Christ and the 7 Churches.                      

The Apostle John was overcome by this wondrous vision of the Lord Jesus and collapsed at His feet as dead. The blinding sight of Christ`s glory, His concentrated gaze and the terrible sword protruding from the mouth all made John`s heart tremble & become terror stricken. But the Lord lays His hand upon him and reassures him that He has all things under His command.

As the `First,` Christ is the creator of all things visible & invisible, and  as the `Last,` He finishes all things in heaven and on the earth. He has conquered death & hell and is alive for evermore.

The Lord Jesus then explains to John what the lampstands and stars represented. As the priest in the earthly temple would move amongst the lampstands and watch to keep their lights burning so it is that Christ, the Head of the Body, who moves amongst the churches makes sure that their lights, their witness of Him is true and clear.

And just as the seven stars, the Pleiades (Job 38: 31) control our planetary system from billions of miles away, so it is that Christ has administrative authority over the churches, His Body, supervising them over the centuries and throughout the world.

                          “The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand,

                                              & the seven golden lampstands:

                                the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,

                       and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.”

                                                                                                                  (Rev. 1: 20)

The Lord Jesus Christ, the founder and perfector of the Church is now shown as its competent Administrator. He is shown walking amongst the seven golden lampstands. Each lampstand fitted on to a common base representing the complete Church, the Body of Christ.  The number seven in Hebrew means complete.

Thus looking back through history we can see that these seven churches are an overview, showing the entire history of its development and conflict against the enemy, while displaying Christ`s competence to meet all challenges, finally culminating in the completing of the mature Body of Christ, His glorious Church.

Thus the Lord Jesus Christ directs John to write to these seven churches in Asia who are representative of all the local churches, the believers who are the Body of Christ.

           Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

The Lord addresses each group particularly, giving words of commendation and encouragement or chastisement and warnings. Christ then counsels each group presenting Himself in clarity and truth. The response is but to repent & obey His Holy Spirit. 

Each church, each group of believers would be encouraged, comforted or challenged by the Lord`s discernment of them. Then down through the centuries as other believers read, they also could receive what Christ is saying by His Holy Spirit.

Now finally today there are believers who have left their first love, as did Ephesus, servants being martyred, as in Symrna, others engrossed and overcome with worldly indulgences, and so on. But each phase has had a period when the outstanding characteristic that is stressed here has been the dominant aspect portrayed in church life.

Thus we see that the church of Laodicea, the final group of believers having to face `every wind of doctrine, ` being `tossed to and fro.` Yet the encouragement is to press on to maturity in Christ and to reach the unity of the faith (what we believe) and the knowledge of the Son of God. (Eph. 4: 13 – 16)