Revelation 2-3

{THE SEVEN LETTERS}

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1. Seven Churches - Overview - (The visitation of Jesus to the churches of Asia prepares the reader for the visions that follow the seven letters) - {PDF Copy}
2. Tree of Life - Ephesus - (The messenger at Ephesus is commended for rejecting false apostles, chastised for leaving his first love, and summoned to return to his first works) - {PDF Copy}
3. Faithful Until Death - (The Assembly in Smyrna has faithfully persevered and is exhorted to continue to do so, even UNTIL DEATH - Revelation 2:8-11) - {PDF Copy}
4. Tribulation of the Church - (In Revelation, faithful saints undergo tribulation, but the unrepentant Inhabitants of the Earth undergo God’s Wrath, namely, the Second Death)  - {PDF Copy}
5. Hold Fast My Name - Pergamos - (Pergamos receives praise for remaining faithful to his name, but correction for tolerating the teachings of “Balaam”) - {PDF Copy}
6. The Nicolaitans - (Deceivers within the churches were encouraging believers to compromise with the idolatrous rites of pagan society) - {PDF Copy}
7. The Faithful Witness - {PDF Copy} - (In the greetings sent to the Seven Assemblies, Jesus is called the Faithful Witness because of his self-sacrificial death – Revelation 1:5)
8. The Inhabitants of the Earth - (The Inhabitants of the Earth represent the men who are omitted from the Book of Life because they embrace the Beast from the Sea)  - {PDF Copy}
9. Thyatira and Jezebel - (The call to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches begins to intensify after the warning about the teachings of Jezebel – Revelation 2:18-29) - {PDF Copy}
10. Food Offered to Idols  -  (Daniel and his three companions refused to participate in the religious rituals of the Babylonian Empire – Daniel 1:14) - {PDF Copy}
11. Arrayed in White Garments - Sardis - (The church in Sardis receives no commendation, only warnings, and is summoned to repent while time remains – Revelation 3:1-6) - {PDF Copy}
12. Fealty - (In Revelation, every man must choose between loyalty to the Beast from the Sea or the sacrificial Lamb) - {PDF Copy}
13. Empires Rise and Fall - (Imperial arrogance and idolatry are the legacies of the Tower of Babel, humanity’s first but not last attempt to build a world empire) - {PDF Copy}
14. Faithful Philadelphia - (Philadelphia receives no correction since she has remained faithful, and therefore, she will be kept from the hour of trial – Revelation 3:7-13) - {PDF Copy}
15. Kept from the Hour - (The hour of trial will come upon the whole habitable earth, but overcoming saints will not experience this final judicial act – Revelation 3:10) - {PDF Copy}
16. In Laodicea - (The messenger in Laodicea receives no commendation, only corrections and warnings. The only hope is refinement in fire – Revelation 3:14-22) - {PDF Copy}
17. Beginning of the Creation - (Revelation looks forward to the reign of Jesus in the New Creation, a reality inaugurated by his Death and Resurrection) - {PDF Copy}

[Abyss Photo by Jens Johnsson on Unsplash]