1. Introduction:
After Ephesus (the Church in danger of losing his first love), Smyrna (Church exposed to suffering and persecution), Pergamon (church doctrine penetrated by the mixture ), Thyatira (The church led by a false prophet), Sardis (Church deemed alive but dead), is in Philadelphia, in the same region of Turkey now that the other churches as the Lord leads us this morning to enter one of the steps outlined as one of the most encouraging of church history: the step of a church, albeit small (that is, in terms of appearance, its main deficiency), but a Church which, in its weakness, experienced the full support of the authority and power of God to subdue his enemies even more powerful!
We will, verse by verse, trying to understand, as we did for the other letters, everything, as John says, the Spirit wants to say and teach to the Church today about what he told the local church at the time, the church of Philadelphia!
2. Write to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia: v 7
If the local Church of Philadelphia receives only praise, this may be because it is one of the few churches where the Lord could see and find happiness with the practice of what he would have liked to see in all others. Philadelphia meant in effect "Brotherly Love". The name given to the city does not come by chance. According some historians, the city would be created by the reconciliation of two brothers, the king of Pergamon and the province of Lydia. Tired of wars and rivalries between them, the two kings reached an agreement whereby born Philadelphia, city of brotherly love!
"I give you a new commandment: that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that you too, you love each other. If you have love for each other, all will know that you are My disciples, John 13.34 to 35. "
The first thing that was the strength of the Church of Philadelphia is what Jesus said to be the hallmark by which the community of His disciples would require the strength of his testimony in the world of brotherly love.
3. The 4 qualities of the Church of Philadelphia:
As it is for other churches, the names by which the Lord comes to the Church of Philadelphia are strongly associated with her and her situation.
4 things, presented as assets or qualities characterize the Church of Philadelphia:
a. the first quality, which could be understood as a handicap, but in the eyes of the Lord is not one, is the apparent weakness of which is the Church: v 8: because you have little power.
Speaking of weakness, it should however not be mistaken about what the Lord intends. Too often when we speak of weakness, we confuse Christians with mediocrity. Never in the Bible and in the eyes of the Lord, not mediocrity is presented to us as a quality or virtue. What God expects of us His children is not mediocrity, but excellence, righteousness and holiness, Jesus will say, surpass that of the Pharisees. The Church of Corinth was a church substandard in terms of her behavior and testimony. At no time did she receives, as the church Phildelphie, praise to the Lord.
If the Lord speaks of weakness about Philadelphia, but rather against the world powers that it does. What the Lord says here is that he knows the minority situation in which Christians find themselves in Philadelphia. He knows how to Perhaps because of their small number or absence of influential people in it, the Church appears as a small group insignificant in the eyes of the world. This weakness is, unlike that due to the warmth and compromise is not an obstacle for the Lord. The Church can be in one place very small minority. It is, says the Lord, under the best conditions so that through it, as it was for the apostle Paul when he felt the lowest: 2 Cor 12.8-10 . God manifests His power!
b. the second quality mentioned as a force in the church of Philadelphia was his fidelity to the Word of God: v 8: because thou hast kept my word.
Keeping the Word of God can be understood in two ways that probably would be present in the church of Philadelphia. The first refers, as Jesus said, to the obedience of Christians to the Word:
"The seed that fell on good ground are those who hear the word with a noble heart and good, keep it and bear fruit with Perseverance: Luke 8.15 ... While he spoke, a woman said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed thee! But Jesus answered him happy are those who hear the word of God and obey it! "
Keep the Word but in the context of the Apocalypse, another meaning. Keep the Word, unlike what happened in Pergamum and Thyatira, keep the good deposit, make sure what is taught in the doctrinal really corresponds to what the Lord wanted to convey:
"O Timothy, guard the deposit, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and the arguments of the false science! 1 Tim 6.12. Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us: 2 Tim 1.14 . I encourage you, Jude also said Christians to whom he writes, to fight for the faith which was delivered to the saints once and for all: Jude v 3.
c. 3rd quality mentioned after weakness and fidelity to the Word is loyalty to Christ: because thou hast not denied my name.
We always remember us, the time when John wrote this letter in a context of intense persecution. If the Church was attacked on the doctrinal level, it was also often violently physically, the followers of another religion, not seeing a good eye on the birth of a community that recognized that Christ as Lord.
If the Lord is the loyalty of the church in Philadelphia to His name is first because, perhaps unlike others, Christians have never accepted the Philadelphia yield to the pressure surrounding and requirements of those who, as happens in some countries even today, they wanted to deny their Lord, or at least, they agree to share the tribute to him that they made with other deities.
be loyal to Christ, not only the confession of his mouth is to refuse any other idol, entity, sharing worship the royal square as it is He alone to occupy our hearts.
4. 4th quality that recognizes the Lord in the church of Philadelphia is perseverance: v 10 : because thou hast kept the word of my patience.
There would have been on the path of the Church of Philadelphia, as there's also our way, a thousand reasons in the race of faith to give up or stop: as say Paul struggles on the outside and fears within. But the Church of Philadelphia, despite opposition and contrary winds, had persevered and stuck with it. She had stayed the course and had never lost sight of the wonderful promises connected with attachment to the Person of Christ.
might think, seeing the weakness, lack of power that characterized the Church of Philadelphia, that it was not in the best conditions to persist. It is precisely the opposite happened. Contrary to what one might think, being small, minority, or have no influence is not a disadvantage but an advantage for persistence. It is not in the facility, but in the crucible of the difficulty that often flourishes best flower perseverance.
5. The promises made to Church of Philadelphia:
They are first related to the name that God uses to speak to her. These names, as I said, are in turn closely related to the situation where there is the Church.
first promise: because the Church of Philadelphia has little power, the Lord, who owns the key of David (referring to a text of Isaiah: Isaiah 22.22 ) ., promises to open a door to it that no one can close. His preaching, his testimony will be such that even his enemies will one day acknowledge that she was not just a small minority community, but the Lord loved the Church.
It is an encouragement for us who sometimes feel so insignificant in this world.
second promise: because she was faithful to the Lord and kept His word, the Lord who is holy and true, is committed to keep it out of the race comes upon the world to test those who dwell on earth.
Ya there an allusion here the removal of the Church, like Lot and Noah in their time were saved, which had spared the trial? It is possible! In any case believe that the Lord knows, in time, differentiate between the just and the unjust and go to each according to merit their faith and works!
third promise: it is the one found in the enumeration of the heavenly rewards that await those who are part of Philadelphia. It is the promise of being in a privileged place in the new world that will follow it.
The reward promised to those of Philadelphia reminds us that the glory promised to each other is not the same. It varies depending on the degree of faithfulness that the Lord will find in His people, the circumstances under which they have lived.
6. Conclusion:
Historically, it is possible that Philadelphia is the stage in the history of the Church following the Reformation. There was at that time, countless clandestine communities who subsequently give birth to large movement missionaries who brought the Word of God until the end of the world. It is from these communities and that these movements are from the evangelical churches that long, you're part of what one historian has called the Church ignored.
Among the figures of the Church of Philadelphia, could be big names now met, but who in their time, were unknown: Hudson Taylor, the story of Zinzendorf, Scotsman Robert Haldane Felix Neff, the apostle of the Hautes-Alpes, William Booth (hello Army), Charles and John Wesley, George Müller (orphanages) Jacob Spener (the Pietist), Charles Spurgeon ...
At the Church of Philadelphia, weak, little influence, under heavy pressure, the Lord gave only one watchword: it remains committed to you have so that no man take thy crown v 11. That this slogan is also ours for this coming year!
I am coming soon!
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