The Abandoned Church

Ephesus: Keep your zeal for God alive

Bro. David begins his sermon series Touring the Churches, looking weekly at each of the seven churches found in the book of Revelation. These seven churches were some of the first established in Asia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. They were literal churches filled with literal people and saved by a literal savior. Some of these church may seem familiar to us because they are representative of all churches, for all times. They represent the variety of attitudes of different kinds of church members. Just as there are good members in bad churches, there are also bad members in good churches.

The church at Ephesus from Revelation 2:1-7 was seemingly doing very well: They were a hard-working church very effective at separating themselves from wickedness. They were always busy and had a focus on doing good. Jesus commended them for their tireless work. However, despite their strong fundamentals and appearance of being a well-oiled machine, Jesus still had something against them. Although the members still attended Bible study and worship, they no longer loved God like they did when they were first saved.

You can believe right, behave right, work hard, and be doctrinally sound, and Jesus can still be unsatisfied with you. By no longer performing our actions with passion and excitement for God, we earn Jesus's condemnation like the church at Ephesus, who no longer felt the love for God that they once had. We cannot substitute labor for love and please Jesus. It takes labor and love; purity and passion. Is Jesus still everything to you? Or are you finding yourself in church at Ephesus?