The Christ Who Challenges His Church

One last Y2K story: This is a true story taken from the Northwest Arkansas Times, dateline April 4, 1999.

A man who was preparing for Y2K filled some 6-foot long heavy metal pipes with a mixture of rice, beans, and dry ice and then sealed them up. He planned to bury the pipes in his yard but before he could, pressure from the evaporating dry ice caused one of the pipes to explode. The blast, which shook the neighborhood, blew a hole in his roof and spewed rice and beans all over the area. Police had to evacuate the neighborhood and bring in a bomb technician to detonate the other pipes.

The fact that Y2K seemed to come in so smoothly, after all the dire predictions and warnings about the awful things that could happen has probably left people with the impression - Why were we even worried? What’s the point in thinking about the future? Que sera, sera. What will be will be.

And that’s typical. Because we live in a culture where we spend very little time thinking about the future, and even less time thinking about the past. Our society is obsessed with the present. It’s like we’re living inside the Today Show and all that matters is NOW.

Want proof right here in the church? Church growth studies indicate that the question that’s going through most people’s minds as they sit in church and listen to a sermon is “Give me something that I can use right now. Tell me something that is relevant to my life today.”

So what are we going to do today? We’re going to go to the book of Revelation—a book which was written 1900 years ago about things which are still in the future. Now before you groan and tune me out - let me tell you something. The book of Revelation is the wierdest book in the Bible… by a wide margin!

That’s why most Christians today don’t read it. Because we can’t understand it and we don’t see it’s relevance for our lives today. To borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill “The book of Revelation is a riddle inside an enigma wrapped up in a mystery.” Even such great Christians as Martin Luther and Zwingli had such a tough time with the book of Revelation that they concluded that it didn’t even belong in the Bible.

What makes Revelation so hard to understand? What makes it so strange to our 21st century eyes? Well, to begin with, much of Revelation’s strangeness comes from the fact that it belongs to a category of literature that we’re just not familiar with anymore.

When you walk into the Chapters bookstore down by Square One, you’re confronted with thousands upon thousands of books. And those books are organized by category. Over here you see a sign for Self-Help books. Over there you see a sign for Cook Books. Here is the section for Romance Novels. There is the section for Travel books.

If you were to walk into a Chapters bookstore in the Roman Empire in the year 100 AD, you’d see another category: Apocalyptic Books. That’s a category we don’t know much about today, but there was a whole lot of apocalyptic literature floating around the ancient world from about 200 BC to 200 AD.

Apocalyptic literature was born in Israel, and it was born for a particular reason. The Jews knew that they were God’s chosen people. They knew that God had big plans for them. They knew that God has His hand on them in a very special way.

But the problem was: the day-to-day history of Israel didn’t seem to bear that out. Every time they turned around, the Jews were getting clobbered. First it was the Egyptians, then it was the Philistines, then it was the Assyrians, then it was the Babylonians, then it was the Greeks. Now it was the Romans.

So by about the year 100 BC, the Jews are looking at each other saying “What’s going on? Where is this blessing from God that is supposed to be upon us? If it isn’t happening in the here-and-now, when is it going to happen?”

And then a revolutionary thought came to them. (or maybe we should call it a revelationary thought!) Maybe the blessing will happen in the age to come. And it’s in the Intertestamental Period that you find in Judaism this whole new strand of thinking: there is This Age and there is The Age to Come.

This Age is a time of great pain and suffering; its a time of oppression and sadness and persecution and death. But Oh! the Age to Come… what a glorious time that will be! It will be a time when God will finally smile on His people, when God will put down all the enemies of Israel, when all the wrongs will be put right and the people of God will be vindicated.

And so the Jews began to write about it. But they had to be careful about how they wrote about it, because their enemies were still breathing down their necks. How do you think the Romans would feel if they found out that the Jews were writing stories about how the Rome was going to be overthrown? You see the writers of apocalyptic literature had to be very careful and circumspect in the way that they presented these things.

So what they did was to use a lot of symbolism. They didn’t call Rome “Rome”, they called it Babylon. And they didn’t talk about the government-sponsored pagan religious system, they talked about “the harlot”. So that if a Roman official walked into Chapters and bought an apocalyptic book, he wouldn’t be able to understand it. It was as though it was written in code. Ahh! but the people of God would understand it, because they knew the code.

The book of Revelation is written in that style - the style of Jewish apocalyptic literature. But there’s two big differences—first of all, it was divinely inspired, and secondly, it wasn’t written for Jews, it was written for Christians; for the church. Because the church at the end of the 1st century found itself in a similar bind to that in which Israel found herself a couple of centuries earlier.

The Roman Empire was a big goulash of religions. (Kind of like Mississauga that way!) People were worshiping all sorts of different gods and godesses. You had the Zeus worshipers over here and the Artemis worshipers over there and you had Jews and Christians and Stoics and Epicureans. And from the point of view of the general population, it didn’t really matter what god you worshiped because there was a great deal of religious tolerance. Everybody was pretty blasé about that. You have your beliefs and I’ll have mine and we’ll just agree to live and let live. (Also a lot like Mississauga!)

But toward the end of the 1st century, the Roman Caesars came up with a rather novel idea. In the midst of all this religious plurality, in order to promote a kind of civic unity throughout the Empire, they decided to promote the idea that they were gods. And all that they would require of you, if you lived in the Roman Empire, was for you to show up at an Imperial temple once a year, throw a pinch of incense on a government altar and confess “Caesar is Lord”. It was kind of like an exercise in patriotism, only it had spiritual implications.

Now for 95% of the population, this was no big deal. But there were two groups who wouldn’t do it: the Christians and the Jews. The Romans knew that the Jews would never do this, so they exempted them. But the Christians were another story.

The Christian church had been able to flourish for the first few decades of its existence without too many hassles from the government because the Romans thought that Christians were Jews. The church was made up mainly of Jews and had a very Jewish flavor to it in the early years. So as far as the Romans were concerned, this Christian church was just another sect of Judaism.

But as the first century wore on, it began to become obvious that the Christian church was something entirely different. For one thing, more and more Gentiles were converting to Christianity. So the church began to lose its Jewish flavor. And furthermore, the Jews themselves were becoming increasingly agitated about and hostile toward the Christian church. The Jews began to distance themselves in no uncertain terms from this new movement called Christianity.

So that meant, from the point of view of the Roman government, that Christians were no longer eligible to be exempt from the requirements of emperor worship since they were not Jews. And that meant that the Roman government began to persecute Christians because they refused to worship the emperor. And the general population began to turn against them because they weren’t doing their civic duty; they weren’t willing to play the game.

This is the immediate historical context into which the book of Revelation was written. The heat was now on Christians! They were now the target. They were going to be hounded and hunted and martyred for their beliefs. And they needed some hope to hang onto to help them get through it. That’s the immediate reason why the book of Revelation was written.

So what are we saying? That the book of Revelation is all about the 1st century church? No. It STARTS there but it doesn’t STAY there.

Now I have to tell you that there are a lot of different schools of thought on this question. Some commentators feel that the whole book of Revelation is about events that took place back in the first century, or maybe, at the latest, the fifth century when the city of Rome finally fell.

Other commentators see Revelation as having nothing whatsoever to do with actual historical events. They see it as a sort of morality play about the cosmic struggle between good and evil, which obviously takes place in all ages.

But the view that I take, and the view that is probably most prevalent in the evangelical church, is that Revelation starts in the 1st century, and deals with real historical situations that existed in the 1st century church, but it doesn’t stop there. It also prophetically speaks about actual historical events which are going to occur in the future, at the end of this age. So in that sense, it is a book for all seasons.

The first three chapters of the book are addressed to 7 specific local churches in 7 actual cities in the Roman Empire of the first century AD. Each of these churches was wrestling with a specific challenge—you might even call it a crisis.

Our Modus Operandi over the next few weeks will be to discover:

• what was the crisis?

• how did it come about?

• how did Jesus Christ challenge the church to resolve that crisis?

Because the church in the year 2000 still faces these same kinds of issues.

• There is the issue of love—how to love God and love the people we are serving.

• There is the issue of what to do when we face opposition and hostility.

• There is the issue of how to develop proper biblical values and not let ourselves be swayed by the prevailing values of our culture.

• There is the issue of leadership and authority in the church.

• There is the issue of understanding clearly our purpose so that our activity as a church can be purposeful.

• There is the issue of how we respond when a unique ministry opportunity presents itself. Are we going to have the faith to follow God through open doors?

• There is always the issue of complacency and apathy creeping into our fellowship.

These are the things that we are going to look at in the new millennium as we study the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. Because Revelation is a book for all seasons. And it is that because it is about a Savior for all seasons.

Look at the first five words of Revelation 1:1…

The revelation of Jesus Christ

People have tried to make the book of Revelation into a prophecy chart, a kind of an end-times roadmap—a Tribulation Triptik—a secret decoder ring for understanding the future. But what it’s really about is about a person—Jesus Christ.

The whole Bible points to Jesus Christ, and you really can’t understand the Bible unless you come to understand that it points to Christ. In the same way, you cannot understand the book of Revelation unless you see that it is pointing to Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation presents Christ as the Lord of history, as the center of history, and as the consummation of history.

In Revelation chapter 1, Jesus introduces himself to us that way. Pick it up at verse 4…

Revelation 1:4-6 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

Let’s find out what Revelation chapter 1 teaches us about Christ.

Jesus Christ is Lord of the present…

Look at the verb tenses in verse 5… He is the faithful witness; He is the firstborn from the dead; He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. This is his present identity and role. There is a present significance to who He is.

He is the faithful witness. When Jesus came to earth, he said “for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” (John 18:37) Jesus brought us the truth from God, and He himself is the embodiment of that truth. You want to know truth about God? You need to look at Jesus because he is the faithful witness.

That word witness is the word marturion from which we get our word martyr. A martyr is someone who loses his life for the truth. And that’s what happened to Jesus. He told people the truth about God and they killed him for it. But he didn’t stay dead!

He is the firstborn from the dead. He was the first person to rise from the dead with a glorified resurrection body. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, (Col. 1:18). He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1Cor. 15:20)

And because of that, he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. His resurrection gives him the right to reign. Because Jesus died and rose again,we are told in Philippians 2 that

God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. His resurrection leads directly to his reign.

So this is Jesus’ present identity - he is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth. And isn’t it wonderful to think, as it says in v. 5, that this person loves us!

But he has done more than just love us. He has accomplished some tremendous things on our behalf that are now settled facts. And in that sense,

Jesus is also Lord of the past

Look at the end of v.5… He has freed us from our sins by his blood

The tense that is used there is the aorist tense in Greek, which signifies completed action. It is done. He has (literally) “loosed” us from the chains of sin which bound us.

There are times when Satan comes along and whispers in your ear “How can you be a Christian? You’ve got things in your past that are an absolute disgrace. You’ve said things, and thought things, and done things that you’d better hope nobody ever finds out about.” And Satan can play a number on you if he gets you thinking this way. But listen! It says right here that Jesus Christ in his death on the cross has freed us from our sins by his blood. So that…

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

Our past record is no longer hanging over us. Because we are under the blood of Jesus. He has canceled the rap sheet against us, having taken it away and nailed it to his cross, as it says in Col. 2:14.

He has done something else for us as well. Look at verse 6…

He has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father

He has put us on his team. We have been molded together to be a kingdom, so that in our life together as believers we bow the knee to Jesus as king. And we engage ourselves in his kingdom business. That’s what we are corporately. But as individuals, we are priests. We have immediate access to God. This is what Jesus has accomplished for us, and this is what we are.

Jesus is also Lord of the future.

Look at verse 7… Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be!

Some day, Jesus is going to come with the clouds. And those are not natural clouds by the way, they are the shekinah glory clouds of heaven. And every eye will see him.

Jesus Himself said in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 that the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.

So Jesus is Lord of the future. And if you look at verses 12–16, you’ll see that

Jesus is Lord of the church

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.

Now we find out later, in verse 20, that the 7 lampstands represent the 7 churches. And that is significant, because a lampstand is a carrier of the light. It is not the source of the light, it is the bearer of the light. Likewise, Jesus is the source of light and the church is the bearer of that light.

Jesus is depicted here as someone “like a son of man”. This hearkens back to Daniel 7:13, where Daniel sees a vision. And speaking of that vision, Daniel writes:

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

This “Son of Man” in Daniel’s vision, while he might have looked like a man, was obviously something much more than a man, because God gave him authority and a kingdom and God demanded that all the people of earth worship him. You think God would share his glory with anyone other than himself that way? This “Son of Man” is Jesus Christ himself, the second person of the trinity.

Did you know that when Jesus came to earth, he most frequently referred to himself as the Son of Man? (Something like 83 times in the Gospels) That was not so much to refer to his humanity as to refer to his deity, he was reminding his disciples of this passage in Daniel. And here again, in Revelation, he is referred to as the Son of Man.

And he is pictured here as standing among the lampstands—he has a special relationship with local churches—that is, the seven specific local churches to which John was commanded to write this message.

Did you ever stop to realize that Erindale Bible Chapel, as a local church, has a direct relationship with the head of the church, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man? When we gather together corporately, Jesus Christ is here with us. He is the Lord of the church universal, and he is the Lord of this local church. We are his lampstand; we are the bearers of His light. We are not the source of the light in and of ourselves; but we have the privilege of bearing his light.

Look at how John describes Jesus in this passage:

• he’s dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. - This speaks of his regal authority and dignity. This was the garb of the high priest or of a king.

• His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow. This speaks of his purity and his eternal wisdom

• his eyes were like blazing fire. His vision is penetrating; he is omniscient; he can see all things.

• His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace.

• His voice was like the sound of rushing waters - like a mighty Niagara; powerful, irresistible, unstoppable.

• In his right hand he held seven stars. We are told later, in verse 20, that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. It is difficult to know exactly what is meant here by angels. Does each church have a guardian angel? Or perhaps the word is used in the more general sense of “messenger” - in which case it might mean the messengers who were going to carry this message to the churches. Some have even thought that it might refer to the pastor of each local church.

  We’re not sure what it means exactly, but it does signify that the Lord of the church is holding each church in his right hand - the right hand being the hand of strength and honor. So is it too much to imagine that right now, the Lord Jesus Christ is holding our church, Erindale Bible Chapel, in his right hand?

• out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword - we’re told in Eph. 6:17 that the sword of the spirit is the word of God, which is sharper than any two-edged sword and invincible in accomplishing its purpose (Heb. 4:12)

  In Rev. 19:15, we read about the return of the Lord to the earth. And the only weapon Jesus bears is a sword that proceeds out of his mouth. In other words, it is the Word of God. That’s the only weapon he needs. He speaks, and the battle’s over.

• His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance - this is John’s way of describing the glory of the exalted Christ.

And something very poignant happens in the next verse. Look at v. 17…

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

This vision of the exalted Lord was just too much for John. He couldn’t stand it. Now I want you to remember that this is the apostle John writing here. What do we know about John. Well, we know that he was one of Jesus’ closest disciples. In fact, he may have been the closest disciple. John is the man who reclined at the table beside Jesus. This is the beloved disciple. They shared many close times together. Jesus committed to John the care of his mother.

But here we are about sixty years later, John’s an old man, and when he sees the exalted Lord Jesus, it utterly blows him away. But watch what happens next…

Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid.

Remember, this is the same right hand in which Jesus is holding the seven stars. That tells me that not only is Jesus the Lord of the church…

He is Lord of you and me as individuals

He cares about us as people. He reaches down to his friend and he says “Don’t be afraid” and he puts his right hand on John—a gesture of blessing and comradeship and reassurance.

You know, as Christians, we need to be more like Jesus this way. It’s easy for us to get all excited about building the church and growing the church and running programs and doing ministry and all that great stuff. But in the end, it comes down to caring about individuals, doesn’t it. If we do all the great stuff, and we don’t care about individual people, then we haven’t accomplished anything.

Hold that thought, because we’re going to talk about that next week.

He is the Lord of life and death (v. 18)

I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. - the keys are the ancient symbol of utmost authority. If you had the keys, you had the authority. Jesus is the Lord of life and death.

This is the Savior for all seasons, who is the Lord of the present, the past and the future. He is Lord of the church. He is Lord of you and me as individuals. And he is Lord of life and death. In the weeks to come as we move into a new millennium, let’s listen to him speaking to us as a congregation. And let’s worship him now as we close.