1. "We make projections about then to sell ideas now."

2. "According to the Bible, the key to facing the future is God. Confidence in yourself should be traded in for confidence in God. And fears about your own safety should be replaced by trust in God."

3. "Friend, there is no magical blessing associated with reading or hearing this book. It is not to be used as some kind of totem or spell. No, it is read and heard specifically to be taken to heart. And apart from that obedience, there's no blessing from hearing and learning about the book of Revelation."

4. "We are not the captains of our own destiny, the masters of our own fate. And this letter is here to tell us so."

5. "Can you imagine a being so good that the more accurate your description is of them, the more fully and complete is your praise? That is our God."

6. "How much power does Christ have? All. Well, if Christ has all power, then brothers and sisters, why be so dismayed when others frown if Christ smiles?"

7. "If the religion you're looking for is a religion with no persecution, go find a different religion. Jesus Himself said, if you would follow Me, you must take up your cross."

8. "The most fundamental distinction has nothing to do with your nationality or your wealth or your gender. The most fundamental distinction is those who will rejoice when He comes and those who will mourn."

9. "Make your list of circumstances. Tick them all off. Throw immortality on if you want. And friend, you will not have sufficient ground for peace in your life. You're too contingent a being. But when this God is for you, you can relax. You can trust. You can rejoice."

10. "As long as this is God's universe, the most important thing about us is how we stand related to this God. Everything else is just detail."

Observation Questions

1. According to Revelation 1:1-2, what is the chain of communication through which this revelation was delivered, and what was John's role in that chain?

2. In Revelation 1:3, what specific blessing is promised, and what three actions are required of those who would receive this blessing?

3. How is God the Father described in Revelation 1:4 and 1:8, and what titles does He give Himself?

4. In Revelation 1:5-6, what three titles are given to Jesus Christ, and what two things has He done for believers according to this passage?

5. According to Revelation 1:7, who will see Christ when He comes, and what will be the response of "all the peoples of the earth"?

6. What three names or titles does the Lord God use to identify Himself in Revelation 1:8?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think John emphasizes that "the time is near" (v. 3) and that these events "must soon take place" (v. 1), given that this was written nearly 2,000 years ago? How does the sermon explain this tension?

2. How do the three titles given to Jesus in verse 5—"faithful witness," "firstborn from the dead," and "ruler of the kings of the earth"—correspond to His roles as prophet, priest, and king? What does each title reveal about His work for us?

3. In verse 6, John says Christ "has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father." What does it mean for ordinary believers to be both part of a kingdom and priests, and why would this have been significant for Christians facing persecution?

4. The sermon highlights that verse 7 describes both those who will rejoice and those who will mourn at Christ's coming. What distinguishes these two groups, and why is this the "most fundamental distinction" among humans according to the passage?

5. How does God's self-identification as "the Alpha and the Omega" and "the Almighty" (v. 8) provide a foundation for the four responses the sermon calls for: obedience, praise, fear, and trust?

Application Questions

1. The sermon states that "confidence in yourself should be replaced with confidence in God." What is one specific area of your life—work, finances, relationships, health—where you tend to rely on your own abilities rather than trusting God, and what would it look like to shift that confidence this week?

2. Revelation 1:3 promises blessing to those who "take to heart" (obey) what is written. What is one command or truth from Scripture that you have heard recently but have not yet acted on, and what concrete step can you take to obey it in the coming days?

3. The sermon emphasizes that Christians should live and work in "honest, humble, transparent" ways because we know God sees all. Is there a situation at your workplace, school, or home where you have been tempted to avoid responsibility or shift blame? How might living with the end in view change how you handle that situation?

4. Verse 7 warns that many will "mourn" when Christ returns. How does the reality of Christ's certain return affect the urgency with which you share the gospel with family members, coworkers, or neighbors who do not yet know Him? Who is one person you could pray for and speak to this week?

5. The sermon calls believers to praise God not only for what He has done but for who He is. In your personal or family worship this week, how can you intentionally focus on praising God for His character—His sovereignty, faithfulness, and power—rather than only bringing requests to Him?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Daniel 7:9-14 — This passage describes the Son of Man coming on the clouds to receive dominion and glory, which John draws upon in Revelation 1:7 to depict Christ's return.

2. Zechariah 12:10-14 — This prophecy about looking on "the one they have pierced" and mourning is directly referenced in Revelation 1:7 and helps explain the response of the nations at Christ's coming.

3. Exodus 3:13-15 — God's self-revelation to Moses as "I AM WHO I AM" provides the background for the title "who is and who was and who is to come" used in Revelation 1:4 and 1:8.

4. 1 Peter 2:4-10 — Peter describes believers as a "royal priesthood," echoing Revelation 1:6 and expanding on what it means for Christians to serve as priests in God's kingdom.

5. Matthew 28:16-20 — Jesus declares that "all authority in heaven and on earth" has been given to Him, reinforcing the sermon's emphasis on Christ's rule as "the ruler of the kings of the earth."

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Future and Our Orientation Toward God (Revelation 1:1-8)

II. God Is to Be Obeyed (Revelation 1:1-3)

III. God Is to Be Praised (Revelation 1:4-6)

IV. God Is to Be Feared (Revelation 1:7)

V. God Is to Be Trusted (Revelation 1:8)

VI. Living in Light of God's Sovereignty

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Detailed Sermon Outline

United States Senate Subcommittee reported in 1967 that by 1985, the average workweek would be down to 22 hours.

And people would be retiring at the ripe old age of 38. Ah, Senate subcommittees.

We could pull up hundreds of overly optimistic assertions about the future, which time has shown to be false.

We make projections about then to sell ideas now.

The future is often regarded by people as a time of guaranteed advancement medical advancements, advancements in computer technology, in communications. Advances in knowledge of the universe and in our own selves. The Marxists were as sure of the future of the stateless society as the old Norse pagans were of Ragnarok, the destructions of the world and the beginning of the new one. Of course, not all assertions of the future and anticipations have been so confident of a happy resolution. Scientists today are a gloomy lot.

They tell us that this vast expanse of the universe that began with matter and energy, the Big Bang will just keep expanding until it's all expanded out and there is just nothing left.

Even on a more human scale, perhaps as many dystopias, that's bad ideas of the future, as utopias have been imagined. George Orwell's gloomy meditation on the state in his post of his first World War II novel, 1984, has the party spokesman, O'Brien, saying to Winston when he's torturing him at the end of the book, Winston, if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.

From fears about the market to our own health, to anticipations of a wedding to come, the birth of a baby, or graduation, or a new job. Our thoughts are dominated by the future. It is a matter of endless human speculation. We're all hurtling into it unavoidably at the rate of 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we all, by nature of our experience, are therefore oriented toward it. It's entirely understandable.

We're also all innately, it seems, able to think of the future without relying on God. Optimists think they don't need God. Their confidence is not based on Him. And pessimists, well, they won't trust God. After all, He'll probably change His mind or change His promises, won't He?

And yet, the sorrow of death and the joy of birth The ending of a time, the beginning of something new all seem to conspire together to confuse most all of us about how we should regard the future.

How are we to continue to go forward in this life? What are we to think about the future? Are we to be carefree or are we to be self-centered and self-concerned or place our confidence in ourselves or our job or our families or friends or our achievements?

Are we fundamentally to fear the future? Is the key to facing the future with peace and serenity a certain insurance policy? A certain job? Acquiring a new skill set? Or some development in our health?

No.

According to the Bible, the key to facing the future is God. Let me say that again. That's the most fundamental thing about this book we're about to begin studying. The key to facing the future is God.

The key is not a carelessness about the future or a cultivated self-centeredness.

Our fears and confidences are too often seriously misplaced. Friend, confidence in yourself should be traded in for confidence in God. Let me just go ahead and get that up front. Confidence in yourself should be replaced with confidence in God. And fears about your own safety should be replaced by trust in God.

These are just a few of the things that we find in the New Testament book of Revelation, which we intend to be our study from now until the end of July. So if you've just joined us, you've come at a good time. We begin this morning the book of Revelation. You'll find it in your pew Bible. If you're here in the main hall floor on page 1286.

And if you're in the balconies or in the west hall on page 1215.

The book of Revelation. As you're turning there, let me just tell you a bit about the book. It is divided into 22 of what we call chapters. If you're not familiar looking at a Bible, you'll see those are the larger numbers. And then after them all the sentences are numbered.

And there can be like from 10 to 30 sentences in a chapter.

The book is composed of this opening chapter that we study this week and next week, Lord willing, and then the seven letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3, and then the great throne room scene in chapters 4 and 5, and then, well, then all of history proceeds from that throne as it goes on until the end of the world. And a little bit later, the end of this book. We'll have occasion to think more about the author John and his circumstances next week, Lord willing. Let's simply note that some Christians were finding that what Jesus said in John 15:20 was true. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

This is a book that for all of its fantastic images and symbols is very realistic. And very practical. It was a revelation given to Christians facing difficulties of the world head on. It is not a book of let's pretend optimism based on a kind of panglossian reading of our world as the best of all possible worlds. No, this is a book drenched in the vain, pointless, costly rebellion against God which we know is splashed on every page of human history, and which is always finding fresh expression in our very own hearts.

And what this book has to show us is that the key to facing this future as we can and should is God, and how we are oriented to Him.

This is God's world. He is its ruler in all the ways that are most wonderful and awe-inspiring and even mysterious to us. And He has acted in history, in Christ, to bring this world's history rushing to a head. So the resurrection of Christ is, if you will, the beginning of the great churning and troubling of the waters as they tumble over Niagara of history into the presence of God Himself.

What will that be like? How can we be ready for it? Well, that's why this book was written. That's why we're studying it together. So let's begin now with Revelation chapter 1 and begin to read from this most amazing book.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it. Because the time is near. John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever.

Amen.

Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

I have four simple observations this morning about how we should be oriented to God. Let me go on and give them to you now so you can have the outline up front, if that's helpful to you. First, God is to be obeyed. God is to be obeyed. We see that in verses 1 to 3.

Second, God is to be praised. God is to be praised. That's really what's going on there in verses 4 to 6.

God, we find, is also to be feared. That's how we are to respond to verse 7.

And God is to be trusted. That's our response to verse 8. So, God is to be obeyed, praised, feared, and trusted.

I wonder, does this sound like the God you know?

Is the God you know one who should be obeyed, who should be praised, who should be feared, who should be trusted?

Well, if not, if your God is not such a God, Then, friend, listen to this revelation about the one true God in whose image we are all made and for whose pleasure and praise we should all live. Knowing this God, relating to Him as we are called to relate to Him here in this book, is the only key there is to the future God made us to have. The future that can begin right here, even during this hour now. I pray that each of us will be oriented to God in the way we're called to be here. And help us do that, we begin this study through Revelation chapter 1.

Number one, God is to be obeyed. That's really what we see going on in this prologue in verses 1 to 3. That's why this revelation was given. Look again at the first three verses. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place.

He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John who testifies to everything he saw, that is the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

You know some people look at the book of Revelation like Nostradamus' sayings or a kind of divine fortune cookie. In which God has hidden the terrible secrets for human history and the end of the world. Friend, that view of revelation is simply ignorant. They haven't read the book, or if so, they haven't read it very carefully. The whole purpose of God in giving this revelation to His servants is that He might be obeyed.

Look at verse 3. That's what take to heart means.

Why is John given this revelation? So he will write it down. Why does he write it down? So it can be sent out. Why is it sent out?

So it can be read aloud. Why is it read aloud? So it can be heard. Why is it heard? So it can be taken to heart.

What does it mean be taken to heart? Be obeyed. Be believed.

Be relied on. The vision that God gave John, and this revelation about Jesus Christ was given through an angel, and it's that angel that brings it to John, and then John in turn reads it to others or gives it to others who themselves should turn and read it to others. And this is the point, that we would take it to heart, that we would obey it. The vision that God gives him here is about the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ. The only one whose testimony is called here in verse 2 was to be entirely faithful to the will of his heavenly Father, even to the point of laying down his life.

All of this John and a manor saw in this vision. Really, these opening verses, this first paragraph even summarized much of the book. We find here in verse 1 that God intends his servants or Christ's servants to be the recipients of what he shows John by means of this angel. So the point of John receiving this revelation was initially the seven servants of the seven churches that we'll come to in chapters 2 and 3. But ultimately it's us.

God gave John this vision for us. It is for all Christians because we all together have the Spirit of God and we all together bear witness to the truth of God in this fallen world. People wonder about the soon here in verse 1 and the time is near in verse 3. How can a 2,000-year-old book use this word soon like this?

I mean surely anything like this that was near then is long past. It has come and gone ages ago now, right? Wrong. No, in the history of the ages, the new age has begun in Christ's resurrection from the dead, but it has not yet been completed. These things, like the resurrection from the dead, have already begun.

And that's why our obedience is an urgent matter, because we know we are in In this time. Now when the end of this soon comes, God alone defines. But He wants us to know that we have no grounds for being sure that our life is going to go on like it always has. We have no grounds for that because it won't.

This revelation, and note that it's singular. It's not revelation, it's one, it's this revelation. Of John is of John only in the sense that it was given to him. But this is the revelation. God gave Jesus through Jesus then to an angel to give to John, and he's now tasked with giving it to the churches.

But it is, as we read here, the revelation of Jesus Christ in the sense that it belongs to Jesus Christ and it is about Jesus Christ. So John is now the witness, the recorder, the reporter who we see in verse 2 testifies to everything he saw, that is, the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. This testimony of Jesus Christ here is related to the faithful witness that he mentions down in verse 5 that Christ gave. This is Christ faithfully fulfilling His mission. This is doing what He came to do.

This is making known the will of His Father and living it out. John saw this in the sense of having seen Jesus Christ in this vision. He saw the risen, reigning Christ, the Word of God incarnate, as He shares with us in this God-given heavenly vision. And so, John is revealing to the churches what has been revealed to Him so that they might and we might understand and obey and so be blessed. That's really what the prophecy is about.

In fact, that's really what prophecy is about in the Bible. In verse 3, this book is called a prophecy. Did you notice that here in verse 3? Well, as in the Old Testament, though it includes foretelling future events, prophecy in the Bible has far more to do with God's verdict on what is happening in the present, and therefore how we should live in light of that. And the touchstone for any prophecy claiming to be Christian is its presentation of Christ, and nowhere is Christ presented in more glorious faithfulness and majesty.

Than in this book. You'll notice also there in verse 3 that it promises blessings to the reader and the hearers. Really this is the first of seven blessings that are promised in this book. There are seven beatitudes that John includes. There's a fullness of blessing, he's saying, in reading and obeying God's truth.

And that's why John puts them in. We see here in verse 3, Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. And I have six other blessed written down here that you'll find in the book, but instead of reading them to you, you can take this afternoon and look through if you don't cheat and use your sort of search engine and you can find the blessed. See if you can find the other six beatitudes, blessings there are in the book of Revelation. Friend, this book is meant to bring you God's blessings and we see that even here in these opening verses.

You can see John expected this to be read aloud. And there's nothing unusual in that. Paul, when he writes his letter, says the same thing to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians. He said, I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 4, after this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans, that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.

But there's no magical blessing associated with reading or hearing this book. I don't know how many times I've heard this from folks. As if there's the rest of the Bible and it's okay, but then if you're feeling really down and you need a special blessing of the day, just literally throw open the book of Revelation and read three words aloud. Friend, it's not to be used as some kind of totem or spell. That's not what the book of Revelation is.

No, it is read and heard specifically to be taken to heart. And we read and we hear and we obey. And apart from that obedience, there's no blessing from hearing and learning about the book of Revelation. Friends, we should obey what we learn in this book because the time we see is near. We are meant to feel God pressing into this now that we feel is ours, that we feel we own, that we feel we are due.

And he says that it is his. I remember reading a description of how quickly and unexpectedly events could turn, as we say, in an account of the Battle of San Juan Hill in the Cuban-American War. The historian recounted that Bucky O'Neal insisted on strolling up and down in front of his troop, smoking his perpetual cigarette as if he were still walking along the sidewalk in Prescott, Arizona. Sergeant, he said to a protester, the Spanish bullet isn't made that will kill me. He had hardly exhaled a laughing cloud of smoke before Mauser's shot went right into him.

The biggest, handsomest, laziest officer in the regiment was dead by the time he hit the ground. Oh friends, we are not the captains of our own destiny, the masters of our own fate. And this letter is here to tell us so. You see here in verse 1 what John saw, what he is now testifying to about Jesus Christ, we now are hearing and we are to obey God as He has revealed Himself here. And if we have any doubt about what we're hearing, We will one day see it.

We come in a moment to the most dramatic point of communication there in verse 7 where all see the returning Christ. For now though, let's pause and consider even what we've read so far a little bit more. Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I hope you're beginning to learn something even through this of what we Christians understand the real God to be like. He is not like the passive deity of the deists. He is not absent from our world.

He is not unconcerned. Nor is He to be identified with our world as the Hindus understand it. We would consider that as confusion. No, the God revealed here is the God who began the world and He will end this world.

And you need to know that. And now, you do.

I wonder what difference it will make in your life.

For one thing, all of us should realize that no earthly government is ultimate. Friends, political disappointments, whether they occur through your party losing an election, or your party winning one, should point us to God. I've been here through the revolution of '94, and then the re-election of Clinton, and the twice election of Bush, and now the election of Obama. And if the Lord leaves me here through many more administrations, I promise you I have this same message: you: will know disappointment, my political friend, through your defeats, and you will know disappointments through your victories.

This world is not the place. This hill is most certainly not the place for our confidence to be rested in. And that should point us to God. We Christians are only cynical about politicians' claims, of course, when they claim too much.

We are tenacious in meaning to, trying to, struggling to put our hope in the perfectly good God who's revealed here. My Christian brothers and sisters, do you begin to see how this book is calling you to be rightly oriented to God, to obey His Word? At your own workplace, you should be involved in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ now. Not next year. Not in the fall with a good idea you've got you're going to start then.

No, now. It also means implementing Christ's commands at work, working in a way that would bring Him glory and honor.

As you work through the week, Andrew Sherwood drew my attention yesterday to an article in which our own Randy Alles was highlighted. The situation was a tragic one. Several people were killed in a San Diego suburb in December through the crash of a military airplane. Many of you will know of this. But unlike what too often happens today, those responsible stepped up to sort of take it publicly.

Though the situation was one, as I say, of tragedy, Randy and his fellow officers responded with honor and dignity.

They took responsibility for what had happened. Twelve Marines were disciplined. The report of the failure was full and specific and public. Here's how the editorial characterized the response: the day after the report, I heard from a young naval aviator in predeployment training north of San Diego. He flies a Super Hornet sister ship to the plane that went down.

He said the Marine investigation kept me up last night because of how it contrasted with the buck-passing we see in the government and on Wall Street. He and his squadron were in range of San Diego television stations when they carried the report's conclusions live. He'd never seen our entire wardroom crowded around a television before. They watched with bated breath. At the end they were impressed with the public nature of the criticism and its candor.

There are still elements within the government that take personal responsibility seriously, he said. He found himself wondering if the Marines had even been too hard on themselves. But they are, after all, Marines, he said. By contrast, when the economy came crashing down, he said, Nowhere did we see a board come out and say, this is what happened, these are decisions these particular people made, and this was the result. They are no longer a part of our organization.

There was no timeline of events or layman's explanation of how a credit derivative was actually derived. We did not see congressmen getting on television with charts and eviscerate their organization and say, these were the men who in 2003 allowed Freddie and Fannie unlimited reign over mortgage securities. Instead, we saw everybody against everybody else, with no one stepping forth and saying, we screwed up. There's no one in national leadership who could convincingly assign blame and no one who could or would accept it. Brothers and sisters, if we live with the end in view today, as God instructs us to, we can live and work in an honest, humble, transparent way, knowing that there is a God who sees all, and knows our hearts and who has brought us forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

And when we live like this consistently, through thick and thin, we provoke those around us, also made in God's image, but running from Him, to stop running.

So we see, as a church, We mean to be committed to doing what's right now.

We mean to be having one person read the Word of God to us like it's happening right now, explaining it with illustrations, applications. And then others gather to hear it, one who reads, those who hear, with the result that we are informed by God's Spirit, changed, and so conformed more to God's own pleasures. We go through the formality of joining a local congregation to help us obey, to help us make commitments, to hear God's Word, and to live with His help in a way which brings Him glory. Friends, this book teaches us that God is to be obeyed. If we would be oriented toward this God correctly, we must also see that God is to be praised.

Number two, God is to be praised. That's what we see really happening in the opening greetings of this Prophetic Letter. Look with me again at verses 4 to 6. John to the seven churches in the province of Asia, Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits before his throne.

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priest, to serve his God and father. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. John, which is his name is pretty much all we know about him. John.

But Christians from the second century on have understood him to be the beloved disciple. John who wrote the Gospel and the Letters. Anyway, John writes to these churches in Asia, which is not all of Asia, like from there to China. It's just Western Turkey. It was the province of Asia.

So he writes to these churches in Asia and through them to all churches. All Christians, really. Seven churches, or seven real churches, but they also point toward all churches. Seven you'll find in the book of Revelation is the number of completion. We'll find this again and again.

So here we see that the God who has given Himself for us, this God is for us. And John's words here burst with praise to God. This is the God who really can give them grace and peace. It's not just an epistolary greeting. It is that.

It's a greeting of a letter, but it means grace and peace. These words spring to new life and force. They're not mere pale formalities. As John describes God here, and by the very describing praises Him. Friends, can you imagine a being so good that the more accurate your description is of them, the more fully and complete is your praise.

That is our God. Here in these verses we see the God who gives us grace and peace. The theological language of the Trinity that we know wasn't developed yet, but it's passages like this very one, fiercely monotheistic and yet seeing God exist as Father, Son and Holy Spirit that caused Christians later to develop that language of Trinity. The idea is here. God the Father is described in the middle of verse 4 as Him who is and who was and who is to come.

We'll think more about that when we come down to that very description again in verse 8. And then there at the end of verse 4 is God the Spirit. The seven spirits are really, I think, better understood as the sevenfold Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit and all the fullness of presence and power. That's what the seven, the image of seven, stands for.

All the power that he needs to carry out God's purposes. Notice he's standing before the throne there to respond to carry out God's purposes around the world. But it's God the Son that really takes front and center. The most full description is given of God the Son even in these brief lines in verses 5 and 6. Jesus Christ is the witness, the firstborn, the ruler.

You see, he is the prophet, the priest, the king. Who bore faithful witness as a prophet, offered himself as a priest, and was found acceptable by God and so raised from the dead and rules even now as King. He is the one who has loved us and freed us by making himself our sacrifice. He has purchased us to be in his kingdom priest-servants of God. This is the only way Christians can have grace and peace, the grace and peace that John wishes for them in verse 4.

And this is the only way that you can have grace and peace. If you are here as a non-Christian, my friend, there is no other way you can have the acceptance with God you need and the peace with Him other than through what God has done in Jesus. You already have not lived the life you would have needed to live for God to take you just on your own. That's what Christianity says. That's what the Bible teaches about every person ever born except for Jesus.

He lived that way for us. And He died on the cross as a sacrifice, bearing God's good, right, correct wrath against our sins. And really, for the sins of everybody that would ever turn from their sins and trust in Him. And then we know to accept this. We know God accepted this fundamentally because He raised Christ from the dead.

That was, as it were, God's signature on the ministry that Christ taught that He had, that He claimed for Himself. Friend, He calls you now to turn from your sins and to trust in Him. Trust in His righteousness. Trust in His goodness, not your own. John here is really talking mainly about the present, you'll note, just a little bit about the future really at the end of verse 6.

He's writing to instruct and encourage these churches in Asia, but as we've said, this revelation was clearly meant for all churches for all time. You've got the seven churches addressed in chapters 2 and 3 and after that you don't see them again. Those individual churches vanish and the story clearly becomes the story of the universal church. John writes, the truth about God and if we are God's people, this provokes us to praise Him for what He has done for us. He's especially full, as we've noted, in his praise for Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by by His blood.

Brothers and sisters, meditate on these titles that Jesus has given here. As one commentary put it, Christ revealed God's truth by mediating as a priest through His sacrificial death and uncompromising faithful witness to the world. And Jesus Christ is also the firstborn from the dead. He's not just our prophet, our teacher, but He's also our priest. He offered Himself as a sacrifice and rose in testimony of the acceptableness of the sacrifice to God.

Death never claimed him again. And he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is our King. This commentary again says Christ reigned as King, ironically, by conquering death and sin through the defeat at the cross and subsequent resurrection. Friend, do you see the picture of Christ we're given here?

How much power does Christ have?

All, according to Matthew 28:18, all power in heaven and earth has been given to Me. All power. Well, if Christ has all power, then brothers and sisters, why be so dismayed when others frown if Christ smiles? Why live your life for the pleasure of others when their lives only matter ultimately? Because of what God Himself has said and because of what God Himself is.

Persevere in the faith. Confident of persecution, yes, but also of ultimate vindication and triumph. That's what's portrayed in these three titles. And that should encourage Christians entering a period of persecution. Friend, we are called to be such faithful witnesses now.

If the religion you're looking for is a religion with no persecution, go find a different religion. Jesus Himself said, if you would follow Me, you must take up your cross. Friends, we have for so long been so prosperous, most of us here in America who are Christians, that I don't know what these words even sound like to us. I don't know what they mean to us, but I can tell you they are the experiences of Christians throughout history. They are the experience of many of our African-American brothers and sisters in the history of this country.

They are the experience of Christians today in Burma and India. In parts of Sudan, in people around the world, the Lord has in His kindness and strange sovereignty allowed His blood-bought children to suffer, to represent the crucifixion of Christ afresh as we suffer for the faith in our own lives. Christianity gives us no promise of trusting God like an amulet to avoid the trials of life. Instead, Christianity promises us trials and persecutions.

And we see that here in this book. We see in verses 5 and 6, We are freed from our sins to be priests to God. Here we are in this passage of cosmic praise to God, and even here we find the cross of Christ. His blood is mentioned here in verse 5. Down in verse 7 we see the mention of those that pierced Him.

Why will the cross never leave testimonies about Jesus Christ? Because His love to us has shown itself supremely in this, that He has freed us from our sins by His blood. This is what Christ has done for us. And so in our hymns that we sing, we praise Him again and again and again. Just like little children delighted at their parents, delighted at a particular thing, can we do it again?

Can we do it again? That is what we, as the children of God, do again and again when we gather on Sunday mornings. The morning of His resurrection and sing praise to God for what He has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise Him for it. Friends, our obedience will of course be imperfect.

And so we need the perfect righteousness of Christ to be put on us and to be given us to be our very own. And the beginning of all of our good is right there in verse 5. It's in that little phrase, who has loved us. As Paul put it in Ephesians 5, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Why would he do that?

Well, no reason is given further back than his own love. That's as far back as we can trace it. It's like what God said to his people in Deuteronomy 7 in the Old Testament, the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples. For you were the fewest of all peoples, but it was because the Lord loved you. That's why we read here in verse 6, Christ has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.

To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Christ has made us what we are to God. He has made us to be a kingdom and priests. We live under his rule.

We live our lives in service to God as we were made to do. And so we Christians praise Him for what He is. We praise Him for what He's done for us, freed us by His blood, and for the fruit of that in our lives that we enjoy even now, made us to be priests to God. To Him be the glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

And so we, like John, praise God if we're His children today.

So, if we would prepare ourselves for the future, we must realize that it is God's future and we should obey God, praise God. And we should also realize here in verse 7 that this is number 3, God is to be feared.

Look again at verse 7.

Look, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be. Amen. You know, some commentators have remarked that this is the only place in the book that Jesus' Second Coming is talked about.

What do you think? Well, let's keep coming to these studies and we'll see what we find. But this verse certainly is a reference to Christ's return and the judgment that He is about to bring. And our response to this Well, we are to anticipate it. We are to be aware of it.

We are to be prepared for His return. We do not want to be like one of these pointed out here who will mourn. Rather, we want to rejoice at His coming. And so we realize that God is to be feared in the sense of respected and honored, treated as the God He is. John is using language here from a couple of Old Testament passages from Daniel 7:13 about the Son of Man returning on the clouds and Zechariah 12.

From prophecies about the inhabitants of Jerusalem looking on the one they have pierced. And it is this sad, eerie, macabre even thought that we find here as those who literally drove in the nails see again this one that they mortally punished. But then of course, Isaiah 53:5 reminds us, that it was really our transgressions that caused Him to be pierced.

We all see Him.

We shall all see Him. What this prophecy evokes from us, what this whole book is meant to evoke from us is the fear of the Lord. We don't want to receive Him like it says so many on the earth will, mourning, wailing, That's the image that will be magnified in this book. The weeping and gnashing of teeth we will see elsewhere in this book is the judgment of God, and this is how it's presented, not as merely giving us our choice, as C.S. Lewis so inadequately portrayed it in the Great Divorce.

And as Christian apologists are sometimes wont to do, to make it seem less bad to their non-Christian friends. But friends, that is wholly inadequate to be faithful to what the Bible presents. Now the Bible presents God's wrath, God's justice, God Himself as giving us what we will in fact loathe, what we do not want, what is not our choice, what is finally appropriate for us if we're not saved from it. The judgment of God on rebels and oppressors in the Bible is never less than horrible. Friends, note the fundamental distinction between humans.

The most fundamental distinction has nothing to do with your nationality or your wealth or your gender. The most fundamental distinction is those who will rejoice when he comes and those who will mourn. Those who will rejoice and those who will mourn. And I ask you, are you living today is your mind, are your hopes as one who will rejoice at His coming or as one who will mourn at His coming? If you are here today and you're not a Christian, I pray that this morning you will come to faith in Christ.

Look to Him in mercy, before you must gaze on Him, as this verse says here, in agony and regret.

You think that you would like God if you could meet Him. But it says here, my friend, that meeting Him, in fact, will cause you to mourn. Or as others translate it, wail. And why would it do that? If God is such a good God, that must mean He's a nice God.

And if I made in His image, then He and I must be okay because He made me. And therefore, He takes responsibility for me, right?

You don't even really believe that.

Do you remember your conscience?

Your conscience is not just something implanted in your psyche by your parents. Your conscience is part of God's image, and it has told you imperfectly, but part of the truth. You yourself know, before you ever walked into this church this morning, that you are not, just as you're born, okay with God, but that you need forgiveness. Your conscience bears witness to the truth. And on that day when Christ appears, your conscience will be awakened.

Your conscience Whose mouth you so often stopped with pleasure or distraction or busyness. How is it Sibbes described it? You have a company of wretched persons proud enough in their own conceits and censorious. Nothing can please them whose whole life is acted by Satan joining with the lust of their flesh and they do nothing but put stings into death every day and arm death against themselves.

Which when once it appears, their conscience which is a hell within them is wakened. And where are they? They can stay no longer. They must appear before the dreadful judge. And then where are all their pleasures and contentments for which they neglected heaven and happiness, peace of conscience and all.

Friends, when Christ returns as he ascended on the clouds, How will He find you disposed toward Him? That is the question this book presses on you this morning. Arrogant and independent? Or fearing God, honoring Him with your life, your faith, your all?

But not only is God to be obeyed and praised and feared, but this God is also number four. To be trusted. This God is to be trusted. Look again at that last verse in our passage for today, verse 8. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

This is, you might say, God's theology. This is what God says about Himself. He is the one who is ruling everything. He always has and He always will.

It's been said you can't change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future.

Well, if God is really in control like this, why don't we trust Him?

Brothers and sisters, grow your trust in God by meditating on who this God is.

Grow your trust in God by meditating on who this God is.

This sentence, verse 8 here is the only direct statement by God until the very near the end of the book. And He reveals Himself here very much like He did when He gave His name to Moses in Exodus. Pay careful attention because I think as you go through the book, You'll find that the most important thing about the book of Revelation is its presentation of God. And really we have here in this statement a summary of the doctrine and presentation of God in the whole book. God names Himself in three different ways.

You know royalty often have many titles. So when our friend Mack this week thanked the government in Dubai, he began by saying, We wish to thank His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates.

I'm sure he, like any ruler, had other titles that he could have used as well. Well friends, God here is presenting Himself as the King of the universe and He gives some of His titles. He says first, I am the Alpha and the Omega. This is what scholars call a merism. That is two extremes which include everything in between.

What's interesting about this one is not only does the Lord use it of Himself here, but He introduces Himself again when he speaks at the end of the book. And even more interesting, it's also the way we'll see next week that Christ introduces himself down in verse 17 and again later in the book. He says, when Christ says his name in parallel at the end in chapter 22 verse 13, Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. So, if you've read any of those silly books about Christians coming up with the idea that Christ is God only four centuries later at the Council of Chalcedon, just once again shows they don't know their primary sources. No, this is in the first century.

John said that Jesus, he had this revelation. Jesus said, I am the Alpha and the Omega using the same description that the Lord God used here. Christ is the Creator of all and He will be the Judge of all. God then says that He is second, who is and who was and who is to come. You see that in verse 8.

This is how John, you remember, had described Him up in verse 4. This means that God is what theologians call self-existent. That is, He's not a derivative being. He needs no one else in order to exist. And as such, He is utterly incomparable.

As He had said to Moses, I am who I am. Or as He said later, There is no God besides Me. I put to death and I bring to life. I have wounded and I will heal. No one can deliver from My hand.

God is the beginning of everything and He is the point. And don't overlook that phrase, is to come. Our God tells us that He, this great Almighty One, is coming. What on earth can that mean? Well, that just makes us want to read the rest of the book.

Finally, he calls himself the Almighty.

Asked what qualities a politician required, Churchill replied, the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year, and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

God is not like that. When God says that He is the Almighty, He is not just speaking about abstract omnipotence, but actual control of events. This is the God the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar learned is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men. He is the one who can take care of Egypt and take care of Babylon and take care of Rome and take care of them all combined, as we'll see in this This book is here to show that. Friends, as I was meditating on these verses and the magnificence it presents in God, I began to try to think of earthly analogies.

I mean, what experience have I had of knowing some great majesty or magnificence? I mean, I've seen the Alps. You know, I must have listened to the very beginning of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Unser Herr, like ten times really loud on Friday morning while I was working on this. I mean, I have experience of majesty in knowing the love of my family, in seeing the Grand Canyon or sunsets in Ullapool, Scotland, or King's College Chapel in Cambridge. But, friend, anything I can think of is just the merest suggestion or echo of the real, true, eternal majesty of God.

All of those things are just left here as shards and hints and pointers to the true majesty. That is the majesty of God Himself. Friend, if you have experienced anything of this, you begin to know who we deal with when we deal with this great God. Now, there are many thorny theological questions you can ask me at the door about the sovereignty of God that I cannot answer. But I know clearly that He is sovereign and that the only reason we should be able to lay our head down and rest tonight is because this God is sovereign.

Our work in this world is to reflect something of God's own good and faithful character. Our care for our family and our friends are to reflect God's care. Our use of authority is to reflect God's own authority in His benevolence and kindness and mercy. Christians, we pray that our every act may cause us to depend on Christ alone, and so to exalt Him and depend upon Him and imitate Him, even in the way we respond to trials and adversities. We continue to pray that God remove trials, that He remove adversities.

And I'm not telling you not to pray that. But I'm telling you, friend, we're promised them. So can you at least add to your prayers? Pray that you might trust God through them well. Pray that you might rely on Him, and so display them.

And if He lets that trial go on a little further than you would like, realize that Jesus has gone further still.

He knew temptation in all ways as we have, yet without sin. Friend, can you imagine enduring temptation to the extent He did even in the Garden of Gethsemane? He has gone places in temptation land that you and I will never go. And yet God showed Himself completely faithful in the life of Jesus. And so our prayer is that God will help us to persevere and so bring Him glory.

As has been said, trials and persecutions are the Christian's shining time.

That's when we get to display the difference between our life and the life that's dependent upon the circumstances of this world for happiness and peace and joy. Brothers and sisters, this God is utterly trustworthy. What greater assurance can you have than that this God is for you? Make your list of circumstances. Tick them all off.

Throw immortality on if you want. And friend, you will not have sufficient ground for peace in your life. You're too contingent a being. There are too many other things that can happen. But when this God is for us, you can relax.

You can trust. You can rejoice knowing that the One who made the universe and will judge us has declared Himself, well, as it says in verse 5, He He loved us and He gave Himself for us. This God is for us. And so He is to be trusted completely and to the end. Whatever might come in this life, even as the Lord Jesus trusted His Heavenly Father through the dark garden all the way to the cross.

Well, we should conclude. Do you remember what we often ask for in the Lord's Prayer? Our Father in heaven, hallowed be youe name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This book of Revelation shows us the answer to Christ's prayer. Here we see that people and even nations and the whole world are small. And God alone is truly big.

God relativizes earthly powers and problems and puts them in perspective. This is why Christianity is always such an uncomfortable thing for pretentious politicians. For governments who want ultimate and absolute allegiance, Christianity is deeply unsettling because we Christians know that we may not pledge ultimate allegiance to any earthly power.

Friends, we need in our lives today something of the humility of Lincoln, who though I have no reason to think he was a Christian, had some pretty good theology in a number of ways, not least of which was in his humility he evidenced. And when he replied once when a minister from the North told the President, He hoped the Lord is on our side, Lincoln responded, I'm not at all concerned about that, but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side. Friend, if nothing else, Revelation clearly teaches us that as long as this is God's universe, the most important thing about us is how we stand related to this God.

Everything else is just detail.

Let's pray.

0 Lord, we have confessed our sins. We rejoice in the forgiveness you've given us in Christ. We pray for strength by your Spirit to live in a way that more closely conforms to what you call us to in Christ. O Lord, to that end we pray that yout would stir our hearts to praise youe more. Stir our hearts to fear your more.

O Lord, stir our hearts to trust yout more as we see more of Yourself in this book, in youn world. Lord, we pray that yout would teach us and so bring us more fully, day by day, to completely trusting in youn. In the life that you call us to lead for you here and now. We pray this with confidence in the returning Christ and in his name. Amen.