March 10 Sermon: Return to Your First Love

This week, we look at Revelation 2:1-7 and reflect on the Ephesian church's commendation for diligence and truthfulness, its critique for abandoning their first love, and the call to repentance. In this passage, we see the importance of maintaining a genuine love for Christ and the continuous need for repentance in our faith journey.

Consider these questions as you listen to this week’s message from Revelation 1:9-20:

1. How can "chronological snobbery" impact our understanding and appreciation of Scripture and the church's teachings? Reflect on a time when you may have dismissed a biblical or theological idea simply because it was old, and consider how revisiting it with an open heart might change your perspective.

2. In light of the critique of the Ephesian church for abandoning their first love, what practical steps can individuals and the church take to rediscover and rekindle their passion for Christ? Discuss the importance of the emotional aspect of our relationship with God and the active, deliberate choices we make to stay close to Him.

3. Considering the sermon's emphasis on repentance and the call to return to our first love, how does repentance play a role in our daily walk with Christ? Share a personal experience where repentance led to a deeper, more meaningful connection with God, and discuss how we can foster a culture of repentance within the church community.

Transcript:

While most people have an inclination to like things that are current or trendy, there are things that truly stand the test of time. Now, we've all been guilty, I believe, of dismissing things that are old simply because they're old, and this is popularly known as chronological snobbery the idea that we look down on things that are old. Now. This phrase was actually coined by British philosopher and poet, owen Barfield, and I'm sure you've probably never heard of him. I hadn't, until I looked up who made up the phrase. In fact, you probably wouldn't even have heard of the idea of chronological snobbery if Owen Barfield didn't have famous friends. He was one of the Inklings, so he was friends with JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, and it was CS Lewis who popularized this idea and how CS Lewis described it. His explanation of this was that we are naturally prone to uncritically accept the ideas of our own time and we naturally assume ideas and assumptions about the past are out of date or that they've been discredited simply because we know better now. But we know that this isn't really a good posture. To take on ideas from the past simply because something is new doesn't make it better, and if an idea is older, that does not render it false or mean it doesn't have any significance for us. So, as we've made our way through the first chapter of Revelation, I've been emphasizing how we need to remember that the book of Revelation was written to seven churches in Asia in the first century. I've been emphasizing the importance of us understanding this context. If we want to understand the book, we need to understand that that's important and we need to understand that there is this threat of persecution looming over these seven churches. But I've also been very deliberate in pointing out that, because this is Scripture, it's useful for us in our time. And as we embark on chapter 2 of Revelation, this remains true. What we find in chapter 2 and chapter 3 are sections specifically addressed to the individual churches that are in Asia.

Now there are those who, in order to dismiss away the timing language of soon and at hand that we find in the book of Revelation, they suggest that these seven churches represent seven eras of church history that are going to come, but these are not symbolic of the time periods in church history. This idea is very new. Nobody really taught it until the 20th century. These are actual churches that are being addressed by John and they are preparing for something difficult. We don't want to forget their struggles in trying to make it more about us Now. But the fact that they're addressed to specific historical churches from nearly 2,000 years ago doesn't mean they don't apply to us.

The stories of the people of God throughout all of Scripture have significant meaning for us. That's what Scripture is right. It shows us the story of the people of God and we are the people of God. So those are our brothers, those are our sisters. We are deeply connected to them and we learn important principles from the history of God's people. So as we come to these sections addressed to these churches, we're going to see truths that are valuable to us as we live now, as the people of God in Christ, as we live and desire to be God's servants in our moment in history.

Now, before we look at the first of the seven churches, let's break it down real quick so we know our points for the day. The first thing we're going to see is that the church in Ephesus is spoken well of for their hard work and for their faithfulness. They were diligent in works and in standing against false teachers. Secondly, we will see that there is a critique of this church. John tells us that they have abandoned their first love and finally, because of this, they are called to repentance. They are to return to this first love that they have abandoned. And so, with those three quick and easy points lined up, let's get ourselves into the text today.

Now, in the first verse, we are reminded once again of who is speaking. Now, we saw last week, at the end of chapter one, that John gave us this spectacular vision of Jesus. He was described in an amazing way that emphasized that Jesus was connected to the power, the majesty, the sovereignty of the ancient of days. The descriptions of Jesus were not only amazing for us to look at, but they also showed us how he was connected to the God of the Old Testament, that Jesus had that authority and that power. And so this is what we are to understand as we come into these addresses to the churches that this one who has authority, this one who is sovereign, is the one who is speaking. And so we should listen, because he has this authority and power, and notice here that he says that these are the words of this one who holds the seven stars and walks among the lampstands. The point is, these aren't the words of John, they are the words of Jesus to the churches that he is walking among. He is there with them and he's speaking to them. And we begin here with this word to the church in Ephesus. And so the first statement to this church is a statement that affirms them. Jesus tells them that he is aware of what they have done. They have labored, they have toiled and they have also had patient endurance. And I think about this and I think I can just imagine that these affirmations were really appreciated by those in the church as they read this.

These are the kind of things that you usually feel go unnoticed right. Often, the effort that you put in in serving God and toiling to continue in that labor for him, it isn't acknowledged by people. It feels like people don't notice because it's selfless work and it requires endurance, and I'm sure that you would agree with how Jesus describes this endurance here. It's patient endurance. We don't see the results right away. It takes trusting that God is in control. It requires a belief that God works, despite how discouraged we might become because of the way things seem in front of us. It is endurance that needs to be patient, and while these words were written to the church in Ephesus. I believe they are a good reminder for you and I.

When we feel as though the labor that we do for the kingdom of God is not being seen and it's not being appreciated by men, we can remember in looking at this that those things are remembered by God. He sees. May we remember that as we labor for the kingdom of God. May the Holy Spirit build us up with an attitude of patient endurance that we might endure, trusting that God sees, even when people don't, that we are doing His work and we're not laboring for men. We are laboring for Him. And we also get an idea here of what their faith looks like, what was being noticed in this next little affirmation that they received from Jesus.

They do not bear with those who are evil, and it says that they have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not. So they have evaluated the teaching of people claiming to speak for God and they have been able to see when it is true and when it is not. They have been able to identify false teachers and false teaching, and they are praised for standing against this evil and false activity. And this is an important part of faithful Christian witness and work. We labor for the Lord when we stand up for who he is.

Think of the first three commandments Show of another. God's before me should not make for yourself an idol and do not take the Lord's name in vain. They show us that God is zealous for His identity, for who he is and for what he's done. He alone is God. He is to be worshiped in a particular way and we are to speak in a way that does not blaspheme Him. He is zealous for His own identity to be known and to be worshiped correctly. And the church in Ephesus has kept those commands and they are spoken well of because of their desire for truth, and Jesus stresses this by means of repetition of the patient endurance and the fact that they have stood strong for His namesake, and he also affirms their diligence in saying that they have not grown weary. May we have that set of us. May we have a desire to stand boldly for Christ and may we not grow weary. So we've seen our first point here, speaking of the diligence of the church in Ephesus, and we desire to be found faithful, as they have been, in bearing up for the sake of Christ's name.

But there's more to this passage than just these affirmations. There is also a critique of this church in Ephesus. For all the good that the church in Ephesus has going for them, we see that there's a very serious concern that Jesus has. He says they have abandoned the love they had at first. Their zeal for truth is there that has been made clear for us but their passion for God seems to have gone adrift. Now this is all we know about the situation and, of course, anytime we don't know a whole lot of detail. You know what that does.

That leads to a whole lot of speculation about what exactly was going on in the church of Ephesus, and so it can easily be slanted to be used against different approaches to faith. Right, people are going to do that. Oh, they were like the people I don't like and that's why they lost their first love. So the people that I don't like that were doing the church. They need to come back to their first love. Right, it's been used that way. And as I was considering and thinking about what angle do I take here on all of this, how do I explain these different approaches that have been interpreted? And trying to speculate what was happening, I was thankful that there was sunshine and that it was warm out.

Sometimes, when I'm not sure what to say, I step outside and take a few laps around the church and think, and fresh air clears my head. The question on my mind as I was out there was how do I preach and talk about all these different explanations that I've come across without preaching until noon? And then it hit me the point isn't what they're doing. The point is that they've abandoned their first love. And the point is that all of us are prone to this. We all have an excitement and a passion, and then it fizzles. We think that we are feeling that what we're feeling in the moment is going to last forever and that we're going to be able to keep a passion because it's so strong. And then it fades a little and while we see that our fervor has gone a little down, a little bit, we don't see it as much of a big deal and over time our energy and our fire continues to drop and we become complacent.

The specificity of what's happening in Ephesus isn't the point. It is the fact that they've abandoned their first love, not how they did it, but that they have abandoned it. And, like I said, this is something that we relate to, whether it is faith or other passions or commitments that we have. This can end up being the initial course for us. The important thing that we need to know for this is that we need to guard ourselves from this. We need to be mindful of where our hearts have become hard and how we have turned away from our first love, and that's an uncomfortable question, because it causes us to truly evaluate ourselves and our priorities. It requires that we be honest with ourselves as well. In what ways have we lost a passion for the gospel? How has my love faded for the one who loved me so much that he suffered and died for me, despite my rebellion against him? What have I done that could be said that I have abandoned my first love? That's the point here to think about this and to evaluate ourselves. Regardless of how we might do this individually, we've all done it, I would say.

Because we don't know the particulars of the situation in Ephesus, it actually helps us to hear this statement as a convicting voice, not just to a church in Ephesus, but to us sitting here in the twenty-first century. This is a word that is to convict the church now just as much as it did then, and it is just as much for us as a church corporately as it is for us as individuals. And it's with this biting statement from Jesus in mind that we then move on to our third point and see that Jesus issues a call of repentance to the church in Ephesus. And in this call to repentance, jesus tells them that they need to think on where they have fallen and they need to repent. Now the idea of repentance is a 180. It is a change of mind. It is to turn from the path that you are on and to head in the opposite direction. And it's important, as we think on this point today, that we remind ourselves that repentance is not a suggestion. It's not something that we should kick around for a while and decide if we want to do it or not. Jesus is not saying that repentance is a good idea. It's a command. When he speaks, he says to repent and believe the gospel. He is telling the church in Ephesus here to repent. He is commanding his people to turn from their sin and turn towards him.

And I think it is important that we connect the idea of repentance here with what has been said. It's to return to our first love. They return to their first love, not when they have positive emotional feelings about God and they feel all warm and content about who he is. They return to their first love when they turn from their sin and they repent. You return to your first love in repentance and in faith. When they abandon whatever it is that they have replaced their love for God with, they return to the works that they first did. That is when they return to their first love. Our natural tendency is to see our first love as an emotional experience that we had at some point. And then, when we get those euphoric feelings but they start to wane and we start to blame all kinds of things for why we can't sustain those feelings all the time, that's our idea of love for God. But clearly that isn't the idea that John is pointing to here, because he isn't saying that they need to have some sort of experience that restores the happiness or contentment that they had when they first came to faith. No, he is commanding them to turn from sin.

Now, yes, there is definitely emotion involved in feeling freedom from the guilt of our sin Absolutely. But putting aside sinful behavior and thoughts is not an easy thing. As I said, repentance is hard. It means that we have to abandon the ways that we excuse and justify our sin. It involves us putting things out of our lives that can cause us to stumble. It may mean changing things that we do and people that we spend time with. This is hard.

This command to return to the one who loved us is accompanied here with a threat of judgment for the church in Ephesus if they do not repent. Jesus says that he is going to come in judgment and remove their lampstand. And recall the imagery of the previous chapter. The seven lampstands are the seven churches that Jesus is now addressing. The vision of them as a lampstand is an honoring vision, because the idea here is that they are a light to the other churches. They are a light to the world. They are standing in the face of the persecution that they face and they are to be witnesses for Christ. But we read that if they do not repent, jesus says that he will remove them as a lampstand and they will no longer be a church. That is a witness to others and that's a tough word to hear, but it is the consequence of a failure to repent. A church that looks like the world and doesn't turn from its sin will lose the witness that it has. And, as I have said, this is not only a word for the church in Ephesus. It is a call for the whole church of God to remember our first love and continually turn to him in repentance and faith.

And as this exhortation to the church in Ephesus closes up, we see another affirmation of their stand against false teaching here. This is something that Jesus reminds them that they have going for them. He says that they hate the work of the Nicolations. Now, this was a group that taught falsely, and the church in Ephesus is standing against their teaching. And, once again, we don't have much in the way of details regarding what this false teaching was, but it was likely that it is related to eating food sacrificed to idols and being involved in sexual immorality. Likely, then, it would be that they were attempting to blend Christian beliefs and practices with pagan practices. They were trying to accommodate the Christian faith with the surrounding pagan culture. And the church in Ephesus is in need of repentance. But Jesus tells them that their standing against false teaching is something that they have going for them and they need to continue to stand against these things. Obviously, they are not called to repent of their standing against false teaching. They are called to return to their first love and to continue to stand against this accommodation of the pagan culture, and an emphasis is put on this affirmation and called to repentance in the way that the passage closes up here.

Jesus says he who has an ear let him hear, and this is a familiar statement. We hear this in Scripture often, and the idea expressed in this statement is that what has been said is important and anyone who has heard needs to pay attention and seriously consider what is being said. And this is magnified then with the benefit to those who hear what the Spirit says to the church, to the one who conquers. Jesus says he will grant access to the tree of life in the paradise of God, the one who is speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ. He can offer this because he is the one who has overcome. He grants access to the tree of life because of his victory over sin, death, hell and the devil. And this is going to be presented to us in vivid and glorious imagery throughout the book of Revelation how Jesus has overcome the devil and how he is victorious. And this is important for us to remember here because we cannot forget our real problem.

Sin and death invaded the world because of our first parents when they rebelled against a holy God in the garden, and this rebellion took away our access to the tree of life, and so death and decay reigned. But Christ took on our flesh to suffer and die for our sin and restore access for his people to the tree of life. Jesus is the one who grants access. We don't earn it. We are conquerors through our being united to him in his death, resurrection and ascension, and so we take this call to repentance seriously.

Our Savior has restored access to the tree of life for us, and so we desire to turn to Him because he is our first love.

He is the one who loved us first and he saved us from sin, and when we stray, we are commanded to return to Him because he is the one who has rescued us.

We have no other hope because he is the one who loves us and saves us, and as we close up, I want us to do so with a heart of repentance. We come to the table this morning in faith, trusting that the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has given us access to the tree of life. Right now we feast on Christ, but it is because we have feasted on Him and we have been united to Him that we will feast in the house of Zion, that we will have access to the tree of life. And as the elements touch our lips today, may we be reminded of our first love and may we leave from here emboldened by the love of God in Christ Jesus, to live a life of daily repentance, every day, turning from our sin, forsaking all other loves and continually returning to our first love because he has first loved us. Amen.