Well, thank you to our readers for leading us in the opening chapters of Revelation here. This is a wonderful book, and we're just getting a little bit of a taste of it with these first three chapters this evening. We're going to reflect briefly on a small portion of this, but let me pray for us. Let's ask for the Lord's help here. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all the different wonderful parts of it. We thank you for the book of Revelation. We thank you for the glory of Jesus that is revealed to us here. King Jesus, not only crucified but risen from the dead, the one who reigns, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Lord, would you help us, we pray, to hear his voice tonight as he speaks through the Holy Spirit who has inspired this word. Would you teach our hearts, Lord? Would you draw us close to you and give us great faith, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, it seemed to me that Revelation would be a good place for us to be as we begin this Lenten season. We, of course, have this extra focus tonight of turning away from our sins, repenting of our sins, turning to Jesus. And so I thought these seven letters that Jesus gives to be communicated to these seven churches might perhaps reveal to some of us some of the areas in our lives that we need to repent of as we enter into this Lenten season. And so you may like to go back later and kind of look through these chapters again, look through these seven letters, look a little more closely at what Jesus is saying, and maybe there are some areas here where the Holy Spirit is leading you of some areas that you need to repent on and that would be good for you to focus on this Lenten season. But for us this evening, I want to reflect just very briefly with you on this first letter to the church in Ephesus. Maybe we'll take one of these letters for the next seven years or so on these Ash Wednesdays. That's a big commitment. But let's tonight just focus on this first letter to the church in Ephesus where we have this call. from Jesus to repent from a lack of love. So do have Revelation 2, 1 to 7 open there in front of you. Now as Jesus does with most of these letters before he gives his rebuke and his subsequent call to repentance, he begins first with a word of commendation and encouragement. And to this church here in Ephesus, there's much to be commended. Look at verses 2 and 3. He says to them, 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. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary. There are a lot of good things happening in this church in Ephesus. They work hard. They patiently endure. They don't put up with evil. They're discerning when it comes to theological matters. They even take the appropriate action to remove leaders from among them when those leaders are false. And so this church in Ephesus is doing very well when it comes to persevering in things like doctrinal faithfulness and persevering in things like biblical ethics. They are in fact doing exactly what the Apostle Paul instructed them to do with the warning that Paul gave them in Acts chapter 20. The church in Ephesus, the leaders in Ephesus were addressed by Paul in Acts 20. In Acts 20, Paul warned the church elders in Ephesus there to be on their guard because there would be false apostles who would come in and try to lead the church astray. And so Paul warned them saying, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own cells will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them." And so from Revelation 2 here, it seems that those elders, overseers in Ephesus, they took that to heart. And yet here's the problem. As vigilant as they've been to guard the purity of the church, and thus as persevering as they've been when it comes to things like doctrine and ethics, the problem is there's no longer any love. Verse four, but I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. Now commentators are kind of split on the object of this love that they had at first, which they've now abandoned. Is this a love for God that's been abandoned? Or is this a love for neighbor that's been abandoned? Or is this a love for others in the church that's been abandoned? And the answer is that it's probably all of the above. They're no longer seeking to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They're no longer seeking to love their neighbors as themselves. They're no longer loving their brothers and sisters in Christ with the same kind of selflessness that they once had. G.K. Beale, in his wonderful commentary on Revelation, even suggests that given the dominant theme in Revelation of Christians being a faithful witness to the world, that part of the lack of love being addressed here is to a church that's lost its concern for the world. In other words, it's become so intent on guarding the purity of the Church that it's no longer reaching out in love to a broken world. And so even though its doctrine is sound, it's no longer telling people about Jesus, though. It's no longer sharing the hope of the Gospel with those who need it. And friends, isn't that striking? that a church can be so focused on making sure everything inside the church is good, and yet all the while losing their love for those who are still lost in sin and darkness apart from Christ. And of course, Jesus here, he doesn't use the word losing your love. He actually says you've abandoned the love that you had at first. You've abandoned it. You've left it behind. You've wrongly concluded that you don't need love anymore and that it's not that important. And so Jesus says to them in verse 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." Remember and repent. These two actions often go together, remembering and repenting. Part of the motivation for repentance many times can be remembering just how far we've fallen. And this would have been especially true, I think, in the Church of Ephesus. The Apostle Paul, you'll know of course, he wrote a whole other letter in the New Testament to this church. And one of the major burdens of Paul's letter to them is that they would know the love of God in such a way that it would then spill out in love for others. And so Paul prayed for them in Ephesians 3 that they would be rooted and grounded in love. so that they could have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. And then in chapter five, Paul in turn said to them, now what I want you to do is to walk in love. He says, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. And you see, that's what they needed to remember because that's what they had abandoned. And so Jesus, the one who has loved them so much, he now calls on them to remember and to repent. And so friends, this should certainly be a reminder for us as well of just how important Christian love truly is. That's why we here at Christ Church, we took all of the last fall to focus just on the importance of love, because it's indispensable. Colossians 3.14, and above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Romans 13.10, love is the fulfilling of the law. 1 Peter 4.8, above all, love one another deeply. 1 John 3.14, whoever does not love abides in death. And friends, I do think this is a hugely relevant word for churches like ours. Again, it's one of the reasons why the elders chose the theme of love for our church to be the theme, not just for the preaching series in the fall, but to be the theme for the whole year. We did that not because we were necessarily noticing a lack of love in the church. We weren't looking out and seeing a lack of love. Rather, what we recognize is that this is a live danger for a church like ours. Why? Because we're a church that thinks doctrine really matters. And we're a church that thinks sin and immorality absolutely need to be addressed in the church. And we think that leaders who move away from the truth of the Bible and who move away from biblical ethics should be removed from their leadership and not be allowed to lead anymore. But the danger you see in all of that is, as good and right as all of that is, the danger is that we would no longer be loving. The danger is that we'd be doctrinal warriors at the expense of love. And church, if that happens, Jesus offers a warning here. To this church in Ephesus, he says, if you don't repent, then I'm going to come and remove your lampstand from its place. In other words, I'm no longer going to allow you to be a church. Because if you don't love, then you're not providing any real light to the world anyway, you see. A church that doesn't love, it's a terrible witness to the world. And therefore, Jesus will come and take away that church's light. He will remove the lampstand, the church. Well, as we finish up here, it's interesting and it's important that Jesus sort of comes back to a word of encouragement and commendation in verse six. He says to them, yet this you have. You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. We don't know exactly who the Nicolaitans were, some false teaching group that promoted sexual immorality and other things it seems, at least from some of these other letters here that Jesus gives. But what's interesting, and I just learned this recently from another brother, is that their name probably comes from the joining together of two Greek words that together mean to conquer people. So in other words, the Nicolaitans were known to be a people who were harsh, who dominated others, and who thus lacked love for others. And so the irony here is that the church in Ephesus would rightly be opposed to those who are a loveless, conquering, harsh people, and yet at the same time lack love themselves. And so it seems then that Jesus is actually giving a play on words there in verse 7 when he says that it's to the one who conquers that I will grant to eat of the tree of life. Because what Jesus is essentially saying, I think, is don't conquer people like the Nicolaitans conquer people. Don't conquer them in that harsh way where they just run people over. There's no love there. Rather, the way that you're to conquer people is with love. Right, conquer in the gospel way, which is through love. Okay, so don't give up your commitment to doctrine. Don't give up your commitment to biblical ethics. But make sure you love. Win the victory, if you will, through love. And friends, this is for all of us. Jesus intends for this letter to apply to all of us. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So this is intended not just for Ephesus, but for all of us. And so as you think about your own life, is it perhaps a lack of love that you need to repent of tonight? Is that what you need to focus on this Lenten season? A lack of love. Turn to Jesus. See His love for you on the cross. It's a passionate love, a sacrificial love, a love that rescues sinners. A love that lays down its life for the good of others. See that love and then by His grace, empowered by His love, go and do likewise. Win the victory through love. Let's take a few moments of quiet to reflect on this passage here this evening. Why don't you pray on your own quietly, ask the Holy Spirit how He might apply this passage to your life this Lent season. We'll take a few moments of quiet.