Ephesus: Church of Loveless Orthodoxy
Revelation 2: 1-7
Dearly loved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
The Bible can be called God’s love letter to humankind. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Rev. 2 & 3. Here we find 7 messages that Jesus dictated to John. These messages show Jesus’ great love for his followers – they are filled with comfort and reassurance of Jesus’ knowledge and concerns for the life and health of the churches.
There are seven messages addressing seven different situations – yet the letters are intended for the whole Church – perhaps that’s the significance of 7 messages for 7 congregations. Seven is a number of completeness. These letters are intended for the church of all places to read. We receive them today as God’s Word to the church.
At a seminar I attended this spring, Dr. Jeff Weima of CTS described a structure that all these letters share in common. It was a preaching conference specifically aimed at giving some background for a series of sermons on these 7 messages.
So in each message there will be 7 basic points that I’ll highlight (Structure):
· Christ-title – refers to the author of the letter: Jesus, picking up an image from Revelation 1.
· Commendation – praise for what’s going well.
· Complaint – description of what not going well.
· Correction – direction for fixing the problem.
· Consequence – Jesus’ response to their action or inaction as a result of the complaint.
· Conquering Formula – I’ll describe better when we get there tonight, for now we’ll just call it encouragement to overcome the problems and persecution.
· Connection Point – the application of the sermon, the place where reading Jesus’ message makes us sit up and listen.
As a seminary professor, he has the time to figure out a list of C-words.
Let me show you how this works in the letter to the angel of the church of Ephesus. It begins with:
· Christ-title
o Him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.
For us, this seems like rather strange imagery. For the citizens of Ephesus, it is very clear. The symbol of the stars in the right hand was on their coins – the emperor was pictured there, holding seven stars. It was a boast of his power, not just on earth, but also in the heavens.
This title clearly shows that Caesar is NOT Lord. No, Jesus is Lord of all creation – and in his right hand he holds the seven stars – identified in Rev. 1 as the angels of the seven churches.
What about the lampstands? They were also identified in Rev. 1. They are the congregations – together they are the Church. Christ is in heaven, but he also will not leave the church. He walks among us, knowing what’s going on, observing, encouraging, confronting, correcting.
We’re not alone – Christ the Lord of all Creation walks among the lampstands. He knows what’s going on.
· Commendation
Jesus can commend or praise the Ephesian church for what they are doing well and there’s a whole bunch of things Christ mentions:
• I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance (vs 2).
• 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 (vs 2).
• You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary (vs 3).
• You hate the practices of the Nicolaitains, which I also hate (vs 6).
Wicked men, false apostles, Nicolaitains – people who mixed Christianity with other religious beliefs, watering down the gospel – these were all sniffed out and rejected. The Ephesians are people who know what they believe and are able to stick with it. What’s more, Jesus commends them for it. He pats them on the back.
· Complaint
o Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love (vs 2).
Now there’s debate in scholarly circles about exactly what kind of love is lacking: love for God or love for neighbor? It’s easy to get stuck in that kind of debate, ‘cause when you’re still trying to figure out what Jesus means, you don’t need to deal with the problem.
It’s too serious to get sidetracked that way. Isn’t it enough for Jesus to notice that the church has forsaken her first love? This is a serious charge, especially coming through the pen of John. It is John who writes in the gospel
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”[1] (we sang about that this morning)
And in his first letter to the churches, John writes,
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.[2]
And in his second letter, John writes:
I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.[3]
If a church is not characterized by its love, there’s a serious problem – we’ll see exactly how serious in a moment. But Jesus in his mercy, does not just leave the congregation hanging there, he shows them how to correct the problem.
· Correction
o Remember the height from which you have fallen!
o Repent and do the things you did at first.
· Consequence
o If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.[4]
o They will no longer be a church.
· Conquering Formula
o This formula appears in every letter.
o Overcoming = Nike
o Name of a goddess of war
o Sounds like a good name for a sportswear company, eh?
· 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 (vs 7).
Now there’s a goal worth aiming for!
· Connection Point
o Dangers to the church in Ephesus and in St. Catharines:
§ Watering down the gospel
· Danger of not being clear about the radical claims of the gospel, the wonder of life-long service, and insistence that following Jesus is not a part-time thing.
· Like the Ephesians, we have a good record of testing teachers and weighing teaching.
§ Lovelessness
· Jesus was not impressed by the lack of love in the Ephesian church. He warned them severely, that if things didn’t change, they would no longer be a church.
· It’s a call to us as well to love one another; that God’s unconditional love for us overflows into unconditional love for each other and our neighbours.
· If we don’t have love, we are not a church of Jesus Christ.
But the promise of Jesus Christ to the church is remarkable. A reward in the battle against sin and temptation:
• To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God(vs 7).
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[1] Jn 13:34-35.
[2] 1 Jn 5: 2.
[3] II Jn 5.
[4] Re 2:5.