Philadelphia: The 7 Churches of Revelation

Sunday Morning | June 28, 2026 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY 

In Jesus' message to the church in Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7–13), Pastor John reminded us that true significance is not found in worldly success but in faithful obedience to Christ. Using the image of the "open door" and Jesus' authority as the One who holds the key of David, he encouraged believers to patiently trust God's timing, focus on what they can control by remaining faithful in their relationships and obedience, embrace their weaknesses as opportunities for God's strength to be displayed, and keep their eyes fixed on the eternal hope that awaits those who persevere. Drawing from passages such as Isaiah 22:22, Proverbs 18:24, 1 Corinthians 1:27, and 1 Kings 7:21, the sermon emphasized that God delights in using ordinary, seemingly weak people for His purposes. Just as the faithful church in Philadelphia was promised an unshakable place in God's kingdom, believers today are called to hold firmly to Christ, knowing that lasting strength and true importance are found in Him alone.

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Thank you. Thank you all for being here today. While we continue in our study of the seven Churches of Revelation. How many, especially the kids here, you know, our kids are joining us. Normally they have a service kindergarten through fifth grade. They're joining us in June and July, most of July. Kids, how many of you like football? We have any football fans in here? Okay, great. I saw some adults raise their hand. Not good at instructions, but that's okay. Couldn't help it. I just love football so much. Who remembers Gerald Christian? Do any of you remember him? He was a. I don't see many hands. You'll know why in a second. He played at UofL -- that's not the reason, by the way. Stop it UK fans. Gerald Christian, he played tight end at UofL and he was drafted into the NFL. But he was drafted dead last. And everyone knows what that person is called. Do you know the nickname for the last person drafted in NFL? Anybody? Mr.. Irrelevant, right. That's why you hadn't heard of him usually. Mr. irrelevant, maybe not even ever plays a game. Now. Occasionally, like the guy who's at the 40 niners, occasionally someone breaks through and is significant. But imagine being given that nickname, by the way, Mr. Irrelevant or Mrs. Irrelevant. That's not a name you want to stick with you for your life. And of course, if you're drafted in the NFL, I'll take it right? That's a great reason to be given that name. But what if in real life you're given that label, but someone calls you, sees you, or you see yourself irrelevant, insignificant, without purpose or meaning? That's a tough thing to carry. And I know many carry that around. We're going to look at a church today. It's the church in Philadelphia, not Philadelphia, Pennsylvania church in Philadelphia in ancient times. And we're going to see there a church that was considered irrelevant. How do you move from irrelevance to importance? We're going to see four ways in the passage today. So if you have a Bible, turn to Revelation chapter three. Page numbers on the screen will match our church Bibles, which you can grab a copy in the lobby. If you don't have a Bible, we want you turning in a copy of your own Bible in God's Word so that you can get used to it and learn to read from it on your own, and know how to navigate it, and know where the books of the Bible are and be comfortable with it. And not everybody is at first, and that's okay. But this is where you'll find life. And so I'm going to read in Revelation chapter three, verse seven through 12. And if you would go ahead and stand while I read just as a sign of reverence for God's Word, I'll read through the passage and then we'll be seated after that. Revelation, chapter three, verse seven. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write these 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 opens. 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 but 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 lie. 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. You can be seated. So this letter is to the ancient city of Philadelphia. It's different than our city of Philadelphia. Our city is known for cream cheese. Right? Philly cheesesteak Constitution was written there. First American flag created there. And probably of most significance is home of Rocky Balboa. You know, that's how our Philadelphia is known. The ancient Philadelphia, in fact, will bring up the map. We've been bringing it up each week. That shows you how these churches, these cities relate to one another. They're in a circle. And we've just been going from Ephesus all the way around. And here we are at Philadelphia. The way it was situated mainly was kind of at a crossroads between cities. You can go north south, but also many people came in from Smyrna into Philadelphia. There was a wide open plain that channeled them up towards that. So they were on a crossroads. And that's kind of what they were known for a city to stop over in. And when you're coming through, you want to make sure to stop in there and get what you need. Maybe like the Bucky's of ancient Asia or Turkey, we got to come through. They were known for their grapes, their agriculture, but especially their grapes in that area. They also just weren't as significant or influential as some of these other churches we've looked at. You know, some of them had great power, would have been the capital of the region or had great prestige from ancient Greece, like we looked at Sardis last week. And they were also known for having constant earthquakes. That was one of the challenges their city faced. Every city has something it's known for. That's good, but also often there are challenges as well that face it. So all this is some of what is happening in this city where the church is rooted. And each of our letters begins with Jesus describing himself, talking about himself, relating himself to the needs of that city. And look back here in verse seven at how he talks about himself. These are the words he says of the Holy One, the true one. First and foremost, he calls himself holy in truth. This is someone you can depend on, can't depend on everyone in your city, but you can depend on Christ also. His described as the one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts, and no one opens. I've listed in your notes and we're going to turn there real quick. And Isaiah, this is a quote from Isaiah chapter 22. Isaiah's one of the major prophets, major, because it's a large one of the larger books of the Old Testament. And Isaiah 22, Isaiah as often as well known as a book that prophesies that Jesus will come, gives prophecies about the Messiah. And we're in a section here in Isaiah 22 that talks about different leaders within Israel, rulers and some who are doing well and some who are doing poorly. And here in chapter 22, it's speaking specifically to who's in charge of David's house. And there was a guy here we see in verse 15, Chibnall was in charge but hasn't done well, hasn't been a good steward, and is being removed. And instead Eliakim is being put in in verse 20. And here's how his role is described. Look at verse 21. I will clothe him with your robe. I will bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, given great authority, given charge of David's house, and specifically he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the house of Judah. Verse 22 is where we see the connection to Revelation. I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open. And it goes on to describe how he's also in charge of the riches of the storehouse. And so this is the person who had the keys to the house, and who decided who gets to come in, and who doesn't get to come in, and who has access to the money and who doesn't have access to the money. He was like an Old Testament first version of our Jim Stewart, our finance administrator here at the church. If you need into the building, he's the guy with the keys. If you need to get to the money, he's the guy that knows how. Don't ask me. I have no idea how to get to it. But he does. He's got the keys. And of course, this was really important in David's house. But when Jesus, when we get back to Revelation, is quoting this, it's way more significant than just a home or a church building. I have the keys that opens the door to the kingdom. I am the one who knows who comes in and who's not coming in. He is the one. And when it comes to this city in particular, Jesus ultimately is the one that decides who is ultimately significant or not, who is irrelevant or not. He is the one in a world that tries to make so many other things your measure of worth and significance. This is the anchor that we need to point us in the right direction. What he says is important is what matters most. Now, as in each city, he's going to describe some things that point out attributes of that particular church at that time. In verse eight he says this about them 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 but little power, and yet you have kept my word, and have not denied my name. He starts by saying, I know your works. And in each of the letters where he talks about the works, he'll often describe the works here. He doesn't. He doesn't do that at all. I know your works, and I also know that you don't have much power where you are. You're seen as irrelevant. You're seen as insignificant. Okay. Four ways in this passage. I think we go from irrelevance to importance, where this church was given a vision from irrelevance to importance. And here's the first one here in verse eight. Wait for the open door. Wait for Jesus to open the door. So if the world has said to you. Here's what's important and you're not. We value these things that you don't. Therefore we are closing the door to you. You have no relevance in this city. You have the church will have no significance in Philadelphia. We will close you out. Which is interesting because Philadelphia was known for being a city of the open door. We're at a crossroads. We need you to come in and buy your stuff. Our economy is dependent on us having an open door. Come on in. But they say to the church, but not you. You're not welcome. You're not significant. You're not important. And we all face those moments. You might face them in the culture. You might face them at workplace. You might face them at the school you're at where you feel like an outsider, where you feel like you're not wanted because of your faith. You can even face it within the church. Colby shared a story with me this week, the United Methodist Church, which I sometimes wonder if they are a church or not. Often, not every church, but the denomination as a whole is really giving up on God's Word as their authority. And this week they said to Asbury Seminary, you're no longer on our official approved list. You can't. It's no guarantee that if you go there, you'll be ordained as within our church because of how different directions they're going, especially around human sexuality, which is ultimately an authority of God's Word issue. They're saying, you think you're important. We find you insignificant, irrelevant. This is why we talk about the importance of being rooted in God's Word. You got to be rooted in God's Word. That's our ultimate authority. It has to be. But wait for him to open the door. You can't fight every battle that comes your way. And when you're in a place of weakness and irrelevance, he's got to be the one to open the door. And by the way, he's the one who does open the door. He's the one that says, even though they think they're the ones who are most important, ultimately, is Jesus, who decides who comes in, who's kept out. And so put your trust in him, not just in your ability to persuade and convince trust that he is the one and wait for him to open that door. So that's the first way. Second. Focus on what you can control. And when you find yourself in the place of irrelevance, insignificance, not having the influence and power that you would like to have. Focus on what you can control. And I'm going to talk about two ways we see here in this passage in particular, look back at verse eight again, behold, I have set before you an open door no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, yet you've kept my word and have not denied my name. Notice two things that they can control. And by the way, this is true in your life. You can't control the other people around you. Some of us try. In fact, who will own. Yeah. I'm a bit of a control freak. Go ahead. Let's see a few hands. Man, those shot up fast. They knew you can't raise a hand for the person next to you. Okay? That's a sign of a control freak right there. Yeah. You can't control other people. We try. Right? We. We think we can control them. We worry enough. Maybe they'll change, nag them enough, maybe they'll change. And it usually does the opposite. There are some things you can control. And he says here you have kept my word. That's one thing you can do. I can't control everybody else around me, but I can focus on keeping God's Word. And I love that word keep right? Because last week we talked about we need to know God's word. You need to be in God's Word. You need to be reading God's Word. Study in God's Word. That's where you're going to find life. You've got to read it every day. There are no shortcuts. Our men who are in our men's groups text one another and they say, I'm in when they're reading God's Word, the accountability, the encouragement. Okay, you've got to know God's Word, but it's not enough just to know it. I mean, the devil knows God's Word, but it's not an authority to him. We also need to keep it. It needs to be where you find your strength, what you submit your life to. I don't just know about it and know some interesting ancient information, but my life is submitted to his word. It's the authority of my life. That's one thing we can't control. We can't keep his word. We can strive to submit our lives to His Word. But also he says here, keep my word. And you have not denied my name. Here's why. Right in your notes. I don't have a blank for it. Just write the word loyalty out to the side. Loyalty? You have not denied my name. You stayed faithful to Jesus. Now, this would have been especially powerful to the Philadelphians. What's the nickname of the city of Philadelphia? I mean, it's the same here in the US. What do you call them? I heard Philly, but City of Brotherly Love. That's what that word means. Philly. Delphine, love your brother. And of course, you know is Philadelphia City of Brotherly Love. Who knows? But ancient Philadelphia was named, really? In honor of two brothers. And these brothers were absolutely committed to one another. One was a king. One was kind of his right hand guy. And you could imagine that there would might be some tension there. Hey, maybe I should be the one in charge. Maybe. Maybe my older brother needs to go off somewhere else so I can be king, too. And there was none of that between them. Absolute commitment to one another. In fact, there's a story where the older the king went off to battle and report comes back that he was killed in battle. And so, of course, the younger brother goes, now it's my responsibility to step in, to be king. And he's king for a little bit. And here comes the older brother. Back wasn't killed. You can imagine that would be an awkward moment. Hey, bro. Sorry I took over as king while you were gone and there was no tension between him. The older brother said, thank you for serving while I was gone and then went right back to where they were. No tension. Complete love, complete commitment. Foreign kings tried to get between them. You really should be king over and over again. Talking complete love, complete commitment, complete loyalty to one another. Do you have people like that in your life? Do you have people that you know? If I call them and it's an emergency, they will drop everything for me. Let me ask the other side of that. Are you that kind of friend for anyone? Are there people you know if they call me, there's nothing that's stopping me coming to them to come into their help. If you don't, you can't find those kind of people here. If you haven't found them yet, they are here. Get in a life group, get in community, start investing. They will be there for you when you need them. I've seen it time and again, and I could go around the room and pointed people and tell stories of how they were there for them. In that moment they showed up. Loyalty, brother. They love commitment. Jesus is saying, here's the one thing you control can control. Stay committed to me. Stay faithful, stay loyal. And that's something they were known for. So control what you can control. You can't control how other people are going to treat you. You can't control what other people are going to say about you. But you can stay faithful and you can keep his word. Proverbs 1824 is so good. Towards this end, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I love that verse you've experienced that you have earthly siblings who you might be close to, but then you end up getting even closer to someone at the church, someone of faith, closer than a family member. All right, so that's the second way we go from irrelevance to importance. What about the third way? Let's look here at verse nine and ten. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not. I'll make, but they lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet. They will learn that I have loved you, because you have kept my word about patient endurance, and I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. Number three. The third way to go from irrelevance to importance is to embrace your weakness. Embrace this reality that you are weak. Christians in this world are in a place of weakness in this world. We're not here trying to dominate and get into a place of absolute power in this world. One of the worst things is when someone who is weak tries to act strong, like the little yippie dogs that try to chase you down, that you could just kick across the yard. You know, they're all bark. Don't do that. By the way. I'm not recommending that. That's not very nice unless you have to leave that up to you. Use wisdom I love animals, I promise. Bring it back. It's always weird. What are you doing? You're a tiny little dog or someone who thinks they're tough and acts tough when they're not, and they can't back it up. Look, are at the core of our faith. Is a man who said, I'm going to lay down my life. I'm going to show strength through weakness at the core of who we are. As we're saying, God is the one who's in charge. I don't have to be the strong one and powerful one in this world. I don't have to fight for relevance and significance in this world. My strength is found in him. In fact, he says in first Corinthians 127, he took those who are weak in this world, who are insignificant in this world. He'll use us to shame the wise. When they see that the things I thought were so important, they're not. In fact, the way this played out in the church in Philadelphia. He talks about in verse nine, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews. I'll make them come in, bow down. A couple of things going on here. Synagogue of Satan. Colby talked about that when he looked at Smyrna. In fact, Smyrna and Philadelphia have a lot in common because they're the only two churches who aren't condemned. All the other churches get a condemnation. Here's what you're doing wrong. Neither are. That's probably because they were facing extra persecution. Okay, but the synagogue of Satan was mentioned there as well. And many believe this was the Jews in that city who were putting pressure on them to convert back to Judaism, because the Christians didn't have the significance in the city, they didn't have the tax breaks or the positions of power, or it could be in political influence. And so the Jews now are coming back around and saying, hey, you're relevant. Come join us again. Come find your significance again. Come find your power again. And so the ones who are saying we are powerful and you're not, he said, don't worry, there'll be a day where I'll make them bow down to you. Now, this is also tying into the history of the of the Jewish history. We can go back to Isaiah. There's 3 or 4 different passages we could point to where the Israelites had this vision, where they were in exile. And there will be a day where God will have these foreign nations who are conquering us. God will have them bow down at our feet. But that was so that they could show them judgment and conquering you who conquered us. We're going to conquer you and hold you down. But look here, this is really important. This is the difference for the Christian. What? The reason why he will have them bow down at the end of verse nine, they will learn that I have loved you. So it's not a conquering moment. It's a moment of repentance. They will have the opportunity to repent. They will see Christ's love for us, and they'll have a chance to know that. I was talking to my friend. In fact, I'll point him out here. Tim and Mandy, Castiel here on the front, our friends of ours from back in our college days, we started out in ministry together. They came in to keep us safe while our kids were gone for the last few days, I guess. And we hung out together and spent a lot of good time together. And we were talking about this. How do we change the world as Christians? They've been working with college students for 25 years now. How do we change the world? And probably the most powerful way that happens in this day and age is, by the way, we love one another. Because here's what's going to happen. You're going to be loving on each other, your spouse, your children, other church members, and those who don't know Christ are going to see that. They're going to see how you love one another. And they're they're going to hit a crisis, and they're going to come to you because they don't see that anywhere else. They see the opposite. They see infighting, they see hatred, they see pettiness, they see power plays. They're going to come to you. Maybe not right away, maybe not everyone, but that's what everyone wants. And he's the one who does that in our weakness. I can't control everyone else I can't make, and I don't want to make anyone bow down to me. But when Jesus brings them to see the love that he's had in your life, that's the moment where you get to talk about him with them. And there's plenty of other ways, by the way, to spread your faith and talk about Jesus. But in our day and age, that one has immense power. How do we move from irrelevance to importance? By the way, I'm not trying to become important so that people see how important I am. I just want to be important before Christ. I want him to see me. That's what matters. There's a final way here, and I'm going to wait to give you a second to fill in the blank, because there's a few things I want to point out about the passage here before we give the final point. Number four. I'm going to hold it off to the end. In fact, instead, what I want you to do is to write three words in the margin of your notes. There's three words I want to unpack here. And here are the three words presence, power, and restoration. All these are going to build into this fourth point. Presence, power and restoration. And we see all three of these here in verse. Verses 11 and 12. Look back at verse 11 and 12. I'm just going to read these and point out each of these three words. Verse 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no 1st 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, 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. First, let's talk about that word presence. Look at verse 12 where he talks about the pillar and he says, never shall he go out of it. You'll be a pillar in the temple. Never shall you go out. Once again, this would have been a significant word to the Philadelphians. I mentioned before that their city struggled with earthquakes, largely due to being situated near a volcano. In fact, volcano eruption and earthquake we talked about last week devastated Sardis. The city just kind of slid off the hill. It wasn't as devastating initially in Philadelphia, but those tremors kept coming for years. Those tremors kept coming. And so basically everyone had to move out of the city, out into the farms and fields around it because it just wasn't safe. You didn't know when your building was just going to crumble on top of you. And so here you have a people who love their city. The city of Brotherly love, and they're forced to move out. But yet they want to be back home. They want to be back in their city. And he says to them, never, never shall he go out of it. You will have a presence when Christ comes in him, in his city, next to him, in presence with him, and never cast out. That's security, that's place, that's love. So that's the first word, presence. Second is power, the one who conquers. And we're talking about true presence, true power, true restoration here, not just what the world says about power. He says the one who conquers. I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Now I'm going to go. I'm just going to warn you. I'm going to go a little bit deep in the weeds here. So try to hang on with me for a few minutes. I know, I know you can, Bob Russell said. All y'all are good listeners and I know you are, but we're going to go a little deep in the weeds here because this word pillar, there's a couple of different ways to think about it. So in ancient times people would set up two types of pillars. One would be for victory. In fact I'm going to put a picture of one on the screen. This is a pillar that the emperor Trajan, Roman emperor, put up. And it's hard to tell how big it is, but it's big enough to actually have. And this is from 2000 years ago. They actually have a spiral staircase inside of it. Still today you can go up still standing 2000 years ago, and this one was all about victory on the column. You can kind of see the spiraling. There's images on there of all the victories he was a part of. That's the kind of pillar you want put up in your name. The other kind of pillar that's put up in your name. Oh, and by the way, we have our own versions of that. You can put up that other image, the Indy 500 trophy, right? You get a victory, you get your face on the trophy. We have our versions of that. The other kind of ancient pillar that would go up wasn't one of victory. It was one of death. It would be a headstone, a memorial stone with your name on it because you're dead and gone. In fact, Ignatius. So here's where we got to hang on a little bit. Ignatius. Ignatius wrote years after the close of the Bible, we have this whole group of writings from a group called the Apostolic Fathers. You've heard me talk about them before, but there's a collection of writings that were written after the close of the New Testament. They're not authoritative like the New Testament, but they give us a lot of information. In fact, Colby quoted the letter to Smyrna. There was a letter written to them after the fact, and it was a and there was a letter written to Ephesus. And so we know how is the church doing? Years later, after the close of the New Testament, that's how we knew some about how things are going there. There was a letter. Ignatius wrote a letter to Philadelphia, and here's what he says to them. I put this quote in your notes. It'll be on the screen as well. He says, if they fail to speak about Jesus Christ. And this was specifically talking about the Jews in that city, the Judaizers, those who were trying to pull them out from Christianity back into Judaism. If they fail to speak about Jesus Christ, I look on them as tombstones and graves of the dead upon which only the names of men are inscribed. Flee now that word tombstones. And here's where we're going to make the connection. That word tombstones and this word pillar in Revelation seven, they just are separated by one letter. That's the only difference. So Ignatius is hinting is saying you can either have a pillar of victory by staying committed to God's Word, by keeping his word, by not denying his name. Or you can end up as a monument of death, as a tombstone. Which do you want? Ultimately, I think our model for the pillar and the temple. I think I'll put the verse in your notes as in First Kings seven. You might remember when you've studied the building of the temple, there were two pillars, two columns set up there, and they had names. They were given names and one was called established and one was called strong, established and strong where we find our power. Here's where all this is coming back to, where we find our pillar. What it means to be a pillar is to be established and strong in the presence of Christ with him. In fact, he is the one. Our last word is restores. He is the one that gives us a new name. If you look here, he says, I will give you the name of the city. My God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, my own new name, Philadelphia, right after the earthquake got renamed New Caesar, they knew what it meant to be given a new name. They renamed themselves because the Caesar, at the time, the Emperor at the time gave him a tax break. For five years. You guys have been ruined by this earthquake. Take five years to restore, and so we're going to put on us a new name that says, thank you. Thank you for restoring us. Okay. All this comes down to point four. And here's the here's what we say in point four. Where are you ultimately finding the fact that I want to move from irrelevance to significance? You have to look forward to find true strength, because right now you're not feeling it. And so you have to look forward to find true strength in Christ, in his presence, in his power, in his restoration. He's the one that will give you the new name. And part of the way we look forward together, and we're going to do this today, is by taking communion. In fact, if you're here to help with that, go ahead and slip out and get those elements ready. That's one of the ways that we're reminded our strength is in his weakness. Our strength is in his death. Our strength is in his body broken. Our strength is in his blood spilled. It's the opposite of what the world says as true and strong and powerful. But that's what we lean on. Here's the way that we take communion together. If you know Christ, if you follow him, you don't have to be a member of our church. You don't have to have been baptized here if you know him. You're welcome to participate with us. And we will pass the trays down the aisle. And as that's coming past you, there'll be two cups stacked together. Just take those out together. The bread's underneath in the first cup, and then the juice is on top of that. And hold on to those. And once everybody have those, I'll lead us through taking them together. And while you're waiting, I think this is a powerful time for self-reflection. I think this is a time to pray. God, if there's any sin in my life, would you make it known? And I would say, also, because of today's message, I would take a moment to just pray. Especially if you are feeling irrelevant, insignificant, unimportant. I pray to know God's true strength in your life, his power, his presence, his restoration. I mean, if you would go ahead and start passing these