Sermon Tone Analysis

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE getting to the end of a good book.

I think it’s actually because I don’t love reading that much… and so when I actually FINISH a book, I feel a great sense of accomplishment...

YES!

I actually did it!

In fact, sometimes I’ll rush the last few pages because I’m just so antsy to get done.

But then there’s kind of this feeling like, “OK, now what?

I just devoted all this time to finishing this book… and feels great… but now what???”

Today we have our Bibles open to the last chapter in the Bible… but that feeling of patting yourself on the back… or that feeling of “now what?” is not exactly what I want for you today.

We’ve been in this sermon series going through the whole storyline of the Bible… we started all the way back in with the creation of the world...

And for sure we have NOT taken the deep dive… we’ve been speed reading… getting the sense of how the whole story works together.

And our goal the whole way through has been to find our place in God’s unfolding story of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Each part of God’s story shapes our story and helps us understand God’s purposes for us...

How God created us to reflect his glory

We were created for his story… we don’t fit him into our story…

So today we come to the last chapter in his story… a chapter that is still in our future… and as we do, we are going to find that this is a unique type of story… this is a story that does not have an end.

Now there could be a temptation to be lulled into complacency with that thought... “Well, the story never ends anyway, so I guess I can put some important things off until tomorrow...”

But that’s not how God’s story works… the fact that this story lasts for eternity does the exact opposite of lulling us into complacency…

Because it is how we

How we view our stories NOW determines how we will spend the rest of eternity.

But the story of God continues on into eternity.

Is my story about ME or anyone else… or is it about HIM.

How we view our lives in this part of our of our story before we die or Jesus returns… how we view our stories NOW determines how we will spend the rest of eternity.

Because

Either we will spend eternity with God in the New Heavens and the New Earth that are TOTALLY about him.

Or we will spend eternity cast off from God in the lake of fire…

And the determining factor is: Do I believe that Jesus is the Christ… the Savior and Lord over all the universe…

Not just intellectually… Do I believe that in such a way that I lose my life to find it in him?

Do I believe it in such a way that I see my life story as all about HIM?

NONE of us know how long we have to recognize that.... and so there is

The last chapter of this story is one that gets us thinking both urgently… about what needs to happen right here an now...

and eternally… about what will happen forevermore.

Revelation.. much like the rest of the story... teaches us how to live with an eternal mindset.

Here’s the impression I hope this leaves with you today:

Big Idea: Jesus is coming soon: live with urgency for the story never ends.

Your Bibles are open to the book of Revelation…

It was written by the Apostle John near the end of his life when he was exiled on the Island of Patmos… [show map]

And that’s because of it’s nature as apocalyptic literature…

It’s the last book of the Bible written… much later than most of the New Testament… the year was probably around AD 95 or 96…

And John is the only Apostle who hasn’t been martyred… the only one of his twelve friends who walked with Jesus who is left… but God still had work for him to do… even in prison.

John had spent a lot of life establishing churches in in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey)… and now they were going through some intense opposition...

But

It uses signs and symbols to describe things that are and will be.

And it was originally written to circulate among 7 churches in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) who were undergoing intense opposition...

And the debate comes in when it comes to determining the extent to which we should take those sg

They were persecuted by Rome from the outside... they were lured by false teachers from within… and they were enticed by their own sinful hearts...

John had a personal investment in these churches… he had worked personally among them… he loved them as his own children...

He had written at least three letters to people and churches within this network… three books of your Bible are letters from him…

One book in your Bible is an account of Jesus’ life that rounds out the other 3 accounts… the Gospel of John… and again these churches were his original audience.

And so there he is… exiled on this little tiny island… so close to these struggling churches that he loves so much… yet so far from them too...

And the Lord gives him this vision of literally apocalyptic proportions.

And the Lord gives him this vision of literally apocalyptic proportions.

He sees the risen Jesus himself in all of his fearsome glory… and Jesus tells him in , “Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.” (, ESV)

That’s the outline of the book… the things John has seen (that’s the vision of the risen Christ in the first chapter of the book)… the things that are (that’s Christ’s letters to the seven churches in chapters 2-3) and the things that are to take place after this (that’s the rest of the book from 4-22).

The things that are to take place after this give the churches a picture of how God is going to have his way in the final days… during a time called the tribulation…

It’s a time during which God will fulfill his promise to Israel by restoring a faithful remnant…

It’s a time during which the evil of the cosmic enemy (Satan) is going to be even worse than they are experiencing right now...

And it’s a time when God is going to have the ultimate victory because the Son of God is in complete control of how the whole story unfolds.

And so as we come to 22:6, John is now giving the conclusion to the letter… what do we do with all of this that John has seen and written down?

Here’s what he says...

Here’s what he says...

Read -22

You’ll notice in what I just read, we see a dialogue between John, the angel who is showing the most recent visions, and Jesus Christ himself...

Jesus talks four different times and reveals himself in four different ways.

And he keeps repeating this phrase, “I am coming soon.”

The emphasis is on soon.

To churches who are dealing with persecution and hardship… in the scope of eternity, Jesus is coming SOON.

To churches who are dealing with sin and false teachers… in the scope of eternity, Jesus is coming SOON.

To churches who are apathetic and need a fire lit under them...

Jesus is coming soon: live with urgency for the story never ends.

We are infinitely closer now to the return of Jesus Christ than they were.

We are most certainly in the last of the last days...

And so we must take these words all the more seriously...

Today I want us to see:

Four Ways Christ's Return Must Shape our Story

It’s NOT so that we could worry about the apocolypse happening and become preppers..

It’s NOT so that we could try to figure out the times and seasons...

The prophecy about the end times and the return of Christ is given so that we could live with URGENCY for the story that never ends.

Four Ways Christ's Return Must Shape our Story

1) Jesus is coming as the Faithful Witness: guard his testimony with your life (22:6-11)

“And he [that’s one of the angels] said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true.

And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”

[then there is a change in speaker in verse 7… clearly Jesus by what he says] “And behold, I am coming soon.

Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.””

(, ESV)

Explain: John has just seen all of these visions… some of them are almost unbelievable… and to be honest, it’s just left him emotionally and physically wrecked.

As you read though Revelation, you almost start to feel sorry for John as he has to carry the emotional burden of seeing all the horrors that will unfold in the last days… all at once… and all first hand...

but then again, he gets to see some pretty AWESOME stuff too... like the new heavens and the new earth...

And a glimpse into the victory God is working out.

But this stuff is so extraordinary, John has to wonder if anyone will believe him.

In fact, its so extraordinary, he may even be tempted to doubt what he saw himself.

And so the angel wants him to know that this is TRUE…

This wasn’t a hallucination from some bad fish he ate in prison… this is TRUE.

What he has seen is as true and reliable as the one who revealed it to him… Jesus Christ himself.

But MOST of it he has been told to write down for the sake of the churches.

For the sake of the people of God in the present age.

John is a witness of everything that he saw… but the ultimate faithful witness is Jesus Christ.

Verses 6-7 are written in such a way as to remind us of the first three verses of the book:

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, [this book is not primarily JOHN revealing… but JESUS revealing the things that are to come…] which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.

He[JESUS] 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.”