[AI translation] This letter, which Jesus wrote to the church in Philadelphia, is different from the other letters in that it is full of praise. It has something of the tone of a mother writing to her absent daughter, who always brings her good news, who is a model of faithfulness, of love, of kindness. If, because of her smallness, she had little strength in the church, she stood firm in the trials of life. What was the secret of this? Perhaps it was that he really took seriously this exhortation of his Lord: 'Hold fast that which you have'. I feel that now, for us too, the whole message of this letter can be grouped around this Word. This is what Jesus is now saying to us in today's sermon: "Keep what you have"! This warning is based on the premise that you have something with you, something worth keeping. You have something of value that Jesus considers so precious that it must be kept at all costs! What is it? Well: in general terms, perhaps I could say this: the content of your evangelical Christianity, of your Christian faith. It is not your creation, it is not your invention, it is not the result of your work, but it is the heritage of two millennia, entrusted to you by your ancestors to preserve for posterity. This rich inheritance comes from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, He bequeathed it to us, He has made us rich with it. From Him the apostles received it and passed it on to Augustine, Augustine to the Reformers, Luther and Calvin passed it on to Peter the Baptist and Peter the Baptist to Peter the Baptist and Peter the Baptist to Gábor Bethlen. This is how this heritage came to us through Bocskay, Rákóczi, István Geleji Katona, Albert Molnár Szenczi and many others. In short, we can call this heritage evangelical Christianity.It was for this reason that Hungarian students in the 16th century went to study at foreign universities at incredible sacrifice, it was for this reason that Gáspár Károli sacrificed his life to translate the Bible into Hungarian, it was for this reason that fiery Hungarian preachers were tortured on foreign galleys, so that we may receive this heritage unmixed and unadulterated into our hands and into our hearts. It is a precious heritage, protected by blood, preserved even in the face of many dangers: do we feel that we cannot do with it what we like with impunity, that we cannot squander it recklessly?! We cannot renounce it, because this heritage is our duty! It obliges us to keep it and to pass it on intact to those who will come into this church after us. Your descendants, your sons and daughters, the legitimate heirs, the centuries to come will claim from you the ancient Christian inheritance. But woe, let us not lose it in the whirlwind of world views; let us not throw it away for any other gain, any other advantage in this world; let us not deprive those who come after us of what is most precious in life! You, too, "keep what you have"! This, then, is what Jesus' exhortation refers to in general terms.
But the letter also tells us: how, how can we keep what we have? What Jesus says is of particular importance here: 'Behold, I have given you an open door which no one can shut' (v. 8a). Let us realise the image, for it is clear that it is a picture, a metaphor. Let us imagine a door open and wide, through which we can freely go in and out. For anyone! Anytime! Whatever state of mind or physical condition one is in, one is free! Free to go in and free to go out! First inwards! Yes: to the foundation, the source, the giver, the meaning, the purpose of life, to the living God! Have you ever wondered what an immense privilege it is for you to have free access - to God?
I used to show my confirmands a big poster, which is actually a medical sign, that says: "The Blessed Physician, specialist in all diseases. You can see me day or night, without any appointment. Free appointment. He paid the price!" Yes, it's literally true! When you think of God, always think of God that way! I often imagine Jesus as God's two arms outstretched towards us, calling to us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Mt 11:28). Our unspeakable privilege is precisely to have someone to go to! The believer in God is just as much in danger: the earth trembles beneath him as elsewhere; material difficulties are just as great; deaths do not escape them; they struggle for their children as much; their houses are just as wet in winter; they feel pain and sorrow as others. But in all these situations, the believer always has an open door to God: to salvation, to safety. They can always escape here! A disappointment can hurt a believer just as much as it hurts others, but there is someone to tell his sorrow to. A believer can be just as hesitant as anyone else in the maze of life, but he has someone to talk to about his problems. Even in the life of a believer, incomprehensible things happen, but there is still someone to trust! Even a believer can be bitter to the extreme, but there is Someone to comfort him! He too can get tired, sometimes dead tired of life, but there is Someone to give him new strength. He, too, falls - oh, so many times - but there is always Someone to whom he can flee, Someone who will lift him up again and cleanse him of his mud - He, too, may have all prospects darkened, and yet there is Someone who will encourage him with new hope. The door to God is always open to him!
He is open! It is open to him who has not entered it for a very long time. It is also open to the one who is quite tired of coming before God! It is also open to the one who would take this step for the first time in his life! It is free! Jesus says to you and to me, "Behold, I have given you an open door which no one can shut". If He once gave us this open door, who son of man, or what other trouble or problem could close it before us? No one and nothing! The door is open! It is your great privilege! "Hold fast that which thou hast": it means, then, to take advantage of that opportunity, to keep the habit of going to God regularly! To talk, to be comforted, to be informed, to be strengthened, to be renewed in body and soul! Do it regularly! Just say I am here, Lord, and start talking to Him! That's what I do every morning before I start my daily tasks; I come before God! I talk to Him about everything that is in store for me that day. That's why the church in Philadelphia was able to stand firm in times of trial, because they took advantage of the open door. So Jesus says, "You have little strength, and you have kept my word" (v. 8b). In other words, if you have little strength for the big, big problems of your life, with God you have enough! There's no other way to stand in this messy life, really, except by clinging to God's saving arm, Jesus! A young girl came to see me the other day. Her last relative was her mother. A few months ago she died too. She was left alone. She said: You know, Reverend, the most terrible feeling is to belong to no one! The most terrible thing is that the poor man is the most desolate person. The feeling of being orphaned, of being an orphan. The anguish of total insecurity. Alone in an immense world! Well, that's what Jesus is talking about, that you are not alone. You belong to Someone. The most powerful, the most loving Someone. There's Someone who's always waiting and always happy when you enter. Behold, there is an open door for you, towards Him!
So to go through that open door directly to God is one way to keep the precious inheritance we have! But only one way. You can not only go through that door, you can go out that door! The door is also open to the outside, to the world, to other people. So it is the open door of the possibility of passing on - the possibility of passing on the love, goodness, comfort, peace, forgiveness that God has given us. Whoever goes to God, whenever he turns to a person in word or deed: he always comes from God! If you really go to God, then the members of your family, your colleagues, your friends and your enemies must feel that you have come to them laden with gifts from God, that you have brought them a message from God, a message that you pass on to them either with a word or with a gesture. So this is the open door to the outside: the opportunity for mission, the opportunity to spread divine saving love. And no one can close this door. As long as one is alive, one will always find a way and an opportunity to witness to his Lord in word or deed! Whoever owes the freedom, peace and happiness of his life to Jesus, will always seek and find an opportunity to share it with others!
Once a great evangelizing minister, Spurgeon, was visited by someone who was struck by a testimony. He asked: What can I do for Jesus? - What's your job? - Spurgeon asked. - Mechanic. - Where? - On the railroad. - Does the stoker who works next to him know Jesus? - I don't know. - Go back and start on him! - Yes, the mission gates don't open in Africa or Asia, but always where we are, where we live. We have no idea how many restless, tired, fearful people in our immediate surroundings are waiting for some kind of deliverance, some kind of help. Just now, during my holidays, I have experienced once again that I have met and talked to so many people, and I have found an open door in each of them that I had never imagined. This open door is there for all of you who believe in God! You just have to step through it! This open door is today: the great spiritual need, the spiritual hunger and thirst of people. They hunger and thirst for something that is true, trustworthy - someone to believe in. If you have experienced something of God's love and help in Jesus: step boldly through this open door and you will see how much joy you bring to people!
Yes: this is another way of preserving the precious treasure of the Lord, our Christian faith, not only to enter, but also to go out again and again through that open door and bring God's love out into the world. "Keep what you have"! The only way to keep our faith is to pass it on! Whoever does not pass it on, whoever does not bring it to fruition, loses it. Think of the parable of the servant who is a debtor. He received a tremendous gift from his master: he forgave all his debts. He received a full amnesty! But when he himself refused to forgive his fellow servant the small amount he owed him, that is, when he did not pass on the forgiveness he had received to his fellow servant, he lost his own great gift. "Keep that which thou hast": it does not mean to keep thy faith buried, secret, hidden, as the one-centered servant did, for then it would be taken away from thee as it was taken from him in his day, but to keep it fruitful, to pass it on, to serve with it, to live by it out in the world for the benefit of men.
Jesus' full exhortation is this. So Jesus will come, he will then take stock of what we have: have we kept what we have or have we lost it? When will he come? He just said: soon. And indeed: a year or two, or who knows, 20 or 40 years, whichever one has left, will soon be gone. Jesus has entrusted to us His treasures, that open door, our evangelical Christian faith, its potential and its blessings, for just this short time. Blessed is the man who will be able to say to Him at this reckoning, "I have fought the noble battle, I have finished my race, I have kept the faith, the crown of righteousness is laid up for me for ever, which the Lord, the righteous Judge Jesus Christ, will give me" (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Amen
Date: 7 August 1966.
Lesson
Jel 3,7-12