The Seven Churches of Revelation

Context -

Apostle John is exiled to Patmos and has been instructed to write down certain things.

Revelation 1:19 (CSB)

19 Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.

Everyone gets caught up in the “what will take place” portion of this book.

Chapters 2-3 are seven letters written to seven churches

the first of the churches is the church of Ephesus.

Ephesus is a big city with a lot happening in Asia Minor

considered by some to be the mother church of all the churches that will be written to

all the letters written are to churches in order on same roman road in Asia Minor

Ephesus specifically we know a little more about

the Apostle John Pastored there as did Timothy

the was the spiritual hub for Asia Minor and a lot of time and resources have been spent building up this church

Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesian church

Paul wrote letters to Timothy while he was pastoring there

John wrote his letters from Ephesus while he was pastoring there

Knowing all of this, it makes sense why this would be the first letter

There is also a pattern that we see in each of these letters

Commendation - something they are doing well

Rebuke - Something they are doing wrong

Solution - How to fix what they are doing wrong

Consequence - What will happen if they do not fix the wrong

Promise - For those who conquer, they will receive

not all contain each, but we see in most of them,

The Church of Ephesus

We can identify with the church of Ephesus

They have been facing false teaching

It is not something that is just a one time thing, this seems to be a problem that continually rises up

we know that the temple to Diana is in Ephesus, where there are temple prostitutes and idolatry

a constant battle to stand for truth

We can understand this

today we are bombarded with lies

we are told things from people who claim to be christians that go against the word of God

In fact, I read in a Christian magazine this week a story of a Pastor (not sure of the denomination) saying there are moral reasons to get an abortion.

we have to know what the truth is, and be able to recognize the lies

too often, we listen to people that are good to listen to, there is an entertainment factor,

if they say something from scripture, we believe it

instead of looking at the truth of scripture and knowing what the bible says and what it is that we believe

This can all be exhausting and quite honestly, get on your nerves and make us cranky christians

Revelation 2:1–7 (CSB)

1 “Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands:

2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.

3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary.

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Our deeds do not save us, even if those deeds are standing for Jesus Christ. We must love God and love people.

Commendation - Resilience

Resilience = the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness:

for a church to last this must be the case

Illustration - Resilience - Rubber band

Revelation 2:2–3 (CSB)

2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.

3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary.

Revelation 2:6 (CSB)

6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

The one who holds the church in the palm of his hand, knows what they have been going through

Think for a moment of the church in the United States

every once in a while I will hear Christians complain as if God has no idea what is happening here

I also hear them complain as if we have the hardest time of all Christians in the world

God sees their works

works - labor or deeds

this is saying that God has seen what it is that they have been doing

not the social media, all happy faces side that we want to portray to people

God sees the church, and knows exactly what they have been doing

the hard work, the lazy work, sharing the gospel, He sees it all

God sees labor

labor = difficulty

this is saying that God sees the things that you are doing and how difficult that it is for you to accomplish

these things are true not just of the church of Ephesus, but all churches and all people individually as well

God knows the difficulty in your life

he knows the fake and the real

he knows the struggles that you show, and the real struggle that you are having

God see their endurance

The Ephesians, doing their work in their hard times have been patiently continuing

What is it that they are doing? Fighting lies…

God is truth and His people are to be people of truth

we cannot fight the lies that we see all around us with lies

The people of Ephesus have tested those who call themselves Apostles, they have called out evil people

in order to test apostles or call out evil, they must know the truth

This is why they are being commended

they even hate the Nicolaitans

nobody is for sure on who this group is

we will talk more about them in week 3, the letter to Pergamum

most believe that they basically were into antinomianism, meaning they took the grace of God for granted

they they are released from obeying the moral law of God because of the grace that is offered

We must be resilient in standing for the truth

we must never grow tired knowing that God is standing with us

But in our effort to stand for the truth, we must do so with the right attitude and the right motive

Standing for the truth without standing in love means we are standing with a godless attitude

Charge - Abandonment

The Ephesian church is changed with abandoning their first love

this is interesting how this is phrased

Revelation 2:4 (CSB)

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

You have abandoned the love you had at first

NIV says forsaken, all others use the word left or abandoned

it is the idea that you have moved away from something

commentators differ on what they have moved away from

their love of God,

meaning that yes they love God, but they are no longer motivated by their love of God to stand for the truth

their love for people

maybe they were no longer motivated to tell the truth to people because they loved them and wanted to see the last save.

leaves the New Living Translation to translate this verse as “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!

this might be the most accurate thought, even if it is not the most accurately translated

The church in Ephesus has done a great job of standing in truth but they are no longer doing it in love

they are so concerned with making sure that they are right they have turned into a clanging gong

It is impossible to love people if you have no love for God

1 John 2:10 (NLT)

10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.

John is saying that if you are walking in the light, walking with the Lord, you will love your brother

So I am saying, that you cannot stand for the truth in love without doing so for your love of Christ.

if you are standing for the truth because of your love for Christ, you will do so in a love for your neighbor

So a corrective action must take place

remember, the church could say that they are motivated by their love for God and for other people, but this is coming from the one who knows

so they must, we must take corrective action from the one who can tell us what to do

Corrective Action - Remember, Repent, & Restart

We have all seen ministries that have gone on too long

people going through the motions

you cannot cut the ministry because we have always done it

Revelation 2:5 (CSB)

5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Does not say keep going until you find love...

Remember

Jesus is calling on the church to remember where they began,

the intimacy that they had with Jesus

how that love motivated them to share the truth of the gospel with the people of Ephesus

I can only imagine the beginning, all of the lost that would be in that city going to the temple of Diana

engaging in the prostitution that would take place there

the heartbreak they would feel for them

when we are sharing the truth of Jesus and his word are we doing so out of a place of concern for those people

Repent

So they are called on what all Christians should do, repent

they need to repent that they loved being right over being with God

wow this is hard to say, because of where we are in our country

we must separate the truth of God and politics

our faith effects how we vote and conduct ourselves in the political process

what we believe politically should not effect what we believe about God

Our love for God must motivate us in everything that we do

where we fall short in that, we must repent and run back to God

Restart

He tells the church to do the things that they did at first

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he said that we were created for good works

Ephesians 2:10 (CSB)

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

that we are to get back to what we were made to do

that is not to prove to the world that God is correct,

it is to glorify God

you are his workmanship a word that means that we were created to point others to him

same as Romans 1:20 “20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.”

Church, we need to get back to glorifying God in all that we do

from every word we say in our services, to every conversation that we have outside of these walls

everything that we do should point others to him

A phrase for this process is called revival

a revival of the believers heart for God will turn his heart to serve for his glory

The consequences of not reviving the church will be removal of God’s spirit from that church, but if the church is revived, they will eat from the tree of life

Consequences - Removal & Reward

Revelation 2:5 (CSB)

5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

What is the lampstand?

Revelation 1:20 (CSB)

20 The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Many take this to mean that God’s spirit will now longer be with the church

why would we say this?

What is it that makes a church “alive”

It is not all the kids running around here, though I love having a lot of kids

it is not having a full house, though it is both humbling to me and exciting when the chairs are full

it is not entertaining teachers or preachers

The church is alive when the Spirit of God is there

Jesus is telling them I will remove your lampstand, you will no longer be a church that is alive, because my spirit will not be with an unrepentant, unloving church

I cannot hardly bear the thought

the pain, difficulty and heartache that would come with a spiritless church

So what does this mean for us

we, individually must make sure that we are remember where we started with Christ

we must repent of how far we have allowed ourselves to get away from his love

we must restart living out the good works that he created us to do,

doing them in love for God and people

Revelation 2:7 (CSB)

7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

the one who conquers

this does not mean that we win… that we overcome those who are against us

conquering means that we get back to our first love

Those who conquer eat of the tree of life

Revelation 22:1–3 (CSB)

1 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb

2 down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations,

3 and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.

The Seven Churches of Revelation

The book of Revelation is a book of the Bible that is easily misunderstood. There is a lot of people who have a desire to study it, yet are also intimidated by the prophecy in it, understandably so. This study will not cover the entire book of Revelation, but instead just two chapters, two and three. These chapters are letters that have been written to seven different churches that are in Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey. The human author that penned the book of Revelation, and thus these letters is the Apostle John.

The Apostle John had been exiled to an island called Patmos by the emperor Domitian after other attempts to kill him. While on this island he received a vision from the Lord Jesus as recorded in chapter one and it told to write everything down. Because of his obedience, we have the book of Revelation today.

Revelation 1:19 Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.

Everyone gets caught up in the “what will take place” portion of this book. Everyone wants to know how this story ends. Before Jesus gives us the ending of the story, he sends a letter to these seven churches. I believe that we can learn a lot from what these letters have to say.

The first of the letters is written to the Church of Ephesus. Ephesus is a big city with a lot happening. It is said the be the mother church of the seven. All seven of these churches are on the same Roman road and are given in order. The city itself is home to the temple to Diana, a false god with temple prostitutes.

We know a little more about Ephesus than the other churches simply because of the prominence that is has in the new testament. The Apostle John was a Pastor of the church in Ephesus as was Timothy. Paul wrote a letter the church, Ephesians. Paul also wrote the letters to Timothy while he was pastoring there. It is believed that John wrote his three letters there as well. With all of this, we can see why this church might be the first of the seven letters.

As we go through these letters, we will see somewhat of a pattern. We will see some combination of a commendation, rebuke, solution, consequence, and a promise.

The commendation will state something that the church is doing right or well. A strong point that the church has. the rebuke is something that the church is not doing well at, or something that it needs to fix. The solution is how to fix the rebuke. The consequence is what will happen if they do not listen and institute the solution. The promise is what will happen if they listen to the warnings they are receiving.

The Church of Ephesus

The church of Ephesus is one that we can relate to. There is a lot of idol worship with the temple to false gods. There is a lot of false teachings. John in his letters from Ephesus warned about the gnostics. People that believed that God was separate from his creation, would not enter it. These were false teachers that were leading people away from the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was not a one time thing. There was not just an instance where somebody taught something that was incorrect. This was a battle that the people of this church faced for years and years. I can see how this might harden their hearts a little.

We can understand this. We are constantly bombarded with lies today. We hear things like your truth, my truth, your facts or my facts, as if truth and facts are just opinions now.

We have teachers of the Bible that do not believe the Bible. There are pastors in the United States that do not believe in the inerrancy of scripture. That teach that the Bible can be used a moral guide, but is not without error and delivered down from God. We have a lot of loud voices with big names that teach taking scripture out of context to make a point. They will preach a sermon on a topic, and use a verse to back up what they believe to be true or what they are teaching, instead of teaching scripture and allowing it to influence what we believe.

This can all be exhausting and quite honestly, get on your nerves and make us cranky christians.

Revelation 2:1–7 (CSB)

1 “Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands:

2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.

3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary.

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Our deeds do not save us, even if those deeds are standing for Jesus Christ. We must love God and love people.

Commendation - Resilience

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. it is a toughness. It is the ability to return to where you were, back to normal, after you face something difficult. Think of a rubber band. What is the purpose of a rubber band? To be stretched, wrapped around something, but that once you are done stretching it, to go right back to normal.

For a church to last, to remain healthy regardless of all the troubles that it may face, it must be resilient. We have established that the church in Ephesus, like us today, have been battling a lot of false teachers and false prophets.

Revelation 2:2–3 CSB

2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. 3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary.

Revelation 2:6 CSB

6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

The one who holds the church in the palm of his hand, knows what they have been going through. Think for a moment of the church in the United States. Every once in a while I hear people complain about the things that we are going through in our society. Complaining about the threats to the church. I am not saying that we do not have any, but in comparison to the rest of the world, we are spoiled. That being said, we do have our own challenges. But there is a promise in this commendation, God sees the battle and the resiliency that we have fought.

The writer gets specific, God sees their works, their labors and their endurance. It is important to understand what that means. Not only that God sees, but what it is that He sees in them. He sees their works or their deeds. Meaning, God sees what it is that they have been doing, the actions that they have been taking to stand for the truth. He knows. He doesn’t only know the front that is put out there. He knows how much this church has had to battle. This is not just the strong front that they portray. God knows the true battles that they have had.

God knows their labors. In our english language you might take that as the same thing, but it is a little different. This word translated labor means difficulty. God knows not only what they have been doing, but how difficult it has been where they are. God knows how difficult that we have it in our country. This is so encouraging. A false teaching that is out there today is that if you are experiencing difficulties, then God must not be in it. That only if things are going well, they are easy, then that must be the way that God wants me to go. But I am pretty sure that is how Jesus described the road that led to destruction. It is wide and there are a lot of people on that path.

God knows their difficulties. But God also knows the endurance they have had while going through these difficulties. They have continued on, speaking for the truth. they have continued with the work, even in the difficulties to test the false teachers and false apostles. This is something that God commends them for. That they have persevered, and not grown weary facing all of these false teachers.

Think about what it is that they are fighting. They are fighting the lies that false teachers have been teaching in their community and maybe even in their church. They even “hate” the Nicolaitans. This is a group that we do not know too much about. Many commentators believe that this group taught that it was okay to take advantage of the grace of God and commit sin. Think of the temple, with its temple prostitutes. That adultery and sexual immorality would be okay in worship so that God’s grace could abound. This is a sad view of God. One that the Ephesians hated, as does God.

We must be resilient in standing for the truth. But you cannot and will not stand for the truth if you do not know the truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth. This can only happen by studying the word of God daily. Reading it, applying it, and teaching it to others.

But this is all worthless if we do this in the wrong attitude. If we do this, stand for the truth, speak out against the lies, but with the wrong attitude, we are just a clanging symbol. Standing for the truth without standing in love means we are standing with a godless attitude. God is love.

Charge - Abandonment

To illustrate resilience, we looked at a rubber band. How it will come back to normal after being stretched and wrapped around something. We have a rubber band that has been stretched around a deck of cards. Actually it is about three or four decks of cards. This rubber band has been on there for so long that it doesn’t really go back to its shape. It still works. It still wraps around the cards and holds them together. But it does not go back to the same size that it did before.

The Ephesian church is charged with abandoning their first love, and it is interesting how this is phrased.

Revelation 2:4 CSB

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

You have abandoned the love you had at first. The NIV says forsaken and all others use the word left or abandoned. I find this interesting because it is not something that was lost. Imagine if the word lost had been in there. It would not be their fault.

Typically you do not lose something on purpose. I can feel the uneasiness at the thought that they purposely abandoned the love they had at first. This is what the text says. You have abandoned, you have left the love you had at first. this means that it was a choice. Now maybe it was not seen as a choice, maybe it wasn’t as simply as I am leaving this. But we, especially in the world that we live in today, can understand how one decision here and another decision there can leave us so wrapped up in making sure that we are right that we are not doing it out of love.

The idea around this greek word translated, abandoned, is to move away from. Commentators differ on what they are moving away from, their love for God, or their love for people. Not saying that they do not love God any longer, but they are not standing for the truth based on their love for God, but simply based on being right. Maybe it was their love for people that the got away from. The church in Ephesus fighting for the truth among all the false gods and immorality in their city, instead of desiring to see everyone saved and come to know Jesus, they wanted to show them they were wrong. That is the difference between loving and not. According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, love does not keep track of wrongs.

I happen to believe that both are right. They are no longer motivated by their love for God or for the people. They do not have the right purpose in mind. It has turned into a selfish battle.

It seems like things continually come down to the heart’s motivation. You can do the right actions but with the wrong motive. See Jesus and the sermon on the mount, lust in the heart is adultery, hate in the heart is murder. Fighting truth without love is sinful. So what is our test. Are you motivated by love. Are you motivated by the love of God, that he has for you and you have for him? Are you motivated by the love you have for those you are standing up against. Not fighting to prove them wrong, but to win a brother?

If the answer to either of those questions is, “No,” then a corrective action must take place. Remember, the church could say that their motivation is pure, but this letter is coming from the one who knows. So, they must, we must take action.

Corrective Action - Remember, Repent, & Restart

We have all seen ministries that have been going on in churches for a long time and they simply go through the motions. It is not that it is not a good program, but that they have left the reason behind why they started and now they are just doing. If you try to stop that program, you might get in big trouble from some, we have always done that.

Revelation 2:5 CSB

5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Look closely at this verse. Playing with the words a little, we have to make sure that we see what it does not say. It does not say, “Continue in what you have been doing and find the reason behind it.” Why doesn’t it say find it, because you did not lose it, you left it. Instead, it tells us to remember, to repent and restart or go back

Remember

Jesus is calling on the church to remember where they began,

the intimacy that they had with Jesus

how that love motivated them to share the truth of the gospel with the people of Ephesus

I can only imagine the beginning, all of the lost that would be in that city going to the temple of Diana

engaging in the prostitution that would take place there

the heartbreak they would feel for them

when we are sharing the truth of Jesus and his word are we doing so out of a place of concern for those people

Repent

So they are called on what all Christians should do, repent

they need to repent that they loved being right over being with God

wow this is hard to say, because of where we are in our country

we must separate the truth of God and politics

our faith effects how we vote and conduct ourselves in the political process

what we believe politically should not effect what we believe about God

Our love for God must motivate us in everything that we do

where we fall short in that, we must repent and run back to God

Restart

He tells the church to do the things that they did at first

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he said that we were created for good works

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

that we are to get back to what we were made to do

that is not to prove to the world that God is correct,

it is to glorify God

you are his workmanship a word that means that we were created to point others to him

same as Romans 1:20 “20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.”

Church, we need to get back to glorifying God in all that we do

from every word we say in our services, to every conversation that we have outside of these walls

everything that we do should point others to him

A phrase for this process is called revival

a revival of the believers heart for God will turn his heart to serve for his glory

The consequences of not reviving the church will be removal of God’s spirit from that church, but if the church is revived, they will eat from the tree of life

Consequences - Removal & Reward

Revelation 2:5 CSB

5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

What is the lampstand?

Revelation 1:20 CSB

20 The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Many take this to mean that God’s spirit will now longer be with the church

why would we say this?

What is it that makes a church “alive”

It is not all the kids running around here, though I love having a lot of kids

it is not having a full house, though it is both humbling to me and exciting when the chairs are full

it is not entertaining teachers or preachers

The church is alive when the Spirit of God is there

Jesus is telling them I will remove your lampstand, you will no longer be a church that is alive, because my spirit will not be with an unrepentant, unloving church

I cannot hardly bear the thought

the pain, difficulty and heartache that would come with a spiritless church

So what does this mean for us

we, individually must make sure that we are remember where we started with Christ

we must repent of how far we have allowed ourselves to get away from his love

we must restart living out the good works that he created us to do,

doing them in love for God and people

Revelation 2:7 CSB

7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

the one who conquers

this does not mean that we win… that we overcome those who are against us

conquering means that we get back to our first love

Those who conquer eat of the tree of life

Revelation 22:1–3 CSB

1 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, 3 and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.

Study Questions