Israel once had a great love for God.
In Jeremiah 2:2 (NIV) God describes the love Israel once had for him. "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown."
What an image! Talk about true love! Israel was once like a bride, enamored with her husband, madly in love, full of hope and aspirations, chasing her husband through the dessert! Think about that! Deserts are dry. There is little water, little food, and there is no place to lay your head. There are no creature comforts. Yet Israel was like a young bride for whom none of that mattered! God was enough!
If you're ever in a restaurant, you can easily distinguish those couples who have been married a long time from those couple who dating or engaged. The couples who have been married have wedding rings on, right? No! The married couples are virtually bored with one another! They're looking around the room. They're playing with their phones. They're studying the menu, watching the waiters and the waitresses, looking at people coming and going, studying the plates of food going by, and watching the television that seems to be present in every restaurant these days.
But those couples that just getting to know each other are enamored with one another. They're talking, they're making eye contact, they're smiling, they're holding hands, and they're sharing their food. The married couples are saying things like, "Get your hands off my fries!"
I don't know, something just changes. Couples get bored with one another. The excitement wears off. They start looking to other things to excite themselves. This is a vivid description of what happens in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Something changes. It's as if Christ no longer interests his bride or captivates her affections. Soon, the church has taken her eyes off her first love.
Churches are enamored with programs and activities.
I don't know. I go to these pastor conferences. I read these articles and listen to these podcasts, and you sense what God is talking about in Jeremiah 2:2. Churches these days are enamored with programs, activities, social action, their own largess, meeting felt needs, buildings, finances, outreach, missions, church growth, branding, and being relevant.
You go to worship and you wonder if churches aren't trying to manufacture the presence of God with all their smoke machines, light machines, videos screens, loud music, choreography, and tightly scripted elements. One article applauded a church for its use of an AC/DC song in worship.
Have we gotten bored with Christ? Is there no longer anything to be enamored about? Is Christ not stunning enough to captivate our love? Our affection? Our imagination? Our full devotion? Is Christ not worth getting out of bed for? Do we have to dress Jesus up in all this excess to make him attractive to ourselves, our kids, and our world?
When newlyweds go out to eat, they talk about how much they enjoyed their time together. When married couples go out, they talk about how the restaurant was, the food, the service, the waiter, and the line. Do you see the difference? Over time, our interest migrates away from our relationship with our first love to all these other things!
Has something vital in your relationship with Jesus been lost?
I want you to turn to Revelation 2 and begin to ask if something vital in your relationship with Jesus Christ has been lost. Revelation 2:1-4 (NIV) says, "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." Let's just talk through these verses.
Let's remember who we're married to!
The church is the bride of Christ, right? Well just who is Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, Jesus is the cosmic Christ. In Revelation 2:1 he is holding seven stars in his hand, symbolizing the angels of the seven churches. This is a statement of Christ's power and sovereignty over our lives. Christ is transcendent! He is omnipotent. He is all-powerful. He is over us and above us. He is sovereign over the universe. He holds us there in the palm of his hand. 1 Timothy 6:15-16 (NIV) describes God as, "The blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever."
Second of all, Jesus Christ is ever-present. Look what our text says. In Revelation 1:20 we were told that each lampstand represents one of the seven churches. In Revelation 2:1 we're told that Christ is right here, right now, walking among the lampstands. Christ is invisible, yes, but he is continuously present, he's omni-present, he came near, he is with us always to end of the age. He is Immanuel, God with us!
But then third of all, Christ knows us intimately. He really sees us, I mean truly sees us. He inspects each lamp, each church. He trims our wick, anoints us with oil, and ignites our flame with his Holy Spirit. He inspects, corrects, admonishes, and rebukes. Just as a priest in the temple would tend the lamps to keep them from growing dim, so Christ moves among us, tending to our purity and the brightness of our light.
Christ loves his Church and gave himself up for her in order to make her holy.
When Paul describes Christ's relationship to his Church in Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV) he says, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."
Church, you have to understand what kind of relationship Christ wants to have with you! Though God is over and above us, though he is sovereign over all the universe, he wants to be with us, to walk among us, to beautify us, to perfect us, to make us holy, and to make us shine brilliantly.
This is the exact relationship God desired in the Garden of Eden as well. In Genesis 3:8 Adam and Eve hear the sound of God walking in the garden. God desired intimacy with man, holiness, and fellowship. But Adam and Eve sinned and when the Lord called out to them, they were afraid. So they hid in the trees.
I want us to think long and hard about this letter to the church at Ephesus. Do you know what the word "church" means? It's a compound word, which means, "to be called out of." In Christ, God is calling us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Before anything else, church is about coming out of hiding and into fellowship with Christ!
The church at Ephesus was full of hard workers.
Now here is the oddity of it all. The church at Ephesus was full of hard workers. Commentators speculate that the church at Ephesus was bustling with activity. They were zealous about visiting the aged, entertaining the lonely, caring for the sick, and mending what was broken. They had a vibrant ministry that actively taught sound doctrine. They exercised discernment in regard to their own beliefs and behavior. Read Acts 19-20. Despite tremendous resistance within their city, they persevered in their duty of serving God.
From all appearances they were a great church! I would put Ephesus up against any church you or I have ever known. Yet look what Christ says to them in Revelation 2:4 (NIV). "I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." All of this brings me to a second and obvious point.
Doctrine and duty don't make for a great marriage.
The church at Ephesus maintained near perfect doctrine about Christ. They did Bible studies and they memorized scripture. They heeded Paul's warning in Acts 20:28 to watch out for false teachers. In the second century, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, commended the church at Ephesus for its loyalty to the truth that, "had effectively prevented any false sect from gaining a hearing among its members." There in Revelation 2 even Christ commends their doctrine! But sound doctrine isn't enough.
Suppose you asked me about my wife Lara and I said in a monotone voice, "Yea, she's my wife. She is human. She is female. She is a one and only child. We've been married 15 years. She cooks stuff. She watches television. She has dogs. She burns candles." All of these truths may be sound, but they sure don't give any indication of love. Isn't it true that our doctrine can be rather rote and dead? "Jesus is Lord. Jesus was fully man. Jesus was fully divine. Jesus sent his Holy Spirit. The Bible is the word of God."
It's the same thing when it comes to our Christian duty, or even our Christian morality. "I'm getting baptized. I'm going to church today. I am taking communion. I'm tithing. I'm reading my Bible. I am singing in the choir. I'm doing my duty. I'm obedient. I'm going out for dinner with my wife. I am sitting near her. We are eating. I am here." No enthusiasm or love is evident in these statements!
Love means having a desire to truly be with Christ and to know his character and his will.
Love is what makes a marriage! Love sparks a desire to truly be with Christ! Love means that we show a desire to truly know his character, know his will, and know how to please him in every way. Love means that we have a desire to reciprocate his love!
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians in Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV) his simple message is, "Love God." "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
In the midst of all its good activity, the church at Ephesus had lost her undying love for Christ.
Do you know what's ironic about the church at Ephesus? Check out very last verse in Ephesians 6:24 (NIV) which says, "Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love." Do you think Paul knew that their love might grow cold?
Let me end with Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV) and Revelation 2:7 (NIV) and may we ask if Christ might have the same words to say to us here at Lakeside. "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. 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."