Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we're launching a brand new
teaching series looking at the book of Revelation.
Now I'm sure you have lots of questions, lots
of ideas about this book, but it's really just
a letter. And so we're going to be looking at
the opening chapters where Jesus is writing letters
to the early church. And we're going to figure
out what does Jesus have to say to the churches
of the first century, but also what does Jesus
have to say to the church today? As we start
this series, we're going to be looking at the
letter to the church of Ephesus and how they
have lost their first love, but Christ calls
them to recover it. So now, let's listen in.
Our reading today is from the book of Revelation,
beginning with chapter 1, verses 4 to 5, and
chapter 2, verses 1 to 7. Letter from John. to
the seven churches in the province of Asia, grace
and peace to you from him who is and who was
and who is to come and from the seven spirits
before his throne and from Jesus Christ, who
is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the
dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
to the angel of the church in Ephesus. These
are the words of him who holds the seven stars
in his right hand and walks among the seven golden
lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work,
and your perseverance. I know that you cannot
tolerate wicked people. that you have tested
those who claim to be apostles but have not,
and have found them false. You have persevered
and have endured hardships for my name and have
not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you.
You have forsaken the love you had at first,
Consider how far you have fallen. Repent and
do the things you did at first. If you do not
repent, I'll come to you and remove your lampstand
from its place. But you have this in your favor.
You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which
I also hate. Whoever has ears. Let them hear
what the Spirit says to the churches. To the
one who is victorious, I'll give the light, the
right to eat from the tree of life, which is
in the paradise of God. The word of the Lord.
Well, good morning, everybody. My name's Rob,
and it's my great pleasure and privilege to be
the pastor here at Trinity Streetsville. So I
want to say a very warm welcome to all of you,
especially to those who might be visiting with
us this morning. I haven't been here for the
last couple of weeks. We've been on some vacation,
and one of the places we went on vacation, we
were so blessed to be able to go to the island
of Bermuda. And we went there for a week and
stayed in an Airbnb, and it was lovely. It was
eye -opening in so many ways. It was snorkeling,
and we did all this. really cool stuff. But Bermuda
is interesting. Tiny little island, rocky island
in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the
Sargasso Sea. And it's so small. I think the
population of Bermuda is something like 60 ,000.
It's only 50 square kilometers big. And so far,
as much beauty and fun you have there, you also
get the sense that you're trapped, that you're
stuck. Like you can get in a car. Actually, tourists
can't get in a car, but you can get in a car
and you can drive. It's only so far you can go.
And again, if Air Canada is on strike, you might
not be going anywhere. So you really get the
sense that you're like stuck on this island.
But I mean, gosh, is there a better place to
get stuck than Bermuda? Now, I want to take you
back 2 ,000 years earlier to another island.
This is the island of Patmos. It's very much
like Bermuda, actually. It's in the middle of
the sea, the middle of the Aegean Sea. It's also
very small, only about 50 square kilometers big.
It's rocky. And 2 ,000 years ago, the apostle
John... One of Jesus' very first followers, the
Apostle John, found himself exiled on this island.
He was not there on vacation. He was stuck. And
the reason he was on this island was because
he was a pastor. And during that time in kind
of what is present -day Turkey or in Asia Minor
at the time, there was a bunch of churches, and
he was a pastor in one of the churches. And the
emperor said, shut up, John. Stop talking about
Jesus. sent John to this little island of Patmos
to kind of get him out of the way and hope that
he would die there. But something amazing, something
truly eye -opening for John happened while he
was exiled on the island of Patmos. He was given
this incredible, life -changing, world -changing
vision of the risen Jesus that changes everything.
And I want to read to you just a little bit about
how that began, okay? He writes, I, John, I was
on the island of Patmos because of the word of
God and the testimony of Jesus. In other words,
I was preaching and teaching about Jesus. I got
in trouble, and that's how I ended up on the
island of Patmos. And on the Lord's day, that's
like Sunday, on Sunday, I was in the spirit,
which means I was praying, I was worshiping,
and I heard behind me a loud voice. Who's that?
And it was like a trumpet. And the voice said,
write on a scroll what you see and send it to
the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum,
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
That was the beginning of... an amazing experience,
a vision of Jesus. That might've lasted for hours,
might've lasted for days, might've lasted for
weeks. We don't really know. But what we do know
is that when he was done, he did exactly what
Jesus said to do. He wrote it all down. He wrote
down everything he had saw and everything he
heard, and he put it into one book. And today,
all of that stuff is what we would call the very
last book of our Bible, the book of Revelation.
That is John's of the vision that Jesus gave
him. the whole book of Revelation. Many people
get very scared or curious or upset about the
book of Revelation. I remember the very first
Christian book I ever bought at a Christian bookstore
like 30 years ago was a book about the book of
Revelation. Because like you, many of us are
very, very curious about it. And I bought this
book called Escape the Coming Night by Dr. David
Jeremiah. And I read that thing cover to cover.
I even dug it out this past week. And although
it's kind of wild, it's actually a really, really
interesting read. It's a really interesting book,
the book of Revelation. But forget that for a
moment and just realize this, that first and
foremost, what is the book of Revelation? It's
a letter. Write this down on a scroll and send
it to the seven churches. The book of Revelation
is a letter sent to seven different churches.
to address very specific historical things that
were happening in their midst. So here's what
we're going to do. Over the next couple of weeks,
we're going to look not just at the book of Revelation.
We're not even really going to get very far in
it at all. But at the very beginning of the book
of Revelation, there are seven different letters.
For seven different churches, even though it's
all part of one big letter, there are seven mini
letters within it. And we're going to look at
these seven different letters. That's why we're
calling this series Dear Church, Seven Letters.
And we're going to look at what is being... not
just about the historical church, but what it
can say to our church. And that's why we have
to acknowledge a couple things before we get
going in any study of a book like this. And that
is, in order to read this properly, we've always
got to start by reading Revelation in its original
context. Whenever people come to the book of
Revelation, they seem to get all caught up and
say, what does this say about the future? What
does this say about the millennium? What does
this say about the great tribulation? I've heard
about the great tribulation that is coming. All
these ideas of prophecy. What does this mean
for the end times? But just stop for a second
and don't forget, this was a letter that was
written to real people, in real churches, in
real cities, in real countries. 2 ,000 years
ago. That's the original context. In fact, John...
probably had a really good idea of what was going
on in these churches because he himself was a
pastor in Asia Minor. We'll find out he was actually
the pastor, one of the pastors of the church
in Ephesus. And so all these letters are tailored
to speak directly to certain things that were
going on in these historical congregations. Now,
the thing is, those letters were all bundled
together and put in the book of Revelation, and
that was sent to these different churches. So
they all got to read each other. mail, as it
were, but it starts with specific letters to
historic congregations. We've got to understand
that. And then only after we understand that
can we move on to say, okay, if that's what it
said back then, what is it saying to us now?
How is God using these letters to speak to us
today? And the more you read these letters, the
more you will come to see, you know what? That
sounds like a church I know. Or that sounds like
a person I know. Or that describes me. My point
is simply this. These letters still speak to
us today, right? We often want to know, what
do people think about the church? And to find
out the answer to that question, we might contact
the pollsters or do a survey or interview people
on the street or do some research or whatever
the case may be. But here we have something far
more significant. We have a record of what Jesus
thinks about the church. And that matters most.
Because Jesus, of course, is the founder of the
church. He is the head of the church. In fact,
in Revelation 1, when John gets a glimpse of
this Jesus who is speaking to him, he sees that
Jesus has what he calls eyes of blazing fire,
meaning this, that Jesus can see. Jesus can see
what is going on in any church. And here at Trinity,
We've got board meetings, staff meetings, prayer
meetings, annual vestry meetings. We're always
struggling. God, where are you leading us? We're
always trying to solve problems. How do we figure
this out? And as a pastor, I have to tell you,
sometimes it's very tricky to know the right
thing to do in every situation. But in some ways,
we don't have to wonder. What Jesus thinks of
the church. Jesus tells us what his perspective
on the church is in these letters. So today,
we're going to crack open just the first... This
is the first letter, right, that Annie read to
us. And like all the letters, we're just going
to break it down to three parts, right? There's
a beginning, there's a middle, and there's an
end to the letter. And I've given you guys all
these sermon notes. This is just so you can take
notes to follow along so you can remember what
we're learning this morning. And if you're joining
us online, you can access our fillable sermon
notes by going to our church app, Church Center.
Okay, let's start at the beginning of this first
letter. Jesus wrote to the church in Asia Minor,
to the first church, what was he saying in this
letter? Well, let's ask first this question.
Who was the letter addressed to? Who was the
letter for? Well, we're told right away that
this letter is for the angel of the church. Let's
look at what it says. It says, to the angel of
the church in Ephesus. And right away. I know
what you guys are going to say. You're going
to say, oh, here we go. The crazy visions and
symbols of a revelation, angels and demons. What
are we to make of all this stuff? But don't get
too far ahead of yourself. The Greek word for
angel is angelos, which literally means messenger,
right? So to the messenger of the church of Ephesus.
And did you know that actually all churches have
a primary messenger? And do you know who? The
primary messenger is of a church. It's the pastor.
And that means, technically, I am the angel of
Trinity Streetsville. Although you guys can be
the judge as to whether the halo fits or not.
But the point is this. These letters are addressed.
first to the pastor of these churches. And the
pastor, of course, would take those letters and
then would read them to the congregation, to
the rest of the church. That brings us to the
second thing that we are looking at at the very
beginning. Okay, so where's the postal code?
Where is this letter going? Well, it turns out
it's going to the city of Ephesus, to the church
in Ephesus. Now, Ephesus was this big and bustling
city. And located in Ephesus was one of the great
ancient wonders of the world. It was the Temple
of Diana. There's all that's left of the Temple
of Diana today. And the Temple of Diana was filled
with prostitutes. Prostitution was a big part
of how worship worked for Diana. They sold little
idols of Diana on all the street corners. Why?
Because that was a big, big moneymaker. I want
to tell you this, by the way. Kyla had a podcast
recorded with Megan, our children's ministry
director, because a few months ago, Megan was
in Ephesus, and she got to see some of this stuff
firsthand. So you really should check out this
week's podcast sometime this week. But anyways,
Paul, he planted a church in Ephesus during his
second missionary journey, which is why when
you open your Bibles, you'll find in there a
letter called Paul's letter to the Ephesians
because he was writing back to the church that
he planted in Ephesus. After Paul left that church,
he handed over the reins to his protege, Timothy,
and he pastored the church in Ephesus. And that's
why when you open your Bible, you'll find two
letters from Paul to Timothy called 1 Timothy
and 2 Timothy. And finally, there's really good
reason to believe that toward the end of his
life, John himself... who is now exiled on Patmos,
was a pastor or a bishop in Ephesus and maybe
oversaw a number of the churches in Asia Minor.
So that's the address. It's going to Ephesus.
And then the third thing we learn right at the
very beginning of the letter is who is this letter
from? Who is the author? The letter tells us
the author is the Lord of the church, none other
than Jesus himself. In each of the... seven letters
we're going to read over the weeks ahead, Jesus
always describes himself at the beginning. And
this is Jesus' self -description at the beginning
of the letter to the church in Ephesus. He says,
these are the words of him who holds the seven
stars in his right hand and walks among the seven
golden lampstands. And again, you're like, oh,
this is the stuff I hate about Revelation. What
are the seven stars? And what are the seven golden
lampstands? But here's the good news. I'm not
a scholar on biblical symbolism or anything like
this, but this one is easy. This one's easy to
figure out. Because all you gotta do is turn
back one page in the book of Revelation to Revelation
1, and you will hear... Exactly what these are.
And it turns out the seven stars represent the
seven pastors, the seven angelos, the seven messengers
of those seven churches. And they are in Jesus'
right hand, his hand of authority, which is another
way of saying that Jesus has authority over the
leaders of these churches. He's the one who's
really in charge of the church. It's not me.
It's not you. It's Jesus. Those are the seven
stars. And the seven golden lampstands, again,
just flip back a page, it tells you right there,
that's just code for the seven churches. These
seven churches are referred to seven golden lampstands.
But what's interesting is we're told that Jesus
walks among the seven golden lampstands. He walks
among his church. So just think about that for
a moment. Jesus walks among us this morning.
He walks here at Trinity. He walks among all
the churches, in fact. I got an email a couple
of days ago from someone who visited Trinity
recently. And it was really encouraging because
what she said is one thing she was certain of.
She said, I had a sense that Jesus was there,
right? Jesus said, wherever two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. Jesus. is the author of this letter,
Jesus Walks Among His Church. That's the beginning
of the letter. But now, let's move on to the
middle of the letter. This is the body. This
is the main thrust of what Jesus wants to write
to this first church in Ephesus. We find this
in verses 2 through 4 of Revelation chapter 2,
in case you're following along in your own Bible.
Let's read it here. Jesus says, I know your deeds,
Ephesus. I know your hard work and your perseverance.
I know that in your church you cannot tolerate
wicked people and that you've tested those who
claim to be apostles but are not and have found
them to be false. You've persevered. You've endured
hardships for my name. You've not grown weary.
Guys, isn't that an amazing sounding church?
Wouldn't you want to go to that church? There's
a lot to be commended in this church. Right away,
Jesus basically tells us this, that Ephesus is
a hard -working church. He says, I know your
works. I know your works. Sometimes we get uneasy
when people talk about works in church because
we say, well, we're not saved by works. We're
saved by our faith. And of course, that's true.
And yet here Jesus is commending this church
for all the amazing works that it is doing, works
and faith coming side by side. He says this,
he says, I know your deeds and I know your hard
work. work. Ephesus was this hardworking church.
It was filled with very hardworking people, and
they were doing such good works. And actually,
because of all their good works, all the neighboring
countryside, and even the whole province, we
are told, was being impacted with the good news
of Jesus. If you were to... Put your finger in
the book of Revelation and flip back to the book
of Acts. You would read this description of when
Paul was in Ephesus and kind of how the church
got going and the impact it had. I've summarized
it here, but Paul arrived at Ephesus. He entered
the synagogue and he spoke very boldly there
for about three months, arguing persuasively
about the kingdom of God. And this went on for
two years and then get this. So that all the
Jews and all the Greeks who lived in the province
of Asia heard the word of the Lord. The whole
province was hearing about Jesus because of this
hardworking church. It was saturated with the
gospel. I think that it's true that sometimes
in bigger churches that have paid staff, it's
easy for people to think that, oh, somehow all
the work gets done. But that is not how it worked
here in Ephesus. This church. Nobody in this
church sat back and assumed that somebody else
was going to do the work. They rolled up their
sleeves and they served God with everything they
had. It was a model church, a model church. So
it was a hardworking church. But the second thing
we learn from the body of the letter is that
they were also a persevering church. We read,
Jesus says, you guys have persevered and you
have endured hardships for my name and you've
not grown weary. You see, in those days, if you
were living in Ephesus, you would not only be
expected to worship Diana, this goddess, but
you would also be expected from time to time
to go to the temple and offer sacrifice and incense
and offerings to the emperor himself. And you
would have to say, Caesar is Lord. But of course,
Christians... These faithful, persevering Christians
weren't going to do that because they believed
that Jesus was Lord. And so what happened? They
got harassed. They got alienated. They got fined.
They got excluded. And like John on Patmos, some
of them got exiled and imprisoned because of
their refusal to participate in false worship.
So they didn't give up. This is a group of people
who did not give up. They were tough as nails.
The third thing we learn from the body of this
letter is that they were also a discerning church.
What do I mean by that? They carefully and prayerfully
made their decisions, discerning what was from
God and what wasn't from God. And the letter
puts it this way. I know you cannot tolerate
wicked people, Jesus says, but you've tested
those who claim to be apostles but are not and
have found them to be false. So here's what was
happening. In the early days of the church, There
were these smooth talkers that would go around
from church to church, and they would say, hey,
listen, I've got orders. I know one of the apostles
personally. I know Peter, yeah, or I know Matthew
personally. Trust me, I'm good. I want to come
in, and I want to do some teaching. I want to
do some preaching. And these people would name
drop, like they were on this first century teaching
circuit or something like that, to get into the
church. But then when they got into the church,
what they would do is they would bring all these
crazy ideas and teachings, and they would often
erupt into division. divide the church. Paul
actually, if you flip back to his letter to the
Ephesians, Paul actually says, listen, when I
leave, when I go away, you've got to watch out
because these wolves are going to come after
me and they are going to try to deceive you.
And that's exactly what happened. But these believers
in Ephesus, when these wolves showed up, they
would have none of it. They said, no, sorry,
we're not buying what you are selling today.
And instead, they prayerfully discerned and made
decisions about what God was really saying and
calling them to do in their midst. This is something
we need to do today. We need to always do this,
is to be really careful and prayerful. What is
God's word to Trinity Streets, Phil? Where is
he guiding us? How is he leading us? Because
if we get that wrong, we too could find ourselves
disheveled and divided as a church. So all in
all, I think you'd agree with me. This sounds
like a great, great church. It's a hardworking
church. It's a persevering church. It's a discerning
church. Amazing church. Amazing church. But Ephesus
has a problem. It has a problem with what David
Jeremiah calls, is it was also a declining church.
Now, you might say, how on earth could Ephesus
be a declining church? We just saw how hardworking
and persevering and how faithful they were in
discerning. Well, here is what Jesus says. He
tells us in verse 4. He says, yet I hold something
against you. You have forsaken the love you had
at first. Or as some translations said, I hold
this against you, you have lost your first love.
Or as the righteous brothers put it, you've lost
that loving feeling. Now what this means, outwardly,
this church looked great. I mean, look at it.
It's active, it's busy, it's dynamic, it's persevering.
But Jesus' eyes see past all that activity. And
he sees the real problem. The fire had gone out.
The red -hot passion for Jesus that they once
had had cooled off, and now it was stale and
cold. And here's the scary, scary part. This
happens all the time. You can crank out all the
programs in a church. You can tick all the boxes
of ministry. You can keep really, really busy
without actually loving Jesus. Churches end up
looking like really well -run and fast -moving
organizations, but they forget the whole point.
There's a lot of motion, but there's not much
devotion. to Jesus. See, first love. What does
he mean, the love you had at first? Well, maybe
you can think back to someone you once met who
had just become a Christian or just met Jesus.
And you were like, oh my gosh, they are just
so, they can't shut up about Jesus. They just
keep going on and on. It's like their love of
Jesus is just bubbling out of them. They keep
talking to people about Jesus. They don't care
what other people think. It's this honeymoon
love. It's this uninhibited, fervent passion
that just oozes. out of them. You've probably
seen that in some Christians. And maybe you stop
and you think, you know what? I remember being
like that. I remember when I first encountered
Jesus, when he first broke into my life. I was
just like that. I couldn't wait to tell everybody.
I was so in love. I would never be late for church.
I was always at Bible study. I was always serving.
I was always giving. But But I've lost that somehow.
And Jesus is telling the Ephesians, listen, you've
walked away from that first love. In fact, these
words to me, they don't just sound like disappointment.
It almost sounds like heartbreak. Jesus says,
I have something against you. If your mother
has something against you, it's bad. If your
spouse has something against you, it's really
bad. But if Jesus has something against you,
that is really, really bad. And that is not something
that you want to shrug off. I think that any
couple who's here today, who's been married for
more than a few years, you know what Jesus means
when he talks about losing your first love. Because
in the early days when you were just dating or
you were just courting or you were just going
out or maybe even when you just got married,
oh my gosh, you couldn't stop talking about each
other. You were on the phone late into the night.
You didn't care what other people thought. If
you were like giggling or laughing or hugging
or holding hands in public, you were writing
these sappy letters to each other. And you look
at those letters today, you're like, oh my gosh,
what was going on, right? Because what happens
is over time, kids come along. Work comes along.
Schedules come along. Bills creep in. And pretty
soon that marriage becomes just this whole process
in figuring out logistics, right? Who's driving
where? What's for dinner? Who's paying what bill?
Who's picking up the kids? The point is, you
can still be doing a marriage, but not really
loving in your marriage. And that's exactly what
seems to be happening in Ephesus. Oh, they're
doing. They're doing all sorts of great things.
They're doing the right things. But the fire
is gone. And the romance has cooled. And this
relationship they had with Jesus has now become
more about doing than loving. It's interesting.
30 years earlier, when Paul signed off on his
letter to the Ephesians, these are literally
his closing words. Grace to all who love our
Lord Jesus with an undying love. Right? And yet,
30 years later, the love had died. Slow drift
in the wrong direction, and here they are. And
here we are. Because what about you? And what
about me? And what about Trinity Streetsville?
Have we lost our first love? Thankfully, the
letter doesn't end here. Jesus completes the
letter by offering us a prescription of how to
get that love back. He says, listen, consider
how far you have fallen, repent, and do the things
you did at first. Many preachers, many authors
pick up clearly a three -point plan to get the
love back from this closing message of Jesus.
Here's the first point. Remember how things used
to be. Consider how far you have fallen. Restoring
our love begins with remembering our love. Remember
when you first gave your heart to him. Remember
how you couldn't stop. Talking about Jesus. Remember
how you worshipped and you didn't really care
what people thought of you. Remember how you
showed up for church or you showed up for life
group. Every week you showed up to serve all
the time. Remember the risks you took, the decisions
you make because you trusted God that much. It
is easy to drift when the love goes away without
noticing, the fire cools. But remember, when
you remember, let your heart go back. Think back.
to how it felt at first. And then secondly, repent
for what has happened. Right? Repentance means,
you know, turning around and heading back. If
you left your first love, the only way back is
to turn around and head back toward Jesus again.
Often, turning back means you've got to turn
your back on the things that stole that love
in the first place. Maybe it was some bad habits
or some bad patterns of life or desire or sins
in your life or whatever. And that caused your
love to cool. Repentance is naming those things.
It's dropping those things and it's walking away
from them. It's turning from what pulled you
off course and running back to Christ. It's a
choice you have to make. It's not just a feeling.
It's a choice. It's a decision where you say,
I'm done chasing those things. I'm going back
to my first love. And then thirdly, he says,
repeat what you used to do. Jesus says, do the
things you did at first. Think back. When you
first met Jesus Christ, what did you do? Did
you read your Bible a lot? Well, do it again.
Did you pray a lot? Start doing that again. Did
you show up to church every Sunday hungry to
worship him? Well, do that again. You talked
about Jesus with anyone who would listen? Do
it again. Do it again. Love isn't just this feeling.
It is a verb. And when you act in love, then
the feelings follow. And that passion that slipped
away. can come rushing back. And in fact, I should
say as well, I think a lot of marriage counselors
would say this is true in marriage as well. If
things have grown cold, remember how it used
to be. Repent of the mistakes you've made and
repeat it. Go back and do the things you did
at first. Christ ends the letter with a pretty
sobering warning. He says, if you do not repent,
I will come to you, and I will remove your lampstand
from its place. In other words, if a church doesn't
return to its first love, not just working for
Jesus, but loving Jesus, the light's going to
go out. The flame will be snuffed, and maybe
the church will keep meeting, but its influence
will be gone, and eventually it will be gone
as well. Here at Trinity, we're always talking
about this vision we have. It's pretty simple.
Love Jesus. Learn from Jesus. Live like Jesus.
Lead others to Jesus. And the order really, really
matters. It all begins with love. If we ever
get caught up in the numbers, in the programs,
in the activity, and we lose that first love,
then we have lost the point. Because a church
can be full of activity. It can even be full
of people. And it can still be empty on the inside.
If we stop loving Jesus fervently, then one day
people will come looking for Trinity Straitsville.
And they'll either find it empty or they'll find
a condo here instead. The letter to Ephesus.
is not just ancient history. It's a mirror for
us today. Jesus is still walking among his churches.
His eyes are like fire. He is seeing what is
going on. And he's not looking for busyness.
He's looking for love. So this fall, I want to
say to you, if any of you have the sense that
your love has cooled toward Jesus, remember how
it used to be. Repent of how things went wrong.
and repeat the things you did at first. Go back
to the beginning and let that flame burn bright
again. And here at Trinity, may our love for
Jesus fuel everything that we do. Thanks be to
God. Amen. Thanks for tuning into this week's
episode of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded
at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga,
Ontario on September 7th, 2025.