The Loveless Church.

Introduction:

In Revelation chapters 2 and 3 we are confronted with 7 different churches.

Jesus talks about these churches when He tells John to write in Revelation 1:11, “…write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

These seven churches act a portrait of any given church at any given time.

These seven churches are not figurative, they were each real, functioning churches.

However, when we see the exhortation to “hear” at the end of each of these seven letters, we see that all Churches of all times are called to attention, that they may heed whatever admonition or warning is being given by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anyone who would read the book of the Revelation would then be confronted by the truths found in these passages.

Each of these letters generally follow a four-fold outline:

Christ presents Himself in a specific way to each of the Churches.

There is a commendation or a Condemnation (or both).

He gives a course of action.

He warns.

Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7).

Ephesus is commonly known for its absolute putrid immorality.

Heraclitus, a non-Christian Roman philosopher, said, “No one could live in Ephesus without weeping over the immorality which he must see on every side.”

We’ve seen this immorality in part before:

Temple of Artemis—>Fertility cult, where sex was had with temple prostitutes to promise fertility.

Occult Practices—>Acts 19:18-19, they burnt their expensive magic books and confessed their deeds to one another.

Christ presents Himself as Sovereign & Omniscient (v. 1).

He is the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand.

Remember our conversation about Revelation 1:16, the stars are likely the pastors, but because they are in the right hand of Christ, it is He who is exercising authority over the Church.

The Church is Jesus’s possession, and we must submit to Him and His leadership by His Word.

He is the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

When we discussed Revelation 1:13 we looked at this “Son of Man” dwelling in the 7 churches. We focused on His intercessory work as the Great High Priest, and how He knows everything about the Churches, so that He would be able to work in their lives according to what they need.

Here, we see Christ present Himself as both of these things, because they needed to hear this, that the Church was His, and He knew exactly what was going on in their lives.

As we look at this letter, we’ll see that this is both an encouragement and a warning.

Encouragement, because they realize that in the midst of such unruly immorality, they are not left alone.

Warning, because their hearts had grown cold.

Commendation and Condemnation

Commendation (vv. 2-3, 6).

Because Jesus walks among the Lampstands, He can say “I know”. He knows what is going on.

First, Jesus sees that they are standing firm in their doctrine.

They do not tolerate immorality among them.

With all of the immorality that was going on in Ephesus, and many of them being saved out of that awful false religiosity, the temptation to fall into that immorality or even to become syncretistic would be immense.

Syncretism, or being syncretistic, is merging different belief systems so that you can have the “best of both worlds.”

The Ephesian church fought HARD against that, and the Lord Jesus commended them for it.

They test false teaching.

False apostles. False apostles are always popping up claiming to have a new revelation or message from God. We see this today in Mormonism and Catholicism (the Pope is literally and Apostle), and even some in so-called evangelicalism.

The Lord has given us many tests to weed out false teaching:

Matthew 7:15-20.

1 John 3:18-29; 4:1-3.

Nicolaitans (v. 6).

We see these later on in the letter to Pergamum. Their teaching seems to be syncretistic, similar to balaam.

Rev. 2:15, “so you also...” Seems to indicate that it was just like Balaam.

This means that they were probably combining the immoral pagan feasts with Christianity.

Ephesus did not tolerate any of this.

Condemnation (vv. 4).

While Ephesus was dogmatically correct in doctrine, they had left their first love, and Christ was going to judge them for it if they didn’t repent.

What does it mean that they left their first love?

Their pursuit of doctrinal correctness led to doing things by the books, rather than simple devotion to Christ.

Christianity is about loving the Lord Jesus Christ because of what He has done for us.

John 14:15, 21. Love for Christ lead to obedience.

2 Corinthians 11:3.

Their pursuit of doctrinal correctness could have led to lack of love of the brethren.

Philippians 1:28-2:11.

Ephesians 4:15, 16.

The lack of love of the brethren leads to atrophy of the Body and ultimately death.

Their pursuit of doctrinal correctness could have led to a lack of love for the world.

Notice I did not say “love of the world”. We are to love the world, in that we are grieved in our hearts for their sin, and their lost state before God, and share the good news of the Gospel with them.

The Ephesian love of purity, may have led to disdain for the world, rather than love for the world.

John 3:16.

Course of Action (v.5).

Remember, Repent.

These things are separate and are interconnected.

Remember. In order to return to what you were doing at first, you have to remember what it was. Here Paul is exhorting them to remember the love, remember what they were doing at first, so that they can do it again.

Repent. Repentance is a changing of mind/heart, will, and action to line up with God’s Word.

You can see the definition given in the text, “do the deeds you do at first”.

Repentance brings right actions.

Repentance comes from the heart. This is not like saying “sorry” to your sibling because your parents said so, and harboring resentment because your heart didn’t change.

Matthew 15:10-20. We need heart change, and the fastest way to that is by remembering the fullness of what Christ has done for us.

Lampstand removal.

If repentance doesn’t come, judgment falls.

We see this all over the Old Testament with Israel:

Isaiah 1:16, 17; 3:8-14.

Lampstand removal speaks to their effectiveness of sharing the the Light of Christ in the world, therefore, whether or not they are a church.

Corporate Warning from Christ (v. 7).

“He who has ears to hear” is the statement used by Christ as a statement of warning, essentially saying, “Pay attention to this or else this could happen to you to.”

Luke 8:4-10; 16-21.