Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.38 – October 2006

 

First Love

 

A Sermon by Rev Albert Esselbrugge on Revelation 2:1-7

Scripture Reading:  Jeremiah 2:1-9

 

Brothers and sisters, young people, boys and girls.

We’re dipping our toes this morning into what is probably the most difficult of all the books of the Bible. We are doing this because we’ve been looking together over several previous Sundays at what the marks of the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ are. Let me remind you of them: A true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is:

1. A church which is devoted to the Word of God as we find it in the Old and New Testaments.

2. It’s a church which is committed to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ through worship, the preaching of the Word, and the celebration of the sacraments; and also fellowship with each other as we unite around our risen Saviour.

3. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is also characterised by a people committed to prayer.

4. This church is also a body that is led by two offices: elders and deacons.

5. It is a body which is devoted both to reaching out and to reaching in with the gospel.

(There is another mark or characteristic of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ which we have not addressed this time, but which must also be mentioned: The true church is also committed to the exercise of Christian discipline.)

My reason for wanting to look at the verses before us now is this: We can serve God, we can exercise all the characteristics of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be the most careful and precise people when it comes to doctrinal rectitude – but if there’s no love in it all, if the life and existence of the church, of our congregation is wooden and ritualised and a mere going through the motions, despite all our work, we will still be a congregation that the Lord is displeased with. That’s what we learn from the church that’s presented here in these verses of chapter 2.

Before we actually take these verses up, however, we need to be clear about a few things concerning this last book of the Word of the Lord. In the first place it is God’s Word. It therefore has purpose and teaches certain things to God’s people. In fact, this book presents to us certain spiritual principles concerning the life and conflict and the final triumph of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Unlike most of the rest of the Word, exact historical details aren’t given to us here – but the great principles are illustrated for us, and we make the point that as these illustrations applied in the days of the early church, they also apply now, until the final judgment.

And congregation, never forget that the book of Revelation was given to the people of God to comfort, to stimulate, and to edify the church. This book is all about the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. It’s a book which intends and sets out to reveal certain things to us. Its very title tells us that – it is the “Apocalypse”, the “revelation” – the “unveiling” of something. And the veil is drawn back and we’re given an insight into certain things here.

This is important, because so many people are confused about the message of this book. But God never intends to confuse us.

Here was the early church, and she was suffering persecution, and the Christians were bewildered and confused then too. They didn’t understand. So the book was given to them specifically to open their eyes to what was happening to them and to what was going to happen, and the revelation was an unveiling and a giving of knowledge by means of symbols. That’s also where so many go wrong with this book. God teaches us here in this part of His Word certain spiritual principles by way of symbols.

Having made those general remarks about this awesome book of the Bible, look now at the verses before us, at this church of Ephesus. Here we’re presented with a picture of a very good church. She was certainly an active congregation. There was lots of movement and colour in her, but as we shall see, she was an active church with trouble within.

The first three verses describe for us our Lord’s commendation of this church. “I know your deeds”, He says, and He means it in a positive, affirmative sense. Your deeds are good. But any good student of the Word of God will know that works never save a person. Doing things never helps us to score favour points with God to make Him look more kindly toward us. So how can God be pleased with the good works of this church? Salvation is by grace alone. That’s a gift from God. We can never earn it, but simply extend a hand to receive it. Read Ephesians 2 sometime if you’re not sure about this. There we’re told that, “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression – it is by grace you have been saved…not by works, so that no one can boast.”

But you know, works always follow salvation. That’s also taught in Ephesians 2, and James the apostle teaches us that we can always see those who have faith – who have been saved by the love and the mercy and the grace of God – by observing their works. That’s what our Lord means here in Revelation 2:2. He can see the effect of His saving grace upon this church. Because of God’s grace they were able to do some good and commendable things.

And what He commends them for are some fine things that would be great marks for any congregation. The Lord commends them for being a hard working people. They’re not slow or backward or happy to let others do the work of the Lord. They do the Lord’s work with energy and determination. The Lord also commends them for being a patient people. They have perseverance, and hang in there when the going gets tough or things don’t go to plan as they would like immediately or when they face opposition. He commends them for being diligent in opposing evil. No turning a blind eye or offering a quiet wink to wickedness among these people! They exercised Christian discipline among themselves and spoke up when there was injustice and evil about them in the world.

These are good things, says the Lord.

But not only that, they were commended for exposing false teachers. The phenomenon of people going above everyone else and seeming to be super spiritually blessed, claiming God spoke some special revelations and instructions to them alone – we often think that this is a fairly modern phenomenon. But it was happening among the people of the early church as well, and has always been a problem to the church.

There are those who take on the airs and graces of what is presumed to be that of an apostle of God, and they claim to speak for God. There were people like that back in the early days of the history of the world as false prophets claimed to see visions and receive dreams from the Lord. Well the church here tested those claims, and where those claims were contrary to Scripture, and where they added more to Scripture, they were exposed as false prophets and their teachings and claims were rejected.

And finally we see here how the Lord commends this church for remaining true. They’ve endured hardships and have suffered for the Lord. People have sneered at their faith, and have made them feel as though they were something to be pitied and were less than decent people, but they endured. They stuck it out. “God the Lord is sovereign and He works all things together for the good of those who love Him,” was their motto and the strength of their faith.

This is one good church, wouldn’t you say? It’s active, strong in doctrine, strong in the faith. This is the sort of church I would want to belong to. These are people who act on principle, and they’re not driven by mere whims and fancies.

But, there is a serious problem with this church. The Lord has a complaint, a criticism to lay against them. You have left, He said, you have forsaken your first love. You no longer love Me as you once did, says the Lord. What can that mean? These people definitely still love the Lord, or else they couldn’t be commended for being so careful in their doctrine. There seems to be a comparison being made here. These people don’t love the Lord as they did in the early days when the apostle Paul first preached the gospel among them and the Spirit of God brought them into the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. In those days there was a real fire in their hearts as they served the Lord and loved each other in a living fellowship of believers.

It appears a new generation of believers had come up, and in the great struggle against heresy and false teachers and other trials, their love is no longer as bright or as warm to the Lord and for each other as it used to be.

When people first come to the Lord, and realise what a wonderful Saviour He is, what love there is in their hearts for Him! Nothing is ever too much them. We love to think about Him. We love to hear about Him and we will travel great distances if we have to, just to hear more about Him and to come together with others who also love to hear about Him. That first love makes reading His Word a joy and we love to do it. We love to talk about Him and we love to talk to Him, and to walk with Him everyday.

But if that love cools, then even if the patience and doctrinal purity is maintained and the effort at doing those things are kept up, they are of little value where the spirit of love is absent.

Just think what we see when love grows cold! All those positive works we just mentioned become less important, and church service only becomes a habit, and we will hear it said that an occasional service is quite sufficient. There may be a few people in this congregation who think that a monthly worship service is quite sufficient for them. There may also be those who for many years attended worship in the morning and in the evening when they were younger, but now, well look, that’s not my style now. Their love has cooled. And a new generation grows up and finds it quite incomprehensible that people would want to spend the Sunday in worship and Christian fellowship and end the day again in worship.

What else happens when our love for the Lord cools? Bible reading is neglected, and for how many here now is Bible reading non existent? Prayer becomes a mere form, a kind of ritual you do from time to time but there’s no pleading with the Lord, no heart-rending pleas for forgiveness or times of praise and thanksgiving. Service become mechanical, and witnessing of the great love of God ceases.

These are the symptoms of love for the Lord grown cold, and the Lord says, He holds it against His people.

What’s the cure? How do we recover that first love again?

“Remember,” is what the Lord says. Remember the height from which you have fallen. It’s along way down from a warm and bright love for the Lord to a cold and lukewarm thing that the Lord would rather spit out. So remember what it once was to love the Lord. Remember the thrill it gave you, remember the joy of service, remember the wonder and awe you once felt for the grace of God and that He should extend that to you.

Isn’t that what the Lord’s Supper should be all about? Who really cares about wine, or grape juice or bread and white cloths and silver service, when the Lord said, “Do this in remembrance of Me!” Remember and believe! That’s the first step back to the Lord.

And if you’ve never yet experienced the joy of the Lord in your life, pray that He will give it you.

The second step is repentance. Don’t just ask for forgiveness but return to those things you used to do. Care for the poor. Tell others about Jesus as you once did, and return to a whole-hearted worship of the Lord, return to your first love and return to the Lord. Put aside those other loves that have begun to displace the Lord from the centre of your life.

Congregation, are we willing to hear this, and to act on it?

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.

This is a call to us all to Remember, to Repent and to Return to the Lord.

And the reward is, a right to take from the tree of life and eat from it, which is in the garden of our Lord in the heavenly realms.

May the Lord grant us open ears, willing hearts and humble love.

Amen.