• At the beginning of Revelation there are 2 things mentioned

Revelation 1:1 (ESV): The revelation of Jesus Christ…

o This book is about one thing—Jesus

o Revelation – disclosure of truth—Jesus is disclosing truth

Revelation 1:5 (NIV): Jesus Christ, who is the faithful [and true] witness…

o Witness = someone who proves or substantiates information—in legal, historical, and ethical sense

• We can count on Jesus words and depend on them.

• Church at Philadelphia

o This church is commended for their strength and courage in the face of adversity

• How can we remain strong and steadfast when we face adversity from people and circumstances?

Faithfulness

Revelation 3:7–10 (NIV): “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.”

o It’s not what you have that makes you strong—it’s who has you

Faith grows through adversity

James 1:3–4 (NLT): For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

1 Peter 1:6-7 (AMP) In this you rejoice greatly, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, which is much more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested and purified by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

God provides

Revelation 3:7 (NIV): “These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

Tribulation

Revelation 3:10 (NIV): “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world…”

 How to endure patiently: 1). Little is a lot with Jesus. 2). Faith grows through adversity. 3). God provides

Perseverance

Revelation 3:11 (NIV): “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have…”

• Don’t let go of God’s promises

The Reward

Revelation 3:11–12 (NIV): “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.”

Jeremiah 17:7–8 (NLT): But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.

The Blessing

Revelation 3:6 (NIV): “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

• The blessing is not in hearing a sermon/message/reading God’s Word—it comes from obeying it

James 1:22–25 (NIV): Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

o We need not to forget who we are representing—JESUS!