3.1.21 4.24.2022 Alpha Omega & Everything in Between Revelation 1

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Quick Series Overview: For months we have been studying the Gospel of John. One of the issues John addresses is how the incarnation reveals the divine nature of Jesus. Today we turn to the book of Revelation for a different glimpse of the same reality. Same Jesus. Same Lord of all. A variety of different presentations.

I have some idea what you are thinking.

“Ohhh, Revelation!?”

or perhaps...

“Ooo, Revelation!”

Some think that the Apocalypse of John is the only book of the Bible you need, the best guide for troubling times. Others just ignore it. The book of Revelation is too often misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misapplied. Often when reading the Apocalypse, we either try and make it too simple or too complex.

Some try and make it unduly mysterious or transparently applicable to every single thing happening around us, or to nothing. I think one of the keys is not trying to do too much.

In another place I wrote these words:

Think of the Book of Revelation as a cartoon depicting the futile efforts of Empire to undermine, attack, belittle, horrify, hamstring, and halt the unending march of God toward the redeemed consummation of His creation. Cartoons are designed to exaggerate, simplify, and soften matters too serious for children to yet process. Children understand that there is more than meets the eye. They know there is a joke even when they do not “get it.” Presence in Solitude, p. 96

My goal is to exegete and explain the passages before us each week. So, for a few Sundays we will be considering what the Apocalypse says about the

Lordship of Christ.

Much of the entire book of Revelation comes down to grasping that central, particular truth. Not every single thing, but more than you might think. That is the heart of the book and one of the keys to understanding how it addresses the Church in every era.

Entice: The first Christian affirmation was

“Jesus is alive”

The second, closely related was

“Jesus is Lord!”

Both were problematic. The first because it seemed like a fantasy, the second because it was becoming more and more treasonous in the Roman Imperial world. The story of the first three hundred years of Christianity is largely the story of those claims challenging the Empire and changing the world. Eventually Empire gave up, but not without a fight and at first it seemed to have the edge.

Engage: Let me state what should be obvious to us one more time: The book of Revelation is about Jesus. It Reveals Him as Lord. It discloses His divinity. It universalizes His salvation.

Revelation 1 ESV

1 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, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 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. 4 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, 5 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 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” 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.

Excite: As the image alpha and omega implies:

He is Lord of all.

Explore:

The Lordship of Christ is prodigious, personal, and particular.

Explain: At its heart the Lordship of Christ is based on three relationships.

Body of Sermon: The first relationship…

1 Jesus is sovereign over the Creation.

1.1 The universe is in His hand.

1.2 Walking, superintending, speaking, sending.

The next relationship, which is of course central to our worshipping community is that

2 Jesus is sovereign over His Church

2.1 Word.

2.2 Worship.

2.3 Wonder.

Finally,

3 Jesus is sovereign over the Clock.

The moment each of us is born we are on the clock. We don’t know how much time we will have before the sand slips through the glass and our mortal journey is over. Jesus does not stop the movement of the clock but He undoes the chaos of our own mortality and the anxiety it creates.

3.1 His Grave.

3.2 Our Death.

3.3 Cosmic Victory!

Shut Down:

It is not difficult to explain the Lordship of Christ. It is not even difficult to accept it intellectually or in principle.

The difficult thing is to submit to the Lordship of Christ. To obey Him. To follow Him. His Lordship is as general as it gets--everything everywhere. Yet it is particular

and specific to the Church which willingly obeys His voice. It reaches past the mortality of this life to encompass all eternity.

And you. The Lordship of Jesus is something we all must embrace for ourselves. We do not do so alone, but in company with all believers throughout eternity. But

as for today, you must choose.