Revelation 3:7-13 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things said he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David… And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia, etc. On a slope of Mount Tmolus stood Philadelphia, a city of Lydia, lying between Sardis and Laodicea. Attalus Philadelphus, after whose name it was called Philadelphia, founded it B.C. 140. It was a commercial city of commanding position and considerable importance, and well fortified withal. Through its adjoining valley the celebrated Xerxes led his forces on his way to Greece. On account of the volcanic nature of its soil it became celebrated for the cultivation and the excellence of its vines. It had been visited by numerous earthquakes, and in the reign of Tiberius most of its population forsook it and fled to the fields, apprehending destruction. It survives to the present day, and is called by the Turks, Allah Shehr, "the city of God." The ruins of a church wall are still visible, and about five thousand members of the Greek Church, with a bishop and about fifteen clergymen, reside in its midst. Nowhere else is it mentioned in sacred Scripture. This wonderful letter brings under our notice a character to be adored, an energy to be coveted, and a destiny to be sought. I. A CHARACTER TO BE ADORED. This character is here exhibited as: 1. Holy. "He that is holy." No man ever appeared on this earth so entirely and unquestionably pure as Christ was. He was "separate from sinners." None of his most malignant contemporaries could convince him of sin. Judas, after the betrayal, cried our, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." He was, indeed, "the holy, the harmless, the undefiled" Son of God. His spotless and undoubted holiness is a most incontrovertible argument for the Divinity of his gospel. 2. True. "He that is true." He is true in the highest sense. (1) True in sentiment. All his sympathies were in accord with eternal reality. (2) True in speech. All his language was in exact agreement with his sentiments. (3) True in character. No shifting from eternal right. "To this end was I born, to this end came I into the world, to bear witness to the truth." He stands in the world's history, amidst the world's shams, like the sun amidst.the ever-shifting clouds. 3. Supreme. "He that hath the key of David." What this means I know not. It cannot mean, however, that Christ in any moral sense resembled the moral character of David. One thing, however, is clear, that David obtained terrible authority over all the resources of Israel. He had a "key" to the resources of the kingdom, and Christ has a key to the moral empire of heaven. He has supremacy of the highest kind. "He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." "He dispenses and he withholds God's treasures; he gives or he denies this or that talent, this or that blessing. In a yet more solemn meaning of the words, it is his to admit into and his to exclude from the eternal kingdom of glory. In spiritual and eternal things, wherever there is a door, Christ has the key of it" (Dr. Vaughan). All the doors to human usefulness, dignity, and happiness are at his disposal. II. AN ENERGY TO BE COVETED. "Thou hast a little strength [power]." This Church had a little power. What was it? Not physical force, not intellectual capacity, not regal rule, but moral. Force to resist the wrong and pursue the right, force to serve the Almighty and to bless mankind. In relation to this moral strength notice: 1. It is the energy of true usefulness. "Behold, I have set before thee an open door [a door opened], and no man can [which none can] shut it: for thou hast a little strength." It is implied that a little moral strength fits a man for usefulness to some extent. Hence the door of opportunity is thrown open to him. Every man has a mission in life, but he only is qualified to enter on it who has moral strength. Alas! the millions are morally impotent, and they live and die without entering on the prosecution of their great duty in life. 2. It is the energy of loyal obedience. "And hast kept [didst keep] my word." This moral strength enables a man to hold on to duty, to hold on to the right with all the tenacity of life, to feel with Job, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;" like Paul to say, "I count not my life dear unto me," etc. 3. It is the energy of true courage. "And hast not denied [didst not deny] my Name." "The tenses used," says Bishop Carpenter," point back to some epoch in the history of this Church when some heavy trial or persecution arose which tested the sincerity, fidelity, or Christian love of the faithful." Who can estimate the temptation which every good man has in a world of infidels, often malignant, to deny his Lord and Master? Peter yielded to it. What invincible courage is required! Courage like that which Paul had when he said, "God forbid that I should glory," etc.; and again, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?" etc. 4. It is the energy of moral sovereignty. "Behold, I will make them of [I give of] the synagogue of Satan, [of them] which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." Who are those spoken of as "of the synagogue of Satan"? Were they the Judaizing Christians, or persecuting Jews? Why spend time with Trench, or other critics, to start such an inquiry? No one can determine, nor does it matter; they were moral antagonists to the congregation at Philadelphia. Concerning them we are here told that the men of moral strength will bring them to their feet; they will not only subdue them, but inspire them with love. High moral power is the highest sovereignty that one man can wield over another; it subdues the heart, Political rule is but a mere worthless shadow and pretence compared with moral. 5. It is the energy of Divine approval and protection. "Because thou hast kept [didst keep] the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation." III. A DESTINY TO BE SOUGHT. What a distinction awaits those who possess and rightly employ this true moral strength! 1. A crown lies within their reach. "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man [one] take thy crown." Christ is coming to every man, and coming with speed, coming in the events of man's history and in his exit by death. When he comes there is a "crown" for him, if he holds faithfully on to the true and the right. The allusion here is to the public games of Greece, in which the winner obtained a garland of laurels. But what is that garland to the crown here referred to? The eternal weight of glory, a "crown" which shall outshine yon permanent sun. "Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." 2. Divine security is assured. "Him [he] that overcometh will I make [I will make him] a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go [out thence] no more out." "The promise," says an eminent critic, "is that of a secure and permanent position in God's heavenly temple. Philadelphia is said to have been singularly liable to earthquakes; not a building, common or sacred, but it might suddenly fall in ruins. The promise here made is that no such risks shall await the heavenly temple or those who have been built into it." 3. Sublime distinction is promised. "I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my [mine own] new name." "On the sides of the four marble pillars which survive as ruins of Philadelphia, inscriptions are to be found. The writing would be the name of God, the name of the heavenly Jerusalem, the new, unknown name of Christ himself. The allusion is to the golden frontlet inscribed with the name of Jehovah. He will reflect the likeness of God; and not only so, he will bear the tokens - now seen in all clearness - of his heavenly citizenship. And a further promise implies that in the day of the last triumph, as there will be new revealings of Christ's power, there will be unfolded to the faithful and victorious new and higher possibilities of purity. Thus does Scripture refuse to recognize any finality which is not a beginning as well as an end - a landing stage in the great law of continuity." CONCLUSION. "I cannot," says Trench, "leave this epistle, so full of precious promises to a Church which, having little strength, had yet held fast the word of Christ's patience, without citing a remarkable passage about it from Gibbon, in which he writes like one who almost believed that the threatening promises of God did fulfil themselves in history. ' In the loss of Ephesus the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelation; the desolation is complete; and the Temple of Diana or the Church of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a Son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamos; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turk, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above four score years, and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect - a column in a scene of ruins - a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety may sometimes be the same.'" - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; |
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