Christ's Challenge to the Seven Churches

A Revelation to Behold

As a partial repost of A New Year's Revelation, it seems fitting to reorient our vision this sacred season to Christ Himself as we embark on a study of the Book of Revelation. With all those who "love His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8), we yearn for His Second Coming to begin Christ's earthly reign as He restores all of Creation. We do not believe with the postmillennialists that we ourselves will usher in Christ's reign. Nor do we see conclusive evidence that the world is getting better, for all of Creation has been groaning and travailing for final redemption until now (Romans 8:19-23). We ourselves also long for the transformation of our mortal bodies into the likeness of His glorious body, that we may live forever with Him.

Revelation 1 notably begins with Christ Himself in the unveiling of His Kingly glory. On a quiet Lord's Day afternoon, the Apostle John hears Christ's great voice behind him, speaking like a trumpet:  "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last" (Revelation 1:10-11). Christ commands John to write in a book what he sees and to send it to the seven churches of Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. As John turns around to heed Christ's voice, he sees the Majestic Lord standing among the seven golden candlesticks. This, we should realize, is the first the Apostle John has seen his beloved Lord since His ascension sixty years earlier. What a revelation this must have been for John personally!

Christ is clothed with a garment down to His feet, and He wears a golden sash. His head and His hair are as white as snow, like wool--the Lamb of God slain for the world. His eyes are a flame of fire and His feet are like fine brass, as if they have been burned in the furnace. His voice speaks as the sound of many waters, and in His right hand are seven stars. Out of His mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance is as the sun shining in its strength (Revelation 1:13-16). John falls down before him as a dead man, but Christ lays His hand upon him, saying, "Fear not; I am the first and the last" (Revelation 1:17). And what John hears and sees shows, not a world remade, but a world about to be undone.

A Warning to Heed

The words of exhortation and warning which Christ speaks to the seven churches echo as if from the end of time itself with a deadline of utmost urgency. It is believed that these seven churches, occupying what is now the western third of Turkey, were selected because they represent various types of need and Christian experience (Zondervan's Bible Dictionary). Without a doubt, the exalted Christ's words of warning to five of these seven churches are not only sobering but alarming and present the highest level of alert possible: if five of these churches do not repent, and quickly, Christ will come to them and remove their golden candlestick. These words resonate with Christ's indictment against false prophets in Matthew 7:23, when He utters the most chilling verdict possible: "I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity."

How can a church work iniquity? Isn't every church of at least some social good, even when the gospel has been dimmed? Tragically, Christ's warning would make clear that a wicked church is worse than no church at all. Peter writes in his first epistle, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17-18). Clearly, the highest duty of the Church today is not to reform the world but to be transformed ourselves into Christ's image. This comes only with true repentance.

A Fate to Be Expected

Here we see our Savior still tender in His mercy before He becomes the Judge. If these churches will but heed His infallible criticism and command, they will be shielded by His triumphant promise: "And on this rock [You are the Christ, the Son of the living God] I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:16, 18). But the five erring churches did not heed Christ's message, and the gates of hell did indeed prevail against them. Modern Turkey is not only hostile to Christianity; it has long been a stronghold of Islam and breeds the sentiments of antichrist with hatred rather than love as its defining theocratic trait. With what prophetic gravity did Christ warn His people, "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness" (Matthew 6:23).  

A Blessing to Be Claimed

Jesus is coming again, and if we would witness the greatest unveiling of this glorious truth, we will study the Book of Revelation not merely for intellectual satisfaction but for obedient application. As bookends to the text, we see both the urgent caution and the unique challenge in handling this book. Although Revelation closes with a warning, it opens with a blessing: "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand" (Revelation 1:3). The blessing is none other than Christ Himself revealed through diligent study of all the events ahead.