Judgment in the House of God: Daily thoughts from Revelation (Revelation 1:9–11)

Sometimes one of the reasons the world is put off by our talking about judgment from God is that we make ourselves out to be superior to them as those exempt from this judgment when in fact we participate at times in the very same sins the world does. The cry of “hypocrisy” comes to their lips or at least to their minds.

But the book of Revelation does not let us off the hook in terms of the judgment. John explains that he is being told to write this book to seven churches, and, we will find, that is not so these seven churches can gloat over the rest of the world about being exempt from God’s seeing eye.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” (Revelation 1:9–11, ESV)

The churches John is writing to identify with him as their brother and partner or sharer in the tribulation that they all experience because of their worship of Jesus. They identify with him also in the expressions of the kingdom they witness as they proclaim it. And they identify with him in the endurance they have developed as soldiers of Christ. This certainly suggests that John had personally ministered to and with the letter recipients.  That fits with the tradition we have that John served especially in the community of Ephesus, one of the churches he says the Lord told him to write to.

But he is now on an island called Patmos because of his belief in and preaching of the Word of God and the testimony he gave that Jesus is the Messiah, resurrected from the dead, the only Savior. Our traditions tell us that John was exiled to this remote island in the Aegean Sea off the west coast of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) where these churches were located. Few of us have experienced such persecution for our faith or witness.  Would we endure like John did should it come our way?

When John says he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, I assume he meant he was experiencing on the first day of the week, Sunday, a special ministering presence of the Spirit that was rife with prophetic revelation. Indeed he gets a revelation, a voice telling him to write in a book something to send to these seven churches in Asia Minor.  The ESV Study Bible notes, “The order in which the churches are listed traces the route along which a courier from Patmos would have carried the scroll.” And John was probably tied in ministry to these churches and familiar with their leaders and members and the issues each was facing.

Were there other churches in Asia Minor?  Yes, but these were in some way representative of the churches over all the earth and continue today to be representative of issues we need to watch for. This is why the voice behind John is telling him to write this book to them. The message for these churches is a message for us. The message of God’s coming judgment is intimately linked to the current representation of His kingdom on earth, the church. As Peter tells his readers, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17, ESV)

When the church talks about judgment it should be made clear that we are subject to it also and must be continually evaluated for our own sinfulness and hypocrisy. Only then will the world believe us.