Ephesus
Notes
Transcript
The Church of Ephesus
The Church of Ephesus
Letters
Something that is a lost art anymore.
Did you know before the telephone— people wrote letters to each other.
And they had to wait for their response.
And something I thought of the other day, that unless you copied that letter word for word— you had no idea what you said until the next letter came to you.
I mean have you every found yourself in a position where you had to correct someone with something that you said, as in maybe they just misheard you or something like that, not with letter writing.
Yet, i do believe that this was a good thing.
You see when you needed to send a letter, it took time, words were meaningful.
Over this Covid season— I hate to admit it but I got hooked on Hamilton.
I think it is a brilliant play and the songs are incredible!
But anyway, I can’t help but to bring Hamilton into this because of the letters he wrote.
I mean the movie or play- whatever you want to call it now— so much of it is based on letters written by him.
He was a great writer— writing took so much time, yet it has this feeling of being from the heart.
When someone just gives me a card and it only has their name in it, i typically throw it away, Not trying to sound harsh— I am thankful but if someone took the time to write me a letter, or they wrote something in a card for me— I keep it— I have a folder of all the things people have wrote me and I look back on it with joy and it is an encouragement.
Words— letters have such power— I sometimes wonder why we left this art of communication in the past, when it is a beautiful way to convey our thoughts, ideas and feelings.
I digress— you see we are going to be opening up the book of Revelation.
And the book of Revelation is a letter written to seven churches.
You see it was John— the author of John— the one whom Jesus loved.
This former disciple of Jesus has found himself in exile on the island of Patmos.
And it is on this island that John get a Revelation.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
So John is given this vision and is told to write it down.
I want to make clear that this is a vision of the future.
Here is the set up
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Jesus appears to John and says write this down and send it out.
Before we continue however, I want to read what Jesus looked like here: check this out
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
DANG!
And John’s response was perfect!
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,
I thought I was death- I mean that is really the only proper response to give to Jesus!
But what is Jesus saying!
This is important as it sets up why John is writing this in the first place.
Jesus continues speaking “Fear not, I am the first and the last,
and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.
Now, we will be covering the majority of Revelation after the new year, but I want to begin with symbolism.
The Bible does have some bit here and their of symbolism.
So right away we have some of that figurative language
When John firsts sees Jesus he sees that Jesus is holding 7 stars.
Jesus has got huge hands
Because it stays that he had them in just his right hand!
WHAT!!!
But that does the seven stars mean?
Verse 20 sums it up for us, as we do not have to wait for long.
As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Seven Stars= Seven angels of the churches.
the Seven lampstands= Are these churches.
These churches are mentioned by Jesus earlier
saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
That is pretty much the first chapter— are we all doing okay?
This can be a bit intimidating to be studying that book of Revelation.
okay good we good!
So let just go ahead and jump into chapter 2 we are going to be covering our first church.
Ephesus:
What we are going to see is Jesus is talking to these churches and some are doing really well, others are not.
So lets read chapter 2
“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.
“ ‘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. 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. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 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.’
As we begin to peel back this highly challenging book, I want everyone to know that this is challenging, as you can see from the first verse here in chapter 2.
To the angel of the church of Ephesus.
Who is the angel of this church?
So this letter is written to the angel of this church?
Who is that?
I do not want to get too deep in the weeds here but I would like to stress that our language and the greek language are very different.
This term angelos- means messenger.
It is used to say a messenger from God such as an angel but it also used to describe a person who is a messenger about God, John the Baptist was described as an angelos.
This is he of whom it is written,
“ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
Scholar go back and forth with this, as mostly all of Revelation.
So could there be guardian angels over the sever churches here, it is possible— i personally believe that these letters were written to the leadership of the church to be shared to everyone— kinda like a messenger or something like that.
And of corse not only is John saying who is getting the letter, but whose words are coming to them...
It is Christ- the one who holds the seven starts and walks among the lampstands.
This is imperative because to show Jesus as the one who is speaking to His churches.
Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary a. To the Church of Ephesus (2:1–7)
The effect of this salutation is to give a picture of Christ as present in the very midst of the churches, a Christ who is intimately concerned with them and cares for them.
Jesus is highly involved and he knows them the best.
Now each week we are going to be breakdown:
The Good
The Bad
And the Ugly
So, lets check out the good of the church of Ephesus.
THE GOOD
Verses 2 and 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.
Jesus is again telling them I know you, I know your works, I know that you have suffered, and you are patient— i see you— i got you.
How amazing it that when you are going through something really hard that you have someone in your corner?
It changes everything right.
Or how about when you do something that you are proud of and you wand someone else to see it and go WOW THAT IS AMAZING!!
Nobody likes making a half-court shot in an empty room.
We as people crave to have others see us and know where we are coming from.
God knows this, kind of created us this way.
Jesus see them and says:
I see what you are doing here at the church. I love it!
You guys have gone through the ringer here, I know it has been going on for a bit.
And I am so proud of you for not bearing with those who are evil.
I know its hard— that some of those people were your friends, but you never settled for a cheap knock-off verse of the Gospel.
I know that you are turning in the false and you are lifting high my name, above all names.
And you are enduring it.
And that term endure means they have an inability to tolerate evil.
Those are all good things! They are great things!
I think those all sound amazing and I would like our church, our youth group, to be know with the good that Jesus is talking about!
So ask yourself some of those questions.
What are my works, what is the evidence of my faith?
Am I enduring for the sake of Christ?
Do you have a spirit of discernment?
Am I challenging the words that are coming out of people’s mouths?
And you do not have to be a jerk about it and correct everyone and pick fights but you do not have to listen to them.
Are you continuing to fight the fight?
Or maybe you are in a season of weary.
From like March until the last couple of weeks, it feels like I have been in a season of weary.
I have just felt tired.
Maybe you find yourself here tonight.
There is hope to not grow weary.
But before we can get to the hope,
Lets talk about the bad
THE BAD
The church here in Ephesus, only has one compliant against them.
Only one.
Verse 4
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. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Ouch--
You have abandoned the love you had at first.
What was their first love?
Jesus could be referring to three abandon loves
Jesus
For one another
Or for mankind as a whole.
It could bring all three together with a phrase like you do not love as you did at first.
I land on that it was Jesus who they abandoned.
That they fell in love with Jesus first— then their heads got in the way of their hearts.
Look back at verse 2 and 3, I believe that you can make a case that all the stuff they were doing right, was based on work and knowledge.
They were bearing Jesus name but as we know in Matthew 7, many will do this.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
One commentary says:
Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary a. To the Church of Ephesus (2:1–7)
They had yielded to the temptation, ever present to Christians, to put all their emphasis on sound teaching. In the process they lost love, without which all else is nothing.
There is nothing wrong with learning and teaching but when we lose love we gain nothing.
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.
They left behind their first love.
How many times in our lives do we just tend to forget our first love?
I’m not talking about your first crush here, I’m talking about that moment when you said yes to Jesus.
Recall that moment.
Was their tears? Were you smiling?
DID YOU FEEL LOVED?
You see in that moment you did not accept Jesus because of how great he sounded, but you chose him because of how much he loved you.
By going to the cross and dying a death we deserved.
You see nothing else follows from this, no more bad or issues in the church.
And maybe this is where you have found yourself tonight.
Forgetting or abandoning your first love.
It is so common for us to get the head knowledge of the Bible and then think we are good to go— that could not be further from the truth, and honestly if you understand God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and scripture that well, then I need to sit down and let you get up here and speak!
Because it seems like I study one thing and leave with about 30 more things to study from this one thing.
But maybe 2020 has not been your year, get in line.
But instead of going back to your first love, you are picking other things, you are looking for something else, fame, attention, worth, love?
Whatever it maybe you can find that in the arms of a loving savior.
And Jesus tells them what they must do in verse 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, and refocus
Remember where you would be without Jesus in your life.
Repent from allowing the world, our desire for head knowledge or our own selfishness that drove us away from our first love.
And refocus on what you did when you first were saved.
When you first become a believer, what is that fire like inside of you?
It was unquenchable.
You were reading, diving into the text, praying every chance you got, and you were loving people where they were.
I mean you never followed the Nicolaitains— they crazy and I hate them too.
It is not too late for us to go back to our first love.
Is that something you need to do?
Don’t let anything hold you back from that.
We have one last verse to get too, and this is where we find the ugly.
THE UGLY
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.’
The reason why this is ugly is because of what happens to those who hears and does not listen.
Who hears and does not conquer.
Those who abandon their first love to never come back, they will not eat from the tree of life, they will not be in the paradise of God.
The book of Revelation is not for the faint of heart.
At the end of time, When Jesus makes His return.
There will be two sides.
There will not be a middle ground.
There will be good and evil.
There will be God and their will be Satan.
What side will you be on?
This the letter to the church of Ephesus.
It is a good one to start with, it is a great place for us to ask questions and to reflect on our own lives.
Are we following after our first love?
Or have we allowed other things to over come them?
Let’s pray
Next week we will be continuing this series as we look at the church of Smyrna
Once you guys get to your rooms tonight, you can remove the mask but you will need to put them back on once you leave your rooms.
Please try to social distance the best you can in our breakout rooms, or we will have to keep wearing the mask the whole time we are here.
Alright!
See you guys next week!
And know that you are loved.