“First Things first” - Revelation 2:1-11
By James Galbraith
September 13, 2009
First Baptist Church, Port Alberni
Background:
The Revelation was written by Apostle John, near the time of his death, after he was given a fantastic vision of the future:
- many fixate on myriad of confusing details and lose sight of importance of letter at the time it was written
- written to give specific churches in that time hope that they were not forgotten, that Christ would indeed honour their diligence and return to bring them home
- written to give hope then and now that Christ will return,
- these two chapters in Revelation written to seven churches in Asia minor – a wealthy, influential province of the Roman empire, now nation of Turkey
- these seven cities each had been touched by the ministry of Paul and the other apostles
- this letter written 30-40 years after Paul’s death, so churches have had a couple of generations to settle in
- each was faring differently, as the letter will reveal
The first two churches, which we will look at today, are about as opposite as one can find.
Ephesus
City itself
- large, proud, compared to Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Corinth
- connected to sea by 3 km canal, so busy seaport with international population
- considered a home of many temples, so diverse “religions”
- Christians were more tolerated here than other places
Church
They are full of good work, endures trials, clamps down on those who lie about the gospel or spread false teaching
They are also full of energy, and prosperous (muct be good tithers),
- Ephesus planted by Paul himself, who stayed in Eph. for at least two years personally overseeing progress of church
If they were a modern day church, we would say that they are involved in community, bible teaching, well attended, building paid off, full of respectable folk and started by none other than Billy Graham himself
Smyrna
City itself
- Like Ephesus, large, proud, important just not to the same level as Ephesus
- also a seaport
- very powerful Jewish population
- made life very difficult for those who were outside, especially the church
Church
- beaten down, afflicted, poor
- local authorities are trying to get rid of it
- Smyrna may have never seen Paul – no direct reference to Paul visiting, although he did travel through the area
- if a modern day church
- small group of believers in a nation where freedom to worship is NOT a right
- unknown to all but a very few
- “off the radar” and struggling to stay alive
Now, if we could walk by these churches today and choose which one was healthier, more important, one we’d join, who do you think we’d pick?
Small, struggling, despised group of nobodies, or
large, rich, well manicured lawn, bursting with programs and people?
And yet, to these churches,
one the gleaming buckle of the Asiatic bible belt,
and the other the forgotten few in exile,
Jesus himself chooses the church in Smyrna as the healthier of the two.
Why?
Because despite all the beautiful blessings of the church in Ephesus, they’ve lost their soul.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 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.
They are, simply put, bankrupt.
They are the pysanki egg of churches – all pretty on the outside, hollow within.
And the church in Smyrna, despite all it’s troubles, is rich!
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! …Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
They are the gold nugget in the manure pile – no matter what gets thrown on top of it, it’s still pure gold.
What’s the difference?
J.E.S.U.S.
The first love of any church is Jesus – it simply has to be.
- churches are gatherings of Christians, followers of Christ
- without Christ, a church ceases to be a church
The church in Ephesus, despite all it’s strengths, had lost sight of their Saviour. They were called to repent, return to their roots, before it was too late!
The phrase - If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
is a warning that if they continue to try and function as a church without Jesus, they will no longer be considered a church.
- the individual believers will still, as they continue to trust in Christ, be “saved”,
but the gathering together will be nothing more than a meeting or social event or a community group, rather than a fellowship of men and women solely devoted to Christ
How could they recover their first love?
- pray! praise. repent, ask, yield
- learn!
- worship!
- serve!
In direct contrast to this, the church in Smyrna, despite all it’s troubles, was considered rich.
They would continue to suffer, but they were in line for “the crown of life”. They knew who they were, followers of Christ, and were prepared to suffer many hardships in order to keep Christ in the forefront of their lives.
I’m going to conclude with a story that tells of the danger of losing sight of who we are.
Life-Saving Station
On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a little life-saving station. The building was primitive, and there was just one boat, but the members of the life-saving station were committed and kept a constant watch over the sea. When a ship went down, they unselfishly went out day or night to save the lost. Because so many lives were saved by that station, it became famous.
Consequently, many people wanted to be associated with the station to give their time, talent, and money to support its important work. New boats were bought, new crews were recruited, a formal training session was offered. As the membership in the life-saving station grew, some of the members became unhappy that the building was so primitive and that the equipment was so outdated. They wanted a better place to welcome the survivors pulled from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged and newly decorated building.
Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members. They met regularly and when they did, it was apparent how they loved one another. They greeted each other, hugged each other, and shared with one another the events that had been going on in their lives. But fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions; so they hired lifeboat crews to do this for them.
About this time, a large ship was wrecked off of the coast, and the hired crews brought into the life-saving station boatloads of cold, wet, dirty, sick, and half-drowned people. Some looked just like most of the members of the station. while others were completely foreign to them. Some could speak English well, and some could hardly speak it at all. Some were first-class cabin passengers of the ship, and some were the deck hands.
The beautiful meeting place became a place of chaos. The plush carpets got dirty. Some of the exquisite furniture got scratched. So the property committee immediately had a shower built outside the house where the victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting there was rift in the membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities, for they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal fellowship of the members.
Other members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all those various kinds of people who would be shipwrecked, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. And do you know what? That is what they did.
As the years passed, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a place to meet regularly for fellowship, for committee meetings, and for special training sessions about their mission, but few went out to the drowning people. The drowning people were no longer welcomed in that new life-saving station.
So another life-saving station was founded further down the coast. History continued to repeat itself. And if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of adequate meeting places with ample parking and plush carpeting. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown
***
While the story was written to encourage us to not lose sight of those lost without Christ, today let it encourage us to not lose sight of our Saviour himself, who saved our lives from sin.
He is our live-saver, he is the reason this church is here, without him we are simply lost.
We don’t need to have a lot of bells and whistles, but we do need Jesus.
More than anything else.
