The Church's Love For Christ

Acts 19.1-22, Ephesians 3.14-21, Revelation 2.1-7

Churches are born and they develop and unfortunately many end up in need of correction, to return to their roots and become a vibrant light again.

Churches go through stages. The Ephesian Church is the one and only church in God's Word we can see from its inception, an epistle written to it and a message from Christ to it in that stage of correction.

Interestingly often when churches are studied these days you see the tracing of its attendance and finances but seldom is the issue Jesus had with this church addressed. It is ALL important.

The Ephesian Church had, in the words of Christ to it, forsaken its first love. Before delving into this let's go back to its beginnings to see what it was before this message of Christ Jesus was given to it. What was its first love?

1. The Ephesian Church was born in a great move of God. Acts 19.1-22
Water baptism of believers and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit were in its early days.
John the Baptist spoke of both. Jesus did as well. In fact His final instructions before He went into heaven in those last days before the ascension contains both.

The account in Acts 19 of the beginnings of this church start with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some have called this The "Ephesian Pentecost". By v.10 we are told that everyone in the Province of Asia heard the Word of the LORD. The gospel was explained to everyone, to each person, so they could understand it... the Baptism with the Holy Spirit which Jesus spoke about in Acts 1 to empower the church to share the gospel. The apostles needed this to carry out  Jesus' command to go into the all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. They needed this to be witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We do too!

The Baptism with the Spirit gave (gives) instantaneous power and boldness, vision and the ability to speak God's Word with great boldness. God confirms His Word with miracles, signs and wonders.

So this church in the city of Ephesus was used by God to evangelize the entire province.
Being filled with God's Spirit gives power and over a period of time there is the fruit of the Spirit which develops. That fruit is love.

2. Paul, the apostle, prayed for their growth in love. Ephesians 3.14-21
Rooted and established in love- v.17
Power to grasp the enormity of the love of Christ.-v.18
to know this love and be filled with all the fullness of God -v.19
knowing the unknowable, His love higher than the heavens, reaching tot he sky!

By the time John receives The Revelation of Jesus Christ with the message to this Church at Ephesus some 30 years have passed and Jesus after commending them for their deeds, hard work and perseverance, not tolerating wicked men, testing would be apostles, enduring hardship and not growing weary- they were a very good church, ahead of many, yet-

3. The Ephesian Church had forsaken their first love. - Revelation 2.1-7
first= in time and place and rank. Out of their love for Christ they their priorities in good order- correct order- their motive and actions were on target. We know they were strong witnesses- they held to the truth. the Word of the LORD spread widely and grew in power. Acts 19.20

What happened?! that Christ told them this!

Simply could have been their heart was not as affectionate for Him as in the beginning.
What were the early days of  our church like? No building, Main Street Memorial Building, Smith Street What brought us together in 1945?

Perhaps other issues became more important than witnessing- spreading the Word. It could be that they had become bitter and angry- perhaps they had gotten caught up in getting rich quick schemes?

The height from which they fell - Love is the highest place a church can come to. You cannot improve on love!

Perhaps God's Word and prayer wasn't as important as it once was- maybe they stopped teaching about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit- we have all seen that happen.

Jesus gave them a solution Remember- Repent- do the things you did at first.