![]() ![]() The church which formerly was persecuted and, like her Saviour, had no place to lay her head, gradually grew into a mighty power which could command untold wealth and the armies of imperial Rome. It represents the period of Christian history following the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the setting up of the full union of church and state. The word “Pergamos” means height or elevation, and the city of Pergamos itself was built on a lofty hill. In those days it was often worth a man's life to be a Christian. ![]() The most severe persecutions by pagan Rome began under Emperor Diocletian and continued from the year 303 to 313, exactly ten years, or ten prophetic days for in Scripture prophecy a day often stands for a year. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10) Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. To these suffering, persecuted Christians the message came: This covers the period of pagan Roman persecution when many of God's children suffered martyrdom in the second, third, and early fourth centuries. Just as “Ephesus” means desirable, so the word “Smyrna” means myrrh or sweet smelling incense. As it stands toward man in the gauge, so it stands toward God in the great reservoir which we cannot see.īut the last of the apostles died, and we come now to a new period in the church led by men who did not know our Saviour in the flesh. Remember, friend, there is not one love with which we love men and another with which we love God. And by that we can know our relation to God. Do we love our neighbors? We can answer that. Our love for our brother, our friend, our neighbor is the measure of our love for God. We may ask, “How can I know that I love God? I believe I love Him, but I want to know.” Well, look at the following gauge. The first love is the love of the truth and a desire to make it known to others, and the first works are the fruits of this love. If we restore in our lives these first works of Christian living, we shall find the first love returning. Look back to the time of your first love, when that first love came from those first works, works of repentance, obedience, earnest Christian service, of suffering for the Master. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the first works” (Revelation 2:5). So it was in the life of this apostolic church-Ephesus. Then trouble and resentment begin to brew. Like so many marriages, the first love cools and we see the imperfections of each other and are not willing to pass them over. We come into the Christian faith warm and enthusiastic but after a while it becomes commonplace and we lose our first love. ![]() How easy is this for any of us! And we should take warning from this message. But the divine messenger declares that he has something against even that first period of the Christian church, because he says in verse 4 “you have left your first love.” This prophecy must apply to the first century, or during the lifetime of the apostles. They received His doctrine and held it, and enjoyed the benefits and blessings of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Beginning with verse 1, we read: “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write.”Įphesus very appropriately symbolizes the condition of the church in its first state of purity in the days of the apostles of Christ. Now we turn to the second chapter of Revelation and notice the seven churches in order. Admonitions and warnings are given for each, and then blessings especially appropriate to the time are pronounced. The good qualities of these church periods are pointed out as well as their defects. This is very clear as we study the prophecy of the seven churches. So you see that we really have a sevenfold prophecy of seven successive periods and conditions of the church, from the beginning of the Christian Church to the conclusion of it all. These seven churches and the messages addressed to them and the blessings pronounced upon them apply to seven periods, or states, of the church reaching from the first advent of Jesus to His second coming. This was the field of labor of the apostle Paul and others who followed immediately after the apostles. These were all names of cities in the Roman province of Asia, a part of what we now call Asia Minor, territory belonging at the present time to the country of Turkey. Seven Churches List:Īnd then the angel names the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Let’s look at the seven churches of Revelation, considering the following which was spoken to John: “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches” (Revelation 1:11). ![]()
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