This letter warns all Christians that although we may suffer greatly, the length of tribulation will be short compared to the promise of eternal life. Summary and Explanation: The city of Pergamum was renowned for its pagan practices.
Summary and Explanation: Thyatira was a wealthy commercial city. The Lord reminds us in this revelation that He will repay each of us according to our deeds Revelation The payment for sin is death.
The Church that is Spiritually Dead Revelation Summary and Explanation: Sardis was a city that had endured two surprise attacks despite its fortifications. Significance Today: Today, Christians can fall into the trap that ensnared the church in Sardis if we merely go through the motions of practicing our faith without really feeding our spirit.
Summary and Explanation: Philadelphia was home to a synagogue community hostile to Christians. Christ praises the Philadelphians for remaining faithful in the face of trials despite their limited strength Rev.
Jesus does not reproach this congregation but condemns its persecutors. Revelation In fact, those who persevere despite weaknesses will stand strong as pillars in Heaven. The Church with a Lukewarm Faith Revelation How easy is this for any of us! And we should take warning from this message. We come into the Christian faith warm and enthusiastic but after a while it becomes commonplace and we lose our first love. Like so many marriages, the first love cools and we see the imperfections of each other and are not willing to pass them over.
Then trouble and resentment begin to brew. So it was in the life of this apostolic church--Ephesus. Look back to the time of your first love, when that first love came from those first works, works of repentance, obedience, earnest Christian service, of suffering for the Master. If we restore in our lives these first works of Christian living, we shall find the first love returning.
The first love is the love of the truth and a desire to make it known to others, and the first works are the fruits of this love. I believe I love Him, but I want to know.
Do we love our neighbors? We can answer that. And by that we can know our relation to God. Love is one. As it stands toward man in the gauge, so it stands toward God in the great reservoir which we cannot see.
But the last of the apostles died, and we come now to a new period in the church led by men who did not know our Saviour in the flesh. This covers the period of pagan Roman persecution when many of God's children suffered martyrdom in the second, third, and early fourth centuries. To these suffering, persecuted Christians the message came:. 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. The most severe persecutions by pagan Rome began under Emperor Diocletian and continued from the year to , exactly ten years, or ten prophetic days; for in Scripture prophecy a day often stands for a year. In those days it was often worth a man's life to be a Christian. It represents the period of Christian history following the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the setting up of the full union of church and state.
Many of the heathen rites and ceremonies were gradually introduced into the church as Christian usages and some of them are still evident in certain circles of organized Christianity. But he also tells them to come back to their first love and worship the way they once did. This leads some historians to believe that Ephesian Christians may have begun worshipping at local cult temples. Today, the city of Ephesus has moved a few miles away from the coast and is some of the most glorious ruins of the Roman Empire.
The nearby town of Selcuk serves as a home base for tourists looking to explore this once-great city. Smyrna is the second church mentioned in Revelation. Smyrna was a significant seaport in its time and vied with Ephesus for one of the most important cities in the region. Even in those early days, Smyrna had a bishop, a disciple of John himself named Polycarp. Frequently in Smyrna, Christian persecution took the form of financial hardship, with Christians losing jobs or having their wealth taken away.
So John tells them in Revelation to remember the spiritual wealth they have rather than focusing on their lack of material wealth. He also warns them that there is persecution coming and tells them not to be afraid of it. Today, the ruins of the Smyrna marketplace are nestled within just a few city blocks of Izmir. You can walk the beautiful arches of the market place and see the towering columns that would have hemmed in the market. It has been through earthquakes, fires, and war, but still, this site of early Christianity stands.
Pergamum, the third church of the Revelation, is the last coastal city on the list, a further sixty-odd mile up the coast from Smyrna.
In the first century, Pergamum was the principal city of the Roman empire, and some of its ruins still stand on a hill overlooking the town of Bergama. Most striking of all is a steep theater built into the side of a cliff.
Pergamum also had a large temple to Zeus that even today is a fantastic sight to see. At its height, Pergamum was only a little smaller than Ephesus, with around , inhabitants by the second century. Today, Bergama spreads out in the valley below the hills of ancient Pergamum.
There is a part of the older city with more narrow, cobbled streets and a more modern area of the town. Today, there are no Christian churches active in Bergama, but few Christians spread through the area. The fourth church John writes to in Revelation is the church at Thyatira. Thyatira was also the only city of the seven built on flat ground with no natural defenses around it. Thyatira was a city of artisans, home to several guilds, including linen weavers, potters, bakers, and more.
But one of the biggest trades in Thyatira was the bronze trade. John used this knowledge to get his message across to the Christians living in Thyatira.
John begins his message to the church at Thyatira, praising the love, faith, service, and perseverance of the Christians there. But then he moves to condemn Jezebel, a woman who he says misleads Christians into sin. He says that God will strike her children dead and that only those who do not hold to her teachings will be saved. Today Thyatira is only a few scant ruins in the modern city of Akhisar.
Akhisar is known for its olive and textile industries and today is home to more than , people.
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