All the seven epistles to the seven churches end with this verse. The promise of a reward ‘to him who overcomes’ is also part of these messages to these seven churches. This verse about ‘hearing’ is the last sentence of the last three letters, and it is clear from this that all the seven letters were intended for all the seven churches. It does not say: ‘what the Spirit says to the church—in this case, Ephesus.’ Rather it says: “what the Spirit says to the churches.” The intention was to let all the churches read one another’s letters to learn from one another1. Learn from one another. Your church maybe troubled by this or the other problem, but our church is having other problems of its own. Let’s face the fact that – though we are different – we still continue to be one body, the body of Christ. He is the Head of us all. So let’s share His comments and learn from them!
Disciples have to listen. Obedience begins with listening. Listening is difficult. How often does it happen that you have just started speaking and someone interrupts you to say: ‘That reminds me of …,’ and a whole story by that person follows. He or she hardly noticed what you said being full of their own stories and ideas. Sometimes you sit with a company of people and – if you listen carefully – everyone is only concerned with telling their own story, with no real communication taking place. Such a ‘conversation’ comes to a finish when everyone has said everything he personally has to say.
Listening is important. It happened many times that as a minister I paid someone a visit and sometimes listened to them for an hour or more! When I left, the person said: ‘Thank you for the fine conversation we had, Reverend.’ In fact, I had said no more than three sentences in total! And yet there was communication nevertheless. Listening with a lot of love can even bring about a changed attitude towards life in the other person.
The voice of the Spirit is a soft voice. That voice does not shout, neither did the Lord Jesus Himself.2 The Holy Spirit is very sensitive. You can grieve the Spirit.3 Natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit.4 You have to learn how to listen to Him. You need silence for that. Listen to the silent voice of the Holy Spirit within you. He can remind you of what Christ said. He shows you who Christ is and what He means to you.5 He leads you into all truth. He is the Spirit of truth.6
Silence and prayer are equally important. Listen to the words of Scripture, praying, and also being prepared to obey and to be converted, when that quiet voice lays its finger on a wounded spot in your life due to some sins, bitterness, or frustrations. The Spirit is also balm on that wounded spot. He is ointment—oil that cures gently. He is the Comforter, however deep your sorrow may be. He is Jesus—for us, with us and in us—and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.7 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:30 (Dutch translation) ‘But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us from God: wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’
Love drives out fear.8 You are set free from your past, free from fear of punishment and fear of eternal judgment—completely free in Him, our Saviour and Redeemer. The Spirit plants you in Him. We in Christ, and Christ in us, by His Holy Spirit. He sets up the connection between Jesus and us, and makes that fellowship stronger and stronger, until ‘faith and listening’ in this world flows over into seeing—forever, in all eternity, in the other world! In the presence of God and of the Lamb that was slain!
• A single manuscript has added ‘seven’ to the verse i.e. what the Spirit says to the seven churches. That makes it very clear that the message is not only directed to that particular church, and not even to those seven churches, but that we also must listen and hear what the Spirit says to those seven churches in the 1st century AD. It is also meant for us—seven being the number of completeness, the Church at large, worldwide and over the centuries.
• Gnosticism is a modern name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish-Christian circles in the first and second century AD. These philosophical systems believed that the material world is created by an emanation or ‘works’ of a lower god (demiurge), trapping ‘the divine spark’ within the human body. This ‘divine spark’ could be liberated by ‘gnosis’, spiritual knowledge acquired through direct mystic experience. Remember the old temptation of the devil in Genesis 3:5: ‘…You will be like God, knowing good and evil…’
• Some of the core teachings include the following: All matter is evil, and the non-material, spirit-realm is good. There is an unknowable God, who gave rise to many lesser spirit beings. The creator of the (material) universe is not the supreme God, but an inferior spirit (the Demiurge).
• Gnosticism does not deal with “sin”, only with ignorance. To them ‘sin’ is just ignorance. To achieve salvation, one needs gnosis (knowledge). The Gnostic ideas and systems flourished in the Mediterranean world in the second century AD, in conjunction with and influenced by early Christian movements and Platonism. After the second century, a decline set in.
• In New Age movements one can see a revival of these ancient ideas that everyone and everything is divine; everyone has divinity in his or her or its inner being.
Bible References:
1.Cf. Colossians 4:16 2.Matthew 12:19 3. Ephesians 4:30 4.1 Corinthians 2:14 5.John 16:12–15 6.John 14:16–17 and 15:26 7. 2 Corinthians 3:17 8.1 John 4:18
