Revelation 1:1-20

[1] The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, [2] who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. [3] Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

[4] John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, [5] and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood [6] and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. [7] Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

[8] “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

[9] I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. [10] I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet [11] saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

[12] Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, [13] and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. [14] The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, [15] his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. [16] In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

[17] When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, [18] and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. [19] Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. [20] As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. (ESV)

Revelation 1:1–20, ESV

Okay, folks, well, there you go. That is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

You ever have a dream, and then try to explain it the next morning to somebody? I have vivid dreams. I just thought everybody had vivid dreams like that until I got to know Jenni and realized she doesn't have quite as weird of dreams as I do. My dreams feel like movies. Weird movies. When I'm in the dream, they make sense. So say I'm dreaming that I'm at school, but it's actually John Ball Zoo, but it's school. And it's me, but I'm wearing a Godzilla costume, and the costume is more of a car than a costume, since I'm driving around in it on the city streets of Grand Rapids. During the dream, I don't question any of this. I'm just going along with it. But afterwards, especially when I try explaining it, I realize how weird it is. Like right now, with you.

Welcome to our next few months. I'm not kidding. Imagine seeing into heaven, the spiritual realm, the unseen, the mysterious, and then trying to put into words what you saw to people who hadn't seen it themselves. That is Revelation. That's John's vision of heaven. It's going to be good. But if you've ever been weirded out by Revelation, I get it. Trust me.

Are you ready to hear the number one thing I can guarantee you're going to take away from the next three months? It's Revelation. Not Revelations. It's not plural. Revelation. Period. Got it.

No, actually, the one thing I want you to come away with is this quote from a theologian. Can you understand the book of Revelation? Yes, you can. You can summarize its message in one sentence: God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. Read it with this main point in mind and you will understand. You will not necessarily understand every detail, neither do I, but it's not necessary to understand every detail in order to profit spiritually.

God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. That's very helpful to me, because approaching this book is intimidating. Surveys say that the book you most want to hear preached is Revelation. Surveys also say that the book preachers are least interested in preaching is Revelation. Since it's not preached, since we're unfamiliar with it, in that vacuum there's a lot of weird, incorrect, even dangerous stuff that has filled the void.

So zooming out to see the big picture of the book: God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. Jesus wins. Have hope. That's the big idea of Revelation.

As we're moving forward over the coming months, let me reiterate this. You don't have to understand every detail in order to be blessed by this book. Keep that main point in front of you, and you're going to be blessed. Verse 3 says blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

So we begin today with this blessing, and we start with an overview of the book. Since we're going to be going through it a long time, and since it's a book we're unfamiliar with, today's message is mostly going to be introduction.

The author

First, the author of the book. Who is John? John says he's a witness. Verse 2 says his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

John was an apostle of Jesus. He was Jesus' closest friend. He was a witness, an evangelist, a church planter. They tried to kill him, but he just wouldn't die. Why did they want him dead? Because he was going all around the Roman Empire proclaiming the gospel and planting churches in Asia Minor. Churches that together proclaimed that Jesus is Lord, as opposed to Caesar is Lord. So they wanted to throw him in jail.

At the time this was written, John was an old man. But once, 60 years prior, John was spending all of his time with Jesus and some friends. He was a witness to Jesus. If you read any of the gospels, you see so many of the things John did with Jesus. John was, as it says in verse 2, an eyewitness to all Jesus did and said. They were close. John was, in his own words, beloved by the Lord.

John was an eyewitness to Jesus being murdered. Imagine what that must have been like, to see your best friend murdered, slowly, publicly, and being able to do nothing about it. How helpless and awful that had to feel. He wanted justice for his friend, and instead, this.

John was an eyewitness to Jesus resurrected from the dead. Imagine what that must have been like. Your best friend, who was dead, and now I guess he isn't dead. And then he says, peace be with you. Say what? Okay, he's back. And somehow better than before. How is this possible? Dead people don't come back. And the door was locked, by the way, so how did he get in anyway? I imagine John running to Jesus to hug him, along with the other disciples.

John was an eyewitness to Jesus ascending into heaven on a cloud. Imagine what that must have been like. People don't typically ascend into heaven on a cloud. John saw it happen with his own eyes, looking up. Jesus says, go, baptize, make disciples, go to the ends of the earth. And then he ascends, and John just stood there with his mouth open, gazing into the sky.

John was an eyewitness of the church starting with 120 scared nobodies locked in an upstairs room, scared, praying, only to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and then to see the church spread out to the ends of the earth. Jew, Gentile, Greek, Samaritan. Imagine what it must have been like to see the church explode like that, from the fringes all the way to the ends of the earth.

John was an eyewitness to the letters sent to him describing how his brothers, the other disciples, were, one by one, systematically tortured and killed. Martyred for the sake of the gospel. Imagine how it must have felt to read of their deaths, and to be the one who didn't meet that sort of an end. The lone survivor, though he was tortured himself and suffered, but still he survived.

John was an eyewitness to churches planted all over modern-day Turkey, what the Bible calls Asia Minor. John planted churches over an entire region. He got to know people, he loved them deeply, he witnessed their transformation, he raised up new leaders, and then he moved on to do it again. Now he's on this rock in the middle of the sea, completely separated from those he considered family. I know what it feels like to start a church and to see relationships grow, only to be separated. It hurts deeply.

John was an eyewitness when Jesus told him and his friends, I'm leaving, but I'm going to send you something even better than me being here with you in person. So John's got to be thinking, this is better? Imagine how that felt. Jesus said this would be better than having Jesus with him in person. How can this be better? I'm an old man, I'm stuck in a prison on a rock in the middle of the sea, suffering. This is better?

John was an eyewitness when, 60 years prior, Jesus said he was returning very soon. They probably watched him ascend on that cloud expecting him to come back that afternoon. Then a day passes. Then a week passes. Then a month passes. Then 60 years passed. Soon.

John was an eyewitness to Jesus saying he would be with them even though he was gone. Imagine being alone on that rock, behind bars. How is it that Jesus is with me? My eyes tell me otherwise. All I see are Roman prison guards. John, suffering tribulation, alone.

John was a witness to all of that. And now John is a witness to Jesus unveiling heaven, Jesus revealing what is really happening behind the veil. That's our author. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.

Tribulation

Right away that should tell us something super important that I think we get wrong about this book. We think tribulation is something that's going to happen to some group of believers at some point way down the road. But John here says he is a partner in the tribulation.

So this idea that suffering tribulation is going to happen only at the end of the age, that the church is going to be whisked away before it so we avoid any of that suffering? If we told John that, he would probably look at us like we have a chive stuck in our teeth. You know how your dog tilts their head when they don't get it? What are you talking about? Imagine John doing that if we say tribulation is going to happen at the end and that the church won't have to experience it because we're going to be whisked away.

Bro, I'm in prison. I'm 90. I'm on an island. I've been tortured. They dropped me into boiling oil. My friends were all murdered. I'm literally a partner in suffering with the saints.

So when you read tribulation, think of any time the church suffers persecution. Our current suffering. Don't think whatever it is those Left Behind books said about the tribulation. That's all fiction. John's talking about the suffering he was experiencing in real time. John was talking about the suffering the entire church has experienced and is, in this present day, experiencing around the world. Christians today in China who have to speak in code and meet in homes or face jail time. Christians today in Palestine who are being bombed by the Israeli government. Christians today in the Middle East where you could be beheaded for preaching the gospel. They are all experiencing tribulation at this very moment.

The original audience

So the original audience. Who is this intended for? You. The church after the age of the apostles.

Wait, what about this being to the seven churches? Good observation. We're going to talk about the number seven in a bit, but it's always been believed that the seven churches in that region mentioned here were representative of churches everywhere at all times.

The rest of the New Testament was written to the first generation of the church, during the apostles' time, the apostolic age. This book was written to the post-apostolic age church. That means you and me. Us. Throughout the ages, local churches tend to look like those seven churches that are called out here.

And if John only wanted those seven churches to read it, and didn't want us in 2024 at Buck Creek to read it, then why would he say blessed are those who hear and keep what is written? He would have said blessed are the seven churches who read this. It was meant to be circulated like the rest of Scripture, to bless generations.

Read this quote here from a theologian from Fuller Theological Seminary who has done a lot of writing on this. In many ways Revelation is the most practical book in the entire New Testament, since it's specifically written to Christians who live in the post-apostolic age. This means that the symbols and visions we find here are meant for us, therefore we must make every effort to interpret them correctly and apply them to our present context.

So modern-day Christians, part of a local church somewhere, this book is for you. Not only for Christians 400 years from now at the end of the age. Not just for Christians in the seven churches named here back in 90 AD. It's for all Christians at all times. The intended audience is you. Revelation describes earthly events from a heavenly perspective, for you.

The content

The content of this book is unveiling what was not visible. According to verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave John to show to his servants. A revelation. A revealing. An unveiling. Peeking behind the curtain.

Remember the fixer-upper show with Chip and Jo, where they have the house finished but it's hidden behind two big panels, two trucks, and there's a picture of what it used to look like, and then there's this great revealing of the finished product? And that whole time you get a sense of all these things that were happening behind the scenes. That's what Revelation is. A great unveiling. A great revealing. Getting a glimpse into the spiritual reality of what's really happening. And John's describing to us what he saw in his glimpse of heaven, delivered to him by an angel from Jesus.

Soon. Well, John's been waiting 60 years, and we've been waiting 2,000 years, so soon could be the heavenly version of the word. God exists on a different timeline than we do. We have a chronological timeline. He exists in kairos time, apart from our time. So soon could mean different things for us and in the spiritual realm. It could be any moment, or it could be in a thousand years.

The content of this book, friends, is weird. And this is where things can start to become divisive in the church. Some will be drawn to the imagery, the fantastical stuff. We want Revelation to be Scripture, and it is, it's part of the Bible, it's important. But what I've seen is that a lot of times folks will look at the really weird stuff and spend so much time focusing in on the weird details that Revelation ends up being elevated above other Scripture. And in order to make sense of it we start seeing charts and graphs, and we try connecting the events of Revelation to current-day events. By doing this, you just need to know, you're going to turn it into something it isn't.

Genre

There are different types of literature in the Bible. It's 66 different books that make up two testaments, one whole story, but 66 totally different books that tell one connected story. There's poetry in some books, there's documentary history, there's wisdom writings, there's some how-to manuals. Lots of different types of literature. Some of it is just not the type of literature we consume today.

Revelation is called apocalyptic literature. In some translations it's not called Revelation, it's called the Apocalypse of John. Like Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament, and parts of Matthew in the New Testament. This is apocalyptic. It's revelatory. Apocalyptic doesn't mean the end of everything. That's kind of what we think, but it doesn't mean that at all. It just means unveiling, or revealing something that was mysterious or hidden.

So remember, the point is the big picture. God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. Jesus wins. Through all the imagery, all the metaphor, all the symbols, it's easy to miss out on that big idea. So let's not get too caught up looking for the meaning of each and every detail and miss out on that big picture, which is what Revelation is all about.

Let me give you a couple of examples of how getting the genre of literature wrong could really lead us astray. The first is a song called "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." I love this song. It's pretty straightforward. There's not a lot of mystery to it. You know what it means. It's documentary history. The words tell a story. It's November on Lake Superior. You've never been there in November, but ol' Gordo describes it with words and puts it to song with that haunting melody, and you are there. I love it. The song feels like cold gray skies, cold gray crashing waters. If I asked you what this song was about, you'd say, a boat that sank. Bingo.

But not every song has a direct meaning like that. Some are more poetic or metaphoric. They don't really mean anything, but they still elicit something powerful. They're memorable. They make you want to stand up and sing, or in this case drive around with your buddies and bang your heads in unison. So I give you "Bohemian Rhapsody." Is it memorable? Absolutely. Is it powerful? No doubt. Does it evoke images? Yeah. But what does it mean? What's it about? I have absolutely no idea. None. That song isn't telling a story so much as it's painting an operatic tapestry of images. It's just fun. It rocks.

Now imagine me trying to spend the next three months explaining the lyrics to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" to you for 45 minutes every Sunday. That's kind of what we're doing.

Romans? Good book. One of my favorites. Paul says what he means and means what he says. It might be dense and need to be unpacked, but you don't have to wade through colors and numbers and symbols and images and metaphors. We finished up the book of Acts the second half of last year, through October. That was documentary history. Very straightforward. Revelation? Not so much. So can you start to understand why preachers aren't eager to preach this book?

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a great song, but it doesn't make much sense to look too deeply into each word for a meaning. There's some value there, but you have to zoom out for it to really make sense. Focus too much on the words and you're going to wonder what's going on. Galileo? Fandango? What's happening?

Based on all of this, some are going to take Revelation and skip the big idea and focus on the sensational stuff at the expense of the big picture. Because some of you are just into weird stuff. Moon landing was fake. 9/11 was an inside job. Tinfoil hat stuff. UFO cover-ups. Some of you are going to miss the main point because you're drawn to the fantastic details. We're just not going to fall into that trap.

Others are going to set the book aside, write it off. It's just too weird. It's unknowable. I'm not into all that Lord of the Rings stuff, I'm outie, double deuces. Don't want to study it. We're not going to fall into that trap either.

Finding the Old Testament in the New

You might be wondering why we're starting the year off with Revelation when our chronological Bible plan that we're all reading is in the old, old, old testament. Well, first, Revelation is not primarily about end times. And second, it's full of references to the Old Testament.

Reason number 700 why people don't preach this book much: because we don't really spend much time in the Old Testament to begin with, and this book draws a ton from the Old Testament. I know some of you are struggling through our chronological Bible reading plan. I never said it was going to be easy, but it is good.

Revelation is full of Old Testament, which means it's not going to be easily digested. But just because it's hard doesn't mean we should avoid it. So by preaching through it, we're not going to fall into the trap of setting this book aside. Whoever reads it and hears it is blessed. So we know this is God's Word for us and it's good for us.

The symbols

About the images and the symbols. Thankfully, John tells us many times what they represent. So when he tells us what they mean, let's just believe him. What are the seven golden lampstands? That's not an easy word to say. You don't say lampstand much these days. Verse 20 tells us the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Where John doesn't tell us what an image or symbol means, there's a very high likelihood he's referencing something in the Old Testament. So why are lampstands used? It's drawn from the book of Zechariah.

It's not a puzzle. This book is not a mystery. God's not trying to trick you. This isn't the game of Clue, where we're trying to find out who did what in which room with which weapon. It's not a puzzle. It's more of a picture book. Colors and symbols. Mysterious? Absolutely. A mystery? No.

The numbers

You're also going to see as you read through this that numbers are very important. There are a few numbers you'll see a lot, but it's especially important to notice the number three. The entire book has a heartbeat, and it's three. One two three, one two three, one two three.

Three comes up a dozen times just in that first chapter we read. Excuse me, I'm losing my voice. In one chapter we see a dozen references to the number three. Why is that? Father, Spirit, Son. John sees the Trinity in his revelation. It all revolves around the complete victory of the triune God, and the entire revelation follows that heartbeat. One two three, one two three.

Look at some examples. The faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth. One, two, three. The dragon, the beast, the false prophet. One, two, three. This is by design. It's an artistic, creative way to communicate Father, Spirit, and Son, the triune God. This is all about God.

Another number you can't miss as you read through Revelation is seven. It's the symbolic number that represents completeness, completion. All of it points to Jesus' complete and total victory. Jesus wins. It is finished, in totality. Seven churches, seven spirits, seven lampstands, seven seals, seven stars, seven horns, seven eyes, seven angels, seven beatitudes, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven crowns, seven heads, seven bowls, seven plagues, seven hills, seven kings, and the earthquake kills how many? Seven thousand.

This is literature. It's poetic. Were there only seven churches in this region? No, there were many more. But Jesus and John only discuss the seven here. That's a creative decision made to make the point that it is complete, it is finished. That's the big picture, not to make a point that there were seven churches, because there were a lot more than seven churches.

So we don't look at the numbers here as being literal. They're symbolic. When you see the three zeros tacked onto something, it likely didn't mean there were precisely 7,000 people killed in the earthquake. It means a lot of people were killed. Today we deal with trillions. When I was a kid that wasn't even a thing. I don't think I'd heard the word trillion. I might have said bazillion. A million was the biggest number I could imagine, and even that was hard for me to imagine. In Bible times, in the Iron Age when this was written, a thousand was the biggest number you could comprehend.

So the point is, don't focus on the precise number. Look for patterns. You'll see seven, three, twelve. John and Jesus use symbolic numbers for a reason, to make a point.

Let Scripture interpret Scripture

So we're taking the big picture and we're not going to lock in on details. That alone is going to make some of your Sunday school teachers from back in the day a little upset, especially if you come from what's called the dispensational church tradition.

There are traditions in the church where it seems like a lot of their life revolves around the fantastic details of Revelation. They have entire conferences on prophecy and the antichrist and end times, with charts and graphs and blood moons and the rapture and the mark of the beast. It sort of feels like an entire cottage industry within the subculture of the church. Some think we are absolutely supposed to look into every detail of Revelation and find its meaning by, get this, using current events as a way of interpreting Scripture.

That's not a trap we're going to fall into. Why do I say that's a trap, when I know some of you came up in this sort of thinking and maybe you're actually predisposed to think this way? Because the early church, up until the last say 150 years, nobody looked at Revelation that way. They always saw it as being rooted in the Old Testament, that all these references are related to the Old Testament. Trying to connect Revelation to modern-day events is a relatively new way of looking at this book, and I believe it's incorrect.

So we're going to let Scripture interpret Scripture. John references the Old Testament, so let's look at the Old Testament first. That's what we're supposed to do.

What is definitely not okay? Oh, John references the Old Testament here, let's look at Newsweek or Fox News to make sense of John's reference. No. No. Current events never interpret Scripture. That is reading current events into the Scriptures. We draw truth from the Scriptures. That's exegesis. We don't try to force stuff in.

Here's an example. We see references to giant locusts with human faces. These giant locusts are not Apache helicopters, as some would say. The locusts are an Old Testament reference to the plague from Exodus, or the prophecy of Joel where an invading army is prophesied to invade Judah like a swarm of locusts. Locusts represent God's judgment. They're not about 21st century war machines. It's really not that complicated, unless we want it to be.

Is there a reasonable explanation for something that John writes? Then it's safe to say that's what he meant. That's how the early church and the church through the ages looked at it.

It's a lot like how medical students are instructed. When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra. Zebras are rare. Horses much less rare, at least around here. If you and I are out in the park and we hear clippity-clop, what are the chances it's going to be a zebra? Do they have hooves? Yes, they do. But you don't see zebras walking around Lamar Park. You hear clippity-clop, you can safely trust it must be a horse. If you're a doctor and you see symptoms, instead of jumping to some super rare disease, it's probably something more everyday. So we start there.

So when we read something we don't understand, it's safe to assume there is a reasonable explanation. Don't be drawn to the exceptional or bizarre when there's probably a more reasonable one sitting over there in the Old Testament. If you don't get it and you want to find its meaning in modern-day events, it's likely just a reference to the Old Testament. Not some scheme by the Democrats, or something about the modern-day nation state of Israel, or Bill Gates, or Monster energy drinks, or whatever the current antichrist is.

Are we good here? Just as an aside: obeying all that Jesus commanded, doing everything he commanded, loving our neighbor as ourselves, friends, we have our hands full already. So let's not get off mission by getting into this goofiness.

Recapitulation

Once we get further into this book, you're going to start to see some familiar things. Why is that? Here's another ten-dollar word: recapitulation.

In order to see the full picture of an event, police will get input from various witnesses. One person saw this, the other person describes something similar but maybe includes details the others didn't notice. All of them describe the same event from their own perspective. That's what Revelation is. It's basically one story told from one perspective, and then retold from another perspective, and then retold from another perspective. Recapitulation.

So if you read it and think, didn't we read something like that already? Yes, you did. By the time you're done, you'll have heard the same message a number of times from different perspectives. And that message is that Jesus wins.

End times

Now, about end times. Some of you are serious Bible students. I love that you want to know what our approach is to end times. We're going to get more into that when we get deeper in, in the coming weeks. So let's put a pin in that one for now.

But let me just say this. This book is primarily not about what happened or what will happen in the end times as much as it is about blessing God's people with hope to endure to the end. That's what God wants from us with this book, to have a hope that will help us endure to the end.

Listen to Voddie Baucham, a pastor and teacher who's been really helpful to me in studying this book. Revelation is a book of principles that contrasts the victorious Christ and his people with the defeated Satan and his underlings. The Apocalypse is not a history of events that have occurred in the past, or a prophecy of events that will happen in the future necessarily. It's a book that fills God's people with comfort and motivation to endure to the end.

Or, as we said earlier, God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. Even shorter than that: Jesus wins.

Structure

So how's the book structured? Chapters 1 to 3 are an introduction. Pretty straightforward opening. It reads not too dissimilarly, is that a word, not too dissimilar from the rest of the New Testament. And then we get, are you ready for this, seven sections.

After the intro, chapters 4 and 5 get interesting. We see heaven. Lion and the Lamb. We see the throne of God and the scroll that only the Lamb can open.

Then chapters 6 and 7. They're about what happens in every age when the Lamb opens the scroll. Seven seals of judgment. Each seal represents issues and circumstances common to every age, every church throughout the ages. These were never meant to be references to specific rulers through the ages or specific wars. John's not referencing Genghis Khan or Napoleon or Pinochet or Gaddafi, or the Crusades or World War II or the Iraq War. He's just not. It's all symbolic and true for the church through all ages.

Then we get to chapters 8 through 11. They parallel chapters 6 and 7, but with trumpets instead of seals.

Chapters 12, 13, and 14 tell the story from baby Jesus being born all the way through his enemies being overcome in the end, as Babylon is destroyed.

Fifteen and 16 retell the destruction of Babylon from another perspective, this time the angels.

Seventeen through 19 retells the story again.

And then chapters 20 through 22, it's the new heaven, it's the new earth. He makes all things new. We walk with God again on the streets paved with gold.

That's the structure. God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ.

Fear not

So there you have it. That's what our next three months are going to be like. See, it's not so scary anymore, is it?

So let's not proceed with fear. This book is intimidating, and I hope this introduction is going to be helpful in overcoming that fear. And if it didn't overcome that fear, read this: fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Friends, Revelation is a word from God. Fear not. Jesus is alive. They tried to end him, and he grabbed the keys to death. The doors to death are now wide open because of Jesus. He has the keys, and he holds them out to all of us to utilize. For freedom. Freedom from fear, from death, from sin. Freedom to follow him and to live into our true identity as his image bearers in this world.

That's supremely important for us, because like John, we are suffering tribulation. Granted, we here in the US have it good. It's not like China. We meet in a public space on a main street. Our city logo has a church on it. But we know suffering. Generational poverty. Disease. Divorce. Racism. Homelessness. We've got a stretch of members losing parents. Death is still fighting battles even though Jesus has won the war. And we need hope, because our suffering is very real. You don't need me to tell you that. You know suffering.

Revelation reminds us that God rules history and he will bring it to its consummation in Christ. Jesus wins. And that's why he's the star of this book, and really of all of life. It's all about Jesus. It's all about him. Or, as he says here, I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

That is who Jesus is. What has he done? It says him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. That's who Jesus is.

John's response

It's really interesting when you see what John does, what he's feeling when he sees his old friend. He says, when I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

The Jesus John describes here was his friend. He hadn't seen him in 60 years, and here he was, but different than before. That kingly sash around Jesus' chest. John remembers embracing Jesus, resting his head on Jesus' chest. His beloved friend. John, the mighty Son of Thunder, this big, loud, boisterous man, the apostle they couldn't kill, falling on the ground before his glorious friend Jesus.

What does that say? Clearly John loves Jesus. It's only been 60 years. And what are Jesus' words? Fear not. Fear not.

If you're his friend, you have nothing to fear. Like John. Victory belongs to the Lamb. It's finished. And in heaven, what isn't finished yet on earth is already finished. So the spiritual reality is that Jesus has already won. The earthly reality is that we get to live out this cosmic story of redemption. You and I. Today. Tomorrow. Until he returns or calls us home.

Hope

That gives me hope. He is coming back. He's alive and he's ruling right now, and he's going to return. In the spiritual world there will be no doubt.

We used to get groceries at the corner store on 36th in Byron Center. It used to be Hi-Lo, and then it was Wierda's, and then it was Bob's Food Land. Just a small corner store. Hard to get lost there, though I tried. Once in a while we'd venture over to Meijer, and that was a big deal. I remember once we were at the Jenison one and I got separated from my mom, and it was scary. It's a big store.

At the time, Adam Walsh had just been kidnapped and it was big news, the TV movie Missing, I think. So suddenly we were really scared about getting kidnapped. I couldn't find my mom. I thought for sure I'd get kidnapped, so I hid in one of those circular clothing racks. Brilliant move. I'm sure they'll find you there. Instead of going up and asking someone, hey, can you help me find my mom, I hid in a circular clothing rack. Not the brightest kid. It's a dumb choice.

But imagine not knowing if we're going to get rescued. Am I going to see my mom again? The fear that fills you when you don't know if the one in charge is going to come back and get you, or if you're on your own.

Friends, we have this hope that Jesus is indeed coming back. And not just coming back like, hey, I was gone, I'm back, but to make everything right. That's the type of hope that will change how we live today. With confidence. Knowing we are truly, deeply loved. Knowing that by the blood of Jesus we're forgiven, and that all the injustices we see, and that maybe we even participated in, are only temporary. I hope that changes how we live today, knowing that he will return to make everything right.

An invitation

For those of you who are not friends with Jesus, well, you should be scared. You walk and you talk and you live life in this earthly realm, completely ignorant of the spiritual reality that's also true. And the consequences of not following the Lamb, Jesus, are dire. When we read how Jesus deals with those who don't worship him in spirit and truth, it is scary. Whether it's a literal lake of fire or just a metaphor, it doesn't sound good to me.

Couple the horror of hell with the majesty of being in Christ's presence. My non-believing friends, I invite you to take this series seriously. You're going to see Jesus, and when you see him face to face you will be in awe of him. I pray Jesus becomes real to you in the coming weeks. We desperately want you to find and follow Jesus, because he is so good. I don't want you to miss out. Just ask John how good Jesus is.

Jesus is making all things new, including you and me. And in the end, Jesus wins.

As much as I've tried to bring this out of fantasy and into reality, friends, this ultimately does give us a glimpse into heaven, the spiritual realm, and it's very real. We don't normally see the spiritual realm, and when we do, it's noteworthy. Remember the smelly shepherds we read about, when the sky cracked open and they saw heaven? It was amazing. John's glimpse into heaven is no less amazing.

John wasn't really alone on that island, was he? Christ was with him the entire time. I wonder how often we think we are all alone while Jesus is near. We miss out on all the things he's doing. We miss out on his presence, because we don't consider the spiritual realm just on the other side of what we can see.

The spiritual realm, where Jesus dwells, is beyond our comprehension. John does his best to describe what he saw, but I really don't think we have any idea how spectacular it is, and we won't until Jesus returns or calls us home, where there will be no more sin, no more death, no more suffering, no more tears.

So let's walk with John through these coming months together, trusting that Jesus will deal with sin, that he will make all things new, that he will make it right. Nothing missing, nothing broken. My heart longs for that. His kingdom is coming, and his kingdom will come.

We might not understand what this thing means, or when he's coming again, or what that symbol means. But we trust in the fact that God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ.

Jesus wins. Amen.