Conclusion to the 7 Letters

Today we want to summarise and conclude our journey through the 7 churches in Revelation.

As you will recall, the message was given to John while imprisoned on the island of Patmos and the order of the letters follows a clear travel route, one that Jesus told us he had walked to see the situation at each Church.

It’s always great to go to the letterbox and to receive a letter or a postcard out of the blue from someone you know written in their handwriting. It’s much more personal, much better than an email. Most of the letters we get these days are bills or junk mail.

After my Nanny died at the age of 98, my brother wrote to the Queen saying that Nanny had been really looking forward to getting a letter from her when she turned 100. Well wouldn’t you know it, the Queen wrote back from Balmoral Castle during the 2012 Summer Holidays. 

So Nanny got her letter, she would have loved that !

In the Bible, we’re always reading someone else’s letters aren’t we but imagine the excitement for a Church to receive a personal letter from Jesus, the King of Kings ! David Pawson who’s teaching we are using for this series, noted that the 7 letters have 7 distinct parts;

1. Address

2. Attribute

3. Approval

4. Accusation

5. Advice

6. Appeal

7. Assurance

On the handout, you will see the 7 letters divided up into 7 parts. You can see 2 areas in red, 2 areas in green which we’ll cover shortly.

Address

The address is given to the Angel of the Church who has to take the message. Every Church has an Angel, so we have one for PCC. We have surely noticed protection through the years. But the message is not directed at the Angel because the Angel is not responsible for any action of the Church. The Angel’s job is only to take the message. It’s a case of “Don’t shoot the messenger”. One thing to notice is that Jesus calls all of them churches except “the Church of the Laodiceans”. As we learned last week, the Laodicean church was a man-centred church - not of Jesus, he was on the outside knocking to get in.

Attribute

The overall tone of each letter is formal. In French you would use “tu” in the singular and if the person is a friend, a colleague or family. You use “vous” in the plural but you also use it in the singular as a formal mark of respect to someone you don’t know or has authority over you. These 7 letter don’t use a familiar hello, hi, hey there ! as you might expect from your friend Jesus but in fact more in keeping with his authority as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The modern Church has drifted away to a very friendly Jesus portrayed on “The Chosen” and not recognising properly his authority over the Church and over our lives as individual Christians. Each title Jesus mentions establishes his authority. 

To Thyatira Jesus tells them he is the Son of God

Revelation 2:18

“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:

The words Jesus used here also show that he is the Son of Man as mentioned by Daniel chapter 10:4-6

Some of the attributes of his authority are quite striking. Jesus says to Pergamos 

Revelation 2:12

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:

That sends a message that Jesus is ready to strike and some people would feel threatened (those doing wrong) and others comforted that the strong arm of the law has arrived (those doing right).

To the persecuted Church of Smyrna, Jesus gives the encouragement, 

Revelation 2:8

“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life:

To those being martyred he tells them that there is life beyond death because he has come back to life.

I won’t go through each one now but when you remember what Jesus wrote in the letters, remember he is the Great King with all authority in Heaven and on Earth and when he speaks we need to pay attention to what he says and sometimes what he doesn’t say and not treat him like a friend who can be ignored when it’s inconvenient.

Approval

Most of the letters start with the things that the Church is doing well. When you write a letter, it is good practice to recognise the good things that people are doing. These things Jesus writes are heartfelt, they are not patronising. When he says to Ephesus;

Revelation 2:2-3

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.

This is heartfelt. Jesus really appreciates the service we do for him. He’s not just buttering them up before he beats them up. 

Jesus loves the Church and he loves us as individuals. Remember what he said to Laodicea;

Revelation 3:19

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

But what is striking is that Jesus has nothing to approve Sardis and Laodicea of, these are the spaces highlighted in red on the handout. The silence was deafening. When someone starts off a letter in this way, brace yourself, you know it’s not going to go well.

Accusation

Sometimes the shortest statement can make us feel the worst. To Ephesus Jesus says;

Revelation 2:4

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

What can be worse for Jesus than a Church just going through the motions with no love, no enthusiasm. Everything’s an effort, nothing is done with any joy! You go to a restaurant and you can often tell the new couples from the old couples. Ephesus is doing all the right things but it’s not winning anyone to Christ because it doesn’t have love.

Love for the Lord and for one another should be the hallmark of every Church but it’s not always the case particularly true in the West. It’s because we have too much. The people in the islands and in Africa have very little but they are happy. 

Not long ago, PCC sent underwear to an African village with Sarah Durham. They wrote back to thank the Church this week. Can you see the big smiles on their faces?  Try to remember that at Christmas, don’t put the unwanted gifts on TradeMe, at least give them to someone who’d appreciate them ! 

Well it’s not all bad in each of the 7 letters. Notice the green areas on your paper. Jesus had nothing bad to say about Smyrna and Philadelphia. 

Advice

To Smyrna and Philadelphia who are going well and to those at Thyatira who haven’t been corrupted, they are encouraged to keep going. But to all the others there is a message to repent. It wasn’t an instruction to do more good works, create better programmes, lift their performance or just try harder. They are instructed to remember what they once did when they were first Christians and do that. So it is not something that is hard to do because we used to do it with ease when we were young Christians and had simple faith in the Lord. Just go back to what you did before !

Appeal

Jesus often used the words “let him who has ears to hear, let him hear”

He wasn’t speaking about our actual ears but the ears of our heart. You know, what you are listening to in your head when someone is speaking to you. It’s a modern phenomenon that people at work have headphones in their ears,  listening to music. When you go to speak to them, they look at you blankly. Some are just waiting for you to finish so they can go back to listening to their music ! They haven’t heard a word you said.

This is exactly what Jesus is talking about. What are we listening to in our heads?

Jesus explained this in the parable of the sower where the seed was sown;

1. The first person was immediately distracted by the devil. They started thinking about the football match, or some other person or place they loved. where they wanted to be right then. They didn’t hear a word that was said. They listened to the voice of pleasure.

2. The second person, heard and made a start but soon gave up when things got hard. They listened to another voice, the voice of discouragement. 

3. The third person heard but as time went by they forgot because of the distractions in their life. They listened to another voice, the voice of comfort.

4. The fourth person heard and did. They didn’t give up but persevered and bore fruit. They listened to the voice of Jesus and put their trust in him that what he says is true.

Whose voice are we listening to? Why is it so hard for us to read the Bible for more than 5 minutes before we get distracted by our phones. Even the National Party wants to ban them on schools, imagine what Jesus thinks!

Assurance 

Jesus makes wonderful promises to those who follow his advice and are overcomers. These promises are I’m sure, related to what is being overcome.

For example to Ephesus which has lost it’s first love, he says;

Revelation 2:7

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’

The thought of eating from the Tree of Life is a comparison to going back to the beginning, to innocence and wonder of first love.

For Laodicea, which wants to fit in with the World and gain significance from it, the counsel was to switch from investing in the world, to investing in treasure in heaven and to open the door and let Jesus into the Church. If they will do that, then Jesus promises them to sit on Jesus throne next to him. The promise is speaking of that kind a relationship with the King of Kings, like a son to his father, sitting his throne and ruling with him and ultimately having wealth and influence which is far greater.

That made me think of that famous picture of John F Kennedy Jr. sitting under his father’s desk in the Oval Office.

The promises Jesus makes to the overcomer turn out to be  the very things we have been searching in the wrong places for that in fact can only be found in Jesus.

I have found this series on the letters very helpful, I hope you have to. If you are interested, I will add the links to the David Pawson series to the sermon notes so you can go through in your own time. What others think of PCC doesn’t matter and what we think doesn’t matter either, only what Jesus thinks. Very often in the 7 letters, what Jesus thought was the complete opposite of what you would have thought. The large successful church of Sardis thought it was alive but it was dead. The small faithful Church of Philadelphia who kept the Lord’s word was commended. In the Prince of Egypt there is a song to look at your life through Heaven’s Eyes, Lord give us the grace to see things the way they really are. Amen.

David Pawson Series

1. Introduction

2. Ephesus

3. Smyrna

4. Pergamos

5. Thyatira

6. Sardis

        7.     Philadelphia

8. Laodicea

9. Conclusion