Potholes in the Road to Ephesus
Sunday, February 10, 2013
By Rev. James May
The Holy Ghost led me to a passage of scripture this morning that I know He wants to use to speak to someone here this morning. As I read this passage, I could not help but feel the heart of God as it ached; and I could sense the very hand of Jesus reaching out, hoping that someone would hear what he was saying; that someone would reach out, take His hand and begin to get closer to Him than ever before.
I felt as though Jesus was looking at me, and at each one of us, with both a look of approval and a look of disappointment at the same time. It’s like the look you would give a child that you love so dearly, after they have broken a valuable heirloom; or perhaps dumped a glass of chocolate milk on your brand new white carpet. You love them; and yet, at that moment in time, you resist the urge to be harsh with them because you know that they are only a child and they don’t even understand the full impact of what they’ve done. I believe that Jesus is looking at some of us that way this morning. His love is everlasting; but there are times when His chastisement, as a loving Father, is what we need most of all, even though it’s never pleasant to experience. He loves us all too much to allow us to continue on without any guidance and course corrections in our life.
If you will, let’s turn to the 2nd chapter of the Book of Revelation. In this chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ is walking among the golden candlesticks, which represent the church in its various spiritual conditions. Any church body, or any individual among us, can find ourselves somewhere in the descriptions that Jesus gives of the various churches. The churches are candlesticks because we are the ones to whom God has entrusted the Light of the Gospel. We are called, anointed and given the commission of spreading the Light wherever we are so that those around us who are caught in the darkness of this sinful world may be able to lift up their eyes, as the Holy Spirit helps them, and then they may see Jesus, the Light of the World.
Jesus speaks to seven churches of John’s day; but not only to those churches, and to the Christians of the early church; but the words that Jesus speaks are timeless and eternal, and they reach right down into the very heart of each of us today. They still speak the same lessons; still carry the same warnings, and also still carry the same promises if we will heed what Jesus says.
The number 7 itself is God’s number of completeness. That simply means that every condition of the church; and every church; along with the spiritual condition in the heart of every Christian is included; and the relationship that we have with Jesus at any given point in time, can be found somewhere in Jesus’ seven messages to the churches.
Perhaps this message today isn’t for you personally; and then again, maybe it is for you. If this doesn’t speak to you personally, then somewhere in those first three chapters of Revelation, you will find yourself. Somewhere among those messages, you will step in front of the mirror of God’s Word and you’ll find your image being described by the Words of Jesus to the churches.
Today, I believe that the Lord wants to talk to someone who is walking the rocky roads around the church at Ephesus. As we examine Jesus’ message to Ephesus, look within your own heart; examine yourselves; listen to that still small voice of the Spirit; shut everything else out and see if the Lord is speaking to you. I know that He will be whispering to someone. Could Jesus be talking to you? Let’s try to hear His voice as this message goes forth.
Lord Jesus, open our spiritual ears, that we may hear; and open our hearts that we may receive what you have to say this morning.
Revelation 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
The first thing that we must realize here is that God speaks first to the “angel of the church”, and then that “angel” is to speak forth what Jesus has said for all the church to hear.
Those seven stars are representing the ministers; those are involved in the 5-fold ministry, the Apostle, Pastor, Evangelist, Prophet and/or Teacher, who is called upon and anointed to bring the messages of God to the church by the leading of the Holy Ghost. Jesus is the power that holds it all together; and in His hand and by His hand we move and we speak. He holds us all in the palm of His hand, and the Bible tells us that “no man can pluck us out of His hand”. It’s a comforting thought to know that while you are ministering in this ungodly world, that the Lord has you in His loving and protecting hand, and that He will never let you fall.
God speaks to the church through His Word; and that Word is most often given through the voice of the minister that stands before the church, led by God, to speak what the Lord would have us to say. I would hope that all ministers would take this calling seriously, but sadly, there are many today who speak not what the Spirit and Word, and the voice of the Lord is saying; but they speak what they think people want to hear, and somewhere the true message is lost, and the whole body of Christ under their care suffers from the lack of knowledge and understanding. If you stay in that condition long enough, the danger is that your Light will grow so dim that no one will see Jesus in you, for there is no more Light of God in you to shine forth. There is no Light outside of Jesus and the true Light of the Gospel. If we aren’t preaching Jesus and the gospel of salvation through the blood of Jesus, then there’s no Light in anything we have to say.
Revelation 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Most of the church today is caught up in doing good works. It doesn’t matter which church you look at, the congregations are just about always involved in doing good things for the people of the church and they are reaching out beyond the walls of the church in some manner, trying to help their fellowman.
Good works, laboring for the Lord in any capacity, and having patience in your good works while we wait for the coming of the Lord; even though often times those good works don’t produce the results we desire – all good works that are done for the cause of Christ are very commendable. And if they are done with the right heart, they will mean so much even in eternity where rewards will be given for faithfulness in doing good works that have been ordained by God. So keep up the good works. God approves of your good works!
And it is very commendable to all of you to hear you speak out against the evils in our world. Though we cannot judge the heart of a man, we can certainly be fruit inspectors and we can see the fruit that they bear. Since the Bible tells us that evil trees can’t bear good fruit, and good trees cannot bear evil fruit, then the obvious conclusion is that you can judge whether someone is good or evil by the fruit they bear.
We don’t condemn the person; but we absolutely have the right to condemn the evil deeds and the evil fruit they bear, and we then pray for their evil heart that has revealed their true nature.
It is right that we should stand against evil and not accept everything like sheep without a shepherd. As long as we have breath, we must speak out against evil, and pray for those who do evil things. The church is called to be aware of the evil around us and to call upon the Lord to lift up the standard of the cross against all evil. We have a duty to call evil what it is so that men may repent of their sin.
It’s also commendable to always be on guard against heresy in the church and to be cautious about anything that is spoken from the pulpits of the churches. Not every shepherd is a true shepherd and we all know that there are hirelings and wolves in sheep’s clothing; false teachers and self-centered preachers who are only there to make a name for themselves or to fleece the sheep of God’s house. The Holy Spirit will reveal the true nature and character of the preacher in time; and then it is up to each of us to either stay and swallow the message that is given, or seek out another place to hear the truth of the gospel.
Too many people are carried about like a ship in a storm, blowing wherever the wind sends them, listening to every little wind of doctrine; always quickly accepting everything that comes from someone who calls themselves a preacher and who claims to have a message for the church. Too often, these dear folks either find themselves shipwrecked and their faith destroyed, or they live in so much confusion that they don’t know truth from fiction anymore.
We are to prove everything we hear by the Word of God; and not accept everything people try to teach. I thank God that most of us here have learned to be cautious and to examine everything we hear in light of God’s Word. That’s a very commendable way of keeping yourself in the path of Truth.
Revelation 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Jesus says to each of you this morning that He knows how you have stayed faithful through it all. No matter what has come against you; or how rough the road has been, you’re still here; still holding on; still trusting in the Lord to bring your through. You’re continuing to work and steady as a rock in your service to God and man.
These are all such commendable things; things that are expected of every Child of God and of every church.
If the Lord would have stopped there, we could end this message, close the service and go home feeling like we’ve really been given a wonderful pat on the back and feel good about ourselves. We could feel like we have finally arrived and that we are doing everything right for a change. That would be great. But Jesus hasn’t finished his message to us yet. There’s more to come and this is where it gets a little more hard to take sometimes, because we often don’t want to hear the words that show where we might be wrong.
Revelation 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
You see, we never reach perfection, do we? There’s always room for improvement. We aren’t Jesus and we aren’t in Heaven yet. We are still living in this old sinful world, and sadly, we often find ourselves being drawn away by our own desires, as we are enticed and yield to temptation. We don’t want it to happen. We don’t plan to let temptation draw us aside. We even try to fight against it. But the fact is, that we all fail at times.
It is at this very point in our lives that Jesus comes with the words of this message: you have left your first love.
The Lord is telling us to stop, take a hard look at our lives, examine our hearts and notice that we may have allowed the things of this world to draw us away from Him.
It’s easy to be drawn away by the cares of life. The devil knows the weakness of human flesh; he knows the hardships of life that we face; and he will often use tools to draw away from Jesus that seem so harmless and innocent at first.
Sometimes it’s a job that we know we have to do. After all, we have to support the family, because not to do so would mean that we are worse than an unbeliever. But how often can we allow that job to become so much of a part of our lives that we no longer have time not only for the family we are trying to support; but more importantly, we have no time for Jesus.
Sometimes it’s the raising of that family. We all want the very best for our kids. We want them to have a better life than we have, so we get involved in everything in school, and in a lot of extracurricular activities so that our kids won’t feel left out. But again, we sometimes get so involved with all the sports and activities that we don’t have time for church, we don’t have time to work for the Lord and we don’t have time to pray or spend time with Jesus.
Sometimes it’s just enjoying the good life. We all love to enjoy our life and the freedoms that are ours to just do what we love to do the most. There’s nothing wrong with that until we start enjoying doing our own thing more than we desire to serve the Lord. When having fun keeps you from the house of God; or you’re too busy enjoying life to take time out to draw close to Jesus, then you’re headed from trouble.
There are times when the temptation takes us even farther. After all, when sin enters the picture and we begin to stray from our love for Jesus, we never know how far sin is going to take us or how long we will be trapped by its power over us.
Jesus looks upon every instance of sin that draws us away from our love for Him as an act of idolatry, and act of unfaithfulness and an act of spiritual adultery. The reason is simple. Anything that takes us away from our love for Jesus, and replaces Him as the most important thing in our life, becomes our God. Jesus is no longer the most important thing to us. Something else has taken his place in our hearts. We have become infatuated with sin; and now that sin has become our first love.
There are times when every man must stop and realize that he is not as close to God as he should be. I’ve allowed too many things in my heart; and so have you. None of us is innocent. Maybe it’s not happening right now; or maybe it is. But the fact is that we’ve all been there. We have left our first love and went off chasing after some rainbow, or started grazing in a strange pasture because the grass appeared greener on the other side of the fence. We kept running after that pot of gold that seemed always just out of sight; or kept enjoying that green grass until one day, like the Prodigal Son, we looked up and realized how far we had gone from the Lord. We left our first love, not because we decided to just leave Jesus behind, but because the things of life just kept slowly pulling us away.
But no matter how it happens; we left our first love. We’ve fallen in love with someone, or something else; and Jesus is no longer in the center of our heart. Maybe it’s another person; a man or a woman that has taken hold of our heart and our passion for Jesus has been reverted to that person. Another person can become your idol just as much as a statue or anything else.
In about another month it will be 45 years since I met the love of my life and committed my life and my heart to her; and her to me. Our relationship grows stronger every day and it seems but a short time since it all began even though we’ve been through a lot of years filled with ups and downs and “all-arounds”. But one thing I know. If I were to find someone else, or if she were to do the same, that first love will have been violated and neither of us would put up with that for even one minute.
I thank God that He is longsuffering toward us; and even when we are unfaithful, and off chasing other “gods”, or off doing our thing and just ignoring Him, Jesus still loves us and is ever reaching out to bring us back. The Holy Spirit never stops wooing the wayward Christian until we come back to our first love. But we have to make that choice to turn back in repentance and go find that Love of God that we once knew. We have to decide to get back to the foot of the cross and seek a closer, stronger relationship with Jesus.
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Jesus says, “stop, look at where you are, and remember where you once were! Repent of your wanderings and unfaithfulness; or the chasing after rainbows. That’s doing your first works again for any return to the ways of Righteousness requires first a repentance for sin. Repentance is the starting point for salvation!
Now one of the commentaries that I read said that when Jesus said that he would remove the candlestick, that He didn’t mean that the backsliding Christian could be forever lost, but I disagree with that statement.
When Jesus said that would remove the Light of the Gospel from the heart of the backslider, I believe He meant what he said.
No matter how much you love someone; you can’t allow them to continually be unfaithful and try to pretend that life will be good. There’s a constant fight, a constant distrust and a constant turmoil that will ultimately destroy you if that relationship doesn’t get back to where it needs to be. Too many have tried; and none have succeeded. It will always end in disaster.
Jesus will not tolerate sin forever. If we choose to keep running, then at some point, He will just let us go. The Bible warns us that there is a line we cannot cross; a point of no return in our relationship with Jesus; a place where God will say, “That’s it. I’ve gone as far as I will. Now you are given over to your own heart’s desires and to a reprobate mind that will never desire to know God again.” That’s a very dangerous place to be.
Revelation 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
This is a strange thought to me. This is a picture of the mindset of a backslidden Christian, someone who is growing cold in the Lord, or who have lost their zeal and fire for God; yet they hate sin; they hate unfaithfulness; they hate the evil of this world that is so opposed to God and the Light of Truth, they hate the sins of the flesh, adultery and physical abuse, yet they find themselves among that number who are counted as unfaithful to their love for Jesus.
You may be sitting here this morning with your love for Jesus growing cold. You may be allowing the things of life to draw you away from really serving God and committing your whole heart to Him. But you still hate sin! You hate the power of sin that destroys people! You hate the fact that so many are unfaithful to both God and to their own families! You hate idolatry in any form! You hate that there is jealousy that drives people apart. You hate that there is so much temptation to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little while.
You hate that you have allowed anything to come between you and Jesus, but it’s there and there’s no denying it. You hate to admit it; but you need to repent yourself and do your first works and draw closer to Jesus. You want to know Jesus greater and to be closer than ever before, but it’s hard because you didn’t realize how far you had gone from him.
Revelation 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
This is Jesus’ words to you this morning if you are hearing the voice of the Lord. Use your spiritual hearing while you still can. Listen to Jesus while you can still hear Him. Listen to voice of the Spirit as He calls, while you are close enough to hear Him, or there’ll come a day when you can no longer hear.
Jesus says, Come back and repent of your wanderings. Come back and draw closer to the Lord. Come back and rebuild your love for Jesus and let His Love be known to your heart once again.
If you will hear and repent and turn back to Jesus, then He will help you to be an overcomer in all of these things. Jesus desires for you to have eternal life and to have Him as the center of your life every day. He desires to be the Bread of Life to you all the time. He desires to give you eternal life that you may spend all of eternity in that place called Heaven where he has already prepared for you a mansion.
If this message has spoken to your heart this morning, then it’s time to make a decision. Will you come back to Jesus and to your first love again; or will you continue being unfaithful and on the run from God?
As we stand before God, let us examine our hearts. Let us listen for the voice of the Lord. If you hear Him calling you back, come and let us pray together; repenting of sin and getting reconnected with the great Love of God once again.
The Ephesian church was an Apostolic church, founded upon the preachings of Paul the Apostle and they were a great church, on fire for God. But they too were losing their way and had to find a place of repentance if they wanted to walk with God. Along the road, they had hit some spiritual potholes that sent them off the way of righteousness and holiness, and they had to repair the holes, get back on the right path and get back to their first love before they would find themselves as an Apostate church, that had a form of religion but no real love for God.
Have you hit some of those potholes on the road to Ephesus in your life? If so, let’s get the holes repaired and come back to Jesus this morning. God loves you; How much do you really love Him?
