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:

Image: Passing Back Exams and seeing them in the trash

One of the most frustrating experiences most teachers have is the experience of passing back exams or major term papers. Consider this, the students spends hours studying or writing, the teacher then spends hours grading and marking. The result is a document that both shows what the student knows and where the student needs to grow. However, in most cases the student looks at the two digit number on the front of the exam decides what they think of that number and throws it in the trash can. What a wasted opportunity! Even if the student has a three digit number on their exam most teachers have still marked areas that are particularly good or could use some help.

Need: As a church, we must ensure that everything we do is always and only for Christ.

You might be thining yes we do that. But what I want to do is take you deeper. Don't just accept that we are doing everything for Christ. Rather evaluate and determine exactly how we are accomplishing this. What can we look at in our church and say this is all about Christ, let's grow this. In order to help foster this way of thining I want us to look at one of the seven churches in Revelation. Specifically, I want you to look at one of the churches that received a good grade. What we will see is the dynamics of a dynamic church.

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

Because 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. We can trust Christ because he is none other than God. He is truth. In a world where there is so much that will fail we can trust Christ. A church that confidently trusts in Christ will not be disappointed.

Image: The era of human failures

We live in an era where it has become regular news to learn that a particular leader has had a moral failure. The pastor of such and such church, who built it from the ground up removed after it is revealed that he had such and such occur in his life.

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

Because 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.