I strongly disagree with those who see churches as corporations. However, the following statement regarding the Ford Motor Company has highlighted one area that churches and corporations have in common—they both emphasize the need for clear communication. It’s been said of the Ford Motor Company,

At Ford Motor Company, communication with employees is a priority. Communication lets them know both good news and bad. And by knowing, they become part of it for better or worse.¹

Apparently, Ford believes that their success depends upon clear communication—not just of good news, but of bad news as well. Furthermore, Ford believes that if every employee is informed then every employee is responsible. They are responsible to either celebrate any success or fix any failure.

Revelation chapters 2 and 3 reveal that good communication has been God’s policy long before it was Ford’s. In these two chapters, God is communicating with seven churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Since God has preserved what He wrote, it’s clear that He wants churches from every generation to hear and take responsibility for what He has said.

Therefore Revelation chapters 2 and 3 should be read as seven urgent memos from God to churches today. Some of the memos give us reason to celebrate. However, most of them inform us of areas that need fixing.

MEMO #1
God likes Responsibility, but not without Romance

The first memo was sent from God to a church in Ephesus. Like a memo from many supervisors, it begins with praise in Revelation 2:1-3,

1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”

Both the city of Ephesus and the believers living there have a good reputation. The city was located on a major Roman highway and had one of the premiere seaports of that day. Thus this multi-cultural city of over 300,000 called itself “The Vanity Fair of the World.”

The city had a reputation for doing things right, and so did the believers living there. A quick read of verses 2-3 shows that God praises them for what they do. He tells them, “I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance.” He also commends them for what they refuse to do. They remain theologically strong by refusing to follow false teachings. Finally, He applauds them for staying faithful even though it’s been hard.

Any church would love to receive such compliments from God. Yet every church needs to remember there’s a difference between doing things right and doing the right things. As God continues His memo, it’s clear that the church in Ephesus was so proud of doing things right they neglected the one right thing God wanted most from them—their love. Verses 4-6 state,

4 “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Churches today can build right and be proud of their beautiful buildings. They can believe right and be proud of their unwavering convictions. They can do right and be proud of all their benevolent ministries and mission trips. They can stand right for a long time and be proud of their long history. In their own eyes, they can be living right for God, but unless their love is right with God, their life won’t be right with God.

That’s why God gives to Ephesus and churches like her three steps to correcting the problem. Step one, REMEMBER! Remember the height of love from which you have fallen. Step two, REPENT! Turn from simply doing things right and focus on doing the right thing—be infatuated with God again. And if you have forgotten how to live infatuated with God, remember what you did when you were, and take step three—REPEAT it! Verse 5 says, “Repent and do the things you did at first.”²

I have found that though being responsible is good, it can blind you from what’s best. While dating Loree, I looked for reasons to be with her, and if I couldn’t be with her, I found some way to tell her I loved her—like slipping notes on the windshield of her car. Once we were married and could spend more time together, some of the creative dating waned, but not much. Over time, responsibility can slowly replace romance in a relationship. Our boys were born, we were serving growing churches, and so there was always a place to be and a need to be meet. We have learned through the years that if we are not careful, our sense of responsibility to do things right will blind us of our need to do the right thing, which is to spend time together and love each other.

When a church is born there is a sense of romance with God. But as ministries grow so do responsibilities. In time churches can become so focused on doing things right for God that they lose their romance with God. That’s why God reminded the church of Ephesus and churches today of the reward waiting them. When you remember, repent and repeat the actions of your first love, you return to your life of romance with God, an experience beautifully described in verse 7:

7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

God’s promise in verse 7 is reminiscent of Jesus’ promise in Luke 23:43. Jesus tells the repentant thief crucified beside Him, “... today you will be with me in paradise.” This word “paradise” is a word the Greeks actually borrowed from the Persians and it means “walled garden.” When a Persian king wanted to bestow a high honor upon an individual, he extended them an invitation to walk with him in his personal garden. There, they walk alone, giving the person the rare joy of an intimate conversation with the king.

The promise to the church in Ephesus then is still God’s promise to churches today. When you return to loving God first and living for Him second, your life with God becomes an intimate walk with your King. And once you reclaim your intimacy with God, you wonder, “Why did I ever put anything else first?”

MEMO #2
Let Suffering Make You Better, not Bitter

The second memo from God is one every church would love to have but would hate to have to earn. In Revelation 2:8-11, God praises the church in Smyrna for allowing suffering to make them better, not bitter. Again, any church would love to receive such praise from God, but not at the price of suffering. Smyrna’s memo reads,

8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty — yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.”

Today, this memo would be sent to believers living in Izmir, a bustling Turkish city of 2.5 million. However, at the time of the original memo, the city’s name was Smyrna. Though historians consider it one of the most exquisite cities the Greeks ever built, believers living there then would have said the city lived up to its name, for Smyrna means “bitter.”

God uses three words in verse 9 to describe the suffering believers endured. God tells them, “I know your afflictions….” The Greek word for “affliction” is translated in other verses as “tribulation.” It’s the word for the stone used to grind wheat into powder. The believers in Smyrna felt the constant crushing press of persecution. Furthermore, God says, “I know… your poverty….” This word “poverty” is the same word used in Mark 12:42 to describe the widow who gave her last two coins to God. It literally means “beggary.” Then, God also states, “I know the slander…”—“I know all that is being said to belittle you.”

What a painful contrast of experiences. In a city of exquisite beauty, the church was experiencing extreme suffering. It would have been so easy for them to say,

God, it’s just not fair. We are being crushed for being faithful, and those doing the crushing have everything compared to our nothing. And when they are not grinding us physically or financially, they are doing it emotionally with their lies. We’ve endured this for a season, but now you say the season is about to get longer and worse (v.10). God, it’s just not fair. We quit!

You would think they had every right to become bitter with God and quit, but they didn’t. Instead, they became better with God, and history records that when the church allows suffering to make them better and not bitter, God does some amazing things.

God sent this memo to Smyrna during the Roman persecution of the church. The church would endure 250 years of brutal treatment. Yet because believers allowed their suffering to make them better and not bitter, the church actually grew. Historian Roland Baton wrote that the blood of the martyrs became the seeds of the faith. When one life was martyred at least three who saw it surrendered to Christ. Thus, during this 250-year period of suffering, the church reached its greatest numbers in proportion to the population of the world, all because the church allowed their suffering to make them better, not bitter.

Today the persecution of the church is actually greater than when Smyrna received its memo from God. Some could say more believers are being martyred today than at any time in history. And if you were to look at a map indicating where most are surrendering their lives to Jesus, it would be in the countries where most are suffering for Jesus. It’s because they’ve allowed suffering to make them better, not bitter.

In America, believers aren’t suffering and lives aren’t surrendering to Jesus like they are in other places of the world. I believe it’s because Americans don’t respond well to suffering. Our preachers preach that the rewards of faithfulness to God are wealth, health, success, and protection. So whenever we suffer, we feel God has gone back on His promise and we allow suffering to make us bitter with God. We prove Adrian Rogers right when he said, “Bitterness is like the acid that destroys its container.” Our bitterness with God and life makes us weak, not strong.

If the believers in Smyrna had heard the health, wealth, and success messages Americans hear, they too would have been bitter with God. Instead, they heard a different message. God’s memo promises the one reward that is worth the suffering—Victory!

In verse 10, God promises a crown of life to those who suffer. There are two Greek words for crown used in the New Testament. One is the crown of royalty (diadema) and the other is the crown of victory (stephanos). The one used here is the crown of victory. Verse 11 explains that this crown is received when you have overcome the second death. Jesus explains in Luke 12:4-5, that the first death is physical—the death of your body on earth. The second death is spiritual. It’s the death of our soul in hell. In these two verses, God has given a vivid picture of suffering and rewards.

Smyrna held Olympic-style games that were famous throughout Asia. When an athlete won an event, he received a laurel crown symbolic of his victory. Today, Olympic champions receive medals instead but the meaning is the same—Victory!

However, our ability today to televise the Olympics has improved one aspect of the games. We know more of the drama behind the victory. We are told of the athlete’s years of training, the sacrifices made, the injuries endured. Then, the camera lens captures his or her face straining in the event, agonizing to the very end. Then after they’ve broken the tape or landed their dismount, the emotions take over as they realize—“I won!”

This is the image God gives to believers and churches who suffer. This is your time. This is your event with God. Training, sacrifice, and suffering are all a part of it. And when you allow the suffering to make you better instead of bitter, you won’t endure life as a victim. You will end life with the crown of a victor.

MEMO #3
Beware the Bite of Compromise

Not every church suffers as Smyrna did, yet every church faces a challenge that can weaken the strongest of churches. That’s why God’s memo to the church at Pergamum is to the point—“Beware the bite of Compromise.” In verses 12-13, God affirms them saying,

12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live-where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city-where Satan lives.”

Today, the Turkish city of Bergama would have received the letter. When the memo was first written, the city’s name was Pergamum. It literally means “citadel.” Not only did the name sound strong, but the city was strong. It was built on the broad fertile plain atop a 1,000 foot hill about 20 miles inland from the Aegean Sea. For over 250 years it had served as the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor. It embodied and enforced the Roman way of life—a way of life that conflicted with Christianity.

For example, Romans worshipped their emperors as though they were gods. They required everyone to cry, “Caesar is Lord.” Yet, the early church would not do it because of their surrender to Jesus alone as Lord. Thus Antipas, who some believe to be the pastor of the church in Pergamum, refused to say “Caesar is Lord” and was executed.

What a picture. In Pergamum you have a band of believers refusing to bow to ungodly ways of the Roman Empire. Without apology, they stood out in the face of opposition to uphold their convictions that Jesus alone is Lord.

There are some churches today, like the one in Pergamum, willing to stand up and stand out against an ungodly culture. When a culture says there is no absolute truth, some churches lift God’s Word as absolute turth! When the culture says, “Homosexuality is an orientation,” some churches will stand up and say, “God calls it sin!” When a culture thinks life is so cheap it can be aborted, there are still some churches that will stand and say, “God creates life and that makes it sacred.”

Yet be careful, dear church, when you think that standing strong against the culture makes you strong with God. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”³ People inside and outside a church may think she has a strong reputation for standing against the culture. Yet, that doesn’t mean she is truly strong with God. In verses 14-16, God makes this clear in His memo to the believers in Pergamum,

14 “Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. 15 Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”

Horticulturalists will tell you that many great trees have fallen, though not because of the attacks from the outside. They’ve been toppled by the bite of beetles eating from within. This was happening to the church at Pergamum as they were being eaten from within by heresy and immorality.

God gives them two ugly examples of their condition. He reminds them of what Balaam did to God’s people in the Old Testament. He told King Balak not to attack Israel, but to entice them with pagan women and subtle sins (Numbers 22-25; 31:16). They couldn’t defeat them directly so they schemed to weaken them spiritually.

The Nicolaitans were a New Testament example. In Acts 6:5, Nicolas was one of the respected seven selected by the church to meet the needs of the widows. However, the second century theologian and historian Irenaeus reports that Nicolas’ teachings would later lead some believers into the same immorality as Balaam did. Thus, they were dishonorably labeled as Nicolaitans.

These two examples are rather personal, for Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament and Nicolas was a church leader in the New Testament. The beetles with the biggest bite of compromise were men of God.

Each week, a church somewhere is dealing with the infidelity or immorality of a minister or church leader. Each Sunday, there will be pastors in pulpits using the Bible to espouse their personal opinion because in their opinion the Bible is not entirely God’s Word. Every day churches grow weaker as the bites of such church leaders go deeper into the life of the church.

Though such leaders are at fault, they should not receive the full blame. Someone has said, “A leader without followers is just taking a walk.” Every member of a church is accountable to God for his or her life. There are strong churches taking strong stands who are made weaker by members living ungodly lives. When you cheat on a test, your taxes, or your spouse, you weaken the church from within. When you use your words to swear, lie or belittle, you weaken the church from within. Each time you live like the world when you walk out the doors of a church, you weaken the church from within.

To be fair, it is hard to live a godly life. You are tempted at every turn. Yet when tempted to compromise your life with God, remember what Mark Twain said. Regarding temptation he said, “It is easier to stay out than get out.”⁴ I believe Twain’s right, and it seems that in verse 17 God provides you with what you need to resist any temptation to compromise your life with God:

17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”

You can grow weak constantly resisting the temptation to compromise your life with God. Yet, God promises if you keep fighting, He’ll keep feeding. He promises hidden manna to those who overcome the urges and opportunities to compromise.

You might remember that God feed Israel for forty years as they wandered in the wilderness. What God provided they had never seen before, so they called it “manna” which means, “What is it?” Though they didn’t know what it was, they saw God supply enough to keep them strong each day. What a great encouragement from God. No matter how often you are tempted, and no matter how strong the temptation might be, God promises to give you what you need each day to be strong enough to resist it.

There is one other gift God gives to help you overcome temptation and compromise—His name. He says He’ll give those who overcome a white stone with a new name on it. In the first century, such a stone was called a “tesserae” and it had several uses. It was used in houses of Rome as a credit card. Victorious athletes received it as a free pass to all public spectacles. Furthermore, it was given to gladiators who had fought a long time. On it was enscribed “SP,” which stood for “spectactus.” “Spectactus” meant “a man whose valor has been proved beyond a doubt.”

When God told the believers in Pergamum that He would give them a tesserae to help them overcome their temptations, I’m sure their eyes widened and so should ours. God was promising to give them and us His name on His credit card. Whatever you needed to help you overcome your temptation, God would provide. God was also providing a free pass to the grand celebration. Once your life with God is over, you get to be with Him forever. And in His presence, you are seen as one worthy of the title “spectactus.” You fought hard. You resisted the temptation to compromise, and are seen by God as one “whose valor has been proved beyond a doubt.”

Do you hear what God is saying to today’s church? You may seem strong on the outside for the stands you have taken, but that doesn’t mean you are strong on the inside. Each compromise by each leader and member eats away at the strength of the church. Therefore, to resist the temptations to compromise, God promises to supply you with the strength to overcome and the incentives to stay faithful. It’s now up to you to do what is necessary to resist the bite of compromise.

You are now Responsible

Do you remember the quote from the Ford Motor Company that was used to open this study? It said,

At Ford Motor Company, communication with employees is a priority. Communication lets them know both good news and bad. And by knowing, they become part of it for better or worse.⁵

Communicating His heart to the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum was a priority to God. That’s why He sent the memos. Having the memos preserved in scripture means it’s still a priority to God for churches today to hear these memos as well.

Why? Because churches today are no different from those then.

After forty-three years in the ministry, my dad had served seven churches in three states. Reflecting on his years as a pastor, Dad told me, “If God moves you from one church to serve another remember this...though their faces and names change the people will be the same.”

Since people are the same, churches are the same. And since churches never change neither do God’s memos to the churches. We still need to hear God’s memos, whether good or bad.

CHURCHES STILL NEED TO HEAR...

MEMO #1
God likes Responsibility, but not without Romance!
Don’t let the responsibilities of a godly life
take all the romance out of your life with God.

MEMO #2
Let Suffering make you Better, not Bitter!
Don’t endure life as a victim; live it as a victor,
for the day will come when you will break the tape of time victorious.

MEMO #3
Beware the Bite of Compromise!
Let God strengthen you so that
your compromise will not weaken His church.

Ford believed that once the message was communicated, each employee was responsible for what they heard and what they did. I doubt God would expect anything less from each believer in each church. We are now responsible unto God for what we’ve heard and what we now do.