Revelation 2:1-7
What or who would you say is your first love? I am not talking about your spouse or your ex. I am talking about the most important person or thing in the whole world to you. Okay, your spouse can come in second. But for everyone who calls him or her self a Christian, the answer ought to be, Jesus! Of course it is, right? But, do you live like it? Does the Church in America heed Jesus’ words in this text and keep on doing the things that the church did at first? How is the church doing in its Christian witness and ministry? How many churches in Cadillac are regularly reporting new conversions to Christ and are baptizing them? In fact, I really want to find out about that. If I were to call every church on my list, I wonder how many of them would report any conversions at all, and I wonder how many conversions have happened anywhere in Cadillac in the last year.
I looked on the internet for some info about church growth and I found that of the top twenty nations where Christianity is growing the fastest, America is not one of them. 19 of the countries in the top 20 are in Asia and Africa. 11 countries on the top 20 list are Muslim majority countries. Not a single country from Europe, Northern America or Latin America makes the top 20 list. The highest Christian growth rates are found among all major non-Christian religious groups: Hindus, Non-Religious, Buddhists, Muslims and Ethno-religionists (Benin and South Sudan).
China is at the top of the list, with the church growing by conversions up to 8 times faster than the population growth! Around the world, it is reported that there were more than 2.5 million coverts to Christianity in 2014.
Fortunately for the United States there is one chart where we do well. Church attendance averaged all over the country is at 42%. That helps to explain the small conversion rate, almost half of us are already Christian! Well, going to church anyway. But I couldn’t find out what is the percentage of church attendance in Cadillac. And I am hoping one day soon to get the churches around here to tell me how many conversions they saw last year. One thing I do know. We have a lot of unchurched people living around us in this neighborhood. It is my prayer that our congregation will learn how to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that we do begin to see new believers among us.
So as we begin this new series about the seven churches Jesus had John write to in the early pages of the book of Revelation, the first thing I want to say about the whole series is that in my background and admittedly sketch memory, I seem to recall hearing similar series on these seven churches where the emphasis usually turns out to be more focused on each individual Christian’s response to Jesus’ words of encouragement, instruction and warnings about how to be faithful and how to avoid errors that lead to judgement.
But my emphasis this time around will be on Jesus’ Great commission and his vision of himself as the head of a missionary movement. In Jesus’ vision, we are not just a bunch Christians gathered together with similar worship style preferences. We are a Christian missionary organization with a job to do for Jesus, namely, reach the lost with the gospel. These letters in the book of Revelation are addressed to congregations, not individuals, and Jesus’ purpose is to encourage strengths and correct the weaknesses in each congregation, not for the salvation of individuals, but for the fruitfulness and success of each congregation’s work in its own context so that it becomes and maintains a fruitful ministry that does result in individuals being saved.
Today we are focused on the church that was meeting in Ephesus. Think of this as a performance review. Jesus starts out with the church’s strong points. “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” Seven stars and seven lampstands for the seven churches being written too. Jesus has it all in his hands, and well in hand. He is in charge.
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
This is a hard working church. Jesus says it’s good that they are focused on truth. That’s Truth with a capital T. They have tested those who claim to be apostles and found them false. Could this congregation do that? Do the members of this church know their Bibles well enough to spot heresy? Do you love God’s Word enough to spend time with it every day and really get to know it so the moment someone says something that isn’t in the Bible, you know it isn’t in there? Here’s a pop quiz: “God helps those who help themselves.” Is that in the Bible or not? Here’s another: “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Is that in the Bible as a truth you need to know? One more, “When you go to heaven you become an angel.” If you knew that none of those statements is in the bible, good. You are ready for more advanced learning, such as how to show that the Bible teaches the Trinitarian nature of God, or what it means to be born again and where it is written.
Now, what about not tolerating wicked people, what do you suppose that means? Now be careful because Jesus also said, love your enemies, and do not judge, right? So how can this “not tolerating wicked people” be in the Bible as something Jesus said was good? The answer to that one is that the wicked people Jesus is talking about here, are the false apostles who were leading the church astray. Anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian, and claims to have a teaching ministry or some authority to tell people how to live, but does not stick to clear Biblical Truth and teaching, should not be tolerated by the congregation. Don’t listen to false teaching at all, and don’t let them fool anybody. Don’t tolerate it.
In the Covenant our leadership has identified ten healthy missional markers. There are ten characteristics that show up well in any spiritually healthy congregation that is doing its missionary work well. There may be others too, but these ten are really important. During the course of this series I will be pointing at them as a measuring rod. I want to talk about which ones show up strong and which ones seem to be lacking in each church we look at in the next seven weeks. In this church at Ephesus, the strength Jesus has just talked about is the Centrality of the Word of God. It is a healthy Church that keeps their Focus on the Word of God, the Bible, as the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. That faith, or who you believe in. Doctrine, as in what you believe about God. And conduct or how all this Truth causes us to behave in our everyday lives.
Another healthy missional marker is a culture of Godly leadership. Since this Ephesian congregation would not tolerate ungodly leadership, they must have been strong on godly leadership. Jesus commended them in this way that shows evidence of godly leadership. He says, “You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
That’s good! But then Jesus has to come down on them for a serious error. He says, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
When Jesus talks about love, you have to remember that he is probably referring to the two greatest commandments, not romantic feelings. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. In connection with loving God, Jesus always taught that we show our love for God by obedience. John 14:23-24 says, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”
So what is the love they had at first that they had forsaken? What are the things they did at first that had stopped, that needed repentance and needed a restart so that they would repent and do the things they did at first? As I see it, there’s really only two possibilities. One is that they might have stopped obeying the commandments. They could have been the kind of people who are happy to be saved and glad to have a Savior and then emphasize God’s grace so much that they go on sinning and just stop calling it sin, or don’t realize how important it is to live a holy life out of gratitude for God’s grace, even though you can’t earn God’s grace.
But I am pretty sure these folks had not become so lackadaisical. They had not adopted the attitude that freedom in God’s grace means he no longer cares how you live. I am pretty sure they lived strictly self-controlled, holy lives, based on what Jesus commended in them, and especially because he closed his message to them saying, “You have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
To understand the practices of the Nicolaitans I had to do a little research. Most scholars today agree that the Nicoaitans were followers of a disciple named Nicholas, not Saint Nick. The Nicolaitans were the spiritual descendants of Nicolas of Antioch, who had been ordained as a deacon in Acts 6:5. That verse says, "they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch."
So this Nicolas from Antioch, was a proselyte. That means he was a pagan born Greek who first converted to Judaism and now has become a great Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit and a vibrant and active faith. Surely he became a leader in the church, and people who appreciated his teachings and leadership started calling themselves Nicolaitans to identify their unique understanding of Christianity. According to the early church fathers, Nicolas was a true believer who lived a holy life and emphasized the importance of living by the spirit. His later followers strengthened the distinction between matter and spirit in a way that completely ignored what was done in the flesh.
This resulted in compromise with the world. It was very hard for believers to live separately from all the activities of paganism in the Greek world because paganism and its religions were the center of life in the same cities where Paul had preached and Christianity was growing. And these new Christians had come out of pagan families and were trying to get along. It had already been established by Paul that new Christians didn’t have to become Jews in order to be saved. So some began to believe that it was okay to also slip in and out of pagan practices.
It seems that the "doctrine" of the Nicolaitans was that it was alright to have one foot in both worlds and that one needn't be so strict about separation from the world in order to be a Christian. It led to a weak version of Christianity that was without power and without conviction - a defeated, worldly type of Christianity. That actually sounds a lot like much of the modern Western Church. Compromised and influenced by worldly values to be open and affirming, theologically liberal and non-judgmental.
But the Ephesian church wasn’t like that. They hated the practices of the Nicolaitans. So we can conclude that these hard working Ephesian Christians would have hated many of the congregations in America.
I had mentioned there were two ways to lose your fist love. One was to stop living a holy life in all aspects, as we have seen the Nicolaitans did. The other way to lose your first love must be what the Ephesians were guilty of and it is this.
Love is a very positive word! Love comes with joy! It is about a relationship with someone who is loved. Love comes with determination to please the one we love. For example, when Jacob fell in love with Rachel and wanted to marry her, he offered to work for Laban and accepted and obeyed the conditions willingly. So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
When you realize how much Jesus loves you, you will love him too. Then obedience is not an obligation but a joy! Obedience becomes an accomplishment. The Ephesians must have forgotten the joyful, loving attitude that motivates obedience. They started to bear down and just obey. Perhaps they had become bitter because of persecution. Perhaps they had become hardened against the temptation to compromise with the world as the Nicolaitans had. That would be why the hated the practices of the Nicolaitans. Those people were getting away with stuff!
In many religions people are expected to live severe and strict lives of purity and holiness, like monks. And much of the world looks at them and thinks that can’t be right. They aren’t having any fun! And it is too hard! I am afraid much of the Christian world is afraid to go that route. Obedience is hard. Grace is easy. God is the God of grace! He forgives disobedience. And maybe you can see for yourself how it goes on from there. But that’s Nicolaitan thinking. Nicolaitans might say they love Jesus. But they would not say with the inspired psalmist, “I love your Law, O Lord.”
People tend to see this gap between joy and obedience. Joy is freedom! Obedience is slavery. But God does not see the distinction. Jesus wants us to understand how much joy there can be in obeying God. But if we lose our first love, the love we have for Jesus because he saved us, it is easy to feel that obedience is unpleasant and hard. That’s why with the loss of love and joy comes the loss of that which draws people to Christ! The Ephesians had become pharisaical and hard-nosed toward sin, but toward the sinners too!
Among the ten healthy missional markers, the one I think they needed most was a life transforming walk with Jesus. Jesus called them to remember the things they did at first. They used to walk with Jesus. Filled with his love, they lived holy lives because they wanted to, not because they had to. But once they buckled down against the Nicolaitans, they began to forget Jesus’ love for them and they stopped loving God, in a way that had devolved into that severe obligation that hated the practices of the Nicolaitans.
I think what a lot of the modern Church needs is a good healthy remembrance of Jesus’ love, enough so that we love him because he first loved us. Then we will not want to compromise with the world. We will not fall into Nicolaitan type practices. But we will also not sink into the bitter, hard obligation to obey, or else!
Instead, filled with the Love of God, we will love to obey his commands. As we continue to walk with Jesus, we will want to live lives that would make God proud, so to speak. And those are exactly the kinds of lives that draw the people of this world in to ask about our motivation and find out how much love, grace, mercy and forgiveness Christ has to offer them. That will give us the opportunity to succeed in our missionary endeavors and make more disciples, to the glory and praise of God the Father. Amen.
What or who would you say is your first love? I am not talking about your spouse or your ex. I am talking about the most important person or thing in the whole world to you. Okay, your spouse can come in second. But for everyone who calls him or her self a Christian, the answer ought to be, Jesus! Of course it is, right? But, do you live like it? Does the Church in America heed Jesus’ words in this text and keep on doing the things that the church did at first? How is the church doing in its Christian witness and ministry? How many churches in Cadillac are regularly reporting new conversions to Christ and are baptizing them? In fact, I really want to find out about that. If I were to call every church on my list, I wonder how many of them would report any conversions at all, and I wonder how many conversions have happened anywhere in Cadillac in the last year.
I looked on the internet for some info about church growth and I found that of the top twenty nations where Christianity is growing the fastest, America is not one of them. 19 of the countries in the top 20 are in Asia and Africa. 11 countries on the top 20 list are Muslim majority countries. Not a single country from Europe, Northern America or Latin America makes the top 20 list. The highest Christian growth rates are found among all major non-Christian religious groups: Hindus, Non-Religious, Buddhists, Muslims and Ethno-religionists (Benin and South Sudan).
China is at the top of the list, with the church growing by conversions up to 8 times faster than the population growth! Around the world, it is reported that there were more than 2.5 million coverts to Christianity in 2014.
Fortunately for the United States there is one chart where we do well. Church attendance averaged all over the country is at 42%. That helps to explain the small conversion rate, almost half of us are already Christian! Well, going to church anyway. But I couldn’t find out what is the percentage of church attendance in Cadillac. And I am hoping one day soon to get the churches around here to tell me how many conversions they saw last year. One thing I do know. We have a lot of unchurched people living around us in this neighborhood. It is my prayer that our congregation will learn how to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that we do begin to see new believers among us.
So as we begin this new series about the seven churches Jesus had John write to in the early pages of the book of Revelation, the first thing I want to say about the whole series is that in my background and admittedly sketch memory, I seem to recall hearing similar series on these seven churches where the emphasis usually turns out to be more focused on each individual Christian’s response to Jesus’ words of encouragement, instruction and warnings about how to be faithful and how to avoid errors that lead to judgement.
But my emphasis this time around will be on Jesus’ Great commission and his vision of himself as the head of a missionary movement. In Jesus’ vision, we are not just a bunch Christians gathered together with similar worship style preferences. We are a Christian missionary organization with a job to do for Jesus, namely, reach the lost with the gospel. These letters in the book of Revelation are addressed to congregations, not individuals, and Jesus’ purpose is to encourage strengths and correct the weaknesses in each congregation, not for the salvation of individuals, but for the fruitfulness and success of each congregation’s work in its own context so that it becomes and maintains a fruitful ministry that does result in individuals being saved.
Today we are focused on the church that was meeting in Ephesus. Think of this as a performance review. Jesus starts out with the church’s strong points. “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” Seven stars and seven lampstands for the seven churches being written too. Jesus has it all in his hands, and well in hand. He is in charge.
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
This is a hard working church. Jesus says it’s good that they are focused on truth. That’s Truth with a capital T. They have tested those who claim to be apostles and found them false. Could this congregation do that? Do the members of this church know their Bibles well enough to spot heresy? Do you love God’s Word enough to spend time with it every day and really get to know it so the moment someone says something that isn’t in the Bible, you know it isn’t in there? Here’s a pop quiz: “God helps those who help themselves.” Is that in the Bible or not? Here’s another: “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Is that in the Bible as a truth you need to know? One more, “When you go to heaven you become an angel.” If you knew that none of those statements is in the bible, good. You are ready for more advanced learning, such as how to show that the Bible teaches the Trinitarian nature of God, or what it means to be born again and where it is written.
Now, what about not tolerating wicked people, what do you suppose that means? Now be careful because Jesus also said, love your enemies, and do not judge, right? So how can this “not tolerating wicked people” be in the Bible as something Jesus said was good? The answer to that one is that the wicked people Jesus is talking about here, are the false apostles who were leading the church astray. Anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian, and claims to have a teaching ministry or some authority to tell people how to live, but does not stick to clear Biblical Truth and teaching, should not be tolerated by the congregation. Don’t listen to false teaching at all, and don’t let them fool anybody. Don’t tolerate it.
In the Covenant our leadership has identified ten healthy missional markers. There are ten characteristics that show up well in any spiritually healthy congregation that is doing its missionary work well. There may be others too, but these ten are really important. During the course of this series I will be pointing at them as a measuring rod. I want to talk about which ones show up strong and which ones seem to be lacking in each church we look at in the next seven weeks. In this church at Ephesus, the strength Jesus has just talked about is the Centrality of the Word of God. It is a healthy Church that keeps their Focus on the Word of God, the Bible, as the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. That faith, or who you believe in. Doctrine, as in what you believe about God. And conduct or how all this Truth causes us to behave in our everyday lives.
Another healthy missional marker is a culture of Godly leadership. Since this Ephesian congregation would not tolerate ungodly leadership, they must have been strong on godly leadership. Jesus commended them in this way that shows evidence of godly leadership. He says, “You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
That’s good! But then Jesus has to come down on them for a serious error. He says, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
When Jesus talks about love, you have to remember that he is probably referring to the two greatest commandments, not romantic feelings. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. In connection with loving God, Jesus always taught that we show our love for God by obedience. John 14:23-24 says, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”
So what is the love they had at first that they had forsaken? What are the things they did at first that had stopped, that needed repentance and needed a restart so that they would repent and do the things they did at first? As I see it, there’s really only two possibilities. One is that they might have stopped obeying the commandments. They could have been the kind of people who are happy to be saved and glad to have a Savior and then emphasize God’s grace so much that they go on sinning and just stop calling it sin, or don’t realize how important it is to live a holy life out of gratitude for God’s grace, even though you can’t earn God’s grace.
But I am pretty sure these folks had not become so lackadaisical. They had not adopted the attitude that freedom in God’s grace means he no longer cares how you live. I am pretty sure they lived strictly self-controlled, holy lives, based on what Jesus commended in them, and especially because he closed his message to them saying, “You have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
To understand the practices of the Nicolaitans I had to do a little research. Most scholars today agree that the Nicoaitans were followers of a disciple named Nicholas, not Saint Nick. The Nicolaitans were the spiritual descendants of Nicolas of Antioch, who had been ordained as a deacon in Acts 6:5. That verse says, "they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch."
So this Nicolas from Antioch, was a proselyte. That means he was a pagan born Greek who first converted to Judaism and now has become a great Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit and a vibrant and active faith. Surely he became a leader in the church, and people who appreciated his teachings and leadership started calling themselves Nicolaitans to identify their unique understanding of Christianity. According to the early church fathers, Nicolas was a true believer who lived a holy life and emphasized the importance of living by the spirit. His later followers strengthened the distinction between matter and spirit in a way that completely ignored what was done in the flesh.
This resulted in compromise with the world. It was very hard for believers to live separately from all the activities of paganism in the Greek world because paganism and its religions were the center of life in the same cities where Paul had preached and Christianity was growing. And these new Christians had come out of pagan families and were trying to get along. It had already been established by Paul that new Christians didn’t have to become Jews in order to be saved. So some began to believe that it was okay to also slip in and out of pagan practices.
It seems that the "doctrine" of the Nicolaitans was that it was alright to have one foot in both worlds and that one needn't be so strict about separation from the world in order to be a Christian. It led to a weak version of Christianity that was without power and without conviction - a defeated, worldly type of Christianity. That actually sounds a lot like much of the modern Western Church. Compromised and influenced by worldly values to be open and affirming, theologically liberal and non-judgmental.
But the Ephesian church wasn’t like that. They hated the practices of the Nicolaitans. So we can conclude that these hard working Ephesian Christians would have hated many of the congregations in America.
I had mentioned there were two ways to lose your fist love. One was to stop living a holy life in all aspects, as we have seen the Nicolaitans did. The other way to lose your first love must be what the Ephesians were guilty of and it is this.
Love is a very positive word! Love comes with joy! It is about a relationship with someone who is loved. Love comes with determination to please the one we love. For example, when Jacob fell in love with Rachel and wanted to marry her, he offered to work for Laban and accepted and obeyed the conditions willingly. So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
When you realize how much Jesus loves you, you will love him too. Then obedience is not an obligation but a joy! Obedience becomes an accomplishment. The Ephesians must have forgotten the joyful, loving attitude that motivates obedience. They started to bear down and just obey. Perhaps they had become bitter because of persecution. Perhaps they had become hardened against the temptation to compromise with the world as the Nicolaitans had. That would be why the hated the practices of the Nicolaitans. Those people were getting away with stuff!
In many religions people are expected to live severe and strict lives of purity and holiness, like monks. And much of the world looks at them and thinks that can’t be right. They aren’t having any fun! And it is too hard! I am afraid much of the Christian world is afraid to go that route. Obedience is hard. Grace is easy. God is the God of grace! He forgives disobedience. And maybe you can see for yourself how it goes on from there. But that’s Nicolaitan thinking. Nicolaitans might say they love Jesus. But they would not say with the inspired psalmist, “I love your Law, O Lord.”
People tend to see this gap between joy and obedience. Joy is freedom! Obedience is slavery. But God does not see the distinction. Jesus wants us to understand how much joy there can be in obeying God. But if we lose our first love, the love we have for Jesus because he saved us, it is easy to feel that obedience is unpleasant and hard. That’s why with the loss of love and joy comes the loss of that which draws people to Christ! The Ephesians had become pharisaical and hard-nosed toward sin, but toward the sinners too!
Among the ten healthy missional markers, the one I think they needed most was a life transforming walk with Jesus. Jesus called them to remember the things they did at first. They used to walk with Jesus. Filled with his love, they lived holy lives because they wanted to, not because they had to. But once they buckled down against the Nicolaitans, they began to forget Jesus’ love for them and they stopped loving God, in a way that had devolved into that severe obligation that hated the practices of the Nicolaitans.
I think what a lot of the modern Church needs is a good healthy remembrance of Jesus’ love, enough so that we love him because he first loved us. Then we will not want to compromise with the world. We will not fall into Nicolaitan type practices. But we will also not sink into the bitter, hard obligation to obey, or else!
Instead, filled with the Love of God, we will love to obey his commands. As we continue to walk with Jesus, we will want to live lives that would make God proud, so to speak. And those are exactly the kinds of lives that draw the people of this world in to ask about our motivation and find out how much love, grace, mercy and forgiveness Christ has to offer them. That will give us the opportunity to succeed in our missionary endeavors and make more disciples, to the glory and praise of God the Father. Amen.
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