Revelation 2:1-7 – First Love From His Love First – 1/4/2009
SLIDE 1 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: 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which 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. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
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- SLIDE In November 2008 there was a lot of news coverage about a pastor in Dallas, TX who challenged the couples of the church to have sex with their spouse for 7 days straight.Though it caused a STIR among certain circles, I actually APPRECIATED what this pastor was trying to do.
On GOOD MORNING AMERICA he said that the 1 of the main reasons for this “Sexperiment” was to try to bring back GREATER INTIMACY into some marriages that have gotten stale…hurt…strained.
He EXPLICITLY said that it wasn’t necessarily JUST the sex that would do this, but they were told to keep a JOURNAL TOGETHER every day for that week. They were to communicate about how they were feeling about this experiment.
What I appreciated about this was that this pastor was challenging his church to do what IN ESSENCE Christ is telling this Church of Ephesus to do also.
Just like with our MARRIAGES to our SPOUSES…our MARRIAGE to GOD can often grow DULL & STALE as more and more time passes.
But Christ calls us to NOT LOSE our FIRST LOVE…to NOT LOSE the INTIMACY we had at the BEGINNING. Christ tells us to GO BACK to the way it was when we FIRST GOT MARRIED!!!
---PRAY---
SLIDE The churches are in the order the letter would’ve traveled starting from Patmos, where John was imprisoned.
7 churches is a symbolic number of wholeness. Christ’s FOCUS was NOT on the INDIVIDUAL CHURCHES SEPARATE from one another, but on the CHURCHES AS A COLLECTIVE WHOLE. These 7 represent the UNIVERSAL CHURCH.
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churchES. All 7 were to read all the letters.
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And thus, this message is FOR US TOO. This is not a MESSAGE just for the Church of Ephesus; it is also an IMPORTANT MESSAGE for the Church of Renewal also.
Ephesus was one of the largest and most important cities in the Greek World much like NYC or LONDON.
And the Church of Ephesus was a WELL ESTABLISHED church. It was one of the FIRST churches established by Paul.
SLIDE Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
Paul commends them for their REPUTATION as being a faithful and loving church. It caused him to continually give THANKS. It was a MATURE & STABLE & ESTABLISHED church.
And we see this REITERATED in this letter. This passage begins rather POSITIVELY. It seems like a GREAT church.
They WORKED HARD for God…
They PERSEVERED through persecution for God…
They didn’t grow WEARY…
They HATED FALSE TEACHERS…
They TESTED them and found them wrong. Specifically he mentions the NICOLAITANS.
SLIDE “But I have learned that certain people…have passed your way with evil doctrine, but you did not allow them to sow it among you. You covered up your ears in order to avoid receiving the things being sown by them.” – Ignatius. the disciple of John who wrote Revelation.
There’s even HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION to support this description of the Ephesians.
On the surface this church looks GREAT!! They were PASSIONATE…FAITHFUL…DEVOTED…& BOLD.
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AND YET…in v.4 Christ says that they have forsaken their FIRST LOVE.“Forsaken” – means “to send away…to bid going away…of a husband divorcing is wife.” “To leave” and not “to lose”.
Emphasizes the INTENTIONALITY of their NEGLECT. It wasn’t ACCIDENTAL or CIRCUMSTANTIAL.
ALSO, it’s important to note that Jesus didn’t just say that they lost their LOVE. They lost their FIRST love.
The Ephesians didn’t necessarily lose their love for God TOTALLY. But it’s the QUALITY of love that they lost.
Few of us would say that we DO NOT LOVE GOD. We do!! But the question is have we lost our FIRST LOVE…that QUALITY or TYPE of love for God that WE ONCE HAD?
FIRST LOVE is a different TYPE of love. ¥ - And I have been learning about what it is about through my BOYS.
Even though they are NOT COGNIZANT of it, they are learning what it means to LOVE ANOTHER person.
IN ESSENCE they are discovering their FIRST LOVE…their PARENTS! Why is this love so BEAUTIFUL?
It’s love that’s PURE & SIMPLE. One time I was frustrated with Jacob and was speaking harshly but he just looked at me and started laughing.
No matter how I act or what I do, I will always be his Father and so he loves me. He doesn’t CALCULATE whether he should love me…he doesn’t think about whether I DESERVE it. He simply loves because I’m his FATHER. That’s it.
It’s love that’s CONSUMED WITH its OBJECT. With my boys – even though it’s difficult – NO toy, NO Baby Einstein video will ever beat out playing with Mom & Dad. No matter how cool the toy is or stimulating the video is. The times when they SQUEEL & LAUGH like crazy, is ONLY when they are playing with US.
For them, the BEST place to be…the MOST FUN place to be…the HAPPIEST place to be…is always in the ARMS of their PARENTS.
It’s THIS LOVE…this FIRST LOVE that God desires for us to have ONCE AGAIN.
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But how could the church of Ephesus be one that is SO PASSIONATE and ZEALOUS for God’s Name and yet have lost their INNOCENT AFFECTION for him??I think 2 things can happen in our Spiritual Lives…especially as we get OLDER in our faith.
Often PRINCIPLES & PROJECTS become the stronger MOTIVATING FORCES in our spiritual lives than WORSHIP & INTIMACY.
PRINCIPLES
– They were motivated to PERSEVERE and to stand up against FALSE DOCTRINE because of their strong principles such as INTEGRITY…DOCTRINAL PURITY…HONOR & LOYALTY…SUFFERING.They acted according to what they felt was RIGHT…what was TRUE.
So often we can be motivated in our Christian Life because of the PRINCIPLE of why we should do something or not do something. But it’s NOT always because it FLOWED out of WORSHIP.
You can do things because it’s RIGHT but not always because you LOVE.
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- SLIDE CK Chesterton - “Poets do not go mad, but chess players often do. The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. He is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”When REASON…PRACTICALITY…LOGIC alone DRIVES our spirituality and not LOVE we’ll go mad. I think this is how the Ephesians could be so ZEALOUS and yet have lost their first love.
PROJECTS
– Also we see that they were probably more focused on WHAT they had to do rather than FOR WHOM they were doing it. They were FOCUSED MORE on the TASKS rather than on WORSHIP.They were SO passionate and zealous for what they had to DO IN GOD’S NAME that they forgot that often what God wants is also our HEARTS…OURSELVES.
Someone showed this diagram to me which I haven’t forgotten…
SLIDE We can easily become consumed by what we DO FOR GOD, that we can sometimes USE CHRIST as a means to the GREATER END of ACCOMPLISHING things for Christ.
SLIDE However, we must realize that the things we DO FOR GOD are means by which we gain MORE OF CHRIST. The DESTINATION is CHRIST and not what we DO.
This is why even though Christ COMMENDED them for their Accomplishments & what they DID FOR HIM…he was still NOT PLEASED by them.
When we look at the church of Ephesus we see that there were a lot of things it did right. In a sense it was a GOOD church but they had LOST their HEART…their MOTIVATION.
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So what is the church of Ephesus to do? What are we to do? We see in this passage a few ACTIVE COMMANDS for us to follow and also PASSIVE ASSURANCES for us to believe.COMMANDS
- SLIDE 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.Christ commands the church to REMEMBER…REPENT…REDO.
Remember
– Often when I read this passage, I thought that we are to remember HOW FAR we’ve FALLEN. “Look at how low you are right now!!!” But that’s NOT what it says. It says remember the HEIGHT FROM WHICH you fell.The command is to REMEMBER where you USED TO BE, not where YOU ARE NOW. It’s a command to REMEMBER the INTIMACY you once had. It’s a command to REMEMBER the COMMUNION you once had.
The FOCUS is on the LOVE OF GOD we once had & not HOW FAR we are from this love.
Repent
– Christ then calls the church to humble itself and CONFESS their sins.Redo
– Christ commands the church to go back and DO what they once did before. But this command is NOT telling them to again focus on what they need to DO for God.Rather, the “first works” are the works of affection and not works of action. Christ is calling the church to not necessarily DO MORE EXTERNALLY, but to DO MORE INTERNALLY.
It’s a CALL to SLOW DOWN from our BUSYNESS and REFOCUS on God once again.
ASSURANCES
– But Christ also gives the church Assurances…Promises based on WHO HE IS…in order to draw the Ephesians back to himself.Each letter begins with Christ DESCRIBING himself to the Churches. And these Introductions are INTENTIONAL and not ARBITRARY. There’s POINTS he’s trying to make.
The image of Christ HOLDING THE STARS and WALKING IN THE MIDST OF LAMPSTANDS are allusions to Christ as 1) the one who SUSTAINS & 2) the one who is STEADFAST.
SLIDE Christ HOLDING the stars in his RIGHT hand symbolizes STRENGTH…PROTECTION. The stars are in his CONTROL…he KEEPS them in the skies. The STARS would FALL if it was not for Christ sustaining them.
Thus the message conveyed is that LIKEWISE, Christ not only holds the stars in place but he also HOLDS US.
It serves as a CONTRAST to Christ’s statement in 5 Look at the heights from which you have fallen!!
Though we feel like we are FALLING FROM SUCH A HEIGHT…Christ nonetheless HOLDS US IN HIS HANDS. Just like Christ will never let the stars CRASH down, Christ will never allow us to crash either.
SLIDE John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
Here we see the SAME IMAGERY. Christ stands there HOLDING US in his hands and no one can cause us to FALL OUT of that grasp.
What a POWERFUL PROMISE!! We have a God who continues to HOLD US no matter how FAR we fall. We have a God who HOLDS US even though we feel we LACK SO MUCH CONTROL!!!
SLIDE Christ also says that he is the one walking in the midst of the lampstands. The lampstands represents the CHURCHES…his PEOPLE. Thus the image of Christ walking IN THE MIDST of his people is a declaration of Christ’s CONTINUAL PRESENCE AMONG HIS PEOPLE.
It serves as a CONTRAST to how the Ephesians have FORSAKEN…or LEFT…their First Love.
Though we are the ones who INTENTIONALLY LEFT him…Christ nonetheless REMAINS STEADFAST. Though WE leave him, he will NEVER LEAVE us!!
SLIDE Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Here we see the SAME IMAGERY of PROXIMITY. The GOSPEL teaches that though we RUN from him, CHRIST comes and BRINGS US NEAR. His PRESENCE is CONTINUALLY with us.
What a POWERFUL PROMISE!! Though we continually LEAVE our First Love, CHRIST NEVER LEAVES us!!
Right from the BEGINNING of the letter, Christ was assuring the Ephesians of WHO HE IS.
He is the one who HOLDS US and SUSTAINS US even though we feel like we are FALLING.
He is the one who REMAINS IN OUR MIDST even though we are the ones who LEAVE him.
But Christ ends with ONE LAST ALLUSION…
SLIDE 7 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
This reference to the Tree of Life was INTENTIONAL. He was making a CONTRAST between the Tree of Life in Heaven to another SACRED TREE that the Ephesians would have known about.
SLIDE Ephesus was home to the Temple of Artemis. It was the largest structure built in the Greek World and also one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world.
In the center of the Temple was a SACRED PALM TREE. It was sacred because it was believed that the mother of Artemis and her twin brother Apollo was clutching a Palm Tree when she gave birth.
So the Palm Tree was a SYMBOL OF LIFE for the Greeks.
But Christ is saying that the TREE HE OFFERS IS GREATER than even this one!!!
The Tree of Artemis was a SYMBOL of life, but the Tree of Life could GIVE life.
The Tree of Artemis was a symbol of FERTILITY for THIS LIFE, but the Tree of Life gave LIFE for ETERNITY.
The Tree of Artemis belonged to a god who CANNOT FULFILL, but the Tree of Life belongs to a God who WILL & IS ABLE TO FULFILL.
This REFERENCE to the Tree of Life is a DECLARATION to the Ephesians that…
He will not just SUSTAIN them but he will give them LIFE. He is the TRUE and LIVING GOD and he will RESURRECT us and give us NEW LIFE.
He will not just remain STEADFAST for a little while. Rather, he will be WITH THEM until the VERY END.
In this letter to the Ephesians, though we often focus on his REBUKE of our UNFAITHFULNESS, we miss the ASSURANCES and PROMISES of Christ that stands in STARK CONTRAST to us.
SLIDE 2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I love these verses. They are verses ILLUSTRATING THIS CONTRAST.
Though we are always so faithless…Christ is continually faithful.
Though we are the ones who sin…Christ is the one who dies for those sins.
Though we leave him and our first love…Christ remains in our midst always…and to the very end.
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One of the most important things that I have learned in my spiritual journey is this: I will NOT change if I focus on how much I have to love God more. The only way I will change is when I am focused on how much God loves me.I will NOT change if I am solely focused on my GUILT rather than on his GRACE.
I will NOT change if I am focused on WHAT I need to DO rather than WHO HE IS.
The BATTLE we fight is not an EXTERNAL one. It is an INTERNAL FIGHT to BELIEVE…to believe that WHO GOD SAYS HE IS is TRUE even though we don’t feel it…even though we feel so far away from him.
The CONCLUSION of this letter is not to WALLOW in the fact that we left our First Love. The conclusion is to be FIXATED on the CHARACTER OF GOD.
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- SLIDE I can’t remember what my boys looked like during their first few months of life. Even though it hasn’t been that long, I can’t believe I can’t remember. We were looking through old pictures and I was shocked at how fat Jacob was or how small they were before or how different they looked.The only thing I have to hold onto is…my PICTURES. It’s only by looking back at those pictures that I can remember what it was like back then…what they looked like before. I can’t remember it, but I TRUST…I BELIEVE…that this picture is an ACCURATE DEPICTION of this FORGOTTEN REALITY.
This is the same with remembering the GOSPEL. We forget so often who Christ is in our lives. We forget that moment when we first KNEW Christ in our lives. But we know it’s TRUE…that such a LOVE EXISTS…because we see the PICTURES OF CHRIST in SCRIPTURE. This BIBLE is the PHOTO ALBUM of CHRIST!!!!!!
And though we will FORGET CONTINUALLY what he LOOKS LIKE, we are REMINDED of who he is every time we look at Scripture.
I pray that we will be a church that is more known for WHAT WE DO, then for HOW WE LOVE.