Keep your first love.

Introduction

Fill out sheets as we go along.

I learned of several local churches being led to preach from revelation on the 7 churches recently. God is at work in our area here in an unusual and peculiar way right now.

Gospel presentation- different place because this letter is addressed to the believers.

Scripture

Father God, we thank You for Who You are. A great Big God who sees each and every one of us here and cares deeply about us. We ask this day, as we are continuing in this time of worship to You, reading Your Word and hearing Your Word, that You refine us with it. Mold us, make us, shape us, rearrange us so that we can more like You, and more made into the image of Christ. Help us be a people who love You and love others so much, that we are moved into action by whatever it is You are going to show us about Yourself today and what that means in our lives. Help us do this, because all to often our selfish and sinless flesh war against our will to follow Yours. As we are doing this, and as we are coming into Your Word today, we ask that You take away any distraction that we may have, and make it go as far away as it possible can, because we want to see and we want to know You better. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.

2 “Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. 3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Context

Today, we begin diving into the “meat” of this sermon series through the seven churches. As a reminder to you, for the next few weeks we will go through one church a week and we will be taking a sobering step back and see how we as a church body are similar (in both the good and the bad) to the churches, and all churches, that Christ is addressing. So, expect for some hard-hitting truths to come and hear that Christ is calling and inviting us to something more and greater in service to Him. With that knowledge, let’s all respond in a way that seeks to bring more glory to God in our families, our town, our county, our state, our nation, and our world.

To help us understand the situation in Ephesus, let me give you a little bit of context about the city and the church that existed in it. Now the city of Ephesus, was a sort of financial juggernaut in the Roman Empire. It was a rich city with a huge market, a powerful port, and was a self-governing city; as the Roman governor of the region lived and ruled from there. In this town, existed many pagan temples. In fact, this city was the home to the largest and most important temple to the goddess Artimus, who was the goddess of fertility. Almost everything in town had something to do with Artimus and her worship on top of the many other temples that existed there. The Christian church and Christians had a very hard time in this city, as at almost every turn and to participate in the culture and its amenities, you had to in some way be involved in either Artimus worship or Emperor worship. Sound familiar?; That to exist in the society and benefit from it, you had to either deny your faith or not benefit from the luxuries of society (like banking, using the market, drawing from the wells, etc). This would be a constant struggle for the believers in this town.

You may remember, that Paul had once written to the church at Ephesus, in the letter to Ephesians. A read through this letter, will reveal that this church was once a thriving and strong in faith church. In fact, if there was such a thing as a “church of the year reward.” The church here would certainly have been in the running, if not the clear winner in the land. Flash forward 30 years from the time that letter is written to the time this revelation was penned from John, things have changed and the church in Ephesus was still surviving, but Christ had a VERY serious charge against them as they had fallen away from what was most important to Him (Christ). So with that in mind, let’s dive in and see these points as Christ is addressing us to keep our first love.

Message

The first point is: Christ knows your works.

2 “Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. 3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary.

Now remember, Christ is addressing John and telling him to write these things and give them to who they need to go. One thing I want to point out very quickly, but I don’t want us to focus on it to much, and this will be true across the other churches as well, is the use of the word angel here. Now the Greek word for angel, also translates to word “messenger” much like it did in Hebrew in several occasions. By-in-large most (but not all) bible language translators and commentators believe that the word “messenger” is what is intended here, so that would translate to us today to understand the pastor/preacher/elder of the church. Either way, it comes to the same conclusion, that the church at Ephesus is to receive this message from Christ. Christ begins the address, declaring who He is, showing His power. That it is HE that hold the seven stars (the angels/elders/pastors/preachers) in his right hand and HE is in and amongst the 7 seven lampstands (the churches).

He then says something, since I am this one, the ruler of the churches, you need to know that, I KNOW YOUR WORKS. I know everything about you. I see it all, I know what your motivation is and what it’s all about. I have seen that you Ephesus, and churches like you, have labored and endured in goodness and rightness for a long time. You have tested the false teachers and influencers and found them wrong, just as I instructed you; and You have not followed their false teachings. You have been through many hardships for the sake of my name, and you still remain as a strong pillar with no signs of stopping.

Can you imagine being that church receiving this letter for the first time, having it read out loud to you? I imagine, up to this point, the church at Ephesus was feeling pretty good about themselves right? Think about it! Unexpectantly you received this letter from the beloved John that he says is from Christ himself. You as a church have a history of being a very good, very healthy, very enduring church that Paul once praised very highly. Up to this point, you have been suffering very well and enduring and kicking out the false teachers and holding close to right teaching about Jesus only teaching that. I can only imagine that the hears of this letter could only have been smiling and swelling with pride and hope as Jesus was commending these things about you and described Himself in power to you. Then, comes the next part of the address from Christ:

Christ calls for love

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate..

Wham! Right in the gut. The words from Christ that they had been receiving were all great things, praises; then comes the hard thing. All those things you have been doing are good, BUT you forgot the most important thing. You forgot your love for me (Jesus), you have been so caught up in being right, being sound, and enduring, that you forgot the whole reason that I called you into a relationship with me. To love me, to love Christ. In essence, you became a church that has made the same errors of the pharisees in Israel; focusing on the rules and legalism to much. You need to get this right, right now! What good is it that you got the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, most important thing right, but you got the 1st most important thing wrong? It does no good at all. So, remember what it used to be like. Remember when you loved God with your whole being and that motivated you into action. Remember when you loved the other saints and that moved you into charity and love for them, ALL of them (including the ones you that are hard to like). Go back to those old ways, repent! Change your mind, be renewed by the changing of your mind disobedient servant! Christ keeps going, if you don’t do this, if you don’t come back to your love for me and put all other things behind that; than I will remove your lampstand (make you no longer a church). Christ does end with this one positive note, you have stood against false teachers, and have stood opposed to the Nicolaitans, a sect of false teachers and deceivers, and I hate them as well.

Brothers and sisters, are you listening? Do you hear this? Is this real to you? Get this, Christ is saying something that would seem totally absurd to us. He is saying that it is His will and His desire and that He will destroy this church congregation and other church congregations that don’t get this right. What does this mean? That the love of Christ is so vital, is so important that the church that doesn’t love Christ first and foremost above all things is detestable to Him. He has no need and no want of such a church, and He will remove it. So, believe it or not, Christ wants some churches to die, He works Himself to destroy this false bride (the false churches, the ones that don’t love Him). Yikes. As hard as it is to stomach, for Christendom as a whole, as the chaff is separated from the grain, it is good that some fail; and unfortunately a great many do. In fact, estimates in America say that between 4000 and 4,500 churches in the USA close each year. I wonder how many of them did because they got this part wrong…..

Christ calls us to love Him above all other things. These things are nice, but Christ isn’t impressed by how nice a church houses’ facilities are and how maintained they are. He doesn’t care about the views your church may have gotten on Youtube or Facebook live this weekend. He isn’t concerned about how a congregation used to be. How many likes on social media, is of little care for Him. He isn’t impressed that a worship band has a new album that is flying off the racks. He isn’t terribly interested in how much or how little money your church has and how long that can sustain you. What He want’s to know is, do you love Him, do WE love Him right now and are we acting and responding like it? Because Christ calls for love. After this charge, we see that:

Christ gives to conquerors

7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Christ has called the church at Ephesus, churches like it, churches that have fallen away from the first and most important thing of loving Christ and calls them to right the ship, to repent. To those that do, he calls conquers; those that have overcome. These churches will eat of the tree of life, meaning they will live on and on and Christ is very pleased with these churches. Christ gives to conquerors, but He destroys the false worshipers. If you find yourself as one of these churches, than you need to just this. Repent and put Christ back on the throne in your church. Many things vie to be on the throne in many churches. Sometimes tradition is on the throne (and unfortunately this is true for many). Sometimes just living or surviving is on the throne for congregations. Sometimes a false gospel or false teaching is on the throne. Sometimes orthodoxy sits on the throne. Sometimes a legalistic view on faith. Sometimes a preacher or pastor is on the throne. Sometimes it’s deacons. I could go on forever and ever, but all of these, no matter how good or bad they are have no place on the throne of Christ over his Church it’s local expressions (such as us, LaFayette Baptist Church). The church is on notice from Christ, repent or have your lampstand removed, those that repent and turn towards Christ will be conquerors.

Conclusion

Beloved, we all need to take a step back and take a good hard and honest look at what Christ is saying here to our church; just as we will through each of the other churches in the following weeks. This is going to be a hard, but a very rewarding and Christ honoring exercise for us. Now, we aren’t doing this for the sake of tearing down, destroying, or causing conflict; if you find yourself in this place, than you need to take a break and ask God to clear your hard heart. Rather, we are doing this for the sake of building ourselves up and correcting any wrongs that we may have as a church body; because we want to know Christ and make Him known more. Remember only 2 of the 7 churches received only praise from Christ, the 5 others either had some good and some bad, or nothing good about them at all. Let’s strive to be like one of the two that received only praise from Christ.

Now, as we do this, lets look at our church, I want to challenge each and everyone of you to do this in good faith, knowing that God can and will do great things to those that turn to him. To do this right, we need to consider our church and where it is right now, not where it has been in the past or where we hope to be; but where we are and what we have done recently. I have to be honest with you church, and I say this in love, I’m not sure which of the 7 churches we are most like just yet; in fact I see some things in several of them in ours. The church at Ephesus is one of them.

Ultimately, loving Christ first and foremost is a heart condition that is hard to measure or observe on the outside. But, Let me share with you a few tangible things that churches that have Christ as their first love do, granted there are others but these are common ones. 1- They care for the least, they go to them and serve them just as Christ came and served church. 2- They are regularly involved in local missions and benevolence. 3- They are so committed to the gospel going out and reaching new people and new lives that the waters of the baptismal pool are flowing often. 4- They frequently give their time, talents, and resources to national and international missions and mission efforts as a regular observance (ie, they tithe). 5- They send missionaries locally, nationally, and internationally as often as they can. 6- They understand that even one person coming to Christ is of more value than any amount of money or resources we could gather and apply that everywhere with cheerful giving hearts. 7- They come together often in focused prayer. Lafayette Baptist Church, some of these we do; some of these we don’t do. Why not? What do we, you, me need to change as a group and as individuals to right this? I invite you to write these ideas and thoughts down that you have on your worksheet, so that we can discuss and share this further when we each have had time to consider these things. Right now, take a minute to fill out the worksheet on your own. A slide will be on the screen to describe Ephesus. Then, thinking about Ephesus as it compares to us. Is this us? Is it close. After a few moments of contemplation, we will.

In the meantime, let’s begin with what we can do. Let’s pray, brining ourselves before God in repentance.

Join me in a prayer of repentance. The alter is open to those that need to come forward.