1启示录的结构非常完美。接著一章之后，二、三章给我们清楚的看见七个实际的召会。这七个召会乃是绝佳的说明，不是在道理上，乃是在实际的实行上，启示了地方召会。我们藉著思想这七个召会，就能清楚知道地方召会是甚么，并该是甚么。在二、三章七封书信所记的，乃是当时七个召会真实的光景。然而，本书既是一本表号的书，带有豫言的性质，这七个召会的光景也是表号，豫言性的表征召会在七个时期的进展。第一封书信是写给在以弗所的召会，提供一幅第一阶段的初期召会末了的图画，时间在第一世纪末。第二封书信是写给在士每拿的召会，豫言在罗马帝国逼迫下受苦的召会，从第一世纪末到第四世纪初罗马帝国康士坦丁大帝接受基督教为国教为止。第三封书信是写给在别迦摩的召会，豫表属世（与世界联婚）的召会，从康士坦丁接纳基督教，至第六世纪后期教皇制度建立为止。第四封书信是写给在推雅推喇的召会，豫言性的描写背道的召会，从第六世纪后期教皇制度确立，直到这世代末了，基督回来为止。第五封书信是写给在撒狭的召会，豫表更正教，从十六世纪初的改教运动直到基督回来为止。第六封书信是写给在非拉铁非的召会，豫言弟兄相爱的召会，就是正当召会生活的恢复，从十九世纪初弟兄们在英国兴起，在宗派与分裂的制度之外实行召会，直到主第二次显现为止。第七封书信是写给在老底嘉的召会，豫绘十九世纪中弟兄们堕落后的召会生活，从十九世纪末，直到主回来。在本篇信息，和以下的六篇信息中，我们要逐一的来看这些召会的光景。
1The book of Revelation is very well composed. Following chapter one, chapters two and three give us a clear view of seven practical churches. These seven churches are excellent illustrations, revealing the local churches, not in doctrine, but in actual practice. By considering these seven churches we can see clearly what a local church is and should be. The seven epistles in chapters two and three are the record of the actual situation existing in the seven churches at the time these epistles were written. However, since this book is a book of signs with a prophetic nature, the situations of the seven churches are also signs, signifying prophetically the progress of the church in seven stages. The first epistle, to the church in Ephesus, affords a picture of the church at the end of the first stage, during the last part of the first century. The second epistle, to the church in Smyrna, prefigures the suffering church under the persecution of the Roman Empire, from the last part of the first century to the early part of the fourth century, when Constantine the Great, the Caesar of the Roman Empire, brought the church into imperial favor. The third epistle, to the church in Pergamos, pre-symbolizes the worldly church, the church married to the world, from the day Constantine accepted Christianity to the time the papal system was established in the latter part of the sixth century. The epistle to the church in Thyatira depicts prophetically the apostate church, from the ordination of the papal system in the latter part of the sixth century to the end of this age, when Christ comes back. The fifth epistle, to the church in Sardis, prefigures the Protestant church, from the Reformation in the early part of the sixteenth century to Christ’s coming back. The sixth epistle, to the church in Philadelphia, predicts the church of brotherly love, the recovery of the proper church life, from the early part of the nineteenth century, when the brothers were raised up in England to practice the church life outside all denominational and divisive systems, to the second appearing of the Lord. The seventh epistle, to the church in Laodicea, foreshadows the degraded church life of the brothers in the nineteenth century, from the latter part of the nineteenth century until the Lord’s return. In this message and the following six messages we shall treat each of these churches respectively