Good morning, everybody. It's good to worship with you all. I know that we've gotten a few
newcomers just the past couple of weeks. So if I haven't gotten a chance to meet you, my name is Ed.
I'm a pastoral resident here at Trinity Cambridge. And if you're like, what the heck does that mean?
I don't know what that means. Trust me, I didn't make these titles. It just essentially means that
I'm a pastor in training and that Lord willing, one day I'll be able to serve here as an ordained
elder. And it also means that I have the opportunity to be able to bring to you God's
word so often. And so today we're going to continue on in our sermon series in Exodus. I was about to
say Exodus. In Revelation, we're going to continue on with our second sermon. And our passage today is
in Revelation 1, 4 to 8. If you're new here and you don't have a Bible and you would like one,
please just raise your hand. One of our members will be happy to get you one. It'll be an ESV Bible
in that translation, which is a really great translation for you to study and read for your
own. Again, it's Revelation 1, 4 to 8. Let's bow our heads in prayer before the reading and preaching
in God's word. Father, we are so small and you're so big. God, we are one church
in one city, in one state, in one country, in one planet, in one galaxy amongst the vastness of your
creation. And yet you care for us. What is man that you care for him? Thank you, Lord, that you
meet us here. We pray that your spirit would move in these next 45 minutes to see just how big of a
God you are and how small we are so that all the glory of the dominion could be attributed rightly to you,
God. Please address us by your word. Please use me. Pray that anything that comes out of my lips
would be most pleasing to you, that you would be lifted up in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.
Let's stand for God's word in Revelation 4 to 8.
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 has made us a kingdom,
priest 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.
This is God's holy and authoritative word. You may be seated.
I want to see if we can do something new this morning and get some participation in the sermon.
And so, we're going to do something very simple. I'm going to ask you just two very simple questions.
And I would ask that you actually keep your eyes closed so that we could keep this process as anonymous as possible.
So you could feel free to answer honestly.
Very two simple questions. I'm going to ask you if you've ever had these thoughts, okay?
And on the count of three, you're just going to raise your hand.
So the first question is, have you ever had this thought,
my life is very hard.
My life is very hard. On the count of three, you could raise your hand.
One, two, three.
Great.
Keep your eyes closed.
And the second question is this,
being a Christian makes my life harder.
Being a Christian makes my life harder.
In other words, my life would be easier if I weren't a Christian.
Have you ever had that thought in your life?
Great. You guys can put your hands down.
And you can open up your eyes.
So we basically had 100% agreement, right, for the first question as a poll result.
To the people who didn't raise your hand, I want to talk to you.
I want to know what your life is like.
I could use some of your optimism a little bit, I think.
Because we know that it's really an, it's a universal truth that life is hard.
It could be unbearably hard sometimes.
There are some really difficult things that we have to process, we have to endure.
But to the second question, we had about, I think, 75, 80% of you guys, from my crude math,
agree to that statement.
And to be honest, I would have raised my hand.
Because I've struggled with that thought in my life.
There have been moments where I just felt like the Christian life was so hard.
You may not think of yourself as such, but to be a Christian means that you're a fighter.
And you're fighting this battle against three fronts.
You're fighting against your own flesh, the world and its temptations, and Satan.
And this fight never stops.
In certain seasons, this fight can feel overwhelming and discouraging.
What about for those who are even physically persecuted for their faith?
How do you think they might answer that question?
By God's grace, we live in a country here where we don't have to worry about physical persecution, right?
We could put up our signs in East Cambridge openly.
We come here, gather, not worrying about any militant groups breaking in,
the government finding us out, throwing us in jail, maybe even taking our lives.
But this is not a privilege that many brothers and sisters in this world get to share in.
So there's some truth that on earth, their lives simply are harder for following after Jesus.
After all, Jesus never promised that it would be easy.
How then are we to overcome our sin, this evil world, and Satan?
John opens his letter to suffering Christians to remind them who our God is.
How big of a God he is.
That he is the king.
He reigns on his throne.
And that makes us then his kingly priests.
That transforms our identities.
So he wanted to communicate that when we receive new identities by grace and peace,
we can ascribe glory and dominion to the returning God in any and all circumstances of our lives.
So specifically, we're going to talk about all that the sovereign God offers us
so that we can endure.
We can continue to worship.
We can act as his priests.
We're going to talk about, first, the grace and peace that he offers.
Second, the new identities that he offers us as royal priests.
And three, the hope and help that he offers.
So we get into the text today.
John begins with a simple greeting, both to identify himself and the recipients,
which are the seven churches in Asia Minor.
And this is really a good opportunity to kind of set the stage of the letter.
Sean helpfully outlined last week some very good reasons to identify the author of the letter as John.
John the Apostle, who also wrote the Gospel.
And first, second, and third John as well.
For the recipients, we read that John addresses the seven churches.
He addresses them later in verse 11 as Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Saratira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
It's quite a curious thing, really, though, that John chooses only these seven
because historically we know that there are more than seven well-known churches in that area.
And we don't have any historical data that suggests that John had a particularly special relationship with these seven churches.
And so, therefore, as we'll counter with many times preaching through Revelation,
that it seems like the best answer is that John chose the number seven both symbolically and intentionally.
John talked about this last week, but representing wholeness and perfect completion in the creation account from Genesis,
John seems to use this symbolism to address not just the seven churches alone,
but really the universal church throughout history.
This also makes sense throughout the course of this book because really after chapters one through three,
the church depicted is not just these seven churches alone,
but it's really, again, the universal church.
So while Sean taught us that Trinity Cambridge Church, living in 2023,
we are not the original audience of this letter.
Still, though, that there is a spiritual aspect that John and Jesus is addressing us today.
And right here in this opening reveals a fact about Revelation that I think a lot of us tend to forget or neglect when we're reading this text.
It's that it's a prophetic, apocalyptic letter.
It's a letter.
And if it's a letter, what is it about?
What is he trying to address?
What is he trying to say to these people?
If you read through Revelation, you'll know how much it suffers,
or focuses on suffering and enduring as Christians.
In the church of Pergamum, a fellow believer, Antipas, he was murdered.
He was martyred for his Christian faith.
Imagine just the wave of terror that would sweep over our own church.
If Sean, if one of our leaders, that he was martyred,
he or she were martyred for her faith.
On top of that, there's an overall tone in this letter that even more suffering is headed their way.
For example, Jesus addresses the church in Smyrna.
He says this,
Do not fear what you are about to suffer.
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison,
that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.
Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Later in chapter 6, verse 11,
John writes that the number of martyrs is not yet completed,
but it will be, signifying that there are many more deaths to come.
This persecution matches what we know historically as well.
By the year 113 AD, about 20 years of our best guess of when Revelation was written,
about 20 years later, we have evidence of a letter of a Roman governor whose name is Pliny the Younger,
and he writes this letter to Trajan, who is Domitian's successor.
He's the emperor.
And in this letter, he calls Christianity a cult contagion.
Then the emperor replies that convicted Christians,
they should be put to death.
Only by worshiping the emperor's image and by cursing the name of Christ can they be acquitted.
So one of John's main objectives in this letter was to encourage Christians by showing them,
although they are so frightened,
by showing them the truth of the world as seen from God's vantage point,
from the throne.
That's been a very convicting thought for me as of late,
something that Sean himself has prayed for me,
that I would see the problems,
the difficulties of my life,
from not my perspective,
but really from God's perspective.
Because the simple truth is that God is bigger than my problems.
We understand things very relative, right?
I think, honestly, I think I'm pretty average height for an Asian, right?
Five-eight-ish.
But when I talk to someone like Joseph Johnson,
I feel short.
And when I look, because I'm so small,
when I look at my problems,
they look so big.
They look like mountains.
But when I look at my problems from God's perspective,
from the throne,
they look small.
When my problems seem bigger and bigger in my life,
it's because, really, that God is smaller to me.
Maybe I'm forgetting him altogether.
So I encourage you to remember this throughout reading Revelation,
that Revelation is often treated like this cryptic 10,000-piece puzzle
that only the smartest can put together.
It's not both John and Jesus' intention.
They wrote this to churches 2,000 years ago
and to us as an encouragement.
That's the focus.
It's an encouragement.
To bolster the faith of suffering Christians,
to persevere to the end for God's glory.
So knowing their difficult condition,
John opens this letter in a most appropriate way.
He communicates and extends grace and peace
that comes from the sovereign, triune God.
Really, first of all, what an insight into God's heart
that the first thing,
the first thing he wants to get off his chest
is this blessing of grace and peace.
We know that reading in chapters 2 and 3
that these churches, they're not perfect.
They're not perfect churches.
They are led astray by false teaching and sin.
Some have lost their first loves.
And I've wondered what God,
what Jesus might say to our own church
because we're not a perfect church.
We're not full of perfect people.
But still, the very first thing
that God wants to communicate to you
is grace and peace.
Most of us are well familiar with the word grace
and its definition of undeserved favor.
We're saved by grace alone as taught in Ephesians 2,
meaning that we don't deserve salvation.
We don't deserve a relationship with our creator.
But in scripture, grace is also more than that.
It's also a power
that enables us to endure any hardship.
Paul speaks to this powerful enabling grace
in 2 Corinthians 12
that enables him to endure all weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
It's because of this undeserved gift of grace
that we now have this empowering gift of grace
so that we can continue to worship
in any and all circumstances.
And have you ever noticed that this order
of this greeting in NT Epistles, right?
It's always grace first, then peace.
Grace first, then peace.
For it's only when things are right
between us and God, our creator,
it's only when the weight of sin
on our consciences are removed
can we really have meaningful peace in our lives.
For peace in the American culture
tends to mean to us lack of conflict,
especially in military contexts.
And in scripture, it totally can mean that.
But the word peace ultimately comes
from the Hebrew word shalom,
which refers more to the state of completeness,
fullness, fullness, wholeness.
Like a building can be shalom,
meaning that it has no holes or cracks.
Or Job, he says that his state,
his tents are in a state of shalom
because when he counted his flock,
there were none missing.
But it's not just our stuff
that can be in a state of shalom.
Our own hearts, our souls can be cold or complete.
That feeling where you feel like
just nothing is missing
and everything is as it's supposed to be.
Where are you this morning?
Are you at shalom in your soul?
As you endure very real trials
and wade through life's difficulties,
what do you feel like you're missing?
Imagine what the original audience
might have said that they were missing.
Physical safety, right?
With their own government hunting them down,
with loved ones dying around them,
with the tremendous fear and anxiety over their heads.
I wonder if the offer of grace and peace,
it could easily sound like a rote Christian platitude.
We feel that when we're suffering so much
that somebody flippantly says something to us.
But it only sounds like a platitude
if the offer is empty.
If the person offering can't back it up.
But notice in our text,
where did this offer come from?
It comes from the triune God
who can back up this offer.
In verse four,
we have first a description of God the Father
who is the one who is and who was
and who is to come.
This is such an awesome, profound title.
This is a strong allusion to Exodus 3.14,
where God revealed his covenant name to Moses.
When Moses asked God what he should tell the people
if he was asked about God's name,
God says,
I am who I am.
Or in the Greek translation,
I am the one who is.
But John clearly expands upon this name
with a threefold temporal description
of God's character.
In this, he highlights God's eternality
and atemporality,
meaning that God is independent of time.
So God is the one who eternally was,
who eternally is,
and who eternally will be.
He was in the beginning that had no beginning.
That's just so profound.
If you just think about it,
you can't even wrap your mind around that.
But the revealing of this name
is not just meant to be a cool,
interesting theological fact.
God revealed this name
to a suffering enslaved people.
The context of Exodus 3.14
that we went through recently
is that God saw the suffering of Israel
and he cared for them.
He saw his children Israel.
He sees his children today
and he will see his children
in decades to come.
He is the sovereign, faithful God
who knew their affliction.
Rocky Balboa once quipped
that time is undefeated.
Time takes everyone out.
All but our eternal God,
whom time does not change,
age,
or weaken him.
It has absolutely no effect
on his person,
perfections,
purposes,
or promises.
Grace and peace unchangingly
comes from the eternally faithful one.
Second,
we have grace and peace
from the seven spirits
who are before his throne.
Some say that the seven spirits
are seven angels,
but I think a stronger interpretation
is that the description
refers to the singular third person
of the Trinity,
God the Spirit.
First,
as they're listed one after the other,
the seven spirits are presented
to be on par
with the Father and the Son.
Moreover,
it's unusual
and ultimately inconceivable
according to the rest of Scripture
for angels to be the one
extending grace and peace.
That prerogative belongs to God alone.
But then why, again,
use the number seven
to describe a singular person
of the Trinity?
Again,
this number signifies fullness,
right?
Here,
it signifies what though?
It signifies the fullness
of the Spirit's activity
and power.
Moreover,
it's likely John referenced
the number seven
to highlight the active work
in helping the seven individual churches
to endure
and to shine their light.
Because where do we find the Spirit?
The text makes it very clear to us
that he's not on the throne,
but he is before the Father's throne,
which alludes to his role
as an emissary,
as a helper
to carry out the bidding of God
on behalf of his churches.
And this means that
this same Spirit
is at work
in Trinity Cambridge
this morning,
today,
in our hearts.
He's not a distant God,
but he is in this room
ministering to us
by the bidding of the Father.
We have a great helper
and advocate,
someone who will come alongside us
in any hardship and trial,
grace and peace
unchangingly comes
from the eternally faithful one
who is actively at work
among us.
Thirdly,
grace and peace
come from God the Son.
John shines the spotlight
on Jesus
with this threefold description
of how Jesus is prophet,
priest,
and king.
Likely referring to Psalm 89,
John describes Jesus
as these three things,
as the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth.
First,
Jesus is the faithful witness.
A witness,
what does he do?
He testifies in court
to what he or she knows
is the truth.
Jesus testified
that he is the light of the world,
that he is the bread from heaven,
that he is the foretold
suffering servant,
that he is the promised Messiah
and king
who's come to lay down
his life for his friends.
Even when the world
hated his light
and loved the darkness,
he didn't stop.
He continued to preach
and teach the truth.
And what did he get for that?
Spit.
Floggings.
A crown of thorns.
A cross.
But praise be to God
that Jesus came back to life,
conquering sin and death.
So John bestows this honorific
of the firstborn of the dead.
In Jewish culture,
firstborns were given
particularly a special
inheritance and significance.
And this title still carries
that same emphasis
of high exaltation,
high privileged position
of the firstborn of the dead,
of the resurrected God, man.
Why?
Because Jesus is the one
who leads us
as a champion
in resurrection.
Meaning that if we are faithful
unto death,
we will be resurrected
in power.
Isn't this such a glorious reality?
I almost can't even believe it
sometimes.
Just writing this sermon,
thinking about it.
Me,
this guy,
I'm gonna defeat death.
I'm gonna resurrect.
I'm gonna be like Jesus.
It's such a glorious reality
that I don't think enough about,
that I don't think
enough of us think about.
And finally,
it's not just a ruling
over the new creation,
but the current world
that Jesus,
through his death
and resurrection,
stands as a ruler
of kings on earth.
Despite earthly tyrants
and dictators,
both past and present,
who have attempted
to eliminate the worship
of our one true God,
they have not,
they are not,
and they will not succeed.
They will never win.
The gates of Hades
will never prevail
against Jesus' church.
No matter what our state,
the world is in,
come 10,
50,
100 years,
no matter who is elected
next year
or elections to come,
no matter how much
Christians are hated
or persecuted,
he is still
the king of kings
who reigns on his throne.
Friends,
that means that no matter
what happens to us,
we are on the winning side.
And just like John's gospel
in Revelation,
John continues
this sense of irony
that really it's
Jesus' death
and defeat
that were actually
his path to glory
and victory
over Satan and death.
So back when
the Roman government
martyred Christians
to now when Boko Haram
or Burkina Faso,
they martyr Christians today,
they play the same
losing strategy
that Satan tried
with Jesus.
For Jesus teaches
that those who will
lose their life
will find them.
Those who try to save them
will lose them.
The first shall be last,
the last shall be first.
The economy of the kingdom
is radically opposite
of the economy
of this world.
the path of carrying
your cross
and dying to self,
that's the path
to victory and glory.
And when we feel like
that path is just
so hard,
when suffering
is just too much,
I pray that
we would see that
there's no other place
to go.
Like the disciples,
may we see that
only Jesus
has the words
of eternal life.
As Jesus said
in John 14, 27,
peace I leave with you,
my peace I give to you,
not as the world gives
do I give to you.
Those other places
all pale in comparison
to the peace
that God,
that Jesus alone brings.
He alone brings
amazing grace
and fullness.
Just a feeling
that everything
is as it's supposed
to be.
Even when our
circumstances
don't prove it,
John Patton
is a great example
of this.
A missionary
to the New Hebrides
who ministered
to literal cannibals.
He once explained
one night
when his life
was in eminent danger
from the people
that he tried
to minister to.
And he wrote this,
I climbed into the tree
and was left there
alone in the bush.
The hours I spent
there all lived
before me
as if they were
but of yesterday.
I heard the frequent
discharging of muskets
and the yells
of savages.
Yet I sat there
among the branches
as safe
as in the arms
of Jesus.
Never in all my sorrows
did my Lord
draw nearer to me
and speak more soothingly
in my soul
than when the moonlight
flickered among
those chestnut leaves
and the night air
played on my throbbing brow
as I told all my heart
to Jesus.
Alone,
yet not alone.
grace and peace
unchangingly comes
from the eternally
faithful one
who is actively
at work in us
and who leads us
in victory.
And because of this
grace and peace
that leads us
to worship
with new identities,
for John
knows himself
as one
who is loved.
For John,
right,
the love of God
is so closely linked
to the cross of Christ
that whenever he talks
about love,
he always presents it
right immediately after
that the cross
is right there.
That's what he's thinking
about when he thinks
about being loved.
So when you doubt
God's love for you
because of your sin,
because of your problems,
because of your hurts,
look first to the cross
for evidence of his love.
After all,
as Jesus said,
greater love
has no one than this,
that someone lay down
his life for his friends.
This is so real to John
because he knows
what Jesus freed him from.
Jesus teaches in John 8,
everyone who practices sin
is a slave to sin.
I wonder as Christians
if we understand
the magnitude
of this freedom
and transformation.
Because before Christ,
sin ruled over us.
Satan was our God,
as Paul teaches
in 2 Corinthians 3.
We were snared
by the devil
and he held us
as prisoners
so that we invariably
did his well.
Even when we wanted
to do the right thing,
we did what Satan
wanted us to do.
More than that,
God intended for us
to be his beloved children,
but we instead
became sons of Satan.
So instead of being
covenant keepers,
we were covenant breakers
so that when God saw us,
he saw our sin.
Sexual immorality,
impurity,
sensuality,
idolatry,
sorcery,
enmity,
strife,
jealousy,
fits of anger,
rivalries,
dissensions,
divisions,
envy,
drunkenness,
and things like these.
Your most heinous sins,
the stuff that you
don't tell anybody else,
that you won't even
tell your spouse,
your best friends,
that stuff that you
want to keep hidden
as much as possible.
God sees,
and God saw all of that.
That's what you
were defined by.
But praise be to Jesus
that what he said
shortly after in John 8,
if the Son sets you free,
you will be free indeed.
Because of Jesus,
because of the work
on his cross,
those who put their
total faith in him,
we are set free
from the shackles
of sin and death.
By his cross,
he is restored to you.
That beloved identity
of a child,
his child,
that those who are
in Christ,
nothing can separate you
from the love of God.
John, in fact,
keeps going
with these new identities
in Christ.
He writes that Jesus
made us kings
and priests to him,
to his God.
This is a strong allusion
to Exodus 19,
which reads,
if you will indeed
obey my voice
and keep my covenant,
you shall be to me
a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.
Notice how Moses stipulates
how Israel was supposed
to be a kingdom of priests.
It's by obedience.
It's by obeying God.
But in our passage today,
John does not say
that we obeyed
because we didn't.
It's by his blood.
That's what our text says.
He was our older brother.
Jesus was our older brother
who perfectly obeyed
our righteous father
while we arrogantly thought
we knew better
and we disobeyed.
But Jesus,
he lovingly gave us
the credit of his good work
so that we get
all the benefits
while he took ownership
of our disobedience.
There is no possibility
to boast in what we've done
because of the new titles
that we've received
in Jesus.
It's all by grace.
It's all by his work.
And I want you to notice
that John does not
single out a group
in these seven churches
or calls them
the royal priests.
He does not say,
pastors,
you are the royal priests
or deacons,
you are the priests.
For John,
the church
is the royal priesthood.
So I encourage you,
every one of you
as part of this church,
don't fire yourselves.
Don't fire yourselves
from this position
that you now hold
in Christ.
In the past,
only the high priests
could go into
the Holy of Holies
to bask in God's glory
only one day of the year.
But now,
we can claim
this Christ-bought opportunity
for an intimate relationship
with our Father
all year long.
Claim and own this title
that you have
now in Jesus.
what is this job description
as a royal priest?
Peter helps us here
in 1 Peter 2.9
in which he says,
you are a royal priesthood
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light.
So as his royal priests
proclaim his excellencies
in the loudest praise,
with the loudest praise,
with joy on Sunday worship,
worship.
As we stand
and bask in his presence.
As his priests,
you need not go
to any other priest
for the confession
of your sins.
You can go straight to God
and receive the assurance
of pardon
straight from him.
As his royal priests,
you can pass
the same shalom
to others
that you've received
and you can administer
to others
to help others' lives
feel whole,
feel like they're not
missing anything.
You could do that.
As his royal priests,
you can with confidence
draw near
to the throne of grace
through intercessory prayer
that we may receive mercy
and find grace
to help us
in times of need.
As his royal priests,
you have full access
to the table.
No intermediate
is necessary.
Nobody stands before you
on the table.
You have full access
before it.
As his priests
and ambassadors
continue to proclaim
his excellencies
to your friends,
your neighbors,
your coworkers
in evangelism
and in testimony sharing.
Proclaim not just
with your lips
but with your lives
as priests,
as kings would
in holiness
and self-sacrifice.
Proclaim his excellencies
unceasingly
no matter what season
you're going through.
In fact,
that's when your worship
is loudest.
It's when nothing
is going your way,
when everything
seems to be against you,
when you say to him
be glory
and dominion
forever and ever,
people must see
that Jesus is excellent.
When you see
your mountain-tall problems
of a crumbling marriage,
a rebellious child,
a lost job,
or failing health,
and you still see
that Jesus is bigger
and better,
that's an incredible
testimony
of a royal priest
who knows their identity
of freedom
and of love.
Finally,
we can only
proclaim his worship
and overcome hardship
when we hope,
when we have hope
in the time
that God will have
final victory
over his enemies.
Verse 7 quotes
two OT verses
in Daniel 7,
Zechariah 12,
and reads,
Behold,
he is coming
with the clouds,
and every eye
will see him,
even those
who pierced him,
and all tribes
on the earth
will wail
on account of him,
even so.
Amen.
The first half
of this verse
comes from Daniel 7,
where Daniel prophesies
that despite the rule
of four daunting,
terrifying beasts,
which are cruel,
rapacious kingdoms,
one will come
like the Son of Man,
and all dominion
and glory
will be attributed
to him.
The beasts
will be destroyed
and burned
with fire.
So while we now,
we still live
in a beastly world
that may be dominated
by violent oppressors
and ungodly opponents
now,
John is encouraging
his audience
and us
that these evils,
they will not reign forever.
Jesus will return.
It's not just a myth
or some wishful thinking.
It's a fact
that when he comes
with clouds
on his divine glory
and authority
at the second coming,
he will come
to deliver
the final
and decisive judgment
against all evil.
Our three-front battle
against our flesh,
the world,
and Satan,
it'll finally be over.
And he will not
come spiritually,
he will not come secretly,
but he will literally
and physically come
so that every eye
will see him.
You see,
the Bible is unambiguous
about this,
unambiguous about
Jesus' second coming,
just as it is
unambiguous
about his first coming
2,000 years ago.
Many scholars
have come up
with far-fetched theories
and ideas
that Jesus didn't
actually die
or didn't resurrect
that faithful weekend.
They say it was
a mass hallucination,
when in actuality,
how often do you hear
of a group
all sharing
one same hallucination?
They say that
Jesus almost died,
but not really.
But how does one
survive Roman floggings,
asphyxiation on the cross,
a spear to the side,
or that they just
simply misplaced
the body?
But then the Jews
could easily identify
the body.
The best answer
is that Jesus did die
and did resurrect.
And just as sure
as we have that assurance,
we can confidently know
that Jesus will return.
And when he does,
temporary hardship
will give way
to eternal joy
and glory.
And when he returns,
Jesus,
John teaches
that all tribes,
all believers
from all over the world
will wail
on account of him.
This fulfills
Zechariah 12.10,
in which the context
is that God promises
to defeat Israel's enemies
and redeem Israel
after they repent
by the power
of his spirit.
And so we
who put our faith
in Jesus,
we're now the true Israel.
And we fulfill
this prophecy
when we mourn
and we wail
over Jesus,
whom we pierce
with our sins.
2,000 years ago,
we haven't physically
pierced Jesus.
We didn't physically
crucify Jesus,
but we hear
our mocking voice
call out
among the scoffers.
It was our sin
that held him there.
But blessed
are those who mourn
for they shall be comforted.
This is such
an important marker,
distinguisher
of those who will be saved.
They are repentant.
We mourn
not over ourselves,
but we mourn
over Jesus.
This is a great
diagnostic test
for us even today
of true repentance
because true repentance
is Jesus-focused.
It's others-focused.
It's not self-focused.
But that's not to say
that there will be people
on that day
who will mourn
over themselves.
This is a hard word,
but it is true.
Over the way
that they lived their life,
over what they believed,
over how wrong
they have been.
You will never
have seen regret
like you will that day.
And on that day,
it would have been
too late.
The window of forgiveness
would have been shut.
Nothing more is,
nothing more important
is this truth here.
What you believe
in this temporary life
has eternal consequences.
Are you ready
for that day
that will come
for a thief,
like a thief in the night?
Are you ready
for that eternal future?
Randy Alcorn,
pastor, theologian,
has this great quote
about the reality
of heaven and hell.
The best of life
on earth
is a glimpse of heaven,
and the worst of life
is a glimpse of hell.
For Christians,
this present life
is the closest
they will come to hell.
For unbelievers,
it is the closest
they will come to heaven.
Our sincere hope
is that the best
of your life now,
the best of the shalom
that you may have experienced,
cannot hold a candle
to the awesome
shalom, peace, glory,
everything that you
will experience
with your future,
with your creator.
If you do not know yet Jesus,
and you have not put
your faith in him,
please come talk to us.
Don't delay.
Talk to us about
the shalom that can be found
in Jesus alone.
John ties up
this section in verse 8
by repeating
the Father's
sovereign title.
He declares
that he is the Alpha
and the Omega,
the first letter
of the Greek alphabet
and the last.
In other places
in Scripture,
God declares himself
as the first
and the last,
the beginning
and the end.
In this metaphorical language,
it highlights
that God is sovereign
over one end
of the spectrum
to the other,
and everything in between.
God is sovereign
over all,
so that since history,
it commences
and concludes with him,
no part will ever spin
out of his control.
So to him who is,
who was,
and who is to come,
the Almighty,
he is the one
who has been your help,
who is your help,
and who will eternally
be your help.
Living as Christians
in this life,
again,
can be extremely hard.
If you raised your hand
earlier that
you once had this thought
that Christianity
made your life harder,
if you feel even now
that the Christian life
is so difficult,
I want to affirm
that an aspect
of what you're feeling
is right.
I think genuine discipleship,
growing pains,
shared suffering
with Jesus,
that can be painful
and uncomfortable
at times.
After all,
a disciple to be
unchallenged by Jesus
may not be
a disciple at all.
But friend,
there's so much
that you're missing
if you're in that place now.
You're missing the gospel.
You're missing this grace
and peace
from this triune God
who is eternally faithful
to you,
who's actively working
for you,
who has died for you.
You're missing
his tender love
and what you've been
freed from
and these new identities
in Christ.
You're missing
that Christ
will return in power
to make all
that is wrong right.
Even when this
refund battle
against our flesh,
the world's Satan
seems overwhelming,
the gospel alone
will help you
through your trials now
and when things
come your way
that are far harder
in the future,
the gospel alone
is the thing
that will help you then.
Even if you think
that things are going well
right now,
I encourage you
to store up,
well up,
deep reservoirs
of faith
for years and years
because you'll never know.
You'll never know
when you have to tap into.
To close,
Charles Spurgeon
speaks of God's help
really better
than I could have.
It is but a small thing
for me,
your God,
to help you.
Consider what I have done already.
What?
Not help you.
Why?
I bought you
with my blood.
Help you.
It is the least thing
I will ever do for you.
I have done more
and will do more.
In helping you,
I am giving you
what I have bought
for you already.
If you had need
of a thousand times
as much help,
I would give it to you.
You require little
compared to with
what I am ready to give.
It's much for you to need,
but it is nothing
for me to bestow.
Help you.
Fear not.
If there were an ant
at the door of your granary
asking for help,
it would not ruin you
to give him a handful
of your wheat.
And you are nothing
but a tiny insect
at the door
of my all-sufficiency.
I will help you.
Do you want more wisdom
than exists in the Father,
more love
than displays in the Son,
or more power
that is manifest
in the influences
of the Spirit?
The eternal God
is your helper.
Let's pray.
Again, Lord,
we pray that our visions
of you would be big.
God, you are far too small
in our eyes
so that when we see
the problems in our lives
from your vantage point,
from your perspective,
they would seem small,
that we would trust you
in all things,
and that you would be
magnified and glorified.
Help us to operate.
Help us not to fire ourselves.
Help us to operate
as these royal priests
so that we can proclaim
your excellencies
with our lips,
with our lives,
with our hands and feet,
through it all,
throughout whatever circumstances
that you would be attributed,
all the honor,
all the glory,
all the dominion.
God, help us
as we continue
to read and preach
and study your word
through revelation.
Speak to us.
Transform us.
We want to be more like you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.