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.
Introduction
The book of Revelation is a book that people love to study because it contains truths about the end times and the coming days. Let me give you a few thoughts, by way of introduction, about this book of the Revelation. All throughout this book, you will find indications that what John was going to see were divided into three parts. That which was, that is the past. That which is, that is the present time. That which is to come, that is the things of the future. All through out this book, you find reference to these three things. I believe that this is a natural division of this book. In chapter one, you have that which was. It is all about who Jesus was in the past. Chapters two and three we have the present time. Then from chapter four through the end of the book you have that which is to come.
One thing stands firm throughout this book. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is not just about what was, what is, and what is to come. This is about who Jesus was in the past, who He is now in the present, and who He will be in the future. Jesus Christ is portrayed as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords throughout all ages. He has always been God. He has always been the one who we are to look to.
As we come to chapter two, we want to begin our study in these seven churches. These churches are representative churches. These were churches in Asia. If you follow the order of these letters written to these churches, you would find that in the northwest you have the city Ephesus. Then in a clockwise motion you would have in order these cities throughout Asia. It is possible that when John wrote this book, that these seven letters were one big letter which would have been passed from the first church to the next.
In our study of these churches we will use the same alliterated outline for each church. First, you will find a description of Christ. Next, you will find a commendation to the church. Then, in five of the seven churches, you will find a complaint against these five churches. Each letter will end with a challenge to the church, which contains words of instruction and a promise. We will look at these four divisions over the next seven weeks and hopefully apply them to ourselves.
May I remind you that these letters were written to churches not to the unsaved. They are written to those who have believed on Christ and professed faith in Him. I believe that in these seven churches there are things written that apply to us today. Perhaps these things even represent things in our lives as individuals. During this study, I ask you to come prayerfully and prepared to let this study speak to you and change you for the better.
The Christ of the Church
In verse one, we have the description of Jesus Christ. To find an explanation of these things look at chapter one, verse twenty.
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
The seven stars represent the angels of the churches. The word "angel" means "messenger. Now, this could have been an angelic, spiritual being as we normally think of an angel. Or, it could have been an actual messenger to the church or in the church. Each of the seven letters are addressed to the "angel of the church".
Anytime you see the word "star" it is representative of the angel of the church. The seven candlesticks are the seven churches. So, when you see a candlestick in this study, you will know that this is the church. Here is what I like, the candlestick is representative of the church because Christ said to the church "you are the light of the world." When he gave the commission to the church to go forth to proclaim the gospel of truth to the world the church became the light of the world. As an individual, you are to be the light of the world. What does a light do? It dispels the darkness. It tells the truth in an evil society. When Christ came into this world, He told the truth to a world that rejected the truth. When the church was born into this world it was born with the message of truth that is rejected by an evil society. Nevertheless, we are to be the light of the world.
In verse one, Christ is pictured as holding the seven stars (messengers of the church) in His right hand. Be reminded that whatever happens in the church, Christ sees it all and knows it all. That should be words of warning to us today. There is nothing that happens in His church that goes unnoticed. Therefore, we should be careful of what we do and how we live. We can hide it from individuals and groups of people. We cannot hide it from Christ.
Please notice that Christ is holding the messengers of the church in His right hand. This speaks of power. It speaks of control. It speaks of kingship and lordship. He is King of kings and Lord of lords.
In verse one, Christ is also pictured as walking in the midst of the seven churches. May I remind you that in Bible believing churches today Christ is there. Christ walks among the churches because it is His own church that He established on Mount Calvary with His own blood. He arose again the third day to give us life so that He could dwell with by His Holy Spirit. He walks among His church today. Christ is in this place today! We must not forget that. Many times we come to church and forget that Christ is here. We would be much more reverent. We would have a much better attitude ready to worship if we understood that Christ is here. Do you realize that when we gather together corporately to worship, we are on Holy Ground. Where Christ is there is Holy Ground. In His presence there is the reminder, "I am the Savior. I am Christ. I am the Lord."
The Commendation To The Church
In verse two, Jesus commends them for their works, labor and patience. He commends them for trying the false prophets and finding them to be false so that they would not be allowed in the church. In First John chapter four, verse one John said, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Satan, who can transform himself to look as a messenger of light, has false prophets who are invading the church for the purpose of destroying the church. As a church, we must be very careful to try these spirits. If their spirit does not strive with ours, they cannot be of God. Churches today have been split and lead astray because they were not patient enough to try the spirits.
It can be very dangerous to a church to let a false prophet in. This is why you have churches who call themselves "Christian" but are not. False prophets established them. Anytime you have a person who calls himself or herself a minister and speaks in contradiction to the Word of God, they are not truly of God. I know that there are times that I misspeak or misquote something. There are times that some of you dear people remind me of that. Thank God for that. We must be straight from the Word of God. We need the truth of God in this church and in our lives. If we have someone who comes to us and proclaims to be a prophet of God and we find him or her to be false, we should not be ashamed to kick him or her out and never invite them again. We need people of God. We need men and women who will stand on the truth of God’s word.
The Complaint About The Church
This church had all the works and patience. They had kept false prophets out. They looked to be the perfect church, but yet there was a complaint about the church. In verse four, Christ has a complaint because they had left their first love.
Let me give you some background to the city of Ephesus. It will help you to understand something about this complaint. Ephesus was considered to be the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It was an illustrious city in the district called Ionia. In the city at the harbor where you would enter into Ephesus. There was a temple built. It was the temple of Diana. The name "Diana" means "warden". The reason for this is that as you enter the city through the harbor, there was this great temple which was the warden of the city.
Now, this city of Ephesus also became a great manufacturing city as the result of the temple of Diana. They produced portable temples or shrines so that no matter where the people would go, they could carry the temple with them and worship at anytime in anyplace (Smith’s Bible Dictionary). In a city where idol worship to a god or goddess is taking place it will affect the church. Here’s how. Some of the people of the church in Ephesus probably became involved in the building of the small temples. This was work. It was something that they could do to provide for their families. The false doctrines, the false worship probably entered into their minds and hearts. As a result, they would have been drawn away from their first love. They had all the works and patience. They even tried the false prophets and found them to be liars and would not allow them to be in the church. The problem is that the false doctrine was still there by the fact that they left their first love. While He commends them for their work and patience, he has a complaint against them for leaving their first love.
Let me ask you a series of questions. They are simple questions with a "yes" or "no" answer. Answer them honestly. Let them penetrate to your heart.
Has there ever been a time in your life that you enjoyed reading and studying God’s word more than you do now?
Has there ever been a time in your life that you enjoyed coming to church fellowshipping and worshipping with others more than you do now?
Has there ever been a time in your life that you enjoyed getting involved in the ministries of the church than you do now?
These are very simple questions and answers. However, the answers that you gave to these questions will tell you where you stand in your relationship to Christ. That was the problem at the church in Ephesus. They went to the church, worked in the church, did what the church asked them to do, and they played church. They lost their love for Christ.
Have you ever heard anyone say, "I’ll do it if you can’t get anyone else to do it"? That is not the reason to do it! The reason to do it is because we have a love for Christ in our hearts. That love motivates us to get involved in the fellowship and work of the church to do what God has called us to do. I am afraid that there are people in church today all over the world. They sing, they pray, they listen, and yet when they leave they still do not have a love for Christ in their hearts.
Listen, I do not do what I do just because God call me to do it. That is one of the main reasons, but it is not the only reason. I do what I do because I love Christ. Sometimes, that love that I have for Christ calls me to go and do things that I do not want to do. It is depressing to go to the nursing home month after month and see those people laying and sitting there that are sick. Knowing that you are helpless to help them except to give them a smile and some good news from God. The reason we do that is because we love Christ. Not because we love to sing, not because I love to speak, but because we love Christ.
I am going to be very open and honest with you. It would be very easy to want to get away for two or three weekends in a row. But because I have a love for Christ and I understand my responsibilities in this church, I am here week in and week out. It is not just because God called me. It is because of my love for Christ. I am reminded of First John chapter four and verse nineteen, "We love him, because he first loved us." If you are in the position of the people of Ephesus having lost your first love. There is nothing greater that you could do than to get alone with God and His word to remind yourself of the story of your sinfulness. That Christ came into this world to die for you on the cross because of His love for you. He gave His life on the cross, went to the depths of hell for you, and was resurrected to give you new life. When you remind yourself of that great, gracious love you cannot help but to have some emotion that rises up on the inside that says, "I love you Lord." The people of Ephesus had all the right actions but they had left their first love behind. If you answered "yes" to those questions, you too have probably left the love of Christ behind.
The Challenge To The Church
In verse 5, the church at Ephesus was challenged to remember the place from where you came from. Remember that you are a sinner saved by grace because of His love being poured out on Mount Calvary. Remember the love that you had for Christ when you came to Him. "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works." The work itself probably had not changed that much. They were still doing the same work. However, the attitude behind the work was different. If they were to repent and go back to their first works there would be an attitude change. There would be a difference in the work because they would want to do the work! Genuine repentance only comes when we allow the love of Christ to penetrate our hearts. When His loves penetrates us once again it motivates us to do what He has called us to do.
Have you ever had your parents say, or perhaps you have said it to your kids, "Now kids you better do this,…..or else"? I hated to hear that from my parents. The problem is that I never knew what the "or else" was. I think that mom and dad always left themselves open to change the degree of the punishment dependent upon how severely I disobeyed. Christ standing in the position of a parent looking at the people of the church at Ephesus said, " 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." What Christ is saying is, "Look folks, if you are not going to have a love for me in the work that you are doing, you are useless to me." Let me ask you a question, why are so many churches dying today? I believe that it is because their witness, their candlestick has been take from them. They were doing the wok just because it had to be done, not because of their love for Christ.
These are words of warning to this church today, if we are doing the work just because it has to be done, we are in danger of having the effectiveness of our witness taken away from us. If this happens our church will die! That is not a word of warning from me, it is a word of warning from Christ straight from the Bible.
At the end of verse five there is a small phrase of three words with great meaning, "…except thou repent." Unless we repent, we are in danger of losing the power of our witness. If we do repent, that power will be restored to our witness. We will once again see souls saved. We will see backslidden Christians reclaimed for the glory of Christ. We will have a house full of people who are here because they want to be here!
In verse six, the Lord once again reminds them of His commendation to them. That is that when they tried the Nicolaitans and could not bear them. I believe that Christ points to this to remind them that they were doing good work but they still needed to repent and return to their first love.
In verse seven the challenge continues, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches". The ear that is spoken of here may refer to your physical ear because you are sitting under the sound of my preaching and hearing the word of God. However, I believe that perhaps this ear that is spoken of is the ear of spiritual discernment. That is when you read the Bible for yourself, hear it taught, or spoken of you will be able to discern what the Lord is saying to you. When this happens we are to heed and obey His word.
Please note here that in verse seven, the word "churches" is plural. This is not a letter to just one church. It is a letter that can be received by any church including the Reynoldsburg Free Will Baptist Church. Therefore, I say to you "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches". Do not look at this as a crafty, good, excellent message. Do not look at it as a bad message if it is bad. Look at this message as a message to you from Christ!
The words of promise in this challenge is that those who overcome will be given to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Let me remind you of just a couple of things. In the Garden of Eden, there are two specific trees mentioned in the garden. When God gave His instructions to Adam and Eve, he told them that they could eat of any of the trees except the one which contained the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. When satan convinced them that they could eat this fruit, they sinned and all of the human race is polluted with sin.
If you were to read the account of the removal of Adam and Eve from the garden, you find that the reason that they were removed was so that they would not eat the fruit from the tree of life. If they were to eat this fruit, the sin that now reigns in the human race would have become an eternal sin with no end. So God placed them on the outside of the garden so that sin could have an end.
Look at this promise, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." When we have overcome the sin of this world. When we have overcome the adversity of this world. When we have overcome by the blood of Lamb we will then once again be able to eat of the tree of life. At that point will have received our new bodies that will be free from sin and worthy of living forever. We cannot obtain that promise if we do not overcome.
If we have left our first love, we must repent or else He will come and remove the power and effectiveness of our witness. We must overcome by the blood of the Lamb through repentance. Have you lost your first love? Would you be willing today to repent and return to your first love, Jesus Christ?
