Revelation 3 vs 7-9

Revelation Chapter 3 Verse 7

 The key of David, the One who has total and complete power over

open and shut doors..., Luke 18:27, “The things which are impossible

with men are possible with God.” Jeremiah 32:27, “Behold, I am the

Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” Jesus

has the key to life, to death, to the hereafter, the next life and the

anchor and weight of all of that is this…

 His lungs failed. A spear went into His heart. His heart stopped…His

lung ceased… His body went cold in the grip of death for three

days…, yet He stood, commanded life back into His body and

walked out of His own coffin…only One is able to do that! This is

the God that makes this promise of the treasuries of heaven and open

doors to the faithful church!

 Someone once said, “Do something that is so big that it will have to

FAIL if Jesus is not in it!” Talk about a risk! And that is this statement

by Jesus. It’s a promise. It’s an offering. That He will do exceedingly

abundantly more than we can even ask or think when we trust in Him

and say “Yes” when we have opportunity!

 Colossians 2:2-3, “Let this encourage your hearts, knit them together

in love, attain to all riches of full assurance of understanding, to the

knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in

whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge!” Jesus

said this before and John knows it! John Chapter 10 verse 9, “I am the

door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out

and find pasture!”

 Now, the accolade given to this church, is that they had a little

strength…they kept His Word…, they did not deny His name. The

faithful church says “YES” to Jesus…no matter what He is asking, no

matter where He is directing, why? No matter if the flesh screams

“NO!” Those that truly belong to Him say YES! They are His, and He

is theirs.

 And the fact that Jesus says this to this church is ultra-encouraging, why?

Because there are no perfect churches! Why? Because there are no

perfect Christians! But here, Jesus offers nothing but approval and

commendation, no rebuke…He is pleased with them, God is with them,

why? Because they have a little strength, have kept His word, and have

not denied His name. Entirely unspectacular by today’s popular

standards of personal, professional or church success…but that is success

to the Lord.

 You have a little strength! Consider the source! Infinite strength! So,

Jesus isn’t saying here that Phili has little tiny triceps, no! He’s saying

YOU ARE MIGHTY! And I love to say, when people tell me how they’re

just not gonna make it, the situation is too hard…I love to say, hey, you

have a little strength! How encouraging. All is not lost…get up, you can

make it…

 And then He says, “You have kept My word!” I love this too! This church

had turned not to the fashionable fad of the day, not to political points,

not to “connect with the sin of the culture” nonsense, but they had held to

the Word of God! A desire for the Word, an emphasis of authority and

centrality on the Word and even today when someone tells me they are

looking for a church, I tell them, “Find one that teaches the Bible verse by

verse.” THAT is a must. So important.

 And finally, Jesus says, “You have not denied My name!” Jesus, Joshua,

literally means God is the Salvation!” God is the Way! God is the answer!

And to not deny His name means that is the code of your character. That

you trust Him…even over your own way… Jesus is the Answer! “You

look to Me,” He says! You’re in a bind, you turn to Me. You have a

decision to make, you turn to Me. Folks come to you, you send them to

Me! Because you have not denied that I am. You have not denied that

salvation is by Me and none other!

 Not practical counsel only, definitely no forbearance of sin, no opinion or

human perspective…what does the Word say and send them to Jesus! I

love it! That’s faithful! Because people don’t always want that! They

want the 12-step plan, they want to be told it’s ok to live contrary to God’s

word…why? Because their conscience has already condemned them and

they’re aching…make it better, ya know. Give me the Tylenol of

tolerance. Can’t do it…all out of drugs…let me tell you about Jesus, let

me take you to Him, let me show you in the Word…, point to the hard and

narrow path where you will grow up, overcome and overwhelm

darkness… Where are the people bold enough to want the treasuries of

heaven for the people around them!

 And Jesus says, “Right on!” That’s disappearing today. And the Bible

said it would… 2 Timothy 4:2-4, “Preach the word! Be ready in season

and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and

teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound

doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching

ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their

ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” And let me tell

you, not knowing or openly denying the Word of God is ill-advised…, and

in truth, it is absurd.

 I have seen people make the worst decisions…take the wide and easy

path, the path that doesn’t involve facing, dealing with, and overcoming

iniquity and go directions that I know are not the heart of the Lord. And

you know what, it may work out for them…, but they harden on the inside

to the things of God. They trade the treasuries of God Himself for the

treasuries of their own egotism! It’s like trading toys with a baby! I’m 44

years old. My toys sit in my garage and go 0-60 in less than three

seconds…, yea, let me trade that for a slobbery plastic rattle… But that’s

exactly the trade made when you hear the Word, read the Word, know the

Word, and yet look in the mirror and that’s not who you are…

 And they say, “I have prayed and prayed and prayed about this…” But

what if it denies His name…? You can’t stop them, no use in trying, but I

know what is ahead…closed doors. You know what a closed door is? A

WALL!

 In verse 7 Jesus is the one that opens and no man can shut and closes and

no man can open but NOTICE when He speaks of the works of this

church, the commendation to the faithful church, its only open doors…

Could it be, I think it could…that one element of the closed doors aren’t

necessarily the leading of the Lord…that it’s just an eventuation of

somewhere along the way you lost His trail? (Closed doors aren’t the

same as shut doors; closed implies someone’s action!)

 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and

in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” I’m not sure that God will

lead me to a closed door. The closed door may mean something else

entirely. That if I do choose to deny His name, not trust Him, not grow up

in maturity and strength, not learn the patience and power of endurance in

my subjugation to His will for my life and day and path…then I’ll miss the

open doors. Miss what could have been, and what is available to me but I

cannot have…because my immaturity would turn that blessing into a great

curse… Imagine actually giving a baby one of those beautiful machines

that go 0-60 in 3 seconds… Just toss them the key, “Have fun, junior!”

Only a horrible, foolish father would do that…

 So, folks end up being described in 2 Timothy 3:7, “Always learning and

never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and

Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt

minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further,

for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.” Growing in the

things of the Lord is not only about learning all the things… Paul

describes to Timothy that these are learning types…, but never come to

knowledge… Growing in the things of the Lord, maturity, the treasuries of

heaven hidden in Jesus and open doors is not only in the learning but

primarily in the submitting! In the delighting in these things! Just like

Amazon! You can fill that basket up! Do all the research and make the best

of selections, but until you click that submit button, that order ain’t placed!

It’s the same in the faith!!!

 The commendation is awesome and the order here is precise. You have a

little strength. That is a statement of faith and of discipline. Faith

without discipline is weak. Discipline without faith is temporary. This is

the intersection of God’s authorship of faith and man’s responsibility to

exercise it! Then, through a little work and commitment on my part, how

does that show up, “you have kept My Word.” And then the inevitable

twin of heeding the word of God…? You have not denied My name…

And then boom… Growth. The order is important and precise in this

commendation.

Revelation Chapter 3 Verse 9

 We have a possible clue here that the church in Philadelphia had a problem

perhaps others did not, or not as explicitly as the other churches…, that

they were under special persecution from the Jewish community in that

city. Christianity became a real black eye to Judaism. One of the reasons

why the Jewish religious elite despised Jesus and His followers so

much…, because essentially Jesus made an end to Judaism. The Old

Covenant being completed in Him and a New Covenant established.

 Hebrews 8:7-13, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no

place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with

them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will

make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah

(Jeremiah 31); not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers

in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of

Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded

them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the

house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their

mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they

shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his

brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of

them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their

unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no

more.” In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.

Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

 Now, Jesus is not saying that this church will be worshipped. What is

meant here is that by their faithful witness, in the end, (because sometimes

it takes that long – but even so I promise you it is still worth it), many will

come and fall before them and find the one true God. It is good to

sometimes remember that Philippians 2:9-11 says, “Therefore God also

has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every

name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven,

and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue

should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

 Here’s another one I’ll give you just for good measure. One to remember,

Proverbs 11:21, “Though they join forces, the wicked will not go

unpunished; but the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.”

 These are a specific bunch. They say they are Jews and are not… What is

that all about? Romans 2:28-29, “He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and

circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose

praise is not from men but from God.” Sometimes if it walks like a duck

and quacks like a duck, sometimes it’s not a duck… Over the years of

being a pastor…I’ve learned that…, and that is exactly what Paul is saying

here. Ceremonially they are a Jew. Culturally, biologically, in action and

attitude, but the Jew unto the Lord is the one who fulfills the law. That

person is no longer…, but it is Christ that lives through them.

 Which are you? Would God place His approval on me, on you…how you

are living, handling the situation, thinking about that other person, loving

your spouse…? Delighting to do the Word of God! Do these things even

occur to you? I am concerned for many…

 What the Lord is saying here is simple. Stay the course, finish strong…and

the concern you’ve had for many, the wounds you have received from

many, will be turned into joy when you see some come to a real

relationship with God…and in that moment, on that day…they will look at

you through blurred eyes from the sorrow over their own flesh and the

relief of their own weight of sin…and they will see that you’ve been there

for years…knowing and experiencing and enjoying the freedom that they

finally know as they have finally given their whole life over to the

Lordship of Jesus Christ. The most excellent way to obliterate and defeat

your enemy is to make him your friend… (but that’s following Jesus talk

– not many desire to go that route…., that takes…, a little strength.