Let us turn to Revelation 3. We shall read the letters to Philadelphia and Laodicea. I shall read one letter, and my brother shall read the other.
Revelation 3:14-22
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God:
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of My mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eye salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
These seven letters were received by John from the risen Lord on the island of Patmos. According to history, at that time in the province of Asia there were these seven churches. Our Lord was walking among them, and He discovered their condition. He wrote to them according to what He saw.
But we know that, from the standpoint of prophecy, these seven churches represent the churches throughout the ages.
First of all, Ephesus represents the church at the end of the apostolic time. We see that, at that time, the first love was lost. So the Lord called them to repent and to return.
Because our Lord is love. Without love, all things are vanity of vanities. Only love can satisfy His heart. Besides love, nothing else will touch Him.
The church at Smyrna represents the suffering church in the second and third centuries, from the standpoint of prophecy. In their tribulation, the Lord told them to be faithful unto death.
The church at Pergamum represents the churches from the fourth century to the sixth century. At that time, outwardly, there was a great change. The believers were originally suppressed, but now they were welcomed by the world.
From that point, Christianity changed its nature. At the beginning there were faithful ones who, because they were faithful to the Lord, became martyrs. Then we saw that the teachings of the Nicolaitans came into the church.
From a prophetic standpoint, the church at Thyatira represents the church from the sixth century to the sixteenth century, and continuing until now. This is the condition that we see in Roman Catholicism.
You see, the simplicity of God was completely lost. We see the complexity of man filling Christianity at that time. When people talked about mysterious things, they were actually talking about the depths of Satan. Those are not the mysteries of God.
The mystery of God is plain to those who are simple. The one who is wise in his own eyes, and who has his own human wisdom, cannot see the mystery of God. But if one has the mind and heart of a baby, humble and simple before God, the mystery of God will be revealed to him.
So the Lord calls us into the simplicity of Christ.
From a prophetic standpoint, Sardis represents the churches beginning from the sixteenth century, particularly the so-called Reformed churches. In the sixteenth century, there was a great movement in Europe that we call the Reformation.
At the beginning, it was indeed a reaction of God to the condition of Thyatira. At that time, one particular thing was an open Bible.
In the past, the Bible was chained, and the Bible was written in classical languages. Regular people could not understand it. At that time, the Bible was translated into various languages. Also, in the sovereignty of God, the printing press was invented.
In the past, the Bible had to be copied by hand. If you copied it by hand, you could only produce a limited number, and it was very expensive. Ordinary people could not afford it. Not only could they not understand Latin, Greek, or Hebrew; they were not qualified to have a Bible. So the Word of God was hidden.
But we thank Him and praise God. At the beginning of the Reformation movement, one of the greatest things was that the Bible was translated into the native languages. The Bible could also be printed in large quantities. Ordinary people could now read the Bible and see what the Word of God was from the Bible.
Another crucial truth was justification by faith. At that time, what salvation meant was not clear at all. People thought they had to perform good works in order to be saved. So Martin Luther and his companions rose up and said that we are saved by faith.
At the beginning, it was alive. But before long, only the name remained, and the reality was lost. Today we see the condition of Protestantism, and it is like the condition written in the letter to Sardis. We have lost the sincerity before the Lord.
So our Lord calls us to go back to His sincerity and not fall into the hypocrisy of man.
Today we want to look at the last two letters. Again, according to the prophetic standpoint, we can say that the church at Philadelphia represents the Brethren movement in the nineteenth century.
We know that in the nineteenth century there was a great movement. In history, we call it the Brethren movement. But if you read ordinary church histories—the official church histories—you may not even find the Brethren movement.
But we know that, in fact, at that time there was a great movement. At the beginning, there were only a few. They were not willing to belong to any denomination. They wanted to have fellowship with all the brothers and sisters of God.
For this reason, all these denominations rejected them. So at the beginning there were only a few people. In Dublin, Ireland, a few of them gathered in a house, broke bread, and remembered the Lord.
From that point, the Brethren movement started, and they called themselves brothers. Many among them were very learned people, while some were ordinary people. But when they gathered together, none of these distinctions came in. They were brothers among themselves. They loved the brotherhood.
For twenty years, this movement moved from Dublin to Europe and to other places. This is the Brethren movement. But, very regrettably, after twenty years there were problems among them. That is not the subject of my sharing today.
But in reality, Philadelphia did not begin in the nineteenth century. If you read church history, you see from the first century until the twentieth century the condition of brotherly love here and there. But from the prophetic standpoint, we say that this movement began in the nineteenth century.
The church at Laodicea refers, from the prophetic standpoint, to the church in the twentieth century, particularly when our Lord is about to return. We see the condition of being neither hot nor cold, satisfied among ourselves. This is the condition of Laodicea.
This represents the condition existing in the twentieth century.
When we gather together and share, we are not reading the seven churches merely according to history, nor merely from the standpoint of prophecy. We want to read the seven letters from the standpoint of spiritual condition.
Although there are seven letters, and each one was written specifically to a church, at the end of each letter it says, “What the Spirit saith to the churches.” So we see the church throughout the ages. The conditions described in these seven letters all prevail.
Therefore, what the Spirit says to the churches is what the Spirit says to us today. What He said to the church at Ephesus, He says to us. What He said to Smyrna, He says to us. What He said to Philadelphia, He says to us. What He said to Laodicea, He says to us. So we have to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear.
We say that there is a close relationship between the church at Philadelphia and the church represented by Laodicea. Philadelphia means brotherly love. Laodicea means the opinions of many.
Laodicea came to be because of the corruption of Philadelphia. Originally, it was Philadelphia; but when Philadelphia fell, Laodicea came in. So we have to see these two things together.
Among the seven churches, only Philadelphia satisfies the heart of God. The Lord said to Philadelphia, “I have loved thee.” To this church, the Lord has only praise. The Lord did not rebuke it, because when He came to that church, He found Himself.
He saw the position of Himself among them. He saw His own character manifested there. He saw His own glory being expressed. This church satisfies the heart of our Lord because the condition of this particular church is completely consistent with our Lord.
The Lord reveals Himself to the church in Philadelphia as the Holy One. He is the Holy One.
When we talk about holiness, particularly in Chinese and even in English, there is only one word: holy. But in Chinese there are two words: holy and clean. In our concept, we have put much emphasis on cleanliness, but we have a lighter concept of holiness.
We know that the opposite of holiness is not sin. The opposite of sin is righteousness, and the opposite of righteousness is sin. But the opposite of holiness is commonness.
Of course, holiness includes our sanctification, but the emphasis speaks of character. Our God is holy. God is holy because He is not common. He is not usual. He is different from everybody else.
You cannot compare anything with Him. He is unique, and there is none other. He is the highest. Nothing can be at the same level as Him. This is our God, brothers and sisters.
Today, in our concept, we have almost lost the concept of the holiness of God. Yes, our Lord is Someone to whom we can draw near, and we can love Him. But let us not forget that our God is also the Most Holy One.
Particularly in our generation, we see a condition among God’s children. On the one hand, it is good; on the other hand, it is a real shortcoming.
In an older generation, we saw a condition of fear toward God. Perhaps they had not known God enough. Their concept of God was that God was far away, high above them. Yet they had an attitude of fear and respect toward God.
Coming to our generation, we thank and praise God that we have begun to see that God loves us and that He is our Father. Our Lord loves us; He is our elder Brother.
But because we are so close to Him, we have lost an attitude of fear and respect. When we come together before Him, we may become casual. When we pray, we may simply say, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” and not call Him “Lord Jesus.”
On the one hand, we are very close to Him, and we may even speak of our Lord Jesus as our Brother. On the other hand, our concept that God is holy has been almost completely lost. We have lost a heart of respect and fear before God.
For this reason, we have let our lives become loose. We think it does not matter, because He is love. We think it does not matter, because the Lord will pardon us. So we become loose in our own lives.
Brothers and sisters, we have to remember that our God is holy.
When you read the Bible, you see that in heaven all the seraphim cry out day and night:
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:
The whole earth is full of His glory.
Our God is One with whom no one can be compared. Because He is holy, He is unique. If we can see this, then we can worship Him.
Today in the church there is a great shortcoming: we do not know what worship is. If we want to worship, we have to see that our Lord is the Holy One.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah could not be placed on the same level as our Lord. God removed Moses and Elijah and said:
This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.
He is the Holy One. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. We know that our Lord is holy, and because He is holy, He has separated us to be holy.
Originally, we were in the world and mixed with the world. But because He is holy, He has separated us to come back to Himself. He said, “Ye shall be holy.” You cannot be mixed with the world. You cannot have other things mixed in you. You cannot put man on the same level as God.
You have to worship Him with your whole heart, because He is your Lord. He is your God. He is the Most Holy One. We can only fall down before Him. We can only be obedient to Him in all things.
In Philadelphia, they knew God to be holy. So they separated themselves, and they absolutely surrendered before the Lord. In their hearts, only the Lord was holy. Nothing else could be at the same level. All things were under the feet of the Lord.
So the Lord found Himself in the church at Philadelphia.
The Lord said, “I am the true One. I am the truth.” Our Lord is the true God. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the truth.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
Here we see what truth is. Truth does not only mean that a doctrine is correct. The meaning of truth in the original language is reality—reality.
Our God is the only spiritual reality in the universe. Our Lord is that spiritual reality. Only in the Holy Spirit can we touch that spiritual reality. Everything else is but vanity.
The letter to the Romans says that only God is true and every man a liar. When Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes, he said, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
What is reality? Reality is the eternal One. Reality is the One who does not fade away. Reality is the One who remains forever. It will never change. That is reality.
All other things will pass away. The world and the things of the world will pass away. Because they are going to pass away, they are not truth. They are not reality.
If we want to lay hold of reality, we can only come before God, because He is that reality. Only He can give us reality.
Anything that is not out of Christ Himself and not from His life is not reality. Anything that is not the result or fruit of the Holy Spirit is not reality. In the eyes of God, those things are false.
Whatever is not from God cannot go back to God. Only what comes from God can go back to God. Only things that are of Christ can be united with Christ, as Eve was united to Adam because she was taken out of Adam.
Only things that come out of the Holy Spirit can go back to God.
Our Lord is that spiritual truth. Only when you touch Christ in life and in the Spirit can there come out from within you spiritual reality. All other things are vanity of vanities.
Brothers and sisters, every day we try to grasp things that are not there. When that day comes, many things will be burned up by fire. What is the praise of man? What is success in the eyes of man? These things cannot go back to the Lord.
But in the church at Philadelphia, the Lord found spiritual reality. They despised all things that were out of Christ. They pursued Christ Himself. What they experienced was Christ. What they knew was not only the doctrine of Christ.
From the Word of Christ, they entered into the living Christ. That satisfies the heart of our Lord.
The Lord says that He is the One who holds the key of David. When He opens, nobody can close; when He closes, nobody can open.
David represents the kingdom. He represents the throne and authority. So when we say that our Lord has the key of David in His hand, we mean that the kingdom belongs to Him. The kingdom of God belongs to Him. He has the authority.
He can open the door and let people come in. He can shut the door, and man cannot come in. It is our Lord who tells us how we can enter into the kingdom of heaven.
If you read Matthew 5, 6, and 7, He tells us what kind of people can enter His kingdom. He shall open the door to heaven.
In Matthew, when you enter into the kingdom of heaven, you have to enter by violence. Only the violent take it. What does this mean?
Today, when we hear the word violence, we think it is something bad. But this is a neutral word; it depends on how you use it. If you are violent against another person, that is not good. But if you are violent against yourself, this is the condition for entering into the kingdom.
The Lord says that if one cannot deny himself, he cannot follow Him. To deny yourself is to be violent toward yourself. Who does not love himself? Who is not mindful of himself?
But if you deny yourself, you deny your own opinions. You deny what you claim for yourself. You deny what you like. If you are right, you need to deny your own rights. You even deny your life.
The Word says that, for His name’s sake, he who loses his life shall have life. This is the meaning of violence here.
The Lord has opened the door. If we want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we have to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Then it pleases Him to give the kingdom to us.
In the church at Philadelphia, the people there acknowledged the Lord as their David. They took the Lord to be their King.
Brothers and sisters, when our Lord came to earth, He came to be King. The book of Matthew says that He was born to be King. Today, our Lord Jesus is our King.
We thank God that we know Him to be our Savior. But do we know that He came not only to be our Savior, but also to be our King? Only when we see Him as our King do we submit under His authority.
Do we live today in the kingdom of heaven? If today we are ruled by heaven, and the kingdom of God comes down to earth, then we can be members of it. There we can reign with our Lord for one thousand years.
Men can close doors on earth. They can close the door to the meeting hall. They can close the door of the synagogue and cast out those who believe in the Lord. But the Lord says, “When I open, nobody can close.”
Do you want to enter the door of the synagogue, or do you want to enter the door of the heavenly kingdom?
In Philadelphia, there was such a condition: they acknowledged Christ to be their King. They allowed Christ to have authority over them. Therefore, the kingdom was given to them.
In the church at Philadelphia, they had brotherly love. Philadelphia means brotherly love.
But today, we do not want to be brothers. We think it is not enough to be just a brother. We want to be teachers. We want to be leaders. Then it seems to satisfy us.
According to our natural condition, we are not willing to be brothers. We always want to be above others. We want to sit high and command others, no matter what condition we are in.
The Lord had twelve disciples. According to their upbringing and society, none was noble. According to their profession, they were fishermen and tax gatherers—people despised by others. According to their knowledge, they had not gone to school, nor had they gone to the rabbinical schools.
Perhaps among the twelve, Judas was the most able and intelligent. But we can say that all twelve were nobodies. Yet they did not want to be brothers among themselves.
The Lord said, “Ye are brethren.” But they were not willing to be brothers. They followed the Lord for three years, but there was one lesson they did not learn: they were not willing to be brothers. They all wanted to be the one above the other brothers.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is the same condition with us. We are not willing to be just a brother. Even among brothers, we want to be the elder brother. This includes the sisters, because the sisters are female brothers.
There was a true story. Brother Watchman Nee once said to a brother, “You go and tell the brothers.” That brother asked, “Do you mean the male brothers or the female brothers?” He was quite reasonable, because we are all brothers. We all have the life of the Son.
But regrettably, we are not willing to be just brothers. We are also not willing to love each other. We want everybody to love us, but for us to love others, the price is too high.
According to our natural condition, we cannot do it. We say, “Love each other, love each other,” but in our nature we want others to love us. When we are asked to love others, we are very stingy.
This is not something we can do by our natural condition. Only when the life of the Lord is in us, and when the work of Christ is upon us, are we willing to be a brother and willing to love each other.
In the experience of Paul, he was persecuting the Christians. On the way to Damascus, he was blinded, fasting, and praying. He saw a man coming in and laying hands on him.
That man said, “Brother Saul.” Brother Saul—this is the most beautiful music in the world.
Paul had been the enemy of the church, but someone came in, laid hands on him to be united with him, and said, “You are my brother. I am your brother.” I do not know how Paul felt at that time.
Sometimes children call me “Grandpa,” perhaps because of my white hair. But what I like to hear most is, “Brother Kong.” I remember when I was in Hong Kong, there was a little boy who did not know how to address me. I said, “Call me Brother Kong.” So they all called me Brother Kong. That name was truly sweet.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us be brothers. Let us not be enemies. We have one Father, one life, and the same life among us. We believe in the same Lord. Why cannot we be brothers? Why cannot we love each other?
There are two precious verses in the Bible. John 3:16 says:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Another verse is 1 John 3:16:
Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us:
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Wherever you see God’s children willing to be brothers, and wherever you find brothers loving each other, the heart of our Lord is satisfied. Amen.
If we love our brothers, we serve our brothers. If we love our brothers, we are willing to lay down our lives for our brothers. It is not merely what we do; it is the Lord in us. So the church at Philadelphia satisfies the heart of the Lord.
This year, I have had a very deep feeling. In the church, we talk about authority, authority, authority. But we seldom see love. I often say, love is authority.
Today the church has fallen for this reason: we are not willing to be brothers. We grasp authority. We grasp benefits. This is not the church; this is merely a society. The church is brotherly love among brothers.
Another characteristic of Philadelphia is that the Lord says, “Thou hast a little power.” You have just a little power.
Today we want to be very powerful. We want to be powerful enough to do great things. In our concept, bigger is better, and the bigger something is, the more successful it seems.
But the Lord says, “Thou hast a little power.” You do not have great power; you have a little power. But that little power comes from God Himself.
Today in the church, many great powers are the result of the soul and are the result of man himself. They come out of men because men want to establish great things for themselves, and these things are considered successful.
But let us remember Zechariah 4:10. When the remnant of Israel came back to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple, they did not have many people. Most of the people would not come back. They had limited money and limited materials.
When they were building the temple, the more they saw, the more discouraged they became. They said, “Even if we build a temple, how can this temple be compared with that of Solomon?”
But the Word of God came to them: “For who hath despised the day of small things?”
Today we are in the day of small things. The Lord called His church a little flock in Luke 12. It is small—little.
When our Lord was on earth, He was humble. You could not hear His voice in the street. The church on earth is like a little mustard seed. That is the kingdom. But today we want big things.
In order to make things big, we bring in things other than the power of the Holy Spirit. But the Lord says, “Do not despise the day of small things.”
This is my personal feeling: I believe that before the Lord returns, you will not see great things on earth—I am speaking about spiritual things. The Lord has hidden ones all over the place. They pray with a pure heart.
Men cannot see them. The world does not know them. Even the religious world does not know them. But they are there, faithful to the Lord, and they have just a little power.
That little power is the power that destroys the kingdom of Satan.
The Lord said to Zechariah, “Do not despise the day of small things.” The seven eyes refer to the eyes of the Lord. When He saw the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, His heart was satisfied.
In other words, reality cannot be too big. Falsehood can be very big. But what the Lord wants is reality. That little thing which is out of His power can satisfy His heart—not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.
Of course, there are other characteristics of the church at Philadelphia. They kept the Word of the Lord. The Word here is the word of His patience.
You see how much patience our Lord has toward us. When He was on earth, He was rejected, but He prayed to the Father, “Father, forgive them.” Today He is on the throne. He has authority and power, but when men despised Him on earth, He did not send down thunder.
Those who keep the Word of the Lord and pursue spiritual reality have to endure on earth. They shall be despised. They shall be considered narrow. They may be persecuted.
But, dear brothers and sisters, today is the day to keep the word of endurance. He who endures to the end shall be saved.
They had not denied the name of the Lord. They considered the name of the Lord precious. They surrendered themselves to the name of the Lord. They prostrated themselves under the name of the Lord—not merely proclaiming His name, but truly submitting under the name of the Lord.
Among these people, the Lord was exalted. The Lord was exalted among them. This is Philadelphia.
No matter where and no matter when, particularly in this age, if we brothers can love each other, if we can pursue spiritual reality and not outward bigness or great things, if we only want to follow our Lord with humility and walk on the path of the cross, this is Philadelphia.
This is known by God.
But before long, Philadelphia turned into Laodicea. Laodicea is the corruption of Philadelphia.
Originally, it was brotherly love. Now they do not want to be brothers anymore. They become individuals. When we talk about brothers, the Lord comes out. When we talk about individuals, the self comes out. Everyone comes out: “I, I, I.”
When the self comes out, my opinions come out. What represents a person most is his opinion. The thing that is hardest to deal with is opinion. If your opinion is dealt with, then your self is dealt with.
The condition is completely different: from brotherly love into the opinions of many.
What is their condition? They say, “We are rich. We have wealth. We have everything. We lack nothing.”
But their real condition is that they are poor, pitiful, naked, and blind.
Philadelphia represents spiritual reality. Laodicea represents deception. These people were deceived to such an extent that they could not see their own condition.
The condition they saw in themselves was totally opposite to their real condition before God. Yet they still considered themselves great. This is deception.
Dear brothers and sisters, when you meet a deceived person, it is very difficult. Why? Because he thinks he has everything and lacks nothing. What can you do with such a person?
How can they fall into such a condition? Because of their pride—the so-called spiritual pride.
They were proud of their spirituality. On the one hand, you cannot say that they had nothing to boast about, because in the past they had experienced Philadelphia. But those experiences should bring us into humility.
If you use these experiences to exalt yourself, this is deception. When people are affected in this way, there seems to be no way out.
You know where pride comes from? Pride comes from self. Where does self come from? Self comes from Satan.
At that time, the archangel turned himself into Satan because of pride. So today, in every self there is this nature of pride.
Some are proud of the knowledge of the world. But the most difficult person is the one who is proud of his own spirituality. According to man, when one is so deceived, it seems there is no way out.