Small Churches (Part 2)

That’s why God deals strongly with the Church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:10-12:

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. 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.”

Too many churches and individuals use their smallness as an excuse for failing to advance the cause of Christ. Such notions and statements are foreign to the New Testament portrait of the church. It comes from a stronghold of inferiority, self-pity, and weakness. The enemy deceives those manifesting this spirit by making them think their size is actually gives them an excuse to do less than their larger counterparts. This counterfeit humility is debilitating to the kingdom of God, crippling the advance of the gospel, and it insults the Holy Spirit.

The church at Philadelphia was at risk to be overtaken by such a spirit. If they were ever to become a “pillar” in the kingdom, they would have to overcome this spirit of inferiority.

The scripture sets forth the church as a victorious company. 

-Matthew 16:18 declares, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 

-In his great prayer for the church in Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul ends with this benediction in Verses 20, 21, “Now to Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages.” 

It is only “in the church” that Jesus loses His divine ability, energy, and glory. The answer to our inferiority is His superiority. It is not in trying harder, but in trusting wholly that His work is accomplished. It is according to the power that works within us that He is brought glory within the church.