Philadelphia | The Faithful Church The 7 Churches of Revelation | Episode 7
Philadelphia is located about 28 miles from Sardis
and was founded at 150 B.C. by Attalus II.
The love and loyalty between Attalus and his brother Eumenes
won for him the epithet 'Philadelphus'.
Philadelphia was also known as Decapolis,
as being one of the 10 cities of the plains,
and was also sometimes called 'Little Athens'
due to the magnificence of its public buildings.
Philadelphia held out against the conquering Turks
longer than any other city except Smyrna
and it fell in 1390 A.D. after an 11 year siege.
The modern name of the city is Alaşehir,
which means city of God or the Red City,
and today it has about 40,000 inhabitants
with very few Christians here.
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The city guarded and commanded
an important pass through the mountains
and was thus a keeper of the key
to the door or gateway to the eastern highlands.
This church is introduced by One who holds the key
and is able to open and close the door,
reminding them of more important doors.
The message to Philadelphia reveals perhaps the best condition
of any of the churches.
This small but exceptional group of believers
remained faithful whilst many others did not.
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This message indicates a change for the better
from the deadness of Sardis.
This church has a renewal of life, love, and missionary zeal.
Philadelphia, along with Smyrna,
are the only two churches that receive no rebuke.
Philadelphia represents that time period in the early 1800s
that ushered in the great evangelical preaching of the Wesleys,
Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and a host of others.
Wesley's preaching of free grace
challenged the Calvinistic concept of election
and led to a great revival in Britain
and the rest of the world,
coinciding with the birth of modern missions.
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After the two great revolutions
of 1776 in America and 1789 in France,
the thinking of the world had been drastically altered
and the world was opening up for the gospel.
The door to missions was about to swing wide open.
William Carey went to India in 1793.
Robert Morrison went to China in 1807.
Robert Moffat in 1817 and David Livingston in 1841--
both went to Africa.
The British and Foreign Bible Society started in 1804,
and the American Bible Society started in 1816.
This was the beginnings of a great missionary movement,
taking the everlasting gospel into all the world
and the time period of Philadelphia
culminated with the Great Second Advent Awakening of the 1800s.
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As people of all denominations
fervently preached the soon return of Jesus,
it led to a revival of godliness as had never been seen before.
People didn't have time to hold grudges with their fellow man
as Jesus was coming soon.
Wrongs were righted, confession was made,
and church was not just a place of worship,
but of renewal, healing, and hope.
The love that Ephesus had lost, so to speak,
was on full display here,
and in our church today when this love returns
we'll see a revival of pentecostal power.
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In ancient Philadelphia when an earthquake
flattened the city in A.D. 17,
a lone pillar stood like a sentinel amidst the ruins,
and even today in the current ruins
there are three pillars that remain after the city had been rebuilt.
The promise to this church is that those who overcome
will be a pillar in the temple of God
and He will write them a new name.
A lesson from this church
is that when we're focused on our calling and mission as Christians
of preaching the gospel and the soon return of Jesus,
the result is an experience of love for one another.
May we be focused on the things that matter,
and may an emphasis on Jesus
bring about a revival of the love of God
and a love for the salvation of others
that compels us to do something about it.