Ephesus - Lost Their First Love / Revelation 2:1-7

An Offering of the Heart

As we begin tonight, let’s pray. Lord, you don’t want our things, and you don’t want our efforts; you want our hearts. All of us to be bowed before you. And so, Lord, the offering that we bring is broken. It is tattered and it is stained, but it is all that we have. As we offer it to you tonight, may you be pleased. In Christ’s name, Amen.

For those of you who are in the back, there’s some room up here in the front. If you could scoot a little bit to the center, that’d be great. If the guys wouldn’t mind hitting the “dog pound” for us, that’d be awesome too. For all you young single college guys, it would be great if you would make room for one of the ladies standing in the back; let’s bring back chivalry to this wonderful place. Thank you, buddy. See, Chris, you’re about to get married, so pretty soon you’re not going to have to get up. You’ll just sit there with your bride and smile while you watch all these single guys head up there.

Turn, if you will, to Revelation chapter two. We are going to look at the first of the seven churches laid out in Revelation chapters two and three—the seven churches of Asia Minor. We’re going to look tonight at the first church, which is Ephesus.

Revelation 2:1-7 (NASB)

’To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ’I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them [to be] false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. ’But I have [this] against you, that you have left your first love. ’Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place– unless you repent. ’Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

The Epicenter of the Movement

We’re introduced in these verses to the church at Ephesus. If you’re familiar with your Bible, this isn’t the first time you’ve seen this church. There is a book the Apostle Paul wrote to these people called Ephesians. Paul wrote to these folks thirty years prior to what we’re reading here. It was a church Paul experienced on his second missionary journey, where he began to set up shop. A young couple by the name of Priscilla and Aquila were there, whom God used mightily in that city.

His ministry there grew during his third missionary journey. He ended up in Ephesus, and his affection for the city was obvious in the amount of time he spent there—about three years in total. In Acts 19, we find Paul reasoning in the synagogues, persuading people about the things of the kingdom. When opposition arose, he set up shop in the School of Tyrannus. He spent two years essentially renting a classroom, gathering believers together, and just teaching them the Bible. It was really unimpressive in a way, but for two years he did it. His ministry was so impactful that the word of the Lord spread throughout the entire region.

Acts 19:10 (NASB)

This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Ephesus had become the epicenter of the movement in Asia. It was the flagship church. Paul spoke out against the witchcraft that permeated the city, and there was such a revival that people gathered their books of witchcraft and had a massive bonfire in the center of the city. There was open confession as people turned from idolatry to Christ.

But this was a hard place. In the center of Ephesus stood the Temple of Diana (or Artemis), a fertility goddess. This temple was considered one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. If you wanted to start a church, Ephesus was probably not high on your list of easy places. It was wicked. In fact, the craftsmen who made religious trinkets were so upset by their loss of profit that they started a riot in a theater that held 25,000 people. They wanted to tear Paul to pieces. What I love about Paul is that he had to be physically restrained by the brothers because he was fighting to get inside that theater to share the gospel with the angry mob. He was passionate.

Later, Paul entrusted Timothy to pastor there, and eventually, John would minister there as well. During Paul’s imprisonment in Rome, he wrote to them, giving thanks for a faith that was evident to all. This was a thriving church in a corrupt, polytheistic, morally bankrupt community. This is the setting for the letter from Jesus Christ.

Commendation: Deeds, Toil, and Perseverance

In verse one, we see a pattern: “To the angel at the church in Ephesus write…” As we saw in chapter one, the “stars” are the messengers or pastors, and the “lampstands” are the churches. The sovereign Lord, who holds these mouthpieces in His hand and walks among the churches, begins with a commendation.

He says, “I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance.” It’s interesting that He starts with “I know.” In Greek, there are two words for “know.” One is ginosko, which is progressive knowledge that accumulates over time. But Jesus uses the word oida, which means complete and full knowledge. It’s the same word John uses when he says we can “know” we have eternal life.

1 John 5:11-13 (NASB)

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Jesus is saying, “I am perfectly and well aware of your deeds.” This was a busy, active church. Their calendars were full of the things of God. He also knows their “toil” (kopos), which implies intense labor and “sweat equity.” It’s the kind of labor Paul describes in his letters.

1 Corinthians 15:58 (NASB)

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not [in] vain in the Lord.

And He knows their “perseverance” (hupomone)—the ability to bear up under difficulty. James tells us that the testing of our faith develops this perseverance.

James 1:2-4 (NASB)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

How many of you would like to be spiritually perfect and complete? A bunch of you. But are you willing to pay the price? The price is suffering. You get maturity over snotty tissues and tears, through years of walking with God and enduring hardship. Jesus looks at Ephesus and says, “Great job. You’re making it happen.”

Testing the Wolves

Jesus also commends them because they cannot tolerate evil men and they test those who claim to be apostles. Years earlier, Paul had warned the Ephesian elders about this very thing.

Acts 20:28-31 (NASB)

’Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. ’I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. ’Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.

Paul warned them that savage wolves would come in to lead people astray. He told them that their foundation of truth would be under attack. The church at Ephesus took that warning seriously. They didn’t just believe everyone who claimed to be a believer. Just because someone quotes the Bible doesn’t mean they are right. Just because you hear me saying it, don’t just believe it—check it against the Scripture. If I’m in error, go somewhere else. We test the spirits.

1 John 4:1 (NASB)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This church dealt with sin seriously. They understood that if someone is living in open sin while identifying with the body, they need to be addressed. If a man in our church is having an affair, we have to have a “come to Jesus” meeting. We do it because we love him, but we have to call it sin. If there’s no response, the Scripture gives us a process for accountability. It’s not about being perfect—I’m the first to admit I have serious issues—but it’s about holding to a standard of biblical morality.

Ephesus was sound in doctrine. They were fundamental, orthodox, and conservative. They had the right answers, and they didn’t grow weary of doing the work. They even hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans were likely connected to the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers.

Numbers 25:1-9 (NASB)

While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry against Israel. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.’ So Moses said to the judges of Israel, ‘Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor.’ Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. Those who died by the plague were 24,000.

Balaam couldn’t curse God’s people, so he came up with an ingenious plan to entice them into immorality and idolatry. The Nicolaitans were essentially teaching “license under grace.” They thought, “If grace abounds where sin increases, let’s just sin exceedingly!” They threw morality out the window. But Jesus says He hates those deeds, and Ephesus hated them too.

The Rebuke: Leaving the First Love

So far, so good. But in verse four, we see the problem. Over time, their focus shifted. The priority of being the people of God eroded into the priority of simply being right. Arguing and debating became more important than the hearts of the people they were debating.

Jesus says, “I have this against you: you have left your first love.” Their passion was gone. Religious expression remained, but the heart was missing. It was the fungus of external religion—a great-looking calendar, but no fire.

We see this in marriages all the time. Many of you come from divorced homes. What likely happened is that your parents lost their first love. They forgot what it meant to fall in love. Years later, they looked at each other and thought, “I don’t even know who you are.” They forgot the times they were creative, spontaneous, and—as disgusting as it sounds to kids—romantic. They lost that, and eventually, a bride is reduced to a maid and a knight in shining armor evolves into Homer Simpson.

This is my biggest prayer for our church. We tend to be dogmatic about the Scriptures, which is good, but the danger is becoming more concerned with being right than connecting with people. If chapter and verse become more important than a pulse and a person created in the image of God, we’ve missed it. We have to keep the “ethos of revolution” in our midst—the stories of lives being changed. That’s what keeps us connected to our first love.

What if your flame has died out? Many of you have stories of great zeal—times you read the Bible and were moved to tears, or you saw a sunrise and just burst out in praise. I remember as a young believer, I thought I was schizophrenic! I’d be driving down the road, see a ray of light through the clouds, and just yell, “Oh, God! I love you!” I was a mess, but I was passionate.

I don’t feel that all the time now. Nobody wants to be apathetic or a “Christmas and Easter” Christian. You’re here because you want to be passionate. So, what do you do when the flame dies?

The Three R’s of Restoration

Jesus gives us three steps in verse five. First: Remember. “Remember from where you have fallen.” Remember the heights of that spiritual zeal. Remember where you came from. One of the things I appreciate about my salvation is that I can still remember my past. I love meeting people I went to high school or college with, though usually I have to say, “I’m so sorry,” because I probably did something stupid to them back then. When I remember who I was, I understand grace. I see the patience of God for not smacking me when I was a punk sixteen-year-old.

Journaling helps with this. I look back at my journals from 1993 and think, “Man, you were a moron.” The things I struggled with then were just little foothills compared to what I wrestle with now, and I can see the growth. Remember the heights.

Second: Repent. We don’t like that word because it’s convicting. But if we’ve lost our first love, we are in sin. Repent simply means to change your mind. It’s identifying that the way you’re going isn’t working, so you turn around.

Third: Return. “Do the deeds you did at first.” Go back. Start over. For me, if I feel the flame going out, I read the book of Acts. That’s the book that grabbed me. I’ll ask people, “Are you unfulfilled spiritually?” Usually, 90% of hands go up. Then I ask, “What’s your plan to change that?” Usually, the answer is “nothing.” That’s crazy! You can’t do the same things and expect a different outcome. If you don’t change your practices, in six months you’ll be the same unfulfilled person, just six months older.

The Consequence of a Cold Heart

Jesus gives a warning: “Or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand.” A lampstand that is put on a shelf doesn’t do anyone any good. It collects dust. There’s no light, no heat, no warmth. He’s saying that if we stay disconnected from our first love, He removes our influence. We are no longer useful as the light of the world.

Can we be the people of God without the presence of God? Absolutely not.

Psalms 127:1-2 (NASB)

A Song of Ascents, of Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved [even in his] sleep.

It’s not by might or power, but by the Spirit. If we are disconnected from our first love, all we are is a religious Boy Scout club. We’re doing activities with no power.

Jesus finishes by saying, “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat at the tree of life.” We saw that tree in Genesis, and we’ll see it again in eternity. An authentic believer is an overcomer by definition of their relationship with Jesus.

1 John 5:4-5 (NASB)

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world– our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Closing Challenge

Let me close with this proverb that summarizes everything.

Proverbs 4:23 (NASB)

Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it [flow] the springs of life.

How is your heart for God? If there were a gas gauge on your spiritual life, where would it be? Are you full, or do you need to fill up? As a church, we are only as powerful as we are passionate for Christ. If we become programmatic and forget our first love, we’ve missed the boat completely. I want to live in the stories of what God is doing now, not just monuments of what He did years ago.

Maybe you’re sitting in the ashes of a flame-out. Remember, repent, and return. For some of you, you’re on the outside looking in; the first step is putting your faith in the Savior who died for you.

Father, thank you for this lesson. As someone who enjoys theological discussion and can get dogmatic, I pray that it would never be at the expense of my connection to my Lord. I pray that our church would continue to be sound and biblical, but that we would always have a heart for helping people connect to God. May it never be said that we had great deeds but lost our first love. For your glory and honor we pray. Amen.