Go a little deeper
Pastor Keith Kirkpatrick welcomes the church, then turns to Revelation as the unveiling of Jesus Christ. He explains that chapters two and three hold seven letters to seven real first-century churches, sharing a common seven-part format, and that the number seven signals completeness—so the letters address the whole church, including listeners today. He then works through the first letter, to Ephesus.
Keith describes Ephesus as a wealthy port city crowded with temples, most famously the temple of Artemis, and the pressure sexual immorality and emperor worship placed on the church there. He recounts the account in Acts of the church's impact on the idol trade and the resulting uproar in the city. He explains Jesus’ presence among the churches and his commendation of Ephesus’s work, endurance, and discernment before addressing its failure in love.
Pastor Keith discusses Ephesus’s neglected love for Jesus and explains agape as love grounded in God’s character. He summarizes Jesus’ correction in Revelation 2 as recalling former devotion, turning back to God, and renewing love in practice. He connects repentance with the returning son in Luke 15, then discusses the letter’s promise of eternal life before closing with prayer and an invitation to receive Jesus.
Take this with you
Jesus knows the church better than it knows itself
From Revelation 1:20 and 2:1-3, Pastor Keith emphasizes Jesus’ care for and presence among the churches. He explains that Jesus recognizes Ephesus’s hard work, endurance, and discernment before addressing its failure in love.
Truth without love loses its life
In Revelation 2:4, Pastor Keith sees a warning that doctrinal correctness and service can continue even when love for Jesus has grown cold. He urges listeners to remember whom their activity is meant to serve rather than allow it to become empty duty.
Agape is God's kind of love
Keith contrasts attraction-love and friendship-love with agape, which loves because of who God is rather than because the beloved is impressive. He grounds this in 1 John, where God is described as love, and argues that many people carry the opposite assumption—that God loves a good version of them. That assumption, he says, is answered at the cross.
Remember, repent, repeat
Pastor Keith summarizes Revelation 2:5 as remembering former devotion, turning back to God, and renewing love in practice. He explains repentance as a welcome return to God, using the son’s homecoming in Luke 15 as an illustration.
The promise of eternal life
Discussing Revelation 2:7’s tree imagery, Pastor Keith explains the promise as eternal life with God. He connects it with Eden and Revelation’s final hope, then uses Matthew 7 to emphasize responding to Jesus’ teaching rather than merely hearing it.
The conversation,
in their words.
Transcript from the recording’s captions. Select any timestamp to hear the original audio.
oh welcome if we've not had the privilege to meet my name is keith and i just want to say welcome to journey church i would like to take a pull this is a scientific poll i will be selling this data to the news networks all you got to do is buy a show of hands and if you're watching online just throw up a hand emoji in the comment section first question is this by show of hands how many of you have ever been in love before come on oh i see the two hands up there that's extra love all right the next question is unrelated to the first how many of you've ever started a resolution but did not finish it you had a goal but you didn't finish it all right some real honest people in the house today that's a good thing well today we're continuing a journey through the book of revelation
if you have a bible it's easy to find it's the last of 66 books in the bible the book of revelation everyone shout revelation revelation this is the revelation of jesus christ the original word for revelation in the original language which is greek is apocalypsis the word apocalypses is where we get the english word apocalypse and the definition literally means to unveil to reveal this is the revealing of jesus christ now the author john gets this revelation of jesus on the island of patmos he was imprisoned for sharing about the word of jesus now he gets this revelation of jesus christ and it's not just for
john it's for us as well we enter into a new section of the book of revelation today seven letters to seven churches now throughout the book of revelation we see significance to numbers the number seven means to be complete perfect whole so these seven letters are written to seven actual churches in the original time it was asia today it's known as the nation of turkey but it's also written to the complete church so god has a message for us today as well we will see the state of the church but we will also see the state of our own hearts as we read this text these letters from jesus to the church now it's interesting these seven letters have the same same format we'll see seven elements in
all seven letters let me just quickly go through that so we understand how these letters are put together the first thing we see is an introduction to a particular congregation that's to a church in a particular city and we will see many similarities to the problems that are happening in these cities to the state of our culture and society today as well the second thing we see in these letters are an introduction to jesus a sevenfold description of jesus he is perfect he is a completely whole god we'll also see in here a a particular condition of the church in revelation chapter 1 john tells us that jesus has eyes like flames of fire he is infinite in knowledge he knows everything about the church uh fourth we'll see a verdict from jesus regarding the
condition of the church is there something that needs to be corrected is there something that's wrong that needs to be made right fifth we'll see a command from jesus to every single church he wants to move us from where we are to where god wants us to be number six we'll see an exhortation from jesus to everyone to the whole church to all christian exhortation means to urge to encourage jesus wants to move us to where he wants us to be and lastly the seventh thing we'll see in every letter is a reward that when you honor god when you obey his word there is a reward now what's interesting about these letters is that we'll see jesus truly knows us in fact jesus knows us better than we even know
ourselves so we want to be open to what does god have to say to us we want to examine our hearts to say is this true what god says and what can i do to change so let's dive into the first church today we'll start in revelation chapter 2 starting with verse 1 and we'll make our way through verse 7 today revelation chapter two starting with verse one to the angel of the church in ephesus right the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lamp stands this first letter is written to the church in ephesus ephesus is a port city which means it had a booming trade economy it was a large bustling city it was i had a great commercial uh industry
there were people that came from all over the world to trade in this particular city not only did it have a booming economy it had a bustling spiritual life there were 14 temples to pagan gods in the city of ephesus now none were like the temple of artemis the temple of artemis was grand it had 127 pillars that made up this this tremendous temple in fact if you visit ephesus today it's in the uh western turkey you'll see some of the ruins of temple of artemis now artemis was actually at the time of this writing one of the seven wonders of the world people came from all over the world to visit the temple of artemis artemis was the pagan goddess
of hunt in fact fertility was ascribed to her sexual immorality was associated with artemis it was a part of the way of life in ephesus in fact even the economy was impacted by the worship of artemis the banking system it all revolved around artemis uh who was known as diana to the romans this was huge as we understand how artemis had such an impact on this city this would have been a challenge for the church as this rampant uh a perversion of sexual immorality was normal it's what everyone did it was it was a way of life in ephesus not only that would have been a challenge for the church but domitian
who was emperor of the roman empire at the time of this writing of the book of revelation he made ephesus his home base now domitian was a wicked king he he commanded the worship of everyone to himself he wanted people to call him phrases like lord god savior he created his own shrines in fact he believed that all of the gods actually worshiped him so if you were anybody you had to bow down to worship domitian which is why john was imprisoned on this island of patmos but you know the church in ephesus wasn't without its amazing leaders in fact john himself the author of the book of revelation was a pastor and
loved the church in ephesus after domitian the emperor died john left patmos and went to ephesus paul who wrote a number of the books of the new testament including a letter to the church in ephesus spent a great deal of time there he spent two and a half years investing in the church in ephesus its lead pastor was timothy and so they had tremendous leaders that made them stand apart from the culture when paul writes the church in ephesus he reminds them what we need to remind our uh our hearts today and that is that we live in a spiritual world you look at all the problems today and i believe many of the problems we have today were the same problems that we see in ephesus paul when he writes to this church he says in ephesians 6 12
he says for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authority against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places paul reminds the church in ephesus these are spiritual problems we're faced with we we shouldn't fight with one another at a time where there was a great political divide he reminds us this is a spiritual problem not a political problem at a time when when there was sexual immorality everywhere he reminds us this is a spiritual problem so we should see in our lives today we can learn much from the book of ephesians as we relate our lives today as it was for the church in
ephesus in this day these are spiritual problems we shouldn't fight with one another we should go to god and paul instructs them how to do that if you want to look at how to live as a christian go to the book of ephesians and he'll tell us as a family unit how do we he writes the book of acts he tells us what happens in the church and in acts chapter 19 he tells us that god was moving through the church in ephesus acts chapter 19 verse 20 he tells us so the word of the lord continued to increase and prevail out and people were saved so much so that in ephesus people were giving up the worship of artemis they were turning their hearts to jesus and the church was actually impacting the culture people gave up their worship to this false god and they they quit giving their money to
the temple of artemis they quit buying the shrines and and demetrius we're told in acts chapter 19 is a silversmith who's upset that actually the economy is being changed by the church so he gathers other business owners in ephesus he gets them together to to to talk about this reality he says this this is demetrius he says and you see in here that not only in ephesus but in almost all of asia that paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods are made with hands are not gods and there is a danger not only this trait of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess artemis may be counted
as nothing and that she may be deposed from her magnificence she whom all asia and the world worship demetrius is saying this if we don't do something the church is going to change the world we're going to lose our jobs oh people are no longer buying these little shrines people would buy these little statues of artemis and it was such a part of the economy that it actually was being changed by the church the church was not changed by the culture the the culture was changed by the church and so this is what demetrius did with the other business owners they gathered large groups of people huge crowds and there was chaos there was rioting throughout the streets of ephesus
huge groups of people misguided passion rioting wherever they would go does that sound familiar so what was happening in ephesus is happening today god was moving through this church of ephesus that's who jesus speaks to this is the first church that he wants to talk to he wants to acknowledge who they are he wants to acknowledge what they're doing where they live and we're told jesus in this introduction he he describes himself this way he's the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lamp stands we just go back one verse to the last verse of the first chapter and jesus explains in revelation 1 20 that these seven stars are the seven
angels of the seven churches the word angel means messenger some have interpreted this as the seven stars are the pastors of the church they're the messengers of the church others believe that they're heavenly angelic beings either way we see that jesus holds the message of the church in his hands and there's this imagery that jesus is walking among the lamp stands the lamp stands are the churches which tells us that the church ought to be on fire the church ought to reflect the light of jesus as he walks in the midst of the church we are reflecting who jesus is john chapter 8 verse 12 jesus proclaims of himself he says i am the light of the world whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light
of life the church reflects the light of jesus the church has a purpose the church has a plan the church is meant to reflect the light of jesus when jesus in matthew chapter 5 explains the kingdom of god he goes through what's called the beatitudes these blessings and he lets us know that god's ways are not our ways that we don't take the world by force we live it out in our lives blessed are the meek uh blessed are those who are poor in spirit blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness blessed are those who are persecuted for for the name of jesus then he goes on to say this in matthew 5 verse 14 jesus says you plural are the light of the world a city on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people
light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven so we we see the purpose of the church and in the case of ephesus and as is the case with the church today this was not just for the the seven churches in the first century it's for the complete church it's for us today you have a purpose that in a dark place you would reflect the light of jesus christ that you would allow him into your life that he would walk among us that we would reflect who he is that the world would see our god in
us now jesus as he walks among the church sees what's happening and in verse 2 jesus tells them i know your works he sees everything he's infinite in knowledge i know what you've done your toil that word toil in the greek means to labor to the point of exhaustion the world was ungodly sexually immoral at a time when people pursued power politics and sex i see that that you have worked tirelessly that during difficult days i i've seen it i see you and your patient endurance how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles the word apostle means
one sent by god there will be many people that say i'm sent by god i'm here to tell you a message i'm here to tell you about what god wants for your life and you've tested it to see if this is of god or is not and you found them to be false i know verse 3 says that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you've not grown weary this church kept going when the going was tough when they had to say hard things they said it when they had to do hard things they did it when they had every excuse to live like the world they they could have said i i need to do this for my business
i need to do this for my family's sake i need to do this because the government is telling me i have to do this at a time when they had any excuse to look like the world they stood apart from the world they tested it they wanted to see is this is this of god or not of god they went for the truth and they stood against that which is false you see we have the same challenge today there are many that claim to have the truth to know the truth to say they're sent by god even to to sound like they're christians to uh to take the word of god and to twist it or to add to it and today we need to examine the truth there are those who have taken large groups of people like the jehovah's witness or the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints and they've
led them astray in the name of jesus and jesus says i i see your hard work that you're standing for the truth and i see it and i commend you this is encouraging jesus sees us when it looks like that does god even see us today does he even know what's happening in the world that we're living in he sees every bit of it and he he commends this this patient endurance like paul writes to the romans in chapter 5 and says we rejoice in our suffering your suffering is never in in vain with god for suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope will never put you to shame because even if you're suffering you're just getting closer to your heavenly home this is not the end so keep keeping on and he he sees what they're doing which is of the church
sociologists will try to study the church and and give account to what's happening in the church philosophers will try to have their word the government will try to give guidelines and tell you what the role of the church is and in this last year i've heard so many opinions about what the church ought to be or ought not to be but i'll tell you there's only one word that matters when it comes to the church it's jesus christ this is his church and as you get a visual of the church there are all these different illustrations and one is that we're like a body and jesus is the head and we get to be the members of the body and we should let the head tell us what to do and where to go jesus said i will build my church and even the gates of hell won't prevail against it when it looks like a political power is in charge when it looks like all is falling apart it's important that
we keep coming back to the word of god jesus reminds us there's a real enemy and he said of satan in john 8 44 when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar the father of lies so we've got to be aware that the enemy wants to deceive us and when you're being deceived you often don't know you're being deceived so you must be intentional with your life to know what the truth is and jesus says that he is the way the truth and the life which is why it's so important what jesus says next in revelation 2 4 but i have this against you that you have abandoned jesus just commended them for not living like the pagans he acknowledged that that they don't
look like the world but he says you are missing the one thing that matters most love you can be doctrinally pure you can do so many great things for god yet you can actually miss god we can if you're not careful we can do for jesus and not experience jesus now this is a threat for any person that comes to church if you're new to church it's a warning that the longer you you go to church you start to understand these ways you learn the language and you start doing things because it's what needs to be done and you you go to church and you serve and and you want to reach other people and you start doing these things and you actually forget why you're actually doing them the late prince of preachers
charles spurgeon powerfully said when love dies orthodox doctrine becomes a corpse a powerless formalism it reminds me of the image in ezekiel when he sees a valley of dry bones and he prophesies that these bones come together and they rattle and they they join together with sinu and muscle and they they look like people but they're missing something life they're missing the spirit of god so you can look like you have a life and have no life at all because the one thing that matters most is missing it's one of the three greek words we see in the new testament for love there are other greek words as well that describe love there's one word uh eros which is
where we get the word erotic it's an attractive love i'm attracted to you you're attracted to me it's it's not a bad thing but it can be bad if the only love you have is eros it will eventually wear down guys that something has to change so eros is not necessarily bad but it's just it's an attractive love and then there's another greek word for love phileto it's where uh we understand brotherly love it's i like spending time with you i like laughing with you we're i i give to you and you give to me you need to move i'll come help you move but when i need to move show up with your truck and it's a brotherly love but the word here is agape which is a divine love agapao is
love that doesn't love because you're attractive agape love does not love because you get anything in return this is a love that loves because of god let me explain it this way john writes in first john 4 18 anyone who does not love does not know god because god is love so the definition of this agape love is god he does not try to love you he does not love you when you're better some of us don't really understand this it requires a revelation from god himself the holy spirit because you were born in sin
your parents were sinners you were raised in sin the lies are different you you were told that you're worthless or you're not beautiful or you're not smart enough or you're not strong enough or whatever those lies are and so we take the sinful idea that we've we were born in god loves a good version of you because god is love so he cannot love you any more than he does right now because god is love he he loves you when you're unworthy he loves you when you have nothing to offer he loves you in your sin it's what led him to the cross that he who was out without sin took our sin to demonstrate to you that he just loves you that you'd be motivated to believe in jesus to trust jesus to give your life to jesus
not because he loves a better version of you but he just loves you and he has a better plan for your life than you have that he wants you to be set free from your sin he wants you to see your calling your destiny is not to live in this life but you have a forever humility and he says you have abandoned that first love that's not that these guys didn't love the church of ephesus was known for their love paul when he writes to them references love 20 times he says you love each other he said i love what you do you live a life of faith and love in fact he powerfully prays for them listen to ephesians chapter three he's praying for the church in ephesus paul and here's how he puts it it sounds poetic he says i pray that christ may dwell in your hearts that through
faith that you being rooted and grounded in love he prays that this would be the foundation of their lives that that this would be the very thing that holds them together is love that you may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth what is the length what is the height what is the depth to know the love of christ that surpassing knowledge that you may be filled with with all the fullness of god because if you're filled with god you're filled with love and if you're filled with love it is far deeper and wider and higher than you can even fully fathom you can't escape god's love as far as the east is to the west your sins are forgiven there's no sin too great that jesus
won't forgive so when you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive your sins so that you would be motivated at the core that it's god's love that saves you so so it's not that they were unfamiliar with love they knew this love but this is a love that should be lived out in your family in your life in your church in your city in your nation how many of us have started something and then we didn't finish it oh so many of you were honest that you you started that that resolution only did not finish it you had really good intentions this is the year you're going to get in shape you know you need to be healthy you know you can get healthy you're not trying to do it to get on the cover of a magazine you just want some
more energy you just want to feel better about your life you just want to do it for the first time so this is the year you're gonna do it and so on day one you exercise on day two you eat a kale salad and on day three chick-fil-a comes out with that brownie that just tastes like batter that's so good to be just rinsed down with a milkshake sandwich with cheese and oh you gotta get the french fry none of that fruit salad stuff line of chick-fil-a is gonna take you a long time so now you can't work out today because your day was spent in in line and you got work to do and then man by day four all of a sudden you get so busy at work that you don't have time to make a meal so you take your whole family out to chick-fil-a again two days in a row and the next thing you know on day five you just say it's worthless i tried it
i've tried before i can't do this i've always been worthless this is just who i am i'll never have energy this is just how my life is and you stop right there the enemy is a liar and you forget who you who you used to be but i'll tell you it's not how you start it's how you finish paul imprisoned at the end of his life says to the philippians in chapter 4 verse 13 i can do all things through him who strengthens me that's from prison that's with chains i wonder what our excuses that we can look and say there is nothing that can stop me when i have jesus i can get through this when i have jesus he's the god of second chances when i have jesus i'm gonna i'm gonna come back to what god has for me and it's incredible what you can do with jesus because look at verse five remember jesus says remember therefore
where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first if not jesus warns i will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent i want you to see the encouragement from jesus you do not need to stay where you are god wants to move you from where you are to where he wants you to be and it starts by remember remember remember what you used to have remember who your god is remember that first love listen i asked you earlier how many of you have ever been in love before and so many hands slipped up i i've been there the passion
of wanting to be with another person the passion of wanting to spend your money on another person your thought life is consumed with this other person you just want to give your life to that person because you have something inside of you didn't have without that person you're in love but just like in human relationship just like when you marry someone that does not stay after a few years something happens okay after a few months something happens that love grows cold you you get to know somebody else and you see their flaws and they see your flaws after a while you get busy you get distracted after a while you start doing all these other things and
if you don't work on it if you don't remember if you don't keep coming back to this first love the vows that you made at the altar are still your vows years later you got to remember those vows you got to keep coming back to what you said you would do it's easy to say words it's hard to live them out and jesus says remember who i am remember that i loved you in your worst remember that i answered that prayer that everyone thought was impossible remember that you can cast all your cares on me because i care for you remember how i spoke to you at church that one time remember when you were a teenager and i spoke to you at camp oh would you remember when i spoke to you in that quiet time remember when you used to open the bible and it came alive remember when you had the joy of the lord that even if you suffered you said you would do it for jesus remember how you used to
invite people to church because god was worth it remember when you looked forward to coming to church because you couldn't explain it but you knew you were going to meet with god would you just remember all that god's done for you aren't you glad that jesus didn't say i want you to work harder i want you to be more religious i want you to come back to the ten commandments he just says just remember how far you've fallen remember where you were before it's important that we go back to the basics jesus said you've got to be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven not like a physicist or an astrophysicist whatever that is stan you just have to remember that that you were loved so you're going to come back to this now the second thing jesus says is repent
what a wonderful word repent it literally means change your thinking that's what the word repent means don't listen to the lies of the enemy that the word repent is bad it's not it's a good thing the word repent means i was going my way but i changed my thinking and i want to go god's way i want what god has for me not what the enemy has for me i tried to do things my way but god's ways are so much better i understand my ways i don't understand god's ways but i'm going to do them anyways repent is to come back to god oh if you remember the story of the prodigal son jesus in luke chapter 15 explains why he loves to hang out with sinners and he gives three powerful stories and in the third story in luke chapter 15 it's a story of a son that squanders his father's money he ends up in a foreign land far from his family and he finds himself
in a pig pen in the hebrew culture it's the most unclean place he could be it's a miserable place and as he's in the pig pen he remembers his father he remembers how his dad takes care of people he remembers his home and he thinks to himself if i could just be a servant in my father's house that's better than where i am now i'd rather be a slave in my father's house and stay in this he remembers and he didn't stay in the pig pen he came to himself jesus said he gets out of the pig pen and he starts to head home he repents he practices his speech and little does he know that when he comes home his father is not going to treat him as a slave he treats him as a son the father runs to him embraces him with his arms kisses him all over puts a robe on him sandals on his feet puts a ring on his finger because god gives you a new identity
he doesn't see the pig slop he sees the potential that when you believe in him you're a child of god but you've got to remember and you've got to repent you've got to run home and when you run home you're embraced jesus says in romans 8 1 there is no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus but apart from christ jesus there is condemnation you're still in the pig pen you've got to repent you've got to run home principle is this just redo it again repeat this is what jesus says he says do the works you did at first just redo it go to church again you messed up last night god's mercies are new every morning
just you repeat this this is not an excuse to send jesus to not stay the same so just repeat the process so let's just go through this again you remember you repent and then repeat jesus didn't use three r's but it sounds more clever that way remember repent repeat if not you lose your purpose god doesn't want you just to show up to church and not be the light of the world we are never intended to be the frozen chosen let's just let's just keep our group here and us for and no more this is not a holy huddle let's make sure that the world does not slip in here let's go out and change the world that's what god has planned for us and then finally jesus says in revelation 2 6 yet this you have he commends them once
again you hate the work of the nicolaitans which i also hate who are the nicolaitans we're going to learn more about them in revelation 2 verse 15 the church of pergamum they allowed the nicolaitans to infiltrate the church but the church in ephesus hated the philosophy of the nicolaitans it was a sect of people that believed that the the body had no real purpose that only your soul matters so do whatever you want on the outside sleep with whomever you want smoke whatever you want drink whatever so much more they thought their way was a higher way like the gnostics which comes from the word gnosis which means to know they thought they had a higher way of knowledge what they did is they added to the message of jesus and you can't do that thinking like this with the nicolaitans they didn't say christianity was wrong or a farce or this was a total lie what they did is
they came in and gave a better version a more modernized version you do not need to make it more modern it's perfect just the way it is because it's not based on what you can do it's what was done for you in jesus and he says i love that you hate the nicolaitans because he notes here as well in revelation 2 6 which i also hate jesus is not fond of a works-based way of life he doesn't want you to wake up and think i need to be better so that god's happier with me jesus is very fond when our hearts align with his and so we see in this particular case he commends them he corrects them he commends them again then our final word is in revelation 2 7 when jesus gives them an exhortation and a reward when he says he who has an
ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers i will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of god this qualifies every single one of us now not just listen to the word but will you hear it well you take action and we see the same you you've heard me if you have ears hear this it's the same thing jesus says in matthew 7 that when you hear the teachings of jesus and you respond it's like you build your house on a foundation like a rock but if you hear the teachings of jesus and you do not live them you're building your foundation on the sand and when the storm comes which it will
your life gets swept out with it but when you hear the words of jesus and you respond you you owe this reward he goes back to the garden he says i will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of god this takes us back to the garden of eden where sin originates it was the one tree that adam and eve are told not to touch [Music] and now we see the very thing that we were tempted to do we get to participate god's going to right every wrong in fact we read at the very end of revelation which i'm so looking forward to one day there'll be no more sin no more sorrow he'll wipe away every tear from every eye one day we'll get to be with god forever eternal life means that we get to experience all that god
has for us for eternity now the idea of paradise is a wonderful one it's the place where god lives it was offered to a thief that was on the cross next to jesus that in his final moment he turned to jesus he surrendered his life and jesus said today you'll be with me in paradise it's the place you want to be i think deep down inside we all long for this deep down inside we we want to be in a place where we are not right now jesus says you can have it just trust me but if you're not careful duty will become more important than who you're doing it for which is jesus and the whole reason we should even love jesus john tells us in first john 4 19
we love because he first loved us jesus did not die so that you would be more religious by that that's what the church should be it's what we and love jesus said you love the lord your god with all your strength physically spiritually relationally so i know it's hard jesus says i know it's hard i never said it would be easy in 2020 or 2021. [Music] maybe 2022 will get easier do what matters most let's pray together god i thank you for your word your word that speaks life i thank you that it's a living word and i pray today that it would it would take roots that we would be rooted and grounded in love that we would know the power of your love that you
change us you shape us and that god we would want to live differently so would you move in your church i pray that we would remember you that we would repent and that we would repeat this lord so i thank you for what you've done i give you the glory in the great name of jesus amen amen you don't have to golf clap to jesus if god stirs in your heart you always want to move before we leave today i just have to give a great invitation to someone who's never received jesus whether that's you in this room right now or watching wherever you are if god has stirred in your heart would
you surrender your life to jesus it will require everything jesus will forgive you of all your sins but you must confess it to him i can't save you the person next to you can't save you a parent can't save you only a savior can and that's jesus christ if you've never received jesus to be your savior today you can it's the day of salvation i want to pray a prayer with you it's not a magic prayer these aren't magic words prayer is talking to god when you follow jesus you begin a journey of a relationship with him not that today you can just in your own heart just repeat these words right where you are you can close your eyes focus on him just pray something like this lord jesus forgive me of my sins i receive your grace
i'm gonna ask you to be bold with your life right where you are you see from this day forward you're gonna say i follow jesus more than the things of this world if you prayed that prayer would you slip your hand up boldly if you prayed that prayer for the first time come on awesome anybody else if you prayed that prayer to receive jesus christ i don't want to coerce you but i do want you to know that heaven is celebrating if you prayed that prayer we want to celebrate with you too it requires boldness to follow jesus it's not easy but it's worth it if you prayed that prayer would you slip up your hand right now come on amen praise god praise god now i just want to say we
want to connect with you whether you're watching online or whether you're here in person would you just text us really simply it's just one word text us the word life to [Music] about me 541-527-7277 about we we're going to celebrate what god is doing he's not finished yet we got to keep coming back to he wants us to love him during our most difficult days he doesn't want us to to act harder to work harder to do more he just wants your love [Music] so right where you are would you stand to your feet can we sing to this god
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Jesus’ Presence Among the Churches
Pastor Keith explains Revelation’s lampstands as the churches and emphasizes Jesus’ presence among them. Connecting this with John 8:12 and Matthew 5:14, he describes the church’s purpose as reflecting Jesus to the surrounding world.
Revelation 1:20 · John 8:12 · Matthew 5:14
- Keith teaches that the church is meant to reflect the light of Jesus as he walks among it—where do you see that reflection clearly, and where has it been obscured?
- What does it mean to you that Jesus is described as present among his churches rather than distant from them?
A spiritual struggle, not a political one
Ephesus was a prosperous, spiritually crowded place where the culture shaped daily life. Keith draws a deliberate line from Ephesus to our own moment: Paul told that church their struggle was not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces, and Keith applies that to the temptation to fight one another instead of going to God.
Ephesians 6:12 · Acts 19:20
- What pressures in your own setting push you toward the same compromises Ephesus faced?
- Keith insists the church's battles are spiritual rather than political—where do you find that hardest to believe or practice?
- Paul pointed the Ephesian church toward God rather than toward fighting one another. What would that look like in your own relationships?
Commended before corrected
Jesus names the Ephesian church's exhausting labor, patient endurance, and refusal to tolerate false apostles before he names any failure. Keith treats that testing as ongoing work today and warns that deception is hardest to notice while it is happening. He also notes that this church, though diligent, had left its first love.
Revelation 2:2-4 · Romans 5 · John 8:44
- Keith says endurance and character are connected to hope in Romans 5—how does that shape the way you view hard seasons?
- Keith warns that deception is hardest to notice while it is happening—why does that make examining the truth so important?
- How should a church hold together genuine faithfulness and the danger of losing love for Jesus?
First love and the shape of agape
Pastor Keith reads Revelation 2:4 as a warning about Ephesus’s neglected love for Jesus. He discusses Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 and explains agape through 1 John as love grounded in God’s character rather than attraction or receiving something in return.
1 John 4:8 · Ephesians 3 · 1 John 4:19
- When did you first notice your love for God cooling, and what was happening around you at that time?
- What lies about God's love do you still find yourself believing—that he loves a better version of you, or that his love must be earned?
- How would your service in the church change if it flowed from feeling loved rather than from proving your love?
Remember, repent, repeat—and the tree of life
Pastor Keith reads Revelation 2:5 as a call to recall former devotion, return to God, and renew love in practice. He illustrates repentance through the son’s homecoming in Luke 15 and connects Revelation 2:7’s tree imagery with eternal life in God’s presence.
Revelation 2:5 · Luke 15 · Romans 8:1 · Matthew 7 · Revelation 2:7
- Keith offers the prodigal son as a picture of repentance—what makes it hard for you to simply come home rather than perform your way back?
- What does Keith mean by remembering, repenting, and repeating the first works, and where does that teaching challenge you?
- How does the promise of the tree of life change the way you think about the struggles of the present?
Answers from this recording
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Why are there seven letters to seven churches in Revelation?+
Keith explains that seven in Revelation signals completeness, perfection, or wholeness. So while these are seven real first-century congregations in what is now described as Turkey, they are also addressed to the complete church—including listeners today. He notes that all seven letters share the same structure: an introduction to the city, a description of Jesus, a condition of the church, a verdict, a command, an exhortation, and a reward. Because of that, he treats the letters as a mirror for the state of our own hearts, not only a historical record.
What does it mean to abandon your first love?+
Keith says the Ephesian church was not corrected for gross sin; Jesus had just commended them for endurance and for testing false teaching. Their failure, as Jesus names it in Revelation 2, was that they had left their first love. He warns this can happen when familiarity and duty replace affection—when you learn the language, serve, and reach out because it is expected rather than because you love the one asking. The doctrine may remain correct while the relationship that should animate it goes cold, which is why he says a church can do for Jesus without experiencing him.
What kind of love is agape?+
Keith distinguishes agape from two other Greek words for love: eros, an attraction-based love, and the word for brotherly friendship, which returns affection. Agape, he says, is divine love that does not love because the other is attractive or because anything comes back. He grounds this in 1 John, where God is described as love, so God's love is not something he turns on when you improve. Rather than loving a better version of you, God loves you as you are, and that love is what draws you to trust him rather than to earn him.
What does Jesus tell the Ephesian church to do about it?+
Pastor Keith summarizes Revelation 2:5 in three movements: remember, repent, and repeat. He explains these as recalling former devotion and God’s faithfulness, changing direction back toward God, and renewing the practices of love. The returning son in Luke 15 illustrates repentance as coming home rather than earning acceptance.
Who were the Nicolaitans, and why did Jesus commend the Ephesians for rejecting their works?+
Keith identifies the Nicolaitans as a sect that treated the body as unimportant compared with the soul, so outward behavior was permitted to drift—which he compares to Gnostic claims of higher knowledge. Their error, he says, was not rejecting Christianity outright but adding a modernized, supposedly better version of it. The Ephesian church hated their philosophy, and Jesus commends them for sharing his assessment, as recorded in Revelation 2. Keith reads this as a reminder that Jesus is not pleased with works-based religion, but is pleased when our hearts align with his.
