Hello guys and welcome back to another post from Matt, your
host this fine evening. Today we will be
going over Revelation, chapter 2, verses 1-11.
To the Church in Ephesus
The Angel that we met yesterday is talking to John and tells
him to address the angel of the church in Ephesus and write: (simplified) I
know what you’ve done, your hard work and perseverance. I know you’ve tested false profits and found
them false and intolerable. You’ve persevered for my name and haven’t gotten
tired. But here’s what you done wrong: You abandoned your first love. You have to remember how you used to be and then
do them in repentance. If you don’t I will
remove your lamp stand (One of the lamp stands that was described in ch 1). But you
have one thing in favor of you. We have a
common enemy of the Nicolaitans. Everyone
who can hear has to listen to this. To whoever overcomes, I will give them
eternal life in heaven.
All of this was addressed to the one church and basically
told them their faults and how to fix them.
The next Church is in Smyrna.
To the Church in Smyrna
The paragraph about them describes them as poor (in wealth),
but rich (in spirit), bullied from false Jews, and will be persecuted by Satan
for 10 days. They haven’t done anything wrong, or anything to be held against
them, but they still need to remain faithful to the point of death and they
will be saved.
That’s it for today and tomorrow will be the next two churches
and their faults but until then, take care you little crumbs!
3 comments:
Today when I was reading I really liked verse 10. It says:
Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life. (NLT)
I like this verse because it talks about how we should always stay faithful to God. Even when things are going really bad we need to stay faithful to him. If we do this we will be rewarded in heaven.
Christ was warning to the Ephesians that they left their first love. They are doing great works with patience but they lost their focus on how it’s all about their love for Christ. They are going through the motions, being churchy, and it’s not from the heart anymore. The lamp stand being taken away means that they are becoming a dead church. Doesn’t mean the people in it aren’t saved, just that their works are dead. James says works without faith is dead. He goes on to say in verses 7 and 8 that He sees that they reject the deeds of the apostates, the Nicolatans, and He’s happy for that, and that they have already eaten from the tree of life. So the Ephesian church does have saved people in it. It’s just that they are going through the motions and the church is becoming dead—very similar to Christian churches all over America.
Of the seven churches, only two had no indictments against them. Christ’s message to them is
Smyrna and Philadelphia are those two churches!
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