I’m stuck, but what’s new. I have been teaching on 1st Timothy and the Apostle Paul has asked a young/middle aged pastor named Timothy to hang around in Ephesus and to get things back on track at the church. We can follow the history of the Church at Ephesus on Paul’s second mission trip starting in Acts 18 and 19. We see more about this specific church in 1st Timothy and then in the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 2 we see a letter written to the church by Christ Himself and it’s not really a sweet email.
The reason I say I’m stuck is I find myself thinking about this church a lot. In this note from Jesus in Revelation 2:1-7, He encourages these folks to get things straight or He will come and close the church. I’m reminded of what former NFL quarterback Don Meredith sang on Monday Night Football when it looked like there was a sure winner in the football game, he sang Willie Nelson’s old song, “Turn Out the Lights the Party’s Over.” That’s kind of what Jesus was saying, “Get it right or get out the pool, the party is over.”
It’s clear Jesus wants the church to thrive in His seven letters in Revelation but He’s not that much into just having the local church survive. Keeping the doors open and the lights on is not the mission of the church (Matthew 28:19-20).
The Church at Ephesus was orthodox, but they were just going through the motions of Christianity. They were not bad people, they just didn’t have a spiritual pulse. In the movie A Bug’s Life they talk about bugs and how they, “Come, they eat and they leave.” The people at Ephesus weren’t even doing that, they were coming and leaving but they did not eat from a spiritual perspective.
Jesus tells these folks that they have done good but their work is not finished and they need to love Him like they did in the past. Can you remember how much you loved Jesus when you first established a relationship with Him? And “do the works you did at first” (Revelation 2:5).
I like the story in John 5 about a guy that was an “invalid” and he was hanging out with other disabled people. Jesus sees this guy and asks him a question we all have to answer from a spiritual aspect. Jesus says, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6) Jesus heals the man and then the uptight religious people ask the former invalid why he was breaking the church rules by carrying the sleeping bag that he used to sit on while he hung out with his buddies on a Sunday (Sabbath).
I told you that to tell you this. I’m free. God’s grace sets us free to do what Jesus has told us to do. We are not waiting on the church and we are not accountable to a broken religious system (Judiasm). We’re free. Jesus is for us, He empowers us and He has told us to go and to make disciples. Stop just surviving; thrive! What are you waiting on? I had an old man tell me one time as I was fretting over a decision to do something. He told me, “Ken, the only one stopping you is you.” There you go. Go get ’em!
He told me to tell you that.
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