Revelation: The Loveless Church Series

Revelation: The Loveless Church

Revelation 2:1-7

Introduction

A dear friend of mine works for a company that mines salt. He has given me a few gifts related to salt. One is this salt crystal that he brought back from a deep mine in Louisianna. Another is a New York Times Bestseller by Mark Kutlansky titled "Salt: A World History." In the book, Kutlansky tells the history and importance of salt. While we take salt for granted today, it was once the thing that made kings. It had the place oil has today in the world's economy.

Salt, it is a simple compound that we use for everything. It preserves and flavors our food. Jesus said that His people were the salt of the earth and the light of the world. His church is meant to give flavor to the world and preserve it.

Salt is a simple compound. It is made of sodium and chlorine.

Sodium is a metal that when alone is highly flammable and explosive. It is not found alone naturally. It easily combines with other elements and so it is always found connected to something.

Chlorine is a poisonous gas. It is what gives bleach its pungent smell.

These two elements alone are dangerous, but together they form a compound that we cannot live without.

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus that they should "speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15).

Truth and love are two elements that left to themselves can be unstable and dangerous. Love alone, like sodium, can be flammable and passionate to the point that it connects to anything. Truth by itself can be like a noxious gas that suffocates those that come into contact with it. But, when truth and love are compounded the new substance becomes salt that flavors and preserves.

The church at Ephesus is the first church that Jesus speaks to. He speaks to them about truth and love. They have a zeal for truth and orthodoxy, but they have lost their love for God, one another, and their neighbor. This puts them in danger of not being the church that Jesus designed them to be. This morning we will look at how this message to Ephesus can be applied to our lives.

Text:

1“To the angel of the church of Ephesus

Jesus addresses this letter to the messenger or overarching spirit of the church at Ephesus.

Ephesus was an important city in the first-century Mediterranean world. It was important to Rome the world economy. It was important to the major religions. There were temples to the cult of the Emperor. Luke tells us that there were enough books of magic in Ephesus that those who got rid of them after conversion amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:19). Ephesus's greatest architectural structure, one of the seven wonders of the world, was the Temple of Dianna. It controlled the trade of the city. We read in Acts about the uproar of those who made and sold images of Dianna being upset because of Paul's preaching there. The temple also housed a thousand prostitutes. Dianna was the goddess of "love."

The Spirit used Ephesus as a starting point for the evangelism of all of Asia Minor. Priscilla and Aquilla found Appolos there and showed him the way more perfectly. Paul found the disciples of John the Baptist there who had not received the Holy Spirit or been baptized in the Name of Jesus. He led them further. Paul spent two full years in Ephesus teaching and preaching. When he finally left, he warned them that there would be false teachers that would arise among them. True to his prophetic words, the Ephesians would face false teachers.

Later, Ephesus was mainly associated with John. History says that Mary the mother of Jesus lived there.

write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:

Jesus introduces Himself as the One who has power over the churches and the One is present beholding what is going on in the church. Because He is there, He spends time inspecting His church. He tells the church at Ephesus.

2“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.

He begins with commendation. They had been zealous for the truth that they had received. They had worked hard. They would be among the crowd that emphasizes the importance of works that prove one's faith.

They fought against those who taught things that were contrary to the truth. When others might have grown weary, they kept fighting.