Week 4
“A Message To The Loveless Church”
Date: June 19, 2002
Place: Allendale Baptist Church
Text: Revelation 2: 1-7
Introduction
A boy came home from church one Sunday evening got ready for bed and said this prayer; “God we had a wonderful day in church today… wish you could have been there.”
Now we come to the section of Revelation on the “church” which is also referred to in the New Testament as “the Body of Christ”. From chapter 1 to chapter 3 the church is mentioned some 19 times, from chapter 4-20 the church is not mentioned.
What has happened to the church? She is not in the world; she has been taken out of the world.
* Now we will begin to study the seven letters, given by God to Jesus to the angel to John to give to the church.
These seven letters have a 3-fold interpretation & application.
1. Contemporary – they have a direct message to the local church
2. Composite – they have a message that can be applied to all churches.
3. Chronological- they are a panoramic history of the church from Pentecost to the Rapture.
Verse 1
“To the angel of the church of Ephesus”
Each of the seven letters is addressed to the angel of the church.
This is the Greek word angelos meaning messenger
This we believe to be referring to the Pastor of the church.
God always sends His message to His church through His messenger, the Pastor. God never goes around nor does He pass by the pastor.
The pastor- God’s anointed, God’s appointed man.
Read the job description of the pastor from the church constitution:
Now let me sum up what the says according to God’s Word
To Pastor is to;
Evangelize – the lost
Equip – the saints
Exalt – the Lord Jesus Christ
The church- comes from 2 words: ek-meaning out of & kaleo- meaning a calling.
This is where we get the word Ekklesia- meaning “called out from the world.”
We are called out from the world to give the message of salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It also means “assembly”. This is where one of the denominations arrived at their name.
We are an assembly of God
Now about the church in Ephesus
1. Ephesus was called the “vanity fair” of the ancient world.
2. Ephesus was an inland city 3 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. 4 great trade routes went through Ephesus making it known as the gateway to Asia.
3. It was the center of worship with the temple of Diana, which was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. 425 ft long; 225 ft wide; 100 marble pillars 56 ft High. Diana was the goddess of fertility; some say it was a house of prostitution.
4. The city of Ephesus was also known for the Artimisian games, athletes from all over the world would travel to Ephesus to compete in these sporting events, much like today’s Olympics.
5. The church in Ephesus was founded in 52 A.D by the apostle Paul. At the time of the writing of Revelation the church was over 40 years old.
6. The church of Ephesus had 4 pastors until this time: Paul, for some 3 years, Timothy, who had been having some problems with the deacons & the WMU (not WOM) and Paul told him to take a little wine for his stomach; Tychicus, and then the Apostle John.
In chapter 1 John sees Jesus in the midst of the lampstands, or in the midst of the churches.
In chapter 2 John sees Jesus walking in midst or walking in the midst of the churches. He is on an inspection.
(When I was working for Coca- Cola and Dr Pepper, we would prepare for months knowing when the owners & CEO’s & stockholders were coming in for a tour of the facilities & stores.
Verse 2 The Commendation
“I know your works”
They were a working church. They were busy about the Lord’s work. They were busy serving God
“ I know your labor”
There is a difference between work & labor
Work is the word ergon which means a task or duty
Labor is the word kopos and has the idea of working at a cost, or toil resulting in weariness.
Someone has said the work they did had cost them a price; ridicule, persecution.
“I know your patience”
This is the word hupomone (high-po-mo-nay), which means load-bearing capacity.
He was implying the church had been through a lot and had stuck with it.
“You cannot bear those who are evil.”
Not just those who are outside the church, those worshipping the false gods.
But those that said they were from the church
Jesus said you have tested them and have found them out to be liars.
For some 40 plus years the church at Ephesus had remained faithful to the Word of God.
Verse 3
This sums up the commendation
Verse 4 The Condemnation
“ I have found this against you”
It is no small thing when God says I have this against you.
“You have left your first love”
To be a Christian is to love the Lord Jesus.
The Ephesians’ passion & fervor for Christ had become cold & methodical.
They Christians at Ephesus had held fast to sound doctrine; they had great moral purity; and they had disciplined service.
Doctrinal & moral purity; undiminished zeal for the truth; and disciplined service can be of no substitute for the love of Christ.
People can do a lot of good things, church things but without love it doesn’t mean a thing.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
THIS AMAZES ME THAT THE EARLY CHURCH DID NOT LOSE SIGHT OF SOUND DOCTRINE BUT THEY HAD NOT STOPPED LOVING GOD, BUT DIDN’T LOVE GOD THE WAY THEY ONCE LOVED HIM
Verse 5 The Resolution
“REMEMBER” - from where you come; a sinner
“REPENT” – turn away from your sin
“RETURN” – to your first love
“Or else I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
* this is where some of our churches are today; removed from where God wants them; removed from where God once placed them; out of the fellowship & the presence of God has left them.
Verse 6
Nicolas means “one who conquers the people.”
Some scholars say that the Nicolaitans were a priestly group beginning to take shape in the church and attempting to rule over the people.
Another theory is that there was a man named Nicolas of Antioch, who was called to be a deacon in Acts chapter 6 along with Stephen, who apostatized, turned away from the true doctrine, and formed a Gnostic cult which taught that a person must indulge in sin in order to understand it
A little later on we will see that the church in Pergamos tolerated this teaching.
Verse 7
“He that has an ear, let him hear.”
They are encouraged to listen to “what the Spirit says to the churches”
Then a promise is held out to the “overcomer”. An overcomer in the NT is one who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (1 John 5:5), or in other words a true believer.
1 John 5:4-5 says; “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world- our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
His faith enables him to overcome the world with all its temptation.
Perhaps in each of the letters the word has an additional thought, connected with the condition in that particular church. An overcomer in Ephesus is one who shows the genuineness of his faith by repenting when he has turned from his firs love.
The Promise
“Will eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
This does not imply that overcoming saves them, but that their overcoming proves the reality of their conversion experience.
The only way one is saved is by grace through faith in Christ.
We can only overcome through the blood of the Lamb
The tree of life
Remember that man was forbidden to eat from the tree of life after the fall in Genesis 3:22-24.
Dr J Vernon McGee says; “In heaven the no trespassing sign will be taken down, & all believers will have the privilege of eating from the tree of life. I don’t know what kind of fruit it has, but I believe it will enable us to really live it up. Most of us don’t know much about living yet. We have sort of a vegetable existence down here, but we will have a good fruit existence up there – we are going to live as we have never lived before.”
Someone has translated the “paradise of God” which refers to heaven as the garden of God.
