The Seven Churches Of Revelation - Lesson 3 Series

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The Seven Churches of Revelations Lesson 3

Revelation 2:1-7 – The Church at Ephesus

(Rev. Barry Johnson and Rev. Rodney Johnson)

Introduction

This is lesson three of our teaching series on the Seven Churches of Revelations. In this lesson, we will be examining the message that Jesus sent to the Church of Ephesus. Before we start, let’s pause for a moment of prayer for guidance as we do our study today.

Although the churches at Jerusalem, Antioch, and Corinth all had a tremendous influence on the development of the Early Church, it seems that none had an impact as significant as the church of Ephesus. Because of its unique beginning, strategic location, and enormous size, the Ephesian church had a monumental level of influence on churches throughout Asia. In addition, the repercussions of spiritual events that occurred in Ephesus rippled out to churches in every part of the Roman Empire. Many of these events were recorded in the book of Acts between chapters eighteen and twenty. While we could do an entire lesson on those events, I want to review just a few as I set the stage for what you will hear in this lesson.

· The church of Ephesus was started as a result of the apostle Paul and his ministerial partnership with Aquila and Priscilla. The book of Ephesians was written to this church. Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned in Acts 18:18-28 as being in Ephesus and helping Apollos understand the Scriptures better. Apollos eventually became the pastor of the Corinthian church which resulted in an ongoing relationship between those two churches for many years.

· When Paul left Ephesus, he asked Timothy to serve as pastor of the Ephesian church, a position the younger minister accepted. (1 Timothy 1:3)

· It appears that Paul established his ministry headquarters in Ephesus.

· At the conclusion of Paul’s three years of ministry in Ephesus, a great riot occurred which was recorded in Acts 19:23-27. The riot arose because the silversmiths who made silver shrines of Diana (the pagan goddess of fertility) were losing money. After all, as people got saved they stopped worshipping Diana and purchasing shrines and other idols representing her for their homes. As you can imagine, these merchants were not happy with Paul.

· When the apostle John moved to the city of Ephesus, he brought with him Mary, the mother of Jesus, whom he cared for until her death, as Jesus had requested of him. (John 19:25-27) The apostle John was arrested in Ephesus and subsequently exiled to the island of Patmos. The gospel of John and the epistles of First John, Second John, and Third John were all written during the time of John’s residency in Ephesus. The apostle John died in Ephesus.

· Historical writings reveal that Ephesus was also home to many Christian leaders. The Christian community in Ephesus eventually became so large that the city was officially declared a “Christian city.” However, at the time of John’s exile on the island of Patmos, the Ephesian Christians were undergoing severe persecution at the hands of Domitian’s government. It was during this period of adversity that John received the message for this Church from the Lord.

Before we go into the message, I want to quickly remind you of the things the Churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia did that Jesus approved of. Remember, these were the only two churches that Jesus did not have a problem with. We want to remind you of them so that you can compare them to what you’re going to hear in the message to the church in Ephesus.

To the church in Smyrna, Jesus told them He knew their works and that they were being persecuted. He told them that they were rich (even though by the world’s standards they were poor.) He told them not to fear what was getting ready to happen to them and to be faithful – indicating that this is what they were already doing. He told them they would receive a crown of life for their faithfulness.