Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Scripture | Revelation 3:7-13 (NIV)
7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of Him Who is Holy and True, Who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open. 8 I know your deeds. See, I have 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. 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. 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. 11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. 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; and I will also write on them My new Name. 13 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
When I was little, my parents had made the basement of our house the play room for us kids. All my sister’s and my toys were kept there and the place was full of them. One of the perks of being a pastor’s kid is that there are lots of people who want to spoil you with wonderful gifts. One of the downsides is that you have to find a place to keep all of these toys and games and movies. For us, it was the basement. The room was large and long. It had a small TV, a couch, blackboards and whiteboards, and toy chests lining the walls. My sisters and I loved playing down there, at least we did for the first two or three weeks of every month. The room was open and had lots of space for us to play and get out toys.
But – parents, you know this – if a toy is gotten out that means: it has to be put back. We were really good at the first part, but putting the toys away was a bit of a challenge for us. So, the floor would slowly fill up throughout the first few weeks of the month until there was no room to walk, no room to play, and no room for us! And all of a sudden, we didn’t want to play downstairs anymore. So we would start to play upstairs and the toys of the basement started finding their way to our rooms, the dining room, and to the living room. At this point, my parents would know it was time and would send us all downstairs to clean up the basement – which would inevitably become an all-day task.
Like most kids my age, I hated it. I hated to clean at all, especially an entire room filled with toys and nowhere to walk. It was a terrible mess and it wasn’t until my parents came down to help us that we really got it clean. In some sense, we were kind of lazy. In another sense, we didn’t know where to start. More importantly, we often ended up playing with the toys instead of putting them away. But in the end, with our capabilities and situation, we couldn’t complete the task on our own. It was too big, too difficult for just us.
The Christians in Philadelphia were in a mess of their own. The city’s name, as you might know from its American namesake, means brotherly love in Greek. Philadelphia was founded by the Greeks to make the people of that region forget their own culture and assimilate into the Greek culture. And it worked. By the time this letter was written, the people of Asia Minor spoke only Greek and Latin and had no real ties to their previous culture.
Just as the city was a missionary to the region for the Greek culture, so too was the Church in Philadelphia called to be a missionary for Christ for the people of that region. Christ reminds them that He has opened a door that no one can close, and has made a way for the Church of Philadelphia to bear the Gospel to the world. Yet, He says this and much more in His letter because the Christians living there were on hard times.
In His letter, Christ says,
“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—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.”
We don’t know exactly what was happening in Philadelphia, but we can tell from the letter that the Christians were struggling. We also know from history, and from some of the other letters we have read, that the Christians of this time and region had been cast out of the Jewish faith as heretics. They were forced to leave and never return to their places of worship. This was because of the Roman overlords. They saw Judaism as a acceptable religion so long as it didn’t get in the way of Rome. But Christians, who the Romans saw as a part of Judaism, were making waves and converting the people of Rome. This could make the Christians, and the Jews by extension, find themselves on the wrong end of a Roman sword.
So the Christians had been kicked out of what would have been their faith home for most of their lives. It would be like if you were kicked out of your church and never allowed to return to any other. It was devastating for many of the Christians. Furthermore, they were living in a city whose job it was to remove the culture of others and make them more like that of their overlords. In this case, that means Rome. From what we can gather historically, and from what Jesus is saying in the text, its clear that the Christians in Philadelphia are struggling.
But Jesus says that He knows that they have done what He has called them to, that they have been faithful to Him and His teaching. So He gives them a promise. He says,
“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. 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; and I will also write on them My new Name.”
Wow. That first sentence – talk about something to hold on to! “I am coming soon.” There’s a mess in this place, no question. It’s too much for them to handle on their own, no question. But there is also no question, Jesus is coming soon. Not only is Jesus coming but His promise is that His people will not only be welcomed into His temple, but will be made a pillar of the temple. In other words, no one will remove them from the Church again, no one will be able to kick them out of their place of worship, because they will be the very pillars that hold it up. They will be ushered into the new city of God, the new Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth.
What Jesus is saying is that His faithful followers have the promise of heaven. But heaven is more than a place in the sky, where there are clouds and babies with wings flying around with harps and flutes. Heaven is the created realm of God, where He and His heavenly servants reside. Yet, heaven has always been separated from earth. The Bible says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. It doesn’t say God created the heavens and the earth which resides in the heavens. It does say that God created creation and the heavens as apart of creation. It says the heavens and the earth.
This doesn’t mean that God has no authority or presence on Earth or in creation, but because the heavens are not the earth and because the earth is not the heavens, God appointed us as His representatives to all of creation – to lead it as He would. Humanity fell from that call and instead of ruling creation in the ways of God, we chose to rule in our own ways – choosing for ourselves what is good and evil. Talk about a mess. And its more than just toys lying in a basement – all of creation is askew, is broken, and it needs mending.
How could we even accomplish this goal? The task is too great for us alone. So God broke through the barrier, came from Heaven to Earth in Jesus to be what we could never be. To do what we could never do. To not only begin the process of healing and cleaning up, but to teach human kind how to do it too. To restore humanity to its call to be God’s representatives to creation. But more than that, Jesus has ushered in a new promise.
Revelation 21 says,
“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He Who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
No longer will heaven and earth be separated. A new heaven and a new earth have come from the ashes and the mess of the old and we will be welcomed into that new Holy City of God where there will be no more crying, no more death, no more mourning or pain. No more loneliness, no more depression or disease – no more killing, no more violence and war, no more of the things which divide us and no more of the things which keep us trapped in sin. Often people misunderstand the promise of heaven as if its is some VIP section that is reserved for those who are good enough to do what they’re told, or as an escape from punishment for ignoring God. But heaven is so much more than that.
Heaven is the fulfilment of a promise God made at the very beginning of time. It is the completion of God’s redemptive work to restore all of creation and all of heaven to its original purpose and design. It is more than just bowling with the angels or doing whatever we like – it is living in the fullness of God’s love and justice and peace and mercy and goodness and endless faithfulness. It is the restoration of humanity to being who we were always called to be.
So, to the people of Philadelphia who were struggling, Jesus says, don’t forget what this is all for. The messes we face in life and as humanity are large indeed. Often we get distracted, feel unmotivated, and are ready to just sit down and play with the toys instead of cleaning up. But we have the promise that not only is our Parent coming soon to help us finish the job, but that the job will be finished. There will be a time when the mess is clean and we can rejoice in the fresh air of the new heaven and the new earth. This is our promise and it is what spurs us on to do the work laid before us. Because we believe in the promise of heaven, in the salvation gifted to the world in Christ, and in the truth that He is coming soon. Praise be to God! Amen.