Brethren,
I hope you enjoyed a peaceful and enlightening Sabbath recovering from all the rushing around and returning to a normal routine after the Feast of Tabernacles.
In this message we started a seven part study series on the “Seven Assemblies of Asia Minor”. This section of Revelation has been widely studied and interpreted. One of the prevailing interpretations is that each assembly represents a discrete temporal age of the Apostolic faith. By this analysis we would now be in the Laodicean era. That would place those of us who are trying to rouse the Bride in a hopeless position as the attitude of all the people of YHWH is one of lukewarm complacency. Although this could be the dominant attitude of our age I do not believe that it is the only attitude we find.
I prefer to regard these seven assemblies as archetypes which describe seven spiritual conditions we can find in the people of YHWH. Over the ages there may have been one predominant condition at any given time, but each condition can be found at every time, yesterday, today and into the future. I believe that this is a far more beneficial model for teaching and evangelism. Everyone who reads these chapters should honestly ask themselves – which spiritual attitude am I representing to the world and my Savior?
The Assembly at Ephesus was praised for their patience and labor, for exposing false prophets and for holding fast to the true name of Y’HoWaH. There were also commended for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans (this is an interesting study in the abuse of authority in religion which we will explore in more depth at a later date). But they were criticized by Y’HoWShUA because they had “lost their first love”.
We need to understand what this “first love”really is and judge ourselves against the same measure used at Ephesus – have you lost your first love? To find out more on this subject please watch the message here.
Next week we will explore the message to the Assembly at Smyrna, the persecuted assembly.
If you have found this teaching useful, please forward it on to someone you thing would benefit from hearing it because this will help the Gospel be preached to all the world, which must happen before Y’HoWShUA can return.
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Shalom!
Your brother and servant of Y’HoWaH, the One True Mighty One,
David
PS. If you have any questions on the Bible of scriptural issues and you can’t find an answer on our web site, please send me an email because I’d be pleased to offer my understanding on the subject.