Difference between revisions of "Sermon for April 7th, 2013"

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Daniel 7:13-14

13As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. 14 To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

Revelation 1:1-20

1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2who testified 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 the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

9 I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11saying, ‘Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’

12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive for ever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. 19Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. 20As 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.

Revelation: A War on Three Fronts

I'm a pretty future-focused kind of guy. I like gadgets, especially the latest ones. I keep up with trends in technology, medicine, science and biology. I read science-fiction and I love to speculate on where everything is headed a year from now, 10 years from now, 100 years from now. I am a futurist.

So it might seem somewhat surprising that when it comes to the book of Revelation, the one place where many Christians have looked to unlock the secrets of the future and what amazing or horrible things are in store for us...I'm a skeptic. I'm not at all skeptical of the Bible, or the Book of Revelation itself, I'm just skeptical of what seems to be the predominant interpretation of it these days. To be fair, the idea of Revelation as a book that unlocks the hidden secrets of our near future has been the "predominant interpretation" for hundreds if not thousands of years. That in itself is part of the problem: We're just as sure as the medieval monks in the 10th century that we can decode the complex symbolism in Revelation, see it unfolding all around us, and know that we are the ones living in the midst of its prophecy. And we're probably about as correct as they were, too.

They weren't entirely wrong, though. If we can see our own situation reflected in the visions and symbols of the Book of Revelation, it is not because we are living in the "end times." It's because there is a timeless message in Revelation that speaks to us in every generation, just like the timeless message in all the other books of the Bible. So if we absolutely must situate Revelation somewhere in time, it's not the time just ahead of us. If Revelation belongs to a specific time, it's the end of the first century, when it was written by John on the island of Patmos at the height of the Roman Empire. If there is any future to be seen in the Book of Revelation, then we must see it through the eyes of the past.

The picture on the cover of your bulletin is of an ancient city (Jerusalem) in the foreground, with an artist's depiction of a futuristic, heavenly city in the background. The two cities are in the right order. Eventually, we'll talk some about that heavenly city, but for most of the time, we should keep our eyes firmly fastened on the ancient cities that were the author's context, his focus, and his audience.

We read in the first verse that the Book of Revelation is written by John. John who? Well we don't know. Even back in the first century, John was a pretty common name. Some believe this might be the same John who wrote the Gospel of John, and the letters 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, but we don't really know. The language and style is very different between the books, so all we can do is speculate, and that doesn't really get us anywhere. A better question is this: Why did John write Revelation?

In verse three, we hear that it contains words of prophecy, and "blessed are those" who hear and obey. Prophecy. This is a word that has shifted dramatically in its meaning through the years. For most today, prophecy implies predictions about the future. But in the Bible it is the Greek word προφήτης, one who "speaks out" -- a prophet. The Old Testament concept of a prophet was not someone who predicted the future, but rather someone who spoke out -- someone who spoke out truth to the powerful, on behalf of the powerless. Elijah, Jeremiah, Amos, Samuel -- this is exactly what the prophets of old did, and this is the kind of prophet that John was intimately familiar with. In fact, he quotes and borrows from two Old Testament prophets extensively in the Book of Revelation: Daniel and Ezekiel. Compare verse today's Old Testament passage with the passage from Revelation for an example of this.

Throughout the Book of Revelation John speaks out, on behalf of the persecuted and the oppressed, to the great power of his day...the Roman Empire. In the war on three fronts, this is the first and foremost battleground. The basic claim of early Christianity was that "Jesus is Lord." The basic claim of the Roman Empire was that "Caesar is Lord." Judging by the persecution of Christians in the early church, Caesar did not take kindly to competition.

In this respect, speaking the truth that Jesus is Lord to the power of the Roman Empire, John stands squarely in the tradition of the prophet, as he would have understood it. When he says these things "must soon take place" we should hear his emphasis on the word "must." As in, this "must" be made right" or Pharaoh, you "must" let my people go...soon. It's not a prediction. It's a demand.

There is a problem with speaking truth to great power, especially when the power is Rome. John would have known what Rome did to Jesus, and if he is indeed the John of the gospels, one of the 12 disciples, he probably was familiar with what Rome did to Peter, James, Paul, and the others. Come to think of it, he was probably familiar with the fate of most of the Old Testament prophets too, and it wasn't a pretty one.

I don't think John is afraid of death. But he tells us that he writes from the Island of Patmos -- an island where Roman prisoners were sent in exile. It's likely he was more afraid of having his letter read by the authorities and confiscated, never making it to its destination. So to work around this, he writes in code, in symbols, in metaphors only his recipients would understand. We do the same thing today when we communicate with our global partners, who are proclaiming the gospel in dangerous places.

We see in verse four that John's intended audience is the seven churches in Asia. This is Asia Minor, or present day Turkey. There were many more than seven churches in Asia Minor at the end of the first century. But he chooses Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea--seven is a good, round, biblical number that shows up often in revelation (seven letters, seven lampstands, seven stars, seven seals, seven trumpets, etc.) It's the biblical number for completeness, a sign that by these seven churches, he means ALL churches everywhere. In fact, at the end of each letter to a specific church, he says "Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches." The message is specific--to seven very real churches in the first century--and also timeless: to all churches everywhere, in all times.