Revelation
2:2-3 “I know your deeds, your hard
work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that
you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found
them false. You have persevered and have endured
hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
What
do we take with us from this courageous, persistent, intense, and passionate
pursuit? (1) That boldness and passionate faith that is unafraid to publically
live and speak for Jesus. I don’t mean in a pushy, aggressive, disrespectful - “in
your face” method, but in a loving, caring “this is what I believe and this is
how I will live” approach. In some ways, we do not deserve to compare ourselves
to those committed Christians around the world who do not live in countries
with religious freedom, because we haven’t had to live that. But, we so want to
learn that passion from them; their constant, persistent toil in perseverance
and never getting tired of doing “right” in righteousness with the Lord, their
God. Do we want that for ourselves, for our community, and for those who follow
a tireless pursuit to live passionately and intensely for Jesus Christ?
(2) Where in the world did ordinary
people, like us, get the courage and passion to come to their secular humanistic
culture of false religions and make such a difference? The Christians in
Ephesus were totally committed because they loved God and loved one another.
Part of their tirelessness was their mutual love and support of each other. When
we’ve “forgotten our first love”, that doesn’t mean who you loved first of all;
that is obviously God. But it does mean that if you are in God, what was the
very first expression of love that you see? To love each other.
Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus
replied: “‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In
the culture that we live, we need to be consistently publicly live for Jesus.
But it will only happen of we who believe in Him care about the Christian
community and about the lost. And I worry that Christianity is so fractured,
divided and spending so much time fighting each other on internal issues that
do not matter in reaching a lost and dying world, so we won’t have the support
and encouragement to passionately live for Jesus. (3) If we, as followers of
Jesus Christ, would offer to the world that does not know the Lord a fountain
of the living water of eternal life that only Jesus provides for today and for eternity,
they may learn to say: “Where is it in life that I find, not the gods of this
world, but the community of Jesus Christ? “ How will you and I make that
statement to the world, which so desperately needs to hear it? Somewhere in our
wealthy and powerful secular cities, is someone who wants to testify and let passersby
to know in a quiet and unintrusive way, who is Lord of lords and King of kings
– Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. That to
me is the message of Ephesus.
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