How are
you committed to your church?
Where
do you serve in your church?
At the
end of the first century Christians in Asia were being persecuted because of
their belief in Jesus Christ. There were
lots of other dangers during that time, including earthquakes and wars. Rome had destroyed the temple, which affected
the churches. These 7 churches in
Revelation are in modern day Turkey were not without problems. There were false teachers and prophets and
even sexual sins in these churches. Some
people had given up and turned away from Jesus.
John
wrote letters to theses churches as directed by God as we saw in chapter
1. To each of the 7 churches God praised
them for their good deeds and rebuked them for their bad ones. He always started with praise, then gave a
warning and ended with a promise.
Revelation 2:1-7 – Ephesus, The Church That
Left Their First Love
Ephesus
was the most important of the 7. It was
large, nearest to Patmos, and a center of worship of the goddess Artemis
(Diana). There was a lot of false
religion and a lot of idol worship there.
Ephesus was a rich business center.
When people came from Asia to Rome, they would travel through Ephesus.
John
wrote to the angel of the church in Ephesus as God instructed telling them that
his words were the words of Jesus who holds 7 stars in His right hand and walks
among the 7 golden lampstands. Remember
in Revelation 1 we learned the 7
stars are to 7 angels and the 7 lampstands are the 7 churches. His right hand represents Jesus’ position of
power, authority, and safety.
Jesus told
them He knows about the things they do. He
knows their deeds, their hard work, their perseverance, and that they cannot
tolerate wicked men (Rev.2:2). He praised them for their hard work and
perseverance. Rome opposed them and even
the non-Christian Jews opposed them so life was hard. He knows they cannot tolerate
wickedness. They tested evil men and
proved they were false prophets. The
real followers of Jesus had passed the test and lived faithful lives.
Then
Jesus rebukes them telling them they have forsaken their first love. They had stopped loving one another. They had stopped loving Jesus as they once
did. They were not as eager and excited
about Jesus as they once were. He wanted
them to remember the things they did at first.
If they don’t repent, their lampstand will be removed. Jesus was in the middle of the churches and
by removing their lampstand, He would leave them and not protect them anymore
and there would suffer God’s judgment. They
did however hate the practices of the Nicholaitans who followed the teaching of
Balaam (Rev. 2:4-6).
To
repent is to admit that you are wrong and change your ways and live
differently. You should turn to God,
admit your sin, and ask for forgiveness.
Are you
doing all the right things spiritually and yet something seems missing?
Have
you left your first love?
Where
do you need to repent and rededicate yourself to God?
There
will always be people who oppose the Bible and its teaching. They think they know how to do things better
and try to influence Christians today.
If it doesn’t stand up to Bible standards, it is false teaching. The Bible is the source of all truth. It will never be outdated. It is always relevant. It never changes. Some people accuse Christians of being
intolerant. Our culture is changing, but
the Bible does not. Anything that
contradicts the Bible is false teaching.
We are to know what it teaches so we can discern if any teaching is true
or false.
There
are many things that draw us away from God:
Serving
2 masters – Matt. 6:26
Love of
position – Matt. 23:6-6
Not
loving our enemies – Luke 6:27, 35
Getting
caught up in the letter of the Law and missing its intent – Luke 11:40
Our
profession – John 21
Our
convenience and pleasure – Rom. 14:15
A love
of self – 1 John 3:16-18, 2 Cor. 5:14-15
Dishonesty,
hurt, unwillingness to forgive – Eph
4:30; 5:2, Col. 3:12-14, 1 Thess. 4:9-10
Hatred
of others – 1 John 4:20
Failing
to witness – 2 Cor. 5
Trials
Sin – 1 John 2:5
The
world – 1 John 2:15
Do you
know your Bible?
Can your
knowledge of the Bible discern truth from lies?
What
would your instructions be to someone who has left their first love?
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To Him who overcomes, I will
give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” – Rev. 2:7. This phrase “he who
has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says” appears in each of the
letters to the 7 churches. It means
everyone should always listen to the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks to Christians in His churches
through the Holy Spirit. If you want to
stand on truth, let the Holy Spirit lead you.
We need to have truth, but show it with love.
What is
an overcomer? An
overcomer is a faithful believer who has overcome the world. A born-again believer is an overcomer. Live in the spiritual power of the Holy
Spirit and you will be able to be an overcomer.
Then as overcomers you will sit with Jesus on the day of the Great White
Throne Judgment and escape God’s punishment, the second death in the Lake of
Fire.
Are you
an overcomer?
How are
you living in the power of the Holy Spirit?
What is
this tree of life mentioned in Rev. 2:7?
We learned about the tree of life in Genesis. God allowed Adam and Eve to eat the fruit
from the tree of life in the garden except the tree of good and evil. Once they sinned they were banned from the
garden and didn’t have the right to eat from the tree of life. Now through Jesus we have access to the tree
of life – a life with God.
Revelation 2:8-11 – Smyrna, The Suffering
Church
Smyrna
was about 35 miles away from Ephesus. It
was a beautiful city and competed with Ephesus as the best city. It was a pagan city. It was the home of the temple of the Emperor
Tiberius, the temple of Cybele, and the temple of Zeus. The Jewish people joined with Rome to
persecute Christians. Smyrna was known
as the suffering church.
John
wrote to the church at Smyrna telling them these words are of Him who is First
and Last and who died and came to life again.
This is a picture of the gospel. Jesus
knows their afflictions and poverty, yet He told them they were rich. He knows the slander told about them. He called the slanders “a synagogue of
Satan”. The Devil will put some of them in
prison for 10 days, which will be a test.
This is the period of Daniel’s testing (Dan. 1:12-15). They are not
to be afraid. They are to be faithful
and God will give them the crown of life (Rev.
2:8-10). Christians are imprisoned
today for their faith, which is the work of Satan. God will give them the crown of life, which
means victory over death
How can
they be rich? “For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
- 2 Cor. 8:9. They are rich because they were in
Christ. They have all the wealth of the
heavenly Father. They are blessed
because of their being persecuted. The
Bible tells us when you are a follower of Jesus, expect persecution.
How
faithful are you? There is
a crown of life waiting for you.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. He who overcomes will not be
hurt at all by the second death.” – Rev. 2:11. Jesus is
encouraging them. When going through
hard time, we all need encouragement. We
are to continue to be faithful. God will
take care of us.
“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.”- 1 Tim. 3:12.
Christians
are being persecuted all over the world.
We are seeing a new wave of persecution in our world today. Many countries are being affected by
persecution. The leader of the
persecution is Isis. There is
imprisonment, rape, and murder. It is
everywhere. How can we think America
will be spared? We will wake up some
morning and it will be here. It is
starting to happen within our country.
Christians are losing their rights.
We can believe what we want, but we can’t act on it. There are battles to come. We are too passive and don’t want to
fight. This is not a fight. It is a stand on the truth. We are to stand up for what we believe and be
faithful. God will take care of us.
What do
you need to do when and remember when you are going through a hard situation?
You can
find the answer in Scriptures like - “I can do
everything through hi who give me strength.” – Phil. 4:13. Also see 1 Thess. 3:2-5 and 2 Tim. 1:7-8.
Next
week we will study Revelation 2:12-29;
3:1-6 – the church in Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis. Hope to see you here.
__________________________________________
If you
have enjoyed my post and have found if helpful, please leave a comment or share
this post with the buttons below.
You can also join this site by clicking on the blue button at the top left "Join this site" or you can "Subscribe by Email". If you follow by email, you will receive an email every time there is a new post.
