Walking Stick Illustration

Imagine with me a hiker who has set off on a long journey. He runs across another hiker who is using a walking stick and quickly becomes convinced that a walking stick would help his journey. He fashions for himself a stick and is thrilled with the results – he can go 10% further in a day with the walking stick.

He then comes across another hiker using 2 walking sticks. That hiker has a walking stick in each hand. He tries to hike with 2 walking sticks and discovers that he can go 20% further in a day.

This man begins to love walking sticks! He gathers a 3^rd stick and puts it in his backpack to keep as a backup. It’s a little clumsy, but he loves walking sticks. Then he gathers a 4^th one and then a 5^th. Before long, he has a collection of 25 walking sticks. He shows off his walking sticks to everyone he meets on the trail.

However, he becomes so loaded down with walking sticks… he’s so in love with the walking sticks… that he is no longer as efficient as he was when he had no walking sticks at all.

His love for the walking stick robbed him of his first love – hiking

Something similar happened to the church at Ephesus.

Revelation 2

The Apostle John is writing to the Ephesian church about 30 years after Paul established a church there. Like the hiker, they had a strong start and were making steady progress in their faith journey.

2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

² “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. ³ I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.

It sounds good. It sound like the kind of church I’d like to be a part of. They are doing all the right things and working diligently for the gospel. In fact, they are busy… and that’s a huge problem… They are busy working for Christ rather than loving Christ.

When a good thing becomes a God-thing, it’s an idol

Just like the hiker let his love for walking sticks rob him of his love for hiking, they have let their love for the work of the gospel rob them of their love for the Savior. They prefer the active exercise of serving the Lord Jesus over being in His presence.

Verse 4

⁴ But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Do you remember the day when you first saw the Lord… when you first lost your burden of sin …when you realized that you finally had peace with God and the promise of eternal life?

When the gospel awakens our heart to the depravity of our sin and the reality of the cross and the depth of Christ’s love for us, most people turn to Christ with a simple faith. They don’t know the do’s and don’ts. They just want more of Jesus.

The Bible often compares the pursuit of Christ to a healthy marriage. I don’t strengthen my marriage by following a checklist of rules. I strengthen my marriage by knowing Lara and by pursuing the things that make our relationship better and resisting those things that cause a rift between us.

Just like that, We pursue Jesus simply by doing the things that help us to fall more in love with Jesus and treasuring Him so highly that we intentionally run away from the things that would rob our affection for Him.

The Ephesians forgot those days. They left Jesus, their first love and pursued religion. John calls them back to when they first received Jesus as Savior.

Verse 5

⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Let’s rewind 30 years. The only window we have into the days John is talking about is in Acts. Turn back with me to Act 19:8 and let’s look and the beginning of the church at Ephesus.

Verse 8

⁸ And he (Paul) entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

The Word of God was the dominating force at this point in Ephesus. A bold church is an effective church. There is historical pattern that when great blessing comes upon a place it is because of the Word of God being faithfully taught and readily received.

Satan cannot tolerate the presentation of the pure Word of God. God’s blessing are always accompanied by Satan’s resistance.

Verse 9

⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.

Satan started out by raising up some folks in the synagogue that said some nasty things about Christianity. So, Paul lost his church building and he was forced to move into the Hall of Tyrannus. Paul is undeterred. He has faced much worse.

In Jerusalem, Paul clashed with those who allowed their outward display of the law to rob their affections for God.

In Antioch, he faced religious leaders who were jealous over the crowd that gathered to hear Paul preach. They allowed their quest for popularity to rob their affections for the Savior.

In Philippi, he ran against those who loved money and sorcery. A lust for wealth robbed of their desire for the redeeming blood of Jesus.

In Thessalonica, Paul faced a mob that shouted out it’s loyalty to Caesar and its rejection of Jesus. Love for Politics and the Emperor robbed them of treasuring Jesus.

In Athens, Paul fought an intellectual battle with the educated. Many allowed philosophy and education to rob them from a pursuit of the Savior.

Are good works, popularity, money, politics, or education sinful? No, all these things are morally neutral.

Unless you’re super immature in your faith or not saved at all, it’s not usually blatant sin that is the main enemy of our affections for Christ. The greatest enemy of our affections is more often than not something that is morally neutral.

My question for us tonight is, what robs your affections for Jesus?

Verse 10

¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

So some guys see Paul cast out a evil spirit and they say, “That’s pretty cool…I want to cast out an evil spirit too.” It’s not going to go well for them. Let’s read what happens:

¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

If you have ever watched a fight on TV, unless one guy is knocked out, there is often a great deal of debate over the winner of the fight. However, if one fighter came into the fight with pants and left the fight bleeding and without pants, I think the judges would rule that the man without pants lost the fight.

I read in the Verde Valley News an article titled “local construction worker claims to exorcise demons.” “Richard Lozano, of Clarkdale, spends his days working construction, but he advertises himself as an exorcist — with classified ads announcing that he has been “anointed with power and fire.”

He has been kicked out of his church. He has no training, elders, ordination or even so much as regular participation in a local church. The article spoke of his “ministry” also eliciting violent reactions from people. Lozano says in the article that his brand of exorcism is not always successful. He should Read Acts 19 and he’d find out why. He’s fortunate that he hasn’t been beaten naked yet.

Then, all the Jews and the Greeks come to know about the sons of Sceva and it causes a fear of God

Verse 17

¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

It’s believers doing this. People who have found Jesus as Savior still have massive areas of sin to take care of. Believers are coming into the meetings and are seeing the filth of their sin and the wickedness of their flesh. They are desperate for Jesus. They realize they need Jesus more today than ever before. They are broken over being known by God and knowing that they are wicked before God.

This is raw. Nobody is playing church. No one is pretending. It is open. It is honest. It is authentic. It is filled with repentance.

Maybe the church at Ephesus started playing nice. Could it be that the church at Ephesus covered up their wicked hearts and their desperate need for Christ with niceties and platitudes. How are you doing….I’m fine…and you…wonderful

When you are filling your life with the things that rob your affection for Jesus, you begin to shun those things that fuel your affections for Him.

You pretend that you don’t have sin….that you don’t really struggle anymore…that sin doesn’t creep up and find you…

Things just aren’t as open as they once were and we turn into Pharisees. We clean the outside, while being spiritually bankrupt on the inside. We see ourselves as good people who observe all the rules, while our affections for Christ fade away.

Don’t let religious observances define you – let Jesus define you. Christians are defined by the glory of God and the cross of Christ!

Life application

Are you walking in the things that rob your affections for Jesus? Have you lost your first love?

Are you pretending? Is Christianity a game for you?

Seeking after Jesus will absolutely involve the Word and Prayer. What else stirs up your love for Jesus? Are you pursuing those things? Do you even know what those things are?

Some people are afraid that if anyone else detect a struggle with sin that their reputation will be destroyed. Is your standing in this community worth not growing into the fullness of Christ? It is not worth trading a relationship with the living God just to hide a struggle…just the maintain a façade. Your sins will eventually find you out.

Ask the Lord to stir up your heart.

Ask him to show you better ways to fill up your life with the things that draw you to Christ

Teaching Outline

Revelation 2

When a good thing becomes a God-thing, it’s an _______________

We _______________ Jesus simply by doing the things that help us to fall more in love with Jesus and _______________ Him so highly that we intentionally run away from the things that would rob our affection for Him. Rev 2:4

Acts 19

A _______________ church is an effective church. Acts 19:8

God’s blessing are always accompanied by Satan’s _______________.   Acts 19:9

The greatest enemy of our affections is more often than not something that is morally _______________. Rev 2:3-4

Application Question: What _______________ your affections for Jesus?

When you are filling your life with the things that rob your affection for Jesus, you begin to shun those things tha t_______________your affections for Him. Acts 19:17-20

Christians are defined by the _______________ of God and the _______________ of Christ! Acts 19:20