Church of Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29)

Church of Thyatira (Revelation 2:18 - 29)

Praises
* Love & faith
* Service
* Perseverance
* Doing more than before

Rebuke
* Tolerate the Spirit of Jezebel

(It does mention that there are some who do not hold to Jezebel's teachings)

My Notes:
Jesus has some very harsh things to say about the woman Jezebel and what will happen if the church does not repent.

* Cast on a bed of suffering
* Those who comitt adultery with her will suffer intensely
* Will strike her children dead

God searches our hearts and minds.

I've heard of the Spirit of Jezebel before. Originally I had thought it only had to do with sexual immorality, but recently I've been learning this is more of a spirit of control. This makes sense in a way because many use their sexuality as a means of gaining control over others. And I've noticed sexual sins tend to have a greater control over us than any others when we fall into them.

Jezebel was an actual character in the Old Testaement (1 & 2 Kings) who persecuted God's prophets. The evil which possessed her was in existence prior to her, however due to the extent it manifested itself in her, these spirits have become known by her name. This is a spirit which is still very active in the world today and unfortunately seems to be overly present in our country. In some cases the results of this spirit are not only tolerated, they are wholly accepted and encouraged.

Here are a few articles I found regarding the Spirit of Jezebel if you are interested in learning more. Please note, I don't always agree fully with the articles I recommend, however I believe it is good to look into these things and bring them to God in prayer and compare them to His Word. I also believe this is a spirit we all need to be aware of in our world today.

Jezebel - The Latter Rain page
Jezebel in our Society

Church of Pergamum (Revelation 2:12 - 17)

Church of Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17)

Praises
* They live in a town ruled by Satan but still remain true to Jesus
* They do not renounce Jesus or their faith in Him. They boldly speak of and share their faith.

Rebukes
* Tolerate in their midst those who worship Balaam and entice others to sin, idolatry, sexual immorality.
* Have those who follow the teachings of Nicolaitans.


My Notes
When reading the praises what immediately came to mind was a church who is faithful in cities that are considered to be "sin cities" in America. To me San Francisco and Las Vegas came to mind.

Based on the rebukes, my initial impression is this is a church who teaches the love of Christ boldly, but not the righteousness, holiness or obedience of Christ which is expected of followers. Liberal Churches that tolerate and/or condone (sometimes encourage) sin in it's followers lives seem to parallel this church. The Grace of the Savior is taught in a way that everything is acceptable. Unfortunately I believe there are many churches in America that teach this now, and even more troublesome is the appearance that the number is growing.

I find it very interesting that Jesus specifically mentions that this church follows the teachings on the Nicolaitans. These are the practices He made a point of commending the Church of Ephesus for hating. So I did a bit of research on these teachings. It appears there is no definitive documentation of what exactly these teaching were. However, I noted two themes in my research. One was that the teachings were very liberal to the point that paganistic rituals were considered to be acceptable as part of the teachings of Jesus. These individuals lived their lives to excess in all they did. The other theme I found was those who taught the church required a heirarchy for others to grow in Christ. The clergy were elevated above the rest of the Believers, instead of being considered servants to the body as Jesus taught.

For more research of your own visit these sites and/or do some research of your own. It is very interesting.

The Teaching of the Nicolatians
THE NICOLAITANS – an alternative view
Nicolaitans - Wikipedia Definition

The bottom line for me is that our God is a Holy and Righteous God as well as a Merciful and Loving God. Unfortunately, many churches and Believers tend to emphasize one of these characteristics to the extreme and to the detriment of the other. However, we have to remember God is both! Therefore, we need to keep a balance between the two as well. I believe the key to this is being in constast communication with the Lord through a relationship with Him that includes prayer, being in His Word and fellowship with others.

Church of Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11)

Church of Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11)

Praises
* Although afflicted and in poverty they are rich (in Jesus)
* They are slandered
* They will (and have) suffered jail and persecution, Satan will come against them
* They will be tested, but Jesus encourages them to stay faithful, even to death.
* He will give them a Crown of Life

Rebuke
None

My Notes:
I find it interesting that the things Jesus praises this church for all revolve around how they are persecuted by others. They obviously are following the Lord and not the world. I can not find one thing that Jesus rebukes them for.

I truely do not believe that we find this church in America today. This is not to say that some of us don't suffer for our beliefs or we would not be willing to die for our beliefs. We definitely do, but not to the extent that this church did back then. This reminds me of the persecuted church in other countries where it truely takes faith and trust in God to follow Him because it is a reality that you likely will lose your life for Him.

On the other hand though, I think we need to prepare for this. I believe one day soon we very well may be living through things like this. I believe we are heading down that path now. It is just a matter of time. We need to be ready so we can truely say it is a Joy for us to suffer for Christ.

More on the 7 churches & the Ephesus Church

I think some have misconstrued why I'm writing about the seven churches in Revelation. Do I think what God is revealing to me right now is all there is to it? No way! I believe God in His inifinite knowledge reveals a little to us at a time based on where we are in our life at that time.

What I am writing is what God is revealing to me right now, which is why I encourage everyone else to read these letters. Jesus wrote these to the churches and they were included in God's Word for us to learn from them. God's Word is to point us to our Lord and a deeper relationship with Him.

He specifically pointed out items for which he praised and rebuked each church. I don't believe anything in God's Word is insignificant. I want to know what a letter to my church would say if God was to write one. For what things would He say "Well done, good and faithful servant" and for what things would He say "No, the path is here, come this way."

With that being said, my notes being posted on each of these letters is just the surface of what God is teaching me at this point in my life. I do believe that we can not pinpoint each of these "churches" to our churches now, because I believe we all have a little bit of each in us. However, I do believe we can draw parallels to our day and from that learn where God is pleased with us and where we may need to make some changes.

I do not believe that good deeds, righteousness and holiness are bad things. Exactly the opposite. However, I do believe we must be careful to ensure when we do these things our focus must be on God and our reasons must be because we love the Lord. It is very easy to start doing these things because we think it is what is required to "please" God or because we think we are more righteous than someone else. Our focus in ALL we do must be God. He made it very clear in His Word that we must be holy and righteous, but He also made it very clear that all our good deeds done for the wrong reason are detestable in His sight.

So with that I will continue to share with you what God has revealed to me about these seven churches. My notes at the end are to help me put what He is teaching me in more perspective for myself. To make something kind of abstract more concrete in my own mind. I love the church in the US, however I am also realistic in recognizing we have a lot of problems. I can't change the entire church in the US, but I can change myself and my little personal church that I am part of. If each of us was to do so, imagine what would happen in this country!

Church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7)

With each church I’ll post the scripture reference, a list of the praises Jesus bestowed on them (if any), a list of the rebukes Jesus gave them (if any) and then my notes.

As I’m reading these, God is revealing little things to me about each church and what that church may look like in today’s world. He may not reveal the same things to you, so I encourage you to join me in my study. Please comment on what you are getting from these letters Jesus wrote to His Church.

Church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7)

Praises
* Good deeds, hard work & perseverance
* Do not tolerate wickedness
* Reveal false prophets
* Have persevered and endured hardship for Jesus’ name
* Have not grown weary

Rebuke
* Have forsaken their first love
* Need to repent and do things they used to

My Notes:

Have they become too caught up in rules, traditions and good deeds that they’ve lost their intimacy with God? Have they lost that burning desire to know Him more?

This reminds me of the many legalistic churches in the US which are so focused on rituals, traditions, rules etc that they loose sight of what it really is to have a relationship with Christ. It is what most think of when they think of religion. It is why I explain to people I am not "religious", I just have a relationship that I'm continuously developing with my Savior/God. It is easy to loose sight of our "first love" though and get caught up in the "deeds". This is a good reminder of where our focus should be.

7 Churches in Revelation

Juan brought up something to our house church on Tuesday that really stuck with me. I've been thinking about it ever since. He mentioned how we all study the letters of Paul to guide us and to help us in our walk with Christ. However, in Revelation chapters 2 & 3, Jesus himself wrote a letter to the 7 churches (through John), but he (Juan) has never heard a sermon on what we can learn for our church and for our walk from this letter. If you have a red-letter Bible, check it out. These words are in red because they are directly from Jesus to John for these churches. If we are willing to put so much weight on Paul's words, shouldn't we put just as much if not more on Jesus' words?

So based on this I have been reading these two chapters and journaling my initial impression of each of these churches. What does Jesus praise them for? What does Jesus rebuke them for? Do I see these "churches" in our world today?

I'm going to be sharing this with you in the next few posts. I won't be using any commentaries or any other books/notes on these two chapters. You will just get what I get from reading and praying about these. I hope you'll join me and comment on what you get out of them as well.

Another thing Juan talked about which we'll be doing and I encourage you to do is to ask yourself a few questions:

Which church am I/my church most like?
If Jesus was to write a letter to my church, what would he say?
What would he praise us for?
What would he rebuke us for?

I think these are very important questions. I encourage you to read these two chapters, meditate on them and pray about them. Open yourself to the message God has for you and take it to heart. Make the necessary changes to step into His destiny for you. I won't necessarily be sharing all of this with you, but you can be assured myself and my house church are going to be asking ourselves these questions and making changes where the Lord instructs us to.