A Call for the Church to Persevere in Love

The text tonight is Revelation 2:1-7. When I was in the army sometimes we would do what were called Battle Drills, sort of like practising running a play in sports. And after the training we would do an AAR, and after action review and discuss sustains and improves. Things that were done well and we should continue to do, and things that we needed to improve upon and do better at. There was one time I was in the leadership role and after the training exercise in the AAR their was no mention of things done well because there was one major improve. And we spent all the time “discussing” that. After 30 minutes or so I was covered in sweat from the “discussion” and was told “I put you through that so you would never forget.” Well I never forgot it but unfortunately the lesson has 0 application to my life now. These letters in Revelation to the 7 churches have great application for us. We are going to read Christs perfect and all knowing assessment of the Church in Ephesus. The issues the Church in Ephesus faces are not far different from ours. A secular culture that is steeped in idolatry and an obsession with sexual immortality. Pressure to be more pluralistic. Pressure to be more accepting of ideas that contradict scripture. A prevalence of false teaching and false teachers who seek in infiltrate and influence the church. Lets read Revelation 2:1-7.

This passage opens with a visual of Jesus holding seven stars as he is walking among the golden lampstands, which represent seven major churches at this time. It is a visual of Jesus who is in the midst of the church and active among the church. Just as Jesus is always aware of the exact condition of our heart, Jesus is perfectly aware of the exact condition of HIS churches. Like all passages in scripture, the message is undergirded by grace. It is gracious that our Lord is in our midst and patiently corrects His church. Five of the seven churches have serious issues that need to be addressed, the church in Ephesus being one of them. Jesus not only shows grace by patiently yet firmly revealing the heart condition of the churches, but it is an encouragement to persevere to the end. All the messages to the seven churches end with this call to listen with these words “he who has an ear, let him hear” with the encouragement to conquer and persevere. Each message describes eternal life with different imagery, but the message is the same. Listen to my words, listen to my encouragement and correction that you will conquer in this life and experience eternal life in the next. This basic message is written to all Churches as in verse 7. Revelation 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’” The church in Ephesus has specific issues that are being addressed, but the message of encouragement, warning, and call to persevere are for all churches.

This passage is a call for the church to persevere to the end, and there are three calls to the church that Christ gracefully gives us in this text.

The first is a A Call to Continue in Resisting False Teaching and a Wicked Culture.

Reading verses 2 and 3: Revelation 2:2–3 ““ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.”

A. The church in Ephesus has been working and toiling and they are doing so “for my name’s sake,” for the sake of the name of Christ. This word toil means pretty much how we think it means. It refers to work that is burdensome, that is exhausting and there could a wide range of works that we would consider burdensome and exhausting. But in the context of this passage, there is a heavy emphasis on outside influence, resisting that influence, and “how the Church is Ephesus could not bear with those who are evil.”

The Church is Ephesus in under constant pressure from a secular, hyper sexual, and idolatrous culture, and the Church was working hard to resist this constant and exhausting pressure to assimilate, be more tolerant, and not so rigid in their beliefs . When people talk about how wicked our culture is, a part of me can see yes, our country has shows a moral decline in a clear and visible way. But when we look at all of history, from the Church in Ephesus through the dark ages and so on, there is a constant theme of the true Christian Church and its conflict with the dominant culture. Here is a church, with the same Great Commission that we have, living in the midst of a wicked culture. We would be disillusion to expect there to be some sort of perfect harmony between us and our secular culture. Our mission is to be among a world that sees the cross as foolishness, to go to our neighbors whose minds are darkened in their understanding, in a culture where Satan works to veil the gospel, and then share the gospel and disciple them. Just because we are in a small town in the NC bible belt doesn’t exclude us from this cultural influence, because American culture not only resists that Great Commission call, but is pressing in on, because from their view, they want us to stop being so unloving by talking about hell and not affirming everybody’s identity, and to stop being so arrogant that we would send people all over the world to spread the gospel to unreached people groups. This mission of the Church as defined by scripture will never live in complete harmony with the world until the coming of Christ because our very existence and mission stands in contradiction to it. We are called to work, toil, and not grow weary for the sake of Christ while we exist and obey the Great Commission command to make disciples while under this constant pressure from the culture our church exists in.

B. The Church in Ephesus was working to resist false teachers and false beliefs. The Church experiences pressure not just from a secular culture that hates God and hates what we believe, but the Church must work to resist infiltration from those who claim to be Christian and yet are wolves in sheeps clothing. Right now we see churches being actively infiltrated by progressive Christianity and beliefs that rest on the twisting of scripture. I love reading about the reformation. Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms trial saying he cannot recant because of his convictions about what scripture says because his eyes were opened while reading Romans 1:17 as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”” and he must stand on what scripture says and not what the dominant culture of the Catholic Church says. Thats a reformation. The current progressive Christianity movement is not a reformation. It is not the result of an honest interpretation of scripture that stands in contradiction the dominant culture. It is a result of the world pressing in on the church, and people either twisting scripture or simply discarding sections of it in order to appease the culture around them. Progressive Christianity and liberal theology, does not originate in an honest interpretation of scripture, but originates in the desire to assimilate better in a culture that hates God.

There were people that came to the Church in Ephesus and they claimed to be apostles. Maybe they claimed to be apostles in the “outer ring” like James the brother of Jesus, maybe they were travelling missionaries, in any case they showed up claiming to be teachers and apostles but they did not fool the church in Ephesus. Whether it was by their works or their teachings, the believers at Ephesus were not fooled because they stood firm in their theology. Later in verse 6 the Nicolaitans are mentioned. We do not know their exact beliefs but in the letters the the church in Pergamum they are mentioned along with the teaching’s of Balaam so there teaching probably was connected to sexual immorality and leading others astray in sexual immorality. There is nothing new under the sun huh. So what exactly the false apostles and Nicolaitans were claiming, we don’t know, but it involved a group that claimed authority who were in fact the wolves that Paul warned the church in Ephesus about in Acts, and another group that were in the Church and and were making a moral compromise with the pagan culture.

They came preaching and teaching something that was in contradiction to the gospel and because the church in Ephesus stood firm in their theology they rooted them out, and exposed them for their true selves. This reveals our first line of defense against false teaching and that is to know scripture and how the gospel comes out of scripture. I understand not everybody has time to read theology. After you work 8 hours a day and spend time with your kids, getting in bed and reading Grudems Systematic Theology book may not yield much fruit. I love how many theological books and materials are available to us. But there was a time before DA Carson, before the Puritans, before Calvin, and if you know scripture, you can test anybody who claims to be a teacher or preacher, or any new theology or movement, and say “Nope.” Thats false. We are bombarded by people claiming to be teachers and preachers that are all over TV, Youtube, books and blogs, and if you do not know what scripture says, you may be lead astray and not realize it. I have met some false teachers and have heard many especially on tv, they usually don’t come and give warning that they are about to contradict scripture. Many of you are responsible for teaching others. Our teaching must be rooted in scripture always with the disclaimer, don’t take my word for it, see for yourselves what I am saying is backed by scripture.

Looking out, I see people who know scripture. I see people who know their theology. Our church has good theology. From our discipleship groups, to Sunday School, to the preaching whether is is Pastor Chris or an Elder, we hear good theology that is based on scripture. The Church in Ephesus did not grow weary in this. I pray for revival in our Country, not political revival, but spiritual revival especially among younger people. But it may be the culture continues its moral decline and Wilkesboro may grow more and more hostile to the mission of the Church. I pray we continue in our solid scriptural foundation and good theology and not grow weary the more our culture begins to press into us. Christians being called bigots just because we believe the Bible, is a sick irony that demonstrates how upside down our culture is. It may be wearisome and feel like toil to be accused of bigotry for defining marriage as between a man and a woman, to be called arrogant for believing in objective truth, and sometimes the very arguments against Christianity may feel wearisome in that they make a caricatures of our faith, and that they mock our Lord and Savior. But nevertheless, let us not grow weary in doing good and not grow weary in being a Church planted in truth.

C. Verse 6 the Church in Ephesus is commended for hating the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Revelation 2:6 “Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” They hated the false gospel they were hearing and they hated it just like Christ hates it.

When I was working at a second chance program for teen boys, which was basically an alternative to jail type program, one of my bosses was asked by a Jehovah Witness “ministerial servant” they call them (since they don’t have pastors) to come lead a Bible study. According the the state of NC they are a Christian denomination and, like a lot of false teachers, they are not always forthcoming about how they differ in their beliefs from protestant Christianity. My boss was a Christian but was a bit naive and thought that they might be a little odd, but are our “brothers in Christ” as he put it and allowed them in. I volunteered to supervise the boys during it and the guy showed up and passed out his materials and went into a lesson about the golden calf incident in Exodus. I don’t think the boys understand half of what he was talking about, but I was really curious how he was going to tie this lesson up, what was going to be the main point of all he had said. So the lesson came to a close with this sentence that was basically the thesis of his entire lesson. Keep in mind he was not talking about sanctification. He was talking about justification. He said “God just wants you to try your best.” I want you to really sink your teeth into this scene. He has come in a suit, only volunteer I have seen come in in a suit but whatever, and talk to these teen boys. Average age 15-16. These teen boys that in a lot of cases their parents don’t want them, the school system doesn’t want them, the state doesn’t know what to do with them. They are a lot of times getting bounced around from relatives, to foster families, to jail then here where they have misdemeanors and felonies and feel trapped in a criminal culture. And his great message of hope to them ot be able to stand before a Holy God was to try your best. I HATE WHAT HE SAID and I hope in you is something that hated hearing that. The man I do not hate because that man is blind. He is working so hard for salvation and has no idea how arrogant his message to them was. I HATE the message of liberal and progressive Christianity because I love the truth and the objectivity of scripture. I HATE what word of faith and prosperity gospel preachers say because they are deceiving flocks of people who are many times desperate and confused. I HATE their message because while Jesus saw the crowds that were like sheep without a Shepherd he took pity on them where prosperity teachers look upon that same crowd and take advantage of them. We don’t need to walk around angry, but we can have zeal for the truth. The Church in Ephesus hated false teaching, BUT they forgot the hatred of false teaching was rooted in a love for Christ and a love for others.

The Second Call is a Call to Return to Love we Had at First.

Revelation 2:4 “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

The more predominant interpretation that I’ve studied, and that I agree with, is that this is referring to a loss of love for one another because the phrase (if you’re reading the KJV or NASB) “your first love” (or which I think the ESV and NIV make it more clear by phrasing it) “The love you had at first” in the Greek the phrase doesn’t mean your first love like your number one love in life, but a love that the church had at first that has since “grown cold” similar to what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:12 when He says the love of many will grow cold. There is an interpretation of this is that the love that has been lost is their original love for Christ. All through the NT, especially in the gospel of John, and the epistles of John, there is a close connection between the love of Christ and the love we have for each other as believers that it doesn’t make sense to try and overly separate the two.

A. I am going to speak on the loss of brotherly love and then later return to the love of Christ as the remedy. So in the Church in Ephesus, a loss of love for Christ has manifested itself in a loss of brotherly love in the Church. The is is an absolutely DEVASTATING INDICTMENT for a church. To have Jesus Christ give his church evaluation and say your “What we believe” statement on your website is great. The preaching, theologically sound. Sat in on some Sunday School classes, good doctrine was being discussed, but there is one major problem. There is not love here. The love for each other that I have called you to show, that will be evidence that you are my disciples, has grown cold. I want to be clear, I did not look at this text and read verse 4 and think “yea we have this problem at WBC and I need to address it.” What shocks me about this text is that we could be on target with out theology and doctrinal language, be vigilant against false teachers and heresy, and yet have no love for others. So for us, it may not be so much a call for correction as it is a call for vigilance and assessment. Are we demonstrating love? Are there areas where are love for each other has grown cold?. For me, to think how devastating it would be to hear at the end of seminary, Nathan your test scores was great, your essay’s were great, academically you’re solid. But, your problem is you don’t love people. We are not called to just know things. We are called to love.

We need to remember how vital love for one another is. GK Beale is a theologian who has studied Revelation at length and argues that the lost love described in this passage refers to the Church in Ephesus not witnessing the gospel, I don’t find his argument convincing that this passage is describing that specifically, but scripture does show there is connection between the love we demonstrate for each other, and our witness to the others. John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” 1 John 3:10 “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” John speaks so strongly about love in his epistles that he connects our love for others as evidence with whether we even know God. If you don’t love your brother or sister in Christ, if we don’t love each other, then John asks us Do you even know God? 1 John 4:7–8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Loving each other is series business. It also shows us our source for loving each other is not rooted in our personalities or whether we are outgoing or not, it is rooted in knowing God. Brotherly love is a symptom of knowing God.

B. The issue being addressed in this passage is not that people were not going to church. But, to participate in the Church family and exhibit brotherly love, you do first need to be here. You can go to church every Sunday and have nothing to do with the Church family. Sitting in the Sunday morning service is not when we show the most brotherly love. We show brotherly love in our Sunday School classes, in the hallway or fellowship hall, discipleship groups, meals, the things we do together outside of these walls. It is hard to show brotherly love and not spend any time with each other besides sitting next to to each other in the sanctuary. Church meetings are important and necessary and if you are a member I think you should try to be there, but one of the greatest exercises in brotherly and family love we show is the meal afterword. These are things we do and I think we do well. In the American Church, it is socially acceptable to miss Church if you are missing it to do stuff with your immediate family. Please know, I am not suggesting your family or your spouse should be neglected or should feel neglected so you can do more Church stuff. But. I do think the more the Church acts life a family, the more people will not feel like they are sacrificing family time to be at a just another function on their calendar like a school or sports event, and instead are spending time with their large Christian family.

This sort of culture is largely determined by the people in this room. The people here who live as if the Church is family. I am not trying to convince people who are not here to do something. I am hoping to encourage a continued call to treat the Church as a family that loves one another. That invites others, not just to participate in Church activities, but to participate in family activities such as meals, fellowship, and living life together.

C. The idea of being so individualistic and disconnected from the Church family is a rather American view, and not the issue the Church in Ephesus had, but we can’t show love without being around each other. The Church in Ephesus had done well in their theology, knew how to recognize false teachers, but they were still not showing brotherly love. We do not know exactly how this behaviour was shown. But if there is no love for each other, and yet work is still being done, and people are patiently enduring, it would seem there was a harshness and a coldness among them and an issue were people where willing to call out false teaching but were not doing so in love. We do not call out false teaching and bad theology for the sake of inflating our ego. We don’t walk around with a chip on our shoulder, hungry to correct people so we feel good about ourselves and our knowledge. We correct out of love and we hate a false gospel because of how much we love the true gospel.

One of the reasons things like Sunday School is important is not just for theological knowledge. We meet together to discuss theology and the word of God while we are also participating in brotherly love. Sunday School is a family devotion in the Church family. Discipleship groups and home groups are brothers and sisters walking with Christ together as a family. Sometimes this may mean sticking with a group that isn’t up to what you feel is your “theological caliber.” Sometimes correction happens with people who are not intentional false teachers, or wolves, but are believers who say things that need correction. So in a Sunday School or Bible study or in conversation, you may have to correct some things you hear, lovingly. You may have to be corrected. I have been corrected. If we walk around smashing peoples opinions with the anvil of scripture, (to use Spurgeons language), and we do not do so in love and a willingness to walk with them, pray with them, live in community with them, be their brother or sister in Christ, then as Paul would say we are just “resounding gongs and clanging cymbals.” Paul would absolutely correct bad theology and bad behavior. But Paul was not just in the correcting people business. Paul was in the pastoring, discipling, and mentoring business. He was grieved over the Corinthians Church because he loved them.

When we are knowledgeable and vocal about our theology and doctrine, but we don’t have love, we become insufferable to be around. All we focus on is everything wrong with other Churches, and everything wrong with other Christians. We DO need to discuss issues that are happening in the Christian Church and in our Country and culture. But if we lose sight of how scripture reveals our need for grace, then we start to see scripture as indictments against everybody else but ourselves. Our need to stay rooted in grace brings the third call.

A Call to Remember and Repent.

Revelation 2:5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

A. The Church in Ephesus is called to repent with action and return to doing the works that were done in love at first. We know repentance can only be achieved with action. It is not just a state of mind, it is to make a radical change in behavior. But look at what they are commanded to do with repenting, they are told to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen.” Remember how we were saved by grace. The key is to not just try to be nicer to people. The key is to be in love with Jesus in a way that pours out into a love for others. If we try to love others without first going through Christ, we will be seen as fake because it will be fake. We start with a renewed love for Christ and remembering our need for grace. We are not decent people that were made to even more decent people because of grace. Without grace we are monsters. No matter how much we learn about theology, no matter how dogmatic we are in our doctrines, we never outgrow the gospel. We never outgrow Ephesians 2. We never move past what John 3:16 means.

One of the reasons I love prison ministry is the opportunity to witness and be reminded of the childlike awe of the grace of God. To hear a guy say “Look I am a bad man. I have hurt people. I have done some messed up stuff. Not like I get impatient sometimes stuff but stuff that will make your skin crawl. You’re telling me that Jesus can forgive all that stuff.” Yes. That’s the gospel. Without grace, you’re not any better than that man. One time I was praying with my discipleship group and I had asked them to pray for the prison ministry and one of the guys prayed “Lord thank you because without you that is probably where we would be.” It is tough to even imagine that guy in prison, its a bizarre visual, but I think that was a great prayer that remembers our need for grace. Not every unbeliever is a career criminal. But like there is a term for addicts who are able to maintain their jobs and stuff, they call them “functioning addicts.” Some may appear to hide it better than others. But without grace we are all sinners obsessed with ourselves and steeped in idolatry.

B. This does not mean every Sunday sermon is 5 minutes of Elijah, or some other topic and 30 minutes of John 3:16. We need to hear scripture based, expository preaching every Sunday that dives deep into the word and edifies the congregation. No matter how obscure or difficult the passage that Pastor Chris or any other pastor, preaches, whether it is OT or NT, it is undergirded by the message of the gospel and our need for grace. When we forget our need for grace we begin to lose our love of Christ and our awe of how dependent we are on grace. We can start to view our sanctification, or our perceived growth as a believer as the new standard for what a “real Christian” looks like. We view other Christians who have not done as much as we have done or are not doing as much as we think they should be doing as slackers who need to get on our level. We become cold towards others. Our call for others to participate in the church community is because we love them and its a joy to see them. Instead of guilt trips about doing more “church stuff” we genuinely tell them, hey we’re your family and we love spending time with you. We love seeing you and having you around.

James says in his third chapter that if you want to be we wise, you want to be knowledgeable, show it by doing works in meekness. If we forget our need for grace and how our conversion started with the realization that we are totally depraved without God, our knowledge become arrogance. The Church in Ephesus is called to return to doing their works in love. Maybe you are being convicted in areas of your life or involvement in the church family where you have not been loving. This is something I am working on and my wife and I have been praying through. How can we be more hospitable, how can we serve others, asking God to give us that servant and selfless mindset that is an outpouring of received grace. Honestly, I know most of you if not all of you, and you all have loved my wife and I area good example of loving others. And I think this passage is an encouragement to continue and remember Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Let us not grow weary of doing good that is rooted in love because we recognize our constant need for grace no matter how long you have been a Christian.

Conclusion: I have two concluding applications that are specific. We all know the church has been looking for a Music Ministry Director, and I don’t know who or when, but at some point, Lord willing, it will happen. They are going to show up in a new town, new congregation, and not know anybody except maybe the few people they met throughout the hiring process. I was thinking somebody, a parent or friend or whoever, will probably call them and ask how are things going at the new Church. They may say “oh man the preaching is great, the elders know their stuff and have all this ministry and business experience, this church’s theology is solid, and I think they will probably think those things. But wouldn’t it also be amazing if they said, “but also, I just feel absolutely loved by these people. I feel life I am entering a family. The congregation, they just love each other and they have been loving on me since I got here.”

Secondly. Some of you all have amazing families and I praise God for that. Some people do not. Some people, if their church family isn’t loving them, nobody is loving them. Loving each other is serious business. God is calling us as a Church to continue in our good theology and to stand on what the Bible says. But he is calling on us to do so in love. Though the days are evil, to persevere in good works and love.

Lets us pray:

Lord thank you for this church family. Thank you Lord that it is your perfect will to live life together, to walk together, to carry each others burdens. Give us boldness to confess our sins to each other and to pray for each other. Sometimes we need to correct false teaching. Give us zeal for your word but also patience and understanding. Sometimes Lord we are the ones who need to be corrected. Give us humility and a servants heart. I thank you Lord that we are a Great Commission Church, keep us that way no matter the outside pressure that we may face. Keep our eyes open to false teaching, to wolves that enter the flock, keep us vigilant Lord. But also Lord, remind us always of our need for Grace. We praise you that you love us and because of your grace we gather together and can call upon your name. I pray this in your precious name Jesus, Amen.