Good morning. You can turn in your Bibles if you will to Revelation chapter 2. That is going to be on page 1028 in your pew Bible and we'll be reading the Jesus's letter to Ephesus. I don't think I'll get the opportunity again, and I don't really want this to be about me or my family, but I do just want to say thank you. We are so, and always will be, so grateful for each and every one of you. No matter what, we'll have been part of Chestnut Mountain for a vast majority of our lives, and it has been one of the most influential and meaningful things that the Lord, I think, will ever put into our lives. So thank you. I can't say much more, so I'm going to read the Lord of the Lord. And that's going to be in chapter two. We're going to read the first seven verses, but we're going to do that as we go through. So instead I'm going to pray and then we will start. Father, we do just come to you and thank you for this unique opportunity, this opportunity to praise you. You give us this freely every week and truly Lord, you give it us, you give it to us every moment because of the great things you've done for us in Christ. Father, I do pray that this morning as we dive into your word, that you would pierce our hearts, each and every one of us, from the messenger and to the congregation, Lord, that you would convict those of us who need conviction, that you would encourage those of us who need your grace, and in all things, Lord, that you would be praised. And we ask this in your name. Amen. Along the support-raising path, we get the question often, why are we sending missionaries to Germany? Wasn't that the place where the Reformation started? Aren't there plenty of churches in Germany? Why do you need to go there? It's always a promising start to our support-raising trips. But they have a point. You can hear the question behind the question of, hasn't Christianity been in Germany for a long time? I mean, we celebrated the 500th anniversary last October. So why the need? I think most of you have heard our presentation, but just to remind you, two-thirds of Germans would say, yes, I am a Christian. So if these two sections stood up and that represented Germany, they would be the Christians. It's a huge majority. But when you really press the everyday German, when you really ask them, what does it mean to you to be a Christian? They would not say that the Bible is the inerrant authoritative Word of God. They would not say that Jesus is the only and true Son of God, fully man, fully God. They would not say that His death on the cross atoned for anything like sin. And they would not say that believing in Him merits you anything. They don't believe any of the essentials of the faith. So how do you get from a place, it's just like any other Western nation, just like our communities here, there's churches in every village, every city, every capital. It's flooded with churches, symbols of the Christian faith. How do you get from that point to the point where you don't even believe anything about the faith? I think what we're gonna see is it's the same problem that happened here in Ephesus. And it's a problem that we ourselves need to consider as a nation, as a church, as individuals. What does our faith mean? And if we had to boil it all down, if you had to throw out everything else, what would be the most essential, most vital element? So to begin, let's see, this is the Lord Jesus speaking himself. John just records it. The Lord Jesus speaking to the church at Ephesus. He starts with a commendation. So let's read that in verses two and three, and then I'm actually also going to read verse six. He says this, 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." And now verse six. Yet this you have, you hate the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. So the Church of Ephesus, you need to know, has got it going on. This is an awesome church. If you're familiar with church history, these names will ring a bell. Priscilla and Aquila were some of the founding members. Apollos was the first pastor. Paul, the Apostle Paul, spent more time there than any other church in his ministry. He wrote letters to them. Then he installed Timothy, his disciple, his protege, to be their pastor. And during all that time, they had the Apostle John, who was living in Ephesus both before and after his exile. I mean, talk about a rock star staff. This is awesome, the opportunities and the message of the gospel that Ephesus got to hear day in and day out. And the Lord here then, as you would imagine, with a staff or a group of people investing in a church, the church here has some great works that Jesus is commending. He says, I commend you for your works, for your toil. When he says the word toil, he's meaning, I'm commending you for working to the point of exhaustion. There's a couple word plays in here that Jesus uses, and the first one is this. He says, you are working, but you're not getting worked. You're striving, you're working to the bare bone. but you're not tired of working. You're not tired of being tired. They are constantly serving, constantly preaching the gospel. They are not just talkers and hearers, but they are doers of the word. As well, he commends them for their theology and for their morality. He again uses another wordplay. He says, you cannot put up with evil men, even though you're putting up with a lot. The church at Ephesus was constantly under pressure. The Roman government and rulers were oppressive, murdering Christians, in the streets. The temple of Diana, you may have heard of that, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, was in Ephesus. So there's this tremendous pagan population that was oppressive to the church, brutal to the church. They have all sorts of things going on in the city of Ephesus. But Jesus says, you guys are dealing with those fine. You're putting up with those things. Those aren't the things that are bothering you. What you're not putting up with is the evil men who would come as wolves among the sheep. What you're not putting up with is people who would give you an alternative gospel, who would give you something other than the truth of my word. You're not putting up with people misusing or abusing or misrepresenting who Jesus is. And for that, they are commended. The Church at Ephesus is doing some wonderful things. They have a strong work ethic, excuse me. They have strong religious, or excuse me, theological convictions. And they have a great morality. The Nicolaitans, I don't have time to really get into them just to give you an idea of who they were. They're some of the people who basically said, you know what? You have grace. You can do whatever you want. Grace of God covers you. You're free. Just live however you want. God loves you. It's okay. Just do whatever you want. And Jesus says, you hate them. And I commend you for that. Just so you know, to be really clear, Jesus is commending the church for being haters and for being intolerant. That's a big deal in 2018. And I don't want you to hear here that Jesus is just saying nice things to get to what he really wants to say. These are genuine commendations. They are things that we here at Chestnut Mountain, we in Germany, and we really the Church of Christ should pursue. Strong work ethic in the name of the Lord. Strong theological convictions that we can stand on. Defending this pulpit against anyone who would misuse the name of Christ. These are good things. I know so often in my conflict resolution style, perhaps, you kind of come to somebody and say, you know, I really appreciate what you're doing. I really respect you. I really like what you're trying to do here, but we need to talk about this. And that's not what Jesus is saying. He is genuinely saying, if I stopped here, I would still say it. I'm commending you because of your good works, Church of Ephesus. But there is a problem. There's a substantial problem and he does rightly address that and you're gonna see that here in verse four. But as you get to verse four, I want you to think, what is missing? Given the resume of Ephesus, what are they missing? What could they be missing? Let's see, verse four. But I have this against you. You have abandoned the love that you had at first. In other words, you have forgotten your first love. As great and wonderful and helpful and good and right as the ministry at Ephesus was, they have forgotten or left behind the most important element of the faith. They've left behind the one thing at the end of the day that matters, and that one thing, is the person of Christ, the person of Jesus Christ. Our faith, everything about us, holds together, works, and is viable because of Jesus Christ. And that is the one thing that they have forgotten. It reminds me in many ways of Jesus' exchange with Peter in John 21. Jesus is resurrected, he's met with the disciples a couple times, and in this third encounter he has breakfast with them on the beach, and then he pulls Peter aside and has a conversation with them. And if you're Peter, you have not been looking forward to this conversation. I cannot imagine how awkward and painful he must have felt going into this. Because Peter knows, and most of you I'm sure remember, Peter was the guy who stood up the night before Jesus was arrested and said, Jesus, no matter what, I don't care what those guys do, I don't care what they think, I'm going to stay by your side. I'm not going to abandon you. I would never turn my back on you. And sure enough, Jesus says before morning, you're going to do that three times. And we know that he did. When push came to shove, when the rubber hit the road, When it came down to Peter's skin or Jesus's allegiance, he chose his own. Three times. And so he, when Jesus resurrected, you had to know that the whole time this has been in the back of his mind. And Jesus comes to him and asks him just one question, one question. He asked him three times, which had to be painful, but how often does the Lord hurt us to bring us back to himself? And he asked him, A very fine question, a question that I'm going to ask you in a minute. But what it's important to note too is what he didn't ask. Jesus could have asked Peter anything. He could have asked him, Peter, are you finally ready to serve me? Are you ready to get on board with what I'm trying to do here? Are you going to get with the program and start doing the things that I want you to do? He could have asked, Peter, are you going to have courage next time? I mean, because honestly, that was kind of embarrassing. The way that you handled yourself when it was crunch time, that was, you need to get on board with what I'm trying to do. He could have said, Peter, are you gonna get better at this? Are you gonna do good from now on? Are you gonna become a better Christian? Are you gonna obey me more and more and more? Because that's what I'm looking for. That's not what he said either. He could have said, Peter, how are we gonna make this mistake up? I've done a lot for you. and you go and do this, how are you going to make this up to me? He could have asked anything. Peter, do you respect me? Peter, are you gonna start worshiping me the right way? Peter, are you gonna do such and such and such? But he didn't say any of those things. What did he say to Peter? He said, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? I very much believe that Peter had fallen in love with his own ideas of Jesus. He thought Jesus was the conquering king. He thought Jesus was gonna get him a throne room on earth. I think Peter had probably also fallen in love with a lot of the privileges that came with being known in Jesus' company. But what Jesus here wants is for Peter to realize that all that matters is who Jesus is, the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus wants Peter's heart. Hear what I say in this next sentence. He does not want his obedience, and he does not want his repayment. And here's why. One, because he knows that if he gets Peter's heart, he gets all that other stuff. We obey the things that we love. We invest our lives into the things that we love. If he gets Peter's heart, he gets those things. But he also knows that he just got those things on the cross. Peter is obedient and righteous because of Jesus' work on the cross. Nothing Peter did. And in the same sense, Jesus has already paid himself back for Peter's debt out of his own fullness. He doesn't need Peter to work it off. And this is true for us today, Chestnut Mountain. God did not chiefly save any of us to be his servants. To be sure, we are called to be servants, but he tells us in Acts 17, the Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as if he needed anything. but rather He Himself gives to all mankind life, breath, and everything. God didn't save us just so He could get a bunch of workers. He's not hiring us into the kingdom. He saved us so that He can give us all things. That's the kind of love of the Father. And in the same sense, He did not just save us chiefly to be religious worshipers. And hear what I mean when I say that. Isaiah 29, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Hosea 6.6, I desire steadfast love, not sacrifice. The knowledge of God, not burnt offerings. God didn't save us so that we could just come sit in a building every Sunday, so that we could go to Sunday school and have coffee afterwards. He didn't save us so we could sing songs that some of us like. He didn't sing songs so that we would just hang out with a group of people that we probably otherwise wouldn't have. He didn't save us so that every day we would wake up at five and have to read this book and have to pray for 30 minutes. He saved us because he loves us and he wants our heart. The question is true for us as it is for Peter. Do you love me? It reminds me very much of what he says to the Pharisees. You Pharisees want to be righteous? Start praying in your closet. If you Pharisees really want to know what this faith is about, Give in such a secret way, give in such a secretive way that even your right hand doesn't know what your left hand's doing. Or when you fast, I want you to be the most fake person you've ever been. I want you to go out in the streets and be dandy and swell and showered and nice and look so happy even though you're starving. Because then I'll know that it's the heart. I have your heart. You don't have the praise of men, you have me. And that's truly what the Lord wants from us. And that's truly here what we see Ephesus is not giving. And so the Lord gives us a solution. Read with me in verse 5. He says, I'm not a big fan of the three points that start with the same letter, but it's on a T here. It's so easy. Jesus tells us the solution is to remember, to repent, and to return. Remember first. He's calling the church at Ephesus, and I believe us church, to remember the love that we had at first. And I think he means that in two ways. One is, remember what God has done for us. So often our faith is just about all these things we do for the Lord. Remember what He has done for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If you read the Bible, To be sure, there are plenty of people that we should try to pursue to be like. Just like Jesus commended the church for their works here, there are plenty of people in the Old Testament that we would be fortunate to be like. But at the very same time, we also see that each and every one of those people, on their own, failed. They gained nothing. They earned nothing. It was only by the faithfulness of God that those people persisted. It's only by the faithfulness of God that we persist, walking in the faith day in and day out. At any given moment, I would, I know, and I can only speak from my heart, I would run, sprint from the Lord, given the opportunity. His faithfulness to me is why I stand here before you. And I believe strongly from His Word that it's the same reason you're here too. Remember that love that He has for us. Dwell, focus, fix all of your life on the affections that God has for you before you even begin to think about responding. And then also, remember what it was like when you first came to faith. Now, if you're not a Christian here this morning, you're not going to understand what I'm saying, and we would love to talk to you about that. But if you are a Christian, remember what it was like at first. It's kind of like, I've not really given much marriage advice. I've hardly been married, and I don't know if anybody would want it. But I've heard that the best way to go about marriage canceling, especially when people's relationship is just dried up, it's dead on the inside, you bring them back. Let's talk about when you first met. What drew you guys together? What were the things that you just loved about your spouse? Or let's think about when you first got married. Think about that season of life, the joys, the excitement, the things that you were just enamored with. Let's go back to those so that we might pave a path forward. And I very much think that's what God's saying here. Remember, remember what it was like when you became a Christian. I remember for myself, I couldn't read the word enough. I couldn't come to this church enough. I couldn't do any Christian thing enough because I was just so excited. And I've lost that along the way, I think. And so in many ways, this is, I hope you know, this sermon's first for me before anybody else. And it's so important for us to remember that love that he had for us and that we had for him at first. And then in the same sense, we see that we're to remember that this faith is all and only about a person. It's not about practices, though those come. It's not about participating in certain things around here, though those come. It's about a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. That's why our faith like no other faith in the world is called a relationship. Christianity is truly a relationship because it's not just this religion where we have an unknown God who doesn't care or know us and who demands perfection. We have a relationship with a person who deeply knows us because he created us. With a person who does care so much so that he's demonstrated it by coming humiliating himself before he even went to the cross died and was resurrected for our sake. And He makes us perfect. It's totally opposite. That's the person of Jesus Christ, and that's what Christianity is. That's what we hope for. Eternal life. John 17 3 tells us, and this is eternal life, that we know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Eternal life is with a person. It's not on a cloud or the harp or in a city of gold or with your family members. Sure, those things may come. I hope the cloud and the harp doesn't, but they may. But that doesn't matter, because we will be in the presence of the Lord. And that is eternal life. That is the promise. And if that is your heart's desire, then Christian, be confident you will get there. But there are things in the way, and that's the next R. To remember, but then to repent. We have to turn from the things in our life that are getting in the way of that view. Just like if Megan and I were just, you know, our schedules are swamped, we have all these things going on. If our mayor starts falling apart, we've got to do the things that need to happen. We've got to start cutting off things, whether they're bad things, whether they're neutral things, or whether they're good things. If they're getting in the way of our relationship, they've got to get out of the way. And that's really what I think he's calling us here for in repentance. To be sure, repentance is primarily about turning from our sinful ways and back to the ways of the Lord, to put off the old and put on the new. But, to be sure, Ephesus here has let a lot of good things, it seems, get in the way of their relationship with the Lord. They've let, I dare say, ministry and theological correctness and all these other church things that are always good, 99% of the time, except when they obscure our view of Jesus. And so he is saying, turn from anything that is taking your eyes off of Jesus and come back, return. And that's what we're doing today. That's why the table's here. We're returning to the presence of the Lord. Let's read verse 7 to really see the reward and how this table reflects what we're talking about. In verse 7 it says, We're returning to this table because this represents the spiritual presence of Christ. And the reality is, though, this is just a rehearsal dinner. for the wedding feast that is to come. This is a rehearsal for what eternity will be like. You see here, for those of us who conquer, those of us whose faith makes it, we will be in the paradise of God for eternity. And make sure you really hear that, paradise of God. You don't just get eternal life on some Caribbean island, you get eternal life with God. It's the paradise of God, God's paradise, God's place, God's presence, the person of Jesus Christ. That is our hope. That is our reward for those of us who conquer. And that is what we're doing today. We are mimicking, we are anticipating a shadow of what will be for all time. Jesus tells us, I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it anew with you and God's kingdom. This feast that we're about to have, though small and representative, is truly a beautiful picture of what's going to happen for all eternity. And so church, I would ask you, examine your hearts. Do not come to this table lightly. Children who have not yet been examined by the session, parents, please don't let them partake of the elements. If you're not sure where you stand with the Lord today, if you've never really heard about some of these Christian things, that's great. We would love to talk to you about it. However, we really bid you and urge you with the power of Scripture, don't come to the table. But those of you who are here, who know Christ, Remember that love that you had at first. Turn from those ways and then return to Christ. There's always a seat at this table for you. We're gonna take a moment and just a second to pray, to contemplate. It'll be silent for a few seconds. Confess your sin, confess the things that have gotten in the way. Dwell on the richness of Christ. I'll lead us in prayer and then we'll sing and come to the table. So let's take a moment now silently and then I'll finish off with prayer. Father, we pray to you. We thank you for the person of Christ and how he has made all things new. He has drawn all things together in him. For by him and for him and through him all things hold together. Truly, Lord, our faith, the whole purpose of us being here today, would be meaningless without him. Lord, let us remember as a group of people, as a church, the things that you have done on our behalf. We could spend hours, years, truly the rest of our lives just meditating and thinking on the complexities and the depth and the true things that you have done on our behalf. Lord, you've given us life, breath, and everything at no cost to us and all costs to yourself, the very cost of Jesus himself. And so I pray as we come to the table, Lord, that we would remember that, but that we would also repent anything getting in the way of our faith this morning. Lord, help us, give us the strength and the courage by your spirit to turn away from those things. And then, Lord, help us to come. We cannot come on our own. Truly, your word tells us that you drag us to this table because you want us to be there. And Lord, I pray this morning that you would do just that by your spirit. We praise you for who you are, we praise you for your word, and we praise you for the great things you've done on our behalf. We eat in your name, and we pray this as well. Amen.