ARTICLE & VIDEO SERMONS: Seven Churches of Revelations Study (David Jeremiah)
ARTICLE: Seven Churches in Revelation (David Treybig)
VIDEO: The Scariest Bible Verse (Eyewitness Bible Series) - creative retelling about the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 from the perspective of a Laodecian elder
Highlights of What Jesus Spoke to the Seven Churches
To these seven churches Jesus gives affirmations (to only 5 of the churches. The churches that did NOT were Sardis and Laodicea) and corrections (2 churches He did NOT correct, Smyrna and Philadelphia).
The strongest rebukes deal with these three things: 1) Passivity, 2) Immorality, and 3) Covetousness (Colossians 3:5 - covetousness is a form of idolatry/sorcery, as it seeks to acquire money and power outside of the will of God).
Jesus gives them an exhortation to the churches to respond in two ways: 1) Repent of compromise and/or 2) Resist the fear of persecution and the stigma of being rejected.
Jesus gives about 18-22 promises of eternal rewards for the overcomers (some promises seem related).
"Chapters 2–3... give us the key that opens up the meaning of the whole letter: this age is an age of spiritual battle in which Christ and his people reign and triumph in the midst of suffering. It is an age in which the saints must long patiently for the age to come, sustained by worship at God’s throne. And in the midst of the trials and tribulations of this age, God’s people are given the grace to endure by glorious visions of what awaits them on the other side of their suffering: the marriage supper of the Lamb, eating from the tree of life, not being harmed by hell (the second death), having their names written in the book of life, entering into the majestic and eternally secure New Jerusalem, where the temple presence of God fills all." - Ben C. Dunson