Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Leaving Your First Love

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

In this episode, Jonny Ardavanis wraps up his series on the church and looks to Revelation 2, where he examines the church of Ephesus. On the surface this church is commended and affirmed for their diligence, discernment, and perseverance, and yet our Lord Jesus Christ will tell them that the most important element of a church is missing: a fervent love for Jesus Christ.Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. I had a wonderful time this last week at the Shepherds Conference in LA where over 5,000 pastors were gathered for a time of teaching from God's Word and fellowship with one another. I went from there to Phoenix, Arizona where I had the opportunity to preach for my friend Kosti Hinn at his church, Shepherds House Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona. I returned last night and I'm eager to get back and to really plug in both

here for Dial In and also at my church, Stonebridge Bible in Franklin, Tennessee. In this episode, I want to finalize our study and series on the local church. Almost a couple of months ago, we began by looking at the reality that Jesus Christ is building his church. We looked at the qualifications and the function and the role of elders who help shepherd the church. And then we looked at your role and my role, everyone's role as someone who is to lay down their life on the altar, loving one another for the glory of God so that everyone in the church might be presented mature in Christ. And in this final episode, I want to look at one of the pitfalls, one of the great dangers that faces the church today, and that is to lose their love for Jesus Christ. With that in mind, let's dial in. The year is 1986, and the places Cape Canaveral, Florida, and millions of school children around

the world have tuned into what is shaping up to be a truly historic event. In partnership with NASA, many schools all over the USA are broadcasting the launch of the space shuttle, the Challenger. As one of their own heroes, Krista McAuliffe, a social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, would be taken into space. Krista, along with six others in the crew, were on board the Challenger that was scheduled to deploy communication satellites and study comets while they were in orbit. President Ronald Reagan had scheduled the State of the Union later on in the day so that he would be able to highlight the mission's success in his introductory remarks. The shuttle was stated to be in pristine condition. The captain was top of his class,

and months and years of preparation had gone into this very moment. And while millions of people were watching, the Challenger was set to launch. CNN Live newscaster said, 4, 3, 2, 1, liftoff, and it cleared the tower. And then the commentators pause as they, along with the whole country, observe in awe as the space shuttle rose into the sky. Commentating returns as the CNN host says, well, the mission is underway and then is immediately interrupted. 73 seconds following the launch.

Everyone goes silent as the camera captures the massive explosion of the fuel tank on the back of the space shuttle with a huge cloud of smoke. The last recorded words of the pilot within the pit was, uh-oh, before the fuel tank exploded. Maybe you're wondering, what went wrong? Well, a critical piece was ineffective. Elastic O-rings that are about the width of a pencil are used as a seal on the rockets that initially help launch the space shuttle in the sky. And these rings, although previously tested, were not designed to withstand the cold temperatures of that winter morning. The cold

ruins elasticity, and without it functioning properly, heat from the rockets started to pour onto the massive fuel tank that accompanies the back of the space shuttle for its initial launch. This heat penetrated the fuel tank and caused all 535 hundred thousand gallons of liquid nitrogen and hydrogen to ignite into a massive fireball. Investigations later discovered that the crew survived that fiery explosion, but did not survive the space shuttle's violent crash against the ocean following its rapid three-minute descent. All seven members of the crew died on impact. We see in this story that you can have everything right on the surface. You can have the right team, the right preparation, the right strategy, but when a critical piece is missing, it renders

the mission ineffective. But not only that, it renders the mission destructive. The same is true not only for space shuttles, but for local churches. You can have everything going for you, but when something critical is missing, then the whole mission of the church is rendered not only ineffective, but in grave danger. And in Revelation chapter two and three, Jesus himself is going to write seven letters to seven churches. And in the one that we are going to observe in this episode, he is going to warn them that something important, something critical, the most critical piece is missing. These letters in Revelation two and three are written through the Apostle John,

who is on the island of Patmos. He's been sent there to bang rocks till he dies in exile. And he writes these letters to real churches at a real time in history. And the underlying theme for all of these seven letters to these seven churches is the same. And that theme is, how can you live for Christ in a hostile and pagan world? These seven letters, although written to churches in the first century, are immensely applicable for us today. They are real churches in history, but they are representative of churches today. Kevin Young says, the strength of churches back then are the strengths of churches right now. And the weaknesses

of churches back then are the same as the potential weaknesses of the church right now. The Lord of the church back then is the Lord of the church right now. The threats, the same. The warnings, the same. And where we should give particular attention are to the churches that share with us

the same strengths as us today, so that we might see what the Lord would say to them and consequently to us. Meaning that if they have the same strengths as us, they potentially and probably share the same weaknesses. Kevin Young says again, meaning that if your biggest concern is witnessing and reaching the community, you, like Pergamon, might share in their weakness of being undiscerning in doctrine. But if your biggest strength is your zeal and commitment to the truth,

we should look at the first church, which is in Revelation chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. And this is the church of Ephesus. In Revelation 2, verse 1, it says, To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this. This is a letter to the church of Ephesus. In Acts chapter 19, Paul had come to the city of Ephesus, which is situated next to a large harbor and at the intersection of four main trade routes that led to the city. And because of its central location, you need to understand this whenever you read your Bible in the New Testament,

Ephesus was deemed the gateway to Asia. It was the largest city in Asia Minor. And there are different estimates in regards to its size, but many estimate that it was between 500,000 to 600,000 people. This was a large city with a large stadium that could fit 25,000 onlookers for celebrations, festivals, and sporting events. When I was in first grade at Madison Elementary in Wheaton, Illinois, I first heard about the seven wonders of the world, which included the pyramids of Egypt, the hanging gardens of Babylon with a complex irrigation system that would take water

to plants and trees and shrubs 75 feet in the air. And one of the seven wonders of the world was the largest temple in the ancient world. And that is the temple of Artemis in the city of Ephesus. This was a temple of the famed goddess of fertility. She was likely the most worshiped God in all of the ancient world. And the temple constructed in her honor was 162 feet wide, 342 feet long, and there were 100 large columns, 55 feet high and 6 feet wide at the base. This temple was a marvel to behold, and tourists from all over the world would come there not just to observe this temple, but to worship. The temple was the hub of pagan idolatrous worship, and Artemis herself was worshipped through prostitution and idolatry. Ephesus was the vanity fair of the ancient world.

Not only was the worship there perverse, but the business that functioned as the foundation to the economic engine of Ephesus were all anchored to the idolatrous worship of Artemis. Ephesus was a sexually perverted, grady, violent, and amoral city. Heraclitus wrote that the morals of the temple were worse than the morals of animals. But here's what you need to know. In this lust-littered, idolatry-intoxicated culture, Jesus was building his church. And in Ephesus,

we find the most notable of all of the New Testament churches outside of the church in Jerusalem. Some of the most well-known characters in the New Testament teach at Ephesus. Their names are Apollos and Priscilla and Aquila, and they begin to proclaim Christ in this region. They had been sent there by Paul, and when Paul comes, it says in Acts 19 that for two years, he went into the lecture halls of Tyrannus, and he began to teach the people from the scripture that Jesus was the Christ. And do you know the result? Paul completely disrupts the entire economic climate of Ephesus because something became clear to the people. That is, that gods made with human hands are not gods at all. And Paul persuaded them, many of them, that only Jesus is God. And 40 years prior to John writing his

letter to the Ephesians in Revelation chapter 2, this church 40 years before had been commended by Paul and his letter to the Ephesians for their endurance in the midst of persecution and hostility and perversion. They had been ministered to by Priscilla and Aquila, John the disciple himself, and Paul and Paul's son in the faith, Timothy. This was a fortified church with a rare pastoral pedigree. I want to look at this passage in Revelation 2 by examining really a few factors. Number one, our Lord's commendation. Number two, his rebuke. Number three, his prescription. And then number four, his promise. First, I want to look at the commendation. And here, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, writing through John in Revelation 2, is going to affirm them

at the beginning of his letter. And he's going to affirm them in his commendation for three main things. Number one, he affirms them and commends them for their diligence. In Revelation 2, verse 2, Jesus says, I know your deeds and your toil. Jesus says, I know your toil. Jesus sees his church and he knows his church. His eyes in Revelation 1, 14 are like a flaming fire and nothing is hidden from his gaze. And he is not reluctant.

You need to understand this. Jesus is not reluctant to affirm, encourage, or commend. We sometimes have this idea of God that he is like a driver's test instructor whose only responsibility is to find faults or like an auditor that is looking for errors. But our Savior Jesus Christ, one Puritan writer says, may be likened to a gardener who loves his garden, who cares and nurtures his garden. And when he sees something toxic, he removes it because he knows it will kill and spoil that which he loves. So Jesus, the Lord of the church, says he sees

and he tells them he likes what he sees in regards to their diligence. Ephesus was a ministerial beehive. They went after it for Christ and for his kingdom. And unlike some people who come to church looking for other people to serve them, this church showed up and looked for opportunities to serve others. They were not riding the bench, so to speak. They were in the game. This was not a spiritual country club, nor was it a cruise ship.

This church was full of hard workers. Number two, Jesus commends them not only for their diligence, but for their discernment. In verse two, it says, you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you have found them to be false. In verse six, we also read, yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. This church is praised for the reality that they tolerate much labor, but watch this, they don't tolerate any evil, nor do they tolerate any false teaching. Being tolerant of everything and hating nothing in no way represents God's desire for his church.

Ephesus is commended for the exact opposite. This church hated sin and they did not tolerate false teaching. The teaching of the Nicolaitans was essentially that they put everything under Christian liberty. They believed that Jesus was a sexual liberator. The Nicolaitans were those who attempted to accommodate the culture. Clement of Alexandria once said about the Nicolaitans that they abandon themselves to pleasure like goats and they lead lives of self-indulgence. But the Ephesian believers could not tolerate any subtlety of deviation from the purity of doctrine

that had been handed to them by the apostles. A holy anger burned within them when they heard the gospel distorted. 40 years earlier in Acts 20, Paul had gathered the leaders of the church in Ephesus and he tells them, you are never going to see my face again. I'm going to Rome and I'm going to die there. Let me give you some parting words. Now you need to understand this was their guy, the man who had invested three years into their lives. And for two years, he had taught them the scripture for five hours a day. This was their

pastor, their friend. And he tells them in Acts 20, my friends, watch out. When I leave, savage wolves will come and try to present to you a distorted gospel. So be on guard, be on the lookout and drive them away. And that's exactly what they did. In the midst of hostility, they stayed vigilant and on guard against every sort of aberrant and errant teaching. They were hard workers. They had a close eye on doctrine. They drove home the claims of scripture and they drove away false teachers. They were not easily swept away. They were those who are like the Bereans, who scrutinized what they heard with the word of God. There were obviously no online resources back then. Their only resource was the Holy Spirit working through the word of God.

So these Ephesian believers are commended for their diligence, for their discernment. And number three, they are commended for their perseverance in the midst of persecution. In verse three, we read, And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. Maybe you've typed into Google before or have wondered yourself, how do I recognize a true church? Christians have often spoke about the marks of a healthy church before, but very few of them today hold the mark that Jesus Christ

is looking for, and that is a willingness to suffer for the sake of the gospel. These Ephesian believers were cross-bearing Christians who modeled their Savior not only in his love, but in his suffering. They had borne persecutions and difficulties, trials, distresses, embarrassment, and discouragement, yet they had really never capitulated to the culture. They had never surrendered to the seduction of sin. They kept on doing Christ's work for Christ's sake, and by Christ's power, they did not give up. The word here in Greek is hupomene or hupomeno. It was the first Greek word I ever learned when I was a kid, not because I was a scholar, but because my dad would preach and he would always tell the story

of Vasily Alexeyev, who was the Soviet weightlifter who set 80 world records and was known for his gold medals at the 72 and 76 Olympics for the clean and press. He would hold the weight over his head and would hold, hold, hold. And this word perseverance, my dad would tell me is the same idea. The word perseverance is a compound Greek word, hupo, which means under and mone, which means to stand. So it means to stand under the weight. And this is what the Ephesian church is commended for, their perseverance to stand under the weight of persecution and affliction and embarrassment and to keep on going. Other churches had been driven away by the hostility around them, but not this church.

They stood firm, they stood fast, and they stood under the weight. They were not a flash in the pan. There were scars and bruises on the timeline of their faithfulness. Jesus Christ is not a flatterer. He knows them and he's honest and affirms them in this regard. However, in the midst of all of this beauty, Jesus is going to say, I see toxicity. I see weeds. Something is wrong in Ephesus. There is a problem, something critical, something essential is missing. And the problem that is present has

the potential to override everything that is good. Jesus is going to say in Revelation chapter two, verse four, but I have this against you that you have left your first love. Jesus doesn't say they lost their first love. He says they left it. I want you to imagine the silence of the Ephesian church as they are applauded and affirmed for their diligence, their discernment, and their perseverance. And yet the main thing, the most critical piece, is missing. They had forgotten that who we are before God is more important than what we do for God. They are doing all these things for him, yet there is no love for Jesus Christ. And when your heart grows cold, you are in danger. Here's what you need to understand. Jesus is the groom and the local church is the bride, but the bride who fails to love the groom

fails in everything. A bride can throw meals on the table. They can perform the motions, but where there is no love in the relationship, there is inevitable failure. But not only that, Jesus says there is grave danger. Jesus is the groom and he is asking his church, is there something unlovable about me? Have I been unfaithful? Why don't you love me like you used to? Jesus says you have left your first love. Now, what does this even mean? What does it mean that the church of Ephesus left their first love? Well, it's not in sequence, but in relationship to prominence.

The first love here refers to a time in the believer's life where the Bible was food, prayer was fresh, evangelism was natural, and there was a delight in knowing Christ. This is what the church of Ephesus had departed from, like the carbonation in a Coke that had gone flat. Their love was declining. And the Lord Jesus Christ issues a chilling rebuke, apparently, in their devotion to their labor, their endurance amidst hostility, and their fixation on orthodoxy. They had left what Jesus

had considered to be the most critical thing of all, and that is a simple love for Jesus. Imagine if you are a member of the Church of Ephesus, listening to sermon after sermon, and you would say, of course, I love you, Lord. I work hard for you, Lord. I sought to be doctrinally correct, morally pure. I want you to be honored. But you see, Jesus sees beyond our diversionary tactics. He knows our hearts and he searches our hearts and he says, that is not the real issue. He asks you directly through his living word. Do you love me? You can have all of the marks of good and right things, but lose sight of what is most simple and most important. That is a love for Jesus. This is not some rebuke from a critic who comes and watches and observes, whose observation is worth little.

This is the groom of the bride himself. And at the end of the day, Jesus will not ask, hey, whose teaching did you listen to? He is going to ask, what did you do with the teaching of the word where I placed you? The church of Ephesus may have responded and said, hey, I'm loyal, ain't I? But the groom wants more than loyalty. He wants love. He wants affection. Churches are sensitive to their reputation. Many people say, I go to such and such a church, and we are this size. But Jesus says, let's not confuse reputation with reality. It is possible to appear

attached to the vine and to be in fact detached from Christ. It is possible to be utterly committed to the truth, but not committed to loving Jesus Christ. So you may be wondering what's the prescription that Jesus gives this waning church? Well, a few things here. Number one, he tells them to remember and repent. In verse five of chapter two, Jesus says, therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first. Jesus says, remember from where you have fallen. Remember what? Jesus says, remember the gospel. Jesus is asking them, have you forgotten how much you have been forgiven? Remember from where you have fallen.

Recall the joy in your heart when your sin was removed as far as the east is from the west. Open up your memory bank, Jesus tells them. And remember hearing for the first time, Jesus saying to you through his word, I have blotted out your sins. Though they were red like crimson, I have blotted them out white as snow. Jesus tells them, remember what it was like when grace gripped you. Not remember the moment you got saved, but remember the effect that grace had on you. Here's the reality. We leave our first love when we fail to remember the gospel. We can be filled with good things, church things, ministry things, Greek study, without ever nurturing the inner man to love our Savior.

Maybe as Jesus bids us to remember what it was like at first, when we first got saved, you struggle because you can't remember something you've never experienced. But Jesus tells them, number one, to remember and repent. Secondly, he tells them to repeat. He tells them in verse five, and do the deeds you did at first. So he says, do the deeds, repeat the deeds you did at first. Jesus is telling them your heart has grown cold because you haven't been doing something. Why does he say do? Well, here's the reality you need to understand. Obedience cultivates love. God has no intention

to let us live a useless life. When we leave our first deeds, there is no question about having lost or left our first love. What were those first deeds of the Ephesian church? Well, I want to look at four of those first deeds. This is important and often overlooked. Number one, those first deeds were marked first and foremost by a hunger for God's presence and a hunger for God's word. It is possible to use the word of God only to fight air and over time, no longer come to God's word to nourish your soul. We can listen to preaching and be critical of style and grammar and cadence without ever celebrating

God himself. It is possible to be like the church of Ephesus, always purifying something, always looking for air and no longer coming to the word of God and no longer sitting under the teaching of the word of God just to nourish your own soul. Secondly, one of the deeds they did at first was that they were marked by fervent prayer. Paul says 40 years earlier in Ephesians 6, 18, pray at all times in the spirit. Can I just ask you, do you pray? Do you like really, really pray?

I'm not just talking about before meals. I'm talking about throughout the day, in the closet, on your knees. Do you spend time with God in prayer? It sounds so simple, so basic, so rudimentary, but it's so neglected by many people today and by the Ephesian church back then. Do you want to know when the Ephesian church left their first love? When they stopped stooping to their knees. Why are some of the planets so cold? Well, simply because they are so far from the sun. And why are so Christians so cold and so distant from God? It's because they

are so distant to the son of God in prayer. When we live days and weeks and months without personal fellowship with God, without real connection with him, how is it possible to maintain love towards a stranger? Without prayer, your theological study produces no personal thrill. Connection becomes artificial. Love for the world grows and love for Jesus Christ wanes. You are vulnerable to every sin when you do not live in fervent prayer. Be watchful and pray, Jesus says, lest you fall into temptation. What type of temptation? All kinds. Lust, greed, and abandonment of first love. So first, their life was marked by a hunger for the word of God. Second, a fervent prayer. And third, it was marked by a love for God's people. In Ephesians 1.15, Paul says, for this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,

which exists among you and your love for all the saints. He gives thanks for that, that they love each other. Doctrinally sound churches become quick to learn and often slow to forgive. They become those who are always looking for air. It is quite possible to be both theologically rigorous and personally affectionate, but many churches today are one or the other. They are either theologically rigorous without personal affection, or they are personally affectionate without theological mooring. And both of these churches are in great danger, but they had lost their love for each other. They were always searching for air and

they had lost their love. Fourth, this church of Ephesus was marked by evangelistic zeal. Remember, Jesus is telling them to repeat and do the deeds they did at first. That's the cure for their departure from their first love. And one of their deeds that marked the church at first, 40 years before, was their evangelistic fervor. But here's the reality. The Ephesian church had become so busy battling air and protecting themselves that they had no strategy for advancing the gospel. They had forgotten that the church does not put up their gates, but rather the church storms the gates of hell. The church is not on defense.

We are on offense. And the church of Ephesus had forgotten that. Kevin DeYoung once again says, the church was great, this church that is, at keeping the world out of the church, but not great at getting the word into the world. They were not compromising with the world, but they were not engaging it with the gospel. Number five, this church was marked by transparent confession. In Acts chapter 19, 18, we read, many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.

And many of those who practice magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone. And they counted up the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. True awakening in a church is always on the heels of Christians who receive the word of God and bring things to light that were hidden in the closet. Many believers have so many things hidden in the

peripheral corners of their lives that should not be there. But because our Christian culture is so superficial, it is possible to sweep these things under the rug. But when the Spirit of God comes in power, believers who have things hidden want to have spring cleaning in their heart. They want everything exposed. They desire total transparency and contrite confession. They want a radical break with all that is ungodly in their life. So Jesus tells them to repeat the deeds that they did at first, and that is a hunger

for God's word, a fervent prayer life. Third, a love for God's people, evangelistic zeal, and total and transparent confession. So he tells them to remember the gospel, repeat the deeds they did at first. And then third here, he tells them, he gives them actually a warning. In verse five, he says, therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first. And then watch this. He says, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. He says, or else.

Does that sound stern? Well, these are Jesus's words. He says, or else I will remove my candlestick. That's just the light of the church. This doesn't mean that you can lose your salvation, but do you know what it does mean? It does mean that you can lose your usefulness and influence for Christ. Shine bright, Jesus says, or be removed. The year is 2024. That is today. And the reality is there's no church in Ephesus today because churches that refuse to shine die. You either give the gospel away or lose it.

And theologically astute churches that are lackluster in their love for God are in grave danger. The night before the 1986 Challenger launched, a group of contractors from Morton Thiokol wrote NASA telling them that these elastic O-rings were not designed for the cold temperatures. And they told them that the mission was in danger. So they wrote this memo, this letter to NASA saying, do not proceed. Sadly, the message, the letter, was not heeded. And here's the reality. And here's the question for you. Will you heed this message from our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love him?

Have good things caused you to lose sight of the main thing? Well, here's my encouragement for you and for my own heart. Then look to the one who observes his church and observes your life with eyes of love and remember the gospel, repent and repeat the deeds you did at first. If you're not saved, Jesus is a lovely savior. He is worthy of our commitment, our faithfulness, but most importantly, he is worthy of our love. And what can get lost in the shuffle is that he simply wants our hearts. He does not speak to us audibly today, but he speaks to us through his word. I told you that there is really a prescription that Jesus gives. And then I said, there's also a promise. And here's the promise in Revelation 2,

7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. I hope you're one who hears because Jesus says, to him who overcomes, this is the promise, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. That's a wonderful promise, isn't it? Well, if you've been blessed by this episode, please pass along to your friends and to your family so they too might hear what Jesus has to say

in his wonderful word. Till next time, stay dialed in.