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Ephesus: The Loveless Church

Revelation 2:1-7

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Jesus: …Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.—Revelation 1:11 (ESV)

Jesus: As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.—Revelation 1:20 (ESV)

“mystery” (Greek) = “something formerly secret but now revealed or identified”

“angels” = angelos (Greek) = “messenger”

Jesus: 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 lampstands.”—Revelation 2:1 (ESV)

Heraclitus, “the weeping philosopher,” said the people of Ephesus were “fit only to be drowned and that the reason why he could never laugh or smile was because he lived amidst such terrible uncleanness.”
Jesus: 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 and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.—Revelation 2:2-3 (ESV)

Jesus said he walked “among the seven golden lampstands,” indicating he knew

the situation in each church, including Ephesus.

Jesus also praises them for holding the line against false

, against those who would come into the congregation and try to mislead these early Christians.

¹ Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. ² This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. ³ But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.—1 John 4:1-3 (NLT)

Jesus

the church in Ephesus because they were “enduring patiently and bearing up for [his] name’s sake, and [they had] not grown weary.”

Jesus: Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.—Revelation 2:6 (ESV)
Some Early Church fathers described the Nicolaitans as “a heretical group that taught there was nothing wrong with serving Christ while simultaneously participating in pagan practices.” (Renner)

Christ called his followers to be holy, to live lives that reflected Christ, not the culture, but the Nicolaitans seemed to believe they could do

, and Jesus disagrees.

Jesus didn’t say he hated the Nicolaitans – he hated their “

,” their actions, their beliefs that misled them away from Christ and into the arms of a culture increasingly comfortable with pagan practices.

Jesus: But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.—Revelation 2:4 (ESV)

The “love [Christians] had at first” appears to be that time when a person first realized that Jesus

them from sin and death.

As time goes by, we get busy, busy doing good things, things for Christ, but we’ve started to forget

we do them.

We get so caught up in the machinery of ministry that we

the wonder and awe we felt when we first came to faith in Christ.

Jesus: ⁴¹ …Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, ⁴² but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:41-42 ESV)

It’s not that serving is wrong, but for it to have the right heart, it should grow out of our

, out of our

Reveal Answer

for and

Reveal Answer

to God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus gives us three steps to regain our first love…

Jesus: 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 lampstand from its place, unless you repent.—Revelation 2:5 (ESV)

1. Jesus tells us to “

therefore from where you have fallen.”

2. Jesus tells us to “

.”

• Repent – “to make a change of mind that results in a complete, radical, total change of behavior.” (Rick Renner)
• Repentance is a
  Reveal Answer
  , an act of the will, because we can get caught up in emotions, be swayed by them and ultimately not really mean them, but decisions are intentional.
• Repentance vs. Remorse – displaying deep emotion for wrong behavior, but
  Reveal Answer
  transformation takes place (Rick Renner)
  

3. Jesus tells us to “

the works you did at first.”

John the Baptist: Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. —Matthew 3:8 (NLT)
Jesus: Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.—John 15:4 (NIV11)

When we do good for others out of our first love – loving God and loving our neighbor – then we are inviting the Holy Spirit, who’s living in us, to join in and empower our actions in supernatural, possibly unseen ways, that can change lives

!

Jesus says the answer to

our first love is to remember, repent, and then do!

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.—Revelation 2:7 (ESV)
¹ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never ends.… ¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.—1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, 13 (ESV)

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Next Week: The SEVEN Churches of Revelation: Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11)