Revelation: Part 7

When anyone anywhere responds to this knowledge by having a desire to know this God, God will move heaven and earth to get the message to him.

Open your bibles to revelation. The book of Revelation 2. Revelation chapters 2 and 3, deal with the seven churches. Seven letters that were directly dictated to John by Jesus Christ himself.

And these seven letters are to seven chosen churches. And they’re called the seven churches of asia. And I brought up the question why did, why did Jesus choose these seven churches? There were hundreds of churches existing in that time.

There were more than seven. So why did he pick these seven? And why are they in the order that they’re in? Well, I brought out last time that they, it took students of prophecy a long time to look back over Church history to see that these churches were chosen and put in the order they’re in, because the characteristics of each one of these churches are -can be seen as the dominant characteristics of the stages of Church history.

Now there are, they were seven literal churches and so the message to each one of these churches was actually real, into a Church. And so, you know, we can get benefit personally and as individual churches from studying what their problems were, what Jesus said the answer was and so forth. And so they have application to that. But they also have a prophetic application.

And so as we go through, I want to point out what each stage of history these churches indicate. Now there’s a divine format that’s used for each one of these letters from Jesus to these churches. First, there is the addressee. And we read, for instance, to the angel of the Church in Ephesus write.

And I brought up the fact that in the Greek the word angelos can either mean an angel in the traditional sense or it can mean what the Greek word basically means, which is messenger. And in this case, each time it should be to the messenger of the Church of Ephesus write. And this is really writing to the one who would be the preacher of that Church. Let’s read.

It says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this, each one of these letters, gives a description of certain attributes of Jesus. And you’ll find that each time these attributes are used in the introduction, it applies to the answer the Church needs. Or it applies to a message that they need from him that is a warning. So when he says to the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the seven stars in Revelation 1:20-21, are the messengers of the Church.

So he says he holds the leader of these churches in his right hand. He reminds them of it. And it says he walks among the seven lampstands and it’s explained that this is the symbol of the Church. So it shows that he is intimately circulating constantly among the local churches.

That’s why we don’t need a hierarchy. Jesus himself is supposed to be the leader, not some man-made hierarchy. The Church has gotten in trouble every time that’s happened. ’cause then all Satan has to do is wipe out the, you know, subject the hierarchy, trick them and then they’ve got control of the whole Church. So anyway, he talks about this and he says I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they’re not, and you found them to be false.

See, after the address, he gives — he gives a commendation to each one. He compliments them. He says and you have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary. So there’s the commendation.

Now comes the rebuke. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Now, see, he shows that they -doctrinally, they are wonderful. Doctrinally, this Church is dealing with false teachers.

It’s dealing with falsehoods. They persevered by faith under fire when persecuted and so forth. But he says, you know, all of these things are wonderful, but in the process you lost your first love. There is nothing more important in the christian life, then to keep a fervent, focused love on Jesus Christ.

That’s more important then all the work you can ever do, all you can ever learn, or anything else. Because if you lose that, you lose your compass. And so I’ve had to look and remember this. You know, I’d be in the midst of soul-winning crusades and all of that and you get all excited.

I can remember studying and studying and learning and getting all excited about learning the Word of God. All that’s good. But if you let your love for Jesus slip, then you’ve lost something that is central to everything. And that’s what he wants from everyone of us as a christian.

You say, well, you know, how do you work up love? You know what I find rekindles the love in my heart for Jesus. First of all, is to realize that I’ve let things kind of crowded out. I’ve gotten careless.

That’s important. But what’s really important is brought out in 1 John 4:9. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that he might live through him. And in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Or to be the satisfaction for our sins. In other words, we have to realize that, you know, we never loved God first. He first loved us. And to refocus on everything.

That when we were enemies, he was willing to take every sin we’d ever commit and die a horrible death in our place to pay for it. And the more you know about what God has done for you by grace, the more your heart responds to that with love. You see, we can’t love God, we can’t initiate love for God. We can only love him back.

We need to keep our focus on Jesus Christ. How many times a day do you think about Jesus? You know, that’s a good test. When you lose your first love, it’s because you get -Jesus gets crowded out in well-meaning things.

And it happens so easily, so inadvertently. But he wants us to meditate upon him, to think about him, to be occupied with him. And whatever you’re doing, bring him into it. Sometimes it’s hard.

It’s embarrassing. Okay, yeah, you’re there, Lord, and look what I’m doing. But it sure straightens things out fast. But God wants us, above all, to keep our first love.

I can remember when I first became a christian and I began to learn about what God had done for me, and how he delivered me from just all kinds of internal conflicts and things like that. But for the first time in years and years, I had peace. I just couldn’t stop thinking about Jesus. I mean, I just loved him so much.

Sometimes I’d be overwhelmed when I was sitting at work. I was a draftsman at that moment. And I was trying to draft things and tears would be running down my face. And just because I’d be so overwhelmed with the fact that he loved me enough to do this.

Okay. Let’s go back. Chapter 2. So he says, verse 5, remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Nicolaitans is a word that is composed of two Greek words. Nikos, which means victory over or the victory. Nikao means to be a victor.

And laity, which means people. And this means do you hate those that see themselves, the victors over the people. Priestcraft. In other words, they hated, he said you hate those that try to set themselves up as lords over you and so forth.

He wants us to be answerable directly to him and realize it is to him we’re answerable. And it is to him that we owe all allegiance. He says now in verse 7, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Now that’s in each one, too. There is the addressee, the applicable attributes of Christ, the commendation, analysis, and rebuke. And then there’s a promise at the end that he gives. And each one has to do with the overcomer.

Well, who is the overcomer? Turn back to that little book again 1 John 5:3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Are you an overcomer?

You know, I’ve heard this used in a way where they made it sound like the overcomer is the one that gets out there and he works in his own energy. And he does all this and that. Now the overcomer is the one who believes that Jesus is his Lord, and he’s the Son of God. And our faith is what overcomes the world.

It’s our faith that we belong to him. And he says this is the -this is the one who has, past tense, already overcome the world. Even he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you’ve already overcome the world.

He just wants you to to work it out practically. That doesn’t determine whether you’re going to heaven or not. But he wants you to do that, okay? Most theologians agree, that have studied this carefully, that this represented the period from ad 33 to 100.

That was the time when the Church was still well-taught. They still had first generation people and it was well-taught. The Church spread. And there began to set in, in that period of time, they lost their first love.

They got so involved in spreading the Gospel and in learning the word and rebuking the false and so forth that they kind of lost their compass of their first love, okay? There are two of the churches that do not get a rebuke. Smyrna is one and the Church of Philadelphia is one. Why is that?

Well, let’s look. To the messenger of the Church in Smyrna write: the first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: now you’ll know why he brings that up when you hear what’s going on there. He emphasizes that if you die, you never really die ’cause you come back to life. You’re gonna be in the resurrection.

So he says remember I went through suffering and I was brought back to life. Now here’s what he says. I know your Tribulation and your poverty but you’re rich, and the blasphemy of those who say they’re Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Now this is talking about a certain thing that was going on there.

There was a tremendous persecution of christians in Smyrna. And it was in this place that a Roman prefect had emphasized to all christians that they had to swear allegiance to Caesar as Lord. And so the Church went underground. And so the Roman, the Roman governor, divides the plan, and he had heard about this from Jerusalem because this was going on in Jerusalem.

The Roman governor said if they turned in a christian, if they told that somebody was a christian, and revealed it to the government, that whoever turned them in would get ten percent of all their property. So he says I know your Tribulation, your poverty but you’re rich, and the blasphemy by those who say they’re 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 cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have Tribulation ten days.

Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. And he says he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. What’s the second death?

That’s when you stand at the great white throne as an unbeliever and are cast into the lake of fire. That’s called the second death. You know, when I was a young believer, I made up a little syllogism. He who is born once shall die twice.

He who is born twice, shall die once. Verse 12, to the messenger of the Church in Pergamum write: the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is and you hold fast my name, and did not deny my faith, even in the days of antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. And, you know, I looked up in Church history, very little is known about the Church of Pergamum. But there’s one person that is mentioned in Church history.

His name was antipas. Do you know what that means in Greek? Against everyone.

You know how he got the name? He was brought before the court to be tried for the crime of being a christian. And he refused to confess Caesar as Lord. He said there is one Lord, and there’s only one Lord and his name is Jesus Christ.

And the governor, the Roman governor said, don’t you know the whole world is against you? And he stopped and he said then I’m against the whole world and they named him antipas, against everyone. That was his martyr’s name. We don’t know much about that era, but, boy, God preserved the honor, to honor that one in the Word of God forever, didn’t he?

But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immortality. Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Here we have priestcraft creeping in. The victors over the people.

And there was a great deal of trying to trick christians into immorality because immorality revolved around all of the goddess temples. The priestesses of all the goddess temples were prostitutes. But symbolically, when we look back at this period of history, it shows the development of something. And that period was from 312 to 590, ad 312 to 590, pergamus.

What happened in 312 that caused such a switch? Remember, they just came out of one persecution. Who became the next Caesar? Constantine.

What did Constantine do? He made the Church part of the state. And that’s where -that’s where the Church began to fall, began to slump. Because what happened was compromise with the world’s system.

And more and more during that period, there were things that began to happen. Because Rome was the most prominent city in the Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome began to claim primacy over all the other bishops. And because it was the seat of government, the government stepped in and said that the Roman bishop was over all the other bishops. And guess what happened after that?

So this primacy was gradually developing until finally when we get to 590, there was a well-developed system of hierarchy that began to take to themselves the role of standing between God and the christian believer. And they’re using the power of government. They began to make this a virtual government of itself. And that’s how the Roman catholic Church began to develop.

It was during that period. And he goes on to say, repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. The sword of his mouth is the Word of God. This book takes priority over everyone.

I have no authority, but what I find here. And you have the right and the duty to check me out with this book. And if I’m wrong, you can take me to task. Because no man should stand, I mean, sure we have leaders, spiritual leaders and we have teachers.

We’re supposed to have teachers. Men are called and gifted to do this. But, still, you are not to blindly follow anyone. And that this is why everyone needs to learn the basics of the Word of God.

You need to be taught. And there’s a certain spiritual authority, yes, that a pastor has, a certain responsibility. But he can’t ever get into the place where he’s absolute authority between you and God. 1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, he, God, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

And that means you come directly to God and you confess your sins. And as a believer, you acknowledge what you’ve done, and God says he is faithful and he’s just. Why is he just? He’s not only faithful to forgive you, but he’s just in doing it because Jesus paid for it.

And he says if you confess them, I will forgive them. Doesn’t add anything to it. And you just turn and believe and begin to walk and believe him again. But he does not want someone saying only a priest can understand the Word of God.

You shouldn’t have it. No, every person should have this book. Every believer should have this book. And every believer should be in it enough, in order to know whether somebody is trying to mess with you.

But I want to close with just one thought. And I want to emphasis this. I want you to notice at the end of each one of these letters, it says he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. I just want you to look with me in Revelation 13:9.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. What’s missing?

Why isn’t it there? ’cause it ain’t there.

You see? He doesn’t have to -during the Tribulation period, he doesn’t have to say he who has a ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the Church. The Church is in heaven ’cause we’re gonna be gone. And that should be the focused hope of everyone who has come to personal faith in Jesus Christ.