Don’t Forget Your First Love (Rev. 2:1-7)

Posted on by

Lent series intro: The Letter to the Church at Ephesus, Stick with our First Love (2:1–7)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, March 9, 2025

Think with me for a moment about when you first fell in love with your spouse, your children, or someone else. Think with me about love. It can be a love for a friend or sibling as well, but it cannot be a love for an object. Studies will show that when you first fall in love your whole mentality changes. The brain literally changes. When you are new in love you have more energy, and this is why you can stay up late at night to go on dates and spend time together. Employers will complain about employees that were once good employees until they met that someone. Love changes us, and to an extent that needs to happen. Pastors will often not officiate a wedding for a couple that hasn’t been together longer than six months because they have yet to realize each other’s idiosyncrasies. Many of you have raised children and maybe you have had to have that conversation with your daughter. She is saying, “I love him.” But you are saying don’t you realize that he is wanted in six states for something…” She doesn’t get it, because love is like a drug.

Then things change. You stay together and get married. Maybe you have children. Eventually, maybe you think, “Do we love each other?” This is because we associate love with that euphoria we once had. The euphoria changes but that does not mean the love isn’t there. Everything we do for each other is because of the love that is there. This is also true of our commitment to Jesus. Let’s talk about that.

In Rev. 2:1-7 The Church at Ephesus is exhorted to not forget their first love.

My burning theme today is that we love Jesus.

My burning application is that all we do stems from our love for Jesus.

Let’s read Rev. 2:1-7:

Revelation 2:1–7 (ESV)

“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.

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. 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. 6 Yet this you have: 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 conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

  1. All that we do must stem from our love for God.
    1. The church at Ephesus persevered (verse 2), we see this in verse 2. There was a real church at Ephesus, but I do believe these letters are to apply to all the churches. In fact, if you look at verse 7 it says for us to hear what the Spirit says to the “churches,” plural.
    2. This likely included persecution.
    3. We must persevere. But we must not forget about why we are in this. We must remember that it is all about Jesus.
    4. We will face hardship and maybe persecution, but we must persevere as well.
    5. The church at Ephesus did not tolerate evil (verse 2), we see this in verse 2. It actually says “evil people.” I would refer you to 1 Cor. 5:9-13:
    6. 1 Corinthians 5:9–13 (ESV)
    7. 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
    8. The issue is when we condone evil within the church.
    9. The church at Ephesus would test the apostles and would not tolerate false apostles (verse 2).
    10. Testing church leaders is critical.
    11. 1 John 4:1–3 (ESV)
    12. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
    13. 2 Cor. 11:13: For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
    14. The church at Ephesus endured for Jesus and did not grow weary (verse 3).
    15. The church at Ephesus hates the Nicolaitans as does Jesus (verse 6).
    16. It is difficult to say who the Nicolaitans were, but they were some form of cult that may have denied moral values during that time, or it could be metaphorical of something else. We could get into that at another time or give me a call or an email if you want more answers to who they were.
  2. The church at Ephesus neglected their first love (verse 4).
    1. This is the key application for us. Let’s break it down.
      1. We can be very good about a routine of studying the Word and prayer, but we must do these because of our intense love for God.
      2. Our Christian life must not be simply about blind orthodoxy. Orthodoxy means correct beliefs.
      3. We must be careful about always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the Truth (2 Timothy 3:7).
      4. We must love Jesus.
      5. We must desire Jesus.
      6. We must be satisfied in Jesus.
      7. Loving Jesus means that we do love His Word because we want to be close to Him and being in His Word means that we are listening to Him.
      8. Loving Jesus means that we love prayer because this is communicating with Him.
      9. Loving Jesus means that we love the church because He loves the church (Eph. 5:25-26).
      10. Timothy Keller shares:

        We had a set of trees at our house in Virginia. They were odd trees. They were some kind of oak trees. (Maybe Kathy remembers them.)

        The leaves would die in the fall, but they wouldn’t fall off. They’d stay on the tree, and they didn’t fall off until the spring when the new leaves came out of the buds and pushed the old leaves off. You see, there’s a way of trying to change that simply relies on willpower. It says, “I’m going to stop this. I’m not going to do this anymore.” But the Christian approach is so different. Christianity says you have to be continually in worship and in prayer and in study of the Word.

        Through the sacraments and through a personal encounter with God you have to be constantly meeting him so you’re changing and growing, and as Christ’s character begins to grow in you, it comes out and pushes off the old leaves. It pushes off the anger. It’s not something that happens overnight. It comes gradually. It comes bit by bit. For example, some of you know … I guess you can be too personal in a sermon. Some of you know if you were here earlier today at any of those other services, I was talking about how the gospel came to Korea.

        I went back into an old history book I had in order to tell this story. In the story, as many of you know, there was a man who came to Korea back when it was illegal in the 1860s for a foreigner to come to Korea. When his boat was sinking, he came out of the boat and waded out of the river with his arms full of Bibles, and as the people on the shore killed him, clubbing him, and knifing him, he thrust the Bibles into their hands as they were killing him. That’s how the gospel came to Korea.

        Today, at the place where he died, there’s a big, beautiful Thomas Memorial Chapel for Robert J. Thomas, the first missionary to Korea. I read about him, and I got so tremendously convicted, and I realized I had an opportunity to worship. This was happening on Friday. I was typing the thing into the computer for my sermon. I was reading the book, and I suddenly found as I was reading it, I started to cry. I realized, “Here’s a guy who was just so faithful,” and I began to feel like a baby.

        I began to say, “I think my problems are so great. I think the things God’s called me to do are so important and so hard,” and I got convicted of self-pity. I had an opportunity to worship. You stop every thing. You know, when the Spirit of God is preaching to you, is bringing something home, you say, “Here’s a chance.” So you stop everything. You sit down and say, “I see what you’re telling me,” and you begin to worship. You repent. You praise him. You receive forgiveness, and you sense yourself being renewed in the attitude of your mind. That’s the little leaf coming in and pushing off the old leaf. Christianity is an organic thing, it’s a process.[1]

        [1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

    2. This means that we must be a part of the church. In connecting with the church, we are connecting with Jesus indirectly and directly (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:14-31 and chapter 13).
    3. We must remember our first love, we must remember the Gospel which saved us (verse 5).
    4. The church at Ephesus is called to repent.
    5. Repent is listed twice (verse 5). Jesus is giving them a chance to repent. This is showing that there are second chances.
    6. If they don’t repent the Lampstand is removed. Remember the Jewish pool of imagery. I like what the Life Application Study Bible says: For Jesus to “remove your lampstand from its place” would mean the church would cease to be an effective church. Just as the seven-branched candlestick in the Temple gave light for the priests to see, the churches were to give light to their surrounding communities. But Jesus warned them that their lights could go out. In fact, Jesus himself would extinguish any light that did not fulfill its purpose. The church needed to repent of its sins.[1]
    7. Kierkegaard wrote: There are, in the end, only two ways open to us: to honestly and honorably make an admission of how far we are from the Christianity of the New Testament, or to perform skillful tricks to conceal the true situation.[2]

All that we do must stem from our love for Jesus. How do you know whether you really love Jesus? I think in your daily walk with Him examine yourself, think about it. 2 Cor. 13:5 says to examine yourself and see if you are in the faith.

When we think about love I notice that with my children there was instant love.

Once I heard a message from a well-known Christian writer. He was speaking at Moody’s Founder’s week. He referenced how one of Winston Churchill’s generals said, “Winston, I never told you about my grandkids.” Winston said, “Yes, thank you!” The speaker said, “I am going to tell you about my grandkids. He proceeded to talk about how how his daughter was looking for her keys. At that point she said, “I’m losing my mind.” The four year old, said, “Don’t lose your heart mom, I’m in there.”

We are in the heart of God, He loves us. Don’t forget your first love.

I struggle with the question of my true love for Jesus. I struggle thinking to be sure that I am satisfied in Him. Reflect and pray.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

[1] Tyndale House Publishers (2011-08-01). Life Application Study Bible NLT (Kindle Locations 161702-161705). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[2] Soren Kierkegaard, “What Madness,” in Provocations: The Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard (Plough, 1999), p. 180; submitted by Mark Galli, Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Leave a comment