Revelation 3:7-13 The Dynamics of a Dynamic Church

Theological Proposition/Focus: Christ is the head of the Church and so everything that a church does should focus on Christ.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: Trust in, center on, hold to, and listen to Christ.

Introduction:

Setting the Stage:

We are going to be studying a short letter contained within the book of Revelation. Specifically, a short letter to the church in Philadelphia. Not our modern Philadelphia but the ancient city, one of the seven cities in Revelation. The city or town of Philadelphia was the youngest of the seven cities having been founded in the middle of the second century BC. The city had suffered some destruction in AD 17 from an earthquake but was aided by the emperor Tiberius. For the most part, the letters to the seven churches in Revelation are pretty negative but the letter to Philadephia is positive and so we turn to this letter.

Body

The first thing that I want you to notice stems from verse 7. Specifically, I want you to see that

A Dynamic Church confidently trusts Christ (7).

Why can we so confidently trust Christ? Within verse 7 the first item of significance seems to be descriptions used for Christ. Specifically, we see that

Christ is holy and true

The Holy One is a reference to none other than the God of the Old Testament. The use of the descriptor "true" further contrasts Christ with the idols that so many others worshipped. The reference to the

key of David

is likely an allusion Christ's authority and here is a reference to the one who has ultimate control of the destiny of all humans. In this sense, we see that

Christ is the source of blessing

In contrast with the judgments of the other churches Christ as shown here is the one who brings blessing.