If you will turn in your Bible's friends
to the first epistle of John We will
be reading from chapter 2 in verses 15
through 17 Here now is the Word of
God and made the Spirit of the Lord
attend the reading of his Holy Word Love
not the world Neither the things that are
in the world if any man loved the
world The love of the father is not
in him for all That is in the
world The lust to the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the pride of
life It's not of the father But it's
of the world.
I will pause here friends to say When
the apostle John lived in Ephesus It was
a populous city of five hundred thousand people
Of the walls of the city were five
miles in length Enclosing an area of more
than a thousand acres Ephesus was beautifully situated
With mountains on one side and the sea
that washed up to the temple of diana
on the other Kind of like the geography
of los angeles today It was a big
city crawling with life and commerce fun and
excitement Ephesus Was a prominent city in asia
minor People came from all over to enjoy
the wonders of ephesus It was like a
big las vegas It was sin city the
temple of diana Was the most magnificent building
ever constructed in the greek world And it
was one of the seven wonders of the
ancient world Ephesus was also a prosperous city
with luxurious houses wide streets lined with columns
and marble its buildings had Mosaic floors painted
walls in running water the public lavatory That
sat in the center of town had musicians
playing reeds and harps Ephesus Was a pleasurable
city full of tourists and fun seekers It
boasted of a large greek amphitheater that seated
25 000 spectators That theater was the scene
of the mob riot against the apostle paul
led by Demetrius the silversmith who incited the
citizens to cry out for the space of
two hours Great as diana of the ephesians
Ephesus Was a bustling city not with a
church on every corner like we have today
But with a pagan temple at the very
heart of it for the city was given
over to pagan idolatry Ephesus was a perverted
city of sexual immorality for over 1 000
temple prostitutes engaged in orgies and the worship
of a pagan fertility god in the temple
on one side of a column street But
there stood a well-stocked library And directly
across the mid was the city-sponsored brothel
that was so large it had 48 rooms
every day John walked those busy streets.
He saw that his fellow ephesians were people
who lived for this world They were slaves
to their government.
They were slaves to idolatry They were slaves
to their lusts they were slaves to their
worship of the greek fertility goddess diana John
was very familiar with the popularity and prominence
That ephesus held among the cities of asia
minor as it was a bustling center of
political economic and religious commerce Daily he saw
the ships in the harbor unloading their rich
cargos of cedars from lebanon copper from cyprus
silver from spain tin from britain marble from
the greek islands and luxurious cloth and spices
from syria and palestine John would see money
exchanging hands at the agora for goods bought
and sold He saw the best inlaid chariots
ride through the center of town He witnessed
people building the most impressive houses And he
warns in his epistle not to love the
world or to be fascinated by it For
his city was just a few generations away
of being reduced to runes and rubble Through
earthquake fire and military conquests It would all
pass away The glitz and the glamour the
beauty and the boasting all would be gone
for in verse 17 He writes and the
world passeth away and the lust thereof But
he that doeth the will of god abideth
forever All the wealthy merchants in that city
are gone into eternity All the philosophers and
intellects of that city are gone into eternity
The temple prostitutes and priests have gone into
eternity The powerful government officials that ran the
city and held it in the reins of
their hands Have all gone into eternity They've
all vanished with no remembrance of them Can
you name the richest and most powerful person
in ephesus in john's day?
No He is forgotten But we know who
john is We have the gospel of john
We have the epistles of john We have
the book of revelation John's life counted for
something it counted for eternity Because he didn't
live for this world.
He knew better He spent his life on
the things of eternal worth He poured his
energy into the little groups of new christians
there in ephesus He labored for christ and
the spread of the gospel He and the
apostle paul were the real titans of that
city He tells us not to love the
world.
He tells us to live for eternity We
must ask ourselves friends Are we consumed with
the things of this world or do we
awake in the morning with the judgment seat
of christ?
burning fresh in our soul and minds only
one life It will soon be past Only
what's done for christ will last