Letters to the Churches

In the book of Revelation Jesus, risen from the dead and ascended to His Father, appears to John and gives him messages to write to seven different churches. I find these fascinating. They reflect Jesus’ love and concern for particular groups of believers in particular places. He has different things to say to each church because He knows what is happening in their lives - and has a clear assessment of each one.

A similar pattern is repeated in each letter, with some minor variations:

• To the angel of the church in _____ write:The address to the “messenger” (or “angel”) of the church in that place
• These are the words of _____A particular characterisation of Jesus as the one speaking these words
• I know _____Jesus’ assessment of where that particular church is at; sometimes with differentiation between different groups in the church. These include both positives and negatives.
• A particular call to respond to - what Jesus wants them to do.
  • If you do not ____The negative consequences of not responding to the call
• Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churchesAn emphasis on the need to hear what is being said
• To the one who is victorious, I will give _____A particular promise that is given to those who respond to the call, who are “victorious”

There is so much power in the way these letters reorient the receivers’ identity in Christ. They start with who He is, they address where they are actually at, and they point towards how to live for Him and promise the eternal benefits of doing so.

This is the heart of the prophetic gift: it helps us to hear Jesus’ perspective on our lives so that we have the opportunity to respond to His call on our lives.

Of course, these things are also done through good preaching and teaching, through counselling, through bible study and discipleship, and many of the other gifts that God has given to help us to grow in our faith. What then is the distinct nature of what is happening here as Jesus gives these prophetic messages to the churches?

Firstly they are particular and personal. They don’t just say “those who are faithful in suffering will be given the victor’s crown”. They say “the devil is about to put some of you in prison” … and “if you are faithful even to the point of death you will be given life as the victor’s crown”. They are about the particular details of these particular people’s lives. When God speaks to someone in this kind of direct way, it often brings strength that enables them to endure because they are personally reminded of God’s care for them.

Second, they are diagnostic - they provide an assessment of what the key issues in particular people’s lives are. We can have our own debates about how mature we think we are in Christ, or which areas of our lives may be areas that we should repent in or grow in, and how serious they are - and it’s really important that we dig into the Scriptures and do so for us to be disciples of Christ. But it’s quite another thing to hear Jesus give his own assessment of our lives.

Thirdly, they demand a response. Again, good preaching will do this. But because this is a particular word spoken to a particular group, that group has a particular responsibility to respond to it.

I wonder how many of the churches, or how many people in the churches, did heed the calls given in these letters. There are also many times in the Bible where God speaks to individuals and calls them to respond. It’s not a given that we always do so - the history of the Israel and of the church shows how fickle and wayward we can be as believers. I’m sure we would all long to be people who hear what Jesus wants to say to us.

Although these prophecies are Scripture, and so have authority over all of our lives, they are nonetheless an outstanding example of the gift of prophecy. Other scriptures point to the importance of the gift in the life of the church. 

Do you think that Jesus might have things to say to you today, whether as an individual or as part of a church community? How would you find out what those things are? How would you respond?

In my experience, there have been times where God has arrested my attention - sometimes through reading a Scripture or listening to a sermon, sometimes through dreams, sometimes through someone else sharing something with me, much as John shared with these churches here. Of course, other than the direct words of Scripture, none of these have the authority of Scripture. Paul even said “we know in part and we prophecy in part”.  And these can happen in small areas of our lives as well as the large scale examples that we have been looking at.

As an example - I once had a dream about a friend of mine having an operation to have a cyst removed. I knew that it represented an area of sin in his life that he needed to deal with. I spoke to him about it and was amazed to discover that he had just that week had to have a cyst removed. God used the particular circumstances in his life that week - which I had no knowledge of - to call him to repentance and living a godly life. He knew he needed to change, but the particular way this happened helped him to feel the urgency of that more clearly.

C S Lewis in The Screwtape Letters imagines a senior devil advising a junior one on how to prevent a believer growing in Christ. A key piece of advice is to avoid him “discovering any of those facts about himself, which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked the same office”. If the enemy’s goal is to keep us in ignorance, how much more would the Holy Spirit want us to see clearly who Jesus is and what he is calling us to?

Why don’t you spend some time asking God to bring clarity to you of where you are, how He is calling you to grow closer to Him, and give you faith and grace to respond?

Prayer

Jesus, I thank you that you know me better than I know myself. Thank you for how you spoke to these churches in Revelations. Please help me to have ears to hear what you have to say to me so that I may grow to be more like You and to walk more closely with You. I surrender to you. In your name, Amen.