To The Church of Ephesus
Notes
Transcript
Good morning and welcome to Living Faith Church. I am so excited to be able to worship Jesus Christ with you on this amazing Sunday. If we have never met before, my name is Aaron. My wife Stella and I are honored to be able to serve on the Pastoral team at LFC. Today we are going to start a brand new series called Seven - A series from the book of Revelation.
Series Intro
Series Intro
If you have your Bible with you, today we are going to dedicate our time to looking at a single section of Scripture from the book of Revelation. So, you can open your Bible to Revelation chapter two. Now, today, we are going to enter into a unique study of Scripture, and over the next seven weeks we are going to study a series of letters written to seven unique churches in Asia. Now, these letters are written for us in the book of Revelation, and they are not letters like we would think of today, they are letters with a deep doctrinal message, and can be intimately applied to our personal lives. And we know this because at the end of each letter we read these unique words.
29 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Not just a local church, or a group of local churches. Rather, Jesus knew, and John knew when penning these words from Jesus, that what was being written was important for the universal church, the capitol “C” church, every church from every generation past, present, and future, to know. Another thing we should know before going to far, is that each letter is written to the pastor of each church, using the title “Angelos”, translated angel. This is word that is used often in Scripture to refer to actual angels, but also messengers of God.
Matthew 11:10 - we read that John the Baptist was an “Angelos” of God
Luke 7:24 the Angelos of John spoke
2 Corinthians 12:7 Paul had a thorn in the flesh that was an Angelos from God.
So, as we look into these seven letters from Christ to the churches of Asia Minor, we find significant and important messages to us today as a local church. As we begin we will find that each letter is structure with a specific seven point outline.
The introduction with the name of the church that is receiving the letter
The name of the author. Obviously Jesus, but He uses specific language in each letter.
The message to the church that needs to be heard.
A judgement (negative or positive).
A call to action for that body, and for us today.
A warning to be heeded
A promise from God that we can receive if we obey His words.
To The Church of Ephesus
To The Church of Ephesus
The very first letter that we are going to look at is the letter to the church of Ephesus. Let’s go ahead and read this letter together.
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
2 ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
4 ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
6 ‘Yet this you do 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 grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
First Love
First Love
Now each letter has a theme, Faithfulness, the Jezebel Spirit, Be Strong. The letter to the church of Ephesus has the theme of “First Love”. We find that in verse 4
4 ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
I remember the first time I felt like I loved another girl. I was 7 years old, it was a sunny summer Sunday afternoon in Olympia, Washington. But somehow this morning Katie looked surprisingly attractive. I mean she always stood out to me, but this morning, more than usual. Was it her dress, her hair, her shoes? I had to think about this. That afternoon at lunch, it was just mom, dad, and as we drove up to the restaurant I thought in my head, this is as good a time as ever to tell my parents just how much I love Katie. But then I thought, I should pose this to them as a question. So I asked; “Mom; Dad, is it OK if I like Katie”? To that, they asked; “What is it that you like about her”. I had been thinking about this ever since I saw her in kids’ church so I already knew the answer to this important question. “I like her dress and she is really nice” “It’s OK to like Katie as a friend, just remember, you are nothing more than friends,” they said. That made a lot of sense to me, after all, I was only 7 years old, how much could happen between us? I didn’t even have a job yet. But as the week went on, and next Sunday drew closer the excitement of seeing Katie again grew rapidly. My heart would pound as I thought of her, and my palms would get sweaty. I thought to myself; this is important, if I don’t let her know how I feel she may be stuck wishing I would like her but not knowing that I do like her a lot. I thought to myself, I need to give her something. This was in the ’80s, the era of friendship bracelets and banana clips. I had a friendship bracelet; so that next Sunday morning, I carefully put it in my pocket and waited all morning for the right moment. I started walking back to the room where we met for kids’ church hoping to find her. Sure enough, there she was with her friends. I was sure this was going to be a big moment, she was going to light up with excitement and give me a hug; a kiss, something spectacular. This was a defining moment. As I watched her approach, I put my hand in my pocket and drew out the friendship bracelet and with my boldest, manliest voice I said “Katie”; “yes” she replied. “I want to give this to you” “Oh” she replied. And then something happened that I did not expect at all. Something really weird inside of me. My tongue felt like it was the size of Texas and weighed as much as the entire globe. I tried to get more words out but my whole face seemed to be paralyzed. I sat there stunned by this weird phenomenon. Realizing that nothing more was going to project out of my mouth Katie grabbed her friend’s hands and kept walking. All day I had been anticipating this romantic moment that would change my future, and it was staled by my inescapable boyish silliness.
Now, I want to ask you again, do you remember your first love? Because Jesus says:
16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?”
What does this mean? It means that somewhere in your spirit, before you were even able to make a conscious decision of right or wrong, praise was exiting your spirit and turning to heaven. Listen church, Jesus was your first love. And that is why this letter is so critical.
How interesting it is though, that Jesus praises this church for their good deeds, their hard works, their perseverance. If I were to read just verses 1-3 of Revelation 2 I would think myself proud to be part of this church!
The Judgement
The Judgement
But Jesus goes on:
4 ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
He says, this thing you call church, you’ve made it more about doing and less about being. It’s more about what you do and less about who you do it for. You haven’t haven’t lost faith, you’ve just lost focus. You are acting as if you love working for the church more than you do worshipping the God of the church.
And I think that this is a critical word for our church today. Because this is what I know; as you go through life, and the stress of work piles, and the bills increase, as the tension of marriage and family weigh in, it is so easy to forget that the reason we have gathered. It’s easy to make church more about inspiration, getting filled up, and equipped for the work week. These are all really good! But we have come into this house today to bring our worship to the God of the universe, to surrender our lives to the King of Kings, to humble ourself in His presence and bring our glory to His throne.
(MAKE THE BELLOW POINTS A BULLET LIST IN PP7 )
How do you know if you have lost your first love?
How do you know if you have lost your first love?
You can go hours or even days without having even a passing thought of Jesus.
You are more concerned about physical health, well-being, and comfort than about the well-being and condition of your soul.
You spend more time and effort on your physical appearance than on cultivating inner spiritual beauty to please Christ.
You can talk with others about kids, marriage, weather, and the news, but struggle to talk about the Lord and spiritual matters.
You have a hard time coming up with something fresh to share in a testimony service at church or when someone asks, “What’s God been doing in your life?”
You are critical or harsh toward those who are doctrinally off-base or living in sin.
“Little” things that used to disturb your conscience, no longer do.
You are more concerned about having the right position than the right disposition.
You rarely have a desire or burden to give, when you hear of legitimate financial needs within the Body, your church, or a ministry.
You have broken relationships with other believers that you are unwilling or have not attempted to reconcile.
We loose our first love when my eyes become more aware of what I am doing, I am feeling, I am becoming, I need, I want; than what He is feeling, He is doing, He wants me to be. This is why the writer of Hebrews wrote:
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
So, Jesus goes on in this letter and informs the Ephesians how to come back to the first love. And if you have lost your first love, if your eyes have wandered from Christ, Here is your remedy.
5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
He says it’s simple y’all. Repent and do what you did when you first came to know Jesus. When you don’t feel what you used to feel, do what you used to do.
What do people do the first 90 days, 120 days after they find Jesus?
They go to every church service they can find
They tell all their friends about Jesus
They read the Bible through 2X in a year
They pray boldly without apology
They take notes on Sunday and read them on Monday
Jesus tells this church, and our church today, if you did what you did when you first found my love, I would become your first love again.
I’m not hearing Gods voice: how much time do you spend listening?
I feel spiritually dry: Eph 5:26 calls Gods Word, “The water of the Word”… Do you read? Do you journal? Do you memorize and meditate?
I don’t feel close to God: Those closest to God in heaven worship HIm 24/7? How often do you worship God? Only on Sundays? Maybe there is a correlation. Revelation 7:11
I am here with a word for you today, we need to get back to this being about Jesus! Our city doesn’t need a loveless church, our city doesn’t need a church of ritual, a church of fashion, a church of tradition. Let’s make Sundays a celebration of our Monday, our Tuesday through Saturday. Because Jesus has given us a strong warning for those who don’t.
The Warning
The Warning
5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
Literally Jesus is saying, if you don’t come back to me, you are not part of my church, you are not part of me!
But, to those who overcome, Jesus says, you get to receive from the tree of life.
7 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
Salvation Response
Salvation Response
And there are some of you here today that have lost your first love. You believe, you know Jesus is real, but you are not walking with Christ. I”m not saying you are a distracted Christian, or you are a busy Christian. I’m saying, you are not a Christian because Jesus is second in your life.
There are those in this room, and you have never given your life to Jesus. Today, something has brought you here. My guess, is you are looking for an answer to life. The Bible tells us this:
19 We love, because He first loved us.
Meaning, Jesus made a way for you to love Him by dying for you to pay the penalty for the sins you committed. The heavy lifting is done. But you must first be willing to admit that you have sinned and are in need of His salvation. Today, if you are willing to make that claim, and pronounce Jesus as your King, and declare Him Lord - I want to pray with you. If you would say, I want God’s forgiveness, I want to accept this gift of life, I want Jesus to live in my heart, raise your hand so I know who I am praying for.
KEEP YOUR HANDS RAISED HIGH - I HAVE A PRAYER PARTNER COMING TO PRAY WITH YOU
“Heavenly Father, I trust You to save me through Your Son, Jesus. Forgive me for all of my sins. Make me brand new. Because You died for me, I want to live for You. Fill me with Your Spirit, so I could follow You. Jesus, You’re now my Lord and the Savior of my life. Take my life. It is Yours. In Jesus’ name, I pray.”
