1. Introduction:
The last time we opened a whole this book so valuable and so important to the Apocalypse, we had found Jesus and left standing in the middle of this Seven Churches of Asia. While John wrote the first of them is new here that we find: 2.1.
The fact that Jesus is present and that he personally walking among the churches has for us, as for the churches in question here, something both reassuring and formidable
- reassuring because, as shown by John, He is Jesus, who holds the seven stars in his right hand. If the churches, like the stars shining in the darkness of the sky, are called to be lights that shine in this dark world in which we find ourselves, we want to remember that this is not primarily of themselves but of their Lord that they depend for their security.
Who is the Church in his hand, his testimony, his influence, his impact in this world? Of which depends on its security? Does its officers, missionaries, the lives of its members? No! It first shows John, the Lord.
It is that which surrounds us from behind and in front and puts His hand on us. Nothing that touches us and affects us as a community can not through Him.
- whether the fact that Jesus holds in his right hand seven stars has everything to reassure us, John's vision shows us that this is not sufficient in itself to summarize position of Jesus in the Church. Jesus not only takes the testimony of the church in his hand, but he walks in the middle of it. However, this aspect, if one has in a way reassuring, also has a formidable side.
This side is that nothing in the life of the church the midst of which Jesus walks, can not be hidden from His eyes and go unnoticed. I know, Jesus told the church of Ephesus ... I know exactly where you stand with me, what state you are, which is fine, but what's wrong or longer as well as in the past . If you can deceive yourself about you and your own state, know that you can not fool me. It would be wise, therefore, that you listen to reform what needs to be. Because, if I confronts your state, if I put on you a diagnosis, this is not primarily to grieve, but to heal you.
Such is the spirit in which Jesus here, as later toured the churches. His goal is not to judge and destroy, but to treat. Because he knows that, like the human body, the body of Christ may be afflicted with all sorts of illnesses of varying severity.
For now, the Lord began to address the elements of good health of the church of Ephesus. they are 3 in number:
- works, the work is done in the church. If the works are not taken into account in our justification, they do not make them irrelevant in the eyes of the Lord. Jacques stated clearly: the works are proof of the reality of our faith: Jac 2.14 to 17. A faith that does not work, or commitment to God and neighbor is worthless.
- spiritual discernment. The fact is that the Lord shows that the warning of Paul to the elders of Ephesus at the time of his farewell was fair and has borne fruit: Proceedings 20.29 to 31
- fidelity to God in suffering. Note that if, in the history of the Church's persecution will crescendo at the outset that she was present.
If Ephesus is the head of the churches mentioned, many believe that there is nothing that is accidental. For if, as we read in the other letters, the state of the church is going to get worse, the evil that reached the church, which corrodes and degrades, started somewhere.
this somewhere, Jesus revealed here: that is, he says, the loss of first love, lost that, you might say, is the origin of all other losses spiritual, moral, but also later writers.
Ana lysis of the danger of this loss and the manner with which, with God's help, it may be canceled.
2. Love: Its Importance:
If there is, says the apostle Paul, one thing, a virtue that surpasses all others in the life of the Church is love: 1 Cor 13.1-3. The finding of Jesus to the church of Ephesus in the Apocalypse of John Paul joined the.
The church of Ephesus might be a model of good works, perseverance, fairness doctrine, having lost the first love she had for her Lord, she lost, Jesus shows the essential element, which was the lifeblood of the energy and motivation that makes it live.
Without doubt the church of Ephesus she works well yet. A look at the outside, it seems that nothing has really changed. The Word continues to be preached; posts are fair and quality activities and regular meetings of the church continued. But still, something was missing. And this something, which is the thing most precious and most dear to Jesus did not go unnoticed in his eyes.
If the rule that any time the church should live is the first love, what does he? How, through what evidence can we see and judge the quality of our love for God. look at the Scripture to try to understand.
3. Evidence of Love:
a. the first proof of love is the price, which love is willing to pay to show his affection for the person he loves. Many biblical examples illustrate the primary importance of this criterion as evidence of love
- John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son
- I remember, God says to Israel, thy faithfulness girl, your love of a young bride, when you followed me into the desert, a land where nothing grows: Jeremiah 2.2
- Mary, loving Jesus, took a pound of ointment of spikenard of great price, spread on the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair: 12.3 John
- Before the feast of Passover, knowing that it was time for him to pass from this world to the Father, Jesus who loved the resins that were in the world, he loved to the end. During dinner, he rose from table, took off his clothes and took a towel as he tied an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe: John 13, 1-5
Although different in form, the 3 examples I have quoted all reflect the same reality. Passionate love can not do anything but give and give ... unto death.
There is no true love without sacrifice, without renouncing his person, without placing themselves above, her life, her interests, the be loved, this is the love God has shown to us and He expects us to show also that for him.
Other biblical examples show that simple and demonstrate how the first love was manifested in the lives of early Christians
- Acts 2.44 to 45; 4.32 : extreme sense of community
- Galatians 4.13 to 15 : high expression of the esteem we have for each other
- Hebrews 10.32 to 34 : love the first few days.
How important is Jesus in my affections? Am I more like Mary, who believes that nothing is too good, too expensive, too expensive for him? Or more like Judas who felt he should not be exaggerated, there are limits to the expression of the love we have for Jesus, he certainly must love him, but then to sacrifice Essentially, there is abuse, waste, extremism ...
How important is Jesus in my schedule every day in managing my property, my budget?
While the Lord is the trial of His people, He complains in Isaiah something that is a hallmark of the obvious loss of first love he had for him is the contempt he displayed with regard to the observance of Sabbath Isaiah 58.13 to 14. And we consider how to us the Lord's day? Is it primarily a day for us or for God? Is it fair that we may sacrifice today for other interests?
While there may be exceptions, we must be absolutely clear about this: any absence on that day for the people of God to give to his God worship Him is due can not be justified. How do we think would make a bride waiting for her fiance to his appointment, told that it was finally preferred to cycle or to meet other friends she? Does not she feel deeply hurt by the choice of boyfriend, and she did not ask not just as the depth of his love to her?
Let us remember that beyond our words, what are the choices we make and the decisions we make that reflect primarily the degree of our love Jesus!
b. It is in the book of love the Bible, the Song of Songs, we find the second proof of love: Song 2.5 : it disease occasioned by love.
What is this disease of love? All those who once were madly in love with someone experienced. Is the fact that so absorbed by the thought of another one who loves and loses his appetite any interest for something else.
Psychologists agree also to say that if being in love is normal, it should not, in its first effects, it too hard without Whatever it may seriously endanger life and mental balance of the person.
It has however in the state of love strong parallels with the first love must live in our heart for the Lord. It is the idea that it is impossible, unbearable to be away, separated from him, not knowing him or more.
Do we feel the depths of ourselves every day of hunger and thirst for God. does not work with him, by not reading His Word or not does not pray, does it translate by a serious lack in our lives.
If yes, is that our love is known, and we can rejoice. Otherwise, we must ask ourselves about the standard and even the reality of our relationship with God. If we can do without contact with God as easily as the contact with our neighbor, we must seriously ask ourselves about the nature of the tie that binds us to Him.
4. Causes of abandonment of first love
If love is essentially a sense of need each other, His presence, how is it that, loved by God, Christians would come to lose or abandon her love? Of all the possible causes that are behind this abandonment, this morning I want to quote 4:
a. The first is that which threatens any person involved in a love relationship: the passage of time, routine, habit is taking hold. The first is the unspoken question multiple divorces. "We had nothing against each other, but there were more surprises, more news, more magic in our relationship. We separated. "
If the first love is the fruit of a discovery and revelation, that of the other, it can not last if this discovery and revelation continues. It is not the idea of God that our love for him, as between us stop because we know each other. If we know Him, let us know that we know little ink and that our lives may be amazed to discover that he is.
"You have not relied on Jacob, because thou hast been weary of me says God to Israel: Isaiah 43.12
Do we still hunger for God? Are we still love him, devoured by the desire to know him more? So it is that we are still driven to our first love? If, against this passion is more in the heart of our lives, let us know that we will not go very far in our Christian life!
b. the second, if it can be quite possible in a couple's life, should, whatever this, never be possible in our relationship with God, then disappointment.
Then they enter the marriage, it is possible that the newlyweds are mistaken and deluded heavily on what they will live: "Our life is like a fairytale fairy! Two weeks later, the fairy tale has already been a nightmare!
Is it possible to be so in our relationship with God? Can God deceive us? Or if, this can only come from one thing: not God, but false expectations that we had made in our relationship with Him!
is such a young man who hoped to marry this girl. Ila long prayed about it, he waited and the thing will not happen. It's like Christian who aspired to occupy such position the church in its business or elsewhere, and the thing will not happen. It's as pastor or missionary who sees the church growing up while his colleague his stagnant ... God has not given him what he wanted, the Christian tomb in bitterness, frustration, anger and loses its first love. (Evidence of Grace Burnham)
We would do well to reread the contract on the basis of which God has established His relationship with us! He promised us an easy life, prosperous, successful every time? No, He has promised us two things: his presence with us and eternal life. Although he gives us much more in reality, everything else is surplus. It is for himself and not for what he gives us here on earth God wants to be loved.
c. The third reason for dropping out of first love is at once the most common and most often criticized in the Bible is simply a return to the practice of sin, the old habits that we had abandoned.
I say here that the return to sin Not that the act of carnal or lukewarm Christians. He might as well be temporarily lived men of God and devoted Christians. Evidence is the dramatic fall of King David, called the man after God's heart, which in a moment of madness, committed adultery and murder and then plunged his dynasty in discord and war.
spiritual losses that we can know because of sin are incalculable. But the greatest loss is probably one of our relationship with God: Isaiah 59.1-2 . Therefore, watch and pray for it every day that we are in danger of falling.
d. The fourth issue is undoubtedly more painful of all for God, for which his heart is sadder: that is idolatry, the fact of giving to someone or something else , more passion, love, interest, attachment for Him. Let us remember the épiusode golden calf and the speed with which, after being freed from Egypt, Israel has been plunged into idolatry!
It is not in vain that the first epistle of John largely devoted to the love ends with these words: small children, keep yourselves from idols 1 John 5.21
5. Conclusion:
Where is the remedy for the loss of first love? Jesus gives us the key in his letter the church of Ephesus:
a. Remember: v 5
Remember that animated and filled your heart in the early days of your life with him .. In that time, do you follow Jesus seemed neither requiring nor difficult, nor expensive. Jesus, let us recall here do not speak to specific individuals, but to the whole church.
If love for Jesus that you were able to do at this time of radical choices, kidney Nevertheless, today this is still the case!
b. Repent and do the first works:
The cult is becoming more important for you? The prayer meeting has become boring, reading the word boring? Giving money to God's work is no longer a priority? Serving others comes after you? Repent, change your attitude and starts you set clear goals, specific before God and quantifiable
Otherwise, God says here in the church of Ephesus, you risk not only losing your place, your influence in this world, but even worse, you risk being deprived of your reward in heaven: v 5 and 7
the victor, Jesus says in conclusion, I give to eat of the tree of life which is in paradise God. It is as if Jesus told us: If you do down here for me Your life, I promise you forever give you access to what is the Source Life!
God gives us now prepare ourselves, by our love for Jesus, eternity He has reserved for us!
I am coming soon!
