If you've got a Bible, turn to Revelation chapter 1.
! Revelation chapter 1.
I want to start by saying I don't assume in a congregation like this
! that everyone is a Christian.
I probably don't say that enough.
I don't assume that you're convinced.
You're really welcome.
But it is right, I think, to remind myself as a preacher that not everyone will be sitting
there thinking, yeah, I'm for this.
I'm with this.
You might be here with lots and lots of questions.
And so maybe the things that I'm going to talk about and we talk about on Sunday mornings
are about something you are not yet or you're considering becoming one.
But for the Christian who's here this morning, there are things about you that are different,
whether you feel it or not.
Whether you're experiencing it or not at this moment, whether you feel it or not.
And so I think we're going to kind of go through that and that juxtaposition that there are
things that are true of us that we don't feel.
There are things, for those of us who are in Christ, that are true of us that we don't experience.
It's really important to understand that in the Christian life.
And we're doing a little mini-series, I'm going to do about three or four, I think, or four or five, on doxology.
Doxology just means praise.
A doxology, whether it's a long one or a short one, is ascribing praise to God.
So the direction is from us to God.
It usually has language like, unto him be these things.
Unto you, O God, be these things.
And so the doxology this morning, it is to Jesus Christ in particular.
It is to God.
But it is in particular to Jesus Christ.
So look at verse, the middle of verse 6.
The middle of verse 5 of Revelation chapter 1.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.
It's to Jesus Christ.
And the doxology is taken from the book of Revelation.
If you've never read Revelation, or you've only read a little bit of it, it can be frightening, can't it?
It can be intimidating.
It's full of frightening images.
Dragons.
But the intention of Revelation is that it's a book of comfort.
The book of Revelation is not a puzzle book.
And we're not meant to read it and think, how does it fit in with all the charts and everything that's going on in the Middle East.
And it's there to tell us what's going to happen.
That's not the purpose of Revelation.
The book of Revelation is, it is to be a book that comforts and strengthens Christians.
And if it isn't doing that, you've completely misunderstood it.
So the very beginning of the book of Revelation tells you what it is.
It is a revealing of Jesus Christ.
It's not primarily there to get you to think of unfulfilled prophecy.
Revelation is primarily in the Bible to get you thinking about Jesus Christ.
Not the end of time.
It's about the Lord Jesus.
And it's about his victory.
And this doxology from the middle of verse 5 and all of verse 6 is to Jesus.
The first hearers of the book of Revelation would have been first century Christians who were under intense persecution.
And when I say intense persecution, I don't mean that they were shunned and made to feel that they were outsiders in a culture.
That isn't the case.
It is those who were facing imprisonment and martyrdom.
And so Revelation is to remind them of who they are and who Jesus is.
So let me read you these amazing words from the middle of verse 5.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
I don't know if you've heard of the name M. Scott Peck.
Anyone heard of the name M. Scott Peck?
There was an Australian friend of Judy's, David, who used to come every summer.
And he'd every summer give me a book of Scott Peck's, which I didn't particularly appreciate.
He's not very well known anymore.
But he was very popular 20 years ago.
M. Scott Peck was a psychiatrist.
He came up with a book.
His most famous book was The Road Less Travelled.
And that was really popular.
Another book which is really thoughtful, although I probably wouldn't recommend it, is a book called The People of the Lie.
It's really a book about human evil.
It recounts the exchanges that he had with his patients and his clients.
How Scott Peck came face to face with evil in different forms.
And I want to read to you an exchange that he had with a patient named Charlene.
It goes like this.
Charlene is from a religious and a church background.
Everything seems meaningless.
Charlene complained to me one day.
What is the meaning of life?
I asked her with seeming innocence.
How should I know?
She replied with obvious irritation.
You're a dedicated religious person, I responded.
Surely your religion must have something to say about the meaning of life.
You are trying to trap me, Charlene countered.
That's right, I acknowledged.
I am trying to trap you into seeing your problem clearly.
What does your religion hold to be the meaning of life?
I'm not a Christian, Charlene proclaimed.
My religion speaks of love, not of meaning.
Well, what do Christians say as to the meaning of life?
Even if it isn't what you believe.
At least it's a model.
I'm not interested in models.
You were raised in the Christian church.
You spent almost two years as a teacher of professional Christian doctrine.
I went on goading her.
Surely you're not so dumb as to be unaware of what Christians say is the meaning of life,
the purpose of human existence.
We exist for the glory of God.
Charlene said in a flat, low monotone,
as if she was sullenly repeating an alien catechism learned by rote
and extracted from her by gunpoint.
The purpose of our life is to glorify God.
Well, I asked.
There was a short silence.
For a brief moment, I thought she might cry.
The one time in our work together.
I can't do it.
There's no room for me in that.
That would be my death, she said in a quavering voice.
And then with a suddenness that frightened me,
what seemed to be her choked-backed sobs turned into a roar.
I don't want to live for God.
I will not.
I want to live for me.
My own sake.
It was another session in the middle of which Charlene walked out.
That is honest, isn't it?
That is jarringly honest.
That is candid.
And you may not be sitting here this morning with that level of anger or disconnect.
But I wouldn't be surprised if more of us than we care to admit when we hear the language of,
to God be the glory,
or we sing a song like, glory to the king of angels,
or glory to the king of kings.
Actually, when we hear things like that,
be exalted, O God, above the heavens and the earth,
I suspect a lot of us might think,
I don't want to say that.
I may be saying it, I may be singing it,
but I don't connect with that at all.
And really, at some level, I don't actually know what that means.
Does it mean that I'm giving something to God that he doesn't have?
Does it mean when I give glory to God and praise to God,
am I helping God?
If I don't say those things,
or I don't sing those things,
does he have less glory?
What are we doing when we do doxology?
Where there is that overt language to God, to Jesus Christ.
Here's how I want us to look at this.
I want us to see, first of all, the active son of God,
and then the worthy son of God,
and then we'll circle back to that question.
First of all, the active son of God.
If I asked you this morning, what is a Christian?
More often, we come up with an answer
that is answering another question.
Usually what we do is we say,
a Christian is somebody who believes the Bible,
believes the Bible is true,
and that they believe the Bible is authoritative,
and they believe that God exists,
they believe that Jesus died on the cross,
they believe that Jesus came to save his people from their sins.
A Christian is someone who prays,
a Christian is someone who goes to church,
a Christian is someone who does good things in their community,
they show the fruit of what they believe,
and all those things are good,
and all those things are true,
but is that answering the question,
what is a Christian?
That is answering the question, what a Christian does.
What is a Christian?
To answer that
is actually to talk about
how a Christian is someone
who has had things done to them.
A Christian is someone
for whom things have been done,
and to whom
things have been done.
I heard someone put it like this,
a saint.
When we think of saints,
we often think of
saints canonized by the church.
That isn't how the Bible puts it.
Think of the way that the New Testament
and the Old Testament
use saint.
A saint is just one of God's people.
Here's what it says,
a saint is not someone
who has done great things for God,
a saint is someone
for whom God has done great things.
A saint is not someone
who's done great things for God,
but a saint is someone
for whom God has done great things.
The Christian,
if you are a Christian this morning,
you are someone
for whom things have been done,
and they've been done
by Jesus Christ.
So what has been done?
And what is he doing right now?
Let's divide it in those two ways.
What has been done?
If Jesus Christ is active,
what has he already done?
What is he doing?
You get what he's done already
right at the beginning
in the doxology.
Look at verse 5.
It says, doesn't it,
he has freed us
from our sins
by his blood.
He has freed us
from our sins
by his blood.
We talk a lot about sin.
We preach a lot about sin.
And we confess our sins
like we did this morning.
And we know, don't we,
that sin is something
that brings guilt.
So we talk a lot about
the need for cleansing
and for forgiveness.
But actually,
Revelation 1
is thinking about sin
in a different way.
It's thinking of sin
like a captor.
Sin as an enslaver.
And John didn't invent this.
It's how Jesus spoke about sin
in John's Gospel.
In chapter 8,
listen to this.
Jesus answers them,
truly, truly,
I say to you,
everyone who practices sin,
which is you and I,
is a slave to sin.
So if the Son
sets you free,
you are free indeed.
Let me read that to you again.
Truly, truly,
that is Jesus saying,
this is important,
you can trust me on this one.
Truly, truly,
I say to you,
everyone who practices sin
is a slave to sin.
And so if the sin sets you free,
you will be free indeed.
If we don't fear God
with that life-giving fear
that the Bible talks about,
not a tormented fear,
not a slavish fear,
not that he's going to crush me
kind of fear,
but fear as an appropriate
awe of God is
and who I am,
if that fear
doesn't rule our hearts,
then other fears will.
The fear that we won't be a success,
the fear that other people
won't think well of us.
We think of the fear
of people pleasing
or the need for approval.
Think with me on this.
When you are really fearful
of others
and when you are fearful
of people pleasing
and when you're chasing
the approval of others,
you will feel slavery.
You'll feel what slavery is like.
And Jesus says,
if you practice sin,
you are a slave to sin.
And then he says this,
so if the son sets you free
from that,
you'll be free indeed.
It doesn't mean, does it,
that you'll never sin again.
It doesn't mean that
you'll be perfect.
It means that you will be free
from that sin
being king in your life
and dominating your life.
This doxology says
that Jesus shed his blood for us,
he died on the cross
and he rose for us,
and so not only is our sin forgiven
and we are cleansed,
but we are free.
We are not captives
of sin anymore.
And then it says this,
he has freed us from our sins
by his blood
and made us a kingdom,
priests to his God and Father.
He's made us a kingdom,
what is a kingdom?
What kind of kingdom?
A kingdom of priests
to his God and Father.
And again,
Revelation,
as you read it,
it's full of the Old Testament.
In fact,
I'd argue there's nothing
in Revelation
that isn't in the Old Testament.
So a kingdom of priests,
wherever you heard
that language before.
It comes from a really important moment
in Israel's history
when the Israelites
had been enslaved.
They were literally,
weren't they,
under physical slavery in Egypt.
Do you remember?
And what did God do?
God freed them.
He broke the power
of their captives,
captors,
and they come into the wilderness
and after a few days,
they come to Mount Sinai
and God speaks to them
from Mount Sinai
and this is before
he gives them
the Ten Commandments.
And it's so terrifying
to the Israelites,
God speaking to them,
they say to Moses,
their leader,
you go and talk to him,
we'll do anything he says,
but if we keep hearing that voice,
we're going to die.
And so what does the voice say?
One of the things
that God said to his people
was this,
you are my treasured possession
and then he says,
you will be to me
a kingdom of priests,
a holy nation.
Why is that interesting?
It's interesting
on loads of levels,
but think about this,
he says to all of Israel,
to hundreds of thousands
of people at the foot
of a mountain,
at the base of Mount Sinai,
you will be to me,
a lot of you,
a kingdom of priests.
But some of the law
that God gives
on Mount Sinai
is very specific
that not everyone
can be a priest.
Do you remember that?
In the Old Testament,
it wasn't like you went
to a careers fair
and said,
I want to become
a priest in Israel.
God was really specific,
isn't it?
He had to be
from the tribe
of Levi.
He had to be
in a particular family,
he had to do it
in a particular way.
But God says,
at Sinai,
all my people
are priests.
He says,
men and women,
boys and girls
are priests.
What does that mean?
Why?
It means this.
It means that Israel,
the people of God
as a nation
in the Old Testament,
that they were
his people,
men and women
and children.
And as a priest
was to represent
the people before God,
so Israel was to
represent God
before all the peoples
of the world.
And so you,
as a people,
the people of God,
men and women,
boys and girls,
all the tribes,
you are to represent me
to the world.
You are to be a light
to the nations.
You are to be
a holy people,
different,
a treasured possession.
The people of God
in the Old Testament,
Israel,
were to show
the rest of the world
what I am to like.
And that is why
they were to love
the Lord their God
with all their heart
and mind and soul
and strength
and to love their neighbor
as themselves.
And so when the people
of God fear God
and when they love
their neighbor as themselves,
when they keep
his holy law,
you show to the nations
of the world
what I am like.
All of you
will be priests.
And this doxology
in Revelation
reaches back
to Mount Sinai,
takes this exact language
and says,
Jesus Christ
has already
made us priests.
A kingdom of priests.
And so that means
this morning,
if you believe
in Jesus Christ
and if you have
entrusted yourself
to Jesus,
it means
in your home,
in your street,
in your workplace,
in your school,
you are a priest there.
Whether you feel
like it or not,
he has made you
a priest
to represent him.
And you are called
as a child of God,
as someone who knows
the Lord Jesus Christ,
to represent
to the people
in your life
what God is like.
And Jesus
has made you that.
He's not saying
try to be that,
he's saying
I've made you this.
And so don't lose
sight of the fact
that he has made us
a kingdom of priests.
And so when those
Israelites came out
of slavery,
did they have to worry
about who was king
in Egypt?
There was zero doubt,
was that,
who was king in Egypt?
Pharaoh was king,
they felt it
in their bodies.
But they'd been
delivered from that.
They had a new king.
And when this verse
says Christ has
made us a kingdom,
it is saying
far more I think
that we are
comfortable with.
It is saying
we have been delivered.
There is a new
sheriff in town,
there is a new
master,
that Christ has
conquered us.
He's conquered us
body and soul
in the same way
that the slaves
in Egypt
belong to Pharaoh.
We now belong
to Jesus Christ.
And so everything,
my friendship,
my money,
my secrets,
my solitude,
my sexuality,
the way I describe
myself,
my future,
I hear his,
he conquered me.
And that is
already done.
It doesn't say
Jesus is doing that,
he says it is done.
But then the doxology
moves on to what
Jesus is doing now,
what the Son of God
is doing,
present tense.
What does it say?
Just look at the
middle,
the start of the
doxology in verse
five.
What does it say?
To him who loves
us.
To him who loves
us.
Can you imagine
what it would have
been like if you
were a first century
Christian?
You didn't grow up
with Christian parents
and Christian role
models.
You didn't have
Christian grandparents.
You're the first
one ever.
You come from a
long line of people
that worshipped
other gods
and other temples.
angels.
And now you gather
on a Sunday,
on the Lord's Day,
a different day to
how you always
worshipped and you
gather with the
people of God and
you meet in a room
and they are the
oddest bunch of
people.
You hear someone
preach, you share
bread and wine
together.
And now you claim
that your God
is a man who
you've never seen
physically and you
can't see him and
he's called Jesus
Christ and he grew
up in Nazareth and
he was a carpenter
for many years.
And can you
imagine you go
down that road of
discipleship, you
start to follow Jesus
of Nazareth and you
meet with pushback
and arrest and
violence and
unemployment and
they confiscate your
bank account and
they confiscate your
property and the
friends that also
believed in Jesus
are dragged off to
prison and some
have actually been
killed for the sake
of the Lord Jesus.
And you live every
day with the pressure
of that.
Can you imagine how
badly you need to
hear that Jesus
Christ loves you?
He loves you right
now.
And you may this
week get led off to a
place you don't want
to go to and it'll
be a one-way trip if
you're arrested and
you're not coming
back but you must
understand he loves
you.
And when a 21st
century congregation
gathers in leafy
West London with all
the pressures of life
we need it too,
don't we?
That right now,
present tense, the
Son of God loves
you.
He loves the people
he bled for.
He loves us right
now.
Think about this for
a moment.
We want to be sane
people, don't we?
I hope you don't want
to be insane.
And part of what
sanity is, is dealing,
trafficking in what is
real in the truth.
What is necessary,
what is trafficking and
dealing with what is
true, not necessarily
how you feel.
I don't know how you
feel this morning, but
what I do know about
my own heart is my
own feelings don't
always line up with
the truth.
They don't line up,
my feelings don't
line up with what I'm
told about who I am
in God's word.
And so here is what
is real this morning,
here's what is true,
if you belong to
Jesus Christ, you are
free.
And if right now your
mind goes to that sin
which always gets to
you, that pattern,
that addiction, you are
freed by his blood.
And you are a priest,
and you might think I'm
the most rubbish
priest of all.
But you are a priest,
and you are loved.
And you don't have to
jump through a hoop to
earn it.
you are loved right
here, right now.
And you do have a
king.
And you are loved by
the king.
And so you stay in that
reality.
You live out of that
reality.
And that is what Jesus
is doing.
That is what the son of
God is doing.
The active son of God,
and then the worthy
son of God.
God is doing it.
And that is what the
word is.
The word worship is really
two words,
worth-ship.
To worship something is to
ascribe worth to them or to
it.
And the danger I fear is that
we hear this word of
worship and that we are
called to worship, and we
think this is something that
doesn't come naturally to
us.
We need to learn this new
behavior to worship.
But that misses the point.
We are worshipers, every
single one of us.
We have worshipped this
morning.
We worship when our heart
says, this is how the
universe works, this is how
it operates.
I've got to have something
that makes my life worth
living.
And if I find the thing
that makes my life worth
living, I'm going to praise
it.
Whatever that is, you don't
find it hard to talk about
that.
You don't find it hard to
think about that.
You don't find it hard to
give money towards that, to
buy what it is.
You don't find it hard to
bend towards it, to give
energy to it.
In fact, when that person or
when that subject comes up,
you light up.
Those of you who are
parents, it's a really good
thing, isn't it, to say I
love my child.
You're more than one to say
I love my children.
Of course it is.
That's what we want.
But it's another thing,
isn't it, for a parent to
say, my kids are my
everything.
My kids are my
everything.
Because when you say that,
in so many words, you are
saying glory and honor be unto
my children.
Or let's go back to people
pleasing, that needing the
approval of others, not just
wanting it, but needing it.
And if I don't get it, I'm
devastated.
And a lot of us struggle
with that, don't we?
A lot of us do it.
A lot of us have done that.
A lot of us know in our
heart of hearts what a
slavery that is, to be
defined by the need for
approval.
And what we're saying when
we fall for that is all
authority be unto them.
That is worship.
It's bad worship.
But this is life-giving
worship in Revelation 1.
Let me come back to the
point.
What is doxology doing?
If God doesn't need us, if
Jesus Christ doesn't need
us, then why am I saying
glory be to you, O God?
Dominion, authority be to
you.
Does that give God something
he doesn't have?
If I say dominion be to you,
Lord Jesus, does that give
him more dominion?
Hopefully you know the
answer is no.
So is what we're doing
this morning a colossal
waste of time?
Is this just a religious
way of talking that's
outdated?
Why do we do doxology?
Why do we do praise?
It's because of this.
We are worshipping beings.
Because if we don't find
something or someone to
say this is why life is
worth living, this is why
it is worth getting up in
the morning.
If we cannot find that
thing, what happens is we
despair.
And we may despair to the
point of taking our own
lives.
If we cannot identify that
thing.
Or if they failed us or we
failed them.
Or if it is punishing them.
glory be to you.
All of us, with all of our
lives, our money, our
priorities, our to-do
lists, are saying to
something or someone, glory
be to you.
Do you know what?
We might be saying it to
ourselves.
I want every conversation to
bend towards me.
I want all the attention to
bend towards me.
I want people to talk about
me, to think about me.
glory be to me.
And that is life-robbing
worship.
And if nothing else, to
say glory and dominion be
unto Jesus Christ is a way
of saying glory and
dominion not be to us, not
be to me, but unto him be
dominion and authority and
honor forever.
Let me be honest with you.
If you want a recipe for
boredom, of boredom for
Christianity, just do this.
Whatever this looks like for
you, just pull up at the end
of the day and dwell on the
grind of life and think of the
11 things on your to-do list
and the five things that you
haven't done and so you feel
like a failure.
And think about the ways
your body, your marriage,
your family, your house
compares with others.
And then, when you've got all
of that, try to wedge in just
a little bit of Bible and a
little bit of prayer and a
little bit of church.
And that is a recipe for
boredom for the gospel.
Boredom with the gospel.
It's another thing entirely to
engage in doxology.
To actually do this in private
this week.
We do it in corporate worship.
But we need to do it with our
mouths this week.
To say, Jesus Christ, to you be
glory and dominion and authority
forever.
And I don't care how I feel right
now.
I'm a priest and you've made me a
priest.
And you've made me your subject.
And I have a king and that king
loves me.
And glory be to him.
And if you and I do this, we will
actually be engaging with our real
selves.
And we will be doing what God put
us on this earth to do.
To know him and to delight in him.
I was reading around this week and I
came across a sonnet by John
Dunn.
It's from his holy sonnets.
I don't often give you poetry like
this.
But it's a remarkable poem and it's
called this.
Batter my heart, three persons God.
Batter means rough up.
John Dunn in this sonnet is saying,
Beat up my heart, oh three persons
God.
It's a really beautiful and a jarring
sonnet.
It's saying, quite shockingly, Lord,
don't play nice.
I am not going to know you.
And you are not going to be king
unless you take over.
Let me read to you just the last
three lines.
Take me to you.
Imprison me for I.
Except you enthrall me.
Never shall be free.
Nor ever chaste.
C-H-A-S-T-E.
That means pure.
Nor ever chaste.
Except you ravish me.
End of sonnet.
Nor ever chaste.
Except you ravish me.
I think the danger for churches like
ours is that we are playing it safe.
And we want God, but not too much.
But this is radical, extreme language.
And so let me say to you,
as I finish,
if you are not a Christian,
if that's, you're here and you're just exploring,
or if you are a Christian,
you do not need a little help
here and a little help there.
God needs to do everything.
And we need,
we have a saviour who does that for us.
And that is not saying that we don't exert ourselves,
but he has done everything that was necessary,
and he loves us.
And so to him who loves us,
and has freed us from our sins,
by his blood,
and made us a kingdom priest,
to his God and Father,
to him,
be glory and dominion,
forever and ever.
Amen.
Let's pray.