Just a few months after I had taken on my first pastorate (that is, my current and only pastorate) I led my first “Annual Business Meeting”…and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I botched the budget presentation, didn’t know how to make a motion for a vote, and lastly, I didn’t maintain the meeting but let it go for nearly three hours…yeah it was bad. Yet, if that wasn’t bad enough as I tried to wrap things up, one gentleman stopped everything with this statement, “Before we go any further we need to answer the question: ‘What is the church and what is it supposed to be doing?’ If we can’t answer that we might as well pack up and head home.”
Good question. However, it’s poor timing and the attitude in which it was asked only created a very awkward moment at the close of the meeting. Nonetheless, his statement stuck with me and several months later at the 2017 G3 Conference I was faced with this topic again: What is the church and what does Jesus desire from it?
What is your church supposed to be doing? What is the will of God for the local assembly you are apart of? In what ways do you need to be praying for your church? How can your faith family be pleasing Christ in its doing?
What does Jesus desire from your church?
Jesus’ Desire for the Ephesians
What Jesus called for and commended in the church at Ephesus has huge implications for your church, my church, and all local churches. What Jesus commends in Ephesus (or Smyrna or Pergamum or Thytira…etc) we should pursue and pray for in our churches. And that which Jesus condemns needs to be repentant of and prayed against.
Quick Note: The outline I will use for Ephesus and the rest of the churches in Revelation comes from Vern Poythress‘ short yet helpful commentary on Revelation.
Who Jesus is to His Church
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”
Revelation 2:1
To each church Jesus gives a description of himself. The portrait given personalizes the message as we will see. It is often tied to the specific message he has John deliver to that particular assembly. However, in the broad sense it gives us as readers a needed truth about the One to whom the church belongs.
The personal nature of the portrait at hand is seen when we go back one verse.
“As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
Revelation 1:20
If you have your Bible open and go a little further back to 1:12-16 you will find:
- A most majestic description of our Lord and Savior: hair white as wool, eyes like fire, feet like bronze, and voice roaring like the sea.
- The opening and closing of this splendid picture is the sight of the “son of man” walking amid the “seven gold lampstands” and then the sight of him holding “seven stars” in “his right hand.”
- This word picture shows us a glorious Savior who both personally yet powerfully holds and guards the local assemblies of His Church. Yet, as he walks among them he is personally present in his churches throughout all of time. This is the reminder to Ephesus, and we the readers, of our gracious and glorious Savior who is about to speak to his church. We hold this in mind as our ears receive his Word.
What Jesus “Knows” about His Church
“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.”
Revelation 2:2-3
In Ephesus Jesus sees a church that is enduring through hard times. They were in enemy territory in a spiritual way. Ephesus was quite religious. We see this in the book of Acts as well as history. They are persevering in the work they have and not growing “weary”.
Although this endurance likely had many forms of being seen and practiced, it is in regard to discernment that Jesus speaks. The church at Ephesus was diligent to unmask false teachers and their doctrine. They did not merely take the word of an “apostle” just because the man claimed apostleship, but they “tested” it. They were thoughtful and diligent about doctrine before they said “ok”.
Jesus commends the diligent discernment he sees at Ephesus.
Yet he condemns their lack of love.
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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.
Revelation 2:4-5
When the gospel first arrived in Ephesus (Acts 18-20) radical shifts occurred in the community as the gospel took hold. Jesus was revered and loved. Paul wrote to them later in some of the most glorious terms regarding Christ’s love for them and their love to their Savior.
But now decades later, the chief virtue of the Christian faith was lagging if not lacking. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul speaks highly of faith, hope, and love, yet says the greatest is love. He makes this point practical by opening his teaching in Romans 12 regarding how we exercise the gifts of the spirit by stating: “Let love be genuine.” There in Romans 12 Paul essentially says that Christian service (including discernment) can only be done meaningfully if is intertwined with love: devotion to God, kindness toward man.
Where love is forgotten repentance must be prayerfully sought. Jesus does not gently say: “You all need to love as you did at first.” He calls them to action, to a life of loving the savior that is seen in action. It is more than a mere feeling, but it is deep-hearted love that naturally produces godly works. The lack of this provokes the Lord to call for repentance, and to make clear that if this does not happen he will “remove your lampstand from its place.” That is to say: Repent or I will no longer see you as or bless you as a church. Remember from above that the lampstand was representative of each church.
The threat Jesus makes is sincere and severe. Just because a group of 30, 300, or 3,000 is gathering in a room to sing and hear the Word on a Sunday does not mean a church is in action. If the church at Ephesus does not return to doing the works of love that they did at first Jesus will no longer recognize them as a church. They may go on meeting, singing, preaching, potlucking…but they would be spinning their wheels.
Conclusion
Revelation 2:1-5 shows us how Jesus can and will disassemble a local church when it persists in unrepentance, and namely where love has been forgotten. Pray for your church to love Christ.
Interceded for your local assembly that the will of Christ, his wishes, his word, his wonder would be sought out.
Pray that your paster, elders, deacons, teachers, and all members would love Christ so as to submit unto him in all things.
Pray for that upcoming business meeting, not merely that people won’t argue but that all involved would act out of a love for Jesus more than self, so as to speak humbly with the brethren.
For that particular issue in your home church that is either concerning or irritating, pray for the persons involved to be given more love for Christ.
Pray for this Sunday service that the preached word would stir up love for Christ throughout the congregation. Intercede for your church that there be repentance where love is lagging or lacking.
Secondly, pray that your church take doctrine seriously as the Ephesians did. Jesus commended this. He was pleased to see a church that was mindful about what was taught. Namely pray for your pastor and elders whom God has commissioned to care for your soul, to know what is true. May they be discerning in their studies and teaching and counseling.
In this is an act of love for God, namely with our minds. We are called to love God with the mind in the Greatest Commandment. Pray that your church would exercise love by being diligent to exercise discernment. May God guard your congregation from becoming a group that carelessly hears the word from either the pulpit or internet without being discerning about what is heard. Be as the Bereans (Acts 17:11).
The desire of Jesus to see his church discerning what doctrine to heed, as well as the desire to see repentance of lovelessness should prod us to pray for our own home churches, as well as have confidence that he will hear and answer. We are after all praying for the very thing he wishes to see in our churches, so then let us pray with confidence.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
1 John 5:14-15
The Reforming Raker 