Losing Your First Love

“Rediscovering JesusAuthentic Worship”
 Message @ Jericho Ridge– Sunday, Sept 17, 2017
Text: Revelation 2 // Series: Reclaiming Revelation

Good morning. Welcome.  My name is Brad, it’s a pleasure to have you along for our journey through the fall as we seek to Reclaim the book of Revelation. We started last weekend outside in our Church at the Park gathering – I want to say a special thanks to all our volunteers who helped to make that happen – I also want to say a special thanks to Curtis C who literally bled to cook those burgers – Curtis sliced his finger open and had to go to the hospital.  Curtis, we love you.  We are grateful that it’s healing well in time to go on the Men’s Work weekend.

As we move into our teaching time today, I want to re-cap what I said last weekend and that is that when it comes to Reclaiming the book of Revelation, there are two problems or pitfalls that we need to avoid. 

The first one is fearing or avoiding the book.  Sometimes we think it’s too scary or too complicated or it’s been misused or weaponized in the past and so we have some scar tissue from those wounds.  But the book of Revelation is the only ancient book I know of that starts with a Divine promise of a blessing for those who read and obey it.  Revelation 1:3 says “God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says.” If we avoid it, we miss the blessing!

The second problem or challenge occurs is if come to the book of Revelation seeking a TIMELINE for future events.  Though the book is prophecy, it’s prophetic in the sense of declaring God’s truth and inviting obedience - both in the lives of the original recipients and also down through the ages and touching our lives today.  It’s also, you’ll remember, a letter.  A letter from the Apostle John to 7 churches.  Real churches with real people at the turn of the first century AD in Asia Minor, the area of modern day Turkey. 

And we saw last week in chapter 1 and chapter 4 that John had a vision and it was a vision of Jesus.  And Jesus has specific things He wants to say to these churches & also to you & me today.  At the end of chapter 1, we read that Jesus instructed John to “Write down what you have seen [and what they mean] —both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. 20 This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels [messengers] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

So we see already, Jesus is interested in us gaining understanding of what the images and symbols and actions in the book mean. 

John sees an image of 7 lampstands representing 7 churches.  In ancient writing, seven is the number of completeness.  So when we hear and see 7 stars and 7 lampstands, yes there are 7 actual churches being addressed, and we’ll tackled what Jesus says to two of them this morning.  But it is also a way of saying this is a message for the whole church. The complete church.  As Darrell Johnson reminds us in his helpful book Discipleship on the Edge.  “The seven churches of Asia embody every major issue with which the church has struggled in every age in every cultural setting” (Johnson, 51).       

Let’s look at two messages that are very similar: the word to the church in Ephesus in chapter 2 and the word to the church in Sardis in chapter 3. If you left John’s Island prison camp on Patmos and sailed to the mainland, the first city you would encounter was the city of Ephesus.  Ephesus was a big deal.  It was the 4^th largest centre in the ancient world and boasted a population at that time of about 225,000 people.  It was a major financial centre of the ancient world – very cosmopolitan and very urban.  You think the LEC is big? They had an amphitheatre that could seat 24,000 people! 

You might also remember if you are familiar with Paul’s travels in the book of Acts, that this is a church he founded.  In fact, he pastored here longer than anywhere else.  We’re told that he stayed and taught for 2.5 years.  On top of that, this was a church led and taught by Pricilla and Aquila, two very significant leaders in the early Christian movement.  AND then, this church was pastored by Timothy!  AND then, they were pastored by John, who perhaps brought with him Jesus’ mother Mary.  I mean this was a “who’s who” of the New Testament kinda group!  If any church was going to get high marks on the church health assessment test, THIS would be the group of people!  The church at Ephesus is like the model church.  They would be the one hosting conferences, their pastors would be big time bloggers / authors, pastors would wear bracelets: WWED?   

And Jesus speaking through John, certainly has some words of healthy praise for them.  Let’s read in Revelation 2:1-3 [2 slides]

So what does Jesus say is going well in the church at Ephesus?  What are His words of commendation for them?

1. Hard working (busy in service)
2. Patient endurance in suffering
3. Theologically faithful

Verse 6 – they hate the evil deeds of the Nicolatians (we don’t know anything about these people but notice John’s wording… It is the deeds of the Nicolatians, not the people.  Ephesus has sound teaching.  They don’t tolerate unorthodoxy or heresy.  They examine what is taught and not just take it all at face value.  What’s not to love?  I mean, I would love to attend this church!

BUT.  All is not as it seems with this crew.  Things might appear to be humming right along but there are areas where all is not right with the Ephesian church.  Let’s keep reading in Revelation 2:4-5 [1 slide]

So Christ not only has commendation for them, BUT he also has an area of CONCERN.  They don’t love Him and they don’t love each other like they did at first.  They have lost, some translations say, their FIRST LOVE.  Fallen out of love with Jesus and with each other.  How did this happen?  Why did it happen?

I can tell you how it happens because it happened to us here at Jericho Ridge a few years ago.  You see, when you first plant a church, in our case, 13 years ago, the fire and passion for God & people is white hot.  You are so focused on making an impact in the lives of hurting and lost people in your city that you are willing to do anything it takes to reach them. There is sacrifice of time and finances and serving in areas that are not your core gift sets but where there is a need.  All hands on deck and everyone is on their knees continually crying out to God for His presence and power and mercy.  It was a sweet time in Jericho’s life.  The early years.  At the same time, I don’t want to romanticise it because it was hard work.  We met across the parking lot in the cafeteria at REMSS – do you know how hard it is to make a cafeteria look and sound and smell good?  But we grew into the half gym then in 2010, we moved across here to the Events Centre. 

And over time, as any organization grows, you have people and more logistics and more staff and budget to manage.  Around maybe 2-3 years ago, elders meetings started to shift.  Normally we have 1 meeting a month for prayer and 1 for decision making and organizational leadership.  It was suggested “we have so much to do, why don’t we just take some of our prayer time for discussion?”  That little bit turned into the whole thing.  Then we stopped having elders prayer times altogether because we had so much to get done!  It was subtle but we had succumbed to what is perhaps one of the most deceptive tricks the enemy can lay for a church or for an individual: Activity has replaced Intimacy.

That is the area of concern that Jesus puts His finger on in this church and by His mercy, He did it for us at Jericho.  Our current elders team got down on our knees and we repented that we had become too busy to pray.  I was listening to a leadership webinar by an author named Pete Scazzero that I deeply respect this past week and he said something striking about this problem:

• “One of the greatest dangers to the global church today is busyness. We are called to a deep life with Jesus but we are often unwilling to slow down and take time to listen to Him.  The result is that many Christians & churches today are doing great work for Jesus without Jesus!”

Pete Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Leadership Sept 6 webinar  

OUCH!  Have you ever found yourself doing so much work FOR Jesus that you don’t have time to be WITH Jesus?  Do you know, friends, it’s possible to preach sermons without Jesus?  It’s possible to pray eloquent and impassioned prayers without Jesus but it will also lack any power!  It’s possible to teach the Bible to Kids at the Ridge or lead a life group without Jesus but it won’t change anyone’s life.  It’s possible to get straight A’s 4.0 GPA in Bible College or Seminary without Jesus but apart from intimacy with God you’ll miss the whole point & have wasted a lot of money.  It’s possible to be a Christian counsellor without Jesus or a  missionary or a pastor or run a Christian charity and yet have your life be completely devoid of the presence and power of Jesus!  Let me be clear: I do NOT recommend it but it is possible!  The consequences are disastrous and your “results”, even if they are impressive, will be short lived in the light of eternity.

Here’s an assessment question to ask that tests this area of dependence on God: “If Jesus took away His Spirit, would it make any difference?”  The tragic reality is that for some congregations and some Christians, the removal of the presence of God would make no meaningful difference whatsoever. Programs would continue, people around would not notice anything had changed.  Because you operate unaware of and independent from Jesus.  You have gotten to the place where it does not take any faith to live the life you live or do the things you do.  It would all be possible on human effort or strength.         

So Jesus warns this church – “listen, I love your theological willingness to fight for truth. I love your patient endurance under pressure and in the face of suffering.  I love that you are hard-working BUT your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness. Your hard work for me is pulling you away from me.” Activity has replaced intimacy.  Friends, if this doesn’t describe the NA church, I don’t know what does.  More than any time in history, we are drowning in programs& conferences. We are well resourced with books and education and training – many of these things are excellent – but are we missing the point?  Jesus says “in all of this activity, you don’t love me or each other like you did at first”.  Friends, let me say this: Jericho could grow to fill the arena bowl each weekend, but if in that process, we did not become a more loving community of people who were more deeply passionate about God and our city, who cares!   

So to His church in Ephesus, His church at Jericho and to us, Christ gives two commands that will help bring correction to the areas of concern.  His first command is to Remember.  He invites them to remember the level of connection and friendship they used to have and to return to it.  I love the language Jesus uses when he is speaking about the same problem to the Church in Sardis.  Turn over with me to Revelation 3:1-3

There’s a little feature on most newer model vehicles today that epitomizes what Jesus is saying here.  If you are driving around town where you need to be actively aware of your ever-changing surroundings, you don’t use it. But sometimes when you go on a long drive and the road gets easy and you settle in, you flick the switch and take your foot off the gas and you are on cruise control. 

John is saying “listen. Some of you have been followers of Jesus for a long time and so you have placed your spiritual life on “Cruise Control”.  Autopilot. Prayers are simply repeated mantras with no meaning. Bible reading is done simply because you feel a sense of guilt if you don’t read. Church attendance, service: all lifeless routines with no meaning, no heart. You’ve lost your first love.

 If that is you, Jesus is saying to you today “WAKE UP!”  Take your life off of cruise control!  Remember how much love you had for me and for your neighbours, your family members, those on the margins of our culture.  People who wrestle with addictions and mental health challenges… you use to have deep love for them.  But now it’s become just routine. Just a “to do”.  

Take a minute to remember, Jesus says to them.  Go back to what you heard and believed at first.  Hold on to it firmly. 

Remember: or Wake Up!  Take the time to

• Assess your current spiritual condition: what word(s) or phrases would you use to describe your relationship with God?

Our emphasis this year is prayer.  We are trying to develop responsive listening obedience to God as our first response. So take time for a relational check in.  Ask God how He thinks and feels about your relationship.  Set aside some time to maybe journal a bit.  Check in with a person who knows you well and ask them to help give you a sense of what they see in your life.  Pastor Wally or I or your small group leader would be delighted to have that conversation with you about next steps on your growth journey.  If you feel stalled or stuck, talk to someone. 

I want also to talk for a minute here about this phrase “first love”.  I think that sometimes we think about this in terms of emotions.  And so we think “well, I remember the emotional and spiritual euphoria or excitement that I felt at a point in the distant past in my spiritual life, but let’s be real: I’m never going to experience that again!” Why would Jesus say return to your first love if it’s not a realistic possibility?  I think we need to acknowledge that for some people, that first love experience is incredibly different from your experiences today.  And so a cynicism sets in because you think “I could never replicate that level of connection or enthusiasm I felt way back at summer camp. Or when I was a brand new baby Christian.  Or at Bible College.”      

This is where the message to the church in Sardis is helpful for us. Because look at what the invitation calls us back to: what we heard and believed at first. Your actions, not your emotions, don’t meet the requirement.  Look at look at 2:5 “Turn back to me and do the WORKS you did at first”. Not “get back to the emotional euphoria you felt at first.  In other words, we are to

• Examine the actions, not the emotions

What did you DO, not how did you feel, when you were first in love with Jesus?

This reminds me of when I was dating Meg in the 90’s. My actions looked like that of a man in first love.  I would re-arrange my schedule to spend time with her.  I would stay up late in the night in conversation getting to know her more. Becoming a student of what she liked and didn’t like.  We were joking about this on Friday night as we walked through Fort Langley. There used to be a coffee shop called Spill the beans but it closed at 9 PM.  We would regularly shut the place down and not be finished talking so we’d have to move the conversation to Tim Hortons.  I would re-allocate whatever meagre finances I had to the relationship.  My actions looked like that of a man in love.  Yet the truth is that I love her more today than I did over 20 years ago when we started dating.  There’s a deepening and a maturing to that love.  But it is helpful to ask do my actions still demonstrate that I love her?  That I value her?  This is what Jesus is saying to these churches and perhaps to some of you today: You used to act like you valued Me.  The first thing you would check in the morning was your Bible, not Facebook. You used to set aside time to be with Me in prayer: Good news is you can do it again since Canucks games won’t be worth watching this season!       

The driving question here isn’t about how I am feeling, but rather about priorities.  So let me ask you today, “what place does Jesus occupy in your life?”  Friend, maybe you are listening today and you have never made that decision to invite Jesus into your life.  Not just into a part called “church” or “religion” but to be your forgiver and leader.  In a few minutes we’re going to move into a time of communion where we remember what Jesus did for us.  We have trusted and training people on our prayer team, today that is Constance and Katy and Wally and myself – and we would be happy to pray with you and start that journey.  It’s the best and most life-changing decision you will ever make!  Don’t leave here today without talking with us. 

So to recover that first love, the first thing Jesus invites this church to do is to remember. Not the emotions, but the actions. The 2^nd command is to Repent.  Now, we sometimes think of repentance as changing our minds, which is true and is a necessary & helpful part of repentance. But there’s more to it than that.   

Repentance involves a change in actions and direction, not just a mental asset to a different set of propositional truths that you hear on Sunday in the banquet hall.  So when I repent, it hits not just my heart but I also change my…

• Change habits, schedules, priorities… whatever it takes to restore intimacy

That’s how you restore or maintain closeness in a marriage relationship: you go back and do what you did when you were dating.  Jesus is calling each of us to remember and repent.  To return to that place of close connection with Him.  To make sure that in the busyness of September, we don’t lose sight of whose we are.  To not become too busy to pray.  Too busy to listen & respond to Him.

And Jesus makes a wonderful and powerful promise to those who remember and repent.  He concludes his message to the church in 2:7 with these words:

“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.”

The tree of life is at the very beginning of the Story in Genesis and it appears at the very end of the book of Revelation.  I love the way Darrel Johnson explains what this means for us in the here and now: The fruit from the tree of life “represents all of the goodness of life the Lord of Life longs to share with those who love Him. In the first creation, because of sin, the way to it is blocked. In the new creation, the blocks have been removed because of the blood of the Lamb. By the death of Jesus the way has been opened. And it turns out that the tree of Life is Jesus himself. His promise to “first love” lovers is more of himself!” (62). 

Do you desire more of Jesus today?  More of His presence and His power strengthening and comforting and guiding you?  As Megan and the team come to lead us in two songs of worship response and as some of our elders make their way to the tables to serve, the invitation is open: The picture of the communion table mirrors the two commands Christ gave to His early church and he gives to us.  Remember.  Repent.  The bread on the communion table reminds us of Jesus’ body, broken for us.  We do this as often as we eat it as an act of gratitude as we remember that He loved us enough to lay down his life for us.  So come to the table with a heart filled with thanksgiving and say “Thank you!”

The fruit of the vine, the grape juice, is on the tables as a reminder of the great cost that was paid to set us free from sin and evil.  The Blood of a fully innocent sacrificial lamb was shed so that you and I could know peace with God.  So that the way is open to relationship with Him.  Here at Jericho, this is an open table, meaning that if you know Jesus as your forgiver and leader, there is a place for you.  You don’t have it all figured out or have it all together.  Coming to the table today is an expression of saying to God “I want more of you in my life.  I repent of things that keep me from you.”  Let’s pray together and as you feel personally ready, you may stand, make your way to any table, any of our prayer team members.  Take the elements either there or back to your seat and whatever posture – standing, sitting, kneeling, hands raised – expresses what is in your heart and what you want to say to God today.  Let’s pray.