The letter to the Church at Ephesus
Reading Revelation 1:9-11 & 2:1-7
Most Christians today will accept that we are approaching the time when Jesus will return to this Earth. Many prophecies concerning this event have happened, and the present state of the world confirms that something drastic will have to happen soon. Either the people of this world will destroy it or Jesus will return. And the Bible says that man will not destroy the earth.
Even if we find it difficult to accept this we should, of course, be living our lives as though it were true. Ever since His death and resurrection, when the Church was first founded, Jesus has been calling His Church back to Him. We can see this from the teaching of all of the Apostles and particularly of the Apostle Paul.
Today I want to start a series which will examine the letters that the apostle John was commanded to write to seven Churches as we can see in our reading from Revelation.
“On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna,
Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."
The first letter John is told by Jesus to write is to the Church in Ephesus.
The Church in Ephesus was located in the most important town in what was then Asia Minor, now modern Turkey. You can see from the map how far Ephesus was from Jerusalem where the Church first started. Ephesus is only a ruin today and it’s very close to the modern city of Izmir.
It was famous in its time for it's numerous shrines and for it's temple to the Goddess Diana, which is still one of the seven wonders of the world. It had a theatre that could seat 25,000 people and many other very impressive public monuments. Ephesus had a population of about 300,000 and was very wealthy. But it was a hotbed of every false religious cult and superstition.
The Church had a great Christian tradition, partly because it had the Apostle Paul as its founder. We know that during a two year period Paul evangelised the whole area and the Church grew rapidly. Paul's close friend and colleague, the apostle John, was Minister of the Church until his exile to the Island of Patmos in his later years.
This was one of the truly great Churches of it's time and it was to this group of people that Jesus, through the Apostle John, gives such a strong call.
In the first verse of our reading in Revelation today we have a description of a person holding seven stars in His right hand and walking among seven lampstands.
The Bible tells us that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches while the lampstands are the churches themselves and represent Christ’s light in the world..
The letter starts by commending them for their energy, and for all of their activities on His behalf. The Church, like many Churches today, had many activities, both for the benefit of the members as well as for evangelisation.
They were working flat out for God and I'm sure that at the annual church meeting there would have been some good reports of baptisms and new members.
Jesus goes on to commend the Church for their unity in working together for the good of the gospel. For the fact that they worked long and hard to make sure that they obeyed the great commission. They were based in the middle of one of the largest pagan centres in the area.
In their work for God they were confronted with all sorts of trials and problems. But they never moaned, they never complained, they just accepted the work that they had to do and got on with it.
Jesus especially comments on their attitude towards wicked and evil men. It appears that they refused to let evil, in any form, have control in any part of their lives or in the life of the church. Jesus tells the Church that He is proud of their use of discernment with regard to false apostles and teachers. This was a great problem in those times with many people travelling around and claiming to be prophets or apostles. And we know that the bible warns us to be aware of false teachers.
Jesus knew that the Church in Ephesus had been using the spiritual gifts given to them by God. They had tested these travelling teachers and found them to be false.
The Church had gone through persecution and hardships in the past, and in chapter two verse three Jesus commends them for their perseverance, for their patience and for their endurance. Then Jesus goes on to commend them for their determination. Their determination not to give up, their determination to overcome the problems they had been facing.
In view of all of these commendations, of all of these good things it becomes apparent that the church at Ephesus really was a great Church.
It possessed all of these commendable qualities and yet Jesus goes on to say that he holds some things against them.
Jesus tells the church that they have forsaken their first love. Can you remember your first love. The first time you really felt that you were in love.
Perhaps it was the first girlfriend or boyfriend that you had, perhaps it was the first person you ever kissed. Can you remember how you felt then.
How you would make excuses to see that person, how you would make excuses to be in the same place that they were? How you looked forward to the next time you met. But can you also remember that this feeling didn't last forever?
After a while the excitement of love wore off. You still loved the person but the edge had gone. Then perhaps you started to think about someone else, another girl or boy that you had met. How long did it take for you? For me it was about three weeks form the start of my first love affair to the end of it. I really thought I was in love until someone better came along. Mind you I was only 15 at the time.
This is what Jesus is reminding the Church about. They fell in love with Him at the beginning and now the edge has gone. Now other things are starting to come along which are taking His place in their lives. Perhaps they are even beginning to look elsewhere. It's so easy for a Church to put other things before God.
This was a really great Church, they knew that they were. They had been founded by the Apostle Paul himself. They had a certain amount of power in the area and they were really well connected.
Some scholars feel that the problem was not so much falling out of love with Jesus, more of falling away from the good works that they had started many years before. They had lost their love for people. When they had first started these good works they had obeyed the principle that they should love the sinner but hate the sin. The suggestion comes now that they had started to hate the sinner as much as the sin. When hatred for the practices of the sinner turns into hatred of the person who sins Christians depart from the love of God that they have in Christ.
Maybe that's why they got such a serious warning. Revelation 2:4 tells us
"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5: 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. "
Jesus commands them to turn back to the love they once had. They will know what that was, they will be well aware of the way in which they have drifted off course.
In Revelation 2:5 the phrase "I will come to you and remove your lampstand from it’s place." has a very judgmental tone to it.
Perhaps related to the time when Christ will come back to judge the world. But Jesus is not talking of His second coming here. The removal of the lampstand from it's place can mean nothing less than the end of Christ's recognition of the great Church in Ephesus as any Church of His. Jesus was speaking about removing His light from the Church.
It would still have the name "Church" but it would not have the presence of Jesus. The people would not be recognised as the body of Christ in Ephesus. Jesus is warning them that he will come in a special judgement on the Church. This appears to have actually happened to this great Church.
In the year 262, only 165 years after this letter was written, the City of Ephesus, this great and important city with it's great and important Church was completely destroyed by the Goths. The city was later rebuilt but never regained it's former importance or splendour. The city was totally abandoned in the 14th century.
What makes the Church as we know it a Church?
When does a group of people meeting together become a Church? What turns that Church into a mighty, moving meaningful body of Jesus Christ? Because it is filled with love. Love is the commandment of Jesus.
In the gospel of John 13:34-35 we can read this:-
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 :By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Love is poured out from God into the hearts of all believers by the Holy Spirit. This love is then cultivated so that it becomes the fruit of the Spirit.
Paul tells us that love is the more excellent way of the Lord. Without love we are nothing. Could this possibly happen to us. Could Jesus ever write a letter to us that praised us for our good works in the past.
Could Jesus send us a letter that praised us for our perseverance and determination, for our endurance, but that also condemned us for our lack of love, both for Himself and for others?
Sadly we can look all around us and see churches closing down, we can see dwindling congregations, we can see the Churches disagreeing with each other, and in some cases being openly hostile. We all know of groups of people that call themselves Churches that have turned away from God, that have turned to tradition and liturgy for their comfort. .
We must ask ourselves deep in our hearts whether this could actually happen to us?
Once we have examined our hearts we can take encouragement from the words of Jesus in Revelation 2:5
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.
We have an opportunity to recognise our corporate sin as well as our individual sin and turn back to God. All we have to do is confess and repent and He will forgive us, He will fill us with His love. We can have a fresh touch of God in our lives.
Do you remember how it was when you first became a Christian? Do you remember how much you loved Jesus, how much you loved others then. Turn back to those times by asking Jesus to make you aware of anything that you have done which may have caused separation from God. Anything that you may be doing that is displeasing to God.
Then repent. Turn your lives back over to God, back over to Jesus Christ, and let the Holy Spirit fill you with His love.
This is the call of Christ to His Church today, to renew our first love in our hearts!!!
