Message

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In chapter 1, we thought of the love of Christ, the message of Jesus’ coming on the clouds, John on the island of Patmos and his vision of Christ the Lord. This vision of Christ is the image of the present Christ Jesus as the glorified Son of God. What a grace it is that we have such a glorified Lord Christ Jesus. Because of him, we are eternally safe and secure. In his glory and power, he is present among his churches to intercede, purify, command, protect and be glorified. In Revelation chapter 2 and 3 are Christ’s own messages given to the seven churches, which is unique in the Bible. The seven churches identify the kinds of churches that exist in all ages, even today, so that they stand as models or examples for churches, and therefore as warnings as well. Among the seven churches, except the church in Ephesus, the other churches are not familiar to us. Yet, Christ cherishes and cares for them all. No church in the world is forgotten by him. Today’s passage is about Christ’s message to the church in Ephesus. Christ commends the church for her hard work and perseverance and discernment, but rebukes her for forsaking her first love, which is pure and wholehearted. We can think of what is the most important in the church and in each Christian’s life. First, I know your needs, your hard work and your perseverance… (1-3). Verse 1a says, “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:” Again the angel is in Greek, angel?, meaning “messenger.” Certainly, the messenger was the representative of the church. Now let’s think about the city Ephesus. Pergamum was the actual capital city of the province of Asia, but Ephesus was by far the greatest city. It had the greatest harbor in Asia Minor and was called the first and the greatest metropolis of Asia, and‘The Market of Asia.’ Ephesus was the Gateway of Asia, and the highway to Rome. In later times, when the martyrs were brought from Asia to be thrown to the lions in the arena in Rome, they would come through Ephesus on the highway, so it became known as the Highway of the Martyrs. Its position made Ephesus sort of a vanity fair for the ancient world, making Ephesus the wealthiest and the greatest city in all Asia. Politically it was a free city, that it was self-governing. Rome gave Ephesus the right of self-governing. No Roman troops were stationed there at all. Most importantly perhaps for us is the religious aspect of it. It was the center of the worship of Artemis – Artemis being the Greek name and the Roman name being Diana. In Acts, the temple of Artemis was called the temple of the great goddess Artemis. When there was a riot because of Paul’s gospel preaching, people shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:28). The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (115 m x 46 m; 120 columns, each 13 m high.) In Ephesus, pagan religion was at its strongest. Ephesus was a notorious centre of pagan superstition, and also a centre of crime and immorality, a notoriously evil place. Heraclitus says, “The morals of the temple were worse than the morals of animals, for even dogs do not mutilate each other.” And he said, “The people there were fit only to be drowned.” This was a very, very wicked city. Such was Ephesus. But God did a mighty gospel work there through Paul. The gospel of Jesus Christ was triumphant over the strongest pagan religion. Paul stayed longer in Ephesus than in any other city, 3 years (Acts 20:31). We are reminded of the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where Paul had an intensive Bible study with the disciples daily for two years. The result was that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord (Acts 19:9-10). God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. Even handkerchiefs and aprons that touched Paul were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Those who had practiced sorcery confessed their evil deeds and brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly; the value of the scrolls came to fifty thousand drachmas (a drachma was worthy about a day’s wages.) Such a powerful gospel was done in Ephesus. Now in verse 1b, “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” As we thought in chapter 1, this is the gracious image of the glorified Christ the Lord. As God loved Adam and was walking in the garden of Eden (Ge. 3:8), Christ Jesus loves his church and walks among the churches, holding his servants in his right hand. This is really an encouraging image of Christ Jesus that all the churches should always remember. He is not just far away, sitting on his heavenly throne. He is present with his church to minister among them. In this appearance of Christ Jesus, the church in Ephesus could remember their relationship with Christ. As we thought, Paul established the church. It is also true that Timothy served that church and also a very well-known person to the Colossians, Tychicus, served there also. So did the Apostle John. John was no doubt the leading elder in the church at Ephesus when he was arrested by Domitian and exiled 100 km away from there to the Isle of Patmos. The beautiful history of God continued for the past 40 years. Jesus indeed held his servants and walked among the lampstands for those years. What does Christ the Lord say to the Ephesian church? Verses 2 and 3 say, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” The expression “I know” is written 10 times in chapters 2 and 3. He knows all, good and bad. Especially he knows all our struggles. So Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” It must have been truly encouraging that Jesus knew their hard work and perseverance. And Jesus knew that their persevering and enduring hardships was for his name’s sake. He knew how they struggled to keep the church amid the materialistic, commercial and very corrupted culture. They persevered and stayed under all the pressures, not growing weary. Jesus also knew that they could not tolerate wicked men, that they had tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and had found them false. And Jesus said in verse 6, “But you have this in your favour: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” When Paul had a farewell meeting with the elders at Miletus near Ephesus, he said, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29,30). As Paul predicted, wicked men like the Nicolaitans arose among them. In short, they were a heretical sect who taught that the Christian liberty was a license to practice idolatry and immorality. The claim of these heretics was that they were not destroying Christianity but presenting an improved version. This was none other than the influence of the pagan society and humanism. This influence spread to other churches, but not to the church in Ephesus. The Christians in Ephesus did not tolerate those wicked men. The church upheld sound doctrine even after 40 years. Their members had a discernment and an uncompromising spirit and did not allow those wicked men in. They hated and rejected the enemies of the pure gospel faith. They knew what they had to hate. They hated what they believed Jesus would hate. They were good spiritual fighters. All these were indeed recognized by Jesus. From the church in Ephesus, we can learn their hard-working, perseverance and discerning and fighting spirit with no compromise. These virtues are indeed beautiful. Second, you have forsaken your first love (4-7). To the eyes of the people the church in Ephesus looked great without any major problem. But Christ Jesus who truly loved the church could see their serious problem. Now Christ the Lord says, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” What a radical admonishment! What happened to the beautiful and gracious church? By the way what is the first love? It is the love at the first sight. Of course, we are talking about spiritual love between Christ and the church, his bride. As we studied, the Ephesians were, as a whole, superstitious and ignorant of the one and only true God. They were sunk in superstition and false love with false gods like Artemis. They were plunged into false worship in their sins and ignorance. Their spiritual location was the deep dungeon of Satan surrounded by many demons. No one or nothing in the world dared to rescue them from the dark and deep fortress of evil ones. But the love of God came into the territory of Satan through his servants. God’s love for them was adventurous and courageous. When they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died for their sins and rose again from the dead to give them eternal life, their souls were sparkled and they repented and accepted the love of God. Then something wonderful happened in their lives. They could taste true freedom, true joy and peace in their hearts. They felt that they were truly living in the Spirit with a hope of the kingdom of God and a clear meaning and purpose of life. They learned that they had something great to do while living in this world. They could clearly see that their life was worth living because of Jesus and his given-mission. They threw away all the old ways of living and started a new life in Christ. In this way, their love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ began. This was the true wonder to them, not the temple Artemis. To them, Jesus was all the world. They loved Jesus more than anything else. Then how did they come to the point that they had forsaken their first love? We don’t know exactly what happened to them? Yet, we can imagine possible happenings in them. Probably, in the course of living a hard city life along with God’s mission, they neglected the spiritual side of their life, gradually stealing away their prayer time and their personal time in the word of God. Their continuous serving and spiritual fighting may have made them exhausted. Probably, when they settled down in that great city because of God’s blessing, their Christian life became habitual with no sincere struggle before God until they reached their spiritual crisis. Though no one knew their spiritual state correctly, Jesus who knew all about them spoke to them, “You have forsaken your first love.” This word of Jesus showed how much Jesus loved them and desired to keep the pure and passionate love relationship between the two. When Jesus saw them, they were not as passionate as before. They were not sacrificial as before. They were not as willing as before. They even were bored in their Christian life with no joy. Jesus felt very pained to see their state of forsaking their first love. To Jesus, it had to be restored. We see that in our Christian life, love relationship with Jesus is the most important. Christian life is loving Jesus, who loved us to the point of giving his life to save us from our sins and all the consequences of sin and bring us all the blessings of God. When the love relationship between the Lord and us is broken, all other things do not matter. What Christ Jesus wants most from us is to keep a pure and wholehearted love relationship. In the Old Testament, the LORD God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, after 430 years. This was God’s act of love. Because God loved them, he cared for them in the wilderness. By day, the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night, in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or by night (Ex. 13:21). When God brought them to Mount Sinai, he showed his hope for them out of his love for them. “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6). God wanted them to obey him out of love for him and be raised as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for the whole world. In this way, God wanted them to keep a love relationship with God. Moses knew this and said to them, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Dt. 6:5). However, in the promised land, the land of God’s blessing they gradually forgot the LORD their God and forsook their love for God. God expressed his pained heart through his prophet Hosea, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you, out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Saviour except me. I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.” (Hosea 13:4-6). In his pained heart, the LORD God sent them to Babylonian captivity for his divine discipline. In the gospel story when Jesus drove 6000 demons out of a man, he wanted to follow Jesus. But Jesus said to him, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mk. 5:19). Jesus wanted him to remember the grace of the Lord and testify to his grace out of love for him and thus maintain the love relationship with the Lord though he would not follow Jesus physically. Jesus once visited the home of Martha and Mary. They were parentless sisters and Jesus loved each of them personally (Jn. 11:5). Martha opened her home to Jesus and wanted to serve Jesus with delicious meal making all the preparations. So she was very busy doing this and that all by herself. Then she was greatly troubled, because her sister Mary did not help her, but sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. Out of troubled heart she came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” Wow! It seemed that she commanded Jesus to do a certain thing. Jesus bore with this Martha and said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Lk. 10:41-42). Jesus understood both Martha and Mary, and helped each one properly. Jesus knew Mary’s act of listening to him sitting at his feet was out of her love for Jesus. At this special occasion of Jesus’ visiting, Mary chose to listen to Jesus, sacrificing the other, because of her love for Jesus. Probably Martha was carried away by her human duty. Martha had not to go in that way to the end of her life. Loving Jesus is certainly the spiritual priority. We remember Jesus’ last conversation with Simon Peter at the Sea of Galilee. Despite all the failures of Peter, Jesus wanted Peter to confirm Peter’s love relationship with him. So he asked Peter, “Do you truly love me more than these?...Do you truly love?...Do you love me?” He consecutively the love question three times. When Peter confessed his love for Jesus, Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs…Take care of my sheep…Feed my sheep.” Out of love for Jesus, Jesus wanted Peter to feed his sheep and thus maintain his love relationship with Jesus. Later in 1 Peter he said, “Though you have not seen him, you love him” (1:8). And then he appealed to the elders to be shepherds of God’s flock under their care (5:2). Apostle Paul ended his epistle to the Ephesians with these words, “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” And he said in 1 Corinthians 16:22, “If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him.” He also said in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” Here Paul’s fear was that God’s flock of sheep would lose their love relationship with Jesus by the devil’s deception. When people doubted his apostleship including his love for Jesus, he said in Galatians 6:17, “Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” We see that out of love for Jesus, he bore all the sufferings and hardships in the course of serving the Lord. Truly, Christian life is to love Jesus from first to last, growing in the love of Christ and in loving him. (Those who love God pray). How did Jesus help them? He said, “Remember the height from which you have fallen!” “Remember” is such an important word in the spiritual world, especially remember the height, the height of love. When the prodigal son remembered his father’s love, his home and abundant food there, he could see the misery of his fallen state and decided to go back to his father. To the church in Ephesus the grace of Jesus was higher than the mountain and deeper than the mighty rolling sea. The height of life they had with Jesus was matchless in this world. There was no comparison. When they had Jesus in their hearts and loved him purely and wholeheartedly, they felt that they were happiest people in the world. Their personal fellowship time with Jesus in prayer and Bible study was so sweet. Attending each of God’s meeting and having fellowship with God’s people was so gracious. Serving God’s flock of sheep with the word of God was real joy of life. In Jesus, they loved one another dearly and did the work of God by faith. They depended on God earnestly and prayed fervently and experienced God’s answering their prayers one after another. They sensed that they could do anything and everything by faith. Jesus helped them to remember where they had fallen so that they might be restored. Jesus said, “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.“ Repentance is turning to God, recognizing our fallen state. And repentance is to be followed by doing. Jesus said, “…do the things you did at first.” To remember and repent is the way to restore our first love. Jesus said, “If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” This was Jesus’ warning and the expression of his jealous love for the church. Without pure love for Jesus church cannot exist and there is no meaning of Christian life. Jesus finally said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” We remember that when God’s love was doubted, Adam sinned in disobedience to God and was cast out of the garden of Eden, losing the right to eat from the tree of life. But here is Jesus’ new promise. In this promise, the word “overcome” is “nikao” in Greek, which has the meaning “conquer.” This is a battle word. To restore the first love, pure love for Jesus is a spiritual battle. Our Lord Jesus wants us to be overcomers and conquerors in this battle and obtain the blessing of eating from the tree of life in the paradise of God. We thank and praise God that the love of God came to us through his Son Christ Jesus who loved us to the point of sacrificing his own life for our salvation and eternal life in him. We deeply learn that our Christian life is loving Christ more than anything else, and this love relationship with Christ Jesus our Lord is everything in life. Keeping this in mind may we live a life on the height of his love and become overcomers and victors in life.

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