Ephesus: Don't Forget To Love - Revelation 2:1-7

What would you say if I told you that Revelation Chapters two and three predicted the emergence of Microsoft Office?

Most of you would probably say, “Preacher, you just told us two weeks ago that this revelation of Jesus Christ given to John was written for the persecuted church under the Roman Empire.  What would Microsoft Office mean to them?”

My response would be, “Hey, you remembered…that’s great.”  What I am talking about though, is one of my favorite things about Microsoft Word (and would probably apply to most word processing programs), the ability to set up and save a template, so that if you are going to type a similar document, the framework is there, you just have to put in what is relevant to the document you are typing.  The letters that Jesus relayed through John are so similar in pattern that it was as if Jesus or John was using a Microsoft template to prepare them.

What I am talking about?  Over the next seven weeks, including today, we will examine the seven letters written to the churches in Asia Minor and how those letters spoke to those churches and how they speak to us.  In examining the letters, we will find that there is a pattern.

Each letter begins with an address to the angel of the church that is being spoken to and in noting who the letter is from, there is a description that connects us back to the image of Jesus that John experienced in Revelation 1:12-19.  Then, for five of the seven churches, a commendation, or compliment is given to the church.  Following the commendation, there is a call to repentance, or a correction offered the church, with a warning.  After the correction, words of promise are offered to those who overcome or who are victorious.  Each letter also closes, either before the promise or after, with “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  Meaning that these messages are not just for those localized churches, but everyone should listen and judge whether the Spirit might be talking to them.

So, let’s turn to Ephesus…

It’s funny, as I read the letter to the church in Ephesus, I immediately thought of one of the Righteous Brothers most famous songs.  Remember the words to their song, as they offered an appeal to their lost love?  I’m not going to sing it…but here is a sample the lyrics:

You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips. / And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips.
You're trying hard not to show it, (baby). / But baby, baby I know it...

You've lost that lovin' feeling, / Whoa, that lovin' feeling,
You've lost that lovin' feeling, / Now it's gone...gone...gone...wooooooh.

Now there's no welcome look in your eyes when I reach for you. / And now you’re starting to criticize little things I do.
It makes me just feel like crying, (baby). / 'Cause baby, something in you is dying.

Baby, baby, I get down on my knees for you. / If you would only love me like you used to do, yeah.

How does it connect?  Let’s look again at the passage and how it fits into the Revelation letter template:

First there is the address to the church and the connection to the image of Jesus from chapter one:  “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

Then comes the commendation, the recognition of Jesus of what the church has done well.  Jesus says, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.  I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false.  I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary.”  Jesus is saying to those in Ephesus, “I know that you are laboring hard to build the kingdom, I know that it is hard work, and at times it seems to be moving painstakingly slow, but yet you keep on working.”  That makes sense, if the church was being persecuted, the efforts to build up the church, to create faithful disciples would be especially difficult and slow…folks would be resistant to become part of a faith that stood in contrast to what the Empire was asking, and would put their lives at risk. 

While, we don’t experience the persecution that the church in Ephesus had to endure, we know what it is like to try to do ministry in a culture where our efforts to make disciples seem to be moving at a snail’s pace…where we are up against a culture that seems to work in direct contrast to what Jesus teaches…a culture that says do what you want to do and its okay versus a Biblical culture that calls us to follow Jesus…we know what it is to live in a culture where Christians are told that they need to be quiet and not speak their faith in public.

Jesus also says, “I know that you won’t put up with those who do evil…you stand up to those who do evil and seek to put an end to their evil ways.”  We do not know exactly what type of evil the church at Ephesus was facing, but we can know of churches through history that tolerate evil…whether it was the medieval church that organized the crusades (where the motto was pretty much “convert or die”—sounds a lot like a group we readily condemn today), the segment of churches in Germany that failed to take a stand against Hitler, the churches of the south that argued in favor of slavery, or churches today that turn a blind eye to poverty, child/spouse/elder abuse, or refuse to speak out against pornography, sexual immorality, racism, or any other of the multitude of evils that run rampant around us every day…and in some cases, even accepting or advocating the evils.  What we do know that that Ephesus did not sit in silence and did not take part in the evils…and sets an example that we should follow.

We also understand that Ephesus did not just follow anyone that came along…they did not just fall in line with whatever was popular or whatever came to town claiming to be of Jesus, they tested, checked, evaluated what the so called “apostles” were proclaiming, teaching, and doing…and if it wasn’t of Jesus, they made it known.  We’re called to do the same thing…some things that are new are good and are of God…but not everything…we must test it…is it Biblical…how has the church through years of tradition viewed it…does it mentally fall in place with what we understand about God…and have we experienced God in the ways that are being taught…it so, we support it…if not…we are to dismiss it.

Then comes the criticism of the church in Ephesus…Jesus says, “You’ve lost that loving feeling…,” actually he says, “…this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”  Love is key to the life of the church…it is central…it is essential…it is the core of what Jesus taught.  Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments are that we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength…and that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.”  Paul tells the church in Corinth that: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have all prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”  In other words, without love anything we do is worthless.

Jesus is telling the church at Ephesus and telling us that same thing…you have done so well, enduring patiently, fighting evil, testing the teachings…it doesn’t matter how well you have done, if you’ve lost love and if what you do is not done in love, then it is pointless.  Love is so essential, that Jesus says, “If you don’t repent and go back to loving like you did in the beginning, I am going to come and remove your lampstand…If you don’t start loving,” Jesus says, “you will cease to be a church, you will cease to be my people…I will take that right from you…I will disown you.”

We can understand how Ephesus got there, we can almost sympathize with them.  We work and work and work to try and do what Jesus wants us to do…We try to reach out to folks…we develop programs…we reach out…we help the homeless…we go to worship…we go to Sunday School…we go to Bible studies…and it all starts out because we love God, we love Jesus, we love people…but after time, if we are not careful what began as a labor of love to simply labor…we do it because we think we are supposed to…we do it because we’ve always done it…we do it because others are doing it…and it becomes a chore…becomes routine…and love is not there.  The trouble is, my friends, if that is the case, we might as well not do it, because it is worthless….  Isaiah (29:13) and Jesus later echoes (Matthew 15:8, Mark 7:6) says, “…these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote….”  While we can understand how Ephesus got there, because we have often drawn close, we have to remember the warning of Jesus…we must return to that first love, we must make sure that all that we do is done in love, or we will cease to be the very thing we came together to be.

Jesus also says, “Yet this is to your credit, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”  To get into exactly what the Nicolaitans were and to give a detailed description, would take too long, but just to give a brief idea, because they will appear again through these letters…the Nicolaitans were a Gnostic group…a group that the church would declare heretical.  They believed that he only way to God was through obtaining specific knowledge that had to be passed down through a chain of spiritual beings to those they deemed worthy to receive the knowledge…segments of Gnostics also completely shunned the physical world and said that only the spiritual was important.

Finally Jesus offers the promise…a word of hope.  Jesus says, “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  To everyone who conquers…to everyone who remains faithful…to everyone who remembers to love…I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.”  Jesus tells the folks, remember Eden…remember how the sin of your foreparents caused them to be cast out of Eden so that they may not eat of the tree of life and live forever…Jesus says, “if you conquer…if you repent and stay the course…then that promise of life eternal…a restoration of the walking and talking in the garden with God…will be yours.”

My brothers and sisters, that promise is also ours…so let us hear Jesus say...to modify the Righteous Brothers…

“It just makes me feel like cryin’ (church)…Cause (church) something in you is dying…Brothers, Sisters, I went up on the cross for you…If only you would love me like you used to do, yeah.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.