Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

So here we are, the end of our series “Christ our King.”

We have heard the seven letters to the seven churches, and now I ask you All American: What happens when you come face to face with greatness?

This is the question begged by the song “I can only imagine,” the single most-played Christian song of all time.

In it they ask:

Surrounded by your glory what will my heart feel; will I dance for you Jesus; or in awe of You be still; will I stand in your presence; or to my knees will I fall; will I sing hallelujah; will I be able to speak at all?

I can only imagine.”

Often when people finally meet a childhood hero or encounter a celebrity, they lose control.

Rational people who would normally articulate very well find themselves tongue-tied, giddy, and filled with remorse after they embarrass themselves in the presence of their idol.

The term star-struck has emerged to describe this syndrome.

So, I ask you to consider what you might feel?

There are also those who are puffed up with an inflated sense of self-worth.

For instance, when I was 13; I met Neil Armstrong.

I was selected, as a youth member of the community to promote a local event.

This included getting up much earlier than most 13-year-olds tend to get up.

I was to appear on a morning news segment, and, unbeknownst to me, would be followed by the famous astronaut.

After my appearance I proceeded to the exit when a man who wanted to commend my performance stopped me; he said he had heard me on the drive in and introduced himself.

I felt pretty darn important.

‘I have fans’ I thought to myself, I even later signed no less than 5 autographs!

It wasn’t until we parted ways that I realized the name he had told me.

“I’m Neil Armstrong.”

I only made it 7 or 8 steps before that fact dawned on me and I whipped around.

The elevator doors shut.

I felt pretty silly.

There was a tradition in Rome, a returning army would march through the capitol.

These honors were spectacular.

Picture a culture whose celebrities were gladiators, slaves bribed with freedom to entertain crowds of tens of thousands by mutilating one another replicating battle scenes.

Actual warriors returning home from a successful conquest –nothing could compare.

Picture the Arc de Triumph in Paris, recall pictures of V-E day in Times Square.

It was the duty of a slave, not only to drive the chariot carrying the celebrated commander, but to continuously whisper in the commander’s ear, “Memento Mori,” which means, “Remember, you are mortal.”

A reminder that would serve to prevent the recipient of the crowd’s accolades from losing their sense of place amidst the celebrations.

Imagine the honor.

Imagine the awe, the fear.

Transition

Now I certainly can’t relate to that in terms of scale, I’ve never been a part of a state championship or even scored a game-winning goal, but I’ve been recognized; singled out for acknowledgment, appreciation, and credited for effort I’ve contributed.

Clearly as a 13-year-old I didn’t handle it very well.

Now, whether it’s a return from a deployment at Green Ramp or a below-zone selection for promotion, what about you; what honors have you received?

Do you have a binder or wall, maybe even for some of you who’ve been around a bit longer, a room where you keep your certificates and trophies?

Maybe you pride yourself with the number of Instagram followers you have or your win streak in Candy Crush.

Maybe you have an over-inflated ego.

There will always be celebrities, and there will always be winners, individuals who are high-achieving, talented, and those charged with great authority.

These things don’t have to be bad.

And they’re not so long as you remember that you’re entrusted with it from someone.

So long as you remember your place.

Because we’re not worthy of the praise we love or seek.

But there is someone who is.

Pride is defeated when we continuously worship the one who is.

The Prophecy v1

Jesus told his disciples, “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also;” and that’s truly where our Scripture takes us today.

Look with me again at verse 1:

“After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.

And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.””

Revelation is the only book in the Bible that begins and ends with the promise of a blessing to those who read, hear, and heed the words of its prophecy.

That’s what Jesus promised each church as we’ve read the past 7 weeks.

In verse 1, John identifies that it’s Jesus guiding him through this vision.

He’s just heard the pronunciation of judgment on the seven churches; be it condemning in nature or encouraging, and now we get a glimpse into the throne room.

The authority from which judgment comes.

Jesus says, in the first of only three things said in the entire chapter, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

Now that statement has a lot of gravity, not just because it’s Jesus who said it, but it's revealing, it's prophetic, it's eschatological, a theological term, a contraction comprised of two Greek words, ‘eschatos’ meaning ‘last things,’ and ‘logy’ meaning ‘the study of.’

Its meaning relates to the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

It concerns our eternal end.

The concern of this book is not with things which will take place.

It concerns things that, as Jesus says, must take place, the completion of God’s divine will.

It is the same as the difference between a want and a need; while you want pizza, you need food; one is desirable, the other is indispensable.

God is in supreme control.

John is not writing about matters of chance, but about events which will occur, essentially.

Not ‘essentially’ as in, “in essence, kind of, well pretty much,” rather, that it is essential that it happen.

We are talking about indisputable, categorical truths.

It is as if to say, “it is not a threat, it’s a promise.”

We will die; God must be worshiped.

It’s prophesy, it’s what we’re left with in the end, it is what we see here when everything else has passed away.

It is the same prophecy of Isaiah about whom was said, “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess, “In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.”

Transition

Jesus told us “do not swear by heaven, for it is God’s throne.”

The dramatization of heaven as this version of Earth that is simply better and without Sin is not what we see here.

Here in verse 3 we get a description of the throne room, each item with vast significance, John describes the scene through simile (he uses the word ‘like’) 7 times in your pew Bibles.

This is because it’s not truly ‘like’ these things at all, it’s completely ‘other.’

But what can he do?

He’s told to write these things down, so what we have here is his best efforts amidst the confines of written language.

There are a countless number of love songs, but each one falls short of the perfect description, words just don’t convey accurately or fully, feelings or sights.

I think we have a good idea, but keep in mind, what we have here is John’s description, and there are others, Isaiah and Ezekiel both describe similar scenes.

The Created v2-7

In his description of heaven, the one in which hearing is a blessing –in understanding the scene playing out in John’s vision, you are truely blessed with some perspective about what we were created for.

It is awe-inspiring.

It’s spiritual.

You can’t deny something happens emotionally as a husband watches his wife walk down the aisle, or a bride sees her husband at the altar.

Like when a mother is handed her child or parents watch their baby take his or her first steps.

Maybe you’ve met your childhood hero, of course hopefully your recognized them.

In the same way, the response we will have in front of God is unconscious.

Every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess.

It is an involuntary reaction to the realization of holiness.

You don’t see the rich man in the parable with Lazarus contesting God’s authority.

Instead he says, “Father have mercy upon me.”

God reminds his people in that they are holy, set aside and not because they were more numerous than the other peoples, but because they were the fewest of all peoples.

This is to say that God isn’t glorifying his chosen people, but using his chosen people to glorify him.

Around the throne, in verse 4, are the 24 elders, they are the 12 patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the 12 Apostles (minus Judas Iscariot of course), you’ll remember Jesus said, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve?

Yet one of you is a devil!”

He was replaced with Matthias, who became one of the first martyrs of the Christian tradition.

These elders represent the redeemed of both covenants now united in Christ.

They are clothed, this passage tells us, in Jesus’ righteousness.