LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES (2 OF 8)
Scripture: Revelation 2:1-29, Revelation 3:1-22
This content is part of a series.
Letters to the Churches (2 of 8)
Series: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Dave Gustavsen
Revelation 2-3
So...this is week number two in our series on the book of Revelation. We said last week that the main purpose of Revelation is not to help us figure out who the Antichrist is or to nail down the exact sequence of end-time events on a chart. Revelation is actually a long letter, written to a group of churches in the first century. And the message to those churches is basically this: The world is getting darker. Opposition to Christ and his church is getting stronger. But God is in control, and in the end, God wins. So stand firm in your faith. That’s the message of Revelation, and by the way, I was encouraged to see those phrases from last week’s message shared by a lot of you on social media last week-it clearly struck a nerve. Because this is where we live, right? We see the world becoming more secular and materialistic and self-absorbed, it’s easy to get discouraged and just blend in with the darkness, which would be a huge mistake. So we need to hear this message.
In chapter one we found out that Revelation was written by John the Apostle-the disciple of Jesus. He was in exile on the island of Patmos around 95AD, and he had this incredible vision of Jesus, who told him to write down everything he was about to see. So the rest of the book is what Jesus told John in that vision.
So today we come to chapters two and three, which consist of personal messages for each of these seven churches. These are like mini-letters within the big letter. We don’t have time to read all seven, but let’s read the first one and the last one-that’ll give us a flavor-and then we’ll kind of zoom out and talk about the general message in all of the letters, and what that means for us.
So, starting in Revelation 2, verse 1, I invite you now to hear the Word of God...
1 ‘‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven st ...
Series: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Dave Gustavsen
Revelation 2-3
So...this is week number two in our series on the book of Revelation. We said last week that the main purpose of Revelation is not to help us figure out who the Antichrist is or to nail down the exact sequence of end-time events on a chart. Revelation is actually a long letter, written to a group of churches in the first century. And the message to those churches is basically this: The world is getting darker. Opposition to Christ and his church is getting stronger. But God is in control, and in the end, God wins. So stand firm in your faith. That’s the message of Revelation, and by the way, I was encouraged to see those phrases from last week’s message shared by a lot of you on social media last week-it clearly struck a nerve. Because this is where we live, right? We see the world becoming more secular and materialistic and self-absorbed, it’s easy to get discouraged and just blend in with the darkness, which would be a huge mistake. So we need to hear this message.
In chapter one we found out that Revelation was written by John the Apostle-the disciple of Jesus. He was in exile on the island of Patmos around 95AD, and he had this incredible vision of Jesus, who told him to write down everything he was about to see. So the rest of the book is what Jesus told John in that vision.
So today we come to chapters two and three, which consist of personal messages for each of these seven churches. These are like mini-letters within the big letter. We don’t have time to read all seven, but let’s read the first one and the last one-that’ll give us a flavor-and then we’ll kind of zoom out and talk about the general message in all of the letters, and what that means for us.
So, starting in Revelation 2, verse 1, I invite you now to hear the Word of God...
1 ‘‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven st ...
There are 21534 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
