"But I have this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember, therefore, the state from which you have fallen! Repent and do the works you did at first. Otherwise I will come and remove your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent."
- Rev. 2:4-5
I can see that you’ve given up drugs and alcohol
- That you’ve given up your gambling addiction
- That you seem to be making your children a priority now in place of your vices
- That you seem to be avoiding the people and the places that you know lure you back into your old ways of life...
...BUT there is ONE problem – one fatal flaw-- ...you’ve forsaken the One that makes these other efforts and sacrifices worth ANYTHING AT ALL. Apart from This One – the One who married you when you were ‘no prize’ – The One who sacrificed everything that belonged to Him so that you could be His beloved – The One who has patiently and graciously remained with you through all of your ‘dancing with the devil and his demons’ – Your ‘clean-living victories’ might be nice ‘feathers in YOUR cap’, but they’re all ‘hollow’/empty victories - without your ‘first love’ - the Love of the One who has and does love you...
You have cleaned up in many things... but you are still forsaking the One thing – indeed – THE THING!
“The One who is not WITH ME, declares Jesus, is against me.”
The Book of Revelation is fascinating. It can certainly seem obscure and mysterious with its picturesque / figurative way of communicating God’s truths... But its baseline premise is perhaps clearer than any other book recorded in the Holy Scriptures. Listen to how the book is introduced to its readers/hearers:
The revelation (the vision/preview) of Jesus Christ, Which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to be. He made (this preview) known through an angel to His servant, John, who testifies to everything he (John) saw (in the preview) – that is, The Word ofGod and the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Rev. 1:1-2)
So then, in spite of the sometimes bizarre and strangely-detailed imagery in this book, the fundamental context is, this is ALWAYS a picture of the Bridegroom - Jesus the Christ – a presentation of His Word and the Works by which He has claimed AND IS claiming His bride, the Church.
Then, we learn that this vision was first presented to 7 specific congregations – real and definite assemblies of God’s own people – think of it as if Norseland and Norwegian Grove Lutheran churches are being addressed by name through this vision – now written down - given by God through His servant, John.
And our text here from the first verses of Rev. 2, this is a specific address to one of those 7 churches... One with which we have prior familiarity... because these dear Christians were the recipients of a prior letter also recorded in the Scriptures... This is the Christian congregation in Ephesus – the recipient of St. Paul’s 6-chapter letter by the same name -- Ephesians... The Lord announces through preview to St. John:
“I see you”!- This is – if I understand correctly – a popularized way for one person to say to another, “I recognize your effort/your achievement”.
The Lord says through St. John to the Christians in Ephesus:
- I see you NOT tolerating people insisting on being evil
- I see you testing /examining those who present themselves as God’s messengers
- I see your endurance through hardships, through persecutions on account of my
name...
To use the picture Jesus paints in His teaching from our gospel lesson, “I see that you have been very diligent in keeping a ‘clean house’ – morally speaking.”... As to say, good exercises/practices as far as they go...
A modern-day analogy might be the somewhat common Christian exercise during lent of “giving some item/thing up for lent”. Luther says a “fine outward training” these outward practices can be BUT... only if it this vacancy is filled by One very specific Occupancy!
... BUT, what I (the Lord) have against you: YOU HAVE FORSAKEN YOUR FIRST LOVE.” I see your efforts to clean up your life and living, says the Lord through St. John. BUT What I “don’t see” is what stands against (condemns) you (between you and Me).
Or to bring it again to Jesus’ picture it in Luke11: The Devil loves a cleanly swept BUT UNOCCUPIED house / a life ‘scrubbed clean’ and ‘made tidy’ by the individual... SO LONG AS that cleanliness is not occupied by Jesus and His shed blood for that ‘clean and tidy’ looking life. That scenario, Jesus says, is 7 times worse than the first! -- A clean life that is satisfied / perfectly sufficient / complete and whole by its own clean-ness is a residence perfectly fit for the Devil and his demons.
Like a battery does with energy, so is a lampstand with respect to light. The lampstand (in the temple) doesn’t produce its own light. Rather it is a ‘holder’ of light – a place from which the light is conveyed distributed. For the Lord to “remove the lampstand from it’s place” is not a threat as much as it is an act that recognizes a denial and a destruction that is already a reality: A church that has decided it doesn’t need the Light. Dear ‘cleanly swept ones’, May God the Spirit work in us hearts of repentance before our lampstand is removed!
Dear Christians, our Triumph over the Devil and his henchmen is not achieved by our evicting of evil from our lives or that of our children. Our Triumph is WITH JESUS | His holy life, His shed blood, His resurrection from the dead -- its Occupation of our bodies and minds and souls. “REMEMBER THE STATE from which you have fallen” says the Lord through St. John to these redeemed Christians – this state is the real victory!
It is by the grace (the undeserved love of God in Christ) that you are saved... This Triumph over sin, death and the Devil IS NOT OF YOURSELVES! It is God’s gift to you.
This, was the “first love” of the Ephesian Christians – the love of God by which they were graciously loved into the family through Christ – loved into salvation! This love, dear Christian, is the offensive that lays waste to your great Enemy, the Devil, as well.
- The Promise of God’s Seed was the promise of the Attack that would crush Satan and carry you and me into Paradise!
- The Birth of God’s Son is the Bulwark that stands up underneath every accusation the Devil brings against us – yes even those accusations of our hollow-faith in our “cleanly swept houses”.
- The Blood of God’s Son shed both for our vices and our vainly ‘cleanlives’–This blood is like the Red Sea waters that come flooding back down upon the mighty Egyptian army – The flood of Jesus’ blood DESTROYS Devil and his aim to occupy our hearts and consciences.
“Pastor”, half-jokingly quipped the wife her aging, Lazy-boy-Bound husband, “why would Gerald need Communion (the body and blood of Jesus) - he doesn’t go anywhere but this chair any hour of any day”... Lot’s of ways the pastor could have answered this question. The simplest, and perhaps is the most thorough, though, are these texts here...
Gerald’s cleanly swept house – our cleanly swept house – is prime real estate for the Devil. Our bodies minds and souls need their First love – The Love of God in Christ Jesus - to be our Occupying Army against the Devil and His deadly attacks against us.
Our Victory over Satan is WITH JESUS who is Victor FOR US! More blessed are they who hear the Word of God made flesh for us...
Those who, by faith, are occupied with Jesus. +++ INJ +++ Amen.
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