Revelation Chapter 2

Revelation Chapter Two

Rev. 2:1-7, "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place-- unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."'

This was and typifies a loveless church.

Verse 1. To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,(this word write is equivalent to the Old Testament, thus saith the Lord,) "These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand." Who says it? Christ. Where did we see that description before? First chapter.

We know that the seven stars are the seven angels and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Ephesus was powerful commercial city, a powerful political city but its ultimate claim to fame was being a religious city. This city had the great temple of Diana. This temple was 420 feet long, over 200 feet wide, 60 feet high, it had 137 marble pillars with more than 30 of them overlaid with gold. These pillars were the gift of kings to the goddess Diana of Ephesus. There were thousands of eunuchs that served there as priests to Diana. There were thousands of women who were priestesses called bees, who were actually prostitutes and prostitution was the normal part of worship of Diana. To give you an understanding of what it was like, you could commit any crime and if you got within 200 yards of Diana they could not touch you for any crime you may have committed. That was considered safe turf, can you imagine what kind of an environment it must have been. This is the city where Paul spent most of his time in ministry.

Verse 2. I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot endure those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;

Verse 3. And you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary. Not a bad commendation to this church, a work of faith, patience of hope, identifies false teachers, is sensitive to right doctrine and will not tolerate that kind of thing entering the church, you have suffered trouble for my name, you have not grown weary. There had been commendation now there was going to be complaint.

Verse 4. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

There are some who would identify this with the person of the Jesus Christ and say, your love for Christ has cooled down, there is not the warmth, there is not the heat, there is not the passion for Christ that you had at the first. Their spiritual vitality springing from love for their Lord had degenerated into orthodox routine. Certainly that is part of it but let me suggest to you that it may also be that they had a great love for one another. Now the complaint is that you have left the love you had in the beginning. Their love for Christ is still evident to some degree, because they had the work of faith, they had patiently endured, they were watching correct doctrine, so it may well be that what this is talking about is their love for one another within the assembly. It may mean that this church was right on target doctrinally, it had all the i's dotted and all the t's crossed, they had everything in place, and all that is very good and commendable. In doing the above they had become intolerant and unloving to those who do not measure up. There is an attitude in the church that is not wholesome. You have heard the expression that the church is the only army in the world that shoots its wounded. My experience in growing up in denominational circles is that there is always the innate, inherent danger of becoming so adamant of protecting what is perceived to be right doctrine, to having appropriate music, to hogging the lead in singing, and to making sure that everything is what it ought to be, that when there are those in the fellowship that would like to see changes or do not measure up to every point of doctrine, we tend to be less than loving, less than compassionate, less than understanding, and less than sensitive to their needs. Having the balance of right doctrine and right demeanor, yet being loving to those who are not where we think they ought to be is a rare commodity. This may have been the problem of this church.

Verse 5. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place-- unless you repent.Here we have an admonition to repent or else their testimony to the world will be removed.

Verse 6. But this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. So there is some good news. Now who were the Nicolaitans and what were their deeds? In Acts 6:5, there were seven men chosen to help in the early church, one of these men was Nicolas. The early church says that he strayed from the truth and became a heretic and began what we might call free love, liberty in Christ, meaning we are free to do what we want. This is rampant in churches today. This man led people in that direction, this church resisted that kind of thing. It's amazing how the pendulum swings from one extreme to another. I remember the time when as a young believer when just about everything was considered to be wrong. I mean you never shaved on a Sunday, you did not get a bath on a Sunday, you didn't watch television on Sunday and you certainly did not go to a restaurant on Sunday, and I could go on and on with regulations. Then the swing was we are not under law, that is legalism, we have liberty in Christ and instead of keeping a balance between the two we went to far the other way to where anything goes. After all I am under grace, so I can do whatever I want to do, to where now we have people committing adultery, homosexual acts, and the dnominations, seemingly agreeing, or at least putting up with it. Yes man made rules and regulations that disagree with the bible is legalism, but biblical standards and conformity to them is not legalism, it gives you freedom to do what the word tells us to do. So Jesus and this church had a common hatred for the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Verse 7. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches is a truth for all the churches to heed especially the last day churches. Rev. 1:3, "Blessed is he who reads, who hears and keeps this prophecy." Whenever this phrase is used in scripture it is used by Christ, He uses it six or seven times, whenever you read it, He who has an ear... take notice something important is to follow. What follows is, to him who overcomes, to him who overcomes what? The things just described to you and the events that are going to take place during this seventieth week. This is talking about the last days. To him who overcomes I will grant to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. If you were to look at Rev. 22:2&14, you will see this tree referred to. Logically speaking the reverse is true, if you don't overcome, if you take the mark, you have two things to look forward to , (1) the wrath of God, (2) eternity in hell. So the key to eat from the tree of life is to be an overcomer during this turbulent time. The reason we know this is a far term prophecy is because He says, "when I come," when being in the future.

Rev. 2:8-11, "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, 'These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things that you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death."'

The second church is Smyrna. This church can be called the persecuted church. This church was located about 35 miles north of Ephesus. Smyrna was a very religious city; there were no less than 5 major temples to foreign gods and the most prominent practiced form of worship was Caesar worship.

Let me say something about Caesar worship that will help us to see what these churches were going through and its parallel to the end times. Rome had conquered much of the world; with that came the problem of how to unify all the peoples that Rome's armies had captured. The way that Alexander the Great did it was by spreading the Greek culture and language. Whenever he went in conquest he took his philosophers with him and they would teach the Greek language and the Greek culture and this would help to unify the nations that he conquered; then these people began to worship the same gods. Whenever armies of the Roman world would go out in conquest, they followed three steps in conquering other nations.

(1) They defeated their enemies on the battlefield.

(2) After defeating them, they humiliated them. The way they would do this is, they would go into the captured peoples temples and take the statues of the captured people's gods and bring them back to the victor's city and put the statues of the captured peoples gods at the foot of the victor's gods in their temples. The reason for that was, when they went to war, they went under the protection and power of their deities, in fact their deities went to war with them in banners, emblems and symbols. If one army defeated the other army it was because their gods were stronger than the loser's gods. Now the victor's armies defeated the loser's armies so the victor's would take the loser's gods and put them at the feet of their gods.

(3) After defeating and humiliating them, the victor would assimilate them into their kingdom. So what they would say is, "look my gods are greater than your gods because my armies defeated your armies, where are your gods, they are in our temple at the feet of our gods, so worship my gods. Once they got a defeated people to worship their gods, they then assimilated them into their society, the captives became loyal to the victors because they had the stronger gods. That meant that the victors did not have to station to many troops to keep the captives under control. That meant that in due course the captives would pay taxes to the victors and would fight in their army, they assimilated them into their kingdom using religion. For political purposes they used religion as a means of assimilation. That practice was done all the time in the ancient world, defeat them, humiliate them and then assimilate them.

Rome brought the world peace. Rome for a period of time brought good days, safe travel, law and order and many of the nations liked Rome. There was a aura about Rome, the uncontested ruler of the world. The saying was that all roads lead to Rome. Since Rome was so big and so diverse no one religion could unify them anymore. An aura began to grow over Rome itself. Then began the attempt to deify the Emperors of Rome, to say that they themselves were gods. So it began to grow from the Roman Empire that Caesar was god, with great power, and slowly the Caesars themselves began to accept the title of gods. So temples were erected for Emperor worship. When you get to Emperor Domitian in 95 AD., he is the first one that comes out and claims to be God. Emperor worship, Caesar was God, which was to unify politically the Roman world. So here at the church in Smyrna they were big on Caesar worship, and once a year you had to go to the temple and offer a pinch of incense as an expression of loyalty to Caesar, you would literally get a certificate that indicated your loyalty to Caesar, sometimes in the form of a mark on your head. It was political loyalty, Rome did not care at what temple you worshipped or what god you served after you offered that pinch of incense at the temple of Caesar.

When Antichrist comes to town, he is going to ask that people take his mark, not for religious purposes but for political purposes. It is to indicate loyalty. The thing that was asked is, you go to the temple and say Caesar is Lord, once you did that you could go your way and you were in good standing. Now a true believer who has said that Jesus is my Lord would never go to a heathen temple and say that Caesar is Lord and would not take the mark or get the certificate. Consequently believers in the first century in the cities where Caesar worship was practiced were in big trouble, so it is easy to see why this church was a persecuted church when they would not submit to Caesar worship.

In verse 9, Jesus says that He knows the works of this church, He knows how she is being persecuted and how poor or how destitute she is materially. People who do not take the mark of the beast as we shall see later on in Revelation, will not be able to buy or sell, you will not be able to function economically. There will be repercussions for those who will not submit and pledge allegiance to the Antichrist by taking his mark and refusing to say that Antichrist is Lord. How could any believer who knows this is the false Christ, and who truly loves the true bridegroom take the mark of another, if they did it would be worse kind of spiritual adultery, and we will see it develop in these churches. But notice he says, "but you are rich", this refers to spiritual things. There will be believers in the compromising church who will not break loyalty to Christ and will be totally improvished materially but who will be rich spiritually because of not submitting to the Antichrist and after going through the wrath of Antichrist will be raptured with the faithful church.

He goes on to say that He knows how they are slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not. This seems to be the only compromise that this church has succumbed to, allowing this type of people to be a part of the church. This is the only negative that this church has.

Verse 10, says not to be afraid of the things you are going to suffer, you will suffer imprisonment, why, that you may be tested. Why the testing? To see if you will remain true to Christ or if you will pledge allegiance to Caesar or Antichrist. The worst that man can do to you is kill you physically and at the end of the age there will be some who will be martyrs for His glory. Let me tell you something, if you are not ready to die for Him, you are not ready to live triumphantly for Him! It is time to get away from this concept of easy sledding for the church, things are going to get bad for believers. You are going to be viewed as the people who are causing problems in our world, you won't go along with their ideas, you won't participate in their abominable acts, you object to the godless things that are happening. You start and keep opposing godless trends and you will see how fast Christians will be persecuted. The Jews got it from Hitler and don't fool yourself, it is coming to bible believing Christians in the western world. The issue will be, will you stand for truth, will you stand for Christ, and stand for biblical principals, when the days get tough. Some of you will be martyred, the bible says that is coming. If you want to put your head in the sand and think it won't happen, that is up to you, but it is coming and it may not be to far in the future. It says that you will have tribulation for 10 days which is to say a short period of time, but if you are faithful through all this suffering until death you will receive the crown of life. This word crown is translated from the Greek word STEPHANAS; lawfully, you be faithful unto death, stay true don't side with the false Christ and I will give you the crown of life.

Verse 11, here it is again, an admonition to the church in the end times to hear what the Spirit is saying. The promise to the overcomer this time is that they will not be hurt by the second death. The idea is, maybe you will die physically during this time, but you will have life in eternity. Listen, if you are born once you die twice, but if you are born twice you die once. What one word best describes death? Separation. Physical death is the separation of the spirit and soul from the body. Spiritual death is the separation of the spirit and soul from God forever. Even though they can kill the body they cannot touch the real you, the spirit. What a beautiful promise, not to be hurt by the second death.

Rev. 2:12-17, "And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, 'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it."'

Pergamos, can be called the compromising church. This city stood as a symbol of Greek superiority over the barbarians. This city boasted of a library containing over 200,000 volumes. The Egyptians, concerned with this library which rivaled their own at Alexandria, refused to ship papyrus to Pergamos. As a result, a new form of writing material, Pergamena charta, or parchment was developed. This city was the site of the temple of Asklepios (the Greco-Roman god of medicine and healing), and the medical center where the physician worked. Here also was a temple to Athena and a temple to Zeus with an altar showing Zeus defeating snake-like giants. This also was a city of Emperor worship and the first temple for Caesar worship was built in this city.

Verse 12, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword, speaks about the Lord.

Verse 13, says that God knows their works and where they live and it is where Satan's throne is. Where Satan's throne is may be alluding to the fact that the symbol of the god of healing was a serpent, which in the bible is referred to has Satan. Antipas was the first martyr to die for his faith, and even in the midst of this severe testing this church held fast to the name of Jesus and did not deny their faith in Him. Some translations say, "Antipas my faithful witness. The word translated martyr originally meant witness, some one who said this is the truth and I must abide by it, even if it meant death. Let me ask you, are you a witness for Jesus Christ, are you a martyr for Jesus. There are some who will surely, during the seventieth week of Daniel, die for truth and be a witness by virtue of their dying. This man was killed probably because he would not say Caesar is Lord.

Verse 14, against this church the Lord has a few things. within the church there are those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam. Balaam taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Balaam told Balak that Israel could be defeated if its people were seduced to worship Baal by doing these things. This is exactly what happened: "The people of Israel began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They invited the people to the sacrifice of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was angered against Israel" Num. 25:1-3.

What is in view here by eating food sacrificed to idols and to sin sexually? In Pergamos, a man would bring an animal to sacrifice at the temple, the priest could take any amount he deemed fit, to burn it on the altar. The priest was then allowed to take whatever he wanted for his service at the temple; the rest of the meat was given back to the one who had offered it. With that meat he would make a feast in the name of his god as a means of worship to his god. Invitations would go out to people asking them to come to partake of that feast, in worship of that deity you would eat the meat that was offered to idols. Balaam taught that it was okay to do that. Thus the ones who did it compromised their standards by going against what the word of God said, therefore committing spiritual adultery. The church today, and even more as the end times draws nearer, is a compromising church, you are the bride of Christ and you are having sexual intercourse with the world, spiritually. God's word is second to our constitution, our tradition, our executive, our desires and pastors. Pastors rather than obey the word of God will obey their denominational leaders, the people would rather believe the pastor than the bible. Oh, what spiritual adultery is being committed in our churches today and this will increase as the end times draws nearer.

Verse 15, here we have the doctrine of the Nicolaitans again that was described in chapter 1:6, free love.

Verse 16, as always God gives them a chance to repent, but if not He will come and fight against, not you but them, those who are compromising. Church, compromising is a sin that will reap drastic results during the end times if we don't repent.

Verse 17, here again we have the normal ending to the letter, with the promise to the overcomer who will be given some of the hidden manna. What is the hidden manna? Jewish tradition says that Jeremiah hid a pot of manna in the ark, or an angel took it to heaven at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and that it would be found at the end of days and be utilized in the millennium. It is the hidden substances that God will provide for his people in the midst of all those difficulties during the seventieth week. How am I going to survive if I don't take the mark of the beast? I will survive, if I am faithful, supernaturally by God giving me some of the hidden manna.

It is said that the white stone signified protection for overcomers.

Rev 2:18-29

18 "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, 'These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:

19 "I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.

20 "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

21 "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

22 "Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

23 "I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

24 "Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.

25 "But hold fast what you have till I come.

26 "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations--

27 'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'-- as I also have received from My Father;

28 "and I will give him the morning star.

29 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

The church at Thyatira can be called the corrupt or the prostituting church.

Thyatira was situated on the road from Pergamos to Sardis. Although never a large city, it was a thriving manufacturing and commercial center. There were many trade guilds and unions there. Membership into these trade guilds, necessary for financial and social success, often involved pagan customs and practices such as superstitious worship, union feasts using food sacrificed to pagan gods, and loose sexual morality. You can see, for the believer there was a problem, do I participate in these functions, if I do not I cannot be a member of these trade guilds and unions, if I am not a member I cannot make a living to provide for my family. So the quandary was do I compromise my faith and get involved in these ungodly practices or not. In this day we have to make a choice between God's Word and some denominations constitution if we want to be active members in that church, and in the end times this problem will escalate. Many in the end times will justify doing these things by saying, we have to work, we have to eat, we have to provide for our families, we have to be socially acceptable and we have to be members of the church. So compromise and prostitution sets in. Even today we have full gospel churches who participate in the pagan practices of other denominations when they have joint prayer meetings, in order to be accepted, and these things are done in the church building! These joint meetings would be okay if the believers would teach and pray the way they know to be truth, but it is not okay when the believers conform and practice the rituals of paganism and compromise their beliefs in order not to offend. The warning is REPENT OR ELSE, you will be cast into a bed of sickness and into great tribulation, thus saith the LORD! (Rev. 2:22).

Verse 20, The name Jezebel is used to symbolize false teachers who will lead people to commit physical and spiritual adultery. What is spiritual adultery? It is believing and practicing what man says, what tradition says, what the constitution or the handbook says or what denominations say, instead of what the WORD says. This kind of thing is rampant in the church today but it will be much more so during the seventieth week of Daniel.

Verse 21, Again time is given to repent, but she did not. This tells us that the compromising churches will not heed the admonitions and warnings to repent and will continue to adhere to doctrines of men.

Verse 22, Because leaders will not repent and will continue to lead people astray to believe their pet doctrines, they will be cast into a bed of sickness. Never before have we seen so many pastors and leaders having to quit the ministry for a time due to sickness. And it is not all due to an attack of the devil because of their obedience to God's word, rather they are under a curse for believing the philosophies of men, instead of obeying and adhering to God's word. For those who believe these leaders and believe something other that what the bible says, Jesus says, that along with the leaders they will go into great tribulation.

Verse 23, Because of their refusal to repent, their children will not repent or come to see the truth, therefore they will not be able or have the ability, because of a wrong understanding of end time events, to stand. Many will end up giving in to the pressures of Antichrist and taste of the second death, or will stand for Christ, refuse his mark and be killed by him, but will have eternal life.

Verse 24, Notice the exception here. Not all the people believe the doctrines of men or do the things of Satan (refer to 2 Tim. 3:1-9, to understand the depths of Satan). Notice that He does not tell them that He is coming to rapture them out of the mess, but hold fast to what you have till I come, verse 25. And if you overcome you will have power, which means authority, over the nations, verse 26. Verse 27, is referring to the millennial reign, where you will have authority over the nations. According to verse 28, Jesus himself will herald the dawn of a new day as your ultimate reward. Verse 29, is the usual advice given to the church, hear and heed what the Spirit is saying.