Uncategorized – Page 2 – JOY LIKE SWORDS

Pastoral Prayer

Prayers for the Church

Father, may you sanctify your church completely. Keep us blameless in body and soul until the coming of our Lord Jesus. We know you are faithful and will do this (1 Thess. 2:23-24)

Prayers for the Lost

Father, we pray for the nation and the people of Afghanistan. We grieve that their nation is under the control of a terrorist group and ask for your mercy. Preserve the lives of Afghans that they might hear the good news of Jesus. Give strength to your church which is being persecuted and hunted. May they be courageous for Christ.

We pray as well for the nation of Kazakhstan. Thank you for the growth of your church in that nation. We pray for the nearly 6 million people in that nation who have yet to hear the gospel of Christ. Embolden your church to evangelize and spread.

Prayers for Members

Lord God, we thank you that our sister ________ is home from the hospital and rehab and ask that you would continue to heal her body.

Lord we pray for those who are physically wearied or anxious at heart. May they cast all their cares upon you for we know you care for us.

Prayers for those in Authority

Father, heal our own nation which has forgotten you, and is deeply divided. Bring a spirit of repentance and humility to those who govern us. Help them to see their own finitude and need of your wisdom, your truth, your power.

We pray especially for the citizens of our nation. Father, you have given us the leaders that we have asked for. So humble and convict the people of our nation. Help us to see our sin, to repent, and to choose leaders who will honor you and your Law.

Prayers for Churches & Missionaries

Father, we pray for Bethel Baptist Church, and their Pastor Steve Kirby. As he plans to hand off the church to his new associate pastor Drew Boland, fill their church with grace and peace. May their transition of leadership be a time of unity and maturity.

Father, we thank you that Redeeming Grace Presbyterian has called their new pastor Henry Beaulieu. Thank you for guiding them through this season of transition and we ask now that the saints there would be fed and cared for through his ministry.

Lastly, we pray for our Operation Christmas Child drive. As we pack boxes and pray for the children they will be sent to, we ask that many would come to know Christ because of our labor. May we always be a giving church, a sending church: a church on mission for Christ.

Lord God, the needs of our church, of our city, and of this world are great. But we take comfort knowing that you are greater than all these because you are the Maker and Sustainer of everything.

As we come now to give tithes and offerings, cause us to do so with gladness, giving to you out of what you have given to us.

In Christ’s name, and for his sake. Amen.

Be Faithful Unto Death: Christ’s Word to a Suffering Church – Revelation 2:8-11

THE TEXT:

The text for the sermon today is Revelation 2:8-11. Our text can be found on page 1028. These are the words of God:

⁸“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.

⁹“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’ (ESV

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Smyrna, the modern-day Turkish city of Izmir, was a wealthy harbor town in the Aegean Sea, north of Ephesus. The church was likely planted by Paul at the end of his third missionary journey.

Christ, who will shortly tell them to be faithful unto death, has already blazed that trail for them. (v. 8) The Smyrnean Christians suffered economic hardship as their former friends who were Jewish informed on them to the Roman authorities, yet they were richer than they appeared. By lying about Christians, these Jews have joined the church of Satan, who is the accuser of the brothers. (v. 9; 12:10)

During the early to mid-first century, the Christian church enjoyed a degree of protection under the umbrella of Judaism, but in the aftermath of the Neronian persecution which targeted Christians, Jewish synagogues actively distanced themselves from Christianity.

There were other reasons for Jews to inform on Christians. Ignatius tells us there was jealousy that Jews were converting to Christianity and Justin, in his Dialogue tells us that the Jews considered the Christian worship of a crucified criminal as the Messiah a blasphemy.

Though the economic suffering was painful, Christ warned that intensified persecution was coming. The state will soon sponsor direct attacks on Christian congregations and members to throw them into prison. They will follow the model set by Christians like Daniel and his friends in Babylon. (Dan. 1:12-15) Faithfulness to death will receive the victor’s crown. (v. 10)

The passage ends by calling every church to heed the words of Christ. Tribulations rise in every age. The church conquers through faithful obedience will not be condemned (v. 11)

WHAT IS PERSECUTION?

Several forms of persecution are mentioned by the Lord Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount. First, there is the persecution of the righteous by the wicked.

¹⁰“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The wicked take God’s good gifts such as power and wealth and misuse them against the the righteous who are weak and poor. The Psalter is full of this kind of persecution, and it’s always happening. In a sense, all of human history since Genesis 3 is a history of persecution.

The second form of persecution Christ mentions is that which targets Christians for being Christians.

¹¹“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Formal persecution of Christians by the state, or by outsiders waxes and wanes throughout history (Domitian, Soviet Purges), and we ought not be surprised when it rears its ugly head. Though Satan cannot stop the advance of the gospel into all the nations, he may still inflict persecution to try to hamper the church’s mission.

WHY DOES CHRIST ALLOW PERSECUTION?

Amazingly, Christ never tells Smyrna to pray that the tribulation might come to a close. When we read the book of Acts, a record of the earliest persecutions, the disciples never once asked God to remove the persecution. Instead, the prayer is for boldness and faithfulness in the face of persecution. This is because those first disciples understood that the same God who sent Daniel into the lion’s den, and his own Son to the cross, is the same sovereign God who has allowed persecution to come to them.

While it isn’t wrong to ask God for mercy, if “getting out of persecution,” is a higher priority than faithfulness to Christ in persecution, then the persecution won’t have done you any good.

Jesus tells the Smyrnean church that even though the devil meant to destroy them, he, Christ, meant to vindicate them as true believers through their faithfulness. In other words, every single persecution is a trial, a test of the genuineness of your faith in Christ.

The time of testing is in his hands. Some of us are looking at the trajectory of our nation. We see parental rights being stripped. We see churches being forced to not meet. And we wonder, what is happening? But Revelation 2 tells us what is happening: you are being tested. Your faith is being tried. And you don’t conquer by changing the culture. You conquer by being faithful to Jesus Christ regardless of the consequences.

WHAT DO WE DO WHEN FACED WITH PERSECUTION?

Christ gives the Smyrnean church two commands: first, they are not to fear. This cannot mean that God is prohibiting the natural fear of starvation, poverty, or even death. Those are good fears, given to us by God to keep us in our creaturely place. Rather, those fears are not to overwhelm us. They are not to grow to such a size that we believe God has been rendered impotent to save us.

Second, they are to be faithful unto death.

Polycarp, one of the best-known ancient Christian martyrs, was a member of the Smyrnian church. According to the ancient church fathers Tertullian and Irenaeus, Polycarp became the senior minister of the church after he was ordained by the apostle John. No doubt this letter from Christ via John to Smyrna was a great encouragement to Polycarp.

Polycarp was in his twenties when this letter came to the church of Smyrna, and he died when he was eighty-six. On February 22, AD 156, this venerable bishop, who had fled from Smyrna at the urging of his local church, was tracked down in a hiding place twenty miles from Smyrna. He made no attempt to flee but instead offered food and drink to his captors. When they asked him if he had any special requests before being martyred, he asked for two hours for prayer. The officers granted his request, then bound him and brought him back to Smyrna for trial.

Two weeks later, Polycarp was led into the amphitheater, where he would be put to death before thousands of people. The proconsul said: “Polycarp, I will have respect for your old age. Swear just once by the genius of Caesar,² and I will immediately release you.” Polycarp replied: “Eighty-six years have I served Christ, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?” The proconsul persisted, saying: “The wild beasts are ready. If you refuse to swear by Caesar, you will be thrown to them.” Polycarp answered, “Bid them be brought.” Infuriated, the proconsul responded: “As you despise beasts, I give you one last opportunity to change your mind. Else I shall destroy you by fire.” But Polycarp refused to recant.

Polycarp was brought to the stake. Before he was fastened with cords, he said, “I have one request; leave me unfastened, for I will die voluntarily for my Master’s sake.” The captors left him unfastened as they kindled the fire. Wind drove the flames away, prolonging Polycarp’s agony, but also giving him more time to confess Christ. Over the flames and wind, Polycarp cried out, “O Lord, Almighty God, the Father of Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of Thee, I thank Thee that Thou hast thought me worthy this day, this hour to share the cup of Thy Christ among the number of Thy witnesses.” That so angered one soldier that he took his sword and pierced the old man who refused to run from the flames of death.

And at that moment, a crown was set on Polycarp’s head. It was the crown that Jesus had already won for him, and for you.

Do You Know Rousseau?

INTRODUCTION

Continuing our plod through the three governments that God instituted, we come now to the state or civil government. We, as a culture, have forgotten that it is God himself, not humans, who instituted civil government to uphold to rule of law and to punish lawbreakers.

The only hope for the future of civil governments is to remember to Biblical origin of civil governments. The state only possesses the authority that God has granted the state. The state is not above the law but beneath it. But, before we can define the Biblical origin of the civil government, it’s crucial that you understand the modern myth our culture has embraced concerning the beginnings of human societies.

DO YOU KNOW ROUSSEAU?

If you took a political science course at university, you would not doubt have been exposed to Jean Jacques Rousseau and his (in)famous Social Contract. If not, here’s the basic idea. Before modern societies and states existed, human beings lived as what he termed “noble savages.” They were “savage” because they were not in society, but they were “noble” because they had complete and total freedom. Rousseau taught that humans, in some pre-historical age, agreed to give up some of their freedoms in order to cooperate for social benefits and protection. Thus, the term social contract. This theory of the origin of human government is not unique to Rousseau. You can find social contract theory in Thomas Hobbes as well as John Locke.

Here’s the problem: it’s all fiction. There never was a “noble savage.” Man has always existed in relationship to his Maker and his Maker’s law. Man has never been totally free. Even Adam, before the Fall, did not possess full autonomy. Civil governments didn’t begin in some pre-historic past but began after recorded history. And, because God, not men instituted civil government, God, not men defines its sphere of authority.

KNOW NOAH

The origins of the civil government are found in the first chapters of Genesis.

⁵The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. (Genesis 6:11)

Between Genesis 3 (the Fall) and Genesis 7:11 (the flood waters of judgment cover the earth) we see that fallen humans have managed to fill the earth, not with ordered governments, but evil. God’s judgment poured out, quite literally, cleanses the earth. Noah’s family, who are saved by God’s mercy, receive the same cultural mandate that Adam and Eve received in the garden.

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… (Genesis 9:1)

But to that cultural mandate, God adds the command that civil government be established in order to protect human life and restrain evil.

⁶“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image. (Genesis 9:6)

In this single verse, God has given to civil government the power to wield the sword against those who break the law. Criminals are to be held to account. We often refer to the contents of Genesis 9 as the Noahic Covenant. It’s a covenant that God has ratified with the entire earth (not just an ethnic people) and he has ratified it for all of human history (not simply a single generation or civilization.)

⁸Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹“Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. (Genesis 9:8)

The Noahic Covenant is still in force today and applies to the entire kingdom of creation. God has bound all of creation, every race that would come from the sons of Noah, to obey the dictates of this covenant so that the world would not be full of unchecked evildoers.

CONCLUSION

In the coming weeks, I plan to publish several articles applying the Noahic Covenant to our civil government. In those articles, we’ll see how much the civil authorities have overstepped their prescribed boundaries and how, in many cases, they are directly opposing God’s covenant commands. But for now, consider this fact: God instituted the civil magistrate. God alone gets to define the role, authority, and purpose of the civil government.

Human beings were not noble savages who made a social contract. Human beings were depraved wretches who filled the earth with violence. Yet, God has called sinful humanity into the Noahic Covenant that evil might be restrained and his redemptive purposes might be realized in the sending of his Son.

The Governments – The Family

INTRODUCTION

The nations of the West are crumbling because we’ve mistakenly believed that our national or global governing bodies are the only governments that matter. We have forgotten that God instituted three governments: the family, the state, and the church. The only hope of fixing our broken state is relearning and practicing what the Scriptures teach about all three of these governments. These governments are all essential and must be kept in their proper place. Today, we introduce the government of the family.

THE PROBLEM

Our culture elevates the individual over the family as the fundamental building block of society. How have we done that? We began by making marriage covenants easy to break through no-fault divorce. Individuals may leave a marriage at any time, for any reason. We have made singleness the normative relationship status. Look at the television programming over the last 3 decades. The most popular shows have been about perpetually single and promiscuous adults who never embrace responsibility for starting and raising a family. This life of individuality is glamorized. Not only have we normalized singleness, but with the aid of contraception (which can be a good thing) we have also normalized sterility. You can now have children when it fits your plans. Within the last 15 years, we have witnessed the erosion of the very definition of marriage and even “male” and “female.” Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. (Jug. 21:25) In other words, the individual, not the family is the fundamental building block of society. The individual defines themselves.

THE FAMILY DEFINED

When we read the Bible we see that families, consisting of a father, mother, and children are the fundamental building block of a society, not individuals. In the opening chapters of the Scriptures, God made an individual human man, and shortly after his creation, God declared that it was not good for man to be alone. (Gen. 2:18) God then made a woman from the man, and through their marriage and sexual union, a new generation of humanity was born. (Gen. 4:1) As a general rule, the human race is not called to a life of singleness or chosen sterility. Undoubtedly, that last sentence rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I can already hear the, “But what about…,” arising in your throat. We could make disclaimers all day long, but the Scriptural truth stands. As a general rule, the human race is not called to a life of singleness. Marriages are not to be childless. God intends godly men to actively pursue a godly wife and bear and raise godly children. The family, then, is a self-contained, God-instituted government given for the flourishing, protection, and propagation of the entire human race.

The family government has offices: husband, wife, child. These offices are not interchangeable, but rather distinct and crucial components of a healthy family unit. Husbands are not to have multiple wives or vice versa. Men may not marry men. Women may not marry women. Children are not to act as if they are parents.

The family government has rules and regulations prescribed by God. God requires husbands to take responsibility for the health of the family as they love their wives and teach their children. (Gen. 3:17, Eph. 5:23; 25, 6:4) Wives are to respect their husbands and care for the households God has given them (Eph. 5:22; 1 Tim. 5:14). Children are to obey their parents. (Eph. 6:1-3)

The family government has boundaries that partition the family from other human societies. (Eph. 5:22-33; Eph. 6:1) Another way of putting this is that families have their own sphere of authority. Fathers and mothers are responsible to correct and discipline their own children, not every child. They are to nurture and care for the needs of their own children, not every child. (1 Tim. 5:18) While a family may choose to meet the needs of another family, they are not naturally obligated to do so. The covenantal relationship between husband and wife as well as the biological relationship between parent and child create both a covenantal and biological partition that surrounds and sections-off individual families from others. They create ties of ownership, responsibility, and accountability.

AN EXAMPLE

As a pastor, I often have conversations with individuals outside of our congregation who are seeking financial assistance. As I counsel them, I always ask about their family. I ask if they have any family who can provide financial assistance before the church steps in to assit. I don’t ask that because I’m stingy or cold-hearted, but because their family has a natural obligation to them that the church does not, and they have an obligation to their family. If their family refuses to help them, it may be an indication of their family’s sin, or their own. It may mean that they need to go back to their family and make amends so that the family can renew its duty to the individual or vice versa.

I give this example because it highlights a major problem in our nation: we no longer see the family government as binding. Rather, we see family as optional. Families often neglect their own. Family members often mistreat their families knowing they can get a hand-out from the church or the state. This is upside down. The church and the state can genuinely assist those who are vulnerable, but they must not seek to replace the family.

ONE MORE EXAMPLE

As parents, my wife and I alone are ultimately responsible for what our children are being taught. This is because our children belong to us. They are our possessions. They do not belong to the state, or to the schools. One of the fiercest attacks on the family today is seen as various school systems seek to minimize or remove parental oversight in the education of their children. A simple internet search would return scores of articles on school boards or teachers who sought to hide what children were reading in the classroom, or encouraging students who struggle with gender dysphoria to outright lie to their parents about their questions regarding sex and biology.

Why is this such a flammable subject? It’s because, in many cases, the state and school boards have overstepped their God-given boundaries. They do not own children. They may be entrusted by parents with certain responsibilities, but they are to serve at the pleasure of parents and under their watch.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Christians must boldly speak up for and champion the cause of the family government. This begins by starting and maintaining our own families according to God’s design. It means we must reject and repel attacks on biblical definitions of marriage, gender, and sexuality. To do all of this, we’ll need deep connections with other faithful Christian families within the local church. None of us can make this stand on our own.

FOR FURTHER READING

Much more can be said about the need for strong families. If you would like to dive deeper into this subject I would like to suggest a few resources. Begin by reading the Scriptures. Start by reading and studying the references in this post. Here is a list of books I have found helpful as well:

Biblical Foundations for the Family

Köstenberger, Andreas J, and David W Jones. God, Marriage, and Family Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation. 2nd ed., Wheaton, Ill Crossway, 2010.

Biblical Foundations for Human Sexual Ethics

Heimbach, Daniel R. True Sexual Morality. Crossway, 9 Nov. 2004.

Biblical Foundations for Men

Phillips, Richard D. The Masculine Mandate : God’s Calling to Men. Sanford, Florida, Reformation Trust Publishing, 2016.

Biblical Foundations for Men & Women

Piper, John, and Wayne Grudem. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood : A Response to Evangelical Feminism. Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway, 2012.

Natural & Political Arguments for Marriage

Sherif Girgis, et al. What Is Marriage? : Man and Woman : A Defense. New York, Encounter Books, 2020.

Remember Your First Love: Christ’s Word to a Church Whose Love is Fading – Revelation 2:1-7

THE TEXT:

The text for the sermon today is Revelation 2:1-7. Our text can be found on page 1028. These are the words of God:

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

INTRODUCTION

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Biography Arnold Dallimore tells us that during his ministry, the London Baptist pastor, Charles Spurgeon, averaged 500 pieces of correspondence every week. Wouldn’t it be amazing if Jesus himself wrote you a letter to help you understand where you were excelling, and more importantly where you need strengthening? Revelation 2-3 is a record of 7 letters Jesus personally dictated to 7 churches.

Each of the 7 letters follows a pattern: presentation of Christ, introduction of their situation, encouragement/exhortation, a call to hear with warnings and promises. Each letter ends, “to all the churches.”

These churches are a real mixed bag. The first and the last are in danger of losing their Christian identity. The three in the central letters have maintained identity, but are compromised, and the second and sixth faithful. In other words, the Christian church as a whole is in poor condition.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The letter begins by addressing the pastor at the church in Ephesus (angelos, Rev. 1:20) A metropolitan city of the empire, Ephesus boasted 600,000 citizens and was home to the Temple of Diana, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. This temple was 162’ w x 342’ long and made of 100 columns that were 50’ tall and 6’ in diameter. They were a wealthy, cosmopolitan, pagan city.

They were also a city of deep Christian influence. Outside of Jerusalem, one could argue Ephesus was the central city of Christianity until Rome was Christianized. They had an abundance of Godly ministers: Paul, Apollos, Timothy, & John himself (and John returned there after his exile).

Christ also mentions evidence of godly fruit. First, Christ commends their diligence. “I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance.” (v. 2) They were bearing up for the name of Christ. (v. 3)

Christ also commends their discernment. They could not bear with those who are evil. They tested those who called themselves apostles but were not and found them to be false. (v. 2) They were commendable in many ways.

But they had abandoned the love they had at the first (v. 4) Their love for Christ and witness of Christ had been neglected. And they hadn’t even realized it. Jesus had to tell them. The remedy is threefold: remember, repent, and do the works you did at the first. (v. 5)

The passage concludes with a warning: Ephesus is in danger of losing its identity as a Christian church, but if they repent they’ll eat with Christ in paradise. (v. 7)

BE ZEALOUS FOR TRUTH

There’s something we can learn from Ephesus: the church must be zealous for the truth. Jesus commends this church for their diligence in discerning false teaching.

We want to reach people—but we want to reach them with the truth. The prime motivation for our church isn’t growth, but spiritual health. If growth were our ultimate goal without qualification we’d do things quite differently.

Friend, what is your standard of truth? Everyone has a standard they appeal to. Is it your own wisdom? Is it science? At Lake Wylie Baptist we recognize the gifts of human wisdom and scientific discovery. We praise God for those good gifts. We also acknowledge their limitations. They are not omniscient guides.

How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent Word?

BE MORE ZEALOUS FOR JESUS

While Jesus commends the Ephesian’s zeal for truth, he also points out a serious problem. It’s important to know that Jesus isn’t like a policeman, looking for someone to break the law so he can club them on the head. Rather, Jesus walks through his churches like a gardener; admiring the fruit he sees while noticing disease and weeds. So, when he points out sickness in your life, of the life of a church, he does it because he loves you and his church.

What’s the disease growing in the Ephesian garden? While they loved the truth, their love for Jesus Christ had grown cold. Friends, love of doctrine is not the same thing as loving Christ. Loving your obedience to Jesus isn’t the same thing as loving Jesus.

And here’s the scary part: the Ephesians didn’t even realize it had happened to them. Jesus has to point it out. It’s possible to know the truth, to obey commands, and yet be far from Christ.

And, if they don’t change, they’ll lose their identity as a Christian church!

REMEMBER, REPENT, DO

How do you rekindle your first love of Christ? Remember, Repent, Do.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen (v. 5)

In his autobiography (Grace Abounding), John Bunyan writes, “It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the very beginnings of grace within their souls.” We do well to remember where we were when grace found us. When you love knowing the truth more than Christ, you swell with pride. But if you love Jesus Christ above all, then the truth will actually make you humble.

As you remember, repent. What does that mean? Repentance is a gift. It softens our hard hearts. But how do we do it? Very practically:

Grieve over and hate sin.
Confess specific sins to the Lord and those you have offended.
Cry for mercy.

Here is the cry of a Christian: “I cast myself upon Mercy. Where else can I go? If Mercy must cast me away then Mercy must do it, but upon Mercy I will fall and upon Mercy I will stay. I will camp at Mercy’s feet.”

Lastly, “Do the works you did at the first.” Our culture says it’s wrong to do something you don’t feel. But our culture doesn’t understand what a human is or how a human works and grows. Indeed, you can’t summon up the feelings and emotions of love, but you can repeat and perform the duties of love—and if you do the feelings will follow.

The Governments – Intro

Decades ago, the schools of our nation taught classes like “Government/Econ.” Most of those classes taught ninth-grade students about America’s three branches of the Federal Government and, if you were lucky, the United States Constitution. Don’t worry, will not be asking anyone to define obscure legal jargon at the end of this series. Rather, during September, my “letters from the pastor” will focus on the subject of human government. In this first “letter” I will be introducing the subject, and in the three letters that will follow I will be taking a closer look at each of the governments God has established. One of the reasons our nation is swirling the drain is that we’ve mistakenly believed that national or global governing bodies are the only governments that matter. So, without further ado, let’s allow the Bible to inform our understanding of government.

God has instituted three spheres of human government: the family, the state, and the church. Because God is the one who institutes these governments, he alone gets to define them. Where do we find the institutions of these governments? The government of the family is instituted in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 1, 2) In Genesis 9, after the flood, God institutes the government of the state by granting the power of the sword to human societies as a way of restraining evil. Finally, the church is foreshadowed in the worship of Israel and realized in the New Testament (Matt. 16:19; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9, et. al.) Underneath these three formal human governments, is the requirement that individuals be able to govern themselves (self-government).

The three main reasons our state governments are so ineffectual are: first, the government of the state has failed to recognize and submit to God, second, the governments of the family and the church have been severely weakened, and third, the government of the state has overstepped the boundaries of both the family as well as the church. We will examine these three reasons in more detail in future letters but let me summarize my thoughts on all of them in a few short lines.

(1) If a nation does not recognize a God above the state, then the state functions as “god.” This has happened in America.

(2) Families with fathers, mothers, and children (not individuals) are the fundamental building blocks of a healthy society. Without healthy families, there is no hope of having healthy nations. The families of our nation face external threats (from the government) as well as internal threats (from our own sinfulness).

(3) Finally, governments are catastrophically ill-equipped to provide for the needs that only families and churches can meet. Our government, trying to substitute itself for fathers, mothers, and pastors has become an arrogant stumblebum.

We have immense challenges facing us, but the first challenge is to wake up, read what the Bible says about each of these governments, and believe it. Elections matter. So do families. So do churches. Our nation did not get where it is today simply by voting. We sinned ourselves into the mess we’ve made. We won’t get out simply by voting (though we must vote). We get out through repentance and faith: through believing God and obeying God.

Let me be clear from the outset of this series: Our obedience to the Word of God as it regards human governments will not and cannot produce a utopia on Earth. The perfect kingdom of Christ has been inaugurated by his resurrection, but it will not arrive in its fullness until the return of Christ at the end of this age. But we have a duty before God and to our fellow man to order our homes, our nation, and our church according to the dictates of his Word. And, when we do this, it will result in a far more holy and just nation than we are inhabiting today.

So, get out your pen and paper. Grab your Bible too. Over the next several weeks we’ll take a look at the human governments God has instituted and see how this subject addresses nearly every societal ill we face.

His Face was Like the Sun: Christ in the Church – Revelation 1:9-20

THE TEXT:

The text for the sermon today is Revelation 1:9-20. Our text can be found on page 1028. These are the words of God:

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.

INTRODUCTION

In 1977 the IBM company produced a 9-minute video called Powers of Ten. The film showed the relative size of things in the universe and the effect of zooming out or in by the power of 10. The video fades from black revealing a couple enjoying a picnic in a lakeside park in Chicago. The scene is one meter wide viewed from one meter away. The camera zooms out to 10 meters: a field of grass surrounds the picnic. 100 meters: a freeway on one side and boat docks on the other. At one kilometer, Soldier Field comes into view. 10,000 meters: Downtown Chicago and the rounded end of Lake Michigan. 100,000 meters: Long bands of clouds, a day’s worth of weather in the Midwest of U.S. 1 million meters, North America. 10 million meters: Earth. 100 million: the orbit of the Moon. At 1 million million meters we see our Solar System. At 1016 meters, we’re one light-year from where we started, and we haven’t even reached the closest star. At 1021 meters we finally see the Milky Way… and way down below, many billions of miles is a couple having a picnic in Chicago.

For the ant on the picnic blanket, a watermelon might as well be a planet. From outside the Milky Way, the skyscrapers of Chicago are smaller than toothpicks. Your vantage point radically changes the relative size of whatever you are looking at. In the span of 19 verses, John the Apostle is transported from a tiny rock on the Aegean Sea out of this Universe and into the heavenly realms where Christ reigns over everything and cares for the church. In this vision of Jesus Christ, we see three contrasts, and if we attend to these three contrasts they will have a profound impact on our lives. They are:

Christ, Dead Yet Living Again
John: Falling Yet Lifted Up
The Church: Suffering Yet Shining

CHRIST: DEAD YET LIVING AGAIN

The very first vision John records in Revelation is a vision of Jesus Christ. John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (v. 10) Apparently, John was enjoying Sunday worship in his exile and was especially attuned to the Holy Spirit when he heard a voice behind him.

“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches…”

John then “turned to see the voice…” and “on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like the son of man.” This title, “son of man” was Jesus’ favorite title for himself in the gospels. (Matt. 20:28; Mk 14:62; John 3:13; Dan. 7:13, 14) It comes from Daniel 7:13, 14, where the “son of man” is given everlasting authority, glory, and a kingdom. John is receiving a vision of the risen, exalted, and enthroned Jesus.

And we’re given a physical description of Jesus. It’s the only time we’re given a physical description of Jesus, but remember, this is all visionary and symbolic language. This description doesn’t tell us what Jesus actually looked like. So, we aren’t to read this literally. This description of Christ tells us who he is, not what he looks like.

Jesus is “clothed with a white robe… with a golden sash around his chest”; the dress of a priest. His hair is white with wisdom, and his eyes are like flames. Jesus’ feet are “like burnished bronze,” and “from his mouth came a two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” This all speaks to Jesus’ position as the cosmic and eternal judge. His eyes see every evil deed. His bronze feet crush the wicked. His judgment he speaks cuts and thunders, and no sinner can bear to look him directly in the face.

Friend, I wonder if you have given proper attention to Jesus Christ as the cosmic judge. He knows everything you’ve ever done, and every thought you have had. You may be skilled at deceiving your spouse or your parents, but you will not deceive him. His eyes are piercing flame. You may be good at talking your way out of your failures at school or work, but when you hear the judgment of his mouth, which roars like the waters, you will stand in silence.

Christian, because Christ is the judge who sees all, you are encouraged to obey him faithfully, knowing that if you are mistreated for his sake, he will not forget it. If you are unjustly persecuted, you need not fear. You will ultimately overcome in the same way as Christ: through endurance and suffering. And in the final reckoning, the eternal Judge will vindicate you.

When Jesus speaks, he says, “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.” The implication is that because Jesus has overcome death and the grave, he is now appointed as a heavenly priest, ruler, and judge.

As I said in week one of our study: the central figure in Revelation is Jesus Christ. He is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and final letters in the Greek alphabet. The Son of God entered history as the son of man, he lived the life we ought to have lived and died the death we ought to have died as sinners. He was laid in the grave and three days later he rose.

And when he did, he took the keys which once belonged to the grave. In his sovereignty, he appoints the moment of your birth, the number of your days, and even the moment of your death. And, if you belong to him, even when you die, he will unlock the grave at the resurrection.

When the Apostle John saw Jesus revealed as the first and the last, the priest of our souls, the judge, John says, “I fell at his feet as though dead.” This brings us to the second contrast. Not only do we see Jesus as dead yet alive again. We see John: falling yet lifted up.

JOHN: FALLING YET LIFTED UP

In 8 words, John captures the right response to this vision of Jesus: “I fell at his feet as though dead.” This reminds us of nearly every Biblical encounter of the holy. In Exodus 3, Moses has to take the shoes off his feet because he’s on holy ground. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up and cries out, “Woe is me for I am undone.”

Luke records the time when Jesus first got into Peter’s boat on the Sea of Galilee. They had fished all night and caught nothing, but Jesus told them to put down their nets once more. Their nets filled. Apparently, Jesus commanded every fish in the sea to swim into their nets. And how did Peter respond?

8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8)

Again, when Jesus healed a demon-possessed man in the Gadarenes, Matthew tells us that, “all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.” (Matt. 8:34)

John, himself, had fallen down on his face before. When Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a mountain he was transfigured and revealed in all his glory to them. His face shone like the Sun, and they heard a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.”

Friends, it has become popular in our age to talk about the experience of God as something that makes you feel peace and warmth; to speak of being caught up in worship as exciting or energizing. Many people say they want to experience God, or get into his presence. But when you read the Bible, the people who encounter God almost always fall to the ground and try to get out of his presence.

God’s glory reveals our shame. His power unmasks our weakness. His knowledge uncovers our secrets. His holiness highlights our sin. And so, John rightly falls down as though dead. John was a Christian. His sins had been forgiven. He knew that Christ was alive and believed. And yet, this unveiling of Christ doesn’t make John comfortable or casual. It humbles him and even causes him to cower in fear. One of the signs that you are encountering the true God is humiliation, it’s fear: a sense of awful dread in the presence of the one who made all things with just a word.

Thankfully for John, and for us, Christ does not leave believers to lie in the dust. The same words that Jesus said to Peter, James, and John at his transfiguration, he repeats now to John on Patmos: “Fear not” Fear not! For the same Jesus who is the judge, is also a savior. Fear not! The Lion is also a Lamb. He is the Alpha and the Omega—not only of all history. He is the Alpha and Omega of your personal salvation and redemption. You are lifted up out of the dust of sin and death because Christ has raised you. You are still a Christian today because Christ preserves you. You will forever be a Christian because Jesus Christ has written the story of your salvation.

THE CHURCH: SUFFERING YET SHINING

Did you notice, back in verse 9, how the author and the audience are introduced?

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation

By the time John is exiled, Emperor Domitian was beginning a systematic persecution of Christians. He demanded that they worship and say, “Caesar is lord.” Every time you read the words, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” in the New Testament you are reading an act of civil disobedience. John was on the island of Patmos, why? “on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (v. 9) It was illegal to preach.

Many of the Christians who received and read this Revelation were sentenced to death. They were torn apart by wild horses. Some of them were impaled alive on stakes, covered with pitch, and lit as torches. Some were fed to lions. How merciful.

They faced immense pressure to abandon Christ, to abandon other Christians, and to abandon the church. They could easily avoid death by attending worship at a pagan temple or by turning back to Judaism. Amazingly, under all this persecution, the church actually grew. They made more converts. One of the church fathers said, “The blood of the martyrs is seed.” In other words, though they were suffering, the church was not extinguished. The hotter the persecution grew, the more it refined and purified and grew the church. The church spread so much because the Roman Empire watched Christians go into the flames, go into the lion’s mouth not just with courage, but even with joy and peace.

What was it that enabled those Christians to live through tribulation? What will enable us to live through tumultuous times; times of persecution? It was this vision of Jesus in Revelation 1. Earlier I mentioned that John saw Jesus dressed in the robe of a priest. Notice where John sees Jesus standing:

“I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man”

This is a vision of Jesus Christ as a heavenly priest tending the temple of God. The seven candlesticks recall the seven branches lampstand that stood in the Tabernacle and Temple of Israel. It was the job of the priests to go into the holy place, refill the oil in the lamps, trim the wicks, and make sure the flames didn’t go out. But notice, these seven lampstands are not in the temple of Israel.

“the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” (v. 20)

These churches on earth are in tribulation, suffering on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Yet, those same churches who are suffering on earth are shining in heaven, their flames tended by the risen and reigning Savior. No Roman Emperor can extinguish these lamps. No threat of death can do us in; not while the Great High Priest is walking in our midst.

Over the next 2 chapters, as we read Christ’s personal words to the 7 churches we will see him, as it were, walk among the lampstands. How does he trim the wicks and refill the oil? Church, he tends the light of the church by commending, correcting, exhorting, and warning. He does all of this so that the church will be a proper light-bearer in a dark world.

Lake Wylie Baptist: We have challenging days ahead. This nation has forgotten the Lord and is running pell-mell in rebellion. That kind of rebellion hates obedience and therefore we can expect increasing pressure. In the coming years the powers that be will find ways to persecute and threaten the church. They will find ways to weed Christians out of their marketplaces. Young people, children in the room, it will not beeasy to be faithful to Jesus. Many will ignore you. Some will make fun of you and exclude you.

And when that happens… when you, like John, are a partner in tribulation on account of the testimony of Christ, turn with John to see who speaks to us.

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea;
A great High Priest, whose Name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

Every Eye Shall See Him: Our Need, Task, & Hope – Revelation 1:4-8

THE TEXT:

The text for the sermon today is Revelation 1:4-8. Our text can be found on page 1028. These are the words of God:

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.” (ESV)

INTRODUCTION

These verses are John’s greeting to the 7 churches in Asia. They speak to the needs of those churches. They help frame and define the task of those churches. And, most importantly, they identify the great hope those churches have as they seek to fulfill their mission. The need, the task, and the hope which enables them to complete their mission.

But before we examine those three, let’s take a moment and consider verse 4:

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

If you’ve read the other letters of the New Testament, you have seen this kind of customary introduction before. (Gal. 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:1-2) Rather than sending this letter to a single church, John addresses Revelation to seven churches in what is now western Turkey. There were more than 7 churches in Asia when John wrote these words, but he chose these seven for several important reasons.

First, if you read chapters 2-3, John addresses these churches by name: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia (not that one, though it could use some help too), & Laodicea. Not only does he address them by name, but he also pinpoints their spiritual health or sickness. He encourages and rebukes as needed. These were all real churches, with real church members, and real challenges. We’ll examine those churches in great detail in the coming weeks. But there is another reason John chooses to write to seven churches.

Revelation is a book that communicates through symbols, and numbers carry special symbolic significance throughout this book. One of John’s favorite numbers is seven, and it’s a number that denotes fulness, or completeness throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, Priests would sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice 7 times to symbolize a complete cleansing of sin. Those who were unclean would stay outside the camp for seven days in order to be fully cleansed. All of this is rooted in the very first chapter of the Bible, in which God completed his creative work in seven days.

John uses this Old Testament symbolism. In writing to seven churches, John is writing to the full or complete church—to every church in every age. In fact, if you look at a map of these seven churches you notice they are in a rough circle, yet another figure of completeness. So, in addressing these seven churches, John is effectively saying, “Every church in every age has the same needs, is called to the same task, and shares in the same hope.”

1. OUR NEED

Consider the challenges faced by the early church. Immediately following the resurrection of Christ, the book of Acts records the initial spread of the gospel in the Mediterranean in and around Israel. Most of that book is the story of the first apostles being jailed for preaching the gospel. In Jerusalem, the apostles were jailed by the Jewish authorities. By the end of the book, in A.D. 62, Paul is awaiting trial in Rome. Through the end of the 60s, Emperor Nero would set Rome on fire, blame Christians for it, and institute the first government-sponsored persecution of the church. By the time John writes Revelation, in the late 90s, Domitian is the new emperor and requires everyone to refer to him as “Lord and God.” Those who refused are killed. This government-sponsored antagonism against Christianity will continue in Rome for another two centuries.

Not only did Christians face political challenges, but they also faced economic challenges. Rather than multi-national companies, commerce in the empire was run by local trade guilds. Each guild, or union, had its own patron pagan deity. Each year, to be a member in good standing, you had to confess your loyalty to the deity. Christians couldn’t do that, and many were expelled from the guilds; they could no longer buy and sell in the markets. Their stores were boycotted.

In chapters two and three, John highlights the trials and frequent failures of the seven churches. Christians in Ephesus had forgotten Christ as their first love. Smyrna in particular was threatened with martyrdom. Pergamum fell into false teachings. Thyatira compromised on sexuality. Sardis had become so comatose concerning their sin. Philadelphia was faithful to Christ, and that faithfulness meant greater pressure from their persecutors. Laodicea had become useless in the task of gospel living and proclamation. All of them troubled. Some of the trouble was of their own making, some came from the surrounding culture. But none of them had it easy. John, our older brother and apostle in Christ, laboring for the strength and endurance of the church, writes in verse 4:

Grace to you and peace (v. 4)

Many letters of New Testament begin with this greeting. The great need of every church, the great need of Lake Wylie Baptist is the grace and peace of God. No, we are not being fed to lions, yet. But I do know Christians in this church who have left jobs because they held the teachings of Christ more dearly than their career. I do know students in this church who have risked losing scholarships because their commitment to the truth was greater than their commitment to their school.

This grace and peace find their origin in the Triune Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Grace and peace come, first:

from him who is and who was and who is to come

This is God the Father, the changeless, eternal, sovereign architect of all history. This is a constant flow of grace and peace because the well from which it is draw is and was and is to come.

Are you tired of being a Christian? Tired of being told you are a bigot? Anxious about the future? Friend, your Father is the one who is and was and is to come— the future is already present and past to him. His rule will outlast this week, this month, this decade, this nation. Grace and peace also come from:

from the seven spirits who are before his throne

The seven spirits is a symbolic description of the Holy Spirit of God, the third member of the Godhead. In Isaiah 11:2 we’re told that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of:

1. The Lord

2. Wisdom

3. Understanding

4. Counsel

5. Might

6. Knowledge

7. Fear of the Lord

The grace and peace of God are grace and peace which equip you—with wisdom, with counsel, with power, with fear of the Lord. The Holy Spirit has been given to all true believers and his ministry is to fill you for faithfulness to Christ. Grace and peace, finally come from:

Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

The threefold description of Christ summarizes his entire ministry:

• In life he was a faithful witness.

• He was raised by the power of God having been offered as a sacrifice for his people.

• He has now ascended and rules over every earthly king.

What is your great need? You could say, “I need a new place to live. I need a better job. I need better health.” What is the need of Lake Wylie Baptist Church? We could say that we need more space. We need more rooms. We need more volunteers. What is the need of the global church? We need more missionaries. We need more church plants. We need more pastors.

But friends, above all of these needs, there is one great need. We need an experience of the all-surpassing grace and peace of our triune God. The Father, giving you his changeless favor. The Son, giving you his perfect righteousness and taking your guilt upon himself. The Holy Spirit, giving you a new heart, giving your faith, granting you repentance so that you may receive all that Christ has done. This promise of grace and peace is not a promise that you will get a better job, but that you are adopted into the Father’s family. It is not a promise that you will avoid trials, but that the Spirit will indwell you and empower you to face every trial imaginable. It is not a promise that you will not be anxious, but that even in the deepest anxiety, you will not be forsaken because Christ was forsaken in your place. If we are going to endure the trying times set for us in the good providence of our God, we need to hear him declare his intention to grant us his grace and peace.

Not only does this passage show us our need. It also shows us our task.

2. OUR TASK

The greeting shifts from the grace we receive to the glory we give. The great task of the church, as we await that day, is to glorify God. Look at the end of verse 5:

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.

Grace to us. Glory to him. Our job today as Lake Wylie Baptist Church in the year 2023, is the glory of God. What does that mean? Are we to sit around singing hymns all day long? “Sorry, honey I didn’t fold the laundry. Had some hymns to sing.” On a practical level. How do we glorify God? John says, Christ, having saved you, had made you a kingdom, and priests. This language of “kingdom” and “priests” first shows up at the founding of Israel as a nation. God had redeemed the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt and spoke these words to them in Exodus 19:6

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

With God as their sovereign king, Israel was to obey his commands as loyal subjects. And, as priests, they were to offer sacrifices for sin. And notice, this was conditional for Israel: “If you will obey…” But here in Revelation, it is already accomplished for the church. John writes in the past tense: “has freed us… has made us a kingdom… has made us priests.” In essence, John is saying, “the church is the new Israel.”

Romans 9:6

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring

Galatians 3:7

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

1 Peter 2:9

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Church, there is no other way to put this: when Jesus Christ came, the covenant that God made with Israel became obsolete, and the true Israel of God is no longer an ethnic nation. The church is the kingdom of Christ. We glorify him by living in accordance with his commands. We read and obey the Sermon on the Mount. He has made us priests. We don’t offer animals. We proclaim the death of Christ as the only sacrifice that truly covers and atones for sin. This is our task. We are to obey Christ and proclaim Christ. This is how we glorify God. We obey his commands and we call others to believe in the work of Christ.

3. OUR HOPE

When I was a little boy, I remember my dad getting a paper copy of the Bass Pro Shops catalogue. We flipped through the pages looking at fishing rods and reels. Then my dad selected one for me. This was before the internet, so everything was ordered by mail or by phone. This was also before two-day shipping so you never quite knew when your order would arrive. Over the next week my little boys mind could not contain itself. I couldn’t sleep. I just knew that maybe tomorrow it would come. John writes to persecuted, marginalized, ostracized, exhausted Christians and he knows that they need more that a fishing rod to motivate them. So, he writes:

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.

The same Jesus who was a faithful martyr, the firstborn of the new creation, the ruler of the kings of the earth will return. And no one will miss his return. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that Christ’s return will be accompanied by a cry of command, the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. When Christ returns, every eye will see him. Every ear will hear him. Every sinner who through their sin made his death necessary for our salvation will look on him whom they have pierced.

Not only is our hope in a future event, our hope is in an eternal person. The passage concludes in verse 8 with these words:

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

In verse 4, God the Father was described as the one who was and is and is to come. Now those words are spoken by Christ of himself. How do we know this is Christ speaking? Because Christ speaks the same words at the end of Revelation, sealing its promises to us:

12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Our hope is not in ourselves. It’s not in success as we might define it. Our hope is in him who is, was, and is to come, the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty. Friends, I have walked with Christ for 31 years. And yet I still get tripped up in sin. I’m amazed at how quickly I can still give into behavior that dishonors Christ. You may be right there with me. We are all still under construction. Our hope is not in ourselves. We all daily face challenges that if unaccompanied by the Holy Spirit are insurmountable. Our church, baptizing more Christians, growing every month faces challenges. Our culture bent on silencing the truth will not give up. But the success of our task does not ultimately depend on our faithfulness, but the faithfulness of the Almighty. Not on our abilities, but his. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

He maketh the rebel a priest and a king,

He hath bought us and taught us this new song to sing:

Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from sin,

Unto Him be the glory forever. Amen.

(Arthur Pierson, A New Song to Sing)

Dogged Commitment to the Word

INTRODUCTION

Every good pastor has a set of principles and values he brings into his ministry within the church. These principles and values ultimately shape and define the life of the church. If you were to ask me, “Jonathan, what is priority number one for Lake Wylie Baptist Church,” I would, with zero hesitation, respond, “The Word of God.” The Word of God must be central if our church will be found faithful to Jesus Christ. This is not worship of the Word. Rather, it’s a focus on the Word because only the Word reveals the name of the One we are to worship.

THE TEXT

To the law and to the testimony:
If they speak not according to this word,
It is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

I could give you scores of passages that exhort us to pay close attention to the Word of God. I could list verse after verse that explains the authority, necessity, sufficiency, and clarity of God’s Word. This verse, like so many others, communicates a simple and essential truth: whatever disagrees with the Word of God is false. Period. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. Isaiah was called to preach to a people who refused to listen. God’s Word was not hidden from them; rather it was made plain. They rejected the Word of God to their own ruin and collapse. Consider a different scenario years after the ministry of Isaiah.

And the king… read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord… Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. (2 Kings 23:1, 2, 15)

When Josiah reigned in Judah, a member of his government found an old scroll that had been lying around in the temple: it was the Law of Moses that had been forgotten in Judah. After reading the Word of God, Josiah instituted reforms. Idols were toppled. Right worship was restored: an example of the Word’s power to convict and transform.

REFORM IS NEVER DETACHED FROM THE WORD

Examine any historic reform of the church and a common thread is a rediscovery of the Word of God. I’m currently reading through a history of the Reformation in England and I was struck by the conversion story of Thomas Bilney, who at the exhortation of a Roman Catholic Priest, had fasted, held vigils, attended masses, and even purchased indulgences yet had no peace within his soul. Bilney wanted to purchase a New Testament to read for himself but was told by his priest that the book contained heresies. Read the words of church historian, Jean-Henri Merle d’Aubigné:

“At last he took courage. Urged, said he, by the hand of God, he walked out of the college, slipped into the house where the volume was sold in secret, bought it with fear and trembling, and then hastened back and shut himself up in his room. He opened it— his eyes caught these words: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. He laid down the book, and meditated on the astonishing declaration. “What! St Paul the chief of sinners, and yet St Paul is sure of being saved!”

God creates by his Word. And God makes us new in Christ by his Word.

OUR DOGGED COMMITMENT TO THE WORD

Each week our sermons plod through books of the Bible. We explain, proclaim, and apply the Word to the entire church. If you come to me for counseling, I will counsel with the Word. When our children run back to their Sunday School classes, they are running back to rooms filled with the Word. There is no substitute or replacement for the Word. And beginning this week we’ll begin another year of the Bible Reading Challenge. From September to May, we’ll read the entire Bible. It’s no small task, but it is worth every minute you spend in the Word.

Decades from now, when we all are long gone, I pray that the legacy we are planting, one of Word-centeredness, remains. If the Lord delays his return and you were to attend a worship service at Lake Wylie Baptist in 2123, I pray you would find a church doggedly committed to reading, preaching, and obeying the Word of Christ.

Laden with guilt and full of fears,
I fly to Thee, my Lord,
And not a glimpse of hope appears,
But in Thy written Word
The volumes of my Father’s grace
Does all my griefs assuage
Here I behold my Savior’s face
In every page.

– Isaac Watts

The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Introducing the Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:-3)

THE TEXT:

The text for the sermon today is Revelation 1:1-3.

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. (ESV)

INTRODUCTION

Imagine that tomorrow morning you were moving to a strange country you knew nothing about. One of the first things you’d have to do is learn a language. Vocabulary, sentence structure, colloquialisms. You’d also encounter a new culture: customs, dress, habits, gestures, holidays. You might be left-handed and learn that no one uses their left hand in your new home. You’re used to pointing with your finger, but your new neighbors find it highly offensive. It wouldn’t take long before you realize how much you have to learn. It would require patience and practice.

In many ways, we need to approach the book of Revelation the same way we’d approach moving to a new country. If you’ve only read the gospels or the NT letters, Revelation may sound like a completely different language. It’s full of symbolic numbers and visions of otherworldly creatures. At times is seems to lack any sense of chronology or logical arrangement. But, just like moving to a new country, if you will commit to being a learner, if you will be patient and practice reading this book, you will not only learn how to speak the language but your life will also be shaped by its message.

Many avoid the book of Revelation. Some are frightened by it. Images of beasts and dragons and plagues. Others are intimidated by it. There is no other book in the Bible like it. It’s difficult to read and interpret. Many are discouraged by the division it can cause between Christians who disagree over how to interpret the book. But John tells us that those who do read, hear, and obey it will be blessed. So, this book is not given that you might fear, fail, or faint. It’s given that you might be faithful.

The first three verses of Revelation give us the title of the book, as well as a summary of the book’s content as well as how we ought to approach this book so that its message can be clearly heard. As we wade into these initial verses we’ll unpack their meaning by seeing how they answer 4 questions:

1. WHAT IS IT?
2. WHO IS IT FOR?
3. HOW SHOULD WE READ IT?
4. WHY SHOULD WE READ IT?

1. WHAT IS THE BOOK OF REVELATION?

The first five words of the book tell us exactly what we are reading:

“The revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Revelation is a translation of the Greek word apokalupsis, from which we also get the word apocalypse. Unfortunately, for us, “apocalypse” has come to mean “a world-ending event.” Maybe you’ve read a post-apocalyptic novel in which a cataclysmic event has ended the world as we know it. But the Greek word apokalupsis doesn’t mean world-ending event. Rather, the word literally means “unveiling or uncovering that which was formerly hidden.” If you rolled up your sleeve you would bare your arm; uncovering that which was previously hidden.

In other words, even though Revelation is filled with symbols and visions, it was not written to be obscure, elusive, or enigmatic. Revelation was written to make something clear, plain, and obvious. Verse 1 says that God gave this revelation in order to show his servants. The goal of the book is to show, not hide, to reveal, not conceal. So, the visions of this book are not concealing information, they are revealing information.

Not only is this book an unveiling. We are told it is the unveiling of Jesus Christ. The book identifies itself as the revelation of Jesus Christ. This expression might mean a revelation with Jesus Christ as its source. Or it might mean a revelation with Jesus Christ as its principal content. Both possibilities express important truths.

This book reveals Jesus Christ. In Luke 24:27 we’re told that Jesus began with Moses and all the Prophets and he interpreted in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus is the key that unlocks all of the Bible, therefore he is the key that unlocks Revelation. As Joel Beeke put it: “This vision is about Jesus Christ, not the pope, Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Saddam Hussein, or any other person in world history.”

Certainly, it has much to say about world history, governments, motives and methods of world leaders, but first and foremost it is a revelation about Jesus Christ, and what God has accomplished in his resurrection in the past, and what God will accomplish at his Second Coming in the future. Rather than reading world histories and historic figures into the book, we ought to read history and historic figures in light of the main message of the book: that God is the author of history and will bring it to its final culmination on the day of Christ.

Revelation is not a horoscope, a Ouija board, or a cipher that must be decoded. Jesus is the theme of the book: the one who is revealed. He is the author of the book, for the Spirit of Christ inspired John to write it. Jesus is the revealer of the book, as verse 1 says “the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him to show his servants.” It is not always an easy book to understand, but God is not hiding its meaning from you. Revelation declares that God alone is the author of history, and will bring history to its culmination through what Christ has done in his death and resurrection, the spread of the gospel, and the return of Christ to judge.

2. WHO IS THE BOOK OF REVELATION FOR?

Let’s look back at verse 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,

Follow the chain of action: God gave this revelation to Christ to show his servants things which must soon take place. Jesus in turn gave this revelation to an angel who then relayed it to Jesus’ servant, a man named John, who in turn wrote it down for Christ’s other servants, the church.

Revelation was likely written in the late 90s A.D.. Several decades earlier, the church had endured one persecution under the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. That was the persecution that resulted in the beheading of the Apostle Paul. Now, at the end of the Apostolic age, the Roman Emperor Domitian increases the persecution of the church to such a degree that to even be a Christian was a crime punishable by death. These servants, to whom John is writing, are walking precisely in the footsteps of their master, Jesus Christ who promised in John 15:16, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; for I have overcome the world.”

The human author of this letter gives us only one name. No title. No biography. We are only told that the angel delivered this message to a man named John. Of course, we know who this is because there is only one person in the time around Christ who could introduce himself as “John” and know that the church would understand who was writing. This is the brother of James, the son of Zebedee. Indeed, this is the same man who left his nets on the shores of Galilee to follow Christ as a fisher of men. This is the same author of the Gospel of John and the 3 letters of John at the end of the New Testament. This is the same John who sat with the mother of Christ at the foot of the cross. This is the same John who eventually made his way to minister in the city of Ephesus and there took care of the aging mother of our Lord. But the rise of Domitian’s terror meant that John could no longer preach freely about the gospel. In verse 9, John tells us where it is that he received this Revelation of Jesus:

Just as Christ suffered, so did John, and so did all of the church under the reign of Domitian. So, the book of Revelation is for the church, but more precisely the book has a special meaning and message of a church in tribulation.

Friends, every year that passes we find ourselves in a nation more and more opposed to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. And, because they cannot go up to heaven to attack him, they attack his bride on earth, the church.

A Biblical understanding of marriage is under assault. During 2020 we saw several governments unequally target church meetings as non-essential as pot dispensaries and abortion clinics remained open. Our society worships the state, and the state worships itself. There is no humility. There is little honesty. We are a nation that has blasphemed the name of God and forsaken his laws.

Sadly, we find most of the churches in our nation either compromised or apathetic. We have lost our prophetic voice. The teaching of the church no longer threatens the powers of the state. In the 16th Century, the Reformer John Knox said, “Give me Scotland or I die.” To which the Queen Mary said, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than the assembled armies of Europe.” No heads of state fear the prayers of the church. Instead, today they mock and scorn them. The servants of Christ have forgotten their first love, embraced the world and its desires, and conceded on the truth in order to avoid ostracism. A few have kept the Word of God, and through difficulty, they will prevail with Christ.

By the end of the book, it becomes clear that God has given Revelation to bless every church in every age who reads this book.

6 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.”

7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” (Rev. 22:6-7)

Friends, this book is not for a future generation, it’s for us. It’s for every servant of Jesus Christ who must endure tribulation as they patiently wait on the return of the King.

3. HOW SHOULD WE READ IT?

As we study this book, we have to make sure that take the proper approach to understanding its message. For the next few minutes, I am going to overview the 5 predominant ways Revelation has been interpreted. I appreciate how the commentator Joel Beeke summarizes these views and helps us see the benefit of them all. He writes:

Preterism

First is the preterist approach. This view sees Revelation wholly in terms of the circumstances that transpired in John’s day prior to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, without any reference to future events. The word preterism is derived from the Latin word praeteritum, meaning “that which is past.” Preterists believe that any interpretation of Revelation must be confined to the historic past rather than projected into the future.

This view interprets Revelation’s opening words, “things which must shortly come to pass,” as events that happened in John’s own time. Preterists argue that, just as the seven churches of Asia were real first-century churches to which letters were addressed, so the entire book of Revelation contains only things that came to pass in John’s day or shortly thereafter, with the exception of chapters 21–22, which clearly refer to the time of the new heaven and new earth.

The strength of this approach is that it strongly affirms the operative framework of the book as “things which must shortly come to pass.” Its weakness is that Revelation then has little to say to the church today in the midst of her struggles

Historicism

Second is the historicist approach. This view, which was held by most of the sixteenth-century Reformers, sees the book of Revelation as a symbolic representation of the panorama of church history, from the first coming of Christ to His second advent at the end of the world.

A historicist might say that the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2–3 do not refer to seven particular churches in Asia Minor but to seven ages of church history. They would then conclude that today we live in the age of Laodicea or the era of the lukewarm church. They thus view Revelation as a chart of church history, offering a series of historical pictures moving from Christ’s first coming to the end of the present age. In Revelation 13, the beast rising from the sea could be the rise of Islam in the seventh century, while Revelation 17, several centuries further along, may refer to the Roman Catholic Church and the rise of the papacy.

The strength of this approach is that it embraces all of church history; its weakness is that it too easily assumes that Revelation prophesies a linear movement through church history, with no recapitulation of events seen from different points of view.

Futurism

Third is the futurist approach. This was the most popular view of evangelicals at the beginning of the twentieth century, especially premillennial dispensationalists, but it has lost ground in recent decades. The futurist believes that the visions of Revelation 4–22 refer to events that are still future, but that they will transpire immediately prior to and along with Christ’s second coming at the end of history, ushering in the millennial age. Most futurists are premillennial; that is, they believe that Christ’s return will precede the millennial age.

The problem with this view is that it reads the book as almost entirely without reference to the needs and struggles of the churches to which John first sent this book. It also affords little consolation for the suffering church at any other point in church history, including today, because it is exclusively focused on events surrounding Christ’s second coming. The strength of this view is that it emphasizes the ultimate victory of Christ and His elect over the world at His second coming.

Idealism

Fourth is the idealist approach, sometimes called the poetic or inspirational approach. This position is sometimes called iterism, from the Latin verb itero, meaning “to repeat,” because idealist interpreters hold that the events described in Revelation are repeated from time to time in the experience of the church from age to age.

This approach teaches that Revelation is relevant for everyone since it deals with principles and symbols that are always valid in our personal history and experience. The idealist scarcely wrestles with the problem of chronology in Revelation, preferring to see this book and its symbolism as a tract written for persecuted Christians of any period. The symbolism is interpreted loosely, in a very general way, to give comfort and encouragement to persecuted Christians.

The strength of this approach is its applicability to the church of all ages; its weakness is that it is difficult to affirm this view exegetically, based on the description “things which must shortly come to pass” (1:1).

Eclectic

In accord with many Reformed theologians, I propose an eclectic approach that accents the idealist or iterist approach. This approach has also been called the parallel or cyclical view of Revelation. Imagine a man with a video camera who is recording a church congregation. He pans over the people, starting on one side of the church and going all around. Then he goes up into the gallery and does the same thing. Then he goes to the back, comes from behind, and pans over everyone again. That is what we see in Revelation. The book offers us views of the entire history of the church but seen from different vantage points.

I believe there are seven parallel sections in Revelation. Each section offers a different view of the church in history, as we will see as we make our way through the book. With this parallel or cyclical view of the book, we will see how each section spans the entire dispensation of the gospel, from the first coming of Christ two thousand years ago down to His coming again at the last day.

Here are the 7 parallel sections of Revelation:

The Seven Churches (1-3)
The Seven Seals (4-8:1)
The Seven Trumpets (8:2-11)
The War with the Dragon (12-14)
The Seven Bowls of Wrath (15-16)
The Fall of Babylon (17-19)
The Victory of Christ & His Bride (20-22)

One of the interpretive keys, if not the most important interpretive key to unlocking the message of Revelation is found at the end of verse 1 when John writes:

He (Jesus) made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

That phrase, “He made it known,” may appear in your Bible as he “signified it.” It’s means to signify by symbols and is a direct quotation from Daniel 2:28 in which God has just given a symbolic vision to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. In other words, here in the first verse, John is telling us how to read and understand. This book is symbolic. Some ignore this book saying, “It’s too difficult. So many have gotten it wrong. I can’t possibly understand it.” Other obsess over this book, associating every detail with a geopolitical leader or event. Years ago, they found Henry Kissinger in Revelation as the anti-Christ, then it was Mikhail Gorbachev, then Saddam Hussein.

Dear church, there is a better way. You don’t have to ignore this book. It can be understood and applied. But you need not, indeed, you are not to treat it like a key to unlocking the politics of the Near East. Revelation is not a puzzle book. It is a picture book.

John’s witness to the revelation of Jesus Christ is not intended to be a secret, concealed curiosity, but an exhortation about how God wants Christians to live in light of the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ above all earthly powers. I love how Vern Poythress puts it: “Revelation is not intended to tickle our fancy, but to strengthen our heart.”

The goal of Revelation is not to solve a puzzle, it’s to behold a picture of that which is being revealed: Christ as the conqueror. It is his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and rule in the heavenly places, his Spirit empowering his church, his gospel, his mercy, his pardon, his truth, in all ages, and his soon return to judge the living and the dead.

If you keep Christ at the center, you will read and understand this book.

4. WHY SHOULD WE READ IT?

God promises to bless those who read this book.

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.

In the earliest church services, it was customary for one of the elders to publicly read aloud the writings of the Old Testament, or one of the letters of the Apostles because there were limited copies of the Scriptures and because many were illiterate. Verse 3 is an encouragement to pastors to read and church members to listen, and all to obey.

What is the blessing of reading, hearing, and obeying? John tells us in verse 3 that this book is a prophecy. Revelation 1:1 says God gave this revelation to Christ “to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.” At the end of verse 3, we are told that “the time is near.” Revelation is not about some distant future. It’s about today. It was applicable the moment the ink dried on John’s papyrus. The New Testament says the onset of the last days was marked by Christ’s pouring out His Spirit on the church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17). That is when Christ inaugurated His kingdom, which is now spreading to the ends of the earth. The last days include the days in which we are living. (Beeke) The church is to proclaim Christ to the ends of the earth. Satan has no power to stop that proclamation or deceive the nations any longer. But he can persecute the saints. He can pursue the saints through wicked rulers and governments. He can tempt the saints with doctrinal compromise and spiritual complacency. He can thwart the evangelistic purpose of the church by sowing seeds of disunity all while this lost world careens towards hell.

And Revelation throws back the curtain on our lives so that we see what’s going on. There is a cosmic war being waged. Everyone must take a side. There can be no riding the fence. This book presents us with horrific pictures of beasts and dragons in order to portray the spiritual gravity of our present circumstances. The blessing of this book is that it wakes you up. Those who have ears to hear will perceive the seriousness of this situation and cease compromising. (Beale) Revelation speaks to spiritually anesthetized saints, through symbols, in order to shake and sober us to the reality that God rules history, and will bring it to its consummation in Christ.

Conversely, to neglect the reading, hearing, and obeying of this book is to be cursed. To fall prey to Satan, the lies of this present evil age, and to fail to prepare for the coming of Christ.

As we embark on this journey through Revelation, how should we respond?

Dear church, read this book. Do not neglect it. Read it with faith. Read it to build spiritual muscle and courage. Don’t wait until the time of tribulation is upon you. Dig the well of endurance before you are tested.

Obey Jesus Christ. The blessing of this book is not found in reading alone. It is not found in greater knowledge but in greater commitment to Christ. If you can speak as an expert on Revelation but have not love for members of the church, you’re a clanging cymbal. If you can trace every detail of this book, but you do not pray, you are nothing. If you can unravel the mysteries of Revelation, but take no time to disciple your children in the fundamentals of the faith, you gain nothing.

Be prepared for Christ’s coming. Examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith. Have you been made right with God through faith alone in what Jesus Christ has done at the cross? Friends, the time is near, indeed it is at hand. The war of the cosmos is raging and you have a few short years to settle your accounts with God. After that, there will be no future opportunity.

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,
If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.
(C.T. Studd)