Letters to the Churches

Ephesus: Remember Your First Love

Revelation 2:1-7

Ash Wednesday - 2005

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer." [Ps. 19:14] Amen.

In 96 AD St. John the Apostle was on the island of Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. In other words, he was in exile because he preached Christ to the people, many of whom believed and were saved. But the preaching of Christ was not popular with the heathen rulers of his day. While he was on the island of Patmos the Lord sent an angelic messenger to give him the vision that we now call The Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the last book of the Bible, a book that is often abused and misused, for it was given to us in symbolic language and the symbols God used are not always understood by those who read them. But the book was given to us for a reason, for us to read and to understand, and that reason was to make known to us what was about to take place and what would be taking place even to the end of the world.

The vision begins with a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was, who is and who is to come, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Lord of the Church, the one who holds the seven stars in His right hand, which are the pastors of the churches, and who walks in the midst of the seven lampstands, which are the seven churches. As the head of the Church He has some things to say to the churches, some words of encouragement, some words of approval, and some words of rebuke, calling the churches to repentance where they need to repent lest it become necessary that He Himself take action against them. These words of encouragement, of approval and of rebuke are contained within the seven letters to the seven churches of the Roman Province of Asia, a part of what we now call Turkey.

During this Lenten season as we journey to the cross we will be meditating on the letters to the churches, for they were written by our Lord Jesus Christ, not merely for the benefit of the churches to whom they were addressed but also for our benefit, for the conditions that we find in these churches are the same conditions that will be found in the churches until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing new under the sun. And since it is always easier to see someone else’s problem than it is to see our own these letters will help us to see the problems that exist in our own churches today.

The letter for our meditation this evening is the first of the seven letters, the letter to the Church of Ephesus which reads: “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place-unless you repent. But this you 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 give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.’”*

Each of the seven letters to the seven churches is addressed to the angel of that particular church. But who is this ‘angel’ to whom the letter is addressed? To answer this question we must first understand what the word ‘angel’ means. Normally when we hear the word ‘angel’ we think of an angelic being, such as the angel Gabriel who brought God’s message to the Virgin Mary, the good news that she had been chosen from among all women to be the mother of our Lord. But while we normally think of an angelic being when we hear the word ‘angel’, the word ‘angel’ does not always refer to an angelic being. The word ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’ and God uses other messengers to bring His Word to His people besides angelic beings.

For example, in the Old Testament we often find the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God Himself referred to as ‘the Angel of the Lord’. He’s called ‘the Angel of the Lord’ not because He is an angelic being, for He certainly is NOT! He was and He is God, the Son of God, the eternally begotten Son of the Father full of grace and truth. But He was called ‘the Angel of the Lord’ because He was the messenger whom God the Father had sent to speak His word to His people. In the same way we see John the Baptist called ‘an angel’ or ‘messenger’ in one of the prophecies of his coming to prepare the way of the Lord.

In the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ the angel of the church of Ephesus is its pastor, for the pastor of a Christian congregation is the one whom our Lord Jesus Christ has chosen to be His messenger in that place. “He who hears you hears Me,” Jesus said of those He sent. “He who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” [Luke 10:16] And so each one of the letters to the churches is sent to the pastor of the church to whom it is written.

And the letter to the pastor of the church of Ephesus carries a particularly strong warning for that congregation: “I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. . .” This is a very serious matter, for to have one’s lampstand removed from its place means that that church will cease to exist, at least it will cease to exist as a Christian congregation.

Why does Jesus give such a severe warning to that church at Ephesus? From the first part of the letter it’s clear that there is much about the church of Ephesus that is to be admired. Jesus said, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.” All of these things that Jesus mentions here are good things! We, too, are to do good works, to labor on behalf of the Lord, to be patient and to reject what is evil. Sometimes we do not do these things as well as we should, for which we need forgiveness and God freely forgives, but we are supposed to be doing them. There is nothing wrong here with the church of Ephesus.

Jesus goes on to say, “And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;” This, too, is a good thing. We, too, are to test the spirits of those who come to us claiming to speak the Word of the Lord, to determine if what they say is true or false. We are even told by John in his first Epistle, “. . . do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” [1 John 4:1b-3] This is what we are told to do by God Himself and they were doing it! There was nothing wrong with the church of Ephesus on this account. And then Jesus goes on to say, “and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.” This, too, is good! And they also hated the works of the Nicolaitans, a group who taught, among other things, that it was okay to worship with those who do not believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, such as the Moslem, the Hindu, and the modern day Jew. This, too, was good, that they hated the works of those who would teach such a horrible thing.

Why, then, with all that was good in the church of Ephesus, does Jesus give them such a strong warning, that if they do not repent, He will remove their lampstand and they will be no more? The answer is found in these words: “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” And what was their first love? The first love of any Christian is Christ, as others have pointed out, but it would seem that they had not yet left Christ behind, for they still contended for the faith and they still labored for His name’s sake. But along with the love of our Lord Jesus Christ goes a love for the work He has given us to do, a love for reaching out with the gospel to the people whom He came to save. Yes, it is a love for reaching out to those who are lost so that they might be found, a love for reaching out to those who do not know our Lord Jesus Christ, so that they, too, might know Him, believe in Him and be saved! “. . . for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12b] All who believe in Jesus shall be saved, but all who do not believe in Him will be eternally lost. It is this love, the love for reaching out to the lost, the love for evangelism that they seem to have left behind!

The Church at Ephesus was established by Paul sometime around 54 A.D. We read about its founding in the Book of Acts. For two years Paul labored among them, the longest time he spent in any one place where he was not in prison. The Lord worked many miracles and many unusual miracles by the hands of Paul at Ephesus and his work bore much fruit. Many of the people who lived in and around Ephesus believed in Jesus Christ and were saved. So many were converted to the faith that it was severely hurting the business of the idol-makers in Ephesus and they were afraid that they would be put out of business entirely, as eventually they were.

But by the time the letter to the church of Ephesus was written some forty years later that first missionary zeal, that first love for the saving of the lost seems to have been lost by the church of Ephesus. They still contended for the faith, and that was good. They still were active in works of love toward one another, and that was good. But after 40 years they no longer seemed to be interested in reaching out to the lost in their community in order to save them from their sins. In other words, they no longer seemed to be interested in doing the work of the church.

And now it makes sense why our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church should be angry with them and should warn them that if they do not repent and return to their first love He will remove their lampstand from its place, for the work of the Church here on earth is the work of reaching out to those who are lost in order to save them from the wrath of God which is to come. That’s the reason why we are here! It’s important that we ‘keep the message straight’ as our former synodical president, Dr. A.L. Barry was fond of saying, that is, its important that we keep the doctrine pure, that we contend for the faith, for if the doctrine is not pure then what do we have to offer when we reach out? But Dr. Barry never stopped with the words, ‘keep the message straight.’ He always went on to say, ‘Get the message out!’ It’s important to keep the message straight, but it’s equally important that we get the message out, for if we do not get the message out to those who are lost they will die in their sin and we will not have done the work that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us to do. And if we don’t do the work that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us to do, why should we remain?

The symbol of the lampstand is the symbol of the church in the Revelaton of our Lord Jesus Christ and it is the symbol for the church for a good reason. We are to be a light shining in the darkness, like a city on a hill that cannot be hid! We are to let our light so shine before men that they might SEE our good works and give glory to God for them. But if our light does not shine, what good are we?

Perhaps we, too, need to repent of our sin, perhaps we, too, need to repent of our lack of love, our lack of concern for those who are lost, lest our Lord Jesus Christ remove our lampstand from its place and we cease to exist!

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place-unless you repent.”

Thanks be to God that there IS forgiveness with Him! That is why our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, not so that we should perish, but so that we should be forgiven and live! But we are not the only ones for whom He died. “Let none hear you idly saying, ‘There is nothing I can do,’ While the souls of men are dying and the Master calls to you. Take the task He gives you gladly; Let His work you pleasure be. Answer quickly when He calls you, ‘Here am I. Send me, send me!’”

“He who has an ear, 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.’” Amen.