Letters to the Seven Churches (Rev. 2)
The book of Revelation is written originally by Jesus through John to 7 churches located in Asia Minor. In this message, we do a flyover of chapters 2 and 3 and discover what Jesus tells them then and us today about Satan's tactics in opposition to the church.
Transcript
Getting letters is really fun. It’s a bit of a lost art these days. With email, text, DM, and video chat, when was the last time you received an actual letter in the mail? But it’s still a thrill.
One of the best letters I ever received was in 1989. I was a senior in high school, and I received a letter from my freshman self. It was a time-traveling letter. No, it was an assignment in my freshmen English class to write a letter to our senior self that our teacher would send us 3-1/2 years letter.
We could include anything that was important to us about our freshmen year. So, I included things like:
A family photo. Check out that skinny tie.
My freshman water polo picture. I clearly had the body of a hairless boy mannequin.
A copy of the ticket to the first concert I ever went to—Depeche Mode. Classic 80s techno-pop.
But the best part was a letter I wrote to myself. Check out some of these highlights:
“Dear Greg, when you read this letter, you’ll be a senior. I’m writing because it is one of Mrs. Jans’ crazy assignments.” Ya, sounds like a 15-year-old.
“I am typing this out on my Apple //e with a green monitor and two Apple disk drives.” That’s right. I was rockin’ 512K on that bad boy.
Or my favorite: “Probably the greatest aspect of this year was my female companionship.” What up, playa?
Letters can be funny, informative, and even a little embarrassing.
The Bible is full of letters. You’re probably most familiar with Paul’s letters – Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, etc.
The book of Revelation has letters in it as well. In fact, the whole book is part letter, part prophecy, and part apocalypse. But chapters 2 and 3 are true-to-form letters (also called epistles).
John, led by the Holy Spirit, wrote seven short letters to prominent churches in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. These were actual churches in actual cities, with strengths and weaknesses. And a messenger was to carry the scroll of Revelation to each church, starting in Ephesus. You can even see how they form a clockwise circle that someone would travel.
And these aren’t any ordinary churches to John. He actually traveled in this region. He pastored up there. Many believe that he wrote the gospel of John in Ephesus. So, he’s not writing to strangers. He’s writing with a pastor’s heart.
It’s like someday I’ll retire, and I won’t be pastoring RiverLife anymore. But imagine me recording a video or a hologram or whatever we’re sending in the year 2050. I send it from my retirement beach in Southern California to you with all my love and concern and encouragement.
That’s what John is doing here. This is a pastor’s heart.
BASIC STRUCTURE
Before we read the letters themselves, I want to talk about their basic structure of them because they all follow the same outline. They are remarkably similar, and I want you to be able to recognize them as you read along.
There are five basic components to these letters. Most of the letters have all five, but some only have four. The three in red form the core of the letter.
Greeting to the church’s “angel” - They all begin, “To the angel of the church in _________”
Description of Christ - Drawn largely from the vision of Jesus in ch. 1 (robe, gold sash, eyes like fire, feet like bronze, etc.)
Affirmation - These usually begin with “I know…” and talk about something the church is doing well.
Correction - This can be a condemnation, a challenge, or a warning. This is the teaching moment, the hard and painful truth, but said with a pastor’s heart.
Motivating promise - Phrases like, “to those who conquer” or “to the faithful.” There is always a reward for continued faithfulness
Now, we’re going to listen to the letters together through an audio Bible. This is a great way to listen to whole chapters of the Bible all at once. This will be chapters 2 and 3, and the passages will be on the screen. It’s about six-and-a-half minutes, so sit back and enjoy. While you listen, look for these 5 main sections in each one.
DEBUNK TIME-PERIOD APPROACH
Before we dive deeper into these passages, I want to talk about one particular interpretation of these chapters that is very popular among American conservative Protestants. In fact, if you Google “Revelation 2-3,” many YouTube pastors and commentators will talk about this view.
Unfortunately, it’s completely wrong. What is it?
Some argue that these seven churches describe seven eras of the church's history. They look at these chapters of Revelation from a futuristic viewpoint. They say God was really describing the Church in different periods of time.
2:1-7 Ephesus Apostle’s Church led by original 12 apostles 30 – 100 AD
2:8-11 Smyrna Persecuted Church under Roman oppression 100 – 312
2:12-17 Pergamum Compromised Church favored empire over Christ 312 – 606
2:18-29 Thyatira Worldly Church Medieval, pagan, dominated by Catholic popes 606 – 1500
3:1-6 Sardis Reformation Church still too much like medieval church 1517 – 1750 (also today)
3:7-13 Philadelphia True Church loved by Christ, revival, missions 1750 – 1900s (also today)
3:14-22 Laodicea Lukewarm Church abandon true faith; Anti-supernatural 1900s - present
There is a wealth of problems with this approach.
Feels really forced & far-fetched
It has a modernist bias. It implies that Revelation didn’t really mean much for 1900 years. What would you do with this approach in the 1500s or 800s?
The book of Revelation gives no hint of specific eras of the church. In fact, the book gives very little detail about any specific timelines.
Chapters 2 & 3 are 100% percent focused on real-life churches and their problems. This approach treats epistle writing like it’s prophecy writing.
It has an American Protestant bias, finding its heroes in the Protestant Great Awakening revivals of the 1700s and the modern missionary movement of the 1800s. And it finds its enemies in the Catholic Church and mainline denominations. Huge Eurocentric and American-centric bias.
So, if you run across this interpretation, just move on. Treat it for what it really is. Letters to specific churches at a specific time, with timeless truths and parallels that we can learn from.
EXAMPLES OF STRUCTURE
Let’s take a better approach, a more biblically faithful approach to understanding this text. Let’s go back to our five categories.
1. Greeting to the church’s “angel”
They all begin, “To the angel of the church in _________” Every one of them.
Last week, we talked how the word “angel”, literally “messenger” in Greek, could mean lead pastor of the church or a guardian angel of the church. It’s debated, but it seems more likely to me that it’s referring to an actual angel because nowhere else in the book of Revelation does “angel” mean a human.
What does it mean to write a letter to an angel? I don’t know. But that’s okay. Nonetheless, there’s no doubt that these were written to specific churches in specific places.
2. Description of Christ
Drawn largely from the vision of Jesus in chapter 1.
2:1 – “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.”
2:8 – “These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.”
They just go on and on:
The one who is the faithful and true witness
The one who has the sharp, double-edged sword
The one whose eyes are like blazing fire and feet like bronze
Nearly every metaphor from chapter 1 is repeated in chapters 2 and 3.
3. Affirmation
These usually begin with “I know this about you…” and, most of the time, talk about something the church is doing well.
2:9 – I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich!
2:19 – I know your deeds, your love, and faith, your service and perseverance.
Most of the affirmations center around remaining faithful through hardship and persecution. Some, like the church at Sardis or Laodicea, don’t receive an affirmation. Their letters go straight to the next section—correction.
4. Correction
This can be a condemnation, a challenge, or a warning. This is the teaching moment, the hard and painful truth, but said with a pastor’s heart. If you’ve ever had to confront someone, you know how hard it is to say.
2:4 – Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
3:15 – I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
5. Motivating promise
The last part of each of the letters is a promise of hope, meant to motivate them to continue. John uses phrases like, “to those who conquer” or “to the faithful.”
2:7 – To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
3:21 – To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne.
Remember, there is always a reward for remaining faithful to God when things get hard.
ALTERNATIVE HOLISTIC INTERPRETATION
Are you tracking with these? Are the letters making sense?
Now, I don’t want to leave these until I give you a better way to understand them as a whole. We already talked about the misguided idea that the seven churches represent seven periods of church history.
But there’s a better way to understand them. These seven churches symbolize the range of different churches and individual Christians. The overarching question through each of these churches, and every church, and every Christian is this: will you compromise when life gets hard?
Will you forget your first love like Ephesus?
Or will you suffer well like Smyrna?
Will you remain committed to truth like Pergamum?
Or will you tolerate immorality in you and others like Thyatira?
Will you say you’re alive when you’re really dying inside like Sardis?
Or will you stay on mission, even if it costs you something like Philadelphia?
Will you wholeheartedly live for Christ or are you lukewarm like Laodicia.
As one theologian put it summarizing Revelation 2-3, “Christ desires a church characterized by the fullness of orthodoxy (right beliefs) and orthopraxy (right behavior), faithfulness and fearlessness, devotion to Jesus but not to the state, and a preference for the poor rather than the rich.”
WRITE YOURSELF A LETTER FROM JESUS’
Now, I want to give you some time to listen to the Spirit of God and allow him to write a letter to you. For some of you, this might feel strange, and for others of you, this could be life-transforming. And for a few of you, it might be both.
In your bulletin, there’s a yellow handout, this is your template. It has the same five parts that we’ve talked about today. This is a listening exercise. Allow God to speak into your life, faith, and circumstances. Listen for him to affirm you, correct you, and motivate you with a promise. And he wants to transform RiverLife into a more faithful people of God. And he does that by transforming you into a more faithful person of God.
So, we’re going to spend about five minutes here and let you write. The band will play a little music to help you focus.
Let me pray for you.
