Day 12: ‘John, to the seven churches that are in Asia’…

Following the Apostolic prelude, the impressive overture to the Book of Revelation, and the special beatitude to the reader, John now starts to speak directly. He greets the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, and, in doing so, he clearly anchors the book in history.

The Book of Revelation presents itself as a classical letter form, with a heading,1 an addressee,2 a benediction,3 praise of Christ,4 a short mention of the theme,5 and a divine ‘stamp’.6 After these, the four great visions follow: the appearance of Christ and the letters to the seven churches7; the throne in Heaven and the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls8; Babylon and its judgement9; the celestial Jerusalem,10 and finally the epilogue.11

Why seven churches? It is the number of completion, of perfection. It is not a divine or holy number: the ‘beast’ also has seven heads.12 The seven churches apparently represent the entire Church of Christ. The revelation concerns us as well, therefore. The seven churches called by their names apparently possess certain qualities, characteristics, peculiarities and, also, faults that have characterised the church of Jesus Christ at all times and in all places and still do! That is why these seven are addressed, and no other churches that were in the same area as well, such as Colosse,13 Hierapolis,14 and Troas.15

The Church of Jesus Christ gets local status. The Church of Christ has a local address. There were indeed mutual ties and communications between the churches, but no superstructures. Christ will not shortly send His seven letters as one letter with a long list of general remarks to ‘the church of Asia’ but specifically to each of those seven churches in that Roman district. Churches as institutions/organizations were an unknown phenomenon at the time. There were no Reformed, Roman-Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Evangelical or Pentecostal Churches, but only the Church of Jesus Christ at a certain place. The Church is a local entity. And all the Christians of that place belong to it. Not John, but Christ chose these seven churches.16 Every Christian must function in a local church, and is personally and collectively accountable for the spiritual status of that local church.

• ‘Asia’ is not the continent of Asia, nor Asia-Minor, but the Roman province of that name in the western part of Asia-Minor (Western Turkey). It included the districts of Mysia, Lydia, Phrygia and Caria. Ephesus was its civilian
• How do we fulfil our responsibility in our place at the local church? If you isolate yourself as a believer, you risk dying away, just as a log of wood that rolls away from the pile crackling in the fire quickly stops burning and grows

Bible References

1.Revelation 1:1–3 2.Revelation 1:4a 3.Revelation 1:4b-5 4.Revelation 1:6 5.Revelation 1:7 6.Revelation 1:8 7.Revelation 1:9–3:22 8.Revelation 4:1–16:21 9.Revelation 17:1–21:8 10.Revelation 21:9–22:5 11.Revelation 22:6–21 12.Revelation 13:1 13.Colossians 1:2 and 2:1 14.Colossians 4:13 15.Acts 20:5–6 16.Revelation 1:11