Does The Church Still Love the Church
Revelation: The Best is Yet to Come! • Sermon • Submitted
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· 13 viewsThe Church Must be Careful to Love Jesus!
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Fiddler on the Roof - “Do You Love Me”
Just like Tevye asked his wife, Golde, “Do you Love me?” So the Lord asks his bride, the church, the very same question. “Do you love Me?”
The answer to this question is more important than simply, “I suppose I do.”
The bride of Christ must have a whole hearted LOVE and DEVOTION to Jesus Christ! It is the hallmark of our faith!
As we travel to each of the seven churches in Asia, there is something for the modern church to learn. Each church offers us a lesson to grow by.
Our first stop in Ephesus is no exception and we must pay attention! The Church MUST be a place of passionate, zealous, others focused, God glorifying LOVE!
And we are wise to do an honest spiritual inventory! We must answer a bold and resounding YES to Jesus’ question, “Do you love me?”
What do the hearers need to know? Christian, it is crucial for you to understand, it is imperative for Christ’s church to understand that our love for Jesus is the most important love we should have in our lives!
The church of Ephesus was an amazing church by any standard - except for one important quality - They were the church without the power of love - this is unsustainable! No church can last without love!
Main Idea: The Church Must Love Jesus Above All Else!
Main Idea: The Church Must Love Jesus Above All Else!
The church at Ephesus was about to learn this and so must we! What is there to learn?
There are three lessons we can take from this passage that will help us be the kind of Church, the kind of people the Lord desires for us to be.
And the first lesson is this...
1. Loving Jesus is More Important Than Right Living (vs. 1-3, 6)
1. Loving Jesus is More Important Than Right Living (vs. 1-3, 6)
Lead in...What? Wait one minute, you might be thinking, I thought right living was part and parcel with being a follower of Jesus! It is! But did you know you can live rightly and be wicked in your heart? You can do all the right things and still be dead inside? Yup! And the Church of Ephesus was heading down that road - They were unwittingly carrying on the legacy of the Pharisees!
How did Jesus know? Well the obvious answer is that He is the All-knowing God of all that is! But Look at how He answers this in verse 1
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
Allow me to rewrite this verse replacing the symbolic words with what they actually mean (we learned their meaning in chapter 1)
“To the preacher (elder/pastor) of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven elders in His right hand, who walks among the seven churches.’”
Do you get the point here? Jesus not only is the authority over the preacher of the church, but he walks among the church as well. He is with us when we gather as a body and He knows the thoughts and the intentions of each of our hearts. This is amazing! Jesus attends our worship services! He is our guest of honor. He walks among us and is a part of our conversations, our singing, or giving, the preaching event (this is convicting for the preacher and the hearer).
OUR LORD is an active participant in OUR Worship time!
He knows what is going on and He even knows the intent of our hearts - He knows our motivation for what we do at church.
He knows if I am preaching a sermon in hopes that people will be amazed at my eloquence and theological prowess or that I am genuine and authentically trying to please Christ. He knows!
And apparently He is willing to speak the truth in love and challenge the Church at Ephesus regarding the “why” of their service. We do what we do because we want what we want.
When you serve Christ, what do you want? Self-glorification and aggrandizement or the glorification of your Savior? Honestly, this is very difficult to detect on the outside - But God knows immediately.
In verses 1-3 we see several ways in which the Church in Ephesus’ outward appearance was very good! But none of them superceded loving Jesus!
Loving Jesus is more important than righteous deeds (vs. 2a)
2 “ ‘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.
Jesus knows all about His people (what a comfort). He knew that this local church was a church that worked hard on His behalf. They toiled and labored in their church. They patiently endured the trials since their birth as a church on Paul’s second mission tour He visited Ephesus after leaving Corinth, and evidently planted the church there (Acts 18:19).
The bottom line is the was a church that specialized in doing good deeds.
Loving Jesus is more important than a righteous stand (vs. 2b)
2 “ ‘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.
Jesus further congratulates them for their backbone. When it comes to standing up agains evil, this church did not back down. Ephesus was a place teaming with false religion and belief systems. Some of those beliefs would inevitably attempt to worm their way into the church. But this church would have none of it. They would not stand for false gospel or anything contrary to orthodox Christianity!
But loving Jesus is more important that this!
Loving Jesus is more important than sound doctrine (vs. 2c)
2 “ ‘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.
This church knew their Bible - The reason they would not put up with false teaching is because they knew the real truth. They studied and studied and studied the true word of God and they could see any false doctrine coming a mile away! Jesus commended them for their thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.
This is a must for any bible believing church! We must know our bibles so well that when we get cut, we bleed bib-line.
But loving Jesus is more important that this!
Loving Jesus is more important than suffering for Jesus (vs. 3)
3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
Since its inception some 40 years earlier, this church encountered opposition from those that opposed its message. There is no doubt persecution was the result and they suffered for their faith in Christ. This church refused to conform to the social and political pressures and remained faithful and committed to one another.
They were committed to God’s truth to such a level they were willing to suffer for it! And Jesus again commended them for this.
But loving Jesus is more important that this!
Loving Jesus is more important than hating the actions of evil people (vs. 6)
6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
They had such a strong appreciation for God’s truth, they couldn’t stand the actions of the Nicolatians!
The MacArthur Study Bible Chapter 2
A problem in Pergamos also (vv. 12–15), this heresy was similar to the teaching of Balaam (vv. 14, 15). Nicolas means “one who conquers the people.” Irenaeus writes that Nicolas, who was made a deacon in Acts 6, was a false believer who later became apostate; but because of his credentials he was able to lead the church astray. And, like Balaam, he led the people into immorality and wickedness. The Nicolaitans, followers of Nicolas, were involved in immorality and assaulted the church with sensual temptations. Clement of Alexander says, “They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence.” Their teaching perverted grace and replaced liberty with license.
Jesus, you notice, feels the same way as the church of Ephesus. It’s no wonder the Ephesian church had such a problem with the Nicolatians. After all, the Nicolatians were the kind of people that lived anyway they wanted because God was going to forgive them anyway. The church at Ephesus didn’t have the licence problem.
Jesus commended this church for their hard work in righteous deeds, their unbending orthodoxy, their willingness to stand for the truth even if it caused them suffering! And even their willingness to call our a group promoting heresy by name! These are all good and commendable actions on the part of this church. But as important as these characteristics are, there is something far more important they need to be concerned about.
Love!
Now to be sure, Jesus clearly teaches that by obeying His commands, we show our love for Him. But this cannot be true for the church in Ephesus because of what Jesus says later in this passage.
So we can conclude that it is possible to obey God without loving Him. This is a dangerous road to walk.
This is the path of the Pharisees, and Jesus did not have good things to say to them. Why? Because their obedience was for their own glory and not for the glory of God.
Argumentation - Friends, this is why Jesus is warning the Church at Ephesus. Obedience without a love for Jesus leads to self-glorification.
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Friends, check your spirit as you serve Christ! If you do it for your own glory, you have received your reward!
Review - The church must love Jesus above all else!
Loving Jesus is more important than right living!
2. Loving Jesus is the Church’s Primary Priority (vs.4)
2. Loving Jesus is the Church’s Primary Priority (vs.4)
Lead in...Jesus changes His tone in verse 4 and it’s enough to make any church sit up and take notice.
4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
The NKJV gives a better sense in the way they translate this verse...
4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
What a haunting phrase! I mean if anyone were to say to me, “Hey Mark, I have this against you, I’d feel terrible!”
But to hear these words from Jesus Himself, Wow! This would be mortifying to say the least! Remember, Jesus is dictating this letter to John to be read to the messengers (pastors) of these seven churches. This is the church at Ephesus. A church that has a good track record with the Lord. A church that once was commended for her love for Jesus and for one another.
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
And while the Lord certainly commended the Ephesian Church, He did have a problem with them, a rather big problem. Their problem? They left their first love!
What does this mean? To be a Christian means you love Jesus (God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength).
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Listen to Paul’s very strong words in...
22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
And Jesus said they lost their first love.
What an indictment! Wow! How could this be? I mean, in the first part of the Lord’s address to His church, they seemed to be doing all the right thing! How could He say something so harsh to a people that were so faithful? What happened? What went wrong?
Here is one consideration...
Most of the Ephesian Christians were now second-generation believers, and though they had retained purity of doctrine and life and had maintained a high level of service, they were lacking in deep devotion to Christ.
When the church started and grew, it had a profound love for Jesus. Now, the second generation of this church kept up its purity and service for Christ, but with a diminished love.
By the way...
Paul has something to say about the results when love is absent...
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
What happens when the church of Jesus Christ loses her first love? Wait a minute, let me rephrase the question according to verse 4...
What happens when the church of Jesus Christ “abandons” her love for Jesus? Abandons = “to cause someone or something to undergo separation. To let go, send away, divorce (AGELOTNT. pg. 156).
This is what the Lord is accusing the church at Ephesus of. And, by the way, this is no empty allegation - after all, the Lord knows the heart.
He is able to see all their actions, their deeds and see that they lack love for Him - And so, they are meaningless.
What happens when a church abandons their love for Christ?
Their passion and zeal begin to grow cold and the works that are done for the Lord become cold and mechanical.
Their service was commendable - yet when done with no heart, it became displeasing to the Lord -
Doing all the right things for the wrong reasons is a recipe for either legalism or licence.
Their love for others quickly diminishes as well. In fact love for God and others is so closely related that some scholars believe this is part of the first love that Jesus is speaking of. Regardless, when you lose your love for Jesus, you loss of love for others is not far behind.
Example - if you are looking at others and judging them for what they do or do not do, say or do not say, believe or do not believe - in other words, their actions, you are not loving them for who they are (beings created in the image of God), you might be in danger of losing your first love.
There is one more danger for a church that abandons her first love, it is significant and worth paying attention to. And Jesus addresses it in verse 5. We’ll get that in a bit.
I do want you to understand what Jesus is communicating in this passage. The church at Ephesus and all churches that believe the bible is their final authority for faith and practice must understand this simple principle - Loving Jesus is our primary priority. Better yet, think of it this way - He is our every priority!
Gregory Coles says this so well in his article called, “Why You Need to Stop Making God Your First Priority”
“God wants more than just the top line of your priority list. He wants the whole list. He doesn’t want to be sequestered to a single part of your life. He wants to be the substance of every part, the logic behind every choice you make. Whether you’re singing a worship song or taking a nap, God wants His kingdom to be your ultimate goal. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31: 'So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.’”
So stop making God your first priority. Live a life that’s more radically biblical than that. Give Him everything.
https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/why-you-need-to-stop-making-god-your-first-priority.html
Argumentation - I think Gregory’s point is well taken! The church at Ephesus was missing the point! Doing religion isn’t what God is looking for. Believing orthodoxy isn’t enough. Doing good works is insufficient. He instead wants His bride to LOVE Him! God wants the church’s heart!
Can you imagine a wife doing wifely things for her family - especially her husband, devoid of love? Do you think the husband would eventually catch on that his wife is doing everything she is doing simply out of duty?
As a husband, if my wife had this robotic, duty centered attitude, I would be devastated! My heart would be broken because our hearts are not united!
The Lord wants our hearts! Jesus wants your heart! He wants your love!
By the way, He doesn’t coerce or force our love. It would cease to be love if He did. But He does compel us or tries to convince us to love Him. How?
Certainly through the many blessings He gives you - Count your blessings, name them one by one...
Through the Gospel! Is there a more compelling reason to love God than the gospel?
The Gospel shows us God’s love in a powerful way!
The Gospel demonstrates God love for us.
Our response to Gods’ profound gesture of love through the Gospel is a life of love for the one who provided salvation for us!
Do you love Jesus? How do you know?
You’ll know by recognizing your obedience to Jesus is done from a heart of appreciation for Him.
Review - The church must love Jesus above all else!
Loving Jesus is more important than right living!
2. Loving Jesus is the Church’s Primary Focus
3. Loving Jesus is the Church’s Persistent Pursuit (vs. 5-7)
3. Loving Jesus is the Church’s Persistent Pursuit (vs. 5-7)
Lead in...I just asked you this question...
Do you love Jesus? How do you know?
You’ll know by recognizing your obedience to Jesus is done from a heart of appreciation for Him.
But do you always obey Christ out of a heart of love? And if we are going to be honest, the answer is no.
So what do we do?
Well, it’s a lot like driving a car. Huh?
Yes, think about it. When you get in your car to drive to a certain destination, you are constantly turning the steering wheel and correcting your direction so you can get to your desired destination. You don’t just hold the steering wheel in one spot and hope you will make it to where you want to go. If that’s how you drive, it won’t take long for you to hit a tree or end up in somebody’s yard!
No, we are always correcting when we drive - and when we find ourselves going in the wrong direction, we correct even more so we can arrive to our destination!
This is the way we live the Christian life as well. Our destination is to obey Christ from a heart of love for Him. And when we notice that our heart is growing cold then we SELF-CORRECT! Or Repent (change our direction because of a change of mind) and get back on track! This is how we, by God’s grace, do this.
This, in fact, is what Jesus admonishes the church in Ephesus to do in the last verses of our text. Look at Christ’s procedure for his church to get back on track...
The Procedure (vs. 5a-5c)
Remember your first love (vs. 5a)
5 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.
Repent of your lack of love (vs. 5b)
5 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.
Return to your first love (vs. 5c)
5 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.
The Penalty (vs. 5d)
5 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.
Remember when I said there was one more consequence for a church if it abandoned her first love? Well, here it is. If the church at Ephesus refused to listen to these words of Christ, they would run the risk of Him removing their lampstand from its place. In other words, If they failed to respond to His warning, “the light of their witness in Ephesus would be extinguished.
A warning for us! - We had better be a church that persistently pursues Love of God and others.
Listen to the wise words of Dr. Craig Keener...
A church where love ceases can no longer function properly as a local expression of Christ’s many-membered body. This is one of the offenses for which a lampstand can be moved from its place (2:5), through which a church can ultimately cease to exist as a church. Some churches die from lack of outreach, lack of planning for the rising generation, or lack of courtesy to visitors; some churches, like the church in Ephesus, may risk simply killing themselves off by how they treat others.
Yet, if the local church does listen, look at the promise from Jesus...
The Promise (vs. 7)
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.’
This promise is to the individual members of this local congregation in Ephesus because he says “He (singular) who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
So, our corporate love for Jesus has a profound affect on the individual person’s eternal destiny! And, of course we understand this to be the case. If a church is unloving, it drives people away. But if there is a genuine, God and others focused love, the local body becomes attractional like a moth to the flame.
So, my friends at ABC, we have to ever vigilant on the direction we are heading as individuals as well as a body. Our destination is to be a body who loves God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as much as we love ourselves! And when we get off track, we need to self-correct to ensure we continue to drive to our destination or our goal of love!
Loving Jesus is the Church’s persistent pursuit!
14 Let all that you do be done in love.
As a church we must constantly ask this question...
And as individual church members we must ask this of ourselves as well. Is my primary motivation love for Christ and secondarily for others?
It is imperative that you are honest with yourself about this. And if you find that it is not true of you, repent and pursue your first love again!
Review - The church must love Jesus above all else!
1. Loving Jesus is more important than right living!
2. Loving Jesus is the Church’s primary focus
3. Loving Jesus is The Church’s persistent pursuit!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Fiddler on the Roof - “Do You Love Me”
The Lord asks his bride, the church, the very same question. “Do you love Me?”
The Lord is asking you, “Do you love Me?”
The answer to this question is more important than simply, “I suppose I do.”
The bride of Christ must have a whole hearted LOVE and DEVOTION to Jesus Christ!
And when we do, God uses us in amazing and powerful ways.
Please, take time this morning to fall deeper in love with the One who loved you enough to give His life for you!
Connection Group Reflection Questions
What do these verses teach me about our character?
What do these verses teach me about God and his character?
Because these words are from God, they are TRUTH! What truth is he asking me to believe?
What do I need to do to obey him?
With whom can I share these truths?