Verse by Verse Teaching | Revelation 1:12-2:7 | Gary Hamrick

Revelation chapter 1 is where we are, let's pray first and then we will dive into our study Lord, thank you for your grace, your patience, your mercy, your love, how many words can we think of to describe your greatness, your majesty, Lord, we are grateful that you Love us so much that you would choose to reveal yourself through your word and as we open the book of Revelation again tonight, we pray that you would speak to our hearts and remind us of the things that are to come so that Our hearts would not grow weary with all things that we hear in our world right now, wars and rumors of wars and the stock market, the stock market, the coronavirus, just all these different things, Lord, that can easily worry us, we just pray right now that you will calm our hearts.

Hearts, help us to focus on you and remember that this is exactly why you have given us your word, so that we do not lose hope, so that we know that you are on the throne and that you will be found again. We are ready Lord and eagerly awaiting your blessed return, we praise you together in the name of Jesus and everyone said amen, so I left it with you last week here in chapter one, around

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12, but I'm actually going to go back to the

verse

9 just to start running to get the context of where we left off, so in chapter 1 verse 9 John, this is John the Apostle, he writes I John, your brother and companion in the tribulation, the kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos by the word of God and by the testimony of Jesus Christ so he gives us again the reasons why he was banished to Patmos it was a prison camp Domitian the Roman emperor had banished him there for these reasons because the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ he was being persecuted as a Christian, he is an old man who is now 90 years old and yet now he has been relegated to this prison camp where he is basically carving marble. patmos is an island that is largely made of marble and just a small island of thirteen square miles in the Aegean Sea one of the Greek islands and there she is banished and you know in her old age and it says in verse 10 I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day now we mentioned last week obviously the Lord's Day means Sunday, he is traveling on a particular day here Sunday and that in the original Greek language the article ah in front of the word spirit is not there, so literally it says I was in spirit on the Day of the Lord in other words, God had given him more than just a vision that God somehow supernaturally transported him to some place here where John has risen and can see and behold and witness these various events about which he writes and that is why he is in spirit on the Day of the Lord.

He says and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, it wasn't a trumpet, it sounded so you know loud it was like a trumpet saying verse 11 and if you have a Bible with a red letter edition you will see here this is Jesus now speaking I am the Alpha and the Omega the first and the last and what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches that are in Asia to Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum to taya Tyra to Sardis to Philadelphia and to Laodicea and then this is where we leave the verse twelve then I turned to see the voice that spoke to me and when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands and in the middle of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man now I am He will pause there because he begins to describe the Son of Man and he hears a loud voice behind him.

He turns around. He goes to behold this incredible vision of Jesus, but before describing Jesus, he talks about how he sees seven golden lampstands. Now these are. Menorah is what is traditionally called in Hebrew a menorah and this is basically an image of one like a seven-branched candelabrum. It was the only source of light in the temple at the time John writes this. The temple has been destroyed since 70 AD, but yet when the temple was still standing the menorah made of gold was the only source of light in the temple and John sees seven of these now he tells us below and I gave you the reference on the screen tells us below if you skip to verse twenty what exactly the seven lampstands represent, then in verse 20 the mystery of the Seven Stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, we will explain that later and the seven lampstands that you saw are the seven churches, so he literally sees these seven menorahs because they are going to represent what we came to in chapters two and three, seven different churches that Jesus He is going to dictate a letter and these churches are represented. each for a menorah now, that's important because you know what you just said about us.

Not only did Jesus say that he was the light of the world, but he turns to us and when he basically hands us the mantle of ministry that the church must continue to express Jesus and demonstrate Jesus and share about Jesus he tells us that you were the light. of the world and says that so let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven the church is to be the light in a dark world there is a reason why the menorah is a symbol of the church in this passage because we are to be the light in the midst of the darkness, have you noticed how dark our world is and how dark it is becoming? the answer is you don't shout at the darkness the answer is you turn on the light and the light that we are to shine is, of course, Jesus, so the church is to be, you know, the light set on a hill so that we can leave that the The light of the Lord shines and we can reflect Jesus in our culture in our world, so this is what he sees, he sees seven golden lampstands, these menorahs and again verse 13 in the middle of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man emphasizes that the son of man which is a messianic title taken directly from the book of Daniel Daniel chapter 7 verse 13 a messianic title that of course applies exclusively to Jesus, since he is the Messiah, then he sees the Son of the Man, go to Jesus, see the Messiah.

John does it and now there is this great description here between verses 13 and 16 and I have summarized it in the description of these four ways in verse 13 he describes his majesty, we are going to read it in verse 14 he describes the purity of Jesus in verse 15 he describes the authority of Jesus and then in verse 16 he describes his glory or in the Hebrew Shekinah then in verse 13 this is part of his vision of Jesus he says and in the middle of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man . dressed here-come on dressed in a garment down to the feet and girded around the chest with a golden band his head and hair were white as wool as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire, okay, so you're looking here this description now this is not like you knew the Jesus on the flannel boards when I was a kid.

Okay, Jesus, meek and gentle, you know, gentle, you know, stroking little children on the head and back, this is Jesus now in all the glory of him, white hair, white as snow. this is white it is indicative of his purity eyes like a flame of fire that is the idea of ​​the judgment that is coming now in the judgment verse 15 his feet were like fine bronze as refined in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of many waters and he He had in his right hand seven stars and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in his strength, so this whole description here and you know, this complete description about seven stars will explain it.

A little while later a sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth, not that he, you know, carries a sword in his teeth, but it's the idea that this is the Word of God coming out of his mouth, he is the personification of the word he is the word in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God then he enters into all the display of his glory and John sees it like this now this is very similar if you come Let's go back to the chapter one, but if you jump to chapter nineteen, when Jesus actually returns to earth for his second coming, John writes in chapter 19 a description of Jesus in the full range of his glory and it's very, very similar language and he just wanted to comparative mode, show him

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19, verses 11 to 16, this is when Jesus actually returns and this is what it will look like when he returns to earth, so what we have in Chapter 1 is basically a preview because John sees Jesus , but now. in chapter 19 this is how Jesus looks in a similar way when he returns to earth verse 11 now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on it was called faithful and true and with justice he judges and makes war his eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no one knew except himself he was dressed in a cloak bathed in blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies in heaven dressed in fine linen white and clean They followed him on white horses now these are not angels these are the saints we will talk about that when we get there now a sharp sword comes out of his mouth that with it he must wound the nation and he himself rules them with a rod of iron he himself treads the winepress of the fierce fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and has on his cloak and on his thigh a name written king of kings and Lord of lords hallelujah and amen on that right of the road some people have pointed out that he has a name written on his thigh, so even Jesus has a tattoo.

Well, go back to chapter 1, so John sees Jesus like this, this great description of him and he goes on, he goes on to say in the verse. 17 and when I saw him I fell at his feet as if dead, which does not mean that he was killed in the spirit, there are only beings, he is undone here, you know, when you contemplate, you know the presence and the glory of the Lord and you get a glimpse of it and you fall on your face and you bow at his feet and you are worshiping him but you know that you are simply broken and he says but he put his right hand on me telling me don't be afraid I am the first and the last I am the one who lives and was dead and here I am I live forever and ever amen and I have the keys to Hades and death and Then the Lord you know declares himself to be the risen Lord again, he said this many times.

This is what separates Christianity from all the world's religions. Only Christianity worships a resurrected Savior. Every other religion in the world worships a leader who died and was buried. Gandhi Confucius Buddha. Muhammad are all in tombs or at least their ashes have been scattered in different places Jesus is alive because he defeated sin and death, he defeated Hades and death and he says to John there in verse 19 I want you to write down the things that you have seen and the things that are and the things that will happen after this, I mentioned it in the introduction and I will say it again, you can put it on the screens right here, in verse 19, there is an outline of the entire book of Revelation because Jesus He tells John: I want you to write the things that you have seen, that is chapter one, then I want you to write the things that are in the current age, which is the church age, chapters two and three, and then he says: I want you to write the things that will happen after this, the Greek is done in Aude and that is chapters four through twenty-two, so right there, in chapter one, verse nineteen, as a summary of the entire book of Revelation, and Jesus tells him, I want you to do it. that you write this and he told John that often a total of twelve times throughout the book of Revelation John is told to write this, write this, write this again, if you are contemplating all these incredible visions, you know that You're just so dumbfounded that every once in a while they have to tell you okay, keep writing, keep writing, and so they tell you to write these things down, which you do in verse 20, now the mystery of the Seven Stars that you saw. on my right. hand and in the seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the angels that circulate outside the seven churches and the seven lampstands that you saw are the seven churches now the word angels there does not mean as it normally means these spiritual beings that attend to the Lord. and they circulate in the spiritual realm when you go here to chapter 2 in verse 1 he says to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write then the word angel there in Greek is a galuf a gloss translates messenger and in the context of these seven The letters that are dictated do not refer to angels in terms of spiritual beings who are active in the spiritual realm.

The word messenger can also refer to a human vessel who is communicating something on behalf of the Lord. Angels never stand out in churches. I doubt there are angels in the spiritual realm that we cannot see even here now watching over us and watching over our church, but specifically Jesus does not dictate a letter to a spirit, rather he dictates a letter to a messenger and the messenger of the church. the shepherd, so whenever you read at the beginning of a letter through chapters 2 and 3 that it is dictated to the Angel of the church, it simply means messenger and refers to a human vessel in this context, which is now a shepherd . so you know I'm not making this kind of stuff up Jesus actually called John the Baptist the same word in Greek eagles in Matthew chapter 11 verse 10 Jesus said for this is the one of whom it is written behold I send my messenger before your facewho will prepare your way before you see sending my messenger is a gallows and the Greek is the same word so it could refer to human vessels and in the context of these letters that is what it refers to the human vessels of the pastors over each church now, As we get to chapters 2 and 3, I want to set the context for everything, so I'm going to go back to the board here and we're going to take a look at the Chronology of Events Related to the Ending.times and I want to get rid of the clutter first because we still we haven't gotten there.

The part we are focusing on now is the church age. This will be the

revelation

. 1 John is writing in the church age period, so he is still included in the church age, but chapters 2 and 3 in particular deal with these letters to the seven churches. Now, when we talk about these letters to the seven churches, this is what we must understand, first of all, these are literal churches. They existed in the first century in what is now Turkey, and because that's who I am, I need visual context, so let me show you a map so you can get an idea of ​​what we are about.

We are talking about here, so you can see the Black Sea there and below the Black Sea in ancient times it was called Asia Minor, today we are talking about Turkey. These seven churches were located on the western edge of Turkey along the Aegean Sea, so now we are going to highlight this particular area on the map where the seven churches were located and here they are, we will start with in chapter 2 the letter to the church in Ephesus and then when the Lord dictates these letters to these seven churches, it is actually going in a circular clockwise direction, we will go from Ephesus and then we will read the letter to the Church of Smyrna and then we will go up to Pergamum to fight Iris Sardis Philadelphia and the last letter, the seventh letter, is the letter. to the Church in Laodicea, but all of these seven churches were literal churches that existed in the first century, so it is important to understand that this is not completely symbolic, it is very literal, as we read these letters, they were dictated to seven particular churches located in what is today modern Turkey, the western side of Turkey on the Aegean Sea.

Now, in addition to being literal, these letters also have spiritual relevance in the sense that each Church addresses spiritual issues relevant to believers today, so when the Lord praises them for some things and rebukes them. For some things, these are also very applicable to us today because the spiritual relevance is what Jesus is saying to the church even today and we need to wake up and take note of the things that he commands and the things that he hears abuse because the spiritual application is just as true for us today, so they are literal churches that existed in the first century, they have spiritual relevance and then it is also important to recognize the historical significance because what we will see as we go through these seven letters is that each church represents a different period in the history of the church until a looting even the condition of the church today now I don't want you to know how to give yourself again I recognize that in the study that looks at revelation I am firing things as if you were drinking from a hose against fires instead of a garden hose, I get it, but there's no other way to do this, so sorry, just drink as best you can and grab the little pamphlet when we look.

In these seven letters I want you to notice that there are seven similarities between the seven letters and here they are all beginning with a special title for Jesus, the author of each one, he dictates each letter and refers to himself with a unique title on each one. . Of the seven letters they are all addressed to the angel or pastor of each church they all begin with Jesus knowing their works he is going to talk about what they are doing in practical terms and they all contain either a recommendation a complaint or both and we will point out as we go in three more things, all closed with an allusion to the second coming of Jesus, there is something in the letter that refers to his second coming, all closed with a special promise or reward for the overcomers, for the believers who respond to his rebuke , that they regret. to be right with him there is a special promise kept and everything closed with the same challenge whoever has an ear listen to each letter Jesus ends like this if you have an ear if you listen to what I say take note it is what he says listen to what I am saying and here Even more than the words here, the meaning behind what I'm saying here now as we look at these seven churches in a timeline of church history that we're going to be going through.

If so, you don't have to worry about all this tonight, but I just want to re-set the tone and set the stage, every church again, literal churches, spiritual meaning and historical relevance, every church is actually pointing to a period of time. in the timeline of church history, so the first letter we are going to read here in chapter two is the letter to the church at Ephesus anthesis represents the time period of the church from 33 AD 80 to 100 AD. 33 80, basically when Pentecost occurred in Acts chapter 2. and the church was born after Jesus rose from the dead ascended back to heaven Pentecost came the Holy Spirit fell and then the church was born basically in the year 33 AD.

C. well, one hundred d. C. is about the time that John the Apostle died, so that was the end of the Apostolic Era, that is what Ephesus represents and when we look at each one, I will explain what each one means, but after Ephesus comes Smyrna 102 312 A.D., these dates have a different meaning and you will see that as we get to it. Pergamum was 312 AD. to 606 AD. followed by five Tyra 606 to 1517 Sardis 1517 to 1750 AD. and these last two letters, the letter to the church in Philadelphia and Laodicea, are relevant to the current era because important things happened in about 1750 actually a little before 1730 1740 but about 1750 there was the Great Awakening that occurred in the United States of America and in Britain and in different places around the world but mainly in America and when the Great Awakening occurred the evangelical church was born now the Protestant church you recognize 1517 those of you who have some knowledge of church history recognize that the church Protestant separated from the Catholic church in 1517 when Martin Luther died with a hammer at the door of Wittenberg the church in Wittenberg and thus declared his departure from Roman Catholicism the Protestant church was born in 1517 but the evangelical church the current of evangelical Christianity was born around from the time of the Great Awakening of 1750 but something else happened at the beginning of the 20th century in the evening around 1900 liberal theology began to infiltrate and two paths became divergent in the Protestant Church, one was even Christianity and another was theology liberal and it still exists today and what we will see happen is when you read the context of the praise and the rebuke, the church in Philadelphia does not receive rebuke from Jesus, the Church of Philadelphia. will be taken away, ok, the Church of Laodicea still exists today as well, so you have both churches existing today, you have the evangelical church, you have the liberal theological church and the seminaries that go with these and there are two different streams that the evangelical church gonna. being raptured the church that is full of ideology and liberal theology that does not claim to know Jesus personally is just all this liberal theology that discounts the claim of Christ ok they are going to go through the tribulation there are some people I actually think they are saved and they're not, that's the Church of Laodicea, so when we get to that eventually you know we'll explain all of that in more detail, but I wanted to give you the background so you understand where.

We're going to take a look at this first letter to the church at Ephesus, so if you have your Bibles open to chapter 2, we're going to take a look here at the Church at Ephesus and actually before you read it. I'll note that verses 1 through 7 are this first letter to the church at Ephesus and I'm going to go ahead and show you the synopsis from the beginning and then we'll go through and dig up these verses, so here's the synopsis of the Church from the letter to the church of Ephesus Jesus is the title that you will notice here is the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand which was important to recognize that Jesus holds the shepherds in his right hand well I had my left hand his right hand that walks in the middle of the seven golden lampstands then Jesus is always in our midst he is always walking among us where two or more are gathered there I am in your midst is what Jesus said the praise he gives to this church is that they are persevering workers and discerners of false doctrine and in particular he is going to call a group of people called the Nicolaitans.

The complaint he has against this church is that they have left their first love and the reward that he tells them if they persevere is that they will eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God so let's take a look at this letter here chapter 2 verse 1 - the angel or the shepherd of the Church of Ephesus writes these things says he who has the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands I know your works your work your patience and that you cannot endure those who are evil and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and you have found them to be liars and you have persevered and been patient and you have worked for love of my name and you have not grown tired, however I have against you who have left your first love, remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do right works or else I will make you come quickly to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent but this is what you have that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans which I also hate.

Do you have an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches to him who overcomes? I will give to eat from the tree of life that is in the middle of the paradise of God. Okay, so I'm going to go through the letter with you, but before I do, let me give you a little background on Ephesus, as this letter is. addressed here to the church in Ephesus again Ephesus, as you saw on the map, is located on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea. It had an estimated population in the first century of 300 to 500 thousand people.

This was one of the most populated cities in Ephesus. the Roman Empire today injustice the whole Turkish village exists there called aya salute was a very prosperous city in the 1st century because it was located around an important trade route, people came there, docked and exchanged their products in the 1st century and II in particular, but it was also known as a place of true immorality because located in Ephesus was and still are the remains of the Temple of Diana, it was also known as Artemis, it was a huge structure, the temple of Diana was noted as one of The seven wonders of In the ancient world it was 425 feet long, 220 feet wide with one hundred and twenty-seven pillars around it, each 60 feet high.

Diana was the goddess of sex and fertility, so at any given time there were a thousand prostitutes employed in temple service. of reveille that is why when Paul went there on one of his missionary journeys and it is recorded in detail in Acts chapter 19 and 20 he spent more time in Ephesus than any other city three years because it was Las Vegas of the ancient Roman Empire I I mean that It was a place where you could find anything and do whatever you wanted and that's why Paul spent three years of his time in the city of Ephesus ministering the gospel and there was a great revival there when you read Acts 19 and 20 and saw what happened in Ephesus.

As a result of Paul's preaching, I mean, you know they wanted to kill Paul because all of a sudden, their livelihoods, the people who were making these little idols of Dirty Diana, all of a sudden we were out of business because a group of people were being saved. I don't want to buy the idols anymore - Diana and she even tells us when you read acts 19 and 20 one of the big things that happened was that the people who were even dedicated to witchcraft in witchcraft brought their books that were about witchcraft and stuff and They burned them and when you look at the value that the book of Acts gives compared to what the dollar would be today, there are more than seven million dollars worth of witchcraft books that they burned when they began to obtain their Their hearts were right with the Lord, so miracles were happening in Ephesus.

Great things were happening, but about thirty years have passed and it is sad to think that in 30 years, which is not a long time, they would leave their first love. In just 30 years, now notice the The text does not say that they lost their first love, it says very specifically that they are in verse 4, yet I have this against you that you have left your first love, who is the first love? ? Jesus Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you, but friends, we must understand and this might challenge some of your theology you can leave it it is possible to leave it he says it right here he says you have left your first love you have walked away from me again Jesus will never leave you nor will he abandon you he is committed to the relationship, but are you?

He calls the Church of Ephesus. He says they know you are workers. They are perseverant. I congratulate you for that. I see his works. I see his works. Especially. They call thefalse teachers. talks about the Nicolaitans at one point but he says but you have left your first love you have abandoned him you have walked away from him you have abandoned him Jesus is taking this very personally he is dictating this he says you have left me you have left me his heart is broken by them because they have left it now look again humanity has been given free will from the very moment that God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden and said that you are free to eat any of the fruits of the trees within the garden, except for one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day you eat of it, you will surely die.

What was he giving to humanity from day one? free to eat of all these trees only one and humanity was for one why That was for one, but instinctive in a relationship with the Lord has to be free will, otherwise it would not really be a relationship based on love, such Maybe it would be illegal or a mandatory or robotic relationship, but it would not be a relationship based on love. about love God wants a relationship based on love certainly as shown if by God he loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son and he wants a reciprocal relationship where we respond to his initiation of love he is the initiator we are the responders who respond to the way that he initiates love towards us in a reciprocal way, that we love him in response, he will not force it, he will not force that on us, so the same free will that we exercise in responding to his love can be the same .

Will we strive to deny Him as Lord and Savior and walk away leaving Him? So again, some of his theologies, as you know, might be having a hard time absorbing what I'm saying here, but yeah, you have to make room for what he's saying here. very specific words, we didn't lose our salvation here, okay, not that it's not so frivolous, you know, our salvation is not something that is lost, like losing the keys in the house, okay, and I grew up in a tradition that basically puts a lot of great guilt in people, like if you have a bad thought, you have to be saved again, praise God, I have been delivered from that because you know if you lost your salvation for every bad thought or every bad thing you said, I mean, who .

Who among us would ever be able to know that we are truly saved? So it is not this simplicity of all you have, you must simply have lost yourself again, but there may be a deliberate, willful, intentional denial of faith and a abandonment of Christ and rejecting him and no longer believing that he is Lord and Savior. and even if it breaks his heart no one is going to be dragged to heaven kicking and screaming it will be because he is going to respond to the love of the Lord now he points out here among the commendable things is the way they work hard, persevere and discern false doctrine here and he mentions to the Nicolaitans now Nicolaitans from two Greek words in KO meaning to conquer the noun form is nike meaning victory nação and layoffs layoffs meaning Leia T so nação layoffs meaning conquering the laity one of the things Jesus has a problem with is a hierarchical issue in the church and we will talk about this because in the timeline of church history we are going to talk about the Roman Catholic Church when there is this hierarchical priestly system where man stands between God and man and where only can reach the Father if it passes for a human being it is a form of dismissal nação it is a way of conquering the laity and Jesus hates the practice of the Nicolaitans, that is what he says here and one of the things that he orders to the church in Ephesus is that they wouldn't tolerate that kind of thing.

There is no barrier between God and man. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. no human being is the mediator between God and man we-we-can be people who intercede in prayer for people we can help people you know come to an understanding of faith and take the hand of God and take the Someone's hand and you know, help them understand how they can have a relationship with Jesus, but no human being should be a barrier between man and God. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man, that is why Jesus says: I hate the practice of the Nicolaitans and him.

He praises the church in Ephesus because they were wise about it too and he gives them the opportunity to repent here, you know, it's not more sadness, he says, even though you've left your first love, that's his complaint against them, he says in the verse 5, remember, therefore. from where you have fallen and repent so remember like you know grab back what you remember when you were first saved so you know it's not too late you can come back again repent remember repent and he says in verse 7 he who has a ear that hears what the Spirit says to the churches and to him that overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life that is in the middle of the paradise of God now interesting we have not heard about the tree of life since then Genesis chapter 2 Genesis chapter 2 was the tree from which they were free to eat, but once Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God banished them from the garden and the idea was that afterward they would not eat from the Tree of Life and then to be trapped forever in this irredeemable state and so God cast them out before they ate from the Tree of Life so that they would have the opportunity to be redeemed instead of permanently sealed in that place of being irredeemable but the Tree. of Life appears again and is actually found in the last chapter of the book of Revelation which we will get to when we get there eventually in chapter 22 of Revelation and it talks about those who have overcome will eat of the Tree of Life and that the leaves will even bring healing to the nation and that is why we see the Tree of Life again in Revelation 22 of Genesis chapter 2 and Jesus says here those who overcome will one day eat from that tree of life that is in the middle of the paradise of God, so God has uprooted that tree and kept it preserved until we see it appear again in Revelation chapter 22, so we only read one letter, but at least we got to chapter 2 tonight, so we are making progress and then next week we will pick up with the Church persecuted in verse eight, the Church of Smyrna, so read on, but time has already escaped us, so let us pray, father, thank you for your word and take seriously what you wrote to the Church of Ephesus. and we pray Lord that we be persevering Holy workers who also discern against the false practice of the Nicolaitans that Lord we only help people to come to you and we never stand in the way thinking that there is some intermediary between God and man that only Jesus is that intermediary and Lord I ask you if anyone listening to this Bible study has walked away from you, left you, can return, even instruct, remember and repent, turn from your sin and return to the Lord, and you will always take us. return Lord, you are always a merciful and loving Savior, you will always take us back that if we repent and return to you one day we will eat from the tree of life in the middle of the paradise of God and that is a promise for all the saints who overcome waiting one day I will be in your presence eating from that tree enjoying Lord being with you for eternity that is why I pray that even now if there are those who have strayed from you thank you Lord because you never stray from us but if anyone I have strayed from you who is night they would turn to you They would simply cry out to you again right now they would just say Jesus, take me back I know I have strayed from you I have strayed from you but I return to you now my first love forgive me of my sins I commit my life to you again Lord you I return my first love and I trust you and I thank you because you always take us back thank you for loving me first Lord how I respond to your love Lord by returning to you now and for all of us father, thank you for your grace in our lives and thank you for this time in your word, be with us now as we go to our respective homes, we praise you together in the name of Jesus and everyone said amen