012 s1-626 Revelation 3:7-13 Philadelphia: Church With An Open Door 05-05-2013

if you're just joining us we're going right through the Bible that's all we do here at atheists verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book right through the scriptures we're in the book of Revelation chapter three pardon me and yeah when we finished Revelation will pick up Genesis and go right on through there and cover that in a couple weeks I'm sure but last time it took us 13 years to go through the Bible and on this particular time through it's going to probably a little longer than that but you know it really when you think that's not that long to go through the whole Bible as a church kind of given some good study time and work how thankful I am for a church that's willing to plow through Scripture and be willing to take some time I know that especially as I've been going through these churches it tends to be a little long-winded but you guys still keep coming that's amazing to me I wouldn't come back but if you guys are faithful and I love it now I'm just kidding it's good stuff but these seven churches are kind of the topic at hand as we're going through revelation two and three those two chapters speak of it's really Jesus writing letters to seven distinct churches in Asia Minor which is today modern-day Turkey and you say but Brad I thought the book of Revelation was about end times but really we have to understand the book of Revelation is it's the revelation of Jesus Christ really it's more about Jesus really than it is about the end times it does speak about the end times we'll get into that stuff and there's plenty to talk about the the world scene and how the Bible's gonna tell us here in Revelation that eventually there's going to come a battle at the end it's the Battle of all battles the Battle of Armageddon and people say Oh doom and gloom that's what the book of Revelation is about it's really not it's about Jesus Christ and the salvation that he gives to us how the churches are to behave and follow Jesus and that how Jesus is coming back for his church and he's gonna rule and reign on this earth I mean there's some great great news it's all really good news there's a few bits of bad news that's coming but when we talk about the Tribulation Period but it's a seven-year period that's gonna be pretty bad really bad but but there's gonna be great hope and great blessing from Christ so really it's all about Jesus his return but here in these two chapters it's about the church by the way you know one of the things of the battle arm again and it's all the guns of the world are gonna be aimed toward Israel you know 50 years ago 60 well 70 years ago there was no Israel to aim at so people and Bible scholars said ah this all must be figurative it's not something to be taken literally but the idea of the world facing their guns toward Israel is that something that might happen someday it's kind of happening right now in fact in the last 48 hours have you seen Israel's fired rockets into Syria which is a big deal it is a big deal blowing up some missiles that came in from Iran and Israel saying we can't afford to let Syria and Assad have these weapons that could cause great harm to Israel because these people do lob missiles over the border that's what they do over there over there and and the world kind of looks at Israel and says oh you can't protect yourself and it's an interesting dichotomy but and a problem the arab-israeli conflict it's been going for a long long time but the Bible is going to speak to that the book of Revelation talks about that and people get all intrigued by those things and they are intriguing but really what an amazing thing we have before us today more importantly in some ways I think than just the geopolitical situation which is important we'll talk about that later but but today we've got this message from Jesus to his church and that's important we should really say ok Lord if you're gonna speak to the church what do you want us to learn and what do you want us to do what are we supposed to avoid and what is good behavior and so so far we saw the church at Ephesus who left in their first love and a not only spoke of that local Church of Ephesus but it also spoke of a period of time in church history each of the seven churches kind of gives us a panoramic view of church history it's an interesting study of church history really but Ephesus represents 33 ad from the time Jesus ascended all the way through 180 where the church the that was very new and was getting off the ground they left their first love people some of them even knew Jesus personally and and even still the church sort of left about that first love that they had that's something we should guard against then we saw the church at Smyrna nothing to correct nothing bad to say about Smyrna for they were the persecuted Church and Jesus said hang on man you can make it through this time of persecution but but the panoramic view the historical view that was a season from 100 AD all the way through 312 ad where massive persecution took place ten waves of persecution by ten Roman emperors and we studied that then we moved to Pergamos which was a church that really had an objectionable mixture of worldliness and the church and that's what Pergamos means objectionable marriage and that's what they did they married the church with paganism really and that that sparked all kinds of trouble in the church and that brought you to Thea Tyra by the way that spoke of them the period of 313 when Constantine came into power and Constantine was the guy who sort of turned the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity he saw a vision of a cross apparently we don't know if this was real or fake but he saw a cross and he saw in this sign conquer so he rallied all the Christians and sort of eventually legalized Christianity no longer were they persecuted but Constantine and shortly thereafter others said no Christianity is what it is and everybody's got to be a Christian so the church started to fill up with people that didn't know anything about Jesus it became more political and it became even accepting of paganism pagan practices that came from ancient Babylon in and it kind of infiltrated into the church and really corrupted the church it was an objectionable marriage which then brought about the next church age that Thyatira we studied that that was a church that allowed this woman Jezebel to preach or teach fornication and sexual sin in the church but fornication in the image also can speak of a spiritual fornication accepting and teaching sinfulness within the church and that happened in the medieval church and we saw that that was a horrible time in church history and and some of the things that happened are are unacceptable to say the least in in that time period but all that to say that brought us through Thyatira and then we came to Sardis and that's where we learned of that that that church that was a representation of denominationalism or dead denomination he says you have a reputation Sardis that you're alive but you're really dead and and and sad we see churches today that are very much like that and God forbid that we be a church that's dead the dead Church we you know in Portland sadly there are churches that don't believe the Bible there's churches that don't even believe that Jesus is God who came and died on the cross and and if you start denying those things there's there's all kinds of action but no real life well how can you have action if there's no life I'm a farm kid we we we saw a lot of that when you when you get the chickens out and you're getting ready to have some you know roasted chicken you go out and my next door neighbor was the guy who normally did it he'd chop the heads off of the chickens and there was a lot of life even though they were technically dead they'd run around ever heard chicken with a head cut off I know a lot of you Portland there's a little squeamish and stuff but that's just the way it is if you have a chicken after church so I realized there was a chicken the probably flopped around for a while or ran around that you say Bret what's that oh well that's what the church does there's a there's a dead church that seems to be alive but there's no real life in it because the head is gone it's it's dead and we looked at that Sardis dead denominationalism and especially Protestantism because we saw some of the things with the catholic church in Thyatira and in Pergamos but we saw how Protestantism historically started to move away from that life that the Lord would have in his church well that brings us really to the sixth Church in our study the church at Philadelphia Philadelphia let's take a look at this and go through this together it says here in verse 7 this is Revelation chapter 3 verse 7 it says to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things saith he that is holy he that is true he that hath the key of David he that openeth and no man shutteth ok so first of all who's talking to the Church of Philadelphia well we know from our previous churches this is Jesus Christ speaking to his church and these titles are intriguing and interesting to say the least first of all he that is holy the word holy if you're fairly new to this whole thing holy it's not just a word that only refers to God but in the sense that Jesus was holy for sure but the Bible says be ye holy as I the LORD am holy hmm so what is holiness what does it mean excuse me holiness means to be perfectly whole or lacking for nothing altogether the whole is the idea and the Lord is just that now say how then can we be holy well we really can't in and of ourselves holiness is something that the Lord does for us and it's a great part of being a Christian as the Lord will fill your life and make you whole even in spite of yourself in spite of our shortcomings and our lacking the Lord will fill us with whole wholeness but he is the ultimate one who is holy and he that is true that's the second delineation don't you love the fact that the Lord is true Jesus even says I am the way the truth and the life whenever you talk about Jesus you're gonna see truth the world tries to say that and very much wants to say that Jesus is not true and they'll try to deny Jesus but what's what's amazing to me is there's no more documented no more you know historical figure that is more backed up with with people and documents and archeology and all that there's not not one single character in history that is more impressive than Jesus Christ the claims that he made the death on the cross the resurrection of our Savior those things are verified but it's funny because in so many of the other religions there's nothing that's really very verified in fact there's so many things that are quite dubious and there's a lot of deception quite frankly I remember when Muhammad Muhammad tried to bomb pioneer squirt here's remember this few years ago Muhammad Muhammad you say well who was Bahama - mama remember that's funny I've actually met in Jordan the nation of Jordan I was there in Amman and I met a guy named Muhammad Muhammad Muhammad and it's like the more Muhammad you can get in your name the more cool that is well Muhammad Muhammad tried to blow up Portland that the way it went down is some I think some federal agents kind of went undercover and acted like they were selling him a detonating device that was operated by a cell phone so he was down there during Christmas when all the people were gathered he was gonna try to blow up the plum he dialed the number to detonate his bomb that was the FBI phone that they'd given him and actually called the FBI people so it was kind of like hiss their signal oh he's calling us he's trying to blow people up so he they answered and they said hey isn't this supposed to work and and they said well you have to step outside to make it really work so he steps outside and that's where they arrested him and he was yelling a lot of locks bar and all that stuff and that happened here in Portland well what was interesting to me is the way that the Oregonian sort of handled that and there was a some articles that I thought were intriguing and they were trying to find balance between fundamentalist Islam versus the peace-loving religion that it is and and it's so funny when we see our own administration try to downplay the jihadist and there's just a few even a couple weeks ago I saw our president say there's just a few of these crazy you know wild-eyed jihadists he won't even you jihadis because he doesn't think that's a bad word but there's their language they're even changing our language we don't want to call them terrorists a lot but you think man what's what about this well they interviewed a couple of the Imams here in in Portland and one of the articles that I read there in The Oregonian article the author turned to two Muslim leaders about the words of the Quran and the sacred text of Islam and about jihad and all that but this this one Imam said you know after all he said the word Islam is the same as the word Shalom really that's what he said and he said they're really synonymous and it mean no matter what you read no matter what you hear no matter what anybody tells you the same mom says it really is the same thing it means that you a peace attained by submitting to God that's what he said now the problem is he's telling don't believe anybody else that you want that you that you hear this this is what it means although the rest of the world and and this is something I do know a little bit about it made somewhat of a life study of Islam and Israel and I've been to these countries and Arab countries and spent some substantial time there only to find out that really Islam means submission and Shalom means what peace right Shalom is when you go to Israel you say Shalom and it's like peace you're wishing peace upon everybody you say okay but what's your point the point is they have nothing to do with each other and when you really dive into the word Islam it means submission and now if you're a fundamentalist Muslim it means either submission by becoming a Muslim or submission by death with the sword yeah but Brett that's just a few crazy extremists well what you have to do is realize something and by the way having been to you know some of these nations and and you know even Jordan which is a fairly friendly nation toward America being in Jordan I've talked to a lot of the Muslims on the streets and I met a lot of these guys I mean a guy who's saying all I wanted to be is Saddam Hussein I I love Saddam Hussein and that was shortly after he died you know or was hung executed and and he said you know death to America and these kinds of things and it was just interesting meeting some of these people but but all that to say there's 1.5 billion Muslims around the world our own government admits that oh just a small percentage of those are the extremists okay so you say what kind of percentage will they say about two but let's just give them a huge leeway and say there's only one percent of Muslims are extremists what is one percent of 1.5 billion people let's make it even easier let's say there's only a billion Muslims for those of us that are mathematically challenged what is 1% of 1 billion any of you mathematicians help us out huh no that's 10 million the mass people are like no you guys is that right 10 million am i right all right yeah whew good where's our math teachers yeah 10 million so there's only a few and that few and I just gave a percentage away and I took away a half a billion people do you understand that even by admission our own government saying there's probably only 2% of Muslims are actually the extremists that puts us probably closer to 15 million people on the planet that's a lot of folks and the reason I say that is you know one thing you'll find is everything in the news everything that we hear and all these other religions stuff the information I'm finding more and more the older I get everything such well I feel it's it's it's so deceptive there's a twisting there's propaganda everything is so questionable what do we really believe anymore and what should you believe do you believe Fox News do you believe MSNBC or CNN I just don't know if you want to believe anybody except what's amazing what's so exciting is the Bible for centuries continues to be supported continues to prove itself as right and Jesus continues to be the way the truth and the life I love that we could just rest in Jesus being true Muhammad said I shall return to Jerusalem that was the one prophetic statement Muhammad made do you know that I will return to Jerusalem but the problem is he never did the one prophetic thing he said he didn't do Jesus has done all that he claimed he would do and so I love that I probably am camping out on this too much but it's just one of those things that I love about our Savior he's the truth so we know that he's holy number one he's the truth but there's a title given here he's it says he that hath the key of David he verse seven at the end there and that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth so Jesus has a key and it's called the key of David so what key is that well summer tempted to go to chapter 1 verse 18 and say well maybe that's the key event mentioned there where it says in chapter 1 verse 18 I am he that liveth and was dead that's Jesus and behold I am Alive for evermore amen and have the keys of hell and death Jesus has the keys of ELA death is that the same thing the key of David and the key Avella because some people say yeah same key and you could you could argue that if you wanted to but I don't believe it's the same key now what's the key of hell and death people say Jesus is gonna lock you up at hell I don't believe that's the case I think some people look at Jesus like he's the the dog on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride remember that the prison cells are on fire and the prisoners are likely to get a bone and they're like here put in the dogs got the key in his mouth and just sitting there and the place is on fire it's a great seat and the Pirates right and they think that's Jesus so I've got the keys and you're going to hell you're gonna burn but that's not it Jesus is the one I believe who locks up and shuts doors that no man can and if you become a Christian if you believe in Christ Jesus shuts the door of hell and locks it so that you don't go there he keeps you out of hell that's what Jesus Christ does and I love that about that our Savior Jesus and he also opens the doors of the no man can shut and if you're a Christian you'll be able to open in the door of heaven if you would because Jesus has the key it's great stuff but what's this key of David if you're interested you can jot this down or maybe turn there if you're a fast Bible Turner but Isaiah chapter 22 we read about a key of David by the way I like to remind you of from time to time the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible and I like other commentaries for the Bible I read them and some commentators are more common than other taters but but I love the Bible for commentary because it speaks really well of itself so when you read something like the key of David what is that well go back to Isaiah and it says this now what was going on a guy named Sheba was in charge of the temple but he was a total thief and he's ripping off the temple buying all kinds of things for himself and so the Lord says shaping us out and I'm gonna put a new person in to make things right in the temple and so that's what goes on and he says in verse 22 this is Isaiah 22 22 it says in the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut he shall shut and none shall open should this give us a little bit of a hint that we're talking about the same thing it's the exact same language isn't it the key of David door that is shut that no man opens a door that's open the dimension of same thing so that's that's a good clue wouldn't you say that this is the same key and someone's gonna have a key on their shoulder and it's now what's great about the Old Testament is sometimes there's what we call a dual fulfillment of prophecy that is there's a literal sheep now who's getting out and there's a little literal guy alaya Kim the son of the Kai who's gonna come and fix things up it's a literal literal story but then you see Isaiah's gaze go further than the local situation and he starts talking and sort of mysterious language let's continue to read he says he's gonna shut a door and no man can open and verse 23 I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house any imagery here that maybe comes to mind the cross of Christ right this is the way the Bible comes together beautifully and the offspring it says the issue of all vessels of small quantity from vessels of cups even vessels of flagons for your Bible students vessels are a type of what anybody us we have this treasure in earthen vessels your your liking to a cup or a mug or a vase in the Bible and that there's some interesting imagery in that day verse 25 key words in that day saith the Lord of Hosts shall the nail that is fasted in the sure place be removed be cut down and fall and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off for the Lord hath spoken it you say man what in the world is all that about just a quick because it's not the main point I'm just gonna give you a quick I'm gonna throw you a bone for you students but this I believe is speaking of Christ's coming with the key of David which is talking about not just the temple of this local story but perhaps the Millennial Kingdom temple that Christ is going to come and be there and worshiped it's an interesting thing by the way we're going to get into that Millennial Kingdom and the temple and what-have-you when we get to the end of the book of Revelation so this will come back to us but who is the one who has this key to that Millennial temple the Millennial worship or that thousand year period that the Bible says is coming where Christ is going to come and rule on this earth Jesus is the one is the key on his shoulder that's the key of David referred to here and I believe as we go back to Revelation chapter 3 it's the same key that the war that Jesus is the one who has the key that opens and shuts that Millennial Kingdom temple which looks like I said we'll get into in the latter part of this book are you still with me on that so it's probably not the keys to death in Hell as in Revelation chapter one but a different key here verse eight I know thy works he says to Philadelphia behold I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it for thou hast a little strength has kept my word and has not denied my name three things Jesus has to say specifically about this church in Philadelphia that they have little strength kept my word and not denied my name and because of that I've opened the door before you open door what's the point of the open door well this is called the Church of the open door that means that the Lord sets before this church and opportunity and that's exactly what Pergamos a permanent pretty much Philadelphia in fact really was now Philadelphia by the way we're not talking about America but William Penn actually named Philadelphia here in the States and it's because he was a godly guy and he knew what Philadelphia means phileo is brotherly love so it's the city of brotherly love and and they named that city here in America after this ancient city of Philadelphia that had the open door and they were a beautiful church there's nothing said negative about this church as well no correction so the two churches that come out of this unscathed when Jesus talks to him is Smyrna which was the persecuted Church and Philadelphia which was the open door Church the Church of brotherly love if you would and so he only says good things about them and what does he say three things first thou hast a little strength sometimes I think Christians like to sort of present themselves as powerful but I'm not sure that's really the heart of the Lord and sometimes you'll you'll see on TV some of the more hyperactive Christians who will sort of gyrate and say we got the power you ever notice they say it like that they got you gonna kind of inflect your voice and get the back flow there's like there's like chill out buddy see the thing is I don't believe that we need to hyper act or react to God and sort of act like we're powerful beings because quite frankly we are puny little even the Angels you know we know the Angels are powerful beings in fact the book of Revelation is going to tell us about an angel that puts one foot in the ocean and one foot on the land that's a honkin angel you know I'm saying this giant angel in fact in the Old Testament one angel and one night comes and kills one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers from Assyria led by Rep Shaka I mean angels are powerful God is almighty but we well the Lord tells us that God chooses to use the weak and the foolish things in this world to confound the wise I think we need to stop acting like we're powerful yeah but Brett we got the power of the Holy Spirit yeah but that's the Holy Spirit working through a very weak little vessel I think we need to very much learn humility as a church that well you know we are just little people who are insignificant and weak that the Lord says guess what I can use that person so it's not that I'm diminishing what God can do through us and through the people but I love how here Jesus commends them not for their power but for their little teeny strength that they have I got just a little strength that's encouraging to me because sometimes I feel spiritually you know not so not so strong it's an interesting thing there's something about the feeling of power you know I used to like to do the power lifting that was one of my mic things and it's pretty funny because you could you can feel very powerful around some people but there's always someone who's more powerful than you you know and I remember even in high school I was you know holding some weightlifting records and stuff and later on I got to lift some big weights and stuff and you feel pretty strong you know I could bench over 500 pounds but then we got a guy in our church who is 65 years old he benches 615 pounds anyways a lot less than I do he's like a little fella compared to me and I think man that's funny how it's all about who you compare yourself to you know what I'm saying yeah and and the funny thing about that is really we need to compare ourselves to Jesus Christ and when you stand in light of Christ you realize we all just a little strength just a tiny bit of strength so look to Christ but understand he acknowledges I know you you got a little strength that's good but you've kept my word that's number two they were keepers of the word boy it may not be true of a theory Christian Fellowship it's so easy to be hearers of the word and because we've taken the notes we think we are keeping the word because we have written it down but but are we really keeping the word that is doing what we hear you know the Bible warns not to just be hearers only but to be doers of the word thus was the case with the church at Philadelphia they would keep the word that was something they were given to saying we're gonna just follow the scriptures we've got a church in America that very much says whatever we read the Bible but you know the Bible I read the Bible like I eat fish I eat the meat but I spit out the bans there are no bones in the Bible the Bible is full of truth every word and the Bible says that we are to keep the words of this book and the church at Philadelphia one of the reasons I don't think there was any correction is because they were keepers of the word that's what we have to do as a church to say how can we be more like what the Bible says the church should be if you're new here you're saying why do you guys do what you do and why are you meeting in a warehouse where's your stained glass and what's the deal with the you know teaching the Bible and verse by verse and why aren't you wearing a pointy hat and robes and where's tad swinging the incense down the aisle as pastors to do that stuff where is that stuff again we're just saying how can we be keepers of the word not man's traditions or things that we've invented that are kind of goofy really if you ask me but the Bible keeping the word that's the goal that's what this church did so they were having little strength but they kept the word and they've not denied my name when we were in first John as a church that was a big deal you don't deny the name of Jesus not just that you're saying I deny the name but when you talk about the name of Jesus we're also talking about his nature the nature of Jesus his character and who he claimed to be and he claimed to be deity so in essence as you read this you understand that to deny the name of Christ would be to deny that Christ is God who came in the flesh lived among us died on the cross rose from the grave these are people who took Jesus seriously so good commendations man I love this and so it goes on he says in verse 9 behold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews and are not but do lie behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee so what'swhat's this well this is familiar if you've been going with us we saw the the the synagogue of satan' mentioned in chapter 2 I believe in verse 9 where we saw these people that were claiming to be Jews but we're not God says you're not really Jews why because these people were very much back into legalism they were saying we need to get back to Judaism and you Christians they're Gentiles you got to go get circumcised you got to go make sure not eat meat sacrificed to idols you got to keep the Sabbath you got to keep the Mosaic law and they were they were laying a trip on the people and so in Acts chapter 15 there was a council with Paul and Peter and James and some of the bigwigs in the early church and they prayed about this talked about it they came to the conclusion that men these new Gentile Christians they shouldn't be held to the law that the Jews that we couldn't even keep those laws and so in later Paul would expand that whole thought of saying we are no longer under the law the law was a schoolmaster to teach us to drive us to Jesus Christ so there was those in in the days of the Church of Philadelphia that would try to lay on a legalistic trip to make them do more and today we see the same thing in our own communities where people say man if you really want to be a Christian you got to keep the Passover or you've got a you know have the Feast of Tabernacles or it even gets more less Jewish but still legalistic if you really want to be a Christian man you better give your tithe if you're not giving your tithes you have to question whether you're really Christian there's some churches so-called don't lay that trip on people then it's just wrong way way wrong you can be a Christian and go to heaven not because of your good works or your good deeds if he's ins to verse 8 makes this exceedingly clear you're saved by grace which the word grace means undeserved unearned favor you're saved by grace through faith and not of works lest any man should boast yeah Brit but James says faith without works is dead and I'd say exactly that is if a person is truly saved you will see good works follow them to believe you'll see and the good fruit in their life that's just evidence of a person who really believes and it's been saved by grace and James and Paul are not in disagreement but they absolutely agree it's but if you don't want to get the cart before the horse the works will follow a person who's truly saved and it's going to be evidence of that salvation but you say but Brett I've noticed that that person still sins so here's the question if a person if they had sin in their life even after they accepted Christ and became a Christian and they still have sin in their life would they make it to heaven well the the question I would ask then is who would make it to heaven because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God there's no one righteous not even one Paul who's sort of our Superbowl champion of Christianity he says I am the chiefest of sinners and he complains in the book of Romans I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I do want to do he was admitting it's a struggle if it's a struggle so thinking that you have to clean up your act and be a good person and hopefully your good outweighs your bad and maybe you'll get to heaven if you're good now that's just a total godless worldly mindset we are saved by God's good grace His goodness is kindness that leads us to repentance the only way we can be saved is because God is good amen amen well this church they had those that were trying to change that they were called the synagogue of Satan pretty heavy title that God gives to them well he says in verse 10 because thou has kept the word of my patience I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth did you notice that here we have a unique thing happened in this message to the churches generally Jesus speaks specifically to those churches in their specific location here with the Church of Pergamos he broadens his description to the end of time and all the world did you see that it's not he's not just talking about Philadelphia anymore but he's speaking to them he said hey listen if you Church Philadelphia and remember the different applications we've been making there's the local Church of Philadelphia that there's the greater churches Athey Creek and others around the world that we can learn from here this is where we start to see that application he's saying behold he says if you be patient I will keep thee from the hour of temptation are some of your newer translations the hour of tribulation and the word from there is an interesting Greek word it literally means it well the Greek word is Eck you say heck there's no what you say we need broccoli no it's the Greek word Eket means out from out from now this is interesting now I wouldn't use this as a proof text for pre-trib rapture I wouldn't but as a pre-trib er I do see evidence that the Lord pulls his people out from tribulation and that's what I think he's talking about here this church of Philadelphia I will pull the out from tribulation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth remember the tribulation is when God is gonna seal the deal and say I'm gonna I'm gonna pour out my wrath upon a christ-rejecting sinful world there will come a day where Christ is going to do that and good news we are not appointed unto wrath 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 tells us that but we have obtained salvation through Jesus Christ so I don't believe we're appointed to wrath I don't believe the Christians are gonna go through the tribulation that's my personal view people can disagree with me good Christian people who just have differing views but that's one of the things I see not just here in verse 10 but really kind of all through the scriptures and we'll probably talk more about that as we go through revelation behold verse 11 I come quickly Brett Jesus said this two thousand years ago Jesus was wrong well he was mistaken well you gotta remember there's a couple things about that first of all on a real surface sea level you could just say Jesus said with me a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day so in jesus's timeframe you could say it's been a couple days breath that's trickiness okay I'll give it to you but the greek word here is not tricky it's an interesting word the word is where the word the greek word is where we get our word tachometer and the word tachometer doesn't mean that speed as much does it when you want to see how fast you're going you look at a speedometer but what do you do when you look at a tachometer well it has to do with the there's words that's related to like rapidity is a word that's linked to the Greek word tackies and it means that even suddenly is a word that's often used with that you know tachometer measures revolutions per minute has to do with revving revving up and that's what the Lord saying things are gonna Rev up and I'm gonna come with great suddenness and rapidity that's kind of the idea so don't be too freaked out by the English words quickly because really the Lord is remaining true and faithful to his word behold I come quickly hold fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown if a crown is the stefanos in the Greek it means it's a reward that the Lord is gonna give to us you said I'm not into crown so I don't want a crown in fact it's interesting it's not even a crown of gold the the word for crown a gold crown like a king's crown is diadem in the Greek but the the crown stefanos is the leafy crown that the Greeks got from the Olympic Games hold breath that's even worse I'm not in the Leafs man I'd only like salad but here's the thing that's not the idea the idea of this crown that one will get in fact I'll just read it to you first Thessalonians 2 kind of gives us some interesting information it says in 219 of first Thessalonians 4 what is our hope our joy our crown of rejoicing are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ as is coming for you are our glory and our joy the idea is when we stand before the Lord the Crown's that we receive for the blessings and the and the things that we've done the good things that the Lord recognizes even though we have a little strength and we've done just a little bit the Lord's gonna say I'm gonna reward you with a crown but does anybody recall what are we gonna do with those crimes we're gonna hoard them to ourselves they look at all my crowns I've got more crowns than you is that what we're gonna do no what are we gonna do with them we're gonna cast them back before the Lord and say Lord these are back this is it was gonna it's gonna be a heavenly way to give God glory into worship and you say well cool man all that people throw crowns all just down there but I have a hunch that when we get there it's gonna mean more than what we think it means there's a weightiness to being able to worship God with that sort of a passionate giving back of crowns but that's the idea it's a crown of victory like they had in the Greek days Jesus says to the Church of Philadelphia got if you hang in there you're gonna receive a crown you know James even talked about this plus is a man that endures temptation for when he has tried he will receive a crown of life which is promised to those who love him again Stefan off scram there well verse 12 him that overcometh will i make a pillar in the temple of my god and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my god don't you love that what will be given sort of a role in the Millennial Kingdom is the idea a pillar of strength in the temple but also the Lord's gonna write his name on you remember in that toy story when Andy writes his name what's his name Woody's foot because it's his toy right yeah the Lord when you get to he's gonna snake God he's gonna ride his name on and I'm okay with that I like that I want to be God's I want him to claim me as his own and that's what he's gonna write on the name of God and the name of the city of my god which is the New Jerusalem it's interesting to me I talked about Israel and Syria and you know the arab-israeli conflict and everybody argues over Jerusalem you know should the Palestinians have Jerusalem or should it be the Jews and the answer of that is interesting none of the above but Preda the Jews well I do believe the Jews are God's chosen people and they still are I'm not into replacement theology I think that's a bad horrible teaching that's out there that the church replaced the Jews and now we are the new Jew that's that's wrong teaching just read Romans chapter 9 10 and 11 if you read those three chapters it will put down any stupidity of replacing God's people and God says don't be arrogant Gentiles about the Jews and that's exactly what a lot of Gentiles do but all that said the fact is Jerusalem the Lord says is mine my name's on Jerusalem that's interesting when we go to Jerusalem in November it's a strange vibe that you get there because you sense that there's a weightiness to Jerusalem you sense there's something really special about Jerusalem and yet really in all the Middle East it's kind of in some ways an unimpressive city like you kind of wonder what's the big deal about the city and the only reason it's a big deal is because it's a big deal why is it a big deal don't know it's a big deal and I would suggest it's a big deal and people gather and argue over Jerusalem because it's the city where Christ is going to return and rule and reign and and that's really a spiritual battle that's going on over that city it's amazing when you go there you just have to see it to understand what I'm talking about so it's going to be great we're doing that in November but Jerusalem is God's he says which cometh down out of heaven that's the New Jerusalem again we'll cover that at the end of the book of Revelation we'll talk about the New Jerusalem it comes down from my god and we'll write upon him my new name apparently there's a new name of God in the Millennial Kingdom and it's part of God don't you say what's why is God of a new name you have to understand the names of God which are many in the Bible by the way isn't his name Jehovah or Yahweh well in some ways yes but at the same time that's more of a title but we have many names he's called Jehovah sidqa nu which is our righteousness he's called Jehovah Rapha who's our healer he's called Jehovah Jireh who's our provider Jehovah Nisa which is our banner banner there's all kinds of names of God and he's wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of Peace and there's all these names that describe his nature and his character so when we hear this that he's going to give to us a new name it's not that he's changing his name but he's going to show to us even more of his character and his nature by revealing this new names that make sense so that's gonna be exciting thing when the Millennial Kingdom comes we'll learn something more about God that's gonna be I think radical and here he tells the church at Philadelphia that's something you can look forward to he that have an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches now before we pack it up I'd like to just cover that final part of our application we saw the local application it was a church in Philadelphia but then there's there's that personal application church application we've kind of touched on those that we need to be you know you have a little strength we be keeping the word and not denying the name of Lord there's there's life applications personally corporately as a church all these things we've seen but let's look at the panoramic view of church history what is the church at Philadelphia represent in time well keep in mind Ephesus left their first love 33 to 100 AD Smyrna was the persecuted Church 102 313 313 and further was Pergamos which was Constantine and that whole objectionable marriage theater was the age of fornication 600 AD to the present and Sardis was the age of dead Protestantism 1502 the president we talked about that time in history where Protestantism was started wonderfully in so many ways but they didn't go far enough and Protestantism failed in many ways and and continues to fail that was 1500 to the present that brings us to Philadelphia which is bringing us Steven Moore the church history in modern times and we start in the year 1800 because this was the Church of the open door now what you have to understand is Philadelphia had a strategic role in Turkey in those times some would call it the Christian pump the Christian pump yeah that's where Christ came and the church was growing there but it came through Philadelphia and went out to all the other cities it was almost like that was the place where Christian was being pumped into Asia Minor into these other churches the Lord used that as a gateway or a an open door that's the idea you see a lot of missionary organizations using that term the open door because that's kind of what is speaking of this age of the church where missionaries started to do radical work so so Philadelphia interesting this church bump it was founded the city by Atlus ii analysts I should say and I was a commercial importance it was a place that was known for huge earthquakes in fact in AD 17 there was an earthquake that just leveled the city and everybody had to just leave who wasn't killed and it's out there for a few years just totally desolate until Tiberius came and rebuilt the city at great cost to the people that live there they tax the people oppressively and rebuilt Philadelphia and it was and then after that it became sort of the Center for hellenism Helen is almost that well it's the Greek culture the Greek mindset Greek food and Greek architecture the Greek influence is all over the world you see that when you go travel all over the world you'll see the pillars with the cornices and the and the nicely carved statues and Hellenism there's evidence of that all over the world to this day but that but Philadelphia became sort of a center of Hellenistic world view and thought the Greek mythology and the gods and goddesses were associated with that but meanwhile while it was a center for this there was a church there that had a little strength and they kept the word and they didn't deny the name of the Lord and so the Lord used that little small group of people to be a pump of Christianity throughout the world eventually stretching in even to Rome and all over and eventually making its way to America and other places around the world so that speaks of really something that's quite amazing from what what happened in 1800 in church history that changed things what you have to understand there was there was a young man who's 14 years old who was an apprentice cobbler and he in his little cobbler shop there in London was working on the soles of shoes when he had in his little shop there a Bible and a copy of Captain Cook's journals that great Explorer and those two things kind of married together and that he loved the Lord and read his Bible but he also saw these stories of people groups all around the world where Captain Cook found these natives and jungles who were you know worshiping these gods and you know run around with Spears and bones and or noses and no knowledge of Jesus and what he did for further Humanity and this young kid said man I need to do something about this and so he went and started to work hard instead of caring about the soles of shoes he started caring about the soles of people his name William Carey and by the way a lot of the great movements throughout the church history were started by the Lord stirring the heart of a single individual I think that's kind of interesting the Lord used single men Martin Luther was one of those guys we talked about last week who had a stirring in his heart and radically changed the direction of the church and William Carey was the same kind of guy in fact in May of night of 1792 he went to his church and shared Isaiah 54 verses 2 through 3 lengthen the cords strengthen the stakes in other words make your tent bigger we need to broaden the gospel and share the gospel to all the world and we shouldn't just stay in our own little town and go to church and worship Jesus there's there's people that need to be saved and and he got into the the great call of Christ go into all the world and preach the gospel and so William Carey did just that he was joined by William Ward Joshua Marshman in 1799 the three became a trio of powerful missionaries when you read about these guys exploits it's just radical you know what have you done the last few years these guys well let me these three dudes found in 26 churches 126 schools their enrollment of these schools or more than 10,000 people they translated the scriptures into 41 languages produced grammar dictionaries organized India's first medical missionary buildings and facilities they built seminaries the translation of the Bible into Sanskrit was his work William Carey and and on and on it goes what have you done the last few years these guys make me tired just thinking about what they did but they went all over the world preaching the gospel and doing great things in fact it was William Carey said attempt great things for God and expect great things from God and he did that man he was willing to risk all and give up everything and go and do the work of a missionary and it was a new thing it wasn't you know we talked about missionaries today like oh yeah they've always been around not so William Carey is arguably the first missionary in the church for over a thousand years we didn't see much in missions as far as the church goes oh but brother were the crusade a very different thing that was not missionary work that was nonsense and not even really a Christian thing at all frankly quite ugly and sinful really were the Crusades so you got to understand that William Carey had a heart to see the the world saved and so he went radical now here's the deal what can we learn from this in church history this is huge this is where churches dropped the ball I think all the time you either evangelize or you will fossilize that's just the truth one of the quickest ways to be a dead church is not to see people saved to never invite people to accept Christ one of the fun things about ethnic Greek is every single weekend we have people give their hearts to Christ and become Christians by confessing with their mouth believing in that heart that Jesus died on the cross rose from the grave and it's a glorious thing just a simple faith in Christ and and I'm so blessed to be a part of that but even here we have to be careful because the church jesus said I want to make you fishers of men go out into all the world and the problem is the church has become an aquarium where the fish like to come and just hang out in our little bowl and we've got our little you know wood mill with the wheel and some bubbles going up over here and where I was like hanging out our fish bowl that's not what the church is supposed to be and people always say Brett where's your programs why don't you do this and that and start up with you know while church got into community it's all about community one of these you have to understand as we live in community whether you like it or not and by the way you and I congratulations we live in one of the least church communities in America Portland and Seattle battle it out for the least Church cities in America do you know that that's where we live that's where we live and so one of the things that we need to be doing is to go out into all the world and and and evangelize share the gospel even if it costs you even if it hurts it's something that we're called to do and and somehow the church can become sort of this Country Club sort of mindset and and in this church in Philadelphia has no correction no strong mean word or anything like that Jesus does man I know what you're doing keep it up don't give up keep doing it that's something we need to learn from the Church of Philadelphia to take the little strength that we have as a church and go out and evangelize I finished I know it's late but I finished this with one story it's one of my favorites you know and it's it's just a story of us of a dangerous sea coast and it was a stormy place where there were lots of jagged rocks and and every time a storm would come the ships would be pushed toward the Seacoast and there were dangerous rocks out that weren't really seen and so the ships would be dashed on the rocks well because of all the ships that we're seeing there were there were three men brave men had a little boat and some rescue buoys and they had like a little Hut that they built on the shore there and they take their boat out into the waters and rescue drowning victims from the radicle sea waves are smashing on the rocks and they bring them out of the water in their boat and they'd rescue them they pull it up build a bonfire and get them warm and send them on their way well after some years you know these guys had rescued a lot of people some of the people said man we need to be thankful for this what's going on so they they began to get behind the little rescue station that these guys had and they started to donate money and they they'd come and sort of encourage the guys been keep it up you're saving lives and they'd hang out with them and and then more ships would come and be crashed and they'd go down and rescue and they thought man this is enough sufficient facility so they they'd started to build in addition to the little Hut and they made a nice big main room and a big fireplace and put some showers in there and just made it more of a rescue station that was worthy of its calling but then as the time went by you know the ships would be dashed and the people would come in but the problem is as many of these guys would hang out at the rescue station they even took the old boat that they originally started with and some of the guys mounted it over the mantle of the fire is sort of a decoration on him and got him a a newer boat that was more impressive and they'd rescue people but the people were muddy and dirty and some people were foreigners and they weren't real sure about some of those foreigners you know and they started saying man I don't know you're gonna kind of mess it up they make it all dirty here let's put the showers outside they put the showers outside so the people could kind of hose off before they came into their rescue station and then they could come in and have food and eat but but the more people that got rescued the more they liked just to hang out there and warm themselves by the fire it sort of became sort of a club and as the club became comfortable and they kept making nice leather furniture and putting it all in there and pretty soon there were so many people just sitting around drinking coffee and having a good time playing games and ships would crash into the rocks but only a small few and try to rescue and and even bringing them up other guys would shun the drowning sick people and eventually they didn't want him anymore so they had a meeting and some of the original members said man we got a rescue this is about rescuing life-saving lies but the rest of the committee's voted them out and said if you want to do your rescue station your way then go build one on your own and so they did they went down the beach built a little Hut took the boat off the mantle and started rescuing people again but the problem is that little rescue station the same thing happened as years went by they made another Country Club and if you go to the shores of that place that by the ocean today all you see is a bunch of country clubs and resorts lining the beach while ships are being smashed into the rocks and people were drowning that's an allegory of what sadly today has kind of typifies the church Oh many of you were rescued I know some of the people in this room man some of your stories uh some of you came out of some seriously drowning situations and Christ pulled you up and somebody dragged you to church somebody somebody shared the gospel with you somehow you got rescued from the the drowning situation that you were in but you know it can come where you're saved and you know you're going to heaven you're saved by grace through faith and everything's good and and man I don't know if I need to really do anything I'm just gonna go to church and so I like having friends there and it's kind of fun you know there's Donuts a first service got Donuts now don't get me wrong doughnuts are anointed and holy before God but but but at the same time if this is all we do and see that's what I love about this fellowship I'm so thankful for it there's so many of you that are sharing the gospel of people at work some of you one of your gifts is just even giving there's people to give in a way that makes it so this church can go out into all the world we've got missionaries around all over the world that this church gets the support we support pastors in Africa we get to support missionaries in Brazil we got people down there living in the jungle translating the Bible we've got pastors and people in Vanuatu we've got several churches in Vanuatu that really rely on this fellowship to help them continue and flourish and grow and people are being saved and that's because there's some faithful people doing the hard work here just whether it's even if it's just giving some of you have that gift maybe you're not called to go living in the jungle but it's really cool when I see a church that's actively saying how can we reach out into all the world and I guess I learned from Philadelphia the church with the open door here the Lord says Athey Creek you've got an open door go out and all the world and preach the gospel would you pray about that say Lord what is it that you would have me to do maybe it is to be a missionary or maybe it's just to be a light in your workplace or your school that you attend and actually share the gospel for real bring people to church that they might hear the gospel maybe it's to just give maybe you're good at earning so you're good at giving the Lord uses that mightily but it's one of those things we can either be doers of the word or hearers only so I made the Lord give us ears to hear what the Spirit would say to his church in Jesus name let's pray together Lord as we close out this sermon I know that so many times people kind of feel tripped out and guilty but Lord when we think about it what I get to not a got to it's a get to to be able to reach out into a sea that's really dashing lives and rocks that are crushing people's hopes and dreams and and sin that's bringing people down but you've given us the privilege to be able to bring the light into this dark world father give us wisdom to know how to use the the little strength that we have that we'd be keeping your word and not denying your name Lord to help us to learn the lesson here from Philadelphia and I pray that a thie Creek would be a beacon of light that this would be a life-saving station where people come and that their lives are dripping with sin and that they're dirty with sand of this world Lord I pray that this would be a place where they could come and fill and that they could come and be changed and helped and encouraged forgive the church Lord of America where we become more like country clubs and less like life-saving stations so give us under they in Jesus name you

Channel: Lean-into-God

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Length: 62min 40sec (3760 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020