AM Sermon Preached at Syria Christian Church January 2, 2005
"Your First Love: Hold On To It" Rev. 2:4, Matthew 22:37-38
[SERMON TITLE SLIDE]
On one occasion when Jesus was asked what’s the first and greatest commandment of all, He responded by saying, ""’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment." Now if that comment stood alone we might get the idea that Jesus was saying we must love God exclusively. After all if we love God "with ALL our heart" then we will have no love left for anyone or anything else, right? But Jesus didn’t stop there He went on to say, "39 And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." A little thoughtful digging into the text and it becomes clear Jesus wasn’t trying to tell us we should only love God---Jesus was telling us that our love for God should be so strong and have such a high priority in our lives that any other loves we might have will seem small in comparison.
He’s doing the same type of thing in Revelation 2. As I read Jesus’ letter keep in mind that Jesus is drawing attention to the high priority the people should have been giving to their relationship with God....
[SCRIPTURE SLIDES]
2:1 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
[SLIDE WITH 1ST SERMON POINT]
1. Your Relationship To God IS and ALWAYS WILL BE Your Most Important Relationship
When you read through the letter to the church at Ephesus which Jesus dictated to John you find that the church of Ephesus has some pretty impressive credentials. It was full of hard working Christians. Jesus compliments them for the good deeds and hard work they’ve done. And Jesus is obviously pleased that they take a firm stand for the truth. But the church at Ephesus had a big problem. They had forsaken their first love. The King James reads "thou hast left thy first love" and the New Revised Standard Version claims "you have abandoned the love you had at first." Perhaps we need to clarify this first love idea---Jesus isn’t upset with the Christians at Ephesus because the members of that congregation failed to remain committed to the first person of the opposite sex they ever had a crush on---that’s not the first love He’s writing to them about. No, Jesus is upset with the Christians at Ephesus because in general the most of them no longer gave Him first place in their lives. By human standards things looked great---and the Christians at Ephesus were probably receiving compliments from other churches and people in the community for the great works they were doing. But while others were applauding them and giving them high marks---Jesus is appealing to them and warning them that they are dangerously close to failing in the thing that matters most of all. For you see these guys had become so busy serving Christ and doing the work of the church; that they had forgotten their love for Christ. They had become so focused on their routine for Christ that they failed to maintain their relationship with Christ. Like that husband who spends so much time working to provide nice things for his family that he fails to be with his family, the Christians at Ephesus exchanged action for intimacy.
Adam Diebert in his sermon, Rekindle the Desire, writes, "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." I agree.
Far, far too many people live under the notion a little religion is all you need. They think if they go to church on occasion, sprinkle a few acts of kindness on others, say a few good words here and there---it’ll be enough to get you into heaven. Because of that when they come to church go through the motions--- they say all the right words, they most likely mumble the words to the hymns but may even sing with gusto if they like singing, they routinely and rather thoughtlessly take communion and they endure the sermon but all the while their heart’s not really in it. Still they rationalize to themselves "what I’m doing is enough." But they are so wrong! It’s not enough! Those people who have held onto their religion but let go of their relationship with Jesus, need to re-engage their hearts and because a little religion won’t save anyone!---we will only be saved if we are in a right relationship with Jesus Christ! And a right relationship with Jesus, friends, is where we love Jesus more than anyone or anything else---where He’s our first love---where He’s number one in our hearts. That’s the thing Jesus was wanting from the Christians at Ephesus. And that’s what He’s wanting from us. Jesus made it clear to the Christians at Ephesus that they had forsaken this first love relationship and were on dangerous ground. And Jesus warning was a good thing for them because with it Jesus gave them the opportunity to correct the situation. But what about us? Are we as a church on dangerous ground? Are you or am I as an individual on dangerous ground? Can we even know? Jesus’ admonition, "Remember the height from which you have fallen" clearly indicates we can.
[SLIDE WITH 2ND SERMON POINT]
2. There Are Ways To Tell If Your Love For God Is On Dangerous Ground
Before we dig deeper into the text though I want to tell you about some dangerous ground I found myself on this past week. We all are well aware of the difference a week can make. Last Sunday we had a couple of feet of snow on the ground. Today about the only snow lingering around are the parking lot piles. Well I can tell you that one day this past week I nearly took a spill down the back steps of my house because a think barely visible layer of ice had formed on the top step. I was fortunate I had just taken hold of the railing or I would have went down. I did what so many of us do when we have a near fall---I did this awkward little off balance dance, caught myself, regained my composure, looked around to see if anyone else saw me and breathed this little sigh of relief when I realized no one had. I’m usually pretty cautious, but after that near accident I was even more so. I know that you can feel the slipperiness of ice with your feet even if you can’t see it with your eyes so when I’d walk out of the house, before I started for the stairs I slide my foot across the top step to see if there was ice or not. Now folks just as there are more ways than one to know if you’re on dangerous icy ground, there are more ways than one to know if you’re on dangerous spiritual ground.
David Wilkerson writes, "There are several signs and evidences of a dying love for Christ." He created a list of three. First David claims: 1. Your Love for Christ Is Dying If You Spend More Time on the Things of This World and Less Time in His Presence! David remarks that even good, legitimate things can become sinful when they takes priority over the Lord! Secondly David writes, 2. You Can Measure Your Love for Christ by How Deeply You’re Affected by Anything That Robs You of Quality Time Alone With Him. Adding that "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?" Third on David’s list was this: 3. Your Love for Christ Is Dying If You Have Given in to a Besetting Sin! Paraphrasing David’s thoughts on the subject he says to us its one thing to struggle against sin in our lives but its quite another to throw in the towel to it. If you’re continually giving in to the same sin without a fight your love for Christ isn’t what it should be.
Ray Stedman also agrees that there’s more than one way to know if you’re heading towards dangerous spiritual ground and he’s come up with a different threefold list. Stedman writes: "There are always symptoms, signs, of this happening. Here are three of them: The first one, visible at first only to the individual, is the loss of the joy and glow of Christian life. It soon becomes humdrum and routine. You begin to feel like you have heard it all already. Even the church service loses its impact. It seems mechanical, routine, dull and drab. That is a sign you are beginning to lose your first love. Second, you lose your ability to love others. One of the great revelations of the Scripture is that the reason we love others is because we have first been loved ourselves. When we lose that consciousness of the wonder of Jesus’ love we also lose our awareness of others and find our love for them fading. It is difficult to love. We become critical, censorious, complaining. We begin to choose our friends more closely and only associate with those we like. We lose the compassion that reached out to everyone at first. Then, third, we lose a healthy perspective of ourselves. We become more and more important in our thinking. Instead of what the Lord wants and what will please him we begin to think of what we want and what will please us. Gradually, we become sensitive and touchy, unable to bear criticism. This begins to make divisions and often schisms in a congregation. Individuals in the church are no longer interested in evangelism. They are no longer concerned about those around them without Christ, but are focused on themselves, their own comfort, their own pleasure. Self-centeredness sets in. Those are the marks of the loss of first love..."
While I share their opinions on the six different things these men listed it seemed to me that there are three other very obvious signs you’re on dangerous spiritual ground. The first is When the Holy Spirit makes it clear to you. In the second chapter of Revelation, Jesus through a personal letter, told the Christians at Ephesus they were on dangerous ground. Now while you and I won’t be receiving any personal letters in the mail from Jesus that doesn’t mean God can’t or won’t speak to us personally. When we became Christians, the Holy Spirit came to live in us. According to John 16:13 one of the things the Holy Spirit tries to do is guide us into truth, guide us into right thinking and living. Put another way the Holy Spirit will warn us when we began to move away from Christ or when we begin to let other things or other people creep into that place of priority in our hearts that should only belong to God. Another sign we’re treading on dangerous spiritual ground is when other Christians express their concern that we are. I really don’t know anyone who enjoys confronting a backsliding or wayward Christian. In fact I’d say people who do enjoy it have no business doing it because their motivation’s wrong. Still the many "one another" verses in the Bible mark the responsibility each of us to watch out for the rest of us and because of that, if we care we will tell others when we see them treading on think spiritual ice. If we know of specific sin we won’t beat around the bush but like Nathan did with David we’ll identify it clearly. If we don’t know of any specific sins but just have noticed a slacking off in their commitment we’ll mention that. Now if you’ve ever been motivated by God to do that you know that expressing your concern takes a lot of love and a lot of courage. And folks, any of us who find ourselves on the receiving end of a loving spiritual confrontation needs to take the expressed concerns of that confrontation to heart. Because again it’s another way God sometimes makes us aware our love for Him has been fading. And third in addition to falling under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and others I believe we can fall under self-conviction. So another way to know we’re on dangerous spiritual ground is when our heart tells us we are. It’s one thing for the Holy Spirit or someone else to say to us---you’re got some obvious spiritual heart problems and you’re headed for trouble. It’s another for us to agree.
Several years ago Dr. Bob Munger, who for years was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, stood up before a group of pastors at a pastors conference and drew a great circle on the blackboard. He put an "X" in the middle of it, and said, "As I look back on my pastoral ministry there were many years in which I felt I was right in the center of where God wanted me to be. The Lord Jesus was real and vital and important to me. But in these last few years as I look at my life, I find I have drifted." He put an "X" on the periphery of the circle, and said, "I have drifted over to this point. I want to tell you men I am praying, and I ask you to pray for me, that God will lead me back to the center again."
Think about the nine signs I’ve shared with you and what Dr. Munger did among his peers. If you were to draw a circle and use an "X" to mark your current love relationship with God, where would you put it? In the middle of the circle---off to the side a little---near the edge---outside the circle entirely?
[SLIDE WITH 3RD SERMON POINT]
3. You Can (and Should) Keep The Flame of Your First Love Burning Hot
If like Dr. Munger we’ve become aware that our love for Christ has drifted of course---if in our heart we know at some point in our life journey we laid our relationship with Jesus aside and continued to forge ahead without Him---if the intensity we once held for Jesus is no longer there Jesus wants us to do two things---He wants us to repent and return.
The word repent is rich with meaning and application. The Greek word that’s translated as repent in our English Bibles was a military command in the first century that called for an about face---a complete change in direction. And this military term was employed by the writers of the New Testament to describe the changes in direction Christians willfully make to please God. What Jesus is saying to everyone whose love for Him is lacking or dying is this: You’re headed the wrong way. You need to completely change direction. And the direction we’re to change to is marked out for us---it involves our returning to doing the things we did at first back when we chose to give Jesus first place in our lives.
As I thought about Jesus’ call to action in this passage---His call for us to do what we did at the first---I was reminded of advice which marriage counselors often give. When dealing with couples where romantic feelings have faded or all but disappeared counselors often ask the couple to do two things 1. they often ask them to do the things they did at the first (to think back to that time when they first were attracted to each other---to remember the things they did which enabled them to draw close to one another and then do those same things again) and 2. where the passion seems to have fizzed or the emotional connections seem to have been cut off in a marriage counselors often advise couples to do the things they think they would be doing if the passion was there and emotional connections were intact. They say something to the effect you do those things and when we meet again in two weeks we’ll discuss your reactions. Counselors know that when we begin to act the way we wish we felt we usually end up feeling the way we act. Two millennia ago Jesus knew that too that’s why He advised the Christians at Ephesus to do the things they did at the first---Jesus wanted them to feel about Him the way they did at the first.
You know if at the start of this service I had passed out sheets of paper to everyone who is or has been married and I had asked you to write down some of the things you did at the beginning of your relationship which drew you close to your marriage partner--- Some of you might have written---we used to take long walks together---others might have wrote how you studied together---or spent hours talking on the phone---maybe some of you went out to eat or you went dancing or bowling---I’m guessing I’d get a whole lot of different answers because we’re all different---yet at the same time we’re not so different---because while we may have went about things differently there’s a common denominator---you drew close by doing things together.
That same common denominator no doubt came into play during that time when we first drew close to God and began loving Him. The things you did at the first in your relationship with God are probably not the exact same things I did at first and they’re probably not the exact same things the person sitting in the row next to you did at the first---maybe you spent a lot of time in prayer---maybe you went around singing praise choruses and hymns all day long---maybe you spent hours reading scripture---maybe you attended every worship service and Bible study the church offered---the exact things you did at the first are probably different from the exact things others did---and that’s okay. What’s not okay is for any of us to lose that common denominator---what’s not okay is to forsake that first love relationship---to forge ahead while leaving God behind---what’s not okay is for any of us to allow something else to occupy the place in our heart that only God should occupy---
And so friends I urge you in the days to come---steer clear of dangerous spiritual ground---don’t run the risk of losing what you gained in Christ---hold on to Jesus do those things you did at the first and make your first love for Christ last forever because if you do heaven will be in your future---
[SLIDE WITH 4TH SERMON POINT]
4. The Reward For Those Who Keep Their Love Alive Is Eternity With God
I know this to be true for Jesus ends this letter by saying, Revelation 2:7, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
Our time of invitation and decision has come. If you’re already a Christian and you know you’re relationship with Jesus has lost that first love intensity I hope in these next few moments you’ll repent either publicly or privately and recommit yourself to doing the things you did at the first. On the other hand if you’re a Christian and you feel that you have that first love relationship with Christ right now I hope you’ll commit to doing all you can to ensure it stays that way. And if you’re here today and you’re not a Christian I know I speak for many others here when I say we hope you become one because we don’t want you to miss out on eating from the tree of life and spending eternity in heaven with God. Whatever your personal situation may be I encourage you to make a first love commitment to Christ as we stand and sing ___________________.
[INVITATION SLIDES]
NOTE TO THOSE WHO READ AND OR CHOOSE TO MAKE USE OF ANY OR ALL OF THIS SERMON: I am sharing this sermon with the hopes it will be an encouragement to others. I apologize for any blatant typing errors! If you find any I’d appreciate hearing from you so I can correct them. I try to give credit where credit is due, noting writers and or sources to the best of my ability. I have for years been drawing from a wealth of sources including this website. I recognize that my mind and writing processes are fallible. I may occasionally fail to properly identify a source. Please do not take offense if you see anything of this nature. I never intend to plagiarize. Having said that I want you to feel free to draw from my message. When appropriate I hope you will give credit as I do. But most of all I hope Christ will be lifted up and God will receive the glory in all things.
[P.S. This sermon series which I‘ve titled “First Things” was among the last things I said to the members of the congregation I served in Orleans, IN, at the end of a 12 year ministry with them.]
