The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Ephesus – You Left Your First Love

Episode Date: March 1, 2020

Is He the ONE thing that drives everything in your life?

the church. Amen, amen, amen. How about that epic video, huh? Nothing says good morning like the apocalypse. So, man, we are starting a new teaching series today where we're going to be focusing over the next seven weeks on Revelation chapter two and three in the words of Jesus and addressing the seven churches of Asia Minor. But before we dive into that today, we got a little family business to discuss. And as you well know, we have kicked off the Lent season here at the church. 1122. Amen. Amen. It's good. We take Lent very, very seriously. This is a season of preparation where we are preparing our minds and our hearts to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on Easter Sunday. We are crazy about Easter here. We love Easter here. The resurrection

of Jesus Christ from the dead is the centerpiece of our faith, and we want to make as big a deal about it as we possibly can all the time, but specifically at Easter. And so Lent helps us prepare to celebrate the resurrection. We prepare as a church a couple of different ways. One is that we pray together. Every Wednesday at all of our campuses during the lunch hour, our campuses are open for you to come and pray if you can and just to take an hour in the middle of your week to focus on hearing God's voice and spending time with him and with your brothers and sisters in Christ and we fast together. From sun up to sun down on Wednesdays, we say no to the things of the flesh in order to say yes to the voice of God and to make

room for him to prepare us. And then this year we wanted to do something unique, which was to create a resource that would help you in your preparation process. And so we created a daily devotional starting tomorrow. Pastor Joby kicks off a series of devotionals. A new one will launch every day, Monday through Saturday, between tomorrow and Easter weekend. And so every day, pretty much, you're going to have a new devotion where one of our pastors or staff are going to walk through one of the miracles in the life of Jesus. And we believe that by devotional studying these miracles, that it's going to help

prepare our hearts for the greatest of all miracles, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You can get this devotional through your podcast, which is in the, through the 1122 app, which you haven't downloaded it. You can download it for many app store. It's the Church of 1122 app. Download that.

And for whatever reason you can't do that, you can go to our website, C-O-E-2.com slash Easter and it'll all be there for you. So I hope that's a blessing to you. Hope you dig into it. And the devotions are about 10 minutes each. Pastor Jobi starts us off tomorrow. And so hopefully that'll be a great resource for you. You're welcome. All right. Let's dive into some Bible study. You ready? We are going to study Revelation. Jesus's words to the seven churches over the next seven weeks. We're going to start today in Revelation chapter 1, verse 9. Revelation is the last book in the New Testament. It is known as the final revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John. This is a divine

vision given from Jesus to the Apostle John of all the things that are yet to come. It is an apocalyptic vision that Jesus gives John that tells us things that are yet to happen. In verse 9, we kick off in chapter 1. It says this, I, John, your brother and partner in tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. So who's John? John is one of Jesus' disciples.

He was on the mountain of ascension when Jesus ascended back to the right hand of the Father. He was at Galgotha when Jesus was crucified. He was inside of Jesus' inner circle. He is the self-proclaimed disciple that Jesus loved the most. Not to be confused with John the Baptist. John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin. And Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of woman.

But John the Baptist didn't author any of the New Testament books. The Apostle John, he got five of them. The Gospel of John, First, Second, and Third John, and this book of the Revelation. So that's who John is. John, it's been like four or five decades since Jesus has ascended back to the right hand of the Father. So John's an old man at this point. He's in his 80s or 90s, and he has been banished to an island in the Adelaide. G and C called Patmos where he will spend the rest of his days breaking rocks because he was preaching

the way and teaching the way of Jesus and so he got arrested for it and he got sent out to this little island to live out the rest of his days in prison. John is a really big deal in the church at this point in time. He is probably the most significant leader in the church still alive. At this point in history, Paul has already been executed. Peter has already been crucified upside down and So John, his words would have been highly valued by these local churches where there were people he knew. Where we are on the map is we are in the Aegean Sea right off the coast of the Roman province of Asia Minor. Now, anytime you're studying the New Testament, you're going to want to keep the context of the Roman Empire in the back of your mind. Rome is unlike anything the world has ever seen.

They dominated the world with complete power for more than 1,500 years. Our country is about 250 years old. Compared to Rome, we got a long ways to go. Rome ruled the world. One and a half million kilometers of dirt. They ruled with absolute authority for 1,500 years. They were a powerful, powerful reality. And it was inside this context that we find John.

And so in the Roman province, if you were traveling from Patmos through this part of Rome, you would go along what was a trade route. And this trade route had seven cities along it. In each of these cities, a disciple or an apostle had planted a church. And so every one of these city centers or hubs of activity would have had a church in the middle of them. And these seven cities are Ephesus, which we're going to look at that letter today. Smyrna, Pergamum, Thiatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And so over the next seven weeks, we are going to look at Jesus' letter to each of these individual

communities of faith, these believers in Jesus Christ located in these cities in the Roman Empire. So what is John doing on this island when he receives this divine revelation? Chapter 1, verse 10, it says this. John writes, I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. Where we find John is in this deep place of abiding prayer.

It's important to note that John's not just a historical figure in the church, but that he was a pastor. and that John had spent time with these churches and he knew people by name. He had a, what I can only liken as, it's called a pastoral affection for these people. Right? And so one of the things that happens when you pastor alongside of a people and you serve with a people for any period of time is that God begins to like produce down in your guts this love for them. And every week at our campuses, one of our campus pastors or Pastor Jobi, you'll say these words, I love you like crazy or I love you more than you know. And those are not just words.

That is the work of God inside the heart of the pastor. And that's the way John was feeling. You know, I had a moment like this last weekend. I'm standing over here and we're during the singing portion of our worship service. And in like one eye shot, like one view of my eye, I saw. saw, it was this real moment of grace where I saw all of these people that God has blessed me with a relationship that I get to love. And my friend Ellison was up here and she was singing this song, We Will Make Room for You, Jesus. And I've watched Ellison, this young lady, walked through some really,

really difficult seasons of life, some really challenging things and do so with grace and faith and a ton of maturity. And she's up here just singing her face off singing, we will make room. And I'm over here, grown man crying. You know, it's so good. Right next to Ellison is my buddy Jonathan, he's leading worship, and Jonathan and I've been friends forever. And before my family even, when we were praying about, God, do you want us to come be a part of the movement of 1122? I knew Jonathan then, and I sat with him and I asked his wisdom and discernment. Now he serves here with us and our families, and we get to do ministry together, and he's a big

old tall guy with the long fingers, and he's just up here singing his face off to Jesus. And I'm like, oh, my friends, man, I love these people. Right? on the front row is my friend Elizabeth who surrendered life to Jesus on New Year's a few years ago and got baptized. I got to baptize her in a tub right here, right down the road from Elizabeth's and my buddy Washington. Washington at one point, one of our staff members said, Washington is the least likely person in all of Jacksonville to surrender his life to Jesus. If there's ever a person who's not coming to Jesus, it is Washington.

And he is standing on the front row with his hands raised singing praises to Jesus, glory to God, forever and ever. Amen. It's awesome, right? And right across the room. from Washington as my buddy Brian. Brian's testimony is that he would sit here week after week after week just to try to placate his wife because she wanted to go to church. And he would sit in the chair and like hold on to his chair until it was over. And then he'd bust out as fast as he could.

And he'd get in the parking lot. And literally he'd be like, it almost got on me today. But I'm good. I'm good. Until eventually the irresistible grace of God seized his heart and he surrendered his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And I got to travel with Brian last year to Africa to help make disciples at some of our church

plants through the one initiative. And I got to see him make disciples that make disciples. Look, man, you can't make this stuff up. This is the joy of what it is to pastor with the people. It's to see God at work in people's life. And John, he had seen God at work in people's life. And so he's writing these letters from this deep place of love and this pastoral affection.

In Revelation chapter 2, verse 1, there's a voice speaking to John. And it tells John to do this. It says, John to the angel of the church in Ephesus, right. So what's going on in Ephesus? The name Ephesus means desirable. And so in order for your city to get named desirable, it's got to be pretty legit. There's got to be some good stuff going on.

It was a beautiful city. It was a booming city. It was an epicenter of culture and creativity and commerce. It was the foremost city in all of Rome in this part of the Roman Empire. It was the hub of all activity. Ephesus was a legit, legit place. And inside of this hub of activity and this center of culture was this gospel community, this believing people who were practicing and teaching the way of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And it's to these people that John writes these words. The voice tells John, write to the Church of Ephesus. Write down the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand. and who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Now, before we get into the stars and the lampstands, we have to back up and ask the most important question, which is this. Who is this man that walks around with stars in his hands? Who is he?

In chapter one, it shows us. Go to verse 10 of chapter 1. Skip back a few verses, and John writes this. Chapter 1, verse 10, John says, And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, a piercing, penetrating sound. I heard a voice behind me like a trumpet. In verse 12, and John says, and then I turned to see the voice of the one speaking to me. And on turning, I saw golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands,

one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs on his head were white like wool like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. And from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

Listen, believer, one day we were going to be in a fully glorified state. And in this fully glorified state, we're going to be able to look at Jesus in his full-stained. glorified state, of which his face will be shining like the sun. And we will have the ability to look upon his sun's shining face and see it as beautiful. And while we're staring into the beauty of Jesus's

on fire face, we're going to say, Jesus. Why is your face so bright? And Jesus is going to say it's just my face. You're welcome. You might want to go back and check out last week's sermon to get the full weight of what I just did there. His face is shining like the sun in full

strength. And John says this. When I, don't miss this, when I saw him, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Listen, in the grand eternal scheme of things, when it comes to the lordship of Jesus Christ, we really have two options. One, we will bow. And the other is, we will bow. We will bow before him. Every tongue will confess, and every knee will bow at Jesus Christ, who is the Lord. We will bow willfully and joyfully, or we will bow regretfully and begrudgingly. But either way, we will bow.

John appropriately responds to the revelation of God the Son, who is Jesus Christ, and he falls down as dead. But then this kind, compassionate, just king, he makes a move toward John, and this is what he does. it says that he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades. This is King Jesus.

Whatever image you have in your head of Jesus, whatever image you have in your mind of Jesus, you should replace it with this one because this is who he is. This is Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lord. This is what he is currently doing. I meet a lot of Christians who are apathetic or who have grown complacent in their faith. I meet a lot of Christians who are defeated in their faith. And one of the reasons that I think we grow apathetic or complacent or we become defeated

is because we don't see Jesus rightly as he is. We don't have the right view of Jesus in our minds. We see Jesus oftentimes as maybe like a modified, better version of ourselves. Or we see him as maybe like a Galilean peasant who took a beating and is bleeding out hanging on a cross somewhere. Make no mistake about it. Jesus certainly took a beating. There's no doubt about it. And he certainly was led up until Galgotha's Hill where he died and was crucified on a Roman cross.

No question about it. But right now, he's not dead anymore. He is alive. He's not bleeding out. He's not weak need. He's not suffering. He's not whining. He's not complaining.

He's not worried. He is the king of all kings. He is the one who rules and reigns over everything. There is no one like him and there is no other but him. This is Jesus Christ, the Lord. This is who we're talking about. You get me all fired up, man. Man, I'm sweating.

See, church, Jesus is not a king. He's the king. He is royalty from an ultimate bloodline. He's not elected. He has no term limits. He is a high priest in the order of McKelzeeck. If you don't know what that is, you should totally go home this afternoon and read about it. It's going to blow your mind. All that ultimately means is that Jesus is awesome. There's nobody like him. Nobody could do what he has done and nobody can be who he is. Because of Jesus's infinite rule and reign, he is the authority. He is the authority. which means that he has an authoritative view on all things and on all people. Colossians chapter 1 verse 18 says this. Jesus is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

You see, Jesus is first. God placed him there. He is first. We don't put Jesus first. He is first. and we either order our life around his firstness and around his preeminence and walk in the fullness of God and the understanding of what it means to be created and loved and redeemed. We order our life around the firstness of Jesus Christ

or we order our life around something else's first, meaning that we never actually get to step into the fullness of God's promises in our life. Either way, Jesus is first. It's just who he is. He is preeminent. He is the alpha, the head of the church. He's not just the mouth, the eyes, the ears of the church. he is the head, which means where he goes, the body goes. He is the leader, the point. The new Adam, he is preeminent in all things. This is who Jesus is. And so to be a Christ

follower, to follow Jesus Christ of Nazareth means to have surrendered to Christ, to to surrender to Christ and to follow him as the authority on everything. Now, to want to do this, to want to order our lives around the firstness of Jesus, to want to be surrendered unto him as the authority in our lives. To want to do that is the result of God's grace at work in our lives. This is the desires that God's grace puts in us and grows in us. And so when we come under Christ's authority, that means that he becomes the source of our identity, that he gets to tell us who we are. Nobody else. I don't get to tell me who I am. The world doesn't get to tell me who I am. He gets to tell me who I am. When I come under his authority,

he becomes the source of my identity. Look, we live in a world where we are, all of us, wired with two questions down at the foundation of our soul. And these two questions are ultimately, who am I, and what's my purpose? Who am I and what's my purpose? And we are going through this life, trying to find the answers to these questions. And we live, and we live. in a culture and in a world that is like an identity buffet, where we're going through life, traveling with these questions rooted down inherent to who we are, and we're trying to answer and establish and forge for ourselves and identity. And so we're grabbing on to all of these things. We're grabbing on to accomplishments and relationships and feelings and achievements and

opinions. And we're trying to bring all these things in. And we're trying to mesh together for ourselves and identity to understand who we are and what our purpose is. But to try to understand our identity apart from God who is the creator of life, who made himself clearly known to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ to try to establish for ourselves an identity apart from Christ. It's like trying to put together a one million piece jigsaw puzzle, but to not have the photo that's on the front of the box, right? If you don't have the photo, you don't have the finished image. You don't have the final product. You don't see the destination. You don't get the big picture. And so if you don't have the photo, the final image, the completed work, if you don't

have that, then all you have is a million pieces. Maybe every now and then you can find a corner and you can start to frame it up a little bit and you feel like you're making progress, but ultimately you go through your life lost in a sea of pieces. To say that Christ is our authority is to say that in him I have found who I am and what my purpose is. He tells me who I am And he tells me what the purpose of my life is. This is what it means to be surrendered unto the lordship of Jesus, the Christ. So to say that Jesus is our authority is to say that he is the one thing that drives everything. He is the one thing that makes everything else make sense.

And this king of kings, the Lord of Lords, he is in this vision to John. He is revealing himself as holding seven stars in his right hand and walking among seven golden lampstands. And it says this in Revelation chapter 1, verse 20. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, this is Jesus talking, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

And the seven lambsstands are the seven churches. Now, there are far more than seven churches in the world at this point in time. Almost, not almost, every commentator I read agrees that the reason they chose the seven churches of, Asia Minor or seven churches in general is because seven is the biblical number for completion. And so these seven churches in some way represent every church ever. And so that's the seven

lamp stands. And then the seven stars slash angels that are synonymous with one another, some people believe that this term angel to the angel of the church of Ephesus, right, this term angel is a term of affection for the local pastors of those congregations, of which I would say, cool. I'm a pastor I've never been called an angel before but if that's how Jesus wants to roll I'm down

right some people say that it actually literally means that each church has been assigned an angel in the heavenlies to look over them and I would say cool I'm down I hope we don't have a million angels assigned to us

I hope we don't have one I hope we have a million angels assigned to us amen either way I'm down the symbolism in Revelation 1 is not what we're supposed to get lost in the image we're supposed to see in Revelation 1, it is all about us seeing Christ rightly as the king of kings and as the authority over all creation, specifically redeemed creation, which is the church. And so now this king, this authority, he says this to the church at Ephesus, Revelation 2, verse 2. Revelation 2 verse 2. Jesus says, I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. and how you cannot bear with those who are evil,

you're going to want to underline that phrase, patient endurance. It's real similar in phrasing to another New Testament, another New Testament phrase that we know, which is the words to abide. Patient endurance and to abide. They have real similar meanings, and it ultimately means to remain under.

You were remaining under the yoke of Jesus. You were remaining under the ethic of Jesus. You were remaining under the teaching of the Apostle. the apostles. You were remaining under the things that you have been taught and the things that have been revealed to you. You were staying under the yoke, under the mantle of Jesus the Christ. You were being patient in contending for the faith. You can't stand those who are evil. So the people who are working against the way of Jesus, you were not giving in to them, but you were holding strong. You were being patient in your endurance. And so he says, I know how you cannot bear with those who are evil,

but you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be false. What Jesus is doing here is he is commending this church for right belief and for right behavior. Right belief and right behavior. He's saying you agree with the right things. You affirm and defend correct statements of faith. You agree with the right things, and you're practicing some of the right behaviors. You're contending for the faith in culture, certainly.

You're trying real hard to be good dads and good moms and good workers. You're trying to contribute. You're trying to create. You're practicing some of the right behaviors. And Jesus is saying, good job. You're contending well for the faith. And this is a significant compliment, considering what the Ephesian Christians were contending against. Look, the city of Ephesus was named by the Emperor Domitian as the guardian city of the

imperial cult. Okay? So the imperial cult is when the Caesars decided that they were going to deify themselves, that they were going to make themselves gods. And so to be a Christian was to say, wait, wait, there's only one God and his name is Jesus. There is one God, one Creator God, and he's revealed in the personal work of Jesus. So to say that I'm a follower of Jesus is to deny or to work against the state-sponsored religion. This came at significant cost. And it's not just the imperial cult, religious practice in the Roman Empire was a complete disaster. At this point in time, in the heart of the city of Ephesus, there was this massive temple, tons of temples, but the biggest of them all was the temple of Artemis.

And Artemis was known as the mistress goddess of wild animals. This is disgusting stuff that we're talking about. False worship and false gods was all over the place. And not just that. The temple was not just a place where false gods were worshipped. The temple system in the Roman Empire was big money. If you were middle class or you were lower class in the Roman Empire, you really had two options. You could work in the military or you could join what was known as a Workers Guild.

And these Workers Guild existed to build religious symbols and religious icons that they would sell and trade and barter through the temple system. And so that if you wanted to have a trade or a craft or a job, you had to work on things that supported the worship of false idols. and false gods. And so for the Christians, they would say, I can't do that. I can in good conscious work in this trade because I know that by doing so, I am contributing to the advancement of evil. They knew that to just go along, to get along with popular culture in a broken world is to contribute to the unraveling of God's greater design.

So the Ephesian Christians are contending well for the faith in a really hostile place, in a culture that is bent toward hating them. not accepting them. And so they're contending well externally against false religions. And internally, heresy was rampant in the first century. This is in large part why the apostles wrote the New Testament epistles is to combat heresy. There was a dominant heresy alive in the city of Ephesus inside the church, which Jesus mentions in a few verses known as the Nicolation heresy. And ultimately, what the Nicolation heresy taught was that you can follow in the way of Jesus, and you can live a whatever you want to do type life.

That you can be a follower of Jesus and you can ultimately just do whatever you want to do. If you want to sacrifice food to idols, go for it. If you want to have a job that promotes false religion, go for it. You just do whatever you want to do. You eat what you want, you drink what you want, you sleep with who you want to. You do whatever you want to do, and you'll be just fine. That's what the Nicolation heresy was. And the Ephesians were like, wait, wait, no, no, no.

Jesus showed us the way of God. He showed us a new kingdom, a new ethic to live under, and it is not a gospel of self-indulgence. Jesus taught us that self-denial was the way to life and freedom. And so the Ephesians are contending well against some really, really difficult challenges. And Jesus is complimenting them for it. He continues in verse 3 of chapter 2. He says this, I know you were enduring patiently. and bearing up for my name's sake.

And you have not grown weary. Listen, quickly, this church on paper is amazing. They're amazing. And they didn't just happen upon it. The church at Ephesus has had some of the greatest church leaders that have ever lived, just to name of few. People who have pastored and or been elders at the Church of Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila, they're in the book of Acts, incredible disciple makers.

Apollos, the Bible calls Apollos. a great preacher. For the Bible to call you a great preacher means you can chuck some serious gospel corn. You know what I mean? Like you can throw down. That's what this dude could do. Apollos was there. The Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul was there. One time he was there for two or three years where he was teaching in the synagogues and making disciples. Paul's right-hand man, Timothy was the pastor there. Another one of Paul's right-hand man, Tichicus, he was there for years. And even John himself was an elder at the Church of Ephesus.

These are the greatest minds, the greatest preachers, the greatest thinkers, the greatest leaders that the church has ever known. John had the greatest apologetic in human history. Do you know what the greatest apologetic is? I saw Jesus dead and then I saw him alive. You can't argue with that. And it is these people who have been leading the church at Ephesus. And so they've had some incredibly good training.

and they're staying under the teaching. They're staying under the construct. They're staying under the yoke. But then Jesus says this in verse four. But, but I have this against you. Remember who's talking here. Jesus is looking at this church and saying, but I have a problem with you.

I have this against you. that you have abandoned the love you had it first. That you have abandoned the love you had it first. You see, the Ephesians were zealous for right thinking and for right behavior, passionate about it. But so were the Pharisees. Last week, Pastor Jobi said, you can have right thinking, and a bad heart.

I mean, is it possible to be passionate about a lot of right things and to have lost your love? So let me ask you this, church. Do you love him? I mean, do you love him? Do you love Jesus? And I know, I know there's a lot of type A people here.

God bless you. I'm one of you. I appreciate you. I understand. And that your mind is wired in a way that you just want to meet it. go to, well, how do I know if I love him? And you want to build out these measurements and you want to build out a formula to help it all make sense in your mind and have some boxes to check. Okay, okay, fine. Before we jump into measurements and to all that stuff, just hang on one second. Just hold on. And let me just ask you, does Jesus get you all stirred up down in here? You know? Like, does your mind ever just wander toward him? Like when you think about Jesus,

Is he beautiful to you? There's this great quote that says, religious people find Jesus useful. That he's a fantastic means to an end for them. That he's a great accommodation to their life for them to feel better about their way of living. That he's really useful. He helps validate some arguments in their life

and that Jesus is really useful to religious people. Religious people find Jesus useful, but gospel people? they see him as beautiful. When the Puritans used to preach the gospel, and people would convert to Christianity, they would become a Christian. The way we say here is that they would surrender their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

They would get saved. They would be redeemed. They would be rescued. They would become regenerate or born again. Whatever word you want to use, when this conversion happened, no one is born a Christian, you become a Christian, responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when the Puritans would preach the good news of Jesus of,

Jesus and someone would become a Christian, surrender to life to Jesus. The testimony that they would give is that they would say that this person has been seized by the power of a great affection. They've been seized by the power of a great affection. They've come face to face with the reality that they are desperately in need and that there is a God who loves them so much that he murdered his son so that they could be free from their sins and they love him for it. They have been seized by God.

great love for them. I've been seized by the power of a great affection. Have you? I mean, do you love him? As I'm studying these scriptures deep down in my guts. Look, man, I'm a pastor here. I'm all in. I'm in.

There's no inner than in than what I am. I'm into it. I love it. But all for weeks jumping off the page. at me has been a big, fat warning to the church of 1122. I mean, is it possible that we could get so wrapped around the axle of good things? Discipleship, evangelism, church planting, campus launching, growth, all of these good God-prescribed things.

Is it possible that we could get wrapped around the axle of all these good things and that we would lose our love for the person who these things are ultimately all about? I mean, is it possible that we could get so wrapped around the actual of being a good Christian? Thinking the right things, saying the right things, doing the right things, and somehow we fall out of love with Jesus, who is the one who made doing right things possible in the first place? Could we abandon our love for the one that this thing is all about? It's not only possible. It's actually easy.

And it just happens one step at a time. And so Jesus is looking at the Ephesian Church. He's saying, you don't love me anymore. See, the Ephesians had become hard-hearted. And I'm sure they didn't just land here. It was one step at a time. And it came by very explainable means. They were exiled.

They were in a culture that hated them. They had been hurt. They had been persecuted. In any heart that gets hurt enough, it is easy for that heart to callus up. And when that heart caluses up, it becomes, to become hard. And what happens is you begin to build walls to defend yourself. And so the authenticity of faith, the vulnerability of faith, the complete surrender unto the lordship of Jesus Christ, the confession of sin, the repentance of sin. These things become secondary. They become non-existent

and religious practice takes over. And it becomes about being right, not about being in love. And that's what had happened to the Ephesians. They had become hard-hearted. And in in this hard-heartedness they had lost their love for Christ and they had lost their love for people. Biblically, you can't separate those two things. The New Testament witness is that we would love God who is Jesus Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and that we would love people as we love ourselves.

This is the witness of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the Apostle Paul writes it like this. if I speak, listen to what he's saying, listen, church, listen to the words. If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, if I can understand the language of the angels, if I can speak in tongues of men and angels, but I have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I have prophetic powers, if I can preach the greatest sermons, if I can discern and understand all the mysteries and all the knowledge, if I can make known to you all the mysteries of God,

and I can clearly communicate them to you, if I can do all of those things, and if I have so much faith that I can look at mountains and I can remove them from the earth, if I can do all of those things, but I have not love, I am nothing. I am nothing. If I give away all that I have,

if I'm the most generous person on the planet, it. If I offer my body up to be burned, if I sign up for martyrdom, but I have not love, I gain nothing. And so Jesus looks at his church and he says, church, you just don't love me anymore. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to remember. You're going to pull over. You're going to stop. Just stop. And you're going to rewind. You're going to remember. You're going to remember. You're going to you're going to recall this love. I mean, do you remember? Maybe it wasn't the first time you heard it,

but at some point in your life, you heard the fact that Jesus Christ died for you. And it did something in your guts. Something happened in you. And in this childlike place, you look at Jesus, and you say, Jesus, I need you. I can't save myself.

I need you, but not only do I need you, Jesus, I want you. I want you. And he's saying, you've got to remember this place. You've got to get back to where it was about love. Where it wasn't about road religious activity or doing the right things. Before you became a church member, before you signed up for a disciple group, before you could agree and affirm a statement of faith, before you knew any theological words or you had your favorite preacher.

before any of that, there was a point in time where you just looked at me and you were happy to see me because you loved me. Let's get back there. Let's get back there. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen and repent. Repentance is a godly sorrow that leads to change. Remember and repent and do the works you did at first. If not, Jesus says, if you don't do this, I will come. come to you. And I will remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

Make no mistake, church. God will not be mocked. And this could very well mean that unless this church repented that they would cease to exist and this church does not exist anymore. So this very well may be what happened. I don't know, but I do know this. If a believing people, if they get so busy doing good stuff or any stuff that they grow numb in their love for their Savior. And if they get fixed on being justified in their own works instead of an awe of Jesus, then it is just a matter of time before hard-heartedness sets in, before joyless living and joyless ministry takes over. And when this happened, God's spirit gets grieved, and it will get grieved to a point

which he will pull his presence away from that people. And I'm not talking about losing our salvation. I'm talking about losing the joy of our salvation. So Jesus says, repent. And he says this, yet this you have, church. You hate the work of the Nicolations, which I also hate. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep contending for the faith.

Keep opposing evil. Keep preaching the way of Jesus. Keep striving for all these good things. But just don't do them for the approval of man. or don't do them for religious rightness or for doctrine zeal. Get back to the original motivation that sets you on this course in the first place. Keep doing what you're doing, but get back to the heart of it, which is love. Which is love.

So Jesus closes with this. He says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers. To the one who conquers. And we know that those who love Jesus believe on his name. trust in him. We will conquer with him. In him, we are more than conquerors. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Jesus closes his statements to the Church of Ephesus with this really hopeful elevation of their view. He says,

church, you've got to get your eyes up. You're so focused on what's right in front of you. And it's important. It's just not eternal. You've got to get your eyes up. You're so focused on what's temporarily right in front of you that you're missing out on the promises of eternity. You have traded then for now. You're drifting. Get your eyes up. Look to me, Jesus is saying, I'm seated at the right hand of the Father and set your eyes on me. And through me, you will eat of the tree of life.

See, if I'm honest, and I try to be, and I'll end. with this. If I'm honest, I've been an Ephesian Christian before. See, I've been following Jesus for a long time. I started preaching the Bible when I was 15 years old. I'm not 15 anymore. I've had some really godly men and women pour into me over decades. I know a lot of theological words, tons of church activity. I'm into it. But if I'm honest, I've been an Ephesian Christian before. You know, I've been in this season where my faith had become very cold and calculating. It was very religious. I was operating from this obligatory sense of duty and responsibility. Right? And I knew the right things to say and I knew the right things to do. And the reason I was doing

the right things and saying the right things was so that people would look at me and they would go, add-a-boy. You didn't have anything to do with love. It had everything to do with love. It had everything to do with checking some boxes. And in this season, what I found is that my faith had become cold and lifeless because I had built all these walls around me because I had been hurt. And I didn't want to step into the vulnerability of faith. I didn't want to confess my sins. I didn't want to repent.

You know, why? Because I liked them. I didn't want to walk out in what it means to truly belong to people, to trust others and to let them in, to be a people. in love with Jesus. I didn't want to do all that. What I wanted was religious approval and affirmation. I wanted to do just enough to get by. And what I found was that I was very internally isolated and cold. I was lonely and praised God. He wrote these words down in my soul a long time ago. And that these words kept bringing me back. They kept calling me back

to the purity of love to the beauty of the gospel they kept pulling me out of religion and restoring me into relationship and it's these words that have never let me go and these words that are written down deep in my guts by the spirit of God and the grace of God

and it's simply this is the first verse I ever learned and the words that always call me back are this for God so love the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him

not whoever only agrees with him or appreciates him whoever believes in him whoever trusts him whoever comes underneath him whoever believes in him surrenders to him over and over and over again trust him

for salvation and then surrenders to him not to fall out of relationship but to stay in love with him whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life they will eat from the tree of life forever and ever we never graduate from the gospel church

we never move on we never get over the good news of Jesus Christ so I'll close with this church do you love him do you love him have you been seized by the power of a great affection

if you would at all of our campuses stand with me. We're going to pray and we're going to respond. We respond in one of three ways here. We come to the altars and we pray. We pour out our affection just as we sang earlier on the feet of Jesus. We tell him that we love him. We do business with him. We're honest with him. We step out in authenticity and prayer and confession. We pray. We worship. And maybe this song we're about to sing is your confession of faith today. Maybe it's your confession that says that Jesus, I love you and I want to love you. Your grace is stirred up in me, love for you, and I want to love you.

Grow this love in me. I love you, Jesus. Maybe we would respond that way by singing these words. Maybe we respond through giving. We respond in all of these ways. We bring our first and our best because God gave us his first and his best through Jesus Christ, his son. However God would lead you to respond, we invite you to respond. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for your love in our lives. We thank you for your kindness and your goodness. we thank you that you sent Jesus to live our lives for us and to die instead of us so that we could eternally be a part of your family. And, Father, I pray that the gospel today would stir up in us love and affection. Father, I pray that we would be a surrendered people and a surrendering people. The areas where we need to confess that we would confess and the places we need to repent that we would repent. Father, we love you and we need you and we want you. we pray that as we respond that your heart would be blessed and your presence would be among us

we pray all these things in the power of the most beautiful name and his name is Jesus and all God's people said amen let's respond to him together