Jesus’ first letter to the churches was to the church at Ephesus. This daily devotional looks at the importance of remaining in love with Christ.
Devotions in the Pastor Steve Sermon Series
In Revelation, Jesus gave John instructions to write letters to seven churches of the first century. Pastor Steve begins a series looking at the letter to the first church.
An Overview
In this devotion, we are starting to look at the first of the seven churches in Revelation. Perhaps it was because they were on the Trade Routes that were used back then. Perhaps it was because they were in big cities.
Although, I suspect that it was something to do with the fact that the cities they were in they all were in the Asian province of the Roman Empire. That’s simply my presupposition, and I can’t prove it one way or another.
Whatever the case may be, we don’t really know.
One thing that we do know however, is that it is evident by the letters that John writes to each church, that Jesus had a reason for them to repent from what He had against them. He was giving them a chance to repent and carry on serving Him in the right way.
The First Church
“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. 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. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 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’” (Rev. 2: 1-7 ESV).
The first church is the church in Ephesus. Did you noticed the name as being the same as the book? It is the church that the Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Jesus lets the Ephesians know that He is aware of their works, their labor, and their patience (Rev. 2: 2). Since He is an all-knowing, all-seeing God, it makes sense that He would be aware of that which they were doing. “for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps. 1: 6 ESV).
The Lord is aware of everything. He is all knowing, all seeing, everywhere present. He is aware of everything.
Determining False Prophets
Jesus praises the church for testing people.
The last part of Revelation 2: 2, shows that Jesus was also aware of them testing people who came along claiming to be apostles and proving them to be false. He was aware that they could not bear these liars and would not stand for their attempts to misguide the church.
How did they do that? Another of John’s writing answer that question for us. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already” (I Jn. 4: 1-3 ESV).
This is the same way we can determine false teachers today. The more we get into the end times, however, the desire to test the spirits grows less and less. I would expound on that more, but that’s for another sermon series.
Jesus also provides us with another way to determine the false prophets. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Mt. 7: 15-20 ESV).
The “fruit” that is being spoken of here, refers to the manner of how people act towards others. It also has a sense of what these people cause to happen by their actions. The fruit of their actions is indicative of who they are inside.
Even the way they talk can be an indication of this. Jesus also said, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Lk. 6: 45 ESV).
One of the main things for us to keep in mind is that these same things are available today to those who know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Jesus praised the church at Ephesus for enduring patiently the trying times like they have done and for not having grown weary because of them (Rev. 2: 3).
What Was Wrong?
What did the Ephesians do wrong?
Despite all these good things that they had done, though, Jesus had things against them.
One thing was that they had abandoned their first love. Some versions of the Bible says that they left their first love.
What is their first love? For the Christian, the first love is when one first falls in love with the truth that is found in Jesus.
Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:32 ESV). This “knowing” comes only through Him. So, knowing Him as our Lord and Savior is to know the truth.
Let’s look at another verse. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 ESV). To know Him as Lord and Savior is to know the truth and be made free by him.
Why is leaving their first love such a terrible thing?
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15: 5 ESV).
To do anything that’s of value to God, that is true and real for God, we must abide in him. Without keeping our first love of Him, we are not doing the things He as called us to do by the spirit.
Instead, we are doing it by our flesh. Nothing good has ever come from our flesh.
Doing from Our Flesh
“Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (Jas. 3: 13-18 ESV).
Let’s look at these verses. The reality is anything we do from our flesh (earthly wisdom) is unspiritual and demonic.
Many of us probably have never thought about it before, but to be doing anything that is not of the spirit is to be against God. If you are doing things from the flesh and not the spirit, it is truly working against God and working through the demonic influences in the world.
Jesus also talked about the flesh in John 3:6. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn. 3: 6 ESV). It should be plain to see here that if we are doing things through our flesh, it is of the flesh. And if we are doing things through our Spirit, it is of the spirit.
When this are done through our spirit, they are operating out of love, which is the greatest thing we should be doing. The Apostle Paul wrote so vividly when he said in I Corinthians 13:1-8a – “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends …” (I Cor. 13: 1-8).
Why is this so important?
This was serious enough to Jesus that He called for them to repent. (vs. 5) Jesus never calls us to repent of anything but sin. He does not call us to repent because we did something good. Only when we’ve sinned.
This should surely indicate to us that to do anything that is not out of love — making it out of the spirit — is a sin. The one thing the church of Ephesus did that was such a sin was that they stopped loving people. They stopped operating out of the spirit, which means that they could have only have been operating out of the flesh, which means that they were operating from demonic influences and not out of love. To be operating from demonic influences is to be operating against God.
It can be said that the Pharisees were operating from this same mode. They we not doing anything of the spirit as they had been called to do. Jesus referred to them as hypocrites because they acted like they were all that they should be, but they really weren’t. They were operating out of their flesh, not of love.
So what happened?
Jesus called the church at Ephesus to repent of what they had been doing. If they did not, he said that he would remove their lampstand. If you read the first part of Revelation 1, you will see Jesus referring to being the keeper of the seven golden lampstands.
I believe that the lampstands signify the Holy Spirit that is in each church. I truly believe that even today that each church has a lampstand.
I also truly believe that every church that has died has had their lampstand removed because they stopped doing what God wanted them to do.
Jesus said here that if the church did not repent their lampstand would be removed. And to have their lampstand removed is to have the Holy Spirit leave and not cover the church. This is a very important thing to consider about the churches we attend today.
The Nico-whos-its?
The Nicolaitans mentioned in verse 6 were not true Christians. They held to a lot of unbiblical practices that led a lot of people away from God. Therefore, Jesus hated their works.
Whenever we see it says in the Bible, “The who has an ear, let him hear …”, as it does in Revelation 2: 7 (ESV), this is Jesus impressing the importance of what He just said. This phrase was meant to get our attention and effectively says, “Hey! Pay attention to this! It’s important!”
Next time, we will be looking at what Jesus had to say to the church in Smyrna.
Father God. Help us to see what You’d have us see in these studies of the churches in Revelation. Help us to understand why it was important enough to You to have John write individual letters to these churches and help us to apply what we’ve learned to our own lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
What do you think?
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