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In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John sees a vision of the glorified Jesus Christ. I think many times our mental picture of Jesus isn’t what it should be, but reading Revelation chapter one should clear that up. Jesus picks seven churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), and addresses each one according to their works. All but one of them gets commended first, and all but two of them gets a rebuke. The great thing about studying Rev. 2 & 3 is you can find out exactly what Jesus commends, and then do those things. Likewise, you find out what Jesus condemned, and you avoid doing those things. It’s really simple.

Seven is the number of completeness, and these seven churches (which really existed in Asia Minor 2,000 years ago) represent all the churches through out the church age (we know this because these messages, written in one book, were to be circulated to each church, Rev. 1:11). They also seem to be prophetic in the sense that the names of these churches, and the order they are in, correspond with seven periods of church history. Revelation 2 & 3 is a very interesting and informative study, so let’s get into The Word of God.

Rev 2:1-7 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Ephesus means “desirable”, and signifies a man’s “maiden of choice” (go tell your wife she’s your Ephesus and sweep her off her feet). Though the first century church was not problem free, this name certainly describes it, as we see in the Book of Acts. There was such Agape love manifested among the first Christians that people were selling everything they had and giving it to the Apostles to distribute, just because they wanted to (Acts 4:32-35).

Jesus starts out commending the Ephesians for their works and labor in service to Christ (it’s a good practice to start out with commendation before correction). He commends their patience and endurance, their stand against evil, and their defense of sound doctrine through their testing of men that claim to be apostles (see Acts 20:17, 29-31). Obviously, we want to do the things commended here by our Lord. We want to be patient, we want to labor for the Name of Jesus, we want to stand against evil. We want to be students of The Word so we can recognize false teachers. These are things that please Jesus and that we should pursue.

We see in verse 4 that Jesus isn’t happy with everything, though. The Ephesians had forgotten the main thing. We need to be careful as Christians that we do not forget the main thing. They had left their first love. Although they were still doing good works, their love had grown cold. They had started to get into legalism. They were so caught up with doing good works, they forgot why they were doing it. They were keeping all the commandments, but the great commandment (Mt 22:35-38)! Without God’s kind of love we are nothing (1Cor 13:1-3)! This is serious business to Jesus. It’s so serious He threatened to remove their church if they didn’t make loving Him the number one priority once again. Let’s make what’s most important to Jesus, most important to us! Until next time, rejoice in the Lord (Phip 4:4)!

HAVE YOU LEFT YOUR FIRST LOVE? Part 2

By Pastor J.D. Link

Abundant Grace Fellowship Church, Blanco, TX

Last week we asked the question “Have you left your first love?”, based on Revelation 2:1-7. In these verses, Jesus, the glorified, risen Lord, addresses the church at Ephesus. He started out commending them on their works, and their patience; their labor, their stand against sin, their defense of sound doctrine by recognizing false teachers, and that they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitanes (notice Jesus commended hatred. Not all hatred is bad. There is a holy hatred that righteousness has against unrighteousness. Ps 119:128, 139:22-23). Who were the Nicolaitanes? We’ll get to that in a minute.

After the commendation of the Ephesians, then came the rebuke. They had left their first love. They had become cold, orthodox legalist. We must guard against this as Christians. Sometimes we can be so caught up in being right, that we forget to be loving. We should certainly stand for the truth, but we need to do it in a loving way. Some Christians are straight as a gun barrel and twice as empty. They might do and say everything right (in their own opinion, anyway), but they’re judgmental, bitter, and mean. They’re modern day Pharisees who like lots of rules to keep so they can look down their noses at others. The bad thing about that is if you want to be justified by keeping the law, you have to keep all of it, or you’re cursed (Gal 3:10-12, Jam 2:10).

Jesus said in Rev. 2:5 that if you aren’t in love with Him, then you have fallen. Yes, you may be doing the right Christian things, and that is commendable: but you are fallen. Brothers and Sisters, we must stoke the fire that was once raging in our hearts! We must meditate on that time in our life when we first came to The Savior! The passion, the thrill, the joy of knowing Christ! The late nights and early mornings in The Word and prayer! The excitement of getting to go to church, and getting to worship Jesus, and getting to hear God’s Word!

Some may say they just don’t feel that way anymore, they can’t help it. Listen, you don’t have to be a victim of your feelings. Decide your going to change the way you feel. Don Francisco sings a great song called “Jesus is the Lord of the way I feel”. The same imagination you use to meditate on negative, depressing things can be used to meditate on Jesus’ love for you and your love for Him. The choice is ours to make.

Jesus then tells the Ephesians to repent. Repenting is more than saying your sorry. That is confession. Repenting is something that is done in your heart. It means to turn back to God; do a “180”. Perhaps you’re guilty of leaving your first love. Perhaps you’re a good Christian, bearing good fruit and being a good witness, but your love for Christ has grown cold. I encourage you to follow Jesus’ instructions, and repent. Turn back to your first love today. As it says in verse 5, do the first works. The works that were done out of a sincere heart. The works that were motivated by nothing more than a love for Jesus. Can you see how important this is to our Savior? I hope you can.

Now as for the Nicolaitanes, I’m sure there are many views, but two most held. The first is derived from the word Nicolaitan. Nico means “to conquer or rule”, and laitan means “the people, or laity”. Many believe this is referring to the clergy-laity doctrine, which is unscriptural. We have only one mediator, and that is Jesus Christ (1Tim 2:5). Jesus is our only master, and we are all Brethren, as God’s Word clearly says (Mt 23:8). All the ground is level at the foot of the cross (Acts 10:24-26). The second view is that they were a sect started by Nicolas of Antioch that taught antinomianism (which means without law) in the church, which basically taught you could be a Christian and still live like a totally rank, heathen sinner, which is also unscriptural (Rom 3:8, 5:20-6:2, 8:5-8, Gal 6:7-8). Whichever one be true, we just need to read The Bible, and stick with what it says! Until next time, rejoice in the Lord! (Phi 4:4)