Revelation 2:1-7

How Close Are We To Going Dark?

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on January 28, 2018 at Beacon Church

Many teachers of the Revelation have put forward the idea that these seven letters dictated by Jesus to John for the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, are meant to be understood as snapshots of the health of the whole Church of Christ in successive periods of history. So, for example, The Ephesian Church might cover the period until about the end of the third century, where the churches were strong in doctrine; the Smyrna Church might cover the period up until Constantine ended the persecution of Christians; the Pergamum Church until about the end of the 7th century, when churches were polluted by worldly power; Thyatira until the time just before the Reformation, and so on.[i] The problem with taking the seven letters as a sort of prophecy of the Church in future periods, is that a) there is nothing in these chapters that suggests we read them like that; b) the instructions Jesus gave to John suggest these seven letters were about various churches at that time. So John is told in 1:19 to write about things in the present, and then things in the future. “Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this,” (Rev. 1:19 ESV). It is right after the seven letters when there is an abrupt change in the scene of the vision and John writes, “After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this,” (Rev. 4:1 ESV). So the predictions that follow the seven letters are about the future, "what will take place after this", and everything before chapter 4:1 is about the "things that are", or were present at the time John wrote this book.

So the way we should read these letters is in light of what we have already been told in chapter 1: as letters from Jesus to seven real churches at that time, but as letters dictated within a vision of signs and symbols. In fact, each of the letters refers to some of the symbols in chapter 1; each follows the basic pattern of a reminder of something John was already shown about Jesus, a word of approval or disapproval, a command of some kind, then a warning and promise. In each letter Jesus offers that church a solution, and each solution shows us that when Christians go wrong, when churches begin to lose their way, it's often because we neglect some important aspect of who Jesus is. Look at what Jesus wants this church in Ephesus to remember about Himself.

What about Jesus?

“"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.’,” (Rev. 2:1 ESV). We saw last Sunday that these first two mysterious symbols in the book of Revelation, the seven lampstands and stars, are explained by Jesus Himself in 1:20 [read]. So the only part here that is really open to interpretation, is what exactly is a "church" and what exactly is "an angel". A church, the same word as in 2:1, is literally, "an assembly" of people who believe in Jesus. Not a building or an institution, but a gathering of Christians into a group. An angel in the Bible is sometimes a heavenly being sent by God, but often just a human "messenger" (literally). Most Protestant scholars think this is about human "angels", i.e., "messengers" or ministers of God's Word, partly because of how each letter begins: "to the messenger of the assembly in Ephesus", etc.

But what is it that Jesus reminds them about Himself, at the beginning of His letter addressed to the minister of the Word for the assembled Christians in Ephesus? He is the one who holds the ministers in His hand; he is the one who Himself ministers to the seven churches. And just for a moment think about that: a star is a bright spot in the night sky, but if a minister is no longer humbly submitting to Jesus' authority, he's no more useful than a fallen star that leaves an impact crater when he crashes to the ground. And a church, a lampstand, is meant to be a place to display and shine the light Jesus gives: he is the great High Priest who keeps the lamps lit and puts the lamps on the lampstands. But an assembly of people who call themselves Christians but no longer display Jesus to their city, is no more useful than a flashlight with dead batteries. It makes you wonder how a Christian church or a minister could dream of neglecting Jesus, who He is and what He has done, His commands and teaching, much less the promise that He is coming back?

What does He think of the church in Ephesus?

Each of the letters includes an opening more or less like, "I know your works…", which isn't an approval or disapproval yet, but just a statement that Jesus knows what they've been up to [compare the same phrase to Sardis and Laodicea for example]. It's a statement about their behaviour / actions / conduct. Verses 2 and 3 give Jesus' assessment of the good things the church in Ephesus had done; verse 5 is Jesus' assessment of what's wrong with the church.

2 "'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.  3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. (Rev. 2:2-3 ESV)

There are 2 sets of plays on words here in these verses. a) The Ephesian Christians are "tired" but not "too tired" -- When Jesus says He knows their "toil" in verse 2, He uses almost the same word in verse 3 to say, "you have not grown weary". The toil made them tired, but they weren't tired of the toil. b) Then Jesus approves of them, using two forms of the same word "to bear" saying, "you cannot bear with those who are evil", and in the next verse that "you are bearing up for my names’ sake". So we get the picture that the believers in the church of Ephesus were loyal and persistent in obeying Jesus. They didn't compromise when it came to sound doctrine, to holding firm to the truth they received from Jesus' apostles like John, and Peter, and Paul. But they had gotten rid of some teachers who claimed to be teaching the truth, claimed even to be sent by Jesus, but when tested by the Ephesian Christians, turned out to be liars ("false" in verse 3). They were loyal to Jesus and to the teachings of His apostles, and they didn't back down from conflict when the truth was on the line.

To appreciate what Jesus says here about the good things in the Ephesian church, it's helpful to know just a little bit about that city of Ephesus. In the first century it was a "free city" in the Roman Empire, with the freedom to govern their own affairs. They had officials, and an elected city council, and important decisions were often brought before the gathering of citizens called, "the assembly" mentioned in Acts 19:39 (exactly the same word translated "church" here). When the town clerk called the "assembly" (the "church") together, you could see who the real citizens of Ephesus were. When Christians assembled together on the Lord's Day to worship Jesus, you could see who were the true followers of Christ.

But Ephesus was also a wealthy, incredibly important commercial centre, a port city, with major routes by land pouring trade in and out of Ephesus from all over the world. But the thing that made Ephesus one of the most famous cities in the ancient world, was their massive Temple to the goddess Diana (or Artemis). Tourists and pilgrims came from all over the world to worship Diana. Thousands of "priestesses" facilitated the pagan worship and prostitution that went on in that temple. The temple brought in incredible wealth from the sale of written magic spells for everything from a safe journey to helping a couple have a baby. So around 35 years before John wrote Revelation, Christians repenting of their use of those magic spells and of worshipping Diana had collected all the spells they owned and burned them. Acts 19:19 says that the collection of the spells they burned on that day was worth about $6 million dollars today. People called it, "the supreme metropolis of Asia".[ii] It had much in common with the globalized, pluralistic cities of the 21st century. So strange spiritual teachings, publicly accepted sexual immorality, religious ideas from all over the world, the clash of cultures and the pursuit of money--these were common in Ephesus. And for the Christians in Ephesus, these things used to be normal for them as well, until they came to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So Jesus commends them for their admirable loyalty, for their love of the truth, their intolerance of unrepentant evil in their midst, their endurance in the face of so many temptations, and their refusal to listen to the teachings of men who proved to be contradicting the teachings of Jesus' own apostles.

They didn't know how close they were to going dark

But their loyalty and uncompromising sense of duty was not enough. Jesus threatened to remove His own presence from their church. Does that sound harsh? Unfair of Jesus? But remember this is His church. He is the divine, High Priest walking among His seven lampstands--taking care of these seven churches, giving them His light to shine into the city of Ephesus, and causing fruit to grow from their ministry in His name. But here's the thing, though they believed the truth about Jesus, they weren't very close to Jesus any more. In John 15:5 Jesus said, [read]. To stay close to Jesus, in intimate relationship with Him, is the way to be fruitful in serving Him. If we drift from Jesus, and fail to stay close to Him, we will become less fruitful. If we disconnect from Him, we will not be fruitful at all. And that's what was happening in Ephesus:

4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  5 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.  (Rev. 2:4-5 ESV)

They love with their sound doctrine and their preachers but Jesus holds the stars in his hand. They loved their church and its purity but it was only the presence of Jesus among them that made them a real church. If Jesus was to take their light away, they would become no more than a gathering of ordinary citizens of Ephesus, acting like Christians, talking like Christians, carrying on Sunday services perhaps, but just as dark, as void of spiritual light, as spiritually cold, as the night sky with no stars at all.

Imagine a marriage where the couple stays together, never cheating, never even considering divorce, perfectly polite to each other, civil, courteous even, but with no love. A couple who are very familiar acquaintances, room mates, partners, but not lovers. There is no tenderness, no passion, no attraction between them. There is no sacrifice for the good of the other, no longing to be together after an absence; no yearning to share a new experience, share each others' thoughts, much less to share a bed. Whatever people call that, it's not a marriage. Likewise with a doctrinally sound, persevering, morally pure congregation of Sunday worshippers: whatever people call it, it is no church if there is no love for Jesus Christ.

About 10 years before the book of Revelation, John wrote his first letter, we call, "First John", in Ephesus, probably for the Ephesian church and the other churches nearby. And he addresses their lack of love:

19 We love because he first loved us.  20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 Jn. 4:19-21 ESV)

Christianity is to love in response to the discovery that God loved us through Jesus. You cannot be a Christian without love for God. If you don't love God, it's because you havnen't yet grasped the Good News that though you and I are sinners who deserve Hell, God sent His Son, Jesus, on a mission to take our place, pay the penalty for all evil, once and for all, so everyone who counts on Jesus gets to share in His everlasting inheritance. The more you and I begin to grasp that, and count on this reality day after day, the more we will love Christ; love the Father who sent Him; love the Spirit who opened our hearts to believe it, and love other people for Jesus' sake.

Is this you and me?

I think I have spent most of my Christian life in Ephesus, as a lover of doctrine, lover of truth, even sometimes loving the people Jesus loves, but barely. Really, I sense that much of my life, I didn't so much love what Jesus loves as I hated what Jesus hates. “Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate,” (Rev. 2:6 ESV). New Testament scholars generally used to think the "Nicolaitans" were some forgotten Christian sect who encouraged sexual immorality and idol worship. They got that mainly from comparing verse 6 to verses 14 and 15 where it mentions those things. But history is silent about the Nicolaitans, and the other possibility seems more likely given the symbolism in this book. The very word, "Nicolaitan" comes from the Greek name "Niko-laos", which means something like "people who were conquered".[iii] It might just be code for those people in the church who are the opposite of those described in verse 7: “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,” (Rev. 2:7 ESV).  "The ones who conquer" are the ones who "nikao". The Nicolaitans are literally, the people who got conquered, Christians who bailed on Jesus.

This means that the church in Ephesus, if nothing else, didn't put up with people who gave into the culture, the greed of their society, the love of money, the idol worship and sexual immorality so popular because of the Temple of Diana. Christians who let themselves be sucked into accepting those temptations, walking the short road of a hundred small compromises, have turned away from Jesus. They have turned back to the world, back to the dark… But those who stayed determined and loyal to their beliefs about Jesus were also neglecting Jesus. They were about to lose their light too. Is this us? Are we like people who love the idea of marriage, but take their spouses utterly for granted?

As verse 1 reads, "these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands." I hope you have seen how these applications to the church in Ephesus flow directly out of the vision of the Son of Man in chapter 1, of His presence among the churches and his provision for messengers to teach His Word. Each of the seven letters draw application from the first symbols in the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ. And so these seven letters are going to give us a lesson from Christ Himself in how to begin to apply the great and mysterious signs and symbols of this book of prophecy. This is a book of prophecy, but it is not an abstract or impractical book. It is the word of Jesus to His people, to "show us what must soon take place", "the things that will happen", so that we never drift, never wander away from, and never neglect our glorious God and Saviour.