Today's reading is from Revelation chapter 1
verses 4 and 5 and Revelation 3 verses 7 to 13.
John, to the seven churches in the province of
Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is
and who was. and who is to come, and from the
seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus
Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn
of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the
earth. 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 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
i will make those who are of the synagogue of
satan who claims 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. Since you have kept my command to
endure patiently, I will also keep you from the
hour of trial that is going to come to the world
to test the inhabitants of the earth. i am coming
soon hold on to what you have so that no one
will take your crown 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 who is coming down
out of heaven from my God, and I will also write
on them my new name. Whoever has ears, let them
hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The
word of the Lord. What I would like you to do
is take a look at some pictures I'm going to
show you. These are famous doors that are taken
from movies or TV shows, and I want to see how
many of them you think you can identify. Here's
the first door. Where does this door come from?
You're right. Again, this is the Hobbit or the
Lord of the Rings. This is where Bilbo and Frodo
lived. What about this door? This is the famous
door. That's right. Who lived behind that door?
Monica. Yeah, good for you. Yes. What about this
door? Yes, there's Jabba's palace from Return
of the Jedi. What about this door? That's right.
Sherlock Holmes, 221B Baker Street. And now what
about this door? What was behind that door? That's
right. You guys are good. You guys are good.
And just because we're coming up to Halloween,
what about this door? Does anyone remember what
movie this was from? That's right. Here's Johnny.
There he is, right? Doors are powerful, powerful
symbols, right? I mean, if you think about the
doors you walk through all the time, every door
tells a story. Even that door that you rush out
of every single morning on your way to work,
it tells a story. You know, the door you dread
walking into, maybe it's a hospital door or something
like that, tells a story. When you're going to
class, maybe the first day of class in school
and you're walking through that door, these doors
all tell us a story. They all, doors are everything.
very, very symbolic. They can symbolize all sorts
of things. On the one hand, a door can symbolize
safety. It's a way of protecting us from things
that might be on the other side of that door.
That's why a lot of us will lock our doors at
night. Doors might represent boundaries and clearly
distinguish, you know, who's allowed in a certain
space and who's not allowed in a certain space.
And sometimes we need that, right? We need bedroom
doors and we need bathroom doors or boardroom
doors. But other times, Those boundaries maybe
aren't so helpful because they can create these
like divisions between us or hierarchies or even
classes amongst us, right, based on those boundaries.
Doors. Often symbolize opportunities. I'm sure
you've all heard that language of open doors
in your life or closed doors in your life. Maybe
it was an open door to a relationship or an open
door to a new job or maybe a door that closed
and forced you to wait or be a little patient.
Doors obviously are symbols of welcome. When
a friend opens their door to you and says, come
on in, you feel like you belong. But on the flip
side of that coin, doors can also be symbols
of exclusion and letting you know that you don't
belong or you're not wanted in this space. And
maybe some of you have experienced doors closing
in your face. Maybe even a church door that closed
in your face, right? I want to share with you
just a couple more pictures of doors. Here's
a couple more. Does anyone know where this famous
door is found? Where is it? That's right. That's
the Trinity front door. And now one last door.
Where is this famous door found? That's right.
It was a trick question. But yes, they're both
the same door. They're both the front door here
at Trinity. Only the first picture showed that
front door from the outside heading in. And the
second door here is the same door from the inside
heading out. And that is exactly the thing about
doors, is that they can actually do two things,
depending on how you look at them. They can be
outside doors heading in. They can be inside
doors heading out. I'll say more about that in
just a moment. But I want to just remind you
that today we have finally come to the end of
this long teaching series. It's been seven weeks
where we have been looking. These ancient letters
written to churches in the book of Revelation,
and if today you walked into church for the first
time, you've come in right at the tail end of
this teaching series, where we have been learning
about these old letters written to real churches,
real churches in real cities 2 ,000 years ago,
and realizing that they have a lot to teach real
churches in real cities today. And they might
even have a lot to teach our church in our city.
And today we're going to end by looking at this
church. It's the church in Philadelphia. And
as Bill said, no, not Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia. present day Turkey, right? Or Philadelphia,
ancient Asia minor. That's the Philadelphia we're
talking about. And I'm actually really glad that
we're going to end. In fact, we structured it
to end with this being the last church that we
look at because today is our annual general meeting.
after our second service, our vestry meeting.
And this letter, I think, has a lot to say to
us as we gather to consider the life and future
of our church. But also, this letter to the Church
of Philadelphia has a lot to say to you. And
it has a lot to say to me and how we live our
own lives. This letter that Jesus wrote to the
church in Philadelphia is all about doors. You
probably heard the language, open doors, close
doors. He talks about a key. He talks about,
you know, walking through doors or all that jazz.
This is basically how Jesus begins his letter
to this church in Philadelphia. He says, these
are the words of him who holds the key of David.
What he opens, no one can shut. And what he shuts,
no one can open. See, I've placed before you
an open door that no one can shut. This raises
all sorts of questions, doesn't it? What is this
door that Jesus is talking about? Where does
it lead? Who opened it? Why is it open? But most
of all, I want to ask, is this an outside door
going in? Or is this an inside door going out?
Well... Today I want to suggest to you that Jesus
is talking about both. He is actually talking
about both an outside door welcoming people in,
and he's also talking about an inside door that
is sending people out. They're both happening
at the same time. And I'll go on to explain that
right now, but I want to let you know I did give
you a few sermon notes there if you want to follow
along to get the most out of the message. So
first, the doors that Jesus has opened are clearly...
outside doors welcoming people in. And that was
such good news for the Christians in Philadelphia
because they had just gone through an experience
that was incredibly hurtful for them. They had
been shut out and excluded from one of the most
important institutions and one of the most important
parts of their lives in that city and in their
culture. They had been shut out from their local
synagogue. You probably wondered about that language
that Jesus was using in this letter. It was very,
very harsh. He talks about those of the synagogue
of Satan. That's a striking phrase. But what
it is doing is telling us that something was
going on in Philadelphia. There was a painful
and social and spiritual struggle that this little
first century church was going through. Here's
what you need to note. You know, for the first
few decades after the resurrection of Jesus,
just about all the followers of Jesus, the followers
of the way of Jesus, were Jewish people, faithful
Jews. And the thing is, they did not believe
that there was a conflict between their Jewish
faith and following Jesus. They believed the
Messiah, the long -awaited Jewish Messiah, had
come in Jesus. He was the fulfillment of their
Jewish faith. And so they, of course, continued
to attend the synagogue. with their friends,
and they kept the festivals, and they kept reading
the Torah, but they did it all now through this
new lens of Jesus Christ. As one scholar put
it, he said, in the late first century, Jewish
and Christian identities were not yet clearly
distinct. The communities were connected. They
had family ties. They did social things together.
They had the same social networks. They used
the same spaces for meeting, and that was true
in Philadelphia. as well. By the time the book
of Revelation is being written, that relationship
was stretched and frayed and now had reached
a breaking point. In many cities like Philadelphia,
Christians were being told, that's it. You're
no longer welcome in the synagogue. And in many
cities, the follower of Jesus actually formally
were now expelled. Enough of this talk about
Jesus. You know, you can't stay here any longer.
That's it. You're out. And so it was incredibly
hurtful because they didn't just end up losing
this sense of religious identity, but it was
central to their identity in the community and
their part in the social fabric of their world.
And now they had just been shut out from all
of it. That's why the language of this synagogue
of Satan is being used. He's describing this
sense of exclusion. It's just really important
we understand that language and don't go too
far with it. This is not an anti -Semitic kind
of statement. It's not a blanket attack on all
of Judaism. It simply means that when this local
Jewish synagogue excluded Christians from their
fellowship, that they were working against the
purposes of God. They were working against what
God wanted to do, and that is exactly Satan's
job description. Working against what God wants
to do. Therefore, a synagogue. of Satan. Now
do you see, though, why Jesus' words to those
Christians in Philadelphia are so powerful? I
have set before you an open door that no one
can shut. Man, now that is a powerful image if
you're one of those Philadelphian Christians,
right? These Jesus followers had been shut out
from one door, and Jesus says, I'm opening another
door. They may have the key to the synagogue.
He says, but I have the key of David. This is
a messianic title. And this key that I have,
Jesus says, opens an even bigger and an even
better door. It's the door to God's kingdom.
The door to the synagogue, yeah, it may be closed,
but the door to God's kingdom remains open to
you. And even though you feel excluded from your
community, you are never excluded by God. Some
of you here today, you know how it feels to be
shut out, excluded. Maybe you've been excluded
from a group of friends, and it doesn't just
have to be like something that happened at public
school or high school. No, people get excluded
from groups of friends all the time, even as
adults. Secondly, you may have been excluded
from your own family. I have heard some of your
stories. You have shared painful stories of your
own family members being divided and broken up,
and now you're excluded. Maybe you've been excluded
even from your last church. I don't know. Something
happened there, and they made it really clear
that you weren't welcome there anymore. Jesus
opens the doors that other people have closed.
If the door to friendship was closed to you,
Jesus opens it and says, come and enjoy friendship
with me. If the door to family was closed to
you, Jesus says, I'm building a brand new family,
and you're invited. If the door to a church was
ever closed to you, first of all, I'm so sorry,
but secondly, Jesus says, you are welcome in
my kingdom. Let me tell you the story. of Florence
Gallinger. Florence was a longtime member at
a church I previously worked at. She died at
the age of 93. I did her funeral about 10 years
ago. And Florence was one of the, I mean, Florence
was amazing. Good old Florence, right? Florence
was one of those people who was always at church,
like before anybody else was on a Sunday morning.
And she would just park herself by the front
door and watch every person who walked into the
service. She knew everybody in town. She knew
that she was one of those people. And anyways,
on one Sunday, this lady named Jennifer walked
into our church. And I didn't know Jennifer.
Oh, but Florence knew Jennifer. And Jennifer
had not been to church for a very long time because
she had been hurt by her previous church. And
that had caused her to walk away for years. But
Florence saw her. She made a beeline for her.
Florence recognized her, walked over, and gave
Jennifer this huge, huge hug. And she said, welcome
home. And Jennifer never left that church after
that, at least in my time. And she told me that
she never forgot that moment because thanks to
Florence, she felt included. And she knew there
was an open door for her there. Closer to home,
closer to home. Last week, I got an email. This
is an email I received from visitors who came
to Trinity from out of town last week. It was
a father and son. You know, again, we probably
won't see them again. They're from Ottawa. But
this is what they wrote. Thank you for the beautiful
service. It was a pleasure to worship with you.
My son and I both said we have never been welcomed
so warmly by so many people as we were this morning.
They found an open door here. They found a door
of hospitality and welcome into this community.
That's the gospel. The church in Philadelphia
reminds us that the gospel is an open door welcoming
people because Jesus was a savior who welcomed
people in friends our church has to live this
gospel message all the time every day every week
so many people out there in the world have had
doors slammed in their faces and all of us like
Florence Gallinger have a part to play in opening
the doors And I just want to say, maybe you're
one of those people who walked into Trinity for
the first time today. And I'm just going to tell
you, we're going to respect your personal space.
We're not going to give you a big hug like Florence
Gallinger did. But I do hope that one of us can
kind of be Florence Gallinger to you. But the
open door that Jesus is talking about isn't just
an outside door. that is welcoming people in.
It's also an inside door that is sending people
out. The same Jesus who says, come on in, also
says, go out. The door to the gospel actually
swings both ways. Throughout the New Testament,
the phrase open door often means an opportunity
to go out. An opportunity for outreach, an opportunity
for mission. Paul, who was the greatest missionary
in the whole Bible, several times used this phrase.
For example, once when he was in Ephesus, he
decided to stay in Ephesus because he said, a
great door for effective work has opened to me.
He had work he could do there in Ephesus. Another
time when he wrote this, he said, when I came
to Troas to preach the gospel, the Lord opened
a door for me. Another, an opportunity for ministry,
right? And once when Paul was in prison, he said,
please pray for me. Not pray that the prison
doors might open so that I can get out and I
can be free, but pray that God might open a door
for the message to get out. So when Jesus tells
the church in Philadelphia, see, I have placed
before you an open door. He's not just comforting
them. Oh, poor Philadelphia. He's not just saying,
welcome into my kingdom. He's commissioning them.
He's also sending them out. He's not just giving
them an outside door leading into his kingdom.
He is giving them an inside door leading out
to the world. He's saying, I'm giving you this
opportunity to spread. the gospel, to spread
the message, and I don't want you to be afraid
to walk through that door. Now, you need to know
that Philadelphia was literally a doorway city.
It was a gateway city, strategically, for several
reasons. The first was it was a geographic gateway.
Philadelphia sat on this major trade route. Just
think of it as like an ancient highway that connected
Europe and Asia. And it was really the last city
that travelers would go through as they went
up onto the great plateau of Asia Minor. And
so wherever you wanted to go in the east, you
had to go through Philadelphia. It was perfectly
positioned at the crossroads of trade and travel.
That's an open door. What an opportunity. But
secondly, it was also a cultural gateway. The
city had been founded to spread Greek language
and culture throughout these eastern provinces.
In fact, one historian said that Philadelphia
was built, quote, to be a center for the diffusion
of Greek civilization. So it was this cultural
gateway meant to spread Greek culture. But here's
the thing. Because it was strategic geographically
and because it was strategic culturally, that
meant that it was spiritually strategic too.
Spiritually, this was a gateway opportunity.
Jesus says to this little church, he even says,
I know you only have a little bit of strength,
he says, but I have opened a door for you. In
other words, you have been placed where you are
on purpose. Your geography and your culture and
your situation strategically positions you in
a perfect way to not spread Greek culture outward,
but to spread the gospel and good news of Jesus
Christ outward. This is a door of mission. This
is a door of opportunity that is open. was saying,
listen, I've given you, Philadelphia, everything
you need, right? I've given you the perfect location,
the perfect connections. I've given you this
calling. Now walk through that door that I have
set before you. The doors Jesus gives us aren't
just open doors welcoming us in, trying to comfort
us. They are also doors for calling us outward.
See, I am sending you out. Now, Today, as I've
mentioned, is our annual general meeting. It's
Vestry Sunday. And this is not just a business
meeting. It's not just an annual review. It's
not just voting on a budget. It's a chance to
sit down and listen and talk about what doors
Jesus might be opening for us. Maybe you have
a sense that God is opening a new door for us
to do church in a different way. I don't know.
right maybe it's a door of serving our community
in a different way maybe there's a way that god
is wanting us to go and reach our community maybe
the poor in our community the lonely in our community
or the young people in our community maybe it's
a door to be more compassionate some way maybe
it's a door to be more innovative in some way
maybe it's a door of leadership i don't know
but today we want to ask those questions we want
to say god Where have you placed us? Like Philadelphia,
strategically, where have you placed us? And
what doors, therefore, are you opening before
us at this time in the life of this church? That's
what it means to be a faithful church. We don't
just cling to the past. We don't just stay behind
these four walls, right? We look for the doors
that Jesus is opening and then we walk through
them. Even if we're not 100 % sure what's on
the other side. John Stott once wrote this. He
said, Christ has the keys and he opens the doors.
Then let us not barge our way unceremoniously
through doors which are still closed. We must
wait for him to make openings for us. That's
why we want to hear from you today. To help this
church discern. That's something we all have
to do together. Requires the... the whole community.
But whether it's God that is opening a door for
us as a church or God that is opening a door
for you in your life, do we have the courage
to walk through those doors, right? I mean, the
first question is, yes, what door has God opened
for you in your life? Some of you are sitting
here and you know darn well what that door is,
right? You've had a sense for a long time and
it might be a person that keeps asking you questions
about why you go to church and you know. That
God is putting an open door for a conversation
there. It might be this tug that you feel at
your heart to go and reconcile a broken relationship
in your life. And you know that that door is
opening up for you. Or it might be just something
very simple. It's a door for you to start being
more generous. A door to start praying more.
I don't know. That's the first question though.
What door? The second question is, do you have
the courage to walk through that door? Every
door that God places before you is an opportunity
for you to trust him. just a little bit more,
right? To walk with him just by one step of faith,
to love someone new, to serve in a new way, to
share the hope of Jesus with someone in your
circle of influence. It requires faith though.
It requires trust. Every open door is an opportunity
to trust the one who holds the key to the door,
Jesus Christ. John Ortberg, some of you know
this, he wrote a great little book. If you want
to walk on water, you've got to get out of the
boat. If you want to see what's on the other
side of God's open door, you've got to walk through
it. Or as Corrie Ten Boom once said, never be
afraid to trust an unknown future to a known
God. You might not know what awaits you beyond
that door that God is opening for you. That is
okay because you do know that Jesus will go with
you and you can trust. Him. So what's that door?
What door is God opening for you right now? And
what kind of courage do you have to go through
that door? Don't wait for the perfect conditions.
Don't just stand at the doorway staring at it.
Take the step of faith knowing that Jesus is
going to go through with you. So in a nutshell,
here's what followers of Jesus do. We open The
door to others. And we go through. The door for
others. Why don't we even just say that together.
We open the door to others. And we go through
the door. For others. We as a church. Need to
be a church of open doors. You. As a follower
of Jesus. Need to be a person. Of open doors.
The door of the gospel. It always swings both
ways. It's an outside door welcoming people in
and it is an inside door sending people out.
And if you're standing on the outside today and
you're wondering, gosh, is there a room for me?
Is there a room for me in God's family? Is there
a room for me in this church? Is there a room
for me in the kingdom? The answer is yes. And
if you're standing on the inside and you're staring
out and you're wondering, gosh, Can I really
trust God with where he wants to send me next?
The answer is also yes. Jesus has the keys. He
closes doors that no one can open. He opens the
doors that no one can shut. Thanks be to God.
Amen.