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Amen. Well, uh, I'm really really excited today. We are getting into the first of seven letters, which were written to seven churches in the book of Revelation. And uh to get before we jump into the first letter itself, which is what we're gonna do today, which is a letter to the Church of Ephesus, I wanted to kind of give a big picture overview of the way that all seven of the letters work. And so um, seven is in in uh in the scriptures, it is the number of completion. And so, although these seven letters are to seven specific churches, it is also God's way of saying that this is this these letters are to be uh read in all the churches throughout all of history. And so, yes, the letter is to Ephesus, and yes to Pergamum, and yes to Smyrna, but it's God's way of saying, this is my heart for you today and for this church today, and for all churches throughout the ages. And as we're gonna see that in these churches, John addresses uh a lot of issues that were happening. And it's really interesting when you read through the seven letters of the seven churches, all of them had issues, uh, and nothing's changed, right? All churches have issues today, but it's really crazy that every major issue which the church struggled with in the days of old are still the things that churches struggle with today. And that's why the word of God is so amazing, it's so relevant. People say it's so outdated. It's like, no, look at what they were dealing with. It's the same thing people are dealing with today. So I believe that the word to the church of Ephesus is a word for the church of Ashland, the story here today uh as well. So uh, if you're a note-taker, just to kind of set the big stage, all seven of these letters to the seven churches have five basic elements that they follow. Um, if you're note taking, write this down. The first pattern for the seven letters is number one, Christ himself. All of the letters begin with Christ introducing himself in a very specific way, and we'll unpack that here in a second. But the letters are Christocentric. They reveal to us the person and the nature of Jesus Christ. Secondly, in the pattern for all the letters, there is affirmation. After Jesus introduces himself to the churches, he gives affirmation. He says, I know about your life, I know about your works, I know the things you were doing. And so Christ is speaking affirmation and blessing over the churches. Third, after affirmation, we see in each of the letters that there is an element of correction. He says, Here's what you're doing well, and I want to commend you for that. But also, he says, here's the areas where you're not doing so well. Here's the areas where repentance is needed and where you've gotten off course a little bit. And you may have heard it said before, there is no perfect church. And if you ever do find a perfect church, please don't go to it because you will ruin it. So we're gonna see that very clearly in the letter to the seven churches. None of them are perfect, and no churches today are perfect as well. The church is a broken place made up of broken people. So if you're showing up here today hoping to find a bunch of perfect people, you're gonna be greatly disappointed. Um, but that is the reality. All churches have issues that they're working through as well. But there's not only correction, the fourth element of all the letters is a promise. So after giving uh identification of who Christ is, after giving affirmation and correction, there's a promise he says to each of the churches, to the one who overcomes, or to the one who conquers, and then he gives a promise for what happens to those who are faithful until the end. And then, fifth and finally, the fifth element of all the letters is that they they all end with uh with saying, He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. And so ultimately there is an invitation. Again, these were letters to specific churches, but the fact that he says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, plural, means that all of us today are invited as well to hear what the Holy Spirit might be speaking to us. It might be speaking to our church through the letters that were pinned by the Apostle John 2,000 years ago from the island of Patmos. Uh, but what's amazing about these five elements, there's Christ Himself, there's affirmation, there's correction, there's promise, and there's an invitation to hear. No Christian community can do without any of these five parts of this message. Like when you come to church, when you show up to any church, whether it's here or another one, this is what we should be looking for. That first and foremost, this is a place where I'm coming in contact with Christ Himself. And if you go to a church and you don't meet Christ there, then that is not a church that you should be a part of. The church is the place where we should have an encounter with Jesus Christ. So church is a place where we come to encounter Christ, it's a place where we come for affirmation. Just as Jesus gives affirmation to all the churches, when you show up to church on Sunday, you you should be encouraged. Like if you don't leave and if you leave more stressed out and more anxious and more depressed than when you came in, you're in the wrong church. But if you leave encouraged in some way and feeling more hopeful, then that's a good thing because Jesus has encouragement and affirmation for you. However, if you go to a church where it's only always affirmation and there's never a correction, if you never feel some sort of conviction or if you never feel like, man, here's areas where I need to grow, then you're missing the point as well. Because all the letters have correction. And again, for each of us, there should be things that the word of God should challenge our hearts. It should challenge us and correct us in the areas where we've gotten off course. And so when we come to church, we should expect that. God, God, correct me in the areas where my heart might be off. Would you, would you, would you redirect the affection and the attention of my heart and my mind? And then fourth, hopefully we're growing in our understanding of God's promises. Hopefully, when you show up to church, you hear, hey, here's what God has planned for your life. I know you have your plan for your life, like we're so saying, but God's plan for your life is even better. And so hopefully, as we come to church, as we open up the word, we are growing in our understanding of God's promises and his plans that he has for his people. And then fifth and finally, hopefully the way you show up to church on Sunday mornings is with ears to hear. As each of the letters says, Hugh has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the seven churches. You know, you could go to church every Sunday for your entire life and never be changed if you don't show up with ears to hear. Like just showing up isn't gonna change anything. It's the way that you show up. Are we showing up expectant or our ears open so that we might hear what God is wanting to speak into our lives today? So we need, we need all of those elements, all five elements that were present in all seven of the churches, and hopefully they're present in your life and in the church today as well. Now, what's interesting, back to the first part, just real quickly to set the context. Again, I said the first element of all the letters is Christ Himself. Each of the letters, there when you when you read them, Christ identifies himself to the church in a different way. And I'll just give you a broad sweep overview. We're gonna get into these more in detail as we go through this. But to the church of Ephesus, Jesus says, I am the one who holds the seven stars and walks among the lampstands. To the church of Smyrna, he says, I am the first and the last. To the church of Pergamum, he says, I am the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. To the church of Thyatira, he says, I am the one who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet of bronze. To the church of Sardis, he says, I am the one who has the seven spirits and holds the seven stars. To the church of Philadelphia, he says, I am the holy and true one, the one who opens and no one can shut, the one who shuts and no one can open. And to the church of Laodicea, he says, I am the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of God's creation. Now, if you were here last week, me reading those things just now might sound kind of familiar, and it should, because at the end of chapter one, Jesus, uh well, John the apostle had this vision of the Son of Man, and the Son of Man was identified by all of these characteristics. And now, as Jesus is revealing himself to the churches, notice each of the characteristics from Revelation 1, the vision of the Son of Man, are now being uh the way that Jesus identifies himself to the various churches. And the reason that's important to understand is twofold. Number one, each of the seven churches and every church sense is defined by the living Christ. The way that churches find their identity isn't by looking to themselves and saying, Well, who do we want to be and how do we want to define ourselves and what kind of church do we want to be? Churches receive their identity from the living Christ. Jesus says, Here's how I am, and therefore this is who you are. Does that make sense? So all the churches, first and foremost, are defined by Christ. The identity of the church always is rooted in the identity of Christ. And then, secondly, it's really interesting, while each of the seven churches gets their identity from Christ, it's really amazing that none of the churches is defined by the entire vision of the Son of Man from Revelation chapter one. Each one of them only gets one little piece of that vision. So Ephesus is it's he's holding the seven stars, Smyrna, it's the first and the last, Pergamum, it's the word, it's the sword coming out of the nose. They're all different. And the reason that's really important is to understand is because there's no single congregation that is able to exhibit the fullness of Christ. It is not possible to look at one singular church and find a complete representation of who Christ is. What he says in the seven letters is here's this church and you're showing this piece of Christ. Here's this church, and I'm showing you this part of my character and of my nature. And so any church or any denomination that claims to be the one true church or that claims to have the perfect model or representation of Christ has never dealt honestly with the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. The churches of Revelation 2 and 3 show us very clearly that different churches represent different parts of Christ's identity and nature in different ways. And that's a beautiful thing, by the way. Like, like that, that is very beautiful to know that, hey, we don't we don't have it perfectly. Like if you've come to the story your whole life and if this is the only church you ever go to, you're never gonna have a perfect picture of Christ just by looking at the way that we do things. If you go to other churches that do things differently, if you go to a more Pentecostal or charismatic church, you're gonna see a different part of Christ. If you go to a more reformed church, you're gonna see a different part of Christ. If you go to a church that uh is is more orthodox or more kind of traditional or liturgical, you're gonna see a different part of Christ. But each one of the churches, notice, they represent different parts of Christ. But at the end of the day, at the end of all the letters, this is what's key is he says, He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. These letters were not just listen to what he's saying to your church. He says, listen to what the spirit is doing in the churches. Plural. Which means if we don't see, hear, and understand what God is doing in other churches besides our own, our vision of Christ will always be limited and incomplete. That's so important for us to understand. God is working in different ways and in different contexts in different church communities. And in spite of those differences, there are two constants that we see in all the churches. The first one is that the Son of Man is in their midst. We saw that last week, that he is the one who dwells among the seven lampstands, which are the seven churches. Churches are a place where God's presence dwells in their midst. And secondly, the Spirit speaks to the churches so that we might hear and respond. That is our invitation today. And that is reality today. That is a revelation of Jesus. Ultimate reality today is Jesus is here and Jesus is present. And if your ears are open to hear what it is he will speak to you, you will leave today with a revelation of his nature, a revelation of his character, a revelation of his love that you did not have before you walked in these doors. Amen. Amen. So let's get into the first church itself. That's a broad picture overview of all seven churches. I want to read the passage. We're going to look at just the church of Ephesus today, Revelation chapter two, starting in verse one. Here's what it says 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, 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 namesake, 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 to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. So the first church that is addressed in these seven letters to the seven churches is the church of Ephesus, and this is because the church of Ephesus was the largest and most influential church out of these seven churches, in the largest and most influential city of the seven churches. To give you a little historical context to understand this, um, Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor. It was the fourth largest city at that time in all the Roman Empire. And Ephesus was primarily known, um, and it was proud to be known as well, uh, for its worship of the mother goddess Artemis. There was a cult that had gained a massive following, and people would travel from all over the Roman Empire to Ephesus to see this massive, beautiful temple that they built to the mother goddess Artemis, who was a goddess who they believed had fallen down from heaven, who had many breasts, and she was in the center of the temple. And they built this massive temple to her. In fact, it was one of the uh seven wonders of the ancient world. It was the largest marble temple that was ever built in the history of the world, around a hundred thousand square feet, with a hundred different pillars of all white marble, 60 feet tall. You can actually see some of the ruins of it today, but I just will tell you, it is ruins because Artemis wasn't the one true God, so it's all just kind of falling apart, if you know what I'm saying. But you can go see the ruins of the temple of Artemis. That was the primary thing that Ephesus was known for. This massive pagan ritual around the uh uh around Artemis and this crazy cult, but it was also a place of religious pluralism. So although the Artemis cult was the largest and well known, and people came from all over the Roman Empire, there was actually 50 other temples dedicated to the worship of other deities. So it was very polytheist. It was religious pluralism. If you had a smart car uh back then and were driving around the city of Ephesus, you probably would have saw coexist bumper stickers on almost all the cars. It was like we can do the Artemis cult thing here and then maybe go to the, you know, the Sunday Gent synagogue here and then go to these other like it was just every everything's all meshed in together. It was like all these temples and all these gods and all these deities. Not only that, but it was the it was the center of business, it was the center of international trade, it was the center of architecture, beautiful architectural uh masterpieces, um, cultural diversity, politics, all of it. Ephesus was was the poppin' spot there in the first century. And it's amazing that in this context, in the context of a rising cult and people traveling all over in religious pluralism, in that context, one of the most influential churches in history emerged in that spot. Like in the in the city of Ephesus, where people are practicing religious prostitution in the pagan temples, where people are traveling from all over to worship Artemis, a church is birthed and it becomes one of the most powerful, influential churches in history. Isn't that amazing? In fact, by the time that the revelation was written to the church of Ephesus by John the Apostle, it had become the center of the Christian movement in all of the Roman Empire. The gospel started in Jerusalem and then Judea and then it became Antioch. And now at this time, as John is pinning this writer, Ephesus was the hub. Ephesus was the spot where revival was happening. Ephesus was the spot where more people were coming to faith than any other part of the Roman Empire. And when I look at that, when I understand the context and the backdrop upon which this church was birthed and began to grow, what it made me think is that if God did a work like this in Ephesus, he can do a work like this in Ashland. If in a place like this that was so dark and so paganistic and so polytheistic, the gospel began to take root and it was the center of revival, why not here? And not only why not here, but it's happening here. Like in a city, for those of you who don't know Ashland, which is very polytheistic and very here's all the past lead to God, and all is the universe, and all Jesus, and it's all and it's the reality is no, it's not. It's Jesus. Jesus is the way, Jesus is the truth, Jesus is life. And in a culture like this, we're saying that the gospel is changing and transforming lives. That nine years ago we had five people sitting in a park, and now there's no seats in the sanctuary at a second service because of the way that the gospel is impacting people's lives. And what's so amazing about that too is this that God doesn't need an army of people to transform a city. All God needs is a few people who the gospel has taken root in their hearts, who the revelation of Jesus Christ has become so real in their hearts, and that as those people move out and move into the distant spheres of culture, the gospel begins to transform people's lives. The church of Ephesus had a very rich spiritual history. A man by the name of Paul the Apostle had a revelation of Jesus Christ. He had an apocalypse, he had a vision of Jesus. He was going to persecute Christians, he's on the road to Damascus, a light shines around him, he has an encounter with Jesus. And did you know that Paul the Apostle is the one who founded the church that was in Ephesus? One man who had a vision of Jesus, he said, This place needs Jesus. So he went up there and he showed up there and he planted the church of Ephesus. But Paul was a church planter. He moved from city to city planting churches. And so when Paul left, he planted the church, but it was nurtured by this couple named Aquila and Priscilla. They took over after Paul, and you can read about them in the book of Acts. They had an amazing ministry. After Aquila and Priscilla, the church of Ephesus was pastored by Timothy. You can read the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 and 2 Timothy. And then after Timothy, the Apostle John, who is now writing this letter, he pastored the church of Ephesus. So again, this church had a very rich spiritual history. Paul the Apostle, Aquila, Priscilla, Timothy, and John. And do you want to know who was a member in the Church of Ephesus? Jesus' mother, Mary, attended the church of Ephesus. She was one of y'all just sitting in the seats on Sunday morning. And we know that because when Jesus was crucified, he said to the Apostle John, He said, He said, Behold your mother. And he said to Mary, Behold your son. And so John, who moved to Ephesus, took Mary with him. So she would have been just sitting amongst the crowd on a Sunday. Could you imagine? Showing up on Sunday and you're sitting next to Grandma Mary after Jesus was crucified and wrote. Like that's amazing. What a beautiful, amazing church with a rich spiritual history. God can do a work in the darkest of places. And so don't write off what he's doing in this city. Don't write off what he's doing in your neighborhood. Don't write off what he's doing in your family. In the darkest of places where it feels like the gospel couldn't do anything, we see that the gospel transforms a city like Ephesus. Amen? Amen. So one other thing to note, which I'll only bring up here because we're going to see it in all seven of the letters. Look at verse one again. This is very interesting. He says, notice who it's to, to the angel of the church of Ephesus. Each of the letters, all seven of them, are addressed to the angel of the church. To the angel of the church of Ephesus, to the angel of the church of Smyrna, to the angel of the church of Pergamum, and so forth. And so when people read that, they say, Well, what does that mean? What does John mean to the angel of the church of Ephesus? And we really have three options, three ways that most people kind of interpret that. The first one is that he is referring to real supernatural heavenly beings. When he says to the angel of the church, the first option is that he is speaking to actual angels that were watching over and guarding these seven churches. The second option that some interpreters uh lean towards is that that word angel, which in the Greek language is the word ongelos. Angelos just means messenger. That is the biblical uh definition of ongelos, messenger. They believe it was a reference to the human messengers or pastors of that church. So when he says to the angel of the church of Ephesus, it's to the messenger of the church of Ephesus. So whoever the pastor was at that time, that's who he was maybe writing this to. And then the third option that a small minority take, but some people say, is the angel is used metaphorically here to speak of the spirit or the ethos of each church. Have you ever been to other churches? Different churches take on a different ethos. They have a different culture, they have a different vibe. And so some people think that to the angel of the church is just the spirit and kind of the vibe of the church. So the the question for us is okay, well, what which of those three options is the best and makes the most sense? And the reality is the word angel or angels, plural, is actually mentioned 76 times in the book of Revelation. And every single use of that word outside of the letter to the seven churches is never speaking of human beings. It is always referring to supernatural beings. So, what this would mean based off of the broader grammatical context of the usage of that word angel in the rest of the book, it is best to assume that when John says to the angel of the church of fill in the blank, he's actually speaking of a physical supernatural being. That there are actual angels who got appointed to rule and protect over the various churches in the various regions. Now, again, for us here in the West who were so enlightened and were so progressive, this seems almost impossible to understand. Like people would hear this and be like, wait, you really believe there are angels who are hovering over churches and guarding and protecting them? That's absolutely absurd. And I would say, Yes, I actually do believe that. And I know that that sounds absolutely absurd. Because that's what the scripture says. It says that this is the letter to the angels who were sent guarding and ruling over these churches. And again, the the big picture of revelation, if you've been with us in this series, the big idea of what the unveiling means is that things are not what they seem. That what is happening is In the natural realm, what the natural eye sees is not always what's happening behind the scenes. There is more to reality than what meets the eye. That is the big idea of a revelation, an apocalypse, a vision of Jesus. There's more happening that the natural eye can't see. And so the natural eye does not see this, but ultimate reality is this that God has appointed angels who are ruling and reigning and protecting over churches in different regions. Isn't that amazing? Like that we we see and we see this all through the scripture, by the way. I'll give you a few references. Exodus chapter 23, verse 20. You can write that down. It says, Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. This was in the Exodus when God was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. He said, Angels are going to go before you and you're going to get to the promised land because they're going to protect you. That's pretty legit. Then in Psalm chapter 34, verse 7, it says, The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Again, this is a window into ultimate reality. The natural eye can only see what is happening in the natural realm. But in the spiritual realm, which is even more than the natural realm, the real ultimate reality is this what this leadership believes is that there are angels who God has appointed to guard and cover and protect his people and to guard and cover and protect his churches. Amen. I'm so thankful on Sunday mornings. We have a whole team of people. We have a security team. We have a safety team. They're watching over and guarding and protecting this church. But you know what I'm more thankful for than that? That they are and that this church is being guarded and watched over and protected by angels. When you walk in on a Sunday morning, you might see people on security team or safety team. But most of us, when you walk in, you don't see an angel and be like, oh my gosh, but that's here. Like it's here. God has sent angels to guard and protect his churches, which is really amazing. And that gives me a lot of confidence and a lot of peace, knowing God, you're in control not only of this church, but every church throughout history. Your church, your bride, he is the one who has appointed people to guard and protect. Me personally, I've never I've never seen an angel. I've heard stories and testimonies of people who have, but I just believe this to be real. That to the angel of the church of Ephesus, that God had appointed an angel to guard and protect the church of Ephesus, just like he does every church throughout history. Amen. So to the angel of the church, he says in verse 1, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. We looked at that last week, so I'm not going to dive deep into that again, but the seven stars is a reference to, as we saw at the end of chapter one, the seven angels, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So Jesus is saying to the church of Ephesus, I'm holding the churches and I'm holding the angels that are guarding the churches. He is in control of all things. He's holding all things. He's the king and the ruler of all the cosmos. And then he gets into the affirmation. So he first says, Here's who I am, I'm the one holding you. And then here's the affirmation, verse two and three. He says, I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary. So the first thing he says is, Hey, I know your works. I know your toil. I know your patience. I know your endurance. I know your loyalty. And the reason, by the way, again, he can say, I know this, is because he, the Son of Man, is in the midst of the seven lampstands. He is dwelling in the midst of his church. So he says, I see what's happening. I see all the good stuff. And the first thing he affirms is, I know your works and your toil. That word toil in the Greek language speaks of strenuous and exhausting labor. The church of Ephesus was busy about the work of the Lord. The church of Ephesus was not a Sunday attendance church where you come and sit in a seat on Sunday morning and then you do your thing the rest of the week. The people in the church as a whole, he said, I see how you guys are laboring. I see how you guys are toiling. I see how you guys are advancing the kingdom here in the city of Ephesus, and I want to commend you for that. I pray that we would be a church who Jesus would say, You are active and you are laboring and you are at work, busy about the work of the kingdom, spreading the good news of Jesus. But not only that, he said, I also see your patient endurance. The Church of Ephesus had faced strong opposition for their faith from the Roman Empire. They refused to bow the knee to Caesar. That is why the Apostle John is exiled on the island of Patnos at this moment, writing this letter. And they also refused to participate in the idolatrous worship of Artemis. He said, Hey, I know, I know this is hard. I know there's opposition. I know there's persecution. I know there's temptation to be pulled in a different direction spiritually, but he said, You guys have patiently endured. You guys are remaining faithful. And not only that, he of uh he commends them for testing and rejecting false prophets and false doctrines that had crept into the church. Some of these false prophets and false doctrines were from a group of people named the Nicolaitans who in verse 6 he says, I know you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, and I also hate them. And we're gonna unpack that a little more next week. But the long story short is the Nicolaitans was a group of people who began to teach that certain forms of sexuality and sexual immorality were actually okay in the church. And they were teaching this. But he says, You know what? You guys have tested and rejected these doctrines. You guys, you guys are you guys are orthodox and you guys are sticking to the historic teachings of the scripture. I know people are coming and trying to spread false doctrine and false teachings, but you are uncompromised in your theology. You have a strong theological stance against false teachings. And what's interesting is even these false teachers who had crept in, this was foretold by Paul the Apostle 40 years previously. When Paul was leaving Ephesus, he gave a final farewell to the church of Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, verse 28 through 30. And here's what Paul said 40 years previously. Notice, he said, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Wow, this is crazy. Forty years earlier, Paul said, When I leave, be on guard. False teachers and false prophets are gonna creep in and rise up from among you. They're gonna try and draw the disciples away. And apparently, the church of Ephesus, now as John writes, he says, I commend you guys, you heeded the warnings of Paul. These false teachers have arrived. They have come in, and yet you are remaining unwavering and uncompromising in your faith. So the Church of Ephesus, long story short, it was a church that was active in spreading the gospel. It was a church that was proactive in defending the faith. It was a church that was uncompromised in its morality and in its ethics, it was a church that was full of discernment, and it was a church that was faithfully and patiently enduring in the midst of hardship and opposition. What a cool church, amen. And my question as I was reading about this church is could that be said of this church? You know, just as Jesus was in the midst of the church of Ephesus, Jesus is in the midst of this church today. And more so than even what would Jesus say about this church, could Jesus say about that, about this church? I think the more personal, deeper question is, could that be said of you? Would Jesus say of you today? Hey, you are one who is active and busy about the work of the Lord, and I want to commend you for that. Would could Jesus say of you today, you are uncompromised in your morality. You are uncompromised in ethics, you are uncompromised in your theological convictions of the truth that are rooted in the scripture. You are patiently and faithfully enduring whatever opposition, whatever sufferings, or whatever hardship you may be going through. And my prayer is that for us as a church, that this will be said of us. That we would be known as a church who is busy about the work of the kingdom, that we'd be known as a church that's rooted in the scriptures, that is not compromising with the winds of change and the cultural shifts and the tides that are coming in and out, but that we would say, God, we're continuing to build the foundation of this church and of our lives on the truth of scripture, on the truth that God has revealed of who he is, and that we would continue to patiently and faithfully endure whatever hardship or opposition we may be going through. Amen? Would that be said of this church and would that be said of you as well? Now, reading this, verse two and three, again, sounds like a pretty legit church. And the question is, what could possibly go wrong in a church like this? And unfortunately, the letter to the church of Ephesus doesn't end in verse three. I wish it did. I wish it was a perfect church, but again, there are no perfect churches. And so unfortunately, in verse four, look what look what the the revelation John has where he says next. He says, But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you have at first. Wow. All this great stuff you guys are doing, but I have this one thing against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. Now we remember in Revelation chapter one, part of the Son of Man and the vision is that he had eyes like the flame of fire. And as we talked about last week, the eyes of the flame of fire means that God is not able only to see you, he's able to see through you. God is not only able on the outside looking at churches, he's able to look through all the busyness and all the hustle and bustle of church world and all the theology, and he's able to see what's broken at the center of it. And as God looks at the church of Ephesus, he commends them. He says, Man, y'all are busy and y'all are standing on the truth and you guys are patiently enduring, but at the core, as he looks into the church, he says, There's something extremely broken, and that is that you have, as a church, left and abandoned your first love. A church that had amazing leaders, a church that was doing amazing outreach, a church that was doing amazing ministry, and yet at the core, he said, your love for Jesus and your affection for Jesus and your intimacy with Jesus, that has faded away. You have left your first love. What is the first love? Well, what does it mean to lose or to walk away for to fall from your first love? Well, it's the love that is first experienced between two people when they are in love. That's why it's called first love. And if you ever had first love, uh you you know that when you meet a person and you first have that love, it's like that butterfly type of love, you'll do anything to be with that person. Like you're you're like, all first love says this. All I want is to be with them. It doesn't matter what we're doing, it doesn't matter where we're going, doesn't matter how all I want is just to be with them. That's what first love is. I remember when I first met my wife, I had that first love. I was living in Eugene, she was living in Portland. I just couldn't wait for the weekend. I was like, I don't care that I'm driving two hours to go spend time with her. We started dating and I would drive up there on my weekends, I'd have to stay the night, but um I would end up sleeping in my car in a church parking lot down the street from her house because we were trying to honor the Lord and our sexuality before marriage. And so I remember we'd be hanging out, and I'm like, okay, I gotta go. I drive down the street. It's like middle of the winter. It's like 20 degrees in Portland, 30 degrees, like freezing. I'd be sleeping in my car like in this giant sleeping bag. And I remember one night, dude, like it's like three in the morning, and I see this like bright light beaming in through like my fog breath window, and then I hear a tapping on the window, and I was like, okay, so I roll down the window, and they're like, It's Officer Stevens, could you roll down the window a little more? And I'm like, Oh shoot, okay, yeah, bro, totally. So I roll it down, he's like, What are you doing here? I was like, sleeping. Can you not see my sleeping bag, brother? And he's like, Yeah, but like, why, why? You're in a church parking lot. I was like, I was like, Well, I live in Eugene, I'm coming up here to hang out with my girlfriend. She lives up the street, so I'm just staying the night here so I can see her again in the morning. He's like, Why aren't you sleeping at your girlfriend's house? I was like, Long story short, brother, I'm a pastor myself and not trying to be, you know, doing that kind of stuff before marriage, so I just sleep in my car. And he was like, Are you kidding me? And I was like, No, I'm serious. And he's like, Okay, go back to bed, I guess. And I was like, Thank you, brother. And so he just left me. He was like so confused. He was like, What? But for me, it was like, that's not even a big deal. I was like, I don't care if I'm sleeping in my car as long as I'm getting to be with my first love. You know what I'm saying? And so that's that's kind of that's kind of how it was. And the reality is this this is how it is in our relationship with Christ. Our first love of Christ is that moment when you first met him, that moment when you first encountered him, and you said, Man, I just can't wait to be with him. I can't wait to be back in the word. I can't wait to be back in prayer, I can't wait to be back in church on Sunday, I can't wait to be in the I just want to, I just want to be around him. John Lennox said it this way He said, Our first love is the sense of forgiveness that washed over our hearts and souls when we first realized that God loved us and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The moment that the gospel hits your heart for the first time, the moment that you realize, and if you've never realized this, my prayers right now, you'll have a revelation of this. That while you were a sinner, while you were far from God, dead in your sins, the scripture says, an enemy of God, he said, I love you so much that I'm gonna come and die in your place. Not dying for his friends, not dying for those who would choose him, dying for us while we were sinners. That, when do you understand that, that he loves you that much, he doesn't love me when I'm good, he doesn't love me when I'm perfect, he doesn't love me when I do bad, he loves me in my worst state, and nothing can change that. When you realize that, that first love is awakened in your heart. That is the gospel. Well, God loves me that much. No other person would do that, by the way. You you you you cheat on them, you lie to them, and they just keep on. Nobody would do that. God says, I love you on your worst day, I love you when you were the most broken. And when when that when that reality hits your heart, first love is awakened. You say, This is the God I want to serve, this is the God that I want to give my life to, this is the God that I want to pursue. And yet, this church, the church of Ephesus, we see and we learn from them, they were doing so many good things, but they'd lost that. They lost just a pure undevoted devotion, a pure undivided devotion to Christ Himself. So, what we see in this is it is possible to do all the right things and yet have lost your first love. Not only possible, but it is factually probable that this will happen and has happened and does happen at different seasons of life in our relationship with Jesus. You say, God, I'm I'm going to church every week, and he says, That's great, but do you love me? Why are you doing it? You you say, God, I'm giving, I'm giving up my finances. I'm I'm helping people, and I'm he says, That's cool. Like, I don't really need that necessarily, but like, do you love me? You say, God, I'm I'm praying sometimes, you know, I'm in my I'm I open the Bible sometimes, maybe not every day, but I try and he says, That's great, but why are you doing that? Like, do you love me? You say, God, I I serve in church, you know, I make the coffee or I help on the greeting team or worship team or in kids, and he says, That's great, that's that's great, but do you love me? Is it is it awakening first love again for me? Jesus sees all that we're doing, and this was the Church of Ephesus, doing so much, but they missed the point of it all. It's the Mary and Martha, right? Martha's busy, busy, busy, and Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Jesus says, She chose the better portion. And we can get so busy doing so many good things, but like the Church of Ephesus, we can lose our first love. And so the question is, how does this happen? How does one lose their first love for Jesus? And I'm here to tell you, it doesn't happen overnight. It happens slowly, it happens quietly, it happens gradually over the course of thousands of days, made up of thousands of micro decisions, and as our whole hearts get pulled in thousands of different directions, over time, what once was a burning love for Jesus Himself just slowly begins to fade away into the background. Over time, what once was new and vibrant and exciting, and the deepest longing of our heart to just know Jesus and walk with Jesus, over time it just becomes routine. Over time, it just feels like a duty. Over time it just becomes tradition. Over time, it's just another box to check, and over time it's just a dead, emotionless experience. Here I am going to church again. Here I am. I guess I'll open the Bible again. Here I am, I guess I'll say a thank you prayer before I go to bed for the and that's it. And first love has died out. The way it happens is very simple. Over time, the heart begins to look for love elsewhere. Christ is first love, but over time your life begins to change. You become more successful than you were when you met Christ, and so now your first love becomes success. Over time you form new relationships. Maybe you have a new family, and now that becomes the priority, and love for Christ fades into the background. When you met Christ, you didn't have financial security, and now you do, and now you're secure, and now love for Christ has fallen into the background, and you just love your security. Or you just love your comfort, or we just love materialism or entertainment or whatever it is. It could even be ministry. Like ministry drives a lot of people away from first love in Christ. The ministry gets successful, and then it becomes more about maintaining the ministry than devotion to Christ. And that's a temptation I face every single day. A battle every single day. Let it be you. So I just want to acknowledge this is a real battle for each one of us every single day. The world is saying, here's what you should love. The world is pulling at the love of your heart, and in time, if you're not careful, what happens is the love that we had for Christ at first begins to fade, just like the church of Ephesus. And so the question is, and and and I want to acknowledge too, and I believe that there's probably a lot of people in the room who are feeling this right now. Where you're like, this is me. And I'll just be real with y'all, like this is me right now, partially. Like as I was studying this week, I was like, man, like I I feel this. I'm not preaching to y'all, I'm preaching to me. Like I feel this. I'm doing cool. The church is doing a lot of cool things, cool story box for me. But my heart, oh my God, I want my heart to be for you. So if you're feeling this, if this is you, if you're like, man, it feels like I am just in that routine, just go through the motion. How do we get back to first love? How do we rekindle and awaken first love? And the way you do it is very simple. And the way you do it is not my interpretation of how it works, it's exactly what Jesus Himself says to the church. Look at verse five. He says, Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If you this morning feel like, man, my first Jesus is no longer my first love. Here's what you do: three things remember, repent and redo. That's it. Remember, repent and redo. Remember, he says, remember from where you have fallen. Interesting term, right? Why does he say where from where you have fallen? Well, because just as we say that you've fallen in love, you can also fall out of love. And that's what he's saying. You have fallen out of love with Jesus. He was priority, he was preeminent, and you've fallen away from that. You've fallen out of love with Jesus. And so the first step to getting back on track is very simply this it's remember. Remember what, like legitimately, go there in your mind. Remember what it was like when you first met him. Remember what it was like when you loved singing worship songs in your car. Remember what it was like when you woke up in the morning and you couldn't wait to open up the word because it was just coming alive to you off the pages. Remember what it was like when you just couldn't wait for Sunday morning. You couldn't wait to go to church, you couldn't wait to be in service because God's spirit was just meeting you and ministering to you in such a powerful way. Remember what it was like when you had joy in serving. Remember what it was like to joyfully and generously give of your finances, of your time, of everything. Remember those days. That is the starting point. Reawakening first love isn't starting something new, it's remembering how it all began. And so to rekindle a newer love for Jesus, to reawaken that, it always begins with remembering and rekindling the old coals. There's still fire in you. Like the fire's not all the way out. You're you're here this morning, right? Like you might feel like spiritually, I don't feel like super close, but you're here, you showed up because something in you is saying, I want that, I want to go deeper again. I want Christ to be the first love again. So it starts with remembering where it all began. Secondly, after remembering, he says, Repent. Remember from where you have fallen and repent. Now, what is repentance? Well, two things. Number one, repentance always begins with confession. So to repent means, it's very simply put, in this context, confess whatever has replaced him as the first love. Like just be just he already knows what it is. You're not telling him something new, he already sees, but it's just coming into agreement with what he already knows. So confess, say, you know what, God? My my achievement right now is my first love. My success is my first love. My financial stability or my stock market portfolio is my first love, or comfort is my first love, or my social media following is my first love, or laziness is my first love. I just love sitting around and doing nothing. Just be honest. Like, what do you love the most? And confess that materialism is my first love. I just I just love getting more stuff. That's why Amazon packages be shown at my house every single day. I'm a concern. I just that's my first love. Amazon. Just be real with them. So confess what has replaced the first love, and then repentance is confession, but it is also it is a it is it physically speaks of a turning around. A turning of directions. To repent means to go in a different direction. And this means true repentance is going to involve a change in your life. It is going to involve a change in your schedule, a change in your habits, a change in your commitments, a change in your priorities so that you begin to actually pursue Christ again as your first and foremost goal. So if you've lost first love and you want that back, number one, remember, just say, God, and do that this week. Just say, I'm going to take 20 minutes. Remember, man, how in love I was with Jesus at this season. And then God, here's where first love's at. My first love is this. I'm going to confess that. I'm going to repent that. I'm going to turn back to you. And finally, redo. Notice, he says, and do the works you did at first. So the question is, what were you doing in that season when Jesus was your first love that you're not doing anymore? And he says, if you want to get back to that spot, just start over right where you left off. Just start doing those things again. So maybe when you had this fresh sense of first love, again, maybe you just woke up and you're like, I remember that season. I woke up and I couldn't wait to be in the word. And now you wake up and the first thing you do is doom scroll. You're like, you're like, God, I don't know why I don't feel first love. Because you're waking up and doom scrolling Instagram and TikTok. That's why you don't feel first love for Jesus. It's very simple. Or maybe you used to wake up and the first thing is like, man, I just remember I used to just start my day with gratitude, just going in prayer and just thanking God for what He's given me. And now you don't start with gratitude. You start with checking your Robin Hood account. You start with turning on Fox News or seeing, like what? And so it's like, God, why don't I have first love? Well, because you're starting the day with the news, not in his presence. Very simply, that's why you don't have first love, right? So, so do what you do the things you used to do. Again, maybe it was, maybe it was what really drew you to Christ was worship. And maybe you just couldn't wait to get to your car to commute to work because you couldn't wait to put some worship music on and sing in the car as loud as you wanted because no one's listening. But now you get in the car and everyone hears you singing Lil Baby, and it's like, stop doing that. Like, what why are you even that? Yeah, of course, Jesus is not your first love. You got little baby playing in the background. If you don't know who that is, God bless you. You're one of the favored ones in the room today. I'll just say that. Why is there no first love? Well, God, I used to I used to serve generously and joyfully. And now wow, now I'm not serving anymore. I go to church, I sit there on Sunday, and then I leave and cool, cool sermon, cool. But I'm not contributing. So I want first love back. Okay, do the things you did at first. I could go on and on and on. So what I want to challenge you in is just simply say, remember what it was like when you had first love for Jesus. What were the things you were doing then that you're not doing now? What were the habits and patterns and things you did then that you've replaced with other habits and patterns now? And if you want first love back, just go and do the things you did at first. And I really believe Jesus wants to reawaken first love in many people's hearts today. But it doesn't just happen instantaneously, it happens with you saying, you know what, I'm actually gonna do this. I'm gonna spend time this week just being still before the Lord and remembering those days. And God, what am I doing now in repenting? And gosh, I've filled my heart with these things, and I want to just, I want to get those, I want to get real with you, I want to get right with you, and I want to go back and do what I did at first. And Jesus says to the church at the end of verse five, if not, here's a warning, if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. So if the church of Ephesus did not come back to the first love, and if I and if we do not come back to the first love, he says, the warning is this your lampstand will be removed. What does that mean? What does that mean? The lampstand will be removed. Well, very simply put, removing your lampstand is removing your witness for Christ in the culture. The church is the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. And he says to the church of Ephesus, and he says to this church and to any church, if Christ is not first love in the church, guess what happens? The light goes out. The church can still exist and be doing a lot of activities and a lot of things, but it is lost, it's witness and influence in the culture. When Christ is not first love of the church, the church becomes irrelevant. And how many of you know there are thousands of churches that exist as churches and they are completely irrelevant? Their lampstand has been removed. They are operating as churches, and there are people going and sitting in the seats and sitting in the pews, but there is no lampstand because Christ is no longer first love. That is the warning. That is the warning for this church and for any church and for all of us in the church. God, let my lampstand not be removed. Let my light not go out. Let me not just do the Christian thing, go through the motion. Let my life be a light that people see the way that I live and see my first love, and it would draw them into first love with Christ as well. Amen. And the letter closes this way in verse 7 He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Here's the promise. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. So, with all the letters, they end with the promise. The promise is here is this whoever overcomes and conquers will eat from the tree of life. Again, the tree of life was in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of the Bible. The tree of life is at the end of the Bible. We're gonna get there at the end of the story in Revelation. It is in the new Jerusalem, and it represents God's goodness and God's blessing and God's presence among his people. So the very long story short is this that the tree of life is Christ's promise to first lovers. He says, for those who come back to first love, here's what you will get. You will get the tree of life. And what is the tree of life? It is Christ Himself. It is being in the presence of God. To first lovers, he says, I'm giving you more of myself. I'm giving you access to my presence, restored intimacy with me. And so if this is what, if this is what your heart longs for, this is the promise for you. If you continue to draw near to God, James says, He will draw near to you. If we continue to pursue him, and if he is the first love of our heart, we receive the fullness of his presence, life eternal in the presence of God. Amen. Here's the final thing I'll say: the revelation, the unveiling and apocalypse, what it is doing again is it is showing us ultimate reality. It is showing us where Jesus is and what Jesus is doing and what Jesus is saying, not just in that church historical context, but to all churches today. And so the final thing is this. If we look at this passage and say, where is Jesus right now? What is ultimate reality? What is Jesus saying today to the church today, the story Ashland today, I would say the ultimate reality is this. Jesus is calling his church, and he is calling his bride, and he is calling his people back to affection and intimacy and knowing him as their first love. This is my ultimate prayers that you would see this right now, that an apocalypse would happen, right? That you would see, God, what you're calling me to, and what you want is just simply this first love intimacy. To get back to not the busyness and do, but just to get back to that pure place where Christ, you are the deepest desire of my heart. That's what he wants for his church today. That's what he wants for you today. And maybe he's never been your first love. Maybe you're here and he's never been your first love. And today my prayer for you is that you would have a revelation of this reality that he wants you as his first love and that he wants to be your first love. And he proved that when he gave his life on the cross to make a way for you to have a relationship with the God who knows you and the God who loves you. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for this passage. Thank you for the letter to the Church of Ephesus, God, which is a letter, I believe, for our church today. God, I pray that this church would be known as a church that doesn't just show up on Sunday morning, but that like the Church of Ephesus, that we would be known as a church who is toiling and laboring and active about the work of the ministry. That God, that we would say, God, how can we partner with you to continue to reach more people in this city and more people in this community and to see the gospel spread? I pray we would be known as a church that stands on orthodox theology, a church that stands rooted and firmly grounded in the truths of the scripture. And while other churches compromise and while culture continues to try to pull people away from the revelation of what is true, God, help us to stand firm on the truth that you've revealed in the word. And God, I pray for each person in this church as well that we would they would patiently endure whatever. God, thank you that you know what every person in this room is going through. And I pray that they and we as a church would patiently and faithfully endure whatever hardship, suffering, opposition we may face. God, give your people strength today to endure. But God, I pray above all else that we would be known as a church whose deepest love is for you, Christ. That we would not, as John said in his other epistle, not love the world or the things of the world, God. That our hearts would not be persuaded or drawn towards everything else that everyone in the world is pursuing, but that our hearts would have a single, undivided devotion and saying, we're pursuing you, Christ. And so today, for any person in here who feels like, man, that's me, kind of walked away and left the first love. I pray they wouldn't leave here, God, feeling shame or condemnation. We know that's not from you. I pray they would leave here sensing and hearing an invitation from you, Jesus, to step back into first love, to repent and to redo the things they did at first, to remember how good you are, to remember how gracious you are, to remember how you pursued us, to remember what it was like when we knew that when we were sinners, you died for us, Christ. I pray that revelation today, God, would just sink in deep. How much you love us, how much you did for us, and that from that place, God, we would just turn our hearts and our affection and our eyes back to you. So thank you, Jesus, for who you are. Thank you for the revelation of what you're doing in our church and in our community through your word. Bless us and fill us with your spirit as we go out in Jesus' name. Everyone said, Amen.