Letter to the Church in Ephesus
Introduction:
I rarely dip into the Book of Revelation to preach because it is so difficult to understand and needs a lot of background to get a full picture of what John is saying.
But today I sensed the Lord telling me that I should change my strategy and take a look at the Seven Churches in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3.
Because in their own context they have something to tell us.
I would like us to look what is known as The Letters written to the Seven Churches in Asia as a series.
I believe that each Church has positives and negatives from which we can learn
BACKGROUND
The book of Revelation was written by the apostle John whilst he was banished to the island of Patmos in traditionally around AD 95 and 96.
The seven churches of Revelation are
1.) Ephesus Rev 2:1-7
2.) Symrna Rev. 2:8-11
3.) Pergamum Rev. 2:12-17
4.) Thyatira (pronounced Thy'at'ira) Rev. 2:18-29
5.) Sardis Rev. 3:1-6
6.) Philadelphia Rev.3:7-13
7.) Laodicea Rev. 3:14-22
All the churches are in about a 100-mile radius of each other.
They weren’t the only churches in the area but as William Barclay posits
“these churches might be regarded as centres of seven postal districts being all on a kind of ring road which circled the interior of the Province” of Asia (William Barclay The Daily Study Bible Revised Edition Vol 1 page 28)
There were clearly more churches in the area at the time.
From the New Testament itself we know of one in Colossae to which Paul addressed the letter to the Colossians.
And the church in Hierapolis is mentioned in the same letter (Col. 4:13)
Why seven.
Again Barclay persuasively suggests it is because John has a preference for seven as the perfect number.
Seven occurs 54 times in the book of Revelation and the ancient people considered it as the perfect number
(William Barclay The Daily Study Bible Revised Edition Vol 1 page 28)
1. The Church of Ephesus
Introduction
So this morning I would like to look at the letter to the Church in Ephesus.
What do we know about Ephesus?
Of all the churches mentioned in Scripture, it is Ephesus that we know most about t.
In Acts 19 and 20 we read that Paul ministered there for three years
It is to the Church at Ephesus that Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is addressed
Also Paul’s two letters to Timothy were addressed to Timothy whom Paul had left in charge of things at Ephesus when Paul left.
2. The History of Ephesus
Ephesus was the commercial, political and religious centre of western Asia.
It was located at the mouth of two rivers, the Meander and the Cayster where they enter the Aegean Sea.
All the roads of the Cayster Valley converged on Ephesus and it had the deepest harbour in the Province
A Roman writer called Ephesus - Lumen Asiae – the Light of Asia.
Ephesus was known as the First and Greatest Metropolis of Asia and also the Market of Asia.
It was a free city too which meant within reason it was self-governing and was exempt from having Roman Troops quartered there
Ephesus wasn’t the capital of the Province – Pergamum was.
However Ephesus had such political power that it was laid down by Statute that when a new Roman Proconsul was appointed to the Province of Asia, he had to land at Ephesus to take up his office.
Like other cities in the Province of Asia, it was deeply religious and was home to the famous Temple of Diana (also called Artemis) the goddess of fertility.
Two temples were constructed to Diana over the years as well as three shrines.
The first Temple was started in about 550 BC, was dedicated in 430 BC and burnt down in 356 BC, on the day of Alexander the Great's birth, if tradition is to be believed.
The second Temple took more than thirty years to build and was completed in 323 BC and became known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Second Temple was the Temple that Paul and John would have known.
The Temple was so extravagant that the women of Ephesus sold their jewels to pay for it and kings presented columns, gifts of gold and furnishings of every kind.
And the Temple housed many temple prostitutes too
In addition, there was a real industry around the Temple producing silver shrines and other such things
We read in Acts 19:19 that Paul’s ministry was so powerful that all the believers, who had been reached by Paul's ministry
"who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burnt them publicly” The value of these was 50 000 drachmas. (Acts 19:19).
The drachma was a man’s wages for a day, so you can see how much sorcery must have been practised by the Christians before their conversion.
A lot of money for a lot of sorcery!!
It was a very religious city and there was a lot of opposition to the Christian Gospel from the religious people.
Acts 19 tells us much about the city and its people and you might care to read it sometime.
3. The Letter to the Church at Ephesus
The letter begins with a theological conundrum
2 “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.
Who is the Angel?
The word in Greek is Aggelos (pronounced Angelos) which beside meaning angel is used of a messenger sent by God.
It was a term used of Old Testament Prophets in the Septuagint as well as of John the Baptist
There are other suggestions of what the Angel might mean but I am persuaded that it would be most helpful to understand that the Angel of the Church of Ephesus was the Bishop of the Church in Ephesus.
And John very clearly tells us that it is Christ who is speaking these words.
He describes Jesus in these words
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands
Having concluded to whom the letter was written and by whom, let us move on.
3.1 Jesus’ commendations
Jesus has much to commend them
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.
I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
And then at the end of the letter
6 But you have this in your favour: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
The Church at Ephesus had become extremely Orthodox in what it believed.
It had sifted out the false teachers.
The Church had also persevered under great hardships – which I see also as encompassing persecution
The community of Ephesian church had much to commend them
1. their good deeds
2. their hard work
3. their perseverance
4. their intolerance of wickedness including the false practices of the Nicolatains;
5. their intolerance of false prophets
6. their perseverance and
7. their endurance for Christ.
The Nicolaitans were probably an early church group who took their name from Nicolas of Antioch, one of the seven deacons in Acts 6.
It is thought that they wanted to work out a compromise with paganism to enable Christians to take part in some of the religious and social activities of the close-knit society.
And this would have enabled Christians to take part in “Caesar worship” and it was the Christians refusal to acknowledge the Emperor as a god that was attracting persecution of Christians by the Emperor Domitian.
It is however also possible that Nicolaitans are derived from a Greek version of the Hebrew "Balaam" and therefore the name is allegorical of the policy of the Nicolaitan sect being likened to that of Balaam who was known as the O.T.corrupter of Israel (Nu.22).
If that is so, then the Nicolaitans would be identified with groups who advocated pagan sexual laxity within the church (e.g. a similar group to that described in 2 Pet 2:1-22).
3.2 The reproof of the Church at Ephesus
Well with all that as a resume, surely Jesus would have been pretty chuffed with the Ephesian Church.
BUT HE ISN’T
Let us look again at the reproof of the Ephesian Church
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
5 Consider how far 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.
The Lord does realise our strengths.
He is not a hard task master just looking for results.
Rather He looks at our heart.
Hence the strong reproof.
There are many ministers who Jesus calls to ministry who start off with a zeal for Him, but in time they get sucked into the machinations of the Ministry itself that they take their eyes off Jesus Himself.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul himself writes to the Ephesian Church like this
Be imitators of God therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph 5:1)
Our Gospel reading reminds us that Jesus wants our hearts to be in a right relationship with him.
Nothing else counts
But if you get your heart right with God, the rest will follow.
The two great commandments are commandments of the heart.
1. To love the Lord your God and
2. To love your neighbour as yourself
The motivation for our good works has to be our love of Christ and nothing else.
I wonder if the Ephesian Church was much like many churches today that are strong on doctrine but have very little love for God or for one another.
Reading the epistle of the Ephesians together with the Letter in Revelation you get the feeling that their hard work in standing up for right teaching and withstanding persecution might have caused them to take their eyes off God.
Conclusion
So what can we learn?
I believe it is easy to get so involved in our calling or in the work of the Church that we lose our love for the Lord.
Sadly we see in many of our Churches across the land a lot of infighting such that the famous parody of Onwards Christians Soldiers might be quite apt
Like a mighty tortoise moves the Church of God
Brothers we are treading where we always trod
We are all divided, much disharmony
Very strong in doctrine, weak in charity,
The question I’d like to ask is “What motivates us to do what we do in the church”.
Let me touch a few possibilities of motivation I have experience.
1. Wanting to be the centre of attention
Story: When I ran a free church in Basel, I took one of the ladies who came to church to see Reinhold Detwiler, a well-known brother in the Deliverance ministry.
When Reinhold spoke to her, to cast out the demons, the demons suddenly spoke up in her. So much so that the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
That day she wasn’t delivered from her demons.
I asked Reinhold why and he said:
“She doesn’t want to get rid of them.”
2. Wanting to be the Gatekeeper of the church
Or put another way wanting to be" a big fish in a small pond"
Sadly I have come across a number of people who want to be the gatekeeper in a church and rarely will a church move forward with such people.
Story: In one church I served in, there was no one to play the organ when I took the service so I suggested I play guitar.
The majority wanted me to play guitar in the service but the gatekeeper stopped it.
It was only after the gatekeeper left that the churchwarden rang me up to ask me to play guitar the following Sunday.
3. Wanting to carry out your own ministry “in our OWN Strength”
It is vitally important that we keep our eyes on the Lord when we fulfil our God given calling.
Story: Take for example the very public fall of some American Televangelists. Probably the best known as Jim Baaker (pronounced Baker).
I am convinced he started off with a godly vision but he became high-jacked because of the cares of money.
And suddenly, what became more important than his ministry, was keeping the money coming in so he could keep his programme on the airwaves.
And then of course as he took his eyes off the Lord, he set up ventures that eventually led to his downfall.
Richard Foster has this to say about money
When we let go of money, we are letting go of part of ourselves and part of our security.
But this is precisely why it is important to do it.
It is one way to obey Jesus’ command to deny ourselves.…
When we give money, we are releasing a little more of our egocentric selves and
a little more of our false security.…
Giving frees us to care.
It produces an air of expectancy as we anticipate what God will lead us to give.
It makes life with God an adventure in the world, and that is worth living for and giving for.
Richard J. Foster, quoted in "Reflections," Christianity Today (6-12-00)
What comes over very clearly to me is this
Any work in the Church or in any parachurch organisation will only have eternal value if we keep our hearts in love with the Lord.
And what happened to Ephesus
This is what William Barclay says of Ephesus today:
We have spoken of Ephesus as the greatest harbour of Asia.
Today there is little left of Ephesus but ruins and it is no less than six miles from the sea,
The coast is “a harbourless line of sandy beaches, unapproachable by a ship”.
What was once the Gulf of Ephesus and the harbour is “a marsh dense with reeds.
It was always a fight to keep the harbour of Ephesus open because of the silt which the Cayster brings down.
The fight was lost and Ephesus vanished from the scene”
(William Barclay The Daily Study Bible Revised Edition Vol 1 page 60-61)
I have often reflected that it seems the wonderful work of the Ephesian Church counted for nothing because they had lost their first love for Christ.
And do you know what is sad.
There is no longer a church in Ephesus.
Indeed there is no longer even a village there.
The port of Ephesus that provided so much wealth has silted up so badly that it can no longer be used.
I wonder how the church responded to Jesus’ admonition.
Was their lampstand removed (Rev 2.5) from its place?
Let us be careful, during this time of lockdown to draw aside and spend time renewing our first love of Christ.
Story: When I first became a Christian, I remember being on holiday in Austria with my family and going off by myself with my New Testament into one of the fields below our house in St Veit. Why - so I could spend time with Jesus and the Word of God.
I still feel challenged by Jesus’ words to the Ephesian Church
4 ……. You have forsaken the love you had at first.
5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.
I want to make sure this can’t be applied to me
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS than to keep our first love of Christ.
How can we do this?
1. In our own Quiet Times each morning or evening
Many marriages fall part because the couples stop talking to each other.
Our love of the Lord will grow cold if we neglect praying
2. We can keep our first love of Christ fresh in our fellowship with other Christians in Church
The Christian should be a pack animal, wanting to have fellowship with other believers. We feed off one another.
3. In the Prayer of the Ordinary!
Drop me a line if you want more about the prayer of the Ordinary as I have dealt with it in the first of our Lenten course addresses – just before the lockdown
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father. It is so easy to be caught up in material things, please keep reminding us of the ned to come back to our first love of you.
We ask this in Jesus Name. Amen
