Title: The Saints Who Restore First Love
Contents
Title: Saints Restoring First Love
Bible: Revelation 2:1-7
Starting Point of the Word>>
This time, we invite you to share the sermon under the title of “Saints who restore their first love.”
Those who believe in Jesus must live while receiving the blessings of God.
The book of Revelation describes how the saints receive blessings.
Look at Revelation 1:3
“Blessed is the one who reads and hears the words of this prophecy and keeps the things written in it, for the time is near.”
Says.
In other words, those who read, hear, and keep the Word of God will be blessed.
Today's text, Revelation 2, is a message to the church in Ephesus.
Although not the capital, Ephesus was the largest city in Asia Minor, with a population of 300,000.
In Acts 18, the couple Priscilla and Aquila witnessed the gospel for the first time in Ephesus.
But the Holy Spirit has not yet come upon them.
In Acts 19, we see the Apostle Paul starting his ministry in Ephesus.
Paul taught the Holy Spirit to the saints in Ephesus, and when the Holy Spirit came, tongues and the powers of the Holy Spirit began to appear.
Paul ministered in Ephesus for three years.
He established the Tyranno vow and taught the Word intensively for two years.
He also succeeded in the ministry of the Word, healed many demon-possessed and sick people, and did a lot of evangelism, so that everyone living in Asia Minor heard Paul's words.
Even the applause and shamans brought their false books, burned them, and succeeded in evangelism to the extent that they believed in Jesus in Ephesus.
To this church in Ephesus, Jesus spoke words of rebuke along with words of praise.
The core of this reproof was to ‘take the first works’.
that is, in other words
It is to ‘restore your first love’.
I ask in the name of the Lord that this time today will be a time for all of us to recover our first love for God.
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Then, what does this Ephesus church and the first love we need to restore now mean?
First, we must first restore the lost image of Jesus.
The appearance of Jesus speaking to the church in Ephesus is recorded in verse 1.
“To the angel of the church at Ephesus, hold the seven stars in your right hand, and hold it between the seven golden candlesticks.
Says the one who walks.”
The seven stars in this verse refer to the servants of God who are ministering to the seven churches in Asia Minor, and the seven golden candlesticks refer to the seven churches established in Asia Minor.
Here Jesus appears in two forms.
First, Jesus has absolute authority over the church.
He is the center of the church, has absolute authority and command over the church, and is holding the servants of the Lord with his right hand.
Second, Jesus is the one who knows and cares for all things in the church.
Jesus has a special interest in the church.
We can know that He is in the church and does all things.
Sometimes in our life of faith, we leave Jesus behind and lead us to our thoughts, knowledge, and stubbornness.
Why?
This is because we lost the Jesus who had absolute authority and who took care of us as saints because we were immersed in inertia when we were living our faith.
Therefore, we must become saints who restore the image of Jesus that we lost.
Second, today we can see that Jesus first praises the church in Ephesus, which has lost Him.
There is a saying that praise makes even whales dance.
Jesus praised the church in Ephesus.
When meeting people, people who only think about their shortcomings and points of criticism always lead a negative life.
Even if God wants to bless these people, He cannot.
When you meet someone, you should be able to praise and smile first.
Because compliments and smiles give people warmth and encouragement.
Jesus gives three commendations to the church in Ephesus.
First, he praises the church in Ephesus as a church that puts a lot of effort into it.
Verse 2 says, “I know your works and your toil and your perseverance.”
Verse 3 says, “And I know that you have persevered and have persevered for the sake of my name, and have not been lazy.”
God knows all that you have worked hard for God without being lazy, and He rewards and praises you.
Second, he praised the Ephesian church for being ethically pure.
In the second half of verse 2, it is written, “You also showed that you did not tolerate evil people, and that you tested those who claimed to be apostles but were not.”
The Ephesian church was ethically pure, and ethically it did not tolerate falsehoods and self-proclaimed apostles.
Third, the church in Ephesus praised it for its doctrinal soundness.
In verse 6 it is written, “But you have this: you hate the conduct of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
The Nicolaitans were a branch of Gnosticism in the early church period.
The Gnostics defined only the spirit as good and the human body and material world as evil.
He continued to lead a depraved and self-indulgent life, claiming that it did not matter how he lived because the body was evil anyway.
It is like the Salvation Sect today.
The Ephesian church hated such false gnosticism.
I hope that all of our members today will be praised by God like this church in Ephesus.
Third, Jesus, who praised the church in Ephesus, rebukes the church in Ephesus.
In this way, the Ephesian Church, despite being an active, ethically pure, and hating church that hates false doctrine, definitively receives a single rebuke from God.
If we look at verse 4 of the text,
“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
and was recorded.
When we believe in Jesus as our Savior, everyone has the first love.
This spiritual first love is very beautiful.
The characteristic of first love is ‘joy’.
The joy of being forgiven of sins, the amazing joy of immediately receiving answers to prayers through personal fellowship with Jesus, the joy that comes from praising and fellowshipping with the saints in Jesus, and the joy that comes from reading and studying the Bible is a great joy that cannot be compared with anything else. is.
The joy of receiving the Holy Spirit and experiencing the gifts is the greatest joy, and the joy of being baptized to become a member of the church is indescribable joy.
The joy of serving and devoting ourselves to the Lord is also very great.
Even if the shape is slightly different, everyone who believes in Jesus will have this kind of first love.
If you haven't experienced the joy of first love, you should check your faith.
The church in Ephesus abandoned this first love.
This first love was not suddenly abandoned one day.
It's just like turning a good person into a bad person doesn't happen overnight.
When a good person begins to sin little by little and compromises with evil, he becomes an evil being that stands in the midst of evil and cannot get out of it.
The church in Ephesus did not suddenly abandon all of its first deeds one day.
Little by little, as I was leaving my first love, one day I heard the Lord's rebuke saying, “You have forsaken your first love.
Therefore, we should beware of compromising with small sins.
Fourth, toward this church in Ephesus, Jesus gives the following counsel.
To the church in Ephesus, Jesus gives three exhortations through the three verbs in verse 5.
If we look at verse 5,
“Therefore, remember where you fell, and repent and do the first deeds. If you do not do so and do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
I did.
First, it is an exhortation to think about where you fell.
Falling here does not mean falling from a high place.
These verses say, “You went up to a certain height spiritually, but then you fell, and now you are lost on the floor. Remember where you were originally and go up there again.”
In a way, the Christian life is like climbing a ladder.
Reading the Word, praying, and obeying God are climbing this ladder of faith.
However, the Saints in Ephesus were working hard to climb this ladder, but then they stopped and came back down again.
Therefore, Jesus is commanding us to remember how far the Ephesian church has gone up and set a goal again to go up.
Next is the exhortation to ‘repent’.
The reason the saints fall spiritually is because of sin and evil.
Therefore, we must repent of our sins.
Lastly, it is an exhortation to ‘take the first deeds’.
We must do the things we did the first time again.
In this way, Jesus commands the church in Ephesus to think first, repent second, and do the first deed.
We too should follow this counsel and become saints who restore our first love for the Lord.
At the end of the speech>>
What must we do to restore the first act?
First, we must establish a new vision.
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people go unnoticed.”
Vision is the work of making the invisible visible.
Second, you must make a new spiritual decision to dedicate yourself to Christ.
It is to ‘read the Bible every day’ to pray, to do our best in worship, and to take the lead in service and devotion.
Third, we must put these decisions into action.
It is said that blessed are those who do what is written in the Bible.
Jeremiah 29:11
“I know the thoughts I have toward you, says the LORD, not to be calamity, but to peace, to give you hope for your future.”
said
I pray in the name of the Lord that all of our members will be praised and accepted by God by restoring their first love like this church in Ephesus, in the name of the Lord.