Revelation 2:1-7
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
For what does Jesus commend the Ephesians?
For what does Jesus condemn the Ephesians?
What does he ask the Ephesians to do?
How do you think this letter applies to our church?
Sunday, October 26, 2008
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23 comments:
How's it going?
I am excited about doing this series of sermons about the 7 letters to the churches of Revelation, since I visited the sites back in February.
Jesus commends the Ephesians for their hard work, perserverance and for testing those who claim to be apostles but are not. Also for enduring hardships for His name and for not growing weary.
Jesus condemns the Ephesians for losing the zeal they had at first.
Jesus asks the Ephesians to repent and refuel their zeal.
I do think this applies to our church today. More than ever probably.
I looked up the Nicolaitans and it looks like among other things that they promoted a clerical hierarchy, which really hurt Christianity through the ages. Confused things when the written word wasn't always available to double check what the priests were saying.
As far as the zeal goes I think that really applies today and makes it so important for us to be around other believers because its so catchy. And how refreshing and exciting it is for us to share God with each other. Our struggles and our joy and our testimony.
Sorry this is so long but one more thing...v5 if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Meaning removing the usefulnes of that local church. How many churches are in that place right now and don't even realize it?
Annette
Really good thoughts/observations, Annette! Thanks. I think you are right about the usefulness of churches. God never intended the church to be an exclusive social club for the saved only. When we lose our love for the Lord it is very easy to withdraw inwardly, focusing only on ourselves.
I had an interesting experience yesterday morning - the kind you don't really want to have. I got up early, about 5.15 I think, and went down to my office to get ready for our worship. I usually stay in my office until about 8 a.m. After that I, eat, clean up and get ready to leave the house about 8.45.
I was taking my time yesterday morning and was looking through my sermon one last time. I thought I would take another 10-15 minutes, which would make me a little later in my eating and cleaning up ritual, but, hey, I always have plenty to time.
Right at 8 a.m. an Outlook alert popped up on my computer screen. It said "Spring Mill." I looked at it and said, "OH no!!" Why this response, you ask.
Well, I immediately knew that I was supposed to be at the meeting house in the Spring Mill village at 8.30 a.m. to conduct a worship assembly of campers and other visitors to the Park.
All kinds of thoughts rushed through my head:
Can I just skip it? Absolutely not!
I'm not ready for my sermon this morning! You'll be ok; stop
worrying.
Can I make it by 8.30? You have to shower, shave, drive/walk 15-20 minutes to get to the meeting house.
I think I can do it. Watch out!
Well, I literally ran upstairs and got in the shower, shouting out instructions to Kedra about what I would wear, etc.
I arrived at the meeting house at 8.29 a.m., and there were only 3 people there! We waited a few minutes and another family came. Then about 15 minutes into the meeting another group came. It turned out to be fairly enjoyable.
Do you think the Colts will win tonight? I sure hope so.
I have 4 tickets for Colts vs. Titans game on December 28th. This is my Christmas present to the boys (and me!). Hopefully it will be a huge, significant game.
Here is an excerpt from Acedia and Me - A Marriage, Monks, and A Writer’s Life. I have really enjoyed this book.
Consider a scene from my marriage: a man sipping a drink in a restaurant coughs, stops breathing, and begins to turn blue. In that instant, everything changes. Strangers drop what they are doing. One phones 911, another places him on his side to help him breathe again. When he opens his eyes and responds, however feebly, to a question, everyone cheers. It is as if time had been suspended, waiting for this moment. When the EMTs arrive, the rescuers drift back to their lunches. Having been shocked by the real—forcibly reminded that life is both precious and precarious, a tenuous matter of heartbeat and breath—one will order a stiff drink, another will phone her husband to tell him that she loves him. A man will go back to his office and stare at the family photographs on his desk until tears well up. Eventually he will turn to the blinking cursor on his computer screen.
It seems to me that this quote gives us some insight in how to restore love. There is nothing like death or a brush with it to make us think about what is important.
I wonder what Jesus has in mind for the Ephesians to do? What are those "first things" that Jesus said need to be done?
To remember where you were and how far you fell, to repent and do the things you first did as a child of God, listen to the Spirit and what He has to say and he admonished them to overcome so that they will be with Him. I think it is a daily urging to remember where we came from, look at how far we have come and to listen when the Spirit speaks. God guides us each day if we listen. He also leads us to places we never could imagine ourselves being. Our God is all powerful and He wants our hearts and our full attention, all the time, every day for all our lives once we make the commitment as to whom we will serve. Have a great week everyone. Sherron
Ahhh! Relief!
We finally closed on the house across the road -- the one that was going to be the quick money-making flip. Closing one week short of a year from when we placed in on the market means that it was not quick and that we didn't make any money, but we learn a lot. We learned that we'll never do that again! ha ha. Oh well it certainly looks a lot better than when we bought it.
Our new neighbor is a deaf man from Alabama...
What do you think about Obama's "spread the wealth around" ideas? How/what do you think of Acts 2 & 4 where there are descriptions of Christians "having all things in common"?
[I wonder if this has anything to do with the Ephesians not loving as they did at the beginning?? Read 1 John, which is likely written to Ephesians also, about not loving in word only.]
Here is an interesting excerpt from a John Mark Hicks blog post, Marx, Paul, and Obama? A Comment on "Spread the Wealth Around".
I suppose my point is this. Disciples of Jesus share their wealth. Government has a function to punish evil, including restraining the evil of economic greed and injustice. How that should play out is uncertain to my mind. I simply don’t know, but I don’t have to know.
What I think I know, however, is that disciples of Jesus spread their wealth around and give their gifts from God to the poor. This is my point, a reminder to myself and perhaps to others.
Whoever is elected, McCain or Obama, my allegiance to the kingdom of God means I will share my wealth with the poor. Whoever is elected, McCain or Obama, God will accomplish his will and continue to introduce his kingdom into the world. Whoever is elected, McCain or Obama, has little to nothing to do with the in-breaking of God’s kingdom.
P.S. Charitable giving by the candidates according to tax returns (where not all charitable giving is recorded, at least for my family).
McCain personally gave 26% of his income in 2007 and 18% in 2006 plus donating his book royalties since 1998 which totals almost $2,000,000.
Obama and his wife gave less than 1% from 2000-2004 but 5% in 2005 and 5.7% in 2006 (book deals gave the family increased income in the last few years).
Biden and his wife gave .03% in 2007 and .01% from 1998-2007.
Palin and her husband gave 3.3% in 2006 and 1.5% in 2007.
I admit I don't know much. And I don't know what showing those numbers is supposed to mean. I do think its wonderful McCain gave so much but he is so very much older, certainly doesn't have children at home so whats the comparison here? Wouldn't it have been more fair as far as numbers go to show how much McCain gave when he was the younger ones ages? I mean if you are well off you tweak the giving numbers in your favor right?
Can anyone shed some light here?
I really did like the guy saying that not all charitable giving is recorded ie helping out family. To me it comes down to the same thing God knows all of our hearts and we can't hide from Him.
Annette
THIS is pretty neat.
For something funny click HERE.
I hope Kedra doesn't see this. Of course I don't talk much about her in sermons. Have you ever noticed that I walk with a slight limp? You can connect the thoughts.
Doling all the right things.
just going through the motions of religion, but where is your joy?
Mathew 19:The rich young ruler, where did he place his joy, in keeping the commandments, or was it in his riches?
Mathew 23: The Scribes and Pharisees had woes pronounced on them by Christ for the things they were doing, and try to be so precise yet are hypocrites.
Deut 28:47 and following are curses that come upon people's lives, because they do not serve the Lord with joyfulness.
We render our lives hopeless, and we become helpless to those around us, because we set up our little agenda for religion, and we get to going through the motions, but we do not have joy.
In business we have a term we speak called return on investment. You soon become despondent, closed-minded, dissaponted, and you loose vision for your business if you do not get a decent return, or profit from all your money and time invested. You get to where you don't care, and soon wind up out of business if it odes not turn around. It happens when you lose perspective of why you are doing business. You are just trying to get rich, and consume it on your own lust, and not for the joy of helping and serving others.
Return to your first love, JESUS
It is all about Him
Serving Christ by serving others.
As much as you have done it unto the least of these my brother, you have done it unto me, (Jesus).
Familiarity breads mediocrity.
Amen
I had seen that clip about the 13 yr old before, it was refreshing, though tear jerking to hear it again.
The second clip was very funny, but it doesn't really apply to Allen (unless Kedra taught him very early, ha!) because I can remember when Allen first came to Mitchell. One of the first things I noticed and liked about Allen was he was always adding little comments about how men should treat women. He seemed to take every advantage to comment about it. I loved it.
Of course those days were in the old building, I sat right up front so I wouldn't be distracted, I wanted to hear every word, even though teenage row was right behind me. Ashley and Jennifer and the rest of the gang.
In those days I really didn't enjoy the singing, I wished we could just skip that part. Then Allen had us start singing every sunday morning This is the day..and then Gary came and the Holy Spirit moved and I started loving the singing. Too bad for Allen (he sat right in front of me) because me with my horrible voice started singing. Every time I clean out my bible I come across a little song flyer 'Lift your name on high' and I remember those days and I put it right back in my bible....
Annette
Alright, I don't know how to spell breed. As you can see, spelling was never my virtue.
Danny, I thought you were talking about making mediorce bread by using the old familiar recipe. Just kidding! I didn't even catch it. If it weren't for spell-check my writings would not be understandable.
[I do a lot of my posting in a word processer, which has spell check, and then cut and paste into this place. Sometimes, like right now, I just type in "live," and this is where I make lots of tipose.]
Combining Danny's thoughts on joy (which were good) and Annettes thoughts on her singing. I thought of this verse:
"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord..."
Psalm 105:1
Last night in my class we talked extensively about our text, Revelation 2:1-7.
It seems that the Ephesians had mastered doctrine and moral purity, in a lot of ways. They could find false apostles and they hated the practice of the Nicolaitan (moral compromisers). But in the process of being good at sniffing our false teaching and impurity, they must have created an environment where love was lacking. Maybe there was an atmosphere of condemnation and judgmentalism?
If that is right, then how do you balance doctrinal and moral purity, which Jesus commends the church for, and a loving environment that encourages and loves people with lots and lots of imperfections?
I've got a bad cold, which I am making out to be a life-threatening illness to Kedra, trying to get sympathy. So far it is not working. I think I will fake a coma a little later on.
I told a friend this, and he said that when he has a cold he tells his wife, "You know a lesser man could die from this thing."
I may try that line if the fake coma doesn't work.
HERE is an interesting article about the possible reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis near Ephesus. I am going to talk a little about the Temple of Artemis on Sunday, showing a few photos.
Here's a brief explanation of Halloween from The Writer's Almanac:
Today is Halloween. Halloween's origins date back about 2,000 years, to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts lived in the cold parts of Northern Europe — in Britain, Ireland, and the north of France — and so for them, the new year began on November 1st, the end of the fall harvest and the beginning of winter. The night before the new year, on October 31st, the division between the world of the living and the world of the dead dissolved, and the dead could come to earth again. This was partly bad and partly good — these spirits would damage crops and cause sickness, but they also helped the Celtic priests, the druids, to tell the future, to make predictions about the coming year. The druids built huge bonfires, and regular people put out their own fires in their homes and crowded together around these fires, where they burned sacrifices for the gods, told each other's fortunes, and dressed in costumes — usually animal skins and heads. At the end of the celebration, they took a piece of the sacred bonfire and relit their own fires at home with this new flame, which was meant to help them stay warm through the long winter ahead.
First the Romans co-opted Samhain and combined it with their festivals, and then the Christians co-opted both the Celtic and Roman celebrations. In the ninth century, the pope decided that these pagan festivals needed to be replaced with a Christian holiday, so he just moved the holiday called All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. All Saints' Day was a time for Christians to honor all the saints and martyrs of their religion. The term for All Saints' Day in Middle English was Alholowmesse, or All-hallowmass. This became All-hallows, and so the night before was referred to as All-hallows Eve, and finally, Halloween.
I don't like this day much. I don't like the darkness and the evil associated with it. I don't like people dressing darkly, etc.
I do like the candy, and that's what it was all about when I was a kid. That's what it's still about for many, I think.
What do you think?
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