The title of this article caught my eye… It was on National Review Online on January 20 of this year. “‘Conversion-Therapy’ Bans Threaten to Criminalize Dissent on Gender Identity, Sexuality, Therapists Warn.” What the article is about is Lee Webster, a state-certified therapist in private-practice in Wisconsin who oversees the “Center for Human Development.” The center has a cross in its logo. It’s mission statement on their website says that they are a “faith-based” organization. But on December 1st of last year, Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Public Standards started a new rule that would make it illegal for therapists to engage in what is called “conversation therapy.” Conversion therapy is the effort to get people who have homosexual tendencies to not practice homosexual behavior.
If we can understand what is happening in our country we have a good idea of what was happening in the first century with Christians being persecuted by the Roman Empire. Now, we are not being persecuted physically – at least not yet – and they were. So John wrote Revelation to encourage and inspire those Christians in the first century and his message is relevant for us today.
Let’s look at the letter to the church of Christ in Philadelphia, which will represent for us all the letters to all the churches.
THE IDENTITY OF JESUS – 3:7:
In all the letters, Jesus identifies Himself, mostly with phrases or images that come from that first description of Him from chapter 1.
Notice how Jesus identifies Himself:
1. “Holy” – Jesus is set apart from sin. And He calls on His followers to stay away from sin because the only way we can get to heaven is to “Pursue holiness, without which no one will see God” (Heb. 12:14). Out of the 25 times the word “holy” is used in Revelation, it is translated “saint” 13 times! Christians are saints and in 22:11, as John finishes his revelation, he reminds the Christians, “the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.”
2. “True” – Jesus is “true.” That means He is Reality. He is the one who knows what is real and true. There is nothing false in Jesus Christ. There is no deception in Jesus Christ. The words of Jesus are “faithful and true” (21:5). That’s why Christians have to stay dedicated to teaching that message.
3. “Has the key of David” – (Isaiah 22:15-23) – Nobody will be saved except with the permission of Jesus Christ.
4. “Opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens.” Only Jesus has the power to allow people into God’s presence.
JESUS’ PRAISE OF THE CHURCH – 3:8-9:
Jesus first praises the church by saying He knows their deeds. The church in Philadelphia apparently was still evangelizing as they should. They had not gone silent in the face of opposition.
These people – the “synagogue of Satan” – were Jews by race and by religion, but they had probably sided with the Roman Empire and their pagan ways against Christians and so John calls them the “synagogue of Satan.”
But God will not be mocked. God says that He will make the Jews come to the Christians and “bow down” at their feet – not in worship, but in recognition of the fact that the Christians are the ones with the true faith, the true religion, the true Savior.
JESUS’ PROMISE – 3:10-12:
Notice that Jesus’ promise is based on the fact that the church of Christ in Philadelphia had not compromised!
That “hour of testing” is pictured in chapter 6 through the so-called “horses of the apocalypse:” War, which leads to famine and economic hardship which leads to death.
That is the hour of testing and it is under Jesus’ control. He says, “I am coming quickly” (ver. 11). This “coming” is not referring to His second coming. This is referring to Jesus coming in judgment, against the Empire and perhaps against unfaithful Christians as we saw with the church in Ephesus.
Jesus says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God” (see 1 Kings 7:15-22). Pillars are for support and stability. For Jesus to promise victorious Christians that they will be “pillars” is to say:
1. They are members of Christ’s spiritual temple.
2. They will be established firm in His presence.
3. They will be kept by His strength.
4. They will live in God’s and Christ’s presence forever: “they will not go out from it forever.”
Next, Jesus says:
1. I will write on him the name of My God – in contrast to the number “666”.
2. I will write on him the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. We have yet another indication – or emoji – of Christians being identified as God’s people and being blessed in God’s presence forever.
3. I will write on him “My new name.” It’s like going from being “engaged” to your fiancé to being married. Marriage is the fulfillment of that engagement.
All three of these also have an “emoji” in mind from the OT. The high priest had a band of gold on his turban on which was inscribed “Holy to the Lord” (Exo. 39:30-31). All Christians are priests and all Christians will be priests serving in the temple of God in heaven.
What a group of wonderful promises that are waiting for Christians who are victorious!
Rich reality #2 – Christians who do not compromise the word, but overcome will serve God in the temple of heaven!
Paul Holland
