Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7
Title: “A Lasting Impression”
Introduction: When someone is deeply in love with each other I don’t think there’s anything that can hurt someone as much as when their wife or husband leaves them for someone else. But this is exactly what the church of Ephesus had done to the Lord. For some reason (s) the church had allowed something else to occupy their interest. They had allowed their love for the Lord to become SIDETRACKED! Their love had grown cold for the ONE that had forgiven them of their sins. Their passion for the Lord had been transferred to something else.
There are problems when a marriage partner develops another “love” that takes the place of the original partner.
Sometimes that “love” is wealth, fame, alcohol, drugs, or something else.
It is also possible to leave a first love in a SPIRITUAL sense. This is what the church in Ephesus did to our Lord Jesus Christ. We must be careful because we can leave our love for the Lord Jesus just as easily.
The seven churches addressed in chapters 2 and 3 were actual churches of John’s day. But they also represent types and conditions of churches in all generations. These seven conditions can be present in our lives as Christians to some degree.
COMMENDATION – Vss. 2,3,6.
(v. 2) The Lord knows the work of each church. This church was hard working, diligent church. They hated the activities of evil workers and false apostles.
(v. 3) Life wasn’t easy for the Ephesian Christians, but the people labored faithfully during times of opposition and they did not faint!
(v. 6) There was a group of false teachers called the Nicolaitans whose deeds the Lord hated. The Ephesisans hated these deeds as well.
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CONDEMNATION – Vs. 4
They had left their FIRST LOVE! They were still BUSY, but no longer loved the Lord the way they once did.
Do you know what you call a person who cheats on his wife! He is called an ADULTERER.
Our Lord hates spiritual adultery! James 4:4 “You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God.” (NLT)
How about us? Do we love anything or anyone more than we love Christ? Luke 14:26-27 “"If you want to be my follower you must love me more than your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, more than your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.And you cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me.”
COUNSEL – Vs. 5
They were to remember from where they had fallen.
They were to repent.
They were to go back to doing their first works.
They were to beware lest their candlestick (testimony) be removed.
CHALLENGE – Vs. 7
We are to hear what our Lord is saying.
If we heed, there is reward!
The church at Ephesus had been a HEALTHY church. It had enjoyed many successes and some failures. This church had been young and vibrant. (Page 3)
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But the church at Ephesus had stopped TRUSTING God.
They had stopped remembering where they CAME FROM.
They had developed a CAUSUAL attitude concerning sin.
They stopped STRENGTHENING themselves in Spiritual things.
They had worked hard. They had refused to tolerate sin. They had endured hardships and not grown weary. – But they had LEFT THEIR FIRST LOVE!
I. FIRST LOVE.
a. When Jesus uses the words, “first love” here, He isn’t speaking of the immature love we experience when we’re first saved. Rather, He’s talking about exclusive love. He’s saying, “I once occupied first place in your heart. But now you’ve given first place of your love for Me to someone else. You’ve allowed other things to take my place!
b. In a physical sense every married person is to have a first love! That first love is to be the husband or wife that God has provided.
c. Think about it: If you love someone exclusively above all others, you’ll make that person feel he’s the most important being on earth. Everything else will pale in comparison.
d. Isn’t this how you first loved your spouse, when you were courting?
e. If she called on the phone while you were busy doing something, you dropped everything just talk to her.
f. And if anyone intruded on your time alone together, you resented it!
g. Your one desire was to develop the love between you. Everything else took second place.
h. Think back to what you were like when you first got saved: You were excited that Jesus had come to live in your heart.
You couldn’t wait for church on Sunday, just to tell people how much you loved Jesus.
You spent all your free time digging into the Word, learning about His love for you.
You never considered PRAYER a burden; because talking to God meant everything to you. (Page 3)
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You loved the Lord more than your own life.
But now you have fallen away from all that. The Lord gets so little of your time, so little of your attention. You’ve grown cold toward the Lord. Something else has your heart!
II. DANGER SIGN OF LOSING YOUR FIRST LOVE.
a. Have you lost your first love?
b. Your first love is dying if: You SPEND MORE TIME on things of this world and LESS time in His Presence.
c. Your love for Christ is dying if: You have GIVEN in to a BESETTING SIN.
d. You can measure your love for Christ by: How DEEPLY you’re AFFECTED by anything that ROBS you of QUALITY time alone with the Lord.
e. Many Christians today go for weeks, even months, without spending quality time with Jesus. He stays on the backburner at all times. They may testify, “I love Jesus with all my heart” – but how can this be true, when they neglect Him for days on end?
f. How do you think Jesus feels when He spreads the table, anxiously awaits our company, and yet we never show up?
g. The Bible calls us His BRIDE, His beloved, His one great love; it says we were created for fellowship with Him.
h. So, what kind of REJECTION must He feel when we continually put others before Him?
III. REPENT OR ELSE!
a. To REPENT means to CHANGE!
b. Of all the sins Jesus points out in these seven churches – Adultery, Covetousness, Lukewarmness, False Teachings, Jezebels in authority, Dead Worship, Spiritual Blindness – the first sin He names is the one that grieves Him most: a loss of AFFECTION for Him.
c. Our God is a jealous lover – He won’t allow anything to come before our love for Him.
d. This WARNING in Revelation is not just for the time of the Bible’s writing, but it is for us today!
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e. Jesus attaches a serious warning to verse 5: “. . . 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” (remove your lampstand. I.e., remove the usefulness of that local church.)
f. Jesus is saying to us: “If you claim to have the fire of God, and yet I am no longer the delight of your heart – I will take away every bit of light you have! No matter what good works you do for Me, you will no longer be my witness.
g. I simply won’t recognize anything you do – because you’ve lost your love for Me.
CONCLUSION: You can have good things in the church and not love Jesus as you should.
“You have forsaken your first love” – Can these words be applied to our church?
A HEALTHY church is open to new teaching – speaks the Word of God with boldness – changes their methods to reach more people.
Do you love God? How much do you love God?
We couldn’t know love without God – “God is love.”
Have you ever loved anyone? Have you ever told anyone that you love them? Have you ever told God you love Him? Have you ever told you Dad you love him? Have you ever told your Mom you love her? Do you tell your children you love them?
Do you yearn to spend time with the Lord in prayer and in the study of His Word?
Would you defend your wife or children if someone mistreated them? Why is it that we allow the Lord to be treated the way the world treats Him and we do nothing?
Are you faithful in your marriage? Do you want and expect your wife or husband to be faithful? How do think God feels about our faithfulness to Him?
www.jhcarver@excite.com
