Many of the churches in Asia Minor and across the known world at the time were under severe persecution. The few that were not under extreme persecution were the ones that allowed the surrounding cultures to influence their doctrine and behavior. John was letting the churches know that he—a disciple and an apostle of Jesus Christ—was also suffering persecution. In fact, John was an elderly man. We don't know his specific age but if we assume he was about twenty when he started following Jesus, he would be about 80 years old at the time of his exile and the writing of Revelation. Emperor Domitian was exiling believers in Christ and others. Domitian wanted to be worshipped and all who refused suffered the consequences. This was around the year A.D. 94.
John was the only one of the original disciples/apostles that was still alive in A.D. 94. As an elderly man he was exiled to an undeveloped island. He did not grow bitter. He did not say, “I’m too old to do anything,” or, “I cannot do anything here from this island.” Instead, he was, “In the spirit on the Lord’s day.” What do we know about that? He was a man of prayer and he was probably praying when he received the vision. From this vision he was commanded to write the book we now know as Revelation and it has been passed down and studied for almost 2,000 years. Not a bad accomplishment for an old man living in a cave on an island.
We should be encouraged by this. No matter where we are, no what our circumstances, our age, or anything else going on in our lives, we can be used by God if we abide in him and remain obedient. He will use us if we let Him.
We already talked about John being in the spirit on the Lord’s day. Now we see the fruit of John’s labor in prayer. He heard a loud voice like a trumpet.
Trumpets were a regular part of Jewish religious life. The two most common types of trumpets were the hashasora—a trumpet made out of silver—and the better known shofar, a ram’s horn. Both were used in worship and the shofar was used to call people to worship. It was a way of announcing God is ready to speak through His word and ready to receive worship from His people. John heard the voice of the Lord “like” a trumpet. It is an analogy, not an actual trumpet sound but it was unmistakable.
The message: Write what you see and send it to the seven churches. Then these churches were identified.
These letters were specifically written to those seven churches. Seven is the number of completion. They are applicable to all churches. At or near the end of each letter we read this. “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In addition to being seven letters to those seven specific churches, I believe they are letters to all churches from the First Century, through the Twenty-first Century, and until the day the Lord returns.
