Christ the Redeemer

“He is Glorious” — Revelation 21 — May 26, 2019

What does it mean for something or someone to be glorious? We heard the word from the beginning of our book in Revelation 1.6: “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” The word occurs 19 times in the book. So what does it mean?

“He is Righteous” — Revelation 19.1-10 — May 19, 2019

A king engaged to a beautiful princess. 
Well, a commoner. 
Actually, not very pretty. // But stole his heart.

Is. 35:5    Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

Is. 35:8    And a highway shall be there,

Is this not what happens in our passage? There is a great wedding. The wedding Jesus spoke about in Matthew 25 that we heard. How shall we prepare? By always being ready for his return. By loving our neighbor as ourself. By not being greedy for selfish gain. By not believing that all that glitters is gold that will last. To not trust what our eyes see. But what faith demands from us. To lay down our tendency to put me first. Instead trusting that God is more valuable than anything we could gain in this world.

Last week we heard from Revelation 5 and the setting was the same as today in chapter 7—the throne room of God. Just like the Prophet Isaiah was allowed to peer into the throne room of God and gain confidence at his magnificence, so also John, so also we are able to look into this heavenly gathering and gain confidence. Last week we saw that the slain Lamb was worthy to open the scroll. This week we’re going to consider the fact that the slain Lamb is on his throne.

The point of apocalyptic literature—of which Revelation is a part—is not to give a play by play game plan for the future, as has often been taught. If you sit down and read the whole book in one sitting, one of the first things you should notice is how cyclical it is. There’s a point and that point shows up again and again and again. For example, chapter 1 spoke about the Throne Room with the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man, then admonitions and encouragements to the seven churches, and then back to the Throne Room, then the Lamb begins to open the seven-sealed scroll in chapter 6, but before he opens the seventh seal in chapter 8, we have our passage.

Revelation 7.9-17

We persevere because God rules.

So what’s happening with the list of the tribes and then this multitude? We heard a moment ago from the book of Numbers. That book begins with a list of the tribes and their actual numbers. They were getting ready to enter into the Promised Land to take possession of what God had promised them. And as they go into their first battle at Jericho, the word John uses shows up. This word is used in the OT to refer to an army.

Look at vv. 13-14: Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.” // John is in the middle of the Great Tribulation that Jesus promised would start once he left. John recorded this in John 16. Jesus told his disciples that he was going away. The Comforter—that is, the Holy Spirit—was coming. And he said this in 16.32: “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have 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.”

How did Jesus overcome the world? The rest of John’s Gospel tells us. Betrayed into the hands of Caesar. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And he laid down his life. He died. He poured out his very blood to save people from the Kingdom of darkness. Those who have bended their knees to Jesus—submitting their lives to him—have been covered in the atoning blood of Jesus. // This is the song of the redeemed in our passage: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” And then we see the completeness of this salvation with a seven-fold declaration in v.12: “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Some of us may be able to grasp the fact that God is completely in control of all that is. This is one side of the coin. The other side of the same coin that he rules is that…

God rules benevolently. 
I use this word specifically because it helps us understand God’s actions. The word comes from two Latin words meaning good and will. That is, God’s rule is an effect of his will toward you. And that will is always good. This is something John and we need to be reminded of during this time of tribulation before Jesus cracks the seventh seal and returns in power and might. From the time of his Ascension and sending of the Spirit—as we saw in John 16—we will be in tribulation. In a similar way a woman goes into labor before giving birth. And we need to be reminded that we will persevere through many trials because God rules. And he rules benevolently. Going through tribulation never negates this.

But listen to vv.15-17.

But we also see that, just like the pillar of fire to keep Israel warm at night and the cloud to shade them from the scorching heat during the day and the manna from heaven, God provides for our needs.

This does not mean you will not have difficulty. 
We have already seen that God’s people must go through tribulation. We also see that when we finally see him, it will be with tears in our eyes. Following Jesus never meant that you will not have trouble. That is promised to us. If you don’t want trials and tribulation in life, then follow the marching orders of the world. You will never have to push against the grain. You will never have to be the odd one out. You will never have to sacrifice for the good of others. If you never struggle in life, you’re probably not following Jesus.

“He is the Firstborn of the Dead” — Revelation 1 — April 28, 2019

Last week we celebrated the beginning of Easter. Yes, I said the “beginning” of Easter because it is a season not just a day. Though we’re not entirely sure of where the word came from, I am prone to believe it comes from the Old German word—which comes from the Latin word—signifying “East” or “the morning light”. This is a 40-day celebration that culminates in Pentecost. We have spent 40 days in the season of Lent thinking about our sinfulness. BUT now the Light has come and we stare at its glory and realize that while we may sit in suffering, we are not governed by it.

Do you remember how I said it is wise and faithful to call sad things sad? To not pretend that there is no struggle in life? Well, the converse is true: It is wise and faithful to call joyful things joyful. Too often we get overwhelmed with our sin and the sin of others. With the way things are and the way things should be—or that we want them to be. And we forget that there is a bright, white, glorious Light that has dawned.

Maybe you’re struggling to laugh. To be joyful. And I’m not talking about a fake joy either. I’m not talking about putting makeup on wounds and saying you’re healed. It is hard to see joy in the sadness. // This is probably the very struggle that the Apostle John had. He was exiled on the island of Patmos. His sandals worn out on the volcanic ground of a seemingly God-forsaken place. He might have wondered what happened to all his friends. He might have been given to despair. BUT God graciously reveals himself to John in the suffering to remind him who he has believed. That the one leaned his head on. The Humble Carpenter is alive and Mighty and holds him in the palm of his hand.

My hope is that this Easter season the Lord would lift up your eyes to see. To see Light. These next 6 weeks we’re walking through several passages in Revelation to see the awesome ways Jesus is portrayed in the book. Too many times the book of Revelation is seen as a prophecy manual or diviner’s tool to figure out what’s coming next. But the book is written to churches who have wavered in their faith. Or they’re undergoing persecution. // The tendency is to forget about Jesus. Or to minimize him. To think that you’re going at life by yourself. Revelation is written to give hope and to remind and to reveal the power and might and love of Jesus. The book is more about Jesus than it is about the mechanics of when he’s coming back.

In every scene between God and Satan, God wins. Every battle scene, Jesus stands over all things victoriously. Whatever you’re battling or will battle, Jesus is able to conquer it. The onus is on us to see it. To see and believe and forsake all other ways of hope.

Consider this in Verses 1-2 of our passage in Revelation 1: The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him(that is, John) to show to his servants…

Many of us know things about God. We even believe things about God. But what we need is to experience the hot, burning Light of Jesus. We need to feel his nearness. We need to be convinced that he stands above all our problems in life and guides the stars and orbits of the planets. He is not an impish god waiting. He is the All-Powerful One who rules and reveals. And so I pray that these next 6 weeks, you will experience Jesus like you have never experienced him before—whether you’ve been a Christian most of your life or still have not repented of your sin and put your faith in him. // So that like we heard from Job moments ago: “5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” I pray you see that he can do all things!

And like Thomas who would not believe unless he touched the wounds of the Risen Christ, I pray with the hands of faith you would be able to see that he does not despise but offers himself to you. To touch his hands and his side and declare, “My Lord, and My God.”

Revelation 1

(1) Firstborn of the Dead

Remember last week I said that the Resurrection fulfilled the expectations of the OT. Psalm 89 speaks about King David: 27 And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. 28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. // But this psalm was written during the time of Solomon…after David died. And then we see in Psalm 16, David himself writing: “God will not let his holy one see corruption.” And Peter in his great sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2 explains this: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”

The Bible speaks of a King who would live and reign forever. And it’s Jesus’ Resurrection that identifies him as the living and reigning ruler that the great King David foretold and foreshadowed. // This is why this firstborn of the dead makes the third phrase Ruler of the Kings of Earth possible. Philippians 2.9-11 makes this clear. Because Jesus was crucified BUT raised from the dead, he rules over all: 8 Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And again in Colossians 1.17-18: 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent/over all. // Jesus existed before all things. All things continue to exist because he holds them together.

But why the Resurrection? TO HOLD THINGS TOGETHER…BUT EVEN MORE—> V. 20 of Colossians 1: Through him (Jesus) to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. // Jesus was resurrected not simply as a trick. It was so that he lives and reigns forever. What is more, his program—his kingdom priority—is to reconcile all things to himself. The world had been in rebellion and he is in the cosmic business of reconciling every atom to his rule.

How does he do this Reconciliation? Vv.5-6. The result of his resurrection. Made Us to Be: Kingdom. And Priests. Those who have repented of their sins and claimed Jesus as their King have been given the great honor of going out into the world to declare the glories of this King.

You and I too often get bogged down with our issues and we forget the great, cosmic reality we have been called to participate in! We are not called to just pray that God gives us the opportunity to talk to others. Yes, we do that. But he has called us to boldly and graciously go into the highways and byways and tell people to come to him.

When we embrace the truth that Christ has commissioned us to be a picture of his Kingdom on Earth—as it is in Heaven, then we begin to see the great and majestic marching orders we have been given! We don’t shuffle our feet in despair. We don’t pace back and forth wondering if people will bow their knee to King Jesus. We humbly and confidently go to people in love and tell them this great news! May God have mercy on us for our faithless disobedience to his call! His call to be his priests and proclaimers!

(2) What gives us hope? That he goes with us. He is always and ever going before us. // Must not forget this. There is Great Power in his Presence. This past week I was walking around our neighborhood by myself passing our fliers and I was nervous. I hadn’t met anyone in the neighborhood before. // Sense of peace as I remembered he was with me. Power in his Presence. Then I realized, there’s nothing I would not come across that Jesus was not greater than.

The second glimpse we get of Jesus comes in this incredible image of the Son of Man in vv.13-16. This goes back to the book of Daniel, ch.7: The Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. And then we read about the Son of Man: And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

And what did Jesus tell his disciples before he ascended? All authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth has been given to me…therefore go and make disciples of ALL nations. Teaching them to obey all my words I have given you. I am always with you. Until the end of time.

We are called to go out and declare that Jesus is King over all men, women, and children. He’s not a tyrant. He’s gracious and kind and all-powerful. He reigns. We don’t go quietly into the night. We carry with us a blazing torch of Light for others to see and find grace. To find purpose in their lives. To find hope. To find peace with themselves and with God.

“Resurrection” — Various Texts — April 21, 2019

The point of the death of Jesus is the Resurrection. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands were crucified in the Roman Empire. But it is the Resurrection of Jesus that makes our faith utterly unique.

Fulfilled

Elijah and Elisha, prophets in the OT, resurrected kids. Jesus—>Lazarus and a Widow’s Son.

We have heard throughout our service from the beginning of Creation, the Flood, Abraham’s Test and Foreshadowing of the Sacrifice of an Only Son, Israel in Slavery to Egypt, and the Prophet Isaiah foretelling of the Righteous Branch that will be fruitful and multiply.

This is what Peter says in Acts when he says: “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”

Witnessed

And he didn’t just appear to a few people. He appeared to more than 500 people over a period of 40 days. What was going on during this time? Jesus was not only revealing himself, he was eating and drinking and explaining how he fulfilled the expectations from thousands of years ago.

Unites

If you have made Jesus King over your life, you don’t merely have to place your faith in a once-for-all moment, but you can rest in a present reality. What do I mean? In the passage from Romans 6, we heard the Apostle Paul breathe confidence into the church by letting them know that they are not slaves to sin anymore.

Yes, you may struggle with sin. But, if you are in Christ, you are a new person. You have been born to a living hope. He doesn’t tell us to get our act together because God’s angry with you. If you have repented of your sin and decided to follow Jesus, you are no longer ruled by your appetites. Yes, sin may seem like it’s going to kill you.

True salvation is not just knowing these things to be reliable and true. It is an action of submitting to God. Saying, “I no longer live for myself—my desires, my security, for others to think highly of me—I live for the glory of someone else.” And in living for the one who made you and saved you, you find that you are truly alive. You will be a slave to someone or something. Whatever you give your heart and life to, that becomes your Master.

And so when we confess that Jesus is Lord of our lives, we know we will be physically raised up with him.

Invites

“An Unshakeable City” — Psalm 22 — April 14, 2019

In trying to figure out the best way to structure this sermon, I kept coming back to the idea that it is full of conversation. Two voices. But these two voices are different in the experience of the one crying out. That is, we see here that we can know something with our mind. Even believe it in our heart. But it’s when we’re confronted by real choices in life that reveals what we really believe in our guts. As we end our time in this season of Lent, you and I are confronted with these two voices we hear. They encircle us and talk to us to confront us and to comfort us.

Two Voices. Crying. Silent.

V.2

You and I too often put walls around God’s love for us. We pray and ask God for a relationship. For healing. For comfort. For a job. And he doesn’t answer us. And so we assume that he doesn’t care. The fact is that we have a backwards view of prayer. The main intention of prayer is not to change God’s mind, but to change ours! We box God’s love in in such a way that we want him to respond in a certain way. // What happens when I don’t answer my children in the way they want me to answer? Definitely disappointment. Frustration. But maturity. If I were to continue to treat my 20-year old daughter like I treat my 3-year-old daughter, I would be doing more harm than good. So it is with God. He is silent because he cares. He is shaping you. He is drawing you into himself. Into a fullness that can only be received when your expectations are emptied from your heart.

(2) Two Voices. Belief. Experience.

V.6-8: Experience: Taunting

Vv.9-11: Experience: God’s goodness.

We have seen and are walking toward the light. And friends will not like that you’re changing. Doing things differently. They’re not friends. They’re enablers. They’re not wanting the best for you. They want to make themselves feel better. They encircle David like lions seeking to devour him. Like mangy dogs looking for a scrap of meat.

Your difficulties in life—Anxiety that you’re not the best parent. Condemnation when you realize you aren’t. Fear that you might fail. Condemnation that comes when you realize you do fail. Struggles with the same sins of fear, worry, anger, control, lust. Condemnation when you give in yet again. All of these difficulties are not simply on the horizontal plane. Every one of them has the vertical element. What you do to someone else, you are doing to God.

Vv.19-21

God is not far. God is not silent. He is nearer than your self-condemnation. He is louder than the dogs that surround you.

//It’s at this point that David turns. He begins to understand that all this suffering is in light of God’s greatness and goodness. God is not good because he gives you what you want. He is good because he does what is best. He does what is more glorious. Our problem is that our gods of comfort and victory are too small.

Once David comes to that realization, he praises God and invites others to praise God with him. He realizes that his joy and purpose in life is under a larger umbrella of the magnificence of God. The greatness of God.

Vv.22-31: The High Point of Our Passage
True we struggle. Anything being built will have struggle. Ultimately seen in Jesus. The very thing we are after is a Joy that will not fade. A City that cannot be shaken. And here we see that Jesus came to usher in this Kingdom by dying. We are familiar with Jesus quoting the beginning of this psalm on the cross when he cried out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” As one author put it:

“Jesus Christ is our mediator, who entered in the presence of God who is a consuming fire and we see that judgement and fire upon the cross. But from the cross too there comes the voice of amazing love: the voice of incredible love and mercy and pardon right in the heart of judgment—that is why it is such incredible love”

He does not wait for us…but has entered into our weakness and frailty and stands on our side.

In the cross, God shows that he was never far from your suffering. He entered into our suffering on the cross. He enters into our suffering everyday. And he whispers words of love to you. We’ve focused a lot on suffering during this season of Lent.

But we need to see that Jesus goes to this psalm one more time on the cross. How does Christ give us the unshakeable hope and city and kingdom we all long for? A place of true rest and acceptance and love? V.31: “Future generations shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it.”

Or as Jesus said on the cross: It. Is. Finished.

Our difficulties with accepting a situation started with our first parents—Adam and Eve in the Garden. After they had sinned and realized what they did, they hid from God. They didn’t want to face the reality that they had rebelled against their loving Creator. They sewed fig leaves together to not have to look at their shame. They blamed others for what got them into the predicament in the first place.

And not much has changed. We don’t like to stare at our failures and shame. We want to blame others for what got us where we are. We want to busy ourselves and hide from reality.

We do this in our everyday life because we haven’t accepted the fact that we are meant to be broken. We don’t want to sit in the fact that the world is broken. The beauty of the Christian faith is its willingness to accept this brokenness. // I am so glad that early in my Christian faith, I was encouraged to read the Psalms. I read them out loud and their sound was so different than what I heard at church…what I heard in my head.

Too many times when someone is going through pain and struggle, we want to make them feel better. “Hey, God’s got a plan.” Or “Don’t cry. It’ll all get better.” This is cruel. The Bible shows us that, as one author put it: “It is an act of faith and wisdom to be sad about sad things.” Wisdom because looking at the world through tears acknowledges the fact that this broken world is not as it was intended to be. Faith because it looks up to God to restore it.

Psalms 120-134 are a section of psalms called Songs of Ascent. These were sung when people made pilgrimages to Jerusalem for special holy days. Jerusalem was built on a hill and the Temple was at the top. So as they are walking up to worship in the Temple, they are singing this song. And each song is sung through tears.

Faith Looks Back at God’s Faithfulness (V.1-3)

In the midst of grief, it is easy to forget that you laughed or smiled or were joyful. The great lie of the Enemy is to heap more guilt and shame where the Lord has restored. It is a good thing to look back at life and see how God saved you. How he delivered you. // Maybe it was a job that sucked life out of you. Maybe it was an overdose that didn’t kill you. Maybe it was a friend that was crazy. Maybe it was a a darkness that would not lift. // Each one of us, if we will have the eyes of faith to see how we are still alive. We’re still breathing. If we have eyes to see that, even now is a gift, it’s a sign of God’s deliverance and that he’s not done with you.

But looking back isn’t fun sometimes is it? We have to come to terms with the fact that too many times it was our decisions that brought harm to us.

After all, this is what Israel had to face. They had been thrown into Exile because of their choice to follow their own way rather than bend their knees to God.

Yet we see that God is not like you and me. They had rebelled, yet they were brought back to a place of abundance. Someone failed us or hurt us or said one thing and did another? We condemn. We despise. We hate. // Praise God (!), he is not like us. Nor does he treat us as our sins deserve! V.1: The Lord restored. V.2: The Lord has done great things. Repeat. V.3: The Lord has done great things.

You and I too often run to other streams, first. We put our hope in our ability. I’m gonna be a better parent. I’m gonna be a better husband. I’m gonna try harder. But we must start by crying out to God. //. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good thing to want to be better. That’s what God is seeking to do in our lives. To re-shape us, to restore us to his image that we were created in.

When God created Adam and Eve in the Garden, he said, “Let us make humankind in our image.” So in the image of God he created male and female. In the image of God. You are made in the image of God!

When we sinned against God, the image of God in us was not lost. It was scarred. And God is not simply putting makeup on the scars. He is doing reconstructive surgery on our hearts.

And it’s this reconstructive surgery that is so painful in our lives. Because as we ascend the heights, our hearts still hurt. We remember that we experienced joy, but it seems so far away. That laughter and joy and gladness, seem like a distant memory. A dream.

Faith Looks Forward to God’s Faithfulness (vv.4-6)

If God was faithful to you in the past, why would he stop now? If God was good to you in the past, why would he stop being good now? Our problem is that we look to the streams in our life and assume 1:1 correspondence between them and God. People betray us. People harm us. So we think the same of God. All good things flow from him, but they are not him. What seems like harshness is his severity. Severity because he is committed (more committed than us) to change us…to make us better.

We see again that, while we run to other streams that we think will satisfy, they will always dry up. Family will fail you. Friends will turn on you. That job that was so good, will frustrate you. Because God is leading you into the desert. He’s taking you into a dry and weary land where there is no water…

God is not content to let us live in the clouds. He’s pulling our feet down into the sand. He’s forcing us to see how everyone and every hope and every dream will run dry. He leads us to the desert.

So that we cry out to him. V.4 “Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb—this is the desert region in the south of Israel.” So that we see that he is the stream in the desert. He is the one who satisfies us. He is who we were created to be filled up with.

But it’s only when our other streams run dry and our tears seem to run dry, that brings shouts of joy. When we truly experience the deliverance and restoration of God in our lives, then we shout for joy. We can’t hold back. We may look like a fool to others, but we know who has delivered us and it really doesn’t matter what they think anyway does it? They didn’t deliver us! They didn’t save us! They didn’t satisfy the thirst of our souls. So we shout and declare among the nations—“The Lord has done great things for me!”

But this shouting for joy is not separate from the tears. For those of us who are struggling right now, this may seem so far away from your experience. // The Lord is shaping you even now in the Negeb. He wants to remind you that, although the weight seems heavy and the faucet of tears still drips and flows at times…he is watering the soil of your life. To be able to receive him. To receive his goodness. To receive his power of deliverance. But our eyes of faith have to be washed with the saline of suffering.

Do you remember what we heard in Isaiah 43:

What is this new thing? Well, we got a glimpse of it in our reading from John’s Gospel.

Jesus came to the town of Bethany to see three of his beloved friends, one more time. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus—whom Jesus had raised from the dead. John mentions this because he doesn’t want us to forget that Jesus was at the tomb of Lazarus when he died and Jesus wept. He wept with Mary and Martha. And he said to them: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

While all the pain and suffering we experience now seems overwhelming, we are reminded that we have one great suffering left. Each of us will die. And yet, even this desert is made into a river. A river that carries us to God. For whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.