First Love

2024 SBBC

Rev. 2:1-7

Do Not Leave Your First Love

(Story) A young man was determined to win the affection of a lady who refused to even talk to him. He decided that the way to her heart was through the mail, so he began to write her love letters. He wrote a letter a day to this lovely lady...

There was no response… He then increased his letter output to three notes a day, every day. In all, he wrote her more than 700 letters… and she wound up marrying the postman...

Let’s be sure today to know the Writer of this letter, and to give our hearts to the right person.

Jesus is writing this letter to His church in Ephesus. Can you imagine, Jesus Himself, letting you know that He sees you, knows what is going on, knows what you are doing right, what you are doing wrong, and He lets you know what He going to do if you remain obedient or disobedient to Him?

To give you a little context: Ephesus was home to over 500,000 people and was called the “Light of Asia.” It was a place and a culture that was pagan, dominated by idolatry and worldliness. This is where the Temple of Artemis is located, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This is where the goddess Artemis or Diana would be worshipped, where there would be drunkenness, debauchery, self-mutilation and all kinds of horrific displays.

The morals were described as being compared to animals. Those who lived during that time commented that every last one of the Ephesians deserved to be hanged.

To say the least… this would have been a difficult place to minister the gospel. But… what happened? The gospel began to spread through the faithful obedience of those mentioned in our New Testament. Priscilla and Aquila were possibly the first ones to bring the Good News into the city. Then Apollos came, who was mighty in the Scriptures.

Paul got there and stayed three years faithfully preaching and teaching, and God began to do miracles through Paul there… and it got to the point where people were stopping their idol worship and they were burning their magic books… The Gospel’s power and the Holy Spirit was changing lives.

And He still has that power today!

And the church flourished for a while… they had great pastors/teachers (Paul, Timothy and John) to name a few. But even a flourishing church can go backwards. Even a church with great pastors and teachers can go backwards. Even a church with faithful members can go backwards.

How does this happen? Hows does this begin to happen?

Listen: This church was doing a lot of good things, according to Jesus. They were working, persevering, not tolerating evil people, but exposing their deeds. They were putting to test those who were false apostles.

Are we supposed to do that? Jesus wants us to do that. He does not call us to compromise and to allow evil in the church; He wants us to expose it, bring church discipline, and even remove people who are living sinful lives, practicing evil deeds and are causing problems. Jesus says... “Good job.”

Not everyone should teach or preach. Not everyone who claims to be a man or woman of God should be allowed to do whatever they want to do… that is contrary to the teachings and actions of Christ. They must be tested and they must meet qualifications.

*Love your people by protecting them. Love your family by protecting them.

Also: They were not lazy or indifferent; they were in fact busy. They were not spectators like many church folks are. They were not pew sitters, they were go-getters. They didn’t point at light bulbs, they changed light bulbs. They didn’t point at trash, they picked up trash. They didn’t only point to problems, they worked to resolve problems. They didn’t complain about spending... while they themselves weren’t tithing. We would look at this church and want to join it.

Now, we move on: Verse 6 - isn’t fully understood by me. The nature of the Nicolaitans’ activity and sin is left to some speculation. Some early church writers connected them to idolatry and self-indulgence. They turned the grace of God as a license to sin. Love Jesus and do whatever you want to do.

But we understand that the Lord hated their deeds, and the church did to. They didn’t put up with it.

And Church: It is loving to Christ and to others if we do not put up with it either. It is unloving to Christ and those who practice these things, if we put up with it. It is unloving to the church to let this go on in the church, as it effects our people, our children, everyone, young and old.

In our world today, it is unloving and hateful to stand against sinful lifestyles: sexual immorality, transgender living, homosexuality, or lifestyles of hate, greed, slander or gossip.

God says it is loving to tell them the truth with a spirit of gentleness and love for them. The world says that it is hate. Jesus (Love Incarnate) says we should do it...

Let’s go with God on this.

Up until this point, we have heard the commendation… now comes the rebuke.

**What was the church guilty of? “But this I have against you, that you have left your first love.”

Around 30-40 years has passed from Paul to John’s vision here. What had happened over time? Passion had cooled. Burning hearts for Christ had cooled. Their devotion had gone from love… to works only. Their works could be described as mechanical.

Is it possible to do stuff without love? Read 1 Cor. 13 at home. Yes. Is it possible to come to church, teach a class, sweep a hall, clean a toilet, preach, and serve at VBS, use your giftings without love in our hearts for Christ.

Yes. It is possible to become somewhat mechanical is our actions, and our hearts are void of love.

We can have ministries and programs without Passion. We can have music without passion… without love in our hearts… To the point Jesus would say, “You honor me on your lips but your hearts are far from Me.”

You can come to church just for the sake of coming, or for the sake of people. You can come out of obligation only. You can serve out of wrong intentions and motivations… and not out of Love For Jesus.

Listen: This is a danger for every believer and every church existing.

It might be easy to understand and to see our love going cold by the evidence of not being in a church, not being in prayer, or participating in ministries...

You should be alarmed today if you are not spending time worshipping God, praising God, praying to God on a regular basis… You should have red lights flashing… You are not suppose to be like this... You are getting colder by the day!

But… it may not be easy to spot it when we are working and serving, it may be more difficult for us to be brought to repentance while we are still going through the motions.

Marriage can be a helpful illustration here. You go to work, come home, talk about superficial stuff, eat, get on the phone, watch t.v., go to bed, and do it again...

There is not a conversation between family members, no connecting, no fun, no laughing, no enjoyment, no intimacy… and the distance forms and grows.

Then all of a sudden… We can be in the same room, but we might as well be 100 miles away...

Where is the love? Where is the passion? Why aren’t we talking? Why aren’t we spending time together? Our family is heading towards disaster...

That is not where marriages should stay… and Jesus makes it clear here that He doesn’t want us to stay here either.

“You have left your first love; Remember from where you have fallen (Remember where you were); Repent (turn from where you are) and Repeat… do the first works…” Rekindle the flame and experience Revival in Me.

Don’t step away from Me; Turn back! Abide in My Love! Now!

Church: Do not be satisfied with robotic service. Do not be satisfied with coldness. Identify it and call it what it is and understand that this is not what Christ wants. He wants your hearts/He desires your hearts, your passion for Him.

You are on the road to Iceland, coldness, where there is no life. “But that is so far away Preacher...” You can get there in a day!

(story) The pastor visits the member who has separated himself from the congregation. The pastor comes into the home and they both sit by the fire place, not saying a word...

The pastor take the small shovel propped up on the brick and takes out one small glowing ember… and lays it outside of the flame… and they both watch it go from bright red to black...

And the church member gets the point...

(Illustration) Take the best peach tree, apple tree, pear tree you have… and cut off the limb… and it will never bear fruit again… It will dry up and die...

Church: If you will not identify the problem and turn to your first love, sooner than later... you will fall into spiritual apathy; you will compromise, and you will experience judgment.

(Look at the other churches in Revelation to see what that looks like…)

When the love of Christ is no longer your motivation. You will do things with the wrong motivations. When the love of Christ no longer compels you… You will be compelled by other things… And our actions will follow into further and further compromise...

*What do we need to do?

Remember… Repent… Repeat… Rekindle… Revival

Step 1: Remember from where we have fallen. Think back to when and where Christ came and became precious to us.

Remember when the lights came on. Remember when you were first washed clean. Remember when the joy and the peace came in. Remember the love you had for people, prayer, and God’s Word.

Remember… and run to Jesus for the fire to be stirred back up again. Turn from where you are and do what you use to do: Pray to Him, praise Him, worship Him, talk about Him with others, get along with Him and enjoy Him.

Go back to what you did in the beginning, back when it was just you and Him and simple devotion to Him.

Listen: No Christian is able to maintain their love for Christ easily. Sin, worries, stress, church fights and late nights, no food, no sleep, babies, marriage, life… may do a work on us all… and we all will experience a slipping away... throughout our walk with the Lord.

Are you convicted today? Are you saying today, “Yes, this is me?” Praise God!

What do we do when we spot the coldness today? Shall we let pride set in and say “I am ok?” Shall we become deceived and believe that it’s all about the doing/all about church attendance and being tired?

The worse thing we can do right now is say, “I am ok...” The worse thing to do is to listen to this message and say, “Well everyone else is cold… well, its not a big deal...”

Do you still have a passion for Christ? Do you still have burning hearts for the Lord? Does He excite you? Are you doing what you are doing for Him? Are you satisfied with Him?

Listen: Guard your hearts. Don’t lose the passion. If something is taking our passion away from God… then we need to go another way, or remove that hindrance…

Guard your love for your earthly family and church family...

But above all: Guard your love for Christ. Proverbs 4:23 – Watch over your hearts with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

Everything is going to flow from the heart. Everything is going to flow from the love you have for Him, or from the absence of love...

And this will take us places...

I believe that this church represents the first step all the other churches made and didn’t repent. Once this step is taken, many more steps will be taken away from Christ… and life, church life, services, community will get worse and worse.

This is the first step away. The ember is away from the flame and the light is going out… the passion is leaving… the worship… the prayer time… the communion with Jesus is leaving...

Remember… Repent… Repeat… Rekindle… Revival

1. Remember from where you have fallen. Remember: Love for Christ first. Remember love for the lost. Remember when it was all about your relationship with Him. Do all these other things… but cultivate your love for Christ above all other things, or the church will be removed… it will no longer be a church.

You must repent from this fading love. Repent of the busyness. Repent of the dead religion and the motion without any emotions for your Savior.

Get along with God. Spend time with Him daily. Worship and pray privately… Tell Him everything… Give Him everything.

Church: Remember… Repent… Repeat… Rekindle… Revival… It is needed today because love is fading…