Lessons from the Seven Churches of Asia

Lessons from the Seven Churches of Asia

By: Scott Ingram

TEXT:

Revelation 2:1-6, 2:8-10, 2:12-16, 2:18-28, 3:1-5, 3:7-12, 3:14-21

THESIS:

To encourage Christians to continue heading toward heaven by reminding them of part of their reward that they will receive for remaining faithful.

INTRODUCTION:

1. First of all if we are going to consider lessons from the seven churches of Asia let’s consider why Seven churches.

2. The number seven has been used to represent completeness, or perfection, a collective whole in this case.

3. The fact that we are considering the seven churches of Asia does not mean the seven churches of Asia were the whole or entirety of the church literally, remember there was a church in Jerusalem, but they did represent the global church and the problems the church faced then and still faces today.

4. The church may have new members, live in what we call the modern era, and have much in the way of technology to aid and make life more comfortable for us today, but it is not a new church.

5. The lessons we can learn from our ancient brethren are pertinent to us today because they dealt with the same problems we deal with today, almost exactly.

DISCUSSION:

I. The church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-6)

A. The church of Ephesus had much going for it in the first century.

1. These brethren were workers.

a) They had works going for them, something that the Lord saw fit to commend.

b) They were evidently busy with things God was pleased with that's something we have to emulate as well.

c) The works commended by God are not optional but expected, or in other words required, we need to be a busy people in the Kingdom.

2. They labored

a) The fact that they had works going was commended but they were apparently diligent in those works as well.

b) The Lord sees our labors (Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unrighteous to forget your wok and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”)

3. They had patience

4. They rejected evil and even further than simple rejection had a heart to despise that which the Lord despised.

a) What a great comment to receive from the Lord

b) Recognition of their unwillingness to bear with evil and tolerate it among them is in line with the fact that God does not suffer evil in His presence either and therefore it can be inferred that they were emulating God well in that respect and so should we!

5. The fact that they put teachers to the test was commended.

a) We may not be able to ask for a miracle today, not in good conscience anyway, but we can apply the principle found in Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. “

6. They had borne or were enduring, they did not quit or give up the faith.

7. They did it for the right reasons, the Lord said it was for His name sake and they did kept their strength and pushed forward too!

B. What a great church we might say but just as we would think it could not get any better, it gets worse instead.

1. The brethren at Ephesus were hard workers that did not put up with sin or false teachers, but they pushed forward in their work hard and did it for the name of Christ.

2. However, the brethren also forgot to do something.

a) They left their first love and left their salvation in the process even though from the outside it looked like everything was going well, on the inside they were growing apart from the Lord.

b) They were given the chance to repent and warned of what would happen if they did not.

II. The church of Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-10)

A. The church of Smyrna does not have much said about it but what is said is good.

B. There are only two of the churches mentioned in revelation that have nothing bad said about them at all and that in itself is a lesson to be learned, that we can actually do it, we can be what God expects us to be and considering our first century brethren did it under much more painful and inconvenient circumstances than what we have today, we should be able to do at the least as well as they, or more in the work of the Lord in the process of being the church today.

C. The church offers direct lessons too, such as the reward of faithfulness to Christians that are willing to die for the faith and the fact that God knows our trials and is compassionate towards us.

III. The church of Pergamos (Revelation 2:12-16)

A. The church here teaches us about what it means to stand firm even when the brethren we know directly are dying for the faith!

B. This is a congregation that is not afraid to stand tall and is not ashamed of the gospel (Rom. 1:16)

C. Even though they were not ashamed of the gospel, they did however compromise or at the least tolerate certain among them to participate in sin and false doctrines with the resulting charge that the Lord would fight against them if they did not repent.

IV. The Church of Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-28)

A. Thyatira had works, charity, service, faith, patience, more works mentioned and abounding works, we could emulate that could we not?

B. They did, as other congregations of the churches of Asia tolerate sin and false doctrine however.

C. There seems to be a lesson in and of the fact that false doctrine, sin, and a failure to discipline amongst themselves through confronting and cutting off fellowship seems to be a pattern and repetitive trend in some of these congregations, and it is a huge problem with the church today.

D. This congregation and others were going to lose their spot-on heavens roll call despite all their work, service, patience and love because they would not deal with sin in the church.

E. If we will not deal with problems when they come up the way we must deal with them according to God almighty then the cold hard truth is simple and straight forward, we will not make it to heaven but will be with the sinners and false teachers that we tolerate amongst ourselves now on earth.

V. The Church of Sardis (Revelation 3:1-5)

A. Sardis stands as a church already well on its way out yet still a little heat is left in the fire pit so to speak.

B. Sardis was dead inside but nevertheless on what seems to be a hopeless cause God gives them a reason to have more hope.

C. Despite having fallen so far, they are told to hold on to what good is left, fortify, strengthen that good and start rebuilding what they had before and that there were even some among them that were good examples.

D. When we fall on our faces we can turn to those that set a positive and godly example around us too!

E. Until we die, or the Lord returns hope lives and we can repent and be cleansed of all sin, if we start obeying God now.

VI. The Church of Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-12)

A. Philadelphia is the other church mentioned without sin held against them, the one without any bad spoken and has all good attributed to its name.

B. Even more is said of Philadelphia, whether that is because they suffered more, or needed more encouragement I do not know, but the lesson to be learned is that even a little strength (v8) can go a long way, all the way to heaven.

C. The church does receive a caution but more of the kind you give to an athlete that is about to finish a race, words of encouragement designed to help them push that last distance, to not slow down or give up, to say “Hey, you are almost there, just keep going, don’t stop now!”

VII. The Church of the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:14-21)

A. This church has become somewhat famous because of the illustration given about their lukewarm state, more known than others I would guess.

B. The fact that their halfhearted, hypocritical spiritual temperature is well known is certainly not a complement.

C. Even though they were chastened they were not unloved (Heb 12:6) and they simply needed to, metaphorically, let the Lord back inside.

CONCLUSION:

1. There are many lessons to be learned from the Bible and we certainly can see the idea of what a congregation should and should not do and be, taught here.

2. We need to consider who we are and what we are doing and even why we are doing so.

3. We have a model of both good and bad found in the book of Revelation, particularly for the church in chapters two and three and there are many rich lesson to be drawn out but the bottom line and primary lesson is that we find the same conditions around us today and therefore it becomes easy for us to apply these lessons, instructions, and observations to ourselves, and the congregation with which we serve and ask “Which church of Asia are we most like?”