Letter to Ephesus
Pastor Zach Pummill • June 21, 2020
Sermon Overview
REVELATION 2:1-7
Jesus’s letter to Ephesus is to a church that had lost its first love, or better yet, the love they had at first. They were adept at theology and knowledge, but they no longer exhibited an evangelistic love they once did. Why is love so central to who we are called to be? Why is knowledge by itself insufficient?
Sermon Transcript
Good morning, Rockwall Pres, here and at home, and any guests that have joined us today, we are really glad to have you. My name's Zach and I'm one of the pastors. And so, all of the men, the dads here today, let me wish you a Happy Father's Day. And I hope your blessings are very real to you today, as you celebrate being a dad.
A couple years ago, I wished everyone a Happy Father's Day, and someone came up to me after the service, and they said, "That was really sweet of you to wish everyone a Happy Father's Day, a week early." And so, since then, this has been a very self-conscience time for me. And so I checked on the internet today, and it is indeed Father's Day, so Happy Father's Day, with confidence.
Last week we started a new sermon series, in the Book of Revelation, where we started to look at the seven letters to these seven churches. All in Asia Minor. We learned two very important things. Number one, if you're ever in an airport, and someone creeps up on you from behind, it's most likely your Pastor Marq. And number two, and more importantly, it teaches us that Jesus is intimately involved in the life of His people. He has something to say to us, still. He's watching over us, He's tending to us, Jesus is still speaking to His people.
Verse 1 says, "The words of Him who walks among the seven golden lampstands." We learned last week in Chapter 1:20 it says, that these lampstands represent the seven churches. But why seven? Well, the way that Revelation works is, it has these numbers in it, and part of it is that there is seven churches that are actually being written to, but also by virtue of the fact that it's seven. Seven is symbolic. It's a symbolic number of wholeness, and completeness, and fullness. So by virtue that it's the seven churches, it's also not just to these seven churches, but to the fullness of the church. Of every time, and every place, which means, He too, is speaking to Rockwall Pres.
But if we go a little bit further to understand the significance of these lampstands, we actually have to go back to the Old Testament, and take a brief tour of the Holy Place inside the temple. 'Cause if you walked in, you'd essentially be walking into a bare room, but one thing that was there, off to the side, was a lampstand. And it was the job of the high priest to tend to this lampstand. Because that lampstand represented the people of God. It represented Israel. And so the high priest's job was to trim it, to dress it, and to keep it lit, because he mediated between God, and the people. It was his job to care for the concerns, and the well being, and the spiritual affairs of Israel. And for that lampstand to be a perpetual, constant reminder that Israel was called to be, a light to the world.
And so, in verse 1, when it says that Jesus is now the one who walks among the lampstands, it's telling us that Jesus is now our great high priest, who stands before the Father day and night. Mediating on our behalf, in the heavenly dwelling of God. And in His presence. Which means He's keeping watch over us. That there is a candle somewhere up there that is Rockwall Pres, that He is observing, tending to, seeing what we've done. Seeing what we've left undone. Intimately aware of our condition, our situations, our challenges, our struggles, and the life that we have together.
And that's exactly what we see in each of these seven letters, to these seven churches. Because when Jesus talks to each one, He points out very specific issues that each of them are facing. Things that they're doing, things that need to change. Things that they're doing well, things that they're not doing well. Speaking to each one of them, in detail, about the concerns in their life together. And yet overall, with each of these letters, His goal is the same. His desire is that each of these churches would move to a deeper place of maturity, and faithfulness. That they would grow and mature, and grow up into the fullness of their life together in Christ. He wants them to be a mature church. And so, if that is Jesus' goal in each of these letters, then as we begin this series, perhaps that's a good place for us to start and start with a question: How would you define spiritual maturity?
If you thought about that for a while, how would you define spiritual maturity? What would you need to do, in order to grow in spiritual maturity? And so I want that question to be in the back of your mind as we begin to look at what Jesus says to the Ephesians.
And He begins in verse 2 by commending them. He commends them for good things. He says, "I know you're toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil. You've tested teachers, and found them to be false. You've not grown weary in fighting against anything that would profane my name." So, thus far how does the Ephesian church sound to you? If we just stop there, I think we would all say, "Well, that actually sounds like a really healthy, vibrant, strong church." They don't tolerate false teachers. They protect against anyone that would mislead God's people into untruth. They remained steadfast in that devotion, and they struggle against anything that would profane the name of Christ. When's their next Intro Class, sign me up.
Yet the letter goes on. If you notice in verse 4, the tone completely changes. Because then Jesus says, "But I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first." "You have abandoned the love you had at first, and I do have something against you." Ephesians what happened to your love? Ephesians, where were those mighty acts that you did at the beginning, that expressed a Christlike, Christian love for one another, and for the world? Ephesians, do you think that you have graduated from love being a necessity among you?
And the answer is yes, they did. Jesus, notice His language, He says, they have abandoned love. You don't just wake up and abandon your spouse. You don't just wake up and abandon your kids. Sure you lock 'em out of the house for a few hours, but you don't accidentally abandon anything. You actively abandon something, you choose to abandon something. And it's true of this Ephesian church, they didn't just forget, they didn't just make some mistakes as any church will. As a people, they actively chose to abandon love, because for some reason they no longer felt that it was a necessity, or a requirement to become the people that God had called them to be.
And so if we get back to our question, how would you define spiritual maturity? What did it require, in your mind? And how easy is it, when we think about something like that, to essentially define spiritual maturity? Predominantly, with the very things that Jesus commends the Ephesian church for doing. Our basis for maturity would primarily be defined by, you know, gaining more knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. And so it would be defined by reading my Bible more, spending more time reading and learning theology, having sound doctrine, and remaining steadfast in those pursuits. And do not get me wrong, those things are of incredible importance. And Jesus says they are incredibly important, in this letter. They're absolute necessities, but, they cannot be equated with Christian spiritual maturity. Why?
Well, verse 5, Jesus says, "Remember how you have fallen, and repent. And do the works that you did at first, if not, I will come and remove your lampstand from it's place, unless you repent." Remember how you have fallen. Yes, you did all of these things so well, but this I have against you. You have abandoned love, therefore remember how much you have fallen, and repent. And when He uses this language of removing their lampstand, He's saying, if they do not repent of their lack of love, and bring back those works of love that they did at first. Then He will remove their church entirely. Their candle will be snuffed out, as He removes His presence from them.
We can hardly find a clearer depiction of how Jesus views love, as a non-negotiable among His people. Jesus does not have a use for a church that has abandoned love. And so when you considered growing in spiritual maturity, and what it looked like, was love, and non-negotiable. If not, and it primarily came down to the ideas of reading, and studying, and learning more. Then might we recognize that perspective is really about personal enrichment. It's about self-improvement, because it doesn't include anybody else. And if you wanna take this faith seriously you have to include everybody else. Because the very essence of our faith can be described as, love of God and love of neighbor, and so how can we grow and mature in that faith, with those two commandments, if we do not include love in our understanding of what it means to grow and mature? Love is non-negotiable.
So therefore, theological knowledge and sound doctrine can alone, cannot be the litmus test for maturity, and faithfulness. The Ephesian church had those things in spades. And yet here Jesus is warning them that He has no use for a church that feels it's no longer necessary. Jesus requires more. Jesus requires love. Because if we're honest for a second, I think we could all admit that doctrine, and theology, and learning are truly the easy part. Is it not?
You know, there are profound mysteries in our faith, of which we will never understand the depths. But, at the same time, it's not that hard to learn what the Bible says about sin, about community, and relationship, and the church. It's not that hard to learn about what the Bible says about service, and sacrifice, in love, in marriage, in parenting.
What's easy for me is to get up here, and recite Ephesians 5, and say that Christ calls me to love my wife, as He has loved the church. You know what's hard, loving my wife, as Christ has called me to love her in the same way that He has loved the church. What's easy is getting up and saying the two great commandments. What's hard is loving my neighbor to the same degree and extent that I would love myself. What's easy is having a theology of the Great Commission, but it does not necessarily mean that we have participated in the Great Commission. Agreeing to the truth in a sermon, or a teaching, does not mean that we are actually living by that truth, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
And we often approach growing in our faith, like this. As though if we wanted to, say lose weight, and be transformed. We think of it as though, if we picked up a book on the Keto diet, that we'd automatically be at our target weight, as soon we finished the book. I read it, therefore I am it. And Jesus says, hardly.
Or on the flip side, you know, when something isn't going well, like in marriage, or parenting, or relationships. You know, our first impulse is to gravitate to a book, because we assume things aren't going well because of what we don't know. Instead of realizing that maybe things aren't going well because we're unwilling to live out what we do know. And what Jesus is teaching us through this Ephesian church is that, we can have all the knowledge, all the theology, and all the sound doctrine, but if you do not have love, you are still a bad theologian. Because you can be completely right, and completely wrong at the exact same time.
And if that's true, then we are left with the question of, why is love so necessary then? Why is love so necessary? And anytime, you know, we talk about the necessity of love, you've kinda gotta give the disclaimers right? Because any time we do talk about the necessity of love, it's easy to hear, as though love negates the need for right understanding of who God is. As though Jesus is just simply saying, “Don't worry about all that stuff, just love everybody.” And that is not what Jesus is talking about whatsoever.
Jesus's desire for this Ephesian church, and for us, is not for them to now begin just focusing on love and put away and ignore their passion for truth, and understanding of who God is. It's the opposite. He wants them to build on it. To allow all of that to be a launch pad for becoming the people that He wants them to become, and be transformed and made into something new. He's wanting them to mature by embracing love, because it's through love that they begin this movement of information to transformation. Which we just call sanctification. Where what we know, begins to animate us, shape us, and change how we live, breathe, act, walk, and talk.
All of this comes together, if you actually just look, at Jesus, in His incarnation. Here you have God the Son, who is theology itself. God the Son, who had a perfect theology of God. A perfect knowledge and understanding of who God is, as God Himself. Yet, He does not withhold that knowledge from us, does He? No. Instead Christ takes all of that and He, Himself, is transformed. God the Son became a man. He took on flesh, and He revealed to us, in bodily form, as the perfect imprint of the nature, character, and love of God. Christ is nothing less than love incarnate. And it's in Jesus that we see this movement of that knowledge coming down and going out to the world, through love for the life of the world.
And all throughout the New Testament that characterizes and shapes everything about you. The incarnation of Jesus is the actual outline and shape, of what the Spirit is trying to press you in to, and shape, and form, and fashion you. Because throughout the New Testament, it speaks over, and over, and over again, that the very point of your life in Christ, our life in Christ, and the Spirit's work within us, is to conform you to the image and likeness of Jesus. Maturity is Jesus.
It's one of those moments where, the Sunday School answer finally is the right answer, right? “What's the point of spiritual maturity? Jesus? Yes! It's Jesus, it's always Jesus, and it's only Jesus. What did we talk about two weeks ago in Ephesians 5, it says, "Therefore be imitators of God, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us, and gave Himself up for us." Yet if we are not mindfully endeavoring to walk in that very manner, and imitate the love of God in Christ, then we have to admit that we are simply on a different page, and want something other than what God wants for us.
So let's be reminded, humbly, that our commitment to Christian love, expresses how seriously we take the person, and work of Jesus. Because to disregard love, is to disregard love itself. And to disregard love, is to disregard Christ Himself, who is that love, live and in the flesh. Which is why He says, if they don't repent, then He will simply remove their lampstand. Because there is no room for Him in their life together. And so He will otherwise remove His presence.
When we look at all of this through the lens of Jesus, love does not minimize the need for right, and good, and true understanding of who God is. It actually magnifies it. Because it's true love where all of that understanding, and knowledge begins to take life within us. And so when you choose to love your spouse, when the moment gets heated, and you choose to love your children, when you are entirely convinced that they have formed an alliance to destroy your life, and when you choose to love someone with whom you disagree on everything, in that moment, you are being conformed, and transformed, and made into something new, into the image and likeness of Jesus. Where all of that information, and all of that knowledge, and all of that understanding that has come down to you, doesn't just stay up here, but it moves down, and out into the world through love. Where what happens with Jesus, is what happens with you. Where God comes down and goes out through love, through that incarnation process, where we embody the same knowledge and love that was given to us. Its faith working through love.
So I've said love a lot this morning, and that Christ is love. But how can you have a picture of love to carry with you into the challenges, and struggles, and difficulties that you're gonna face this week? And how can you have a picture of love that's gonna meet you in those difficult moments that absolutely lie ahead?
Well, Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, he was writing to a church that was in complete and utter disarray. If you ever wanna be encouraged about the state of the church in America, just read 1 Corinthians, 'kay, because it's an absolute mess. Yet, or because they boasted in their spiritual gifts. They boasted that they had the ability of tongues, and angels, and they prophesied, and they claimed to have a special knowledge of God. But all you had to do was actually take a closer look at their life together to actually realize that actually none of that was true whatsoever.
Because when you took a closer look, you see that they allowed a man to have inappropriate relations with his step-mother. You see that the rich would have communion together, and then they would give the scraps, the leftovers to the poor, that they made sit in another room. Leaders in the church became rivals that jockeyed for positions, and prominence, and status. Law suits existed between church members. Prostitution, solicitation, objectification, the list goes on, and on. It was a people full of boast, and yet they were a people that was completely devoid of love. They were puffed up by the belief that they were special in God's sight. Because of what they thought they knew, and how right they felt they were.
And so, what does Paul do? Well, Paul challenges them to see who they really are, by confronting them with the reality and beauty of Christian love. Notice what he says, he says, "So you can speak with the tongues, of eloquence and angels. If you don't have love, who cares? You're just a noisy gong, and all you have is the ability to be rude, and tear down in two languages instead of one. So you have faith that can move mountains, and understand all knowledge and mysteries. If you don't have love, then you're nothing, because all you're going to do is use that for your own benefit, and look down on others. So you give all that you have to the poor, but you don't have love, who cares? You're just like the Pharisee that rattles the offering plate, so everybody knows how much you put in. And yet in heavens economy, you are bankrupt."
And if you look at, you know, Paul, and the way that he talks about love and what love is not, you can summarize what he says in these three verses, by saying, that without love all we are is three things, “noisy, nothing, and bankrupt.” Noisy, nothing, and bankrupt. Because without love, all our learning, and gifting, will essentially just be used for our own self-promotion and comfort, and what could possibly stand in starker contrast to the person, and work of Jesus?
And so, when we consider the Corinthian church, we shouldn't be surprised, that in this letter to the most divided church in the New Testament, that Paul writes some of his most beautiful words of Christlike love. And I'm just gonna read through them. And as I do, I want you to ask yourself, where do you fit in this, what needs to happen and change in your heart.
“Love is patient, and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on it's own way. It is not irritable, or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
Does not love offer a still more excellent way?
Love learns to pray for others to be blessed. Love learns to be patient with others. Love learns to intercede for the good of those around you. Love offers a still more excellent way.
Love learns to listen. Love learns to ask questions. Love learns to see one another as a precious gift in God's sight. Love learns to discover the suffering in another, and to step into that suffering in the same way that Christ stepped into yours. Love offers a still more excellent way.
Love teaches us to encourage others, to compliment them, to honor them, to build them up. Love seeks to protect one another, especially those who've wronged you. Love offers a still more excellent way.
Scott Sauls is a pastor in our denomination who pastors a church in Nashville. And he writes regularly, and this week he wrote a piece where he talked about this situation that happened between Pete Davidson and Dan Crenshaw. If you don't know who Pete Davidson is, he's a comedian on SNL, and Dan Crenshaw is the State of Texas' U.S. Representative.
And Pete Davidson was on their Weekend Update segment, and he brought up Dan Crenshaw, in his bit, and he made a number of jokes about Dan Crenshaw, that really crossed the line. Dan Crenshaw, he's a veteran, and he wears an eye patch from a wound that he had received when he was on tour in Afghanistan a few years ago. And the jokes had really crossed a line that people felt broadly were just inappropriate. And the backlash that Pete Davidson received afterwards, was enough to send him into a really deep dark depression. And it got so bad that he essentially was beginning to consider self-harm.
And he posted on his social media account where he says, "I don't wanna be on this earth anymore." He said, "I'm doing the best I can to be here for you, but I don't know how much longer I can take it."
And a few weeks later, Dan Crenshaw was in an interview, and they asked him about that situation, and they asked him about this backlash that Pete Davidson had received, at his expense. What did Dan Crenshaw say? He deserves it right? Or did he say, serves him right? No, Dan Crenshaw said, "I was devastated, when I saw that post. I was devastated that he did something that would have brought him to that place of such desperation." And he said, that he actually reached out personally to Pete Davidson, and he said, "Pete, I just want you to know, that God put you here for a reason. He has a purpose for your life, and you need to live by it."
And you know what they did, they brought Dan Crenshaw on to SNL, with Pete Davidson on Weekend Update. And there was a moment when they were together, where there was part of the joke, obviously there were some jokes involved, in the bit. But Pete had apologized to Dan, for what he had said. The joke about his own, the joke about all the pain that he received from this wound that changed his life. But then they gave Dan Crenshaw an opportunity to speak about forgiveness, on Weekend Update, on SNL.
And you know what he did? He talked about forgiveness, but then he honored Pete. He honored Pete and he said, "Remember Pete's dad, who's a hero, because he was a firefighter that died on September 11th, 2001." And here you have this moment, where we finally got saved from another Twitter war, right? And we finally got saved from trading words back and forth, because somebody chose love. Somebody chose to push past the insult, to push past the injury, to push past the difference, and the disagreement, and the humiliation, and to seek the welfare of another person, despite what it cost them personally. And after the cameras stopped rolling, Pete Davidson leaned over to Dan Crenshaw, and he said, "Dan, I just want you to know, you're a really good man."
Behold the conquering power of love.
And at the end of each of these letters, those are the very words of Jesus, because He says, "To the one who conquers, I will bless." To the one who conquers, because you and I, we're in a fight, and love is hard. It's a battle each and every day, to embody the love of Christ, who stepped off His throne, lived in this world, was a man of sorrows, and climbed on a cross. Embodying that is hard. Which is why it's so easy to abandon. And yet at the same time, is it not a more excellent way?
Yet, we still see, it's so powerful when it is at work within us. Making us into something new. And destroying something, that otherwise our sinful impulses would take over. And yet we see love begin to make something new.
And one of the things that came out of the quarantine from the last few months, was us sending daily devotionals, to you, as a church. So we are going to resume that. Not going to be every day, but, every Tuesday, and every Thursday, moving forward indefinitely, we are going to send out devotionals to you. And they're gonna be based on the previous weeks sermon passage, so we can continue to allow that to shape us together as a people. We can continue to bring the Word of God into our lives, and be unified in that endeavor.
And make no mistake, each week in this series, is the call to conquer. The call to share in the victory of Christ. And you need to put up a fight. And so, we, each week, I challenge you to pray this prayer that you will find in the devotionals.
“Lord Jesus, let my love be patient, and kind. Let my love not envy or boast. Let it not be arrogant or rude. Let me not insist on my own way. Let me not be irritable, or resentful. Let me not rejoice at wrongdoing, let me rejoice with the truth. Let my love bear all things. Let my love believe all things. Let my love hope all things. Let my love endure all things. Let my love never end.”
RPC, may we share in the victory of Christ, and conquer together. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you stepped off your throne and did not withhold yourself from us. You came down and embodied the love that you have for your people, the love of the Father to offer what was most precious to him. The love of the Spirit to bring the Son to life within us. We thank you for the truth that you have revealed to us as a church. We thank you that you have given us truth and knowledge, and understanding. For without it, we would simply believe lies. But we also ask that you would allow that truth, to take on flesh within us, and that we would imitate Christ and walk in love, just as He loved us, and gave Himself up for us. Let us take seriously that you said, “By our love for one another, we display to the world, that we belong to you.” And we desire to belong to you, our only hope in life and in death, body and soul.
It's in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord that we pray. And everybody said, “Amen.”
