Today, we look at the seven letters or messages to the seven churches. In the future, we are likely going to have a series dedicated to these individual letters. But for now, we’re going to step back and consider them as a whole and how they fit into the overall message of Revelation. We look to the reading of God’s word if you would join with me in prayer. Bless are you, O the Father of all mercy. You have elected us. You’ve called us. You’ve justified us. You’ve sanctified and glorified us all through your son, the living word. We ask them that you would take the blessings of your word and that you would feed us by the spirit of truth working in us, that you would continue to mold and to shape us into his image and his likeness. We pray and ask all these things through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Chapter 2, looking at verses 1-11. To the angel of the church of Ephesians write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right-hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostels, and are not, and found them to be false.
I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans whom I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. To the angel of the church of Smyrna write, The words of the first and the last who died and came to life. I know your tribulation, your poverty, but you are rich. And the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for 10 days you will be have tribulation.
Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. A challenge for any written communication is our inability to know tone or body language, and reading the Bible is no different. People often unnecessarily import a harsh and punitive voice for God, particularly in the Old Testament. Here, Jesus is speaking directly to the seven churches of what is now in the country of Turkey. Some have thought it a sharp contrast to the Jesus of the Gospels. But what we see Jesus saying here is what Jesus speaks of in the Gospels. He regularly encouraged and warned his listeners. He called them to the hard task of following him. At times, he spoke with great tenderness and other times with open rebuke. What all of us need is to hear a fresh and a new the voice of Christ. It’s listening to our savior that will give us strength to face our temptations as well as our trials. Hearing him reminds us of our obligation to love one another because he first loved us rather than justifying our hatred. We receive his comfort in the midst of weariness, discouragement, and his words enable and empower us to speak the good news to others.
We need what the churches have always needed to hear the voice of our good shepherd. Because Jesus continues to speak to his people, we will overcome in the end. This is what we have in the Book of Revelation, Jesus speaking to his people. But in an unexpected manner that captures our attention, the people of God are called to overcome, even as they are assured of a promised victory. Well, looking at this call to overcome, we see there’s a repeated form in each message to the different churches. There’s an opening identifier or address, which we see here, to the angel of the church in Ephesians, right. As I mentioned last week, the angel of the churches likely refers to a personification of that church. Some have thought of actually as an angelic representative or maybe the local pastor of the church. The letters, however, are address to all of those in the congregation at these cities. And once this description is given, the next is what Jesus, something about him from the first chapter, something that describes him in some way. And here we see the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right-hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands, which comes entirely from chapter one.
And again, in all seven of the churches, there’s some description that comes out of chapter one. Then we’re given a commendation from Jesus to the Ephesians. He says, I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance. Now, you cannot bear those who are evil, who have tested those who call themselves apostols and are not and found them to be false. And not talking about the twelve, he’s talking about others who were called Apostles in the sense that they were sent out and proclaiming the message of Christ. They weren’t the twelve, but they had authority to teach and so forth. And then he goes on in verse 3, I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary. So that’s a great commendation from Jesus. And in the case of five of these seven, We then get a rebuke, and we see that here in verse 4. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. And then a solution, a remedy is offered, verse 5, Remember Therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.
And then this is followed up by a consequence. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. And then he said, Yet you have ‘I wish you hate the work of the Nicolaitans, whom I also hate. ‘ We’ll see that also in these seven churches, we’re not really sure who the Nicolaitans were. It was a part of the church that was in air, that was leading God’s people astray. And they were standing up against that. However, they had lost their first love. And then with that is the final promise, verse 7, He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Each of these seven churches is called to conquer, to overcome in some way. That Greek word used here is one that actually is very familiar to us, even though if we don’t know the connection, you’ve likely seen it every day in the form of a brand of shoes, Nike. Nike is the Greek word to conquer, to overcome, Niki’al.
And that is what Jesus is speaking to, to prevail, to conquer. Everybody, all the seven churches in one form or another, is given the promise of eternal life in seven slightly different ways. Depending on how you counted up, there are seven parts to each of the seven messages. These seven churches are listed in a circular route in what it would be like to go from one to the other. I mentioned last week that there were more important churches in in Asia Minor where this is at. But these seem to be communication hubs for their areas. Revelation is meant to be a letter sent to all of them. It’s called a circular letter, meaning it’s to be read in circulation from one church to the next. You remember everything, of course, was handwritten and then copied. In the end of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul expressly says there, he says, When this letter to the Colossians has been read among you, have it also read to the church of the Laodiceans, and see to it that you read the letter from Laodicea. We don’t have that letter, but the letter to the Colossians and to the Laodiceans was supposed to be read by each church.
That was the intent of it. It was to be circular in that way. And that’s what we see here with these seven messages to the seven churches. There has been some confusion through the year. Some people have thought that these seven churches maybe refers to seven ages or seven time periods. To that, the original recipients, they would have no way of knowing that. When you’re getting a letter that’s written to your church, and instead of you, it’s actually hundreds of years later, that would make any sense to them. Some have surmised that the Church of Perguma was considered the time or the age of the Emperor Constantine, the Church of Ciatyro would have been the Middle Ages and so on. But that’s more to the fantasy of the interpreter than anything you would read in the text. These were real churches, real people in them, and these messages are going out to them. But they’re also universal in nature. The seven speaks to that. Even in chapter 2, verse 23, the message is for all the churches. And this message to the churches is interwoven through the whole Book of Revelation. It captures all the themes.
And this call remained faithful to remain faithful in the place of opposition. Sometimes that opposition is from within the church, and sometimes it’s from without, from the outside. Both of these are taking place. In these seven letters, there’s a distinct message to each one of them. To emphasis, you’re great in doctrine, but you’ve lost love. Pergimen, holding fast in persecution, which is wonderful, but false teaching has crept in. To Theatira, you have patient endurance and steadfastness, but immorality has come in through false teaching. To the church of Sardis, saying, You were once very alive, but now you’re dead. You need to wake up. To the church of Laodicea, You’re spiritually bankrupt right now. You need to be zealous. You need to repent. The two churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia, there’s no rebuke for them, but they are facing great opposition. And so while there are specific churches, they have the universal problems and strengths of every church, of every Christian. When Jesus was with his disciples, and we see this, especially in Matthew 24, this is the very last of what Jesus is doing with his people, he warns them. He says to them, See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the Christ, ‘ and they will lead many astray.
And then Jesus goes on. He says, Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, put you to death, and you’ll be hated by the nations for my namesake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the Kingdom will be claimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to the nations, and then the end will come. That sounds very familiar to what we just read and which you see in these letters. This is Jesus talking to his churches. He’s done this in several places in the Gospels as well. Jesus calls his people to faithfulness. There isn’t a different Jesus in the Gospels and a different one in Revelation. We are called to endure to the end, to the end of your life. That’s what he calls conquering or overcoming, to end well. These exhortations are real. They get our attention and they call on us not to lose our zeal, but to endure. Now, of course, the eternal decrees of God are known only to God.
What we know is what we see right in front of us. Some of these who seem to be a part of God’s people fall away. They don’t endure. Great churches of one generation have fallen completely away in the next. Some have maintained multiple generations of faithfulness. Living in a fallen world that’s hostile Jesus, it’s hard. It’s always been hard. We’re always faced with the constant temptation to compromise our faith. We’re often tempted to soften our beliefs so that we are more accommodating or to harden ourselves where we actually need to maintain a soft heart. We’re tempted to lose momentum when we need to pull harder. We’re tempted to lay down when we need to stand up. And these are real warnings that Jesus is giving to his people because real warnings spur on real disciples. It pushes God’s people forward to hear the areas that we are lacking or that we are sinning in. Correcting that is a part of how the Lord Jesus deals with his people. Not hypothetical. The message of Christ to his people is, Where are you? And that comes to each of us differently with where we’re at in a particular time and place.
We know there are no perfect people, there are no perfect churches. The good news of Jesus gives us hope that encourages us to be faithful. And by reflecting on these seven churches, we are then called to reflect upon our own lives. And each one of these ends with a promised victory in Jesus. And here we see as well that like the parables, revelation comes to us in a way that needs explanation. When Jesus spoke the parables to the disciples, the first thing he did Jesus, what were you saying? They didn’t get him. Jesus had to further explain to his people. Here we see that symbols are being used rather than parables, but the same thing is happening. It’s making us slow down. It’s making us reflect and to meditate on their meaning. What exactly is being said? With each of the churches is a different message to the one who conquers, the one who overcomes. To the Ephesians, he said, I will to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. A tree of life, okay, we’ve seen that symbol before. That seems apparent. To the church of Smyrna, to the one who overcomes, you will not be hurt by the second death.
We’ll find out a little bit more of that as the book goes on. To the church of Perguma. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on that stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. What’s that? It’s a little more complicated. Causse us to think and to dig. To the church of Thiatira, to the one who conquers, to him, I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as myself have received authority from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. Again, a symbol to the message of conquering that’s not readily apparent to us. But we see there’s a conquering in his name because his authority that he’s given to his people. To the church of Sardis. To the one who conquerors who be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the Book of Life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
See more of the Book of Life yet to come. To the church of Philadelphia, to the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name. A beautiful picture of that which is yet to come to God’s people. Symbolic that we indeed are a living temple. The priesthood of God. And to the Laodiceans, to the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquer and sat down with my Father on his throne. And all seven of these are different ways, different symbols of speaking of eternal life with Jesus. In all seven, we are called to hear. We hear this in all of them. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. We can recognize ourselves in these churches. Maybe even different points of our lives, we struggle with variations mentioned here.
We’re all familiar There was the prodigal son in Luke 15. Think about that. The prodigal son, how many of you started out as a younger brother, living a wild and a sinful life and then coming to faith in Christ? But over time, transitioning to become more like the older brother. Self-righteous, condemning the sins and struggles of others, forgetting where you started. How easy that is to take place. In the language of John Newton, being a blind Bartimaeus It’s miraculously receiving sight by Jesus and then promptly beating every blind man you meet with your stick. The tendency of the human heart that we judge others with the sins that either we struggled with in the past or we don’t currently struggle with at all. How often that is the case? If you maintain doctrine well, you hit everyone with that stick, even though love may be far from you. If you’re kind in accepting of sinners, you hit all those doctrinal pharisees, even though you may be struggling with accommodating and laxity. The church of Ephesias maintained its Christian beliefs well, but love was its problem. The church of Thiatira had a visible in growing love but lack discernment and tolerated false teaching.
We see that with these seven churches, they’re all contending with different struggles that are central to the main theme of Revelation. When we read those, the question is, what were they to do? How would they reinforce themselves against the world, the flesh, and the devil? And the answer for them, and the answer for us, is they need to hear the voice of their savior. I put this in your bulletin from Dennis Johnson, it’s a masterful book on the Triumph of the Lamb. But he says this about Jesus. He said, Jesus’ voice comforts our weak and wounded hearts, diagnosis our diseases, shatters our dreams of ease, and now calls us forward to the consummation of his victory in the new Jerusalem. His voice addresses us today in the letters to the seven churches of Asia, for each letter is what the spirit says to all the churches. It is Jesus’ voice that comforts us, diagnosis our problems, it shatters our dreams of ease. It calls us forward to the consummation of his victory. You see, the good shepherd reminds us that his sheep hear his voice. He lays down his life for us. He protects us against the wolves and the wild animals.
He brings us to still waters and green pastures. His sheep know his voice. In this letter, Jesus is speaking to his people as he’s always done, equipping, exhorting, encouraging. That’s the thing we see here. Jesus is walking among his churches. He knows them by name. He is present to them. We hear the opening words in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 1. It says, To him who loves us, who has freed us from our sins by his blood, made us a kingdom, priest to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen. That’s Jesus, the one who loves us and freed us from our sins. This is the one speaking to his people, to encourage them where their love has grown cold, to exhort them, where they are tolerating things they ought not to tolerate, to extend those words of an encouraging desire to continue in the midst of persecution, even though it’s difficult and hard because he’s right there with them, commending them. That’s Jesus. That’s the very voice that we need to hear. Because wherever you are, it’s likely to change, as we all know through our life, that we can move in and out of these various places and these various tendencies that we see in these churches.
Because these churches are us. They’re believers who struggle in different ways in different times with different sins. And we hear the voice of Jesus calling us to himself, calling us to faithfulness, calling us to end well. How do you end well? You end well by following Jesus because he has enabled you to follow. And when you hear an exhortation, when you hear a warning, it’s not hypothetical. It’s meant to spur us on. Warnings to say we do need to repent of our sin. We do need to worry about our hearts growing cold and We do need to worry and be concerned about our teaching and doctrine. And the one who is the most concerned for us is Jesus. He’s more concerned about that than we are. Why? Because he loves us. His goal is eternal life in him. How beautifully this is given to each of the churches in a wonderful symbolic form of what that means to have everlasting life with him. Because in this world, in this life is struggles and travail. Nobody is going to be free of this. There are moments of great trials and tribulations and there are moments of sunshine and the ocean spray hitting in the face, and that moves.
It’s constantly fluid for us. But what is not is the consistency of our savior. The same Jesus who in the Gospels lovingly warns and urgently calls to where sinners and outcasts could come and eat with him and feel the acceptance that he gave to them. And the self-righteous and the proud could feel the anger of his wrath when he said, Woe to you. And the woe to you is a call to repentance. And that’s woven into the personal work of Jesus throughout the Gospels, and it’s woven in to the personal work of Jesus here in Revelation. It’s the same Jesus. Hear his voice afresh and anew as he calls you, particularly with where you are at, with the struggles that you are having, in order that you would be encouraged to live for him and for his glory, because he purchased you with his blood. The Book of Revelation is a wonderfully, encouraging Book of the sovereignty and the Majesty of our savior. Nothing is going to overcome us. He will keep us to the end. And the means of him enabling us to finish well is the exhertations, the call to repentance, the spurring on of our faith when we are indeed flagging in our zeal, when we are becoming laxedasical, when we need a little kick in the pants, that is Jesus.
Just as much as when we are suffering, standing in the midst of the fire, he’s right there, too. We have an amazing savior who we have come to worship this day, and he will see us through to the end. The eternal life that has been promised to us comes by his accomplishment that we were purchased by him who loves us. If you pray with me. Father Almighty, we do thank you. We thank you for how you have enabled your people to persevere. And Lord, we long for that day when one day all things will be made right and we will indeed have eternal life with you. Father, we would ask then where our lives are not lining up with the good news of Jesus Father, that you would, by your spirit, enable us to hear what you’re speaking to the churches. Father, that you would call us to repentance, that you would call us to renewal, that you would call us again to faithfulness, to endurance. And Lord Jesus, I would ask, too, that if there are any here who do not know your name, who do not know your voice, that you would open their ears to hear, their eyes to see, that you would grant them saving faith in you, Father, that they would know your son.
We pray and ask this all in his mighty and wonderful name. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.