When the Head is Full & the Heart is Empty - Week 3 - Study Notes

English

When the head is full & the heart is empty

Revelation 2:1-7

The high school I attended, Bluefield High School in West Virginia, was a "football school", i.e., the football team was a state powerhouse. That had not always been the case. However, legendary coach, Merrill Gainer, took over a football program there that had previously only won one game over several seasons. But, within two years of Gainer's taking over the team, it had been transformed into a dynamo that won four state championships including three perfect seasons.
Then, shockingly, Coach Gainer resigned. His teams were still winning. He was not yet at retirement age. Without giving warning to a school and to a town that revered him, he retired from coaching. Several years later, when Coach Gainer reflected on why he had resigned, he said, "I lost my joy in it. I still knew how to coach. My players learned the game and did all the right things. But, I just didn't love it anymore."
I thought about Coach Gainer when I read Jesus' letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7. I think that most people would have considered that church to be one of the great success stories of the early days of Christianity. Ephesus was, from the first, a place where people were very open and responsive to the message about Jesus. You can read about the church's founding in Acts 19.
Over the years, under renowned pastors and Bible teachers like the Apostle Paul, Timothy and even the Apostle John (the author of Revelation), the church people had learned the faith, defended the gospel against heresy, and stood strong against anti-Christian forces.
But, 40 years had passed since the church's founding. At the time of Jesus' letter to them in Revelation 2, something was missing. The church members' heads were filled with the right knowledge. Their actions were appropriate. But, their hearts were cold. They didn't love Jesus anymore. And it was serious. So, let's see what Jesus had to say to them in Revelation 2:1-7. I think his words have a lot to say to us too.

A Few Explanations:
About the Letter Sender and the Messenger Who Delivered It V.1.
Jesus pictures every church as having a "messenger" – or, it may be an angel. The word for messenger and angel was the same in Greek. I imagine this may have been their pastor. But the important point is not who the messenger is. The important thing is the one dictating the letter. The letter sender was the powerful and glorified Lord Jesus we read about in Rev. 1:12 16. The most striking part of v.1 is that Jesus "holds the stars in his hand" (probably referring to the church people who were to be his lights to the world) and walks among the lampstands, i.e., the churches.
What we must never miss is the fact that Jesus cares about all that happens in a local church like ours. It's similar to what some CEOs do occasionally in the TV show Undercover Boss, i.e., they show up and get involved in every aspect of their various stores. In Revelation 2-3, we see that Jesus is ceaselessly involved in the everyday life of each local church. Like a security camera at the Super Market, the eyes of Jesus scan what happens in a church like ours, and in a life like yours.
"I know," Jesus says. "I walk among the churches and I know." There is nothing hidden from Jesus that happens in a church. And, I would broaden this to say that there is nothing that happens in your home or your life that is hidden from Him. Some Christians have a wall plaque in their home that says, "Christ is the head of this house, the unseen listener to every conversation." What a difference it would make if we truly believed that!
So now, let's go to Ephesus and the specific church that received this first letter.

About Ephesus –
Ephesus was a great city, the 4th largest in the Roman world. You can visit its ruins now in Turkey and see what an impressive place it was. It had a huge temple built for the goddess Diana – devoted to unbridled sexual expression -- that drew people from all over the world. The church there was the mother church of all the churches in Asia. It was almost certainly bigger, better trained, better resourced and better organized than all the churches we will be studying in Revelation. Approximately 40 years had passed since the church had been founded. But, clearly, the church was still operating in Revelation 2 and doing many things well.
Jesus' words give us a clear impression of them. There were some great things happening in the church that dared not change. But, there was an unseen cancer within the church too.
Let's look now at this clear letter from Jesus. I want us to begin by looking at what he said should not change. A church with a great heritage must always be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater if it make changes. And, then we'll see what had to be changed immediately so that death would not come.

I. What Jesus said should not change (2:2,3,6)
There were some wonderful things about this church. This is often missed when people study this letter. Some things simply had to be held on to. What did Jesus say?
#1: "I know your deeds and hard work" Jesus praised their church activity. I imagine people were serving. People were not passive pew sitters. Much of their work was probably done without everyone else knowing it. It happens here at LAC. Wonderful Christ-directed volunteer service happens at LAC each week. Greeting newcomers. Stuffing worship folders. Sending notes of encouragement. Taking care of the infants. Serving food. Giving offerings. People may not see these good things but Jesus does. "Keep it up!", He says. "I see it and, even though you may get tired, I appreciated your service in my name."
#2: "I know your endurance" These people were not quitters. If they said they would do the job, it was done. This is a rare and wonderful quality, one constantly commended in Scripture. And look at V.3. It shows just how deep this faithful commitment went.
This is a word of encouragement for all of you who find your faithful attendance and service difficult. "I know about it," Jesus says. "I see it when you have to force yourself to get up and go, to serve where you serve, but you do it out of service to me. Keep on with it. It's good."
#3: "I know you hate false teaching" In v.2, Jesus commends them for testing diligently what people were teaching in the light of Scripture. This church had the discernment to see what was false.
You see, there were people in Ephesus claiming to be apostles -- but they weren't apostles. They claimed to be receiving special revelation from God. But the Ephesian Christians were grounded in the Scriptures and the teaching of Jesus. They tested the self-professed-teachers in the light of Scripture and found them false.
Notice v.6. When Jesus speaks of the Nicolaitans, he spoke of people who seemed to be close to the truth in their teaching – but that closeness to the truth made them even more dangerous than outright heretics. The Nicolaitans apparently claimed to follow Jesus but blended Christian teaching with the religious or political views of the culture around them. Their teaching sounded like Christianity but it wasn't. The major thing was that they seem to have taught was that you can be a Christian and still participate in the sexual practices that took place in the Temple of Diana. I can imagine that their attitude was, "God doesn't really care about individual sexual practices as long as no one is hurt. You can be a Christian and live the way everyone else is living too." But no, Jesus hated what these Nicolaitans believed and did. And the Ephesian church stood strong about God's morality in spite of the world's influence.
You surely know how tempted churchgoers still are to think like the Nicolaitans did. Ever since John Locke wrote his famous work about Toleration in the 17th Century, people have felt that it's wrong to take a strong position on any religious issue. It's supposedly virtuous to say, "We can all believe whatever we want." "Only arrogant fanatics take strong stands on religious issues." We've added an 11th command to the 10 Commandments, i.e., "Thou shalt not disagree if someone doesn't like the preceding 10 commands."
The Ephesian believers knew the Scriptures and wouldn't tolerate error from false teachers. So, we might say, "What a church! No laziness in their service. No compromise in their beliefs. And, do not miss this point today: These were good things in that church. We need to learn from them and do what they did.
But, simply working hard and defending the truth can become ends in themselves. So, we need to be taught by the good things there. But, now we also must learn from something that was dreadfully wrong.

II. What Jesus said had to change. (2:4 5)
V.4 is language usually used of a marriage – and it's powerful language still today. Let me ask: "Why do marriages break down?" Sometimes it's because of unfaithfulness. One or the other of the partners meets someone else and finds the attraction irresistible. When a marriage dies, I've discovered it's often connected with the moving of one's affections, attentions, and passions from one individual to another.
But not every marriage that ends in divorce is broken by an illicit affair. No, the fact is that many marriages do not shatter under the pressure of external sexual temptation at all. They die slowly and almost unconsciously from within. People drift apart almost by imperceptible degrees as the years go by. Affection cools. Intimate communication dries up until suddenly one day they find they are strangers living in the same house. They had turned their affections not to a third party but to work, to the children, to sports...
If that can be true of a love relationship between human beings, it can also be true of our relationship to Jesus. The church is called "the bride of Christ." The relationship between Christ and His people is never described in the Bible as one of cold duty and obligation, but one of a warm and growing love. What happens in churches and in individual Christians' lives is that sometimes the faithful attendance in church remains, the same serving in church is done but the warmth for Jesus and for people slowly dies. In that way churches and Christians lose the spark of spiritual life. It's not for lack of doctrine, but for lack of love.
You get a picture from Jesus' letter here of a people working hard and being very faithful to being at church, to studying the Bible, and to teaching the truth – but there's no dance in their heart and no joy in their faith. They had made their vows to Jesus when they were younger and they knew they had to keep them – for better or for worse. And it was good that they remained constant in their beliefs and practices. But, their hearts were not in it. Like the person who is an INTJ (in the Myers-Briggs Inventory) who suddenly realizes she's married an ESFP and thinks, "What have I done? I keep things neat and he throws his stuff on the floor." Keeping the vows become difficult. Things change over the years.
That's what happened at Ephesus. They believed and preached the right things but it was a dead orthodoxy. This deadness was at least as bad as those heresies the church people in Ephesus were fiercely opposed to. I can picture it so easily. "We teach the Bible here. We've had great teachers here. We're not liberal. We haven't moved." But dead things don't move nor do dead things have hearts that can respond to the love of God.
The church had become religious. The evidence of religiosity is lovelessness. You can be an outwardly religious person and get all the teaching right in your head. You might be able to argue against all who teach error. But you still may have no love either for Jesus or for the people you disagree with. There is a subtle temptation for churchgoers to have our first love being not for Jesus but for being right about religion. For the Ephesians, they loved to be right but no longer loved the one they were right about.
Of course, other things can be our first loves too – a political cause, a certain pleasure, a career... If your first love is your career, then you will do whatever you need to do to stay ahead. If it's a romantic interest, you may compromise your purity or vows. What is your first love?
Christianity is not about loving certain teachings or even about loving the Bible (as important as the teachings may be and as precious as the Bible is). It's about loving Jesus. The truth we hold to all points to Jesus who said, "I am the truth." Truth can't be separated from the person of Jesus. What happens is our teaching – as necessary as it is -- can become merely academic. Our deeds can become duty. How serious was this? V.5b.
Can't you imagine them saying, "Remove our lampstand? Us? How can this be, Jesus? We have the truth here. Others have the problems. We're the genuine ones." But Jesus says, "You are nearly dead."

III. How To Change?
It's hard for people to change – but Jesus came to make change possible. Jesus personally gives us three words of counsel about rekindling our love in a relationship so listen carefully to his words.
Word 1. Remember –
"Remember" is such an important word throughout Scripture. Take time to think about what Jesus did for you. Take time to reflect upon what you once felt when you heard that Christ died in your place. Take time to remember the many ways He has blessed you. Take time ... Take time with Jesus. Relationships will not grow when you take no time to relate, to appreciate, to rekindle affection.
Remember. Almost every married couple has an album of wedding photos. Even the oldest couple will have the yellowing picture of the handsome young man in an old fashioned suit and beautiful young woman clothed in white so obviously in love on their wedding day. It's important to remember that day. Memory can be a sweet thing. And, Jesus says here that memory can be life changing. It can rekindle fires in your heart. Jesus remembers the day we began with Him. He remembers our vow to love Him and live for Him. He remembers when He asked, "Will you have me to be your Savior?" and we replied, "I will." Do you remember that day? Do you remember how you felt on that day? Do you still feel the same today?
Take time to remember, Jesus says. Take time to renew your vows to Him.

Word 2. Repent –
The word here is the word for making a change. Something has to change. I'm guessing -- but I don't think I'm far wrong when I guess -- that most at Ephesus thought they were fine as they were. "Those other groups are the ones who have problems," they might have said. "But we're fine. We don't have to change." And Jesus says, "No, you too must repent. You must turn around or be snuffed out."
What kind of change? Jesus calls for the hardest kind. Jesus calls for a change in heart and attitude. He says to get rid of the pride that can grow out of success and having the truth. Go back to remember that we know Jesus only because of his grace and mercy. Do you remember when you said, "I can't believe she's willing to marry me!" In a much bigger way, consider again the fact that the holy Lord Jesus died to make you his own. Return to the humble grateful sprits that started your walk with God in the first place. Do a check of attitude and heart and repent. Is there anything like that you need to repent of today?

Word 3. Do –
"But Jesus," they might have said, "we are doing. You've just commended us for that." "But", He says, "do the things you did at first." I'm not sure what that was but I can guess. I imagine they loved to learn everything they could about Jesus when they first received him. I imagine they loved their first times praying. I'm sure they would never give up a chance to worship him with their church for a sporting event or morning of sleep. They would give up anything rather than give up time with Jesus. They did it simply because they loved Jesus.
I think that the best thing I can say is that you must look at what motivates you. Are you grateful to Jesus? Do you stand in awe of the fact that Jesus made his vow to give his life for you? Jesus says, "Think about what you did when you loved me. Then, start doing it again."

III. What Jesus Vowed (2:7)
At the close, Jesus reminds us of the vow he makes to us. And, what he uses is party language. V.7. Jesus is promising in this verse that he will someday undo all the awful affects of sin that starting in Genesis 3. Since then, people have not been able to partake of the tree of life. Jesus is referring to God's life – abundant life that God wants for us. People can now live physically – but not live as God intends us to live. People have not been able to live fully and abundantly since sin entered the world. But Jesus is making a vow here. He promises that our love for him will result in great joy. In v. 7, Jesus is saying that he gave his life to give us life.
This is beautiful language in which Jesus says, "You are my bride and soon, we'll have a feast. There will be a marriage supper with me." Jeff Mattesich says that our wedding feast with Jesus "will taste great and have no calories!" Jesus vows, "I promise to love you and bless you until ..." Until when? It's not "until death do us part". Death won't part us from Jesus. Jesus' promise is that he will give us life as God created it to be before sin. Before Genesis 3. Without evil and pain and tears. Without death.
But if you don't love Him, heaven won't be heavenly. Heaven is filled with praise to Him! If you don't love Jesus, you probably won't love heaven either. The good news is that this church in Ephesus did have their love for Jesus renewed. A century later, they were still serving, and teaching the truth, and defending the faith. And... their first love was Jesus. May it be true of us too.
With that in mind, let's all pull out our kneelers for a time of meditation and prayer...

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor