Take our Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation, the last book of the Bible, chapter 3, that's page 1312, Revelation chapter 3. And the reason that I'm doing this, tonight we will consider the birth of Christ and have a few sermons on the birth of Christ from Matthew's Gospel in the next two weeks. A lot of the themes have been the same. And so I thought this morning, in light of what happened this week, and I thought too that in light of anticipating a new year, something on mission and something on our purpose for why we are here would be really beneficial for the life of the church. So Revelation 3, the church that I love to study is the church in Philadelphia, and we're going to consider that this morning in verse 7 through 13. let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord. 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, and 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 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've 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 God out of heaven and my own new name. He who has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The Lord bless the hearing of His Word. Well, just before the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven to be seated, He said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Great Commission, we call it. Do we understand that that's the chief mission of the church? To evangelize the nations with the gospel, with the good news, and to have a real drive and purpose in doing that. It's an important thing to say today, isn't it? If you were to go through a study of these churches, at some point I would love to do that. If you were to go through a study of these churches, what you would be amazed with over and over is that these churches forgot the very purpose for which they were there and existed in the cities that God had placed them. It's sad. You can kind of boil it down to two kinds of problems. On the one hand, they either turned so inward and became so closed, a closed community focusing only on themselves, speaking only to themselves, they forgot that they were to be a beacon of light in the cities that God had placed them. That was one major problem that comes out in the study of these churches. The other problem was that the churches ended up trying to be so much like the world and fit in with the world to be attractive to the world, they fell into the world. That was the other problem. You could see these two problems, turning inward or going so outward, falling into the world. These two problems permeate a study of the seven churches. Well, this morning we study this church here in Philadelphia, and I believe such a relevant church for our context, a church that will challenge us a bit and we need to be challenged at times. This is a very important text for understanding what our mission and purpose is because Christ is calling this church in Philadelphia to be very intentional in its ministry. Very intentional. The amazing thing about it is I don't really read any criticism of this church from Christ. There are a few things that maybe are behind it, but that's a remarkable thing because we get a lot of criticisms of the other churches. But here, Christ looks at this church and he basically commends it for being a very faithful church. That's encouraging, isn't it? That's encouraging that our Lord would give this kind of commendation to a church. He was also, though, challenging this church and maybe confronting them a little bit of their doubts of ministering in an environment that was challenging. Extinguishing certain fears that they had about the times in which they lived and the challenges they were faced with due to certain obstacles and oppositions they were facing in their places. This is going to be really good for us because the Lord wants us to think about this morning how we are ministering here in Escondido, how we are being intentional, and how our fears too are being confronted as we are taught to trust the Lord in what He's doing. That's the main point I want to develop here with the church in Philadelphia this morning. And it comes as a question, are we in the Escondido United Reformed Church aware of the unique opportunities that the Lord has given us? Are we aware of them? And are we as a body really going after it? It's a fair question in light of this text. This is what Christ is calling this church in Philadelphia to consider. Let's look at this. In verse 1, we read, 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 will open. This is a beautiful call here at the beginning, a beautiful statement that comes right out of Isaiah chapter 22, where he's referencing the key of David. Now understanding a minute the situation in Philadelphia will help. Philadelphia was an interesting city, especially for its unique location. It was about 28 miles south of the city Sardis and it lied right on a river. It was built on one of the greatest of the Roman roads, which made this a very fascinating city to put a church, a strategic city to put a church. It was known as the center of Greco-Roman civilization. And in fact, it was particularly known for its advancement of the Greek language. It was known as the center of propagating the Greek language. And that was the intention of the founder of the city. So this is a really interesting background as we consider this. It was designed to be a heavily influenced place on all the other cities of Roman culture. It would be a little bit like Hollywood. How it infects everyone, doesn't it, with its garbage. And we seem to infect all the other nations with our garbage that comes out of that little hill over there. But this was Philadelphia. It sat right on the border of Mysia, Lydia, and Phrygia. It was called the Keeper of the Gateway and known as the city that sat on the threshold of the eastern country. Now, Christ puts a church here. A little weak church in Philadelphia. Satan viewed this as a place where he could infect the world with its very perverse idolatries. Christ has a different intention for this church, doesn't He? And so He strategically places this church there where they would have great influence in spreading the Gospel. Great influence. And now we can understand a little bit of the intro, can't we? The intro is really important for that kind of background of this city where Christ is raising the issue of His authority. Christ is raising the issue of His greatness, His power, His authority. The one who holds the keys of death and Hades to remind them that He holds that key and He opens and no one else shuts and shuts and no one else opens. What's He talking about? Well, He's talking about the keys of the kingdom, isn't He? That He is the King Supreme and He has the keys. Revelation 1, He talked about this. The keys of death and Hades. He has the key that unlocks heaven's door, if you will. And it's beautiful imagery with these keys. You get all over the Scriptures. Remember, Jesus was constantly talking about gates and His ministry and doors. This was a very predominant theme in His ministry, wasn't it? The most potent being that on the Sermon on the Mount. And remember on the Sermon on the Mount what He said. Enter through the narrow gate. For broad is the way and wide is the path that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter that. But narrow is the gate and small is the way that leads to life. And only a few find it. Powerful statement. Two gates. Two gates. One is wide open. It's luxurious. Many go through it. And they land up in hell. But then there's this small gate, says our Lord, that leads to life. Now this is all over His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Gospels. And here it's interesting that in one of the addresses to the churches, the Lord begins by telling them He's opening and closing. And it's overwhelming because we know from the Gospels that these very keys He entrusted to who? The church. And so remember what He said in Matthew's Gospel. I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. So Christ is reminding this church that He has given these very keys that unlock heaven and close heaven, He has given them to His church. I don't know if you've ever stopped and pondered the weight of that. I mean, this is why our Heidelberg recognized how important this was and did a whole question and answer on this and said, what are the keys of the kingdom? Of heaven? And the answer is the preaching of the Holy Gospel and discipline. By these two, the kingdom of heaven is open to believers and closed to unbelievers. So Christ takes these keys and He entrusts them to His church and He, through His body, the body of Christ, what does He do? He proclaims every Sunday whoever believes in Christ and repents of their sins, the door is wide open to heaven for such a one. and whoever does not, when the church proclaims that if you do not believe and you turn away from the Lord, you will perish, He means that. So the amazing thing is the Lord here with the keys is saying that He doesn't wait around to make this declaration later. The amazing thing about the keys is whatever the church does, His faithful church here on earth, when they preach faithfully and they do what they're called to do, that's what's decided in heaven. Now this is where He starts with this church. I find it interesting. He starts with the keys. And He says, I have all authority in heaven and earth. So what does He challenge this church with? What would you expect to challenge this church with? Well, that's where we come. This whole address is found in verse 8. Look at verse 8. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I want you to think about what he just said for a minute. I just opened a door. And no one's able to shut that. People are going to respond. I'm going to bring people and they are going to respond to the message. I'm giving you, church in Philadelphia, a door of opportunity. I've just flung it wide open for you. Now, do we realize this goes on? I mean, that's the kind of question that comes out of this. Do we realize this goes on? Because in 1 Corinthians, Paul was constantly saying this kind of thing. All throughout, actually, the New Testament and the epistles, you find this language of opening and closing doors. For instance, Paul described his work in Ephesus, and he said, you know, a great and effective door has been opened for me. And I'm staying here until Pentecost because I realize the Lord has opened wide this door. I'm not going anywhere. When Paul was in Rome under arrest, He pleaded with the Christians because of the opposition. And He pleaded with the Christians. And you know what He pleaded with them to do? Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the Word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. It's not open right now. And I need you Christians to pray that the Lord would open the door so that we would get it to give the Word. Isn't that amazing? I need you to pray. I need you to pray. The Lord was constantly in these early situations, opening doors and shutting doors, and even the Spirit put His hand up so that Paul could not go to Bithynia, remember. Here's what He's saying to this church in Philadelphia. I've done something for you. I've opened a door. It's wide open. No one can shut it. No one. If this is the mission of the church, if this is why we're here, to make known Christ and His witness, that's the most exciting thing I've ever read. Because we're all concerned in the church today about evangelism and about techniques and how to get people in. And the Lord just said, I've opened it. I've opened it wide. What was He calling this church to? This is a faithful church, wasn't it? I mean, that's what's so remarkable about this church is that He was calling them to this great missionary responsibility to be intentional in the setting that Christ had placed them because right in that city, the door was flung open. And I really want us to think about this in terms of what we do here in the church today. It's not really about us, is it? I think it's been fairly said that too many churches are built only to accommodate religious people. I think that's a fair statement. And what you can easily create in that is a kind of self-contained culture in which we feel safe and we don't have to get messy. I believe that. Do we really think about why we're here enough? Do we really think about why Christ has placed you here at this time in the Escondido United Reformed Church? Think about it. Is it a fair assessment that the church today is built only around and to accommodate religious people. I mean, do our congregational prayers even reflect it that we pray for everyone's comfort under the sun in the body of Christ? But how often do I get requests from members, and this is my whole ministry, how often do I get requests from members praying for their lost neighbor who's headed to hell? I can't remember. Do you realize this door can be shut any time? I mean, that's the thing that we have to think about here. If we don't tend to the door today, not only can it be shut in the place where we are, but the Lord has told us that there's a day when it's ultimately going to be shut and there's going to be a whole bunch of people standing outside knocking who want to get in and it's too late. Luke 13, strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able when once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door. and you begin to stand outside and knock saying, Lord, Lord, open for us. He'll say, I do not know you. Where are you from? Now here's the Lord. I just opened a door in your city. I opened it wide. Go. Go. Recognize what I've given, what I've done. It requires wisdom. It will require understanding. It will require prayer. Send to that open door. Go make known my gospel. Go make known my name. Let me ask the question today. Do you think we have an open door here? What would it look like? I'll come back to that. When the church was told this by Christ, I'm assuming by the things that Christ now observes here that the church was reluctant to act on this opportunity. I say that because Christ acknowledges that there are some real deterring factors here and factors that are preventing them from being bold in their missionary zeal. What does He say in verse 8? I know that you have little strength. This was not a powerful resource church. My guess is they were very small in comparison to the city. Their resources were little. It could have been a variety of things. Low socioeconomic status, class. Maybe they were poor. Whatever way you define weak strength, whatever it was, Christ says, I see it. I see that what you're thinking, that your strength is weak, you're a weak group, and you just don't have what it takes to accomplish so great a task. I see. I understand that. And then we read further that this church was not a well-liked church in the community, was it? The Jews, which Christ again calls a synagogue of Satan, were persecuting them. And we don't understand how strong the persecution was in the early church. The resistance was ferocious. I mean, you remember they stoned Stephen. You remember what Saul was before he became Paul. They were bent on destroying this new sect called Christians. And further it seems that Jesus is warning them about something big that's coming. Did you notice that there? In verse 10, something's going to test the whole world. He says in verse 10, I quote, to test those in this hour of trial that's coming. Keep you from the hour of trial that's coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. Maybe it was something big economically. I have my ideas of what it probably was. Maybe it was just a mass persecution coming. Whatever the case, what do you think they were saying in the church? This is not the time. Things aren't good. This is not the time. We need to wait. We need better circumstances. Better scenarios. It's not ambitious. It's foolish to go out there now. You don't advance at times like this. You retreat. You just hold on. And yet Christ just said, I opened a door. Sometimes we think everything has to be calculated out perfectly before we can move. Now I'm going to get to what he's talking about. But the Lord always called His people to be active, didn't He? Not to be like the pagans who eat, drink, and be merry. One pastor said it beautifully. The church urgently needs Christians of apostolic zeal who will count all things lost for Christ and hazard life, comfort, career, and reputation for Him. The open doors are many, but there are few who go through them. The Lord is telling this church, I've done something. You've been given so much. How much grace? How much love? How much strengthening? Others need that. When Paul was on his missionary journeys, we read in Acts, after they had come to Mysia, they tried to go through Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man from Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. Do you hear that cry ever? Help us! Help us! You hear it? Did you see it last week? Who? Now here's what moves me about the passage this morning. Here's what really gets me about the passage this morning. Who is this door open to? As a strategic place of travel, surely you would say the lost regions of the world, right? But who does the Lord have in mind? Look at what He says He's going to do in verse 9. Indeed, I will make those who are those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie, behold, I will make them come. Bow down before your feet and they will learn that I've loved you. We don't have any idea how awful the struggle was between Jew and Gentile. The Jews believed they were the true Israel of God. Same thing we see today, right? They're the only Israel of God. And the Lord here makes clear that He loves His church, which is made up of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The tension was so fierce that Paul said in Romans 11, the mystery would be that through their fall to provoke them to jealousy, the Jews, salvation would come to the Gentiles. And then in this strange twist, Paul went on to say that as the Gentiles preach Christ and as they preached the Gospel, it would provoke the Jews to jealousy and they would come in. To which I always want to tell the guys with the charts, put away the charts and start preaching Jesus. Here's what the Lord said. I'm going to bring in a whole bunch of ethnic Jews through your witness. They're going to come and they're going to worship me, says Christ. I'm overwhelmed by that. What do you think the Christians in Philadelphia said when they heard that? I'm assuming it went like this. Them? You mean them? No, no, no, no. Look what they do to us. And the Lord said, I just open the door for them. You freely receive, freely give. As you've kept my word, spread it. I've got a door for you. Sometimes we think the door should be open to the situations and the peoples we are most comfortable with. Don't we? Sometimes those who need our help the most are those who make us the most uncomfortable and who we'd never want to go out and talk to. And you see, that's how the Lord works. they may not look like us they may not act like us they may not behave like us they may not do the things that we do and I say welcome to the glorious body of Christ where he takes all these people of a world that is fragmented and doesn't know all it knows is division and racial boundaries and he's tearing it all down and he's making his church up of all tribes, tongues, people and nations to be the Israel of God None of us were lovely when He chose us. And often He's opening the doors not just to bring in to save, but to test the sincerity of ministries, by the way. He is testing the sincerity of ministries. Let me ask this. I come back to the question. Do you think a door has been opened here in Escondido? How has Escondido changed? what have you seen happen in Escondido? Two things in front of us. Two things. Many of you came on boats here years ago, right? I've heard your stories. You came over and you talk about the good country. You prospered. You did well. Let me ask this. Who has the Lord brought now to Southern California on your doorsteps? there's a whole nation south of us. We don't have to run down there anymore. The Lord's brought them here. All around us. Do you think we think that's just for Mission Vida Nueva? It's for us. All tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations. Boundaries are gone. That's the body of Christ. We're one. The second challenge is a church challenge, isn't it? It's a church challenge. We're all on extremes today in the United States. And I think, I think that what you're going to see in the coming years is total burnout from the church. You can't go from extreme to extreme to extreme. Everyone looking for relevancy and no one finding sincerity. And when the power of the church is founded on human wisdom, you are setting yourself up for burnout. All we've seen in this country and the church world is swinging from pendulum to pendulum to pendulum, creating a lot of disillusioned people who are done with the church. Look at the young generation. Look at them floating. Now I come back to the question, you see the open door? I see it. You say, well, what do we need to go do, Pastor? I mean, that's the question. Are you telling us, get out there, Did you notice what Jesus said? I'm opening the door and I'll bring them. I'll bring them right to your doorstep. It's not so much getting out there and doing something different. This is where the church has faulted. The most glorious thing happens right now. You know? Ephesus left their first love I've always debated on what that is I preached that here years ago when I was a seminary student and I'll never forget I got it wrong because all the professors told me I got it wrong I got it wrong I believe that Ephesus left its first love not because it abandoned Jesus not because it abandoned their doctrinal commitments but because they I forgot what and why they were fighting for. You can condemn everything under the sun, but have you forgotten the goal of your ministry? Have you forgotten that people need to be saved? Have we forgotten that there are people who just dropped into hell right now? I know it's a heavy thought. The Lord's not left us alone in that. And He is telling us here, I'll bring them. I'll bring them. But if we're not too excited about that or desirous of that, why should He? You still know the greatest way of evangelism is you inviting your neighbors to bring them here. It's really not anything else. And so I ask the question, who have you invited in the course of your lifetime and brought? I told you it would be challenging this morning. What an opportunity. You have a city full of people here aimless, starving, and perishing. And we're not praying like we should be for them. And I'll take the first blame on that. They need the doctrines of grace. They need to understand. And look at the open door this past week. For the first time I had non-believers, I had two of them say to me, this world's awful. Well, there's your door. They wouldn't have said that. And now everyone sees the horrendous thing that happened this past week. And you've got a moment. You've got a moment. So this is challenging us this morning. The Lord is saying, I've opened the door and it's easy to retreat. It's easy to think, oh, everyone here is a Christian and everything's just great. Call out to the Lord. Look in your backyard. Jesus just said, remember in John 4, and I'll close with this, remember in John 4 when Jesus, the Samaritan disciples were standing there, they were worried about filling their bellies with food. And He heals this, He forgives this Samaritan woman who was a mess. And she goes out, and she just mentions Jesus to a city, and Jesus in the next breath says, look up, the fields are white for the harvest. And if you study that carefully, when they looked up, there were the white-robed Samaritans coming to Jesus. He brought them. He brought them. And we need to think about bringing them to the place where the grace of God is given. And the message that saves to the ends of the earth is heralded. What does Christ promise in verse 11? Behold, I'm coming quickly hold fast what you have that no one may take your crown you've been given this treasure don't let go of it a crown awaits the conquest as we sing he who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more 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 out of heaven from my God and I will write on him my new name beautiful isn't it pillars were everything in the ancient world. You ever seen those columns? This little weak church. A pillar. Weak as you are. Take advantage of the open door here before it's shut. And let's remember together why we're here. To be joyful as God's people. The worst kind of witness is a bunch of non-singing, complaining people in the pew, by the way. Sing to the Lord. Show His joy. Let people see that what you have is sincere and real. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Escondido United Reformed Church. Amen. O Lord our God, we are grateful that You are continuing to build in such a late, dark hour when we see the mess last week and the mess of our own hearts. We're amazed You're still building, but here we are. We're living and we're breathing and You've placed us here for a purpose. And so we pray, Lord, that we would see the wide and effective door and we pray that You would open it wide and that we would have the sense and the understanding and the wisdom to minister to the people You bring through these doors, through our witness. And we pray, Lord, that You would continue to save. Be merciful at this hour. Remember Your promises and that You said this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness, gathering Your elect, and then the end will come. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen.