The Letters to the 7 Churches - Part I

Matt Figgs

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Intro, Background, Letter to Ephesus

Intro

This morning we are going to start the first part of a 3 week series studying the letters to the 7 churches in the book of Revelation

Each week we’ll cover a few of the letters, and each week will build upon the previous week, so I encourage you to be here for all the studies

If you miss one, you can go to our website or to our Facebook page and catch up on past messages

Now, what I’m about to say may disappoint you, but our study over the next 3 weeks is not going to be about the future.

These letters cover the past and the present, and they will offer us great application into our own lives

Yes, we will talk some high level overviews of the future and what the Bible has to say about it

And as much as I am a student of eschatology (the study of the end times) and can spend a lot of time talking about that, that’s not really what we’re going to talk about the next few Sundays

Now don’t check out on me if you were hoping for a crash course on the book of Revelation

But I believe the Lord is going to give us a message for today

You see, what’s amazing about these letters is that you can apply them in 4 different ways

These were real letters written to actual, physical churches back in the day

We’re going to also see that they were written for 7 primary types of churches that exist today

They are for 7 different types of Christians

And they represent 7 primary periods in church history

Before we get into these letters, we need to spend some time talking the background of Revelation and studying Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of this book gives us the key to the entire book of Revelation, and is especially important for the 7 letters that we’ll study.

Background

Alright, a little background on the book of Revelation

It was written by the apostle John, brother of James, one of Jesus’ 12 original disciples

This was one of 5 books of the NT that John wrote, the Gospel of John, 1, 2, & 3 John, and Revelation

John, after walking with Jesus during His earthly ministry, and then leading the early church in Jerusalem with Peter, eventually became the pastor of the church in Ephesus and pastored there for many, many years (40+)

He was nearly 90 years old when he wrote Revelation in probably 95 AD

At the time of writing this book, John was the last of the apostles that was still alive

There was a strong wave of persecution going on at this time, and all of the other apostles had been martyred for their faith

Church history tells us that the Roman Emperor Domitian had thought he could end Christianity once and for all by murdering the last living apostle, John, and put him in a pot of boiling oil

But God miraculously saved him

So the Romans sent him to the island of Patmos instead in ~ 90 AD

Patmos wasn’t a Mediterranean island vacation, it was a prison where those who went were basically slaves, and anyone sent there almost never came back

John would be released from Patmos in ~ 96 AD after Domitian was murdered and succeeded by Emperor Nerva

Like I mentioned before, the book of Revelation was written in ~95AD

It was the last of the NT books to be written

And canonically, it is placed last in the NT (& the Bible) for a very good reason - b/c you need to have a good understanding of the other 65 books of the Bible to properly understand Revelation

There are a lot of different interpretations of the book of Revelation

One big reason for the different interpretations are all the signs and symbolism that are in the book

For instance, numbers have a lot of symbolism

The most famous is the number 666, the mark of the beast found in Rev 13:18.

Another number you see a lot in this book is the number 7

7 churches, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls, 7 seals

7 in the Bible is the number, not of perfection, but completion

It represents a full, complete picture, or the end of something that has been completed

Because of the signs and symbolism, there is a lot of debate among Christians as to how to translate this book

Here at Calvary, we take what is known as the Futurist View

That view holds that the events from Chapters 4 on take place in the future and speak of the time right before the 2nd coming of Jesus

We also would say we have a premillenial view, meaning that we say that the 1000 year reign of Jesus described in Rev 20 is yet to come, it’s in the future

There are 3 other primary views of this book

The Preterist View

Holds that John wrote this in 70 AD before the destruction of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem and that it spoke of events in his own day

Too much evidence from early church history that John wrote it in mid 90s AD, and you have a hard time lining up how Rome destroyed the temple with how the antichrist is described to desecrate the temple, as well as the apparent death and then resurrection of the antichrist

The Historical View

This holds that John was writing about events in church history. The millennial reign has already happened and we can look back on history and see the events described here

You have to abandon a literal interpretation of Revelation and really get liberal with your symbolism to make that view fit

The Poetic/Spiritualist View

Everything in this book is symbolic and is meant to encourage and comfort persecuted Christians in John’s day

John makes it clear in Rev 1:1 that the things described in the book must take place, they aren’t symbolic

With our Futurist view, we take this book literally. Yes there are many symbols, but we take God’s word for what it says instead of trying to put our own meaning behind things

Which is how we should be reading scripture anyways!

Now the book of Revelation is not primarily about the future or end times, its about Jesus

Look at Rev 1:1a

Revelation 1:1a (NKJV)

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ...

It doesn’t say Revelations with an “s”

It says The Revelation

The world “revelation” in the ancient Greek is “apokalypsis” where we get our modern day word “Apocalypse”

Don’t think of this in the sense that we think of the apocalypse though, this doesn’t mean doomsday or the end of the world

This Greek word literally means, “uncovering” as it to reveal something that was once hidden or unknown

So this book is the revelation or uncovering or revealing of Jesus Christ - it’s all about Jesus!

I heard a pastor say of the book of Revelation that we need to be careful that we don’t focus too much on the signs in this book that we miss the Savior

This book carries a special blessing for those who read it

Revelation 1:3 (NKJV)

3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

So we are going to read part of this book the next few weeks, you’re going to hear it as we teach it, and the encouragement is for you to keep it, or to put into practice the things that you learn from it

Let’s go ahead and read the first 8 verses just to make sure we don’t skip out on them

Verses 1-3

The revelation of who?

Of Jesus Christ

John tells us that he received this revelation or uncovering/revealing of Jesus and he wrote it down

And there’s that special blessing we just talked about

Verses 4-8

John writes this book to the 7 churches in Asia

Asia = Asia minor = modern day Turkey

Those 7 churches are the same that Jesus wrote the letters to in Chapters 2 & 3

They are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, & Laodicea

They were connected on this trade route called the Circular Road

We’ll spend a lot more time talking about them the next 3 weeks

We notice here an example of the trinity

Grace & peace from Him who is and was and is to come (Rev 4:8 shows us this is God the Father); the seven Spirits around the throne is the Holy Spirit (speaks of the 7 aspects of the Holy Spirit found in Is 11:2

Isaiah 11:2 (NKJV)

2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

And from Jesus Christ, the Son

Another cool thing about this greeting, God the Father is described as Him who is, and who was, and who is to come. He is the God of the present, the past, and the future. The Holman NT Commentary says on this verse that, “Although the Greek grammar is awkward here, this is a development of God’s Old Testament name, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exod. 3:14).”

God doesn’t change!

John reminds us that Jesus is going to come back one day, and everyone will know (vs. 7)

Something we can hope in and trust that it will happen

Why? Because God never changes. He was, and is, and is to come, He is always the same!

Lesson - Revelation 1:9-2:7

Verses 9-11

John describes how he received this revelation from the Lord

He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day

He was spending time with Jesus on Sunday.

Think about this one for a minute

John was there for 5 years before Jesus showed up to give him this revelation

That had to have been so hard for John

He had been faithfully shepherding his flock in Ephesus, but with this exile, he had 0 communication with the outside world

He probably expected to die there, all alone

He could have given up, quit, said he was done with ministry and growing deeper with the Lord and waited for God to take him home

But he was faithful to still pursue Jesus. He was faithful to spend time with Him and to pray.

He didn’t let his circumstances take that away from him. He didn’t let the wave of persecution that had put him on this prison island discourage him.

What a great lesson for us today. I think there are a lot of Christians worried that what’s coming down the road from the government or from society is getting more and more anti-Christian and that we should be worried that God’s work is going to stop because of potential persecution.

Yet it was in the very middle of that intense persecution of John’s time that as he was seeking the Lord, he got an amazing revelation of Jesus

So John is there seeking the Lord and all of a sudden he hears a loud voice behind him, like a trumpet blast

And that voice told him, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. Write down what you see”

Most of you know that in Greek, the first and last letters of their alphabet are alpha and omega, so Jesus is telling John that He is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end. All reason for everything is encompassed between those two points.

It reminds me of what John wrote about Jesus in his gospel

John 1:1 (NKJV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Word = logos = the ultimate reason for everything

Jesus is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Logos, the Word, the Ultimate Reason for everything

Verses 12-16

John turns around and sees Jesus

He gives this pretty amazing description of Jesus

He had this long robe that had a golden band on it, symbolizing the priesthood of Christ, and His authority

His hair was as white as snow, symbolizing His timelessness, wisdom, and purity

His eyes were like a blazing fire, speaking of God’s judgement

His feet were like brass, showing that Jesus had been through a fire of judgement and came through pure

His voice was like the sound of rushing waters, showing His power and majesty

He had a double edged sword coming out of His mouth, symbolizing the power of His word, a reference to Hebrews 4:12.

His face shined like the sun, speaking of Jesus’s divinity

We also learn two other things about Jesus

He is standing in the middle of 7 golden lampstands

He is holding 7 starts in his right hand

We’re going to see in verse 20 that Jesus tells us what these symbols mean so there is no confusion

The lampstands represent the 7 churches (7 = completeness, so the lampstands represent the complete church) - Jesus stands in the midst of His church

The stars represent the angels of the 7 churches

There is more debate on what the word “angel” really means.

Some say it’s a literal angel, guardian angels who protect the church

Others say the word angel was a poor translation, and that it should have been translated “messenger”

Therefore the messenger would be the pastors/overseers of the 7 churches

I think it’s cool how Jesus has those messengers in His right hand, the hand that symbolizes strength

This part of the vision tells us that Jesus is in the middle of His complete church, and He holds them in strength

Verse 17a

John’s reaction to all of this is to fall down at Jesus’ feet like he was dead

It was overwhelming I’m sure to see Jesus in all of His majesty like this

John had been one of 3 disciples who had seen a glimpse of this before

Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, it was Peter, James, & John who got to go up with Jesus and saw Him transformed into His glorious appearance, and got to see Moses & Elijah show up too

Even though John had seen that, he still falls on his face when he sees Jesus in His glory again

We’re never going to be able to compare to the awe and wonder of our Savior.

And a true encounter with His majesty should cause us to do the same thing that John did, the same thing that Isaiah did in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah got a vision of the throne room of heaven, to fall on our faces before Him in humility.

Verses 17b-20

Jesus comforts John - don’t be afraid

That’s a message we see repeated over and over again in the word

Abraham, don’t be afraid, I’ll be your shield, your great reward (Gen 15:1)

Joshua, don’t be afraid, I’ll be with you wherever you go (Josh 1:9)

Elijah, don’t be afraid, I will protect you from your enemies (2 Kings 1:15)

Jeremiah, don’t be afraid of persecution, I’ll be your voice (Jer 1:8)

Shepherds, don’t be afraid, for unto you a Savior is born (Luke 2:10-11)

Disciples, don’t be afraid, go and tell others about me (Matt 28:10)

John, don’t be afraid, I am eternal, and I hold the power over death (Rev 1:17-18)

Then Jesus tells John the key to the entire book of Revelation in vs. 19

Verse 19

John, write down three things

The things which were (past) -> Chapter 1

The things which are (present) -> Chapters 2 & 3

And the things which will be (future) -> Chapter 4-22

We are currently living in the Chapters 2 & 3 era, also known as the church age

Alright, time to get into our first church, the letter to the church in Ephesus

Remember that these letters were written to 7 actual churches that existed at the time

They are for 7 7 primary types of churches that exist today

They are for 7 different types of Christians

And finally, they represent 7 primary periods in church history

Chapter 2, Verses 1-7

The format of this first letter is the same format that Jesus will use for all of the letters

Intro

A picture of Jesus from the vision John had in Chapter 1

A commendation - praise for what they’re doing right

Condemnation - Jesus pointed out where they are missing the mark

A command

A promise to those who overcome

Again, remember our 4 applications for each letter

This was a real church in a real city

This was John’s church that he had pastored for 40 years

Ephesus was a major center of the Christian faith during this time period.

The city itself was the capitol of Asia Minor, and it was the regional hub of commerce since it was a port city

Paul had a big part in the early days of this church as seen in Acts 19 where he started witnessing to people and stayed there for 2 years teaching them. The church went from just a few people to being a force for Christ in the city

Acts 19 tells that the church had grown so much and was making such an impact on the city, that there was a revolt over lost business in the worship of Artemis (Diana is the Roman version - so pretty much one and the same)

There was a temple to Artemis, who was the goddess of fertility and hunting oddly enough. That temple was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world

She was the most popular of all the Greek goddesses at the time

Those who had made little idols to Artemis had lost a lot of business b/c the church had grown so much and become such and influence.

They start this riot, drug Paul and his companions into the theater to put him on trial. When he tries to speak to defend himself, the whole arena chants, “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!” for 2 hours.

It takes the government to come in and calm the riot and dismiss everyone

Eventually Timothy would take over the church, and then John

They had great leadership, and they did great things

You can see that in verses 2 & 3 - “I know your works, your labor, your patience”

The period in church history this represents is the Apostolic Church, from 30 AD to ~ 100 AD

This is the time of the church from the ascension of Jesus while all the Apostles lived

The time period is marked by evangelism and a rapid spread of the church, as well as a lot of signs and wonders

But it wasn’t without it’s problems. If you read Acts or the letters in the NT, you see that many of the apostles had to confront false teaching that was creeping into the church.

Don’t forget the other two applications as we go through this letter, it applies to different types of churches today, as well as different types of Christians today.

So what does Jesus say about Ephesus?

Verse 1

Here’s the introduction, the message to the angel (or messenger/pastor/overseer)

Then Jesus reminds the church about some of the characteristics we saw last chapter

He holds the 7 stars in His right hand, and walks in the middle of the 7 lampstands

We just read what those represented in Rev 1:20

The starts were the angels/messengers/pastors of the church

And the lampstand represented the churches (7 = completion, so the complete worldwide church)

Jesus is reminding them that He holds the leadership of the church in His strength, and that He is involved in His church

He doesn’t run it from afar, or leave it up to others to run, Jesus is all about being in the midst of His church

Following our outline of each letter, next Jesus praises them for what they were doing right

Verses 2-3

This church was known for their works and their laboring for the Lord

They were doing things for God

And they labored tirelessly to do those works

Patience = steadfast endurance

Again, speaking to the hard work, and enduring in that hard work for the Lord

Serving the Lord is a sacrifice, and it is a labor

I know this is a sacrifice b/c of how my flesh likes the opposite of laboring for the Lord.

My flesh likes to be lazy, and watch another episode of What If on Disney + instead of staying up to study for a Sunday message or for Wednesday night Youth Group

But serving the Lord is work, it is sacrifice.

Realize your flesh is going to crave to do the opposite, we should remain steadfast (endure) in serving the Lord

Don’t just serve Him on your own terms. Ask God what He has for you, and if He calls you, do it!

Don’t make excuses b/c it’s inconvenient or costly, that’s what it should be, a sacrifice of your time or talent or treasures for the Lord.

So when you’re tired of coming to worship practice to get the songs down to lead the people in worship, or your tired of always having to take the trash out or how messy the bathrooms are when you clean, or you just don’t feel like working in the nursery today, you can call and get a last minute replacement, right? - remember that God is calling us to sacrifice us to serve Him

To follow after Him, we must deny self, take up our cross and follow Him

The church in Ephesus knew that and their works were known to others and to Jesus

They also protected the flock from evil and from false teachers/apostles

This temple to Artemis in the midst of the city that drove so much of the local economy, they didn’t stand for it

They didn’t try to justify it (“It’s good for business”) and they didn’t dabble in the sin associated with the temple

There was a lot of prostitution surrounding this temple, and evil worship of this false goddess

The Ephesian church didn’t say, “That’s just how things are in our culture” - they stood up to it and would not stand for evil

And like we talked earlier, this period of church history started to have false teachers rise up to get the people’s eyes off Jesus and onto man

There were those falsely claiming to be apostles to get people to follow after them

There were the Nicolaitans in verse 6 who started to establish this priestly order where to communicate to God, you had to talk to the priest first

God said He hated what the Nicolaitans were doing, b/c it cut off the very thing He died for, which was a personal relationship w/ each one of us

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple which separated the holy of holies where the ark of the covenant was, the place where God’s presence dwelt, and the rest of the temple was torn in two

That was an area only the high priest could go in once a year on the day of atonement before Jesus, and only after a bunch of rituals and sacrifices, but by that veil tearing, God was telling the world that all could come into His presence

And the Nicolaitans were trying to get in the way of that

Be wary of any ministry or church that makes things about a man or woman, rather than about Jesus

We live in an era of celebrity pastors now, and many people follow a church or a ministry b/c of the person in charge, not b/c of the call of God to get involved there

That is a dangerous thing. Don’t idolize man, worship the Savior

Again, the Ephesian church had this right, they were doing good in this area

But there was one thing where they were missing the mark

Verse 4

They had left their first love

He didn’t say they had lost their first love like they weren’t saved anymore, but He said that they had left or forgotten Him

They had all these things happening at church, this study, that event, this small group, that outreach ministry

They were busy in doing ministry, but the heart and the reason for the ministry wasn’t there anymore

I know this is something I struggle with

I can get caught up in “I’ve been doing this for a long time” or “I know what I’m doing” or even just showing up at church week in and week out b/c I work hard and I’m laboring for the Lord, but the love is not there

If this describes you, think back to the time when you first got saved, or maybe the first time you started serving in a ministry at the church, and how excited you were about it.

You were signing up to help at every open slot on the calendar, you were telling people about Jesus any chance you could get, you were reading your Bible every day to see what God had to show you that day

But have you fallen into a pattern of “I’m on the schedule, so I better show up” or “I just don’t have time anymore” or “I know the program”?

What does Jesus give as the correction to the Christian or the church that is in a loveless state?

Verse 5

Three steps, remember from where you fell, repent, and return to your first works

Remember

Remember back to that time that you first got saved, and how amazing God’s grace was and how in awe of Him you were and how thankful you were that He had washed all of your sins away

Remember back to that time you started serving and how excited you were and how you didn’t know what you were doing so you prayed about everything all the time and God was leading you step by step

Repent

Jesus doesn’t say “remember the good ol’ days and then take some time off”

He says remember, then repent for leaving your first love. Confess that sin before God and stop working w/ love

Then repeat

“…do the first works” - repeat how you had started out

Get back to work, but do it the way you were serving before, with Jesus in the midst of things

If you don’t, the warning Jesus gave was that He would remove their lampstand

Jesus remains in the midst of His church, but if our church or we as Christians try to walk in a loveless state, He’s going to remove that lampstand

Looking back at church history, both the actual church of Ephesus, as well as the church of this era, listened to this warning

The early church leader and writer Ignatius (generation after the apostles, contemporary of Polycarp and Clement of Rome) would praise the Ephesian church in the early 2nd Century for their love

And the next era of the church that we’ll cover next week, Jesus didn’t have anything bad to say about them - there was massive growth in that church

For us, Jesus will always be in the midst of His church, its up to us whether we want to come be a part of that and serve Him in humility and love, or if we want to rely on ourselves or elevate a man over our Savior and have our lampstand removed. God will not stay in a loveless church.

Last verses as we close out

Verses 6-7

Here Jesus talks about the Nicolaitans again which we previously discussed

Then He gives a promise to those who overcome

Each letter has this promise to those who overcome either the sin or the struggles of that church

So for this church, those who overcome a loveless walk of faith, He promises that they will be able to eat from the tree of life in heaven

This speaks to the promise of eternal life

I’ll close on this out of Rev. 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

God has put His inspired word in our laps to read and to study and to apply to our lives

These are more than just historical letters to ancient churches, they describe types of Christians and types of churches

We are called to have ears that are open to what Jesus is saying

Jesus will say that to every church at the end of every letter

For every period of church history, for every church throughout history and today, and for every Christian, God has written down His Holy word for us, are we going to hear what the Spirit says?

Don’t make your walk about you. Don’t make it about following after a person or a ministry. Don’t get caught up in the labor and the works if there isn’t a relationship

Love God, love others, serve Him out of that love.

And if you’ve left your first love, remember, repent, and repeat those first works

Closing

Alright, so Part I of III done and we only made it through the first letter

Next week we’ll read the letters to the churches at Smyrna, Pergamos, and Thyatira, don’t miss it