The Seven Letters

Revelation 2–3

Story to read: The Letters to the Churches
Bible: Revelation 2–3

1. School reports

Imagine your teacher wrote a report card for your whole class — not for each person, but for the class as one thing. What would it say? What are you good at together? What is the thing everybody quietly knows is a problem?

That is exactly what chapters 2 and 3 are. Seven report cards, for seven real churches, in seven real towns. And Jesus writes them himself.

2. The seven churches, quickly

• Ephesus — busy, hard-working, brilliant at spotting people who teach nonsense. But somewhere along the way they stopped loving. Everything else about them is fine.
• Smyrna — small, poor, in real trouble, some of them in prison. Jesus has no criticism for them at all.
• Pergamum — surrounded by genuine evil; one of them has already been killed for it. But they let people teach wrong things inside the church.
• Thyatira — a small town church that is actually growing in faith and has put up with a great deal. The trouble is that their own leaders are the ones going wrong.
• Sardis — grand, impressive, everything apparently under control. That is the problem: they have organised Jesus right out of their lives.
• Philadelphia — they try hard, they face opposition, they are genuinely poor. And they stay faithful. Jesus has no criticism for them either.
• Laodicea — rich, healthy, comfortable, and quite sure they are better than everyone else.

3. Who got it right?

Ask the children to guess before you tell them.

Smyrna and Philadelphia. The two smallest. The two poorest. The two with the most trouble. They are the only two Jesus finds nothing to correct in.

That is worth sitting with for a moment, because it is not how we usually score things.

4. Four ways to go wrong

The other five show four different ways of missing it, and none of them looks dramatic from the outside:

• Being loveless while doing everything else right (Ephesus)
• Being arrogant because things are going well (Laodicea)
• Living as if you don’t really need God (Sardis)
• Letting wrong ideas about Jesus spread, and leading others into them (Pergamum, Thyatira)

Notice that a church can be busy, correct, popular and well-organised and still be on this list.

5. What Jesus does with all of them

Here is the part that is easy to miss. Jesus does not close a single one of these churches down. Every letter ends with a promise for “the one who conquers” — which simply means the one who keeps going.

He tells them the truth, and then he keeps the door open. Both halves matter.

6. Our own report card

If Jesus wrote to your church, or your group, or your family — what do you think he would praise? What would he say gently, but honestly?

The point is not to feel bad. Smyrna and Philadelphia were not the impressive ones. They were the faithful ones.

Memory verse: “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)

Look for yourself

Two quiet minutes. Nobody has to say anything out loud.

Every one of the seven letters begins with Jesus picking one piece out of the picture in chapter 1 — the piece that church needed. To the frightened ones he comes as the one who died and came back. To the slack ones, as the one with eyes like fire.

So: how would he come to you?

What would he be wearing? What would he be holding? Which part of him would you notice first — his eyes, his voice, his hands?

And if he wrote your name at the top of a letter, what do you think the first line would say?

Whatever comes to mind, hold it up next to the Jesus of the Gospels. If it does not sound like him, let it go.

7. Prayer

Jesus, thank you that you tell us the truth instead of just being polite. Thank you that you never give up on us. Help us to be faithful even when we are small, and kind even when we are right. Amen.

Appendix: Ideas for leaders

Opening activity: Write the seven town names on cards and hand them out. As you read each letter, that child stands. It keeps a long chapter moving.

Craft idea: A class report card — “What we are good at” on one side, “What we could grow in” on the other. Fill it in together, gently. Keep it to look at in a few months.

Questions:

1. Why do you think the two churches with the hardest lives got no criticism at all?
2. Can somebody do everything right and still be missing something? What?
3. Which of the seven sounds most like us?

Song suggestions: A song about faithfulness; a song about Jesus knowing us.

Prep note: Ephesus is the one children find hardest — everything correct, but loveless. It is worth the extra minute, because it is the trap that catches good, well-taught children.