Now, Revelation chapter 2, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven
stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
And then he begins to give the message to the church at Ephesus.
Now, if you remember at the end of chapter 1, Jesus Christ had told John that he had
a message specifically for each of these seven specific churches in Asia.
And in chapters 2 and 3, we're going to get into those messages that are tailored to those
churches.
Now, the whole book of Revelation was sent to each of the seven churches.
It says in verse 2, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst
not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and
are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's
sake hast labored and hast not fainted.
So in these first few verses, Jesus Christ has a lot of positive things, a lot of good
things to say about the church of Ephesus.
He talks about the fact they're a very hardworking church.
He talks about their work and their labor, their patience, and he says how they cannot
bear them which are evil, and that they've tried them which say they are apostles and
are not, and hast found them liars.
So here's a church that was good at recognizing false doctrine, good at recognizing false
prophets and false teachers who would creep in claiming to be apostles.
They couldn't bear with them that were evil.
They took a stand against that which was wrong.
And the Bible says that they had not fainted.
They were a church that endured and continued in the faith.
But look, it says in verse 4, something negative, nevertheless I have somewhat against thee,
because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the first works, or else
I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
So in the messages to these churches, often Jesus Christ has some good things to say about
a church and also some bad things to say.
Here they're being commended for their hard work, they're being commended for exposing
false prophets and false teachers, but he says you've lost your first love.
Now how are they going to get the first love back?
He says, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the first works.
So notice it's possible for a church to get caught up in doing a lot of works, but it's
not the first works.
It's not the works that God wants them to be doing.
You say, well what does he mean by that?
What is the first love?
Or what are the first works?
Well, if you think about what the first works were, when Jesus Christ instituted the church
and when he set up the church, what was the first thing he sent him out to do?
You know, he sent him out to preach the Gospel to every creature.
Jesus Christ himself said that he was come to seek and to save that which was lost.
And if you remember, he sent out his apostles two by two to go everywhere preaching the
Gospel.
And then also in Acts chapter 1, when we see Jesus Christ ascend up to heaven, the last
thing he told him to do before he ascended up to heaven was to be witnesses unto him,
both in Jerusalem and all Judea, unto Samaria, and unto the othermost parts of the earth.
At the end of the book of Matthew, at the end of the book of Mark, at the end of the
book of Luke, John, you know, they're always being given this commission to go out and
preach the Gospel to every creature.
That was supposed to be the main goal and the main purpose of the church, to go out
and reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the Gospel to every creature,
to win souls.
And it's possible for churches to get so busy doing a lot of other works that they forget
their first love, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of people that compels
us to go out and win the lost and to go out and reach people with the Gospel.