“The 7 Churches and Beyond: Ephesus”
Sunday, March 2, 2025
Revelation 2:1-7 (NIV)
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices 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 give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
Commendation: I know your deeds, your hard work and perseverance… You don’t tolerate wicked men… You have persevered and endured hardships.
Condemnation: You have forsaken your first love.
How serious was this issue?
“If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand…”
Promise: To him who overcomes… will eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God.
Revelation 22:1-3a (NIV)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse…
The Tree of Life: The Plan of God Coming Full Circle!
Genesis 2:8-9 (NIV)
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)
And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Genesis 3:22 (NIV)
And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
I Corinthians 15:51-57 (NIV)
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written [from the prophets of old] will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is our sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden was literal… eat from it, and live. The Tree of Life in the City of Heaven, is symbolic [notice it doesn’t say we eat from it]. At one point in history… the fruit that brings life, was replaced by the Bread of Life.
John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
John 6:51
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
Is it too late?
- “Remember…”
“call to mind”… “think of how it used to be…”
- “Repent…”
“Change your way of thinking!” Make a decision to change!
- “Do the things you did at first.”
“Get back to doing the important things.”