Lessons from Ephesus: A Church of Loveless Orthodox - Revelation 2: 1-7

1:31Seven golden lampstands are the churches themselves of Asia Minor, the seven churches already mentioned. So we're not left wondering who they are. And so this verse is the segue into Christ's letter or message to each of the churches. Each letter gives us a prophetic insight into the condition of the church at that time. So chapters two and chapter three are about these seven letters, seven letters to each of the churches, one to each church. But their combined effect, if you take the seven letters as a whole, give us prophetic insight into the church as a whole at the end of the first century.

2:31So they're letters to individual churches, but all of the churches were to read what Christ had to say to all of the churches. So the seven letters are to be taken as a whole, speaking to the condition of the churches at the end of the first century, and really for all time. This is a message. These are literal churches facing their times. Chapters two and three are not to be spiritualized. Into seven time periods for the church.

3:05First of all, to do so destroys the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ. If each of these are seven time periods, then we must wait until that Laodicean period before Christ could return. Second reason why these aren't to be spiritualized into seven time periods is it moves the authority from the text to the interpreter. One has to decide: well, what is the period? When does it start? When does it end? Third reason is it makes the history of the Western Church the central perspective. For some reason, when you take these as time periods, all of a sudden Germany and England and America become the center perspective. No, there's a global church involved here. But more importantly, to spiritualize these two chapters into seven time periods is to miss the whole point of the message.

4:13These are literal churches facing their times. The Spirit of God is using their historical situation to speak to all subsequent churches about what he expects them to do. To do and be. You can see this very clearly. Look at chapter 2, verse 7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Again, in verse 11, he who has ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, and so forth. Seven times, that same expression is made. The Spirit of God is using the historical situation that each of these churches are in to give us a message from him to all the churches.

5:07He who has ear, let him hear. And there's a general pattern that each of these churches follow, or each of these letters. I can think of these as the five C's of the seven C's, the five C's of the seven churches. First, Christ characterizes or describes himself in terms of the first vision. We've already spent a lot of time with the first vision, but he characterizes himself. And then he compliments or praises the church for its strengths, except for Laodicea.

5:45He voices his concern over their weakness, except for Smyrna and Philadelphia. And then he commands or exhorts the church to respond in light of their condition. And fifth, He communicates or he grants a vision of victory to all the churches. So if you put the five C's, the pattern for the five C's, it goes like this: Christ's characteristics, Christ's complements, Christ concerns, Christ commands, and Christ's communication. Characteristics, complements, concern, commands, and communication. That's how he moves through all of these letters. And they pretty much follow that general pattern with a few exceptions.

6:32Well, that brings us to the church in Ephesus. We begin our study in the church of Ephesus. Let me go ahead and read, beginning in verse 1 through verse 7. To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write: The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: I know your deeds, and your toil, and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and that you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not. And you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you: that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deed. You did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet, this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

7:59I liken this church as the church of loveless orthodoxy. The church of loveless orthodoxy. I'll try to use a couple of words to characterize each church. And if I encapsulated this church in Ephesus in two words, it would be the church of loveless orthodoxy. Now, I could be obnoxious. I actually thought about doing this and calling it the First Baptist Church of Loveless Orthodoxy. And then kind of going down the, you know, hopefully making it memorable. But my wife said, that's too obnoxious. And I agree.

8:42But these two words say something about this church. And so, what I want to do as we go through each of these churches, I want to learn the lessons, several lessons from these churches. And then I want to come back in a second message and apply these lessons. Lessons. It's important to note that all of these letters are written to churches collectively, not individuals. It's written to a body of believers. And so it's important that we understand what he is saying to the churches so that we may hear and heed. In fact, some of the most practical sections of the book of Revelation is chapter 2 and chapter 3. That's where we get most of our practical commands of what we are to be, what we are to do. It says, Blessed is the one who reads and the one who heeds the words of this prophecy. Well, you get a lot of those practical, direct commands that we can practically implement and heed here in chapters 2 and 3. Well, we'll just jump right in.

10:12To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. Command, write. As I mentioned before, angel, probably human agency, is preferred over heavenly agency. And I say that for a couple of reasons. Number one, it'd be very unusual for Jesus to commission an angel to give John a message, who then is going to turn around and write to an angel to give a message to the church. That would be unprecedented for Christ to communicate to his fellow angels through human agency. Second, it would also be unprecedented for an angel who has fallen to be called to repent, as we have here in Ephesus. Remember, from where you have fallen.

11:06But if you want to insist it's an angel, fine. The word is often used as messenger in the New Testament. But the point is clearly the individual that is writing, and I get letters all the time written to Emmanuel Baptist Church, Thomas Baber, Pastor Tom Baber, but the message is really to the church. But the point here is probably a messenger, but the idea is whoever this individual is represents the ethos or the persona of the church. It's going to address the individual, but in doing so is also addressing the church.

11:52And the church, to the angel of the church in Ephesus, to the called-out ones in Ephesus. Be a good way to express it. And we're probably not talking about just one gathering. You think about Ephesus, the size of it, larger than Brasilus College Station, or Brian College Station. You think about there's probably a whole lot of house churches by this time. It's not like we're just talking about one gathering like we have here, but the church throughout the city. And I say this, we spend a lot of time looking at the movement that took place in Ephesus. I mean, there were so many people turning to Christ in such great numbers that it impacted the economies, especially the economy of the temple worship involving Artemis of the Ephesians or Diana. So we're talking about a lot of people who have turned to Christ in mass and are now being addressed. House churches. They don't have a lot of cathedrals at this time. So you're talking to a message through a messenger, somebody that's going to carry this message of Christ.

13:14And so the first thing that Christ does is he gives a vision of himself. Look at how he characterizes himself. We use the C's. That's the first. Verse 1: the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand. Hand, the one who walks among the golden lampstands, says this. So, the one who is holding, so he, and he, we've already spent a lot of time talking about this. I mean, I know it was slow going through chapter one, and we looked at all these characteristics of Christ. We don't have to spend that much time here. We can move forward because we've already spent a lot of time there looking at, but these seven stars he holds in their right hand, certainly speaking of his authority over, his control, his protection, his ownership of these individuals, as well as the churches. He owns them, he owns them in whole and the various parts. The lampstands, the golden lampstands, clearly reference to the churches around Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey.

14:31And what a beautiful image that is. A church as a golden lampstand in a community, shining light, so that people can see the true God, so they can make sense out of themselves, out of the God of the universe, understand the way forward, the way to forgiveness, the way to righteousness. And then after. After that, after he characterizes himself, he gives us three lessons. Three lessons. And I want us to learn three lessons from this church of Ephesus so that we will be equipped or so that we will know what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches and specifically to our church today.

15:27Three lessons. They're all up there. First lesson: what Jesus liked about this church. The second lesson, what Jesus did not like about this church. And the third lesson, two ways the problem could be fixed, or two ways to correct that which Jesus didn't like. Well, first lesson we can learn from this church of loveless orthodoxy is what Jesus liked about them, verse 2. And here he starts his compliments. I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and that you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. And you found them to be false, and you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. So the first thing, Jesus starts off by saying, I know, I am completely aware. Of. I am intimately acquainted with you in depth and in breadth. I know your deeds. He's the one who walks among them. He's the one who holds them in their hand. He knows. He's like, I know your persona. I know your ethos. I know the character and disposition of you very, very well.

17:00He says, I know your deeds, your toil, and perseverance. The first thing that Jesus does is he praises them for their hard-working attitude. And he's going to go ahead. He's going to praise them for their strengths, and he's going to talk about their weaknesses. But he praises them in three key areas. In the first, it's very clear in these few words that Jesus admired their hard-working attitude. I know your deeds, your toil, and perseverance. Three words. I know your works. I know the quality of your works. I know what you go after. I know, and it's not just speaking about things done, it's speaking about their whole course of life and conduct as a church body, not just individually, but as a corporate whole. The things their church was involved in. In good works, quality. And institutionally, they labored hard. I know the quality of your deeds. I know your deeds. And I know that you toil. You work to exhaustion, so to speak. You toil. You labor.

18:22You labor hard, but also notice that they labor long. I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance. This is a church that labored hard, long in good works. They met the challenges of gospel ministry with great stamina, great fortitude, not just with some kind of melancholy forbearance, like, okay, I know I got to do all these things and I'm getting out. No. They met the challenges of gospel ministry with true valor, with bravery, with heroism.

19:07This was a hard-working church, and Jesus admired them for their hard-working attitude. Second thing that Jesus liked about this church, Jesus admired their commitment for exposing false teachers. Look back. I know your deeds, your toil. Of perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and that you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not, and you found them to be false. You see, the church at Ephesus had a keen discernment in matters of theology, and they had no ability. The Greek here is, you are not able to tolerate evil men and evil doctrines. You cannot tolerate them. You cannot. It's not in you to put up with them. And he's praising them for this. They specifically excelled not only at discerning and testing false teachers, but exposing their errant ways and publicly.

20:30You put to the test, you're able to put them to trial. And you put to trial the ones who call themselves apostles, those who are declaring themselves and setting themselves out there as the most important ones to be listened to in the church assembly. You take them on, you put them to trial and expose them for being false. They were firm in their opposition to false teachers. The emphasis isn't so much on the population at large, but the false teachers within the church. In fact, one might expect this if you know your New Testament. You remember Paul, when he gathered the elders in Ephesus, in Acts chapter 20 and verse 29, he says this: I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Paul warned them. In fact, 1 Timothy 1:3, Paul leaves Timothy there. He said, As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.

22:07So Timothy stayed on, teaching them not to tolerate strange doctrines. And then John, for three decades, taught them. And you remember 1 John 4, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false. Prophets have gone out into the world. And if you remember from our time in John, 1 John 4, remember there were three tests: the test of doctrine, the test of morality, and the test of love.

22:44And so this church had been exhorted. They were ready for false teaching. They were equipped like no other church for it. And they excelled at defending the truth. The false teachers were relentless, but so was the church's resistance. And not just momentarily, but over a long span of time. So, first, Jesus admired their hard-working attitude. Second, he admired their commitment to exposing false teachers. And third, he admired their endurance. Look at verse 3: And you have perseverance and have endured for my namesake and have not grown weary.

23:31In all of their contending for the faith, contending for the truth, they had not burnt out. And keep in mind, we're talking about a new generation of believers. Those who didn't know Paul may not have even known Timothy. And John was just this figure that every once in a while was still floating around, but they hardly knew him. Is a new generation of believers, and they had picked up the mantle of biblical orthodoxy, and they were good at defending it.

24:13And interestingly enough, sometime around 101 AD, Ignatius commented on the Ephesian church and commended them, saying that no false teaching could gain a hearing among them. So they were good. They were notoriously good at defending biblical orthodoxy. In fact, later in 431 AD, Ephesus would be the location of one of the seven ecumenical councils, which still in the Eastern church stands as the definition of orthodoxy. So Jesus liked their hard-working attitude. He liked their commitment to exposing false teachers. And he liked their endurance in the task. Sounds like a great church so far, right? And it is.

25:12But next, I want you to see what Jesus did not like about this church. What Jesus did not like about this church. Look at verse 4. But I have this against you: that you have left your first love. You have Left the most important love, the first love, the preeminent love, the most important, the highest priority. You have left that. In contrast to the many strengths of the church, Jesus saw one weakness. You have left, you have divorced your first love.

25:58It was a major weakness. The word, translated have left, doesn't quite catch the force. The word is the word for divorce. And divorce is not a noun, it's a verb. It's an active verb. You don't get a divorce, you divorce someone, or you've been divorced. You send somebody away, or you are sent away. It's not a noun, it's not something you go get. And here's the force of what Jesus is saying here: you have divorced your first love. You have sent your first love away.

26:53They have sent their first love away in exchange for another love. The most important love, the first love, the foremost in relationship, the most important, the most that takes the highest priority. It's something they formerly had, but it's something that the second generation had divorced, sent away. You see, their so-called orthodoxy took place of enthusiastic love for Jesus Himself, His church, and for people in general. Their orthodoxy had become loveless. In their pursuit of their orthodoxy, they lost the whole purpose of truth, which is to connect us to the One Who is truth.

27:55Truth is not just some propositional circumstance. Truth is reality, propositional truth, that connects us to the truth, to the One who is the truth. Truth connects us to a person, and their orthodoxy had become loveless, and they were loveless in their orthodoxy. Welcome to the church of Loveless Orthodoxy. But Scripture is clear that the hallmark of the church is love. The distinguishing mark of a true church is love. Love for each other, love for God, love for the people.

28:48In fact, this is throughout Scripture. I hardly even have to remind you, but I will anyway. Matthew 22:37. And he said to them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. One's love for God shows up in the way they relate to people. John 13, 34, Jesus said, This, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

29:41When a church uses truth in an unloving way, they are not loving God. John 14:15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. You know, Peter had to learn this lesson, right? John 21, 15. Remember, after they had finished eating breakfast on the shore there of Galilee, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Do you love me more than these? He said, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said, Tend my lambs. And then he goes on to say, Shepherd my sheep. Then he says it again, tend my lambs. What Peter had to learn is that following Christ wasn't just surpassing others in commitment, in orthodoxy or in orthopraxy, but in the sacrificial devotion of laying one's life down for Christ himself and for others.

30:46Truth is given to bring life, not to destroy it. You can think about what's taken place in this church. The many battles against false teachers seem to have had an impact, an indirect impact, a loveless orthodoxy. And I can see how this happens. You think about just false teachers in many cases are seemingly nice people, off a little way. They wouldn't get a following if there wasn't something about them that was likable and invited people to follow. And I can imagine the elders having of these churches having to deal with false teachers and the conflict that that would even create. Well, is he really that bad? Is he really that off? And having to work through the situation and having to come to a solution, having come to then carrying out how to expose them and to remove them. All this can be a painful process, even among the elders. So the elders have to develop a tough skin. Listen, that's what ministry is. You're going to have to develop tough skin in ministry. But in the process of developing a tough skin, you can't develop a tough heart.

32:24And that seems to be what had happened over time. It's like, okay, we're just going to lay it down here. We're going to deal with this. We're going to deal with this. And it gets to be easy to start dealing with truth in a manner that does not exhibit love. Well, we've looked at what Jesus, first lesson, what Jesus liked about this church. Second, what Jesus did not like about this church. And then, third, I want to look. Look at two ways the problem could be fixed. Two ways the problem could be fixed. Look back at verse 5. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

33:25So the problem could be fixed, number one, by the church heeding Christ's commands. If the church would listen to what Christ had to say and obey what he had to say, the problem would go away. And so Jesus gives them three commands. Gives them commands in sequence that will address this deficiency. And you can see them there. Be remembering, repent, do. The way back to their first love involved three steps: remembering, repent, and do. And how instructive that is for us. Have you left your first love?

34:15How do you give back? By remembering, by repenting and doing. So let's look at the first step. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen. You be remembering. From where you once were as a church and where you are now. Reflect on that. Be remembering your earlier state as a church. They had fallen from where they used to be. You have fallen. Remember from where you have fallen. It's not like they're slipping away. The language here is: you have fallen.

35:03You have fallen from your first love. You have divorced the whole reason for your existence. Second, therefore, look back at verse 5. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent. You repent. They were to assess their former state and their current state, see the deficiency, turn away from their lovelessness, turn toward God, ask for forgiveness, receive new life and a restored relationship, and so shine his truth. Step number three: therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent, and do, do, do the deeds you did as. First, their repentance was to be marked by doing the deeds they had initially done as a church. Well, what were some of those deeds? If you have to remember, you have to go back.

36:21Think about 30 years prior. We have a lot of New Testament writings about this church, and we can get a pretty good idea of what Jesus is telling them to reflect upon. You remember in Ephesians, Paul 1:15 said this, For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you. Wow. Paul was like, You are known for your faith and your love for all the saints. 30 years.

37:03You remember in Acts 19:19, we looked at this last week, all the incredible work that took place in Ephesus. Remember in 1919, and many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone. And they counted up the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord. Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. I mean, it put the Temple of Diana out of business. I mean, this was a church that turned. They took the gospel, they heard the gospel, they loved the God of the gospel, they loved the Christ of the gospel, and they turned to them with all of their hearts simply because they loved Jesus, they loved the message. They're like, I'm done with this idolatry. Thank you.

38:04At first, looking at Ephesians, before the complications of church growth and warding off the attacks of the false teachers, they were glad to walk in love. In fact, Ephesians 4:1, Paul says, This, Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

38:42They loved. But loveless orthodoxy crept in. But they could be fixed. The way back to restoring their first love. Could happen if they would just simply heed what Jesus said here. Remembering, repenting, and doing the works that accompanied their salvation. That's one way that the problem could be fixed. But there's a second way the problem could be fixed, and that's through Christ's judgment. Look back at verse 5: Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

39:44Pause. Wow. A loss of witness. If you don't repent, if we don't turn away from this loveless orthodoxy, I'm going to take your lamp out of its place. You will no longer be a witness. The punishment is alarming. By our measures today, they look good. It's good to see churches that are not afraid to call out false teachers. Boy, I wish we had a lot more of them today. We seem to be really lacking in this category.

40:33And yet, this church receives the worst consequences of any of the seven churches: a removal of their lampstand. I mean, you may argue that Laodicea gets a similar punishment by being spewed out of Christ's mouth, but here it's articulated specifically: I will remove your lampstand. You're not the kind of witness that I want. You are no longer useful in giving off light. It's a profound punishment. Christ will remove the church from among the lampstands. And you know what this says? Christ is not going to allow his church to be characterized by lovelessness, even if they are masters at exposing false teachers.

41:37Orthodoxy without love is not the gospel. Orthodoxy without love itself is a false light. It has to be removed. And they are beyond remedy. If they do not repent, this is a crushing rebuke of a once great church. And we do well to pay attention. But notice that Jesus quickly adds another compliment, which is unusual. He doesn't do this in any of the other. It breaks the pattern a little bit here. Yet, verse 6, this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

42:36Interesting. You see, there's a danger in going to the opposite extreme. With such a consequence of taking away one's witness, the church could have been tempted to just grow lax. Oh, if such be the case, let's grow lax. Let's get a little bit more lenient about false teaching. Let's get careless. And you can see that very easily. I mean, I'd be tempted, okay, I'm going to stay away from that. I want to stay away from this loveless orthodoxy.

43:18But might be tempted to go to the other extreme and become very lax. No, truth matters. And that's what Jesus is saying here. Truth matters. You cannot know the Christ of Scripture. You cannot know the Christian Christian. God of Scripture without truth. You cannot know what is right or what's wrong without truth. He says, You hate the Nicolaitans. You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Little is known about the Nicolaitans. We'll see them again, and I'll deal with them a little bit more later.

43:53We can say this at this point. They were certainly a group that allowed the world's morality to define the morality of church life. Gross immorality. Christ hated their deeds, and so did the Ephesian church. But the emphasis here is not so much on who the Nicolaitans are, but that Jesus commends the church for hating what he hates. Moral and doctrinal laxity is not the solution that Jesus is looking for. He wants the church to continue to be vigilant in exposing false teachers. He praised them for this, but he wanted them to do it in a spirit of love for him and love for the church and the love for the people that they are ministering to.

44:56Not just callously winning arguments. Or belittling people. They were to use the truth in a loving manner. That's what Christ does. And he's saying, look, hating what Christ hates is good. It's just not complete. Jesus not only wants his churches to hate what he hates, but he wants them to love what he loves. And when they do so, their works will be of the quality that exalts them, that shines light into the darkness. Listen, we are to minister in the name of Christ for the love of Christ. Truth connects us to a person.

45:55Well, three lessons. First lesson we can learn is what Jesus liked about this church. What did he like? He liked their orthodoxy. Second lesson we can learn is what Jesus did not like about this church, their lovelessness. And Jesus will not allow a church like this to bear his name for long. So as we're going to pause here, we'll pick this up in a Couple of weeks. Because the next thing, look at verse 7. He who has ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is Christ's message to all the churches, all the seven, and to us today. This is where we need to heed. This is where we need to really practically apply these lessons, not just to our individual life, but to our corporate life as a church. So we will imitate what was good about this church and reject what was bad.

47:03Let's pray. Heavenly Father, confess to you that there are many reasons why we are gathered here this morning. Father, we confess to you that in many cases, the reason we gather is not out of just a supreme enthusiastic love for you, but for other things. Forgive us, Father, where we have left our first love, where we have sent you away for anything, but especially for trying to be right in our opinions and our positions. Father, help us to, as an expression for love for you, Father, to continue growing in your word, to continue to minister your word, to continue to call out. False teaching and false doctrines.

48:04Not for the sake of winning argument, but because it is necessary for your glory in whom we love and for the well-being of those who are kept in deception. So, Father, right now I just want to ask you to forgive all of us. Forgive us as a church in all those areas where we have left our first love, where ministry has become something other than an expression of love for you. Show us and help us to walk in your way and to heed what is given here and what you are saying to our church today. Thank you for this. In Christ's name, amen.