Ephesus and Smyrna Pergamum and Thyatira Sardis and Philadelphia Laodicea
What are God’s messages to the churches of Ephesus and Smyrna? Find out with hosts Tim Moore and Nathan Jones on the television program, Christ in Prophecy!
Air Date: January 25, 2025
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Transcript
Tim Moore: Greetings from Maranatha Acres, and welcome back to Christ in Prophecy. Early in 2024, Nathan and I introduced a series on Revelation that served as a high-level overview of the final book of the Bible. There is so much to unpack in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So we’re going to revisit this culminating book of Scripture to mine its riches once again.
Nathan Jones: Revelation stands as the magnum opus detailing God’s plan for the End Times and assuring us that His justice will prevail even as He shows everlasting mercy to those who are His.
Some people are overwhelmed by the visions that John recorded, but there is a clear outline to the book. In Revelation 1:19, Jesus told John to, “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.” The things which you have seen clearly describes what is recorded in Chapter 1. Then in 4:1, John is called up to Heaven to witness what must take place after these things. That means that Chapters 2 and 3 encompass the “things which are,” meaning, the Church Age as we know it.
Tim Moore: Over the next few weeks, Nathan and I will unpack the gracious words of Jesus as He dictated letters to seven named churches. We will explore the historic significance of those churches, the spiritual lessons that apply to churches throughout the Church Age, and the prophetic implications for Christians yesterday, today, and until Jesus gathers us to Himself.
As always, our study of Revelation will heed our tested and true approach to Bible prophecy in general. If the plain sense makes sense, don’t look for any other sense, lest you end up with nonsense.
Each week, we pray that the words of our mouths and meditations of our hearts will be a blessing to you as you watch and will point to and glorify our soon-coming King. To that end, we will also claim right now, the promise of Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near.” Boy, Nathan, the time grows nearer and nearer every single day, which is why we get excited each week as we bring “Christ in Prophecy” to our viewers.
Nathan Jones: And I love how the fact that the Lord stops and gives us two entire chapters with letters to the churches, seven churches that were actually churches in what was called Asia Minor, which now is modern-day Turkey, the west side of Turkey. And what’s interesting, too, is that each of the cities that are listed were like in a circle around a clock.
Tim Moore: Yes.
Nathan Jones: So, John would send the letter, Ephesus would get it first, and then it would pass it on to the next church and the next, and it would make a circuit around those churches, and each church would make a copy and record it, so the fact that we have our Bibles today was because those letters traveled around the seven churches.
Tim Moore: They certainly did, and those letters were indicated as being for each of those churches very specifically, but we have application for all the churches throughout the Church Age, and even those that are around the world today, and perhaps different periods of time, but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.
So, to look at the individual letters, we know that Jesus actually follows kind of an outline. He first identifies who He’s writing to, in other words, the angel of a particular church, and then He gives titles and attributes for Himself that are obviously hearkening to His position as the Son of God, as the Glorified One now in His glorified body. And then He makes a statement of omniscient knowledge, recognizing a church’s positive deeds, such as they are, and then giving a pronunciation oftentimes of admonishment with the purpose of correcting or reproving them, in other words, restoring the Church and the believers there.
And then, finally, He gives an appeal to hear what the Spirit says, and He offers various promises to overcomers. We’re going to get into all that, but let’s begin with the church at Ephesus.
Nathan Jones: Sure, and you’ve got to remember that John is an old man, he’s 95 years old. He’s been the pastor, basically, or the bishop of Ephesus, the first letter, and so he’s got a real good connection with the church of Ephesus. Unfortunately, he has been kicked out by the emperor. They tried to boil him in oil, and he survived. And so they put this 95-year-old man into exile on this island of Patmos to hard labor. Can you imagine being a hard laborer in your 90s?
And so he’s thinking, “All my friends the apostles have been martyred. It’s just me. Why hasn’t the Lord come back?” And then the sky breaks open, and Jesus in all His glory, like from the Transfiguration, comes down, and John’s just amazed, and what’s He say? He says, you know, basically, “I’ve got a letter from my Father that I’m going to give you,” so John didn’t, you know, sometimes you see, there’s a Book of Revelation from St. John the Divine or something.
Tim Moore: No.
Nathan Jones: Well, John’s not divine, and he didn’t write it. He just took the letters that the Lord gave him, and so, then John was writing these letters to these churches, and I think John, in his heart, felt really great because the first letter was to his own church, his own flock.
Tim Moore: It was to his own church, and to prove what you say about this wasn’t just John’s words, the very first verse of the book says: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants, the things which must soon take place. And so, I can only imagine, there’s a great song, “I Can Only Imagine,” that many of our viewers are familiar with. You know, how will I react when I stand before my Lord and Savior? Will I fall at His feet? Will I want to wrap my arms around Him? Will I just be overcome with the awesomeness of His holiness and glory?
We don’t know, but we can imagine that John was overwhelmed, and that’s why the first words that Jesus utters are, “Do not be afraid, fear not.” And that’s so common because the Lord, in His grace, has things to say, but He doesn’t want John to be fearful, He wants him to be hearkening to those words that He’s going to share.
Nathan Jones: And of anybody who knew the Lord, it was the apostle Jesus loved. John was, just had a heart for Jesus. He traveled with Him for 3 1/2 years. He saw Him transfigured, and so he kind of had a better connection, I think of, than anybody, of what Jesus was like, and yet what did he do?
I think, to answer your question, he fell down. I mean, he was like, “Oh my goodness, this is so amazing.” And there’s this one thing here in verse 12, because we… Jesus is holding 12 stars, and He’s standing in, excuse me, seven stars, and He’s standing before seven lamp stands, and the beautiful thing about the Book of Revelation, people say, “Well, it’s so hard to understand with all these symbols.” No, it’s not because the Book of Revelation tells us what those symbols are. “So the mystery of the seven stars,” verse 12, “which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands which you saw are the seven churches.”
So isn’t it beautiful? So He’s addressing these seven churches, but He sees them as lamp stands, light to the world, and He addresses the seven stars, and He says they’re angels, guardian angels, protecting those churches. Some people translate that as pastors, either church pastors or angels. There’s a guardian over that church.
Tim Moore: Yeah.
Nathan Jones: And this is the Lord who holds the churches in His hands. Think about that. He loves us so much that we are always in His hands, and even when we don’t feel like He is.
Tim Moore: Even when we don’t realize it in our humanity or mortality, we know that He is there. He has promised to be so, and so you’re exactly right. Jesus does reveal Himself. And this very first letter, again, to the church at Ephesus, He says, “The one who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lamp stands.” I loved what you said, the churches are to radiate His light and His truth. And dare I say, each of us are to be light bearers to radiate the love, the mercy, the goodness, the truth of Jesus Christ in sharing the Gospel with all we come in contact with.
But then Jesus says, “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false, and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake and have not grown weary.” What a great testimony of affirmation to this church, and affirming that all of us, you, me, our viewers, need to test every word by a preacher, a teacher, to make sure that it abides by the Word of God, but then Jesus turns and has an admonition for this first church.
Nathan Jones: Yes, so they did good works, they could discern good from evil and all, and He says, “You have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and found them liars. You have persevered and have patience,” verse three, “and have labored for My name’s sake and not have become weary.” So that’s the…
Tim Moore: That’s the good.
Nathan Jones: Commendation. Now for the condemnation, verse four: “Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent.” This is where He calls them to turn and repent from what they’re doing, to, “repent and do the first works, or” now, this is the condemnation, “or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Tim, people always ask, “Who are the Nicolaitans?”
Tim Moore: Nicolaitans.
Nathan Jones: Nicolaitans, that’s a hard word.
Tim Moore: All right, so He has this as a further commendation that they hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, so just by way of background, the Nicolaitans were named after Nicolaus of Antioch. He was a deacon there in the church at Antioch, and he taught that because God had extended grace and forgiveness, then people could continue sinning. We can sin freely because God will forgive every sin, and so it’s already been covered. Let’s just go about our lives and enjoy it to the fullest in sin. And that is a false teaching, that is a heresy, and Christ is calling it out by name. And what you see is already, early in the church, there are those who are taking the liberty given in Jesus Christ and turning it into license, and that is a wrong interpretation. Again, that leads to grave heresy and really departs from the faith.
Nathan Jones: It’s neat how they were so close to the… they had the apostles; they were one step away from Jesus Christ. They knew the difference between right and wrong. They knew to stand up for their faith and all, but eventually, as all churches do, all businesses, organizations, you have that great passion for what you began with, but you start adding rules and regulations and things. And so by the time we get to John’s time, this church in Ephesus had become a loveless church. They had lost their first love, and who’s their first love? Jesus Christ, and Jesus says, “Okay, I understand you’re trying to form this organization called the Church, and that’s important, but what’s more important is our relationship.”
Tim Moore: You know, I find that it’s so fascinating, even in this very first letter to church at Ephesus. You have on one hand, people falling away into complete license, in other words, just sinning freely, and then on the other hand, you have Jesus, warning…
Nathan Jones: Yeah, good point.
Tim Moore: Not to go so legalistic that you become prideful in your legalism, and really, it is a narrow path that we can stray from if we’re not careful, but I think, really, Nathan, that this church reflects a period of time, as you mentioned, early in the Church Age, immediately after Jesus had ascended. Pentecost occurred, and the church was launched there in Jerusalem, the apostles are sharing the Gospel, many are being added, there came a loss of that first love, with the legalism, in particular, so we label this the Legalistic Church Period that lasted, essentially, from the time of Jesus’ ascension until about AD 95.
Nathan Jones: Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize that not only were these actual physical churches in the first century that had these issues that the Lord was dealing with, but we can now look over the Church Age, and when we say the Church Age, we’re talking about from Pentecost to the Rapture, that’s the Church Age, Pentecost to the Rapture, and having hindsight is 20/20, we can look back and say, “Oh, okay, this type of,” I don’t know what you call it, description of the church, that both the praises and the condemnations, seems to fit the time period. Like Tim said, the legalistic church seemed to define the time period of the very early church from 30 to 95, which is about the time where John’s recording these letters.
Tim Moore: Yeah, it’s also fascinating that as Jesus is dictating this letter to the church, He is actually calling the church, meaning a body of Christians in this local body of Christ, to repent, and some of us would say, “Oh, I repented once. I never have to again,” but the word repent means to turn back from, so if we stray, we need to turn back onto that narrow path.
Nathan Jones: Yeah, He’s not talking about salvation…
Tim Moore: Not salvation.
Nathan Jones: He’s talking about relationship.
Tim Moore: Relationship and turning back from the error of your way, even as we sometimes stray from the Lord we love, and so…
Nathan Jones: And what a blessing, too, when He gets to the end in verse seven, so okay, if they do that, if they repent, and this is what He promises: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” the Holy Spirit. “To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” So Tim, an overcomer, what is an overcomer?
Tim Moore: That’s a good question. So we have a definition, back in 1 John 5:5, John himself records, inspired by the Holy Spirit: “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” So all of us who have accepted Christ as savior, because we believe Him, we believe in Him, we are, by definition, overcomers, but there is an element of persevering in the faith and not straying from the faith, and that’s what Jesus is talking about here, but for all of us who have put trust in Him, who believe in Him, and are faithful to Him, there is a promise of being in the Paradise of God, receiving this Tree of Life, and so that is none other than Heaven itself.
Nathan Jones: And each of these promises, through each of the seven letters, is a kingdom promise.
Tim Moore: Yes.
Nathan Jones: It’s a promise, if you’re an overcomer, if you’re saved, if you remain in the faith, then this is what you can expect. And the first part here, you eat from the Tree of Life, in other words, you’ll have everlasting life, and where? In the Paradise of God, which is the throne room of God, the whole, which we know would be the New Jerusalem on the New Earth.
Tim Moore: Yes.
Nathan Jones: So it’s a promise that, hey, you know, life is tough, you know, there’s a lot of challenges, both external and internal, internal being loveless, but if you can overcome those, you know, and continue to be working through your life of sanctification until you’re finally glorified in your new form, and the old sin nature’s gone away, then these are the promises that the Lord has for us, and not just this first-century church and not for that era, but Tim, we can argue, too, that we also know that these letters are written for the churches today.
Tim Moore: Yes.
Nathan Jones: And the individual Christians.
Tim Moore: And individual Christians, unless some of you think that we’re advocating that you are saved by faith and works, we’re not.
Nathan Jones: No.
Tim Moore: We’re saying you’re saved by faith, but you must continue in the faith, and so we’re not going down the rabbit trail of discussing the once saved, always saved question, but Jesus clearly says that you can stray, and therefore you must repent and return again to this straight and narrow way. That’s what we’re appealing to today.
Well, what brings us to the next church, the church at Smyrna, so we’ve called the church at Ephesus, the legal church, which was representative of the era from the apostles through AD 95. We get to the church at Smyrna, and Jesus says, calling Himself the first and the last, who was dead and who has come to life, says this, “I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews but are not, but are a synagogue of Satan,” and then He gives, again He says, “Do not fear.”
I love this passage, repeated over and over again in Scripture. When great saints of the faith encounter the Lord or His emissaries, angels, oftentimes they say, “Do not fear,” because that might be a natural reaction, but the Lord has a word for us through His letter to this church at Smyrna.
Nathan Jones: He does. I always relate to Smyrna because I have an aunt who lives in Smyrna, Delaware. We used to go up to visit her in Smyrna all the time. But what we’re talking about here is the Smyrna, which is in Asia Minor, now modern-day Turkey, but again, as we’re going around that clock, it would be the next city up as we go clockwise through Asia Minor there, and I love how the Lord opens it up because He talks about, He is the first and the last. You know, He reveals more of Himself to each of the churches.
Tim Moore: Yes He does.
Nathan Jones: You know, things that people in Moses’ time and Elijah’s time and all would’ve loved to have known the personal Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and He reveals Himself to the church.
Tim Moore: And we have the blessing of having the complete canon of Scripture, so we have the complete Revelation to include, the Book of Revelation.
Nathan Jones: Amen, amen.
Tim Moore: How much more blessed are we, even than some who are anticipating the Messiah throughout the Old Testament period, and even some of the apostles themselves, when they walked with Jesus, they didn’t at that moment know the full picture that we have in hindsight. Well, I already mentioned, Nathan, that we have a formula Jesus follows, sometimes rebuking the churches, but there is no rebuke for the church at Smyrna. What does the Lord have to say to them?
Nathan Jones: He doesn’t rebuke them because this is a time period, because not only was this church… if you were a Christian back in the day, it was called the Way, and it was considered almost a Jewish cult, and that’s why, as we see here, the synagogues would start persecuting the churches in the early century because they didn’t want anything to do with this Way, this Jewish cult. They’d be dragged into any kind of persecution of Christians, plus, if you were part of the Way and you weren’t doing emperor worship, giving credence to Caesar as lord, then you were considered a second-class citizen, and you were barred from trade.
So, basically, when He says they were poor, it’s because they really were. They had to trade with each other. They couldn’t trade in the town of Smyrna, and so they were very poor, but yet the Lord says they’re rich because what are they rich in? Spiritually rich, because persecution, when you stand up for your faith, you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. I love reading the old writings from the Puritans who were so persecuted in Europe and came to the United States. Their faith was so strong. They were so poor.
Tim Moore: Yes.
Nathan Jones: I mean they were so poor, but they were so strong, and that’s why the Lord loves His church because no matter how much the people are told to recant, or they were killed for their faith, they stood strong, and that’s why Tim and I can look from 95 to 312 AD, where it’s called the Persecuted Church. It was a time where the Romans greatly persecuted the Christians, and we know they were crucified, they were put to… animals tore them apart, gladiators tore them apart. I mean, it was a terrible time to be a Christian.
Tim Moore: You know, this brings up an outstanding point that I hadn’t thought about until just now, Nathan. As you said, the Persecuted Church oftentimes exhibits great faith. I’ve heard what people say, even regarding their own children or grandchildren, “Well, I don’t want them to suffer, I just want them to be happy.” And my response has been, “Well, I don’t want them to be happy per se because if that was the case, I’d give them donuts for breakfast and let them watch for, you know, every meal, let them watch cartoons all day long, they’d be happy.”
But that’s not what they’re created for. I want them to have joy-filled lives serving the Lord. And even to say, “I don’t want my children to suffer,” well, naturally, of course, I don’t either, but I want them to be ready to serve the Lord regardless of circumstance, in season and out, just as we’re called to do, and quite frankly, we’re going to see a rise in persecution in our day and age, and we need to be so grounded in our faith, so committed in our resolve to serve the Lord and Him only, not Caesar, not any other false religion, that even if persecution comes, our faith is only strengthened, and our resolve is demonstrated because I think that has a great evangelistic measure to tell people, “I am so confident in my Lord that I will not be shaken.”
And so, the Lord has nothing but commendation, and He actually tells these folks in Smyrna, in verse 10, after He tells them, “Do not fear,” He says, “you are about to suffer, but behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for 10 days.” We’ll dig into that. “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the Crown of Life.” You know, we can’t tell you as a viewer, and we can’t tell Christians all around the world that you will not suffer because Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.” Nathan, there are Christians today suffering grievously in other parts of the world for their faith in Jesus Christ. We stand with them in solidarity, we lift them up in prayer, but there is a promise that the Lord Himself will deliver them and give them this Crown of Life, but what does He mean by this 10-day reference?
Nathan Jones: Okay, well, obviously, this is a time period. And so we know that when it said that there would be 10 days of suffering, a lot of theologians, we don’t know for sure, but they say that it’s 10 Caesars, 10 of the worst Caesars, that persecuted the Christians during that time period, leading all the way up till Constantine, and we’ll get that next week when Constantine changed things, but, you know, these people suffered. Have you ever seen that video of a church in Asia, I think, believe it’s in China, who gets Bibles? They’re delivered Bibles.
Tim Moore: Yes.
Nathan Jones: And these people are holding… and they’re crying, they’re crying because they, you know, they used to share like one Bible that they had to hide, and now they have groups of them. We’re thinking of North Korea, how many hundreds of thousands of Christians in, basically, concentration camps, work camps, for their faith, all around the world, Christian’s suffering, but Tim, they are spiritually richer than anybody who’s sitting in our modern, comfortable culture today.
Tim Moore: Oftentimes. I was speaking to friends the other day who said they have traveled back and forth to China, purposely smuggling Bibles in for the Chinese church. What a tremendous testimony of love of those brothers and sisters in Christ.
Nathan Jones: And there’s two things here. Not only is that 10 days questionable, people have, we talk about persecution, they will use that verse about the synagogue of Satan, and they’ll say, “Well, the Lord’s saying that Jewish people are satanic, and we need to get rid of the Jewish people,” antisemitism. That is not at all what this passage is saying.
Tim Moore: No.
Nathan Jones: It’s talking about one synagogue in one city that happened to be persecuting the Christians at that time. It isn’t about all the Jews through all of human history. So I want to clear that up before we move forward.
Tim Moore: Well, and quite frankly, we can take a lesson from that. Sometimes, we could get so fervent in our religion that we are actually stifling those who are actually showing true faith in Christ. I say we, hopefully, not you and I, not the folks watching today. But the humanity likes to get so caught up in its religion that it wants to stifle others. And we who are faithful to Christ, cannot be constrained by other religions, by other people trying to tell us, “Hey, you can’t practice serving the Lord.” As they were during the time of the Roman Empire, we have to be true to God. Just as the apostles said, “We know what you’re telling us, but we will serve, and we will obey God.”
Nathan Jones: And what do they earn? The Crown of Life.
Tim Moore: Yes.
Nathan Jones: The Martyr’s Crown. Of all the five or six crowns the Bible talks about, the Crown of Life is the Martyr’s Crown. You know, Tim, I personally would not want to earn that crown. Who wants to be a martyr, right? And yet, it is a very esteemed thing. The Lord says, “I will give you the Crown of Life if you’re an overcomer,” in other words, if you’re saved. And He says, verse 11, “He who has an ear, let him hear with the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit says to the churches, “He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” Okay, Tim, another theological term, what is the second death?
Tim Moore: So the second death, we know, is we may die in our mortal bodies, but the second death is being cast forever into Hell, and so that is a spiritual death. It is everlasting. Its ramifications cannot be undone. Obviously, you and I may die today, but that death has no power over us because Christ has the victory over death, and He has canceled the second death for those who have put trust in Him.
You know, Nathan, even this word of, “For him who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” the Holy Spirit is still speaking to the churches through the Word of God. He’s still speaking to individual Christians if we will open the book. And that goes back to a promise made in Chapter 1:3, where Jesus said: “Blessed is he who reads and who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” We know how to read; we know how to hear. How do you heed a book of prophecy? I believe that you believe it.
Nathan Jones: Believe it, yes.
Tim Moore: And by believing it, you obey the applications to your life. And Nathan, we have some great resources for those who want to dive even deeper than we can possibly go in a 30-minute television show. You wrote a tremendous book about The Mighty Angels of Revelation. Tell us a little bit about that.
Nathan Jones: Well, Vic Batista, our assistant evangelist and I did our podcast, The Truth Will Set You Free. We found that as we taught through Revelation, there’s 72 angels or groups of angels found in the Book of Revelation, the seven stars, so seven of the 72 right there, and so we teach you through the Book of Revelation, and we also teach you angelology and eschatology all at the same time. It was a real fun book to put together.
Tim Moore: You know, we love to study Revelation because it is the ultimate, the magnum opus, as you said, of Scripture. It’s the final culmination of all that God has revealed about Himself and about Jesus’ coming. So for those who have put their trust in Him, those who are overcomers, by definition, there is nothing but good news and encouragement in the Book of Revelation. But here at Lamb & Lion Ministries, we’ve also put together another resource, which can be yours, called the Revelation Study Guide. So take just a minute and hear what it offers.
Announcer: Lamb & Lion Ministries is pleased to offer an updated, verse-by-verse, expository study of Revelation. Based on Dr. David Reagan’s original overview of Revelation, this new study guide contains QR codes to digitally remastered audios recorded by Dr. David Reagan himself. It steps through the entire Book of Revelation in an easy-to-follow manner. The expanded and improved study guide is filled with colorful graphics and bonus material to enrich your own study of Revelation. The full-color, printed copy of The Revelation Study Guide can be yours for only $25, and that includes all the links to the online audios at no extra charge. Just call the number on the screen or visit our online store. If you prefer, you can download the study guide itself from our website for $10. You’ll find the Lamb & Lion Ministries’ Revelation Study Guide to be a valuable aid to your study of God’s prophetic Word.
Closing
Tim Moore: Over the next three weeks, we will continue to unpack Jesus’ letters to the seven churches. You can expect us to review two churches each week, then spend a whole week on Laodicea, since it is so apropos to our day and age.
Nathan Jones: We hope that our dialogue has helped you understand the historic significance of Ephesus and Smyrna, spiritual lessons that apply throughout the Church Age and some of the prophetic lessons even for us today.
Tim Moore: One thing is sad but obvious. The church at Ephesus is no more. Whether the Christians there who first received the letters recorded by John heeded the admonition or not, over time, the city declined, and the church faded. It could be said that the church at Smyrna still thrives, although the city has been renamed Izmir. The point is that we have a responsibility to heed the Word of God, not only for our own immediate benefit, but also for the longevity of faithfulness among our churches and our families.
Nathan Jones: And you may think, “Well, if the Lord tarries, I’m out of here anyway. I’ll be in Heaven with Him, so what happens here on Earth will no longer be my concern.” And there is an element of truth to that statement, but also, a great lie. Satan would like to see to it that our faith is snuffed out over time. Faithful Christians passing on the faith, once and for all, handed down to the saints, is the only way that faith will continue to be handed down.
Tim Moore: And that is our goal in opening God’s Word here on Christ in Prophecy. Nathan and I, all of us here at Lamb & Lion Ministries, are eager for Jesus to call us home, but we want others to know our great God as Savior and Lord before they bow their knee at His throne of judgment. We’ll be back next week to discuss Pergamum and Thyatira. Until then, we pray that you too look forward to claiming the Crown of Life. Godspeed!
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End of Program