Photo cred: Anthony Rodriguez

Written by: David Hood

In my last post, I shared some of the hope that I have for the future of the church in Canada. Unfortunately, there are Christians who believe that Canada is beyond hope and that we are in “the last days” where things will just go from bad to worse until Jesus returns.

I’ve always wrestled with this obsession with seeing every cultural shift away from Christianity as harbingers of doom. We may very well be on the precipice of a challenging and prolonged season of increasing persecution, but in many ways, we would only just be starting to taste what millions of our brothers and sisters in many other countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, North Korea, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, have been experiencing for decades. Can we really say that if the North American church starts to suffer, that means we’re in the end times? That’s a very Western-centric view. Also, can we really say that things are worse now than they’ve ever been in history? As a historian, I can tell you that things have gotten pretty bad before. I imagine many Christians in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s thought that Jesus was coming any day as Hitler conquered country after country, murdering millions of ‘undesirables’ in his quest for living space for the master race.

If I can be honest, I think sometimes we like to think we are in the end times because it gets us off the hook for having to be the church in a culture where we have no influence, power, favour, relevance, or support. This is unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory, and it means following Christ will cost us.

However, even if we are entering into difficult times, this still does not mean the end! Look at any revival or awakening in history and it has always been preceded by upheaval, disruption, and decay. God may not be done with Canada yet.

I have drawn a lot of encouragement lately from Jesus’ letter to the church in Philadelphia. Jesus writes to a faithful little persecuted church in a hostile culture that doesn’t have a lot of resources and is stretched, exhausted, overwhelmed, battered, and bruised, and He says, “I see you”: I know your works…you have limited strength, (but) have kept My word, and have not denied My name. And then He makes this promise: The Holy One, the True One, the One who has the key of David, who opens and no one will close, and closes and no one opens says…I have placed before you an open door that no one is able to close.

What does that mean? Jesus introduces Himself using a direct reference from Isaiah 22. In this prophecy, Isaiah addresses two officials in Jerusalem, Shebna and Eliakim. Shebna was found by God to not be worthy of his position of authority over God’s people, so God removed him. In his place, God elevated Eliakim, a man He saw as worthy, and He says: On that day I will call for my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah…I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one can close; what he closes, no one can open. In other words, I will give Eliakim authority (the key), over My People, Israel (the House of King David). Jesus uses this descriptor and identifies Himself as the greater Eliakim, the One who is worthy to rule forever over God’s global, multiethnic people, the church. He is King, but He is also Saviour. He is the means by which someone accesses the people of God. You become part of God’s family/Kingdom by entrusting yourself to Jesus, and the people that Jesus gives access to, the people He opens the door for, no one can close it. Once He grants entry, no one can cast them out.

So what is the door that Jesus is opening before the Philadelphia church? I believe Jesus is exhorting them to keep preaching the gospel because ‘I am opening the door of access to the people of God in your community, and I am going to draw more people into My Family and under my Lordship. I am going to expand the borders of My Kingdom, and I am going to do it in your city. Persevere because a harvest of faith is coming, and those who hate you and hate Me will try to stop it, they will try to shut the door, but they will be unable to. The door I have opened cannot be closed.’

Jesus is essentially exhorting this church to not abandon Philadelphia.

Philadelphia was a dark place. The Christians were suffering greatly and some might have felt very alone and tempted to flee, but Jesus says, ‘Don’t give up, don’t run away, don’t abandon this place and these people. I have something for you to do here, there are opportunities for the gospel and the Kingdom in this place. Don’t look at your circumstances, look at Me. What you are doing matters and it will outlive you. The faithful will not end with your generation. Philadelphia’s story is not done. Satan does not win. I am at work. I am opening an un-closeable door.’

I think all of this is deeply challenging for us in this cultural moment. Increasingly I am hearing Christians say, we need to withdraw from society, leave the cities, and move our families to places that are more aligned with our faith and values. But if the church is salt and light and a city on a hill, should we not situate ourselves in dark places?

I am worried that Christians, because of a love of comfort, security, and convenience, are abandoning places where they should settle down and serve. Our post-Christian, secular, fragmented, polarized, and anxious society, as it increasingly moves away from God and becomes more confused and immoral, needs the church. Communities suffering from poverty, crime, addictions, mental illness, trauma, violence, family breakdown, and isolation need the church. Your diverse neighbourhood, made up of people who are very different from you, with different religions, politics, worldviews, and morals, and who maybe even see your faith not just as weird but as dangerous and harmful, needs the church. Our cities, with all of their brokenness, need the church.

And here’s the exciting prospect this letter presents us, Who knows what doors God will open in the unlikeliest of places? Philadelphia was the last place on earth anyone expected an “open door,” and yet Jesus promised one, and history testifies that God made good on His promise. New Testament scholar Simon Kistemaker observes: Indications of the Christian influence in Philadelphia are many, for the church remained true to Jesus through the centuries, even when Islam became the dominant religion in the area. In the first part of the twentieth century, five Christian congregations were still flourishing in Philadelphia. Of all seven churches in the province of Asia, only the one in Philadelphia has spanned the centuries.

My exhortation: Don’t ever give up! Don’t abandon the hard places! Regardless of what the future holds, Settle in and persevere with faith, love, and hope. And may Jesus open doors that only He can open and no one can close.

Remember, we are not alone. The darkness does not win. God is at work. And it doesn’t matter if you have a lot of resources. If you have Jesus, you have everything. Jesus will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail.

Galatians 6:9: we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

Check out my previous posts, Where North American Christianity Needs To Repent and Hope For the Future

This blog contains content from Part 7 in our sermon series, What’s Wrong With the Church?