The Ephesus Church

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, I want to talk about the uh seven churches that uh in Asia Minor that uh John is going to write to um there in um in Revelations. And that starts in chapter two and runs through chapter four, uh, or through chapter three, actually. And um, and so we have the seven churches in Asia Minor. Now, there are hundreds, I am told, in my study by this time. This is somewhere between 90 and 95 A.D. There is hundreds of churches, home churches, house churches uh in Asia at this time. And so why would Jesus uh have John just write to seven? The other thing is that uh Jesus makes it a point to say that he is holding the angels of these churches in his right hand, and he is walking in the midst of the lampstands which represent the churches. He tells us that in chapter one. He says the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands, which you saw, are the seven churches. And the reason that I believe that uh uh Jesus is saying this and why he's writing to these seven churches uh specifically is because they're not only literal churches, they were literal churches in Asia Minor at the time, but they are also churches that are prophetic as well. They represent periods of church history. And uh, as we see, it is really the whole gambit of church history, and seven is always the perfect number of God. So I want to I wanted to talk about uh chapter two, starting with verse one, with uh the church at Ephesus. And you remember is is that this church is the church that had lost its first love. And this is very interesting. Um we see here that Jesus is telling this church that he has this one thing against them is that they've lost uh their first love. And he tells them about all these other things that they have done that have been well. They've tested apostles, found that they're not, and and they uh they don't like the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, and and so there's several things that he commends them on, but he says you still left your first love. And um, this is just like the fact is is that it is very easy for us, especially when we get uh an organized church, it is easy for us to sacrifice our relationship to God for the work of God. Now, I want you to hear that because it's really important, because this is what Ephesus did, and this is a characteristic many times in the church, is that uh we many a times sacrifice our relationship to God for the work of God, and somehow it fools us or deceives us into believing that everything is okay between us and God, and that's exactly where Ephesus was. Ephesus wasn't mad at God, Ephesus wasn't upset at God. The church at Ephesus uh wasn't uh um uh, you know, uh living out of the will of God and wanting to sin and things like that. They they sound like that they were a very together church, a very active church, and anybody that would have walked into their church would have thought that this was probably a great church and some good things were happening with it. But that's not what's going on here, God tells us, all right, is that they had sacrificed their relationship. You know, here recently we have had a lot of uh revivals on college campuses and seminaries and universities, and uh there have been movings of God. In fact, right now, as I'm speaking, I believe there's a moving um going on in Florida, excuse me, at one of the universities down there now. And so we've been having this moving going through, and uh, and and it's been very interesting, is that there's been a lot of denominations and churches that either by their silence or by their directness have really not agreed with this moving or have questioned whether this moving is of God or not. In fact, I heard a pastor of one of these denominations that uh had made a uh uh a video to his people and to others saying that, you know, I remember he got on there and he was trying to talk about the revival, and he said, What is revival? He wanted a definition of revival and thought we ought to start there before we just accept whatever's going on on these campuses. We're kind of like the uh uh the librarian in the Christian uh college where they're having a moving of God, and the librarian says, Well, I'll believe it's a moving of God when the students start paying their library bill or their library fees. You know, that sounds right because we think of that in be in the way of behaviors. We think our behaviors tell us what kind of relationship we have with God. Revival was revival is not about behavior. Revival's, and I'm I'm gonna throw something really strange at you, it's gonna sound strange, but revival is not about changing your behavior. Now, yes, revival will change your behavior, and and and that is a byproduct of what revival does. But what revival really is, it is a re-establishing of our relationship to God. Revival is re-establishing our relationship to God, not re-establishing the works of God, not re-establishing our getting out and and campaigning against this and standing against that and voting the right way here and and and trying to do all the right things and changing our behaviors and and all that kind of thing. It is about re-establishing a relationship to God. God moves in our midst, and we are re-establish a relationship with Him. And here in Ephesus, this is exactly what Jesus is telling him the problem is. He's saying you're doing all the right things, but you are so busy out fighting and standing for the right things and against the wrong things that you have allowed your relationship to God to suffer for it, to the place to where you have lost your relationship to God. I want you to think about that. How scary is that that we can be so busy with the work of God, whatever it might be, whether it's going visiting, whether it's soul winning, whether it's preaching, whether it's missionary work, whether it's Sunday school work, whether it's singing, whether it's it's worship, whether uh whatever it might be, standing against pornography and standing against abortion and standing against homosexuality and other things. We can be so busy doing those things that we have lost, hindered, hurt our relationship to God. And that's exactly what Jesus was telling them they've done. You have injured, you have hurt, and you need to re-establish not your works. You don't need to re-establish what you're doing, you just need to re-establish your relationship to God. It is more important for us, folks, to have a strong relationship to God than to have a strong outreach ministry. Why don't you hear that? Because that's important. It is more important for us to have a strong relationship to God than to have a strong outreach ministry. Many times we have denominations and churches that are so busy standing up for what they believe doctrinally, standing up, standing against certain doctrines and standing for certain doctrines, and holding up, you know, the gospel banner and holding up their Bibles and saying God believes this and God believes that and God says this and God says that. And what they have lost is that precious, loving relationship that they had originally established that brought all of those beliefs and put them to work in the first place. Let's take a lesson from the church at Ephesus. All right. The lesson being is that we need to make sure that we have a strong relationship with God, not just a strong working. We we we need to go to God not just to get a better prayer life. We don't need to go to God just to quit sinning. We don't need to go to God just to help our preaching and help our teaching and help our worship and help our singing and help our testimony and help our ability to tell people about Jesus, even though those things are great. We need to sometimes we need to go to God and spend time with Him just because we need to spend time with Him and reestablish that loving, depassionate relationship that we once had. God bless you and enjoy your journey.