Seven Churches Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Now we’re going to look at the seven churches of Asia today, and we’re going to start with God’s view of the world. Right, there are the seven continents: United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and South America. I didn’t have it labeled, and that red dot up here above Africa is the province of Asia in the Roman Empire. During the Roman Empire, our time, they had a province there called Asia. Okay, and so God is looking down. Now, God knows there’s people all over the globe. The people at this time did not know there were people all over the globe, am I right? Yes. And so they have a very narrow view, because God hasn’t illuminated that there’s more people in the world besides Europe, Africa and Asia. And so God’s up to things, and he picks this area to work in. You know, he’s God, he can pick any, you know, he could have started in South America if he wanted to, he’s God, but so you understand.

▶ 1:12 And so now we see here the Mediterranean Sea up there, there’s the Black Sea, here’s Africa, here’s Egypt, and here’s Asia, that province of the Roman Empire. All right, over here on your right is the seven cities of the Asia province, and I brought these maps so you get a picture of what’s going on here. All right, now, the island of Patmos is right here, and John, as we learned last week, was banished to the island of Patmos because of him preaching the Word and the testimony of Christ. You see, when you really start preaching the Word and you really start standing up for Christ, people are not going to like you. It’s true. And in America, the church, we can tell is not very effective, because people don’t know the difference between us and the world, because we don’t stand for anything. We don’t like opposition. We, even in our home, man, if one of us wants to get spiritual and really move with God and the other family members don’t want to, big conflict, so we just give in. Could that be true? It starts right in the home and in the neighborhood and all the rest. We don’t want to, you know, rock the boat, we don’t want to stir any feathers. Well, you know, Jesus rocked the boat, Jesus stirred feathers; they killed him for it. They killed most of the apostles for it.

▶ 2:54 And so John, by the emperor [unclear], I think, yeah, it was him, he wanted somebody to blame things on, just like in America we want to blame things on somebody or something. And so he picked the church, the weak ones, the ones that, well, weak in their mind, that they won’t fight back and, you know, they turn the other cheek, they go the extra mile. And so he had John put in a boiling pot of oil. Now, that would kill any normal man, but it didn’t kill John, and the Caesar of the Roman Empire and all the leaders didn’t get it. Nobody comes out of a pot of oil alive. And so when he didn’t die, they banished him to this island of Patmos, a barren island here in the Mediterranean Sea.

▶ 3:57 Okay, and this is where John... and there’s another picture of it, and I got this one because I want you to know there’s more churches in the province of Asia than these seven churches, and two of them are talked about: Colossi, the book of Colossians, and Galatia, the book of Galatians there. And therein Galatia is a region in the province of Asia, and so we have two epistles written to these two. So there’s more than seven churches here, but there’s only seven churches addressed. Got it? All right. And God is not a respecter of persons, so obviously these messages, as we showed last week, were for all his servants, all of God’s people, not just these seven churches. But we want you this morning to use your sanctified imagination, and this will be one of the churches: Ephesus, you know, [unclear]. I can’t even remember them all. [Unclear] and so forth. You pick a see; there’s seven areas here; just you’re one of the churches. Okay, and when these letters are written, they’re written directly to you, not to their neighbor, not to the church in Jerusalem.

▶ 5:36 So here it is, Revelation 1:4: “John, to the seven churches in Asia: Grace be unto you and peace.” Okay, here’s the revelation of the church. Jesus, this grace and peace comes from Jesus Christ. And so he’s out. Grace means favor, divine influence. All right, we today express the nature of what we give ourselves to: our hairstyle, our clothing, our tattoos, our nose rings, our way we talk is all reflections from the music, the movies, the TV, the reading material and the friends we run with. See, they influence us. But in the church world, Jesus Christ, divine, in divinity, influences us, and it influences our hairstyle, the way we dress, the way we talk, the way we live. You see, that’s grace. People say this grace thing without even knowing what they’re talking about: “The grace of God be upon you, I’m under grace.” Okay, you’re under his divine influence; it should show. Hallelujah.

▶ 6:54 And peace. Peace is the absence of a struggle. You see, when you have peace, you don’t have war. And people struggle with right and wrong. Americans today are struggling with their abortion, is it right or wrong; homosexuality, is it an acceptable lifestyle, is it right or wrong; racism; cultures, they struggle with cultural and traditions and philosophies of men. But see, God’s peace settles all those conflicts. You don’t have those conflicts anymore. Why? God has his own traditions, God has his own culture. Are you with me? I’m not struggling anymore. Now, it’s from him, Jesus, “which is, which was and is to come.” And that’s backed up in the Bible: Jesus existed before the world began, he came to this earth in the flesh, and he’s coming again. Amen. John the Baptist tells us he was, he is; he’s alive now, and he’s coming again.

▶ 8:02 “From the seven Spirits before His throne” (and we’ll deal with that later; it’s mentioned again), “from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.” Jesus was faithful to only do the will of the Father. You say, we very loosely say, “Well, I’m a person of faith,” but we don’t do the will of the Father. You know, we have partial faith; we kind of do the will of the area of God that we are comfortable with. When we’re not comfortable with it, we find an excuse to get rid of it. Could that be true? Yeah. But Jesus was the faithful witness. He told the people, “I only do the will of the Father.” That’s why he didn’t go around healing everybody; only healed people that God told him to heal. Amen. Only the will of the Father, and so that’s backed up by the Scriptures.

▶ 8:57 “He is the firstborn,” the first begotten, “of the dead.” Why is he the first begotten of the dead? Because other people were raised from the dead, but they died again, but not Jesus. He come out of the grave with an immortal body. He would never die again, so he was the first begotten, birth from the dead, never to die again. And then the saints of old who were buried around there also rose after his resurrection. They became the first fruits of the resurrection, and we will also come out of the grave with an immortal body, never to die again. Hallelujah. And that’s backed up by the Scriptures. Are you with me? Got it? Now, this is super-duper stuff.

▶ 9:45 “And the prince of the kings of the earth.” The Bible tells us that all power in heaven and earth is given unto who? Jesus Christ. He has all authority; there’s no question about it. “And unto Him that loved us.” Did Jesus love us in the other books of the Bible? Did he give himself for us to prove that love? “Washed us from our sins in His own blood.” He died for us. Amen. So John is telling us exactly what the Bible has already told us, isn’t it? So we know that his testimony is backed up. This book is a good book, not like these people that get new revelations and then they find out they’re wrong and have to adjust them. You know, God doesn’t need adjusting. He comes with truth, and he sticks with truth, and it stays truth. Amen. So when a group has got to change things, there’s something wrong with that group. We need to stop following groups and follow Jesus and his Word. Hallelujah.

▶ 10:46 Now, this book by itself, as I told you before, we’re on an island and this book washes up: this book by itself will tell us everything we need to know, because it’s the revelation of Jesus, the revelation of the church, and the revelation of the judgment to come. Okay. Now, the things in red will be the revelation of Jesus, the things in white will be the revelation of the church, and the things in black will be the revelation of the judgment. Okay. Revelation 1:6: “He made us kings and priests to God and His Father.” A king is one that rules over a kingdom; he’s in authority, he has to be obeyed. We are people that will... the church is supposed to be ruling. We’re supposed to be ruling in this earth, we’re supposed to be ruling over sin, we’re supposed to be ruling over this body of ours, and our tongue. We were designed to be rulers with authority. Are you with me?

▶ 11:56 You see, the revelation of the church is very, very powerful, and we in America don’t get this because psychology has crept into the church, and, you know, everything is psychological. Well, God isn’t psychological. God is all powerful, and he designed his church to be what? Kings, rulers. Didn’t he create Adam and Eve to have dominion over the earth? Yes. He hadn’t stopped that. “And priests unto God.” Priests do two things. One of the things priests do is they minister to God, the very important thing. The priests went into the tabernacle and they ministered to the Lord. We ministered to the Lord through prayer and worship and praise, fasting, reading the Word, in the assembling together. We minister; that’s the way we minister to him and touch him, and that’s how we get influenced by him, and that’s what can make you effective, ‘cause the second of the priest is to minister to the people. But how you going to minister to the people if you haven’t ministered to him and got touched by him? You have nothing to give the people. And this is the problem also in many of the people of God: they don’t minister to the Lord and get touched by the Lord and get spoken to by the Lord, so they got something to say when they’re out here ministering to the people. But we were created to be priests that touch our God and have an effect on the people. That’s the revelation of the church. We’re not a bunch of wimps waiting for the rapture to come, and we’re not struggling with sin and all that; we’re growing into more righteousness every day, becoming kings in the earth, ruling. Can I hear an amen?

▶ 13:55 Now, if nothing else, that was good for you to be here today to hear right there. “But to Him be glory and dominion forever.” Glory means honor, and see, we give him honor when we take time to worship him. Almost every Protestant church has a worship service. Why? Because it’s Bible; we’re supposed to take time to praise him and worship him. See, he deserves the honor; he died for us, folks. He empowers us, he’s our everything, and so he deserves honor. We got to shut ourself out and we got to lay down our pride and get rid of all the excuses, lift our hands, lift our voice and say, “I love you, Jesus.” Let’s try it. I love you, Jesus. It works. And he has dominion. He has, again, all power and all authority in heaven and in earth, the kingdom of darkness, all the nations. He’s in control of everything.

▶ 14:54 And it says “He comes with the clouds.” That’s what it says in Acts chapter 1, that as Jesus ascended into the clouds, and also in Luke the angel said he’s going to come back in the same manner. He’s going to come with clouds. Come with what? Clouds. And this is where I disagree with pre-tribulation, post-tribulation, premillennial and all these theories, because the Bible only implies Jesus is coming one time. Look at this: “Every eye shall see Him.” Now, these movies that we get so hyped up about, where, you know, Jesus comes and every... the church is raptured, and the airplane, people are gone in the airplane and clothes are laying in there and everybody’s wondering, “What happened? What happened? What happened?” Every eye is going to know what happened. You see, we get all flattered by people making money off of doctrine they make up, and we don’t go to the book and find out if it’s truth.

▶ 15:58 When he comes in the clouds, does every eye see him? Does every eye see him? Yes. Hallelujah. Now, that should have liberated you, right there. Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about Jesus coming two more times. We have to twist Scriptures, stretch Scriptures to get this theory that man made up. Even Jesus, when he talked about his coming, said every eye will behold him; it’s like the lightning in the sky. Ain’t that right? And so the church just agrees with these theories of the second coming without really going and finding out what the book says. How even, you know, a theory isn’t proven. See, a law is proven. How many know that the evolution is a theory? Why? Because they can’t prove it. How many know the atomic theory is still a theory? Why? Because they can’t prove it; it doesn’t work in every situation. Are you out there? And how many of you know this pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, mid-wrath, premillennial and all this are just theories that men came up with? But we know for certain Jesus is coming. Amen.

▶ 17:30 And we know every eye shall what? See him. “And they that pierced Him.” They that pierced him are resurrected out of the grave; they’re going to see him. “And all families of the earth,” all kind, all nations, all people of the earth, “shall wail.” Why are they wailing? Because he’s coming to judge, he’s coming to pass out rewards, and the ones that aren’t ready are going to be sorry. And that includes the people that killed him. Why? Because they’re raptured, because they’ve resurrected out of the grave. I’m sorry. Are you with me? Folks, you can’t get any plainer than that. You don’t have to stretch that, twist that, go over to Daniel and get some weird scripture to blend with it to make it work for your theory. That’s just as plain as the kindergarten “Run, Jane, run.”

▶ 18:42 “We are companions of tribulation.” Why? They that live godly in this present world will suffer. What? Will suffer what? Tribulation. If you’re not having troubles from people, you’re not living godly. And it will start with your home. When you decide to do something right and your spouse or your kids don’t want to do it, what happens? There’s a conflict, there’s trouble in the home. And I’ve heard this statement over and over: “Well, to keep harmony in the home, I’m going to...” You don’t keep harmony in the home by giving in to wrong. You just create more disharmony. Well, you create harmony in wrong, is what you’re, you know, you’re agreeing with wrong. Am I talking to the right folks this morning? Now, you young people, you need to get this in your cranial vacuum. This is a very important message. There is a judgment to come, and there is a God who is involved in the earth, and if he can’t be involved in the earth, he is worthless. If we got a God that can’t do anything, what good is that God?

▶ 20:09 And “I’m your companion in the kingdom”: the righteousness, peace, and joy, and power. See, the kingdom is in power; the Bible says it’s righteousness, it’s peace and joy, and we are companions. We all participate in that kingdom. There, the revelation of the church: we’re not a bunch of wimps waiting for Jesus to come again. We’re supposed to be an effective force in the earth that troubles people so much that they have problems with us because we don’t agree with them, and we live a different way and talk a different way, and we have troubles from them. “But I don’t like trouble.” Well, I don’t know if you read the Gospels, but Jesus had a lot of troubles. People say, “I want to be like Jesus.” Well, did you ever see his troubled side? They wanted to throw him off a cliff, they wanted to stone him, they wound up crucifying him, they called him a devil. You want to be like Jesus, but not that part. Are you with me? See, troubles, opposition is normal when you are living for God and trying to grow to God. Now, we got flaws in us, but we’re pursuing God, and people don’t like that, and the more we take on God’s nature, the more they don’t like us. But that’s how we draw the nations after Christ, is by taking on that nature.

▶ 21:47 “And the patience of Jesus Christ.” He says the farmer, the Bible says we... God is the husbandman, the farmer, and we are his field. The farmer waits patiently for the fruit of the field to be produced. See, God is waiting patiently for the fruit of the harvest to come to maturity, and so we got to what? Wait patiently. See, he has a time schedule, and he’s not on ours, so we got to just patiently live in this earth waiting for God to do his thing and reap in the harvest that he promised that he would reap, that his blood would bring. Do you understand that? You know, “Don’t believe this stuff. Well, we’ve heard the second coming for years and years and nothing happened.” Hey, we don’t know when he comes; the Bible plainly says that twice. Nobody knows. But we patiently wait, ‘cause we know he doesn’t lie, and he’s coming. And when he comes, they that are not ready are going to be mourning and wailing and grieving. Why? Because they know their time is up. They’ve been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. It’s all over, and it’s a little late to be sorry. Amen.

▶ 23:16 “Now I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” That’s Sunday, the day Jesus rose. Here he is, boiled in oil, taken over to this barren island, and he’s in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. Okay, Sunday came, and he did what he did on every Sunday: he prayed. He can’t be with the church now, because they got him isolated from the church, but that’s all right; he’s a one-church man now. He assembled before God, he’s praying, he’s worshiping. See, Jesus said, “I inhabit the praises of My people.” God is Spirit, and so that’s a spiritual act. The Bible says his Word is Spirit, so he’s in the Word, he’s doing what he did every Sunday before he was boiled in oil. And what does the church in America do on Sunday? Watch sports on TV, go hang gliding, surfing. But not John. Why? He gave his... he knew the importance of giving time to God, getting in that Spirit.

▶ 24:23 Now, if you want to be touched by Jesus, here’s a real formula. He’s going to give us a real formula. First, he was assembling before God and doing spiritual things on what day? The Lord’s Day, on a Sunday. Now, you can do it on any day, but, you know, Sunday is the day when the church gathered together. “And I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” Saying, okay, you heard something, and we’ve learned that God comes to speak. And then he said, the Bible says, “I turned to see.” You see, we got to repent. We got to turn from our ways, from sinful ways to his ways. We get in the Spirit by taking time to be before him, getting into the Word, and then we turn. We see our ways are not his ways, and we say, “God, I’m turning from my...” Are you with me? See, we get in the Spirit and then we turn. How many has turned, repented? See, you’re a candidate to have Jesus touch you.

▶ 25:44 Let’s keep reading: “I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks one liken to the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to his foot.” You can see a picture of that up there. That was the same thing that happened on the Mount of Transfiguration, when he was transfigured into his heavenly form, his spiritual form. This is what he looked like. “Clothed with a garment down to his foot, he was girded about with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass, and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword,” which we know is the what? Word of God. “And His countenance was as the sun shining in his strength.” And I picked this picture because they didn’t have a sword coming out of his mouth; the guy who drew it knew that it was the Word of God. You know, some pictures have this sword come out of Jesus’s mouth. My God, it’s the Word of God. All right, “and His countenance was as the sun shining in his strength,” and “when I saw Him, I fell at His feet.”

▶ 27:16 Now here it is. I get in the Spirit by doing spiritual things, I turn from my ways and wrong ways to him, and then I bow before him. Wow. Are you there? See, this is a formula that will work, folks, I’m telling you. You humble yourself to worship and pray, you humble yourself and repent of your sins and turn to the living God. You may be struggling with some things, but you’re repenting, you’re moving forward, and you get on your knees before him in prayer and worship, and these are the results: “And He laid His right hand upon me, saying to me...” See, then Jesus touched him. You got it? You want a formula to get touched by God? John just gave it to us. Hallelujah. You know, we want things without doing anything, and John got touched because he did some basic things.

▶ 28:26 Now, then he says the seven stars are what? The seven angels of the seven churches of Asia, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Okay, an angel is a messenger. John the Baptist was a messenger; it’s the same word for angel. Okay, so it could be the leaders of the churches; we don’t really know here. But we know this: why is he writing to an angel when they’re right there at his throne all the time? So he’s writing to what? The leaders, the one that’s bringing the message to the people, taking on the responsibility of teaching the people the Word of God. And remember, they that take that responsibility are judged with a much more severe judgment. So you don’t want to take on the responsibility of telling people who Jesus is and what right and wrong is unless you’re willing to accept the severe judgment if you teach wrong. And that means your opinions are got to go. Could that be an amen? So I submit to you that it is the leaders that took the responsibility of the church; people who take responsibility, God gives authority to.

▶ 29:48 Now, first thing he says, Revelation 1:17: “Do not be afraid.” And, church, I can’t admonish you enough: don’t be afraid of Jesus. I know so many people are so afraid God’s going to expose something they don’t want to expose, they going to make them act the way they don’t want to act, or send them to Siberia, to the mission field to preach the gospel. You know, they got this weird thing about “don’t be afraid of him.” He’s not going to do anything and require anything out of you that he doesn’t empower you to handle. Relax. Amen. “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.” Repeating that, “I have the keys of Hades,” the abiding place of the dead, “and of Death.” Who has the keys? Jesus. Keys unlock. And so you don’t have to die and be under the control of eternal death, and he will put you in the right abiding place of the dead, which is paradise, Abraham’s bosom. “Write the things which you have seen, the things which you are seeing, and the things which will take place after this.” Now.