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There are
essentially three traditional views regarding interpretation of
the letters to the Seven Churches.
1) These were seven "actual" churches that John wrote to. His
letters were actually delivered and read to these churches in
western Asia Minor during the first century AD.
2) The Seven Churches represent epochs of time over the past two
millennia. These seven periods of time traversed in
chronological order, beginning with Ephesus and ending, in our
times, with Laodicea. Each "church" represents the prevailing
religious/spiritual "climate" during their respective epoch.
3) The Seven Churches represent the various elements that can be
found during any period of time from the time it was written,
through, and including our time.
Rev. 2:1-7
The Message to Ephesus: An Orthodox Church, But A Church Without
Love
1 The recipients (v.1a-b)
a. The messenger of the church (v.1a)
b. The Ephesian church (v.1b)
2 The commendation (v.2-3)
a. For works and labor (v.2a)
b. For stedfastness (v.2b)
c. For not bearing evil (v.2c)
d. For testing and rejecting false apostles (v.2d)
e. For bearing up and not fainting (v.3)
3 The complaint: They had left their first love (v.4)
4 The counsel: Remember—repent—do (v.5a)
5 The warning (v.5b-6)
a. Your church, the candlestick will be removed (v.5b)
b. Your doctrinal purity is not enough (v.6)
6 The promise: To the overcomers (v.7)
a. The tree of life (v.7a)
b. Paradise (v.7b)
Rev. 2:8-11 - The Message to Smyrna: The Persecuted Congregation
1 The recipients (v.8a-b)
a. The messenger of the church (v.8a)
b. The Smyrna church (v.8b)
2 The commendation (v.9)
a. For tribulation (v.9a)
b. For bearing poverty (v.9b)
c. For spiritual wealth (v.9c)
d. For bearing blasphemy (v.9d)
3 The counsel (v.10a-c)
a. The devil will persecute (v.10a)
b. Persecution will be limited (v.10b)
c. Do not fear, but be faithful (v.10c)
4 The promise: To the overcomers (v.10d-11)
a. A crown of life (v.10d)
b. A deliverance from the second death (v.11)
Rev. 2:12-17- The Message to Pergamos: The Corrupted Church That
was Married to the World
1 The recipients (v.12a-b)
a. The messenger of the church (v.12a)
b. The Pergamos church (v.12b)
2 The commendation (v.13)
a. For loyalty to Christ’s name (v.13a)
b. For doctrinal purity (v.13b)
c. For facing martyrdom (v.13c)
3 The complaint: False doctrine and worldliness (v.14-15)
a. The doctrine of Balaam: It has infiltrated the church (v.14)
b. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans: It has infiltrated the
church (v.15)
4 The counsel: Repent (v.16a)
5 The warning: God will come, oppose, and fight against (v.16b)
6 The promise: To the overcomers (v.17)
a. The hidden manna (v.17a)
b. A white stone with a new name written on it (v.17b)
Rev. 2:18-29 The Message to Thyatira: The Compromising or
Permissive Church
Thyatira means continual or perpetual sacrifice in the Greek
language – It seems appropriate considering that it is an
allusion to the period of the ascendancy of the Roman Catholic
Church and the heresy of the mass, which in their theology is a
sacrifice of the body and blood of Yeshua that it’s adherents
actually partake of.
1 The commendation for works (v.19)
a. For love and service (v.19a)
b. For faith and patience (v.19b)
c. For expanding ministries (v.19c)
2 The complaint: Allowing a Jezebel to teach (v.20-21)
a. They tolerate a false prophetess (v.20a)
b. They tolerate false teaching, seduction, fornication, and
idolatry (v.20b-21)
Some of the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church include
1. Justification by works and not simply by faith alone.
2. Baptismal regeneration which teaches that a person is saved
by Baptism.
3. The worship of images.
4. Celibacy; the forbidding of priests to marry, an aspect of
the nicolaitan heresy.
5. Confessionalism – The confession of sins to a priest who then
grants absolution of those sins.
6. Purgatory – a place of confinement which is neither Heaven
nor Hell, but a place where one has to be refined before going
to heaven, and thus teaching that sanctification is not
completed at death.
7. Transubstantiation – the concept of the continual and
perpetual sacrifice of the Messiah.
8. Indulgences – that through the giving of money, a person’s
time in purgatory could be reduced.
9. Penance – involving the torment of the body in order to
reduce the time in purgatory.
10. Mariolotry – the worship of the virgin Mary, her elevation
as the mother of God and the declaration of her diety.
All of these doctrines led to idolatry and spiritual adultery.
3 The warning to the compromising and corrupt (v.22-23)
a. To Jezebel: She shall be cast into a bed of great trials
(v.22a)
b. To Jezebel’s followers: The same fate (v.22b)
c. The purpose for the warning (v.23)
1) To honor Jesus (v.23a)
2) To execute justice (v.23b)
4 The counsel: To the faithful (v.24-25)
a. There will be no other burdens or demands made upon the
faithful (v.24)
b. They must hold fast (v.25)
5 The promise: To the overcomers (v.26-29)
a. They will be given authority and power over the nations
(v.26-27)
b. They will be given the morning star (v.28-29)
Rev. 3:1-6 The Message to Sardis: The Church with Reputation,
But Dying
1 The recipients (v.1a-b)
a. The messenger of the church (v.1a)
b. The Sardis church (v.1b)
2 The complaint: Works (v.1d-e)
a. They appear alive (v.1d)
b. But they are dead (v.1e)
3 The counsel: Watch and strengthen the works that remain (v.2)
4 The warning (v.3)
a. Remember and hold fast what you have received and heard
(v.3a)
b. Repent (v.3b)
c. Know that judgment will fall unexpectedly (v.3c)
5 The promise (v.4-6)
a. To the undefiled: They shall walk with the Lord in white
(v.4)
b. To the overcomers (v.5-6)
1) They will be clothed in white (v.5a)
2) They will not be blotted out (v.5b)
3) They will be acknowledged by Christ before God (v.5c-6)
Rev. 3:7-13 The Message to Philadelphia: The Church That is
Faithful and Alive
1 The recipients (v.7a-b)
a. The messenger of the church (v.7a)
b. The Philadelphian church (v.7b)
2 The commendation (v.8)
a. They had used the open door of evangelism and missions (v.8a)
b. They had kept Christ’s Word (v.8b)
c. They had not denied the Lord’s name (v.8c)
3 The two great hopes (v.9-10)
a. There will be great vindication: The persecutors of the
believer’s will either be saved or judged (v.9)
b. There will be great deliverance: From the hour of trial
(v.10)
4 The counsel: Christ comes quickly; therefore hold fast (v.11)
5 The promise: To the overcomers (v.12-13)
a. Will be made a pillar in the temple of God (v.12a)
b. Will receive security (v.12b)
c. Will receive God’s name (v.12c)
d. Will receive the new name of God’s city (v.12d)
e. Will receive a new name (v.12e-13)
Rev. 3:14-22 The Message to Laodicea: The Church That is
Affluent, But Lukewarm
1 The recipients (v.14a-b)
a. The messenger of the church (v.14a)
b. The Laodicean church (v.14b)
2 The complaint: Are neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm (v.15)
3 The warning: Will be spued out (v.16-17)
a. Because of your false profession: Saying you are rich and in
need of nothing (v.17)
b. Because of your true condition: You are wretched, miserable,
blind, poor, naked (v.17b)
4 The counsel (v.18-20)
a. Buy spiritual gold, clothing, and eye salve (v.18)
b. Be zealous and repent (v.19)
c. Hear the Lord...open your heart...fellowship with Him (v.20)
5 The promise: To the overcomers (v.21-22)
a. Will be enthroned (v.21a)
b. Will be enthroned even as Christ is enthroned (v.21b-22)
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