“And in the midst of the lampstands one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. … In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shinning in full strength.” -Revelation 1:13-16.
Here we are, close to the rapture and Jesus is still walking among the lampstands, giving us yet another chance to grow in grace and be whom He has already created us to be! This is agape love, love on His level! I suspect learning about agape love will be an eternal quest for those of us in His Kingdom, those of us who will be living in that heavenly abode, within the majesty of God’s everlasting glory and Light! Can you even imagine it, we will be sharing His glory!!!
God’s age of grace is depicted in all seven letters to the churches in Revelation. These are physical churches living during John’s life on earth. He knew them plus many others, personally. These seven letters collectively are a portrait of God’s holy message during this age of grace. We are living in this grace age, the age of the things “that are.” We are preparing now for the eternal age, “things that shall be.” Let’s mature God’s agape love of Jesus Christ within our own soul!
The overview of these seven churches is one of falling away. It is a picture of being beguiled out from faith; it is falling away from Jesus’ standard of truth and righteousness. It is not being attentive to His love within us, but rather, yielding to a subtle allure of feeling good or trusting personal judgments rather than unsighted faith. This is Satan’s specialty, working in and around us while we still are in flesh!
“As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels (messengers) of the seven churches, and the lampstands are the seven churches.” -Revelation 1:20.
The mystery of the kingdom of heaven is given to us by Jesus’ parables in Matthew 13 and then illustrated in Matthew 17.
His Truth and Love is made visible thru our Lord’s new creation within us. Our new creation identity is literal, alive and well! It is part of our “new birth” package. There are many things to explore within our new birth creation but here and now we are focusing on the meaning of agape love. This is the whole point for the letter to Ephesus; it is Jesus’ primary message to all seven churches, it is not just this one message of Jesus’ to Ephesus. Agape love contains God’s breathe, His absolute truth, His purity and all His indescribable qualities. It means “so much more” than love in the context our temporal dictionary.
To help us understand some of these important heavy points, we are going to turn to Peter for help. It is not Peter, really, but our Lord Jesus through Peter helps us to understand some major issues Jesus is providing in these seven letters. Peter had the gift of being very, very human!
After the resurrection, Jesus appears to several of the apostles, including Peter and John, on a beach to teach you and me about the agape love that is the subject of this letter to Ephesus. In this following John 21dialogue, Jesus is reaching out to Peter about agape love on a personal level for our instruction.
After a fish fry on the beach, Jesus takes Peter with him for a walk. John watches them go together and strolls in their direction, hanging behind.
Jesus asks Peter: “Simon, son of John, Do you love me more than these?”
Peter, a little embarrassed, responded, “You know I like you!”
Jesus responds, “Feed my lambs.”
Jesus asked, “Do you love me?” using the Greek word agapao (αγάπαω) but Peter responds using the Greek word phileo (φιλέω). Jesus used the love word which speaks of abandoned self-interest but Peter used a love word for affection and friendly concern.
A second time Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you agapao (love) me?”
Peter responded with the same word, “Yes, Lord; you know that I philo (like) you.”
Jesus says, “Tend my sheep”.
Jesus is going to ask Peter a third time but this time Jesus changes his word for love to the word Peter is using.
“Simon, son of John, do you like me?”
Peter is grieved that Jesus asks him a third time and using philo instead of agapao.
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I like you,” Peter responds.
“Feed my sheep. … Follow me,” Jesus instructs Peter.
But Peter notices John is following and asks Jesus, “What about John?”
Jesus tells Peter not to worry about John, just “Follow me.”
Peter had just experienced his denial of Jesus a few days or weeks before. He had run to the tomb with John after Mary just reported that it was empty. He had been in the “upper room” when Jesus appeared among the disciples through the locked doors. Peter had a lot on his mind before this conversation with Jesus on the beach. He knew, deep within his own heart, Jesus was the Messiah and he, Peter, did not measure up to the agape love Jesus was talking about … and he was honest about it!
We notice that Jesus was willing to entrust His sheep and lambs into Peter’s care even though Peter could not use the agape word for love. We might say Jesus entrusted Peter because he didn’t use the agape love word.
Peter knew in his heart there was more to his relationship in Jesus than he had yet achieved. In fact, Peter was not intimidated to use the agape word even though Jesus questioned him three time and even said to him, do you even like me, Peter? One thing Peter did know, Jesus knew and understood his heart. But, Peter knew himself, as compared to Jesus, and was being faithful to the truth of who he really was in his friend, Jesus.
You and I have a Peter problem. The churches at the turn of the first century AD had a Peter problem, according to Jesus. It is a common problem because it is the human side of life in conflict against the Holy Spirit now within us. The problem of sin is already forgiven and we are justified but we seem to only know Him in our mind; our heart is much, much deeper and harder to reach. Jesus desires intimacy with each and every one of us in our heart as well as in our mind.
Our walk in Jesus is dependent on our choices from day to day. Our Spiritual light burns brightly when we make spiritual faith-choices in Jesus. Our new-creation faith choices of fellowship with the Creator (of all universes and pure Life itself) are weakened and often muted because we have not learned to consume grace, living by Spiritual faith.
Adam could hear God … before sin corrupted our fellowship. Our primary issue is exactly what Jesus tells us in each of these seven letters: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” -Ephesians 2:7a.
Adam was a grown up little child because he and Eve did not understand the sin separation between them and God; they did not understand God’s created creature was scheduled to shatter this separation barrier by being born again Spiritually, to be united into God Himself thru God’s own Holy Spirt.
This is what happens when we are created new in Christ Jesus. We are united Spiritually; this is who we become in Jesus, redeemed and released from the power and reign of sin. But we have to walk in it using His resurrection power.
Jesus uses agape love with Peter to illustrate an even larger truth. We are “in Christ Jesus” and this fact is just as real as was the creation of Adam and Eve. Jesus is imploring us to choose, letting him into the will of our soul, penetrating the depths of our heart and mind. This is the plea of Revelation 3:20 given to the church at Laodicea.
We, who are already born again, still must open our hearts and invite Jesus into our personal, private sanctuary. He will come into our most private places, sitting down in intimacy for fellowship with us! This is the personal message given to each of the seven churches. It is what makes the difference between the hot passion of the early Ephesian church at the time of Paul and the church at Ephesus at the time of John who writes this letter for Jesus. It is also the fundamental issue with all seven churches, even Philadelphia. It is so fundamental, it also penetrates our modern day fundamental churches.
God is Spirit and He has gifted us His spiritual Life through redemption. We now remain on earth, learning how to live in Jesus’ Spiritual Life; His Life is gifted into us by the blood of the Lamb. His Life is created in us when we believe. This new life, within us, needs to become acquainted with the hidden sin in our body. But it is up to you and me to see it, putting it to death because Jesus has already provided us His resurrection power to do just this very thing! We are living on earth in a Spiritual boot camp discerning God’s truth out from our human container, a “jar of clay.” We grow in His grace as we drill down His life into our bodies of sin. We are holy, our bodies are not! But He is providing His life in our mortal flesh as we consume His grace!
His agape love brought Jesus Himself to earth in pursuit of man’s fellowship. We were created for this very purpose, to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever! This is the essence of the Westminster Confession:
What is the primary purpose of man?
Answer: “The primary purpose of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever!”
He is doing this very thing, loving us in agape love, even while He holds us in His right hand, while walking in our midst. Yes, even while we are reading GraceNotes! We are HIS church, His bride, and He is allowing us to be tested so that we not only see our darkness but also trust His Spiritual strength and wisdom to walk in faith, in His Light! He is glorified in us when we make His righteous choices in our “mortal coil.”
Jesus has taken His earthly flesh into heaven. It is sinless, but human. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father is loving, and nurturing us with agape love, working in us so that we put Him on, just as He put on our humanity. He has given to us the power to put on His spirituality, working His agape love into and through our mortal flesh!
Ephesus is the first church letter of the seven and sets the standard from which the church has and is falling. It speaks to us of God’s operating agape love when Paul wrote to this very church about 40 years earlier, Ephesians. Jesus writes this Revelation letter thru John to Ephesus thru the Holy Spirit after a falling away had already begun.
The focus of this Ephesus letter in Revelation reflects zeal and passion in the believer’s heart when they realized Jesus was the Messiah of the Old Testament. They were sharing the resurrection gospel message among all who lived in this world-class port city of the Roman Empire. Paul wrote his prison epistle to Ephesus when there was a passion, a hot fire burning in their hearts but now Jesus sees the passion is faded, according to this Revelation letter.
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the (agape) love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” -Revelation 2:4-5a.
The Ephesians came together as believers in a community filled with idolatry and temples to many gods. We read in Acts 19 that the tradesmen who made their living making idols were being threatened not only in Ephesus but large parts of Asia. The passion of belief, here in Ephesus, was driving believers, who were called “the Way,” to share the good news that Jesus had come to provide grace to all who would believe. This early passion was driven by agape love but now, it is muted.
Even though this church was now faithful, even though they “cannot bear with those who are evil,” even though they are enduring patiently and bearing up for Jesus’ name, having not grown weary, yet in Jesus’ eyes, they don’t have agape love! This church had set the standard for how God’s agape love operates in His church, now it is only being culturally strong.
In today’s world of the 21st century, this faithful Ephesus church would, in our eyes, seem to be a good, “hot” church. But in Jesus’ eyes it has left the place where Jesus is still living.
As we individually return to this place of faith passion, where Jesus lives, our church will follow to live there too!