Each of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 ends with the exhortation,

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches!

How we as the believers need to heed this exhortation and hear the Lord’s word in these seven letters again today!

It is in fact one of the most remarkable prophecies in the entire Bible. Using these seven churches as a figure, the Lord shows us, in a concise way, the entire history of the professing church in the seven stages it would pass through, all the way from the end of the apostolic age at the close of the first century until He finally returns. These include the four stages that remain with us today, which are, respectively, the Catholic, Protestant, Philadelphia, and Degraded stages of the church.

In giving us this prophecy, the Lord is also showing us which of these stages, or churches, satisfies His desire. Thus, it also shows us where we should seek to be in terms of our own church fellowship, namely, in the fellowship of “Philadelphia,” the church of brotherly love.

And that is what we consider in this series of 12 episodes on the Lord’s word in His letters to the seven churches.