PATMOS
Revelation 1:9-10
Sermon Objective: To encourage the church by showing Christ’s authority over, rule of, and participation in the hardships of life.
Supporting Scripture: 1 Chronicles 29:10-13; Psalm 24:7-10; Psalm 72:1-11; James 4:8; 1 John 4:4
Special note: Pastor Ken used a soloist to sing “The Solid Rock” at various points throughout this sermon. The sermon then concluded with the congregation reading it.
Revelation 1:9-10
I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
INTRO
He spent the lion’s share of his life following the Risen Christ. As a young man he was one of the twelve which responded to Jesus’ “Follow me” (Matthew 4:18-22) and while Jesus was being crucified this young man was the one he asked to care for his mother (John 19:25-27).
Reliable church history sources tell us that later in life this aging apostle, John, left Jerusalem and settled in Ephesus, a (then) bustling city in (now) modern Turkey. It was from the safety and leisure in Ephesus that he probably wrote the Gospel that bears his name as well as the three epistles. It was here that he, along with a host of other well known Biblical personalities like the Apostle Paul, and Aquilla, and Priscilla (1 Cor. 19:16) spent time building a very strong and stable church. Chances are good that John served as the elder in the Ephesus church that met in Aquilla and Priscilla’s house and it was under John’s leadership that a building was probably erected that became the first Christian Church building.
But the marble streets and life of ease that Ephesus offered its citizens had a dark side. The Book of Acts speaks of the hostility that Paul encountered during his two years there and John’s timing … well it just couldn’t have been worse! You see John’s arrival in Ephesus came during the Flavian Dynasty; the latter third of the 1st century when Vespasian, and his sons Titus and Domitian, were the Caesars (Emperors) of the Roman empire.
Each of these men was worse than the first. Indeed, where Vespasian is concerned, the sins of the fathers were passed down to the third and fourth generations (Exodus 20:5). It was under the rule of Vespasian that his son Titus, then a general in the Roman army, was ordered to level Jerusalem and the Jew’s temple. Up until this time (around AD 70) the Jews (who believed in only one God) and the Jewish Christians who often worshipped in the synagogues were immune from paying homage to the Goddess Roma (the goddess of Rome) or acknowledging that the Caesar was divine.
But once Vespasian took a dislike to the Jews that all began to change and by the time his youngest son (Domitian) became Caesar – well – there were harsh consequences for refusing to acknowledge his divinity. He demanded to be referred to as “Lord and God” and to be worshiped in the temple once a year. “Caesar is Lord” was literally the pledge of allegiance of the day. By the time of John’s arrival in Ephesus there were massive engines of persecution and scorn and the Christ-followers had neither weapons nor votes. They also had little money and no prestige.
THE SUFFERING SAINT
I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom
and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus
And thus, we flash back to John in Ephesus; a city with a very public and zealous loyalty to Rome and the emperor in particular.
BUT JOHN KNEW JESUS. HE KNEW JESUS HISTORICALLY, PERSONALLY AND EXPERIENTIALLY. HE COULD NOT GIVE THE GLORY AND ALLEGIANCE THAT JESUS WAS WORTHY OF TO ANOTHER – NOT AT ANY COST. And so he becomes the first mentioned in the Book of the Revelation to encounter suffering. His place as pastor of the church, an apostle of Jesus, and now a model in times of suffering, gives unique insight and the authority to write to a people who were themselves on the verge of seeing all Hell break loose against them.
During the Flavian dynasty, life for Christians went from difficult to tyrannical.
Conditions in some parts of their empire were nightmarish. The extravagant beast-images of the Revelation do not exaggerate. The world was topsy-turvy. John not only observed this … he experienced it firsthand.
But poetry can often do what prose cannot and Becky is going to sing a song for us this morning that illustrates what John discovered and I speak of:
PATMOS
I … was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God
and the testimony of Jesus.
And Patmos is a perfect symbol to represent that tyranny!
For some, being exiled to live in a penal community would seem to be a better sentence than death but those who lived on Patmos might just disagree. This was no beautiful island overlooking the Mediterranean Sea – this was a rock! And it was a rock where imprisoned exiles made little rocks out of the big rock and they shipped to the mainland for erecting government buildings and monuments. There were quotas and famine and pain and malnourishment and injury, and loneliness and even death; all without ceremony or appreciation.
And in the 14th year of Domitian’s reign the aging apostle finds himself as Patmos’ newest resident.
He was isolated. He was removed from help and solace. A faceless bureaucracy, to which he had no access, spoke the determining words and carried out the orders that defined his environment and the conditions of his life.
His freedom disappeared at the stroke of a magistrate’s pen.
He was no longer permitted to do the work in which he was passionately involved and called too.
o No more conversations with dear brothers and sisters over an Isaiah parchment
o No more shared communion celebrations in the homes of his courageous companions in faith
o No more visits to the sick and dying to comfort them with words of their Lord
o No more ladeling out cups of cold water to thirsty travelers in faith’s way.
Exile.
You see, exile was the experience of “powerlessness in extremis.” One is separated from family and country, from community worship and family faith – it was the cruelest decree.
Everything is determined by another.
o Removed from where one wants to be and with whom one wants to be with
o Isolated from place and persons
o Victims
A human, created for personal relationships of love, cannot live adequately without them. Exile dehumanizes. It sentences us to death by bread alone.
“ON THE ISLAND OF PATMOS” ROME SHOWED ST. JOHN WHO WAS IN CHARGE. EVERY LONELY HOUR ON THE BARREN ROCK WAS PROOF THAT ROME DETERMINED ST. JOHN’S DESTINY, THAT ROME’S WORD WAS THE FINAL WORD ON LIFE, THAT ROME’S DECREE SET THE LIMITS WITHIN WHICH HE WAS PERMITTED TO EXIST. ST. JOHN WAS ALONE.
Or was he?
“I was on the island of Patmos ... I was in the Spirit”
That meant something quite different. … St. John knew himself to be in touch and a participant with all the energy of the Godhead. … HE WAS ON PATMOS BUT IN THE SPIRIT.
NO MATTER HOW HARD ROME TRIED IT COULD NOT ISOLATE THE BELIEVER FROM ENCOURAGEMENT, COMMUNION, FELLOWSHIP …
But these were part of the objective of exile. And Rome was failing … Rome was NOT in charge!
Take heart my friends; there are many earth-bound toadies who think they can run (and ruin) your life but “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!” (1 John 4:4)
John knew there was a “Rock” even more solid than Patmos!
But poetry can often do what prose cannot and Becky is going to sing a song for us this morning that illustrates what John discovered and I speak of:
THE LORD’S DAY
I …was on the island of Patmos … On the Lord’s Day
Sunset brought lonely nights. Sunrise brought oppressive days. Day rolled into day as time moved on … alone. Exile’s most severe dynamic might very well be the loneliness. It was designed to break the human spirit. The absence of community with John’s only family … his brothers and sisters in Christ … must have been striking for him.
And “The Lord’s Day” might very well have been the perfect way to express that.
“The Lord’s Day” is a perfect symbol to represent misplaced faith and even Rome’s misunderstanding of time.
“Lord and God” Domitian claimed his day. You see, “The Lord’s Day” was a Roman term used for the day of the emperor’s feast. This was when the emperor was praised for peace and justice. Other gods claimed their day too but there was only one “Lord’s Day” and that belonged to the “sovereign” … to Caesar. Yes indeed, Rome’s emperor even deemed himself as lord over time. He was the one to be present in your thoughts and prayers on this day.
But John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day!”
And John knew to whom this day (and every day) really belonged. In a real sense Domitian’s “Lord’s Day” became a joke to the Christians. They did not find his peace very peaceful or his justice very just. Not under the rule of a tyrannical emperor that demanded to be worshiped.
But REAL peace and justice were not a joke and the “Lord’s Day” took on new meaning for them … the first day of the week, the day of resurrection; a day to begin a new cycle in which the sovereign God was first.
In Jesus Christ, even time is redeemed. Even time is orchestrated to serve God’s purposes. This gives the saint (who is enduring hardship) great confidence and reason to praise. Even the saints in Heaven found consolation in this (Rev. 6:9-11).
TAKE HEART MY FRIENDS, ALL TIME FALLS UNDER THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST.
But poetry can often do what prose cannot and Becky is going to sing a song for us this morning that illustrates what John discovered and I speak of:
IN THE SPIRIT
I was in the Spirit,
“ON Patmos – ON the Lord’s Day” was designed to drive home the sovereignty of Roman rule. But it was trumped by a greater presence … “IN the Spirit”.
Listen my friends … WHEN THE SPIRIT COMES EVERYTHING IS RENEWED.
o Everything is re-framed!
o Everything re-centered!
o Everything consolidated under God’s reign!
With the resurrected Christ there is a NEW Lord who overrides the effects of exile and informs/transforms life itself.
And that was not only true for John. It is true for every saint today that feels isolated, overwhelmed, oppressed, pulled in every direction. "In the Spirit" changes the entire atmosphere.
Richard Wumbrand is the founder of Voice of the Martyrs and personally spent 14 years in Romanian Prisons. In one of his writings he says:
“One of the greatest problems for [the persecuted] is knowing how to fill up his solitude. We had absolutely no books. Not only no Bible, but no books. … We looked at the walls, that was all. Now normally a mind under such circumstances would go mad … I can tell you from my own experience how I avoided becoming mad … we started … with prayer.” (Voice of the Martyr’s magazine, Rev. Richard Wumbrand, founder who spent 14 years in Romanian Prisons.)
And so did the first persecuted Christians. Remember, massive engines of persecution and scorn were pointed against them and they had neither weapons nor votes. They had little money and no prestige.
So why didn’t they have mental breakdowns?
Why didn’t they cut and run?
Because they prayed! They drew near. They communed with God. Just wait until you see how prayer is illustrated and explained in The Revelation. It may very well revolutionize your relationship and worship of Jesus.
But poetry can often do what prose cannot and Becky is going to sing a song for us this morning that illustrates what John discovered and I speak of:
WRAP-UP
Remember friends … YOU LIVE IN SOMEBODY ELSE’S WORLD!
And yet we are not without our own. Even now God promises to be with you – to draw near. The Kingdom of God is not future it is here. Now. In your midst! Even now you can experience Him in a way that reframes and reshapes your world. In fact, it is best to experience Him now and not wait until you are neck deep in temptation, isolation, or oppression. By nurturing that relationship with Him now you will be insulated and equipped for what lies ahead.
The first chapter of this book sets the stage for all that comes after. It shows us the role and superiority of the Resurrected Jesus.
So even today, if you find yourself a victim of the whims of another you, too, can find solace our King, Jesus Christ.
This is the time. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)
Let’s stand “On the solid Rock” together.
Congregation sings the Hymn "The solid Rock".
This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
* For further study on this subject you may want to look at some very good but basic Biblical reference works. As starters, I would recommend “The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia”, “The Dictionary of New Testament Background”, and “The Dictionary of the Later New testament and Its Development”.
** Special thanks to Eugene Petersen’s wonderful work, “Reverse Thunder”, for the sermon idea.
