Amen.
Amen. And you guys can start finding your way to your seats here this evening. And it is so good to see you all once again on a Wednesday night. And it's always good to also see the kids in here. We are grateful that each one of you are here, as well as the adults in the room. And I understand sometimes we love some kids' church. I told some of our kids' church volunteers, Grove Kids volunteers, I asked them if it would make them feel more comfortable tonight if they ran a game or something like that for you guys tonight.
Maybe some Simon Says, some Four Corners, or whatever. But no, I'm glad all of you are here. And you guys deserve a break.
I get it that every week you invest in these young people. And we are so thankful for that. And so we're grateful that you're here. Well, on Wednesday night, we do things a little bit different, just because a lot of times we try to do a little bit more teaching in here. And so I provide an outline every week. And so if you kind of slipped in and you did not get an outline at one of our entrances, would you just slip up your hand? You're not in trouble, so don't get nervous about it. But slip one up.
And we've got a couple of guys that'll bring those to you. Just keep your hands up high enough for them to see it and long enough for them to recognize it. And also if we need people in the balcony as well, you can raise your hand as well. And this is just a way for you to stay engaged tonight. Now, if you're a normal attender or a regular attender, I hope you're normal. But if you're a regular attender, you'll notice that there's a lot more blanks than usual. And you know I'm already long winded with only a few blanks.
And so as you see this, I know people are already saying, how long are we going to be here tonight? And I'm going to do my best, but we're going to kind of work through things here tonight. I wanted to say just a couple of things as we get rolling is that I understand that this series, I can already tell because we went from a half sheet outline to a full front and back type of thing. I can already tell this is a lot of information. It is a lot that we are going to go over each week and study together.
And I just I understand it's like drinking from like a fire hydrant and on Wednesday night and you're just kind of like it's too much to take in. That's why I encourage you to go back, maybe re-listen to things, study, read some things during the week that will prepare you for each week of our study. And so also I'd encourage you to take more notes than just the blanks that are there, things that you see that might help you. I also encourage you to attend each week because I'm not going to have a whole lot of time to do a lot of recapping and things like that. So try to stay up to speed throughout our study as we move through this. So just a couple of things. Last week was week number one, so this is week number two. So you're picking up on a good time with us.
But as we work through this, just a couple of background type things for you. It's on your notes, but the author of Revelation, we all know this, it is John the Apostle. John the Apostle. And this book, Revelation, was written around 98 A.D. And so 98 A.D. And so this was towards the end of John's life. So he's in his 90s at this point when he was receiving this because many believe that he was born around the same time as Jesus.
And so he was in his 90s, most believe, at this time when he saw the vision of Jesus that gives us this book of Revelation. He is writing this and receiving this vision from God. He's receiving this on the island of Patmos. The island of Patmos is where he's receiving this and he's not there on vacation, okay? He's exiled there. This was like Rome's prison camp, if you would, that they would ship you off to, kind of like their version of Alcatraz, they would send you off to the island of Patmos so that you could not be used to further the gospel. And so he was exiled there that we see. The reason he was exiled, it was found in verse 10 of chapter 1, is because of the testimony of the Lord and the Word of God.
Because he preached in the name of Jesus, that's what led him to get exiled there. The purpose of Revelation is this, to give us hope and anticipation about the imminent return of Jesus. To give us hope and anticipation about the imminent return of Jesus. That's what the book is about. It's not on your notes, but the word Revelation, it comes from a Greek word, apocalypsis, it's where we get the word apocalypse, and so the word Revelation literally means an unveiling or a revealing.
An unveiling or a revealing. And so the book is revealing and unveiling future events that occur leading up to the return of Jesus and after the return of Jesus. The book is all about Jesus. You're going to see Jesus on every single page, and so it's all pointing directly to him and his second coming.
In fact, 32 different titles are given to Jesus throughout the book, and you're going to see many of those because in chapter number 1, 9 of those 32 titles are mentioned here in chapter number 1. Our interpretation of the book of Revelation, our interpretation, we mentioned last week, there's 3 different ways you interpret it, and here's what I want you to know. There's great people that believe and see it differently, and so we try not to judge. Everybody interprets things a little bit differently. Some people interpret it in an allegorical form, some people do a historical form, and the interpretation method that we are going to use that I kind of abide by when I'm studying this and all of scripture is the literal interpretation. So you can put that in your blank on your notes, the literal interpretation, which basically it is saying and claiming that Revelation chapter number 4 and future, all related, are events that are going to happen in a literal way leading up to the second coming of Christ. So that is what we are going to interpret it for. The timeline, this is all kind of some background from last week, so the timeline of the book of Revelation.
You can see that, I'll show a picture up on the screen. We designed this just for you, just to kind of that we're going to work off of, and the reason is it gives us a little bit of picture, an overview of the entire book of Revelation. Now not every detail is on here, but when Jesus resurrected from the dead, it says in Acts that he appeared to the apostles and he appeared to them for 40 days. So there was a 40 day period after he resurrected before he ascended. So when he ascended, he left the apostles, and remember that's when they were told to go back to Jerusalem and wait, and then Pentecost happened, and at that point the church age began. So the church was birthed at that point, and that is the church age, and I circle that here because that is the age that we are in today. We are in the church age, and so what you see here in the book of Revelation is really chapters one through three are about the church age.
It's about the church age, and then in chapters four and five, it is about what we call the rapture of the church. That's when the trumpet sounds, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we go to meet him in the air. Now understand, that is different than the second coming.
Got to understand that they're two separate things. The rapture, he isn't going to come all the way down to earth. We're going to meet him in the air at that point, okay? The second coming, which is after the rapture, he's going to come and he's going to come down to earth, and so Revelation four and five is about the rapture. The seven year tribulation, that is chapter six through eighteen, and then in Revelation nineteen, we'll look at the second coming of Christ, and then the a thousand year reign of Christ will be in chapter twenty, and then also chapter twenty talks about the lake of fire as well as the great white throne judgment, which is the final judgment when those who reject Christ are thrown into the lake of fire, and then in twenty-one and twenty-two, it's the new heaven and new earth, okay?
So I know you look at that and you're excited about some things on there. We'll get to all of that, but just be patient. We're going to slowly work through this thing together. But we left off last week in chapter number one, so if you have your Bible, join us in Revelation chapter number one, and we're going to work through this together. We've got a lot to cover tonight, so I'll try to keep you as engaged as I possibly can.
I'm going to back you up. You're going to see up on the screen verse twelve and on. I'm going to start in verse number nine, which isn't going to be up on the screen, and this is just going to give us a little bit of a runway. We studied it last week, so I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on it, but it will give you some runway as we get into verse number twelve. So verse nine of chapter one says, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Now notice the word tribulation is not the seven year tribulation mentioned here. He's talking about the persecution that he is currently experiencing on the island of Patmos, so don't get those confused. He was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Now I didn't spend a whole lot of time on this, but one thing that's just interesting, we don't know how all of this happened. I still have questions about some things, but I want you to know that if you look in a Greek manuscript of chapter number one, the article, the is not in there.
So really you could read this. I was in spirit. And so there's a lot of speculation about what that means that these visions of God is what that really looked like for him.
We don't know, but he was in spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, this is Jesus saying this, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last and what thou seest right in a book and send it under the seven churches which are in Asia unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna and unto Pergamos and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia, not Pennsylvania if you're wondering, okay, and unto Laodicea. And I turned at verse 12, this is new to us because we left off at verse 11 last week. And so I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. Okay, so real quick, before we go to the next one, there is a slide and Brian, if you can help me find it's a little bit what it's after the verses here tonight, I wanted to mention this, that the seven candlesticks is really they represent the seven churches, it's on your notes there.
And I wanted to go ahead and talk briefly about this. And so you're gonna see a picture here of what we would call, it's a candlestick, or it's a word that we would refer to as a menorah, a menorah. And here's the interesting thing about this, the seven candlesticks, you'll learn here in verse number 20, as we get to the end of chapter one, he tells us that these seven candlesticks that John sees in this vision are representing the seven churches that he is about to address, okay. And we're gonna look at those in detail, but he sees these seven menorahs, if you would, these seven candlesticks representing these seven churches. And here's why this is so important, is because the menorah was the only source of light, if you remember our study for the tabernacle a couple years ago, the menorah was the only source of light in the tabernacle. So it's the only source of light and so when the priest would go in to do his priestly duty, the menorah would be lit every day and that was the only way that the priest would be able to see how to accomplish the duties that he needed to do there in the tabernacle. And so it was the source of light and the reason why this is so important representing the churches is because if you remember when Jesus was on earth, he looked to Christians and disciples, the church, and he said, you are the light of the world.
And so when he sees these seven menorahs, it's a reminder that the church is the light of the world. And so when the darkness is real, like when the world gets dark, we don't just scream at the darkness. No, I mean when you go into your house at night and it's dark, you don't just scream at it. Now I know Alexa and stuff like that, you kind of do in modern day technology. But you don't just scream at the darkness to become light and to change.
No, what do you do? You turn on the light. And as the world gets darker, and by the way, it is getting darker.
You just need to look around us. It is getting darker. And so here's what I want you to know. You don't just scream at the light. You don't just Facebook post your way at the dark, right?
No, you turn on the light. That's the answer for the world that we live in. It's the church going into a dark world and being the light, being the menorah, if you would, of the church. Back to our text.
I just wanted to say that. Verse number 13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, the seven menorahs, there was one like unto the Son of Man clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. Now, the Son of Man is what we would call a messianic reference. If you go back to Daniel chapter number seven, we don't have time to turn there. But in Daniel chapter number seven, Daniel got a vision from God and in it, Jesus was in this vision and he was referred to as the Son of Man. So what you see here is very symbolic of what Daniel experienced in his vision. This is a vision of Jesus. So what he is going to do from verses 13 to 16, he is going to describe Jesus. He's going to describe him. So I want you to feel this as we read this. This is who we are dealing with. This is who this is.
Here's what he says. He says he was clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. Well, the longer in this tradition, the longer the robe, the higher the authority was. So when it specifically says that Jesus was clothed down to his foot, that is a signifying that all power and all authority is in the hands of the Son of Man, the Son of God. Verse 14, his head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, signifying his purity. And his eyes were as a flame of fire, reminding that Jesus is not only our Savior, he's also coming as our judge. Verse 15, and his feet like undefined brass, as if they burned or were refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters, signifying his authority and bold, powerful voice. Verse 16, and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
So what you see here is a picture of Jesus, a description of him. You see in verse 13, you see his majesty. You see in verse 14, this isn't on your notes, by the way, you can write this down if you want to. You see in verse 14, you see Christ's purity. You see in verse 15, you see Christ's authority. And then in verse 16, you see Christ and all of his glory. So his majesty, his purity, his authority, and his glory is on display. And one thing that's interesting, not to get too ahead of ourselves, but at the second coming of Christ, in Revelation chapter 19, John, he gets another vision of Jesus in chapter number 19 when he comes riding on a white horse, and you see a lot of the same similarities of what you see here at the very beginning of his vision.
Okay? And so he gets another vision because throughout the book, he kind of gets these clusters of visions throughout the book that he's going to see. And so in chapter number 19, you're going to see it is very similar to here. Verse number 17, and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, undone, completely overwhelmed. And here's the thing, it's important to know, when you get a glimpse of Jesus, there's only one way to fall down.
There's only one way to go. And that's why our culture, when we think about Jesus, we've become so casual in how we approach him. We've become so casual in how we approach him. And here's what I want you to know, when we all see him for who he is, we are all going to fall. We're all going to fall in admiration and in love and worship for who he is. And John, when he sees this vision, he falls completely undone, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead.
And behold, I am alive for forevermore. This is a reminder that the thing that separates us from every religion in the world is that we serve a risen Savior. Is that every religion in the world, whether it be Muhammad or Buddha or whoever, guess what? They all worship people that are in the ground somewhere, or their ashes are spread around some place here in the world.
The thing that separates what we believe with every religion out there is that we serve a risen Savior here today. And so Jesus reminds him that yes, it is me, I am the risen Savior. I'm he that liveth and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death. Write these things which thou hast seen. Now, remember John is enamored with what he's seeing. And so 12 different times throughout the book of Revelation, he is going to be told by Jesus in these visions, he's going to be he tells him 12 times, write this down, because I imagine John is sitting there with his mouth just dropped open like what is happening?
This is wild. And so he's probably having to remind him constantly, hey, write this down, write this down. So he does it 12 different times.
This is one of them. And the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter, which really you could say, and I know I'm giving you a lot of information, but I just want you to kind of understand and I want this to come alive for you. Verse 19 is really like the entire book of Revelation.
It really is in verse 19 right there because you see, he says write the things which thou hast seen. That's Revelation chapter one, the things which are, that's really the church age that we're about to look at, really that's one through three. And then the things which shall be hereafter, that's four through 22, things that are to come.
So really here, he's getting this vision and he's going to get more as we move forward about what is and what has been and what is to come. Verse 20, the mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks, which thou sawest are the seven churches. So real quick before we dive into the church at Ephesus, the word angel here is very important because when we think angel, we think these, what was it?
Precious moments kind of people, you know, the ones that, you know, there are these white kind of precious moments like flying around or whatever. The word angel here is different. So I don't want you to think a spirit being that he's mentioning here. It's actually a word. I think it's a Greek word.
You pronounce it Angelos, I think is how you say that. And so it's a Greek word and you can actually translate the word to mean messenger, to mean messenger. And so the word is a little bit different.
What he's referring to is a human vessel. So when he says that, you know, the stars are the seven angels, are the angels of the seven churches, what he's referring to is that the stars are the messengers at those churches. We would call them the pastors, the pastors, the shepherds that are leading these different churches. I mean, you're going to see this in Revelation two through three, he's going to say, you know, to the angel, he's not talking about a spirit being, he's talking about the messenger at those churches.
That's what he's talking about. In fact, he calls, he uses this same word, Jesus, when he actually says in Matthew 11 10, I think it'll be up on the screen, when Jesus calls John the Baptist, he said, I'm going to send my messenger. That's the same Greek word. He wasn't talking about a spirit being, he's talking about John the Baptist. And so he's talking about a human vessel being used to carry out the message of what he is trying to get to. So, which brings us to our first letter, the letter to the church at Ephesus. So on your notes, an introduction to the letters of the seven churches.
And here's what I want you to know, a couple of things. So first of all, these were literal churches. There's a few things I want you to know that are just about these churches that are important. There are literal churches existing in the first century.
So these were actual congregations. In fact, you can see the order, I think I have a picture of them that I'll show you of where they're located. They were in Asia Minor, which is what we would refer to as modern day Turkey. And so you can see this, that the first one is Ephesus. So over here to the left here is the Aegean Sea. And so right on this side of the Aegean Sea is where all of these churches are located, which is modern day Turkey. So what's going to happen is they're located in a real, like they're addressed to them in a clockwise formation. So it's going to go with Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
And it's going to go in this kind of order as you look around. So these were seven literal churches. Number two on your notes, these letters are applicable to churches today. They're applicable to churches today. So there's a lot of things that we are going to learn about these letters that are applicable to us here today. And then the third thing that I want you to understand is this, is that these letters represent different time periods in church history, all the way until where we are today.
And so they represent these different time periods that you can look back and you can see. So every letter to these churches have a historical significance as we move through these letters together. The second thing I want you to see before we dive into chapter two is this, the similarities of the letters to the seven churches. There's some similarities as we move through all seven of them. So the first one is this, each letter begins with a description of Jesus who is the head of the church.
Each letter begins with a description of Jesus. Remember, it all points to him. It's all about him. The whole Bible's about him. It's not about you. It's not about you making your way to him. It's about him coming to you, okay? That's what the entire Bible is about. The book of Revelation is no different.
Everything's pointing to him. So each letter begins with a description of Jesus who is the head of the church. Number two, each letter is addressed to the angel or, in our case, the messenger or the pastor of the church, okay? Number three, each letter begins... Everybody's turning their page. I can all hear it at once.
We've never had that. We never had two pages on a Wednesday night till tonight, okay? Each letter begins with a reminder that Jesus knows their works. So he is always watching. He knows our works. Like, he knows all things, and you're going to see that in every letter. Each letter contains an affirmation or a criticism, and some contain both, okay? So you're going to see as we work through this that each letter contains an affirmation or a criticism, and some letters contain both. Each letter ends with a mention or a mention of the second coming of Christ. Each letter is going to mention something about the second coming.
You're going to see that similarity with all seven of these letters, okay? Each letter ends, and I know I'm firing these off fast, okay? Each letter ends with a reward for those that overcome. Each letter ends with a reward to those that overcome.
And then each letter ends with a challenge to those that hear, to those that hear and heed what they hear, okay? There we go. I feel like I should ask for questions or something. I feel like this is like school again, right? Okay.
I'm sorry if it feels that way. It's going to get a little bit more preachy as we get into the Church at Ephesus. And we'll move through this quickly. I know some of you have kids here in the room, and you're wondering how in the world am I going to keep them engaged any longer, okay?
I feel you. So let's look at the letter to the Church at Ephesus. We're going to get through this one today as we move through this. So Ephesus, remember I mentioned that each of these kind of represent a time period in church history. The letter to the Church at Ephesus, it actually is a letter that represents the first century Christians. So the day of Pentecost to about the apostles dying, which was around 100 AD, because John was the final one to die, and he was in his 90s here. That's what we are going to look at, is the Church at Ephesus represents that time period, around 33 AD to 100 AD, if you would.
And so let's look at it. Revelation 2, 1 through 7 says this. Unto the angel, the messenger 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 thou thou 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 labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee.
So we have the affirmation, now we have the criticism. I have against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Verse 5, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent.
So he gives them an opportunity to 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, verse 6, but this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolations, which I also hate. The Nicolations were, you know, they taught some heretical things, they had heretical beliefs, they were idolatrous, but if you look at the word, it's from two Greek words, nikao, which means to conquer, and then also the word laos, which is basically where we would get laity. And so you could translate Nicolations to conquer the laity.
And here's what I kind of think that they had a problem with. When you think of it in the meaning of the word, and this is one of those things that I told you in the book of Revelation, that this is kind of me, I don't know much about the Nicolations, this is my interpretation of what it means, or whatever, is I think they had a problem with the hierarchical system of the local church, because if you look at the meaning of this, it talks about conquer the laity, and here's what I'll tell you, God hates when anybody stands between man and God. So in other words, that's why we, you know, don't practice things like the Roman Catholic Church would practice, we don't have to go to anybody else because he has been our high priest. And so I think here, that's what he's talking about, because if you look at the meaning of what the word is, you know, I did some study on it this week, they did have some crazy idolatrous type of beliefs, but I think that was the main thing that God hated, is because nobody should stand between us and God. And so, notice he hates the deeds of them, he doesn't hate them. It's okay for you, regardless of what the news tells you, it's okay for you to hate sin but love the person. I don't know why we've gotten away from that in our society, but listen, it's okay, right here, God said, hey, hate the works and the deeds of the Nicolations, but he doesn't say hate the Nicolations, okay? And then he goes on, verse 7, he that hath in the ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh what I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
I've got to go quickly. Couple things, number one, on your notes, the city of Ephesus, I want to talk a little bit about it, the city of Ephesus was well populated, not going to spend a whole lot of time on this, but it was a big city, it was a big city. They were saying in the first century there was about 500,000 people, it was a port city, so many people would travel and do trade while they were here, it was home to one of the biggest libraries that people would visit, but not only was the city well populated, the city was immoral. Number two, the city was immoral. It was home to 50 different temples that were designed to worship different little g gods. The most famous that actually was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world was the temple of Artemis, also known as Diana, and it was torn down now, but it was at one time one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The temple was 400 feet long, 200 feet wide, and there was 127 pillars around the temple of Artemis, and each pillar stood 60 foot high. It was huge, it was massive, and Artemis was the goddess of sex and fertility, and so the city of Ephesus was a very immoral place. It was an immoral city, and you know, we don't have enough time, sometimes I wish we could just preach for hours and study this together, but here's what I'll tell you, in Acts chapter 19, if you're ever to go back and read it, maybe this is some homework for you.
In Acts 19 and 20, you find the apostle Paul, he goes to Ephesus on his third missionary journey, and when he goes there, he spends almost three full years there, which is the longest period that he spent at any place, was here in Ephesus. Now I think it's because of how crazy the place was, but through preaching the gospel, the place had sorcery and magic and all these different things that they practiced on a regular basis, witchcraft and things. He started coming in and he was debating with people, preaching the gospel, and people were getting saved and revival broke out there at Ephesus, Acts 19 and 20.
And here's what happened, you can read about this, is as he was preaching the gospel and people were getting saved, people were actually bringing their sorcery books, their books and different things for witchcraft and stuff, they brought them and they were burning them at these things. In other words, the gospel was putting all these different places that sold those books or all these different places who sold little idols for the idolatrous work, the gospel was putting those places out of business. And by the way, shouldn't that be what the gospel does in our society? Listen, let me just say this, not to get political about it, but if the gospel, you know, if we're all taking the gospel, maybe there would be less places like Planned Parenthood around our world today, maybe there would be less places like clubs and these places that people mess up their lives, right? Because what happens is when the gospel comes into a city and the gospel comes into a community and we as the light of the world take the gospel into a dark place, what happens is it puts sin out of business. And so what happens is they get mad and they want to be Apostle Paul dead. We read all about that in Acts 19 and 20, but the gospel was working. What we are reading about at Ephesus is about 30 years after the revival, so after Acts 19, 30 years later, and now they've completely gone away from it. 30 years is not a long time.
In 30 years they have this revival and then 30 years later they're back and letting all that stuff infiltrate them once again, they've left their first love. So the city was immoral, but let's look at the letter a little bit. Jesus' title to the church at Ephesus, you can see this, you can write this down straight from verse number one here in chapter two. He that holdeth, talking about Jesus, he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
Okay, remember I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this, but when he says that he holds the seven stars in his right hand, the right hand always signified authority. So when the stars represent the messengers, the pastors. So in other words, as a pastor, I'm always under the authority of Christ.
Any pastor that tries to get out of that is no longer a pastor. All of us who serve, we are under the authority of Jesus, but then it also reminds us here at the end of verse one that he is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. That should give us such comfort.
That should make you want to come here. He's in the midst of us. He's with us.
He's here, and he's among us. The second thing I want you to see here is the affirmations on your notes. The affirmation to the church at Ephesus, and it's not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this, but you can read about it right there. Hard working, persevering, and a discerner of false doctrine.
That's how I would describe it. Hard working, persevering, and a discerner of false doctrine. I know that I'm still going. We're almost done, okay? The criticism, let's look at that to the church at Ephesus. Remember this is 30 years afterwards. The criticism was that they left their first love. Notice the wording, because I just want you to get this, okay? It doesn't say they lost their first love.
It's important that you understand the distinction there. It doesn't say they lost their first love. It says that they left their first love. You see, Jesus has promised us to never leave us or forsake us. Jesus is committed to his relationship with you. He's committed to you.
You don't ever have to worry about him leaving you. But the question is, are we committed to him? Because it is possible for us to turn our backs and to walk away from him.
And that's what happened here to the church at Ephesus. They left their first love. The reward to those that overcome. So you see the criticism.
They left their first love. The affirmation, what we looked at, was they were hard working. He talks about that in verses two through three and five and six. They were hard working.
They were persevering, and they were a discerner of false doctrine. But then let's look at the reward in verse seven, the reward to those that overcome. And this is where it gets good.
It's all good, but this is really where it gets good. He says in verse seven, to him that overcometh, why give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Now, we haven't heard of the tree of life up to this point since Genesis chapter number two, when Adam and Eve were free to eat of it.
You remember that in the garden. They were free to eat of it. Jesus created the tree of life. And he said, you can eat of all these other trees, but this one tree not to eat of. And so they were free to eat of the tree of life. And here's what I want you to know, is when they decided to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they were cast out.
They were cast out. And the tree is mentioned here in verse number two, but it's also mentioned in chapter number 22, when he's talking about the new heaven and new earth. And he talks about that in chapter number 22, that the tree of life, we as the saints will eat of the tree of life, and the leaves of the tree of life will actually bring healing to all nations, is what it says in chapter number 22. And so it's going to bring healing to all of us, and it's in the midst of his presence. And so what I want you to understand, I don't know how all this works, but the tree of life in Genesis chapter number two, is somehow God uprooted the tree of life, and now it's in paradise with him.
It's in paradise with him. You see that throughout. And so when you think about this, the tree of life was, and it goes way back to the beginning, the tree of life is so important because the way that God designed it, and that's why the Bible, it just is so refreshing to me, because when I was growing up, I just read every story as separate stories in scripture. And as I got older, I realized it all kind of fits together. Way back at the very beginning, the reason why mankind was ever created to begin with, so that we can have a relationship with him, and the life that we lived in relationship with God, was a life that is full. A life that is abundant. A life that is free. That's what the tree of life represents. It represents what God originally intended for you and I to have. Freedom.
A relationship with him. Fullness. Abundant life. All of those things are found in the tree of life, but then, here's what's important, is that the tree of life is in paradise. What's paradise? It's the presence of God. Paradise is the presence of God.
I mean, think about it. Remember the thief on the cross? The thief on the cross, you know, he's like, Lord, remember me, right? Jesus looked at him and he said, today you will be with me in paradise. You're going to be with me in paradise today. In other words, paradise, what's significant about that, I know it's important, we love looking at streets of gold and all these kind of things, the reason paradise is paradise is not all those extra things that we get to experience, it's the fact that Jesus is there. It's the presence of God. And so what I want you to understand is that the tree of life is how he originally designed for us to live in fullness, abundance, and in his presence. That's what he desired. But when sin entered into the world, all of that was destroyed. Here's what I'll tell you, this is where we can land the plane tonight. What Adam and Eve forfeited through sin, we regain in Jesus.
Think about it. What Adam and Eve, the tree of life, the presence of God, what they forfeited through their decision to sin, what Revelation is all about is showing us that we regain what they forfeited and the only way is through Jesus. When you trust in Jesus, you regain what they forfeited.
That's the good news. That's the good news about the book of Revelation. And so as we look at this, the reward that he is promising to those that overcome is that we would get restored back to his original design, fullness, and forever to live in the presence of God. Listen, the returning king is coming soon. The returning king is coming soon. And this is a reminder to us that it's going to get good. It's already good, we have Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living in us, but one day we will forever be able to eat of the tree of life right there in paradise with the Savior who gave you life to begin with.
