INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION 2 AND 3

THE LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES

First – why 7 churches?  Seven means completeness and perfection – through 7 churches God has captured the essence of the church issues then and the church issues now.  We are not unique – people faced the same problems then as now.  And Jesus words were as good then as they are now. 

And why did the Lord choose these seven churches of the many that existed then? [Colossians, Romans, Galatians’ . . . ]  Perhaps because they speak effectively to problems through the ages, even to the time of the end.  Each of us has a little of each church in us and in our congregations, and in ourselves.

The seven churches located in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were listed in their geographical order along an ancient triangular highway route in what is today eastern Turkey, touching on the Aegean Sea.  The island of Patmos was just off the coast.

Beginning at Ephesus, it was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north through Smyrna, up to Pergamum, and then about another 100 miles back southeast through Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, to Laodicea, which was about 100 miles east of Ephesus.

Some try to make these representative of historical time periods and specific congregations – this is a tool used to say that certain scriptures do not apply to them, and ones they like better do apply to them.  This is a dangerous way to think.  The order of these churches is their order along a semicircular ancient road.

Jesus’ instructions to John were to write what he saw and send it to the churches.  So how is the letter in Revelation to the church at Ephesus different from the letter to the Ephesians?  Jesus dictated: to the ANGEL of the church in Ephesus . . .”  Angels are eternal – they held the message then, they deliver it now.

From Billy Graham’s Approaching Hoofbeats, p. 30-33.

What do the 7 letters tell us?

1)    Jesus sees us as individuals – He wrote 7 different letters, of the same pattern, but each was different and each was individually addressed.  Jesus knew the people, the city they lived in, the things they dealt with on a daily basis.  He picked common things they dealt with every day to teach his lessons, the form of teaching used by Jewish Rabbis – parables, stories.  If he was in a field, he talked about the flowers.  If he wrote a letter to the Ephesians, he talked about Ephesus.

2)    He sees us sharing our lives with other believers in the church.  He wrote the letters to the believers in each church, not to global leaders, because we are the essence of God on earth.

3)    The issues to which the Risen Lord spoke then are the very same issues about which he would speak now.  The call and the warning he gave them then are the call and warning we need to heed today.

4)    Although the form of each letter is the same, greeting, title of the Lord, complement, complaint, warning and promise, the content of each is different.  Each church was unique, and he gave them custom advice.

Jesus began his book with the letters to the 7 churches in Asia because he knew what their future held.  He knew the price they would have to pay in the war against evil.  And He knew the churches were not prepared to pay that price.  They were not yet strong enough to face the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

“Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”   This admonishment will be given to each of the seven churches, therefore it is repeated 7 times.  How important is something that God repeats seven times?  It implies that it takes some discernment to understand what is being said.

HISTORY OF THE SEVEN CITIES

The seven cities were regional centers on an important circular road through the most populous and prosperous part of the province of Asia Minor. The order of the cities is exactly their order on that road, starting with Ephesus, then Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea (Note the dots on the map). The letters can be seen as messages from a circuit preacher or deacon, rebuking his churches where they have failed and encouraging them where they have succeeded.  The road began at the coast, and traveled in a clockwise circle between the cities.   Ephesus was near the city now known as Kusadasi. Izmir is Smyrna.  Bergama is ancient Pergamum.  They were all in large Roman cities, where the world was at its worst.  They all knew John, and he knew them by name.  John lived in Ephesus.  This part of the world was the ‘uttermost north’ that had been inhabited at this time. 

God made several promises to many of these churches – that he would come quickly, remove lampstands, fight against them with the sword of his mouth . . . if this is a continuous historical section, then Jesus did not keep his word to the churches.  These letters are for us now – all of them, and we need to take them to heart.