Letter To The Church In Ephesus.

Letter to the church of Ephesians

Revelation 2:1-20

The City of Ephesus was located on the western shore of Asia Minor what is now Western Turkey. . It was a seaport city. All trade coming by sea came through the city of Ephesus. The city boasted of its stadium and its tribute to the pagan god in which they worshipped in the great temple of Diana. Many people made their living as a part of this cult. The temple was considered one of the great wonders of the ancient world.

We read about the church in the city of Ephesus in five different New Testament books: Acts, Ephesians, Revelation and also in 1 and 2 Timothy.. When we examine some basic facts about the church in Ephesus, there are a number of lessons for us to learn from her history and happenings.

The church in Ephesus had a beginning. The details of its establishment are not recorded in the Bible. Paul briefly visited and preached in the city with Aquila and Priscilla near the close of his second-recorded preaching trip, but no conversions are mentioned at that time (Acts 18:18-22). Apollos came there to preach, and when he departed from Ephesus, “the brethren” in Ephesus wrote a letter on his behalf (Acts 18:27). So, there were “brethren” there at that time, though none are named except Priscilla and Aquila. All of that took place before Paul went there and met about 12 followers of John the Baptist and led them to the right path and baptized them. (Acts 19:1-7).

Ephesus derived its greatness from two sources, commercial trade and religion. During the Roman Period it was a center for the mother goddess worship, known to the Greeks as Artemis and to the Romans as Diana.

Diana is a beautiful name, and one might suppose that Diana would be a beautiful goddess. To the contrary, Diana of the Ephesians was a short, squat, repulsive-looking character covered with many breasts which emphasized fertility. It was believed by the superstitious Ephesians that Diana fell down from heaven. The magnificent temple of Diana took more than a century to construct. It was built about 400 B. C. and was burned the night Alexander the Great was born. It was Immediately rebuilt and is reckoned as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Worship in the Temple was comprised of the burning of incense and the playing of flute music as a result of which the people reached an emotional frenzy in which shameless sexual orgies were engaged . These immoral practices of the priestesses and the merchants hawking silver images made it a difficult place to preach the Gospel.

The city was also the place where its citizens practiced occult practices which explains the bonfire in which new believers burned their occult books (Acts 19:19).

The church in Ephesus received a letter from the apostle Paul. Written from a Roman prison around AD 60 about the time that Colossions was written. The letter did not address any particular error or heresy.

A careful reading of this epistle shows that they had done well. They appeared well organized and busy. During these early years they had been growing, expanding and doing the will of God. He commends their sincerity (Ephesians 6:24). Teaching is to Christians what watering is to plants – necessary and strengthening (1 Corinthians 3:6). Timothy (1 Timothy 1:3-4), Acquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:25), and Apollos had all spent time watering the Ephesian church. It should have been one of the most thoroughly instructed of all the first-century congregations. The picture now is a well-watered and self-sufficient church.

A few years later, tradition says that the city became the home of the Apostle John. This may or may not be true, but circumstances make it possible,. He was supposed to have taken Mary, the mother of Jesus, there to live (cf. John 19:26-27). This picture is of a church faithfully serving their Lord and producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:21-23; John 15:1-3).

However somewhere down the line the church was poisoned by false doctrine, and , sadly, the church died sometime during the second century. It evidently passed into apostasy as it is known in later centuries as a leading city for the councils of the early Roman church. The picture now is of a dead plant, brown and dried up.

The process of decay started about eight years after Paul left Ephesus ( Acts 19:8,10 :20:31) the apostle was able to divinely see an impending apostasy in that some would “fall away from the faith” These apostates would “follow deceiving spirits” (i.e., false teachers; cf.1 Jn. 4:1) who would seduce them away from the truth with false doctrines taught by demons. (1 Tim. 4:1 )These religious leaders would be hypocrites whose consciences had been seared as with a hot iron, perhaps beyond feeling (cf.1 Tim 4: 2)