In today's letter of Jesus, the glorified, magnified Jesus in heaven to the believers in the

Church of Philadelphia is about the open door. It's all about the open doors. Of all the seven

letters, and we have already seen five of those, this is the sixth. This is the most delightful letter of all of them.

It's the most delightful letter. These people must have brought joy to the heart of Jesus.

Because in this letter to the Church of Philadelphia, and that's not Pennsylvania, this is the Church

Philadelphia in the age of minor, there is not a single sin in which he's chastising them for.

You don't find a compromise to point out to. You do not find false teaching that he's warning him against. There is no false

teachers that they need to purge from their midst, as we've seen in the other churches and the

other locations. So now, let me ask you to turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 3,

beginning at verse 7.

I want to tell you just few important things about the city of Philadelphia in Asia Minor,

the city of brotherly love. Philadelphia was the crossroad of the region. In fact, it was called the gateway to the east. And so east and west meet in that town. It was a city, had many temples, and was founded in BC 189 BC by King Attalus. King Atlas succeeded his older brother, King Humannus of Pergamum,

out of deep love for his older brother. He loved his older brother whom he succeeded up to the throne.

King Attalus named the city Philadelphia or brotherly love. It was a city

that stood as a memorial for the love of a two brothers have for one another. But beyond all of

that, it's because Philadelphia was strategically located, strategically placed as the gateway between the East and the West.

The Greeks used it as a springboard. They used it being a gateway and being the way to the East.

The Greeks used it to take and propagate the Greek culture, the Greek language,

the Greek philosophy to the rest of the world. Some of you might be asking, well, why the Greeks

were so anxious to export their philosophy and their culture and their language and so on. And that's a great question.

And I'm really very happy to answer it. Because the Greeks back then considered themselves to be

more sophisticated than the rest of the world. I mean, they were cut above. They are refined and have refined culture,

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