“The Letter to Ephesus: LOVE” (Revelation 2:1-7)

The Most Loving Place in Town

Have you read the Book “The Most Loving Place in Town”? It’s a modern day parable for the church. One day Pastor Tim received an anonymous letter saying,

     I’m writing to bring something important to your attention. You have lost your first love. You and your church have drifted away from the love of God and one another as your first priority and into a pattern of success-driven busyness… (kindle location 173 of 1967)

Tim was shocked because he believed that the church was doing quite well. Something was going on almost every night. Bible studies, support groups, commission meetings, and so on. As Tim was pondering over the matter, the phone rang. It was Dani Wilson, one of the church members. She called to let the pastor know that she had decided to look for another church. At the end of the conversation Dani said, “I guess the bottom line is that this church isn’t exactly the most loving place in town.” It was an inconvenient truth. Tim began a search. He visited his mentor, close friends, and trusted church members. He found how far he and his church had drifted away from their number one priority: loving God and each other. At the end of the story Pastor Tim and the church were able to recapture their lost love and become a beacon of love in their community – the most loving place in town.

The Church of Ephesus

This story reminds us of the story of the Ephesian church. Jesus, the chief Pastor of the Church, evaluates the spiritual health of his church. Basically, what Christ thinks of the Ephesian church is this:

     I have watched your hard work in guiding the church out of a period of turmoil and challenge. You have endured a great deal and persevered with energy in creating a level of excitement and activity within the church. For all this I commend you. However, you have lost your first love. You have drifted away from the love of God and one another as your first priority. If this serious situation is not turned around, it will destroy the church’s credibility. But fear not! If you humbly accept the challenge to restore love into the life of the church again, your church can be the most loving place in Ephesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit!

At that time the false apostles, called the Nicolaitans (6), sneaked in the church and led people astray from God’s truth. They supported the popular cultural values of sexual and religious compromise. They taught that Christians could participate in the cult of Ephesian idols heavily involved in sexual immorality and the eating of food offered to idols.[1] Thankfully, the Ephesian church rightly discerned truth from false teaching and kept its doctrinal purity. Its members didn’t listen to anyone if they spoke of anything except concerning Jesus Christ in truth. What a wonderful church the Ephesian Christian community was! Jesus commended them in this way: “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (6). But the problem is, in this process somehow they have lost their first love. They were busy in their service, patient in their sufferings, and orthodox in their belief. But they lost their first love for Christ and for others. They became like Pharisees, who kept all God’s laws without love. As we know, without love we are nothing. Without love we are not a living church at all.

The Enemy’s Strategy

It’s the enemy’s strategy. We may win the outward battle. But in the heat of the battle the enemy attacks our hearts and our minds. He tries to make our hearts hardened, cold, dry, apathetic, and even hostile toward other people. Probably many of you have seen the film “Ben-Hur.” Judah Ben-Hur and Messala were good old friends. But Messala was ambitious and believed in the glory of Rome. Later he returned as the new commander of the Roman garrison. Messala demanded that Judah would deliver potential rebels to the Roman authorities. But of course, Judah refused. And because of that, his mother and sister were put into prison, and later they became lepers. Judah himself became a galley slave for three years. He swore to take revenge on Messala. And finally, he did win the chariot race and take his revenge. But in the meantime Judah’s heart grew hardened and cold. Esther, Judah’s beloved, said to him, “Where is my Judah Ben-Hur? You have become like Messala. I have lost Judah Ben-Hur, whom I loved.”  

The Ephesian Christians were so passionate for doctrinal purity. But as they battled, their hearts became hardened just like their enemies’. Their love for Christ grew cold. And they lost their passion for the message of the gospel. They just kept focused on maintaining the inward purity of the church. They became an inwardly focused church. They have all forgotten their primary calling – to be a light of witness to the outside world. In the Middle Ages Archbishop Trench wrote about the Ephesian church in this way: “A traveler visiting the village found only three Christians there and these sunken in such ignorance and apathy as scarcely to have heard the names of St Paul or St John.”[2]

We Love Because …

It’s a solemn warning for all of us. In verse 7 Jesus says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Today the Spirit says not just to the Ephesian church, but also to the entire church in every age, including our church. Then, how can we restore and rekindle our first love for Christ? There is no hint given in today’s passage, but John tells the way in his first letter. He writes, “We love, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us (3:16a). When we come to the cross, the flame of our love is kindled.

Earlier I shared the story of Judah Ben-Hur. At the end Judah didn’t mean it, but he attended the trial of Jesus. Judah witnessed how Jesus was being marched through the streets, how he was mocked, how he suffered, how he was crucified. Then, something happened to Judah. After coming back home, Judah said to Esther, “Today I witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus. Almost at the moment he died, I heard him say, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ And I felt his voice take the sword out of my hand.” This is the power of the cross. Christ’s love does melt down our hardened hearts and kindle our love for him and his people. Fanny J. Crosby powerfully proclaims this wonderful truth in this way:

I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice,
and it told thy love to me;
but I long to rise in the arms of faith
and be closer drawn to thee. 

Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to the cross where thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to thy precious, bleeding side.

Like the church of Ephesus, we as a church have a work to be done, a fight to be fought, and a doctrine to be kept.[3] But above all things we are called to love Christ and love one another. So let us come to the cross. Let us come daily to the foot of the cross –  the source of love. Then, the flame of our love for Christ and those around us will be kindled. And we will become a beacon of love in our community – the most loving place in town! Amen.

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[1] Craig Keener, The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation (Zondervan, 2000), 111.

[2] John Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church (Three’s Company, 1990), 27.

[3] Ibid., 27.

“Christ among the Churches” (Revelation 1:9-20)

Why Symbols?

What image comes to your mind when you think of Jesus? One of the most popular images of Jesus would be a good shepherd who is holding lamb. But in the Book of Revelation the image of Jesus is a little bit different. In fact, revelation is full of symbolism – unfamiliar imagery, symbols, and numbers. Why so many confusing symbolic languages? There are at least two possible answers. The first answer is that John had to use symbolic language because it was almost impossible to describe what he saw, the heavenly vision, in limited human language.

More importantly, the second answer is that John’s use of symbols is very similar to Jesus’ use of parables. Then why did Jesus use parables? In Matthew 13:13-14 Jesus said to his disciples, “I speak to them [crowd] in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand …’” By speaking in parables, Jesus did wake up his believing listeners, but for unbelievers parables made no sense. So when they heard it, their hearts became even more hardened. In the same way, John’s powerful and shocking images and symbols open the eyes of true believers, but they leave hardened unbelievers in deeper darkness. We hear this conclusion from Jesus: “He who has an ear, let him hear” (Rev 2:7, etc.) My prayer is that the Sprit will give us humble, listening, receptive hearts, so that we may understand the symbolism in Revelation and awaken our hearts!

The Imagery of Jesus

In verse 13 John sees “one like a son of man.” Who is this man? Actually, Daniel saw a very similar vision. In Daniel 7:13-14 he said, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him [God].” Here one like a son of man refers to Jesus as a great ruler. In today’s passage John describes the imagery of Jesus in this way:

“The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. 

His eyes were like a flame of fire, 

his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, 

and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 

In his right hand he held seven stars, 

from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, 

and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” (1:14-16 ESV)

Here we need to remember that the imagery John uses is symbolic rather than pictorial or literal. For instance, if we literally visualize Jesus with a sword sticking out of his mouth, it would be a horrible picture of a weird man. But it symbolizes that the words that Jesus speaks are as sharp and piercing as a two-edged sword. So here Jesus’ appearance that John wanted to describe as a whole picture is the glorified Christ, the exalted Christ – the Christ with dominion and glory and power and authority over all the nations forever. That’s the point. In verse 17 Jesus himself said to John, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” Again we see the glorified Christ.

Jesus among the Churches

Then, in verse 12 John sees this vision: “I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man…” Now we know that one like a son of man is Jesus. But what are the seven lampstands? John clarifies what they are in verse 20: “… and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” We learned from last week that the seven churches represent the whole church. If we put together all this, the point is this: Jesus is among the churches. The glorified Christ is among the churches. He is not distant from the churches. He is in the middle of them. He moves among his lampstands, trimming the wicks and carving wax, keeping the light burning. Our church (Houlton and Hodgdon UMCs) is one of his lampstands. Jesus is here among us this morning. The One who died and is alive forever with everlasting dominion whose kingdom cannot be destroyed is in the middle of us today. We need to see this glorified Christ among us today and set our hearts on his kingdom.

Abiding in Christ

In today’s scripture the Christ’s churches are symbolized as the lampstands. In other words, we as a church are called to be light-bearers in the darkness of the world. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others!” (Matt 5:14, 16) But we need to remember that our light, the church’s light is a reflected light just like moonlight. Its’s not a self-luminous light. Just as the moon needs the sun to shine, we need Christ, the true light of the world (Jn 8:12). We must abide in Christ first in order to light our community, our world.  

Then, what does it mean to abide in Christ? How do we abide in Christ? Probably the best image of abiding is the vine and branches metaphor. In John 15 Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (5). In this context abiding is connecting – connecting to Jesus, the source of life. Abiding is receiving – receiving the “sap” (water, minerals, and nutrients) from Jesus. Abiding is remaining. It is to stay connected, keep on trusting, keep on believing, keep on depending on Jesus. In a word, abiding is connecting, receiving, remaining. So are you abiding in Christ? Are you connected to Jesus? Are you receiving the source of life from Jesus? Are you remaining in Jesus and staying united with Jesus?

Abiding in Christ is possible only by God’s grace and by the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot make it happen with our own efforts. But that doesn’t mean that it’s ok for us to do nothing. Although abiding in Christ is all by grace, we need to do our part. We need to respond to God’s grace: “Yes Lord, I need your grace!” It’s called “means of grace.” As we read the Bible, study it, mediate on it, memorize it, we abide in Christ. As we set aside time to pray, we abide in Christ. As we come to worship, sing hymns, receive the communion, have fellowship with other fellow believers, we abide in Christ. By doing this, like a sailor we raise our sails. We cannot manufacture the wind, but we do all we can do to catch the wind. And God sends a gentle, powerful wind of the Spirit, that we may experience union with Christ.

                                         

Abiding in the Church

To abide in Christ also means to abide in the church. Some people say I like Jesus, but I don’t like the church. But it’s like saying, “I like your head, but I don’t like your body.” That doesn’t make sense. Christ and the church are inseparable. Jesus identifies himself with his church. On the way to Damascus Saul met Jesus who came as a light from heaven. Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” If fact, by that time Saul had never met Jesus in person. He was just persecuting his followers, his church. But Jesus was clearly identifying himself with the persecuted church.

To abide in Christ also means to abide in the church. It is true that Jesus died for each of us. But it is also true to say that Jesus died for his church. In Ephesians 6 Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…” (25) Just as husband and wife are one flesh, Christ and the church are one body. If we love Christ, we must love the church – his body, his bride. Few months ago I shared my epiphany experience while attending the conference in Georgia. At that time the word given to me was “abide.” I thought I always did abide in Christ. I thought if I had a good one-on-one relationship with Jesus, that would be sufficient. But God gently taught me this lesson: “To abide in Christ also means to abide in the church.” In that respect, I was not abiding; I was enduring.

Then I saw Jesus. He chose to abide – abide in a particular place and in particular people. He loved his people, his church to the end. In Revelation 2 and 3 we see that five out of seven churches need serious correction. Jesus rebukes them and calls for their repentance. But he still loves his churches. He is still standing in the middle of them. He moves among his lampstands (churches), trimming the wicks and carving wax, keeping the light burning. When we see the flaws in the church, we are easily disappointed and frustrated. When we face messy stuff in the church, we tend to stay away from it, or even give up. But, we are called to abide in the church. Then, how do we abide in the church? The same spiritual principle applies: connecting, receiving, remaining. Abiding in the church is connecting to the life of the church. Abiding in the church is receiving the “sap” from the church. Abiding in the church is remaining. It is to stay put, be present, and love the church to the end. St. Augustine said, “Let us love the Lord our God; let us love His Church. Let us love Him as our Father and her as our mother.” To abide in Christ also means to abide in the church.

See the Glorified Christ

It is hard to imagine what John saw in today’s passage, the vision of the glorified Christ. But when we abide in Christ, to be more precise, when we abide in Christ’s church – connecting to the church, receiving from the church, remaining in the church – we will see the glorified Christ, who is standing among us, the church. We will see his face shine like the sun in all its brilliance (16b). And we too will shine out for all to see, so that everyone will glorify our heavenly Father. Amen.

“I Can Only Imagine” (Revelation 1:4-8)

John to the Seven Churches

Suppose you have a close friend who is going through a personal crisis with no conceivable solution. What words of encouragement would you give to that person?

In fact, the Book of Revelation is the Apostle John’s letter filled with the words of encouragement to the seven churches who were struggling and going through a very difficult time. In the introduction John introduces himself in this way: “I am John, your brother and partner in suffering, God’s kingdom, and patience that comes because of Jesus. I was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus.” (v. 9) John was not in any better circumstances. He himself was exiled and persecuted on a daily basis. His future was uncertain. He might be executed any day. But now he was sending out the words of encouragement to his fellow believers, the seven churches.

Then who are the seven churches? Biblically, the number “seven” signifies completion or fullness. For instance, God created the heavens and the earth for seven days. Yes, those seven churches in Asia did really exist. They were real local churches in the time of John. But at the same time, in the context the seven churches represent the whole church. So John’s message is actually for the entire body of Christ, the church in every age, including our church. The Book of Revelation is the letter written to us, our church, from God.

Background

John received his vision during the reign of Domitian (81-96), who was the first emperor to have himself officially titled as “God the Lord.” He ordered people to give him divine honors like “Lord of the earth,” “Invincible,” “Glory,” “Holy,” “Master,” and “God.” And the people were forced to participate in the imperial cult. Jews and particularly Christians definitely didn’t want to do it. So many of them were persecuted, exiled, and executed.

Today we may not face emperor worship or physical persecution. But we are facing different forms of idol worship (esp. materialism), temptation (ex. all kinds of addiction, including pornography and substance abuse), and compromise (ex. self-consumed culture). Jesus says in Mark 4:19, “Some are like the seeds sown among the thorn bushes. These are the people who hear the word, but the worries of life, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing.” We hear the word. But we are overwhelmed with worries about all the things we have to do and all the things we want to get. The stress strangles what we heard. And we don’t grow. We don’t bear fruit. When we face such temptation, the message of Revelation puts everything back into perspective. Last time I shared that the purpose of Revelation is to open the eyes of our hearts, so that we may see our life from an eternal, heavenly perspective. No matter how difficult our situation, Revelation proclaims that God is still in control and that he will conclude this stage of life (history) the way he has promised. The Lord God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” God is sovereign!

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus

Now let’s go back to the very first question: “What words of encouragement would you give to someone who is going through a personal crisis?” In addition to that, if that is your last chance to talk to that person, what would you say? If we ask this question to John, I believe his answer would be something like this: “Look to Jesus, who loves you, has freed you from your sins, and made you his people, his family. He is near. He is on the way. Be encouraged, strengthened, hopeful, and bold!”

For John, this letter might be his last words to his fellow believers. So he gets right to the point. He greets and blesses them in the name of triune God, and encourage them to fix theirs eyes on Jesus: “Grace and peace to you from God the Father (“who is and who was and who is to come), and from the Holy Spirit (“the seven spirits who are before his throne”) and from Jesus Christ.” Here Jesus is described in three ways: the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of kings of the earth (5). These threefold title sums up well the life and ministry of Jesus. It tells us who Jesus is. When Jesus was on earth, he was the faithful witness. He never compromised with the world. He did always bear witness to the truth and stand up for the truth. Because of that, he suffered and died for that witness. In Greek martyr and witness share the same root. Jesus was the faithful witness of God and martyr for God. That Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. At that time many Christians were facing uncertainty under persecution. They might soon face death for Jesus’ name. But here John was encouraging them (and himself!) to remember Jesus’ resurrection – a sure guarantee that they would also be raised from the dead; therefore, they had nothing to fear, even death! That Jesus is now alive, and reigning over all things. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is ordering the world for the good of the church. He is working all challenging situations for our good.

Then, John continues. That Jesus loves you! That Jesus loves us! Revelation 1:5 uses the present tense, “loves” to give us assurance that Christ’s love for us is a continuing reality. He will never leave us or forsake us as orphans. And he proved his love on Calvary when he shed his blood for us. By his precious blood Jesus freed us from our sins. So now we have freedom and ability to follow him. Jesus made us his people, his family, so that we may love him back, treasure him, worship him, and follow him.

The Eyes of Faith

But there are times when we feel like God is distant. We feel like God doesn’t care about us or watch over us. That moment what we need is the eyes of faith. The Apostle John encourages us and says, “Look, he is coming!” (7) “Do you see what I see?” In Acts 7 before Stephen was martyred, full of the Holy Spirit, he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God. And he said, “Look! I see the heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

What is the crisis of the day? It could be the economy. As we think about our family finance, or our church finance, some of us may have the fear that we will run out of money before we run out of time. The crisis could be the health issue. It could be a relationship crisis. Whatever it is, our real crisis is not all the challenging situations we face today. Our real crisis is that we don’t see those situations from a heavenly perspective.

Corrie ten Boom lived through the hellish life of Nazi concentration camps, a place where hope was lost for most people. She saw the face of evil up close and personal. She saw some of the most inhumane acts man can do to man. But she was able to keep going because God opened the eyes of her heart to see things from a heavenly perspective. Corrie said, "If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest." She traveled around the world to share the message of hope and encouragement. And she often used the tapestry. First, she would hold up the back side of the fabric – with hundreds of tangled threads. It all looked so random. All the strings didn’t seem to make sense. Then Corrie said, “That’s the whole point. It doesn’t seem to make sense because of our limited vision, our limited perspective of what God is doing in our lives, that we question him.” At that point Corrie slowly turned the blue tangled mess around to reveal a beautiful tapestry – a crown of gold. Then she said, “This is what God sees… from his perspective … a masterpiece.”  

Cultivating a Heavenly Perspective

In our lives we often see the wrong [back] side, but God sees his side all the time. So we need to cultivate a heavenly perspective. Last time I shared that one of the ways is to hear the word and do the word based on Revelation 1:3. Another great way to cultivate a heavenly perspective is worship. When John is invited to a heavenly worship in chapter 4, all of the grief over his sufferings just fade away, and he sees God’s eternal glory and purposes seen from a heavenly perspective. When we worship, we gain heavenly perspective.

I believe “Week of Prayer” is a wonderful opportunity to cultivate a heavenly perspective, because prayer is the highest form of worship. Throughout this week we will take a time to show the worth of God above all things. I commend you to join me in prayer. If your circumstance is not allowed, I encourage you to take a certain time (preferably noon time) and pray where you are. By doing that, we are saying, “God, you are my MIP (Most Important Person)! You are my treasure! You are my all in all!”

As I close, I ask you this question, “Where are you looking? What are you looking?” Are you focusing on all the challenges? Are you gazing at yourself, hoping to find your own answers? Look to Jesus! Look to Jesus, until you clearly see the One who reigns over all things.