Jesus's Warning to Shut Down Good Churches (Rev. 2:1-7)

The first church in the book of Revelation had everything right, and yet Jesus threatened to shut them down. Not because of heresy, not because of sexual immorality, not because they even compromised on doctrine. They had the perfect doctrine. They tested false prophets and even removed some. They knew theology better than any other church around. But Jesus looked at them and said, I have this thing against you. One sentence is all it took to shake that Bible-believing, theologically-sound church to the core. And if it could happen to them, it can happen to us today. You're going to want to stick around to find out what the Ephesian church did so wrong that we can actually avoid today from doing. Welcome back to Get Into the Word. My name is Robbie Gallaty. Today, we're diving into the seven churches of Revelation, and we're starting with the most dangerous one. Not because it was the most sinful, but because they were the most deceived over their own spiritual condition. And before we get into the letter, I need to show you something that most people miss entirely when they study these seven churches at the beginning of Revelation. Now, you may have heard from some teachers who have taught online or in person that suggests the seven churches actually represent different ages of church history.

For example, the church of Ephesus represents the Apostolic Age, or the church of Smyrna represents the Age of Persecution, Thyatira, the Dark Ages, and so on. I've even seen charts of this or timelines, and somebody worked really hard at creating them. And I really appreciate their thought and creativity, but I don't think that's what John had in mind, and here's why. I want to pull up a map of Asia Minor, and I want to show you Asia Minor, by the way, is modern-day Turkey. I want you to look at the location of these seven churches in relation to one another. When you do that, something immediately jumps off the page. Ephesus sits on the coastline as a major port city, and because of that, the letters entering the region would have arrived at Ephesus first and then distributed throughout there, from there to the rest. And if you trace this path from Ephesus north, you go to Smyrna, then to Pergamum, then you swing east to Thyatira, then you go south to Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Then you get a half circle, a circuit route, if you will. That kind of route is one a courier or a traveling elder would have taken, or maybe a pastor like John when he was visiting the different churches of his congregations.

So if that's the case, these aren't then seven ages of the church history. They're actually seven real churches on a real delivery route in the first century. And John, who personally pastored Ephesus himself, is writing to people he knows, people he preached to, people he served alongside with, people he led to the Lord. This context matters as we read these letters from here on out. So let's begin with the blueprint John uses for all of the seven letters, and I need you to lock in here because once you see this, you're not gonna read this passage the same way again. John follows in Revelation a five-fold formula for each message. Every single church gets the same structure, and I wanna give it to you. First, John begins with a statement about Christ. He begins by describing Jesus in language that is specific and intentional to that church's present situation. Second, John gives a statement of commendation. With very few exceptions, Jesus finds something good to affirm in the church. Third, you see a statement of concern. This is where Jesus identifies a problem to work on. The fourth insight is a statement of counsel.

Jesus tells the church what they need to be doing and what to do about it. And then fifth, you see a statement of commitment. This is a promise to the one who overcomes and heeds to the words of Jesus. So let's read the letter of Ephesus, and then we will walk through each section of Revelation chapter two, verses one through seven. John writes, But what, I have this against you. and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent. Yet you do have this going for you. You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I actually hate as well. Let anyone who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. What's interesting here is we're gonna see John unpack the words of Jesus that he gave to the church. And before we unpack these words, the concern Jesus raises, you need to understand that this letter is written to a congregation in the New Testament. This was a real church. Ephesus was the second largest church in the Roman Empire. They had icons, statues, libraries, temples, all built to honor the emperor of Rome. This was a city of great power, a city of influence, a city that was steeped in imperial worship. And into that environment, the apostle John

is writing this letter of which Paul planted not long earlier. You see, Paul ordained Timothy as he said to him, you're gonna be the first pastor of this church. Now, how do I know that? We have more letters written to the church of Ephesus in the New Testament than any other congregation in the Bible. First Timothy was written to Timothy in Ephesus. Second Timothy to Timothy in Ephesus. We have the letter of the Ephesians, and we have this letter, in a sense, written to the church. These are people who are saturated in apostolic teaching. They actually knew the teaching of Paul and Timothy and John now taking over. And according to church tradition, John brings Mary, the mother of Jesus, with him to what city? Ephesus. Now, why is that? Well, Jesus told John on the cross, if you remember in John chapter 19, verse 26, he says to John, his disciple whom he loved, and to his mother, woman, here is your son. And then he says to John, behold, this is your mother. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, John, from this moment on, I need you to care for my mom. Think about that Bible study at the church of Ephesus. You had Timothy, you had John,

you had Paul who would come from time to time, and you had Mary, the woman who held Jesus as an infant. She watched him grow up. She saw him crucified and witnessed firsthand his resurrection. This church had a front row seat to redemptive history. And yet Jesus says, I'm gonna threaten to shut the entire thing down. Jesus says, I know your works, I know your labor, and I know your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You've tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. You've not grown weary. Here's the point. Their doctrine was airtight. False prophets came in, they tested them, and removed them immediately. False apostles showed up, they caught and exposed them, and got rid of them. The Nicolaitans, a group Jesus actually called out himself, were even rejected by the church of Ephesus. So theologically, Ephesus passed their own theological exam, and yet Jesus threatens to remove their lampstand, or shut them down. Now that phrase is crucial. The lampstand represents the church's witness and presence in a city. To remove it means to cease to function as a light into the dark places.

Jesus is not threatening persecution from the outside, don't miss this. He is threatening removal from the inside. And the only church in all seven letters that actually receives this specific threat is the one with the best doctrine. They knew the Bible better than anyone. Now I have to be honest with you. When I first read this, I didn't sit well with it. I really was caught off guard. It unsettled me. Because I was always taught, even in seminary, and maybe some of you were taught the same, that if you just have sound teaching and sound theology, then you'll be right with God. No questions asked. There's no way to question, no need to look into it. God would be pleased with you. But that's not what Jesus is saying here. Don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not encouraging bad doctrine. I'm not encouraging sloppy exegesis. Doctrine matters enormously. This is why I preach every Sunday at the church I pastor, Long Hollow, expositional sermons. Theology is not optional for the Christian. You need to know right theology. But here's what Jesus shows us. He shows us that orthodoxy, right belief, without orthopraxy, right behavior,

is displeasing to God and grounds for removing of one's lampstand. You see, the problem in Ephesus was not they had a problem with what they believed. It was a problem with how they behaved. And Jesus said it plainly. I have this against you. You have abandoned your what? First love, or the love you had at first. Now, for a long time, I read this, and I assumed. Jesus was talking about us leaving him, like we didn't love him enough. They had lost their devotion to God and they needed to return to a deeper, spiritual, personal affection for Jesus. And honestly, that might be what he's saying. But I want you to follow me on this because the context shows us something else. The people were champions of sound doctrine. And usually people who are typically love Jesus. People who fight for the truth of God's word genuinely have a deep affection and conviction to love God himself. That's not their problem. Their problem is a horizontal one, not a vertical one with God. The problem is how they treat people around them. Jesus told his disciples in John 13, the world will know that you are my disciples by what?

If you love one another. He doesn't say, they'll know you're my disciples if you pass a theological exam, if you go to seminary. No, it didn't say that. Those things are good, but that's not what he says. Not the world will know you by your Greek exegesis or debates with false teachers, not by your theological precision. Come in close. The world will know you're my disciples if you love one another. And here's the haunting truth. John was standing there when Jesus said that. He heard Jesus say it and he wrote it down. He preached it. He pastored Ephesus for years on the foundation of that teaching of love. And somehow the love had leaked out. The doctrine hardened into pride. I wanna share a story with you that I think captures this better than anything. Mahatma Gandhi is remembered as one of the most respected world leaders of the 20th century. As a Hindu, Gandhi deeply admired Jesus and even enjoyed his teaching. He quoted Jesus regularly. One missionary named E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi and he asked him a question. He said, why haven't you become a follower of Jesus?

You quote him all the time. What's the problem? Why haven't you surrendered your life to Christ? Gandhi replied, oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of your Christians are so unlike your Christ. That stinks and it should. Here's the backstory. Gandhi's rejection of Christianity wasn't a philosophical one. It was actually a personal one. As a young man practicing law in South Africa, he was raised studying the Bible. He was deeply drawn to the Christian faith. He had a desire to become a Christian at an early age and he decided to visit a church. He walked up the steps to the front door and a white South African elder physically blocked him from entering the church building. The man looked at Gandhi and he said, there's no room for people like you in this church. Get out of here or I'll have my assistant throw you down these steps. Gandhi never considered Christianity again. One elder at a church with a Bible probably by his bedside and zero love in his heart for another. I wanna ask you something uncomfortable. How many people are we turning off personally? Not with our unbelief, but with our behavior.

Not with our ignorance of the scriptures, but with the way we wield them and use them. I've met many seminary trained pastors, reformed brothers and sisters who can read the Greek language, parse Hebrew verbs, even debate Calvinism and Arminianism for hours on end. And they are the most cold, unloving, and judgmental people I have ever encountered toward another person who disagrees with them theologically. Someone said it this way. If you read your Bible and pray, but do not love others and God better, you have not truly read your Bible and prayed. We can check every theological box there is. And if we fail to love, then we cease to function as the church. Jesus tells them, do the works you did at first, not the works that lead to salvation. Works that flow from salvation. Get back to serving. Get back to showing up for people. Get back to the table, the basin, and the towel and wash feet. The truth must always be couched in love. And for some of us, for some of our churches, we need more love than we need more truth right now. Can I get an amen? Jesus's prescription here is both simple and brutal. I wanna go back to Revelation verse five, chapter two. Remember then how far you have fallen,

and repent and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you, what? Repent. Do you hear the urgency in Jesus's voice? Repentance there is threefold in a sense. First, there is awareness. Before you repent or turn around, you have to recognize where you are and how far you've drifted. Number two. is a return. There is a turning back toward God. Number three, there's action. You demonstrate that return with a real tangible obedience to God. Jesus is calling the church to return to the way they acted when they first met him as Savior. The night before the crucifixion, Jesus did something shocking with his disciples. And you remember this before the Last Supper in John 13, it says this. It says in John chapter 13 verse 2. Now when it was time for the supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, to betray him. Jesus knew that the father had given him everything into his hands and that he'd come from God and that he was going back to God. So he got up from the supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, this is mind-blowing, and tied it around himself. Next he poured water into the basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him. Jesus washed all of the disciples' feet, every single one of them. Now I can understand Bartholomew, I can understand Matthew, I can understand James, I can understand John, but think of who else was in the room. Judas Iscariot was there, who had already made a deal to hand over Jesus to the high priest. He was going to sell Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver, betray his own rabbi, and send him to the cross. And he's sitting at the table with his dirty feet in a basin, and Jesus knows what he's going to do and still washes them. And as bad as Judas is, I think Peter is even worse. Why? Because Peter is about to deny Jesus three times, he already predicted this, once from a girl, by a fire, by other people, while Jesus in earshot

is being beaten for what he believes and who he is. And I think in some ways Peter's denial cuts deeper than Judas' betrayal. Why? Because Judas, Jesus knew, was going to betray him. Peter, feel the way to this, claimed to be his friend. And anyone who's been cut deep by a friend knows that that wound cuts deeper. And Jesus washes Peter's feet. Anyway, when someone hurts you, and they will, you only have two options. You can pick up a sword and fight, or you can pick up a towel and serve. When you pick up the sword, you come to fight, you come to argue, you criticize, you judge, you cut down, you defend your own territory. You make them pay, you get back at them. But when you pick up the towel and basin, you come in humility. You come to serve. You come to seek restoration. You choose the harder, costlier way. The only person in Revelation with a sword is Jesus. And even while he walked this earth, he turned the other cheek repeatedly. He showed mercy to those who didn't deserve it. And he forgave those who drove the nails in his hands. When Peter's pulled out the sword in the garden, Jesus told Peter to put it away. Peter, why do you have the sword? Jesus told him, this is not why I came. When James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritan village, Jesus turned and stopped them in their tracks. So let me ask you directly, what is in your hands right now? Because Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, 23, if you're offering your gift on the altar, and there you realize that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar. First, go and be reconciled with your brother and sister or sister, and then come back and offer your gift. Here's what he's saying. Don't sing another song. Don't take another note in your Bible study. Don't give another offering. Don't plan another mission trip. Don't lead another discipleship group until you have picked up the towel and walked over to the person you've been avoiding. Who is that for you right now? Is it your wife, your husband, close friend you've become distant from, a parent, a child, a church member you've hurt or maybe hurt you years ago that you can't stop thinking about and it's living rent-free in your mind? The evidence that something has shifted in Ephesus is not just in how they treated outsiders, it's in how they treated one another. The world was watching a church full of people who had all the right answers and got all the wrong results. They knew the word, but they lost their way. Ephesus almost entirely vanished from church history. The city that had Timothy and John and Mary, the city that received more New Testament letters than any other city in the New Testament, one of the greatest witnesses in the Christian world today, sadly, is almost entirely Muslim. I led a tour there a year and a half ago and saw it with my own eyes.

And I don't say that to be grim, I say that to be honest, because Jesus' warning wasn't theoretical, it wasn't rhetorical. He meant it, and he means it for us today. Jesus' statement of commitment is one of the most beautiful promises in the entire Bible. To the one who conquers, notice this, I'm going to give you the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. The tree of life, the very tree that Adam and Eve were barred from in Genesis three, guarded by cherubim with flaming swords, with access denied back into it, that tree Jesus says, if you come back to your first love, I'm gonna give you access once again to the garden. This is a full circle promise of the gospel. Everything that was lost in the fall is now restored through the one who conquers death itself and invites us to conquer once again through him by our love. Friends, you don't have to wait till tomorrow to do it. It actually starts right now, today, in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your family, at your church. So do me a favor, drop the sword and pick up the towel. Reconcile with the person you've been estranged from right now before the weekend is over. And by the way, whatever you do, don't let the lamp stand go dark. If this video has helped you in any way, or maybe you've learned something new,

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