Mail Call: Ephesus
Revelation 2:1-7
February 19, 2023
Have you ever had someone looking over your shoulder trying to see what you were reading? Maybe you’re on a crowded plane and the person sitting next to you is as engrossed in your book as you are. Or you’re enjoying a cup of coffee, and someone seems to be checking out your emails with you.
One of the privileges we have as a church and it’s God’s gift to us, is to see the Bible as a book of letters. Letters written to others, in which we’re privileged to look over their shoulders and read them and learn more about ourselves and God.
As we move towards Easter, for the next 7 weeks we’re going to take a deeper look at Bible mail. We’re going to look at 7 letters which were postmarked to 7 different churches in the book of Revelation. We’ll see what was happening and how we can learn from these early churches.
If Jesus was to write a personal letter to you, what do you think it would say? Would He be praising you, warning you, or a little of both?
What about to our church - - - what might He say we’re doing right and doing wrong . . . what we should be doing and what, if any is our reward. That’s kind of the gist of these 2 chapters from Revelation 2-3.
Would Jesus be impressed by the things that impress others?
Would He mention the size of the congregation?
Would He notice how much money was given?
Or would He feel like an outsider?
Let me give you a couple of quick points, then we’ll jump in. These letters were written by the disciple John. He wrote them from the small Mediterranean island of Patmos. John was banished to this island by the Romans.
Here’s a map of where the letters were sent and where Paul was in relation to the churches. Each letter was written regarding specific situations the churches were facing. These churches were filled with real people struggling with real problems.
Though 2000 years separate us, their issues aren’t much different from ours.
The first letter went to Ephesus, it was a city with a population of about 250,000, making it the second largest city in the world. Ephesus was an important trade and religious center. They had the best harbors in Asia Minor.
Ephesus also had the temple of artemis or Diana, who was one of their central gods. The temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Paul spent two years there and was eventually run out of town. Over the years the church had been taught by Paul, Apollos, Timothy, and eventually by John. Not a bad group of pastors and teachers.
So, John gets to writing . . . and we’ll take this verse by verse . . .
1 “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:
Woe Pastor Michael, what’s going on here. You’ve read 1 verse and I’m lost. Now don’t worry, you see Jesus was really nice to us, because in the verse right before this, He told us what this means. In Revelation 1:20, He said - - -
20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this:
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. - Revelation 1:20
Jesus is really telling us this . . . I’m 100% qualified, I have the power and authority to tell you what’s going on in your churches, because I am always with you. In fact, I’m the author of the church. I see all that’s going on, I know you, I see you, and I have not forgotten you.
And just as Jesus loved these churches, He also loves First Baptist Church and wants us to be the church we’re called to be. Every letter follows the same general pattern. Let’s look at what was going on in the Church at Ephesus. Jesus said - - -
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know you cannot tolerate wicked men, 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.
Isn’t that great to hear?! Any church would love to hear those words. You are hard working, you don’t tolerate wicked people, you make sure theology is correct. You are persevering. In fact, John says that 2 times. They’ve endured hardships and have not grown weary! WOW!! That’s great news!!
The phrase, hard work literally means intense labor, coupled with toil and trouble. It can also mean great sorrow. So, we know their hard work was also brutal. Yet, they were persevering. It was a labor of love. If you love who you serve and what you’re doing, intense, hard work is not a problem. (PASSION)
The church faced fierce opposition. Remember, Ephesus was a religious capitol and Christianity flew right in the face of idol worship. The end of Acts 19 tells us Paul was run out of Ephesus for threatening the livelihood of the silversmiths who made false idols for the people to worship.
So, the church patiently endured, serving the Lord. Even though it wasn’t easy, the church didn’t grow weary of serving Jesus. They also resisted sin. Which most likely wasn’t easy in a city like Ephesus. They were noted for their immoral practices associated with the worship of the goddess Diana. They didn’t tolerate the evil men.
The church was loyal to correct doctrine. In order for a church to be able to tell if a person is a false teacher, they must know the truth so well that they can spot false teaching. They weren’t afraid to challenge false teachers. If you weren’t teaching Christ, they let you know it. Good for them!!
Let’s jump to v. 6 for one more praise Jesus gave the church ---
6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
They also rejected the teaching of the Nicolaitans. They were a strange sect in the early church that taught that “freedom in Christ” meant you had the freedom to sin with impunity. That means there were no consequences to your sin. You could do whatever you wanted. Sin all you want, because if you received grace from Jesus, forgiveness of sins, then you could do whatever you wanted. . . and you’d be forgiven without question.
Note that Jesus actually says he “hates” the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. That’s really a politically incorrect statement from Jesus. You see, we’ve made the Jesus of today to be one who loves everyone and would never hate anyone or anything. But that isn’t the Jesus of the New Testament. If something was wrong, Jesus let it be known.
When you look at the praise heaped on the church at Ephesus, one would have to ask themselves, “What’s wrong with this church?” The church was a hard working doctrinally sound church. They carried on in the face of persecution; they hated sin, and didn’t grow tired of working for the Lord. What could the Lord possibly say was wrong with these people? Glad you asked!
When Christ looks at a church, He looks under the rugs, inside the closets, and gets a look at what’s really happening. In this case all the good the church was doing was overshadowed by a sad reality.
Jesus said, 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Christ knew they were simply going through the motions.
They left their first love. It’s not that they didn’t love Jesus, they certainly did. But Jesus wasn’t their first love anymore.
Remember from last week, Jesus said we need to love Him first, then every other love relationship flows from His love. And when Jesus isn’t number 1, everything else will suffer. It’s true in the church and true at home as well.
Because He was no longer number 1 in their lives, it was impacting everything they did. Decisions would be made without Jesus in sight. Somehow in the midst of all their godly busyness and all their standing for the truth, somehow, somewhere along the way, they left Christ out of their church. Is that possible?
Their passion for Christ had become cold and a kind of mechanical orthodoxy. Yes, they had outstanding doctrine and a desire for purity, BUT, it was maybe more out of obligation, than love.
I’ve seen people so excited to serve Jesus, then the spark, the flame fades away. Start a new job filled with excitement, and before you know it, you’re not too excited about work any longer. Relationships and marriages start out with passion and excitement. It’s exciting and romantic and you’re always thinking about them.
After awhile, we talk about taking our loved ones for granted. They’re important, but we begin to place other things before them. Maybe it’s work, or school, or hobbies, or whatever it might be. It’s not a conscious decision, but it happens.
We find ourselves busy with life, and we slowly pull away from our spouse. We don’t realize it at first but slowly we move further and further away. When we come to that realization, we’re shocked, we’re in denial, but we’re caught!
The church in Ephesus was called out by Jesus. They were so busy, they lost Christ. They were too busy serving, a good thing, but doing it for all the wrong reasons. The church calendar was filled, there was constant activity, but the heart, the passion, the fire . . . was gone. . . and so was Christ.
They were doing things in a perfunctory manner. They were going through the motions. Doing great good in Ephesus. Standing for the Word of God, but the passion, was slowly draining from them.
I’ve seen many Christians who do and say all of the right things, but they’ve lost the love that once motivated them. I believe Why we do what we do, is more important than what we do. Getting the results! Results are always nice, but what’s the motivation, what’s the heart behind everything. That’s the greatest question to ask. Sometimes that’s a tough one to take, but where’s our heart in anything we do?
This may be one of the greatest problems in the church world today. We’ve lost our love of Jesus in order to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. God does not accept compromise.
So, what’s Jesus’ solution? He says - - -
5 Remember 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.
And this applies not just to the universal church, but it applies to us individually as well. It’s easy for all of us to worship Jesus on Sunday’s. We say Jesus is first on Sunday . . . and then comes Monday, other things get in the way, and Jesus is no longer number 1. He’s no longer our first love.
Jesus gives 3 simple, yet challenging steps to draw us back. We are to - - -
Remember how it used to be.
Repent – change your mind and your heart. Take action!
Repeat the first works.
We don’t regain our first love overnight. Ask any couple that’s gone through a marital crisis. A marriage doesn’t deteriorate overnight, and it isn’t restored overnight. Healing takes time. Remember why you fell in love in the first place.
The same is true about our spiritual life. And Jesus tells us it all begins with a good memory. Remember how far you’ve fallen. Ouch! That hurts, doesn’t it? Remembering what you once had can be a good thing if it leads you to action. In most of life, it’s taking the small steps, the baby steps to return to God. If you keep walking in the right direction, soon you will walk out of the darkness and into the blazing light of God’s love.
Of course, in our quick fix world, we want a quick prayer, which will make everything better. We don’t want to have to go through the pain, we want everything to be instantly right. We want immediate gratification and no pain. Yet, healing and renewal begins, it occurs where we need it most, in our heart, spirit, mind and body.
God expects holiness and righteousness from us. Yet, the wonderful thing about God is that He will allow us to repent. If we repent, He will forgive and cleanse us. God wants us to approach Him knowing, trusting and believing that He is always extending His hand to us and does not hold grudges.
Yet, remembering isn’t enough, action needs to occur, so we’re called to turn from our self-centered living. We look at ourselves and with the help of the Holy Spirit and possibly others, we realize our sinfulness, confess it and turn from our wicked ways and ask God to forgive us. Remember, repentance is all about a 180O turn, so that we do what’s right and not what’s wrong.
Repenting is taking action. You see, if all we do is remember, then we aren’t getting anywhere. It’s like me thinking, “I really want to study the Bible” but never doing it. There must be action along with the remembering, and for Jesus this is our repenting for falling away, from moving away from our first love.
Then we are to return to do the “first works” again. Ahh, do you remember those first works when you were first in love with your spouse? Those notes, the hand holding, the quick kiss, the look into one another’s eyes, the desire to serve them. The care, the passion, the devotion. That’s what Jesus wants from us!! He wants us to remember what it was like to be fully, completely, in love with Him!!
What should we do?
I believe we are to serve . . . serve God and serve one another. We do that because God loves us, and we’ve experienced that love and we’ve been changed by God. If we love one another, and we do it regularly, and we demonstrate that love, I really believe the love we once experienced will slowly start to come back.
It’s intentionally drawing closer to God. It’s taking those small steps. It’s taking the time to pray, to simply talk to God and spend time listening. It’s reading the Bible. Maybe a chapter a day, maybe it’s reading a devotion or talking to someone about faith. It’s worshiping. It must BE intentional!! That’s so crucial.
But there’s still a warning from Jesus, before the final victory, we’re told that if we don’t repent, He will remove our lampstand from its place. The lampstand represents God’s approval of the church.
Let me ask a question . . . How does a church know when its lampstand is removed? Now here comes the tricky answer. The church would never know, because nothing would change. God would take His hand off the church and everything would continue as usual.
The preacher would preach.
The choir would sing.
The lights would shine.
The sound system would work.
The Sunday School would meet.
The people would worship.
The committees would meet.
The kids would go to their groups.
BUT God would not be there. It would be religion without reality, preaching without power, and church without Jesus.
It’s a sad fact that the church at Ephesus eventually ceased to exist. Maybe that’s better than to continue as a church when Jesus is absent.
And so we come to the ultimate question. Are we listening to what God is saying? Each of the seven letters includes this sentence:
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Do we have ears to hear? Or are we already too distracted by the noise of the world? God is speaking.
The message to the church at Ephesus ends with this promise -
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
The word paradise speaks of the personal presence of the Lord Jesus. It’s what Jesus promised to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” If we are faith-filled in this life, we will know Jesus intimately in the next life.
Do we love Jesus?! That’s the question before us this morning. It’s a pretty simple one, but even more than that, how do we love Him? Is it with lip service, is it that perfunctory kind of love? Or is it real, deep, filled with passion and power?! Everything we do, we are doing for the Lord. What we say and do, ultimately is a reflection of our relationship with Jesus.
That’s what He wants, and you know what . . . ? It’s available for all of us! You just have to ask, and He’s ready, able and willing to give it to you.
