Intro / Review:
"To [church], from Christ (using descriptive phrases from Chapter 1): I know what's going on there. Here is what you are doing well, here is where you need to repent, I am Coming Soon, do this. Heed the Word of the Lord and receive this promise from the Lord!"
The Progress Report:
- The Commendation (Rev 2:2-3,6)
- Hard Working
- Persevering
- Discerning
- The Criticism (Rev 2:4)
- The Correction (Rev 2:5)
- Remember
- Repent
- Return
- The Call (Rev 2:7)
Abandoning the love they had at first
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:33-00:37
Open up your Bibles with me please to Revelation chapter 2.
00:38-00:43
Has anyone here ever been to one of those really enormous indoor water parks?
00:44-00:45
How many people have been there?
00:45-00:57
"Oh, okay, a lot of us have. Oh man, I love those, yo!" Like Splash Lagoon, and Kalahari, and Castaway Bay, and the Great Wolf Lodge.
00:58-01:17
You know, Aaron and I, there were times that even before we had kids, we would go, I mean, if you haven't been to these things, I mean, there's wave pools, and there's water slides, and there's like water roller coasters, and then there's like lazy rivers you can just get on and float around, and you've been to these places?
01:18-01:20
I hate those places, man.
01:20-01:21
I really do.
01:22-01:30
I compare it to this, it's like, I call it, taking a five hour cold shower in a warehouse with 300 strangers.
01:31-01:32
Oh, but we go every year.
01:33-01:39
We go and I smile and I splash, but I always got one eye on the clock.
01:39-01:40
Like what happened?
01:40-01:43
I sincerely, we did, didn't we?
01:43-01:44
And we love those things.
01:44-01:46
Once upon a time, we loved those things.
01:46-01:58
And I'm like, now I go and I go through the motions and I look like I'm having fun, but I'm having a horrible time, and what happened?" And you're like, "You got old, Pastor Jeff.
01:58-02:04
That's what happened." Like, you're just a little too self-conscious to show off that dad bond you've been working on.
02:05-02:16
I mean, anyone else here have something that you used to love, you used to love it, and you still do it, but your heart just really isn't in it anymore?
02:17-02:18
You have something like that in your life?
02:19-02:21
Is that something called church?
02:21-02:23
For a lot of people it is.
02:24-02:26
We're in Revelation 1.
02:26-02:30
Verses 1-8 is the preview. It's like a movie trailer for everything that follows.
02:31-02:36
And then John introduces himself and sets the scene for us in the rest of chapter 1.
02:36-02:41
Sets the stage. Jesus Christ shows up in all His majestic glory.
02:41-02:45
And we saw this last week. John was sort of describing what Jesus looked like.
02:45-02:48
And he relays the commission that Jesus gave him.
02:49-02:55
which is to write. He says, "I want you to write down three things." And this is basically like the outline of Revelation.
02:55-03:01
Jesus said, "Write down the things that you see." That was seeing glorified Jesus, and John did that.
03:01-03:04
And that means we're a third done with Revelation now.
03:04-03:10
He said, "Write down the things that are." That's like state of the church. That's chapters 2 and 3.
03:10-03:13
And Jesus said to write down the things that will take place after this.
03:13-03:15
That's the stuff that's going to happen in the future.
03:15-03:19
And that's chapters 4-22 that we will be getting to.
03:20-03:26
So chapters 2 and 3 in Revelation, we're going to be spending seven weeks, one for each church. These are progress reports.
03:27-03:29
To the churches from Jesus Himself.
03:30-03:32
We talked about this a little bit. What are these churches?
03:32-03:35
Are they real churches? Are they symbolic? Do they mean something?
03:35-03:41
Well, these were seven actual churches, but they do typify churches that have always existed throughout history.
03:41-03:44
These are the kind of churches that have just always existed.
03:44-03:48
These are the kind of churches that exist in the Pittsburgh community as well.
03:48-03:51
These are the kind of churches that can describe us.
03:52-03:58
So each of these letters that we're going to look at, there's a basic format that they follow.
03:58-04:01
And the basic format looks something like this.
04:01-04:06
Okay, this is kind of generic, but Jesus sort of uses the same format for each letter.
04:06-04:13
But Jesus says, "To this church, from Christ," and He uses descriptive phrases from chapter 1.
04:13-04:14
and we'll see that.
04:14-04:19
Jesus said, "I know what's going on there, and here's what you're doing well, and here's where you need to repent.
04:20-04:24
I'm coming soon, so do this." And then he gives him some instruction.
04:24-04:34
And then he says, "Heed the word of the Lord and receive this promise from the Lord." So that outline is just sort of like the basic form that Jesus takes with this.
04:34-04:35
So look at Revelation 2.1.
04:36-04:42
Again, if you're visiting with us today, we're so glad that you're here and we are going through the book of Revelation verse by verse.
04:42-04:43
We're not skipping anything.
04:44-04:46
So this is where we left off last week, right?
04:46-05:01
Revelation 2.1, "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, 'The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.'" So this first letter is addressed to the church in Ephesus.
05:02-05:05
We spend a lot of time talking about Ephesus going through Acts.
05:05-05:08
The church was founded, Acts 18, Acts 19.
05:08-05:15
We saw the church sort of founded and growing, Paul himself eventually spent almost three years in Ephesus.
05:16-05:25
And here's where, I found this really interesting, but history tells us that the apostle John probably spent about 30 years at this church.
05:26-05:38
See, historians think that this was the church where John wrote his epistles, and this is the church where John was attending when he was arrested and ultimately exiled to Patmos for being a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
05:39-05:44
Jesus identifies Himself as the one who has the seven stars in His right hand, walks among the seven lampstands.
05:44-05:46
We talked about that last week.
05:46-05:48
Those are terms from chapter 1.
05:48-05:52
And it's just Jesus' way of reminding them who's addressing Him.
05:53-05:55
This isn't what Grandma thinks about your church.
05:56-05:59
This isn't what your harshest critic thinks about your church.
05:59-06:01
This is what God thinks about your church.
06:01-06:05
So that means we need to listen really closely to what God says about the church.
06:06-06:07
So if you're taking notes, write this down.
06:08-06:10
Here's the report card, progress reports.
06:11-06:12
First of all, let's talk about the commendation.
06:13-06:14
The commendation, here's what you're doing right.
06:15-06:21
We're going to look at verses 2 and 3, and then we're going to jump down to verse 6 because Jesus sort of circles back and reminds them of something they're doing well.
06:22-06:36
He says, "I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.
06:36-06:51
I know you are enduring patiently up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary." Verse 6, again more commendation, he says, "Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicoletans, which I also hate." Stop there.
06:52-07:06
Commendation, Jesus said, "I know your works." Now that word for "know," I think you know this without me having to explain it, but when Jesus knows something, He knows something, okay?
07:07-07:18
This wasn't like, "Hey, I heard a rumor somewhere, "or I was looking at your Facebook page "and sort of put some things together." Jesus said, "I have perfect full knowledge "of everything that's happening in that church.
07:18-07:26
"I know the hearts of every single person there." So when Jesus knows something, He knows something, right?
07:27-07:28
And here's Jesus, and here's what I know.
07:28-07:30
Here's the commendation, three things, jot these down.
07:30-07:33
He says, "First of all, you're hardworking." You're hardworking.
07:34-07:35
That's that word toil.
07:35-07:40
That's the word "toil." At the risk of being offensive, some of you don't know what this word means.
07:41-07:44
But the word "toil" means you work until you're exhausted.
07:45-07:47
And I know some of you do know what that means.
07:47-07:52
That you work, and you work, and you work, and you work, and I'm not stopping until I'm done.
07:52-07:55
That's toiling. It's working until you're exhausted.
07:56-07:58
That's the first thing Jesus commended them for.
07:59-08:03
The church - reminder - church is not the place that you go to get.
08:04-08:07
Church is not the place that you go to get entertained.
08:08-08:16
And I think especially in our culture, with so many good churches and a consumer mindset, I think people have the idea that church is the place you go to get.
08:17-08:19
Like what can this church offer me?
08:19-08:20
What can I get from this church?
08:21-08:22
Which church is the most entertaining?
08:23-08:26
Which church is going to give the most to my kids?
08:28-08:30
That's just a terrible reason to pick a church.
08:31-08:35
You need to find a church where God is feeding you and where God is using you and get involved there.
08:35-08:39
But church is not the place you get, church is the place where you serve.
08:40-08:42
Church is the place where you give.
08:42-08:48
And yes, as we are in a community of people giving, there are times that we get and we reap the benefits of that.
08:48-08:51
I'm not saying that, but I'm talking about the mindset here.
08:52-08:53
Jesus said to this church, "You're hardworking.
08:54-09:02
"You work until you can't work anymore." It's not just, "Oh, what can you do for me, "Church of Ephesus?" Church isn't a place you get or get entertained.
09:02-09:09
It's a place where you worship, walk, and work for Christ in a community of believers.
09:09-09:10
That's what church is to be.
09:11-09:12
And the Ephesians got that.
09:13-09:15
You show up to work.
09:16-09:16
Merit.
09:17-09:17
Alright?
09:17-09:19
The second thing is you're persevering.
09:21-09:21
Persevering.
09:22-09:23
That means being patient in hard times.
09:23-09:28
Not criticizing, not complaining, not boo-hoo, not wanting to give up.
09:28-09:29
You persevere.
09:29-10:01
stand strong in hard times and I'm not going to get into all this, you can research this, but this was a tough culture to do that. It was the center of Artemis/Diana worship and the priestesses at the temple were basically prostitutes and it just permeated everything in their culture, their economy. It was a horribly pagan, nasty culture that this church was sort of nestled in and Jesus is like, "You're standing strong in the midst of that. You of like Chick-fil-A, right?
10:02-10:06
But you're standing strong for Christ in the middle of a cesspool.
10:08-10:08
You're persevering.
10:09-10:11
And it was for the best motive, right? We saw that.
10:11-10:12
He said it was for His name's sake.
10:13-10:14
No greater motive than that, right?
10:16-10:20
The third thing that He commends them for is He says, "You're discerning." You're discerning.
10:21-10:26
And that's going to be a broad category because of three things that He says.
10:26-10:29
But Jesus says, "You're discerning." How are they discerning?
10:30-10:35
Well, first of all, He says, "You cannot tolerate evil men." They were sensitive to sin and they dealt with unrepentant people.
10:36-10:38
They did it. They went after that.
10:38-10:49
"You don't tolerate evil. You don't tolerate evil people." He says, "You test those who call themselves apostles." I was kind of laughing to myself this week.
10:49-10:53
I don't know about you, but when I was a young Christian, I came to Christ when I was 20.
10:54-11:03
And when I came to Christ, I thought that everything and everyone that called themselves Christian was totally legit. Right?
11:04-11:19
I thought everything, whether it was the guy on TV, or the speaker on the radio, or different magazines, Christian publications, Christian books, I thought everything that was called Christian was actually Christian.
11:19-11:25
And boy, I found out in about three weeks of my walk with Christ that that was not the case.
11:25-11:31
We need to test everyone who says that they're speaking for God.
11:31-11:35
You see, that's what Jesus commended the Ephesian church for.
11:35-11:36
Did you see that?
11:37-11:41
He says, "You have tested those." You've tested those. How do you test?
11:42-11:47
Well, when somebody says they're speaking for God, does their message line up with God's Word?
11:47-11:49
Are they agreeing with what God has already said?
11:50-11:51
That's how you know they're speaking for God.
11:52-11:58
If they're communicating something that is contrary to, or not in this book, they are not speaking for God.
11:59-12:05
Then you jump down to verse 6, "Jesus said, 'You hate the deeds of the Nicoletians.'" You hate the deeds of the Nicoletians.
12:06-12:07
Like, well, who are the Nicoletians?
12:09-12:10
Nobody's really sure.
12:11-12:17
Nobody's really exactly, specifically, positively identified this group.
12:17-12:23
But based on statements about them here and later on in the church to a Pergamum, Jesus mentions them.
12:24-12:28
These were people that apparently promoted sin in the name of liberty.
12:29-12:32
Especially in areas of food, areas of sexuality.
12:34-12:35
And they led other people into sin.
12:36-12:39
You see, such people still exist in our day.
12:39-12:44
You know, the mindset is this, "Well, God is glorified by forgiving sin, right?
12:44-12:47
And Christ has forgiven all of our sin, right?
12:48-12:56
So therefore, when we sin, we're already forgiven, and God's already glorified because our sin is forgiven, so it doesn't matter if you sin or not.
12:57-12:58
Sin really doesn't matter to God.
12:59-13:01
Just sin as much as you want, because it's already forgiven.
13:02-13:03
We are free in Christ.
13:03-13:07
And there are people that, "Oh, free in Christ!
13:08-13:11
And I have liberty. I can do whatever I want.
13:12-13:15
And I'm free in Christ." Such people still exist today.
13:17-13:20
And I would say to such people, you're also free to read the Bible and get a clue.
13:20-13:24
Because that is not what Christian liberty is about.
13:24-13:26
We are not free to sin.
13:27-13:36
I've heard people say such foolish, ignorant things like, "Jesus paid for your sins, so get His money's worth out of that." And just stupid.
13:38-13:39
Such foolishness.
13:40-13:46
But that's the kind of people that this church had to deal with, and that's the kind of people which you're going to have to deal with at some point or another.
13:47-13:59
But here's what I want you to notice specifically about this in verse 6, where Jesus said, "Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicoletians, which I also hate." You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
13:59-14:01
Are you saying that Jesus hates?
14:01-14:04
And Jesus is commending the church for hating?
14:04-14:10
Well, that certainly doesn't sound like the Jesus that I grew up hearing about in Sunday school." Well, look at your text very closely.
14:12-14:14
Jesus hates the deeds, not the people.
14:15-14:15
Did you see that?
14:16-14:18
He hates the deeds, not the people.
14:19-14:22
And He commends the church for hating the deeds and not the people.
14:23-14:30
This is a whole other sermon and I'm really fighting temptation to not just launch into it right now, but the church has done a horrible job with this.
14:31-14:34
When I say "the church" I mean the church in general, the church at large.
14:34-14:41
You know, instead of like, hate the sin, love the sinner kind of thing, It's, you know, we love the sin.
14:41-14:55
And we want to tell people, "It's okay if you sin, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay if you sin, you don't have to change." And we start to accept sinful lifestyle behaviors as being okay.
14:56-14:58
Whatever happened to repentance?
15:00-15:05
Whatever happened to, "Jesus Christ radically transforms your life!" Whatever happened to that?
15:06-15:16
people that are living a sinful lifestyle, we say, "Well, you don't need to change." And we're robbing God of the opportunity of transforming that person's life?
15:16-15:20
We're robbing that person of the blessing of experiencing the grace of Jesus Christ?
15:21-15:22
Oh, I said I wasn't going to get into this sermon.
15:23-15:25
I'm going to stop there with that point.
15:26-15:29
But notice that Jesus hated the deeds and He commended the people for hating the deeds.
15:30-15:34
The church was hardworking, they were persevering, and they were discerning.
15:36-16:33
good progress report right and at that point they were like okay so we can leave now we're done right now there's more look at verse 4 the criticism the criticism Jesus said here's what you're not doing so well church verse 4 but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first to this church they were working hard they were standing strong they were holding the truth and everything looked so good on the outside. But that was the problem. It only looked good on the outside because Christ points out they had a major issue that they needed to deal with. That's they abandoned the love that they had at first. You're like love for what? The love for everything that matters. The love for everything that needs Specifically, the love for Christ.
16:34-16:36
The love for Jesus Christ Himself.
16:36-16:37
How about the love for the church?
16:38-16:40
How about the love for the lost?
16:40-16:43
That's what Jesus is talking about here. It's all of the above.
16:43-16:47
You have walked away from the love that you had at first.
16:48-16:51
First love is all about sincerity.
16:52-17:01
And when you drift from that, you may still do the right things, like at the water park, but your heart just isn't in it.
17:02-17:09
According to Jesus, if I'm reading this right, I want you to write this down, why you do matters just as much as what you do.
17:10-17:12
Why you do matters just as much as what you do.
17:13-17:16
For those of you who are married, you hopefully are getting that now.
17:17-17:26
Because this sort of problem can happen in a marriage, just like the Ephesians had become loveless, It can happen in a marriage, where the marriage becomes loveless.
17:26-17:30
Oh, the couple might still share a home, share a bed.
17:32-17:35
They may still share the kiss goodbye. They may still share vacations.
17:36-17:41
But that honeymoon has long been over, and they're just phoning it in now.
17:42-17:46
"I do what I do because this is a husbandly role," or whatever.
17:46-17:54
"I do what I do because I'm a wife, and a wife, I guess, is supposed to do these things." and is not motivated by love.
17:55-17:57
Why you do matters just as much as what you do.
17:59-18:00
So what does that look like in the church?
18:02-18:04
Conviction time for all of us.
18:04-18:06
What does it look like in the church?
18:07-18:07
You can jot these things down.
18:08-18:09
No sincere heart love for Jesus.
18:10-18:13
No sincere heart love for Jesus leads to empty religion.
18:14-18:15
That's what it looks like in the church.
18:16-18:22
I still show up on Sunday and I mouth some songs and I pray in church when called upon.
18:22-18:38
But you know, really, if I'm being completely honest with you, I mean, if I'm being completely honest, I don't really love Jesus as much as I identify Christianity as my religious affiliation.
18:39-18:42
That's what happens when there's no sincere heart love for Jesus Christ.
18:43-18:44
We turn into a religion.
18:45-19:19
No sincere heart love for the church, for the people sitting here, leads to tolerance. And I don't mean that in a good way, and that tolerance is the highest of virtue ways that it's often promoted today. Here's what I mean. We come to church and we pretend to care about people, but if we're being completely honest about it, people are kind of annoying. And I attend small group because I kind of signed up for it and they're kind of expecting me. But you know what, Pastor Jim, really the truth is I don't really love people as much as This is I tolerate people.
19:19-19:21
That's what happens when there's no sincere heart love.
19:21-19:26
This is what the Ephesian church drifted away from, and this is something that we can drift away from.
19:27-19:29
No sincere heart love for the lost?
19:29-19:30
What does that lead to?
19:31-19:31
Programs.
19:33-19:33
Programs.
19:34-19:35
We're going to have a program.
19:36-19:42
Because as a church, we're sort of obligated to do these events to get new people to come to our church.
19:42-19:48
And I show up at these outreaches, I guess we should be involved in the community thing.
19:49-19:58
You know what, Pastor Jeff, I don't really love the lost as much as I feel obligated to be part of these programs to get new church attendees.
20:00-20:06
So do you see how you can look like you're working so hard, but your heart's just not in it.
20:07-20:09
Following Christ becomes mechanical.
20:10-20:12
It becomes obligatory.
20:13-20:16
It's a duty, not a delight.
20:17-20:33
And you're like, "Oh, as the pastor, you probably never wrestle with that." More than anybody in this room, I promise you, because there is a real sense in which, well, I have to do this because the church provides for my family by doing this, and the temptation is stronger for me than you realize that it is.
20:34-20:39
And I am constantly, church, hear me, I am constantly on my face asking God to check my motive.
20:40-20:42
God, let me do what I do for the right reason.
20:43-20:51
This is something that I'm constantly needing the Lord to work in my heart, because it's so easy to get there.
20:51-21:08
Your mind acknowledges that all these things that we do are right, and it's right to work hard, and it's right to endure, and it's right to use discernment, and it's right to hold the truth, but your heart just isn't in it, but we still do it because intellectually, we acknowledge that it's right.
21:09-21:11
You're like, "Bro, how can that happen?
21:12-21:14
How does that happen? I'll tell you how it happens.
21:16-21:24
You focus on buildings and capital campaigns and facility stuff, and you lose sight of the mission.
21:25-21:29
Now look, we're in the middle of working on some things for the building and capital campaigns.
21:29-21:31
We're in the middle of working on these things.
21:31-21:36
I'm just saying these things become a real danger of becoming the focus of the church.
21:36-21:43
All of our energy and thoughts and resources, and we're all focused on this so much that we forget why we're even here.
21:45-21:46
That's how it happens.
21:46-21:47
Here's another way it happens.
21:49-21:51
I would say much worse than the previous.
21:52-21:53
You get jaded with people.
21:54-21:55
You get jaded with people.
21:56-21:58
Go ahead, try it sometime.
21:58-22:01
Completely pour your heart out and be unappreciated.
22:03-22:03
Repeatedly.
22:04-22:07
By the very people that you're trying to serve.
22:07-22:08
"Oh, that's a treat.
22:09-22:16
That's a real treat." And if you've been involved in ministry for more than five minutes, any level of ministry, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
22:17-22:18
It's rough, man.
22:18-22:21
Our old church, we had these community meals.
22:21-22:23
What was it like once or twice a month?
22:23-22:25
Have these community meals, and here's the mindset going into it.
22:26-22:35
We're going to love our community, and there's these people out there that are, whether they're poor or hungry or whatever, whatever, and we're gonna bring them in and we're gonna give them a hot meal twice a month.
22:35-22:43
We're gonna hot meal, no charge, and we're going to pour out our love, and these people are gonna come in, and they're gonna be having their hot meal.
22:44-22:49
And they're like, "Oh, my heart is so warmed by this meal because this church loves me so much.
22:49-22:54
I wanna know the God that they serve." And that's the idea that you have when you set these things up, right?
22:54-22:57
It's all people are gonna love this, they're gonna love this.
22:57-22:59
You know what it actually looked like?
22:59-23:07
A line of people on their iPhones, stepping up to the counter going, "Spaghetti again?
23:08-23:11
We just had spaghetti at the church that we went to yesterday.
23:11-23:18
I'm having spaghetti again." Then the next time it's time to show for the community meal, how do you feel about that?
23:19-23:21
Oh, go through that a few times.
23:22-23:33
Go through that a few times and forget that you're doing this for Jesus and let people's reaction have more of an impact on you than the Lord's opinion about what you're doing.
23:34-23:36
And eventually your heart's just not going to be in it.
23:37-23:38
Jesus' criticism remains true.
23:38-23:41
Outward service does not make up for a cold and different heart.
23:42-23:43
Okay, so the correction.
23:44-23:45
That's the criticism.
23:45-23:46
Let's talk about the correction.
23:48-23:56
Verse five, Jesus says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.
23:57-24:02
If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place you repent.
24:03-24:05
Now correction, three things, three R words, you ready?
24:06-24:07
Number one, he says, you remember.
24:08-24:09
Remember from where you have fallen.
24:11-24:12
That's how this all starts.
24:12-24:13
We forget God and what he's done.
24:14-24:15
We just, we forget.
24:15-24:16
We forget about God.
24:16-24:19
We forget about what God has done for us.
24:19-24:20
We forget.
24:20-24:23
And that's what started us down the wrong path.
24:23-24:30
And what Jesus says to the Ephesian church, which I echo to you right now, I want you to think back in your life right now.
24:31-24:33
Close your eyes if it helps you think as it helps me.
24:33-24:37
But think back to when you first came to Jesus Christ.
24:38-24:43
Think back to when you first understood who He is and what He's done.
24:43-24:46
Think back to how overwhelmed you were with His love.
24:47-24:49
You are totally forgiven of your sins.
24:50-24:53
You have the promise of heaven secured.
24:54-24:55
Can you think back to that time?
24:56-25:01
And can you think back how excited you were to serve him out of love?
25:02-25:03
At that time, he said, you know what?
25:03-25:07
I'm gonna get involved in the churches, you know, Harvest Kids or Sunday School or whatever that thing is called.
25:07-25:08
I'm gonna get involved in that.
25:08-25:10
I'm gonna teach kids about Jesus.
25:10-25:18
I'm gonna get involved in the youth group and I'm gonna tell these teenagers not to make the same stupid mistakes I have and how awesome Jesus is.
25:18-25:23
And I will clean the bathrooms in the name of the Lord.
25:25-25:27
Because the reality is nobody gets involved in the church.
25:27-25:31
Nobody gets involved in ministry because they love cleaning bathrooms.
25:31-25:33
If you do, that's weird.
25:34-25:36
That's not why people get involved.
25:37-25:43
Nobody gets involved in ministry because they love sending emails or having meetings or praying with strangers.
25:44-25:46
You do all of these things, why?
25:47-25:49
I do all of these things because I love Jesus.
25:50-25:53
And this is a way that I can serve him by loving his people.
25:55-26:02
So step one is to remember, take a trip down memory lane to when you did what you did purely and simply because of Jesus.
26:03-26:04
Can you get to that place?
26:04-26:06
It was just for Jesus, man.
26:06-26:07
It was just for Jesus.
26:07-26:08
I didn't need payment.
26:09-26:10
I didn't need recognition.
26:10-26:11
I didn't need acknowledgement.
26:11-26:12
I didn't need thanks.
26:13-26:14
I did it because I love Jesus.
26:14-26:17
Can you get back to that place in your mind when that happened?
26:18-26:19
Then that takes you to step two.
26:19-26:20
Jesus says to repent.
26:21-26:23
Repentance literally means to change your mind.
26:23-26:26
And here he's talking about acknowledging this.
26:28-26:29
My loveless attitude is sin.
26:30-26:33
My loveless attitude is wrong.
26:34-26:36
You have to get alone with God.
26:36-26:43
Get on your face, and I mean literally on your face, and confess this to Him, if this is you.
26:44-26:47
Say, "God, you know, my heart hasn't been in it, God." By the way, He knows, right?
26:48-27:00
But there's something powerful and life-changing about confessing to God, agreeing with God, to say, "God, you're right, and I've been wrong, "and I'm confessing that to you right now.
27:01-27:02
"God, my heart hasn't been in it.
27:03-27:11
"God, I need you to restore in me a heart "that serves you out of love and appreciation "for what you've done." And the third thing is return.
27:12-27:14
Remember, repent, return.
27:14-27:14
Return to what?
27:15-27:20
He said, "Repent and do the works you did at first." Like, wait a second.
27:21-27:26
We've already established that this church has been doing good works, hello, working to the point of exhaustion.
27:27-27:28
We've already established that.
27:28-27:33
So how is doing good works a solution to the problem?
27:34-27:37
Because the deeds you did at first were motivated by love.
27:37-27:38
Get back to that.
27:39-27:40
Get back to passionate worship.
27:41-27:42
Get back to fervent prayer.
27:43-27:48
Get back to serving Christ and his people and reaching out to the lost because of love.
27:48-27:50
And that's why this is step three.
27:50-27:52
This isn't step one, right?
27:52-27:53
This is step three.
27:54-28:07
Only after you remember from where you've fallen for what you used to do, only when you change your mind and confess this to the Lord, are you ready to get back to doing things with the right heart attitude that God calls you to.
28:08-28:17
Jesus said, "If you refuse to repent," you notice he says, verse five, "I will come to you and remove your lampstand "from its place." What does that mean?
28:18-28:22
Well, Jesus is saying he's going to bring an end to the Ephesian church.
28:23-28:25
That doesn't mean that people are going to lose their salvation.
28:25-28:26
It doesn't mean that.
28:26-28:28
We know scripture is quite clear on that.
28:29-28:36
He didn't mean the church is going to suddenly turn into ashes or the church is just going to suddenly disappear.
28:37-28:38
But what did he mean?
28:39-28:41
Well, here's the thing.
28:41-28:43
Churches end all the time.
28:44-28:48
Some churches have already ended And the congregation was just too busy to notice.
28:49-28:56
All the buildings still there, and people still meet, and things still happen, but it's not a church.
28:57-28:57
That's the correction.
28:58-29:02
Remember, repent, return, get back to this.
29:03-29:04
And finally, the call.
29:04-29:11
The call, verse seven, Jesus said, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
29:11-29:17
To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
29:18-29:22
He who has an ear, Jesus closes all of the letters with this.
29:22-29:25
When Jesus says this, he means you better pay attention.
29:25-29:30
If you can hear what I'm saying, you better listen really close to what I'm saying, is what Jesus is saying.
29:30-29:34
If you're tuned in, turn the volume up, is what he's saying.
29:35-29:37
To him who overcomes, what's an overcomer?
29:37-29:41
Well, that's just a name that John used frequently to describe Christians.
29:41-29:44
Look at 1 John 5, verses four and five.
29:44-29:48
An overcomer is another name for a Christian.
29:48-29:52
The promise here is to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.
29:52-29:53
What is that all about?
29:54-30:00
Well, Genesis 2.9, in the Garden of Eden, God put the tree of life.
30:01-30:06
But because Adam and Eve sinned, this tree was lost to mankind.
30:06-30:09
Mankind was forbidden to eat from this tree.
30:10-30:11
Genesis 3.22.
30:12-30:15
Mankind was forbidden to eat from the tree of life.
30:16-30:21
The good news is Jesus says the heavenly tree of life is going to be there for all of eternity.
30:21-30:25
We're going to see that in Revelation 22 when we get there soon.
30:26-30:31
But the tree symbolizes eternal life, and obviously the paradise of God is talking about heaven.
30:32-30:35
So do you need incentive to get back to being motivated by love?
30:36-30:40
See, what Jesus is saying is this, there's a glorious promise for God's people.
30:41-30:44
His love provided you heaven.
30:44-30:53
So let your love for Him and for His people drive you to worship Christ, to walk with Christ, and to work for Christ.
30:54-30:54
Let's pray.
30:56-31:02
Father in heaven, we confess to you that this sin is so easy for us to fall into.
31:03-31:05
Maybe that's why it's listed first here.
31:06-31:16
God, we readily acknowledge the danger in getting so caught up in stuff, so caught up in busyness that we lose sight of why we're doing what we're doing.
31:17-31:19
Father, please forbid that ever happen to this church.
31:20-31:35
Father, please forbid that that ever happen where the leaders of this church are more driven by numbers or money or a name than they're driven by Your name.
31:36-31:39
and who you are and what you've done.
31:39-31:50
And that Father, let everything this church does, everything from harvest kids to the worship, to the hospitality, to small groups, and there's just so much happening in this church.
31:50-32:00
But Father, I pray that everything in this church is done for Jesus Christ and because of Jesus Christ out of a sincere heart that wants to serve Jesus Christ.
32:01-32:12
Father, we thank you for the glorious promise that You give us. Help us, Father, to repent where needed. Always stay focused on our motivation.
32:13-32:15
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 2:1-7
GROUP
1. What was the Ephesian church commended for? How is HBC doing in these areas? How could we do better?
2. How do you know when a church has abandoned “the love it had at first” (v4)? What are the signs? What signs would you look for to make sure HBC hasn’t drifted from being motivated by sincere love?
3. When you drift from “the love you had at first” (v4), how do you get back to it? How can an entire church get back to it if the church at large has drifted from “the love it had at first”?
Bonus: The Ephesian church was commended for enduring with good works (v2-3). Yet Jesus said she had to get back to “doing the works she did at first” (v5). What needs to change? In other words, if the church was already doing good works, how can Jesus call the church to getting back to good works?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another, your SG, and HBC - that we are always motivated to sincerely love Jesus, each other, and the lost.