Revelation 1:17-2:7

And walking around the seven golden lampstands and he says write these things which uh which are meaning presently. And then i want you to write things which will take place. So there's a past present and future aspect to what he the commission to writing this very thing whatever it is.

And from john's perspective he doesn't know yet. John doesn't know that this is going to be some vision. He doesn't know what's going. He's just following his orders. Then it get to verse 20 it says. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands.

Well first before we go to the explanation i just want to make an obvious statement. Um that what do stars do. Ma 'am they give light. What lampstands do. They get black. Don't those two things give light in two different places.

Right. What. What are the where the stars give their light in the heavens. Where's the lampstand give a light on earth. So we obviously see two things that shed light give light glow. However we want to have you want to phrase that for yourself for understanding.

But they give light. And then he says this you got. He's gonna try to clarify it. So we have clear understanding. The seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches. That sounds pretty clear. It ain't as clear as you think.

Because now we got to understand. What are the seven angels. How many somebody give. How many people have studied revelation before. In the past i heard somebody teach there anybody in here. Um give me some what is a seven angels been.

Or the seven stars. And the seven angels anybody have any what has been told in the past. Ours our angels have been called pastors reader. What else anybody have anything else have been heard before a real angel.

When it says here the seven stars are the seven angels we have to understand what is being conveyed in the word angel. Many people say uh commentaries. You can look at them. You will find many of them.

I mean a very close friend of mine he was a seminary professor and he taught and he believed that this was the pastor of the church. I'm going to tell you i don't hold that position. And the reason b is because the pastor model of the church is reading back into an this text something of a a more modern idea no matter when you think this was written whether you take an early date or a late date you take an early day.

It the the structure and the governmental structure of the church had already been set up by the apostles and by paul. So would there have been a single pastor model in the church at that time based on what we know from timothy.

No who what did they have. They had elders. So they didn't have single pastors. So you're reading back into that. So that's why i don't hold it being the pastor. Um and they say it could just be the reader.

And we know that as we continue to go on it'll say blessed is he who reads. And that person that would stand up and read could very well be the one that from that from that whoever holds this position is the one reading.

It is the angel. Specifically i don't hold that position either. Then you have those that have the position that hey it's a real angel. It's a real angel. And where would we get that from anybody have any idea.

We just went through the book of john daniel. Was there actual angels that protected the people of god. Yeah michael he said he was the he was the protector and the one watching over god's people. So i could say all right.

Maybe don't hold that position either. Could it be a messenger. Could be. Uh if you want to if you want to go back you write this down. If you go to luke chapter 7 about midway through the chapter you have john's the disciple john the the baptist he sends his disciples to jesus basically asking him hey we need some information from you.

And it says that when john sent his disciples jesus sent the messengers back. Messenger. You know the greek word that you use there angolos. The same exact word that you used here for angels. Does. What was john's men.

Actually angels. No there were messengers. There were messengers. It even calls john the baptist the angolos of the lord. The in the old testament in malachi chapter three you can read the whole chapter.

It talks about the one that would come. It would be the messenger of the lord. He would make straight the way of the messiah. Well who was that person. We know that was john the baptist. That word in the in the septuagint is the greek word angolos.

So we know that he was not an angel. He was just plainly a messenger. So the question is is this a messenger. Is this an angel. Is this the reader. Or is it the pastor. And here's the answer. Nobody knows.

Nobody knows it. Even better off just leaving it stars we can all we can make an assessment. You can come to your own conclusion how you come to that conclusion. But even if you want to say that the angel is the reader the pastor the own.

The biggest reason for not holding that position from an exegetical is that would be the only time that john uses the word angel meaning something other than a real angel. That should be huge. When you're doing biblical interpretation you don't have the authority to make a word mean something when that's not how the user the writer of the book has used it.

So what is it. No idea. And nobody else is going to have a good answer either. That's sufficient because we don't really know. Could it be the an apocalyptic literature. Um who would be the one that would come and uh disseminate information from god.

It would be simply an angel will go. In the old testament how many times that a person come. It would be the messenger of the lord. It would be the angel of the lord someone bringing a message from god.

That's how i understand it. Whomever this is it's the messenger sent by god to that church. Then it says. And the seven lampstands are the seven churches. That's pretty easy. You know you have these seven churches.

Uh what is the lampstand supposed to do on earth. It's supposed to give light. It's supposed to glow. What did jesus say. We were to be salt and light. What was the reason. What's the reason for being salt.

Let's just preserve. Preserve. Yeah. It would keep things from decaying. Yeah. It would make things last. It could be. Um it certainly could be used for medicinal purposes. Um and what's the reason for being light.

Exposed darkness. Exposed darkness. And actually to to bring the light of of the gospel of jesus christ to the world. Um i don't believe in replacement theology in the sense of the church replaces israel.

But there is a part of a an action of the people where the church does replace uh israel. When you you take the the lawless vine dressers. And when jesus was on the temple mount the last the week of his life i think it was on tuesday.

It was the day he was just questioned about everything. And he talks about the the the lot of the vineyard that was owned by this dignitary. And he has all these. He owes them money. Hey it's time to pay up for your rent.

He sends somebody to kill him. He sends another one. They kill him. He says well hold on a second. I'll send my son. They'll treat him with more respect. And what did they do. They killed the son them saying jesus didn't recognize that jesus was talking about them.

But if you remember now one of the last things it says in that parable it says well then he will that land owner will take it away from them and give it to someone else that will be fruitful. And what did he do to the nation of israel.

They were supposed to be the light of the world. Look in the old testament. Look in isaiah. They were supposed to be the light and a gospel to the world. Look at hosea the same thing they were supposed to be a light unto the gentiles.

And what did they do. They did not. They failed. So what did he do. He he took that that uh that action that israel was supposed to do. And then he gave it to the church. Therefore the church now is the light of the world.

In this specific instance it's it's talking about uh being the light in asia. These seven churches were to be the the light in asia minor or asia however you want to understand it these seven churches.

So that brings us to chapter two. This is a milestone. Uh it brings us to to the church of ephesus. So let's read. We'll just read um that that section. And then we'll walk through it. It says the angel of the church in ephesus.

Right. The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand. And the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this. I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil men.

You put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. And you have found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. But i have this against you that you have left your first love.

Therefore remember from where you have fallen. Repent and do the deeds you did at first. Or else i am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet this you do have that you have hate the deeds of the nicolaitans which i hate.

Let him who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the churches. So him who overcomes i will grant to eat to the tree of life which is in the paradise of god. Where was the church of ephesus. It was all it was in asia minor.

It was only six miles from where this where six miles it was on. It was on straight street. It was six miles from where he was going to see that where this letter would be gonna be the first thing he hit.

Remember i can't draw the map because none of this stuff's coming off the board. But it it would be right off the cusp of the first one it came to. And what we we do know a lot about the church ephesus.

We briefly i think talked about it last week. And what we do know. Let's see if we can't get some of this off because ephesus is hugely important. Here's what we do know about the church of ephesus. Paul planted it when.

So just give me a range somebody. 52 54. Okay i think we can all agree on that. Right. 52 to 54. Somewhere around there. Then when he set that up how long was he there. Three years. But paul stayed there.

Turn your bible over to acts. I think it's acts. Chapter 19. Some wild stuff happened in ephesus too. So that it happened that one uh while apollos was at corinth paul passed through the upper country and came to ephesus.

And he found some disciples there. And he said to them did you receive the holy spirit when you believed. And they said we didn't know. There was a holy spirit. He said to them into what were you baptized.

And they said into john's baptism. Paul said john's baptized with the baptism of repentance telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him that is jesus. And when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus christ.

And when paul had laid his hands upon him the holy spirit came upon them. They began to speak in tongues. They prophesied. And there were about 12 men. Hey i don't know anything but this is baffling to me.

Okay when when was jesus crucified. Around 30 30. Yeah we could say his crucifixion between 30 and 33. I i hold this side. But that's not you see how long it had been before paul got there. Before they even knew that jesus had come they were still following the teaching of john the baptist.

That's the only light that they had. That's all that they knew. But when paul got there he immediately saw that there was people following the teaching of john. So he wanted to know. He prayed over and told them hey there was something greater than him that would come soon as they heard it they didn't reject it.

They believed. He prayed over him he gave and he the holy spirit came on just like in the day of pentecost they begin to to speak in unknown tongues. Now paul then in verse 8 he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months persuading them about the kingdom.

And when some of them became hardened and disobedient speaking evil of the way before the people he withdrew from them. And he took away the disciples reasoning daily in the school of tyrannius. This took place for two years so that all who lived in asia heard the word of the lord both jews and greeks.

So asia would be asia minor. You hear what it said paul there for two years all of asia heard the preaching of paul. So we could say that all these seven churches ultimately would have been planted under the preaching and teaching of paul and those 12 men that came to christ.

Then. And as we get further into the book you're going to see uh it's not mentioned but you'll have the book of the church at colossi troas hieropolis. Other churches in asia minor were planted because of the preaching of paul and the taking of the gospel to ephesus.

But then you go to look at in in verse 11 god was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of paul. Listen to this so that hey uh handkerchiefs and aprons were carried from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and evil spirits went from them.

But also some of the jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had evil spirits the name of the lord jesus saying i jure you by the name of jesus whom paul preaches.

And these seven sons of skeeva a jewish chief priest who was doing this the evil spirit answered and said to them i recognize jesus and i know about paul. But who are you. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped upon them subdued them overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.

This became known to all both jews and greeks who lived in ephesus. The fear fell upon all of them by the name of the lord jesus christ who was being magnified. And many also of those who had believed kept coming confessing and disclosing their practices.

And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together began burning them in the sight of everyone. They counted them up to the price and found them to be 50 000 pieces of silver so that the word of god was growing mightily and prevailing.

You see the city of ephesus was turned upside down. So what do we know about the city of ephesus in its infancy state. It was it was doing its job. It was preaching the word it was baptizing in the name of the lord jesus christ where they were seeing miracles that accompanied the actual work of the spirit to bring validity.

That not only did uh did jesus christ have the power for to to to set people free from sickness and evil sin and evil deeds but he could set them free from their sins says. And now after these things in verse 21.

Now after these things were finished paul proposed uh the spirit to go to jerusalem after he had passed through macedonia chaos saying after the this i will go to rome. And having sent into macedonia two of them those who ministered to him was timothy erastus.

And he himself stayed in asia for a while. Now about that time occurred not a small disturbance concerning the way a man named demetrius a silversmith made silver shrines to artemis. Ephesus had a major place of idolatry and worship artemis the temple diana one of the seven wonders of the world.

That's where this was at here's what happens it says. Uh and demetrius who made shrines to artemis was bringing no little business to the craftsman. These he gathered together with the workmen similar trades and said men you know that our prosperity depends on this.

What is he saying. Demetrius saying look paul and him got to quit doing this because this is how we make our money. This is how we're making our money here paul's. Paul's preaching and teaching for two years at this point is just knocking down the idolatry.

And here's what happens it says. You see and hear that not only in ephesus but also in asia that paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people saying these gods made with hands are not gods at all.

Not only is there dan is is there danger that this trade of ours will fall and disrepute but also the temple of our great god artemis be regarded as worthless that she whom all of asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence of her magnificence.

So here it is. They're preaching. It's going away. They're they're pulling down strongholds. This has happened within this time frame. Okay. Paul's going to leave. He gives his message. Um and further on in acts i think it's acts chapter 20.

I'm not going to read all the way there. He gives his going away speech. He says look i'm heading on and i just want you to know i've set up for you. I'm not leaving you here alone and but when i leave as i go out the front door there's going to be ravenous wolves.

They're going to come in and try to take away your thinking. They're going to try to capture your thoughts to false teaching. He even says something in that passage that says hey and as he's addressing those people there's people right here among you that are going to be ones that are going to try to pull you away.

So we know that paul was already preparing them to do what deal with false teachers and deal with false teaching. Right then. So that's what we know about the church of ephesus. Now let's go back to revelation.

He says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand he walks among the seven golden lamp stands. Who's this person that holds it holds the stars and walks among it. There's none other than the glorified god man himself jesus christ.

And he says i know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance. What were their deeds. Well from what we do know from what paul planted the church they continually uh combated evil dealt with false teachers deal with false teaching.

And he says and i know your toil. What is toil. I don't think it's just work struggle. I think it's yeah. I think it's more of hey. Um i don't know about anybody. When you get home from work you tell your wife oh man i toil today.

Anybody say that. No y 'all work. Man there's something different about toil. It has to do with i mean absorbent amount of labor intense. Not just going to work. He says this toil and your perseverance.

What did they persevere in. What do we know from what we just read. What did they persevere so to the truth. They held to the truth no matter what. There was riots there. We could have read that there was a riot broke out.

They had to get the the the city magistrate had to come and say hey man if y 'all don't cut this out i'm gonna have to start charging some people because a riot broke out. That's normally what happens when paul goes to the city anyway.

But he he his preaching turned into a riot. And they persevered. Now we have no indication. Okay that there was some major persecution in the senses that they were being hauled off and being killed like we'll see in another church.

But we do know this. They persevered. It says that you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put them to the test. Those who call themselves apostles. And they are not. And you have found them to be false.

How did they put those men to be claimed to be apostles. How did they put them to the test. I seen if their words were true. I mean what did he's preaching. Just went through it. What did those fall. Same thing.

Pseudo apostles. Fake apostles. Men that came in said they had more authority than paul. They did the same thing in ephesus. And what did they do in ephesus. They held them to the standard of the of the scripture.

And when they found them to be false they didn't put up with it. They kicked them out. They said you ain't got no place here. What did corinth do. Let's look at the difference. What did corinth do with those people.

They embraced them. So what can we say just from ephesus to corinth. What can we see the difference. We have ones that toiled in the labor toil and labor for the word. They persevered against those men that came in and tried to to draw them away.

They didn't put up with uh with sin within the church because they held to a righteous standard. Well what did corinth do. They did the exact opposite. Corinth said hey you know what we love. Everybody just come on in here.

We don't care if you're sleeping with your mom or not. You know we don't care. Just come on in. We're the we're the we're the fellowship.

Of love.

He says and those that we have found not that were found to be false they've put them out. He says you have persevered once again. You've persevered and have have endured. For whose sake. Jesus name's sake.

Not for their own. Not doing thing of their own their own accord wanting themselves epsis to look like we're some super great church. They did it because of the name of christ. And he says this and you have not grown weary.

I'm gonna be honest with you growing weary is easy. Growing weary is here is easy is easy. A number of you can have called me in the past and say hey man how can i pray for you this week. And if you if you have ever heard me my continual response that i would not grow weary in doing good.

That's what it is. There might be some other things added to that some specific. But that i would not grow weary in doing good because it's easy. I don't know about y 'all you can see the stuff going on around you.

And you go man are we really making a difference. Are we really making a difference. I don't know how many people you've shared the gospel with. But how many people have you seen actually converted that can become uh spiritually depressed.

Yeah depressed. But they did not grow weary and doing good. And here now here it is here's the accusation. But i have this against you that you have left your first love. So we would say that ephesus was the first baptist church.

A second love. That's it. What did it mean. How did they lose their first love. Didn't we just hear all of these wonderful things that jesus himself had said about them. I mean they had toiled they had good deeds.

Hey jesus even said here i know your deeds i know what you're doing. And didn't jesus say they were good. Yes he even said your perseverance is top notch. He said you put out all of these evil men from aphonia.

You didn't do like your sister church over there in corinth and embraced all the foolishness. You didn't bring in the super apostles and made them out to be good. You put them out. They didn't put up with any nonsense.

But he says he's left their first love. Now we could probably make a list. What does it look like to lose your first love. What does it look like. Honestly i don't think that's necessary. Everybody in this room that's a believer.

You know if you've left your first love you know. And how do you know. Because you know your heart. You know in your heart right now if there's something more important than christ priority wise i'm not saying that you're you're not a christian.

I'm not saying that you're not a believer. But you know if things have crowded your life to where christ is not supreme. Hey this is probably one of the the stalwart churches of asia minor and they have been rebuked.

Now i'm going to go so far as to say emphasis probably didn't know it. You know in your own heart if you've left your first love you know in your own heart if there's something more important than christ as the church as a whole.

Emphasis. I don't think they did. I think they were so blinded by their good deeds by their confronting false teaching getting out of the idols trying to keep the wolves from coming in. They saw all of these things.

They were too busy doing church that they could say you know what this has to be what love is. And i'm not gonna lie. Doesn't that sound like what love would be confronting false teaching. Is that not loving.

Yeah i think it's very loving. Especially to those that are around you that are being pulled away. I remember i've only been saved about two years that one of the most kindest most influential men in my life although we have some theological differences.

He's a sweet man. I could not stand false teaching. I would go when benny hen td jakes all these other i'd go there. I'd open air preach. And i dude i'd try to call down fire from heaven. I was so to the point i believe this is sinful.

Okay i think they should have been rounded up. But today because they were such a against the body of christ that man pulled me to the side. He said you understand you're in sin. It's like man. But they're taking a they're they're leading people that i care about away.

Because that's not your job. Your job is to preach the word. You preach the word. You do it lovingly. You do it. And you let god worry about what he does with them. This is the most kindest sweet sweet spoken man.

I felt i just got rebuked. I repented of repented of that. So these men had left their first love. And i don't think that they knew until now. Remember those eyes that were a flame of fire those eyes that could peer into the soul.

Now what did they do. They looked into the hearts of that church jesus walking amongst that lampstand seeing what's going on in that church him being in the midst of them saw that they had left their first love.

But then he gives some reads. He says remember repent and return. He says therefore remember where you have fallen. Okay if you can look back and say hey you know we remember what it was like when paul first came here and how we were.

We were loving the lord and we were had that uh honeymoon phase. We've always heard about when you first come to christ. But now that things have gotten more difficult now it just seems about doing doctrinal clarity and doctrinal uh dissertations.

And we're not really loving christ in such a way that it's it's being extended to the people. Let me ask you this. Can you leave your first love whom is christ. And continue to love god's people in the way that you should.

Impossible. Can you still love the people. Yes. So we shouldn't make a distinction between loving christ and loving his people because they're inseparable. Remember we're in christ. If you have left your first love which is christ there's no way you can possibly love.

You're the people of god your family all of that the way that god has commanded. They're inseparable. I would say the first i would say the first litmus test per se is to see if you've left your first love.

How do you treat the people of god. How do you treat people within your home. And how do you treat outsiders. Go around. We go around this room. I don't think maybe we want to say that but you know you know how you treat your loved ones.

I've often said i even said it from the pulpit. You want to see if a man loves his loves christ. Look how he treats his wife. You want to see if a woman loves her husband see how she submits to her husband.

Then you'll see christ's likeness. You want to see if a woman loves her wife look how she treats her husband. You want to see if a man loves his loves christ look how he treats his wife. Don't take that out of me.

If that doesn't go down your gullet. Well take it up with the word of god he says. Remember from where you have fallen. And the same message that we will hear continually throughout five of these books is repent.

What does it mean to repent. Is it just an intellectual recognition of hey what i'm doing is wrong. Because the word metano means the change of mind. Okay it does mean that. But that's not all that it means.

And when you came to faith in christ you didn't just change your mind about who christ was. Okay i used to think he was a man. But okay now i think he's gone. That's not what it is it says. Here you repent.

And he gives an actual command. And it tells you how to do it. What does it say repent. And do the deeds you did at first. And what were those deeds at first. Being immersed in christ. Being in love with him first and foremost being in love not with not with just wanting to know more.

And i do believe we should study. I mean keith was talking earlier this week. I believe in studying. I love to study. I love to learn. Okay not learn everything. But i love to study god's word. But i have to keep myself in constant check.

Am i doing this so that i love christ more. Or am i just doing it to fill my little pea brain with more information. I'll be honest sometimes i don't know. So it's a continual in my heart i continue. Okay.

Do i just want to know more. Or do i want to know christ more. And if i know christ more than the more that i know christ the more i'm conformed into the image of his son. The more that i know god the more that i understand him the more it should change my life.

Look if you filled your brain with information about christ your information about god and theology and doctrine and it hasn't changed your life. You are in sin you are. It's all there is to it. It has to change.

You change the way you think. You change the way you live. You change the way you think about god. It will change the way you think about people he says. And go back and do the things you did at first.

And he said. And here here it is. Or else you remember when your dad used to tell you make me come back there. Or else he's like me. Come on back here. Come on back here. No. No no jesus said or else i will come to you and will remove the lamp stand from its place.

And then he says it again. Unless you repent. Unless you repent. So what's the consequences of not doing what christ has commanded here. He's going to remove his presence. He's going to remove that church from ephesus.

He's going to take that church out of ephesus. Okay. You don't want to do what i asked you to do. You're going to continue to church your way. You're going to continue to to do things the way you're on way.

All those those things on the outside are good. Your heart perspective is continue is continually wrong. He says i'm telling you if you don't repent i'm going to come there. And i'm going to remove that church from its place.

You know the church in ephesus ain't there. No more today. It's in the ismir providence of turkey. It's not there anymore. It's not there. So we can look say man did these people heed the words that christ told them.

And we need to wrap it up. So one he says remember repent and return. That's the easiest way to do it. Remember. Repent return. If not i'm going to remove. That's what we need to know about the church of ephesus.

Was the a a great church. Yes i would hope. And we'll wrap up with this. And keith i'll get you to pray for us. I would hope that we could hear these from the word from the lord jesus christ about sovereign grace church.

I know your deeds your toil your perseverance. You don't put up with evil men. And those that came in here that thought they were apostles or thought that they had something to say that was commissioned by me.

You put up with it. I would hope that he would say that about this church. But i hope he wouldn't say that you've left your first love.

You pray for us keith father in heaven. I'm grateful to uh have heard this message today and i thank you for brother mike preparing to give it to us and to be reminded of the importance of putting christ as and keeping christ as the very center and forefront of our faith and to not become distracted even by good things that they are to lead us away from the main thing.

So i pray lord that as a church we would recognize those things be reminded of where our hearts are and where our allegiances are. And lord that we would repent where necessary. The lord it maybe is something that individuals need to repent of.

And lord if there is an area where even a church our church would need to repent. Lord i pray that you make that so clear to us that we should not be able to miss it. I pray this in christ's name.