WOL2022-REV-04
Jesus writes a list of commendations, one serious warning, and a promise, and sends it by messenger to the port of Ephesus. And the moment this messenger walked into the city, holding this letter from Jesus, the first thing he would have seen would not have been the bustling harbor teeming with boats, or the roads lined with exotic goods from all the trade routes to the east, but the largest building (not object like pyramids or Romans Roads) in the ancient world.
Standing ten stories high and taking up an entire city block, the temple of Diana (or Artemis, in Greek) was completely covered and overlaid with pure gold. It stood gleaming in the sun directly in the center of the city, and it became #3 of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
In and around Diana’s temple, prostitutes, both men, and women lured people in for unbridled immorality in the worship of Diana, a goddess of sex and fertility. Hundreds of temple prostitutes were always on the grounds to promote this unrestrained indulgence of the flesh. Ephesus was a magnet for not just the sexually enslaved, but it was also the center of the black arts, witchcraft, superstition, and all the powers of Satan.
This third wonder of the ancient world was the center of everything that went on in the city, and standing for all to see was the huge, pornographic statue of Diana carved out of black stone. All of this fostered a culture of evil that promoted materialism, pride, occultism, and sensuality. With the demon worship going on in Ephesus, the “spiritual hosts of wickedness” were out in full force, shamelessly advertising everything that God hates.
And this is where God had chosen to plant His most successful church.
The Ephesian Church Jesus writes to was His greatest church,
perhaps the greatest and most powerful church in church history
Probably all the other six churches of the seven in Rev 2-3 were planted from Ephesus
This is a 20-lesson course on the final book of the Bible.
Revelation’s 404 verses contain over 800 quotations, allusions, and connections to the rest of the Bible.
There is no new doctrine contained in these 22 chapters, only clarification on how they will come to pass.
This is the ONLY book of the Bible Jesus came down to supervise as the conclusion of God’s Revelation.