Letter to the Seven Churches–Introduction

Outline: Seven Churches – Intro
Text: Revelation 1:9-20
Discussion audio (56 minutes)

We enter into John’s first vision as the scene is set for the letter to the seven churches of Asia. The imagery and allusions John employs find their basis in Jewish literature (Old Testament as well as intertestamental writings and traditions), Greco-Roman religious mythologies (the goddess Hekate, cosmology), and Greek literature (Greek drama form). John uses imagery and forms familiar to his audience in order to find common ground with as many as possible.

Perhaps the point John is attempting to communicate to his audience is that Jesus is the one, universal God that walked among his people, walks among them today, and will always walk among them, whatever troubles they may face and have to endure.