The 7 Churches of Revelation: Ephesus

Sunday Morning | May 24, 2026 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In session two of the “7 Churches of Revelation” series, Pastor John explored Jesus’ message to the church in Ephesus from Revelation 2:1-7, alongside passages from Ephesians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Acts 18-19. The Ephesian church was commended for being discerning, determined, and dedicated to truth, faithfully guarding sound doctrine and persevering through hardship. Pastor John explained that the lampstand represents one church united in Christ, called to shine His light together. Yet despite their strong theology and steadfast service, the church had drifted off course because they had lost their first love for God and others. Jesus’ correction was clear: remember the love they once had, repent of their coldness, and repeat the practices that once flowed from genuine love. The message reminded us that truth without love leads to spiritual drift, and that healthy churches must remain deeply rooted in both sound doctrine and wholehearted love for Christ.

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Transcript

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Amen. Good morning. Thank you Isaac. Welcome, everyone. It's good to have you here for Memorial Day weekend, a weekend of remembrance. Thank you for remembering to come to church as well. It's good to have you here as we continue in our series. We began last week on the Book of Revelations, specifically the seven churches of Revelation, chapters two and three. And I was reminded, thinking about the main issue, the church in Ephesus. What we'll be looking at today was facing. I was reminded of a story that help relate to this issue they were facing. I've shared this before. It's a it's a famous story about Winston Churchill. He was known for being maybe, having a little too much to drink at times or every day. Some would say that's a little too frequent. And he was at a party and one of his main rivals there was a lady he was known for having a rivalry with, and she pointed it out. Mr. Churchill, you are drunk. And he said to her, yes, but you are ugly, and I will be sober in the morning. Now there's something to point out about that that relates to today's message. One is that they may both have been accurate, but neither was really helpful. Right? They both were pointing out truth, assuming they were both true. But neither was loving. Neither was looking to help the other person. Be mindful of that. Sometimes we can become so fascinated and fixated on the truth that we forget about love, and we're going to see that challenge in the church in Ephesus today. In fact, we're going to be in the book of Revelation, chapter two. If you have your Bible, you want to turn there. If you have a church Bible, those are out in the lobby. Page 976. The pages on the screen should match up with the Bible, but if you're not familiar with the Bible, Revelation is at the end. Should be easy to flip to and and find it there. And we're going through this series. It's interesting thing to note before we read this passage, we'll be reading chapter two, verses one through seven. We'll see this pattern as we look at each of these seven churches. Each of them are addressed with a similar pattern. There's a few things. There's in fact seven key things he points out all along the way that are true in each situation. They talk about Christ in each one, it talks about a commendation. Here's something you're doing well, they point out to them. But also there's a criticism. Here's something that needs to change. So there's a number of key things that show up almost in each one of these letters. And there's a bit of a pattern you can look for that as we read through this, because the author is writing to them with a very specific intent that he wants all these churches to hear. So let's look at Revelation chapter two. Look at verse one through seven. And why don't you, if you don't mind, stand up as I read, stand just as a sign of respect for God's Word. Of course, we'll be reading it all throughout our time together, but I'm gonna read through the whole section right now. Revelation two, verse one 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 patience and endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil. Thatyou have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and have 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, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did it 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 the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. You may be seated. Ephesus we studied in depth when we went through the book of Ephesians, would have been what was the most prominent Roman city in this area of the world. It would have been well known for its size, for its influence. And so it makes sense that this would be the first church addressed in this list of letters. It's going to be one of the most well-known and significant. And you may recall last week I pointed out, in fact, you can bring up the map of the region that as the letters, as each church is addressed as we go through chapter two, it follows this circuit, starting with Ephesus, and it goes around in order Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia out to see it. It goes in a circle starting in Ephesus around almost highlighting and pointing out that these would have been a circuit that was regularly traveled by a circuit of churches that was regularly communicated to. In fact, many think that John the Apostle oversaw them at some level, and the sending letters to all of them. In fact, I think one thing that is important to point out about this, each of these separate letters, okay, even though one is going separately here, addressed directly to Ephesus this week, Smyrna next week, on and on. These are also to all the churches collectively, because Ephesus wasn't just a big, well known city, it was also a bit of a sending hub for the church. You know, we have more material of the seven churches we look at. We have more biblical material in Ephesus than any of the other churches. We've got the book of Ephesians, First and Second Timothy were written to Timothy, who was the pastor in Ephesus. Also Acts 18 and 19 walk through some of Paul's first encounters there. So we have a lot of biblical material on this church in particular. It was influential. It was well known. Paul spent the most time there of really any place else he spent teaching. So it really became a sending hub for missionaries, for people who were trained, maybe somewhat like Louisville was Southern Seminary here, many people, thousands of people. This is the largest theological seminary in the world. Thousands of people are here being trained every year and being sent out all over the place. And many see this as a home hub, as a training center for many churches, Ephesus would have been seen this way. They would have been seen as significant and prominent. Each of these messages has a message for that specific church, but also to all. In fact, the key phrase I've put in your notes here, and we're going to look at it through the lens of the lampstand, is that the lampstand is a picture of one church united in Christ. The lampstand is a picture of one church united in Christ. Look back in chapter two and you'll see this in verse one. He says 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. And you may be sitting here thinking, lampstands, stars, what's going on? I'm already confused. Well, he already explained, we we didn't highlight it last week, but I pointed out now he already explained what are the stars or the lampstands? Many times in Revelation, the pictures are obscure. You're not exactly sure what they point to here. He was very clear. Look back. Just one verse, chapter one, verse 20, this, this last part of it. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So we know when he talks about a lampstand, he's talking about the churches. But however, if you have a reference Bible, you probably have a note in there that points back to Exodus. In fact, when the tabernacle was being established and God was telling them, here's how to build it, here's how I want it, exactly how many who have attempted to recreate that have more of this kind of picture of the lampstand. If you want to put up the image of that and you can see this way, this is designed. Yeah, there are seven separate lamps, but they also are all together as one lampstand. And here's the point of all this. As I'm building up to this, we are not just one separate church, separate from other churches, even within our own city. Every church that believes in Christ and preaches the true gospel of Christ. We are all one church at one level. You know when he sends these messages out to separate churches, he's also sending it to all of them. If you're correcting one of your children in front of the other children, you also want the other children to hear what you're saying. Yeah, I'm talking to you right now, but I know some of you others in here are going to struggle with this as well. And so as we're teaching through this and you think, oh, yeah, you know what this kind of looks like Valley View when you read one of these churches, but not that one. We're not like that. Oh, well, take note. We could be someday or might have been in the past. These are notes to all of us, and we need to be mindful of the message that's given to us. We are all one in Christ. This is why we could have a few weeks ago. We could have Bob Russell in here to preach. Bob Russell, well known pastor in Louisville, very influential through Southeast. You know, he didn't say, you know what, I don't want to go over to lowly Valley View. I'm so much better than that. I've from Southeast, a way better church. Oh, I mean, I don't know, he may have thought it, but he didn't say it. No. Instead, he said, we are one church, and I'm going there to invest in the kingdom of God in Louisville, in our community, ultimately in the world. In fact, I shared in the midweek update how he spent some time the day after that, he called me and said, John, I just want you to know things seem to be going great in Valley View. He didn't have to do that. He's I mean, he could have left here and gone. Glad that's over. But he called me and said, John, things seem to be going great there. Listen, I could tell your people know how to listen. They were locked in. They were listening carefully to me. They want to learn. They want to grow. I can see it. Plenty of places I go aren't like that. Your people were full of positivity. They were so excited about what's happening at the church. Everyone who came up to me, he said, was encouraging. I didn't get the normal negative nanny showing up, wanting to just tell me all the things that are wrong with the church. He said, God is at work in your church. Be encouraged. Sometimes it's hard to see when you're in it. Be encouraged. There's a positive spirit. He didn't have to do that, but he understands it's not about just any one church. That's why we can pray for other churches. We can partner with other churches because at the end of the day, we're all in this together. There is one church and it even says Christ walks among them all. Now, he does have a specific message here right now for Ephesus in this season. And we're going to see him highlight the things they're doing well, become commendation. Here's what you're doing well. Give them a correction. Here's what's not going well. And then give them a new path forward. And so let's look at those. We'll start out by looking at the things that are going well. We're going to look at three of those in particular here that start out starting with verse two. First he highlights their discernment. And the first thing he feels like they're doing well. The characteristic of this church in Ephesus that's going well is that they are discerning. They have a strong sense of discernment. Look at verse two. He says, I know your works, your toil, 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 you found them to be false. So he highlights the fact that they aren't just taking in whatever is told them, naively believing whatever new message comes along. And every single day there's some new message that shows up in your social media feed that seems amazing on its surface value. On its face value at first glance, too good to be true. But in Ephesus, he's proclaiming. He's praising their ability to evaluate carefully, to discern, to think about. Is this true? Reminds me of the Bereans in Acts 17. They were called more noble because they took what Paul was saying and they compared it to the scriptures daily. Does this align with what Scripture says or not? And listen, I love this about Valley View. This is a burden of mine for Valley View. But also I think it is mostly true of Valley View that there is a spirit of discernment here. There is a spiritual intuition here that many have, because many have spent many years just reading their Bible faithfully over and over again. I had a guy come to me this week and say, John, here's this teaching that I've heard this week and heard something about it just seems off. I can't quite put words to why it is. I can't quite explain it, but something about it seems off. There's that spiritual intuition. I said. Let's look at it together. We got into it, sure enough. Yeah, you're right, I think you're right. I think it does feel often this way. Let's talk about let's look at it. I loved seeing that. I'm not just going to blindly take it in and accept everything thrown our way. So they have discernment. They have spiritual intuition. That is a good thing. That's a positive quality we want to see in our church. The second one he highlights here is in verse three the fact that they are determined, they're discerning, they have spiritual discernment, but they're also determined. Look here at verse three, I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. So it's not just that they can discern truth, but also that they will bear up under many times when they are confronted with a falsity. It's not just that one false apostle came through and then they gave in to the others. No, he says, I know you're enduring. You're bearing up for my name's sake. You're continuing to walk through the onslaught, patiently standing firm. And this would have been so important in that culture, the culture of Ephesus. I mean, this was Ephesus was most known for and most famous for one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, the temple to Artemis or Diana. She was a fertility goddess, and this was probably the largest structure ever built in the Greek world, and many came from all over to go see it, and were known for this. So they were known for worship to a fertility god. They were known for idolatry. In fact, idols were sold. This was part of the problem with Paul coming there. They felt threatened by his presence. Our trade is going to be threatened. They also had a number of temples dedicated to previous Roman emperors. There was this cult of emperor worship. Also. There was a huge thriving Jewish community there as well. So they're getting it hit from multiple directions. Here is all this cultural pressure to believe differently than you say you believe all around you every day. Look, you say you're Christian. What are you doing? That's not how the rest of us act and get in line with how we are. And I think many of us can relate to that today. I've had conversations with a number of you who are at work. You feel pressure to fall in line with the culture. Maybe you're told, look, this month you need to wear this t shirt to celebrate this lifestyle that I know you're opposed to, but just do it anyway. Come on. Just it's just a t shirt or just a pin on your lapel or or a photo on your profile. Just fall right in with it. But they stood firm. They didn't give in to the pressures around them. They still stand firm and they stayed dedicated to the gospel. Another good thing that we want to be known for discerning, dedicated. And then look at the third thing he highlights here about them. Not only are they discerning and determined, they're dedicated to the truth. Look at verse six. Yet this you have. You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Hate. It's a strong word to use. I don't think in church we feel like we should ever use that to hate a group of people. And I think what he means here and what he's emphasizing is they understood that that group is opposed to the gospel, and there's a part of us that should not like that. Maybe hate might feel too strong, but there's a part of us that should not want that to happen. We don't know exactly who the Nicolaitans are, most assume because and we'll look at them. They show up again in the letter to the church in Pergamum. You know, most assume that they were a group based on what was written there, who was encouraging people to compromise in their practices. We've got all this cultural pressure around us. You know what? Let's at least have some areas of compromise to show that we can get along. It's okay to go to the temple of Diana and worship there as well. That doesn't mean you're going along with everything they teach. I don't know if it's exactly how it would have spelled out, but again, there's plenty of ways in the culture you're pressured to just go along. It doesn't mean you're for that. Just go along. Just this week, I heard a story of a of a girl who was a student at Boyce College. She was fired from a local coffee shop because when they asked her what her views were on marriage, she expressed a biblical, traditional, biblical view and they fired her for it. We don't feel like you fit in with our values. The reality is we live in a culture where there is going to be a lot of a lot of pressure on you to compromise, and it's going to be couched as no big deal. And look, there'll be times where it's not a big deal. I mean, obviously there are times we've got to engage with people who are different than us. We've got to use wisdom on how to figure out that is. But there are other times when it is a big deal and there is a place to draw a line in the sand, and there is a place to take a stand, and you need great wisdom and courage to know when that is. And John wrote to Ephesus, and he said to them, good job, well done. Now with every quality we have, with every strength, what's the flip side of that, that sometimes we run into? There can be a weakness. And we see in this determination, this dedication, this commitment to the truth, he's going to highlight what he says is a weakness, a challenge. Yeah, you're great here. But don't ignore the reality that you're struggling here. And so here's where they've gotten off course. We're going to see this in verse four. I have this against you. Yeah. You've done great. You're full of zeal for the truth. But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first. You strong in doctrine. You love the truth. You're dedicated. You're not giving up. You're not compromising. And yet you're lacking love. You've abandoned the love you've had at first. And now the big challenge of this is the reality. That love is the thing that first opens your heart to the gospel. So to abandon that, that's a big problem. I mean, think about how you came to know Christ. If you know him. It wasn't just because you read a great theology book and the doctrine seemed accurate and excellent to you know, you experienced the love of Christ. In fact, your doctrine was probably way off in many areas. You can look back and go, oh man, I had that all wrong. And yet you still came to know Christ because of his love for you. Probably because the love of many around you who poured into you. We've gotta keep love at the center. And I don't mean some empty love. Biblical, Christ centered, Christ exalting love. It's got to be at the center of everything we do. If you've been through the pastor's class, I make a big deal out of this because many churches have this tendency we grow in our knowledge. If you're growing in your knowledge of Scripture and of who God is, and yet you're not growing emotionally if you're not growing in how to love others well, then you are misunderstanding the gospel. As you grow in your knowledge of who God is, you should be growing. You should be more loving, more tender, more approachable, more quick to apologize and extend forgiveness and to admit wrong. We should be growing in those areas as well. And he's highlighting here you've gotten off course. This is also important. Before we look at the correctives he gives them. This is really ultimately a life and death issue for the church. This isn't just some yeah, we better get love, right? I guess we'll put that on top of everything else we're doing now. This is a life and death issue for the church. Churches that are not loving will die. Ephesus is a good example of that. By the way, there is no Ephesus anymore. You know, some of these churches that we'll talk about and look at, those cities are still there. There are still churches in those areas. Ephesus doesn't even exist as a city. And more most prominent city in the Roman area of the one of the most prominent regions is not even there. And the church is not even there. This is a life and death issue for the church. We've got to be fastidious. We've got to fight for love in the church. I want you to look at the correctives he gives them. He gives them three things to do. How do you continue to stay on course and move towards love? All of these are going to be in verse five. First thing he says is remember. Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Remember. And I think for us, the simple thing there is to remember the love of Christ that you first felt, that you first experienced, that of first attracted you to him. Go back to that. Make sure you're continuing to remember his love for you. Continue to study scriptures on love. I've listed in your notes First Corinthians 13. That's one of the best passages you can read on love. It's known as the love Chapter, and it talks about what love is, but it spends just as much time talking about what love isn't. Which is important to know as well. And one of the things they say, he says in there is he says. You can have everything right but if you don't have love, you're like a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. Here's how we say this. In our world, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And it's almost cliche, but isn't it true? How many times will people come up to you and they have something great to tell you, and but it's done in a cold, distant way and it's all about them. And it's not really about you and it's not loving. Do you want to hear that? Oh, man, just go on, go on. Go tell someone else I don't care. You don't care about me. This is all about you. Go back. Remember. Remember that love. Remember that moment when you felt so unloved and you experienced the love of Christ for the first time? Do you remember that? And you felt his love. When you felt unlovable. Everybody needs that. Everybody wants that. Now, it's not either, nor either or. We want solid doctrine too, but we want to make sure that the love of Christ is front and center. Remember, second, he says, repent. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent. Repentance. The Greek word just means turn around. You're going this direction. Stop. Turn around. Go the other direction. It usually, I think, always should also involve sorrow, grief. I'm sorry for the wrong I was doing and it should involve then turning around, turning back the right direction. And so if you realize I am not a very loving person, repent. Repent. Have sorrow for that and turn around. Look, no matter who you are, you can absolutely change who you are today. Starting today, if you are known as a stern, hard, unloving person, you can absolutely from today forward be known as a kind, joy filled, loving person. Today. This doesn't have to take centuries for this to occur. It can start today and can continue. One decision at a time. From today forward. Repent. Remember. Repent. And then the third thing he says here, 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. You know, it's interesting. The church in Ephesus. In fact, you can put that map up. I skipped it a minute ago, but go ahead and put that map up. This is a picture of the city of Ephesus, former city of Ephesus, and I forgot to bring up a laser pointer to highlight this. But here's the main thing I want you to see the shoreline. 500 BC. When they built the city, it was back behind the shoreline right on the edge of the water. But now the shoreline is all the way out at the end of the bay. The bay's gone. It got filled up with silt. Over time. This city that thought they were the most important in the world. Every day the river was filling up that bay. Now it's something like six miles away from the coastline. Every day. Mud, dirt, silt from the river every day. Small portions a little bit. Can't tell. Just a little bit. But if you don't deal with the sin that's piling up every day, the anger, the bitterness, the hardness. And over time, you are far from God. Repent. Remember. Turn to him. This is true of you personally, and it's true of our church. As a church, collectively, all we are are a collection of individuals. We've got a daily pursue him. Remember. Repent. Return to the things you did at first. And so here's what this means. Return to those simple practices you did at first, when you first came to know Christ, when you were on fire for him, when you couldn't read the Bible enough, when you couldn't spend enough time in prayer, when you couldn't be at church enough, when you couldn't be in Bible studies enough. But I think of many people over time, they forget those practices. They start to wander away from them. And you feel like I can coast. I was just even telling the elders this morning, you know, last month I felt like I couldn't pray enough. I was praying constantly and I said, you know, over the last week, I realized some of that has slipped. I didn't have that same enthusiasm over the last week, and the Lord just brought it to mind this morning. It's so easy to get comfortable and coast. But go back, return to those things you did at first when you were so on fire for him and so in love with him. In fact, it's interesting how many of you over the last couple of months, I can't tell you how many people who are new to the church came in and said. Well, I used to go to church. I used to be involved. It's time to get back. Person after person. I bet 20 people we know now it's time. We've got to get back. We've got to get back to the things we did first. Now here's why. Let me show you the promise he gives them to those who conquer. Look at what he says to him. To the one who conquers. Here's what's out before you. The promise I will grant to you to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. Now we are going to partake in communion in just a second. In fact, if you're helping with that, go ahead and get those elements ready. I want to point out why this would have been an interesting message to the people in Ephesus. Okay, obviously when you think of the tree of Life, you think of the garden back at the beginning of the Bible, you think of the tree of knowledge, good and evil, and the tree of life. Both are there. But this also would have been really targeted at the people in Ephesus, because one of their main symbols celebrating the cult of Diana was the date palm, the tree, and it was situated in the garden, the Paradise they called it. It was the the word for. It was the Paradise around the temple. And so here's the contrast. Yeah. Go eat from that tree, the tree of life. But it's not. It's a dead tree. Instead, the tree where we find life. It's the tree where Jesus hung. It's the tree where Jesus died. And it's through his death that you will find life.