Read the letters to the church in The Message.

What can we learn from the churches:

• Waning love doesn’t please God. (Ephesus)
  But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!
  Revelation 2:4

• Warfare isn’t to be feared. (Smyrna)
  I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you.
  Revelation 2:9a

• Wise up concerning false teaching and flee from immorality. (Pergamum)
  But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching.
  Revelation 2:14-15

• Ward off idolatry and immorality by focusing on love, service, faith, and your patience. (Thyatira)
  I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things. But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols.
  Revelation 2:19-20

• Wake up… don’t live almost dead. (Sardis)
  I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.
  Revelation 3:1-3

• When we are weak, still obey. (Philadelphia)
  I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.
  Revelation 3:8

• Warm faith makes God sick. (Laodicea)
  I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!
  Revelation 3:15-16

The opening of the seals: what He will do and His plan accomplished.

“It is worthy of remark that the opening of the seals is not merely a declaration of what God will do, but is the exhibition of a purpose then accomplished; for whenever the seal is opened, the sentence appears to be executed.” – Adam Clarke