However, the church of Ephesus had one
flaw which ended up being fatal. They had
lost their first love.

Religion had become a substitute. Other
things were taking the place of their intense
devotion to Jesus.

Without it, there can be miracles and super-
natural ministry, but the church will come
short of His standard and lose the prize He
had for it.

Jesus wasn't displeased with the Ephesians
works.They had worked hard. The didn't
tolerate evil in the church. Worldly men
weren't allowed to hold office.

The Ephesian christians had been faithful
and had not grown weary of well-doing.

It was to Ephesus, that Paul wrote his
most profound epistle, the letter to the
Ephesians. He tells the mysteries of God's
plan for the church.

Mysteries hid during the past ages, but
now revealed unto "his holy apostles and
prophets."

Paul shows that the full development
and perfection of the church required the
ministry gifts of the apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors and teachers.
(Ephesians 4:8-16)

The church at Ephesus, before it lost its
"first love," was the kind of church we
must have at the return of Christ, if it is
to come up to this standard.

Ephesus was also a church that was per-
secuted for being devoted to Jesus. Had
they worshipped the goddess Diana, they
might have gotten by but there was no
place for the immoral goddess in their
Christianity.

They preached the whole gospel. Paul
said that he had "kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you."

The members of the church at Ephesus
were believers who had been baptized in
water. They also received the Baptism of
the Holy Spirit with speaking in other
tongue. (Acts 19:5-6)

It was a church where miracles of healing
had occurred. (Acts 19:11-12)

It was a holy church that stood against the
goddess Diana and the evils of that day.
They burned books of curious arts valued
at 50,000 pieces of silver. (Acts 19:19

The Lord had warned that unless the church
at Ephesus repented, He would come quickly
and remove its candlestick out of its place.

Today it is in
utter ruin.

Its destruction
was regarded by
the Christians
of that day as a
fulfillment of prophecy. The extinction of the
first candlestick of Revelation; the desolation
is complete.

Among the ruins of Ephesus there is nothing
to identify the church of John's day; and
today is a picture of what happens to those
who leave their "first love".

Ephesus was a great commercial city in the
days of Paul. It also was very political. It was
a capital of a Roman province.

Acts 19:28-29 tells of it being the site of the
Temple Diana.

The worship was often weird and hysterical.
Shameless and immoral practices took place
there. It also was a haven for criminals and
fugitives of every kind.

The church at Ephesus is the only church
of the seven of which there is a record that
it was founded by an apostle.

(Acts 19:1) Paul lived there for three years
and founded it as a strong mother church.

The term, "apostle" in verse 2, indicates the
Apostolic Period. "Thou hast tried them that
say they are apostles, and are not, and have
found them to be liars."

In 96 A.D. the Apostolic Age with its Holy
Ghost ministry and gifts of the Spirit, was
quickly ending because of its losing its "first
love".

He said, "Repent. . . .or else I will come
quickly and will remove thy candlestick out
of his place except thou repent".

The Church of Ephesus
Revelation 2:1-7 (suggested reading)

John, one of Jesus' apostles, was still alive
at the time the revelation was given to the
church that also was still in existence.

John died two years later.

So if the Apostolic Era was to include Church
Age, it was then.

Notice the periods in church history which
these messages to the Seven Churches show:

Ephesus: Apostolic age 96 A.D.
Smyrna: Church of the Persecution 2 century
Pergamos: Church of Imperial Fave 313 A.D.
Thyatira: Church of the Papacy 450 A.D.
Sardis: Church of the Reformation 1517 A.D.
Philadelphia: Church of the Latter-Day out-
pouring. End of the Age
Laodicea: Lukewarm Church End of the Age

The Book of Revelation is a prophetic book,
so the letters to the Seven Churches should
have a prophetic meaning more than just a
message to the existing churches in 96 A.D.

The messages to the Seven Churches are a
preview of the Church all through the church
age. So we are interested in their meanings
for today.

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Here is an important truth to the under-
standing of prophecy. Circumstances that
existed at the time of a prophecy is often a
foreshowing of the events which will occur
much time later.

In the study of the Old Testament, the things
that happened in the lives of many like Joseph.
Moses, David and others stand for the ministry
of the Messiah who was to come.

Jesus spoke to John

"Write the things that

thou hast seen, and

the things which are,

and the things which

shall be hereafter."

He is telling John to

write down:

the things he had seen;

the things which are, (at that time 96 A.D.)

the things which shall be hereafter (future)

So we see that the vision of the Seven

Churches concerns the things that was at

that time and the things in the future.

The seven stars in Jesus'

hand

are the "angels"

or "messengers" of the

seven churches.

The word angel means messenger.

Surely, John wasn't to give a message to

heavenly beings but to the human guardians

of the churches. The pastors, and not to just

one individual.

We think of Jesus who lived and walked, as

the Son of Man on the earth.

But in Revelation we see Jesus of today!

He sits on the right hand of God. This is the

Jesus we are waiting and looking for when

He comes back.

His countenance is as the noon

time sun.

His feet shine as the white light

of a furnace.

His eyes are as flaming fire.

John "fell at his feet as dead", when he saw

the glorified Jesus who is to come back to

earth.

VETERANS DAY

November 11, 2009

The vision of Jesus standing in the middle
of the seven candlesticks representing the
seven churches of Asia Minor. But we will
see that they will represent more than the
local churches that existed then.

They are a portrayal of the churches down
through the whole church age.

Almost a century had passed since John
had receive Jesus on the shores of Galilee.
All the other men had been gone for many
years. The city of Jerusalem had been des-
troyed.

The old generation that he had grown up
with was just about completely gone. He
realized the uselessness of earthly things.

In the middle of poverty and tribulation on
this deserted island he could only find a
comfort in being with God. So on this the
Lord's day while he was in the Spirit he re-
ceived this great prophetic vision.

John tells us that he was in the Spirit on the
Lord's day in Revelation 1:10

This shows us that when God reveals Himself
to His people, He does it when they are in the
spirit.

On Patmos, John speaks of himself as "your
brother and companion in tribulation". There
weren't many comforts and his only consola-
tion came from communing with God. That's
how he happened to be the Spirit on the Lord's
day.

The Book of Revelation chapter 1:4-8
stresses the New Testament doctrines that:

Jesus is the Son of God;
He died and rose again; (vs. 5, 7 18)
Salvation is through His blood;
All true believers are priests; (vs. 6)
Jesus has power over death and hell; (vs. 18)
He is coming again in glory; (vs. 7)
All kindreds of the earth will wail because of Him.

The Book of Revelation does not change or
add to the plan of salvation taught to us in the
gospels and epistles.

There are false teachers who will use any excuse
to pervert the way of salvation. Peter says in
2 Peter 3:16, ". . .In which are some things
hard to be understood, which they that are
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do the
other scriptures, unto their own destruction."

Believers who study the bible would be able
to understand prophecy. Unbelievers will not
be able to understand the meanings.

The Roman Church which has forbidden the
reading of the Bible to its people, must be
unaware of the judgment on those who speak
against it as in chapter seventeen.

Symbols veil the actual time of the Second
Coming of Christ, so that Christians would
always have that hope.

The mysteries of God are revealed to the
humble, to those who are reverant and to
to those who believe. They are withheld from
the "wise and the prudent" as Jesus said in
Matthew 11:25 "I thank thee O Father. . . .
because thou hast hid these things from the
wise and the prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes.

When Jesus was on earth He sometimes
taught by parables. His disciples didn't
understand some of them, so they asked
Him why and He said to them, "Because
it is given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is
not given. . . .Therefore speak I to them in
parables: because they seeing see not; and
hearing, they hear not, neither do they
understand. . . .For this peoples's heart is
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed;
lest at any time they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them."
Matthew 13:11, 13, 15)

Jesus plainly tells us the meaning of the
candlesticks in verses 13 and 16 and states
that the Seven Candlesticks are His Seven
Churches.

We will be finding other symbols in the
same way. There meaning will either be in
the context or revealed in some other place
in the scriptures.

In Chapter One, Jesus

is walking in the

middle of seven candle-

sticks. He compares

himself to a candlestick

giving light to men.

(Matthew 5:14-16)

Here the candlesticks refer to the Churches

with individuals giving light.

Some of the people and events in the Book
of Revelation are shown by signs and symbols,
however, they can be identified and under-
stood revealing there meanings in other parts
of the bible.

So the rule for understanding them is simple.
When one is used, we can find some where
else in the bible what it means.