The Seven Churches
Revelation 1:1-3 "This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John, who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."
"God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near."
Revelation 1:4 "This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. . ."
"God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near."
Revelation 1:4 "This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. . ."
Asian Congregations
I just want to stop and bring attention to what John just said. The letter is being addressed to seven congregations located in Asia. This is not the Asia that we know today. Asia in John’s time was the Roman Province that is now the western area of Turkey. The western area of Turkey is on the coastal side. There is a certain island that is close to that coastline. It is the island known as Patmos. John was exiled on that island. During his exile on that island, where he was all alone, God chose to visit him and reveal thousands of year’s worth of past, present and future events. This message was not meant to be sealed up and kept hidden. Christ wanted John, after his message had been completely written out, to have it immediately delivered to the closest congregations to his location. There were seven specific congregations that Christ chose for John to have this revelation delivered to. Not only did Christ choose seven specific congregations, He also chose a certain order to put them in. These seven churches were: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Why did Christ choose these seven churches and put them in that specific order? Look at the map above where each church is located.
If you play connect the dots with each congregation, using the order that Christ put them in, it forms a crescent or arch. So, Christ made it very easy for this message to spread around to the congregations in the area. John was not allowed to leave the island, but he was allowed to send letters via messengers off of the island. All the messenger had to do was take a boat from the Island of Patmos almost straight over to the coastline to the city of Ephesus. From there the messenger would travel north to Smyrna. From Smyrna the messenger would start moving more inland towards Pergamum. His course after that would then start to circle around to Thyatira and Sardis. He would then head south to Philadelphia and then to Laodicea. After he gave the revelation to Laodicea he would go almost directly west back to the Ephesus coastline where he could go back to John on Patmos to tell him that he had completed his mission.
Revelation 1:4b "Grace and peace to you from the One who is, who always was, and who is still to come; from the sevenfold Spirit before His Throne; and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead and the ruler of all the kings of the world."
"All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God His Father. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen."
"Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven.
And everyone will see Him –
even those who pierced Him.
And all the nations of the world
will mourn for Him.
Yes! Amen!"
"I am the Alpha and the Omega – the Beginning and the End, says the Lord God. "I am the One who is, Who always was, and Who is still to come – the Almighty One."
"I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. It said, ‘Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.’"
"When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash around His chest. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And His eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He had seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from His mouth. And His face was like the sun in all its brilliance."
"When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But He laid His right hand on me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I died, but look – I am alive forever and ever! I hold the keys of death and the grave.’"
""Write down what you have seen – both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.’"
John is not in relationship with these churches. He didn’t plant these churches and he apparently has never visited them. The reason that I know that is because of the long explanation of who he is and of His encounter with the Son of Man. If John was in relationship with these seven churches, then he would have had their trust. If he was in relationship with them, I believe his letter would have read more like one of his other letters. He would not have taken up so much time trying to explain who he is and how he wound up stuck on Patmos. Here are the greetings from his three epistles to believers whom he WAS in relationship with:
1 John 1:1 "We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. . . . .
2 John 1:1 "This letter is from John, the elder."
"I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth – as does everyone else who knows the truth – because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever."
"Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ – the Son of the Father – will continue to be with us who live in truth and love."
3 John 1:1 "This letter is from John, the elder."
"I am writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth."
"Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth."
The only explanation that he gave of himself was that his name was John and that he was the elder. It’s like a phone conversation. When I call my wife, I say "Hey, you want to go out to eat tonight?"
When I call my doctor’s office, I say, "This is Doug Martin. I am a patient of Dr. Giove. My birthday is. . . . . "
When I call an old friend from high school that I had not seen in years, I say, "This is Doug Martin. We went to school together. You used to sit in front of me in World History. I had a mullet hair cut with steps shaved into the sides of my head. Remember?"
If God were to give me a prophetic word concerning the end times and He told me to deliver it to a church that I had never been to and had no relationship with, I would say, "I, Doug Martin, am a brother in Christ. You don’t know me and I don’t know you, but God sent me to you. I was at home last week in prayer and fellowship with God, and He gave me a message to deliver to you. . . . "
Notice the different levels of intimacy in the writing? John did not know these saints and they apparently didn’t know him. He was starting at the ground floor. It was a lot like a cold call from a salesman. Every salesman has to have some sort of bait that will cause you to stay on the line. What was John’s bait? If a man that I had never met sends me a message, via a messenger instead of himself, with a huge Revelation concerning the end times, in a day and age when false teachers and false prophets were starting to run crazy through the church, he had better have something greater than just "God showed me end time events." There better be something there that will validate his office of a prophet or apostle that will cause him to gain my trust so that I will pay attention to what he has to say. Jesus gave him that validation with the seven messages of prophecy for the seven churches. Each message is strictly for the church that Christ addressed it to. It is very specific and only the church that it is addressed to would be able to identify with it. These seven prophetic messages were just what John needed to get the churches to let down their guard and listen to his end time Revelation.
These seven messages have nothing to do with John’s Revelation. They were given by Christ for the seven churches’ own benefit and to get John’s message in the door.
"All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God His Father. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen."
"Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven.
And everyone will see Him –
even those who pierced Him.
And all the nations of the world
will mourn for Him.
Yes! Amen!"
"I am the Alpha and the Omega – the Beginning and the End, says the Lord God. "I am the One who is, Who always was, and Who is still to come – the Almighty One."
"I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. It said, ‘Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.’"
"When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash around His chest. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And His eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He had seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from His mouth. And His face was like the sun in all its brilliance."
"When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But He laid His right hand on me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I died, but look – I am alive forever and ever! I hold the keys of death and the grave.’"
""Write down what you have seen – both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.’"
John is not in relationship with these churches. He didn’t plant these churches and he apparently has never visited them. The reason that I know that is because of the long explanation of who he is and of His encounter with the Son of Man. If John was in relationship with these seven churches, then he would have had their trust. If he was in relationship with them, I believe his letter would have read more like one of his other letters. He would not have taken up so much time trying to explain who he is and how he wound up stuck on Patmos. Here are the greetings from his three epistles to believers whom he WAS in relationship with:
1 John 1:1 "We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. . . . .
2 John 1:1 "This letter is from John, the elder."
"I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth – as does everyone else who knows the truth – because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever."
"Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ – the Son of the Father – will continue to be with us who live in truth and love."
3 John 1:1 "This letter is from John, the elder."
"I am writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth."
"Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth."
The only explanation that he gave of himself was that his name was John and that he was the elder. It’s like a phone conversation. When I call my wife, I say "Hey, you want to go out to eat tonight?"
When I call my doctor’s office, I say, "This is Doug Martin. I am a patient of Dr. Giove. My birthday is. . . . . "
When I call an old friend from high school that I had not seen in years, I say, "This is Doug Martin. We went to school together. You used to sit in front of me in World History. I had a mullet hair cut with steps shaved into the sides of my head. Remember?"
If God were to give me a prophetic word concerning the end times and He told me to deliver it to a church that I had never been to and had no relationship with, I would say, "I, Doug Martin, am a brother in Christ. You don’t know me and I don’t know you, but God sent me to you. I was at home last week in prayer and fellowship with God, and He gave me a message to deliver to you. . . . "
Notice the different levels of intimacy in the writing? John did not know these saints and they apparently didn’t know him. He was starting at the ground floor. It was a lot like a cold call from a salesman. Every salesman has to have some sort of bait that will cause you to stay on the line. What was John’s bait? If a man that I had never met sends me a message, via a messenger instead of himself, with a huge Revelation concerning the end times, in a day and age when false teachers and false prophets were starting to run crazy through the church, he had better have something greater than just "God showed me end time events." There better be something there that will validate his office of a prophet or apostle that will cause him to gain my trust so that I will pay attention to what he has to say. Jesus gave him that validation with the seven messages of prophecy for the seven churches. Each message is strictly for the church that Christ addressed it to. It is very specific and only the church that it is addressed to would be able to identify with it. These seven prophetic messages were just what John needed to get the churches to let down their guard and listen to his end time Revelation.
These seven messages have nothing to do with John’s Revelation. They were given by Christ for the seven churches’ own benefit and to get John’s message in the door.