Revelation Revealed Pt 8

PHILADELPHIA   - THE FAITHFUL CHURCH
Text: Revelation 3:7-13
Ephesus - lost first love 
Smyrna - persecuted church 
Pergamus - compromising church 
Thyatira - corrupt church 
Sardis - dead church 
Philadelphia - the faithful church 
In Philadelphia there was also a “synagogue of Satan,” full of people who claimed to be Jews, but who lied (pseudontai in Greek): because they rejected Jesus their Messiah.
Philadelphia means “brotherly love.” 
A powerful earthquake nearly leveled the city in AD 17, so hearing these words of encouragement from Christ would have greatly helped them. 
To be made into “pillar[s]” of the temple (v. 12) would give them security in the world shaking around them.
“Pillars of the community” - not shaken. Dealt with what was thrown at them with integrity nand grace.  

• Jesus has sovereign control over who gets into the kingdom of God. 
• Jesus’s acceptance of his people cannot be reversed by the world’s rejection of them. 
• God’s true people will be publicly identified and vindicated in the end. 
• Christ will protect his people from spiritual attack even though they may suffer physical persecution. 
• The greatest eternal reward possible is a permanent place in the presence of God.

Keys - represent authority!
There are many points of application in this message for the contemporary church, but two stand out.

1. 
   
   1. Success in our faith journey is determined not by our power or prestige in the eyes of the world but by our willingness to persevere in simple obedience to Jesus. 

There are many churches and Christians who will identify with and be encouraged by this message. They feel weak and powerless in the eyes of the world and even in the eyes of other Christians and churches. But Jesus’s words in verse 8 can resonate powerfully with them: he knows they have little strength, yet they have obeyed! How many boast of great strength and yet substitute many things religious for simple obedience. And Jesus, not the world or even its religious leaders, determines who gets into the kingdom. Jesus’s words to the apostle Paul come to mind: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

1. 
   
   1. God’s people are not exempt from physical suffering/persecution but will be protected spiritually from demonic assault. 

There is a big difference between God’s wrath (condemnation or judgment), which believers will never experience, and persecution at the hands of pagan powers, which believers have experienced and will continue to experience. The Christians in Philadelphia were persevering in the midst of such persecution, including ejection from the local synagogue. The great Christian hope has never been removal from trouble but is resurrection from the dead. The book of Revelation as a whole makes little sense if we say that Christians will never experience suffering and persecution. We need to abandon the “exemption theology” made popular by end-time novels in favor of “endurance theology” made clear by Jesus himself.
Christians will face separation from society. 
We must be careful to not developing a victim mentality or a persecution complex and thus pursue “unnecessary separation.” 
These believers were not excluding others or withdrawing from public witness, but were being excluded “against their will on account of their witness.”
v.8 - “a door having been opened in your sight.” 
This open door is likely an invitation to come into the fullness of God’s kingdom of joy and power in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17; Rev. 4:1). 
Or it may refer to an open door of opportunity to give witness to others of God’s power and grace.
Every door is a decision.
In the Bible, doors are metaphors for the choices we make every day. We discover early on in life that we can walk through some doors and not others. But we need to make a decision each time we see a door.
My destiny will be shaped by which doors I walk past and which doors I walk through.
These doors, whether you walk through them or walk past them, will shape your life. The tough part is knowing the right door. Every door will cost you some time. Some will cost you money. You can't walk through every door.
It's also difficult to get back on the right path if you go through the wrong door. God lays out the consequences of our decisions in Deuteronomy 30:15:"Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster" (Deuteronomy 30:15 NLT). It's critical that we learn discernment because the consequences of poor decisions can be so glaring.
A door may represent different things.
Sometimes a door represents an opportunity from God. You want to open those doors—even if there is opposition. Opportunity plus opposition equals God's will. When God opens a door, it's the right door. It doesn't mean the door will be problem-free, though.
Other times doors are a distraction from others. It may appear to be a good door, but it keeps you from taking the opportunities God has for you.
Doors can also be traps from Satan. Any time we look at our future from our own perspective—rather than God's—we're stepping through a trapdoor. We must be careful to look at our future from God's view.
If an open door is truly from God, it will not contradict what God has already said in his Word.
God will never tell you something different from his Word. And if a door presents you an opportunity to do something contrary to the Bible, it's not a door from God. God's Word is true today and forever. Jesus says in Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear"(NLT). No matter how exciting a door looks, it'll be a disaster if it's contrary to God's Word.
Sometimes God shuts a door for my protection.
People often believe a shut door is a problem.Maybe you lose a job, or a relationship ends. You're devastated. But you come to find out that God shut the door for your protection.

Think about Noah. When he had done everything God had told him to do and all the animals and all of his family were on the ark, the Bible says: "Then the LORD shut the door behind Noah"(Genesis 7:16 GNT).

God wanted to protect Noah from the flood. He wants to protect you, too. Maybe God wants to shut a door for a new ministry assignment because he knows you're not the right fit for it.
God will open doors for me if I open doors for others.
God wants you to learn to be generous. The Bible says in Proverbs 11:25, "Be generous, and you will be prosperous. Help others, and you will be helped"(GNT).
My life has been blessed when others opened doors for me, particularly when I was young. Now I look for ways to open doors for others. I've found the more doors I open for others, the more God opens doors for me.
Note that it takes “little power” to keep (obey) God’s word and not deny his name. Imagine what having great power would look like!
Just because it is God’s will doesn’t meant it is going to happen. 
What destroyed you in the pasted will not effect your future.