To gain a perspective on where these churches were geographically, look up a map on Google. They’re pretty easy to come by if you search for 7 churches of revelation maps
For each church, we’ll look at some background information, Jesus’ greeting to them, the positives Jesus has to say about each place, the negatives, and then we’ll look at the promises He makes to each church.
* Ephesus
* Background
* Ancient Greek city in Western Turkey where the Temple of Artemis was – one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Many ancient writers who came up with their lists of 7 wonders called the Temple of Artemis the greatest of all the wonders in its scale and grandeur.
* Paul spent over two years here evangelizing an extended region surrounding Ephesus, but he didn’t found it.
* Greeting
* The one who holds the seven stars – Jesus is telling the church He is the one over the angelic hosts that fight for each church.
* Positives
* Hard work, laboring through hardships for His name.
* Won’t tolerate false apostles – men who claimed spiritual authority over churches but preached a “different gospel” than that of Jesus saves – not just bad teachers or teachers who teach error.
* They hated the “Nicolaitans”, which Jesus hated.
* They were possibly a group that preached lascivious living
* Greek literally means “destroyer of men.”
* Not entirely certain what they stood for
* Ephesus stood against heresy
* Negatives
* Lost their first love – why? We’re not told. He speaks to them as if they know exactly what He’s talking about. He tells them to return to their “first works.” We can understand the same for our lives. When Jesus rebukes us, we seldom need extended clarification.
* Chillingly, Jesus tells them that if they don’t repent, he will take away their lampstand – what we learned in chapter one stood for the church itself. Jesus is telling them He will remove their church if they don’t change.
* Promises
* Eat of the tree of life – one of the restorative aspects of Revelation
* Smyrna
* Background
* Modern city of Izmir, Turkey
* Prosperous city at this time
* Christians suffered financially amidst a prosperous city
* Greeting
* The beginning and end and the one who rose again – Jesus alludes to himself as He is sung about in chapter 4 – the one who is worthy because of His suffering. Jesus is telling the Smyrnians their suffering is worth it because He is worthy.
* Positives
* They are poor and have suffered, but Jesus tells them they are rich – they have traded earthly wealth for eternal riches
* Jesus prophesies to them that those who persecute them will do so for a little while longer, but encourages them to stand strong as they already have
* Negatives
* Smyrna is one of two churches to have no negatives
* Promises
* Jesus tells them to be faithful unto death and He will give them the crown of life. This is much like the paradox of their poverty but promised riches
* Won’t be hurt by the second death – eternity in hell
* Pergamum
* Background
* Pagan center of worship
* Temple of Asclepius – god of health who was a snake on a pole – much like Moses’ during the Exodus. This is where we get our medical symbols today of one or two snakes around a staff
* Temple of Zeus (which still exists today in Berlin)
* Imperial cult was strong here – worship of Caesar
* Greeting
* Sharp,
