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Rev. 2:1-17
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Letters from Jesus: You Lost Your First Love Revelation 2:1-7
A mother’s heart breaks for her children. One such mother with a broken heart was named Monica. She was not raised in a Christian home, but was herself converted early in life. Despite her new found faith, Monica no doubt struggled being married to an unbelieving husband. Perhaps due to their father’s influence, both of her sons rejected Christianity as well. But Monica prayed for them. She longed for them to give up their sin and receive Christ. She even had a very vivid dream that one of her sons became a Christian. She clung to that hope and took it as assurance from God that her dream would one day come true.
But even while Monica prayed that her son would forsake his sin, he clung to his sin like a warm blanket. He had a live-in girlfriend for fourteen years and they bore a son from this unholy union. Here is this man’s own description of his sinful capacity. “Clouds of muddy carnal concupiscence (lust) filled the air. The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness. Confusion of the two things boiled within me. It seized hold of my youthful weakness sweeping me through the precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice.”
This man was not only entrapped by sexual desire, he was also tempted by power and success. In his twenties he was already a full professor at a prestigious university. He was admired by those at the top and he had every intention of climbing the rungs of that ladder of success until he too was on top of the world. Sin, success and power prevented him from receiving Christ, but still his mother prayed. After 32 years of prayers for her son he experienced a most amazing conversion. He was sitting with a good friend when he was suddenly overcome by his own sin. He began to weep uncontrollably and ran outside to sit alone under a fig tree. He continued to weep and prayed to God asking, “O Lord, how long will you be angry with me?”
Just then he heard a young child in a nearby house say these words, “Pick it up and read.” He had never heard a child say such a thing, but he took it a sign from God to pick up his Bible lying beside him and read it. He randomly opened his Bible and his eyes fell on these words from Romans 13. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Here again are his own words. “I didn’t read any further, nor did I need to: for instantly, at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” As soon as he could he went to see his mother to tell her the good news. Upon hearing of her son’s conversion, Monica literally leapt for joy. The heart of this mother was broken no more. (adapted from Christian History, vol. VI, no. 3)
This is the true story of a young man named Augustine, who is commonly known to us as St. Augustine, one of the most influential Christian writers and leaders in the past 2000 years. If the heart of this one mother could be broken over the disobedience of just one child, how do you think the heart of God breaks over the disobedience of millions of his children? As we said last week, in Revelation 2-3 we have letters from Jesus addressed to specific churches in the first century. By studying what Jesus said to them our church can learn to capitalize on their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. At the time of this letter was written, Ephesus was a flourishing city with a population of about 225,000 and possessed a huge harbor. The harbor could accommodate the largest ships in the world. Ephesus grew to become one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world. The temple of Diana was there, which was one the seven wonders of the ancient world, being the largest Greek temple ever constructed, four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. Diana was believed to be the mother goddess of the world by the Greeks. Diana was the goddess of fertility, life and reproduction, so the worship of Diana was immoral beyond description. The emphasis on the degradation of sex was not unlike what Augustine experienced as a young man and very similar to the culture of our day. The Ephesian Christians were, as we are today, immersed in immorality. Despite the great temptations of sex, wealth and power, the church in Ephesus was able to resist these alluring temptations. This may have been due in part to their solid foundation. If you remember, the apostle Paul spent almost three years building up the church in Ephesus. Now about forty years later, the Ephesian church received a letter from Jesus. These Christians were commended by Jesus for many things. Jesus said to them, “I know your deeds”. Recall that Jesus is the sovereign Lord over the church and walks among the churches that he loves. We teach our children to do right by reminding them Jesus is always watching. If this is true for us as individuals, then it is equally true for churches. Jesus knows our every deed and good work. The Ephesian Christians were commended for being a serving church. Jesus saw their hard work and their perseverance. What does Jesus see in our church? He sees people who serve him in many ways. Jesus sees the sound person and worship team who arrive early every week. He sees the greeters, nursery workers, refreshment servers and children’s church workers. He sees the ministry you have in your homes when you invite people from church into your home. He sees you leading your small group. He sees your ministry in the neighborhood and at your workplace. He knows about every sacrificial dollar you drop into the offering basket. Jesus sees all of these things which flow out of the people of Grace Church and he is pleased. He sees our service and he is pleased. And because Jesus is pleased, we should be pleased. We can do that by offering more appreciation for all of these acts of service. Here is a good goal for all of us. Each week make a point to thank at least one other person. If your child is in nursery, thank the workers. If you enjoyed the morning worship, go out of your way to thank someone on the worship team. Jesus also commended the Ephesian church for being a separated church. In v. 2 he said, I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. And in v. 6 he said, You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. This church separated themselves from the false teachers that were so dangerous and they separated themselves from the practices of the Nicolaitans, which was probably a religious cult associated with sexual practices. It’s no wonder they were commended. If a church succumbs to false teaching they are doomed for failure. Why do you think so many churches today are declining rapidly? They have distorted the fundamental message of the gospel. We could call them false churches teaching false doctrine. We have to be careful though because not every church with false teaching is pining away—many are growing rapidly. Two weeks ago I found a Jehovah’s Witness Bible outside the office door on Sunday morning. I threw it on the table and thought I would decide later what to do with it. That night I blew a brain gasket and was late for the membership class. I sat down, looked at that false Bible sitting on the desk and threw it across the room into the garbage can. I shocked a few people. I realized that was a bit harsh, especially because I did it partly because I was frustrated with myself for being late. But it is a good illustration of false teaching. Essentially that book of errors deserved the garbage heap. Dangerous false teaching needs to be exposed and avoided at all costs. Most of us would probably not fall prey to a J.W., but we could very well fall for other, more subtle false teaching. Anything that diminishes the deity of Christ, the work of Christ or the authority of Christ is false teaching. Few things get my blood boiling more than churches that teach prosperity theology—also called the health and wealth gospel. These are the Benny Hinn’s of the world who claim that God wants every Christian to be wealthy, to be free of sickness and to have a poofy hairdo! I don’t have time to go into all of the dangers associated with such teaching, just stay away from it. These believers separated themselves from false teaching and they also separated themselves from moral impurity. They were careful to guard their hearts and minds from the corruption of the culture around them. This desire for moral purity is always a desirable trait for a body of believers. They were a serving church, a separated church and also a suffering church. In v. 3 Jesus said, You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. They endured trials of many kinds. Persecution of Christians was becoming increasingly common. But these believers were enduring persecution and all kinds of hardships for the name and sake of Jesus Christ. Jesus wanted them to know that their suffering did not go unnoticed by him—and the same is true for us today. Our service, sacrifice and suffering are all marks of a solid church and Jesus, who walks among us, knows about all of them. The Ephesian church was a good church. If it were a modern-day church, I think any one of us would have been comfortable there. They had sound doctrine, lots of activity, good programs and were hard workers. If you visited this church a few times you would no doubt decide to stay and call it your church home. Yet despite their commendation, Jesus had one pointed condemnation of this church, . 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. This church had so many good qualities, but it had lost its first love. What does it mean to have forsaken their first love? The first love of a Christian must be their love for God. All of their good works, which had at one time been motivated by their love for God, had become a sterile devotion. They were simply going through the motions. And if they lost their love for God then it must have also been true that they lost their love for one another. How do I know that they lost their love for one another? Because the same man who wrote Revelation, also wrote 1 John 4:20, If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. The Bible is clear that love for God and love for other people is inseparable. Their love for God and their love for people had grown cold. Jesus himself predicted this would happen when he said, Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. (Matt 24:12)
This is similar the problem the church in Corinth experienced. In chapter 13 Paul laid out what the ideal Christian might look like. Look at the list: speaks in tongues, prophecies, discerns mysteries, has great knowledge, possesses a mountain-moving kind of faith, gives everything they have to the poor, and is even willing to be burned at the stake as a martyr. We would all agree that such a person would be an exemplary Christian—kind of like the Ephesian church which was a serving, separated and suffering church. But what was missing from both churches? Love. We know what Paul said in 1 Corinthians, don’t we? Even if I do all of these things, but I don’t have love, these things are what—nothing! All of our hard work, all of our perseverance, all of our sacrifice, even down to the sacrifice of our very lives amounts to nothing unless we have love.
So is it possible to have a church that has great discernment about false teaching, a church where people work hard and serve faithfully and still not be a church of love? Jesus said it is not only possible, but after forty years it is quite likely. The love of most will grow cold. How is your passion for Jesus? How is your love for others? Is there a broken relationship between you and another believer? How about the school board decision? Are you angry at them? Are you harboring silent, sinful attitudes toward anyone who disagrees with you? I know you all think that you are mad about the issue but not at the people. “Love the sinner but hate the sin”. That’s our mantra, isn’t it? But are you doing it? Are you able to separate with surgical precision the difference between the sin and the sinner? It is possible, it just isn’t as easy as we all think it is.
Some of us are just tired of ministry and church work. We know service is the right thing to do, we’re just tired of doing it. Our hearts aren’t in it any longer---our love is growing—or has grown cold. This is a serious condemnation which demands an immediate cure, which Jesus clearly presents in the next verse, Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Why did Jesus tell them to remember? He wants them to understand how far they are from the love they once had. Remember the height from which you have fallen. Jesus was saying to them, “Once your love was this high, now look how far it has fallen. Look at the distance between where you once were and where you are now.”
But how do we love others and love God? As John wrote in the verse prior to v. 20, We love because he first loved us. This is what we forget—that all of our love proceeds from and flows out of the love that Christ has shown to us. You were down here—you were lost in your own sin and stuck in the miry clay, but Jesus saved you and lifted you up high. Look at the difference between where you were before salvation and where you were after salvation. Do you mean Jesus loved me that much? Yes he did, and yes, he does. So if we were lifted from the lowest place and lifted high through our salvation, Jesus condemns us for falling back down low again. In other words, we are acting like we haven’t been saved. Please be clear about this. Jesus is not accusing them of immorality or false teaching. Remember, they had done exceptionally well in those areas. They were rebuked because their love had grown cold. They had forgotten the cross. They did not remember the depths of their previous sin or the heights to which Christ had lifted them. If you forget this love you make a mockery of the cross—you strip the cross of it power and Jesus cannot tolerate such a thing.
Once you remember the height from which you have fallen, the second part of the cure comes easily—repentance. If you don’t think anything is wrong with your level of love, then you won’t feel a need to repent. This word for repentance is the same word that is used for unbelievers—repent—change your mind about your sin and your lack of love. I had to repent of this recently. I had set aside some time to do some extra Bible reading, but instead I told myself I was too tired and distracted myself by watching TV. I am not saying all TV is bad, but do you know what message God gently spoke to me? He said, “You could have gone deeper.” He whispered that to me loud and clear—you could have gone deeper. I wasted a perfect opportunity to go deeper in understanding and fellowship with Jesus. There was no big sin, there was no moral lapse—I just wasted a chance to go deeper with Christ.
Remember—and when you remember you will want to repent. When you truly repent you will want to return to the things you used to do. Then the fourth step in the cure is again to remember. We need to keep remembering the perfect love of Christ poured out for us. We need to keep remembering that God is faithful and trustworthy and good and perfect. We need to keep remembering. But if we don’t remember and repent, then there will be a consequence. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Do you remember from last week what the lampstand represents? The lampstand is the church itself. A church without love ceases to be a church. Do you realize that God does not need us? Jesus said, “I will build my church.” He will use the church in Ephesus, but if their love grows cold and they don’t repent, he will completely remove their church. The same is true for Grace Church. God doesn’t need Grace Church to save the town of Viroqua. If we have sound doctrine, faithful service AND love, he will use us. It is our privilege to be his vessels of mercy to a dying world. But he does not need us in the sense of being dependent on us. If we do not have love and truth, he will remove our church and use another.
Let me close with a story to help you define a symbol of remembrance in your life. It’s another story about the broken heart of a mother. Some friends of ours recently emerged from a time of great trial. Last Fall their 19 year old son informed them that he was responsible for getting a 16 year old girl pregnant. As you can imagine, they were devastated. Of course they were concerned for the moral character and future of their son, but they were also afraid of the legal consequences of his actions. It is no exaggeration to say that rivers of tears were cried over this. The pain, the tears and the frustration were at times almost unbearable. But they persevered and vowed to unconditionally love their son no matter what happened. Shortly after the baby was born they requested a DNA test. To their utter relief, the results showed that their son was not the father. By this time their son had thoroughly repented of his sin and was very grateful for this new lease on life. Listen now to what the broken heart of this mother had to say about God’s faithfulness. She said, “Now I finally understand why they built all of the altars in the Old Testament. I just want to build a huge altar in the shape of a baby bottle in our back yard!” To this mother, and father, the baby bottle was a symbol of God’s faithfulness to them through that very difficult time. What is your altar of remembrance? What is your symbol of God’s forgiveness and faithfulness. What helps you to remember, repent and remember again?
Rich Maurer May 9, 2004 |