Revelation 2:1-7

Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you to all of you who've who've contributed uh so far this morning.

Thank you, Peter, for your welcome, and Lauren for your prayers, praying live, in fact, which was just wonderful.

Nicole for your reading, and for everybody who's been working uh behind the scenes on the music and uh and producing this.

Uh, we've been on a steep learning curve, haven't we, though, these last uh seven or so weeks, and it's just great to uh to have things working um as well as they as they could really.

Some people were asking us if we were studying the book of Revelation because uh we believe that COVID-19 was uh some portent of the apocalypse.

Um, well, it might be, uh, and we should bear that in mind, but that wasn't what our thinking was.

Um we had planned to do this series uh several months ago, in fact, and in the Lord's provision, uh we're doing it in this season of lockdown.

Uh I say providence uh because it is a kindness of the Lord that we're thinking about church while we're actually not at church, because it is good for us to step back and to think about what the church is, what it means to be the church and what our life together looks like, what it means to be the church in our time with all that's going on, what it means to be the church in our city with all of its needs.

It's good to do that in a time when we can, in a sense, kind of drown out the other noise of meeting together.

We've been given an opportunity to stand back and to learn the lessons that Jesus would have us learn, and in his providence, he has muffled the sounds of normal church life so that we might listen to his voice, and so it's good that we look at these letters to the churches because we need to hear what he has to say to us.

I need this now, I need to hear his voice, I need to hear his voice with regards to what city looks like after all of this.

Because I'm convinced that what's going on right now is something of a game changer for us.

It'll affect how we do life together, it'll affect what we value, it'll affect where and how we worship, it'll affect or at least challenge all of the whys of why we do things.

And these letters, though written to different real churches in the first century, they make up this kind of seven-fold picture of the church and what Jesus would challenge the church about, and then gives promises as to how we might overcome them.

For us personally, for each of us watching this broadcast, we need to be listening to Jesus' words too.

You need to be listening to Jesus' words too, here, as he talks about the church, because the church, after all, is made up of individual people.

There is, in fact, a call in each of these letters for an individual response.

He who has an ear, let him hear, or he and she who has an ear, let him hear.

Each of these letters has the same sort of structure, and so it's good just to kind of note the structure together.

So please uh open up your phone.

Obviously, don't end the Facebook broadcast if you're on that app, um, or grab a Bible and have a look with me because it's good just to get an idea of what the structure is because it will help us as we go through the talk, uh, because we'll follow the structure of each of the letters.

Now it begins each of them uh with a little phrase uh to the angel of the church in, and then the name of the church, Ephesus Tyratara, Sardis, Pergamum, Ladice, Philadelphia, to the angel of the church.

That's the first part.

We'll think about that in just a second.

Then there's a description of Jesus.

He says, These are the words of, and then there's a description of Jesus that deliberately picks up on the description of Jesus that John saw in chapter one.

So that's it's a tightly woven, tightly linked book, the book of Revelation, right?

Right.

So the words of him, and then pick up a particular image, and that particular image is important for understanding the whole letter.

Then, third, Jesus will present a commendation followed by a complaint, followed by a command.

Uh, there are two churches that have no commendation at all, they have nothing to uh to their credit, but there are two that have no complaint at all, and Jesus uh commends them for their perseverance.

Then fourth, there is the call to here that those who have ears let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches, and then finally a promise to the one who conquers, and just as we're thinking about the tightly woven linking nature of this book, each of those promises is fulfilled and picked up right at the very end in chapter 22, and uh we will uh point those out as we go.

So let us think then about this letter to the church in Ephesus.

The first thing that people probably will have a question about here, and we will do questions, you can post questions in the live chat, um, and I'll get to them at the at the end.

But probably one of the first questions that people will have is what does it mean to the angel at the church inn?

What does it mean that the church has an angel?

What does that mean?

Well, there are two possibilities, okay?

Two possibilities.

First is that the angel here is uh kind of John's way of talking about the uh the senior pastor, um, you know, to the to the leader of the church, to the to the senior pastor.

Um, nobody calls me angel, uh, not even my wife.

And indeed, the New Testament never calls me angel.

Uh it's never used as a word for pastors.

Angels always means uh angelic beings, so tense always means angelic beings, certainly doesn't mean pastors, and it always means angelic beings in the book of Revelation.

I mean, you can't chuck a brick in the book of Revelation without hitting an angel, and it's never a pastor.

So we're inclined to be led to think that this is an actual angel.

Now, one of the things you need to remember at that point is that this is not uncommon in the Bible's mind.

This is nothing to either freak out about or obsess over.

What's our angel?

What's City Church angel?

City Church's angel uh is very cool and likes good coffee.

Um, but it's good not to obsess, but it's not uncommon in the Bible's mind.

If you were to read Daniel chapter 10, and this is something to remember, the book of Revelation is steeped in the Old Testament, absolutely steeped in it, particularly in those kind of uh more apocalyptic books in the Old Testament, like Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

Okay, and in Daniel chapter 10, uh angels we read there, uh, are given a particular designation over uh over a country, over a nation state.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

That in the you know, in the in the spiritual realm, there's an angel over Ireland, an angel over the United Kingdom, an angel over.

And so the idea of angelic beings have having particular designations, for example, to churches, it's not all that uncommon.

There are a couple of things to learn here and to and to remember.

And I say this all with the preface of this is not something that we're given full access to.

This is something that we're encouraged to accept and to take note of, but we're not encouraged to uh to obsess over it.

We're certainly not encouraged to uh to worship angels or to give them undue attention.

However, one of the things that we might learn is that or be reminded of is that there is a structure to reality beyond our comprehension, right?

There's a structure to reality beyond what we can see.

One of the things that I always say when we're gathered together is that we are supernaturalists.

We're supernaturalists by necessity.

That's what Christians are.

We believe in a guy who came back from the dead.

We believe that there is a realm beyond our ability to comprehend.

And we're giving a we're given a fleeting glimpse of it here.

Because that's what that's what a pot that's what apocalypse or revelation.

Revelation is just the uh the English word for apocalypse.

And apocalypse is all it means is the uh the unveiling of or the pulling back the curtain of.

What John is doing is he's pulling back the curtain onto eternal realities and giving us a glimpse.

Secondly, what we should be encouraged by this, or how we should be encouraged by this, is it means that God is active in caring for his church and he uses means to care for his church.

Christ is in charge, the angels were described as stars at the end of chapter one.

The stars are in his hand, that place of uh of control, actually, one hand, but in his right hand.

Uh the so Christ is in charge, taking care of the churches, but he uses means, delegated authority.

And this is the second part.

The second part is the description of Jesus, he's holding the angels, he's holding the stars in his hand.

But how is he described in the letter to Ephesus to the words of him who holds the seven stars?

So this is seven angels in his right hand, and who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

Yeah, we've already seen this in chapter one.

Look at verse 13.

Uh, or from verse 12 rather, then I turned to see a voice, the voice that was speaking to me, and I turned and saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man.

Skip your eye down to verse 16.

In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.

And that image will be picked up in subsequent weeks.

But why here in the letter to the uh to the church in Ephesus is he walking amongst the lampstands?

It again is a reminder of Christ's intimacy with his church.

He is close to us, even though we're scattered and far apart.

But there's also a sense in which Christ walks amidst the lampstands, inspecting his church.

Seeing where it is lacking, seeing also its strengths, taking an inventory.

Christ walks, inspecting his church.

He is aware of everything, and as a result, he begins by commending the church in Ephesus, right?

That's the third part.

So we looked at the angels, we looked at the description of Jesus, now we're looking at this section of commendation and complaint, okay?

It's worth uh bearing something in mind about Ephesus, uh, and just thinking a little bit about the uh the city of Ephesus, which is uh now a ruin that you can go and visit in in Turkey.

But back in the first century, it was a it was a major, major cultural capital, like uh like London or New York or Tokyo.

It had serious economic clout and impact on the world.

It was the capital of Asia Minor, which is what Turkey is now.

It was the capital of that, and it was prestigious.

It had earned the right as a free city, which meant that it wasn't under direct Roman control, that it had its own governance.

It was able to govern itself.

Not only that, but Ephesus was also a major religious center.

It was an economic powerhouse, but also a major religious center.

On the hillside above the city stood the imposing temple of Artemis, one of the most venerated and beloved Greek goddesses.

You may know her by her Latin name, Diana.

Her temple was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

If you read Acts chapter 19, you will uh you will see uh and read about Paul's interaction in the city of Ephesus.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And at one point, the city is whipped up into a frenzy and they come together in the great theater, and you can see the theater today that they all came together in.

They're whipped up in a into a frenzy because of Paul's teaching and because of the economic impact it was having on uh on the rest of Ephesus, and they they shout uh this chant of pride for two hours.

And what is this chant of pride that they shout?

They shout, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians for two hours.

It is in this context that a church has been born.

It is in this context that the church at Ephesus is enduring, right?

It's enduring the economic pressures, it's enduring the cultural and religious pressures of the surrounding culture.

And Jesus is saying, I know your works, I know your toil, your patient endurance, how you cannot bear with those who do evil.

I see how difficult the city that you're in is, and I see your endurance in it.

People in Ephesus say, Why don't you worship what we worship?

Why don't you love what we love?

Those questions that implicitly or explicitly come to us in our life.

But the church in Ephesus was a discerning church.

Read on uh at the second half of verse two, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and find them to be false.

And what would happen in the ancient world is there would be these roving, itinerant preachers, kind of like if I I took off and went to Thurless and uh and on over to Ennis and uh and and went on this kind of uh this mission around Ireland.

Well, there were people who who did that, and some of them were were true, were preaching the gospel, but many of those were in it for uh for the money, for the acclaim and the power.

And those roving teachers that come through a cultural center like Ephesus and call themselves apostles, um, and they would be tested by the Ephesian church.

They didn't just swallow it, they didn't just swallow the next Christian fad.

We also read in verse 6 that they stood against um they stood against the Nicotans.

We know very little about the Nicolaitans, but what we can piece together uh from uh the uh the letter to the church in Pergamum, I think is where they're mentioned again, is that they advocated some sort of religious compromise.

It seems that uh that they were advocating uh from within the church saying, look, you can worship Jesus, but if you could worship the emperor as well, you know, you could you could get a you could get a better job.

So often um your worship, your religious life was bound up with your economic life, particularly when it came to emperor worship in the Roman Empire.

And the Nicolaitans seem to be saying, if you just if you just bend a little bit and bow the knee to Caesar, uh then then things will go better for you.

And they said no, they hated those words.

The Ephesian Christians have stood against them, and in fact, Jesus commends them for hating their teaching.

Now let's pause and think about that.

Because normally we balk at the idea of hating something, but it's worth reflecting on.

The Ephesian Christians were not those who hated the Nicolaitans.

We read that they hated the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

We're told that they hated their works, that is what they what they what they taught, what they stood for, that they were destroying people's faith, shipwrecking their faith, and they they they hated the the impact of that.

This isn't a righteous or self-righteous uh hatred, you're kind of uh looking down your nose at people rather it was a settled opposition to something not being indifferent to lives being destroyed, and we're told that Jesus hates it too.

So are there things that we should hate?

I think so.

Should we hate sex trafficking?

Should we hate it?

Stand in direct opposition to it.

I think so.

Should we hate injustice and corruption?

Yes, I think so.

So the question for us perhaps to consider is do we hate what Jesus hates?

It's a weird thing to ask yourself, isn't it?

Do you hate false teaching?

Whether it's brutal legalism that sees people choked and stifled, or whether it's the prosperity gospel that deceives and defrauds people, the poorest and the most vulnerable, by saying that if they gave more of their money that God would love them more or that God would heal them.

It is despicable.

Do we hear what Jesus hears?

Or maybe it's a kind of innocuous liberalism that says you don't need to repent.

You don't have any sins to repent of.

Jesus just accepts you the way you are and just wants to leave you that way.

It doesn't matter how you live.

That sort of liberalism that holds people's hands on the way to hell.

What that means is for opposing what Jesus opposes.

Yet there is a complaint.

Yet Christ has this against them.

They have abandoned their first love.

Verse 4.

Look at it with me.

But I have this against you.

You've abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent and do the works you did at first.

This church, they have not they've not backslidden morally, they've not compromised doctrinally.

Here's what had happened this church they had fallen into lovelessness in their efforts.

To remain doctrinally pure, they had forgotten what it was to love Jesus in the first place.

In their effort to defend the gospel from outside forces, the church had forgotten what it meant to love others, to be that shining lampstand, that city on a hill, and had turned rather into this cold and defensive orthodoxy.

This church had good teaching.

It was doctrinally flawless.

But it was cold.

The hearts of the people had grown cold.

Isn't that so easy?

It's so easy to swap out theological precision for actual affection for Jesus.

Get our thoughts about Jesus correct.

We have no love for him.

We think rightly, but we do not feel rightly.

The answer is not to ditch our theology or our orthodoxy, but rather it is to understand that theology, when properly understood, should always lead us to worship.

Theology, when properly applied, is not just applied to the head, it's not just applied to others, it's applied to our hearts.

Theology should always lead to doxology, that is, to praise, to thanking God for who he is, for bowing the knee in amazement at what he has done.

Far too many of us, myself included, so often have swollen heads and shriveled hearts.

What is Jesus' command to those of us like that?

It is to repent.

Repent.

Repentance means to turn around, to stop going one way and to go another.

Jesus says, Repent.

Turn from this way of living.

Look back.

Look back at how far you have fallen.

Verse 5, remember therefore from where you have fallen.

Repent and do the things you did at first.

Jesus is coming to the to those Christians.

And in one says, He understands, he understands the pressures that they're under, but realizes also that there is a there's a cancer in their bones that they need to turn from.

And he's turning back, say, when he says, look at how far you have fallen, he says, Don't you remember?

Don't you remember when faith was sweet?

Don't you remember when it was lively?

Don't you remember when your time with me in the word and prayer refreshed your soul?

Remember that.

Go back there, Jesus says.

Turn around.

Do the things you did at first.

The things you did at first when your faith was was so delicate, when it was so childlike and innocent and simple.

Remember the things you did at first.

You see, true faith, lively faith, holds fast both to true doctrine and true delight.

It includes delight in God, and that delight has evangelistic force.

This is why I think that John picks up the image of the lampstands in this letter.

It's the only letter where the lampstand image is picked up because our delight in God, our joy in Jesus has evangelistic force.

It causes our lampstand as a church and as individuals to shine all the brighter.

Jesus is examining their lampstand and seeing that their light that they are shining into the world is flickering and diminishing because it lacks love.

Because then people say, Well, what is it that they believe that gives them so much love?

It gives them so much joy.

How do we turn?

How do we repent from lovelessness?

Wouldn't that be good to know?

How do we repent repent from our joylessness in the gospel?

But before we think about that, I will give some suggestions.

Here's the encouragement that's implicit in the command.

The encouragement that's implicit in the command is it's possible.

Those of you who are watching this that are feeling just underconviction at your lack of love, underconviction at your joylessness.

And Jesus comes to you and says, repent, and you're having a great no no.

What Jesus is saying is you can turn around from this, you can turn from joylessness and turn to joy.

Jesus wouldn't ask you to do something that wasn't possible.

So it is you can do this with this with his help.

What is it we say?

Yeah, not I but Christ in me.

How do we turn from our joylessness?

How do we return to the love that we had at first?

There are loads of things that we can say.

I'll give five quick things.

We need to remember our need of Jesus.

Doctrinally uh tight and precise people can often use their theological precision as a way of justifying themselves before God.

The only thing that justifies ourselves before God is the cross of the Lord Jesus.

All of the theological knowledge that we have acquired is only because he had mercy on us in the first place.

And brought us from death to life, took us out from the mire and set our feet upon the rock.

Do you need to remember who you were before Jesus called you and how much mercy he has had on you?

Just to skip ahead, Jesus promises that we'll eat of the tree of life.

A tree the word for tree is the same word that Peter uses for the cross.

Do you need to return there?

Let's see love.

Love poured out for you.

One of the other things that you can do that will reignite and rekindle your love is share the gospel with others.

Because one of the things that evangelizing others does, sharing the gospel with them, particularly if you're feeling cold or have lost sight of it, that is, you share it, you remember things and you become excited about it again, especially as they become more and more intrigued.

Yes, it's like it's like this, it's it's it's amazing, isn't it?

And on one level, you're talking to them, but but really you're reminding yourself.

Sharing the gospel with others is a way of returning to a state of joy and affection in Jesus.

This list would not be complete without saying that you have to read the scriptures, you have to read the scriptures to know more of Jesus, to hear from him.

What are you doing to help that in your day?

Have you got a set of Bible reading notes?

Have you downloaded the Explore app for Bible reading notes?

Have you downloaded the ESV Bible app that has a whole host of different reading plans?

Have you downloaded that?

Can you download that?

Will you do that after this from whatever store it is you go to?

Will you pick a book like Mark's Gospel or First Thessalonians or Paul's letter to the Philippians and say, I'm just gonna spend a week, a month just in this book?

What are you doing to redeem the time so that Jesus is speaking to you again?

And then come to him in prayer.

Say, I've forgotten how to pray, I don't know how to pray.

Start simple, start small.

Use Paul's prayers from his letters from the start of Colossians, start of Philippians, start of first Thessalonians.

Pray Paul's prayers.

There are prayers in the prayers the Psalms.

Go to Psalm 46, Psalm 51.

Restore to me, O Lord, the joy of your salvation.

The other thing that you might do, fifth and finally in this list, is you might sing.

It's hard to sing on the TV as great as the music is now.

There are playlists.

Ben's made a playlist of City Church songs, it's there on Spotify.

Do you sing?

There's a reason why God has so ordered his world that music stirs the affections.

The warning for those of us who do not hear, who do not turn.

Is there at the end of verse 5?

Jesus says, If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

Ephesus stands in ruins.

There is no lampstand there.

And so it is a stark warning for us to hear.

Verse seven.

Let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Jesus requires an individual response from you today.

Are you going to hear what the spirit would say to the churches?

Are you going to respond?

As a church, as the church corporately, I can tell you that even with our being together for the last seven or eight weeks, we need to hear what Jesus says here.

But then he makes a promise.

The promise that Jesus makes is that we will be in his presence eternally.

Look at the end at verse 7.

To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

In Ephesus itself, in the grounds of the temple of Argamas, there also stood a great tree.

And so John might be picking up on that image.

It was a large date palm tree.

And under that tree, people would gather and congregate to engage in criminality and immorality.

The Christians in that context must have seen that tree as a place of destruction and a place of death.

But Jesus comes and says, The tree of life is waiting for you.

It's stored up for you in the paradise of God.

And so endure.

Continue to persevere.

It's not in the presence of some pagan idol, but in the presence of God Himself.

What an incentive to preach to our hearts, to preach to our hearts the goodness of loving Jesus.

To try and do those reflective times where we not just, when we read our Bible, just think, okay, it's good that I've uh it's good that I've learned that bit of doctrine, but to actually think, okay, well, well, how does that make me feel?

How should that make me feel?

What should my response to God be?

What an incentive uh to delight in loving others.

Because one of the ways that we can swell our love for Jesus is by loving others.

It's another person-centered love, don't you know?

We need this.

We need it today more than ever, I think.

We need this future promise right now.

We need this future promise that we aren't in a meaningless loop, that this isn't groundhog day that we find ourselves in.

We need this future promise to know that we aren't forgotten.

You aren't forgotten.

Wherever you are, you are not forgotten by the God who walks amidst the lampstands, who sees you and who knows you.

Eden restored, access again to the tree of life.

But it's not just Eden restored like God sets the cosmic, you know, hits the cosmic reset button.

It's Eden surpassed because it is in the heavenly paradise of God forever.

Because when this image is picked up in chapter 22, what we see is not just a garden, but a garden city, a great city, a place of security and safety, and life and culture and light and joy.

And in the very heart of that city is the presence of God, and in the very heart of that city is the tree of life.

And we're told that its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

Our nations need healing, and it is the tree of life that will ultimately give it.

So let us persevere together, let us turn from our lovelessness, let us endure and persevere in love together.

Love for Jesus, love for one another until we all in Him overcome.

Let me pray.

Let me pray.

Such affections for Jesus that we are overwhelmed by his love for us.

Help us to turn from our lovelessness and to turn to him again, seeing the great love with which he loved us.

And may that increase the brightness of our lampstand in City Church that as we in time return together again and celebrate what he has done again, that it would be a new day for us as a church where the light of our joy and delight in Jesus is seen by many.

Amen.