A Complacent Love for Christ is Deadly

Transcript

GRM 866
7/13/2003
A Complacent Love for Christ Is Deadly
Revelation 2:1-7
Gil Rugh

I want to direct your attention to the book of Revelation chapter 2. We recently looked through the book of II John and noticed there, John’s emphasis on truth and love, and truth as being the sphere in which love operates, and truth as being the motivating, driving factor in Biblical love. We’ll see some similarities as we look in Revelation chapter 2 together. The book of Revelation, we think of as focusing on future events. That is the bulk of the book, dealing with events yet to come. Chapters 4 and 5 we get great glimpses into the glories of heaven and the worship that takes place in heaven. Then from chapter 6 to 19 we have events that will unfold on this earth in a 7-year period preceding the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. That return to earth by Christ is recorded in Revelation chapter 19. Then we move into the matter of the 1000-year reign of Christ, climaxed by the judgment of the wicked who will be sentenced to hell. Then we move into eternity.

The book of Revelation begins by John being given a vision of the glory of Jesus Christ, now that He has been raised from the dead and established at the right hand of His Father in heaven, restored to the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, as He prayed in John chapter 17. Then in chapters 2 and 3 Jesus Christ addresses a series of letters to His churches on the earth, and there are seven churches that He addresses. If you’re familiar with the book of Revelation, you know that the number seven is a key number in the book of Revelation. These seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 are seven literal, historical churches. They were in existence at the time John received these letters. These letters would have been taken and delivered to these seven churches, and as the church gathered together on a Sunday morning this letter would have been read in this church, and then each church had its letters.

These seven churches are selected by Christ, I believe also, because they contain messages to us, and they are representative of the church of Jesus Christ on the earth. We can find our church as we study the seven churches. We can find any church here. The message to these churches is the ongoing message of Jesus Christ to His church. Each of these letters will conclude with the exhortation, “he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” This is not John the Apostle; this is Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit addressing a message to the heart of His people and to His church as it represents Him in the world.

I want to look at the first of these churches with you, the church at Ephesus. Ephesus is a prominent city in the New Testament. It gets much attention. It’s the city where Paul devoted three years of his life and ministry. There is no other place where Paul ministers that the New Testament tells us he spent as much time as he spent in the city of Ephesus. According to Acts chapter 20 he had spent three years. A hard ministry, but a fruitful ministry, toiling day and night with tears for a period of three years, Paul said. A difficult ministry, but a ministry that was blessed of God. There is a letter written after Paul’s ministry to Ephesus called the letter to the Ephesians. It’s a very important, crucial part of our New Testament. Timothy was placed in Ephesus to continue Paul’s ministry and Paul wrote the letters to Timothy as he ministered to the church in Ephesus.

Now we come to Revelation chapter 2 and Jesus Christ is addressing a letter to the church at Ephesus. We have a church that plays a prominent role in the early history of the church, and its influence was widely felt. This church is established in a very prominent city. The city of Ephesus was a very well-known, very prominent, very prosperous city. It was a very influential, commercial city. It had a major seaport, it had three prime trade routes that passed through the city. So, it was a very commercially prosperous city. It was a very politically important city; it was a free city. The Romans had given it a special position as a free city. One of the benefits of being a free city was they did not station Roman soldiers there on a regular basis. There was a lot of freedom in this city to govern itself, to carry out its political activity, its commercial activity. It was the center of the province of Asia. When the Roman governor travelled here, all major cases that had to appear before him would be conducted at the court of the governor in the city of Ephesus. Any time the Roman governor arrived here it would be an occasion of great pomp and circumstance. Again, drawing attention to this city. The Pannonian Games, we don’t know the Pannonian Games as well as we know the Olympic Games because we continued the name Olympic down to our day. But in New Testament times the Pannonian Games, athletic events, were on the same level as the Olympic events. They were held in the month of May in the city of Ephesus. So, you had again world attention focused on the city of Ephesus, and people from all over coming to this city.

But we’re most interested in Ephesus for our consideration because of its religious significance. It was a very religious city, a very superstitious city. The temple of Artemis, or the one we know better by her Latin name, Diana, was in the city of Ephesus. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. It had 127 columns around it, each of the columns 60 feet high. Each column had been a gift from a king. You see something of the prominence of the worship of Diana. This being a center of worldwide worship. When you can have 127 different kings, these would be kings under Roman authority, each contributing to having a pillar 60 feet high established there, you get some idea of the worldwide influence of the worship of Artemis or Diana. This worship was a very immoral, pagan worship. We’re familiar with the carved images that have been found, and you can look in a Bible dictionary and you will see usually a picture of this grotesque fertility god and associated with the worship of the goddess, Diana. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of temple priestesses at the temple of Diana. There was temple prostitution as part of the worship. These were cult prostitutes. You have people come from all over the world coming to this place, a center of sacred worship, and it’s just a center of the most vile, immoral practices. It dominates the city with its religious superstition.

One other thing you ought to know about the temple of Diana. For an area 200 yards around the temple, it was a sanctuary. Criminals or those who had committed a crime, if they could get to this 200-yard area around the temple, they would have asylum and were protected from punishment. So, you have all kinds of the worst characters who have committed the worst crimes trying to get to this city and come into this city and find asylum. You could buy magical charms at the temple that were part of superstitious worship, and these charms were supposed to have supernatural powers. Let me read you what one writer wrote about the city of Ephesus at this time. Into Ephesus there poured a stream of criminals of every kind, fugitives from the law, escapers and avoiders of justice. Into Ephesus there flowed a torrent of credulous, superstitious people, for in a superstitious world Ephesus was well nigh the most superstitious city in the world. The character of the people of Ephesus was notoriously bad. The people had the reputation all over Asia of being fickle, superstitious and immoral.

I say this because I think we need to keep before us the kind of world that Jesus Christ planted His churches in. We sometimes get disheartened by the corruption and vileness of our own society. We see the courts making decisions and we say we are just sliding down, deeper and deeper into the muck. I read an editorial that some of you would have read this past week in the newspaper, and there the writer was saying maybe it’s time that we abolish marriage altogether, do away with this bickering over should marriage be between a man and a woman. Or can two women or two men and all the other studies…Maybe it’s time we did away with marriage, maybe it has served its purpose. We resolved the bickering and disagreements by just not having the government deal with marriage at all. We say where is all this going to end. We think oh my it is hopeless. What about my kids? What about my grandkids? What are we going to do? We need to stop and remember that the intention of the Lord of the church was to establish His church and churches in the world as lights in the midst of darkness.

Turn back to the book Philippians chapter 2, the book of Philippians chapter 2. Here we have a letter written to the church at Philippi, another local church on a different continent. Ephesus is in Asia Minor; Philippi is in Greece. But note what God says to the believers at Philippi, and the Apostle Paul being the human author. Verse 14 of Philippians 2, “do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent.” Now note this, “children of God, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life.” The church at Philippi was a light in the midst of the darkness of immorality and corruption, religious superstition.

Come back to Revelation chapter 2. You know what the description, the representation of each of the seven churches is. Look at verse 20 of Revelation chapter 1, the last phrase, “and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” Each of these churches is represented by a candlestick, a lampstand, really a candlestand with the candles lit at the top. What does it represent in the midst of the superstition and the moral vileness and corruption of the city of Ephesus? There is a light, and the light is that truth-center called the church, at Ephesus. As we look at this letter, we need to remember, do you know what this church is and is to be? It’s to be a truth-center, giving off the light of the knowledge of God in the midst of the darkness of this world. No, our world and our society is not worse and more corrupt and more vile. It is hopeless. Even the Supreme Court that we hope would be conservative is not making the decisions we hope for. What hope is there for our country? Well, it never was the Supreme Court. The hope has always been the church. The center and the pillar and support of the truth has never been the Supreme Court, it has always been the church since it was established. We as believers are not to be running around hoping the darkness will turn to some kind of gray. Rather we should be concerned that the light is burning as brightly as the Lord of the church says it must, in the midst of the overwhelming darkness that is all around. That’s the message that the Lord of the church has to the churches.

Chapter 2 begins, to the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. “The angels are the stars, the end of verse 20 of chapter 1, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. I think most probably these angels represent the messengers of the churches. The word angel means messenger. They could be literal angels, nothing changes in the letter, however they are identified. They may be angels from heaven, or they may represent the leaders of the churches. The messengers who have come to John from these seven churches as he is exiled in Patmos will be the recipients of the letters, and these letters will be carried to the seven churches and these representatives of the churches, perhaps the pastors. At any rate the letter comes to them and to the church, and the first letter is to the church in Ephesus. Some of you use a study Bible that has a map there and you see these churches are arranged in roughly an irregular circle. It’s usually understood to be the postal route, the way the letters would be delivered on the postal route of that day. One man wrote a book a number of years ago called the Postman of Patmos and these letters are written and distributed on the postal route.

The first church is the church at Ephesus. It’s addressed by the one who has been described earlier. As he writes to the church at Ephesus, I’ve mentioned it’s a well-known church, it was established by Paul on his second missionary journey in Acts chapter 18. He visited again on his third missionary journey in Acts chapter 19, and that’s when he stays for three years. He had a great ministry there. He visited with the elders from the church at Ephesus that he called to meet him, in Acts chapter 20, on the island of Miletus, where he gave what he believed would be his farewell address to that church. Then he told them he had spent three years there laboring night and day. He warned them of dangers to come and reminded them of their responsibility.

As John writes, about 40 years have passed since the church at Ephesus was established by Paul in Acts chapter 18, about a generation. About 34 years have passed since Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians. So, there has been time for maturing, there has been time for growth, there’s been time for ministry. Now the Lord of the church offers His evaluation. How are they doing after 40 years of church life? At first, he reveals something of his position to the church, then he gives his evaluation, and there’s going to be the positive and there’s going to be the negative.

The one addressing the church in verse 1 is the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand. Remember the seven stars are angels. I take it holding it in His right hand represents probably two things, one its security. As Jesus said in John chapter 10, that chapter on the good shepherd, and He said there His sheep know His voice, and He has them in His right hand, and no one can pluck them out of His hand. They are safe and they are secure. The emphasis on being in His right hand is not only their security, but it is also His authority over them, the right hand representing His power and His authority. They are under His authority. He speaks to them in this position, the one who has the authority and might. He holds the seven stars in His right hand.

In chapter 1 verse 16 we are told in His right hand He holds seven stars. The word for hold down in verse 1 of chapter 2, the one who holds the seven stars is even a stronger word than what’s used up in verse 16 of chapter 1. It denotes their security. In verse 1 of chapter 2 it’s even a stronger word to note His authority and their security. They both go hand in hand. Those who belong to Him are secure, but don’t lose sight of the fact you are under His authority. He walks among the seven golden lampstands, and we saw at the end of chapter 1 the seven golden lampstands represent the church. Each church of the seven churches represented by a lampstand, responsible to give off the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ. II Corinthians chapter 4 talks about the light of the knowledge of Christ shining in the heart and the place where God is made known. God who is light, the one in whom there is no darkness at all. This is the place of His presence, if you will, manifested in His people who are to be a light in the world.

He’s walking among the seven golden lampstands. He walks as a priest and as a judge. It’s a striking position, because here is the one who has purchased the church for Himself with His own blood, the one who is the head of the church and has absolute authority over the church. Now He walks among them. He knows everything that is taking place, and He is evaluating, considering them and their work and their service. He walks among the seven golden lampstands. You know you find in Leviticus chapter 24, the opening verses there, it was Aaron the priest’s responsibility to keep the lampstand in the tabernacle burning. So here you have the one checking His lampstand as the priest and as the judge.

In verse 2 he begins, “I know,” “I know.” You don’t have to tell Him, you don’t have to wonder, does Christ know what is going on in His church? He begins His evaluation by saying I know. He knows all that is good about this church, and He knows all that is not good about this church. Nothing escapes His gaze. He’s the one, in the description in chapter 1, “whose eyes are like a flame of fire.” “I know your deeds, your toil, perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. You found them to be false. You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake and have not grown weary.” You know it’s important for us that the church of Jesus Christ in this day, as one of His churches, we consider carefully what does Christ approve in His church, and what does He disapprove.

First, He says what is good about this church. I want this to be what is good about us. I mean I want the approval of Christ on this church, on my life and your life, for He is the Lord of the church. He says I know your deeds. The word deeds is the word works. I know what you do, I know your work. He’s not talking about people who have earned their salvation, that’ll come out clearly at the end of this letter. It’s already been laid the foundation in chapter 1. Chapter 1 verse 5 Paul wrote about, “to him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood, made us to be priests and a kingdom. Release from sin, its penalty, its power comes only from the blood of Christ.” Only through recognizing your sinful condition and turning from your own efforts to place your faith in Christ can you be cleansed and forgiven, loosed from your sin. He’s writing to the church. The church is comprised of those who profess to have believed in Jesus Christ. We’re going to see, though, not everybody who is a physical member of this church was truly a spiritual member of the body of Christ.

But he addresses those who are professing to belong to Him, and as He evaluates, this church has been faithful to Him in key areas. I know your work, your toil. The word toil, a word which means exhausting labor. They not only were busy working, but they were also pouring their life in that sense in the ministry. It was hard work; they were tired when they were done. It was draining labor. They put themselves into the work that they were doing. There’s a reminder. The work for the Lord is not easy. It’s important that we not grow weary in our well-doing. Doesn’t mean we never take a break to get our strength renewed. We take vacations, you know, we take a day off. Talking to some who were working in the Bible School all last week, and how good it is to have a little breather. We need those. But it’s good to be reminded, it’s good to be tired in the work of the Lord. The work of the Lord is not easy, we’re not talking about playing for the Lord, we’re talking about working for the Lord and we’re talking about work for the Lord that is toil and is exhausting labor. They’re commended for their perseverance, so the kind of work he’s talking about was work that was exhausting labor, work that took perseverance. Enduring through toil and conflict and struggle. Remember when Paul started the church at Ephesus it was in the context of conflict and difficulty. In fact, the end result of his ministry, there was a riot and Paul has to leave Ephesus. The whole city is in turmoil. So, after 40 years of ministry these people had demonstrated that they persevered, they continued under the pressure. That’s what the word persevere literally means, to continue under, to live under pressure, burdens, the difficulty.

Particular area that he commends them for is revealed as he continues on. You put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they’re not and you have found them to be false. You cannot tolerate, you cannot endure evil men. You know what’s important if the church is to be found faithful by the Lord of the church, that it be intolerant in the right areas. We are so afraid that somebody will say oh you’re not tolerant, oh they’re intolerant in that church. We should say thank you very much, it’s what we are. Because here the Lord of the church commends the church for what? You cannot put up with evil men. What kind of evil men are we talking about? Those who call themselves apostles. We’re not talking about those who worshipped Artemis or Diana of the Ephesians. We’re talking about those that the Apostle Paul warned the Ephesians and elders of in Acts chapter 20 when he said, “from among your own selves’ men will arise speaking perverse things, seeking to draw away the disciples after them.” Those that Peter warned about when he said there will be false teachers among you, even as there were false prophets among the Israelites. Those that in Ephesus joined themselves to the church and claimed to have been converted to Christ, and now were faithfully serving Him in teaching, but they were false apostles. They put them to the test, that’s what Paul had told them to do in Acts chapter 26. That the elders were responsible to lead the church and this ministry; guard the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. It’s the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. Be careful. Protect it.

You have put them to the test. In I John chapter 4 John wrote, “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Many false prophets have gone out into the world, many false prophets. The church at Ephesus was a faithful church, they worked hard, and they were diligent, they persevered. You know it’s always difficult when you’re getting attacked from the outside as the church would be. You have the center of a major world religion. Its headquarters is here. You’re constantly being assaulted from the outside and sometimes you think, look we’ve got enough battle on our hands from the outside. We don’t want to try to divide doctrinal lines now within. You know what the church at Ephesus did? It did its responsibility before the Lord of the church. It evaluated these teachers, and it wouldn’t put up with those who professed to be apostles, professed to represent Jesus Christ, even when they were part of their group, when they were found to be false. They had no toleration, no tolerance for those kinds of teachers.

He goes on, verse 3. What Jesus Christ does is repeat in verse 3 what He has just said in verse 2. Now sometimes we repeat ourselves trying to get our thoughts together. Sometimes I repeat what I just said because I’m trying to think of what I should say next, or I can’t find my place in my notes or in the Bible. You know Jesus Christ is never at a loss of words. He never forgot what should be said next. So, when He repeats Himself, it is always with intention. In verse 3 He repeats what He just said. “You have perseverance, you have endured for my name’s sake and have not grown weary.” You’ll note, I want you to just note something in verse 3, “you have endured.” The word translated endured there is the same basic work translated tolerate or endure in verse 2. Some of the editions in your Bibles will use endure for verse 2, and some will use the word tolerate. That’s why I go back and forth here. It’s a word that means to put up with something. In some cases, it means to tolerate, to put up with it. In other cases, it means to endure because you put up with something. Here’s a church that knew when to put up with things and when not to, that put up with the right things and didn’t put up with the wrong things, at least in some of these areas. So, it’s good to know when we ought to put up with something and when we shouldn’t. He commends them for not putting up with evil men and false teachers. He commends them in verse 3 for putting up for his sake, going through what they needed to go through, being tolerant and enduring for what they should endure for him. They haven’t grown weary because they are doing it for Christ’s sake. It’s not because they like to suffer, not because they like to lose friends, not because they enjoyed going through another potential church split by confronting false teachers and false doctrine. But they did it for His name’s sake, and they didn’t grow weary. If you’ve been a believer very long you know how important that is. What a testimony for the church at Ephesus, they didn’t grow weary. The Bible exhorts us not to grow weary in well-doing. We have to be careful we don’t wear out in the battle before the battle is over, that I don’t grow tired of battling when the war is still going on. I’ll know when the war is over, I’ll be in glory. Then I will have entered into the fullness of the rest that He has prepared for me. They have not grown weary.

One of the great concerns I have for our own church is that we do not grow weary. Repeated battles tend to wear us down, they wear us out. You know we lose some friends; we have some division, and my first thought is I hope we don’t have to go through this again. But some of you have been around long enough, you remark to me, we appreciate the calm that we know is before the next storm. Because the devil hasn’t quit, the war is not over. We praise God that He brings us through a battle, we praise God that He gives us perhaps a time to be refreshed and strengthened after a battle. But the soldier has not proved himself faithful because he fought one battle. We must fight the war. Christ commends this church after 40 years; you’ve not grown weary. You’re still doing what I have called you to do. That has to be true of the church, to be faithful right down to our day. When the church loses its heart for the battle, loses its stomach to stand up when there is going to be a conflict, then it is no longer a church that will be commended by Jesus Christ.

Imagine now you’re sitting at the church at Ephesus on Sunday morning and the messenger, the angel of the church, says I have a message given by the resurrected Christ to our beloved John on the island of Patmos. Everybody is sitting there, and you get down and Christ repeats in verse 3 in what He just said in commendation in verse 2 as we have it. Can you imagine everybody sitting up there and saying oh boy what a church we have. What a blessing to be commended by the Lord. Then you have, “But I have this against you. You have left your first love.” You know it’s sad how sin mars a life and mars a church. David was the man after God’s own heart. He wrote many of the psalms that bless our hearts right down to today. But you think of David and one of the first things that comes to your mind is what? Bathsheba, Uriah. That wasn’t a major part of David’s life, but it was a major blot on David’s life.

We think of the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, and we think of the church at Ephesus, and the first thing that comes to mind is what? They left their first love. We’re reminded how sin and failure mars a life and mars a ministry. This is a great church. When Jesus Christ Himself gives such commendation and He’s not done with the commendation, this is a great church. But it’s not a perfect church. In fact, it’s a church that better make some adjustments rapidly or it will be a nonexistent church. This is a church that has had a great ministry over 40 years of standing for the gospel of Jesus Christ, standing for the truth of God.

“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” I take it the first love he is talking about is their love for Jesus Christ. Now the lack of that love will reflect itself in their love for other believers, of course. I think what he is talking about here in the context and other passages as well that would relate to this, is the love that would characterize them when they were first saved. Go back 40 years to when the church was founded, that passionate consuming love. Nothing else mattered. Doing some good things in my service for Christ were not enough. It’s life for me. He is my life. Isn’t that what Christ called us to? “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” You have to hate your own life if you want to be my disciple. You become my disciple; your life becomes mine. You become my servant, my slave. It’s good enough for a slave to be like his master. Now your life is mine to be poured into, living for me. You know what it’s like for a new Christian. Somebody is gloriously saved, and their enthusiasm permeates everything. It doesn’t matter if they get disinherited by their family, doesn’t matter if their best friend doesn’t talk to them anymore. I know Jesus Christ and He’s my life, and they’re willing to do whatever. We who have been Christians for 40 years look back and say well their lives will get balanced out after a time. They’ll get things in a better balance. You know what Jesus Christ said to the church? You’d better not get a better balance. It better be like it was in the beginning, that consuming passionate love. Those who are just saved ought to look at us who have been saved for 40 years or whatever and see a burning, fiery love that consumes us. Jesus Christ is our life.

This is not new. Back in the book of Jeremiah, you don’t need to turn there, but let me read to you from Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 2. God addresses Israel, “Thus says the Lord I remember concerning the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothal.” God addresses Israel and says I remember your love for me at the beginning. I remember your devotion, your love, your commitment to me when we were betrothed, engaged, joined to be married. You know what it’s like in a marriage relationship. That’s the picture. You know two people who are committing themselves to being married and there’s a passionate commitment to one another. Their life is built around that other person. Everything that goes on in their day is done in light of their relationship to that person. What happens when marriages start to fall apart after years. We sat down with that couple and say I want to go back to when you married each other. Think about, what did you find in that person that you wanted to commit your life to them, and on we go. We want to take them back to the devotion of that time, the love they displayed at that time. That’s what Jesus Christ is saying to the church at Ephesus in chapter 2. I want to go back to the days when the Apostle Paul turned up on your doorstep and preached the gospel to you. According to the book of Acts chapter 19 they took their possessions associated with paganism and their books and they dumped them on the fire. There was a vast fortune that got consumed that day, because they wanted nothing but Jesus Christ. That’s the kind of passionate love that Jesus Christ is looking for, that’s the kind of passionate love that He requires.

He’s not saying that their works and deeds and perseverance that He has just commended were not satisfactory. He’s not saying they were not done with love. But do you know what happens over time? We begin to compartmentalize our lives. In those early days of our salvation Jesus Christ is our life. Now with the passing of time we tend to put Him into His place, and we can serve Him with perseverance and diligence and toil, but in this area. When we’re first saved, I can’t get enough of the Word of God, I can’t get enough of being with God’s people. Every time the doors are open, so to speak, there’s the new Christian. You know one of the problems I had when we were a congregational form of government? I was talking to Don and said, “you know we have a problem. Most of the people who were coming out to the congregational meetings were the new believers. We got the newest, most immature Christians who were excited, and they want to vote on things. And they’re the least mature to do it. What do we do with people who have been saved for 20, 30, 40 years. We try to talk them into going to a Bible study. We have to ask them, why don’t you come to Bible Fellowship on Sunday morning, Sunday School, Sunday night. They’re just trying to minimize it. Oh, they’ll be passionate about the hour they want to give. They’ll give it everything then, but don’t let it get into the rest of my life.” This is what Jesus Christ is talking about to the church at Ephesus. What they have done, they have done well. What they have done, they are commended for, a commendation that will stand for eternity. But what they have failed to do is deadly. They have failed to keep Him as their first love and passion.

The letter to the Ephesians ended when Paul wrote it 34 years earlier in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 24, as he gets near the end of that letter. He’s writing about those “who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible,” a purity of their love is what he is talking about.

What’s the solution? Well meditate, try to get back the old feelings. You know how you felt when you were first saved? You need to feel that way again. That’s not what he says. He gives three commands. You ought to have them marked. If you don’t, underline them, circle them. Remember in verse 5, remember, repent, do. Remember, repent, do. What is the correction required of this church that has lost its first love? Number 1, “remember from where you have fallen.” In other words, go back and think about, as the song says, that fiery love, you deserve a fiery love. That passion that consumed you in those early days of your salvation, that unquenchable thirst and the hunger you had for more of Christ. He was so precious you couldn’t get enough of Him, His words were so rich I just couldn’t take in enough. The fellowship of His people was such a blessing I just wanted more. Whatever I can do to be used, I’m ready. I’m not afraid I’ll do whatever to serve Him. Go back and remember what it was like. We’re not going to live in the past, but Jesus Christ is saying the past ought to be your present. He is no less wonderful than He was on day 1. He is no less demanding than He was on day 1. He still requires that He be everything. That my life and the life of this church be built around Him and Him along, and everything flows out of that. Remember from where you have fallen. The first thing is I become comfortable in my present complacency. Because I’m doing enough for the Lord that keeps me calm in my conscience. Remember from where you have fallen.

Repent, see it as a sinful, wrong thing that you are not where you were. You have fallen from where you were. Repent of the fact, God it is sin that I am not passionate for you, consumed with you today 40 years later as I was at the beginning. Lord, I repent. God, I acknowledge I have become complacent, I’ve compartmentalized my life. I thought I was serving you because I gave you one compartment, even a major compartment. I’ve even suffered for you; I’ve toiled for you. But Lord you have not been my life, you’ve been part of my life. I repent of that, Lord. It’s urgent that I do this immediately, it’s a strong command, repent. It has to be done now.

Do the deeds that you did at first. Take decisive action. You’re not to sit there wallowing in your grief, oh Lord I’m sorry. Get up and do what needs to be done. They ought to look at you and say I don’t know, what happened to him? It looks like he got saved all over again. He’s just as fiery and passionate as a new Christian. Someone knew you when you first got saved, they’d say it’s just like it was in the early days of his salvation. This church, is it less passionate for Jesus Christ than it was 40 years ago? Was it more important 40 years ago for a lost and dying world to hear about Christ? Was there a reason we should be bolder with family and friends in sharing the gospel than today? Have we exhausted the knowledge of the infinite God so it’s not as important that we learn of Him, like it was at the beginning of our ministry? Why would we do less than we did then? Do the deeds you did at first.

You know this is a simple correction. If God said to change my feelings, I struggle with that because my feelings come and go. What I’d probably do is go put on some sad music, get in the mood, then begin to feel bad about what I wasn’t, then I’d get out and start to do other things, and I’d pretty soon forget the feeling. I’m glad God didn’t tell me to feel differently. You know what He told me? Do it, and He always provides the enabling power through His Spirit to do what He commands. Good.

You know the Hebrews were struggling. The writer to the Hebrews writes to them, they’re thinking about pulling back from that all-out, go-for-broke kind of commitment to some kind of compromise with Judaism to take some of the pressure off and get on with a real life. You know what the writer to the Hebrews writes them in Hebrews chapter 10? “Remember the former days,” remember what it was like at the beginning when you endured a great conflict of suffering. You were happy to lose all your possessions for Jesus Christ. You were happy to suffer for Him. You didn’t mind being identified with those that went to prison for Him. You were willing to pay any price. Solution to your problem? Remember from where you’ve fallen. Remember the former days. Jeremiah said to Israel, remember the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals. Let’s go back to what it was like at the beginning. God’s love for me is not any less, not any passionate, not any less complete. My love for Him ought not to fail in any way.

Do the deeds you did at first. You’ll note this is not an optional command. Look at the end of verse 5, “or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.” It can’t get anymore serious. Jesus Christ does not say it’s good enough, I just hope you’ll do better. I commend you for what you’ve done, that is good. But if you don’t get back to what you are supposed to be, I’m just going to put your life. The early church fathers testified that the church at Ephesus took this message to heart and made serious adjustments in their ministry, and they continued on for several hundred more years before they lost their way and went out of existence.

You see how seriously the Lord of the church takes this. You know our kids. You give them a list of six things to do. They do two things, pour themselves into it, do it well and come home and you say to them, did you get done what I told you? Well, Dad, I did these two things. You say, boy you really did a good job with them. You did the best you could. That’s wonderful. Well good, can I go… No, wait, you didn’t do the other four. I know, Dad, but I did those two things. Didn’t you think I did good with those two? Yes, but it wasn’t good enough to do two of the six. You see this is what Jesus Christ is saying to the church at Ephesus. You’ve done wonderfully well in what you’ve done, but it’s not good enough. I want you to do everything I am giving you to do, not part of what I’ve given you to do. We all fall into the trap of consoling ourselves by focusing on the part we did, and we did well. I want to be encouraged by what the Spirit’s done in my life and my response to the Spirit. I praise God for commendation. But that better not become an excuse for this church not doing everything that God says it must do.

Yet this you do have. It’s another word of commendation he brings in after the condemnation. You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. You know we have to learn to hate what Christ hates, but also to love what He loves. If we love it we, do it, if you love Me you’ll do my commandments. This ought to be true of those in the church who hate certain things, that won’t tolerate certain things, as well as the church that loves certain things and will let nothing stand in the way of doing certain things. That’s what a church is commended for, represent Jesus Christ faithfully. You know what the Nicolaitans, the early church fathers said the Nicolaitans were? You remember in the appointment of the first deacons in Acts chapter 6, one of those was Nicolas. The early church fathers said Nicolas got off track, began to develop his own doctrine, his own licentious lifestyle that was followed by his followers. He became a sore in the church and it caused a division in the church. That may be the Nicolaitans here. Whatever they are, it’s good the church hated them because Christ hates what they do, too.

“He who has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Not everybody in Ephesus is going to hear and understand what the Spirit of God has just said. Only those who have spiritual ears to hear what the Spirit of God says. That’s a reminder. Not everybody listening to this letter read will hear its message, but the one who has the Spirit of God better pay attention.

“To him who overcomes.” Here’s a reminder, the church is being divided again. “To him who overcomes,” I John 5 verse 5, “who is he who overcomes but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ.” An overcomer is one who has come to see his sin and his only hope for deliverance from sin is Jesus Christ the one who loved him and died for him and has turned from his sin and placed his faith in Christ. To him who overcomes the promise is given. Not to everyone at the church at Ephesus, but to those who overcome, to the genuine believers at the church at Ephesus I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. The tree of life, which was first found in the Garden of Eden, the tree of life which will be found in the paradise of God in Revelation chapter 22. “And those who freely eat of the tree of life are those who have the eternal life given by God to those who believe in His Son. He that has the Son has life, he that has not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

A reminder that even at this church at Ephesus there were those who may not be overcomers, who did not have eternal life. That may be part of the struggle of the church. You know there are people who come on, they look like believers, but they don’t pour their whole heart into it. If the church tries to adjust it becomes tepid, lukewarm, as a later church we’ll hear. We lose that passion because we don’t want to lose people who don’t have that passion, so let’s cool the passion. Here we’re reminded that even in the professing church, even this local church at Ephesus that has such a history, not everyone may be an overcomer. What an encouragement and blessing that we want to serve the living God with that passion. Well, we can examine our church in light of the church at Ephesus. How are we? We have a long history, over 40 years. Are we just as passionate. People look at us and say you know they are no different than they were in the early days. Those people are consumed, they’re fanatics out there, their whole life is Jesus Christ. They do other things, but they are passionate about their service for Him and that’s what matters. Are you an overcomer? Are you struggling just to get along and get by? Have you really believed in Christ? Do you have the indwelling Spirit who makes you an overcomer and gives you the victory? If you are, you’re stumbling along. Remember, repent and do again the first works.

Let’s pray together. Lord, may we not be complacent as a church. May we not read about this church that you addressed, and you address us through this church, that we would think oh that’s not us. Lord, keep us from being satisfied or complacent. Lord, may we always be passionate for you. You know how easily we cool, the many excuses that fill our lives, the busyness of life that crowds in and crowds out. Lord, may we take to heart the commendations to the church. May we make corrections, personally and corporately, that will make us the church that is a flaming lampstand for our Savior in whose name we pray. Amen.