The Seven Churches – Sermon 11 August, 2013

The Seven Churches

Rev. 1:1-20

There is a song called “I Can Only Imagine” by the group Mercy Me. The singer is imagining what he will see and what he will do when he actually stands before the glorified Lord. He wonders if he will dance or be still in wonder. Will he stand or fall to his knees? Will he sing alleluia or will he be able to speak. It is a fascinating concept for we will also someday stand before Him. What we will see or do?

Some have done this already and their experiences are recorded for us in Scripture. Like Isaiah (Is. 6:1-8), Mary (John 20:14-17), Paul/ Saul (Acts 9:1-6) and here John.

Isaiah saw the Lord and confessed. John and Mary saw Him and worshipped. Saul saw the Lord and he repented and called Him Lord. These men saw Him and they knew that they could not stand before Him.

Most of us are familiar with the Revelation of John, the last book in the New Testament. The book itself tells us that the author was someone by the name of John. Now tradition tells us that it was the Apostle John but there is no biblical evidence for that. Scholars tell us that most probably the book was written by someone whose first language was not Greek.

John wrote in a style that is often called Apocalyptic literature. It comes from the Greek word which means the unveiling. And Apocalyptical writings were very popular especially between the Old and New Testaments. The Jewish people had been living under the rule of occupying armies for five hundred years and they looked ahead to the day that the Messiah would deliver his people.

Scholars place the writing of the Revelation somewhere around 90 – 95 about 60 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. The letter was written from a small Island in the Mediterranean Sea called Patmos; we are told by John that he was there because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, which traditional has been accepted to mean that he had been exiled to the Island situated in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and the Isle of Crete because of his faith.

John tells us that it was the Lord’s Day when he was in the Spirit. Suddenly, he heard a loud voice behind him, a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet blast which said, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” He learned from the Lord that the message was to be addressed to seven specific churches located in the following cities, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The churches are said to be in Asia which is now in what we know as Turkey.

Why seven? Why not 3 or 10 or 4? We don’t know why these churches were picked, there were certainly more churches in the area then these specific ones, and there have been several theories about why the letter was addressed to these individual churches.

It has been suggested that John may have had a special relationship to these distinct churches. Maybe he had preached there, or knew the pastors or some of the members and so they would be more receptive to the letter he sent.

Others have suggested that seven is the number of completeness and therefore the seven churches represent all churches. The number seven is mentioned over thirty times in the book of Revelation. There are seven years, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven angels, seven bowls and seven plagues. So maybe he just thought that seven churches would be appropriate kind of fit the pattern.

These may have been the largest churches in the area and so perhaps the letters were sent there and then distributed to other smaller churches.

In a day and age without email, fax machines or even a postal service it would be unrealistic to think the letter would be sent to every church and so these seven were chosen.

It has been suggested that not only do the letters apply to the seven specific individual historical churches but also to a wider range. There are some who would suggest that each of the churches represents a period in church history.

Ephesus describes the early church, Smyrna the persecuted Church, Pergamum the Popularized Church, Thyatira the Dark Ages, Sardis the Reformation Period, Philadelphia the Revived Church, and Laodicea the lukewarm church of today.

Margaret read Revelation chapter 1 earlier and this is the last verse that she read, remember these are the words of Christ: Revelation 1:20 “The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches”. But we need to understand two things before we can move on to the individual churches. The clarification that Jesus gives goes back to Revelation 1:12-13 “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone ‘like a Son of man’”. And then in Revelation 1:16 “In his right hand he held seven stars. . .” Now Jesus is explaining to John what it was that he was seeing.

The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. John saw Jesus holding seven stars in his hand who told him these stars represent the angels of the seven churches.

There are at least four possibilities for who these angels are.

1) The word angel in the Greek means messenger. But in most cases when the word angel was used it meant a heavenly messenger. Angel – white robes, big wings, bright face. But other times it meant messenger and there are some who would suggest that these seven angels were human messengers who had gathered to take John’s message to their respective churches.

Linguistically it makes sense, to the seven messengers of the seven churches, but when we get into the letters themselves is it would appear that whoever the angels were they were more than simply messengers.

2) In all the other instances in the Revelation the word angel means angel, a heavenly being, and with that in mind there have been some who have suggested that perhaps these were guardian angels who protected the individual churches. Some early scholars believed that these angels would be held accountable if a church went wrong. If that is true that each church has its own angel to guide and protect it then some angels need to be slapped. The problem is that even though it is the angel who is mentioned in the opening of each letter it is obviously the members of the church who are being addressed.

3) Both Greeks and Jews believed that every earthly thing had a heavenly counterpart and so it is suggested that the angel being addressed is the Ideal of the church, the way it’s supposed to be.

4) It has been suggested that the angels of the church were actually their human overseers or Pastors, and that the letters were addressed to their spiritual shepherds. What do you think, how would I look with wings?

Traditionally it has been this last view that most scholars have accepted that the seven angels were the bishops or pastors of these seven churches. This of course has some serious implications for Pastors. You see each of you is responsible for your individual behaviour and obedience as a believer. However as your pastor I’m responsible for your collective obedience and behaviour.

Because the seven stars were held in the right hand of Jesus that would indicate that the Pastor’s primary responsibility is not to the congregation as a whole and not to any one member of the congregation in particular but to God. The role of a pastor in the church is to serve and speak for God.

The seven lampstands are the seven churches. Let’s go back for a minute to Revelation 1:12-13 “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone ‘like a Son of man’”.

Three things we need to take note of:

First of all the lampstands were gold they were not iron or brass or even silver, they were gold. While that may not mean much to us outside of an economic statement today, it had a different connotation 2000 years ago. The context of gold when this letter was written was not only of worth but also of purity. The scriptures call the church the Bride of Christ. Ephesians 5:27 says “to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless”. But as long as the church is made up of people it will have spots and blemishes, but the ultimate plan is for it to be perfect.

The second thing we need to see here is not only was it gold it was a gold lampstand. The church is not a lamp, it is a lampstand. The light does not come from the stand it comes from the lamp. The light that shines from the church must be Jesus.

Jesus left believers to be light to the world. And that the light that shines from the church is from individual believers and that it is our responsibility to shine that light. And either way when the light, whether it comes from Christ or Christians is removed then the lampstand is no longer of any use.

The third thing when the word lampstand was used Jews immediately thought of one thing. The Menorah. It’s described in Exodus 25:31-32 “Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it. Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand – three on one side and three on the other”.

The revelation is not talking about the seven lamps that make up the lampstand. Instead it is talking about seven individual lampstands. Each lampstand has a unity, it is connected to itself. Within the church there needs to be a unity, we as a body need to be united. But there is no physical connection between the seven lampstands. The unity comes from Christ who is in the centre. There needs to be unity within the individual lampstand, that’s us St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, and there needs to be unity within the church as a whole, that’s the Uniting Church and the Universal Church.

Krikor Youmshajekian

And so there must be unity in the lampstand and unity with the lampstands.

The lampstand is a symbol that represents the church or the churches – us. And the message is addressed to us too.