We're going to turn this morning to Revelation chapter 2, and consider the church in Ephesus. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord, the first seven verses of Revelation chapter 2. 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 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 i know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and have not grown weary but i have this against you that you have abandoned the love that you had at first. 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. Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. It is shocking to open up Revelation right at the beginning of these addresses to the churches and find Christ exposing the fact that overall his churches were not in very good condition right out of the gates in the first century and that might be a little bit shocking to us. Maybe it has a strange kind of comfort for us because we see the church in such mess today and we wonder if the Lord is still abiding and caring for his church. Things weren't good in the first century. They were in major struggle in the first century. And many had become so wearied by the problems. It's similar to today where people get very wearied by the problems in the church, and they say, well, what good is the church anymore? Why do we really even need the church anymore? That's kind of been the spirit that has prevailed today in the church because there has been so much struggle, so much turmoil, so much fighting, so many splits. I mean, we can continue to go right down the line with all of the problems, can't we? This was the first century, and there was real discouragement already in the first century in the hearts and lives of God's people because of certain problems going on in the life of the church. And the Lord was sending this circulating letter called Revelation, which was designed to be his answer to their struggles, his final word to them to carry on and to patiently endure, to be faithful, even if it meant unto death, which is a hard message to receive. And so these messages from Christ were designed to let them know that he was with them, that he knew their struggles, that he knew them intimately, that he was among them, walking among the churches, if you will, and that they were to carry on without compromise in the mission and the mandate that he had given to them. What really moves me this morning is where our Lord begins, with what kind of church he begins with. If I were critiquing churches today, where would I start? Where would you start? Where would we go in looking, okay, what's a true church and what's a false church and where would I begin? Well, I have to admit, I would probably go after what I perceive are churches that are being reckless, that have done nothing but make the church of Jesus Christ into a business and have trampled the truth underfoot and have compromised the scriptures and have turned the things into a circus. That's probably where I would begin. That's where I would start. And then I would probably at some point get around to looking at our own church. point out a few things that I think we could improve? It would probably be rather soft, wouldn't it? I mean, that's the whole tendency when you look at these churches. Well, it's interesting that right up at the beginning, Christ addresses something and does something in the seven churches, in this study of the seven churches, that really is shocking. The church that everyone looked at and thought, church in the community is a pillar of orthodoxy. This church is a church that is fighting vigorously for the truth. It is full of workers in the kingdom. It is full of those who are very committed that seems to be the most faithful church. Something had happened in the life of this church and Christ says it. You'll notice right in the heart of this little address that this church had left its first love. Would you ever dream that you could form a church that was very strong doctrinally, most active in good works, faithful and enduring, and yet face the threat that Christ himself was going to remove the lampstand from this church? Its light was going to go out. Meet Ephesus. Meet Ephesus. And I picked this today because I thought, I love the study in the churches of Revelation. Since I was sick, I didn't have just the time to do with the Psalms, and so I wanted to go back to something that was quite familiar to me. And this one on the churches of Revelation always stood out to me the most. I was always struck by this one. This one is very important for us to study, and today I want to look at this with you. What each of these letters does is it takes something that was described of Christ in the opening vision, and it puts it up front to really address the problem that was going on in the church. And in Ephesus, right at the beginning, we're getting an insight into the problem. Christ begins by raising to the forefront that he is walking among his churches, the lampstands. in Ephesus here. And the thing that comes out, it's really moving, is because from their perspective or the community's perspective with Ephesus, it would have been unthinkable that this church would have had a problem. This church, Ephesus. And Christ is reminding them of his presence. I know very intimately what's happening in your church, the Lord is saying. I see what's going on in the heart of your church. Christ sees this in the heart of all of the churches that bear his name. He knows them. He knows the spirit of that church. He knows the mentality of the church. He sees what's going on in the life of the church. Now, let me set the stage a little bit as to where this church sat. Ephesus was a city that sat right on the Mediterranean Sea. Its harbor looked over it. It was one of the strongest places of business and prosperity for Rome. The citizens called it the metropolis of Asia. It sat right on a major highway and a trade route that went right into Rome. Exports and trade because of this seaport made it a very important spot for Rome and a very desirable place to live. In fact, the city itself housed one of the greatest theaters with a seating capacity of 25,000 people. It had everything in Ephesus. You had Roman baths. You had gymnasiums. The sports were huge. They had a major state-of-the-art jogging track. They had a massive civic center. This was a state-of-the-art city for the day. Ephesus. The most important thing it housed right outside of the city gates was a massive temple to the goddess Diana or Artemis of the Ephesians. You remember this because this is where in the book of Acts Paul got in trouble. And I want to give you a sense of what the city was like. Remember Demetrius the silversmith had been making these shrines to the goddess Diana and Paul condemned the whole thing as as idolatrous and we remember what happened in in Acts chapter 21 this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that they are not gods which are made with hands so not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship. Get a sense for how idolatrous this environment was? It was a very idolatrous city. When they heard this, we read, they were full of wrath and cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord. They had a massive riot. You can only imagine what the city thought of the Christians. We know Timothy had pastored there for a time. John himself pastored there before being banished to Patmos. But you'll remember that Paul had taught there for three years, warning them with tears day and night that savage wolves would come in, not sparing the flock. And that these Ephesian elders were to guard. They were to defend. So you're getting a sense of what the ministry was like. This church was hit with a lot of doctrinal attack. So here is Christ, and he's giving this letter saying, I'm walking, I see what's going on among, in the heart of your church. I'm observing it. What did he see? Well, he starts by way of commendation, doesn't he? And what does he say up front? There's three areas that he commends. Look at verse 2. I know your works, your labor. What does it say? 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 what an amazing statement isn't it i know that you're enduring patiently verse 3 and bearing up for my name's sake and have not grown weary that's a pretty strong commendation from our lord i'm moved by that commendation it's not the kind of thing that we put at the forefront today when we commend a church is it the strongest commendation i come across, actually. I would be the happiest pastor possible if this was said of the Escondido URC. Our Lord would look down and say, this is what I see in the Escondido URC. Did you see what Christ commends here? Their works. They labor as a body for his namesake. They haven't grown weary in doing that. They haven't lost sight of that. It was a busy church. It was a healthy church in many respects. People were involved in the life of this church. The poor were being cared for, if you will. Catechism was happening for the youth. Members were serving one another. It was a beautiful thing. There was a lot of involvement in the life of this church. And in some sense, I think you're getting a sense here of the real reputation of this church in the community. The reputation of Ephesus was amazing. All the churches knew that the church in Ephesus was budding with involvement. Strike you? I've seen churches where you can't get people to do anything. And that's not a healthy thing. I remember one church where the people were so lazy, the pastor was cleaning the toilets. That wasn't Ephesus. They break the rule that only 10% of the people do 90% of the work. I mean, it's sad. That's a statistic, isn't it? Not Ephesus. Industrious church. And the amazing thing is the endurance. They weren't weary in this. I see all of that, says the Lord. and i believe this uh this kind of involvement and this kind of active service pleases the lord more than we'll ever know and it's something that we as a church should give ourselves to it's something that we in the as the body of christ in this place should love and see it as a great privilege to be involved in the life of his kingdom when every member as corinthians says does it share? Beautiful thing. And then what does Christ say? Notice verse 2. I know that you cannot bear those who are evil. What a statement. This church was not growing weary in exposing lifestyles and ways of living that were ungodly and in direct conflict with scripture you know how hard that was in this environment i was reading a historical study of ephesus not too long ago and it was fascinating what i came across and going through the records and what they said about this city did you know what happened in ephesus these temples that they had up, especially this one for Artemis or Diana, had become asylums for people who were committing awful sins, breaking the law. And so what would happen in the society was people would do all sorts of wicked or perverse things, and then they could avoid the consequences of breaking the law by fleeing into these temples and coming under the places of worship. One of the last temples of asylum was this one of artemis or diana in ephesus and the temple sat under in the temple sat a large palm tree and right before that palm tree was a cult statue and so what began to happen was anyone committing terrible breakings of the law in ephesus would flee to the tree in the altar and they would be absolutely beyond the consequences of the law. What do you think began to happen in the mindsets of the people? You were incrementally lowering the standards of morality through the removal of consequence. There were no consequences to actions. And so everything was being tolerated under the sun in Ephesus. This was the first century Greco-Roman environment. Listen to Christ. i commend you i commend you you can't bear that stuff you don't endure you can't put up with you don't put up with that kind of behavior you see what jesus is saying i'm on your side on this i'm on your side on this the church was unwavering in standing uh against and condemning behaviors that God's Word did. They were an intolerant church and a tolerant culture. That's Ephesus. This is a challenge today, isn't it? You see the challenge that we face in the church today? How difficult is it to maintain anymore the standards of the Bible when everything is being legalized under the sun that is directly against basic morality? It's a big challenge, isn't it? And the church feels the pressure to become more and more mute and allowing all of this. Let me read 1 Corinthians 6. How well does the church do with this anymore? Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of god are we bold to say that anymore or do you already feel when i read that a kind of shrinking back because we know what society has pushed on us and is it hard to say yes it is that if you practice these things you will not be saved we want you to repent we want you to turn and we want you to be saved how received is that today how received is a church that does that anymore today the pressure is to be silent and by and large we are not ephesus not Ephesus they didn't endure these behaviors and then comes the big one from our Lord what's the real big commendation here you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars verse 6 and this you have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate. Wow. This church did the hard job of testing the spirits to see whether they be of God. As one pastor said, they possess the rare gift of discernment. They were discriminating. Their orthodoxy was unimpaired. This is what John Stott said about this. They were not so stupid as to suppose that Christian charity can tolerate false apostles, Love embraces neither air nor evil. Isn't it amazing that Christ looks out at this group called the Nicolaitans? If this existed in our day, how would that come to us? How would we deal with the Nicolaitans? Well, who would they be in our day? Here's what would happen in our day. You would have it on the church sign, the Nicolaitan Christian Church. That's what it would say. And if somebody came along and tested that, and they wrote a review of the practices going on at the Nicolaitan Christian Church, and after serious reflection on worship and the holiness of God and wrong tolerance of things that the Word of God condemns, if they wrote a review and said, listen, we believe these things are directly against the Word of God, and the Nicolaitan Christian church was exposed. How would that be received by our Christian culture today? You would be labeled as a schismatic. You would be labeled as unloving and condemning. And yet here's the thing. It doesn't change the fact that Christ hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, whatever they were. Discernment. Part of our witness is to, yes, expose air. We love, we care. Ephesus did what Christ called them to do. They searched the scriptures. They studied the scriptures. They tested whether what they were hearing was the word of God. And the church did the rare thing of exposing the air. It's interesting that you have these calls in the New Testament. have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. They were contenders, weren't they? Interesting here, they did their job. And the Lord really commends them. I'm liking this church. It's my kind of church, you know. My kind of church, doctrinal, ready to go after it, contending earnestly for the faith once delivered for the saints. My kind of church. You know what's the real shocker of it all this morning? This church that had worked so hard, that would not accept bad behaviors, that would not tolerate false doctrine, was not what it seemed to be. Christ now levels a great accusation. Look at verse 4. But this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love that you had at first. Wind is kind of taken out of the sail, isn't it? In all of their fighting for the truth, in all of their busyness of work, something had gone wrong. What is it? You've always been confused by that. Numerous occasions, I believe I've gotten this wrong. I've tried to figure out what is the leaving of the first love? I used to think it was Jesus himself. I don't believe they left Jesus. I believe that was their intention at all. Let me explain it this way. I had been reading to my daughter devotions. We were going through devotions the other night with the family. And I asked Kendall about what this meant. And we said, Kendall, why do you go to school? Why do you go to school every day? It would be like rising up every morning to go to school and working really hard and doing all of your work and not knowing why you do it. What happens after a while? Well, you're working for the good grades, you're doing well. But what happens if you don't know why you're doing what you're doing? What happens if you have no purpose for what you're doing? You have no heart in it. You have no goal in it. So if you have no goal and you're getting good grades, what are the reasons you're getting good grades? Well, one of the top reasons is pride. Let's say I'm in Ephesus and I raise concerns about the Nicolaitan Christian church. What's my greatest danger in striving for the truth? What's our greatest danger in striving for the truth? It's forgetting the question of why we're doing it. It feels good to expose error. That's not the predominant purpose of our ministry. It has to be positive. But we are called at times to expose error. But why am I feeling good doing it? Is it that I have validated my church? Or is it because I care very deeply for the souls of those who I believe are being seduced away into false teachings that Christ hates? And that God has burdened my heart to be discerning to help my brothers and sisters who are in those things. It's negligent to do nothing. Jesus condemns that. But the question is, is why do we go after that? Why do we do that? What's the purpose in doing it? If all I've done is condemn somebody else in pride, I've just validated myself. But that's not why I'm called to contend earnestly for the faith. We're called to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints because we care deeply about the witness of Christ to the ends of the earth. and we care deeply about the salvation of people. And when we forget that, we've lost the whole motivation for what we're doing. It makes us not do things in humility and in love. Let me take it further. I wasn't here when the Escondido URC was formed, and that was years ago. And I think that generation here, There's some left who were here right from the beginning. But when this church began, what was the reason? What was the goal that this church was formed with? Well, I hope it was that the goal was you wanted to provide a place where people could come and be assured that they're getting the word of God, they're getting the gospel preached, they're being nourished from God's word, and people are being fed with the words of life and that you care deeply about maintaining a witness to the name of Christ in this community. That's our goal. That's why we have a church. You know, Ephesus was about 40 years old, I believe. I think I tallied it up at one point. 40 years at this point. What happens to a group that forgets the purpose for which they are doing what they are doing? We could be working hard, we could have a lot of people involved, we could condemn a lot of behaviors, we could be fighting for orthodoxy, all necessary, all commended by our Lord, and forget the basic goal and reason why we're doing it, and the whole thing goes flat. That what we're doing here is not just to validate the Escondido URC, but the greater purpose being that the witness of Jesus Christ and his truth and people becoming saved is the burden that the Lord has placed upon our hearts, and that's why we do it. We need to remember this this morning, that the first love is a witness to the name of Jesus Christ with the goal of salvation of people and when that first love is gone you're going to see that decay among the membership you're going to see people disinterested you're going to see people splintering out you're going to see people not committed to worship you're going to see people not giving themselves the way that they should and the mission should be driving us in a passion not just to be complacent where we are or to be focused just on us, but to remember to do the first works that united this body in the first place. And in order for that witness to be effective, all of us need to be involved, to remember that the Lord has given us gifts to serve one another, but that all of us would give ourselves to the ministry of the Word, to hear that Word, to grow in that word, to be nurtured in that word. Notice what Jesus says in verse 5. Remember therefore, verse 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 lampstand from its place, unless you repent. I want you to remember where you were, The blessing that you have to be called the body of Christ and the Lord is calling his church back to that passion for gospel ministry, for doing what we do in reaching to the ends of the earth the glorious truth of his gospel and name. That's our love for one another too as we give ourselves that way that people will know that we belong to the Savior. You know what moves me at the end of this? The Lord can pull the lampstand. It's amazing that he says that. Have you ever seen ministries that go on and there's no life to it? There's no light in that place. You ever wonder why? It's because the Lord can depart from a church. That's the warning here in Ephesus. The light can go out. And if we refuse to hear and be about his purpose that he's given us as a church, testifying sincerely to the truth of the gospel, what purpose do we serve if we're not doing that. Churches may be full. Buildings may be beautiful. Pastors may be there. People may come. And the lampstand gone. That's how the Lord warns this church. I don't know if you've ever seen that. But churches where I believe the lampstand are gone are miserable places of darkness, fighting, When visitors come in, there's no love. Ephesus understood this. The removal of the lampstand meant that they would be uprooted. You know that the city of Ephesus had to change its location because of the sifting of the river. It was literally removed and replaced. The imagery meant a lot. Ignatius reports years later that they had repented and regained their love. My question is, is where is that church today? Christ has something powerful at the end of this. He makes a promise. He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. That's in contrast to that wicked tree that they were offering in the temple of Diana where people could escape the consequences of the law. And how beautiful this is that the Lord here brings up the imagery of the tree in the garden. And we know how we overcome. They overcame by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives to death. Christ is saying that he has a place of refuge for us and that he will give us to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of his paradise. We overcome by faith in his blood. And as we are overwhelmed and moved by his grace and mercy, it's my prayer and it should be your prayer that we will never abandon the purpose for which he left us here. May we as a church remember from where we came from, Holding fast, what an encouragement today to us, this church is, to hold fast, to remember that he's calling us back to the first love. It's exciting to remember what we're about and that we would love one another and that that love would go out to the ends of the earth and that we would care very deeply about his truth so that people would know it and become saved. Let's pray. Well, Lord our God, we thank you that you care to instruct us in your word. And we thank you that you've given us your living and powerful word. And as we study these churches in Revelation, and we open up this one this morning in Ephesus, we see how you instructed this church so many years ago, commending them for so many good things, standing for the truth, but also exposing that they had forgotten why they were doing these things. May that zeal and first love always be in this place. Where we've ever stepped away from that, forgive us. And may we walk the path of repentance and may in this place your gospel light shine bright so that anyone who walks in these doors, who is visiting, would see your love and would know the power of your gospel and they would see that you are indeed with us. Thank you that you care to instruct us in your truth. Help us in our weaknesses. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.