The church is the star. what the Christians are doing. That's what Christ is centering our attention on. Revelation chapter one, verse twenty. The seven churches.
The stars are the seven churches. And so we don't need to spend a lot of time on. What sort of infrastructure that ancient city had, we need to concern ourselves with what were those Christians in that ancient city doing? Ooh. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Revelation chapter 3 is where Pastor Rick will be teaching from today on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Revelation chapter 3.
Verse 7, we'll take verses 7 through 13, but we're going to stand and take verses 10 and 11.
So, would you please stand for the reading of God's Word? Those of you online, if You are able to stand with us, why don't you do so for the reading? Revelation chapter 3, beginning in verse 10, because. You have kept my command to persevere, I also. will keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on earth.
Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast. What you have that no one may take your crown. Philadelphia it is this church in modern Turkey. It was located, love aflame.
That's what we come across. Moses, he could not help himself. he had to turn aside to see this bush that was burning. but wasn't consumed.
Well, everybody turns aside To see a burning Christian. And I don't mean one at the stake, I mean one that is. Enthusiastic about their faith because they understand what they believe. I'm not talking about one carried away with emotion. unless there's truth with it.
Deuteronomy 4, verse 12, and Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. Fire, that energy, It brings heat. Fire can duplicate itself without losing any of itself. And this excellent metaphor For the Christian life, even for this church. in ancient Philadelphia.
Scripture and evangelism. Characterized this particular church more than all the others, although Smyrna, of course, is very much. on top of things, but was facing persecution. These churchgoers and this church that we're looking at remained excited About their faith.
Well, I didn't say that. Jesus is the one that says that. We're looking at what he says. And so now we come to verse 7 to begin, and we'll get to the corresponding age in a moment, and to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things says he Who is holy? He who is true.
He who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.
Now this is Jesus talking. He's dictating this letter to be taken to these churches, and all the churches had to hear what Christ said to all the other churches. It is possible. To belong to a stellar church, stellar in the eyes of Christ. It is something that's doable.
Now some things are hard to believe. Once And you're gonna really struggle with this one. Once I'm sitting on my porch I saw an Amazon delivery truck. Pass by my house. I know.
Who can believe that? Yeah. It is doable. This church in Philadelphia, nothing to rebuke. Nothing recorded.
Jesus saw nothing worth mentioning about Whatever they might have. been getting wrong.
However, Laodicea, the next church, is nothing to praise.
Well, which one are we? Which of the seven churches? Are we?
Well, let's talk about the corresponding age because what God saw in these churches, in their behaviors, He sort of prophesied, he baked into these letters Prophecies Concerning behaviors that would show up. In history. And it's not exact, but the parallels are Distinct And to me, inescapable.
Now, many Well, some Bible teachers. They don't like this historical application. And they try to Dismiss it, I think, because they've got biases. For example, if you don't understand how damaging Roman Catholicism is. To Christianity, then you're not going to want to apply Progamas and Thyatira to history.
Or if you are stuck in the Reformation, you're not going to want to see that period of history begin, develop a name, and then go stale. I think if you come to these sections of Scripture with an open mind, The truths will fly off the pages.
So, within what he had to say to the churches is also found. continuing in some form throughout history. And so the corresponding age to this church is the Great Awakening. That began in the 18th century, somewhere around 1730. And it's not always easy to pinpoint when these events take place precisely, but you can't miss them once you begin to open it up.
And so we moved from a church that characterized the Reformation period. A name, but dead. Just a quick review: the apostolic age when the apostles were still around but dying off. About 70 to 100 AD. That was the church at Ephesus.
They were beginning to lose their first love. Then came the church at Sardis when state persecution was made official and that church in Sardis did not escape persecution. Then came the church at Pergamus. About beginning to allow into the church, beginning to tolerate. Things that were False, that were damaging, things that Christ was against.
Well, the Roman Empire embraced Christianity, and when it did that, all of these paganistic things began to come into the church. All of our holidays are based on pagan holidays that have been sort of Christianized, but initially they're fully pagan. Then there was the papal rule, church at Thyatira, And the Protestant revelation in Sardis, and now this great awakening. Which was likely historically prefaced by the Puritan movement in England. The Puritans said to the Reformers or to the Church at that time, You didn't move far enough.
away from Romanism. from Roman Catholicism. And they wanted to get back to the scripture and the spirit and obedience. They are persecuted for that. They came to the Americas.
And they brought this zeal for Christ with them.
Some of them get, of course, abused it. And the world loves to highlight that part of Puritan history, but the Puritans very much influenced the church we have today. And so this great awakening By the Holy Spirit. Would counter the ideas of secular rationalism. that was beginning to spread throughout Western civilization.
There was this lost desire. For Christ, for religion. And humanism was now taking the center stage, and this great awakening period would counter that. Going back to the churches from the Reformation. They became filled with unsaved pastors in their pulpit.
People who were not converted attended the churches. Those were the churchgoers in many of the places. One Boston pastor remarked. about the Reformation state of the church. We are at this time fallen into as dead.
asleep as ever. You may say, well, what does this have to do with me? It has everything to do with you. If you're not enthusiastic for Christ, if there's no flame in your heart for the gospel, for reaching the lost, this church was evangelical, which again characterized the Reformation age. The Great Awakening.
And so, where the Reformation died, the awakening. revived. Waves of increased Christian enthusiasm. From about 1730, as I mentioned, into the twentieth century. The 1970s, the Jesus movement.
It came in waves, movements of the Holy Spirit, lasting fruit from each wave. It sort of built on each other.
Some think the Great Awakening influenced the American Revolution. It certainly influenced. The abolitionist. In England and in. The United States.
This Awakening of the church. did begin to bring the gospel With Unction with anointing. to the people. And where the reformers said sola scriptura, scripture alone. defines our faith.
and governs our lives.
Well, that blossomed into this anointing of the Spirit that showed up in excitement about the Scripture and not just having this theological understanding. It actually went out and made converse. Revival traveled from New England to New Jersey to New York, to Maryland, to Pennsylvania, and to Virginia. Princeton, Rutgers, Brown, Dartmouth Universities, all of those universities were established as a direct result of this great sweep of the Holy Spirit. They're all Satanized now.
But not in their beginnings. There's too much history to try to cover. I'm trying to move through it as quickly as I can, giving key points that have something to do with our own lives. Right here in Hanover County. In about 1747, A preacher by the name of Samuel Davies.
He pastored about seven churches at the same time, oversaw them. Here in Hanover County, in Henrico County, in Goochland, in Louisa County. It's very active. And all of a sudden, many of those people in that early part of America began to turn away from holding contempt for Christianity. and aversion to it And they began to respect it because of the work that was going on.
With these Bible figures, well, not Bible characters from the scripture, but these figures, these people that were greatly influenced. But what the Holy Spirit was doing that would not have come without the Reformation. But the Reformation did not go far enough, as mentioned.
So consider the names. I'm just going to give you a few of them. There are too many to list. The Wesley brothers. John and Charles Wesley.
John Wesley alone stopped the Civil War in England. Uh George Whitfield. Incredible evangelist, Charles Finney. David Livingston. Charles Spurgeon.
William Booth, D.L. Moody, all of these men, so many more came out of this age. You've had so many heroes of the faith coming out of the Great Awakening, more than the Reformation. Who who quotes who reads any commentaries that were written? If you can find 'em.
In the Dark Ages. The commentaries that came out of the Great Awakening far excel, far give more than the commentaries that came out of the Reformation period. The hymns, so many hymns that we have. The revivals, those hymns came out of this period, so many of them. Blessed assurance, pass me not, Fanny Crosby.
Uh Evan um I forget his name. He's a Welsh man. Come thou fount. Uh so Don't tell it. Don't call it out.
Let's just move on like I never forgot.
So that's the parallel age that's sort of prophetically built into what was happening here. Because this church in Philadelphia, Jesus says to them, I've opened a door for you. And that's to take the gospel.
So in Philadelphia, he says. Here in verse 7. Christians did not name this city the city of brotherly love. Common grace did that. Unbelievers with elements of kindness in them.
What was this church doing? about the persecutions going on in Smyrna.
Now we're not prophetically in the 17th, 18th century. We're back to when Jesus is addressing these churches in the days of John on the isle of Patmos. What was happening?
Well, when Polycarp was being burned at the stake in Smyrna, it is said that eleven brothers. From the church in Philadelphia. perished with him. And they weren't the only ones. Or from this church in Philadelphia, which was about 75 miles.
East of the church in Smyrna.
So that's what was happening. What a testimony to this assembly here.
Now these ancient cities They have got a lot of history attached to them. This one was subject to earthquakes quite a bit. But the city is not the star. The church is the star. Years ago, I heard someone reading on radio a recipe for meatball heroes.
And he said, I'm going to read this letter I got from a listener about this recipe that I love for Meatball Hero. And as the person was giving him the instructions, you know, put this much of that and this much of that, he would also inject into the recipe. Every so many words But the meatball is the star. And then he'd go on and do this and do that, but then we'd remind so he didn't get. lost in the sauce.
Well The church is the star. What the Christians are doing, that's what Christ is centering our attention on. Revelation chapter 1, verse 20. The seven churches. The stars are the seven churches.
And so we don't need to spend a lot of time on What sort of infrastructure that ancient city had, we need to concern ourselves with what were those Christians in that ancient city doing?
So, Christ doing the speaking says about himself that he is holy. Holiness is that pristine state. Ultimately. Pure. Purity.
Where no corruption exists? Nor can it exist. And this is the Christ. He's the one that says, Satan is nothing in me. He is the essence of holiness.
We can only be holy. Through association. with him. In this life, But we cannot be pure. And yet, yet.
He treats us. It's no We have no sin. Because We've come to Christ and He's dealt with it for us. That's one of the main things lacking from the lost soul. Their sin is upon them because they have not embraced the truth.
So Jesus introduces himself as only God can is saying I'm incorruptible. It's a declaration of his deity. He who is true. Truth distinguishes us. Separates us from every other religion.
Whether the Christian gets it wrong in their behavior or not, it is what we believe. that separates us from everybody else. When they're praying to Mary, we say that is a sin. We do not talk to the dead that way. And if you want to talk to the dead, you got to join them.
Otherwise, You don't go talking to them. He who is true, John chapter 8, verse 32, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 7, 46. The officers answered when they came to arrest Jesus, No one, no man ever spoke like this man. That should still be happening.
There should still be those who say, I never heard anything like this. There are a lot of people that are into their religion and don't even know what their religion is about. There are a lot of people that go to church and don't even know what the scripture has to say. Continues here, he who has the key of David.
Well, he's always linking himself to his father and to the prophecies because again no one else has this. This, of course, is a prophetic fulfillment. Genesis 49, 10, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the people. And keys are the emblems of ownership and rights.
And truth, of course, is all over it.
So if you come to a church, you hear a sermon like this. And so far, you may be saying to yourself, I know that, I know this, I got that. But do you understand how much research goes into being able to make these statements? in such a way that you cannot launch an objection. In other words, every sentence of the pastor should be backed up.
By Scripture, or at least he makes that attempt to do it. Because there's nothing like this. Because this comes right from God to us. And so serious was this church about it, and the church in Smyrna about what came from God to them. That they are willing to die.
Not because it was their team versus their persecutors, but because it was true. And that's another level of life. That opens up to us. Mark 28:18, Jesus came and spoke to them. This is after the resurrection, saying, All authority has been given to me.
in heaven and on earth. which should evoke who is this guy? Who can say such things? If you took the words of Jesus When he talks about who he is, And you just ask yourself, Who can say such things? God That's it.
No created being can say these things. These keys represent the authority over the fate of everyone. It's up. Up to them how they respond. It's up to him what he does with their response to his truths.
Authority and ability to determine who is saved and who is lost. That's what this Little phrase means. He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key. Of David. Is not David.
But it's the one spoken of as a reference in Genesis 49. Of course, biblically, this goes back to Isaiah 22. And we mentioned in the introduction that there are so many Old Testament references in the book of Revelation, it's very difficult to list them. And here's one example. This comes right out of Isaiah 22, verse 22.
And there in that story there was a man named Eliakim. And David made Eliakim the royal secretary over Shabna. And you say that's what does that have to do with anything?
Well, you would have to be the sovereign king to make such a move in David's day. And you'd have to be the sovereign king over humanity. To make such moves as Jesus is making and applying it to Himself. The idea is that God is sovereign. He controls appointments.
And destinies And who is excluded from the kingdom of heaven, and who is not? His authority is divinely assigned. Always linking himself with the Father, always linking himself with the Godhead, always linking himself with prophecy. never allowing us to see him as rogue, or independent of God's plan. of God's word to mankind.
This is significant when you see someone who does do those things, who does go rogue, who begins to establish a church in false doctrine that's contrary to Scripture. Because, as great as the Great Awakening was, It also allowed for false teachings. to accelerate. There was a time when, if you were an independent, or if you were a non-denominal church, you were able to stand because you stood with the scripture. But now we've got a lot of non-denominational churches that have emerged They don't even have a systematic theology.
They don't know what they believe. They spend all their time telling people, Jesus loves you, you're going to do better, and here's how to have a happy life. I'll give you 40 days to have good things. And there's really no foundation of scripture in many of these churches. The music is more loud than it is anything else.
There's nothing wrong with loud music if you've got your ears plugged. But what is the content? What is in the song? Does it inspire me to worship God, or does it just make me feel good about myself?
Well, there's nothing wrong with feeling good about yourself if you've been behaving. But that's not why we worship. We don't worship because I feel good about myself. We worship because He is worthy. And many of the hymns Keep that in front of us.
And out of that, Hippie generation came songs that were simply scripture verses put to music. Create in me a clean heart, O God. It's Psalm 51. I mean, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And if you're a Christian and you're struggling with stuff in the flesh, you're going to love being able to sing that, knowing it is right from the Word of God.
to you. In other words, Things that we say and believe should count. What about when you've been doing everything right? And yet Your life is falling apart.
Well, the Bible covers that in a single word. Persevere. Take the pain. and keep moving forward. You cannot take objectives without that.
What is the alternative?
Well, give up. Stop moving forward. Don't go to church anymore. It's not working for you.
Well, what's working for God? Obedience. in the face of hardship. And so he who opens and no one shuts, shuts and no one opens, declares his ownership and his power. Not only has he the right to rule, but he does rule.
That's the point. This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreference radio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings.
While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Uh
