Scripture: Revelation 3:7-13, John 3:31-36
Philadelphia
& Smyrna
Today, we consider two more of the churches of
Revelation – Philadelphia and Smyrna. I
have combined these messages because they are so similar in nature. Each receives a message of encouragement that
includes nothing regarding a lack of faith, which, if you think about it, is
how the church should be living.
They both have had difficult times in living faithful lives in the midst
of false prophets and the unfaithful community that surrounded them. They had little in the way of worldly
resources, but the Spirit within them had given them all that they needed, and
far more than the ways of earth ever could.
They trusted in all that the Lord had provided, and
in all that Christ had taught them, in spite of the lies, and the oppression,
and the persecution, that had come against them from the world. They were never protected from the world’s
ways, and neither were they released from enduring the persecution that is
always coming against the church of Christ.
And yet, with all the pressure that they endured because of the name of
Jesus, they never wavered in their faith.
The letters that the Lord sent to the churches in
Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13)
& Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11)
should be words of encouragement for the churches of today who are also under attack from a
culture who would much rather badger them into submission, than to live peaceably
with those who choose to walk in the way of Jesus Christ.
If these 2 churches, out of the 7 that received
letters from their Lord, were able to continue praising and honoring and obeying
the way of Jesus, regardless of what the world threw at them, then why can’t
the churches of today do just as well?
Read Revelation 3:7-13
This letter begins with a reference to “the key of
David”, which comes from Isaiah 22:20-24,
and identifies the author of this letter as Jesus Christ, the Messiah. The doors, some which Christ has opened, and
some which He has shut, are also mentioned in that passage from Isaiah’s
prophesy, and refer to the word that He has shared with us. The open doors are symbolic of the welcome
that Jesus has offered to all who love and obey Him. The doors that are closed are those which
Christ has shut, barring all who have never come to Him as their Savior, and
who have chosen to follow the ways of the world instead of the divine ways of
Almighty God.
And the most important aspect of the position that
these doors now hold, whether open or closed, is that no one has the
authority to change them. What God has
proclaimed is an eternal truth, and nothing that we may know, or understand, or
develop or even imagine, can ever change what the Lord has put in place. After all, the Lord’s ways are perfect, never
needing correction, and if anyone claims that the Spirit of God has told them
otherwise, they will never be accepted as being one with the Lord.
In verse 9, it is interesting to note that those who
“are of the synagogue of Satan”, aren’t simply those who have never
listened to the words of Jesus, but also those who falsely claim to be
Christian, as well as those who profess to be disciples of Jesus, while refusing
to accept His teaching! Jesus also tells
the faithful churches that there will be a day when those “liars” will not
only show respect and honor to the faithful, but will acknowledge that God has
loved them, and by extension, that His love has not, and will not, be shown to
those who will not follow His ways.
God is calling the faithful to be patient and
persistent in their walk, for in time, they will be honored and glorified when
the name of the Lord will be placed upon them.
Later in Revelation 13:17-18,
we read that the number of “the beast”, or the antichrist, is 666, which is
also the number of humanity. And in
those days to come, you will be required to have that number, basically the
name of antichrist, written on either your right hand or upon your forehead. Without his number, you have no rights or privileges
within the world's order. We know that 6 is a
number representing imperfection and incompletion, while the number 7 implies
perfection and full completion.
Therefore, what will that “new” name of Jesus Messiah be? Will that name be seen as 777? Regardless of how it will appear, it will
give the faithful the right to live with Christ through eternity.
And that will be a name that all will, one day, understand!
Read John 3:31-36
In this passage, John the Baptist is informing us as
to what and why we must believe in Jesus during this lifetime, if
we have any desire to be with Him in the next.
The authority that has been given to our Lord is greater than anything
that the earth has ever known or will ever have, even though the Christ has
also taken on the cloak of earthly humanity.
And as the Baptizer continues, we are given some insight into what the
churches of Philadelphia and Smyrna, as well as all followers of the
Lord, believe about Jesus. And what are
some of those things?
1. The only things He ever taught were those that He
knew and heard from His Father. There is
nothing that His humanity was ever able to interject into His heartfelt words,
and there was nothing that Jesus ever imagined to give additional clarification
or justification to the words that had come directly from the Father.
2. When we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are proclaiming
that we truly and fully believe that God’s truth is absolute and certain.
3. We believe that Jesus speaks the truth of God for
two reasons – first, because we know that He has been sent by God to bring His
word of grace and truth to our lives, and second, that the Father has filled
Christ with the fullness of His Holy Spirit.
And His Spirit is nothing less than the Spirit of Truth.
4. By the love that the Father has for His Son, the
fullness of God has been empowered within all that Jesus teaches and does for
the people of Earth. There will never be
even an ounce of worldly supposition within any of it.
5. And finally, John tells us that “Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see
life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
There’s a lot going on in our lives – some based in
our human needs, some based in the relationships that we have with each other,
and some that grow our faith through Christ’s work of sanctification. But our greatest responsibility will always be
to never become like one of the other 5 churches, and especially like the one
we will consider next week – Laodicea!
