REVEALING THE REVELATION –PART 1
“The Church at Ephesus”
August 30, 2009
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
Revelation 2:1-7
I don’t usually preach from the book of Revelation, nor do I usually preach a series of sermons on one topic – but I feel like God is leading me to doing just that. For the next few weeks I want to direct our attention to this strange book of John’s revelation. It is filled with mysteries and riddles and allegories. Any preacher who says He has figured it out and understands it – is a liar or a fool. God has given us glimpse of things to come, He has given us a taste of what is coming – and we are privileged to be able to read the ‘end of the book’ – so we can prepare ourselves for what is to come. But the whole has not been revealed.
John is an old man now. He was the youngest of the apostles – just a teen – when he walked with Jesus. He is different from the other apostles. I think he probably acquired more of Jesus’ characteristic and attributes more quickly than the other apostles for two reasons; One, he was young and sharp and able to learn more quickly. Don’t you envy those kids and how quickly they can memorize things and learn new things so easily? And secondly, he had a more intimate relationship with Jesus than the others. He spent more time with Jesus and didn’t have the restraints that an adult would have. He wasn’t afraid to lay his head on Jesus shoulder, like he did at the last supper, or ask him difficult, but innocent questions.
Now he is an old man, and his Friend comes to him one last time. Of all the apostles and disciples, Jesus comes to John. Why? John is called the “Beloved”. It is for more that just being loved in a special way by Jesus, it is because HE is love. He has acquired a tender loving nature from the One he has emulated all his life. He writes that “God is Love” in one of his letters – and he has become a very loving old man himself. So for all the frightening things you read in the book of his revelation, understand that it is a love letter from a loving God, transcribed by a loving pastor. He cares about his tender flock. God is concerned about His beloved children – so we get this book as a result.
The section of Scripture we are focusing on this morning is to one of the churches Paul started with Aquila and Pricilla – Ephesus. Ephesus had been around a long time and was an ideal religious city. It was a center of trade with a lot of people from all over the known world visiting it. You could be a missionary and stay home at the same time. Unfortunately the religion it was known primarily for was to those who worshipped the god Artemis. But Paul started a home church here and it thrived for many years. Your homework is to read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians this week. Check out what Paul wrote to them.
John begins his letters to the churches by addressing the ‘angel’ of this church. The word ‘angel’ means ‘messenger of God’. Most scholars would say John was addressing the pastor or leader of the church – not a literal angel. Jesus is the message Creator, and John is passing on the message to be given to the one who will pass the message on to the churches. And there are twelve specific things Jesus wants to say to this church. They can be divided up into six areas.
First, he commends them for: 1. Their work, 2. Their endurance, 3. Their intolerance, 4. Their discernment of false teaching, 5. Their perseverance, 6. Their rejection of false doctrine.
Secondly, He shares a complaint. 7. They have lost their first love. Thirdly, He has a command. 8. remember, and 9, Repent. Fourth, He cautions them, 10. They could lose their ‘Lampstand” Fifth, He counsels them to 11. listen’. And ends, six, with a word of Comfort. 12. The blessings of overcoming.
These people were hard workers. They were committed to serving the Lord. Even in persecution and great difficulty and tremendous obstacles – they worked. Today our commitment to working is pretty shallow. Most any pastor I talk to tells me that it’s hard to get people to do something extra for the Lord. A home Bible study; a work day at the church; enlisting Sunday school teachers and children’s workers – it’s pretty tough. We are too busy; too tired; too broke. We live in the age of luxury. Never in history have we had so much leisure time. But we have filled it with selfish pursuits instead of working for the Lord.
These folks had some flaws and weaknesses, but working wasn’t one of them. It’s almost as if we say, “I’m not saved by good works- so why work?” We aren’t saved by good works – but if we are saved we WILL do good works. Paul wrote the Ephesians,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10
Notice Paul tells them that they are saved by grace, through their faith – NOT by good works. But then he goes on to tell them they were CREATED to do good works. These Ephesians understood and were very good at doing good things. We need to understand as well. If you are saved – you will be doing good works to promote God’s Kingdom. I don’t care what you do or how you do it – but good works is an expression of your salvation. You were created for – something. You were created with special gifts and talents – and God expects you to be using them for His glory and honor and the building of His Kingdom.
This church was also commended for their endurance and perseverance. Endurance is continuing in spite of hardship and perseverance is never giving up. They are both pretty similar – but the lesson to us is to ‘never give up’! We will have our trials and temptations, we may even fall on our faces a time or two – but never give up. Never quit. Be an overcomer – not a quiter!
John commends these people for their intolerance of wickedness. He says, “I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men”. I wonder if He could say that about us today. I’m afraid we are too tolerant. We tolerate abortion. We tolerate the killing of millions and millions of babies each year. Have we marched in protest of this? Have we written our congressmen? Have we tried to do anything about it?
How about tolerating the abomination of homosexuality? Are we afraid to speak out against it? It could be dangerous. Do we speak against same sex marriage and support ‘traditional marriage’? Are we trying to be too politically correct? Are we trying to be too tolerant? These folks were commended for their ‘Intolerance’. Do you think we need to be a little more intolerant toward sin?
John comments this church for their ability to discern ‘false teaching’. How can you discern when a teaching is false? You do that by comparing it to the Word of God. That is one of the reasons God gave us the Scriptures. Jesus used it as ‘the’ standard of right and wrong. That means we have to read it and know it. When someone teaches something false – we need to be so familiar with the Truth that we immediately spot the phony.
I heard of someone preaching to a church of young converts and unsaved people and telling them that they didn’t have to change a thing. Jesus paid it all and they didn’t have to change anything. I spotted that as false teaching immediately because Jesus said we are to “make disciples, baptize them, - then teach them to OBEY everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
He said, “If you love me – obey me” (John 14:15) This church was commended for being able to spot false teachers – I hope we would be as well. John commends them for rejecting the false doctrines. I hope we would be commended for the same.
John commends the Church at Ephesus for five things – then shares one complaint. I like that. It reminds me of a book on leadership I read once. It was called “The One Minute Manager” and it taught to always use plus minus plus. In other words, if you need to correct someone, you start with a plus. You praise them or find something good you appreciate about them and communicate that to them BEFORE you bring up the fault or error or weakness. After speaking the truth in love and looking at the problem, you conclude by giving them a plus.
Ever have a boss or teacher or mate who always went right to the negative? Never a positive beginning. Never a plus to start or end – just negatives. Just fault –finding; just criticism. How did you like that? Not very fun, was it? Then why do YOU do the same? STOP IT! Every time you criticize –
Correct. Do plus minus plus – like John did here.
John (or maybe I should say, Jesus) got around to the criticism. He said they had lost their first love. What was their first love? Paul knew. He said,
“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”
Ephesians 1:15-16
Their first love was putting God first, and loving each other. It was the two greatest commandments – God and others. Their first love was worshipping God and ministering to His people. They lost that. They got distracted. They got sidetracked. They lost their priorities. They cooled off.
It’s easy to do, isn’t it? In the real world we have bills to pay and mouths to feed. We have to work and keep up things. In the real world we get rejected and criticized and put down. How can we hang on to our first love – in the real work? I can’t do it – without getting into the Word first thing each morning. I can’t do it without praying for God’s help every morning. I can’t do it unless I do it on purpose. If you take your first love for granted you will lose it. Love only remains hot if you keep fueling the fire. Just like in a marriage. You have to keep working at it. You have to purposely change for the better. Every relationship you value will fall apart unless you – on purpose- work at making it better. You have to stop those things that are destructive to it – and start doing the things that are constructive.
John cautions this church they could lose it. They could lose their ‘Lampstand’. The lamp usually represents the Holy Spirit. I don’t know if John is saying they will lose their salvation or the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives – you can figure that one out for yourself. Nevertheless – it isn’t good. Then he commands them to ‘remember and repent’.
When we lose our first love it is usually because we forget. We forget the pluses and focus on the minuses. We need to remember and stop and turn our actions around. John counsels them to ‘listen’. When we lose our first love it is usually because we aren’t listening. We aren’t listening to our mate. We aren’t listening to the Holy Spirit. We aren’t listening to the Word of God. Listen – remember – repent.
Then good ol’ loving John ends with a word of comfort. He says,
“To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
To those who overcome the trials and tribulation and temptations of life will receive eternal life in paradise. I don’t know what you have to overcome in your life – but I know you are struggling with something. It may be your attitude. It may be your critical mouth or negativity. It may be laziness. Maybe you are trying to overcome swearing. It may be struggling to overcome bad habits. Some are struggling to overcome tobacco, alcohol or drugs. Some are struggling with sexual issues or pornography or wrong fleshly attractions. We all are struggling to be ‘overcomers’ – if we love the Lord. None of us are perfect – but our desire is to strive for perfection if we love the Lord. Paul wrote:
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. “ Phil. 3:12-16
Are you striving? Are you struggling to be better? Are you pressing on to take hold of spiritual things? I have good news. It will be worth it! There is nothing that you give up or surrender to God that will not be greatly rewarded.
Maybe as I spoke, the Holy Spirit brought some issue to your mind that you need to pray about. Maybe you need to repent of something you are doing - or NOT doing and should be doing. Maybe you need to remember your first love and begin doing that thing again. Pray with me.
Dear Jesus,
Please forgive me for losing my first love. I want to turn around right now and change my life. Please help me. Help me to overcome _______________.
I give you heart and life to you. Help me to live a holy life and strive for perfection. Thank you for the future in paradise you have for me. Thank you for the abundant life you have for me right now. Make me an overcomer.
