SEVEN CHURCHES

This seems like a good time to look back and reflect on chapters 2 and 3, looking at the practical lessons of the letters to these seven churches, and how they fit into God’s prophetic plan. Let’s take the time to read these two chapters, and let the text speak to us. I know we have spent a good deal of time looking at details of the churches, the geography and commerce of the cities, and yet the commendations and challenges put forth to these churches could easily apply to us today. We can all fall prey to the trappings surrounding us, and we can all as Christians strive and overcome and live productive Christian lives.

The messages build on Christ’s self-description, from His initial appearance to John to His speaking to each church. To each church He varyingly interchanges His attributes, each speaking to the then-present need of each.

Through each message comes the warning of what is to unfold in chapters 4 through 19. Christ’s wrath will come; there is a punitive response from God on the horizon; there will be a Great Tribulation and a specific time of trial to those here during that period.

However horrific the Tribulation will be, this response from God was (and still is) designed to bring the disobedient in the churches to repentance. Go read through the Old Testament, and you will see God repeatedly chastening His people for the purpose of driving repentance. This is truly the only hope of escaping the suffering of those alive during that time.

God is a God of promises, that’s for sure. To provide an escape from the events of chapters 4 to 19 is to also provide the enjoyment of privileges of the saints after Christ’s return. To be saved is to be free from the Tribulation, and to also be with Christ when He returns. The messages to the churches certainly look forward to this. The recipients were to look beyond their present difficulties of the Christian life, and they were to have the courage to persevere.

Indeed, the incentives for repentance and faithfulness to Christ are exceedingly abundant!

These seven messages cannot be read apart from the rest of Revelation, and vice versa. Their overall purpose is that of being very practical. Let’s look back over the churches, seeing where we might need improvement and where we are already holding fast, and then let’s see where the messages they heard and learned might apply to us, even today.

Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea: churches privileged to have Christ speak to them personally, through His servants. Churches with varying degrees of negative and positive attributes. And God desired all of them to live for Him, above all else.

God has spoken to us, too, through His Word. Will we listen and live for Him?