Look Into Bible Series - Revelation: Seven Churches, Seven Letters

By Graham Kettle

Look Into materials provide the reader with an overview of Scripture at a level to help personal knowledge and application for the individual, together with Bible study and sermon material for the hard-working church leader. Look Into series are intended to provide an overview of Bible books and to pick out main topics. In this way, the reader is left with a real flavour of the specific Biblical subject, with the hope that, in due time, he/she might be encouraged into a deeper study. This study of the seven Revelation letters of John to the seven churches of Asia demonstrates just about every known church situation and meets our aims to assist the reader to study, learn and apply the Word of God. Why? Because we live in a time when the Word of God has never been easier to obtain, yet it is a time when that same Word is so little understood. This creates one of the greatest dangers to the Church, coming from within, not from outside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781716161308

Book preview

Kettle

Copyright Page

Look Into Bible Series – James: Making Our Faith Active

Author: Dr Graham J Kettle

Copyright ©2021 Graham Kettle. All rights reserved

Published by Graham J Kettle

ISBN: 978-1-716-20167-7

Dedication

This is dedicated to all those who have listened to the messages in this book and provided their valuable feedback – the best ‘proofreaders’.

Of course, special recognition has to go to the one who has put up with me spending hours at the keyboard, while still bringing me hot tea and biscuits, my dear wife Chris.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to everyone who has read the text and provided that important help – correction of the text. It is appreciated to make the reader’s experience clear and informative. Especial thanks for proofreading go to my wife Chris, Emmanuel and Terence.

Special thanks go to my Son-in-Law, James L Russell, for his research into the histories of the seven churches. This was particularly helpful for this series and gives the reader a glimpse of the times and cultural situations in which John’s letters were written and received.

Together, this provides an informative series that can be used in Bible study or as sermon material to feed the body of Christ.

Preface

It is important in these days of Bible notes and quick daily readings to take time to delve into the richness of God’s word. This is probably becoming more difficult as we see many of our leaders mixing secular employment with their service to the people of their churches.

Look Into materials provide the reader with an overview of Scripture at a level to help personal knowledge and application for the individual together with Bible study and sermon material for the hard-working church leader.

While looking at books of the Bible, I am mindful that so much exhaustive study and analysis has been done. However, Look Into does not intend to repeat such an in-depth study, but prefers to seek an overview and to pick out main topics. In this way, the reader is left with a real flavour of the Biblical subject, with the hope that, in due time, he/she might be encouraged into a deeper study.

We live in a time when an understanding of the Word of God has never been easier to obtain, yet it is a time when that same Word is so little understood by many in our congregations.

If Look Into materials can be a catalyst to draw the people of God, in particular, to His eternal precious truth, then the Church is protected and the Gospel can be spread in the purity of our Lord’s original desire.

The seven letters written by John to the leaders of the famous seven churches of Revelation potentially contain a picture of every church and church situation around today.

The letters are a serious challenge to us to see if we line up with any of these examples – hopefully with Smyrna and Philadelphia.

These letters are hard and for some harsh. However, God does not just bring such warnings for the pleasure of condemning His people. Rather it is to show their error and challenge them to come back to that place of salvation and certainty of life everlasting with Him. God does this by forcing us to assess our relationship with Him and through that to re-focus our drive to build His true body the Church. Reading through these seven letters will likely touch some raw nerves. If so, it will only be the Holy Spirit seeking to bring positive change.

Description

Seven Churches, Seven Letters - Revelation

This series covers an overview of the famous seven letters to seven churches written by the ageing Apostle John on the island of Patmos. It can be seen that each letter contains a similar pattern:

"To the angel of the church in a given city, write:"

Jesus (depicted in glory, often in terms from 1:13–18) says:

"I know." (in most instances He offers some praise)

"But I have this against you." (Jesus offers some reproof, where applicable)

The one "who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

The promise of Christ’s second coming (Rev 3:11)

We should be aware that some commentators have noted that these churches are each invited to read the others’ mail. We can deduce this from the text, where each church is called to hear "what the Spirit says to the churches" (churches in the plural).

This would have been embarrassing for members of those churches addressed most harshly.

The letters to the seven churches often reveal characteristics of the cities in which these churches flourished. This reminds us of how easily churches can reflect the values of their culture if we do not remain vigilant against those values.

In William Ramsay’s commentary, such parallels are identified at key points however one of Ramsay’s other observations should be reviewed here:

The two cities that are now completely uninhabited belong to the two churches that received the most severe rebukes (Sardis and Laodicea)

Those two cities that held out the longest before the Turkish conquest are the only two churches fully praised (Smyrna and Philadelphia)

The city of Ephesus was later literally moved to a site about three kilometres from where it was in John’s day, just as the church was threatened with removal from its place (Rev 2:5).

You could think that these parallels may be coincidental, but they might also illustrate a pattern in history: The church, no matter how powerless in a given society, is a guardian of its culture.

When pagans levelled the charge that Rome fell because of its conversion to Christianity, Augustine replied that it fell rather because its sins were piled as high as heaven and because the commitment of most of its Christian population remained too shallow to restrain God’s wrath.

Is Western Christianity genuinely different enough from these mirrored cultures to delay God’s judgment on our societies? This is an interesting but urgent question.

The Church with Heart Problems

Ephesus

This first letter of the seven letters to the churches of the province of Asia came from the Apostle John on the island of Patmos. Given its location, Ephesus would have been the nearest and so it would then make sense that it was the first of the seven letters. Indeed, the order of the letters follows an ancient mail route of those times.

Ephesus was a prominent city in the province of Asia, more powerful than Pergamum politically and more favoured than Smyrna for the imperial cult.

Located near the mouth of the Cayster River and the island of Samos, Ephesus was called "the first and greatest metropolis of Asia" by the Romans.

"With an artificial harbour accessible