He Holds us in His hands
The Revelation of King Jesus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsTrue saving faith turns us to the word of God and the worship of the one who crested the world. With this saving faith comes persecution which should cause us to worship God all the more, for He holds us in His hands.
Notes
Transcript
intro
Jesus holds His children in His hands. This is one of the things that should give us hope as we go through what Revelation means for our lives. We are going to go through the inaugural vision that was given to John to start off the book. It holds some important truths for u as w go through the rest of the book.
One of the things we are going to see throughout the book is the persecution that is going to reign down on Christians and our proper response, to worship God in spite of this. Our response is to advance the gospel in light of this persecution as we worship the Lord God together. We see this now in the world. One of the things I am going to try and share throughout this is stories of people who do this now. God is working in the midst of people groups who will die for their faith.
interviewed Christian migrants who’d converted from Islam, many reported a dream that led to their conversion. Their experiences of dreams and visions fit into the following categories: Jesus speaking Scripture to them, even Scripture they had never heard before.Jesus telling people to do something.A dream or vision that led to a feeling of being clean or at peace. A man in white physically appearing.
Let me share some examples. a Persian migrant who arrived at a refugee center at 6 a.m., visibly upset. He told his story to a Persian pastor: During the night he saw someone dressed in white raise his hand and say, “Stand up and follow me.” The Persian man said, “Who are you?” The man in white replied, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I’m the way to heaven. No one can go to the Father, except through me.”He began to ask the Persian pastor: “Who is he? What am I going to do? Why did he ask me to follow him? How shall I go? Tell me.” In response, the pastor held out his Bible and asked, “Have you seen this before?” “No,” he replied. “Do you know what it is?” “No.” The pastor then opened to the Book of Revelation: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” The man started crying and said, “How can I accept him? How can I follow him?” So the pastor led him in prayer and peace came over him. The pastor then gave the man a Bible and told him to hide it, since the Muslims in the camps could cause him trouble. But the man replied, “The Jesus that I met today, he’s more powerful than the Muslims in the camp.” He left and an hour later returned with 10 more Persians and told the pastor, “These people want a Bible.” No one had to teach him an evangelistic strategy.
Those who recounted their dreams truly believed they were from God, enough that it was part of their story of converting from Islam to evangelical Christianity. The social cost for many was quite high. “Sometimes people say they have a dream, and it’s just some crazy story. Sometimes I believe they read something, and they have a dream. We need to be careful of that. Many are lazy in waiting for dreams.” Instead of dreams, one Persian pastor encouraged people to read the Bible. “I get tired of people who will not read the Bible and are just waiting for a dream. They have it backward. They just need the Bible.” He exhibited a healthy skepticism. Some were converting because of dreams, but others were making up stories to fit in. When Muslims Dream of Jesus (thegospelcoalition.org)
There are people turning to God through these things, worshiping Him and leading other people to God through the scriptures and people distorting the truth, wanting to fit in, seeking miracles over the revealed word of God. But what we are going to learn is that True saving faith turns us to the word of God and the worship of the one who crested the world. With this saving faith comes persecution which should cause us to worship God all the more, for He holds us in His hands.
1:4-8 - He is coming
I was supposed to get through this part of the passage 2 weeks ago, but I ran out of time. We are going to go through the introductory vision given to John at the end of the 1st chapter of Revelation. We start out with the rest of the greeting:
4 John: To the seven churches in Asia. Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne,
Right from the beginning we see the centrality of Jesus in the book. As is usual for the letters in the NT what we see is that Jesus is going to play a central role in the rest of the letter.
It also shows us that the letter was to be sent to seven churches, why 7? there is significance behind the number itself. Maybe they where strategically placed to spread the message that was being sent. After all the messenger with the Revelation scroll was to take and and read the letter, they likely would have copied it down and spread the message further.
Also referenced is the idea that it is from God, the testimony of Jesus. Jesus is central to the message. “who is, who was and who is to come” is in reference to the divine name of God, YHWH which we get also from the book of Exodus.
Right from the beginning we get the message of the gospel to prove that it is at the central point of the message of the revelation. The gospel is key in the reading of this letter.
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has set us free 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.
This we must remember, we must not lose sight of as we go through this letter, the gospel is the key message through all of this. If the message of the gospel gets lost in delving into the small details, the we have lost the most important point.
We must remember as we are promised that suffering is going to happen, that we can stand frim on the truths of Jesus that we have learned and read in the word of God.
Another important thing to remember in all this intro stuff, is that the OT is key to understanding what is going on here. Imagery and scripture is being used from OT end times theology.
Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be. Amen.
This picture of the coming of the Lord Jesus is taken from two different sources and joined together. Daniel 7:13 and Zech 12:10. I go into the meaning behind this a little more in my devo booklet if you want to take a look at it.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
The key to this is that Jesus is coming back. This is the main point we get through these verse. The prophecy was given by God through the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is coming back and every eye will see Him, even those who do not believe in Him. The rest of the letter describes how that will look and what is going to happen. But rest assured, Jesus is coming back.
Amidst the fine details we must remember that at least.
9-13a - He is with us
9-13a - He is with us
John wants us, he wanted them to know that he was in the same boat as them. Kind of like a third introduction. a reminder that with procl;imation of the gospel comes prosecution for the spreadsing of the gospel.
I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
John says He heard a loud voice like a TRUMPET and came the first of the visions. I love the imagery behind this and found an artist rendering of it. The artist rendering is a bit Instead of putting the scripture up on the screen, I will use this as a reference.
One like the son of Man - This is a reference to the divine messiah as taken from Daniel 7. People wonder How this could be, wouldn't he be called the son of God? In Daniel 7:13 we see the Ancient of Days (God) presented as “the son of man” That is God in the flesh. This term, like lots of things are debated much, but the meaning remains the same. It is in reference to the messiah.
Seven lampstands - Not candlesticks, but stands to put an oil lamp on. I know, it doesn't matter but it came out in my research. & of them representing the seven churches that the letter was originally sent to. Lamp stands to represent the church is not a coincidence either.
the idea of the lamp stand is that as the church we are to bear the light of the divine presence of Jesus to the world around us. The world is dark with sin and we are to reflect the light of the glory of God to the world around us. We are a reflection of the glory of God.
Also Jesus is in the midst of the lamp stands. Jesus is in the midst of the church. He will not leave us alone in the midst or persecution, rather He is with us.
The seven stars - The seven stars in the hand of Jesus are angels. 7 and 7, they link to the 7 churches. Jesus is in control is what we are reading, He will protect us and given His angels charge to protect the church. No one will snatch the church out of the hand of Jesus.
Other Imagery - I will not dig to deep into the other imagery. We must be careful trying to dig to deep to track down the source of each descriptive phrase and compile a catalogue would be “to unweave the rainbow. White, hair, a white robe with a golden sash. All likely to represent the high priestly role Jesus has. The great power in His voice alone. The sword coming from His mouth is not a literal Sword. I do not believe that Jesus is going to come back spitting out swords at people. It symbolizes the power of the divine judgement of God that is promised to fall on all those who do not believe in Him. The word of Christ will ultimatley prevail.
One of the main things that I want to encourage us with in this great vision is the fact that Jesus is with us, He will save us, His word will prevail. We must take comfort in this as the world starts unwinding towards the end of days, it is going to get hard, persecution is going to come. But the Lord holds us in His hands, He sends His angels to watch over us and we can rest in This promise.
13b-20 - We must worship Him
13b-20 - We must worship Him
Lastly we end with the end result of what we have heard, knowing what is to come, knowing we can rest in the promise that God is with us.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last,
Our response is to be like John’s response. I have heard a few stories of people that have gone to see God and come back again, one of the things that never sit right with me is their response. A proper response in the scriptures always seems to be one like this, John fell like a dead man
Our response is to fall down and worship the Lord because of what is going to come and what He already has done.
and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades. Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.
Do not be afraid, for what has been written down by God is going to come to pass. yes bow down in worship of the one who died for us and is coming again but there is no need to fear the future as His children.
So What?
So What?
what must we learn from this? Whether Jesus is coming now or 100 years from now, How must this change our lives?
Jesus Holds us in His hands
Jesus Holds us in His hands
No matter what the world brings Jesus is with His children, in the end He wins. Jesus appeared amongst the lampstands for a reason. We are going to learn that some of the 7 churches needed some serious help, they seemed to not be doing so good.
We sometimes see flaws in the church, after all we are not perfect. Sometimes our reaction when we see these flaws is to leave or to show disdain for the church. But we must remember that God is in the midst of His people, and we must strive, even amongst the flaws to be more like Him.
Through whatever happens, God is with His children.
With Proclamation comes persecution
With Proclamation comes persecution
Our response is to glorify God in Our sufferings. Knowing He is with us we can weather the fact that proclamation comes persecution. John was cut off from everything, left for dead on the Island of Patmos for sharing the gospel of Jesus. Yet through it all He rested in the fact that God is sovereign in the testing. As we suffer with Christ, so will we reign with Christ.
We Must worship God
We Must worship God
The book of revelation is a of worship that summons us to recognize the awesome glory and majesty of the risen savior. Throughout the book of Revelation we see the saints involved in worship of the Lord God, even while they are being slaughtered for their faith.
Our response through it all is to shine the light of Jesus as we worship Him. True saving faith turns us to the word of God and the worship of the one who crested the world. With this saving faith comes persecution which should cause us to worship God all the more, for He holds us in His hands.