It's Just Not That Hard
The End of Days • Sermon • Submitted
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· 12 viewsJesus will do what He has promised to do to make us His people. We will be conquerors when we simply follow Him as He had laid it all out for us.
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Read Revelation 22:6-21.
And he 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.”
“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,
but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
Like we said last week, this section of the Revelation is the epilogue.
The action is done.
The story was over last week.
Question is, now that it’s over, what do we do with it?
Two years ago, my daughter Anna, gave me a subscription to a service called StoryWorth.
What StoryWorth does is it sends me an email every week with a question on it.
My job was to answer the question.
What was your first job?
Where was your favorite vacation?
What was your mother like? Your father? Your Grandparents?
So you answer these questions and when the subscription ends, StoryWorth binds them into a book and sends them to the person who set up the subscription.
What StoryWorth does is it captures your stories and history that will die with you unless someone writes it down.
I sent a subscription to my soon to be 85 year old mom and I’m learning things we simply never had a reason to talk about.
I commend StoryWorth to you - it’s a great thing.
The point of all of this is this: the last question I answered was, “What would you like included in this book that hasn’t been asked?”
I gave that a lot of though.
What would I want my great-great-grandchildren to know about 50 years from now?
I’ll not get to meet any great-greats and probably won’t meet any greats.
So I thought, with the world like it is and the absolute uncertainty of what the world will be like when they come of age, what do they need to know?
So I wrote an overview of how I became who I am and all of the pivot points in my life where there is no doubt in my mind that God directed my path.
I didn’t preach them a sermon, I simply told them my story with Jesus.
The final sentence I wrote sums up what we learned from our End of Days study.
“Really, life isn’t nearly as hard as we make it out to be.”
And really, it’s not - it seems like it is - but it’s not.
When we stop and look back on what we’ve studied, the primary difference we see between our culture and John’s culture is technology.
Where it took them weeks and months to get information or to get from one place to another.
We can do it in seconds and hours.
We get information so fast now it makes us think the world will blow up any second.
And with the advent of social media, today everyone’s an expert on everything.
20 years ago, your crazy uncle Eddie could only spout out his strange ideas to the few people who would listen at work and church and home.
And everyone knew him as your Crazy Uncle Eddie.
Today, he is known as Edward333 and his ideas get posted daily to hundreds of people around the world on multiple platforms.
His ideas get posted to people who don’t know that he is Crazy Uncle Eddie.
And if Edward333 says the right thing the right way, it will go viral and millions of people will hear it and millions of people will believe what your Crazy Uncle Eddie is saying.
And there are lots of Eddies out there.
But that’s the biggest difference.
Where we are similar is in basic life ideals that we can sum up in something that is very American.
We all want to be left alone so we can exercise our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The unfortunate reality is there are lots of people who want to define that for us.
And there are very powerful governments who intrude on that to make our lives what they want them to be.
And there are very evil people in those governments and there are very evil people those governments encourage who are willing to deprive us of those rights especially if we will not bow down to them.
These are the problems we face right now.
These are the problems they faced then.
Remember the primary principle we used to study Revelation: The text cannot mean something to us now that it didn’t mean to them then.
So, for a people facing persecution, facing that evil that wants to overwhelm them, what does Revelation really say?
Is it a book that’s sole purpose is to show what is going to happen one day out there in the future that only ‘special’ people can understand and interpret for us?
Or is it a book that answers questions for real people who simply want to live their lives as God wants them lived?
The book of Revelation is the 5th gospel of Jesus Christ.
The first 4 gospels told us what Jesus did.
The 5th gospel tells us what Jesus is doing and what He will do.
And it answers four basic questions that they needed answered and that we need answered.
Question 1 - Who is telling the truth?
Question 2 - Who do I follow?
Question 3 - What do I need to do?
And Question 4 - Will I be able to do it?
So who is telling the truth?
Verse 6 says, “These words are trustworthy and true.”
The angels says these words to make us remember something.
In Revelation 3:14 ““And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.”
Jesus is the faithful and true witness and the angel has been instructed to tell us what Jesus is doing and will do.
But now listen - don’t accept that at face value just because you are in church.
Let’s think about Crazy Uncle Eddie - when he posts a video on Tic-Toc or he posts on Twitter, and Gab, and Gettr, and Parler and on the other platforms, he’s claiming to be trustworthy and true too.
How can we know that Jesus is the faithful and true witness and he’s not just someone’s Crazy Uncle Eddie?
What did we say the theme of the entire Bible is, do you remember?
It’s found in Revelation 21:7
The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
At least 14 times from Genesis to Revelation, God states His goal in these words - I will be their God and they will be my people.”
And when you read the Bible with that in mind - that God’s goal is not to deprive us or to hide behind corners so He can catch us doing something wrong.
When we understand that His goal is not to condemn us or to makes us feel perpetually guilty or inadequate or perpetually dirty or perpetually a failure.
When we realize that God’s goal is to save us from ourselves - we’ll I guess that begs a question too.
Has God proven to us that He is working that goal?
When we look at the Bible over the roughly 5,000 years of history that it covers, we see repeatedly that God is working a plan to reach this very goal.
He has proven it in our lives, over and over.
Do you remember the message where we kept talking about “after this?”
After horrible things happened, after we did the totally wrong thing, after we chased the totally wrong guy or gal or job or you name it.
After this, what happened?
God came to us and forgave us and restored us and helped us to grow.
God’s not your Crazy Uncle Eddie.
God has proven Himself to be trustworthy and true.
You can attest to it in your own life - if you are a Christ follower you know it for a fact.
If you aren’t a Christ follower - if you are honest, you can name some things that have happened in your life that seemed like someone was trying to tell you something.
There’s a reason for that - Someone was - because He is faithful and true and he wants you to be part of His people.
He wants to rescue you from yourself.
So to answer question number 1, who is telling the truth - we know the answer to that is God.
Question 2, who do I follow?
Well, you are in church so the answer has to be Jesus and in this case it is Jesus.
Why would we follow Jesus?
He’s done all of the heavy lifting.
Look at Revelation 22:13
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
That’s written to remind us of something else too.
In Revelation 1:8, God the Father says, ““I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.””
And now Jesus is claiming the same title.
I watched a video last week of an Islamic Apologist - makes sense, we have Christian Apologists, why not an Islamic Apologist.
A young lady asked him a question about Jesus and he answered that Muslims are supposed to follow the teachings of Jesus.
They see him as a prophet and a good teacher and he claimed Muslims are better Christians that Christians are.
In his answer, he stated that Jesus was only a good teacher - that he was not God as Christians claimed and that He never claimed to be God.
Yet right here, in Revelation 22:13, Jesus claims for Himself the very title God the Father uses.
In John 10:30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.””
If the Father has a plan to save us and Jesus and the Father are one - they are on the very same page, the question of who to follow becomes very, very simple.
There is something else about Jesus too - look at verse 16.
Jesus says, “I am the root and the descendant of David.”
He is the Savior the prophets said was to come.
He is the Savior apostles said did come.
But then Jesus says he is “the bright morning star.”
Have you ever set up with someone at the hospital all night long?
Have you ever been in the hospital or maybe you were simply very sick at home?
How long did the night last?
If you’ve ever been there, you know every second seems like a minute, every minute an hour and every hour a day.
Time seems to slow down at night and all of the bad things intensify.
If you are hurting, you think the pain will never stop.
If you are sitting with someone, you wonder if it will ever get better.
In the middle of your despair, you look out the window into the sky and you see the bright morning star.
You notice the horizon isn’t as dark.
Morning is coming - night is over.
Psalm 30:5 ends with, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
When Jesus says He is the “bright morning star,” it’s a very poetic way of saying that He is our hope.
That, regardless of how dark it gets, Jesus is the light at the end of the night.
Jesus says in Revelation 22:12
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
This sounds frightening to those who aren’t Christ followers but Revelation isn’t written for them.
It is written for us and this is a promise of reward.
The bad guys will get theirs - but so will we.
Who do we follow?
We follow Jesus.
Question 3, what do I need to do?
Look at Revelation 22:7
“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
My original idea was to wrap this entire message around Romans 12:9-21.
Online in blb.org, this section is headed, “Marks of a True Christian.”
And in 13 verses, it tells us exactly how to follow Jesus.
Matthew 25:21-46 tells us exactly how to follow Jesus too.
In fact, there are any number of very plain texts that tell us exactly how to follow Jesus.
They aren’t glamorous.
They aren’t mysterious or hard to understand.
But it does require effort.
I am reading a book titled “The Discipline of Grace” by Jerry Bridges.
It’s a good book - you should consider it - and the chapter I just read talked about this very thing.
Bridges says there tends to be two kind of people - those who say they believe Jesus and then sit back and wait for Jesus to change them.
The other kind say they believe Jesus but then they set about to follow ever rule and do everything thing just right.
Neither of those is correct alone.
It’s not an either or, it’s a both and.
Bridges says to think about a farmer.
If he is going to have a successful farm, the farmer must plow, plant, fertilize, irrigate, cultivate and harvest.
He has to do those things himself.
He can’t sit at home waiting for those things to occur.
He has to make up his mind that he wants to have a successful farm and he has to get up and do them.
But there are two things he cannot do.
He cannot make the seeds grow and he cannot control the weather.
All through the Bible we see pictures of flawed, ordinary people who have done extraordinary things for God.
They did them by putting one foot in front of the other, every day, deliberately following God to the best of their ability, while the Holy Spirit of God guided them and gave them the power to do what they needed to do.
That has not changed.
We see that model at work in Genesis with Noah.
We see the model at work with Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection.
Never forget, Jesus made up His mind to do what the Father required.
He “set His face” towards Jerusalem, knowing what was coming.
We see the model continuing with Peter and Paul - “ I have learned how to be content in all things...”
They made up their minds and the Spirit did His part.
Over and over in Revelation we are exhorted to conquer.
The way we conquer is not magic - we make up our mind to follow Jesus and we trust the Holy Spirit to give us direction and power.
So the answer to question 3, What do we need to do is, we need to follow Jesus.
The final question has become much more real as we see our world turning very hostile towards Christians.
Did you hear what Harvard did this week?
They have 30 chaplains on campus and they selected an atheist to be the head chaplain.
That made sense to somebody.
I can’t even begin to imagine being an evangelical chaplain reporting to an atheist.
The absurdity of that is mind boggling.
But that is the logic of a world turned over to Satan.
And of course there is Afghanistan and what is happening to Christians over there.
Our government just up and abandoned them - even gave their names to the enemy.
If that was to happen to us, the last question remaining is this, Will I be able to do it?
Will I be able to stand up under the pressure to bow down to save my neck?
Or even less dramatic, will I be able to stand up simply in the face of evil in my job or my family or even in my church?
Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
There is a little nugget hidden in the languages here.
The word for evildoer is built on the same word as righteous.
You could render this sentence, let the unrighteous keep doing unrighteous things.
Let the immoral, keep doing immoral things.
Let the righteous still do righteous things and let the holy still do holy things.
Essentially he is saying, don’t let your eyes wander.
Don’t focus on everyone else and everything else - don’t pay attention to them.
Instead Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Focus on Jesus.
That’s the message of Revelation.
Focus on Jesus.
He is working the plan.
He has done all of the heavy lifting.
He has sent His Spirit to guide us and empower us.
He has given us everything we need to do what needs to be done.
This isn’t something to worry and fret over.
Our part is to put one foot in front of the other, with our eyes, our minds and our hearts focused on Jesus.
Following Him, doing what we know He said to do.
Keeping as steady a gaze as we can on Jesus.
Counting on Him to set us free from sin, to rescue us when we are tempted and fall, to lead us away from temptation and to give us escapes when we are.
The book of the Revelation was written to tell us that we can make it, and Jesus is the guarantee.
“Really, life isn’t nearly as hard as we make it out to be.”
It is as simple as following Jesus.
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
The song Is He Worthy was written by Andrew Peterson and Ben Shive.
I suspect you’ve heard it.
A couple of members of the praise team approached me about singing it and we decided today would be the perfect time - we’ll be singing it in both services.
In the song, the soloist asks a question and the congregation affirms the answer.
We just spent a little over a year learning how through the ages, God the Father has worked to make us His people and Him to be our God.
The Father’s chosen method to save us - to free us from sin and death and to guarantee that we will stand in the face of every adversity and persecution.
The Father’s chosen method to save us is Jesus.
Not the Sunday School flannel graph Jesus - but the conquering Jesus who had defeated every foe so He and the Father and the Spirit can put everything back into place.
So that we can reign with him forever and ever.
Please do not be shy to sing.
This is a chance for you and me to affirm our faith in Jesus and to sing to Him our gratitude and our praise.
If you are moved to come to the altar to pray, come.
If you are moved to follow Jesus as your Savior, come.
And Lord Jesus, we implore you, Come and fill this place.