By: Dale Weckbacher
Revelation 2:2-3
2 "I know your
works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.
And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found
them liars; 3 and you have persevered
and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become
weary.
NKJV
The first church addressed by John in the Book of Revelation
is the Church at Ephesus . Paul addressed this same church in the Book
of Ephesians. In Paul’s letter to this
church he told them to put on the whole armor of God because our enemy is not a
flesh and blood enemy but the spiritual hosts of wickedness (Ephesians6:12-13).
As the site of the ancient Temple
of Artemis , (1) life for Christians in Ephesus
was not easy. Acts 19 records Paul’s
trip to Ephesus . Upon arriving in Ephesus Paul met some
disciples and discovered the Holy Spirit had not yet baptized them. Perhaps familiar with the pagan worship in
the city Paul knew they would need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to
effectively minister.
After the believers in the city received the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, Paul began to teach. Paul's
teaching began first at the synagogue for three months but when he encountered
resistance, he withdrew the disciples to the school of Tyrannus
and continued teaching there for two years.
During this period, God performed many miracles of healing and cast out
demons.
However, this presented a threat to those profiting from the
worship of Artemis. This threat prompted
Demetrius, a silversmith who profited greatly from the worship of Artemis to
stir up others profiting from pagan worship and a riot ensued (Acts19:28). No doubt, this animosity between
the Christians in the city and those profiting from the worship of Artemis
continued and is why Paul taught them to put on the full armor of God to battle
the spiritual powers behind the pagan worship of Artemis in the city.
In the Book of Revelation, John commends this church for their
stand against the evil of their city but he also has something against
them. They may have been a strong
militant church when it came to spiritual warfare but they were also a loveless
church that had left its first love, Jesus Christ.
The church today also finds itself in the middle of a
spiritual battle. We may not be battling
a pagan religion worshiping a pagan god but we are battling the ungodly
philosophy of post-modernism that does not adhere to any absolute truth such as
the Word of God. (2) Secular society’s
adherence to this ungodly philosophy has led to the acceptance as normal sinful
lifestyles like gay marriage and sins like abortion. Like Christians in Ephesus , Christians today face persecution
such as loss of their business or job because of their beliefs. It has also led to the acceptance of the
barbarian harvesting of organs from living babies in the interest of medical
research. Like the Ephesian church,
today’s church must stand strong against these ungodly practices but we must
also heed God’s warning and not abandon our first love Jesus Christ.
In our busy society, it is easy to get so busy we neglect
daily devotional time with our Lord. As
persecution of Christians in our society increases, as I believe it will, we must
maintain a strong connection with our Lord and fellow believers in order to
remain strong. We as believers must,
1) Be
baptized with the Holy Spirit. Just as
Jesus warned his disciples to wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit prior
to beginning their ministries (Acts 1:4), we too need this empowerment to
battle the spiritual battles facing us today.
2) Spend
time daily with the Lord in prayer and study of the Bible. God speaks to us through His Word, the
Bible. As our first love, we should have
a desire to hear from our Lord. If Jesus
is our first love, we should also want to hear from Him daily and not just once
or twice a week at church. Prayer is how
we speak to God. God loved us so much
that he sent His Son to save us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). Just as our love for God should cause us to
want to hear from Him, God also wants to hear from us.
3) Gather
regularly with other believers. When we
experience persecution, we begin to feel isolated, thinking we are the only
ones experiencing this persecution.
However, as we gather with other believers, we will discover that we all
suffer some form or persecution for our beliefs. Gathering together to worship and study the
Word allows God to strengthen us and when we gather together and pray for each
other, we strengthen each other.
Let us learn from the church in Ephesus and become a strong militant church
that is connected and empowered by its first love, Jesus Christ.
Next Saturday, we will look at God’s message to the Church
at Smyrna .
1. Starkweather, Helen. Exploring Ancient Ephesus .
www.smithsonianmag.com. [Online] Smithsonian.com, January 2008. [Cited:
September 25, 2015.]
www.smithsonianmag.com/lifelists/exploring-ancient-ephesus-11753958/.
2. PhD., Louis Hoffman. Premodernism, Modernism, & Postmodernism:. www.postmodernpsychology.com.
[Online] [Cited: September 7, 2013.]
http://www.postmodernpsychology.com/Philosophical_Systems/Overview.htm.
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