SLIDE 1: Winnie the Pooh
Sometimes, a children’s story from the past can help set the stage for new topics. A fitting one is Winnie the Pooh. He knew it was lunch time because his empty stomach told him so. He headed off to Rabbit’s house because Rabbit always had honey. “Rabbit – Are you home?” “Come on in Pooh – you are just in time for lunch.” That’s just what Pooh wanted to hear. After many, many, many pots of honey, Pooh was tired and ready to go home. But when he tried to leave the way he came in, he got stuck. “Oh bother,” said Pooh – “It all comes from Rabbit not having a big enough door.” “Nonsense!” said Rabbit – “It all comes from eating too much of my honey!” Pooh learned the lesson the hard way. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
As children, in some way, shape, or form, we learned this lesson. Some of us learned it through stories, or a father’s gentle guidance. Meanwhile, others of us learned it the hard way downing too much ice cream or sweets with resulting stomach aches. Too much of a good thing is actually not so good. Calvin Seminary Professor, Dr. Jeff Weima concludes in his commentary that’s the message behind the distress bulletin to the church in Ephesus. Let’s begin with verse 1.
Slide 2: 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.”
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THE ANGELS: The first unusual observation we notice - John is instructed by Christ in to write to the angel of the church in Ephesus. That’s the case with each letter. Who are these angels? We don’t know for sure.
Thankfully our interpretation is not shaped one way or the other. For those who answer an actual angel, some will speak to a guardian angel for the church though Scripture makes no mention of churches having guardian angels. Nor do other texts direct humans to correspond with angels. Given Revelation is loaded with symbols, it is possible the angels are humans – like angels - servants of Christ who led the church or function as messenger to deliver the letter.
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THE SEVEN CHURCHES: Why these seven churches? By now, there were far more than seven congregations. Setting the framework for what is to come, the number seven is frequently symbolic for completeness – perhaps representing the church both then and now. Every church named would be copied on the content to the other six churches in addition to their own.
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THE CITY: When it comes to the city, Ephesus was a metropolis of nearly a quarter million people and the center of much church ministry. In Acts 19, you can read about the silver workers and their celebrated god, Artemis. Her large temple took the form of a great tree shrine which was the symbol of Ephesus. According to Acts 20, Paul spent three years there. Timothy came to be stationed there too. Then, after his release from Patmos, John trains the next generation of church leaders in Ephesus and writes Revelation, his Gospel, and possibly his three letters.
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THE UNIQUE AUTHOR: But the Revelation letter itself to Ephesus is not from John. It is from Jesus Christ. Notice how highlighting the authority and power presence of Jesus Christ with symbols give this letter added weight. “The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” Christ’s presence comes as both a comfort and a challenge to correct what is wrong. The seven stars being the seven angel recipients and the lampstands, the seven churches. Both symbols originate from John’s first vision in Chapter 1. But they serve another function too – downplaying the universal authority of Rome - The Ephesian coin known for its seven stars – representing the seven known planets at the time to the right of the Tree of Artemis. We’ll come back to how the tree shrine is minimized in a few moments. Now we get to the heart of the letter that begins with celebration:
Slides 7-8
Verses 2-3 “I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles, but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary.”
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Jesus, who knows all, praises them for their perseverance and their knowledge. Their theology is put to good use to test those who claim to represent God – thus affording themselves a means of protection. It is also clear they have suffered many hardships through persecution but have not grown weary. Using this passage as a foretelling, we can then look to see if we bear similar strengths.
Take the bastion and treasure of our Reformed Theology. Always secondary to Scripture itself – The three creeds, the Belgic Confessions, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort and a host of other writings on doctrines. They are helpful tools to shed light as a summary of Scripture. Holding them in agreement binds us together with other congregations who hold similar beliefs. They also serve as a means of protection to keep the Christian Reformed Church and other denominations from error and heresy.
But like Winnie the Pooh consuming way too much honey, too much of a good thing becomes a real problem.
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Verse 4-5 “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”
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Suddenly the Ephesians’ greatest strength led to their greatest weakness. Spiritually gifted with knowledge and theology, they went too far at the cost of love. Perhaps it came at the cost of their witness or hospitality – or maybe it was suspicions against other fellow believers. Whatever it was, Christ called them on it – calling them back to their first love. In his letters, John frequently ties love for God and neighbor together in such a way that they serve as a litmus test - you can’t have one without the other.
In our denomination, accountability to what we believe serves us well – a Reformed theology grounded in Scripture that binds us together. But too much of a good thing leads to what is not good. For example, when we take our sense of right and wrong in faithfulness to Scripture to the extreme, it too can come at the expense of love. To hold other believers in suspicion because they do not practice their faith like we do. There is a reason we opened with 1 Corinthians 13 this morning – to keep in front of us as a means of keeping us from going too far. That’s when hospitality suffers. That’s when our light dims.
I was reminded of that with Synod. Many of the decisions were rightfully bathed in prayer and grounded in Scripture and our three forms of unity. The sin of unchastity against the seventh commandment was reaffirmed to have always included - premarital sex, extra-marital sex, polyamory, pornography, and homosexual sex as sins. Under passionate debate, churches and classis were called to be true to Scripture and hold up marriage as designed by God between a biological male and female. Yet some delegates on both sides of these issues derailed the meeting with tears on both sides and no less than 14 delegates walking out. Theology to the extreme came at the expense of any sense of love. The resulting social media firestorm is impossible to contain. Too much of a good thing leads to not so good results. In the end, no one won even though some tried to declare it so. Everyone lost because in just those few instances love was lost.
Slide 12-13
Verse 5-6: “If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans which I also hate.”
Jesus is not telling them to go full tilt on love at the expense of their theology – but to leave room for love. Christ’s statement about the Nicolaitans clues us into this. It is not clear exactly who they are. We don’t have time to parse out all the details – but they are a clear threat to the body of Christ. Christ confirms he hates their practices – but Jesus never says I hate them. A basis by which we can say hate the sin but not the sinner. The consequences of not repenting are intense. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. That could possibly mean the end of that congregation or perhaps that they will exist but no longer as light bearers for the Gospel because their witness is damaged. Pray that such a thing never happens here or to the Christian Reformed Church. That love and faithfulness prevail.
Verse 7: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Notice how this concluding verse shifts - from the collective of a church congregation in Ephesus right down to the individual believer. It is a way of saying this awareness and challenge isn’t limited to the leaders – but every individual is to be challenged. And yet, the outcome at the same time is not solely dependent on us but in cooperation with the Spirit working in us to produce the fruits of the Spirit – That’s the only you and I can ever overcome our lack of love. Consider the reward.
“To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Not only does this tree imagery run counter to the tree shrine temple of the god Artemis, but the tree of life also takes us back to Genesis 2 and 3. There we have the tree of good and evil and the tree of life. There in the garden the first original sin came out of eating that forbidden fruit. God expelled them from the garden and put an angel in front to guard the entrance so that they might not eat from the tree of life and live forever. Now the imagery in Revelation is completely reversed. Rather than sin resulting in banning us from access to the Tree of Life – Access is now granted because of all that Christ has accomplished – the one who holds the seven stars and whose presence is with the seven churches. Unlike the ban from the garden, we will live in the presence of the Lord forever.
