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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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. 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.
Revelation 3:9-10
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
There was an old rock and roll song written and performed by Tom Petty that had this simple phrase as a tag:
“The waiting is the hardest part.”
Perhaps, I think we call can attest to this in our own lives because there are so many things we go through that don’t offer up instant gratification. There isn’t a place anywhere that you can pull up to a drive through, ask for whatever you want, and then pull up to a window and get it.
The truth of the matter is that we so often need to wait and do so with patient endurance for things to work themselves out. This applies to financial issues, relationship issues, employment issues, or any other flavor of issues we might encounter.
As we turn to our continued look at Jesus’ words to the church of Philadelphia, we find Him shining a spotlight on this matter of endurance and the need to wait with patience. Look again at His words here:
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. 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. Vv. 9-10
Like we have seen in the previous five letters, Jesus was well aware that persecution was happening in a big way and impacting the church. Here, we find Him letting the Christians in Philadelphia know that He knew all about the persecutors, those He referred to as “the synagogue of Satan”, a group of people who falsely claimed “to be Jews” but were “liars”. Note that these religious hypocrites would one day submit to the Christ followers in Philadelphia, falling down before them and confessing that they had truly been loved by the One who they professed as their Savior. This continues to lend to another common theme Jesus shares in these letters, the assurance of victory for all those who place their belief and trust in Him.
As this passage closes, we see that Jesus adds one more reward for the Philadelphia believers, one resulting for their willingness to endure with patience, just as He commanded. For He promises that they would be kept “from the hour of trial” that He would one day bring “on the whole world” so “to test the inhabitants of the earth”.
Now, for this to be true, it means that the Christians in Philadelphia would need to be removed from the earth before the hour of trial occurred and this would happen at the time of the Rapture, a time we read about in detail within Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Here’s what we read in the fourth chapter between verses 13 and 18:
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s Word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Before things get really bad here on earth in the run up to Jesus’ return, He will take away all those who placed their faith and hope in Him, those who served Him while waiting with patience endurance for things to play out just as He promised they would. Indeed, those Christians who were dead in Christ will rise first to join Jesus in the air and then those alive in Him will soar up to join them before being ushered away and protected until He returns again to judge the earth and all unbelievers who were left behind.
Friends, like the church in Philadelphia more than 2,000 years ago, we too might struggle through life problems, spiritual or otherwise, but in the midst of our challenges, I pray that we will look to the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act in His perfect way and in His perfect time. As believers, let us be encouraged and lifted up by these words, for now and until that day when Jesus comes to rescue His disciples from the coming trial He will bring on the world.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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