05-20-12 Revelation: Opening The Door

Today we begin the first chapter

of the Book of Revelation.

We are not going to study the entire book together.

In fact, we are not going to move much beyond the first few chapters

for reasons that will become clear as we move through them.

I mentioned last week

that Revelation contains 3 major sections:

1. The 1^st section is Chapter one,

which provides us with a crucial introduction to everything else that follows.

2. The 2^nd section

is Rev. chapters 2 and 3,

a section which contains the Lord’s 7 messages to 7 local church fellowships.

3. Then, the remainder of the book,

from chapters 4 through 22,

contains a prophetic account

of the final 7 years

immediately preceding the return of Christ,

and concludes with a glimpse

into the endless eternity beyond.

Our study together will take us through the first and second sections,

and then we’ll look at some of the third.

And today

we begin with the crucial introduction.

It is crucial

because in it Jesus Christ establishes

the ground-rules

for interpreting everything else we find in the book.

And, just so you know

how we’re going to approach this,

I am going to try to give you

one-line titles

for each of the sections we move through in the book.

If it works the way I hope it will

these titles will provide us with handles

that will help us to better hang onto the book mentally.

And the phrase we start with

is the 1^st question

anybody who has ever read the book of Revelation will ask first:

Rev. 1:1-2 answers the question:

Where did this thing come from, anyway?

John begins by telling us exactly where it came from:

Rev. 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,

Rev. 1:2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

In these two verses

John traces a 5 step communication process for the book.

He tells that

God the Father

gave it to Jesus Christ

Who gave it to His angel

who then gave it to John

who in turn gave it to the 7 churches.

John begins by affirming

the absolute reliability

and validity of the words he has written.

He understands, of course,

that he has communicated

some things it will be very hard

for his readers to understand.

It’s one thing

for John to look back over his life

and write memories he has

of the time he spent with Christ here on earth

in the form of the Gospel of John.

We can understand that process.

But it is a very different matter

for John to write and distribute

a vivid description

of events that have not even taken place yet.

And from the very first verse

John wants us to know

he is not the source,

he is simply the messenger.

The source is God Himself.

Then, in Rev. 1:3

we have The Blessing.

Rev. 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

I find it interesting

that this is the only book in the entire Bible

that begins by conferring a special blessing

both on the one who reads it publicly

and on those who hear.

In fact, not only does the book

begin with this statement of blessing,

but it ends with it as well.

In the last chapter of Revelation,

Rev. 22:7 there is a quotation for Christ Himself

in which He says,

Rev. 22:7 "And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book."

Now, I will not pretend to know

all that that blessing means.

I just know it’s there

and that, at the very least,

God wants us to understand

that this book is given

in order to have a powerful positive effect on our lives.

We were here last week,

but let me repeat it again,

If Biblical prophecy generates fear and anxiety in the child of God,

then we have misunderstood it.

God begins the book of Revelation

by affirming clearly

that it was given to bless us.

Rev. 1:4-7 we are going to call To and From.

Rev. 1:4 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,

Rev. 1:5 and 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 released us from our sins by His blood

Rev. 1:6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Rev. 1:7 Behold, 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.

The original Revelation

was written for and to

7 New Testament churches.

These churches are named

a few verses farther on.

But then John goes on

to tell us exactly Who the book is from.

It is from Him who is and who was and who is to come.

The book of Revelation

is the only place in Scripture

where God describes Himself

with this phrase.

He uses it several times.

In fact, He uses it again in verse 8 of chapter one.

Now, why doesn’t He just say, “from The Lamb”, or simply “from Jesus Christ”?

Why suddenly,

in the last book of the Bible

ever to be written

does God create a whole new title for Himself - Him who is and who was and who is to come...?

Well, at least 2 reasons come to mind to me.

Obviously Revelation is a highly “time sensitive book”.

I went to the Post Office a while ago

and found a great big packet

with a bold banner stamped across it proclaiming ‟TIME SENSITIVE MATERIAL ENCLOSED”.

It had been mailed bulk rate

from yet another sweepstakes program.

That isn’t the kind of “time sensitive” I’m talking about.

Revelation deals with future events,

presenting them in careful, concise, chronological order.

When God chooses to call Himself Him who is and who was and who is to come,

I think He does it in part

to assure us once again

that even though we are locked into time

one second,

one minute,

one hour and day at a time,

HE IS NOT.

He does not explain it

because, being lineal time creatures,

there is no way we could ever understand it,

but He wants us to know that

He encompasses all of time.

He is where we are right now.

But He also is where we have been in the past,

and He already is where we have yet to go in the future.

The book of Revelation

opens a window for us into our future.

And one of the things we see

when we look through that window

is not just that God goes there with us,

but rather what we see

is that God is already there.

The book of Revelation

is not an account of how God hopes things will turn out if all goes well.

The Book of Revelation

is an account of how

things have already turned out.

2. The second thing I see God telling us

when He describes Himself as Him who is and who was and who is to come,

is that, even though He is outside of time,

He fully, completely understands

the way we are presently locked into it.

He knows we can only really think in terms of Past, Present, and Future,

and He relates to us on that basis.

He tells me in His Word

that all of my sins,

for all of my life,

my entire ‟certificate of debt”

for every evil act or attitude or thought

I ever have or ever will commit

has already been nailed to the cross

and removed from my account forever.

But He also knows that

I must inch my way through those battles -

those failures,

and those victories

one day, one step at a time,

finding once again each day

the awareness of His love

and His forgiveness,

and His grace.

And He has no problem relating to me on that basis,

in time,

one day, one step at a time.

And as long as we bumped up against this aspect of our God

I want to say just a little bit more about it before we move on.

As strange as it may sound,

there simply is nothing in our lives

that has a more powerful impact on our lives right now

than do the events in our lives that have already taken place.

We live in a world that is deeply saturated in evil.

I know we do our very best both as individuals and as a society

to create the illusion that everything in our lives and in our world is doing just fine,

but the reality is that everyone of us enter our adult years

wounded, scarred by things beyond our control,

yet things that have powerfully shaped our lives.

When we look back on some of those wounds

and see the scars they have left within us,

it is natural for us to find ourselves asking, “Where was God when that was happening?”

After nearly 65 years of life

and more than 45 years of life with my Lord

I know the answer to that question.

He was right there with me,

feeling my pain,

and preparing a way for that pain to one day be recreated into good in my life.

It is impossible to live in this world

without being wounded by evil.

It is the nature of the world we live in.

But what I did not discover until after my Lord entered my life

is that if I let go of my bitterness,

and my anger at those who have wounded me,

if I forgive

and then take the wounds, the hurting places and give them to my Lord,

He will find ways of transforming them into great wealth in my life.

It’s one of the things He does best.

And when He tells us that He is the One who was, and who is, and who is to come,

He’s telling us that there is nothing in our past that He cannot recreate,

and nothing in our future

that He cannot bring us through with victory.

2. Then John goes on to address this Book as being from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.

Seven Spirits?

Here we are just beginning to wrestle

with who the Holy Spirit is,

and now we find there are 7 Spirits.

Is the Holy Spirit one of those 7 Spirits?

Or are there actually a total of 8 Spirits of God?

I mentioned a few minutes ago

that the Book of Revelation is a book

that opens a window into the future,

and all I can tell you is this is another glimpse of what we see.

John makes a total of 4 references

to the 7 Spirits of God in the first 5 chapters of Revelation.

The 7 Spirits of God

are not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture.

We are not told what Their role is,

or how they fit into God’s personhood or revelation of Himself to us.

When I see things like this

I hear God saying, “My child,

I have only told you as much about Myself as you need to know.

And even that tiny bit of knowledge

has overwhelmed you.

What I have revealed of Myself

is accurate and true,

but it is only a tiny fraction of who I am.”

3. And then, just as quickly as He flings us into uncharted worlds,

He brings us back home again

through His description of Christ.

This we know,

this we understand,

and in this we can rest.

This letter comes from Him who is and who was and who is to come,

and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

and from Jesus Christ,...

But just so there is no confusion,

no misunderstanding,

no fear,

this Jesus Christ is carefully described

with 7 phrases.

1. This is the Jesus Christ who was the faithful witness,

the one who revealed to us

perfectly and accurately what our God is really like.

2. This is the Jesus Christ who is

the firstborn of the dead,

and who, through His resurrection,

showed us the future God also has for us.

3. This is the Jesus Christ who even now is the ruler of the kings of the earth.

No authority exists

apart from His permission,

and even in the midst of so much evil,

He continues to direct the course of human history

to HIS end, for His purposes.

4. This is the Jesus Christ who loves us

who loves each of us

more than we could ever imagine.

5. This is the Jesus Christ who released us from our sins by His blood.

6. This is the Jesus Christ who

has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.

Did you know you were a priest?

You know what a priest does, don’t you?

A priest stands between God and the human race

and shows people how to find their way to God.

And when we enter the family of God

we also become a member of a royal priesthood.

We now stand between our world

and our God,

allowing Him to use us

to show others

who He is

and how to find Him.

7. And then finally, this is the Jesus Christ who 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.

And I hope you see what’s happening here.

In the verses and chapters that follow

this Jesus Christ is going to take us

into concepts and worlds

we may find very unsettling.

But before we take more than a single step into that world

he wants us to know who stands beside us

and who’s going there with us.

Many of you know that,

from the fall of 1969 through the fall of 1970 I spent a year

helping a missionary family to start a church

on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad.

During that year I lived in one of the valleys outside the capital city of Port-of-Spain.

I spent most of my time

hanging out on the streets,

meeting the kids,

trying to figure out how I could best introduce them to my Lord.

One of the kids I met that year

was Little Barry.

Little Barry was 11 years old and he was deaf.

He had been deaf ever since he hit his head

when his big brother

kicked him down the porch stairs

when he was about 2 years old.

I built a friendship with Little Barry that year,

mostly through make-shift sign language

and through the Kawasaki 90cc motorcycle

that provided my only form of transportation.

Little Barry loved to go for rides.

All I’d have to do was to twist my wrist a few times

to imitate the accelerator on the bike

and his eyes would light up,

and we’d go for a ride.

Nearly every day little Barry would come down to my place for a visit.

Then for several days

he just stopped coming.

I finally asked one of the other kids

where he was,

and they said he had a terrible tooth ache

and was just laying at home hurting.

I asked him to bring Little Barry to me.

When the little guy came down

it was obvious he was in pain.

I asked him if he wanted to go for a ride,

and he hopped on the bike.

But this time we didn’t just go up and down the valley.

This time we went into town.

We stopped in front of a place Little Barry

had never been before in his life.

It was a dentist’s office.

We got off the bike

and he looked at me with a look

that said with perfect clarity,

‟Where are we going? Why have you brought me here?”

I couldn’t tell him.

All I could do is put my arm around his shoulder and walk with him.

He didn’t understand,

but he trusted me,

and he figured if I was going there with him,

it must be OK.

We went into the office,

then into the examination room,

and then I lifted him up into the chair.

The dentist had him open his mouth,

looked at the tooth,

and told me it could not be salvaged.

The tooth would have to be pulled.

Standing there next to that little guy

while the dentist pulled that tooth

was one of the hardest things I went through that whole year.

I knew he came with me

and he followed me for just one reason -

he trusted me

and he knew I was there with him.

I believe John begins the Book of Revelation

with this 7 point description

of our Lord Jesus Christ

because it is his way saying,

“My friend, I know you don’t know

where we’re going,

and I know you’ll find some of this confusing,

even frightening.

But look at Who’s standing next to you,

walking with you,

leading the way.

It’s our King, our Friend,

the One we know,

the One who loves us

as no one else ever has -

our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no need to fear.