Slices
Prepare
Perhaps today you feel you have little strength? Maybe the past week was difficult. Jesus knows your feelings, whether of weakness or inadequacy. Rest in his love.
Bible passage
To the church in Philadelphia
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.
Explore
I visited Stormont castle in Belfast with a friend. After a long walk around the grounds, we returned to the main gates to find them firmly closed. They were too high to scale and I imagined being locked in all night. We backtracked and after another long walk found a tiny gate through which we could exit, somewhat exhausted.
Jesus is the one who opens and closes doors (v 7). If he opens a door, no one can close it; if he closes a door, no one can open it. In this context the door refers to a door of opportunity, for ministry and witness. God is placing before the church in Philadelphia a new opportunity to serve him.
Here is a major principle of guidance. Generally speaking, if a particular course of action or direction is God’s will, then the door will open. If it is not, then the door will remain closed and no amount of pushing will make it open. This requires us to be sensitive and responsive to God’s leading, to recognise when an opportunity is God-given. Likewise, to understand when God is closing a particular path to us and to accept that.
Respond
Consider any matter of guidance that concerns you. If you sense the door is open, will you take the opportunity? If it seems closed, can you accept that this is not the way for you?
Deeper Bible study
Lord, help those who have ‘little strength’ to faithfully endure to the end.
This is the second letter in which nothing negative is said concerning the community to which it is addressed. The church in Philadelphia was under great pressure, since its members are said to have ‘little strength’ and to have been tempted to deny the ‘name’ of Jesus (v 8). The pressure came from the significant Jewish community in this city. After the destruction of Jerusalem (an event that has been likened to the Holocaust), Jewish survivors faced a crisis of identity which led to a heightened sense of ethnic distinctiveness and a way of life centred on the synagogue and obedience to the Law of Moses. Jesus and his disciples were, of course, Jewish, but by this time the huge influx of Gentile converts into the movement created tensions which resulted in the church and the synagogue growing apart. The letter reflects the serious cultural conflicts of the age in which Revelation was written.1
Jewish followers of Jesus who had been excommunicated from the synagogue are given assurance in three ways: first, they are reminded that it is Christ who ‘holds the key of David’ (v 7). He opens the door to the kingdom of God and no one can exclude them from it. Second, the Jewish leaders had failed to realise that in Jesus the promise given to Abraham that through him ‘all peoples on earth’ would be blessed2 is now coming to pass, but they will one day recognise ‘that I have loved you’ (v 9). Does this anticipate the eventual conversion of the Jewish people as Paul expected?3 Third, those who ‘hold on’ (v 11) and overcome are promised entrance into the new Jerusalem (v 12), which will be described in glorious detail at the end of John’s visions.
‘I have loved you’ (v 9) – a small phrase pregnant with meaning. Meditate on it and let it speak to your heart.
1 Justo Gonzalez, For the Healing of the Nations: The Book of Revelation in an Age of Cultural Conflict, Orbis, 1990 2 Gen 12:3 3 Rom 11:25,26
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Leviticus 13,14; Acts 8
Pray for Scripture Union
Local Mission Partner Lightspace works in 16 primary schools in Grantham, using a variety of approaches including clubs, prayer spaces and Open the Book. Pray for more volunteers to maintain and expand the work.
