Church of the First Love (#2) - August 26, 2020

tonight as we continue our study of the book of revelation we're going to look at the first of the seven churches that is addressed in this book of revelation and it's the church at ephesus and the title of the message tonight is church of the first love and i want you to open to the second chapter of revelation it's the second chapter of the last book in our bibles the book of revelation and what i want to do before we look into those seven verses and talk about the letter to the church at ephesus is i want to just do some a little bit of an overview some introductory remarks first by way of review in our introduction last week we talked about how there is an outline for how we understand the book of revelation that was given to us in the first chapter and the 19th verse and i want to display that on the screen where jesus told john therefore write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things so what i want to do without changing any of the words literally word for word just as it appears in the scripture there in chapter 1 and verse 19 i just want us to display it differently and you'll notice we'll read it this time but we will list each one of those components in verse 19 where jesus says to john therefore right look how it breaks down number one write the things you've seen number two write the things which are and number three write the things which will take place after these things so there we have this three three-point outline for understanding how to divide the book of revelation into three separate sections so i want you to take a look at this chart that we've prepared as i displayed on the screen you can see that according to the first section of verse 19 the things which you have seen that's what chapter 1 talked about where john describes seeing the glorified christ he was described in vivid detail and then the second phrase of chapter 1 and verse 19 was jesus said write the things which are this comprises section 2 which will be revelation chapters 2 and 3 the letters to the seven churches the things which are then the third phrase from chapter 1 and verse 19 jesus said to john and write the things which will take place after these things that is chapters 4 through 22 which is the bulk of the book and most of that is devoted to describing what will happen during the tribulation which of course culminates with the return of christ to the earth in conquest and then finally where the eternal state is ushered in where unbelievers are sent to the lake of fire forever with satan and where those who have trusted god by faith are welcomed into the new jerusalem to live forever with god so that's how we break down this book and you if you didn't hear another sermon out of the book of revelation right there you have a very simple way to understand how to divide it so we are entering into section two tonight which begins with chapter 2 as we examine these letters to the seven churches starting with the first one now when john opened this this book of revelation he identified himself and he greeted those churches to whom this letter or this book would be delivered in chapter 1 and verse 4 he says john to the seven churches which are in asia so already there in the fourth verse of the book he identifies these seven churches as the recipients of this glorious book of revelation when we look at verse number four of chapter one and see that the entire book of revelation now divided into 22 chapters all of it in its entirety would be delivered to each one of those seven churches what chapters two and three tell us is that within this book jesus has a tailor-made message for each one of those seven churches so all seven churches are going to get the book in its entirety but as each one of these congregations will gather to hear this book read on a sunday morning most probably they would hear that jesus in heaven speaking to john who ended up writing it down or having someone else write it down and then deliver it to the mainland that each one of those churches was going to get a specific message within this broader book of revelation so i want to clarify and help explain something the whole book of revelation we will sometimes refer to as a letter we do this in the same way that we will speak about the epistles in the new testament being letters we call for instance the book of romans a book but we will also refer to it as the epistle to the romans or paul's letter to the romans you can go through all of the letters that we call new testament books so we use the word book and letter interchangeably often when we speak of new testament books but where it can get a little confusing is that if the whole book of revelation we sometimes call a letter all 22 chapters within this book chapters two and three there are seven distinct individual letters to the seven churches who are the recipients of this entire book so the whole book is a letter but within the book there are seven individual letters or seven specific messages one for each of these seven churches now this whole idea of the church is a fascinating concept it was hidden in the prophecies of the old testament but we know that jesus brought to light god's eternal intention to bring about the merging of jew and gentile into one family through faith in the crucified and resurrected messiah the lord jesus christ but it's a gradual appearance of church in the new testament for instance in the first four books of the new testament matthew mark luke and john we call these the gospels only matthew records the word church spoken by jesus there is no mention of church in mark luke or john only matthew writes about it twice both times of which jesus used the word so the the concept of the church is still a mystery in the gospels apart from its appearance twice in the first book of our new testament the book of matthew then the holy spirit arranged the layout of the new testament books because after the four gospels we have in our new testament listing of books the book of acts and it's in the second chapter of acts that we believe the church was birthed or born on what was called the day of pentecost when the holy spirit was poured out and then throughout the book of acts the apostles went everywhere preaching the gospel and wherever they went it was their goal especially paul whose missionary journeys comprise the bulk of the book of acts they started local churches so you have this idea of the church of jesus christ being this worldwide group of all believers in christ but in the in the book of acts local congregations were started wherever the apostles preached and led people to christ they immediately constituted a local fellowship of believers that were referred to from that point on as churches then when you go out of the book of acts into the let the section of the epistles in the new testament starting with the book of romans every one of those epistles is intended for a church a local church there is uh most of them are intended for one church but there are several that are intended to be circulated among various churches and of course if they if these letters ended up in the new testament it was god's will and god's intent for these epistles to the churches to be read by all believers of all time in every church and that's why they're included in our bible but by the time we get to this last book of the bible the book of revelation what we have is not an epistle to one church that's identified not an epistle that was meant to be circulated among unnamed churches but we have a letter that is meant for seven churches that are mentioned by name and what i want to do is to just give you the listing of these churches you don't have to write them down but you can see there are seven of them starting with ephesus going all the way to laodicea i want you to look at that and i'll just tell you how i remembered these because i like to commit things to memory and that is i think about a psychic holding a teaspoon of lukewarm water you say what in the world are you talking about well esp ephesus smyrna pergam i just think of that's a psychic and then uh tsp that's a teaspoon thyatira sardis philadelphia and laodicea was the lukewarm church okay well enough of that that's just a little bit of the crazy the crazy way i use associations to memorize things so i think about e-s-p-t-s-p-l and those are the seven churches um what i want to do now is to show you that in that listing of seven that's the exact order in which jesus listed these churches to whom he addressed these specific letters in chapters two and three i want to show you how they appear on a map and you can see on the screen this map and starting there with ephesus and you can see the general uh direction in in which the letters were intended to be given so as you look at the screen i want you to think with me about where john was john this apostle in his 90s now exiled to this island of patmos you can hardly see the island of patmos it's so small tucked there in the southern part of the aegean sea right there near where the mediterranean meets the aegean but can you see that once john would get all of this message committed to print with ink and papyrus can you imagine then that it's going to be transported this this letter of revelation across the aegean sea several miles to the port city of ephesus isn't it interesting that ephesus is the first of the city's address the first of the churches and the geography supports this jesus knows what he's doing so imagine the letter of revelation being transported by boat from patmos to the port city of ephesus and then suppose a mail carrier took it and made copies and delivered it from ephesus next to smyrna then to pergamum then northeast of thyatira then south to sardis then to philadelphia then to laodicea you can see the orderly arrangement as they are laid out geographically in what is called asia minor there on the map and think about this if you were to take a pen and you were to connect the dots of those cities starting with ephesus and you just drew a line from ephesus to smyrna to pergamum of thyatira sardis philadelphia laodicea and then back to ephesus you would see that this creates a circle of sorts so not only was this a trade route but you can see that this circle really illustrates for us the idea that that jesus is surrounded by the circle of his churches do you remember in revelation chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 i want to put that on the screen where john saw the glorified christ in heaven he says i turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned i saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the seven lampstands i saw one like the son of man so here he sees jesus in a glorified exalted state in heaven and jesus is in the midst of these lamp stands that surround him then when we look down in the 20th verse of chapter 1 jesus decodes the vision and says to john hey john the seven lamp stands which you saw are the seven churches so i want you to think about the imagery of chapter one john saw the glorified christ in heaven in the midst of the lamp stands which jesus said symbolize remember this was sinified to john signs and images conveyed the reality jesus said the lamp stands that are surrounding jesus are the seven churches and when you look at the geographical layout of these seven cities in which these churches were you see they form a circle so that their geographical layout mirrors the image that john saw of the lampstands forming a circle in the middle of which stood jesus christ among his church i love that jesus is so awesome to reveal it in this way so what we see is in the midst of these lampstands in chapter one the lampstands being the seven churches who will receive individualized personal letters from jesus to each of them jesus is not in the midst of the lamp stands as the conqueror who is coming back to breathe wrath he has no wrath or vengeance for his church for his church have been shielded from wrath through the cross and the shed blood that jesus poured out on calvary so i love the contrast that here in the opening passages of revelation jesus is in the center surrounded by his church and churches and he is the loving nurturing lord to whom those churches are accountable and he is the source of the strength and power for each of those churches it is only later at the end of revelation that he comes back in conquest and wrath and vengeance on a wicked and ungodly world so i love the contrast between christ among his redeemed versus christ coming back to conquer rebellious mankind now the number seven is certainly significant there aren't five churches who were addressed there aren't ten churches there are seven churches who are the recipients of the book of revelation it could suggest that because seven is the number of totality or completion that there being seven of these churches they represent and symbolize the totality or the completion of the church age from start to finish it could also suggest that while there were many churches at the time these seven were intended not to disparage or diminish the significance of the churches that were not included in the list of the big seven but that these seven churches seven being completion were intended by christ to be representative of all the churches at the time revelation was written and of all the christian churches that have existed between that time and now seven is the number of totality another thing to remember if you'll recall last week we talked about how rich revelation is in its illusions and references back to the old testament but in the 25th chapter of the book of exodus when god was prescribing to moses all the things that needed to be built for the tabernacle and its furnishings god stipulated in the in the 31st verse through the 40th verse of exodus 25 that there was to be a lamp stand with a central stem and with three branches coming off each side which would mean a seven branch uh menorah as it is now called which was to be kept in the holy place so isn't it interesting that one of the centerpieces of the tabernacle and later the temple a seven branch lamp stand that was to be was to be kept lit at all times that it is that same number seven that is used to describe the churches and rather than there being one lamp stand with seven different uh branches and flames in the book of revelation each church has its own lampstand has its own light which i think is very interesting for us to remember and that is that each church is a light that's why jesus said you are the light of the world so every church recognized by jesus has a light that jesus fuels with his spirit in order for that church to maintain its witness in the world do you see the beauty of all of this imagery connecting from old testament to new testament to the fact that we as a church and your local church to which you belong if you don't attend our church every viable legitimate new testament fellowship of believers in christ has a recognized light in heaven now the we cannot over emphasize the importance of these seven letters each church that jesus will dictate a letter to through john to that church each church has its own challenges we're going to look at those when we look at these letters individually challenges about the city in which it lived challenges about the opposition that each of those congregations faced within the city in which they lived and what we're going to see is that each one of these seven churches has its own strengths its assets its strong qualities that jesus commends and yet each one of these churches has its own weakness only two really get a pass on being called out for specific things that are very displeasing to the lord jesus christ but what i want you to know tonight is that we can learn a lesson from what jesus says to each one of the seven churches even though their challenges may not be ours even though their weaknesses may not be ours and their strengths may not be ours the fact that jesus included each church's letter in the letter that was sent to all seven churches means that while there are unique qualities and unique issues that he addresses to each church there within each of those letters there are principles and there are timeless applications to any church throughout any time in the church age now for 2 000 years so consider this tonight that the last words spoken by jesus before he left the earth in acts chapter 1 at his glorious ascension were spoken to his disciples but the last recorded words of jesus in the new testament were spoken from heaven to the seven churches who represent all of the churches throughout the church age you may recall that i have bemoaned on more than a few occasions the tragedy of the neglect of the book of revelation how many pastors neglected how many christians neglected but what i want to mention in particular is that included in the tragedy of the neglect on which the book of revelation has fallen is the the the obvious neglect then of these letters to the the seven churches in fact many people who say well i don't want to neglect the book of revelation what they'll say is let's skip over these letters to the churches and let's get to the gory details of all of the tribulation and the upheavals in the earth and in the atmosphere and the judgments coming down from god to the earth but but we do a serious injustice to ourselves as god's church and as local churches not only in neglecting to study the book of revelation but maybe in our study of revelation glossing over these letters to the seven churches because these letters contain not only words of encouragement for local churches and therefore to individual believers but words of warning which local congregations and those who make them up would would be wise to heed the great bible scholar who has written commentaries on prophecy including the book of revelation he said this john wallford many of the evils and shortcomings which exist in the church today are a direct outgrowth of neglect of the solemn instruction given to these churches so according to the late dr walvord that many of the ailments many of the inadequacies many of the grievous shortcomings within local churches can be attributed to the fact that churches have ignored these letters to the seven churches of the first century which must have been important for the lord jesus christ to dictate customized tailor-made situation geographically geographically specific letters to these congregations and to make this the last book of the bible it's the height of arrogance for churches to say that this book and in particular these seven letters to the churches in chapters two and three are not deserving of our time and of our attention you know i have to say when i think about how all of this book of revelation was given we were told that john was in the spirit on the lord's day out on the island of patmos and so you have to assume he has this out of body experience where he sees the glorified christ in heaven in the midst of the lamp stands then he hears jesus telling him write these letters to churches and he starts with ephesus and ends with laodicea and then he starts revealing the seals and the trumpets and the bowls and all of these things what many scholars believe is that john physically remained on the island of patmos but in the spirit world he was lifted to a heavenly realm where he was given these visions and as this 90-something-year-old man was having this existential experience given to him by the spirit of god that most likely he was speaking and describing it as someone was writing it down as quickly as the aged man was was speaking it so when you think about how this all came about where jesus is telling john to write this letter to the church at ephesus or to you know through all seven that that john is hearing it from jesus who's in heaven where john's spirit has been transported but a scribe or a partner a friend someone who was there on that island where he was in exile was watching him have this experience and john was describing everything jesus was saying and by conveying it to the scribe that's how we got our book of revelation that's most likely how it came about so wouldn't that have been a fascinating thing to be there as a witness to watch this process of revelation being given as revelation from heaven to john to a scribe and then however it got transported across the water and distributed to the churches that's another thing entirely so when we when we look at these letters to the churches there is a general outline for the flow of each one of these seven letters and i want to display that for you on the screen in other words each of these letters begins by jesus saying to the angel of the church at and then he starts beginning with ephesus number two jesus says these things says he who and when jesus identifies himself in this second part of this formula he always refers back to some aspect of his appearance and character revealed in chapter one we'll see that in a moment the third part of an of this outline in these letters is he says i know your works so he says to each one of these churches i know the stuff you're doing for me the fourth part is but i have this against you and then he points out a fault that he finds with the church and then the fifth part of the formula will be usually a correction that follows the grievance in other words this is what's wrong step number four step number five this is what you need to do to get it right number six jesus always says in each of the letters he who has an ear to hear let him listen to the holy spirit and then number seven there is always a word of promise to the overcomer so i just wanted you to see that that seven-fold list that is a general overview of how each one of these seven letters will flow and you'll see that carried out okay so now all of that was an introduction so what i want us to do now is to go ahead and look at the the the second chapter verse one this is the first of the letters and it's to the church at ephesus jesus begins and you know all those seven things we just laid out you'll see that same formula carried out in this in this letter to the angel of the church of ephesus right these things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands 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 to be liars you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary nevertheless i have this against you that you have left your first love jesus says 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 but this you have you do hate the deeds of the nicolaitans which i also hate verse 7 in conclusion to the church at ephesus jesus says 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 so here we have the first of these individualized customized specific letters to the church at ephesus now the church at ephesus of course was in the city of ephesus which was the largest city of the roman province of asia we believe that there in the city of ephesus there was between a quarter of a million to 300 000 people in population you say well compared to some of the big cities of our day that's not a lot but think about it with no transportation infrastructure like we have at least automobiles and trains and other things it that was a very heavy population center to have that many people situated compactly within a city on a on a harbor it was considered the gateway to to all of asia and it was where there were four different trade routes what was most notable about ephesus is that the temple to the goddess whose name was artemis or as she was also called diana was situated there and this temple was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and much of the social attraction and much of the economy in ephesus was built around not only the fact that it was a port city and a crossroads for trade and commerce but that the the temple to diana was situated there of all the places the apostle paul visited it was in ephesus that he stayed the longest as as a church planter and an evangelist and a preacher he was there for three years so during his ministry there there were so many people who got saved and radically saved that they began disowning all of their witchcraft and materials that they considered to be a distraction and displeasing to god and as new christians they even set fire to their books on magic and witchcraft and sorcery and and the impact of the gospel was felt so much we read about this in acts chapter 19 that those who made the little statues to diana out of pure silver they were called silversmiths they started a riot in the city because they had such a fear that their trade was going to fall into disuse because nobody was going to buy the idols anymore that that they earned their income from making so you can read about all of this in acts chapter 19 as i mentioned but what we know is it is obvious that the church in this ungodly wicked immoral city given over to witchcraft sorcery magic and the the cult of the pagan goddess diana what we know is that this church that was the recipient of the first of these seven letters it was the strongest church in the region and we believe from reading the book of acts that it was from the witness of the church at ephesus that every village and city in that entire region called asia minor was witnessed to was evangelized not converted in mass but at least had someone from that church or someone who had come through that church and been impacted go out into all the cities of asia minor to share christ what an amazing witness this church had and jesus is writing a letter to this church and this was an important church not only because of its witness to the whole region but also because timothy pastored in ephesus and also because we have reason to believe that that jesus mother mary spent her final days in ephesus where john the man who is writing the book of revelation took care of her until her passing so in this letter jesus identifies himself as the one who holds the seven stars in his right hands and in the first chapter and verse number 20 remember he decodes that for john by saying that the seven stars in the right hand of jesus are the seven angels of the churches and we believe that the word angels does not literally mean a heavenly angel but it means the literal translation of that greek word messenger so most probably this is a reference to jesus holding the pastors the spiritual leaders of these churches in his right hand what a thought then he identifies himself in verse number one of chapter two as he who walks among the seven golden lampstands so he is reaching back into chapter one as the christ situated among the circle of the lamp stands which which are the churches and he is reminding them i hold the leaders of the churches in my hand and i am in the midst of the churches so that my eyes and my ability to see what's going on in every church is uninhibited i can see everything unobstructed jesus knows what's happening in every single church and he was reminding the church at ephesus of that truth now here's what i want you to see about this church this church has a great profile he says some amazing things about them we read it a moment ago look in verse number two he says i know your works underline the word works in verse number 2. this means i know you are busy this is a church with a full ministry calendar i know your labor i know all of your tireless service it's not just that you're busy but you're actually giving of yourself sacrificially and then he says i know your patience underline that word in verse number two so he says you are a you are a church that is busy for the gospel you are a church that is giving tirelessly and sacrificially in your service that you do for god and then you are a church of extreme patience and long-suffering which means that you are a church the members of which have suffered much adversity so you have developed long suffering because of all the trials that the people in the church have gone through can we get an amen on that we all know what that's like but then jesus goes on to say what i appreciate about you is that you cannot bear those who are evil people meaning that you're not a church that tolerates wickedness you don't just overlook ungodliness within the church you confront ungodliness in the church obviously the church can't go out and fix all of the evil in the culture in the city of ephesus there's no way they could have done that but what jesus was saying is that you have a zero tolerance for unmasked wickedness and ungodliness that comes into the church because you know what a danger that is to the health of the church you confront ungodliness in your church you do not tolerate evil now would you agree with me these are strong compliments coming from jesus not only that but he says in addition to the fact that you don't bear those who are evil jesus says in verse number two about this church you have tested those who say they are apostles but they're really not and you have exposed them as liars now how in the world would they have been able to do this i'll tell you how the way you expose false apostles or false prophets is first of all by the doctrines they preach that are contradictory to what has been given in scripture and then secondly you expose false prophets and false apostles by the motivation they demonstrate by why they do what they do when they exploit god's people for the mere purpose of self-advancement or self-enrichment they are false apostles and so he says you have exposed those who parade under the mask of being apostles are prophets and you have found them to be liars and jesus was commending this church for that kind of of willingness to hold spiritual leaders feet to the fire not only this but in verse number three look at it jesus says you have persevered and have patience you've persevered which means you've overcome many obstacles you've labored for my name's sake look at the last part though he says and you have not become weary what a compliment to a church a church of light in a city of darkness a church of truth in a city surrounded it by an ins and saturated by lies and a church that faced probably what seemed at times insurmountable opposition and persecution he says you've stayed true listen and he says you've not become weary and i want to say something to you tonight it's hard sometimes not to get weary in the battle it's hard sometimes when as a faithful christian who is devoted to your church and who wants to be a witness when things just are attacking you from every direction and sometimes those attacks happen right within the the confines of what should be the safest place to be which is within a church it's easy to get weary but you know what jesus said to these ephesian christians you've suffered you've done a lot of hurting you've had to climb over a lot of obstacles but you've not grown weary in the fight i'm telling you he has some amazing things to say to this church he even gets down in verse number six and he says i also appreciate that you hate the deeds of the nicolaitans and there this this introduces a mystery because a lot of scholars don't know what that could be some have suggested according to the writings of a group we refer to as the early church fathers that the nicolaitans were a sect within the church that was started by someone named nicolaus of antioch and apparently this nicholas of antioch started this this little break off group within christianity that that taught christians that since we are not obligated to follow the law of moses then we can all practice sexual freedom so all of the so-called laws about sexuality and morality um if you're a christian and you love jesus you don't have to worry about that you can commit any sexual sin because it's really not a sin anymore because god has liberated us to indulge our sexual appetites any way we choose now if that is indeed what the doctrine of the nicolaitans was according to some scholars notice what jesus has to say about it he says i hate that too so we need to remember that in this day and time that when even churches are trying to redefine morality that that the church at ephesus stood against the nicolaitans if that is in fact what the nicolaitans were trying to do so if you just end the sermon there you say jesus thought a lot of this church so they have a high profile a lot of strong qualities in their church profile but here's the second thing i want you to think about with me tonight the church has a great problem of all these great and wonderful things they were they were steadfast they were faithful they were doctrinally sound they were intolerant of ungodliness and wickedness and false teachers he said you got a big problem and he summarized he says this is what i have against you and in verse number four he just says simply you have left your first love you have left your first love now that's not a long statement it's a short statement it's a very simple statement it really cuts through the church calendar that was filled with ministry activities at the church of ephesus and it probes deep beneath the surface of their christian appearances and of the fact that they were what we would call a bible-believing amen shouting church jesus says this you are serving me and i love the fact that you are but while you are serving me you don't love me the way you used to you have learned how to serve me as a routine you have learned to do the right things because they are part of the habit and custom of your life and while it is always right to serve god and always right to incorporate serving god into our habit into our routine into our way of life jesus says your service to god can grow empty and stale and cold when you are going through the motions but you have fallen out of love with jesus that's the sin of the church at ephesus they left their first love what a piercing statement for them what a piercing statement for me what a piercing statement for you the christian life is is not just about learning certain behaviors the christian life is not just about going to church every sunday the christian life is not just about being for all the right things and being against all of the wrong things it's not just about who's a conservative who's a liberal the christian life really comes down to this it comes down to your personal relationship with jesus it is not defined as a rule-keeping relationship it is defined as a personal intimate warm loving relationship we serve him but it should be because we love him we obey him but it should be because we love him we attend church faithfully when the doors are open or we watch live stream faithfully when that's our only option because we love him it's all about one's love for jesus christ and jesus said to this church you're a great church you're a strong church you're an active church you're a bible believing church but you are missing out on the love you once had for me jesus is still pleased with the good things they were doing but this one besetting sin was worth his mentioning in the midst of all the accolades that he had poured out and i want you to notice in this passage he did not say they had lost their first love he said they had left it i don't know about you but i find some comfort in the way that's worded because praise god once you're saved you can never lose jesus you just can leave jesus he he's still there but the love you have for him you can abandon you didn't lose your love you you you left it you abandoned it you stopped loving him the way you should the way i should how let me ask you a question how do you fall out of love with jesus how does that happen jesus is going to tell them to remember what it was like when they first got saved i i don't know what your experience was that i feel certain that my definitive salvation experience was at age 16 and something happened in my life i to this day it's hard to explain but i just i became a radical i i had to be tempered and i had to mellow out i had to season in my faith because i'm sure i was obnoxious i probably took on many qualities of self-righteousness and judgmentalism for which my family and people who love me have forgiven me i hope but but but all of those things were just misapplied sincerity i knew that jesus had come to live within my heart and i discovered a new reason for living a new purpose for my existence i found the assurance of of of a calling in my life and i just love to sing about jesus talk about jesus pray to jesus and and if you did not have a radical conversion experience when you got saved where everything changed and you fell in love with jesus and it's hard to know what you can go back to if you're not able to identify what you had and left i often reflect on what i had as a new christian and i often pray that god would refresh me and that god would renew me because something happens to us the longer we're saved the more we go to church and the more we we grow accustomed to talking about the things of god and talking about the bible and being around church people and what can happen is listen we can get so familiar with the things of god that somehow we lose our fellowship with god and our love and our passion and our zeal and that intimate fervor that we should feel when we hear the name of jesus something ought to happen when we hear his name something ought to happen when we speak his name something ought to happen when we hear songs about him and he's dying on the cross and his resurrection from the grace something ought to happen when we think about his coming back to get us his making a place where we'll live with him forever we are to be in love with jesus we are to be having a passionate love affair with jesus and that's what jesus wanted from the church at ephesus the late scholar merrill c tenney said these things the church had departed completely from its initial affection for christ and had lapsed into a state where its spiritual life had become only an orthodox routine no great scandals disfigured its reputation and its organization was still functioning smoothly but the inner springs of its life had begun to run dry and you know what let me tell you something this is a sad commentary on the life of many churches we often think about this in terms of our own personal christian life but remember this is about a church a local congregation how sad is it that there are churches that used to be on fire for god people used to race in to get a seed and people would be saved by the droves on a weekly basis and now you walk into the church and it's ho hum nothing exciting going on and before long what you see played out over and over again you see it through church history i've seen it in my lifetime you'll see a church go through a spiritual wave of first love zeal power and passion you'll see them reach a peak and something will happen they'll get comfortable they'll get satisfied they'll start resting on their laurels they'll think about all the accolades like the church at ephesus and then they'll start to plateau and the problem is a church won't plateau very long before it starts taking a spiritual nosedive and you want to know why churches start to plateau and take a nosedive when they start substituting other things for their love for jesus see jesus is not going to have you substitute anything besides him nothing in his place no person no reputation no accolades no fame no wealth no high profile no calendar of activities just jesus and being in love with jesus but notice there's a great prescription jesus gives them a great prescription and and we read about it in in in verse number five where jesus says this 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 someone has summarized the prescription with three r's right from verse number five remember repent and repeat remember repent and repeat he says it there remember from where you have fallen which means remember how it used to be with jesus remember that do you have something to remember a time when you had a fiery passionate love for jesus he says remember that then he says repent repent means i don't want to live this way anymore i want to go back to being in love with jesus and then he says repeat do the first works verse 5 says and the first works were this having a quiet time growing as a new believer having spiritual hunger that could hardly be satisfied go back and revisit the steps that you took when you were in love with jesus so i want you to think about that formula it's a prescription he says remember how it used to be repent which means change your mind and say i want the fire back and then repeat means go back to those elementary steps when you had childlike faith and you just could not get enough of jesus here's the problem the problem is when christians get used to jesus when christians just get used to jesus there's a warning there in verse 5 where jesus said if you don't remember and repent and repeat i'm going to remove your lampstand out of its place now this is not in any way suggesting that a christian can be saved and unsaved but what this is saying remember the lampstand is not a christian the lamp stand is symbolic of each of these seven churches and what what jesus is saying to you as a church ephesus he's saying to any church the fact that there's a lamp stand in the presence of jesus in heaven which represents a local church and jesus says if a church doesn't get right with him he can remove the lampstand which means jesus can blow the lamp out the candle out and this is what happens when churches die many times it's because jesus blew their candle out because they said we can do church without jesus fatal lethal mistake to decide that you can be church and have church and do church without jesus being the center and the focus and the obsession he says if you don't get that right i will remove the lamp stand from its place the last thing we should write down is this the church has a great promise it's the promise to an overcomer a great promise it's found in verse number seven where jesus says to the church at ephesus to him who overcomes i will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god isn't that amazing he says the reward to the overcomer and by the way the overcomer is not just that some christians overcome and others don't true believers are overcomers if not they were never truly saved we'll have more to say about that on another night but do you know the first reference to this tree of life mentioned in verse 7 of this letter to the church at ephesus was in genesis chapter 2 and verse 9 where it says that in the garden of eden the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil those two trees but if you remember after adam and eve sinned by partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in chapter 3 and verse 24 it says god drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life because this is what god was doing they partook of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but if they had then found their way to the tree of life and had partaken of the fruit of the tree of life it would have granted to them the eternal status of having an irreversible condition of sin from which there was no remedy so by protecting them from the tree of life which is the tree of eternity god salvaged and rescued their mortality making it possible for them to be saved so what i'm telling you is this tree of life that we last heard about in the garden of eden is now mentioned as the reward that those who overcome who are true believers they will be able to partake of the tree of life in the paradise of god and the paradise of god in revelation 2 and verse 7 beckons back to that same garden of paradise called eden where that tree of life was in fact in the last chapter of revelation chapter 22 and verse 2 it it's mentioned again speaking of the new jerusalem it says in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was what the tree of life which bore 12 fruits each tree yielding its fruit every month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations meaning that in heaven the sign of our immortality is embodied in the tree of life from which adam and eve were forbidden to partake after their sin but it will be the source of our spiritual food and of our permanent perpetual healing in the eternal state of the new jerusalem we're going to get there eventually before we pray tonight i want you to look in verse 7 where jesus says to this church the way he says to all seven churches he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches i i just want to remind you tonight that that the holy spirit according to jesus is always speaking to the churches and if he's always speaking to the churches it means he's always speaking to the christians who make up each church and what it means is although these letters seem obscure and tucked away in this apocalyptic book written 2000 years ago by a 90-something-year-old man having an out-of-body experience what god wants you to know is there's something in this for you because the spirit is still speaking to the churches which means that the spirit is speaking to you tonight father thank you for allowing us to begin this journey into breaking apart the the messages that jesus gave to these seven churches may we not only learn the significance of each letter to that church but may we apply the principles that are relevant and applicable to our churches today and to our lives today in jesus name amen you

Channel: FirstBaptistAtlanta

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Length: 61min 17sec (3677 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020