Spots and Wrinkles and
Such Things
(Revelation 2)
The Sevenfold Message to
the Sevenfold Church
When
Christ first promised to build His Church, He also promised that the gates of
hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). When He returned from the dead, He Himself had the keys of
hell (Revelation 1:18), the gates had been opened, and those of its captives
who had died in faith had been set free to ascend with Him to Paradise. He still retains the keys, and the
gates of hell can never close again on those who die in faith, as members of
His Church. When they become
absent from the body they are immediately present with the Lord (2 Corinthians
5:8).
While still in the flesh, those who are a
part of His Church are by no means yet made perfect. But they have been placed into His Body by the Holy Spirit
(1 Corinthians 12:13) and can no longer be imprisoned behind the gates of
hell. “Christ is the head of the
church…. Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:23,
25-27).
Someday, the “spirits of just men” will be
“made perfect,” as we all gather “to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23). For the time now present, however, we
are yet imperfect, and the individual churches in which we now assemble are
therefore likewise full of spots and wrinkles. Nevertheless, we belong to Christ, and He is “in our midst,”
through the Holy Spirit (John 16:7), comforting and leading, convicting and
chastening, building His Church.
The picture we see in Revelation 2 and 3
is amazing. Seven churches – the
perfect number representing all churches
– and all are most unpromising
churches. The churches, outwardly
strong, are full of compromise and moral decay. The spiritually strong churches are physically weak. All are highly fallible, persecuted,
subject to imminent disintegration and scattering, and none are destined to
survive very long. Yet Christ is
in their midst, and the Holy Spirit is speaking to them, promising great
blessings to those who overcome.
These seven churches were real churches,
and visitors by the thousands today include a visit to the ruins of the seven
churches of Asia on their chartered tours to the Bible lands. They were real churches, but they are
also chosen as representative churches and they still represent our churches
today. There is some of Ephesus
and Smyrna and all of the others in each of our own churches today. Their problems are our problems, and Christ’s exhortations to them apply
with equal force to us.
Although it is by no means the dominant
theme, there is a sense also in which the seven churches seem to depict the
respective stages of development and change of Christ’s churches during the
ensuing centuries. History has,
indeed, shown such a general development through the years, and it is
reasonable that the sequential development of the respective exhortations in
these messages should be arranged by the Lord in the same sequence. He is not capricious in His
selection. There is bound to be
some significance in the sequence of the
seven, as well as in the total.
The Book of Revelation – all
of it – is said to be a prophecy, and if there is any prophecy in it concerning
the Church Age, it must be here in these two chapters. Further, in one way or another, the
last four of the churches are to survive until the return of Christ (note
verses 2:25; 3:3, 11, 20), and this can only now be fulfilled if these four
churches specifically represent stages of church development which persist
until the end of the age.
The same format describes each of the
seven messages, a fact which further confirms the all-encompassing theme of the
messages. Each letter is composed
of seven parts, as follows:
1.
Salutation. “Unto the angel of the church at … write: …” As
shown in the previous chapter, the “angel” can only have been the angel
– not a pastor or other human messenger.
No church epistle in the New Testament is ever addressed to the pastor,
or bishop, or elders of the church.
They are always addressed to the church, to the people. The
context in these indicates the same, with the angel merely representing the
church and guarding the transmission of its epistle.
2. Identification of Christ as Sender. “These
things saith He that …” In each case, He is identified by some characteristic
of His appearance that was appropriate to the individual message to the
particular church.
3. Assertion of Knowledge. “I know thy works …” Christ is in their
midst, and so has intimate knowledge of all the works and circumstances and
attitudes of each church.
4. Comment and Exhortation. Here is the core of the message to each
assembly, sometimes commendatory, sometimes critical, adapted perfectly to the
particular situation in each.
Always there is an exhortation.
None can simply relax as having attained all that Christ desires of
them.
5. Promised (or Threatened) Coming. To some, He threatens a
coming in judgment for faithlessness, to others, a coming to receive them in
death, and to others, His coming at the end of the age. In each case there is a promise or
warning that He will come personally to terminate their present circumstances.
6. Admonition to Heed. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
Though each church has its own particular message, it is vital that each
church hear and heed what Christ, through the Spirit, says to all the churches.
7. Promised Blessing. “To him that overcometh …” A special blessing is promised to all those
faithful ones in every church who, through their faith (note 1 John 5:4, 5),
overcome the world and all its temptations and persecutions.