The Seven Churches and the Kingdom Today
Topic: Ephesus: Lost of the First Love
Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7; Matthew 19:3-9
Greetings Kingdom Citizens and Sons of God:
In the scripture in Revelation 2:4, Jesus starts to tell the church at Ephesus the thing that He has against them. He tells them the thing that He has against them is that they have left their first love. What or who is their first love? Jesus. Many of us today have left our first love. But why do we do this? What compels us to leave Jesus? Well the reality is they have lost their wonder and awe for the majesty and power of the Lord. Jesus became just another fixture in the church and the hearts of the Christians that profess His name grew cold and hard. These people were no longer secure in their relationship with Jesus so that first love feeling was diminished or gone. But what makes one do this and become this way is the world’s influence and pull on their emotions and pull them away from the one who they should be focused on and that is Jesus.
When someone is truly in love with another they are completely unavailable to another. So if we are truly married to the Lord then we are completely unavailable, our hearts are unavailable to another to come in and share or replace. But what has happened is that we as the church for the most part have opened our heart to other interest and God is not going to share you with anyone else. It will either be Him or the thing or other person. Now listen, this is no different than the moral rules for marriage. The Institution of Marriage that God ordained between a man and a woman is a natural illustration of the spiritual reality between Christ and the church. Listen, if you are in a marriage and are drawn away by the lust and temptations of another then you have committed adultery with that person or thing. In most cases, adultery leads to divorce. Now Jesus dealt with this issue in His ministry on Earth and he had a unique viewpoint to it when He was asked about marriage and divorce. In Matthew 19:3-9 we have the Pharisees once again trying to trap Jesus and they ask Him is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Jesus responded with the Word of God and Scripture, the very thing that they should have read and should know. Now the Pharisees continue to try to trick Jesus and say “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away” Jesus response is shocking: Matthew 19:8
“And he said unto them, Moses BECAUSE OF THE HARDNESS OF YOUR HEARTS SUFFERED YOU TO PUT AWAY YOUR WIVES: BUT FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO.”
In other words before the Law there was no divorce but because of the hardness of man’s heart divorce was instituted. What was the situation that represented the first divorce and the hardness of man’s heart? That’s right! In the Garden! When man chose to do what they want to do against God there was a spiritual divorce between man and God. No longer did God (Holy Spirit) fellowship with man, in man because now man is married to Satan. See the concept here. You are either married to Jesus or the devil. In the beginning Adam and Eve were married to the Lord and had a wonderful life as long as they submitted to Him and obey Him but when their emotions and thoughts were tingled by another and they chose to commit adultery against the Most High God, God would not stand to share His place with anything or anyone else. This fornication and adultery would carry one throughout the age of man and of course God made a provision in the law as it pertains to divorce because of the hardness of man’s heart.
Today, we laid a foundation for this discussion of the Lost of the First Love. In the next message we will look at specific things that draw us away from our first love, Jesus Christ!
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
