SCRIPTURE: Revelation 3:7-13

SERMON SUMMARY

In the face of questions, in the face of knowing our responsibilities to love God and love others, in the face of social and cultural pressure, how should we persevere? How should we persist in what’s right? Perhaps you’ve felt the weight of that question. An understandable “what” and an elusive “how.” And in a very real sense, this might be one of the dominant questions we should always be asking as Christians: How do we persevere? How do we endure well in what is good, true, and beautiful? Or, worded distinctly, 

• What shape should biblical perseverance take?

In Revelation 3, Jesus’ words to the church at Philadelphia poignantly answer this question for us. Living in Philadelphia (modern day Alaşehir, Turkey) in the first century was a roll of the dice. It was founded not too far from a volcanic area, and would have occasional earthquakes. Positively, however, the volcanic soil was so rich that it grew abundant crops and the area was known for its hot springs. Because of these things, Philadelphia’s reputation was like that of a college town. People were always leaving and returning, always fleeing and coming back. And it’s to a group of believers in this city that Jesus encourages perseverance. He encourages them to “hold fast” (3:11). He says, “To the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of my God, and never shall he go out of it” (3:12). These words are the opposite of the city’s regular reputation.

Strangely, the dominant theme in Jesus’ words to this church is the Temple. Because the Temple represented God’s fixed and absolute presence, it stood in stark contrast to the fickle air normally breathed in Philadelphia, of people fleeing and returning constantly. And beyond this, the earliest Christians thought of Jesus as God’s special Temple somehow. They also understood themselves to be God’s Temple in some way. And these things add up to the thought that God’s forever New World – our eternal Home, the New Jerusalem of 3:12, with Jesus finally and perfectly gathered to his people – these things were the ultimate and final version of God’s Temple. This Temple imagery also helps explain Jesus’ having the key of David in 3:7. When it says that he shuts and opens doors decisively, it means that he alone is the way to share in God’s eternal life and presence. So, how does the Temple language relate to Jesus’ encouragement to them to persevere?

Well, this picture of God’s Forever Temple was meant by Jesus to inform and mold their day-to-day faith and endurance. Jesus knows that when we set out to accomplish something that will require long-haul faithfulness, how we handle our responsibility in the moment is most influenced by our expectations of the outcome. If you know that people at work are going to mess up the long-term work project no matter how hard you try, you won’t persevere and be diligent like you should right now. If you are parenting out of the fear of what “the world” might do to your kids one day, then you will struggle to be present to love them today. Basically, expectations determine reality in some strange way. The horizon sculpts the here and now. But there’s a big difference when it comes to Revelation 3 and the Christian life.

SERMON SCREENSHOTS & KEY POINTS

Because of Jesus, we have a guarantee. It’s not a possibility. It’s an assurance. If you belong to him, your eternity with him and his people is secured. Because of his death and resurrection, he has definitively opened up the Forever-Temple (3:8, 3:12). So, when we think about our question, about the pressures of life and our responsibility to endure, here’s what Jesus is teaching us:

• Biblical perseverance is a hope-shaped perseverance that is divinely anchored in the surety of the future and not the seeming uncertainty of the present.
  

Yes, implied here is that your co-workers might mess up the project. And your kids might get distracted when they leave the house. But your real identity should not be as an employee or a parent. For Philadelphia, their identity wasn’t their crops, their business, or how the Roman Empire treated them. Your climactic identity is that you belong to Jesus. And true hope is that “you will be a pillar in the Temple of God, and you’ll never go out of it” (3:12). The New Jerusalem is your forever inheritance. And because of this, you now have a fixed and rooted reason to hold fast in the moment. 

Is the economic future uncertain? That’s ok. Your eternal future is certain, so hold fast today. Are you worried about personal health and all the pains and strains around it? Jesus knows your pain, but also, but be still and know that a resurrected body is coming in the New Jerusalem one day. Are you living in religious, relational, familial, or social tensions? Philadelphia did. And along with them, we have reason for unending hope and peace. Those things will not last. And better yet, we can be agents of hope and peace in the middle of all the tensions because we are assured of a heavenly future beyond it. Again, biblical perseverance is a hope-shaped perseverance that is divinely anchored in the surety of the future and not the seeming uncertainty of the present.

Let us, then, consider what this may entail. How we should now do the hope-shaped perseverance that we have been given in Jesus?*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.

1. Don’t bow to voices of extremity, but stay the course of keeping God’s Word.

The verb “keep” is used multiple times in our passage (3:8, 3:10). This keeping is in contrast to the voices that have the supposed final word on religion or politics or economics or whatever the social pressure is. The voices of extremity drown out the simple “what” we know we’re called to (love God, love others, make disciples, depend on the Spirit, etc). Yet we are called to do these things by “keeping” God’s Word. We should long to know and understand Scripture so that we might keep it. And, in doing so, silence the constant loudness of other voices.

2. Don’t cave under the pressure of what feels urgent, but stand firm on God’s promises to his people. 

We are assuredly responsible for what God has put before us every day. But we can’t let those things dissolve into the tyranny of the urgent. Remember Jesus’ promises in this passage: The hour of trial in 3:10 is short-lived compared to eternity. And his promise is that he will save us and deliver us all the way until the end. So, we should ask: What if God’s promises governed our thoughts more than our phones? What if promises like these governed the way you thought about your family life and your emotional life? What would change? Would you “leave Philadelphia”? What if the promises of God dominated your thought life when money and politics were on the table? Would anything be different? It is a daring truth, that the promises of God have enough power to take every place of worry in your soul and turn it into a place of hope. This is part and parcel to a hope-shaped perseverance.

3. Don’t rely on your own power to persevere, but rely on Jesus’ power to preserve you…

Twice to Philadelphia, Jesus says, “Behold!” That is, “Pay attention!” Or, “See!” And we’ve already noticed the verbs “hold fast” and “keep.” But when you marry these things to the fact that this church had “but a little power” in 3:8, a powerful picture comes into view. Jesus is saying “Behold!” and “See!” because he sees them. He knows their struggle. He’s attentive to them. He’s telling them to hold fast because he’s holding fast to them. And 3:10 literally says, “You’ve kept my word, so I’m keeping you.” So, when it comes to patient endurance, don’t rely on your power to persevere but on Jesus’ power to preserve.

And it’s not just his power, it’s the promise of the Gospel. He will do it. Hebrews says that he persevered ahead of us, “He endured the cross, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” God didn’t remove him out of the hour of his trial, but carried him through it. Jesus passed through death and out the other side, and now he has the keys. He has conquered ahead of us. And now, when we trust him, we share in his victory. “To the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in heavenly Forever-Temple, and I will write on him the name of my God” (3:12). And this is the most liberating of truths: Jesus’ ability to preserve you is infinitely greater than your ability to persevere. And here, there is infinite hope.