{"id":17622,"date":"2019-01-08T16:30:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T21:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=17622"},"modified":"2019-01-08T16:31:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T21:31:17","slug":"ephesus-the-church-that-forgot-to-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/ephesus-the-church-that-forgot-to-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephesus: The church that forgot to love!"},"content":{"rendered":"

(seventh article of our series on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor.\u00a0 Revelation 1-3)<\/em><\/p>\n

“To the angel of the church at Ephesus, write: These things says he who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks: ‘I know your works….'” (Revelation 2:1ff.)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first of the seven churches of Asia Minor is Ephesus.\u00a0 Its letter is found in Revelation 2:1-7.<\/p>\n

Blessed are you among churches, Ephesus.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

You were begun, it would appear, by the highly esteemed husband-wife team of Aquila and Priscilla.<\/strong>\u00a0 On his way home from the Second Missionary Journey, the Apostle Paul left Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus but did not stay himself.<\/p>\n

Ephesus had the ministry of the gifted Apollos<\/strong>, who would have been a media darling in our modern age from all evidence.\u00a0 (Move over, Joel Osteen!)<\/p>\n

Paul spent three years ministering in Ephesus.\u00a0 (Acts 19 mentioned 2 years and 3 months, but in Acts 20, Paul tells the Ephesian leaders he spent three years there.)\u00a0 This was the longest time he gave to any one congregation.<\/p>\n

Then, Ephesus was pastored by Timothy<\/strong> and later by the Apostle John.<\/strong>\u00a0 They had had the best.<\/p>\n

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Unto whom much is given, much is required, said our Lord in Luke 12:48.<\/p>\n

The City–<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ephesus was\u00a0 the biggest city in Asia and the most important center for commerce, politics, and religion throughout the region.\u00a0 With a population of 300,000, it was the third largest city in the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n

The Temple of Artemis (Diana) was there. Said to be 400 x 200 feet in diameter and 60 feet tall, with 127 columns this was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.\u00a0 Look up the Temple of Artemis and you’ll not be impressed.\u00a0 She was one ugly lady.\u00a0 And because of the emphasis on fertility, the statue was adorned with many female breasts.\u00a0 (Pastors, you probably won’t want to be showing that on the screen!)<\/p>\n

Ephesus, we’re told, was considered the dividing point between the East and the West.\u00a0 (Which is interesting, since there is no automatic point delineating East-West the way there is with the North and South.\u00a0 We think of Psalm 103:12, “As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”<\/p>\n

Ephesus was located at the mouth of the Cayster River between the Meander and the Hermus rivers.\u00a0 So it was convenient for travel, trade, cultural mixing, etc.\u00a0 Archeological remains today include a Domitian temple and a huge statue.<\/p>\n

Not that any of this matters for our study.\u00a0 I am much aware that commentaries on these seven cities feel a necessity to give details on the city in question.\u00a0 But if I were writing a commentary on my church, to give details about Jackson, Mississippi and its commerce, culture, history, location, and such, might be remotely interesting but would have little to do with what the Lord actually was saying in His analysis of the church.\u00a0 So, let’s go on.<\/p>\n

I know your works….<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord says this to all seven of the churches.\u00a0 It figures, of course, since He “walks in the middle of the lampstands.”\u00a0 He is among us, seeing as no one else does, knowing it all.\u00a0 Nothing is hidden from His searching eyes.<\/p>\n

The Lord knows the deeds of this church, it’s labors (to the point of exhaustion), its perseverance, and its love for the truth.\u00a0 The Lord knows how their zeal for truth–pardon me, Truth!–drove them to put on trial some having fake credentials as apostles and putting them out of business.\u00a0 The Lord knows the Ephesians did all these things for His name’s sake, which sounds about as good as we could ask for.<\/p>\n

But it isn’t.\u00a0 Something is wrong.<\/p>\n

I have something against you….<\/strong><\/p>\n

“You have left your first love.”<\/p>\n

You’re doing incredible work, Ephesians.\u00a0 True, enough. \u00a0 But it’s all about to come crashing down.<\/p>\n

You have forgotten to love one another.<\/p>\n

Such a subtle thing in a church with a glowing resume.\u00a0 Many would say this hardly matters, that we have a church here leading the denomination, setting new marks for accomplishments, raising the bar.<\/p>\n

It matters to the Lord Jesus.\u00a0 Earlier He said this would be the mark of the believer. “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another….even as I have loved you.” (John 13:34-35)<\/p>\n

So, what’s going on here?<\/p>\n

I’ll tell you what I think it is.\u00a0 These Ephesians are saying they love God and perhaps they do.\u00a0 But they have no love for the people, for one another, for outsiders with whom they deal.<\/p>\n

It’s the horizontal relationships, not the vertical, that they have allowed to lapse.\u00a0 And this matters a great deal to our Lord.<\/p>\n

In fact, He’s not going to allow it.<\/p>\n

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, donate all my possessions to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, unless I am loving people it will be for nothing.”\u00a0 (cf. I Corinthians 13.)<\/p>\n

My friend Margaret Perkins told me something that happened at home one morning as the children were getting ready for school.\u00a0 Youngest child Sidney for some inexplicable reason prepared lunches for himself and his sisters Jean and Lynn that morning.\u00a0 Mom watched and was impressed.\u00a0 She was just about to brag on her son, when suddenly Sidney picked up the lunch bags and threw them at the feet of his sisters.\u00a0 “There!” he said. “There are your lunches!”\u00a0 Mom Margaret watched all that and\u00a0 said, “Oh, Sid, honey!\u00a0 You almost got it right!”<\/p>\n

Almost, but not quite.\u00a0 Without love, nothing counts.<\/p>\n

Where does such love come from? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).\u00a0 He is the Source of love.<\/p>\n

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace….” (Galatians 5:22).<\/p>\n

And so, the Ascended Ruling Lord gives the Ephesus Church a prescription, of three steps…<\/p>\n

–Remember from where you are fallen.<\/p>\n

–Repent.\u00a0 Call the lack of love what it is: sin.\u00a0 Repent of it.<\/p>\n

–Repeat the first works.\u00a0 Do what you did at first–all the basic things new believers do.\u00a0 They worship, fellowship, pray, get into the Word, and make a serious effort to draw close to the Savior.<\/p>\n

Repent or else!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent.” \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

If the lampstand represents the church, as Jesus said it did in 1:20, then what does it mean for Him to remove the lampstand?\u00a0 It sounds a mite like double-talk, speaking of removing the church from the church.<\/p>\n

I think we know.\u00a0 Because we’ve seen it happen.<\/p>\n

It’s the presence of the Lord Himself that makes a congregation a Church of Christ.\u00a0 So, removing the lampstand would mean the Lord leaving that church.\u00a0 He would be withdrawing His presence, His blessings, His power.\u00a0 They would still be able to meet as a congregation and go through the motions, but the Lord would not show up and would not touch lives and anoint messages and bless worshipers.<\/p>\n

The Lord would cancel their franchise.<\/p>\n

A franchise business is part of a large enterprise.\u00a0 The local owner signs a contract by which he purchases a franchise operation, agrees to purchase all his supplies from the parent company, and to abide by its policies, regulations, and operations.\u00a0 If a local restaurant fails to keep up its end of the bargain, the parent company can cancel its franchise.\u00a0 They remove the signage and take away anything identifying it as a BK.\u00a0 Now, the local owner can go right on selling fries and burgers but he’s on his own.\u00a0 So with a church that has lost its franchise, i.e., its lampstand.\u00a0 It may continue to meet and call itself a church, may keep right on using the Scriptures and doing all the religious things.\u00a0 But the Lord is no longer there and no one encounters Him in the services.<\/p>\n

it’s the death knell for a church.<\/p>\n

The promise:\u00a0 To him who overcomes…<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (2:7).<\/p>\n

Ray Summers said, “The concept of overcoming is one of the outstanding ideas of the Book of Revelation.”<\/p>\n

Ray Stedman said: “Imagine it!\u00a0 The tree of life which was removed from us by sin in the Book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden, is now being offered to us again in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 In the concluding book of the bible, the Word of God comes full circle.<\/p>\n

Paradise was a place of fellowship with God, wherever it was precisely.\u00a0 In Luke 23, Jesus promised the thief on the cross that “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”<\/p>\n

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(seventh article of our series on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor.\u00a0 Revelation 1-3) “To the angel of the church at Ephesus, write: These things says he who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,51,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict","category-healthy-church","category-revelation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17622"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17652,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions\/17652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}