THE LETTERS TO THE CHURCH IN REVELATION – PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

In approximately AD 96, during his exile to the island of Patmos John the Apostle received instructions to record what Jesus revealed to him in a book (Revelation), including seven letters to seven congregations in Asia minor (Revelation 2-3; see the map below).  The Table below summarizes the messages to these congregations, highlighting Jesus praise (commendation), reproof (condemnation), exhortation (counsel) and promised reward to the overcomer (compensation).

Table summarizing Revelation 2-3

Church	Character	Commendation	Condemnation	Counsel	Compensation
Ephesus	Loveless	Patiently enduring persecution, hate deeds of false teachers	Left your first love	Repent, do again your 1st works	Eat of Tree of Life
Smyrna	Persecuted	Rich in faith and good works in spite of tribulation and hypocrites	NONE	Be faithful unto death	Receive crown of life, not be hurt of second death
Pergamos	Compromising	Held firm to Jesus’ name and did not deny the faith	Tolerance of Nicolaitanes, Balaamism, compromise,idolatry, and immorality	Repent	Receive hidden manna, white stone, new name
Thyatira	Tolerance	Love, faith, patience, and good works	Tolerance of Jezebel,idolatry, immorality	Hold fast what you already have	Power over nations, Morning Star
Sardis	Dead	A few are not defiled	Dead works	Watch, strengthen what remains, hold fast, repent	White raiment, keep name in Book of Life
Philadelphia	Faithful	Kept the Word and not denied Jesus	NONE	Hold fast to the faith	Pillar in temple, keep from hour of temptation Have name of God
Laodicea	Lukewarm	NONE	Lukewarm, spiritually poor, blind, and naked	Secure gold tried in fire, white raiment, eyesalve, be zealous, repent	Sit with Christ on His throne and eat with H

 

Personal reflection questions

Considering the table above, prayerfully consider what Jesus would (1) write to your personally  or (2) to your congregation, would he write a letter such as the seven in Revelation 2-3:

1.a) Which of these commendations (or praises) could be said of you personally?  Why would you say so?

1.b) Which of these condemnations (or rebukes) convict your own heart? Why do you say so?

1.c) What will you do in response to this conviction?

2.a) Which of these commendations (or praises) could be said of your congregation as a whole?  Why would you say so?

2.b) Which of these condemnations (or rebukes) would be most for your congregation as a whole? Why do you say so?

2.c) In response to your answer above (2.b) what could you do to reform your congregation in response to your convictions above?

Prayer

Pray as the Lord leads you (a) for yourself and (b) for your congregation, and pray that you may be a bright light for Christ in your community.

 

Eternal Church 3

The aim of this devotional study is to grow in the knowledge and appreciation of the church.

Scripture

1 Timothy 3:14-15

14  I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15  if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the Living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Observations and reflections

Note: the word translated “church” in Greek is “ekklesia” and means a gathering of a people called out or set apart for God.  A “buttress” is a military defense structure, or a structural support to building.

A coastal defense tower, or “buttress”

A series of stuctural supports to a building, or “buttresses”

Keep in mind the meaning of the word “ekklesia” (English “church”) when answering these questions.

1. What does it mean that church is “the household of God”?
   1. What does it imply of you and your relationship with God?
   2. What are the moral consequences and responsibilities to the fellow members in church?
2. What does it mean that church is “the church of the Living God”?
   1. What does it say of you and your relationship with the local congregation?
   2. What does it imply of God’s relationship towards the church?
3. What does it mean that church is “a pillar and buttress of truth”?
   1. What does that suggest of the function of the church through the ages?
   2. What does it imply of you and your local congregation’s responsibility towards the surrounding community?
   3. What does it suggest is a main activity within the local church?

Personal reflections Application

1. Looking at these three metaphors of church, which fit your local congregation the most? Why would you say that?
2. Looking at these three metaphors of church, which fit your local congregation the least? Why would you say that?
   1. What attitudes and activities within your local church be enhanced to make this metaphor a visible reality within your local church?
3. If one would look at your relationships and activities with the members of your local church, what metaphor would do you think believers of another church would find most fitting to describe your church with? [in other words, what image do you convey of God’s church?]

Prayer

Thank God that the church is God’s family, that God is alive within her and that God’s saving and preserving truth resides in her and is proclaimed from her.  And that God for what he has done in your life through these three truths.  Freely you have received from this grace – now pray that others (whom you know) may receive this same grace through God’s church!

Eternal Church 2

The aim of this devotional study is to grow in the knowledge and appreciation of the church.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

12  For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  13  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit.  14  For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

15  If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  16  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  17  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

18  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.  19  If all were a single member, where would the body be?  20  As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.  21  The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

22  On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23  and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24  which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25  that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  26  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

27  Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Observations

1. In this chapter Paul seems to have reached the most fitting metaphor for his understanding of church. What is that metaphor?
   1. How does the individual relate to the church in this metaphor?
   2. In this metaphor of church, what role does God play?
   3. What is the most useful understanding about church we gain from this metaphor? (hint: v20-21, v25) Can you give one word for this revelation? [hint: the relationship between individual persons within the local church]
2. In writing this metaphor, does Paul have the Eternal Church or a local church in mind? Why do you say that?

Reflection and Application

1. When you think of your local congregation and the members of your church – how do you view your relationship? And how do you view your relationship with your local church itself?
2. In relating to the members in your church, so you relate to them as “being baptized into one body through the Holy Spirit”? (verse 13) Do you consider yourself as such? How?
   1. If you were to view yourself and the other members in your church as being baptized in one body through the Spirit – how would that affect your relationship with the church and its members?
3. What role do you think God has arranged for you in your local church? “Where” in the body has he set you?
   1. Forget for a while the Sunday service and even Bible study meetings – what role can you play in the lives of the members in your church – how can you build up the church?

Prayer

Pray to God about your relationship with your local congregation, as well as its members; ask him to reveal his heart regarding “Christ’ body” and fill your heart with respect and love for each of its members.  Secondly, pray that God will reveal and move you towards fulfilling your function in your local church.

Eternal Church 1

The aim of this devotional study is to grow in the knowledge and appreciation of the church.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 3:6-17

6  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  7  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  8  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

9  For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

10  According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.  11  For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12  Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw–  13  each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.  14  If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.  15  If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16  Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  17  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Observations

1. Paul seems to seek a fitting metaphor to explain to the Corinthian church what the church is and what their respective roles are.
   1. What metaphors do Paul use in this section – what does Paul liken the Corinthian church to? [hint: verses 9 and 12]
   2. In these images of church, what roles do ministers like himself play?
   3. In these metaphors of church, what roles do God play?
2. In these metaphors for church – does Paul refer to The Eternal Church or a local church? Why do you say that?
3. Take two or three minutes and study verses 16 and 17; explain in your own words Paul’s thoughts and progression between these terms: God’s temple – God’s Spirit – vengeance for destruction – holiness – you/the church.
   1. What word or phrase can you think of that concisely summarize that argument?

Reflection and Application

1. Why did people in Paul’s day go to a temple?  And what did visitors learn from the design and worship in that temple?  What does that imply about church as “God’s holy temple?“
2. When you think of your church – what are the first thoughts that come to mind? Explain why these come to mind.
3. Do you see any correlation between “church as God’s holy temple” and your Sunday services or midweek small group/ Bible study group? Why / why not?
   1. What makes your gatherings “God’s holy temple” or not? (verse 16-17)
   2. Can you change the nature of your church (meetings) or will it always be “God’s holy temple”?
4. If church (and its meetings) are “God’s holy temple” – how should you change your perception of going to church meetings? Why is that important?
5. How can you change your experience of church meetings to resemble the fact that it is indeed “God’s holy temple”?

Prayer

Thank God for the men and women who labored to lay the foundation and build your church, and remember in prayer those who “built you” in into this church.  Then pray that the reality and life of the Holy Spirit of God will saturate your life, and the activities and relationships in your local church.  Wait on God – does the Holy Spirit put someone in your church on your heart?  Follow His leading.

Baptism 5

The aim of this devotional study is to reflect of the ecclesiastical / communal impact of one’s baptism into Christ through his Spirit.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 12:4-18, 26-27

4  Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5  and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6  and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

7  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8  For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9  to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10  to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11  All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

12  For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14  For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15  If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

18  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose…

26  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27  Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Observation and Application

1. What is the overriding truth of this portion of Scripture?
2. How do you understand Paul’s statement “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it”? (v27)
3. Paul says that your conversion to Christ (symbolically through baptism) was an immersion into his body – the church. How does that make you feel and think of Christianity?
4. From this text it seems that Paul had a very literal local congregation in mind – not just “the global church of Christ”. Where can you see this clearly in the passage?
5. In which way have you been crafted and gifted by God to be a blessing to your local congregation?

Prayer

Pray and ask God to show you where he has gifted you to serve in your local congregation; pray and write down your thoughts.  If you have no clear answer, ask a friend to pray with you.  Then tell your small group / Bible Study group leader.

Note: Don’t brush this one over without acting on it – this is one of those days when the Bible and your relationship with God becomes real and has a lasting impact on others.