Discovery Lecture Series - The Seven Churches
Programme #1 - Introduction
#
DESCRIPTION
1
Title: The
Seven Churches
SCRIPT
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first
(or other if used as follow up) of our Discovery lectures here
in ....... this year.
2 Title: The
The series is entitled The Seven Churches of the Apocalypse.
Seven Churches In our quest to find those Churches
3 Holiday
we will be taking you to a country which is a popular holiday
brochures of
resort as well as being full of ancient sites. That country is
Turkey
Turkey.
4 Blue Mosque in The largest and the most famous city in Turkey is Istanbul,
Istanbul
though we should note that this is not the capital. The capital
is in fact Ankara. This is the great Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
5 Hagia Sophia A little way from here is the amazing ancient Church of Hagia
inside
Sophia. This building gives us a clue as to the main religion of
Turkey.
6 Hagia Sophia Originally built as a Church 1,400 years ago Hagia Sophia was
Arabic designs
adapted as a mosque as of course 99% of the population of
Turkey are Moslems.
7 Bazaar in
Istanbul is a lively and fascinating place, but we can’t spend
Istanbul
too long here in this series. Instead we will
8 Holiday
be travelling to the south west of Turkey, starting near the
brochure
popular beach resort of Kusadasi.
9 Beach in
The Mediterranean coast of Turkey is particularly beautiful
southern Turkey and still relatively unspoilt. How long it will stay like that we
just don’t know
10 Mediterranean
because as a holiday destination Turkey has a lot going for it.
coast
Lovely weather, beautiful coastal resorts and clear waters.
11 Various receipts Plus the added bonus of amazing historical sites to visit.
Whether you are interested in the Greek era, the Roman era, or
the early Christian era, there is bound to be a historical site to
visit nearby.
12 Turkish flag My area of interest is the early Christian era - this is Miletus, a
Miletus
place which the apostle Paul visited, as recorded in Acts
chapter 20.
13 Bank exchange Another reason why Turkey is becoming increasingly popular
receipt
as a holiday destination is the exchange rate. The Turkish
economy is in a dreadful state at the moment which is bad
news for them, but good news for us. The average Turk works
for the equivalent of about £3 a day (check latest rates), so
things, by our standards are very cheap.
NOTES
The Seven Churches - Programme 1
14 Local SDA
Church
Now that I’ve whetted your appetites
we’ll come back down to earth for a
minute while I introduce myself. For
those of you who don’t already know,
my name is ............. and, as well as
giving these lectures and travelling
abroad, I’m a (Minister, Elder,
Lay-Preacher etc.) of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in ............
15 Local SDA
Church
The Church is located at ............. and
you are of course welcome to visit at
any time. We have the Church to
thank for sponsoring these lectures
and those of you who are familiar with
the Church will be interested to know
that [say something interesting and
current about the Church].
I would also like to thank the staff
here at the ......... for providing us with
such a nice building.
16 Local SDA
Church
17 Meeting hall
18 Meeting hall
19 Meeting hall
[If meetings have been held here
before, remind your guests about them
and re-cap on the subjects you studied
at that time.]
That was ..... weeks/months/years ago,
and I’m glad to see some here today
who attended those lectures.
Note: The slides which have been supplied with
this package are to be used with the following
script if you have not run evangelistic meetings
in this area before. Ideally you should replace
slides 14 to 21 with your own as indicated:
[Blue Mosque]
Now that I’ve whetted your appetites we’ll come
back down to earth for a minute while I
introduce myself. For those of you who don’t
already know, my name is ............. and, as well
as giving these lectures and travelling abroad,
I’m a (Minister, Elder, Lay-Preacher etc.) of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church in ............ The
slides from this series have come mainly from
Turkey
[Map of Middle East]
but the Church also sponsors other fascinating
lecture programmes. Perhaps at another date you
will be able to join us as we look at other
exciting places such as
[Luxor Temple at night
Egypt, where Jacob’s descendants grew into a
huge slave labour force and came under the
influence of mighty pagan temples.
[Inside tomb]
Where even today we have not solved all the
mysteries of the Pharaohs, who were buried in
elaborate underground tombs such as this one in
the Valley of the Kings.
[Ishtar Gate - Berlin]
Babylon, where God’s people were taken
captive and marched through this gate in chains
by the world conquering king Nebuchadnezzar.
[Church of Holy Sepulchre]
In a later series we might be able to take you to
Jerusalem, to see the great and ancient Church
of the Holy Sepulchre.
[Site of crucifixion]
This houses the site which many Christians
believe to be Golgotha, or the place of the scull.
The place where Jesus was crucified.
[Sign in St Davids]
Of course there are many ancient and holy sites
closer to home, such as St Davids, the home of
patron saint of Wales.
[Inside St David’s Cathedral]
This cathedral is built very near the site of St
David’s early Christian community, where he
taught his followers to believe and practice
everything exactly as written in the Bible.
20
(Slides from previous meetings)
21
(Slides from previous meetings)
22
(Slides from previous meetings)
23 Map of Western
Turkey
24 Tourist at
Gatwick
25 Plane on
runway
The country we are looking at in this series is equally
fascinating, it’s just that not many people know it yet.
So let’s go there. It’s time to say goodbye to your family and
friends back home as
we take the plane from Gatwick airport and start our voyage of
Discovery.
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The Seven Churches - Programme 1
26 Inside plane
27 Relief map
28 Map with Izmir
29 Title Revelation
30 Plane on
runway
31 Map with
Patmos
32 Patmos in
distance
33 Rev 1:1-3
34 Title - 7
Churches
35 Rev 1:1-20
36 Picture of Jesus
37 Rev 1:4
38 Rev 2:1
39 Picture of
presenter
We will be travelling quite a lot but these lectures are not just
about seeing new places. I want us to Discover the history
behind the places
and more importantly I want us to Discover where these places
fit in relation to the Bible.
So as we zoom in on Izmir, the main city in the south west of
Turkey, we’re going to zoom in on the Bible as well.
And the part of the Bible we will be zooming in to, is the
Book of Revelation.
As I said, the plane lands at Izmir (known in ancient times as
Smyrna). Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey and it is
where your holiday plane would land if you were going to the
resorts of the south west.
However Izmir isn’t the starting point for our study of the
Seven Churches. In the days of John, who wrote the book of
Revelation, the starting point for a trip into what was then
called Asia Minor was the great sea port of Ephesus. Ephesus
was also the closest town to the place which John was writing
from, the island of Patmos.
The reason why John was stuck on this remote island when he
wrote the book of Revelation is not clear. He was probably
exiled by the anti-Christian authorities, or he could have been
in hiding.
We do know that it was on the little island of Patmos that
something very special happened to John. He received the
Apocalypse.
You may have been wondering where that word Apocalypse
came from. Some people think that it means the end of the
world or something. But the word Apocalypse actually means
something revealed or uncovered. Something made known, or
a Revelation.
For many people of course, the book of Revelation is anything
but a Revelation. They say it’s impossible to understand, that
we shouldn’t go meddling in parts of the Bible which aren’t
meant to be read. But if you take it at face value, the book of
Revelation, or the Apocalypse, is meant to be understood.
And if we read what it says, we actually find that its main
purpose is to reveal Jesus Christ.
Now the Seven Churches come in because the whole book of
Revelation was addressed to these Seven Churches.
Certain parts of the book are addressed to the individual
Churches themselves but the book as a whole was addressed
to all Seven Churches. Christians believe that there is a much
wider message in the book of course, but we’ll look at that
idea later.
Before we start looking at the Churches and the book of
Revelation in detail we’ll go on a whistle stop tour of all the
places we’ll be seeing in the series. I’ll be your guide but I’ll
need to introduce you to some other people as well.
page 3
Iz meer
Use the slide of
the Bible if you
don’t have one
of yourself.
The Seven Churches - Programme 1
40 John & Robert
Surridge at
Pergamum
41 Men playing
board game
42 Spotlight on
Ephesus
43 Sign - Selcuk
44 Temple of
Artemis
45 Artemis
46 Spotlight on
Smyrna
47 Tourist above
Izmir
48 Izmir Agora
from above
49 Under Izmir
Agora
50 Spotlight on
Pergamum
51 Acropolis
52 Tourist in
tunnel under
Red Church
53 Satan’s Seat
These are two (friends/colleagues/associates) of mine, John
and Robert Surridge. We have them to thank for providing
most of the slides and for doing a lot of the research. At the
moment Robert is researching for his PhD at Kings College,
London, into the meaning of the message to the seventh of the
Seven Churches, the Church of Laodicea. (Check to see if he’s
finished yet.)
I’d also like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the
people of Turkey because wherever you go they become your
friends. You’ll find that they are all very courteous and
helpful. In fact, without their help we wouldn’t have been able
to see some of the more obscure places that we will visit in the
slides.
The first place we visit in our series is the location of the first
of the Seven Churches, Ephesus.
Ephesus is right next door to the modern town of Selcuk (note
pronunciation - “sell chook”). There are too many areas of
interest around Selcuk to mention all of them now
but I can say that it is home to one of the Seven Wonders of
the Ancient World, the great temple of Artemis.
And talking of Artemis, here is the lady herself, now housed in
the Selcuk museum. We’ll meet Artemis again as she was the
most important God worshipped in this area. The Romans
referred to her as Diana and the story is told in the book of
Acts of how Paul caused a riot in Ephesus by leading people
away from Artemis worship. Maybe this is why Paul wrote a
whole book of the NT to the people of Ephesus, the book of
Ephesians.
The next place we will visit is ancient Smyrna, known today
as Izmir, the place where our plane landed.
Like some of the other towns we will be looking at, Izmir has
been built directly on top of the ruins of the ancient city. This
makes it difficult to imagine what Smyrna must have been
like.
There are some places where the ancient city has been
excavated in between the skyscrapers and it
is to these places that we will go on our quest. Despite the
modern building which has taken place you’ll be surprised at
how well the ancient buildings have been preserved.
Next we come to Pergamum, capital of the kingdom of
Pergamum and
one of the best excavated of all the sites, thanks to a German
team who came here a hundred years ago.
There is an ancient Church in Pergamum which is on a site
dating back to the time of the NT. Could this be the very
Church that the book of Revelation was sent to?
And could this be the “Seat of Satan” ominously mentioned in
the book?
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The Seven Churches - Programme 1
54 Spotlight on
Thyatira
55 Flats on corner
56 Tourist at
museum
57 Acts 16:14
58 Spotlight on
Sardis
59 Gymnasium
with flags
60 Eagle statue
61 Tourist
excavating
62 Spotlight on
Philadelphia
63 Alasehir from
above
64 Ataturk
65 Church of St
John
66 Spotlight on
Laodicea
67 White rocks at
Pamukkale
68 “Hot nor cold”
in Bible text
69 Ruins at
Laodicea
70 Tourist & ruins
at Laodicea
71 Title - 7
Churches
72 Turkish Flag
73 Sunset at
Pamukkale
Then there’s the Lydian city of Thyatira. Obviously an
important town in New Testament times, it was a centre of
industry and trade, and probably the centre of an ancient Trade
Union movement.
The modern town, known as Akisar, is a busy and thriving
centre of business.
We will see the few ancient Thyatiran remains that have been
discovered at Akisar
and will remember a lady from the town who used to make
purple cloth. Her name was Lydia and she is mentioned in the
book of Acts.
Sardis is the fifth Church mentioned in the list of seven. It was
the most wealthy of all the cities thanks to an ancient king
called Croesus.
Parts of it have been very well excavated and restored and we
will come across some amazing buildings.
We will also find some strange statues in strange places. Why
would a statue like this, which looks as if it belongs in Nazi
Germany, be found in a synagogue of all places?
You can still make discoveries of your own at Sardis as many
of the ancient remains are not very well looked after.
Philadelphia is known throughout the world as the city of
brotherly love. There’s one in America now,
but this is the site of a much older city of Philadelphia. The al ah sha heer
modern town is called Alasehir and it can be a bit difficult to
get around because hardly anyone speaks English. You’re OK
if you speak German however.
Although a large statue of Ataturk, a famous Turkish hero, is
the first exhibit you see in Alasehir, there are
also the remains of an ancient Church of St John, dating to the
fourth century AD.
Last, but probably the most important of all the Seven
Churches, at least for us, is Laodicea.
Only a few miles away from the popular hot spring resort of
Pamukkale, Laodicea it seems had no decent supply of water
itself.
Perhaps this is why it is described in the book of Revelation as
being neither hot nor cold.
Laodicea is the most surprising of all the sites we will visit on
our journey. Although hardly mentioned in any guidebook, it
is a huge archaeological site, only partly excavated.
It is falling down a bit, but the buildings are two thousand
years old, so what can you expect.
Anyway, that’s just an overview of what we have coming up
in the programs ahead. (List all seven churches again.)
As well as the historical sites we’ll also be seeing quite a bit of
modern Turkey of course.
For now though, we’ll let the sun go down on this first part of
our programme as we have our interval and quiz.
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The Seven Churches - Programme 1
** *************
1
Title - Ephesus
2
Road leading to
castle
3
Title Revelation
Picture of Jesus
in Hagia Sophia
4
5
Rev 1:1,2
6
Map of Asia
Minor
7
Bible in hands
8
Rows of books
9
2 Timothy 3:16
and picture
10 2 Peter 1:21 and
picture
11 Open Bible
12 John's cell on
Patmos
13 Map with
arrows - The
Route of the
Apocalypse
14 Bibles
15 Statue of
Asclepius:
Berlin
************** INTERVAL AND QUIZ **************
In this second part of our programme we’re going to have a
look in more detail at the first of the Seven Churches,
Ephesus.
But before we go down that road we need to ask some serious
questions about where our study of the book of Revelation
will lead.
We’ve already said that the word Revelation is related to the
word Apocalypse and means an uncovering or a revealing.
Furthermore the book claims to be revealing Jesus Christ. If
we look even more closely we can see where the book came
from.
(Point out relevant words) It looks as if the book was given by
God to Jesus, who then gave it to an angel, who then gave it to
John.
John wrote it down and had it distributed to the Seven
Churches in Asia Minor. But we’re not in Asia Minor so is
there anything in the book for us?
In a way we could ask that about the whole Bible because if
you check any of the books you will find that they were
written as letters, or historical accounts, or as poetry.
But I believe that there is something special about the Bible
which makes it more than history or poetry.
I believe that the whole of the Bible was given by God’s
inspiration
Yes God used men to write the actual words down, but they
only wrote as they were given instruction by the Holy Spirit.
That’s what makes the Bible special, and it is God’s
inspiration which gives the Bible more than just one meaning
or one application.
So when John received the word of God in his cell on the
island of Patmos, he wrote down something which would be
relevant not only to the Christians in the Seven Churches, but
to Christians throughout the centuries right up to the present
day.
As we make our tour of the Seven Churches we’ll take this
into account. We’ll try to see what the messages meant to the
people who first read them; we’ll see how they applied
throughout history; and we’ll see how they apply to us today.
That takes care of the different applications of the messages to
the Seven Churches, but what about the different meanings?
There are many passages in the Bible which have more than
one meaning and we see this particularly in the book of
Revelation.
As we go though these Seven Churches looking at the
historical sites and objects I’m going to talk about one
secondary meaning in particular.
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*************
The Seven Churches - Programme 1
16 Madonna and
Child from
inside Hagia
Sophia
17 Tourist at
Selcuk train
station
18 Spotlight on
map
19 Empty railway
station
20 Selcuk from
Meryemena
21 Statue of
Artemis outside
22 Gold statues of
Artemis
23 Rows of statues
in a shop
24 Artemis (dark)
25 Tourist and
Turkish bath
sign
26 Turkish bath
and columns
27 Turkish bath
28 Tourist and
stuffed camel
29 Isa Bey Mosque
and Jeep
30 Isa Bey & steps
31 Isa Bey
courtyard
32 Isa Bey and
courtyard
33 Isa Bey
34 Isa Bey inside
That is, that the Seven Churches represent the seven ages of
the Christian Church. During our break I’ll talk more about
this but it is amazing to see how the description of each
Church can also apply to a period of Church history.
Anyway, let’s get back to Ephesus. As I said earlier, the ruins
of Ephesus are right next door to the modern town of Selcuk.
You can get there by train from Izmir
but although the train routes are shown clearly on all the maps,
the trains are slow and crowded.
Many would-be train travellers get frustrated and get off
halfway. Busses are much quicker and cleaner.
Apart from the ruins at Ephesus, Selcuk is quite an interesting
town in its own right.
As you enter the town you can’t help but notice the huge
statue of Artemis. After two and a half thousand years she still
dominates the place.
People try to sell you miniature statues of her on the streets
and you can find rows and rows of them in the shops. I think
that Paul would have a fit if he came back here today,
especially as the original statue of Artemis holds the most
honoured place in the museum.
Down one grubby alleyway you can find this old ruined
Turkish bath. It’s more than 600 years old so of course you’re
not allowed to go in.
The building it is attached to is much older, going back to
Roman times. This cannibalising of old buildings for the sake
of new ones is very common and is one of the headaches that
the archaeologist has to put up with.
Interestingly, although very old, this Turkish bath was
virtually identical to one in Pergamum, but we’ll be seeing
that in a later programme.
Selcuk is the centre of the Turkish camel wrestling industry.
The main event takes place in the winter, so in the holiday
season this stuffed camel is about as close as you will get. Of
course it’s not people who wrestle the camels, but other
camels.
Visiting the Isa Bey Mosque on the outskirts of the town is an
interesting experience.
This beautiful building was built in 1375 and,
like the Turkish baths we have just looked at quite a lot of
older materials have been used in its construction.
The Mosque itself stands to one side of a Roman courtyard
the wall of which has been built up and strengthened a number
of times.
Like most mosques, the Isa Bey mosque is uncluttered inside,
though the floor is covered with beautiful carpets to protect
the knees of the faithful.
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The Seven Churches - Programme 1
35 Isa Bey inside
with columns
These granite columns which support the main domes of the
mosque were salvaged from the old Roman harbour of
Ephesus when the mosque was first built.
36 Imam and books Who do you think this fellow is? You might think that he’s
just a shopkeeper, sitting at a little stall just inside the door of
the mosque. In fact he’s the Imam - the Moslem equivalent of
a minister!
37 Imam and
He is very open about Islam and will tell you that Moslems
visitors
face some of the same problems that we do, such as young
people leaving the faith and buildings being vandalised etc.
One main difference however is that the Turkish government
has a number of Islamic fundamentalists in it who make sure
that Islam is very strongly promoted right across the country.
38 Hotel
Hotels can be very cheap in Turkey. This one is right next to
the railway station and is in the three star bracket. Today it
will cost you about £5.00 a night each for a double room with
en suite bathroom and balcony, inclusive of breakfast. (Check
to see if prices generally have changed.)
39 People below
The balcony gives you a good view of the people in the square
below and
40 Aqueduct at
at night you can look out on one of Selcuk’s main attractions,
night
the aqueduct.
41 Town with
This aqueduct dates from Byzantine times and runs right
remains of
through the middle of the town.
aqueduct
42 Cistern
It used to feed large cisterns such as this one but its main
attraction today is that the disintegrating columns
43 Stork’s nest on
have become home to a large colony of Storks.
column
44 Stork’s nest
You can look down on them from this balcony
45 Stork’s nests
but some hotels are so close to the nests that the storks are
and hotels
literally just a few feet away from you.
46 Aqueduct
The old aqueduct columns rise majestically amidst the
columns in
buildings of the modern town and as you walk around them
town
you might be reminded of something in the message to the
Church at Ephesus.
47 Rev 2:1 and
Revelation 2:1 talks about the seven golden lampstands and
candlesticks
someone walking amongst them. That person was Jesus
himself, giving the Church members at Ephesus the assurance
that He would always be with them.
48 Ayasoluk
Dominating the skyline in Selcuk is the Ayasoluk Citadel. ai ah soh look
Citadel
Again, this is more for those interested in Byzantine history,
but it is on this hill that St John is supposed to have been
buried. We’ll look at the Church of St John next time.
49 Artemision
You can see the Citadel from the site of the temple of Artemis.
50 Map of Selcuk
This lies between the town of Selcuk and the ruins of Ephesus Number 13 on
map
51 Cows
and to be quite honest it isn’t very impressive today. What was
once one of the seven wonders of the ancient world is now a
cow pasture.
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The Seven Churches - Programme 1
52 Column
53 Tourist & sign
54 Reconstruction
of Artemision
55 Artemision
56 Statues in
museum
57 Sundial
58 Lamp mould
59 Domitian
60 Mother goddess
Cybele
61 Writing in
museum
62 Artemis
63 Map
64 Rev 2:1-7
65 Odeon Ephesus
66 Title - Ephesus
67 Logo:
Discovery
All that remains for the casual observer is a single
reconstructed column (complete with stork’s nest)
and a battered tin sign. There is a picture of sorts on the sign
but this one from a book gives a better idea of the grandeur of
the temple in ancient times. When it was built in the 6th
century BC it stood right on the shore of the sea and would
have made a great impression on all those who came to trade
in Ephesus.
Today the sea has receded and it’s hard to imagine the grip
that Artemis had on the life of the city.
You get a better idea of that by visiting the Selcuk museum.
There are a number of interesting things here
such as this ancient sundial recovered from the city of Ephesus
and this old mould for making little oil lamps.
You can also see this fellow in the museum, the Roman
Emperor Domitian. He considered himself to be a god and
was a great promoter of the cult of Emperor worship. Needless
to say, Christians refused to worship him and as a
consequence he persecuted them mercilessly.
But the museum helps us to understand more about Artemis si bah lee
by explaining that before she came along there was a long
tradition of worshipping the mother goddess, Cybele.
Artemis and Cybele had a lot of things in common, such as
being goddesses of fertility and motherhood, and we
understand that the
Temple of Artemis was actually built on a site which had been
earlier dedicated to Cybele. It could be that it was this
preoccupation with the mother figure which led to Mary
worship in the early Christian Church. Next time we will be
looking at two sites near Ephesus which celebrate Mary and
which the Pope has visited and verified as authentic.
There’s a lot more to see and talk about in Ephesus. Next time
we’ll be looking more closely at the message which John
wrote from the island of Patmos
and which is now recorded in Revelation 2:1-7. Have a look at
those verses in your Bibles if you can between now and next
time.
We’ll see a bit more of Selcuk next time, but mostly we will
be looking at the extensive ruins of the great city of Ephesus.
I hope you’ll be able to come then. (Give time and date). Bring
a friend if you can.
Until then, goodnight and God bless. (Close with a prayer if
this is appropriate.)
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