You can turn to Revelation chapter 2. We're going to look at the letter to the church in Ephesus. But to get us in the frame of mind here, everybody's familiar with the Piña Colada song, right? If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain, did you know that that song is about adultery? Here's how the first verses go. I was tired of my lady. We'd been together too long, like a worn-out recording of a favorite song. I think records, if you play them too many times, they get worn out. I listen to everything on Spotify and it all sounds the same. So, while she lay there sleeping, I read the paper in bed, and in the personal columns, there was this letter I read. If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, if you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain, if you like holding hands at midnight in the dunes on the Cape, that's a light edit for us, then I'm the love that you've looked for. Write to me and escape. I didn't think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean, but me and my old lady had fallen into the same old dull routine. And the rest of the song tells a story about this guy responding to the personal ad and then scheduling a meet-up with this stranger from the newspaper because of what he says in that first verse. He had just grown tired. He'd just grown kind of bored. It was a little too familiar. The song had gotten worn out. And I think that's a good picture of what can happen to us in the Christian life. that things get a little too familiar, right? We just, we assume we know it all. I've already heard the sermon on the prodigal son. I've already heard the sermon on Revelation chapter two. I've already heard this lesson. I've sung this song a million times and we can just go on autopilot and feel like the love has drained out of our obedience to Christ, out of our relationship to Christ. It's what we see in this letter to the church at Ephesus. I'll read it for us and then pray, and we'll talk about it for a while. To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write this. The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 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 name's sake and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you. you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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. Yet this you have, you hate the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 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. Let's pray and we'll talk about that. Father, we thank you for your word and the truth that it reveals to us about who you are, who we are, and what you've done to bring us back to yourself. As we look at these few short verses this morning, this letter to the church at Ephesus, I pray that you would encourage us. If we have lost our love, if there's someone here this morning who is struggling with that, I pray that you would use even my words to rekindle that for you. I pray that you would give us that gift. Do this, we pray, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. A little disclaimer, I've preached the sermon at a lot of churches in the past year. This is not because David said, Hey, will you come preach to my church? And I was like, these people need to hear about lost love. No, like I'm preaching this sermon everywhere. So it's not you particularly don't take it personally unless maybe you're like in this place and then please take it personally. Um, The Book of Revelation is one that inspires a lot of confusion and debate. The approach that I take with the Book of Revelation is that it's kind of like the instant replay at a football game. When there's a play that happens at a football game and it's kind of in question what happened, all of the referees will make a call. And then the coach who's upset with the call will throw his challenge flag out on the field. And all the referees will go over. They'll have their little movie night in the booth review thing. And they'll look at the instant replay. And what they'll do is they'll look at the sideline camera. And they'll look at the overhead camera. And they'll look at a random camera from somebody on the side of the field. They'll look at the cameras from the box up above. And they'll try and like cobble together what actually happened in this play by all of these different viewpoints. They're looking at the same series of events from multiple different angles. And I think that that's what the book of Revelation does. It looks at the same series of events, the time between Jesus' first and his second comings, from a lot of different viewpoints so that we might have a fuller picture of what's going on. Because if you're familiar with the book of Revelation, you know that when the bowls of God's wrath are poured out, we get the end of the age, earthquakes and the sky draining away. You know that in chapter 12, right square in the middle of the book, we get the Christmas story, where the woman gives birth to the child that the dragon is trying to eat. It can't be just a linear Revelation chapter 1 is around 90 AD, and Revelation chapter 2 is 120, and then Jesus comes back somewhere at the end, there's some kind of blending that's going on. And what John does is that as he writes what he sees, which is the instruction that he's given in chapter 1, to write what you see and give it to the churches. He's writing what he sees here, and then he's shown the picture again, and he writes what he sees over here, and he's looking at the same thing, but he's giving us a full picture. And this first picture that he gives us is the time between Jesus's first and second comings from the perspective of the church. What is the church going to have to endure? What is the church going to have to pursue? What is the church going to have to bear up against? What ought they to be known for in this time between Jesus's first and second comings? You see, the number seven in the book of Revelation bears significance. It's an actual number, but it also kind of gives this weight of spiritually or heavenly completeness. And so John is writing these many letters to seven different churches in the region of Asia Minor. But by that, he's writing to the church as a whole. And in the instructions to the church at Ephesus, and Thyatira, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea, and all the other ones, he's instructing us today as well. What do the Ephesians need to see? We're going to look at the first of these letters. What do they need to see? What do they need to be reminded of? What do they need to pursue? And what do we need to see? What do we need to be reminded of? What do we need to pursue? The first thing that the Ephesians needed to know, needed to be reminded of, needed to see, was Christ's presence with them. The letter starts out, "...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." In chapter 1, Jesus is pictured as this warrior king. He's got this glowing robe and white hair. And if you read the description, his eyes are like a flame of fire. His feet are like burnished bronze. In his right hand, he holds seven stars. And from his mouth comes a sword. like conquering hero Victor who's walking among the churches. And every of these many letters starts by emphasizing one of the different aspects of Jesus in that description in chapter 1. To the letter of the church in Smyrna, the words of the first and the last. To the church at Pergamum in verse 12, the words of him who has the sharp sword. Thyatira, the one who has eyes like a flame of fire. But to the church in Ephesus, Jesus wants to emphasize to them, because Jesus is telling Paul, write this down and send it to this church, the words of me who hold the seven stars, who is walking among the seven golden lampstands. Jesus is about to confront the Ephesian church with their lovelessness. And the initial reaction that we would have to that, if Jesus were to come to us and say, you've lost the love that you had at first, would be the reaction that my kids have when I confront them with any deficiency in their three or six or nine-year-old lives, which are many. You don't like me. You hate me. You don't love me anymore. Because we tie our performance to our acceptance. But Jesus, before he even confronts the Ephesian church with their lack of love, says, I hold you in my hand. The seven stars are symbols of the seven churches. And I walk among you. My presence is here with you. And just because the Ephesian church has lost their love for God does not mean that God has set aside his love for the Ephesian church. The thing that they first need to be reminded of and encouraged by is Christ's presence with them. And then he goes on to say, I know. I know your works. He does this in every letter. I know your works. I know where you live. I know what you struggle against. And it's not the I know of parents who leave a nanny cam so that they can keep an eye on their babysitter. It's the I know of somebody who cares and is intimately involved and concerned and curious. Jesus says, I know. I'm watching. I see you. I realize where you are. Again, they need to be reminded of His presence with them. That's the first thing the Ephesian church needed to know, was Christ's presence. But they also need to hear Christ's encouragement. We get this in verses two and three. He says, 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're enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. Jesus looks at this church that has a great deficiency. Before pointing it out to them, he celebrates them. He says, I know what you're doing. I know that you're working really hard, that you're laboring, that you're striving. We don't know exactly what for, but Jesus looks at them and he celebrates their effort. He celebrates their works and their endurance. And he celebrates their intellect. He celebrates their knowledge of him and the truths of the Bible. Because he says, you've examined those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. As you read the later letters of the New Testament, 1 Peter and 2 Peter and the Johns and Jude, one of the themes that comes up often in these letters is the theme of false teaching. That false teachers will come who will, by deceit and maybe with good intention, but lack of information, lead people away from the true and living God. And Jesus here looks at the Ephesian church and says, you guys are not being led away, right? You're not only obeying my teaching that says test those who would come and teach to you, but you know enough to identify when they're wrong, right? Because if, if we don't know enough, we could still like examine and test somebody. But if we're not able to articulate the truth, then we won't be able to identify error. I'm reminded in this passage of Acts chapter 17. It's kind of tucked away in the middle of Paul's missionary journeys where he's traveling around Greece, and he goes to Athens, and he goes to Philippi, and he goes to Thessalonica, and he goes to Ephesus. And he spends time at all these different places. And Acts 17 gives us a couple different accounts. And it starts off with Paul in Thessalonica. where he goes and he does his normal Paul the Evangelist thing. He sets up shop at the local synagogue and reasons with the people who have knowledge of the Old Testament to show them why Jesus is the Christ. And many of them there believe. And after some time, they pack up and they go to the next town. Paul and Silas go to Berea. And this is what we read in Acts 17, verse 10. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. So Paul in Thessalonica and Berea does the exact same thing. He goes to the synagogue and he reasons with the Jews about why Jesus is the Christ. And the same result happens, right? People in both cities believe. But Luke's verdict, Luke's judgment about them is that the Jews in Berea were more noble. Why? Because they didn't just receive the word with all eagerness. They ran home and got their Bibles and examined the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Paul, this is really interesting. If it's true, this is really good news. Let me run home and read Isaiah real quick and see if all of this syncs up. And they came back and they believed. And Luke says they were more noble. And that's what Jesus says about the Ephesians, right? He celebrates their nobility at, at testing those who call themselves apostles and are not and finds them to be wanting. He says, I know that you're enduring. He looks at this church and he celebrates them. Do you understand that Jesus, when he looks at you, celebrates you? That he sees things in you that are the work of his spirit, sure, that are like the product of him sanctifying you over 5 or 10 or 50 or however many years, right? But he looks at what he has done in your life and he celebrates you for that. He says, I know, I know where you live. I know you live in Murphy, right? And I know the uniqueness of whatever it means to live in Murphy. And yet you're here, you're enduring. Jesus looks at that and he celebrates. So the Ephesian church needed to hear about Christ's presence. They needed to hear his encouragement. They also needed to hear his warning. We get it in verse four, but I have this against you. You've abandoned the love that you had at first. It's clear from the letter that their knowledge of God is there. It's clear from the letter that their works are there, their heads are engaged, their hands are engaged. But what they lack is affection. The love has gone out of them. And it's kind of like if I were on my way home today to stop by Ingalls and pick up a bouquet of flowers, because I don't know where else you get flowers besides the grocery store, and take them home to Trish, my wife. And when I get home, she opens the door, and maybe she's not taking a nap, and I'm able to give her the flowers, and she says, oh, this is so nice. Why did you do this? There's 1,000 right answers to that question. I was thinking about you. I know you had a hard morning with the kids. I love you would be a good thing to say. What if I just came and said, well, this is one of the things that husbands are supposed to do for their wives every once in a while? And it had been a minute, and so here's some flowers. It's the right act. My hands are engaged. If my mind is engaged, I'm taking time to pick out flowers that I know that she'll like. But if there's no love behind that act, those flowers are going straight in the trash. What happened to them? What happened to the Ephesian church? We, we don't know. We're not told here or elsewhere in scripture, but they're not the first and they're not the last ones to have lost their love for God. I think we can make some educated guesses, right? Maybe again, everything just feels too familiar. They've been around it for too long. Maybe they started serving two masters. Jesus tells his disciples, you cannot serve two masters, for you will love the one and hate the other. You cannot serve both God and money. We know that Ephesus was a wealthy city, so maybe they just got too attached to and concerned about material things. Maybe they're just going through the motions. The Ephesian church probably started around 50 AD when Paul went and ministered there. And John is writing this letter around 90 to 95 AD. So some simple math, the Ephesian church is at least 40 years old and John is likely writing to at least in part the children of those people that Paul evangelized. And I wonder if they ever really embraced Christ or if they just had a really good Sunday school teachers. And I wonder for you, if you grew up in church and had parents who taught you about the Bible and about Jesus, if, if you've mistaken knowledge for love, have you embraced Jesus as your savior? The Ephesian church needs to hear this warning and maybe some of us in the room this morning need to hear it as well. But Jesus and his mercy and his love and his kindness, as the Bible always does, provides not just a warning, but a remedy. Jesus gives them three things to do. Remember, repent, and return. First he says, remember in verse five, remember from where you have fallen. Um, I love that this is Jesus's first invitation, right? Because I had some students who, when they saw that I was preaching on the letter to the church at Ephesus, they were like, I might not come to large group that night because I don't, I don't need to be told to like be on fire for Jesus again. Like I'm worn out. But they came and they were so relieved because Jesus tells them you've lost your love. And my reaction is like, all right, let me work really hard to get it back. But what Jesus simply says is, remember. Remember from where you've fallen. It's so easy for us to assume that the way things are now must be the way that it's always been or that it always will be. And Jesus simply invites them to remember. Remember the hunger you had for the word. Remember the relief you felt at the forgiveness of your sins. Remember your eagerness to be with God's people in worship? Don't you miss that? Jesus says, remember. When I was in seminary, we went on a field trip. I didn't know we did field trips in grad school, but it was fun. We went to not Wycliffe Bible Translators, but JARS, which is out in Waxhaw, North Carolina, kind of the aviation and technical and computing side of all this Bible translating work and heard about everything that they were doing. And then I drove back to seminary with a friend of mine who had known for a couple of years at this point. And we were driving from Waxhaw back up to Charlotte And I had just asked him how things were going and he he opened up about some difficulties at home He and his wife were just like it wasn't any gross sin or any like big fights They were having it was just a lot of little bickering and stress that had happened around their lives that was like infecting their marriage. And he was glad to be done with seminary for the day, but he wasn't thrilled about going home because he's just like, I'm just going to walk into conflict. And God has made me to be an engineer. I have an engineering degree from NC State. I am a process and analysis and solution guy. Like, that's what I do. And my wife hates it, right? Like, if you tell me a problem, I'm going to be like, here's what you need to do to fix it. And that, like, empathy reflex is, like, when the doctor hits that empathy spot, like, nothing happens in me. I'm working on it. But for some reason, in the car that day, I'm driving north on Providence Road, the Holy Spirit just put his hand over my mouth, and the only thing that could come out were questions. And I asked my friend, when did you first meet your wife? And what was it like to ask her out? And when did you know you wanted to marry her? And what was it like when you guys moved here to Charlotte? And what's it been like having kids? And the only thing that I did was ask questions about their story. And he got to remember. And I saw him a couple weeks later, ran into him on campus and we were like eating lunch together. And I was like, Hey, thanks for sharing what you shared in the car on the way back from Wycliffe, like, or jars. Um, how's all that going? And he's like, it's so much better. And I was like, really, what changed? And he was like, Like, our conversation in the car, he was like, of course it was that. And I was stunned because it was an interview. I just asked him questions. I didn't fix anything, right? I didn't tell him to do anything. The Holy Spirit just used me to help him remember. And it brought life back into his heart and back into his marriage. And Jesus invites us to do this, remember. Remember where you've fallen. And then he invites them to repent. Repent and do the works you did at first. Repent. If something is in the way, give it up. Turn from it back to him. Jesus looks at the Ephesian church and whatever it is that's caused them to lose their love and says, leave it behind, right? It could be their love for God. It could be their love for one another that they've lost. We don't know. Probably both. But he can look at them and he'd say, have you started to believe that you need something other than me to be whole and fulfilled? Repent of that. If he's in church, is there some sin in your life that you're clinging to some disobedience? You're unwilling to give up. Let it go. Repent. Have you begun to believe the lie that it's on you to save yourself to stay in God's good graces? Give that up. Jesus says, give it up, let it go, turn back to me. Repent and return. Return to the works you did at first. And what are those? What are the things that we gave ourselves to when we first tasted of God's love and goodness and grace? We spoke to him in prayer. We read his word and had a hunger for it. We were excited to come to worship. Jesus says, like, your remembering and repentance and returning looks like you putting yourself in my way again. Going to the places where I've promised to be. And this was so easy to explain to my students because I watched them do this with one another when they develop a crush on somebody. Boy meets girl at large group or in a class or something like that and develops this infatuation and interest and all of a sudden he is everywhere in her life. Right? Like he kind of learns her schedule a little bit and she comes out of a class and he's there on a bench studying and not at all waiting for her to come out of the building. Right? Or she goes to eat lunch at that place that she always does on Tuesday and he's there at an empty table and just like happens to, like they just put themselves in other people's way so that they can be in contact. And Jesus says, do that with me. Right? Put yourself in my way. I've promised to speak to you in my word. Go there. I've promised to listen to you in prayer. Go there. I've promised to be at work in and through my church. Go there to my people. Prayer is us speaking to God. The word is God speaking to us and worship is both. It's this conversation, this back and forth with the God who loves us and redeems us. Jesus doesn't give them tasks to do. He doesn't tell them, just love me more, right? Work up those emotions of affection. Go on some retreat and chase that mountaintop experience. He says, remember, long for that love again, repent. My grace is still for you and return. Come sit with me and talk again. The Pina Colada song goes on. He's reading the newspaper in bed, reads a personal ad, responds, has this back and forth through the classifieds, and whoever it is singing the song goes to meet the stranger from the classifieds. He said, I waited with high hopes. He goes, he's at this restaurant. He's sitting at a table waiting for her to come in. I waited with high hopes, and she walked in the place. I knew her smile in an instant. I knew the curve of her face. It was my own lovely lady. And she said, oh, it's you. And then we laughed for a moment, and I said, I never knew that you liked pina coladas. This couple needs marriage counseling. But, like they both tried to cheat on each other. But, isn't that such a beautiful picture, right? Like the person that they were longing for was there all along, right? And that's what we get to do if our love has worn cold. and then we return, right, is that we get to discover that those things that we've been discontent with in our relationship with God are more about us than Him. Those things we've been frustrated about, that He's not doing for us or not giving for us, are more about our poor expectations of life and the fact that we're too easily satisfied than they are a lack of His goodness and grace and generosity. And it's such a picture of the Gospel, right, that all we have to do is receive. We receive His grace and forgiveness. We receive His word. We receive even Him Himself in remembering, repenting, and returning. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for your word and the truth that it shows about who we are. People whose hearts can grow cold and often do. Sometimes for just a week or just a month and sometimes for years. And if that's any of us in this room, Father, I pray that you would help us to see your invitation and your welcome this morning. That we would resist the urge to fix this ourselves and instead run to the one who has already paid the price for all of our sin. and made us one with himself and calls us into deep community and fellowship with him and one another. Father, as we do that, as we remember, as we repent, as we return, would you warm our hearts again? Would you help us remember the things that we had at first, that love and affection and joy and peace, and help us to long for and experience those things again? We thank you for your word and what it teaches us about who you are. A God who loves to forgive. A God who loves to welcome sinners back to himself. We thank you, Father, that you have made this possible through Christ our Lord. As we approach the table this morning, I pray that you would help us to receive it as a means of grace, not as a reward for a week or a life well lived, but as nourishment that our Savior gives because he knows our weakness. Help us to come in weakness and receive with glad hearts. Do this, we pray, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.