Revelation 2:1-7

Good morning, Saylorville! If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning you can find the book of Revelation, the last book in your Bible and the second chapter, Revelation chapter 2, as we continue in this series Unveiled. And we look at the letter… from Jesus to the church at Ephesus.

As we get going this morning, I’d like to tell you about an email I got back in early May. It actually came in on Thursday. I didn’t open it until just before church on Sunday, because I’d seen it. It looked like spam to me so I didn’t open it, and then I did open it, and when I started reading it, I realized this was… I couldn’t believe who it was! It was from a woman who had abandoned her first love for Christ some 20 years earlier… And my thought was, “Where is this thing going?”

And speaking of going, the church at Ephesus was a “going” church!  I mean, they were clicking on all cylinders, commendable in a myriad of ways! Actually the myriad is delineated by Jesus Himself. We”ll see it in a few moments. I mean they had everything. If you were to choose one of the churches from a comprehensive approach to church and church life and how they’re doing it, you’d almost go, ‘I’m going with Ephesus!’ — Except… they had one flaw. The problem is it was a fatal flaw, and it was the kind of flaw that will kill every church in every generation including this one, if it doesn’t get fixed.

And so with that, let’s read… Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2:1-7

1“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands.“

(Just stop there for a moment. If you were with us last week, you know, these symbols were interpreted by Jesus Himself at the end of chapter one. He told us that… that angel, the “angel” means “messenger.” So he’s probably the pastor of each one of these seven churches. And the stars are held in the hand of Jesus. These are those pastors being held in possession of Jesus, so to speak. And “the golden lamp stands,” those are “the churches themselves.” That’s the most important thing you need to remember about this message and this text. The lamp stands are the churches themselves. And with that, verse two)

2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

3 I know you are enduring patiently…” (By the way, it’s interesting to me that endurance is mentioned not once or twice here)

“and bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” (and you can hear the but coming a mile away, can’t you?)

4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.

6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

Now we’re… beginning in earnest a study of the seven churches, seven real churches in real time, in a real place they were in, what we know as Asia Minor, modern day Turkey… seven churches. Jesus addresses all seven of them. Many Bible expositors believe that these seven churches actually are representative of the seven epochs or seven times throughout church history, the eras of church history. In other words, the first church is Ephesus. That would represent the first century church. And the last church of Laodicea, the luke-warm church, that would represent today. And there’s something to do that… some of you may actually believe that. That doesn’t hurt the text. In fact, I think it’s fascinating! I don’t necessarily agree, but it’s interesting. In my 40 years of bearing down on this book, I’ve concluded in my understanding that these seven churches represent the seven kinds of churches that have existed in every epic, in every era. In other words, there have always been loveless churches. There’s always been persecuted churches. There’s always been worldly churches. There’s always been compromising churches. There’s always been dead churches. There’s always been evangelistic churches. And there’s always been lukewarm churches. In fact, I would even expand that. I think that these seven churches are somewhat representative of every church and the people within every church. And that makes sense to me too. There’s always been… some of you who are loveless, spiritually speaking. Some of you have experienced some persecution, probably not your life being in jeopardy, but there are… the church has millions of people whose lives are in jeopardy in certain places of the world, but you’re persecuted in some way. Some of you are worldly. Some of you are compromising. Some of you are just dead. Some of you are evangelistic. You’re trying to reach people for Jesus, and some of you can’t figure out which way is up, and you are lukewarm. Either way, we have scripture that, sort of, is like the glue that pulls all scripture together.

2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out (inspired) by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.“

And as long as that is in the Bible, then this is important to study. Amen?

And so we’re looking at the city, and more importantly, the church at Ephesus. Ephesus was a major metropolitan city in that day. 200,000 plus people in this city in the first century. It was right down the Aegean Sea. It silted up over the years, so it’s not so much on the sea anymore, but it was then, and it was a … hot bed for tourism. In fact, today, if you visit the archaeological site as I have, it is one of the most stunning things you’ve ever walked around! Here’s the walkway that you could still walk right through and see where the shops were and all these  places. They’ve even got a little place where… with the footprint that points all the guys to the place of prostitution. I mean, this city was wild and it was like, it was like the Las Vegas, the San Francisco of that day. It was incredibly sinful, incredibly immoral. In fact, the city had, it’s no longer around, but it had the temple to Diana or Artemis. And this might have been what it looked like.  This thing was four times the size of the Parthenon! So it was actually considered one of the seven wonders of the world! And it was a free city. So the Romans, whatever, they would declare a city free, it just meant the Romans were still over it. It just meant they weren’t harassing it. They weren’t standing at every corner. They let them do their thing. As long as they weren’t causing any trouble, the Romans wouldn’t cause any friction. And so that made it a great city for evangelism. And so the apostle Paul spent much of his time in the school of Tyrannus, in fact the facade of which still exists!

And it was out of this school that Paul started the church! Now just down the road is the amphitheater. We were there too!

It’s amazing! And that is actually recorded in Acts 19 where the church begins. You can read it for yourself… Not now. But that’s where Paul plants the church. That’s where the riot breaks out, if you’ll recall. And so really, he was in this city. Paul was in the city of Ephesus when he wrote to the Corinthians. And he told the Corinthians at the very end of First Corinthians, he said, ‘Look, I’m going to stay in Ephesus, because a great and effective door has been wide open to me. There are a lot of adversaries, but I’m sticking around,’ and he did stick around. He never stayed longer than he did in Ephesus… three years.

And it was 30 years ago that Paul had planted this church. Remember that… 30 years ago! And it only took 30 years for that fatal flaw to sneak in. On top of that, John, who’s writing this, I mean John is sort of Jesus’s amanuensis. He’s like the guy doing the dictation here. John is on Patmos. Remember that? He’s been exiled to Patmos which is 15 miles away from Ephesus. It might as well have been a thousand… and we’re told in Revelation 1:9 why…

Revelation 1:9, “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.“

For the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, why anyone will ever suffer in any era; for your stand on the word of God and your testimony for Jesus. So… there’s your backdrop, There’s your city, the church at Ephesus.

And what I want to share with you today is the church of Ephesus was a Blessed church, incredibly blessed church! In fact, all you’ve gotta do is go over to the book of Ephesians to see that. I’m gonna put it up there for you. But so, this was written 30 years earlier. Remember that. So look what Paul says;

Ephesians 1:3-7

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (what?) blessing (see the repetition of blessing?) in the heavenly places,

4 even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love

5 He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will,

6 to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has (what?) blessed us in the Beloved.

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace…”

You skip down a few verses…

Ephesus 1:15-17

verse 15, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and (your what?) your love toward all the saints,

16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him,

In fact, in the next chapter, you just have to listen out. I think we’re not going to put it up there for you. And chapter three, when Paul is sort of just recognizing all that they have in the mystery of the faith, he says,

Ephesus 3:14-19

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

16 that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded (watch this) in love,

18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This was a Blessed church, and you notice my purposeful emphasis on the love? There’s a lot of love flowing through the veins of the Ephesian Christians… 30 years ago!

How many of you are next generation Christians? — I mean you’re second, third or fourth generation? Raise your hand if you’re second or third or fourth generation. There’s a lot of you there. You are blessed! You are crazy blessed! Do you realize that? But the veneration of the next generation is not automatic. Remember this was… in Ephesians, this was just 30 years earlier… 30 years! Love for Christ… listen to this… love for Christ does not deepen automatically with every generation… but it should! When difficulty or tragedy occur in our lives, that’s when our faith is either confirmed or denied. And this truth was brought home to me very powerfully just the other day.

I was at a coffee shop, and I was outside studying, and there was a man, I recognized him but I didn’t… ‘I should know him, but maybe I don’t know him.’ And he wasn’t looking at me and I wasn’t looking him, so I’ll let him do his thing, and I’ll do mine. And about 20 minutes later, he gets up and he walks by me and he greets me by name. In fact, he says, “Have a great day, Pastor Nemmers.” And I looked up. So then I thought, “I don’t know you do. I should know you.” And we started talking, and he introduced himself, and he’s been coming here for a while. And I got to know him. I got to know a little bit about him, a little bit about his family. And then he told me about the tragedy that occurred in his family. The tragedy itself arrested me! But what really drew me in, and why I’m sharing this with you, is what he told me how the love

of God informed him in his tragedy. His one and a half year old grandson was killed through gross negligence. The individual is serving time as a result. As he shared this heartbreaking story with me, and he gave me permission to share this, as he shared his heartbreaking story with me, he shared how the knowledge of God’s love had informed his broken heart. In fact, here’s how he put it.

“As I watched my grandson die, I would have done anything…” and then he hesitated as I was welling up in tears, “anything to save him! — But I couldn’t. The doctors couldn’t. None of us had the ability to save him. And then, in my grief I thought of the love of God, who watched His own Son die, who had the ability to save Him, but chose, out of His love for me, not to do so. And my faith was strengthened.” Man at a coffee shop

That is a blessed man! That is a blessed man! — In tragedy, caught up in the love of God!

Now, sadly for these Ephesians, their blessedness had given way to busyness, and this is gonna relate to some of you. Or shall I say some of you will relate to this. Blessedness replaced by busyness. The Ephesian church was a blessed church and they were a busy church and Jesus knew it! In fact, he says so. Look at verse two.

Revelation 2:2,  “I know your works.”

He uses the word “know.” It’s not the normal word. It’s a different word. It’s a word, “oida,” It means “to know.” It carries the idea of mentally seeing someone, really seeing inside of them and what’s making them tick. It’s like having a friend that you’re trying, you know, you had something happen in your life and you’re trying to describe what happened to your friend, and your friend says, ‘I get what you mean!’ And you kind of go, ‘Oh!’ I mean, it’s relieving ’cause it’s sort of hard to explain an experience. Right? But your friend gets ya. That’s what’s going on here. Jesus is saying, “I know.” And it would be enough for Him to just stop right there and say, “I know,” ’cause we know Jesus knows! Amen? He is the omniscient God! Amen? But He doesn’t stop there. He delineates what He knows, but before He does that, He says,

“I know your works,” And in verse 1 it says, ‘I’m the one who walks around the lamp stands. I’m the one walking. The word carries the idea of something circular… something you’re walking around, and the lamp stands are the churches.

Did any of you ever have a teacher that would walk around while you were taking a test? I hated that! — because I was such a cheater! (congregation laughing) And the teacher kind of wove around, and I’d be paralyzed by the notes I’m hiding and whatever else.” Now the good kids were never scared ’cause they weren’t cheating! Jesus is walking around here and some of you are cheating — And He knows!

So… remember we don’t worship Jesus as if he were here. We worship him because He IS here! And in verses two and three, down in verse six, he delineates what He knows.

Revelation 2:2, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.”

That word, “toil,” the Greek word means “to toil unto exhaustion.”

I talked to a guy, a friend of mine just the other day. He was cutting down trees at a farm. He cut down a whole bunch of them. He had this other guy with him. When he got done, he goes, “I was just drenched in sweat and just talking about how exhausted I was, and the other guy the next day goes, “I’m not exhausted.” — because he’d been sitting in his air conditioned tractor! But Jesus is saying, ‘I know you’re working your tail off, you’re so busy!

“…your patient endurance,” — he mentions it twice. You’ve tested the bad guys and you kicked them out! He mentions the Nicolaitans. We don’t even know who these guys were. I mean, some people think they were the first, the early form of what we know today is Roman Catholicism. And to be honest, I think we’re going to have to find some archaeological discoveries someday to find out who these guys are. We know this. Jesus hated them! ‘Glad you do, too!’ — He says. So, we don’t like them either. Okay? And He says you do it all,

“for my name’s sake.” (Revelation 2:3) So there’s a lot of good stuff going on here! They were doctrinally sound. Every cog was working. Everything was going systematically. They were just humming! A lot to commend here! And notice Revelation 2:3b, “and you’ve not grown weary.” So what a shout against the woke culture of our day. Like, ‘Oh, this is so hard.’ Not these people! ‘Give me another job. Give me another task. I’m all in!’ Bottom line is, they were busy. Really busy!

In fact, I was there. I was at this very archaeological site at the School of Tyrranus, and I was …rummaging around in the archives, and I found a letter. I found a scroll, a scroll written, a scroll that was written by the messenger of this church to go to John on the island of Patmos. Let me read it to you here. This is what it says here. Doesn’t it unroll nicely? ‘John, praise the Lord! Despite your exile, the church is strong! We have all kinds of ministry going on. We’re feeding the poor, widows, men’s and women’s ministries are hummin’! And we’ve got a big youth ministry too! We even came up with an evangelistic idea for “Diana Days!” Remember how the idol worshipers always carry around those little Diana statuettes? We’ve made one of Jesus! We’re going to hand them out during that day… Boom, Shaka Laka!’ (Can’t believe that’s in there!) ‘Great gospel opportunities! Speaking of which, we’ve organized a wrestling team! You know, that’s the greatest sport of all time!’ (Show a little respect for our letter!) ‘We’ll compete against the city teams this winter. And you’d be proud of our deacons. They can spot a heretic a mile away! A group from a cult tried to join us recently. They drop kicked them right out of the church! All said, our energy level is still high, so be cool! Out.’

Busy church! So that’s what they were. They were busy. They were working. They were serving. They were dealing with evil. They only had one fatal flaw… Truth without love. They were like a bad Uber driver. You ever had one of those?

My wife and I had one a couple months ago. It was late at night, so we got one to come home. And I mean, the car wreaked! — Absolutely wreaked! And so did the driver! But he had the destination down. We got home, couldn’t wait to get home! (Holding his nose!)

This church was like a bad Uber driver! Can you imagine being in one… you know… they type in the destination, then they’re just ripping through, they’re cutting through lights, careening around corners, or flying all over the place… but they get to the destination… only to discover that their passenger jumped out three lights earlier!

That Uber driver is like a church that has truth without love. ‘We got the truth! We preach the truth! We stand for the truth! We know truth’s destination!’ — But in the process of getting there, we’re losing passengers! The late Warren Wiersbe said,

“Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” Warren Wiersbe

And Jesus is saying to the church at Ephesus, ‘Stop it or you’re done!‘ And that was Ephesus! — and they didn’t stop it… so they were blessed, they were busy and they were… busted! Look at verse 4 and 5 again.

Revelation 2:4-5

4 “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

The first word is “but.” In Greek it’s… not your normal word, it’s a different word. We call it a strong adversity. “BUT…!’ It’s like… raising your voice here. Okay?

“But I have this against you, you’ve abandoned, (what a word! It means “to send away.” It’s actually, it’s a form of how we get our word “forgive” out of this word. You’ve abandoned your first love. And just as Jesus has put the hammer down on them, notice that HIS love comes out!) Look at verse 5.

5 Remember…” (and this is Jesus talking here. Remember) “therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did (at the beginning or) at first.”

(“Remember from where you have fallen.” The word “fallen” literally means “to drop away” or “to drop off.” Have you ever had that conversation with somebody where he said, “Hey, I haven’t seen so and so for a while. Have you seen her?” And the other says, “No, I think she sort of dropped off.” And Jesus would say, “She’s fallen.” And what do you do when somebody falls? You go pick them up! Amen? So, remember from where you’ve fallen…Repent!

Let’s go back to this. I want you to look at this. I want you to look at that phrase. “Remember from where you have fallen.” Just look at that for a moment, because, to me, this is the most important line in the process of restoration! To those of you, and you know who you are, who have abandoned your first love, or at very least it’s waning, It’s not what it was, and this is the most important line in the process of restoration. Why? — Because “remember,” that takes you back to a point of reference. There’s something that had happened. It didn’t happen overnight, but there was a moment. It might have been that tragedy. It might have been that disappointment. It might have been something that you didn’t get some expectation met. But there is some point in time where everything started to change. It started… it started to change. And so Jesus says, “Remember from where you have fallen.”

By the way, this is the greatest counseling directive found anywhere in the Bible! The greatest counseling directive found anywhere in the Bible. “Remember from where you have fallen.” “Repent.” That means “to change your thinking,” “turn,” “forsake and return.” Do the first works. Go back. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. “Remember from where you have fallen.”Someone has said,

“Paths lead to places.” Unknown

And that’s where the victory has to take place. That’s where your fights, that’s where your struggle of faith, that’s where your love for God is won or lost. It’s not in the place. If you’re in “the place,” you’ve lost! You gotta get the victory while you’re on the path, because that’s what took you to the place. And some of you are there right now. And so Jesus says, “Remember, repent and return.”

Remember that letter we started off with that I received back in early May? With her permission, Here’s an excerpt from that letter I got just before I came to church.

“I’ve been listening to the Saylorville sermons every day. A couple of them really hit me. They really hit home. I would talk to you face to face, but I’m not the best at words, and I still cry immediately when it comes to matters of the heart. Today I listened to a sermon on forgiveness. I know it’s been nearly 20 years, but if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I know I don’t deserve it, but I have to start somewhere. I can tell you, God has broken me.”

And in the sermon that she heard, I wasn’t preaching through this text, but I alluded to it, because you can’t beat the outline for getting back with God, getting right with God, for falling away from the love of God. Remember, repent and return. She goes,

“I’ll never forget that outline because I have! I did remember! I have repented! And I have returned!“

Excerpt from the email Pastor Pat received

And today I can tell you, she’s one more “R.” She’s been restored!

So, I really have visited Ephesus, all jokes aside on the fictitious letter. But look at verse 5 again, because in the middle of it after He gives this beautiful, loving exhortation, “remember, repent return,” he says,

Revelation 2:5, “If not, (that is, if you don’t) I will come to you (You don’t come to me. I’m coming to you! I will come to you) and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.”

I’ve been to Ephesus. There’s no church there. Thirty years after it was planted, they’d abandoned their first love. And today there is not a scintilla of evidence that it ever existed! They never returned to love Jesus so, as promised, Jesus returned to them… and removed them!

Some of you here today would acknowledge in your heart that you don’t love Jesus as you once did. Some of you have flat out abandoned your love for Jesus. It’s just not there! You have His loving exhortation, “Remember! Repent! Return!” — and if you didn’t get it, Jesus asks you to get it! And the very, verse seven,

Revelation 2:7, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

He who has ears to hear, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches!’ — which begs the question, Are you listening? Some of you are still dead in your trespasses and sins. You’ve never loved Jesus, but He loves you! Why not receive that love? He died and rose again for you. Acknowledge your deadness. Repent of your sin, and place your faith in Him. — And for the rest of you, know this. If you today will rediscover the love of God, will allow the love of God to inform your life and whatever you’ve gone through and you come back to Him, — Remember! Repent! Return! — then the last verse says,

Revelation 2:7b, “… to the one who conquers. (and you always conquer when you have faith in Jesus, right? The one who conquers) I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

The tree of life! Remember that? Adam and Eve? Tree of life? God took it away. It’s coming back! It’s gonna be in heaven in the Paradise of God! And those of us who are there will enjoy all the eternal nutrients! Hey, let’s meet under there for a snack someday.

Father in heaven, as we wrap this up, I just wanna pray over this group and those who are watching online right now in prayer about your love or lack of love for Jesus. Some of you don’t know Jesus. You’ve never loved Him. Would you repent and believe the gospel right now? —Believe Jesus died and rose for you, and trust Him right now as your Savior? You need a time to do that. There needs to be a time when you’re born again. And speaking of time, there needs to be a recognition that there was a time where you did. Those of you who know Jesus, but you abandoned your first love, you remember, there was that point of reference, and I don’t know what it was for you. For some of you it was just lack of discipline and you just drifted, just not there anymore or it’s barely there. For some of you it was a tragedy like this man, but he didn’t lose his love for you, Lord, because he was informed by your love. And those of you who, whether it was a tragedy or some really hard disappointment, I get it. I have had situations in my life, Lord, where I’ve had to question the level of my own love. Still do from the time of time, and I remember and I repent and I return. If that’s you, dear friend, here’s something I’d ask you to do, especially those of you who can point back to some circumstance in your life, some really bad experience. Some of you… your spouse left you. Some of you have had some death in your life, like this brother. Some an expectation that was just ripped away, and it affected you and not in a good way, and since then, you have just struggled with resentment and anger and bitterness. Would you remember? Would you repent? And would you return to the love of God right now? Some of you are really busy. Oh, you’re doing all kinds of things, and mostly for the right reasons, but not because you love Jesus. And that makes it hard. It doesn’t make it fun. It doesn’t make it joyful. Even if you’re busy. Do you remember when you used to do all those things you’re doing now, but you did it because you love Jesus and it was a lot more joy and a lot easier to do and you’re ready to get right back at it? And that it’s not there right now because you’re doing stuff, but it’s not because you love God. You’ve abandoned that. Would you acknowledge that? Would you seek forgiveness right now and say, ‘Lord, I remember. Lord, I repent. Lord, I return to You.’ And isn’t it wonderful that Jesus is there waiting for you to return? — And then we’ll all just have a snack under that Tree someday and take in all of its eternal nutrients and the healing that goes along with it as we revel in the unveiled Jesus Christ, for it’s in His name we pray. Amen. Let’s stand. [Music]