Notes: "Jesus' Messages to the Seven Churches" (2019, QTR 1, Lesson 3)

by admin admin January 13, 2019

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Sabbath (January 12)

One of the major themes in the letters to the seven churches is Christ’s promise to help His people overcome. The Greek word nikao (G3528) means “to conquer, overcome, prevail, get the victory.” It comes from the root word nike (G3529) which means “the means of success.” The question today for God’s people in the seven churches is, How do we overcome in our fight against sin? What is the “means of success” in this struggle?

The answer is found in Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus comes from the Greek Niko demos (G3530), and means “victorious among his people.” Jesus explains to Nicodemus that the “means of success,” the secret to overcoming, is to be born again (John 3:3-8). When one has this experience, victory over sin, through the power of Christ, is promised (see Romans 6:1-14). In the truest sense, Jesus Christ is the One “victorious among His people.”

Compare the Nicolaitans mentioned twice in the letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2:6,15). This word comes from the Greek words Nikos (G3534) and Laodicea (G2994). What a strange combination of words—those who are “victorious” from Laodicea, the church that refuses to be born again (compare Rev. 3:15-17). In Christ’s view, the Laodiceans are miserable, poor, blind, and naked—anything but victorious. The Nicolaitan mind is, therefore, severely deceived as to its true spiritual condition, for it seeks to be victorious in its own strength, without the new birth and indwelling Christ.

The secret power of the new birth that leads to overcoming is found in Jesus, Who has overcome the world (John 16:33), and He promises that whosoever is born of God will also overcome the world (1 John 5:4). What a beautiful promise!

Sunday (January 13): Christ’s Messages to Smyrna and Pergamum

In Smyrna emperor worship was mandated. Major persecutions during this time period (100-313 AD) included those under Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Marcus Aurelius (161-180), Decius (249-251), Valerian (253-259), Diocletian (284-305), and his successors (305-313). Trajan laid down the first official Roman policy toward Christianity. Roman officials were not to hunt down Christians, but if persons were arrested and found to be Christians they could be executed. This policy remained in place (though not always enforced) until Constantine issued his edict of toleration in 313 AD.

The “synagogue of Satan” referenced in Revelation 2:9 refers to professed Christians, and echoes Christ’s epithet against the Jewish leaders in Matthew 3:7 where He called them a “generation of vipers.” Compare the Roman mindset in Romans 1:21, where willful disobedience is the prevailing sin.

Christ speaks of the church over which Satan presides as the synagogue of Satan. Its members are the children of disobedience. They are those who choose to sin, who labor to make void the holy law of God. It is Satan’s work to mingle evil with good, and to remove the distinction between good and evil. Christ would have a church that labors to separate the evil from the good, whose members will not willingly tolerate wrong-doing, but will expel it from the heart and life. {RH December 4, 1900, par. 6}

The period of history represented by the church in Pergamum extends from approximately 313 AD to 538 AD, when Christianity began to compromise with, and then absorb, paganism. This was the period when the papacy established itself in Christianity, and the “Antipas” martyr in Revelation 2:13 is a possible reference to those who opposed (or were “anti”) the growing power of the church’s self-proclaimed father (or pas, an abbreviated form of pater, or “father”).

Some members of the church in Pergamum tolerated the doctrine of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:15). Notice the decline in discernment and concern about this heresy compared with the Ephesian Christians, who “hated” the teachings of the Nicolaitans. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans is a continued threat today.

The doctrine is now largely taught that the gospel of Christ has made the law of God of no effect; that by “believing” we are released from the necessity of being doers of the Word. But this is the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which Christ so unsparingly condemned (ST Jan. 2, 1912).

Christ’s counsel to the Christians in Pergamum was to hold to “my faith” (Revelation 2:13). Compare the description of the saints in Revelation 14:12. This is timely advice to a church that was losing sight of Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, and was at risk of looking to their own “faith” and works as the means of salvation. The “hidden manna” promised in Revelation 2:17 provides another sanctuary reference (the manna, of course, was hidden in the Most Holy Place in the wilderness sanctuary), and strengthens Christ’s counsel to this church to keep their eyes fixed on Christ, the Author of their salvation (Hebrews 12:1,2).

Monday (January 14): Christ’s Message to Thyatira

Thyatira represents the church of the middle ages (538 – 1517 AD), and among its many struggles was that it tolerated “Jezebel,” a reference to ancient Israel’s most idolatrous and dangerous queen (see also 1 Kings 16 to 21, which records Jezebel’s persecution and murder of thousands of God’s prophets). Jezebel’s influence and power was extensive in ancient Israel, and the Spirit of Prophecy reveals that she effectively controlled the actions of her husband, King Ahab. (The typical symbolism of a woman controlling the state should not be overlooked in light of Revelation 17.)

Not only did Ahab introduce Baal worship at the capital city, but under the leadership of Jezebel he erected heathen altars in many “high places,” where in the shelter of surrounding groves the priests and others connected with this seductive form of idolatry exerted their baleful influence, until well-nigh all Israel were following after Baal…Through the influence of Jezebel and her impious priests, the people were taught that the idol gods that had been set up were deities, ruling by their mystic power the elements of earth, fire, and water. All the bounties of heaven—the running brooks, the streams of living water, the gentle dew, the showers of rain which refreshed the earth and caused the fields to bring forth abundantly—were ascribed to the favor of Baal and Ashtoreth, instead of to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. The people forgot that the hills and valleys, the streams and fountains, were in the hand of the living God, that He controlled the sun, the clouds of heaven, and all the powers of nature. {PK 115.3}

It is to the Christians in Thyatira that Christ gives His first promise of the second coming in the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2:25), and reference is also made to the pre-advent, or investigative, judgment (Revelation 2:23), where all people will stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). These promises would, of course, be comforting to a church fighting against widespread apostasy and brutal persecution.

The “depths of Satan” warned about in Revelation 2:24 is an ironic twist on the hidden knowledge that enticed Eve (Genesis 3:5) and possibly the “dark sentences” of the little horn power in Daniel 8:23. Yet Christ commended this church for its “charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first” (Revelation 2:19, emphasis added). Spiritual progress was possible even in these bleak conditions!

Tuesday (January 15): Christ’s Message to Sardis

The church of the Reformation is represented by the church in Sardis, and in Revelation 3:1-2 God has some strong words of warning for this church that had the appearance of life but is actually dead. Why is it so critical that Christians be free from hypocrisy? (Compare Christ’s words to the Jewish leaders of His day in Matthew 23.)  

[Revelation 3:1 quoted.] God calls upon this church to make a change. They had a name to live, but their works were destitute of the love of Jesus. Oh, how many have fallen because they trusted in their profession for salvation! How many are lost by their effort to keep up a name! If one has the reputation of being a successful evangelist, a gifted preacher, a man of prayer, a man of faith, a man of special devotion, there is positive danger that he will make shipwreck of faith when tried by the little tests that God suffers to come. Often his great effort will be to maintain his reputation. {7BC 958.3}

He who lives in the fear that others do not appreciate his value is losing sight of Him who alone makes us worthy of glorifying God. Let us be faithful stewards over ourselves. Let us look away from self to Christ. Then there will be no trouble at all. All the work done, however excellent it may appear to be, is worthless if not done in the love of Jesus. One may go through the whole round of religious activity, and yet, unless Christ is woven into all that he says and does, he will work for his own glory (Letter 48, 1903). {7BC 958.4}

In Revelation 3:3, Jesus encourages the Christians in Sardis to “hold fast” and not become discouraged. Why do you think Jesus gives this counsel? How dangerous is discouragement, especially spiritually for a Christian?

“Hold fast.” This does not mean, Hold fast to your sins; but, Hold fast to the comfort, the faith, the hope, that God has given you in His Word. Never be discouraged. A discouraged man can do nothing. Satan is seeking to discourage you, telling you it is of no use to serve God, that it does not pay, and that it is just as well to have pleasure and enjoyment in this world. But “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” You may have worldly pleasure at the expense of the future world; but can you afford to pay such a price? {7BC 959.7}

In Revelation 3:4, Jesus promises that there are those from the church in Sardis that will “walk with me in white.” What does Jesus mean by this? What is so significant about “white” clothing? (The word white appears 19 times in Revelation, and ten of those times it refers to clothing.)

In Revelation 3:5, Jesus promises to not “blot out” the names of those from the book of life who overcome. Discuss the significance of “blotting out” with the judgment. (Compare Psalm 32:1 and GC 489.) What, beyond human salvation, is to be accomplished through God’s righteous judgment?

But the plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe. To this result of His great sacrifice—its influence upon the intelligences of other worlds, as well as upon man—the Saviour looked forward when just before His crucifixion He said: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me.” John 12:31, 32. The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible to men, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God and would reveal the nature and the results of sin. {PP 68.2}

By coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to men and to angels. He was the Word of God,—God’s thought made audible. In His prayer for His disciples He says, “I have declared unto them Thy name,”—“merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”—“that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” But not alone for His earthborn children was this revelation given. Our little world is the lesson book of the universe. God’s wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which “angels desire to look,” and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which “seeketh not her own” has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto. {DA 19.2}

Wednesday (January 16): Christ’s Message to Philadelphia

In Revelation 3:7-3, the church of Philadelphia is invited to follow Jesus through an “open door.” What might the significance of this door be in light of the promises given in verse 12 about the temple?

• Discuss the significance of the door being shut and the door being opened for this church in relation to the change in Christ’s ministry in heaven in 1844.

• Discuss the importance of the Day of Atonement in light of Leviticus 16:30; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 10:16,17; and Ephesians 5:25-27.

• What is possible for born again Christians because of what Christ is doing in heaven right now?

In the preceding verse Christ is said to have the “key of David.” Verse 8 may imply that with that “key” He now opens before the Philadelphia church a “door” of unlimited opportunity for personal victory in the struggle with sin…Seventh-day Adventists hold that the close of the Philadelphia period (1844) marks the beginning of the investigative judgment described in Daniel 7:10; Rev. 14:6,7. Christ is our great high priest, ministering in the sanctuary above (7BC, p. 758, emphasis added).

In Revelation 3:12, Jesus indicates a time is coming when His people will “go no more out” of the temple. What might the significance of this statement be in light of verses such as Revelation 15:8; Psalm 91:1-4; Psalm 27:4,5; and Revelation 7:1-3? (Even though Christ’s intercession will eventually cease in heaven, His people can already be hidden with Him by faith inside the Most Holy Place, and when they are sealed they will remain in this place of safety.) What practical implication should this have on our day to day Christian experience?

“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13. If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:29, 30. Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them. {GC 489.2}

We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Everyone must be tested and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. {GC 489.3}

The word translated as “temple” in Revelation 3:12 is naos, and commonly refers to the inner sanctuary of the holy place and most holy place, as opposed to the outer courtyards. This is where the very presence of God is!

Thursday (January 17): Christ’s Message to Laodicea

“Laodicea” means “a people judged,” and the message to this church applies prophetically to Christians living during the time of the judgment that began in 1844.

In Revelation 3:14, Jesus identifies Himself as the “faithful and true witness.” Why do you think He introduces Himself this way? (The message He is about to deliver is difficult to hear and accept.)

In Revelation 3:18-19, Jesus counsels the Laodicean church to obtain three things from Him. Discuss the significance of each. (Compare 1 Peter 1:7; Isaiah 61:10; and Ephesians 1:17,18.) Is there a reason Jesus lists them in this order?

Again and again has the voice from heaven addressed you. Will you obey this voice? Will you heed the counsel of the True Witness to seek the gold tried in the fire, the white raiment, and the eyesalve? The gold is faith and love, the white raiment is the righteousness of Christ, the eyesalve is that spiritual discernment which will enable you to see the wiles of Satan and shun them, to detect sin and abhor it, to see truth and obey it. {5T 233.2}

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says He is standing at the door and knocking. Discuss what this door might represent in light of the two doors that were opened and shut in Revelation 3:7,8.

Friday (January 18): Further Thoughts on Laodicea

The lesson points out that even though the seven churches decline in spirituality, the promises given to each one increase. Discuss why this is so. (More of God’s grace is needed by those who are sicker!)

Discuss what God promises to accomplish in and through the Laodicean church before the second coming of Christ (compare passages such as Revelation 7:1-3; 10:8-11; 14:1-12).

Review the mission and purpose of the Seventh-day Adventist church in light of the following statements:

God has called His church in this day, as He called ancient Israel, to stand as a light in the earth. By the mighty cleaver of truth, the messages of the first, second, and third angels, He has separated them from the churches and from the world to bring them into a sacred nearness to Himself. He has made them the depositaries of His law and has committed to them the great truths of prophecy for this time. Like the holy oracles committed to ancient Israel, these are a sacred trust to be communicated to the world. The three angels of Revelation 14 represent the people who accept the light of God’s messages and go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth. Christ declares to His followers: “Ye are the light of the world.” To every soul that accepts Jesus the cross of Calvary speaks: “Behold the worth of the soul: ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’” Nothing is to be permitted to hinder this work. It is the all-important work for time; it is to be far-reaching as eternity. The love that Jesus manifested for the souls of men in the sacrifice which He made for their redemption, will actuate all His followers. {5T 455.2}

In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import—the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention. {9T 19.1}

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