Revelation 2-3

What’s Happening?

In a vision, Jesus tells John to write to seven different churches that are suffering persecution and are struggling to endure it faithfully. John encourages each church to persevere in their sufferings because if they remain faithful to Jesus, they will receive eternal life. To prove this point, John applies stories from the Hebrew Bible to each church, showing them how God always gives life to the suffering, embattled, and tempted.

The church in Ephesus is resisting a group of false teachers, but their commitment to sound doctrine has left them lacking in love (Revelation 2:1-6). Jesus commends them for their endurance, but also calls them to repent. If they return to loving God and others, Jesus promises that they will eat of the same tree of life available to Adam and Eve in the garden and live forever (Revelation 2:7).

Smyrna believers are also under attack, specifically from their Jewish brothers. Like Joseph in the book of Genesis, they are threatened with imprisonment and death (Revelation 2:8-9). But Jesus tells them that even if they die, they will, like Joseph, receive a victor’s crown and rule with God forever (Revelation 2:10-11). 

The church in Pergamum is fighting intense spiritual opposition much like the Israelites did in the wilderness when they were tempted by Balaam. To resist compromising their faithfulness to Jesus by allowing sexual immorality and idolatry, Jesus tells them to repent and bring their desires to him (Revelation 2:12-15). When they do, Jesus will feed them like he did Israel in the wilderness. The new manna Jesus provides will eternally satisfy their desires (Revelation 2:16-17).

Thyatira’s believers, despite their faithful love and endurance, tolerate sexual immorality and idolatry just as Israel did under Jezebel’s influence (Revelation 2:20-23). These sins led to Israel’s exile by the Babylonians. So Jesus tells this church to commit themselves to his influence alone if they want to rule the nations rather than be conquered by them (Revelation 2:26-27). 

The church in Sardis is meant to be an outpost of God’s Kingdom in their city, but their actions betray a growing spiritual death and decay. They’re like faithless Israel in exile, letting the sin of the nations slowly sedate their spiritual fidelity. Jesus says they must wake up from their spiritual sleep—and God promises their citizenship in heaven will never be revoked (Revelation 3:1-5).

The church in Philadelphia is deeply committed to the way of Jesus and dying for it (Revelation 3:7-9). Jesus says that, even if they die in their persecution, they are victorious like kings and queens. Just as their ancestors rebuilt their temple after the exile, their deaths are not pointless. God is using their poured out lives to establish his new temple on earth, where God will always be with them (Revelation 3:10-13). 

Finally, Laodicean believers have compromised their faithfulness to Jesus with their culture. They’re like lukewarm water, the product of mixed springs that should not be blended and cannot be drunk (Revelation 3:14-18). But if they abandoned their compromise of hot and cold, and wholeheartedly embrace the sacrificial way of Jesus, they will also rise like Jesus and rule the world with him (Revelation 3:19-21).

Where is the Gospel?

Each of John’s letters to the seven churches references stories that move through the storyline of the Bible. But the only one of John’s letters that doesn’t include a reference to an Old Testament story is the one delivered to lukewarm Laodicea. Instead, they are directly reminded of the words of Jesus (Matthew 24:33; Luke 12:35-36). Jesus is the climax of the Old Testament story and the ultimate proof that God grants eternal life to those who remain faithful through suffering. 

The whole story of God’s people in the Bible is one of endurance in the face of persecution and temptation. John is inviting his readers to join the story of their ancestors. But the threats mentioned in these chapters aren’t unique to John’s audience. We can recognize the similar struggles of cooled passions, false teachers, failure to love God and others, and the pressure to conform to the culture of our own day. Committing to the way of Jesus has always and will always provoke suffering and death (John 15:18-20). 

But the good news is that just as Jesus was faithful and rose from the dead, when we are faithful to Jesus, he raises us up too. When we sacrificially resist false teaching, he gives us royal crowns. When we wholeheartedly commit to obedience even if it leads to death, he makes space for us on his throne. At the beginning of a long book that describes great pain and suffering that will soon befall the world, Jesus reminds us that the worst thing the world can do is kill us. And like Jesus, our death only leads to victory.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who gives eternal life to those who persevere. And may you see Jesus as the one who raises us up to be with God, even when we die.