The Happy Ending (part ii)

In Revelation 22:10 we’re reminded that time will soon run out for those who don’t trust in Jesus, and in verse 12 Jesus promises us that He is coming soon. And when He comes, we’ll be blessed if we have washed our robes. Read verse 14 with me. What does it mean to wash our robes? Well remember in chapter 7 when the great multitude stood before Jesus and worshiped Him, their robes had been washed in the blood of Jesus. This obviously isn’t literal, but figurative. The blood of Jesus cleanses our consciences, the blood of Jesus cleanses our past, the blood of Jesus makes us clean. Sin makes us feel dirty doesn’t it? Sometimes it feels like mud we just can’t wash off, and we can’t wash it off, but Jesus can.

Why is it Jesus blood? Because when Jesus shed His blood for us, He was dying for our sins and He was providing a way for us to be sanctified. You’re saved by faith, and you’re cleansed by faith. The faith that saves is the faith that changes. Thursday morning’s Bible reading in Zech 3 showed us that. Joshua stood before the Lord in filthy clothes, but the Lord gave Him clean ones. And the same is true with us.
How do you know if your faith in Jesus is real? Because you’re cleaning your heart and your mind and your actions in His blood. You love sin less and Jesus more each day.

Finally in this book, and in the Bible, we see that blessed are those who wait faithfully. Read the last four verses with me. We see the call for faithfulness in verses 18 and 19. God is no longer writing the Bible, the Bible is closed and finished. He has said exactly what He wants to say. It is our joy as Christians to spend our lives reading, understanding and applying this word. But the opposite is also true. We must make sure we obey all of it. James tells us that anyone who breaks part of the law breaks it all. You can’t comfort yourself that you’ve never stolen anything while you commit a murder! God takes his word very seriously, as the warnings in verses 18 and 19 show us.

But if we don’t meddle with the Word, if we don’t make it say something it doesn’t, or stop saying something it does, then Heaven, the beautiful city, the tree of life and Jesus Himself will be ours forever. Jesus tells us four times in these verses that He is coming soon. If we wait for Him, we will be rewarded. Maybe He’ll come in our lifetimes, maybe He won’t. Maybe there will be massive, worldwide revival in our lifetimes, or maybe we’ll be mocked, or worse for believing that Jesus will come. But whatever happens we’re told to wait patiently, to obey God, and promised it will be worth it. Phul 3:20 reminds us that we are citizens of Heaven, and our responsibility as citizens is to wait for a saviour who will come.

God is a God who invites. In verse 17 we can almost see Him holding out His hand. Look at that with me as we close. Come, says the Spirit, come says the bride, come says the Lord. Come and drink, comes and be filled, come and be satisfied. You worship a God who wants all of you, who wants to reward you with more than you can possibly imagine, who wants to give you a better future than you can dream of. And He asks us to come.

Have you come?

The Happy Ending (part i)

This chapter is the ‘happily ever after’ of the Bible. The end of Revelation is the ultimate eucutastrophe, because the end of the world is the ultimate eucutastrophe. As we’ve seen over the last few weeks, Jesus returns on a war horse, destroys His enemies, and we will reign and live with Him for ever and ever in a beautiful and secure city. As you might expect, the last chapter of the Bible sums up the story of Revelation, and in fact, sums up the story of the whole Bible. What Jesus has promised to His people has never changed, whether it’s the first or the 21st century. We see three of those promises in this chapter.

In the first six verses John finishes his vision of the new city, the holy city, made of gold and pearls and jewels. Verses 1 and 2 tells us a river, the river of life flows through the city. Isn’t that a great picture, that the city is so alive that the river of life itself runs through it. This city is more beautiful, more attractive the more we learn about it. On either side of the river is the tree of life, which heals the nations. We’re told that nothing accursed will enter the city and that we will reign, with Jesus’ name on our foreheads, forever and ever.
Everything that was lost to us in the fall, access to the tree, access to healing, freedom from the pollution of sin and being cut off from Jesus will be restored. Everything will be new, everything will be mended, and we will live and reign in this beautiful city with Jesus.

How could you not want that? To live in purity, to live with Jesus will be better than we can possibly imagine it. And it will always get better. Always Christmas, never winter.

We can trust these words, because of what we read in verse 6. These words are trustworthy and true. We have no need to doubt them, The Bible isn’t the latest press release from a self interested company, or the latest news report spun to make a point, the Bible is the true and sincere and trustworthy Word of God. And if we keep this word, we’ll be blessed. Happy, richly rewarded by Jesus in Heaven. That’s what verses 7-9 tell us, look at those with me.

What does it mean to ‘keep the words of this prophecy?’ well I think it is a call to be faithful to the Word of God. To obey it, to live it and to do it. This is a prophecy about Jesus, about how He wins for the sake of His people. Are we going to live like that’s true or not? If you were in one of the seven churches this letter was originally written to you’d know what you were supposed to do to keep these words. Stop tolerating sin. Stop being lukewarm. Keep persevering in your faith. And things haven’t changed that much for us. We need to read the Bible to draw closer to Jesus, so that our hearts are shaped more by the Word than by the world, we need to be sharing our faith, which is the most radical, counter cultural, revolutionary thing we can do. If you want to be radical, live for Jesus and speak for Jesus! Keep the words of this prophecy.

Will I Be Bored In Heaven? (ii)

We see in Revelation 21:5 that Jesus makes all things new. And, what’s more, these things are trustworthy and true. If you trust Jesus for this life, for forgiveness of sins, for guidance, for whatever else, why shouldn’t you trust Jesus here as well? If you’re a Christian, no matter what happens between now and then, this is how your life will end up, this is where you’ll spend eternity. Everything is going to be new. Everything is going to be exciting. Nothing is going to be sinful, nothing is going to be boring. We’ll enjoy the newness of Heaven forever.

God makes another statement in verses 6 – 8, read those with me. God can say it is done, because He knows He will do it. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, He knows the end, so He can say, before it’s done, that it is. The end of verse 6 is a promise, and what a great promise it is. What is the qualification to enter this holy city? Thirst, and poverty. He’ll give water that satisfies and He’ll give it freely. What a promise that is! Remember this is what Jesus told the woman at the well, and now this promise is for all of us. Do you feel thirsty? Do you feel poor? Well great, you’re in! and, of course, the water that satisfies is Himself. Only Jesus will satisfy, are you thirsty for Him? Thirsty for your heart to be like His? Thirsty to see His justice? Thirsty to obey Him? Verse 8 makes it clear that if you don’t thirst for Him you’ll thirst for something else.

Verse 7 tell us that the one who conquers will have this heritage. What does that mean? It means that one who stays faithful to the end will inherit, earn, gain, be given these things. We’ll be sons of God. I’m not sure it gets much better. Imagine hearing this letter read for the first time. You’ve been told that persecution is coming, that people will quit the church, that Christians will be killed and that the devil will make war on you. And then what? If you overcome, you’ll be called God’s son. Doesn’t that make it worth it. I love how the Bible appeals to our senses. It doesn’t help us fight sin just be telling us that sin is evil and destructive, although it does do that, it helps us to fight sin by telling us about something better. You could quit the church to make life easy now, or you could overcome, and be called a son of God! I love that. If you trust God and thirst for Jesus more than anything else, then everything promised in this book is yours.

But if not, verse 8 warns us there can only be trouble. We all worship something. Jesus, or ourselves basically. If we worship ourselves we’ll be filled with cowardice, faithlessness, detestable thoughts and actions, and sexual immorality. If you don’t thirst for Jesus you’ll thirst for something like that. And you’ll end up where you belong, the lake of fire, the second death. If you reject Jesus, and reject righteousness, if your thirst for the toilet water of the world instead of the spring of Jesus, you’ll spend eternity where you want to be…away from Him.

We started be asking is Heaven will be boring? The real question, I guess, is will Jesus bore us for an eternity? Is there enough of Jesus to satisfy us totally, forever? It’s like a bird worrying he’ll run out of air, like a fish worrying he’ll run out of water. There’s the old song, ‘every day with Jesus is better than the one before,’ which is not totally true in this life, but it will be true in the next. I want to let one of my heroes, JE have the last word about this; ‘To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean’

Will I Be Bored in Heaven? (i)

Do you ever worry that Heaven might be a bit boring? You’d probably never say it out loud, but you’ve thought it. Life on Earth as a Christian seems so real, so fulfilling, so good, but what will Heaven be like? And eternity seems like a long time to be sitting on a cloud, or in a church service, or whatever. Can we be sure that we’ll enjoy Heaven?

The simple answer according to the Bible, and according to these eight verses, is a resounding and loud, yes! Yes! We can be sure that we’ll enjoy Heaven forever. In fact, we can be sure that the longer we’re in Heaven the more we will enjoy it. Revelation 21:1-8 promises us that we can look forward to a new Heaven and a new earth, where we will experience God’s mercy, where we’ll be satisfied by the pleasure of His presence, and where we’ll be delighted by fellowship with Him forever. Revelation 21:1-8 breaks up into two parts, in verses 1-4 we see that the former things have passed away, and in verses 5-8 we hear Jesus saying that He is making all things new.

Remember, the last two chapters of Revelation tell the story of the rest of time. The rebellion is over, the devil, the beast and the false prophet are gone forever, sin is gone forever with them and now we can live forever in peace with God. As The Lord promised to Abraham, He will be our God and we will be His people.

So let’s look at verses 1-4 together. Verses 1 and 4 both tell us that things have ‘passed away,’ those statements bookend this paragraph and let us know that this is it’s main thrust. Something has changed forever, never to go back. The old has gone, the new has come. We learn about the new Heaven, new Earth and the new Jerusalem in verses 1 and 2. These verses represt a fulfillment of God’s promise in Isaiah 65:13 where He promises to make a new Heavens and new Earth. Well here they are. Verse 1 gives us the wide angle of the whole new creation. No sea, no sin, no groaning, no corruption, then verse 2 narrows in on the new Jerusalem, which comes out of Heaven and to Earth. Maybe we should stop thinking about us going to Heaven, and start thinking about Heaven coming here. The city is ‘prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’ She’s pure, she’s holy, she’s beautiful, she’s ready. You and I have all been hurt by sin, by corruption, but Jesus promises us a world where none of these things exist. The new city isn’t a girlfriend who is going to break your heart, she’s your wife who will love you forever. Will we enjoy Heaven? Yes! We’ll enjoy the purity, the trust and the joy that comes from a world without sin. We can’t even imagine how good it will be there!

We can trust that these things are true because of who will be in the holy city. Look at verse 3 and 4 with me. Isn’t that the most astonishing promise. We’ll no longer be separated from God, in fact, we’ll be with Him. And where God is there is nothing to fear, nothing to ruin enjoyment. The presence of God is the greatest joy, the greatest reward the Bible knows how to offer, it’s what we were made for and we’ll enjoy it forever in Heaven! Every tear will be wiped away. Every sorrow forgotten. Every day will feel like the best day ever, because we will live with Jesus. No crying or prain. These things belong to the old order. These things, like sin, belong to a world influenced by the devil and his followers. These things belong to a world stained by sin. That world has passed away, gone forever. Jesus has made all things new.

God Saves, God Reigns, God invites (Revelation 19:1-10)

The best thing about studying Revelation is that it confronts you with the future, and with God. It confronts you with an inescapable picture of a future that gets very bad, and then very, very good for Christians. And it paints a picture of the God we need in 2013. The God who saves, who reigns and who invites. So let’s see how God saves in verses 1-5 of Revelation 19.

It’s pretty clear from verses 1 and 2 that God saves through judgment. Looks whose speaking in verse 1, a loud multitude, the inhabitants of Heaven praising God because of the fall of Babylon. They say ‘hallelujah’ because God has reclaimed His rightful place in the world. Babylon worshiped gods that did not save, but God’s salvation is real. Babylon claimed glory for herself, but all glory in the universe is rightly given to God. Babylon set herself up as the most powerful city ever, but God’s power wipes her out. Salvation, power and glory belong to our God, and to no one else.

What’s the cause of this praise? God’s judgment! We’ve been saying all along that how we feel about God’s judgment helps illustrate how we feel about Him. Well does God’s judgment make you sing? This is how we are going to be saved, by God cutting away the sin and evil in the world, destroying it, setting fire to it, according to verse 3, and rescuing us. Does that thought make you sing? But God’s judgment is not only just in a strict judicial sense, but it’s also right in a more worldly sense. It’s vengeance. Babylon killed the saints, and now Babylon herself lies defeated. Her judgment is irreversible and eternal. Hell is infinite, because God is infinite. Sin against God is infinitely bad.

There’s two images, two themes that run through these verses. Praise and judgment. We must realize that God’s judgment is nothing to fear, but something to look forward to, as long as we are right with God. And the next time you’re tempted, lured, seduced by sin, remember that sin will only ever end in loss and regret. Remember that the smoke from her goes up forever and ever.

So we’ve seen that God saves though judgment, and in verses 6-8, we see that God reigns.  Verse 6 tells us that the crowd in Heaven turn their attention from praising God for what He’s done to praising Him for who he is. He is sovereign, He is in charge and He always has been. This is so important for us to remember in this day and age, when it’s easy to feel as if God has dropped the ball. But He hasn’t, He reigns, and He always will. Again the crowd praises with a loud hallelujah. We can praise God because His reign means the end of evil and corrupt government, His reign on earth will mean the end of the persecution of Christians. Rebellion will end, and finally the world will be ruled as it should be. Imagine how good that day will be, when everything works, at every level of life and government, as it should! No wonder the crowd rejoices, and exults, and revels in the glory of the reign of God.

And it gets better. The wedding day has come, and the bride is finally ready, and finally pure. God had first ‘married’ Israel at Sinai, but they had been unfaithful to Him. Then in Hosea 2:14-23 we learn that God will make a new covenant, a new engagement with His people, and that one day will be consummated. John the Baptist said that his joy in Jesus was like the joy of someone at their friend’s wedding. Jesus taught that the Kingdom of Heaven was like a wedding feast, and that we should be ready as a bride is for the groom. Paul taught us in Ephesians 5 that marriage only exists to give us a picture of Christ and the church.

Can you imagine what a great feast, what a great celebration this will be. Think of how a Adam rejoiced when he first saw Eve, think of how a man rejoices when he sees his wife on his wedding day, think of how we will rejoice to see Jesus on that day. Never has a bride been more faithfully pursued and won, never has a Father spent more on the celebration of a wedding, never has guests been more ready. Never has a bride been as loved as this, never has the groom done more to prove His life. There has never been a wedding celebration like this. There has never been a love to rival the love that God has for His people.

Verse 9 tells us that the church will be clothed in white, which John explains is the righteous deeds of the saints. We learned earlier in 7:14 that this crowd had washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. Faith in Jesus and being washing in His blood is the only way to righteousness.

So which ending do you want? Judgment or salvation? Victory or defeat? And finally, blessings or cursings?  Verse 9 tells us that blessed are those who are invited to this supper. Blessing here means happy, looked upon with favour by God. Those who have faith in Jesus will be invited, will be looked after, and will be loved by the God who invites. Think about how this would’ve made the original readers of this book feel. Revelation probably would’ve been read all in one go in church meetings, so they would have been faced with the fact that they were going to face awful trials, suffering and maybe even death because of their faith. But, maybe ten minutes later, they hear that Jesus is coming for them. Jesus, full of love and power, full of gentleness was going to come and get them, and take them to the wedding feast, and they’d be together for the rest of time. Imagine how that would have felt for them. It would have made everything that they went through seem like it was worth it, everything that they suffered would seem small compared to their reward.

Jesus is enough. He is overwhelmingly enough.

John is so overwhelmed by this message that he falls down and worships the angel, before being strongly rebuked. Only God is worthy of worship. We can trust John’s message because it is the spirit of Jesus.

Look at the blessing you stand to gain by following Christ. Will you be on the side of the one who saves, who reigns and who invites. Or will you be on the side of the beast, who lies and loses, who leads you astray and is conquered, will you be in the city that burns forever. Sin will only lead to regret, Jesus will only lead to joy. There are pleasures forever at His right hand. 

Prop 8 and Rev 19

Wednesday was an historic day in America, as the Supreme Court ruled that the state of California could not discriminate against those who wanted a same sex marriage. The court majority ruled that the DOMA, signed into law by Clinton in September 1996, was unconstitutional because it was written to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and therefore discriminated morally against homosexuals.

It's worth pausing, just for a second, to reflect on how quickly the world changes. Not just the truism that what is taboo, illegal even, in the first generation will be celebrated in the third, but that as recently as 1996, a Democrat government (!) led by Clinton (!) could legislate against same sex marriage. These are extraordinary days we live in.

The Church, as i see it, has a number of options. We can throw out the Bible and jump into the hand basket, because that eerie glow in the distance must be the dawn of a new day. That's obviously exactly the wrong thing to do. Or we can shout and scream and mourn the death of the god of American civil government, and lament the fact that the founding fathers would be turning in their graves, which is also far from the best course of action. We can point out the elephant in the room, the logical fallacy of allowing a man who wants to marry another man equality, but not a man who wants to marry several women. Or indeed an elephant. And the time will come for that. Bad laws take two or three generations to wreak their havoc. You're relegated at the end of the season, not on transfer deadline day.

Or we can do the best thing, the sensible thing. We can wonder to ourselves, why do they nations rage, humming along with Jesus as He walked out of the tomb. We can remember that since the Fall, men's feet have rushed to shed blood. We can remember that the Bible promises us these days, and that God always keeps His promises.

Those aren't the only promises in the Bible though. God promises Adam a serpent crusher. He promises Abraham a country. He promises Moses rescue. He promises David a son. He promises Jeremiah return. He promises us that He'll never leave us. The root, the ground, and the goal of all these promises is found in Revelation 19:11-21. In these verses we find Jesus, not cowed by the Supreme Court, not silence by secularism, riding a white horse. Jesus' robes are dipped in the blood of His enemies, and His victory is sure. He comes, and throws the beast and the false prophet in the lake of fire, he destroys those who follow the unholy trinity. Soon He'll bind the devil too. He doesn't looked perturbed, he doesn't look weak, he doesn't look like a legend or a fairy tale. He looks terrifying. He is. And victory belongs to Him.

No matter what happens between then and now, we have to remember this. Not because we want to destruction of sinners, we long for their God glorifying salvation. That they would see, as Christians do, the irresistible loveliness of Jesus, and come to Him. We need to remember that all God's promises are, quite literally Yes in Jesus, because all too often the Church feels like an overlooked seventh son, headed towards a giant just five stones and a sling shot.

And we all know how that turned out.

The Mark of the Father (Revelation 14:1-5)

I think it helps our understanding of Revelation if we constantly remind ourselves that it was written, and is written to Christians under intense persecution. Christian dad who'd lost their jobs. Christian mothers who couldn't feed their kids, Christian churches whose leaders had been arrested, or had mysteriously 'disappeared.' I think John uses the persecution of the church under Nero as a type of the persecution to come. Just like in Mark 13 Jesus uses the destruction of the Temple as a type of the calamity to fall on the world before His return.

I also think that Revelation teaches that such days will befall the church again before the end, so that whatever encouragement first century readers would have found in this book, we must also find, and encourage ourselves with.

Imagine what it would have been like to be a struggling Christian when you heard chapter 14:1-5 for the first time. All around you see death and torment. But then you hear that Jesus is on mount Zion, totally in charge of history, and that he has His people with Him. His people are sealed, or marked, not with the mark of the beast, but with the name of God the Father. In verse 3 we hear God’s people singing a song of celebration, because Jesus has won. You don't celebrate defeats. History is written by the winners, and hear the winders as they write history. This is a snapshot of what’s going on in heaven while the Church is being persecuted. Those who stay faithful to Jesus are rewarded, death is not the end for them.

 

What do the faithful 144,000 look like?  We met them previously in chapter 7, where we saw that those sealed by God will not yield to the temptation to come. There are four things that mark our God's people, sealed by the Father,
 

First of all, they have not defiled themselves with women. This is obviously symbolic language for worldly impurity. They have not been overcome by immorality, or perversion or evil. They are pure in their devotion to Jesus as a husband is to his wife. They have a singular zeal for Jesus which remains undimmed by the trials and temptations of living in the world.

Secondly, they follow the lamb wherever he goes. We know Jesus is the lamb, and that He commands us through His Word, the Bible. I love this picture. Jesus is the Lamb that we follow, not the shepherd here. He is the Lamb of God who we behold. He is the one who will lead us well, because He is the one who laid down His life for us. Do you follow Him wherever He goes?

Thirdly, they have been redeemed. No work of their own got them their, they have been saved by Jesus death, not by being a nice person. That’s what gets people to Heaven. Revelation is brutally clear that the world is not broken up into Christians and mean people. The blood of Christ is the great dividing line. Are you trusting, not in your Bible reading or church attendance, not even in your grace wrought good works, but in the blood of Christ.

And finally, they tell the truth. While the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, while the media and the culture are filling the world with lies, the people of God are telling the truth. We tell the truth about marriage. We tell the truth about abortion. In days to come we'll tell the truth about the false prophet. We share our faith. 

So what is the mark of the Father? Faithful, passionate, spreading, obedience to Jesus. This is the mark of God the Father, that which glories His Son, and serves His Church.

How Does The Church Overcome?

Has more ink been spilt in the history of the church than answering the question, 'how to understand Revelation?' Well maybe, but not by much. Today, and for at least a week now, my answer to that question has been 'chiastically.' I think Revelation is a chiasm centered around 11:15-19, and that the revelation John receives either side of that moment tells the same story. Two mentions of the 144,000, a real prophet and a false prophet, and, in chapter 11 and chapter 12, the story of the battle between good and evil between the people of God, signified by the two prophets in 11 and the woman in 12, and the world, or the devil, or the many headed and horned dragon.

These two chapters tell the story of how God protects and nourishes the church. The two witnesses are untouchable until their time of witnessing is over, the woman is taken off into the wilderness, a place of revelation and intimacy, where she is pursued by, but protected from, the devil. He's thrown down the earth, and rages like the mortally wounded animal he is, but is foiled, and is overcome.

These two chapters reveal to us that, for a short while, it will look like the world has total victory over the church. The bodies of the witnesses lie dead in the streets of 'Sodom, and Egypt, and Jerusalem,' while the world celebrates and exchanges gifts. Nothing looks like a more one sided fight than a seven headed dragon against a woman in labour. But the witnesses and resurrected and raptured, the baby ascends and the woman is safe.

And, in 12:11, the brothers have overcome. How? By the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

I love how precious verse 11 is. How does the church overcome the world? By the blood of the lamb and by their testimony. By their message, and by their life. These verses tell us how satan’s accusations are thrown out of the court of heaven. This is what the devil does, he accuses. He accuses us of sin, he tells God about our sin. And he’s not lying either. We know we’re sinners, we know we’ve made a horrible mess of things. We don’t overcome by cleaning up, we overcome by the blood of the lamb. What does that mean? It means that Jesus has won on our behalf. Jesus has defeated this dreadful beast for us. We can not live perfect lives, so the devil accuses us, but when he accuses us, we can point to Jesus, shedding His blood on the cross, and tell the devil that our sins have been punished, and no longer stand in the way of our relationship with God.

Satan is thrown to earth, where his time to create chaos, sin and misery are short. So he is raging with all the passion of a mortally wounded enemy. he comes to us raging, and when satan tells you that you’re a sinner, thank him, and remind him that Christ died for sinners!

If we love our lives not even unto death, we will awake and find ourselves in heaven. How do we love our lives not even unto death? By remembering verse 12. Everything that looks good in this world us under the power of the devil. It’s time is short and it’s end is death. So cling to the Gospel, and don’t buy the lies of satan, the defeated accuser.

All that glitters in the world is not gold. And for a while the glittering world will look pretty good. We'll be tempted to say with Elijah that we're the only ones left, but like Moses lead Israel out of Egypt in an apparently hopeless situation, so Jesus will lead us to overcome.

But only if we cling to the Gospel, only as we overcome by the blood of the lamb, and love not our own lives even unto death.

True Beauty

Why do we sin? The Bible tells us it's because we enjoy it, at least on some level. That our hearts are so sick that we gladly turn our back son the fountain of life giving water and drink out of man made cisterns instead. That instead of swimming in the ocean of God's goodness, we'd rather drown in a muddy puddle, sucking dirty water from the ground.

But we don't see sin like that do we? We see sin as attractive, fun, beautiful even. That's why, or one of the reasons at least, that John saw what he saw in Revelation 9. The middle chapters of Revelation are some of the hardest i've ever preached through. Not because of the manifold interpretations of those chapters, but because of the undoubted truth that they proclaim. Whether you see the ghastly locusts and terrifying armies of Revelation 9 as symbolic of the devils activities from day one, or an historical prophesy of actual famine and wars (or, as i'm increasingly beginning to, both) the message is clear. Pull the beautiful mask away from sin, and the truth is as ugly as it gets.

We don't see casual lustful glances as ugly as locusts with lions teeth, but we should. We don't see the materialism that takes money from the offering plate as awful as a deadly sting that doesn't kill, but we should. We don't see the joy we pursue as if this life is all we have like sulphur breathing horses, but we should. And Revelation 9 helps us to.

So is this the key to our sanctification? Just grit our teeth, remember that what looks attractive really isn't, and life our lives in a state of stoic denial? Luckily our maker knows us better than that!

In John 17:26 Jesus prays that the love the Father has for Him might be in us. That is, that we might see Jesus as beautiful, as attractive, as lovely as He really is. This is the key to taking our gaze off the shiny trinkets of the world, this is the way we see sin for what it is, by seeing something better. Next to the blazing midday sun of the love of God in Christ, sin looks like a candle, next to the fullness of joy in the presence of our Lord, sin looks like the loss that it is.

So we pray, we pray for eyes to see the world as it really is. We pray like the bride in the Song, for help to find our beloved as we wander through the city. We open the Bible, and ask the Lord to reveal Himself to us, and make us sick with love by faith in Him, not by sight in the world.

We sin, not because our desires are too strong, but because they are too weak. In the Bible we find a love stronger than death, a love strong enough to satisfy our every desire, forever.

The Bible Question is 'Who?'

We've been studying Revelation together for the past few weeks in Teen Sunday school. Last weekend we covered chapter 4, sort of leaving port and pushing off into the great unknown of the main body of the book. The stuff that i think my teens were thinking of when they asked to study this book, the many headed beasts, the woman clothed with the sun, the dead prophets in the street.

Something in us, and i think it's a good thing, wants to spend time puzzling these things out doesn't it? Something wants to tie down once and for all who the 144,000 are and whether the millennium is a literal thousand years, and what exactly happens during that time anyway. I'm no different. I was reading A Fire Kindled From Heaven again this weekend, and found myself wondering why i think the Puritan's have the Song right but Revelation wrong. It's ok to mix and match from history though isn't it. I don't even agree with Piper on everything (that's what i tell people anyway!)

I guess there are two equal and opposite errors we can make reading Revelation. We can either take it too literally, or not literally enough. If we make the first error we end up reading Revelation like Acts, trying to ascribe meaning to every detail, and missing the big picture. If we make the second, we forget that John really did see these things, and they really do have something concrete to tell us, and we end up missing the big picture.

And what's the big picture? Wrong question, who is the big picture? Jesus. Who is always the Bible question. Who does Abel tell us about? Or Joseph? Or Ahasuerus? It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not a text book for the end of the world.

This is clear in chapter 4. When you read it, the word throne stands out above anything else. So you can get caught up in the colours of His appearance, or who four things the living creatures signify. Or you can get your eyes on the throne, and bask, and join in with the worship of the creatures and elders. We can look around us and be discouraged whether in the first century or the twenty first, or we can look to the throne and see Jesus. See Jesus who holds everything in the palm of His hand. See Jesus who rules for His people.

This is the big picture isn't it? Not only of Revelation, but of the whole Bible. The question is who, not what. Who sits on the throne? Who is worthy of worship? Who is your beloved? Who is this man who commands the wind and the sea.

Jesus. He is the big picture, He is the answer to the puzzle, He is the key to the lock, He is the highest point of any superlative you care to name. And He is the point of Revelation. Let's get our eyes on Him.

Things are Better and Worse Than They Seem

It's easy to feel like the seven letters in Revelation have too much to say to us, or too little to say to us. We can be guilty in this book, as with any other, of reading things that aren't there, and missing the things that are. So what is missing in the letter to Smyrna? A rebuke. One of only two letters where Jesus has nothing to say against the church. These were a committed bunch of believers, and we can learn from them.

Imagine being a Christian in Smyrna towards the end of the first century. You have a small but vibrant church, people are getting saved and baptised, people are sharing their faith and working out how to live faithfully in their pagan culture. Things are great. But then...people start losing their jobs, someone's property is vadalised, when you go the market you hear all sorts of accusations made against you and your family, people in your church are disappearing. Things are not so great.

And then, a letter arrives from John. And as you read this letter, your hands shaking, your breathe quickening, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary letter, but it comes from Jesus Himself. What a joy! What does the Lord have to say to us in our persecution? Well, He's with us. He's lived and died and lived again! He stands by the church in tribulation, He knows. Tribulation doesn't equal abandonment, it just equals tribulation.

But then... 'some of you will be thrown into jail for ten days...' What? I thought this was supposed to be encouraging? Things are going to get worse? It seems that this letter is telling us that there will be a dedicated time of persecution against this church. It will be short, but long enough. Some of these Christians will have to be faithful in the face of death. I wonder how that was received. When this letter was read on the Lord's Day, i wonder what the reaction was. Maybe there wasn't one, maybe they knew that this was coming, maybe the reaction came from the end of the letter.

'...I will give you the crown of life...you will not be hurt by the second death...' Whoah! Things are better than they seem. Life might be 70 years years of sin, sickness and suffering, but then...the crown! Then, immunity to the second death. Then? Life, with Jesus forever. So the synagogue of satan can do what they want, i'm sticking with Jesus, life can get worse than I dread, i'm sticking with Jesus, and waiting for the crown.

This isn't 'pie in the sky when you die,' this is real, concrete, solid ground hope. This is knowing what the future holds and holding onto it. This is what kept the church in Smyrna growing.

And this is what has to keep you and me going. This week, things might be worse than they seem. Bad news, bad accidents, bad diagnoses might crush us. But things are better than they seem. Much better. For those who overcome, the crown of life awaits, for those who are faithful till death, there is a joyful eternity with Jesus waiting.

The Church at Ephesus

The church at Ephesus was a good looking church. Living in the midst of an evil and depraved city, they were working hard and persevering amidst persecution. They had been written to by Paul, and led by Timothy. This looked like a thriving church, a great example to those around them in Asia minor.

Except, Jesus knew different. In his letter to this church, found in Revelation 2, he tells them that they have lost their first love...Him. Ouch! They were working, serving and persevering...but not loving. That should be a great warning to us. We can look good on the outside, but be dead on the inside. We can work and work and work, but fail to love. Everything we do ends up being 'because we have to,' rather than the overflow of our love for Christ. It's not even clear that this church knew they had lost their love, perhaps not since Jesus used John to bring it to their attention in such a direct way.

What do we need to do when we feel our love growing cold? This is a problem for Christians everywhere in every century. Even Paul had to remind Timothy to 'fan into flame the gift of God,' in 2 Timothy 1:6. So what do we do when we feel the flames dying? Jesus tells this church to remember, and repent.

We need to repent. Maybe some world loving sin is clouding our love for Jesus and dampening the flames. Maybe our love is growing cold because we've bought into the lies of sin. A deliberate, faith filled turning from sin is what is prescribed here. This is what our spiritual health needs, to stop believing that sin satisfies, and remember that Jesus satisfies.

Remember, that's the next thing we need to do. Remember the works you did at first. Remember that first rush of faith, that first excitement when you met Jesus, the first buzz when you said no to sin and yes to Him. Remember what that felt like and do it again. Struggling Christian, stay in church, stay in close fellowship with other Christians. Keep reading your Bible, even if it starts out of a sense of obligation rather than faith. The Holy Spirit will breathe on your heart and set it aflame. Remember the astonishing promises that God will love you freely (Hos 14:4). Remember that there is more grace in Christ than sin in us, and that He is glorified not by performance, but dependence.

And what rewards we're promised. Eternal life, eating of the tree of life in paradise. Jesus shows us a reward that makes fighting dead works with love worth every bit of effort. Repent, remember and return, because amazing rewards await you when you do.

The Vertical View

In Teen Sunday School this weekend we looked at Revelation 1:9-20. I guess this is the proper introduction to the revelation he has received. He talks about who he's writing to, where he is and who he sees. He talks about his point of view, about why he's in exile.

Why is he there? Because of the testimony of Christ and the Word of God. Why is he stuck on Patmos? Because he has a vertical view of the world, not a horizontal one. It was his vertical view of life that got him into trouble, his view of Jesus, and His Word and His church, his refusal to say that Caesar is Lord, because of his view of Jesus. Jesus is Lord.

We need a vertical view of the world, if we are to thrive and grow as Christians. We are constantly surrounded by temptation to forget about the word of God and about His glorious Christ and give up a vertical view for a horizontal one. But what does a vertical viewpoint look like?

A vertical view sees the church as an unquestionable priority. We find, join, serve and give to a church that preaches the Gospel. We see the church as beyond the wisdom of the world, as more than a gathering of people with shared morals. We see the church as the most precious thing on earth, the bride of Christ bought with His blood.

A vertical view sees reading the Bible as an unutterable privilege. That God has spoken, not in a special language or code, but in a way we can understand should astonish us. A vertical view of the Bible will do that. This view sees the Bible not as a collection of ideas written by men, but as the Word of God spoken to us, as that which is necessary for instruction and growth.

A vertical view sees Jesus as the glorious blazing centre of the universe. The Reality upon and around which all reality exists. A vertical view sees Jesus as the Son of God, not as a philosopher or a good guy. A vertical view means that Jesus Words have a weight that others' don't, that we obey Him without question and follow Him closely. A vertical view is the view that will lead us to sing with the multitude in Revelation 'holy, holy, holy.'

So, simply, what is a vertical view. A real view, a view that sees the world as it really is, with priorities in their place. In the world of temptation, where the horizontal cries out for attention we must give ourselves to the vertical view, because, in reality, it is the only view there is.

Revelation 1:7-8

The book of Revelation has been described as the ultimate action thriller. Remember we saw last week that this book is about Jesus? Well, John also tells us about Jesus John also tells us about the end of the world. This book talks about the rise of an evil ruler, a war to end all wars, and most terrifying of all, the final judgement itself.

But Revelation has a happy ending. It, like Mark, is a eucatastrophe. All Heaven is breaking lose by the end of this book. Jesus is on His throne, He is worshipped as God by His people in perfection forever. Revelation ends with the second coming, and John gives us a preview of that second coming here in 1:7-8. We learn five things about the second coming in these two verses. We learn about it’s necessity, glory, scope, response and certainty.

First of all, the second coming is necessary. Look at the first four words of verse 7. Behold, He is coming.. Behold is a word in the Greek that mean something like ‘pay attention,’ or ‘listen up.’ John is telling us something important here. And that is? Jesus is coming. His return is necessary. More than 500 verses in the Bible talk about Jesus return, maybe as many as one out of every 25 verses in the NT talks about Jesus second coming. Jesus repeatedly spoke of His return and warned His followers to be ready for it.

Are we ready?

Alongside these references in the Bible, there are many reasons why Jesus’ return is necessary. God’s promises require that Jesus return (Gen 49:10, Ps 2:6-9). Secondly, Jesus Himself promised that He would return, as we’ve mentioned. Thirdly, the HS guarantees that Jesus would return. He is the Spirit of truth, so every promise of Jesus’ return in Scripture is also a promise from Him. Fourth God’s plan for the church, the world and Israel demands Jesus return (Rev 3:10, Rom 11:1-2)

Secondly, verse seven tells us that Jesus second coming will be glorious. John tells us that Jesus will come ‘with the clouds.’ Clouds in scripture symbolize glory. Like Moses on Mt Sinai. These clouds show us Jesus descent from Heaven. They symbolize the brilliant light that will accompany Him. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that this is the radiance of God’s glory.

At the end of verse 7, we see the scope of the second coming. Every eye will see Him. You won’t have to guess, you’ll know. Even those who pierced Him. Even Jesus enemies will be forced to admit who He is. They’ll mourn, some in repentance, some in fear.

What about you?

Look at John’s response in verse 7. Even so, amen. Two words, strong plea for Jesus to come. Do we pray like that?

Finally, in verse 8, we see the second coming is certain. Jesus is the alpha anc the omega. Greek alphabet, beginning and end. He has all the knowledge there is to have. If He says it, it’s going to happen!
Jesus is, and was, and is to come. He’s not confined by space or time. His word is not contingent on anything. His promise settles the issue.

Third, He is the almighty. Nothing can stop Him. His plans are made, and His is coming.
Jesus Christ once left heaven for earth in humiliation, He'll be back in exaltation. He once left heaven to be killed, He will do it again to kill. He once left heaven to serve, He will do it again to be served. He once left heaven to offer grace, He will do it again to demand justice. He once left heaven to seek and to save, He will do it again to search and destroy.

The question always in this book is: are you ready? He is coming. John Phillips writes, "One of the most stirring passages in English history tells of the conquests and crusades of Richard I, Richard the Lionhearted. While Richard was away trouncing Saladin(?), his kingdom fell on bad times. His sly and graceless brother John usurped all the prerogatives of the king and misused the realm. The people of England suffered longing for the return of their king and praying that it might be very soon. Then one day Richard came. He landed in England and marched straight for his throne. Around that glittering coming many tales are told woven into the legends of England, one of them is the story of Robin Hood. John's castles tumbled like nine pins, great Richard laid claim to his throne and none dare stand in his path. The people shouted their delight, they rang peel after peel on the bells, the lion was back and they cried, `Long live the king.'"

And one day a King far greater than Richard will lay claim to a realm far greater than England. And those who have abused the earth in His absence, and those who have seized His domains and mismanaged His world will all be swept aside. And only those who love Him and bow the need to His sovereignty will participate in His Kingdom.

Revelation 1:1-6 Notes

At the request of the class, we started looking at Revelation during Teen Sunday School this week. Here are my notes from chapter 1:1-6

V1a: Revelation is a book that shows us the truth. It’s full of strange and wonderful images, but it’s essential for our understanding of the truth about the end of the world.

V1b: It’s theme is Jesus Christ. That’s ultimately who this book is about. Not when the rapture is, not who will be ruling when the antichrist comes, but Jesus. It’s about His ultimate victory? Simply put, what is revelation about? Jesus winning! Revelation is such an exciting book to read and understand, because it shows us how Jesus will ultimately sit on the throne and receive all the glory He is due.

V1c: This revelation was given to Christ, by God to show to his servants. Not everyone can receive the truth that is contained in Revelation, but only those who believe in Jesus, only those who love Jesus. That’s the meaning of the word translated as servants here. A doulos was a special type of slave who served his master out of love, rather than because he had to. This revelation comes to Christ’s followers.

V1d: Revelation is focused fully on future events, and this is what sets it apart from other NT books. There’s no history here, only prophecy. We’re told that these things take place soon. It’s not our place to try and figure out when soon is, but to have faith that these things are coming. Remember that to the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. The Lord is patient in His coming, but coming He is.

V1e-2: God made this revelation known though an angel and a servant. This perhaps is how John was taken up into Heaven to receive the revelation, by an angel. So what have we learnt from the first two verses of this book. Firstly perhaps, that there’s nothing to be scared of in studying Revelation. It may seem complicated, and parts of it are, but it’s a Revelation, not a mystery. Second, everything in this book centres around Jesus. If we can’t figure something out, thinking about how it relates to Jesus will help. Thirdly we’ve seen that this book is written to help us deepen our relationship with Christ, and because of that, we should pay attention.

V3: We see this last part in verse 3. When we hear God’s desires and demands written in His Word we have to obey, because the time is near. Time is running out before Christ comes again. He’s closer now that He was when you woke up this morning, so we must pay attention if we are to receive the blessing. And what a blessing it is.

V4-5: We see the setting for this letter, John is writing to churches in Asia who are being persecuted. He will later address each one of these churches, but it’s interesting that Revelation doesn’t look like a normal letter. Most of it, as we’ve said is set well into the future, what is to come should shape the way we live today. These verses contain John’s greeting, and we learnt that it’s not just John who is writing this letter, but that it comes directly from Jesus. This is even more reason to pay attention to what’s being said.

V6: Here John just bursts forth with praise. ‘to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.’ Jesus deserves all praise and worship, and one day that’s exactly what He will get. That Jesus has freed us from our sins by His blood is the heart of the Gospel, and it’s that thought which causes John to praise Him here. Jesus will eventually take His rightful place on the throne, and all will worship Him, Revelation tells us how that happens at the end of human history.