It’s hard to imagine what life was like for Christians in the first century. They were a marginalised minority, looked down on by Jews, Greeks and Romans alike. But as if that wasn’t enough, as the century drew to its end various bouts of persecution broke out against them led by the Roman emperor. The Emperor, Domitian, wanted to be recognised as a living god but of course Christians refused to worship him. So he began a campaign against them. The aim of this persecution was to get Christians to deny their faith in order to save their lives. So it’s into this environment that God speaks through the apostle John.
See how the book begins: This is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. The message comes from God via Jesus Christ who sends an angel to John so he can pass the message on to us. Here is a message that’s come a long way for a very serious purpose.
Why is God so careful to mark out the process by which this revelation comes to us? Why is it so important that we understand the origins of this message?
Let me suggest that the answer lies in what we find here in the first chapter. It lies in the person of Jesus Christ, it lies in the things we’re told John shares with his readers and it lies in the content of the message.
And notice the importance that’s placed on the message. Look at v3: "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." First the person who reads this message aloud is blessed. The expectation is that the message would be read aloud in the church. Then those who hear it and keep it, i.e. do what it says, are blessed. i.e. They receive the commendation of God, they receive the good things that he has stored up for those who persevere to the end. By the way, you’ll hear that refrain over and over again as we look at the seven letters to the seven churches over the next few weeks. "Whoever conquers"; or "whoever overcomes" is a recurring phrase, always with a promise of reward at the end. And just to emphasise how important this message is, the book also ends with a dire warning to those who would either add to or take away from its message.
But let’s think about why it’s so important. He begins with
The Person of Jesus Christ.
Who he is
First he describes who Jesus is, the things he’s done and the things he will do. In fact, in the way of apocalyptic literature there are seven characteristics given in vs 5&6.
First he’s the faithful witness. The word used is the word for martyr. Jesus is the first Christian martyr, if you like. He’s the first one to shed his blood as a sign of his faith in and allegiance to the living God. If the context of this message is persecution, then Jesus is the ultimate example of one who stood firm, who persevered in his obedience to God in the face of suffering and death.
He’s the firstborn from the dead. The ultimate answer to those who threaten us with suffering and death is the resurrection from the dead. Are you afraid of death? Do you wonder whether our hope of eternal life is for real? How do you know that there’s anything after this life? The answer to all those lies in Jesus Christ; in his risen body; in those hands and side that he showed to Thomas in the upper room. Jesus promised that in his Father’s house were many rooms and that he was going to prepare a place for us and the assurance that he’s going to keep that promise is his own risen body.
He’s the ruler of the kings of earth. Not only has he risen from the dead, but God has exalted him to his right hand of power. As we saw in Revelation 21 a few weeks ago, on the last day the kings of the earth will come into the city of God bringing their tribute to the king, to the Lord God the Almighty and the lamb. And on that last day every knee will bow and every tongue confess him to be Lord. On that day all the power systems of our world will be overturned.
He loves us. Isn’t this great? He’s the one who rules over all the kings of the earth, to whom all the earthly rulers of our world will bow, yet he has a personal interest in us. He loves you and me. Di was telling me she was leading a CRE seminar the other day and someone suggested that the Bible doesn’t actually say that Jesus loves you. Now I’m not sure what planet they were from, or which Bible version they’d been reading, but it wasn’t the one I have here in front of me. Jesus is the one who is loving us - continuous present tense for those who still understand English grammar. As we’ll see in the next clause he loved us when he came to earth and he continues to love us to the present day. If you need encouragement for your Christian life meditate on the love that Jesus continues to hold for you.
He freed us from our sins by his blood. What greater evidence for his love do we need. He shed his own blood, gave up his own life, so we might live, so we might enjoy the blessing of God forever.
He’s made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father. That’s a two stage process. First we’re made a kingdom. Jesus is our king and he draws us into his kingdom as we become part of his Church. But then he gives us a task as his people. We’re to be priests serving his God and Father. What do priests do? They offer sacrifices to God. They lead the people in worship. They bring God’s word to the people and bring the prayers of the people to God. But now we’re all priests in this kingdom. So our collective task is to represent God before the world. We’re to bring God’s word to those who don’t know him. We’re to show the world that God is worth our worship and we’re to model that worship. And we’re to prepare people for Christ’s return.
He is coming in the clouds and every eye will see him. Jesus not only loves us and died for us; he not only rose from the dead; but he’s coming again. In a bit over a years time the world’s eyes will be turned on Beijing for the opening of the Olympic Games. But let’s face it, there’ll be lots of people who either won’t bother or won’t be able to watch. But Jesus is coming in the clouds in such a spectacle that every eye will be turned to see him. Some will welcome him as the long awaited king, but others will weep and wail: "7every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail."
This message is important because Jesus is coming back again and those who aren’t prepared for his return are in big trouble!
But that’s not all we discover about this Jesus. We also discover:
What he’s like
As John turns around to see who it is who’s speaking to him you can imagine his mouth falling open and the breath completely taken away.
First he sees seven Lampstands. Later we’re told these lampstands represent the seven churches of Asia. We’ll discover what these churches are when we get to chapters 2 & 3 but for our purpose they represent the church here on earth.
Then he see one like the Son of Man standing in their midst. So what’s the significance of this first part of his vision? Well, the first thing to realise is that Christ is in their midst. As we read on we’ll discover that 5 out of the 7 churches have serious issues they need to deal with. Yet despite their flaws Christ is still present within them. In fact the first thing I thought of when I started thinking about this was the arrangement of the people of Israel during the Exodus. If you were to read Numbers 1 you’d see that the Tabernacle was set up in the middle of the camp and then the various tribes were allocated positions around the Tabernacle. It was always in the centre of their camp to signify the fact that God was the centre of their life together. And here John sees the Son of Man standing in the midst of the 7 lampstands as a sign, to reassure us, that Christ is always in our midst.
He’s clothed with a long robe and a golden sash. The long robe is probably a priestly garment. Jesus is our great high priest who entered the Holy of Holies once for all. His golden sash may reflect his kingly status. He’s the original Royal Priest.
His head and hair as white as wool, as white as snow. This is the sort of description you find for God in the Old Testament. Here is the Ancient of Days in the person of Jesus Christ.
He has eyes like flames of fire, another image of a divine being. Maybe also eyes that search out and remove impurities from any they behold.
Feet like burnished bronze implies divine power and glory.
A voice like the sound of many waters is reminiscent of Ezekiel’s vision, in Ezek 43, of God returning to fill the Temple with his glory once again. Have you ever been to a huge waterfall and heard the roar of the water. I remember being at Niagara Falls and the sound of the falls was deafening. Again it’s an image of immense power that fills the space around it.
In his hands are seven stars. These we discover are the angels of the 7 churches. It may be that these are the ones God sets to watch over each church as his envoys, guarding them. But then angel can also mean messenger and in the next 2 chapters the angels are the ones John writes to, to bring God’s words to the churches. So they could simply represent the leaders of the churches, those who are blessed when they read the message.
He also has a sharp 2-edged sword coming from his mouth. The sword is a common image for God’s word and a 2-edged sword is the most effective of all. So this Son of Man comes with God’s word ready to defeat his enemies.
Finally his face was shining like the full force of the sun. Remember John is writing this from an island in the Mediterranean so he knows how bright the full force of the sun can be. And this vision is such that it can only be the glory of God shining from his face. So much so that, when he sees him, John falls down as if dead.
This Son of Man is everything that Daniel wrote about in his prophecy and more. He is the first and the last, 18and the living one. He was dead, but see, he is alive forever and ever.
What John Shares with his readers
But let’s think for a moment about what John says about himself. He says he shares three thing in common with his readers. Let me suggest that he mentions them because these are three things they need to focus on in the last days (v9):
The persecution. As we’ll see as we read on, persecution was part of their lot as God’s people at this time. The whole of the book of revelation is focussed on the need to persevere in the face of persecution. God wants to reassure them that their hope is not in vain, that the suffering of the present day is not worth comparing to the hope of glory promised by God on the last day.
In fact this is a timeless book. The nature of the persecution has changed over time, for us in the west at least, but the reality of the opposition Christians experience from the world hasn’t. Now we’re more likely to be ignored or sidelined rather than beaten up, and the result of that sort of treatment is that we can start to think that maybe we’ve got it wrong; maybe the Christian gospel is irrelevant to life in the modern world. I think this is what happened with Bishop Spong. He bought into the secular propaganda and decided he needed to change the gospel in order to regain his relevance to the world around him. Then we begin to wonder whether maybe we’re just dreaming when we think that God’s in control of history. Well John says he shares with us the experience of being in the minority, of being shunned or pushed aside, or even injured for the sake of Jesus.
The kingdom. Before you let persecution get to you, you need to remember that you also share the kingdom of God with all those who believe in Jesus Christ. It may seem like we’re in the minority at times but ours is God’s minority, ours is the kingdom of the one who is coming in the clouds to rule the kings of all the earth. So we can have confidence in who we are and in the Church we’re part of.
The patient endurance. How do you respond to opposition from the forces opposed to God in this world? Some people have tried violent action. Others have retreated into monasteries or exclusive communities of the faithful. But John’s answer is patient endurance where you are, standing firm in your faith in God. This is probably one of the hardest things to do, when God’s time scale seems so much longer than ours. I mean, I get impatient if the train’s running a couple of minutes late and here we are 2000 years later still waiting for God to act. But we mustn’t forget what Jesus told John’s disciples in our gospel reading last week. God is at work if we have the eyes to see it. He does keep his promises. All we have to do is to endure, to persevere, to keep running the race to the end.
The Content of the message
Finally let’s reflect briefly on the content of the message of this book. There’s a lot in this book, but let me suggest that it’s encapsulated in what we find here. Jesus is coming in the clouds. His appearance will be seen by everyone on earth. Those who love him will rejoice, while those opposed to him will tremble.
He was dead but now he lives forever and his death and resurrection have opened the way for us to be freed from our sins. He holds the keys to death and Hades.
He is the first and last. He was there at the beginning and he will be there to bring in the end of all things.
So keep the faith, persevere to the end, because you’re already part of his eternal kingdom, already one of his priests able to come into his presence to worship him and to serve him.
I hope as we work our way through these first few chapters of Revelation over the next few weeks that we’ll be encouraged to remain faithful, to resist the opposition we come up against and to serve the living God with all our energy and enthusiasm.
For more sermons from this source go to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos
