To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks:
I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;
and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.
But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
Let us bow down and pray.
Lord, we thank You and praise You that we can gather together in Your name. We believe that You are the faithful God, and that You shall be with us according to Your own word.
Lord, we long for Your presence more than anything. Lord, if we have Your presence, we are alive. If we lose Your presence, we are just like dead men.
We thank You and praise You that when You are with us, Your Spirit speaks to us. So we look to You that tonight You may speak to us through Your Spirit. Open our ears so that we may see Your own glory, so that we may fall before You and worship You.
Because You are the admirable God, we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In each of the seven letters, we find this sentence: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
Because the Lord is among the churches, the Spirit has words for us. In Revelation 1, John was on the island of Patmos, and he saw a vision of seven golden lampstands. In the midst of them was One like unto a Son of man. This is the risen Lord.
The risen Christ is among the churches. Not only is He among the seven golden lampstands, but He walks in the midst of the lampstands. Because He is in their midst, we can hear the words of the Holy Spirit. The word of the Holy Spirit is according to the presence of Christ.
We remember when our Lord was on earth, He said:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
This is the meaning of the church. What is the church? The church is when two or three gather together in the name of the Lord. It is not merely one single person; it is more than one gathered together in His name.
To gather in the name of the Lord means that they surrender themselves before the name of the Lord, so that the Lord may truly be Lord among them. Under this condition, the Lord says, “I shall be with you. I shall be among you.”
The glory of the church is the presence of the Lord. If there is no presence of the Lord, that cannot be counted as the church of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, today we may gather together in the name of the Lord, yet we may not have surrendered ourselves to Him. We can say with our mouths that we are gathering in the name of the Lord, but we are governing ourselves.
Oftentimes, we do not even expect the Lord to be with us. We do not even need Him to be with us, because we know what to do. We know how to meet. We have our traditions. We have our order.
Sometimes we even feel that His presence is a bother to us. If His presence is indeed here, then we cannot do things the way we want to do them. We say that we want to gather in His name, but we want to do our own work.
Sometimes we like Him to come and visit us. When He visits us, He may give us some blessing, and we can be revived. Then we touch Him and feel satisfied. But we do not really expect Him to stay there all the time.
Dear brothers and sisters, is this our condition today?
In the last century, there was a very famous preacher and teacher named A. J. Gordon. He was pastor of a great church in Boston, but he loved the Lord.
One Saturday evening, he was preparing the message that he intended to give the next day. As he was preparing, he became tired and fell asleep. He had a dream.
In his dream, he was standing on the platform, and the church building was full of people. Just as he was about to speak, somebody came in from the back. It was a stranger whom he did not know.
The stranger looked to the right and to the left, seeking a place to sit. At that time, pews in church buildings were often assigned to particular families. Every seat was occupied, and the stranger walked around to see whether someone would make room for him.
When he came about halfway down the aisle, one man stood up and asked him to sit in the pew. The stranger sat down.
A. J. Gordon began to speak, but for some reason his eyes were fixed upon that stranger. The man had a solemn face, as though he had gone through sorrow. His attitude was humble, and his garments were simple. Yet he sat there very attentively, listening.
After the meeting, A. J. Gordon wanted to find the stranger. But when he came down from the platform, the person had disappeared. He was disappointed, so he asked the man who had given the stranger a seat, “Who was that stranger?”
The man told A. J. Gordon, “He is Jesus of Nazareth. He came today, and He will come again.”
When A. J. Gordon heard this, his heart was stirred. He began to ask himself, “What was I speaking today? Was I speaking according to what people like? I was speaking about the Word, but what was my spirit?”
He thought of the crucified Christ standing there. “When I speak, am I exalting Christ or exalting myself? I do not know whether my Lord likes our Gothic building. I do not know whether He likes our stained-glass windows, our great organ, our music, or our program.”
To him, this was not merely a dream. It became a reality throughout his life: Christ came to the church. This vision changed the condition of the assembly. Many outward things disappeared, and everything was changed.
Dear brothers and sisters, if the Lord came to the church today, how would we respond? Is the Lord in the church? The Lord is indeed in the church. If we can go on as though nothing has happened, perhaps it is because we do not realize that He is here.
If the Lord is here, there should be a great response within us. If the Lord comes into the church, what is He looking for? What can satisfy His heart? What will make Him sad? Will our present condition satisfy His heart?
The presence of the Lord is the true meaning of the church. If the Lord is here, our condition cannot simply go on as it is.
At the end of the first century, of the twelve apostles only John remained. He was the youngest, but now he was old. He had been laboring in Asia—not the continent of Asia, but the Roman province of Asia.
The churches in Asia had been established through the gospel. Paul had already been martyred, and John had moved to Asia and served the house of God in Ephesus and elsewhere.
But John himself was imprisoned for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. He was exiled to the island of Patmos, which was near the coast of Asia.
When the weather was good, John could see the province of Asia from the island of Patmos. One Lord’s Day morning, as he looked toward Asia, his heart longed for the seven churches. These were churches that he had served, but now he could not care for them.
Then he heard a voice behind him, like the voice of a trumpet. He turned and saw seven golden lampstands. In the midst of the lampstands was One like unto a Son of man. This was the vision he saw on Patmos.
These seven assemblies had been established by Paul and continually served by John. We might think that churches begun by Paul and served by John would surely be glorious churches.
But when the Lord wrote to these seven churches, we find that only Philadelphia received praise without rebuke. Smyrna was not blamed, though it received no special praise. The other churches were called to repent.
This was the condition of the churches at the end of the first century. At the end of every letter, we find the words: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
The letter to Ephesus was not only for Ephesus. Every letter was addressed to the churches. These letters speak not only to the churches in Asia, nor only to churches at the end of the first century, but to churches throughout the ages—and to us today.
Therefore, whoever among us has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.
What the Spirit says has a basis. Let us turn to John 16:13–14.
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.
He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.
The Holy Spirit does not speak from Himself. He speaks according to what He hears, and He tells us what He has received from the Lord. No matter what the Holy Spirit says, He refers us to Christ.
Here, the vision is Christ, and the voice is the Spirit. The voice of the Spirit brings us into the vision of Christ. When the Holy Spirit speaks, we see Christ.
If we say that we have heard a word, but we do not see Christ, then we know that word is not of the Spirit. It may be doctrine; it may even be accurate doctrine. But if it does not bring us into Christ, it is not the speaking of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit came to earth for one purpose: to glorify Christ. How do we know that this is the voice of the Spirit? It brings us to Christ.
The Lord says to the church in Ephesus:
I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;
and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.
The Lord is in the midst of the church; therefore, He says, “I know.” He knows everything. Outwardly, the church in Ephesus had many good things.
The church in Ephesus had many works and many activities. They may have had children’s meetings, meetings for young people, and many kinds of service. They were lively and active.
At the beginning, these were works of faith. Because they had faith in the Lord, they had many activities. They were done according to the power of the Spirit.
But a work can continue until people no longer feel that they need to depend upon the Lord. It can become tradition. People become accustomed to it. Then faith is lost, and the work becomes dead.
Outwardly, you may not be able to tell the difference. But the Lord says, “I know.”
The Lord also says, “I know thy toil.” At the beginning, their labor should have been a labor of love. They served the saints, welcomed guests, visited the weak, visited prisoners, and cared for those in need.
There was much labor of love. But gradually, the labor continued while the love within disappeared. Then it became routine.
The Lord knows. He says, “I know thy labor.”
The Scripture speaks of endurance that comes from hope. We endure trials because we have hope in the Lord. Trials may come from circumstances, from the world, and even from brothers and sisters.
Sometimes we think that when we come to the church, we will only have enjoyment and never suffering, as though every brother and sister were an angel. But when we enter the practical life of the church, we may discover that some wounds are more painful than wounds from the world.
Yet because we have hope, we can endure. We know that if we endure with the Lord, there is hope.
But endurance can become mere obligation. A person may say, “I am a Christian. I must endure. I must smile outwardly.” Yet inwardly he is unwilling. The hope has disappeared, and therefore the joy has disappeared.
Originally, endurance brought joy because of hope. But when hope disappears, joy disappears. Outwardly we may still appear to endure, but the inward condition is different.
The Lord says, “Thou canst not bear evil men.” In the original language, it simply says that they could not bear evil. Of course, this includes evil men.
The church in Corinth had tolerated evil to an extent that should not have been found even among the Gentiles. But the church in Ephesus was different. They had a sense of righteousness. When evil appeared, they could not tolerate it; they had to deal with it.
Whether the evil was false doctrine, heresy, evil conduct, or evil persons, they opposed it. This was right. Yet they could come to do this out of a so-called sense of righteousness which became self-righteousness. They began to think that they were above others.
The Lord knows the real condition among them.
The Lord also commended them because they tested those who claimed to be apostles but were not, and found them to be false.
There were not only the twelve apostles in the New Testament. There were other true apostles sent and established by God. But there were also false apostles. The true apostle is sent by God and works the work of God. The false apostle establishes himself and builds his own empire.
At the end of the first century, many false apostles came to Ephesus. They claimed authority so that they could teach, rule, and exercise authority over the church.
The Ephesian believers had the ability to distinguish between what was true and what was false because they were well versed in the Scriptures. They knew how to use the Bible to test what was true and what was false. This was a good thing.
But they could go so far in testing false apostles that they even rejected true apostles. They themselves became the judges. They placed themselves above those whom God had sent.
The Lord says that they had borne for His name’s sake and had not grown weary. This endurance was different from the endurance mentioned before. This endurance faced the world.
For the sake of the name of the Lord, they endured persecution and misunderstanding from the world. They did not grow weary. This also was a good thing.
But even this endurance could become merely, “This is what I should do because I am a Christian. I have no other way.” Again, the inward condition had changed. The Lord knew their inner condition.
The Lord says, “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
In church history, we cannot reliably identify a particular party called the Nicolaitans at the end of the first century. The word appears to be symbolic. In the seven letters, names often have symbolic meaning.
The name Nicolaitans is made from two Greek words. One word means to conquer or rule over; the other refers to the laity, the ordinary people. In other words, it describes a division between clergy and laity.
Some people came to regard themselves as a higher class. They ruled over the ordinary believers. They set themselves apart as the only ones who could serve the Lord, as though they were priests in the Old Testament while all other brothers and sisters were merely laity.
This class distinction had not yet become a formal doctrine. It was first a practice and an attitude. Some people behaved as though they were above everybody else.
John himself had experienced this. He spoke of a man who loved to have the preeminence among the assembly and would not receive the servants of God.
The Lord says, “Which I also hate.” We are all children of God. We are members one of another. Every one of us is a royal priest, and every one of us should serve the Lord.
It does not please the Lord to have a mediator between us and Him. Between God and man, there is only one Mediator: our Lord Jesus Christ. Between us and the Lord, there should be no other mediator.
Every brother and sister can come directly to the Lord. Every brother and sister should rise up and serve Him, live for Him, and offer spiritual sacrifices to Him. We should not have this class distinction among us. This behavior is hated by the Lord.
Yet there is another danger. In opposing the Nicolaitan system, people may go to the other extreme and come into democracy. But the church is not a democracy. The church is a theocracy: it is ruled by God.
Although we are equal before the Lord according to life and according to grace, there is a spiritual order in the Word of God. God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of all, and man is the head of woman.
Sometimes sisters may be more spiritual than brothers. This is often true. It shows that the grace of God makes no difference between man and woman. But in the family and in the church, there is still a spiritual order.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are equal in nature. One is not higher than another. Yet, in order to accomplish the will of the Father, the Son willingly yields to the Father. This is spiritual order, not inequality.
The church in Ephesus had come to the point where they could hate what God hates, but they could not love what God loves. Outwardly, they looked good. But the Lord said, “I know.”
The Lord knew that there were these good works in the church at Ephesus. But what did He say to them?
But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.
This is very strong language. It is not merely, “There is one small matter I have against you.” The meaning is, “I am opposed to you.” Although you have many good works, the Lord knows the inward story.
These good works should have been the outflow of the life of Christ. They should have been the fruit of the Spirit. But at that time they were no longer the outflow of Christ or the fruit of the Spirit. They had become their own works, the expression of their natural condition.
Therefore, these things could not satisfy the heart of the Lord.
What is the Lord looking for in the church? He is not primarily looking for works, labor, endurance, opposition to evil, testing, suffering for His name, or hatred of the Nicolaitans. All these may be good things, but they are not what He is looking for.
What the Lord is looking for in the church is Himself. He comes to the church looking for Himself.
If work is the expression of Himself, it satisfies Him. If endurance comes from His own character, it satisfies Him. But if these things are not the outflow of Himself, not the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and not motivated by first love, then He cannot see Himself in them.
And because He cannot see Himself, He says, “I am opposed to you.”
Dear brothers and sisters, we may give Him many works, much endurance, much knowledge, and many other things. But if we do not offer ourselves to Him, the Lord says, “I am opposed to you.”
This language is very severe. This is what the Spirit says to the church.
What is first love? When we were first saved, we had received much forgiveness. We were sinners, corrupt and lost, but one day the grace of the Lord came to us.
We remember the woman in Luke’s Gospel who brought an alabaster cruse and anointed the feet of the Lord. She had received much forgiveness, and therefore she loved much.
When we were first saved, because we had received much forgiveness, our hearts toward the Lord were pure. We truly loved Him.
But first love does not primarily refer to time. First love refers to quality. It is the better love, the supreme love.
God loves us and gave His only begotten Son for us. Our Lord loves us and gave Himself for us. The Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts. God is love.
Love is not merely a behavior. Love is a quality; it is the very nature of God. Because God is love, all that He does is love.
What the Lord is looking for is love, because God is love. In love, He can find Himself. Only this can satisfy His heart.
First love is a complete love. In Deuteronomy we read:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Our Lord said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind.
What the Lord is looking for in the church is a perfect love. We may indeed love the Lord, but can we say that we love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength? Do we love Him perfectly?
Can we say, as Psalm 73 says:
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.
A brother once said that it was easy for him to say that in heaven there was none but the Lord. But he could not say that on earth there was nothing else he desired, because he loved someone deeply and hoped to marry her.
That woman did not receive the Lord. The brother still loved her, and he told the Lord, “If You allow me to have this, I will serve You doubly.”
But the Lord did not argue with him. Finally, one day, the love of the Lord touched him. He said, “Lord, for Your sake I am willing to let go.” He then wrote a poem.
Dear brothers and sisters, do we have a perfect love toward our Lord? We should love our parents, our husband or wife, our children, and many brothers and sisters. But if we want to love them truly, we must love the Lord perfectly.
First love is love without self. When the love of the Lord touches you, you do not have yourself in view. You do not care for yourself. You do not count the cost. As long as it is for the Lord, you are willing to go.
This is the beginning love. This is first love.
First love is enduring love. God loved us to the end. When the Lord was about to be crucified, knowing that He was going to the Father, He loved His own who were in the world, and He loved them unto the end. He washed their feet.
Today, is our love toward the Lord changing—hot at one time and cold at another? Or do we love Him continually in the love of the Lord?
Love is sacrificial love. It is willing to sacrifice and does not count the cost. Our Lord loves us in this way.
Actually, what the Lord wants from us is only one thing: He wants us to love Him as He loves us.
A bridegroom has one request for his bride: that she have a pure and single love toward him. She may be able to do many things in the house and perform many household tasks, but if her heart is not toward her husband, that is not what her husband wants.
What the Lord wants from us is that love.
After His resurrection, the Lord asked Peter one question: “Peter, do you love Me?” “Lovest thou Me more than these?” “Do you truly love Me?”
What the Lord looks for in the church is that love. Without that love, the Lord says that He will remove the lampstand.
The Lord says, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works.”
It is very easy for us to leave the first love. Any number of things can cause us to leave it.
Sometimes it is pride. Because the grace of God has been given to us, we may unknowingly become proud. There is such a thing as so-called spiritual pride. But if you are truly spiritual, you do not have pride. If you are proud of your spirituality, you love yourself more than you love the Lord.
Some have ambition. A person may appear humble, yet have ambition within, expecting to do great things even for the Lord. Because of this, he leaves the first love.
Some are attracted by the world. When you were first saved, you were willing to forsake the world and follow the Lord. But afterward the world attracted your heart again, and the world took half of your heart away.
Some leave the first love because they look at people. They look at a brother or a sister, especially one whom they respected greatly. Then they see that person fail, and they stumble.
A brother once said, “If you stumble, your eyes are blind. If there is a rock before you and your eyes are open, you will not stumble. You stumble because you are blind.”
Many children of God have left the first love because they blame certain brothers or sisters. They are wounded and disappointed. But did the Lord disappoint you? Did the Lord ask you to look at certain brothers and sisters? The Lord wants you to look up to Himself.
The more you look at Him, the more you are moved within. The first love returns to you.
We have to remember from where we have fallen. We have to repent. We cannot blame people. We cannot say that men have wounded us, and certainly we cannot say that the Lord caused us to stumble.
We have to repent. Our hearts and minds have to change. We have to admit that this is our weakness, and we have to turn back to the Lord.
How can we regain the first love? To restore the first love, we must go back to the Lord.
We must come out of tradition and go back to Christ. We must come out of doctrine that does not bring us to Christ. We must come out of organization and go back to Christ. We must come out of outward forms, outward works, and ourselves—and go back to Christ.
All these external things can go: behavior, works, labor, endurance, testing, and hatred of evil. Do not set your eyes on these things. Do not let these things occupy your heart.
Come out from all these outward things. Come to Christ.
If you come back to Christ, the first love will come forth from you. Then you can do the first works. All these things still need to be done, but the way you do them will be different from before.
What you are doing now may be outward and natural. But the work must come from within. It must come out of the life of Christ. It must come out of love.
Then you need not fear that you will fail to work, fail to endure, or fail to hate evil. These things will be there. But inwardly, you will have Christ.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
May we repent before the Lord, admitting that we have left the first love. To leave the first love is to leave Christ. We must come back to Christ and ask Him to fill us once more.
Let us forget everything else and look only to Christ. This is what the Spirit says to the church.
Lord, we thank You that You are still walking among the churches. Although the condition of the church may grieve You, You are still caring, and You are still calling.
Lord, we ask You that, as we hear the voice of the Spirit today, we may come back to You. Let us satisfy Your heart.
When You are satisfied, then we can be satisfied. We thank You and praise You in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.