July 19 2026
Revelation 1-6,10-12,17, 3::7-13
As I have read through the parts of Revelation, I was reminded of Indiana Jones, how’s that for a weird connection. Well, at least the first in the series of movies about him entitled,”Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark”. This movie came out clear back in 1981 and even so, I can still remember going to the movie theater and really enjoying watching this flick. If you remember the movie, you know that Indiana Jones leads a double life because he is not just a professor of archeology but he is also a globe-trotting swashbuckling hero saving priceless artifacts from ending up in the wrong hands. In this first of many movies, Indiana learns of an attempt by Adolf Hitler to get his hands on the mysterious Ark of the Covenant because he believes it will make his army invincible. Totally believable, right? Well, after much searching the Ark is finally found but Indiana cannot bring himself to destroy such an invaluable treasure. So the Nazis capture Indiana and his girlfriend and they decide to see if the power held within the Ark is indeed for real. Indiana tells his girlfriend to close their eyes because he knows what is about to happen. When the bad guys open the lid of the ark of the covenant, it releases spirits, flames and bolts of lightning. All of the flesh of the Nazis begins to melt like wax figures on a hot day. When Indiana opens his eyes he and his girlfriend are the only ones left, everyone else has been destroyed.
Well, what got me thinking about this movie is something that was actually part of last weeks scripture found in the eleventh chapter of Revelation. There in the fifth verse John writes that if, “ … anyone tries to harm the two witnesses, those who have the life of Christ in them, fire comes forth out of their mouth and consumes their enemies. And if anyone is inclined to harm it is only fitting that they be destroyed in this way.” Sounds like taking the lid off of the Ark of the Covenant, doesn’t it? Well, I believe that what John is referring to here is the consuming presence of the holy that causes a person to die to the common way of life. Through being given a chance at a new way of living, a person finds themselves being consumed by what it might mean to live a holy life. Suddenly life is no more being about us and them, but now its all about the us who live in the kingdom of God.
As we might remember, the holy life is the life of blessing others because we understand ourselves to be priests to God. A priest is simply a holy person who serves a holy God. The way we bless others is the same way God first blesses us. This blessing is as we find in the sixth chapter of Numbers, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face smile upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look up at you and give you peace.” This is the holy way of life that shapes the core teachings of Jesus. So as his holy servants, we follow the leading of God, seeing everyone as being worthy to be blessed, because we are to see others to be just like Jesus, his first born. We are to keep safe all we meet by giving all them the basic needs of life. We are to smile upon the strangers who came our way. Then we are to open our lives to others and offer the grace of hospitality even if it means we are left open to be hurt. The hope is that as we serve our guests, suffering with them and sacrificing for them, the result will be peace. Where there was once a stranger will now be found a friend, yes, we might even say, family. This is the peacemaking that Jesus teaches us, in Matthew five, verse nine, that proves what God believes about us, that we are indeed his holy children.
Now this way of life is, admittedly, a very different way of living. It’s a life that gets noticed. I mean, would it mean for a person who is continually humiliated and looked down, to suddenly be treated with the respect and honor due the king of kings? And what happens to the heart of the one who every day is anxious because they don’t know where their next meal is coming from, now finds themselves being cared for as if their life is precious? What is the reaction when a person sees someone smile at them, looking at them not just through them? And then when that person who smiles at them, opens their life and they share their with this one others don’t even notice, what could be the result of doing such a thing? What would it be like to be around people who aren’t just looking for people to serve them, but instead are genuinely interested in serving others, listening to the needs of others and doing what they can to make some else’s life a little better? I mean wouldn’t it make people curious if there were these holy lives who were interested in drawing people together instead of drawing circles around who those who are not one of them? You see, when we bless others it causes those who witness this holy living to be consumed with wonder, wondering mostly why holy people live like they do.
So yes, when holiness becomes our way of life, the hearts and minds of those around us will become consumed, and their hearts will begin to burn with a longing for just such a life. The hope is that by seeking answers as to why holy people behave so differently they too will have a desire to know themselves as being God’s kingdom as well. As Jesus teaches us in the seventeenth chapter of Luke, “… whoever loses their life for his sake will find it”. We must be willing to lose this life lived by the agenda of the common way of doing things in order that holy living found through the blessing of others might live in us.
It is this new life of holiness that is displayed in the church at Philadelphia. This holiness is even found within their name, “Philadelphia”. In the original Greek Philadelphia means, “dearly loved as brothers and sisters as one would find in a family”. This is the ultimate goal of being a kingdom of people who bless others, that all know they belong in the very family of God. And if we had any doubt that this church is a place of holy love, Jesus introduces himself first and foremost as the holy one, the one who truly holy. Yet, this is not all that Jesus has to say about himself because he also is the one who has the key of David. This key of David is an expression that is first heard in the twenty-second chapter of Isaiah. There, the key of David is given to a loyal servant. This key gave this servant absolute authority over the royal palace, giving them even the power to make binding decisions. So Jesus has been given this same absolute authority so that his decisions alone are what matter. When Jesus opens a door that door cannot be closed. When Jesus closes a door that door will be unable to be opened. This matters to this church at Philadelphia because Jesus tells them that because he is aware of their works, he has presented before their face, an open door which no one is able to close. Now it is not difficult to understand that Jesus is here speaking about the very same door that John sees at the opening of the fourth chapter of Revelation. This is the door which is open in heaven. The implication is that because of their holiness, heaven is now open to them forever.
Now this great promise from Jesus is not because this church at Philadelphia has demonstrated great power in their witness. No, just the opposite. Jesus tells then that he knows that they have little power. This is a great comfort to every church which despairs when their power seems so little compared to the power demonstrated by the world. You see, Jesus is not at all concerned about our power. What matters to Jesus is our obedience. What the church at Philadelphia has done is that they have guarded over the word he has given to them. And they have not denied the name of Jesus. What Jesus is saying here is that this church proudly claims the same name of Jesus, which is the very essence of his nature. This, of course, means that the church at Philadelphia has not once refused to display the holiness of Jesus in their own lives. The word of love that Jesus taught to them is what they regarded as their greatest treasure, something to be guarded over so that this word might never be taken from them.
Now when we read this review that Jesus gives to us about the church at Philadelphia, we find that it helps us make sense of what is written in the twelfth chapter of Revelation. There we hear of a woman who is clothed with the sun who has the moon on her feet. On her head is a crown with twelve stars. We then discover that she is pregnant. As we continue with the story we find that the male child she gives birth to is the one who is spoken of in the second Psalm, the one who will come to rule over the nation with a rod of iron. This is none other than the long awaited Messiah. So if we allow the Spirit to speak through these images I believe we are to know the woman as being Israel, the twelve stars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel is often spoken of by the prophets as being the wife of God, as we find in books such as Jeremiah and Hosea. The purpose of Israel then was to bring forth the long awaited king out of the line of David. Jesus is this Messiah, who has ascended to the throne where he now reigns as king of kings. John reminds us that because of this there is now the salvation, and power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of our Christ. So when the church at Philadelphia was told by Jesus that they did not possess much power, this was a good observation because this meant that they knew not to rely upon their own power but instead they relied upon the one who has all power, the one named Jesus.
So the church at Philadelphia was now certain that with Jesus we are safe, and we can rely upon his power. We can be certain that with him we belong to the kingdom of God and he alone has all authority. This is why John assures us, that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are able to conquer over the evil one, through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of our testimony. So if we wonder why the church at Philadelphia guarded over the word that Jesus gives to them it is solely that through this word of truth that they were victorious over the evil one. You see, the blood of Christ forgave them of their former life lived by common wisdom so that now they could live a new and holy life through their obedience to the word Christ spoke to them. So now they no longer lived in fear of death which is the very power of the evil one.
This twelfth chapter of Revelation also helps us understand what Jesus means when he tells the church at Philadelphia about a so called synagogue of Satan. They claimed to be Jews yet as Jesus claims, they are not actually Jews but instead they lie about who they really are. Jesus can make this claim because as we hear at the end of the twelfth chapter, the true children of Israel, which these Jews say that they are, are those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the testimony of Jesus. The commandment that Jesus gives to us is found in the thirteenth chapter of John, the thirty-fourth verse, where Jesus tells his disciples that they were to love one another in the same manner that he loved us, this is the way we are to love each other. When Jesus says that we are to love others in the same manner that he first loved us, he is saying that we are to look at his life to see the love that was witnessed in all that Jesus said and did. We are to know that this love of Jesus followed the very contours of the holy life found in the blessing of God. If we look at the core teachings of Jesus, we notice that he begins with teachings about blessing, holding out to all that hear those blessings that they can know themselves as being children of God. Jesus then goes on to teach us that through his perfect love, God provides all that everyone needs, the just and the unjust, the good and the evil, alike. And Jesus goes on to say that we should love others in this same way. Then Jesus teaches that we are to live before the face of God who honors us, seeking his honor alone. Jesus tells us this is the narrow way that leads to life. To walk on the narrow road means that we must offer grace and mercy just as our Heavenly Father first has been gracious to us. And we are to know that our Heavenly Father serves us by providing all that is necessary for life. Since we have set free from worrying about our daily needs, we are to go and serve others in the very same way our Father serves us. Jesus ends his teachings with the promise that if we hear and obey his teachings we will have the peace of knowing that our life is built on the rock, the result of our life being forever united with the eternal life of the God who loves us.
So what the so called synagogue of Satan had refused to do is to love others in the same manner that Jesus not only taught about but also displayed in his life, loving us all even unto death. Jesus makes the claim that this synagogue, this gathering of Jews, obeyed Satan. Jesus spoke of this very way of life in the eighth chapter of the gospel of John. There Jesus tells a group of Jews that they listened to the Devil. The word Jesus uses for the Devil means one who throws apart, or the one who divides, which gives us a clue to the problem. Jesus goes on to tell them that the Devil they listen to is a murderer from the beginning who never stands in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies he speaks to his own nature for he the one who speaks falsehoods, the father of all lies. So it is no surprise that when Jesus tells this church at Philadelphia that this synagogue of Satan lies about who they really are, he is pointing out the true source of their falsehoods. Now the reason Jesus why Jesus is certain that this synagogue listens to Satan is that most likely they are those Jews who desired to go to war in order to become a Jewish nation that is no longer under Roman rule. This is why Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, because the very people who said they were the people of God no longer desired to be those who blessed others with the hope of creating peace. Their hatred of their Roman overlords had consumed them so much that the lies of the devil were all that they could hear and obey. They wanted to cause more division in the world instead of seeking first the kingdom of God.
Well, as we continue to listen to what Jesus tells this church at Philadelphia, we hear him predict something strange will happen to them. Jesus states that this synagogue of Satan, will come and bow down before the church of Philadelphia. The reason why this synagogue would give this church at Philadelphia such humble adoration is that they realize that God loved this church. Reading between the lines, we are to know that this realization has come about because this church at Philadelphia had obeyed the word Jesus had given to them and they blessed this synagogue. Through their giving the members of this synagogue the same dignity they gave to Jesus, and through sharing their life with them, smiling on them and being gracious to them, serving them in any way possible, something happened to the hearts of those in this synagogue. These Jews that had so much hatred in their heart saw in this church a living example of the love which their God had for them. So just as they once worshipped God, they now came to adore the God who had united himself with this church at Philadelphia. This church had guarded over the teachings of Jesus by putting these teachings into practice. And this is why Jesus could promise this church at Philadelphia that they would be kept from the severe testing that is coming for those who live on the earth. They had become so immovable in their obedience that Jesus could say that they were to know they were a pillar in the Temple of God. So their obedience gives us hope that we too are able to become just as immovable in our obedience to the blessing of others. So let us go and be a blessing, loving others as Jesus first loved us. Amen!
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