All you have to do is skim through chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation to notice that each of the seven letters follows a very specific pattern. Before we dive into the specifics of each individual letter, let’s take some time to understand the overall framework Christ used when addressing seven congregations of His Church. This will help us extract more meaning and deeper lessons from these valuable passages of God’s Word.
Each of the seven letters is structured around four key elements: (1) an introduction, (2) an assessment of the church’s condition, (3) an exhortation and/or warning and (4) a conclusion.
In each introduction, Jesus introduces Himself to the congregation, revealing an aspect of His identity that has a special significance to the situation facing the church.
Next, the Son of God assesses the congregation, revealing His perfect awareness of the spiritual condition of His people and the challenges they face. He follows this with a combination of exhortation and warning, depending on the situation.
Finally, in His conclusion, He offers two things: a command for the entire Church to listen to the message and a specific promise for all the faithful Christians who prove themselves to be overcomers.
In the following readings of this Journey, we’ll look at how each of these four elements functions in each of the seven individual messages—but first, we’re going to examine the elements themselves and the roles they play in communicating a timeless message to the Church of God.
Each of the seven letters begins with a command from Jesus Christ to the apostle John: “To the angel of the church in _______, write . . .”
The first and most important thing this consistent introduction does is remind us of the true Author of Revelation. John may have transcribed the words, but it was Jesus Christ doing the speaking. What follows are not John’s thoughts, John’s suggestions or even John’s vendettas. They are the words of God.
The second thing it does is raise the question: Who or what are these “angels of the seven churches” (verse 20) that John was commanded to write to?
Unfortunately, that’s a difficult question with no clear answer.
In the New Testament, the Greek word aggelos is used over 180 times. Usually, that word refers to the spiritual beings we call “angels”—but sometimes, it refers more generally to a “messenger.” (In Matthew 11:10 and Mark 1:2, John the Baptist is called the aggelos, or “messenger,” who prepared the way for Jesus Christ).
It wouldn’t seem to make sense that Jesus, who directly commands the angels, would use John as a middleman to communicate with these heavenly beings. A human messenger would seem much more likely, but that still leaves us with questions. Are we talking about a literal messenger dispatched to each of the churches? Maybe the minister tasked with leading each congregation?
What we do know for sure is that the angels of the seven churches are important—and tied to a mystery (Revelation 1:20). In New Testament Greek, a “mystery” (mystērion, Strong’s #G3466) is something that cannot be understood without divine revelation. While John may have understood the precise identity of these angels, the truth might remain a mystērion to us.
Whatever or whoever the angels are, they are closely tied to the spiritual character of the members of each of the seven churches—and that’s all we need to know to make sense of these letters. In writing to the angel of each church, John was ultimately tasked with sending a message that was intended for every human member of that congregation.
And for us.
The actual message to each congregation begins with a specific Greek phrase that would have sounded both familiar and ancient to the ears of the New Testament Church: Tade legei, or “Thus says.”
Church members would have recognized it from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), and it would have felt as old to them as the King James Version feels to us today. This was the phrase that signaled the royal proclamation of a king or a divine judgment from God. The phrase itself had fallen out of use, but there was a gravity to it that would have immediately caught the attention of the congregations that were hearing it read aloud.
To each congregation, Jesus provides a different appellation, or title. To the Smyrnaeans, He identifies Himself as “the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life” (Revelation 2:8). To the Thyatirans, He is “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire” (verse 18).
We’ll take a look at each of these appellations once we start examining the individual letters, but for now, it’s worth noting where all these names and titles are coming from.
The book of Revelation opens with the apostle John receiving a vision of the glorified Jesus Christ. John spends most of the first chapter trying to convey the incredible splendor of that vision:
“Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead” (Revelation 1:12-17).
This short passage contains most of the appellations Jesus uses to address the seven churches. (Others are found scattered throughout the rest of chapter 1, while others still come from descriptions of Christ in ancient Old Testament passages.)
But why does it matter where all these phrases and titles are coming from?
Because the Son of God’s eyes don’t burn like a flame of fire only when He’s speaking to the church in Thyatira. He doesn’t wield the sharp two-edged sword of His mouth only when speaking to the church in Pergamos. He isn’t the One who is holy and true only when speaking to the church in Philadelphia.
He is all those things.
All the time.
He was, and is, and will always be the First and the Last, whose face shines like the sun, the firstborn from the dead who rules with sovereign authority over all creation.
In other words, the appellations to the seven churches are puzzle pieces that slot together and offer us a more complete picture of our Savior. Each piece is relevant to the specific condition of each congregation, but ultimately all of the pieces matter.
After His introduction, Jesus reveals to each congregation His knowledge of their spiritual condition. In the book of Acts, the apostles acknowledged Him as kardiognōstēs—the Heart-Knower, “who know[s] the hearts of all” (Acts 1:24).
Jesus is still the kardiognōstēs here in the book of Revelation. He doesn’t just know how His people appear to be doing—He knows how they are doing. He begins by confronting them with this knowledge—sometimes in the form of praise for their faithfulness, sometimes as censure for their failures, but most often as a mixture of both.
And it’s here that we encounter the greatest danger of reading the letters to the seven churches: namely, reading them as letters for other people.
Other Christians.
Because, yes—they are technically letters for other people. But they’re here, preserved in the pages of the Bible, for us.
You and me.
It’s easy to read about a church that has left its first love (Revelation 2:4) and think, “Oh, sure, I know people like that.” It’s a lot more uncomfortable to think, “Am I like that? Am I at risk of becoming like that?”
In other words, these letters shouldn’t become a measuring stick for evaluating others, but a mirror for evaluating ourselves. The failures and successes of these first-century churches are not so very different from the failures and successes we face here in the 21st century.
Where they failed, we can fail. Where they succeeded, we can succeed. The ultimate lesson is about asking, “What does God want me to learn from each of these churches? How can understanding their victories and challenges make me a better Christian?”
Those are the questions this Journey seeks to answer.
But no congregation is without hope.
After telling the people in these congregations what He knows about them, Jesus tells them what to do with that information. Where the churches are succeeding, He encourages them to stay the course. Where the churches fall short, He outlines the necessary steps to set things right.
Even Sardis, which Jesus identifies as being spiritually dead, is commanded to “hold fast and repent” (Revelation 3:3). No failure, no matter how grave, is beyond redemption.
At no point in the letters does Jesus disown these churches. Some of them are at risk of severing their connection with Christ, but they are still His people. He wants to see them succeed.
He wants to see us succeed.
The exhortation and warnings are for us too. No matter what personal failings you might be struggling with, no matter where you need to improve as a disciple of Jesus Christ, He wants to see you succeed. He will help you find the way forward and He will give you the strength to walk it.
He is the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand (Revelation 2:1)—and more to the point, the One who holds you in His hand (John 10:28). We can choose to leave His hand, but if we stick with it—if we never stop trying to get things right—then we can count on Jesus to strengthen and support us.
Every letter ends with the same two elements—a command to listen and a promise to the disciple who overcomes.
The command to listen is easy to overlook. In nearly every translation, it sounds more like an invitation: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). But the verb Christ used indicates an urgent command. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary translates that sentence far more emphatically: “Anyone who has an ear must listen to what the Spirit says to the churches” (volume on Revelation, p. 120).
If we can hear the message, we must listen. We must obey.
But what are we commanded to hear?
The message spoken through God’s Spirit to His churches.
Plural.
Jesus didn’t say, “The Ephesians must listen to what the Spirit says to the church in Ephesus.” He didn’t say, “The Smyrnaeans must listen to what the Spirit says to the church in Smyrna.”
No. Anyone who has an ear must listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
All of them.
Each of them.
All seven churches were commanded to hear all seven messages. All seven churches were commanded to take action based on those messages.
The members in Thyatira needed to hear what the members in Pergamos heard. The Smyrnaeans needed to hear what the Ephesians heard. Not so they could rank themselves against each other, but so they could learn and grow as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Just like you need to do.
Just like I need to do.
We’re called to live “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), and these words to the seven churches offer invaluable insight into what God wants His Church to look like.
You might relate more to one congregation and less to another, but each one has lessons for us. Each one received words that we are commanded to hear—if we have the ears to hear them.
And then, of course, there are the rewards.
To each congregation, Jesus extended a promise “to him who overcomes.” That tells us, first and foremost, that each congregation had the capacity to overcome—to rise above its failings and push toward the finish line. No matter what was holding them back, victory was possible with God’s help.
That’s what the Greek word translated “overcome” means. To him who is victorious. To him who conquers. Jesus acknowledges to every congregation that they are engaged in a battle—but also that victory is both possible and attainable.
As Paul wrote, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5, New International Version).
With God’s help, we can win this war—and when we win, God’s promises will be there waiting for us. Because those promises aren’t just for the seven churches. They’re for us too.
Just as considering the appellations together gives us a more complete picture of Christ, and just as considering the exhortations and warnings together gives us a more complete picture of what the Church ought to be (and not be), so, too, considering the rewards together will give us a more complete picture of the future God has in store for us.
The seven letters are so much more than interesting historical documents and prophecies—they are insight, they are instruction and they are encouragement for any Christian willing to spend time with them in heartfelt reflection.
The descriptions of Christ are for you.
The warnings are for you.
The exhortations are for you.
And the promises are for you.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
