Rekindle the Fire
.
.
Last week we began a study of the Book of Revelation.
I had planned to preach on chapter 2, but at the last moment the Holy Spirit
instructed me to preach out of chapter 1. Today we will start with
chapter 2, and then continue on through the entire book. Since I
have not done this in my 30 years as a pastor I have no idea how long it
will take!
John wrote the book of Revelation toward the
end of his life. Conservative scholars date it between 60 and 95
AD. For our purposes, it is still prophetic of things to come.
We may well see this in our lifetimes, so let's pay careful attention to
the instructions God has for us.
| To
the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words
of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the
seven golden lampstands:
I
know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that
you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to
be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered
and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown weary.
Yet
I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love.
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. But you have this in your
favor: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,
which is in the paradise of God. Revelation
2:1-7 |
Jesus is talking to us.
First He passes out the compliments. Not because He wants to manipulate
us, but because He wants what is best for us. The UCC Board for Homeland
Ministries recently published some excellent articles in a book called,
Growing
Plans. It is fantastic! One of the articles is by the Rev.
Winston Pena, entitled, "Your Church Can Grow." In this article he
states,
| The good news is that God wants the church
to grow, and God is more committed to make this a reality than any pastor
in the world. No matter who you are, no matter how many titles you
have, no matter how much you love your church, no matter where you are,
God is more fully committed than you to make the church grow. |
I wish I had said that! It is right on
target! And God wants what is best for you and me. He loves
us! He let Jesus die on the cross for us! So accept His compliments
and respond to His correction!
The good part:
I
know your deeds.
I know your hard work.
I know your perseverance.
I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men.
I know that you have tested those who claim to be apostles and are not,
but are false.
I know you have persevered and endured hardships for My name.
I know that you have not grown weary.
On the surface, this sounds like a perfect
church! They certainly sound like good employees. But
God wants something more! What
is it? Love.He
says, "You have forsaken [left] your
first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen.
Repent and do the things you did at first." Then
He makes a solemn pledge. "If you don’t
I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."
Why was this a problem? After Jesus returned
to heaven the Christians were really on fire for God. They were enthused!
The word "enthused" literally means, "filled with a god." The God
they were filled with was Jehovah and His son Jesus. They believed
that Jesus would return in their lifetime, so they wanted everyone to have
a chance to repent of their sins and receive Jesus as their Lord. Acts
2:44-47 tells of their commitment to God and
to each other.
| All
the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling
their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They
broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord
added to their number daily those who were being saved. |
Unfortunately, over time, the older Christians
began dying off. At first they thought that those who died would
not get to see God, so Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18:
| Brothers,
we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve
like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died
and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who
have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you
that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord,
will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For
the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with
the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead
in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and
are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Therefore
encourage each other with these words. |
When Jesus said, "You have forsaken your first
love," He was using powerful words. To me this means "you wandered
off and left it lying – or you forgot about it." But
it is stronger than that. It literally
means, "You have divorced your first love." Or, "you sent it away."
When we go through the routine of worship without
the love for God it is "having a form of godliness but denying the power
thereof." 2 Timothy 3:1-5:
| But
mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
People
will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous,
rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a
form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with
them. |
How is your love for God today?
God gave the Ephesian church some words of
encouragement. Revelation 2:6
states, "But you have this in your
favor: you hate the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." Well!
That really helps… if only we knew who the Nicolaitans were.
Many scholars believe that they were a sect who practiced and taught
impure and immoral doctrines, such as the community of wives, or that committing
adultery and fornication was not sinful. Suffice it to say that God
hates sin!  click
for more info |
This section concludes with verse 7: "He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,
which is in the paradise of God."
How is your "spiritual hearing"?
What is God asking you to do? Are you at your first level of love
for God, or has He sort of gotten left behind in all of your other business?
One writer notes that "in the first experience
of the church at Ephesus they had childlike simplicity and fervor.
The believers sought earnestly to obey every word of God, and their lives
revealed an earnest, sincere love for Christ. They rejoiced to do
the will of God because the Savior was in their hearts as an abiding presence.
Filled with love for their Redeemer, their highest aim was to win souls
to Him."
(Found at www.lordsday.org/smyrna.htm) |
People look at Christians to
evaluate whether or not they want to be Christians. I guess we are
all looking for heroes or role models. What do they see in you and
me?
Is it a negative view?
| Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. Later
Julian came to the throne and he wanted them to bring back the old gods.
Ibsen explains Julian’s complaint:
"Have you looked at these Christians closely? They are hollow-eyed,
pale-cheeked, and flat-breasted. They brood their lives away, unspurred
by ambition: the sun shines for them, but they do not see it: the earth
offers them its fullness, but they desire it not; all their desire is to
renounce and to suffer that they may come to die."
As Julian saw it, Christianity took the vividness and fun out of life.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I might have entered the ministry
if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers."
Robert Louis Stevenson once entered in his diary, as if he was recording
an extraordinary phenomenon, "I have been to Church today, and am not depressed." |
Or a positive view?
The prophet Nehemiah said, "The joy of the
Lord is our strength!" (Nehemiah 8:10)
Is that true for you? Remember, joy, love and obedience walk hand
in hand.
| When H. M. Stanley went to Africa in 1871
to find and report on David Livingstone,
he spent several months in the missionary's company, carefully observing
the man and his work. Livingstone never spoke to Stanley about spiritual
matters, but Livingstone's loving and patient compassion for the African
people was beyond Stanley's comprehension. He could not understand
how the missionary could have such love for and patience with the backward,
pagan people among whom he had so long ministered. Livingstone literally
spent himself in untiring service for those whom he had no reason to love
except for Christ's sake. Stanley wrote in his journal, "When I saw
that unwearied patience, that unflagging zeal, and those enlightened sons
of Africa, I became a Christian at his side, though he never spoke to me
one word."
According to a story in USA Today, November
17, 1986, Mother Teresa once
heard vows from 11 new members of her growing order, the Society of the
Missionaries of Charity, and spoke briefly about the weekend. Although
her arrival had been unannounced, about 700 people came to the Mission
Dolores, for the profession of vows by sisters who had completed their
probation. "Love, to be real, must cost," said the frail and stooped
Mother Teresa, 75, whose big voice belied her stature. "It must hurt.
It must empty us of self." People came because they saw Jesus Christ
in Mother Teresa. |
This is communion Sunday.
Ask God about your first love… if He isn’t pleased, repent and return!
Rekindle the Fire!
|
