SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2015
9:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to the Churches
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Various
Verses in Revelation
Today’s SD will be a bit different in that I want to take
some time to introduce what we will be looking at when we study these seven
churches found in chapters two and three of the book of Revelation. There are similar things that we will find
when we study each of these churches.
First of all I want to talk about one thing that some people believe is
true from the study of these churches and some do not agree with it, and that
is that the churches are in prophetic order, and what I mean about this is that
the dominant church in the world is in prophetic order as the churches that are
listed. The last time when I studied
this book back in 2005 I wrote down the prophetic order of these churches and
so I will do so in the introduction of our study of the churches and whoever
reads this will have to make up their own mind as to whether or not they believe
this is true. Ephesus 33-100; Smyrna
100-312; Pergamos 312-590; Thyatira
590-1517; Sardis 1517-1750; Philadelphia 1750-1925; Laodicea 1925-present
time. There are some ways that I think
that the churches are in prophetic order, but even if this is true we do find
each and every one of these types of churches that are around since John wrote
this letter.
It is also good to be reminded that as we looked at the
vision of Christ and what John saw in the first chapter of Revelation we saw
that the churches were represented by the lampstands “"As for the mystery
of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden
lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the
seven churches’ (Rev. 1:20).” We saw the vision of the glorified Christ
walking among the lampstands, which shows us what He has been doing since the
church began. This also shows us that
churches are to be a light to the dark world in which we live in and as
believers we are to show our light to those who live in this dark world, for
that is the only light they will have.
As we look at these churches we must also remember that
these were seven physical churches that were there in Asia Minor, (modern day
Turkey). We will look at what the cities
where these churches were located and so we can have a better idea of the
problems that they all faced because of where they were located.
We will see as we go through these letters that each
letter will contain a personal message for our Lord Jesus Christ. There will also be messages to the individual
believers within the church and an example of this is what Christ says to the
church at Laodicea when He says that He is at the door knocking. We will see as we read these letters that we
have the opportunity to examine our spiritual status in the light of Jesus’
exhortations to these churches. And as I
said above there may be a prophetic lesson to learn from these churches as to
where they fit into the history of the church.
We will also see that the things that we saw in John’s vision of the
glorified Christ will be used to describe Him to the different churches. For example as we look at Revelation 2:1 we
read “"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven
stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands,
says this:” We saw in the vision of the
glorified Christ that He was holding the seven stars in His right hand and He
was the One who walks among the churches (the seven golden lampstands). I believe that as we study these seven
churches that we will see clearer what the Lord expects of us as believers and
what He expects of the churches that we belong to. Each church had its own particular set of
issues and so as Christ looked at them He told them what He wanted them to do.
There are two of the churches that Christ has no rebuke
for, Smyrna and also Philadelphia, but as you read through the list of churches
you will see that there is a downhill spiral in the spirituality of the
churches with the exception of the church at Philadelphia. When we come to the church at Laodicea we
actually find Christ on the outside of the church knocking to get in.
I mentioned in the first SD that I did this year of a
sermon that was done by our “Seniors” Pastor at the very end of last year to
help us to set some goals for this year of 2015. We had a number of things to chose from and I
chose my need to love the Lord in a better way this year and as we get to the
first church, Ephesus the most famous verse in that letter is Christ telling
them that they left their first love, so I believe that this is just another
example of God speaking to my heart on the fact that I need to do a better job
loving Him. It seems that the people in
Ephesus were running around doing things for the Lord, but did not stop to love
Him.
As we look at these seven churches
over the next day’s my prayer is that we all will have a better idea of what it
is that Christ wants to accomplish in our lives and then we will set out to do
it.
1/16/2015 10:42 AM
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