's this passing comment that could easily be overlooked, but it is a beautiful thing.

When you see these small, I want to grab these nuggets when they pass us by in the pages of scripture, it'd be easy to just brush over it.

But it informs the destination of you and I. Where are we heading to? A lot of us have in our minds,

I was at a conference, a day conference this week that was talking about this very subject, new creation theology. God is going to make this new.

A lot of people in America have in their minds that their destination is, where do the good people go?

Where are the people who love Jesus and are loved by him, where do they go? Heaven, no, right.

Heaven, when you die, is an intermediate state. There are people in heaven now. Guess where those people in heaven right now are asking to be?

Back together on earth with people. The heaven, heaven in the place that Christ has gone to prepare for us, is coming back.

This text in verse 12 literally says that. 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. And we fast forward to Revelation 21, 20 and 21, where the new

Jerusalem comes down out of heaven. And where does it rest? On the new earth.

A place like this. You were not meant to not have a body, okay?

That's what the point of the resurrection was. That's why the tomb is empty. That we have the hope that we will indeed inhabit these bodies for eternity on a new earth with delight and joy and research and culture and art and music and all of the beautiful things that we've enjoyed in this life.

Without sin, without brokenness, without pain, without evil.

Anybody looking forward to that? That is a picture that the church has done a poor job of painting. As a kid,

I had nothing about harps and floating in clouds, right?

I mean, but I knew I didn't wanna, I didn't like flames either. So you know what

I'm saying? I'm like, I can endure an eternal praise service over the flames, right?

And some people are probably like, I don't know, right? I don't know. Depends on who's preaching.

Depends on how long it goes. Are you getting what I'm saying? We've done a poor job of painting the

Bible's picture of our end place, where I who do not know how to play a musical instrument, nothing, will have an opportunity to learn them all.

Anybody think that sounds kind of cool? Like, I mean, anybody in that same book, others of you are like,

I already know them all. Got them. There's other things. There's other things that you don't have the opportunity to learn and to engage in that we will be able to grow in culture.

And me and my son Adam, at one point, we were really into, I'm really into astronomy, and he kind of got into it when he was younger for a little while.

We were talking about maybe getting the first tickets out to visit some of the other planets, you know, where we will actually explore.

We will actually be engaged and involved in exploration and doing all different kinds of things. I believe that there's going to be culture because we're going to be there.

We're humans and we're made for culture. And Jesus told us before the fall to expand. I'm getting, yeah, this is another sermon.

Totally different sermon, but this is off of one point in verse 12 that identifies that the kingdom, the new city, the new

Jerusalem is coming here. Oh, this place remade, this place fixed, this place without sin, but it's coming.

So listen up, says verse 13. Listen to what the Holy Spirit has to say to his churches. He wants us to accept these words deep into our soul.

The church is not me. The church is not the elders. The church is not a building.

We've learned, we're learning that lesson. God has us in a stage of our history as a church to, I think, learn the lesson that the building isn't what it's about.

This is a good stage for us to learn that here in this cafeteria. It's not a set of programs, but Jesus has said something to us as a church, and the church is us.

It is individuals, it is people gathered together. So listen up, church. A church that is useful in the mission of God is a gathering of people who recognize the power is not from us, but is from Jesus.

A church useful in the mission of God leaves its reputation up to him. A church that is useful in the mission of God has patient endurance.

Those useful to God will be rewarded by Jesus Christ. Philadelphia, a humble church that looked weak and insignificant on the outside was a church that Jesus held up as the model of a church with an open door of outreach.

Recast, we have open doors in front of us. He has opened doors in your neighborhood. He has opened doors in your workplace.

He has opened doors through your kids' travel sports teams. He has opened doors in the public schools.

Walking through those doors may not be easy. They may result in the need for patient endurance, but God has given us opportunities, and we need to hold fast with faithfulness to the call that he has placed on each one of us to be a people on the mission of Christ.

Communion is a reminder each week of why this mission has been granted to us. He loves us.

He is so in love with us that when we were sinners, he died for us.

His horrible death on the cross paid the price for our sins, but he did not remain dead, but he rose again three days later as the victorious king conquering our two greatest enemies, sin and death.

This is the message of the good news of the king. As you come to the table this morning, consider the great call on your life to be a herald for this king.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we have to look into your interaction with the church in Philadelphia and understanding that it's not our size.

It's not our power. It's not our might. It's not our cloud in our community. It's not our gifting that allows us to do great things for our neighbors, but ultimately it is because you open doors that we have opportunities to share the glory of your salvation.

Father, I pray as we come to communion that we would indeed glory in your salvation, that we would rejoice that a way has been made for sinful people like us to come into your presence with delight and with celebration.

Father, you are indeed preparing a place for us that we look forward to that time when all things will be rolled up and made new, but for now,

I pray that you would give us patient endurance and the boldness to actually have something to endure.

Father, I pray that you would give us a boldness that thinks outside of ourselves, that's willing to take the hit for the cause of your kingdom.

Father, as we come to the table, I pray that you would refresh us, renew us, help us to recognize our neediness before you and your great provision in Jesus Christ, and it's in his name that I pray.