Revelation 2:1-7

Don’t Lose It!

Revelation 2:1-7

Do you remember learning how to write a letter? We were taught how in school. You were taught how to address the letter at the top along with the date and then the salutation, the body then the complimentary closing and of course the signature of the sender of the letter. We had to send letters to the state highway department asking for maps or to the park service asking for brochures. We had to learn to write to grandma or a cousin or astronauts. Letter writing was an integral part of our education because that was how people communicated long distance. When I was a child a phone call from Arlington, Texas to Dallas, Texas, 30 miles away, was something like $3.00 for three minutes and $.30 for each minute after that so you didn’t dare go over the 3 minutes. Long distance phone calls were expensive and stamps were only $.07 so you wrote letters. That is the reason we know what the founders of the United States thought about things because they all wrote letters to everybody every day. Letters are kept as family heirlooms that give insight into the heart of the sender of the letter. Letters give instructions and encouragement when there are struggles and letters often include warnings and corrections.

My, how things have changed. No one writes letters anymore. We do send emails but after their read they are deleted, very seldom do we print them off. Most communication these days are done through texts and twitter or some other form of social media. Tweets can be only 280 characters, that includes letters, numbers, punctuation and spaces. You really can’t reveal too much of yourself in 280 characters. Thankfully God did not use Twitter or text messages to communicate Himself to His people. God wrote us a love letter and we call it the Bible. Today we are going to begin looking at seven specific love letter written from Jesus to His bride, the church.

We will begin to look at the seven separate letters to the seven separate churches of Asia Minor that are listed in Revelation; Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. We won’t look in depth at all seven today but we will look at the common things that are found in all seven letters and we will look in depth at the first one to Ephesus. We will be in Revelation 2:1-7. Let’s pray.

Before we get to the letters let’s review a little about the Sender of these letters. From what we read in Revelation 1:9-20 we know that His voice awakens His people and drowns out all other voices when we truly seek to worship Him. Though His voice is powerful and will conquer His enemies it will also comfort those who seek to serve Him. When He speaks it is with the wisdom of Almighty God not of man and we can be sure that He walks in our midst seeing to it that the message we receive is the truth. We must look to Him and see no other, we must let his brilliance blind us to the message of the world so that the message He Has given us becomes our commission; the commission to proclaim Jesus as Lord to a lost and dying world.

Now as we transition in the direction of the letters let me say that these letters are to seven literal churches. Some have said that these seven churches are simply representative of all churches, and there are indeed some similarities to all churches and by that we get application, but they are real churches. You can go to Ephesus and see the evidence of a real church and the same is true of the other six cities and their churches. Some have determined that these churches are different ages of the church; Ephesus was the first century church, Smyrna was the church during the persecution of Domitian and so on. I don’t think that is a faithful way of understanding these letters because we know that these churches really existed and they were all evangelized and started either directly or indirectly by the missionary work of the Apostle Paul and all were suffering during the time of John’s writing. These are all real historical churches. Another thing we can look at is their geographical locations. The Island of Patmos was about 75 miles southwest of Ephesus which at the time was on a thriving sea port. Smyrna is about 70 miles north along the coast and Pergamum was about 80 miles north of Smyrna. From there you would turn southeast some 70 miles to Thyatira and continuing on to Sardis about 75 miles. Philadelphia is about 30 miles east of there and Laodicea is 70 miles southeast of Philadelphia. So starting from Patmos from where John is writing you would have an arc or circular route in which the letters could be carried along well established postal roads.

Remember in the opening I noted that when we were in school we learned that there was a format that you followed when you would write a letter. Well these seven letters also have a format. It does not follow our modern way of letter writing but there is a formula in each one of these letters. The format goes roughly like this: First the Sender (Jesus) gives a characteristic of Himself that that particular church needs and in most cases that description is a repeat of what we have already seen in the description of the Sender. Then there is a compliment to the church (except Sardis and Laodicea). Then there is a criticism to the church (except Smyrna and Philadelphia). Then there is a warning and command to the church and finally a commitment to all who overcome. You will see that formula played out in all the letters to the seven churches with few exceptions. One last thing before we look at the letter to the church at Ephesus. There are four things that Jesus says in every single letter: First He says: To the angel of the church of…He starts every letter with that phrase. We talked about the possible meanings of the word “angel” last week but He is telling John to write the letter to either a literal angelic being that is over that church or He is telling John to write to a human messenger like the pastor of that church. I can’t understand why He would have him write to an angelic being so I believe it is a human messenger. You can go either way you want on that one. The second thing we see in every letter that He makes His letter personal by saying “I know” indicating that He personally is involved with every single church. Third: He also encourages each of the churches with “He who overcomes will” then He promises a particular blessing. And fourth: He says “He who has an ear, let Him hear”. He wants to make sure the individuals in the churches understand that He is not just talking corporately but also individually. This is a message to the church but it is also a message to each church member.

With all of that background let’s see what He who holds the seven stars in His right hand and who walks in the midst of the golden lampstands has to say to the church in Ephesus. Revelation 2:1-7 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 2 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But this you 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 give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’[1] The city of Ephesus was a devoutly religious city. They had the temple to Diana there if you will remember from Acts 19. They also were devoted to Emperor worship as well because they owed much to Rome since they were a Roman colony. There was a riot there in the time of Paul because so many people were converting to Christianity that the silversmiths were losing their livelihood making idols of Diana. They also burned many magic or witchcraft books after Paul established the church recognizing their evil nature. That is the background for the city of Ephesus.

We don’t have to talk about the angel so let’s take a look at what Jesus has to say about the church at Ephesus. These are the things Jesus says He knows about this church: They are doctrinally sound or discerning; they hold to the truth, and they are hard working, they are morally upright hating the evil, their works were not just the easy stuff of the church, they labored (probably in the face of opposition) and not only that but they tested the teaching of people who came and claimed to be sent by God (apostles) and found them to be liars and they could only do that because they knew the truth. In the midst of the hard work they still had to deal with false teachers. Jesus had revealed Himself as the one who held the messengers in His right hand meaning that He controlled the messaging and He walked in the midst of the church (lampstand). Those who came as false teachers, like the Nicolaitans, were rejected and the message hated. Just for the record we have no idea who the Nicolaitans were or what they did or taught. We do not know anything about the Nicolaitans either from Scripture or from history. There has been a lot written about whom they may have been and what they may have taught, and even who their founder was but nothing can be substantiated. Most likely (just my guess) they are along the same lines as those Paul described in 1 Corinthians 6 where he talks about those who over indulge in food and sensuality along with sexual immorality. I think the take away here for us today is that we are to hate what God hates. Whoever the Nicolaitans were and whatever they taught the church at Ephesus rejected it outright. They had their doctrine down pat and they hated what God hated. That is the compliment to the church at Ephesus. If we stopped there we would believe that is the way every church should be and what could possibly be wrong with this church. But the One who has the true message (holds the seven stars) and who walks in the midst of the church (the golden lampstands) and knows them (the description of the Sender) has a complaint against them.

You have left your first love. That is all there is to the complaint. I wish Jesus had said; you have forsaken your love for Me, or you have forsaken your love for one another, or you have forsaken you love for mankind. But He didn’t so it leaves us to either speculate which one He means or to take it in such a way that we understand Him to mean all of the above. At least that way the preacher gets to cover all the aspects. However instead of covering all three let me remind you of what Jesus told His disciples in John 14:15 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.[2]Since we are talking about love then what did He say to His disciples about loving one another? John 13:34 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.[3] And what did He say about loving the rest of mankind? Mark 12:31 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.[4] So I guess we did cover all of the above. Basically Jesus is saying that they have forsaken the one thing that sets them apart from the world, they love their God not just to get what they want but because He first loved them. And they love one another making the world know that they belong to Him and they love their neighbor because of the love that has been shown to them. That is not like anything or any other religion and Jesus says that they have forsaken it. The He warns them 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. This is interesting in that Jesus gives this church that has forsaken their love for Him, His people and His creation three things to do. First: Remember from where you have fallen. When you lose something what is the best way to locate it? Remember where you had it last and look there; go back. This church has forsaken its first love and the best way to get back to it is go back and remember it. And the way the Greek is worded it is more like; “keep on remembering”. It is not as if they woke one day and ceased loving, it must have gone away incrementally and that is the way sin creeps into our lives and the best way to combat sin or the neglecting of love is to go back to the beginning. They had enjoyed a close walk with God. They needed to let their minds dwell on that.[5] The second thing the church is told to do is repent. There is that word that just keeps on cropping up. Folks we need to understand that we as Christians cannot dally with sin. When we are convicted by the Holy Spirit or in Ephesus’ case a letter from Jesus, we must respond immediately with repentance. But repentance requires action and that is the third step; “do the first works.” Keep on remembering that close walk you had in the beginning, repent from not loving and do the works you were doing when love was guiding your every action. But Jesus adds in there “do it quickly because if you don’t I will come and remove your lampstand.” If a church is not loving Christ, is not loving one another and is not loving its community then we might as well admit it, it is not a church it is simply a social institution just like the world can put together to do good works, the lampstand, the light of the reflection of Jesus Christ has been removed. That church can have perfect doctrine and be doing all the ‘right’ things but if it doesn’t have love as Paul put in 1 Corinthians 13 it is nothing. Let me say that this hit me very hard. I have made the confession to you that I am all about proper doctrine; I study studies to make sure that I teach you the right thing. But am I loving Christ, loving you, and loving my neighbor, and am I teaching you to do the same? I suppose we should all ask ourselves that question.

We have seen the characteristic of the Sender, He holds the stars in His hand and walks among the church. We have seen the compliment; they have their doctrine down, they work hard and they hate what God hates. We have seen the complaint, they have lost their first love. We have seen His warning; remember, repent, return quickly or He will remove their lampstand. And now we come to the encouragement. 7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” I love the way Jesus takes us back to the beginning. Adam and Eve had full access to the every tree in the garden, even the tree of life, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And they threw away access to the tree of life, they threw away their direct access to God Almighty, because they wanted to be like God. They literally wanted to be their own deity. This was their own individual choice. It affected us all but it was an individual choice to sin or not sin, to overcome the temptation or succumb to the temptation, to believe God or to disbelieve God. So when I read the words; “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” I know that I am hearing Jesus say through the revelator that you and I, along with the believers in Ephesus, have a choice. We can continue on working hard, doing all the right things, hating what God hate and not loving (Jesus, each other or the world) or we can be overcomers and heed the voice of the Holy Spirit, remember from where we have fallen, repent, and do the first works in love. And if the church refuses to do what the Spirit says and the lampstand is removed you as an individual still have the responsibility to respond and you have the promise of eating of the tree of life in the midst of paradise. There is indeed a corporate responsibility for the church to be the church, and much of the responsibility for that falls on me the pastor, but you and I have an individual responsibility to be the church as well.

The church at Ephesus had their doctrine down. They were right and they knew they were right because they had been tested by false apostles. They recognized wrong teaching and did not fall into heresy. They were busy doing the works they were supposed to do even in the face of persecution. They were patient in serving while waiting for their Lord. And they hated what God hated. But they were doing it all without love. They had a corporate responsibility to remember, repent and do their first works of love, but so did each member have the same responsibility.

Church, we must be very careful about being right at the expense of love. Don’t get me wrong, we must be careful and diligent in knowing and teaching the Word of God and we must hate what God hates. But if we hate what God hates then we must in turn love what God loves. And that love cannot simply be platitudes and lip service. Love requires action, that is why Jesus told His church to remember, keep on remembering, repent and do the works that demonstrate that we love what God loves. We have that responsibility just like the church at Ephesus had but you have that responsibility, I have that responsibility as well. We cannot as individuals point our fingers at the congregation and say “if only the church would…” If the congregation is wrong you still have the responsibility to respond to God’s call individually as a child of God. Remember, Repent and do what God has called you to do; LOVE. Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 2:1–7). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 14:15). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 13:34). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (Mk 12:31). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[5] Morris, L. (1987). Revelation: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, p. 65). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.