Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: They say, prophecy is history, written in advance. Today we'll be looking at a remarkable series of prophecies in the book of Revelation that outlines 2,000 years of church history, all predicted centuries before it ever happened. Right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom, and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello. Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick is teaching on the Mystery of the Seven Churches in Revelation chapters two and three. I'll be back at the close of the program to tell you about two special resources we're making available during this series, so be sure to have a pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you and welcome, listening friend, to another edition of the program. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on the mystery of the seven churches. Now, what is the mystery of the seven churches? In the book of Revelation, chapter 1, verses 19 and 20, the Lord tells John to, "Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven gold candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." Now watch this. "And the seven candlesticks, or the seven menorahs, are the seven churches."

And when we look carefully at the messages to the seven churches here in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, we find that the seven churches represent seven successive periods of church history. And notice how many messages there are? Seven. Why seven? Because in the Bible, seven is the number of fullness and completion. So these seven churches represent seven periods in the history of the church, the entire church age, from beginning to end.

Now let's look at the first message to the church at Ephesus. Revelation chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. He says, "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: these things saith he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands." Now who is that? Jesus the Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach. Now here's the message. He says in verse 2, "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars." Verse 3, "And you have persevered, or borne, and have patience, and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary."

So that's the first part of the message to the believers at Ephesus. Now let's see what the Lord commends them for. First of all, he commends them for their works and for the fact that they've stuck with it. You know, there are some people who respond to the gospel on a purely emotional level and they just don't have what it takes to carry on when things get tough.

It's like the parable of the sower, where Jesus talked about the four kinds of soil and one of them was the rocky soil where the little plant just sprang up overnight and grew like crazy, at least for a little while. But when the sun started beating down and things got tough, the plant withered away and died. Why? Because it didn't have the root system that a healthy plant would have in good soil.

And that's the way it is in the kingdom of heaven. There are some people in the professing church whose hearts are like the rocky soil. They hear the gospel and they respond, at least on a superficial emotional level. But over a period of time, when heartaches come, when trials come, when temptations come, when persecution comes, they wither away. Why? Because there was no root, no real source of life and vitality. And the Lord commends the Ephesian Christians for not being like that.

He says, "I know your works, your labor, and your patience." The Greek word for patience is *hupomone*, which literally means to remain under. It's a picture of a man walking down the road with a heavy load on his shoulders. And sometimes it gets so heavy, he just doesn't think he can go on. But what does he do? He hangs tough. He doesn't give up. He keeps on going, even when he doesn't think he can take another step. That's what this word means, and that was a quality the Ephesian believers had.

But he commends them for something else as well. He says, "I also know how thou canst not bear them which are evil." And he says, "You have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars." Now isn't that interesting? At that very early stage of church history, religious deception was already a problem in the church. This Messianic congregation at Ephesus had encountered religious deceivers. And it says they tried them. They tested them.

1 John 4:1 says, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but," watch this, "try the spirits whether they be of God." Why? He says, "Because many false prophets have gone out into the world." That's why we're to try the spirits. That word "try" is the Greek *dokimazo*, which was the same word used in ancient Greece for detecting counterfeit money. It meant to make sure a gold coin or a silver coin had the full weight it was supposed to have.

In Athens, in particular, the problem was that unscrupulous money-changers would shave the edges off a coin so that a $20 gold piece, for example, might only have $17 or $18 worth of gold in it, and they would pocket the difference. But a coin that was *dokimos* had been weighed and examined and it measured up to what it was supposed to be. And the Bible says we are supposed to weigh and examine the spirits to see whether or not they are from God, whether or not they measure up.

Just because someone says he's God's messenger doesn't mean it's so. And there has never been another age when this advice was more needed than this age in which you and I live, my friend. Never before has there been so much religious deception, so much phoniness, so much showmanship, so much superficiality in the church than there is today.

You say, "But Gary, we shouldn't talk about that." Is that right? I thought the Bible said that judgment must begin at the house of God. If the church can't police itself and identify charlatans and racketeers who fleece the flock of God, then God will bring in government authorities or some other form of authority to do it for us.

You see, my friend, the religious world today is full of deception and error. False gospels are being preached by false prophets promoting false religious systems. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 4, Paul says that our minds shouldn't be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Then he warns the church about preachers who preach "another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted."

And look at the religious world today. Look at how cluttered and complicated the gospel has become. In some cases, it's been changed so much, it doesn't even resemble the original gospel. It's lost the simplicity of simple faith in the living Christ and it's become "another gospel." And that word "another" is the Greek *heteros*, which means another of a different kind. It's not *allos*, which means another of the same kind, but *heteros*, which is another of a different kind. In other words, it's become so cluttered up with tradition and so cluttered up with error, it's not even the same gospel anymore. Are you listening to me? It's a corrupted gospel, a contaminated gospel. It's become something different from what it originally was, no longer the simplicity of faith in Jesus, plus nothing, minus nothing.

Do you remember when the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas what he had to do in order to be saved? What did they tell him? "Well, first of all, you've got to go see a priest and confess your sins. You've got to get absolution. Or you've got to find a preacher and get yourself baptized. Or you've got to go through catechism or some confirmation class. Or you've got to join a certain denomination. Or you've got to speak in tongues and get the Holy Ghost." Is that what they told the Philippian jailer? No. Do you want to know what they told him? They said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Acts 16:31. Believe on Adonai Yeshua HaMashiach, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved.

And the same formula will work for anyone else in your house. Anyone who will believe can be saved. That's it. That's the simplicity of the gospel, the good news of Yeshua the Messiah. You know, I was watching our local public access television channel here in San Antonio the other night. And there was a preacher on there promoting a certain denomination that claims to be the original New Testament church. And he had these charts and diagrams and he was trying to explain how a person can be saved and know for sure he's going to heaven when he dies.

So I thought, you know, I'll listen to this guy. Maybe I'll learn something. You know how many steps he had in the process of salvation? Eight. I mean, this guy rambled on for 30 minutes explaining the eight requirements for me to join the one true church and to be saved. Let me tell you something, my friend, that's a corruption of the gospel. That's not the simplicity of Christ. Do you want to know how to be saved? I can tell you in five seconds. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust him. Believe in him. Give your heart to Jesus. That's it.

You say, "Okay, what else is there?" Nothing else. You say, "Come on, what's the gimmick?" No gimmick, my friend. All you have to do is say it and mean it. Romans 10 verse 9 says "that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Well, once again our time is gone. But you see how the Lord commends this Ephesian church because they were discerning. They tested the spirits to see if they were of God. They knew how to discern between the true and the counterfeit. And we'll continue here in Revelation chapter 2 next time. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. If you liked what you heard today, you will be pleased to know we've taken all of the programs in this series and placed them on one convenient CD entitled "The Mystery of the Seven Churches," and it's yours for a gift of just $6 or more to Messianic Perspectives.

Also available is the companion chart, adapted from the original drawn by Clarence Larkin in the early 1900s, entitled "The Messages to the Seven Churches Compared with Church History." This interesting chart shows how the messages to the seven churches in Revelation correspond to the seven successive periods of church history. It's the perfect companion for this series of studies on the Mystery of the Seven Churches. So that's the CD for $6 and the chart for $3, or both for a total of $9.

Just visit our secure online store at MessianicSpecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, P.O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on the mystery of the seven churches right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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