"John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;" - Revelation 1:4
From Omega Frequency: Episode 4 (2:15):
First, we see that John is greeting the seven churches which are in Asia. The first part of the book of Revelation is a series of letters written to seven churches. These churches were in the Roman providence of Asia Minor, which is present day Turkey. They were the churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
These were not churches in the same way that we think of churches in today's modern setting. There was no denominations or different churches on every street corner of Ephesus. Church was not a building it was a movement and fellowship of believers. the word church in Greek is Ekklesia and it means a called out people. All the believers who responded to be called out of the world were the church.
1 Corinthians 6:19 says "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
Originally the churches focal point in ministry was the spiritual building up people's faith by the power of the Holy Ghost. That was able to happen anywhere. today the physical church building is the center of all ministry. We hold our services there, our main outreaches flow from there, the church building is where we come to worship and study the word. It is where we go to serve. It is where we bring the seekers and the unsaved so they can hear the gospel.
A church building is where the Holy Ghost moves corporately. this was not so in the first church. where ever a person filled with the Holy Ghost went the church went. There was no walls. no one needed take a seeker and unsaved person to church to hear the gospel. Worship would walk with the believer. Miracles would walk with the believer. Outreach would walk with the believer. God's word Would walk with the believer. Church could happen when a couple of people met in a person's house.
Jesus made this promise in Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
So how did the original church operate? Most of the time, the church went to the local synagogue on the sabbath, Saturday morning. They did this because the Torah was being read and discussed there. It was rare that the common man would have access to a written copy of what we would call the Old Testament. Then on Saturday night they would gather together in groups in different houses. They would eat and afterwards they would take communion. They would share their needs and pray for one another.
The corporate city church ordained a group of Christian pastors and each one of the pastors would take turns going to a different house church to preach and teach. Now these home assemblies would be interconnected and help and serve one another. John was the Apostle of the seven churches in Asia Minor. He was the one who started the church movement in each of the cities by bringing the gospel there. Then he would train up an overseer there that would be in charge of the local pastors and teachers.
This overseer would also serve as the one the pastors would come to if a question of doctrine or church discipline arose amongst the people. The overseer would then go to the Apostle to get his take on the situation. Then he would pass along the answers to the pastors who would then finally teach it amongst the believers. A lot of times this instruction from the Apostles came in the form of written letters. They would be read among the people so there would be no questions as to what was said. They would also be kept for encouragement or so that if a similar problem arose later, they could go back see what the Apostle said.
These letters were vitally important because sometimes a group one town would have a deception or false doctrine creep into their assembly. That false belief would affect an assembly in a different town because they were so interconnected. Soon the whole city could be dividend on something, or worse yet, become completely corrupted. These letters would be the thing that brought clarity or encouragement back to the whole church.
Why did the Apostle's letter have that authority? We see the answer as we continue on in verse 4. It says this, "...Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;" They had this authority because they spoke in the name of Jesus Christ. He was the one which is, and which was, and which is to come. John studied directly under the Messiah for years. He was ordained and sent out by Jesus personally. Because of this they could be assured that what they were hearing was the everlasting and unchanging Words of the Messiah.
The final part of the verse says, "...and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;" What are the seven spirits and what do they have to do with Jesus. Isa 11:1-2 sheds some light on this.
Isaiah 11:1-2
"11 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;"
Verse one is a messianic prophecy talking about Jesus and his family tree. Verse two list the seven characteristics of the spirit that dwelled in Jesus, and they are as follows:
- The very spirit of God
- The spirit of wisdom
- The spirit of understanding
- The spirit of counsel
- The spirit of might
- The spirit of knowledge
- The spirit of the fear (or reverence) of the Lord
So if he gave up his own powers, then how did he perform the miracles? According to Luke 3:22, he did them through the power of the Spirit of God which came upon him after he was baptized in the Jordon river. He didn't have to do it this way, so there must be an important reason why.
We read why in 1 Peter 2:21, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:" Jesus is our example. He wanted us to follow in his footsteps. We don't have the divine powers of God, so how can we follow in his footsteps? We do it by being filled with the same Holy Spirit Jesus was filled with.
The first church was born on the day of Pentecost because that was the day they received the baptism of the the Holy Spirit. That's why they preach like Him. That is why they healed like Him. That is why they had His power. It would be completely unfair of Jesus to tell us to do the things He did if we as humans had no access to His divine power. But we can be filled with the same divine spirit He was filled with. If you need wisdom, might or any of the other seven gifts of the spirit that rested upon Jesus, you have access to it. If we are redeemed by the suffering of the Messiah, then we have the privilege to humbly ask our heavenly father for it.
Luke 11:13 promises, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
When we are filled with the Spirit of God that's when we become the temple of God just like we read in 1 Corinthians 6:19 earlier. The reason why the book or Revelation starts with the seven letters of the church, is simply this, before a church can have victory in the second part of the book the church must have its foundations right.
We need to understand that the church is not merely four walls but a body of believers that have been Ekklesia, or called out of the world's system. We don't need to have a big building or comfortable pews or a great sound system or musical instruments or anything else the early church didn't have. We just need the power that the first church had.
We need the community that they had. What they had was a living church that went with them everywhere they went. They would meet in the synagogue, homes and even in the Roman sewer system when persecution got really bad. That's a good thing because the book of Revelation says that there will be a day when massive persecution comes. It will be greater than the persecution that has already come to the church in China and in other places where they tear churches down. But be of good cheer, because they can't tear down the spirit of God.
In Christ Alone!
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