The Loveless Church - Rev. 2:1-7

Intro:

Good morning.

If you have your Bibles this morning, turn to the very last book in the Bible — Revelation.

We are going to begin a study of the seven churches of Asia this morning, starting with “the Loveless Church” at Ephesus - Rev. 2:1-7.

Before we go there, let me briefly introduce this series by looking a little bit at chapter 1.

Introducing the Letter to the Seven Churches of Asia:

Let’s begin by reading in Revelation 1.

Rev. 1:1-3

Revelation 1:1–3 NKJV

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Notice:

“Things which must SHORTLY take place.” (These things were at hand — They would be happening very soon when Jesus first signified them).

Notice also, “BLESSED is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and KEEP those things which are written in it … for the TIME is near.”

Rev. 1:4-5

Revelation 1:4–5 NKJV

John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

Notice the immediate audience to which John writes (and Jesus writes THROUGH John) is ...

The seven churches of Asia.

I thought there was only one church/one body? (Eph. 4:4)

Yes, but here the word “churches” is being used to describe CONGREGATIONS.

How do we know that? (Because it becomes obvious when you start reading “the church of Ephesus,” “the church in Smyrna,” “the church in Pergamos,” etc. in chapters 2 and 3).

(So it’s important to look at words in CONTEXT to see their meanings).

Notice “from Him who IS and who WAS and who IS TO COME — The eternality of our Lord!

Notice also that He washed us from our sins in His own blood!

The blood of Jesus Christ is the cleansing agent that washes away our sins.

The moment that that blood of Christ washes our sins away is at baptism (Acts 22:16).

Rev. 1:6-8

Revelation 1:6–8 NKJV

and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Further glory describing the eternally powerful and good God!

You can read the rest of this chapter.

You’ll read that Jesus told John to write what he saw and “send it to the seven churches which are in Asia.”

We’re going to read about those seven churches of Asia over the next several weeks.

You’ll also read in the rest of chapter 1 how the Son of Man having seven golden lampstands.

There’s a lot of symbolism to follow in the rest of the chapter and the rest of the book. (Important to remember that when reading Revelation!)

So what do the lampstands represent?

Faithfulness — If the lampstand is still shining, then the congregation is considered faithful.

But if the lampstand goes out — Then that means that the congregation no longer belongs to Christ.

And what we’re going to see is that Christ threatens to remove the lampstand of some of these congregations because they were eaten up with sin.

Is there such a thing as a perfect congregation?

No, there’s not.

The church is PERFECT IN PLAN (God’s plan)!

But when you get fallible human beings together, there’s always going to be problems unfortunately because of SIN — because of human imperfection!

So unfortunately, even though the church is PERFECT in God’s plan, individual congregations are NOT perfect because they are made up of imperfect human beings.

And unfortunately, some congregations are in danger of reaching the threshold — wherein they are SO eaten up with sin, if you will — that they are in danger of having their candlestick removed!

I don’t know exactly what that threshold is, but I know it exists because Jesus threatens it as we will see!

Thus, we have to be on guard to keep our congregation SOUND in the faith!

And not only that, but also ACTIVE in the kingdom!

So what we’re going to see in this sermon series, then, is real life EXAMPLES of congregations that are going to help us examine our OWN congregation to see whether or not we are in the faith!

I believe that every congregation of the Lord’s church that has ever existed is an amalgamation (a mixture in some way) of the same things that you are going to find in these seven (complete number of!) churches!

(I believe we’ve got a GREAT congregation! One of the best I’ve ever been a part of … But we can always find room for improvement, so I hope this sermon series will be beneficial for us!)

With that, let’s get to the first one — “The Loveless Church — Rev. 2:1-7).

The Loveless Church - Ephesus:

Let’s start by simply reading the passage, and then we are going to notice the good, the bad, and some key takeaways we can learn from this congregation.

Rev. 2:1-2

Revelation 2:1–2 NKJV

“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: “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;

Rev. 2:3-5

Revelation 2:3–5 NKJV

and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 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.

Rev. 2:6-7

Revelation 2:6–7 NKJV

But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “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.” ’

THE GOOD:

I like how Jesus typically (if He can) starts with the good, then gets to the bad, and then gives some more good.

Sometimes that’s referred to as a “complement sandwich” — Good then a little bad and then some more good.

Generally speaking, that’s a good way to approach people when you have to do the dirty work of dealing with problems (so keep that in mind)!

So what all is good about the church at Ephesus?

Jesus says in verse 2 that He knew their:

Works, their labor, their patience, and that they could not bear those who were evil.

And to that we say: Outstanding!

Christianity is a WORKING religion:

Titus 2:11-14

Titus 2:11–14 NKJV

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Christians are to be PATIENT (as we discussed last Sunday night).

And Christians are not to BEAR WITH those who are evil (Rom. 1:32; Eph. 5:11).

Jesus goes on in verse two:

“And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not (false apostles), and have found them (to be) liars.”

Verse three: “And you have persevered and have patience (again), and have LABORED (again) for My name’s sake and have not become weary!”

This was a WORKING, ACTIVE congregation!

Furthermore, after the negative that we will get to in a minute, we see in verse 6:

“But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Who were these Nicolaitans?

They were false teachers.

They were active here at Ephesus as well as Pergamum which we will study later.

The early church fathers wrote somewhat about this heretical group, but there’s not a whole lot known about them for sure.

It is likely that the Nicolaitans were caught up in antinomianism (the idea that you can do whatever you want, essentially, which is widespread today as well).

Some say that Nicolas, who supposedly started this sect, was involved in a tremendous amount of sexual sin and it spread to his followers from there.

Some say that the Nicolaitans were an offshoot of Gnosticism.

So there are a lot of ideas about exactly what they were, but they were definitely false teachers, Jesus HATED their false teaching, and the church at Ephesus hated it as well — And Jesus applauded them for this!

So what do we know that was good about the church at Ephesus?

They were a hard-working, active congregation, and ...

They were sound in the faith (would not put up with false doctrine).

That said, they weren’t exactly 100% sound in practice — and here’s why! (Let’s look at the bad).

THE BAD:

Verse 4 - “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love ...”

What does Jesus mean by this?

It appears that He means that, although the church at Ephesus was doing a lot of the right things, they weren’t doing them for the right reasons!

What is to be our primary motivation in life?

“Fear God, and keep His commandments?” (Ecc. 12:13)

Or how about: “Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as our self?!” (Matt. 22:36-40)

In other words, our motivation for DOING the right things, being DOERS of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22) is supposed to be our LOVE for 1) God and 2) our fellow man!

And evidently, the Ephesian congregation wasn’t doing that!

They were just “going through the motions,” “going with the flow,” “checking off the boxes,” and all the while Jesus says they had left their first love!

So then ...

WHAT KEY TAKEAWAYS CAN WE GATHER FROM THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS?

The first key takeaway is that it IS important to be hard at work for the Lord, and to be sound in the faith.

The Bible is very clear about that.

Jesus Himself said in John 9:4 - “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” (And we are to follow His example).

1 Tim. 1:10 and 2 Tim. 4:3 talks about the importance of “SOUND DOCTRINE,” and unfortunately shows that many will not endure it, but according to their own desires will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.

So sound doctrine and activity in the kingdom are important … But those aren’t the ONLY things that are important!

It is equally important that we have the PROPER MOTIVATION behind doing those things!

Namely, our LOVE for the Lord and for our fellow man!

What is the motivation for worshipping Him?

Is it to do so in spirit AND in truth? (John 4:24)

Unfortunately, the church at Ephesus was missing this crucial piece of the puzzle, and Jesus said they had left their first love!

APPLICATION & CONCLUSION:

The application is this: Sometimes we’re guilty of leaving our first love, too!

If we are here every time the doors are open, church … But we are just going through the motions … Then we have left our first love!

If we are the staunchest, soundest, most active congregation in all of southeast Oklahoma … but we have the wrong motivation for that (perhaps pride, or self-righteousness), then we have left our first love!

And what does Jesus say Ephesus was in danger of?

Again, He says in verse 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!”

What about you?

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The Persecuted Church - Smyrna:

THE GOOD:

NO BAD MENTIONED:

Does that mean this congregation was perfect? (No)

WHAT KEY TAKEAWAYS CAN WE LEARN FROM THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA?

The Compromising Church - Pergamos:

The Corrupt Church - Thyatira:

The Dead Church - Sardis:

The Faithful Church - Philadelphia:

The Lukewarm Church - Laodicea:

The 8th Church - What About Us?