|
Revelation Chapter 2 In Chapters 2 and 3 Jesus gives messages to the seven churches. The chronological position of these churches is significant. Ephesus covers the period during the lives of the apostles; Smyrna, the time of the pagan persecution, reaching to Constantine’s day when he became emperor of Rome and adopted Christianity. Pergamos embraces the transition period in which Papacy rose to power; Thyatira, the period the true Church was in the wilderness and the apostate Church sat as a queen, living deliciously with the kings of the earth. Sardis includes a short interval just prior to the Reformation; Philadelphia, the period from the Reformation until recent times; Laodicea, the nominal Church of today. The first chapter contained a description of Jesus, the “one like unto the Son of man.” One or more of the features of this description are peculiarly appropriate to Jesus, the giver of the message, in each of the successive stages of the Church. The last part of each message contains a promise that is especially pertinent to the “overcomers” of that particular period; yet it also applies to the overcomers of all seven periods of church history. In other words, each of the messages was intended to be specially applicable to the period of the Church to which it was addressed as well as generally beneficial to the entire Church down through the Gospel Age. Message to Ephesus (A.D. 34–70) Verse 1: Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; Ephesus signifies “first” or “desirable,” and is characteristic of the first period of church history. Contemporaneous with the lives of the apostles and sometimes designated the “Apostolic Era,” this period covers the time span from A.D. 34 to 70. In the effort of the early Christian Church to promulgate the gospel, two names predominate: the Apostles Peter and Paul. Of the two, Paul was chosen as the Lord’s special representative and servant to the Church at large during this era chiefly because his ministry, in both scope and influence, was more far-reaching than that of Peter. Although Peter possessed remarkable supernatural powers and performed many astonishing wonders, “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul,” so that even the fallen spirits recognized Paul’s superior authority (Acts 19:11,15). Furthermore, Paul’s repeated warnings of existing detrimental conditions in the Church, as well as his constant exposure of dangerous teachers and teachings inimical to the interest of the Church, reveal that he was adapted for and fulfilled the prophetic description of the service to be performed by the servant of that era (Acts 15:1,2; Gal. 1:6,7; 1 Tim. 1:19,20; 2 Tim. 1:15; 2:17). “The care of all the churches” rested upon Paul; he was a vessel chosen to bear the Lord’s name “before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15; 2 Cor. 11:28; Gal. 1:15). Moreover, the Church of Ephesus was founded by Paul.
27
|
