Profiles of the Revelation churches reveal realities about all assemblies. A historical sequence can be seen in messages to the seven churches. A correlation to the Old Testament dealings with God’s people is seen in the passages. Brutal honesty is spoken. Saints of God shall be prepared to rule. (Revelation 2-3)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon #13116
Date: 2026-4-26
Time: Sun 11:00 AM

P. Schaller –

Revelation 3:1-13, Praise God. Praise God that you are here today. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. You are here today. Wow. Does the weather stop us? No, but, wow. What happened to the spring? Huh? It’s coming. It’s here. Praise God. Great to see you.

 

Seven churches. Seven churches in Turkey. Seven cities and if you started to walk from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea and back, it’s 280 miles. If you walked it, it would be 12 days. Probably Christians in Ephesus didn’t do that. Probably they didn’t go for a walk and said let me check on the churches. I’d like to go to the church in Laodicea or the church in Smyrna. But we would be interested in knowing what is happening in the other churches. 

 

And Jesus in these letters to the churches, they would circulate the letters and read about what is happening in the other city in the church. And here we are in the 21st century reading about these seven churches and they probably all of the profiles of these seven churches exist today in the world and maybe even sometimes one church is like Smyrna. 

 

And then 40 years later, it might be more like Ephesus. And 40 years later, it might be more like Laodicea. But we can in any case, we can say that we are very much interested in what is the fundamental message in these messages to the churches. What is Jesus essentially saying? 

 

So, I’m going to read from a commentary. “We’ve begun to see sadly that many churches and denominations have compromised the Gospel, accommodated to the idolatry of the contemporary world, thereby lost the cutting edge of their witness. That might well be the point of the historical sequence imbedded in the letters.” 

 

I want to speak about that in a few minutes. There’s a historical sequence embedded in the letters. By the way, the book of Revelation is really complimenting the Old Testament. When we study the Old Testament, we can see that much of it is actually referred to in the book of Revelation. One writer said 800 verses in the book of Revelation are coming from the Old Testament.

 

Many times when we have read the book of Revelation, we haven’t recognized that, but I want to help you this morning realize it. And thanks for listening. You’re good listeners. Praise God! And we have our Bible in front of us, wow! In an age where compromise with truth is very culturally popular. 

 

But the problem with lying and all lies is that it doesn’t end well. We suffer. But when we embrace God and his reality and face truth and take it and live by it, we benefit. I hope you know that. I think you’re here because you know that. 

 

When we accepted Jesus, it kicked off the beginning of an understanding that was happening in our hearts regarding God. I’d rather have it God’s way than my way. I’d rather obey God, hear God. Hear God. What does he say? Even if it is brutal honesty, even if it’s something I don’t know that I actually believe that, but I want to know what’s the truth?

 

So, one example of that is simply in our culture, we learn and in our life we say man is good. Man is basically good. I remember thinking about this question. Is man good? All my life I found men are good and people are good. All my life. Yes, people are good. 

 

And then I went to Bible school and I learned man is bad. Man is bad. It’s like, whoa! There’s a difference. Man is good. I never really met a really bad man. Man is good. Most people are good. I remember hearing that in my family. 

 

Most people are good. In a way, it is true, but if you go deeper, actually, he is selfish. Why am I good? Because it’s better for me in my life if I am a good person, life will be better for me. That’s a good motivation. Actually, it’s about me having a better life. If I am honest, if I am trustworthy, the Boy Scouts – thrifty, honest, I don’t know, friendly, – I don’t remember that list of virtues but it’s kind of true. We will do that because I want to have a good life. 

 

Well, having a good life and desiring a good life isn’t the calling and purpose of my life. What is the calling and purpose of my life? Is it to have a good life or is it–? What? What’s your purpose? Revelation 4:11, we are created to glorify God. We are on the earth to glorify God. To have a good life, no. No. That’s not the point. It’s deeper. We are here to glorify God. We are here for his purpose. We are here to know God. Okay.

 

You can see how the culture can affect the church. And we can see in our Old Testament how the culture and sin affected Israel. And I’ll draw a sketch for you here. Do you like little pictures? Huh? Encourage me. Okay. We love your – well, this isn’t so much a picture. It’s a diagram, okay. It’s a little historical diagram.

 

I’ll put here seven event. Garden of Eden. I can put here the tree of life. The next event, death. Then we have Balaam. These are in our Old Testament. We have Balaam. We have Jezebel. We have Elijah. And then we have the key. Key. And then we have vomit. Vomit. Leviticus 18. It’s a funny word, I know. 

 

Those are, every one of those is related to every one of these seven churches. It’s amazing. I refer to a book by John Lennox called “God, A.I. and the End Times.” I think. You can look it up if you want. He quotes from theologians who say that there’s a parallel between this sequence in Israel and the seven churches. 

 

So, I want to introduce the thought to you as we look at the churches today, but there’s a couple of points to make regarding the subject. And I just pray that this will come out good, not for my sake, for your sake, for the glory of God. 

 

In the Garden of Eden, we have the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. Man had a choice. What did he choose? Sin. He sinned. He lost the tree of life. He lost that connection with God. He sinned and he left the Garden. He was cast out of the Garden of Eden. And the Garden of Eden was gone, also. Man was gone. There’s no Garden of Eden on the earth. I’ve been looking for one. I thought it was in my backyard! Nope. It’s gone. 

 

So, then the Lord said to the church at Ephesus here, he said if you overcome, I’ll give to you to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God. What? I can eat at the tree of life now if I’m an overcomer. Overcoming is given to all believers. It’s our position as believers. We are overcomers.

 

We overcame death. How? Through the cross. Jesus overcame death. We overcame the grave. How? Jesus overcame the grave. We overcame the devil. How do you overcome? The cross. Christ overcame the devil and the resurrection that followed. And then his ascension up into heaven at the right hand of the Father. He has given to us. We are seated in heavenly places with him and we are overcomers now in this lifetime. We are given this. 

 

Now, the church at Smyrna, they were ten days cast into prison. This is the church at Smyrna. And through these couple weeks when we go over these churches, we’ll overlap and just share things from the Word regarding them, so that we can get it in our hearts and minds that Jesus is actually for the church. Even a church that is dead like Sardis, but he is for the church. Even a church that is very wealthy and blinded by their wealth like Laodicea, he is for the church. He is knocking on the door on the outside of the church wanting to come in. 

 

Can you imagine having church service and Jesus isn’t in it? He’s not in the church service. He’s outside knocking on the door. What great humility God has that he would be willing to come and be with us, and to work with us and to call us and to speak to our hearts and invite us to him. Invite him in. Okay.

 

Now, the church at Pergamos had the teaching of Balaam. And what was the teaching of Balaam? It was fornication and idolatry. Where did that happen in the Old Testament? Numbers 22 and Numbers 25. What does it mean? 

 

It means that in their culture at that time, the Jewish people were tempted to sleep with the Moabitess women in worship with their Gods. Cuz connected with the worship of their gods was sexual immorality. And the same way with the pagan world in the Roman Empire. And this is when this is written. It’s written when the churches in the first century in a pagan world where sexual living, prostitution and temple worship, the temple of Artemis or Diana, was connected with this immoral living, with as many as 1,000 prostitutes in that huge temple that we put up on the screen one day a few weeks ago. Well, this is immoral and that’s not the teaching of the apostle, the teachings of the apostles and the prophets. And the teaching of Christ. 

 

How are we going to break away from it? How are we going to – and he said at the church at Pergamos, there are some of you not holding to this teaching. So, if you think of it this way, that you can have a church – and I’m just writing this symbolically – this is just a building. It represents people. There’s people in it and also outside, meaning we have people in our lives that are not here and maybe not even believers, but we care about them. We have a testimony in the world to the unbeliever. We have a message because in the church, you receive a message. 

 

Man is not essentially good. Well, what is he? Well, he has a deceitful heart. He will say one thing but do another thing. He will make a promise but he will break it. And we have thousands and thousands of years of history where we have that as evidence of broken promises and broken hearts and disloyalty and betrayal and deceit and polished, good looking propositions that are rotten on the inside cuz of man’s heart. 

 

We have wars and broken peace treaties and broken contracts and broken people, because man has a fundamental problem of sin, which is another thing in our culture which is not taught. The damaging effects of sin. The depression, the guilt, all of that that happens. 

 

But coming into the church, we want the doctrine and the revelation of Christ be in our hearts and minds. That we would know that God has forgiven us, that God loves us. That God is personal. That God speaks to us and helps us.

 

So, he said to the church at Pergamos, some of you have this teaching and some of you are not embracing it. So, that’s an interesting point. Like our church here today, there are people that may come here but they may not believe what we believe. And that’s up to them. That’s the beautiful thing about our faith, like nobody is enforced to believe what we believe. 

 

But we are looking to God to learn and have the same mind, same heart, same spirit. We have the same Bible. We read the same words, but there is diversity but there are also, there is a commonality. There is an understanding, an “amen” in us that Jesus is saying this and this is what I believe, and I embrace it in my heart. 

 

But I can’t make you do that. That’s not our intention. Our intention is to say to each other, he is real. Jesus is real, and let’s walk with him and it’s up to you. It’s up to you and it’s up to you. It’s up to the individual to make those decisions. And as we walk together with him, we have this agreement that happens in the heart in John 17:23. “As the Father and I are one, so you are one.” We are one with one another and then we are one with him, Jesus, and he is with us. I am in you and you are in me. That beautiful understanding of oneness, and we have this fellowship called the Body of Christ. 

 

But is there diversity amongst us? Yes. Sometimes there are people that can be with us that are not a believer. I remember I used to preach in Massachusetts. One man came to our church for many years, and he kind of liked me somehow. That’s amazing! And we left Massachusetts and he said, I want to give you a gift. I want to give you a roller desk. A desk that had a roll top on it. A gift. I think he wanted to get it out of his house maybe. 

 

I welcomed it. I was very happy to get it. I thought it was an awesome gift. And I said to him in the talk, are you a believer? He said, No. I said, How long have you been coming to this church? He said four years. I said, Are you a believer? He said, No, I’m not. I’m not a believer. Well, why do you come? He said, Because of the atmosphere. Good people. And I like the atmosphere. It’s like a good atmosphere.

 

So, what I’m saying is in a church, there can be those that really believe it and practice it and embrace it. And there can be others that do not, but they are welcome. We are welcome to hear the Word of God. We are welcome to be invested in by God. But God is the only one that knows our hearts. 

 

And he said to the church at Pergamos, he said some of you have this doctrine and let’s read it. Chapter 2:14, they are actually there in the church. And that’s a good correction for us. Am I living in fornication? Am I living with pornography? Is that how I’m – am I replacing God with this habit, this unclean thing that is the doctrine of Balaam that the Jewish people back in the book of Numbers were practicing. And the Lord said I have something against you, cuz you’re cheating yourself. I have a better life for you. I have holiness for you. I have the Holy Spirit filling you.

 

So, you confess it. As a believer, you say, I agree with you, God. I have sinned. And I make my confession before you. He says, I have forgiven you, and I cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And you walk in fellowship one with another in the Spirit of God. That’s the, that’s the meaning.

 

Look at vs. 16. Repent. This is hard-hitting, brutal honesty. Vs. 16. But then he says, vs. 17, “I will give you hidden manna.” If you go back to this little sketch here, do you know during the time of Balaam is when they were eating manna in the wilderness? And he said to the church at Pergamos here, if you will follow me in my teaching and embrace my doctrine, then I will give you hidden manna. That’s food. That’s spiritual food I will give you.

 

Look at vs. 17. The white stone is for voting. It’s for “yes” or “no.” There was a white stone and a black stone. And you have authority. Your voice can be heard. You have an influence. You can say a prayer and I will hear you. You have a white stone, meaning you have a voice. You have something to give to me. You can help me. I am governing but I am also respecting you as a citizen. And you will have hidden manna, a white stone, and also a name written which no one knows save he that receives it. 

 

That’s like individuality, authority, personal identity that comes from God. Remember Jesus said Simon you are Peter? Abram, you are Abraham. He would give a new name. What’s the name? It’s who you are. What an honor that is that God would know us and call us this way.

 

So, then, the next church mentioned in our list is Thyatira. And this relates in our history in the Old Testament to Jezebel. And she is in the church at Thyatira representing a teacher, and she’s teaching doctrine that is largely compromised the Gospel. The Gospel is compromised, the teaching of the Word. 

 

Jezebel is a teacher from the culture, from our worldly culture. And we can see that in current news. Major denominations are losing members in large numbers, because they’re making decisions about woke and transgenderism and homosexuality and so on. And all of these things that come from the world and eventually make their way into the church, and Jezebel is teaching in the church. 

 

But Jesus says to this church, but there are some of you in the church that don’t accept it. Look at it, chapter 2:20. I always like that when he says it. I have somewhat against you. I have a few things against you. But the are big things. Like it’s a big thing. He’s not picky about small things in these letters. He’s saying the important thing. You have bad teaching. You have bad teaching. 

 

So, I have another paragraph here. “There lies an obvious danger when we read about these seven letters, because we can say, I know a church like that. It is less easy to say especially about one of the churches that the Lord criticizes my church is like that. What should I do about it? For often the last people to recognize certain patterns are those who are themselves guilty of them.”

 

“For instance, if your church has a reputation for standing for the truth and being very clear on its doctrinal position, you might find it hard to see the signs of hardness and love lessness creeping in that could threaten the witness of the church as an emphasis.”

 

In other words, we might say our church is doctrinal sound, but then the follow-up is, are our hearts – are we judgmental about it or are we kind, are we humble, are we caring, are we loving? On the other hand, the church at Thyatira, they are loving so much, loving, loving, loving, loving; where is the truth? Is there a message? The Thyatira church lost it. But not everybody. So, he says that here.

 

“However, if you are in a church where the members are always talking about their love for one another, it might be hard for you to see the danger of a drift into immorality that could destroy the churches reputation as in Thyatira. As a final example, do you think that lukewarm churches think of themselves as such?”

 

Lukewarm church. Laodicea. You know, it’s lukewarm. There’s not much of a message there at all, and do they think that they are poor? No, Jesus said, You are poor and blind and miserable, but you don’t realize that.

 

So, in every case, we have a parallel from the Old Testament. Let’s look at this. It says in Thyatira not all of them – let’s go back to the text. Vs. 20 was it? vs. 20-23. I know that’s very strong language, but there is a principle in there. The woman is not good what she’s saying, and there’s children produced from it. And then it says the children will die.

 

I think of Ahab. King Ahab had 70 sons. And Jehu was told by God to go and execute them. And they executed 70 sons of Ahab and graphically it says there was a basket of 35 heads. They were beheaded on one side of the gate of Ahab’s palace, and 35 at the other side. Very dramatic. Very graphic. But a message. 

 

Sometimes I know this is brutally honest but sometimes we need to be shocked and realizing that I want my life to be fruitful and I can’t listen to Jezebel. I have to leave. I’m not going to be there, or I have to walk close with God. 

 

Look at what he says to them in chapter 2:24. Let’s write that down here for a minute. Depths. How do you know the depths of Satan? I think by living with him, walking with him. Have you felt it? I have. The depths of Satan. Like I’m on the edge and how evil could I be? How evil could I become? Do I know the depths of Satan? Like how much of a hypocrite could I be? How much of a murderer, a hater of good, a hater of God? How much could Jezebel make me – how much depths of Satan could I know? 

 

I know that when Jesus died, he was put in a pit, the night before. Not when he died, but the night before in Caiaphas’ house. He was in a pit in Psalm 88. The demons were after him in Gethsemane. He was beyond himself. He was sweating drops of blood. He understood evil. He was experiencing the depths of Satan. He understood hatred in a huge magnitude. It was horrible. It was a nightmare. It was terrible. 

 

And that also should be part of our life. That’s why we have what we call “margins.” Like here is a cliff, and when I walk along the edge, I have no margin for safety. If I fall, it’s a disaster. But if I have a margin of two meters or six feet and I’m walking the edge, if I fall, it will not be a disaster. So, have margins in your life. Like don’t be around Jezebel. Don’t eat the lies that are in the world. Walk in the Spirit. Walk in the truth and hold fast to that which is true. Amen. Okay.

 

Go back to the text there. Vs. 24-25. Let’s put that down. Hold fast. We have it in another place that phrase, “hold fast.” It’s in chapter 3:3. Let’s think about it for a minute. Hold fast. If you’re climbing a ladder, the higher you go the more I got a grip on the ladder. I’ve got to hold onto that ladder. I need a physical grip on it. Holding it fast. 

 

In my mind and my heart, I have my mother and I honor my mother and father, and I’m going to honor them all my life. I’m going to hold fast to that. I’m never going to speak against my mother, never against my father. Never against my church. Never against my church and the people I love. I want to hold fast.

 

Hold fast means that I need some memory, because what would I know to hold fast to unless I have a memory about it? I need, I came out of Egypt by the high and mighty hand of God and I will never forget it. I came out of Egypt. I was a slave to Pharaoh. I was a slave to sin. I was a slave in the world. I had no other life. 

 

I was a slave in this very sinful life and God saved us and brought us out of Egypt, and now we live by faith in him. I’m going to hold fast to my heritage, what I heard, what I believed. I want to hold fast to what the Bible says. I’m going to hold fast to it. That’s the meaning there. Hold fast to a rope, you know. 

 

These little kids that walk along the sidewalk with a little rope. They’re about three years old with a ring on it. They walk down the sidewalk from down there to the playground down there, you know, during the day. And the kids are just walking, holding on to that ring. You need it. You need a ring. You got to hold onto something. You got to hold on. And don’t forsake it. Don’t leave it but hold fast. This is what he said to the church at Thyatira. 

 

Vs. 26. What? Power over the nations. That sounds like government. That’s government. When will that happen? When he comes back. Who will be in his government? We will. Who are they? Who? Luke 19, if I give you one talent or two talents or five talents he said what did you do with my talent? I invested it. Then rule over five cities. What do you have? I gave you ten or I gave you one, and you’ve been faithful to the investment. Rule over ten cities.

 

Where are those cities? On the earth when he comes back. Will we be ruling with him? Apparently. We’ll be ruling with him. We’ll be in his government. Based on what? What we did in this lifetime, how we lived in this lifetime. Faithful in a little thing. We’ll be rewarded much. Put your treasure in heaven he said. How do you put treasure in heaven? By following him and embracing him. And living in the Spirit and taking truth in our hearts and agreeing. 

 

We all know when we are in a trial. I don’t know. Let’s say a football team, and there’s a guy that’s a leader on the football team. And he’s helping us and encouraging us, and we’re saying yes! Yes! We can win the game. Okay. So, after the game is over, who is the hero? That guy that led us with the team. That guy that led us. He believed when we were losing. He believed when we were discouraged. He was used as a leader to help us win. 

 

Well, Jesus has put us in this world, and to be honest, sometimes we feel we are losing. But he is saying, no. I am your leader. Follow me. Embrace what I have. Hold it fast. Walk in the Spirit and the truth will set you free, and we’re on the same team. And then when this lifetime is over and he returns, he’s going to look around, so to speak, and say, I want you. Because I know when you are in trouble, I know what you did. You trusted me. You turned to me. I want you cuz I know who you are. I know you as a servant. I know who you are. 

 

I got to say to all you folks and everybody listening, you are the saints of God. You are precious. You are the people that will rule. You are the last that will be first. You are the people that count. You are the people that God put Christ in you, and you have Christ in you and you walk with Christ. And there is a reward for us in whatever degree. He knows. 

 

And it’s way beyond us understanding in detail, but we know in principle that this is what he’s saying to the churches. That the churches compromise, but not the church at Philadelphia. The churches compromise, but not the church at Smyrna. Let’s study those churches and then say, Lord, help us to be faithful in what you’ve called us to do. 

 

Now, this context is important. It has to be all by grace through the finished work. Context. It all happens by the grace of God and the word “works” there, too. “I know your works.” This word. Jesus said it to all the churches. I know your works. Next church. I know your works. Next one. I know your works. It’s the first thing he said to them. I know your works. It means you can put the word “fruit” there if you want. Cuz I don’t want you to be confused. It’s not working to get to heaven. No, it’s not that. 

 

It’s I know the result of your life with me. There’s the fruit. I see your love. I see your patience. I see your nature. I know you. I see your works. That’s the meaning. I see the fruit of your life. And I have somewhat to say to you or I commend you and so on. 

Steve read about Sardis and Philadelphia this morning. We didn’t get there. And let’s finish it up here by saying a couple things about it. It goes like this. Sardis is the church – I think I won’t. It will be next week. Elijah and the key of David. That will be next week. So, those two stories in the Old Testament that parallel Sardis and Philadelphia. Okay. Amen. (Prayer)

*****

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.