Love in the Rear View Mirror - Rev 2:1-7
Look this morning at another letter to the Ephesian church other than the one written by Paul.
1) Apostle John is only remaining disciple alive and is now banished to the island of Patmos. It is here that Jesus gives him a 3-fold message.
2) Divide the book of Revelation up by the outline given in 1:19 ’Therefore write the things which you have seen(1), and the things which are(2-3), and the things which will take place after these things.
3) Things which are is a group of seven letters to seven different churches which are all located in Asia Minor. The letter to the church at Ephesus is the first.
Come into a new community looking for a new church home. You initially enter each church and try to gain an idea about what kind of church this is. Can be confusing. Different buildings, congregations, history, Pastors. (Seminary: takes 9 mnths to a year for a pastor to know the kind of church he is pastoring) Only the Head, Jesus Christ, can accurately know and explain the true condition of each church.
Although these churches existed during the same historical time frame yet they were quite different from one another.(like today) You could expand the study of them to even get a glimpse of seven different ages that the last 2,000 yrs of church history has passed through and which will ultimately go through until Christ return.
Each letter can be looked at using a 5-term examination:
PATIENT - PHYSICIAN - POSITIVE - PROBLEM - PRESCRIPTION - POSSIBILITIES.
THE PATIENT - (1) To the angel of the church of Ephesus write..’
1. Term Ephesus literally means ’desired one’. Many things about this city that might account for such a name.
a. POLITICAL CLIMATE: Ephesus was a center for land and sea trade. Located on the Caster River and had desirable harbor for ships. It was called the Light of Asia and the Marketplace of Asia. It was also called the Highway of Martyrs because it was a stop for Roman prisoners who were brought out of Asia.
1) To enter the city from the Harbor you would travel on a marble road which was 1/2 mile long and 35’ wide.
b. RELIGIOUS CLIMATE:
1) NEGATIVE: Temple of Diana(Artimis). One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Over 600’ long and 20 wide. Along the front were 120 columns, each 60’ high, 36 of which were inlaid with elaborate riches.
a) Place of Industry: manufactured statutes of Diana. Paul came and when people began to get saved it cut into the profit of this industry and caused a riot. ’Great is Diana of the Ephesians’(Acts 19:28) ’image which fell down out of heaven(35)(supposedly occurred when Alexander the Great came through town and Jupiter dropped)
b) Place of Culture: Museum for all from all over the world.
c) Place of Refuge: Sanctuary for Criminals. Free from the law if inside. So many inside that the boundaries of the temple were expanded to the very city limits of Ephesus.
d) Place of Immorality: Criminals inside, 1,000’s of priestesses and prostitutes. Worship included acts of immorality and self-mutilation:
Greek Philosopher stated, ’morals of the temple were worse than the morals of animals’.
Not a very promising place to start a church!
2) POSITIVE:
a) Ministry of great church leaders: Paul spent 3 years here building the church. Timothy was in charge of the churches in this area. Mary the mother of Jesus is said to have died here. Apollos, Priscilla & Aquilla all ministered here. John himself was here before he was banished and returned here afterwards.
b) Strong Church in numbers: Billy Graham estimates that the church in Ephesus may have been as large as 50,000 members.
THE PHYSICIAN - ’These things says He Who holds the seven stars in His right Hand, Who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands’.
1. Confusing statement: Look to Chapter 1 where Jesus appears to John in a very amazing way(1:12-16). 1:20 explains that the seven stars are the seven angels (messengers) of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
a. Stars are the messenger: particular person who brought to each church, possibly the pastors of each church, or even an angel which ministered to each church.
b. Lampstand: We are a lampstand in Hannibal. An outpost for light.
2. Personal description:
a. Who holds the seven stars in His right hand. Strong word which reinforces that the message if from Jesus. Often reject what Pastor, Sunday School teacher, or some Christians states because disagree with or is too confronting a message. THIS IS FROM ME. These messengers are in My hand. Heavy word but Mine!
b. The One who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Reminds us the Jesus knows everything about us as a church. He patrols: Satan prowls about as a roaring lion. He is moving about through the church always knowing what is going on and ready to give a fresh word of direction.
THE POSITIVE(good news) (2) I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.
Jesus states He knows certain things. Word which stresses ’on the basis of an examination, considering the facts, I have come to this conclusion’. Physician: First consideration might be inclined to believe a certain diagnosis, ;I suspect’, but after a battery of test comes back and states, ’I know what the problem is’.
1. THREE COMMENDABLE THINGS
HARD COMMITTED WORKERS: not a group of pew potatoes. Works - labor - patience
a. Labor - toil to the point of exhaustion, CHOP-cuts through our very strength & vitality. Left it all on the court. Gave all I had for Jesus.
b. JOHN MACARTHUR: Toil of the average Christian wouldn’t exhaust a butterfly. M.R. DeHAAN To come to Christ costs nothing, to follow Christ costs something, but to serve Christ costs everything.
MORALLY & DOCTRINALLY PURE FELLOWSHIP - you cannot bear those who are evil, and you have tested those who say they are apostle and are not, and you have found them liars..
Didn’t chase every theological fad or fall for every ’teacher’ who called himself a teacher of the Bible.
Jim Bakker spends years in prison after the PTL scandal. He came out and wrote a book entitled, ’I WAS WRONG’. Referring the health/wealth theology that you often hear today.
a. MORALLY PURE - cannot bear those who are evil. Dealt with those who would bring the evil of world into the fellowship of the church.
1) Evil carries the idea of being injurious to the body. Suggests a tendancy to corrupt others and draw them into the same destruction. Draw protective lines regarding sin in the fellowship.
TZELTAL INDIANS of Southern Mexico. Church with on a Bible for instruction. Visited by missionary. During a church service a solitary man watched from outside while service were being conducted. Inquired: Man was with an unsaved woman who had compromised his witness and was not to be allowed back inside the service until he repented. Others not allowed to take communion or even to give to offerings until they dealt with particular issues.
2) In Ephesus, like today, it was popular to be tolerant and open-minded about cultural norms. This passage is saying that to do so is like putting a weight on the back of a runner.(Heb 12) God has given us His Word to show us how to stay trim and be effective in reaching the world and living our Christian lives.
b. DOCTRINALLY PURE:you have tested those who
say they are apostles and are not, and have found
them liars.
1) PAUL’S WARNING: Acts 20:29-31 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from among you own number men will arise and distort the truth(method), in order to draw away disciples after them (motivation). So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.(Spoken to elders who came down to city of Miletus for farewell address)
2)Tested/tried -periadzo ’examined, tested by experiment’
Idea of piercing a turkey with thermometer to test beyond outer appearance
a) Didn’t take any so-called minister, teacher, leader at face value but held them to the standard of God’s Word. ( Burned magic books Acts 19)
Talkative: Joins with Christian and Faithful as they travel. Faithful is impressed with his words. Christian warns, ’I know this man..religion has no place in his heart…if you talk of a serious subject then he will be sick of you’..’HOW DOES THE SAVING GRACE OF GOD SHOW ITSELF IN THE HUMAN HEART?’ ’causes a great outcry against sin’! NO, IT CAUSES THE SOUL TO HATE SIN. ’What is the difference? YOU HAVE A RELIGION OF WORDS BUT YOU DRINK & LIE & SWEAR & COVET. Are you judging me? You are not fit to speak with and I bid you goodbye. YOUR WORDS AND HIS LUSTS COULD NOT AGREE. HE WOULD RATHER LEAVE YOUR COMPANY THAN TO REFORM HIS LIFE.
ENDURED HARDSHIPS WITH PERSEVERANCE: A church doing the right things will incure negative Attention.
(3) And you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My Name’s sake and have not become weary.
a) Church had stayed faithful & obedient in spite of the difficult enviroment of the city. Had not surrendered or given in under trial.
THE PROBLEM - (4) Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
1. Against - I have this in opposition to you, it is of a different nature than Me. They had not left: attendance, giving, serving, studying their Bible but had left their FIRST LOVE.
a) Left ’sent it away, put it aside, turned back upon, learn to live without it’
b) First primary, first in importance as opposed to time
We can become so busy just doing the church thing that we forget who we are and why we are here. We can love the hymns, enjoy the sermons, go to every fellowship but if we are not deeply in love with Jesus then none of it is really of any value.
TOM ELLIF: It is possible to do everything you are supposed to do and still be wrong if it is not done out of a love relationship with Jesus.
2. First steps of a Christian’s life: enthusiam, excitement. Give testimony and break into tears, in love with the Word of God, hardly wait to spent more time in prayer. They can’t wait to serve, to help, to reach out or to do anything that Christ might ask of them BUT with passing years it can become just housekeeping & maintenance, almost a country club atmosphere.
NEW COUPLE IN LOVE: eyes only for each other. Think it takes two people to drive a car. Talk to them and they can’t even hear you they are so lost in one another. Don’t even care that you are in the same room. I remember being newly in love. She had an old car that barely ran, dents in the door, parking lot full of people would hit the ground, Went to restraunt w/o prices on menu($98 for two people, starving seminary student) didn’t care
a) Doesn’t say they ’lost it’ but they ’left it’: abandoned it. They were making conscious decision leading them away from devotion to Jesus as their primary purpose for worship and the existence of the church. It is the tendancy to let the most wonderful experience of life become commonplace.
1) Left the love you felt for Jesus when He delivered you, saved you, freed you from your sins and gave you a purpose for living.
TONIGHT: Evidences of losing your first love, prescription for recovery, and a look at the possibilities if we don’t rediscover our first love and the rewards if we do.
D.L. MOODY: great evangelist as a young man was a Civil War chaplain at the Battle of Murfreesboro….Wounded soldier, ’Chaplain, I have been fighting Christ all my life in spite of a wonderful praying mother….Moody repeated promise after promise with no relief…Read JN 3 and the man’s eyes rivited upon him….AS MOSES LIFTED UP …..JN 3:16….expression gave way to a peaceful smile…next morning/empty cot…orderly said the man died restfully still murmering the words of John chapter 3. DIED IN HIS FIRST LOVE.
