The Seven Churches-Ephesus
(Note: this message is based on a sermon I preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on October 19, 2025 but it is not an exact transcription.)
Introduction: Ephesus. This city was one of the largest in the Roman Empire. At the time, Ephesus was a thriving seaport and the Temple of Artemis/Diana was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (for a reference, see any of the links to websites like this one: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/seven-wonders-ancient-world/).
Paul had spent two years in Ephesus (Acts 19:10) preaching and performing miracles. The church in Ephesus had been blessed with overseers like Timothy (I Timothy 1:3). I remember reading and hearing how the apostle John had been working for the Lord in Ephesus before he was sentenced to exile on Patmos (Dr. A. T. Robertson mentions this in his “Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament: for this passage even though there is no Scripture to agree with this).
By now, the time when John wrote Revelation, maybe 30 years had passed. The church in Ephesus was still in existence, and there were other churches in western Asia Minor (Turkey, as it is today) but the Lord Jesus Christ had something to say to this one and six more in particular.
The Scripture passage for today’s message is Revelation 1, verses 1 through 7:
Text: Revelation 2:1-7, KJV: 1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. 3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. 6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
1 The picture of Jesus
One thing we’ll see in each of these seven letters is a reference to Jesus. Back in chapter 1, John saw the glorified Christ with eyes like fire, feet like brass (bronze), and so on. Here in this message to Ephesus, John records Jesus saying He has the seven stars in His right hand, and He is walking in the midst of these seven churches.
Now, here in verse 1, John recorded that Jesus said the “seven stars” are the “angels” or messengers of each of the seven churches. The term “messengers” seems to refer to the leaders at each church. Jesus said He had each of the seven stars in His hand. This could mean He is protecting them, as most of us know that when we try to do something for God, we’ll face opposition as well as confirmation. The Lord assists even while the devil resists, as someone once remarked.
Then, besides holding the seven stars, the Lord reminded John, and the Ephesians in this message, that He is walking in the middle of these seven churches. When you take a look at a map of these seven churches, it’s almost like they’re in a sort of circle or pathway. I mean, there were Roman roads, built to the highest standards of the time, connecting not only these seven cities but most of the known Roman Empire. Each of the seven cities was about a one or two days’ walk from each other, by the way. Might have taken a man like me a little longer, though, as I’m certainly not the young pup I was back 50 or so years ago!
All right. John gave us a glimpse of the Lord, and now he’s going to deliver the rest of the Lord’s current message to the Ephesian believers.
2 The words of praise
There’s one thing in common to all of these seven letters: they all begin with a word of praise, or, at least, a note that the Lord says “I know your works” or deeds. For the church in Ephesus, the Lord noted several things that He praised them for.
First, He said “I know thy works” but He didn’t stop there. Note that the Lord didn’t tell us much, if anything, about just what these works really were. He did mention their “works, and labour [sic] and patience” at first. Something I never really caught was the difference between “works (erga, per https://biblehub.com/greek/2041.htm.meaninh loosely meaning something done or accomplished)” and “labor (kopos, https://biblehub.com/greek/2873.htm, meaning not just “labor” as we understand it but also toil and weariness)”. ”Patience” as used here didn’t mean just waiting for something to happen, like traffic to thin out after an accident. “Endurance” is another way of looking at it (see https://biblehub.com/greek/5281.htm) and these Ephesian believers had enough of it to earn praise from the Lord.
And that wasn’t all. Jesus praised them for not putting up (“bear”) those who were evil. Some of the believers in John’s day might have remembered what happened when Paul was there. The story there began with a group of Jewish exorcists trying to cast out a demon from a certain man; the demon-possessed man cast the exorcists out of the house (Acts 19)! Soon after this, there was a large bonfire of some evil publications, nearly 139 years’ worth of wages! A “piece of silver” was equal to a day’s wage (see notes at https://biblehub.com/greek/5281.htm) so 50,000 days wages worth of books of “curious arts” went up in flames. Sometimes destruction is the only way to keep something from keeping control over one.
The Lord wasn’t done yet. He also commended these believers for holding firm in their evaluations of “apostles”. We know there were only 15 men in all history who qualified to be apostles: the original twelve; plus Judas Barsabas and Matthias (chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot, see Acts 1). Later Paul was also called to be an apostle and he showed proof of it when demanded (see 1 Corinthians 9:1-2, 15:9, and I Timothy 2:7 for just a few references).
So when apostle “candidates (I can’t think of another word)" came to Ephesus, stating, “Look! I’m an apostle!” or similar words, these believers promptly examined them. This is to their credit, and I believe part of this was in reference to Paul’s closing words to them in Acts 20. He warned them that “grievous (“savage” or “fierce”, other translations) wolves” would come in and wouldn’t spare the flock. How often, has that come true.
The Lord commended them for this due diligence and added His praise for additional things. Note how He mentions how they had “borne, and hast patience, and. . .laboured [sic] and had not fainted”. He repeats patience and labor, perhaps in a word of reassurance. He sees, He knows, and He cares for all of His own!
But the words of praise were not the only message. Ephesus had some problems and the Lord was about to shine the light on those problems: one in particular.
3 The words of the problem
I have to confess, how this happened is something I’ve never understood. I mean, take a look in Acts 19 and how it all started, then take a look at the Book of Ephesians for Paul’s guidance to these believers. Now look at what the Lord Jesus says to them about one glaring problem.
That problem, simply, was that these believers in Ephesus had left their first love. Some think this was a gradual walking away from the intense, fervent love that the first-generation converts from paganism and/or Judaism had known when they first believed. They knew what they’d been, and they knew what they had become, and best of all, they knew Jesus made the difference! They were headed for Hell, and they discovered that truth; then they repented and believed on Jesus as Lord and Savior—now they’re going to Heaven! But, and nobody knows how, they, or maybe the generation following them, had begun to lose some of that flame. By John’s day, the love for Jesus wasn’t nearly so hot as it was at first—but it wasn’t cold or lukewarm as Laodicea.
Others may think, rather, that a deliberate choice to walk away may have happened. To use a rather strange example, suppose any given railroad has built tracks from Point A to Point B. It’s clear that trains do not run in a constant stream of traffic (although, there are some places where it may seem like that!), rather, trains run when and where needed. It costs a lot of money to just run a train where there’s no chance of earning revenue.
The railroad may have had a deep appreciation for Point B but there are times when there isn’t much business. Sometimes there’s a lot; sometimes there’s not, but the railroad just doesn’t run trains out to Point B like they used to. That’s not leaving love, that’s business.
Now suppose that the business at Point B closes. There’s no need for rail traffic anymore. After the required transactions, the railroad removes the tracks from Point A to Point B. The term for this is abandonment; meaning the railroad doesn’t need the tracks nor the land (called “right of way”) any longer. It’s all gone, and there’s not much chance of the tracks going back.
The point is, whether slowly or at once, the fervent love these believers used to have for Jesus was gone. John Phillips in his book “Exploring Revelation” had some notes and comments about the condition and situation in Ephesus that almost led me to tears. To think that a church which had so much, for so long, could fail so badly, is hard to understand.
Jesus had laid His finger on the one negative that wiped out a lot of positives for Ephesus. Being the gracious Lord and Savior that He is, He didn’t leave them without hope or a remedy.
4 The words of a prescription
By this time, or at this point of this new letter to the Ephesians, the Lord Jesus Christ has given them words of praise and, very distinctly, the words of a serious problem. May we always remember that Paul had written I Corinthians 13 which had a number of verses clearly stating that deeds done without love were useless. So it seemed to be in Ephesus at this time.
At the same time, we need to remember our Lord’s incredible grace and forgiveness. He didn’t want to see this church or group of churches in Ephesus wither and die. No, He wanted them to simply get back to where they had been before.
And that’s the point of our Lord’s next words, a prescription for the problem. The first thing He told them to do was “remember” from where they had fallen. Those who would like to dig deeper would find a very fruitful study on the times where someone was told to remember. Here, though, the first thing these believers needed to do was remember from where they had fallen.
Now, to remember is only the first step. To give another example, when the women went to the tomb where the body of Jesus was laid, the angels met them and the first thing the angels told them was to “remember (Luke 24)”. Of course that wasn’t the only thing, but it was the first thing and an important thing—absolutely. But to repeat, that command to remember wasn’t the only thing they needed to do.
They also needed to repent, and I don’t want to spend too much time here, but “repent” is a command that isn’t mentioned nearly enough these days. The first message preached in the New Testament was “Repent!” The word means to “change one’s mind (paraphrased from the online notes at https://biblehub.com/greek/3340.htm)” with the goal of changing one’s actions. There in Ephesus, sure enough, the original believers had repented and found salvation in Jesus. These believers, reading this message at that time had found salvation but had not seemed to repent after they had been saved. That’s not a good position for anyone to be in.
And to add a further emphasis, the Lord said to first, remember and then repent, but to make it real to “redo the first works”. These believers knew exactly what the Lord meant; after all, it hadn’t been that long ago they were doing that very thing! This threefold message, all in one sentence, must have struck these believers straight in the heart. I know it would speak directly to me if I had been there. Oh, Lord, speak to all of us, should be our prayer.
The Lord was serious about this, by the way. Note in the last part of verse 5 that He says “. . .or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick (lamp stand) out of his (its) place, except thou repent.” There it is: plain language for an obvious situation. There is some debate among the commentators as to just what the Lord meant by “quickly” but one thing is for sure: when He says something, He means it. Ephesus found that out at a later time.
But let me get back to the text here. I mentioned these are words of a prescription and those of us who have received things like medications which were “prescribed” to us know exactly what a prescription is and what it’s supposed to do. Good medicine, as some say, works as advertised! The first thing about a prescription, of course, is to see what’s wrong. Then, the prescription is given to help solve the problem. Even so, the prescription won’t work unless the one needing it—takes it! My late mother related a humorous incident some years back: she told me there was a certain product that would help her lose weight. Not knowing how else to respond, I asked her how was it working? She replied, “I don’t know for sure. It’s still over there in the cabinet!”
The Lord had given these believers in Ephesus a plain and simple prescription: Remember, repent, and re-do the original works. The warning: if you don’t, I will remove your candlestick or lamp stand out of its place. There’s a word for those who overcome, but there’s another word of praise before we get there.
5 A word of plaudit
The Lord has by now given praise for the church in Ephesus, for what they were doing right; but He also pointed out the one glaring thing which He showed was a problem. Never One to leave anything in doubt or unfinished, He also gave them a prescription to follow with a word of warning if they didn’t. He is all-loving, and we should be grateful beyond words and thoughts about that, but there will come a time that if we or any church refuses to listen, He has the right and privilege to use varying degrees of discipline up to and including removing the very lamp stand of any given church. We should take these warnings seriously.
Before I move on to the last couple of verses, may I share what happened to at least two church buildings in my hometown? One such building is still standing, with a small steeple or bell tower, but there hasn’t been a worship service there in maybe 50 years or so. The building had been repurposed into a machine shop or repair shop of some kind. The other building had been the original site for at least three congregations but something happened: the building is gone, torn down to the foundation, and last time I was there a car wash had been built on the property of a former church building. Absolutely, the Lord removed the candlestick even though we may never know the true story this side of Heaven. It’s proof, though, that the Lord is serious about repentance and doing the first works, with the right motive (love).
With that in mind, the Lord is winding down this message to the Ephesians. He gives them a second word of praise or plaudit by saying that these believers in Ephesus hated the deeds of the Nicolatins, which He also hated. We aren’t sure of just what these deeds were, but the true believers were wise and right to hate them. False doctrine and/or false deeds are just one way the Enemy of our faith tries to sneak in, seize control, and ruin any church. Brothers and sisters, please be careful and alert your pastor or deacon or someone if you see anything like this.
6 A word of promise to the over comer
We’re almost at the end of this second letter and the Lord is finishing this message. He gave the promise to the one who overcomes, He said, “. . .will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Well, we remember the original tree of life, mentioned first in Genesis 3. After the Fall, that tree was guarded by two cherubim, each having a flaming sword. Now, that tree and its ever-refreshing fruit will be available to all who over come! None of us can overcome anything in and of ourselves, but with Jesus we certainly can!
I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the tree of life, except I’m looking forward to it! We have the Lord’s message to the Ephesians and, us, by extension. Let’s look at ourselves: what does the Lord praise in our lives? What problem or more than one might He find? And when He gives us the prescription, will we take it willingly?
My prayer is that we’ll all be the kind of believers He praises!
May the Lord bless you and keep you until we meet again.
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
