Revelation 3:7-13

Mark Smith preaching from Revelation 3:7-13

Connect with us here:

Website: citychurchdublin.ie

Facebook: facebook.com/CityChurchDublin

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

The words of the Holy One, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open. I know your works, behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lies. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, 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 from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And so reads God's word.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Join us on our penultimate week in uh this uh these opening chapters of the book of Revelation, looking at the uh the seven letters to the seven churches. We're in Philadelphia that Rory read for us in Revelation chapter three. You can look it up, it'd be good to have it in front of you actually uh from verse seven, so that you can uh follow along. And indeed, if English is not your first language and uh you cannot make out my accent, you can scan the QR code up in the top corner and uh you can uh read along or listen along in your first language and your heart language, and indeed, if you struggle with my Northern Irish accent, you can probably follow along in English as well in order to figure out what it is that I am saying. What kind of uh people does Jesus move towards? That's what we're thinking about this morning. What kind of people does Jesus make a beeline for? Our world makes a beeline, prioritizes, moves towards the successful, the capable, the impressive, the strong. But who does Jesus make a beeline for? That might be how the world works, but is that how Jesus works? What a sort of people draw out the affections of Jesus for them. There was a pastor uh who was alive during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, not the one who just passed away. Queen Elizabeth I, so about 500 years ago. His name was Richard Sibbs. Richard Sibbs wrote a very famous Christian work, which I commend to you if you can find it in a fairly modern translation, uh, called The Bruised Reed. And in that work, he's wrestling with Christ's love for weak Christians. And in this he writes this. Let me quote a few lines for you. They're beautiful. He says, Christ binds up the brokenhearted. As a mother is tenderest towards the most diseased and weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully incline himself to the weakest. Likewise, he puts an instinct into the weakest things to rely upon something stronger than themselves for support. The vine steadies itself upon the elm. The weakest creatures often have the strongest shelters. The consciousness of the church's weakness makes her willing to lean upon her beloved and to hide herself under his wing.

unknown 4:28

Isn't that lovely?

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Sibs understood something that we all experience. Weak things look for strength. Children reach out for the hand of their parents. The injured look for a doctor, the frightened look for shelter. The vine wraps itself around the elm. If you take nothing away this morning, if you decide to tune out an eye, think of your life as a vine wrapped around the tree trunk that is Christ and allow it to stabilize your life. But I would invite you to keep on listening. And you think about the child reaching for a parent or somebody going to a doctor, how do these people respond? How does a good parent respond? Well, a good parent ought to respond in tenderness and care. How does a good doctor respond? Well, he or she listens carefully to the complaints of the sick and diagnoses the right medicine or prescription. And what about Jesus? How does he respond? How do we think that he responds? He's described at the start of this letter as the holy one and the true one. He is the perfect Lord of revelation. He is the perfect Lord of all. And our approach, our tendency is to think that when we are weak, when we are fearful, when we are struggling with sin, is that he looks at us disapprovingly. That he looks at us and barely tolerates us. He puts up with us. He helps us, but he does so perhaps from a distance. Is that how a loving father deals with the weakest, sickest child? The church in Philadelphia was not an impressive church. An impressive church. We've dealt with some impressive churches in impressive cities, like uh like Ephesus or even Sardis. Philadelphia was not one of those. It was not influential, it was not powerful. Jesus himself says, you have little power. They were marginalized, opposed, overlooked. And yet to this weak church, Jesus says some of the tenderest, most beautiful words. He says to them, the world will know that I have loved you. That's what he says to weak Christians. He says to weak Christians, the world will know that I have loved you. The central message of this letter is not how much the church in Philadelphia was doing for Jesus, how much they love Jesus, but how much Jesus loved them. And what we're going to look at in this letter is how Jesus shows his love for them. There's the first point, it's already up. Your enemy. How does Jesus show that love? He welcomes them, he vindicates them, and he keeps them to the end. So first one. Jesus welcomes the weak. Jesus welcomes weak Christians, people whose faith does not feel strong right now. Jesus says, Come in, come home. Now, before Jesus says anything to the church or about the church, he begins, as he often does, by reminding them who he is. So let's look at his descriptions again. They're there in verse 7. He describes himself, first of all, as the Holy One. That's a very significant title because it's a title which in the Old Testament is reserved exclusively for Jesus or for Yahweh, for the Old Testament God. And Jesus is saying, that's me. I am capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. I am the Holy One of Israel. To pick up Isaiah's language. John here in his writing is saying that Jesus is not merely godly, he is God. Perfectly pure, perfectly righteous. And yet the astonishing thing about this holy, morally perfect, ethically pure God is that he doesn't withdraw himself from sinners, but moves towards them. He moves towards the weak. And you know this from Jesus' earthly ministry. He touched the leper, he welcomed the outcast, he ate with the tax collector and sinner. His holiness did not create distance, it moved him in love towards those who needed to be made holy by him. Secondly, he's described as the true one. Jesus is not merely a teacher or a being that says some truthful things and other worldviews say other truthful things. Like you can kind of go to the religious buffet and think, I'll take a little bit of Jesus, a little bit of a little bit of Vishnu, and a side order of Allah. No, no. Jesus is saying, I am the true one. He doesn't just say truthful things, he is ultimate reality himself. Everything that he says can be trusted. The church's circumstances might be saying one thing to the Christians in Philadelphia, as indeed our circumstances are constantly talking to us. Some of your circumstances are screaming at you right now, telling you things about yourself, telling you things about God that actually are often lies. Jesus promises speak a better word than our circumstances. In many days, it's a battle, isn't it, between, okay, which voice am I going to listen to, my circumstances that I find myself in that are screaming at me right now, or the voice of the holy and true one. We also learn from verse 7 that he is the sovereign one. Now those words aren't in there, but the implication is there in verse 7. The words of the holy and true one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shout, who shuts and no one opens. Again, John is drawing from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, from Isaiah chapter 22, and essentially the idea of this, that the holder of this key controlled access to the king. And what John is saying is that Jesus alone controls access into God's kingdom, into the presence of the Father. This echoes his language in John 14, where he says to the disciples after Philip says, Show us the way. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He alone grants everlasting access into the very presence of God. No priest does it, no synagogue, no government, only Jesus. This holy, true, sovereign Jesus holds a door open to these believers. Now, what's the significance of that? Well, it appears that in Philadelphia the church has experienced rejection from others in the city, particularly the local Jewish community. The door was shut in their faces. They were excluded and rejected, they were marginalized, and Jesus says, I've opened a door for you, and no one is going to shut it. Because Christ has the authority to overturn the power of any earthly institution. They experience rejection, certainly rejection is a painful thing, isn't it? To be rejected is disorientating, it is exposing. And Jesus says, I'm holding the door open for you. For we Christians, for those who have little power. I know that you have little power, and yet you have kept my word and not denied my name. They were weak, but they were faithful. And Jesus welcomes them. Imagine. Imagine back to your childhood. I don't know what your childhood was. Some of my school days weren't the best days of my life. And I'm sure lots of you have had that experience as well, at least at some point. But you can imagine the child coming home after the day has been hard. Names have been hurled at you, things have been said that have harmed you, maybe even somebody has has picked on you. And you walk up the driveway, and the door opens, and a good father is standing there, a good parent is standing there, and they can see on your face that you've had a hard day. What are they doing? You're home now. You're safe. No one else is going to get at you today. You're home. And you're mine. That's what Jesus is saying to these weak, marginalized, oppressed Christians. To everyone here who knows the sting of rejection. The Holy One comes, the true one comes, and it is as though he stoops down before you on bended knee like he would a child, and he lifts you by your cheeks and says, Look at me. You're home nigh. You're mine. We are weak, but Christ is powerful, and he uses his power to welcome us into his presence forever. To welcome us into his community. Jesus, the holy and true one, moves towards the weak and welcomes them. The weaknesses that we feel don't just create in us kind of insecurities, but can create a kind of vulnerability. When people oppose us or slander us or look down upon us, we long for justice. And so this leads to Jesus' second promise is that he doesn't just welcome the weak, but he vindicates the weak. Verse 9. Have a look at it with me. Behold, I will make those of a synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews but are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come down, come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. It's really hard to face false accusation. Isn't it? For people to think and to say and to believe things that are wrong about ye. To assume the worst about ye. You find yourself thinking, well, I I wish that I could, I wish that I could tell them the whole story. I wish that I could kind of flesh out the context and uh and justify the things that that I said and did, because they're reading me in the most negative light. And actually, if I was able to talk to them more, but they won't, they won't talk to you. So you find yourself longing that you could set the record straight, that you could, that you could get them and you could say, look, you are seeing me and this whole situation wrong. And you long for somebody to set the record straight. The Christians in Philadelphia were on the margins of society. They were the scum of the earth. People would sneer at them and gloat over them if they even notice them at all. And in the midst of all of the suffering, Jesus speaks to them and says that those who have looked down on you will in the end bow down before you. This is how the kingdom of God works. This is how the kingdom of God has always worked. The verdict of heaven will in the end overturn the verdict of earth. The people who were despised for their trust and faithfulness to Jesus will in the end be honored by him openly. People who were rejected for their faithfulness to Christ in their school, in their family, in their workplace will in the end be acknowledged by Jesus. Those who seemed insignificant in the world's eyes will be lifted up and vindicated by the risen Christ. And why? Will those who oppose these beleaguered Christians, why will they bow down? What will cause them to bow down before them? Well, Jesus doesn't say they'll know that you're right. They'll know that you won. Nor does he say they will know that you are stronger than them in the end. No, he says, they will know that I have loved you. It is not that Jesus comes as, it is not just that Jesus comes as judge to make things right, though he does. It's that his vindication of them is a display of his love for them. In the end, the whole world will know that you are loved by the God of the universe. Even though he feels far off now, even though the world has said that he has deserted you, it will be on display for all to see that he has loved you from the first to the last. And in the end, you will look back on all of the paths that you have trodden in your life, and you will look back on upon all of the difficulty, and you will be able to say, in looking back upon it, I can see that he never abandoned me, he never forgot me, he loved me until the end. And the trick now in the Christian life is to settle that future vindication in your heart. To do what Jesus, what Peter describes of the Lord Jesus, to entrust himself to the one who judges justly. Can you do that? Can you entrust yourself to the one who will in the end vindicate you? That the things that have been said and done towards you, that people just it just seems as though they're just gonna get away with it. Can you trust to that future hope that one day you will be vindicated and that they will be exposed for their wrongdoing? Can you settle in your heart that though it does not always feel that his love, his presence, his care is with you, that one day you will see it and savor it again. Yeah. I've often told this uh story, but it's worth just briefly reiterating. There's a a gentleman who uh teaches at a Bible college in uh in Philadelphia, wrote a book uh called The Moon Is Always Round. And he wrote it for his young son uh after his wife lost a child. And they were driving home from the from the hospital, and his young son was was struggling and wrestling with why this had happened to their family. And Johnny, who wrote the book, he said. Said to his young son, he said, um, son, is the moon always round? Yes, daddy. Can you does it always appear round? Can you always see its roundness? No, daddy. Sometimes is the moon completely hidden from your sight. Yes, daddy. But is the moon always round, son? Yes, daddy. So it is with the goodness of God. God is always good. Can we always see his goodness with perfect clarity? No. Sometimes we just see the sliver of the crescent of his goodness, and sometimes it is veiled in darkness from our sight entirely. But in the same way that the moon is always round, God is always good. And he will vindicate those who have suffered for his namesake in the end. To settle this, to wrestle with this, will be in time medicine and balm for your soul. It will guard you against bitterness, it will guard you against vengefulness, it will guard you against despair, it will guard you against cynicism. We all carry wounds. False accusations, misunderstandings, rejections, unseen sacrifices, faithful obedience that has cost you dearly. And to you all, Jesus says, One day they will see that I have loved you. Immediately after the service. Usually at the bottom of the big stairs is a prayer team. If you need help, settling in the heart in your heart that future hope of vindication. We'd love to pray with you, for you, to wrestle with God on your behalf. Come down and have somebody pray for you. Come and speak to me or one of the elders. We're normally sitting on the ball on the wall like crows. You can come and chat to us. We'd love to pray for you, with you. Yet the promise of Jesus in this passage becomes even sweeter because sometimes our greatest fear is not our enemies, those without. Sometimes our greatest fear is ourselves. We know our own weakness and we think, well, will I make it? Will I endure to the end? We fear that our weakness will ultimately overcome us. And Jesus thirdly and finally addresses that too. Jesus keeps the weak. He keeps the weak. Let's pick it up in verse 10. Because you have kept my word to my patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world. To try those who dwell on the earth, I am coming soon, hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crime. To the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. For those of us who are less worried about the attacks from without, but our own frickeness within. Jesus speaks now to us and says, the security of the Christian life does not finally rest upon your grip of Christ, but on his grip of you. He says, I will keep you. Now the debate over the exact meaning of this verse and the trial that he's talking about is debated, but the central promise is unmistakable. Christ knows how to preserve his people, not necessarily from suffering. Philadelphia certainly knew suffering, but how to persevere them and keep them and hold them through suffering. So trials, therefore, do not are not an indication that Christ has abandoned us. Often they become the means through which we discover how securely it is he holds on to us. Imagine a child crossing a busy road, a little one, four or five years old. And they are holding on to your hand. Whose grip matters more? Their grip of you? Ever crossed a road with a with a little one and actually they've loosed their fingers? And you have the little stab of panic, the little you love that little shot of adrenaline. But actually you realize that your hand has tightened and you've got them. All the way across, all the way across. We're sort of like that with Jesus, aren't we? The next thing, our grip, our grip loosens, and we go, oh, there's cars coming. All the way across, I've got you. My grip is firm on you. Nobody is taking you from my hand. We're keeping moving. We're getting to the other side. We're getting to Canaan's fair and pleasant land. I will see you there. He says, I'm coming soon. Hold fast. Don't loosen your grip. The king has not forgotten his people. The finish line is real and the crown is waiting. He says, Don't anybody snatch it. It's yours, it's your inheritance. I'm gonna bring you there. And what does he promise to all of these weak Christians? What a great thing to promise to Christians who just are so aware of their fickleness and failure, their weakness. Like the old hymn that we sing, come thou find prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. What fickle creatures we are, half half-hearted, blowing hot and cold, as we'll see next week when Ben opens up the letter to Lodice. But what does Jesus promise these weak Christians? He says, I'm gonna make you a pillar. I'm gonna make you a pillar in the temple of my God. Philadelphia was located in a region of Turkey that is extraordinarily earthquake prone. Buildings regularly collapsed because the ground underneath shook. People fled the city, stability was rare. But Jesus says, I'm gonna make you immovable. Maybe your life feels unstable now. You're under pressure, there's particular stresses, there's been a diagnosis that you were not expecting and did not seek, and you feel anything but pillar-like. There are questions about the future, and you're not quite sure where to turn. In Philadelphia, the city would shake beneath their feet. But here we learn that God takes shaky Christians and makes them unshakable. The people who felt the least secure would one day enjoy perfect security forever. No more fear, no more instability, no more exile, no more leaving. It's why one of our one of the verbs that we have in our mission statements, we've got four verbs. Those of you who heard in New Discity the last two weeks, I'm sure this is just tattooed onto your brain. We exist to connect people to Jesus, to grow them to spiritual maturity, that they might serve the community and go to the nations. Connect, grow, serve, go. Let's focus on this grow one. Why do we say that we want to grow people to spiritual maturity? Well, actually, we want Christians that are not just chaff seeds blowing in the wind, but oaks rooted in the Lord Jesus and able to take any storm of instability, of suffering and of trial, and to weather it until Christ brings you home. Are you becoming an oak, a pillar in the temple of God? And then he says, I'm gonna give you his name. There's so much about naming in these letters. These names have a slightly different connotation. You're gonna be given a weak Christian, struggling Christian, disorientated Christian. Jesus says, I'm gonna write three names on you. The name of God, the name of the new Jerusalem, and my own private new name. What does this mean? Well, all of it signifies ownership, belonging, identity, citizenship, a place, a home, a resting place where you belong. The people rejected by the world would be publicly claimed by heaven. So if you're ever explaining this to uh uh to your children or to younger children, you might think of the image of Paddington Bear. We love Paddington Bear. Mostly because he's English and uh and it makes Philip a kind of wistful for home. Paddington Bear arrives from Deepest Darkest. I suppose he's not English, actually, he's from Deepest, Deepest Darkest Peru, right? And what is it what does he arrive? He's got a he's got a little tag around his neck. Paddington Bear, Deepest Arcus Peru, then a little message, please look after this bear. Can you imagine your life, whatever you're going through right now? There's a tag around your neck that says the New Jerusalem. Care of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who belongs to the Father. He's mine, she's mine. That's you. You have an address already stamped upon you, a name, where you will be finally delivered to on the other side of this veil of tears, a place of belonging, a place of no more sickness, sorrow, or dying. The world may ask, who do you belong to? Christ Himself answers and says, He belongs to me. She belongs to me. Richard Sibbs in the quote said, The consciousness of the church's weakness makes her willing to lean upon her beloved. That was the church in Philadelphia. They were not strong, they had little power. They were weak, and they knew where weak people should go. And Jesus didn't turn them away. He welcomed them. He vindicated them. He kept them until the end. Perhaps you think of Jesus as the holy and true one. And imagine that you're approaching him this morning. And he's got disappointment on his face. He's pointing an accusing finger because of what you've done this week, the things that you have said this week. He's opened the door, but as you walk past, you hear a frustrated sigh. A weary torrent. That is not the Jesus of the letter to the Philadelphians. Christ moves towards the weak. The Holy One says, I have opened a door for you. The judge of all the earth says, I have loved you. The king of all creation says, I will keep you. The risen victorious Christ says, I will make you a pillar. The church in Philadelphia had little power. But they had Christ. And that was enough. Let's pray. Let's take a moment in the silence. As we reflect upon our own weaknesses and run to Jesus. Weakness in the body as we face pains and aches and sicknesses. Weakness in our own faith as we struggle with doubts and questions. Weakness is a result of circumstance as we wrestle with sadness and disappointment. Rejection. Know that Jesus is moving towards you now. He is lifting up your face and he is saying, You are mine. Come home. I will vindicate you in the end and I will keep you until that end. Take my hand. Walk with me. Come to him now in the silence of your own heart before we take the Lord's Supper together. We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under your table. But you are the same, Lord, whose character is always to show mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so that as we eat this bread and drink this wine, that we might remember Jesus' broken body and shed blood. And that our souls might be renewed by that death for us. And that you might strengthen us to walk with Jesus in newness of life. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, visit our website found in the links below.