Revelation 2:1-7 “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.
2 “ ‘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. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up
for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have
this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of
the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 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 look at the letters to the seven churches we need to remember that these
letters did not come from John — they came through John! These letters came
directly from God as shown to Jesus Christ and then to John the apostle. Yes,
it says, “John to the seven churches…” But John is simply the human agent who
saw these things and reported them. We should never for one moment forget that
this is God’s word and these are God’s churches.
Actually
this first letter is addressed to the “angel” of the church in Ephesus. The
word here used and normally translated “angel” can mean “messenger”. There are
some who believe that these “angels” are the pastors of the churches. I am not
certain that would be correct but it is nice to know that there are, for each
of the churches, an “angel” and that Jesus has direct communication with that
being. I am inclined to believe that there are specific angels that are
spiritual creatures directed by God. Jesus spoke about little children, “in heaven their angels always behold the
face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). We are not guaranteed
that that means each child has an angel assigned to them but may simply mean
that angels who watch out for children have direct contact with the Father.
Here in Revelation it seems that each church has a designated “angel” who has
such a secure contact with Jesus that he is in Jesus’ right hand. During his
ministry on earth Jesus assured us that no one could take us out of his hand.
It’s wonderful to know that the Lord Jesus himself holds our angel in his hand
and that he circulates among the lampstands that represent the churches around
the world. Jesus begins his communication to the churches with…
The church in Ephesus. It
happens that the apostle Paul wrote an earlier letter to the Ephesian church.
Turn with me to Ephesians 1:1-2. Paul,
an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus,
and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This
letter convinces us that the church in Ephesus existed at least 30 years before
the Revelation was written. Paul in writing to the church refers to its people
as “the saints” at Ephesus. These are the ones who began the church along with
the ministry of Paul and others with him. These would’ve been some of the ones
who enjoyed an active love that Jesus dictated to John. One thing that Jesus wanted
them to know is that he knew all about them.
At
the very beginning in the Garden of Eden whenever there was a break in the
fellowship with God Adam and Eve hid themselves — as though God would not have
known where they were. I believe sometimes we live our lives in the same way.
We are confronted with temptation and find ourselves accidentally committing
sin. Rather than recognizing that God always knows where we are and what we’re
doing we, like the ostrich in the fable, hide our heads in the sand believing
that no one will notice our wrong doing. We need to recognize that…
Jesus knows. Let’s
look back at Vv 2-3. Jesus said to
the church, “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. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and
bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” Let’s unpack
this passage little bit and see what he has to say to us. First Jesus told the
Ephesians that he knew…
Your
patient work. Again we go back to Paul’s letter. Turn with me to Ephesians 4:1-3. 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.
We,
half-jokingly, say that we do not want to learn about patience because it
always involves “endurance” and we certainly don’t want to have to bear up
under any kind of difficulty. In those early days of the church in Ephesus Paul
pointed out how the believers there should live their lives. He urged them to
live a life that was worthy of the calling of God on them. He characterized
that life as being one of humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one
another in love. The church that does that will always be able to maintain a
unity guided by the Spirit and do so in a bond of peace. A generation after
Paul wrote these words Jesus could say that he knew their patient endurance and
their work.
Work,
toil, and patient endurance does not paint a “happy” picture of these people.
No matter what they were going to continue on the road laid before them toiling
and enduring rather than enjoying their progress in the Spirit. Not only did he
note their patient work he also observed…
Your
rejection of evil people. Turn with me to the little letter of 1 John 4:1. Let’s see what John had to
say about dealing with evil people in the church. Listen while I read. 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.
Those
who received John’s little letter are warned not to believe every spirit. We
are surrounded today by false prophets and false teachers. Paul also spoke
about a time that was coming when people would not endure sound teaching. They
would instead gather up teachers who suit their own passions (2 Timothy 4:3).
Within a generation of the time Paul wrote to the Ephesians John would report
that many false prophets have gone into the world.
They
had gone into a world without radio or television or the Internet. Today, the
digital world we live in is filled with false teachers. We need to come back to
John’s little letter and see that there is a standard to judge these people by.
What do they have to say about Jesus? If they teach that Jesus is the Christ
and that he came into the world in the flesh we can begin to believe that they
come from God.
When
Paul wrote to the Corinthians he shared with them the important truths they
needed to hang on to. Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he
was buried, he was raised on the third day fulfilling prophecy, he appeared to
many people including the apostle Paul. And we need to keep these truths in
front of us on a day to day basis. Not only did Jesus recognize their patient
work, their rejection of evil people he commended them saying…
You
have not grown weary. And a generation before that Paul had written to the
Galatian church about the same subject. Turn with me to Galatians 6:9-10. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due
season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we
have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are
of the household of faith.
When
Jesus had John write to the Ephesian church he was not overjoyed with them but
he was commending them for these things. They had not grown weary but they had
grown cold.
Indeed,
we need to stubbornly stay on the path that God has given us until we have
clear direction from God to another path. We must never give up the truth that
we know. As the Ephesian church was stubbornly staying on the path…
Jesus had this against them. Turn
with me to Ephesians 3:14-19. For this
reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every
family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to
the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through
his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may
have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length
and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Again,
we go back a generation to see what Paul had written to the same church. He
prayed for them that they would be strengthened with power through the Spirit;
that they would function in love and that they would know and understand the
fullness of Jesus’ love for them.
This
calls to mind the words of Jesus himself, “A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved
you, you are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) Love is
characterized by Paul as being patient and kind; not envious; not arrogant or
rude. Love is not self-centered and does not demand its own way. Love tolerates,
believes, hopes and endures. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
The
church in Ephesus that Jesus dictated the letter to had slid into a loveless
existence. At least compared to the love they had at first. They did the work;
they continued the task; they did not grow weary but they had abandoned the
love they once had. This can happen in any individual’s life and in any
church’s existence.
It is my desire that our church be known as a lighthouse of solid, biblical
truth that always speaks in love. If we will apply ourselves to the following
three words:…
Remember. When
a person comes to faith in Christ several things begin to happen to them. These
things could be characterized in the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-24. But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness,
self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires.
We
need to remember what it was like when the Spirit brought us to salvation. The
Holy Spirit produces love in our heart and this love binds everything together
in perfect harmony (Colossians 3:14). When the Holy Spirit is working strongly
in the church one evidence will be a beautiful harmony in the church community
and overflowing love for one another as well as a love for God! We need to
remember the joy and the peace that passes all understanding that once came
into our life. When we discover that we’ve drifted away from that the first
thing we need to do is…
Repent. Turn
with me to 2 Corinthians 7:10. For godly
grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas
worldly grief produces death.
We
need to come to have grief over the things that are wrong in our lives. And
that grief needs to produce repentance. A worldly sort of grief may involve
great sorrow for one’s actions and probably also fear punishment. But there
will not be any renouncement of sin nor any commitment to forsake it. The Bible
tells us that Esau wept over the consequences of his choices but did not truly
repent. (Hebrews 12:17)
King
David committed a grievous sin. He took another man’s wife and had her husband
put to death. The only good thing to see in this experience is that God can
forgive even the worst of our sins. David would write about his repentance in
two different passages. Turn with me to Psalm
32:2-5. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose
spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted
away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your
hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did
not cover my iniquity; I said, “I
will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
At
first David kept silent until he was confronted by Nathan the prophet. With
that confrontation David entered into godly sorrow. As he said, when he kept
silent his bones wasted away and he groaned all day long. I can recall times in
my life when I was so sorry for something I did but I could not make it go away
I could only grieve until I confessed my sin. Praise God! When we confess our
sin he continues to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness (1
John 1:9).
We
need to remember where we fell from and repent of the wrong in our life knowing
that godly sorrow leads to true repentance. We can never hide it from God! Nor,
in fact, can we hide it from those who know us well.
True
repentance is more than confessing our sin true repentance is renouncing our
sin and turning away from it. In the Bible repentance and faith come together
like the two sides of a coin. When we turn to Christ for salvation through
faith at the same time we turn to him in repentance.
We
need to remember where we came from before we fell into loveless labor and
repent of our lost love and then we must, like King David…
Return. Turn
with me to Psalm 51:10-12. Create in me
a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me
not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore
to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
David
did not just ask forgiveness of God he asked God to do a special work in his
life. David asked for a clean heart and a right spirit. He wasn’t just sorry he
had committed sin even to causing a person to die he recognized that, in those
acts, he had become dirty and needed cleaning. He also sensed a separation
between him and God and he asked that the Holy Spirit not be taken from him —
even though that’s what he deserved.
David
did not ask that his salvation be restored because he had never lost it. What
he had lost was the joy of God’s salvation. He asked that the joy of his walk
with God be restored. I often find myself in a place where I no longer feel the
presence of God’s joy in my life and I need to remember, repent and return.
If
David could do it after his grievous sin anybody can do it. There is only one
unpardonable sin and is not mentioned here. In the next few weeks we will look
at these letters to see what Jesus had to say to the seven churches of Asia.
We
must be careful to consider the words that Jesus gave to the seven churches in
the book of Revelation. It is so easy for us to fall into the same trap of
continuing to plod along while letting our love fade. We need to remember how
much love we had for the Lord Jesus when we were saved and the joy it produced.
Then we need to repent of our current coldness and return to that love. Have
you committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he your Lord? Do your
actions show that you love him? Remember… Repent… And Return!
All scriptures quotes are from: The
Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible
Society.
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