Love Notes to the Church
Part 1
“The Loveless Church”
The incredible book of Revelation was delivered to the beloved disciple John after he had been banished to a lonely island called Patmos for his witness of Christ.
Patmos was a tiny island in the Aegean Sea, about 10 miles long and 6 miles wide—just a tad bigger than downtown Fort Worth!
It was barren of trees and extremely rocky—no natural beauty was there.
So—No vacation resort!
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At the time of John’s banishment he was around 92 years old.
The early, baby church of his day was enduring vicious persecution.
Rome at that time in history was an anti-Christian state.
The Roman Government was godless and Rome was infested with a multitude of anti-Christian religions, mainly the worship of a pantheon of mythical gods.
This was a time of great distress for God’s people.
So one reason Jesus gave The Revelation to John was to bring the church comfort and assurance that—though their circumstances were hell on earth—God was still in control!
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The Revelation opens with John being spiritually translated by the Spirit of God into heaven itself.
He was given a succession of visions so incredible they’ve boggled the minds of thinkers throughout the ages.
He first beholds the risen Savior, who looked nothing like the Jesus he had known on earth.
He describes Him as having:
Eyes like fire,
Hair white as wool,
A voice that sounded like thunder,
A sharp, two-edged sword coming out of his mouth,
And his countenance shone like the summer sun on a hot Texas afternoon!
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Jesus soon reveals to John the target audience for the incredible vision he was about to receive:
“What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches …” (NLV)
And thank God he did write it down!
Jesus names seven churches—the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
These 7 churches were located in what today would be modern-day Turkey, and were about a row-boats journey from Patmos.
So in chapters 2 and 3, Jesus sends the equivalent of a love note to each of these churches with warnings to the lost, and corrections and encouragement to the saved.
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Now, the first church Jesus addresses is in Ephesus, the church Paul wrote his epistle to.
The Ephesian church is sometimes called The Lacking Church because it’s missing something very important we’ll look at in a moment.
The Ephesian church was birthed by the Apostle Paul.
When he first visited Ephesus he found that the entire city worshiped a mythical goddess called Diana.
Diana was believed to be the mother-goddess of the woods and of animals.
The idolatry was so strong that a huge, beautiful Temple was built and dedicated to her, and it was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
True to form, when the Apostle Paul arrived in Ephesus he began immediately winning people to Christ.
As the numbers swelled it quickly became a church.
It was so successful that Paul stayed there for two years teaching and preaching.
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But eventually so many people had turned from worshiping Diana to worshiping Christ that the makers of the little silver figurines of Diana were feeling the pinch in their pocketbooks.
So one of them, Demetrius the silversmith, decided to attack Paul:
He stirred up a raging mob, denouncing Paul and the Christian faith, and praising Diana.
After the ensuing riot was shut down, Paul decided to leave the Ephesians church to allow it to grow on its own.
Now, the Ephesian church was birthed around 55 AD and John wrote the Revelation around 90-95 AD.
So what we’re about to see is that something deeply concerning to Jesus happened to this church in that 35 to 40 year window.
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As Jesus did with five of the seven churches, His first comments to them are positive:
Revelation 2:2-3 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.”
So, their pluses were:
hard work,
perseverance,
intolerance of evil,
discernment, and
patient suffering without quitting.
So at first glance they’re batting a thousand!
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But the Lord’s next words point out a concern:
—Revelation 2:4-5 NKJV “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
NLT puts it: “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!”
Notice: They hadn’t “LOST” their first love, they had “LEFT” their first love.
What does “first Love” mean?
It was their original passion for the Lord
the love they had toward Him and each other,
the love that was first ignited in their souls when they got saved!
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Jesus is saying, “You don’t love me or each other like you once did.”
The Apostle Paul had even mentioned their fervent love in his epistle to them a few decades earlier!
Eph. 1:15 “Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you.”
Strong faith and fervent love were their early strengths!
But a few decades later they’d somehow drifted from it.
So in vs 5 Jesus gives them a three-step path back to spiritual health:
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works..”
The three steps are REMEMBER, REPENT, RECOVER.
First:
I. Remember
“Look how far you have fallen!”
—In other words, pause a moment and think back.
Do some honest self-assessment regarding your relationship with me—where it once was and where it is today.
Do you have the same joy, the same zeal, the same passion for Jesus?
Are you excited to come to God’s house or has it become a robotic duty?
Has your inner zeal cooled off?
Do you witness like you used to, pray like you used to, read the Word like you used to?
On a scale of 1-10 where would you place your current walk with God compared to when you first got saved?
So Jesus says to them and to us—put the brakes on, step out of all your busyness, and make an honest appraisal of your spiritual temperature!
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And then SECONDLY he says:
II. Repent
Vs. 5 “Remember from where you have fallen; (and) repent…”
Repentance simply means “to change your mind and turn back.”
Interestingly, in Hebrew it means “to take a deep breath and sigh.”
It’s when you realize that you’ve done something wrong and you feel terrible about it——so you groan or sigh or breathe deeply.
But true repentance goes further than that—It’s more than a feeling.
Its also an ACTION word—it means to turn around.
You turn around and go back to God.
Full repentance literally means ‘to turn and return home.’
ILLUS: The prodigal son didn’t just wake up one day with deep remorse and regret over what he’d done—he returned home to the father!
Jesus is saying to the Ephesian church, RETURN to your first love!
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And then the third step back to spiritual health is:
III. Recover
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works…”
Recover the first works that sprang from your first love!
Do again what your first love moved you to do!
—Read the Bible as you did back then;
—Pray as you did then;
—Get involved in the work of the Lord like you did then.
—Teach a Bible class like you did back then.
—Do street ministry as you once did.
—Reconnect to an outreach to the lost and needy.
—Lift up a fallen brother like you used to.
—Open your heart, your wallet, your helping hand to bless a dying world as you once did!
Here’s the thing: Jesus says, “Recovering your first works is how to rekindle the flame of love you’ve lost!”
Some people say, “When the old feelings return, I’ll jump right in.”
But Jesus says, “Jumping back in will rekindle the old feelings!”
Hebrews says, “So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that the leg which is lame (lack of first love) may not be put out of joint, but rather may be healed.”—Heb. 12:12-13