And friends, in just a few minutes, we're going to have a baptism.
But before that, we're going to turn to God's Word.
So would you turn with me to Revelation chapter 1.
That's page 965 in the Pew Bible.
We began our Revelation series last week with an introduction,
looking at verses 1 through 8.
And there we saw that this book is for the servants of God,
that is, all followers of Jesus.
And we saw that this book is from the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And lastly, we saw that the book is ultimately about Jesus Christ and God's kingdom.
So we're going to pick up where we left off last week at verse 9 of chapter 1
and go through the rest of the chapter.
So let me pray as we turn to God's Word together.
God, indeed, you have no rival and you have no equal.
You are the first and the last, the beginning and the end,
the one who is and who was and who is to come.
And we praise you this morning.
We thank you for the deep privilege that it is to open up your Word
and to hear what you are saying to us,
that we might behold you in your glory and worship you
and live lives for you and for your kingdom and the power of your Spirit.
Jesus, all of this is possible because of you,
because of your incarnation, for your perfect life,
for your death, for your resurrection,
for the fact that you're ascended and seated at the Father's right hand
and coming in glory and we give you praise.
Help us now as we understand this Word that you've given to us,
your church.
In your mighty name we pray.
Amen.
All right.
Revelation chapter 1, verses 9 through 20.
Let me read this for us.
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom
and the patient endurance that are in Jesus,
was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God
and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day
and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying,
write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches,
to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira
and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me
and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands
and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man
clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.
His eyes were like a flame of fire.
His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace
and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
In his right hand he held seven stars.
From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword
and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
But he laid his right hand on me saying,
Fear not.
I am the first and the last and the living one.
I died and behold, I am alive forevermore.
And I have the keys of death and Hades.
Write therefore the things that you have seen,
those that are,
and those that are to take place after this.
As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand
and the seven golden lampstands,
the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches
and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
This is God's Word.
So, when you're facing a problem
or when you're facing a trial
or even suffering of some kind,
what's the one thing that you need?
Well, perhaps you'd say,
The one thing I really want is for the problem to go away, right?
I want the suffering to stop.
But if that doesn't happen in the midst of pain, suffering, and trial,
what's the most important thing you can have?
And that's really what our text is pointing us toward.
But before we look there,
what are some of the things you might say you need?
Perhaps the presence of caring and supportive friends,
people to walk with you.
That's a good thing.
Or maybe a strategy for overcoming the trial,
a plan to eliminate the source of pain.
Nothing wrong with that.
If you're jobless,
you need a good resume workshop maybe
and a few practice interviews.
If your marriage is in trouble,
a good marriage counselor
and some communication exercises to work on.
Some sort of strategy in the midst of trial.
Or, you know, on the other hand,
maybe the one thing you really want or really need
is answers, right?
Some sort of reason
why you're going through what you're going through
or at least some potential reasons
to help you understand why
or what's really going on.
And of course, all these are good things, right?
They're not bad in themselves.
But our text today points us to something even greater.
It points us to the most important thing
for us to have
when we're in the midst of trial
or about to undergo some sort of trial.
And if I were to put it simply,
what Revelation 1, 9 through 20 is telling us is this.
What a suffering Christian,
what a suffering church needs most
is a renewed vision of the glory of Christ.
When we're facing trials
or when we're about to face trials,
what we need more than anything else
is a renewed vision of the glory of Christ.
So let's take some time to unpack that.
The first thing we see in our passage
in verses 9 through 11
is we see the fact that Christians indeed suffer.
They face trials or problems or persecutions.
They experience distress and loss.
Look again at verse 9.
I, John, that is the Apostle John,
he says,
your brother and partner,
that is someone who shares deeply
in something together with you,
your partner.
In what?
In the tribulation and the kingdom
and the patient endurance
that are in Jesus.
Look at those last three concepts,
tribulation, kingdom, endurance in Jesus.
This is how John is summarizing the Christian life.
First, tribulation.
That word means suffering, distress, intense hardship.
As a follower of Jesus,
there will be trial and hardship
and often on account of being a follower of Jesus.
Look at the rest of verse 9.
He says,
I was on the island called Patmos
on account of the word of God
and the testimony of Jesus.
Because John had been faithfully following Jesus,
bearing witness to God's word,
bearing witness to all that was true about Jesus,
the testimony about Jesus,
he was exiled and in prison
on the island called Patmos.
Now, Patmos is a tiny little island
off the western coast of modern-day Turkey.
And at the time, in John's day,
it was used as a Roman penal settlement.
It was a place where they put people
who were dangerous to the good order of the empire.
They shipped them off
to spend the rest of their days in exile on Patmos.
It was a prison colony.
Now, we today may not experience exactly the same thing,
but notice that John says,
I'm your brother and partner in this tribulation in Jesus.
He writes to these churches saying,
this trial, this hardship,
it's expected,
and we share in it together.
After all, do you remember what Jesus himself said
in the Gospel of John?
He says, in this world,
you will have tribulation.
It's the same word that John uses again here in Revelation.
But John doesn't summarize the Christian life
as only suffering, right?
As only tribulation.
He says in Jesus,
we also share in the kingdom
that is the reign of God,
the in-breaking, liberating rule
of the triune creator and redeemer.
The tribulation and the kingdom in Jesus.
Now, there's a balance here, isn't there?
Christianity isn't just tribulation.
You know, if that was the only thing we thought
about following Christ,
that would be pretty defeatist
or pessimistic or despairing.
But it isn't just the kingdom, right?
That would be pretty triumphalistic.
No, it's both.
It's about God's kingdom
that progresses even through tribulation.
And it's about tribulation
that will one day be swallowed up
and healed by God's kingdom.
It's both.
So what we see in this first paragraph of our text
is that all Christians will experience
both the kingdom and trial.
At some point in our walk with Jesus,
we will face trial and suffering and hardship.
That doesn't overthrow all the joys and blessings
of knowing God in Christ, the kingdom,
but we can expect it.
Now, some of us don't need to be reminded of this fact.
Maybe you've experienced all sorts of hardships
in this life, physical, emotional, relational, spiritual.
Maybe you've been ridiculed for your faith in Christ.
Some Christians in the world today
are being physically harmed and put to death
for their testimony to Christ,
as John puts it here.
But even so, I do think many of us are surprised
when hardships come.
We may think for one reason or another
that we're entitled to a pain-free life
or that being a follower of Jesus
should somehow get us out of it.
Now, don't get me wrong.
Following Jesus will save you
a whole lot of heartache.
To listen to Him, to know Him, to follow Him,
that sort of life is full of joy.
It is full of what John calls the kingdom.
But it also means suffering at times,
and we must not be surprised.
Peter wrote in his first letter,
the Apostle Peter in the book of 1 Peter says,
Beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery trial
when it comes upon you to test you,
as though something strange were happening to you.
So friend, I wonder,
are you experiencing a fiery trial today?
And are you uncertain how you will stand
in the face of it?
Jesus told John to send this book off
to seven churches in Asia Minor.
That's Western Turkey,
and they're listed there in verse 11.
In fact, they're listed in the order
that the kind of main road would take you
if you were delivering a letter like that.
First, you would land at Ephesus on the coast,
and then you would go up to Smyrna,
and then you would start to kind of circle around
to the rest of those cities.
And those churches, as we know,
and as you'll find out
when you read chapters 2 and 3,
were about to undergo persecution and suffering.
Some of them had already started to experience it.
Rome was about to become more aggressive
in the years to come.
The emperor was beginning to demand
not just respect, but worship.
And following Jesus was about to be
more costly than ever.
And as you read through the seven letters
in chapters 2 and 3,
you see what they're up against.
Not just physical harm from unjust rulers,
but in the midst of that pressure,
internal theological confusion,
moral breakdown,
even spiritual complacency.
All things that threaten us
as the church today.
And John wants to call them and us
here to this third thing he lists.
He wants to call us to patient endurance.
That's what he lists and mentions in verse 9.
And notice how all three of these words
are strung together.
We participate in the kingdom
by virtue of our union with Christ, right?
We participate and we undergo tribulation
by virtue of our union with Christ.
These things are in Christ.
But then we also have patient endurance.
Endurance.
The patient endurance to remain faithful
comes also by virtue of our union with Christ.
Again, he says the tribulation and the kingdom
and the patient endurance
that are in Jesus.
And the rest of the chapter
starts to give that to us.
Where do we go to get this endurance
in the midst of trial?
Well, we see in the rest of the chapter
we get it from a vision
of the glory of Christ.
In verses 12 through 16
we see the glory of the person of Christ.
And then in verses 17 through 20
we see the glory of the work of Christ.
Now, if the word glory is a confusing one
or not very clear in your mind,
look at the description of Jesus
in verses 12 through 16.
I admit it's a little strange at first,
isn't it?
You know?
White hair,
swords coming out of your mouth,
all that sort of stuff.
But John's trying to use finite human language
to capture something that exceeds our language.
As you look over this,
what are some of the themes
that you might catch?
First, Jesus is radiant, right?
His face is shining like the sun.
His feet are like burnished bronze,
refined in a furnace.
His hair is gleaming white.
His eyes are on fire.
Even his clothes are resplendent.
He's got a golden sash around his chest.
From head to toe,
Jesus is blazing and bright.
This is the one who said,
I am the light of the world.
So first, the glory of Jesus here is his brilliance.
It's his beauty.
It's his radiance.
But second, it's his power.
His voice is like the roar of many waters.
His right hand is holding seven stars,
and we'll get to what that means in a minute.
Out of his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword.
That's a striking image, isn't it?
It's as if to say,
here is one so powerful
that his mere word is penetrating and effectual.
What he says happens.
What he says goes.
The judgment that he renders is always true.
He doesn't just declare verdicts,
but his voice creates and recreates.
It's roaring like waters
and cutting the air like a trumpet,
as John said in verse 10.
So the vision of Jesus here,
his glory,
is one of intense beauty
and one of perfect power.
When do we ever catch a glimpse
of beauty and power combined?
You know, in this life,
we often only behold one or the other.
In this life,
beautiful things are often fragile, aren't they?
You know, flowers wither,
sunsets quickly disappear,
and powerful things are often,
well, not very beautiful, right?
I remember years ago watching
the world's strongest man contest.
Do you remember those?
You know,
they were pretty awesome.
You know,
these dudes with names like Lars and Dietrich
would like pull cars and throw logs
and do all sorts of crazy feats of brute strength.
But you know,
I wouldn't necessarily say
that those guys were the picture of beauty,
you know, right?
But here in Jesus Christ,
we see both.
Ravishing beauty
and unparalleled strength.
As John reaches for metaphors
to capture what the risen,
ascended Jesus is like,
he often turns to nature,
its hair like wool,
like snow,
like a snowstorm covering the earth
in layers of white.
There's power and beauty.
His voice like the roar of many waters.
The ocean is vast and limitless.
As the waves pound the shore,
there's power and beauty.
His face like the sun shining in full strength.
The sun,
the stars,
again,
beauty and power.
But in describing the risen and ascended Jesus,
John isn't just finding pictures from nature.
You know,
he's also,
and more importantly,
pulling images from the Old Testament.
You know,
these various images describing
the glorious Christ
come from places like Daniel 7
and Daniel 10
and Isaiah 60
and Ezekiel 1.
In fact,
Jesus appearing like a son of man
is a direct allusion
to Daniel chapter 7.
And listen to that passage.
Daniel 7,
13 and 14.
Prophet Daniel says,
That's Daniel 7.
And what John is saying here
in Revelation,
what Jesus is revealing himself,
as Jesus is revealing himself to John,
is to say,
I am that son of man.
Jesus ascended to the Father,
the Ancient of Days,
and the Father has given him
an everlasting kingdom
that will never pass away.
And it will be a kingdom
for all peoples,
nations,
and languages,
and it will never be destroyed.
Now,
how,
how then,
does this vision
of the glory
of Christ's person
help us endure in trials?
Well,
it's because this Jesus,
this one who is the sum
and source
of beauty and strength,
this one who fulfills
the Old Testament longing
for God himself
to come as king,
this one,
friend,
his kingdom will never end,
and it will never be destroyed.
No matter what is shaking you
right now,
it will not,
and it cannot,
take the best away from you.
If you belong to Christ,
then you belong to the one
whose beauty and power
cannot fade.
What you have in him,
no amount of suffering
can steal.
What you have in him,
no hardship can diminish.
The vision of Jesus here,
this is Jesus right now,
at the Father's right hand,
living,
ruling,
reigning,
coming again,
this is the one through faith
that you are united to,
Christian.
So even if your health fails,
even if your earthly dreams
are shattered,
you have him.
Imagine a house
full of artwork,
but every single piece
of artwork in that house
is just a print.
It's a reproduction.
It's a poster,
except for one.
Upstairs in the spare bedroom,
there hangs a genuine Monet
worth millions,
beautiful to behold.
Now imagine that same house
one night is robbed.
Every single piece
ripped from the walls
while the owner is away.
You know,
you can imagine the owner
coming home,
seeing the front door
sort of swinging open,
and in he goes,
seeing all of his pictures gone,
and his heart starts to beat,
and he hurries through the rooms,
and where is he going, right?
He's going to the stairs.
He's going up to the bedroom,
and there he sees it
on the wall,
in its place.
The Monet,
it's still there.
They'd taken everything else,
but not the one of real worth,
not the one that had
real lasting value.
That one,
he still had.
Friends,
it's the same with Christ.
It's the same with you
and Christ.
Every pleasure,
every good,
every joy we experience
in this life,
the real,
earthly created goods,
at the same time,
they're just prints
and reproductions
pointing us to him,
the source of all good,
whose face shines like the sun.
And if we have him,
then we can lose nothing.
You know,
some of those prints
in the house
might have had some good
associations for the owner,
but he had the thing
that was of real worth.
Now,
John doesn't just show us
the glory of Christ's person here.
He also shows us
the glory of Christ's work.
In verse 17,
John falls to the ground
as though dead,
but Jesus reaches out
his right hand
puts it on John
and says,
fear not.
I am the first
and the last
and the living one.
I died
and behold,
I am alive
forevermore
and I have the keys
of death
and Hades.
When Jesus,
the ever living one,
died
and rose again,
he conquered
sin and death
for all who believe.
And now
he holds the keys
of death and hell.
You see,
friends,
because Jesus died
and rose again,
there's no suffering,
no death
that a Christian
will undergo in this life
that will not be overcome
and turned for their good,
either in this age
or in the age to come.
Jesus died on the cross
taking our worst,
taking our sin,
taking the punishment
our sins deserve,
taking the hell
and wrath
that was ours.
but in his resurrection,
what were we given
in exchange?
His righteousness,
his life,
his reward.
Jesus takes our worst
down into death.
He is the one
who died
but he is the one
who lives again.
So whatever trial
we face here,
we know that with a Lord
like this,
whatever trial we face,
it's not some mistake
in the plan.
No,
God will ultimately
use all of our trials
for our good
and he will make us
more like Jesus
through them.
Fear not,
Jesus says,
I hold the keys
of death and Hades.
I died
and behold,
I am alive forevermore.
And notice that Jesus
is here standing
among the lampstands
and holding the stars
in his hands.
Now the lampstands,
John tells us,
Jesus tells John
in verse 20,
are what?
They're the churches.
Jesus is in the midst
of the church
and it says that the stars
are the angels
of the churches.
Now perhaps angels
there are just that,
angelic beings,
a representative part
of the heavenly host
with a special ministry
to the churches.
Or perhaps angels there
could mean
just messengers.
Angel literally
means a messenger.
Maybe it's the human messengers
of the churches themselves
but either way,
isn't the picture the same?
That Jesus is dwelling
in the midst of his church.
He's present among them.
He's active among them.
He's here right now
even if we don't see him.
The living one
dwells among his people.
He dwells amidst his people,
the ones he purchased
with his own death
and he's ever present
to lead,
to guide,
to teach,
to warn,
to protect.
So this is what we need
in times of trial.
A fresh vision
of the glory of Christ.
When we see his person,
when we see his beauty
and his strength,
we realize that he
is our greatest good
and nothing can take him
or his kingdom away from us.
And when we see his work,
his death,
his resurrection,
his reign for us,
we realize that every bad
will be turned for our good
and we need not fear.
Now let me conclude then
with two applications.
One for those
who are not Christians
and one for those who are.
First,
we've been saying this morning
that those who believe in Jesus
can face trial and suffering
with the utmost endurance
because of who Jesus is
and because of what he's done.
But friend,
don't you see,
if you're here today
and you've not placed
your trust in Jesus,
then these things
are not true of you.
Without a saving relationship
with Christ,
the one who died
and rose again,
suffering actually
will steal
your best in this life.
Your friends,
your possession,
your worldly status,
your health,
none of these things
are immune from death
and decay.
And the bad things
that happen to you,
they will never ultimately
turn for your good.
apart from Christ,
your best days
will be forever behind you,
slipping further
and further away.
And as you head forward,
you are destined
for more loss
and more fear.
But the risen Lord Jesus
says to you right now,
fear not and come to me.
He's standing at the door
and he's knocking.
open to him
and put your heart's trust
in him
and the one who holds
the keys of death
and Hades
will be your Lord
and your protector
from this point forward
forevermore.
And he will come
into your life
and a little later
in Revelation,
he'll say,
I'll sit down with you
and I'll dine with you
and I'll make you my own.
And then you can live
without fear.
And if you have done that,
if you are a Christian,
then I want to encourage you
by way of application
to seek the means
of renewing this vision
of Jesus in glory.
Seek the means of renewing
the sense of the glorious Christ
in your own mind and heart.
You know,
you probably won't have
an actual vision
like John had here, right?
That's okay.
But what are the means
that God has given us
to make the truth about Jesus
more real to our hearts?
Well, first,
notice that John,
even in exile,
is worshiping
on the Lord's Day.
Now, when John says
the Lord's Day,
he's referring to Sunday.
This is one of the earliest
references to Sunday
as a special day
for Christians,
as a day for worship.
This is the day,
the Lord's Day,
Sunday,
when Jesus rose from the dead.
This is the new day
of Christian worship,
no longer the seventh day
under the Old Covenant,
but now the first day
under the New Covenant,
the day when the God of Israel
inaugurated his worldwide reign
in the resurrection of Jesus,
the Messiah, the Christ.
And here is John
worshiping in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day.
Friends, by way of simple application,
that is an example for us.
What we do on Sundays
isn't some rote ritual.
It's not checking off
a list of spiritual to-dos.
It's gathering
in the Spirit of God
to set our minds and hearts
upon the One who died
and rose again for us
to bring us to God.
Regular rhythms
of gathered worship
are essential
to keeping and renewing
our vision of Jesus' glory.
You know, it's easy
to drop off
coming to church on Sunday
when things get hard,
but that's precisely the time
when we need it
more than ever.
Because in gathered worship,
Jesus is present
in a special way,
helping us to recapture
a vision of His glory.
But also consider
your times of private prayer.
And in your times
of private prayer,
brother, sister,
do you take time
not just to pray
all of your needs to God,
though that is important
and good,
but you also take time
to actually set your heart
on God
and enjoy Him.
You know,
this practice
in our own private times
of prayer
is another means
of keeping our vision
of Jesus' glory
fresh and real
to our hearts.
Find a truth about God
or Christ
in your regular Scripture reading
and pause over it
and think over it
and slow down
and worship God for it
and enjoy God
for who He is.
By way of example,
think about Psalm 21.
Verse 1 of Psalm 21 reads,
O Lord,
in Your strength
the King rejoices.
Maybe you read
a passage like that
in your morning reading
or your evening reading.
And if you encounter
a line like that,
pause
to rejoice
in God's strength.
Think about the way
He parted the Red Sea,
the way He stilled
the storm of Galilee,
the way He rose
and power from the dead,
and the way that He's worked
mightily in your own life.
That's what it means
to meditate
on God's Word.
And the Holy Spirit
will use that
to refresh
and to renew
your vision
of Jesus' glory
and to give you
more of that endurance
that we have in Him.
Let me mention
just one more way
that we can do this.
What are the means
that God has given us
to renew our sense
of Jesus' glory?
Well, one other mean
I'll mention,
but there are more.
One other mean
is through the ordinances
or through the sacraments.
In the New Testament,
we see that Jesus gave us
two symbolic actions
to fuel our faith in Him,
baptism and the Lord's Supper.
And Jesus gave us
these practices
in order to keep
our minds and hearts
renewed
in the glory
of what He's done for us.
Now, we know
that the Lord's Supper
is this ongoing act
for Christians, right?
Jesus told us
to take two simple things,
bread and a cup,
and through those
simple elements
we're taken into
the infinite depths
of what He's done
for us on the cross.
We eat the bread
to remember His body
broken for us.
We drink the cup
to remember His blood
poured out for us.
And Jesus offers us
those things saying,
remember me,
eat with me,
take what I've done
down into the depths of you
and let me comfort you
and strengthen you
and change you.
The Lord's Supper
is that ongoing act
for those who place
their faith in Christ.
baptism, on the other hand,
is a one-time act
for those who have
placed their faith
in Christ.
We see in the New Testament
that after someone
hears the gospel,
places their faith
in Christ,
they're then baptized,
they're immersed in water,
they go down
and back up again.
And this going down
and coming back up again
symbolizes our union
with Christ by faith.
After all,
it was Christ
on the cross
who went down
into the waters
of judgment,
down into the grave
for us,
and on the third day
He rose again.
And when we are baptized
in Jesus' name,
it's as if we are saying,
what Jesus did
is now the most true
and important thing
about me
and who I am.
As Paul says in Galatians,
I've been crucified
with Christ.
It's no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live
in the flesh,
I live by faith
in the Son of God
who loved me
and gave Himself for me.
Baptism is that act
of publicly proclaiming
this great truth
of our union with Christ
by faith.
So Christian,
today as you face trials,
as you face hardship,
what this chapter
of Revelation
is telling us
is to look to the glory
of Christ,
take hold of the means
to see Christ
in all His glory.
glory.
There's an old hymn
that goes like this.
It says,
O soul,
are you weary
and troubled?
No light
in the darkness
you see?
There's a light
for a look
at the Savior
and life
more abundant
and free.
Turn your eyes
upon Jesus.
Look full
in His wonderful face
and the things
of earth
will grow strangely dim
in the light
of His glory
and grace.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we confess
that oftentimes
our thoughts of You
are so small
and so diminished.
Jesus,
give us a fresh sense
of who You've revealed
Yourself to be
in this passage,
the One Mighty,
the One Beautiful.
All Your judgments
are just.
All Your ways
are good.
You are the prize
above any.
Oh, Lord,
pull our hearts
out from earthly things
and the small
little cares
and concerns
that we become
so occupied with
and lift our gaze
to You again
so that we might
worship You
and so that we
might be strengthened
to run this race
with endurance.
We pray this
in Your name.
Amen.