The Book of Revelation: Part 3

Revelation 2:1-7 (BSB) Letter to the Church in Ephesus

We are in week three of our sermon series on the Book of Revelation, or rather, as John has titled it: the Apocalypse (the unveiling) of Jesus Christ. So far, John has told how, on hearing a loud voice, he turned and saw, “One like the Son of Man,” standing behind him, surrounded by seven lampstands, holding seven stars in His right hand. This was Jesus Christ standing there, and He told John to write down all that he was about to see, and to write seven letters to seven different churches.

Now, let’s read the first of these seven letters and then we will go back through it one verse at a time. Revelation 2:1-7 (BSB) says:

1 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.

2 I know your deeds, your labor, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and you have tested and exposed as liars those who falsely claim to be apostles. 

3 Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love. 

5 Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

6 But you have this to your credit: You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

This letter was written, as verse 1 stated, “To the angel of the church in Ephesus.” All seven letters are written “to the angel of the church” in a specific location. Some people think the letters are written to a human leader of the church and not to an angelic being. One reason for thinking this is because if they were written to angels, as Ellicott states in his commentary, “it is difficult to reconcile words of warning and reproof (as in Revelation 2:4-5), and of promise and encouragement (as in Revelation 2:10), with such a view.”

But I’ve been thinking about the point he brings up, and I actually don’t think it creates a problem. Even if we say that the letter is written to the church leader, is the leader the one who is responsible for all that is wrong in the church? Wouldn’t that leader have the responsibility to give this letter to the congregation? How is that any different from the letter being addressed to an angel? The angel then has the information about the problems at this particular church. What if giving the message to an angel is simply the way messages are conveyed? After all, this is the route of communication that John establishes in the beginning of this book. To review, he said in Revelation 1:1-2, “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who testifies to everything he saw. This is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Even though Jesus sent the angel to John, He was still speaking directly to John. So in the same way, John could be sending this angel the letter, even though John is still writing directly to the people at the church.

This process might seem redundant or unnecessary to us, but we shouldn’t dismiss it. Angels play an important role in the world and we shouldn’t overlook them. I think we often tend to downplay angels because we rightfully do not want to worship them or focus on them in a wrong way. But the opposite it also just as problematic in my opinion.

We are told in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

We also see, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, that, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The god of this age is satan. He is a fallen angel. If he has that power, then for sure, unfallen angels have that same power but for good. Wouldn’t it then make sense that an angel is assigned to each of these churches and therefore should know what the Lord wants to accomplish at each of these churches?

We see, too, in the book of Daniel, that angels are assigned to territories and are waging battles on our behalf. Daniel 10:13 says, “However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.” And then Daniel 10:20 adds, “’Do you know why I have come to you?’ he said. ‘I must return at once to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, behold, the prince of Greece will come.’” It makes sense that in that same way, angels are given assignments to churches in specific locations, just like we see here in these letters, in order to do battle on that particular church’s behalf.

The church, in this first letter, is in Ephesus and it is the same church that the book of Ephesians was written to. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says that Ephesus was “a city of great riches and trade, but much given to idolatry and superstition, famous for the temple of Diana. Paul was there twice; at his second coming he stayed thereabouts three years. He was by a tumult driven thence into Macedonia, and left Timothy there. It appears from Acts 20:17 [which says, “From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church”], that there were more ministers there than one.”

I think that point, that Ephesus did not have one specific leader, is yet another reason to consider the angel is angelic and not human. But, regardless of whether this letter is going through a messenger who is angelic or human, the content of the message does not change and is far more important to focus on.

Picking up verse 1, it continues and says, “These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

Some theologians say that the number seven represents “completeness” because we see the number seven throughout Scripture at significant times. For example, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. So therefore, they think the seven stars and seven churches are emblematic of all churches that have ever existed. That’s one way of looking at it, and that could be correct, or it could simply be that there were seven churches at that time that the Lord wanted to address. Either way, we can still apply His words to them to our present time and situation, just as we do with all of Scripture.

The seven churches being described as golden lampstands are also a very fitting illustration of the church. The body of Christ is to be a light that shines in the darkness of the world. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

And these lights, as we looked at briefly last week, are a marked change from the old temple lampstand which was one lampstand with seven arms branching from one pillar. I like what MacLaren says about these new lampstands: “They were one in their perfect manifoldness, because of Him who walked in the midst. In which difference lies a representation of one great element in the superiority of the Church over Israel, that for the hard material oneness of the separated nation there has come the true spiritual oneness of the Churches of the saints; one not because of any external connection, but by reason that Christ is in them.”

These lampstands are superior in the same way that the Bible speaks to the new covenant as being better. It says in Hebrews 7:22, that “Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.” In the new, better covenant of faith in Jesus, because Jesus is in the midst of us, we can know the Father, and we can shine with His reflective light. 

Not only that, but because Christ is in the midst of us, He is aware of all that is happening. As Jesus says in verse 2, “I know your deeds, your labor, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and you have tested and exposed as liars those who falsely claim to be apostles.”

The church in Ephesus is to be commended because they are not tolerating evil. They have tested and exposed the people who were trying to deceive them. They are not putting up with or accepting those into fellowship who are “evil.”

This is certainly applicable to us today. The American church would be in a better place if we followed their example. Too often, our churches tolerate evil in our efforts to please people. But about this, Matthew Henry says in his commentary, “Indifference as to truth and error, good and evil, may be called charity and meekness, but it is not so; and it is displeasing to Christ. The Christian life is a warfare against sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh. We must never yield to our spiritual enemies, and then we shall have a glorious triumph and reward.”

Then, verse 3 says they are also to be commended that, “Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.”

If you remember the Epistle to the Ephesians, in that, Paul commended them, too. Ephesians 1:15-16 begins by saying, “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

Paul also said, in Ephesians 5:8-12, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Test and prove what pleases the Lord. Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.”

It seems that now, some thirty years later, they listened well to Paul’s letter to them. But still, they have room for improvement. Paul had begun by praising the Ephesians for their faith in the Lord and their love for fellow Christians, but it seems that over time that diminished. Even though, as this letter in Revelation says, they were doing well not to “tolerate those who are evil,” and they “tested and exposed as liars those who falsely claim to be apostles,” and they “have persevered,” the Lord says He is displeased with something about them. In verse 4, He says, “But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.”

When they started out, as Paul said, their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints was so great that everyone was talking about. But now, Jesus says in verse 5, “Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

Look back to that time when you first started following Me, Jesus says. Using that time as your measuring rod, compare that with how you are doing now. Compared to then, you have fallen so far. So far, in fact, that you need to repent.

This is a very important verse and more important than we might realize. It’s saying that if the believers in the Ephesian church do not “repent and perform the deeds you did at first,” their lampstand will be removed from its place.

N.T. Wright, in his book, Revelation for Everyone, provides some important context about this church and this verse. He mentions that he visited Ephesus and was overwhelmed and amazed at the size and scale of the place. Particularly the ancient amphitheater which you can still see. But he says, “The one thing you don’t see today in Ephesus, or in the surrounding modern towns and villages, is an active church…but this sense of devastation, of a place where there once was a thriving Christian witness but where there is no more, is precisely what Jesus warned the Ephesian church about in verse 5” (p. 11).

I think it’s safe to say that this church’s lampstand was removed. They did not “repent and do the deeds” they had done at first, even though Jesus then adds one more comment of what they were doing correctly. He says in verse 6, “But you have this to your credit: You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Scholars have tried without success to figure out who the Nicolaitans were. They are even mentioned in another of the letters. But from context, we can deduce that they are doing evil works because it’s good to hate what they are doing.  

Again, we don’t know what the Nicolaitans are doing, just that it’s something so bad that the Lord hates it. And something so bad that He commends the Ephesian Christians for hating it too.

Have you ever thought about this before: God will commend us for hating evil works?

Think back to how Jesus started this letter—what did He say? He said, “I know.” He knows all things. He knows not only what He can see, but He knows what is inside of our hearts. He knows whether we hate the evil things people do or if we are unbothered by it.

This tells me that we should pray for the Holy Spirit to purify our hearts so that we will hate the things He hates. We need the Holy Spirit to mold us and shape us, so we don’t become indifferent to the sin in this world, or worse, so we don’t secretly love it.

In 1 John 2:15, John had written to believers, and he warned them about this. He said, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Now here, in this first letter, we see that not only should we not love the world, but we should also hate the evil things they do. That’s because if we don’t hate sin, then we are at risk of becoming desensitized to it. And if that happens, then we could end up participating in those evil deeds ourselves.

As Romans 12:9 encourages us, “Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.”

And Proverbs 8:13 says, “To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.”

Let me stop a moment and ask you this question: What does Jesus know about you? Do you hate evil? Or are you apathetic about it? Are you repulsed by sin? Or are you drawn to it? These are questions we must regularly ask ourselves. Don’t let yourself be deceived. Answer it truthfully. If you find that the evil deeds people are doing are enticing, then repent and ask the Lord to purify your heart and mind so that you abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. He will be faithful to answer that prayer and change you.

I speak from personal experience that God will be faithful to renew your mind, just as He has renewed mine. But it’s not a one-time event. We must be faithful to seek the Lord daily and ask Him to help purify our hearts and minds.

These Ephesians are praised for hating the evil deeds, but if their lampstand was removed, as theologian N.T. Wright has observed, even that was not enough. They needed to repent and do the good deeds they did at first.

Well, unless we understand what Jesus is saying here correctly, we could end up embracing some incorrect theology, so to properly understand this, there are a few questions we need to answer about this verse. First, what are these good deeds that Jesus is talking about? And second, does the reference to their lampstand being removed simply mean the removal of the existence of the actual church in Ephesus or does it represent the salvation of the individual people who make up the church? In order to answer that second question, we have to figure out if this letter, and the other six, are applicable to all believers at all times in history or if these seven letters are only applicable to these historical churches. And I think the answer to that is seen in how Jesus concludes this letter.

Verse 7 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.”

This letter was written to the church in Ephesus, but here we see it is also for everybody—anyone who has an ear to hear. And not just this particular letter, but each letter to each of the churches is for everyone. All seven of the letters end with the identical statement: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

But what is unique to this particular letter to the Ephesians, is this extra sentence about the tree of life. He says at the ending, “To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.”

N.T. Wright pointed out something else that is interesting. He said: “The temple of Artemis had within its extensive grounds…a particular tree which was used, not only as a sacred shrine, but as the focal point of a system of asylum. This tree even featured on some of the local coins…But God’s ‘Paradise’ is no refuge for unrepentant criminals. It is the place where ‘those who repent’ (verse 5) and ‘those who conquer’ (verse 7) will have the right to eat from the three, and so to obtain ‘life’ of a sort which God always intended His human creatures to possess but which, until now, they have forfeited by their sin” (p.12).

So even though the other letters don’t include this sentence about the tree of life, we know this is a truth that applies to all of us believers at all times in history. Because, if any of us want to “eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God,” we must repent and overcome, just as Jesus says. In other words, we must persevere and endure in our faith.

In the case of the Christians at this church in Ephesus, if they want to “eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God,” they needed to repent and do the deeds they used to do when they first became Christians.

But wait, you might be saying, deeds don’t save us, so why do they need to repent and do deeds in order for their lampstand not to be removed and eat of the tree of life in Paradise—aren’t we assured that faith is enough?

Faith is enough, but what is faith? The Bible tells us that faith without works—without deeds—is dead. Only faith that is alive and proven by our actions is true faith. So, while we are saved by grace through faith, our faith must be proven by our deeds. It’s not enough to recite a creed or mentally agree that Jesus is God. We must walk as Jesus walked and follow Him. We must persevere in faith and repent of our sins so, through God’s power—God’s grace—we overcome sin. We must truly have faith and love Jesus and not abandon our love for Him by letting it grow cold.

This is not a new message. This is the same message John delivered in the letters he wrote in 1, 2, and 3 John, for it’s the same message that Jesus proclaimed when He walked on earth before He went to the Cross. And it’s the same message that we see from the prophets in the Old Testament. 

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says, “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good?” 

Or as Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” 

And as John said in 1 John 2:3-6, “By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. If anyone says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him: Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked.”

But we won’t walk as Jesus walked, doing good deeds of love, if we abandon our first love. As Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” 

Jesus also declared in Matthew 22:37-40, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This is also what Galatians 5:6 is saying. It says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. What matters is faith expressing itself through love.”

If we truly love Jesus, then we will love Him and love one another, and as we do, our lights will shine bright. If we don’t love Jesus and love others, then our lights won’t “shine before men” and we won’t “glorify our Father in heaven.” A lampstand that does not shine light serves no purpose. We must keep oil in our lamps, so they shine bright.

I think this is the same message, too, that Jesus spoke in His parable of the ten virgins and their lamps. Five of the ten were foolish and let the oil run out before the wedding party they were waiting for began. While they ran off to refill their lamps with oil, the bridegroom showed up to take them into the party. The five who needed oil were not let in.

Let us have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, for the Spirit is saying this same thing to us today.

If you realize that your love for the Lord is not as strong as it used to be, then repent and return to that first love and do the things you did when you first became a believer. If you have realized that you don’t hate the things the Lord hates, then repent and ask Him to refine your heart and mind so you see things as He does.

And all of us, let us not abandon our first love. Let us let Jesus take first place in our hearts, so He may rule over us from His rightful place. Let us keep our lampstand filled with oil, so that it shines brightly with our love for Jesus and others, by doing good deeds that glorify God. Let us not let our lampstands flicker out and be removed. We must shine our lights brightly so the world may come to see Jesus and worship Him as we do.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we confess that we have not always hated what is evil. Please forgive us and change us by Your Holy Spirit to hate the things that You hate. Please refine our hearts and minds so that sin repulses us. Please give us eyes to see things clearly as You do. Please light a fire inside of us so we are filled with zeal for You. And please show us if we need to do as the Ephesian church needed to do: to repent and return to doing good deeds of love. We want to follow You and obey You in all things. Please forgive us through Your great mercy and help us to be more like Jesus every day. May we never abandon the first love we found in Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.