Revelation 2:1-7
The Church of
Ephesus - Part 1
Text
Rev 2:1 "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:
Rev 2:2 "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;
Rev 2:3 "and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.
Rev 2:4 "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Rev 2:5 "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.
Rev 2:6 "But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Rev 2:7 "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." '
Pray
Intro
√ Chapter 2 begins the second major division of the Revelation:
Chapter 1 “The things which you have seen.”
Chapter 2 & 3 “The things which are.”
Chapter 4-22 “The things which take place after this”
Chapters 2 & 3 we come to the part of the Revelation which regards...
“the things which are”
...in these chapters we find that they contain the 7 messages which Jesus spoke to the 7 churches in Asia at the time that John received the Revelation.
Each church needed a particular message from the Lord to address the spiritual condition of the church.
Additionally, as we have already studied - the 7 churches are also symbolic in their representation of the condition of...
Any church at any given point in time
Individual Christian at any given point in time
The Church historically as it progresses through time
Ephesus - the church in the 1st century
Laodicia - the apostate church at the end of time
So there is great application for every Christian in every age in these 7 messages until the Lord returns.
Ap. This is a message that I would like to preach to every Christian, or person who believes they’re a Christian, in Northwest Arkansas!
While most Christians can recite the story of David & Goliath, or recount with great emotion the record of Jesus’ birth, few have read, or been taught on the 7 messages from Jesus to His Church.
The great tragedy of that, is that the evils and the false doctrines which are so prevalent in the church today are the direct outgrowth of the neglect of these 7 messages!
These are Jesus’ last
words to Mankind before He returns.
If we will give ourselves to understand the....
Instructions
Warnings
... contained in these 7 messages they will serve us like a compass in the wilderness that will keep us on the path of life and bring us safely to the promised land.
Therefore, let’s study His message to the church in Ephesus.
General format (vs. 1)
Rev 2:1 "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:
√ Each of the messages follows a general format
Greeting - identify the recipient
Description of Himself (from chapter 1) - emphasize something the church had forgot about Him.
“I know your works” - He’s watching His Body
Commendation - He acknowledges are good works
Correction - He chastise those He loves
Warning - He cares about our future
Promise - He rewards those who obey
*** Two churches He has nothing to commend them for.
Two He has nothing to correct - let’s strive to be like these!
Greeting (vs. 1)
√ Greeting
Jesus says…
"To the angel of the church of Ephesus write”
The church of Ephesus was founded by Paul (Acts 19) where he taught for over two years.
Center of occult practice
Gospel achieved great influence - “all dwelling in Asia heard..”
Powerful demonstration of the Spirit
Riot ("idol" hands are the devil's tools!") J
Later pastored by Timothy and John in his last days
A church with a great foundation, a church mighty in the Word and Works of God.
Description (vs. 1)
√ Next we have the description that Jesus gives of Himself. It is an important clue to the condition of the church to which He is sending the message.
Reveals something which the church has forgotten about Him.
Something which He wants to emphasize to that church regarding His character or His position.
Notice what He says in vs. 1...
'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
...we already know from Rev. 1:20 that the seven stars represent the angels of the churches and the seven lampstands represent the churches.
What then is Jesus reminding them of?
That He is in control of the church
That He is in the midst of the church
Control; apparently the church in Ephesus had forgotten Who it was that was in control of their church.
It wasn’t the pastor, or the elders, or a congregational board, rather…
…it is supposed to be Jesus Who directs the life of the church.
He is the Head of the Body - there’s only one head J
Ap. Reminds me that often churches get involved in so many activities, not because Jesus has directed them to, but because they are the pet project of a pastor, or elder.
Those things do not please the Lord.
So important that we give ourselves to prayer - communication with the Head - so that we know His direction and His will for the church.
Next, notice where Jesus is...
Midst; He is in the middle of the church - He’s at the center of the church.
That seems like a strange thing to have to remind a church of - that Jesus is the focal point of the church life.
The church has…
Got His Name everywhere
His picture hanging in the hall
Sing about Him
Though the church of Ephesus was known for many good things, they had forgotten the most important thing of all, that their service and their message must be about Jesus first!
Ap. Churches are known for many things...
Music - the church that really rocks
Politics - the church that has great influence
Youth - the church that cares for generation X
Poor - the church that loves the less fortunate
Ephesus was known for many good works - but what Jesus wanted them to remember was that He was to occupy the first place of ministry.
He wanted the church to be known for Himself before the works.
The problem at
Ephesus was that Jesus had got lost in the busyness of ministry.
Ap. Don't ever forget that Jesus is more interested in the minister, than the ministry!
Ex. God must be central in our ministry - Exo. 20:22-26
Exo 20:22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
Exo 20:23 'You shall not make anything to be with Me--gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.
Exo 20:24 'An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.
Exo 20:25 'And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
Exo 20:26 'Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.'
The point is that nothing was to take away from, or distract from, Jesus.
Not buildings, not an altar, not the minister, nothing was to draw the attention of the people from God.
Unfortunately, much of what the Church is involved in today has little to do with Jesus.
Ap. A.W. Tozer once observed of the Church in America...
“It’s almost impossible to get Christians to come out where God is the only attraction!”
The church today has substituted so many things in place of Jesus to try and attract people.
We’ve learned to market the church
Make it consumer friendly
Sophisticated presentations to wow the people
Youth facilities
The problem is that it works!
The "stuff" brings in the people, but it doesn't necessarily bring them to Jesus!
What you have then is a church full of people who are there to be entertained and are not interested in Jesus at all.
But, the real power for a changed life; the real ministry of the Holy Spirit is found in a church that will make Jesus the focus of it’s ministry.
That’s because the Holy Spirit is waiting for someone to speak of Jesus, to make Jesus the focal point, so that He can bear witness to the Name of Jesus.
That's the Holy Spirit's main ministry in the earth today…
Joh 15:26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
The church at Ephesus had moved Jesus out from the center of its life.
So we are to remember that Jesus must be the One around Whom the life of the Church revolves!
Commendation (vs. 2-3, & 6)
Rev 2:2 "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;
Rev 2:3 "and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.
and...
Rev 2:6 "But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
√ Commendation
This is good stuff to know! That is, I want to know what makes my Master happy! I want to know what kind of things Jesus is pleased with so that I can do them.
Ex. Your employer - it’s to your advantage to know what he/she is looking for in terms of your job performance. That way you can do those things and be rewarded.
So let’s look at what Jesus is excited about in this church and learn from it so that can do those things!
Works and labor; Jesus makes special note of the fact that this church was busy about the work of the Kingdom. In fact, the word “labor” means to “toil with sweat”.
These guys were working hard for Jesus’ Name!
Ex. The large number of people who are involved in serving here at Calvary Chapel! A real blessing!
Ap. Am I busy about the Lord’s work? Or has life crowded out the work of the Kingdom?
Patience; hypomone - that victorious endurance that comes by making it through trials without giving up or complaining.
Ex. Book of Acts - the disciples met resistance every step of the way - but they rejoiced in their afflictions because they knew they had been counted worthy to suffer for Jesus.
Ap. When you step out to serve the Lord the enemy is going to attack. Most Christians today give up! Stay in there, don’t give up for anything and don’t give the enemy one inch of ground.
No tolerance for evil; this was a fellowship that would not tolerate evil in their presence.
They refused to compromise with the world and would not lower their standard of righteousness.
Ex. The popular thought of our day is to be "religious pluralism.
Religious pluralism = all religions are true
Religious diversity = acknowledge different beliefs
Christians are called to extend Biblical tolerance toward those who hold a different belief…
…but not to make the fatal mistake of thinking that all religions are the same, or that they are all true.
Ex. The God of the Bible vs. the God of the Koran
Franklin Graham got in trouble with the "politically correct" police when he said that Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God.
On the other hand, President Bush played the politically correct card by claiming that they do!
Who's right? What's the truth?
Christians believe in One God manifest in Three Persons as revealed by the Bible - the Trinity.
Muslims believe in One God and deny the Trinity as heresy because the Koran says so!
Therefore, they can't both be worshipping the same God! It would be a compromise then for Christians, and the Church, to say otherwise.
The church at Ephesus was commended by Jesus for not compromising the Truth.
If you and I want that same commendation we must not compromise the Truth either!
Tested those who claimed to speak for God; isn’t that interesting?
Jesus took note of, and commends this church for testing Apostles (messengers of God).
In other words, they didn’t just let anyone climb into the pulpit and bring some new message to the church.
They tested everyone, even those who claimed to be an apostle, by the Word of God.
If they were found to be a liar - they were cast out.
Ap. Be a Berean!
There’s also a warning to those who do not test the message and the messenger.
Christians who end up in cults; who get hurt under some false doctrinal system, are those who have failed to apply the Word of God to the message and the messenger who brought it.
Ex. Check out what you're watching on TV and hearing on the radio!
1Jo 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1Jo 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
1Jo 4:3 and 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.
Hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans; much speculation as to the exact nature and doctrine of this group.
“nikao” = to conquer
“laos” = the people
The creation of a priesthood that ruled over the people of God robing them of their spiritual freedom and putting them under a yoke of ungodly authority.
Others believe they were followers of Nicolaus of Antioch who used their Christian liberty as an excuse to fulfill the lust of their flesh.
Whatever this group taught the important thing is to note that a true love for God involves a fervent hate of the counterfeits of true Christianity and those that distort or pervert the purity of Biblical truth.
Why? Because the result of false doctrines is to rob His children of the abundant life promised here; or worse, to lead a person into the Lake of Fire.
√ The church in Ephesus was commended for their good works, hating what was evil and for not accepting false doctrine.
There would be few
churches today that would qualify for such high esteem from Jesus.
Close
√ Do those things which Jesus commends the church at Ephesus for…
Good works
Hating evil
Identifying and correcting false teachers & false doctrine
But, don't forget to keep Jesus at the center of your life and the life of the local church!