Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
70th Anniversary Service: Returning to Our First Love | Rev. Paul Lawler
A celebration of the 70th anniversary of Christ Church Memphis. In Pastor Paul's sermon, he asks: If Jesus walked through your church today, would He find faith on fire—or fading embers? One letter in Revelation may hold the answer.
[0:17] Our scripture reading this morning comes from the revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John the Apostle, chapter 2, verses 1 through 7.
[0:25] Hear now the word of the Lord. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. I know you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you've not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you've abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you've fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
[1:20] Yet this you have. You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 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 is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
[1:41] Amen and amen, and happy 70th anniversary, Christ Methodist family. My name is Paul Lawler. I have the honor of serving as the senior pastor of Christ Methodist Church. We welcome you here today in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
[1:59] Loved ones, our mission statement as a church reads, we exist to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples. And just a moment ago, you heard Tom Marino, our lay leader, and Robert Montague, the vice chair of our church council, do an excellent job of expressing goals that are in alignment with our new mission and vision as a church. We also have a new logo. If we could put that on the screen, it's in the back of your worship guide as well. I'm counting down. We got that. Here it is. There it went. There it is. And I want to make just a brief comment about the icon at the top. You see the center. That center represents Christ's Methodist Church that we gather for worship, to magnify God, to treasure Jesus Christ.
[2:52] And then you see these channels coming out of gathering. That represents the sending of Christ's church on mission in our city, making a difference in the Memphis Metroplex, as well as our nation, as well as the nations all around the world. Now.
[3:13] Reverend Landon just read a passage out of the book of Revelation. It's a part of Jesus' messages to seven different churches in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. Two of those churches, if he had read on, Jesus finds faithful, Smyrna and Philadelphia. However, and this is going to sound like over-the-top language, it's not. Five of the churches out of the seven are in grave danger. Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea. So what we recognize is that there are deep and significant dangers creeping into churches that make up the seven churches that Jesus is addressing. Five of them are in danger. Now, what do we gain just from a surface understanding from that little bit of analysis? The answer is as follows in two words.
[4:15] We drift. There's a tendency and potential in all of us to drift. People have a tendency to drift. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Churches are made up of people. Therefore, churches have a tendency to drift. Denominations are made up of people. Therefore, denominations over the cycle of multiple decades historically have a tendency to drift. Seminaries through the cycle of decades, when you study the arc of history, often have a tendency to drift. Why? Because they're made up of fallen people. This is why the writer of Hebrews writes these words. We must pay most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away.
[5:13] Al Mohler, who is the president of a seminary, once wrote these words, Spiritual drift is often imperceptible when it starts, but just like boats at sea, our souls can veer almost entirely off course in moments. You do not need to be far off course to end up a very long way from where you initially intended to be. The writer of Hebrews indicates that there's only one way to fight against the
[5:38] danger of spiritual drift. We must pay attention to and obey the word of God.
[5:43] Orthodoxy and obedience are the ords we must use for fighting against the straying current of spiritual drift. He writes, churches and individuals end up on the wrong side of the doctrinal equation by drifting a little at a time. So how do you avoid the danger of spiritual drift? The answer is found in the beginning of Hebrews 2.1. We must pay attention all the more to what we have heard. And as we look at this text today, this letter from Jesus to a specific church at Ephesus, the New Testament tells us more about the history of this one church than any other book or any other church, pardon me, in the Bible. The church at Ephesus, get this loved ones, was planted by the Apostle Paul. Pretty good pedigree as a church, along with Priscilla and Aquila with the possible assistance of Apollos. Later, Timothy would pastor this church at Ephesus, and church historians tell us that a very well-qualified spiritual leader named Tychicus also pastored the church at Ephesus in its early years. The apostle John also lived in Ephesus and serve this church as pastor, as well as apostle in his ministry.
[7:04] So think about it. Ephesus is a church that had great leadership. The apostle Paul, Apollos, Aquila, and Priscilla, Tychicus, Timothy, and the apostle John. That is a high predigree.
[7:18] And so we recognize that as we open the book of Revelation and look at this message that Jesus gives to the church in the book of Revelation that the apostle John has provided leadership there. And we're aware that as these words are written, John is now in his 90s and has been sent to the island of Patmos as a political prisoner for his testimony regarding Jesus and his influence in advancing the kingdom of God through Christianity.
[7:52] And so Jesus walks among his churches, and much of what he sees at the church at Ephesus.
[8:00] Attracts his approval, his delight. And he begins with many things that he affirms about the church at Ephesus. Listen to what he says in verse three. If you have your Bible open, look there with me. I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and have found them to be false. Church, think about what this tells us. This church has heeded the warnings of the apostle Paul about predators from without and homegrown deceivers from within. Jesus commends his church at Ephesus for its discernment and exposing fraudulent theology and fraudulent apostles. Jesus commends them for not enabling false doctrine, holding to the orthodox teaching of scripture. He again says in another portion of verse three, I know that you are enduring patiently, bearing up for my namesake. You have not grown weary. Now, why would he say that? Well, let's speak into the culture of Ephesus for a moment. You see, when you're in business in Ephesus, you are required to be a part of trade gills. In other words, to make a living when you bought or sold products. And in the trade guilds, every time you had a business transaction.
[9:27] You would give a tip to one of the Roman guards. You would, excuse me, Roman gods. And there was incredible social pressure to conform to this pattern. To not give a tip to the Roman gods when you encountered a business transaction was to break a great social norm. You might get a response like this. Don't you care about our sons who are off at war and we're trusting the gods for their protection and you don't honor them? And this would cause a lot of breaking of relationships among Christians and made things challenging for them in business. And this is why Jesus commends them that you're enduring patiently, bearing up for his namesake. You, as you follow Jesus, recognize that there are moments where your life demands being counter cultural as you follow Christ for the sake of Jesus' name. And Jesus continues into verse six, and he says this as he continues to commend them. Yet this you have, and he continues to brag on them. You hate the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Now, here's a question. What does that mean? Is that not a little random? What does that mean?
[10:56] Well, the Nicolaitans were persons who wanted to be known as followers of Christ. They wanted to be known as persons who professed faith in Christ. But what were the deeds of the Nicolaitans? We know from verses 14 and 15, which we didn't read this morning, a message to another church, that the Nicolaitans, like Balaam, lured God's people into sexual immorality and idolatry. We know that on the basis of two Greek words that make up the name Nicolaitans, that Nico is where we get the English word power.
[11:37] There's also a tennis shoe company that use that derivative of that name, Nike, for power. And the word Latians is where we get the English word laity. So we recognize that the Nicolaitans had some kind of position and power over the laity, having leaders that in the name of Jesus Christ taught some type of sexual immorality and blended it with idolatry in the name of Christianity. And in fact, we understand this culturally because we see even outside of the New Testament references to the Nicolaitans. Clement of Alexandria is once to have said regarding the Nicoladians, they abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, maybe in the name of grace.
[12:29] And when the Nicoladians professed Christ outwardly but would not adopt the ethics of Christ and then demonstrated they wanted their own sexual ethic, based upon which way the wind was blowing and wanted to influence others to adopt it in the name of Christ, Jesus Christ said, I hate that. Now note, he did not say, I hate people, but I hate what this is doing to people. And I remind you, church, in light of strong statements like this that we find in the scripture, don't ever think that Jesus is all lamb and no lion. Romans 11, 22 tells us, consider the severity of the Lord. Remember that quote from C.S. Lewis based upon his study of scripture when he wrote the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. When he's referring to Aslan, the lion, who is a symbol of Jesus, he is good.
[13:28] But he is not safe. And Jesus is opposed to the idea of a Christianity that is all grace and no ethics. Jesus' lion-like fury, when he's flipping over tables in the temple, is a reflection of his pure love for both God as well as his love for people. So the Ephesians hated the work of the Nicolaitans, did not hate them as people, but hated the work. And the Lord is on their side on that. They took the Lord's side on that. Jesus praised them for hating what he hates, wrong doctrine, and an immoral lifestyle. Now, in light of where we've been, this is a great church, is it not?
[14:15] It's a great church. It sounds like a place that If we lived in Ephesus, man, I want to go to the first church of Ephesus. But then we get to verse 4.
[14:29] And Jesus says this, But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love that you had at first.
[14:40] You have forsaken the flaming love that you had for Christ when you first came to know him. You have abandoned the burning heart that you had when you realized the significance of his taking your sins at the cross, dying, rising from the dead. You know church. It doesn't really matter how we came to know Christ, but there was a time when it was all new. It might have been your mom that led you to Christ at your bedside. It might have been for some of us in the sanctuary or listening online. It might have been a street preacher outside a crack house. It might have been in vacation Bible school. It might have been through a recovery program. It might have been when your life hit bottom and there was nowhere to look but up. It might have been on your college campus. It might have been in your church family or at a revival service. The point is there was a point where you came to Christ and you were awaken. And when you did, you had a white hot love for Jesus Christ. You demonstrated devotion to Jesus Christ. You were consumed with him. You were loving him. And now Jesus says, you only demonstrate a dutiful doctrinal coldness.
[16:06] The heart of your first love for me is gone. The Ephesians left it. You work hard. You persevere and endure. You know the truth. You're capable of exposing error. But the danger is that you have lost your first love. Your love for Christ has cooled and it has brought you into a danger zone. A cool love for Christ is a forerunner of apathy. And apathy is a forerunner of loving something else. And love for something else creates a void in the heart. And a void in the heart will always be filled with something else, idols, compromise, and other loves that take the throne of the heart. And Jesus is reminding his church, you were birthed in the first love of Jesus. You were birthed in the love of God and Holy Spirit power. You were birthed through the movement of the love of God through his gospel in your heart. And you have labored to be doctrinally pure. You teach the scriptures clearly. You've had the best of leaders, but you don't love me like you used to. You don't love me like you did. You agree with my ideas, but you don't reach out to hold my hand anymore.
[17:25] Jesus says, we are in a loveless marriage.
[17:31] We have the reputation of being connected but you don't show affection anymore and it's not because i've drifted from you you have drifted from me you've become wood without fire you've become wire without electricity you've become bones without life this is why gk chesterson once said, let your Christianity be less of a theory and more of a love affair. N.T. Wright, who wrote a commentary on this passage, reminds us of something. And what he reminds us of, loved ones, is chilling, deeply chilling. And it's this. The one thing that we do not see in Ephesus today is an active church. Think about that. No church on the shores of modern-day Turkey. Think about this. A church the Apostle Paul plants, a church the Apostle John pastors, a church Jesus invests in and speaks specifically to, it doesn't even exist anymore. This is a cautionary tale for all of us. It is possible to have faith without the vitality of faith, and without the vitality of faith, the faith dies.
[18:59] And so what does Jesus say that the church must do, needs to do, is compelled to do? He says there's one way forward, verse 5. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works that you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Notice he uses the word repent twice. Three steps. Remember, remember, think back when it was all brand new. You might've been a child. You might've been a teenager. For some of you, it might've been a few months ago, but think back when it was all brand new and turn back to Jesus. Turn back, repent, turn back to your first love. Do the works you did at first. I remember when Missy and I were dating, I was to be a little awkwardly transparent. I was falling in love with this cute little cheerleader. It's like, I think she's all that. And I remember one of the things I love about Missy is her spontaneity and she would come up with all kinds of ideas I was like man this is so fun, 25 30 years into marriage I'm kind of structured I'm kind of okay all right be gentle.
[20:29] And Missy would just have this, spontaneous thought like the phone would ring out of the balloon, and.
[20:42] Rather than something I'm delighted in, it would grate on me. And there have been times, church family, in my marriage that I've repented. And I've gone back and I've done the things that I did at first. Open the door for her. Buy her flowers. Remind her that she's special. And appreciate her. And what Jesus is saying, do the works you did at first. Go back, open your Bible and read it. Open your heart and commune with the Lord in prayer.
[21:25] Again, not like you're in a loveless marriage, but as if you're in a love relationship. What are the, you could ask when he says, do the works you did at first, what are the works that they did? Our first love flows in a way that when Jesus is our first love, we actually love others deeper. We love others broader. We love fellow church members more deeply. We're more apt to forgive and to set free. We love our neighbors, the people that we work with, the people that even irritate us, the poor. We love the poor more deeply, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, The unreached, we love more deeply. I thought about something Anne Lamont once said. I think some of you probably heard this. You can rest assured that if you have created a, you know, you can rest assured that you have created a God in your own image when you think it is safe to assume that God hates the same people you do.
[22:27] And the point is, is that, When your first love is restored, what happens is that love toward others is also restored. Jesus says, he who has an ear, look, verse 7, 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 the paradise of God. Now, let me remind you of something very quickly. When Jesus says, let him, the one who has ears, let him hear, what that means in the original language is let that man or woman make an effort to understand. Because it is possible, we all know this, and what I'm about to say, I say because I've been there, when I've come to a church service and I sit and all I'm thinking about is where we're going to go eat lunch, while eternal truths are passing in one ear and just bouncing off.
[23:18] Jesus says, make an effort to understand. And what he's done in this passage is said that when Jesus Christ is your first love, that there are gifts and benefits that are restored to your life individually and as a church. And he describes them as a lampstand, which I'll explain briefly, and the tree of life. Remember the tree of life was found in the garden. And one day when that, we have a new heaven and a new earth that will be restored on earth. The tree of life is for the healing of nations, to heal every piece of brokenness within our lives. But we have a foretaste of the tree of life in the person of Jesus Christ. When the scriptures describe that God will not remove the lampstand from the church, he's referring to the lampstand that was found in the temple, and he's using it as a metaphor.
[24:13] The lampstand represented the presence of God and the illumination of God. And God is declaring that I will not remove my manifest presence, my revelation, my illumination from my church. And understand this is a gift from God.
[24:33] Jesus is hanging on the cross and there are two men sentenced to death on either side. One man expresses to Jesus, Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom. And Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. But the other criminal never, ever expresses any type of faith statement in Jesus.
[25:05] The criminal who did had a lampstand. He had enough illumination to know he needed to respond that the Son of God was by his side. The other man had no lampstand. It all bounced off one ear and back out into the world. His mind is somewhere else, even in death. But the fact that Jesus says to the man today, you will be with me in paradise, tells us that there is never a ditch you have to dig yourself out of with God.
[25:41] Because if there is grace for him, then there is grace for you and me. In The Passion of the Christ, you may remember Mel Gibson appeared in the movie once, and it's very subtle. He appears with one hand when the nail is being driven into Jesus' body. You may remember in da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper, da Vinci paints his own face into the depiction of the Last Supper in the face of Judas. What does this tell us? This tells us that Mel Gibson and da Vinci recognize their own brokenness in light of standing before a holy God. Jesus too knows something about being broken. He was willing to be broken in order to forgive you in your brokenness and sin. He was willing to be broken when his father turned his back and forsook him as he bore your sin and my sin on the cross. And what that tells us that brokenness led to breakthrough in the life of Jesus and the brokenness leads to breakthrough in your life as well. Because as a follower of Jesus, you will go forward by going back. And that's what Jesus shares in this passage. Loved ones.
[27:05] I have a dear friend named Alex Rowland who wrote a book on the presence of God, and he makes the distinction in that book between God's omnipresence and God's manifest presence. And he wrote it out of his experience with God. When he was a child, his father was a pastor in South Africa, and the church experienced a revival. He watched many men and women, not only revived in the church, but many men and women in the surrounding community, in the city, who came to Christ as the church came alive.
[27:36] In that book, he's written what we call eight stages of revival or a renewed church. Let me share these with you before we take communion this morning. Stage one, prosperity and ease divert the people of God from their first love, making them spiritually lethargic and powerless.
[27:56] This is what was happening at the church at Ephesus. This is what happened in some of the other churches that Jesus is addressing in these seven letters as well. Stage two, the witness of the church is eventually lost as the church becomes more and more like the world. Stage three, without the influence of salt and light of the church, society grows increasingly evil. Stage four, at some point in the decline of the church, God intervenes, either with judgment or with a prophetic voice, awakening a holy dissatisfaction among a certain number of God's people. Stage five, an awakened core of believers catches a vision of what the church could be, praying to God and speaking to people about the need for revival. Let me make a quick statement here. The minority affects the majority. That's a kingdom principle. And that is, it doesn't take everybody to begin to pray for revival for God to begin to listen and to hear.
[29:00] Stage six, an increased sense of God's presence begins to fall on a core of believers, and God uses their obedience as a catalyst to open the door for his work in that congregation, city, or region. Stage seven, an overwhelming sense of God's presence falls powerfully in the broader community of believers, restoring the people of God to the fear of the Lord and their first love of God. This is why in our vision statement as a church as Josh prayed it earlier. And it was referenced when our goals team was giving a report that we labor and aspire for the spiritual awakening of all, for the city of Memphis to be affected for the glory of God, for the state, the region, our nation, and the world, which brings us to stage eight. Believers are remarkably transformed and unbelievers are dramatically converted, resulting in great social change.
[29:52] Loved ones, let me use a negative to accentuate a positive. Pray for revival and awakening, but never pray for revival and awakening without examining yourself. That's the words of Jesus to us in the church at Ephesus. And I wonder at times how many people pray for revival but do not think of examining their own heart, remembering, never despise a small beginning.
[30:19] Because 70 years ago, somebody, when they began to see the potential of the
[30:25] birth of this church, it began with a thought. Somebody had a seed thought that a new church needed to be planted in this region of Memphis, and God has been glorified. And those that have gone before us, there's much we could point out, but those who've gone before us on this altar right here, altar rail right here where you kneel, on the kneeler, there are words embroidered that are appropriate for this day. And they read like this, embroidered where we kneel. You that truly and earnestly repent of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbors and intend to lead a new life following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth in his holy ways, draw Fall near with faith and take this sacrament to your comfort and make your humble confession to Almighty God. Are we aware of even those who've gone before us recognize the strategic nature of these words that could come right out of Jesus' message to the church at Ephesus? And then on this kneeling rail over here, embroidered on the cushion where we kneel, is a prayer. Can we put the prayer up here?
[31:46] And this prayer is a prayer that's been prayed many years in this sanctuary. I'm going to ask, could we pray it together? Say it out loud. Read it with our eyes open. Let's turn our heart to God and pray this. One, two, three. Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open and all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord. So church, eat this bread and drink this cup and be awakened to your first love of Jesus. Return.
[32:37] Because we're all Mel Gibson and we're all Leonardo da Vinci. But there is grace and there is mercy for all who truly turn to him. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let the people of God say, Amen.