Remembering our first love
Revelation 2:1-7
Good Morning everyone, Please turn in your bibles to Revelation chapter 2
Prayer-
“Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things that you did at first.” Book of Revelation chapter 2
How many remember their first love (first infatuation) in your life?
Remember how exciting it was to have someone in your life?
Ivy in 6th grade in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
Lasted about two weeks but I never forgot.
Someone that was not a family member who cared for you.
Even if your first love was at 10 years old, it was something special.
It was a moment of time that will never be forgotten…or is it.
If you think back, you remember, but with other things happening, you often forget about it being an important part of your life, it was something that was in the past.
So how can the Lord have been speaking to the mega church of Ephesus in the past tense when He says that they have forgotten their first love?
As we walk with the Lord, there is always a danger that as we grow older in our spiritual walk and we become more structured, polished, and doctrinally developed to move from our first love to have it replaced with something or someone else.
Let’s look at what John writes in Revelation 2:1-7 Read from Bible
What once was precious and valuable becomes routine and secondary in our life.
We sometimes loss our way-
WE have people doing the same thing every day. And say they want change.
We drive to church the same way every week.
We come to church the same time- Even if some other things are available to us.
We sit in the same seats and never move and even some who are offended if someone sat in their seats.
We talk to the same people and never reach out to new people or new environments to come in contact with other people. (These are my peeps)
We park in the same space and area of the parking lot- And we say we want something different. We say that we are willing to change.
We do not realize when things are lost or never gotten because we are so set in our ways that we do not allow God to change us or expand our horizons in life.
I don’t know of any Christian that has been a Christian for any length of time that has not had a moment in time that they have lost priority or they have lost what once was valuable and had to fight to get it back.
Our text this morning is an example of a renown church in modern day Turkey founded by Apostle Paul in the first century.
Believers have come to Christ in numbers and had seen God do some amazing and super natural things to show the extreme power of God.
They saw people delivered from demon possession, idol worship, healed in miraculous ways.
They burnt in the town square all their cult books
ZEALOUS FOR GOD- REPENTING WITH A DEEP DESIRE TO COMPLETELY SEVER THEIR NEW LIVES FROM THEIR PAGAN PAST.
The early church had a zeal for God and their lives blazed like an inferno. Their zeal and excitement was inspiring and brought others to faith…but as the years passed, the passion and excitement for the things of God ebbed away.
Knowledge increased and passion diminished
Sometimes you can be so involved in serving Jesus that you lose intimacy with Him.
It is likely that some lost their joy in their service.
They lost their joy because they lost their connection to the savior.
This verse says that they had lost their first love- They had lost their simplicity and passion that once was associated with their love for the Lord.
This unintentional drift is what I want to talk a minute about- Jesus tells them to stop what they are doing and remember the precious relationship that they had with the savior.
He says in verse 5 “Remember the height from which you have fallen!
He tells them and he is telling us to dig through the clutter of our schedules, routines and activities so that we can remember where we came from in serving the Lord.
Renner says that “like dirt on a grave, the business of ministry had buried what was once precious to them.”
To go back to when their faith was tender and new so that they could see how far that they have drifted from Him!
In verse 4 Jesus told the church that “Nevertheless I have somewhat against you.”
Despite all the commendations he gave them, there was one thing that was not commendable- they had left their first love.
Jesus was deeply disturbed about them leaving their love for God and their relationship with him severing.
The Greek word for love is the word agape- There are many forms and definitions of the word for love and by choice He uses the word agape here.
To explain the definition of agape- agape love appreciates and recognizes, understands, and appreciates the value of the person that is being loved.
It is telling us that God loves us and appreciates and understands what we need from Him and that because of His great love for us that compels Him to have no limits on what He will not do to get us in a right relationship with Him.
Agape love sacrifices which Jesus did for each one of us.
No limits in how far, how wide, how deep it will go to show us His love.
Doing a deep dive, we see that God has said that we once had an appreciation that was awakened in our hearts for Him when we first received Him as Lord and savior.
The Ephesians fell hard for Jesus-there were no boundaries that they set to their obedience and what they would not surrender to Him.
Acts 19- They burned their cult materials and amputated every connection to the past that would bring them away from the Lord.
They allowed the Lord to transform them and produce a person completely sold out for Jesus.
But by the time of Apostle John writing on the Island of Patmos decades later, they had lost their first love.
“You have left” is from the Greek meaning that they voluntarily have given a release of what was once valuable to them. They were willing to leave that relationship behind.
They still believed in Jesus-that did not change, but they did not have the deep passion they once had.
After fighting battles for years, they lost the passion to fight as hard as they use too.
Remember from last week I said that most of our struggles and trials will come after a mountaintop experience. If we do not purposefully stay close to the Lord, we will drift into an ocean until we feel we have no way back to that relationship again.
I say feel because we may feel that way but we are never too far from God that He cannot reach us and bring us back to a right relationship with Him.
The once blazing fire is a smoldering flame that needs to be stirred up and rekindled!
Each generation, each family, each individual must know that He/She needs the Holy Spirit to bring us back to our right relationship with Him.
Each generation is faced with new ideas of how church is done- some things would be good, but we must never give up the desire and commitment of retaining spiritual passion for Jesus.
So how do we make sure we have not lost our first love of the Lord in our lives?
It comes from verse 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 lamp stand from its place.”
Remember, Repent, do the first works.
Remember
Have you ever sensed that the Holy Spirit was directing you to go back to your first love? That something is out of sync? That is the prompting of the Holy Spirit
Jesus does not just identify their spiritual condition, He tells them what is needed to return to what they once had with Him.
He gave them steps to take to return- a lot of people will tell y0u what is wrong with you
Not many are able to help you get to where you need to be.
Unintentional drifting or rebellion from what He directs still puts us outside of a right relationship. No matter what we call it.
Like dirt thrown on a grave, busyness and a cluttered schedule will put us without Gods’power in our life.
There are certain things from our past and what we are taught that should memorialize truths in our life. These truths are passed down through the generations and are spoken so we remember and appreciate what is needed to remember what the Lord has done and what He will do in our lives and those around us.
Memories are deliberately maintained and cultivated if they are to remain vital in our lives.
They must be passed down and remembered for our lives and future generations.
Like unmarked graves, memories can be easily forgotten.
Churches can forget what great things God has done in the past and how many times that He has rescued and blessed.
Ministries and programs can wear down the body of Christ and make things routine.
What was once a fire is now a smoldering flame that needs some of our attention.
John is telling the church that we have to pause and remember.
Remember the Lord delivered you from idol worship
cast out evil spirits
how many miracles to get you to where you are now
Your public act of repentance to a pagan world to offer hope to them.
Remember when we had that giant bonfire in the square and we burned all those cult things that took us from a right relationship with God?
Lord Jesus, I want to remember those times of your rescue in my life!
Repent
“Remember from where you came from and where you are now and repent”
Remember is to be mindful of the past.
Repent is to see where you are and where you need to be and repent and ask God to help you get back on track. To be sorry and desire God to help you.
The word fallen here is to remember where God has found you and where He was taking you before you fell to where you are now!
Remember the definition of repent is to have a change of mind- to completely go in a different direction
Because Jesus loves us, He confronts us with truths about ourselves and calls us to repent.
We must make the decision to turn from our sins and remove every action, attitude, or relationship that causes us to be far from the Lord.
It must have hurt the pastor of the Ephesian church to hear that message and have to deliver it to his congregation.
To remind them of where they were and where they were now!
David in Psalm 51 provides words for a heart that was genuinely repentant and broken and wanted God to hear his cry for help.
God you will not despise a heart that is broken and open to what you want to do in us!
When necessary, God calls individuals, families, churches to repent.
Remember the Corinthian Church… Apostle Paul speaks into their carnality and worldliness. Each generation has a choice of what they will do with God in or out of their life.
lastly, as we remember, as we repent, He gives direction how we can restore our fire that once burned brightly.
Do what the early church did- go back to your first Love after salvation
To just say your sorry is not repentance- There must be an inward change which will be shown by an outward action change in your life.
The first works comes from the Greek word erga- it means early, it means deeds, activity, consistent tireless effort. Put it together and it means that the actions or activity we did when we first got saved, do these things!
What were the first works?
Had a spiritual hunger for God
fellowship with each other
eagerness to repent when the Lord showed them
cherish the word of God
apply God’s word to their lives
believe in the wonder working power of God in your life
Quick to confess sin and get it out of your life.
sever anything that would hinder your walk with the Lord
Desire the gifts of the Spirit
Understand that there will be persecution for following Jesus
This makes up an individual, family, church that is following Jesus as they should.
The grammar from the text is Jesus desiring to restore the right relationship
Those that have drifted to come back to Him
Take an honest examination of where you are spiritually- Do you possess a hunger for God?
Is you fire burning or smoldering? Or has it gone out?
Will you respond this morning?
