Notes On Jesus To The Seven Churches Pt 1

Posted on: August 18, 2019

Here are the Scriptures I used for the message A Love Letter From Jesus To Ephesus.  Jesus told Ephesus that He knew their works but He wasn't impressed.  They were working their way toward salvation instead of accepting the salvation He had purchased for them.  The back-up Scriptures are here as well as notes used for the message.

Revelation 2:1-7 NKJV

 1  "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:

* The seven stars are the messengers to the churches.  Jesus has them in His right hand because He has control over them.  His right hand is the hand of power.  The messengers are the angels assigned to watch over the church.  These messengers are the Pastors who bring the message to the people from heaven.  The lampstands represent the light or life of the church.  The light they have been given is the source of their existence.  It is the revelation they have received to sustain them.  The fact that Jesus says He walks in the midst of them tells us He is the light or the revelation that brings life to them.

John 1:4 NKJV  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

 2  "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;

3  and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.

* Ephesus was known as a center for occult practices and for the worship of the pagan goddess Artemis.  Ethnic and cultural disunity threatened the health of the church there. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is powerful and encourages equality amongst the believers.  He also tells them how they have the power in Christ to defeat the works of the evil one.  They were told to put on the whole armor of God and withstand the power of the evil one.

 4  Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

* The first works were GRACE.  Their first love was God’s grace disseminated in Christ to His followers.  They had become legalistic and judgmental.  Although they were doing the work of believers their hearts were not under grace.  They became the systematically righteously working church.  Paul reminded them that they were saved by grace (Eph. 2:8-10) 

Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV

 8  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

 9  not of works, lest anyone should boast.

 10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

*Paul also told them to be filled with the Spirit and not with wine.  They had forgotten that they were saved by grace and that the power of God was to sustain them by a daily walk in revelation.  Even their marriages were suffering because they forgot how to have grace one for another.  His reminder in Ephesians 4 that husbands and wives were given to one another to be blessings is evidence that grace was being left behind. Children and servants were leaving grace with all of its’ attributes and benefits.

They are warned to return to the first works of their candlestick would be removed.  They will no longer have a pastor who is capable of bringing them revelation of Christ.  Instead they would have teaching without light.

 Hebrews 13:9 NKJV

 9)  Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

*Paul calls the doctrine of works various and strange.  Anything other than Christ Jesus for the complete work of salvation is a strange doctrine.  That doctrine is varied, complex and foreign. It does not profit those who tread all around with works.  To make one’s way, progress; to make due use of opportunities.

6  But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

* The Nicolaitans were followers of a deacon named Nicolas who began to teach the people that under Christian liberty they could do all kinds of lewd acts including adulteries and sacrifices to idols.  His teaching was that God allowed these things under grace. 

Matthew 18:5-6 NKJV

5  Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

 6  "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

7  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." '

 Matthew 5:19-20 NKJV

 19  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

 Revelation 2:7 NKJV

 7  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." '

 *The works which come as a natural offshoot of life lived in the Spirit and by the Spirit as a result of the grace given are us overcoming.  They produce life and place us in Paradise.  Paradise was a place here on earth not in heaven, but more importantly, it was for Adam and Eve a place of existence.  They knew no other place to exist until they sinned by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  There is a place here where we can live by grace through faith that is like living in the Paradise of God as Adam was intended to live.  Adam and Eve were never told they could not eat form that tree.  But rather not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God intends us believers to live in a state where the only existence we know is in Christ.  For us, to live is Christ but to die is gain.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  All of my needs are provided according to His glory.  These present afflictions last but a moment then give way to a far more eternal glory.  All things work together for good because we know the love of Christ and the eternal purpose of the Almighty Father. Jesus said he was the tree (vine John 15) and we are the branches.    

 Hebrews 13:9-10 NKJV

 9)  Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

10)  We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.

 *We have an altar from which those who serve (the hired menial) as religious servants that serve in a temporary place of worship (Greek word used is skene which means tent.  The original tabernacle was a temporary edifice for worship not a permanent place or state) have no privilege to eat.  Those who know grace and live by it will have the privilege here and in heaven to eat of the source of life.

 

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