without a love relationship, the church isn't even worth having

I know every single time we meet we say we’re going to go through more than one church…and then we never do.  So we’ll take it one at a time on the blog too : ) 

Sooooo the first is Ephesus!  Revelation 2 opens with the letter to the Ephesians church (remember Carrie made the link that the people in Ephesus were the Ephesians just like Paul wrote to the Ephesians).  Jesus tells John that He has a message for the church there, so John needs to write it down and give it to them.  He reminds them that it’s from Jesus, who is in control.  Remember, Jesus identifies Himself as the author of each of the letters, but He tells them each something different about Himself.  To the Ephesians, He says that He is the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands.  Now you remember in first chapter, we found out that the seven golden lampstands were the seven churches.  So, Jesus is telling us that He walks amongst the churches.  He is among the churches; they’re always in His presence.  He is in the room with us and knows what’s going on at all times!

So, we know that Jesus knows us and all that we do.  When Jesus says He knows about their deeds, the work for know indicates complete knowledge.  Jesus is telling them that He knows their life and what their church is all about.  He sees that they serve to the point of exhaustion.  He knows that they persevere and serve even when it’s hard and not convenient.  This sounds a little different than our American churches, huh?  Too often we serve and give our time when it’s convenient or when we’re not otherwise too busy. 

Jesus praises them for not tolerating since and wickedness; they can’t call themselves Christians unless they’re going to live the life.  Also, they have tested the false apostles and identified them for what they really are…false.  “Apostle” means “sent one,” or someone who is sent by God to deliver a message.  there were phonies but the Ephesians did not listen to them.  They tested their words, just like God wants us to test the words that we hear in church.  We should be looking to see if we what we hear matches what God says in His Word.

Jesus also says He’s glad that they hate what the Nicolaitans do.  We talked about how in Acts 6, seven deacons were chosen to be in charge of the distribution to the widows and orphans, one of which was Nicolas of Antioch.  Tradition holds that the Nicolaitans came from him.   They seem to love God and to serve Him but after a while they part from the faith and begin to teach things contrary to God’s word.  They started a sect or cult against God’s word.   In the church, we are not supposed to tolerate all beliefs, practices, and teachings. 

Ephesus was the biggest city in Asia and the church was one of the first churches.  It was a very powerful church.  (See acts 19).  In Ephesus, they would worship the goddess Diana, and everyone had idols of Diana.  In fact, making these idols was a big source of income for many in the city.  So, the apostles come in and preach Jesus’ words to people, then the people are turning from the idols and are tossing them.  Obviously, this makes the people whose livelihood depends on the sale of these idols pretty angry.  In fact, they started a riot and later a lot of physical persecution against the church. 

Jesus holds it against them that they have forsaken their first love.  In fact, He will DESTROY them over it.  They’re doing the right things in that they obey and respect Him, but they lack love; they’ve walked away from a relationship with Him and Jesus says that without having that relationship, the church is not even worth having!  It’s that CRITICAL to God—He would remove the entire church over it; God wants our obedience, but He really wants to have a LOVE RELATIONSHIP and for our actions and obedience to come from our overflow in our love relationship.  It’s the WHOLE POINT.   God isn’t saying you CAN maintain a love for God; He’s saying you BETTER.  He says to repent—do something about it, go back to that love!!  Godly sorrow leads to repentance.  Throughout the day, you should allow thoughts of God to come into your mind and tell Him that you love Him. 

On a scary note, several years after this letter was written to the church in Ephesus, the church was REMOVED.  For the last 1800-1900 years there hasn’t been a lampstand in Ephesus.  There is little to no Christian influence in modern day Turkey.   In fact, it is Islamic and blatantly anti-Christian.  Why?  They lost their love and God doesn’t want a church that doesn’t love Him.  God wants witnesses to His love and isn’t interested in the type of religion that is just obedient.

Whoever is in a relationship with Him will spend eternity with Him.  God went through all of this because of His passionate love for us.  He sacrificed His life in pursuit of a love relationship with us.

Church Letters

Ok girlies!  I know we’re going super slowly through these churches but that’s okay.  I want to give you a quick recap of the structure of the letters to the churches. 

The letters each open in the same way; “To the angel of the church in ______, write:”  We talked about how the word angel in Revelation, though it can mean ethereal, heavenly beings, can be used other ways.  We discussed how the word angel could also be used to talk about messengers to the church, or the pastors to the church, and how the letter would be read aloud to the church (really, the whole book of Revelation would be read aloud). 

For each church, we talk about who the speaker is to each of the churches—Jesus.   We also talk about how we know this, because in each of the letters to the churches we see some identifier of Jesus, and most of them link back to how Jesus is described/describes Himself in the very beginning of Revelation.  (NOT because the words are written in red or because there are quotation marks…J)

Jesus praises the churches for the things that they are doing that He likes.   He commends the churches for the good things and encourages them to continue in the good.  Even if there are just a few good in the church, He still recognizes whomever is making an effort to truly follow Him and will distinguish them from the rest.

Jesus usually rebukes the church that He is writing to as well (except for Smyrna and Philadelphia).  He points out what they’re doing wrong and what He doesn’t like about the church and tells them that they need to repent and instead follow God.

They all end with “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  This means to ANYONE who will listen, even to us now.  This is followed by the reward that the person who is able to overcome what Jesus has warned against. 

Look for more on the churches soon!

Chapter ONE!

Hey my wonderful girls!  I'm going to get faster at posting updates!!

Alrighty girls, to recap what we discussed about chapter one, let’s start with the author.  As we have talked about, John is the author of Revelation.  John says so himself in the first verse.  This John is supposed to be the same John that was a disciple of Jesus, the beloved disciple, and the son of Zebedee.  It was probably written in the early 90s, which would be during the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96); during this time, Christians were very threatened by Rome and there was heavy persecution in many places. 

 

John tells us that this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and that God gave the revelation to Jesus who gave it to an angel who gave it to John.  Jesus is the mediator between God and men, so the message is given to Jesus to give to the churches.  Public readings in the churches in encouraged here; in fact, there is an incredible blessing for those who read the book of Revelation.  It is the only book in the whole Bible that begins and ends with a blessing for those who will read it.  And yet, it is one of the most unread!  When Jesus says the time is near, he doesn’t necessarily mean right away, but that when the events start to take place, they will happen quickly.

 

Revelation shows us the gap between God and man.  God is holy, which means set apart.  He is beyond us and too complex for us to figure out.  In our world, we like to lift up people and praise people for their “good” deeds.  However, there is no possible comparison between God and man.  At the end, we will see God’s wrath poured out and He is so powerful against a powerless people who, until the very end, go on thinking that they are powerful.

 

The greeting is written to the seven churches that are in Asia, and as we talked about, these churches would be in modern day Turkey.  John is writing the letter BUT we know that the message is from God.  In verses 4 and 5 it says from Him who was, and is, and is to come, which can either be used to refer to Jesus or to God the Father.  Here, in verse 4, it is probably God the Father since the beginning of verse 5 says and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.  Sometimes this phrase is also showing unity in the trinity because the same names are described in the same way for all of the Godhead.  Also in verse 4, there are the seven spirits before the throne, which is probably referring to the Holy Spirit.  (You could also see Zechariah 4:2).  When John writes to the churches, he doesn’t use all of the official titles like we see Paul does at times; he writes to the churches like someone who is known and whose position is recognized. 

 

Jesus has some special titles here in Revelation 1.  The first was that Jesus Christ is the faithful witness.  We talked about what a witness is in group; according to John 18:37, a witness is someone who testifies to the truth.  So we know that Jesus is coming to testify to the truth that God has given Him.  We know from John 1 that Jesus is the Word, so it is He who brings us the Words of God.  Jesus Christ is the firstborn from the dead, the first to receive a resurrection body that is immortal.  It talks about Jesus being the firstborn over all creation in Colossians 1:15.  And we know that Jesus, who is the ruler of the kings on the earth, has been glorified by the Father, as we learned in Philippians 2 last semester. 

 

John also sums up the gospel when he talks about Jesus being Him who has loved us and freed us from our sins by His blood.  Jesus has made us a kingdom of priests; Revelation talks about how we will join God in an everlasting kingdom.  Israel (Exodus 19:6) and the Church (1 Peter 2:9) will minister before God forever.  Priests were the only ones who could come into the presence of God in the holy of holies.  Now, through Jesus, we can all come before God and confess our sins through our mediator, Jesus Christ. 

 

Now, Jesus is coming.  John is saying look!  Here comes Jesus!  It’s all about His return; every knee will bow (remember when we looked at Philippians 2), and everyone will call Him Lord.  When God says He is the alpha and the omega, He is saying again that He was, and is, and is to come.  He is EVERYTHING. 

 

John was on the island of Patmos.  Patmos is a small island in the Aegean Sea and was a penal island, so they sent prisoners there.  The whole island is about 10 miles long and 6 miles wide.  It’s a volcanic island and is rocky all over—they would have the prisoners there work in the mines.  John says he was there because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, so we know that John was there for telling people about Jesus.  They tried to shut him down for spreading the gospel.  However, God will honor John because he did not do anything wrong but is being persecuted for honoring the Lord.

 

He says that on the Lord’s day, which we discussed was the first day of the week when the Churches would celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and maybe communion, but some say it’s a day set apart because of this vision) he was in the Spirit.  We see this same idea in Acts 10:10, where it talks about a young man falling into a trance.  It’s a lot like something that Ezekiel experienced as well, when the Spirit would come upon him and carry him from place to place.  He is not experiencing the average physical world but is in a different state and taken to see things in the invisible world (taken supernaturally). 

 

While he is in the state of spiritual ecstasy, he hears this super loud voice behind him.  He says it’s like a trumpet.  I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a trumpet being blown right behind you…but it’s LOUD.  We talked about how different the picture of Christ is in this chapter.  John says he sees one like a son of man, which is a name given to Christ in the gospels.  However, he’s not the same picture of Jesus that we always saw in Sunday school when we were little; He’s in a glorified state in Revelation.  He has been raised from the dead and has defeated death so He is glorified in appearance.  His eyes are blazing, His hair is pure, pure white, He is dressed with a white robe and golden sash, his feet are glowing, and His voice is like rushing waters.  His face is so brilliant that it is shining like the sun; this is a lot like when Saul was on the road to Damascus and he saw a great light.  When he calls out and asks who he is, Jesus answers.  Jesus also has a sharp sword coming out of His mouth, which is a sign of authority and judgment, like in Hebrews 4:25 (which is what the whole Revelation is!). 

 

John is so scared of Him when he sees Him, John falls down and plays dead…Jesus has to tell Him that He doesn’t have to be scared.  John is seeing Jesus very differently than before.  And it’s not unusual for people to fall down before God; Abraham fell face down, and in Judges Minoa and his wife see and angel and fall down.  When the glory of the Lord fills the temple during the dedication of the temple, it knocks people down.  Our reaction to Jesus is important!  We have to think about truly worshiping Him!

 

Jesus has power over death; He has gained authority over physical death and spiritual death.  He also has authority over the churches.  The seven golden lampstands are the seven churches and the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.  We talked about how the seven angels could be messengers to the churches; perhaps they are even the pastors of the churches, and that the seven lampstands represent the seven churches that are supposed to be shedding light and illuminating truth for Jesus. 

 

Finally, in this chapter, John says that Jesus tells him that he is to write what he sees and hears and send it out to the churches.  He’s telling John that he needs to make this message of what is to become known to the churches.  And this is not just for those seven churches; it is an eternal message to those who choose to follow God.  Let’s be mindful of this different picture of Jesus and who we are to stand in awe of while reading this book. 

Revelation in a Nutshell

Hello my lovely BPC girls!  Aren't you glad I finally made our blog?  

This is what we attempted to cover quickly in that first meeting.  These notes are from a sermon by Francis Chan as well as a couple of commentaries.  It is a very very very general overview and we will for sure go much more in depth!  But here's all the stuff you missed that first time through :)

Overview

·         Revelation: apokalupsis in Greek which means “unveiling” or “an uncovering”

o   Revelation is the supernatural communication of truth to the mind (Easton)

·         Revelation is written by John, the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ

o   Jesus speaks to John (via an angel) and allows him to see heaven and obtain this message

o   probably written in the 90s

·         written in a period while Christians are still being threatened by Rome

·         if the literal sense makes sense, seek no other sense

·         General Structure:

o   the first chapter is what John sees immediately: he sees Jesus Christ

o   the second chapter is what is “now” (or then): seven letters to seven literal churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey)

o   the rest is what will take place later: these are the things of the future or what will happen

Revelation 1

·         The book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ (like the rest of the Bible because Jesus is the Word)

o   Revelation means revealing or unveilingàthis is the revealing of Jesus Christ

o   gives depth to the view of Jesus Christ in all of His glory

·         we get this book from John, the beloved disciple, via an angel

o   John was on Patmos—penal colony; he was there for preaching the gospel

o   he was the only disciple that was not martyred; he was put in exile on the island of Patmos instead

·         seven churches: there were literally seven churches in the Asian minor

·         verse 1:17—gets a glimpse of who’s talking to him and fell over

o   it’s Jesus that John sees

·         verse 1:19

o   write what you see: vision of Christ (chapter 1)

o   what is now: letters to the churches (chapters 2-3)

o   what will take place later: things of the future (chapters 4-22)

Revelation 2-3

·         “angel” can be angelic being or messenger, one who speaks for God, so it’s often interpreted as being the pastor

·         Jesus gives messages to the messengers (pastors) of the seven churches

o   Ephesus

§  forsaken their first love, their love for God

§  Jesus tells them to turn back to their love for God

§  accept practice of Nicolatians (they were teaching things contrary to God’s word)

o   Smyrna

§  heavily persecuted church but had some of the strongest believers that existed at that time

§  Jesus says they’re rich in faith and tells them to stay faithful even to the point of death

o   Pergamum

§  some individuals in the church spoiled the reputation of the church—tried to mix Christianity with other teachings and no one is confronting them; don’t deny Jesus but don’t deny other teachings either

§  Jesus tells them to repent or He will fight against Him with the sword of His mouth

o   Thyatira

§  very small church in Thyatira but the longest of the letters

§  they love God, have faith, and are doing more and more for the kingdom BUT they tolerate Jezebel—she is unwilling to repent and will suffer greatly along with those who follow her

§  God does NOT want His church to tolerate sin

§  doesn’t mean you won’t sin but it means you should have a desire for holiness and to walk away from sin

o   Sardis

§  church had a great reputation, a reputation of being ALIVE but they are DEAD in their character

§  when a church is walking in sin and refusing to repent it kills the reputation of the church (on a whole)

§  Jesus has not found their deeds complete—so what if everyone else does!?

o   Philadelphia

§  Jesus has nothing bad to say about the church in Philadelphia

§  Jesus is in control of their salvation and NO ONE ELSE—the false Jews were mocking the Christian church and telling them that they were not loved by God

§  God is so protective of His love for us, so defensive of His love for His people

§  Jesus is coming, hold on!

o   Laodicea

§  neither not nor cold—God does not want you to be casual about this relationship with Him

§  Jesus counsels them to become rich in Christ—they thought that they were rich, but they were lacking in spiritual wealth

Revelation 4

• starts getting into the future
• a  lot of people believe that the rapture (when God will take all of the believers from the earth) takes place before chapter 4

o   people believe this because of chapters 2-3 where He’s talking to the churches and how He stops talking to the churches or mentioning them at all after that so maybe they’re gone

• vision of heaven (glimpse into heaven): John gets to see God in the throne room
• surrounded by elders, who are probably representatives of the church, and four living creatures

Revelation 5

• looking at God on His throne, sees a scroll in His right hand with writing on both sides and seven seals

o   in these times, the Roman government used to seal scrolls with wax and signet rings and you could not open the document unless you could show you had correct ring with the insignia that it was sealed with

o   there would be a seal, you would open it, then if there’s another seal you could only read that portion of the document if you had the ring

o   you have to show you have authority to open the next part (not just the first part)

• everyone in heaven wants to see the scroll but can’t since no one is worthy to open it and John is so devastated that he’s crying until the elder says wait, Jesus can open it

Revelation 6

• Jesus opens the scroll, first of seven seals—Beginning of the End Time Period!

o   rider on a white horse appears after the first seal is opened—has a crown which signifies that the rider is some type of ruler

o   also has a bow (but no arrows are mentioned)

o   some sort of ruler who rules by bringing peace on the earth

• Daniel 9—prophesy of 70 weeks

o   at the end of the prophesy, another seven week (or year?) period

o   someone will come and make a seven year peace treaty with the world and yet he will put an end to sacrifice and offering in the middle of seven years

• there is no temple in Jerusalem now—Jews are fighting with Arabs over it and someone will come alongside and bring peace to situation so temple can be rebuilt (best guess)

o   but they will go and break treaty and set up something bad in the temple—statue of antichrist kingdom that will start the war

• verse 3: second seal—fiery red horse (after like 3 ½ years)

o   take peace from the earth, brings war and people kill one another

• verse 5: third seal—black horse, rider with scales

o   1 quart of wheat for a day’s wages—not enough for 1 meal; FAMINE conditions

• verse 7: fourth seal—pale horse, rider is death, Hades behind

o   power to kill a fourth of mankind through war, famine, and plague

• verse 9: fifth seal—glimpse into heaven, sees all of the Christians who died under tribulation, killed for faith because it has been made illegal to worship God

o   they are asking God when He will avenge them

• verse 12: sixth seal—earthquake, sun black, mood red, stars falling from the sky, sky rolling up, mountains receding, everyone hiding in caves and trying to hide from God’s wrath

o   earth is getting destroyed and everything is wishing to die because of the wrath of God

Revelation 7

• goes back and fills in a few details
• verse 2: before we pour out wrath on the earth, let’s seal people protected by God who love Jesus
• 144,000 Jewish people who give their lives to Jesus and decide to follow them—remnant of true believers (from Old Testament)
• verse 9: Great Multitude—uncountable!

o   believers worshipping lamb—elder asks John who they are and John tells him uhh, you live here, you tell me

o   they are the people who come out of the tribulation—perhaps decide to believe during that time

o   they’re protected and are comforted

Revelation 8

• seventh seal

o   everything is totally quiet in heaven for half an hour; so awesome, so terrifying that there is a HUSH

• God pours out wrath even on creation
• verse 2—seven angels with seven trumpets

o   first: hail and fire mixed with blood poured out on the earth, burned it up (a third of vegetation)

o   second: one third of the sea turned to blood when mountain on fire falls in

o   third: great star falls on rivers—a third of waters turn bitter from wormwood (the star), kills people

o   fourth: a third of sun, moon, and stars are struck so that a third of the day and a third of the night are without light

o   fifth: right before, an eagle flies by saying if you thought those were bad, wait until you see the others

Revelation 9

• fifth angel—star falls, given key to open shaft to the abyss where demons are bound

o   star can also refer to angels/angelic beings (maybe even satan—the fallen angel)

o   locusts come down and harm people without the seal of God—torture them for five months; sting them and they can’t die

• sixth angel—angels released to kill a third of mankind—4 demonic angels bound  at the river Euphrates are released

o   God releases army that’s been bound up here over by Asia—angels release army to go kill a third

o   maybe these are actual people, 200 million troops (some people think it’s like the Red China Army that already number over 200 million)

• the rest STILL DID NOT REPENT—WHAT!?  still don’t finally bow down to God, they go right back to their sin

Revelation 10

• mighty angel with little scroll, loud shout then seven thunders speak BUT John is told not to write that down (we don’t even know why other than God said so)
• John is told to eat the little scroll—he asks for it and eats it

o   it’s sweet but turns sour in his stomach

o   maybe represents big scroll—sweet because Christ is coming but very devastating and bitter when you realize what this means

Revelation 11

• God will give power to two witnesses that will prophesy for 3 ½ years

o   they will be telling people about the truth

o   their enemies are thwarted—fire comes out of their mouths to consume them

o   they’re killed after their allotted time by the beast from the abyss and their bodies are left on the streets of Jerusalem for 3 ½ days—people all over the world see it and celebrate (they send each other gifts when they see this broadcasted)

o   they’re later brought back to life which terrifies everyone, then they’re taken into heaven and there’s an earthquake

• seventh angel—actual return of Jesus Christ

o   the very END

Revelation 12

·         Chapters 12 and 13 are from satan’s perspective or what he’s doing during this time, the rest (before this) is GOD

o   this is satan, what he’s doing, and his role in history/the tribulation

·         3 main characters

o   The woman represents Israel (and the twelve stars are the twelve tribes)

o   the child is Jesus Christ

o   the dragon is satan

·         Israel gives birth to Jesus Christ, He is snatched up to heaven

o   Israel flees into the desert where God takes care of her for 3 ½ years—Israeli remnant that’s sealed

·         war in heaven—Michael and angels fighting against Satan and his angels—satan loses and he and his angels are thrown to the earth

Revelation 13

·         what satan does during the tribulation

·         satan is on the seashore and beast comes out of the ocean—antichrist, ruler that brings peace to earth through first seal, one world ruler

o   slanders God, His dwelling place, exercise authority for 42 months, war against saints, authority over everyone

·         second beast—false prophet, will make everyone worship the first beast

o   power to do signs and because of them can deceive nations

o   set up image of first beast, gives breath to image so that it can speak and have everyone who refuses to worship it and be killed

o   causes everyone to receive mark of the beast

·         second person gets everyone to worship the first guy through miraculous signs—creates  statue of first guy and empowers it to speak; people worship him because of the signs

·         have to take mark because they cannot buy or sell without it—one world economy

Revelation 14

·         very end of time, Jesus comes back and stands on Mount Zion, right outside of Jerusalem

·         first angel comes and says worship the true God

·         second angel comes and says Babylon the great has fallen (end time kingdom the antichrist leads)

o   the antichrist reign is over

·         third angel says if anyone will worship the beast and receive the mark, he will be tormented under God’s wrath

o   automation condemnation forever and ever

Revelation 15

·         seven angels with seven last plagues that completed God’s wrath

·         seven angels with bowls—seems to happen quickly

·         pour out bowls of wrath on the land

Revelation 16

·         bowls are poured out

·         first angel and bowl: ugly, painful sores break out on people

·         second: poured out on the sea, turns it to blood, everything in sea dies

·         third: springs/rivers turned to blood

·         fourth: sun was given power to scorch people with fire

o   people curse God and still refuse to repent

·         fifth: poured on throne of beast, his kingdom plunged into darkness, men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed God, still refuse to repent

·         sixth: pours out bowl on great river Euphrates, dries up water to prepare way for kings from east

o   3 evil spirits (frog-looking) out of mouth of dragon, beast, false prophet

o   spirits go call all of nations to one place for great final battle/war—giant valley (literal place) called Armageddon

§  huge open plane

o   Jesus returns during war and people fight against Him, God then decides He’s killing them all and wipes them all out

·         seventh: pours out on air, voice from the temple says it’s done—lightning, thunder, and severe earthquake; city cracks into three parts

Revelation 17

·         John gets to see what happens to antichrist kingdom

·         one world religion—great whore

o   church is the bride of Christ, world system is harlot/prostitute—don’t get involved

·         it will all fall

Revelation 18

·         she’s (prostitute) will fall—world peace, world system will fall in ONE DAY

o   only takes one day to destroy the entire world system

Revelation 19

·         people in heaven celebrate because it’s over

·         Christ rides on white horse (verse 11)

o   He returns with mighty armies, white robe dipped in blood

Revelation 20

·         angel with the key to the abyss comes down from heaven with great chain and binds dragon for 1000 years, thrown into pit

·         people who were killed for Christ come back to life and reign with Christ

·         satan is then released and tries to deceive again

·         satan, beast, false prophet, anyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life are thrown into the lake of fire

o   satan’s doom

o   tormented day and night forever and ever

Revelation 21

·         NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH

·         GOD DWELLS WITH MEN!

·         NO MORE DEATH!

·         eternal state, believes are with God forever and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes

Revelation 22

·         God tells John to share this

·         if you’ve heard all of these messages and still decide to go back to your sin, God says go back to your sin; there’s no hope for you

·         if you will worship, keep worshipping no matter how hard it gets

·         we have to recognize power and awesomeness of god through this book

·         Blessings for those who will read and follow the book