Philadelphia: To People Who Need Assurance

My name is Mark, one of your pastors. I want to welcome all of you. So glad that you are part of church this morning. If you're visiting us for the very first time, I want to extend a special welcome to you. We're so glad that you're here today. Hope that you find this time meaningful and know that you're always welcome. If you're watching us online, we've got people over in venue watching, or you follow us on Community Access TV, we want to say hello to you as well. So glad you're with us today.

And by the way, greetings Renee and his wife Laurie are up at a conference center on the Oregon coast called Cannon Beach doing a marriage retreat, but he specifically wanted me to say good morning and hello to all of you this morning.

We are in this series called The Seven. Seven letters written to seven ancient churches in Asia Minor, what we call modern day Turkey. And these letters are found in the New Testament book of Revelation. That's the last book of the New Testament, chapters two and three. The purpose of these letters was to strengthen, fortify these churches that were living under the looming threat of persecution. The intensity of this persecution would vary from region to region, and from emperor to emperor. Some of them were a little bit more moderate, some were like Nero, totally insane, and this were incredibly cruel.

But the point is you never knew when things could take a turn for the worse if they weren't already bad. There was always these dark clouds looming on the horizon. And we obviously here in Santa Cruz don't face the imminent threat of persecution for our faith, although that's rampant around the globe here in the United States. We are protected from that. And even so, we still have things that enter into our lives, unwelcome events that hurt us and cause us to grieve and leave us perplexed or broken.

You never know when this might happen. You ever had a day where you say to yourself, of all the things I expected in this day, that thing that fell into my lap that came out of left field, that was not one of those things. Ever been in a situation like that? Yeah, most of us have, if not all of us.

Case in point, a month ago, first weekend of October, we had the opportunity to go up to Lake Tahoe as a family, and we had a very specific goal in mind, at least for myself, my two sons Jack and Luke. We were going to hike to the top of Mount Talaq, which is that beautiful iconic mountain that rises above the south shore. This is something that's been a goal for us for probably a couple of years now. In fact, summer before last, my boys had an opportunity to hike up there with my brother Paul and their cousin Mallory, but I wasn't there, and so they stayed back at the cabin. They punted, so to speak, so that they could have their first trek up there with their dad.

Now the time had arrived, weather was perfect, we got up there on a Friday, we were going to hike on Sunday so we could give ourselves at least a little over a day to acclimate to the altitude. And so on Saturday, we thought, well, let's go to the beach, because the weather was great, and we decided to go to one of our favorite beaches, Sand Harbor, which in the middle of the summer can be packed out. We knew we were going to basically have it to ourselves.

We're driving there, I specifically remember the boys, they're goofing off in the very back of our car, laughing, just messing around, and their sister, she's a row in front of them, she's giggling. I remember savoring that moment, aware of the fact that you only have so many of those moments with the kids just in the back, just having a great time. And then something happened that was quite unexpected. It's one of those things that two boys in the back seat can only manage to accomplish. If you have two girls, this is not going to happen. But boys find a way.

And in this instance, my son Jack, his elbow found a way to connect with his younger brother's nose, and we heard this crack come from the-- yeah, that was my thought. And suddenly Luke just goes, "Oh, my nose, my nose!" He's just in horrible pain, and his older brother-- and it's always the younger brother on the receiving end of these types of little mishaps, I would know. Jack goes, "Hey, Dad, I think Luke's nose is broken." I'm like, "Are you serious? I mean, does that really happen in the back of the car? A nose gets broken? This is not a tackle football game."

He takes a moment to take a second look. He goes, "Yeah, it's definitely broken." I'm like, "Come on." So I pull over the car, and sure enough, you don't have to be a doctor to see his nose is definitely broken. I will spare you the gory details or the photos from the ER, but this is what Luke looked like when we got him home that day. Yeah, you know, he just wanted to curl up in a ball and lick his wounds and just tune out the rest of the world.

Anyone ever find yourself in a situation where you just want to curl up in a ball and just go, "Everyone else just leave me alone?" And again, most of us have been in something like that, maybe not physical but emotional, circumstantial. Some of you, many of you in fact, are in a place like that right now. I know so many stories in this church right now. I don't know why, but right now in particular, there are so many people I'm aware of. Because of illness or injury, your sense of stability, of well-being, it's broken. Or there's a relationship that's very important in your family. Maybe it's your marriage, and right now it feels broken. Or you're in a season of grief and loss. Your heart's broken. It hurts.

And even so, you manage to trudge through each day. You still love Jesus. You still trust Him. You're so faithful. You even, remarkably some of you, despite your wounds, you find ways to serve as you have opportunity. And every so often, you wonder, "Lord, how much longer, or how much more will I need to endure?" Because you know your tank, it's on empty.

Well, you're in the right place this morning, because if you can relate to any of that, this letter, this sixth letter, is written to people who need assurance. We're going to be in Revelation chapter 3, verses 7 through 13. It's not hard to find. If you have a Bible or you want to grab one out of the pew rack, you can just go to the very end and take a left. You'll be in Revelation chapter 3, verses 7 through 13. Follow along in your notes or on screen, however you like.

But starting at verse 7, it says, "Do the angel of the church in Philadelphia write?" And we're going to hit the pause button before we get to that. And I want to give you, as we've been doing each week, a little bit of a city profile so it kind of helps us connect the dots with the content of the letter. But Philadelphia was founded by two brothers. The first one was a king and his brother succeeded him. They were renowned. They were famous for their love and loyalty to each other, hence the name Philadelphia.

It had fertile volcanic soil that made it prime wine country. It was the very, again, highly esteemed wine country. And it wasn't just the volcanic soil, but there was also fertile earthquakes. And that's the exact two components that make Napa Valley Napa Valley, volcanic soil and frequent earthquakes. So this could be like Northern California.

And one of those earthquakes, in fact a massive one, leveled the city in 8017 and there were so many aftershocks, not just for days and months, but for years, there were aftershocks that an ancient Greek geographer named Strabo, he writes this about Philadelphia. Check this out. He says, "The walls never cease being cracked and different parts of the city are constantly suffering damage. This is why the actual town has few inhabitants, but the majority live as farmers in the countryside." I mean, I read that. It reminded me of what it was like after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

How many of you were here in 1989 that I'm confident you know exactly where you were on October 17th at 504 p.m. and 30 seconds, to be exact? Anyone remember where you were? Where were you, ma'am? Where were you? Where was your bedroom? In your house? No. Upstairs? Like, where in the county? Morgan Hill. Okay. Anyone else? Where were you? Yes. I was up on Old San Jose Road and laying in my bed. I was thrown out of the bed and stood up. Thrown out of his bed. Well, sometimes I need that about 6:30 in the morning. Anyone else? Yeah, where were you, ma'am? Oh, dicey place to be. Pacific Garden Mall. Yeah, that was terrible devastation.

I was up at Camp Hammer. We had over 100 school kids in the camp at the time, plus their teachers and cabin leaders, and they were, I can tell you to this day, exactly where I was standing when the earthquake hit. And we had a little bit of an issue because, first of all, the kids were all from the San Jose area, and with the rock slides on Highway 17 and all the other mayhem and chaos, there was no way we were going to be able to reunite them with their families. Cell phones were still quite primitive in '89. Not a lot of people had them, so communication was not great either.

And we had the issue of an 8,000-gallon propane tank in the middle of camp that had become separated from the supply pipe going out of it. Yeah. So we evacuated everyone in the camp and took them to a property about a mile away that we owned at the time that had probably the biggest clearing in the area. We set up tents for the kids and for the teachers, and no sooner had we done that than people started to just come out of the woodwork. It was amazing. I didn't even know there was that many people living in and around that area by Big Basin State Park, but they just flooded out of the forest, and they set up their own camps, and we had this tent city for the next several nights.

No one wanted to be underneath anything resembling a roof. They didn't even want to be under the trees. They wanted to be where they could just see. The only thing above me is sky. That's how shaky people were. That's how insecure we felt. No one felt safe indoors, and people all over this area were camping out in backyards or on school playyards just so that they could be in the safest possible place. Well, guess what? That's the way the people in Philadelphia felt all the time. Most of them refused to live even in the city.

So you can imagine this weird dynamic where it's like a ghost town. You come in during the day, and they conduct business, or they go to the market, and then they get out of there. The city was also known as Flavia and Neocessarilla because after two particularly bad quakes, the emperor would provide FEMA money to rebuild the city, and then they would name the city, and he renamed the city in honor of the so-called divine emperor that helped them out.

But then comes Emperor Domitian, who may well have been the emperor when this letter was written. Domitian issues an edict saying that half of the vineyards need to be uprooted. Tear them out. Can you imagine if they did that in Napa, what that would do to the economy up there? Apparently Domitian was trying to prop up the wine industry back in Italy, and he also wanted the people around Philadelphia to grow more corn. The problem was that the corn didn't really do too well in their volcanic soil, so thank you very much, Mr. Emperor, for your agricultural and economic brilliance. He's just sticking a dagger into their economy, and so in Philadelphia, it is a shaky existence in more ways than one.

So finally, perhaps because they just needed to be distracted from all else, Philadelphia was also a place where festivals, both religious and athletic, were especially popular, and they were very popular in those days, so to be notable, you had to be really fervent, maybe like a Raiders fan or something like that would be for us today. But why do I show you all this detail? It's so that when we understand, so we can understand kind of the dynamics on the ground there, it will help us see the connections that Jesus makes in this letter and how personal it is to their particular situation.

But perhaps you feel today like the ground has just shifted under your feet, and you wonder who or what can I still trust? If that's not the way you feel in the moment, hang on, because that day will come. A day is going to come where you are going to need assurance. You're going to need to know that the ground under your feet is firm, and I've got news for you. It's highly unlikely in that day, in that moment, that the skies are going to open up, and you're going to see the face of Jesus, and He's going to say, "Hey, I just wanted to appear to you today to assure you that all is well." Now, He can do what He wants, and God has made Himself known, but more often than not, the norm is for God's people to be called back to a point where they remember what they know to be true about God, what He said, what He's promised, what He's done.

In fact, over a hundred times in Scripture, we're told to remember what we can trust, to rely in the dark what we have learned to be true in the light. And so this morning, I'm going to give you three things to remember that come from this letter, and the first one is this. Remember who Jesus is. You need assurance today. Remember who Jesus is. And I love the way that this letter begins, because it begins with this majestic view, this reminder of who Jesus is when it says, picking up in verse 7, "These are the words of Him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens, no one can shut, and what He shuts, no one can open." And the grammatical construction in the original, it's more like titles. It's more like, these are the words of the Holy One, the True One, the One who holds the key of David, and that's an Old Testament reference to the One who has absolute authority over the kingdom of God, absolute authority over everything.

In verse 8, He says, "I know your deeds. See, I've placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know you have little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name." Now circle that phrase, "I know your deeds," because He's not saying, you know, shaking His finger, "I know your deeds. I've been watching you like Santa Claus. See if you're naughty or nice." He's saying, "Hey, I know it's hard. I know that you're weak. I know that you're tired. I know that you're puny compared to an emperor, an earthquake, whatever. I know. But I also know that you have kept My word and who have not denied My name." The word "kept" there has to do with guarding or keeping watch over like a watchman would. And the idea is as you keep your eyes on God's Word, as you stay fixed on, as you keep it, it keeps you. It keeps you focused on Jesus.

I mean, think about it. These letters were written to churches that were going to go through very tough times, and the ones that guarded these words, they became people of incredible endurance, famous endurance. For 250 years, the Empire of Rome tried to grind them into oblivion, a superpower that had conquered nation after nation, people after people. They could not conquer these puny Christians. Why? Because they would not deny the one whose word they knew to be true, the one who was holy. And Jesus tells them, "I have opened up a door no one can shut." And they're like, "Well, that sounds good, but what does it mean?"

There's two main interpretations as to what this open door is. The first one is that it's an open opportunity for the gospel, open opportunity for the gospel. I'll put some reference in your notes. Those are from Paul's letters, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Colossians 4. Paul uses that phrase. He's always talking about an open opportunity for effective ministry. And if you've been following along in the book that Rene wrote, a companion to the series, he talks about how Philadelphia was strategically located. It was like a gateway city to the east. It was even founded as a missionary city, not for the spreading of Christianity originally, but for the spreading of Greek culture and language, and it absolutely did the job.

People who didn't even speak Greek in the area ended up being Greek speakers, and for all intents and purposes became Greek people. And so perhaps Jesus is referring to the fact that the same thing is going to happen with you, little weary church. You're going to have an impact that is going to blow you away. You're going to look back and go, "Wow, our trials, the things we were asked to endure, they pale in comparison to what God did in us and through us." That's one understanding of this. The second one is that it's referring to an open entry into God's kingdom, open entry into the kingdom. I tend to favor this interpretation because it begins with this reference to the key of David, which is again all about the kingdom, and this theme is going to ride all the way through, and it's going to really kind of culminate in the end.

It's going to be about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. And in Luke 13, 23 through 25 and just up the road at Revelation 4, 1, the open door is entry into the kingdom or a doorway into heaven, as is the case in Revelation 4, 1. Either way, whether it's open opportunity or open entry, this is great news, and it's not only that, it is a reminder that Jesus is in control. Not the emperor, not the earthquakes, not the economy. Jesus is in control, period.

That's why we start our weekend services every week, by the way, with a time of worship, a time for us to reset our perspective on Jesus because let's face it, we spend most of our week fixated on the things that are right in front of our nose, right? You know, well what about this problem? What about that problem? What about this situation? What about this desire? What about this want? What about the next thing that I might be able to have? You know, what about the iPhone 6s? That will change my life forever, until the 7.

We do the same thing even with our current situation or circumstances. It's like, as soon as we get to what's next, what do we begin thinking about? What's next after that? The what's of life, whether it's a thing or a circumstance. The what's will never satisfy you. You will never be content with what, because your heart was designed for who, for the who's, who you love, who loves you, who matters most. I promise you, on your deathbed, you are not going to say, "Honey, please just bring me my smartphone one more time." What are you going to want around you in your last moments? The who's of life.

And the who that matters more than anyone else is Jesus Christ. He's the one who loves you. He's the one who died for you, who lives for you. He's the one who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, who says, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you, no matter what." You need assurance today. Remember who Jesus is. Along those same lines, remember who you are to Jesus. You are precious to him, church. Remember that.

You know, the more I studied this passage, I started to imagine, as if Jesus comes to this little church, and he puts his fingers under their chins, and he just lifts up their head and says, "Hey, remember, I'm right here. You're dear to me. Look me in the eye." It's what we do with a child when they're about to get a shot or stitches. It's what I did in the emergency room with my son, Luke. Just look at me, Luke. I'm right here. Daddy loves you. We're going to be okay.

These next few verses aren't going to come across that way at first, but don't worry. It will in a moment. But in verse 9, he says, "I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews, though they are not, but are liars, I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you." Now, what does that mean? Synagogue of Satan. This is not some type of anti-Semitic rhetoric. Far from it. In fact, last week, you saw that Jesus called the church dead. You guys think you're dead.

What this is saying is you can call yourself whatever you want. Jew, Muslim, Christian. You can call yourself whatever you want and still behave badly. You can still be mean. You can still terrorize other people. I mean, have you noticed that this happens sometimes? That every religion will have their own share of fanatics or hypocrites? Any religion does. And also bear in mind that Jesus and all of his first followers to a person were of what ethnic religious group? They were all Jews. Yes, the first service had a really hard time with that question. We've got to make them come back again or something. Yeah, they were all Jewish. Every single one of them that did not prevent the chief priests and the religious elites, the Pharisees from persecuting them. From basically accusing Jesus over and over again. Hey, you cannot possibly be representing God truthfully. We're the ones in the know here. We're in. You're out.

So it's quite likely there's a similar dynamic going on here in Philadelphia where the leaders or members of the synagogue. I mean, they're saying, you know, you guys are not members of the family of God. You are surely not part of his kingdom. They might have even shut the doors of the synagogue on these people. Shut them out. Happened to Apostle Paul in Acts 20, where they drag him out of the temple in Jerusalem and shut the door behind him. Which would shed light if that was happening here on why Jesus would say, excuse me, I'm actually the one with the keys. Who opens what no one can shut and shuts what no one can open. You know, I decide that. That's my call.

And these guys that are harassing you at that synagogue, there is going to come a day that they will realize, they will realize. I have loved you. You will be vindicated. And some of you. Some of you, even as recently as this week, someone has said something to you. Or something about you and it's just gnawing at you. You can't stop thinking about it. Or someone said some hurtful words years and years ago. They still plague you. And if I could be so bold, I just like to suggest to you that I just think that Jesus would want to come and put his fingers under your chin and lift up your head and say, hey, the words of those people, they do not matter. My word is the word that matters. And I have loved you.

I mean, can you drink that in this morning, Twin Lakes Church? Can you remember how precious you are to Jesus Christ? And he goes on verse 10. He says, "Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth." Now, obviously, Jesus is not saying that these Christians are going to be immune from suffering any more than he's saying that to us. We all know better than that, don't we? But he does say this. He says, first of all, you've been faithful to me. Well, you can count on me being faithful to you. You want to see faithfulness? Look to me.

And secondly, he does promise that he is going to deliver them in a particular way. In a distinct way. And honestly, in my opinion, I don't think anyone knows exactly what that was, but I know this much. There was something that would have happened to that church that could have happened to that church that did not happen. They were spared. Just like in our own lives, there are things that could have happened to you, maybe even deservedly so. They didn't happen. You were spared. Have you ever thought about that? The things that could have happened?

There's... I got my mom here. I got to be careful, but there's at least two times I can think of I could have been killed. I could have been permanently maimed, injured, and I walked away completely unscathed, not because I was lucky, not because it was a coincidence. But because Jesus protected me. And again, to be clear, that doesn't mean that we're immune from suffering. We know he allows us to hurt. He will allow us to die at times. Of course, we could be with him, but it's not this ironclad promise. But there are things, someday in heaven, I'm confident, someday in heaven, the curtain's going to roll back, and we are going to be able to see all the things that could have happened that didn't.

Whether they would have come from the powers of hell, from the countless tragedies that could have fallen on us. They didn't happen because in that instance he said, "No, not that, not today." And in some way he did this for this church. You may feel like, "Hey, I'm out in the desert right now, Mark. I mean, I am out in the desert. It is barren." That may well be the case, but I've got news for you. The promise is he's not going to leave you there. In fact, he's there with you right now.

So remember who he is. If he is for us, who can truly be against us? And remember who you are to Jesus. He gave his life for you. He's not going to leave you in the lurch now. He's not going to leave you in the lurch ever. Listen, listen. If you hear nothing else, he's got you. He's got you. And you've got him. If you've said yes to his invitation to come into your life, to give you new life, to wash you in his grace, and give you a purpose and a destiny. If you've said yes to the God of the universe, the God of the universe lives in you. That's staggering.

I was just looking online the other day, a picture from Voyager 1 and 2. I think it's Voyager 2 that is now the furthest out it's out. It's actually left our solar system now. But they showed the last picture that it took of planet Earth. And it's just this one pixel blip of light on the screen. The God who made all of that, who sees it all in its expansive. That is the God who says, I have loved you. You are precious to me. You are mine. Remember that.

And finally, remember all that you have in Jesus. And it is no small amount. You know, a brilliant preacher named Charles Spurgeon once said, We are too prone to engrave our trials in marble and write our blessings in sand. That's good, isn't it? I can relate to that. We are so prone. We want to engrave our trials in marble. We want to enshrine them. And when it comes to our blessings, like, Oh, yeah, I guess that happened. That was cool. Now, I need to be reminded this. Perhaps you do, too.

And look at how Jesus reminds the Church of Philadelphia and this church by extension, all that we have in him. When it says in verses 11 and 12, "I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious. I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name." He's saying, You may not think you have much, but you have me.

You have a future that's beyond what you can even begin to imagine. And when you patiently endure the hardships of life, not only does that glorify me, but it gives an example to the other churches, just like this church in Philadelphia did for us. It gives an example for the whole world, really what it means to be fully human. Because let's face it, you know what they call a person who's never, ever, ever had a single trial in their life? Not lucky, shallow. Right? This is where we mature. This is where we grow. This is where we become people of substance. This is part of the crown that this church has, this legacy.

And he says, hold on to that. Hold on to my word and who I am, because someday I'm going to make you a pillar, a source of strength in my temple, in my eternal city where you will dwell forever. These are all images of being gathered together with the Lord where we will be forever. And he says, you know, you're not going to be named after some chump emperor or any other mere mortal. You will bear the name of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords because you belong to him, church. We belong to him. Can you hold on to that today? I hope you can. Amen.

Because we have all this and more in Christ. Twin Lake Church, you have ears to hear what the Spirit says to us today. Because that's the reminder here as we close. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches, not just that church, this church. We're not going to just talk about remembering. We're actually going to move into a time where we actually practice this. We're going to remember Jesus Christ, his suffering, his passion through communion, also called the Holy Eucharist, the Lord's table.

I love that reference because it's a reminder to me that it's his table. Does it belong to Twin Lakes Church? It's the Lord's table. And he invites any who would come to dine with him, to be with him, to fellowship with him. And maybe for some of you here today, he's been inviting you and you've been putting it off for whatever reason. Maybe today is the day that you actually accept his invitation and you say, "I don't know everything, but I know Jesus has what I need. And I know I don't have what I need in my life." It's got some shaky sections to it. You know, it's got some crumbled buildings. I need the one. I'm going to take my keys and put them into the hand who has the keys.

Because I believe that he lived and he died and he lives again. We're not talking about some historical figure merely, but one who lives now and lives in us and offers us new life. Maybe today is the day that you do that. And this becomes essentially your first communion. We remember him and celebrate his grace. So I'm going to ask us all to just bow our heads as we prepare our hearts and our minds for this time.

And Lord, I thank you so much for the fact that your word can connect with the very specific realities of our lives. Because it's living and it enlivens us. So Lord, I pray for anyone here, anyone listening to my voice, anyone watching this online, I pray that if some lights have come on today and they want to say just yes to you, they want to become a follower of Jesus. They believe that you died for them, that you rose, and that they can be bound to you for the rest of this life and for life forevermore. Part of your holy temple, your heavenly city.

Lord, pray that that person just in the privacy of their heart just says yes, yes. Lord, lead me from this moment forward. I give myself to you. Lord, I pray for all of us that as we remember you, that you would fill our hearts with humility, joy, peace, because of all that you have accomplished for us and all that you will do for us in eternity to come. We pray this in the matchless name of the one who is holy and true, Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, Amen.