Revelation 1:4b-8
"The Love that will Not Let Us Go"
One of the questions which has plagued humankind from the beginning and remains a burden on the back of those who see little meaning to this life is: "Where did we come from, where are we going and why?"
There can be no doubt that we live in a world where there is great evil and injustice.
As soon as one war ends another war begins.
Many folks, rich and poor, dread having to get out of bed in the morning.
Some are burned out by the rat race and the continual fight for the top which causes their blood pressure to rise, and their bellies to bulge due to too much time spent in front of a computer and too little time spent exercising and enjoying life.
Others fear another day at the factory or the store, where a boss might mistreat them, or customers are sure to complain.
Some have aching backs and arthritis, but must trudge on just the same...
...otherwise who will pay the never-ending onslaught of bills?
Who will put food on the table?
Who will keep the family from being thrown onto the street?
Some are lonely.
Others are caught in abusive relationships.
Some run for the bottle for some kind of escape or relief--only to wake up the next morning in a much more difficult spot than they were in the day before.
Others just fall into a depression, or check out, drop out, give up.
Arch-Bishop Desmond Tutu, a strong opponent of apartheid in South Africa, was once asked, "After all you've seen and endured, are you really as optimistic as you appear?"
Tutu replied, "I'm not optimistic, no. I'm quite different.
I'm hopeful.
I am a prisoner of hope."
Are you a prisoner of hope?
Has God's love in Christ Jesus taken you captive to the degree where you can declare, along with the Apostle Paul, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
And are you convinced that "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate [you] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord"?
This life is difficult.
There are many miseries.
And though sadness tries to overcome us.
And though temptations seek to ruin us.
And though Satan seeks to deceive us.
Jesus has the first Word and Jesus has the final Word!!!
For Christ is the Love that will not let us go!!!
In our Scripture passage for this morning, God has given John a Revelation through Jesus Christ.
"Grace and peace to you from the one who is and was and is coming..."
This is a rich, hope-filled message from the God Who reigns now, even though the world's circumstances might suggest otherwise.
A Christian writer wrote, "One sleepy Sunday afternoon when my son was five-years-old, we drove past a cemetery together.
Noticing a large pile of dirt beside a newly excavated grave, he pointed and said: "Look, Dad, one got out!"
The author added, "I laughed, but now, every time I pass a graveyard, I'm reminded of the One Who got out."
And because Jesus Christ escaped the sting of death, we can live in confidence that God is fully in control and fully able to defeat any foe which seeks to do us in.
Yes.
God is "the one who is."
As Revelation testifies, Jesus Christ is "the faithful witness, firstborn from among the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth."
What does it mean that Jesus Christ is "the faithful witness"?
It means that Jesus Christ came to this earth as God-made-flesh.
He lived and moved among us, as our model of sacrificial service and perfect love.
Although He was tempted in every way we are--and far beyond--He never gave in.
He witnessed to the world the goodness, the power and love of God.
He proved that true strength is found in humility.
True humanity is expressed through service.
And since the word for "witness" is also the word used for "martyr" Jesus proved, the full extent God's love for us, for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!!!
He took our sins upon His sinless self, died the death we deserve...
...but because the wages of sin is death, and Jesus was without sin--He overcame death and won the victory!!!
So that whosoever shall believe in His name shall not perish, but will have everlasting life!!!
Yes.
Jesus Christ is "the faithful witness," and Jesus Christ is "the first born from among the dead."
And because Jesus defeated death, through His victory and His victory alone, we who believe, shall defeat death as well.
We will also "get out" of the grave.
We will meet the Lord in the sky!!!
We will be given new bodies which will never ache, or hunger or thirst.
We will be part of the New Jerusalem which will come "down from heaven from God," and will be, "made ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."
And our Husband will live with us, and we will be "His peoples."
And He will be our "God"...
...forever, and ever and ever and ever--world without out end amen.
And "God will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes.
Death will be no more.
There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things," will have, "passed away."
We will rise from the dead, because Jesus has risen from the Dead.
As we are told in 1 Corinthians15, when these "perishable" bodies put on "imperishability, and" these "mortal [bodies]" put on "immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?'
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Yes.
Jesus Christ is "the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth."
And that means that no earthly ruler, no matter how toxic, no matter how corrupt and bent, can ultimately loosen the grip that Christ has on those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
And our purpose is to live out our lives as "faithful witnesses" to the love of Christ for us and for all of humanity so that every human being "may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge..." so that we all may "be filled with all the fullness of God."
Don't you want that for your loved ones?
Don't you want that for your neighbors?
Don't you want that for the crack addict, the meth fiend, the alcoholic, the children who live in the hotels down the street?
When the curtain is drawn back and the powers of this world are shown to be the pretenders that they are--when the Lord of history, the Slaughtered Lamb, is revealed for all to see--will we be among the "faithful witnesses" who, by our worship of the Lamb, and resistance to the pretenders, have been making this reality visible as the "new Jerusalem" makes its way from heaven to the new earth?
This is an urgent challenge that calls for an urgent response!!!
Jesus Christ is "the one who is and was..."
The love of God made manifest through the life, the death, the Resurrection and the Sovereign rule of Jesus Christ was first made known "When God began to create the heavens and the earth."
"And then God said, 'Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us..."
So, "God created humanity in God's own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them."
And when our love for God failed, God's love for us never let go!!!
Yes.
The Book of Revelation is a Book of hope with the promise of new beginnings.
It reminds us of where we came from, answers the question as to where we are now and helps us to understand our ultimate destination.
And the answer to all life's questions are the same.
The answer is God.
Our beginning is God.
In Christ, our now is God.
And, if we are saved, where we are headed is God.
As T.S. Elliot was able to write: "In my end is my beginning."
All things come forth from God, and because God never lets us go--all things ultimately return to God!!!
Jesus Christ is the One "who is and was and is coming..."
The return of Christ is to be God's completed renewal of the cosmos.
Yes.
There is a now and a not yet.
The "new earth" is already on the way.
"the one who loves us [has] freed us from our sins by his blood..."
And during this "in-between" time God has already "made us a kingdom" and we are God's "priests."
The Church is God's Kingdom on earth.
It is made up of a royal priesthood of believers--that is you and me...
...all the saints who have gone ahead of us, those who labor with us now, and those who will believe because of our message.
We are "priests" to the "God and Father" and "to him be glory and power forever and always. Amen."
The world may hear words such as these and scoff, but it is true nonetheless.
As priests God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the meaning of our lives is to follow Christ's example as faithful witnesses as we seek to understand God's will for us, to deny ourselves, and take up our crosses and serve other human beings in sacrificial love to bring others into God's reign which will last forever.
If heaven and earth were to forever be on parallel paths...
...if things were to just stay as they are now all the way into eternity, where would the comfort be?
What if there were no new heaven and new earth?
What if no one had "escaped from the grave?"
What if God's love had let go of us?
What if our Creator had turned His back on His rebellious and frightened people?
What if there was no meaning; no point in living?
Thankfully we don't have to face that doom.
For Revelation 1 verse 7 asks us to look forward into the future: "Look, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye will see him..."
What is now only visible with the eyes of faith and the witness of the Spirit, that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of human history and the Lord of all--will one day be known by everyone, saint and foe alike.
Jesus Christ is the King!!!
He is not a tyrant; He is a lover.
He is not a power-mad dictator, He is a Servant Witness.
And He calls us to be the same sort of loving and serving witnesses to others.
And when we grasp this calling, our lives become sources and avenues of praise to the "Alpha and Omega, the one who is and was and is coming, the Almighty."
May it be so.
Amen.
