The Church at Ephesus - Part 2 - the Details
Losing Your First Love for Christ
Revelation 2:1-7
Authorship of Jesus to Ephesus – Revelation 2:1b
Revelation 2:1b ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
“Words” – Jesus is the one who holds the 7 stars and walks among the 7 lampstands. These are the very words of Jesus, thereby making them scripture. They are therefore a necessity to know and embrace. The Words of Jesus are the great gift to the church for they are what we need most.
Uniquely Important Words
All of these Words to the 7 churches are unique in that they are said after His death, resurrection, and ascension. They are said after He has been seated on the throne next to the Father for 50-60 years of earth time, after He left and the Spirit birth the church at Pentecost.
“holds” in the Greek it means “to hold authoritatively ; to prevail”.
This clearly reveals & indicates His ownership of all things and especially pastors and churches. The pastors and the churches belong to Him alone. They do not belong to man for He is the groom and the church is the Bride. Note…
1. Jesus relationship with the Pastors “the seven stars in his right hand”
The stars are the pastors and He holds his messengers in His strong mighty hand. These words indicate His relationship to the pastors as He will work through them with the Gospel.
2. Relationship with the Churches “who walks among the seven golden lampstands”.
“walks” – He walks among the churches. He does not just sit and stand around, but “walks among” the church looking at things from all angles. This reveals that He cares about what takes place in a church. Not only is Jesus in a unique relationship with the pastors, but His presence is constant among the churches, walking in their midst observing and coming to know them in an up close personal manner. He deeply cares what is being done and taught.
While the world continues toward the reality of in 1 Timothy 3 where we read…
2 Timothy 3:1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Jesus is continuing to bring about the fulfillment of His plans for the church even in the reality where things are crumbling in societal culture and in church culture.
Revelation 2:2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.
Assessment of Jesus on the Ephesian Church – Revelation 2:2-3
“I know your works” - “know” is oida – complete knowledge. He has a perfect knowledge of the church. As He stood and walked among the Ephesian church, Christ saw everything that needed to be seen and known. As He sees the church with His piercing and all-knowing gaze, He sees what is both right and wrong among the believers at Ephesus. As He looked at the Ephesian church, He was seeing both the good and bad as He walked in her midst – nothing gets by Him.
Affirmation of Jesus of Them – Revelation 2:2-3
Now we will step into Jesus’ affirmation of the church and the Words will fall in line with the rest of Scripture. In keeping the unity of the scripture, Jesus now strongly affirms the same things said in the epistles, especially Paul’s letter to this same church, but here with a strong force and clarity reinforcing Paul’s letter to them.
What Jesus Values in a Church
As we approach all 7 of the churches in Revelation 2-3, what we see and hear from Jesus concerning them is everything He thinks is valuable and invaluable in a local church. We must take note therefore and not let the leave our focus what Christ truly values!
This also means that we or someone else may think something is highly valuable for a church to embrace, but it may not be so important to Him for that other perspective may not even be mentioned by Him or found anywhere in Scripture. This is why what we practice as a church must be found in Scripture, as everything should flow out of what the scripture teaches, not business or marketing methods, but Biblical mandates.
Here is what He observed and affirmed at Ephesus…
· Toil – Revelation 2:2b
“toil” – kopos – difficult; labor with sweat; exhaustion.
This was a church that was really focused on the task before them in living out and standing upon the Gospel. This was not a spectator church, but one where the members counted the cost and participated in the ministry in a deeply pagan city. We find this church around 40 years old now and it was a hard-working one. Their faith was active and real.
· Patient Endurance – Revelation 2:2c & 2:3a
“patient endurance” – hypomone – endurance under extreme hardship. This word affirms that these believers knew what it meant to remain faithful by enduring very hard circumstances that would be trying to faith. They would have be a people ridiculed, misunderstood & persecuted.
Enduring Patience becomes an enduring evidence
of the commitment to the call of Gospel among Christ’s body.
Christian maturity in church does not happen overnight, but through faithful patient hard working pursuit of God over years. This group did not shrink back and quit meeting because things were hard around them in differing circumstances. They continued to meet in spite of the opposition.
· Don’t bear evil people – Revelation 2:2d and how you cannot bear with those who are evil,
They understood the gospel was to go forth and minister to the lost, but they never lost sight that in the church, it was to be a place of godliness nor is a local church to allow anything contrary to scripture to drift into the teaching ministry. Therefore, they did not put with those who were evil. Paul had told them earlier in his letter to them that…
Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
As we walk through the characteristics of the 7 churches of Revelation, we will see that 5 of the 7 churches tolerated some kind of sin in their midst. It is only with the church at Ephesus and Philadelphia where they did not tolerate sin in the church. Our church culture today in America is drifting more and more toward accepting tolerance of things the Bible condemns and this must not be so.
· Discernment to test religious hypocrisy – Revelation 2:2e but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.
As Paul stopped at Miletus on his way to Jerusalem, he had earlier sent word for the Ephesian elders to meet him there and as they met with them, he warned them about those who would try to harm the flock and they needed to be ready for it. So he says…
Acts 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. (why we take the role serious – blood bought) 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.
Paul knew that they were going to face false teaching and would have to confront it. They did face it and they did confront it as their beloved friend warned them.
Testing the Religious Claims
How do you do this? Because they were deeply grounded in the Word, they could easily put false apostles to the Biblical test. They knew what is true and what is not true in the Word, so when they heard it, they could spot it and accurately deal with it from Scriptural grounds.
Both moral and theological corruption
cannot be allowed in a church.
The Word mattered to this church. They knew enough of the Word to not get caught up with the latest theological trend or drift in the church culture of their day. Far too many in the church today jump on the latest thing as fewer and fewer seem to embrace Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls”.
Q: Where are those who long for the ancient paths that are ever new and who deeply desire to walk in those paths? The 6:16er’s don’t get caught up in what is new for they don’t need new, they need original and ancient.
· Embraced the Utmost Priority – Revelation 2:3b and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.
In everything they did, they did it with the utmost priority in mind – the glory of His name.
They honored His name to the point where Jesus says, “you have not grown weary”. What does it say about a church that grows weary honoring the name of Christ? May this never be!
· Hate what Jesus hates – Revelation 2:6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Jesus affirms one more thing about them in 2:6 and it is in regard to a group of people called the Nicolaitans, who incidentally are also mentioned in Revelation 2:15 as Jesus speaks to the Pergamum church.
Nicolaitans
We don’t know a whole lot about these people, but there name gives us some insight and indication of the kind of lives they led…their name is made up of 2 Greek words:
(1) Nikao – “to conquer” (2) laos – “the people”. When you combine both of these Greek words, their name means “Conquering the people”.
Revelation 2:6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate
Revelation 2:15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
In light of their name and these 2 verses, it becomes evident they were a group who taught and practice everything that was contrary to the purity of truth. They affirmed sexual tolerance among members of the church in Revelation 2:14-15. Jesus states that He hated what they practiced, and so did the Ephesians. Hear this…it is not enough to just dislike the sins rampant in our culture, we are to hate them as Christ does. All around us today our culture is pushing a “let people do as they please” lifestyle and we are not to embrace it nor are we to tolerate it.
Against you in this... - Revelation 2:4
Revelation 2:4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Just as we saw what Jesus affirms for the church, at the same time we see things that He does not want to be inside of the local church. He sees the strengths and weaknesses and the places of compromise that do not honor Him.
This church faced two things:
(1) Outside Pressure – False doctrine trying to lure people away
(2) Within – Lost their love for God and others
Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
While Jesus walked in the middle of the church at Ephesus, not only did He see things that were right, but He saw something that did not sit right with Him. Even though a strong base of ministry was taking place, they had lost something and it seems they likely did not even know it. So Jesus said to them…“You have abandoned the love you had first…”
Let’s break things down so we fully understand why Jesus had an issue…
“I have”…
When Jesus says, “I have”, this indicates that He will point out what His issue is with them and as I said earlier, it is likely possible that they could not see it on their own. We are often blind to what has been lost and we need others who see to point out what has been neglected. They seem to not being able to do anything what has been lost. Several things can contribute to this and it is possible that their consistently being in the battle made them tired and they let their guard down to what should have been their highest priority. They had taken their eyes off the Lord and probably became more passionate about taking a stand in ministry over having a passion for Jesus.
“you have abandoned”…
The word “abandoned” means to leave, leave alone, forsake and neglect. The Ephesians through ministry, time and hardship had stepped away & distanced themselves from their first and original love they once had for Christ. They no longer loved Jesus as they did when they first came to know Christ in salvation.
“first” – original.
“Love” – agape – deepest love. This is what they had lost. They did not have a faith or doctrinal issue, but a heart problem. They were characterized by all of the right things but not a heart on fire and in love with Christ.
They likely began to just go through the motions and did not notice it as they still talked about Jesus, but they had quit “tasting the goodness of the Lord”.
Regardless of how much of the Bible we have studied or can quote, regardless of how much we serve Him, loving the Lord in purity must remain our great priority. They looked right, but had lost the most important part of loving Christ – a simple devoted pure love for Christ.
This I have come to know as true…
You don’t lose love overnight - it is lost over time.
Since the church is 40 years old now, you have the 2nd and 3rd generation Christians inside of it and things that should have been the priority had gotten misplaced. It does not matter whose fault it might be, it just needs to be addressed and fixed.
Originally it was not this way with them:
Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
Paul’s last written words to them:
Ephesians 6:24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
The Honeymoon is Gone 40 Years Later…
One of the great dangers we can face is to just get lost in a routine with no vigor and life for Christ.
Has the honeymoon of your Christian walk been gone for awhile?
This was the issue at Ephesus! Is it ours?
The Answer to Losing Our First Love – Revelation 2:5
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
How does this get fixed?
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen;
It is vital we remember that we are studying and placing ourselves under the authority of the Sacred Scripture. These are His words, so if we have lost our original love for Jesus, then this is exactly what we need to do to get this right with Him again. There is no improving on this counsel from anyone.
“therefore”…
The “therefore” refers to the “loss of love” for the Lord Jesus speaks of in Revelation 2:4. They fell from a deep love for the Lord Jesus. So Jesus says the 1st key piece in finding it all again is what follows.
Here are the steps needed…
(1) Remember the Original Place We Once Were
“fallen” – it is a place we fall “from” and when we fall, we fall from a higher place to a lower place. In the Greek, the word “fallen” means that they were in a state of spiritual decline.
This is more than a moment of weakness, but a slow drift that becomes the daily course of life. Jesus says, “Go back to the place where it was all lost. Go to the starting point from where you fell from”.
“Remember” – Remember how it used to be and how it used to burn and be alive inside of your heart.
It all gets lost by forgetting
and it can be found again by going back and remembering!
The Lord’s command is for us to look back when we lose our love for Jesus. They were to remember what it felt like to know that they were no longer dead in their trespasses and sin, but had been made alive in Jesus through the new birth.
What can rob our love for Jesus?
1. Money
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
2. Love of the World
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
3. Idols
1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
4. Family
Matthew 10:37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
(2) Repent
Once they remembered what He had done for them, they would see how far they had fallen and seeing the distance again, it should move them to repent of the coldness that had settled in their hearts. Repentance is necessary for a return.
“repent” – metnoeson – to change your mind. The word “repent” comes from two words: change and to think.Repentance, then, is to change one’s thinking about something and begin to look at life as Jesus looks at it and return and remain in the place of authentic love again.
A transformation of mind and heart is needed. A new manner of thinking must return as the inward work of repentance takes place.
The greatest need of the day is to repent of our lack of love for Christ
and to fall in love with Jesus again.
Could it be that the real issue in our lives and in the church is not more programs, money, racial reconciliation, more presence in our culture, better facilities, etc., but a need to repent and fall in love with Christ again?
(3) Return to the original practice
Revelation 2:5c and do the works you did at first.
Return to the place where you did everything out of love for God and others. “First” speaks of that which is “first in rank and importance”. The word “do” carries the idea of cause, bring about, purpose, manifestation or practical proof. The context indicates that by “first”, Jesus calls them back to the love they had when they first became Christians in Revelation 2:4.
Duty for Christ is never to replace a love for Christ.
Now Jesus tells them what will be the consequence if they don’t repent and return to their first love…
· Reap the consequence – removal of lampstand
Revelation 2:5d If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
These are very strong words from Jesus as He sets forth that losing love for Him in a church will open that church up for losing their existence – they won’t be around. Notice that Jesus is not scared to give a church “an or else”.
A church may lose its lampstand in a city or community for a variety of reasons…sin...bad leadership…apathy toward the Word…being a part of a dying denomination that downplays good doctrine…not meeting together. You wonder, how many churches will make it on the other side of Covid-19?
It has been 4 whole months since the shutdown began and we are into the 5th month since some churches or Christians have gathered together for worship and study of the Word.
Will people return to physical corporate worship and community or will they just make virtual church the way of the future? How long will this be okay to not meet as Christ-followers?
Jesus tells the church at Ephesus that if they do not make Him their great love again, then He will Himself come and remove their light in the city of Ephesus. That is how much Jesus thinks a love for Him should dominate the life of a local fellowship of believers.
All throughout history, He removes churches from existence and He brings them into a new start.
It is His purpose to set a man as pastor and remove a man as pastor if the man loses the heart for loving Christ faithfully.
These words of “Removing our Lampstand”
should make us tremble!
It appears they did repent as they were still around in 431AD as one of the key church councils met in the city of Ephesus.
The Closing Admonition of Jesus – Revelation 2:7
Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
· Hear the Voice of God in Scriptures
Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
“Churches” – plural. These words are to be embraced by every church and notice that Jesus says the Spirit is saying these things to all of the churches. The Holy Spirit speaks in and through the book of Revelation and we are to have an ear for what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
Who will hear if the church won’t listen?
· Heart of a Conqueror
“To the one who conquers…” The Holy Spirit uses a military term [“overcomes”] to describe the Christian life as a battlefield, for this is not a playground on an elementary school campus.
How do we do this?
1 John 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
The believer in Jesus conquers by their unwavering belief in Jesus, so we are the ones who overcome and conquer.
· Heaven
“I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
Eating refers to experiencing the joy of reward in heaven for overcoming in spiritual battles. Later in Revelation, John says that the tree of life bears abundant fruit (22:2).
“tree of life” – represents eternal life.
Is there anything in our lives, right now, keeping us from repenting, remembering and returning to our first love for Jesus?
Whatever it might be, let’s deal with it right now!
