Christ’s Love for the Loveless Church

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

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We are turning through to the Book of Revelation again, as we continue and pick back up with our series. Um, for those that are visitors, we’ve been working our way through the Book of Revelation. Uh, previously, last week, we took a side step and looked at an individual passage in light of the professions of faith. The week before that, we sort of introduced the letters in chapter two and three by considering Christ who walks among the lampstands, and Christ who holds the stars in his hand. And we talked a bit about the fact that those stars were the symbol of authority under Christ, especially shown in the ministers and elders of the church, and that the lampstand with the fire upon it is that picture of the- the mission of the Church of God, a light to the nations. And Christ now, as I said that Sunday, Christ now addresses his people, and he’s going to speak to them about what is good and what is bad as it relates to their authority and that mission.

So let’s pick up in chapter 2. We’re gonna be looking at the church in Ephesus today.

When I was a- a young preacher-I had the opportunity of sparking up a relationship with a very seasoned minister in the States. Very godly man, lovely man. Sparked up a relationship with him because he came across here for an event, and I was a young preacher. I, I never got preaching classes because I went to a bo- liberal Bible college, and my assumption was, “If they don’t even believe the Bible, I don’t want them teaching me how to handle the Bible.” So I didn’t bother taking preaching classes. I just taught myself by reading Spurgeon and listening to really solid preaching. And, and so when, when I’d sparked up this relationship, I thought to myself, “Oh, it might be helpful to ask him to review some of my sermons and give me feedback and tell me w- how I can grow and how I can get better.” I thought it was a good idea at the time, so I sent the email off to him, and I still vividly remember when the email arrived in my email box some 6 months later, because he was very busy, I had just completely forgotten and s- assumed he had as well.

This email comes in, and I can remember this feeling of, like, hesitancy and nervousness. I didn’t wanna open the email because I was kinds of afraid. I was like, “What if I open the email and he just savages me really brutally and tells me I’m, I’ve got no idea what I’m doing?” And I sort of sat there just, like, “Do I wanna click on it or do I just not?” And I actually left it there. I was so nervous, and I left it there and walked away and came back a couple of hours later after a meeting, and then I opened it. And praise the Lord, it was very refreshing and helpful and beneficial. Of course it was. Very gracious man. And, um, and yet this feeling of nervousness, right?

Now you imagine if I had sent that letter to him, and, and he had said, “Sure,” but instead of emailing me back, he just published it on his blog. And he published it on his blog, and he shared it on all his social media accounts, and he said, “Hey, this young guy, Logan Harcourt, from this place, this is his address, this is his phone number, he asked me for a review. And I thought it might be helpful if I review it in public.” And then he recorded a video of him cutting my sermon up in pieces, telling me what’s good, telling me what’s bad. It would’ve been crucifying, right?

Now, can you imagine being the church in Ephesus? The, the, the, the messenger comes to tell, the guy that carries the letter Revelation, and he knocks on the door of the church, and he comes in, and it’s the Lord’s day, and the letter’s gonna be read. And, and you hear, you hear the, the message of chapter one, and, and you’re enthralled, right? You go, “This is amazing. John saw Jesus? That’s incredible. Look at this picture of Jesus. It’s so incredible.” And then, and then it says, “Now write a letter to the churches” And you go, “Oh, this’ll be interesting.” And you’re thinking to yourself, you know, “A generic letter to everybody. This’ll be very interesting to hear what Jesus has to say about the global church.” And then all of a sudden, the messenger s- says, “To the angel of the church in Ephesus.” And you go, “Oh. Oh, wait a second. What’s he gonna say about us? What words will he speak? Will he condone us, will he celebrate us, or will he decry us? What, what will Jesus say?”

But then you also have the sinking realization that the letter is also gonna be read in Smyrna, in Pergamum, and in every other church, and you realize that what Jesus is about to say to you, he is going to tell every church. Now, that’d be a sinking feeling, wouldn’t it? I mean, you imagine if that happened to us. I mean, it would be interesting to know in writing what Jesus specifically thinks of Reformation Bible Church, wouldn’t it? A little bit scary, too. But it would be another thing for him to publish that to the whole world, airing our, our faults as well as our successes, which is what we’re gonna see, offering us remedies and promises, which is what we’re gonna see.

But what’s interesting about this letter is it comes to a church in a, in a very important city, Ephesus. Ephesus historically was a powerful, important Roman and cultic city. It was the It h- housed the Temple of Diana of Ephesus. It had the Temple of Artemis. It was very important and everyone saw it as a very sacred, holy place. It was a place where when you walked through the city, you saw shrines on every corner with prostitutes guarding them. You could find a brothel a dime a dozen because cultic worship in those days, much like it is today, is always joined together with sexual idolatry. And so, the church of Ephesus was in this historical city, but what’s interesting about the city is it was dying, primarily because of geological shifts. The water which was which had always been the key element of Ephesus was beginning to leave. And if you go there now, where Ephesus remains is nothing but a boggy swamp and a decrepit, old building. It’s gone. You’ll find a handful of people there. But what’s interesting is that this very picture of grandeur with a dying sickness is a metaphor for the church of Ephesus.

And so, the first thing Jesus says to the church that we must notice is that she is, to quote the movie, she is practically perfect in every way. She’s practically perfect in every way. Jesus starts with this wonderful praise. He says to her in verse two and three, firstly, “I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance.” This is like a, a threefold joining statement. It’s, it’s not 3 separate things, but it’s kind of like 3 ways of saying one thing to really reinforce something. You work tirelessly all the time. You never cease. You’re very proactive everywhere you go. They, they’re like a beehive of ministry productivity. You know, they’ve got a program for everything. There’s the women’s knitting group. There’s, there’s the men’s sewing team. You, you want it, they’ve got it. And, and they serve the community. You know, they’ve got soup kitchens, they make meals for people, they’re out there doing door knocking. Every moment of the church week, they are busy serving the church, serving the community, having worship services, gathering for prayer. There’s nothing lacking. Th- the word for toil is where we get the English word copious. Copious. The- their labor is copious. If you were to look for a church to say, “This is the ideal church strategy program,” it would be them. They would have all the books on how to successfully program and build a church. You know, they, they had taken to heart, if you turn to Ephesians, and I encourage you, just keep your finger in Ephesians, ’cause we’ll flick there a couple of times. Turn to the letter to Ephesus by Paul. Now, this is about 35 years earlier than Revelation. So Ephesians 5, Paul writes to them in verse 15 and 16 and says, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” The church at Ephesus had really taken this to heart, hadn’t they? They, they had heard the words, “We need to make good use of the time,” and they have gotten cracking. And 30, 40 years later, they are very busy. And, and this is not, this is not sarcasm. This is praise. This is something good.

Th- the second thing they’re doing really well, they’re practicing church discipline with zeal and passion. And so we’re told in verse 2, “I know how you cannot bear with those who are evil.” The word for bear is, is a word which connotes carrying a big burden upon your back. So, you can’t put up with evil around you at all. You want nothing to do with it. What’s this a picture of? It’s a picture of a church which is devoted to purity, which holds holiness to the highest standard. And so, when someone is in sin and is unrepentant, they immediately take proper steps of church discipline. They bring people back to the table for, through repentance. They hold people accountable for their actions. They, they don’t, like many churches today, just let people go and do whatever they want. Oh, you wanna break the Sabbath? That’s between you and the Lord. Oh, you wanna steal? That’s between you and the Lord. As long as you love God, that’s all that matters. God saved you, so your holiness doesn’t really matter anyway. No, there’s no room for that, because the purity of God’s bride really does matter. It’s what we’re being called to. And so they took to heart, if you flick back to Ephesians, they took to heart the word of the Apostle Paul in 5:7, “Do not become partners with them.” Evildoers. Don’t have anything to do with them. And they’re, they’re doing it, aren’t they? They’ve heeded the word of Paul and the word of Christ to them.

The third thing they’re doing really, really well is they’re testing. They’re testing false apostles. So we’re told that, uh, “I know that you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false.” Now, do you remember the word in, in, uh, Acts 20 when the Apostle Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, and he says to them, take care of your soul. Be on guard. “Why? Because from among your own number, wolves are going to arise dressed in sheep’s clothing to kill and destroy. Be on guard.” Now apparently, that happened. And so here we have these men coming into the church claiming to be apostles, and what have they done? They’ve heard their doctrine, they’ve listened to what they’ve said, and they’ve, and they’ve picked up that they don’t speak with the accent of a shepherd and with the accent of sheep. They speak with a growl. And they’re able to discern truth from error, and it’s wonderful. And so they’ve driven the false apostles out from their midst, and the Lord commends them for it. They have learnt to speak and discern the truth.

Fourthly, Jesus says to them that they’re enduring suffering. And so he says in verse 3, “I know you are enduring patiently” same word, “and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” Life’s hard in Ephesus. I- if you have no interest in burning incense to Rome, you will probably lose all of your business, and you won’t be a part of the blacksmith guild, because you have to burn incense to be a part of the trading companies. You will be rejected by all of your family and friends. Children, you won’t get invited to people’s birthday parties. Why? Because you won’t join them in worshiping false gods. And yet, they have stood strong. They have done exactly what Jesus longed for them to do, remember Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you when people persecute you and revile you for my name’s sake.” And they had done it. They had remembered the exhortation of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6, to put on the whole armor of God. Why? Because you’re waging war against evil spirits. And they knew they had a battle to fight, and they patiently endured, and it’s, it’s this added little flavor, “Patiently endured and did not grow weary.” You know, the suffering and the difficulties went so long that they, they could’ve been tempted to just give up, it’s too much, it’s too long. Maybe some of you felt like that over the last year, last 16 months, it just goes on and on and on and on, and you’re tempted to grow weary and give up. Well, they didn’t. They persisted in their testimony for Christ, in their mission for the Lord.

But then lastly, fifthly, he praises them because they judged the Nicolaitans by their fruit. Have a look down in verse 6. “This you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Now you notice, he doesn’t say, “You hated the Nicolaitans,” but, “You hated what they produced, you hated their works.” Now we won’t unpack what the Nicolaitans, who they were, there’s a lot of difficulties in there, and we have to return to it later and it’ll be more applicable there, but just very briefly, the Nicolaitans a- atta- attached a lot of stuff about what you ate and what you wear and what you drunk, a little bit like the heresy in Colossi. If you wanna be really Godly, you need to eat this stuff and not eat that stuff. And, and so what these Ephesians were able to do is they, they looked at the Nicolaitans as they came out, and they heard what they were saying, and then they looked at the fruit that was growing in the tree, and they went, “Something’s not right here. Because good trees produce good fruit,” Jesus said, “And this is bad fruit. So the tree must be bad, so we reject the tree outright.” That’s Ephesians 5, again, verse 7 to 11, “Do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Now notice this, “For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead,” do what? “Expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but when everything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.” You see what’s happening here? The Ephesians are watching the church, they’re l- they’re, sorry, watching the Nicolaitans, they’re seeing their deeds, and they’re exposing them as bad trees, as not Christian. And separating them from themselves, not joining with them in darkness.

And we know what’s coming in the next verse, but don’t read this as Christ sarcastically speaking to the church, like, “Oh, yes, you do” Sometimes preachers just, “Oh, yes, you do this well and do that well, and, but I have this against you.” No, he is legitimately praising them. These are good things, and they are good things that you and I should be encouraged, and we as a church ought to embrace and do. You see, this first section sits here as an opportunity for RBC to reflect on how we’re doing. So let’s take a couple of them. Think about the, the, the work in this church. All hands on deck. Everyone’s involved. The whole church moves and flourishes and labors together as one people. How are we doing? Is that the picture of us? Or are we more like what’s called the Pareto principle? You may have never heard of the Pareto principle. The Pareto principle is that in any organization, 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people, and 20% of the work is done by 80% of the people. And you can probably, if you’re a worker here, you can probably think of your workplace and go, “Yep, I know that, because 8 out of 10 la- ladies or 8 out of 10 men are real lazy. And there’s always those 2 guys or the 2 gals who work really hard and carry the whole team.” And if we’re honest, a lot of churches are like that, right? Where 20% of the people sit up, 20% of the people do the work, 20% of the people are at X event, and the question for us is, are, are we going to be run by a Pareto principle, or like the Church of Ephesus, will we throw all of our weight behind?

Now, we’re I Let me just encourage you, we’re doing really well. I’ve, I’ve been really encouraged by hearing you guys saying, “Oh, I love the fact that everyone’s at this, and that there’s so many people at the prayer meeting, and that there’s most of us are here Sunday evening. And it is really encouraging.” We’re sort of the reverse, right? 80% of the church is doing all of the work. It’s wonderful. Let us not grow weary. As, Lord willing, we grow, let it not change. But as new people come in, let us lay hold of them and embrace them and bring them into the same culture, a family culture where everyone’s involved, so that when we’re door-knocking, we all head out there together. When we’re at the prayer meeting, we’re all there praying together. When we gather togethers twice, we’re all there. We’re all hands on deck. It’s a wonderful thing to see it taking place. Let us not grow weary.

Let us take another one. Orthodoxy, the ability to spot error and truth, to divide between truth and error. How are you going in your falsehood radar? You know what I mean? When, when you hear something or see something on YouTube, on a Short maybe, and, and, and you listen to it, and there’s something inside of you that just sort of goes, “There’s something not right about this. I can’t put my finger on it, but I know there’s something not right about this.” That’s what I like to call your theology radar or your theology conscience. You see, when your heart and mind is richly informed by the scriptures, you have alarm bells that just go off when you hear things. People will make a comment to you about something on a bus or in a church, and you’ll think to yourself, “I can’t necessarily explain why, but I know that’s not right.” sometimes some of you will do this to me. You’ll send me something, and you’ll say, “I watch this, and it just sounds off. C- can you, can you help me understand why?” And I’ll say, “Oh, yeah, it’s because of da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, you’re picking it up right.” But the only way that happens is if, as a church and as individuals, we’re saturating ourselves in the word of God and in good theology, in good books, in quality material. Don’t get distracted and waste your time listening or watching junk. He might be a real passionate speaker and really engaging, but if he’s not straight and arrow on the nose, he will begin to damage your conscience and radar to discern. And there’s so much good material out there now that you can spend the rest of your life listening to really solid Reformed men, and you’ll never run out of time. So saturate yourself in rich truth so that you can discern falsehood. This is a, a call for us by Christ. It’s a call by Christ to the Church of RBC. to grow in what is praiseworthy, to think about these things.

So firstly, he talks about the practically perfect church in every way. Secondly, he addresses Ephesus, and he says Ephesus is a church with a heart problem. Ephesus is a church with a heart problem. She is practically perfect in every way on the outside, but there is a significant problem. You see, Jesus, Jesus is not like your doctor, who’s a physician of your body. Jesus is the physician of your soul. It’s what the Puritans used to call him. It’s a lovely phrase, the physician of the soul, the doctor for your soul. And, and Jesus, we remember, is the one who comes to Samuel as Samuel’s looking at the brothers of David, and says, “I don’t look on the exterior. I look at the heart. He may look amazing to you, but I know what his heart’s like, and I pick David because his heart is true.” Jesus writes to Ephesus, and he says they have Stage 10, if it was a thing, Stage 10 cancer, cancer of the heart. Have a look. He says to them in Verse 4, and it must’ve been a damning word to hear, especially first church off the block, “But” You know, there are many wonderful buts in the Bible. “But God.” “But I have this against you.” Can you imagine Jesus standing up here this morning, and addressing us and saying, “I really love the fact, I really love the fact that you guys join together twice on the Lord’s day as one family, and go out and, and, and you, and you engage in ministry and you gather together for prayer, but Reformation Bible Church, I have this against you”?

He says, “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love that you had at first.” Now, I wonder what comes to your mind when you read that? Wh- what, what i- what do you hear? What do you think when Jesus says, “You’ve abandoned or you’ve left behind your love”? What is meant by love there? There’s, there’s 3 different interpretations given by scholars. I wonder which one jumps into your brain. It’s variously interpreted as love for Christ and God, so, “You’ve left your love for me behind,” or, “You’ve left your love for one another behind, so you’re doing all of these ministries, but you don’t love each other.” Or the third option is, “Your, your love for the mission of Christ in the kingdom has been left behind. You don’t care about it. You’re going through the motions of ministry, but you don’t really care about the sa- of saving the lost.” Which is it?

I think the, the best way of understanding this is, is the reality of the interconnectedness of love. So if you think back to what we read in the law, Deuteronomy, “Love God, love your neighbor.” And it always functions in that order, right? We love vertically, and having loved or having, doing the action of loving vertically, we begin to love horizontally, right? It is our love of God as a creator that makes us love all people, and it is our love for God as our mediator that makes us love our brothers and sisters and want to see people saved. And it’s, I think it’s this interconnectedness that Christ is addressing. The problem is not just that they’re lacking one type of love. The problem is there is no love. They are a loveless church. They’re a busy church. They’re doing it all. They’re perfectly orthodox, but they’re perfectly heartless. They say all the right words, and from the outside, you and I would walk in the church and we would say, “This is a fine Reformed church.” Honestly, you would not walk in and go, “This place is loveless.” You would walk in and celebrate and praise it, because they’re doing everything right. But they have no heart, and the heartlessness of the church undermines everything.

And you’ve got to ask the question, how did this happen? I mean, if you have a look at Ephesians again, this is, this is striking, the very last verse to emphasis. “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.” Do you hear that? Grace be to those of you who love Jesus and who love him with an incorruptible love. In other words, a love that is pure and devoted to Christ only. And so they’ve heard those words, and somehow, they’ve got from that place to being loveless. Well, one thing you have to remember is that a whole generation has gone by, right? We’re 30 to 40 years down the track. So the, the children in Ephesus when Paul said to them in Ephesians 6, “Children, obey your parents,” those children, like you imagine the little children in our room now, they’re now 40. They’re now the heart of the church, right?

And there’s a, there’s a really terrifying thing that often happens in churches and in Biblical history, and it’s captured very beautifully by a Reformer called Gerard Groote. great name. If anyone’s looking for a child’s name, Groote is wonderful. Gerard Groote. And he says, the f- this is speaking of the Reformation, “The first generation will be holy. The second generation will be learned. The third generation will be worldly.” Holy, learned, worldly. See that digression, right? Coming down, declension from generation to generation. And this is exactly what we’re seeing. The church at Ephesus is learned, right? They’re doing it all right, but they’ve lost it. They don’t have the heart that their parents had. And brothers and sisters, have we not seen this in many churches? Where you go back 2 generations and you find a group of men and women who labor for Christ with all of their might. You go back one generation, and everyone is still there in face only, and the next generation is gone. And it’s a challenge for you and I, isn’t it?

Do you want to guard against lovelessness in the church? One of the greatest things you can do is pass on your heart for Christ, for one another, and for the world to the children. Because if they don’t capture the vision, if they don’t fall deeply in love with Christ, with each other, and for this world, our church will, not maybe, it will be heartless in 30 years. We’ll still go through all the motions, and I’ll still be up here preaching, Lord willing, but it’ll all be religious formality. Some of you know churches like this. They had the appearance of godliness, but without any of its power.

And I guess it raises the question for you and I, how can we evaluate ourselves and consider whether our heart is truly engaged, or whether we’re just going through the motions? Maybe you’re sitting here thinking to yourself, “Actually, I just don’t know. Maybe I don’t love Jesus. Maybe I’m driven by duty. Maybe I’m driven by habit. Maybe I’m not here out of love for Christ, love for God’s people, and love for my neighbor. How do I know? Because I don’t want to be,” like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, “a clanging cymbal, that though I give my life up as a martyr, though I give away everything I have, though I speak mysteries of angels, I’m nothing but a gong.” because I’m heartless. I don’t want to be that, so how do I know?

Well, let me give you one very practical litmus test. You know what a litmus test is, right? Or a pool test. You get a stick. I used to run a pool. There’s a pool out here. You get a stick, you dunk it in the pool, you pull it out, and it tells you the pH levels so that you can adjust them, so that you can put chemicals in it to keep it clean. Here’s one very practical test. You’ve probably he- all heard of that phenomenon called the love languages. I d- I don’t particularly like it. I don’t think it’s overly helpful with couples. However, there is an element of truth to it. Most of us express and receive love in a particular way. Some of us are all about time. I may happen to know someone who is very time-driven. And I’m not. So for me, a 5minute conversation, I’m done. I’ve got my, my time for the week. My wife is the polar opposite. And so for her to feel loved, I need to spend intentional time with her, face-to-face with her.

Now, the reason I raise this is what I want you to consider for yourself throughout the rest of this day is, okay, what is my love language? How do I feel loved? Is it when someone gives me gifts? Is it when someone compliments me? Is it when someone spends time with me? Okay? Now ask yourself, now flip that around and ask yourself the question, if that’s the case, how am I doing that to the Lord? For example, if it is time, how much time do you spend with the Lord? That’s a challenging thought, isn’t it? Because if you’re time-driven and you spend 5 minutes with Jesus, what you’re really communicating to Christ is, “I don’t really love you. I actually love all the other things I spend my time on.” Or if it’s giving and you delight to give gifts to people around you but not to God, what does that communicate about your heart? And it’s a challenge for each and every one of us to consider.

You know, we’re excited right now as a church. It’s like the honeymoon period, and our hearts are inflamed and we’re easily encouraged and excited about everything. And yet, we need to make sure that we don’t let that slacken, right? But press on in our love for Christ, our love for his people, and our love for the world.

But there’s one more thing he says. Ephesus was doing some stuff right, but they were doing it with the wrong heart, and so Jesus writes to Ephesus and he offers them a great reset, a great reset. And so in verse 5, he says, “Remember 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.”

You know when your, when your computer goes haywire, it has one of those magical buttons on it? Y- you know, and you just walk up and you push it, and it immediately turns off and starts again. There’s a reset button. It’s fantastic, right? And you go, “It’s stuck. What do I do?” Ping, fixed. Magical, sometimes. You know, the Lord comes to Ephesus and he says, “I’ve got a reset button I’ve told you what’s wrong, you’ve got stage 10 cancer, but I have medicine to make you well. I have a cure, and it begins with remembering. It begins with remembering. Look back, Ephesus.” And this is important, brothers and sisters. If you meditate today and you think, “Actually, I, I am pretty heartless in my heart,” remember these things. Jesus says, “Remember, look backwards to where you used to be.” Maybe it’s just 6 months ago. You’re a young Christian, just 6 months ago you were passionately excited for Christ and it’s waned. Maybe it’s 5 years, maybe it’s 60 years, maybe it’s fif- 40 years, maybe it’s just last week. And, and last week you were excited, you were passionate, you were here, you were gonna take on the world, and now you’re just feeling very blah. You just don’t know if you can be bothered anymore, and you’re just going through the motion. Christ says, “Remember. Remember the love that you had. Remember how much you delighted to come to my house. Remember how much you love the people of God. Remember your passion for the lost.”

And secondly then, repent. Recognize, right? Look backwards and go, “Well, that’s what I used to be like. What happened to me?” And you repent, which means to change, right? Doesn’t mean just to say sorry. Being sorry is part of it, but it means to change. “I’m changing directions. I’m changing how I do things. No longer, Lord, do I want to be heartless. I don’t want to be loveless. I want to live for you.” So remember, and then repent, and then redo. So you remember, then you repent, and then you start again. He gives you a reset button. He says, “Do it again. Do the works you did at first.” And it’s interesting, the word here for works is the exact same word as gets used in verse 2, “I know your works.” He’s not telling them to do different works, is he? He’s telling them to go back and do the same work, but do it with love. “Do it the way you used to do it when you used to come to the house with joy, when you used to give gifts and meals to people in the church with happiness, when you used to share the gospel with zeal, do it again.”

The solution is not like some people think, “Well, if my heart’s not in it” Maybe you’ve heard this before. “Well, if my heart’s not in it, then I shouldn’t do it, because God doesn’t want empty religion.” That’s not what Jesus says. He says, “Do it again!” And you know what’s gonna happen through your life? As you go about your Christian life, time and time again, because you are a sinner, you are going to get convicted in your heart that you are heartless, and that you’re going through the motions. And do you know what you do? You remember, you repent, and you start again. This is the wonderful thing about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day is a new day. Every day wake up in the morning and think, “Hit the reset button. I messed up royally yesterday.” Hit the reset and start again.

Do some of us need to do this? I mean, if we’re honest, probably all of us do, to a lesser or greater extent. You know, Christ provides a wonderful motivation in this as well, a threat and a promise. He says, “If you don’t repent, I’m gonna take your lampstand away,” which means effectively, “I’m gonna delete your church, but also especially, I’m going to silence your testimony.” ‘Cause that’s what the lampstand is, right? It’s the mission, remember? “I’m gonna put your light out so you may exist, but you will shrivel up and die, because the testimony of Christ has been removed.” But he also provides a wonderful promise. He says, “To the one who conquers, to the one who does this, the one who conquers by the word of his testimony, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” This word for paradise is the word used about the garden of Eden. It’s the word Jesus uses when he says to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” He says, “If you will repent, if you will remember, if you will redo, you will be granted to dwell with me in the paradise forever.” That’s a wonderful motivation, isn’t it? Don’t you want to eat of the tree of eternal life and live in the presence of God forever? Well, heed his warning.

Yeah, I wonder if, if you’re interested to know what happened to Ephesus. Pretty damning letter. Now, there was an early church father called Ignatius and, and he, he wrote to the church in Ephesus, uh, well after John’s time, in the, in the second century. And he wrote to them and he commended them. And do you know why he commended them? He commended them for their zeal for the lost, and their love for the Lord. The Church of Ephesus heard the warning, and that generation that had become learned but heartless, they did remember, and they did repent, and they did redo, and they were granted freshness from the Lord, a fresh wind and a fresh fire of God’s blessing. But if you went there today, what would you find? One commentator puts it this way after he visited. “I went to Ephesus. I found a bog, a destroyed building, and 3 Christians who barely knew what the gospel was.” Why? Because the heart wasn’t passed on.

And so the question for you and I today, it isn’t so much how well will we do, but whether we will live a life of repentance before the Lord, a life of coming back to Christ. You see, because this I don’t know if you realize this, but this letter is actually written to us. Did you know that? It wasn’t written to Ephesus alone, because notice those closing words in verse 7. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to” The churches. The Spirit is speaking to us. You see, this is how it works. Christ speaks in the Word and in preaching, and the Spirit takes that Word and bears it into the heart of every believer, and He testifies against every unbeliever. And so this message, though peculiarly addressed to Ephesus, is spoken to you today. You can stick your name at the top. We can say to the Church in Reformation Bible Church, to the Church in Karaka.

And so I guess the wonderful final exhortation is, will we hear and respond to what the Spirit is saying to us? Because Israel didn’t. That same phrase is used by Isaiah over and over again, “And they had ears, but they did not hear. Hearts, but they did not believe.” May God grant us them to do so.

Let us pray. Father in heaven, we pray that you would grant us to know you, grant us to love you, grant us to do the things we did at first if we’ve grown cold, and grant us to celebrate together as your people. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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