Now What? The Christ post Advent

Intro

You all can be seated and children you are free to go to your class - we pray that the Lord would be with you as he is with us.

Good morning church and a very merry Christmas. For the Christian, according to the church calendar, Christmas is a season not just a day that lasts until the first week of January, so you will hear me say Merry Christmas for the next couples weeks.

We have just spent 4 weeks diving into the glorious truth of the incarnation. We have studied what it means for YHWH, the covenant of God of Isreal to come down to earth in the flesh. He came and put on flesh, and he lived, died, rose, and ascended. We know this story so well. It is built into our rhythms, our liturgies, we explore this story every year to celebrate the birth of the Jesus.

And now that advent is over, we come to the haunting question- the question that we turn to every year on December 26th. Now what?

As wrapping paper is cleaned up, leftovers ate for lunches, sugar highs slowly dissipate, we ask the ever important question - now what?

Some people turn to the excitement of the new year - fresh calendars and planners, brand new resolutions, and hope for a year full of possibility bring hope for the new year.

Some spend the time introspectively, holiday blues, end of year disappointments, and the grief of missing someone at the holidays fill their heart, mind, and soul.

For our children, the countdown for the next big thing begins - birthdays, spring break, summer vacation fill the void left by the end of new toys, games, and snow filled fun.

All of these are answering a question of now what? As anticipation built around Christmas and advent settles down we now begin to wonder what is next. This is a question that our bibles is also asking, we are given the story of the incarnation, of the life and death of Christ, but then it appears that we don’t see much of what is Christ currently doing.

What has Christ been doing since ascending into the clouds? What are we to think about Christ and what he is currently doing? This morning we will dive into this question and see what Christ is currently doing.

If you have your bibles, please turn with me to Revelation 1:9-20 and we will explore this question.

Hear the reading of God’s word:

English Standard Version (Chapter 1)

9 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 Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 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 Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

This is the word of the Lord:

In the Spirit

Our passage begins with John, the brother who is a partner in the tribulation. And he does not mean this symbolically, no John is actually undergoing the tribulation as he writes this letter.

John, one of the leaders of the church, one of the 12 apostles, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and what is his reward? He has been banished to the island of Patmos.

Now Patmos is a small island, rocky, there were no colonies or prisons here, instead John is isolated. He is made to live by himself, alone, with no real protection or provisions. This is his part of the tribulation.

Under the persecution of Emperor Nero John has been exiled to live alone, and for what? John tells us it was because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. John has faced banishment for his faith, he was banished for believing that Jesus is the messiah come in the flesh who was crucified, died, buried, resurrected, and ascended. John is banished for the truths that we celebrate in advent.

John had faithfully proclaimed this message, he had refused to claim that Nero was a god. Instead he held fast to the truth that he had seen, the resurrected Messiah, God in the flesh who had clung to a cross but then on the third day rose again, to walk and talk and eat amongst his disciples.

This is the tribulation that Revelation is telling us about, a time of testing for the Church. A time when the Roman government would be punishing Christians for believing in the gospel. The tribulation is not some far off future persecution, no it has already taken place and it took place amongst and against our fathers in the faith.

The 12 apostles and the believers who came to Christ in the first century right after the ascension of Christ faced some of the worst persecution that this world had to offer.

Hear listen, this is how the 12 apostles apparently died:

Peter - crucified upside down

Andrew - tied, not nailed to a cross, until he died

James - was beheaded

Phillip - Hung to death

Bartholomew - Flayed to death by knives

Thomas - run through with a spear

Matthew - stabbed while praying during a church service

Other James - stabbed to death

Thaddeus - shot full of arrows

Simon - Crucified

And now hear is John, he has been exiled. This is the fruit of the gospel in these mens lives. These men lived through the tribulation, this is what John means by the tribulation. The Church at the time of Revelation was experiencing persecution, a persecution that should have completely wiped it out.

No really think about this, you have a rabbi in Jerusalem who dies. And his 11 main followers begin to go around telling everyone that their teacher, he rose from the dead and ascended into the clouds. This group of men should have been easily wiped out. The rise of Christianity defies all logic, defies all schemes of man and any sense of how you should start a religion. These men were 1st century conspiracy theorists.

What caused this movement to take hold? What turned 12 uneducated men, into the leaders of the worlds largest religion, a religion that brought about western expansion, technological advances and a new way of viewing the world?

Look with me at our text and I believe we will see the answer.

v10 and 11 says

English Standard Version (Chapter 1)

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 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 Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

This is what caused the movement to take hold. Jesus is alive, He appears and is speaking to one of his disciples. John hears a voice, a voice like a trumpet, a voice that knows the state of the church in this, this Jesus, this rabbi is still alive, and he is in power.

John tells us that he was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. This man exiled to an island, undergoing the tribulation, having seen many of his closest friends already killed, was worshipping on the Lord’s day.

And John is specific to tell us that he was in the Spirit. John is telling us that he is worshipping the triune God by the Holy Spirit. This is what we do every Sunday.

Every single Sunday, the church gathers together to worship God the Father through God the Son in God the Holy Spirit. This is what John is talking about.

And as John is in the spirit something amazing happens. Something spectacular He hears a voice. Imagine his delight. Here John, an exiled man, banished to an island hears someone speak. And its not just a random voice its someone who is aware of John’s life.His ministry to the churches, his life poured out for the gospel.

This not just a voice though - it says a voice like a trumpet. Why a trumpet? Well the bible speaks a lot about trumpet, most importantly though, in Exodus 19- when YHWH is speaking to the Israelites it says a trumpet is sounding. When we read a voice like a trumpet our minds should be going back to Exodus. We should recognize that God is speaking and is going to speak words of instruction to his people. And this is what the voice says.

This voice speaks and tells John to write what he has seen and to send it to 7 churches. Just like on Mt Sinai, God is about to speak to his people.

Who could this be? Well John of course turns to look and he sees something spectacular. Something that words can barely contain.

The Appearance of Christ

v 12 starts and says

English Standard Version Chapter 1

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength

John turns to this voice and he looks and he sees the man talking to him. But this is no ordinary man. John sees a man like no other. This is a son of man with a robe, white hair, eyes of fire, bronze feet, with a voice of waters, a sword coming out his mouth, and face was as bright as the sun.

John is pulling from all over the scriptures to attempt to explain what it was like to see Jesus. He is pulling from Daniel, and Leviticus, and Ezekiel to explain what he sees. And we could spend many fruitful hours diving into the typology and rich picture that John is painting in this brief passage. But I think the best way to explain what John saw and its magnificence actually comes in verse 17.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead

John is so overwhelmed, so in awe, so struck by the son of man that he sees that he falls as though dead. John cannot stand to be in the presence of this magnificent, holy being. And so he falls down, in the presence of a holy God, John realizes that he deserves death. He lies at the feet of Jesus. And remember that John was a close friend of Jesus, he was the disciple whom Jesus loved, but when seeing his Lord, his King, his friend in full glory, he falls down.

This is the response of all men when they come before God. They fall flat on their face.

But what is so interesting about when John sees the son of man though is that the first thing he tells us is that the son of man is amongst 7 golden lampstands. And again John is pulling on OT language from Exodus and Leviticus and Ezekiel but even better we get an explanation of what these 7 golden lampstands are. In verse 20 it says

English Standard Version Chapter 1

As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The 7 lampstands are the 7 churches that Christ tells John to write to. So lets recap here for a second - John, exiled in Patmos, is in the spirit on the Lord’s Day when a voice like a trumpet speaks to him and tells him to write to 7 churches. And John looks to see who is speaking and he sees this glorious figure and this figure is found in the midst of the 7 churches.

Passages like this can tend to be intimidating and we want to make sure we have good understanding of what is going on. Revelation is a book of prophecy and it can be unfamiliar to us. We know how to read the historical books, or the gospels, or the psalms but prophecy is a very different form of literature.

We need to get our legs under us to understand what is happening in this passage. It’s like when you get on a boat, you start out wobbling a little bit but then as you continue on the water you start to gain some confidence and can begin to walk and be comfortable in your environment. And this is what we must do with how John is writing. We must understand what he is saying.

John in the spirit on the Lord’s day and as he is worshipping the Father he is confronted by Jesus Christ. But Jesus is not alone, no Jesus is living amongst his people. He is in the midst of these 7 lampstands, this is where Jesus is dwelling, his presence is with these churches.

And if we know our Bibles this shouldn’t surprise us. This is the story of the entire Bible, that the Lord wants to be with his people. In the beginning God created a garden for man and woman to attend so that they could be in presence of God. The Lord wanted to be with Adam and Eve in the garden. And then the fall happens and we come to Mt Sinai and the Lord again creates a new garden, the tabernacle, where he can again be with his people. This is glorified in the temple that Solomon builds. And then there is another fall from grace as Israel is split into 2 kingdoms and so the Lord now comes as Jesus Christ, and John says in his gospel to tabernacle amongst his people. To dwell with them. This is the point of the incarnation, the Christ can be with his people. And after the ascension is when we ask now what? Where does this theme pick up? Is God still with his people, and the answer is absolutely.

Jesus, the son of man who sits at the right hand of the Father is now dwelling amongst the lampstands. HIs presence is once again with his people. And will be with his people until the second coming, when Christ will be fully united to his bride. Friends this is good news. The Lord wants to be with his people, the Lord wants to be with you.

Application - Christ amongst his people

And the pattern that we see in Revelation is the pattern that still plays out today, it is the pattern playing out this very morning for us. John is not some extra spiritual person who was gifted the presence of Christ but now we are stuck in a less holy state. No the pattern that is set by John is still at play today.

We too are in the Spirit on the Lords day. We are called by the spirit of God to enter in the presence of the Lord. We hear the call to worship to come before God. And as we enter, we just like John fall as though dead men. We kneel because we realize that we are sinners in the presence of a Holy God. But then we rise, the Lord does not leave us in our sins but He calls us to stand, He tells us our sins are forgiven and we are able to stand in his presence. This is exactly what happened to John in verse 17

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,”

This is what happens to us as well. We confess our sins and then we hear the pardon. We stand up in the truth that our sins our forgiven.

The beauty of our liturgy is that the Lord is still working on and through his people in the same way that He appeared to John on an island in Patmos. John is undergoing a supernatural experience of Christ, but it is the exact same supernatural experience of Christ that you and I feel every single Sunday.

We come in the Spirit to worship, the Lord calls us into his presence on the Lord just like John. The Lord wants to be with his people on Sunday. And as we come into this presence we get on our knees to confess our sins, we take a posture of death just as John did. But then the Lord puts his hand on us to tell us to stand, to hear that our sins our forgiven, fear not for Christ is hear and has taken away all guilt. And then we hear to word proclaimed to us, just as John is given a word from the Lord to speak to the churches. The Lord is wanting to be with his people and it takes place when his people gather to worship.

God is still meeting with his people in supernatural ways, but it is not in visions, or tongues, or prophecies it is through the consistent, ever present liturgy that we experience on Sunday morning.

This is why for John to see Jesus in the midst of the 7 lampstands. We ask now what? What is Christ doing now, and the answer is that he is in the midst of his church. This is the truth that we experience in our lives, that we experience Christ through his bride.

The great theologian Augustine often spoke of the Totus Christus which means the whole Christ. It is the idea that you cannot separate Christ from his church, just as you cannot separate a head from a body or a husband from his bride, you cannot ever view Jesus without viewing his Church. Christ is in his church.

And this doctrine, this belief opens the door to experiencing the love of Christ in a way that many people struggle with. But Church this is good news. So often we wish that we could talk to Jesus or see him or touch him even, but church hear me when I say that you can.

Hear this when you are struggling or downcast or have fallen again into sin, Christ is their to be with you. If you are sick and someone brings you meals or helps mow your grass or cleans your home, this is Christ in his bride ministering to you.

When you are in the deepest despairs of grief, when sorrow is drowning you and someone is there to grieve with you, to let you cry on their shoulder, Christ is there, he is hearing your lament and he is there to give you a shoulder or a hug and even shedding tears with you.

Christ is present amongst his church. When we fall into sin or are struggling with temptation and there is a friend to call us to repentance this is Christ answering our prayers to “lead us not into temptation.”

Conclusions

Friends, Christ is amongst his church. He is in the midst of the 7 lampstands and he is still appearing to us supernaturally through our liturgy and in the common means of his people. This is the story of the bible, that the Lord makes it possible to live amongst his people. From Moses to Solomon and now to you, the God of the Universe has declared that he will live in and through his people. The story of scripture is that God wants to be in the midst of his people. And the ruling and reigning Christ is in the midst of his churches.

So when we come to the end of advent and we wonder, whats after the incarnation, now what is Jesus doing. The answer is staring us in the face. It is all around us. It is above, beneath, in front of, behind, within and through us.

Rejoice in the good news that Christ dwells in his church, this is what he now does as the ascended king, and rejoice that you Exodus are his church.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Amen

Let us pray

Father,

We thank you for your Son, the the First and the Last, the living one who now holds the keys of death and hades. We thank that through the Son we have access now to you O Father. Thank you for the presence of the Son amongst his churches. We thank you for the apostles who held fast to the truth of the gospel and underwent the tribulation for the love of Christ, seeing that suffering in this life was not comparable to the everlasting glory that was to come. I pray that we would see the richness and truth of your love for us in the Sunday morning service and the love you show to use through the Bride of Christ the Church. May we cling fast to this truth and humbly worship you. All this we pray in the name of Jesus who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns, one God, age after age. Amen.