Wed.’s Devo - The Church of Ephesus

Read Rev. 2:1-5 Ephesus stands for the first church age that began on the day of Pentecost. It’s messenger was Paul. Peter was given the authority to open the doors to the Gentiles, but Paul was their apostle and prophet. He founded the church of Ephesus. Paul was absolutely true to the Word of God and never deviated. He went wherever the spirit led him. No man dictated to Paul what he should do. These things qualified Paul to be the messenger or angel to the first church age. At the time of John’s writing, Paul has already been martyred. Let’s look at the city of Ephesus. It was one of the three greatest cities of Asia - Jerusalem and Antioch the first and second. Ephesus was a very rich city with a Roman government, but Greek language. Paul pastored here for about three years. Ephesus means “aimed at” and “relaxed”. This church age began with an aim of fulfilling the great commission, but relaxed into sleep. They eventually left their first love - Jesus. They built a huge temple to Diana and had a image of Diana that was different than any other image of her. The artist depicted Diana as a shapeless female that finally sunk into the block of wood she was carved from. She held in her arms two bars of iron. She perfectly depicted what the devil was doing in this age. He was immersing in a formless shape so as not to alarm the people. His iron bars were his weapons he intended to use to crush the real church. His doctrine soon became the law of the land. Jesus proclaims that he has seen their persecution and conviction, as many of the early Christians died a martyr’s death. Paul warned his people that after he died, there would be grievous wolves that would try to distort the truth and lead them astray. (ACTS 20:27-32) John also spoke of these false prophets in 1 John 4:1. Jesus had this to say to the church: remember the truth, repent, and go back to doing what you did before you lost Me. When I read Ephesians now, I’m going to see it in a different light. This was the example of that first church that was so rich in faith and maturity. It wasn’t till years later that it fell. Lord, help us to remember those things when we lose our first love.