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November 28, 2004
First Sunday in Advent
Revelation 2:1-7
Pastor Joel Zank

Behold, Jesus is Coming!

(Revelation 2:1-7) "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 men, 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 your first love.5 Remember the height from which 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.6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

In Christ Jesus, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, dear fellow redeemed,

"Wait till your father gets home." Those words stir up nothing but anticipation in the child hoping to open Christmas gifts as soon as possible. "Wait till your father gets home." Those words stir up nothing but dread in the child who has just carelessly broken a family heirloom. Same words, same dad, very different feelings.

Twice in the book of Revelation the Lord Jesus says, "Behold, I am coming soon." How do those words make you feel? Are you dreading the Lord's return, or hoping he arrives any minute? Jesus wants us looking forward to his second coming, so during this first season of the church year, the season of Advent, Jesus comes to us in his Word to prepare us for his return. With this in mind, we'll take as our sermon theme: Behold, Jesus is Coming! He's coming to us through his Word today to call us to repentance; and he's coming to promise us life!

Our Lord speaks to us today from the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, so named because it is a message revealed by Jesus who told the Apostle John, "Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later" (Revelation 1:19). By means of a vision, John was given a look at the battle in which the Savior and his church are now engaged, a battle against Satan and his allies, a battle that, thanks to Jesus, the church will win.

The book of Revelation was originally sent to seven churches located in the region of the world that makes up present day Turkey. During the seven worship services that make up our season of Advent, we're taking the opportunity to study the seven letters of Revelation that Jesus addressed to these churches, giving special consideration to what the Savior's words mean to us as individuals and as a Christian congregation.

As we give thought to words of this book we'll want to keep in mind that we are listening to John's vision. He's sharing a dream with us, and so at times he describes images that sound strange and mysterious-as a dream would. For example, in the verses of our text we hear of seven stars and seven lampstands. But just before our text begins, Jesus tells John, "The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches" (Revelation 1:20). That explains the lampstands, but who are the angels of those seven churches? The word angel means messenger. Most often in Scripture the word is used to refer to heavenly beings, but there are several places in the Bible where the word is used to refer to God's earthly spokesmen. That is the case here. The angels of the seven churches are the pastors of those churches.

Jesus tells John, "To the angel [the pastor] 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:" (Revelation 2:1). In this one verse, Jesus reminds us that every word of the Bible comes from him, the Lord of the Church who is watching over and working through his messengers and who is always dwelling in the midst of his people, protecting them from every enemy, seen and unseen.

What words does Jesus have for his church in Ephesus and its pastor? "I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, 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" (Revelation 2:2-3).

The all-knowing Lord compliments his church. His people have been hard at work. Doing what? They've been carrying our church discipline. The Ephesian Christians understood that every member of a Christian church has the responsibility to live and speak as a child of God. They did not tolerate anyone who refused to do so. People who chose to live in sin were removed from their congregation. Jesus commends his church for this. He also commends his people for their ability to recognize and shun false teachers. Already in the early Christian church there were denominations or groups of people who had strayed from the Lord's teaching. Jesus wants his people to hold to his truth and to refuse to worship with those who don't. You can well imagine that the Ephesian Christians were ridiculed for such practices, but Jesus comforts them by pointing out that the hardship they endured was for his sake. He was honored by their perseverance and their loyalty.

Wouldn't it be nice if Jesus told us that he was pleased with our ministry? He does-right here in Revelation 2. You are members of a congregation like the one in Ephesus, a church that practices Christian discipline. That's a rare thing in this day and age. Many churches simply look to pack the pews on Sunday mornings. They're pleased that hundreds or even thousands worship with them every week, but they take little or no interest in those who fall away. They offer no word of warning about sin. They show no Christian concern. But you do. This pleases our Lord. It pleases him also that we as a congregation seek to preserve his truth by refusing to fellowship with Christians who mix in error with God's Word. Of course, because of our practice many may brand us as snobs and pressure us to change, but Jesus commends our perseverance and he is honored by it.

So you see, these words of commendation are meant for us, but, then, that's also true of the words that follow them. Jesus says, "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.5 Remember the height from which 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" (Revelation 2:4-5). Thirty-five years earlier in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul had written, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19). The Ephesians' first love was the gospel of Christ. Paul prayed that they might continue to be filled with the power that comes from knowing that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son to save sinners. But at some point, the Ephesians began to take that message for granted. Haven't we done the same?

We sing about God's amazing grace, but if it truly strikes us as so amazing, why do we make so little time to read and hear about it? Where did our love for that message go? Remember the first time someone gave us a Bible, how we sat down with that precious book and began to pour through it? Remember how as students in confirmation class we learned about Christ's body and blood given with bread and wine in his Holy Supper? Remember how we longed to go to his Table and receive that wonderful meal? But now it's old hat, and it shows. It shows in our lack of attendance at worship, and communion and Bible class. It shows in the little time we give to prayer. Our relationship with God isn't what it should be, and because it's not, our relationships with each other aren't what they should be either. When the gospel has no opportunity to fill our hearts with Christ's love, we become people who are just going through the motions. We may do the right things, but for all the wrong reasons. This brings no honor to our Lord, only concern. So Jesus comes to us today to call us to repentance. The word "repent" literally means "to change one's mind about sin - to turn away from sin." Repentance is a condition of the heart, but it never affects the heart alone. When there is true repentance, there is also a change of action. That's why Jesus urges us to do the things we first did, to go back to our Bibles, to read and study them like never before. But what if we don't? Then, says Jesus, "I will come to you and remove your lampstand." In other words, we'll lose his gospel and the church it gives life to in this place. That is no empty threat. In our day there is no Ephesus, no Ephesian Christians. The church there disappeared long ago. If we do not repent, the same will happen here and worse. Not only will we lose our church, but our soul's salvation. People who have no love for the gospel perish in hell. So Jesus says, "Repent!"

But what if it's too late for repentance, too late to change our ways? It's not, my friends. Jesus doesn't say these things to torture us. That's not his way. He loves us, so much that he laid down his life for us and then took it up again to bring us home to heaven. He speaks hard words to us today, but they are spoken in love and with an offer of hope! Look at the closing verses of our text. Behold, Jesus is coming to promise us life. He says, "But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate" (Revelation 2:6). It seems that the Nicolaitans were a sect of Christians who believed that since Christ had already paid for their sins, they could sin as much as they wanted to. Like their Savior, the Ephesian Christians hated such practices - a sure sign that there was still a heartbeat of faith within them. So it is with all of us who join Christ in hating sin, our sin and the sin of others. We have this in our favor because hatred for sin is a sign of the spiritual life that Christ has given us. Spiritually dead people love sin. They want to live in it and enjoy more of it all of the time. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, that is no longer true of us; and if he has his way, it will never be true of us again.

So says Jesus: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7). Today Jesus has given us reason to sorrow over the way we've treated him and his gospel. We realize that we should love him and his Word more than we do. But perhaps we're not sure how to grow such love in our hearts. We don't have to, for this is God's work. We just need an ear. And wouldn't you know it, God has given us two of them as well as something worth listening to- a powerful, life-giving, faith-building, love-growing Word, that comes right from the mouth of God's Holy Spirit. What is this Word? It is nothing less than God's promise that you and I are completely pardoned for all our sin and from all its horrible punishment. As the sinner's Substitute, Christ has cherished God's Word in our place, reading it, studying it, and proclaiming it to others. And now he has made his love for God and the gospel count as our love. When God looks at us, he sees people who love the Scriptures as much as Jesus does. In the same way Christ's sin-payment counts as ours too. He bore the curse for our lovelessness. He died to win us life, and now he lives to make sure that not even our own carelessness will separate us from a life of peace with him here and a life of bliss with him hereafter.

Our Savior is confident that as we hear the good news the Spirit speaks to us in the Bible, we will want to hear more and more of it. We'll want to talk about it in our homes. We'll want to read about it during our breaks at work, and we'll want to listen to it in sermons and discuss it in Bible classes; and all the while we're doing all these good things with the Word, the Spirit will be using that Word to help us overcome every enemy of our soul until that day when we step into heaven, the new Eden, the paradise of God, and there eat of the tree life. Its wondrous fruit will make us alive for ever in a place where there is no sin, no sadness and no death. Behold, dear friends, Jesus is coming to give us life without end. So come Lord Jesus! Come soon for your people's sake. Amen.