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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Anthony Baca Weekend

Anthony Baca

Lessons from Ephesus: Present but Lost, Busy but Lost, Right but Lost

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Word that you have blessed us with.

We thank you that we can open its sacred pages and we can literally have an encounter with a divine mind.

And we ask that you would be with us, that you would elevate us as it were into a heavenly atmosphere at this time Lord.

That the Holy Spirit would be our invited guest of honor and that He would take the words of Scripture and speak to us individually and personally where we are at including myself.

You know why you allowed us to be here and this presentation this morning Lord.

You do not waste time and you do not waste our time.

So we know that you have something special for us.

Give us minds to perceive and give us ears to hear what you have in store for us That we do not miss out on the blessing that you would have us to take home with us today So please bless us to this end, in Jesus name we pray, Amen If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation chapter 2, where we will find the church of Ephesus.

Today's presentation, I told you, is entitled Practical Lessons from the Church of Ephesus.

Technically, there's an ellipsis, but you can't see the ellipsis in the air and there's no PowerPoint.

We're going to Revelation chapter 2 and we're going to pick it up in verse 1 and we're just going to read through the church of Ephesus, 7 verses, to get a foundation and maybe for most of us a refresher on what the Bible even says about this particular church.

It says here in Revelation 2 beginning in verse 1, to the angel of the church of Ephesus writes, these things says he who holds the 7 stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the 7 golden lampstands.

I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil, And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.

And have persevered, and have patience, and have labored for my name's sake, and have not become weary.

Now how many of you would like to go to a church that's described like that?

So, I would love to go to a church that, like, my home, people say, what's your home church like?

Oh man, we labor for the Lord at my church.

We don't grow weary doing the work of the Lord at my church.

We know our Bible so well at my church, we know when the preacher's wrong.

Like we know this stuff because we believe this stuff.

I mean, this, when you read the description of this church, It sounds like a super solid church.

Now, you know it's not going to be good if you heard all these positive things and the next, you know, it's like, nevertheless.

Whenever I would hear that, you know, that word from my parents, but, it's like I was always like dread would fall upon me.

You know, you've been doing this good, you've been doing this, but, it's like, tell my brothers, run for the hills, right?

It's like, it's about to go the opposite direction.

It says, nevertheless I have this against you, you have left Your first love.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent, do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

But you have this, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." So we have this description of this unique church, the church of Ephesus.

And yes, there's a historical element, yes, there's a prophetic element, but I just want to look at it for what the text says in its rawness right here in front of us.

So we see here some positive descriptions, but then we see this, nevertheless you have left your first love.

For a Christian, This is actually what I would call a fatal mistake.

To leave your first love, this is a reference to Christ.

And so, this is literally a fatal mistake.

So what can we learn from this church about us?

Because sometimes when we read scripture, we see it as something in the past.

Oh, this was a city by the name of Ephesus that had a church with problems, you know, well over a thousand years ago, about 2000 years ago.

Or Old Testament, we read the Old Testament and we think that, wow, this story took place 4, 000 years ago, that's unique for the Israelites, but that really doesn't relate to me.

But I want to suggest to you that the Bible, when God inspired it, He inspired it with you in mind.

In fact, I'm going to show you from the Bible.

This is a quick, minor digression, tangent.

But I think you'll believe me if I show you a text.

Not that I just show verses to make you believe.

But you know what I mean, like if you see evidence, you're more likely to believe.

1 Corinthians 10, we're just going to look briefly at verse 1 and 2 and then verse 11 to substantiate this point I want to get across at this time.

1 Corinthians 10 beginning in verse 1, The Bible says, Moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.

And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Here in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul is speaking about the time period of Moses.

He's referring to the time period of Moses.

He then recounts through the whole chapter some of the historical faults and failings of the people of God in the wilderness under Moses' leadership.

And then it says in verse 11, Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for their admonition who lived in that time.

And notice what it goes on, kind of like, who is the our in the text?

Upon whom the ends of the world or the age have come." So the things of Moses, thousands of years ago, were written with who in mind?

Was written with the people at the end of the world in mind.

So the closer you get to the end of the world, the more relevant the entire Bible becomes.

Even though the Bible is an old book, even though the Bible is seen as an old book by many, It is not losing relevancy because we're getting further from the events it describes.

It's increasing in relevancy because the things that were written were especially written for those who will engage in that final conflict before Christ returns.

And so when we look at Revelation in the Church of Ephesus, back in Revelation chapter 2, we can't see this as something that's in the past, we can't see this as something that is not relating to me, because everything in Scripture that was written was written with us in mind.

So with that being said, let's look at 3 points from Ephesus.

I want to suggest this, that there are many things you can glean from Ephesus for your Sabbath afternoon readings.

I would encourage you to reread Ephesus multiple times and let God show you personally things that we're not going to talk about today.

It's packed full of things, but like a good preacher, I will stick to 3 points.

So we will have 3 points this morning from Ephesus.

Being right, being busy, and being present.

Being right, being busy, being present, but lost.

Lessons from Ephesus: Having Hate but Saved

I hope you've had a blessed Sabbath so far.

I hope it's been you know, rich, hope it's been a blessing.

Hope some of you had a chance to read the Church of Ephesus and look at some of these texts for yourself that we looked at this morning.

We're gonna be kind of continuing our train of thought as we're gonna not go through.

I'm just gonna remind you what we talked about this morning and then we're gonna dive into our last portion of some practical lessons or thoughts to take from the Church of Ephesus.

And again, You can do this with any of the churches.

In fact, the 7 churches are actually my personal favorite portion of the book of revelation.

I love reading them over and over and just thinking about them and meditating on them, making applications with them.

So I recommend studying the 7 churches, you know, and exegetically and understanding what they mean, what their interpretation is, but then making application and seeing how this is relevant to you in your particular context today.

That being said, I'm going to say 1 more prayer for myself, mostly for Divine Energy at this time, as we dive into our last subject together.

Father, bless us now as we open the word.

Speak, I pray, as I pray in agreement with the prayer that was just offered before.

I pray for divine mental energy and capacity and ability to share these thoughts that I you've given me I believe with my friends who are listening today.

All right So this morning we talked about 3 concepts that I took for me personally from the the church at Ephesus And that was that it's possible to be right but lost busy but lost and present but lost Right as in biblically and theologically correct that you have the right answers that you win the you win the debates however it is possible to win the debates and have all the right answers and to be lost.

In fact, a case study in Testimonies Volume 1, I totally blanked and should have shared this earlier but Moses Hole is an interesting case study and you can look him up in Testimonies to the Church Volume 1.

There's a whole section on him And you'll see what I mean.

It is a powerful example of someone who is extremely right.

1 of our best apologists in a particular area at 1 point in the 1800s, and yet was lost.

We talked about being busy but lost, you know, Satan's ultimate goal, I believe, is just to make us busy people.

It's so hard, it seems, to find time for family, let alone to find time for God.

And to see how Satan has done a good number at making us so busy that it's as if we don't have time for devotions or time for prayer or time for meditation.

And we talked about this concept that you could even be busy doing good things.

And I should have probably emphasized that even more so.

Satan isn't trying to make you bad, just busy.

He doesn't wanna make you necessarily evil or wicked.

He just needs to keep you from being connected with Christ.

And your destiny is 1 in the same as those who are also not connected with Christ.

And so we saw that he wants us to be busy even doing good things ministry outreach feeding the homeless, whatever it is very busy, however Still lost and we talk about present the loss being in the right geographic location being in the right church, you know being in the remnant church itself, you know, the Jews had this challenge.

They believe because they were Abraham's children, they were guaranteed heaven and Jesus made it clear that that was not the case.

This was not the situation that just because they're Abraham's children did not guarantee that they were automatic into the kingdom of heaven.

And we can have the same challenge today.

I believe that we can believe that because we are part of the remnant church of Bible prophecy, because we worship on the correct day, things like this of this nature.

I don't think we would outright say it that way, but I think by actions and likelihood we might live it this way, thinking that because we're in the right place at the right time that we're a shoo-in, but we saw that that was in fact not the case.

And in fact we saw in Proverbs chapter 5, 11 through 14, a very solemn passage of people who when they're consumed and destroyed, You know, they lament that this, they were pretty much almost entirely destroyed while being in the congregation, amidst the congregation.

And so being in the church is no guarantee of being saved.

We need to all have our own first love experience.

We all need to have a love for Jesus, a relationship with Jesus, an interpersonal daily connection with Jesus.

Aside from this, you can be bright, busy, and present all simultaneously.

But without Jesus, you're almost saved, but wholly lost at that point.

And so we saw I brought it back to Christ and our great desperate need that we have for Jesus.

This afternoon I just want to share a brief thought with you continuing through the Church of Ephesus, and that is having hate, but being saved.

We would think, wait, but being present, being busy, being right, these are shoot-ins for people that are saved.

Well, I mean, there are people who died during the dark ages that didn't even have the scriptures that I believe will be in the kingdom of heaven.

They probably weren't all theologically correct.

They were not right, maybe not in the right place, and so, because it comes down to Jesus.

But having hate, but being saved, it's kind of a twist here.

You would expect it to be the opposite So let's dive in and see what is what's going on here What's going on here?

The Bible says here in Revelation chapter 2 which is where we find the church of Ephesus We mostly looked at verses 1 through 3 this morning and now we're looking at verse 5 and 6.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto you quickly and will remove the candlestick out of his place except you repent." Verse 6, But this you have, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

And so here, you know, God is giving some good counsel And again, there's so much in the text that I mean, we can have multiple Sabbaths just on the church of Ephesus.

I mean, just in the word, remember, we can do a whole sermon, the power of what it means to keep afresh in our mind the things of God.

So they're giving counsel in verse 5 on how to find their first love if they've left it.

And so I will chase that for a moment for anyone who's listening that may be in that situation, cause it's just too there to not address it.

And the Bible says, remember therefore from where you are fallen, repent and do the first works.

And it's interesting because, you know, this has given us counsel.

If you're realized today, if you're sitting there and you're thinking to yourself, man, I've left my first love.

He was once someone who I couldn't go to sleep at night without talking to and I couldn't wake up and go to work without spending time with.

I mean he was my first, my best, my last, my everything.

The counsel here is well remember from where you fell.

Remember and allow your mind to go back to that place in time, that point in experience before you fell, kind of like that great hymn, right?

And then it says do the first works, do the first works.

You know it's interesting there was a time in my personal experience when I was a younger Christian and I you know struggling going through a difficult transitionary phase of kind of leaving this high experience of everything's new to now Christianity's like the norm Christianity.

I guess it's, I don't know, I'm not married, but maybe it's like being married.

From what I hear is, you know, when you're married, it's like this first year, second year, it's like, wow, this is new, this is different, this is crazy.

You know, it becomes routine, like this is how we live life.

And, you know, eventually my Christianity hit that point of, hey, you know, you're not really just learning everything new anymore.

And it's more about a consistent walk with the Lord and a relationship with God through the daily monotonous life that you kind of live.

And you know it was just kind of like how do I be a Christian day to day without all just the new and the excitement and the bells and the whistles.

And you know I fell in love with prophecy.

Like I just fell in love with talking about, with God about prophecy, studying prophecy.

And, you know, so when I was going through this phase of mine the struggle as it were, you know, I read this text and I actually thought to myself, when was the time in my experience when I just fell in love with Jesus?

And I was like, man, it was when I was studying prophecy and reading the great controversy.

So I did that and it just really rekindled my flame.

And I think it's a very practical lesson that we can take away, right?

So if you are in that situation, know that just because you left your first love, it's not like it's unattainable anymore.

In fact, Jesus desperately wants you to find your first love, right?

Just allow your mind to go back to remember from where you have fallen, repent, do the first works.

And again, a whole study can be done on that text in of itself.

So I'm gonna leave that, you know, just as food for thought and continue to our main, back to our main point, verse 6.

You know, so with all the rebuke that God has now given to the church, He then gives an admonition, you know, but this you do have, you hate the deeds of Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

So here we see something kind of rare in scripture, not something very common in scripture, and that's God hates something.

He says there are these deeds of the Nicolaitans, you hate them and I hate them.

And to me it's not very common to see in Scripture God actually say I hate anything you know X Y or Z.

Series

Anthony Baca Weekend

Lessons from Ephesus: Having Hate but Saved

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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