06-03-12 To The Church At Ephesus

Rev. 2:1-7 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:

' I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'

This morning we begin

the second of the 3 major sections

of the Book of Revelation.

We begin looking at the seven messages

that Christ gave to seven 1^st century churches.

The section is 2 chapters long,

including all of Revelation chapters 2 and 3.

The entire passage

is a direct quotation from Christ Himself.

Before we take a look at the messages themselves,

we need to talk a little bit

about what’s going on here

and why.

These seven churches were all located in Asia minor,

within less than 150 miles of each other.

Some of them were started personally by the Apostle Paul,

and all of them

could trace their roots back

to the missionary work done by Paul in that region.

The real question that comes up, of course,

is WHY THESE 7?

By the time John received this vision

there were certainly hundreds of groups of believers

spread throughout much of the Roman Empire, and beyond.

Many of them,

like the Colossian church,

and the church at Rome,

and at Thessalonica,

and at Philippi

we know far more about

through other New Testament writings.

So why did the Lord single out

these 7 churches?

There is an approach to these 2 chapters

that is popular in the Christian world right now,

an approach that says these 7 churches

are not really seven churches

but rather 7 chronological historical periods of church history.

Ephesus = The Apostolic era 30-100AD

Smyrna =The Martyrs period 100-313AD

Pergamum = The Credal Church 313-606

Thyatira = The Pagan Church 590-1517

Sardis=The Protestant Church 1517-1648

Philadelphia = The evangelization Period 1648-1918

Laodicea = The Contemporary Professing Church 1919-the Departure/return of Christ.

It makes a great teaching tool,

but I have to admit I have a few problems with it.

1^st of all,

these really were 7 literal churches,

all of which existed just as Christ describes them during what should have been the “Apostolic Era”.

If Christ is really giving us

an historical blueprint

of 2000 years of church history,

then all the churches during the “Apostolic Era” should have looked very much like “Apostolic Era” Churches.

And yet they don’t.

In 90 A.D.,

seven churches existing

within a few miles of each other

were already spread across the entire spectrum of historical ‟types”.

The second problem I have with this “seven historical eras” approach

concerns the way it tends to affect us

when we read these 2 chapters.

If I were to stand up here

and tell you these 7 churches

are really 7 historical periods,

and we are now living in the 7^th period,

what’s the first thing you want to do?

Why waste time on these 1^st six?

Lets flip over to #7 and see the stuff that’s relevant to us.

A third problem I have with this 7 era approach

is that it blends a little too well

with our American arrogance

that always seems to assume

that we are the real center

of God’s work in the world.

I certainly agree that the 7^th church

shows striking similarities

to much of the Christian scene in the United States today.

But there are Christians

in other parts of the world right now

who are experiencing tremendous persecution for their faith.

And, if we were to tell them that

God’s special word for them right now is that “you are neither cold nor hot,

and because you are only lukewarm,

and spiritually wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,

God is going to spew you out of His mouth”...

I think they would be shocked.

I’ll tell you where I’ve ended up with what I see happening in these 7 churches.

Obviously the Lord selected just these 7 churches

for a specific reason.

Each one of these churches has its own unique personality,

with its own unique set of problems

and challenges.

I believe the Lord selected these 7 churches

because every local body that has ever existed

can find itself mirrored in one of these 7.

But, just as all seven of them existed

in 90 AD when John received this vision,

so all seven exist today.

In fact, not only are these 7 churches

symbolic of other churches

throughout history,

they are also representative

of each of us as individual Christians.

We can find every one of these seven churches

represented in the lives of individual believers within our own little church.

In the most remarkable way

the Lord carefully selected

those fellowships that allowed Him

to help us see ourselves

at any given time in our own personal pilgrimage with Him.

As we go through these

I do not want us to flip to church #7

because we are suppose to be in the 7^th era of church history

to see what God has to say to us.

I want us to listen carefully

to what He has to say to each church,

and to each individual,

and to hear what those words may have to say to us.

The first message from the Lord

is sent to a church we know well -

the church at Ephesus.

We know it first through the Book of Acts chapter 18

which records Paul’s work in

establishing the church there.

Then we know it

through the letter Paul wrote to this church

that we now have preserved as the Book of Ephesians.

It was a church that had been well grounded by Paul

and Apollos,

and Aquila and Priscilla.

In fact, at one point

after leaving Ephesus,

Paul had Timothy stay behind

to organize and establish the young church there.

The book that we now know as 1^st Timothy

was written by Paul to Timothy

while Timothy was at Ephesus.

In that letter Paul outlined the basics

of church government and leadership.

This group of believers

understood the true nature of the Church

as few others did.

They had been exposed to the best teaching in the Body of Christ on the subject.

And the strength that their knowledge had built into them

is evident in the first words Christ speaks to them:

Rev. 2:1-3 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.”

Sounds like a wonderful church, doesn’t it?

And in many ways it was.

It was clearly a church

that had tremendous strength,

and depth,

and understanding.

It was a church that had deep roots,

roots that sank way down

into solid, unshakable truth.

This was no emotion-based fling.

Christ praises them for at least 7 qualities.

He praises them for their deeds,

for their toil,

twice he mentions their perseverance,

they have no toleration for evil men,

they test and reject false religious leaders,

they have shown great endurance,

and they have not grown weary.

That’s strength, folks.

That kind of strength and durability in the Christian life

comes from only one place -

it comes from knowing the truth.

It comes from chewing,

and wrestling,

and brooding,

and thinking,

and churning,

and agonizing your way through to answers.

It is impossible to “commit” our way into stability in the Christian life.

It is impossible to “feel” our way

into stability in the Christian life.

Paul said it so well in Romans 12:2:

Rom. 12:2 And ... be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

And the Ephesian Church

had that kind of stability and strength.

They had learned to think

consistent with the truth.

But then the Lord continues His message:

Rev. 2:4-5 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

You have left your first love...

Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

2 Cor. 11:3 But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

Knowing the truth

had become more important to these believers

than knowing their Lord.

Ever known a church like that?

Every Bible is marked and underlined.

Charts and diagrams

are tucked in all over the place.

Doctrine is king.

Knowing the TRUTH

is the great goal of the Christian life.

Every sermon

and every class is packed full

of more content than the human mind could process in a year.

And the answers are GOOD.

The truth is well organized

and well presented

and absolutely consistent

with the best Bible study techniques.

It seems as though

the last serious Biblical doubt

the man in the pulpit had

was at age 14

when he ran into a little trouble

explaining the trinity.

And the people’s lives seem to be working.

Marriages are staying together,

and sound principles of life

are being applied.

But when you walk in the door

you learn real fast

that this is not a place where a person is allowed to hurt,

or to heal slowly,

or to express doubts.

This is a place where a person comes for just one reason TO LEARN THE TRUTH.

Ever known a Christian like that?

He has an answer for every question,

a Bible verse for every need.

He lives and breathes the truth,

but it is a truth

that always has an edge of criticism

and judgement

and condemnation.

You come away feeling

corrected,

but never comforted.

Ever been there yourself?

I’ll tell you,

I sure have -

so full of the truth,

and so blind to what my Lord

was really wanting me to see

in myself

and in the lives of those around me.

The Church at Ephesus fell victim

to the same subtle,

deadly deception that has plagued Christians for the past 2000 years.

They began to believe that they had been called by God

to confront their world with the TRUTH.

They were just a half a bubble off.

They had not been called

to present the TRUTH to their world,

they had been called to present

the LORD JESUS CHRIST to their world.

Once a person submits to Christ,

Christ will bring the truth with Him.

But simply presenting THE TRUTH

generates a self-righteous arrogance

that can actually drive people away from our King.

It doesn’t mean we compromise

our own commitment to truth

and moral integrity personally.

But it does mean

we recognize that, just like our Lord,

John 3:17 ... God did not send (us) into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Christ.

Christ’s words to the church are clear:

‟Come back to Me,

or I will remove your lampstand.”

In other words,

you may continue to exist as a group,

but you will lose your ability to draw people into the light,

to give them direction in their darkness,

to bathe their spirits in the only thing that has ever been able to give the human spirit hope and healing - the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And having said that,

it would not be right to move on

without offering some guidance

in how, at the personal level,

we can move from presenting the truth

to presenting the King.

I’m a Bible teacher.

Most of my adult life

has been invested in the presentation of ideas...truth about our God.

I certainly fully understand the sense of security

that comes from building a personal belief system

that is founded upon the truth our God gives us in His Word.

But I will also say

that I see things very differently now

than I did in my early years.

And the changes within me

have come most of all

because of those things that have caused me pain.

At those times when I have hurt

what I found myself longing for most of all

was not the right answer,

what I longed for was a living God

who could hold my spirit close to His own,

and give me the strength to get up in the morning and make it through one day at a time,

and the hope and assurance

that He would carry me through until the pain was gone.

And now I find that what I want to pass on to others most of all

is that same assurance

that He’s there and He loves and He will carry you through.

I mention this simply because

if we are clinging to our ideas for our hope

rather than clinging to our God,

the only thing I’ve ever found that has the ability to break the power of that deception

is the intrusion of pain into our lives.

Well, our Lord then follows this call with one added word of affirmation:

Rev. 2:6 'Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Christ mentions the Nicolaitans twice in these two chapters -

once here,

and once in His comments to the church at Pergamum.

The truth is, we don’t know much about this group.

The actual word means literally, ‟to conquer the people”,

and may imply the roots of the whole ‟clergy” ‟laity” concept

that has been so destructive

within the Body of Christ.

There are other historical references

that suggest it was a group

that encouraged idol worship

and denied that God was the Creator,

and other doctrinal heresies.

We really don’t know.

All we do know

is that what they believed

was in sharp contrast to Scripture,

and Christ praised the Ephesians

for their strong stand against them.

The Lord then ends

with a call and a promise:

Rev. 2:7 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.'

As we move through these 7 churches

we will see the Lord closing His comments to each of them

with a promise to “He who overcomes..”

They are promises given by Christ

to each of us,

promises that recognize that we are in a battle right now,

a battle that matters more than we could ever imagine,

but a battle that will not last forever.

To the Ephesians,

Christ says simply,

“My people come back to Me.

Come back to ME,

and the time will come when the battle will end,

and I will grant to you to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God,

and we will be together forever.