Few churches in the New Testament received unmitigated endorsement. The epistles of Paul to the Corinthian church reveal a plethora of issues among that congregation—from unbounded immorality to woeful arrogance. The Galatian church was rebuked for loosening their adherence to the doctrine of justification by faith alone and thereby forfeiting the gospel. The Colossians had to be warned of embracing ungodly philosophies. Peter and Jude decried licentious living and corrupt false teachers who had stealthily crept into the churches they wrote to.

When the Lord Himself addressed the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation, the situation was not much different. Out of the seven churches, only two received approval without rebuke. The church in Philadelphia was one of these two exemplary churches—a rare commodity even to this day.

Remarkably, as in Smyrna, the church in Philadelphia was faithful in the face of open hostility from “the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 3:9). Despite this opposition, the Philadelphian church lived by the Spirit’s power in obedience, loyalty, and endurance. They were truly a faithful church.

Because of their faithfulness, this church was given some incomparable privileges. The Lord in His grace sent them a message of precious promises as they labored for Him in a hard place. These pledges were a source of invigoration and provided solid ground on which to plant their feet as they continued in faithfulness.

Precious Promises

We see the first of these divine commitments in Revelation 3:8: “I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” This ties back to what the Lord has just said about Himself in verse 7—that He is the one “who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens.” That was a reference to His sovereign control over access to His heavenly kingdom. As an extension of that idea, this is a promise that no one can shut them out of heaven, that their salvation is secure in Christ. Under the crushing weight of persecution, there is no greater comfort than to know your faith, and thus your eternity, is held fast in the omnipotent hands of the Lord. Christ Himself opens the door for His people to enter into the blessings of His heaven, and there is no force in existence that can close it.

There is likely another layer to this promise. Not only has Christ opened the door to heaven for the faithful Philadelphians, He has opened the door for them to usher others into the kingdom as well. Christ is speaking of the gospel opportunity He has blessed them with. In the Pauline epistles, an open door is often a reference to an evangelistic opportunity. Paul used the expression in both of his letters to the Corinthians. “I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:8–9). “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord” (2 Corinthians 2:12). He used it again in Colossians 4:2–3: “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word.”

No doubt, the little church in Philadelphia had an open door, with people constantly passing through town as they traveled the ancient trade routes. The city had already heavily influenced the region with the Greek language and culture. In the same way, this church had a strategic opportunity to reach out into Asia Minor with the gospel. Their faithfulness would be rewarded with opportunities for the gospel to be given to unbelievers. They would enjoy the privilege of being used by God to lead others into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

The Lord gives them a second pledge in Revelation 3:9: “Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.” Christ previously referenced the synagogue of Satan in His letter to Smyrna (Revelation 2:9). Just like the believers there, the Philadelphian church faced strong opposition from the local Jews. Throughout the New Testament, Israel’s religious leaders tried to halt the spread of the gospel. They hated Christ and anyone who held Him up as the Messiah. In their opposition to the gospel, they were doing the devil’s work. Christ confronted them on that very point in John’s gospel: “You are doing the deeds of your father. . . . You are of your father the devil” (John 8:41, 44). Judaizers and other false teachers hounded the apostles in the earliest days of the church. Here, at the end of the first century, the relationship had not improved.

Christ says these persecutors “say that they are Jews and are not, but lie” (Revelation 3:9). Paul made similar statements in Romans: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God” (2:28–29). Being culturally and racially Jewish had no salvific value for these opponents of the gospel. Upholding the ceremonial law didn’t change the fact that they had rejected Christ. They were physical descendants of Abraham, but they were not God’s people. As Paul succinctly puts it, “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (Romans 9:6).

Incredibly, Christ promises the Philadelphian church, “I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you” (Revelation 3:9). That’s the posture of a humbled and defeated enemy, and that’s precisely what this promise is indicating. Isaiah repeatedly prophesies of a similar humiliation for God’s enemies in the future messianic kingdom:

The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will walk behind you, they will come over in chains and will bow down to you; they will make supplication to you: “Surely, God is with you, and there is none else, No other God.” (Isaiah 45:14)

Kings will be your guardians, and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick the dust of your feet; and you will know that I am the Lord; those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame. (Isaiah 49:23)

The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; and they will call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 60:14)

This is not just a promise that the Philadelphian Christians will prevail over their persecutors. It’s a promise that some of those same persecutors will come to salvation through faith in the Christ they once opposed. They will be humbled before the church because they will understand that God’s love is not limited to Israel. They will recognize that there is no other name by which they can be saved, and they will put their trust in Christ alone. This is a foretaste of the day when “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). Zechariah tells us the Lord will “pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). The believers in Philadelphia could endure the scorn of the Jews, knowing that in a short time, some of their persecutors would be fellow believers in the Lord.

(Adapted from Christ’s Call to Reform the Church.)