The Seven Churches of Revelation

Ephesus

Tonight we oday, we are launching a study in chapters 2-3 in the book of Revelation. And I know for some, Revelation can appear to be a scary time because of the many catastrophic judgments. But for the believer in Christ, Revelation should be a book of hope telling us of Christ’s return finally bringing an end to evil where justice shall prevail and the righteous rewarded. The section we are studying warns the churches to root out any sin that blocks its relationship with Christ while assuring victory to all who will trust in Christ alone. As a matter of fact, Revelation is the only book in the Bible that promises a blessing to those who will read and obey what it says.            Scripture Reading:             As we look to the first church in our series, the church found at Ephesus, there is an extremely important question we need to try to answer if we are ever going to make any application for ourselves in 2011, and the question is this: "What does it mean to leave your first love?"  I’m betting all of us might remember the first time we went on a date, the first time we held someone’s hand, the first timeour hearts went pitter patter, and of course the first time we had our big kiss. But this statement of Jesus is not directed toward a person having these first time experiences, Jesus is speaking to a church isn’t He, a body of believers in a certain town? In verse 4, Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Well, what does Jesus mean - you have left your first love? For that is the rebuke Jesus has against this grand church. A church that has persevered, a church that does not tolerate evil, but puts to the test false apostles, a church that has toiled and labored and performed good deeds in the past.            In today's terminology, it was a Methodist Church that paid its apportionments in full, and saw many saved. In the past it went above and beyond in missions, being a spotlight church, giving to the Advance overseas, responding to local needs in the community, and many were drawn to its doors and became members because of its great love. But something happened. They have fallen somewhere along the line. Their deeds are different than they were years ago. Their love has been replaced with something else. They don't see themselves in mission as they use to be. And Jesus tells them, you don’t love Me or each other the way you did at first.            Well, I don’t how Jesus’ rebuke against Ephesus hits you, but for me, whatever it was that church was doing or not doing, I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to hear Jesus say to me, I have this against you. I want to hear, well done good and faithful servant, join Me in my kingdom I have prepared for you.           So with that in mind, my hope is as we look at the church in Ephesus and the other six cities we will study together over the weeks to come, that we will discover some important lessons from history, and that through this process, God will speak to us through these historical events of the past to touch our lives today. Alan F. Johnson, writing for the Expositor's Bible Commentary, made this comment about the seven churches we will study: "Even though the words of Christ refer initially to the first-century churches located in particular places, by the Spirit's continual relevance they transcend that time limitation and speak to all the churches in every generation." I believe the Holy Spirit can speak to us today through lessons learned from yesterday.            To get us started, I want to show you something. [Wii items.]   Does anyone know what this is? Have you ever heard of Wii, or seen it advertised? Have you ever played it? The Wii game was introduced on November 19, 2006. And here is my question to make a point. For those of you who are familiar with the Wii game system, if I would have shown you this in 2005, or 2004, prior to Nov.19, 2006, would you have known what I was talking about?            That’s part of the dilemma for John the Apostle on the island of Patmos. I mean, how would you like to be John the Apostle, and be given a vision of prophetic events 2,000 years into the future, and try to convey that vision, which is indescribable, with mere words? For instance - if John was ever given a glimpse of futuristic things like nuclear explosions, chemical warfare, helicopters, and computers, how could he describe those things in the language he understood 19 centuries ago? If you lived before the 1950’s, how would you describe this new invention called TV where images and sound appear inside a rectangle. How about a cell phone, Ipad, Kindle, or an Xbox? Can you begin to see the difficulty?            Well, the Apostle John is given a revelation concerning Jesus that he is to relate to these seven churches in Asia. John's words were meant to be words of encouragement to the Christians in Asia Minor that they could be overcomers, and the various tribulation signs signaled Jesus’ return was at hand, so get ready. Because to those who endured to the end as victors, they would receive an eternal reward.             But before John begins to communicate the visionary kinds of things that he saw "in the Spirit," he writes a personal message from the Lord to these seven churches and I believe to any individual who has an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying, a phrase John repeats seven times.            Now John has an advantage that we do not have. John, when he writes, is familiar with this area of country where the seven churches are located - and he is writing a message which the original reader would have been completely familiar with and yet we are very much in the dark with all of the various happenings that took place 1900 years ago. We understand some of the historical significance of yesteryear, and can piece together some probable conclusions here and there - but we cannot be as certain to the meaning of the message from the Lord as we would like to be. But of what we do understand - the Spirit of God can still use to teach, to encourage, and to even rebuke us.            With that in mind, something that always helps me when I look at the Scripture and try to make some application to present day, is to first do my best to find out - what was happening historically. So let’s do a little overview to get a feel for Ephesus 19 centuries ago.            Even though Pergamum was the capital of Asia Minor, Ephesus was considered the greatest city of Asia, as it was called the "light of Asia" and "the vanity fair of the ancient world." It's claim to fame, was being the first and greatest metropolis of Asia. Even the Roman governor of the province chose to live there instead of the capital. [What if today Rick Snyder chose to govern from Grand Rapids instead of Lansing?]            Now during John's time - Ephesus had the greatest harbor in Asia. Three major highways converged upon Ephesus. It was known by merchants as the Gateway to Asia, the highway to Rome. It had a great marketplace, making it the wealthiest of the cities in Asia, along with a great banking center because of its great vault in the Temple of Diana (Artemis). Politically, Ephesus was considered a free city, that is it was self-governing within limitations - with the honor of having no Romans troops garrisoned there. Culturally - Ephesus was cosmopolitan and transient, and held yearly the most famous games in Asia which attracted people from all over to attend. [In a small way it reminds me of Romeo with its annual Peach Festival – 400,000 visitors.] Religiously - Ephesus was known for its temple of Diana, considered one of the seven great wonders of the ancient world. The temple was 425ft long, 220ft wide, with 120 columns around the temple itself, each 60ft tall, given as a gift from a king. 36 of the columns were richly gilded and inlaid. [Now to get an idea of the size of such a structure, compare it to the Ford Field in Detroit or Barnabo Field in Romeo.]            Within the walls of the temple, hundreds of temple priestesses, who saw themselves as sacred prostitutes, gave their bodies for Diana to make money for the temple. The temple area possessed the right of asylum, meaning it was a safe zone for criminals. So the temple was not only a center for religion, but for crime and immorality.             Heraclitus - a famous ancient philosopher of the time said this about Ephesus - "no one could live in Ephesus without weeping at its immorality." He believed the “inhabitants of the city were fit only to be drowned and that the reason why he could never laugh or smile was because he lived amidst such terrible uncleanness." Doesn’t sound like the kind of place where you want to raise your kids - does it?            As you can imagine, pagan superstition was very high - with amulets and charms made and sold to visitors to help cure their sicknesses or bring children to those who were childless. [Con artists exist at all times to make a buck don’t they?] To give you a perspective on how superstitious the people were, we know in the book of Acts, chapter 19, verses 18 & 19, how those who were converted to Christianity in Ephesus brought their magic books out to be burned, and the value of the books was worth 50,000 pieces of silver! [I find that amazing, because we’re only talking about the new Christians who gave up their books - not the whole town!]            But I also wonder, how many people today in our communities are flirting around with dangerous ideas outside of Christ? Have you ever driven down the road and seen a sign for a palm or psychic reader? How about tarot cards? I had a meal at _______ by Taco Bell, and I was very surprised to see what was being advertised on a sign posted on the hostess podium when you walk in. How many people do you know read their horoscope each day (only sign Christians should be concerned about is sign of cross), or try their hand at lady-luck at the casinos and buying multiple lottery tickets? [Relying on game of chance instead of God’s provision. Sometimes when I think about our culture in 2011, it sounds like we are going backwards in history instead of forward.]             It can be noted that the Apostle Paul stayed longer in Ephesus than any of the other cities where he started churches. In many ways it was an evil and worldly city, but it was also a place which proved the power of the Gospel can change people from their old ways. The church in Ephesus was at one time significant, having a spiritual vitality, which is something we need to keep in mind as Jesus rebukes the church for losing its first love.            Let me say again, the church at Ephesus had a lot of things going for it. They had endured hardship and suffering. They were a minority group in a city of immorality and idol worship. They fought the legalism of their Jewish countrymen who wanted them to follow the ways of Moses once again. They dealt with the professional beggars who preyed upon the charity of the Christians. They hated the practices of the Nicolaitans who claimed to be Christians but “lived lives of unrestrained indulgence.” They had felt the pains and pressures of compromising their values with the ways of the world, but they had stuck to orthodoxy. But something happened along the way, where they left their first love for Christ.           What was it they left? We may get a clue from earlier Scripture. We read in the Book of Acts, 20:35, when the Apostle Paul was leaving Ephesus, that he told the Ephesians to help the weak, how “it is more blessed to give than receive." And later in , Paul writes how he has heard of their love for all the saints.            I think somehow in their fight for orthodoxy, and straining out the false teachers, and con-artists, and professional beggars, the Ephesian church lost their original love they had for their brothers and sisters in need. Their love had become cool, because maybe they had been burned a few times like I have been and I’m guessing you as well. They were saying and doing all of the right things, but their heart, their intensity and quality was missing.             Or maybe through busyness, they lost their fervent love for Christ, their inner devotion to Christ, their reason for existing as a church, and it had been replaced with activity. They were doing things for God, instead of living for God and making disciples. The activity replaced the relationship.             And I think the key is finding a balance with both the outer life of service and the inner life of devotion. It’s adopting a Christian lifestyle as we are led, filled, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.             Dr. Lawrence Taylor writes: “A healthy church is filled with people who care for each other, who surround one another with comfort, who telephone each other just to encourage, who pray for each other, who stop by to wash dishes, who take a shut-in for a drive in the country, who are warm and friendly to all, who fix a single mom’s car for her, read to someone whose eyesight is failing, put up storm windows for a neighbor, paint a house for someone who cannot afford to have it done, give someone a ride to a doctor’s appointment, baby-sit a couple’s children so they can have a date to enrich their marriage, who take guests out to lunch after church on Sunday, and sit down and have coffee with a new member. A healthy church is filled with people who express God’s love in small, everyday, practical, creative ways.”             One of the new ministries that has been growing slowly but steadily at the church has been His Table. A simple meal on Tuesday nights during some economically challenging times. I believe the Lord can use this ministry as an outreach in our community, to say we care.             And what’s exciting is that God will reveal to us other ways to serve one another in this community. You see the Lord knows the needs of His people much better than we do and the Lord knows what will work best. Our task, as pray and make ourselves available, is to find out what God wants to do and then move in that area.            I don’t know if you noticed that in Revelation the seven churches are represented as seven lampstands. What’s the purpose of a lampstand? Is it not to shine light wherever it is placed? Can we say then the purpose of the church is to shine a light in the community where it is placed?             The warning to the church at Ephesus is, if you don’t repent and return to your first love, I will remove your lampstand. You will no longer be a church I can use. Which means God will have to find another church to use for the work of the kingdom. Come back my love, and love Me as you once did. "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."Church Website by E-zekiel