Revelation: The Church of Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7), Part 1/6

Jesus doesn’t address the church from a distance. He walks among the golden candlesticks, holds the stars in his hand, and speaks with the authority of the risen Lord who says, “I have the keys of death and hell.” That opening picture from Revelation sets the tone for a searching, comforting, and unsettling truth: Christ is present with his people, and nothing about our spiritual condition is hidden from his eyes.

We focus on Revelation 2 and Christ’s assessment of the church at Ephesus, a congregation marked by real labor, endurance, and serious doctrinal discernment. They test bold claims, reject evil, and refuse to give an inch to teaching that contradicts Scripture. Along the way, we talk about church leadership under Christ’s immediate authority, why churches are not independent institutions, and what it means to protect biblical doctrine without becoming harsh for harshness’ sake.

Then the warning lands where it always should: in the heart. A church can be orthodox, active, disciplined, and still suffer inward spiritual decline. Jesus praises what is good, but he will not let outward faithfulness cover a loss of inward affection. If you care about Christian devotion, church purity, discernment against false teachers, and the call to return to your first love, this message will press you to honest self-examination. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you’re wrestling with.

Transcript

Seven Churches As Light Bearers

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The first seven verses of Revelation chapter 2. And I hope everybody will be blessed by it. Before I begin, you know, just as a matter of dealing with, you know, or picking up on where we left off at, we found that you had the seven churches who were described as seven candlesticks. And then you had the seven stars, which were the pastors or the leadership of the churches. And then you had Christ, who stood in the midst of these seven churches, having the stars who are the pastors and the church leadership in his hands. And as we got into last Sunday, we understand that the candles that Christ stood in the midst of were light-bearing candles, and that their light was supplied by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And then he also pointed out that the seven stars, which are also light-bearing lights that Christ that Christ fulfills in terms of being the light that supplies the stars, which are the pastors and the leadership, that they are in his hand. And so we see that it is Christ who is the one that supplies all of that light that is sufficient for giving the church understanding and an understanding that is to be communicated to the world as per his commission. And so we understand that the churches are the candlesticks because they are called to bear light in this dark and evil world. And that the angels, which are the messengers or the stars, they are to shine brightly with the doctrines of Christ, and everything that pertains to Christ. And both are in the possession of Christ and under his sovereign and watchful eye. And so the entire opening of the vision that John has in this place establishes a primary and central truth for the whole book of Revelation: that the exalted Christ walks among his church, and he governs his servants, and he judges impurity, he sustains all of those who are faithful in and among the church, and he rules all history for the triumph of his kingdom.

Christ Holds The Keys Of Death

SPEAKER_00 3:02

One thing that I was not able to get to last Sunday, that I want to talk about for a few minutes, or for a couple of seconds here, has to do with what was written in Revelation chapter 1, verse 18. And it says this the Lord Jesus Christ says to John, I am he that lives and was dead, and behold, I live forevermore. Amen. And the Lord Jesus Christ says, And I have the keys of hell and death. I listen to what he says. I have the keys of hell and death. And so this is important because it means that all things that pertain to hell and death, as he said, he is the one that has sovereignty over hell and death. Even over hell and death, our Lord Jesus Christ, he holds a dominion over it. It's weird, because our Catholic friends would say that no, the keys were given to popery. Peter. But Christ here, after his resurrection, after his ascension, he himself makes it clear in this vision to John that he is the one that holds the keys of death and hell. He is the one. In fact, any key, any key as it pertains to death and hell, or heaven itself, it is he who is that key. And he holds them all. And so we need to understand that the Pope doesn't have it, or them. Peter does not have it or them. And it is Christ and Him alone who holds all keys. He is the one that is sovereignly in control of death and hell and heaven itself. And heaven itself. And so this is something that we need to understand. And it was something that I forgot to, or we had some other things we talked about last week that kind of derailed that discussion. But I did want to mention that and make sure it is something that hits your understanding.

Why Ephesus Matters Today

SPEAKER_00 6:05

So now we get to Revelation. Revelation chapter two. And Christ is going to be dealing with an assessment of the church at Ephesus. And he's going to be addressing their loss of their first love amid doctrinal fidelity, which reveals the danger of the formality of dogmatism and orthodoxy without devotion. He's going to be dealing with their understanding and how they hold closely to what is true, and how they don't turn a deaf ear to falsehood, but when they correct and instruct and point out error and falsehood, they do so without the same fervor of love that they had for the Lord when they first began. So this takes us to Revelation 2, verse 1.

Christ Walks Among All Churches

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And our Lord he says unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, write these things says he that holds the seven stars in his hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Notice that he doesn't walk in the midst of just the church at Ephesus or just the church at Smyrna or just the church of Laodicea or Philadelphia. No. He walks in the midst of all of the golden candlesticks representing all of the churches. All of the churches. He walks in the midst of them all. And so he addresses the church at Ephesus as the Lord of His ministers and the sovereign guardian over all of his churches. Over all of them. And each one of them he addresses. He's going to address all seven churches. And as we go through these seven churches, today it will only be with Ephesus, and we should deal with each one as we continue. But what is important for us to understand, we need to look at two aspects of how he addresses each one of these churches. We must look at it as what he is looking at as it pertains to each individual collection of churches. Each individual congregation of churches. But we also must look at this as individual members of a church. The church abroad, the big church, the overall church, Christ's body. So when he addresses each one of these churches, we should see if these things that he speaks about, whether they be positive or whether they be negative, how they imply or how they affect each one of us as individuals, and how we are to see these things as it pertains to the individual churches. Us all being individual members of whatever congregation we belong to. And any congregation is any place where God's people gather. Every congregation or any place where God's people gather together, that is where He is. And where He is is where a congregation of believers is always, whether there be two or more. In verse one, the angel here represents the responsible ministry or the spiritual oversight of that congregation. And while the church itself is pictured as a golden candlestick appointed to bear the light of divine truth in a dark world. That's what the church is. That's what their role is. Their role is to bear the light of Christ to the world, to expose darkness at every corner of our earthly existence. That's our role. And Christ tells us that he holds the seven stars in his right hand. And he shows that the ministry of the word is upheld, protected, governed, and judged by him alone. By him alone. This also further points out something else that is significant. That the ministers of Christ, all ministers of Christ, they are not independent lords over the church as so many have become. Ministers are not independent lords over the church, nor are churches self-sustaining institutions. And yet, this is what man has made these churches, independent institutions, institutions that work apart from God and are left to govern his body on their own. This is not true. So the ministers and the churches themselves, they are, they both exist under the immediate authority of the exalted Christ. They are not left to their own devices to manage his people and to manage his body. That was never the case, and it is not the case now. No matter what people will tell you. And this shows us in clear language that the Lord Jesus and His and His authority over his church is his continual presence amongst his churches. He is present in all of his churches at all times, and he never leaves them or forsakes them. He is never absent from his people, nor is he ignorant of their condition. He knows what they're going through. He observes their doctrine. He observes their worship. He observes their discipline, their labor, their love, their patience. He observes their decline, and he observes when they are in danger. In the opening part of Revelation 2, he shows us this by giving us his assessment of all seven of these churches in Asia Minor, representative of every individual in the church throughout all the ages and all the churches of all ages, where his people gather faithfully. This presence that he has amongst us is on two levels. It is intended by his presence to bring comfort to his people, but it is also designed to be searching, to bring comfort and to search us out, to evaluate us and our condition. And this presence that he has from the comforting standpoint is because no truth, no church is ever forsaken by him. He never forsakes his church. Never. And by his searching, because no fault, no coldness, no dullness, no hypocrisy, no decay is hidden from his eyes. And so when it comes to these things, especially that which he searches with the eyes of flaming fire, what he does is he reveals to us where we are falling short. And he comes readily to correct us, to admonish us, to exhort us, to move us into holiness, into a love that we held when we first began. Ephesus is a church that needs to be reminded to go back to the beginning. To go back to the beginning. He points out how they've gotten away from the way they were from the very beginning, and he is encouraging them to now reset and go back and remember your first love. He's going to bring this up. Verse 2.

Commended For Labor And Discernment

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Revelation 2, verse 2. Our Lord says to the church at Ephesus and to the leadership there, to the pastor there, to the angel, and to the church. I know your labor and your patience. And how you cannot bear them which are evil. You can't stomach those who are evil. And I know how you have tried or how you have tested them which say they are apostles and are not. And you have found them to be liars. You have found them to be liars. So Christ begins his assessment of Ephesus, the church of Ephesus, he begins with a commendation. He knows the works of the Ephesian church, not merely from an outward perspective, but he also knows their works perfectly, and he also knows their works judiciously. He knows. Their labor was real. They labored hard. Their works were active and preserving. They were not just idle professors, the way so many people are. But they were an active church. They were an active church. They were engaged in service. They were engaged in doctrine, in discipline, and endurance. And their patience shows that their labor was maintained under all types of pressure and before all varied types of opposition. They held fast. This was not a church that you could bring false doctrine to, false doctrine to, and they would not call you out on it. They would definitely call you out on false doctrine. If you called yourself an apostle, they would check you and tell you that you are not. This was a group of people who you could not bring falsehood to and expect them to be silent. They would tell you that you are wrong. They would tell you, like he talks about the apostles who are not apostles. They found them to be liars. Are you that person? Do you let people get by when they drop false doctrine and say, well, it doesn't matter if I let that go. It's not that big of a deal. And he doesn't specify here about specifically or the context of the doctrine. He's saying that when it comes to his doctrine, the church at Ephesus, let no one get away with anything that was contrary to it. Anything that is in his word is all his doctrine. The whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, it is all the Lord's doctrine that is contained therein. And there are so many Christians who believe somehow that they have the right to be able to say what's important and what's not important for whatever reason, whether it be salvation or not, doesn't matter. The doctrine and the teaching belongs to him. And you have no right to question the latitude of where that needs to be understood. We have no right to give comfort to people who castigate the truth because they say, well, it doesn't matter when it comes to salvation, so we can just let that go. That's not what the church at Ephesus that Christ praised them for was about. That wasn't what it was about. You brought opposition to God's doctrine to them, they would check you on it. They would not let you go. They would not let you get away with anything. They would not give an inch. The church of Ephesus would not give an inch. But they did have a fault, and we will get to it. Christ also commends them for their intolerance of evil. He commends them for their intolerance of evil. Again, they don't let anything get by. They could not bear those who corrupted the faith and walked contrary to the gospel. Notice this. It wasn't just that they oppose the falsehood of the person communicating falsehood. They would oppose and could not bear the individuals themselves. They didn't just oppose the falsehood. They did not just oppose false doctrine. They opposed strenuously all of those who were conveyors of these false doctrines. They weren't the kind of people that were going around saying, well, you know what, you know what? You're just good and you're cool. And you know, it's okay. We don't have to talk about that now. That's not significant to our salvation. So that's not, let's, let's, let's leave that alone. No, they called you out on everything. And when they called you out on everything, they then called you out as a false person, a false teacher. Somebody who would not let you get away with it. You cannot walk away from an Ephesian church thinking that everything is okay. They beat you up, more or less. They were going to let you sit amongst them comfortably teaching bad doctrine or being a teacher amongst them of bad doctrine. They wouldn't stomach it. Christ told them, you would not even bear them which are evil. You wouldn't bear them. You wouldn't tolerate them. They were intolerant of evil. They could not bear those who corrupted faith or, in any sense, walked contrary to the gospel. They weren't going for that. And this was not harshness. They weren't harsh for the sake of being harsh. They were harsh for the zeal and the purity of God's house, of the Lord's house. They're not allowing anything to walk into the door of the Lord's house. Nothing. And neither should you. Some of us have a tendency to put error that we hear from others on a scale, and we say, well, up to here is not that big of a deal. After here, it becomes serious and having varying degrees of seriousness. But the Ephesian church that God, that Christ commended, they didn't allow this. They didn't say that there were degrees. They said, whatever you bring that is contrary to the truth must be rejected and you with it. And you with it. This is what we ought to do. Christians. Examine your own hearts in these matters, because we have seven churches to go through, and we're only on the first one. As we go through these things, look at yourself and see where you fit in the scheme of the Lord's assessment. Because it may be you that is one of the most contributing factors to the falsehood in churches when you allow people to teach and spread false doctrine and you make a judgment as to what things are important and what things are not. If it's in the word of God, it is all significant. And there aren't degrees. If you allow anyone to communicate any untruth, any lie, when it comes to the word of God, you are tolerating evil. And it needs to be shut down no matter how small it is. Amen. This is what we're here for. This is what we're here for. This wasn't being harsh. This was caring about the Lord's house. My favorite verse, Luke 249, the Lord Jesus Christ, at 12 years old, he says to his mother Mary, when they were looking for him, after going a full day's journey and forgetting that he was still back at the temple. She comes back and says, We have been looking all over for you. Where have you been? And what did our Lord say? Don't you know that I must be about my father's house? Don't you know that I must be about my father's business? Where were you? You're the one that's lost, not me. You're the one.

Exposing False Apostolic Authority

SPEAKER_00 26:41

The Ephesian church, they also tested those who falsely claim apostolic authority. In the Ephesian church, looked at them, characterized them, and then expose them as liars. Liars. He exposed them as liars. And this should make all of those people who live today that call themselves apostles, this should make you shudder and tremble. Especially because today we know there are no apostles. There are no apostles on earth. And after the last of the twelve died, there were no more apostles. And one of the primary prerequisites to being apostle, to being an apostle, is to be a witness of the resurrected Jesus Christ, our resurrected Lord. You had to have been a witness of his resurrection, number one. Number two, you had to have been called by him specifically to that office, by him specifically, and by him personally. Personally. And also, you would have had to have been blessed with the benefit of being able to speak infallible truths as they were handed down directly from on high to you to communicate to other men that which God expects of all men. Something that is definitely no longer needed today because we have the totality of that which God has deemed necessary for our faith and salvation and for our sanctification in this grace and in this faith that we have. Nothing. So everyone, everyone who claims to be an apostle or an a prophet or a prophet, all of you are liars. And the church of Ephesus would tell you that. And be assured that the members of the Ephesian church are alive and well today. You call yourself an apostle, you call yourself a prophet, you're a liar. Every one of you. Every one of you. Don't even speak to a person who calls themselves or gives themselves the title apostle. Not even casually. Call no one an apostle because none of them are. None of them are. So the church at Ephesus represents a congregation that was strong, a congregation that was fortified in discernment, in doctrinal vigilance, and ecclesiastical discipleship. When it came to the truth, these people knew what was on. They knew what was good. They knew what was true. They knew what was false. And they didn't let anyone get away with falsehood. No one.

When Outward Faith Masks Decline

SPEAKER_00 31:08

And he's going to point out that a church may be orthodox. They may be active in their ministerial duties. They may even be discerning when it comes to doctrine. And they may even be disciplined, always at church, always here, always doing this, always doing this. Doing all these things. And yet they may still suffer spiritual inward decline. And Christ points out here that you can do all those things. You can do all those things. You can be the greatest apologist. In the Ephesian church, they were very good, staunch, aggressive apologists. They knew how to defend the truth. But Christ still had a rebuke for them. He still had a rebuke for them. And the Lord shows us that he will praise in us what is good. But he does not allow for outward faithfulness to conceal the loss of the inward affection.