The Church in Ephesus

Transition/ Greeting

Hey Lighthouse, we are starting a brand new series today called Letters to the Church.

This is the kind of message that you want not only your Bible out and open, but you want your pen and highlighters ready. You get to do a lot of writing, under lining or highlighting in your Bibles today. And if you do not own a Bible, we’ve got you. Here’s what I asked our team to do. I asked them to get Bibles ready to give away today. But here’s the deal, this isn’t a deal where you own a Bible and you just didn’t want to bring it with you. If you do not own a Bible, and you are ready to engage with this series, and you are going to commit to bringing your Bible with you each week to church, we’re going to give you a bible right now.

So again, if that’s you, raise your hands.

And for those of you who did not bring your Bibles, all good, just bring it with you next week so that you can engage with the teaching the rest of this month and all of next month as well.

Prayer

Before I go any further let’s take a moment to pray and then we’re going to get into our message for today.

Letters to the Church

Revelation

So go ahead and open your Bible up now to the Book of Revelation. If you don’t know where that’s at, it is the last book of the Bible.

The letters that we are going to read in this series are in the Book of Revelation. And if you are wondering what Revelation means, you can go ahead and write this into your Bibles if you want to, or take this note: Things to Come

Now, depending on your faith tradition growing up, this might be a book that scares you a little bit. Why?

Well, there is a lot of imagery in here that is tough to wrap your head around if you aren’t sure on how to interpret it.

For example, the way Jesus is described, or the multiple horsemen of Revelation, or the breaking of the scrolls and seals… lots of imagery

Or, it may be that you grew up in a faith tradition that would use Revelation to scare ‘hell’ out of you.

And, the focus of our series is not to go through the entire Book of Revelation, so we’re not going to deal with a lot of that. Our goal is to go through the first three chapters and focus on the Letters to the Church.

So let me just say this about Revelation… We Win! The Church Wins! Jesus is Victorious! So we’re not fearful when we read this book, we are hopeful.

Author

Now, the author of this book is John.

Revelation 1:1–2 NIV

The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

This is John, one of Jesus’ disciples, and was part of Jesus’ inner circle. You’ll see in the gospels that Peter, James and John, were included in some private moments that the rest of the disciples were not there for.

Now, one thing that I like to always insert about John is this.

John is the only disciples to see Jesus on the cross and seated on the throne.

This is why we you read John’s gospel it reads like the Book of Genesis. Rather than starting with the birth of Jesus, he goes back to the beginning.

John 1:1 NIV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John is writing this letter from the Island of Patmos, he was left there as a punishment for preaching about Jesus.

History records that they twice tried to kill John, but after surviving both, they put him in confinement instead.

Now, what I want you all to see first is the moment John encounters Jesus, because it sets the stage for all of the letters that we’re going to read over the next 7 weeks.

Revelation 1:10–11 NIV

On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

Now, the reason I highlighted that text yellow is because many of your Bibles are going to have the text in red.

Red letters signifies that Jesus is talking.

Now, we got a lot to read, but this matters as it sets up the letters.

Revelation 1:12–15 NIV

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

OK, so there’s a lot of depictions of Jesus that you will find out there, but none that look like this.

This isn’t European Jesus holding a lamb. This isn’t Middle Eastern Jesus sitting on a rock and teaching a crowd.

This is Jesus with white hair and eyes blazing like fire.

Think about that for a second…

Jesus is the all seeing God.

He’s searching the earth with eyes like fire and seeing what his followers are doing with what they’ve been handed.

He’s got feet like bronze that has been heated in the furnace.

This signifies the judgment of the Lord.

So not only is he seeing, but he’s coming with judgment.

Revelation 1:16–17 NIV

In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

John shows us that he is holding seven stars, we’ll get to that, and coming out of his mouth is a double-edged sword.

Again, this is not the Jesus they told you about in Sunday School.

And, then we get to John’s response, and he just fell dead.

We actually see this repeatedly in the scriptures when people encounter Jesus, they fall.

I know that there’s some of us that think that when we see Jesus, we’re gonna pepper him with questions, but the truth is, you likely won’t even be able to stand.

But also, look at what Jesus says to John, and what I want to say to anyone who is fearful of the Book of Revelation, Don’t be Afraid.

Revelation 1:18–20 NIV

I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

OK, so Jesus tells John, you are going to see what I see going on right now, and then I will show you the future.

And for our series, we’re only going to deal with the “now,” which was the condition of the churches and what we can learn from them. But I want you to see these two things, there are stars and there are candlesticks.

The stars are the angels of the churches… Now there is some speculation as to what who the angels of the churches are, but we’re going to take the position that they are the leaders of the church. So you can go ahead and write that in your Bibles now, the angels of the churches are the messengers of the churches, so the Pastors and Elders who are leading and communicating to the churches.

The lampstands are the seven churches that John is going to write to, and that’s a beautiful description of the church. We are to be the lampstands that the light of Jesus is standing on.

I want you to hold on to that imagery, because that’s going to be repeated throughout Revelation.

The Churches

So the last thing that I want you to see as we get this series set up, is the location of these churches.

These seven churches are in Modern Day Turkey.

Jesus is going to first write to Ephesus, and then go around clockwise to the rest of these churches. There would be one letter written, and it would be circulated to the churches.

But I also want you to know that what’s true to these churches is also true of us.

You see, these are local congregations, and they are churches. But there is also the ‘C’hurch. There is only one church.

And so while Jesus speaks to these individual congregations, he says this repeatedly:

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The Bible was not written to us, but it was written for us.

We are going to see that in these 7 churches, we find them in different spiritual conditions. Some believe that they are the seven conditions that every church can potentially go through. And so if we are ever in a condition that is described, we have what Jesus would say to us to get out of that condition.

The Church of Ephesus

All right, I think we’re ready for Ephesus now…

Revelation 2:1–3 NIV

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

Ok, so far this looks great! Ephesus is killing it!

But there’s a pattern to Paul’s writings. He begins his words to each church with a commendation, and then he follows it with a correction.

Got that?

Commendation - you’re doing great here…

Correction - here’s what I need for you to do better…

So we read the good stuff, let’s get to the bad stuff.

Revelation 2:4–7 NIV

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Ok, so that’s the correction. You did some things well, but you are way off course here…

Let’s finish this off and we’ll dive into what it means for us today.

Revelation 2:4–7 NIV

But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Now, this is the only time that Paul goes commendation, correction, and then another commendation. He brings up the Nicolaitians. For the sake of time, I’m not going to talk about the Nicolatians today, but we will in two weeks. We are going to talk at length about who the Nicolaitians were and a real tragedy about this group. But, Paul says to them, you are doing a good job with that.

Commendation

So let’s talk about the commendation to the Ephesians first, and right out the gate Jesus says, “I know your deeds.” You can also translate this word to “works.”

Let’s pause right there… Jesus with eyes of fire, sees your works.

This echoes the theology of James, the half-brother of Jesus, who said faith without works is dead.

To James, and to Jesus, works matter. Do not let anyone tell you that your works do not matter.

But here’s the caution, it is the posture of your heart that qualifies your works.

Here is what I mean by that, you are not saved by your works. We are saved by grace through faith. It has always been about faith.

In the Old Testament, Abraham believed (faith) and it was accounted for righteousness.

In the New Testament, Paul says over and over by grace are you saved by faith.

So we need to clearly establish that we are not saved by works, we are not saved by the faith of a parent, we are not saved by adherence to Christian disciplines. We are saved because of Jesus, and what He did for us on the cross.

If you show up to heaven and they ask you why should we let you in? There is only one answer. Jesus died so that I could be forgiven, and I have received his forgiveness by faith. I’m here because Jesus said I could be here. Case closed, no other explanation.

But here’s the big idea… you’re saved, now what?

You aren’t saved to sit, you are saved to do good works. Our deeds are the only proper response to what God has done for us.

Jesus is saying to the Ephesians, “I see you!”

Think about that for a second, we can do things to get the attention of Jesus.

I see your deeds, your hard work, your perseverance.

Why was Jesus saying that?

This is where I’m going to need you to do some homework for the sake of time…

Go and look up the City of Ephesus in around 90 AD.

This was not the City where it was easy to be a Christian.

Have you ever been to som cities in this country where EVERYONE is a Christian? I mean everyone professes to be a Christian.

That was not Ephesus.

It was a hub for idol worship, prostitution, and a hard place to plant a church. This was not the Bible Belt of Turkey.

This was HARD GROUND… and yet, Jesus saw their perseverance.

He goes on to say that they did not tolerate wicked people and you test those proclaiming to be Apostles, but are not.

I would say it this way, Your Theology Matters.

You could not come in to Ephesus with sone half-baked TikTok theology and expect to build a platform. That wasn’t going to happen at Ephesus.

These were good things…

Correction (Conclusion)

But there’s something that Jesus, with eyes of fire, saw.

You have forsaken your first love.

And here’s where deeds become a problem. We can be so busy doing the right things, that we aren’t doing the things right.

Paul said this:

1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV

… if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

We need to ask ourselves, do I still love God the way I did when he first saved me?

Love can grow cold.

Love can grow transactional.

Some people fell out of love for God and instead, they love what God can do for them.

As we mature in our faith, we run the risk of leaning on our works. This is the danger as you grow older in our faith.

[Pause]

There’s a story in the book of Luke when Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha. These are sisters to Jesus’ best friend, Lazarus.

When Jesus is there, Martha is using her gift of hospitality to make sure that the house is clean, the food is ready, and the vibes are on point.

But as she notices Mary, just sitting at Jesus’ feet, she asks Jesus to tell Mary to get off her behind, and start helping.

What did Jesus say?

Mary has chosen the better part.

God give us wisdom to know when we are to work and when we are to sit.

Call

I think today, some of us need to search our hearts and ask ourselves, are we growing cold towards Jesus.

Yes, we love him.

Yes, we love His house.

Yes, we serve on the Teams.

But when was the last time you just came to Jesus and sat.

We didn’t work.

We didn’t strive.

We just rested in him.

I want to give you that time today as we close this service.