THE FIRST PURPOSE: TO KNOW THE LORD

Revelation 2:1-7

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

 

 

Many of us have seen it, or heard about it, or have even read it. I’m talking about Rick Warren’s popular book, The Purpose Driven Life.[i] This book is an attempt to answer the question: “What on earth am I here for?”

 

This is not a bad question for the Church to ask as well. “What on earth are we here for?” “In the way of being and doing as the Church, the Body of Christ in the world, what on earth are we here for?”

 

During this season of Lent, we are going to look at an answer to this question. We are going to look at our First Presbyterian Church “Statement of Purpose” that is listed on the front of our bulletins every Sunday. We are going to look at the “Six Purposes of FPC” which are derived from our Statement. Since Lent is a season for reflection, repentance and renewal, we will be looking at each of these, as we seek an answer to the question: “What on earth are we here for as the Church?”

                                                                                         

The very First Purpose of First Presbyterian Church is this: We are to Know the Lord. As our Statement tells us, “We at FPC love the Lord Jesus Christ …” Our utmost priority in all of what it means to be in this fellowship of people, should be that we know personally and love passionately our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Some may feel that such a statement is rather unnecessary. After all, don’t all churches love the Lord Jesus as their first and ultimate priority? As a matter of fact, no, they don’t; and the church in Ephesus is a very good example.

 

I

THE CHURCH OF EPHESUS.

 

The city of Ephesus was a large and prosperous port city on the West Coast of modern day Turkey. In that same city a church was founded by the apostle Paul during his second missionary journey and it had apparently done well in the course of time. We even have a letter from Paul to the Ephesians in our New Testament.

 

In this letter to the church in Ephesus, not from Paul but from the Lord Jesus Christ, we find that the Christians there seem to be highly commended. They had been patient in their suffering as Christians in a pagan city, wise in the exercise of spiritual discernment regarding what they were being taught, and diligent in matters of church discipline. They would not tolerate the lifestyle of the Nicolaitans, which included far too much compromise in worshipping idols and in sexual immorality.

 

Most, if not all of us, would be very pleased to be part of such a church like this. It all seemed to be very impressive! Yet not all was well according to our Lord’s own perspective on this church. “Yet I hold this against you,” He said. “You have forsaken your first love.”

 

It appears that their love for Christ had been sorely and severely neglected. As a consequence of this neglect, the love the members of this church had perhaps formerly experienced had now chilled and grown cold. In spite of all the evident good that could be found in this church, love for Christ had passed from a flame of devotion to a small pile of glowing embers.

                                                                                  

II

THIS SITUATION SHOULD BE UNSETTLING TO US,

FOR THE REASON THAT THIS CAN AND DOES HAPPEN TODAY.

 

The sobering fact is that as a congregation, we can be here at all the right times, believe all the right things, and do all the right things, but all the while miss the first thing, which is love and devotion for Christ. Before we know it, everything becomes ritual and routine, all duty without devotion.

 

It is a slow, subtle shift that can happen to anyone. It can happen to the pastor in the pulpit as well as the person in the pew. Like a marriage relationship neglected unintentionally over time, we don’t sense the slow and subtle shift that is occurring in the cooling of our love for the Savior. After all, look at where we are, look at what we believe, look at all the things we do. But time passes … and so does our love for the Lord.

 

Our Lord wants us to know and love Him as our very first priority, and for this very reason He shows us the way back into His gracious, merciful and loving embrace.

 

 

FIRST OF ALL, CHRIST TELLS US TO REMEMBER.

 

“Remember the height from which you have fallen!”

 

If we feel our love for Christ is waning or growing cold, the very first move we should make is to remember the times when our love for Christ was very real and profoundly deep.

                                                                                   

God’s people in Old Testament times often used memorial stones as reminders of what God had done for them. Likewise, we ought to look at our own personal spiritual markers or memorials, the times and places when our love for Christ was strong and vibrant, alive and very real.

 

This may be the matter of a conversion experience, a special worship service, a renewal event, or a special answer to prayer. Whatever these particular experiences may be for you, remember! Memory is the way back to a strong and vital love for Christ.

 

In one of his books, popular pastor and author Max Lucado talks about remembering such moments of grace. [ii] He remembers way back to 1965, when he as a child of 10 found himself in a Bible class in a small West Texas town.

 

The teacher had a flat top, a large belly, a soft voice, and he was obviously out of touch with these “cool” kids. But he was also earnest and sincere, and for some reason, on that occasion, he was passionate in his teaching from the book of Romans. And the teaching of the Word had a most powerful effect upon that young boy of 10.

                                                                                           

As Lucado tells it:

 

Somewhere in the process of describing how Jesus went into the tomb and came back out, it happened. The jewel of grace was lifted and turned so I could see it from a new angle …and it stole my breath.

 

Lucado went home and told his father he was giving his life to God. And he did, as simply and earnestly as he could, with love and devotion. “To this day,” he writes, “I wonder if my love has ever been as pure as it was that first hour.”

 

 

Lucado vividly remembers and apparently often reflects on this moment of grace.

 

You see, when your Father comes to deliver you from bondage, you don’t ask questions, you obey instructions. You take His hand. You walk the path. You leave bondage behind. And you never, never forget.

 

I dare say that for each and every Christian, there have been precious moments when the jewel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ was lifted and turned in such a way so that we could see it, and experience it deeply.

 

Our love for Christ can be renewed when we deliberately choose to remember such special moments of His grace and love. Our first love for Christ can thus begin to be recaptured and rekindled when we take this very first and important step.

 

 

BUT SECONDLY, CHRIST ALSO TELLS US TO REPENT.

 

I wonder if you recall that the first recorded sermon of Jesus during His earthly ministry was that of calling people to repent, to turn from sin, turn to God and to believe the Gospel.[iii] One of the very last of Jesus before His ascension was also that of calling the apostles to preach the Gospel, a Gospel of repentance, as well as the forgiveness of sins.[iv]

 

Repentance and forgiveness go hand in hand and are inseparable, yet so many today would choose to dismiss their own responsibility altogether. They refuse to hold themselves accountable for their actions.

 

Brennan Manning once spoke of a woman who refused to take responsibility for herself. Married, she’d had a seven-year affair with another married man. That relationship ended, however, when he dumped her for a younger woman.

 

Absolutely miserable, this woman played the “blame-game” and refused to hold herself accountable. In failing to do so, she also turned to a psychiatrist, and to pills, and was eventually hospitalized. It was everyone else’s fault, but not hers.

 

Commenting on the larger picture, Manning has this to say:

 

In a world where the only plea is ‘not guilty,’ what possibility is there of an honest encounter with Jesus, ‘who died for our sins’? We can only pretend that we are sinners, and thus only pretend that we are forgiven.

 

To knife through our pretense, cowardice, and evasions, to see the truth about ourselves and the true state of our souls before God – this requires enormous courage and ruthless trust in the merciful love of the redeeming God. Put simply, sin must be acknowledged and confessed before there can be forgiveness and real transformation. [v]

 

With regard to a love for Christ, it remains futile to simply blame people or situations for this waning love of ours. The best course of action is to accept our own personal responsibility - to accept personally our own accountability and to admit that the fault really lies in us.

 

If true change is ever to occur in our lives, in the way of real transformation, it will include taking personal ownership of this very important situation.

 

 

 

THIRDLY, CHRIST TELLS US TO RESUME

WHAT ONCE ENFLAMED OUR PASSION FOR HIM.

 

“Repent and do the things you did at first.”

 

We are not to sit waiting, but are to get up and do the things we did at first. We are to renew those habits or those spiritual disciplines that will renew and rekindle our love for Christ.

 

Perhaps this will mean spending more time in worship, or in becoming more actively engaged in worship. It may be listening to Christian music, as God is said to “inhabit the praises” of His people. It may be spending more time in the Word and in prayer, or writing your own thoughts or prayers in a spiritual diary or journal. It may include reading good Christian biographies or engaging in a small group where your faith can be inspired by others. The opportunities are there but they will do us little good unless and until we take advantage of them.

 

Along this line, Brennan Manning once told the story of a man who clearly understood this.[vi] Old and dying of cancer, the man was visited by the new associate priest in his parish. When he entered the bedroom, the priest thought he’d been expected, because of an empty chair in the room. But, no, that wasn’t the case, as the old man asked him to close the door for a private conversation.

 

The old man told him that some years ago, he went to see his pastor. He earnestly needed and wanted some guidance on prayer and was given a book by the pastor, but it was found to be of little help. As a matter of fact, he had to look up in a dictionary the first few words he read from the book!

 

Later, his best friend gave him the best advice and counsel of all. He said, “Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here’s what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus in the chair. It’s not spooky because He promised, ‘I’ll be with you all days.’ Then just speak to Him and listen in the same way you’re doing with me right now.” The man did just that, and found it to be so meaningful that at times he would spend two hours in prayer.

 

The associate priest was very impressed, told him so, anointed him and prayed for him, and then promised to return. Two nights later, however, the man’s daughter called him to say that her father had died that afternoon. “Did he seem to die in peace?” asked the priest. And the daughter replied,

 

Yes, when I left the house around 2 o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead.

 

But there was something strange. In fact beyond strange, kinda weird. Apparently just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside his bed.

           

Dear friends, this is now the season of Lent. But regardless of what “season” you and I happen to be in right now, may we cherish and nurture our love for Christ - that He may ever and always be to us, our first love.