The messages to the seven churches have a fourfold application:
Local, to the churches actually addressed;
As admonition to the church in history so they may discern their true spiritual state in the sight of God;
To spur forward Christians, as in the exhortations: “he that hath an ear, let him hearken to what the Spirit said about the churches”, and in the promise “to him that overcometh”.
Prophetic, as disclosing seven phases of the spiritual history of the church from the time of Paul to Rapture.
With Ephesus we saw the high standard set by God in the Ministry of the disciples of Christ and Paul began to erode, as self began to counter the spirituality that draws the hand of God that helps us maintain tempo in service to God and also help us to live the Christian life effectively.
MAINTAINING THE TEMPO
Matt.16:13-18 was the declaration of war, which the church at Ephesus missed :
To the question and answer on His identity, Jesus said, ” Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mat 16:13-19)
3 things you see there:
1. The location. 2. The fight. 3. Pray to win the battle and thus maintain the Tempo.
There, at a place called Caesarea Philippi He spoke about building the Church and how the gates of hell – Satan and his angels — will try to stop the growth of the Church.
That place was called Hermon in the Old Testament days. Hermon means a Sanctuary, from the Hebrew word, CHERMON. What kind of Sanctuary? Godly or Satanic? Answer: Satanic, from the origin of the word, Chermon, which means:
A place you dedicate for destruction, extermination because the place was noted for worship of fallen angels.
Knowing what was coming against the church, He encouraged them to pray :
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mat 16:18-19).
And He still went on to warn them in the prayers He prayed for them as He left to face the cross. In Jn.17:15 Jesus even told them what to expect:
“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” (John 17:15)
The evil in the sentence is Poneros. It is not PNEUMA PONEROS which means an evil spirit.
Defined by Thayer as something that brings toils, annoyance, peril: of a time full of peril to the Christian faith and steadfastness. Something causing pain and trouble.
Strong’s Definition is DEGENERACY: evil- like a disease that spreads. Something that get rotten or putrid. That is evil that can be traced to negative influences.
So, despite the fact that Jesus prayed, evil still swamped the Church – Ephesus. It was the Lion ministry – the ministry of the Disciples in Acts 4 where with boldness they confronted the authorities as they continued to preach in the name of Jesus, healed in His name and even raised the dead. At one point, thousands were taken from the Devil in one day. But they chose to relax, and the Devil came back with more force to make them to lose speed and became the Ox-belabored and persecuted. Why? Because they didn’t pray. That singular word, PRAY, made all the difference in the degeneration of Christian values in the period and the periods after.
The books of Ephesians, Timothy, and Hebrews explain the timing of the books and why it was written. These books were written for the same set of people called the Ephesian Church Age.
Revelation 2:1-7 tells us about Ephesus. Verses 2-3 describe what they did: they lost their first love : “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.” (Rev 2:2-3). That summarises the days of Peter, James…Paul.
Verses 4-7 tells you how they fell. His complaints. The book of Hebrews was written for those who were leaving the faith on account of the Roman siege that led to destruction of the temple in AD 70 – the same set of people and that is why I have been drawing scriptures from Timothy and Ephesians. Timothy was the pastor to the church at Ephesus, that is why all that Paul wrote to Timothy are needed to understand how the Ephesian Church Age fell.
In 1Timothy 2:1-4 Paul said :
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
This scripture tells you that the church at Ephesus was not a praying church. If you tell me to pray, it means I am not praying. The Greek meaning for Ephesus is PERMITTED. THAT MEANS THEY CHOSE TO RELAX – Drop Prayers.
You will find another reason in 2Timothy 2:1-4:
…Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is not crowned except he strive lawfully.
Paul said here, no man involved in a war entangles himself with the affairs of this world. There is a war going on but many people don’t even know it, that was why Paul went that route. If you don’t understand that Christianity is warfare, your attention will be distracted, because this life, if you check it in Greek, is BOIS which means sustenance, possession, and goods. They were engrossed with how to feed, sustenance. They were engrossed with the cares of this life. What accumulation of goods, the pleasure it gives, they were living in comfort zones even though there was a war going on. Two opposites at work in Ephesus. No wonder eventually they gave up and relaxed. The lion ministry became the ox ministry to be persecuted and beaten anyhow. The lion is supposed be the king (Rev.1:6) but they changed into the ox ministry – service, beaten up, persecuted because they could not face up to the one who was fighting them. They became servants because they gave up.