Scripture: 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, or maybe chocolate. But for everyone one in this room, the answer ought to be, Jesus! Of course it is, right? But, do you live like it?
And what about the Church as a whole? 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 Lake City 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 Lake City in the last year. 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 a series about the seven churches that Jesus addressed through John’s writing in the early pages of the book of Revelation, my emphasis 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 of 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 just 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 new individuals being saved and added to the mission as new recruits. That is, new disciples.
Today we are focused on the church that was meeting in Ephesus. Think of Jesus’ message to them 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. 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 you do that? Do the members of this congregation 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. Could you do that?
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 this church at Ephesus, Jesus congratulated them for their commitment to Truth. That indicates that the Word of God had a central place in their community. 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.
Also, Jesus congratulated them for the presence of Godly leadership. Since this Ephesian congregation would not tolerate ungodly leadership, they must have been strong on godly leadership. Jesus commended them for this when he said, “You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary.”
That’s good! But then Jesus had to bring the bad news of 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.” They were big on truth, short on love. But the true teaching of the Church requires us to speak the truth in love. Paul said that in Ephesians 4:15. Isn’t that interesting? Paul said that to the Ephesians, and then maybe about 20 years later, Jesus was telling them they have forgotten the love part.
When Jesus talks about love, you have to remember that he is 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.”
But it seems like the Ephesian church was were pretty good at obeying and holding to the truth. 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?
Well, we all know that love is an action word, so that speaks of obedience. So, what the Ephesians seem to have forgotten is that Love is also 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 active way of saying, “I love you too Lord!” Like when your spouse asks you to get something for them from another room. If you love him or her, you say, “Sure Hon,” and you delight in producing the requested object with a flourish, a smile and maybe a little extra delightful surprise thrown in for the fun of it. But if you didn’t love him or her, you might grumble about the selfishness or even just ignore the request! True love makes a difference in the way we obey God, and why.
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. That would be why they hated the practices of the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans were apparently the more liberal minded, the ones who spoke of tolerance, love and “don’t judge,” but did it so the gospel would not offend. Maybe they were so tolerant they were presuming upon God’s grace and figured it was ok to go on sinning because they knew they’d be forgiven. Those people were getting away with stuff! And the Ephesians hated them for it.
In many religions people are expected to live severe and strict lives of purity and holiness, like monks. Maybe the Ephesians were getting to be like that. 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!
So, the way I see it, the Nicolaitans wouldn’t try to make disciples because they emphasized love over truth, and everything’s fine. Meanwhile the Ephesians couldn’t make disciples because they lost their sense of love and were just hard-nosed about truth, not loving enough to welcome new trainees with sensitivity that is patient to watch them grow in understanding and character.
So, Jesus called the Ephesians 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. 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 will make God proud. 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.
I want to end with two strange illustrations. Jesus is the light of the world, right? And when we believe in Jesus, we possess that light too, right? But that light shines brightest as we stay connected to Jesus. Jesus said so. Abide in me. Cling to the vine and you will bear much fruit. Jesus is the life. Jesus is the light. Now, our mission in this world is to spread that light. Here comes the strange part. You are a light bulb. A bulb that likes to be lit. On is better than off. You glow with the light of Christ as long as you stay connected to Jesus. You will only be brilliant as long as you stay connected to Jesus. You stay connected to Jesus by remembering your fist love, that is, how much he loves you! And you love him for being the light of your life!
Now your mission is to find light bulbs that are not lit up and make a connection with them so that they light up! You want to get them connected to Jesus too! If you remember how much Jesus loves you, you will spread his love in genuine caring relationships, not just Truth that sounds like, “You ought to go to church.” But truth in love, that sounds like, “Come to church with me.”
Here is the other, even stranger illustration. Do you know about zombies, the walking dead? You may have never watched a movie about zombies, but you might know anyway that zombies are dead humans animated by some evil force that causes them to chase other humans to eat their brains out and turn them into more zombies. That’s what I know, and I’ve never watched a zombie movie.
In those movies, the normal humans are the good guys. And they spend a lot of time and action dedicated to run away from zombies, or blowing up zombies to immobilize them, so the normal humans can go on living their normal lives. Here’s where it takes a twist for me. According to the Bible, unbelievers are dead in their sins. That makes them the walking dead. Unbelievers are like zombies in that way, and one other. As you interact with them, they resist believing the Truth of God’s Word, and they want you to be more like them. God’s Word transforms our minds into something really much more alive than a zombie. But the zombies around us would take that away again if we believe them. So, in a spiritual way they eat our brains. In fact, popular culture acknowledges that really bad shows or media will “rot your brain!”
So, what do we do? If this were a zombie movie, we’d violently rid the world of zombies. But it’s the real world and God has asked us to love our enemies. There is a cure that turns zombies into real live humans. It’s the loving heart of God! So, don’t let zombies eat your brain, but sharing your heart could cure them! That’s why Jesus shared his heart, his body and his blood, to cure us of the disease of sin so that we could come fully alive in Christ. Whenever we celebrate communion, we are rejoicing in the undeserved agape love of Jesus Christ!
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, or maybe chocolate. But for everyone one in this room, the answer ought to be, Jesus! Of course it is, right? But, do you live like it?
And what about the Church as a whole? 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 Lake City 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 Lake City in the last year. 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 a series about the seven churches that Jesus addressed through John’s writing in the early pages of the book of Revelation, my emphasis 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 of 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 just 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 new individuals being saved and added to the mission as new recruits. That is, new disciples.
Today we are focused on the church that was meeting in Ephesus. Think of Jesus’ message to them 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. 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 you do that? Do the members of this congregation 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. Could you do that?
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 this church at Ephesus, Jesus congratulated them for their commitment to Truth. That indicates that the Word of God had a central place in their community. 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.
Also, Jesus congratulated them for the presence of Godly leadership. Since this Ephesian congregation would not tolerate ungodly leadership, they must have been strong on godly leadership. Jesus commended them for this when he said, “You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary.”
That’s good! But then Jesus had to bring the bad news of 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.” They were big on truth, short on love. But the true teaching of the Church requires us to speak the truth in love. Paul said that in Ephesians 4:15. Isn’t that interesting? Paul said that to the Ephesians, and then maybe about 20 years later, Jesus was telling them they have forgotten the love part.
When Jesus talks about love, you have to remember that he is 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.”
But it seems like the Ephesian church was were pretty good at obeying and holding to the truth. 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?
Well, we all know that love is an action word, so that speaks of obedience. So, what the Ephesians seem to have forgotten is that Love is also 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 active way of saying, “I love you too Lord!” Like when your spouse asks you to get something for them from another room. If you love him or her, you say, “Sure Hon,” and you delight in producing the requested object with a flourish, a smile and maybe a little extra delightful surprise thrown in for the fun of it. But if you didn’t love him or her, you might grumble about the selfishness or even just ignore the request! True love makes a difference in the way we obey God, and why.
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. That would be why they hated the practices of the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans were apparently the more liberal minded, the ones who spoke of tolerance, love and “don’t judge,” but did it so the gospel would not offend. Maybe they were so tolerant they were presuming upon God’s grace and figured it was ok to go on sinning because they knew they’d be forgiven. Those people were getting away with stuff! And the Ephesians hated them for it.
In many religions people are expected to live severe and strict lives of purity and holiness, like monks. Maybe the Ephesians were getting to be like that. 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!
So, the way I see it, the Nicolaitans wouldn’t try to make disciples because they emphasized love over truth, and everything’s fine. Meanwhile the Ephesians couldn’t make disciples because they lost their sense of love and were just hard-nosed about truth, not loving enough to welcome new trainees with sensitivity that is patient to watch them grow in understanding and character.
So, Jesus called the Ephesians 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. 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 will make God proud. 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.
I want to end with two strange illustrations. Jesus is the light of the world, right? And when we believe in Jesus, we possess that light too, right? But that light shines brightest as we stay connected to Jesus. Jesus said so. Abide in me. Cling to the vine and you will bear much fruit. Jesus is the life. Jesus is the light. Now, our mission in this world is to spread that light. Here comes the strange part. You are a light bulb. A bulb that likes to be lit. On is better than off. You glow with the light of Christ as long as you stay connected to Jesus. You will only be brilliant as long as you stay connected to Jesus. You stay connected to Jesus by remembering your fist love, that is, how much he loves you! And you love him for being the light of your life!
Now your mission is to find light bulbs that are not lit up and make a connection with them so that they light up! You want to get them connected to Jesus too! If you remember how much Jesus loves you, you will spread his love in genuine caring relationships, not just Truth that sounds like, “You ought to go to church.” But truth in love, that sounds like, “Come to church with me.”
Here is the other, even stranger illustration. Do you know about zombies, the walking dead? You may have never watched a movie about zombies, but you might know anyway that zombies are dead humans animated by some evil force that causes them to chase other humans to eat their brains out and turn them into more zombies. That’s what I know, and I’ve never watched a zombie movie.
In those movies, the normal humans are the good guys. And they spend a lot of time and action dedicated to run away from zombies, or blowing up zombies to immobilize them, so the normal humans can go on living their normal lives. Here’s where it takes a twist for me. According to the Bible, unbelievers are dead in their sins. That makes them the walking dead. Unbelievers are like zombies in that way, and one other. As you interact with them, they resist believing the Truth of God’s Word, and they want you to be more like them. God’s Word transforms our minds into something really much more alive than a zombie. But the zombies around us would take that away again if we believe them. So, in a spiritual way they eat our brains. In fact, popular culture acknowledges that really bad shows or media will “rot your brain!”
So, what do we do? If this were a zombie movie, we’d violently rid the world of zombies. But it’s the real world and God has asked us to love our enemies. There is a cure that turns zombies into real live humans. It’s the loving heart of God! So, don’t let zombies eat your brain, but sharing your heart could cure them! That’s why Jesus shared his heart, his body and his blood, to cure us of the disease of sin so that we could come fully alive in Christ. Whenever we celebrate communion, we are rejoicing in the undeserved agape love of Jesus Christ!
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