Ephesus Church and the Concept of First Love
A few years ago, when I was in the Philippines, I talked with the teacher who was teaching in a Christian school. And I can see still the consternation in her eyes, or surprise, shock, because there was a young wife, a young mother, who spoke to her and told her, “Ma’am, I don't love my husband anymore.” Wow. She was really shocked. Why? Because she saw them, the husband and wife, almost together from morning to evening, almost every day. She was really wondering, “Why, why? Why did you say that?” And this lady said, “Ma’am, take for example, when we go to bed, my husband just snores right away. But this guy that I found became my phone pal through SMS, short messaging”––there was no digital camera during that time––”he will send a message to me and say, ‘Good night, sweet dreams’.” That's why she was so shocked. Especially in a conservative, traditional place in the Philippines, we don't have divorce. She was really shocked.

Now, when we ask this question, “Have you left your first love?”, we are talking about first love today, especially for a particular church. That might be a little shocking, surprising to us, because you cannot see that there's something wrong in this church. And this church is the Ephesian church.

Now maybe you will ask today, “Pastor, why did you choose your topic today?” Thank you for asking. Because we have just been through our 37th year anniversary, and I feel that we have to go back to the very essential, very important truth that what should drive us to fulfill our mission in the church is our love or passion towards God. We could be leading generations into a life-changing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, leading them into this journey of knowing, growing and going for Christ. For what? What for? For what reason? It is because of our love and passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to see people, young and old, that they will grow in their passion, in their love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because, listen, church, it is possible that a person can be faithful outwardly, but inwardly, the passion is not there anymore, like this church in Ephesus.

Well, a little background. Ephesus is a great city. It is the largest city in the Roman province under the Roman Empire. And it is there that the temple of Diana, or Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the world, was located. And it is also found there the largest amphitheater during that time that can house 50,000 people. So you can just imagine how bustling the city is in commerce, trade and even tourism, just like Singapore. But in this dark pagan culture, embedded within the darkness and idolatry and pagan practices, there is a church. God planted a church, the Ephesian church. It's a thriving church, like a light on the hill. But there was something that the Lord was against unto this church: “I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

The Role of Pastors and the Vision of Revelation
Now, the book of Revelation is a beautiful book. It's the last book of our Bible. And some of you, maybe, are scared to read Revelation because it has a lot of symbolism. But it's a beautiful book because it's the conclusive book in the 66 books in our Scriptures that God revealed to us what will happen in the future––that He will judge this world. He will judge His enemies, Satan, and He will usher us into glory. And there is something that we can look forward to in life. Well, these churches, the seven churches, particularly––they were suffering. Yet they could anticipate that something good will happen in the future, and that's a comforting fact. That's why Jesus appeared to them in this manner as He instructed John to send this message: “To the words of Him, Jesus, who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” And if we read Revelation 1:20, the metaphor starts there. It refers to the angels, which I believe are the specific pastors in these churches. And the lampstands are the churches.

Now, what is comforting here is this. The Lord revealed to them that He is the one holding the pastors. He called the pastors, put them in His churches, here in Ephesus, according to Ephesians 4:11, and He gave to us pastors, teachers to equip the church. He protects them, provides, preserves. In other words, the pastors are there because Jesus is holding them. I like this picture: that Jesus is holding them rather than the pastors are holding on to Jesus. Do you see the picture? It's comforting for the fact that the pastors will not really call the shots, because they are just under-shepherds. They are men under authority. May it be that in Gospel Light, we always maintain the thought and the truth that the leadership ministers are men under authority. They are under-shepherds, not to lord over but be an example to the flock, according to 1 Peter 5:1-2.

And another thing that is comforting here is that Jesus is walking, walking around these churches. And He's walking not to watch and police us. But it's not a judicial term––it is picturing a husband, a groom, wooing a bride back to himself. In this particular scenario, He wrote this message to the Ephesian church. And that's why it will become… it will be like… we have to go back to what Paul has written about how Jesus has dealt with His church in Ephesians 5: “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Listen, church, yes, in the vision of John, John saw the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, in robes with a sash of gold. I mean, He has hair as white like snow, and His eyes are like flaming, flaming fire, and the voice is like roaring waters. And when John saw this vision, he fell flat like dead! It's because he saw the holiness of God, the awesome, majestic vision of God. But even then, with that kind of vision that He is a sovereign, powerful, majestic God, God reveals Himself as the compassionate, loving groom to His bride here. Wooing the church back to himself.

The Messages to the Seven Churches
“I have something against you. You have abandoned your first love.” Now listen carefully. These seven churches received the messages from the Lord Jesus Christ in a unique way, because these seven churches are too distinct from one another, but they are going to learn from each other, and we too have to learn what God has to say to these imperfect churches. GLCC is not a perfect church. If you are going to GLCC because you see and you find that this is a perfect church, this is not the church for you. We are just broken, imperfect people, forgiven by the Lord, and we always try because of the grace of God. Broken and desperate without God. And we always continue to posture ourselves that way.

The only beautiful person in this church is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if He will be lifted up, He said, “I will draw all men unto Myself.” So that this reminder from the Lord Jesus Christ: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” These seven churches scattered in Asia Minor, now Turkey. So that everyone, you and I, will become conquerors or overcomers. And there is this promise. This offer from God to everyone—someday, He will grant that we will be able to eat the tree, or the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Remember that the tree of life, the fruit, was forbidden in Genesis. Now it is offered with the Lord, signifying that He is really offering this to you and to me, that we will become overcomers. We will become conquerors that will enjoy this perpetual, everlasting fellowship with God in eternity. And we can do this. Why? Because He's the one holding the pastors. He's the one watching the church. We can do this because He's the one who gives us the grace and the power that we can obey and that we can be overcomers as believers in the Lord. I hope you can say “Amen” with that. I didn't see one. I didn't hear it. [audience laughs]

The Drift Away From First Love
Now it's hard for us to understand the whole picture, because we are just looking into the book of the church of Ephesus today. We are just like parachuting ourselves in this first church. But there are other churches, like Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And you can read that it's a beautiful story of how God really was wooing these churches back to Himself. He's offering: “He who has an ear, let them hear of what I say to these churches, in order that you will prepare for the coming of the Lord.” I want you to be prepared. I want you to be excited and in anticipation for the coming of the Savior, and that's why today, this is a very important reminder for us as a church, because we could be like the Ephesian church. Everything is okay on the outside, but there was something that was really amiss in their hearts. They left their first love.

So the question is that: how did the church lose their first love? What was the reason behind? Now, there is not… there's no easy answer here. Now, when we talk about first love, what is that? Of course, it's our love to the Lord. But how does a person, or a Christian, show his love to the Lord?

Now, the author of Revelation, which is the Apostle John who wrote also 1 John, tells us about how this love operates. If you are born of love, or born of God, you should know how to love your brethren. If you don't know how to love the brethren, you don't know God, because God is love. You say that you love God that you cannot see, but you cannot even love your brother whom you see—you are a liar. So in other words, this love is expressed by the brotherly love, by the one-anothering of the church. Somehow they became so busy with a lot of other good stuff in this church that they forgot to nurture their intimacy together as a reflection that they love the Lord.

Now, I believe that there was a slide. This drift is not overnight. They did not decide that we will abandon the love of God. No, it was like a drift. I think it started with a subtle negligence. In verse four, the Lord told them, “You have abandoned the love you had at first.” This means, this word means to send away, which has an implication of neglect. And even in verse five, the Lord told them, “Remember [therefore from] where you have fallen.” And this word also being a release, there is a drop. You are not as fervent as before. You are not as ardent as before. You are not as warm as before, especially in nurturing your relationship of love. It's a subtle, subtle negligence.

Now I think Jeremiah 2:2—this is the picture of Yahweh wooing back the nation of Israel who went away from Him. “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride.” Now this is what God is longing for to the nation of Israel, because they lost the fire, the passion of their love to their Savior.

I remember when we were in the Philippines, my son was five years old. And during Monday morning, you know, after service on Sunday, the next day, Monday morning, my son will go to me. He was like, five years. I don't know if he remembers this, but he asked me, “Dad, when is Sunday again? Is it tomorrow?” The next day he will ask again, “Dad, is tomorrow Sunday? When will my friends come again?” Because our church was located in an isolated place. It's not isolated in a sense that it was like in an “ulu” place (rural or remote area), you know. It was in the city, but our neighbors are rich people with high walls, you know. And then the nearest convenience store to our church building was like half a kilometer away, And we are living just at the back of the church building called parsonage. So practically, my son was like, I mean, longing that his friends will come to Sunday school, because he is like in the wilderness. He was like… his sisters were in school and he was alone at home. And I just wonder, do we have that kind of longing? Sometimes we go to church. Sometimes, first Sunday of the month, we wonder, “Oh, it's Communion Sunday. I didn't, I didn't remember it.” It's Communion Sunday, and we forgot it because we don't look forward––that we can participate in this ordinance, in the sacrament that reminds us of the gospel, that reminds us of the sacrifice of Christ, and it has no meaning to us anymore. I hope that it's just like a slip, because we miss it at a time. But it should not be the norm! It should not be the norm that we forget the importance of this communion to remind us of the love of Christ that will steer us to love God Himself.

And yeah, this subtle negligence is overwhelmed by busyness. I think the cause sometimes that we neglect is sometimes the busyness of life. There was this farmer whose barn…its whole roofing collapsed one day. And the neighbour went to him and asked him, “Neighbour, I saw that the roofing of your barn fell down. What happened? Did you not notice that when it rains, it was leaking… like water coming into the building, into the barn?” And this farmer said, “Yeah, yeah, during the rainy days, I saw this leak, you know, coming in, but I said to myself, it's still a rainy day. I cannot work on it. I have to wait for summer.” Summer came, and then the sunlight pushed through, you know, the holes, and he said, “There's no need for me to repair that. There's no rain.” That's why, one day, the building just collapsed.

Overwhelmed by busyness. What makes us busy? This church is quite busy. Look at that. The Lord said, “I know your works, your toil”––means you work until exhaustion and you are not tired! Added to that, you even cannot bear those who are evil, even those pretenders––they call themselves apostles, but they are not. You are very sharp. You know your doctrines. You know what to believe. You are really very right in your beliefs, and not only that, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans. I don't know how to pronounce this one, but in Revelation 2:14-15, we know that these people are a group of people who went into the church to influence the church into immorality, moral looseness and worldliness like the ways of Balaam. Balaam was a greedy, selfish prophet in the Old Testament, and he went to Balak, King Balak, and got Balak… told Balak that “This is what you are going to do, entice the men of Israel to go into your women in order to influence them to immorality and idolatry.” You even hate these people. You are so busy with good stuff, right? Until this good stuff substituted the right stuff. You were busy now with good things, even better things, that you forget to nurture the best thing, and that is to nurture the love for the Lord by nurturing the intimacy in the body of Christ.

The Impact of Adversaries and the Need for Authenticity
What happened? Now, it's because in history, this church was founded maybe in the second missionary journey of Paul. And he has the chance to visit the church in the third missionary journey. And when he was here in this church in Ephesus, he wrote the First Corinthians letter. And in it, he wrote in 1 Corinthians 16:9, he said, “I will stay here in Ephesus because a wide open door is opened up to me.” Effectual, but there are many adversaries. And true it was, if you read Acts 19, you will see that the Lord has done great things through Paul's ministry in Ephesus. There were miracles done so that the worshippers of Artemis or Diana were alarmed, and there were many who believed the gospel. And these pagan people before who believed the gospel brought their books––sorcery books––and they started a bonfire, a big bonfire to burn these books, which cost 50,000 pieces of silver. So there was really like this bonfire and riots. Who would like to see that there will be something like this in Singapore? That was what God did to this church. You have really this kind of star in this church, but 30 years later, during the time of John, because this church has been pastored by, you know, Aquila, Priscilla, then Timothy, then later on, John pastored this church according to tradition. I believe he was the one who just pastored this church when he was old already, before he was exiled to Patmos.

So there is this great movement of the gospel, a great door, effectual. Paul was so excited, but there are great adversaries. You see, my dear friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord, when the house is on fire, the neighbors will be, you know, “What happened?” But not only the neighbors, but also the looters and the thieves will be attracted as well. I can imagine that, you know, to get my point, let me just share this kind of analogy. If this room is a dark room, and you try to light a candle in the middle of this room, these little insects, like moths, will be attracted, right? It comes from the different corners and will be attracted to this light in the middle of this building or this room. But sooner or later, the lizards also will be coming in to eat the moths. And instead of nurturing the moths, instead of taking care of the moths, we busy ourselves with killing the lizards. We chase the lizards at every corner. And that's sometimes what the church is doing. They're chasing the good things, the good stuff that they forget to nurture the relationship with one another.

We could be serving in a ministry––faithful, but your thoughts and your attitudes are like transactional. I will do this after I do this job. I don't care whether I know what's happening in his life. I don't want him to be involved in my life. I just do my part. I just do what I'm expected to do, and nothing more. It's like a ninja Christian serving in a ninja way, in a near-ninja culture. I hope that you, we are not like that. The Bible tells us that let us stir up one another unto love and good works. How can we stir this love for one another, if we are not vulnerable, if we are not transparent? Now, in a relationship that is authentic, that should happen. Now, the Lord does not want us to be perfect, but the Lord wants us to be authentic, not plastic. God wants us to be real people.

There was this pastor hammering a nail at the wall, and there was a little boy watching attentively, while he was hammering this nail through by a hammer at the wall. And the pastor asked, “Boy, why are you watching me?” And he said to the pastor, “Pastor, I'm just watching that… if you will hit your fingers, whether you are going to cry.” Do pastors cry? Can pastors cry to someone in the church? Can leaders cry to someone in the church? Now, there's nothing more scary today, in our time of history in the church, than today. And it will become more scary. Why? Because it seems that our culture around us, everyone wants privacy. And we understand that you come from a certain situation, in your job, in your relationship, where you are hurt. Hurting people hurt, and you don't want to be hurt again. But you see, we are a church. Can we be vulnerable? Can we be open? Can we be real, that we cannot also violate the PDPA? Can we be a church that is real?

The Importance of Love and Repentance
You see, this is really a big deal. Why? Because the Lord said, “I have something against you.” The word “against” is not just a simple dislike––it's an aversion. Why? We know that when we read the epistle of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 about the love chapter. He said, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Now, listen, friends. Listen, brethren. It doesn't matter that you are going to sacrifice everything. You are excellent in what you're doing. You have all the spiritual gifts, and you are really excelling in exercising these. But if it's not prompted by love, if it's not fueled by love, it is zero. It's nothing. That's why God has an aversion for a service, a faithful service, without love. It is fulfilling the greatest commandment to love God with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our souls. And this was what Jesus has emphasized to his disciples. In John 13, He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, so you also are to love one another.” Now this, this is not something new, actually. But what is the newness in this commandment? A new commandment––there must be a newness in this commandment, because it comes from a different standard. It comes from a heart regenerated by the Spirit from that new covenant. When the Lord said, “I will give you a new heart, a new spirit”, then it is possible for you that you really can love one unto another, because it comes from the Holy Spirit, at least within you.

Now, unless the Holy Spirit will work in your life, in my life, we cannot engineer this. The church might have placed a lot of platforms here: CG, discipleship, whatever ministry that people can, you know, mingle with one another. But we could be transactional and not really build our relationship as close as we would like to see. Now, I hope that this is really something that we could consider today.

Now, they are not a club. You know? They are not like enjoying their time together. They are very serious in spiritual lives. Now, if this church is like a liberal church that does not believe the historic faith, they are worldly in their practice, we will not be surprised. But this is a church that is very right in their teaching––orthodox––and even in their practice. Nobody can suspect this from the outside, but God sees the heart.

Now, I tell you this, this is something that is really close to my heart, because when I was 37 years old, I was in my late 30s, and my wife and all of us were in the Philippines. I was so busy, and it happened that an American missionary went to the church and talked with my wife. They talked to each other. And then she asked my wife, “Lorna, if you have the chance to marry your husband, Pastor Sinon, once again, will you marry here?” And my wife said, “No.” [audience laughs] Yes, seriously! The next day, the American missionary told me everything, and it's as if that the whole world was like on my shoulders. It was just shocking. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't see it coming. It grieved my heart because I was all thinking that I was doing what was right! I was busy every day. I was out late in the evening. I had lots of Bible studies and visitations and all that, which is the culture in our churches in the Philippines. She was teaching kindergarten, teaching Sunday school. She was also schooling for her education. And we didn’t have a helper for three growing kids. I was presuming that everything was okay, but God is so gracious to us. That was like 30 years ago. You may ask my wife right now, and she will tell you a different story.

Yeah, the Bible tells us that, “By this all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Loving one another is the indisputable mark of a true church, of a true disciple. It's not having, like, oh, a lot of Bible studies here, or a lot of activities here, or a lot of ministry going on there. No! But please don't misunderstand me, those are good stuff. You can continue to do that. But add another layer to that––we are doing this because we love the Lord. We are doing this not for the sake of the church; that the church will become popular; that the church will become bigger; that we have more activities, and that we are better from, you know, from the outside like that; when people will look at us from the outside and say, “Wow, this church is really doing a lot of things.” And, you know, there are so many churches today that are duped [into thinking] that success in ministry is like bigness in a lot of ways, in the outward. But here in Gospel Light, our bigness is in our love for the Lord, our passion for the Lord; that we will always drink in the gospels. The basic idea of drinking in the Gospel––why we do what we do? We do this because we love the Lord! Unless that is our reason, we fall short. We are just like tinkling cymbals and all those stuff. We are just nothing.

The Call to Repentance and Restoration
My dear friends and brethren in the Lord, this is something that we need to consider as a church. Outward faithfulness does not mean always intimacy, but if there is true intimacy, there will be always faithfulness. It does not mean that when a person is so busy in the work of God that he really loves the Lord. But I know that if a person loves the Lord, he will be busy with the right posture––the posture of love.

So today, we ask this question, how to restore our first love, if we have left that first love? The Lord Jesus Christ just gave a simple answer in verse five, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.” Now, I believe that the Lord Jesus has warned this church that, “You see, if you are not going to shape up, if you are not going to repent very soon, I will remove your witness. I will put you down from that place of significance and relevance.” Yes, you can talk about the gospel, you can talk about God, you can talk about loving Christ. But if people can see that this is not authentic in your relationship, they don't care. People don't care to listen unless they know that we care first among ourselves and to them. So I dread the thought that we will be continuing in this kind of culture; like, for example, in CG, that we could be together for years, and we are hiding ourselves in a mask!

Listen, church, you cannot love truly a person who is wearing a mask. You can only truly love a person if there is no mask. And you can remove that mask, because you are in a certain community where you are loved. I can sin here, I can commit mistakes here, but I know you will forgive me. I can confess my sin in this community, and you will forgive me. And this is repeated over and over again, because we are sinners. This is like husband and wife. We keep committing sin against each other, right? Husband and wife? Maybe I'm wrong. [audience laughs]

Yes, as we develop a relationship, there is that friction. But when people from the outside say, “Look at that community. They are authentic, they are real, they are struggling. But I like them because I can identify with them. There's something in this group, there's something in this community that is really beautiful.” Church, may God help us to really redirect us to that first love, where we have left.

Remember where we have fallen and repent. Repent. Align your thinking to the thoughts of God, what is valuable to God. And return. The Lord did not say, “Go back to your feelings, your first feelings.” No! Do the works of the first. What does that mean? I don't think that as a church, we are going back to the 90s and the early 2000s, where we go to the Botanic Gardens, or IALC and do those things again. But we can go back to where we are right now, to our ministries that we are involved in, with a new posture, a posture of love. I do this because I love the Lord. It's for my brethren. I love her because I'm blessed by my brethren, I can also serve them. That kind of culture is irresistible. That kind of situation cannot be denied by people. Maybe there will come a time in our history, in our church, in the future, whereby people will come not because they are attracted to the pulpit. “I will go there because the preaching is good”, “I go there because the food is good” or “The building is nice”, “It's convenient for me”. But I’d like to hear that people will come and say, “I like the church because I know that they love each other. I know they will love me, a broken person.” But when they come, they will not remain broken, because God can heal them as He healed us.

So, my dear brethren in the Lord, let's consider this as we partake of the communion service today. I think when we ask, “Remember? Remember where you have fallen?” If you don't have this relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, because you have not trusted Him as your Savior, there's nothing to “go back”. There's nothing to remember. You don't have even a relationship in the first place. You need to repent of your sins in order that you can have this relationship and experience that first love with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Nurturing Love
But if you are a Christian, maybe you are thinking that, “I am. I'm okay.” But let's allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and pray with the psalmist in Psalm 39, “Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts and see if there'll be any wicked ways in me.” Like David in Psalm 19, “Let not my heart be presumptuous, Lord, that I will be free from being stubborn. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, oh Lord.” Let me not just go into the motion, Lord, but refresh that love again in my heart that I had at the beginning. That my view and my perspective now of doing things at Gospel Light will become different. When I deal with people, I look at them not as problems anymore, but precious jewels. Treasures. Yes, they are not perfect, but they are precious jewels before me. And they are a blessing to me. That we could be a church that would be authentic in our relationship.

Let us pray. Father, thank You so much for Your Word this morning. Lord, You want us to search our hearts with respect, Lord, to the truth that we have heard today. Lord, our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Nobody knows it, except Yourself, including my heart, Lord. Everyone's heart here. We could be deceived, Lord, to think that we are okay when we are not. But thank You, Lord, because You have also raised up godly men and women in this church who love You, Lord, and they are really faithfully serving you with joy in their hearts. But Father, help us if we have wandered, if we have drifted away from You. May we be able to recover that love that we once had before You, Lord. Refresh us with this love, Lord. May the Holy Spirit work in our hearts today, even as we come to the communion service today, Lord. Help us to partake of the communion service today with a new meaning. That we will do this, Lord, not as a… “Yeah, it's communion time again. It's a communion service time again. It's just a monthly thing we do.” But Lord, refresh us. This is the time, Lord, that we can just renew our love and passion to the Lord. Lord, we cannot engineer this love in the church. You are the only One who can ignite this passion in us through Your working, Your grace and mercies, Lord, may it overflow, overwhelm our hearts this morning. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.