THE PHILADELPHIA CHURCH

By Don Flora

“And to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia write….”

There are many passages in the Old Testament we may interpret to fit the end-time
church. That is all very well in its place. But in the second and third chapters of
Revelation we do not have to interpret in order to know that we are seeing the seven-fold
church of this dispensation. Here is no parable. The plain facts are laid out for all to see,
and a church is called a church, so there is no chance of confusing it with national Israel
or the millennial kingdom. No guesswork or spiritualising is required. We find here seven
churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, in
that order. Now, we know that the number seven is a typical number in Bible study,
signifying perfection or completeness. These seven churches represent the entire church
age. When the curtain rings down on the Laodiceans, that’s it for this dispensation. If our
theories of the church haven’t been fulfilled by then, we will just have to change our
theories. The present grace age ends with Laodicean apostasy.
To understand the things of the end-time church, we would logically turn to the Lord’s
words to the Laodiceans. But when we do, we meet absolute disappointment. Jesus had
not one good thing to say for them!

Instead of a church in revival, we find a church with Jesus on the outside, knocking to get
in. Instead of a powerful, holy church, we find a church with a man fearing spirit, afraid
to preach the truth. Where is our hoped-for “end-time revival”? Not here. You have heard
of the falling away; this is it.

In vain we search for a hint of our beloved “outpouring of the Spirit” or the “greater
works”, but the Scripture remains silent. Where is the recovery of New Testament
practice? Where is the restoration of gifts, miracles and prophecy, and souls being swept
into the kingdom on a tidal wave of revival? Where are the “Sons of God”?

Oh, we don’t want the church to end this way! We love the church – but we cannot deny
the plain word of God.
In Revelation 3:20, Jesus holds out hope of personal fellowship with Himself, but to
individuals only, not to the church as a body. In verse 21, He offers to share His throne
with the overcomers, but that is for the next dispensation. Is there no real hope for the
church before the end of this age? Before we become discouraged, let’s study these seven
churches again, starting at the beginning and remembering that they represent the
complete Christian church – if we don’t find “end-time revival” here, we will have to
conclude that we have been misinterpreting prophecy.
Historically, the church ages can be divided approximately as follows. The church of
Ephesus represents the early church, under the apostolic fathers. They had great spiritual
knowledge and accomplishment, but they began to leave their first love.
The church of Smyrna stands for the early martyrs, persecuted and slain by the Roman
Empire. This is one of only two churches that Jesus did not reprove. Nothing more can be
asked than to love enough to die.
The Pergamos period began more or less under the emperor Constantine, and is
characterized by idolatry and the rise of the clerical system. This is the beginning of
Mystery Babylon.
The church of Thyatira saw the establishment of Roman Catholicism. Thyatira itself does
not stand for Romanism, but they “suffered that woman Jezebel”. The saints of this
period somehow allowed the papacy to gain supremacy.
The church of Sardis, in a sense, is a new beginning. It represents the period of protestant
denominations. Although these received much light from God in their beginnings, yet
their works have not been found perfect before Him. Some are dead, and the others are
dying (Rev. 3:1,2).
The Philadelphia church is sandwiched between Sardis and Laodicea, or between our
present day denominational system and final apostasy. It is here that we must look for
any mighty end-time moving of God’s Spirit, since the former are spoken of as lifeless,
and the latter as hopeless.
As we all know, the word Philadelphia means “Love of the Brethren”. This is the very
church Jesus was talking about when He said, “By this shall all men know that you are
My disciples, if you have love one to another” (John 13:35).

There may be mighty signs and wonders and gifts of healing in the Philadelphia church,
but what Jesus commended them for was their love, and their patience, and their keeping
of His word, and their honouring of His Name.
The end-time revival we need is not necessarily a revival of power and glory, but a
revival of Christian love. The restoration we look for is not first a restoration of gifts or
patterns of things, but a restoration of Holy Spirit inspired love. The true church of Jesus
Christ is a church whose basic essence is love – love for God, love for the brethren and
love for the unsaved. This is obviously not the church we know today. The division and
lack of love between the different protestant groups is scandalous.

What an overcomer in any age needs to overcome is that which has overcome the church
in general in his particular time. To come into the Philadelphia church, the Sardis
overcomer must overcome his sectarianism. The spirit of modern denominations is the
direct antithesis of the spirit of brotherly love in the one Body of Christ.
Almost everyone has read the account of the Philadelphia church and felt the thrill of
anticipation surging in his breast as he sensed in it the height of Christian expression in
this age. In a sense, it is a perfect church, because in the written record Jesus Himself
found no fault in it.

In every church period, Satan has one main weapon which he uses to crush the victorious
Spirit of Christ in the church. In our day this weapon is protestant sectarianism. God
wants fellowship, but denominations want membership. Christ wants His Body united
and guided into all of the truth, but sects want to maintain their status quo. Oh, that we
could see this! Just as the church needed Luther to break the yoke of Rome, so today we
need someone, sent of God, to break the yoke of sectarianism.
When Christians are set free to love one another and grow in grace and knowledge
through an unhindered flow of Spirit-anointed ministry, then the Body begins to grow
with that glorious “increase of God” (Col. 2:19), Nor does such indiscriminate love of the
brethren mean namby-pambiness. Love will warn the unruly and admonish the heretic
(division-causer). Yes, and love will accept the tare as unquestioningly as the eleven
accepted Judas. In a true church there will be tares, those of the synagogue of Satan, who
say they are Jews and are not. But we do not need to fear false brethren, or wolves; this is
the responsibility of the Great Shepherd. If we are not ready to trust Jesus with our
salvation and Christian experience, we are not ready for the glorious Philadelphia church.

“Love never fails and it covers a multitude of sins”. We are beginning to see at last that
the Church of Brotherly Love is indeed the powerful end-time church our hearts are
seeking. There will be gifts of the Spirit, but operating in love. There will be discipline
and authority, but administered in love. There will be doctrine, but taught in love. And
there will be souls saved, but not to be instilled with ‘our doctrine’ (and warned against
all others), but to be instilled with the love of Christ.

The promise of Jesus to this church is terrific in its simplicity. “Behold, I have set before
you an open door, and no man can shut it.” If we let the love of Christ be shed abroad in
our hearts, there will be an open door to the hearts of others in this hour.

Come, let us look beyond the works of man to that church which Christ is building – the
Church of Brotherly Love. Let us be caught up in the joy of His love and then labour
“with all saints” …. till Jesus comes!

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