‘Revelation 1 ‘Things are not as they seem’

Our society doesn’t pay too much attention to the church.  The church is seen as being on the decline and outdated.  In this city only a small percentage of people will have been at a Bible-believing church on any given Sunday.  I am not sure that our society even wants us to be here.  On Shannon bridge there are Munster rugby flags hanging or Limerick hurling flags and Rainbow flags, but no one would suggest putting up flags to celebrate that there are evangelical Christians living in this city.  To be an evangelical is to be accused of being homophobic, superstitious, narrow-minded and irrelevant.

Our situation is a little like that to whom the book of Revelation was originally addressed to.  They were small groups of people in the mighty Roman empire.  Seven churches in the Roman province of Asia Minor (which is now in modern Turkey).  They were considered despicable and irrelevant.  They were persecuted by the mighty Roman emperor, Domition.  How can they claim to be on the right side of history?

It has always been God’s way to choose that which the world sees an irrelevant.  In the Old Testament God did not make a covenant with the superpowers like the Assyrians, Babylonians or Greeks.  He made his covenant with the Hebrews.  Nobodies!  The apostle Paul tells us that God chooses the things that are not to shame the things that are.  Not many of us are noble and wise.

Revelation tells us that when we are tempted to see the church as the world sees the church, we are seeing things from the wrong perspective.  Things are not as they seem!  It is not any Caesar who rules the world, it is God who sits on the throne.  We are his beloved people.  So, don’t give up hope.

Just one thing, before we begin to study revelation.  This letter was written in the last decade of the first century about events that would soon take place.  We can read this book as being fulfilled at that time in the Roman world.  We can also see things here that are related to the time in the future when Jesus returns.  But the book of Revelation is not only about the past and future, it is about today.  The realities and patterns that happen in Revelation or our realities.  Similarly, while this letter is addressed to seven churches in particular cities, it should be noted that the number seven is the number of completeness.  These seven churches are representative of all churches at all times.

1.     

 The God of history loves you (4-8).

Revelation opens with the words ‘Grace and Peace.’  This is not unusual.  The apostles Paul and Peter open their letters with the same greeting.  Grace is God’s undeserved and unmerited favour.  Peace is really about peace with God—we were his enemies, but he has made peace with us through the cross.  Grace and peace come ‘through him who loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood’ (5). 

What comfort to be loved by Jesus!  I heard the story of a teenage boy who is involved with an evangelical church in Spain.  His parents are divorcing.  They are having a custody battle over him.  But this custody battle is not fought in a desire to have him, but in an effort to make the other parent responsible for him.  What does he need to know more than anything else?  Nothing is more relevant to him than that Jesus loves him.

You will notice as you work your way through Revelation that there are many references to the fact that Jesus has been crucified.  I once read a blog by a minister who claimed that ‘the death of Jesus is not the crux of the Christian faith.’  That is utter rubbish.  If the death and resurrection are not at the centre of your faith, then your faith is not the Christian faith!

The Jehovah’s witnesses deny the divinity of Jesus.  In fact, they say that Jesus was the archangel Michael.  But the book of Revelation is full of evidence that Jesus is not only the Son of God, he is God the Son.  We see this through the use of titles that apply to both Jesus and God the Father.

In this chapter we read that God is the Alpha and the Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.  In chapter twenty-two we read that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega (22:13).  Here we read that Jesus is the first and the last (17) and in the book of Isaiah (44:6) God is the first and the last.  The carpenter who hung doors on frames also hung the stars in space.  The man who had nowhere to lay his head fills the whole universe.  Domition may be the Caesar but it is Christ who rules over history.

2.     

Jesus is in control (9-20)

John was one of the twelve disciples, who was known as the beloved disciple.  But where is the evidence of God’s love for him now?  He is now an old man and he has been exiled for his faith to the island of Patmos (twenty-four square miles).  He has probably got to work in the quarries of that place.  He is their companion in suffering.  The normal Christian life involves taking up or cross.  When Jesus tells someone to follow him, he is inviting us to die.  He faces his hardships with patient endurance.  As one commentator puts it, ‘an active manly endurance rather than negative resignation.’

It is on the Lord’s Day (the first day of the week) and John was in the Spirit.  He heard behind him a voice and when he looked, he saw seven golden lampstands.  We will be told that these lampstands are the churches (20).  Our calling is to bear the light of truth and grace in a world that is dark and hostile.

Among the lampstands there was someone like the son of man.  Son of man is the way that Jesus describes himself most often in the four gospels.  It is a term that goes back to the book of Daniel: ‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.  He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (7:13-14).        

John writes that his hair was as white as snow.  Again, he is giving Jesus as divine description.  In Daniel we read of the Ancient of Days (who is God) as having ‘hair white like wool, white as snow’ (Daniel 7:9).  His voice was like the sound of rushing waters (15)—Ezekiel speaks of God’s voice being like the roar of rushing waters (Ezekiel 43:2).

‘In his right hand are seven stars’ (16a).  Again, we are told that the seven stars are the angels of the churches (20).  There is a lot of debate about who these angels are.  I think they may actually be representative of the churches.  In a hostile world Jesus holds the church in his right hand.

On having Jesus unveiled before him, John falls to the ground.  Yet Jesus places his hand on him and says, ‘Don’t be afraid!’  Many people find the book of Revelation as scary book.  I want you to remember the love of Christ as you read it.  There may be judgement here, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!  As you read this book, ‘Don’t be afraid!’

Conclusion:

There are very few Bible believing Christians in this city of one hundred thousand people.  We may seem irrelevant and even be unwelcome.  It was the same way for the churches in the Roman province of Asia Minor at the end of the first century.  As we suffer hostility for our faith, we might be tempted to think that God has abandoned us.  Surely John could have felt the same way.  But Jesus loves us.  His death has proved it.  And if you are tempted to wonder if he is in control, remember this: the mighty Roman empire has long since fallen but the church remains.  Despite what people may say, we are on the right side of history!