CMLC 2025-04-27 Sermon

John, the disciple, the one who was given this

vision by Jesus and recorded it and sent it out

to the seven churches, he had a brother. In the

12 disciples, there were a couple sets of brothers.

Simon Peter had his brother Andrew. John had

his brother James. And John and James were kind

of like bookends in a certain sense when you

look at all the apostles because most of the

apostles died a martyr's death. And the first

one to die was John's brother James, his older

brother. He was the first one, and I believe

it's Acts chapter five. I had to check it out,

but it's very soon. He ends up dying. But John,

he did not die a martyr's death if church tradition.

What people from way back in the first century

wrote and told us, if it's true, John did not

die a martyr's death. He may, however, have wished

that he had, though. According to that same tradition,

the writings of some of the people who were alive

back then and knew John, or at least they said

they did, according to that tradition, he was

boiled in oil by the emperor Domitian, who persecuted

the church, because John and other Christians

would not worship the emperor as God. That was

a very common thing. That even happened all the

way back in the time of Paul, that sort of thing

was going on. So he was boiled in oil by this

emperor. He didn't die. The emperor, persistent,

gave him poison and made him drink poison. He

didn't die. Now rather than the emperor could

have said, wow, that's pretty impressive. Maybe

there's something about you. But no, the emperor

did not let him go. The emperor said, fine, we'll

just stick you on this little island out in the

Aegean Sea called Patmos. You can just. be there,

be out of my hair, stop causing trouble. So that's

what happened to John. That's where we see him

in this first chapter. He's on the island of

Patmos because he was faithful in his testimony

of Christ. Alright, we don't know you can you

can go to Patmos today out of those of you who

are big kind of travelers You like travel might

say oh the Greek Islands. That's a pretty cool

place. That's a really beautiful Whatever. It's

like that's not so bad We don't know and so you

can go to Patmos today, and they have all kinds

of things about John there There's a monastery

and different things and it is a pretty nice

place these days We don't know how nice it might

have been back then or how nasty it might have

been some people said there was like mines that

you had that the the exit it was common for the

Romans to exile people to this island. I have

a feeling it probably wasn't all that nice, but

it would have made little difference to John.

He was being taken away from being the last living

Apostle Christ, serving God's people as he was.

He was doing all that. He was taken away from

that to kicking rocks on a lonely aisle. So he

might even be wondering, why did God save him?

from a martyr's death that all his brethren,

all the other apostles have already suffered

this. Peter crucified upside down. A bunch of

other ones have interesting stories related to

them. He could have joined them. But no, here

he was on an island doing nothing. Wouldn't it

be better to be dead? Isn't that in some ways

a fate worse than death? Being able to do nothing.

It'd be better to be with Christ. We don't really

know what he thought about this or how long he

was there waiting for... He doesn't even know

what he's waiting for. We do know that God did

have a reason for sending him there. That's the

key. The emperor may have ordered it, had it

sent there, but God's hand was upon it the whole

time because here we have... to reveal to John

in a series of visions from Jesus what the glorified

risen Lord Jesus had to say to the seven churches

and to us today. There's a message there. So,

it wasn't pointless that John was placed on this

island, however it may have seemed at the time.

Something great was used by God for that. And

so we have in this, and especially in this little

first chapter here, a message that unpacks for

us what Jesus' resurrection means for us today

and forever. Now, I know you, I would imagine,

you guys know what last Sunday was. It was Easter.

Well, you know what? This is Easter also. There

are seven Sundays to Easter because there's so

much great stuff in the resurrection of Jesus

Christ that it takes a while to unpack it all.

As a matter of fact, every Sunday is a celebration

of Easter. And that's why, for those of you who

know, you know, have been a Lutheran a long time

or get into this sort of thing, that's why the

time of Lent... It's supposed to be 40 days,

but if you actually counted out from Ash Wednesday

to Easter, it's a lot longer than 40 days because

the Sundays didn't count. The Sundays are a celebration

of the resurrection, so whatever, fast or whatever

you were doing those other days, you didn't do

it on Sunday because Sunday always still is about

the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we'll unpack

that some more today. As a kid... My grandparents

were wonderful Christian people, just awesome.

And when it was my confirmation time, they gave

me a kid's Bible to have. And this Bible had

pictures in it and so forth. And so, as a junior

high kid, considering the text we're looking

at, guess which book of the Bible was the first

one I went to? Revelation, right to the back,

boom, right to the back. And if you know much

about Revelation, especially what would be shown

on the pictures, the drawings or whatever, as

a kid, oh, that'd be, it's like a comic book,

Revelation is. I mean, oh, it's nice, Jesus talking

to people and doing stuff, that's all nice and

everything, but man, a dragon, frogs coming out

of somebody's mouth, these are all visions in

Revelation. A giant locust, an angel throwing

a mountain, it's just like, boy, this is like,

comic book hero stuff. So I read through the

book of Revelation several times, looking at

the pictures and really getting into it before

I moved on to other things. And so some people

have that kind of fascination with the book of

Revelation. A church I served many years ago,

one of the members, her husband didn't come to

church, but he liked on Sunday to tune in the

TV preachers that talked about Revelation, that

talked about the end times. He wasn't really

all that interested in the church stuff. He just

liked to hear about all the things that were

going on. going on at the time, back in the 90s,

we have somehow had something to do with God's

plan. And I guess in some ways he wasn't totally

wrong there You know it generally if pastors

especially when they're new to a kind of they

kind of put a little survey What would you like

to study? What Bible studies would you like to

do? There'll always be a group of people that

say let's do revelation and because there might

be various motivations Sometimes people want

to know what the future is you know because that's

the kind of thing revelation talks about they

has these visions others Want to understand current

event? What's going on right now? And how does

that relate to what God's doing? And you know,

can we figure out when Jesus is gonna come back

again? And the simple answer to that is, no.

You cannot figure out. Guess who else doesn't

know when Jesus is coming back again? Jesus.

He doesn't even know when he's coming back. The

Father knows, not him. So if Jesus doesn't know,

you think we're gonna figure it out? I don't

think so. So we don't want to disappoint anybody

about the study of Revelation. As a matter of

fact, this morning we're going to have a little

teeny -weeny Bible study on Revelation right

now. Basically giving you a spoiler. This is

what the book, the point of the book... is really

about. You know, it can be the visions and who

the antichrist, all these things can be very

difficult, a lot of different opinions. Nope,

don't worry about that. What's the basic gist,

the basic message? And it's a very important

one. It is God has a plan. from eternity he before

the world was even made he has a plan that he's

already got laid out and Everything that happens

is to him working through that plan to get to

the end And so that's the one that God has a

plan. The second thing is God is Almighty. There's

nobody else like him the devil the dragon. There's

that dragon again He's in there. He's powerful

compared to you and me but compared to God nothing

zero, less than zero. You know, God is in control.

That's a big theme in the book of Revelation

because this was written to Christians in the

days of Rome who were going through persecution.

And the church has already been around, like,

about 60 years after Jesus was ascended and went

back to heaven. Church has been around for 60

years. Well, it's kind of like, what's going

on? Why, you know, we're going through all these

tough times. What's this all about? You know,

what does it mean to be a Christian? Do I want

this? You know, what's what's God's plan? Jesus

left and here we are and it's kind of bad So

it's kind of him his way of saying I know I've

got a plan. We're working it out You know everything

that that's a hard thing for us to understand

and I'm not gonna say I can explain if God has

control over Everything then why do things bad

things happen? You know if God has absolute control

Do I even do anything, or am I just a robot doing

whatever God wants? That's without getting too

deep into that, because God is so incredibly

smart, wise, and almighty. We can do what we

do in our lives. The devil can do what he does.

You know, all those things. God allows a lot

of things to happen, things that we probably

don't like, and yet... God is able to use those

in His plan. When it's all over at the end, we'll

see how it all worked together. Whether it's

things in our life that we don't like, things

in people's lives that we love. Why did God let

this happen to them? Why does this... The Book

of Revelation doesn't have an answer to that

either, other than God has a plan and He's working

it out. He's always moving things. step -by -step

towards the return of His Son, Jesus Christ,

for the final total redemption of His people.

No matter how crazy things are, He guides them.

He's involved. He's in the middle of it. So that

is the basic gist. It's a comfort. It isn't about

weird things that it's hard to understand why

this, what's this all about, but just the fact

that God's going. He's in control. He's involved.

He's in the middle. He's not just way up there

looking down and going, wow, that's kind of crazy.

You know, wow, that's a shame. You know, that

kind of thing. You know, He's involved with it.

He allows things to, just a side point on that,

there's something for our personal life, because

God lets us do things. But I've experienced in

my life, sometimes I'll try to do something.

and it doesn't work. It's like resistance. This

is, I can't get this to work. That's sometimes

a cue. It's like, maybe God doesn't want me to

be doing that. But if I push hard enough, I can

definitely tell you for myself, if I push hard

enough, eventually I'll get to do it. And usually,

almost every time, I wish I hadn't. So that's

the thing. Sadly, I'm still not smart enough

to get that all the time. Sometimes I still do

that and push and push and then find out, yep,

God was trying to help me there and I wasn't

paying attention. So, yes. So, no matter how

crazy things are, He's involved. There's also,

lastly, and this is, I still to this day enjoy

reading the book of Revelation, but now I'm not

that interested in the frogs or the mountains

being thrown into the sea or things like that,

all that kind of comic book stuff. I like this

other thing. In the book of Revelation, there

are several visions. of the people of God all

together from every tribe of every nation all

together before the throne of God singing and

glorifying God just that joy of all you know

all the things that don't work in this world

all finally together working in harmony in God

before his throne and there's a lot we even have

songs in our worship that I can't remember the

names of at the moment, but that come from, there's

a lot of songs in the book of Revelation and

even Christian music today even will pull on

them. I can hear, I'll hear a little chorus where

it's like, oh yeah, I know where that comes from

because Revelation is a book of worship also.

And so it's a great and wonderful book. Just

don't get too bogged down into some of the highly

symbolic parts that probably nobody really knows

exactly what they mean right now. So few things

to help unpack the resurrection of Jesus Christ

that come from this reading first of all we see

Jesus Standing among the lampstands and okay

this vision again the lampstands as we are told

are the churches these seven churches that are

were listed off see standing this shows that

Jesus is present among his people, actively involved

with his people. He's not just sitting up in

heaven and looking back and says, okay, guys,

hope it goes good for you. No, he's down here.

He's a part of it. He's in it. It's easy for

us to forget that, that we're going through life,

that Jesus desires to be involved, included in

every part of our lives. And he has an involvement

in it. If something's allowed to happen to us,

somehow, someway, it can be used for our good

by him. So it's easy for us to get busy distracted

into our daily groove like I do and that we kind

of lose sight of him Although he's always there

always a part of that Sometimes it can take an

issue of life or death or even a solid hit to

our pocketbook to get our attention and then

one of those little smaller hits to my pocketbook

just happened recently the fans going out of

our course always happens on a weekend our refrigerator

the fans gone out so now you know got to move

things around and to get this that's a an example

of crazy little things that happen in life that

are annoying, you know, and it's like, you know,

what purpose could that possibly solve? Well,

I mean, I guess it makes a sermon illustration

for one thing, but it does other things, you

know. What are we going to do? How is this going

to happen? So, God, how are you using this little

thing in our lives? And if nothing else, just

help us not to freak out about it. but just kind

of say, okay, God will help us through this.

He'll help us find somebody to fix the refrigerator.

But yeah, one of my cousins who lives in Arizona,

he wasn't really walking with the Lord too much.

He married to a wonderful woman and had two beautiful

little daughters, but he wasn't really walking

with God too much. He got a rare liver condition.

I don't know what it's called. I remember. I

remember getting tested to see if my liver could

be donated to him, you know, a piece of it to

help him out. You know, but he did. He got his

attention and brought him closer to God. And

to this day, he is still walking closer to God.

Now, that's the thing. His sister is married

is and even was at that time married to a pastor,

but that wasn't enough to get his attention.

But hey, get this liver. The problem? That got

his attention. And so, you know, it seems to

be something that God has used in his life to

help him. And I know it's been a blessing to

his wife and his daughters as he's more walking

with the Lord and being a godly man in his family.

God uses a lot of things, big and small, to get

our attention, to grow us, and to remind us that

he's involved in our lives. And, you know, I

try, when things happen in my life, to see that.

Like yesterday, as I was still writing this sermon,

even though Pastor Jason gave me all month's

notice, here I was on Saturday, still grinding

away at it. There's all kinds of stories and

angles you can go there on that. Believe me,

my wife was not thrilled that it's like, when

did you find out about this? A month ago? So

we were going to a show, we already had a busy,

we're going to a little play, like junior high

kids or whatever, like she knows from homeschooling

or whatever. They have this group that has a

theater. goodness, an hour and a half play on

a Saturday, I got things to do, you know, fine,

I go, because that's, you know, that is again,

you know, God put this in here, so I'm gonna

walk through it and I'm gonna do this for my

wife, be a blessing to her, spend time with her,

and so in the middle of this play, of course,

it's amateur production, all of a sudden, somebody

forgot to bring a cord for the apple computer

that was running everything and it died in the

middle of the play and so here we got a half

an hour so i'm like i'm already kind of tight

on time here god and now a half an hour that

i get to just sit here while they're running

around scurrying you know obviously i I used

that time to get my phone out, looked up the

Bible passages. I was thinking about it and everything.

I didn't have anything to write on, but yeah,

so it's like, why? I mean, that's a small nothing.

It's a small nothing, but I mean, it did, because

I was working, I was like, oh yeah, I don't know

what God had this happen, but it has an irrelevance

in my life. And so... When I get home from this,

okay fine now I can get to work. Oh my son who's

still at home He's going to a HTC spring branched

in the engineering academy He need me to proofread

a paper that he has to turn in for his engineering

and so it's like Okay, yeah, I could just kind

of say to him dude Why did you have to wait till

the day to do this really and you can not do

this tomorrow? You know, whatever but I could

tell it was important to him and that's part

of being a dad is Yeah This is not a great time

or place for this, but again, God, you know,

I can be a blessing to my son. I could just kind

of kick him down, you know, and I'll do this

tomorrow, but I took the half an hour to review

it and everything and he was very thankful. So

just, yeah, again, I guess writing this kind

of made me a little more aware of the little

things that go on in life and how God uses them

even in small ways. to touch our lives and to

touch other people's lives. So that's the thing.

Jesus is here among us. He doesn't sit up in

heaven. He's here with us and He is involved

and desires to be involved in our lives. And,

last takeaway, the more we're aware of that and

see the things in life, especially the things

that... we don't like, but even the things that

are positive, and from a God perspective, or

even people's needs, it's like, okay, it's inconvenient

to have to deal with this other person, but God

doesn't really... One thing God really doesn't

care about is our inconvenience. He just cares

nothing about that. He cares about our character.

I care about my convenience and my comfort. God

cares about my character, and that's how He's

always going to operate. whether I like it or

not, you know, but he does. And I know it's for

my best and all of our best. So, okay, next thing.

Eyes like fire. This is a description. Jesus

that John is seeing you know the hair that's

white not like mine is is really white because

he's he's you know basically Shining like a star

Because he's glorified through his death and

resurrection, but he's got these eyes of fire

now This is not like in superhero movies You

know like sometimes you'll see the who's somebody

bad guy good guy their eyes glow like oh There's

something going on with this person, and it could

be kind of freaky Yeah, that their eyes glow,

but this means of course everything in A lot

of things are symbolic. In the Bible, fire is

oftentimes used of judgment, discernment. And

so the glowing fire means that he can see through

all of people's junk, deceptions, facades, all

of our fakes that we can fake other people out.

He can see right into the core of who and what

we are. You can't hide anything from him at all.

He sees the real deal. We can BS a lot of people,

but we cannot BS Jesus. Sometimes people who

know us, well, we might be able to sneak something

by them. They might not notice. I've been married

to my wife for 26 years, and sometimes I think

I can do that, but I think I get away with it.

Anyway, maybe I'll eat the last cookie, and I

know she's going to be kind of upset. and then

try to hide it so she doesn't see it or or make

a mess and then okay just to sweep it under the

rug or just that kind of stupid little stuff

uh try to try to do that maybe it's like a little

game or something like haha dear i got i got

one past you my guess is i probably didn't she

saw it and she just kind of rolled her eyes and

went whatever you know uh but but even if i can't

get it past her i cannot do so with jesus not

so i could i could sneak things past a lot of

people because Sadly, that's been a character

trait of mine, is I'm a sneaky person, I'm a

two -face. You know, I've always been the good

kid in my neighborhood. Now, my friend, he was

the bad kid in the neighborhood. There should

be some sort of a guilt by association, but somehow

I managed to dodge that, or at least I thought

so. But I've always been, that's really not a

great character trait. And it's to be sneaky.

So I'm always, God busts me on that from time

to time, and I'm thankful that he does. So, but

anyway, not so with Jesus. I can't be sneaky

with him. In the end, it's really comforting

to know that Jesus sees us as we really are.

This is no hiding, none, no place to hide, no

part of ourselves that's gonna be hiding. He

sees us as we are, and yet he's still... loves

us and frees us from our sins. We don't have

to worry. I think there's a thing called imposter

syndrome, like celebrities get this word. You

kind of know, if somebody really discovers the

real me, I am really going to get busted. Bad

things are going to happen if people really knew

the real me. God knows the real me. God knows

the real you. You don't have to worry that that's

going to come out, that He's going to discover

that, and yet He still loves you. and yet you

are still His child, you are still forgiven.

That's a wonderful thing. I mean, it's a little

fearful thing to know that, you know, whatever

I did or whatever, Jesus sees it, but I know

that He forgives it, and He is totally and completely

unconditional. We never have to worry that we'll

ever fall short of Him. So that's a great thing.

Finally, last one. He is the Living One. He died

and now is forevermore alive. He has the keys

of death and Hades. And so for those of you who

are studying the classics or whatever, Hades,

that's basically figuratively like the place.

There's two words in the Bible for life after

death and before the ending resurrection. One's

Hades and the other is the abyss. You might be

able to see the tonal difference between those

two. Hades is just kind of this idea, like, my

dear mother passed away in February. You know,

where is mom now? I know she loved the Lord,

she's with the Lord, and really, kind of, that's

done. You know, we say, with the Lord, you're

done. Anything more you do, you're kind of getting

off. But anyway, so she's with the Lord, and

so that's the idea. The abyss is where the...

demons are that's where the devil and his people

go so you don't want any part of that so anyway

he has he has the keys of death in hades our

life and our death and what happens after our

death always have been are now and always will

be in his nail scarred And again, that's a symbol.

When he says he has the keys, that means he's

got the authority. He's got the full and complete

authority over death and Hades. So, yes, they're

always there. And so, our life is not our own.

It's not now our own. It never has been, and

it never will be. It's been bought with a price.

The life, suffering, and death of our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ. All our lives. Every second

of them all the way to eternity belong to him

period the end Yes, and are freely given to us

He gives us that gift of our lives our minutes

our seconds our days to serve with him in his

kingdom as priests. All of us are priests. You

know, that is, we are all a connection between

God and the people around us. That's what a priest

is, basically. And just as Jesus is our high

priest, he is our connection with God, the Father.

And so also, we are priests to those around us.

You know, people who don't know Jesus yet, or

even people who do, we are, you know, all can

be a blessing to each other as he has been a

blessing. That sounds wonderful, that we are

priests, that we are God's blessings to people,

and it is, it is very nice. It can also be a

little intimidating if you really think about

what it means to be like. Jesus never never be

perfect about it. This is about but what does

that really look like in our life? It means we

have been blessed beyond measure By a God who

loves us so much that we can be like him and

be a blessing to those who are around us That's

what it means to be a Christian. Guess what?

That's why we're still in this world once I mean

people want you know, once you're once God has

redeemed you in Christ What's left? Well, I mean,

we're still here. We're still around why? Just

to kind of hang around? No. To be a blessing.

Now we are part of God's work in this world.

We get to be a part of God's team, and so we

have things for us. And so this applies both

to the parts of our life that we have to do,

our work, our school, our responsibilities. We

can be a blessing in those places, and to the

parts that we get to do. And that goes back to

some of the things I mentioned, like my son needing

me to do his paper. We're not like when I'm at

work. You know, I got my job to do and everything.

There's always busy and whatever kind of thing.

But it's also like, how can I be a blessing to

people? A, I'm doing a good job. I don't sit

around my work and read the Bible all day. I

mean, it's good to read the Bible, but that's

not why I'm there. I don't go and pigeon people

in a corner. Do you know Jesus is your savior?

That's not what you do at work. But you live

a life. That a is a blessing to people and man

can lead people to ask questions like I even

had that in the break room I may have related

this and one other time I've been here where

some girl said why are you so happy all the time?

And it's like well, and I told her you know because

like we don't talk about religion at work but

you asked me a direct question and we're in the

break room so we're on time out right now so

i just told her in no uncertain terms nicely

and and so i i would talk to you sadly with covet

i really haven't seen her much since then um

but yeah we took you know so that's the kind

of thing and i've related to somebody you know

what a friend of mine who's a good christian

at work and we talk about stuff and he just says

A little odd, because he says, yeah, I had a

dream the other night. When you're in somebody

else's dream, that's always a little hmm. But

he says, yeah, it was in the, if you've ever

seen the show, Amazing Race. And I was doing

really well. And he says, but you were so nice

that people were giving you random shortcuts

and you were beating me. I got so upset I fell

out of bed. And I'm like, whoa, there's a lot

of things to say about all that. But it's kind

of like, in the end. that the person would think,

you know, and even my supervisor said, you're

a very amiable, you know, that means, you know,

friendly whatever person. And so, you know, that's

just, you know, Christ reflecting in our lives.

You know, the best we can ever be is a reflection

of Jesus. But that's a great thing. And so that's

what I have to think about when I go through

my day. I got my stuff I want to do, I got my

stuff I want to be, whatever, whatever, but it's

not really all that important. But being a reflection

of Jesus, being a blessing, does get in the way

of what I want to do. and what I have planned

for the day. And so that's important. That's

again, thinking of what God is doing in our lives

and keeping that and how God wants to evolve

us in our lives. It's a challenge. Boy, I tell

you, I don't remember all the time. Sometimes

I'll look back and go, oh, that was an opportunity

and I kind of blew it because I was focused on

what I wanted to do. I had my own ideas and I

missed it. God still loves us. God forgives us.

And you just kind of put that in the pocket and

kind of say, next time God help me to remember.

All right, John saw in his first vision of Patmos

how much different Jesus is after his death,

resurrection, and ascension. This same John...

This would have been like 60 years before. Here

he is on the island. About 60 years earlier,

that's when Jesus was doing his ministry. He

was with Jesus for like four years. He spent

four years with Jesus. He was the disciple that

Jesus loved. He was kind of the favorite disciple,

at least by the other disciples' way of thinking.

It's thought that John was the youngest disciple,

and he probably was, for what that's worth. But

anyway, he was with Jesus for four years. Even

at the Last Supper, he was the one that was right

next to Jesus. And so when Jesus said, somebody's

going to betray me, the other guy's going, hey,

John, ask him what he means by that. Because

A, you're sitting right next to him. And B, you

have a little more in on Jesus than we do. So

this is that John. And John. even saw him, his

brother James, and Peter, the only three who

saw Jesus glorified in the Mount of Triumphs.

They saw Jesus as he really was. That is a great

vision. And yet, even having seen that, he's

totally and completely blown away by what he

sees here in this vision, such that he said he

fell over like he was dead in the presence. He

was so overwhelmed by the resurrected glory of

Christ. Jesus has said that his father would

glorify him through his suffering and death for

our forgiveness and eternal life John saw how

true that really was I pray that we would see

how the death and resurrection of Jesus Changes

our lives and celebrate Easter all year round

and be a Easter blessing to people all year round

Now the peace of God that passes all understanding

keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our

Lord amen