Sermon Notes

January 14, 2024

Lessons from Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

The book of Revelation has always been one of the most intriguing books in the Bible and rightfully so. It contains one of the largest parts of unfulfilled Biblical prophecy. It gives us spoilers as to what eternity with and without Jesus will look like, and its peculiar literary style seems to grab our attention and imaginations. However, the book of Revelation is so much more. Listen to what Revelation 1:3 says— “God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.” On top of the prophecy the book contains, there is a message of truth that calls for obedience within its pages and God promises to bless those who follow in obedience. That’s what we will examine in this sermon series. Looking at the first few chapters of Revelation we will be able to understand God’s call to the church. We will see if we are living up to the standard that God has set. When we see places that we fall short, we need to understand how to make corrections in order to be obedient and get back on the right path.

The book of Revelation starts off with Jesus appearing in His glorified state to John and a request is made to write specific letters to seven different churches that were located in what we now know as western Turkey. It’s these seven letters that I want to focus on over the next few weeks in order to understand what these churches were excelling in, what they were lacking in, and what Jesus says to them about addressing their shortcomings. This week we will look at one of the largest and most influential churches at the time, the church in Ephesus. Now before we jump into God’s Word, I need to remind us that when we speak of the church we are not speaking of an abstract concept or of an impersonal organization, but rather of the people who have been saved by grace and are followers of Jesus Christ. When we see Jesus address the church, He not only is addressing a group of believers, He is also addressing each one of us individually.

The Church must live truth at all times. - Revelation 2:1-2a

Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance.

The letter to the church at Ephesus starts off addressing the “angel” of that church. The word we interpret as angel here literally means messenger, therefore the letter was being addressed to the one who brings the message from the Lord, or the pastor of that church. The next part of the letter is an introduction to the one who is sending the message to the church. It's in this introduction that we see the imagery of a glorified Jesus (the same imagery that John uses to describe the glorified Jesus in the later part of chapter 1). This imagery is some of the first of the revelation of Jesus Christ, pulling back the curtain to show that Jesus is indeed not just a good teacher or a prophet, but Jesus Christ is God Himself. The language used to introduce the letter is also very similar to the language in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Over 120 times in the Old Testament we see similar language used when YHWH speaks. It is undeniable that Jesus is God when we read just the introduction of this letter to the church at Ephesus. He is the one who holds the churches and their leadership in His hands.

Jesus then proceeds to tell them that He “knows all the things they do”— a reference to His omniscient or all-knowing. Again we know that only God is omniscient (1 John 3:19-20) and without a doubt Jesus is being revealed as God. This is also a great reminder of the truth that Jesus knows what His church is doing at all times— every single member. This is important because of what Jesus tells the church next. Jesus goes on to tell them He has seen their hard work and endurance, even those times that they think no one is watching.

The life of a follower of Jesus Christ cannot be disconnected from the truths of God’s Word. It is the driving force behind everything a follower of Jesus does, just as Jesus said in John 14:15. “If we love Him we will keep His commandments”—not just when it’s convenient or when people are watching us, but we are called to obedience at all times. When we make Jesus the Lord of our lives, we are surrendering control to Him. Therefore obedience is paramount for His church because when we don’t live what we say we follow, we are hypocrites and liars and we are not followers of Jesus at all (1 John 2:4-6). God knows what is best, but what is best is very rarely the easiest. We must be persistent and work hard following God’s plan for our lives, and that can only be found in God’s Word. The church at Ephesus was excelling at this at all times and Jesus complimented them on it.

2. The Church must protect doctrine. - Revelation 2:2

I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars.

Who are these evil people that are being referenced by Jesus? They are those who brought some very attractive teachings into the church, but those teachings were false and those people were liars. They were the ones who Paul warned the very same church about in Ephesians 4:14. They were the ones who would cause the young believers to be tossed around and they were the ones who were not being tolerated. Why was this a big deal? It was because false teachings corrupt the Gospel. Remember the book of Galatians, when the church was allowing those who brought in the teaching that Salvation came through the Gospel plus circumcision. It didn’t seem like a big deal to the church, but Paul said if anyone adds anything to the Gospel, let them be the object of God’s wrath. Purity of the message of scripture is a big deal to God. The purity and truth of God’s Word is paramount in our lives. When we start letting other teachings in and allowing them to occupy the same place as God’s Word in our lives, we are introducing poison into our lives. It doesn’t matter how much or how little, anything we add to God’s Word is going to cause catastrophes in our lives. For example, there is a popular false teaching that says that God will not make His true followers suffer sickness in this life, and if you experience sickness you’ve done something wrong. If you were to add this to the truth of scripture, you will get to the point in your life where your faith will be destroyed because in this world you will suffer sickness because these bodies weren’t meant to last forever. Your faith failed you—not God because your faith was not in God but rather some god you made up in your mind. That’s why we must protect doctrine for ourselves and for those weaker believers that we should be leading to the Lord constantly in our lives. How do we know if a doctrine is true or not? Just like those at the church did and like the Bereans in the book of Acts did, we need to examine them and compare them to God’s Word. When we find doctrine that doesn’t match up with God’s Word, we can not play around with it, trying to be kind. We must call it what it is immediately and remove it. It’s a disease and must be dealt with.

3. The Church must protect against burnout. - Revelation 2:3

You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

Burnout is a reality for the church. It’s not just for Pastors and staff, but for those who serve in any capacity as well. Jesus saw that they were not quitting and wanted to applaud their efforts. Two things we can briefly learn from this. First— if Jesus is applauding them for not quitting that means they were at work, and Secondly— Jesus expects His church to serve. There was a reality of quitting because serving Jesus is tough and we have an enemy fighting us every step of the way. What are some ways we can make sure we are like those at this church and can effectively fight burnout? Here is some great advice to help the most common reasons for serving burnout.

We can bring others along.
The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone. We are supposed to do it together, in community. One of the functions of the church is to be available for each other. When we bring others along, we are encouraged. We sharpen each other and create disciples as we pour into their lives, as we serve side by side just as God commanded all His followers to do in the Great Commission.

We need to prioritize.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in stuff that doesn't matter in the big picture that it can cause us to experience burnout. The best way to make sure we don’t have this happen to us is to ask ourselves if how we are investing our time is accomplishing the Great Commandment and the Great Commission in our lives. If we can’t see how it is, then maybe we need to reprioritize the things we are doing and investing our time in.

We must understand our role.
Sometimes (especially depending on our personalities) we can take more and more upon ourselves than we ever need to. If you know you are prone to this, take a step back and make sure you are doing what you were asked to do. If there are other things that need to be done outside of those expectations then speak with leaders in that ministry to see if they have a plan for taking care of it and who you can bring along to help accomplish those goals. We need to understand that we can’t do it all.

We have to get rest.
Rest is holy. Make sure you are getting enough.

4. The Church must love. - Revelation 2:4
But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!

The Ephesian church was not doing everything well. Along with all the applause that Jesus was giving the church, He brings a complaint and it’s a big one. They had forgotten to love. Jesus said that was the way the world would know they were followers of Jesus (John 13:35). They had forgotten and abandoned that. Was it because they were so focused on doctrine and hard work that it caused them to abandon the love that they first had? We don’t know. All we know is they left their love and that was a serious matter. Why does this shortfall matter so much that Jesus warns them that He will remove the church (see verse 5) unless it’s corrected? It’s because love takes on many forms in the life of a believer in Jesus and all those forms are required to be an obedient follower of Christ.

Love for God.
Our first priority in our walk with God is our relationship with God and our love for Him. We cannot get so consumed with serving, with knowledge of God and with the things of God that we neglect our relationship with God. That relationship comes and grows through personal study of His Word, praying without ceasing, and with a personal worship time. We need to make sure that no matter our place in life that we are taking time daily to grow in our relationship with God.

Love for the church.
Like we mentioned before, this isn't love for an institute or a building, but for a people. Our brothers and sisters in Christ, those who have been born again and have been adopted into the family of God. We can make sure we are loving Jesus’ church by using our gifts to serve and build up one another, by having fellowship with other believers in order to encourage and sharpen each other, and to spur each other unto good works. We need each other and we need to remember that love covers a multitude of sins— we aren’t perfect.

Love for the lost.
There is another love that is passively referred to here and is a major part of the Christian life. That is the love for the lost. If we have held tight to the truth of scripture we will know that there is a lost and dying world that needs Jesus, and we were once in that same position. We have to be actively sharing Jesus constantly and consistently. If you really believe what you say you believe about God’s Word then you will love your neighbor as yourself. The hell that the Bible teaches is not a place that anyone would want to spend eternity so it will spur us on to share the Gospel with the lost. There is only one hope for those who are headed down that path of destruction— that hope is Jesus. We are His chosen method to communicate truth to them. We must be obedient in our love for them.

If you are a Christian you must have all three of these loves in your life to be obedient to God. They all must coexist in your life. If you are missing one then you are missing them all. They all have to be present to walk in obedience to God.

5. The Church must repent - Revelation 2:5-7

Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

The church is what God uses to shine His light into the darkness. When the lamp is not functioning properly God has no problem with removing the lamp and using another one. He needs the world to see the light that only comes from Him. That was the promise Jesus made to the church in Ephesus. He doesn’t just threaten them, He tells them how to fix their problem. Remember! Repent! Return! Remember the way it used to be, remember their love for Jesus and how that was played out in the church, remember their love for each other and how that was played out in the church, and remember their love for a lost world and how they would share the Gospel in that love. Then repent from the sin of falling away from that love. We must always repent of our sins to God, then return to obedience to His Word. This is the way we are to handle all sin in our lives. 1 John 1:9 says God is faithful and just to “forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

Jesus then goes back to the positive by mentioning the Nicolaitans' deeds, not the people, but their deeds, their sins. We will see them mentioned again in another of the letters so we will leave the Nicolaitans for now. He closes out with a theme we will see often in these letters and that is that we (the church) must hear and understand what is being said and with that there are implications that there is follow through in obedience. Then there is a reminder of victory, and as we have recently studied we only have victory through the blood of Jesus Christ and this closing of the letter is just a reminder of that. It’s not us that gives us eternal life, it’s Christ alone.

That was a lot in a handful of verses, but what did we really learn from this letter? We see that as the church and as individuals who make up the church, there are expectations for our lives and Jesus sees everything we do. How would you fair if Jesus were to give you a report card like He gave to the church at Ephesus? How would you grade when it comes to living out the Christian life at all times, especially in the hard times? How would you do when it comes to keeping what you believe the Bible says with what the Bible really says? How would you do when it comes to serving and not burning out? How is your daily personal relationship with God? How is your relationship with His church? How are you loving the lost? If you find yourself lacking remember there is always time to fix it. What better way to start 2024 than getting yourself back on track with your relationship with Jesus. It’s all going to start with a first step. Are YOU ready to take that step to get back on track today?

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Sermon Notes

Lessons from Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

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