Your First Love

What makes you do things that are really tough. What makes us continue to go to work on the hard days, clean when you don’t want to or help a friend out. Usually it is not your desire to do the thing itself but a greater motivation usually of responsibility or love. In today sermon I want to explore how the Christian faith in many ways the same the motivation of just simply doing is not enough we must look into our hearts for the most powerful motivation our love for Christ.

Our Passage today is Revelation 2:1-7

Revelation 2:1–7 NKJV

1 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 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; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’

It is important for us to first set the context for the passage before we begin to dig in.

Revelation- Revelation is written after John's exile to the Island of Patmose by the emperor Domitian who insisted on emperor worship and grew frustrated with the Christians who did not cooperate. Christ gave a vision to John while on the island of the events that would transpire in the future. John then wrote the book of Revelation around A.D. 95. Ultimately the book of Revelation is prophetic speaking of the coming events in history from a Christ centered perspective.

Revelation 2 begins the section of known as the "letters to the seven churches." In this section Christ tells John what is message is to seven different churches beginning with the church in 2:1-7 Ephesus. These letters all begin with a description of Christ relating to chapter one. Then following that there is typically a renegotiation of the good that the church is doing followed by encouragement and warning. It in important to understand that these letters are found in revelation because these letters are essentially messages from Christ pointing out issues to the churches so they can strengthen themselves for the coming persecution.

Ephesus- Ephesus was an extremely important city its region so it is not surprising that the first of these seven letters is written to Ephesus. Ephesus was an important business and trade center in Asia because of it's location near the Aegean Sea. Ephesus was a huge city consisting of more than a quarter of a million people at the time of the writing of Revelation. It is great that the church in Ephesus held tightly to correct doctrines because they found themselves in the midst of very religious city with many temples built to other Greek and Roman gods. Including the massive temple of Artemis, which was the center of an extensive Greek religious cult.

Christian faith probably came to Ephesus through the work of Aquila and Priscilla. Paul came to Ephesus in Acts 19 and Timothy ministered there some as we know from 1 Timothy. The apostle John is the one who was most closely associated with the city. John was served as a pastor in Ephesus around A.D. 70.

Understanding the context of these letters and the church should help us we explore the rest of this letter to the church of Ephesus.

I. Christ Knows and Controls

In verse one we see that that Christ is identified as "He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. This identification of Christ tells us two things. 1) "He who holds the seven stars" tells us that he has control of the seven Churches. 2) "Walks among the seven lampstands" means that Christ knows what is present in what is going on in the churches. That he knows what is going on in the seven churches.

1) In our churches Christ knows all the goes on. Which should serve as both an encouragement and a warning because when do right Christ will see it but when we don’t practice righteousness Christ also sees that.

2) Christ also controls all that goes on in our churches. This should serve as an encouragement especially to the Ephesians because of the persecution their were experiencing during their time. For us we can be encouraged in the same way. Christ has a plan and His purposes will be carried out in the church. It may not always look the way we want it to, but we can rest assured during termiol that Christ is “holding the seven stars.”

II. What the Church At Ephesus did Right

It is easy to see in ready this first letter to the Ephesian church that there is some good qualities. Christ commends the Ephesian believers for what they are doing right.

A. Their Labor

Revelation 2:2 “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;”

In verse two we see that their are commended for their work and labor. These believers did the work of the Lord well and labored for the cause of the kingdom. Christ commended them for their work would Christ commended us for our work. Do we see ourselves as the type that work and labor for the kingdom?

Paul shares with the Corinthian believers an encouraging word on Labor.

1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

We should seek to work like the church in Ephesus because he labor we do for the Lord serves an everlasting Kingdom and work most certainly will not be in vain.

B. They are patient.

The church at Ephesus worked with patience. Sometimes when we are labouring and working we don’t always see the fruits of our labour, but it is important as believers that we continue to push forward with patience trusting in God’s plan.

C. They cannot bear those that are evil.

The Church at Ephesus did not tolerate Evil. If evil people try to infiltrate the church we should have not tolerance for it. The church while none of us are perfect and while there is a sanctification process in people’s lives the church should strive to live as holy “set apart” from evil.

D. The did not allow false teaching

The church at Ephesus was recognized for because they didn’t allow false teacher into their midst. They knew the scriptures and they could spot a false teachers. As believers it is our duty to know the Word of God and to search it for the truth. Jesus tells Pilate he came to “bear witness of the truth” anything other than what the Word of God teaches is a lie. The bereans in the Bible sought out truth in the scriptures. Timothy, Paul, and Peter knew scripture backwards and forwards. Not every believer has to know everything about Jewish history or read Greek and Hebrew but every believer should know what scripture says!

If we don’t know scripture we can be easily misguided not just by people in our church but false teachers writing books and false teachers teaching online if we know our scripture we can recognize false teachers. Knowing what is true makes it really easy to tell what is false.

One time I was watching a James Bond movie with my dad and I can’t remember exactly what happened but I remember there was a semi truck and someone cut the airlines in it going down hill and they driver couldn't stop. Now I know that was a complete movie stunt because I grew up around trucking working on them. I did brake work on trucks all the time and I’ll tell you cut the air supply to a trailer those brakes are locking up because the parking break on a truck is released by air not activated by air. The only reason I knew that was a movie stunt is because I had experience with the truth.

III. What the Ephesians Got Wrong

The Ephesian believers did a lot of things right that we should try and model as the church today, but they had one major problem. Look with me at verses four and five.

Revelation 2:4–5 NKJV

4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

The Ephesians had forgotten their first love. These believer got so much right but in the end they forgot their fundamentals. I coached junior wrestling for about two years in high school. An important thing about wrestling is fundamentals. Things like a good stance and good hip position can make all the difference in a match. You can drill and drill and drill moves and perfect them but if that match comes and you don’t do the simple things right you lose.

I spoke of motivation in the intro. This is important because our love fro Christ is what should motivate as believers to do the right thing. Living in a Christ-like way goes against every inclination of our flesh. Pure will power alone will not motivate us to live this walk we need a desire a love for Christ and his word then the rest will follow. Not only that but we need Christ to walk this Christian walk without Christ we will not have the ability to do it, but our desire to surrender comes out of our love for Christ. God doesn’t need our works, He needs our love, hope, and faith. The work we do should come out of this. I think the story that most captures this idea in scripture is Mary and Martha let’s turn to Luke 10:38-42 and read it together.

Luke 10:38–42 NKJV

38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Martha was “distracted” with much serving. Working and serving can be a distraction if it is not Christ-Centered. Martha was focused so much on the meal she missed the opportunity to spend time with the saviour. Jesus in he end says Mary has chosen the good part which will not parish. The words of Christ and our relationship with Christ will not Parish, but our work if it is not centered around Christ will perish. Kingdom work does not perish but work simply out of compulsion or duty will perish. Finally, I want look at Paul’s words to this very church and see how he so beautifully explains the importance of Love in the body.

Ephesians 4:14–21 NKJV

14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. 17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:

Paul’s Prayer for the very same church that Christ is writing to years later is that they would be rooted in love understanding the depths of the love of Christ. Paul's desire for the Ephesians should be the desire of every Church because we should know and remember the Love of Christ. The Ephesians were in the midst of persecution and battling with false teaching but what can get them though that is remembering their love for Christ. We should never get so concerned with the day to day that we forget to look to Christ and what he has done. We should also take a positive lesson from the Ephesians and remember to stay in the word, work, and avoid evil.