Revelation chapter 2 in our text is going to be verses 1 through 7. Now let me paint a bit of a brief context for you here before we read our text. John has received a vision of the resurrected Lord, a glorious vision and really a frightening vision of Christ and his resurrected power and glory. And now Christ is addressing the church in Ephesus and he's giving them his words.
Right? Now verse 7 in Revelation 2, I'm gonna read that really quick. It says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Plural. So although it's addressed to Ephesus, this word really is for all the churches of Christ, not just for the Ephesians. Now I'm gonna read, I'm actually gonna start in chapter 1 and verse 17. A real read down to chapter 2 verse 7. "When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death in Hades. Right therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. 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 I've 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 namesake and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love that 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. Now brothers and sisters, let me begin by asking you, if Christ were physically present in this church right now, how would you react? If an angel from heaven appeared right now and said that Jesus Christ in the flesh is going to come here this upcoming Sunday morning and he's going to be here in our worship, how would you react? What would you think?
What would you say to yourselves? Now Revelation, I already mentioned that Revelation describes Christ in a way that seems very frightening. It says that he has eyes like a flame of fire. This is Revelation 19. On his head were many diadems. His robe is dipped in blood and out of his mouth comes a sharp sword. Now a better question would be, would what a man that is described like that think of you? What would Christ think of us if he was in this church right now? How would he evaluate us? What would he be thinking and saying to us if he were here? See I like to suggest five things that I think our text is saying to us that that Christ would would say to us audibly if he were here with us. Five things that that Christ through his word is saying about our church. Five things that that he is thinking about us presently on his throne right now in heaven. And the first thing is this, that Christ loves to dwell with his church. Christ loves to dwell with our church. You see one of the things that I think is unique about biblical Christianity is that our God approaches us and he dwells with us. Every pagan religion, every false religion, there is always the burden of invoking the presence of God. There is some sort of ritual or pilgrimage that you have to do to experience the full presence of God right? Think of Islam for example the Muslim faith. One of the the five pillars of Islam requires every able Muslim to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least one time in their life.
And in Mecca it's required of them to walk around the cobblestone at least seven times. Now if you don't know the cobblestone is this big cube like creature with this black stone in it and apparently this stone fell from heaven and Muhammad placed it in this wall. Their Prophet Muhammad. Now in order for the Muslim to experience the presence of God they have to go to Mecca. In fact Muslims pray in the direction of the East every day. They face Mecca because for them the full presence of God is in Mecca. And so when a Muslim visits Mecca they're being ushered into the full presence of God. Think about the dozens of holy sites that exist in the Catholic faith. There's many of them. One of the most famous is the shrine of Our Lady of Lords in France. Now if you've never seen it it's like a Aemirian statue and it's in a little cave and apparently this young woman in the 1800s saw a vision of Mary and this this statue commemorates that. Now today even right now millions of Catholics visit this shrine for healings and to experience miracles to pray because they think that they're at that particular place they're going to experience more of the presence of God.
Now no self-respecting Catholic is going to tell you that it's mandatory to visit a holy site in order to experience God. Now other than will say that but it is suggested if you really want to experience God if you want to have a mystical experience here's what you have to do you have to make this pilgrimage but look at look at what Christ says again in verse 1 of our text. He says the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Now we already read in chapter 1 and verse 20 that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So the seven angels could be the elders of the churches it could be but given the fact that angels are always in reference to actual angels in the book of Revelation's more than likely this is a symbolic representation of the church and then the lampstands represent the church. So when Christ is talking about the stars the angels and the lampstands these are just all different ways of referring to the church. So Christ is saying that he holds the church in his hand that he dwells with the church. The same Christ who says in chapter 1 and verse 5 that he is the faithful witness that he is the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. The same Christ who says that I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the one who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty. The same Christ in chapter 1 verse 14 who says that his head the hairs of his head were white like white wool like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 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. Brothers and sisters when we gather here on Sunday mornings when we gather to to worship to pray and to sing and to listen to preaching and to fellowship when we come here every single Sunday. This same Christ this this Christ who is described in glorious language. This same Christ is right here with us every Sunday. You see the the beauty of true biblical Christianity is that our God requires no expensive pilgrimage to experience his presence. We don't have to pay any sort of homage to a statue or rock or walk around some stone seven times to experience the presence of our God. There's no mountaintop adventures you need to make there's no rituals you have to do there's no going to cave or a cavern to experience God.
You know what you have to do if you want to experience God? If you really want to experience the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ then get dressed on Sunday morning and come to church show up early and you will experience the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ himself every Sunday. Now church life is hard let's be honest it's not glamorous it's not easy. In fact church life often feels like a part-time job it's it's difficult being a church member it's a lot of work.
But the second thing that that Christ loves about our church is our labor and our endurance. See church life in first century Ephesus was just as physically and mentally demanding if not more the demands that we faced in life today. Look at verses two and three again. Christ says I know your works and your toil and your patient endurance and in verse three he says I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. John himself if you didn't know was writing in exile on the island of Patmos. John was experiencing persecution for his Christian faith. In chapter 1 verse 9 it says I joined your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endures that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. And this same persecution this same resistance to Christianity existed in Ephesus as well. Ephesus was a city devoted to the fertility goddess Artemis. The temple of Artemis had thousands of priests and priestesses where the way they would worship their God was they would engage in prostitution. That's what they would do. I remember in Acts chapter 19 now we're not going to read it but in Acts chapter 19 when Paul was in Ephesus the craftsman of the city who made these idols to Artemis what did they do? They started a riot. Paul in preaching the gospel was causing them to lose money.
Ephesus was a place that was hostile to the Christian faith. It wasn't easy being a Christian in Ephesus. One ancient writer says this about Ephesus that no one could live in Ephesus without weeping at its immorality. So it was it was hard to function as a local church in Ephesus. It was it was hard to to meet week after week to pray to serve to encourage one another to pray. It was difficult. Christ calls it toil in verse 2. You know what toil is? It's difficult hard labor. That's what toil is but now Christ this same Christ he is intimately aware and he loves every sacrifice a church member makes for his church. He knows it. Christ says that he knows your works and your endurance. Now I think it it goes without saying that there is more work that happens in this church than any of us is really able to fully comprehend and it's not because we don't want to know it's because it's impossible for us to know in the church of this size. We just can't fathom all the moving parts that exist in this church that causes it to function. There is there is work that happens internally that ensures that we could function as a church. Work that that happens within the walls of this very church. How many of you women for example you labor in in cooking and cleaning and caring and decorating and and organizing things that you couldn't pay me to organize but you do it you do it and nobody knows nobody knows nobody stops to give you a thank you or to tell you good job for doing what you're doing. How many of you women have prepared meals even tonight free of charge for everyone here to enjoy and we'll enjoy it and nobody knows who made it. Nobody comes to you and says thank you for making this meal for me but it will be gone by the time we leave here tonight. How many of you men labor in lifting labor in moving and cleaning protecting financing things that nobody knows about nobody ever stops to thank you nobody ever stops to say hey good job for doing that. There is work that happens externally that we as a church participate in so it's still work that the church is doing but it's outside the walls of this church it's the time that we spend counseling one another praying for one another the time that we spend checking up on one another pleading and ministering to one another the time that we spend ministering in prisons and nursing homes and all these different areas that we that we do as a church that the time that we spend evangelizing our communities that's work that's labor and then there's toil that you engage in individually as a Christian that nobody sees besides you that's a toy in and of itself there there's a resistance to sin and an endeavor to walk in personal holiness that you engage in even on your own that nobody sees Paul says in in first Corinthians chapter 5 verse 6 he says do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump in other words small sins that are tolerated corrupt the entire church small says that we tolerate and our lives and our personal lives corrupt the entire church and so your your personal pursuit of holiness yeah your resistance to sin to to sinful cultural influences in your personal life whether that's at the in the media or at work that that personal pursuit of holiness is important not just for you but for the well-being of the entire church Paul says in first Corinthians chapter 12 or verse 26 if one member suffers all suffer together if one member is honored all rejoice together now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it so patiently laboring toiling patiently working doesn't stop when you leave this building on Sundays or Wednesdays patiently working and serving and fighting and resisting is something that continues every day day after day in the Christian life we are engaged in toil in fighting but now there's a an issue with that is that that because of the fact that the work often goes unnoticed and unappreciated we can sometimes grow a little bit discontent right because of the fact that that nobody ever tells you what a good job you're doing you sometimes struggle to feel the desire to want to do it there's a frustration that builds up in you and sometimes you may even want to give up because nobody is noticing what you're doing and I've had people even in our church tell me that they struggle with that I struggle with that to be transparent that is a common struggle it's all too common in church life unfortunately that people are quick to remind you of your failures but they're very slow to tell you what you're doing right so it's way more likely for someone to tell you the mistakes that you're doing then for someone to tell you hey good job in doing that and when we have a church culture like that it can be very discouraging to want to work very hard but now brothers and sisters the Bible tells us that there is one in heaven right now there is one sitting in heaven right now who is recording every single good deed that you do no matter how small or insignificant that he is sitting in heaven and he knows all the good works that you're doing better than you do see the truth is most of us will probably forget the good works someone else is doing that's just the reality of human nature we're not going to be able to remember all the good things that other people are doing and the truth is you will probably forget the good things that you've done unless you have some sort of notebook with all of your good works recording in it you will forget the good things you've done you're not going to remember it a year from now but but Jesus Christ in heaven does not forget any of your good works not one even when no one knows how much you're struggling how much you're laboring how much you're toiling how much you're resisting sin the Lord knows your patient endurance the Lord knows that you are bearing up for his namesake the Lord is on his throne commending the fact that you have not grown weary now what does it mean to not grow weary because it can't mean that you don't ever feel tired we all feel tired some of us feel tired now I feel tired so so to not grow weary doesn't mean that you don't feel the the the weight of physical exhaustion it means that you have not given up you haven't given up to not grow weary means that you continue serving you continue toiling you continue fighting despite how you may feel you may feel like you want to give up but you show up here every Sunday and every Wednesday and you toil and you toil in your private lives despite how you feel and the Lord remembers every single sacrifice you make in his name every last one even the the smallest crumb you sweep up off the floor even the the lightest cheer that you move for the thousandth time the Lord remembers every single thing that you do every sin that you resist every temptation that you patiently endure the Lord remembers JC Ryle says this let us remember that there is one who daily records all we do for him and sees more beauty in his servants work that his servants do themselves and then shall his faithful witnesses discover to their wonder and surprise that there never was a word spoken on their master's behalf which does not receive a reward but now it's not just what we do for Christ that he knows that he acknowledges but is also what we believe about Christ that he loves and he acknowledges the third thing that Christ loves about our church is our doctrinal purity look at verse 2 again I'm gonna read that the last part it says 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'm gonna jump down to verse 6 yet this you have you hate the works of the Nicolaitans which I also hate so the Ephesian church didn't just have good works but their good works flowed from the fact that they had good doctrine they had good theology remember Paul mourned their elders in Acts chapter 20 verse 29 Paul says that I know after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them so evidently Paul was right because some had infiltrated the church claiming to be apostles and then you have this strange group called the Nicolaitans now the Bible doesn't really tell us who the Nicolaitans were we could we can make an educated guess but we don't really know who they were they're only mentioned here in verse 6 and then again in verse 15 of the same chapter now verse 14 says this 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 this is verse 15 the second reference to the Nicolaitans so also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans so the best that we can do based upon the close association with the Nicolaitans and sexual immorality and idolatry is we can assume that they were teaching that it was right to engage in these things that's that's the best that that we can do that they were teaching that it's okay to engage in some of these cultural forms of idolatry or sexual immorality but whoever they were it says that that the Ephesian church hated their works the the the church at Ephesus had no tolerance for false doctrine none you know one thing that I love about the reformed tradition especially being a a reformed Baptist I said there is a commitment to the principle of solar script tour and then especially for Baptists to regenerate church membership right now we don't hold those principles exclusively but I do think that they really characterize us as a reformed Baptist Church now what that means is that every single doctrine that we believe and teach in this church either it is explicitly stated in Scripture or it's necessarily derived from Scripture and then we assume that if you are a member of this church you are a baptized belief so the the reformed pillars I guess you can call it of pure doctrine of regenerate church membership I love that I love it but but let's be honest here there is something about the the natural human tendency to to kind of resist authority that can make those doctrines those principles seem a little bit restrictive at times especially in our American context we really don't like being told what to do especially on matters that we might consider to be insignificant or small like worship you know why do we have to sing the songs that we sing why can't we have a drum set and you know maybe like a electric guitar and get kind of crazy sometimes why can't we do that you know why why why can't we have like a sing more modern songs or something like that you know why do we have to be so staunch on on Baptist distinctives what wise is so important to hold to the confession and all these things it can it can sometimes feel a little bit restrictive if you don't understand it what why is there such a big emphasis on church discipline why why do we have to exclude people from our church that don't believe what we confess and don't behave the way that scriptures say that they should behave why do we do that and I'll admit just to be transparent here not not to be too transparent but even myself I almost got to a point recently where I kind of I struggle with church discipline I didn't I didn't like it you know church discipline is is easy when you learn about it at seminary you know you sit in a seminary class and church discipline is step one step to step three and is done but then when you add people church discipline is hard and it's messy and if any of you can can peek behind the scenes of a church discipline situation it is incredibly difficult very difficult sometimes you you do the wrong thing you say the wrong thing you go too fast you go too slow you're too harsh you're too nice church discipline is hard it's difficult and I struggled with it but brother says this is you know when I came to realize if the if the church in Ephesus put to the test they put to the test everyone who called themselves apostles we can assume they kicked them out when they found out that they were apostles then who am I to insist on my own way without any biblical justification who am I and quite frankly I say this humbly who are you who are you to insist on doing things the way you want to do it with no biblical support now I know it's hard I know it's hard but but Christ commended the Ephesians for being intolerant of false doctrine and being intolerant of unrepentant sin he commended them in verse 6 he says yet this you have this was something good that they had and they hated the same doctrine that he hated and so brothers and sisters I don't I don't pretend that our church is 100% doxiously pure it's not we have faults and imperfections and and things that we can do better every church has that every church but we strive for purity of doctrine and we are strict with our principles because Christ loves doctrinal purity that's what he insists on so make sure that when you criticize the church that it is based on what the word of God says and not your personal preferences not your personal feelings now these principles pure doctrine regenerate church membership these principles I think is our greatest strength as a church these are the the principles that that set us apart as a Baptist Church but though it is the greatest strength I think it also can be our greatest weakness it can sometimes become our greatest liability the fourth thing that I want to talk about is that Christ loves when we do everything out of love look at look at verse 4 Jesus says but I have this against you this is the only thing he had against this church that you have abandoned the love you had at first so though the church of Ephesus had good works they were doing some good stuff and they were Orthodox they were they they had they had good doctrine they lacked the critical component of love now what was their first love because the text doesn't really say it could have been maybe their love toward people maybe they lacked love and affections for the people of Christ maybe maybe their love for right doctrine made them intolerant towards any Christian that had even a small doctrinal error it could have been that it could have been their love for Christ himself all of us know that it's possible to become almost parisaical about the Christian life and you can you can grow cold and mechanical in your Christian walk you're doing everything just externally to impress people but there's no true affection or love for Christ in your heart we all know that that we can we can be susceptible to that now I don't think it's necessary to separate these two IDs I think both of these IDs are involved in what Christ is saying when a church has has high doctrinal standards on one hand and then on the other hand they live uprightly they live distinct from everyone around them there is a danger almost a temptation to become sort of insular you become almost tribalistic you start to huddle in your little groups and you grow cold and hostile toward the outside world soon you start to feel almost superior to people who don't do things the way that we do them see the the Ephesians probably began to see their mission as protecting their tribe their small local tribe and their reputations rather than proclaiming the glory of Christ Paul tells us one of the reasons why the church was constituted he says in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 10 that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places this was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord the the church itself exists to display and proclaim the glory of Jesus Christ that's why we're a church that's what we exist for so so when we abandon our love for him and when the church becomes more about proclaiming the the mission and the glory of our tribe that is when we abandon the first love of the church now brothers and sisters this is probably I think one of the biggest I just call it respectable sins of the Reformed Church one of the biggest respectable sins we tolerate it and I love let me say this I love Reformed theology I have strong convictions about Calvinism well you don't have to call it Calvinism you can call it the five points you can call it the doctrines of grace I don't I don't care but I have strong convictions about those things I have strong convictions about covenant theology and ecclesiology and apologetics and and and all these different things strong convictions about the confession and the catechism I hold to it I read it devotionally sometimes so so I'm not lax in my doctrine but I fear that many of us many of us we may be abandoning our love for Christ in preference for our love for Reformed Baptists that is a danger for all of us some of you have the privilege of engaging in the theological trashy called Twitter oh I guess it's X now but X is weird so I still say Twitter that is a high privilege to engage in that wasteland now for those of you who are on Twitter you know how common it is to get into these arguments over some of the most obscure and abstract philosophical points in Christian theology incredibly common and I see it all the time now on a side note I have what I think is a very unique talent that I'm on Twitter but I'm not really on Twitter so I just kind of look at what everyone else is doing but I will interact with no one and that is my immutable policy I will never change it but I see some of the arguments on there people will well I mean you thought religious wars were over they're not people just fight it on Twitter now and they're willing to die on every single hill every hill I mean you think about the arguments people have over Aquinas or natural theology or Christian nationalism that's a big one now I mean you could be a a racist undercover Klansman one day and then the same day you're a woke liberal you could be a heretic one hour and then the next hour you're preaching the gospel all in the same day just depends on what you say or who you talk to I mean Twitter is I mean it's brutal I don't know how you guys do it now one of the things that I never see on Twitter maybe you've seen it but I've never seen it on Twitter it said I never see anyone having friendly debates if you will on how the church can better love and serve Christ never I never see anyone encouraging this church or that church to do a better job at loving Christ everyone is always biting and devouring one another over somewhat irrelevant things always and even even in our own personal lives because Twitter is just virtual that's the virtual world but even in the actual world with our own friends and our own churches you know what one of the biggest hobbies of reformed people are it is critiquing how every other church does it worse than us it's one of my biggest hobbies you know it's kind of fun to make fun of a charismatic sometimes it's kind of fun but I think sometimes we get too into it and that's almost all we talk about is how no church is doing it as good as our church or no tradition does it as good as our tradition and then it's it's it's strange because some of the time the very same people that we critique they're doing a much better job proclaiming Christ than we are I know many of you can probably relate to this but the first one to share the gospel with me personally couldn't tell you what Reformed theology is they couldn't tell you what Calvinism is many of you were saved through the preaching of the gospel by someone who has no idea what the 1689 confession is none you see Christ loves good doctrine he loves good works but he wants all of that to be coupled with a love for him now if you feel like you are guilty of abandoning your first love Jesus Christ if you feel l