A Commentary in Simple English on Revelation

CHAPTERS 2 and 3:

The Messages to the Seven Churches

We will say something about each of the cities and the churches before we pass on to the messages. John wrote these messages from the Lord Jesus to be sent to real churches. The messages are full of things that John would have known about the churches. But the messages still speak to our churches today. We should ask: -'Which one of these messages fits my own church best? What should we do in our church to obey the Lord Jesus?

Chapter 2:1-7 Ephesus 'The City of Change'

No one knows what the name 'Ephesus' meant. The city stood on the River Cayster, which flows from the mountains of western Turkey eastwards into the Mediterranean Sea. Just to the south of the river and not far from the sea, are three hills. They are called Ayassoluk on the east, Prion in the middle and Astyages (which is part of Coressus). Ayassoluk and Astyages are about 3km apart. The river Cayster brings a large amount of mud down with it from the hills. This mud settles and as a result, new land is formed.

Before the Greeks came, people probably lived near Ayassoluk. Then about a thousand years before the time of John, the sea probably still came right up to Prion. By the time of John, the harbour was between Prion and Astyages. The great street, the Arkadiane, was about 12 metres wide and more than 550 metres long. But even then, it was difficult to keep the river open so that ships could get in and out of the harbour. Today, the sea is about 8km away, and there is no harbour at all for ships on this part of the coast. But when the New Testament was written, Ephesus was a great port. There may have been more than a quarter of a million people living in the city. They were divided into five or six 'tribes': one of these may have been Jewish. It was a great centre of trade. The city was moved from Prion to Ayassoluk about 550B.C. Later it was moved again to a new place by the harbour between Prion and Astyages.

The famous temple of Artemis (or Diana) stood just south of the eastern hill (Ayassoluk). It took J.T. Wood six years of work in the last century to find the ruins. He had to dig about seven metres below the ground level to find them. This was all mud left by the river. The temple was one of the 'Seven Wonders of the World' in ancient times. The raised level area or platform on which the temple stood was about 80 metres wide by 140 metres long. The temple was said to have 120 'columns' each 20 metres tall, and a king gave each one.

The image of the 'goddess' Artemis in the temple probably had 'the stone which fell down from the sky' built into it. This stone was a 'meteorite'. But there were also old stories about a Hittite woman soldier (an 'Amazon') killing a wild pig under a tree. The tree was often pictured on coins made at Ephesus. All round the temple there was a large garden or 'park'; there were streams of water and fruit trees in it. There may also have been deer. Round this 'park' was a high wall.

The temple and its park were a place to which people could come and be 'saved'. Their enemies could not bring them in to a law court. But this meant that if someone really had done wrong, he could come and be safe from the law. So criminals got together and the great temple became a place where they planned wicked crimes. They were safe: they had found 'salvation'. But it was a salvation in their sins. We can see from Acts 19:23-41 how strongly people at Ephesus felt about this temple. The only real salvation is from our sins.

Ephesus had other heathen temples. There was one, and later three, for the worship of the Emperor. In Acts we also read about a Jewish synagogue.

We read in the Book of Acts how the church at Ephesus began. This was about 52-54AD. (See 18: 19,21; 24-28; and Chapter 19. Note also 20:17-38.) But there had been some Christians in Asia right from the start of the church. (See Acts 2:9.) Paul had left Timothy at Ephesus (see 1 Timothy 1:8). Right at the end of his life, Paul sent Tychicus to take the place of Timothy (2 Timothy 4: 2). The church in Ephesus grew strong. It may have been the largest of the New Testament churches.

Many years later the harbour of Ephesus became blocked and the city fell into ruin. The church had sadly lost its love long before that happened.

Today at Ephesus there are, of course, ruins of the old city but the sea has gone. All that is left otherwise is a Turkish village called 'Ayassoluk'. That name comes from the Greek for 'Holy theologian' - 'Holy Man of God's Word' if you like. That name does not let us forget that once John, the Disciple Jesus loved, lived here.

Now most of the churches find a place in what John says later about the New Jerusalem, the City of God which will come down from heaven. If you look at 22:1-5, you will find that the river, the tree and the great street of the city are the share that Ephesus has in what John says there.

The Message to Ephesus

We shall find that these messages are made up of the same parts: they have the same shape.

a) What Jesus says about Himself - verse 1.

Jesus speaks and he is the one who holds the seven stars. We have seen already (1:20) that these are the 'angels' or ministers of the churches; He grips them in His strong right hand. He walks about among the lamp stands, which are the churches.

b) The good things which Jesus sees in the church (verses 2 and 3)

The church worked hard, so hard that they became tired. They suffered and still kept going. Then when teachers and preachers came to them, they listened to what they said with great care. Some of them they felt were not right. They did not teach the truth. The church felt that these men did not have the Spirit of God. So they would have nothing more to do with them. [2.1]. Jesus expects us today to have nothing to do with false teachers who come to us. These false teachers at Ephesus were liars. We follow the truth. Paul had told them that they would have trouble with false teachers. (See Acts 20:29,30.)

c) Jesus tells us what is wrong with the church (verse 4)

Whatever else is right in a church, if there is no love among the people, the church is no good at all. The church is of no use without prayer and love. There must be love to Christ. There must be love to one another. And there must be love to people outside the church. And love is made up of giving and forgiving. Jesus warns us that love can grow cold. (Matthew 24:12). So Jesus tells the church that they no longer love Him as they did at first. It was as though their love for Him had once lifted them up right to heaven. But they had fallen right down again after only a few years. A stone, a lump of rock, had fallen out of the sky perhaps a thousand years before, and people who were not Christians still worshipped that! (See Acts 19:35.)

Paul's letter to the Ephesians says a great deal about love. (See Ephesians 3:16-19.)

d) Jesus tells us what to do (Verse 5 - first part)

1. We have to 'repent'. We have to turn our minds round and think in a different way. We all have to 'repent' from our sins. Hebrews 6:1 speaks about our need to repent from 'dead works'. Those are the things that we do in religion, which do not bring life to us. But the church needs to repent not of sins or of 'dead works'. It needs to repent of lack of love.

2. Then we have to 'do the first works'. These are the things that we did right at the start of our Christian life or of the life of our church. It is the devil who says to us: 'Not the first works. The second or the third may be'. We try to go back to the point in our experience where we think that things began to go wrong. Jesus says: - 'Start again right at the beginning'.

There was an act of love to Christ, which the church in Ephesus did at the start. We read about it in Acts 19:17,19. There were so many 'magic spells' in Ephesus that they were called 'Ephesian letters'. The Christians brought these things together and burnt them. They were worth a great deal of money. No doubt 'gods' and 'fetishes' were burnt as well. That was love to Christ. And there are many Christians in churches around the world who need to do the same thing today, in order to show their love to Jesus. If they do, they will know much more of what it is to be set free by Jesus from fear and darkness.

These words teach us that as the Son of God, Jesus has the right to our love. He is the Son of Man, and He desires to have all our love. He is sad if He loses any part of our love.

e) Jesus gives a warning (verse 5, second part; and verse 6).

The warning to this church is that Jesus will come and take their lamp away. We know that this happened long ages ago. There is no longer a Christian church of any kind at Ephesus. A church can become proud. A church may have a great history. God has done great things in the past for them. They may be strong and have good buildings. They may have clever teachers and wise preachers. But if there is no love, Jesus will take no notice of all the rest. He will remove the lamp of that church.

In verse 6, we do not know who the 'Nicolaitans' were. What they did was wrong, but what they taught was wrong as well. (See verse 15.) Wrong teaching in the church will always lead to wrong things being done.

f) Jesus gives a promise (verse 7)

Jesus gives the promise to those who 'overcome'. There is a fight going on. It is a part of the war between God and the devil, between good and evil. Those who win this fight will receive what Jesus promises to us. Each of the seven messages to the churches speaks like this. Later, in Revelation, we shall find out what it is that we 'overcome'. But just here, we are not told. Now in any war, an ordinary soldier does not know quite what is happening. His officer gives orders to him. He does what he is told to do. He may never see the enemy at all. But he shares in the ‘victory’; he helps to win the war when he carries out the orders that he is given. Our war with the devil and evil is mostly like that. We do not see the enemy. We do what Jesus says. We help to win the war.

Now there are two more things for us to explain in this verse. They are 'the tree of life' and 'the paradise of God'.

Right at the beginning, God planted 'the tree of life' in the middle of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). When Adam and Eve sinned, God sent them out of the Garden. So they could not eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and live for ever (Genesis 3:22). But now, Jesus promises that we will have the right to eat from the Tree of Life. So we shall live for ever! We know how this has come about. There is another tree. It is the Cross on which Jesus died. That Cross or Tree brought death to Him. But it brings life to us. 'By His death, we have life'. John's readers at Ephesus would have thought about another tree too: That was the tree in the old stories about how the city of Ephesus started. But that tree had not brought life.

Now a 'paradise' was a king's park or large garden. There would be a high wall all round it. It had streams of water and fruit trees. It was much the same as the park around the great Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. But Jesus speaks to us here about the 'Paradise of God'. In Genesis 3: 8 we read that God was walking for pleasure in the Garden of Eden in the cool part of the day. Probably this means the evening. And John says to us now that we shall have the right to walk in God's garden. God will walk there too, and talk to His people.

So that is the first of the seven messages. As we look at the other six, we shall see whether all the parts, which the message to Ephesus has, are there too. If we do not find them all, we shall ask why they are not there.