So me and David Pym are getting stuck in to Revelation - first me, then David. We're using an overview that my wife Penny wrote for the book, which basically breaks the themes of Revelation down into the Power of God, the People of God, the Word of God (my three), The Judgment of God, the Enemy of God, and the Victory of God (David's three). I was also under challenge by the leadership to 'not get caught up in any of the sticky arguments about eschatology and such'.
So, here's my offering, due to be given this Sunday.
Revelation Overview Sermon 1
Major themes – People of God, Power of God, Word of God.
I wonder if you have ever had someone point something out to you that you've never noticed before, but then once it's been pointed out you notice it all the time. A friend of mine once pointed out to me the cue marks that flash up for just a moment in a movie to tell the projector controller to swap the reel in the cinema. They only flash up for four frames, 8 seconds apart, so if you don't know they're there, you're unlikely to notice them. But if someone points them out to you, suddenly you notice them every time. Of course, they add nothing to the movie, and so ultimately end up distracting you – but if I didn't point them out to you, you probably would never have noticed them. Next time you're in a cinema, look out for them, and see if it distracts you as much as it does me.
In two weeks' time, we're going to have someone from the Backyard Bard here in church doing a dramatic reading of the book of Revelation. Before that, though, David Pym and I are going to spend some time trying to highlight some of the themes of the book. My hope is that the themes we highlight for you will stick with you so that, when you see the dramatic reading, or when you next sit down and read the book of Revelation, you will see these themes pop up and you will notice and appreciate them. Revelation is a difficult book, and there is a lot that we could easily get bogged down in puzzling through, and we've only got two weeks to try and cover it with our overview. But many of the pictures in the book follow distinct themes which, by recognising the theme when you see it, help us to better appreciate what the book has to offer to us, and how it can help our understanding of God and our Christian life.
First, it's worth our while taking a few moments to consider where the book came from, and who it was written to, because as much as we think of it as a book, it is in fact a letter. It is addressed from the apostle John, in exile on a little island called Patmos, and it is addressed to the seven churches in the province of Asia, churches that John had a strong link with. It was written at a time when the emperor was claiming that he was lord and god, and those who refused to bow down to him, like Christians, were persecuted and charged as traitors, enemies of the state. The letter shares a vision that God sent to John, and comes at a time when God's people need reminding of God's Power through God's Word, to help them and comfort them during their suffering, and to give them the hope that we all have in Christ Jesus' return and an eternity with God in heaven.
These three things are what I want us all to look for when we are reading or listening through Revelation – God's people need God's power through God's Word. Next week, David Pym will be encouraging you to look at how God's judgment on God's enemy brings God's victory. These six points highlight that the focus of the letter is on God, and this is surely what we would expect. As the message of the letter unfolds, we see more and more how central God is to the Christian life. It sounds almost crazy to have to say that, but it's a worthwhile reminder sometimes, when we get all tied up in doing good things, or in our jobs, or our families, or in school, or even in our sufferings – those are not the central thing about the Christian life. God is in the centre, and he is definitely in the centre of this letter.
The people of God are the target audience for this letter, but they are also one of the major players in the unfolding vision. To start with, we hear letters written to seven specific churches in the ancient Asia region. Each gets a specific message, a mini letter to their situation and circumstance. Later on, we will see the people of God standing before God's throne and calling out his praises. We will see a war waged against them by God's enemies. Finally, the people of God will be invited to the wedding supper of the lamb, and will live in the new city of God and be with God forever. Those are some of the pictures to look out for.
But what do we learn about the people of God from this letter? Probably the first thing we notice about the people of God from this letter is that they suffer for Christ. Even in his introduction, John describes himself as a companion with the people of God in the sufferings that they bear for Jesus Christ. The seven letters are full of comments about how hard it is for these Christians – the government is trying to force them to make the emperor their God, and puts them in prison. Some have even been killed. The Jews slander God's people and point blame towards them for bad things that aren't their fault. Wicked false teachers rise up amongst God's people, making false prophecies and tempting them into immoral actions that undermine their faith. The temptation of wealth and easy living make their fiery passion for God run lukewarm. Then, as the vision unfolds, we see the people of God in various stages of suffering. The souls of martyrs, killed for their faith in Christ, come from under the altar and cry out, “How long until you judge the earth and avenge our blood?” And they are told to wait, because not enough Christians have died for Christ yet. We are told of two witnesses, who preach and prophesy, but the world rejects them, and the beast, the enemy of God, kills them. We are told that the enemy of God is given power to make war against God's people, to conquer them, and even to kill them. The enemies of God drink the blood of his people! Truly, the people of God are a stricken people!
Have you ever felt under pressure for being a part of the people of God? Perhaps you have suffered discrimination because of your faith? I have heard of people applying for jobs, and having their résumés thrown away by a prospective employer because they had church involvement on them. I have seen university lecturers pick on Christians because they think we are dumb or ignorant. How many of you feel a fear about talking about Jesus with non-Christians? Is that fear there partly because of the possible consequences? I mean you might be shy, or introverted, or you might stutter or think you smell or something, but part of the reason you're afraid to tell your non-Christian contacts about the gospel is because if you do, you're worried there might be consequences – perhaps they'll stop being your friend, or they'll ridicule you, or a workmate might charge you with improper conduct in the workplace, or you might be accused of being the same as catholic priests who molest children, or televangelists who just want your money, or pro-lifers who blow up abortion clinics, or young earth creationists who are trying to brainwash our children, or Ugandan politicians who want to bring in the death penalty for homosexuals. Christians are so easily demonised, and it can be scary to think that someone who we have a good or cordial relationship with might think less of us. Most of you probably haven't been threatened with death or being put in prison for the sake of Christ, but every day more and more Christians come to our shores fleeing such deadly persecution.
In a world where there is pressure to compromise our faith, temptation to water it down, or threats to make us give it up, what do Christians need more than anything else? Do we need some more money, so that we can make our lives a little more comfortable? No, that's what led to temptations to live as lukewarm Christians. Do we need to be less noticeable, to try and fit in with what everyone else is doing, to find compromise with the world? No. That would be to turn our backs on God as number one. What Christians need in times of persecution, when they are under attack, when there is pressure to give up on God, when temptations are strong to put God in second place, is to trust in God's power. And the letter of Revelation has a lot to say about God's power.
In fact, the power of God is continually proclaimed in Revelation. Every time you hear about the throne, that is God's throne of power. God rules from that throne. It represents God being in charge. Every time you hear about people falling down to worship God, that's God's power – he alone is worthy to be worshipped. So many of the symbols that are used to describe God and Christ in this letter are to do with God's power, with his might, with his strength. Christ is pictured as having eyes like a blazing fire, feet like red-hot bronze, and a sharp sword coming out of his mouth. The Lamb of God has many crowns and many horns, representing power and strength. Every time God says or does something, there are loud peals of thunder, lightning crashes, and the earth quakes! God doesn't even need to do anything, because he's got armies of angels and elders and beasts to do his bidding. They bow before his throne and sing praises to him! They sing to him about how he created the world, and how everything belongs to him. But God's creation of the world is not the focus of Revelation. Now, the creation has become a judgment on evil. Locusts plague the earth, the seas boil as stars fall from the sky, mountains tremble, rivers turn to blood or dry up, the sun scorches people, there are hail storms and earthquakes. God's power in creation is now a tool for the destruction of the wicked.
But there is more to God's power than just creation, or even his power to judge. Because if we are honest with ourselves, we know we are all wicked – we have all sinned, we have all rebelled against God at some point in our lives, and so we all deserve to have a mountain fall on us and our rivers turned to blood. God's power is illustrated in Revelation in two other important aspects for God's people to take note of. First of all, we see that God is not just mighty to create and mighty to judge – he is mighty to save. God in his power is able to save us from our rebellion, from the punishment we deserve, and he has done this through Jesus Christ. This fact remains true regardless of how tough times are, how much people hate us or think we're dumb or ignorant, or how much they are against us. God is for us. All who have turned away from selfishness and turned to God for forgiveness in Christ will find it, that is God's message, God's gospel, and it is made clear in Revelation. Listen out for the many, many references to our salvation that come in Revelation. Often it takes the form of the symbolic washing in Jesus' blood, wearing white robes, being protected or sealed or set apart from destruction. John says at the start of the letter, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” Later on, the living creatures and the elders sing to Jesus, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation.” God alone has the power to save people from his wrath.
The second important aspect of God's power is re-creation. By the end of the letter, it is made clear that God is making everything new – a new earth, a new heaven, a new city for his people to live in with him. All of creation is remade, flushing away the faults and brokenness that sin had caused in the world, so that God's people can live directly in his presence, and without hunger, crying, mourning, pain, or death. God's power results in an eternity spent in a perfect world, living perfect lives for God, because our sin is done away with forever. No more rebellion against God, only glory to God for all time. These pictures don't really make their way into the letter until the very end, but they're worth waiting for, because they are the culmination not only of the letter, but of the whole of creation.
All of this – the creation, the judgment, the salvation, and the re-creation, is all achieved through the power of God's Word. It's an incredible thing to think about. God could just act silently, and the whole world could have been made an unmade without us ever hearing from God. But God is so intimately involved in his creation that not only does he talk to us, but his words actually are his actions! He speaks, and the world comes into being. He speaks, and a man is healed. He says to a dead girl “get up” and she gets up. He says to the wind and the waves “be still” and they are stilled. God communicates to us in truth, everything he says to us is true, because whatever he says comes true! This is made clear over and over in the letter of Revelation. Each of the letters starts with, “These are the words of”, describing how Christ is speaking his message to the churches, to his people. Angels, the messengers of God, speak out God's Word time and time again, whether it be calling down plagues and destruction, or instructing the people of God, calling down woes on the wicked or singing the praises of God or proclaiming the gospel. There are prophets who preach God's Word, his word is written on scrolls, and sometimes a voice directly from the throne will be heard, such as in the end of the book, when God says directly, “I am making everything new!” Even the beast, the enemy of God, cannot help but be subject to the true power of God's Word. We will hear that the enemies of God are given power to rule, but only “until God's words are fulfilled,” so even they cannot act outside of God's powerful Word. Indeed, the letter of Revelation is bookended on each side with statements about God's Word – it starts with “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near”, and it ends with, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you all this testimony for the churches,” then, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If any one of you adds anything to them, God will add to you the plagues described in this scroll. And if any one of you takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from you your share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.” The importance of God's word cannot be underestimated!
Let me ask you, do you believe that God's words are true? When the Bible says that it is impossible for God to lie, it is not because God is so wonderfully moral, it is because anything that God says comes true! Do you believe that? Is that the founding of your faith? Because if we believe that, then how can we do anything but rely utterly on what God says, and expect for it to happen? It's very challenging to think about life that way, isn't it? If our lives are truly guided by God's Word, by his message of salvation and judgment and re-creation, if we are assured that what God says is true simply because by God speaking it it becomes true, then we have to be prepared to peg our actions on what God says, with the certainty of faith in the truth of his words.
What does this say to us as people of God? After all, this letter is written to all the people of God, not just to the seven churches of John's time. It says that we, as God's people, must look to God's power displayed in God's word. What does that mean? It means that it is from God's word that we know about the power of God to save us, to make us his people. It means that it is from God's word that we know that he will judge evil, that he will do away with the brokenness of sin, and that he will remake everything new for our eternity with him.
What is the Christian who suffers persecution called to do? What are Christians who are tempted by an easier life, or challenged by false teaching, or faced with oppression, discrimination, or difficulties – what are they to do? They are to stay faithful to God's word. Time and time again when the people of God are described in Revelation, especially in the heat of persecution, even as their souls cry out or their blood is being drunk by the enemies of God, they are described as those who keep God's commands, those who hold fast to the testimony of Jesus, those who maintained their testimony. In God's word lies the power for God's people to overcome, to be victorious. The message of Christ is the same to all the churches – seven times he repeats it in each mini-letter, “To those who are victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life.” “Those who are victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.” “To those who are victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna.” “To those who are victorious and do my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations.” “Those who are victorious will be dressed in white. I will never blot out their names from the book of life, but will acknowledge their names before my Father and his angels.” “Those who are victorious I will make pillars in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it.” “To those who are victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
The people of God are to stand up and be counted for God. They are to stand firm in their testimony about Jesus Christ, about the reality of heaven, and the reality of hell. They are to point to God as the one and only God, worthy of all honour and glory and praise and worship. When times are tough, they should stand firm, they should overcome adversity, even if it means shedding their blood. They should follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who did exactly that – shed his blood for God's glory, to overcome evil and to claim victory over sin and death. When times are easy they shouldn't let God fall from their minds, they shouldn't get distracted. God is the beginning and the end. Jesus is the first and the last.
We should trust God's word, as his words are trustworthy and true. We should rely on God's power, because he alone has power over all things, and everything happens just as he designs. And as we rely wholly on God, we should stand firm as God's people. We should overcome, and be victorious in the face of adversity and oppression, knowing that he will make everything new, and that there will be a time when his judgment will come, Jesus will return, and the glory of God's perfect eternity will be ushered in in its fullness. These are the things that we should live for.
Let's pray,
No comments:
Post a Comment