Revelation 2:1-8 * November 28, 2004 * Advent 1 * Pastor Leyrer

Dear Friends in Christ,

Watching and waiting.

That’s what God’s people have always done. In Old Testament times God’s people watched and waited for the promise of a Savior to be fulfilled. That promise was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. When He arrived on Christmas Day “the Word became flesh.” And we became, in the words of the Christian author J.B. Phillips, “the visited planet.”

Why did He make the trip? Certainly not to tour the sites or collect souvenirs. He visited our planet for the singular purpose of rescuing us. He became one of us to redeem us from the damning consequences of our sin and claim us as His own. And after He did what He came to do, He left us and returned to His throne of Glory. But He promised that He would come back.

Which means we’re back to watching and waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. Old Testament believers watched and waited for an arriving Savior. As New Testament believers, we now watch and wait for a returning Savior. In the meantime, we dedicate ourselves to His purposes and live to His glory.

For God’s people (the Church) the idea of watching and waiting is never more pronounced than it is today, the first Sunday in Advent. We hear it in our hymns, our readings, our prayers. We see it in the symbols that adorn and the candles that anticipate and the annual advent calendars that in some households will open their first little door today. All of these things converge to echo the Advent cry of the Church:

BEHOLD, JESUS IS COMING!

Like the season of Lent, Advent is a time for reflection, preparation and repentance. It is also a time to ask questions. And the most important Advent question Christians must put to themselves is this: How would God have us live our lives during this period of watching and waiting? In other words, while we look forward to our future with Christ, what should our lives as God’s people be looking like in the present?

In answer to these questions we will be taking into account what God had to say to seven individual congregations who, like us, were watching and waiting for His return. Beginning today and throughout all our Advent worship services (both Sundays and Wednesdays), we will be stepping outside the lessons read from he lectern to consider seven letters written to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation.

A little background may prove beneficial. The Book of Revelation is a series of visions and instructions given by God to the Apostle John toward the end of his life. John received this information while on the small island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, a place he had been banished because of his allegiance to Jesus Christ. Revelation is generally understood to be the last and latest of the 66 individual books that make up the Bible. Scholars usually place the date in the mid 90’s of the First Century. If you’ve ever spent time in this book, you know much of it is mysterious and hard to understand. But not all.

In the second and third chapters of Revelation John is given instructions he is to relay to the “angels” (which can also be translated “messenger” and probably refers to the pastor) of seven particular churches. Many of these letters follow the same general pattern. They begin with a commendation, move to a complaint, and end with a call for repentance and correction.

What is important for us to understand is that these letters, though addressed to ancient churches, are God’s Word and therefore timeless. Meaning, they are relevant and speak to the Church of all ages. That’s us. And even though there may be some things the original recipients understood that we may not, there are truths and instruction and guidance that transcend any of the historical references we may not fully grasp.

All of which is to say is that these are “now” letters. God is actively speaking to us today through them. Each of us should consider them personal letters from God. And within them He tells us what we as the Church and as individual Advent Christians are to look like while we are watching and waiting for the return of our King.

Let us now consider the first of the seven Advent letters to the Church, the church in Ephesus: “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. ⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵ Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

Jesus first identifies Himself as holding seven stars (a reference to the messengers, or pastors) and walking among seven lampstands (meaning the seven churches). Then he gets right to the point, using the commendation-complaint-correction model mentioned earlier…

The church in Ephesus had much that was worthy of commendation. Jesus speaks of their deeds, hard work and perseverance in the faith. They were hanging tough in the midst of persecution. They showed a willingness to take the hits, the intentional misunderstandings and the preconceived notions that went along with being stand-up believers.

In addition, they placed a high value on the Word of God and sound doctrine. Although they were challenged by wicked men who opposed the Word of God and false apostles who, in the name of religion, tried to lead them away from the truth, they exposed them for who they were and gave them no hearing. Moreover, they had nothing to do with the Nicolaitans, the first century “hey, if it feels good, do it” group that wanted to turn Christian liberty into the freedom to engage in immorality and idolatry and anything else, because, after all, God loves you and Jesus died for your sins; so go ahead and sin and let Him do His work.

The Lord was appreciative of those characteristics. This was a doctrinally solid church. But following the commendation comes the complaint. His general evaluation of the congregation was this: “You have forsaken your first love.” This is a serious and stinging indictment – for this or any other church.

What is it a reference to? Had they forsaken their love for Christ, or at least turned it into an intellectual exercise or a cerebral form of Christianity that had no impact on a watching world? Could they recite Bible verses but fail to apply those same passages to their lives? Had they perfected the form of the church, but failed at its function?

Or, had they forsaken their love for each other? Had they begun as a congregation to major on the minors and emphasize their personal differences as opposed to the unity they had in Christ? Had they begun to confuse their personal preferences with the way things should be done in the church as the congregational ideal, and then become irritated with those who didn’t agree? Were they getting petty?

Or, had they forsaken their love for mankind at large? Were they beginning to develop an institutional and self-preservation mindset? Were they beginning to pose false alternatives like: “we can either be loving or we can be orthodox, but we can’t be both”? Were they no longer sifting everything they did through the sieve of the Great Commission? When it came to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, were they beginning to form an isolation model (let’s keep it to ourselves) rather than an infiltration model (let’s get out there and spread the Word)?

Maybe there was a general attitude that involved all three. But whatever the case, Jesus says they were lacking the one quality without which all the others were worthless.

An immaculate, high performance, well-maintained car is a nice thing to look at. But without gas in the tank, it’s going nowhere. Love is the fuel that keeps the church engine running. And Jesus says the Ephesian congregation was running on empty.

He reminds them of how far they had fallen. He asks them to remember what once was, but was not now. Then He calls them to correct the situation. And this is what they needed to do: “Repent and do the things you did at first.”

Repentance is a two sided coin. It’s a turning from and a turning to. Jesus tells this church to turn from their self-love and selfishness and self-centeredness. Hang it all on the cross of Christ and bury it in His empty tomb. And then with their spirits renewed, Jesus tells them, turn back to the things they did at first.

And what did these Christians do when their lives had first been touched by the Gospel? They understood they had Paradise. They had gas in their tank. They had love as they remembered what their lives without Christ had been as opposed to what they were now. They found joy in living for the One who died and rose for them. No one had to tell them to “act like a Christian.” As they immersed themselves in Word and Sacrament, in prayer and contemplation, it came naturally. And it permeated everything they did.

So, what can we learn from the church in Ephesus as modern day watching-and-waiting Advent Christians? Judging from this letter, what would God wish to see in us? I believe there are three brief but important lessons.

God would have us be a grounded church full of grounded individuals. Grounded in Word and Sacrament. Grounded in the truth that comes from spending time in the Bible, Bible classes and personal devotions. Sound doctrine is important. But sound doctrine is always under attack. Grounded people are not led astray.

At the same time God would have us be a loving church and loving individuals. Love does not mean tolerating or affirming that which God has clearly spoken against. Love means remembering and naturally responding to the fact that we are God’s blood-bought beloved. Love means doing whatever we can do to share the Gospel through word and deed. After all, we love, because He first loved us.

Finally, God would have us be a reflective and repentant church full of reflective and repentant individuals. We must conform our lives to the Word, and when we fail we must come before God not to defend or rationalize our sins, but to repent of them. Then, confident in the forgiveness that is ours through Christ, we daily go forward in the grace He provides and with the resolve to live our lives to His glory.

Grounded in the Word. Practicing genuine love rooted in gratitude for the Gospel. Daily reflective of our privileged position and repentant of our sins. That’s the cycle God outlines for us in the first of His Advent letters to His Church. Empowered by the Gospel, this is also our desire as we watch and wait for Christ to come.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Amen.