A truth that emerges from the pages of Revelation over and
over again is that the nature of the church is to live on mission. In our
congregation we talk about living for the glory of God as Joyful followers who
know, grow in, serve, and share Jesus Christ so others can do the same. This
means that, as we run around the bases of life, we will be involved not only in
serving others in some meaningful way, but also sharing with them how they can
come to know and grow in, serve, and share Jesus also.
Yet, we all know living on mission is usually not easy.
Whether Christians are facing persecution for their faith or whether they are
simply afraid of how others will react to them, it is easy to feel as if living
on mission is like stepping off a cliff. How can we gain the courage?
Since this is an important purpose of Revelation, John points
the way to this courage in four main ways as he greets the churches to whom he
is writing in Revelation 1:4-8.
1. We Find Power And Peace That Comes From
Our God. 4-5a
John lets readers know right away that this power and peace
are available to the Church throughout the world in all ages, as he writes, “John
to the seven churches that are in Asia.” We discovered last week we can expect
a great deal of symbolism in Revelation, including in the use of numbers. Most
likely John did in fact write and send this entire prophetic letter work to the
seven churches he mentions here and in chapters two-three. However, it also is
most likely that the seven churches represent the universal church. We know at
that time there were more than seven churches in Asia Minor (what is today southern
Turkey). Why did he address these seven, no more, and no less? At least part of
the answer may be that he wanted to signify something with these seven churches.
This leads to the next point.
We also see in Revelation that the number 7 has a symbolic
meaning—suggesting fullness (see later in 1:4, as well as the seven seals,
seven trumpets, seven symbolic histories, and seven bowl judgments of chapters
6-16, as well as Gen. 2:2-3; Lev. 25:8). Most likely the addresses to these
seven churches are intended to speak to the Church worldwide, and so this power
and peace are given by God to all true believers throughout the world and
throughout history.
Next, in his greeting, John expresses his desire, i.e. his
prayer, for all who read Revelation: That we would experience God’s saving and
transforming unmerited power, as well as the wholeness of life also known as
peace: “Grace to you and peace.” As we will see shortly, these
divinely-originated resources are, in part, so we can live on mission.
To begin, this grace and peace come from God the Father: “from
him who is and who was and who is to come.” Based upon similar phrases found in
Isaiah (Is. 41:4; 43:10; 44:6; 48:12) that appear to have originated in Exodus
3:14 and the statements there on the divine name, this description of God emphasizes
that he is the self-existent, ever-present God who is able to do all that he
promises. This is especially true of the part of the description, “the one who
is.” Additionally, because it appears again in 1:8 in conjunction with “the
Alpha and Omega” (a name that emphasizes God is the origin of all the world and
history and controls the end of all things, as well as all in between), and in
conjunction with “the Almighty,” the two last parts of the description, “who
was and is to come,” emphasize that God is in control in, over, and behind all
things. He is absolutely sovereign. He also is all-powerful.
So, to know that grace and peace can and do come from such a
God is to know that we have great resources!
Next, John expresses his desire or his prayer that this
grace and peace also come from the third person of God, the Holy Spirit: “and
from the seven spirits who are before his throne.” Because of other trinitarian
prayers for (or statements of) God’s resources elsewhere in the New Testament
(e.g. 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1), there can be little doubt, sandwiched in
between God the Father and also Jesus Christ, this reference is to the Holy
Spirit. Here the Spirit is depicted as the perfect and full Spirit, the one who
is perfectly capable of empowering saints in whatever way is needed. This
reference to the Holy Spirt also is an allusion to Zechariah 4:2-9 where
Zechariah receives a vision of a lampstand with seven lamps on it that receives
perpetual olive oil from nearby olive trees and symbolizes the continual empowerment
the Spirit gives to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, and to others to rebuild
the temple. In 4:6 we read: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says
the Lord of hosts.” Likewise, John is being shown that the Spirit empowers those
who are kings and priests (Rev. 1:6), the end-times temple of God (cf. 1:20).
Yet, to emphasize that these divine resources come from all
three persons in the one true and living God, John adds in verse 5: “and from
Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of
kings on earth.” Here, readers are reminded that Jesus has gone before us as a
faithful witness to God the Father, to the plan of salvation, and to all that
the Father had wanted him to communicate (John 1:1-18; Heb. 1:1-3; Rev. 1:10)—even
in the face of great trials and persecution! He is not calling us to do
anything that he himself has not already done (see John 20:21!).
Yet, it is not only as an example that Jesus Christ can help
us to be faithful witnesses. He also can do this since he is the firstborn from
the dead (which means that his resurrection leads to our resurrection). Because
Jesus conquered sin and death, we can conquer it and live out true resurrected life
now. And, we go out into the world with the power of and representing one who
is “the ruler of the kings of the earth” (see also 17:14; 19:16). Usually in Revelation
this kind of reference to kings speaks of those in opposition to Jesus Christ,
so the focus is upon this age we now live in (when there still is opposition)
and not the age to come (when there is none). Because this is true of Jesus, he
can empower and take care of us in the ultimate sense so that nothing or no one
can separate us from our eternal reward, his protection, or his love (Rom. 8:31-39),
and so that we can carry out our mission faithfully and fruitfully.
Additionally, we need to see in these three descriptions of
Jesus Christ (“faithful witness,” “firstborn of the dead,” and “the ruler of kings
of the earth”) John is alluding to Psalm 89:27, 37, where all three phrases are
used to speak of the king who will rule over his enemies and whose seed will sit
on his throne forever. Jesus Christ is the one who brought and started this new
kingdom and the new creation that transforms and empowers us.
So, the reality we can have such grace and peace from this
God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is no small thing. As we go out into the
world to give testimony to Jesus Christ, we do so in the greatest power known
to man—that of the infinite eternal God!
He will never command us to do something that he does not also give us
the more-than-sufficient-ability to do.
The mention of Jesus Christ leads John to break into a word
of praise in the rest of verse five and into six. As John does this, he also
expresses the second way we can have courage.
2. We Live For The
Glory Of The One Who Saved Us, Jesus Christ, And Can Live For His Glory Because
He Saved Us. 5b-6
That John is breaking into praise is evident from what we
read at the beginning and end of these statements: “To him…to him be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Whenever we see this form (e.g. Eph. 3:20-21),
it suggests that the person breaks into a statement of a desire to give God
glory (here to God the Son), and then must also state what has moved him to do
so. For John here, it is the reality that that Jesus “continually loves us and freed
us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and
Father.”
John not only celebrates the love of Christ that motivated
his saving work, but the fact that he has freed his people from the penalty of
sin, is freeing them from the power of sin, and someday will free them from the
presence of sin—and all this through his substitutionary atoning death on the
cross.
Yet, it is not just forgiveness of sin and eternal life which
motivates John’s praise, it is also that, as a result, we are part of his
kingdom and are priests who serve him and thus bring others to know him! The
wording of verse 6 (“and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”) is
an allusion to Exodus 19:6 and what God said of Israel after he brought them
out of their Egyptian bondage and when they were at Mt. Sinai. As kings and
priests, Israel was to be a light to the nations, but they failed. Revelation
clarifies that what Israel failed to do, the new and true Israel (Jew and
Gentile), that is, the New Testament Church, will carry out (see also Rev. 5:10;
11:7).
If there were any doubt that this passage was providing
courage and strength for mission, it should now be removed. John highlights
that Jesus’ salvation of us results in our living on mission. And John praises
him for this!
The third way John points to the courage we can have as we
live on mission is found in verse seven.
3. We Focus On The
Certain Coming Of Jesus Christ And The Fulfillment Of All God’s Promises. 7
Here John writes: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and
every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth
will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.” Here John not only seems to be emphasizing
that Jesus’s first and second comings start and complete the fulfillments of that
to which Old Testament authors looked forward (Dan. 7:13; Zech. 12:10), but
also is calling our minds to the certainty of God fulfilling all he promises to
us in Christ.
What this means is that God will not only enable the Church
to fulfill her mission and that includes whatever part God has determined each
saint play in that mission, but he will also preserve, protect, and reward his
people as he promises throughout Revelation, and will bring them into his
blessed and favorable presence forever (Rev. 21-22).
The final way John points us to the way of courage is in
verse 8.
4. We Find Courage In
The Knowledge Of Our Almighty God. 8
John writes: “‘I am the Alpha and Omega,’ says the Lord God,
‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”
Since we focused upon these descriptions in verse four, we
don’t need to repeat here what we said. The main point is as Jesus said in Matthew
19:26: “With God all things are possible.”
Too often, when we think about serving and sharing Jesus Christ
so that others can come to know, grow in, serve, and share him also, we
conclude that it is something we have to make happen. We are confident or we lack
confidence based upon what we ourselves can or cannot do.
What John encourages us to do in these five verses is to
look beyond and outside ourselves, to our triune God and the work he has done,
is doing, and will do in us. Our living on mission is more about what he can do
through us than what we can do for him!
This is an emphasis that is started here and runs throughout
the book of Revelation.
So, step off the cliff with courage!
Joyfully And
Courageously Living On Mission With You,
Tom
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