Revelation 2:1-7: The Letter to Ephesus
Revelation - The Lamb is Victorious • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Scripture
Scripture
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.
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. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 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.’
Outline
Outline
Revelation 1 - Introduction
Revelation 1 - Introduction
Revelation 1:1-3 - Prologue & Benediction
Revelation 1:4-8 - Epistolary Introduction
Revelation 1:9-20 - A Vision of the Son of Man
Revelation 2-3 - The Seven Churches
Revelation 2-3 - The Seven Churches
Revelation 2:1-7 - The Letter to Ephesus
Revelation 2:1 - Address
Revelation 2:2-6 - Message to the Church
Revelation 2:7 - Command to Hear
Purpose of Book
Purpose of Book
The purpose of Revelation is to challenge/encourage believers, who are expectantly awaiting the reign of Christ, to live faithfully for Him despite worldly circumstances, persecution, and the cosmic battle between God and Satan.
The purpose of Revelation is to challenge/encourage believers, who are expectantly awaiting the reign of Christ, to live faithfully for Him despite worldly circumstances, persecution, and the cosmic battle between God and Satan.
Main Point
Main Point
Jesus commends the Ephesians for standing firm in truth, but rebukes them because they have lost their first love. His call is for them to repent and return to their first works or else He would judge them accordingly.
Jesus commends the Ephesians for standing firm in truth, but rebukes them because they have lost their first love. His call is for them to repent and return to their first works or else He would judge them accordingly.
Revelation 2:1 - Address
Revelation 2:1 - Address
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.
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
To the angel of the church
Celestial being responsible for oversight
There is help for them in the heavenly realm
In Ephesus
Lexham Geographic Commentary on Acts through Revelation Chapter 41: The Social and Geographical World of Ephesus (Acts 18:19–21, 24; 19:1–41; 20:16–17; Ephesians 1:1; 1 Timothy 1:3; Revelation 1:11; 2:1) (David A. Desilva)
Key Points
• Ephesus was a major commercial port city and an important node on the north-south and east-west road system, and thus a strategic hub for the immediate and ongoing work of a missionary/church planter like Paul and his team.
• The worship of Artemis and the city’s identity and pride were intertwined from the founding of Ephesus, making devotion to Artemis a natural rallying point against an invasive monotheistic cult.
• Ephesus enthusiastically and devoutly supported the Roman imperial cult, with a marked upsurge toward the end of the first century as it was awarded its first provincial imperial temple. This is the climate and situation to which John’s Revelation would appear to respond most directly for Ephesian Christians.
• The commercial structures and activity of Ephesus, particularly as a collection point for shipments heading west to Greece and, most especially, Rome, is another important point of connection with Revelation’s critique of the Roman imperial economy and the practices that sustain it.
Write
Command given to John
The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
The words of him
Old Testament wording revealing the prophetic tone of these letters
Seven stars… seven gold lampstands
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Christ has authority over the seven stars - angels
Christ is in the midst of His churches
Revelation 2:2-6 - Message to the Church
Revelation 2:2-6 - Message to the Church
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. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance,
I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance,
I know your works
Christ has all discernment as previously mentioned
Your toil
Patient endurance
They have not given up the fight for faith despite opposition
John is fostering a spirit of goodwill with the readers
And how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, found to be false.
And how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, found to be false.
With those who are evil
False apostles who are working to subvert the Gospel
Apostles
Not in the sense of the 12 or Paul
False apostles were also missionaries who would travel to church to church spreading false doctrine
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
Enduring patiently
Bearing up
Notice who the conflict is with - WITHIN
Not grown weary
They have not abandoned Christ despite rejection and persecution
But this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
But this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Abandoned the love you had at first
Love for God
Love for one another
Their commitment against false teaching has led to all head with no heart for God/Christians/or the world
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.
Remember
Command
Repent
Command
Where you have fallen
Previously they loved God and one another deeply
Their love led to actions
Do the works you did at first
Do - command
Obedience is required here
They are commanded to love God/Christians as they did first
4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
I will come to you
Come against you
If there is no repentance, judgment will follow
This is NOT the second coming
Remove your lampstand
Failure to repent will lead to the church being removed
Lose their status among the other churches or deemed to be an illegitimate church
Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Nicolaitans
14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Revelation 2:7 - Command to Hear
Revelation 2:7 - Command to Hear
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.’
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Let him hear
Command
Meant to provoke to get the church to hear and obey
9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And he said, “Go and say to this people, ‘You will hear by hearing and not understand; and although looking, you will look and not see.’ 10 For the heart of this people has been thickened; and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they closed their eyes in case they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I will heal them.”
Reality that there are believers and non-believers who hear this message in the churches
Some will be enlightened, some blinded
Spirit
The Spirit is active and at work through Jesus’ letters to the seven churches
To the churches
Both to the church in Ephesus, but also to the churches of all ages
To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Conquers
Those who persevere
Eat of the tree of life and paradise of God
9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Paradise of God
9 And God further brought up from the earth every tree beautiful to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the paradise, and the tree for knowing what is known of good and of evil.
23 So the Lord God sent him away from the luxurious garden to work the earth from which he was taken. 24 So he threw Adam out and settled him opposite the luxurious garden and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, turning sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
Together this draws us back to the Garden of Eden where
Here we enjoy the presence of God in covenantal relationship
Application
Application
True orthodoxy is rooted in love for God and one another
True orthodoxy is rooted in love for God and one another
The church is called to be a light to the world
The church is called to be a light to the world
Perseverance leads to being with God
Perseverance leads to being with God
Main Point
Main Point
Jesus commends the Ephesians for standing firm in truth, but rebukes them because they have lost their first love. His call is for them to repent and return to their first works or else He would judge them accordingly.
Jesus commends the Ephesians for standing firm in truth, but rebukes them because they have lost their first love. His call is for them to repent and return to their first works or else He would judge them accordingly.