Brother Kenneth Yoder
In the first chapter of Revelation, the opening vision that John saw is described. It is somewhat of an introduction to the seven letters because at least one of the various ways in which Christ is characterized in this opening vision is how He addresses Himself to each of the seven churches. The first thing that John saw was Jesus in symbolic form, not as the lowly Galilean, but as the glorified Lord.
I believe God's people certainly need encouragement in our day and time, and there is nothing like the book of Revelation to encourage them. There is not another book in the entire Bible that has as much encouragement in it. There is no other book in the entire Bible that has the note of victory as does the book of Revelation. It reveals to us the glorified risen Lord as the victorious, sovereign God. It takes us behind the scenes and shows us that behind every conflict, God is at work and planning for His final triumph over every foe.
Often as we live from day to day, we only see a piece of the picture, and we can become discouraged because it seems that sin and wickedness are triumphing over righteousness. There certainly have been times in history when it seemed as if the church was on the verge of being annihilated, but we know that can never happen. I can guarantee you that victory is certain for God's people. Victory is not defined in physical or worldly terms in the Revelations. Victory is always defined in terms of faithfulness and finality.
Suppose the devil deceived the congregation you worship with and led them all astray except you and your family. If you were the only ones who remained true to God, then in Biblical terms, that is victory. If you remain steadfast and faithful, though everyone should fall around you and though you should even lose your life, then you are considered a victor in scriptural terms.
The ones who are overcomers and conquerors in the book of Revelation include those who died a martyr's death. Their death is interpreted as victory. To most of us that would not be our idea of victory. Our interpretation of victory is from a time-world point of view, from a worldly perspective and from a consideration of our own physical comfort. God's definition of victory is that we remain loyal and faithful to Jesus Christ, no matter what opposition we face.
That is the note of victory throughout the entire book of Revelation. When the opposing powers (symbolically described as the dragon, the beast that rose up out of the sea, and the second beast that came up out of the bottomless pit) came against God's people in all their fury and force, the victors were those who remained faithful to God and loyal to the truth. That is victory in Scriptural terms.
The true church is made up of those who remain faithful to God, and that church is destined to final and eternal victory. The book of Revelation reveals that there is going to be continual conflict, but no matter what comes against the church, God's people will ultimately triumph over it. You can't miss this truth; it is there in symbolic form in the various series. The message is unmistakable, and it was given to urge the saints to be faithful and loyal to God. It revealed to them that no matter what they suffered, a day of victory was coming.
The first thing that came to pass in the thirty or forty years since the seven churches in Revelations had been established was that persecution had arisen from the Roman government. The second thing was that so many false teachers had arisen that the church had become divided and the people were being misled, For example, in the letter to the Ephesians, there was mention made of the Nicolaitans, and in the letter to the church at Thyatira we read of another false teacher under the symbolic name of Jezebel. It is clear that there were false teachers causing compromise and division among God's people.
If you would study all these letters as a whole, you would see that the congregations were being tempted to compromise. Some already had compromised with the pagans around them. Some of them were eating and drinking things sacrificed unto idols and some of them were engaged in fornication. These things are evidences that they had succumbed to the pressures to compromise with the society in which they lived.
We live in a time like that; we are under similar pressures from society. They had pressures brought to bear on them to be less unyielding in their negative attitude toward the society in which they lived. The early church had a negative attitude toward several socially accepted activities. They simply refused to take part in certain activities.
We read in I Peter 4:3-4: "For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Where they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." Peter was simply stating that they had quit doing many things that the rest of the Gentiles around them were doing. If we are going to be faithful to God's standard of righteousness, there are many things that we will quit doing.
The pressure was to become less unyielding in their negative attitude toward those socially acceptable activities of the pagans. The pressure was also to be less insistent upon those things that draw a sharp distinction between the followers of Christ and others. The pressure was for just a little conforming to paganism. In any case, some of them began to conform a little to paganism to make life easier. They returned to using the pagan temples and to eating things that were offered to idols. To understand, you have to realize that those pagan temples were used as "restaurants" in that day. That is where the community gathered for their weddings, birthdays, or other celebrations. They began to conform, little by little, and the first thing you know, some of them were led right back into the immoralities of paganism.
You and I have similar pressures today. Some think that we are not to have any negative attitudes. On the contrary, we are to have negative attitudes toward everything that is wrong, toward those things that violate God's Word. We are to be negative toward them, not positive or even neutral. When people become involved in compromise, we must not put our approval on them.
These letters shed light on the life of the church thirty or forty years after they had been established, and must be interpreted in their historical context. We cannot take these letters out of the historical context and ever come to a correct understanding of what they are to mean to us.
Many people see these letters as the entire history of the church in seven successive ages. For that reason, for many people the only relevant message is the last one. They assume that we are in the last age, and the message to the Laodiceans, therefore, is the message for us. The truth is that the principles and messages to all seven of these churches, whenever those conditions are parallel, apply to us today. I believe there are congregations that the message to Laodicea doesn't fit.
In our search for meaning and for the Word of God to be relevant to us, if we believe that only the last letter is significant, then very many things that could be of tremendous benefit to us would be lost. The underlying principles and warnings of all seven of these letters have an abiding significance for you and me today. We need to carefully study these messages to discover what is that abiding significance.
The first-century condition of the church was far from uniform. There was not any one spiritual condition which characterized all the church, and the same is true today. There is not one spiritual condition which uniformly characterizes all the congregations, because there are varying spiritual conditions. These various messages, seven in number, provide for us a selection of spiritual situations that can help to guide us when we are faced with similar situations. In fact, there are many features of these churches that parallel modern conditions.
I believe the message to Sardis fits us more than the message to the church of Laodicea. Both congregations were indifferent or lukewarm, but Sardis had a few members who had not succumbed to that condition. I know of some people who have not succumbed to the condition; they have stayed on fire for the Lord.
I hope you understand that the spiritual condition of these different congregations varied even though these congregations were situated within a few miles of one another. They were all within the same vicinity, but yet there were varying conditions. There was not a uniform condition that characterized all of them, so the content of all these messages is really for the whole church. It's abiding significance and value is lost if we just single out one letter and say that it characterizes everybody. The message to the church at Ephesus speaks to us just as much as does the message to the church at Laodicea.
Now, with these introductory thoughts in mind, let us study three of these letters in more detail and find their significance and value for us today.