Seven Churches Of Revelations Part 1 Series

NOTE: New Light Faith Ministries and Barry Johnson Ministries, founded by Rodney V. Johnson and Barry O. Johnson, respectively, are partnering to offer Bible studies for Christians who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is a Bible study lesson, not a sermon. The Bible studies teach foundational truth that are designed to challenge, encourage and, most importantly, flame the fire of hunger in the Christian who wants to learn more about who they have become in Christ Jesus. The Bible studies you find on this site contains the written version of the lesson. However, these lessons also include a video and an audio file of the study, a PDF version of the lesson and a sheet for note taking. If you would like any of the additional resources for these studies, please email us at newlightfaithministries@gmail.com or bjteachingltr@gmail.com for more information or contact us at the email provided on both of our Sermon Central pages. Be blessed.

The Seven Churches of Revelation

Lesson 1: Revelations 1; 2:8-11

(Rev. Barry Johnson and Rev. Rodney Johnson)

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to lesson one of our study of the letters to the seven Churches from the book of Revelation. Many people hesitate to read this book because for them it’s scary and it has a lot of symbolisms in it. I understand this thought as I too do not understand some of the imagery that John uses to describe what he was shown. However, as we go through the message to the seven Churches, you will see that those messages are pretty clear and, more importantly, they are applicable to all Churches today. There are seven specific messages that Jesus gave to John for the seven Churches of Asia. Of the seven messages, there were only two Churches that Jesus did not find fault in how they were operating as a Church, what they were allowing to happen in their congregations or in their service to Him. We are going to start with those two Churches so that when we get to the other five we will reference back to the differences between the Churches that Jesus did find fault with and the two that He did not find fault with.

As Rodney said, our focus in the next seven lessons are limited to the seven churches that are covered in chapters two and three and what they can teach us about the Body of Christ today. The challenges that each of the churches faced and the specific instructions that Jesus gives to them will be our focus in these lessons. When these lessons are complete, it is our prayer that, as we look at the churches, you will be able to clearly identify the characteristics of a church that Jesus commends and the characteristics of a church that He condemns. And to help you do this, I’m going to identify the common themes that will be seen in each of the churches. I’m going to list them with very little explanation at this point. First is the phrase “I know thy works.” The second is “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” Third, is the repeated call for “repentance.” The fourth theme is how Jesus hates the doctrine that teaches we can be saved and, at the same time, live immoral lives. And we will see this when Jesus talks about the false teachings of the Nicolatians, Balaam and Jezebel. And, finally, we are going to see the promises that Jesus gives to those who overcome the issues in that church.

Now, before we start with the first Church, we want to set the stage by quickly reading through the first chapter. So get your Bibles out and turn with us to the first chapter of the book of Revelation and we will begin reading at verse one. As we read through the verses we will provide some context/commentary that will help set the stage for the book in general and the seven Church specifically. Let’s Begin.

“1The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, 2who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.” It is important to understand that the book of Revelation is not John’s revelation as some refer to it. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ that He shared with John. John just recorded everything that he was told and saw. Another point I want to make is this: when you think of the imagery that John recorded, remember he was seeing future events. Just consider how someone would describe an airplane flying in the air 2000 years before they existed. He would attempt to describe it based on his reference points. Again, I am sharing this just as a point of consideration as you read this book of prophecy.