“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.’” – Revelation 2:1
It’s Jesus Who holds the stars (representing angels or messengers associated with particular churches) and walks among the golden lampstands representing the churches themselves. This isn’t just cool imagery – there are precious truths conveyed through this vivid image of Lord Jesus interacting with local churches. What can we learn from this angelic description of Almighty Jesus?
First, the local church matters a great deal to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just love the church in general, He’s intimately involved with, concerned for, and connected to individual local churches. There are many who consider themselves Christians yet have contempt for local churches. That disobeys the clear example of Jesus Who holds the churches in His hand and walks among them. Jesus loves the local church and Christians need to find a local church to love.
Second, local churches belong to Jesus. He is the head of the church and the head of each church. We may consider a church to be “my church” in the sense that we identify with a particular body of believers to which we are connected. We must never consider a church to be “my church” in terms of owning or controlling it. The church belongs to Jesus. Any church that doesn’t is a runaway bride!
Third, because Jesus loves and owns the local church, He’s intimately aware of what’s going on in each of His churches. That’s amply demonstrated throughout Revelation 2 and 3. Jesus knows the good, the bad, and the ugly in each of His churches. He commends the good, desires the bad to change, and laments and will punish the ugly. We need to know and care about these things as well. We must not be blind to the faults of the local church, but must relentlessly seek to make her worthy of her Master.
Fourth, because Jesus is so intimately involved with churches that belong to Him, we must not panic about the challenges we face in any time or place. There are certainly serious issues that require serious responses in church life. Nonetheless, it’s Jesus who snuffs out churches, not the foolishness or malice of people. It’s unfaithfulness that will ultimately kill a church, not lack of resources. As the church of Jesus Christ, we should face every challenge with prayer and confidence in our Lord, working diligently to apply the Gospel to heal and transform the bad into the good and the ugly into something beautiful in Christ.