Aug 31, 2025

Scripture Reading: Revelation 3:1-6

The letter to the church at Sardis is the fourth letter of seven letters Christ spoke to these select churches.  The problem in the church at Sardis was spiritual deadness, even though they appeared to the observer to be a church brimming with vitality.  ". . . you have a name that...

Aug 24, 2025

Scripture Reading: Revelation 2:18-29

Thyatira was not a magnificent city in antiquity and was relatively obscure compared to Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum.  It was known for the manufacture of purple dyes and the making of cloth.  In Acts 16, the first convert in Philippi was Lydia, a seller of purple fabrics, from the...

Aug 18, 2025

Scripture Reading: Revelation 2:12-17

The third church in the letters of Christ to the seven churches was in the city of Pergamum.  Like Smyrna, it was a center for emperor worship.  There was a temple dedicated to the worship of Augustus (and subsequent Caesars) in Pergamum as well as the renowned Altar of Zeus.

Christ...

Aug 10, 2025

Scripture Reading: Revelation 2:8-11

Smyrna was a city of 200,000 people in the first century.  It boasted a stadium, a library, and the largest public theater in Asia Minor.  The sizable Jewish population and the high level of allegiance to the Roman state made it difficult to live in Smyrna as a Christian.  The Jews,...

Aug 3, 2025

Scripture Reading: Revelation 2:1-7

In AD 61 or 62, the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus. It eloquently plumbed the depths of salvation in Christ and called the Ephesians to zeal and truth.  Some 30 years later the apostle John wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus as well, recorded in Revelation...