Ephesus: Letter to a Fading Church

Introduction

Opening Illustration - Marriage: Over the years of pastoral care, I have officiated many weddings, and I have jumped into many situations of marriage counseling. One of the common things that can happen in a marriage can be described by the couple as “their love fading.” It’s not that things are bad, or that there has been some horrible situation that has blown the marriage apart. It’s simply that in the hustle and bustle of years of every day life, the couple who once loved each other deeply and intimately stopped doing those things that once fed love. The relationship still exists, but in truth it is more defined by its practicality, than by its warmth.

I love counseling these situations because of the foundation that we stand upon, grace upon grace. Grace gives fresh starts beginnings every day. Grace empowers couples like this to not be defined by the errors they may have made over the years, but to be defined by the God who empowers them push into Christ like marriage.

Personal: I think we can imagine how a couple might find themselves in a marriage defined by a “fading love.” But isn’t it true that this can happen in our relationship with God as well. Perhaps some of you in this room have experienced seasons like this, or perhaps some in this room are in a season like this right now, where your relationship with God feels more practical than does intimate. You’re doing those things you ought to do, but the fire of the love is not like it once was.

Context: Today we enter into a seven part mini-series within our study of the Book of Revelation. Chapters 2 and 3 hold seven letters written by Christ, through the Apostle John, to seven different Churches spread out across what is today, modern day Turkey. These seven letters share much in common with each other, and yet each letter is addressed to a specific church with specific challenges. In today’s first letter, to the Church at Ephesus Christ warns the church against a fading love.

Main Idea: In fact his main thrust of this letter is to say that “a loveless orthodoxy will slowly fade.” Orthodoxy is right thinking and the right guarding of truth. It is good and right to have a rich orthodoxy. But a loveless orthodox will slowly fade.

Meaning & Application

Most of the seven letters we will study share a very similar outline, and a careful reading of the seven letters you’ll be able a lot of commonalities. Today, we’re going to focus in on: what is still shining bright, what is beginning to fade, how they can reignite the fire.

WHAT’S STILL SHINING BRIGHT

Verse 1: Verse 1 begins:

Revelation 2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

Ephesus: The first letter is written to the Church in Ephesus. Ephesus was a lot like Chicago. It was a significant cultural hub of the area. In fact of the seven churches that Christ writes to, it was the most culturally and economically significant. Our New Testaments contain an entire book titled Ephesians, which is the Apostle’s letter to the church in Ephesus where he had been a missionary for two whole years preaching the gospel.

Lampstands: Christ introduces himself using language that was part of John’s vision that we saw last week in chapter 1. Last week when John had a vision of Christ he saw Christ holding seven stars in his right hand and walking among the seven golden lampstands. And if you recall this description of Christ was to be a great comfort. It showed the seven churches being written to were in Christ’s hands. Nothing was outside of his control. And that Christ walked in the midst of them. What sweet news to a church experiencing all kinds of hardship. Christ was not distant, but he was present, in the midst of his Church.

Verses 2-3: And in verses 2-3 Christ addresses what is still shining strong in this Ephesian Church.

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.”

Outwardly, this Church has much to commend it. The language used here is very complementary. They’re doing hard work, and their doing it faithfully.

Works, Toil, Endurance: “Your works” is a general term that speaks about their good deeds, conduct that flows from faith. They’re active in doing the things outwardly that God has called them to do. “Your toil” is a common word used by Paul when speaking about missionary effort. These Ephesians were not just sitting back. They had been left in Ephesus with a task to reach the city for Christ, and they were busy with that work. “Your patient endurance” tells us of the suffering they have had to endure as a result of their decision to follow Christ.

Apostles: And then he adds this language about one of the ways they have patiently endured.

Revelation 2:2 “… 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.”

Again, this is very high commendation. Who were these false Apostles? We don’t know exactly what they were saying and teaching. But what is important is that they were claiming themselves and their teachings to be Christian, hence the term “apostle” that they were using. These were so-called leaders in the church, who were trying to build a following. And they were likely going out in Jesus’ name. And Jesus commends them for spotting their false teaching quickly, and properly labeling them heretics and false apostles. They are maintaining a strong orthodoxy! They are testing the teachings they encounter. And he encourages them again.

Revelation 2:3 “I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.”

What wonderful commendation! May Christ say this of us.

Nicolaitans: In fact, in verses 4-5, Christ gives his strong word of correction, but right after his word of correction he again affirms them for their hatred of a sect called Nicolaitans.

Revelation 2:6 “Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Lot’s of debate about who this group called the Nicolatians were. Where they came from. Is it the same group as the false apostles mentioned earlier. We don’t know exactly. But what we do know is that this Ephesian Church is commended for hating the works of the Nicolatians. And the very next phrase says God hates the works of the Nicolaitans.

Maintaining Orthodoxy is Exhausting: What these Ephesians have is a strong orthodoxy. They are guarding the truth against heretics. And Christ affirms them in this work. And I am not surprised that Christ encourages them by using the word “patiently enduring” twice, because maintaining a strong orthodoxy is exhausting work.

Modern Pluralism: And I want us to take a moment to realize how unpopular this is and how difficult this is in our modern secular culture. Modern secular culture is built upon the foundation of pluralism. Pluralism functionally says we should be very slow to draw hard lines of who is “right” or “wrong.” Rather, we should embrace many views. It is the many views that make us better. And this has slipped into the church in such a way that to hold to simple historically orthodox positions on the clear teaching of scripture is somehow to be a villain.

Orthodoxless Love: In a moment, we’re going to hit the nail on the head by addressing a loveless orthodoxy. But first, let me just warn us against the opposite error of an orthodoxless love. An orthodoxless love is popular today. And it disguises itself under the name of Christianity. It lays claim to Jesus (just like false Apostles were doing), but it does not know the Jesus of the Bible. An orthodoxless love affirms people in their sin in the name of love!

An orthodoxless love just wants to be kind to people and so it affirms homosexuality and all kinds of sexually deviant behaviors and thoughts.

An orthodoxless love shifts the priority of the chuch away from the gospel of Christ and his blood shed, and towards a call to social justice and activism.

An orthodoxless love gifts rise to modern day so called “apostles” becoming mainstream teachers at evangelical conferences and events.

An orthodoxless love refuses to preach on the judgment and the torment of hell for fear that it will offend.

The list can go on and on, but look at Christ’s words. “You hate the words of the Nicolatians, which I also hate.” The most loving thing we can do for the world, is not to cater to their whims and sinful desires, but rather to maintain a clear and unwavering orthodoxy. This takes great patience and great wisdom. And this Ephesian Church was doing it well.

WHAT IS FADING

What fading? Christ’s main correction to this church is that they had lost their first love.

Revelation 2:4–5 “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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.”

Fading: Let’s start at the end and work ourselves backwards. This error being made by the Ephesian church was so great, that Christ describes them as a “fallen church.” I like the term “fading” to describe what Christ is getting after here. They once had a fierce love of Christ that was like a furnace heating their whole being. But the furnace was fading, the heat was drying up. Jesus says if you do not correct this immediately, then Christ himself will come to the Ephesian Church and remove their lampstand. What is the threat here?

Lampstand: The Ephesian Church was described in Revelation 1 as one of the seven lampstands. What is a lampstand. A lampstand holds up the light. The light is put on a lightstand so that it can shine brightly, expose darkness, and extend light into the world. The Church in Ephesus was established by Christ to be a lampstand of the gospel. The nations who lived and commerced in Ephesus would see the bright light of Christ, would hear the truth of the gospel, and they would be converted to faith in God.

Privelege: What a privelege! What an honor, to be lampstand for the light of the world! One of the worst things a Christian church could ever hear from their Savior, is that he is removing their lampstand. What a dishonor that would be! It would be like a great general in a military, with a previously successful career, who was known and beloved, who then did something to be dishonorably discharged from the military, to be stripped of all his medals. And to hear this after all they have been doing well. They are fighting the good fight. They’re standing strong on good doctrine. What could be possibly doing to have that threat? They have “abandoned the love they had at first.”

What Love?: What love are they talking about here? Well scholars ask that question. Some people say, they’ve lost their love of Christ. Others say, they’ve lost their love of people. And I say, they’re both right. Because for a Christian you can’t have one without the other. You can’t truly love people, without the love of God flowing through you. When Christ was asked the greatest commandment, he responded,

Matthew 22:37–39 “… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

God is Love: At the center of the Christian faith is God of the Bible. And one of the key attributes of God is his love.

1 John 4:8 “… God is love.”

We must distinguish this from a more common sentiment today that “love is God.” If we say that “love is God” then we deify love. And what the world means by this is that every warm feeling and every impure lust is somehow to be regarded as divine. No, all that the world calls “love” is not divine. God is love. God’s love for us is extraordinary. It never fades.

Forgiving Love: When God’s people fall into great sin, over and over again they cry out in repentance to God because they know that he is a God “abounding steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

Everlasting Love: A literal reading of Psalm 5:7 says that God’s “love endures forever.” Likewise, Psalm 136 says that his love is from “everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.”

Merciful Love: God’s love is merciful to the weak and the vulnerable (Deuteronomy 10:8).

Sovereign Love: God’s love is governed by his sovereign freedom. It is not dependent on your works towards him, or your degree of love for him. He sovereignly extends it, at his good pleasure.

Fierce Love: God’s love for his holiness is fierce and Malachi 2:11-12 says that it is that love for his holiness that will be the undoing of the unrighteous..

Essential Love: This means that before there was any creation for him to bestow his love upon, he could be properly defined by his love. It is part of his essence. God is not a loving because he entered in the person of Christ and died for our sins. No, God entered in the person of Jesus Christ and died for our sins because he is love. This love permeates his being.

Trinitarian Love: Further, God’s love is Trinitarian. The Father loves the Son. This is why the cross is such a marvel to human history, because “the Father gave his only begotten Son, so that those who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life.” That language of “only begotten Son” if it means anything, at the very least describes the overwhelming of the Father towards the Son.

Immersive Love: As Christians, we have plunged into the ocean of that divine love, so much so that when a person is saved, a radical transformation happens in their life, they are smothered in that love, immersed in that love. No aspect of our life is unchanged or unaffected by God’s love for us. God sent his only Son, Christ Jesus, to take our place underneath the judgment of God, so that we could be fully loved by God.

Sweet Love: And it is a sweet love. The Christian, who knows and has tasted of this love, knows that nothing on this earth could ever compete with it. We have “tasted and seen that the Lord is good.” Every other love in this world is a pointer, a shadow of the substance of God’s love.

To be a Christian is a miracle. Our day in day out experience is marked by the eternal fountain of God’s love washing over us like the Niagara Falls. The person who tastes of this necessarily runs to it, yearns for it. Their repsonse is a reciprical love. A love that pursues that God. A love that delights in God.

Fading: Christ says to the Ephesians, your love is fading. It was all yours. You were immersed in it. You rejoiced in Christ. But your orthodoxy now, is loveless. The fire in the furnace is fading and fading quickly. The last few embers that warmed the heart are charred and barely a flicker left to them. They’ve been so busy defending orthodoxy and running their good works programs that they haven’t noticed the heat drop.

Testing Ourselves: The Scriptures invite us regularly to examine our own lives. And so I want to give us some tests to see if any of us are in danger of allowing this error to creep on us. If you find yourself convicted by any of what I share, do not be overly discouraged. Christ will give us direct instructions on how to fix the situation. But if you are convicted, I want you to feel the urgency of Christ’s words today. “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place…”

Let me give you a few quick tests you can ask yourself right now.

Joy in Christ: Do you have a genuine joy in Jesus that others can noticeably spot in you? Throughout your week, are your thoughts often on Christ and his Word, and his glory, and how sweet it is to be a Christian.

Hunger for Corporate Worship: Second, do you eagerly look forward to worship with your Church on Sunday morning? To the preaching of God’s Word and the corporate singing of hymns and praise together, and the taking of the Lord’s Supper. Is Sunday more of a duty or a privelege?

Real Dependence on Prayer: Third, do you really depend on prayer? Do you go to him regularly? Do you have time each day set apart to have a lengthy time communing with God, talking with God, hearing from God through his word?

Burning Hope: Fourth, do you have a burning sense of desire for those who are in your life who do not know Jesus, to know him, to walk with him, to love him, to repent and believe in the name of Jesus for life everlasting?

Those are simple diagnostics but they’re important, because a loveless orthodoxy will slowly fade

HOW TO REIGNITE THE FIRE

If we find ourselves with some kind of loveless orthodoxy, what can we do. In verse 5, there are three key verbs he gives as a corrective. These three verbs are interconnected, they describe a pause and correction in the heart.

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.”

Remember, Repent, Do.

Remember: The first step of correction is to Remember. What does this mean? It means “remember what life with Christ was like at its peak.” Remember the good ol’ days. Remember that season when you hungered for the Word of God, and you’d stay up late at night praying with people.

Sometimes in marriage counseling when things have grown cold between a couple, I’ll ask them to remember when things were wonderful. What was it like? What was happening? What were you doing and saying and feeling?

There should not be “good old days” for the Christian. Obviously there are good memories, but because the Christian is filled by the Spirit, the best days are always yet to come. We’ve always got more to learn, more to experience, new ways to conquer sin, and be used in the Kingdom of God. Jesus encourages us to remember where we were.

Repent: In scripture, whenever a prophet calls God’s people to remember, it is not just an activity of the mind. Remembering, is very often connected with repenting. In some ways, remembering is the basis of repenting. The word repenting signals a change of heart. In repentance we openly confess our sin to God, and we receive the overwhelming love of God that reminds us that we have already been cleansed, our sin is already put away. Christ has already died even for this sin.

In repentance, we want to be specific. We don’t just want to say “I repent Lord.” Well, repent of what. Sometimes I see this with my children, when I’ll call them and they’ll hear in my voice that I’m frustrated with something. And one of them might say “I’m sorry Dad.” And then I’ll say “What are you sorry for?” And then they’ll say “I don’t know.” That’s not what I want.

We must be specific when we repent. “Lord, forgive me for not hungering for your word like I ought to. I used to study your word regularly, but i have grown out of the habit. Help me God. Help me to store up your word in my heart again.”

Do: Third, we “do the works we did at first.” What works is he describing here. Earlier in verse, Jesus had already commended them for their works. So there here Jesus is talking about a particular kind of work. He’s talking “acts of love” towards God and towards another. They have been very good on the doctrine front. They have been very good at upholding truth. But they’ve forgotten to love God and to love others. Remember the Apostle Paul’s classic words:

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Remember, Repent, Do.

Not Emotional Intensity: What is this text not calling us to. This is not a call to improve your emotional intensity of your faith. That’s just religious moralism. Christ is not saying “Be more religious.” In fact he’s saying the opposite. He is saying “Return to me. I’m as full of love as I was on the day you started following me. Come, find joy in me again.

Closing

Lets close by looking at 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.’”

Christ uses that interesting language of conquering, that is war language. Indeed, maintaing our first love is a daily war. There is a war for your heart, and for the heart of this congregation. The war is won, not by some great effort, or some religious duties. The war is won through intimacy with Christ.

Return to that opening image of the marriage. Many marriages hit very difficult times not because of some deep horrible sin on one of their parts. But they simply slowly fade apart from each other. Marriages can die when nobody comes back to rekindle the fire. It’s possible to pass each other in the house for years on end, and forget the love that drove you together in the first place.

Church, may this not be your relationship with God. Foster a deep love of God in your life. Do those works that draw you close to him with eager enthusiasm.