Toil for the truth, but don’t forget love

Sermon for Midweek of Advent 3

+  Revelation 2:1-7  +

Remember the image of the Son of Man that John saw and that we talked about last week: One who was like a son of man, clothed with a garment reaching down to his feet, his chest girded with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like bronze, as though fired in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In this evening’s reading, that extraordinary, somewhat ominous figure, the Son of Man, speaks to His servant John with a message which John is to put down in writing and send to each of the seven churches in Asia Minor. And just as with all the New Testament epistles, even though this one was written to specific churches at that time, with specific circumstances and needs, it has been God’s will to preserve these apostolic writings so that the Spirit may continue to speak to all the churches and apply the same lessons to every church of every time.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. If this were a heavenly angel, then writing would be irrelevant. No, it’s the minister of the church to whom John is to write. Modern Evangelicals have a hard time understanding this. They think that God simply communicates directly with each believer, through the feelings (or the burdens) of the heart. The pastor is really just a motivational speaker, a sort of community organizer. But God has always chosen to speak to His precious people through men: occasionally through angels, for a time through Jesus Himself, but otherwise usually through prophets, through the apostles, and now through the ministers whom Christ has called to the churches, through the churches. God uses that call to turn a man into an “angel,” into a divinely appointed messenger to minister to His people. But by definition that means that the message is intended for the whole church, not just for him. He is responsible for passing on the message of the Lord to the Lord’s people, and he’ll have to answer for how he carries out his ministry.

Write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Jesus wants His angel and His church in Ephesus to remember especially these two truths about Him: that He holds the seven stars, that is, the pastors of the churches, in His right hand. They are there because He has placed them there; they speak for Him; they are responsible to Him. And that He is present with His churches, walking among the lampstands. He placed each church where it is, as a man places a lampstand where he wants it. He inspects each one. He tends to each one. And, if He chooses, He has the right and the power to remove them, too.

What does His inspection of the church in Ephesus reveal? First, something to praise them for: I know your works, both your toil and your patience; and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil; and that you have tested those who say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them to be liars; and that you have endured and have patience; and that for my name’s sake you have toiled and have not grown weary.

What did the Son of Man see as He walked by the lampstand that stood in Ephesus? He saw a pastor, and by extension, a congregation, that was working hard. “Works” can include all obedience to the Ten Commandments. “Toil” is hard work, tiring work, meticulous work. Part of their toil was in rooting out the wicked from their midst, certainly by practicing church discipline and by excommunicating those who were “evil,” who failed to repent. Another part of their toil was in testing those who came claiming to be apostles, claiming to be sent by Christ, and their hard work paid off; they revealed many of those preachers and false prophets and liars. Not only did they toil for the truth, but they were patiently, faithfully enduring hardship because of it. They may have been blamed as loveless or heartless for insisting on purity of doctrine and life, but they endured those criticisms patiently, and they were praised by Jesus for it.

But then a word of rebuke from Jesus: Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have abandoned your first love. Your first love. Some 35 years earlier, the Apostle Paul had written this to the Ephesian Christians when their church was in its early days: I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. Apparently, that love had grown cold. Their devotion to purity of doctrine and life had become an external thing, perfunctory, loveless. They were doing the right things, but it wasn’t coming from love, and as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works. This is the message from the Head of the Church. Remember how you used to burn with the love of Christ, with the love that He showed you, which then produced love in you like a branch produces fruit on a vine, and remember how far you have fallen from that love. And repent, and return to it.

Then a warning follows: But if not, I will come to you soon and will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. You may think that external obedience is enough for Me, Jesus says, but it isn’t. The result of remaining loveless will be the extermination of your church.

Then a positive observation: But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. The Nicolaitans, from all we can gather from history, were a group of people who promoted adultery, fornication, and, for lack of a better term, wife-swapping, terrible sins that have become almost commonplace in our culture, as they also were in the first century Roman world. But the Christians were expected to be different from the culture, and the Nicolaitans were a movement to normalize sexual immorality within the Christian Church. So even though Jesus criticizes the Ephesians for a lack of love, He praised them for their hatred of evil deeds.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Jesus said similar words during His earthly ministry after some of His parables: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Don’t hear these words and fail to act on them! Don’t hear these words and then go back to life as usual. Hear them and change! But notice how He connects this letter to the Spirit! The Holy Spirit was the one who would actually be speaking to the churches when the words of Revelation were read, and that means the Spirit would also be working through these words to produce repentance and renewal in all who hear them and take them to heart.

Finally, Jesus adds a promise: To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Who overcomes. Who wins the battle—every battle, against the flesh, the devil, and the world, through contrition and repentance, through a renewed faith in Christ and through obedience to Lord’s message, and not just once, but who continues to overcome until this life ends, either by a person’s death or by Christ’s coming. To that one, Jesus promises that he’ll be allowed to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God. Eating from that tree in the Paradise of Eden would have given Adam and Eve eternal youth and the ability to live forever. So it will be in the Paradise of heaven for everyone who overcomes.

Now, how do Jesus’ words to the angel of the church in Ephesus apply to us? By His grace, He has kept this lampstand here in Las Cruces for about 40 years, about the same amount of time the church had existed in Ephesus at the time of John’s writing. Does He see works, toil, and patience? Does He see us taking seriously the doctrine that is preached from this pulpit and taught by the pastor? Yes, more seriously, I’d say, than any church in town. Does He see us taking seriously the life of our members, making sure that no one in our midst is living in impenitence and open sin without being disciplined for it? Yes, I would certainly say so. We have those things in common with the church at Ephesus.

What about our “first love”? Is our faith toward God and our love for one another and for our neighbor in general as strong as it has ever been? Or has our attention to good works, doctrine and life grown somewhat external, dry, automatic, as it were? Does it all flow from genuine love and is it all done in genuine love?

I don’t have a harsh rebuke for any of you in this matter, because I don’t see outward signs of lovelessness, but then, I can’t see what motivates you; I can’t see your heart. Only Jesus can. But that matters, because He walks among the lampstands, and He knows very well if love is or isn’t behind your works, behind your toil, behind your patience. At the very least, the temptation is always there, both from the devil and from your flesh, to simply go through the motions and make everything all about you, which is the opposite of what love does.

So hear His call to repent and take it to heart, and remember that you still have a road ahead of you, some time left in this world, whether long or short. And all of your efforts and even your faith will be in vain if you give up now, if you leave the fight before the end. But here is God’s Spirit, giving you all the words and the warnings and the encouragement that you need to stand firm in the faith and to be renewed in love, so that you may be among those who are given to eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God. Amen.