Revelation 3:7-13 (Philadelphia, Conquer Your Enemies, Jeff Kliewer)

for our Christian walk. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Before Esther, the king Ahasuerus, otherwise known as Xerxes, was reigning in Persia, his kingdom expanding from India all the way to Ethiopia in Africa, just ruling over 127 provinces, a vast territory, and one day he decided to throw a party, actually it was a six month party, for his leaders and they drank and they sat out on beautiful couches on the mosaic pavement and in the merriment of the moment this king,

Xerxes, decided to call for Vashti, his wife, so he could parade her in front of his guests and being a self -respecting woman she said no, not gonna do it.

She stayed put. He got so angry he consulted with his counselors and they advised him to dismiss her, otherwise none of the women of the kingdom will submit to their husbands.

You must command them to respect you, says the advisor.

Now guys, side note, you don't command respect by commanding it with your words.

You don't command honor by saying I command you to honor me. Husbands, you command honor by your honor, by your respectability, by the way you lead, by the way you demonstrate

Christlikeness. You commend honor in that way and you command honor by virtue of your character, but the king didn't get this and so he followed the leadership or the the advice of his counselors and he commanded that women would submit to the masters of their house and the end result of all this is that Vashti is dismissed, is no longer the queen and the king wakes up the next day saying what did

I do and looks for another queen and the idea comes to him that all of the women of Persia would be candidates to be the next queen and it turns out that Esther was the most beautiful in the and pleased him the most and so she was selected to be queen.

Now in the book of Esther you will not find any mention of God. He is not ostensibly there and yet that I think is the point.

When he's not seen or mentioned yet he is there because the concept of the book of Esther is that she was put where she was for such a time as this.

You could have completed that sentence. She was there for such a time as this because the wicked

Haman devised a plot to kill all the Jews. He was so offended that Mordecai would not bow down to him that he not only wanted to kill

Mordecai but all of Mordecai's people, the Jewish people. And yet the

God, the unseen God who has providence over all things was working these things together for good.

Just before it was time to execute Haman's wicked plot, the king can't sleep.

Is that just a coincidence? No, it's the providence of God because some of his servants come in and they read to him from the annals of the of the king and he remembers that it was

Mordecai that saved his life when two people were plotting against him. And so he's reminded that Mordecai is a good guy and he honors

Mordecai the next day. Haman himself has to parade him through town. You just love the scene where wicked

Haman has to parade his mortal enemy through town saying this is what the king delights to do for the one he wants to honor.

Haman is steaming at this point, furious. He goes back to his wife and to his counselors and tells the story.

He's in sackcloth and ashes. He's mourning because he had to honor his enemy.

But his wife and his counselor say something very profound in Esther chapter 6.

In verse 13, Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him.

Then his wise men and his wife said to him, if Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is of the

Jewish people, you will not overcome him, but you will surely fall before him.

Did you catch that? I think the reputation of Yahweh delivering the

Jewish people from Egypt, bringing them safely past the Ammonites and the

Moabites, bringing them into the land and all nations fell before them, that reputation preceded them.

And when they saw what was happening, that all of a sudden instead of Haman hanging

Mordecai on the gallows, it was Haman who had to honor Mordecai, they the handwriting on the wall, didn't they?

God is fighting this battle. And this is the message.

Although you can't see him, his providence is over all things and he is fighting our battles.

The festival that came from the story of Esther is called Purim or the casting of the lots, the

Pur, the P -U -R, Pur, I don't know how to say it, the casting of the lots. Because before Haman hatched his wicked plan, they were casting lots all day long.

He probably figured out just what day he would execute his plan based on casting lots.

And yet Proverbs 16 .33 says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision comes from the

Lord. He has providence over even the casting of a lot. And so it is that the battle belongs to the

Lord. The battle belongs to the Lord. What ended up happening to Haman? He was hung on his own gallows.

His wicked plot turned back on his own head and he was killed on his own gallows.

So the message of Esther is that the battle belongs to the Lord. And in the end, the

Israelites are allowed to defend themselves, they survive, and their wicked enemies fall because the battle belongs to the

Lord. When King David stood before Goliath, he said, the battle belongs to the

Lord. When Jehoshaphat saw that the Ammonites and the Moabites and the

Edomites were all banding together to attack Israel, he was scared and he turned to the

Lord in prayer. And so came a prophet who said to him, the battle belongs to the

Lord. Only be still and wait on the Lord. The battle belongs to the Lord.

The enemies of God cannot withstand the Lord. And so it is that Christians who belong to the

Lord have his victory. That's the point this morning. Because the battle belongs to the

Lord, we can walk in victory. The church in Philadelphia, Revelation chapter 3, turn there now.

Here is a church that's walking in the victory that is their inheritance. Before we read it, let's set the stage again for the churches in Revelation.

There are seven of them and you'll notice beginning with the first church, Ephesus, there is a downward progression from one to seven with two interruptions.

The first being Smyrna and here then Philadelphia. Two positive cases of how the church ought to be operating and five negative cases.

But the five negative cases are not disjointed. There's a certain order in which it's given to us.

In Ephesus, things are going great except there's just this one thing that's missing. You've forgotten your first love.

You've forgotten your first love. And that's the first step towards apostasy.

The first step is just not loving as much as you once did. The next church, this is in Revelation chapter 2 beginning in verse 8, is

Smyrna and this is the positive case. But the next negative case is verse 12, is Pergamum. And here you have sexual immorality.

The teaching of Balaam has been introduced and now there is some compromise within the church.

But after Pergamum came Thyatira and not only is there sexual immorality, you have this woman

Jezebel and the teaching itself is tolerated in the church. You see the downward progression from sin coming into the church to where the church itself embraces the sin.

And the church itself teaches that it's okay. That's happening now in Thyatira.

Of course, Sardis is the next church and that is the dead church. You guys ever have kids that play dead?

Here's a church that's playing alive. The truth of the matter is that the church is dead, but they have the reputation of being alive.

They look alive to people from the outside. There's no real life inside of them, but they're putting on the front for others to see.

There is still yet though a remnant left in Sardis that have life and they're encouraged.

And finally we'll see at Laodicea it gets to the point where Jesus says, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Jesus is on the outside of the door knocking. The church is being spewed out of his mouth because of apostasy.

It's a downward progression. So here we come today to the Church of Philadelphia and while churches can follow that path, it doesn't have to be that way.

Churches can remain faithful. In fact, this is the inheritance that belongs to us.

Because the battle belongs to the Lord, we can and should remain faithful.

So let's read it. Revelation chapter 3 verses 7 through 13.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie.

Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you.

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.

I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown.

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it and I will write on him the name of my

God and the name of the city of my God. The new Jerusalem which comes down from my

God out of heaven and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

Spirit says to the churches." So I think the Spirit says to us, every individual

Christian in the churches, through the Church of Philadelphia, that the battle belongs to the

Lord and so we are able to walk victorious. First place you see that is in verse 7.

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

This no one in the verse refers to some sort of enemy. Whether it be internal, the flesh, sexual temptations, things of that nature, deceptive thoughts, ideas coming into the church, or someone from the outside who's oppressing the church.

Someone would shut the door on them. There's an implied enemy here.

No one is able to do it. And why not? Big idea here? Because Christ is the victor over all enemies.

Christ is the victor. He holds the key of David. We see that language of the key of David in Isaiah chapter 22 verse 22.

It's told that a certain son of Hilkiah, that priest who helped Josiah, this priest's son will have the key of David, which grants him access to all the treasury of the king.

All the treasury of the king is at his disposal. He has the key. Of course, that's prefiguring

Christ. He holds the key to the kingdom. He is the descendant of David and the promise in 2

Samuel chapter 7 is that the scepter will not depart from David. He is the king.

He rules. He has all authority. So this is the picture of Jesus as a sovereign king with the keys to the kingdom.

He's in control. He chooses who comes in the door and who's not allowed to come in.

A sovereign God. A picture of sovereignty here in verse 7. You notice he is the

Holy One. He was tempted as we are tempted and yet he was without sin.

He conquered all sin. He is the true one. He heard the lies of the devil when tempted in Matthew chapter 4 and yet he is the truth and he has the key of David.

This is a picture of Jesus as a conqueror, as a victor, and Jesus in his death on the cross conquered the devil.

Sometimes people discount the teaching of substitutionary atonement, meaning that Jesus died in our place and they say well all that Jesus did on the cross was conquer the devil.

God doesn't have wrath. It was just that there was a spiritual battle going on and Jesus had to conquer the devil.

That teaching is a lie. Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of God against our sin.

In the movie Chronicles of Narnia, there's a picture of a wicked witch who represents the devil and Aslan the lion and the wicked witch go into an inner room and negotiate the release of the sinner and that is not the picture of the

Bible. Follow me. Jesus did not die because the devil had rights that he needed to satisfy.

Why did Jesus die? He died because the wrath of the Father in God's justice demanded sin be punished.

It was the character of God that needed to be satisfied. His justice, his wrath against sin. And that's the true teaching of the

Bible, substitutionary atonement. But here's the point I really want to make this morning about this. The victory of Christ is not less than his conquering the devil.

It's more than that. It's the satisfaction of God's wrath but it does include the crushing of the serpent's head.

There is a spiritual battle going on. It's not that the devil has equal rights and there's a principle that's higher than God and the devil.

No, but there is a spiritual battle going on. It goes way back to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15.

Enmity between the woman and the seed. Seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.

The seed of the woman, Christ, will crush the head of the seed of the serpent.

The children of the devil and the devil himself will be crushed. Genesis 3 15. And that theme of spiritual warfare goes throughout the

Bible. We saw it last week in the book of Daniel. We talked about in the 10th chapter the angel and the demon were battling.

God sent another angel into the battle to bring the answer. The battle is raging.

But in 33 AD, on an old rugged cross, the victory was won.

The victory was won when the sin of the world was placed on the Son of God.

The devil delighted to see him die. He laughed and he scoffed and he loved to see him spat upon.

His beard tore out of his face. It looked like defeat and yet we're told that in his dying,

Jesus disarmed the power of the enemy. He triumphed over them in the cross.

Jesus conquered Satan in his dying. And then, three days later, he conquered death itself, rose from the dead to show that his victory was complete.

He conquered Satan. And so we see in Revelation chapter 3 verse 7.

Don't miss this. This is the picture of the Holy One, the True One, who has the key.

This is a conqueror, a victor, who's won something. He's won a victory that belongs to him and no enemy can compete with him for it.

There's no other set of keys. He has the key. He's the victor. So now bring that thought into chapter 3 verse 8 because this is where we get tripped up.

We don't realize the inheritance that we have in Christ. We don't know that we can walk in victory.

In verse 8 it says, I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

No enemy. I know that you have but little power. Okay, this power does not come from you.

It's just little power that you have, but you have kept my word.

There's your sword. And you have not denied my name. There's the power.

The power is in the name of Jesus. The victory is his. So this is a small church in a somewhat obscure city,

Philadelphia. This is not Philadelphia, Pennsylvania if anybody was thinking that. This is

Philadelphia and Turkey. It was actually named Philadelphia because a king, Attalus, who was the king of Pergamum, really loved his brother.

They were co -regents and his brother died. He had this great love for his brother and when he founded a city he called it

Philadelphia because he loves his brother. The city of brotherly love. That's where it got its name.

Interesting fact of history. Just for free there. But here's the point.

Philadelphia. Little power. Small church. And there is not one word of chastening in this section.

There's no rebuke. There's no discipline. Notice the pattern that we've seen with Sardis and and Pergamum and Thyatira, Laodicea, Ephesus.

There's always something, but here there's not nothing. And from that I discern that in Christ we are able to live a consistent

Christian life. We're able to walk in his strength consistently.

Does that mean perfection? First John says, heaven forbid anybody say that. You're not going to be perfect.

You can be consistently Christian. It's actually part of the new covenant promise. Back in the old covenant,

King David, I mean you think this is like the man who wrote the Psalms. This is the warrior who who defeated

Goliath. How is it that he's falling into adultery and committing murder and then numbering the mighty men?

He seems pretty inconsistent, right? And in Psalm 51 when he's confessing that sin he says, take not your

Holy Spirit from me. It's almost as if the Spirit didn't live and indwell the believer as fully and completely and consistently as he does with us.

And that's precisely the point. Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31, the promise of the new covenant is the indwelling of the

Spirit like living water. The heart of stone is turned to a heart of flesh. The Spirit now living inside of you enables you to be consistent.

You don't have to fall back into the same patterns of sin. You can live a consistent

Christian life. I think it's amazing that every

Sunday morning I see the same faces. What's keeping you?

It's a spirit that's holding you and keeping you. Jude, the end of Jude, talks about his keeping power.

Sometimes you go to a prayer meeting and kind of seems mundane. We're listing the same things that we're praying about.

Praying for the same broken hip or illness.

But do you recognize the miracle of that? That every Sunday morning we are still gathering in his name.

The consistency of that. The consistency of the church. This is our inheritance of victory.

Guys, I believe that this church is like the Philadelphia. I really believe that. I called it our secret sauce in the email

I sent this week. What's the secret sauce? Well, we just keep his word and we do not deny his name.

We're holding on to everything he says. And that's what's keeping us. Not us having the power, but his word having the power.

I think in this picture that you have in verse 8 of an open door, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

It also refers to kind of the Pauline idea of an open door for witness. In Colossians chapter 4 verse 3, he says, pray that I'll have a open door.

And he says that in two other epistles as well. An open door to preach the gospel. That's part of our inheritance.

As we pray, asking God for these open doors, he opens doors for ministry.

Flashback to 2003. Finishing up seminary, I met a wonderful lady who's home with my sick daughter in September of that year.

In early 2004, I proposed and then May 15th, I need to remember that date, of 2004 we were married.

We prayed about where to go and we heard the Lord telling us as we prayed to go to Philadelphia.

And so as we went from place to place raising funds as missionaries, we would always go to Revelation chapter 3 verses 7 to 13.

Just seemed so appropriate. The church in Philadelphia. And thus began a 12 -year mission trip.

For 12 years, my wife and I were ministering in inner -city Philadelphia. And I'll tell you this, in those years,

I and she, we saw enemies of the gospel that are, it's difficult to describe.

We saw murders, we saw sexual abuse, and we saw this little girl

Puka that was in the teen, the kids club ministry. A car hopped the curb running away from the police and ran her over and she was dead.

A little boy Sean got sick and we were at his bedside as he died of meningitis.

A boy Dale from our teen club, just a staple of our teen ministry, stabbed to death by his own brother in his own home.

And each one of these things just broke us, broke our hearts, seeing these things. And seeing not just the the physical things but the spiritual deception, the problems that come into the inner city, it's heartbreaking to see.

And yet, in all of this time, the door remained open. We weren't touched by anyone.

We had freedom to preach the gospel and people were getting saved and baptized. And we moved from this one church in Kensington to one in Hunting Park, working with the

Vietnamese church. We saw God working there as well.

The church growing, but there were some internal problems at that church, where because the church had grown so much and there were different races all coming together, there were some in, not in the particular church we were working with, but kind of in the association that was overseeing them that pulled the plug on that.

And that ministry fell apart. It was very sad to see. They did because I think they didn't like to see that they were no longer a

Vietnamese church. Now it was becoming a multiracial church and that was hard for them.

Man, so many times it just looked like the door closed and yet God was in it.

Exactly four years ago to the day, March 1st, I came here to pastor this church.

But here's what I've seen happen over the years. Lord blessing here. Recently, Tim from our congregation here has gone back into the inner city and is ministering with the church where my wife and I ministered for eight of those years.

And they saw their kids club ministry go from 25 to 75 in the first three weeks. The Lord blessing there.

And then I got a phone call this week and the Vietnamese pastor said, I want to bring you in and we'll do an apologetics conference and bring all the

Vietnamese churches together and we'll talk about the sufficiency of Scripture and the exclusivity of Christ and and the danger of social justice and how the

Trinity needs to be upheld. And I said, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. And here's what

I remembered. The open door. No one can shut it. Even in the bleakness of how it looks, so many times the door remains open for ministry.

That's our inheritance to keep walking in. We need to be like the church in Philadelphia. Praying for open doors.

He will open a door for your ministry and you'll walk through it and no one can stop it. This gospel that we have is a powerful gospel.

You realize that? They can't stop our youth ministry. They can't stop our kids ministry.

They can't stop our ministry in the elderly with the with the senior living that many of you do.

Down in Camden, guys that go down there and minister to the the men in recovery. The enemies of our gospel can't stop you.

Go with power believing the IHN ministry. Enemies can't stop it.

Walk through these open doors with this kind of strength. It's not a strengthen yourself. We're little.

We're just a small church in New Jersey compared to the thousands of people around us.

And yet we hold to his word. We keep his word. We don't deny his name. Verse 9,

Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that you that they are Jews and are not.

So these are I guess a small group of Jewish people who are persecuting the church in Philadelphia.

I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. In the end, there is a certain and final victory.

The world will see. Right now, we look like the minority, the losers, the trampled underfoot, increasingly marginalized in this culture, are we not?

There will come a day of our vindication as Christ is exalted. The world will see that he is the victor and that we belong to him.

That time is coming. There's the promise right there in verse 9. Now in verse 10, Because you have kept my word.

What's the key? Just keeping it. Keeping the word about patient endurance.

So that means you got to continue to believe in this hostile culture. You continue to believe his word in the midst of that culture about patient endurance.

I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world. Well, if you continue to read the book of Revelation, you know at that talks about, right?

The tribulation. Seven years as the world has never seen it before. A horrible hour of judgment and wrath.

Mark that word. It's coming to try those who dwell on the earth.

Here, guys, is one of the clearest evidences that the rapture happens before the tribulation.

Somebody should say amen to that, because I do not want to live through what's coming in chapter 6 and following.

I'm glad that this is the way it is, but I'm not just glad because I want it to be that way. I'm glad because of this very principle.

God has not destined us for wrath, but to achieve salvation.

We're not destined for wrath. That verse, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 9, comes in the context of the rapture of the church.

We will not precede those who have fallen asleep, meaning those who have died. The Christians who have died will be caught up together with the

Lord to meet Him in the air, and so we will meet Him in the air, and He will come. And the question is, well, when's all this gonna happen?

Not for you to know the times or dates. He's coming like a thief in the night, but He's not a thief in the night to you, because you're children of the day.

You walk in the light, and you are not destined for wrath, but to obtain salvation.

Good news. It means He's going to catch us up with Him in the air before the tribulation comes upon this earth.

That's what I see it saying right here. Tell me if I'm wrong. It's in verse 10. I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world.

Wrath escape. We escape wrath. That's the good news of the gospel, and it bears out in the coming period of judgment.

You say, well, wait a minute. Isn't there always suffering in the world, and we don't get rescued from that?

We don't escape suffering for all of these 2 ,000 years since His coming. Why do we escape that wrath?

Because that wrath, look over at Revelation chapter 6, verse 17.

This is a day of the wrath of the Lamb and of the Father. What do

I mean? This is not just ordinary suffering that comes because it's a fallen world, and people persecute.

No, this is actually wrath. The very thing that we are spared from. The tribulation is a day of wrath.

It's the beginning of judgment, and the church has been rescued, obtained by the blood of the

Lamb, rescued from that judgment. Good news. Verse 11, I am coming soon.

Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. Oh, I love that picture.

Hold fast to the word. Sometimes we think that this battle that we fight is is just gonna be swinging the sword against enemies, shedding blood, but I love the image that you see in the

Chronicles of Narnia. I do like that movie, by the way, even though there's that slight theological error at the death of Aslan.

There's a scene I love where Peter is face -to -face with a wolf, and behind Peter are a brother and a sister, or I think two sisters at that moment.

He's got a sword, and he has to go to war, and they're just kind of frozen face -to -face, but here's how the battle takes place.

In the providence of God, an earthquake shatters the ice sheet that's over them, and an avalanche of ice comes down at them, and so here's how he fights the battle.

Seeing this take place, he takes his sword and pierces the ice beneath him, and he yells, hold on, and in that moment, that piece of ice breaks away, and they're shot underwater only to emerge, and the iceberg becomes their raft, and there's

Peter holding on to the sword, and his siblings holding on to him.

This is a picture of how we fight. We hold on to the word. The battle is like a diagnosis that comes, and you just have to hold on.

Hold on to the word, or you bring home this cuddly and cute little baby, and they're just so warm and lovely, and then you get 18 years of parenting, and that is the definition of hold on.

Hold on to the word, or just growing old, and the body begins to fail.

Somebody said that growing old is not for wimps. That's probably true, but you hold on, and see, this is the the battle that holding on is patient endurance.

That's the battle we're in. We just need to keep holding on to the word. Don't give up in the time of your trial.

This is the battle we're fighting. We're conquering by holding on to Christ and to his word.

Finally, the promise, the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. The imagery here is that you belong to him, and I think what's happened is you have conquered in his name, and he surrounds himself with conquerors.

Because look what it says, 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 my own new name. Do you see the belonging? It's my God and my name, and the name of the city is marked on you.

You belong there. God surrounds himself with conquerors, and never do you go out.

This is the inheritance of the Christian. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

Spirit says to the churches. So in closing, there are many enemies that will come against you.

Some of them will be your own flesh, some are the world outside of you, the culture, and the devil himself.

These enemies are coming at us all the time, but we are more than conquerors.

We are more than conquerors. We can live like Philadelphia. All we have to do, hold the word, do not deny his name.

Hold on. Hold on. You're gonna make it. You can be faithful.

You don't have to fall into patterns of sin, practices of sin. Hold on to the word.

Be like David. The battle belongs to the Lord. Jehoshaphat. The battle belongs to the Lord. Esther'sot.

The battle belongs to the Lord. Christ has conquered. Just hold on to him.

Amen? Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word today. We're holding on to it.

We're holding on for dear life because your word is life to us. We're waiting for your appearing.