You’ve Got Mail: Ephesus
Scott R. Bayles, preacher
First Christian Church, Rosiclare, Illinois
Imagine if Jesus were to write a letter to Fist Christian Church here in Rosiclare. Imagine walking down to the post office, opening your PO Box and discovering an envelope with 777 Heaven Way, New Jerusalem as the return address. I wonder how much postage that would take? Of course, today I imagine Jesus would probably use a more contemporary form of correspondence—e-mail or twitter maybe. But regardless of the form in which his letter arrived, what do you suppose he’d have to say to our church? Would he compliment us on our evangelistic impact on the community, our sound doctrine and diligent Bible study, or our boundless love toward the harassed and helpless people of society? Or would he criticize us for the lack of those very things?
If he were to challenge us or command us to do one thing differently, what would it be? And imagine if he were to say something about himself. Would he describe himself as the Lamb of God, slain for your sins and mine, or as the Lion of Judah, powerful and ready to protect his pride.
For seven young churches off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the province of Asia, they didn’t have to imagine. Roughly thirty-some years following the death and resurrection of Jesus, the apostle John was given a vision from heaven. Jesus himself stood before him in radiant glory and told him, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea” (Revelation 1:11 NIV). Jesus then proceeded to give John seven brief messages—seven letters to each of the seven churches.
Today, many have allegorized these letters, believing them to describe seven epochs of time in church history, but that kind of revisionist interpretation, I believe, misses the point of the message altogether. The truth is—these letters were sent to seven very real churches in seven real cities, each one with a very specific message for each local congregation and other churches that have faced similar struggles down through the centuries. The first of these seven letters was written for the church in Ephesus.
And here it is:
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:1-6 NLT)
Each one of these seven messages begins the same way—with a word about the author—Jesus Christ. So let me start out the same way—with the Christ of the letter.
• CHRIST
Jesus gives himself a very colorful and fantastic description in the first verse, picturing himself as “the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands” (vs. 1 NLT). The Book of Revelation is full of this color fantasy imagery—bizarre images, vivid word pictures, supernatural creatures and cryptic language. Bible scholars have argued for centuries about the meaning of various symbols. Fortunately for us, Jesus himself explains this particular image: “This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:20 NLT). Pretty simple, huh?
So the lampstands represent the seven churches and the stars represent the messengers (preachers or prophets) of those seven churches. The real question is—why does Jesus describe himself as walking among them and hold them in his hand? The answer, I believe, is that Jesus wanted the church in Ephesus to understand that he knows what is going on in their church, he is with them, and he is in control.
Seven is the number for completeness and so this sampling of churches, in many ways, represents all of God’s churches throughout all of time. And his message to us is the same as his message to Ephesus: “I walk among you!” “I know all the things you do.” It’s easy, especially for a small rural church like ours, to feel like Jesus has maybe forgotten about us. Bad things happened and we wonder if Jesus has fallen asleep at the wheel. We work hard for his kingdom, yet see no results and wonder if he even notices us down here in the middle of nowhere. But his words to them as his words to us: “I walk among you!” Nothing happens in his church that he doesn’t know about. There is not a church mouse in the world that he cannot call by name. He knows and he cares.
Now, Ephesus could boast some pretty stellar preachers in years gone by, including none other than the apostle Paul, Apollos, Timothy and even the apostle John himself (who was writing this letter). God wanted the church to know that he held those messengers within his hand. Their message wasn’t their own; it was his. When they spoke, they spoke on behalf of him. And the same goes for each one of us really. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me” (Matthew 25:40 NCV). The reverse of this is also true—whenever you minister to another person, either through your words or actions, you are being Jesus to the person. This is the meaning of Christ’s words for us today: Jesus is with his church right here in Rosiclare and he is in control of everything that happens. It’s the same message he had for Ephesus. The next part of his letter contained a compliment for the Ephesian church.
• COMPLIMENT
Listen to what he said, once again: “I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting” (vs. 2-3 NLT).
Jesus gives the church a little pat on the back here for basically two things—their deeds and their doctrine. He calls them hard workers who don’t quit. They were willing to get their hands dirty. They understood that ministry was part of their purpose in life. Maybe they had an active youth ministry. Maybe they ran food pantry or shelter for the homeless. Maybe they had diligent door knockers going house to house with Bibles in hand. Whatever they did, they had more volunteers than they knew what to do with.
Most churches are dying because they don’t have enough people getting involved and doing the work of the church. But at this church, people weren’t just hearers of the Word; they were doers of the Word. Whatever it was that needed done, they were willing to do it. Every church could stand to be a little more like Ephesus in this regard. They also understood the importance of purity—both in their deeds and their doctrine. They didn’t tolerate evil and they tested the claims of false teachers against God’s Word.
Doctrine is just a religious sounding word for teaching. It’s what you believe the Bible teaches. The people of this church took doctrine seriously. Not enough people do that anymore. Most of us believe any old thing we hear and we never test things in light of Scripture. Folks, truth matters. All of us need to get into God’s Word and get God’s Word into us. You can’t just live on what you hear in church on Sunday.
One of my favorite college professors once talked about spending the summer in Yellowstone National park. All over the park were signs that said “Don’t Feed the Bears.” Most folks think that this is for their own protection. It’s not. It’s for the bears’ protection. You see each year, some of the more friendly bears end up getting fed all summer long by the park visitors. Then, when tourist season is over, those bears die because they’ve forgotten how to feed themselves. The same thing can happen to Christians who allow themselves to be fed by their preacher or Sunday School teacher and never learn how to feed themselves.
It was Thomas Jefferson who once said, “I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Holy Scriptures will make better citizens, better fathers, better husbands… The Bible makes the best people in the world.” He’s right. We need to know God’s Word and we need to live it!
But for all the good things about the church in Ephesus, Jesus still had one glaring criticism.
• CRITICISM
You would think that a church focused so hard on good deeds and good doctrine would be madly in love with Jesus, but just he opposite was true. Jesus had this to say: “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen!” (vs. 4 NLT).
What is it that I keep saying matters most to God? Loving God and loving people! And for all the good that these folks had done, for all the sound doctrine they held to, they had missed the single most important thing! They missed it.
Warren Wiersbe compares the love that they had lost to the “honeymoon love” of a husband and wife—fervent, personal, uninhibited, excited, and openly displayed, the kind of love the causes you to just think about the other person day and night. A lot of new believers are like that in the beginning—passionately in love with Jesus and his church. But then something happens, cynicism sets in, and that love begins to fade.
This is the challenge for many churches like Ephesus that have had strong teaching and strict standards. They were so focused on pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and defending the faith that they forgot what it was really all about. They were more concerned with winning arguments than with winning people. Law without love is just legalism. And that’s what the church in Ephesus had been reduced to. It never should have happened, though.
The teachers and preachers who had once served the church in Ephesus constantly communicated the supremacy of love. Paul mentioned love more than twenty times in his letter to the Ephesians. 1 John, which was also mailed to the Ephesians by the apostle John (know as “the apostle of love” no less) is all about love. He told them repeatedly, things like: “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23 NIV); “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8 NIV); “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16 NIV).
Could it be any clearer what God wanted most from the church in Ephesus? Or what he wants most from us? Any yet they still missed it, as do so many Christians today. Fortunately, Jesus also gave a command that, if followed, would ignite the flames of love in their hearts once again.
• COMMAND
This is Jesus’ command: “So remember where you were before you fell. Change your hearts and do what you did at first” (vs. 5 NCV). There are three parts to this command—three steps that we can take to rekindle our love for Jesus and his church.
The first step is to remember. Do you remember what it was like when you first came to Christ? Do you remember the feeling of being overwhelmed by his love, his mercy, and his grace? Again, it’s sort of like remembering the early years of any relationship. What was it like why you first fell in love? What was he/she like? What were you like? When you love someone you often find yourself doing things that you never thought you’d do. When you first fell in love with Jesus, how did you act differently? How did you feel about coming to church? How did you demonstrate your love for him? Were you at church every time the doors were open? Were you volunteering and contributing? Were you singing loudly even if you sang off key? Were you telling others all about him? Were you praying constantly and about everything? Were you reading your Bible religiously?
I’m sure it’s different for you, but I remember a time early in my relationship with Jesus that I went to these campus devotionals every night at Freed-Hardeman. When the devotional was over, I would stick around after everyone else had left and sing worship songs with a handful of other students. I’ll never forget sitting on those stone steps under a moonlit sky in Tennessee.
Another time that I felt particularly in tune with God was while working for Family Christians Stores. I had been promoted to Inventory Control Manager, which meant I didn’t spend as much time on the sales floor; instead, I spent most of my time alone in the stock room. Some days, while working alone in the back, I listened to contemporary Christian music, other days I listened to wonderful teachers like David Jeremiah, Charles Stanley, or Hank Hanegraaff, and still other days I just listened to God’s Word. I listened to the Old Testament beginning to end once and to the New Testament beginning to end about eight times during those twelve months. I felt my love for Christ grow exponentially during that time.
We need to remember those times when our love for Jesus burned the brightest.
The second step is to repent. The NCV says, “Change your hearts.” That’s what repentance is—it’s a change of heart. Admit you’ve been wrong. Admit you’ve failed to love Jesus the way that you should have, that you’ve haven’t lived up to the vows you made when you gave your heart to him. The word “repent” literally means to turn and go another way. We have to turn away from ourselves and turn toward Jesus. You know the reason 50% of marriages fail? Selfishness. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. One or both people put themselves first. It may manifest in a lot of different ways—abuse, addiction, affairs, etc.—but it all comes down to selfishness. It’s the same in your relationship with Jesus. The way to rekindled love is to turn away from yourself and turn toward him.
The final step is returning. Return, as Jesus said, to “what you did at first.” Remember what you did early on in that relationship and start doing it again. Did you use to buy your wife flowers and give her foot massages every night? Call 1800-FLOWERS and pick up some massage oil. Did you use to sing all day and pray all night? Turn the radio to the Christian station and buy a prayer journal. Whatever it was you did in the beginning—do it again, do it intentionally, and do it regularly. It works in marriage relationships and it works in your relationship with God. Remember. Repent. Return. That was Jesus’ command to them and it’s still his command to us.
Conclusion:
I want to leave you this morning with the same words that Jesus left Ephesus. With the promise of victorious eternal life to those who love God and are called according to his purpose: “Let this message sink into the ears of anyone who listens to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: To everyone who is victorious, I will give fruit from the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God.” (vs. 7 TLB).
