Today's sermon was about the letter to the Philadelphia church, in the beginning of the book of Revelation. A few fascinating things I learned:
--Philadelphia wasn't really that big a deal... just a little city that had only one thing going for it: It was at the crossroads of the East and Rome, so it had a lot of trade routes running through, and thus was a kind of communications hub. Not a real financial or religious center like Ephesus or Corinth.
--It was on a fault line, and a HUGE earthquake (the biggest in recorded history, I think) levelled it in AD 17.
--It got rebuilt after that, but then every time the residents felt another tremor, they all ran for their lives out of the city.
--Eventually, the only thing that survived earthquakes and the passage of time has been the big ol' pillars from the pagan temples there.
And, in light of all that, this verse has particular meaning:
"Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it." (Rev. 3:12)
--Philadelphia wasn't really that big a deal... just a little city that had only one thing going for it: It was at the crossroads of the East and Rome, so it had a lot of trade routes running through, and thus was a kind of communications hub. Not a real financial or religious center like Ephesus or Corinth.
--It was on a fault line, and a HUGE earthquake (the biggest in recorded history, I think) levelled it in AD 17.
--It got rebuilt after that, but then every time the residents felt another tremor, they all ran for their lives out of the city.
--Eventually, the only thing that survived earthquakes and the passage of time has been the big ol' pillars from the pagan temples there.
And, in light of all that, this verse has particular meaning:
"Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it." (Rev. 3:12)
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