Imagine Oakridge got a letter from Christ. What would it say? What would he commend us for as a church? What would he rebuke? Where would he encourage us, and where would he correct us? These are the sort of questions we can be asking ourselves as we take the next seven weeks to read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. Today we’re going to start with the church at Ephesus and see that it’s good to do good, but our motives matter.

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Imagine Oakridge got a letter from Christ. What would it say? What would he commend us for as a church? What would he rebuke? Where would he encourage us, and where would he correct us? These are the sort of questions we can be asking ourselves as we take the next 7 weeks to read the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and 3.

Now, we want to remember that these letters were not addressed to Oakridge; each of them has a specific church they were written for. But by God’s providence we can look to them now as examples, encouragement, or in some cases, warnings about what Christ expects from the local expressions of his church. Interestingly enough, each of the letters ends with a statement that is addressed to the “churches”, plural, confirming that even though each letter had a specific destination, they were each also intended to be read and learned from by others.

Today we’re going to start with the church at Ephesus, which is the easiest one to remember since we also know of them from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Just before we read the letter, I want to mention that there are a few similarities between all 7 letters that you can keep your eye out for

Each letter starts with addressing a specific church, then goes into a description of Jesus that is drawn directly from John’s vision back in Revelation 1. Each letter than starts Christ’s dialogue with an “I know” statement, which in most cases leads to a commendation if it’s deserved, followed by a rebuke and correction if it’s needed. Each letter then zooms out and calls the attention of the plurality of churches with the statement “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”, as well as a future promise for believers connected to the new heaven and earth of Revelation 21 and 22.

Yet within this shared format, each letter is unique, so let’s look at the letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2 starting in verse 1.

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:

‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

Revelation 2:1–7 NASB

Now apart from that list of features I just gave you to look for, you may have noticed something else familiar about the format of this letter. Maybe if you’ve ever gotten a not-so-great performance review at work? This is a classic “bad news sandwich”! It starts with the good news, moves to the bad, then closes back in with good.

In a performance review, this technique is often used to “soften the blow” a bit, so the criticism doesn’t seem so harsh. Here, however, it seems like the text is purposely drawing our attention and funneling us down to this important middle section of rebuke and correction. Within the structure of the letter, it’s clearly important, so we’ll make sure to focus in on that in just a few minutes.

But zooming back out, we can see some other distinctions. There’s clear attention given to the people’s external actions: the “what” of it all, but also their internal motivations: the “why”. And this distinction will serve as sort of our road map for today. We’re going to start by looking at the external actions of the church at Ephesus, and then focussing on those central verses addressing their internal motivations.

EXTERNAL ACTIONS

Now, we can’t adequately address the actions of the church before acknowledging who it is that is referring to them. Let’s go back to verse 1.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:

Revelation 2:1 NASB

The description used of Christ here comes from Rev. 1:12, 13, and 16. Verse 20 from that chapter explains: “the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches”.

So when Christ is described as holding the seven stars (which are the angels of the churches) in his right hand, and walking among the seven golden lampstands (which are the churches), it’s giving us a vivid description of his relationship and involvement with his church.

Holding the stars points to his sovereignty. While the local church has its human overseers, as Jim rightly reminded us last week, it is Christ who is the head of the church. He is sovereign over his church, has a purpose for his church, and will use his church as he sees fit. It reminds us as we start into all of these letters that the church is under the authority of Christ, and what follows is coming from the mouth of the one who is over and above it all.

But I love the picture that is painted here, because he isn’t just holding the stars, like some foreign and distant director or puppet-master. He also “walks among the seven golden lampstands”, which points to his close, intimate knowledge of and connection with  his church. He is aware of what each of these churches is going through, he can see their struggles and successes from every angle as he walks among them. He has a front-row seat for just how bright their lamps are shining. He is relational and involved, not just over the church but in the church.

Each of these letters also ends with a gift, which shows us that Christ will also reward his church.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

Revelation 2:7 NASB

It might seem like this is a challenge, like “if you do what I say here, this will be your prize.” But given the context, that these gifts are offered to the churches, plural, in each letter, and that they are referring ahead to the promised new heaven and new earth at the end of Revelation (which is a certainty for all believers), I would call it more of an assurance than a challenge.

Elsewhere in his writings, in 1 John 5:4–5, John writes, “whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

So “him who overcomes” refers to believers.

By ending his letters this way, that same sovereign and intimate Christ is giving his churches something to look forward to. In the case of our text today, it’s tasting of the tree of life, which harkens back to the fall in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve are barred from partaking. It’s a glorious promise, pointing to eternal life and the repairing of a long-broken relationship between God and humanity, accomplished through the work of Christ himself.

And it is with Christ’s sovereignty and his intimacy and his promise of eternity in mind that we read the first “I know” statement of the church letters. And with the case of Ephesus, it’s going to lead to some encouraging commendation!

‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 

Revelation 2:2 NASB

“Deeds and toil”, two different words used to emphasize just how hard they have been working. “Perseverance”, they’re keeping at it! Not giving up. “Cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles”. There is a massive amount of the New Testament dedicated to being wary of and standing against false teachers, and these folks are doing it! They aren’t just blindly accepting everything they hear or see, but they are putting it to the test! They are guarding the purity of their church. And not only did they test them, but they were successful! They found that they people they put to the test were not apostles, and they were able to root out the falsehood!

What an incredible example of a church putting into practice what they have been taught! But he doesn’t stop there.

and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 

Revelation 2:3 NASB

Again, their perseverance is mentioned, and their endurance for Christ’s name’s sake, not growing weary. This verse speaks to the depths of Christ’s knowledge of the church. It’s not just “good job testing those false teachers”, but “I know how hard this has been for you, and how much effort this has required.” It’s always nice to be told you’re doing a good job. But it feels especially good when there has been really challenging labour involved, or you’ve been faced with adversity, to have your hard work acknowledged. When it’s praise not just for the end product, but for the effort put in to get there.

Now, unfortunately, as we already know, it’s not all good news. But before we get into the meat of verses 4 and 5, let’s jump down to verse 6 and see the closing commendation.

Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Revelation 2:6 NASB

This is an interesting verse for a few reasons. First of all, it’s a good reminder that this letter was sent to a historical church during a specific time period, in the mention of the “Nicolaitans”. There have been numerous scholars who have tried to pin-point the details of these Nicolaitans: some say they were a sect that tried to blend Christianity in with the surrounding culture, embracing a sort of “we can do whatever we want, cause God will forgive us” attitude.

This wouldn’t be surprising given that false teachers were just mentioned, and Ephesus was a major city in Asia Minor, overrun with idolatry and sexual immorality dedicated to pagan worship at the temple of Artemis. But the reality is that we just don’t know for sure who the Nicolaitans were. But we really don’t need to. The text tells us all we need to know: Whoever they were, whatever they were doing, those at the church in Ephesus hated their actions, and Christ hated their actions too. What in important commendation, noting that at least in these things, those in Ephesus are in-line with the mind of Christ and his character.

After all this, I return to the questions I asked at the beginning of our message today.

If Christ were to write a letter to Oakridge, what would he commend us for? What are we doing well? In what areas can we say that we share in the mind of Christ and are working hard to preserve truth?

I have been a part of this church for almost four and a half years now, through many ups and downs; rocky roads, and celebrations. And while I don’t want to presume to speak on behalf of Christ, allow me to say, Oakridge, I know at least some of your deeds and your toil and perseverance. I’ve seen your desire to pursue truth and sound, biblical doctrine. I’ve seen the way you love one another well, care for those who are struggling, and turn to God in prayer. I’ve seen the ways you recognize that Christ is the head of this church, and your desire to offer him the praise he is due. There is a lot this church has to be commended for, and I am overjoyed with the ways I have seen so many of you pursuing holiness and Christlikeness, even in the midst of less-than-ideal circumstances.

Unfortunately, for Ephesus however, that wasn’t the end of the letter. As we turn to verse 4 and 5 we’re going to see Christ addressing their internal motives.

INTERNAL MOTIVES

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 

Revelation 2:4 NASB

The church in Ephesus, though they were doing so many great and commendable things, were missing something. They had left their first love. Whatever the motivation was for their good deeds, it wasn’t out of love for Christ, and that was a problem.

Now we want to be very cautious with a passage like this. Some people want to take verses like these to pit love against the pursuit of truth, as though you have to choose between one or the other. As though you can’t stand up against falsehood and still be loving. Jesus doesn’t do that. The fact that he rebukes them for abandoning their first love does not erase or replace the commendation he has just given them, nor the one he will give later in verse 6. Instead what Jesus desires is for us to pursue truth and to do good deeds motivated by our love for him.

Think back to the zeal you might have had for the Lord when you first came to faith. The fearlessness with which you may have shared about the gospel with anyone who would listen. The unquenchable thirst you may have had for the scriptures. The overflowing joy that may have come with the hope of forgiveness of sins and promised eternal life.

I think about our brother Paul Prosser, who the Lord took home last month. Anyone who had a conversation with him would know, and I mean this in the best way possible, that you couldn’t shut him up about his faith! About the work God had done in his life! His joy and zeal for the Lord was infectious! That’s what I am reminded of when I think of returning to your “first love”.

I think of the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:1–3: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

It’s as though Christ is saying to church in Ephesus: “I love what you’re doing, but I don’t love why you are doing it. You’re missing the point.” Ultimately, we don’t know what their motivation was, and we don’t need to know what their motivation was, except that it was not their love for Christ. And he makes it clear, there will be a cost if they continue to get this wrong.

Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. 

Revelation 2:5 NASB

We’ll come back to the solution he gives in just a moment, but look first at the consequences: “Or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.” Some would say this means he’ll close down the church; erase it from existence. That’s possible, but given the context and the imagery that he is using, I think it’s just a statement about the church’s effectiveness.

Think back to that passage in Matthew 5:14–16, in the sermon on the mount, where Jesus tells his disciples: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

How can a lamp effectively shine as the light of the world if it is removed from its lampstand? It can’t. In the same way, how can the church that does the right things for the wrong reasons—whose deeds aren’t motivated out of love for Christ—be effective in the task that has been given? It can’t.

I love what Jesus says there back in Matthew: “Let your light shine…in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.” If our good works aren’t motivated by our love for Christ, what do they point to? They point to our own goodness, our own self-righteousness, our tenacity and effort and perseverance and fortitude against temptation. It points to me! But when we do good deeds, motivated by our first love—our love for Christ—we have no option but to point to him. To let others know that we love because he first loved us. To give him as the reason for the hope within us.

It is good to do good, but our motives matter.

Thankfully, he doesn’t leave them hanging with this rebuke, but gives clear and concise commands on how to recover. Look back at the beginning of verse 5.

Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. 

Revelation 2:5 NASB

Remember, repent, and restart. It’s quick, it’s intentional, it’s urgent. Stamp it out.

“Remember from where you have fallen”; look back at where you once were. When your love for the Lord was overflowing, and your zeal couldn’t be silenced.

“Repent”; turn away from how you have been doing things, or rather “why” you’ve been doing them.

“Do the deeds you did at first”, or Restart; Do what you used to do the way you used to do it when you first came to know Christ.

And if this is something you are struggling with in your own life: if you’ve lost your first love, your motivation, your zeal; the solution is the same. Remember, repent, restart.

One of the first things I said when I started the message this morning is that it is important for us to remember that these letters are not addressed to Oakridge. We can’t read a text like this and just make a one-to-one correlation, that what the church in Ephesus struggled with, we must struggle with too, so therefore we are under the same directive. The call to the church in Ephesus is one of corporate repentance for misplaced motivations that they were guilty of communally. And while we may as individuals struggle with our motives, we want to be cautious of applying and requiring corporate repentance where the text doesn’t demand it. We are not Ephesus.

From my perspective, I think as a whole, Oakridge is actually doing really well at this. I have heard of many of you sharing the gospel with friends and co-workers because you love the Lord and you love them. I have seen many of you sacrifice your time, money, and energy to support brothers and sisters within the church physically, emotionally, and financially because you love the Lord and you love them. I have seen many of you show up to serve, show up to worship, show up to learn, because you love the Lord and want to show it.

But I also said at the beginning that by God’s providence, we can still learn from a letter addressed to another church. We believe that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;” (2 Tim. 3:16).

So what is the call for us?

BEWARE AND BE READY

We need to beware and be ready.

This letter serves as a warning.

I think that most of us are able to relate on an individual level to what Christ called out in the Ephesian church. Many of us know what it is to do the right thing for the wrong reason. What it is to serve begrudgingly. To act out of legalism like we talked about a few weeks ago. To subconsciously believe a works-based gospel that says that if I do more good deeds God will love me more or the people at church will respect me more. Or even to just have lost our zeal and passion for the Lord, his word, or his people. And while our church, as a whole, might be doing well with this now, the body is made up of individual parts, and we need to beware the fact that impure motives that start in one part can easily began to creep their way through the whole.

So we need to beware. To keep our eyes open and examine ourselves.

And if we see improper motivation seeping in, we need to be ready to take quick, intentional, urgent action. To remember, repent, and restart as Christ commanded the church in Ephesus.

I want to encourage us all this week to take a tangible action to beware and be ready. Take a few minutes this week and think of a time in your life when you acutely remember serving the Lord out of a love for Christ. Maybe it was around the time of your salvation, or baptism. Maybe it was on a mission trip, or at youth group, or when you had an answered prayer, or just a time when you felt particularly passionate about your faith. When you have that memory, write it down on a note card, or print a picture from that time, and keep it in your Bible or on your desk; somewhere you’ll see it and remember it. Then whenever you see it, take a moment to ask God to show you if your motives are misplaced, and invite him to protect, and if need-be, re-orient your heart, trusting that he will lead you if you ask. And if you are finding it difficult to think of a time to write down, ask God to fill you with the fire and passion of his love now, and mark today as that day.

It’s good to do good, but our motives matter. Let us beware and be ready to cling to our first love.

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