Revelation 02: Jesus Sees it All

What happens when churches face immense pressure to compromise their faith? Revelation Chapter 2 gives us a fascinating glimpse into Jesus's direct messages to four early churches, each struggling to maintain faithfulness in environments hostile to Christianity.

The apostle John wrote Revelation to encourage persecuted churches with a powerful message: Jesus wins. As we dive into Chapter 2, we see Jesus addressing each church with stunning clarity about both their strengths and failures. To Ephesus, He acknowledges their doctrinal purity but warns they've abandoned their first love. Smyrna receives commendation for enduring poverty and persecution, with Jesus promising the crown of life to those who remain faithful unto death. Pergamum, situated near "Satan's throne" (a massive altar to Zeus), faces rebuke for tolerating false teachers. And Thyatira, while growing in love and service, is warned about compromising with pagan practices to maintain economic security.

These messages reveal timeless principles for believers navigating cultural pressures: truth without love is incomplete; faithfulness during persecution leads to life; never compromise with false teaching; and holiness matters deeply to Jesus. For anyone feeling overwhelmed by life's chaos or facing pressure to water down their convictions, Jesus offers the same encouragement He gave these ancient churches: "I got this. I'm going to win and I have already won."

Discover how Jesus sees everything in your life and wants to help you overcome, just as He promised these early churches. Join our Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook and subscribe to continue exploring how ancient biblical wisdom speaks powerfully to our modern challenges.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Chapters

• 0:00 Jesus Sees It All
• 1:39 Jesus' Message to Ephesus
• 7:50 Jesus' Message to Smyrna
• 9:10 Jesus' Message to Pergamum
• 10:44 Jesus' Message to Thyatira
• 13:24 Applications for Believers Today
• 15:55 Final Prayer and Encouragement

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:24

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today Revelation Chapter 2. And today's title is Jesus Sees it All. Jesus Sees it All. We're going to jump right back into the book of Revelation we left off yesterday. So if you want to get your Bibles out, open up with me to Revelation Chapter 2. While you're doing that, as always, take just a moment. If you're new around here, like share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Leave us a five-star review on the podcast. Also, if you don't mind, comment on the YouTube videos. It doesn't cost you anything, but it really helps us out a lot. And make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job over there and, as always, the more we dig, the more we find. Well, if you've got your Bible with me and you're ready to jump into Revelation chapter two, don't forget yesterday we talked about the idea that the overall focus of Revelation is Jesus wins, and we talked about this idea that there are so many people who do so many different things with the book of Revelation that there's no way we're even going to have the opportunity to try to cover all the different nuances that people use the book of Revelation for, and so there are some great podcasts that I'd recommend to you that talk about a lot of the prophecy elements and all the different things about trying to do just whatever and more power to them. It's great for them to do that. It's just what we want to do is we want to focus on the original reason why the book of Revelation was written.

Speaker 0: 1:56

The book of Revelation was written to seven churches in Asia Minor. That the apostle John is what I was trying to say. That he wrote to these churches and it was intended to be an encouragement. It was intended to encourage a church, a set of churches, that was experiencing great persecution and he was telling them Jesus wins, no matter what they go through, he wins. And chapter 1 was all about starting that process, and that process that he was starting was he was explaining who Jesus was, and we also talked about how 68% of of the book of revelation is an illusion.

Speaker 0: 2:36

Um, straight back to the old Testament, and especially the way he was describing Jesus. He wasn't saying that literally. Jesus eyes were red and when he talked he talked gravelly, like water and this kind of stuff. Those were illustrations to say that's who he is, that's his kingship, that's his royalty, that's all those different things, right? Well, now that we have this idea of who Jesus is, jesus is going to talk directly to these seven churches and then he's going to talk to them about all the things that are going to come after and about how he is going to win over all the different things. And so for every chapter, we're going to talk about different ways that Jesus overcomes.

Speaker 0: 3:16

In chapter two, it's about how Jesus sees all of us, and so we're going to jump into chapter two, as he's talking about this and I want to give you kind of an idea in every one of these chapters to remind us that who he's talking to. So if you're listening to this on the podcast, you won't see this, but for those of us who are, or those who are, watching YouTube, you can see excuse me, you can see that Rome is way away from here and Jerusalem also is. But for all of these churches, they're experiencing pressure from both Rome and the Roman Empire. They're also receiving pressure from Jerusalem and a lot of these Judaizers who are trying to tell them that they're not really worshiping Jesus unless they follow all of the Old Testament customs and then they have just all the other things that are constantly coming against them. And so these seven churches are just experiencing a lot of different turmoils and strife, both within and without. And so Jesus speaks directly to these seven churches and he gives them very specific words that I think can still speak to anyone who feels like they're in a world of chaos, a world of persecution, a world that doesn't make sense. He's going to preach or speak warnings, but also blessings to them. So we're going to jump right into this Revelation, chapter 2, and we're going to read the things he says to these churches and maybe what it will say to us. You ready? Here we go.

Speaker 0: 4:38

Revelation chapter 2, verse 1. Write this letter to the angel of the church of Ephesus. Now, pause already. Angel of the church of Ephesus. Angel is not it's not really necessarily a heavenly being. It's more of a title, a job title. An angel is a messenger. Now, that can mean a heavenly being you know that we think of as angels, but it can also be a messenger. It's a title. There's different kinds of messengers or angels. So what many scholars believe is this angel means maybe the one who leads that congregation, the one who gives the message or the one who will be giving this message to them. So write this letter to the angel or messenger of the church of Ephesus. This is also, by the way, the church that Timothy was pastoring at the time. Timothy probably was still pastoring about this time and it was also about this time when he was martyred. We'll cover him another time.

Speaker 0: 5:32

This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands. We talked about that yesterday. He says I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don't tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered that they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me, without quitting. But I have this complaint against you you do not love me or each other as you did at first. Look how far you have fallen. Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. These were some idolatrous worshipers who had already gone kind of sideways and they had noticed it was not correct and said no, no, no, not going to do that here. And Jesus is saying they're right.

Speaker 0: 6:37

Verse seven anyone who has ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious, I will give the fruit from the tree of life and the paradise of God. So what he is saying to the church of Ephesus is saying to them, in effect, truth without love is incomplete. And that was a big deal to the city of Ephesus, because Ephesus was dealing with a lot of stuff at the time. As a matter of fact, a little background about Ephesus is that Ephesus was known for its temple of Artemis and its political loyalty to Rome, for its temple of Artemis and its political loyalty to Rome. Christians were facing pressure to compromise and Jesus is encouraging them to hold fast to their love, not just truth. So it's saying make sure that you're putting both of these together, all right.

Speaker 0: 7:24

Now the next one he writes to the church of Smyrna. Verse 8 says Write this letter to the angel of the church of Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is first and last, who is dead but is now alive. I know about your suffering and your poverty, but you are rich. I know the blasphemy of those who oppose you. They say they are Jews but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan. Don't be afraid of what you're about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for 10 days, but you will remain faithful. But if you remain faithful when facing death, I will give you a crown of life. Anyone who has ears to hear, listen to the spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches, whoever's victorious, will not be harmed by the second death. So, in other words, what he is saying to the church of Smyrna is he is saying to them faithfulness and persecution leads to life. And this is important because Smyrna was a wealthy city loyal to Caesar. They had a strong Jewish population and all of these Romans and these Jewish people opposed the Christians. Believers faced economic persecution and slander. That's why Jesus is saying I see how they're treating you, I know what they're doing. You stay faithful and watch what I'll do.

Speaker 0: 8:46

The third message is a message to a church called Pergamum. Verse 12 says write this letter to the angel of the church of Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the two-edged sword. I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne. Yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me when Antipas, my fateful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan's city. But I have a few complaints against you.

Speaker 0: 9:13

You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, from whom showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them how to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. That's all the way back in the Old Testament, the book of Numbers. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who are following the same teaching Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Anyone who has ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To anyone who is victorious, I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven, and I will give to each one a white stone, and the stone will be engraved with a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it Now.

Speaker 0: 10:05

So, basically, what he is saying to the church of Pergamum is do not compromise with false teaching. So don't do that. And the reason why that was important to them was it was a Pergamum, was a home of a massive altar to Zeus and it was the center of emperor worship. And so Jesus is calling it Satan's throne because it was that massive place of idolatrous worship of both Zeus and Caesar and the emperor. And so he commends their faithfulness. But he's saying make sure that you don't allow the worship of Caesar and the worship of Zeus to pollute what you're doing. If you stay faithful to me, I am going to reward you. All right, one more.

Speaker 0: 10:46

He has a message for the church of Thyatira. In verse 18, he says this write this letter to the angel of the church of Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire and whose feet are like polished bronze. I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service and your patient endurance, and I can see your constant improvement in all these things.

Speaker 0: 11:12

But I have this complaint against you you are permitting that woman, that Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet, to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she did not want to turn away from her sins of immorality. Therefore, I'll throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. I will strike her children dead. Then all the Churchills will know that I am the one who searches the thoughts and intentions of every person. I will give to each of you whatever you deserve, but I also have this message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching Deeper truths, as they call them, depths of Satan. Actually, I will ask nothing more of you Except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end. To them I give authority over all the nations. They will rule the nation with a rod of iron and smash them like clay pots. They have the same authority I received from my father and also give them the morning star.

Speaker 0: 12:27

Anyone who has ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. The reason why this was so important to Thyatira is because this was a trade center where participation in the guilds required paganistic rituals. And what is happening is Christians were tempted to blend in in order to keep their jobs. And so what Jesus is saying to them is he is saying to them spiritual complacency, going along with the status quo, leads to death. So resist all of that.

Speaker 0: 12:59

And those who resist the persecution to go along, to get along, to go along and all that kind of stuff, those who resist, man, I got a big plan for you. So what do we do with that? Well, for some people and I'm not saying any of this is wrong is they will look at this and they'll try to read into the future and all this kind of stuff, and there's a place for that. But in the time and the place that the people were living, they were experiencing persecution. They were experiencing from Rome and all the Caesar worship and emperor worship, and on the other side, they were experiencing it from the Jewish people who were saying that you're really not doing it right and all that kind of stuff, and they're just experiencing difficulty all over the place and right in the middle of it, they're just trying to honor Jesus. And so what Jesus says to them is he says be sure to realize that truth without love is incomplete, that faithfulness and persecution leads to life. To be careful, never to compromise to false teaching and to always, always, always choose to follow Jesus. And when we do those things, we choose to follow after Jesus.

Speaker 0: 14:03

It's amazing what happens, because holiness matters, that when we get into this crazy season and crazy time, what we focus on matters so very much. And so I want to ask you this question Would you consider your life right now just to be just a season of chaos, just difficulty? Maybe you identify with these seven churches more than you'd like to admit that it seems like we're just trying to serve Jesus, but there's just pressure all around to conform, to get along in order to go along, or just trying to make it work. Well, can I tell you what Jesus says I got this, I'm going to win. I'm going to win and I have already won and I'm going to show myself strong in your life.

Speaker 0: 14:47

So maybe to you, jesus is saying don't forget, even in the chaos, truth without love is incomplete. Don't forget to show love. Maybe he's saying to you faithfulness is what's going to lead to life. I'm not asking you to be fruitful, I'm asking you to be faithful. You be faithful and I will take care of fruitfulness. Maybe he's warning some of us today Don't compromise with false teaching. Don't go along with something just because it sounds good. Make sure it can be backed up with God's word. Maybe he's saying holiness matters, because when the chaos starts to happen, jesus comes in and he says I got this, you follow me and I'll make everything okay.

Speaker 0: 15:28

Let's pray together right now, god.

Speaker 0: 15:29

Thank you so much for today, god. I'm thankful that for some of us we know we would like to, not like to admit this, but we would say we feel like our life is in chaos, just like the people in the book of Revelation that there just seems like there's wars on every side, and I don't mean wars against nations, but maybe wars against our home, wars against our friends, wars against our very soul. But I know, god, that even in the chaos, even in the persecution, even in the uncertainty, you reign supreme and you see it all. And so I pray, god, that you will help us to make sure we keep you at the center of our lives, because you are the peace in every storm. We celebrate you now in Jesus name. We pray Amen and amen. My hope for you is that you'll realize Revelation, first chapter one, verse seven, says this look, he is coming in the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him. Jesus is coming again, but here's the good news he's already won. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Revelation, chapter 3.