Letters to the Churches
The Things Which Are
- Christ Himself dictated the Seven Letters (1:19); yet each letter was what the Spirit said (2:7)
- The church is always in tribulation and surrounded by the darkness of this world. According to the New
Testament, this isn’t a world system that is getting better day-by-day, but one which is under judgment and
whose condemnation is an accomplished fact. (John 12:31-32) (TB)
- Seven is the number of completeness (TB)
- Christ, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands in haven, is also in the midst of His
churches in the world as: (TB)
1. High priest – praying on their behalf and blessing them with salvation
2. Mighty king – ruling over them by His grace and His Spirit
3. Righteous Judge –He commends and rebukes
4. Prophet – instructing them through His Spirit and Word and enabling them to know what must
shortly come to pass
- Each has seven parts (DP)
1. Who it is to: To the angel of the church...
2. Who it is from: Jesus never uses His name: He who (with a description of one of His
attributes) -- a part of His being they had not known, or had overlooked and forgotten (His names
always point to His nature)
3. Approval: He commends, thanks His Father for them. If going to criticize someone say
something nice first. A simple lesson in personal relations. “I know all about you...” Jesus is always
concerned with deeds. He knows everything that is done. Then He moves to criticism and
accusation.
4. Counsel and Advice: What to do to put things right in the church. To some He said, “If you
don’t take my advice, I will close your church down.” Please put it right yourself so I won’t have to
come and deal with it Myself.
5. Assurance: Gives them encouragement and offers a reward to those who overcome. The
first place we learn to overcome difficulties and pressures are inside the church. Cannot resist the
pressures in the world, if do not overcome the difficulties in the church. You don’t run away from
bad situations, you endure and you overcome.
6. An appeal: If you have ears to hear, then hear. You may have enjoyed the story, but have
you heard it? Hearing means do you understand, and are you going to do something about it. It’s
an RSVP - He wants a response to what He has said.
7. Reward
- Half way through after three letters, Jesus suddenly reverses the order of how He addresses each church
and starts with six and seven (assurance and an appeal). In the last four letters, the appeal comes before
the reward and the assurance (DP)
- Synoptic view: when side by side notice far more. We notice that under the approval there are two
churches that He has nothing good to say about them. Those two are the two most successful in human
terms (biggest, biggest offerings and congregations). Under accusations there are two that have nothing
wrong in Jesus’ sight. The most important thing for us to know is what does Jesus think about the church
that we go to - not what people think, but what Jesus thinks. His opinion is very different from the world’s
opinion. (DP)
- There is more about satan in these letters than all the writings of Paul, John, and Peter put together
because Jesus knew who His foe really was (DP)
- A study by “Trench” notices that the order of the promises in the seven epistles corresponds to that
of the unfolding of the kingdom of God in its first beginnings on earth to its consummation in heaven.
1. To the faith at Ephesus:
- The tree of life in the Paradise of God - answers to Genesis 2
2. To the faithful at Smyrna
- Sin entered the world and death by sin; but they are promised that they shall not be hurt by the
- The promise of hidden manna - brings to the Mosaic period, the Church in the wilderness
- Triumph over the nations - forms the consummation of the kingdom in prophetic type, the period of
David and Solomon characterized by this power of the nations
- Here there is a division, the seven falling into two groups, four and three, as often, e.g., the Lord’s
5. To Sardis
- Promise to not blot their name out of the book of life but to confess him before His Father and the
angels at the judgment day and clothe him with a glorified body of dazzling whiteness.
6. To Philadelphia
- Promises they shall be citizens of the New Jerusalem, fixed as immovable pillars there where city
and temple are one. Here is not only individual salvation but also privileges in the blessed
communion of the Church triumphant.
7. To Laodicia
- The crowning promise, not only the two former blessings, but a seat with Christ on His throne,
even as He has sat with His Father on His Father’s throne.
- To “messenger” – angel of the church – the person sent by God to preside over this church; and to him
the epistle is directed, not as pointing out his state, but the state of the church under his care. (AC)
- Angel of the church – here answers exactly to that officer of the synagogue among the Jews called
the messenger of the church, whose business it was to read, pray, and teach in the synagogue. (AC)
- God always warns the churches (TB)
- Rebuked or praised by how much their light shines and by how much mixture in the world. (TB)
- Written for seven little churches of which many were slaves but Jesus expected them to understand it.
- It was written for people about to suffer big trouble and it was to help them. It was written as a manual for
martyrdom. It was written to prepare people to be willing to die for Jesus. It was written for ordinary people
in Asia in the first century. (DP)
- Opening remarks to pastor/elder. Who produces after himself. When problem in church, problem with
- Deeds - not just works, whole manner of lifestyle (TB)
- Church always functions as a light bearer (TB)
- Purpose of Book of Revelation: To comfort churches in their struggle - (Revelation 14:12)
1. Their tears and suffering seen by God
2. Their prayers are influential in world affairs
3. Their final victory is assured
4. Their blood will be avenged
5. their Lord lives and reigns forever and ever
6. Their Christ is coming again
1. Salutation
2. Self-designation
3. Commendation
4. Condemnation
5. Warning & Threat
6. Exhortation
7. Promise
Your works (deeds)
Your labor (toil)
Your patience
That you cannot bear those who are evil
Tribulation
Poverty (but you are rich)
The blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not
Where you dwell
Your love
Your service
Your faith
- A church is always destroyed from the inside. Corrupted in their creed, their conduct, their character,
and in their conversation. Typical of a second-generation church.
- Written to churches who were in no condition to come through suffering successfully. Churches that are
compromised within will not come through.
- Two calls from the Lord Jesus:
1. To see it through, endure, remain faithful
2. Overcome (DP)
- Not just to endure under all pressures but to come out on top of it. Overcome as He overcame. Christ
weights suffering as the pathway to glory. And for the joy that was set before Him, He endured.... He took the
long-term view. We are called to share His sufferings that in order we may share His glory. (DP)
- Why did Jesus only write letters to this little area? Why are they so important to Jesus? Ephesus is
located near this area. The city and its church play the largest part of any church in the New Testament than
any other. There are more about the Ephesian church in scripture than any other. The roads in this area
cover the most important road in the ancient world which lead from Europe to Asia and Africa and everything
came through there. The road came from Rome, across the sea through Philippi, then down the coast to
Turkey. When it got to Pergamum the road split. You could go down the coast to Ephesus and go to India,
China, Africa. Or you could take the river valley and end up in Laodicia. From Laodicia could go to Turkey
and other continents. Because of its prosperity, it was a highly cultured area. (DP)
- This area most prominent area to which Greek culture was exported (DP)
- This area is where at the end of the first century the devil had his headquarters. It was on a high
mountain in Pergamum (DP)
- Because these are second and third generation churches, Jesus is facing the acid test as to whether
His church will remain faithful to Him. If the churches can survive here, they will survive anywhere. If the
churches could survive the Greek and Roman cultures and the money and the pleasure and everything going
on - they had everything that goes on in the television set without the set: drama, comedy, sport. We can
lounge at home and that is the only difference. The pre-occupation of the leisure life was the same. Their
great growth industry was leisure. They had to have entertainment because every person in that area had
an ambition to retire early and to get a slave to do their work for them. 2/3’s of the people living in the area
were slaves - imported from other countries to do all the manual labor and dirty work. Because had so much
time on their hands, the leisure industry had been started. (DP)
- Pressure is being brought to bear on the Christians to be less unyielding in their negative attitude to
such socially approved activities as emperor worship and the like, to be less insistent on those things which
distinguish their way of life so sharply from the civilization in the midst of which they live. The pressure might
take the form of active persecution, as at Smyrna and Pergamum, or the subtler and less easily resisted form
of continued emphasis on the advantages of just so much conformity to paganism as to make life a little more
comfortable. (Zond)
- Pergamum had one kind of problem and the further away they had a different kind of problem, and
the churches farthest away had problems different from the others. The two churches nearest to satan’s
residence were being corrupted from the inside by idolatry and immorality. The next two farthest way were
suffering from persecution from the outside and in both cases satan was used to persecute the Christians.
And Jesus even called their churches a synagogue of satan. The two churches farthest away, satan didn’t
bother at all. One was Ephesus and they had lost their first love and the other was Laodicia and they had
become lukewarm. Churches that have lost their first love or become lukewarm are no threat to the enemy
as they are unlikely to attack his kingdom. They just carry on as they are. (DP)
IN THE LAST DAYS/END TIMES
2 Peter 3:3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their
own lusts:
- God’s fire has two distinct elements:
1. Enabling fire - an impartation of God’s holy emotions
2. Destroying fire - judgment that destroys what hinders love
- Three responses of the church to God’s temporal judgments
1. Confusion and anger (Matthew 11:6)
2. Holy Spirit understanding will be granted in due time (Jeremiah 23:18-20)
3. Rejoicing in holy partnership (Psalm 149:6-9)
- Pastoral problem - 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 Page 162
- They thought rapture had already taken place
- Matthew 24:4 “Do not be deceived”
- Apostasy = departure
- Deception widespread. God Himself will send a strong delusion. He doesn’t want anybody in the middle.
False sings and wonders; false forerunners. P 163
IMPORTANT TO KNOW FOR END TIMES:
Romans 11:25 & 26
--Must not be ignorant of this secret plan. Only told to apostles and have to search for it. If you are ignorant,
you will be wise in your own opinion – arrogance. Verses 20-22: arrogance is against God without even
knowing it. This arrogance will lead a number of believers to apostasy (denying your faith).
1. Blindness (spiritual) in part has happened to Israel
2. This blindness is “UNTIL” the fullness of the Gentiles comes in
3. All Israel will be saved
OVERCOMING PROMISES (Revelation 1-3)
1. I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God
2. Shall not be hurt by the second death
3. I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new
name written which no one knows except him who receives it.
4. I will give power over the nations and I will give him the morning star.
5. Shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of Life, but I will confess
his name before My father and before His churches.
6. I will make a pillar in the temple of My God and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name
of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from My
God. And I will write on him my new name.
7. I will grant to sit with me on My throne.