Where will you place your trust?
Notes
Transcript
As I get older I find myself doing and saying things I thought I would never do and say.
Is it just me, but as I get to a certain age I find myself looking back and reflecting on how things have changed.
Although there are people here older and wiser than me, even at the age of 55 when I reflect on how things are now I see a huge difference to how things were when I was a child.
I can’t believe it but those words have actually passed my lips - “you think things are bad now,
“when I was a child…”
“when I was a child…”
One thing that stikes me is the amount of choice we are bombarded with today.
In our supermarkets, our retail outlets, opportunities for education, work, travel, etc - vastly more accessible than they were.
Having multiple choices can be an exciting, but also have a daunting effect.
You won’t be surprised to hear that much the same as when older and wiser people reminded me how much things had changed compared to their day - my children didn’t seem too impressed to have it pointed out to them either.
(pause)
As I read the bible, as I reflected on the passages before us today, I was reminded that actually when it comes down to the most important choice we may ever have to make - the bible presents us with a very simple one.
A choice of two ways to go - two lives to live - two outcomes.
Over the past two weeks we have been considering the last book of the bible - the book of Revelation. A letter to the church, filled with prophecy and apocolyptic language.
Last week Jane spoke of the best wedding ever - that day when those who belong to Jesus - gather to enjoy a great wedding banquet.
The week before that, we saw how our scriptures pointed us to Jesus as the only one who is qualified to bring God’s plans and purposes for our world and its people to fruition.
This week, our scriptures help us to see that Jesus is not only qualified - he also is the only one with the authority to accomplish God’s plans and purposes.
But as with all scripture - we are called not only to read it and to inwardly digest its meaning - we are called to respond, to make a choice.
So let’s take a quick look at what our passages might call us to today…
I know some of you weren’t convinced, but I hope I might try one last time to encourage you to see the book of Revelation with different eyes than perhaps you may have before.
In today’s reading the curtain is pulled back on another scene if you like, given to John in his vision.
The first thing we must notice is the scene is referred to as a sign. We are not meant to get bogged down in a literal meaning - it is showing us something real, in figurative language.
1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
This is not a literal woman, but represents something. She is given authority - hence the crown. The crown consists of stars. She is clothed with the sun and the moon.
Again, as was mentioned a couple of weeks ago, John is drawing on what would have been very familiar images to his original readers - he is also using imagery that would be very consistent with Old Testament language.
In the context of this vision and Old Testament language John’s readers would have recognised in the woman - God’s people, first Israel and later the church.
Abraham was told he would be the father of many nations, more numerous than the stars, Jerusalem often refered to as a woman, the church as the bride of Christ. Paul calls the saints to shine like stars. We could go on and on with this, but time is such that we can’t do that this morning.
Either way, this woman gives birth and we find out in verse 5 that she gives birth to a son. Not just any son - one who
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.
Even the word sceptre has the meaning of power and authority that is used in a pastoral sense. More akin to how a Shepherd leads and guides his sheep, rather than a king leading and guiding his people.
The son, is Jesus - born through the nation of Israel, who would go on to call the church into being and lives on by His Spirit through the proclamation of the church concerning the good news of Jesus, his death and resurrection.
Before long, John is shown another sign. This time of a dragon - the word used could also be translated serpent. But this is not ordinary snake.
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.
This dragon also has authority, also designated by the fact he wears seven crowns on his head.
We could also spend a huge amount of time on this, but again as I said a couple of weeks ago - we only need to understand the point of these visions.
We don’t need to know exactly what each of these sentences or clauses mean, to see that there is a battle going on between the woman and the birth of her son and the dragon who is waiting to devour her child.
4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
This vision, given to John - recorded for his readers in the first century and by extension us - is to highlight the cosmic battle that is going on between God and the forces of evil. Forces that would like to thwart God’s plans and purposes.
Like John’s first readers - we can’t see this happening - but John wants us to know that it is a reality and it affects us all.
The child is snatched up to heaven - Jesus has died at this point and ascended to the right hand of the father. The dragon can no longer do anything to stop him - but the woman, now the church, must flee into the desert and rely on God to care for her.
For how long?
1,260 days - what on earth does this mean - I don’t know exactly, though there are many ways in which we can approach this number.
The point is, I don’t need to know exactly - essentially, it is a period of time appointed by God. We could spend hours - 1,260 days even, trying to work it out. But as Jesus said in
32 “No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
So personally, I’m not going to try and work it out - because that is probably only going to serve as a distraction from the main issue that faces me.
What Jesus has asked me to do is to be alert and watchful for THAT day when God will step in and deliver his church from what feels like a wilderness and desert at His appointed time.
Who is this dragon?
Well if we were to read on - John tells us:
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
For John’s readers - faced with a stark choice between worshipping God and trusting in him and worshipping Caesar and trusting in the might of Rome - in Revelation they are reminded that God wins.
God v Caesar
God v Caesar
They, and indeed us, may question that reality sometimes, but John’s revelation served to remind his readers that ultimately the authority and power to overcome has been invested in Jesus. And such is that power and authority, that when making their choices about life in the present and life eternally thereafter - they can rely on Jesus to come through.
Those who knew their scriptures, would no doubt connect the account the woman and the serpent or dragon with that of Genesis 3:14-15
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
From the moment sin entered into the world, God foretold of a battle that would ultimately defeat the forces of evil that would seek unsuccessfully to thwart God’s origional plans and purposes.
Of course, sitting here in the 21st Century, we don’t just have what seems like a weird and colourful vision of stars, dragons and crowns.
We also have the gospels - eye witness accounts that connect us with the very real ministry, power and authority of that son, Jesus - born to fulfil the purposes of God.
Did you notice the theme of authority in our gospel reading?
As Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum.
22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
They weren’t impressed with HOW he delivered, on how he spoke - but WHAT he taught and how it compared with what they had been taught by the scribes.
You see, for Mark, the important thing he wants to focus on is the nature of Jesus’ ministry.
Though Mark usually gives times and places, as he does here - what is most important is what Jesus does and the effect of his ministry.
Remember, the same battle as captured in John’s vision, is also the context into which Jesus’ earthly ministry sits. It is still the same battle that has raged since Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden of Eden and foretolled by God in Genesis 3
For Mark, the main aspects of Jesus’ ministry are his teaching and healing.
And before we get too hung up on demons - it’s interesting to note that the New Testament writers don’t write as if behind every problem lies a demon - they only mention demons to set up how Jesus steps in to deal with an exorcism, but only within the larger category of healing, along with disease and death itself.
Here, as in other healings, Mark wants us to see the very real struggle that exists between the powers of evil; the effects of brokeness and sin, versus the power and authority of Jesus as he confronts it.
Notice the battle going on at Mark 1:24
24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
Mark wants us to see that Jesus not only had authority to teach, but the authority to silence evil.
The power and authority of Jesus was demonstrated in tangible ways to show those he encountered that the power of God at work in history is first and foremost to bring wholeness and healing:
Wholeness and healing to both people and ultimately the structures of power and culture in which they live.
But here’s the thing:
I don’t think the fact that people were amazed had any bearing on whether Jesus felt he had done a good job that day.
Lots of people in the gospels were amazed by Jesus.
But when I read through the gospels, I don’t get the sense that many of those amazed people were standing in support of him when he faced Pontius Pilate.
I certainly don’t get the sense that many were still standing amazed at the person of Jesus as he hung upon the cross.
You see, the same call that was given to those who heard Jesus teach about God’s plans and purposes for the world and its people is given to us.
The same choice that the people of Jesus day, of John’s day, is the choice that we face in our day.
Our scriptures point to God triumphing over evil and all who stand opposed to Him.
Our scriptures today point to Jesus as the one with the power and authority invested in him to accomplish all that is needed to bring God’s plans and purposes to fruition.
As much as it depends on us - where will we be standing on that day that God has determined to draw a line under it all and usher in the fullness of which for now we see only a glimpse?
Like the man possessed by the demons - will we resist all that Jesus makes possible - healing, wholeness, a fresh start and an abundant life?
Will we forget where true authority and power lie and be carried along by everything BUT the truth of God’s word?
Friends, we have only two ways to consider, two roads to walk, to outcomes to face.
One of those ways is to put our trust in the ONLY power and authority that can truly transform and heal us, can truly lead us into a life worth living with purpose, hope and the peace that comes from an assurance that God is in control and that God wins.
His name is Jesus - the way, the truth and the life.
And he calls you today and every day that will follow, to stand with him and entrust your lives and your choices to him - now and into all eternity.