The Seven Churches-Ephesus Series

The Seven Churches-Ephesus

(Note: this message is based on a sermon I preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on October 19, 2025 but it is not an exact transcription.)

Introduction: Ephesus. This city was one of the largest in the Roman Empire. At the time, Ephesus was a thriving seaport and the Temple of Artemis/Diana was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (for a reference, see any of the links to websites like this one: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/seven-wonders-ancient-world/).

Paul had spent two years in Ephesus (Acts 19:10) preaching and performing miracles. The church in Ephesus had been blessed with overseers like Timothy (I Timothy 1:3). I remember reading and hearing how the apostle John had been working for the Lord in Ephesus before he was sentenced to exile on Patmos (Dr. A. T. Robertson mentions this in his “Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament: for this passage even though there is no Scripture to agree with this).

By now, the time when John wrote Revelation, maybe 30 years had passed. The church in Ephesus was still in existence, and there were other churches in western Asia Minor (Turkey, as it is today) but the Lord Jesus Christ had something to say to this one and six more in particular.

The Scripture passage for today’s message is Revelation 1, verses 1 through 7:

Text: Revelation 2:1-7, KJV: 1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. 3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. 6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

1 The picture of Jesus

One thing we’ll see in each of these seven letters is a reference to Jesus. Back in chapter 1, John saw the glorified Christ with eyes like fire, feet like brass (bronze), and so on. Here in this message to Ephesus, John records Jesus saying He has the seven stars in His right hand, and He is walking in the midst of these seven churches.

Now, here in verse 1, John recorded that Jesus said the “seven stars” are the “angels” or messengers of each of the seven churches. The term “messengers” seems to refer to the leaders at each church. Jesus said He had each of the seven stars in His hand. This could mean He is protecting them, as most of us know that when we try to do something for God, we’ll face opposition as well as confirmation. The Lord assists even while the devil resists, as someone once remarked.

Then, besides holding the seven stars, the Lord reminded John, and the Ephesians in this message, that He is walking in the middle of these seven churches. When you take a look at a map of these seven churches, it’s almost like they’re in a sort of circle or pathway. I mean, there were Roman roads, built to the highest standards of the time, connecting not only these seven cities but most of the known Roman Empire. Each of the seven cities was about a one or two days’ walk from each other, by the way. Might have taken a man like me a little longer, though, as I’m certainly not the young pup I was back 50 or so years ago!

All right. John gave us a glimpse of the Lord, and now he’s going to deliver the rest of the Lord’s current message to the Ephesian believers.

2 The words of praise

There’s one thing in common to all of these seven letters: they all begin with a word of praise, or, at least, a note that the Lord says “I know your works” or deeds. For the church in Ephesus, the Lord noted several things that He praised them for.

First, He said “I know thy works” but He didn’t stop there. Note that the Lord didn’t tell us much, if anything, about just what these works really were. He did mention their “works, and labour [sic] and patience” at first. Something I never really caught was the difference between “works (erga, per https://biblehub.com/greek/2041.htm.meaninh loosely meaning something done or accomplished)” and “labor (kopos, https://biblehub.com/greek/2873.htm, meaning not just “labor” as we understand it but also toil and weariness)”. ”Patience” as used here didn’t mean just waiting for something to happen, like traffic to thin out after an accident. “Endurance” is another way of looking at it (see https://biblehub.com/greek/5281.htm) and these Ephesian believers had enough of it to earn praise from the Lord.