“Last week, connected to this week’s session, we spoke about the Book of Revelation and we said the following. That the Book of Revelation is the last chapter of the New Testament. It is a prophetic, symbolic book. It is a judgment of God to all mankind, to all the human race on the face of this world or this earth. And it is the revelation of Jesus Christ which was given to Jesus by God, and then the Lord Jesus gave it to the angel, and the angel gave it to John the beloved, and John the beloved gave it to the seven leaders which are referred to as angels or leaders of the churches, the seven churches in Asia. And we said that this book is Jesus’s Revelation. The Lord is trying to reveal to His children, not to the whole world, because the whole world did not accept the Lord Jesus but those who accepted Him and made Him their Lord and their Saviour, Jesus will reveal to His Christian people, not only by name but by deed as well, those who are true Christians and seeking the Lord from the heart not from the lip. The Lord will reveal what will happen in the end of times before it really happens. So it is a revelation of the Lord Jesus.
So, we covered verses 1 to 3 last week, and today we will continue from verses 4 to 8. Here we go. Verse 4 begins with John to the seven churches which are in Asia. We said John is John the beloved, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ – the gospel writer, the writer of the epistles, and the Book of Revelation. He was the youngest in age out of all the twelve, and the last one to depart this world at the age of around approximately 105 years of age. He passed away in a natural death in an island in the middle of the Mediterranean sea called Pedmos which is in Greece, currently. An island in Greece called Pedmos. And he wrote the Book of Revelation around 100 A.D.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia, we see in verse four the role of John the beloved. What his role is all about. He is writing, or he’s sending this book of Jesus Christ to the seven churches in Asia. Now, when the Bible mentions seven churches, yes there were seven churches in Asia at that time. However, the Book of Revelation is a prophetic book and a symbolic book. Therefore we should not take it in the literal sense. Because the Lord Jesus does not have seven churches because Saint Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians Chapter 5 says that the church is the body of Christ. Since the church is the body of the Christ, therefore there is only one body to Christ, meaning there is only one church of Jesus Christ.
So, what is he meaning by the seven churches in Asia? The meaning is that the only beloved church of Christ is going to go through seven different stages until the end of times. It’s going to go through seven different stages. But we will cover this in chapter two and three. But he says to the seven churches, i.e. the only church of Christ that is going to go through seven stages, until the second coming of the Messiah. But where are these churches? In Asia. Now the word Asia, if we look at it in the Arabic language, they call it āsiyā (ASJA). Now in Arabic āsiyā (ASJA) there is one word that derives from the word āsiyā (ASJA ) which is kāsiyā (KASJA). Now, kāsiyā (KASJA) means the oppressing one, the torturing one, the difficult one. Someone who is kasi means he is oppressive, the one that persecutes you, the one that gives you a hard time. So where is the beloved church of Christ that is going to go through seven different stages? Where is it? It is in a place where it will be persecuted and it will be oppressed and afflicted in Asia.
When we look around us now, what is happening in the world nowadays, it is mainly focused on the church, not anywhere else. The persecution is mainly focused on the church. Asia here refers to the world. And the Lord Jesus established His church and He placed it in the world where it will be persecuted and we see a great deal of persecutions happening against the church. In so many countries that were once upon a time Christians, nowadays they are denouncing their Christianity and becoming of a secular, atheistic government, and they do not want to do nothing with Christian values, morals and laws. They are walking away and they’re giving the church a hard time. They want to implement rules and laws where as a Christian you have no right to speak your Christian faith.“
You can listen to the sermon here.