Well, this morning, if we haven't met, my name is Josh.
I have the great joy of serving as pastor here at the Garden.
And I just want to say welcome. It's great to be together this
morning. It's great to be back after
being out of town for a couple of weeks.
And this morning we are finally reaching the end of the story,
the story that we've been in over the course of ten weeks,
where we've been tracing the single arc from beginning to
end, this narrative journey of God's redemption that began all
the way back in Revel, in Genesis.
And now we get to the end of the story, all the way here today in
Revelation. And I'm excited about this.
I was telling Manny, I'm not sure if I've ever spoken on
Revelation before. Maybe not entirely by accident.
Revelation is maybe one of the most challenging and contested
texts in all of Scripture. People disagree about this.
People make up all kind of interesting things.
Maybe maybe you grew up in a church where everybody like read
the left behind books and we're concerned about the rapture.
And like, you know, every time you saw somebody's dirty clothes
on the floor, you were like, what did they leave?
What happened to my left behind? You know, or, or maybe, or maybe
you were part of one of these communities where like everybody
is like, I think they're the Antichrist.
Look if their name and these numbers and something,
something, right. Revelation is a fascinating book
that people have used throughout the centuries to try and make
sense of what's going on. It's often captured our
imagination because of its bizarre symbols and and the idea
that if somehow we could just like map them all correctly,
somehow we'd have this crystal ball for making sense of the
future. Well, this morning, without
answering all of the questions, I want to talk to you about what
I think Revelation is really all about and what it has to tell us
about not only the future but also our lives today.
Here's how Revelation describes itself.
In Revelation chapter one, in verse one, we read that the book
is the revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to
show His servants what must soon take place.
OK, so we see two things in this opening verse that I think are
significant that suggests to us how we read this book.
The first thing is that we see that the Revelation is about the
future. This is the first time in this
whole series we've been looking back.
Looking back, looking back now with the Book of Revelation, we
actually pass our own time and space and look forward to the
end of the story. It's kind of cool.
But secondly, how does Revelation do this?
Well, it it, it, it, it does so as a revelation.
And this is actually a technical term it it's the Greek word
apocalypsis. Apocalypsis.
Now this is the word from which we get the word apocalypse.
And if you're thinking that like, OK, that means world
ending meteors or monsters, that is unfortunately not the right
image. OK, so apocalypse meant
something different to John's 1st century readers than it
would to those of us who watch a lot of sci-fi.
For in the 1st century, apocalypse was like a kind of
literature. It was a genre that we would be
there people in that day would be familiar with.
Just like you pick up a comic book and you kind of know that
that's like supposed to be different from a cookbook is
supposed to be different from a newspaper, right?
With each of these genres, you go in and you kind of know like,
this is what is happening here. This is what do I I expect.
This is what I do with this. Well, in the 1st century,
apocalypses were something that would be familiar to John's
audience. There are other biblical
apocalypses, for instance Daniel or Ezekiel.
There are also extra biblical writings that kind of speak in
this same genre that were contemporary with Revelation
apocalypses, like Second Baruch or 4 Ezra.
What an apocalypse does is it. It talks about the future, it
talks about the end of the world using tools of visions and
symbols, and it does so specifically in order to help us
make sense of God's purposes in world history.
It's intended to give us hope and envision about what God is
up to amidst the circumstances that we see.
I don't believe Revelation is a cipher for making sense of
current events so much as it is a way for us to see our own
story from God's perspective. Now, here's another key point
for making sense of this book. Well, John's Apocalypse, like
all Scripture, matters for you and me of people living in the
21st century, it wasn't written with us primarily in mind.
We see in chapters 2 and three of the book that there were
actually 7 specific churches that were recipients of this
letter. It was intended as a circular
letter addressed between these early Christian churches at the
end of the 1st century in what is now modern day Turkey.
And when they received this letter, each of these churches
were facing different kinds of challenges.
For one, there was a fresh wave at the time of backlash and
persecution against Christians by the Roman government.
There was tension between the empire and the state.
See, the Romans viewed the rapid growth of Christianity as a as a
danger. This was problematic for them
because Roman civil religion, which everyone was enrolled in,
justified the status quo and even exalted the emperor as a
deity. Meanwhile, more and more people
are becoming Christians, and when they do, they claim that
Jesus is Lord, and that means that Caesar is not right.
So they're questioning this allegiance in way that is making
the empire very uncomfortable. I don't know if I can count on
you for the kind of support. I don't know if if these beliefs
are going to undermine the way in which you show up to justify
the status quo. So there's this growing tension
between church and empire. There are other problems as
well. And in the midst of this 1st
century moment, these Christian churches, which had been founded
a few decades earlier, now are in many cases beginning to show
some cracks, like they're not doing great.
If you read chapters 2 and 3 here of Revelation in Ephesus,
we see that the believers have drifted from their first
passionate, fervent love of Jesus.
In Pergamum and Thyatira, the Christians are finding meaning
by chasing the same things that their neighbors idolize.
They're sleeping around just like their neighbors.
Laodicea is so rich that they're distracted by all the fun things
to do, all the experiences that they can buy.
They've completely lost sight of spiritual realities.
These are the Christians increasingly under pressure from
the surrounding culture. They're either caving or
capitulating or accommodating. And so John writes this
apocalypse seeking to to answer 2 fundamental questions as a
resistance literature attempting to encourage them to persevere.
And here are the two questions, questions that I think matter
for us today as well. First off, what is the point of
faithfulness if it's going to cost me?
What is the point of faithfulness if it's going to
cost me? And secondly, if everything is
going to hell, is there really any hope?
If everything's going to hell, is there really any hope?
It's in this context that Revelation is written as a
prophetic warning and encouragement to God's people to
to persevere under pressure to maintain their identity, to
continue to cultivate the passionate love that they have
for Jesus, and to to follow him even if it costs them.
I could imagine that this might be, I don't know what you think.
Seems to me that this could be important for us today too.
I don't know. Maybe you found yourself
thinking at some point. Sure.
Like I'm still a Christian, of course, but I like, I just can't
keep up. Like life is so busy right now.
I don't know if I have time for this.
Maybe there was a moment when you were out with friends and
your conscience was screaming at you.
Like, you know, you need to opt out from this, but it'd be
embarrassing and awkward. You don't want to be a stick in
the mud, and so you kind of just caved and went along with it.
Maybe there's an area in your life where you know that how
you're living is just inconsistent with what it means
to follow Jesus. Maybe your relationship with
Jesus has slipped to the back burner.
Or, like the Christians in Sardis, you're going through all
the motions. You're still showing up.
You're here in church, but inside it doesn't feel like
there's any real life left. If you relate to any of these
things, friends, then I believe Revelation is for you.
This revealing is for us. If you've ever asked whether
faithfulness was worth it, or struggled to find hope in what
felt like was the face of just these insurmountable evil,
Revelation is for you. In Revelation, this evil, which
grinds people down and seduces them into complicity, has a
name. It's personified as as a dragon,
as a beast, and even as a city, the city of Babylon.
Now, in this story, we've met Babylon before.
You may remember all the way back in Genesis 11, we met the
first prototype of Babylon in the Tower of Babel.
It was this first moment when all the people of the world
united. Unity's a good thing for the
wrong reason in order to defy God, right?
Everybody got on the same page to push back about what God had
told them and and to seize control to bring this is like
the first Empire, right? They all get together and they
try to build this tower that will reach to the heavens,
giving them control and power to be able to sustain life on their
own terms. We see later in the narrative
that this same spirit emergence again in the actual empire of
Babylon. This empire, of course, conquers
Jerusalem. The Babylonians come in and they
wreck the temple. They destroy the place where God
lives with his people and carry away God's people into exile, a
theme we've talked about a lot throughout the prophets like
Isaiah and Jeremiah. Babylon becomes this symbol of
of evil power that stands in defiance of God.
It enslaves his people, it exploits the weak, and it exalts
itself as divine. So by the time that John is
writing these words, himself, a prisoner of empire on the island
of Patmos, the historic Babylon is long gone, right?
Doesn't even exist anymore. But John sees not only a another
manifestation of this evil empire in Rome, but he wants us
to understand that there is actually behind these specific
politicians and policies, that there is a spirit at work.
There is a through line here that has gone across the
centuries. There is an evil spirit which
continues to rear its head and rise up to stand in opposition
of God. And this is what John writes
about in his Apocalypse. He tells a story not only of of
how Rome will eventually come crashing down, but how this
animating spirit which resists and refuses to trust and obey
God, will ultimately be defeated.
So what does it take to defeat the villain?
How does the story play out? Well, after the letters to the
churches in chapters 2 and 3, we see in chapters four and five
that there's this vision of the heavenly throne room.
John's swept up into heaven itself, and there he sees God,
and in God's right hand is scroll.
The scroll has a message. It details how finally heaven
will come to earth. Things will be on earth as they
are in heaven. How is it going to come about?
Unfortunately, there's a problem.
If the soul is locked, it is sealed with these 7 seals, and
nobody, it seems, can open the seal.
In other words, nobody can can bring a history to its ultimate
conclusion until Jesus enters. And Jesus is depicted here in
the story in Revelation in royal language, the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, we read in Revelation chapter 5 in
verse 5. But as John turns to look, he
sees not a lion, but fascinatingly, a lamb.
Jesus is depicted as a lamb, and not just a lamb, but a slain
lamb, a lamb with its throat slit.
This this killed lamb, becomes the vehicle that opens the
scroll that brings history to its conclusion.
There's an important point that John is making here.
Through this vision, Jesus brings the purposes of God to
fulfillment, not by coercion, but by sacrificial, self giving
love. In the following chapters, we
see these seals opened and as they are open, history begins
rushing towards its conclusion towards what the prophets have
been described as the day of the Lord.
There's these bowls and there's there's trumpets, there's vials,
there's all of these different things.
And ultimately there are many judgments that are poured out.
Evil is being judged, the righteous are being vindicated
ultimately in the lead up to this final event called the Day
of the Lord. But despite all of the terrible
judgments that we're seeing, people don't repent.
This is a reenactment of what we saw back in the Exodus with
Pharaoh. It's like God is demonstrating
his power. He's showing all of these signs
and wonders. There's proof like you've never
seen before that God is alive, that he is real.
Like everything in the supernatural is out there in the
open. And people double down on their
resistance to him. People don't turn, they don't
change. They continue to resist, and
what we actually see in this moment of evil is that many of
God's people are killed. People from every tribe, nation,
people, and language we read in 7-9 are actually murdered
because of their faith in Jesus. This is how John describes the
martyrs here in Revelation Chapter 7.
He says they have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb. Never again will they hunger.
Never again will they thirst, for the Lamb at the center of
the throne will be their shepherd.
He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes. What John is telling us is not
only is history brought to its fulfillment by way of this
slaughtered Lamb, but God's people also follow in his
footsteps. They win by dying.
This is crazy because it runs against all of our intuitions.
In fact, I think for many of us this is downright offensive.
God's people don't win the battle by stockpiling weapons or
electing the representatives to Congress.
In this story, they actually get killed.
The good guys lose. They're murdered.
But this defeat becomes the stage for God's victory.
And counter intuitively, their faithful witness, even unto
death, results in many people coming to recognize and glorify
Jesus. God's people win in the same way
the Lamb has done. So.
Just as Jesus has defeated his enemies by way of his death,
God's people conquer in the same way.
As Tim Mackie puts it, the mission of God's multi ethnic
people is to follow the Lamb, bearing witness to God's justice
and mercy before the beastly nations, even if it kills him.
I think this is hard for us. I mean, if I was in charge of
writing the end of the world history, it would not go this
way. I would give it a different
ending if I were in charge. Maybe it would say they were
righteous and faithful and therefore they found their soul
mate and lived happily ever after.
They served every week in Kids Men and so God bless their
finances and they were able to buy a great house, right?
They gave generously, and so nobody in their family got
cancer. They went to church every week.
And so their kids grew up to be balanced, responsible adults
with their own rent who didn't live in the basement.
They had great careers and lots of grandkids, Right.
I think that sometimes this is how we relate to faith.
It's like, if I do the right things, then surely, like, God's
going to take care of me. I'm going to get all the stuff
that I'm really hoping and longing for.
Or maybe at least I think some of us kind of our story goes
like the people of God were really faithful.
They prayed really hard, and so God brought a revival and every
sector of business and government and culture was
transformed, and the world looked increasingly like the
Kingdom of God until Jesus was elected president by majority
vote. That sounds great, right?
That'd be nice. I like these stories.
It's not what Revelation says. Revelation tells us they
conquered by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony. They did not love their lives so
much as to shrink from death. Friends, one of the crazy things
about being in Rwanda this week was the opportunity to be with
these folks from all over the world, pastors and ministry
leaders. And I, I in some cases can't
tell you specifics about the people because if AI gets really
good and pulls this recording from somewhere else, then they
might get executed. Like, but we met people who are
doing ministry in a space where they've already experienced like
severe backlash for what they're doing.
Muslim contacts spaces where the government is in resistance and
opposition to they're just faithful sharing of Jesus or
even naming that they're a Christian.
And yet they're continuing to faithfully witness to the name,
believing that that this name has the power to change the
world. Like they are faithful like, I
hope not till death, but faithful like someday when we
get to the end of the story, we're going to talk about that
in a minute. I, I think we're going to get
there. And I was telling Ali this week,
like, I don't know about like all the mansions and rewards.
Revelation talks a lot about rewards, though.
And like, I hope, like I hope there's some good stuff for me.
Like I feel like I'm trying to be faithful.
I'm trying to, I'm trying to live out my faith.
I'm trying to, to act as I believe Jesus would want.
But when I compare myself to some of these, some of these
men, some of these women I met this last week, I'm like, shoot,
I got light duty over here. Right, This is I'm I'm basically
I'd be a benchwarmer like not in this squad.
This is this is incredible. Friends.
They conquered by their love, by the word of their testimony.
At the end of the story, we see that there is a moment when evil
is finally and fully defeated. Judgment falls, those who have
compromised get the reward now, but lose out in the end.
What the story tells us is that those who have exploited and
harmed the innocent don't get away with it.
Those have moved out of selfishness and greed and self
indulgence. Hope it's good now.
There's a reckoning coming. But those who have been
faithful, the text tells us we'll inherit a crown of life
the never fades. This is what Jesus says at the
end of the story, Revelation 2212 through 14.
He says, look, I am coming soon. My reward is with me and I will
give to each person according to what they have done.
I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the 1st and the last, the beginning
and the end. Blessed are those who wash their
robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and go
through the gates into the city. Friends, there is an opportunity
for those who choose the pathway of faithfulness.
This message that John writes, it gives us, I think like as, as
as much as it's not the message that I would prefer that he
would have written to us in some way.
It's like encouraging because it's honest.
Like it tells the truth about the world.
It doesn't tell us that like the good guys win and everything
works out great in the end. Which I don't know if you've
read the news lately, but like doesn't seem to be what is
happening, right. Often times in this life, it it
feels like accountability for those who exploit, for those who
harm, for the for those who are running pedophile rings for for
those who are damaging their neighbors who are taking away
food is like it feels like sometimes the accountability
isn't there. Seems like people get away Scott
free. I'm encouraged that this story
names that like evil often in the short run wins and also
says, hey, friends, hold on to hope.
This is not the end of the story.
There is a final chapter coming. And because of that final
chapter, as you look at your own life, Christians, as you look at
your own life, churches in ancient Turkey, as you face the
pressure and the power of empire, which threatens to
seduce, which threatens to pull you in all of these different
ways. See if I can fix that.
You have a choice. Will you be crushed by it in a
way that causes you to give up, to throw in the towel, to
retreat, to say it's not worth it, the pain is not worth it?
I'm only interested in this faith thing, if it, if it pays
off, if I can see the dividends in the short term, in my life,
in the material world. Are you willing to be faithful?
Are you? Will you allow yourself to be
crushed by the pressures of the world?
Will you allow yourself to be seduced by the false promises of
the world? Or will you look forward and
believe what Jesus says, that he's coming soon, that his
reward is with him, That there is another way that is possible
and it's worth it? It may not be worth it in the
short run, like it may not all work out in the near term, but
in the end it does. At the end of the story we see
heaven finally come to earth and the proclamation goes Outlook.
God's dwelling place is now among his people.
He will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God
himself will be with him and be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for
the old order of things have passed away.
Look, I don't think that those comments about comfort are there
on accident. They're there because
faithfulness in the near term often times comes with a lot of
tears. It comes with a lot of pain, a
lot of difficulty. And yet, if we choose to follow
the Lamb who Himself gave his life for us and for our
salvation, we can count on an eternity with Him in His
presence. This week I got to hang out and
make a new friend with a young Rwandan man named Cagabo.
And Cagabo is super cool guy, just incredibly sharp.
He works as a civil engineer and he's, he's doing pretty well by
Rwandan standards. Based on what I learned, like
80% of the people in the country struggle with food security.
Like they're 80% of the people are having trouble putting 3
meals a day on the table. Kagabo and his family are doing
OK. They're in that kind of like top
percentage, but not like not easy, right?
He gets up a little before 4:00 every morning to take the bus
over an hour away to get to his job site.
He's there from 7:00 in the morning all the way until about
6:00 PM in the evening. Then he's got to get on the bus
and come back. That doesn't leave a lot of time
for his two kids. He's got a six month old.
He's got a four month old. His wife, in addition to caring
for them, also runs a market downtown.
They got heavy, hard lives. But that wasn't what stunned me
about Kagabo or or impressed me about him.
What was really remarkable was the fact that Kagabo was there
at the conference as a church planner, a church planner in
everything that I just told you about.
Like on the weekends, they're hosting Bible studies.
He's getting ready and preaching.
I don't know. I was like, dude, are you like,
how do you like, just happened on the bus?
I would be sleeping. I don't know.
In the short run, that calculus doesn't make any sense.
In the short run, those values and decisions don't really pan
out. But Kagabo doesn't believe that
he's looking at the short run. He wants his neighbors and
friends in Rwanda to know Jesus. And so he's laboring on the
weekends in the margins on the bus to see a move of God.
And it was such a joy to be able to to worship with him last week
when I wasn't here. I was there getting to
experience his church community as they're discipling people and
training them in the way of Jesus.
Friends, this is what faithfulness looks like.
There's so many different ways that it looks like, right?
Maybe it looks like rallying your community to stop stock up
the community fridge when neighbors don't have dinner.
Maybe it looks like sitting patiently and caringly with a
friend who just saw a relationship end and pointing
them to Jesus. Maybe it looks like caring for
your mom who's fading into Alzheimer's.
And it's honestly difficult. More like another child, but
showing up day after day in love and care while you're also
leading a group and raising kids and trying to be a Good Wife.
Maybe it maybe it, it looks like going beyond your means really
to get a place that you can't really afford so you have
another room for a foster daughter.
Like maybe it looks differently for you.
There are so many examples in our community right now that I'm
so grateful to celebrate as as concrete testimonies of the ways
in which people are giving up, of their lives, of their souls,
of their resources, of their time, of their energy in a way
that in the, in the short term, honestly really doesn't make a
lot of sense. But from the divine perspective,
when you look at it top down and really believe that what Jesus
says is true makes all the sense in the world, Friends, we Live
Today in Babylon, we in the empire, and every day as we move
throughout our lives, there are all of these pressures that we
face. They're not that different from
the pressures being faced by these 1st century churches in
Turkey 2 millennia ago. Pressures to capitulate and
collapse, to just kind of throw in the towel and say, man, it's
not worth it. This is too hectic.
This is too hard. It's exhausting.
I don't see the results. I'm out.
There's not a payoff here for me.
There's there's constant temptation as the empire so
creatively in Revelation, it's described as a beast, right?
A political beast, an economic and cultural beast that is
constantly pulling and enrolling and seducing, seducing us into
the rat race to to to show up in the ways just like our neighbors
that bend our character. There's so many opportunities to
to show up in those moments, to be silent when our Co workers
are making fun of Christians, when our finances are tight and
we face this temptation to hoard our resources instead of being
generous when our preferred candidate does something morally
repugnant. We just, you know, want to stay
off social media for a little bit.
When everyone else is racing, racing, racing for the next
degree, for the bonus, for the partnership, for the house, for
the activities. To guard our Sabbath, to guard
our spiritual life, to guard our own relationship with Jesus and
community. Friends, it is not easy to do so
in Babylon. And so as we read this book, we
have the invitation. We have the question, will we be
faithful when Jesus comes and we stand before him at the end of
the story? Will he say, well done, good and
faithful? Stewart, come on in.
I've been preparing this for you.
Look, we don't get in because of our achievements and our works
and how great we were, but there is a reward that's at stake.
Do we believe him? Do we really believe that this
is what's happening? Friends, Revelation challenges
us to stay faithful, to persevere, to recover that first
passion, that love that maybe we felt when we first became
followers of Jesus. The time may come when we have
to risk everything, our freedom, even our very lives.
But even in this moment, faithfulness still requires a
great deal of sacrifice. Giving away money that could
have been used for some great adventure, investing in
relationships that might not be easy, sacrificing comfort and
time. It doesn't make sense from the
calculus of the here and now, but it makes all the sense in
the world if we believe that God's perspective is actually
true. For instance, we close this
morning. The band's going to come.
But I want to invite you to consider, as Christians living
in Babylon, where do you notice the pull for you?
Where do you feel tempted to accommodate, to capitulate?
Where is that pull stirring in your life and inviting you,
pulling into into the values, into the ideals of your
neighbors? It's a little bit of dishonesty,
compromising and integrity shifting off of something you
know to be true. Where is the temptation to
accommodate showing up for you? And where is Jesus calling you
to a costly faithfulness? What would it look like for you
to live into a costly faithfulness in light of the
coming Kingdom, in light of the reality that the day of the Lord
is coming and that we will stand before the Lord?
Friends, I want to invite us into prayer in response.
And as we do so, I just want to invite you to sit with these
questions to consider. Where do I feel tempted to
accommodate? Where is Jesus calling me to a
costly faithfulness? What would it look like for me
to live not as a citizen of Babylon, but as a foreigner, as
a guest whose allegiance is to another king?
Jesus, we need you. It's so easy, as we swim in the
waters of what is very much not your Kingdom, to be discouraged,
to despair, to get lost or distracted, to fall prey to the
temptations that seek to seduce us each day.
Now, I don't know if it's some consolation that 2000 years ago
your people were kind of in the same boat, facing a lot of the
same stuff that we are today. Jesus, we're longing for you to
come, for you to once and for all set things right, for you to
bring justice, for you to vindicate the oppressed.
And also in the meantime, God, we ask for a grace of
faithfulness like we need your grace to persevere.
God, would you give us the courage?
Would you give us the obedience? Would you give us the faith to
live the way of another Kingdom, to trust you and to believe?
Pray in Jesus name, Amen.