Word of Salvation – Vol. 41 No. 12 – March 1996

 

The Church That Had Little Strength

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Kossen on Revelation 3:7-13

 

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Boys and girls, do you remember the story of Gideon?  The Midianites were a very strong people, and there were so many of them that you couldn't count them, and they were causing Israel a lot of trouble.  So, Israel called out to the Lord for help.  And God called a leader out, a man called Gideon.

Gideon was not an important man; he was the least in his own family; from the weakest tribe in Israel.  First of all, Gideon had an army of 32,000 men.  And God said to him, that he had too many.  22,000 left and 10,000 remained.  And God said again, there are still too many, and so he sent them down to the water to drink, and all those who lapped the water with their tongues like a dog were chosen.  300 men.  And with these 300 men, God enabled them to defeat the powerful army of the Midianites.

And this story reminds us again, that God doesn't need big numbers to defeat His enemies.  You see another powerful picture of this in the New Testament church.  When Jesus came, he took 12 disciples.  And these 12 disciples weren't the most brilliant and influential men around; they were just common people, like us.  And after He went to heaven, the church began with this small core group of disciples to where it is today, with countless multitudes of people who follow and serve Jesus.

And that is a very good lesson for us to remember.  Sometimes we might complain about the state of the church today.  Or we might complain about our church.  And we feel so... weak.  And then again we need to listen to Paul's timely reminder:

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards, or influential, or of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the strong, the lowly things, the despised things, the things that are not, so that no one may boast before Him.

And that's exactly what God said to Gideon.  You've got too many people here.  And when you finally conquer Midian, I don't want anyone to boast against Me, that their own strength has saved them.

And in our text, this is the message we find coming out too, in a very beautiful way.  Today we are looking at the letter to the church in Philadelphia.  And first of all, we want to look at what sort of church this was.

1.  The Church in Philadelphia.

There are two things which stand out about this church, and the first of these is its weakness.  The Lord says to them, in verse 8, I know you have little strength.  On the one hand, in the eyes of men, and maybe also in the eyes of fellow Christians, this church wasn't much.  It didn't have a great reputation.  It wasn't big and flashy.  It wasn't exercising much influence.  It didn't seem to be doing much.  This church just seemed to limp along, without anything spectacular going on there.  If you went to Philadelphia you wouldn't think a great deal of this church at all.

But it's not only men who are saying this, Jesus says the same.  "I know you have little strength.  I know that you are a weak church."  And this is not necessarily a positive comment.  Matthew Henry says that Jesus is also gently rebuking His Church here, because Christians should never be satisfied in a little, but should seek to be strong in grace, and in faith, and in the fruits of the Spirit.  This church had little strength.

But then there is a second thing which stands out about this church, and that is its faithfulness.  Jesus says this in several ways.  First of all He comments on their deeds.  "I know your deeds."  And then He says, "although you have little strength, you have kept My Word.  And you have not denied My Name."  And then in verse 10: "you have followed my command to endure patiently.  You have followed my example in seeking to walk faithfully, despite the difficulties which may have come your way."

And, brothers and sisters, this must have been a tremendous word of encouragement for them.  They knew themselves that they were not a strong church.  And it must have grieved them that they could not be stronger and more effective in the service of their Lord.  Like Gideon, who was plagued with a sense of his own weakness and inability to lead the people of God.

And yet, the Lord looks deeper down, at the things which are really important, namely, at the attitude which they have towards Him.  And He sees that they love Him and seek faithfully to live by His Word.  And in the middle of all the difficulties which plague them, they just keep humbly pressing on, seeking to follow the Lord, no matter how many enemies were rising up against them.

And, brothers and sisters, we ought also to look at ourselves in the light of this praise.  We, too, might sometimes feel frustrated with our own weakness, as church, but also as individuals.  But the important question is: what is our attitude to the Lord?  Even though we feel so weak, do we love the Lord deeply, do we love His Word, and have we resolved within ourselves that His Word will always be the light by which we seek to live?  The question is not, are we strong?  The question is, do we, above all, seek to serve Him faithfully?  Are we marked by a spirit of faithfulness to Him?

That ought always to be our goal.  Not to be spectacular, not to be a church that is 'with it', that is moving with the times, but to be a church, which acts justly, loves mercy, and seeks to walk humbly with our God.  And, brothers and sisters, this church, not much in the eyes of men, not even strong in the eyes of God, this church is a church which is truly blessed.  We see that in the promises which the Lord makes to them.

2.  The Lord's Promise to Them.

And when you look at these promises, you see there are two sets of promises which the Lord makes.  First of all, He makes some promises for the present.

a.  An open door.

And the first of these is when He says, “See I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut."  Now this open door can mean several things.  First of all, it might mean an open door into the Kingdom of God.  Even though they are weak, yet their faith is alive, and no one will take this from them, and He will in time bring them into His eternal kingdom.  If that's what the open door is here, it is a tremendous encouragement, in the words of verse 11: to hold on to what we have.

But there is a second way we can understand that open door.  You see, Scripture mentions an open door several times.  In 2Cor.2, the Lord opened a door for Paul so that he could bring the Gospel to Troas.  In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas report to the church that the Lord has opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.  And in Col.4, Paul asks the people to pray that God would open a door for their message.  The Lord is the one who opens the doors before His Church.  And in this letter He has said this, that He is the one who holds the key of David, that what He opens, no one can shut, and what He shuts, no one can open.

What the Lord means with these words, is that He is the One who controls the entrance into the Kingdom of God.  He opens doors.  And He closes them.  When He opens the door, people come in.  When He closes the door, people are shut out.

And in our text, the Lord promises the weak church of Philadelphia an open door that no one can shut.  And what the Lord is saying here is that He will use a weak church like this, to accomplish His purposes.  It is through churches like this, that His kingdom will grow.  It's not flashy, it’s not attractive, it’s weak!

But His Power is made perfect in weakness, just like in Gideon's day.  And the Lord promises here, that this church will have an open door to bring the Word of God effectively to those around them.  Christ has opened this door, and no one will shut it.

But there is also a second promise, related to the first, and that is that not only will an open door be placed before them, but...

b.  Some of their strongest enemies will come in through this open door.

Jesus says to this church, "I will make” (and I think the translation is slightly out here, I believe it says 'I will make some') "I will make some of those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are not, but are liars I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you."  Yes, some of the Jews who, at that time, were the greatest opponents of Christianity would come into the congregation, acknowledging openly that the Christians were right, that God had placed His love upon them.

You see here again, the story of Gideon all over, the story of the New Testament church all over, that God's weakness is stronger than man's strength.  God, even through the means of a weak but faithful church, will demonstrate His saving power over even the hardest of hearts.

And, brothers and sisters, what a blessed promise this was for the Philadelphian church.  And what a blessed promise for us as well.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who holds the key of David.  He opens doors, and He shuts them.  We, as church, are merely His instruments.  And what sort of instruments does the Lord want us to be so that we can be used by Him?  We are simply called to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly and faithfully with our God.  All the programmes in the world, by themselves, are not the key to evangelistic success.  Our calling is simply to keep His Word, to acknowledge His Name, and to endure patiently in the footsteps and the example of Christ.

And then, finally, there is a third blessing which Christ promised this faithful church for the present, and that is that...

c.  He would keep them from the hour of trial.

"Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is about to come upon the whole world to test those who live upon the earth."  As Christians we all will suffer in varying degrees.  Some Christians will experience a severe hour of trial.  The severe persecutions under Nero were one such hour of trial.  The great tribulation at the end of time will be another.

And God has His purposes in sending trial, and that is to test those upon whom it comes.  And for us as Christians this testing is a testing of our faith.  And yet, this text brings out the beautiful teaching that, when we are Christians, when we live in faithfulness to Him and seek to uphold His Word, He will never let us be tested beyond what we can bear.

And for those in Philadelphia this was a tremendous promise.  They loved the Lord.  And yet they knew their limitations, they knew their weakness.  The Lord knew it too.  The Lord had given them some trials, equal to their strength, and under these trials they had patiently endured.  And the Lord now promises them, "because you have patiently endured, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is about to come."

And that, too, is a call unto us, to patiently endure those things which God does send our way.  He knows us.  He knows our strength.  He cares for us.  And He will never burden us in any way beyond what we can bear.

These, then, are the promises He gives to this weak, yet faithful church in this life.  And now, secondly, in the verses that follow, He also adds some tremendous promises for the life to come.  "I am coming soon," He says.  "Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown.  Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God.  Never again will he leave it.  I will write on him 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.  And I will also write on Him My new name."

And this ties in again with the open door of verse 8.  Not only does He open the door of service to this church, He also holds before them the open door into His eternal kingdom.  And again, this church may have been judged weak in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of fellow Christians, even in the sight of God.  And yet, our weakness, or our strength, has never been a requirement to enter into the kingdom.  What counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Human circumstances and human environments differ so much among themselves.  Some are born into an environment of strength, others into one of weakness.  The Lord leads His Church in different ways.

And yet, what counts for all Christians is not their weakness or strength, but their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – faith which expresses itself in love and faithfulness to Him.

And to the one who overcomes, who perseveres, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God, such a one will receive a permanent place in the city of God.  The New Jerusalem which is coming down from above is their city, their home.  Yes, those who walk as Jesus did, in humble, loving, faithful service, they belong to Him, and it is as though His Name, is inscribed into their foreheads.

Brothers and sisters, this is a very beautiful letter to the Philadelphians.  And it is very relevant for us as church.  We stand now in the last years of the twentieth century.  They are not very bright years for the church as the light continues to dim.

And we face some of the same issues as Philadelphia.  Questions of church growth!  How can we grow in an age of decline?  Questions about the growing satanic opposition to Christianity in society.  How will that affect us?  Questions about what sort of future we, or our children, might face as Christians.  And what sort of burdens we might have to bear.  How as church ought we to deal with these questions?!

And He who holds the key of David says this unto us: "Hold on to what you have.  Continue to keep My Word.  Continue to acknowledge My Name.  And endure patiently the things I send your way."

He is in control.  What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts, no one can open.  And therefore, just as God's people have always been called to do, seek with all your heart to act justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.  And He adds: "my grace is sufficient for you.  For my power is made perfect in weakness."

May we again hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Amen.