Its great to be together again as we look into the Word of God and thank you for listening to these broadcasts as we strive to share the truth of God. The title for the lesson is: “Your Brother.” And our text, our main study text is taken from the New Testament the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, chapter 1 verses 9 through 11. Please listen to the Word of God.
“I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.””
This is the Word of God.
Our study text setting is at the close of the first century, about AD 95 according to most biblical scholars. Christianity had become a despised religious sect (S E C T, sect) in the Roman Empire, the Imperial Roman Empire. Early in the second century, Pliny, a Roman governor wrote as he scorned Christians and Christianity as a “depraved and extravagant superstition.” The Roman historian, Tacitus, described Christians as “a class hated for their abominations.”
Apart, from the hostility of fallen man toward the gospel, Christians were hated and despised for many reasons. Politically the Romans viewed Christians as disloyal to Rome because they refused to acknowledge Caesar as the supreme authority; proven by Christian’s refusal to offer commanded sacrifices of worship to the emperor, to Ceaser. Christians often had nightly, private meetings; therefore, Roman officials accused them of hatching antigovernment plots.
Socially, Christians, most of whom were from the lower classes of society, were despised by the Roman upper classes. The Christian teaching that all people are equal in God’s eyes threatened to undermine the hierarchal structure of Roman society and topple the elite from their privileged status. It also heightened the Roman aristocracy’s fear of a slave rebellion. Christians also declined to participate in the worldly amusements that were so much a part of pagan society.
Religiously, Christians were denounced as atheists because they rejected the Roman pantheon of their many gods, and because Christians worshiped an invisible God, not an idol. Wild rumors based on misunderstandings of Christian beliefs and practices, falsely accused them of cannibalism (as referring to the Lord’s Supper), they were accused of incest, and other sexual perversion accusations as Christians considered themselves brothers and sisters in God’s family.
Economically, Christians were seen as a threat by the numerous pagan priests, craftsmen, and merchants who profited from idol worship and revelry that it involved. Pagan officials complained to the emperor that the pagan temples had at times been deserted, and that those who sold sacrificial animals found fewer and fewer buyers. Christians were bad for business.
Also, in that ultra superstitious era many Romans feared that natural disasters (such as earthquakes, floods, fires, drought, etc.) resulted from neglect of their gods.
With this historical back story, we, today, can understand why eventually empire-wide persecution, Roman empire wide persecution broke out against Christians in the first century into the second and third centuries. The discouraged Christians in Asia Minor (Today western Turkey) to whom John originally addressed his Revelation prophetic letter desperately needed encouragement. It had been decades since Jesus Christ had ascended to His Father in heaven. Jerusalem had been destroyed, and Israel ravaged in AD 66-70. Many of the churches were losing their first love, compromising, tolerating sin, becoming powerless, and even distasteful to the LORD Jesus Himself (as described in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
Eleven of the apostles were dead, probably all martyred; only the apostle John remained, and he was exiled to a Roman penal colony, the isle of Patmos.
Yet in spite of all the disappointments, Jesus Christ, the Head of the church had not abandoned His church nor His promises. (The same can be said regarding the Lord, and His church today). He has not abandoned His promises to the church. God is the great promise maker and God is the great promise keeper.
Revelation chapter 1 verse 9 “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering, and kingdom, and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”
Think about it, John, was an original, handpicked apostle by Jesus Himself, even one of the inner circle of the twelve along with Peter and James, James the elder. John is the human author if a gospel, He is the human author of three epistles, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ’s prophetic letter. Yet he simply and humbly identified himself as “your brother.” In fact, as brothers and sisters in Christ today, John is our brother also, brother in Christ. John did not write as one impressed with his authority as an apostle, but instead as a simple companion of Christians, he was surely amazed at the visions he was to receive from Jesus Christ his Lord and his Savior.
John then proceeded to identify himself with fellow believers in a three-fold way:
“In the suffering” like his brothers, John was at the same time suffering severe persecution in his old age, having been exiled with others who were criminals (perhaps with others also whose only crime was being a Christians).
Secondly “and kingdom” John was partaker of the same kingdom as his readers, here referring to the sphere of salvation; the redeemed community (or kingdom) over which Christ reigns, the church. Today, all genuine Christians, along with John, share a kinship as fellow kingdom subjects in the church of Jesus Christ. (Colossians chapter 1 and verse 13), the kingdom of the Son.
Thirdly “and patient endurance. John identified with his readers in the matter of perseverance, which means enduring patiently whatever difficulty, whatever challenge comes without giving up on the Lord or on His church, which are intricately connected.
And all three are possible because they “are ours in Christ Jesus.” That is in persevering faith, in Jesus Christ because He is our Savior and Lord. Suffering and kingdom are inseparable aspects of our inheritance in Christ. Patient endurance also requires our fortitude today, with God’s help, through faith, being overcomers and relying on the hope of God’s promises usward to be fulfilled.
John was exiled to “the island of Patmos.” According to scholars, often people of lower social status were executed, enslaved, or banished to mines, to the mines, to work in the mines, m i n e s mines, to work in the mines or to die in gladiatorial combat. John was very aged, and sometimes those in authority sentenced such persons more lightly due to their age. A biblical scholar writes: “While banishment was a lesser penalty than execution, we should hardly think John’s sentence was light. He may have been treated less harshly on account of his age or because the local governor rather than the emperor sentenced him. But in any case, banishment involved loss of honor. It could have included the forfeiture of nearly all one’s property to the state. Unless the government lifted the ban, those banished to an island remained there until they died. And yet, according to early Christian historian, Eusebius, the emperor Nerva (in the year of our Lord 96 through 98) released John from Patmos).
Those of lower status also were often scourged (a punishment that is known to have laid a person’s bones bare); they were chained, given little food or clothing, left to sleep on the bare ground, and if able sentenced to hard labor.” We, of course, do not know what John exactly had to endure but especially being aged it certainly involved much suffering. Possibly, probably John was into his nineties which was extremely rare in his day.
John’s crime? “Because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” This so-called crime is still being enforced against Christians today. The ten countries where Christians are most at risk according to “Open Doors USA 2022” are: Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Eritrea Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, and India.
For example, today, in Afghanistan some Christian converts are confined to a mental ward due to their conversion being deemed crazy, yet it is more probable that they will be executed, often on the spot, in Afghanistan, central Asia. (We need to remember to pray for persecuted Christians the world over, especially those who are suffering extreme physical persecution, mental persecution.)
Revelation chapter 1 verses 10 through 11 “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.’”
“Lord’s Day” means Sunday. Because the Lord was resurrected on the first day of the week, Sunday.
“In the Spirit” means it was not a dream. John was supernaturally transported out of the material world – awake not sleeping – to an experience beyond normal senses. Perhaps like an out of the body experience. The Holy Spirit empowered his senses to perceive revelation from God.
“Scroll” was made of parchment formed from papyrus, which is a reed plant (r e e d plant) that grows plentifully along the Nile River.
“The seven churches” the place names from Ephesus to Laodicea where seven cities that had been probably originally evangelized directly or indirectly by the apostle Paul and probably also the apostle John. The seven churches would have each received the entire scroll passed along with all the contents of the Revelation of Jesus Christ – not just to what is to us the second and third chapters but all the way to what is to us the twenty second chapter. The entire contents of the scroll would have been read aloud to the members of each of the seven churches. These seven churches were chosen because they were located in the key cities of the seven postal districts into which the Roman province of Asia, which is today the western part of Turkey, the Roman province of Asia. How it was divided into these seven postal districts. They were then the central points for disseminating information. The seven cities appear in the order that a messenger, traveling on the great circular road that linked them, would visit them. (Perhaps copies of the Revelation prophecies would have been given to each church.)
Perhaps, the thrust of the preserved Revelation prophecy letter is to encourage and challenge all Christians, including today, because ultimately, we are all brothers and sisters in God’s family. “That is in the suffering, and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus” (wherever we are, whether in North America, in Europe, or in Africa, or in Asia, wherever we are, even in the islands of the Pacific, such as the Philippines) “because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” Today to His honor and glory before the entire world.
David Johnson is minister of the Sellersburg Church of Christ in Sellersburg, IN.