| Building a City Within a City |
|
|
Building a City within a City Matthew 5:14-16 & Revelation 2:1-5 The images you were looking at were of city named Ephesus. Today, Ephesus is located on the southwestern shore of Turkey along the Mediterranean sea. The church in Ephesus was established by the apostle Paul on his 3rd missionary journey in the year 55 ad. Paul spent 3 years at this church developing it into a strong church. In fact, Paul spent more time at this church than any other church. This church had an all star pastoral staff team; they were discipled by Aquila and Priscilla; they were taught by Apollos, pastored by Timothy, and instructed by Paul. Later even the apostle John – one of Jesus’ inner circle – made Ephesus his home church and when he writes about them he refers to himself as the Elder. Ephesus was known at that time to be one of the most significant churches of the day. Either directly or indirectly, Ephesus had been the recipient of 8 NT books – gospel of John, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1, 2, 3 John and Revelation. With an all star staff, with the blessings of God, and with the revelation of God’s Word 8 different times to the church in Ephesus we would certainly expect that this church would have a long history of being a city on a hill shining light into the darkness of Ephesus. That’s what we would expect; but, that is not what we would find. The Ephesians’ light was snuffed out and that church went out of existence. In fact, there are more than 3,000 churches each year that close their doors and go out of existence. That means 3,000 light-bearing sources of Jesus Christ are extinguished every year. In the business world, businesses are shut down all the time for the most essential reason. Even when companies employ excellent people who are skilled, even if they produce a great product, if they are missing the most essential element - profit – that company will shut down. Similarly, there are many good churches who believe in the right doctrine, preach good sermons, and are hard at work doing good works and they close every year. Why do they close? They close because they are missing the most essential spiritual element. Our church has been in existence for 170 years. But, will this church survive another year? Will this church be in existence in 5 years or 20 years? God’s snuffing out the Ephesians’ light should teach us that no church is untouchable, all churches must heed this example. How long will this church be what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount – “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 We started this series on Jesus’ premise that nothing can prevail against the church and succeed – not even hell itself. We affirm the truth that nothing can overtake God’s church; if God is on our side then who can stand against us. Today, it is my hope that you really appreciate that nothing can prevail against our church…that is nothing except God Himself. How long this church will exist to shine light on this city depends entirely on how seriously we listen to the warning that was given to the church in Ephesus. The great church in Ephesus was warned that its light would be snuffed out if they did not make changes, and in fact there is no Christian church today in Ephesus. The light of that great church has been extinguished. You need to understand that every church is at risk of being extinguished by God if we fail to do the most essential thing of all – collectively move away from loving God and others Turn to Revelation chapter 2 to see God’s warning and recommendation to the churches in Ephesus and Romeo. The apostle John who attended the Ephesian church was inspired by God to write this book, and in it there are no errors. “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: (Rev. 2:1) In Revelation we find letters written to seven historical churches. The letters dealt with actual conditions of church life around 90 ad. There were many more churches than 7 at that time, but only 7 were selected as they perfectly represented conditions characteristic of churches throughout history. The problems in those churches ranged from waning love in Ephesus to entirely moving away from God’s truth in the city of Laodicea. Any church at any time could have a mixture of the sins that plagued these churches. Today, we will discuss only 1 of the 7 churches – the church of Ephesus. In Revelation chapter 2, we find Christ holding the seven stars in His right hand – a place of honor – the seven stars are the pastors of these 7 churches. God holds all the pastors of his local churches in his hand under his power as he mediates his sovereign rule in the church through human leaders. Christ is said to walk among the 7 golden lampstands – that is the 7 churches – as he walks he is scrutinizing, examining, assessing and evaluating the local churches. Here we find Christ the ultimate overseer, assessing and evaluating the Ephesian church; yet, today he assesses and evaluates the Romeo church. The first letter is written to the Ephesian church. The Christian church had a great effect on the city of Ephesus. Ephesus was the most important city in Asia Minor. The population was between 250,000 – 500,000. They hosted athletic events that would rival the Olympic games. Many, many people converted to Christianity. There was one great act demonstrating repentance – they turned from the idolatry of magic toward depending on God. They had a good old fashioned book burning. The mass of people turning toward Christ brought their books on magic and burned them in sight of everyone. It was calculated that the value of the books on magic burned equaled 50,000 days of workers’ wages. Ephesus was deeply rooted in magic. This was a public profession of faith that God is in control and that no magic can take that out of God’s control. I hope you know that God has called you away from horoscopes, away from tarot cards, palm readers, spells and Ouija boards. These are modern day magic. Some of you do this for fun, yet God wants you to have no involvement in this. This group of believers lived among some of the greatest idolatry and immorality. Ephesus is most famous as the center of worship of the goddess Artemis. The worship of this goddess was an important source of income. Every spring a month long festival was held in honor of the goddess and the sale of items at that festival was quite important to the local businessmen. The worship of Artemis was unspeakably vile. Her idol was a gross, many breasted monstrosity, believed to have fallen from heaven. The festival was filled with priests, prostitutes, bankers, criminals, musicians, dancers and frenzied hysterical worshippers. Huddled in the midst of such pagan idolatry was a faithful group of Christians. It was to this group of believers that our scripture was written. This is the darkness that they were called to shine forth the light of Christ. The church in Ephesus was to be a light in a very dark place. They had originally done a very good job about 40 years previously. Many people lost in the darkness of magic and goddess worship were realizing the error of their ways and repenting and turning toward the light of God’s truth because of the loving Ephesian believers. The Ephesian church was known to be on of the great churches of the day, but something had gone wrong, terribly wrong and Jesus spoke directly to that church and every other church throughout history that became like them. Jesus first commends his churches; Jesus recognized the good of the Ephesian church. Rev. 2:2-3“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. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” The Ephesian church had successfully refused to allow wrong teaching and immorality to go on in the church. They exercised church discipline when necessary. The Ephesians were orthodox in the doctrinal beliefs. John stressed their depth and degree of labor for the Lord. The church had been doing good deeds and taking great actions under pressure over the long haul. They labored for Christ to the point of exhaustion; they did not have a spectator mentality when it came to work for Christ, instead they were involved. Maybe you are sensing God direction to getting more involved in serving, back at the resource center you can find a brochure on opportunities. I would say Christ would have much good to say about Romeo. I believe Jesus would tell us that he knows of our efforts to serve every group of people – we serve kids at Mainstreet and Kidstown; we serve students at Lightforce; we serve young adults at Elevate; we serve adults on Sunday, in small groups, at Marriedlife, and at Romeo Bible Institute. I think Jesus would acknowledge that we are balanced toward every age in this church. I believe Jesus would affirm our biblical teaching on Sunday and in our small groups. And, I believe Jesus would affirm our striving when times have been difficult. Romeo – you have much to be proud of; you have worked hard and it has not gone unnoticed by our Lord. He sees you serving, he sees you teaching, he sees you greeting and he commends us for many good acts of service. Despite all this good in Ephesus, there was something essential that was missing which if not corrected would extinguish the church’s light. The Ephesian church despite its incredible history and despite the incredible pastoral staff of Paul, Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos, Timothy, despite all that great history, Jesus looks at the now; he looks at the church in the present day not the past. Jesus appreciated the history but the continued blessings to the church would be entirely dependent on what God was telling that church to do right then. Romeo we have done well, but what is God calling us to today; God affirms our history, but what about today do you sense God directing us toward bringing Him to this city? As God calls churches to change, they either change or their light is extinguished. Rev. 2:4-5a“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen!” This church was doing many things right – they had the right gospel, the right doctrine, they were actively serving, but Jesus wrote to them warning them of a fatal flaw. This was not a flaw that damned them, instead this flaw threatened the continued light bearing existence of their local church. Something happened to their love for God and others. It had been 40 years from the time Paul planted the church to the time John penned these words. After 40 years, they had left their first love. They had drifted away and forsaken or left their love for God, and their love for the unchurched. They were carrying out their Christian responsibilities but with diminishing love for God and others. The loss of a vital love opened the doors to spiritual apathy, indifference to others and a retreat inward to protect themselves rather than shine the light on their dark culture. It appears that initially the Ephesian church was impacting the culture with having people turn away from the magic and dark arts. But, now 40 years later they were focused primarily on edifying the saints which is a good thing…but the purpose of building up the saints is always for the purpose of sending them out into the city to shine light and lead more to Christ. I believe they had gotten so inward focused that their light was dimming. As they got of the full moon path, they got dimmer and dimmer. You are not a light simply by becoming biblically smarter, you are not a light simply by coming to church, you have light but to not be snuffed out you must take that light into the darkness so the lost may see you and hear from you. Their spiritual labor became merely mechanical, the thing they were responsible to do. Here is how I see the risk to our church – we coming to church out of duty, it has become mechanical singing of songs and we are not engaged in worship as the bible is taught. We do it because it is the right thing. Jesus is looking for an intimate spiritual walk rather than your obligatory dutiful attendance, he is looking for more than you standing for the Sunday songs…he commands us to embrace the song and worship him in song. As you stand and refuse to sing worship songs you simply reveal that you are not spirit filled – in both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 we are instructed that the spirit filled believer pours out his voice in song. If you don’t sing because you don’t like the song then you reveal your lack of submission to our worship pastor. If you tolerate the sermon rather than engage the biblical text you reveal that your heart for God has grown cold and the word of God does not dwell richly in you. We should be able to get worshipful about any biblical text that is taught correctly and any song that praises God. If we are to bring God to this city, then when they come here God is telling us that they better see God being worshiped most clearly right here. If a visitor were standing by you today would they have any clue that you are God’s child, would they have any clue that you worship him in song, or would they think this is your first Sunday too? If you want this church to not lose its light; if you want this church to continue for another 170 years being a city on a hill that emanates light to the dark culture, then hear what is said to you today through the Ephesian church. “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.” Rev. 2:5 Jesus said nothing can prevail against his own church…that is nothing except God himself. If the Ephesians fail to remember, repent and repeat, then God will prevail against his own church. When you leave your love, you lose your light. When Ephesus left loving Jesus, they risked losing the light of Jesus. The church of Ephesus does not stand today, it was not dimmed but it has been completely snuffed out. A couple was driving home from church. The wife was sitting in the front seat on the far right side. Her husband was in his usual place behind the steering wheel. Seemingly, a large gulf separated them. With lonely eyes, she looked at him and said, “Honey, do you remember when we first met, how close we used to sit to each other? You used to put your arm around me. What happened to those days?” With one hand firmly attached to the steering wheel, and the other resting on the empty seat between them, he said, “Well, I haven’t moved.” The distance was not because he had moved. A separation resulted because she had moved away. God has not moved away from you, but today take responsibility if you have drifted away when it comes to your expression of love for God and others in the church context. |
| Next > |
|---|
Marriage
At Romeo, we don't think great marriages happen by mistake. So we work hard to help encourage you.
At Romeo, we don't think great marriages happen by mistake. So we work hard to help encourage you.
Children's Ministry
For children birth through 6th grade, your kids will beg you to come to church on Sunday.
For children birth through 6th grade, your kids will beg you to come to church on Sunday.
Students
Students are vital to many aspects of Romeo's ministry. We invite middle and high school students to join a small group, get connected, and experience life change.
Students are vital to many aspects of Romeo's ministry. We invite middle and high school students to join a small group, get connected, and experience life change.
Romeo Bible Institute
When you are ready to take the next step in studying God's Word, Romeo Bible Institute is there to help.
