Consider Your First Love

Transcript

GR 1985
11/27/2016
Consider Your First Love
Revelation 2:2-7
Gil Rugh

We are studying the book of Revelation together. I invite you to turn in your bibles to Revelation chapter 2. Remember the breakdown of the book of Revelation. In Revelation 1:19 John writes about the things that he has seen, primarily the revelation of the vision of Jesus Christ given in chapter one. Then he writes about the things which are and that is the churches and their condition, which reflects the entire church age, if you will. The situation is whether things in the churches are what they should be or not. Then he will begin writing about things yet future that will take place on the earth after the church age.

The first letter is written to the church at Ephesus. This is the largest city and evidently, this is the most influential church in the area. The apostle Paul spent three years in Ephesus ministering the word and that is the longest ministry we have recorded in Paul’s personal earthly ministry. It’s a significant church in the New Testament appearing in the book of Acts and there is a letter written to this church, the letter to the Ephesians. The penman of the book of Revelation is the apostle John and tradition says he spent the closing thirty or so years of his life and ministry at Ephesus. As he writes this letter and receives it, he is on the island of Patmos, which is off the coast of Asia Minor where Ephesus is located. It’s a place for Roman prisoners and John has been exiled there because of his testimony for Christ.

We looked at the first part of the letter to the Ephesians. It begins simply by addressing it “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:” Here are the instructions from Christ--what you are to write to this church. The angel we noted is the human messenger of the church and is symbolized by a star. In each of the churches, the messenger is called a star; perhaps he is a prominent person or individual leader of that church. He will be joined together with that church in the commendations and in the condemnations; the church dealt with both individually and corporately.

Christ appears drawing from the vision John had of Him in Revelation 1. He is the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand. Those are the seven messengers from the churches and they are in His right hand, the place of authority and protection but here sovereign authority will be the emphasis. Christ is walking among the seven golden lampstands each representing one of the seven churches. We noted this goes back, drawn from Revelation 1 and then goes back to the Old Testament where the high priest had the responsibility to keep the lampstand burning in the tabernacle and then the temple.

That involved replenishing the bowl of the lampstand with oil and trimming the wick so everything burned as brightly as it should. That’s the picture. Christ is now walking among these lampstands examining each one personally and individually as He is the Lord of the church, the Head of the church. We are His slaves as we were identified in Revelation 1:1 as bond-servants, using the Greek word for slaves. The church belongs to Him. He purchased it with His own blood and Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28 that we are accountable to Him. Ultimately, it is only His evaluation that matters and He will be very direct saying what pleases Him. He will commend them for that but He will be very stern on what is unacceptable and what must be changed.

We saw some of the things He is commending the church for and basically, there were four of them. He says, in Revelation 2:2, “I know” and we have emphasized, “I know” is said in each of these letters. He has that thorough complete knowledge of everything going on in the church. “I know your deeds … your toil and your perseverance” and your intolerance for evil men. Your intolerance in this case is commendable. Your deeds are your works. This is an active church and they were busy about the things of Christ. They were about the work He had given them to do. Their toil further elaborates on their works because their works were not easy. I want to do something but I don’t want it to be too hard, too draining, too demanding; they had to toil. I know your works and your toil--works that are wearisome and exhausting and wear you out. They were pouring themselves into their works and did not hold back. It is commendable. We looked in I Corinthians 15:58 where Paul focuses on the resurrection and then reminded them at the end of the chapter … “your toil is not in vain in the Lord”… and then their perseverance. They not only did wearisome work they stayed at it. A lot of people are sprinters; they take off, they are great but they don’t last very long. This church had endurance and in spite of the wearisome exhausting work, they persevered and were faithful over time.

Then the fourth thing that is commendable. Revelation 2:2, “You cannot endure or tolerate evil men” and that is commendable. This is an intolerant church and today that is a bad word but that would have been true in many ways throughout the history of the church and in the days of Ephesus as well. Remember, Ephesus is not an easy city. We think about how bad things are now but still Ephesus was not an easy city in which to minister. It was a city built around the worship of a pagan goddess. Anything that interrupted, that competed with, that interfered with, that was unacceptable. This is not an easy place to minister yet Christ commends this church for not tolerating evil men. You don’t put up with them, you don’t endure them. He is going to elaborate on this because this is important. Some of the churches He is going to address will fail in this very area but the church at Ephesus knew when to be intolerant. Evil men … what do you mean by that? “You put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;” You cannot tolerate evil men. Put these men to the test who infiltrate the church and present themselves as apostles. Remember this is still the time that not everybody had his own bible.

We had apostles -- John is the last of the apostles to survive. We are about 95 A.D. Peter and Paul were executed back in the late sixties--so twenty-five to thirty years earlier they were removed from earthly ministry; John is the surviving apostle. There were still men coming claiming to be apostles but since the word of God was not bound together as we have it and not everybody could have his own bible it was hard to put them to the test. You know what happens, confusion.

Come back to Acts 20:17, Paul makes a short stop near the city of Ephesus at a seaport that was close to Ephesus. He’s been in Greece, he crosses over by ship, and he stops at a seaport called Miletus. He didn’t want to take the time to go up to Ephesus because once you go up to visit it takes time. He is on his way by ship to Jerusalem so he sends by messenger and has the elders in the church at Ephesus come to meet him at Miletus because he has some parting words for them. Paul does not expect to see them again.

This is the context from Acts 20 when verse17 says, “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.” He reminds them of his faithful ministry with them. It was a ministry of the word of God, taking the word of God to them wherever they were. It says in verse 20 he did not “hold back anything that was profitable,” and he taught them publicly and he went to homes and shared the truth. Verse 21, He was “testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ … verse 22 He says, “now I don’t know what will happen to me.” The Lord had revealed to him that at Jerusalem things were not going to go well for him. Verse 23 “bonds (He is going to be arrested) and afflictions await” but it is not keeping him from going.

He reminds them again of his faithfulness verse 26 He says, “I am …” clean I don’t expect to see you but my hands are clean from the “blood of all men.” (v.27) I taught you the whole “counsel of God.” Now you are responsible. He tells these elders verse 28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,” (a solemn and serious responsibility) to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” It is His church it must be led and it must conduct itself in a way that is pleasing to Him. Verse 29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock; verse 30) and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, their desire is to draw away the disciples after them. Verse 3 “Therefore be on the alert,” and then he reminds them I spent three years exhorting and warning you.

Over the thirty years or so, the church at Ephesus has done well. They have not put up with evil men, some of them would arise from within the congregation—“from among your own selves men will arise.” They are emissaries of the devil who are dressed up as believers. In John 8:44 Jesus identified him and we talked about the devil’s works; “he is the father of lies.” He spreads lies down through his servants dressed up to look like true believers but they promote his lies, which infiltrate among believers, listening to the lies that have come from the devil and everything gets confused. Paul had to repeatedly deal with this. There was a problem in the church at Corinth; the Corinthians believers had gotten confused. There was a problem in the Galatian churches when the teachers that came in caused confusion. People that were professing believers were promoting the lies of the devil. You remember Jesus had to tell Peter, in Matt. 16:23 “Get behind Me, Satan!” You can understand the confusion that came but the church at Ephesus remained strong.

I Timothy was also written to the church at Ephesus. Paul, following his ministry in Ephesus, wrote to his companion Timothy who remained in Ephesus after Paul’s departure. This is not the occasion in Acts 20 we just read but the prior occasion. In I Timothy 1:3 he tells Timothy, “I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia to remain on at Ephesus” so when Paul left Ephesus to go over into Greece he left Timothy there to finish the work. What did he have to do? “So that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” Paul is the minister there but he felt compelled to go over to Greece because the issue of false teachers still had to be dealt with. Timothy is there to tell these men they have to stop and if they won’t stop, they’ll have to be excluded. You come down to the end of Timothy 1:18 he encourages Timothy to “fight the good fight.” This will take endurance, it’s not just a battle it is an ongoing war. “You fight the good fight, verse 19, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.” What a thing to say. Some believers have gotten so confused, so lead astray, they’ve run aground; they have made a mess of their faith in Christ, verse 20. “Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so they will be taught not to blaspheme.”

In his second letter to Timothy, we’re told that one of these men was involved in teaching that the resurrection was past; there was no future bodily resurrection. These kinds of things are not only false doctrine but they have an impact on conduct and so it is a corrupting influence. The church at Ephesus some 30 years later is doing well in this area. They have put these false teachers to the test. II Tim. 2:14-19, “Remind them of these things, solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. Avoid worldly empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some. The firm foundation of God stands,” This is the kind of damage that the devil does. He can dress up people as believers, have them spread the error and soon believers hear it and their faith is upset and some of them make a mess of their Christian life. The church at Ephesus has been faithful.

Come back to Revelation 2:2, “you put these false teachers and apostles to the test and you’ve found them to be false; that’s commendable. You did not allow it to go on.” This is important. We’re going to come back to this. Sometimes Christians over correct. You will read about an automobile accident a car ran off the side of the road and they’ll say they over corrected. They turned their wheel sharply, it caused them to run across the road in the wrong direction, and they have a terrible accident. Sometimes the church does that. You know to deal with an issue and to be sure it’s not happening we over correct. This church has been faithful; they have dealt with evil men. That is commendable but if we stop here everything would be good.

Believers are to “test the spirits because many spirits have gone out into the world.” There’s doctrines of demons, there’s lies that come from the father of lies. We are to test things. That is all good. He summarizes it in verse 3. It doesn’t say anything new. “You have perseverance” well that’s what He told them, “I know your … perseverance” so having said these things that involve perseverance He reminds them that is good. You have perseverance you have endured. Now interesting you don’t pick it up in English but the word in verse 2 ‘you cannot tolerate’ that word tolerate and the word translated endured are the same basic word; tolerate or endured you get the idea. When you won’t tolerate something you tell your child when he is doing the wrong thing, ‘I won’t tolerate that, I’m not going to put up with it.” Another way to say it would be; not endure it. That’s the point they have endured. They didn’t put up with what they shouldn’t put up with but they stayed with what they should. That’s the picture—keeping that balance.

Well we don’t want to be known to be intolerant. We don’t want to be known to be narrow and people say, “oh your church is intolerant.” “Yes, it is and we do not tolerate certain things.” Well is that bad? You have to teach what they believe; well you have to teach what the bible says. If you teach what is contrary to the bible we won’t tolerate it. John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” We are intolerant of anyone trying to say there is another way to heaven, another way to be acceptable to God. That’s good so enduring in that, keeping on putting up with what we have to put up with and all that entails but not putting up with what we shouldn’t put up with. You have done it Revelation 2:3 “… for My names sake,” it is because of their commitment to Christ to obeying His word and “you have not grown weary.” It is basically the same thing he said, “… your toil” related words again, toil, weary, you have not grown weary, that is the thing, stay with it, keep at it.

If we could just start the next letter at verse 4 it would be great. This sounds like it is the ideal church. It is what we want to model ourselves after but it is like you are telling your children when you encourage them and you tell them what they have done and “I’m pleased that you’ve done this and done that and I’m glad you got an A++ in gym but your F—in math is not acceptable.” We commend but we correct verse 4, “But I have this against you,” this is sharp language, “I have this against you,” what worse thing could you say to a church? I am opposed to you on account of this--this One we want to please! He just commended us for conducting ourselves so admirably in these areas and it hasn’t been easy. “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” I mean all of a sudden everything that He said was commendable is like a blast at you. Think about the church at Ephesus as this letter is being read to them and they are hearing these first three verses. You can’t help but swell with pride in your heart and gratitude that the Lord has been pleased with what you’ve done; “but I have this against you.” This doesn’t come across as, ‘I don’t want you to get discouraged’ but instead it is just right in your face; “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” This will be so serious; Christ is warning them, “I will be done with you if you do not fix this. I will just put out the light in this candlestick. This is serious business,” “you have left your first love.”

The love of the early days the love that characterized them at the beginning is not the same. This emphasis comes up a number of times through Scripture. Come back to the prophet Jeremiah. Isaiah-Jeremiah-Ezekiel those large prophetic books in about the middle of your bible. God is sending a message through Jeremiah to His children, Israel. Note what He said in Jeremiah 2:1, “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, I remember concerning the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals…” I remember those early days--that betrothal when they first were in that time of love and devotion—that time when they didn’t have eyes or ears for anyone else. Remember those days of your complete love but He goes on, something has changed; it’s not like those early days any more, you have changed. “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals.” That’s what Christ is saying to the church at Ephesus. All the things you are doing--the picture is like a marriage relationship when you’re dating and then you are engaged and those early days of marriage--wow this is great! Often we say what, ‘Well they are not being realistic.’ Love is blind, who said, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be? We end up as if it ought to be a combination of misery and discontent. He says, go back to those early days and remember. He is saying, ‘I expect that same passionate love and devotion that characterized you in those early days;’ that’s the same kind of love that He is looking for and expecting from us.
Now come over to the gospel of John. Jesus on His last night with His disciples talked about what must characterize them in John 13:34,35) “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Then know what He talks about in John 14:15 and remember there were no chapter divisions, and there were no verse divisions. This is Christ speaking to His disciples on this last night before His betrayal. John. 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Down in verse 21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; verse 23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” Verse 24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words;” You see here something of what will be developed.
John the apostle is the penman of the gospel and the epistles carrying his name. He is known as the apostle of love because the Spirit used him to write so much about it. Note this family love for Christ, for one another as children of God all bound together in a relationship that characterizes us as those who live for Him and are obedient to Him. There is no concept of loving Christ and not being obedient to Him. I John 14:24 “He who does not love me does not keep My words.” People say, ‘if you don’t believe in Christ you will go to hell, well that’s not loving--I love Jesus.’ If you believe you are saved by your baptism, your church membership, your good works, you do not love Him. ‘Oh, you can’t see my heart.’ We’re not just talking about trying to stir up old feelings but the old feelings should never go away. The depth of love we have for Him is emotional. This love is not an emotional based love that flits from here to there but it is filled with emotion because we love Him. That’s the point He is making here that something has changed. They are still doing good things but something has changed. Great, but come back to the first epistle John wrote. I want you to see how this all is tied together because we want to understand, what He means when he says in Revelation 2:4, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
Well is it that I just have to go home and stir up some kind of feeling? I am concerned when I see my love is without feeling but the solution is as He unfolds it in I John. Remember, John is the same one that is being used to write the book of Revelation and wrote what we read in the gospel of John. Now here I John 3:13 “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.” If the world hates us, we are not surprised not shocked. We are not courting the love of the world, the unbeliever. Verse14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren ... we don’t expect the children of the devil to love the children of God. We know that because we have a love for the brethren. “He who does not love abides in death.” verse15 “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Verse 16, “We know love by this that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
Jesus said the same thing in John 13:34 we “are to love one another … as I have loved you,” That is why we talk about this love as being a self-sacrificing love. That’s what it is in those early days as God said through Jeremiah; it is a consuming love. The only thing that matters is this person and pleasing them. It is an enveloping love; everything is contained in that love.
I John. 3:16, 18, 23, 24 “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” love concretely manifest. Verse 18 “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” Verse 23 “This is His commandment.” Remember John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” What does He command: “… that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another …” and you can’t break them apart … “just as He commanded us.” Verse 24 “He who keeps his commandments abides in Him, and He in him …” and He has given us His Spirit.

Then we have in I John. 4:1 and you get the sense of the connection we have in this letter to the Ephesians. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Then he gives some guidelines for testing the spirits. He commended the church at Ephesus for testing the spirits. Somewhere along the line, the passionate love for Christ and fellow believers has faded; that love that consumes us and puts everything in proper perspective has faded. Verse 7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” This is in the context that he has been talking about that family love.

Verse 8-9, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him,” a verse we ought to have on the tip of our tongue when we talk to an unbeliever. They don’t think a loving God would send people to hell.

Start out by picking them up where they are. Did you know God loves you with a deep love? Do you know what He has done? Share with them what God says. God loved you. He loved us. He sent His Son to be the propitiation, the satisfaction for sins. Beloved, if God so loved us we ought to love one another. You see how this all is tied together. God’s love for us, our love for Him, our love for one another; it is a package.

It’s easy to get settled down like often happens; it happened to Israel. Somewhere along the line, that early fresh deep self-sacrificing passion just got lost. Like a marriage, they are just going through the motions, doing the same things they always did, you know we’re not mean to each other—like as a church. Yeah we have all things we do. There all good, He commended them for their works but remember 1 Corinthians 13 put in that context of that church that was so much of a heartache for Paul, racked by division and conflict even confusion on the exercising of spiritual gifts and he says, what? No matter what you do, if you don’t have love it’s worthless. They are just a clanging cymbal banging away at … a manifestation of us.

I John. 4:12 “No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” It is His, the fruit of the Spirit is love. You start out with love and He is perfecting that love. Verse 13 “By this we know … we abide in Him and He has given us His Spirit.” If we have His Spirit, His Spirit will be producing His character, His love. Verse 14 “We have seen and testify … the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” Who has God? The one who believes in Christ? Verse 16, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

We know love is not always tolerant because in just a moment Christ is going to commend the church at Ephesus for hating what He hates and for not tolerating these kinds of people. This idea that the solution to the problem of evil is more tolerance collapses. Remember Christ commends them for hating what He hates. We have to be careful of this where we sometimes swing back and forth from side to side. We don’t want to be so narrow, so intolerant. Wait just a minute that is not what He is talking about—now you give away what He commends. We will see that in some of the other churches. They were tolerant and they came under His withering judgment. The problem isn’t that now we need to be more tolerant of things, we need to be enveloped in the love that He has for us and that we have for Him and that we have for one another.

I John 4:17 “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment;” and we’re getting a preliminary of that so we want that love to be perfected in us. Our love for God and our love for one another cannot be separated; they do not happen apart from one another. Verse 19) “We love, because He first loved us.” Verse 20 “If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Verse 21 “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” You see these are so intertwined it’s easy to get off track and we’re focused on one thing; the things that we do but wait, driving all of this is the love we have for one another. They will go on in I John 5:1 as the theme continues. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.” Verse 2-3, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe his commandments… this is the love of God,” and then he comes down to the overcomer in verse 4 and that’s what is going to conclude every letter including the letter to the Ephesians.

In context, you see the love he is talking about, not that we have to stir it up but that it consumes, envelopes and characterizes us. That’s the shattering thing about the vision in Revelation. We have to be careful as a church. We’ve been in existence for fifty years plus or minus; what characterizes us? We can be doing the works we do, we can be doctrinally discerning but somewhere along the line the love that is to characterize us gets lost and then that affects our testimony.

I shared with some of the men that I have a book I kept from the first year I came until 1982. I quit in 1982 because I got busy with other things but every Sunday for thirteen years, I kept attendance for Sunday school, church services in the morning and evening and all the baptisms; I marked down how many were baptized. I have a quiz for you. You’re all taking notes, right—so take a pen and write down how many people you think were baptized in those thirteen years—from 1970 to 1982, total baptisms. How many do you think? One hundred--two hundred--three hundred--four hundred, anybody have four hundred? Five hundred, oh, you of little faith. Six hundred--seven hundred--eight hundred--nine hundred and fifty? Nine hundred and fifty baptisms in thirteen years and that includes a slow start. In 1970, we only baptized eleven but then we only had a hundred people attending so we had fewer people reaching out. We reached the high point of baptizing 143 people in one year in 1982.

I want to look back because in Revelation He says to go back to the early days, think about what it was like. I want to go back and think; what was it like then? We say, “Things have changed” but certain things should not change. The church at Ephesus could say the same thing. “You know Paul established our church over forty years ago—things change and we can’t do anything about the external changes; but maybe part of the problem is we change. Our early passion is not the same today, that passion for God’s people, for the church and for being what He has called us together to be. Well that passion—you know—we are doing these things, were still doing many good things and they’re commendable.

We don’t stop that, but are we driven by that same passion and love for one another that is a reflection of that unchanging passionate love we had for God? He will evaluate it. What do we say? “Well Lord things are different today but what kind of testimony and impact will we have? Oh yeah, Indian Hills, that’s the church where people love one another. We want to be doctrinally pure. We cannot be otherwise but are we in love with one another? Well you know you can’t live as if you’re newly married all the time. Why not? You know love is blind, keep your eyes closed, keep going. What are we saying? “They will see their faults just give them time.” Don’t look for them-- don’t look at them--you didn’t see them at the beginning, why do you see them now? We don’t want to move through these churches and think we would never be like that; we don’t want to be like that. It affects everything, our passion for Christ, our passion and love for one another makes us want to have people come and experience the power of God’s saving grace. If we’re all absorbed in our mini conflicts and major conditions, we lose perspective on reaching out to other people. When you have a person you love, you want other people to meet them and to know them. Well now, we’re just about our own business. We’re not looking for the love of the world but that love we have for Christ and for one another drives us to desire to bring that to others. Boy you ought to come and see what God is doing. It’s exciting! We’re so many different people but we just have a relationship that is deep and binding; it’s just wonderful. Somehow, churches just go through that cycle.

As I look at the church at Ephesus and think of the seven churches we’re going to look at, maybe we would fit more with Ephesus than others. Look back and think of the early days. I don’t want to be nostalgic in the wrong sense but He tells us to look back, remember the former days, what it was like. He tells that to the churches as well.

Come back to Revelation 2:4. Interesting, He has a correction. “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” That is all He says and He doesn’t go into detail. He tells them to do three things and He gives it in imperative mood, these are commands. The first one is a present imperative something you ought to regularly do. Keep remembering from where you have fallen, so that means we have to remember. Let’s go back and think about those days. You know the first ten years at Indian Hills, my ministry here from 1969, we never had anybody leave the church for any reason. That’s because the people we had then were perfect. We were not fighting with one another. We were so absorbed with what the Lord was doing that the other things did not matter. You know what happens when your love cools, then everything begins to bug you, bother you; you know it just irritates me. I don’t like what they did. It’s like a married couple and sometimes you see old married couples and all they can do is pick at each other—pic—pic—pic—pic—pic--Why did you two get married? What did you ever see? It was different in those days. Yes, close your eyes to that kind of thing.

Revelation 2:4-5 that’s all He says, “…you have left your first love…remember from where you have fallen” but don’t just get nostalgic and reflect on the old days, “repent…” This is what is called an aorist imperative not a present, this is a sharper command. You bring to mind the way it was, you repent that it is not the same way today, don’t find excuses why it’s not the same today. You repent. First you change your mind; you bring it back into proper alignment as it is supposed to be every day. My love should not be cooling it should be growing in love. I should be less aware… I Corinthians 13:7 love “believes all things, hopes all things…” We say, “Their eyes will be opened.” I should see less that I don’t like than I did before but that doesn’t mean I’m not discerning. We can’t give up his commendation for not tolerating evil men. Repent--God there is no excuse for me not to be as I was in my walk with You and my fellowship with your people. Revelation 1:5 “Repent and do” … another sharp command, “do the deeds you did at first;” The church at Ephesus was commended for their deeds in verse 2 but now what they’re doing is not right, not enough, verse 5 “do the deeds you did at first.” That’s why I say it an enveloping thing. Someone asks, “How’s your marriage and you say it’s alright, just a normal marriage, we’re doing everything we should. At the beginning, it wasn’t that way because you were always looking for more ways to please the people you love, what more could you do. That was the consuming thing of your life. Do; take the action necessary to do the deeds you did at first. Go back to the beginning.

Come back to, I John 5:3,4, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome for whatever is born of God overcomes the world;” This is how we will wrap up. We are overcomers we can do it not because of our strength but because the Spirit indwells us. He is working in us and is accomplishing what we cannot do in and of ourselves. I John 3:16, we read this earlier. “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” That’s it, like in a marriage. We don’t constantly focus on what is wrong with this person. I love them so their faults fade into the background. I’m not talking about I don’t have to deal with things in my life that are not what they should be but when you love a person you are not caught up with that. We have all been through this. You see someone in their marriage relationship and if you’re a man you look and see the wife and you say I could never be married to her, she would drive me crazy. The wife might say I could never be married to him. I don’t know what she saw in him. Love works differently doesn’t it? We lay down our lives for the brethren. Oh yeah, I’d give my life for them but right now, I’m in the midst of picking them apart so it doesn’t go that way. It can’t go that way!

Now the warning. Now what are the options? Remember, repent and do or else. Amazing, we see the Lord that we love and serve and He is so kind so encouraging. He is not addressing this to be destructive to this church. He’s commended them and He’s told them he is pleased with some of the things they are doing but as you tell your children you love this has to be fixed or else and the or else is always something very serious. Revelation 2:5 “… or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.” All the good things that you are doing are so serious I can’t let you continue on this road. I’ll have to remove your lampstand unless you repent. Repent is the key word because the remembering is to lead to repentance and the repentance lead to doing. If you haven’t really dealt with it in your thinking, you’re just trying to make yourself do something that someone else tells you to do. Repent—repent. Well I’ve remembered, I've thought back to the former days to the love of my devotion to Christ and boy was I excited to be part of a body of believers! People told me this was not good but I don’t want to hear that; I don’t want to hear that. You know this is where the Lord has me. I love Him and I love His people. They are my family; they won’t put up with that.

Now here’s the correction. Revelation 2:6 “Yet this you do have, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans …” We just get done talking about love and now we’re back to hate because you see we’re to have the love that reflects the love of God and that love does not mean we are tolerant of what God does not tolerate. We’re dealing with God’s family here, a church and He hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans. We’ll talk about the deeds of the Nicolaitans in a later church because there’s more detail there and their connected to another group that the Lord hates. You hate what I hate so when I say, “you have left your first love” that doesn’t mean you should stop hating what I hate, being tolerant of what I don’t tolerate. He will deal with that. He is going to deal with a church that is tolerating the deeds of the Nicolaitans in their midst. That brings the wrath of Christ’s judgment on them so be careful. We want to swing from one thing to the other over correcting. No, we stay the course. Remember those early days. Our passion wasn’t to accept false teaching or the unbeliever as a believer; we were consumed with what the gospel had taught us.

Rev. 2:7 To him “who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Better, pay attention. Note this is addressed to the church at Ephesus but every church had better pay attention. Do they have an ear to hear? If you are truly, a believer you listen to what the Spirit says. This isn’t what John has to say to us, it is what the Spirit of God has to say as He moves John to write what the Lord of the church, the Head of the church, Christ has to say. This is a revelation, which God the Father gave to Him to give so this is the Triune God addressing us. To him who overcomes, do you know what that indicates? Not everyone in the church at Ephesus is necessarily and overcomer. We saw in I John. 5 that overcomers are those who have believed in Christ. That’s why I said, you start out with a lie of the devil, he spreads it by his children dressed up as believers, and then believers are caught up in it. It can get confusing.

Revelation 2:7 “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” If you attend every service at the church in Ephesus and you serve there but you are not an overcomer you will not be partaking of the tree of life. We saw that back in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 and that is where we’re going in Revelation chapter 22. If you are not one of those privileged to eat of the tree of life in Revelation 22, you are in the fire which burns with brimstone into the eternity of the eternities, hell. That’s the option so a reminder. Part of the problem can be that the church settles down and does do what it should but is not moved by the love that ought to be controlling it. Then you mix in unbelievers and there are other issues which He will deal with when He is addressing the other churches.

We examine ourselves first, individually, to see how we are doing. Some of you have been believers for forty years and some of you go back to the beginning with me. How are we doing? Do we still have that same enveloping consuming passion, that excitement and thrill we had for Christ and His body of believers? He brought us together and we were growing in strength and strengthening each other. Has anything changed? It shouldn’t have. In fact, it should grow deeper and stronger and we should be more thrilled. You may be part of the problem if you are here and do not have an ear to hear because you are not an overcomer. You have to come the same way we all have come and that is only through faith in Christ. God, I’ve been trying my best to do everything a Christian ought to do but Lord, I don’t have a relationship with You. My sins have never been forgiven. I want to place my faith in Christ and then be a true member of your family. Then I can pour my life and energy into my love for You. ‘

Let’s pray, thank You Lord for the riches of Your word. Thank You for the clarity of this letter to the Ephesians and Lord it is our responsibility as You have clearly told us, to listen, to pay attention, to make the adjustments that should be made so that You might be pleased with us in every way. Pray the Spirit will continue to work in our lives individually and as a church in Christ’s name. Amen.






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