00:00:00.000 - 00:00:25.880

Let us continue in the worship of God by giving attention to the reading of His word, as it is recorded in the book of Revelation, the third chapter, beginning the reading at the verse number 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, The words of the Holy One, the true

00:00:25.880 - 00:00:49.520

one who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied

00:00:49.520 - 00:01:03.480

my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn that I have loved

00:01:03.480 - 00:01:20.520

you. Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth. I am coming soon.

00:01:20.520 - 00:01:41.140

Hold fast to what you have so that no one may seize your crown. He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new

00:01:41.140 - 00:02:09.120

Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven, and I will write my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. May God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me.

00:02:09.120 - 00:02:33.680

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The early chapters of the book of Revelation are given over to seven letters which Christ by the Holy Spirit directed to seven churches in Asia Minor.

00:02:33.680 - 00:02:50.600

We are concerned this morning with his letter to the church at Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded by a man named Attalus II who had a brother, Eumenes, whom he loved very much. He called him Philadelphos, beloved brother.

00:02:50.600 - 00:03:06.760

And when he established this city, he named it after his brother, calling it Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. In the ancient world, Philadelphia was known for three things. It was known for its marvelous wines.

00:03:06.760 - 00:03:30.840

It was located right on the edge of a volcanic area where the soils were very fertile and people came from all over to purchase its rare vintages. It was also known for its worship, pagan worship. The deity most often honored there was Dionysius, the god of wine, and the Bacchanal was part

00:03:30.840 - 00:03:48.240

of the everyday experience of those people. It was also known for worry. You see, in the year 17 AD, there was a major earthquake in that area. It destroyed many of the cities around Philadelphia and Philadelphia itself.

00:03:48.240 - 00:04:08.120

The other cities were quickly restored, but Philadelphia was not because for some strange seismic reason, for almost ten years after the initial quake, there were severe aftershocks in the place where Philadelphia was located. And it was not until the reign of Tiberius, many years later, that the city was rebuilt.

00:04:08.120 - 00:04:26.880

And there was always in these people, these Philadelphians, some anxiety about when the next quake might come. Now in the midst of this city, there lived a company of loyal Christians. They faced strong opposition in every day of their lives, but they were faithful to

00:04:26.880 - 00:04:42.320

Christ, so faithful that he wrote to them, "I know your works. I know you have little power, and yet you have kept my word and you have not denied my name." Loyal, you see.

00:04:42.320 - 00:05:03.240

And there's great beauty in loyalty. If you have a loyal friend, someone who will stand beside you when everything else falls away and everyone else departs, if you have a loyal friend who will share with you the truth and share it with you lovingly, if you have someone who will come to your aid no

00:05:03.240 - 00:05:20.480

matter what your need, great or small, you have a loyal friend, and that's a beautiful thing to have. And these Christians who lived in Philadelphia were loyal to their Lord. We often read in Scripture about the loyalty of Christ to his disciples, but in this letter

00:05:20.480 - 00:05:46.840

we're thinking about the loyalty of the disciples for their Lord Jesus Christ. I want to look with you this morning at what Christ said to those loyal Christians of long ago, for what he said yesterday to the loyal, he says to the loyal today as well. The first thing he says is this, "Behold, I have set before you an open door which no

00:05:46.840 - 00:06:04.240

one is able to shut." Now what he's saying is this, "Those who are loyal to me serve me. They are anxious to bring others through the open door into fellowship with me." You remember how in the Gospel of John Jesus describes himself as the door.

00:06:04.240 - 00:06:18.920

"I am the door," he says. Now he underscores that thought here when he says, "I am the door and no one can come to the Father except by me. You have come through me and the mark of your being loyal is that you seek to bring others

00:06:18.920 - 00:06:38.840

to me also and the door is open and no one will be able to shut it." Just about two weeks ago now, the members of your pastoral collegium sat down and reviewed a list of the names of all the persons who have joined this church in the last three and one half years.

00:06:38.840 - 00:06:57.160

And we made a very interesting discovery. We found that those who have involved themselves in the program of the church, those who support the church with their time and their talent and also with their financial gifts, these people are healthy and growing vibrantly in the life of the congregation.

00:06:57.160 - 00:07:18.840

But some have come into the church and have refused every invitation to serve and are not involving themselves in any way in support of the program. And the interesting thing to observe is that it's these people who are drifting away. It's these people who are quite frequently not of worship and who do not represent themselves

00:07:18.840 - 00:07:38.160

in any of the church's activities. See what Jesus is saying here is this, when religion becomes a sideline, it very quickly becomes a slide line. If you have a faith which is strong enough to bring you into the fellowship of faithful

00:07:38.160 - 00:07:56.320

people, then that faith should be strong enough to bring you into a life of service and stewardship so that you long to bring people through the open door to the same Christ that you have met. Now you know the excuses, you've heard them just as I have.

00:07:56.320 - 00:08:11.900

People say I'm inadequate or I'm not talented or I don't have what it takes. And of course the answer to all of those objections is of course. Of course you're not adequate. Of course you're not sufficiently talented.

00:08:11.900 - 00:08:22.080

Of course you do not have what it takes. What did Moses say when God called him? I'm inadequate. What did Isaiah say when God called him?

00:08:22.080 - 00:08:32.720

I'm inadequate. What did Jeremiah say when God called him? I'm too young, I'm inadequate. What did the disciples say when Jesus called them?

00:08:32.720 - 00:08:40.720

We're not able to carry this burden. There was one who said he could. Peter, he was sure he could do it and promptly went out and demonstrated to everyone that he could not.

00:08:40.720 - 00:08:54.840

And why is this? It's because you see, it's not the Christian who opens the door, it's Jesus who opens the door. He doesn't say open the door and I will come.

00:08:54.840 - 00:09:08.800

He says behold, I have set before you an open door and no one is able to shut it. Jesus describes himself in this letter as the key to the door. We're not the keys. We're not adequate.

00:09:08.800 - 00:09:16.280

We're not sufficiently talented. We don't have enough to make it come off. But he does. Look at Paul.

00:09:16.280 - 00:09:28.840

When Paul was ministering in Ephesus, he had a very successful ministry there for three years and he wrote about it. A wide door has been opened to me. Then later he went to Rome.

00:09:28.840 - 00:09:44.280

And from Rome he writes, pray that God may open a door. You see, in Ephesus it was opened. In Rome it was only partly opened. But God is the one who opens it, not Paul.

00:09:44.280 - 00:10:05.680

I sometimes have people say nice things to me and I really think they believe that when I climb these steps each Sunday morning and when I stand with this microphone and before these television cameras that I somehow feel adequate, that I feel that I can open the door.

00:10:05.680 - 00:10:22.480

That's not true. That is not true at all. The fact of the matter is that just like you, I am utterly and totally dependent upon God. If he does not open the door, then the door will not be opened.

00:10:22.480 - 00:10:44.160

But his promise here to the loyal is this. Oh, I set before you an open door and no one can shut it. So we don't have to decide whether the door will be open or not. What we have to decide is, now that the door is open, will we be loyal enough to go through

00:10:44.160 - 00:11:01.080

it? Now Jesus says something else to the loyal. He says, "I will keep you in the hour of trial." These Christians were in a very hostile environment there in Philadelphia.

00:11:01.080 - 00:11:19.960

It was a pagan city. And Jesus says that a great persecution is going to come, and it did. And he also uses a very, very awful phrase. He refers to the Jews who opposed the Christians there as a synagogue of Satan.

00:11:19.960 - 00:11:40.400

They must have been in this instance particularly cruel. In any case, to these Christians who are struggling against all of these forms of opposition, Jesus says, "I will keep you in the hour of trial." Now notice, he does not say that the hour of trial will not come.

00:11:40.400 - 00:12:00.600

He does not say, "I will keep you out of the trial so you will not have to confront it." What he says is, "When the trial comes upon you and you are caught up in the struggle, then you won't be caught alone. I will keep you in that hour."

00:12:00.600 - 00:12:18.000

Rotary International is presently organizing a worldwide campaign to attempt to inoculate all the children of the world against polio. It's called Polio Plus Campaign. You're going to be hearing about it on television.

00:12:18.000 - 00:12:33.480

Now we often think here in the States, because polio has been largely wiped out, that it's that way all over the world, but that's not true. As a matter of fact, every three minutes, a youngster somewhere comes down with polio my life.

00:12:33.480 - 00:12:49.520

But here's an interesting thing. Many of those people who get polio in other parts of the world, though they have polio, they do not die of it. They die of something else.

00:12:49.520 - 00:13:11.480

You see, most of them are crippled by the disease and they cannot walk. They're commonly called "crawlers." And what kills many of them is snake bite. You see, when they see that venomous snake, they can't get away.

00:13:11.480 - 00:13:32.840

And they're bitten and they die. Now just as those serpents bite those crawlers, so the serpents of evil moving through life attack crawlers in the Christian faith. Those who are loyal, those who go through that open door and seek to bring others in,

00:13:32.840 - 00:13:47.880

those are the ones whom Christ protects. And he can protect them and does protect them. He keeps them in the hour of trial. But when someone dallies behind, when they only crawl instead of marching, when their

00:13:47.880 - 00:14:07.400

step is tumbling and unsure at the very least, these are the ones who lay themselves open to the special temptation and tribulation. Not the loyal, but the crawling. I had an older lady in this church tell me the first year I was here, "Since the day

00:14:07.400 - 00:14:19.920

I became a Christian, I have never lacked confidence." I've been watching her for three and a half years now and I believe it. I think it's true. She shows in her life a great confidence.

00:14:19.920 - 00:14:40.200

"Since the day I became a Christian, I have never lacked confidence. I've seen her go through open doors and I've seen the Lord keep her in times of trial." We're confronting a time of trial here in First Church right now and it concerns our finances.

00:14:40.200 - 00:14:53.000

The financial support of this church comes principally from three places. It comes from you, the members. You are overwhelmingly the major source of support. And it comes from the income from our small endowment fund.

00:14:53.000 - 00:15:07.320

And then it also comes from the fact that we buy and sell various equities throughout the year and seek to add to our income in that way. And that's been very successful in the last year. But then the crash hit a few weeks ago.

00:15:07.320 - 00:15:23.680

Now the crash doesn't affect our dividends. They continue to pay out of the endowment just as before. And I don't expect the crash is going to very much impact your giving because you have demonstrated a growing generosity and I don't think that's going to stop you.

00:15:23.680 - 00:15:36.480

But we are no longer able to be involved in any significant way with the buying or selling of equities. You know the state of the stock market. I heard someone say the other day, "Do you know how to get your stockbroker out of a

00:15:36.480 - 00:15:48.320

tree?" Answer, just cut the rope. Those people are having a tough time and others are having a tough time who are dependent upon them.

00:15:48.320 - 00:16:06.200

And so we find ourselves confronting for next year a $150,000 shortfall. We're talking about cutting back on staff and programming. And I've really been wrestling with this in my prayers. You see I've had a difficult time trying to grasp it.

00:16:06.200 - 00:16:21.080

I don't believe that the Holy Spirit is fickle. I don't believe that he says, "Go one day and then you made a mistake by going the next day." Here we sit with a growing evangelism program.

00:16:21.080 - 00:16:33.720

Here we are with more women's activities in the church and more women coming into the church. Here we are with the biggest youth program we've had in a decade. Here we are with our radio and television ministry reaching out and more people coming

00:16:33.720 - 00:16:48.520

into worship with us because they're catching the wind of the Spirit through the telecast and through the broadcast. Here we are having just completed the most successful year in our camp with more kids enrolled in camp than we've had in the last eight years.

00:16:48.520 - 00:17:08.960

Here we are with our people giving more and more and having just successfully completed the third century campaign. Here are all of these evidences of God's blessing and then suddenly we're told to quit, we're told to cancel, we're told to lay back on the oars.

00:17:08.960 - 00:17:22.720

It just doesn't seem to me to be consistent. I didn't come here and I don't think you've come here to become a part of the life of this church in order to lead some orderly retreat of the things of Christ in downtown Pittsburgh.

00:17:22.720 - 00:17:45.440

So I pray very earnestly about this. And last week we received a letter about a dear lady in this church, quiet, withdrawn, who went to be with the Lord a year ago and who, as some others, left her entire estate to First Presbyterian Church.

00:17:45.440 - 00:18:08.640

It amounts to $170,000 and it will be given to the church next year. Now that doesn't mean that we are to stop the approval. That doesn't mean we're not to cut everything that's wrong in the budget out of it. Any fat has to go and that doesn't mean we're going to discontinue talking about tithing

00:18:08.640 - 00:18:20.240

because we have a lot of people here who have not learned the blessing of tithing yet. But this is going to help. This is going to help a lot. I've always liked that story about the preacher who was standing on his front porch in those

00:18:20.240 - 00:18:28.320

floodwaters. They were right up to the level of the front porch and they went by in a boat and they said, "Can we help you, Reverend?" He said, "No, the Lord will take care of me."

00:18:28.320 - 00:18:39.560

Eight hours later he was standing on the porch roof and the water was right up there with him. He went by again in a boat and said, "Reverend, you better come with us." "No, the Lord will take care of me."

00:18:39.560 - 00:18:52.800

Next scene he's standing on the top of the house and the water is licking at his chin and a boat comes by and they said, "Parson, Parson, you've got to go with us." "No," he said, "the Lord will take care of me." And he drowned.

00:18:52.800 - 00:19:19.520

And when he got to heaven, he said to Saint Peter, "Here I am trying to demonstrate faith." And I said again and again and again, "The Lord will take care of me." And why didn't he? And Saint Peter looked at him and said, "Merciful heavens, man, who sent you three boats?"

00:19:19.520 - 00:19:36.600

Well this generous gift of the steward of God is that kind of boat for us. It's going to help a lot in the time of the flood. I believe that God does take care of Christians in the time of trial and that's the reason I will not surrender.

00:19:36.600 - 00:19:49.640

I may die in the effort but I'm not going to quit. And why? Because of this promise. I will take care of you in the hour of need, in the hour of trial.

00:19:49.640 - 00:20:05.000

And finally, Jesus says to the loyal, "I will make you a pillar in the temple of God." You've heard that expression. She's a real pillar in the church. That comes out of this reference in Revelation and it also comes out of a reference in Galatians

00:20:05.000 - 00:20:22.520

chapter 2 where Peter, James, and John are described as pillars of the church. A pillar of the church, of course, is someone who supports it, who upholds it, who undergirds it. Now, in Asia Minor, where this Philadelphian church was located, it was the custom when

00:20:22.520 - 00:20:43.600

some priest who had been particularly dedicated to the service of his God died, they would erect a pillar in the temple of whatever God was his and that pillar would have his name upon it, representing his service across the years. So Jesus, knowing that that was a common activity there, says, "I am going to make you Christians

00:20:43.600 - 00:21:03.080

-- pillars in the temple of the one true God and you will have upon you the badge of your loyalty." Now, this is a very interesting picture because, remember, I pointed out at the beginning of our conversation this morning that Philadelphia for a long time was susceptible to particularly

00:21:03.080 - 00:21:18.160

serious earthquakes. I don't know if you've ever lived through an earthquake or not, but believe me, there's no experience to match it. Sitting in the living room and all of a sudden you hear the chandelier out in the dining

00:21:18.160 - 00:21:36.520

room start to tinkle and wiggle back and forth. And you go to bed and you wake up with someone vibrating your bed, you think. And you try to get out of the bed and the movement of the building throws you back into the bed and you lie there literally holding on while you hear your cupboard and your medicine

00:21:36.520 - 00:21:47.880

chest popping open and all of the dishes and all of the bottles falling into the sinks and onto the floor, smashing. You can hear that all about you. And you try to look out the window and you see brilliant green and blue flashes for where

00:21:47.880 - 00:22:05.560

the power lines are being torn off the power poles. Sometimes earthquakes come in a kind of rolling motion. You always know about those in advance because the dogs and the cats start howling and screeching. They can hear the sound of it before we can.

00:22:05.560 - 00:22:26.600

But sometimes an earthquake comes with just one slamming sharp jolt. The church I serve in California held a jolt like that. Fifty-five seconds and a million eight hundred thousand dollars worth of church building had crumbled into dust.

00:22:26.600 - 00:22:45.160

The work of forty-seven years had fallen into dust. That's what an earthquake is. Jesus said to the loyal, "You will stand in the pillar. You will have the serenity of your sanctity and you will have the fixity of your faith."

00:22:45.160 - 00:22:57.160

It reminds you of that great passage in 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul is talking about the resurrection and he says, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O brave, where is thy sting?

00:22:57.160 - 00:23:18.440

Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Be ye dead fast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Pillars in the temple of God." That's the promise to the Lord.

00:23:18.440 - 00:23:37.440

Phil, a lot of you have heard of the Boston Marathon. It's probably the most famous marathon in America. If you win the Boston Marathon, you're up there with a top class athlete. Back in 1980, the first woman to cross the finish line was a woman named Rosie Ruiz.

00:23:37.440 - 00:23:49.440

She came in first. They put the laurel wreath on her head and she had the applause of the crowd and the television cameras were focused on her. People were saying, "Isn't it remarkable?

00:23:49.440 - 00:24:02.440

This is the first marathon she's ever run and she won it. First woman to cross." Then someone noticed that her legs had a lot of cellulite, a lot of loose flesh there. You don't see that on a runner's legs.

00:24:02.440 - 00:24:19.440

And somebody else observed that no one had seen her running during the course of the race. And then it was discovered that she actually had come into the race only in the last mile. She denied it. She said it wasn't true and she said, "To prove it, I'll run the race again."

00:24:19.440 - 00:24:40.440

But for some strange reason, she never did. She was a liar and the truth was not in it. There are people in the church who try to be like Rosie Ruiz. They come on Sundays and they smile and maybe occasionally they will involve themselves

00:24:40.440 - 00:24:54.440

in some conspicuous act of discipleship. But there's no passion there. There's no courage there. There's none of that which enables them to stand when everything else falls.

00:24:54.440 - 00:25:07.440

Jesus says of such ones that they have their reward. And the loyal? The loyal, they're the people of the open door. They're the one who God keeps in the hour of trial.

00:25:07.440 - 00:25:15.440

They're the ones who, like pillars, stand strong and steady. They run the race. They finish the course. They keep the faith.

00:25:15.440 - 00:25:33.440

They receive the crown. And they hear the words ultimately spoken by God to all those who are loyal, the words which will last forever in a day. They hear those words and those words become the greatest joy of their hearts and of their spirits.

00:25:33.440 - 00:26:08.440

And those words are these, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Let us pray. O God, by your Holy Spirit, move in our lives so that we might be loyal. If we have already discovered enough of these to have strength of spirit,

00:26:08.440 - 00:26:25.440

bless us and help us to share that with others. And if we are those who have been play-acting at religion, then call us to a confrontation with the witness of the lawyer and lead us to commit ourselves above and beyond any commitments we've ever made before.

00:26:25.440 - 00:26:53.440

On this Loyalty Sunday, on this Sunday when we begin our celebration of the coming of thy son to be with us, to die for us, to rise again and to claim us for his own, on this Sunday, Lord, speak to our hearts, claim them and possess them with loyalty. We'll give thee the honor and the glory forever and ever.

00:26:53.440 - 00:27:00.440

Amen. [Applause]