The Seven Churches Of Asia 18

INTRO: We are in the second to last church as found in Revelation 2-3. We have looked at each of these with regard to the reason that the Lord wrote to each of these churches some 2,000 years ago. In the historical purpose we looked at the counselee. That is, we looked at each church in its historical situation. Then we looked at the description of the counselor, as He describes Himself to each church, and we found the reasons why He describes Himself like that. Then we looked at the commendation, and we found one church, the church of Sardis, that received no commendation. Then we looked at the criticism of each church, and we found two churches to which no criticism was directed. The first was Smyrna, the bitter church that gave off the sweet smell because of the persecution. Smyrna was the second church, and we are now in the second to last church, Philadelphia, and no criticism is given to this church either. Then we have looked at the counsel and comfort given to each church. All of this is in the Lord’s historical purpose for writing to these churches.

Then we looked at the typical purpose. These seven churches typify seven kinds of churches that have existed throughout the past 2,000 years. For example, of the seven we have found two with no criticism. It is possible for a church to be like that. Then there are persecuted churches and so on.