When people visit our church for the first time, especially
if they have been more accustomed to congregations filled with more ritual or
liturgy, usually their first impression revolves around how “un-churchy” it can
seem. They might even walk away thinking, “Wow, I don’t even feel I was at
church today.”
A similar experience belongs to those who are working their way
through Revelation 1-3 for the first time. They might conclude, “Wow, the content
in these first chapters seems pretty normal, practical, in fact, almost
unremarkable”—especially if what they were expecting was to get into a great amount
of fantastic material that talks about beasts, marks on your hand or forehead,
battles, demons, angels, time charts, and the like. Through the first three
chapters some might think, “It all seems just so practical and focused upon who
the church is and how we are to function!”
And such a response is right on the money. After all, the
book is not about appeasing our curiosity about the future. It is about how to
function on mission as the church, especially as we face a hostile culture. This
is why the opening to the book (1:1-8), along with its first vision in chapter one
(what we have covered so far), speaks of living on mission, facing a hostile
culture, and persevering.
You might be surprised to discover, as we get into the second
and third chapters, we find much more of the same. Here, John, while exiled to
the island of Patmos for his evangelistic work (1:9), addresses individually the
seven churches he has already mentioned in 1:11—seven congregations located in
what is Turkey today, and who represent the global church of all ages. It seems
the order in which the apostle addressed them was based upon their location: “These
churches formed a natural route for a circuit rider, starting in Ephesus and
moving in a clockwise direction through Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia, and Laodicea” (this is the same order as his addresses).[1]
Each of the
messages in Revelation 2-3 has a similar order to it:
1.
Addressee: “Unto the angel in…, write.”
2.
Identification and description of Christ, based on the vision in ch. 1: “The
words of him who….”
3.
Affirmation that Christ knows about the church.
4. An
evaluation—either a rebuke, commendation, or both. We should note there is no
commendation in the message to the church in Laodicea (3:14-22) and there is no
rebuke in the messages to Smyrna (2:8-11) or Philadelphia (3:7-13).
5. An
exhortation to the church to take needed action (either to remain true or to change
their course).
6. A
statement of what Christ will do, based upon how they respond.
7. A Promise
to the one who conquers.
8. A call to
hear: “He who has an ear….”
We should
also note that numbers 7 and 8 can be in reverse order.
Something else we find out in these two chapters is that
there is a good deal of repetition of subjects within them and repetition of
subjects already addressed in chapter one. Because of this, we will approach
these two chapters topically in three sermons. Nevertheless, we will briefly introduce
ourselves to each church as we move through the two chapters. We will discover a
number of application points given to the Church worldwide throughout this age
for how we should function—application points we will cover in these next three
sermons out of chapters 2-3.
The first application point we discover, the one we will
focus on this morning, is this: Churches are to have and retain their love for
Christ that leads to a love for gospel ministry.
We will begin by seeing how this message arises in Christ’s
words to the church in Ephesus (2:1-7).
How This Message
Arises
John starts by writing: “To the angel of the church in
Ephesus write….” Nowhere else does Scripture clearly teach that a person has a
guardian angel, nor does it even imply that a local church would have an angel
assigned to it. What appears to be taking place here is that the vision of the seven
angels (or the seven stars, see Rev. 1:20; 2:1b) signifies the churches have a
heavenly existence. In other words, though they are located on the earth in
this age, their existence is largely in heaven with heavenly realities applied
to them, and they are held in the Savior’s hand. So, to address the angel is to
address the church itself.[2] This
is a difficult aspect of this passage to understand and does not seem to have unmistakable
Old Testament (or any other) background to help. However, whatever it means does
not have great bearing upon the understanding of the passage one way or the
other.
Ephesus, a place where Paul ministered (Acts 19-20), which
had a church to which Paul wrote (Ephesians), and which was the location where
Timothy was when Paul wrote to him (1, 2 Timothy), was a major center for
Christianity from the end of the first century through the fifth century, with
some major Church councils held there. At the same time, it was also a major
center for the worship of the goddess, Artemis (or Diana), the goddess of love
(Acts 19). So, no doubt there was a good
amount of push back on the church from the surrounding cultures and they needed
to be reminded they are in the hands of the sovereign Savior, who is also in
their midst (1b-c): “The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right
hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” This first description of
Christ reminds us there is strong connection between the chapter one vision and
the specific messages to all seven churches in Rev. 2-3.
It is not just Ephesus that needs this reminder. We need to
hear this truth, which is a repetition of what Jesus promises his disciples
when he commissioned us to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:20): “And behold I
am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The presence of the sovereign Savior among the church not
only reveals he is with us to help and support, it also displays he knows our
situation (verses 2-3): “I know your works, your toil and your patient
endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested
those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I
know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have
not grown weary.”
Here Jesus commends the Ephesians for the works they did,
their endurance, the fact they are not giving up in the face of hard
situations, and their opposition to false teaching. There is much for which
Jesus can commend this local congregation!
These two verses remind us just how important these same traits are for
us today. In these we should follow the example of the church in Ephesus.
Yet, there is one way in which we should not follow their
example. In verse 4 we read: “But I have this against you, that you have
abandoned the love you had at first.” The way this is worded, they began
leaving behind this love sometime in the past and still have not come back to
it. I am of the strong conviction that what John has in mind here is the love for
Christ that the Ephesians had when the first believers came to Christ and the
church was new. Since Jesus goes on to say that if they do not return to that
love, he will remove their lampstand—i.e. their light or mission to the world
(Rev. 2:5), I believe he is saying that this love they had for Christ at the
beginning led to gospel work, i.e. disciplemaking. This is also supported by the
strong emphasis upon the church living on mission in the near (Rev. 1:5, 6, 9,
12, 20) and far (Rev. 5:10; 11:1-2; 12:11, et. al.) contexts of the book.
Additionally, this understanding is supported by the reality
that in verse 5 “the works you did at first” appears to be connected to and
parallel with their love they had at first. And, elsewhere in the messages to
the seven churches “works” speak of missional works (see 2:19). There may also
be a parallel in 3:15-20, where the church in Laodicea is addressed. There, in
verse 16, the church is denounced as “lukewarm,” i.e. neither hot nor cold. In
other words, they were no longer useful as a church. This description arises
from the reality that, “There were well-known hot springs in Hierapolis, just 6
miles…from Laodicea [that were useful for therapeutic or medicinal purposes],
and a good supply of cold running water in nearby Colosse [that was piped into
Laodicea]. Laodicea itself, however, appears to have had a tepid and barely
potable water supply. This would have been a potent symbol for this
congregation of its church’s ineffectiveness [or uselessness].”[3]
This message to the church in Ephesus is rounded out not
only with a call to repent (5a), a promise of what will happen if they don’t (5b),
a further word of commendation (6), a call to hear what the Spirit is saying
(7a), and a promise of full life to those who listen and conquer (7b).
Consider:
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. 6 Yet
this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one
who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise
of God.
There are two realities we need to note before moving on to
what is next. To begin, I hope you are seeing the book of Revelation has a
strong emphasis upon outreach and mission. This is to be at the core of who the
church is and what we do.
Additionally, each of these churches is addressed as a
collective unit. Certainly, a church is made up of individuals who can
experience God’s blessing or discipline apart from others. However, a local
congregation also is a community that stands together and rises or falls
together. God can bless, discipline, or judge whole congregations on their
faithfulness or lack thereof. Along this line, we get the idea that what can
often happen to churches that cease living on mission is that they die and
close their doors. Responsible and faithful leaders, as well as teachers in the
church, must cast vision for, equip, and call the church to live on mission
that flows out of their knowledge of and love for Christ!
Now that we have seen how the main message arises, we must
next discover just how a church leaves its love for Christ and gospel ministry.
How A Church Leaves
Its Love For Christ And Gospel Ministry
Though John does not explicitly tell us this in these
verses, there are hints in this passage and in the context.
1. If we keep
in mind the strong connection these messages have to the chapter one vision and
its explanatory preface (1:9-20)—a vision designed to help the church step up
to the plate and endure on mission, we see that ignoring the Word of God, the
very Word that reveals to us Christ and the importance of his mission (1:10-11),
leads to loss of that mission. This does not mean that the Bible is not being
taught at all within such a congregation. After all, Ephesus is commended for
endurance, having some works among them, and opposing false teaching. However,
when individual members are not tracking with the Scriptures and so are not being
strengthened and equipped to live on mission and if the leaders are not
teaching in a manner that is equipping people to live on mission intentionally
and effectively (see Eph. 4:12), this can lead to loss of that gospel ministry-producing
love for Christ.
2. At the end
of each of the messages to the seven churches (including here in the message to
Ephesus: Rev. 2:7) Christ says through John to the churches, “He who has an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” This is an allusion to
Isaiah 6:9-10 and the hardness of heart, that unwillingness and even moral
inability to hear, that most likely comes from idolatry and the truth we become
like the idols we worship—namely, blind and deaf (cf. Isaiah 44:9). When we
understand that idolatry is at the heart of all sin (cf. Ex. 20:3-6; 2 Kings
17:7; Is. 65:7, 11-12; Rom. 1:23; 1 Cor. 10:7; 10:14; Gal. 3:5; 5:20; 1 Pt. 4:3),
this further supports the reality that idolatry leads to our loss of love for Christ
and gospel mission. We have so many things in our present world vying for our
attention and heart allegiance that can easily displace the preeminence of
Christ in our hearts and schedules and our putting his mission on the back
burner (or ignoring it altogether).
3. The first
two factors behind losing our mission lead to two more:
a. Our
surrounding cultures. The word “culture” refers to how we seek to make order of
the world around us, to define it, and to make it rich and flourishing. We can
see this from the use of “culture” in “agriculture,” that act of bringing order
to the land in such a way that it is fruitful and flourishes. As a result, the word
“culture” can also refer to how we seek to find purpose and meaning in the
world, which can be seen in the use of a related word, “cult,” which can refer
to a sect, religion, or a way of explaining ultimate meaning and purpose in the
world. The cultures that surround us (made up of the people around us) have made
decisions about how we find meaning and purpose in life, what makes for a
successful life, and the kinds of actions that are acceptable. At the very
least we can say here that virtually all cultures that surround us oppose
speaking into the life of another person so that they can come to know Jesus Christ
as Savior. It is “none of our business.” That part of our surrounding culture
is strong, along with all the other idols in those cultures that compete for
our attention and take our eyes off Jesus Christ. If we are not intentionally
fighting off these strong influences, we will most likely give into them and
will not live on mission.
b. Our fear
of what others think. Related to the cultures and people around us, most of us
are fearful of living out our faith too specifically or being missional in it,
since this is not what is socially acceptable. Such cowardice is probably
referenced in Rev. 21:8. Again, we must be much in God’s Word and must depend
upon the empowerment we have through the presence of Christ and his Spirit in
us, if we are to overcome this (Rev. 1:12-20). Such need for empowerment also
means we will be praying much so we can be faithful to Christ on mission.
Conclusion
So, given what we have seen here it should not be too hard
to outline how we can overcome the things that help us stay on mission. However,
we will say more about this in our sermon Sunday.
[2] This seems to be similar to
what we find in Daniel (See Dan. 10:20-21; 12:1).
Another
possibility is that since “angel” can mean messenger, it could mean that the
angel represents the pastoral leadership of the church. The problem with this
understanding is that it does not seem to have a parallel anywhere else
(including in Revelation). However, the sense of the passage would not really
be different if this is what is meant.
[3] “The Seven Churches Of Asia
Minor,” in the Archaeological Study Bible, 2051.
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