John, David and Sarah, who serve as global workers being sent
from our church, are going to take a moment now and read to us
this incredible beginning to the Book of Revelation.
I want to invite you now to stand and listen to these words,
God's holy Word. Thank you, brother.
Thank you, sister. The scripture reading this
morning is from Revelation One one through 11.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to
his servants, the things that soon 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
were before his throne. And from Jesus Christ the
faithful witness, the first born of the dead and 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.
Priest 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.
Hi 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
of 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
Theatari, and to Sardis, into Philadelphia, and to Leo Desia.
This is the word of the Lord. Thank you both so much.
Well, as Paul mentioned earlier and I shared last week, this
morning we're beginning a series in the Book of Revelation and
we're going to go slow. We're going to move through this
book seeking to understand what it means and why God gave it to
us. And when I say we're going to go
slow, we'll be studying this book well into the winter
months. Doesn't that sound nice?
February, where maybe it will be in the teens, little different
than today? The Book of Revelation as a
youth pastor, I served as a youth pastor for 25 years was
the most requested book that I would teach on or study with
high school and middle school students.
Why? They just love the idea of the
fantasy and the mystery that exists.
But if we're honest, most of us are confused about what we see
in the Book of Revelation. Every commentary that I've
looked at over the summer, and we have many in our bookstore
and they're fantastic, encourage you to grab one to kind of move
along with us. But every one of them, whether
it's on the back of the book or in the prelude or the
introduction, will speak of the trouble we have with this book,
Derek Thomas says. We find it intimidating.
One author says that we read the book and are puzzled, confused
and frustrated by the minds because it's frustrated the
minds of the best biblical scholars.
Martin Luther never wrote a commentary in Revelation.
Neither did John Calvin. One commentator even went to
quote Winston Churchill. If ever there was a book that
could be described as here's the quote from Churchill describing
Russia in the 1930s. If ever there was a book that
could be described the same way, it is a Riddle wrapped in a
mystery inside an enigma. It is the Book of Revelation.
Well, if it's so confusing and so chaotic and there's so many
divisions in terms of what people believe, you take your
favorite pastor, your favorite theologian, and over time, if
you listen to what they say, you'll see that they don't agree
either. There is a lot of mystery here.
Why did God give it to us? Because of what I've described.
For many, they simply want to ignore it.
Some of you have read it because it's in your Bible reading plan
for the year, or maybe you're just interested in it.
But for many, they just get through the parts that are
somewhat well known and understood at the beginning and
the end, and then they kind of ignore the rest.
Or the opposite thing happens. If people become obsessed with
it, and they become so obsessed with it that they're trying to
understand every little detail of these mysterious visions, and
some become so obsessed with it that they're convinced that they
know the hour, the day, and the time and the political leader,
that's probably into this book. You look at the Bible as a
horoscope to try and predict the future.
They become obsessed. That is not healthy.
In fact, if anyone ever tells you they know the day and the
time, mark it on your calendar because it won't be.
Then God told us no one knows the day and the time except him,
the Father. It's amazing.
I want to read the beginning of probably my favorite commentary
on the book, which is by GK Beale.
I want you to listen to what he says in his opening paragraph,
one of the great tragedies in the church in our day.
And anytime someone says that that is a strong, faithful
follower of Christ. Listen, one of the great
tragedies in the church in our day is how revelation has been
so narrowly and incorrectly interpreted, with an obsessive
focus on the future in time, with the result that we have
missed the fact that it contains many profound truths and
encouragements concerning Christian life and discipleship.
That's a phone going off. It could be an Amber Alert or
something like that, so we understand what those things
are. Keep listening.
The prophetic visions of Revelation can easily disguise
the point that it was written as a letter to the churches and the
letter which is pastoral in nature.
The goal of Revelation is to bring encouragement to believers
of all ages. Now hear this that God is
working out his purposes even in the midst of tragedy, suffering,
apparent satanic domination. It is the Bible's battle cry of
victory. For in it, more than anywhere
else in the New Testament is revealed the final victory of
God over all the forces of evil. As such, it is an encouragement
to God's people to persevere in the assurance that their final
reward is certain, and to worship and glorify God despite
trials and despite temptations that are leading us to March to
the world's drum beat. We need the encouragement.
And the reason we need the encouragement is because of the
world that we live in, so dark, so full of decay.
You, you feel the tribulation. I promise you in the last three
years you have said, thought or at least heard someone say, I
don't know when Christ is going to return, but it's got to be
soon. He has to be coming soon.
How many have heard that thought, that felt that hope,
that, and we should hope for that.
So this morning, with the time we have and again we're going to
take a slow walk through this book, I want to answer just a
few questions by way of introduction.
What is this book, really? Who wrote it?
What is it about? And why did God give it to us?
Well, first of all, what is it? It is the last book in our holy
scriptures. Every word, even the crazy
words, every vision, even the crazy visions, they are all
given to us by God. Revelation, just like any other
part of the holy Scriptures. The Canon is God's inspired
word. Second, Timothy 3 says this
about God's word. All Scripture, including every
word in Revelation. All scripture is God breathed
and is useful. Revelations is useful.
It's not something we should ignore, and it's something we
should study in light of its context of what it is, the type
of literature it is. But it's useful.
All Scripture is God breathed all of it, and He's useful for
teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness.
In first our second Peter chapter one, listen to how Peter
describes the word of God. He says, for we did not follow
cleverly devised the myst when we made known to the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His
Majesty. This is what Peter's saying, who
followed him for 17 For when he Christ, received honor and glory
from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by that
majestic glory. This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very
voice, voice born from heaven, for we were with him Speaking of
the amount of transfiguration 1st, 19.
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which
you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining
in dark places until the day dawns and the morning star rises
in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that
no prophecy of Scripture, Old Testament, or New Testament, no
prophecy of Scripture, no word of Scripture, no verse of
Scripture, comes from someone's own interpretation.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but
men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit. What is revelation?
It's the word of God. Secondly, who wrote it?
Who was carried along by the Holy Spirit?
We're told it was John. This is the apostle John.
I'm going to say more about him in just a minute, but he's the
one, by God's grace and for his glory, who was carried along to
write these words. He's the very one whose head and
ear were placed on the chest of Christ, who could hear the
heartbeat of God. He's the one who gave us this
last book of the Bible. Well, what is it about?
Revelation is going to make many, many claims.
It's going to have many visions that we struggle to understand
completely. But don't ever miss the point.
This book, from beginning to end, just like the whole of
Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, is about Jesus
Christ. When you feel like you're
getting lost in the weeds of some of the divisions and dreams
that John had, just remember this is about Jesus Christ.
Look with me For example, go down to verse 4, second part,
Grace to you and peace from Him. This is Christ who is and who
was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits here
Speaking of the Holy Spirit who are before it's thrown.
And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first born
of the dead, the ruler of the kings on earth, to him it's
Jesus who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
and made us a Kingdom priest to his God and Father, to him be
glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen. Behold, this is about Jesus.
He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even
those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will
well and account of him Even so. Amen.
Then the words of Christ. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
Who is and who was who is to come?
The Almighty. This is about Jesus.
Always about Jesus. Why did God give it to us?
He actually tells us He gives it to us because we need it.
He didn't waste any words. He didn't make each story or
each vision equally understandable.
And that's okay. I think that's on purpose.
We have a tendency, an absolute tragic tendency right now to
reduce Christianity to many, many things. 2 words there.
Many, MANY. We have a temptation to reduce
Christianity to many, MANY, many MINI things.
We have a tendency to reduce Christianity just to a
worldview, just to a conservative political position,
just to a way to make sure I don't go to hell, just to a way
to have a better life. Actually, all those things can
be a part of what this is. But if you were in Christ, what
revelation is going to show you is that you are part of
something that is so big, so overwhelming, so incredibly
transcendent beyond dust and comprehension, but so intimate
and personal that when you profess faith in Jesus Christ,
because God himself has illuminated your heart and mind
to believe that you need him, he enters into you.
And when he enters into you, God's Word tells us you have
become a new creation. We pray that each of these
little ones one day will say, I trust Jesus alone for salvation.
When that happens, the Word tells us if anyone is in Christ,
he's a new creation. The old is gone, the newest
come. Being a part of his church means
that you're a part of the only institution that will last
forever, the only relationship that you have that will last
forever. It's amazing.
What happens in Revelation is that John tells us that we will
be blessed if we read it, and blessed if we keep what is
written. Look what be a verse 3 The third
verse. 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, we're
going to talk about what he means.
By the time is near, we're going to talk about what he meant in
verse one when he said these things must soon take place.
It doesn't seem like it's happened very soon.
It doesn't seem like it's been very near.
John wrote these things in a D, probably 95 or 96.
It's been a while. So what does God mean by that?
Why did he give it to us? Derek Thomas in his commentary
talks about how if we understand Revelation, that it's basic
essence, it is meant to overwhelm us with the glory of
God. The word overwhelm.
I say this a lot, means three things.
It means to be buried underneath a huge mass.
It means to be defeated soundly. It means to receive too much of
something. And that's why so often during
your days you say, I feel overwhelmed.
Are you here a loved one? Say that, or a friend say that.
Micah Peterson, when she discovered that her son had
leukemia, simply responded with I am wrecked.
And she was, and she is, but not with one who's without hope.
Overwhelmed. The man who wrote this book,
Revelation, was in the same room when Jesus spoke these words,
said the Last Supper. John 16.
The very last verse. Jesus says, I've said these
things to you, that in me you may have peace in the world you
will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome
the world. The apostle John writes this
book from a little island that's four miles wide and eight miles
long, about 30 miles southwest of Ephesus, off the shore of
Turkey. It's a rugged place where
prisoners are sent, and John is there because he's a prisoner,
he tells us in verse nine. 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 Patness.
On account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
On account of the word of God, what it stands for, who it
points to, and what Jesus said, you will experience tribulation.
The temptation for us in the midst of tribulation is to be
overwhelmed by it, to be overwhelmed by the craziness of
people's sexual orientation. The craziness of all the gender
confusion, moving from just these wild and ridiculous ideas
into places of work where you're now being told what you must do
or what you must say. And in the context of that
tribulation, which is not going to go away, the temptation is
for us to be overwhelmed. How are we going to raise our
little ones? How will our grandchildren
experience this country like we once did?
And when we become overwhelmed by the tribulation, to quote one
of our very first missionaries, we close our eyes and we close
our ears and our mind goes crazy.
God called a man who he told along with the other apostles
you will have tribulation. He called a man who stood up for
Christ, who proclaimed the word of Christ to this tribulation,
and as he is on this island, and just imagine him being taken
there by boat, not knowing how long he would live there or if
this would be the last place he lives.
He is worshipping God in the Spirit when suddenly, like a
trumpet, he hears a voice and the voice says this.
Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches.
And John did. And the Book of Revelation is
what he saw. And the reason we're going to
read it is because we need to be overwhelmed.
We don't need to be overwhelmed by the tribulation, no matter
how dark, how painful, how frightening it is.
If we're overwhelmed by that, then we will be underwhelmed by
who Christ is. We need to be overwhelmed by the
glory of who he himself has told us he is, blasting something
that sounded like a trumpet to get John's attention.
To show John things that he could never have even imagined,
so that thousands of years later we in the midst of tribulation,
would find the same hope. And that same hope is not an
idea to be understood. It is a reality to be lived, its
union with Jesus Christ now and forever.
Brennan Manning, in a book titled Ruthless Trust, says
this. The greatest attribute of a
trusting disciple is gratitude. The greatest attribute of a
trusting disciple, Trusting disciple like John, like Peter,
like James, like Barbara, like Ellen, like David, like Bob,
like you, if you're in Christ, is gratitude.
We in the midst of all we are facing and we'll face, are in
Christ. And there's victory.
Doctor John Bercier, a member of our church, one of our deacons,
was spending some time with me this past week.
I was in his dental chair and he was doing what Dennis do, trying
to have a conversation with me while my mouth was numb.
Mark. Revelation.
Wow. Well, they do do that.
I love you, John. But he said, you know Mark on
Greenville and Lovers. The other day I saw a man, I
assume, who's homeless. And like many of them, they hold
up signs. And they're getting somewhat
creative sometimes with what those signs say.
But on lovers in Greenville that day, the man holding that sign
simply was proclaiming something that really is that the essence
of revelation. All the sign said was God wins.
He does. And because we're in Christ, if
you're in him, you win. That same God who wins is the
one who said you will have tribulations.
And we do. But you know what?
We have more than the tribulations, the very presence
of the living God who himself in the garden of Gethsemane the
night before he died said this. My soul is overwhelmed to the
point of death. The physician, Luke, told us
that he sweated blood. Your Savior.
He knows what it means to be overwhelmed, to be buried under
a huge mass, to receive too much of something, to be defeated
soundly. But hear this on the cross.
Overwhelmed, Jesus Christ died. He received too much of our sin.
And the raft of his father, He was buried underneath the mass
of his people's sin and his Father's wrath.
He was defeated soundly. They pierced his side.
He was dead. Blood and water came out.
But on the third day, Jesus Christ, our majestic victor, in
whom this book is all about, he overwhelmed death.
Death was buried underneath the Mass of Christ.
Glory. Death received too much of Jesus
Christ. Death was defeated soundly.
That is what this book is about, and I believe what it says.
Blessed are those who read it. Blessed are those who hear it,
Blessed are those who keep it. And thankfulness should fill our
hearts. Father in heaven, thank you for
your word. Thank you for what you've given
us. Thank you for something that is
so beyond what we can ever decide of Heaven fully
understand. But it is good for us because it
shows us that you are so much greater than we could ever even
ask or imagine. As we lift our voices in one
final song this morning, Lord, let the praises flow of our deep
gratitude for you and what you have done from beginning to end
the Alpha and Omega for your people, your church.
We pray in Jesus name and all God's people said with a loud
voice. Amen.
Please stand.