Thru the Bible

Steve Shwetz: Do you ever wish you could receive a personal letter from Jesus? Well, seven churches in Asia did. They came through the Apostle John's pen but were inspired by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Welcome to Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. In our study in Revelation chapter two, Dr. McGee calls them God's love letters to churches. They were an encouragement and sometimes a warning to the first recipients of this message, and they do the same for us even today.

But before we dig in, I want to share a few letters from some of our World Prayer Team members. First, a note from Eugene, a longtime listener in Washington, D.C. He says, "I've been on and off the Bible Bus for close to 31 years. For the last five years, I've been very consistent, and it has improved my spiritual life tremendously. I'm a member of the prayer team as well, and it alone has heightened my prayer life. I really could go on and on. I want you to know that Steve and Greg are on my prayer list as well as the entire ministry. Continue flinging the seed. It will not come back to Him void. Love you all with the love of Jesus Christ. Peace."

Well, thanks for writing and for the prayers, Eugene. We really do appreciate it. I got your seat saved as we continue to travel through God's Word together. Next, we've got Margaret. She's in Canada. She says, "Good day to you. I must say, being a part of the team has been a tremendous help in so many ways as we pray for one another. I get to read in my email from others around the world how their lives have been changed by hearing the Word. I never prayed for the Bible study tools I have; I believe I just took it for granted. But thank the Lord that you remind me of how fortunate we are to have them. Blessings to you all in the mighty name of Jesus Christ as we continue to fight the good fight of faith."

Well, thanks for writing, Margaret. It's a pleasure to journey through God's Word and to pray together with you. Now, our last note is from Chris in Ohio. Chris writes, "It's a blessing to be on the Bible Bus and World Prayer Team. This second time around, I have learned more. The Holy Spirit has helped me more in the minor prophets, an area I had trouble understanding. I'm currently on Second Peter and love every minute of this study. After my study, I go right to my mail to read the testimonies and where we are praying with the team.

There is great joy in praying for others and knowing others pray for me. This ministry was introduced to me by a friend from work in 2015. It may sound funny to say that it's a miracle that I have stayed with you for almost 10 years, but I know my old self. Years before I joined the Bible study, I asked Jesus to save me and repented of my sins. But until I got on the Bible Bus, I never knew how much I did not know about the Word of God. I'm growing slowly but surely in the grace of our Lord. Please pray for me as I pray for you."

Well, thanks for that great note, Chris. Such an encouragement. I'm growing slowly and surely, too, right alongside you. Well, if you'd like to join our World Prayer Team or share your story to encourage others to join us as well, here's what you can do to be in touch. You can sign up for the team through our app or at TTB.org. That's the quickest and easiest way to do it. You can also send us a note at BibleBus@ttb.org or by mail: Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. You can also call and leave a message anytime at 1-800-65BIBLE.

Now let's pray together. Father, thank You for the evidence of Your work among those who listen to this program. Would You lead us and keep our eyes fixed on You? Lord, we pray that Your Word goes out with effectiveness even in the darkest corners of this world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Open to Revelation chapter two as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We come to the second chapter of the book of Revelation. This is the second major division in the book. These are the things that are, church-related things. And we are going to find out in each one of these messages, beginning here with the first to Ephesus, and we have here in the first seven verses of the second chapter the letter that the Lord Jesus sends to this church there.

We today probably are not conversant with the fact that in the first and second centuries, letter writing and travel were just commonplace in the Roman Empire. There was extensive communication throughout the Roman Empire at that period. And so these seven letters of the Apocalypse are very remarkable for other reasons. And the most important: it's the direct letter from Christ to the churches. And therefore, we have two epistles to the Ephesians: the epistle that Paul wrote and now the epistle that John wrote. And the Lord Jesus is the one that's sending it through John here.

Dr. Deissmann, years ago in his book *Light from the Ancient East*, made a distinction between letters and epistles, which actually has proven to be artificial and entirely false. These seven letters had a very large and extensive outlet. They reached multitudes of people. You see, they were addressed to an area. And I want to say a word about these seven churches in general. They were outstanding churches in that day. However, there were other outstanding churches.

And this area of the Roman Empire was probably the most important part of the Roman Empire in the first and second and even the third centuries. And the reason is that here is where East and West met. By 2000 B.C., there was a civilization along this coast of Asia Minor as we know it today, the west coast of Turkey there. It's a very beautiful area, very lovely area. It reminds me a great deal of Southern California, but it's without smog, of course. And it is beautiful country as you'll see anywhere, and some of the richest land is there.

Here was the great heart of the great Hittite nation in ancient times. And by 2000, there were these cities that were inhabited. Ephesus was inhabited at 2000 B.C. So was Smyrna, which is modern Izmir. And Pergamum, obviously a little later on. And then Thyatira and Sardis came along probably later and were made great in the times of Alexander the Great. And there was known as the Anatolian civilization that met the Greek civilization there.

And you can always tell the difference. The gods of the Anatolians, which were a more primitive people, their gods were beasts. Whereas the gods of the Romans were human beings, actually projected out and made large, of course. So that what you have here are letters that travel through that area, and the impact actually was tremendous at that time. For instance, when you come to the city of Ephesus, it was a city of about 200,000 people actually.

It was a great city, and they had this great outdoor theater there that would seat 20,000. And it was a city that was made of white marble. It was a beautiful place. Paul comments on that. And we may think that the impact of the gospel was not great in that particular area. But if we think that, we are entirely wrong. Actually in the city of Ephesus, it made such an impact that at the entrance to the harbor, there were four great pillars.

And they have the cross—only one stands today. It has the cross on it. And one was to Matthew, one to Mark, one to Luke, and one to John. You see that after Paul and after John, there was a tremendous Christian population in that area. And even Dr. Luke could write concerning that area that all in Asia, both Jew and Gentile, heard the gospel. And there could have been upwards of 25 million people in that area.

Here is the place where the Roman emperors came. It was a great resort area. And here is the place, as we've said, where East is East and West is West, and the twain did meet there. And it formed a great civilization. And here is where Paul had, I suppose, his greatest ministry, was in the city of Ephesus and out from there. The gospel was sounded forth throughout all of Asia, Dr. Luke said, so that all heard it, both Jew and Greek.

Now, not all turned to Christ, but everyone heard it. That was probably the greatest movement and the greatest, what we would call, revival that has taken place in the history of the church. It took place in that particular area. Now, the first church that's mentioned is Ephesus because it was the most prominent. And it represents the apostolic church, the church at its very best. Now, we said last time we were going to call attention to the well-defined and the definite format that the Lord Jesus used in each one of these letters to the seven churches.

First of all, there was some feature of the glorified Christ, which we saw in chapter one, that was lifted from the vision in that chapter, and it was emphasized in addressing each church. And a particular thing was emphasized for a particular purpose, of course. And then the second thing that's noticeable: the letters are addressed to the angel of each church. And as we said, the angel we believe is just a human messenger and was, I believe, what we would call the pastor of the church today.

And I'm going to stick by it. I love to hear a pastor called an angel because I've heard them called everything else. Now, the third thing: He begins by stating to each, "I know thy works." Now there's been some question about a couple of these letters. The fourth thing: He first gives a word of commendation and then He gives a word of condemnation. That is His method. I think the exception should be noted.

There is no word of condemnation to Smyrna or Philadelphia. Smyrna was the martyr church, and He's not about to condemn that church. And Philadelphia was the missionary church that's getting out the Word of God, and He didn't condemn it. There is no word of commendation for Laodicea. That is the apostate church. And then the fifth thing we'd call your attention to is this: each letter concludes with the warning, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith." This makes this, therefore, a tremendous letter, a tremendous message, by the way.

Now I want us to get into this message now and into this letter that He writes to Ephesus. And I want to say just another word about this city. It was a beautiful city. When Paul landed at the harbor, there was that great Harbor Boulevard, white marble, and it's there today. And on each side, there were all sorts of lovely buildings, temples, and also certain shops that they had there—gift shops, I guess the ladies would call them today.

There was a great market on the right as he went up, and then ahead of him on the side of the mountain was this great theater that seated 20,000. Way off to the left of him was the amphitheater that seated over 100,000 people. At times, probably as many as a million to two million people gathered in Ephesus. Here is where Paul had his greatest ministry, and here is where John later became pastor.

Now the city was first formed around the temple of Diana by the Anatolians, and they worshipped Diana of the Ephesians. And the temple at first was a wooden structure. It was built at the very beginning on a very low place right by the side of the ocean. The harbor came right up there. But in time, the Cayster and the Little Maeander river—I have never in my life seen a country that washes as much as that Maeander valley washes.

I tell you, the river itself is like soup. It's not just water; it's soup. It's carrying down so much deposit. And it soon filled in around the temple. By the time of Alexander the Great, the night he was born, that temple burned. And when he came there and took the city, he turned it over to one of his generals, Lysimachus. And Lysimachus there attempted to move the people away from there because already the silt was coming in, the harbor was filling up, and they had to move farther down. And he moved them to higher ground, and that's where you see the ruins of that city today.

It's the city that was there when Paul came there. Then on the ruins of where the old temple was, they put down charcoal and skins. It was very low place. They built the temple of Diana. It became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was built, as we've said, on an artificial foundation of skins and charcoal. It was to make it actually earthquake proof, and it was built on a marsh that was there.

The doors of it were of carved cypress wood. The staircase was carved out of one vine from Cyprus. It was a regular art gallery with the masterpieces of Praxiteles, Phidias, Scopas, Polyclitus, and Apelles' famous painting of Alexander the Great was there. But behind the purple curtain was that awful shrine, the most sacred idol of heathenism, Diana, the many-breasted one. And it was the largest Greek temple ever built, 418 feet one inch by 239 feet four and a half inches.

There were 100 external columns, and there is some difference of opinion, of course, about the exact size of it. But it was four times larger than the Parthenon. And it was finally destroyed by the Goths in 256 A.D. So that this great temple that was there in Paul's day, and around it the grossest immorality was performed. Because when you move farther inland, it becomes nothing in the world but sex orgies, and her name is changed from Diana to Cybele.

Now this gives you some conception of this place. And if you want to know how wonderful that temple was, that is as far as the physical beauty was concerned, if you ever go to Istanbul, go to Hagia Sophia. And those beautiful green columns that are there were taken out of the temple of Diana by Justinian when he built Hagia Sophia. And actually, this temple was really a thing of beauty.

The temple of Artemis or of Diana, and she was the oriental goddess of fertility, the many-breasted one. She had a trident in one hand and a club in the other. And it was a crude image that stood in the temple, and it was worshipped by probably more people than any other form of idolatry. The worshippers here indulged in, I suppose, the basest religious rites of sensuality. The wildest bacchanalian orgies took place, excessive and vicious. It would make some of the present-day new morality look like a Sunday school picnic.

Now Paul came here, you will recall, on his third missionary journey to begin his ministry. And for two years in the school of Tyrannus, the Word went out. And it was a great door and effectual that was opened unto him, but there were many adversaries. And John the Apostle of love, the son of thunder, he came as a pastor. He was exiled, and then after about 10 years of being exiled and in prison, he returned to Ephesus, and he's buried at the Basilica of St. John that is on the highest point there.

Now the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to this church in the midst of crass materialism, degraded animalism, base paganism, and dark heathenism. And will you listen to Him as He speaks to this church because, very frankly, I think this is one of the most important of all. Will you notice what He says? "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands."

Do you notice that He holds with His hands the church? It's under His control. He doesn't have it today, but He did then. And He walks up and down. I think He's still walking up and down and still judging His church, and you see Him do that. Now He has here seven words of commendation that He says to this church. He says, "I know your works." We need to understand that He's speaking to believers.

God is not asking the lost world for works. It's not by works of righteousness which we've done, but according to His mercy that He saved us by the washing of regeneration. This is the thing that is important. Paul says in Romans 4:5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Now Christ is talking to His own here.

After they're saved, He wants to talk to you about good works. And He has a lot to say about good works. We are told, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

And Paul could write to Titus in the Epistle to Titus 1:16, "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." This is very important for us to see, by the way. Someone has said that the Christian ought to be like a good watch: all gold, open face, well-regulated, dependable, and filled with good works. And so here He's saying to this church, as Paul had said before, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then he told them what you can do as a Spirit-filled believer. And now the Lord commends them for their good works. And then He says, "and thy labor." Now what's the difference between works and labor? Well, this word labor has in it the meaning of weariness. Jesus being wearied with His journey. They got tired working for the Lord, got weary in the working. Now the third thing He mentions here commends them for is their patience.

That's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And also the fourth thing is, "and how thou canst not bear them which are evil." They couldn't bear evil men. The fifth thing that is mentioned here, "thou didst try them which say they are apostles, and are not, and has found them liars." Now they tested anyone that came into Ephesus and said he was an apostle. And if they found out that he wasn't an apostle—they'd ask him whether he'd seen the resurrected Christ—and they soon found out whether he really was an apostle.

And if he wasn't, why, they just told him to leave town, and they generally got out of town. In other words, they always tested, which I think is certainly more true today even than then. Now He says, "and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored." Now you'll notice, for His name's sake they were bearing the cross. They preach Christ; they believed in the virgin birth; they believed in His deity and His sacrificial death, and they paid a price for it.

And the seventh thing is, "and hast not fainted." It really is "hast not grown weary." What does He mean? He said before that they had grown weary, now He says they haven't grown weary. Well, this is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith. And I think I can illustrate it by what Dwight L. Moody once said. When he came home after a campaign, he was worn out. His family begged him not to go to the next one, and he told them, he says, "I grow weary in the work, but not of the work."

And there's a lot of difference. You can get weary in the work of Christ, but it's tragic if you get weary of the work of Christ. Now these are the words of commendation that He has to say to the apostolic church. Seven words of commendation. Now one word of condemnation here in verse four. Now I'm going to change the reading here in order to get at the meaning. "Nevertheless I have against thee that thou hast left thy best love."

Now actually we are beginning to think that the Lord Jesus is just picking at peccadilloes, that it seems rather slight, seems to be trivial, petty. Is He being picayunish here when He says that you're leaving your best love? Well, may I say to you, it may seem very slight to you and me today, but it was very important then. And it's very important today, and we're going to see next time why it was so important. And this is where the church first went off the track. Not on doctrine, but in a personal relationship to the Lord Jesus. We'll see that next time. And until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Shwetz: Yes, it's your personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that really matters. We'll find out more as we continue in Revelation 2. Many think that the book of Revelation is hard to understand, but Dr. McGee thought otherwise. So join us as we continue in our journey through this amazing book and be sure to get your copy of Dr. McGee's notes and outlines to help you follow along.

You can download our digital book that contains all of the notes and outlines for our five-year journey by clicking on "Briefing the Bible" right there in our app or look for it at TTB.org. You can also call us at 1-800-65BIBLE to have a paperback copy sent to you by mail. Again, that's 1-800-65BIBLE or visit TTB.org. Well, I'm Steve Shwetz, so grateful for your company on the Bible Bus and for your partnership in taking God's whole Word to His whole world.

Today's study is always available free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible Bus travelers. Just go to TTB.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we'd love to know: what's God teaching you?