The Love You Had At First

Good morning, everyone. My name is Sean. For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the pastors of Trinity Cambridge Church.

And it is my joy and a privilege to be able to preach God's Word to you on a regular basis.

This morning, our passage is from Revelation chapter 2. If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

We'd love to bring a copy of it for you to use while you're here.

You could actually take that home with you to use.

It's a wonderful passage, and I believe God has something to say to us from this passage.

So let me pray and ask for his help.

Heavenly Father, we know that you and your son Jesus, who is the Lord over this church,

you carry a far deeper burden for this local church than I can fathom, even as a pastor.

And we are desirous of you communicating that to us this morning.

Amen.

So address us from your Word.

Reveal to us your heart, your will for us.

Challenge us, convict us, comfort us, and build us up

that we might be a faithful church

who perseveres in faith and hope and love until the very end.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

If you are willing and able, please stand with me

as I read the passage of Revelation 2, verses 1 to 7.

Revelation 2:1–7

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.

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.

I know you are enduring patiently

and bearing up for my name's sake,

and you have not grown weary.

But I have this against you,

that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember, therefore,

from where you have fallen,

repent,

and do the works you did at first.

If not,

I will come to you

and remove your lampstand from its place,

unless you repent.

Yet this you have.

You hate the works of the Nicolaitans,

which I also hate.

He who has an ear,

let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who conquers,

I will grant to eat of the tree of life,

which is in the paradise of God.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

You may be seated.

I don't normally follow celebrity news,

but I read a New York Times article

this past week

that said that 2023

has been the year of celebrity split

with dozens of notable actors,

singers,

and reality stars,

and one former mayor of New York

announcing a breakup

and separation or divorce.

I think people like...

I feel like a fraud

mentioning these names

because I haven't really listened

to any of these things,

but Ariana Grande,

Taylor Swift,

Britney Spears.

I know Britney Spears

from when I was younger.

Reese Witherspoon,

Hugh Jackman,

among others.

Apparently,

they all broke up this year.

And the author notes

that sometimes

these breakup announcements

are so relentlessly

and aggressively optimistic

and positive

that it's like

it could feel very forced.

But no matter how much,

you know,

PR spin you put on these breakups,

the long and short of it all

is that they're not lovers anymore.

The love that they had

for another has faded.

The ones so glowingly happy,

good-looking,

madly in love couple

has become...

they have become estranged

from one another.

How does that happen?

The same thing can happen

to Christians

and to churches

in their relationship with God.

Let me ask you,

do you love Jesus more today

than you did at first?

In chapters 2 to 3,

we see Jesus personally

addressing the seven churches

in Asia Minor,

modern-day Turkey,

and we're listed

in chapter 1, verse 11.

And our passage this morning

is Jesus addressing

the church in Ephesus.

And his evaluation

of that church

is that while they have

been enduring patiently,

they have abandoned

the love they had at first.

I'll unpack what that means

more later on,

but the Ephesian church,

as we'll see,

was a hard-working

and theologically discerning

and persevering

and gritty church.

But their love for God

had grown cold.

So the main point this morning

that I want to drive home

is that we must recover

the love we had at first

and shine God's light

from our lampstand.

For an outline,

I'm going to address,

to follow the structure

that these addresses take,

these seven letters

to the churches,

because each address

has the same general structure.

Do I have the other one?

There you go.

Yeah.

The recipient,

which at first,

it mentions who the recipient is,

and it always takes the form

of to the angel of the church

in blank.

And this one is in Ephesus.

Second, the author is identified.

It's Jesus.

But Jesus is described differently

in each passage.

It begins with,

thus says the one,

or these are the words of the one.

And then it takes a description

of Jesus,

a snippet from the glorious vision

we saw earlier in Revelation 1.

And it uses a part of that vision

that most directly pertains

to the current situation

of that church

that is being addressed.

So for example,

to the church in Samyrena

that's facing persecution,

intense persecution,

and need to be faithful unto death,

that's their need,

Jesus identifies himself to them

as the one who died

and came back to life.

To the church in Pergamum

that is believing in false teaching,

Jesus identifies himself

as the one who has a sharp

two-edged sword,

the sword of his word,

the word of his mouth

with which he discerns truth

and makes war against those

who deny his word.

And to the church in Thyatira

that's tolerating idolatry

and sexual immorality,

Jesus identifies himself

as the one who has eyes

like a flame of fire

to discern and to judge

and whose feet are like burnished bronze

with which he strikes down the wicked.

And so keep in mind this pattern

that the description of Jesus

that we see in the beginning

is going to be relevant

related to the situation

that the church is facing as we go.

And third,

after the recipient and the author,

we see the evaluation of the church

by Jesus.

And this section begins

with the phrase,

I know your dot, dot, dot.

Usually it's,

I know your works.

Jesus goes on to describe

their good works

if they have them

as well as their bad works

if they have them.

And two churches in the series,

the Smyrna and Philadelphia,

hear only commendations

because they are faithful churches.

While one church in Laodicea

hears only corrections

because they've been unfaithful.

Most churches are a mixture

of commendation and correction

in their evaluation.

Fourth,

there is an exhortation,

what Christ is commanding them to do

in light of his preceding evaluation.

And that varies with each letter.

And then fifth,

there is an invitation

to heed what Jesus has just said.

And this section is identical

in all of the letters.

He who has an ear,

let him hear what the Spirit says

to the churches.

And then finally,

sixth,

there is the promise of reward

to those who obey.

And this section begins

with the phrase,

the one who conquers,

dot, dot, dot.

The one who conquers

is offered some variation

of salvation,

of eternal life

and fellowship with God.

And sometimes those last two sections,

the invitation,

the promise are flipped in order.

And these letters,

each of them,

in a way,

is like a microcosm.

It's like an embryonic form

mirrors the entire book

because it harkens back

to chapter one,

the glorious vision of Christ.

And then it points forward

to the end,

the last three chapters

of Revelation

where the conquerors,

those who conquer are rewarded.

And it also contains

the struggles of the church

and the persecution,

the suffering,

the temptations

that the body of Revelation

deals with.

So that's the general structure.

First, let's look at the recipient

in verse one.

To the angel of the church

in Ephesus, write.

The recipient is the angelic

representative of the church

in Ephesus.

As I mentioned last week,

all of the messages

are directed to the angel

that represents

that particular church

before God.

And that means

every true church on earth

has a representative

in heaven.

It's easy for us

to lose sight

of this amazing reality

because when we look

at the churches around us

and when we look

at even our own church

and how weak we are,

how flawed we are,

and how sinful we are,

the church can seem

so earthly.

But the church

is not a mere

earthly institution.

It is an eternal,

heavenly institution.

This is why Christians

should never make light

of or be dismissive

of the church.

All earthly associations

and institutions

will fade away.

Schools, Harvard, MIT,

Boston University, Cornell,

they'll all fade away.

Companies, HubSpot,

EF, Amazon, Google,

they will all fade away.

The United States of America,

China, Russia,

they will all fade away.

They will all fade away

when the earth

as we know it

passes away,

which will certainly happen

because the Bible says so.

But the church,

which is the gathered people

of God,

is a heavenly reality.

It's an eternal reality.

And therefore,

it will endure.

This should be a stark warning

to those who would

persecute the church

or harm the church

because they'll have to answer

to God himself

because our angelic representatives

are there before God.

This particular section

of Revelation 2

is addressed to Ephesus.

And I'm going to give you

a brief historical sketch

of the city

because it's helpful

for understanding

the context,

what's going on.

Ephesus was a prominent

metropolis

and it served as

the provincial capital

of Asia Minor,

which I mentioned earlier

is modern-day Turkey.

And because of its location

at the mouth

of the Kaster River,

it was the commercial center

of the region

and the administrative center

of the region.

And it was most famous

for its temple of Artemis,

the Greek god named Artemis

or Diana,

the Romans called them.

And the worship of Artemis

was not only

the religious center

but the economical center

of that city

as we saw

when we were in

the book of Acts.

This temple was huge.

It's like,

it's bigger than

a football field,

twice the size

of the Parthenon,

which some of you guys

may have seen.

In Acts 18, 18-22,

Paul leaves Priscilla

and Aquila

to stay behind

and minister in Ephesus.

They may have been

the founders

of the church in Ephesus.

And they,

along with Apollos,

they preach the gospel there.

And later,

Paul himself comes

to minister

to the Ephesian church

for three years,

during which time

he says he faced

many adversaries

and one time

he has to move locations

because he's so intensely

being opposed

in Acts 19.

Later in his life,

Paul sends his disciple

and purdege,

Timothy,

to Ephesus

to minister

and he charges him

in 1 Timothy 1-3

to remain at Ephesus

so that he may charge

certain persons

not to teach

any different doctrines.

So it seems

that the fight

for doctrinal fidelity

that we see here

in Revelation

and they've been doing well

in that,

it continues

in the later years.

Then after that,

we see from 2 Timothy

that Onesiphorus

and Tychicus

also minister

to Ephesian church

so they've had

a string of

godly pastors

teaching them,

helping them.

And according

to 3rd century AD

Greek pastor

and historian

Eusebius,

after Apostle John

was released

from his exile

in Patmos

because Emperor

Domitian died,

John himself

went to Ephesus

and pastored there

and lived there.

And so this is

the group,

the church group

of believers

that he's writing to.

So that's the recipient.

And then in the second half

of verse 1,

we're told who the author

of the letter is,

the words of him

who holds the seven stars

in his right hand,

who walks among

the seven golden lampstands.

The phrase,

the words of him,

can be more literally

translated as

these things says he,

or thus says he,

thus says the one.

It's the Greek equivalent

of the Hebrew phrase

that the prophets

used again and again

hundreds of times

in the Old Testament.

Thus says the Lord.

So Jesus is here

asserting his divine authority

and addressing his churches

and the angelic representatives

of his churches.

When Jesus speaks,

the Lord God speaks.

He is the ancient of days,

the almighty.

Human beings often make

errors in judgment

and errors in speech.

But the following evaluations

and exhortations

of these seven churches

by Jesus

is not human,

merely.

It is divine.

It's completely accurate

and therefore needs

to be obeyed completely.

As I mentioned earlier,

the description of Jesus

here alludes back

to the vision

from chapter 1 of Jesus.

And there he explained

in verse 20,

the seven stars

are the angels

of the seven churches

and the seven lampstands

are the seven churches.

And this particular snippet

of that glorious vision

is being used

because it relates

to the situation

that the Ephesus church

was in.

And because they were

neglecting the most

important thing

of loving God

and loving one another,

they had abandoned

the love that they had first.

And so this omission

was so significant,

they're at the risk

of basically being de-churched,

ceasing to exist

as a church.

And so with the threat

of moving the lampstand,

Jesus reminds them,

I am the sovereign one

who holds the seven stars,

the seven angels

who represent

those seven lampstands

in my right hand.

when you,

the right hand

is usually the image

that people use

of strength

and control

because most people

in the world

are right-handed.

That's their dominant hand.

So when you want

to really grab something

securely,

you use your right hand,

not your weak hand.

And so Jesus says,

I have the whole

of the churches

and those angels

will represent them

in his right hand.

That's his cosmic authority

and his total sovereignty

over these churches.

And not only that,

he's reminding them

that he cares

for these churches.

He's the one

who walks

among the seven

golden lampstands.

Jesus is not

off his own world,

uninterested

in the going-ons

in Ephesus.

Jesus is intimately involved.

He's connected

and he's caring

for the believers

in the church

in Ephesus.

So that's why

he's identifying himself

in this way.

He's telling them,

I am the light

of the world.

You are my lampstands.

You're the setting

that's supposed

to support my light,

that I'm supposed

to broadcast

through the world.

And so return

to your love

and walk with me

as my lampstand.

That's Jesus' exhortation

to them.

After identifying himself,

Jesus pronounces

his evaluation

of the church.

He begins with commendations

in verses two to three.

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.

I know you are

enduring patiently

and bearing up

for my name's sake

and you have not

grown weary.

Jesus repeats

that phrase twice.

I know.

It's like he's

embracing us

and then patting us

on the back

and then just nodding

knowingly

as he peers

into our eyes.

I know.

And Jesus will say

this over and over again

throughout chapters

two and three.

He knows all our good works.

He knows all our bad works.

He always knows.

But in our passage today,

it's connected

to his commendations.

I know your works.

brothers and sisters,

do you ever feel like

your love,

your toil for the Lord

never gets noticed?

Do you feel alone sometimes

in standing up

against evil?

Has your endurance

been tested

living in this sinful

and broken world

that's full of temptations

and setbacks?

Have you been ridiculed

for your faith

in the Lord Jesus?

Jesus says,

I know.

I know.

I know what you

have been through.

I know how much

you have suffered.

I know what you

have endured

for my name's sake.

And there's a play

on words here.

Jesus commends

the church in Ephesus

saying you cannot bear

with those who are evil.

But then he says again,

you are bearing up

for my name's sake.

So,

they don't put up

with evildoers.

They don't bear them

at all.

But they have borne much

for the sake

of Jesus' name.

It's an amazing

commendation.

That's something

we should aspire to

as a church.

Jesus also

specifically praises them

for how they cannot

bear with those

who are evil,

but have tested

those who call themselves

apostles and are not

and found them

to be false.

It's a pretty strong

statement, right?

They cannot bear

with those who are evil.

There are churches

nowadays

that condone

all manners of sin

within the body

of Christ

in the name

of tolerance.

But tolerance

for evil

is not a virtue.

Condoning

what God's word

condemns

is not compassion.

It's compromise.

I'm not saying

that we should

separate ourselves

completely from the world,

from the evildoers,

because then we'd have

to leave the world.

But as 1 Corinthians 5

tells us,

it is our responsibility

to judge those

who are inside the church,

to make sure

that the church

remains holy,

make sure that there's

no unrepentant sin

in our midst.

sin adulterates

our worship

and damages

our fellowship

and it discredits

our witness

to the world.

Therefore,

sin must be purged

from our midst.

And of course,

I'm not saying

that Christians

never sin,

we do.

But I am saying

that true Christians

always repent

of their sin.

They acknowledge it,

they confess it,

they try to turn

away from it.

And for those

who do repent,

there's always mercy.

Even for those

who have committed

the most heinous sins

that even our sinful world

will not tolerate,

there's mercy

if you repent.

However,

the church must not

tolerate unrepentant sinners.

Can verse 2

be said of our church?

Will Jesus commend us

in this way,

saying you cannot bear

with those who are evil?

More specifically,

Jesus says,

they have tested

those who call themselves

apostles and are not

and found them

to be false.

You may remember

from Acts 20

when Paul is addressing

the elders

in the church in Ephesus,

he warns them

specifically,

predicting that

the fierce wolves,

false teachers

will come in among them

and try to lead them astray.

And that prediction

came true.

False apostles

did come

to the church in Ephesus.

By apostle,

they're probably

not trying to claim

to be one of the

twelve apostles

because that's a

very clearly defined

and well-known

and closed group

of people.

So that would not

have flown.

But they're probably

claiming to be

either the second tier apostles,

those who have

witnessed the risen Jesus

and were commissioned

to proclaim the gospel

and lead the foundation

for the church,

or maybe even

a third tier apostle

who are basically

just generic messengers

sent up by local churches

to other local churches

to provide aid

or to convey some message

or some decision

or teaching

that was made.

And it could be used

in all those senses

throughout the New Testament.

And there were benefits

to claiming

to be an apostle

because it was lucrative.

If you claim

to be an apostle,

you automatically

get free room

and board

from the church

that you are a part of

and trying to convey

the message to.

And also,

it brought prestige.

People listen to you.

They let you talk.

And so,

there were people

doing this

and we have evidences

in scripture itself

and from other documents

in history

that there were

false apostles

as there are today.

And the Ephesian church

knew how to discern that.

They had theological discernment.

They were able

to separate them out

and they didn't listen

to the false apostles

which we also must do.

We can see their discernment

also in verse 6

after his criticism

of the church

in verses 45.

He brings another commendation

saying,

Yet this you have.

You hate the work

of the Nicolaitans

which I also hate.

As we'll see later

in this chapter,

the teaching of the Nicolaitans

in the New Testament

was akin to the teaching

of Balaam

in the Old Testament.

And essentially,

they put a stumbling block

in front of the believers

saying that they could

eat food sacrificed

to idols

and practice

sexual immorality.

So it was a permissive

heretical teaching.

They were saying,

Jesus has freed you

from your sins.

You can go participate

in that idol sacrifice.

That's okay.

You know that those idols

are nothing.

Go.

Enjoy your freedom in Christ.

Go have those relationships.

Go have those sexual relationships

with people.

God has freed you.

He's forgiven you

of your sin.

Who cares what we do

with our bodies anyway?

Be free.

That was the message

of the Nicolaitans.

And Jesus says here,

I hate the teachings

of the Nicolaitans.

Pretty strong words.

Jesus hates false teaching

because it profanes

the glory and holiness

of God

and incubates sin

which when fully grown

causes death

to those whom he loves.

if we want to hear

this commendation

from Christ

then we also need

to hate

what God hates.

But Jesus' evaluation

of the church

doesn't end

with those commendations.

He also brings

a devastating critique

in verse 4.

But I have this

against you

that you have abandoned

the love you had

at first.

It's heart-wrenching.

Jesus is telling them,

you don't love me

like you used to.

This kind of correction

has Old Testament precedent

in Jeremiah 2.2

when it says,

thus says the Lord,

I remember the devotion

of your youth,

your love,

as a bride,

how you followed me

in the wilderness

in a land not sown.

Israel was once

so devoted to the Lord

that they were willing

to follow him everywhere

even to a wilderness

where you cannot sow seeds,

where there would be no food.

They were saying,

I will go.

Wherever you go,

through fire

and through water,

I will go.

That was their devotion

of youth

but they had long

forsaken that.

That's Jeremiah's indictment

and this is mirroring that.

Do you remember

the devotion

of your youth,

the love you had

at first?

I got my first cell phone

when I went to college

and I probably spent

on average

about 30 minutes

on calls

like every two weeks

or so.

I didn't use the phone

very much.

That was the case

until my junior year

in college

when I met

a woman named Hannah

who's now my wife.

I started spending

three hours a day

on the phone

and then my mom

called me

at the end of the month

asking me

about the exorbitant

overage charges

on our family

cell phone plan

and that's how

they learned

that I was interested

in a woman.

That's what

my love for Hannah

was like at first.

It was consuming.

Do you remember

the love you had

for Jesus

at first?

Do you remember

how you used to

devour

the scriptures?

Do you remember

how zealous

you used to be

to tell people

about Jesus

and what you have

found

in Jesus

do you remember

the passion

and feeling

with which you

used to sing

praises to him

and pray to him?

Do you remember

the abandon

with which you

said to him

here I am

send me

I will go

wherever you

tell me to go.

I think we

can be like

the church

in Ephesus

in many ways.

We're in a

cosmopolitan

hub

surrounded by

idolatries

and heresies

and by and large

we are a

theologically

sound

and theologically

discerning church.

We know how to

spot false

teachers.

We're also

full of gritty

hardworking people

you guys are

doers and go-getters.

We're toiling

for the Lord

with patient

endurance

but do we

love Jesus

like we did

at first?

I think sometimes

we can chalk

this up

to misguided

youthful

exuberance.

Say oh I was

immature and

legalistic back

then.

I had zeal

without knowledge

back then

but now that

I have grown

in knowledge

my zeal

is more

tempered.

But the

Bible's

solution to

zeal without

knowledge

is not

knowledge

without zeal.

It's zeal

with

knowledge.

Could it be

that we have

abandoned

the love

we had

at first?

the church

in Ephesus

was like

a wife

who cooks

for her

husband

who sleeps

on the

same bed

as her

husband

raises the

kids

with her

husband

and wears

the wedding

ring that her

husband gave

her but who

has lost

her love

for her

husband.

She's a

dutiful wife

but not a

devoted

wife.

The church

in Ephesus

was like

that.

They were

dutifully going

through the

motions but

their devotion

to the

Lord had

waned.

They had

abandoned

the love

they had

at first.

I want

us to sit

with that

for a little

bit but I

do want to

qualify it

because I

don't want

you to hear

what I'm

not saying

and you

can hear

that.

I'm not

saying look

at the

Ephesian

church.

Oh,

all that

doctrinal

stuff is

unimportant.

Just focus

on love.

All you

need is

love.

I am

not saying

that because

Jesus doesn't

say that in

this passage.

As human

beings we

gravitate toward

these either

or scenarios.

The

psychologists

call false

dilemma

fallacy.

We tend

to think of

things as

either or even

when they are

not mutually

exclusive.

We must

not pit

theological

fidelity

against

Christian

love.

Jesus

commands the

church in

Ephesus for

their doctrinal

fidelity.

Theological

accuracy is

important.

Obedience

even to the

minutia of

the law is

important.

Matthew 5,

17-19,

Jesus says

that he

didn't come

to abolish

the law

but to

fulfill

them and

he says

that not

an iota,

that's one

of the

smallest

letters in

the Greek

alphabet,

or not

a dot,

or that

would probably

be Hebrew,

will pass

away from

the scriptures

until heaven

and earth

pass away.

He warns

us,

therefore whoever

relaxes one

of the least

of these

commandments

and teaches

others to do

the same

will be called

least in the

kingdom of

heaven.

But whoever

does them

and teaches

them will be

called great

in the

kingdom of

heaven.

So no,

Jesus is not

downplaying

theological

faithfulness.

Scripture

never makes

light of

obedience.

Even in

Matthew 23

when Jesus

is criticizing

the Pharisees

for fastidiously

tithing the

smallest herbs,

giving a tenth

of the smallest

herbs of their

produce to God,

tithing mint

and dill

and cumin.

But while

they were

doing that,

they were

neglecting the

weightier matters

of the law,

justice,

mercy,

and faithfulness.

And so Jesus

rebukes them.

But even as

he's rebuking

them,

Jesus never

tells them

not to worry

about tithing

the mint

and the

dill

and the

cumin.

No,

he says

instead,

these you

ought to

have done

without

neglecting

the others.

The Pharisees

were legalistic

and hypocritical

not because

they obeyed

the least

of these

commandments,

but because

they obeyed

the least

of these

commandments

while

neglecting

and disobeying

the greater

commandments.

the solution

is not

just obey

these things

and neglect

the rest.

The solution

is obedience

to all

of the

commands

from the

least

to the

greatest.

With that

qualification

aside,

I want to

return to

the main

exhortation

of this

passage

because

some

commands

are

greater

than

others.

What is

the greatest

commandment

for us

as Christians?

Jesus

once answered

that question

directly in

Matthew 22,

37 to 39.

You shall

love the

Lord your

God with

all your

heart and

with all

your soul

and with

all your

mind.

This

is the

great

and first

commandment.

And a

second is

like it.

You shall

love your

neighbor as

yourself.

Sometimes

pastors and

theologians

debate the

phrase

abandoning the

love you

had at

first.

What does

that mean?

Is it

love for

God?

Is it

love for

the church,

one another?

Or is it

love for

your

neighbors?

I think

the answer

is all

of the

above.

Because

Jesus

connects

those two

loves when

he gives

the greatest

commandment.

Love for

God,

love for

one another,

love for

our

neighbors.

And

all that

we do

as

Christians

are

supposed

to be

done

in

love.

In

1 John

4,

20-21,

it tells

us that

we cannot

love God

while hating

our brothers

and sisters

in Christ.

So love

for God

and love

for one

another

also go

hand in

hand.

So if

you're

neglecting

one,

you're

neglecting

them all.

The

love for

God is

the

foundation,

the fountain

from which

all our

other loves

for one

another and

for our

neighbors

flow.

1 Corinthians

13 says

this,

if I speak

in the

tongues of

men and

of angels

but have

not love,

I'm a

noisy gong

or a

clanging

cymbal.

And if I

have prophetic

powers and

understand all

mysteries and

all knowledge

and if I

have all

faith so

as to

remove

mountains but

have not

love,

I am

nothing.

If I give

away all

I have and

if I deliver

up my body

to be burned

but have

not love,

I gain

nothing.

And at the

end of that

chapter he

says,

so now

faith,

hope,

and love

abide,

these three,

but the

greatest of

these is

love.

Love is

the greatest

command.

I want

all of us

to speak

in the

tongues of

angels.

I want

all of us

to have

prophetic

powers.

I want

all of us

to understand

all mysteries

and knowledge.

I want

all of us

to have

faith that

can move

mountains.

And I

want

all of us

to be

radically

generous

and sacrificial

in our

giving.

I want

all of us

to be

willing to

lay down

our lives

for Christ

and even

go through

fire for

him.

But all

of these

things are

meaningless

if we

have not

love.

Most of

you have

probably heard

me quote

this at

least once.

C.S.

Lewis puts

it this

way,

a perfect

man would

never act

from the

sense of

duty.

He

would always

want the

right thing

more than

the wrong

one.

Duty is

only a

substitute

for love

of God

and of

other people

like a

crutch

which is

a substitute

for a

leg.

Most of

us need

the crutch

at times

but of

course it

is idiotic

to use

the crutch

when our

own legs,

our own

loves,

tastes,

habits,

etc.

can do

the journey

on their

own.

Brothers and

sisters,

God wants

more than

our

dutiful

obedience.

Yes,

He wants

your toil

and He

wants your

patient

endurance

but He's

also for

your joy.

He's also

for your

love.

If you think

that God

merely wants

you for

the services

and ministries

that you can

perform on

His behalf,

then you

are badly

mistaken.

God wants

to draw you

into a

loving

relationship

with Him.

He wants

you to

share

in His

everlasting

love for

you and

for you

to love

Him in

return.

He wants

you to

be forever

enveloped by

the triune

love of

God.

So yes,

let's be

patiently

enduring

Christians

but let's

also be

joyfully

exuberant

Christians.

Let's be

hardworking

Christians

but let's

also be

deeply

loving

Christians.

Notice

also the

contrast

between

love

and

hate

in this

passage.

The church

in Ephesus

hate the

works of

the Nicolaitans

which Jesus

also hates.

That's a good

thing.

To hate

what God

hates is

good.

But their

failure was

in the

absence of

love.

They didn't

love what

Jesus

loved.

They

abandoned

the love

they had

at first.

It's not

enough to

hate what

is false

and evil.

We also

must love

God and

love one

another and

love our

neighbors.

sometimes

Christians

get

caricatured

in the

media as

people who

are only

against

this and

against

that.

Most of

the time

it's not

fair but

for some

Christians that

caricature hits

a little too

close to

home.

Again it's

good to

hate what

God hates

and to be

against what

God is

against but

if you're

only an

against this

and against

that Christian

and not

for this

love

Christian

for that

love

Christian

then there

is an

imbalance.

So now

let's return

to the

exhortation

verse 5

that we've

seen the

evaluation

and we go

to the

exhortation

in verse

5.

Remember

therefore

from where

you have

fallen

repent

and do

the works

you did

at first.

If not

I will

come to

you and

remove

your

lampstand

from its

place

unless

you

repent.

I think

this

exhortation

has a

particular

emphasis

on loving

God

in the

way we

witness

to others.

You're

going to

ask me

where

you're

getting

that

in the

text

I'm

going to

show

you.

There's

three

R's

here

to help

we

summarize.

Remember

repent

and then

if you

don't

you're

going to

be

removed

to

remove

the

lampstand

from

its

place.

The

church

in

Ephesus

needs

to repent

of abandoning

their

first love

and that's

going to

be seen

in doing

the

works