I want us to think for, as we begin, picture Jesus observing our church.
As you think about Him observing our church, think of two things.
He looks at each one of us as individuals.
He looks at you, evaluating you, your life.
He also looks at us as a church family, together.
A body called Pickens First Baptist.
Now as you think about the Lord observing you, looking at our church collectively,
do you think of the Lord more like a policeman?
A policeman who is on a stakeout.
Watching criminals.
Do you think of Him as watching to see when you do something wrong,
so that He can turn on His blue light, pull you over, and deal with you as a criminal?
Is that how you see the Lord as you think about Him evaluating you?
Some kind of celestial policeman just waiting for you to do something wrong so He can punish you.
Or, do you think of Jesus more like being a gardener?
Do you think about Him observing us as a gardener walks around the garden He has planted?
Think about Jesus as a gardener.
He walks around and observes all the things in His garden.
And if you did that, you enjoy the variety of colors.
You take note of plants that are healthy and growing.
You take note of those that are producing fruit.
When Jesus, as a gardener, is looking through His garden, looking at our lives,
He does notice problems.
He notices insects eating away at the plants.
He notices leaves that are shriveling up.
He does notice our sins, our failures.
He knows that there's things in our life that's got to be dealt with.
Just like in a garden, if the garden's going to be healthy.
Now, which one do you, just as you think about the Lord observing your life,
is He more like a gardener?
Or is He more like the policeman?
I hope it is obvious the way I presented that,
that we should think of Jesus as a gardener,
as He observes our lives,
as He observes your life on a daily basis,
and our church family,
as we function together as one body.
That's how we need to see Jesus in the book of Revelation,
the first two chapters,
as Jesus observes the seven churches of Asia Minor.
He evaluates their strengths and weaknesses.
Now, we're not going to do a series.
We did a series years ago on this.
Today, I want to look at what Jesus said to the first church
in Revelation chapter 2.
And I want you to go ahead and turn to that
because we're not going to put the whole section.
There's seven verses there.
And I want us to read them out of the Bible.
But as you're turning,
over the past several months,
we've been looking at some of the hot-button issues
that we're having to deal with today in our country.
We've looked at the issues relating to race
and law enforcement, socialism,
moral issues related to this year's election.
All those kind of things are important.
We didn't spend from July till recently on all that
because it didn't really matter.
It's important how we think,
how we understand things,
how we interpret what's going on.
Those issues were important for every Christian to grasp.
But it's vitally important that we look at those issues
from a biblical perspective.
That's why I call that series
Thinking Biblically.
Now, as important as those issues are,
they must never become the priority of our lives
as individuals or as a church.
And what I want us to do this morning
is look at Revelation chapter 2
to help us turn our focus
to what must be the priority of our lives.
Knowing, loving, and serving Jesus
and with an emphasis this morning
on doing what we do as Christians
from a motivation of loving Jesus.
Look with me at Revelation chapter 2.
We're going to begin in verse 1.
Keep in mind the book of Revelation is highly symbolic.
You see that from the first chapter.
We're going to see that as we begin this.
2-1 of Revelation.
To the angel of the church in Ephesus,
write the words of him who holds the seven stars
in his right hand,
who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
I know your works, your toil,
and your patient endurance,
and how you cannot bear with those who are evil,
but have tested those who call themselves apostles
and are not,
and found them to be false.
I know you are enduring patiently
and bearing up for my name's sake,
and you have not grown weary.
I want you to just stop for a moment.
How the Lord commends these faithful Christians.
They're pleasing him in many ways.
Verse 4.
But I have this against you,
that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen.
Repent, and do the works you did at first.
If not, I will come to you
and remove your lampstand from its place,
unless you repent.
Yet, this you have.
You hate the work of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate.
The first thing I want us to notice in verse 1,
the Lord has the right to evaluate us.
The Lord Jesus has every right to evaluate you and me,
the way we're living,
the way we live as people who call ourselves
Christ people, Christians.
The Lord's relationship with the church
is pictured in verse 1.
It says he holds the seven stars in his hands.
Now, the seven stars are identified
in chapter 1, verse 20.
All the symbols in Revelation are not identified.
That's what makes it such a difficult book.
Well, the stars were identified in 1.20
as the angels or messengers of the seven churches.
Each of the seven letters,
there's seven letters to seven churches
in Revelation 2 and 3,
and each one is addressed to the angel
or can be translated messenger of the church.
Here's the problem.
Who are the angels?
Who are these messengers?
Well, there may be literal angels.
There may be guardian angels
or angels who represent the church
before the Lord in heaven.
And a lot of commentators say
that's who it's talking about.
But on the other hand,
it may be human messengers.
Maybe the pastors or leaders of the church.
And that would make sense
since the leader of the church
would be the one reading this letter
to the church.
But we really don't know.
One of the reasons Jesus uses the symbol
of holding these stars in His hand,
of course, the church belongs to Him.
That's why He holds them in His hand.
But one of the things I want you to think about,
Jesus protects the church.
He owns the church.
We belong to Him.
He has bought us with His life.
But being in His hand
is designed to be a comforting thought.
It's a hand of protection if we're persecuted.
It's a hand of comfort
when we're discouraged
or when we're grieving.
But it's also a hand of correction
when we sin.
But the hand of correction
is a hand of loving correction in the Bible.
God disciplines His children
because He loves us.
Hebrews tells us in great detail
there in chapter 12.
Now, note one more thing
just to get technical issues
out of the way here at the beginning.
It says He walks among
the seven golden lampstands.
Well, back in chapter 1,
verse 20 of Revelation,
it describes these seven
or the golden lampstands.
They represent the churches.
He walks among the
seven golden lampstands.
He walks among the churches
is what He's talking about.
Jesus walks among the churches
is the point here.
He knows what's going on
in the life of this church.
He knows what's going on
in every individual
who makes up this church.
So that's why we can think about this
this morning is
the Lord has a right to evaluate us.
We belong to Him.
He's evaluating us.
I want you to look next.
He commends what is right
in our lives.
Note, there are several things
that He commends.
I paused after verse 3
when I was reading it.
Let's look at some of these quickly.
The Lord commends good works.
It says in the first part
of verse 2,
I know your works,
your toll,
and your patient endurance.
This church was evidently
actively involved
in various kinds of ministries.
These people took their
church commitment seriously.
They took their relationship
to the Lord seriously.
They didn't just show up
every now and then
for a worship service.
They were involved.
They were plugged in.
They were doing things.
Some of them probably,
like we've seen today,
people leading out,
maybe singing.
People have taken a lot of time
in putting these shoeboxes together
and coordinating this effort.
All kinds of things go on
that you see on Sunday.
Lots of things go on
that you don't see
behind the scenes
that happens during the week.
The Lord is commending
those who are serving faithfully.
What I want you to see is
you can please the Lord.
Some people have a warped sense of God
that He can never be pleased,
that He's always out to get us.
He's always looking for what's wrong
so He can punish us.
That's not the concept of God
in Scripture.
God is a holy God.
He certainly has holy standards.
God takes it seriously
when we violate them.
The ultimate punishment
is death and hell.
But the love of God is such
that He sent Jesus into this world
to die on the cross
as our substitute
and actually pay the penalty
for our sins.
So that, think of it this way,
He actually suffered
as He hung on the cross,
the wrath of God,
separation from God.
That's why He cried out,
my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?
He took the punishment
we deserved
so that we wouldn't have to.
And when we will admit our sin,
repent of it,
and trust Jesus,
we become one with Him
by faith
and the penalty for our sin
has been paid for
through the death of Jesus.
As God's children,
we can please Him.
There are numerous passages
in the Bible
that talks about
pleasing God,
how to please God.
And Jesus is saying,
there's members of this church,
they're actively involved
using the gifts and talents
and abilities they have,
and He commends them.
I want you to know,
the Lord commends you
for your faithful service
to Him,
to other people
in and through this church.
Look next,
the Lord commends
sound doctrine,
the last part of verse 2,
the rest of verse 2,
and how you cannot bear
with those who are evil,
but have tested those
who call themselves apostles
and are not
and found to be false.
And then in verse 6,
after He condemns them
for their forsaking
their first love,
as we'll see in a moment,
He comes back
before He ends this letter
to commend them,
yet this you have,
you hate the works
of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate.
This church was not like
some liberal churches today
that have exchanged
biblical truth
for social action.
There are some churches
that never mention the gospel.
There are churches
throughout this country,
they never focus on
the actual teaching
of God's Word
concerning any issue.
They're more,
they're more like
just a social agency
than they are a church.
Well, this church at Ephesus
that Jesus is commending,
they were doctrinally sound
in addition to being involved
in practical ministry.
No doubt they helped people
in need in Ephesus
that they knew
and were aware of.
No doubt they were involved
in what some people
would refer to as
social ministries,
but that's not who
they were defined as.
They were the people of God
who truly believed
in the Word of God
being right and true
and without error.
They worked at
maintaining their faithfulness
to the teaching
of God's Word
and one of the ways,
they were careful
about who they allowed
to teach in their church.
They had been visited
by some false teachers.
There was in that day
false teachers showed up,
we're the real deal,
but they were wicked men
and false apostles,
the Scripture says here.
This church evaluated them
by what they had been taught,
by things they knew
of the Old Testament
and by the teaching
of the Apostle Paul
who founded this church,
who spent a lot of time
in this church
teaching them.
The Apostle John,
the writer of Revelation,
he was a powerful influence
in the church at Ephesus.
Timothy, Paul's understudy,
Paul's disciple,
Paul left him in Ephesus
to teach in this church.
This church was solid theologically.
They knew the truth.
They could hear the people
talking, preaching,
and they could evaluate it
by what they knew
was right and wrong.
And when they found
a false teacher,
they kicked him out.
They weren't worried
about hurting someone's feelings.
They did not allow
anything that would be contrary
to the clear truth
of God's Word
to happen,
to find root in their midst.
They were zealous for the truth.
They hated
what was contrary to the truth.
Now this helps us.
This helps us understand
that we individually
as Christians,
we need to be discerning
as we listen
to people teach
like me here right now.
Your Sunday school teachers,
what you hear anywhere,
what you read anywhere.
You need to be discerning.
You need to evaluate
what you hear
in light of what the Bible
clearly teaches.
Whoever teaches
what is contrary
to the truth of Scripture
is a false teacher.
I don't care
if they're in a church,
if they're on TV,
if they've got a website,
or whatever.
And that includes
people who ignore
the Scripture
or take it out of context
to present their messages
of positive feeling
and feel good living.
living.
Like, say,
Joel Osteen.
Joel Osteen
wouldn't last 30 seconds
in the church at Ephesus
because he's shallow
as a cookie sheet,
because he does not
truly teach
the Word of God
in its entirety
or even in a little bit.
Today,
serious-minded Christians
look for resources
to help them
better understand the Bible.
I know a lot of you do
because we have some conversations
from time to time.
I want to encourage you,
when you run across
a book
or a website
and you're not familiar
with the author especially,
it applies to anybody,
take what they say
and evaluate it
by what you know
is true about God's Word.
And if they are
distorting it,
ignoring it,
contradicting it,
throw the book away.
Never go back
to that website.
Don't allow someone
who is not
doctrinally sound,
who is not faithful
to the Scripture
to have any kind
of influence
in the way that you think
and the way that you live.
The Lord commends
sound doctrine.
And then third,
the Lord commends
faithful endurance.
Look at verse 3.
I know you are
enduring patiently
and bearing up
for my name's sake
and you have not
grown weary.
They were living
under a time
of real persecution,
most likely
under the Roman
Emperor Domitian.
They also experienced
local oppositions
from pagan
religious leaders.
You can read about
that in Acts 19.
It had been going
on for years.
But they remained
faithful.
In spite of the
hardship,
some of them
no doubt
would have been
arrested.
They would have
had church members
killed.
They would have
people who
lost their jobs
because of what
they believed
in that community.
We cannot compare
ourselves with
them because we
don't face that
kind of intense
persecution for our
faith.
At least we don't
yet in this country
and we need to
thank God for that.
But we do
face situations
where we get
under stress,
where we're
tempted,
maybe not to
compromise our
faith, but we're
tempted maybe to
just sort of
ignore the
Lord.
How do you deal
with difficulty in
your life?
How do you deal
with stress?
Do you let those
kind of things draw
you closer to the
Lord, drive you
deeper into His
Word, or do you
just retreat from
Him, ignore Him?
You don't really
deny the faith,
it's just, Lord,
like you forget
the faith.
We, where we
live, right
now, in our
own personal
difficulties, in
our own times of
stress, we've got
to focus on being
faithful, living
faithful Christian
lives, maintaining,
even growing in our
relationship with the
Lord, no matter
what's happening to
us or around us.
The church at
Ephesus had a lot
going for it.
It was filled with
Christians who truly
were serious about
their relationship with
the Lord in many
ways, but there
was something missing.
There was something
that made a
difference in their
relationship with the
Lord that was
missing.
Let's look at that
next.
The Lord condemns
what is wrong in
their lives.
They lacked one
thing.
Look at verse 4.
But I have this
against you, that
you have abandoned
the love you had at
first.
Now, Jesus doesn't
explain what that
love was, but it
should be obvious.
It had to be their
love for Him, their
love for God.
The greatest
commandment, Jesus
said, is to love the
Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, mind,
and strength.
Now, think about it.
This is what we would
call a good church.
The Lord commends
them for their good
works, their dedication
to the faith, the
defense of the faith.
They didn't give in to
persecution.
But somewhere along
the way in all this
good, their love for
the Lord had grown
cold.
Maybe they lost
sight of why they
were doing what they
were doing, or who
they were doing it
for.
Perhaps their zeal for
the truth of God's
Word turned into an
academic, or just an
intellectual exercise.
Maybe they believed
right.
They defended the
truth.
Maybe they just went
too far and actually
just hated and wanted
to really hurt those
who were false
teachers.
They lost their love,
their first love.
Now, these were not
rebels.
I want you to know
that.
I think the church at
Ephesus, it was a
good church.
A lot of good
things going on.
You couldn't
criticize them for
their statement of
faith or anything.
But somewhere along
the line, it took
place over time.
Not everyone in the
church for sure, but
as a whole, they sort
of drifted away from
their close, personal
relationship with the
Lord.
They drifted away from
a true, do what we
do because we love
Jesus.
We want to please
Him.
We want to bring a
smile to His face.
I think the best way to
illustrate this, the
best way, what most
common way, is what
happened in this church
is similar to what
happens sometimes in a
marriage.
Do you remember the
first time you
started getting
serious about the
person you're married
to right now?
Do you remember what
it was like when you
first got married?
You remember how you
wanted to be together
all the time?
I mean, you couldn't
get enough of each
other.
When you were apart,
you actually missed
one another.
Some of you are of an
age and a time frame
that you wrote love
letters when you were
apart.
And some of you
right now at home,
you've got put away,
maybe can't even find
them right now, a few
or maybe a stack of
love letters that your
spouse wrote to you.
Now, if you've got love
letters of somebody
before your spouse, you
better throw them away
before you get in
trouble.
Don't save everything.
There's people in this
room that you spent time
on the phone, maybe even
hours when you all were
apart, just chit-chatting,
talking about everything
under the sun.
Nothing really serious.
You just wanted to hear
each other's voice.
Do you remember when you
were truly in love,
close?
You did special things for
your spouse?
Cooked a special meal?
Gave her a special gift?
Took getaway weekends
because you wanted to be
alone and together with
each other?
Do you remember when you
used to look at your
spouse and actually carry on
a conversation about
something other than your
children?
And you actually listened
to your spouse because
your love was such you
cared.
You wanted to know.
You wanted to share.
That's how most of us are,
at least at the beginning.
Hopefully it never changes,
but let's be real.
After you're married for a
while, things do change.
Life happens.
We get in a routine.
You have to get in a
routine.
Children come along and
take a lot of time, a lot
of attention.
Work, as you go on in life,
and especially if you get
serious about your work,
it takes a lot of time.
And with work and being
involved in church and being
involved with your children,
there's all kinds of
activities.
And you know life is just
stressful.
More so at times than
others, but life is
stressful.
If we're not careful, we
can live life in such a
way that we'll wake up one
morning and we never
intended it, but we'll wake
up one morning and we're
married to a stranger
because we've drifted apart.
We have not intentionally,
and we may not want to
admit it, we still love our
spouse, but not like we used
to.
The warmth is no longer
there.
There's a familiar old story
that sums this up.
Most of you have heard it, but
I want to say it anyway because
it just sums it up.
An older couple was riding
down the road one day.
The wife was sitting, you
know, on the far right of her
side of the car up next to her
door.
Her husband, far left, sitting
behind the wheel driving.
The wife said, honey, do you
remember when we used to sit
close together and you'd drive
with one arm around me and one
arm on the steering wheel?
That was before seatbelts.
Before they started enforcing
that, people like me and some
of these guys in here, you
stuck those seatbelts down under
the seat where they couldn't even
be seen.
And when you were dating,
especially when you got serious,
you wanted the girl to sit right
beside you.
How many of you guys, don't raise
your hand, how many of you guys
ever been asked, does it take two
people to drive that car?
You know what I'm talking about.
Well, the wife asked him, why don't
we do that anymore?
The wife said, you remember we used to
do that?
He said, uh-huh.
The wife said, why don't we do that
anymore?
And the husband looked at her and
replied, well, don't look at me.
I ain't moved.
You've heard that story.
Here's the point.
If there's any separation between
you and the Lord, understand,
Jesus has not moved.
What would Jesus say about you
right now?
What would he say about us as a
church right now?
Have we moved away from him?
Has our love
grown cold
or at least
nowhere near the warmth
it used to have?
The only thing you can do
is look at yourself.
Have you drifted away from him?
Is the love for him
zealous?
Is it truly operational
in your life right now?
If the Lord's showing you that
you've moved away from him,
listen to what he says next in
verse five.
The Lord warns us to correct what
is wrong.
He says, remember therefore from
where you have fallen, repent and do
the works you did at first.
How do you make changes?
It's real simple here.
Number one, remember.
Remember what it was like when you
first came to the Lord
or remember what it was like when
you were really serious
about your relationship with him.
About just knowing him and loving
him and serving him because you
loved him.
Remember what that was like.
Number two, repent.
If you've fallen away, come back.
Change your mind.
Do an about face.
Change your direction.
Turn from whatever has led you
or caused you
to drift away from him.
You've got to identify it.
If it's your work,
if it's just laziness,
if it's some other person,
if it's just hobbies,
ask him to help you to understand
what it is and repent.
Change your mind.
Turn from it and then return.
Return to doing what you did
when you did love him.
Return to spending time with him,
uninterrupted time in prayer
and in his word.
Return to a time when your love
for the Lord was real.
And it made a difference
in how you lived.
I want to add here,
this is the key to correcting
a lack of love in your marriage.
For some of you,
this is the message.
Remember how it used to be?
Remember how you once
kept the fire going?
If it's not that way anymore,
repent.
Turn from being so selfish,
being so involved in everything
but your spouse's life.
One error that some couples make,
never let your children
take the place of your spouse
as the number one person
in your life.
Your children are important.
Love them.
Invest in them.
Give yourself to them.
But don't ever let them
take the place
of your spouse.
Remember, repent,
and return
to doing the things
you used to do
to rekindle that love
with your spouse.
But know what will happen
if we don't respond
in our relationship with the Lord.
Verse five,
if not,
I will come to you
and remove your lampstand
from its place
unless you repent.
He's talking about
he's going to dissolve the church.
This church will cease to be,
or let's put it this way,
it'll cease to be
the Lord's church.
It'll cease to be
a vibrant church.
They may meet,
but the Lord won't be with them.
We've got to avoid this
at all costs.
We as a church,
we must always keep
our focus on Jesus.
Our focus is not
on shoeboxes.
Our focus is not
on the preacher.
Our focus is not
on the music.
Our focus is not
even on the Bible.
Our focus has got to be
on Jesus Christ
and God our Father.
We do what we do
because we know Him
and love Him
and we want to please Him.
It's that simple.
And then when we do that,
the shoeboxes
can be a real ministry.
Music can be a real ministry.
Preaching and teaching
God's Word
can be a real ministry.
Look at the final word
from the Lord this morning.
The Lord promises blessings
to those who overcome
their lack of love.
Verse 7,
to the one who conquers,
I will grant to eat
of the tree of life
which is in the paradise
of God.
Listen to the Lord's promise.
To eat of the tree of life
which is in the paradise
of God.
He's talking about
eternal life in heaven.
This is a promise
of final,
eternal victory
for those who truly
love the Lord.
You may not think
too much about
the end of your life,
especially if you're young,
but I've found
the older you get
the more you do
think about that.
It's coming.
Where are you
going to spend eternity?
This is a promise
that those who truly
have a relationship
with Jesus,
a love relationship
with Him,
are going to spend
eternity with Him.
and He expresses
this symbolically here,
eating of the tree
of life in paradise.
But I want you
to listen to the opposite.
Those who do not
love Him
will not share
in this promise
because they don't
belong to Christ.
You see,
love is the
essential,
essential
characteristic
of God's people.
If you went
into your kitchen
this afternoon
and followed
a recipe
where you mixed
together butter,
shortening,
eggs,
milk,
flour,
salt,
cocoa,
and vanilla,
placed it in a cake pan,
baked it for one hour
and 15 minutes,
it would come out
of the oven
looking and smelling
like a chocolate pound cake
that you couldn't
wait to eat.
But when you took
your first bite,
you would immediately
realize it was missing
one ingredient,
sugar.
Even though it had
all the other ingredients
and looked and smelled
like a chocolate pound cake,
it wasn't.
It wouldn't be.
Sometimes one ingredient
makes all the difference.
And when it comes
to living the Christian life,
love is that one
essential,
key ingredient.
To paraphrase Paul
in 1 Corinthians 13,
if you don't have love,
you have nothing.
Let's go home
with this thought.
The most important thing
I can ever do
is love the Lord Jesus Christ
as my Savior and Lord.
And let my love for Him
be the motivation
for everything I do
for Him.
Let's pray together.
Father,
we are busy people.
So much is going on
in life today
for most families.
Many of the things
we're involved in,
we know You want us to be.
They're good.
They're right.
They're important.
But some are very essential.
We as a church father,
for the last several months,
we've been focusing on
important biblical matters
relevant to what's going on
around about us
in today's American culture.
But Lord,
help us
in the midst of
studying good things
and doing good things.
Help us, dear God,
to not allow
our love for You,
our love for Jesus,
to grow cold.
Father,
so work in us
right now
to rekindle this love
if it's
not hot.
Work, Father,
to call that man
or woman
or boy or girl
to faith in Jesus
if they don't understand
what this love
is all about.
And help us, dear God,
as individual Christians,
as the church,
to do everything we do
for a motivation
of love for You
and even love for people.
help us, Father,
to be strong
in our faith
and do good works
and be doctrinally sound.
Help us, Lord,
in the coming days
when persecution comes
to hang in there
and be faithful.
But help us, Father,
in the midst of it all
to love
and begin with You
in Jesus.
Lord, show us
how we need to respond.
And now,
with heads bowed
and eyes closed,
let's respond to the Lord
as He speaks.
Do what you know
you need to do
to leave here
as a Christian
motivated by love
or
to leave here
as a new Christian
trusting in Jesus.
ös