TEXT: Revelation 2:1-5
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. --Revelation 2:1-5 (King James Version)
1 "Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: 2 "I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. 4 But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first. If you don’t, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
--Revelation 2:1-5 (New Living Translation)
SUBJECT: REVIVING YOUR FIRST LOVE
In the 4th Chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew, the Bible records that Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee and while there, He came across two men, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew. When Jesus called out to these two brothers, declaring that He would make them fishers of men, the Bible records that they immediately dropped their fishing nets and left to follow Him. Like wise, Jesus continued walking about this same Sea of Galilee where he came across another set of brothers who were in their ship with their father, mending their fishing nets. And again, the Bible records that when these men were called by Jesus, they not only dropped their nets immediately to follow Him, but they also left their father, Zebedee, alone in the fishing boat. Thus entered James and John, the Sons of Thunder, into their service and love affair with Jesus Christ.
This is the John that is known as John the Apostle. And we must distinguish him from John the Baptist who was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. It was this John that became one of the pillars of the early church in Jerusalem along with James and Peter. This John is responsible for writing the Gospel of John, and the three epistles, entitled 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. It was this John that ventured out of Jerusalem and went over to Ephesus to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was in Ephesus that he penned the Gospel of John.
And you see we must understand a little bit about Ephesus. Ephesus had an almost perfect location for the spread of the Gospel because of its location near the sea. This location was instrumental in its vast sea traffic and commerce. Its population swelled to over 300,000 people of various backgrounds and ethnic groups. Ephesus quickly became one of the wealthiest cities in the Middle East. It was a city like some of the major melting pots in the United States, that had many different cultures operating together. This was due to its being occupied by the Lydians, the Persians, and the Greeks. Ephesus even had many different religions being practiced simultaneously including those of the Jews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. But in the year 53 A.D., the Apostle Paul began the spread of Christianity in Ephesus.
John later reported to Ephesus and continued this spread of the Gospel. But his fiery and powerful ministry got him in trouble. You see when you’re doing something good in the name of Jesus Christ, there will always be those who want to see your demise and stop the great works that you’re doing. Can I get a witness?
So the Bible tells me that the Romans exiled John to the Isle of Patmos. But how many of you know today that even in the midst of trouble, God always has a plan. And His plan for John was the writing of the Book of Revelation. Just as Genesis is the book of beginnings, Revelation is so styled the book of endings. Thus in the first chapter, Jesus lets us know in the very first chapter that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending; He who is, and who was, and who shall come again; the Lord Almighty.
Revelation is the book through which the divine plan of redemption is brought to light. For John says that He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day when he heard the voice of the Lord sounding like a trumpet. And John was instructed to write a message from the Lord, addressing the seven churches of Asia.
In our text today, God is addressing the church at Ephesus. And you must understand that there were some great things going on in Ephesus. For Jesus notes that He knows their works and their labours. He has seen how they can’t stand the evil that surrounds them. He understands and knows how they have tried those claiming to be apostles, and have found some of them out to be liars. He recognizes that they have bourne their burdens well, maintaining their patience, and continuing to labour for His sake.
Oh my brothers and sisters, I stopped by to let you know today, that even today, God has sees and knows everything that the church is going through in this world. He knows that we are making efforts to feed the hungry and do good unto one another, even thought the world is falsely accusing us of doing wrong and scandalizing our name. He knows that we are being patient and waiting on Him even when we can’t see our way through paying our light bill, or our house or car note, or even making a way to put food on our tables. He knows that we are being faithful to him when we are down and out on our sick bed, but we still hold on believing that God can pull us through. Oh I wish I had some help up in here.
God knows all of our works, he knows all of our deeds, he knows just how good we’ve been, and how faithful we’ve been in serving him. But even as He knows all of the good, He equally knows our wrongdoings and our flaws. And just like He knows ours, He knew those of the church at Ephesus. Those things that just kept them from getting closer to Him. Oh can’t you hear Jesus saying despite all of your good, despite how much you’ve tried to do my works, nevertheless, I still have a problem with you because you don’t love Me or one another like you used to love me. You need to just turn around and look at yourself and you should be able to see for yourself just how far you’ve fallen from your first love.
You see God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost should be our first love. The very first commandment says that “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” IN other words, we ought to be raising God above that Sunday afternoon football game. We should raise Him above that dress sale down at Dillard’s. We should raise Him above that prosperous job, or nice house, or luxurious automobile, or all of the gold and diamonds on our neck, hands, and ears. We should put him above all of the earthly mess that keeps us from getting closer to him and can’t do anything for us anyhow. Do I have a witness in this place?
And what I like about Jesus is that even after He’s chastised you for your wrongdoings, He will still provide you with a way to get right with God. Can I get a witness?
For I hear him in the 5th verse of our text, giving us a three step solution that will help us to revive our first love. Jesus tells us that we must “Remember therefore from whence thou are fallen, and repent, and do the first works. In other words we must Remember, Repent, and Redo.
The first thing that most of us need to remember is Who Jesus Is. We need to look back over the years to when we first accepted Christ in our lives. See it was back then that He was the object of our affections. It was back then that He was the bright and the morning star in our eyes. It was back then that we loved Him even more than we loved our own selves. We have to remember the sacrifice that He made for us by suffering the abuse and torture up on Calvary’s cross.
And once your remember who Jesus is then you need to remember who you are. And in case you still don’t know, I need to let you know that you are a child of the King. You are crucified and resurrected in the blood of Jesus Christ. You are no longer a slave to the devil. And you need to stop acting like one. I get so sick and tired of hearing people complain about the same old things day in and day out. I get tired of hearing so-called Christians cussing people out and then in the next breath calling themselves a child of the King. Well baby if you are a child of the King, then you need to start acting like one. You need to remember who you are.
And lastly we must remember why we’re on this battlefield. We must remember that we have a heavenly reward waiting on us. Oh can’t you hear Jesus say that in my father’s house there are many mansions. And I’m going to prepare a place for you. And when I go there and prepare a place, then I’m coming back here to earth to take you there with me. Oh can’t you hear him? Can’t you hear Jesus tell a thief, even while He was hanging on Calvary’s cross, that today you will be with me in paradise. Oh can’t you hear the songwriting saying this world is not my home, but I’m just passing by. We have to remember that we are just passing through this place to get to a greater reward. Can I get a witness?
The second step in this process is to Repent. Repentance is an important step in the process. You see it is through repentance that we restore and strengthen our intimacy with Christ. Repentance means that we are willing to change our thoughts and our actions. Your spirit, your family or even your friends may point out problem spots in your life where you need to come into repentance. And then it becomes our responsibility to confess our sins to the Lord in hopes of restoring our Christian walk of life. And oh brother if you don’t.
God has a way of chastising us that makes us turn back to Him. He has a way of withdrawing His loving arms of protection from around us, and leaving us naked to the world, and after all of the whippings and battle scars that we get without Him, we have no choice but to turn to Him. But you will not recognize your need to purify your heart and turn back to Him, unless you truly Love him. He must be your first love.
The last thing that we must do in this process is to REDO. We must begin to think with a new mind. We must get back to being the new creature that first accepted Jesus Christ. We must redo ourselves until the old man is once again shed off, and the new man comes shining through. We must REDO our thoughts so that we are no longer thinking like the world, but instead, we are thinking like true saints of God. Can I get a witness?
We need to stop thinking like the Devil thinks and start thinking like Jesus thinks. And my brother and sisters, I am reminding that Jesus thought a whole lot about the Kingdom of God. And when you love someone, that person’s interests are supposed to become our own. Am I right about it?
You see Jesus never forgot that His treasures were laid up in heaven. Am I right about it? Jesus never forgot that God was the master of his fate, and the captain of His soul. And right now my brothers and sister, we need to REDO our way of thinking. We need to REDO how we care for our church. To many of us, say that we love the Lord, but we don’t pay our tithes and our offerings like the word tells us to do. Have I got a witness? To many of us say we love our Pastor, but we only love Him when he’s tickling our ears. Am I right about it?
But I stopped by to tell you tonight, that you need to REDO your way of thinking and get your thinking back on the things of God. Because when your thinking is fixed on God, then it becomes easy to keep in mind that Jesus came down on this earth, through 42 generations. He walked this earth just like you and I. He was the Word and walked among man, but the World knew Him not. Am I right about it?
They despised him, the beat him, they spit on him, they crucified him. But the Bible tells me, that early on the third day morning, JESUS got up, out of a borrowed tomb with all power in his hands.
Don’t you know that it was LOVE, that brought Him down in the first place. It was LOVE that let Him lay down His life and die. It was LOVE, that took Him back from the hands of death. And it’s because of LOVE that he’s coming back again. But don’t fool yourself this evening, if you haven’t gotten back, to your first LOVE, your first LOVE, may not get back with you.
Have you tried HIM? Won’t He make a way for you?
