Revelation 2:1-7
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The letters to the seven churches follow a similar pattern
The title for Jesus
Jesus commendation to the church
Jesus complaint to the church
Jesus Counsel.
If I were to ask you this morning what makes a church dead, what would you answer be?
No ministry
No vision
No love
Poor Theology
No evangelism
No growth within the Body
No giving
A web site I went to suggests
If your church is dying, the passion of key leaders is waning
Innovation is rare
Management is beginning to replace leadership
Your church has become fixated on being…your church
You criticize younger, upstart leaders
Maintenance is beginning to trump mission
Your relationship with God has gone flat
This morning we are going to look at a dying church and if drastic measures were not taking, it would be a dead church - The church at Ephesus
The church at Ephesus has a footprint in all the genre’s in the NT (Except the Gospels).
They are in the Book of Acts - In fact, Paul spent more time at Ephesus than any other mission place in the NT.
Miracles, powerful preaching, the Word spread. Other churches were founded, people turning from idols, turning from the occult, magic, evil practices, burning their magic books at a tremendous price, putting the idol makers who made the silver gods out of business, creating a riot in the city when the union of idol workers found out about it.
This is a remarkable place.
The letter in Revelation occurs 40 years from their birth as a church.
They are int The Epistles - The Letter to the Ephesians
Pauline Epistles
General Epistles
Pastoral Epistles
The Apocalypse
Within the footprint of the NT, Ephesus could have been the epicenter of Christianity within Asia.
Description of Jesus - Revelation 2:1
Description of Jesus - Revelation 2:1
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Within the description of Jesus, we have a repeat of what John records in chapter 1.
There could be many reasons, but one of the predominant reasons would be to add emphasis.
Jesus has the ministers or ministries in His right hand
He is actively and personally engaged in the events of the church - He is not standing in the midst but walking in the midst.
Scrutinizing, examining, looking, seeing, assessing, evaluating
to identify the author
Focuses on His authority and presence
There is a distinction within this description - Jesus is talking
The one who has absolute authority over the church
The one who knows all there is to know about the church
Is not talking!
Works of the church - Revelation 2:2-3
Works of the church - Revelation 2:2-3
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
The word “know” - I know by observation.
John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
The word for “know” speaks of intimacy
Revelation 2:2 - the word speaks of observation. Jesus is not just Someone who experiences us or is intimate with us, He also observes us.
He knows there works - Everything that follows would be there works - both good and bad.
Labour - This is the kind of toil which takes everything of mind and muscle that a man or a woman can put into it. Their labor for Christ was with major effort.
Patience - Steadfast endurance - that courageous gallantry which accepts hardship, suffering, loss and turns it in to grace and glory. Patience is gained when we pass the varied tests God sends our way.
Love for the truth of God’s word:
Cannot bear them which are evil - Truth is needed to determine what is and what is not evil. They were sanctified - John 17:17
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
But I have learned that certain people . . . have passed your way with evil doctrine, but you did not allow them to sow it among you. You covered up your ears in order to avoid receiving the things being sown by them—Ignatius, The Letter of Ignatius to the Ephesians16
They had spiritual discernment - They tried them which say they were apostles and discovered they were lairs.
They did not falter:
In the midst of these battles they borne, had patience and for Jesus name sake laboured without fainting.
Galatians 6:9
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Faithful to the Word, faithful to the work, faithful to the Lord, faithful to the criteria by which you judge people; and in it all through the spiritual discernment, through the trouble, through all of it, they had never grown weary and always with the right motive – for Thy namesake.
Thy name sake -
Your glory, for Your honor, for Your name, for Your reputation, not ours.
Matthew 10:22
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
This church had one more thing going for it. Revelation 2:6
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
The word Nicolas comes from two Greek words: nikē, from which you get the word today Nike, which means to conquer; and the word laos. Nikos – to conquer, laos – people. The word means conqueror of the people, one who conquers the people. Listen to this. The Hebrew word Balaam means destroyer of the people – the Hebrew word Balaam means destroyer of the people. What you have here with Nicolas in the New Testament appears to be the same as you had with Balaam in the Old Testament. This is someone who by false teaching leads people into destructive sin.
Their fatal flaw - Revelation 2:4
Their fatal flaw - Revelation 2:4
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
It’s one thing if a person has something against our church but if Jesus has something against our church that is serious business.
This points to the truth that Jesus did not just observe the outward appearance but the inward heart.
This was a fatal flaw, not anything to put off.
The honeymoon had ended in Ephesus.
They left their first love, meaning their was another love more important.
Left - abandoned
1 Kings 11:4
For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
.The Ephesian church had lost its focus. They had taken their eyes off of Jesus and were now focusing on their works done for His name. This is the essence of idolatry.
Doctrinal? Yes, solid. Morally pure? Yes. Zealous? Yes. Disciplined? Yes. Hard-working? Yes. Borne in an incredible way out of powerful pagan idolatry with the best spiritual leadership. Fanatical start and now grown cold.
2 Corinthians 11:2
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Ephesians 5:32
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Jesus is the husband and wives are the church.
Jesus loves the church unselfishly
The response of the wife is the submission of love to the perfect love - It is subjection of a great love to a great love - First love is an abandonment of all for a love that has abandoned all.
The emotion, energy and enthusiasm are lacking
Now you can sense what is lacking - 1 Thessalonians 1:3
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
Why is this important? We can function as a faithful Christian but if we leave our first love bitterness will be the engine that drives us.
All the zeal for the master that is not the outcome of love is worthless.
Steps of renewed love - Revelation 2:5
Steps of renewed love - Revelation 2:5
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Each of the three steps is in the imperative. These are not optional steps but commands.
Remember
The duty here enjoined is, when religion has declined in our hearts, or in the church, to call to distinct recollection the former state - the ardor, the zeal, the warmth of love which once characterized us. The reason for this is, that such a recalling of the former state will be likely to produce a happy influence on the heart.
This is the second or third generation of Christians at Ephesus. The commitment to faith was still there but not their love.
If a church is going to stay vital in its love for Christ has to be a maternity ward where there’s the constant cry of newborn babes in Christ. Why? Because they continually bring us into touch with first love.
Repent
Properly speaking, metanoein is “to know after” as pronoein is “to know before”; metanoia is “afterknowledge” . . . The next step that metanoia signifies is the change of mind that results from this afterknowledge. Thus Tertullian wrote: “In the Greek language the word for repentance is not derived from the admission of a fault but from a change of mind.” . . . Last of all metanoia signifies a resulting change of conduct. . . . Only in Scripture and in the works of those who were dependent on Scripture does metanoia predominantly refer to a change of mind, to taking a wiser view of the past, to “the soul’s perception of the wicked things it has done.”22
Go back - What are the first works? John 6:29
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
or else - It is not our doing that lightens the world. It is not our ceremonial cleanness that helps men. It is not our correctness in the holding of truth that helps a dying race. It is our love first for our Master, then for each other, and then for the world.
Conclusion
Conclusion