Holy To The Lord (Revelation 3:7-13) | Pastor Jake Sweetman

In this enlightening sermon from our series, "The Wonderful World of the Apocalypse," we dive into the meaningful discussion of holiness and devotion as depicted in Revelation 3. This message sheds light on Jesus' prophetic message to the church in Philadelphia, redefining holiness as an intimate invitation into God's presence rather than just moral perfection.

Explore how Jesus emphasizes true devotion over worldly measures of success and how choosing holiness opens doors to lasting hope and divine blessing. Through stories of unwavering faith, discover the incredible power of a life devoted to Jesus Christ and how it transforms personal and communal experiences.

This sermon not only provides deeper scriptural insights but also invites you to a life of unshakeable faith and true significance. Whether you're yearning for a stronger spiritual foundation or seeking to lead a life that reflects God's kingdom, this message is meant to inspire and guide you toward living as part of God's devoted people.

Tune in to our podcast for more thought-provoking messages, and join us in our journey toward greater spiritual intimacy and purpose. Don't forget to rate, review, and share this sermon with others who seek to live a life of deep devotion and eternal impact.

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Transcript

 We are in a series right now called The Wonderful World of the Apocalypse, and it is indeed a wonderful world.

Apocalypse comes from the Greek word apocalypsis, which is typically translated in your Bible as revelation.

Revelation is literally an apocalypse.

When you hear the word apocalypse, don't think catastrophic world-ending events.

 Think the opening of the heavens and the revelation of something that is true in the spiritual world that you can't see with your physical eyes.

That's what Revelation is all about, is giving his church an insight into what is ultimately real while we are making our way through the wilderness of this age.

And we're in the book of Revelation for like the next 17 years, and so...

 It's a lot of fun.

We're today in Revelation chapter three.

We're making our way through chapters two and three right now, which are seven prophetic messages from Jesus to seven churches.

The number seven is representative of wholeness or completion.

So these are addressed to seven specific churches in the first century.

But John also intends for you to understand that these seven represent the whole church.

So it's a message to us just as much as it was originally a message to them.

 Beginning in verse 7, it says, to the angel of the church in Philadelphia.

I feel like I need to make this clear for anybody who's like brand new to the Bible.

That's not the city in our country.

That's an ancient Roman city called Philadelphia.

It's named that because it was founded by a guy who really loved his brother.

So it really is the city of brotherly love.

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, these are the words of him who was holy and true.

 who holds the key of David.

What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open.

I know your deeds.

See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

This is Jesus talking.

I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews, though they are not, but are liars.

This is still Jesus talking.

I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

I am coming soon.

 Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown.

The one who is victorious, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.

This is all symbolic language.

Never again will they leave it.

I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God.

Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago, why does Jesus frequently call people

 The Father, my God.

Well, it's because the term God, that actual word all throughout the New Testament, is used to describe God the Father.

And so Jesus is addressing the Father here with reverence.

The New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God, and I will also write on them my new name.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The title of the message today is Holy to the Lord.

 I want to talk about holiness, and I think that God is going to do something significant in our midst as we come around his word together.

There's an old story about Charlie Chaplin, who was one of the most iconic figures of the silent film era, that Charlie Chaplin once entered into a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.

And after the judges had judged all of the contestants, Charlie Chaplin came in fifth place.

 The people judging him couldn't recognize the real thing when he was standing right in front of them.

They judged and they measured wrong.

And humans do that all the time.

We measure the wrong things.

We overlook the right things.

All of us spend our lives measuring.

We measure success and influence and progress.

We even measure our worth at times.

And almost all of our measurements are built around the value of more, more value.

 ability more visibility more resources in in our world less is often uh connoted with insignificance and weak often means unworthy now measuring more isn't always bad but often the things that we rarely measure are the things that jesus actually measures

 Holiness and devotion and steady faithfulness, quiet qualities that care for honoring God more than being honored by men.

But here in Revelation chapter 3, Jesus walks up to a small, seemingly unimpressive church and he judges them perfectly.

He says, you have little strength, but you have great devotion and I delight in that.

 this passage that we just read is about Jesus teaching us what actually matters, what he measures and what he rewards.

Because this church that looked as though it never stood a chance of survival in its culture, Jesus says, is worthy to stand like an immovable pillar in the temple of new creation.

And that's the invitation of this passage for you and I to measure

 our lives the way that Jesus measures our lives and to build our lives the way that Jesus says to build and if you'll build like that Jesus says that you will stand even when others around you are falling

 And that is an invitation that is worth paying attention to because beneath all of the noise that surrounds your life and all of the ambition that rages in your heart, at the end of the day, you do not just want to be left with momentary examples of impression where you impressed people.

No, you want a life that lasts.

You want a life with weight and with substance and meaning.

That is the life that you long for because that's actually the life that you were created for.

 And the way to build that life that lasts begins by measuring yourself against the correct standard of measurement.

And that's why Jesus begins.

He says, these are the words of him who is holy and true.

 who holds the key of David.

What he opens, no one can shut.

What he shuts, no one can open.

In each of the seven messages to the seven churches, Jesus introduces himself in a unique way.

And each introduction is tailored to what this particular church needs to hear.

 And the introduction to the church in Philadelphia is no exception.

Jesus is the one who is holy and true.

That statement affirms both his identity and also his character.

He is holy and true and therefore he is God.

He is holy and true and therefore he is good.

Now when we hear the word holy, especially in relation to human beings, what we often think of is moral perfection.

 And so when we think of holiness, we think of something that is reserved for the next life, or maybe for a very select few people in this life, like Mother Teresa or something like that.

But biblically speaking, holiness is not actually about perfection.

Holiness is about presence.

 The biblical concept of holiness is that if you will come into God's presence, then the perfecting process in your life will follow.

Not the other way around.

The message of the Bible to you is not be perfect and then you can come into his presence.

The message of the Bible is come into his presence and he will perfect you.

He will take care of the moral stuff if you come into his presence.

A biblical scholar named Michael Morales says it like this, that holy means belonging to God.

 And that's actually a really significant concept for us to grasp.

If we are going to read our own hearts rightly and read our own culture rightly, that holy means belonging to God.

Because that means that our deepest problem in America is not merely a matter of morals.

Our deepest problem is that instead of belonging to God, we belong to ourselves.

 That we serve our own desires, our own cravings, our own truth.

That we give ourselves permission to act as our own gods.

And therefore we are fundamentally unholy.

It's not just that we're immoral, it's that we're unholy.

Which means that the solution isn't that we need more information.

The solution is that we need an invitation to encounter the presence of the Most High God.

If I were to make it plain for you, the solution is not another sermon on YouTube.

 You don't need to just hear more.

The solution is actually for you to be in the gathering of God's people where God's presence dwells in a unique and significant way where you encounter Him and God transforms us from the inside out.

This is the whole purpose of Israel's sacrificial system.

 it's foreign to us to hear about the sacrifice of these animals but it was god's given way for israel to enter into his presence and to belong to him as his holy people it was worship that brought them into the presence of god that was the idea behind the blood of an animal being brought into god's presence because the old testament makes it clear again and again that the blood of a creature represents not its death it represents its life

 The life of the creature is signified and the life of God's people is signified through that blood being brought into the presence of God and devoted to him.

When God called his people to be holy, he was calling them to exclusive devotion, to reject all rival gods and live in loyal love for him.

Holiness is not limited to rule keeping.

As the Pharisees proved, you can keep all sorts of rules and still be utterly unholy.

 Holiness is about loving devotion.

And it's this holiness that Jesus is measuring in this little church in Philadelphia, not their strength, their devotion.

But before he comments on their devotion, he first presents himself as the standard.

He says that he, the eternal son of God, is holy.

 Now what's unique about Jesus' holy devotion is that it actually flows in two directions.

That as God, because Jesus is the eternal son of God, and as God, he is devoted to his people.

Isn't that important for you and I to get?

When we think of the holiness of Jesus, we think separation.

 We think distance.

Don't think distance when you think of holiness.

Think devotion when you think of holiness.

As God, he is holy and devoted to his people.

And then also as the incarnate son, our representative high priest, he is also devoted to his father.

That's what he's trying to get across with us.

With the four times that he goes, my God, my God, my God, my God.

 He's reminding us, I stand here as a representative of humanity devoted to God the Father.

He is our devoted offering, bringing his own blood into the heavenly holy of holies as the sign of a life fully given over to God.

And that's why the holiness of Jesus is not only a description, it is a model.

He is the standard that he measures Philadelphia and us against.

 Verse 8, he says, I know your deeds.

See, I've placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

 In the previous verse, Jesus introduced himself as the one who holds the key of David and the one who can open and shut any door he chooses without rival.

And now the reason for that self-description becomes clear because Jesus says that he's placed before the church in Philadelphia an open door that no one can shut.

Literally in the Greek, that nobody has the power to shut it.

 which is a welcome comfort for this church because Jesus describes them as having little strength or literally in the Greek, little power.

That little power is not just about the size of their church.

It was about their social insignificance, about the rejection by the wider culture because of their devotion to Christ.

In that sense, they have little power, but they have great devotion.

And the

 that they are devoted to has more power than those who claim to have power over them you see for citizens of God's kingdom weakness is never actually weakness weakness is just the banks of the river of God's power which can flow through you are never at a disadvantage when holiness puts you at a disadvantage when you have less opportunity or less resources or fewer allies or less approval because you choose to be holy you

 In actual fact, you have infinitely more power than all the combined forces put together in the universe because in that posture of weakness, dependence upon God, you have exactly the posture that the Spirit of God loves to rest upon.

And that's what Jesus is reminding this church of as He draws their attention to the open door that no one can shut, that in their weakness they have access to unrivaled power and life of the kingdom of God.

 That's what's on the other side of the door, is God's kingdom.

This is rooted in the phrase, key of David, which actually appears the first time in the Bible in the book of Isaiah.

The book of Revelation has over 500 allusions to the Old Testament.

And so often the key to understanding what Revelation is saying is having a familiarity with the Old Testament background.

But in the book of Isaiah, there's a passage where God replaces a corrupt...

 Palace administrator with a faithful one, and he gives this faithful administrator the key of David.

That is the authority over the royal household.

The key that opens the door for some and closes the door on others.

And Jesus takes that image and applies it to himself.

He says, I am the true royal administrator.

I am the one who grants access or denies access to God's kingdom.

Just like Jesus said in the Gospel of John, no one comes to the Father except through me.

Wow.

 And so despite the opposition and the persecution and the difficulty that this church is facing, Jesus assures them that he has opened the door of the eternal kingdom to them and no one can shut it.

He has closed the door on death.

He has opened the door to life and nothing can undo it.

And that mattered to the church in Philadelphia because the non-Christian Jews in their city, whom Jesus affectionately labels the synagogue of Satan, had publicly rejected them

 And they had created social and economic pressure for the church and insisted that Christians were shut out of the kingdom of God.

Any Jewish Christians in the church in Philadelphia would have been expelled, excommunicated from the synagogue.

In other words, they knew what it was to have a door slammed in their face.

But Jesus says, don't pay attention to them.

The only door that they've closed is on themselves through faith in me, the holy and true, literally authentic Christ.

 genuine the genuine lord the genuine god you have been granted access in into life i have opened a door for you and no one can shut it the point for you is that devotion to jesus may cost you access to certain spaces the world may lock you out of rooms that you once walked in freely but what the world can never touch is your place in god's presence

 Some doors will close to you precisely because you choose to walk in holiness.

Some rooms will not welcome you when you refuse to trade devotion to God for the approval of man.

Maybe it's the promotion that quietly disappears because you refuse to play in the office politics and your work culture.

Maybe it's the friends who drift because you won't join in the same kinds of weekends that compromise your convictions.

Maybe...

 It's choosing purity in a culture that sees sexual boundaries as strange at best or maybe oppressive at worst.

Here is the paradox of the kingdom.

Sometimes to lose access to the rooms of Babylon is to gain access to the throne room of heaven.

Jesus is saying, stay devoted.

This is the key to the life that you really want.

 The life that you really want is not actually an all-access pass to everything the world has to offer, especially not if the cost into getting into that room is compromised.

No, the life that you long for is the one where you walk with God and you carry His peace.

The first option is cheap.

The second one will cost you.

But friends, the life that you long for is not a cheap life.

It is a costly life of walking with Jesus.

 Jesus says that these guys have kept his word and not denied his name.

In the Greek, both of those verbs are in a tense that indicates Jesus has a particular moment in mind in these guys' story.

In other words, when Jesus celebrates their devotion, he's not speaking in generalities.

He's pointing to a specific moment where they had the clear opportunity to be faithless, but they chose instead to be faithful.

 to be holy.

Jesus saw the holy choices that they had made when they assumed that nobody was watching and that is so significant for you to understand because so much of a holy life consists of what we think are unseen moments.

Right choices that we make, quiet battles that we fight, little victories that we gain over the flesh and no one notices but the text is telling you that God notices, that God sees even though holiness is not a sound heard word

 around.

You can't capture holiness on Instagram.

And that's the point.

Holiness is often quiet and hidden and unnoticed.

And in a very real sense, that's what makes holiness, holiness.

That's why when Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount, focusing on the subject of holiness, he drills in on the state of your heart, what you do, what you practice in secret before the Father, not for applause and not for attention, but purely out of love for God.

And he reminds us that the Father who sees in secret rewards openly.

 Now, I wonder what moments Jesus is remembering when he says that this church in Philadelphia kept his word and did not deny his name.

And I equally wonder when Jesus looks at our lives, can he speak about our quiet deeds, our secret choices, our holy moments of devotion when nobody sees and nobody hears?

 Moments like when you choose to become a giver, and no one knows how hard that is for you because you grew up with such a poverty mentality and a mindset of lack instilled into you.

So for you to take that step of faith is huge, but no one knows the lore, so they're not around to clap.

Moments like when you choose to turn that movie that you were watching by yourself off because you knew that it wasn't healthy for your soul.

 Moments, parents, like when you apologized to your child this week because you genuinely want to model following Jesus and what that looks like, but nobody was around to pat you on the back.

Moments like when you confessed your hidden sin to just one person because you wanted freedom more than you wanted image.

The point of this verse is that what we think are undetected, unnoticed moments of holiness, Jesus is saying, I saw them.

They're actually heard throughout heaven and they are massively rewarded.

 Holy living opens huge doors of blessing.

And what the church in Philadelphia shows us is that it's not our strength, not our impressiveness, not our wealth, not our popularity that qualifies us to walk through that door.

It is simply our loving devotion to Jesus Christ.

This is what I think the point of the text is so far, that great doors of hope swing on small hinges of holiness.

 Because to be the giver is to be the person that God gives more resources to steward.

To be the person who guards the health of their soul is the person that God can trust with greater influence.

The parent who humbles themselves when they make a mistake, God blesses with a richer home life.

Those who value freedom over a perfect persona, God gives the gift of genuine transformation.

The things that we really hope for, not the things that the world tells you to hope for, the things that your soul actually long for are on the other side of a choice to be

 devoted, not the hope that fades, but the kind of hope that lets you sleep so sweetly at night, the kind of hope that lets you look in the mirror tomorrow morning and not think to yourself that you are pretending, the kind of hope that makes you go, God, this is the life that I actually crave and long for.

And holiness, Jesus is saying, is how you step into it.

It's not just true for eternal life, it's true for life now.

 It's true of the many doors that Jesus opens for you in this life.

A life devoted to the Lord will open doors for you that no human being can shut.

Christ-like character will place opportunities before you that your resume never could.

Our world tells us that the way into more is to be flashy and to be loud.

And the Bible says, no, the way in is to be faithful.

 Faithful with a little and you'll be trusted with more.

Be holy when only Jesus sees and you will be rewarded like only Jesus can reward.

 Arthur Guinness was born in 1725 to a Christian family shaped by the evangelical revival in Ireland and his devotion to Jesus shaped the way that he understood his work and his money and his responsibility to his community.

At the age of 34 years old, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on a failing brewery in Dublin.

I don't know if any of you guys are business people, 9,000 year lease is stupid.

 He was signaling, I have no backup plan.

I have no escape plan.

And he wasn't chasing success.

He was planting himself to bless a broken city.

The reason for this was not just business ambition.

It was devotion to Christ because Ireland was drowning in alcohol abuse.

Gin houses were destroying families and Guinness believed that he could serve his community by brewing something safer for him.

It wasn't just beer.

It wasn't personal gain.

It was public good.

 his devotion showed up in the way that he ran his company he paid his workers generously he offered health care when almost no one else did he funded housing education and local churches he supported evangelism and relief efforts across ireland he refused dishonest business shortcuts arthur guinness gained influence not because he chased it he gained influence because he devoted himself to jesus christ and the doors that jesus opened for him

 could not be explained by talent or strategy.

There's nothing strategic about a 9,000-year lease on a failing brewery.

He became one of the most trusted men in Ireland, shaping not just a company, but ultimately a city and a culture.

And what his legacy preaches to us is that Christ-like character will place opportunities before you that ambition never could.

Holiness opens doors that the world cannot close.

 And more than that, the holiness will give you the character to walk through that door and actually be able to carry the burden of the blessing that is on the other side.

Because if you do not have the holy character, then you are not the person who is capable of carrying and sustaining for the long haul what it is that the Lord wants to trust you with.

And honestly, if the door that you long to walk through does not swing open on the hinges of your holiness, then it's not really a door that you want to walk through.

 This all matters.

Not just for you, it matters for others as well.

In fact, the open door that Jesus says, I have placed before you, Philadelphia, is not just a reminder of their salvation, their place in God's kingdom, it was also a reminder of their responsibility to mission.

 the people who were lost in their own context.

It reminded them that even though they look insignificant in their culture and in their city, they are actually empowered by the Holy Spirit to lead other people through the same door that they themselves have access to.

And that takes us deeper into the heart of holiness because holiness is not just about your devotion to Jesus.

Holiness is about your devotion to Jesus for the sake of those who are not yet devoted to Jesus.

 about you shining as a light in this world and leading them to that same open door.

And that's the heartbeat behind this next verse in verse 9.

I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews, though they are not, but are liars, I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

 The Old Testament background behind this verse comes from several places, again in Isaiah, where in the last days, Isaiah the prophet could see that non-believing nations would stream to God and that they would beg God's people, Israel, the Jews, to bring them into the presence of God.

 well now here in an ironic fulfillment of that imagery it's actually many of the jewish people in philadelphia who have rejected jesus as the messiah and jesus is saying be patient one day they're going to recognize that the church is my people some of them jesus says they will turn to me and they will be joined to me and so while this verse absolutely carries a note of judgment jesus calls them liars and a synagogue of satan it also carries a very strong note of redemption

 Jesus expects that many of them will ultimately acknowledge his love and his lordship.

He says, they'll come, they'll fall down at your feet.

Now we hear that phrase and we think of maybe they'll come and they'll bow before the church.

And perhaps the word does carry somewhat of that meaning.

Everywhere else that this word in the Greek is used throughout the book of Revelation and in John's gospel, it always has to do with voluntary worship, not simply begrudging submission.

 And so if that's the way it should be understood here, as I believe it is, then Jesus is saying that one day, many of the people who currently oppose me and who currently oppose my church will be won over to me.

They will be won over in worship to me.

In other words, Jesus is connecting the dots between the holiness of this church and the success of their mission.

 And he's reminding them, and he's reminding you and I, that we aren't just making our way through the wilderness of this age with the aim of being completely inoculated from the world around us.

No, no, no.

We are missionaries to the lost.

We are meant to lead people towards the heavenly...

 The church that we are building by the power of the Holy Spirit is what the world actually longs for.

They just haven't found the answer yet.

Do not forget that you are meant to lead people into God's presence because you can preach change to them all you want.

 But change is not what changed you.

The presence of God is what changed you.

It's not going to be different for them.

You and I are a people on mission meant to lead others into the glorious presence of God.

This sense of mission would have resonated so deeply with the church in Philadelphia because their city was dubbed by Rome a missionary city.

It was the gateway.

 to the eastern regions and therefore it was a gateway through which they could export Greco-Roman culture.

And so they understood what mission was about and Jesus takes that civic identity and he redefines it for his church and he reorients them towards his mission to reach the very people who were actively rejecting them.

And some of us need that same reorientation.

We live in a very missional culture.

 And so for many of us here today, it's not a question of whether we have a mission.

It's a question of whether we have the right mission.

 We move in and out of cultures all week long and all of those cultures carry a mission of their own.

Your workplace probably has a mission statement.

The people you follow on social media, they have a personal mission.

Your coworkers have a mission in life.

Your family of origin has a mission.

America has a mission.

And to varying degrees, those missions may line up with the mission of Jesus, but many times and in many ways, they do not.

And yet we unthinkingly get swept

 up into them sometimes without realizing that we have drifted from the mission of Jesus another way to think about this is that God is not the only one who has a plan for your life all kinds of people have a plan for your life the devil has a plan for your life and some of the people who have a plan for you love you very much but that does not mean that their plan for you is God's plan for you it does not mean that just because they love you you can take on their mission as though it were your mission

 This is why, as a pastor, I lose sleep over the effect that social media trends have on people, whether it's becoming a trad wife or an ortho bro.

There are missions that are being offered to you, even ones that appear godly, but you cannot simply assume that just because a mission is right for them, that it is automatically right for you.

Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's what God has planned for you.

 So I think Jesus would ask us through this text, hey, have you simply joined in on the mission of your culture or is the culture your mission?

And it's holiness, the faithful witness of the church that will cause you to lean into God's mission for you, not God's mission for them.

And it's that faithful witness that ultimately plays a role in converting God's enemies into God's friends.

 I was in Peru earlier this year and I was sitting with an apostolic father of Peru who's literally responsible for hundreds of churches across South America.

And he was telling me the story about a Peruvian missionary named Moses.

 who went to preach the gospel in a town kind of at the outskirts of the Amazon in Peru called Pampas.

And Moses walked into the marketplace and he began to preach the gospel and the people of the town did not respond kindly.

They drove Moses to the outskirts of the town and they began to stone him and they left him for dead, but Moses did not die.

 He got up.

Most people would have given up after that experience, but Moses, with most people, about 30 days later, he began to sense that God was leading him back into Pampas.

And so he caught a taxi, and on the way back into the town, Moses shared with the taxi driver why he was going back into the town.

And the taxi driver says, I heard about a guy who tried that about a month ago, and it did not go well for him.

He almost died.

And Moses says, I know.

 and he was insistent upon going anyway and the taxi driver reply well I think I know someone who might be able to help you and he took Moses straight to the mayor of the town the mayor listened to his story and instead of sending him away he gave them police protection and permission to preach openly crowds came people responded to the gospel and a church was planted that day in the very place that have rejected him 30 days prior what opened that door

 It was not influence.

It was not connections.

It was not a resume.

It was devotion.

It was holiness.

It was faithfulness.

It was the courage to obey even when it costs something.

The world had tried to close a door on Moses, but Jesus opened a door that nobody could shut, and Moses walked through a door that only Jesus could unlock.

It's like what the apostle Paul said about his mission in the city of Ephesus, that a wide and effective door has opened to me.

 and there are many adversaries.

If Jesus has opened the door, then the adversity is irrelevant because holiness reaps harvest that hardship cannot stop.

That's what Jesus is communicating to you and I. We might say it like this, that abundant harvest grow from seeds of unseen devotion, of holiness.

And that's the life that you long for.

 To look back one day and to see that your years actually mattered, to see that your prayers became souls, that your devotion became actual lived stories of transformation.

Your heart, as a follower of Jesus, longs for a harvest.

And holiness is how that seed breaks open.

 In the midst of a people who are building empires for their own glory, empires which will not stand the test of time, it is quiet, faithful, counter-cultural devotion to Christ that offers the beauty of the kingdom to a world that is shaking all of the time.

 And I think that that's part of Jesus' point as he comes to the end of his message to the church in Philadelphia.

He says in verse 10, Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

 I'll just summarize this because I'm running low on time now.

Essentially what Jesus is saying here is that both the world, that's who the inhabitants of the earth are, that phrase is used all throughout Revelation, always to describe people who have rejected Jesus and who have allied themselves with him.

 with the dragon and the beast and Babylon.

And that's some of you here today.

You are not faithful to Jesus.

You have not asked him to be the Lord of your life.

And biblically speaking, there is no gray area.

There is no middle ground.

You're either allied with the lamb or you're allied with the dragon.

And some of you are the inhabitants of the earth and you need to allow Jesus.

You need to hear his call to come out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of light.

The world, the inhabitants of the earth and the church, those who follow the lamb, both of them will walk through the same hours of trial.

 The difference is just that the shaking should reveal our stability.

When Jesus says, I will keep you from the hours of trial, he doesn't mean that he's going to remove you from it.

 There's a relatively modern doctrine called the rapture where we think that the reason the church is kept from the time of trial is because we are sucked up out of the world.

It's relatively recent.

It doesn't pop up anywhere throughout biblical history in terms of proper understanding what the Bible is teaching.

The New Testament never promises that you will be spared from hardship.

 not all the way to the very end what Jesus is telling you is that you don't get freedom from the problems that the world faces but if you remain devoted to me then I will strengthen your faith in the midst of those problems and I will use you to help others I'm not here for you to abandon them I'm here for you to be an example to them

 It's like when Jesus so lovingly, kindly, encouragingly said to Peter, Peter, Peter, Satan has asked to sift you all as wheat, but I have prayed for you.

And you would think that Jesus would say that it would not happen.

But Jesus doesn't say that.

He says, I have prayed for you that in the sifting your faith would not fail.

 fail.

That's Jesus' prayer for you.

It's not that you would escape the hardship.

His prayer for you is that your faith would not fail in the midst of the hardship.

After you turn back to me, Jesus says to Peter, then strengthen your brothers.

That's the goal, that you would be a person of unshakable faith in the midst of hardship who can strengthen others.

 Our problem is that when the world starts shaking, or even just when our world starts shaking, it's our devotion to Jesus that is often the first thing to fall by the wayside.

And we say things like, I just need to focus on myself right now, which is literally never the Bible's prescription for any situation in life ever.

But we say it.

I'm not sure why.

No, no, no.

Jesus says, here's his prescription.

Hold on to your crown.

Hold on.

 That's his answer.

Stay devoted.

Stay close.

This is what he expects of you.

The crown was a gift.

You didn't do anything to earn it, but you can forfeit it.

Like one scholar said, that God's grace is unconditioned, but it is not unconditional.

That you did not do anything to earn the grace of God, but it does come with the expectation that you will be holy.

 that you will be devoted, that you will walk faithfully with him.

And to do that, honestly, is just wisdom because it's that devotion that provides the stability when life gets shaky.

And trials can make us lose sight of that.

We start treating our trials as an excuse to turn inward, to build on foundations other than Christ, and we slip into self-denial.

 which is an oxymoron if you think about it.

It only really ever leads to self-destruction and suddenly our vision narrows to whatever we think is best for us in the moment instead of what is most faithful to Jesus.

But friends, whatever is most faithful to Jesus is what is best for you.

And what we think is best for us often leads to a flimsy life instead of an unshakable life.

And I think that what Jesus is reminding both the Philadelphians and us here today at Cathedral is that security in the shaking stands on foundations.

 of holiness.

Devotion to Jesus, not devotion to self.

And you want that.

Like deep down, you don't just want a successful life.

You want a life that is unshakable.

Like it's not really more money that you want.

What you really want is a soul that does not waver when it looks like you have less than you need.

 the more money is just a temporary solution to the deeper problem.

What you really want is an unshakable soul.

And Jesus is saying, I can give you that, but you've got to let me root you in a holy life.

Come be devoted to me instead of being devoted to the things that you think are going to give you what only I can give you.

 There are so many issues that you and I will face in this life, but the ones that will rock you the most are the ones that come because you abandoned Jesus and you abandoned the life that he calls you to.

But the inverse of that is also true.

There are so many foundations that you can build upon in this life, but the only foundation that will carry you for the long haul is when you devote yourself to Jesus and the life that he calls you to.

And that's the picture that Jesus leaves them with as he closes in verse 12.

To the one who is victorious, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God.

 Never again will you leave.

These guys over here, they think they've shut you out from the kingdom of God.

I'm planting you permanently in the place of my presence.

So permanently, in fact, that I will write on you the name of the Father.

I will write on you the name of the Son.

I will write on you the name of the new city that is coming down out of heaven.

As opposed to those who bear the mark of the beast.

 signaling their allegiance to the dragon.

Those who belong to the Lamb will be marked with the name of God.

You see, it's not a question of whether you will seek a name to carry in this life.

It's just a question of whose name you will carry.

And there is only one name that will echo throughout all of eternity.

It's the name of God.

 of God and the Lamb.

The city of Philadelphia historically had changed their name twice in recent history, both times in order to try and curry favor with two different Roman emperors.

And effectively what Jesus is saying here is don't be like your culture.

Don't live for a name that won't last.

Live for the glory of my name.

And you will bear my glory for all of eternity.

 At the end of Revelation, this whole image of carrying God's name becomes even more specific.

It says that those who enter into the new creation will bear the name of God and the Lamb on their forehead.

Which, again, is symbolic, not literal.

There's not a tattoo going up in heaven, like, ready to give you a forehead tattoo.

That'd be crazy.

I'd do it.

 It's a significant image that reaches all the way back to the Old Testament.

Speaking about this specific golden plate that the high priest, the one guy who had access all the way into the most intimate place of God's presence, he could go there once a year.

And this high priest, he would wear a plate, golden plate, pure gold on his forehead.

And this is what the plate says in Exodus chapter 28.

 Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal, holy to the Lord.

Devoted, belonging to God.

This high priest was symbolic, significant for not just his life, but all of God's people.

 a living preview of what God desired, a priestly life lived before His face, devoted to Him and honored by Him.

 And Jesus has fulfilled that picture, that he is the true high priest, the book of Hebrews says, who has entered into the holy of holies, not in a physical tent or temple, but the holy of holies in the heavenly realm, not with the blood of animals, but with his own blood, representing the perfect devotion of humanity.

Jesus, as our representative high priest, bears the reality of holy to the Lord.

 Forever and in the end and here in the letter to the philadelphian church revelation says that that inscription no longer Goes on one person.

No, it is written on the whole people of god that that Golden plate is actually representative of the identity of god's people that we are the ones who are marked out as holy To the lord and effectively what jesus is saying to us today is make sure you live like it

 I think the big idea of this whole passage could be summed up with what the Bible itself says, an invitation for you and I, that we would be holy because I, the Lord your God, devoted, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

Belong to me because I belong to you.

 It's not a command merely to keep a set of rules.

It's an invitation into a flourishing life.

Because holiness is not God taking something from you.

Holiness is actually God giving something to you.

The life that you were made for.

The life that your soul actually aches for.

The life where you walk through undeserved doors of blessing.

 A life where you actually lead other souls into eternal life.

And a life that stands firm in the midst of a world that is constantly shaking.

Father, we thank you for your word.

Thank you for your kindness to us.

You don't set bars for us to jump over in order to be holy.

You simply call us close to you.

 And even though our sins separated us, you made a way to close the gap that Jesus came to us and took on our humanity.

He lived a life of utter devotion so that when his blood was shed, it was not merely symbolic of a devoted life.

It was actually a devoted life.

 Now he has entered into your throne room in heaven and he brings his blood on our behalf so that we are not symbolically holy, we are actually holy.

A free gift.

Every eye closed just across all of our locations right now.

 It's not my plan today, but just while I was praying, I felt a nudge, maybe it's the Holy Spirit, to make sure that every single person who's listening to me right now has devoted themselves to Jesus.

That you are holy to the Lord.

That you have received His gift, His life for yours.

The term that the Bible uses to describe it is salvation.

 If you are not walking with Jesus, if you've not received the gift of His righteousness to you, then I want to call every single person to respond to that right now.

Just right where you're sitting.

I'm going to wrap up in literally 30 seconds.

But if you need to give your life to Jesus, just in this moment, would you respond?

Just lift your hand.

You ready?

One, two, three.

Just across all of our locations say, Jake, that's me.

I want to follow the Lord.

Would you be so bold to do that?

 Okay.

And Father, I bless your people in Jesus' name.

I thank you for the richness of your presence today.

And I ask, Lord, that as we go out of this place, that you would remind us of our holy identity and help us to walk in a manner that is so near to you.

In Jesus' name.