Revelation 3:7-13
Well, good morning Saylorville! If you brought a copy of scripture with you this morning, you can find the book of Revelation, the last book in your bible, and the third chapter. We are going to leap over a church. There are seven churches that Jesus addresses in chapters two and three. We’re jumping over one to get to this one that fits our Missionary conference. We’ll come back to the others next week. If that didn’t make any sense… oh well!
Anyway, Revelation chapter three, and welcome to our annual Missions Conference! We are thrilled to have missionaries from four of the seven continents in our world, and a joy to me personally and my wife that we have been able to visit all of them where they have served.
And I think of Lee and Violet. Where are you at? You’re over here. There they are. Let’s give them a round of applause! They’re in the service right now. I remember Lee and Violet back when I was in Bible college. That tells you how old they are, okay? And he was going to this nomadic tribe in Africa, the Turags, to dig “living waters,” a well for “living waters,” to bring the Gospel to that nomadic tribe. Then, the last many years in Togo, West Africa. Welcome!
John and Bev Leonard… I think they were in the first service. And I met them back in Bible college, as well. And then many years later, about 15 years later, I brought a group of individuals down to a very poor area in Maceio, Brazil, in a place called Coqueiro Seco, where we helped them plant this church. It was an amazing experience! And just a year later, a would-be assassin shot him at point blank range six times! — and he lived! He would become an invalid, I’m sorry, he would become a quadriplegic, NOT an invalid! — because he would go back and plant a church! Who does that? We’ll talk about that in a few moments.
Russ and Kathy Matthews are missionaries to Australia. I was at lunch with Russ 19 years ago and when I challenged him and he sensed the call of God to missions. And then 10 years ago my wife spent, and I, spent 17 days “down under” with Russ and Kathy and saw this amazing creative approach that they were doing to bring the Gospel to the people of the world who flood into Sydney, Australia in the most creative of ways.
And then Andy and Lindsay Mesmer… They are our missionaries to Spain. I got to perform their wedding years ago. And that tells you how old I am! Anyway, they would move on and we kind of lost track of them. They ended up being missionaries to Spain and then serendipitously and gloriously we re-connected! But more on that later, okay?
But I will say this as we get going. What each of these missionaries, and really all of our missionaries have in common is a willingness, they had a willingness to walk through the door by faith that Jesus Himself had opened for them. And so the only question this morning for you is, are you willing to do the same? That’s the question before us. Revelation chapter 3. We’ll come back to the first 6 verses next week, but go down to 7.
Revelation 3:7-13
7 “And to the angel (or the messenger or the pastor) of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, (That’s right out of Isaiah 22 and verse 22) who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
8 “‘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.
9 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.
10 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.
11 I am coming soon. (This book keeps reminding us what this book is about, the return of Jesus Christ, amen? “I’m coming soon.” The problem is, we love to talk about the second coming. Half the world hasn’t even heard about his first!) Hold fast what you have, (This is the only exhortation Jesus gives to this church. “Hold fast to what you have“) so that no one may seize your crown.
12 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. (Those of you who like tattoos, don’t use this as a proof text. I was just thinking about that just now. Anyway, we’ll come back to that too. Wow! I can’t believe I just said that! (congregation laughing) Must be the third service!)
13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
So this is Philadelphia, the church of the open door. And there are more than a couple of metaphors here, but the ones that stand out are “key” and “door.” Of course, it takes keys to open doors. And we were told when we started the study of the unveiling of Jesus Christ in chapter 1 and verse 18, that Jesus holds “the keys to the door of death and Hades.”
[Revelation 1:[17]-18,
[17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,
18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore,] and I have the keys of Death and Hades.“]
But he also holds the door of life from death, which is what we’re talking about here. Now, doors have a lot of purposes, right? But the one, the purposes, metaphorically that we can think of of is, and literally, is they keep people out and they let people in. In the New Testament, the word “door” almost exclusively depicts the freedom of bringing the Gospel to others. So for instance, the Apostle Paul finishes up his letter to the Colossians by saying this in chapter 4. He says this.
Colossians 4:3-4
3 “At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account (the reason) of which I am in prison—
4 that I may make it clear, (and the Greek carries the idea that I might elucidate it, articulate it) which is how I ought to speak.”
In other words, he’s not only concerned about Jesus opening a door for him, but that when he opens his mouth, he’ll do it in such a way that it makes sense in the context in which he is. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, the Apostle Paul is, he says to the, he says to the Corinthians, he’s writing from Ephesus, which is just 80 miles to the west of the Philadelphian church. So Paul is writing to the Corinthians who are across the Aegean Sea in modern day Greece, from Ephesus over in Asia Minor where all these seven churches are, and he writes to the Corinthians. He says, ‘I’m in Ephesus right now and I’m sticking around because of this. He says, “A wide door, an effective door, has been open to me.”
[1 Corinthians 16:[8]9,
[8 “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,]
9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”
Now, as we often say around here, ‘Where there’s a door, (what?) there’s a demon,” where there’s … opportunity… there’s opposition.
And so back to Paul writing to the Corinthians when he says, I’m staying here in Ephesus because this effective wide open door has been given to me. He concludes it by saying, “And there are many adversaries.” Hence the expression,
“Where there’s a door, there’s a demon.”
And the point being that it doesn’t matter if you’re a missionary here or abroad. Gospel advance is hard. It is fraught with resistance from Satan and his messengers. But hey, no need to worry if you never talk to people about Jesus. Okay? You don’t need to worry if you don’t look for those open doors or churches that don’t do that. They’re happy with the status quo. You don’t need to worry because as Spurgeon once said,
“Satan never kicks a dead horse.” Spurgeon
And that is, individuals in churches not involved in Gospel outreach, they’re no threat to Satan. There’s no purpose for resistance. They’re dead horses. We should take those… if you’re one of those individuals or in a church like that, you should take a note from the Dakota Native Americans who said, who had a strategy, they said,
“When you discover you’re riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”
a note from the Dakota Native Americans
Why? Because you’re on a dead horse. It’s not going anywhere. But when the Gospel is going forth in your life, in the life of the church, then as it is kindly, as the Lord has been kind and gracious to Saylorville Church, the Engage Network and our missionaries, then you can expect resistance, you can expect opposition, you can expect our adversary to dispatch his emissaries, his little imps to push against our efforts, and it happens.
The city of Philadelphia, again in modern day Turkey, was not a large city like some of the others like Ephesus, Pergamum and Thyatira. It was actually sort of an outpost. It was a smaller city up on a large hill. It had experienced earthquakes. Rome had rebuilt it. It was also sort of a buffer. So while not being a large city, the church wasn’t large either. That’s the idea in “little power” here. But if an enemy was coming from the east… in order to get to Ephesus, Pergamum, or Thyatira, the larger cities, they’d have to go through Philly to get there. So Rome, this was a Roman city like all of them and they were radically dedicated to Rome and its gods, because an earthquake had destroyed this city and Rome had come in and rebuilt it. So out of gratitude, they even gave it a new name which might have something to do with Jesus talking about a new name in this text. Either way, the reason they were so dedicated to Rome and its gods is probably another reason why there was so much resistance and opposition. They have “little power.” That again, refers in verse 8, probably to their size. But notice what it says in verse 8. He praises them because ‘you’ve kept my word.’ (See that?) You’ve not denied me.’ In verse 10, it says, “You talk about their patient endurance.”
[Revelation 2:10, “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.”]
By the way, did you know that you can deny Jesus non-verbally? Titus 1:16 says,
[Titus 1:16, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.“]
“Though they profess to know God in works, they deny Him.” Have you ever read that? So you can do that. And what’s the difference? So what’s the difference between denying Jesus and never speaking up for Him? Not much. Jesus said,
(Matthew 10:32-33)
32 “He who confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven.
33 And the one who denies me before men, him will I deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
The Philadelphian church, this church like the church of Smyrna we looked at several weeks ago, are the two churches amongst the seven where there is not one shred of condemnation from Jesus, not one rebuff, not one criticism, because the one was suffering, and suffering as a way just peeling away one’s sin and sinful lifestyle. And the evangelistic church is also the kind of church that when people are getting saved and the lives are being changed, it tends to keep the fervent level up in the church as it was with Philadelphia. Either way, they were not deniers. They were faithful. And Jesus in verse seven,
[Revelation 3:7, “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘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 opens.“]
is depicted in the Greek, and the Greek conveys this. He’s depicted as actively holding open a door. ‘Behold, I have set before you an open door.’ It’s like against resistance.
Have you ever opened up a door on a windy day and had to resist it? The first church I pastored faced the road, the front door did, and I don’t know who designed it, who the brilliant guy who was it, but it opened outward, and if the wind was coming from that direction, I’m telling you, if it was coming from the direction where the door was… the back of the door, there were times I’d have to stand against it like this, while the old ladies (no offense to those of you who are older here) were making their way through! The wind was so fierce, in fact, they called it ‘the windiest place on earth!’ But every once in a while… you’d see us just bracing themselves against this door while people were coming through!
That’s what Jesus is gonna do for you! That’s what he did for the church of Philadelphia. That’s what he’ll do for you if you will walk through, his open door for you.
Of course, the opposite is also true in verse seven. When he shuts it, you’re not gonna open it. For Philadelphia, he’s holding open against resistance the open door. And when we confess Jesus, when we’re willing to confess Jesus as Lord to others, He takes his divine key and unlocks doors. He loves to do that!
And by the way, the Philadelphian church was still worshiping Christ, was still preaching the gospel, was still holding services, were still standing strong for Jesus 1300 years after this moment! There is a record, unlike the other six churches that pretty much dissolved, this church was still going strong in 1400 A.D. long after the Muslims had overrun this area. What a testimony!
So, what doors has Jesus opened for this church at Saylorville? Marvin Newell in his book, A Third of These, says,
“Jesus’s last words should be our first priority.” Marvin Newell
I love that! — and I agree with it. So it begs the question, what were his last words? What were Jesus’ last words before he went up?
In the book of Acts in the first chapter, Jesus has died, he’s buried, he rose, and he hung out for a month and a half, the Bible tells us, to prove that he was alive, the resurrected Savior was resurrected. And he’s dialoguing with his disciples. They’re saying, ‘Okay, you’re alive, you’ve done it all, let’s make this happen, bring that kingdom in!’ And Jesus says, ‘Look, it’s not for you to know when I’m gonna do that,’ — Which is a really interesting statement ’cause some of us get so hung up on it, right? It’s not for you to know the time. Here’s what you ought to know.
Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses (and here’s where) in Jerusalem (that’s where they were at) and in all Judea (that was the outlying area) and Samaria, and (to the uttermost) to the end of the earth.”
And if you follow that, they’re like concentric circles in the book of Acts. This is a literal outline of the book of Acts. This is how it went forth. They were in Jerusalem. They took it to Judea, and Samaria, and finally to the uttermost parts of the earth. And why do I share that with you? — Because I want to apply this to our context. Our “Jerusalem” is right here. This is ground zero where the Gospel goes forth. This and the greater area around it.
I had a businessman come to me many years ago, nearly 20 years ago. He came to me and said, “I feel God’s calling me to the mission field.” I said, “Fantastic! What are you doing in the business world now?” “Nothing.” I said, “Well, you’re not going anywhere else then.You’re not going to the ends of the earth, unless you do it in Jerusalem.” And that guy took that to heart and started an evangelistic business meeting downtown into a way called JAW, “Jesus at Work,” to bring the Gospel to the businessmen down there. And today he’s our missionary, Russ Matthews, in Australia. Because he realized you’re not going to go to the end of the earth until you do it in Jerusalem. Our “Judea and Samaria” is the Engage Network! This is so cool, isn’t it? We got the greater area around, not entirely, because we’re still planting churches, but today on this Lord’s Day, as many as 4,500 people are worshiping in these eight churches! Hallelujah! — And our ends of the earth is where we send our missionaries. And they are going to the ends of the earth!
About a year ago, you’ll remember, terrorists from the area of Gaza in southern Israel broke through the wall, went into several towns around the southern part, murdered, decimated homes, and murdered 1200 Jews, kidnapped a couple hundred of them, and ever since then all hell has broke loose in the mid east! Right? — To this moment! I preached a sermon about a Sunday or so afterwards, and I mean, I studied my guts out on this thing! The history and everything, I was so excited about what I was bringing you, and the thing that most people took away in that sermon was a picture I put up on the board. It was like the last second I put that, I thought, “Hey Doug, put this in.” And he did. And many if you were gripped by this picture, because you see that little red slit, that’s Israel, and all that in green are those who hate the Jews. They are surrounded by their enemies! And you looked at that and that you thought, “That gave me perspective! That gave me perspective! THAT gave me perspective!” And then you listened to this and you hear that Jesus has opened up a door and that’s not a little red slit, is it? But it’s the same exact area! And what that represents in red are those who have not heard, even heard the Gospel. Some have. Many places in that 1040 window have never even met a Christian, much less heard the Gospel. Now look at that map, just stare at it for a minute and say, “That gives me perspective!” “That gives me perspective!” “THAT gives me perspective!” And what will you do about it if Jesus opens up a door? And He is opening up doors, amen? — in many, many ways and with many, many means!
The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, “I so much… woe unto me if I don’t preach the Gospel!”
[1 Corinthians 9:16] “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (‘An onus of responsibility has been laid upon me if I don’t preach the Gospel!)
[1 Corinthians 9:20] ‘To the Jew, I become a Jew that I might win the Jew. To those without the law, I become as one without the law that I might win those without the law. To those with the law, I become as one with the law that I might win those with the law.’
“I have become (1 Corinthians 9:22b) all things to all men that I might by all means (what?) save some.”
What does that mean? What does that even mean? — “becoming all things to all men?” All means. What does “all means“… do you know what “all means” means? It means “all means.” Now we’re not talking about sinful things or unethical things or ungodly things. We’re talking about creative things and methods in order to bring the Gospel to people. And so churches are literally coming to us, missionaries are coming to us from around the world and asking us about our paradigm, the way our philosophy in the Engage Network and these eight churches. They’re so healthy by the grace of God! How are we doing it? They’re coming to us! They’re meeting with us! We’re sending people to them! I personally went to Brazil and preached on this. Another contingency in the Engage Network went to Peru and preached on this. Why? — Because we’ve got the paradigm, amen? (Please don’t say ‘amen!’) No. The idea was that there are some aspects of our paradigm that will transcend culture, they’ll transcend time, they’ll transcend culture, and you can use parts of it more in some cases, less in others, — But the idea is, they’re looking for what is transferable in the idea and the effort of ‘doing all things to all men that by all means we might save some.’ And why do we do this? Why do we constantly wrestle with these things? One, because we need to! We’re called to! — And the other is, as Tod Bolsinger, in his book, really good book, Canoeing the Mountains, he said this:
“The world in front of you is nothing like the world behind you.” (And that’s true! He adds) “If there’s one quality that matters most to the fate of the church in the 21st century, it’s adaptability.” Tod Bolsinger
— And that’s why whatever we’re doing, as we look for open doors, we have to be asking ourselves constantly! — hard questions, practical questions, pragmatic questions like, ‘Is this working?‘ Are souls coming to Jesus by my creative approach? If the answer is ‘yes,’ throw wood on that fire! If the answer is ‘no,’ just throw the idea into the fire! And I say that because when I say “all means,” we’re talking “all means!“
Take technology. God has given us a great tech team. They’re right back there. Let’s give them a round of applause! There they are, serving Jesus! Right now, right now, hundreds and hundreds of people are watching this around the world! — or will watch it, because of our technology. Something we didn’t have before we have now. We’re trying to take advantage of. It’ll probably change. I’m certain it will! Last I checked nobody’s selling cassette tapes. It’s always changing!
— But 11 years ago because of our technology, 11 years ago, I got an email from a woman in Spain. Just a random email. She laid out her story. She was raised to Roman Catholic. Disenfranchised with Catholicism as she studied and saw that it didn’t match up with Scripture. And then she did the most natural thing when she left the Catholic Church, she became a Mormon! And she even came to Utah to the Mormon temple there! And it was there and amongst her studying and well, that she discovered this isn’t true, either. She found herself utterly disenfranchised. All she had was her Bible and the view of God that she had. You want to know what happened? Why should I tell you? Why don’t we let her tell you? All the way from Madrid, Spain, Belén Diaz has come! Let’s give her a round of applause as she shares! (audience applauding)
“Good morning, Saylorville. First, I want to thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to be this weekend with you guys. You can not imagine how much the Lord has used Saylorville Church and my love with him. Even before I became a Christian, as Pastor Pat was saying, I was raised from a Catholic. And I was well, quite happy there. But there were some little things, even as a little girl, that didn’t make much sense to me, because I couldn’t find those things that they said in my children’s Bible even. But I keep growing in the Roman Catholic Church. And when I was 18 or 19, one day I met two Mormon missionaries. And they were so bold to preach their gospel. And they were on fire with Jesus. And that impressed me really a lot. And I started talking to them. And I even started going to the Mormon Sunday meetings. And like a year later, I became a Mormon. I was really, really active there. So one of the leaders of my congregation asked me to be a teacher for high school kids. And I had to teach in the Bible. And my knowledge of the Bible was so poor. And so I mean, I don’t know my Bible. So I started studying it. And I go to the gospels and I was OK, but then I started reading in the book of Romans, and I realized that what Paul said in the book of Romans and what Mormon’s teach is completely different, and that blow my mind! And I tried to ask the Mormon leaders, but the only answer that I received was, you have to have more faith when you’re asking too much. And that was frustrating for me, so I quit going there. But I keep wanting to know, and I wanted to please God and to know what was going on and to understand the Bible better. So I started searching by myself. It was hard. And one day, I don’t know why, but I put in internet something like “Christian service” or “Christian church” or something like that, and the first thing that appeared in my laptop was “Saylorville Church in Des Moines, Iowa.” And Pastor Pat was preaching about Roman 7. And at that time, I was studying Roman 7! I have tons of questions about that chapter. And that’s when Pastor Pat answered most of those questions. And that was like, “Wow!” for me! So I looked for more information about Saylorville Church, and I found his email and we start writing each other. He was so kind to answer my questions. But one day he sent me an email and said, “You know what? I know a missionary couple that are in Madrid, and they would love to talk to you!” And I say, “Okay, that’s great!” And that couple were Andy and Lindsey Mesmer. So we started having Bible studies, and they were so kind to me, so, patient with me. The Lord used them greatly! And after a while, the Lord was so good to me, and I finally understand that it’s only by His grace and by faith alone that we are saved, and He saved me! And I have said so many times since I was a little girl that I was a daughter of God, but that day it was the first time that it was true! And it was the first time that I really understand what the bible said. So, as you can see, the Lord, as I say before, the Lord has used you so much. And I used to say to the people in my church back home that you are like my second church. And I love you so much! And I hope you really know how blessed you are for being in this church, for the things that you’re receiving at this church. And my prayer for all of us is that no matter if we are in Australia or in Togo or in Brazil or in in Spain or here, or any other place where the Lord calls you to be, I hope that the Lord will give us the wisdom, the strength, the blessing in him that we need to be bold, to be bold, like the missionaries that we are listening this weekend, to talk with our family, to talk with the people that we know. And if there is someone here that is thinking, ‘No. That story is so good, but it’s not for me.’ That is not true. If you are here it is for a good reason. The Lord is waiting for you, so don’t wait more. Talk to him, or if that’s not maybe your thing, or you don’t know how to, talk to the people in this church. I know, they are nice. They were nice with me. And bless the Lord for you guys, and I hope that he will bless you greatly. Thank you so much.” [APPLAUSE]
Hallelujah! What a story! What a… That’s true! We’re going back and forth and back and forth in an email and I’m an evangelist and I can’t bring her across the finish line! I’m answering her questions. She’s on the cusp of being saved, and I’m thinking, and what happened was, the Lord’s sort of tattooed on my mind Romans 10:15, where it says,
Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet who preach the gospel of peace?“
And I realized somebody personally needs to go with her and I realized, the Mesmer are over there! I got ahold of Andy. I said, “Andy, I’ve been sharing with a woman back and forth who’s in Madrid.” “We live in Madrid!” “Oh, Wow! Here’s where she lives!” “We’re 20 minutes from her!” They brought her across the finish line, because it’s “feet” that bring the gospel of peace.
God uses technology, and if it wasn’t for our technology, we would never have interacted with Belen. So let’s give it up again for our tech team and all that goes along there!
The church in Philadelphia was faithfully preaching the Gospel, walking through those open doors that Jesus was holding open for them against all that resistance, and they would be rewarded for it.
And so for the balance of our time, here are the rewards you can expect for going through the door Jesus opens for you. And the first one is future exaltation. I love this! — because it’s one of those verses you just sort of read over and go, “Yeeh!” Look at verse 9. He says,
Revelation 3:9, “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.“
So it’s sort of like what Jesus is saying to these, to the church in Philadelphia, they’re a little bit like Joseph. Joseph, who was persecuted by his brothers, (remember that?) — years later his brothers come back and bow down before him as if to say that they, our enemies will one day bow down, not only before the Lord Jesus and acknowledge him as Lord, but they’ll acknowledge us as loved! That’s future exaltation and future preservation!
And this is one of the most famous verses in the in all the book of Revelation, verse 10, where Jesus says to the church;
Revelation 3:10, “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.”
Now there are a lot of debate about what this actually means. And we’re going to talk a little bit about it in our podcast this week. But the tribulation the Philadelphian Church was promised to be kept from literally, the Greek says “to be kept out of,” was not just local. Do you see that? It’s coming to the whole world “to try those who dwell on the earth!” This trial is universal! I think it directly speaks to [Revelation] chapters 6 through 19, which vividly, graphically, and powerfully depicts the coming tribulation. Either way, no matter where you fall on this, be grateful to God that according to
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10
[9 “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.“]
… if you have turned from idols to God and the Lord Jesus, He will keep you from the wrath to come!
So, future exaltation… that’s a reward. Future preservation… and finally future identification. Look at verse 12 again. I mean, this is just nuts! I mean, not nuts. It’s just cool! But he says,
[Revelation 2:12
12 “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.“]
“I’ll write on him.” That’s on you and I who are faithful or like the Philadelphians walking through those open doors held against the resistance. “I will write on him the name of my God.”
Have you ever wrote your name on something just to make sure if somebody knew it was yours? Yeah, you have. You’ve done it in books. You’ve done it with… some of you have it done with your pans. How about a baseball glove? I wrote my name on my baseball glove. Why? Because it was mine!
There was a Sunday school several years ago here at church that gave me a little a bar stool. It looks like all the other bar stools. And because it looks like all the other bar stools, I wrote my name on it. Why would I do that? — Because I’m taking it with me when I go! That’s why! I mean, it’s mine! It’s a mark of ownership when you write your name on something. And God said in Isaiah 43:
Isaiah 43:1, ‘Thus says the Lord, O Israel, He who created you, O Israel, He who formed you, O Judah, don’t fear because I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name and (then) you are mine.’
I love that! “You are mine!” On the flip side, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul writes,
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 ‘Don’t you know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? You are not your own.
20 You have been purchased with a price, so glorify God in your body.’
If you are a follower of Jesus, followers of Jesus we are a purchased people! And in heaven, Jesus will put His name on us as an eternal declaration that says, “You are mine!” And in verse 12,
[Revelation 3:12
“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.“]
… If you’re his, you identify presently with him and he identifies presently with you! But in verse 12… look at this again, all this identification stuff. You’re going to make him “a pillar in the temple.” That’s a metaphor. That would be something everybody would look at, never go out from it. ‘I’ll write on him the name of my God and the city, in the name of the city of my God, and the New Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and… AND… my own new name!‘ I just want you to think about that. ‘And I’m going to write on him or her my own new name.‘
Now, why would that be important? Names conjure up thoughts and attitudes, don’t they? Let me ask you this. I want you right now to think about a name. Somebody’s name of somebody you don’t like. Not asking for testimonies here! (Boy, hope I’m not in that!) Anyway, somebody you don’t like, and why do you not like them? Maybe they have a poor reputation. But when somebody mentions a name, something comes up, right? ‘Oh, I love that person!’ ‘Oh, yeeh… is he coming?’ Names conjure up all kinds of stuff in our minds, don’t they? I’m thinking of a man, a very popular preacher, Bible expositor, wrote many, many books, greatly loved, who has ruined his reputation! — as long as he lives here on earth, even if he repents, and I pray he does. Every time his name is invoked, as long as I live, I’ll go there to his reputation.
Have you ever read about Diotrophes in 3 John 9? Diotrophes, he was the one who put a guard up to the church, he kicked people out, wouldn’t let people in. He was sort of the keeper of the gate. Nobody liked him! I think Diotrophes is a Christian! I think he’s in heaven! But what a reputation! Ugh! And these and many more Christians who will die on earth with those awful reputations. What if our new name erases all of that? — so that those who die with a bad reputation on earth do not have to live with a bad reputation in heaven! Only a very kind God would pull that off, amen? And that’s what he’ll do!
Some of you here, you don’t feel so good about your life. You don’t feel so good about your reputation. You’ve done some things, and you’ve turned from them perhaps, but people will always kind of look at the crack. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Like ‘Yeah, well, you know what she did.’ I hope you don’t have to endure that on earth, but you will never have to endure that in heaven! It’ll all be expunged!
And speaking of which, some of you are not ready to go to heaven, here’s the cool thing. The one who held open the door against all that resistance in Philadelphia so that people could walk through the missional door and bring the gospel to others, became the door for us! Jesus said in John 10,
John 10:9, “I am the door. The one who enters by me will be saved….”
And some of you need to walk through him because he is the way. He is the truth and he is the life and no one comes to the Father except through him!
[John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“]
If you’ve never trusted Jesus, he’s your door…
[John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”]
and he‘s standing there knocking right now. Come to him!
[Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”]
For the rest of us, followers of Jesus, listen to what he said to the Philadelphia church. ‘I’m holding open a door for you. Walk through it!’
Our Father in Heaven, I ask in Jesus name that you will call out people today in this very room, watching online, and especially I pray for the young people in this church to missions. You Lord Jesus are holding the door open! May we walk through it in obedience. And today make today a calling for someone or someones. And I do pray for that individual or individuals that are here right now. You know who you are! You’ve never walked through the door of salvation. Jesus is that door! Believe that He loved you and loves you, died and rose again for you and place your faith in Him, and you will be saved! Lord, we pray all these things in your Son’s name, amen. Let’s stand. [Music]
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