The Sovereign Revelation | Hail to the Victor

So what would it be like if you fell?

That would really change that movie, but one of my probably top ten favorite movies,

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, is the exact posture that I want us to take

as we start this journey in the book of Revelation.

That this is in some ways a leap of faith, because as we're going to break down this morning

in the title, The Sovereign Revelation, is going to give us hopefully the next,

today and then actually three weeks from now, will bring us to a good foundation

for what the book of Revelation is meant to teach us for today in 2024,

as it did also in the first century.

In the first century when John had this revelation on the island of Patmos

where he was exiled, that there's a lot going on.

How many of us have studied the book of Revelation in the past?

That's about right. It's a book that we don't necessarily study,

because in some ways we might be scared of it, in some ways we're like,

well, we already know what happened, so why bother?

That's not a good understanding of Revelation.

But as we enter this book, let us take it as a leap of faith,

because the context of this book, who authored it, and all of these things,

means something. That the one thing about the book of Revelation, as we're going to see,

is there are not only some major themes to the book, but there's also characters in the book.

There's also characters that mean certain things.

And so we're going to go over, it's going to be a little bit heady today

for the first start of this sermon, because there's also ways of interpreting Revelation

that we need to do justice with.

If you have anybody in your life that says they are a Revelation scholar,

and they understand every jot and tittle of the book of Revelation,

I'm here to say, I think they're kidding themselves.

Though they may have some good scholarship, they may understand the Greek,

they have apocalyptic language, and all of those things,

that you can't fully understand everything, because it's meant to leave room for faith.

It's meant to leave room for leaning into the importance of sovereignty.

And that's really the key. So as we introduce and move to the important central theme

of the book of Revelation, that God's sovereignty is unfolding,

not only in history, roughly 70 AD, but also to today.

And as reformed believers, we know and we believe that God's Word,

the infallible Word of Christ, for doctrine and life, that the Bible sets out

to do what it says it's going to do, and you and I have no impact on it.

That is something to really wrestle with, because as we're going to go through,

we're going to go through a couple letters over the next couple weeks,

we're going to go over a lot of imagery and visions and all of these things.

It meant something very specific then, it meant something very specific

as people were reading it, it means something very specific for 2024.

That there are four kind of agreed upon interpretations of the book of Revelation.

I'm going to give you those four, and then I want to encourage you to sit with me

in what I call the Munster Church view and interpretation of Revelation.

Okay, we have to kind of work through all of these, because it makes sense

that we start with this. Okay, the first view of the book of Revelation,

the first scholarly approach, is what's called the Preterist view

of the book of Revelation. And so understanding that these letters

were letters written for a specific time in the past and not for the present

church. So the fulfillment of Revelation, as a Preterist would believe,

has already occurred. The Preterist believes that when the temple was

destroyed in 70 AD, that that is when the book of Revelation was coming to be.

That all the stuff that happened in history, that is what the book of

Revelation is, that we don't actually pull anything from today,

which again, a partial reading of Revelation has some merit,

but you can't deny the apocalyptic language for the here and now.

If we stay in this view, there's really no point in studying or reading

this book, because it was meant for 70 AD, it was only meant for 70 AD,

and we don't really need to step into it in 2024. I don't know how you can sit

in this view with all the things that go on. Not only the letters to the specific

churches are very appropriate for today, but also the future understanding of the

second coming of Christ, of the new heavens and the new earth.

All the things will get in more toward the end of it. You have to look at it,

not only the here and now, but also the back then, which on the flip side,

you also have what's called the Futurist verse. That the fulfillment will occur

in a period of final tribulation just before Jesus Christ's second coming,

that a futurist looks at it completely futuristic. Well, you can't go there,

100%, because of what happened in history. We have documentation through the Roman

Empire about what happened in 70 AD. We have writings, we have people that wrote

about the destruction of the temple. History books talk about it. So you can't

just go future and deny the past, just like with the Preterist, you can't just

sit in the past and deny the future. They both kind of co-exist.

Though Revelation looks forward to the great return of Christ and the vision of

the new Jerusalem, we also have to look at the past. The third, Revelation 6

through 19, is what we call the Historiist view of the book of Revelation.

That letters were written in order that they'd be received in by distance from

Patmos. So the understanding here is that Revelation 6 through 19 is a

chronological outline of the church history, from the first century AD to the

second coming of Christ. It is unwise to assume a total chronological nature to

John's Revelation. Why? Because the chronological nature of the letters to

the seven churches can be completely applied to today. That over the next two

weeks, we're going to look at those letters. Those letters were not just for

the seven churches, which now would be in modern day Turkey. Only four of them, or

three and a half of them, I think, are uncovered. They are very much set for

today. So understanding the history of it, understanding kind of the futuristic

nature of the book of Revelation, you then have what's called the Idealist

view. That the scenes of Revelation, most revealing God and is written for all

Christians of all times. So this is kind of like an all-encompassing of those,

which you can't really do that specifically. That the scenes of Revelation

depict principles of spiritual warfare, but not specific events. You can't take

this solely just in the spiritual realm because of the physical nature of

history. You can't deny the history of the church. And a lot of people try to,

and that's where we kind of look back at the church. The church gets a black eye

for a lot of this. But when you go to the first century, when you go to the Roman

Empire and what was happening to the church by the emperors, you can't deny the

death. You can't deny the death of the apostles. You can't deny the destruction

of the temple. You can't deny all of these things in the physical realm and

think of it just as the spiritual realm. Though Satan's methods are always the

same, since God is the same throughout, Satan does his best to be a counterfeit

God. We're going to see in Revelation, Satan's attempts then are the same as his

attempts now. And you can't necessarily look at this just as a hypothetical

spiritual because it looks towards the coming of Christ, the physical Christ

coming back to bring his church home with him. If it's just spiritual

understanding, if it's just devotion, then I think we miss something. So you have

these views, the preterist view, the futuristic view, the historius view, the

idealist view. You have a lot of people speaking in just how to interpret

Revelation. As we get past the letters more into the middle, you're going to get

all of the millennialism, right? You're going to get pre, you're going to get

post, you're going to get ah. I tend to be a pan-millennialist. Everything's going

to pan out in the end. And that's where I want us to sit in the posture, the

Munster Church panelist view. That the four interpretations all have valid

points, but we submit our lives at Munster Church to God's sovereignty and the gift

to us that is the book of Revelation. Friends, because God is good, we believe

that God wins in the end. As it is written, so we journey through this book

and we lean into the fact that all will pan out in the end because, as Lord's Day

1 reminds us, we belong to God. And if you really want to break down all the

interpretational differences, which have split churches into new denominations,

so you have churches that start because you go from chairs to pews or pews to

chairs. I don't know too many churches that go from chairs to pews, but you know

what I mean. People will start churches. You have theological differences as to

why people start churches. Revelation is one of them. But when you break down all

of the theological, when you break down all the historical views, really will

people sit, they write, and they kind of create these theologies that best make

them comfortable, which then I call out suspect. That if I'm going to read

Revelation in order that I, Jim Holland, remain comfortable, I don't think that

is a posture that we read the Bible in. I don't know too many people that read the

Ten Commandments and just sit there feeling comfortable knowing that we're

sinners. That as we work through the book of Revelation, Revelation though it is

written for you and for me and the church, it is not written with a nice

tidy little bow given to us that go, you're going to be fine in all of this.

Though the sentiment is true, we need to work through it. Because God is good and

because we belong to him, we will make it out of this sermon series, barring

Jesus coming again. That would be pretty ironic if that happened. Some major

themes as we go through, just because I'm not going to stop every time, but

kind of the concepts that we're going to go through, the things you're going to

see, first and foremost you're going to see God, right? That God controls the

course of history, he protects his people, and he punishes evil. God is in

control in the book of Revelation. We're going to see it. Worship, we're going to

see that word in many different ways. That Revelation calls us to worship God

with awe, with praise, and with obedience. And I find that so comforting that when

we get called into worship, we are called to give awe and wonder to God, we're

called to give him our praise, and we're called to obey God in worship. That is

what it means to be a believer. That we don't worship ourselves, we don't

worship sports teams, or our professions, or our spouses, or anything. The worship

solely goes to God. That is a little bit of the weight that the worship team has

every Sunday. That their hope is that they are bringing us into the throne room

of God in worship. And you see how that really bypasses our opinions about

worship? That the book of Revelation really doesn't care or have a lot of time

for whether or not we want hymns or traditional worship, whether we want

organ or drums. At the end of the day, what Revelation demands of us is our

posture of worship. Not the style of worship. It's going to get there. And for

a lot of us, we're going to look at this, and I've had people literally say this

to me, so when we get up to heaven, all we're going to do is worship, holy, holy,

holy is the Lord God Almighty. We're not going to even get some Tomlin in there.

We're not going to get some elevation worship in there. We're not going to get

some hymns. Like, why can't we go up? Mighty fortress is our God and sing that.

I don't have any answers for you. I've never been there. But understand that

our posture of worship is what brings our spirit closer to God. Not the words,

not the music, but the fact that we are sitting in the throne room of grace with

God himself. You're going to see the lamb. The lamb symbolizes Christ's sacrificial

death, the lamb that was slain for you and for me. Revelation is all about the

lamb. We're going to see that time and again. We're going to see visions,

multiple visions in this one revelation of John, the apostle, which we'll get

there. Visions are symbolic figures and scenes that show God's plan throughout

history. And then we're going to see something that we don't see a lot in

Bible scripture. We're going to see the theological word is...oh, I never know

how to say this. It's supposed to be theopani, but I know that's not the way it

is, but it is what it is. You guys say it how you want. That God actually shows up.

That God steps on the scene. And that is something that we don't see outside of

the Gospels in Christ, outside of a couple of the angel visits in the Old

Testament and the New Testament. God Himself, Yahweh, Creator, steps on the

scene. We're going to see the theme that's going to make us all super

uncomfortable, and that is spiritual warfare. That at the end of the day,

Satan is loosed, that he runs amok. And at the end of the day, what spiritual

warfare brings to us is this understanding of choosing God and Satan.

Now, don't get so caught up in the word choose, but understand that what the

spiritual warfare is showing us in the book of Revelation is that we cannot

serve both God and man, or God and Satan. That what Revelation is doing, it is

demanding of us allegiance to God. I'm going to pause there really quick,

because I know there are some of you that that's uncomfortable, because you

don't want to give allegiance to anything. And I get that, I guess. But

what the book of Revelation should open all of our minds and our hearts to, and

our eyes, is how much God is in control. And I hear it said all the time, people

entering a hard, difficult season of life, or maybe a sickness diagnosis or a

hurt relationship, that they know that God's got this. And I know that people

believe that, probably 99%. But the book of Revelation is going to show us

100% that God does have it, that God is doing God things, that Revelation is what

we can pull, that God, when he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you, I

will be with you to the very end of the age. Well, friends, this is the end of the

age, and God is still on the throne. And finally, witness and martyrdom.

Revelation calls its readers to faithfulness, even to the point of death.

All of a sudden, some of us just got real anxious, because we don't do death

well, and the idea of dying for our faith is something that actually freaks us out.

Now we hear stories, beyond stories, of all the different martyrdoms that we've

seen in history. You can read the books, the voice of the martyrs, that is a, like,

seven-volume series of all the people that have died for the faith. And I look

out at all of us, and I go, ah, we've probably not gone there. How do I know?

Because you're all still here. Martyrdom is being killed, put to death, for our

faith. Now, for some of us, we think we're martyr for Christ when we don't get the

parking spot that we want at Jewel. That is not martyrdom. Martyrdom is not when

you're trying to get to church and you get a flat tire, that, oh, I am being

persecuted for my faith. No, you just ran over a nail. Understand that martyrdom is

brought to a different position in the book of Revelation, because that's part of

the historical view of what we see, the Christians of the first century. The

Christians of the first century that were killed for the faith. How do we know?

We know how most of the apostles, if not all of them, except for John, died for the

faith. Whether crucified upside down, chopped into pieces, pulled apart by horse

and carriage. That Rome did a pretty thorough job of making sure Christians,

those who believed in the way, Jesus, were put to death. So Revelation calls us to

be faithful in that understanding. Now, really quick before I start my sermon.

The author we know, John the Apostle, he authored the Gospel of John, he authored

first, second, and third John. Best evidence we have is that it was about 81

to 96 AD when this was recorded during the reign of Domitian, the Caesar of Rome

after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem of 70 AD. And then finally, what

is the purpose of Revelation? I'm not going to give you that today, and we're

going to get there, because the purpose will, in a lot of ways, show itself to us.

And what's exciting is show us in many different ways. And the book of Revelation

will mean different things for all of you sitting and all of you watching online.

So let's open up God's Word. Let's start with the first three verses. This is

known as the prologue. This is setting up the sovereignty of Revelation. So

Revelation 1, starting with verse 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God

gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made

known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the world of

God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the

one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear

and who keep what is written, for the time is near. One of the only times you're

going to read, and the blessing is for me and for you in this moment in time,

because I am speaking it, you are joining me in hearing it, that this is a kind of

a table set for us. And if there are any other churches that are starting

Revelation, for them. So this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It's the

Revelation of Sovereignty. This phrase indicates that the content is not just

about Jesus, but also revealed by him. The Greek word Revelation means an

unveiling, showing God's plan for history. Again, we have to sit in the history to

also look at what's going to happen. The divine origin of Revelation and the

blessing promised to those who hear and keep the Revelation, that there's an

action that we're all going to be faced with in the book of Revelation. Spoiler

alert, it's to serve God or to serve man, i.e. Satan. So really what this is going

to test us over the next two and a half months is how do we view Scripture? Do we

view it as a divine revelation that governs our lives? Do we view it as, oh,

this is just something Pastor Jim wants us to do? Do we view it as, I don't think

this really pertains to me. If you sit in that third camp, please stop because this

does. Whether you're a believer this morning or not, this does pertain to you.

It has to. We see the phrase which God gave him. This shows the divine origin of

the message. Christ as mediator receives the Revelation from his Father and

communicates it to John. This isn't because John had too much wine the night

before. This is a divine interruption of John's life. John, the one that Jesus

loved, the disciple. This is his Revelation given to him by Jesus. Now it's

interesting about dreams and prophecy that some of us may have had dreams in

the past and it actually comes to bear like whatever we dreamed actually came

through. Could that be a Revelation? I don't know. I didn't give it to you. But

understand that we're not going to interpret dreams as means of a spiritual

exercise. This is the Revelation of John for his church, for the church of

Christ, the church that John was a part of. And as we read that, we need to

receive it as such that it is really a blessing for us to read this, to hear it,

to read it. The importance of hearing and keeping the words of this prophecy will

be highlighted to all of us. Make no mistake. And when we hear it and we read

it, we should have not only a reverence but a relevant understanding that what we

are being spoken to about are the things that were, the things that are, and the

things that will be. So that's the prologue. That's the beginning. Then we

jump in verses four through eight. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia,

modern day Turkey, grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and is to

come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus

Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the

kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and

dominion forever and ever. Amen. 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. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the

Lord God, who is, who was, and is to come the Almighty. That is quite the

greeting. So let's say you invite someone over to your house. You open the door to

them and instead of just saying hi or hey, I brought a bottle of wine or hey,

give me the tour, they went into stuff like this. Maybe it sounds something like

and behold, I crosseth your door. To break bread with you, I come bringing the

mighty, I come that we would understand the blazing love that Jesus Christ has

for all of us and the judgment that will come in the end. Carrie lets out, is what

are you doing when that person says that as they walk through your door? You're

panicking. Jim's closing the door and leaving them outside, right? That this is

quite the start. That this is what we should interpret but also what we should

come to expect when it comes to where we're going in the book of Revelation.

That what we are getting here is grace and peace. And I find that phenomenal.

That we're actually reading grace and peace in this. This greeting reflects

God's covenant faithfulness to us. And it comes from the triune God, Father, Son,

and Spirit. That this should show us the greeting of the triune God that is

synthesized in his role not only in history but also in our salvation. That

you are bought with the blood of Christ that was foretold by the Father and

carried out after his ascension by the Holy Spirit. That this is showing that

every day we are encountering the triune God in all that we do, in all that we

see, and all that we are. And what Revelation is kind of splitting open is

that we better be right in how we live and how we do this. That we understand

that Christ as faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the

kings on earth, this title affirms Christ's role as we see throughout

Scripture prophet, priest, and king, which is actually one of the central

understandings of reformed believers. That in God's sovereignty Christ plays

the prophet, the priest, and the king role in our lives because he has to.

Because that is his role. That he is the prophet speaking into our lives. That he

is the priest overseeing our doctrine and life. And he is the king that rules us

from the day we are born until the day we go to see him. Friends, what do we pull

from this? That we need to recognize God's sovereignty over all aspects of

life and history leading to a posture of trust and worship. So let me ask you, when

it doesn't feel like you have that relationship, when that relationship is

tarnished, when that relationship is hurt, how often do we posture to worship?

When life is not going right, when life gets hard, do we have a posture of

worship? And I think it's interesting why we have to have that posture. Why

worship should be our modus operandi, the operation we live out every day of our

life. Because worshiping recognizes three things. It recognizes that God is

sovereign and Lord over all, that he has invited us to participate in it and it

gives us perspective to even the worst day of our lives. That we are called to

worship. Now how we worship, that is going to be different for all of us. That

when you are in grief and your worship is that of mourning or of frustration or

of just crying out and wailing to God, that is worship. Or you're on a spiritual

high, you're on top of this mountain and God is just glorious and you recognize

that and you're doing your best and you're walking tall, that is worship and

everywhere in between. The book of Revelation is going to find you and find

me in that. Every eye will see him this anticipates the second coming,

emphasizing the visible and public nature of Christ's return. Verses 9 through 12.

I, John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the

patient endurance that is in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of

the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's

day and I heard him behind me, a loud voice like a trumpet saying write what you

see in this book and send it to the seven churches in Ephesus and to Smyrna and

to Pergamum and Thyriata and Sardis and to Philadelphia and Laodicea. So now we

see some of the purpose, which is going to go into the next two sermons. That the

vision begins. That the scene begins. That John is recognizing us as siblings to

him and companions in Christ. What does that mean? That we are companions in his

suffering and in the kingdom patient endurance that is ours in Jesus. Oh come

Lord Jesus. Might be a cry that you've said in your life. Or when you think

about that and go okay this season I'm in is only for a time. Or Lord you can

come back whenever because I give up. However you find yourself, understand

John recognizes that with you. John is in that place with you. What John is

encouraging us individually and as a church is our participation in Christ's

suffering and the kingdom that will be coming. And here's where we check out.

Because let's be honest friends we don't like to suffer. You can't read

Revelation without thinking about suffering. You can't read Revelation to

know that the arrows of the evil one have your name on it at some point in

history. Guess what? Because they've been on there ever since you've been born.

When you've been sanctified in Christ, regenerated and became a member of his

church. That's why whenever we pray, right, the next two weeks we're going to

baptize some babies. We're going to pray over them that as the arrows of the evil

one are being shot at them that they have a community that they understand the

grace and the conquering peace of Christ. All of that comes from the book of

Revelation. From Christ's words to John's Revelation is where we find ourselves.

What I find interesting is John is commanded to write. We assume that of

Paul when he writes his epistles, two-thirds of the New Testament. We're

assuming that Paul is given direction from God. We hear it in his words to write

to all those churches and to all those individuals. Here we see in a very grand

way John getting that Revelation. But here's the rub. You have to trust that

God is in control or else you're not going to read John's words. If you're

going to be stuck in a place of distrust or mistrust, John's Revelation, though it

still has bearing in your life, you will miss it. So what is Revelation doing? It

is testing our resolve and our trust in God. And he's commanded to write. He's

commanded to say and write these things. It's just amazing. Then we move to 12 to

16. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and turning I saw seven

gold lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man,

clothed with a long robe, with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his

head were white like white wool like snow. His eyes were like the flames of fire.

His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. And his voice was

like a roar of many waters. 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.

Let's get weird. Here we go. These are going to be the different visions. These

are going to be the things that we go, what in the world? But remember Jesus

already came once. And how did he come? Think Christmas, this isn't hard, came

like a baby. I can handle seven pound, eight ounce baby Jesus, can't you? Right?

He's in a manger. This is great. We're going to worship, not worship the manger,

but Christ is born in a way, oh it's so beautiful. Right? Dwayne, when your kids

were born what were you thinking as you held them on the first day of their

birth? Miracle, right? This is so great. Now what happens if your oldest was born

with flames shooting out of their eyes, right, and a sword coming out of their

mouth? You'd be like, Gwen, what did you do? Right? It would be super awkward.

But understand the story of Christ culminates here. That is we think about

the grandness of revelation, why not? Why not come like this? We don't see it

anywhere else in scripture outside of some apocalyptic visions that Daniel had

in some of the minor and major prophets, but here we see him coming and he's got

a duty, he's going to be doing some stuff. And he comes like this. This is enough

for us to go, and let's just start Advent early. Because I love me a good

Christmas hymn and we can do that for the next four months. No, we got to sit in

it. We have to understand that the lampstands represent the churches, that

Christ's presence among them indicate his authority and the care for his

church. Because what if out of his mouth came a dove? We'd be thinking peace.

Guess what, friends? That already happened. Not that it came out of his mouth,

but it came down at his baptism. That the sword is coming now. The conquering is

going to be done. The war is going to be over. Well, why didn't he just come on

the foal of a donkey? Why didn't he just come to show that he brings peace?

Guess what? He already did. That is what we consider Palm Sunday. He comes in to

show all of these things. Well, then why, Jim? Why? I don't like this. It makes me

uncomfortable. Now I'm going to look at Gwen Recker in a weird way. Like all of

these things, why does he have to come like this? Hopefully that answer is

already culminating in your mind. How else is he going to come? He already came

those ways. And what happened? We missed it. He was rejected. He was despised. He

was spit on. He was flogged. He was beaten. He was deserted. He was lied about.

He was betrayed. And he was strung up on a cross. Is anyone stringing Christ up on

a cross when he comes like this? No. There is no wavering here. This is how

it's going to go. This is how the end scene must be. This detailed description

of Christ's emphasis of His majesty, His authority, and His purity. The sword

coming out of His mouth symbolizes the power over His Word. It's not the first

time that the Word of God is a two-edged sword. He's already told us it is. That's

why we get to use it against the forces of evil and darkness. It is a double-edged

sword. You don't have to be a master swordsman or woman. You just have to swing

it around. You just have to use it. Jesus is coming to say, I have authority and

dominion over all, including my word. Scary stuff. I get it. But we also need

His assurance now. 17 to 20. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.

But He laid me at His right hand saying, fear not. I always find that funny, right?

That John's seeing this and the first thing is fear not. I am the first and the

last, the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of

death and Hades right there for the things that you have seen. Those that are

and those that will take place after this. So if you're John, you're like, there's

more? Like this can't be it? I mean, at this point, one of our boys is already

waking Carrie up three times if they're having this, right? Because they know not

to, because they'll get a real live version of this if they wake me up. But

understand, there's more. Verse 20, as for the mystery of the seven stars that you

saw in my right hand, the seven gold lampstands, the seven stars are the angels

of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So

Christ is reassuring John. He is reassuring John to not be afraid that he

holds the keys of death and Hades, that Christ reassures John and asserts his

victory over death and judgment. So friends, as we go through this, in times

of fear and uncertainty, rest in the assurance of Christ's victory and his

sovereign rule. So that is the end of the first scene. What in the world are we

going to do with this? Well, let's posture ourselves in four ways. First and

foremost, we submit to the authority of Christ. If you're not recognizing Christ's

authority, you're not reading this. Christ's authority over all aspects of

life, including the church then and now and history, submit to his lordship in

your daily living. So not only submitting, we're trusting in God's

sovereignty. In a world of uncertainty and chaos, we trust in the sovereign

control of God, knowing that he is directing history according to his

perfect will. Third, we embrace the call to endurance. Like John who suffered for

his faith, believers are called to endure hardships knowing that they

participate in Christ's kingdom and victory. And finally, friends, and I think

this will get easier as we go, we live in the light of Christ's return. The

promise of Christ's return should shape how we live today, motivating us to

pursue holiness, to pursue our witness to others, and to remain steadfast in

faith. We're in the grand cosmos now. Next week, those letters are not only

being written to those churches, those letters are being written to 214 Ridge

Road. Let's pray.