We find seven letters to the seven churches mentioned in chapter one by the Lord, in which John was to,

“write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;” Verse 19 (KJV)

Now, we’ve pretty much covered all of that, illustrating that those three sections

• the things which thou hast seen,

• and the things which are,

• and the things which shall be hereafter;”

. . . are pretty much what the book of Revelation has been broken down into – by the Lord Himself I might add.

We see that The Lord goes on to tell John that,

“The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven Pastors : and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” Rev 1:19, 20 (KJV)

Remember, the other day we spoke of Christ the Inspector, and we mentioned that He was now considered to be a Great High Priest that lives forever; and one of the main jobs as High Priest was to fill the Lamp Stand (in the Holy of Holies), with oil and make sure that each lamp was lit, and if it began to smolder, he was to snuff it out.

We can easily see here that through the ages Our Lord has been anointing us and filling us with His Oil of gladness and His Blessings and His Goodness in all things. Yet, some of us have become self-complacent and we are not content with being faithful over the small things of the ministry – we just want to be in charge of all the bog stuff. We want to become a movers and shakers, so that we might become noticed as a man of God or woman of God; and unfortunately, much of that today is not just to become the King if the Hill in the “World of Religion” but it deals with men who want to be King of the Hill with the fleshy things of the World. Some of those men and women are so talented and have met with such fame - that fortune automatically followed.

So we see here that the Risen Lord, The ALPHA and OMEGA is walking amongst the churches and holds the ministers of those churches in His Hand. Oh how blessed that thought could be – how utterly safe and restful to know that we are in the Palm of His ALMIGHTY Hand. Yet, the opposite of that is also true, as we will see tomorrow when we begin looking at the seven churches, and what Our Lord has to say about each one.

Now, before I close for today, let me quickly lay some ground work for tomorrow when we begin the church in Ephesus by saying that in order to learn what Jesus is saying to each church, we need to ask three very important questions for each church. They are:

1. Who is speaking? Well in the case of the letters to the seven Churches we know that the answer to that question is pretty simple as it is Christ that Is telling John what to write.

2. Who are they Speaking to? – The seven churches in Asia Minor, and we will mention each.

3. What are they talking about? - The specifics of the letter and what changes Jesus is expecting.

Actually, the question of what is being written about - brings us to the heart of these two chapters. John is told to write a letter to each of the seven churches, “actual churches” by the way; that existed in Western Asia Minor in the first century.

So, Why should a condition in each of these local congregations become a part of the Revelation as a message to the church as a whole?

I believe that the only answer I can give you here – which I believe with all of my heart, and that is that the message to these local churches reaches beyond “time and space”.

That’s something we will begin studying tomorrow when we begin with the Church at Ephesus tomorrow found in Revelation 2:1-7. e will also look at the Church at Smyrna 2: 8-11 and the Church at Pergamos found in Revelation 2: 12-17.

It would do well for you to read those ahead of time and we will go over them in tomorrow’s “In The Word”. I Hope You’ll join us. Please tell someone about the study and invite them to come and join us as well.

-- God bless you --