This road of life often seems to have unexpected turns that throw
us off course. We begin to go this way
or that, and soon discover that we are off the path that God intended us to
travel. That's when the warning of Jesus
to the church at Ephesus is given:
Revelation 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;
2 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:
3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's
sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou
hast left thy first love.
5 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.
6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the
Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.
7 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.
I believe that the Holy Ghost led me to a passage of
scripture this week, and I am certain He wants to use what He has shown me to
speak to some people. As I read this passage, I could not help but feel the
heart of God as it ached; and I could sense the very hand of Jesus reaching
out, hoping that someone would hear what he was saying; that someone would
reach out, take His hand and begin to get closer to Him than ever before.
I felt as though Jesus was looking at me, and at each one of
us, with both a look of approval and a look of disappointment at the same time.
It’s like the look you would give one of your grandchildren, that you love so
dearly, after they have spilled their grape juice on your carpet. You love them,
yet in that moment you must resist the urge to paddle them because you know they
don’t understand the full impact of what they’ve done. I believe that Jesus is
looking at some of us that way. His love is everlasting; but there are times
when His chastisement is what we need most of all, even though it’s never
pleasant to experience. He loves us all too much to allow us to carry on
without His guidance and course corrections in our life.
In the 2nd chapter of the book of Revelation, the
Lord Jesus Christ is walking among the golden candlesticks, which represent the
church in its various spiritual conditions. Any church body, or any individual
among us, can find themselves among the descriptions of the various churches.
The churches are candlesticks because we are the ones to whom God has entrusted
the Light of the Gospel. We are called, anointed, and commissioned to spread the
light so those around us who are caught in the darkness of sin may be able to lift
their eyes and see Jesus.
Jesus spoke to seven churches listed in the prophecy; but
not only to those churches, the words that Jesus spoke are timeless and
eternal, and they reach right down into the very heart of each of us today.
They still speak the same lessons, still carry the same warnings, and they still
carry the same promises if we will heed what Jesus says.
Perhaps this message isn’t for you personally; and then
again, maybe it is. If this doesn’t speak to you personally, then somewhere in
those first three chapters of Revelation, you will find yourself. Somewhere
among those messages, you will step in front of the mirror of God’s Word and
you’ll find your image being described by the Words of Jesus to the churches.
I believe that the Lord wants to talk to someone who is
walking the rocky roads around the church at Ephesus. As we examine Jesus’
message to Ephesus, look within your own heart; examine yourself; listen to the
voice of the Holy Ghost; shut everything else out and see if the Lord is
speaking to you.
“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;” – Revelation 2:1
The first thing that we must realize here is that God speaks
first to the “angel of the church”, and then that “angel” is to speak forth
what Jesus has said for all the church to hear.
Those seven stars represent the ministry, those are involved
in the 5-fold ministry, who are called and anointed to bring the messages of
God to the church. Jesus is the power that holds it all together. In His hand,
and by His hand we move, and we speak. He holds in the palm of His hand, and
the Bible tells us that “no man can pluck us out of His hand.” It’s a
comforting thought to know that while you are ministering in this ungodly
world, that the Lord has you in His loving and protecting hand, and that He
will never let you fall.
God speaks to the church through His Word, and that Word is
most often given through the voice of the minister that stands before the
church, led by God, to speak what the Lord would have him to say. I would hope
that all ministers would take this calling seriously, but sadly, there are many
today who do not. They speak not what ‘thus saith the Lord’, but whatever
tickles people’s ears. The true message is lost, and the whole body of Christ
under their care suffers from the lack of knowledge and understanding.
If you stay in that condition long enough, your Light will
grow so dim that no one will see Jesus in you, for there is no light of God in
you to shine forth. There is no Light outside of Jesus and the true Light of
the Gospel. If we aren’t preaching Jesus and the gospel of repentance unto salvation,
if we are not telling people they must be born again, then there’s no Light in
anything we have to say.
“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:” – Revelation 2:2
So many in the church today are caught up in doing good
works. It doesn’t matter which church you look at; the congregations are just
about always involved in doing good things for the people of the church and
they are reaching out beyond the walls of the church in some manner, trying to
help their fellowman.
Good works, laboring for the Lord in any capacity, and
having patience in your good works while we wait for the coming of the Lord;
even though often times those good works don’t produce the results we desire –
all good works that are done for the cause of Christ are very commendable. And
if they are done with the right heart, they will mean so much even in eternity
where rewards will be given for faithfulness in doing good works that have been
ordained by God. So, keep up the good works. God approves of your good works!
It is very commendable to speak out against the evils in our
world. Though we cannot judge the heart of a man, we can certainly be fruit
inspectors and we can see the fruit that they bear. Since the Bible tells us
that evil trees can’t bear good fruit, and good trees cannot bear evil fruit,
then the obvious conclusion is that you can judge whether someone is good or
evil by the fruit they bear.
We don’t condemn the person; but we absolutely have the
right to judge the evil deeds by fruit they bear, and we then pray for their
evil heart that has revealed their true nature.
It is right that we should stand against evil and not accept
everything like sheep without a shepherd. For as long as we have breath, we
must speak out against evil, and pray for those who do evil things. The church
is called to be aware of the evil around us and to call upon the Lord to lift
the standard of the cross against all evil. We have a duty to call evil what it
is so that men may repent of their sin.
It’s also commendable to always be on guard against heresy
in the church and to be cautious about anything that is spoken from the pulpits
of the churches. Not every shepherd is a true shepherd and we all know that
there are hirelings and wolves in sheep’s clothing; false teachers and
self-centered preachers who are only there to make a name for themselves or to
fleece the sheep of God’s house.
The Holy Spirit will reveal the true nature
and character of the preacher in time; and then it is up to each of us to
either stay and swallow the message that is given or seek out another place to
hear the truth of the gospel.
Too many people are carried about like a ship in a storm,
blowing wherever the wind sends them, listening to every little wind of
doctrine; always quickly accepting everything that comes from someone who calls
themselves a preacher and who claims to have a message for the church. Too
often, these dear folks either find themselves shipwrecked and their faith
destroyed, or they live in so much confusion that they don’t know truth from
fiction anymore.
We are to prove everything we hear by the Word of God; and
not accept everything people try to teach. I thank God that I have learned to
be cautious and to examine everything I hear in the light of God’s Word. That’s
the only way to keep yourself in the path of Truth.
“And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's
sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.” – Revelation 2:3
Jesus says to many that He knows how they have stayed
faithful through it all. No matter what has come against you; or how rough the
road has been, you’re still here; still holding on; still trusting in the Lord
to bring you through. You’re continuing to work and steady as a rock in your
service to God and man. These are all such commendable things; things that are
expected of every Child of God and of every church.
If the Lord would have stopped there, there would be no need
for this message. We could feel like we have finally arrived and that we are
doing everything right for a change. That would be great, but Jesus didn’t stop
there. There’s more to come and this is where it gets a bit hard to take sometimes,
because we often don’t want to hear the words that show where we might be
wrong.
“Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou
hast left thy first love.” – Revelation 2:4
Friends, we never reach perfection, do we? There’s always
room for improvement. We aren’t Jesus and we aren’t in Heaven yet. We are still
living in this sinful world, and sadly, we often find ourselves being drawn
away by our own desires, as we are enticed and yield to temptation. We don’t
want it to happen. We don’t plan to let temptation draw us aside. We even try
to fight against it. But the fact is, that we all fail at times. It is at this point
in our lives that Jesus comes with the words of this message: you have left
your first love.
The Lord, through the conviction of the Holy Ghost, is
telling us to stop! The Holy Ghost is trying to get us to take a hard look at
our lives, to examine our hearts, and notice that we may have allowed the
things of this world to draw us away from Him.
It’s easy to be drawn away by the cares of life. The devil
knows the weakness of our human flesh, he knows the hardships of life that we
face, and he will often use tools to try draw us away from Jesus that seem harmless
and innocent at first.
Sometimes it’s a job. After all, we need to support the
family, because not to do so would mean that we are worse than an unbeliever.
But often we allow that job to become so much of a part of our lives that we no
longer have time for the family we are trying to support. But more importantly,
we have no time for Jesus.
Sometimes it’s the raising our family. We all want the best
for our kids. We want them to have a better life than we have, so we get
involved in everything in school, and in a lot of extracurricular activities so
that our kids won’t feel left out. But again, we sometimes get so involved with
all the sports and activities that we don’t have time for church, we don’t have
time to work for the Lord, and we don’t have time to pray or spend time with
Jesus.
Sometimes it’s just our desire to enjoy the good life. We
all love to enjoy our life and the freedoms that are ours to just do what we
love to do the most. There’s nothing wrong with that, until we start enjoying
doing our own thing more than we desire the Lord. When having fun keeps you
from the house of God, when you become so busy enjoying life that you don’t
take time to draw close to Jesus, then you’re headed for a bend in the road that
leaves your life in a ditch.
There are times when the temptation takes us even further.
After all, when sin enters the picture and we begin to stray from our love for
Jesus, we never know how far sin is going to take us, or how long we will be
trapped by its power over us.
Jesus looks upon everything that draws us away from our love
for Him as idolatry, an act of unfaithfulness, and an act of spiritual
adultery. The reason is simple. Anything that takes us away from our love for Jesus
and replaces Him as the most important thing in our life, becomes our God.
Jesus is no longer the most important thing to us. Something else has taken his
place in our hearts. We have become infatuated with sin; and now that sin has
become our first love.
There will come a time when we must stop and realize that we
might not be as close to Jesus as we should be. We look at the reality of the
image in the mirror, with sober judgement, and realize that we’ve allowed too
many things to occupy our heart. Maybe it’s not happening right now, or maybe
it is, but the fact is that we’ve all been there. We have left our first love
and went off chasing after some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or
started grazing in a strange pasture. We kept running after that pot of gold
that seemed always just out of sight, or kept enjoying that green grass until
one day, like the Prodigal Son, we looked up and realized how far we had gone
from the Lord. We left our first love, not because we decided to just leave
Jesus behind, but because the things of life just kept slowly pulling us away.
No matter how it happens, we left our first love. We’ve
fallen in love with someone or something else, and Jesus is no longer in the
center of our heart. Maybe it’s another person; a man or a woman that has taken
hold of our heart and our passion for Jesus has been reverted to that person.
Another person can become your idol just as much as a statue or anything else.
I thank God that He is longsuffering toward us, even when we
are unfaithful, off chasing other ‘gods’, off doing our thing and ignoring Him,
Jesus still loves us and is ever reaching out to bring us back. The Holy Ghost
never stops wooing the wayward Christian until we come back to our first love.
But we must make the choice to repent. We must decide to get back to the altar
and seek a closer and stronger relationship with Jesus.
“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.” – Revelation 2:5
Jesus says, “stop, look at where you are, and remember where
you once were! Repent of your wanderings and unfaithfulness, that’s doing your
first works again. Any return to the ways of righteousness requires repentance
first. Repentance is the starting point for salvation!
No matter how much you love someone, you can’t allow them to
continually be unfaithful and try to pretend that life will be good. There’s a
constant fight, a constant distrust, and a constant turmoil that will
ultimately destroy you. Too many have tried, and none have succeeded. It will
always end in disaster.
Jesus will not tolerate sin forever. If we choose to keep
running, then at some point, He will just let us go. The Bible warns us that
there is a line we cannot cross; a point of no return in our relationship with
Jesus; a place where God will say, “That’s it. I’ve gone as far as I will! Now
you are given over to your own heart’s desires and to a reprobate mind that
will never desire to know God again.” That’s a very dangerous place to be.
“But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” – Revelation 2:6
This is a strange thought to me. This is a picture of the
mindset of a backslidden Christian, someone who is growing cold in the Lord, or
who have lost their zeal and fire for God; yet they hate sin; they hate
unfaithfulness; they hate the evil of this world that is so opposed to God and
the Light of Truth, they hate the sins of the flesh, adultery and physical
abuse, yet they find themselves among that number who are counted as unfaithful
to their love for Jesus.
You may be reading this today with your love for Jesus
growing cold. You may be allowing the things of life to draw you away from
really serving God and committing your whole heart to Him. But you still hate
sin! You hate the power of sin that destroys people! You hate the fact that so
many are unfaithful to both God and to their own families! You hate idolatry in
any form! You hate that there is jealousy that drives people apart. You hate
that there is so much temptation to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little
while. Mostly though, you hate that you have allowed anything to come between
you and Jesus, but it’s there and there’s no denying it. You hate to admit it,
but you need to repent.
“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.” – Revelation 2:7
This is Jesus’ words to us today, if you are hearing the
voice of the Lord. Use your spiritual hearing while you still can. Listen to
Jesus while you can still hear Him. Listen to voice of the Spirit as He calls,
while you are close enough to hear Him, or there’ll come a day when you can no
longer hear.
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” – Acts 2:38
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