Pastor Barry's "Chapter & Verse" Day 182

Posted by Pastor Barry Fredericks on

Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 182

July 4;   Revelation 2:4:   240/260(I);   ‘Your First Love’

Revelation 2:4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Of all of the books of the Bible, Revelation has the greatest differences of opinions.  In chapters 2 and 3, the Lord Jesus is talking to the pastors of the seven churches.  Some teach that each church represents a different period of time in church history.  I do not believe that.  What I do believe after reading these chapters many, many times and after pastoring 33+ years, put all of the good and bad things Jesus says together and you have a true picture of the Church.  What a disappointing thing the Lord Jesus says to the Church of Ephesus, “you have left your first love.”  Evidently this has always been the case in the Church.  People get Born Again and are excited about their relationship with Jesus for a period of time and then the newness of Christianity begins to wear off.  Christians go from never missing a service, to occasionally missing a service for an important function, to missing church for any and every reason.  The devil, satan, does all he can to help Christians leave their first love.  Youth sports leagues, family and company events, school graduations, on and on are scheduled on Sunday mornings.  The local church was created to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.  Teaching the Word, worship to drive away the cares of the world and powerful prayers to meet urgent needs all happen in church.  In addition to Christians who miss church, unsaved friends see this and think that church cannot be that important if those who they know are Christians will skip church for almost any reason. This upset the Lord Jesus as He said, “I have something against you.”  This is not to do anything but help us think of how important our getting equipped in church is and our example to others.