The Seven Chruches
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To The Seven Churches
To The Seven Churches
Revelation 2-3
we are going to be opening up the book of Revelation.
And the book of Revelation is a letter written to seven churches.
You see it was John— the author of John— the one whom Jesus loved.
This former disciple of Jesus has found himself in exile on the island of Patmos.
And it is on this island that John gets a Revelation.
As Natalie spoke about last week.
She did a great job setting up the first part of Revelation.
As Jesus appears to John in His full glory!
And John falls to his face and then Jesus is like get up, I need you to write some letters to these seven churches!
The Bible does have some bit here and their of symbolism.
So right away we have some of that figurative language
When John firsts sees Jesus he sees that Jesus is holding 7 stars.
Jesus has got huge hands
Because it stays that he had them in just his right hand!
WHAT!!!
But that does the seven stars mean?
Verse 20 sums it up for us, as we do not have to wait for long.
As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Seven Stars= Seven angels of the churches.
the Seven lampstands= Are these churches.
These churches are mentioned by Jesus earlier
saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
So we are not going to be able to go through in great detail all of the seven churches.
We spent a week on each church in our High School ministry earlier this year.
That should give you just an idea of how detailed these churches are.
But I would like to briefly tell you about these six churches and then focus more on the church of Laodicea, as that chruch seems to get the most attention.
What is most interesting about all of these churches , is that Jesus is writing to them all— through John— and He is showing that he knows them all personally.
I really wish we could dive us because some of these writings just would blow you mind.
I am going to give you either a word or a phrase for each chruch.
So first off it starts with the Chruch of Ephesus:
The phrase here is
First Love Abandonment
First Love Abandonment
“ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, 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.
Ouch--
You have abandoned the love you had at first.
What was their first love?
Jesus could be referring to three abandon loves
Jesus
For one another
Or for mankind as a whole.
It could bring all three together with a phrase like you do not love as you did at first.
However, I land on that it was Jesus who they abandoned.
That they fell in love with Jesus first— then their heads got in the way of their hearts.
How often do we as well do this.
We go to a great camp, we have an incredible encounter with God and then we get back home or we fall into the wrong friend group and before we know it we are no longer in love with Jesus anymore.
We may know Jesus but we do not love Jesus.
This is a dangerous place to be in friends.
If this is where you find yourself tonight, then I want to point you to verse 5 and do what is asked of you.
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.
We are called to remember, to repent, and refocus!
Remember where you would be without Jesus in your life.
Repent from allowing the world, our desire for head knowledge or our own selfishness that drove us away from our first love.
And refocus on what you did when you first were saved.
Next Jesus turns his attention to Smyrna:
Suffering is coming
Suffering is coming
“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that 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 ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
The Chruch of Smyrna was doing nothing wrong.
Actually they were doing what was right in the eyes of Jesus.
Jesus says I know you tribulation and your poverty but you are rich.
Jesus is writing to them to tell them that more tribulation is coming their way.
You see the people of this church were not giving into the rest of the town.
They were being bold for their faith.
They were not giving into the culture around them.
Where as many were going to the synagogue of Satan.
This is most likely why they were poor and suffering.
The people in the town had turned against them.
Jesus is encouraging them but also telling them, sorry but more suffering is coming your way, be faithful.
In our world we have a chance to be bold and to stand for truth.
I also encourage you to be bold and to stand for the truth that is found in the gospel.
The Third church is Pergamum:
Firm yet, soft
Firm yet, soft
“ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
The chruch was doing some things right, they were standing firm and they were not denying Jesus!
But the church of Pergamum had somethings that they were failing to do.
Some believers in the chruch were holding to false teaching.
The teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans.
What these teachings did was it pulled the attention off of Jesus.
Balaam was interested in trapping Isreal into sin.
Balaam was regularly viewed as evil in Jewish traditions.
Those who were following Balaam would not have been for Jesus, they were trying to cause those in the chruch to stumble, to eat food that was scarified to idols and they wanted them to indulged in sexual sin.
The Nicolaitans were pushing the same thing.
As we are not given a full picture of this.
But we can understand by their names that they were not for Jesus.
Nicolaus means “he overcomes the people”
Balaam means “Be has consumed the people.
The big thing to take away from here is that some people were being faithful and others were not.
They were following a cheap knock-off.
Sometimes we put others things over our relationship with Christ.
We get locked into what others say or believe.
and by doing so we come down to his insta-face-tock faith.
We read a bunch of one liners, watch a few videos, and read a couple of blogs— to tell us what to believe.
And to be fair some of that stuff is really good and very biblically based.
But if our faith is being driven by social media we have replaced God’s word (The Bible) with a cheap knock off.
You and watch whatever, but if you are not going back to the true word, you will find yourself off base.
If we just sit and listen to pastors, breakout leaders, youtube stars; and never crack up the Bible to see if what they are saying is true as it stacks up against God’s word— then we will fall for everything.
If you find yourself here, repent and begin to find out who Jesus is and who you are through Him.
Number 4: Thyatira
Encouraging BUT Still Issues
Encouraging BUT Still Issues
“ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
They were doing some great thing but they were letting false teaching into the chruch.
Have you ever had a moment where someone tells you all the really good and amazing things that you are doing— just to get slapped by a big but in the face!
You doing such an amazing job playing the guitar and you are really talented at leading us through a passage of scripture— BUT your voice is the worse!
This the picture I got when I was first reading this passage.
You have done a great job here— BUT
And what is interesting here— is that Jesus was telling this chruch how awesome they were— they were growing and what have you— adding new ministries— this chruch seemed to have it down.
Yet even a chruch that is growing can still be unhealthy.
Let me say that for those in the back:
Even a chruch that is growing can still be unhealthy.
We fall into this trap that growth=health.
We rationalize it- we convince ourselves of it- we become content with it.
We see numbers rises meaning that we must be health, but that is not always the case.
The sin the church of Thyatira was guilty of was that of tolerance.
The chruch was reaching those around them and now the people who they are bringing into the faith are leading other astray.
You tolerate that woman Jezebel.
The name Jezebel— was not a name of a literally person doing all of this.
But it was a name given to someone who was misleading others like Jezebel.
You can read about her in 1 Kings 16.
This is very similar to the same thing that was happening at Pergamum.
They were doing a lot of the right things but they were also allowing false teachings to run a muk.
NUMBER 5 Sardis
Dead no longer alive
Dead no longer alive
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
Jesus is telling them that they think they are alive but really they are dead.
He is calling them back to remember who they are.
Their reputation was no longer in tacked— they were not alive but dead.
How important is your reputation?
I ask this question tonight, on parents night, because it made me recall something my mom always said to me as I left the house to go to school, a movie, to hangout with friends, going to church— when ever I left without her— she would say:
“Remember who you are.”
It is four simple words— but it conveys a message.
It says be yourself.
It says you know how you were raised.
It makes you take off any mask that you may want to put on.
It challenges you to make the right choice, not the popular choice, but the right one.
Follow after Jesus, remember whose you are, because when you do that you will remember who you are.
Number 6: The chruch of Philadelphia-
Love Is An Open Door
Love Is An Open Door
“ ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Now It is likely the church here was smaller as in compared to the other churches. (v.8)
Jesus says i know you have little power.
But I know your works— Jesus again is getting personal with them.
And he says to them that they have kept His word and they have not denied His name.
They were being recognized for being faithful.
Now going back this whole door being open— Jesus is saying I have allowed access to you to get to God goes through me (Jesus).
It is through Christ alone that we have access to the Father.
It was when Christ breathed his last breath and in the temple the veil tore in two!
At that moment the door was open and no one can shut it!
The door is open are you willing to walk through it?
Or maybe you have already walked through it, maybe however you have lost your way.
Number 7: Laodicea!
Unremarkable
Unremarkable
“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
He says I know your works
You are lukewarm.
You are not hot or cold.
And because of this I am going to spit you out.
For many of us we have heard this passage preached on before.
We have heard it said that the problem with Laodicea was they were lukewarm Christians.
We have heard it said that God wants us to be on fire for him or not at all being cold— As in lukewarm is the worst position to be in as a believer.
Why would God prefer someone to be cold in their spiritually rather then lukewarm?
This concept has never really sat well with me.
So I would like to address this a bit.
You see the whole reason why Jesus is even bringing up hot, cold and lukewarm, has to do with Laodicea’s water supply.
While this was a very well known city, it was in the middle of no where.
They were not near a stream or hot spring— so they had to bring their water in from other places through pipes
Laodicea was getting their water from two places:
Colosse which was in the mountains and known for it had very cold water.
The other place was Hierapolis which is famously known for their hot springs.
Sounds great right, you would have the best of both worlds.
Wrong, it took too long to get to them and the pipes were full of heavy mineral deposits, making the water lukewarm and gross to drink.
While Laodicea was well know for wealth and other glorious parts they were also known for having lukewarm water.
The water was unremarkable.
It was not cold or hot.
Colosse was had remarkable cold water.
Hierapolis had remarkable hot springs.
But both of these waters become unremarkable by the time they got to Laodicea.
Jesus message here would have been very clear to the people of Laodicea.
Christ wanted them to be hot like those of Hierapolis or cold like those in Colosse— but since they were neither they were simply disgusting.
Their discipleship was not hot or cold— it was not happening, it was not present— it was unremarkable.
Laodicea had lost what made them remarkable.
They lost sight of what they were known for.
My guess they were a growing church, and the people were growing and discipling others.
But now they were just like the rest of the culture.
They were insignificant.
Being a lukewarm Christian- doesn’t sound as bad as saying you are an unremarkable follower of Christ.
Yet, this is exactly what Jesus is saying and he is fed up with them and is ready to spit them out.
It has nothing to do with being on fire for Jesus or being cold for Jesus.
It has everything to do with living a life that is marked by the gospel.
And if you are calling yourself a believer and are not living a life marked by the gospel then you my friend are living a life that is unremarkable.
This is the issue of Laodicea— and it was sooo bad that Jesus is ready to spit them out of his mouth.
So let me ask you the question— is your faith in Christ remarkable.
I’m not saying you are burning the world down for Jesus, and are loud and proud, or things like that.
But is your life marked by the gospel?
Maybe it was but now you are just blending in with the culture.
You don’t stand out for your faith.
You have a faith that is unremarkable.
Is this where you are tonight?
WE DID IT!
7 churches!
As quick as we could go!
These seven churches were real churches that Jesus had John write too.
Have a remarkable faith, remember whose you are and keep pursuing Jesus.