Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today I want to challenge you to think through the issue of the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation and what it tells us about our Lord Jesus Christ and his sovereign watch care, his love, his care, his concern for his church, not only the church in Ephesus back in the first century, but also the church today, the living church today, your church, my church, us, me, you, because our Lord Jesus Christ does love us and care for us and watch over us.

But before I take that subject up, there's something I'm pretty excited about. And let me just give a plug here for the Bonneville County Republican Party third annual Lincoln Day Banquet. There's a Lincoln Day Banquet coming up April 13th. And they're going to have as a speaker, one of my favorite people. He's not as well known as some of their other speakers in the past, like Dinesh D'Souza last year they had.

But this year they're going to have David Barton, David Barton, B-A-R-T-O-N. Now I am familiar with David Barton. He's the president of wall builders. And I've known about him for years because I used his material on the constitution, on American history, on the core and essence of America. I used his materials for years when I was teaching my kids at home. We homeschooled all three of our children.

And David Barton's materials were invaluable to my family in helping to school our children on those things. The constitution, American history, and all the rich characters, some of the unknown facets of America that David Barton is very familiar with. And he's worked with a great number of people. But he's going to be the featured speaker at the Bonneville County Republican Party Lincoln Day Banquet. And that's going to be held at Melaleuca Corporate Headquarters.

And you can call them for tickets. But just let me feature that for you. And if you get a chance on April 13th, you need to go out there and participate in that banquet and bring your friends, bring your neighbors, bring your family, and hear what David Barton has to say about God and the constitution. That's his topic, God and the constitution. Well, let me return then to my material here.

We are looking at the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation. I'm preaching through the book of Revelation. Consequently, we are dealing with the seven churches. And we know from Revelation already, and I've dealt with this to some extent, that the seven churches of Revelation are a symbol and a metaphor and a picture of the whole church of Christ all through the ages and how these churches apply to the life of the church all through the ages as well. The book of Revelation unpacks this for us.

And chapter two of Revelation begins with the church at Ephesus. So let me take up that text with you, and then we'll unfold it for you as well. So let's begin with Revelation chapter two, verses one through seven. And it goes like this. 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.

I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men, but have tested those who call themselves apostles, but 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, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what 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 works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Oh, the letter to the church at Ephesus, and has great material not only for them then, but for us now. Oh, I knew a church like this, like the church at Ephesus.

In my early Christian life, I almost joined a church in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan that was much like the church at Ephesus. I could not have told you exactly why I didn't join then, but now with hindsight I can tell you why. Now this church, I'm not going to name it, of course, it was a church that was very doctrinally astute, but very brittle and stunted in its exercise of Christian love and grace. And that's much like the church at Ephesus, we'll see. Now the sermons I heard there, the teaching classes, they were all very orthodox, and they adhered closely to the Bible and the Westminster standards.

But there was something cold and judgmental about the ethos of the place, too. I remember vividly, for example, hearing a sermon on Proverbs 4.23, which reads, keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. What a superb text. What a superb theme. Yet at one point in the sermon, the pastor's face was beet red with anger, and he was shaking his fist at me, yelling at the top of his lungs.

It seemed like he was pointing right at me, right, even though it was generally the congregation. And he was yelling at the top of his lungs about my heart and its lack of love and grace. Oh, my. With such anger and rage, I thought to myself, perhaps there's a mismatch here between the content and the delivery here. Perhaps more love and grace should be incorporated into your sermon style, Mr. Pastor, if you want me to keep my own heart with all diligence.

Now, this was unfortunately typical of the church. They were disciplining one man for doctrinal error and looking at me very suspiciously coming out of an Armenian background. I understood these cautions, but on the other hand, I never really felt welcomed or accepted while I was there at this church, kind of like what I felt the Ephesian church might be like. In fact, it didn't seem that anyone there was really accepted. Everyone's status was conditional.

Everyone was on a perpetual bubble. There was little care, it seemed to me anyway. I could have been wrong, but it seemed to me to be very little care for one another. There was no outreach into the community. No one shook my hand really until my fourth time there.

Well, no church is perfect. I don't mean to say that. Our church at New Geneva certainly isn't perfect. Most of us are more or less like one of these seven churches. We'll see as if we're honest about it.

And at best, we share some of the good as well as some of the bad features. These seven letters to the seven churches of Asia, they are deliberately designed to prompt us to introspection and to self-examination. They're written really to all the church throughout the new covenant age. We are intended to know that as real and present and thoroughly understanding as Christ was of these seven churches. So real and present and thoroughly understanding of us is the same Lord Jesus Christ.

Each letter is packed with exhortations for us and has implications for the rest of Revelation 2. Oh yes, the entire book of Revelation is indeed featured and anticipated and foreshadowed in these letters. What are some of those exhortations, rebukes, and lessons? Well, let's look then at the particular verses. Let's look at verse 1 where we see in the church of Ephesus, in verse 1, in a direct application, know that the Lord of the church is sovereign over every hidden facet of the church's life in heaven and on earth.

Yes, the Lord of the church is sovereign over every hidden facet of her life in heaven and on earth. That's what verse 1 tells us from chapter 2, where that verse, once again, let me read it again for you, 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. Oh, dear brother and sister, as you listen, did you know that all of us at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church and all of us in every church in Idaho Falls, we abide moment by moment in the very presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know this from the vision of last week reinforced by this week's letter. This first letter is addressed to the angel of the church in Ephesus. Now, we observed last week how the metaphor of an angel pictures how we dwell not only on the earth, that is, as flesh and bone, blood and sinew, day by day walking around life, but also we dwell mystically and spiritually in the unseen realm of the Spirit, and we dwell before the very Lord Himself moment by moment, continuously in this spiritual realm. So be assured, be comforted by this. It's confirmed time and time again for us as we move through Revelation.

It's one of those motifs, one of those themes as the book of Revelation oscillates between heaven and earth, where often the same scene is played out first in one realm and then the other, and that's to tell us indeed that we dwell perpetually in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at all times, and it should be a great comfort to the church. That's meant to be delivered to us, to bring great comfort to the suffering church. So before you go running off to find who's the beast, who's 666, oh, when's the rapture coming? When does the seven-year tribulation unfold?

You know, you gotta deal with these things first, because there's a great deal of material here for us and a great deal of comfort and spiritual upbuilding and uplifting for us here in the book of Revelation. And these things, then this oscillation between heaven and earth meant to comfort the church is underlined for us. As John taps one of the features of the inaugural vision that we chronicled last week, he says, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand walks among the seven golden lampstands.

We know from last week, the seven stars are the seven angels of the churches, that is, their heavenly correspondence before the presence of the Lord. This is how every church dwells in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, having its angel, that is, its representation in heaven before the Lord. And the seven lampstands are the particular churches themselves on the ground. Now, these prologues before every letter are important in each letter, and they're there for several reasons. Number one, they apply to all the churches in general, not only those particular churches in Asia, but also the churches all through history.

And there is hardly a commentator that doesn't agree that seven being the number of completeness and fullness, seven churches being the complete and full church of Christ represented by the seven churches of Asia. But indeed, they're but representations of the whole church of Christ throughout the ages. And secondly, they have a specific application to the church under consideration too. Oh, the problem with the Ephesian church was one of the heart. That is, the love you had at first, right?

They might have cloaked that from the outside observer and the visitation committee from Presbyteria, maybe with their flurry of works, but not from the one who holds the seven stars and walks among us. No, Jesus Christ himself. Now, this is borne out for us as the text moves on. Let us look then to verses two through six. That is, in commendation, know that I see.

In commendation, know that I see. There's commendation and there's condemnation for the church in Ephesus. Exhortation and encouragement as well as warnings, right? Commendation and condemnation. First of all, in commendation, church at Ephesus, know that I see, first of all, your incessant labors, your incessant labors, your works.

Our Lord recognizes and commends what every true church must manifest. That is, your works, your toil, and your patient inments. No church or Christian really has faith if he doesn't manifest works. What good is it, my brothers, James says, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

No. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead, James says, in James chapter two. The Ephesian church certainly had an active faith, didn't they? And they worked hard. Our Lord commends them for this.

That is what verse two intends to communicate to us with a series of three synonyms. Task, toil, and tedium. That is patient endurance. Task, toil, and tedium, as I put it. Patient endurance.

There may be a slight difference in emphasis, but together in a group, they tell us that the Ephesian Christians tirelessly worked, though they may have forgotten exactly why. John is establishing a theme that will recur throughout Revelation. Works are integral to the life of the church. Yes, you aren't saved by works, but those who are saved will work. They will provide a crescendo, the works will, at the end of time.

As chapter 19, verses 7 and 8 puts it, let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Unquote. That's from the closing chapter, a theme all the way through Revelation, but really highlighted here, and then in chapter 19, that is the fine linen, that is the glistening robes of the people of the church. They are bright and pure.

They are the righteous deeds of the saints. And, dear listener, that is in store for us, too, as we labor, as we work on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ. Works, per se, they weren't the problem in Ephesus then. And our Lord sees them in addition to, secondly, your discernment of true from false authority. Your discernment.

The Ephesian church was able and equipped and had the ability to discern true from false authority. We know from the letters of the New Testament that posers and pettifogging prophets were rampant almost from the day of our Lord's ascension. Simon the sorcerer being exhibit A, right? Simon the sorcerer, who was a false authority, became a byword in the history of the church for a false apostle who wishes to buy the office of the church, right? Oh, dear listener, these were rampant in the early church.

And Paul gives us a graphic warning that will resonate throughout Revelation. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, for example, such men, like Simon the sorcerer, such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. And so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds, Paul says.

So, one of the major recurring contrasts in Revelation, again, is the almost mirror image of false authority with true authority. Yes, the mirror, the false authority mirrored with true authority. Our Lord, before his ascension, declared the source of true authority. He says in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. What great comfort that is, dear listener, for all of us. John gives us graphic examples, doesn't he? All through Revelation of false authority. In Revelation chapter 13, for example, once again, this is a major motif.

You have to pick up on these things early in the book of Revelation before you go running off immediately to Revelation 13. Revelation 13 talks about the beast and false authority, but you have to understand what John is laying down as a predicate before, earlier in his apocalypse. And he begins here then in chapter 2, where we see another example of false authority, right? And the Ephesian church, which was able to judge true from false authority. But in chapter 13, we see, and the beast that I saw, John says, and the beast that I saw was like a leopard.

Its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. Some of these authorities were in the Ephesian church, but they didn't fool the Ephesian church. No, they spotted him and threw him out. Well, chapter 13 goes on to say further, and they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast.

And they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast and who can fight against it, right? That's from Revelation 13, where we see a kind of consummation, false authority in the beast, given it by the dragon. And the dragon, of course, is none other than that old serpent, that old deluder, that is Satan. Well, revelation was given in part, let me submit this to you. Revelation was given in part that we might be better equipped to recognize true authority when we see it, and false authority when we see it.

And in every subsequent age, too, not just then, but now, beginning here with the church of Ephesus. You read the book of Revelation, you should be better equipped to recognize true authority in the church from false authority. So rather than just hurrying on from here and just go on to cherry pick and ransack Revelation, looking for the Antichrist, trying to identify the beast from today's headlines, often take false apostles to their breast. I often do. Often, these kinds of people take false apostles to their breast and coddle them without even knowing it.

Oh, there's a beast. You don't have to wait and look for the beast in the future, because indeed, Revelation in part unfolds that there are beasts in every age. We see this in the book of Daniel. We see it in the book of Job. We see it all through Scripture and the prophets and Isaiah and Ezekiel.

There are beasts indeed in every age, and we need to be able to be ready to identify them, not just look for them as somewhere in the future, because you look right past the one today looking for the one in the future. Well, not so with the Ephesian church. They tested apostles to prove them whether they were authentic or not, to test or to try. Epirasas. Epirasas.

I'm sorry. Epirasas. To test or to try. To try metals for purity. That's the Greek word.

The same will be done to the saints, too. They will be tested. They will be tried as a metal is for its purity. Well, they are also commended then for their indefatigable witness to his name. Yes.

The Lord commends them for the indefatigable witness to my name. The church under Nero was under constant wearing persecution. That's where we place the book of Revelation written during the persecution under Nero. In its early years, it was identified as an offshoot sect of Judaism, and it enjoyed its protection, too. But as the synagogues of Satan, as John characterizes them, began to persecute and accuse the Christians, for example, the Apostle Paul, well, as this began to happen, Rome began to take a closer look, and they saw the implicit threat of the one who expansively claimed all authority in heaven and on earth.

Jesus claimed to be Lord, and his followers would not embrace any other Lord. And since then, since Rome began to take a closer look, the pressure to conform and confess the emperor as Lord was constant, and it was severe. Many who professed to be Christians broke under these circumstances. Now, even centuries later, the church would wrestle with the problem of what to do with those who did break and fold like lawn chairs under this kind of pressure. That would be called the Donatist controversy.

What to do with those who wandered back into the church, even though they abandoned Christ under persecution? This was not a problem with the Ephesians, though. They held up more like oaken pews than folding lawn chairs. Ephesians were strong. Our Lord commends them for the fact I will witness to his name.

Patient endurance for the name. That is how John puts it. Patient endurance for the name. That is, you confess Christ rather than Caesar. You identify oneself as a Christer, not indeed a Caesarite.

That's a recurring motif all through the book of Revelation, too. And we need to embrace this. We need to apply it to today. It's meant for us. It's meant for us, not a future generation during some ostensible great tribulation out of which we will be raptured.

No, you will be totally unprepared for the persecution, for the tribulation, for being a witness to his name if you're just twiddling your thumbs, waiting for the rapture, thinking that you're going to escape tribulation and persecution. It ain't gonna happen that way. Your theology, your understanding of the book of Revelation is entirely misguided and wrong if you think that is going to be the case. No, you must be prepared for persecution. You must be prepared for tribulation in your own life, dear listener.

It's not for some future generation out of which you will be raptured. No, unless you are prepared like the church at Ephesus to endure under constant wearing persecution, you will be caught off guard. And maybe one of those that throws over your testimony. You don't see it happening now, but unless you are prepared, you may well. So these are the things for which the church at Ephesus was commended anyway.

And we're going to take up next week the note of rebuke. There is not only commendation, but condemnation too. And I think after which the church of Ephesus and consequently us must take careful note. So brothers and sisters, this letter to the Ephesians is a great letter and it has many elements in it that are applicable to us today. So we must be prepared to not only be like the church at Ephesus in its positive qualities, but as we'll see next week, we have to avoid those things for which they are condemned.

But once again, just a beautiful picture of how our Lord is sovereignly superintend, sovereignly guides and looks over his church and shepherds it too, doesn't he? What a great picture this is of not only our church, but the church in the early first century and the more things change, the more they stay the same because many of the same issues they face, we face. But once again, I just hope you are drawn closer to your Lord Jesus Christ by having heard and understood a little bit better, a little bit more, a little bit more clearly what this letter to the Ephesians of which it consists.

This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls. And we're preaching through the book of Revelation now. I urge you to join us and we meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for some feedback. Give me some feedback on what you hear.

Perhaps you have some more questions. You can call us at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.