There were once two newlyweds on their honeymoon. They were taking a train ride cross country. The bride was becoming a little self conscious about all the fanfare of being a new married couple. She just wanted some quiet time alone with her new husband, so she came up with a plan.
She said to her husband, “Oh John! In the next town let’s pretend we are an old married couple that has been together for a long time. Can we do this my love?” The husband scratched his head perplexed and confused, because he didn’t want to look like he wasn’t considerate of his new bride. But going along with her request with a smile as big as a sunrise, he spoke out to his bride with a boyish grin. “OK honey… when we get off the train at the next stop YOU CARRY the suitcases.”
This morning we’re going to look at a picture of a church that had become a lot like many married couples who have advanced well beyond the honeymoon stage and who no longer exhibit that spark that was present when they first fell in love. But before we do that, let’s take a moment to set the stage.
Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation consist of a series of seven messages from Jesus to seven different churches. In a sense, this section of Revelation almost seems out of place. We expect to go from the magnificent vision of Jesus in chapter 1 to the vision of heaven in chapters 4 and 5 and then on to the visions of the events of the end times through chapter 19 and finally on to the Millennial reign and the new heavens and the new earth in chapters 19-22. In fact, chapters 2 and 3 seem so out of place to some so-called “Bible scholars” that they speculate that these two chapters weren’t even part of what Jesus revealed to John and that they were added in much later by another editor.
But since the gospel is never just for individuals, but for a body of people who live together in community, we shouldn’t really be surprised that the church appears at this point in the Revelation. Because that is where everything else we see in Revelation has to be lived out on a day-to-day basis. And because these churches consist of sinful humans, they are far from perfect. In general, we are introduced to churches that are not purely good nor are they purely evil. They are just real. As Eugene Peterson observes:
The churches of the Revelation show us that churches are not Victorian parlors where everything is always picked up and ready for guests. They are messy family rooms…Things are out of order, to be sure, but that is what happens to churches that are lived in. They are not show rooms. They are living rooms, and if the persons living in them are sinners, there are going to be clothes scattered about, handprints on the woodwork, and mud on the carpet. [Reversed Thunder, p. 54]
With a couple of notable exceptions, these seven churches are addressed by Jesus using a common format for each of the seven messages. Because that structure is so critical to our proper understanding of the messages, I’m going to take a little extra time this morning to explain it.
Structure of the messages to the seven churches:
1. Church
Jesus begins by identifying the local church body to whom He is addressing the message. As we’ve pointed out previously, these were seven actual bodies of Christ followers that existed in what is now Western Turkey in the first century AD. They were not the only churches in that area, but as we saw earlier, Jesus chooses these seven for both practical and theological reasons.
Since the number seven represents completeness, there is a sense in which these seven churches together represent the universal church in its entirety. That seems to be confirmed at the end of each message when Jesus commands His audience to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches [plural].” So there is a sense in which all seven messages apply to every local body of believers. But at the same time, Jesus addresses specific issues in each local body to reinforce the concept that each local body is responsible for serving Him in a specific and unique manner.
Some commentators, based primarily on the notes in a commonly available study Bible, have take the position that these seven churches represent seven ages, or dispensations, within the church age that began on the day of Pentecost. Under that teaching, the church at Ephesus represents the apostolic church of the first century and Laodicea represents the apostate church that will exist just prior to the return of Jesus.
Not only is there nothing in the text that would support that approach, but the danger of this methodology is that it leads one to focus on trying to determine where the present church fits on that timeline, and therefore makes it easy to miss out on what Jesus wants all of us to learn from each of the seven messages.
The beauty of chapters 2 and 3 is that this entire section of Revelation contains some very relevant and practical teaching for us as individuals and as a body.
2. Christ
In each of the seven messages, Jesus portrays some aspect of His character that is relevant to the church to whom the message is addressed. And each of those descriptions comes directly or indirectly from the portrait of Jesus that was revealed to John in chapter 1.
3. Commendation
With one exception, Jesus begins by commending the church for the things they are doing well.
• Exception – Laodicea
4. Condemnation
With two exceptions, Jesus has a word of rebuke for the church.
• Exceptions – Smyrna and Philadelphia
5. Counsel
Jesus doesn’t just rebuke the churches. He gives them some very practical instruction on what they need to do in order to capitalize on their strengths and to overcome their weaknesses. This is great, because it means that we already have a built in “application” section in each one of these seven messages.
6. Challenge
Jesus ends each message with an exhortation to hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches and then gives them a warning of what will happen if they don’t heed His counsel and a promise of what those who overcome by adhering to His counsel can expect to receive as a future reward.
Keeping that structure in mind, let’s go ahead and read our passage for this morning.
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
We’ll use the outline we established earlier to examine this passage.
1. Church – Ephesus
Ephesus was the fourth largest city in the entire Roman Empire, with a population of nearly a quarter million people in John’s day. It was an important commercial center with a seaport that served the entire area. It was the home of one of the seven wonders of the ancient word – the temple of the fertility goddess known as Artemis to the Greeks and Diana to the Romans.
The church there had been established during a brief visit by Paul and his co-workers – Pricilla and Aquila (Acts 18:19). Paul later returned and spent more time there than he did in any of the other churches he established. Later, when he had to flee the city, he left a young pastor named Timothy there to lead the church. Church tradition holds that Timothy was murdered toward the end of the first century and the apostle John became the pastor and may have even written his gospel while in Ephesus. If that is true, then John would have had a special attachment to the church.
2. Christ
Jesus describes Himself as…
…him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
This is the same description of Jesus that we saw in chapter 1, but with a couple subtle, but significant differences.
First, in chapter 1, Jesus is merely “in the midst” of the lampstands. Here he is walking among them. The picture here is that Jesus is walking among the lampstands for the purpose of evaluating the churches that they represent.
Secondly, the word used to describe how Jesus holds the seven stars is a much stronger verb than the one used in chapter 1 to describe how the seven stars were in His right hand. The word used here in chapter 2 means to “hold fast” or to “have power over.” The idea is that the angels of the seven churches, and thus the churches themselves, are firmly in the grasp of Jesus and nothing can pry them loose.
The idea here is clear. The churches belong to Jesus, not to the church leaders or the people. It is a reminder that Jesus is to be at the center of everything that happens in the church. And in a moment, when we see Jesus’ condemnation of the church in Ephesus, it will become quite apparent why Jesus chooses this description of Himself for this church.
3. Commendation
The church in Ephesus had a lot going for it. They were really excelling in a number of areas, especially when viewed from an earthly perspective. They were:
• Dynamic
The first thing Jesus says is “I know your works.” This was a church that was busy serving Jesus. This was a dynamic body of Christ followers who were engaged in all kinds of ministry.
• Dedicated
Next, Jesus says, “I know your toil.” The word used there is a word that means to work to exhaustion. The people were so dedicated to the cause of Jesus that they worked tirelessly.
• Determined
Next, Jesus commends them for their “patient endurance”. As we saw in chapter 1 where John described himself as a partner of the “patient endurance” in Jesus, it is a word that means to “remain or abide under” difficult circumstances. Jesus also commends the people because they have not grown weary.
• Disciplined
The church at Ephesus was disciplined. They would not bear with those who were evil. In verse 6, Jesus even identifies one of those groups – a group called the Nicolaitins. They are going to appear again in the message to the church in Pergamum and we’ll look at them in more detail there, but for now it is sufficient for us to know that they were trying to introduce evil in the church and the church would have nothing to do with them.
• Discerning
The church had “tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.” They had taken to heart the warning that Paul had given to the church elders almost a generation earlier:
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert…
Acts 20:28-31 (ESV)
As I mentioned earlier, one of the great things about these seven messages to the churches is that we don’t have to work hard at all to draw applications from them. And the first place that we can find application in each of the messages is in the commendation that Jesus has for the church. Here in Ephesus, the people were working hard to keep the church pure and to serve in the name of Jesus and Jesus praised them for those attributes. So obviously we should strive as a body to develop a church that excels in those areas.
From the outside, this looks like an excellent church, but from His vantage point walking among the lampstands, Jesus discerns that everything is not quite as good as it appears. So in verse 4, Jesus speaks words of…
4. Condemnation
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Each year in the United States, more than 1 in 4 deaths are due to heart disease. In many cases, those people who die from heart disease look just fine on the outside. That is exactly the problem that the church at Ephesus had. They looked fine from the outside, but they had a heart problem. Let’s take a look at Jesus’ diagnosis:
• Abandoned their first love
This week as I was doing some research for this sermon, I came across a sermon on this passage titled “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling.” At first, I thought that might be a really good sermon title – after all it’s pretty catchy. But the problem is that it doesn’t accurately reflect the problem that Jesus is addressing here. The people hadn’t just lost their love – they had abandoned it.
This is a case where the ESV translation is really very good. Most other translations render this “you have left” your first love. While that is certainly accurate, the word here is a very strong word that is often associated with divorce. The idea here is not that someone just drifts away from their first love, but that they actually abandon or forsake it. Although in a marriage, our feelings for each other might slowly drift away, the act of filing for divorce is an intentional act that results in abandoning the relationship. And that is what the church had done with their first love there in Ephesus.
But that raises an important question – exactly what is “the love you had at first”? Although it seems that commentators seem to want to pick one of the two possibilities here, I’m convinced that Jesus intentionally left this ambiguous because He has both in mind:
o Their love for Jesus
The people were so busy doing things for Jesus that they had neglected their relationship with Jesus. I have to be really honest with you; these words of Jesus became really personal for me this week. It has been as if Jesus has been speaking these words directly to me. I’ve felt a lot like Peter there on the shore of the lake with Jesus as Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him:
“Do you love me, Pat?”
“Lord, you know how much I love teaching your word.”
“Do you love me, Pat?”
“Lord, you know how much I love to help others grow deep in their faith.”
“Do you love me, Pat?”
It became evident pretty quickly that I have indeed fallen into the same trap that the church in Ephesus had experienced. There are a lot of times when I’m so busy doing things for Jesus, that I’ve abandoned my relationship with Him. So even if this doesn’t apply to any of the rest of you, I know there is a personal application here for me.
o Their love for each other
Taken as a whole, this text also makes it clear that the people had become so legalistic in their desire to keep their doctrine and their conduct pure, that they had abandoned their love for each other. As a result, they had damaged their testimony for Jesus. During His earthly ministry, Jesus had pointed out the significance of loving each other.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:35 (ESV)
Most of us can relate to this well-known poem from an anonymous author:
What joy to love the saints above
When I get home to glory.
To love below, the saints I know,
Well, that’s another story!
I’m reminded of a story about a rather legalistic seminary student who wanted to have a scriptural basis for everything he did. He felt he was on solid ground if he could quote Bible book, chapter and verse to okay his actions.
He did all right with that until he began to fall in love with a beautiful co-ed. He wanted very much to kiss her, but he just couldn’t find a scripture to okay it. So, true to his conscience, he would simply walk her to the dormitory each night, look at her longingly, and then say "Good night."
This went on for several weeks and all the time he was searching the Bible, trying to find some scripture to okay kissing her good night. But he couldn’t find one, until finally he came across that passage in Romans that says, "Greet each other with a holy kiss." He thought, "At last, I have scriptural authority for kissing her good night." But to be sure, he went to his hermeneutics professor to check it out. After talking with the professor, he realized that the passage dealt more with a church setting than with a dating situation. So once again he simply didn’t have a passage of scripture to okay kissing his girl good night.
That evening he walked her to the dormitory and once again started to bid her "good night." But as he did, she grabbed him, pulled him toward her, and planted a 10-second kiss right on his lips. At the end of the kiss, the Seminary student gasped for air, and stammered, "Bible verse, Bible verse." The girl grabbed him a second time, and just before kissing him again, said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Sound doctrine and good conduct are certainly important, but not when they come at the expense of loving one another.
The great thing about all seven of the messages to the church is that Jesus doesn’t just give them a word of condemnation, he give them some very practical counsel about how to deal with those issues.
5. Counsel
In this case, Jesus provides us with a simple three step remedy that we can apply when we’ve abandoned our love for Jesus and for each other:
• Remember
Remember therefore from where you have fallen…
When I first fell in love with Mary, I couldn’t wait to spend time with her. And then when I was with her, I didn’t want to leave. I can still remember the Friday nights when we’d hang out together until the early hours of Saturday morning even though I had to be at work just a few hours later. I wouldn’t allow something as insignificant as sleep interfere with my time with her. Fortunately, over 30 years later, I still cherish my time with her.
But when it comes to my relationship with Jesus, I’m not sure I can honestly say the same thing. I know I’ve allowed the things of this world, and even my service for Him, crowd out my time to just be with Him. But if I’m going to restore that relationship to where it needs to be then I must remember what it was like when I first fell in love with Him. I need to remember those days that I couldn’t wait to get into His Word to see what He wanted to reveal about Himself. I need to remember the times I would set aside time to talk leisurely with Him in prayer. I need to remember when I couldn’t wait to tell others about how Jesus had changed my life.
But just reminiscing is not enough. I must also…
• Repent
…repent…
With the exception of the two churches to whom Jesus gives no word of condemnation, the command to repent is present in the counsel to all the churches. Most of us probably know that the word “repent” means to make a U-turn. It requires both a change in mindset and a change in behavior. We see that clearly in the third command that Jesus gives:
• Return
…do the works you did at first…
One Sunday a couple was driving home from church, the husband behind the steering wheel and his wife in the far right in the front seat. With lonely eyes she looked at him and said, “Honey, do you remember when we first met and I would sit right next to you and you would put your arm around me? What happened to those days?” With one hand firmly on the wheel and the other on the back of the seat beside him, the husband replied. “Well, I haven’t moved.”
If we’ve abandoned our first love, it’s certainly not because Jesus has moved. He’s still there waiting for us to return to the basics that allowed us to develop our relationship with Him. Perhaps one of Satan’s greatest tools is our desire for something new and innovative. Sometimes as Christ followers we tend to get bored and we’re easily drawn into the latest and greatest programs, methods, and teachers. And with the proliferation of the internet, TV, radio and other media, there is certainly no shortage of options.
In a sense, this brings us in a full circle back to where Jesus started. He commands us to remember what it was like when we first fell in love with Him, and then to turn around and to return to those things that we did to develop that relationship when we first fell in love with Him.
6. Challenge
The challenge to the church at Ephesus has both a negative and a positive element:
• The consequences of disobedience – loss of influence
If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
This first thing that we need to note about the challenges that Jesus is going to give to the seven churches is that they are not about salvation.
Jesus is not saying here that if the church refuses to repent that they are going to lose their salvation. Since that salvation is based on what Jesus has done for them and not their own works, there is nothing they can do to either lose or gain salvation.
However, the consequences of failing to heed the counsel of Jesus are serious. In this case, a failure to repent will result in Jesus removing the lampstand. This is actually pretty straightforward if we keep in mind the function of the lampstand, which is to reflect the light of Jesus. What Jesus is saying is that if they fail to return to their first love, He will remove their ability to be a positive influence for Jesus in their community.
Although we know from historical records, that the church took this message to heart for a while, they eventually did lose their lampstand. By the middle ages, the church had disappeared and today neither the church nor the city exists.
• The reward for overcoming – more of Jesus
To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Before we look at the promise itself, we need to deal for a moment with the word translated “conquers” here. A leading Greek lexicon defines the Greek verb as meaning "to win in the face of obstacles, be a victor, conquer, overcome, prevail" (BDAG 673). In context here the idea is not so much one who conquers, but rather one who overcomes by patient endurance in the face of difficult circumstances. We can gain some further insight into the idea of overcoming from these words that John wrote in his first epistle:
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:4, 5 (ESV)
From this passage, we learn that it is our faith in Jesus that provides the ability to overcome. In the messages to the seven churches, this idea is further expanded to show that overcoming is a result of the action of patient endurance which proves the genuineness of one’s faith. That is certainly consistent with our overall box art for the book of Revelation:
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Matthew 24:13 (ESV)
And what do those who overcome receive? The picture of eating from the tree of life in the paradise of God is a beautiful picture of intimacy with Jesus. As we saw last week, Jesus is life. We also know that eating a meal together in Biblical times was a time of intimate fellowship. So when we put this whole picture together, we find that the reward for being faithful to Jesus to the end is that we get even more of Him.
It is good to be busy serving in the name of Jesus. And it’s important to keep our doctrine and our conduct pure. But unless we really love Jesus and love each other, everything else we do will be in vain.
