God comes to his suffering church
I am John, your brother, and as a follower of Jesus I am your partner in patiently enduring the suffering that comes to those who belong to his Kingdom. I was put on the island of Patmos because I had proclaimed God’s word and the truth that Jesus revealed. On the Lord’s day the Spirit took control of me, and I heard a loud voice, that sounded like a trumpet, speaking behind me. It said, ‘Write down what you see, and send the book to the churches in these seven cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.’ (verses 9-11)
Read Revelations 1: 9-16
The very old apostle John, probably the last of the twelve still alive, was banished to the island of Patmos by the Roman authorities for teaching and preaching Jesus Christ. It was an isolated and lonely place. But God came to him through the Spirit and gave him this great vision of the future, assuring him that God was watching his church and had it safely in his care. And God charged John to write his messages to the seven churches in Asia Minor, churches that John would have known very well.
Sometimes we may think that God has forgotten or deserted his church. Some churches have lost credibility because of the way they handled abuses. Others seem to be dying because people are leaving and the young are not joining. Some seem to be irrelevant because their agendas are not the agendas of the world in which they live. But God has a message for each of his churches. The seven churches in Asia represent churches all over the world and in every century.
God has a message for you and for your church. He knows exactly the situation you and your congregation are in. What he says may be a message of comfort, or it may be a message of rebuke. But it is a message that you need to hear.
Lord, open my ears, so that I may hear what you are saying to the churches and, more important, what you are saying to me. Amen.
by Kevin Schmidt, in ‘God’s Peace for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2005)
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