"Philadelphia, The Church With a Mission"When The Lamb Stands, series by Sharon Clemens

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PHILADELPHIA [Revelation 3:7-14]--THE FAITHFUL CHURCH, AD 1750 to AD 1900, The Evangelistic Era of the Church:

    Every church is faced with opportunity--and limitations. Woodrow Kroll describes our next church, Philadelphia, as a body of believers that managed to be obedient even within the obstacles their time presented. Because of their love and commitment to the Lord and to the lost, Christ promises them "an open door" of effectiveness and His personal protection in difficult times. When the same promise is applied to the Age, it spawned a period of evangelistic fervor unrivaled in church history. Any Christian would desire such a promise. All believers aspire to their example.

    Philadelphia means "love of the brethren" or "brotherly love." MacArthur notes that the ancient city of John's day acquired its name because it was founded around 190 BC by Attalus II, king of Pergamum, to honor his brother. A pagan king's example of brotherly devotion became a virtual reality as the Philadelphia church persevered in their devotion to the lost. The church embodied the name of the city and the spirit of the church characterized the Age of Philadelphia. The Quaker's, an early founding element in America, were know for their teaching of brotherly love and named their city, Philadelphia, after its New Testament namesake.

    Warren Wiersby describes the ancient Philadelphia as a city on the main route of the Imperial Post road from Rome to the East; therefore, it was known as the gateway to the East. It was also called little Athens because of the many temples in the city. The city was particularly prone to earthquakes as the area sat on a geological fault. It was destroyed by a severe earthquake in 17 BC that also destroyed Sardis and ten other cities, but was eventually rebuilt. As the Lord demonstrated with the first five letters, characteristics of this city lend themselves to characteristics of the church age it represents.

THE SALUTATION, Verse 7:

    These things say He who is HOLY... Christ, testifies of Himself, repeating descriptions from chapter one of The Revelation. The title of "holy" is a declaration of His Godhood. He shares the holy, sinless, pure nature of His Father [Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 6:3; 40:25; 43:15; Hab. 3:3; Mark 1:11, 24; John 6:69; Acts 3:14].
    He who is TRUE... True refers to His genuine claim to being God. He is the only One who is true, the original, NOT A COPY--as are the pagan gods of Philadelphia. In Isaiah 42:8, the Lord defends His deity passionately: "I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images." Our LORD is justifiably offended by the pompous claims of false religion.
    He who has THE KEY OF DAVID... Only the true Messiah of Israel is the son of David--heir of the royal blood of Israel's kings--with the authority--the key--to sit upon the throne of David in the Millennial Kingdom. This KEY grants Him the authority to control entrance into the Kingdom by unlocking the door... Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me," John 14:6.

This KEY is His authority to OPEN and CLOSE the door to the Kingdom as the Prophet Isaiah said: "The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open," Isaiah 22:22.

REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY--An Affront To The King

    Those who espouse Replacement Theology overlook the significance of Christ's ownership of The Key of David. Those who claim Israel has been replaced with the Church have distorted the Kingdom blueprint as it is clearly revealed in the Old Testament. THE COMING KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH IS THE SAME KINGDOM PROMISED TO ISRAEL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. IT IS A KINGDOM BASED ON JEWISH ROOTS. IT IS A KINGDOM RULED BY A JEWISH KING.

    When Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, the Christ, returns, He will rule the earth from Israel. His capital city will be Jerusalem. All the nations of the earth will come to Jerusalem to worship Christ on the Throne of David [Zechariah 14:16; Ezekiel 36 and 37 and chapters 40 to 48]. To remove the Jewish element from the Kingdom is to confuse and misrepresent the literal interpretation of the Millennial Kingdom in scripture.

Jesus the Messiah does not own just the keys to a city--
HE OWNS THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM.
Believers would do well to understand the nature of that Kingdom to which we aspire!
How can we hope to enter if we dishonor the King and His heritage.

Just as Christ holds the keys to death and hell, He also holds the keys to salvation and blessing.
"...He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens." [Revelation 3:7]

    As Isaiah said, the Lord determines when the door of the Kingdom is open and when it is shut.; the Son of David will use Israel as a vehicle of mercy and judgment again, when He returns. As Paul said, Israel will be spiritually blind until "the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved..." Romans 11:25b-26. Israel cannot be "replaced." God isn't finished with them yet. The Lord will use the Tribulation to refine Israel and save them [Jeremiah 30:7; Zechariah 13]. He will cleanse them, redeem them, and bring them under His rule. His Kingdom is a Jewish Kingdom through which all believers, both Jew and Gentile, are blessed. [Romans 11; Zechariah 12:10 and following; Genesis 12:3]

Zechariah 2:10-13 -- "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," says the LORD.
"Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people.
And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
And the LORD will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!"

JESUS, THE DOOR

    To emphasize His authority, Jesus revealed that not only does He control entrance into the Kingdom, He is literally the door through which we enter. Jesus is the door of the sheep fold, John 10:1-10.

THE COMMENDATION, Verse 8:
    I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength...
    When the Church operates out of obedience to God's will and purpose, our Lord puts the full support of the Holy Spirit behind their efforts. To Philadelphia He gave a door wide open to preach the Gospel, and He promises to keep it open. They face two major obstacles--the pagan population of the city and the unredeemed Jewish population. These troublesome Jews are not believers. They held to the Old Testament laws but rejected Jesus as Messiah. The Church in Smyrna was troubled by a similar group [2:9]. Those who justify their religion by their own self-righteousness are threatened by those who trust in Christ alone. These unsaved Jews were hostile to the church in Philadelphia, and yet the church treated them as lost brothers, worthy of the Gospel. The Lord commends the church because they saw this opposition as an opportunity to witness for Christ.

    There is no CONDEMNATION [complaint] for this church as they have a heart for the lost.

THE PROMISE, Verses 9 and 10: Christ rewards this church abundantly for their perseverance. They are not rewarded for the number of converts, but for their diligence and obedience to the task, even under persecution. Their reward is especially appropriate. The very Jews who belittle them for their faith will one day bow before them. How satisfying that the truth believers teach will one day be openly recognized and acknowledged by our persecutors.

    Christ is our example of grace under rejection. He is also our example of ultimate vindication! Romans 14:11--"As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." When Christ returns, He will put all rebellion away. All those who rejected Him shall bow before Him, the conquering King.

A Glimpse Of The Rapture:
    Christ also promises the church of Philadelphia deliverance from "the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth." This promise likely had an immediate fulfillment for Philadelphia in Asia Minor. The church was possibly spared from serious persecution from the Roman Empire. Ultimately, it refers to an event still future according to John MacArthur. Only one event in scripture fits the description of a global world test. [Matthew 24:21] Christ is describing the Tribulation, the seven-year period before Christ's earthly kingdom is consummated. "The verb 'to keep' is followed by a preposition whose normal meaning is 'from' or 'out of'--this phrase, 'keep...from' supports the pretribulational rapture of the church." (emphasis Phil) [See John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:51, 52; 1 Thess. 4:13-17 for descriptions of the Rapture event.]

THE WARNING, Verse 11: Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.

    When Christ comes, He will come quickly! Just as the Church was born in a day--on the day of Pentecost--so the door of the Kingdom will slam shut at the sudden return of Christ to the earth and those on the outside will not get in. His Kingdom will not come gradually through the efforts of the Church; the 1,000 years will begin suddenly and Christ will build His Millennial Temple instantly, by speaking it into existence. It will not be built by human hands; the Kingdom will come supernaturally with the return of the King. [Daniel 2:44]

Zechariah 6:12-13-- "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! [The Messiah]
From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the LORD;
yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD.
He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne;
so He shall be a priest on His throne,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."

    Christ will defend His own glory, but He cautions the believer to hold fast to what we have, that no one may take our crown of reward. Believers will receive crowns at The Judgment of Rewards, 2 Corinthians 5:10; (a href = "http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%205:10&version=NIV">1 Cor. 3:11-15. 2 Cor. 5:10--"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." These rewards are valid only on the foundation of salvation through Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 3:11-15. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not of works, Eph. 2:8-10, but we are created in Christ Jesus for good works to follow salvation. These are the works recognized at the Judgment of Rewards.


    One crown in particular is to "those who love His appearing," 2 Timothy 4:8, which has particular application for this Church. Their promise is deliverance from the hour of trial that will test the earth, a reference to the pre-tribulation Rapture. Those who love His appearing live in expectation and constant watchfulness for His appearing at the Rapture. Christ reminds Philadelphia to hold fast to their faith and not lose sight of His return, even when perseverance is difficult. Ages of Church believers have already earned this crown because they lived a life of waiting, working, and watching for that blessed hope [Titus 2:13]--even though the Rapture is still imminent.

THE PRAISE, Verse 12: He who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God...I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem...and My new name.

    Being a pillar in the temple of God may not sound like a praise, but to citizens living on a geological fault, they could appreciate the metaphor! The Lord was praising them for their unshakable devotion, strong enough to be a temple foundation. He also praises them by promising to brand them--with His Father's name, His eternal capital city, and His personal name. This will identify them as eternally His. Christ's "new name" means we will be on a first-name basis with Him in heaven. At that time, we will be able to relate to Him in a way that is only possible when we see Him as He is, in His fully revealed deity.


APPLICATION TO THE CHURCH--The Evangelistic Age--Age of Revival--AD 1750 to AD 1900

    This was the age of the great revivals. As the new world opened up to trade and travel, missionaries with a heart for the lost--a love of lost brothers--journeyed to the far reaches of the earth to preach the Gospel of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Philadelphia was called the gateway to the East because it lay on the Imperial Post road of Rome. The Age of Philadelphia took the Gospel through the gateway of the open door of evangelism. This was the time in history when "the sun didn't set on the British Empire." As British rule extended to foreign lands, so the Gospel followed.

    A series of great revivals began with George Whitefield in 1739, followed by John Wesley, Charles G. Finney and D. L. Moody. In 1793, William Carey sailed for India, where he found an open door, and since then the Lord has opened the door to China, Japan, Korea, India, Africa and the isles of the sea. Although the Philadelphia Age of Evangelism extends in many ways into present day, we will see in the next letter that the open door is swiftly closing. We live in a time when culture and morality are getting worse and worse, in spite of global access to the Gospel in many forms. But, there is nothing that will prevent the Lord from taking His Kingdom in the fullness of time. Prophecy must be fulfilled. He has promised He will do it [Ezekiel 36:33-36] and the glory is His, but every believer is to be obedient to His will, while we wait, in order to protect our crown of reward.

    Until Christ comes for His church, we are to go through all the doors He opens. Then we will not be ashamed before Him when He comes [1 John 2:28]. The comfort of the promise to Philadelphia is comfort to all believers: He will keep us from the hour of testing. "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation [deliverance] through our Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Thess. 5:9] The Church Age will end with the Rapture before the Tribulation begins.

NEXT TIME: The Last Church Age, Laodicea. How close are we?

In Him We Wait, Work, and Watch,
[Luke 12:35-59]
Sharon

[Prophecy Chat is a weekly commentary of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Sharon L. Clemens is an evangelical, premillennial, dispensational teacher of eschatology. She can be reached for comment or questions by e-mail at farmgrove@frontier.com]