Micah and The Church of Philadelphia

What does God want from us?

This week has been an interesting episode because I’m being attacked as I try to present this to you. Yeah. A little bit about Micah the prophet, a short message, music created from the Psalm of David, and the continuation of our study of the Book of Revelation: The Church of Philadelphia.

This week I want you to go to the Book of Micah. He is the sixth of one of the twelve minor prophets. Micah 8:6 says, “He hath showed thee, old man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.” So, who was this guy? He was a prophet from a place called Moresheth-Gath, which was southwest, about twenty-five miles southwest, of Jerusalem. It’s mostly an agricultural part of the country, and he lived outside big government powers, and he had a strong concern for the regular person, the less fortunate of society, the lame, the outcast, the afflicted. So, most of his prophesy was toward the powerful leaders of Samaria and Jerusalem, the capital cities of Israel and Judah, respectively.

Micah was different because he prophesied about Jesus Christ’s birth, seven hundred years before it happened. Surrounding Micah’s prophesy of Jesus’s birth is one of the most lucid pictures of the world’s future under the Reign of the Prince of Peace. His future kingdom, which scholars call the Millennial Kingdom, will be characterized by the presence of many nations that live with one another in peace and security, and coming to Jerusalem to worship the Reigning King, that is, Jesus Himself.

Because these events have no yet occurred, we look toward that Millennial Kingdom at some undetermined time in the future. Much of Micah’s book revolves around two significant predictions: One, of judgment on Israel and Judah, and the other, the restoration of God’s people in this Millennial Kingdom. Well, that’s some of the biblical study for this.

Micah chapters 1-3 talks about Micah’s vision in God’s grief over Judah and Israel’s evil deeds, their coming destruction, and, later, how He delivers them, the capture of Jerusalem and the future Arrival of Jesus the Christ. Micah chapters four and five discuss the key events: the capture of the City of David and the Coming of the Son of David. Micah six and seven, Micah addresses God’s case against Israel and His compassion for the people. And, as he does so, his confidence grows. There are only seven chapters in this book, but it’s a powerful book of prophesy. I need you to find Micah 6:8, and I have three points in this message for this week.

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” 

It’s as if somebody asks, “What does God want from me?”

Well, the first thing is to do the right thing. Act justly. Be fair. Be morally right. Be deservedly.

You know, if I were to just put that into perspective, it’s as if you were a husband, if you’re a married man, do the right thing. Be fair to your wife. What does that mean? Well, the longer you are married to somebody, the less they might look like a supermodel, but to be fair, either are you, but this world judges beauty and all of that, and it can get us caught up in a trick bag, as we would say back in the 70’s, that double standard. And you’ll start looking elsewhere, and that’s not right. It’s not morally right. You should be more deserving.

Act justly. Have more compassion, more forgiveness, more grace, more pity. That’s the second part. And then thirdly — walk humbly, unpretentious, modest, lifting up your spouse. You know you can get more things being sweet than you can being sour. If you would invest just a “hello” or a smile or a touch or do something for somebody else, you can life up somebody else in more ways than just financial. If you want to have a happier home, if you want to do better, don’t be just the only one who’s contributing to the relationship. Do the right thing. Do it justly. Love mercy. Be compassionate. Be forgiving. Have some grace. Have some pity, and walk before the Lord humbly, because He sees everything that you’re doing. You know, you can’t be one-sided. It can’t all come from one side. It has to be both of you, so what does God want from you? Well, somebody asked this of Jesus, too, and He said, “Love God with all your heart, and love each other as you love yourselves.” You know, that’s easy to say, but sometimes I’ve noticed in this world, we don’t love ourselves that much. We drink too much. We smoke too much. We don’t take care of our bodies. So, when you’re talking about loving somebody as much as ourselves, you’ve got to love yourself more than you have been. You’re letting yourself go. You’re letting yourself fall away. You’re being self-destructive. That’s also a negative. There’s a message in here somewhere. I’m hoping that you hear what I’m saying. The Great Commandment is what? You’ve heard me say it already: You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all of The Law of the Prophets. I’m saying, if you want to do better this week, think about Micah 6:8 — Do the right thing. Love mercy. Walk humbly with thy God. Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And love yourself, and your neighbor, your wife, your husband. If you’re not doing a good job on yourself, fix that because you can’t repair things with broken tools. You need to do better with what you have. That is what God requires of you this week — Micah 6:8.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, I ask that You would forgive me of my stammering lips, that You would allow the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart to be acceptable, even though something is hindering me. I ask that the Holy Spirit will not hinder Your Message. Allow it got go forth. Father, forgive me for everything I’ve done that’s against You. Forgive us as we bow our heads, as we think about You, about Your Greatness, about Your Goodness, about all the things You’ve blessed us with. Help us, Lord God, to do what You’ve called us to do. Help us to obey You, to trust You, to love You. How can we say we love You and we can’t see You? But the person we have in our life, we’re not doing the right thing with, and that You’re judging us based on that. Help us all to understand that. I’m praying for marriages right now. I’m praying for relationships right now. I’m praying for those who are seeking to be loved. Father, clear our hearts and our spirits from past hurt and pain. Allow us Your Grace and Your Mercy to abide so that we can love again, hear again, walk again. Father, I don’t even know who I’m praying for right now, but You do. Touch them in a mighty way. Heal their pain. Bring the spark of love back to their life, to their lives. It’s in Jesus’s Name that I ask this. Amen.

Bible Study

Alright, let’s go to the Church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:7-13. If you get the chance, please read that ahead this week. We’re not going to get all of it today, but Revelation 3 is interesting, and I’m having trouble speaking today. Maybe I’m just fired up, I don’t know. You know, the name Philadelphia literally means “brotherly love.” Our Lord selected that church to describe the kind of church age that was initiated around the year 750 and will continue to the Tribulation. Just as Sardis came out of Thyatira, so does the Philadelphia Age come out of Sardis.

The Reformation Church, as we read and heard before, became dead and cold as a state church. Philadelphia was marked by vitality of life. In this church age, God worked in a manner that produced revivals in Europe and the British Isles, spreading even to America. These revivals, in turn, produced what is now known as the Modern Missionary Movement. It was this moving of the Spirit of God on the part of His people that caused an English shoe cobbler to become so burdened for the lost of India, that in 1793, he became the first foreign missionary. His name was William Carey.

William Carey was followed by other young people whom the Spirit of God touched and thus the present day Faith Missionary Movement was begun, and it is our Lord said, “I have placed before you an open door.” This open door found such men as Adoniram Judson, David Livingstone, Jonathan Goforth, and thousands of people going out to Africa, China, Japan, Korea, India, South America, and the islands of the sea.

The Church of Philadelphia was located in the center of Greek civilization. Founded only 189 years before Christ, the city had a surprising influence on the area of the ancient world. This church must’ve been vital for Philadelphia to remain the independent Christian city until the close of the 14th century when it was conquered by the Turks. The church Christ loved, it’s commendation, is: I know your deeds. I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept My Word and have not denied My Name. The condemnation of the church: not one word. The counsel for this church: I’m coming soon. Hold onto what you have so that no one will take your crown. The challenge: He who overcomes I will make a pillar in a temple of My God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the Name of My God and the name of the City of My God, the New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from My God, and I will also write on him my New Name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Now, compared to the other churches that we talked about, this one you might want to be a part of. You know there are two reasons for the Missionary Movement: One, The Bible was printed by that time in regular languages around the world.

So, when a young guy, by the name of William Carey, read Our Lord’s Command to go into the world and preach the good news to all creation, it was easier to do! Secondly, the Missionary Movement was happening at the same time as the turn of the century, so folks were kind of thinking it was coming now. Like 2020, folks are looking at things thinking, “Man, I bet you it’s coming now.” We’ve always been looking for Christ’s Return in trouble, in bad times like now, but no one knows the hour or the day. One of the things I like about this passage of Scripture is that our Lord commended the Church of Philadelphia for four things which, in turn, invoked a promise from Him.

Number one, He said, “I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut,” and this refers to the doors of opportunity opened to them for the proclamation of the Gospel, one of the chief characteristics of faithful service throughout the church age.

1 Corinthians 16:9 indicates that the apostle Paul considered an open door an opportunity for Christian service. Number two: You have little strength. This refers to the minority status of the believers in Philadelphia. Except for some churches in America, the Philadelphia church age is characterized by smaller congregations which, according to human standards, are weak.

This, of course, is real strength, for as the Holy Spirit tells us through Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” which is a plus for me because sometimes I’m thinking that because I’m in this world with you that couldn’t I do better, maybe, with a larger group? But, I was reminded when talking to my pastor buddy this week when we were walking that somebody has to go after the one. The one is very important to God. When you’ve got the groups that are out there in masses, it’s quite often that the one wanders off and can get snatched by the enemy. I like being the one who can go find the one. And smaller things are often stronger.

Think about how potent cologne and perfumes are in their original forms. You have to thin it out a little. It’s a little strong on the nose. Nitroglycerin is very powerful, and it’s really small. Some of you ladies, physically, are small, but you’re, yeah. You get it.

Number three, He says, “yet you have kept My Word.” You see, this church not only believed the Word of God, it obeyed It. The Reformation churches, past and present, believe the Word of God, but are not characterized by obedience to It. The Church fo Philadelphia, a fitting contrast to this pattern, is characterized by obedience to his Word. Number four, “and you have not denied My Name.” Satan always counters an effective work of God, and that’s one of the things I was telling a married couple earlier.

As soon as you said, “I do,” and that you want to be a Christian marriage, a holy matrimony, you are a huge target to the devil. So, don’t think that the stuff that’s happening to you is just because. It’s bigger than you, and you have to learn to what? Do the right thing. Have some grace, some compassion, and to walk humbly. At the same time, when the church was growing and doing the right thing, it was also the increase of false christ and false religions.

One characteristic of this church age is that is refused to deny the Name of The Lord, thereby offering a challenge that needs to be presented to every faithful Christian as he or she approaches the end of the age. Christ gives a promise to this church, which comes down to two things: vindication and preservation. He says, “I will make those who are of the synagogues 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.”

Christ promised that all the false religionists, imposters, and false teachers and antiChrists, those who claim to be Jews but are not, would someday be subdued before them. Their heretics will realize that in persecuting the faithful church of Christ, they have turned their backs on Him. On the preservation piece: Since you have kept My Command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. The world has never known a universal period of tribulation. What we’re going through right now is not it, but we’re getting close. This passage is obviously in reference to the Tribulation period of seven years that will be covered extensively when we get to, like, Revelation 6-18.

This promise, though, is to the Church of Philadelphia, that she will be raptured before the Tribulation begins. It seems difficult to understand why some false teachers suggest that the church must go through the Tribulation in view of this clear-cut statement of our Lord to keep you — in this case, us — out of the hour of trial which must be understood in light of Jesus’s description of that period in Matthew 24:21: There’s a time when there will be great distress unequal from the beginning of the world until now, and never be equalled again. Obviously, that period has never historically happened yet. Many believe, as we will see, that such a time of Tribulation will not commence until the anti-Christ signs a covenant with Israel for seven years.

The rapture of the church, which we’re going to talk about soon, will proceed after that covenant signing, and this explains why many of us think that the next thing on the prophetic agenda is the Rapture of the Church. And, we’re going to get more into it later. Amen?

That part was so heavy, I had to stop! I mean, it’s just, like, I don’t know, it’s like I need more strength to get into this. The Spirit was holding me back. So, whatever the thing is that’s going on right now, continue to pray for your strength and mine, for this church, for our ministry, for something that you do to be done better. Amen? Amen.

You might not know it, but we had our first Zoom prayer meeting this past week, and I was so nervous, but it turned out pretty good actually, so I want to thank all those who made it. Shout out to Teyonna and Sarah and Jon.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord’s Face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His Countenance unto you and give you that peace. And until that great day when there is no dawn and there is no sunset, my friend, my brother and my sister, I will see you at the Feet of Jesus. Until then, God bless.