This morning marks the start of a series of seven sermons in which we will examine the seven churches of Asia Minor, which are found in the book of Revelation. As Adventists, I believe that we have a solid grasp of the prophetic interpretations of the messages of Daniel and Revelation, but I also believe that in focusing strictly on the prophetic, we often miss the devotional message that God intends for us to glean. For you see, “Revelation” does not just mean that God wants to reveal to us only what the meanings of these churches are as they pertain to history or the end of time; it also means that God wants to reveal what the message to the churches means for us today – even this morning. To emphasise this point, I invite you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 1, and look with me at verse 19…. Here, John is told by God to write about not only the things which are to come, but also the things which are right now. And so, while we are to have a correct prophetic interpretation of the meaning of the churches in revelation, we must not neglect to understand what the messages mean to us today.
With this goal in mind, let us now pay our first visit, to the church of Ephesus. Revelation chapter 2, verse 1….
Now, there are a couple of things that we need to understand before we move on. The first concerns to whom the message was written. We just read that this message was written to the “angel” of the church. And whereas we often associate angels with supernatural beings with wings, this is not the type of angel the letter is referring to. You see, the word translated as “angel” comes from the Greek word which has the primary meaning of “messenger,” and actually carries no ideas of supernatural beings at all. And so the letters to the churches were, in reality, written to human messengers – that is, to the pastors of the churches. The letters to the seven churches are meant to be pastoral messages. And a pastoral message, as we shall see, is usually twofold in its presentation: on the one hand, a pastoral message offers commendation and encouragement, and on the other hand, it rebukes, calls to repentance and pronounces warnings of judgment.
The other things we need to notice are the seven golden candlesticks, and the One who walks in their midst. First of all, what do the candlesticks represent? Revelation 1, verse 20 gives us the answer: the seven golden candlesticks are the what? – the seven churches. And who is the One walking in their midst? Look with me at Revelation 1, and verse 13. Who is it? – the Son of man. It could be none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Notice how He is described in verses 17 and 18…. And so the picture we see here is one of Jesus walking among the seven candlesticks, which are the seven churches – this is a picture of Jesus working among His people, His church. He is not standing aloof from the church, rebuking her and then allowing her to flounder along unaided and with no sense of hope, no. Instead, we see Him in her midst, so that, though He must rebuke her, yet He is right there to help her along the way. The greatest courage we can ever take, friends, is that no matter what the ups and downs we face as Christians may be, we can have the full assurance that Jesus walks beside us along the way. Do you have that assurance this morning? Or do you face life’s burdens and obstacles with no sense of help? Are you in despair, knowing your miserable condition, but without the hope of deliverance? There is help today – and we will find it this morning. Do you want it? Do you want Jesus to walk through this life at your side, and lead you to life everlasting? The message to the church of Ephesus gives us the key to obtaining that certainty.
This is what God’s letter had to say to the church of Ephesus, in Revelation 2, starting at verse 2 (read vv. 2-7)….
The letter starts off on a positive note. Jesus says to the Ephesian believers: “I know all about you, and your fervent and untiring work in the face of wickedness, apostasy and false apostles.” This was a diligent church, and with good reason. Turn with me for a moment to Acts chapter 19, where we read about just what the church in Ephesus was up against. Acts chapter 19, and reading verses 24 on (read vv. 24-34)…. In short, Christianity was not a welcome faith practice in Ephesus, because it flew in the face of the state religion and threatened the local economy. Nevertheless, we read in verses 17-20 that the Ephesian church won many converts to the Lord Jesus Christ – in spite of the fierce and sometimes violent opposition.
Could the same thing be said of us today, church? Are we working tirelessly for the salvation of souls in this corrupt and apostate world? Do we stand boldly for the sake of Jesus in the face of opposition and persecution? Or do we feel too overwhelmed at the obstacles in our paths? The Ephesian church teaches us that there is no excuse for inactivity – no reason which is acceptable for failing to reach out to the lost and impart to them the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ. To His church Jesus has given the promise, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”; and yet in the face of even minor opposition, many Christians give up. But friends, Jesus said we could stare hell itself in the face, and still build His church victoriously. Do you believe it this morning? We can believe it. The church in Ephesus believed it, and they did something with it. And as a result, in spite of all of the surrounding wickedness, in spite of the onslaught of the pagans, the church flourished. This church can flourish too, when we take hold of the mighty hand of Jesus, and go out fearlessly and tirelessly sharing the Gospel with others.
The church of Ephesus was also commended because they not only resisted the wicked influences from without, but they were also conscientiously scrutinising and firmly withstanding the corrupt influences that were trying to creep into the church. Notice Revelation 2, verse 6…. The Nicolaitans were a sect of Christianity that practiced what was later known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism is the belief that there is a separation between the body and the spirit; that the body, and indeed anything physical and material, is inherently corrupt and evil, while the spirit is inherently pure, good, and divine. Moreover, because of a distorted view on grace, the Nicolaitans and those like them came to disregard completely the law of God, and therefore fell into gross immorality. The Ephesian church and stood firm against such corrupt teachings, and faithfully upheld the Word of God as the standard of faith and practice.
Yet, while deeply spiritual and fervently committed to upholding truth and spreading the gospel, the Ephesian church is on dangerous ground. We read these words of warning starting at verse 4…. What was the problem in Ephesus? They had lost their first love. And notice in verse 5 the danger that this brought: there was the danger that God would remove the candlestick from its place; that is, their salvation would be compromised and lost. Friends, make no mistake about it: it doesn’t matter what you are doing, or what evil you are resisting, or what false doctrine you’re rejecting, or how many souls you are bringing into the kingdom; if your love relationship with Jesus is not there, then you stand to be condemned. Doctrinal truth and evangelistic fervour do not save you; it is a relationship with Jesus that saves you. Any substitution, no matter how spiritual, no matter how zealously embraced, is woefully inadequate.
Now, we’re going to come back to what it means to “lose your first love” in just a moment. First, let’s take a look at what must be done to regain that first love. The first step is to “remember from where you are fallen” – to remember the love experienced at the beginning of our walk with Christ. You know, I read somewhere recently that the opposite of love is not hate; it’s apathy. And what has happened to the church in Ephesus is not that they have come to hate God – in fact, it’s quite the opposite; they’re just as fervent in their zeal for Him as ever. The problem is that their zeal is now borne out of habit – they don’t think about what they’re doing anymore. Notice how God described the children of Israel when they fell into this condition. Isaiah 29:13, turn with me there please (read vv. 13&14)….
I want you to answer a question, but you don’t have to answer out loud: Did you bring your heart with you to church this morning? How many of you left it on the dresser at home? How many of you don’t remember where you left it, or how long ago you lost it? You know, it’s sad that for many of us, we come to church, we sing the songs and we pray the prayers – our mouths are forming the words, but what is lacking is the emotional connection. What’s worse is that oftentimes we become so afraid of the danger of fanaticism that we absolutely forbid any emotional expression at all, don’t we? Friends, therein lies the subtle yet severe danger of habit: you can do all the right things and say all the right words, but have no connection to the heart whatsoever. And once the heart is disengaged, the spiritual life dies. And so, the call from the prophetic and pastoral letter to Ephesus, and to us, is this: Stop taking your relationship with God for granted; stop just going through the motions.
The second part of this message is to “repent”. To repent means to recognise the wrong committed, and to change your ways because of that recognition. In other words, God doesn’t just want us to say, “Wow, I’ve put my spiritual life on cruise control… well what do you know… hmm, that’s too bad… oh well….” No, He wants us to take back control of our relationship with Him. “Don’t just think about having a relationship with me” He says. “Have a relationship with me.” Re-engage your heart; call on God to give meaning back to your religious experience; to replace the mundane with the amazing, the routine with the awe-inspiring. Friends, this is a prayer God will never turn down. And the longer you wait to pray that prayer, the more disengaged you become, and the harder it is to turn back.
This brings us to the third step: “Returning to the first works.” This is a call to action. It’s true: there is a danger in allowing our emotional side to have free-reign in our spiritual lives. It can, and in some cases it does, lead to a complete disregard for a consistent Christian experience. God in His wisdom knows that sometimes we humans can let momentary emotional responses substitute for enduring commitment. And so He calls us to make a lasting commitment to Him – one that is renewed daily. God doesn’t want us falling back into a state of apathy; He doesn’t want us to yo-yo in our Christian walk – from emotional fanaticism to apathetic lip service and back again. Instead, He wants of life of balance and constancy.
And so it is clear that in order to regain our lost love, we must first remember the love experience we had with Jesus, and recognise when we are going through the motions with no emotional connection. Then we must call out to God to re-engage our hearts – to re-establish meaning in our religious experience, and then renew that meaning on a daily basis as a source for lasting commitment. That’s how we get it back. But there is still the question of how we lost it in the first place. How did we get to that state of apathy? I found an illustration that I believe explains it very well.
A couple was driving home on their 25th wedding anniversary after a celebration at a fine restaurant. The wife was sitting over against the door on the passenger side. Her husband was behind the wheel. And she began to lament: “Oh, honey, remember when we were so close? I mean, I remember when we first got married. We sat so close that you could hardly shift the gears. And look at us now.” The husband responded with a shrug, “Well, I never moved…”
That’s the way it is with our relationship with Jesus:
We say: “Lord, I remember when we used to be close.”
Jesus says: “I never moved.”
We say: “I remember when You and I were on speaking terms.”
Jesus says: “I never moved.”
We say: “I remember when I used to talk to You in very private moments and You meant something to me.”
Jesus says: “I never moved! I never went anywhere when you chose to distance yourself from Me. You’re still important to Me.”
Friends, Jesus has never moved. As we discovered at the beginning of our study today, He is right there in the midst of His church – right there alongside His people. He doesn’t go anywhere. So what happened? Somewhere along the way, we forgot He was there.
I would propose to you this morning, church, that losing our first love has nothing to do with forgetting how much we love God; instead, it has everything to do with forgetting how much God loves us. Did you catch that? I’m going to say it once again. We lose our first love not because we forget to love God, but because we forget how much God loves us.
You know, my wife shared something with me the other night, and it struck a chord in me. See, every night when we put our boys down, we always sing “Jesus loves me” with them. And now our oldest son has started singing along, so that’s just so precious. But you know, every night we sing to them, “Yes, Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so.” And for years we’ll sing that song to them. But somewhere along the way, Angela was saying, we stop singing that song; and it seems that as soon as we do, we also stop remembering that Jesus loves us. Now, I know we all know that Jesus loves us, in the John 3:16 way. But as Angela and I were talking, what struck her was that as adults, we make things so complicated. Somewhere between Cradle Roll and the adult Sabbath School, we lose sight of the simplicity of God’s love for us, and we start to add to the message. Somewhere along the way, we lose our first love; not because we forget to love God, but because we forget the simple message, “Jesus Loves Me.”
I don’t know what brought you here this morning. I don’t know the condition of your heart, or if you even have it with you, or if it’s even engaged. But what I do know is this: that you can leave here today with that love restored. Do you want it?
(Appeal)
End with Hymn “Jesus Loves Me”
