You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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! God wins. Grace prevails. Jesus reigns. You may have heard that the book of Revelation was complicated.
So I wanted to give it to you simple, upfront. Maybe some of you were expecting bigger words like
post-millennialism and pre-tribulation, and we'll get to some of those complex matters later.
But at the heart of Revelation is a message that is as simple and as hopeful as you could possibly
imagine right at the heart of our lives and our world. And that is why I am so excited,
albeit a little intimidated, to start preaching through Revelation with you. We're going to be
there for a while. Get comfortable. See, Revelation's message is that in spite of real evil and darkness
in human history and in your life, God wins. So don't lose heart. There's real hope. It's found in God
outside of us. And grace prevails. Good comes out on top. So the best is always yet to come for us.
And Jesus reigns. So worship Him. Love Him. Delight in Him. Follow Him. Worship Him like we've been
enjoying doing together this morning. Revelation is full of images. So I wanted to share one
with you this morning that really helped me this week. Thursday morning, I went up on the mountain
here at Blevins Gap Land Trust. I'd been told that the sunrise would happen right about six o'clock.
So about that time, I made it up to the first clearing at the top of the mountain, and I saw this.
Thick fog everywhere. Forget seeing the sunrise. I could barely see the trees right next to me or my
hand in front of my face. It was just fog. Disappointed, I just jogged on down to the next clearing
and turned to find a gorgeous sunrise developing. It was there all along. But from some angles,
I wouldn't have been able to see it. From some perspectives, darkness and clouds would have been
all there. And all there was, all that I could see, I almost missed out on something truly glorious.
You ever have that experience in your life? Does life ever seem more confusing and chaotic
and cloudy than it does clear? Maybe the first week of school? Maybe. But maybe wars?
Disasters? Diseases?
Maybe you're hurting.
Maybe you're suffering.
And things just never seem to get better when you thought that they were promised to.
Maybe life seems out of control and you don't see any purpose in it. And you were told there was one.
Maybe like John who writes the book of Revelation, your plan for your life is not going the way that you
expected. Because of John's faith in Jesus, he is exiled on a tiny island here in the
latter years of his life. This was not John's ideal retirement plan.
Life seeming foggy and dark.
And right into that kind of darkness, God shines the light of hopeful good news.
God wins. Grace prevails. Jesus reigns. The sunrise is there.
Behind the clouds.
In awe and gratitude.
In awe and gratitude. If it doesn't lead you to stand before the storms of life with hope and confidence,
you're not getting the right message.
That's what it's for.
We need to ask for God's help because it can be hard to hear for us.
And then I want to look for a few minutes at just the first few verses of Revelation.
They're at the very back of your Bible.
Pray with me.
Father, we long to see something truly glorious.
Someone truly glorious.
We want to see more of where we fit in with him.
But we're limited.
And we're distracted.
And we struggle with that.
And so as you give us your word, would you not only open it to us, but open our eyes and our hearts to hear it and to see Jesus.
Please help us by your spirit in Jesus' name.
Amen.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.
He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy.
And blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.
And from the seven spirits who are before his throne.
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
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.
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.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Thus far, God's holy word for which we give him thanks.
What does Revelation teach us about itself right up front?
It's going to give us the introduction.
In addition to being the word of God through John, it begins, very first word, by saying it's the revelation.
The apocalypse is the word of, second word, Jesus Christ.
It puts it in some ways in the category of apocalyptic literature, which probably you haven't read a ton of.
But that means it reveals, it discloses, it unveils something, something otherwise or previously hidden or shrouded.
It's going to show us.
What?
This revelation is focused on Jesus.
In fact, it's a revealing of Jesus by Jesus, right?
Passed from God to Jesus through an angel who delivered it to John to give to everyone else, all of his servants.
So whatever else it may reveal or explain, it's first and foremost centered on Jesus.
In case you don't know this about the book, it tells us here in the first verse that there will be figurative representation.
Now that's what this verb means, to show, to give signs for.
A figurative doesn't mean not real.
But it may be that there are signs that are symbolic for other things.
We're going to see a host of these through the book of Revelation because seeing is really important here.
Jesus is showing his servants all John saw.
It's unusual.
Typically, God's word is heard or announced, even read.
But this apocalyptic literature commonly used visions, images to communicate truth.
So we're going to have to look and listen through those lenses, he's telling us, as we go.
I think to help us, you could picture it, what you're going to be doing in Revelation like walking through an art museum.
Okay?
There's paintings all over the place, maybe of the similar scene or the same event.
And Revelation is going to do that.
It's going to describe the same events from different perspectives.
It's not merely a chronological book exactly the way we might think about it.
Sometimes it's a different painting of the same event from just five chapters previous in the book.
And you just saw it in the other room of the museum, right?
What does that help us with?
What does that do for us?
Well, it engages our imaginations.
It brings us, helping us to put ourselves right there in the event itself.
It stirs our hearts to wonder, to appreciate different facets of what's going on,
to marvel at a picture, not a mere description of something.
Kids, some of you like to draw pictures of what you read in the Bible.
Sometimes after a sermon, you will bring them and show me.
And that's great.
If you like doing that, you're going to enjoy Revelation.
Even if some of your pictures might get a bit scary,
many of the ones that you draw as we read are going to be marvelous.
You're not even going to be able to draw everything you want to.
But this book is not mere apocalyptic literature like some other writings at the time.
It's also referred to here as prophecy.
What Jesus wants us, his servants, to see is needful truth.
In other words, it does tell us things that are our future.
Most agree with me, it says some things that are still future to us today.
Things that must soon take place for the time is near.
Now with the coming of the Messiah, he's saying,
we are in what the Bible calls the last days.
It's this era of history that we have been living in for 2,000 plus years now,
where we can count on certain things to happen because Jesus tells us they will,
and we need to hear them to know how to live in this time.
Sometimes, though prophecy is not predictive of the future,
but will correct us as God's people.
God's people then and now.
That's what prophets do, right?
Just wait a couple of weeks until we hear the letters to the seven churches.
Convicting.
Challenging.
Directing us today.
Not just one day, someday.
What's going to happen.
Prophetic in addition to apocalyptic.
And finally, Revelation is also a letter.
Yes, there's a lot that John will see.
Images that he will paint.
But it is also written.
God's written word.
Sent specifically to his people, right?
Like most of the New Testament books, they're letters addressed to a church.
This one to seven churches in Asia.
Today, they're all in Turkey.
But seven is a special number pointing to fullness.
There are lots and lots of sevens in Revelation.
Okay, you can have fun keeping track of them.
But it's one of those numbers that helps us understand something else behind it.
Here, it's clearly meaning seven actual churches.
They exist.
On behalf of all the churches, the fullness of churches of Jesus Christ then and now.
This is for us as God's people.
And for those to whom it is sent, to us, it is for their blessing, it says.
What a gift.
This made me feel bad, honestly, for not preaching it sooner.
Some of you have been very patient over the years.
Blessing when we read.
When we read.
When we listen.
When we obey.
When we center our lives and hope on the central hope of the book, Jesus.
It's for your blessing.
People of God.
It was not written to confuse you.
but to show you truth. Revelation is not meant to make God harder to understand, but to unveil,
to reveal him to you more. He wants you to know him. It's not intended to frustrate or to scare
you, but to bless you, okay? To bless you with grace, the goodness of God poured into you beyond
what you could ever deserve, to bless you with peace, the well-being that comes from graciously
being welcomed into relationship with the one you were made for, grace and peace.
There may be a moment in the next few months when you need to come back and remember that
revelation is designed by God to bless you. What a good gift that is.
Well, what do we need to know about the one sending this blessing? The triune God. God in three persons,
Father, Son, and Spirit, the whole Godhead together here. First from the one who is and who was
and who is to come. Long before you live, long after you are gone, he is Yahweh, the I Am,
the self-existent God over all. And he not only spans past and present and future, but also verb change.
He is to come, not just will be, but is to come, to draw near to you, to be present with you, to assure you
of his control of absolutely everything in your life. When this description is repeated in verse 8,
he adds the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one in charge of everything. The Almighty,
who sovereignly rules over every single thing then, every single thing now, every single thing in the
days ahead, there is nothing that he can't do. He, isn't this amazing? He brings you grace and peace
that you don't deserve and that you can't find anywhere else. He brings it to you. Then there are the seven
spirits before his throne, almost certainly a reference here to the Holy Spirit, referred to this way
several times in the prophets. There's our seven again, right? It means the full Spirit, importantly,
before the throne of God, ready to exalt the Father and the Son by bringing into our world, into our life,
what the King on the throne decrees. The Spirit's going to make it happen.
But in this description of the triune God, the Son gets the most attention and description.
This is about revealing him after all, right? Jesus Christ. Fully God couldn't be any clearer
in this description that he also is the one who was and is and is to come. Jesus is called the faithful
witness. That means he perfectly reveals the Father to us. The Almighty, ever-existing God is truthfully
and accurately shown for who he is when Jesus comes in the flesh. That's part of witness.
But so is the extent that Jesus went to to do that. The word for witness is martus. It's the word we get
martyr from. He faithfully suffers. Jesus doesn't pull back. Even when he goes to the cross, he endures to the
very end. He is faithful beyond anyone else. The faithful witness. And that sense of it is needed here
because he is also called the firstborn of the dead. This word means not only has he risen, not only is he alive
again after being truly dead. Wow, that's amazing. But it's even more than that. It's that because he is,
many others will be too. Many other martyrs, sufferers will die and yet live again. This great
faithful martyr will see to it that even death itself will not have the last word in your life. Indeed,
he conquers death for us so that we too rise to new life. Praise Jesus, right? This is amazing good news.
And finally, he's called the ruler of kings on earth. There is a king over all the other kings.
Then, now, tomorrow, and forever. Neither Nero, nor Domitian, nor Charlemagne, nor Hitler,
nor Trump, nor Charles, nor Netanyahu, nor Putin, anybody else holds a candle to his reign. There is no
comparison. He holds the hearts of kings in his hands. The ones who seem powerful now are to him,
but a drop in the bucket. They will come and they will go and he will be on the throne. You know how
you can know that? See, he is the anointed one. He is the messianic king going all the way back to the
line of David. These descriptions of Jesus are all coming from Psalm 89. Quick side note,
there are over 500 Old Testament allusions in the book of Revelation. About 70 percent of the book
is referencing something in the Old Testament. So, you want to understand Revelation better?
read Daniel. Read the Psalms. Read Exodus. We'll notice many of these as we go. Not 500 this morning.
Today, just Psalm 89. Psalm 89 celebrates God's promise to David of a king who will always and
forever be on his throne. Verse 27, I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
Sound familiar? His throne will continue. He will always rule like the sun and the moon of faithful witness
in the skies. Does John in Revelation have any question? Who is this unique, all-time great ruler,
the promised king? Who that is? No. Jesus the Christ. He has no rival, no equal, no competition.
He reigns over every particle, over every power, over every person. And that is why, friends, you can have
hope when things seem to be out of control. It's not some pie-in-the-sky hope. This is lion-on-the-throne
kind of hope. That he is there today and no one can take him off of it and he's controlling what you're
enduring and he's got you. You can have hope. That's what he's telling you. There's something to hang on to.
The true king, in fact, verse 7, is coming with the clouds, coming in judgment on everyone, coming with
the power of the storm in his hand. He rides on clouds for fun. That's how great his power is.
Those who haven't bowed the knee to his greatness will wail. So awesome is his arrival.
So listen, John breaks out in praise of his greatness to him who, what does he say?
Think about what you expect him to say. To him who could crush you with one breath of his mighty justice.
Could have said that. Is it to him who can't stand the presence of lesser beings, so great is he?
To him who won't be bothered with the likes of us, so uniquely worthy is he? No.
No, it's none of those.
To him
Listen, you are beloved.
But it's not merely that you're loved. It's that he loves you. That's what makes being loved so
marvelous, right? When you get engaged, you don't go around just saying, I'm getting married. I'm
getting married. And someone says, to who? And you're like, I don't know, someone. I'm getting
married. No, that's not what you say. You say, I get to marry her. I get to marry him. He loves me.
That's what makes it wonderfully exciting.
See, the book of Revelation is not just any letter. It is a love letter capping off
the great love story of the Bible. Jesus wants you to know that the God who reigns over heaven and earth
and all of history and every corner of creation and reigns over every person who has ever lived,
that he loves you.
In case you get confused in Revelation at any point, would you come back to that?
Revelation is not a coded
treasure map where you're supposed to think that you're in an escape room
and every single piece of writing has some
coded message that if you could just figure it out, you could unlock
the door to life.
That's not the kind of letter it is. Now when you get
stuck in that loop, remember this is a love letter.
Not surprisingly with poetic imagery, okay? It may take a minute to understand,
but with a clear message you can count on
that the conquering king, the lion and the lamb
loves you. That's what he's telling.
But he does even more than say
that he loves you.
Some of us,
honest confession,
sometimes hear our spouses say,
you know, you talk so much.
Would you stop just saying you love me
and show me
for just a little while?
Jesus does that.
To him who
loves us
and
has freed us from our sins
by his blood,
with his blood
he purchased for God
a people from every tribe
and language
and people
and nation.
We were enslaved
to sin
in rebellion against the king
and instead of fighting against us
he fought for us
as he bought
our pardon
at the cost
of his precious
blood.
The king
doesn't just love you
a little.
Greater love
has no one
than this
that he lay down
his life
for his friends
and when we
were yet enemies
Christ
died
for us.
So we're free.
We are loved
and we are set free
but be honest
aren't we after all
pretty small
and meaningless
in the grand scheme
of the universe
and the millennia
of history
and don't we need
to remind ourselves
of that sometime?
I mean
that is one way
to look at it
and it can be
a helpful way
when you're tempted
to prideful self-importance
because it's not
untrue
from that viewpoint.
But that's not
the way Jesus
looks at you.
He has made us
a kingdom
priests
to his God
and Father.
forever.
Now don't get
confused.
He's the king.
The glory
and the power
are his
forever
and ever.
Amen.
No confusion
there.
But the king
includes
us.
Nothing else
could be more
significant
than this identity
that the king
bestows
on you.
Having been loved
and set free
by the king
you're brought
into his kingdom
like his people
Israel
in Exodus 19
and his New Testament
church
in 1 Peter 2.
We are royal
priests
in the king's
very house.
You know
what that means?
It means
that you are
invited in
to the closest
of relationships
with the king
himself
as his
very
priest
it means
that whereas
on your own
you were
undeserving
you were his
enemy
who deserved
only to be
repelled
from his
presence
in his grace
because of his
great love
we can now
draw near
to him
and bring
acceptable
sacrifices
to him
as part of
his kingdom
work
all because
the great
sacrifice
has set us
free
has qualified
us
to be
priests
of the
great
king
can you
believe
that?
That you
would be
doing
vitally
important
work
for the
king
of the
universe?
That you
would be
close enough
to know
him
personally?
That means
that you're
tending
to a little
corner
of creation's
garden
you're
wiping
the nose
of a little
child
you're
generous
giving
to a
missionary
you're
sacrificial
loving
of the
left out
new kid
at school
this week
you're
obeying
your parents
when it
doesn't make
sense to
you
you're
repenting
to your
spouse
or your
friend
or your
child
from the
heart
those
little
things
it means
they are
so
significant
it means
that they're
a part
of the
everlasting
kingdom
of the
God
of all
of history
who is
and who
was
and who
is to
come
whose
kingdom
will have
no end
and neither
will your
sacrifices
when you
offer your
body
a living
sacrifice
to worship
him
you're a
priest
in his
kingdom
he loves
you
unbelievable
now that's
the story
of revelation
God
wins
grace
prevails
Jesus
reigns
you might
hear that
again
but it
needs to
matter
for you
it needs
to mean
so
you may
ache
under
the attacks
of evil
in this
world
you may
be suffering
right now
in what
feels like
an endless
cycle
of
meaningless
work
and painful
relationships
and traumatic
loss
you may
even be
martyred
for your
faith
but God
is bringing
his precious
purchased
people
to share
his
limitless
glory
and joy
in a
perfect
home
forever
so whatever
else you
think about
yourself
today
that you're
unloved
that you're
stuck
and trapped
and insignificant
you need
to remember
that you're
a vital
part
of King
Jesus
beloved
family
and universal
purpose
today
and through
eternity
you always
will be
we're going
to hear that
a lot
and he wants
you not
just to hear
that today
but he wants
you to taste
it
just think
for a minute
if you
could be
invited
by this
incredible
king
to eat
with him
then
maybe
just
maybe
you're more
significant
than you're
giving yourself
credit for
maybe you
matter
to him
and as a
result
you matter
to the
whole
unending
story
of all
of history
you're
significant
in that
listen to
the words
of King
Jesus
speaking to
disciples
like John
and other
whose names
you don't
even remember
who failed
him
at times
but whom
he loves
all the
way
to the
cross
as he
headed
there
he said
with the
bread
that he
broke
and gave
to his
disciples
as I'm
ministering
in his
name
give this
bread
to you
he said
take and
eat
this is
my body
given
for you
do this
in remembrance
of me
and then
in the same
way
after supper
he took
the cup
and he
said
this cup
is the
new
covenant
in my
blood
which is
poured out
for many
for the
forgiveness
of sins
so whenever
you eat
this bread
and you
drink this
cup
you proclaim
the Lord's
death
until he
comes
because
he'll be
coming
he's that
one
the one
who is
who was
who is
to come
and he's
going to be
coming
for you
because he
loves you
and he gave
his blood
to free
you from
your sins
forever
friends this
is not the
table of
Southwood
or the
Presbyterian
church
this is
the king's
table
Jesus
invites you
to this
table
he invites
those he
loves
in spite of
their poor
performance
this week
he invited
you before
that
and he
invites you
now
after it
to come
and to
remember
that you've
been freed
from your
sin
by his
precious
blood
brought into
his family
to sit at
his table
and eat
with him
please come
as you
trust him
if that's
not your
hope
if you're
honestly
not sure
you need
Jesus
or you're
just not
willing
today
to bow
the knee
to him
to what
he says
your life
should look
like
to him
being the
king
then don't
come
and eat
what he
serves
this morning
but equally
don't
let these
elements
pass
without
considering
who he
offers
himself
as to
you
as the
one
true
king
who
actually
gives
his
life
to
rescue
you
forever
and to
bring
you
into
the
relationship
you
were
made
for
let me
pray
and then
we'll
come
and
celebrate
together
Jesus
that you
would love
us like
that is
beyond
what we
could
honestly
comprehend
today
thank you
for giving
us bread
and wine
to help
us
taste it
to help
our hearts
expand
the possibility
of what
it could
be like
to be
loved
by you
so
would you
use them
powerfully
in our
hearts
even now
thank you
for meeting
with us
we pray
in your
name
amen
for more
information
visit us
online
at
southwood.org
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