Week of May 26, 2013
"Letter to Philadelphia"
Announcements
VBS (June 10-14) – Registration is open online at bfcnaz.com and flyers are available at
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the church. Invite lots of children!
VBS Raffle (June 9) - Here is an opportunity to serve. Every year for VBS we have sold
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raffle tickets to help with the cost of running a ministry to our church, our pre-school and our
extended community. We are asking each Journey Group to prepare a gift basket with a
particular theme (movies, chocolate, gardening, etc.) to be raffled off during the week of VBS.
If your group would like to do more than one, that would be great! Please bring your gift
basket to the church no later than Sunday, June 9. Your group can make the baskets as
elaborate or simple as possible, the cost of the basket is up to you.
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Windows – The stained glass windows which used to be in the sanctuary are available
for you to take home. Full frames and individual panes are available. Contribute what you can
and the proceeds will go to fund future sanctuary renovations.
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Faith in the Wild (June 15) – Rafting on the Kern River, guided by Johnny Knox. There
are land-based options for this trip as well. If you don’t want to raft, you can remain in the
park along the river.
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Camps (Various dates) – Camps are coming! There are camps for kids, teens and the
whole family. Family camp is a great way to infuse your summer vacation with divine
purpose. More information available on the church website.
Share
Invite group members to share about a time when they felt unsure or fearful about a
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situation in their lives. How did they respond to that situation?
Have you ever had your life changed very quickly? How did you respond? How did it
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make you feel?
Was there ever a time in your life when you received an incredible opportunity? What
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made that opportunity possible?
Read
Revelation 3:7-13
Recap:
The Church in Philadelphia lived in the time of change, not unlike the times we are living in
today. Philadelphia was an outpost of the Roman Empire, a strategic city used as a “jumpingoff point” for the spread of Roman ideas, politics and culture. In other words, Philadelphia was
a center for Roman evangelism.
That being the case, Philadelphia was the kind of a place that was supposed to embody Roman
ideals. Many of those ideals ran counter to the promises of Christianity. The Roman Empire,
for example, preached pax romana, which means “Roman peace.” It was their position that if
they could just take over enough of the world (often by force), they would establish peace
across the known world. The Roman Empire believed in their own ability to establish ultimate
peace. The problem is that they often used means of violence and coersion to make this
happen (Jesus’ own crucifixion happened in part because He was seen as a threat to pax
romana).
The Roman Empire had its own culture, its own values and its own ways of going about life, and
those ways were often at odds with the good news of Jesus Christ. This meant that the church
in Philadelphia was most likely expected to coform to the ideals of the Roman Empire. They
were surrounded by a culture that had certain expectations of them, and expected them to lay
down the call of Christ and take up the ways of the pax romana. They were probably a small
group, had few means and very little political capital. For all intents and purposes, they had
their backs against a wall and could have spent a lot of time living in fear of their own
extinction.
And yet, they are praised and loved because they have not denied the name of Jesus. We see
in 3:8 that their deeds are known to Jesus, and that those deeds are somehow connected to the
open door Jesus has given them. They are told that as long as they hold on and remain faithful
that they will receive a crown. In the midst of a culture that expected something very different
of them, and in the face of a lack of power, they remained faithful to Jesus, and that gave them
a wonderful opportunity.
Discuss
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What opportunities do you think the church in Philadelphia were given?
Why do you think that a lack of power, financial means, etc. actually opened the door of
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opportunity for them?
In the face of having little power, little support, little money, what do you think led the
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church in Philadelphia to see their situation in terms of opportunity rather than as reason to
fear?
Dig Deeper
Read John 10:7-9, 1 Corinthians 16:9, 2 Corinthians 2:12 and Colossians 4:3.
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What common theme do you hear in these passages?
How do you think the theme of the open door applies to a church who was expected to
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conform to non-Christian ideals?
What opportunities do you see that our church has, even if we don’t possess a lot of
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power, money or other resources?
What are the areas of your life where you are expected to conform to non-Christian
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ideals? Are you fearful in those situations or do you see those situations as opportunities?
How can you move from seeing fear to seeing opportunity?
Take time to pray with one another for another, that together we would remain faithful to
worship Jesus Christ, and in so doing, to see opportunities where we once would have seen
fear.