First Love

Introduction: I want to begin by thanking you for the opportunity and privilege to preach this evening. I am thankful for the testimony and legacy of this church in Chowan county. And I also want to begin by telling you that you have friends and kingdom partners over a few miles down the road at Macedonia. I hope that there is never any indication that there is competition between sister churches. Rather, I celebrate and we should all celebrate when God is working in the midst of local churches.

Tonight, I must tell you that I’ve been struggling what to preach to you. It can be a difficult thing to do when you come into a place and preach that you are unfamiliar with. Again, I count it a privilege to be here and I am excited to preach, but oftentimes, these one-shot sermons are hardest to get a grasp of because you wonder, what do these saints need? So I’ve prayed, I’ve struggled, but I think I’m in the place I need to be. So turn to Revelation 2:1-7. As I’ve come to this text a number of times before, it humbles me every time and I pray that God will use it in my own life and then into yours as a church.

READ REVELATION 2:1-7

CTS: Guard against a cold orthodoxy and tradition that lacks love for Jesus and others.

THE CHURCH OF EPHESUS:

Major themes throughout the book of Ephesians

Ephesians can be easily divided into two sections.

Chapters 1-3: The first three chapters deal with doctrine, specifically reminding the church of their identity. Paul wants them to know who they are. Who are we?

God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We are chosen by him, made holy and blameless, adopted as sons and daughters, made to praise Him, redeemed, forgiven of oursins, made his inheritance and given an inheritance of eternal life, sealed with the Holy Spirit, a promise and guarantee of all these spiritual blessings.

God has transformed his people from death, dead in trespasses and sins, Satan followers, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, and made us alive together with Christ, through his grace by faith alone. Our identity is now changed, a living masterpiece for God instead of spiritually dead.

God has made a new people, once separated and alienated from him and from one another, and made them one in Christ. We call this the Church, expressed all across the world and expressed local church. There is no Jew and Gentile. No race, no class, no geographical boundaries. All are one in Christ, redeemed by Him.

Chapters 4-6: The second part of the book is then taking that identity they have and then living in light of it. In other words, live who you are. That is expressed in the first verse of chapter four: walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

Walk worthy by being unified as one people, loving one another as Christ loved us. We believe the same thing and are called to unity as one. We are also called to be diverse in that unity by using the spiritual gifts God has given us and to treasure the gifts that God has blessed his church with through pastors and shepherds who equip the saints to do the work of ministry through the ministry of the proclaimed Word, strong and growing in love for Jesus and for one another.

Walk worthy by putting off the old life and putting on the new life in Christ.

Walk worthy by walking in love, and that love means we abstain from sin, sin of sexual immortality, impurity, and coveting. Walking not in darkness, but walking in the light. Redeeming the time and worshiping together through righteous means of singing and praise together as the church.

Walk worthy by letting your home reflect Christ and his church. Husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church. Wives submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ. Children obey their God-given authority of parents as we the church obey the authority fo Jesus. We all obey the authorities in our lives and work hard to the glory of Jesus.

Walk worthy by putting on the whole armor of God to stand strong in spiritual warfare, for Satan seeks to destroy his people

Concluding Blessing (23-24)

And as a final word, he blesses this church. The standard blessing of that time would be reformed toward a Christian worldview.

Peace - peace with God and with one another, major themes throughout Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:14–17 ESV

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

Ephesians 4:1–3 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Love: Love is a major theme throughout Ephesians as well. Paul reminds them with this blessing of the love they have in Christ. (predestined in love for adoption Eph 1:4, loved by God Eph 2:4, rooted and knowing Christ’s love Eph 3:19, loving one another Eph 4:2, speaking truth in love Eph 4:15, building itself up in love Eph 4:16, walking in love Eph 5:2, loving as Christ loved the church Eph 5:25 Very clearly, this love is rooted in faith in Christ, made possible by God through Christ. It is from him and a result of Him.

Grace - For by grace you have been saved by faith. Grace that continues in our lives daily, as God gives us his undeserved merit to those that love have undying love for Jesus. We are reminded though that we only love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

The church has been taught great orthodoxy and great orthopraxy. To know who they are then how they should live.

In the blessing, Paul reminds them of his intention. And Paul concludes the letter that we would know these things, be encouraged in the faith, and to experience the peace and grace of God that is made available by the love of Christ for us. The final admonition to the church is to have undying love for Jesus. That’s the ending application for the church. Do you have undying love for Jesus?

AN IMPORTANT WARNING (Revelation 2:1-7)

Now we shift to the main text tonight in Revelation, the last words written to the church at Ephesus in Scripture. Important words also to remember. If were to take stock of the church over its history, we would look back and see that the church had a pretty stacked lineup of leaders/pastors. Paul obviously had a hand in plant the church according to Acts. He wrote the letter we just walked though to them. Timothy, Paul’s young protege pastored the church. Church history tells us that John the apostle pastored the church as well. But even with all of that, we see that Jesus has to warn the church, one last final time.

And the first reminds us very clearly, that He who walks among the churches is Jesus himself, he holds them in his hand. Jesus is the head of the church. And he begins to address the church in Ephesus with these words.

I. You are to be commended (2-3)

The commendation is this: Faithful to the task, they tested the truth, and they were tough, willing to endure and bear whatever came for the name of Christ.

The commendation is that they were very warrior like, the fighter. They fought against that which was false. They stood for something they truly believed in, and challenged anything that was against those strongly held beliefs. They say that churches often take on the personality of their pastors/leaders. Which is a very convicting and honestly frightening thing. But John at one point was the pastor. One of the sons of Thunder, he no doubt took on the passionate warrior type mentality, defended truth against falsehood. The church had taken to that. Passionate defense of the truth. People of orthodoxy. Tough and willing to endure whatever it required to stand upon it.

The church today must be strong like this as well. Again, this is commended by Jesus. Working hard to defend the Bible, the Gospel, even the notion of “objective truth” in a subjective truth world. Patient endurance against those that would try to stifle it. Standing against evil, not able to bear with those that do evil. Waiting until Jesus comes again, a stalwart of truth and righteousness. Good things!

1 John 4:1 ESV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Truth must be defended. It is good to be concerned about what is right and wrong. False teaching is seen and ignored and put out of the church. We fight this good fight, not growing weary, even when the pressure is on for us to recant or give in to half-truths and compromise.

II. But I have this concern (4)

Yet the criticism of Jesus hits to the heart of the issue. Just like the Pharisees of their day, you can be so concerned about being right that you lose sight of what it means to love. The concern for people, their condition and position before God, is what should drive the church. Our orthodoxy should inform our love. We want to be truth tellers, but truth tellers with the intent of fulfilling the Great Commission.

John the Apostle, though a son of thunder, was also rebuked for such extreme, cold, angering orthodoxy. Strike them down Jesus! And yet that can be some of the ways that the church today can act. Strike down those sinners Jesus! And maybe not in such words, but definitely in how we treat and act towards those that significantly disagree with us. John would later figure out that, yes, defend the truth, but he would also have to be a son of love as well. His letter of 1 John says “love” 46 times. His Gospel says it 57 times. John learned that orthodoxy must be coupled with love, or its a dead and cold orthodoxy.

The church at Ephesus lost its first love. Jesus. Everything that they were doing was now more of securing the institution of Christianity rather than the source of Christianity. Love of Jesus is to drive all that the church does. Does our preaching, our teaching, our singing, our ministries all derive from a love for Jesus, or a love of tradition or defending against the enemy?

The love they had at first also has a horizontal aspect. Because of love for Jesus, it should inform our relationships with others. Love defines how we interact and minister to one another in the church.

John 13:35 ESV

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love is how we are defined by as we interact with the world. That love isn’t excusing or even supporting sin, like many today see it as such, but rather, its telling the truth of the Gospel and pointing people from their sin to the One who takes away all our sin. The church can be so inwardly focused, staunch in its defense of the truth and its traditions, that it loses sight of the purpose of which the church is called to, the Great Commission. This is to be expected, and that love will begin to grow cold...

Matthew 24:12–14 ESV

12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

What does it look life to lose the love we had at first?

1. The church becomes a place of rote tradition, a place of clubhouse to serve ourselves rather than a place of worship. Jesus had to condemn the religious leaders often because they were focused on the external rather than the inward. Lack of communion with God through the Word and prayer. To rely on an hour a week to get address your relationship with God is anemic. How would your spouse feel if you only spent an hour with them all week? Worship becomes about us and our preferences. The Word may be preached, but obedience to it is often neglected. Jesus may be sung to, but our lives don’t reflect it. To say we love someone but not ever show it is not love at all.

2. Neglecting the world around us, focused on ourselves, our comforts, our traditions, and what we do inside our church buildings. We forgot the purpose of what we are ultimately called to do, to reach the world, our nation, our state, our county, our community with the Gospel, the love of God expressed in deed and in the proclamation of the Gospel. Are people being reached with the love of Christ or are we too concerned about how this different way of doing things might mess up my preferences and the way we’ve always done things? Are we more concerned about making disciples of Jesus or retaining the traditions and keeping the status quo. And are we willing to make changes if necessary when things no longer work?

To love someone as Christ loved them is not to win them to the 1950s version of our world, but rather, to point them to the kingdom of God that transforms our lives today. Are we willing to say, you know what, these old ways are no longer effective, maybe we should try something different to reach our community with Jesus. Maybe we need to ask the question of “is this what the Lord commanded in His Word, are we loving him by obeying him, which then naturally leads to the end of what we do…make disciples of the lost, proclaiming our love for Jesus by proclaiming His love.

The church at Ephesus has seemed to lost sight of what it is that they were called to do. They lost sight of the love that Jesus loved them with, weren’t loving the Lord, and weren’t loving the people around them. All the objective facts of love toward them was supposed to drive them in their love for God, one another, and for the world.

III. Now remember and turn back to me (5-7)

If we lost our first love, what do we do? Jesus commands the church to then do this...

Remember: Look back at where you came from. Look back to when you first surrendered your life to Jesus. Remember when it wasn’t rote. Remember when it was about loving Jesus. Remember that passion and zeal for Christ.

Repent: Repent means to turn 180 degrees. The path that the Ephesian church is on is one that lacks love for Jesus. It lacks the essential ingredient of what it means to be a disciple. Love.

Do the works you did AT FIRST: Jesus tells them to go back to that time and remember the works they did. The works they did were based in the love they had for Him and for others. Apparently, their actions weren’t based in love anymore. It was based in a cold orthodoxy, rote, tradition. Instead, the works we do should be based in love.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

But if the command is not heeded, if Jesus’ words are ignored and not acted upon, this is the result:The removal of the lampstand from the presence of Jesus.

What does this mean? The church will die.

Does this means that there are those that lose their salvation? No. The individual believers that truly follow Jesus will continue on. They will gather with a body that is loving Jesus. But this local church would die. Not the universal church, but this local congregation. Here is the sobering reality about the church of Ephesus. Remember the pastors and leaders this church has had. Remember that Jesus wrote these very words to them. Do you know what happened to the Ephesian church? It no longer exists, along with the very city itself. The church died. Their lampstand was removed.

It doesn’t matter how many powerful and charismatic pastors you have. It doesn’t matter if they pastor better than any other pastor in the world. They could be the most gifted preacher you have ever come across. If the church doesn’t heed the Word, love Jesus, obey his commands and his biblical mandates, and love others by proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples, it doesn’t matter how good the preaching and teaching is and how much the pastor visited you, the church will die.

And here is the sobering words of Jesus, and ones that we must take to heart. We have been called out of darkness, out of our sin, and given life eternally because of the love of God for us. This has been accomplished by Jesus. We are transformed as God’s people, regenerated, and now are able to love God as we have been created to do as we should. Only in Christ and only through the Holy Spirit is this possible.

But the sad reality is that there are many local churches throughout history that have died. Why? Because they refuse to love Jesus. They refuse to put aside cold orthodoxy, inward focus, and petty arguments at the expense of truly loving Jesus and loving others. When a church has lost its first love, Jesus Himself, they will die. Church, do we want to die? The question we must ask ourselves, individually and corporately, is do we love Jesus? And we can say it all we want. We can say, of course we love Jesus! Yet do our actions and our ministries reflect that? Do our attitudes and words with one another reflect Jesus or selfish motives? Is Jesus the reason for everything we do? Is church about us or about our programs, our traditions, what we want? Or is it about the glory of King Jesus, a distinct love for Him and for one another, and especially the lost world for whom Jesus died? Church, can we really say we love Jesus and love others?

Go back to your first love church.