07-22-12 Rev. 3:7-13 PHILADELPHIA:

DOING THE BEST WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

Rev. 3:7-13 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:

‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

During the past few weeks

we have agonized our way

through difficult messages

from Christ to several local

first century churches.

They were churches,

one of which was involved in what Christ called “the deep things of Satan”,

and another in which IMAGE,

outward appearance,

had become their goal.

This morning, however,

we come to a very different congregation - the church at Philadelphia.

If I had to select one church

from the seven addressed here in Revelation 2 and 3

that I would like to believe

most closely resembles

our own congregation

it would be this church in Philadelphia.

I know we are often our own worst evaluators

when it comes to looking at ourselves honestly,

but I must admit

I feel a stronger comradeship with the church at Philadelphia

than with any of the other six.

I have been offering you

one line descriptions

to help you better hang onto the Lord’s comments to each of these churches.

The church at Ephesus we called Doctrine Is King.

The church at Smyrna we summed up in the one word, Faithfulness.

The church at Pergamum we called Playing It Loose.

The church at Thyatira we called The Deep Things of Satan.

And then, two weeks ago,

the church at Sardis we called, Image Is Everything.

The title we’re going to give

to the church at Philadelphia

is, Doing The Best With What You Have.

To be honest,

I think maybe I am drawn to this church at Philadelphia most of all

because it seems to most closely parallel

my own personal Christian life.

The King begins His comments to this church

with a strong affirmation

of His own supreme authority

over the events that touch our lives.

Rev. 3:7 ... He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:...

In that opening statement to Philadelphia

He is once again affirming His sovereignty in our lives.

I need statements like that.

I need to hear them over and over again.

I need to remind myself

and have others remind me

that there is nothing casual

about my Lord’s involvement

and careful orchestration of my life.

There is a strength,

a decisiveness,

a clear, indisputable ring of authority

in Christ’s opening comment to this church.

I think very possibly the Christians at this church

were prone to fear

and self-doubt.

They had heard of the great works

and might deeds that other churches had accomplished.

They had received the reports

of mighty things God had done

in and through other congregations.

They had rejoiced at those reports,

but their own timidness

and insecurity made it hard for them to believe

that their Lord had a place

and a special role for them as well.

Everything God says to this group of people

is designed to affirm them

and to strengthen their confidence

both in Himself

and in their ability to fulfill the role

He has for them.

For me the next phrase Christ speaks to this church

is perhaps the most significant

in this whole message.

I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, ...

In order for you to appreciate

what I see happening in that phrase

I need to share with you

a pattern that God often follows in our lives.

If we had the time

I could illustrate this pattern

through the a number of Biblical personalities

or through events I have seen

in my own life.

But I can most quickly illustrate it

through David in the Old Testament.

The pattern I want to share with you

has three distinct phases to it.

1. The first phase is the Promise.

The promise is a point,

or an event,

or a brief experience early in our Christian life

in which our Lord plants within us

a vision and a hope of something

He wants to accomplish in our lives in the future.

In the life of David

the promise came to him in I Samuel chapter 16 where it says,

1 Sam. 16:1 Now the Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons."

1 Sam. 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

If you are not familiar

with the events of the life of King David in the Old Testament,

it will help you to know that this event took place when David

was still in this teens.

It would be years before Saul died

and David took over as King of Israel.

It was a promise God gave to David,

a promise of what God would one day accomplish in David’s life.

God has done the same thing

with many of us here this morning.

I remember a conversation I had in 1972

with a Bible teacher I respected very much.

I’d been out of school for about 3 years at the time

and nothing was working for me.

I’d spent two years on the Island of Trinidad

helping a missionary family lay the groundwork for a church

in one of the valleys outside the capital city of Port-of-Spain.

I loved the Island

and I loved the people,

but I knew it wasn’t the right time for me to make a long-term commitment to the Island.

I’d been back in the States for several months,

looking for work where I could find it,

wondering where I belonged,

where I was headed,

and whether or not I’d ever find any place that really fit me.

I loved teaching the Bible,

but I had no Bible School or Seminary training

so no church would even consider me for a staff position.

I met the man I was talking to at a Bible conference

and managed to get a few minutes to talk with him in private.

I told him about the shambles of my life -

all the pieces that didn’t fit

and the confusion that coated my every thought of the future.

Then he asked me a question.

He said, “Larry, describe for me the perfect life.

If you could have any future you wanted, what would it look like?”

I said, “I would be able to invest my life in teaching the Bible and working with kids.”

He responded by saying, “You will have it!”

And it the most amazing way,

His words came to me as a promise from God Himself,

a promise of the future He would one day give me.

Some of you have received promises from your Lord as well,

a time or a place or an experience

where you saw a little glimpse

of the future He has for you.

He’s given you that promise

to help you to recognize

both what He has for you

and what He does not.

That promise

will make it easier for you

to let go of the counterfeits

and the substitutes

and the good things along the way

that stand in the way of the best He has for you.

#2. Then after the promise comes the time of training.

With David, as with many of us,

that time of training went on for a number of years.

It put him into situations

that looked nothing like the promise

God had made to him.

He spent much of that time

running and hiding for his life.

He was declared an outlaw,

an enemy to the nation of Israel,

someone to be killed on sight.

The only “royal subjects” he had

were the discontents and rejects of society,

people who were also running away from something

or someone.

But it was during those years

that God built into David

the leadership skills

he would one day need

when the promise

finally became a living reality.

If you find yourself in “Phase 2” of your life right now,

a time when you look back to the promise your God has given you

and wonder what happened,

and why it can’t be that way again,

I have a special gift for you.

Well, actually, PETER has a special gift for you.

It’s found in I Peter 5:6-11

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Peter begins and ends that passage

with the strong assurance

that God knows just exactly

what He’s doing with your life

and why.

He can

and He will exalt you at the proper time,

fulfilling the promise He has given you,

once your training has been completed.

He Himself will perfect,

confirm,

strengthen,

and establish you.

But the great danger during those times of training in our lives

is the danger of thinking

God doesn’t care

or He’s forgotten about us

or for some reason we no longer matter to Him.

It’s lies,

all satanic lies.

And that’s why Peter includes that warning between the promises.

When you find yourself thinking

you’ll never find the place that fits you,

resist his lies, firm in your faith.

Your Lord loves you far too much

to fulfill His promise to you

before you’re ready for it.

When the nation of Israel finally crowned David as their King,

more than a decade after he had received

the promise from God,

both he and the nation were ready

for him to assume that position.

And when He fulfills the promise

that He has placed within you

the same will be true.

You can try to rush it if you want.

But if you are determined to do so

that promise will become

a heavy burden in your life,

a burden you will grow to resent

because you were not yet ready to carry it.

#3. The third phase, of course,

is the time of the Promise Fulfilled.

It is that time

when God takes the hunger He has created within you

and the training He has accomplished in your life

and moves you into the role

that He has designed you to fulfill.

I have brought all of this up today

because I see that same 3 phase process in the Lord’s opening words

to this church at Philadelphia.

Rev. 3:8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

You see, this was a church

that had grown through its time of training.

They had grown in power,

they had kept His Word,

and they had not denied His Name.

Their time had come.

But I think they had been intimidated

by all those other churches around them,

churches with great reputations

and impressive histories.

Like Moses after 40 years herding sheep

they had almost learned their lesson too well.

In this special message

to the Church at Philadelphia

the Lord writes to open their eyes

to the opportunity that’s right before them.

Its His way of saying,

‟Don’t be afraid of the role I’ve given you. You can and you will handle it well.”

He then goes on to promise them

great victory over those who were fighting against them,

and deliverance from a time of testing

that was coming over the world.

There’s one other phrase in this message to the church at Philadelphia

that I want to comment on before we close.

It’s that phrase where Christ describes them as having, “a little power...”.

Did you notice that there isn’t even the slightest hint of criticism

in the way Christ uses that phrase?

In fact, it is worded in such a way

as to clearly be understood as

a word of praise from their God.

We might tend to read it

and find ourselves thinking,

“Well! Seems to me like they should have had a LOT of power. Must have been something wrong with them.

Lack of faith, probably.

If they would only have trusted God more,

they would have had more power.”

But, you see,

unlike us,

God doesn’t grade on the curve.

And just as in that parable of the talents

in which the Master gave to one 5 talents

and to another 2 talents

and to another 1 talent,

he in no way criticized the 2 and 1 talent servants

because they didn’t have 5 talents like the guy next to them,

so He does not criticize this church

for having “a little power”.

The power,

like the talents,

was given to them by God.

The question was not “how much power to you have?”,

the question was simply,

“How will you choose to use

the power I have entrusted to you?”

Most of us are two and one talent folks,

we are “little power” people.

That’s was His choice for us,

and it’s a great place to be.

Our calling is simply

to be faithful with whatever position

and power He has chosen to entrust to us.