They Had Lost Their First Love by MELVIN NEWLAND

Revelation 2:1-5
MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX
Im going to read a passage of scripture that bothers me, & yet it has a tremendous message. It is part of one
of the 7 letters to the churches in the Book of Revelation, & is found in chapter 2, vss 1-5.
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of Him who holds the 7 stars in His right hand
& walks among the 7 golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work & your perseverance. I know that
you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, & have found
them false. You have persevered & have endured hardships for my name, & have not grown weary.
"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have
fallen! Repent & do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you & remove your lampstand
from its place" [Revelation 2:1-5].
A. One of the hardest things in life is watching someones love disintegrate, & somehow not being able to do
anything about it.
Occasionally, Ill get a call from someone who wants counseling. Sometimes theyre from another church, but
they dont want to go to their preacher, so they ask if they can talk with me.
ILL. Such a situation happened to a preacher friend of mine. A lady he had never seen before came to his office.
She said, "Preacher, youll be shocked by my story." He assured her that he wouldnt be because after 25 years
of counseling, he had heard almost everything.
So she began, "I hate my husband. I hate the way he looks. He has gotten fat, & doesnt take care of himself. I
hate the way he sounds. He slurps his food, & chews with his mouth open. I hate the way he brushes his teeth.
He gulps the water in his mouth & swishes it around. He snores at night & makes all kinds of noises when he
blows his nose. I just dont love him anymore!" She went on with a long list of other reasons why she hated her
husband.
The preacher was shocked. He had heard it all before, but never quite as bluntly as she was putting it. Usually,
after any kind of an unhappy tirade, he asks this question, "Has it always been that way?" Often there is a
moment of silence, & he can almost hear the wheels turning as people think back over their lives.
As she thought it over, there came a slight little glimmer in her eyes, & a trace of a smile on her face. "No," she
said, "It hasnt always been this way. He used to be kind & gentle & sensitive. I can remember our courtship, &
how romantic he was. I remember intimate conversations & soft music & candlelight. I remember a wonderful
wedding & honeymoon. I remember those early years of struggling together when we were having children &
trying to find enough money to pay our bills. There were some good times. There was a time when we were
very much in love."
It causes us to wonder, doesnt it? "What happened?" This couple had been married 20 years. What happened in
20 years to change love to hate, to make someone say, "I hate my husband," or "I hate my wife?" Yet that was
the situation - love disintegrating, love evaporating & going away.
ILL. You know, I enjoy being around newlyweds, couples who havent lost the little sparkle in their eyes, or the
trace of a smile on their lips, who are still wondrously & hopelessly in love with each other. There is something
refreshing about that.
But it is extremely difficult when you see the other side, when love begins to disintegrate.
Our modern society tells us that we ought to be happy. And if youre not happy, then walk away from whatever
is making you unhappy. So there are thousands of people walking away from their marriages because theyre
not as happy as they think that they ought to be.

B. The same could be said of our work. Most of us begin with high ideals about jobs & career & our future. We
begin with great enthusiasm & vigor.
ILL. George Washington Carver held a peanut in his hand & looked up to God & asked, "God, what is in the
peanut?" Carver said, "God answered, `Youve got a brain. Find out for yourself." He started searching for all
the secrets in the lowly peanut. He fell in love with his work, & gave his life to it. And mankind is the better for
it.
There is something tremendously fulfilling in doing something & experiencing the satisfaction of doing it well.
But there is another side, isnt there, when work begins to be monotonous, just something we do to get a
paycheck, & the feeling of satisfaction is gone?
PROP. But the saddest example of lost love is when an individual loses his or her love for God. That is why this
passage in Revelation is so tragic. It describes a church that once was alive & enthusiastic about the things of
God.
I. THEY HAD LOST THEIR FIRST LOVE
A. One day a few people met in Ephesus. They had heard the Apostle Paul, & had accepted Jesus as their
Savior. They were very much a minority in Ephesus, but the church started there with them. They got together
in homes. They read Gods Word together, & they prayed. They went out into their neighborhoods & among their
friends & shared their faith with others. Soon, more had accepted Christ, & their number grew.
They were concerned about missions & shepherding & fellowship. They were known as an exciting, dynamic
body of believers. They encouraged each other & built each other up in the faith.
B. Then, as the years passed, & it is always hard to determine why or when, but sometime along the way they
lost their fervor & their excitement. Maybe it wasnt anything they decided to do. It was something that just
happened. And their love for God lost its edge, its glow, & its excitement.
ILL. A man by the name of Shelburne writes about a church in his home town. He said that it had always been
there. He used to ride by it on his bicycle when he was a kid. He said that he never really noticed it all that
much, except its sign was always there, announcing the brand of church that it was & the times of its services.
He said that every time he drove by, even when he became an adult, he never gave it a 2nd thought. As best he
remembered he had never gone inside the church building, but it had just always been there.
Until one day, he drove by & discovered that the sign was gone, & in its place was a sign for a clinic. A group of
chiropractors had bought the property & started a clinic in the old church building.
Shelburne asked, "Why? Why did that church die?" There must have been a time when kids came there all
dressed up in their Sunday best. There must have been times when people gathered & prayed & praised God, &
the church was filled to overflowing. Great sermons were preached & hearts were touched. But now, it is a
chiropractic clinic.
"What happened?" he asked. Probably not some scandal. The preacher hadnt run off with his secretary or
absconded with all the church funds. If that had happened it would have made the headlines.
What happened was more than likely just a subtle thing where people who used to pray stopped praying, where
people who used to give stopped giving, where people who used to witness stopped witnessing. And just
gradually, a little bit at a time, the church died.
SUM. That is the picture we have here, a church that once was alive & vibrant, but it lost its first love. And this
passage both concerns me & encourages me because it goes a step farther & says, "See what is happening, &
do something about it."
II. WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?

A. Have you ever noticed that when love is alive & exciting, it is always described as something warm, or hot, or
passionate? But on the other hand, when love begins to slip away it is described as cold.
Jesus talks about this in the 24th chapter of Matthew. He speaks of the impending doom of Jerusalem, & says,
"There will be many whose love will grow cold" because of the persecutions to come.
B. David writes in Psalm 51, "Restore the joy of my salvation." That verse tells us, first of all, that there ought
to be joy in salvation. When you are saved from your sin, the result ought to be joy.
When we read the conversion accounts in the book of Acts we find that the people went on their way rejoicing
after they had repented & been baptized for the remission of their sins. Over & over again the result is joy!
But it also tells us that joy can be lost. "Restore my joy," He said. "Ive lost it. I need to get it back again."
Thirdly, it teaches that restoring that joy is possible. That is why the letter was written, to say, "Put on the
brakes before it is too late. Stop, before you have lost all your love, & here is what you need to do."
C. Vs. 5 says, "Remember the height from which you have fallen." Spiritual nostalgia is important. We need to
go back again, to remember. Remember that you were lost & dying in your sin. But God reached down, & you
reached up, & you met each other. "Remember that," He says.
We sing about "The Old Rugged Cross." But most of us never really come to grips with what God accomplished
on that cross. He paid the price for all of our sins on the cross. We didnt earn it or deserve it, but it was there
for us. Have you remembered that, recently?
Remember when you became a Christian. Remember the excitement & the fervor that grips the heart when love
is new & fresh. Remember the wonder of the grace & the mercy of God. Remember it! Treasure it. Hold it warm
& glowing in your heart. Never forget what God has done for you.
"Remember the height from which you have fallen."
D. Then He says, "After you remember, then `Repent & do the things you did at first." Thats a strong word,
"repent." We find it again & again in both the Old & New Testaments. The prophets constantly cried out to the
nation of Israel, "Repent, repent!"
ILL. John the Baptist preached, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!" When Jesus began His ministry,
one of the first words in His sermons was "Repent!" There is a need for people to repent, to change, to turn
around, to start a different kind of life.
1. You repent of two things. You repent, first of all, of the sins that you have committed, sins that violate the
law of God, pride, selfishness, greed, immorality, whatever they might be. Those things that you know have
impaired the relationship that you once had with God, & which have robbed you of the warm love that you once
had for Him. Repent of those!
2. But also, & here is the problem at Ephesus, there was a need to repent of the things that they had just not
done. The sins of omission.
ILL. Here is a young church, dreaming dreams & seeing visions. It has a child-like faith. It believes that nothing
is impossible with God. So they do things. They build buildings. They evangelize the lost. They shepherd the
saved. They are a caring, loving, sensitive community. They are accomplishing impossible feats for God.
But time passes, & they stop dreaming dreams. They stop seeing visions.
APPL. You know, when God places a new opportunity before us, He almost always makes it seem impossible.
Have you noticed that? He never puts it there & says, "Now just take steps 1, 2, 3, & then it will all be yours."
Maybe steps 1 & 2 are easy, but not step 3. Step 3 seems impossible, because God wants us to learn to step
out in faith & let Him provide.
E. Dont stop dreaming dreams. Dont stop seeing visions. Never start believing that God cant, because God

can.
I think that is exactly what happened at Ephesus. They finally came to the point where they fell out of love
because they had stopped putting in the ingredients that were essential for a love that is real & growing.
Whether it is in marriage, or the job, or with God, when we stop putting in the things that make the relationship
warm & real, it grows cold, & dies.
Oh, I know that the Bible says the gates of hades will never prevail against the church. I know that the church
of Jesus Christ will live on for all eternity, & that there is no power on earth strong enough to do her in.
CONCL. But it seems to me that God has given each of us a responsibility to keep this church alive & well,
sensitive, warm, loving, a church that reaches out, a church that grows, a church that laughs, cries, & never,
ever stops loving.
Gods invitation is to all of us. If you dont know Jesus as your Savior, you can develop a love that is warm &
real. You can get a sparkle in your eye & the trace of a smile on your face. Just come to Him.
Or maybe you have grown cold & indifferent in your faith, then remember & repent. The last words are these,
"If you do not repent, I will come to you & remove your lampstand from its place."
The Lords invitation is extended. We pray that you will respond as we stand & sing.