Revelation: The Returning King (1:1-19)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

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Our second lesson this morning is found in Revelation chapter 1.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.

He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word 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 in it, for the time is near.

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

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the 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.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

But he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not.

I am the first and the last, and the living one.

I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.

Write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this.

The word of the Lord.

Thank you to God.

Dear friends, because Jesus is the returning King, we can endure present suffering.

So let's pray.

Lord Jesus, your word teaches us that true reverence is the beginning of wisdom.

That we have a good understanding if we live accordingly.

So, Father, I pray that you, by your Holy Spirit, would inspire within us true wisdom, holy reverence, true humility, that we would behold our risen and ascended and glorious Lord Jesus by faith once again.

It's in his name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Yeah.

Thanks.

So sitting on my bookshelf at home, we have all kinds of uh different books.

We have uh cookbooks, we have poetry books, we have novels, we have different IKEA manuals that somehow make their way onto the bookshelf too.

Books and bookshelves remind me that it's important for us to know what a thing is before we know what to do with it.

If we're looking to cook a steak and I pull down a book of poetry, we're gonna be in hot water really quickly.

Likewise, if we're looking for inspiration and I pull down a cookbook, I suppose we could get inspiration of a sort, but maybe not the kind we're looking for.

It's um the point is it's important to know what something is before we properly know what to do with it.

And I think for us this morning, uh, as we endeavor to journey a little bit into this uh book called Revelation, it's important for us to know what this is before we consider what it is we're supposed to do with it, before we maybe consider this introductory section that Jonathan's read for us this morning.

So in our time together, I want to ask a couple of questions.

I want to ask, what is Revelation?

And I want us to consider this introduction.

I think it's important that we begin with the question, what is the book of Revelation?

Because this book is among the most wonderful, but also among the most puzzling books of the Bible.

It's important for us to understand what Revelation is and what it isn't, if we're gonna understand what God wants to say to us in it and through it.

What isn't the book of Revelation?

Here's what I want to say.

I want to say revelation is not a cryptic crystal ball, a secret code we can use in a combination with, say, the newspaper or other mystical insights to decipher the shape of future events.

What's troubling to me is how common this approach is.

The cover of one book I was reading about reads, uh, Charting International News Events, including recent peace agreements in the Middle East, this author synchronizes these headlines with the biblical timeline for the last days, producing a compelling argument that life on earth is about to expire.

This insightful book is an ideal resource for Christians who are looking for a guide to what the Bible says about the end times.

Now, the desire to know what the Bible says about the end times is a noble desire, but we need to be mindful about what a thing is and isn't before we know what to do with it.

This approach of deciphering revelation, of treating it like a secret code, is alarmingly common.

This book, the description of which I just shared, ranks among the top Christian books on Amazon.

So why shouldn't we read Revelation like a secret code, like a decip like a cipher?

I want to say it's because Revelation's deep symbolism draws deeply from Old Testament imagery and themes.

This is a book of prophecy, and we read that in verse 3.

It stands in the biblical tradition of prophecy, which provides a heavenly perspective on history in light of its final outcome.

So we should check Revelation's descriptions and images not against the headlines, but against the Old Testament texts to which they allude to understand what they mean and read them as conceptual truths and ideas presented visually.

Revelation is in a way a little like a like a divinely inspired piece of surrealist art.

When we look at surrealist art, we're not looking for literal truths, but it would be wrong to say we're not looking for truth being communicated.

Here's one example.

In our reading today, it says that Jesus, who appears to John like a like a son of man, like a glorious and exalted one, has a sword in his mouth.

Now, when we meet Jesus, should we be looking for a sword to come out of his mouth?

Probably not.

But we know this is a surrealist image, as it were, to communicate a truth, that God's word is as sharp as a two-edged sword.

God's word matters, it has power.

We should read Revelation with an eye for what these images mean, and we should read them against the backdrop of God's revelation in the Old Testament.

When we do this, we also discover that revelation doesn't present events in a linear sequence, but it recapitulates and amplifies occurrences of judgment and suffering and restoration and renewal across all time.

Here's one example.

One example is the tribulation.

Christians debate whether the tribulation is something past tense, something we're presently experiencing, or something that belongs totally to the future.

I think when we take a measured reading of Revelation, we discover that the answer is yes.

The tribulation is true for Christians in generations past, it is true for our generation as well, it is true for generations of Christians in the future.

We experience uh rhythms and recapitulations and amplifications of judgment and suffering and restoration and renewal across time, and all of this leads to one final climactic event, which is the Lord's return, the final judgment, and the renewal of all creation.

So here's the bottom line.

While Revelation does make claims about the unfolding of history, it shouldn't leave us with confidence in our ability to predict the future, but rather it should leave us with confidence in the one to whom the future belongs.

And in fact, all of history belongs, the Lord Jesus.

So, what then is the book of Revelation?

We've talked, it's not a cryptic code.

What is it?

Revelation is a letter.

We read the introduction to this letter today.

It's a letter from Jesus, which in verse 1 we read is the divine author of this text.

It's a letter transmitted through John, the human author.

This John could very well be the beloved disciple who wrote the Gospel of John, from which we were also read today.

But it could be a different John as well.

Either way, this John is in exile on the Mediterranean island of Patmos for his gospel preaching.

And it's a letter that's addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor in the late first century, probably around 95 A.D.

or so.

It's a letter that's meant to circulate.

Every church in Asia Minor is meant to receive this.

This being the case, Revelation concerns the present state of these churches, and it addresses issues and hardships that these churches were facing at this time.

So any interpretation of the book of Revelation worth a dime always tethers itself to the original meaning of this letter intended for these first century churches.

That being said, because seven is the biblical symbol for perfection and completeness, it's understood that these seven churches also stand in for the fullness of church of all time.

And this being the case, Revelation was meant not just to be read by these seven churches, but it's meant to be read and applied in every Christian church through history, even for us here today at Nusan.

So, Brother Jonathan, you read aloud the words of Revelation.

You, according to verse 3, are blessed for having read them aloud.

But so too are we blessed for having heard this letter read out loud.

And why?

Because it's God's word to all of God's people.

And God's word here in Revelation is twofold.

Revelation is a word of warning.

For first century Christians who endured the brutal persecution of Emperor Nero, who now endure the even worse persecution of Emperor Domitian.

It's tempting to forsake Jesus' Lord and bend the knee to Caesar, especially if it relieves suffering and spares your life.

Revelation's warning to Christians of all ages is this don't do it.

God is the final judge, and in the midst of your present suffering, don't deny the everlasting kingdom for Caesar's earthly approval.

Revelation is a word of warning, but it's also a word of hope.

To Christians of every age who experience suffering, God makes an unshakable promise.

The present state of evil and suffering will at the right time come to an end.

And the renewed creation of beauty and justice, where God dwells forever with his people, will take its place.

All this brings us to the introduction we read today, where we see that because Jesus is the returning King, we Christians can endure present suffering.

Now, writing this sermon this week, I probably wrote enough material to preach for 45 or 50 minutes.

I'm not going to do that.

Don't get worried.

But I do want to zoom in on one verse in particular that gives us a lot of hope.

And that verse is verse 7.

If you've got your order of service, if you have your Bible, turn with me to Revelation 1, verse 7.

Revelation 1:7

Because Jesus is the returning king, we can endure present suffering.

We know that Jesus is a king from John's greeting to the readers.

He says, Grace to you and peace from Jesus Christ, who he describes as the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

Jesus is a ruler.

He is the ruler.

He is the ruler of kings, the king of kings.

His sovereignty is unmatched, his power is unequaled.

Jesus alone can be said to sit on the throne of everything, all of creation, all of history.

And we, John understands, are his priestly kingdom.

John writes that Jesus has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.

That's verse 6.

Priests are those who are authorized to mediate between the divine and human.

Now I'm an ordained priest, that's true, but I'm an ordained priest in a different sense than John is talking about, than Jesus is talking about.

I've been authorized by the church to perform particular pastoral duties, but foundationally we believers are all priests in John's sense, because through Christ we have confidence to enter into God's holy presence.

To be a priestly kingdom means that our highest allegiance belongs to Christ, our ascended and heavenly king.

But his heavenly kingdom spills out into creation through us.

So where is Jesus now, might be the question.

Scripture tells us that forty days after his resurrection, our Lord Jesus ascended to God the Father in heaven.

And this will celebrate on Ascension Sunday in five weeks or so.

But Jesus, it's clear, doesn't plan to keep his distance.

Verse 7.

Behold, he, that is Jesus, is coming with the clouds.

The clouds are a symbol of God's glory, is Shekinah glory, which fills the temple.

This is Jesus' glorious appearance.

Every eye will see him, John says, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.

Elsewhere the Apostle Paul writes, 1 Thessalonians 4, that the Lord will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an angel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

See, where Jesus' first coming, born to a virgin, laid in a manger, was easy enough for us to miss or to overlook, no one will miss Jesus' second coming.

Every eye will see it.

It will be manifestly glorious and world-changing.

Jesus will return because he's promised to do so.

Before his cross and passion, Jesus says to the disciples, Matthew 16, that the Son of Man, which is Jesus' favorite self-designation, we see that also in verse 13 in our reading, the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Jesus returns as judge.

Thus wailing is heard from all the tribes, all the peoples of the earth who have denied and rejected the reigning Lord Jesus.

The question for us might be when will Jesus return?

To this Jesus says in Matthew 24 that concerning this day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

I think this is really important to consider, because it means we have no business making predictions about Jesus' earthly return, nor should we listen to those who do.

But somehow it seems like people are constantly making predictions of when Jesus is going to come back.

Usually those are round numbers.

Do you notice that?

That's a strange thing.

We should never give credit to these kind of predictions because Jesus himself says the hour isn't known to him, only to God the Father.

Why should we think that we would know the hour of his return?

But maybe over 2,000 years later, 2,000 years after these words were first spoken, it seems increasingly unlikely to us that Jesus will actually return.

I mean, what's the heavenly holdup?

Now I think it's important to check our finite human expectations against the unfathomable infinitude of our eternal God.

Our God is everlasting, the one who was and is and is to come, the Alpha and the Omega.

So it can be said that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day, or like a watch in the night in Psalm 40.

Two thousand plus years of post-resurrection history can be said to be like two days to our eternal God.

And after two days I'm not even recovered from jet lag.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, writes the Apostle Peter, but he is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

See, every generation of the church is called to a patient expectation.

God's longstanding promise hasn't been lost, nor has it lost an ounce of credibility or divine commitment.

Jesus has promised to return, so he'll do it.

But on the Father's timetable and not ours.

For us, Jesus' promise to return is hope in present suffering.

John describes himself as a partner in the tribulation.

Did you notice that?

Verse 4.

John describes himself as a partner in the tribulation, and this word literally means trouble or Or persecution or an affliction that causes pressure.

Tribulation happens on big scales and small scales.

In fact, this word shows up in the parable of the sower.

It's the reason why the seed of the word of God doesn't take root.

I think for John, tribulation is a characteristic of the age we live in, between Christ's ascension and his return.

In John's time, Christians were being slaughtered by the Roman Empire.

Even in our time, there are places in the world where Christians suffer at the hands of oppressive governments and warlords.

And so we ought to regularly pray for the persecuted church and for their perseverance.

Christians of every age know what it is to live in a world where suffering and injustice and hardship are facts of a present age.

And that's enough to want to give up, to cash in.

But Jesus' promise is to return, pardon me, Jesus' promise to return is a promise to put an end to the world's tribulation.

A promise that one day things on earth will be as they are in heaven.

So what do we Christians do in the meantime?

We remain hopeful.

And we remain vigilant.

Therefore, Jesus says, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Jesus is the returning king.

And we can therefore endure present suffering in the light of the glorious kingdom to come.

Here's where I want us to land.

It's this promise that Jesus is our returning king that grounds his two-word imperative to John.

Fear not.

When I saw him, John writes in verse 17, I fell at his feet as though dead.

So a couple years ago there was this uh song that made a real splash, even on secular radio.

It was a it was a Christian song, and it was called I Can Only Imagine.

And in many ways, this is a very inspiring and uplifting vision of what it will be to be in heaven and be in Jesus' presence.

I can only imagine what it is that I'm gonna be about when I finally meet Jesus.

The thing is, John doesn't have to wonder what it's gonna be like to meet Jesus.

He meets Jesus and he falls over like a log, like a big old log.

He falls over as though dead.

This is the sheer majesty and manifest glory of the risen Lord Jesus.

But Jesus laid his right hand on me, saying, 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.

See, Jesus has died, and he is alive again.

And not just that, but he's alive forevermore.

Jesus' resurrection has completely and finally vanquished death.

Death is now a defeated enemy.

And like a true conqueror, Jesus walked away from his battle with death with plunder in his hand.

Jesus says to John, I have the keys of death and Hades.

Keys unlock things.

Thanks, Creighton.

Keys unlock things.

They unlock things like prisons, which death is so often likened to.

You can read 1 Peter 3.

Because the victorious Lord Jesus now holds the keys to death and the dominion of death, referred to as Hades, no one can be said to be beyond his rescue.

As Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Often I find the book of Revelation seems to inspire fear.

Even among Christians, it seems to inspire fear.

Perhaps it's because Revelation talks so much about tribulations and persecutions, about judgment, about the end of the world.

Well, that's true, but Revelation's purpose is not to inspire fear.

Quite the opposite.

It's purposed to evoke a confident and hope-filled faith in this returning King who holds the keys to death in his hand.

See, this fear not that Jesus speaks to John at the beginning of chapter one should echo through the rest of this book.

With every verse, we have more reason to take heart.

Jesus, our King, has overcome the trouble and tribulation of this world through his cross and through his resurrection, and he will return in glory.

Because Jesus is the returning King, we can endure the present tribulation we live in.

Just like the Apostle Paul writes, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus, is our prayer.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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