Revealing What?
Notes
Transcript
It’s a new school year, a new football season, a new season as fall is quickly coming upon us, a new day, and we’re starting a new series today on the book of Revelation in our Bibles.
Anytime as a pastor you tell people in your congregation that you’re going to preach on the book of revelation, they get excited. If you mention to fellow pastors that you’re going to be preaching on it they will often give you an impressed nod. And yet its in our bible.
Bible study leaders often face similar reactions. I also recognize that we have many in our congregation who participate in Bible Study Fellowship and they spent all of last year studying this book. I admit that gives me pause as I stand before you to preach on this amazing book
The book of revelation is likely among the books most feared and for too many, the least read in our bibles.
I think part of the reason for our hesitancy is that the book meets us where we live.
On the positive side we have the expectation that it will reveal all the rewards that awaits us in glory as the vision is laid out. Church folk like to talk about what may await them in the next life. Sort of like dreaming of what you’d do if you won the lottery.
At the same time, we have the fear it will reveal our weaknesses and our failures as we are faced with the all powerful God who knows everything about us: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Who knows the darkness in our hearts - even those areas we’ve not admitted to another living soul. Will God still love us?
In this book we will be coming face to face with God’s love and his judgment. For too many of us this gives us pause and some begin to doubt their salvation even before we’ve begun.
So as we’re getting started lets address that elephant in the room right now.
Jesus Himself reminds us of God’s love: John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
God loves you (period.) God did not send Jesus to condemn, but to save. If you are seeking to follow Jesus, whether you think you’re following Jesus well, or you feel like you’re failing all the time, you have eternal life. Another Scripture:
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
If you struggle with whether your faith is enough, please don’t struggle in silence. I am willing and ready to talk and pray with you, and I know there are others here who are willing to do the same. Don’t be silent about it, let’s have that conversation.
So, we come to the book of Revelation. There are all kinds of views of this book:
Some readers believe that current events unlock the meaning of biblical prophecies. Since I began attending church in my high school years I’ve seen world events and leaders compared to the happenings and characters depicted in Scripture. But if the mysteries within this book cannot be understood without our current events then what we’re saying is that no one else in the past 2000 years has been able to understand what the book was really about.
As C.I. Scofield said, “Revelation was written to allow end-time interpreters to unlock its meaning.” John writes to seven churches that actually existed in Asia Minor in the order that a messenger traveling Roman roads would travel. If we believe the book itself, it must have made good sense to its first hearers who were “blessed” for obeying. Since it was written in Greek it is likely John used figures of speech and symbols that were part of his culture a lot more than ours.
So we’re going to want to focus on symbols from that time more than our time.
Another issue that arises is There are those who want to take everything in Revelation literally. The book of Revelation is not an historical narrative, it’s a different genre. It is a blend of prophetic and apocalypitic genres both of which are full of symbols.
As we read the introduction to the book in verses 1-3 it tells us what we are to expect, and what we’re to do with it:
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
I read that last verse and this week as I was meditating on our Scripture this week it occurred to me that Scripture, actually all of Scripture was meant to be read aloud. The Old Testament Scriptures were read aloud in the Synagogue, some of the earliest portrayals of Jesus in the Gospels is Jesus reading the scriptural scrolls in the synagogue and teaching about them. The Psalms were read or sung aloud, the Gospels were read aloud, letters of Paul, Peter, and John were read aloud.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
I think this is true of our prayers as well. Fred Rogers often said, “What is mentionable is manageable.” There is power in speaking out loud our fears, and our faith.
We witnessed that power last week as Lance shared not only his faith in serving as a Chaplain in some really challenging situations, but also his fears. I’ve heard from several this week that hearing his testimony was powerful for you. Your testimony is just as powerful!
Then we get into the heart of the letter written to the seven churches in Asia:
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Grace to you and peace from him who IS and who WAS and who IS TO COME. He’s speaking of the eternal God. We see this again in verse 8, Rev 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
At the end of the book we read Jesus himself saying: Rev 22:13
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
As we journey through the book of Revelation, it’s important for us to again recognize that all of Scripture is not there to condemn but to point us back to God. It is revealing to us who God is.
Are you seeking God? He’s there. Are you running from God? God’s there too.
The Revelation given to John and through him to us not only is going to give us warnings, but also remind us once again who God is, and points us to a future and hope. It is not going to tell us all the mysteries of the future, it is not a book of predictions by Nostradamus.
I want to challenge you all in the coming week to spend some time reading through this book. It’s 22 chapters long about 25 pages in my large print Bible. Don’t be afraid of it, don’t try and overthink it. Pray and ask God to reveal to you its message.
I’ve been reading my Bible since before I became a Christian. God continues to reveal truths to me to this day. Truths about who God is. Truths about who I am. Truths about God’s love for those around me. And Truth of the importance of not just hearing God’s word, but doing what is written there. This book is no different. I hope you’ll stick with us as we journey through it.
To God be the Glory. AMEN
