What is the significance of Ephesus in the Bible?

The elders of Ephesus were selected to hear the parting admonition of the great apostle of the Gentiles. Ephesus seems to hold a special place. It was here that a great work had been wrought by the Spirit of God. (See chap. 19:1-20.) All that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus. Ephesus is the first Church addressed in the Revelation; and finally, to the Ephesians was addressed that wonderful epistle, which unfolds the counsels and purposes of God, and wherein the truth as to the Church is the special subject. It may be added that it was at Ephesus Timothy was left to take the oversight. And now it is to the elders of this same church the apostle speaks of his own ministry, and also of what would happen after his departure. To us, who are witnesses that all he foretold has really come to pass, his words possess a special and peculiar interest.

THIS is the first of the seven assemblies to which John was directed to write through its angel. This assembly occupies a very important place in the New Testament scriptures. Both Paul and Apollos laboured in that city (Acts 18:18-28); and it was Paul who afterwards baptized the disciples there in the name of the Lord Jesus, when, moreover, on the laying on of his hands upon them, they received the Holy Ghost. It was at Ephesus also that the apostle seems first to have separated "the disciples" from the unbelieving Jews, and where the preaching of the Word was accompanied by special displays of divine power, which awakened the bitter and violent opposition of the adversary. (See Acts 19) The free activity of Paul, as the apostle of the Gentiles, was closed too by his remarkable address to the elders of the church at Ephesus, in which he warned them of the perils that awaited them after his departure from the entering in among them of "grievous wolves," who would not spare the flock; and from men, who would arise out of their own midst, "speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them," and in which, at the same time, he cast them, and through them believers of all ages, upon God and the word of His grace as their unfailing resource in all their dangers and need. (Acts 20:17-38.) Lastly, it was to the assembly at Ephesus that Paul was commissioned to write that wondrous epistle wherein he, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, "gives the richest exposition of the blessings of the saints individually, and of the assembly, setting forth at the same time the counsels of God with regard to the glory of Christ." It will be instructive to remark, that if the assembly at that time had not been characterized by the power of the Holy Ghost in life, service, and testimony, she could not have received these exalted communications.

The reader will observe that John is enjoined to write, not exactly to the church, but "unto the angel of the church of Ephesus." Two things must therefore be considered before the letter itself occupies our attention — the meaning of the term "angel," and the period of the church's history indicated.

THIS is the first of the seven assemblies to which John was directed to write through its angel. This assembly occupies a very important place in the New Testament scriptures. Both Paul and Apollos laboured in that city (Acts 18:18-28); and it was Paul who afterwards baptized the disciples there in the name of the Lord Jesus, when, moreover, on the laying on of his hands upon them, they received the Holy Ghost. It was at Ephesus also that the apostle seems first to have separated "the disciples" from the unbelieving Jews, and where the preaching of the Word was accompanied by special displays of divine power, which awakened the bitter and violent opposition of the adversary. (See Acts 19) The free activity of Paul, as the apostle of the Gentiles, was closed too by his remarkable address to the elders of the church at Ephesus, in which he warned them of the perils that awaited them after his departure from the entering in among them of "grievous wolves," who would not spare the flock; and from men, who would arise out of their own midst, "speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them," and in which, at the same time, he cast them, and through them believers of all ages, upon God and the word of His grace as their unfailing resource in all their dangers and need. (Acts 20:17-38.) Lastly, it was to the assembly at Ephesus that Paul was commissioned to write that wondrous epistle wherein he, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, "gives the richest exposition of the blessings of the saints individually, and of the assembly, setting forth at the same time the counsels of God with regard to the glory of Christ." It will be instructive to remark, that if the assembly at that time had not been characterized by the power of the Holy Ghost in life, service, and testimony, she could not have received these exalted communications.

The reader will observe that John is enjoined to write, not exactly to the church, but "unto the angel of the church of Ephesus." Two things must therefore be considered before the letter itself occupies our attention — the meaning of the term "angel," and the period of the church's history indicated.

1916 155 Ephesus is a name of note in the history of the church, and amongst the other churches of Asia. God wrought special miracles there by the hand of Paul; so that from his body were brought unto the sick, handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. From Ephesus all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. The church there was highly privileged, enjoying for three years continuously the ministry of the great apostle of the Gentiles, the man who had been in the third heaven (Acts 19. 10; Acts 20:31; 2 Cor. 12:2), and only in the Epistle to the Ephesians does Scripture give, in its full height, the doctrine of the church, To the elders of Ephesus, Paul delivered his weighty final charge, in which he warned them of what would take place after his departure; not only grievous wolves entering in among the flock, but of their own selves men arising speaking 'perverted things.'

No thoughtful reader of the Holy Scriptures can fail to observe the favoured place given to the church of Ephesus in the affections and ministry of the great apostle to the Gentiles. For three years Paul laboured there in the work of the Lord, and, in the epistle written to the saints at Ephesus, the Spirit of God communicated through the chosen vessel the most wonderful truths concerning God's purpose for the glory of Christ and the blessing of the church. The epistle was written from the prison at Rome, which manifests how great his care for the saints was; and when about to seal his testimony to Christ with his blood, Ephesus is still upon his heart, for in his second epistle to Timothy the apostle writes, "Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus" (Eph. 4:12).

In due time God's building in Ephesus comes before us with a wonderful lustre and fulness, not only in the Book now occupying us, but in the apostolic Epistle to the saints that were there and the faithful in Christ Jesus. To no assembly elsewhere does the Holy Spirit so freely bring out the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; and by none was it revealed as by the apostle Paul and to no saints communicated as to those addressed in that Epistle. Yet in the eyes of tradition the church in Ephesus is of slight account compared with that in Antioch, or in Alexandria, to say nothing of Rome or of Constantinople afterwards. But God's ways are higher than man's ways and His thoughts than those of the sons of men. No more humiliating proof of the departure of Christian profession from the divine estimate than is found in ecclesiastical history, with its ever-increasing homage to the spirit of the world.

Ephesus is indeed the representative assembly everywhere in the New Testament. In the epistle we find the full doctrine of the Church committed to it, not as in those to the Corinthians, as a communion of saints on earth, but in its heavenly character. In Revelation it comes before us in the first place as a. vessel of testimony upon the earth. The two epistles exhibit it in contrasted spiritual condition: the first as faithful in Christ; the second as threatened with withdrawal of the candlestick, except it repent. We need not wonder to find this representative character attaching to it in the history also. We see it in its first freshness, and with its endowment of power; but with its responsibility also, and the sad prophecy of what would follow the removal of the apostle from the midst; when grievous wolves would be successors to so true a shepherd, and from among themselves would men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

The church at Ephesus was a remarkable church. Ephesus is, I believe, to be in the foreground of all the churches. It was the scene of three years' labour by the Apostle Paul, and he was the one to whom was given the revelation of the church. It is a representation, a symbolical representation of the church in its first state, and we all know what a blessed state of love, and faithfulness, and devotedness there was in the church at first, so that it came to be said, "Behold how these Christians love one another!" So Ephesus takes the first place, but already there was a symptom of decay. There was the beginning of retrogression, of spiritual decay. When the soul is first converted how full it is of love for Christ. There seems to the man when he gets deliverance from his sin nothing so great and blessed; but, by and by, too often the world begins to steal upon his heart. He leaves his first love; and that which so often happens to the individual has happened to the church collectively.

Ephesus was the church characterized by the greatest purity in doctrine and in walk. To the Ephesians, as "the faithful brethren in Christ," was addressed the most wonderful revelation God has given to man. It stands therefore for the model church in the apostolic age. But when Paul said farewell to the elders he predicted not smooth things, but the incoming failure (Acts 20). Ephesus means "desired" and that corresponds with her original holy character. He reveals Himself afresh as being in the midst and holding His own in His blessed pierced hands, so true of believers at all times. The descriptions of Ephesus suit the apostolic church, and immediately after the apostles had passed away, except John. But He finds fault with it. His omniscient eyes look to the heart and there He finds declension. "I have against thee that thou leavest thy first love." He, the one altogether lovely was no longer the all absorbing object before their hearts. Paul manifests the full meaning of first love. His constant cry was: "Not I but Christ"--"That I may know Him"; for him to live was Christ. Declension began in the church not with less service, less suffering or anything else, but with a decreasing heart-devotion to the Person of our Lord. That is where all backsliding begins. He calls to repentance, a return to Himself The Nicolaitanes, whose works the church then hated, are mentioned again in the third message, where we shall define the word and the teaching of the Nicolaitanes. A promise to the overcomer follows.

EPHESUS. From the various mention of this church in the Acts and the Epistles, it is evident that its decline was gradual: cf. Acts 20:29-30; 1 Cor. 15:32; 1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:15. The mark discerned by Christ was that it had left its first love. The loss of the true spring and power of devotedness and service characterises the first declension in the church: no one may have observed it but the Lord, yet it is spoken of as a fall, and repentance is called for, or its candlestick would be removed from its place. Historically it represents the church after the departure of the wise master-builder.