TO: Church at Philadelphia
FROM: Him who is Holy and True --
He Who has the key of David --
He who opens
and no one shall shut
and shuts and no one shall open
1. I know your doings:
a. You have but a little power
b. You have kept My word and have not disowned Me
c. You have kept the word for which I suffered
2. I have put a door wide open in front of you which no
one can shut.
3. I will cause some belonging to the devil’s synagogue
who say they themselves are Jews and are not but
are liars -- I will make them come and prostrate
themselves before your feet and know for certain that
I have loved you.
4. I will keep you from that hour of trial which is soon
coming upon the whole world to put to the test the
inhabitants of the earth.
5. I am coming quickly.
6. Hold fast to that which you already possess so that your
crown of victory be not taken from you.
7. As for the victor -- I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary
of My God and he shall never go out from it again.
8. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of
the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which is to come
down out of heaven from My God, and My own new
name.
9. Let all who have ears give heed to what the Spirit is
saying to the churches.
NOTES AND RELATING SCRIPTURES:
- Philadelphia was founded by the citizens of Pergamos. The community was built in a frontier
area as a gateway to the central plateau of Asia Minor. Philadelphia kept barbarians out of
the region and brought in Greek culture and language. An earthquake destroyed the city in
AD 17 and aftershock kept the people so worried that most of them lived outside the city
limits. (LB)
- Philadelphia received its name in memory of Attalus II, king of Pergamum who was called
Philadelphus (lover of his brother) because of his devotion to his brother and predecessor
- Promise of open door
- Small but significant; a church with great opportunity
- Key - symbol of authority
- Key of David - kingdom
- Only two churches got no rebuke: Smyrna and Philadelphia
- both are small and of little strength
- both are enduring persecution
- both have the same enemies: the natural Jews of the day
- there one difference: Smyrna spends all her spiritual strength withstanding
persecution; Philadelphia still has opportunity to spread the gospel
- Both Smyrna and Philadelphia are small and of little strength, both are enduring persecution
and both have the same enemies: the natural Jews of the day. There seems to be one
difference between them: the church in Smyrna evidently spends all her spiritual strength in
withstanding persecution, while the Philadelphia church still has opportunity to spread the
gospel and gain converts, especially from among the Jews in the city. (TB)
- Characterized by zeal for the Lord’s cause and a determination to extend the Kingdom of God
- Today’s church often forgets that it has little strength in itself. Let us remember we cannot
open and shut without the Lord
- In Philadelphia all that remains of the Christian church is one pillar. And In Revelation,
Jesus said, “he who overcomes, I will make a pillar....and to never be removed.”
- Command: hold on, I am coming
- Counsel: aspire to be a pillar in God’s temple
- The Spirit says: they must remember they cannot rely on their own strength; the vision
of the King of kings must always be before the church - eyes on Him
3:7 “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.”
- He Who is Holy – The Holy One of Israel (JFB)
- True – as distinguished from the false gods and from all those who say that they are
- Key of house of David - indicating supreme headship or absolute authority (WNT)
- Key of David – The regal right or authority of David. David could shut or open the kingdom
of Israel to whom he pleased. The Kingdom of the gospel and the kingdom of Heaven are
at the disposal of Christ. He can shut against whom He will; He can open to whom He
pleases. (AC)
- Key of David – Christ is the Davidic Messiah with authority to control entrance to the
- It rests with Christ to open or shut the heavenly palace, deciding who is, and who is not,
- Acts of His government: He opens, He shuts (MH)
- He opens a door of opportunity to His churches; He opens a door of entrance, opens the
heart; and He opens a door of admission into the church triumphant (MH)
- When He pleases, He shuts the door of opportunity, and He shuts the door of heaven
against the workers of iniquity (MH)
- The way and manner in which He performs these acts is absolute sovereignty. When He
works, none can hinder. (MH)
References: Acts 3:14 (But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you);
1 John 5:20 (And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know
Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life);
Isaiah 9:7 (Of the increase of His government and peace no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of
hosts will perform this); 22:22 (The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no
one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open); Matthew 16:19 (and I will give you the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven); Job 12:14 (If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; if He imprisons a
man, there can be no release)
3:8 “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, which no one can
shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
- Door - The eye as a mere organ of sense must give place to the ear. Therefore it is wittily
observed, that our Savior commanding the abscession of the offending hand, foot, and eye,
yet never spoke of the ear. If your hand, your foot, or your eye, cause you to offend, deprive
yourself of them; but part not with your ear, for that is an organ to derive unto your soul’s
salvation. As Christ says there, a man may enter into heaven, lamed in his feet, as
Mephibosheth, blind in his sight, as Barzillai, maimed in his hand, as the dry-handed man in
the gospel; but if there be not an ear to hear of the way, there will be no foot to enter into
heaven. If God be not first in the ear, He is neither sanctifiedly in the mouth, nor comfortably
in the heart. The Jews had eyes to see Christ’s miracles, but because they had no ears to
hear His wisdom, therefore they had no feet to enter into his kingdom. The way into the house
is by the door, not by the window; the eye is but the window of the heart, the ear is the door.
Now Christ stands knocking at the door, not at the window. Now Christ stands knocking at the
door, not at the window. And He will not come in at the window but at the door.... The way to
open and let Him in is by the door; to hear His voice. Bernard has this description of a good
ear: Which willingly hears what is taught, wisely understands what it hears, and obediently
practices what it understands. (Thomas Adams)
References: Revelation 3:1; 1 Corinthians 16:9 (For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are
many adversaries); Acts 14:27
3:9 “Indeed I will give those of the synagogue of satan, who say they are Jews and
are not, but lie -- indeed I will make them come before and worship before your feet,
and to know that I have loved you.
- The promise to Philadelphia is larger than that to Smyrna. To Smyrna the promise was that
“the synagogue of satan” should not prevail against the faithful in her; to Philadelphia, that
she should even win over some of “the synagogue of satan” (JFB)
- This is an instance of how Christ set before her an “open door”, some of her greatest
adversaries, the Jews, being brought to the obedience of the faith (JFB)
- Worshipping before her feet – expresses the convert’s willingness to take the very lowest
place in the Church, doing servile honor to those whom once they persecuted, rather than
dwell with the ungodly. (JFB)
References: Revelation 2:9; Isaiah 45;14 (Thus says the Lord: “The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush and
of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours; they shall walk behind you, they
shall bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other; there
is no other God.’”; 49:23 (Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow
down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they
shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.); 60:14 (Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and
all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you The City of the Lord, Zion
of the Holy One of Israel); Isaiah 43:4 (Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will
give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life); John 17:23 (I in them, and Thou in Me, that
they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and dist love them, even as Thou
didst love Me.)
3:10 “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from
the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole inhabited earth, to tempt those
who dwell on the earth.
- Persevere – steadfastness (NAS)
- Hour of trail – hour of temptation – a time of sore and peculiar trial which might have proved
too much for their strength (AC)
- Hour of trail – hour of temptation – the appointed season of affliction and temptation (JFB)
- The temptation brings out the fidelity of those kept by Christ and hardens the unbelieving
References: 2 Peter 2:9 (then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust
under punishment for the day of judgment); Luke 2;1 (And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from
Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered); Isaiah 24:17 (fear and the pit and the snare are upon you,
O inhabitant of the earth); John 17:6; 2 Timothy 2:12 (If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He
also will deny us); Matthew 24:14
3:11 “I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
References: Philippians 4:5 (Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand); Revelation 2:25; 2:10
3:12 “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God; and he shall
go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My
God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will
write on him My new name.
- Pillar - a place of permanent importance and dignity in the spiritual temple of God (WNT)
- Go no more out – never more at all (JFB)
- Write on him – as belonging to God in a peculiar sense; and especially therefore secure. As
the name of Jehovah (Holiness to the Lord) was on the golden plate on the high priest’s forehead;
so the saints in their heavenly royal priesthood shall bear His name openly, as consecrated to
Him. (JFB)
- As overcomer he has a triple name inscribed on him: (Z)
1. The name of God, who owns him for a son
2. The name of the city of God, among whose burgesses he is enrolled
3. The name of Christ his Lord
- Name of city – as one of its citizens; the saint’s citizenship is now hidden, but then it shall be
manifested. (JFB)
- New Jerusalem – not the old Jerusalem, once called ‘the holy city’ but having forfeited the
- There is here an intimation that the Christian Church is to endure forever, and the Christian
ministry to last as long as time endures (AC)
- The New Jerusalem is the future dwelling of the people of God (LB)
- My new name – at present incommunicable and only known to God; to be hereafter revealed
and made the believer’s own in union with God in Christ. Christ’s name written on him denotes
he shall be wholly Christ’s. (JFB)
- New – also relates to Christ, who shall assume a new character (answering to His ‘new name’)
entering with His saints on a kingdom—not that which He had with the Father before the worlds,
but that earned by His humiliation as Son of man. (JFB)
References: 1 Kings 7:21 (Then he set up the pillars by the vestibule of the temple; he set up the pillar on the right and
called its name Jachin, and he set up the pillar on the left and called its name Boaz); Psalm 23:6 (Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever); Revelation 14:1; 22:4;
Hebrews 12:22 (But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an
innumerable company of angels); Revelation 21:2; 2:17; 22:4; Jeremiah 1:18 (Now behold, I have made you today
as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its
princes, to its priests and to the people of the land); Galatians 2:9(….James and Cephas and John, who were reputed
to be pillars….); Ezekiel 48:35 (….and the name of the city….’The Lord is there); Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 13:14
(For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come)
3:13 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’
- Ear – hear – incline your ear – submit and consent to the divine will – Isaiah 55:3 Amplified
- The eye as a mere organ of sense must give place to the ear. Therefore it is wittily observed,
that our Savior commanding the abscission of the offending hand, foot, and eye, yet never
spoke of the ear. If your hand, your foot, or your eye, cause you to offend, deprive yourself
of them; but part not with your ear, for that is an organ to derive unto your soul’s salvation.
As Christ says there, a man may enter into heaven, lamed in his feet, as Mephibosheth, blind
in his sight, as Barzillai, maimed in his hand, as the dry-handed man in the gospel; but if there
be not an ear to hear of the way, there will be no foot to enter into heaven. If God be not first
in the ear, He is neither sanctifiedly in the mouth, nor comfortably in the heart. The Jews had
eyes to see Christ’s miracles, but because they had no ears to hear His wisdom, therefore they
had no feet to enter into his kingdom. The way into the house is by the door, not by the window;
the eye is but the window of the heart, the ear is the door. Now Christ stands knocking at the
door, not at the window. Now Christ stands knocking at the door, not at the window. And He
will not come in at the window but at the door.... The way to open and let Him in is by the door;
to hear His voice. Bernard has this description of a good ear: Which willingly hears what is
taught, wisely understands what it hears, and obediently practices what it understands.
(Thomas Adams)
- What does the Spirit say? Being of little outward strength, in the task that they are called to
perform and the tribulation to be suffered, this church must remember that they cannot rely
on their own strength. (TB)
References: Revelation 2:7