Paul's Epistles And The Seven Churches 06-11-11 - CBCG
Paul’s Epistles and the Seven ChurchesPaul’s Epistles and the Seven ChurchesFred R. Coulter—June 11, 2011Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbathservices. This particular Sabbath is the Sabbathbefore Pentecost and I’ve already done a video forthat ahead of time, but I thought we would recordthis because I’m going to adjust the sermonsubstantially from what I gave for Day 49, for thevideo.were given—identified by Christ to the churches—are actually given in the Epistles of Paul.These are direct letters from Christ to thechurches—direct letters—because He tells themright here, Revelation 1:19: “Write the things thatyou saw, and the things that are, and the things thatshall take place hereafter. The mystery of the sevenstars that you saw in My right hand, and the sevengolden lampstands, is this: the seven stars are theangels of the seven churches; and the sevenlampstands that you saw are the seven churches” (vs19-20).Let’s realize this: In Deuteronomy 16 Godsays there are seven weeks to the harvest. And that’s49 days, and it has to be complete weeks—day onethrough seven. Then after the harvest then, you havethe Holy Day. But it’s very interesting, because whatdid Jesus say on one of the Feast days in John 5concerning a Holy Day? He says, ‘I work and MyFather works’—there’s a spiritual work. So, on theFeast of Pentecost there is a spiritual work that Godis doing and also there is a spiritual harvest that Goddoes Himself. It is the workers of the eleventh hour.Just like there are seven weeks to the harvest, thereare also seven churches in the book of Revelation.It’s very interesting how these churches wereselected. It also has to do with the structure of theBible. We will notice that the seven churches areEphesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis,Philadelphia, and Laodicea. There’s no letter to thechurches in Antioch. There’s no letter to thechurches in Heliopolis. There’s no letter to thechurches of Rome. But these are all connected on amail route; this shows a succession of the churches.Let’s understand how the Bible is puttogether and this will help us in understanding whatwe’re going to cover today. Those patterns of seven,you know the seven divisions of the Bible, and theGospels and Acts being the middle portion of theBible. And of course, that connects the OldTestament and the New Testament together with theunity of Scriptures.Also we can look at it here, because He says,v 19 “ the things that are [Jesus is looking at thechurches as they were then.] (But also He says): And the things that shall take place hereafter ”In the Bible we have prophecies of all of Israel—don’t we?—and Judah, and many of the leadingnations of the world. But what is the most importantthing right now to God the Father and Jesus Christ?His churches! Do you think that God would not havesomething in prophecy concerning His churches? Orwould He? Yes! They’re contained right here inthese seven churches.Then after that, what do we have? We havethe seven General Epistles! Why don’t we haveeight? Why don’t we have ten? We don’t! We see aseries of sevens and we also see when we get toRevelation, many sevens that are involved. As amatter of fact, the whole book is based aroundseven. Then we come to the Epistles of Paul. And hewrote 14 epistles altogether. One of them was ageneral epistle, the book of Hebrews. Then to thechurches he wrote two epistles to the Corinthiansand two epistles to the Thessalonians, but he wroteto seven churches all together.Just like other prophecies that we find in theBible, when we come to understand them even more,we find out that we have to go back to God’s Wordto put it together as the Bible says, ‘a little here, alittle there, and line upon line,’ and so forth. Whatwe are going to do is this. If you’re taking notes,why don’t you write down each one of the churches:Ephesus, and then leave some lines, and then writedown Smyrna, leave some more lines; write down:Pergamos; then Thyatira Sardis, Philadelphia, andLaodicea.Now these seven churches that Paul wroteto, and the seven churches in Revelation have aconnection with the beginning and with the ending,but we will see also that the solution to the problemsof the churches in Rev. 2 and 3 are found back in theEpistles of Paul. So again we have a unity ofScripture.It’s very interesting that the first church,Ephesus, we have an epistle to the Ephesians byPaul. And the last church, Laodicea, we have thatepistle that was to be read, which was sent to theColossians. Paul is tied in to the beginning and theending of the seven churches; I think it’s kind ofinteresting.What we’re going to do today, is we aregoing to look at just an overview of Rev. 2 and 3,and then we are going to look at some of the Epistlesof Paul and see how the solution to the problems that1
Paul’s Epistles and the Seven ChurchesWhat we are going to do is we’re going toexamine the seven churches and then see thesolution to them, and we can see part of the solutionsin the Epistles of Paul. Let’s save Ephesus till last.The Church at Smyrna Revelation 2 1-Thessalonians 2-Thessalonianshave to have your mind made up—right? Yes,indeed! So they did.Then it says, v 6: “And you becameimitators of us and of the Lord.” What’s veryimportant to understand here that this connects rightwith Rev. 2 with the Smyrneans is because we arelooking to Christ, we are looking to God and that’swhat he told them to do.This is a church that had no major outstanding sins.And it’s very interesting what He says to them here.Revelation 2:9, He says: “I know your works andtribulation and poverty (but you are rich), and theblasphemy of those who declare themselves to beJews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan .[Then he tells them]: Do not fear any of the thingsthat you are about to suffer [what you’re going togo through] Behold, the devil is about to castsome of you into prison, that you may be tried; andyou shall have tribulation ten days. Be faithful untodeath ” (vs 9-10). Then He gives the promise,‘You overcome, you’ll not be hurt of the seconddeath.’ So here we have a church that is extremelypersecuted.“.having accepted the Word in muchpersecution with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (v 6).And. of course, the Smyrneans were persecuted.Who was the one behind it? Satan the devil—asynagogue of Satan. Read in the book of Acts, whowas the one who stirred up the trouble for Paul andBarnabas there in Thessalonica? The Jews! Paultalks about them here a little bit and theirpersecutions that they are suffering.1-Thessalonians 2:1: “For you yourselves,brethren, know that the visit we had with you wasnot without effect. But before we came, we hadsuffered and had been insulted at Philippi, even asyou know; but we were bold in our God to speak thegospel to you, even in much conflict” (vs 1-2).We find a similar parallel to this in theEpistles of Paul in 1-Thessalonians and also areference to the Jews. Let’s go there and examine theparallels that we have between the Church at Smyrnaand the Epistle of 1-Thessalonians. This is quite anepistle, and as a matter of fact, it’s interesting, this isthe first epistle that Paul wrote. We learn a lot rightin the first chapter of what we are to do and how ourconduct needs to be. This ties right in with ‘befaithful unto death,’ regardless of the circumstances.What we also see with Paul, we see many,many of the things that he encounters and he bringsthe solution to are the same problems that we findthe churches would be confronted with at that timeand also prophetically down through history and alsoat the end-time. Isn’t it interesting? Let’s talk aboutthe Church at the end-time for just a minute becausethe pattern of Revelation is what? Always remember how Paul opened hisepistles, 1-Thessalonians 1:1: “ Grace and peacebe to you from God our Father and the Lord JesusChrist.” Here we see also the unity of Scripture:Revelation and what we have here. Paul mentionsthat they are continually in his prayers (v 2).seven churches that areseven churches that will bethen what about if there are sevenchurches at the end as God looks at thechurches—not in any corporate structure as we do business inthe world, but as the heart and mind of the people.So that conforms with what we have in the book ofRevelation—seven out of which comes seven, out ofwhich comes seven. We have that also in the patternwith the seals:Verse 3: “Without fail, we remember yourwork of faith. [that ties right in with theSmyrneans.] .and your labor of love, and yourendurance in the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,before our God and Father; knowing your election,brethren, as you are beloved by God” (vs 3-4). Thisis very important for people to know when they aresuffering a lot of persecution and they’re goingthrough a lot of trouble. That’s why in the LoveSeries, the first one that I gave was Remember,When All Else Fails God Loves You. seven sealsseven trumpet plaguesseven last plaguesWe find seven all the way through. Paul wrote 14epistles, which is two times seven.Verse 3: “For our exhortation was not out oferror, nor from uncleanness, nor with guile; but evenas we were approved by God to be entrusted with theGospel, we speak in this manner: as those whoplease not men, but God Who proves our hearts” (vs3-4). Of course, that’s what it is when we go throughHe talks about how he came with theGospel, v 5: “.in power and in the Holy Spirit, andwith great conviction; even as you know what sort ofmen we were among you for your sake.” In order toknow that you’re going to be a martyr and die, doyou not have to have great conviction? You already2
Paul’s Epistles and the Seven Churchessevere persecution and things that they wentthrough.men, but even as it is in Truth—the Word of God,which is also working in you who believe. For,brethren, you became imitators of the Churches ofGod in Judea which are in Christ Jesus; because youalso suffered the same things from your owncountrymen as they also suffered from the Jews [Boy, they suffered, and Paul was the leadinginstrument for a long time with that suffering.] Who killed both the Lord Jesus and their ownprophets, and drove you out, and do not please God,and are contrary to all men” (vs 12-15). Notice thepersecution that they had. You don’t find this inCorinth; you don’t find this in Ephesus; you don’tfind this in the Churches of Pergamos and Thyatira,you find something entirely different.Notice how Paul always emphasizes Godand Truth and love and service and the kind ofspeaking that he did. Also let’s understand this,epistles or letters are personal communications, sothe whole structure of the epistles in the NewTestament is entirely different than how God dealtwith people in the Old Testament. Here He’s dealingwith us personally. That’s why we have thesepersonal letters.Verse 5: “For neither at any time did we useflattering words with you, even as you know, nor acover for covetousness—God is our witness. [Boy,they ought to put that up on the Trinity Channeltoday—don’t you think?] .nor were we seekingglory from men, neither from you nor from others.”(vs 5-6). That’s a key. That’s a key to the wholepreaching of the Gospel and what every ministerneeds to use as an example. Verse 16: “Forbidding us to speak to theGentiles so that they might be saved in order to fillup their sins always .” Here we have the problemof persecution. We have the problem that wasexactly the same that the Jews brought upon theJews in Judea who believed in Christ. And it’s thesame way today. Any Jew who truly believes inChrist the way he ought to makes himself an enemyof his own countrymen.Are you serving the brethren?Are you teaching them to come to Christ?Are you teaching them to have a personalrelationship?Are you humbling yourself before God todo as Paul did here?What is it that you want?1-Thessalonians 4:1[transcriber’s correction]; here’sthe exhortation that God gave to them: “Now then,as for the rest, brethren, we are beseeching andexhorting you in the Lord Jesus. [I want toemphasize again how often he’s pointing them toChrist and to the Father, because this is what’snecessary when you’re facing death.] .even as youreceived from us how you are duty-bound to walkand to please God, that you would abound stillmore.”Someone wrote me a letter about a man who claimsto be an apostle of Christ today. He summarized theletter, and he said, ‘What do you think of it?’ Ianswered back to him, I said, ‘Well, it looks likeinsanity to me and throws of desperation just beforeterrible calamity’s about ready to fall.’ So I said,‘You be the judge. I don’t know.’Again, notice what it is: walking in God’sway, v 2: “For you know what commandments wegave you through the Lord Jesus; because this is thewill of God—even your sanctification—that youabstain from fornication” (vs 2-3). That was not abig problem here in Thessalonica, but it sure was abig problem in Corinth and we’ll get to that later andhow that interacts with the churches in Rev. 2 and 3.Verse 10: “You are witnesses, and also God,how holily and righteously and blamelessly weconducted ourselves with you who believe; even asyou know how we were exhorting and consolingeach one of you, as a father does his own children,And earnestly testifying, that you may walk worthilyof God.” (vs 10-12). This gets back to the way thatGod wants every minister to deal with the brethren.Out of all of this, out of all the trouble, outof all the difficulties that we go through, God iscalling us to eternal life and to rule with Him. That’swhy we need the grace of God. It can’t be done inany other way.Today, we are in such a corporate mode inthe world. I even get sent the magazine free, I neverread it, I just throw it in the trash, it’s called ChurchExecutive. What is happening, they are managingpeople’s lives like you manage a corporation, ratherthan teaching people how to manage their livesthrough the Holy Spirit under Christ. This is whatwe see with Paul, especially in his first epistle. Verse 12: “.walk worthily of God, Who iscalling you to His own kingdom and glory. Becauseof this, we give thanks to God without ceasing: thatwhen you received the Word of God, which youheard from us, you did not accept it as the word ofwe’re called by gracewe’re forgiven by gracewe live through gracewe operate through graceAll of that’s the way that it is.Let’s come to 2-Thessalonians 1:3 and seehow he talked even more about that: “We are dutybound. [There are certain things that we are3
Paul’s Epistles and the Seven Churchesobligated to do, brethren.] .We are duty-bound tothank God always for you, brethren, even as it isfitting, because your faith is increasing abundantly,and the love of each one of you is abounding towardone another.” Isn’t that how Christ said we are to beidentified by people in the world? Yes, He did!Verse 4: “So that we ourselves are boastingabout you in the Churches of God because of yourendurance and faith in all your persecutions, and inthe tribulations that you are bearing . [Sounds anawful lot like the message to the Smyrneans—doesn’t it? Be faithful unto death, receive a crownof life!] Your faith and endurance are visibletestimony of the righteous judgment of God, so thatyou may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God,for which you are suffering. Since it is righteouswith God to recompense tribulation to those who arepersecuting you” (vs 4-6). Is God perfect? Yes!Is His law perfect? Yes!Is His Word perfect? Yes!Are His commandments perfect? Yes!Are His Sabbath and Holy Days perfect?Yes!Can you improve upon perfection, you beingimperfect?I had an interesting conversation yesterday in theoffice. We had an appointment with the PitneyBowes representative. They come around once ayear, because you have to have a Pitney-Bowesmachine in order to do the postage. You can getdifferent machines, but they’re the best, so she camearound and we were talking and she’s asking whatwe did, how we mailed it. She was there to see if weneeded better equipment, which then for them thatmeans we pay more in the lease for the equipmentwe use, and also to see if we need some upgrading orthings like that.Always remember this: Don’t be angry atthe person who is causing you trouble. That’s hardto do. Put them into God’s hands; ask God to takecare of them. God is faithful and just and He willexecute His judgment upon them, but He isinterested that you make into the Kingdom of God.So we showed them what we were doing,mailing out the things we mail bi-weekly andmailing out the books. She was interested in thebooks, so we showed her the books, and so forth.She asked what I did, and I said, ‘Well, I’m a writer,speaker, translator, and things like this.’ She said,‘Oh, you are, well I go to the Methodist Church upin Menlo Park.’ And I said, ‘That’s interesting.’Verse 7: “And to you, who are persecuted,rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus fromheaven. [His coming] .with His mighty angels,Dealing out vengeance with flaming fire upon thosewho do not know God, and those who do not obeythe Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs 7-8).She wanted to take a couple books for asample, so we gave her Lord, What Should I Do?and gave her The Day Jesus the Christ Died, andsince we give the paperback to prisoners, althoughshe wasn’t in prison, we gave her a paperback Bibleto take with her. I made a comment to her, becauseshe said, ‘Well, all the churches are just comingapart.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why the book Lord, WhatShould I Do? That’s what it’s all about.’ And I said,‘The reason they’re coming apart is because peoplewant to add on to what God has given.’We can make a connection between theChurch at Smyrna and the Epistles of Paul, 1-Thess.(certain parts of it) and 2-Thess. (the first part of thefirst chapter).The Churches at Pergamos and Thyatira Revelation 2 1-Corinthians 2-Corinthians 2-Thessalonians 2I said, ‘We’re different. We just go by theScriptures and we don’t add anything on.’ But that’swhat Satan always comes along to have you do. Ididn’t tell her this, but I just left it at that. I don’twant to get back into the sermon and you think I’mstill talking to her, because she wouldn’t have beenable to leave in one piece emotionally.Let’s go back and let’s come to the Church atPergamos. That becomes very problematic. Nowboth of these churches have very similar problems.Both of them have practices that God does not wantthem to have. I’ve bunched these two together,because we can learn a lot about the Church atPergamos and also Thyatira from the Epistles ofPaul as well.It would be interesting to find out what shedoes with these books. And I also noticed one thing.Of course, all you women would notice thisimmediately. She had no makeup. So who knows?The Church at Pergamos and Thyatira did the addons that were inspired of Satan the devil. And hecomes and makes it sound like a good thing. That’sthe origin of Sunday and all the holidays.The biggest problem that they had inPergamos, Revelation 2:13: “I know your works andwhere you dwell, where the throne of Satan is ”Are we living in Satan’s world? Big time! It’severywhere! Then it says, ‘you held fast,’ and soforth. But He had some things against them becausethey made the mistake of accepting sin as improvingupon God. Let’s stop and think for just a minute.But notice what He says here, because Hesays He’s got a sharp two-edged sword, v 14: “‘But I4
Paul’s Epistles and the Seven Churcheshave a few things against you because you havethere those who hold the teaching of Balaam. [Theteaching of Balaam is to mix the religions, and thenyou get God to correct them when God wouldn’tcorrect them otherwise.] .who taught Balak to casta stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eatthings sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.Moreover, you also have those who hold thedoctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate’” (vs14-15). And that’s the corporate supervision of ahierarchy over the people of God.know that I am He Who
the world, but as the heart and mind of the people. So that conforms with what we have in the book of Revelation—seven out of which comes seven, out of which comes seven. We have that also in the pattern with the seals: seven seals seven trumpet plagues seven last plagues We find seven all the way through. Paul wrote 14
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Introduction to New Testament Theology 2. The Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark & Luke 3. Gospel of John; Book of Acts 4. Paul & Pauline Epistles (Galatians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Corinthians) 5. Pauline Epistles 2 (Romans, Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus) 6. The General Epistles (Hebrews to Jude) 7.
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