The King and His Kingdom

Good morning, everybody. It's good to worship with you all. I know that we've gotten a few

newcomers just the past couple of weeks. So if I haven't gotten a chance to meet you, my name is Ed.

I'm a pastoral resident here at Trinity Cambridge. And if you're like, what the heck does that mean?

I don't know what that means. Trust me, I didn't make these titles. It just essentially means that

I'm a pastor in training and that Lord willing, one day I'll be able to serve here as an ordained

elder. And it also means that I have the opportunity to be able to bring to you God's

word so often. And so today we're going to continue on in our sermon series in Exodus. I was about to

say Exodus. In Revelation, we're going to continue on with our second sermon. And our passage today is

in Revelation 1, 4 to 8. If you're new here and you don't have a Bible and you would like one,

please just raise your hand. One of our members will be happy to get you one. It'll be an ESV Bible

in that translation, which is a really great translation for you to study and read for your

own. Again, it's Revelation 1, 4 to 8. Let's bow our heads in prayer before the reading and preaching

in God's word. Father, we are so small and you're so big. God, we are one church

in one city, in one state, in one country, in one planet, in one galaxy amongst the vastness of your

creation. And yet you care for us. What is man that you care for him? Thank you, Lord, that you

meet us here. We pray that your spirit would move in these next 45 minutes to see just how big of a

God you are and how small we are so that all the glory of the dominion could be attributed rightly to you,

God. Please address us by your word. Please use me. Pray that anything that comes out of my lips

would be most pleasing to you, that you would be lifted up in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand for God's word in Revelation 4 to 8.

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 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 and has made us a kingdom,

priest 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 and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

This is God's holy and authoritative word. You may be seated.

I want to see if we can do something new this morning and get some participation in the sermon.

And so, we're going to do something very simple. I'm going to ask you just two very simple questions.

And I would ask that you actually keep your eyes closed so that we could keep this process as anonymous as possible.

So you could feel free to answer honestly.

Very two simple questions. I'm going to ask you if you've ever had these thoughts, okay?

And on the count of three, you're just going to raise your hand.

So the first question is, have you ever had this thought,

my life is very hard.

My life is very hard. On the count of three, you could raise your hand.

One, two, three.

Great.

Keep your eyes closed.

And the second question is this,

being a Christian makes my life harder.

Being a Christian makes my life harder.

In other words, my life would be easier if I weren't a Christian.

Have you ever had that thought in your life?

Great. You guys can put your hands down.

And you can open up your eyes.

So we basically had 100% agreement, right, for the first question as a poll result.

To the people who didn't raise your hand, I want to talk to you.

I want to know what your life is like.

I could use some of your optimism a little bit, I think.

Because we know that it's really an, it's a universal truth that life is hard.

It could be unbearably hard sometimes.

There are some really difficult things that we have to process, we have to endure.

But to the second question, we had about, I think, 75, 80% of you guys, from my crude math,

agree to that statement.

And to be honest, I would have raised my hand.

Because I've struggled with that thought in my life.

There have been moments where I just felt like the Christian life was so hard.

You may not think of yourself as such, but to be a Christian means that you're a fighter.

And you're fighting this battle against three fronts.

You're fighting against your own flesh, the world and its temptations, and Satan.

And this fight never stops.

In certain seasons, this fight can feel overwhelming and discouraging.

What about for those who are even physically persecuted for their faith?

How do you think they might answer that question?

By God's grace, we live in a country here where we don't have to worry about physical persecution, right?

We could put up our signs in East Cambridge openly.

We come here, gather, not worrying about any militant groups breaking in,

the government finding us out, throwing us in jail, maybe even taking our lives.

But this is not a privilege that many brothers and sisters in this world get to share in.

So there's some truth that on earth, their lives simply are harder for following after Jesus.

After all, Jesus never promised that it would be easy.

How then are we to overcome our sin, this evil world, and Satan?

John opens his letter to suffering Christians to remind them who our God is.

How big of a God he is.

That he is the king.

He reigns on his throne.

And that makes us then his kingly priests.

That transforms our identities.

So he wanted to communicate that when we receive new identities by grace and peace,

we can ascribe glory and dominion to the returning God in any and all circumstances of our lives.

So specifically, we're going to talk about all that the sovereign God offers us

so that we can endure.

We can continue to worship.

We can act as his priests.

We're going to talk about, first, the grace and peace that he offers.

Second, the new identities that he offers us as royal priests.

And three, the hope and help that he offers.

So we get into the text today.

John begins with a simple greeting, both to identify himself and the recipients,

which are the seven churches in Asia Minor.

And this is really a good opportunity to kind of set the stage of the letter.

Sean helpfully outlined last week some very good reasons to identify the author of the letter as John.

John the Apostle, who also wrote the Gospel.

And first, second, and third John as well.

For the recipients, we read that John addresses the seven churches.

He addresses them later in verse 11 as Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Saratira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

It's quite a curious thing, really, though, that John chooses only these seven

because historically we know that there are more than seven well-known churches in that area.

And we don't have any historical data that suggests that John had a particularly special relationship with these seven churches.

And so, therefore, as we'll counter with many times preaching through Revelation,

that it seems like the best answer is that John chose the number seven both symbolically and intentionally.

John talked about this last week, but representing wholeness and perfect completion in the creation account from Genesis,

John seems to use this symbolism to address not just the seven churches alone,

but really the universal church throughout history.

This also makes sense throughout the course of this book because really after chapters one through three,

the church depicted is not just these seven churches alone,

but it's really, again, the universal church.

So while Sean taught us that Trinity Cambridge Church, living in 2023,

we are not the original audience of this letter.

Still, though, that there is a spiritual aspect that John and Jesus is addressing us today.

And right here in this opening reveals a fact about Revelation that I think a lot of us tend to forget or neglect when we're reading this text.

It's that it's a prophetic, apocalyptic letter.

It's a letter.

And if it's a letter, what is it about?

What is he trying to address?

What is he trying to say to these people?

If you read through Revelation, you'll know how much it suffers,

or focuses on suffering and enduring as Christians.

In the church of Pergamum, a fellow believer, Antipas, he was murdered.

He was martyred for his Christian faith.

Imagine just the wave of terror that would sweep over our own church.

If Sean, if one of our leaders, that he was martyred,

he or she were martyred for her faith.

On top of that, there's an overall tone in this letter that even more suffering is headed their way.

For example, Jesus addresses the church in Smyrna.

He says this,

Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison,

that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Later in chapter 6, verse 11,

John writes that the number of martyrs is not yet completed,

but it will be, signifying that there are many more deaths to come.

This persecution matches what we know historically as well.

By the year 113 AD, about 20 years of our best guess of when Revelation was written,

about 20 years later, we have evidence of a letter of a Roman governor whose name is Pliny the Younger,

and he writes this letter to Trajan, who is Domitian's successor.

He's the emperor.

And in this letter, he calls Christianity a cult contagion.

Then the emperor replies that convicted Christians,

they should be put to death.

Only by worshiping the emperor's image and by cursing the name of Christ can they be acquitted.

So one of John's main objectives in this letter was to encourage Christians by showing them,

although they are so frightened,

by showing them the truth of the world as seen from God's vantage point,

from the throne.

That's been a very convicting thought for me as of late,

something that Sean himself has prayed for me,

that I would see the problems,

the difficulties of my life,

from not my perspective,

but really from God's perspective.

Because the simple truth is that God is bigger than my problems.

We understand things very relative, right?

I think, honestly, I think I'm pretty average height for an Asian, right?

Five-eight-ish.

But when I talk to someone like Joseph Johnson,

I feel short.

I feel short.

And when I look, because I'm so small,

when I look at my problems,

they look so big.

They look like mountains.

But when I look at my problems from God's perspective,

from the throne,

they look small.

When my problems seem bigger and bigger in my life,

it's because, really, that God is smaller to me.

Maybe I'm forgetting him altogether.

So I encourage you to remember this throughout reading Revelation,

that Revelation is often treated like this cryptic 10,000-piece puzzle

that only the smartest can put together.

It's not both John and Jesus' intention.

They wrote this to churches 2,000 years ago

and to us as an encouragement.

That's the focus.

It's an encouragement.

To bolster the faith of suffering Christians,

to persevere to the end for God's glory.

So knowing their difficult condition,

John opens this letter in a most appropriate way.

He communicates and extends grace and peace

that comes from the sovereign, triune God.

Really, first of all, what an insight into God's heart

that the first thing,

the first thing he wants to get off his chest

is this blessing of grace and peace.

We know that reading in chapters 2 and 3

that these churches, they're not perfect.

They're not perfect churches.

They are led astray by false teaching and sin.

Some have lost their first loves.

And I've wondered what God,

what Jesus might say to our own church

because we're not a perfect church.

We're not full of perfect people.

But still, the very first thing

that God wants to communicate to you

is grace and peace.

Most of us are well familiar with the word grace

and its definition of undeserved favor.

We're saved by grace alone as taught in Ephesians 2,

meaning that we don't deserve salvation.

We don't deserve a relationship with our creator.

But in scripture, grace is also more than that.

It's also a power

that enables us to endure any hardship.

Paul speaks to this powerful enabling grace

in 2 Corinthians 12

that enables him to endure all weaknesses,

insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

It's because of this undeserved gift of grace

that we now have this empowering gift of grace

so that we can continue to worship

in any and all circumstances.

And have you ever noticed that this order

of this greeting in NT Epistles, right?

It's always grace first, then peace.

Grace first, then peace.

For it's only when things are right

between us and God, our creator,

it's only when the weight of sin

on our consciences are removed

can we really have meaningful peace in our lives.

For peace in the American culture

tends to mean to us lack of conflict,

especially in military contexts.

And in scripture, it totally can mean that.

But the word peace ultimately comes

from the Hebrew word shalom,

which refers more to the state of completeness,

fullness, fullness, wholeness.

Like a building can be shalom,

meaning that it has no holes or cracks.

Or Job, he says that his state,

his tents are in a state of shalom

because when he counted his flock,

there were none missing.

But it's not just our stuff

that can be in a state of shalom.

Our own hearts, our souls can be cold or complete.

That feeling where you feel like

just nothing is missing

and everything is as it's supposed to be.

Where are you this morning?

Are you at shalom in your soul?

As you endure very real trials

and wade through life's difficulties,

what do you feel like you're missing?

Imagine what the original audience

might have said that they were missing.

Physical safety, right?

With their own government hunting them down,

with loved ones dying around them,

with the tremendous fear and anxiety over their heads.

I wonder if the offer of grace and peace,

it could easily sound like a rote Christian platitude.

We feel that when we're suffering so much

that somebody flippantly says something to us.

But it only sounds like a platitude

if the offer is empty.

If the person offering can't back it up.

But notice in our text,

where did this offer come from?

It comes from the triune God

who can back up this offer.

In verse four,

we have first a description of God the Father

who is the one who is and who was

and who is to come.

This is such an awesome, profound title.

This is a strong allusion to Exodus 3.14,

where God revealed his covenant name to Moses.

When Moses asked God what he should tell the people

if he was asked about God's name,

God says,

I am who I am.

Or in the Greek translation,

I am the one who is.

But John clearly expands upon this name

with a threefold temporal description

of God's character.

In this, he highlights God's eternality

and atemporality,

meaning that God is independent of time.

So God is the one who eternally was,

who eternally is,

and who eternally will be.

He was in the beginning that had no beginning.

That's just so profound.

If you just think about it,

you can't even wrap your mind around that.

But the revealing of this name

is not just meant to be a cool,

interesting theological fact.

God revealed this name

to a suffering enslaved people.

The context of Exodus 3.14

that we went through recently

is that God saw the suffering of Israel

and he cared for them.

He saw his children Israel.

He sees his children today

and he will see his children

in decades to come.

He is the sovereign, faithful God

who knew their affliction.

Rocky Balboa once quipped

that time is undefeated.

Time takes everyone out.

All but our eternal God,

whom time does not change,

age,

or weaken him.

It has absolutely no effect

on his person,

perfections,

purposes,

or promises.

Grace and peace unchangingly

comes from the eternally faithful one.

Second,

we have grace and peace

from the seven spirits

who are before his throne.

Some say that the seven spirits

are seven angels,

but I think a stronger interpretation

is that the description

refers to the singular third person

of the Trinity,

God the Spirit.

First,

as they're listed one after the other,

the seven spirits are presented

to be on par

with the Father and the Son.

Moreover,

it's unusual

and ultimately inconceivable

according to the rest of Scripture

for angels to be the one

extending grace and peace.

That prerogative belongs to God alone.

But then why, again,

use the number seven

to describe a singular person

of the Trinity?

Again,

this number signifies fullness,

right?

Here,

it signifies what though?

It signifies the fullness

of the Spirit's activity

and power.

Moreover,

it's likely John referenced

the number seven

to highlight the active work

in helping the seven individual churches

to endure

and to shine their light.

Because where do we find the Spirit?

The text makes it very clear to us

that he's not on the throne,

but he is before the Father's throne,

which alludes to his role

as an emissary,

as a helper

to carry out the bidding of God

on behalf of his churches.

And this means that

this same Spirit

is at work

in Trinity Cambridge

this morning,

today,

in our hearts.

He's not a distant God,

but he is in this room

ministering to us

by the bidding of the Father.

We have a great helper

and advocate,

someone who will come alongside us

in any hardship and trial,

grace and peace

unchangingly comes

from the eternally faithful one

who is actively at work

among us.

Thirdly,

grace and peace

come from God the Son.

John shines the spotlight

on Jesus

with this threefold description

of how Jesus is prophet,

priest,

and king.

Likely referring to Psalm 89,

John describes Jesus

as these three things,

as the faithful witness,

the firstborn of the dead,

and the ruler of kings on earth.

First,

Jesus is the faithful witness.

A witness,

what does he do?

He testifies in court

to what he or she knows

is the truth.

Jesus testified

that he is the light of the world,

that he is the bread from heaven,

that he is the foretold

suffering servant,

that he is the promised Messiah

and king

who's come to lay down

his life for his friends.

Even when the world

hated his light

and loved the darkness,

he didn't stop.

He continued to preach

and teach the truth.

And what did he get for that?

Spit.

Floggings.

A crown of thorns.

A cross.

But praise be to God

that Jesus came back to life,

conquering sin and death.

So John bestows this honorific

of the firstborn of the dead.

In Jewish culture,

firstborns were given

particularly a special

inheritance and significance.

And this title still carries

that same emphasis

of high exaltation,

high privileged position

of the firstborn of the dead,

of the resurrected God, man.

Why?

Because Jesus is the one

who leads us

as a champion

in resurrection.

Meaning that if we are faithful

unto death,

we will be resurrected

in power.

Isn't this such a glorious reality?

I almost can't even believe it

sometimes.

Just writing this sermon,

thinking about it.

Me,

this guy,

I'm gonna defeat death.

I'm gonna resurrect.

I'm gonna be like Jesus.

It's such a glorious reality

that I don't think enough about,

that I don't think

enough of us think about.

And finally,

it's not just a ruling

over the new creation,

but the current world

that Jesus,

through his death

and resurrection,

stands as a ruler

of kings on earth.

Despite earthly tyrants

and dictators,

both past and present,

who have attempted

to eliminate the worship

of our one true God,

they have not,

they are not,

and they will not succeed.

They will never win.

The gates of Hades

will never prevail

against Jesus' church.

No matter what our state,

the world is in,

come 10,

50,

100 years,

no matter who is elected

next year

or elections to come,

no matter how much

Christians are hated

or persecuted,

he is still

the king of kings

who reigns on his throne.

Friends,

that means that no matter

what happens to us,

we are on the winning side.

And just like John's gospel

in Revelation,

John continues

this sense of irony

that really it's

Jesus' death

and defeat

that were actually

his path to glory

and victory

over Satan and death.

So back when

the Roman government

martyred Christians

to now when Boko Haram

or Burkina Faso,

they martyr Christians today,

they play the same

losing strategy

that Satan tried

with Jesus.

For Jesus teaches

that those who will

lose their life

will find them.

Those who try to save them

will lose them.

The first shall be last,

the last shall be first.

The economy of the kingdom

is radically opposite

of the economy

of this world.

the path of carrying

your cross

and dying to self,

that's the path

to victory and glory.

And when we feel like

that path is just

so hard,

when suffering

is just too much,

I pray that

we would see that

there's no other place

to go.

Like the disciples,

may we see that

only Jesus

has the words

of eternal life.

As Jesus said

in John 14, 27,

peace I leave with you,

my peace I give to you,

not as the world gives

do I give to you.

Those other places

all pale in comparison

to the peace

that God,

that Jesus alone brings.

He alone brings

amazing grace

and fullness.

Just a feeling

that everything

is as it's supposed

to be.

Even when our

circumstances

don't prove it,

John Patton

is a great example

of this.

A missionary

to the New Hebrides

who ministered

to literal cannibals.

He once explained

one night

when his life

was in eminent danger

from the people

that he tried

to minister to.

And he wrote this,

I climbed into the tree

and was left there

alone in the bush.

The hours I spent

there all lived

before me

as if they were

but of yesterday.

I heard the frequent

discharging of muskets

and the yells

of savages.

Yet I sat there

among the branches

as safe

as in the arms

of Jesus.

Never in all my sorrows

did my Lord

draw nearer to me

and speak more soothingly

in my soul

than when the moonlight

flickered among

those chestnut leaves

and the night air

played on my throbbing brow

as I told all my heart

to Jesus.

Alone,

yet not alone.

grace and peace

unchangingly comes

from the eternally

faithful one

who is actively

at work in us

and who leads us

in victory.

And because of this

grace and peace

that leads us

to worship

with new identities,

for John

knows himself

as one

who is loved.

For John,

right,

the love of God

is so closely linked

to the cross of Christ

that whenever he talks

about love,

he always presents it

right immediately after

that the cross

is right there.

That's what he's thinking

about when he thinks

about being loved.

So when you doubt

God's love for you

because of your sin,

because of your problems,

because of your hurts,

look first to the cross

for evidence of his love.

After all,

as Jesus said,

greater love

has no one than this,

that someone lay down

his life for his friends.

This is so real to John

because he knows

what Jesus freed him from.

Jesus teaches in John 8,

everyone who practices sin

is a slave to sin.

I wonder as Christians

if we understand

the magnitude

of this freedom

and transformation.

Because before Christ,

sin ruled over us.

Satan was our God,

as Paul teaches

in 2 Corinthians 3.

We were snared

by the devil

and he held us

as prisoners

so that we invariably

did his well.

Even when we wanted

to do the right thing,

we did what Satan

wanted us to do.

More than that,

God intended for us

to be his beloved children,

but we instead

became sons of Satan.

So instead of being

covenant keepers,

we were covenant breakers

so that when God saw us,

he saw our sin.

Sexual immorality,

impurity,

sensuality,

idolatry,

sorcery,

enmity,

strife,

jealousy,

fits of anger,

rivalries,

dissensions,

divisions,

envy,

drunkenness,

and things like these.

Your most heinous sins,

the stuff that you

don't tell anybody else,

that you won't even

tell your spouse,

your best friends,

that stuff that you

want to keep hidden

as much as possible.

God sees,

and God saw all of that.

That's what you

were defined by.

But praise be to Jesus

that what he said

shortly after in John 8,

if the Son sets you free,

you will be free indeed.

Because of Jesus,

because of the work

on his cross,

those who put their

total faith in him,

we are set free

from the shackles

of sin and death.

By his cross,

he is restored to you.

That beloved identity

of a child,

his child,

that those who are

in Christ,

nothing can separate you

from the love of God.

John, in fact,

keeps going

with these new identities

in Christ.

He writes that Jesus

made us kings

and priests to him,

to his God.

This is a strong allusion

to Exodus 19,

which reads,

if you will indeed

obey my voice

and keep my covenant,

you shall be to me

a kingdom of priests

and a holy nation.

Notice how Moses stipulates

how Israel was supposed

to be a kingdom of priests.

It's by obedience.

It's by obeying God.

But in our passage today,

John does not say

that we obeyed

because we didn't.

It's by his blood.

That's what our text says.

He was our older brother.

Jesus was our older brother

who perfectly obeyed

our righteous father

while we arrogantly thought

we knew better

and we disobeyed.

But Jesus,

he lovingly gave us

the credit of his good work

so that we get

all the benefits

while he took ownership

of our disobedience.

There is no possibility

to boast in what we've done

because of the new titles

that we've received

in Jesus.

It's all by grace.

It's all by his work.

And I want you to notice

that John does not

single out a group

in these seven churches

or calls them

the royal priests.

He does not say,

pastors,

you are the royal priests

or deacons,

you are the priests.

For John,

the church

is the royal priesthood.

So I encourage you,

every one of you

as part of this church,

don't fire yourselves.

Don't fire yourselves

from this position

that you now hold

in Christ.

In the past,

only the high priests

could go into

the Holy of Holies

to bask in God's glory

only one day of the year.

But now,

we can claim

this Christ-bought opportunity

for an intimate relationship

with our Father

all year long.

Claim and own this title

that you have

now in Jesus.

what is this job description

as a royal priest?

Peter helps us here

in 1 Peter 2.9

in which he says,

you are a royal priesthood

that you may proclaim

the excellencies of him

who called you out of darkness

into his marvelous light.

So as his royal priests

proclaim his excellencies

in the loudest praise,

with the loudest praise,

with joy on Sunday worship,

worship.

As we stand

and bask in his presence.

As his priests,

you need not go

to any other priest

for the confession

of your sins.

You can go straight to God

and receive the assurance

of pardon

straight from him.

As his royal priests,

you can pass

the same shalom

to others

that you've received

and you can administer

to others

to help others' lives

feel whole,

feel like they're not

missing anything.

You could do that.

As his royal priests,

you can with confidence

draw near

to the throne of grace

through intercessory prayer

that we may receive mercy

and find grace

to help us

in times of need.

As his royal priests,

you have full access

to the table.

No intermediate

is necessary.

Nobody stands before you

on the table.

You have full access

before it.

As his priests

and ambassadors

continue to proclaim

his excellencies

to your friends,

your neighbors,

your coworkers

in evangelism

and in testimony sharing.

Proclaim not just

with your lips

but with your lives

as priests,

as kings would

in holiness

and self-sacrifice.

Proclaim his excellencies

unceasingly

no matter what season

you're going through.

In fact,

that's when your worship

is loudest.

It's when nothing

is going your way,

when everything

seems to be against you,

when you say to him

be glory

and dominion

forever and ever,

people must see

that Jesus is excellent.

When you see

your mountain-tall problems

of a crumbling marriage,

a rebellious child,

a lost job,

or failing health,

and you still see

that Jesus is bigger

and better,

that's an incredible

testimony

of a royal priest

who knows their identity

of freedom

and of love.

Finally,

we can only

proclaim his worship

and overcome hardship

when we hope,

when we have hope

in the time

that God will have

final victory

over his enemies.

Verse 7 quotes

two OT verses

in Daniel 7,

Zechariah 12,

and reads,

Behold,

he is coming

with the clouds,

and every eye

will see him,

even those

who pierced him,

and all tribes

on the earth

will wail

on account of him,

even so.

Amen.

The first half

of this verse

comes from Daniel 7,

where Daniel prophesies

that despite the rule

of four daunting,

terrifying beasts,

which are cruel,

rapacious kingdoms,

one will come

like the Son of Man,

and all dominion

and glory

will be attributed

to him.

The beasts

will be destroyed

and burned

with fire.

So while we now,

we still live

in a beastly world

that may be dominated

by violent oppressors

and ungodly opponents

now,

John is encouraging

his audience

and us

that these evils,

they will not reign forever.

Jesus will return.

It's not just a myth

or some wishful thinking.

It's a fact

that when he comes

with clouds

on his divine glory

and authority

at the second coming,

he will come

to deliver

the final

and decisive judgment

against all evil.

Our three-front battle

against our flesh,

the world,

and Satan,

it'll finally be over.

And he will not

come spiritually,

he will not come secretly,

but he will literally

and physically come

so that every eye

will see him.

You see,

the Bible is unambiguous

about this,

unambiguous about

Jesus' second coming,

just as it is

unambiguous

about his first coming

2,000 years ago.

Many scholars

have come up

with far-fetched theories

and ideas

that Jesus didn't

actually die

or didn't resurrect

that faithful weekend.

They say it was

a mass hallucination,

when in actuality,

how often do you hear

of a group

all sharing

one same hallucination?

They say that

Jesus almost died,

but not really.

But how does one

survive Roman floggings,

asphyxiation on the cross,

a spear to the side,

or that they just

simply misplaced

the body?

But then the Jews

could easily identify

the body.

The best answer

is that Jesus did die

and did resurrect.

And just as sure

as we have that assurance,

we can confidently know

that Jesus will return.

And when he does,

temporary hardship

will give way

to eternal joy

and glory.

And when he returns,

Jesus,

John teaches

that all tribes,

all believers

from all over the world

will wail

on account of him.

This fulfills

Zechariah 12.10,

in which the context

is that God promises

to defeat Israel's enemies

and redeem Israel

after they repent

by the power

of his spirit.

And so we

who put our faith

in Jesus,

we're now the true Israel.

And we fulfill

this prophecy

when we mourn

and we wail

over Jesus,

whom we pierce

with our sins.

2,000 years ago,

we haven't physically

pierced Jesus.

We didn't physically

crucify Jesus,

but we hear

our mocking voice

call out

among the scoffers.

It was our sin

that held him there.

But blessed

are those who mourn

for they shall be comforted.

This is such

an important marker,

distinguisher

of those who will be saved.

They are repentant.

We mourn

not over ourselves,

but we mourn

over Jesus.

This is a great

diagnostic test

for us even today

of true repentance

because true repentance

is Jesus-focused.

It's others-focused.

It's not self-focused.

But that's not to say

that there will be people

on that day

who will mourn

over themselves.

This is a hard word,

but it is true.

Over the way

that they lived their life,

over what they believed,

over how wrong

they have been.

You will never

have seen regret

like you will that day.

And on that day,

it would have been

too late.

The window of forgiveness

would have been shut.

Nothing more is,

nothing more important

is this truth here.

What you believe

in this temporary life

has eternal consequences.

Are you ready

for that day

that will come

for a thief,

like a thief in the night?

Are you ready

for that eternal future?

Randy Alcorn,

pastor, theologian,

has this great quote

about the reality

of heaven and hell.

The best of life

on earth

is a glimpse of heaven,

and the worst of life

is a glimpse of hell.

For Christians,

this present life

is the closest

they will come to hell.

For unbelievers,

it is the closest

they will come to heaven.

Our sincere hope

is that the best

of your life now,

the best of the shalom

that you may have experienced,

cannot hold a candle

to the awesome

shalom, peace, glory,

everything that you

will experience

with your future,

with your creator.

If you do not know yet Jesus,

and you have not put

your faith in him,

please come talk to us.

Don't delay.

Talk to us about

the shalom that can be found

in Jesus alone.

John ties up

this section in verse 8

by repeating

the Father's

sovereign title.

He declares

that he is the Alpha

and the Omega,

the first letter

of the Greek alphabet

and the last.

In other places

in Scripture,

God declares himself

as the first

and the last,

the beginning

and the end.

In this metaphorical language,

it highlights

that God is sovereign

over one end

of the spectrum

to the other,

and everything in between.

God is sovereign

over all,

so that since history,

it commences

and concludes with him,

no part will ever spin

out of his control.

So to him who is,

who was,

and who is to come,

the Almighty,

he is the one

who has been your help,

who is your help,

and who will eternally

be your help.

Living as Christians

in this life,

again,

can be extremely hard.

If you raised your hand

earlier that

you once had this thought

that Christianity

made your life harder,

if you feel even now

that the Christian life

is so difficult,

I want to affirm

that an aspect

of what you're feeling

is right.

I think genuine discipleship,

growing pains,

shared suffering

with Jesus,

that can be painful

and uncomfortable

at times.

After all,

a disciple to be

unchallenged by Jesus

may not be

a disciple at all.

But friend,

there's so much

that you're missing

if you're in that place now.

You're missing the gospel.

You're missing this grace

and peace

from this triune God

who is eternally faithful

to you,

who's actively working

for you,

who has died for you.

You're missing

his tender love

and what you've been

freed from

and these new identities

in Christ.

You're missing

that Christ

will return in power

to make all

that is wrong right.

Even when this

refund battle

against our flesh,

the world's Satan

seems overwhelming,

the gospel alone

will help you

through your trials now

and when things

come your way

that are far harder

in the future,

the gospel alone

is the thing

that will help you then.

Even if you think

that things are going well

right now,

I encourage you

to store up,

well up,

deep reservoirs

of faith

for years and years

because you'll never know.

You'll never know

when you have to tap into.

To close,

Charles Spurgeon

speaks of God's help

really better

than I could have.

It is but a small thing

for me,

your God,

to help you.

Consider what I have done already.

What?

Not help you.

Why?

I bought you

with my blood.

Help you.

It is the least thing

I will ever do for you.

I have done more

and will do more.

In helping you,

I am giving you

what I have bought

for you already.

If you had need

of a thousand times

as much help,

I would give it to you.

You require little

compared to with

what I am ready to give.

It's much for you to need,

but it is nothing

for me to bestow.

Help you.

Fear not.

If there were an ant

at the door of your granary

asking for help,

it would not ruin you

to give him a handful

of your wheat.

And you are nothing

but a tiny insect

at the door

of my all-sufficiency.

I will help you.

Do you want more wisdom

than exists in the Father,

more love

than displays in the Son,

or more power

that is manifest

in the influences

of the Spirit?

The eternal God

is your helper.

Let's pray.

Again, Lord,

we pray that our visions

of you would be big.

God, you are far too small

in our eyes

so that when we see

the problems in our lives

from your vantage point,

from your perspective,

they would seem small,

that we would trust you

in all things,

and that you would be

magnified and glorified.

Help us to operate.

Help us not to fire ourselves.

Help us to operate

as these royal priests

so that we can proclaim

your excellencies

with our lips,

with our lives,

with our hands and feet,

through it all,

throughout whatever circumstances

that you would be attributed,

all the honor,

all the glory,

all the dominion.

God, help us

as we continue

to read and preach

and study your word

through revelation.

Speak to us.

Transform us.

We want to be more like you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.