Sermon Tone Analysis

I’d like to begin this morning by sharing a story that I’ve told a number of times before, but I think it bears repeating.

And I say that because I believe that it is a story that testifies to the grace and power of God’s faithfulness to our church family.... a faithfulness that we recently celebrated at our 70th anniversary!

[Share story of my interview with the leadership of NWCRC back in April 2009.

When I asked them to envision one of NWCRC’s most fruitful / vibrant years of ministry.... “What would the church look like?

What would we see happening?

How do you think we might describe ourselves?....

then talk about 2010 - Season of Prayerful discernment.

“As a tangible display of God’s power to bring unity, we seek to express the rich diversity of God’s family.”

It was in those first few years that I paid attention to our Bible text for this morning in a way that I hadn’t before....came from a “lily white” church in the suburbs of Hamilton ON.

It’s not like I’d never read that text, of course not, but I started to pay attention to it in a way that I hadn’t before and came to believe that it painted a beautiful picture of what God was calling his church to display…not just our church, but the church globally.

I found the text not simply to be a picture of the church in glory, but also a call to obedience for the church in our day.

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FIRST thing I want to do is notice an important connection between this text, and a the season of the Christian calendar that we are in right now.

We just celebrated Christmas....remember what the angel announced to the shepherds?

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Now this past week we just began the season of Epiphany.

Ephipany celebrates God becoming MANIFEST or God being revealed to the NATIONS of the world.

Epiphany celebrates the LIGHT of Jesus shining on, or being manifest to the nations.

And in the Western tradition that is 12 days after Christmas, Jan.6.

And the Biblical story associated with Ephiphany is the story of the Magi or the Wise Men.

Here’s how that story begins in Matt. 2

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Where do we find mention of this star???

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[Connecting this story to Daniel??]

Tradition has it that these wise men came from Persia… and represented the nations...

So our text in Revelation pictures for us the fulfillment of what that first Christmas announcment to the shepherds and that caravan of wise men from the east was testifying to.

And that brings me to my SECOND point..... this idea that the nations are the ultimate object of God’s love and his mercy is present right from the very beginning of the Biblical story.

Talk about Gen. 10 and 11.

Table of nations.....nations scattered....

You might think God would give up on, or abandon the nations and just focus on one!....Well he began by focusing on one, but he didn’t give up on any....

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....could not be counted....no one could count..... this is the language of Rev. 7

Exalting Jesus in Revelation (The Scope of His Salvation Is Global (7:9–10))

In this massive throng of the redeemed in heaven, there is not the slightest hint of bigotry, ethnocentrism, prejudice, or racism.

Of the 11,243 people groups in the world, each is present and represented.

Of the 3,056 people groups currently unengaged, each is represented (IMB, Mar. 7, 2014).

Of the 3.7 billion persons still not having an adequate opportunity to hear the gospel, the Lamb is reaching out and calling them unto Himself by the Spirit and through His people.

The gospel is going to be heard and believed among all the peoples of the earth.

The nations will rejoice!

The nations will worship!

“Exalting Jesus in Revelation” Daniel Akin

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From Christopher Wright, The Mission of God’s People

“And as redeemed humanity, together with all angels and all creatures in creation, joins to celebrate that great achievement, I picture God turning to Abraham and saying, “There you are.

I kept my promise.

‘All nations,’ I said, and all nations it is Mission accomplished.”

Multitude of people are worshiping together, lifting up the name of Jesus the Lamb who was slain..... unlike the people of Gen. 11....the tower of Babel story....unlike all the nations coming together to make a name for themselves....this vision is of the human family coming together to lift up and honor the Name of Jesus!

Worship.....celebration....feasting....

Elaborate on FEASTING..... Rev. 19 also in robes of white....and palm branches connecting with the Feast of Booths.

So....

Text is both a PICTURE and a CALL to OBEDIENCE for us....

We have come to recognize that our local church is called to be a “preview of coming attractions.”

(Goheen).

EXPLAIN hoped for outcomes of this sermon series.

to grow in cross cultural friendships and in hospitality...

friendships across cultures are more difficult than worshiping together on a Sunday or sitting together for a potluck lunch after church

one of the things we hope to do is name some of the awkwardness that can be experienced as you get closer to people from different cultural backgrounds.

[SHARE Breakfast experience with Jun, Jae, Jaewoo, Joy and their kids.....]

cutting up of the donuts

Koreans putting all the fries together in one pile when they eat at McDonalds

not MY FOOD....but OUR FOOD.

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Why should we work at this?

Why do your pastors think this is a Biblical vision and a Biblical calling?

it is after all, hard work...... language.....misunderstandings.....etc.

Because God is so big, majestic, vast, etc.....that he cannot be fully known and enjoyed and appreciated from just one cultural perspective....

So, as we begin… Pray God will help you become more intentional about developing cross cultural friendships....and pray that he might bring people to mind....maybe from our church, or maybe neighbors or colleagues that you work with of from your kids school.....

As we come to PART II will be inviting people to have meals together.....

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Imagine the multicultural chorus of saints from all ages—ancient Israel’s Levite psalmists, clapping African saints with joyful praises, European Reformers with their majestic hymns, monks with their Gregorian and Ethiopian Coptic chants, Latin American Pentecostals with shouts of triumph, messianic Jews dancing the horah, and a generation of North American street evangelists doing gospel rap!

7:9 great multitude that no one could count.

This multitude (in contrast to vv. 4–8) may echo the promise to the patriarchs (Ge 13:16; 15:5; 32:12).

By the end of the first century, Christians likely numbered fewer than 144,000, much less an uncountable multitude (which must be no smaller than the numbers in 5:11).

John’s vision offered a promise well beyond merely human expectation!

every nation, tribe, people and language.

See note on 5:9.

white robes.

Many commentators relate the white robes to those of martyrs (6:9–11).

palm branches.

Often used to hail victors in a military triumph; if vv. 4–8 envision an end-time army (see note on vv.

4–8), this “army” hails the true victor, the Lamb.

In exactly the same way, John hears (7:4) about the redeemed who come from the twelve tribes, which recalls Old Testament promises concerning God’s preservation of Israel; but when he actually sees (7:9) the realization of the promise, he encounters a countless multitude coming from every tribe and nation (Bauckham, Theology, 76–77).

Just as references to the Lion and the Lamb enable readers to consider the same person (Christ) from two different perspectives, the references to the 144,000 and to the great multitude allow readers to see the same community (Christ’s followers) from two different perspectives.

The community of faith encompasses people from many tribes, nations, and languages (7:9–17), yet this same community represents the fulfillment of God’s promises concerning the preservation of Israel (7:4–8).

If the promises concerning “the Lion of Judah” are not negated but fulfilled through the blood of the Lamb (5:5–6), the promises concerning “the tribe of Judah” (7:5) and the other tribes are not negated but fulfilled through the multitudes that are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (7:14).

Bauckham asserts that Rev. 7:9 alludes precisely to the form of the patriarchal promise occurring in Gen. 17:4–6; 35:11; and 48:19, where the patriarchs are referred to as progenitors of a multitude “of nations.”

He mentions in particular Gen. 17:4, whose “a multitude of nations” (πλήθους ἐθνῶν) he sees reflected in John’s “a great multitude … from all nations” (ὄχλος πολύς … ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους).

This allusion is, he says, signposted by the placing of “nations” (ἔθνους) first, which is unique among the fourfold formulas elsewhere in the Apocalypse (see on 5:9), and by the grammatical awkwardness of “nations” being set apart from the rest of the members of the formula.

He concludes that the significance of this is that “7:9 as a reinterpretation of 7:4–8 indicates not so much the replacement of the national people of God as the abolition of its national limits,” which is consistent with 21:12, 24–26, where the gates of the new Jerusalem have “the names of the twelve tribes” and remain open for the nations to enter.154

As true Israelites, the white-robed people celebrate an eschatological feast of tabernacles in heaven to commemorate joyfully their end-time salvation, which is attributed to “God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”