Revelation 2: The Revival That Renews Your First Love

Introduction

Adam Mesaric, pastor of discipleship and care at Liberti Church Gold Coast, continues the series “When True Revival Comes” with a third message: when revival comes, our first love is renewed.

Revival, he explains, is the moment when God comes down and His presence floods reality. It is a special season that God grants to His Church, in which more spiritual ground is gained in a week, a month or a year than in a decade or even a century. Christians recover their spiritual vigor, and those who do not believe wake up in the name of Jesus and become His disciples. It cannot be manufactured: “There is no precise word, no ritual, no formula.” We look back at history so that we can lift our eyes to heaven and say, “Lord, do it again.”

The message follows two threads: Jesus' letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7, and the great Korean revival of 1903 to 1910. Its central conviction is this: repentance prepares the way for restoration.

Message Outline

1. When Revival Comes, Love Is Rekindled

The great Korean revival unfolded in three stages: in Wonsan, a coastal city, in 1903; in Pyongyang, today the capital of North Korea, at the height of the revival in 1907; and then in 1909 and 1910, with the “Million Souls” movement.
One of the distinguishing marks of revival is a flood of God's love, glory and holiness poured out on His people. In His light, you see who you really are.
That light exposes deep-rooted sins and destructive patterns, but also the attitude of the heart toward God and toward others. It works like a spiritual thermometer: you discover that your affection for God and your love for others have grown cold.
This happens to faithful people: people committed to the great mission, on the field, on a serving team.
Waves of personal and corporate repentance follow, and then love for God and for others is set ablaze again.

2. Repentance Is Not a Dirty Word

The preacher knows that the word “repentance” makes people shudder. He shares a memory from Year 6, when his parents enrolled him in a boys' school in Brisbane.
On the drive there, his father told him about the headmaster, who was already teaching back when his father was a student there: he used to go home with bloody knuckles and a sore backside. Enough to plant fear.
A few months later, there was a fight (he can “neither confirm nor deny it,” since his parents were sitting in the front row). Summoned to the headmaster's office, he arrived ashamed and sorry that he had hurt the other boy, and said, “I'm sorry.” The headmaster stood up, pointed his finger and lectured him for fifteen minutes.
For many people, repentance feels like being summoned to an angry headmaster. That is not at all what happens when we go to our Lord and Savior.
“Repentance is beautiful.” It is an act full of God's mercy and grace: the humble, broken heart turns away from its sin and from itself, looks to its Savior and finds Him with open arms, ready to forgive and heal. On the other side there is freedom, healing and joy.

3. The One Who Holds the Church and Walks Among Her

Revelation 2:1: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands.”
Seven churches: in Revelation, the number seven speaks of fullness. Jesus is not speaking only to Ephesus; He is speaking to the whole Church.
The stars are the angelic representatives of each church: there is a spiritual reality to the Church. Jesus holds them: He is sovereign, it is His Church. He walks among the lamp stands: He is near.
Ephesus was one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire: wealthy, a major port and commercial center, and highly multicultural. The imperial cult, which worshiped Caesar as a god, was practiced there, along with the cult of Artemis, also called Diana, the goddess of fertility.
Paul founded the church there with Priscilla and Aquila, returned over several years, and then left Timothy there. According to tradition, the apostle John later watched over this church, probably together with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

4. A Church That Works Without Its Heart

Jesus begins with praise: “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance” (verses 2-3 and 6). The Ephesians do not tolerate evil, they reject the works of the Nicolaitans, and they test self-proclaimed apostles against Scripture, just as Paul had warned them to (Acts 20:28-30).
Then verse 4: “But I have this against you, that you left your first love.” Imagine hearing those words from your King in the room: “a dagger to the heart.”
They had endured suffering, but they had stopped rejoicing in the One they suffered for. They had put their hand to the plow, but they had left behind the love they had for Jesus Christ.
A church that had read the right theology books, that defended its convictions and could spot a wolf in sheep's clothing in a heartbeat. “They were doing the work of Christ, but without the heart of Christ.” The head knew, the hands worked, and the heart had been bypassed.
Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 13:2-3: without love, even faith that moves mountains is worth nothing.
The preacher recalls Liberti's two non-negotiable pillars: the doctrine of the gospel and the culture of the gospel, meaning a sincere love for Jesus and for others. He encourages the church, which loves in a beautiful way. But what do you do when you notice, personally, that your affection is cooling, numbed by busyness or by a pace that is too fast?

5. Robert Hardy: A Discouraged Missionary

Protestantism arrived in Korea around the 1880s. In 1890, Robert Hardy, a Canadian doctor, left for the mission field with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
Thirteen years later, his zeal and love had cooled. He had been faithful, had witnessed for Christ, and had held on in a Korea surrounded by nations at war, but he was weighed down by a sense of failure. He wrote that he had seen many people accept the gospel intellectually, but few give proof of it as a lived experience, and that those few were mostly the fruit of other people's work.
Invited to a Bible conference in Wonsan, he was asked to prepare a message on prayer. As he prepared it, he experienced a deep movement of the Holy Spirit. He was convicted of pride, hardness of heart, self-reliance and lack of faith.
He repented before God, then confessed his sin to the missionaries, and then to the whole Korean church as he was about to preach. Peace and joy flooded him. A colleague testified to the change in him: seriousness, zeal for the Kingdom and gentleness.
The Korean Christians, struck by this change, felt the Holy Spirit convict them of sin in turn. Revival broke out. Between 1903 and 1906, the number of Christians tripled, from 24,000 to about 70,000.

6. Remember, Repent, Do the First Works

Revelation 2:5: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works.” Three instructions, and they are full of mercy.
Remember. Do you remember the moment just before Jesus found you: lost, in the dark, enslaved, broken? Then His whisper, the day He called you by name, redeemed you with His blood shed on the cross, set you free and healed you. Do you remember the tears on your face, and not wanting to move because it felt like heaven on earth?
Salvation is like a song whose words we sometimes forget. An old song from the 60s to the 90s takes you back like a time machine. For the preacher, it is the smell of old books that takes him back to one particular library. Remembering rekindles affection for Christ.
Repent. Repentance changes reality: a change of mind, of will and of direction. You stop staring at your sins or at yourself, you say “enough,” and you look to Jesus. You pass from darkness to light, from anger to joy, from death to life.
Why hesitate? Maybe it is the fear of the angry headmaster. Maybe someone used against you what you had entrusted to them. Maybe you are weary of this sin, or you struggle to believe that God forgives so simply. Yet “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us” (1 John 1:9), and God's kindness leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4).
You do not need to fix yourself before you come. You run to Him, again and again. “Let's make repentance the most normal thing in our lives.”
Do the first works. Jesus does not say: repent and be content with your feelings. He says: go back to what you did when you first loved. Forced duty becomes sincere joy, love for others is rekindled, and people will want to know why: so many opportunities to share the good news.

7. Pyongyang 1907 and the Tree of Life

In early January 1907, about 1,500 Korean Christians gathered in Pyongyang to study the Bible and pray for revival. At first, the prayers seemed lifeless, almost discouraging.
After several evenings, a spirit of expectation settled in. So many people wanted to pray that the leader said, “If you want to pray like this, let everyone pray.” All 1,500 prayed aloud, not with fiery shouts, but with deep sighs directed to God that turned into weeping.
A turning point came when two leaders of the Korean church confessed before everyone the bitterness they had held against each other. After the second confession, heaven seemed to open. There was no confusion: a single harmony of prayer, like one cry to God.
Until 1910, the revival spread throughout Korea. In 1977, according to the preacher, the Protestant church in South Korea exceeded 2.7 million members. Today, South Korea has the largest Pentecostal church and the largest Presbyterian church in the world and one of the largest Methodist churches, and it sends out more missionaries than any country except the United States. Because they remembered, repented and returned to the first works.
Verse 7: “To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the middle of God's Paradise.” The first tree of life, in Eden, was lost through the disobedience of the first Adam. It is restored through the obedience of Jesus Christ, the second Adam.
You overcome by clinging to the Overcomer: by remembering Him, by repenting of the sin He conquered at the cross, and by making His love the fuel of your works.
The preacher shares that, while preparing this message, he was convicted of a sin similar to Hardy's: diligent, but discouraged in the work. “I don't want it to be about me anymore.” He wants to decrease so that Jesus increases, to be no longer a billboard but a clear pane of glass through which you see only Jesus Christ.
He invites those who do not yet know Jesus to turn from themselves and say to Him, “Yes, Lord,” and those who have followed Him for years to ask the Holy Spirit, during communion, what He wants to reveal to them.

Key Takeaways

A church can be faithful, hardworking and solid in its doctrine, and still have abandoned its first love.
Repentance is not a summons to an angry headmaster's office: it is meeting a Savior who waits with open arms.
Jesus gives a way back: remember, repent, do the first works.
The Korean revival began with the confession of a discouraged missionary, then with that of reconciled leaders.
You overcome by clinging to the Overcomer, Jesus, who gives access to the tree of life.

Personal Application

If you took your spiritual temperature today, would your affection for Jesus be warm or cooled?
Do you remember the moment Jesus found you? Take time to recall it this week.
What makes you hesitate to repent: fear, betrayed trust, weariness, or doubt that God really forgives?
Which “first works” have you left behind since you came to know the Lord?
Is there bitterness toward someone that you need to confess, like the two leaders in Pyongyang?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to “abandon your first love” in Revelation 2?

The church in Ephesus worked hard, persevered and tested false apostles. But it was doing the work of Christ without the heart of Christ. For Adam Mesaric, the head knew what to do and the hands were working, but the heart had been bypassed: love for Jesus had grown cold.

Why is repentance not a negative word?

Adam Mesaric compares the fear of repentance to being summoned to an angry headmaster's office. But the Lord is not that headmaster. Repentance is an act full of God's mercy and grace: the broken heart turns away from its sin, looks to its Savior and finds Him with open arms. On the other side of repentance there is freedom, healing and joy.

What was the great Korean revival?

It was a revival that took place in Korea between 1903 and 1910, in three stages: Wonsan in 1903, Pyongyang in 1907, and then the “Million Souls” movement in 1909 and 1910. It began when the missionary Robert Hardy publicly confessed his pride and repented. It was marked by the confession of sins, united prayer and strong growth of the church.