Ephesus
“From: the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:
I know:
- all the things you do.
Commendations:
- I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance.
- You don’t tolerate evil people.
- You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans
- You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles and have discovered they are liars.
- You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
Complaint:
You have left your first love
What to do:
- Look how far you have fallen!
- Repent and do what you did at first.
If not:
I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
To everyone victorious
I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.
Smyrna
From: the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive:
I know:
- about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich!
- the blasphemy of those opposing you.
No Commendations:
No Complaints
What to do:
- Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you.
- You will suffer for ten days.
- If you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.
Anyone with ears: to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Everyone victorious:
will not be harmed by the second death.
Pergamum
From: the one with the sharp two-edged sword:
I know / Commendations:
- You live where Satan has his throne is, yet you have remained loyal to me.
- You refused to deny me even when Antipas was martyred among you.
Complaints:
- You tolerate the teaching like that of Balaam, who taught them to sin: eating idol’s food and committing sexual sin.
- You permit the Nicolaitans to teach the same things in your midst
What to do:
- Repent of your sin
- If not I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Anyone with ears: to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
To everyone victorious:
- I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven.
- I will give to each one a white stone,
- on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.
Thyatira
From: the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze:
I know / Commendations:
- All the things you do.
- I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance.
- I see your constant improvement in all these things.
Complaints:
- You are permitting that woman, that Jezebel, to lead my servants astray.
- teaching them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols.
What to do:
- Repent, including the woman and those who commit adultery with her.
- If not I will throw her on a bed of suffering
- I will strike her children dead.
- I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.
Warning for all Churches: All will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person.
- The rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (deeper truths)
- I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come.
To all victorious: who obey me to the very end:
- I will give authority over all the nations.
- They will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.
- They will have the same authority I received from my Father,
- I will also give them the morning star!
Anyone with ears: to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Sardis
From: the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars:
I know / Complaints:
- all the things you do
- that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.
No Commendations:
What to do:
- Wake up! Strengthen what little remains
- Go back to what you heard and believed at first;
- hold to it firmly.
- Repent and turn to me again.
- If not I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.
- Some in the church of Sardis have not soiled their clothes with evil.
- They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
Everyone victorious:
- will be clothed in white.
- I will never erase their names from the Book of Life,
- I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.
Anyone with ears: to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Philadelphia
From: the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open:
I know / Commendations:
- all the things you do,
- You have little strength yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.
- I have opened a door for you that no one can close.
- I will force those who belong to Satan’s synagogue to come and bow down at your feet.
- They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love.
- Because you have obeyed my command to persevere,
- I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.
No Complaints:
What to do:
- Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown.
All victorious:
- will become pillars in the Temple of my God,
- they will never have to leave it.
- I will write on them the name of my God,
- they will be citizens in the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God.
- I will also write on them my new name.
Anyone with ears: to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Laodicea
From: the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation:
I know / Complaints:
- all the things you do,
- You are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!
- Since you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!
- You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’
- You don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable, poor, blind and naked.
No Commendations:
What to do: (I advise you to)
- buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich.
- buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness
- buy ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see.
I correct and discipline everyone I love.
- So be diligent and turn from your indifference.
- Look! (Open your eyes and ears) I stand at the door and knock.
- If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
All victorious:
- will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.
Anyone with ears: to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.”
I am sure you realise what I have done for you in this Gem. I have arranged the letter to the seven churches of Revelation like a school report. I have clipped and categorised the elements written to each church in a way which helps you to see the patterns in this letter. I commented in Gem 2206 “It is like getting a bad report card from school and you draw your parents’ attention to the results you are proud of in the hope they won’t notice the bad results.” Often as a teacher in high school we would notice patterns in a student’s report when writing the report for your subject. Repetitive elements like “could do better”, “has far more potential than he demonstrates”, “she just doesn’t pay attention to instructions”, “she is better suited to a career where she can talk”. With that in mind, I decided to craft this Gem like a school report. Imagine you are the parent looking at your child’s report. See if you can pick out the patterns. See if you notice the glaring omissions. Can you see some curious elements in the report concerning the seven churches? I will draw your attention to them in the next Gem. I would also suggest you look at this passage from the point of view of your church and you as an individual. Where does your church fit in the list of seven? Or maybe it is a combination of several. Notice how the focus is firstly on the church in Laodicea and then the focus switches to individuals. How do you react to that? Do you find it challenging? Would you open the door when Jesus is knocking? Or would you keep the door closed and hide? Why? What are you afraid of?
In the last Gem, I gave you an option to ask me to send you “the better piece of artwork to illustrate Revelation 3:20 which I use in Deeper Bible 701. Ask and you shall receive that your joy or your enlightenment may be full. Get the picture?” My little hint must have been too cryptic. No one took me up on the offer but several have made comment since, that when they realised that was a genuine offer on my part to send you artwork, they decided they wanted to take up the offer. There is a story behind the picture. I will send you the picture and the story. If you want it; simply email and ask or request in the comments section online.
I will pull some more key points together in the next Gem and add some more information. But at this point I will give you the time to look over these two chapters of Revelation one more time to see what stands out to you personally. I would love you to share with me anything you have seen that you think is significant. Comments, questions, whatever you like. Add them in an email or write them in the comments section at the bottom of each Gem. I have seen another connection that I would like to investigate further. What would Jesus say to the other churches not included in this list? What would Jesus say to your church or to you? Ask Him.
There are some obvious things to notice in the reports on the church. But there are also some cryptic things. I am puzzled by the way the two repetitive sayings:
- Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
- To everyone who is victorious I will . . .
are switched in order. At a certain point they are reversed. I think I know why. See if you can find the place where the order changes.
Why do you think this change occurs? This question was prompted by the frequent comment of my Greek Professor, Basil Brown:
Class take note of each word used in the text of the Bible. No word is a throwaway.
Basil Brown
Class take note whenever there is a pattern set in the text and then the pattern changes. There is always a reason.
Basil Brown
Jesus always tells you the truth about anything, especially the personal things about yourself. He will never condemn you but He always gives you an honest diagnosis.
Ian
The new interpretation of Revelation 3:30 is likely to be what was meant considering the context in which it is found. Will you open the door or keep it firmly closed?
Ian
Yes Kev, you are so right in saying so many don’t pass. I think that is one of the major points of all this. You have the picture already having done DB 701. If any of you readers have done Deeper Bible 701, you will find the picture on Page 51. The Come to the Table session with Becca Iona’s painting and the Sidewalk Prophets Song Come to the Table.
Why have I not posted the follow up Gem 2213? simply because I made a mistake, yes a user error, on posting Gem 2212 when i lost the end of the Gem. Some only saw a truncated version of the Gem – chopped at “I commented in Gem 2206 “It is like getting a bad report card from school and you draw your parents’ attention to the results you are proud of in the hope they won’t notice the bad results.” but without the quote from Gem 2206. Something went wrong when I posted Gem 2212. So I delayed adding Gem 2213 to give readers more time to ponder.
In addition to that we had to deal with a problem with our Indonesian bank accounts in a video conference to sort the problem and I have to prepare the details and proof we needed which took time. So I didn’t write Gem 2213 yesterday. I will post it tomorrow (Friday Nov 17th) to give readers time to think about the depth of Gem 2212. You are on the right track in thinking “so many don’t pass”. Hint: I think that’s the point and the reason for some of the interesting elements of Jesus words of warning. Enough said for the moment. Wait for tomorrow when I won’t repeat The Report but will deal with the details, the fine print.