Okay, again, good morning and wonderful that you could be here and looking forward to getting into the Word of God today and looking forward to giving a consideration as an introduction to this study in the Seven Churches of Revelation. Every year we go through, and I know I repeat this pretty much at every sermon, but we go through a series known as the May Day Series. I know it's June, but we did start it in May, but it lasts for whatever period I need to allocate for it, but it is specifically speaking to prophecy. It's something that I've been teaching for a good part of 20 years, and it is a wonderful, wonderful blessing to go through. And we've spoken about so many different things in the past, whether it would be anything from sign of the times or understanding that we're living in the time of the signs, to talking about the rapture and its imminency, to speaking about different events that are going on in the world. What we haven't focused on is the church, the state of the church in the last days. And the focus of that is that passage in Timothy, where Paul's writing to Timothy and he says in the last days, perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, boasters, proud, blasphemers, inventors of evil things and the like. And it's fascinating that that is a consideration of the state of the church. in the last days not the world the world's always been like that so we recognize that this is something that is to come in the last days in the last days perilous time shall come for men shall be so it was always like that in the time of paul we recognize that because he gives the description of the lost soul and it's very very similar The state of the church in the last days will have individuals within the body of Christ that will display very similar characteristics to those that are in the world. And we've been a witness to that in one way or another. But we've often pointed the finger and looked at churches that are out there. We've spoken about the emergent church, or the Pentecostal church, or the Laodicean type of church, which we'll touch on when we go through this particular series. But what about our own church? We don't often ask that question of our own church and the hearts of our own church. And yet our own church ought to be the focus because it was Timothy's own church in Ephesus that was the focus of Paul's direction as well. So we need to, rather than think that the problem is out there, we need to always bring it back in here. What about you? Where's your heart? You know, is there a love for the Lord? Is there a fervency for the gospel? Are you reading the Word of God? Are you growing in the knowledge of Christ? Because if you aren't, I've said this before and perhaps people have been upset by that, but if you're not reading the Word of God and you're not spending the time with the Lord in prayer, you are going to be adding to the state of these perilous times that shall come. You won't be taken away from it. And that's a challenge. That's a challenge for you. It's a challenge for me. Here we have the seven letters. We speak about the church. The beginning of the church was when? Anybody know? When was the beginning of the church? No, when did the church actually begin? Anybody know? Give me a book and a chapter. Book of Acts chapter two, that's right, the day of Pentecost, the day of Pentecost. That was the official beginning of the church. The Old Testament on the same day, it's known as the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot, it's celebrated in the Old Testament. And it was literally 50 days, the day after seven weeks would pass after the Passover. And this was exactly seven weeks or 50 days after the true Passover had passed, our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the representative in the Old Testament as a figure of that which was to come. He was a foreshadowing that they would celebrate each and every year, casting their eyes forward to the true Passover, which was the savior of the world. 50 days after, the Lord had begun the church and it began in a gathering in Jerusalem where 3,000 Jews were saved. These were devout men from every nation under heaven, says the passage in Acts chapter 2 verse 5. This was the official beginning of the church. The Word of God went north into Turkey, it went south into Africa, it went westward into Europe and eastward into India. The Word of God spread all over the world and it was preached and spread by those who would be troubled everywhere they went. Everywhere they went, they would be persecuted. Everywhere they went, they would be troubled. And indeed, each one of them were imprisoned and finally killed for the preaching of the Word of God. What sort of fervency do we have? How much are we willing to set aside for this incredible news? Or is this just something that's relegated to the first century? Well, no, beloved, it wasn't just relegated to the first century. We'd seen people dying for the Word of God and giving themselves over completely to whatever way the Lord would see fit to use them for the preaching of the Word of God right through the ages, pretty much right up until even the 20th century. But there's been a lackluster level of faith with regards to the Western world. We have been made comfortable. And in one way or another, we seem to have lost, not lost, left our first love. That's going to be interesting topic as we go through today. The first one that we're going to be looking at is we're gonna be looking at Ephesus today. We're gonna be looking at these churches to give us an understanding of who they are, where they are, how they're represented, how they fit geographically, how they fit historically, and how they fit as far as a description of churches. So before I do that, I do wanna open a word of prayer. So let's please pray. Heavenly Father, though, dear Lord, this consideration, Father, this morning is one of teaching, I pray, dear Lord, that it may also be one of application. And we do ask and pray, dear Father, that in every way, your spirit would be here, that we would give due consideration, dear Lord, to the word of God. I pray, dear Father, it would impact our own hearts and our own lives, and that we may see ourselves represented somewhere within these churches. We thank you, dear Lord, and we pray that your spirit would be with us, glorify your name in and through us. In Jesus' name, amen. The Bible refers to the church as an assembly, and that's its essential meaning. It is an assembly. It's an assembly of gathered brethren coming together for the sake of the gospel of Christ, to be comforted in the knowledge of the Lord. Where we looking at the consideration of the word of God today, we know that the word of God went into all the world. There we go. These are the nations that are represented. And we see those represented in the book of Acts. Those are the ones that the church had gone into. Those are the people and the languages that were hearing the word of God in Jerusalem on that particular day. It was there in Antioch where the word of God was brought originally. It was in Antioch that became the base of the gospel for Paul, for Barnabas, for Silas. They went from there into all the world. It was in Antioch that the way and the people of the way were first called Christians. Christ ones is literally what that means, Christ ones. The word of God went from there and it continued to journey. It went towards the West, going towards Rome. This is part of Paul's missionary journeys and some of the missionary journeys of the brethren at that time. It went from there and it went to Corinth. It was interesting that Rome isn't one of the letters. from the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't receive a letter from the Lord Jesus Christ. They received a letter from the Apostle Paul, but not from the Lord Jesus Christ. It went to Corinth, but that's not represented as one of these letters. It went further. It went to Thessalonica as well. But again, we don't see the Thessalonica church represented in one of these letters. We do see, however, these other churches. And we ask the question, why? Why these seven? We see that they have an interesting geographical location, beginning at the Isle of Patmos, they're referred to in this particular order. That is the location. I mean, if you were a mailman, that's exactly the direction that you would probably take in order to be able to bring the gospel or bring the mail to those representatives or those particular churches. So we see that they were historical churches, but we also recognize that they have an interesting geographical order. The order that they're represented is exactly the order that they would have been traveled to bring that wonderful gospel or the wonderful letters of the report from the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's something else that we discover when we look back at these churches, and that is that they also seem to be representative churches. They seem to be representative churches. We look at the Ephesian church, which is the first church that the letter had gone to. It indicates a doctrinally strong church. It was a doctrinally strong church. It was unwilling for any error to creep in, being warned of Paul during his missionary journeys. of the grievous wolves that would come in after his departure. The Lord had warned them and he pleaded with them for three years with tears about these things. And you can see that in Acts chapter 20, verses 17 to 35. It went further to Smyrna. Smyrna being a representation or a picture of the persecuted church. And it was in every way a persecuted church. The name itself refers to death. It died and it lived again. We'll talk about that next week. Pergamos, an interesting church, a church that as actually defined even by its own name, its own name, if you were to break it down into its entomology, into its past, you discover that pergamos is a compound word. It means essentially by or through marriage. through marriage. Gamos being the word for marriage in the Greek. Per being the word for through. Through marriage. We discover as we read about them in this passage that they are a compromising church. They compromised. By marriage they joined themselves to the empire. And we see that represented. It's interesting as far as its general representation. Moving to Thyatira, an interesting representation of a works-based church. then we see it going to Sardis. Sardis being a church that nothing good is said about. It's a church that is identified in the text as having a name that it lives, but is dead. And it is indeed a great name according to itself. And we'll talk about Sardis. We'll talk about the King of Sardis, who was Croesus, who's the one that was part of the Lydian Empire. the most wealthy individual. Matter of fact, that king was the one who the mythological Midas, King Midas is actually a picture of. Coinage was first created under his rule in Lydia, in part of the Lydian empire. And we'll talk about that when we get towards it. And we get to the Philadelphian church, the faithful church. It holds to the word of God. This church had little strength. In other words, it wasn't the large church numerically. It wasn't popular, but it was indeed faithful. One of the few churches that nothing bad is said about it. There are two churches where nothing good is said, and we find the first one being Sardis, the second one being the last one, two churches that nothing bad is said about, the first one being Smyrna, the next one being Philadelphia, until we get to the final church, and that is the Church of Laodicea. A church that thinks that it is rich, a church that thinks that it has need of nothing, a church that doesn't realize itself as poor and lacking in everything. It is what's referred to as the apostate church, the church that's left the truth, where Jesus is seen to be knocking on the outside of the door, and if any man open, he will come in and sup with them. But we notice something interesting as well with regards to these churches, and that they are also representative churches, that they are representative churches, but they're representative churches with respect to their interesting chronology. You see, It's fascinating to actually look back at history and you actually seem to find that each one of these churches seem to be representative of church history. Churches that happen to have risen into prominence during these specific times in this specific order. Now that wouldn't be the case if they didn't actually come to pass in this particular order. And that's really curious. Because as we're going through this and we're recognizing where the church had gone to and how the church had developed, each one of these churches seem to be represented geographically, or historically, geographically, chronologically. Chronologically. And that is the thing that is incredible to see. We know that the Ephesian church being the first church that's represented was a strict church. It made sure that it crossed every T, it dotted every I, it attended to everything properly as far as making sure that it was doctrinally sound, but it had a problem with regards to leaving its first love. And we'll talk about that today. We see Smyrna being the persecuted church, and that's exactly what we see historically. A church that for the first couple of centuries was heavily, heavily persecuted, and we'll talk about that when we get to it. Pergamos. This desire to remove itself from the heavy persecutions and an opportunity suddenly appears where they have an opportunity through Constantine to negotiate, to renegotiate, to join with them, to be covered by them in some particular way. Many people think that it was Constantine that made Christianity the religion of the empire. Well, it wasn't. It was actually two emperors later. Theodosius was the one that actually made Christianity the religion of the empire itself. But it was by marriage. It was this linking of the church to the political realm of the day. Then you have Thyatira, church identified by works. which is a church that could be really identified by works, works, works, works, it's mostly works. Anybody know? The Roman Catholic Church is demonstrated that way. Schools being built, hospitals being built, all of those sort of things being attended to by the Roman Catholic Church. And they dominated the scene for over a thousand years. And then we see the Reformation. And it's fascinating, and we'll look at this in a lot more detail. But incredibly, one of the churches that says nothing good about is the Church of Sardis. And it seems to be a representation of the Reformation-era churches. Well, how can it be possible that nothing good is said about them? We'll talk about that when we get to it. It is actually quite fascinating. The Philadelphian Church, a church that had its thread from the very beginning moving its way through. It never was part of the Roman Catholic system, wasn't part of the Reformation, wasn't part of Protestantism. It was just a slender thread that moved its way through. until the word of God was made available in the language of the people and it exploded as a faithful church. Not large in number, the only one that was persecuted that didn't persecute any. The Roman Catholic Church persecuted Christians. Believe it or not, so did the Protestant Church under Calvin. They persecuted Christians, they put Christians to death. This little slender thread that goes through never did so with any, but they held to the word of God, they weren't large in number, and yet they seem to have risen to prominence. And a good picture of that would be what began the Waldensian Church, the Albigensies, the churches of the valleys of Piedmont in Italy, moving through to France, and then into the United States as the Baptist churches, Anabaptist churches, Baptist churches. These churches were never part of the Protestant era, and we'll talk about that when we get to it, but they held to the word of God, and that was what set them apart. Finally, the Laodicean church, the last church. It is the church that thinks it's rich. It's the church that thinks it has need of nothing. Is that identifiable to you today? So isn't it incredible how these seven churches during the time of John, who's been given the word of God at that time, he says, write that which thou hast seen in the past. and that which he sees now and that which shall be hereafter." So it's interesting that Jesus actually puts those words into frame prior to the authoring of each one of these letters. So these churches existed during the time of the Apostle John, planted prior, but existed during. And it's these churches that Jesus refers to as the churches. And I'm sure it's gonna be a wonderful blessing as we go through this. So, the perilous times, part three, the seven churches. Turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter two. We'll read this passage. We're gonna be expanding just a small element of the passage. In verse one, Jesus again, we know that this is Christ. The reason why I wanted you to read that first portion in chapter one is for you to be able to identify who the author is. So that way I don't have to revisit it again here. So Revelation chapter one, verses nine to the end of the chapter gives you an understanding and a picture of who it is that is the author. And we know that it is Christ. And he writes here, he tells John here, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars, and is born and has patience, and for my name's sake, has laboured and has not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. We had witnessed that this letter is a letter written from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a revelation. It's to be revealed. We'd seen this first chapter of Revelation speak about the revelation, the unveiling, the apocalypse of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see similar letters given to each of the seven churches and to the angel of the church of Ephesus. The letter begins with the introduction of the author, he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. In verse 20 of chapter 1, we've got the interpretation of what the stars are and what the golden candlesticks are. The stars, the text says, are the angels of the seven churches. and the seven golden candlesticks are the seven churches. There's a terrible habit of many expositors of the Word of God today that frustrate me, where they seem to think themselves so accomplished that they have a right to interpret the interpretation. Jesus has given us the interpretation. He tells us what the stars are. He says that they are the angels of the seven churches. He doesn't say that they are the messengers. He doesn't say that they are the pastors. He could, both of those are represented within the scriptures. No, he says that they are the angels of the seven churches. gives us an indication that there are an angelic realm that we already know, whether we're reading Daniel, whether we're reading Ezekiel, we're reading and seeing that there is an angelic realm that governs over the affairs of men. The Bible tells us in a personal way that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, against spiritual wickedness even in dark places with respect to the governments of the world. So it doesn't surprise me that there is an angelic realm or an angel that is overseeing or governing over or watching over each church that is a representative of the body of Christ. Won't surprise me if we have one as part of this church. The Bible actually tells us that. When we start trying to twist these things around, we become entrapped in something because if this is now written to the angel of, and that angel is the pastor of, well, the pastor's never got the letter. God can say that, the Lord can say that. The Bible says the angels and look, I'll be accountable to it, but that's what I'm sticking with. I'm not going to reinterpret the interpretation. The stars are the angels of the seven churches. The seven golden candlesticks are the seven churches. We don't seem to see any confusion with regards to that one. We take that one literally, but some reason or another, there is an insistence on reinterpreting what the stars are. He holds the angels in his right hand and he walks in the midst of the seven churches. We're ignorant often of the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ knows intimately what is happening in his churches. I know, he says. I know thy works, says the Lord. His direction is to address first and foremost the church of Ephesus. But just pause for a minute. I know thy works. Jesus knows. Jesus knows the things that are happening within every single church. Should that surprise us? He knows me pretty much inside out. He knows me better than I know me. He knows my acts, He knows my thoughts, He knows my heart. It shouldn't surprise us that the Lord also knows that which is occurring within the churches. And this is incredibly important. Because those individuals within churches, pastors as well as congregation members that know this to be true, would be living their lives in the fear of the knowledge of this. And what I mean by that? I mean, we ought to be very careful on how we handle the things with regards to church. Pastors are going to be directly responsible to the Lord for the things that they teach and how they act and behave. These things are something that pastors ought to be frightfully concerned about. James warns us and he says, be not many masters because unto thee will be the greater what? The greater what? Condemnation. the greater condemnation. In other words, don't go vying for an opportunity to be a pastor of a church. Mate, that's a frightful decision. Nobody wants to be a pastor of a church that is not called directly by God to be a pastor. It's a silly thing to even think about doing. And if the desire to be a pastor of a church is one of ambition, then shame on you. In all honesty, complete shame on you. Because this is a calling, it's not something that If you're not called and you don't know that you're called, when trouble occurs within, and there's always going to be trouble within churches, it's very easy to simply give it all up. But when you know that you are called, and you know that you know that you are called, you know that you're not a pastor because of anything that you've desired, but because God has placed you in that role, then the troubles that you endure, you will endure for the sake of the gospel of Christ, and for the sake of the body of Christ. Does this make sense? But the same thing happens with regards to the congregation. All of you are a part of the body. You're all members of the body, all of you different gifts, different callings, different aspects of your own abilities, different things that you can attend to and do. You're also responsible to your own ministry. God has given you these gifts. You don't know what they are? Seek it out. Spend time with the Lord in prayer. Understand where the Lord wants you, what your purpose is as part of the body. And don't complain. Don't complain that because you're not of the eye, you're not the body. The hand doesn't say to the foot, because I'm not of the foot, I'm not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? No, it's still part of the same body. We work together. We work together as a body, unified. We don't need to, I've said this before, I'll say it again. I don't need to put a roster up. I've never put a roster up. Nearly eight years, we've been a part of this church. We started this church eight years ago. Never have I put a roster up. People just seem to fill the roles. We happen to have a vacuum in the kitchen and all of a sudden we find ladies going in there to help with that and sometimes a bloke maybe. If we don't have any help at the back door, at the front door for people to come in, there's always somebody that steps up to attend to that. When the visitors that are coming in, there's always, it's never a time that I've looked up and I haven't seen somebody attending to one of our visitors. Well, there has been, there has been occasionally. And that's probably where I fill that gap. But we work together as a body, as a body. When we come into church for the same reason, that is to be a blessing to one another. We are there to give. This is part of the church, is to give, not to just take. And don't underestimate how much we are blessed in return. So, Jesus knows our works. He knew the works of the Ephesian church. I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience. And how canst not bear them which are evil? And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured and have not failed. The Lord goes into detail of the matters of that of greatest importance. You notice that Jesus is not looking for a perfect church. He's not focusing on those things that don't matter. He's not worried about you dotting every I and crossing every T, but there are those things that matter the most that he highlights. And that's what he's highlighted here with the Ephesian church. their labor, their patience, their intolerance of evil. The Ephesian church examines and makes discovery of the truth that has tried them, which say they're apostles and are not, and has found them liars. In other words, we test, we try. People that are always gonna be coming into the church and we don't examine them, we don't say, all right, all right, shine a light in their eyes and say, all right, so what do you believe with regards to salvation? Is it eternally secure or can you lose it? Oh, what do you believe about the rapture of the church? Oh, what do you believe about the sovereignty of God? We don't do that. Well, not in that way anyway. Maybe if we have more of a conversation and they come a little bit more often, we'll be a little bit more inquisitive. The point of the matter is the Ephesian church would doctrinally sound. Why? Acts chapter 20, we'll have a look at verse 25. You'll have an understanding of how this has come about. Remember Paul had attended to the Ephesian church as part of his second missionary journey, planting the church there. It says there, and now behold, I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." Notice what he says there. Notice the warning. Grievous wolves shall come in, not sparing the flock, but not only shall come in, there shall be those who will rise up from among you, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. The warning is clear that's given to the Ephesian church. So they were on guard. He was warning them, how long? Three days? No, three years, three years. night and day with tears. This is the fervency of Paul. Do you think that the Ephesian church was faithful in this regard? Yes, they certainly were. They certainly were. There's no doubt that this was a vital exhortation for the Ephesian church and they held to it. And indeed they needed to. Ephesus was a cosmopolitan church. It was one of the wealthiest places in the region. Cancrisus made his home there about five centuries, four centuries earlier when it was overtaken by the Lydian Empire. They simply gave their authority to him. He didn't need to fight for the rights to be the king there. They simply gave the authority over to him. It was an ancient and large coastal city. The theatre itself was huge in comparison to the theatres of other Roman cities. It could accommodate 25,000 people. 25,000 people were able to sit in that theatre. Have a look at it. Have a look at the size of it. That is absolutely enormous. Now, please understand what you don't see there. It wasn't a My Music Bowl. This actually had a roof over it. It actually had a roof over it. It was completely covered over. Now, when we were in Israel, we'd seen a number of theatres, a number of theatres. We went to Caesarea, we went to a number of different places. It was part of the establishment of a Roman Empire. You needed specific elements within your city in order to get certain tax benefits. and a theatre was one of them. A theatre was one of them. A hippodrome was another one that was also part of it. It's an incredible thing when you see it. This is a rendering of it with a roof on and that's the road leading up to it. The My Music Bowl can accommodate only 2,030 people. The largest we have is Plenary Hall at the Exhibition Centre, and that can house 5,500 people. Historians would use the accommodating seating of an ancient city theatre to estimate the potential populations of the cities, and they would simply multiply it by 10. So they would say the city was at least big enough to house 250,000 people. A quarter of a million people lived there, a quarter of a million people. This is a massive city. It was a large city in the scheme of things. It even housed to its credit, the temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world. And the temple itself was also immense in size. It was 110 meters long, 55 meters wide. Beloved, that's one and a half acres under roof. 1 1⁄2 acres under roof, 6,050 square metres. To further its place in proper perspective, you look at the Acropolis itself, and that was only about half an acre under roof. So we're going from half an acre to 1 1⁄2 acres. That's the difference between the Temple of Diana and also the Acropolis. 127 temple columns supported the roof structure alone. And each of these columns were six stories high. Six stories high, just get your head around that, 60 feet high. That's just the columns, doesn't include the actual pinnacle of it. The Temple of Diana took 120 years to build and it was completed during the reign of King Croesus. It was then destroyed by fire, apparently the same day that Alexander the Great was born. And then it was rebuilt in the same footprint until finally destroyed in the year 35 AD by the invading Goths. The temple remains with the foundation is only found of that temple and only, I think it's one or a handful of columns are left. The temple was referred to as the temple of the great goddess Diana. And you can actually see her statue in the midst of it. And you would have seen statuettes representing this. Diana is the Roman name for this goddess. The Greek name is Artemis. And she is the goddess of the hunt. She is the goddess of love. She is also the goddess of fertility. This same goddess that is Diana in ancient Rome, Artemis in Greece, is Isis in the Egyptian culture. And there are some fascinating similarities between them. They all share similar characteristics, similar aspects of them that demonstrates who they are, but we have Diana in Rome, Artemis in Greece, Isis in Egypt, but we also have the ancient Mesopotamian goddess known as Astarte or Ishtar. And we see her represented there. And we recognize some interesting similarities. You see the arrows behind her representing the hunt. This is Ishtar. You see the two sides, those little wings there. And that's similarly represented with regards to Isis. It's not just its appearance, it's its characteristics. She is the goddess of fertility. The goddess of fertility. This is again Ishtar and you see her as the goddess of the hunt. You see there with the bow and the arrow and standing on an animal underneath her. Again, Ishtar. It's really fascinating. We celebrate certain celebrations in the West and we don't know where their origins are. We ask the question with regards to the celebration of Christmas, the celebration of Easter. And we don't seem to realize, we sit there, many Christians don't even question it, we make up little stories. We make up little stories with regards to why a bunny rabbit and eggs have to do with Jesus. And so we make up little stories around that and it's fun during Sunday school, but it actually has a far darker hidden secret to them with what they actually represented. You see, there were, during those times, a sacrifice to these gods in order to prosper them for the fertility, for the spring equinox. During the beginning of the spring equinox, they would celebrate Easter, and part of that celebration was one of sacrifice, and they would sacrifice children. They would sacrifice children. You remember within the book of, within the Old Testament, how there's a sacrificial system to the God Moloch. And who was sacrificed to the God Moloch? Children were. We speak about the abortion issue today is nothing more than the same thing. And so we ask the question, well, what does a bunny rabbit and an egg got to do with Easter? They are symbols of fertility. They are symbols of fertility. And when the egg, I didn't want to sort of share this, but I think it's worth it. I think it's worth it. We look about the eggs and we color the eggs. Well, where did that history come from? Well, that history also came from this sacrificial system. The original color of these eggs, and today it is still the color that's celebrated in Greece, was red. Why red? It's because the eggs were dipped in the blood of children. That's how they're represented. This is the ancient history of this thing. So everything that we do today, we don't realise is a symbol of those things that were done in these ancient days. And they are horrific, horrific to give consideration to them, but they are there, they are there. The goddess Ishtar, also English translation to Easter is represented there. But each of these also had a male counterpart. Here we see Isis with Osiris. And it's not limited to Osiris, you see, because after Osiris died, there was a resurrection. And that resurrection is celebrated in the child Horus. So we often see these goddesses also holding a child. And they are also there with Diana, through to Isis, through to Ishtar, Astarte, going all the way back to another woman, starting with S, by the name of Semiramis. Semiramis, who was the wife of Nimrod, who we see in the Bible, in Genesis chapter 10. Here we have a depiction of Semiramis. Here we have Isis and Horus. Again, Isis and Horus. We have Diana, the goddess of childbirth, they refer to her as. And here we have Ishtar together with Tammuz. Tammuz is also in our Bible. One of the condemnations that were given were the women weeping for Tammuz because Tammuz died, you see. And supposedly this is also an image of Semiramis together with Tammuz. I'm not making these things up. I mean, even the Encyclopedia Britannica links some of these. We see some of the names linked to Astarte, and you've got Ishtar there. You've got Isis down there. Similar attributes. Also Aphrodite Juno. Artemis is there. There's links with regards to these guidances that are very difficult to just ignore. Different stories, different natures seem to surround them. They're not perfectly aligned, and yet there are indeed incredible links. we see the same thing with some of these referred to as the queen of the universe. In other words, the Bible talks about the queen of heaven, that you are offering these things to the queen of heaven. You remember in Jeremiah where they're offering these things to the queen of heaven and the people are saying, He goes, you need to serve the Lord, not go back to the queen of heaven. And they said to them, when we were serving the queen of heaven, we didn't have any trouble. And as soon as we started serving the Lord, all these troubles came upon us. So we've returned back to serving the queen of heaven. And Jeremiah tells them officers, does not the Lord remember what you did then? Now these troubles that you had was because of your worship of the queen of heaven to begin with. Now you're going back like a dog returning to its own vomit. And this is exactly what we see happening in the Old Testament and represented in the mythical people of the new. It was Alexander Hislop who wrote the book, Two Babylons. I'd encourage you to get that book. It's still available. I think you can actually get it free on PDF. He links Because when we're talking about these goddesses, it's also in the Indian culture, you see the woman with child. It moves all the way through to who? Anybody know? In the Catholic system? Mary together with baby Jesus. We often make the mistake of assuming that Roman Catholicism is Christianity. When we would be better served, the more you look at Roman Catholicism, to think of it as baptized paganism. And that's essentially what it was. There was a baptism of an ancient mythical cultures that were then brought in and Christianized. And so we have all these similar cultures being brought through from ancient paganism. We don't have a representation of, you know, Mary and baby Jesus as this is brought about in the world today. And it's a sad state. Many people have linked these together. They've put some of these pictures together. I found these online. I don't know what Starbucks has got to do with it, but maybe, who knows? Maybe there's a link with some of those. These are some of the different representations that are actually found as well. Nimrod, the Lord of Heaven. So the ancient culture is, can I just, I've got time. Oh, I don't really. Yeah, I'll do it anyway. Nimrod. was the one who the Bible speaks about within Chronicles who set up his own kingdom. War apparently began with Nimrod. There was never any violent overtaking of cities or anything like that. It began with Nimrod. Nimrod began that city of Babylon. Nimrod began that process of making a name for themselves. Nimrod had a wife, Semiramis, and when Nimrod died, there was the system of planting a trimmed tree, one that would be propped with nails and made to stand fast. After Nimrod died, that tree was then cut down and you have the American tradition of the Yule log, the log that was burned in the fire. Okay, we have those two representations. But after that, there was then the birth of the child, which is Tammuz. Okay, and those same traditions actually followed all the way through historically. Jeremiah chapter 10 has a Christmas tree in it. What's a Christmas tree doing in Jeremiah? It's a trim tree and they deck it with what? Anybody know? Silver and gold. Exactly right. They deck it with silver and gold. They prop it up so it doesn't fall. They do all of these sort of things. The tradition of the Christmas tree actually comes through this ancient pagan custom. Fascinating stuff. I don't want to turn you off from putting up a Christmas tree, but you know, I don't have one. I don't have one. And that's my personal decision that I made, but I just didn't, The explanation that I give to my kids, because we did obviously have it before I became a Christian, and before I understood the nature of these things, I didn't want anything in my house to represent anything that was a front to the Lord. because I know He sees. And I felt uncomfortable. And that was my decision. That was my decision. People can do whatever they like and I don't judge that, not in any way. Please don't think that I do. But I couldn't have it. I couldn't have it. I couldn't have the Lord looking down at a particular season that the world celebrates and see that imagery within my home. And yet I'm called to love Him and honor Him. Do you know what I mean? So that was my decision. Anyway, turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 19. The effect of Paul's preaching could only be attributed to the Holy Spirit in that city. So many things were done. Paul enters Ephesus at the end of his second missionary journey, and he doesn't remain long. That's spoken about in Acts 18 verse 19 to 21. But now in his third journey, his visit to Ephesus, he remains. And many were persuaded to believe in Christ. Now we read a complaint of the silversmiths who were making and sold idols and shrines to Diana, the only goddess named in the New Testament. Verse 26 of our passage in Acts 19. Moreover, you see in here, this is their complaint. Moreover, you see in here that not alone in Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands, so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when they heard these things, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! and the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater." This preaching was attended to in that theater, that great theater that we'd actually seen a witness of. The city itself was completely given over to paganism. There was a large population of Jews there as well who had their own rules and were allowed to have their own rules. The Jews hated the Christians, the pagans hated the Christians. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, the Jews and the pagans got together, all of them beating down on the Christians. And it wasn't long before there became to be a level of persecution. Not as great as Smyrna, but certainly a level of persecution against the Christians that were there. But so fervent were Christians during that time, a chapter earlier in chapter 18, have a look there, oh no, not chapter 18, a few verses earlier. It says there in verse 18, so Acts 19 verse 18. and they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." This is an enormous book burning, an enormous book burning. These people were zealous for the truth of Christ. I know thy works, I know thy works and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them that are evil, but has tried them and found them liars. But then something interesting happens in verse four. Have this frightening word there. Just give consideration, you know, when you're at work, you know, and your boss calls you into the office and he says, you've been doing a really good job. You've been doing all of these other things faithfully. Nevertheless, suddenly there's a degree of nervousness. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Thou hast left thy first love. You haven't lost your first love, left your first love. Left, not lost. If it was lost, it might be different, but it's not. It's left. You've left your first love. The picture of choice seems to be given here. A decision seems to have been made at this particular time. Something has changed. Something has changed. The Ephesians were preoccupied with making sure that they had everything right. They would purify their church to make sure that the church had everything right. That anybody that had views contrary to what they believed was sound doctrine would be dealt with and perhaps even separated from. They made sure that things were right. I mean, you'd almost get the impression of what I mentioned before, new person coming into the church and the first thing you do is, hit them with an understanding of where they stand with regards to the word of God. As a natural tendency of that, if that becomes the focus, there's something that gets left behind. Anybody know what it is? It's love, is it not? It's love. You see, when we become hyper-focused on doctrine, and I'm not telling you one thing is more important than the other, I'm telling you both are vital. You have to have sound doctrine within a church, 100%. But that cannot be at the expense of loving your brethren. Because the reality is that each one of us still struggle with our own walk in the Lord. We struggle with the things of the flesh. Each one of us do. but there must be love first and foremost. If there is no love but sound doctrine, the Lord says he will remove our candlestick. He removes the candlestick of the Ephesian church. There is a leaving, there is a forsaking of the object of their love. They have left the fervency of love that was first seen when they were saved. This is true of many of us, how easy it is to happen. We love our Lord with all our heart when we're saved, but suddenly our love often grows cold the longer we remain as Christians because there is a tendency of the struggle of the flesh rising up within us that we find ourselves tiring and tired of dealing with. I'm sick of going to the Lord and asking him forgiveness for my sin. I'm sick of appealing to him. I don't deserve to be forgiven. I deserve God to pour out his wrath on me. And I struggle with regards to that. Yet John tells us that if we come to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Well, how often ought we to do so? The example that we have is in the New Testament. Remember, Peter asked and he says, Lord, how oft if my brother sin against me, and it's the context is in one day, should I forgive him up to seven times? What does Jesus say? up to 70 times seven times. Now, if this is the example that we're given with regards to our temporal salvation and our temporal forgiveness of the Lord, how much more is it for those of you who are born again? How much more is it with regards to the Lord forgiving us? but there is nevertheless a struggle that happens within us. Our heart becomes weary of repenting for sin. It's weary of the fight with the flesh and it finds itself having left its first love. The result? The result will be either you're going to try and make up that shortfall by being fervent in sound doctrine, Okay? You're going to be making sure that you're fervent. Well, at least I'm strong in the word of God. And there's something else that tends to happen. Do you know what that else is? You start focusing on the sins of everybody else. Isn't that incredible how that happens? You see, you haven't dealt with your own sin. You haven't brought that before the Lord and seen before him how miserable and wretched we actually are. Oh, what a wretched man that I am, says Paul, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And he thanks the Lord Jesus Christ. We're tired of doing that. So we find ourselves in order to make ourselves feel better about ourselves, saying at least I'm right in the doctrine and your sins need to be dealt with before God. Your sins, yours, yours, yours. Forgetting while we're pointing, one finger, three are pointing back. This is what we tend to do, and our love grows cold. Our love grows cold. Beloved, one of the beautiful things, and I know that it's hard. I know that it's hard, because I just know that it's hard. It's hard to go before the Lord when you have a struggle with the flesh and seek His forgiveness, because you don't want to see how wretched you actually are apart from Him. But I can tell you right now, it is the most liberating thing that you can possibly do. Because you see, you start to begin to understand that everything that you have is of the Lord. I can do nothing without Him, nothing without Him. And without Him doing the work within me, I am nothing. It's the very reason why the Bible shows us that we're gonna be taking off whatever crowns we've given and casting it at His feet. Because you see, without Him, we can do nothing. And if you know that about yourself, guess what happens with your affection towards others? You just love them. You love them. You deal with the things that they might do against you. You take those things patiently. You might get upset without question. You might even get angry. You might even become bitter. And yet at the same time, when you reflect your own state and your own heart, you still can't help but love them and look for opportunities for reconciliation. But this wasn't the Ephesian church, you see. The Ephesian church began to wax cold. What else might explain it? Well, the Ephesian church also began to be persecuted. Emperor Domitian began to rule between the years 81 and 96 AD, before the end of that first century. And he began to force a form of worship that was, until that time, unheard of. Consider the words of historian Colin Hemmer, writing about this topic with regards to the Ephesians, he says this, quote, It is likely that Domitian's reign marked a deterioration in the standing of the Ephesian church. That emperor enforced his worship with a rigor hitherto unknown, and a pretentious temple to him was actually established in Ephesus. He appears also to have extended the boundaries of the Temple of Artemis, an act whose significance we must consider below. The hints of increasing danger from the pagan opposition will readily explain the activity of Nicolaitans." Now we don't exactly know what Nicolaitans were or what they represented. So I'm not going to go into detail with regards to that. If we break down the word, it gives an impression of a rule or a governing over the laity that the Lord did not like. Some people have believed that these are part of that, that they, it was the heresy of an individual by the name of Nicol, who were the Nicolaitans. Nicol also seems to be a, a similitude of Satan or a word that represents Satan, but we'll leave that there. Advantages were taken away. Privileges were removed both in business and in personal life. These things were diminished. Even citizenship was curtailed. The Jews added to their troubles. And as a result of that, many Christians' faith began to wax cold. They began to see that it was a little bit easier to give up what they were holding to firmly with regards to the Lord as they're Christians. and they began to reconsider their state. Again, this was a very wealthy city, a very wealthy city. We've got examples, perhaps, of what happened to us in the last few years. Many Christians had compromised their own selves in order to appease the government, because without attending to the things that the government had imposed upon the world, we would find ourselves losing our privileges. how many people ended up doing things counter to their will because they believed that they were going to lose their jobs, they believed that they weren't going to be able to go to coffee shops and cinemas and this and that and the other. We've been told that the only way out is by attending to something that the government wanted to attend to that was contrary to the belief of the vast majority of people. And so many people had compromised. They'd given up what they believed that they were holding to and ended up attending to something that they didn't want. So we actually had a practical experience of this. But this was directed specifically to Christians. And so maybe that's another reason why they had left their first love. And the last point, and I'll make this as short as I can, the Ephesians had opportunity. He says there in verse five, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. Whether it be due to a cooling heart or a persecuted life, what is clear in this verse is that there is an opportunity to repent before it's too late. Jesus instructs them to remember from where they are fallen. This is the first step to warm the heart again. A return to the love that we had left. We return to the love that we had left. How incredible is that we've got that opportunity? You know, there's never a point while there's breath in us, there's never a point that the Lord would leave us aside. But there is a point that our candlestick can be taken away. In other words, there is a point where the light of Christ that should be illuminating from you to the world around you is no longer apparent. Candlestick taken away. And this was the state of the Ephesian church. The Ephesian church here had an opportunity to return to their first love, first love. Now the love of my life is my wife, but really she's not my first love. Sorry Maria, you can see in the back there. She's not my first love. You see, my first love is my Lord Jesus Christ. And to many people that don't know the Lord, they can't understand that. But you see, the more I love my Lord Jesus Christ, the more I fall in love with my wife. And that's something that people don't understand. When I first became a father, I fell in love with my daughter, absolutely fell in love with her. And my tears were a little bit complex because I couldn't understand how a love so strong for a child could be shared with another child. I mean, how can I love my second one as much as I love my first? How can I share this love? I'm just overwhelmed by this love. Well, see, the problem that I had is that my math was wrong. You see, I was dividing where love is multiplied. You see, you don't divide your love. And so when my love for the Lord Jesus grows, my love for my wife and my brethren multiplies. You see, the more I leave my love for Christ, then my love will find itself divided. Then suddenly I find myself choosing whom I shall love. It will only be those that do the right thing by me. So that's wrong. And this is what happened here. This is what happened here. Christian life is not an easy life. We've got the same troubles that others have, but added to those troubles is the dual nature that would buffet us. The tendency is to turn our hearts away from repentance towards Christ and to focus our minds on the sins of others. Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch acknowledged their diligence, the diligence of the Ephesians. And he wrote this saying, now Omnissimus himself highly praises your orderly conduct in God, reporting that you all live in accordance with the truth. and that no heresy is found a home among you. Indeed, you do not so much as listen to anyone unless he speaks truthfully about the Lord Jesus Christ. So doing the right thing in that regard is great, but leaving your first love is not great. The name Ephesus means desirable. And though such wonderful coastal wealthy noble city that was built there was desirable. It was a city also that would be engulfed by its own pride. Timothy is said to have been the first pastor at the church of Ephesus. The seven sons of Sceva tried to exercise the devil from the same place. Acts chapter 19 verses 13 to 17. If you haven't read that account, you should read it. It's pretty funny. It was, you know, it's funny. Have you read it? It's pretty funny. Here they are, the seven sons of Sceva. They don't know Christ. And they're trying to cast out a devil. And so we adjure you. by Jesus Christ whom Paul preaches that you come out of him. What does the devil say? Paul I know and Jesus I know, but who are you? And they jump on them and they beat them up and they all left wounded and naked. So it's a great, great, great account. So be careful if your plan is to exorcise devils, make sure you're saved. It was in Ephesus that Priscilla and Aquila gave to Apollos a better understanding of the gospel, Acts chapter 18, 26. It was there that Paul baptized 12 disciples of John, who were baptized only in the baptism of repentance rather than Christ, in Acts chapter 19, verses 1 to 4. It was here that Paul healed many people through handkerchiefs and aprons. that he wore in Acts 19 verses 11 to 12. And it was here that Paul disputed daily in the school of one man named Tyrannus for two years in Acts chapter 19 verse 19. But the silting of the adjacent river against the harbor city of Ephesus would find the place eventually abandoned. Just as the building up of the pride in our own lives has us leave our first love, the light of Ephesus, the candle of Ephesus was removed. And the light in our own lives, because of pride building up within us, we might tick every box, we might dot every eye, but if we don't have love, beloved, our own light will be extinguished. We're not talking about the light of salvation. We're talking about the light of witness. He is the object of our hope and our joy. You cannot illuminate the love of Christ to a dark world when you leave your first love. Our candle is to burn brightly that all may find Christ. that all may find Christ, the one that we have. Do thy first works, the Lord says. Remember from where you have fallen. If you feel you are leaving that first love, this holds true. Return, return, simply return. It's a wonderful blessing and a wonderful joy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, dear Lord, for this day. We thank you, dear Father, for this incredible example of the Church of Ephesus. And we ask and pray, dear Lord, that the truth of this scripture would lighten our own hearts and that we would know that we are to join ourselves true to the Lord, that our light would shine brightly. I pray, dear Lord, if there'd be any here that don't know you, and I ask you, Father, that you would in every way govern over their hearts, that you would bring them to the wonderful joy of Christ and the wonderful hope that is found in you, that they may be born again. And I pray for us, dear Lord, those of us who know you, those of us who are born again. We can often be lacklustre in our faith, and we can often make a choice to leave our first love being distracted by the things that are in this world. I pray, dear Lord, that we would return. Help us, dear Lord, be with us and strengthen us, and help us illuminate the wonderful joy of Christ to a dark world. We give you thanks and praise in Jesus' name, amen. you