Church, we are in danger of losing our impact. The Church has more power and potential to change the world than any other movement in history because of the Person and Presence of Jesus Christ. But we are slowly becoming irrelevant.
I believe we are living in the greatest window of opportunity to transform culture, but it comes with a warning.
Ephesians 2:1-5 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. [2] 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 are not, and have found them false. [3] You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
[4] Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. [5] Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
This is the first of the seven letters Jesus has written to the seven churches in Revelation. He begins with the church in Ephesus. Before I dig into the warning, I want to give you some back story to help you understand the full meaning of the text. Ephesus was an iconic, multi-cultural city in the Roman empire bustling with trade, tourism, affluence, wealth, art and idol-worship. The Ephesian people worshipped Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and of virginity. Her temple in Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The cult of Artemis was so widespread and powerful that there was an entire industry in Ephesus around the manufacture of silver statues made in her image.
The Apostle Paul planted a church there and spent three years teaching his disciples how to lead a church in a challenging place like Ephesus. He taught them to do good, maintain the doctrine and protect the integrity of the Gospel from the wolves of idolatry that influenced the city. When I think of Ephesus, I think of New York or San Francisco.
In verse 2:1 Jesus says that He holds the seven stars in His hand and walks among the seven churches, which affirms that Jesus is not only the leader and authority over the Church, but that He also deeply cares about the Church. He watches and sees everything that goes on in His churches.
In the next two verses, Jesus commends the Ephesian church for their good works and discernment in guarding the Gospel from evil. He praises them for their perseverance in enduring persecution for His namesake. He honors them for their diligence and dedication. Yet, He held something against them. “Yet” means that no matter how good the former is, it doesn’t dismiss the latter. This I hold against you. You’ve forsaken your first love. No matter how hard you’ve worked to serve Me and protect the purity of My Gospel, I hold this against you. You’ve abandoned your intimacy with Me.
Take heed, Church, this warning is for us today. We’ve become very good at dutifully checking the boxes of our religion. We boldly declare what we’re against. We serve to the point of exhaustion. We publicly call out apostasy. We proclaim what good Christians do and don’t do. As the culture squeezes Jesus out of every public domain, we insulate ourselves and become even more religious. Social media is full of well-meaning Christians complaining about the intolerable conditions of their state and planning their exit.
We can check all the boxes, but we must check our heart. We have prioritized our religion over our relationship. And how will Jesus respond? From His own mouth, He will remove our lamp stand. Our light. Our impact. He will remove His presence. I don’t know about you, but that terrifies me! Can you imagine life without His presence? Or the Church with no impact? This is an urgent issue that Jesus calls us to repent of. We mustn’t waste time pointing at other people or denominations. This is a Church problem.
Jesus says repent and remember. Remember what you did when you first loved him. Think back to that time. Remember when you couldn’t get enough of Jesus? You couldn’t stop talking about Him. You wrote love letters to Him in your journal. You thought about Him every minute and couldn’t wait to be alone with Him. You mourned the depths of your own depravity and overflowed with joy as you experienced forgiveness that only Jesus could give. You couldn’t wait to give the same forgiveness to others. You bubbled over with grace, and mercy became your anthem. You asked Him questions and waited for His answers. You couldn’t wait to serve in His name so that hopeless people would know there’s a Living Hope named Jesus. Every day was an adventure as His Holy Spirit electrified your life with purpose and passion.
Maybe you haven’t had that experience with Jesus. Well, you can. It’s not too late.
In Ephesians 2, Paul reminded the Ephesians how they were once dead in their transgressions and sin but were now alive in Christ because of His great mercy and love for them. Church, we must remember where we’ve come from. He who is forgiven much, loves much. Let’s remember and reflect on what we’ve been forgiven of and what Jesus has delivered us from!
Church, if we don’t repent, we will lose our Light. But the Lord will accomplish His plans. His Word tells us He will. He is raising up another kind of Church. A Church of people who do remember where they’ve been. The addicts, the ex-cons, the homeless, the gangbangers, the outsiders, the infamous rappers. All people are invited to the Gospel table, but those disabled by despair have always been the most willing to come. They are sign posts to the resurrection power of King Jesus!
We pray for revival, but we miss that He is setting it up right now because we want revival our way. Revival looks like people you would never expect having radical and rapid transformations! Revival is messy and unexpected and wild and beautiful and contagious! It defies logic and breaks the status quo. It’s supernatural! Praise the Lord for what He is doing among us! The Church gets to be a part of this uprising. But we are in danger of missing out because we’ve turned away from our first love.
Don’t get me wrong, the Ephesians church was a great church filled with faithful Christians, but somewhere along the line they turned away from their first love. We have also done well to stand for Truth and to serve in the name of Jesus. But Jesus scorned the shame of the cross for the joy set before Him, the joy of living in intimate relationship with His children for all eternity. Yes, we’ve checked all the boxes, but He doesn’t want routines and rituals. He wants our heart. He demands our heart!
Hebrews 11 is often called the Hall of Faith because it recalls the ancient heroes of the Bible who, through faith, accomplished great things for God. They are our mothers and fathers of the faith who we can look to as examples of ordinary people who served faithfully an extraordinary God. But as I look at these heroes, I see more than faith. They all had a deeply intimate relationship with God. It was out of the overflow of this communal relationship that supernatural faith flourished.
Faith is a huge topic in today’s church culture. Christians clamor to know how they can have more faith to accomplish the supernatural. We look for shortcuts, follow famous Christians and volunteer for every church activity, but we aren’t seeking the one thing that fuels the kind of faith that pleases God—intimacy with Him.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. The reward is Jesus Himself. He wants to be pursued and prized just like He pursues and prizes each one of us. When we make time to be alone with Him in prayer and meditation, we experience the Lover of our very soul. That’s when our faith erupts with passion and conviction. More than anything else, Jesus wants our heart.
As we move forward in this post Christian culture, it becomes even more important that we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish great things for the Kingdom. Acts 2 says in the last days God will pour out His Spirit on all people. His sons and daughters will prophesy, young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams. These are exciting times! They are also very challenging times. Living for Christ will get harder. We will need faith in large doses to overcome what’s ahead. We must get serious about our relationship with Jesus. Church, it’s time to press into Him, to earnestly seek His face and to yearn for His Presence. We must want Him more than anything else. His love is beyond anything we could ever think to ask for. His love is better than life. Let’s stop chasing faith and start pursuing the Source of all faith. Let’s give our whole heart to Jesus before it’s too late.
There is no impact without intimacy.