I. Two Churches
Two weeks ago we looked at a letter from Jesus to a church that was dying. And Jesus had an important message for them, “Wake Up!” He still had plans for them, he still had a mission for them, he still had a purpose for them. Today, we are looking at a letter to a church that is awake and alive and about God’s business in this world and Jesus has a message of comfort for them, a message of hope.
It is interesting to look at these two letters side by side, because some of what Jesus says is the same in them. In both letters Jesus talks about returning, about coming soon. But when he is talking to the sleeping church it is not something that is good for them. When he is talking to a group who is on track with him, though, it is truly wonderful news.
When I was at Midwinter back in January, we went to a session about the end times and it was interesting because as we talked about Jesus coming again, about his return, there were different people who had different hopes about it. Some truly saw the world as a difficult place, a place of trouble, a place where Jesus’ return was truly needed to make things right. But there were others among us who have often found ourselves not quite ready for Jesus to return. We still had things we wanted to do in this world. When I look at Bronte, I’m not crazy about Jesus returning tomorrow because I want to see her grow up and experience this world. I know others who have someone close to them that they want to see come to Christ. I think that these both are good reasons that we should want Jesus to wait before he returns. But there are selfish reasons as well. As a kid I didn’t want him to return until I could grow up and get married. There were parts of this world, of this life, that I wanted to experience. And I feared that if Jesus returned too quickly, he would take those things away from me.
The good news that Jesus gives this church in Philadelphia did not necessarily seem like good news to me. But there were others in our session, people who grew up struggling, people who grew up without the things that I grew up with. These were people who knew suffering in their lives and their communities, and they found true strength and hope in the promises of Christ. They truly believed that when Christ returned that he would make all things better, and they truly sought this, desired it with all their heart, longed for it.
The question I wonder about, the fear that I have, is whether we are so comfortable in this world, whether we enjoy the things this culture offers us so much, whether we’re so tied to the things of this earth that we aren’t really being about the things of God and his kingdom. My fear is that we are much more like the church we talked about two weeks ago, the church that was more interested in their image than their relationship with God.
God and his message is all about good news. Jesus is about bringing good news to those who need it. The danger is that we sometimes don’t realize that we are in need of the good news that Jesus offers. And when this is the case, we do find ourselves more like the church we read about two weeks ago and less like the church we read about this morning.
II. Strength to Go On
But today’s letter holds hope for us even still. “I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” Sometimes, though we feel weak, though we don’t think we can do it on our own, we somehow find the strength to move on, to follow, to go where God is calling us. Sometimes we are finding that we need to stand strong. Sometimes we are confronted with a difficult world around us, and we wonder how we are going to continue. Where are we going to find the strength to go on?
That is where the letter to the Philadelphians makes all the difference. In this letter God acknowledges the weakness of the people of Philadelphia. He realizes that they have a difficult road ahead of them. But he offers them hope. They have stayed strong and he will give them what they need to continue to stay strong. He promises to place an open door before them that no one can close. God knows that the people cannot do it themselves, and yet they persist in following him, and so he promises to help them, to lend them strength, to hold the door open for them so that no-one can close it on their face.
Jesus not only commends the people of Philadelphia for their faithfulness, he offers them strength to be faithful. And God offers us that same strength. As we, as a church, look forward to new missions that we want to be about, as we try new ministries that will reach out to the community around us, God will see this and will be thankful for it, but he will also give us the strength to do things that we aren’t necessarily thinking we’re ready to do.
I have found myself again and again surprised as I have stepped out in faith to do something that I don’t feel ready or prepared for, to find that God is able to use me in ways that I could not possibly imagine. And yet, I still find myself fearing that step of stepping out. I still find myself thinking that I’m not ready or able to do what God is clearly calling me to. One thing I can tell you for certain is that as long as you don’t step out in faith and trust him to hold the door open for you, you will not ever have the opportunity to actually see God working through you. It’s only when we trust in him and reach out that he is able to truly show us what it is that he can do through us, how it is that he can use us.
III. God’s Love
There is something else, though, that is mentioned in this letter that gives strength when strength seems lost. They are simple words, words that are worth hearing the Sunday after Valentine’s Day: “I have loved you.” Now in this letter they are being spoken in relation to someone else. There are people who are set against the Christians. These people set against them believe that they are better following God than the Christians, and they accuse the Christians of having fallen away from their faith. And Jesus promises that he will make these others acknowledge that God does love the Christians, that they have been faithful, that they have been true. Jesus promises that in the end they will be vindicated. The life they have lived, the faith they have been faithful to, will be shown to be true. Not only will they know, but all around them will know that God has loved them.
This is truly something that gives strength. Do you know that God loves you? Do you truly believe that he is coming back so that he can be with you again? We often push this truth away because it is hard to truly accept. Oh yes, he loves us all. He sort of has to, that’s his job. But it is truly deeper than that. God truly and deeply loves you. He created you, he knows you, and he loves you. Jesus tells the people of Philadelphia right here: I know that you have little strength. He knows your weaknesses, the things you struggle with. He knows your secret sins and those things that keep you away from him. And even so, he loves you. If this doesn’t give you strength to go on, I don’t know what will. Believe in God’s love. Trust that it is a real thing that is directed towards you. Know that when Jesus promises that he is returning again, it isn’t to keep you from having fun, it is so that he can be with you again. Find strength in this. Find purpose in it. And use that strength, that purpose to do great things in God’s name. Amen.
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