00 Introduction

Copyright © 2019 by Michael A. Brown

      I LOVE these letters to the seven churches.  They are one of my favourite parts of the Bible, and I guess I must have read them hundreds of times over the years.  I go back to them time and time again.  In my work as a missionary, pastor and teacher, I have had many Bibles which I have used for devotional reading and study.  In all of them, the pages which contain these seven letters in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, have invariably ended up with many notes and cross-references written in different coloured, tiny writing in the margins and between the lines, noted down as God speaks to me and ministers truth to my heart.  The symbolism in which these letters are clothed comes from many Old Testament scriptures prophetically fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah, and it is this symbolism which provides us with the clues that we need in order to understand these letters.

      Jesus our ascended Lord loves his Church deeply.  We are his bride and so we live in covenanted union with him, a covenant which is sealed with his own blood.  He lives for us, intercedes for us and yearns for us every day.  He walks amongst us, seeking close fellowship with us and making his presence known to us.  He desires nothing more than that we should learn to walk freely together in unhindered union and loving relationship with him in the power of his crucified, resurrected and ascended life.

      And this is the burden of these seven letters.  They were written to communities of believers in seven different cities in Asia Minor (now Western Turkey) towards the end of the first century AD, but, taken together they give us a prophetic overview of the life of the Church down through the centuries from the apostolic period until the time when Jesus will return for his bride.  So my intention in these chapters has not been to give an exegesis of every phrase in each letter, but rather to convey the timeless burden of Christ’s heart to his bride as it is revealed in each letter.

      Every church community is unique, is at a different stage of its corporate life and development, has a different history, is situated in a different geographical place, and therefore has a different daily life context in which it lives and works.  So each believing community has different struggles and different issues which it needs to face, work through and resolve, and it succeeds and fails in different ways to other churches.  But all church communities exist on the forefront of the never-ending spiritual battle which rages between the kingdom of God and the dominion of darkness in this world, and therefore have to deal with the varying attacks, temptations and deceptions which come their way from time to time in this ongoing battle.

      In his deep love and grace, our ascended Lord Jesus always has been and always will be faithful to his Church.  By his Spirit, he continues to speak prophetically and with incisive and penetrating relevance to each church community in every age, in the hope that we will hear and heed his voice.  Those who seek him with an open heart will hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  In his faithfulness and truth, he will always encourage us by commending us where this is merited, but likewise he will always put his finger on an ongoing problem which exists, exhorting us to repentance and correction.  He corrects us, because he loves us.  It is never his will that we should continue our life and work in our church community without facing up to and dealing with any specific issue or issues which may be causing our fellowship with him to break down and his presence and power among us to wane.  And it is possible to do this, if we will learn to live out of his deep and all-sufficient grace, which he is always willing to make available to us.

      So in each of these letters we are exhorted to live an overcoming life.  We are children of God, born of his Spirit, and have been brought into a new life in Christ which is grounded in the power of his own eternal life within us.  Therefore the Lord seeks not just that we believe in him, but also that we overcome, because in him and with his strength all things are possible.  To overcome simply means to be willing to deal with whatever specific issue(s) we might be facing (either as individual believers or as a church community) that may be hindering or might potentially hinder our walk with him.  An overcoming life is a life in Christ which is lived out daily in the power of his grace, presence and truth, and we are all as believers invited into such a life, regardless of the age, cultural context or geographical place in which we live.

      I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as it has been a joy for me to write it, and that understanding these letters to the seven churches builds you up in your faith as much as they have me over the years.  Be blessed as you read!

Pastor Mike Brown

Autumn 2019