The Revelation to Ephesus - Everything but the One Thing.
How often do you wait for the mail-man to come - expecting a message, a parcel, a letter. It maybe the day that your final results are in the mail - your OP score which will determine your future. It may be that you are expecting a letter from your girlfriend, boyfriend, hustband, wife, etc. They maybe travelling and you are hanging out for their next postcard and so you wait patiently ... you wait and wait and wait.... patiently of course. As time ticks by, no postman comes - or maybe you missed him. That was it he came when you took a pit stop or grabbed something to eat - so you dart out to the postbox just to check - Nothing. The disappointment - what can you do? well nothing except wait and wait you do. The hours go by so it seems until finally you hear something that sounds like the little motorbike the postie rides.
It is strange that they no longer blow the whistle - you know how they used to do that - to let you know when they had come. I’ve a theory about that one - it involves dogs - you can imagine the site of a postie blowing the whistle and then dropping the clutch on his little bike as he sees racing around the cornor of the house runs this dog - teeth bared, jaws open, ears pulled back in the air - that whistle is a dog magnet - one of the best ever invented.
Well back to that long awaited letter. Once it has been delivered, you race to the letter box again - and you grab the mail and start sorting through it - a Big W catalogue, a bill, a flyer advertising kitty litter and there it is - the letter. It may not look fancy, but it is the words inside that are important - we open it and read it right there at the letterbox. What do the neighbours think when they see you go all gooey and glassey eyed? Have you ever thought about that one? No I didn’t thing so - you’ve got no shame at all! You take it inside and you read it again and then again before bed time and then its waiting for you when you get up the next morning - what a way to start the day.
What was important about that letter? Was it the paper it was written on? Probably not unless it was a note written on a $100 bill. Was it the nice postman/woman who delivered it on time? Undoubtably - not. What was it? It was the person writing it and this is all you care about - their words which were meant just for you.
In the last book of the Bible - Revelation, there are recorded some letters written to some people. I am not sure that they sat by their letter boxes waiting for them or whether they even knew they were coming, but when they did, they should have been treasured just like your letter because of who it was written by ...
If you’ve got your bible, lets turn to Revelation Chapter 1 and read from Verse 1. We are not going to cover all the letters tonight - I’ll cover them in the next months as I have opportunity. We’ll only cover the first one tonight - It was addressed to Ephesus.
Before launching into the letter, let’s quickly get some background - This is what you might call the briefing before the mission.
Let’s read from Verse 1.
To help us, lets answer some questions...
Whose revelation was it ? Vs 1 : Revelation given to Jesus Christ from God
For What Purpose?
1) To show his servants what is to come.
2) Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it.
Who Wrote it, Where and When?
1) John the servant of God (cs 1, 4, 9). There is not much debate that this was the Apostle John.
2) Where : on the Island of Patmos. John had been banished to the Island of Patmos and was likely in a labour camp working the mines because of his faith. Victorinus, the first commentator on the Book of Revelation, stated that John worked as a prisoner in the mines on this small island. When the Emperor Domitian died in A.D. 96, his successor Nerva let John return to Ephesus.
3) written therefore during a period of intense persecution of Christians - likely during the reign of Domitian (90-95AD).
The First vision & The Command to write
We see John having a vision. He was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and all of a sudden, his thoughts were broken by a voice like a trumpet which commanded him (vs 11) “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”
It is interesting that the 7 churches which God writes to are all in Asia. Why? We really don’t know why these were chosen and not 7 others. We do know that they were all in the same area and therefore accessible to each other. We also know that they all had problems and we also know that probably every church down the age has had these same problems. The 7 letters therefore seem to be representative of the problems we face as the church of Jesus. They are therefore as much for Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyarira etc as they are for us.
The one speaking was brilliant. He looked a bit like a man (Son of man), but that was about all that resembled a man. His head and hair were while and pure, his eyes were like blazing fire, even his feet shone like bronze. His face was like the sun. His voice was like the sound of rushing waters or a trumpet. Out of his mouth, his words were like a sharp double eged sword. He stood among 7 lampstands (which he tells us in vs 20 are the 7 churches to whom he is about to write) and in his hand were 7 stars (7 angels - one for each of the churches). An awesome sight for John who had seen the risen Lord Jesus - all he could do was fall down in fear - as if he was dead.
But the words came again. “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write
So John Wrote - 7 letters direct from the mouth of the risen Jesus Christ. They were addressed to 7 churches in particular, but also to us as the wider church. If we were ever to hang out to receive a letter, it should be a letter from Christ - here are 7 letters, are you ready to open the first and see what it has to tell us?
Chapter 2 vs 1 lets read it ...
Letter to Ephesus - Everything but the One Thing
The first church on God’s list was Ephesus.
Ephesus was the greatest of the cities in Asia, even though Pergamum was the capital of the region. It was a great commercial centre and a great port of the day even though it had problems with the silting up of its river. It still shipped many tonnes of produce into and out of Asia
Ephesus was also a great religious centre with the famous temple of the Roman God Artemis located there. Artemis was also known as Diana and was the goddess of love and fertility. The temple of Artemis was classed as one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world up along the pyramids and the hanging gardens of Babylon. Religion and magic were terribly confused in Ephesus and magic was popular there.
Paul spent 2 years there establishing the church with Priscilla, Aquila and Apollos and Timothy spent time there as did John in his old age until he was exiled to Patmos.
Strengths of the Ephesus Church - Commendations
1) “deeds, toil & perseverance” - These guys knew how to work and had been working to the point of physical exhaustion. They were not just working for wealth though, it was for the Gospel and it was hard work in the climate of idolatry - but they stuck to their guns for they knew it was right.
How hard do we work in our church? So often churches run on the sweat, blook and tears of a dedicated few. They provide the music, teach classes in Sunday school, provide the morning teas, hand out the bulletins at the door while the majority of the church does little else but keep a pew warm.
How hard do we work at keeping our Christian lives untainted in the world we live in? Do we become like the rest of the kids at school when it suits or do we put the Christianity thing in the closet when we are at work. How hard do we work to keep our relationship with God pure by regular and meaningful quiet times, times of prayer, guarding our thoughts by what we watch on TV.
2) “intolerance of wicked men & false prophets.” When Paul had established the church there many years before, he had warned that savage wolves would try to come and destroy the flock of new believers. He had urged them to “be on your guard!” (Acs 20:31) and they had been. They had tested all that had come, compared their teaching against scripture and succeeded in keeping their ways pure.
One particular group they had opposed were the Nicolaitans. These were a group who tried to make compromises between the pagan way of life and that taught by Paul and the church. It was likely that they taught that sexual laxity was okay as was worshipping the pagan gods.
How are we at testing those who might try to lead us astray? Do we go home and compare the teaching of Pastor Roger against the rest of the Scriptures or do we just follow along happily and naively.
How often do we stand up against those who make compromises? For the Nicolaitans amongst us who say we can have one foot in the world and one in the church. We can’t!
Hard-working, persevering, discerning - these are outstanding marks for any church and As this letter was being read, I’m sure the Ephesians beamed and started to pat each other on the back.
Weaknesses : Area of Condemnation
But this wasn’t the end of the message. Jesus has a bone to pick with these Church goers. (vs 4) “You have forsaken your first love.”
In the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”, a russian peasant named Tevye asks his wife a simple question “Do you love me.”
Love him? Golde had never even met Tevye until the day of their arranged wedding. Now, after 25 years of marriage he wants to talk of love? It sounds so, so ... ridiculous, so foreign that she thinks he must have indigestion and should go and lie down for a while.
Tevye repeats the question however more earnestly this time.
“Golde wonders at his thinking, then explains how hard she has worked as his wife - cooking his meals, washing his clothes, having his children.
Still, it doesn’t satisfy Tevye and he asks again.
This time, Golde falls back on the obvious: she’s his Wife!
Even so, Tevye persists - does she love him?
After some reflection, she answers that she does indeed love him, realizing that her life hasn’t been just meaningless busy work. She has worked so hard because of her love for Tevye.
Our greatest strengths can often be our greatest weaknesses also and for the Ephesians, they had got so busy that work and protecting the faith had replaced love.
“Do you love me?” Christ was asking.
“Yes we rooted out all those who teach heresy - of course we love you!”
“True. But do you love “We fearlessly proclaim your word in spite of persecution” “I know, I know. And that’s good. But do you love me?” When the Ephesian’s really looked hard, they could not but answer that they didn’t really love God. Without love, the things the Ephesians were doing were worthless. Paul writes to the Corinthians about this same problem “1 Cor 13: 1 - If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Picture a couple that has been married for 50 years. “Things have really changed” she says to her husband” You used to sit so close to me” “Well I can remedy that” he said, moving next to her on the couch “And you used to hold me tight” “How’s that? he asked as he gave her a hug “Do you remember you used to nzzle my nexk and nibble on my ear lobes?” He jumped to his fee and left the room. “Where are you going?” she called out to him “I’ll be right back”, he said “I’ve got to get my teeth.” Just like the Ephesians and this old couple we might have slipped a long way from where we were at our conversion. Back then we truely did love God - we expressed it in all sorts of ways and told him of our love all the time. Now we are just too busy doing his work - we just work and survive. We need to re-kindle that love and find ways to keep it alight. If we can keep it alight to the end - God promises that we will join him in heaven to eat from the tree of life. It sounds worth it to me - how about you.
