In my very first position as a Senior Pastor, I quickly became aware of the major problem found in churches today. About three months into the job, I preached about the Rapture. I made sure it was not the old "hellfire & brimstone" type of message, and I even added some levity to a few parts, but after the service the team of elders quickly descended upon me and demanded an instant meeting with me.
In that meeting, they said I was not allowed to teach or preach on anything concerning the End Times because the previous pastor had done that and several children got scared.
And therein lies the two-fold problem with many churches today. First, too many preachers do not have an understanding of the End Times themselves, so they tend to preach with heavy hands rather than a teacher’s heart. I figure that since they can’t teach you why you need to be obedient, they will scare you into it. But that is directly contrary to what God wants from His leaders and for His people.
Secondly, too many people are afraid to hear the true Word of God, so they just don’t include that in their "happy" church experience. One may feel free to look at it as when we exclude just one part of God, we are actually excluding all of God.
I pray that if I were to ever wake up one morning and decide that I wanted to keep part of God’s Word away from someone for any reason, that would be the day God quits using me to serve Him. All I have to worry about is how to teach it so people will understand it rather than being afraid of it.
That being said, let’s take a look at our message today on Revelation 2.
In REVELATION 1:19, John writes,
“I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.”
In this verse, John is talking in the present tense; the here and now. It is with this focus on what they are doing now that he goes into the 2nd chapter of this book.
Remember that he was told to write these things down and give them to the seven churches. He is now addresses the seven churches that he was an overseer of, he talks about church history. And the messages that follow have a 4-fold application.
First of all, the messages are to be applied to the local church. The letters are to be given to each church and they were to read the letters to their congregations and then all were to help the church refocus on God’s truth and not the worldly ideas mankind brings into the church.
Secondly, they needed to be addressed ecclesiastically. In other words, every person who cared about the church and how it was supposed to follow God should study the letters. Every problem and difficulty the church was having was addressed by John. By paying attention to the problem, we can fix it. By ignoring the problem, it will always stay with us.
Thirdly, the letters were to be applied by each person on an individual basis. How can we make ourselves better believers? What can we do to live a more Godly life? Are there things we must stop doing, or stop thinking, or stop believing so we can refocus ourselves back on the truth of God? Personal application is always a very hard thing to do, but a necessary thing to do.
Fourth, the letters John wrote were prophetical in nature. Not only did they apply to the churches of his time, but they apply just as much to the churches throughout all time, including today’s churches.
But notice the structure in which these letters were written. They included positive affirmation as to what they were doing right, or what they had done right. This positive affirmation serves to get them enthused about correcting their deficiencies. They also included an exhortation to correct themselves, or the instructive part of the letters. John also wrote them to include an eternal motivation, giving them the reason they needed to get back to God’s truth. And finally, they included a partial revelation as to what each church held onto that was truth.
Like those churches, we can only get a complete picture of the body of Christ by looking at us all, not just looking at our own individual selves. We are part of a picture, and not the complete picture. And so, with that thought, let us pray that we be the type of Christian and the type of church that embraces other believers and other churches for what they do, and not reject them simply because they don’t do everything the way we do them.
VERSE 1:
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.”
The angel of the church that John is writing to is most likely one of the church’s leaders, like a pastor or elder of the church. The church of Ephesus, as John writes to it, refers to the church history between 33 AD to 100 AD. John wrote this book around 97 AD, and by this time the church was already a mess because it had been led by some leaders who introduced either their own personal thoughts as Godly doctrine, or the world’s thoughts as Godly doctrine.
In either case, the only thing that should be introduced as Godly doctrine is the Word of God and not the thoughts of man. We find the same thing happening in many of our churches today.
This is evidenced by the stern warning given in verse 5:
“Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
The best warning I can give you is that if you stick strictly to scripture, you will be on the only solid rock known to mankind.
This verse refers to the seven stars. These are the church leaders. Jesus holds the leaders up in His righteous right hand while He walks in and among the churches. Many people today say they are fed up with how churches are not being what Christ wants, so they stay away from church. When we look at a church, we are to know where they are failing, but we are also to see where they are succeeding and where they need our help. And if Jesus walked among the churches in John’s day, He is certainly walking among our churches today. The candlesticks are the churches, and they are to give out light as does a candle.
VERSE 2~3:
“I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claimed to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have tolerated many things for my name and have not grown weary.”
Jesus is complimenting them for working hard and not giving up; for standing with the truth and for weeding out deceivers who would have come into their midst to destroy them. We are very busy reminding everyone that Jesus told us to not judge lest we be judged in MATTHEW 7:1, but we sometimes forget that Jesus also told us 14 verses later that we will know the evil-doers by their fruits.
In essence, Jesus is saying that we cannot judge to condemn, but we can judge for identification. In other words, we have full liberty of being able to see something and then making a judgment as to whether it is a right or wrong thing. But since we do not know the heart of man, we are not allowed to make any judgment as to what should happen to the man’s spirit.
If we teach the word without warning the flock of potential dangers, we are only fattening them up for the kill. In ACTS 20:29-30 we are told to beware of those who actually come from within the Christian community and who would come to divert the truth of God to put a focus on what they want.
Many people believe it is ungodly to name names of people who sin from the pulpit, but in 1 TIMOTHY 5:20, it , “Publically rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will also be afraid.”
So, we do not ever judge the heart of a person, but we can attest to their works – as long as we do it properly and use the outline to do so that the Bible gives us.
VERSE 4:
“Yet, I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”
The exhortation for them to be corrected concerns the fact that, even though they have worked hard without stopping, they have left their first love. Notice that they did not lose their first love, but they left it. They were still busy doing the same things but the passion in which they did them was gone.
In 2 KINGS 6:1-7 we read where Elisha and his students were chopping down trees so they could add to their facility. While he was chopping, one of his student’s axe heads flew off the handle and went into the river. At that point, he still had the handle in his hand and could have kept swinging it against the tree, but that would have been an empty action that produced no results.
Have you ever felt like the power you once had to do things has gone, leaving you empty? That is like the church in Ephesus. They still did, but the power they used to do them, and the passion they felt for doing them was gone. They had become cold like ashes.
VERSE 5:
“Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
They had finally done it right! They came to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and had placed their full focus and trust in Him. But then – they changed their focus and priorities and this caused them to fall. They are told to remember what they did right, and then they are told to repent and turn back from their evil ways and back toward Christ.
And then they are told that if they do not repent, Jesus will come and do away with their church. See, Jesus is not going to let His church be an instrument to esteem the devil.
VERSE 6:
“Yet you do have this; you hate the practices of the Nicolatians, which I also hate.”
Who are the Nicolatians and why are they hated? If we break the word down, we see that the first part, or “nico” means conquest, or to conquer. The second part “laity” means those within the church.
They purportedly were followers of Nicolaos of Antioch, who was one of the seven written about in ACTS 6:5. Apparently, Nicolaos developed his own doctrine and became one of those who is described in ACTS 20:29-30.
In REVELATION 2:14-15, we see where they are the ones who held to the teachings of Balaam, the false god, and who placed stumbling blocks in front of the children of Israel. They also taught it was okay to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols and that it was okay to commit sexual immorality.
The Nicolatians were purely evil people, and they wanted to come in and have the church accept their evil ways and literally rip the church away from Jesus.
VERSE 7:
“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
“Anyone who has an ear should listen” is an exhortation given at the end of each of the letters to the seven churches. That exhortation is intended to get their attention to the fact that what was just said is of special importance and should not be ignored.
The promise is given that if people will truly listen to; if they will truly implement what was said into their lives; and if they will maintain in Jesus, they will receive the reward of heaven, which is described as a paradise belonging to God.
The church in Ephesus had let their love of being Godly go by the wayside and were now just going through the motions. That reminds me of many people today who, when asked why they do certain things in church, always answer with, “I don’t know, we just do them.” When churches forget to teach WHY we do things, the love is soon replaced with the task at hand. Ephesus no longer felt the love they once had towards Christ or to their fellow people.
VERSE 8~9:
“To the angel of the church in Smyrna, write: “The First and the Last, the One who was dead and came to life says, "I know your trials and poverty, yet you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”
The idea is given here that the One who is writing this letter is not John, but a living Savior. The One who was dead and who has come back to life. The First, yet who is also the Last. He knows the troubles they have encountered, and He knows that the church of Smyrna was financially deprived. Jesus said that even so, they were very rich spiritually. And He knows the lies that wicked men have told about them.
The church of Smyrna refers to a church age from about 100AD to 312AD. The word “Smyrna” comes from the word “myrrh” a fragrance released only when the flower is crushed. This church was crushed because of their poverty-like conditions and the burden evil men had put on them through their lies, but like the flower, their sweet fragrance for the Lord was very noticeable while it was under these crushing weights.
One of the weights was that some people who claimed to be Jews, were only secular Jews and not Jews by their love of God. They had the Jewish blood flowing through their veins but did not have the love of God flowing through their hearts.
And these men would spread lies about Christians by saying such things as they observed Communion by drinking actual blood and eating pieces of human bodies, or cannibalism. In God’s economy, these people were no longer considered His people any more than those who claimed to be Christians helped the Nazi’s persecute the Jews during WW2.
The church of Smyrna loved God and stayed firm in their eagerness to follow His Son. And God saw this and God rewarded them. For instance, the pastor of the church of Smyrna was a man named Polycarp. He was 86-years old and the last man who was personally disciple by the Apostle John.
During the wave of persecution that the church was enduring at this time, Polycarp was ordered by the state to bow down and burn incense, giving praise to Caesar. He asked how he could deny the one true God who had walked by him for all of his years. Because he refused to praise Caesar, they tied him to a stake and was going to burn him alive. But the flames would not come near him. And to further show how God protected Polycarp because of His love for God, when a soldier took his sword and pierced Polycarp’s shoulder, the blood flowing from the shoulder began putting out the flames that were already burning!
Let our churches today remember that we can still be identified as a true church of Jesus Christ even when we are suffering other plagues, as long as we hold true to the doctrines of Jesus and do so with love towards God and towards one another. When we are experiencing persecution, all we need to do is stand up for God and refuse to bow down to the world around us. When the world says, “You need to build bigger sanctuaries” or “Your church needs more people”, we can rest assured that if we take care of the depth, Christ will take care of the width, and He will also take care of making sure we have enough housing to gather His people in.
VERSE 10:
“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the Devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
The Lord is telling them to not fear; to trust in Him without being afraid of what is going to happen to them. He is telling them that this persecution will be intense, but it will be short-lived, but He is also giving them a challenge to remain faithful and they would receive eternal life.
VERSE 11:
“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The victor will never be harmed by the second death.”
Another warning to listen and pay attention to God’s word. Those that do might suffer here, and might even die for Christ’s sake, but will never be harmed by the second, or spiritual death. Theirs will be the eternal life spent in the fellowship of God.
VERSE 12~13:
“To the angel of the church of Pergamum, write: ‘The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says: “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.”
Next, we have this letter written to the church of Pergamum. This church worshipped idols, gave their approval of illicit fornication, and they also sacred food. The first part of this word, “Perg” is described by some European scholars as meaning “perverse” or “perverted.” The second part of the word “amum” is a derivative of the word “gamos” which means “marriage”.
And the way in which the church in Pergamum worshiped the Lord, was in a way – a perverted marriage, for they still worshiped Jesus, but they also had allowed many ungodly things to creep into their beliefs and church doctrines.
When John referred to a sharp sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth, he meant that the words of Christ, as He gets ready to reprove the church of Pergamum, will penetrate deep into their soul and cut deeply into their sin.
It was around 312 AD, advancing in years and getting further and further away from the days of Jesus. The last of the Roman emperors who had carried out the persecution of Christians was dead and there was a new wave of emperor “wannabes” getting ready to make power plays for the job. (Kind of like what the Republican primary candidates are doing today.)
One of these young men was named Constantine. Legend says he saw a sign in the sky of a cross, and a voice came from heaven and said, “Conquer in this sign.” Legend goes on to say that when this happened, Constantine dropped to his knees and became a believer in Christ.
In reality, as the new Emperor, he saw that Christians were a large number of people, but they did not enlist in anyone’s army. Since his army was quickly growing smaller and less powerful, he thought that if he claimed to be a Christian, they would enlist in his army and he would once again have the largest army of the time. It worked, but he was soon to find that this was an evil marriage.
With so many Christians onboard with the new emperor, he came out with Constantine’s Edict of Toleration. That was an official mandate that nobody could persecute Christians. But that offended most of the pagan priests of the day and they were starting to cause problems because of that. So, Constantine did what many of our politicians are doing today:
They reach out to everyone and give them just enough so they would be happy. He cheapened Christianity so he could treat others with political correctness. And it was not long before Christianity included many things of the world and did not include many things of God.
Up until about 600 AD, the church and the state worked closely as allies and partners, always trying to help Rome become bigger by conquering more. Rome soon found that people would fight them rather than give up all of their religious beliefs, so Constantine figured that if he took some of their pagan beliefs and incorporated that into the church, the people would then follow him and not fight against him.
Some of these things include Easter Egg Celebrations. One pagan sect worshiped the Mother, who gave birth to all children. Part of them worshiped the egg as a sign of human fertility, and the other part worshiped the mother as the highest heavenly body since she is the one who gave birth to the world.
The church included two things from this sect. They included the egg as a form of worship, and they included the worship of the mother – hence the worship of Mother Mary as being the intercessor we have between us and God, even though the Bible specifically states that there is no name higher than Jesus. Both are ungodly things to worship, but were included so the worshipers would follow Constantine – and this worked.
And when evil things were added to the church, the church began its downward spiral away from God, which I do not think it has ever recovered.
In VERSE 13, Jesus is telling them that they they lived in what is known as “Satan’s Seat”, referring to the 150-foot towers built in Pergamos to honor Zeus and other gods. And that the Lord knows how they continued to worship the Lord even when Antipas the physician was burned to death because he refused to renounce his faith. But in the next verse, we find that they are now being taken to task by the Lord for what they have done wrong,
VERSE 14~15:
“But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the sons of Israel: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. In the same way, you have those who hold to the teachings of the Nicolatians.”
Now, the Lord is beginning to hold this church accountable for its wrong doings. He starts by reprimanding them for following Balaam. Balaam was an ungodly prophet and the Moabite King Balak asked Balaam to go pronounce a curse over the land of Israel. God told Balaam not to go, but Balaam went anyway. God even used a donkey to try and reason with Balaam, but after that short discussion, he ended up on a mountaintop overlooking the Israelites.
He tried to curse them three times, but couldn’t quite pull it off. So, rather than give up and repent to God, Balaam came up with an alternate plan. He told the king that if the king’s women would intermarry with the Israelite men, they would end up worshiping idols and thereby bring a curse upon itself. And it worked. (For an understanding of this, I encourage you to read NUMBERS chapter 22)
So, what is the doctrine of Balaam? It is Pergamos: an objectionable marriage with the world.
Not only did they embrace the ideology of church and state as one, they also embraced the Nicolatians, which is buying into church leaders who think they are above the rest of the people and who are infallible unto God and deserve to be called upon with the same fear and respect that we call upon God. That is why Scripture says for us to not call anyone of earth “Father”, saying there is only one Father and He is in heaven. (See MATTHEW 23:9)
VERSE 16:
“Therefore, repent! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”
A sharp and quick warning: REPENT! And it even has an exclamation point afterwards. It is a Godly admonishment to do it, and do it right now! And then there is a warning for those who won’t repent …. He will come down and use the sword against them. The sword is the sharp, absolute truth of God Word, which can separate bone from marrow and issue certain judgment.
And then this letter closes like the rest of them do; with a another sharp warning showing that this letter is very important.
VERSE 17:
“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the victor some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
And, as God always does after He gives a dire warning; He also gives a reward for those who will abide by the warning. A black stone in those days signified a vote of guilty; a white stone a vote of purity. For those who do what God wants, he will make them pure.
WE NOW COME TO THE FOURTH PERIOD – a time that begins about 600 AD and continues to the churches that exist today. The following churches, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, all represent churches that are on the earth today. We know this because it is to these churches that Jessu talks about His coming and about the Tribulation.
VERSE 18~19:
“To the angel of the church at Thyatira, write: ‘The Son of God, the One whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like fine bronze says I know your works – your love, faithfulness, service, and endurance. Your last works are greater than the first.”
This church was so strong that it greatly influenced some of the teachings of Martin Luther and the Reformers up to 1500 AD. This church still exists today.
The Lord is acknowledging their great works and even commenting about how strong they were to last so long and have such a great influence over so many people.
VERSE 20~21:
“But I have this against you: You tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives My slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent from her sexual immoralities.”
In ACTS 16:31, Paul found some women who gathered by the river to pray. It was the Sabbath, so he joined them. They listened as he talked, and one of the ladies, a woman named Lydia, who was a Christian, asked Paul to come stay at her home.
Many people think this passage points to the possibility that the church of Thyatira was started by women. But as this church may have been founded by a woman, it was now being greatly influenced by a woman; a woman named Jezebel, one of the most ungodly women in Israel’s history.
In 1 KINGS 21, we read where she was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians. She was given in marriage to King Ahab of Israel. Now her father, Ethbaal was the high priest of Ashtoreth – a goddess of sensuality and fertility, or a sex goddess. It was this ungodly upbringing, and her marriage to Ahab, that caused her to be a great, but terrible influence of Israel.
One day, she found Ahab weeping. She asked him why he was crying and he said that they were strong and rich, yet a man would not sell Ahab his vineyard. Jezebel went out and hired some men to tell lies about how that man denied God, and he was arrested and put to death. And then, Jezebel configured to have the vineyard given to her husband Ahab.
Since she was the daughter of a high priest, she called herself a prophetess, and her wicked ways along with the authority she had, she became an evil influence over Israel. And God gave her time to repent from her fornication, which could mean spiritual fornication as well as physical fornication, but she refused. And thus, the spirit of Jezebel was continuing to influence the church, especially the one in Thyatira.
VERSE 22~23:
“Look! I will throw her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into grat tribulation, unless they repent of her practices. I will kill her children with the plague. Then all the churches will know that I am the One who examines minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your works.”
Another very sharp warning, following by an exclamation point. “PAY ATTENTION TO THIS”, He says. He is telling everyone who even contemplates accepting that spirit to repent and walk away from it or He will throw them into their own time of tribulation.
And in VERSE 23, He tells us that not only will the local church go through that, their offspring as well. He demands that people look to Him and not anyone else to set their doctrines and beliefs by. And then He says they will reap the rewards (good or bad) of what they have done.
VERSE 24~25:
“I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who haven’t known the deep things of Satan – as they say – I do not put any other burden on you. But hold on to what you have until I come.”
The “deep things of Satan” speaks of the false beliefs of the Babylonian religion. They subscribed to the false doctrine of; “We alone know the deep things and mysteries of God.” But God is telling those who do not buy into that wrong belief that they will be exempt from God’s Judgment.
This is the first reference in the letters to the churches of Jesus coming back. That is why we believe that this church, the church of Thyatira, goes on until Jesus actually does come back.
VERSE 26~27:
“The victor and the one who keeps My works to the end: I will give him authority over the nations - and he will shepherd them with an iron scepter; he will shatter them like pottery just as I have received this from My Father.”
The ones who do not get confused by wrong prophecies and beliefs – those who maintain a righteous focus on Jesus Christ will be given authority in the afterlife. They will rule in the name of God the Father and will shatter satanic influences as they would shatter pottery.
We must understand that Ahab and Jezebel married to accomplish two things: To merge their countries so they could be bigger and stronger, and to merge their religions so they could lead more people. The result was total disaster, and they ended up destroying many lives because of their spiritual wickedness.
VERSE 28~29:
“I will also give him the morning star. Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Old Testament image of Jesus is as the Sun of Righteousness (see MALACHI 4:2) Here in REVELATION it is the Morning Star. To those who maintain their faith until the end, Jesus will give of Himself to them. And then He closes this chapter out with the warning to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is telling the churches.
LET US CLOSE IN PRAYER.
QUIZ ON REVELATION 2
(for the small group or life group settings)
1. In verse 1, who are the ones who “hold the 7 stars” and what are the “lampstands”?
. . . The elders (church leaders) and the churches themselves
. . . The angels and the candles that light the church’s foyer
2. Verse 2 says, “I know your deeds.” Who is that talking about? Who knows them?
. . . The Apostle John
. . . An Angel
. . . Jesus Christ
3. Verse 6 talks about the Nicolatians. Who were they?
. . . People who thought they were the only ones who knew the deep things of God
. . . People who were the travelling evangelists of their day
4. Verses 8 -9 talk of the church of Smyrna. What was happening with them?
. . . They were very rich people who had trouble focusing on Jesus
. . . They were very poor, but had kept their intent focus on and faith in Jesus
5. In verse 12, John talks about a two-edged sword. What did he mean by that?
. . . The sword Jesus will use t slay his enemies at the End Time
. . . The strong and cutting Word of God that Jesus will say
6. The first 3 churches that had letters written to them were -
. . . The churches in Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum
. . . The churches in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Tucson
7. The last church I chapter 1 that received a letter was -
. . . The church in Thyatira
. . . The church of Jerusalem
