Christ’s Program For Ephesus
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.
Revelation 2:5
A revival is the church remembering, the church repenting, the church repeating. Modern Ephesus may be orthodox and busy but she is far from her first love. She must have her mind stirred up by way of remembrance. She must discover how far she has slipped from her first estate. This is not easy and often is resented, for she may be very proud of her works and labor and patience and her hatred of the deeds of the Nicolaitanes. But revival begins with remembering, and to “jog the memory” is not easy for a preacher in Ephesus.
The church must repent, as our Lord commanded five out of seven churches in Asia to do. The average “revival” gets nowhere near a call to genuine repentance. And the church must repeat, do again the first works. To halt all the vast machinery today until we remember, repent, and repeat the first works would disrupt our program. So we dispense with real revival and face the “or else” of removal: “I will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”