THE LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES: Part l – The First Four Churches

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Revelation 2:1-29

Key Verse: 2:4,5a                                                                                                                        Kevin Jesmer 4-25-10

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

The Book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John from the Island of Patmos while in exile. One day while praying, he received this revelation from Jesus. Chapters 2 & 3 of this book relates a series of 7 letters to 7 churches. They are letters of encouragement as well as of rebuke. Although the letters were written to these churches to address some contemporary issues, they still speak to the Churches of all time. Through these letters we can find our own spiritual condition, repent and find hope and direction. At this time let us prayerfully look at the letter to the Christian churches in the first four cities. Especially we will see how we can restore our first love to Jesus.

Part I:  The Lord Commended The Ephesian Church (1-7)

Ephesus was the business center of Asia Minor. The people were idolatrous, worshiping the goddess Artemis and delving heavily into magical arts. They were hedonistic and utterly corrupt morally. But by the grace of our God, and the devoted teaching of Apostle Paul, the gospel way of life found its way to the hearts of a few Gentiles and a church was founded. Soon, the church a grew to become an influential Christian center. However, at the time of John’s Revelation, the church seems to have lost something of its original spiritual fervor. What happened to them? That is what we will discover.

First, who is the one who was speaking to them? Look at verse 1. “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.’” The “stars” are the angels of the 7 churches, (the bishops or the messengers) and the “lampstands” are the 7 churches. (1:20) Jesus is one who is speaking. He who speaks is no longer the tiny baby in a manger nor the Lamb led to the slaughter. Now, he is the Ruler of all things in heaven and on earth; the Sovereign Lord of the church and of the saints. He is the Almighty God. Therefore, it is with trembling and with awe that the church in Ephesus must now listen to these words of counsel.

What then was so urgent? Let’s read verses 2 & 3. “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” Jesus sincerely acknowledged their deeds of faith along with their passionate hard work done in his name. Before hearing the gospel, and coming to know Jesus, like everyone else, they lived in the world and did as the world does. Their deeds had all been done without God. But one day they heard the gospel, confessed their sins and invited Jesus into their hearts. Their lives were changed. They dedicated themselves to Jesus, the gospel way of life— to teaching the Lord’s commandments, to raising the Lord’s disciples and to taking care of the poor and needy. It wasn’t easy to do this in a city so openly hostile to the gospel. It took courage, faith, sacrifice and much time and effort. But they worked very hard. And their deeds born out of their faith were legendary. Most of their hard work in the Lord was not recognized by the world. But for them, it was enough that Jesus tells them: “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.” (2)

They were also a persevering church. Look at verses 2 & 3 again. According to Jesus’ commendation they had endured hardship and had not grown weary. Perseverance is one of the most important elements of Christian faith as well as an imperative for the survival of the Christian community. From the onset, the world had set itself up against the Christian faith, first by persecuting Jesus and later by persecuting Jesus’ people for the generations to come. In other words there is no respite for Jesus’ people who commit themselves to the Christian way of life. As Paul tells us: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22) The Ephesian Christians were not exempt from this principle. The hardships they had to endure from the enemies of the gospel must have been unbearable. Look again at verse 2 again. False apostles and false teachers constantly tried to infiltrate their community in order to sow seeds of a corrupt gospel. Look at verse 6. There were also the Nicolaitans whose doctrine was humanly very appealing. They propagated hedonism and Gnosticism. Church elders were exhausted from fighting against this constant onslaught of false teachings. Yet they never compromised the gospel faith. They persevered and did not grow weary. We must grow in the quality of perseverance as we live out our Christian lives and not put down the individual crosses God has called each of us to carry.

Though the Ephesian Christians had many good points, they had a serious spiritual problem that earned them a harsh rebuking from Jesus. Let’s read verse 4. “Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love.” This means they had forsaken, lost and abandoned their first love for Jesus.  What is “First love?” Most of you here do not know what first love means. But I know you will one day. My first real love, was my love relationship with Julie. First love is usually very sweet love. It is a memorable love. It is very special love. It is pure and sincere love. It is a kind of love that cannot easily be forgotten. The Ephesian Christians had experienced this first love for Jesus.

How can anyone experience their first love for Jesus? Romans 5:8 says: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  The Ephesians came to experience their first love when they came to know the extent of God’s love for them; when they came to understand what Jesus sacrificed for them in order to save them from their sins. Let’s think about what it took for Jesus save us from our sins. To do so, the Prophet Isaiah says that Jesus became a Man “… despised and rejected …a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering… Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows… he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-6) Jesus left the comforts of his Kingdom in Heaven and came to live among sinful humanity. He had come to befriend the helpless and the hopeless among us, those who are lonely and the homeless who have no where to go. Jesus had come to share in the sorrows of our hearts. Jesus understood the anguish of our lives lived in meaninglessness and in despair. So he came to bring us hope when we had none. Jesus came to bring us peace of heart when our hearts were filled with uncertainties and anxieties too great for us to bear alone. And he knew how alone we are, separated from God and from one another. Most of all Jesus understood the depth of our sins, caught in its snares daily, unable to stop sinning. In the darkness of our lives Jesus came to carry the burden of our sins upon himself. He came to shed his blood for our cleansing. He came to give his life in exchange for ours. What a beautiful Savior he is. When the Ephesians heard the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection, they were deeply moved by Jesus’ grace. The Bible gives a beautiful definition of love. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) The Ephesian Christians had each personally experienced this love of Jesus. They had each deeply understood the depth and width of the love of God who did not spare even his Own Son for them. No one can experience this first love unless they come to know the need of their own soul— unless they confess their sins with sincere repentance before God— and unless they give their hearts fully to Jesus.

But as the years passed by, something tragic happened. Read verse 4. “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” They had forsaken their first love. How could they have forsaken that burning first love for Jesus? We can understand. Like anyone in any generation we can forsake our first love when we are inundated with the problems of life, financial, school, relational issues. We struggle with various feelings and emotions that leave our hearts cold and dry. And the biggest mistake we make is to turn our hearts to solving these problems exclusively, slowly giving away our prayer time and our personal time in the word of God. This is like trying to work hard without eating or sleeping. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in maintaining church activities and church programs that we forget about our life source, our personal relationship with Christ.  No wonder that we find our souls dry and our hearts empty from time to time. Sometimes we can’t even tell how far we have drifted from the love of God. And the final tragedy is that we have no love left in our hearts for anyone. This is what probably happened to the Ephesian church.

Jesus wanted to jolt their hearts back into reality. Read verse 5. “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”  God never forgets his love for us. Isaiah 49:15 reads, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.”  If God’s love for us is so vivid in his memory, how can our love for God be forgotten so quickly? That is why Jesus rebukes them to “remember”. What must they remember? They must “Remember the height from which you have fallen!” We must remember the pit we were in before meeting Jesus (Ezek. 16:4-8). We must also remember the depths at which he found us and the heights to which he raised us up.  When we do then we can fall on our knees in deep and sincere gratitude. Then, after remembering that first and precious love, we must vow to do what we did at first. Can you remember how things were that precious day that you first met Jesus? What was your response the Christ back then? What is it now?

What can bring us back to what we were? What can make us do the things we did at first? Repentance is the only way! Repentance is God’s wisdom to restore a tired and weary soul, weakened by life’s many trials and hardships, and to make it soar on wings like eagles. (Isa 30:15) Repentance is the only avenue to return to our first love and to do the beautiful things we did at first.

What does God want from us more than anything else? Simply God wants us to accept his love and to love him back. Remember our NIU UBF 2009 Ministry key verse. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deut. 6:5) This has been God’s earnest desire for us from the beginning of time till this very day. “Remember the height from which you have fallen, repent and do the things you did at first” is certainly a rebuke. But it is a rebuke deeply intertwined with the love of God for us. God wants us to love him, deeply, passionately, as we did at first. And he wants us to bring this love to his flock, by giving them his God and by taking care of them personally individually as if they were the most precious people in the world. God also wants us to be a kingdom of priest and a holy nation to the whole world, until the whole world has come to know the love of God. There is indeed a lot to learn from Jesus’ message to the Ephesians.

Part ll: To Smyrna – Be faithful To The End  (8-11)

Jesus gave also gave a message to the faithful in the city of Smyrna.  Look at verse 8a. The city of Smyrna is 25 miles north of Ephesus, It has a nickname, “The Port of Asia” because it had an excellent harbor on the Aegean Sea. The demographics were volatile. There were people loyal to Rome who supported Emperor worship. There were Jews who strongly opposed the Christians. And there were the Christians. Persecution and suffering were inevitable in such a social environment. We can see some of the same type of tensions in the Middle East today with cities divided into religious sectors hostile to each other. In some cities you can’t go to church without worrying if a grenade is going to fly through a window or a person will enter the sanctuary with a machine gun. It was the same back then.

What was John’s instructions to these suffering Christians? Verses 8b-9 read, “…These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”  The best counselor is one who has gone through the same thing that their audience has gone through. Jesus assures them that he too suffered immensely and yet he overcame. He is the First and the Last. This means many things, but in regards to suffering, Jesus was the first to commit himself the way of the cross, the way of suffering, and he never shrunk back from the fray. Ultimately he suffered and died on the cross for our sins. Jesus also knew their poverty. Though he is God, he embraced poverty. He was born into a poor Jewish family. He entered this world as a helpless baby in a manger. He lived in a small rural town as a carpenter’s son. After he began his ministry he had no place to lay his head. Despite his suffering and his poverty he never gave up. He died and came to life again. He was victorious. He is speaking to these people as one who knows. They needed to be encouraged by Jesus.

They also dwelt on their poor condition. Jesus wanted to remind them that though they were materially poor and afflicted, they were rich in God.  There is more to riches than money. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year. Paul sums it up very well in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” They were spiritually rich in love and faith, because of Jesus’ sacrifice for them. And so are we. Now is the time to stop dwelling on our poverty and begin dwelling on the riches that have been given us in Jesus Christ.

John also encourages them to see their trials from the right point of view and persevere. Verses 10-11 read, “¹⁰Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.” Jesus understands these peoples’ sufferings, but he did not rescue them from them nor did he sympathize with them. He reminds them and us that our real enemy is not other people but rather Satan. He encourages them to be faithful to the end. This reminds us of Paul’s words the Ephesians, written decades previous, “¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Do you struggle with other people? Are you focusing on the wrong target. We need to open our eyes to see our real enemy and fight spiritually. He charges them not to be afraid, even though they were thrown into Roman prisons. He said, “Be faithful, even to the point of death and I will give you the crown of life.” And he promises that those who overcome will not be hurt by the second death. They will receive the crown of life and reign with Jesus forever in his kingdom. God is faithful and he wants his people to be faithful.

Part lll: To Pergamum – The Sharp Double- Edged Sword. (12-17)

Next, Jesus talks to the Christians in Pergamum. Let’s read verses 12-13, “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.”Pergamum was a sophisticated city, a center of Greek culture and education. It had a 200,000 book library. It was also the center of four cults and it rivaled Ephesus in its worship of idols. It was also the center of Roman emperor worship in Asia Minor—That is why John said that Satan’s throne was there! To be a Christian in Pergamum was to invite persecution. But there were faithful men and women who did not renounce their faith in Jesus. Look at verse 13 again. Antipas was the first Christian martyr of Asia. He did not compromise his faith.. It is not easy for Christians to stand in the very heart idolatry in any culture, even that of the USA. But many do…without compromising. And so can each of you.

But there was one area that they needed growth in. Let’s read verses 14-17, “¹⁴Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. ¹⁵Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. ¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”  Within the church there were followers of Nicolas, who was a gnostic and taught that it was all right for a Christian to indulge in sexual immorality, for what was done in the physical body didn’t matter anyway. He was like Baalam, a prophet employed by the Moabites to lead the Israelites into idolatry and sexual immorality. (Nu 22:1-7;25:1-2) If you read the passages about Balaam in the book of Numbers, you will discover that Baalam was slain and many Israelites who compromised their faith died. The Christians of Pergamum needed to repent of their compromises and for tolerating compromises among them.  God’s word is a two-edged sword that cuts out idolatry, immorality and compromise and demands repentance. What will be their reward? Look at verse 17 again. God gives mana from heaven, true and everlasting satisfaction and Jesus himself. The believer will get a new name and an admission ticket (the white stone) to the heavenly banquet.

Part lV: To Thyatira – Jesus’ Blazing Eye’s See You (18-29)

Next, Jesus talks to the Christians in Thyatira.  Thyatira was a working man’s town with many trade guilds for making pottery, cloth dying and pottery. Paul’s first convert was a merchant from Thyatira,  Lydia (Acts 16:14) The city was basically secular, with no focus on any particular religion. Let’s see what Jesus had to say to the Christians living in this city. Let’s read verses 18-25. Jesus’ eyes are like blazing fire.  He sees everything. His blazing eyes saw the growing love, faith, hard work and perseverance of the believers in Thyatira. They were not just satisfied with the salvation of their own members or sitting in the pews and worshiping all by their lonesome. They were full of good deeds. Jesus also saw something bad. He saw one influential woman in the church who taught that sexual immorality and eating meat offered to idols were matters of personal preference. He compared her Jezebel…a pagan queen of Israel who was considered by the Jews to be the most evil women who ever lived. (1 Kings 19 and 2 Kings 9) This woman enticed people’s curiosity about sin and gave them an excuse to follow their curiosities. But when they experimented with sinful practices or with the occult, they became enslaved by these sins. She was given the opportunity to repent, but she didn’t. She would be punished and shown no sympathy.

What is the promise to those who held onto their faith and not compromise with the likes of Jezebel? Let’s read verses 26-29, “²⁶ To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’ — just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Those who overcome and do God’s will to the end he will give the authority to rule over the nations with him. To him who overcomes, Jesus gives the morning star. The morning star is a symbol of hope. It shines in a dark sky just before the dawn. Jesus himself is the Morning Star. (Rev 22:16)

Today we learn that we must open our ears to what the One “Who holds he seven stars in his right hand” is telling us. He is telling us to repent and to restore our first love for him, and to do the things we did at first. We must thank God for giving us true riches in Jesus being faithful to Jesus in large and in small things.  And we must be determined to not to be fooled by our culture’s idolatry or compromised by it’s false prophets, but stay true and focused on the tried and true words of the Morning Star, Jesus.

1. Describe the church in Ephesus. (2:1-7) What did Jesus like about this church? (2:2-3) What does it mean they forsaken their first love? (2:4-5)What did they need to repent of? (2:5b) What does it mean to overcome? (2:7)

2.  Describe the church in Smyrna. (2:8-11)What did Jesus like about this church? (2:9-10) Why did  Jesus say they are rich? (2:9b) What did they need to repent of? (2:9) What does it mean to be faithful, even to the point of death? (2:10-11)

3. Describe the church in Pergamum. (2:12-18) What did Jesus like about this                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           church? (2:12-13) What is the teaching of Balaam? (2:14) What is the teaching of  the Nicolaitans? (2:15) What did they need to repent of? (2:16) What is the hidden manna? (2:17)

4.  Describe the church in Thyatira. (2:18-29) What did Jesus like about this church?  (18-19) Who is the woman Jezebel? (2:20-25)What did they need to repent of? (2:20) What is the morning star? (2:28)