You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Turn with me, if you will, this morning to Revelation chapter 2. That's right, you heard me.
Not Ephesians. Revelation chapter 2. We'll talk about Ephesians some too.
It's really good to be back this morning.
We actually finished our walk through Ephesians a couple of weeks ago.
But I think since we've spent much of this calendar year in the book of Ephesians together,
that it's well worth a look back for a couple of weeks at what God has taught us,
at what He has shown us there, at what He's had for us as a church.
So we're going to do that this week and next week, call it Ephesians in Review.
Particularly next week, we're going to look back at the highlights of Ephesians.
Some of the great things in that letter itself.
But to help us prepare for that, I want us to look this morning at another letter to the same church.
We've been studying Ephesians years after that letter from Paul to the church in Ephesus.
John records a letter from the risen Jesus to the church in Ephesus.
It's in Revelation 2 at verse 1.
These are the very words of God.
Let's give them our attention and our reverence.
Revelation 2 at verse 1.
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.
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 works of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate.
He who has an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the one who conquers,
I will grant to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the paradise of God.
The grass withers,
the flowers fade,
but these words of our God
will stand forever.
Pray with me.
Father, we ask for your help.
We ask because these are your words.
We ask because we are those who see,
but don't understand sometimes.
We're those who understand,
but don't desire to change.
We're slow to see the weakness in our own hearts.
We're slow to know you more.
And so,
would you show us ourselves?
Would you show us Jesus?
Would you make us different because of that?
We ask in his name.
Amen.
As we have studied Ephesians together,
one of the key points that Paul has been at pains to make in that epistle
is that we must keep our truth
and our doctrine,
our doctrine,
excuse me,
and our practice connected.
The truth that we believe
and the way that we live,
they have to be connected to each other.
How we believe
impacts how we behave
in every aspect of life.
That's what Paul does in Ephesians, right?
He spends the first three chapters
telling us these glorious truths
of the gospel of God's grace.
He tells us what he's done for us
and he spends all this time
teaching us these things
and then in the last three chapters,
he says,
now I'm gonna tell you what that means
in every area of life.
I'm gonna tell you how it changes
the way you live here
and here and here,
the difference that it makes.
And next week,
I'm so excited to get to look back
at some of those great truths,
some of those challenging applications
and specifically remember
those from Ephesians.
But as we prepare to look back,
this letter here in Revelation
to the church in Ephesus
is a reminder
of how vital it is
for the church to connect
truth and life together.
And how easy it is
in any church,
not just the church in Ephesus,
for truth and life
to get disconnected,
to be torn apart
and how devastating that can be.
To help us understand
what's going on in this letter,
let me tell you a little bit
about myself
that some of you may know.
I really like being right.
I always have.
I grew up in a family
that played a lot of games,
a lot of sports.
We were very competitive.
I'm the firstborn in that family
and as the firstborn,
it's very important
that you always be winning
and that you always be right.
And so from an early age,
that was very important.
So what you do
is you learn all the rules
to the games
and to the sports
and for two very important reasons.
One is it's a great way
to get ahead
if you know all the rules, right?
You can use them
to your advantage.
But what you can also do,
and I learned this early,
that one of the great joys
of sports
is getting to yell
at the umpire
or referee
who missed it.
And that's really
a great joy.
So if you know the rules
better than he does,
you get to yell at him
and tell him
what he should have done,
how he's gotten it wrong.
I went to college
and I became a copy editor
for a newspaper.
And so when you're
a copy editor,
you really need
to know what's right.
You need to know
exactly where every comma
is supposed to be
and not supposed to be.
So you learn all the rules
for comma placement.
It's very significant.
It's like being
an engineer with words
if you've never done it before.
So I'm suspecting
there are others
in this room
who like to have things
just right.
Anybody like things
like just so,
just the way
they're supposed to be?
Some of y'all,
that stresses you out.
I understand.
But some of us
like it just right.
In order to humble
a guy like me
who always wants
to be right,
God has given me
a wife who is right
way more than I am.
Christy is smarter
than I am,
so she's right
about lots of stuff.
But she's also
more intuitive than I am,
so she sees a situation
and she understands
what's going on
and what's going
to happen next
and so she's always
right about that
and it's these rare moments
where I'm right
and she misses it.
God uses that.
He knew I needed that.
But of all the things
I love to be right about,
I think theology
tops the list.
I mean,
is that a fair thing
to be at the top
of the list?
I mean,
many of you
don't care at all
about the rules of sports
or the placement of commas.
It just doesn't matter
to you.
But I mean,
our doctrine
is vitally important,
right?
What we believe
about God,
our theology,
I mean,
we better get that right.
We find out
in this passage
that it is indeed
a really big deal.
God is the God of truth.
Satan is the father
of lies.
So distinguishing
between truth
and falsehood
is of great importance.
We might even say
above all else.
It's why Paul taught
the riches
of the gospel
of grace
over and over
to the Ephesians
in person
and then he wrote
them a letter
about it.
It was the mystery
he was tasked
with telling them,
right?
It's what Jesus
commends the church
for in this letter
in Revelation.
Look at verse 2.
What does Jesus
say to them?
I know your works,
your toil
and your patient endurance,
how you cannot bear
with those who are evil
but have tested
those who call themselves
apostles and are not
and you found them
to be false.
I know you're enduring
patiently and bearing up
for my name's sake
and you've not grown weary.
You're finding the truth
and you're rooting out
the falsehood.
On top of that,
you've found specific
false teachers.
The Nicolaitans,
you hate their works
and I do too.
You've honed in
on the truth.
Jesus praises them
for holding fast
to the truth
they've been taught.
We don't know
all the particulars
of the false teachers
in the beginning
or the Nicolaitans
in verse 6.
We don't know everything
it was that they taught
but the Ephesians
have carefully tested
these teachers.
They've heard
what they've said
and they've found falsehood
and they've zealously
weeded out
those who were misleading them
even to the point
that they hate
some of the teachings
and God says,
I do too.
Listen,
we must never
compromise
on God's truth,
right?
God has entrusted
the truths
of the gospel
to us
so that we will
treasure them
so that we will
know Him
and that by knowing
the truth
we'll be able
to sniff out
counterfeits.
Call them what they are.
You know,
when there are millions
of wrong ways
to do something
the best way
to recognize them
is to know
the right way,
isn't it?
You don't have
to memorize
every wrong way
to spell a word,
do you?
What do you memorize?
You memorize
the right way
to spell it
and all of the wrong ways,
all the mistakes
you could make
become easily
identifiable
as wrong.
It's why when we turn
back to the start
of Ephesians next week
we'll find Paul
insisting on reminding us
over and over
of the great truth
of God's grace
to us in Jesus Christ,
the basis
of our hope
because he's going
to say it's vital
that the church
never get distracted
from that,
never get tossed
about or led astray
as Ephesians says
by every wind
of doctrine.
He wants our anchor
to hold firmly
in Christ, right?
And so Jesus says here,
these are the words
of Jesus to the church,
he says,
well done Ephesians,
good job,
you've been right,
you've sorted out
the false
and the evil
without wearying
in your work,
you've rejected
the wrong
in favor of the right,
keep up the good work,
well done.
But then things turn,
don't they?
This is where those of you
who are like me,
who love to be right,
start not liking
this sermon so much.
And I want you to know
I didn't know
what was going here
when I started
studying this letter.
I didn't know
it was headed
this direction
and all I can say to you
is I don't enjoy it
any more than you do.
That's really encouraging,
right?
That's what you wanted to know.
Listen,
I know you don't like
the sermon,
I don't like it either.
That's all I got
for you right now.
Don't you just love
being around people
who are always right
and know it
and love it?
Yeah,
people who love
being right.
You don't?
You mean,
you mean they're known
for being insufferable
to be around?
You mean they're known
for critiquing
everybody else
for always telling you
how you're doing it wrong?
For making umpires
and refs feel like dirt?
For making friends
and co-workers
feel incompetent
and worthless?
You mean you don't need
someone to spell check
your grocery list?
I always thought
that was going to be
so helpful.
See,
the Bible says
that truth,
that knowing
and believing
the truth of the gospel
should lead to love.
It should lead
to love for God,
love for neighbors,
he says,
even love for enemies,
especially love
for each other
in the body of Christ.
Those things
should be connected
to each other,
but oftentimes
we fail to make
that connection.
We are right,
but we're unloving.
So right,
I would say,
that we're wrong.
Look at what Jesus
has to say
to the Ephesian church
that he's just commended
for being right.
He says,
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.
He said,
you stopped loving.
You have abandoned
the love you had at first.
Ouch.
You quit loving.
You missed the big one.
Certainly loving Christ,
loving those outside the church
would be included
in this love
that they've stopped,
but particularly here,
what seems to be in mind
in this letter
is love for each other
within the church.
You can see that a little bit
from the context.
It's not just a feeling of love
that we would love God
or something like that,
but the response
is to be repent
and do the works
you did at first.
This is active loving.
This is demonstrating love,
showing love to others.
And we know well
from the book of Ephesians
what is the love
that Paul talks about
to them regularly.
It's that bond of unity
that they have in Christ,
isn't it?
The love they're supposed
to have for each other
that he commends them for
and now he's saying,
you've lost that.
You've abandoned that love.
And it's not a light thing.
It's not just a little mistake,
they took a wrong turn.
How serious is it?
Jesus says,
if you don't repent
and do the works
you did at first,
I'll come and remove
your lampstand
from its place.
That means you won't be a church.
Yikes.
Rightness without love
is sub-Christian.
Listen,
it's true that truth matters.
A lot.
Love without truth
is at best
mere sentimentality.
At worst,
it's false hope.
But what this passage
is highlighting
and what we often miss,
what we in our circles
with a Presbyterian heritage,
a Reformed heritage,
are much more prone to miss,
is that truth without love
is at best
mere moralism.
And at worst,
it's false teaching altogether.
That's what Jesus is saying.
It's less than Christian.
Jesus says,
I'll take the lampstand away.
Francis Schaeffer once said,
I've said this recently,
biblical orthodoxy
without compassion
is surely the ugliest thing
in the world.
And Jesus says here,
you got your truth right,
but you lost love,
and so you're in danger
of losing Christianity
altogether.
You got truth right,
but you lost love,
and you're losing everything.
Reminds me of Jesus' warning
in Matthew 24
about these last days
that we live in.
What he says is that
many false prophets
will arise
and lead many astray.
They didn't get the Ephesians,
did they?
No, they found
the false prophets.
What else is going to happen?
Because lawlessness
will be increased,
the love of many
will grow cold.
They passed the first part
of the test
with flying colors,
but part two,
they failed.
Reminds me of
1 Corinthians 13,
what Paul wrote
about love there.
If I speak in the tongues
of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I'm a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal.
If I have prophetic powers
and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge
and have faith
so as to remove mountains,
but have not love,
I'm nothing.
If I give away all I have
and deliver up my body
to be burned,
but have not love,
I gain nothing.
You can know
a lot of right things,
but if you don't connect it
to loving,
you've gained nothing.
In fact,
if you don't connect
your right theology
to loving,
you'll probably start thinking
how much righter
you are than others.
You'll know lots
of right things
and without love,
you'll just become
more and more right.
And that happens a lot.
Sadly,
the Ephesian church
is not the only church
that's happened to.
They're not the first ones
and they won't be the last ones
to struggle with it.
In the history
of the Christian church
in America,
Presbyterians included
some of our best,
richest,
deepest theologians,
people we still read
and learn from
had great truth,
but they were blind
to their own racism,
their hatred.
They failed to love
those who were different
from them
to our great shame.
They disconnected
right theology
from that arena of life.
And we're just beginning
to get our hands
around the gravity
of this sin as a church,
as a denomination,
and see our deep need
to repent.
Because where there was
a lot of truth,
there was a lack
of love.
You might ask,
how does something
like that happen?
I mean, really,
guys who love Jesus
so much,
who know God
so well,
how do you make
such seemingly
obvious mistakes?
We might think,
how could you ever
miss that one?
How do the Ephesians
fight for truth
so well
and love each other
so poorly?
I don't know all
of what developed
in Ephesus,
but at least a couple
things I've seen
in my own heart
and life
and in Christ's church
that fit
with this letter.
I think we get
so focused
on being right
that we can become
obsessed
with what we're against
rather than
what we're for.
And so,
differences of any type
become grounds
for critique
and conflict
rather than
cause for celebration.
instead of focusing
on truth
and deepening
our understanding
of God
and who He is
and knowing Him,
we become like
heat-seeking missiles
except we're
difference-seeking missiles.
We're looking around
where can we find
differences
and we don't look
for differences
so that we can
celebrate them
and say,
isn't that beautiful?
We do it
because we want
to critique.
We want to find
a reason for conflict
because if you're wrong
then I'm right
and I can be better
than you.
So we focus
on the differences.
It happens
with racism
in the church,
right?
Maybe we can
understand it better
if we think
about marriage.
Have you ever
allowed a difference
in how you
and your spouse
approach something
to create distance
in your relationship
rather than love?
Has that ever happened?
Have you allowed
your love
to grow cold
because
she spends money
differently
or he washes
the dishes
differently?
Have you ever
seen a distance
grow there?
And now,
I know all of you
right people
are objecting
at this point.
Yes,
but there are
better ways
to budget.
Some ways
are better
than others
and there are
some ways
that are better
to wash
the dishes
than others
and that may be
true.
That's not the point.
The point is
have you allowed
the difference
to create distance
in your relationship?
Have you begun
to think of yourself
as better
and to let bitterness
and contempt
grow in your heart
over the difference
rather than
appreciating the difference
perhaps?
Or if it does
need to be addressed,
I mean,
you can really
wash dishes poorly,
addressing it graciously
in a way to restore
a loving relationship
rather than
create distance.
the difference
is diversity
is part of the beauty
of the body
of Christ
but when we are right
and not just right
but desperate
to see ourselves
as right,
others have to be wrong
so that we feel righteous
or at least better
than you.
I have to be better
than the next person
and it happens quickly,
doesn't it?
Disconnect truth
from love
and we're unloving
very quickly.
we lose love
immediately.
We see it in our homes.
We see the distance grow.
It happens in our churches too.
Happened in Ephesus,
in America,
in Huntsville.
Some of you in this room,
I've hurt
because I love to be right.
I said it glibly earlier
but it's true
and it hurts people.
When conflict
comes in a church,
a lot of times
people become
identified with positions
and when you have
a position
or a perspective
that's different
from mine
and I'm desperate
to be right,
a lot of times
rather than listening
to you,
rather than seeking
to understand you,
I want to argue
against you.
I want to defend myself.
I want to be vindicated
and so I don't love.
I pursue the truth
and I forget
about love
and when you've been
to seminary
and you've been trained
to do so,
you can throw at people
not just chapter
and verse of the Bible
but you can throw
confessions of faith
and books of church order
and catechisms
that brothers and sisters
of yours
haven't even read
and use them
to defend yourself
rather than
to love someone else,
to be right
and prove someone else wrong
and I may have been
right sometimes
but I have sometimes
failed to love
as well
and deeply wounded people
who are on my team,
people God has put
in my life
for me to care about
and love
and there are probably
others I've hurt
and don't even realize it
maybe some of you
that I'm so concerned
with being right
that I don't even realize
I've hurt you
and that's part of
my sin,
part of what I do
and have done
in the church.
You don't have to be
a pastor though.
You don't have to have
a degree in theological
rightness
to fail to love others.
You just have to be
desperate to be
righter than someone else.
to treat a brother
or sister as an obstacle
or an enemy
because what you want
is right.
To ignore the pain
someone else is experiencing
because the feeling
of being right
is such a high to you
that no one
or nothing else
really matters.
Happens here too,
doesn't it?
Do you feel it
in your own heart?
Do you know the reality
of wanting desperately
to be right?
Does your heart
right now
protest like mine does?
But I was right!
That vindicates me!
I was right!
About the dishes.
About the doctrine.
About the decision.
We've all at times
individually
and corporately
disconnected
truth from love.
What we believe
from how we behave
and we've hurt others
and practically speaking
not in what we've said
but in how we've acted
denied
the reality of the gospel.
That's pretty serious.
That's pretty bleak,
isn't it?
Just shut me down,
Jesus.
Shut us down.
We've blown it.
Isn't that what you'd feel
if you got a letter
like this?
Is that what you feel
when you realize
that's true of you?
You've been right
and unloving?
What does Jesus say
to his church?
Jesus says,
repent.
Look at verse 5 again.
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.
Repent.
Do what you did at first.
Repent.
Love the way you used to love.
Repent.
Repenting means
turning from sin.
It means a change
of direction.
Turning away
from our sin
and turning back
to Jesus.
I just want to make
one observation
about the repentance
in this passage.
Who is told
to repent?
The false,
evil apostles.
No.
The heretical
Nicolaitans.
No.
The right ones.
The right ones
are told
to repent.
They're the ones
who need to start.
That's not the way
we would write it,
is it?
Listen,
I'll do repentance
and forgiveness,
reconciliation
as long as they start,
as long as they come
and apologize
to me.
Then I'll repent.
As long as they start,
the repentance
will be good.
Jesus says,
you repent.
Parent who's seen
a child go off
and lose his way
and felt,
I told you so,
while the relationship
has grown distant,
you repent first.
How has your rightness
contributed to the love
growing cold
between you?
boss who's belittled
an employee
for failing miserably?
You repent first.
How are you so right
that you were wrong?
Church member
who has allowed
distance to grow
in a previously tight,
loving friendship
with a brother or sister
who treated you
or your church wrongly?
You repent first.
Have you been so right
that you were wrong
toward them?
You know the beautiful thing
about repenting?
When we finally get
to the point of saying,
I'm not the right one.
I'm actually willing
to admit
that I'm wrong
to turn from that.
To say even,
I was so right
that I was wrong.
When we turn from that
in repentance,
who do we turn back to?
It's Jesus.
It's Jesus'
rightness,
righteousness
that we turn back
to when we repent.
That's the hope
of the gospel,
right?
That's where we turn.
For those of us
who are stuck
in our self-righteousness,
so intent
on being right
and proving
ourselves right
and having it all
so that we can
be right enough,
the call is not
get away from me,
from our Savior.
That's not what
he says,
is it?
That's not what
he says to the
Ephesian church.
The call is,
turn back to me.
See me,
see the vision of him.
You know how
this letter starts?
Jesus gives the vision
of himself
that goes back
to Revelation chapter 1,
the one John
has just seen
in a vision.
Jesus says,
verse 1,
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.
That's this vision
of Jesus
just a couple
verses before
who's standing there
and John sees Jesus
and says,
he's righteous,
he's holy,
he's magnificent,
he's powerful
and you get this
detailed description
of Jesus
and he's holding
his church in his hand.
What's he saying
to his people?
Is he saying
get away from me?
No,
he's walking
among the seven
golden lampstands.
He's with them,
isn't he?
He's holding them
in his powerful
right hand.
When you,
who are so convinced
that you've got
to be right,
finally are willing
to admit you're wrong,
you look back
and find Jesus
standing there,
not sending you away
but saying,
turn back to me.
If you've disconnected
your theology
from love,
if you've so wanted
to be right yourself
that you've become wrong,
repent and look back
at your Savior.
See him in his pure
righteousness and holiness.
John says,
shining as the sun
at full strength
and when you fall
as though dead
before him
in your guilt
and your shame,
listen to what he says
to you.
He says,
fear not.
Fear not
the one who blew it,
the one who was so caught up
with being right
that he failed to love.
Fear not,
my rightness
is for you.
You are forever
pure in my robes
and safe
in my hand.
Forever.
I've got you
and now in that security
with no more need
to prove yourself right
because you've got
my rightness
given to you,
now in that security,
go,
turn,
repent
to others.
Go love again
like you did
at first
that your church
would shine
the glory of his name
as you love the truth
and love each other
too.
Let's pray.
Jesus,
might we see you
that way this morning.
Might we see
your rightness
as so much
more beautiful
than any
rightness
we could defend
for ourselves?
Might we truly
receive it
and know
that it is ours
by faith
and then
might we be free
in that
to repent?
To say we've forgotten
to love.
We've neglected
to love.
we've intentionally
been unloving,
hurtful,
hateful,
spiteful.
Father,
thank you
that there's hope
for us.
Thank you that there's
forgiveness for us
and forgiveness
to extend
to others.
Might you
make us
a church
where the truth
is never compromised
and where it is
always connected
to love?
Might we love
the way you have
loved us?
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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