First Love- Revelation 2:1-7

God, thank you so much for today. And God, this

morning as we approach this really powerful passage,

God, I just ask that you would quiet our hearts,

God. And God, beyond just quieting our hearts,

I ask that you would give us discernment and

a humility to be willing to look at our own lives,

God. God, this is a convicting passage. And God,

I ask that you would open our eyes to places

in our own lives where we need to be convicted

in our walk with you, God. Open our eyes to places

where we have abandoned our first love, God.

Lord, this morning I ask that you would give

me just your words, God, and nothing else, Father.

Give us ears to hear from you this morning and

an openness to respond. In your name we pray.

Amen. Well, as we kind of kick off this series

through Revelation, I just want to give some

very, very brief background information about

Revelation real quick. So first off, Revelation,

it is written by the Apostle John. He is on the

island of Patmos at this point, and it's written

between 94 and 96 AD during a time of pretty

heavy persecution under the Roman Emperor Domitian.

Underneath Domitian, the Roman government is

going around, they're arresting Christians. Anytime

that a Christian does anything that might be

on the fringe of being illegal, they're not just

tried for the crime and found guilty. Their punishment

then is significantly worse than the average

person. And John is given this revelation by

Jesus during this time frame. He's on the island

of Patmos, sitting there in exile for really

no crime of his own other than just being a Christian.

And Jesus says, hey John, I'm going to do something,

but I need you to write down exactly what it

is that I'm going to tell you. And that's a theme

throughout the book of Revelation. This challenge

to John to write down what it is that Jesus says.

And so in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus speaks directly

to seven churches in Asia Minor. Seven churches

that are real churches. Seven churches that should...

inform us and should encourage us should challenge

us as a body of believers so let me just ask

if you are able would you stand with me as we

read revelation 2 1 through 7 just out of reverence

for this being the very words of our lord and

savior jesus to us this morning it says this

Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus,

thus says the one who holds the seven stars in

his right hand and who walks among the seven

golden lampstands. I know your works, your labor,

and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate

evil people. You have tested those who call themselves

apostles and are not, and you have found them

to be liars. I know that you have persevered

and endured hardships for the sake of my name,

and you have not grown weary. But I have this

against you. You have abandoned the love you

had at first. Remember then how far you have

fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first.

Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your

lampstand from its place unless you repent. Yet

you do have this. You hate the practices of the

Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Let anyone who

has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the

churches, as the Holy Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who conquers, I will give the right

to eat from the tree of life, which is in the

paradise of God. You may be seated. That is the

letter to the church in Ephesus. There's encouragement.

There's rebuke. There's instruction. There's

some more encouragement. There's a promise. There's

a lot going on in these seven verses. But there

is one main point that I want to make sure we

all take away from today. We can never lose our

first love. We can never lose our first love.

And hear me on this, that is a challenge to us,

that we must never let go of our first love.

That we must never get caught up with caring

or concerns about the world or something else

in life and then look back and realize that we've

gone months and years without our first love.

And we'll see today what that first love is.

But before we look at anything else in this passage,

let me challenge you. We can never lose our first

love. Throughout Revelation 2 and 3, John's given

all sorts of different opening statements. It's

Jesus introducing himself in a way to the church.

Jesus saying, this is me talking to you. So look

at Revelation 2 and with me, let's see the first

of these introductory statements. Once again,

it says, write to the angel of the church in

Ephesus. Thus says the one who holds the seven

stars in his right hand and who walks among the

seven golden lampstands. So start off just identifying

a few things from this. So first, there is a

speaker in this letter. This letter is not John's

letter to the church in Ephesus. This is Jesus'

letter to the church in Ephesus. And John is

simply a middleman here. John is told this. write

to, and then somebody to write to, write to the

angel or literally write to the messenger of

the church in Ephesus. He's given a message to

pass on to these angels. And before we really

dive into that message to the church in Ephesus,

let me take just a few minutes to set the context

for us of Ephesus. Ephesus is probably the most

famous, most well -known of these seven churches,

and it's probably most famous, honestly, for

the letter that's sent to it. That's the book

of Ephesians. If you open up your Bible and go

to the book of Ephesians, it's the letter sent

to this church, the church of Ephesus. The church

in Ephesus is also very clearly talked about

in Acts 19 and Acts 20. In Acts 19, 8 through

10, we see the following account of Paul's time

in Ephesus. It says this, Paul entered the synagogue

and spoke boldly over a period of three months,

arguing and persuading them about the kingdom

of God. So preaching about Jesus. But when some

became hardened and would not believe, slandering

the way, that is Christianity, in front of the

crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples

and conducted discussions every day in the lecture

hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years

so that all the residents, notice that word,

all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks,

heard the word of the Lord. There's three things

that we really see in those verses that kind

of summarize Ephesus as a church. First, The

gospel spreads rapidly in Ephesus. Within two

years, the entire region has heard about Jesus,

and I don't believe that's just some form of

hyperbole. That's true. These are believers who

are on fire for Jesus, and they are telling everyone

that they meet about who Jesus is because they

want to see their friends, their neighbors, their

family members getting saved. The gospel spreads

rapidly in Ephesus. Secondly, the gospel takes

root in Ephesus. These believers want to hear

more about Jesus. So these discussions, these

teachings in the lecture hall of Tyrannosaur,

the believers are hungry for God's word on a

daily basis. Culturally, there would have been

kind of like a break in the afternoon, a couple

hour break, two, three hours. And it's believed

that during this time the believers in Ephesus,

instead of going home and taking a rest, would

actually go to the lecture hall of Tyrannus and

hear Paul preach for two or three hours a day.

Now as much as that might sound great to me to

preach for two or three hours today, I'm guessing

most people here are not signing up for daily

two to three hours of hearing me talk. But that's

how hungry they are for the gospel and to know

Jesus more. So the gospel takes root in Ephesus.

They love the gospel. And thirdly, the gospel

inspires the Ephesian church. The gospel inspires

the Ephesian church to live out their faith.

We see that throughout the rest of chapter 19

and then into chapter 20. See, after some more

traveling, Paul gives a very famous address to

the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, where

Acts 20 · chapter mention

he exhorts them to obedience in Christ. And he

challenges them on how to shepherd the church

of Ephesus well. What to guard them from, what

to expect, what they're going to face. The gospel

spreads rapidly, it takes root, and it inspires

the Ephesian church in obedience. And even beyond

Paul's time in Ephesus, the early church history

that we have paints a picture of strong leadership

in the Ephesian church. Here's just a few notable

names of some men who served in this church.

Paul obviously spent about two years there. Tychicus,

one of Paul's co -workers, spent time there.

Timothy spent much of his ministry in Ephesus.

In fact, that's actually where he was when he

received 1 and 2 Timothy. And then the apostle

John actually spent a chunk of his time serving

the Lord in Ephesus. Here's my point with this.

The Ephesian church grew and was also led towards

Christ consistently. It had good leadership.

From the minute it was begun until we get to

this letter, it's had solid leadership. You know,

this isn't a church where we're saying, well,

if they could have just gotten a good leader

in. If they could have just gotten somebody there

who could have, you know, led them and pointed

them towards Jesus. That's not the situation

in Ephesus. See, as the church grows in Ephesus,

there's a group that hates that. That's the followers

of Artemis. Ephesus was a powerful and an influential

city. In some ways, we could compare it to New

York City today. It was a powerhouse city. It

was economically important. It was culturally

important. It was politically important. It was

the center of trade. It was the center of the

worship of Artemis, or as the Romans called her,

Diana. And people worshipped her. They would

travel from all around to go worship Artemis

in Ephesus. And she was the goddess of childbirth

and actually hunting along with several other

things. But she was very, very popular in Roman

life. And the worship of Artemis was very different

than worshipping God. See, the worship of Artemis

was highly sexual. It was led by priests and

priestesses who were extremely hostile to the

gospel. But as we see in Acts 19, even as the

priests and priestesses of Artemis attempt to

shut down the gospel, their worship of their

idol is no match for the worship of the one true

Savior. Like we see, everyone in the region hears

about Jesus, and many believe the gospel takes

root. The Ephesian church quickly gains a reputation

as being a fast -growing, influential, well -connected,

deeply evangelistic congregation. And that is

the church that Jesus writes to. Now let's look

at the next part of the introduction. We see

that Jesus, the speaker here, says that he holds

the seven stars in his right hand and he walks

among the seven golden lampstands. Here's what

that means. The seven stars are the angels of

the seven churches that Jesus is going to address.

He holds them in his hand, meaning that he has

dominion over the seven churches. Yet at the

same time, he also walks among the seven lampstands,

which are the seven churches themselves. This

shows that Jesus is not far off or distant, even

as he rules over the church. Instead, Jesus is

close and personal. Now friends, before we ever

get to the Ephesian church, our main point for

today, please hear this takeaway from the introduction.

Jesus is after a personal relationship with you.

Jesus loves you personally. He knows you and

he cares about you. Jesus is close to you. Yes,

Jesus holds the seven stars in his right hand,

but Jesus also walks alongside and among the

seven lampstands. Friends, Jesus cares about

you and Jesus walks with you. Now from verses

2 and 3, we're going to see Jesus spending a

little bit of time encouraging the church in

Ephesus. This is what it says. I know your works,

your labor and your endurance, that you cannot

tolerate evil people. You have tested those who

call themselves apostles and are not, and you

have found them to be liars. I know that you

have persevered and endured hardships for the

sake of my name, and you have not grown weary.

There's really four main things in here that

Jesus calls out as encouragement. Jesus has seen

the church's works, their labor, their endurance,

or their perseverance here, and also their inability

to tolerate evil people. So let's take a moment

to talk about just each one of those, because

these are four things that we should have in

our life. Our lives should be marked by these

four same things. First, we see Jesus talk about

works. And the word here is a word, ergon. It's

a word used to refer to servants completing the

tasks of their master. And it is most famously

used in Mark 13, 34, and 35. I won't read that

for us. But essentially, a man goes on a journey,

and he leaves his servants with work to do, with

ergon, tasks to do. And the challenge is that

they need to be going and doing their work while

he's away, so that when the master comes back,

Their work is complete. There's a very practical

application of this idea that we see as Christians.

What is the task that Jesus has given to us?

I think it's pretty simple. It's what we read

at the end of every service. As Jesus leaves

earth, as he returns to heaven, he gives us a

simple challenge. Go and make disciples of all

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching

them to obey everything that Jesus commanded.

Not that we can, but that Jesus commanded. And

remember, I am with you always to the very end

of the age. That is the work that we are supposed

to do while the master Jesus is away. The work

of going and making disciples. Let me read you

this quote from Charles Spurgeon. It struck me

really hard in the heart on Monday. He says,

if we are true servants, we are always about

our master's business. If we eat or drink or

rest or sleep, we desire to do all to the glory

of God. Then he ends with this, we are never

off duty. We are never off duty. That is the

challenge that we see, to always be on duty.

And the church in Ephesus has done this work.

They have worked for the kingdom of God, and

Jesus encourages them that he has seen this.

Just as another practical reminder, Jesus sees

you. This isn't a scary thing. This is a good

thing. Jesus sees you serving the kingdom. And

Jesus encourages them for their work. He says,

I know your works. I know that you've done the

tasks I've given you while I've been away. Next

step, Jesus addresses labor. I'm not going to

lie, that had me a little stumped. It took some

time to wrestle through this one. Works and labor

seem like synonyms for each other. You know,

you labor while you're at work. You work in your

labors. They seem very closely connected. But

in this context, the word labor is linked more

to the good works that the Ephesian church is

carrying out, like what we see in actually Ephesians

2 .10, where we read, for we are his workmanship

created in Christ Jesus for good works. We can

read good labor, which God prepared ahead of

time for us to do. The church is living out there

doing the good works they're called to do. They're

obedient to God in that. And third, Jesus encourages

them for their endurance and their perseverance.

They've gone through hard times. The cult of

Artemis has persecuted them, but they've endured.

The temptation to throw in the towel is real,

and it's there for them on a daily basis. But

they haven't done it. They've carried on. As

hard as it was to be a Christian in Ephesus,

they are persevering. And Jesus encourages them

in that. Hey, church in Ephesus, I know it's

not always easy. Hey, church in Ephesus, I know

there's a lot of people around the Mediterranean

Sea that think if we could just be a church like

them, if we could just be a church with all of

this stuff figured out, wouldn't it be so much

better? And Jesus says, hey, I see you enduring.

I see you persevering. Friends, Jesus sees you

as you go through trials and hard times in your

life also. Like I said, everything in this letter

is also practical for us. Maybe you're in one

of those hard times right now. Where you're persevering

and you are doing everything you can just to

keep your head above water. Where it feels like

kind of your life is sloping down like this and

it feels like every day is harder and harder

and harder and more hopeless and more hopeless

and more hopeless. If that's you this morning,

let me encourage you with this verse. Let me

encourage you that Jesus knows what you're going

through, that he is with you as you persevere

and endure this hardship. I know it's not something

we think about all the time, but sometimes that

hardship comes because we follow Jesus, because

our friends or our coworkers don't understand

the decisions that we're making, because that

family member doesn't get why it's important

to us that we are up early on a Sunday morning

to come to church. Friend, persevere and endure

whatever that hardship might look like for the

sake of Jesus' name. He is with you. But as encouraging

as verses 2 and 3 are, and they are encouraging,

and we see that the church in Ephesus is doing

some stuff right, verses 4 and 5 are kind of

the climax of this passage. It is the rebuke

that Jesus gives to them. So look again with

me at verses 4 through 5. He says this, but I

have this against you. Let that sink in. Jesus,

their Savior, holds something against them. They

have erred in this. You have abandoned the love

you had at first. Let's stop there. We'll touch

on verse 5 in a minute. Stopping there. As high

as the highs are for this church in Ephesus,

there's also a huge area of concern. Jesus rebukes

the church for something very specific. You have

abandoned the love you had at first. There's

two big things here. First, They have lost their

first love. But equally striking, they didn't

just passively lose it. They didn't just wake

up one day and not have it anymore. They abandoned

it. They turned their back on their first love.

So before we continue with the second part of

that verse, let's start with this. What is their

first love? Simply put, their first love is Jesus.

Their first love was the gospel and salvation

by faith. Their first love is summarized in Ephesians

2 like this. You are saved by grace through faith,

and this is not from yourselves. It is God's

gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.

But now they have abandoned that. They've lost

loving that. Instead of being focused on faith

and the freedom that Jesus gives, they've become

focused on their appearance. Their own walk with

God is dry. Their corporate walk with God is

dry. Yes, they're good at identifying the false

apostle. They're good at that. They're good at

doing the right thing and making it seem like

everything's okay. But inside, their hearts are

dry. They're just going through the motions.

I could say it like this. Their reputation carries

them forward, is respected. Their reputation

tells the world around them, you're doing great,

church nephesis. Look at how great you are. But

inside, it is empty. And here's the scary part

about Revelation 2, because there is a scary

part to Revelation 2, 1 through 7. That exact

same thing can happen for us. We can make our

relationship with God about checking boxes rather

than passionately, intimately walking with God.

The Ephesians do all of the right things. They're

doing good works. They're even telling people

out the Bible. They're inviting their friend

to church. But they're doing it for the wrong

reasons. To be blunt, we could say it like this.

The church in Ephesus is fake. It is phony. It

is empty on the inside. It is hollow. They are

like a tooth with a cavity. To the naked eye,

everything seems okay. But when you look closer

at the x -ray, you can see very clearly that's

not normal. Friends, they are not healthy. They

need to have this addressed, and it needs to

be addressed. ASAP. I don't know about you, but

when I've gone to the dentist and they've found

a cavity, they come up with a plan for how to

treat it. They don't just look and say, well,

you've got a cavity. Have a good day. Like, you

know, I'll see you again in six months and see

how your tooth's doing then. It's okay, you've

got a cavity, and here's what we're going to

do. We're going to do a filling. We're going

to take action on this. We're going to do something.

And just like that dentist tells you both what

is wrong and also what you need to do to fix

it, Jesus also tells the church in Ephesus what

is wrong and what they need to do. There's three

steps that Jesus gives them in verse 5. Let me

just read verse 5 again. Remember then how far

you have fallen. Repent and do the works you

did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and

remove your lampstand from its place, unless

you repent. There's three steps today that Jesus

gives to the church in Ephesus. Here they are.

First, they need to wake up. They need to wake

up to what's going on. Secondly, they need to

repent. They need to repent of what they're doing

wrong. And third, they need to renew their walk

with God. They need to renew their first love.

They need to fall back in love with Jesus, back

in love with the gospel, back in love with their

salvation. It's not just enough to say, hey,

God, you're right, we did fall short. Jesus is

saying, You need to wake up. You need to repent.

You need to take action about this. So first,

they need to wake up to their sin and understand

with them having abandoned their first love,

they are sinning. They need to wake up to their

sin. They need to realize that what they're doing

is wrong. They need to realize they've turned

from God. They need to see that they're no longer

this glorious Ephesian church. They're a church

that's empty on the inside. And we're reminded

of what the stakes are if they don't wake up.

Jesus tells us that. I will come to you and remove

your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Wake up, or else Jesus is going to take away

the lampstand. For the Ephesians, it's like they

almost think, well, I come from this great lineage.

You know, my parents, my grandparents, these

people, they knew who Paul was, they met Paul,

they had Paul over to their house for dinner,

so I'm covered, I'm good. I know more than this

church and Colossae, let's say. I can sit back

and I can kind of just, you know, watch and rest

on my own merits, rest on how much I know, rest

on how good I am at this rather than who I am

on the inside. I can't help but think about one

of the most humbling nights of my high school

life. My sophomore year of high school. My freshman

year, we won the state championship in basketball,

and then we graduated eight of our top ten players

on that team. And we went in to our first game

my sophomore year, and we all thought, well,

this is going to be super easy. Does everyone

know who we are? We are Faith Christian, five

-time straight state champions. This is a breeze.

And we were playing a team. There were two classifications

larger than us called Denver South. If you ask

Hope, she might have run against Denver South.

Denver South was known for really... two things

in Denver. They were really, really good athletes,

and they were super athletic, like way more athletic

than a bunch of Christian school kids from the

suburbs. They were really good athletes, and

we came out so confident, and I remember our

coach being like, you guys got to chill down.

Let's go through the game plan. We're like, we

got this. Don't you worry, coach. Well, the 35

-point deficit we faced at halftime was a pretty

good wake -up call that we did not have this.

The 48 -point loss that was the worst in the

last 20 years of the program history was a pretty

humbling way to be reminded that we most definitely

did not have this just because of what our jersey

said on the front. And I will never forget our

coach looking at us in the locker room and saying,

you guys thought tonight you could put on a jersey

and magically become something you aren't. You

guys didn't do the work ahead of time. Friends,

that's the same case for the Ephesian church.

They think I show up at church on Sunday morning.

My church is awesome, man. I lead a small group.

I'm in this Bible study. I'm in that. My church

is great. I'm good at this. I put on my church

personality, and that means I'm close with God.

Friends, that is not the case. There is no church

jersey you can put on that just magically makes

you better. No, instead, our life is about what

we do on a daily basis in our walk with God.

And so Jesus tells them to wake up. Secondly,

they need to repent. They need to go to God.

See, there's a temptation for us to try and fix

problems either in our church or in our own faith

by just working harder and relying on our own

strengths. If I just do a little extra work,

if I just force this, if I just stop going here,

stop doing this, and if I just stop this, then

it'll all be okay. But that isn't the right attitude.

See, even if the results show up, it's become

all about us and how good we are, how smart and

how gifted we are, rather than about who God

is. They need to repent and go to God and rely

on God. Their father is waiting there with open

arms to welcome them back. They need to run to

that father and accept his love and his help.

Similarly, I tried to challenge myself to think

of an example for each one of these so they can

feel a little bit far off and maybe abstract.

When I was about four years old, my family had

just moved to Michigan. I remember trying to

pour a glass of juice for myself. Now, for perspective,

I was shorter than the counter. I couldn't see

the top of the counter. And my mom and my sister

were gone. My dad was laying down on the couch

just trying to rest a bit after work for the

week. And so I decided I would just get this

by myself. So I took the brand new bottle of

juice and I started to pour into this glass.

And if you've ever been around kids, I used to

work at a daycare, so I saw this firsthand all

the time. A four -year -old does not have the

strength to just pick up the bottle of juice

and just start pouring it and control where it

goes. It just flows everywhere. It was a recipe

for disaster. And now I'm looking down, I'm covered

in juice, and the floor is covered in juice,

and the counter is covered in grape juice, I

believe. Really a great thing to spill everywhere.

And I had to decide what I wanted to do, right?

Do I tell my dad, hey, Dad, this one's on me.

I made a big mess in the kitchen. Or do I try

and hide it, try and fix it on my own? And I

chose option two. I decided to try to hide it,

so I wiped down my legs, and then I got a paper

towel and wiped up a little bit of the floor.

It's all gone. It was not gone. And then I sat

down with my glass of juice. I was like, I'm

going to drink this now. It's going to be great.

And about 20 minutes later, my dad got up and

came over, and he found grape juice all over

the floor. In that moment, I was like, I'm going

to have to find a new family. Like, this is bad.

I'm panicking. My dad's going to be yelling at

me and screaming at me. He's going to send me

to my grandparents for a month. which would have

been fine. I love my grandparents. But then instead

of yelling at me, my dad just asked me a question.

He said, why didn't you ask for my help? Why

didn't you just come talk to me? When you spilled

it, why didn't you just tell me so I could help

you? He told me he would always help me. He wasn't

going to scream at me. He wasn't going to disown

me. He said he got down on my level. He told

me just to ask for help next time. Listen, that's

what God's saying to the church in Ephesus. He's

saying, why don't you just come talk to me? You're

not where you want to be in your faith. You've

lost your first love. You're going through the

motions really good, but you don't love me. But

why don't you just come talk to me? Why are you

trying to fix it all on your own? Why don't you

just come talk to me? Repent and just come talk

to me. Then Jesus gives them their third instruction.

After they repent, they need to renew their relationship

with God. Last fall, we looked at the book of

Haggai, which is a great example of renewal.

In Haggai and in here, the people of God needed

to renew their walk with God by worshiping God

instead of trying to do everything on their own.

Jesus is reminding them, enough with halfway

following me, enough with just saying you follow

me. Be all in. Jesus is calling for their hearts.

See, there's no doubt that the Ephesian church

knew a lot about Jesus. They knew lots about

Jesus. If you got all the early church together

for Jesus trivia, they probably would have won

it all. They were very, very smart. They knew

what they were doing. You know, we saw that in

their good works, right? They're very good at

calling out false teachers. That's something

we'll see other churches struggle with. But they've

missed that they're supposed to be growing to

love Jesus more. There is a book I was given

at the Southern Baptist Convention called Fruitful

Theology by a guy named Ronnie Kurtz who was...

one of my theology professors in seminary. And

in it, Ronnie writes a chapter on love and the

theology of love. And he starts with a really

simple challenge. That as we study who God is

and that God is love, it should challenge us

to do a couple things. As we learn more about

God's love, we should love God more because we

are appreciative of what God has done. but it

should also change how we live on a daily basis

as we grow to be more like Jesus. See, we can

do theology where we just sit back and we read

a book and we say, well, that was very enlightening

to me, and I'm really glad that I read that,

and there's been a lot of books I've read like

that. We say, you know, that was great. I learned

an awful lot about the Trinity in this book,

and that was, you know, helpful to understand

more. You know, it was helpful to understand

the early church's missional strategy. That was

great. But that doesn't mean that our heart changes.

And Jesus is challenging the Ephesians. You guys

know what you need to know. Enough with the classes,

enough with, you know, that next program or that

next this to learn a little more. Your heads

are in the game, but your heart is not. Why?

Because you've abandoned your first love. You

know all the answers. You know how to spot the

phonies from a mile away unless it's yourself.

You know what it means to obey God, but your

hearts aren't seeking me. And so, Cornerstone,

I want to challenge us. We'll talk more about

this. Do I? Do you? Do we need to renew our relationship

with Jesus and fall back in love with God? Is

our fire for Jesus burning as bright as it once

did? And we will talk more about that in a minute.

But let that already be on your mind. And look

at verse 6 with me. Jesus sandwiches his rebuke

with some positive feedback. And he gets back

to that in verse 6. You've lost your first love.

I'm rebuking you for that. I'm calling you to

repentance. Yet you do have this. You hate the

practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Jesus encourages the believers, it's good that

they hate this group. It's good that they don't

like the practices of this group. No one knows

exactly what they do, but an early church writer

says this about them. They lived lives of unrestrained

indulgence. They used their faith as an excuse

and even a reason to engage in sexual immorality

and other sins. And Jesus hates that. Don't miss

that. You hate the practices which I also hate.

Jesus didn't go to the cross so we could selfishly

live lives built around our own pleasure. Instead,

Jesus went to the cross so we could be set free

from sin. Jesus didn't die for us to pursue after

sin. Jesus bought us back from sin. And here

Jesus encourages the Ephesians that they are

right to hate those practices. But it's also

a reminder, a reminder to follow me. Don't just

follow emotions or yourself like what this group

does. Don't just follow the way of the world.

Instead, follow me. Have a personal relationship

with me. And that brings us to Revelation 2 -7

where Jesus closes out this letter. He says,

let anyone who has ears Do you have ears this

morning? Not if you have ears. Okay. Let anyone

who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to

the churches. To the one who conquers, I will

give the right to eat from the tree of life,

which is in the paradise of God. He wraps up

this letter by saying that it's for everyone

who has ears. If you have ears, this letter is

for you. Hear the word of the Lord this morning.

Hear the warning that Jesus gives. Take time

today to examine your heart in your own life.

Take time today to examine, do I love Jesus first

and foremost? That's what we're just about to

do, in fact. But Jesus' final piece is actually

an encouragement. To the one who conquers, I

will give the right to eat from the tree of life,

which is in the paradise of God. But Jesus isn't

talking about a Roman soldier. He's not saying,

dear Roman army, you conquered a lot of the world,

and I will give you the right to eat from the

tree of life because you were so good at that.

Instead, this word, this word conqueror, is from

the word nika. It's where we get the brand Nike.

It also means to persevere, to endure, to win

even. Let's use that word there. Jesus challenges

us to win, to win by following him, to win by

loving him first and foremost. Jesus challenges

us to persevere day after day until the finish

line by following Jesus. And he promises us something.

I will give the right to eat from the tree of

life. That is a shout out back to Genesis chapter

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

1 through 3, back to the Garden of Eden, back

to man's first sin where they eat of the tree

when they are not supposed to. And now we see

that to the one who conquers, the one who wins,

the one who loves Jesus, the one who walks with

Jesus, Jesus gives the right to eat from that

tree. But there's something else there also,

actually. Ephesus was known a little bit, it

wasn't their major thing, but they were known

a bit for their date palm trees. Their trees

were a sign of provision. In the Old Testament,

for instance, in Exodus 15, God uses palm trees

to show that he's providing for people. So right

here, you've got a cool connection. I will give

the right to eat from the tree of life. I will

give provision to the one who perseveres, the

one who endures, the one who conquers, the one

who follows me. I will provide. I will give you

the right to eat from the tree of life in the

paradise of God, or literally, you will be with

me in paradise forever. It is a call to a church

that is struggling by reminding them to focus

on the most important thing. So let's take a

minute now and let's talk about that most important

thing. Our first application point today is this.

Our first love calls. Our first love calls. The

first question that we have to answer after reading

Revelation 2, 1 through 7 is this. What is our

first love? What is our first love? And I'm not

saying who is your first love as in like, you

know, that person from first grade. What is your

first love? What is it that is in that seat of

preeminence in your life? What is the thing that

you will build your life on? And I want to take

you two minutes to tell you what the church in

Ephesus was originally founded on. The church

in Ephesus was built on this understanding that

we live in a broken and fallen world, a world

that is that way because of sin, which is anything

that misses God's holy and perfect mark. And

here's the truth. We are all sinners. We all

find ourselves in brokenness and we need a way

out of brokenness, a way to be restored like

what Jesus just said, to be in paradise of God.

And Jesus came to earth. He gave his life for

us on the cross after living a perfect, sinless

life, the only person to ever do that. And he

died on the cross and rose again on the third

day so that we can be saved. And to be saved,

we need to repent and put our faith in Jesus.

After all, like Ephesians 2, 8, 9 tells us, it

is by faith that we are saved. It's not from

ourselves. We can't brag about it. It's not like

you can say, well, you know, it's so good yesterday

that now I'm saved. That's not how that works.

Trust me, the church in Ephesus would have loved

that if they could have just had a set of things

to do, a set of check boxes to hit every day,

and things to do, things to obey, so they could

just go through the motions. We're saved through

our faith. And then after we are saved, we're

given a new challenge. We are challenged to grow

in our faith, to grow closer to God, and to go

to the people around us. And that's what we see

in Acts 19, right? These people are growing in

their faith, and they are going back into the

brokenness that's all around them, and they are

bringing the good news of Jesus. That right there,

that is what the church in Ephesus is founded

on. It's founded on knowing Jesus, on following

Jesus, on loving Jesus. And so I want to challenge

you with something this morning. This morning,

do you know Jesus personally? Not just do you

know that there was a man named Jesus who lived

a long time ago. Do you know that Jesus died

on the cross for you personally? Do you know

that Jesus loves you? I'll just preach that to

you and preach that to me too. Do you have a

relationship with Jesus? Have you placed your

faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?

And if you're here today and you cannot confidently

say that, you cannot confidently say that you

know your faith is in Jesus, that you have been

forgiven by Jesus, washed clean by his death

and resurrection, then let today be that day.

Let today be the day that you cry out to Jesus

in saving faith. Today, put your faith in Jesus

for the forgiveness of your sins and be saved.

Let me challenge all of us here this morning

with this. Today, let our first love challenge

us to make sure that our first love is Jesus.

That our first love is not drifted, we have not

abandoned it, it chased after something else.

Like position. or influence, or popularity, but

that our first love is Jesus. Here's our second

application point. Our first love calls us back.

Our first love calls us back. The church in Ephesus

has a history of knowing Jesus, of walking with

Jesus, of seeing God move in a bunch of different

ways, but their hearts have grown cold and distant

from God. They needed a wake -up call, right?

They need their alarm clock. And to renew their

love for Jesus, or to make it new, But it's not

just the Ephesian church. It's all of us. We

can all struggle with this. We can all struggle

with feeling that we've grown distant from God.

We can all struggle with finding out one day

that we wake up and our hearts aren't burning

passionately for God. That our quiet times don't

seem as fruitful. We don't have the same passion

to tell people around us about Jesus. That prayer

is less of something that we long for and it's

more of something we do out of habit because

after we pray, then we can go eat. We all go

through these seasons. I'm saying that from firsthand

experience. There's days, weeks, months where

I find myself not following Jesus with the passion

that I want to follow Jesus with. But there's

something incredible about following Jesus. When

we're in these lows, when we're struggling in

our relationship with him, Jesus doesn't leave

us. He doesn't just say, well, that's too bad

for you that you're not feeling it. I'll see

you again in six months. Good luck. Instead,

Jesus calls to us. That's what this letter is.

This letter is a call to the church in Ephesus

to come back. It's a call to them to renew their

love. A few weeks ago, I officiated a wedding.

You know, when you're doing a wedding, when you're

getting married, if you've gotten married before,

you know this, there's vows. Also, if you're

married, you know there are days where it is

harder to live out those vows than other days.

There are days where you're thinking to yourself,

did I really promise that? That's going to be

hard today. I'm not feeling very patient today.

I'm not sure I want to do that today. But it's

something we promise. Friends, sometimes you

might hear somebody go through and renew those

vows or take some time to sit down and talk through

their vows again and renew them together. That's

what this letter is calling for the church in

Ephesus to do. It's Jesus saying, I know you're

in a dry spell right now. I know you're in a

spot where following me is not really what you

want to do. Come back to me. Come back to me.

There's a practical challenge in this for us

today. It's one that honestly might make us uncomfortable.

It's a question I've wrestled with this week,

and so now I want to ask you to really take this

to heart and to wrestle with this too. Are you

filled with the same fire for Jesus that you

had when you were first saved? Does your heart

long with every ounce of itself to be close to

Jesus? Or is our spiritual life more on the back

burner behind all the other things in life, the

responsibilities, the distractions, everything

else that goes on on a daily basis? Let me challenge

you to really take inventory of that and then

to do something about that. Let me give you a

really simple, manageable application that's

relevant to what we've seen this morning. You

want to fall more in love with Jesus? I think

one of the best books for that is the book of

Ephesians. Ephesians paints a beautiful image

of salvation. of how we are saved, of who God

is. So let me challenge you this week. Reflect

on where you're at with God and then read through

Ephesians. But don't just like read it, flip

through. Okay, great, I did what Daniel said

to do. Meditate on it. Consider it. Let it spur

your heart into a deeper walk with Jesus. And

as we do that this week, let me encourage us

to ask God to reignite the fire in our heart.

That is a prayer I can promise you he will answer.

Ask God to reignite that fire. And here's our

third and final application this morning. Our

first love challenges us to endure. As we walk

with Christ, there is one more challenge. It's

really clear in Revelation 2, 1 through 7. That

is the challenge over and over to endure, to

persevere, or even in verse 7, that challenge

to win. That's what I want to talk about. How

do we experience that victory? It's simple. We

do so by walking with God until we return home.

So I want to encourage you, dear brothers and

sisters, endure. Stand strong and walk with God.

And there's a way that we can and should do that,

a way that I want to challenge us with this morning

that's not directly in here, but I think should

be a part of how we endure, a part of how we

go through life. See, worship is our response

to God's revelation. We could safely say that

if we're going to endure until the end, then

we need to worship God. It's not just a piece

of advice or a thought or an idea, it's a necessity.

If we're going to endure through this life, if

we're going to persevere and be with God for

eternity, then we need to fix our eyes on Jesus.

And so let me just give us three ways that we

can worship as we wrap up. First, we worship

God every single day. We see that in 1 Corinthians

10 31 and Colossians 3 23. Colossians 3 23 says

this, whatever you do, do it from the heart as

something done for the Lord and not for people.

Worship on a daily basis. Worship in your work

that you do tomorrow. Worship at home. Worship

in your relationships. Parents, grandparents,

worship God in the way that you talk to your

kids and grandkids. Worship in these things by

fixing your eyes on Jesus. Rather than getting

angry at your coworker, take it to Jesus. Your

child isn't listening to you? It's hard. I'm

not a parent, but I get it. Let's not lose hope.

Instead, take that frustration to Jesus and take

that and turn that into a situation where you

can worship Jesus. Whatever the situation you

face, let's make our lives about worshiping Jesus

by taking our lives to Jesus. Secondly, Worship

by loving the people around you. Worship God

by loving the people around you. Let's reflect

God's love by loving the people who are around

us. This gets after the good works and the labor

that we talked about earlier. Love that person

around us. Third, actually with our second one,

worship by loving that person by bringing them

next Saturday. Worship by loving that person.

By bringing them next Sunday morning. Worship

by loving that person and bringing their kids,

even if they're not free, by picking up their

kids and driving their kids here for VBS. Worship

by loving that person. And when we reveal the

full food truck schedule this week, choosing

one of those nights and saying, why don't we

get together and go eat from this food truck?

Why don't we go get some Watsons together this

night? Worship by loving the people around you.

Third and final, worship. By the way that you

corporately praise God. We worship as we gather

together and praise God. We worship as we gather

here and we preach the word of God. We worship

when we sing together. We worship when we talk

together in the lobby about the things of God

when we're there for one another in those hard

situations. We worship as we gather together

and hold one another in those hard times and

pray for one another. Worship is our response

to God's revelation. Let me challenge you with

this. It is encouraging when we all come together

for corporate worship. There's been some hard

seasons in my life. I'm not going to deny it.

And maybe you've gone through some too. But our

singing together helps us to endure. Last year,

right before my grandfather passed away, I was

really close to that grandpa. Did a lot with

him. And it was really hard. I'm not going to

lie. It really sucked. But there's something

really special about gathering with a group of

believers and singing praise to God. It was a

great reminder that no matter what it is that

we are going through in this moment, that God

is still with us. You think about that second

song we sang today, Living Hope. That even as

we might mourn or be going through a difficult

time at work or at home, that Jesus is our living

hope. That Jesus is our one true living hope.

And so let me challenge you with this. Worship

God by gathering together. Come together. Come

to church when it's hard. That day where you

say, I don't even know if I want to go to church

because life is just a little too much for me

this week. That's the day you need to be here

the most. So let me challenge you. Right now

as the worship team is about to come up and lead

us in two more songs, let me challenge you. Fix

your eyes on Jesus no matter what you're going

through and worship him this morning. God, thank

you so much for the chance that we have to come

together and to worship you. God, we are beyond

thankful, beyond grateful for the opportunity

that we have, God. And God, I just ask that you

would be with us now. God, I ask that you would

just help us to fix our eyes on you, God. Lord,

help us to worship you today, God, through our

singing, through being with one another, God.

Help us to worship you, God. Help us not to worry

about what someone around us might think of us,

God. Help us to worship you, to respond to you

and what you're putting on our hearts, God. Lord,

above all else this morning, I just ask that

you would secure us in our first love, God. God,

if we are here and we don't know you, or if we're

here and our hearts have drifted away from you,

God, would today be the day that that stops,

God? That today we would hear the words of verse

5, that we would wake up to that, we would be

aware of that. That we would repent. of that,

God. We bring it back to your feet. We just say,

God, help us to love you more. God, renew our

walk with you. We ask this in your name.