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Psalm 32 – Sermon Manuscript

-Do you ever feel like someone’s always watching you? Security cameras everywhere (even in our building!), self-checkout you can watch them recording you!

-It would take 17 hours to read the terms and conditions for the top 13 apps in the UK

-I figure at this point that Google knows more about me than I do. And if that’s true of Google, how much more is it true of God? He created us, He knows us far more intimately than even Google does! So why do we so often pretend like we can keep things hidden from Him? 

-We’re going to talk to today about something that affects us all, something that has been true of almost every human being who has ever lived (1 exception, which we’ll get to), that is we are all sinners. EDoT: “Sin is not only an act of wrongdoing but also a state of alienation from God.” Rom. 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Anyone left out of that? Nope!

-But we don’t talk about it much today, and if we do we’ve somewhat sanitized this idea. We talk about messing up, a mistake, it was my bad, but we don’t often think about it how bad it is: cosmic treason against the Holy Creator God. I don’t say that lightly or carelessly, but because we have committed treason, all of us, we are worthy of eternal separation from God. 

-We talk a LOT today about God’s love, about His forgiveness, His mercy, and those are all right and good, but the only reason they’re good is because of just how terrible sin is, and I don’t think we give much thought to that anymore. We may have thought about it when we read ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ in high school, or if we hear about someone REALLY messing up, but we don’t think about ourselves as sinners very often.

-Today’s passage gives us the reality that we’re all sinners, but it also tells us how to deal with that sin so it no longer affects us.

READ/PRAY

  1. Joyful Forgiveness (0-2)

-David wrote this, has some similar ideas to another Psalm he wrote – 51, after his sin with Bathsheba was uncovered. 

-Maskil – no one knows what that means, root word has to do with teaching or instruction, but that title is on a number of Psalms that don’t fit that.

-Joyful: happy, blessed. Begins the exact same way as the very first Psalm. Our minds should immediately jump back to that first Psalm, which gives us the theme of the whole book. If you want to be truly happy (not fleeting, like graduation which the gifts eventually break, or wedding day which is just 1 day, or getting a new car which eventually becomes an old car), it only comes through being obedient to God, by being a God-like person, responding as God would respond if He were you. Heavy job!

-Jesus talked about this too! One of his most famous sermons Matt. 5. Same word used here! Happy are the…

-Instead of rooting this joy/happiness in what we would think of blessing, David goes to sin. Does that feel like a sharp left turn to you? Maybe this should tell us something about the way we think about our sin! Instead of being flippant or careless to it (which has been an issue since at least the 1st cent.) Where Paul had to warn someone not to continue in sin to get more grace because that’s not the way it works! If we want blessing it comes by continuing to fight against the sin that we have within us.

-David uses 3 words to describe sin here, each one having a slightly different connotation and significance to them:

-Transgression – this gets to the idea of rebellion. Think of what we saw in Rev. 12 of Satan stirring a great rebellion against God. He tried to become god and let an entire revolt against him, but lost. If we don’t trust in Jesus we are a part of the rebellion. I think this is a part that is often missed today. We don’t start from a place of goodness, or even a place of neutrality when we look at God’s standard. All of us start in the same place: condemned as sinners.  I’ve had 5 kids now – it’s amazing how much we don’t need to teach them to be sinners! And it’s also amazing how much work it is to shape them to become upright people (I’d say it’s impossible until they’re saved!). 

         -This means that because we sin, God sees us in outright rebellion against Him. That’s why I’ll saw there’s only 2 options in your life! And we often only compare ourselves to other sinners, not to a completely perfect God, who is the standard we’re supposed to compare ourselves to. When we compare ourselves to perfect, who would dare to say they’re good enough? Think of one of the old proverbial phrases “to err is human” Being human means you will err, you will sin, you will transgress.

         -Think of it like this: could you get pulled over for going 1 mph over the speed limit? Technically, yes! That is breaking the law as it’s supposed to be the LIMIT for driving in that area, but we all know we’re not going to get pulled over. We tend to view God’s law the same way: technically it’s breaking the law, but God’s going to give grace to me, when in reality we’re just demonstrating that we’re more willing to rebel against Him than we would care to admit. 

-Sin – this one is picked up by a Greek word that means “missing the mark.” Often used in connection to archery. Think of your favorite local retail store: anyone know what store this is? Target. If you were aiming at the bullseye and you hit here, would that be successful?

         -Once again, so often we’re using the wrong standard of measurement when we think about sin. If we miss the mark, well that’s just human. Exactly! There’s an eternal chasm that separates the perfection God calls us to and the way we actually live. We all constantly and repeatedly miss the mark, no matter how hard we try we can’t ever reach it.

         -One of the best days of my life growing up was when I finally reached a mark. As I’ve shared, I love basketball, I’ve been playing basketball as long as I can remember, and there’s different goals you have as you grow. When I was in 7th grade I remember finally being able to touch the net. From there it’s grabbing the net and pulling yourself up, and then the backboard, and finally the rim. Rim is 10’, do you think it would be possible to ever touch it if it were 20’? Anthony Edwards can jump ridiculously high, but I don’t think even he could touch that net! What if it were in space? That’s where you start to get how far off the mark we are compared to God’s perfect standard. There’s literally no way for you to reach it.

-Iniquity – corrupted or twisted. This gets to the very motivation for us. Not only do we sin, but we still want to do sin! Think of what Paul says in Rom. 7“For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.” We can’t help ourselves! We’re literally at war within ourselves for anyone who is in Christ. We fight against the sin within us, striving and straining against the sin, at least we’re supposed to be.

         -There’s a word that’s not used much anymore, but signifies what we’re supposed to be doing: mortifying sin, that is killing it. John Owen “be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” (The Mortification of Sin). Friends, it’s much easier to just ignore it, or pretend sin isn’t an issue, but until Christ returns we’re going to continue needing to fight against sin, and until we actually start fighting and pushing back against sin, we won’t be blessed or happy. Remember, to err is human, but the quote goes on: to forgive divine. How does forgiveness come in?

-This is where we see 3 words that show us how God’s grace comes against even our sin, 1 for each of the ways we sin, did you see them as we were reading?

-Forgiven – pardoned from holding you accountable for your rebellion. Have you ever considered the power of forgiveness? Think of Les Miserables: Jean Vaujaun is forgiven for stealing silver and it literally changes the course of his life, that’s meant to be a picture of the what forgiveness does to us.

-Covered – when you miss the mark, God’s mark is counted instead of yours. Gets to the idea of the Passover (we’ve seen in Revelation the need to keep the Exodos story at the front of our minds). Anyone remember whiteout?

-Does not charge – take the biggest loan you’ve ever had (house, car, college) and imagine logging into your account and seeing the balance is $0, and you didn’t pay it. And all of this is rooted in who God is (grow in your theology!)

-Do you see what David’s saying here? The way to be happy is have all your sins dealt with once and for all, and that’s only possible because of who God is. He’s actually picking up on an idea from the Exodus:

-Some commentators believe David was reflecting on this passage because he uses the same language: Ex. 34 – forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin, same words! And look at how this passage describes God. Slow to anger, abounding in hesed. Compare His judgment to His love and forgiveness. The God of the OT isn’t all judgment and wrath!

-Paul quotes these verses in Rom. 4 to make the point that forgiveness from God is only possible if you have faith in Him, which begins an argument 2 chapters earlier where we see that God’s hesed is meant to lead to repentance. If we repent, we will be happy/blessed people, but what happens if we don’t? David goes on to list exactly what happens.

  • Sinful Desolation (3-5)

-Unlike someone who’s happy, because their sins are covered is someone who refuses to acknowledge that they’ve sinned. David could think on a time like that, and it literally affected his body!

-If you’ve ever had secret sin, have you ever felt this way? Like it physically was eating you up from the inside, and if people only knew what was actually going on inside they’d reject you? Remember: God knows everything, including what you think. You can’t hide from him, but many people do try to hide. What’s scary is if you become numb to sin and don’t have a reaction! That’s when you need to start worrying.

-Selah: I want you to take some time now to reflect and ask the Lord to reveal any sins that you need to confess.

-After having his body waste away from trying to hide, David confesses, and God forgives. John picks up this same idea in 1 John. We see this tension between still being sinners, but being able to be cleansed from our sins, and all it takes is confession. Doesn’t that seem too easy? On the one hand, I worry that we don’t take our sin seriously enough, but at the same time I also worry that we sometimes don’t confess because we feel like we need to pay some kind of penance or earn God’s forgiveness. This is why the message of the gospel is (or should be) so scandalous! It’s not based on what you or I have done, it’s based on what Jesus has done.

-I realize we just had one, but there’s another Selah in here for a reason! So take some time and think about the sins the Lord may have just brough to mind and confess them.

  • The Response of the Forgiven (6-11)

-Therefore: building on everything else said so far. Since forgiveness is possible, what should the response be?

-Instead of bottling it up and trying to hide, pray IMMEDIATELY to God and ask for forgiveness! When this happens, you suddenly go from being in rebellion against God to being able to withstand anything that comes your way. See: great floodwaters won’t hurt them (even a flood like Noah faced). God becomes our safe place. I onetime heard a story about the way we should think of God in relation to our sin, when a little kid gets into trouble is their instinct “Oh no, dad’s gonna kill me!” or “Oh no, I need to go find my dad!” Friends, because of what Jesus has done for us, our response should be the second one. When we sin, we run to God because His grace and mercy are enough for all our sins.

–Selah

-Here we see what this could be viewed as instruction, we end with an exhortation from David. He contrasts following and being obedient to God with bring like a horse or mule who can’t do the right thing. Very similar to how Paul describes unbelievers in Rom. 1 as suppressing the truth and refusing the acknowledge the Creator God who rules over them.

-He goes on to say that many pains come to the wicked, but whoever trusts the Lord will be surrounded by faithful love.

-We don’t always see that around us. Doesn’t it often seem like the wicked are the ones who are doing well? That the one who cuts the most corners gets ahead, the one who cheats gets the raises and accolades, and Christians are increasingly marginalized? Psalm 73 talks about that exact idea! Asaph is complaining about how the wicked always prosper and do well while he’s wasting away, but then he gathers with God’s people and is reminded what’s truly true. Friends, God will bring about perfect and eternal judgment and justice someday, and when that day comes you can either have many pains, or faithful love: which one will you have?

-The last verse is a reminder for us to praise God for His forgiveness that is given to the 1000th generation! We can choose today to be forgiven, to be healed, to have our sin covered over, and to be finally and fully happy and blessed.

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by mikethestrand on June 16, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on June 16, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/06/16/psalm-32-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 12:1-18 – Simon Manuscript

-8.5 years ago, there was much anticipation and excitement as the next Star Wars movie was released. This had been building since 2012 when Disney bought Lucasfilm, and it took 3 long years to get The Force Awakens to release. I remember eagerly sitting down to watch it, and it was a blast! Seeing Han and Chewy get back on the Millennium Falcon, watching lightsabers shoot out again, and it even featured a new cross shaped one! 

-Just 1 problem: it was literally the same story as Episode 4 – A New Hope. Bad guys are building a battle station, the good guys need to blow it up. It was so close to being such a good story, and then the next movies just devolved from there! Today’s text has a similar feel: things are so close to being good and right, only in this case, instead of bad writing, we have a literal enemy, a dragon.

READ/PRAY

  1. A New Hope (1-6)

-Preached on this section on Palm Sunday, so we’ll just do a quick overview! First is “a great sign” that John is shown of a woman who is unbelievably glorious.

-Descriptions are similar to some descriptions about God, and connects to Joseph’s dream back in Gen. 37

-Stand in for the people waiting for the Messiah, as if in labor, which is a description of Israel a number of times in the OT

-Another sign: a dragon. opposed to God’s people, tail sweeps stars out of the sky, many people believe this is referring to the original fall of Satan and his demons.

-Stood in front of the woman: Satan knows Gen. 3:15, and he has done his best throughout history to destroy all the offspring of the chosen one: Pharoah, Herod.

-Have you ever noticed that theme in the Bible? How many barren wombs are a part of Jesus’ genealogy? Or how many stories in the Bible are of a barren woman where God intervenes and brings about children? God’s plan was to save the world through an offspring, God works in people and families to bring about His perfect plan, and Satan has done everything in his power since the very beginning to thwart that plan and kill off God’s family.

-After all that, notice that the Son isn’t called a sign. The others are pointing to something else, but the Son is the point.

-Quickest description of Jesus’ ministry: born straight up to God! The dragon thought he was ready, thought he would finally win and defeat the Messiah, but he was again thwarted.

-Made me think of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. The Jesus figure is a lion who allows himself to be killed by the white witch in the story. He’s then raised back to life, and when asked why he says there’s a deeper magic that she didn’t know. Satan is just the prince of this world, he’s limited in what he can do, but God isn’t.

-Woman (God’s people) off to the wilderness. Think of all the times God’s people were led off into exile: Egypt, Babylon, Rome, place where they learn to fully rely on God. Yes, it’s a place that looks desolate, looks like only death is possible, but with God the wilderness becomes the place of provision.

-How many of you have experienced something similar in your own life? Times and seasons of stretching, times and seasons where you feel like you’re about to break, and then when you’ve made it through you look back and see God’s fingerprints over each step of the journey. I’ve had times like that, and I know some of you are having those times right now! One of the ironies I’ve found in my life has been the place that I viewed as a slice of heaven became one of the biggest wildernesses in my life.

-My last semester of college, I got asked to play piano for a friend’s wedding in Denver, and I fell in love with CO. I’ve been to Hawaii twice, I like CO better. I was going to move there after college at find whatever job I could, but I ended up back here! Then got a call to a church in Wyoming (close enough!), but after 4 years Cara and I moved to CO, I made it to heaven on earth! What I didn’t realize was the church had some major disfunction that took a couple years to rise to the surface. Church was growing numerically, which hid some of the issues, so then we tried adding a second campus, which also started to grow, so then we needed a second person to preach, and I was asked to take on that responsibility, but didn’t get to release the music side, so there were many weeks where I would lead the music and preach. I was exhausted and on the verge of quitting. A friend and I joked about working at the Smuckers plant next to the new campus just to provide for our family. Yet God was doing something in the midst of that that I can see now, but couldn’t at the time. He was stripping away some of my self-reliance, He was wooing me more to Him and affirming some of the ways He’s wired me that I didn’t want to admit. What I had thought would come from living in my favorite state, came from moving back to where I grew up: a church to love me and my family.

-Friends, don’t rush through the wilderness seasons – God doesn’t waste it, He wants what’s best for you, and wants you to realize that if you have Him, then nothing else matters.

-Back to 1,260 days – the time period between Jesus’ 2 comings, which could be summarized as a wilderness time! Things are difficult, but they’re training us that we need to rely more fully on God.

  • The Dragon Strikes Back (7-9, 13-18)

-God’s people are taken to the wilderness and protected/preserved by God for a season, but how does the dragon respond? With war!

-Michael (name means: who is like God) is viewed as the protector of God’s people, leads the charge against the dragon (the devil, Satan, deceiver)

-Because of his rebellion against God, he’s thrown out to the earth, where his reign seems to be supreme. 

-“The one who deceives the whole world” What do you think that looks like? Questioning God, doubting His Word and work, not obeying Him. Why do you think people so often question whether God exists or not? Why do you think when anything bad happens one of the first places people go is blaming God? Why do you think people who go through a wilderness season are more prone to give up on following after God? Do you think maybe there’s someone who’s sowing those kinds of seeds into the world?

-Think about what Paul tells us in Rom. 1 the world suppresses the truths of the gospel. People don’t want to admit that there is a supreme judge, an author of life who has expectations for his creation. Where do you think that comes from?

-We’ll look at that middle section at the end, because John picks up the idea of the dragon a few verses later.

-After losing the war, do you think Satan just gives up and admits defeat? Nope, when have you ever heard of a defeated enemy giving up easily? If he can’t win in heaven, he’ll try to take it out on God’s people who are left on earth.

-Reiterating what had already been said in the previous section, remember the woman was persecuted by the dragon, but then taken to the wilderness.

-God’s protection and provision are evident in how carefully He cares for His people. The wilderness looks like a place of desolation, but it’s the place where God can be proven the most faithful.

-Wings like an eagle: Ex. 19:4 “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Remember the exodus account is meant to serve as a model and foundational story for the way God’s people view the world. It’s the same thing for us! We were once slaves to sin, had no purpose or identity in ourselves, but God has made us a people, a kingdom of priests who love and serve the true God together.

-How long was she nourished? Time, times (2), half = 3.5, same time period we saw last week and in vs. 6. Remember, numbers are symbols not statistics in apocalyptic literature. They’re a stand in signifying something else. God’s provision of His people will continue through their entire wilderness wanderings. Just another reminder that God is in complete control, we can trust Him, we can follow Him, and we can persevere in difficult because we know our outcome is secure. 

-“from his mouth” think back to last week where something came out of the mouths of the witnesses. This time it’s a flood: accusations, deceptions, anything to get rid of this woman! I think this is pointing back to the deception that the devil brings. It’s literally in his name to deceive, to lead people astray, to discourage them and lead them away from following and obeying the one true God.

-And who helps the woman now? Creation. This is picking up another piece from the Exodus: as God’s people have been delivered they sing “You stretched out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them.” (Ex. 15:12) Creation knows who the king is, creation knows who to obey. We’re the ones who tend to disobey, the ones who give into the lies of the deceiver, we have since the beginning! Even if we were the ones in the garden, we would have eaten the forbidden fruit.

-I think this is modeled in Jesus’ so-called triumphal entry on the back of a donkey. The religious leaders get upset and tell Jesus to command everyone to stop praising Him, and Jesus responds. There’s a certain irony here, because the stones are crying out. The rest of creation operates as God intended, humans are the ones who don’t! Rocks cry out to God by being rocks! Dogs cry out to God by barking and wagging their tails. Fish cry out by being fishy. Humans are supposed to cry out by worshipping God with all they have and are, but so often we worship creatures instead of the Creator. Even nature obeys God’s commands, and this shows that God will continue protecting His people despite the work of the dragon.

-The woman is protected, so the dragon lowers his expectations a bit, and decides to go after the rest of the offspring. Who’s that? Those who believe in Jesus, the church!

-“Keep the commands” it’s no coincidence that what Satan first attacked was God’s commands. This is also the way we demonstrate that we’re children of God instead of children of the dragon: we are obedient to God’s commands. Think of what Jesus said as His last commission to His disciples: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” Everything He commanded. Turn the other cheek, bless those who curse you, caring for the least of these. All of that is included in this command! And that’s just the first part!

-“hold firmly to the testimony” What do you hold on to firmly? What are you looking to as your source of comfort and strength? Easy life, money, job, marriage (if single), house, car, obedient kids, even the “right” church. All those things will fail you. Unless you hold firmly to Jesus you will be let down.

-Note that it says the dragon is waging war. This will continue happening. Satan isn’t going to give up just because the gospel message has been preached. He knows it better than we do, but he views that as even more reason to fight!

-I kept thinking of the old hymn by Martin Luther in connection to this passage this week ‘A Mighty Fortress’ which says at the end of the first verse: “On earth is not his equal,” but that’s not the end of the story, it goes on to say, “One little word shall fell him.” What’s that word? Jesus:

  • The Rise of Overcomers (10-12)

-Because Satan has been defeated, there are implications for you and me, and anyone who’s following after Jesus.

-First notice that how Satan is described: the accuser. Friends, don’t miss the reality that no one can out-sin the grace of God. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! When the accuser heaps his accusation on you, when it feels like a flood bearing down on you, remember that he has no more power.

-John Newton said, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” Newton wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” was saved while he was a working in the slave trade, then pursued abolition and became an Anglican priest. Yet he fought to see the slave trade abolished, and saw it happen just months before he died. Can you think of the guilt John had as he reflected on his life? You can’t just wipe those kinds of images off your mind. Yet God’s grace goes deeper still! Christ was, is, and always will be a great savior.

-Secondly, we need to remember back to the letters to the churches. One of the promises God gives is to the one who conquers, but that was just setting it up to get to this reality. How do we conquer?

-By the blood of the lamb. Think of what washes us as white as snow, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Jesus victorious death rendered all the accusations the devil can throw at us useless. The opposite of velcro. Rom. 8:33-34 Satan has no room to accuse! Only 1 person does, and He’s on our side! There’s a difference between guilt and shame for your sin. God wants us to run to Him when we’ve sinned! Because his mercy is greater than all our sin. The devil wants us to be like our first parents and run and hide. But if Christ died for us (which He did), then we need to run into His arms.

-By the word of their testimony. I think there are 2 aspects to this, the first is we need to be careful of our words. Are we zealous about telling the truth all the time? We worship and serve the one who described himself as the way, the truth, and the life, that means we can’t even be content with a little white lie (as if there was such a thing). Our testimony must be rooted in the truth. But secondly, we have to be willing to testify, regardless of the consequences. Jesus told us the world would hate us because it hated Him. We need to stop worrying about trying to be cool or impressive and instead worry about pleasing God.

-They did not love their lives. Death isn’t the worst thing that could happen to us, second death is. Jesus even said we shouldn’t be afraid of those who threaten to kill us physically. What does death do to us? And if even death doesn’t hold power over us, then we shouldn’t be afraid of anything else! 

-Finally, we end with a reminder to rejoice. Eph. 2:6-7 “He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” We’re already in heaven, we just don’t see it yet. The devil will continue thrashing around like a chicken with its’ head cut off, but it has no power. His time is short because we have an eternity to look forward to living with God. So persevere now, run to Christ when you sin, and know that his grace covers all of your sins.

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by mikethestrand on June 2, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on June 2, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/06/02/revelation-121-18-simon-manuscript/

Revelation 11 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever been told someone has some good news and some bad news, which do you want first? I’m a bad news first guy, get that out of the way, deal with it, and then move on to the good stuff.

-God’s Word is that way. It starts with the reality that everyone is a sinner – separated from God and worthy of condemnation. But the good news is it doesn’t need to stay that way! God provided a way of being adopted into His family, of having the penalty our sins paid for, and allowed to come near to God without any fear, knowing you’ll be completely welcomed in. My favorite way of thinking about this is from Tim Keller who said: who dares wake up a king for a glass of water at 2 am? His child. We have that kind of access to God. Regardless of what the world thinks of Jesus, or Christianity, we’re given privileged access to the Creator and sustainer of everything! But then with that comes bad news – the world isn’t as great as you may have thought it was, and what comes with following Jesus is a guarantee that you will have struggles and difficulties, today’s text is a reminder that Jesus is still in our side.

READ/PRAY

-I want us to think a little bit about where we’ve been so far:

-Letters to 7 churches: different strengths & weaknesses to every church, but often a reflection of the community the church is in

-John is given a glimpse of heaven, where he hears about the lion of Judah and sees a lamb who takes the big scroll and opens 6 seals in short order

-Then we get a break where John sees (I believe) the entirety of God’s people from all history gathered around the throne right before the 7th seal is open and we’re brought right to the end of history.

-Then John takes us back to look at the same events from a different perspective, this time using trumpet blasts. First 4 quickly, then slows down for 5 (locusts) 6 (invading army) Finally, another interlude where John is commissioned to prophesy again to many people and kings, which leads us here:

A call to the church to continue witnessing to the truths of the gospel despite increasing persecution.

  1. Measuring the Temple (1-2)

-Picking up John’s commission from 10, similar to Ezek.

-Signifies the protection of God over His people. Even when there is persecution, tribulation, difficulty, God sill protects and preserves His people.

-42, 3.5 years – referring to the time period between Jesus’ 2 comings: not God’s final word on the matter, things are not “7” perfect or complete.

  1. Measuring a Witness (3-14)

-2 Witnesses. Who are these, and why does John talk about them?

-I believe they’re the church, picks up a prophesy from Zech. 4 referring to the priest and the king, this means that the church will be a kingdom of priests. That is a CRAZY idea! John has the gall to proclaim that everyone now has easy access to God. You don’t need a buffer, you don’t need a sacrifice, you don’t need a temple, all you need is the Holy Spirit in you! 

-Additionally, think of one of the purpose of a lamp: light up a room. Think of one of the descriptions Jesus gives of His people: the light of the world. One of our jobs as God’s people today is to be a shining light into the darkness of sin, despair, and brokenness. But in order to shine into the darkness, we also have to have the light of Christ IN us and be able to shine. That’s part of the reason it’s so important for us to have this regular rhythm in our life of gathering as God’s people: we gathering to be built up and edified, and then scatter (are sent) to bring God’s light into our daily lives. Friends, don’t miss the reality that we’re all in ministry, we just get our paychecks from different places. God has equipped and gifted you, and then sent you into your workplace to be an ambassador of His gospel message. You have an eternal job to do! 

-This prophetic witness of God’s people is kept safe by God. Just as He commissioned John to measure the temple and count His people, God will protect and preserve them in the midst of their ministry.

-Let’s think about the picture John’s painting here. What comes out of your mouth? Words (hopefully nothing else, otherwise you probably shouldn’t be here!) Words come out and consume their enemies (who also happen to be the enemies of God if they’re opposed to His people). Our enemies are God’s enemies.

-This is showing us that God’s message brings death and judgment to some people. To those that are opposed to God, the gospel message is a message of condemnation, not life. Similar to John’s call to prophesy that will taste as sweet as honey, but make him sick to his stomach.

-But just as John has done throughout this book, it’s also pointing back to the way God’s message has been preserved through His people in the past by recounting major prophets and stories from the OT from the newest to the oldest.

-The first story is about Elijah from 2 Kings 1. Elijah is seen by the king as a thorn in his side, so he continually tries to deal with Elijah to get rid of him, but since Elijah is a prophet he can’t! Culminates with the king getting sick and sending messengers to ask Baal if he’d survive. Elijah intercepts the messengers and tells the king he’ll die, so the king sends 50 soldiers and a captain to get Elijah. And this happened TWICE! Finally, a 3rd captain is sent, falls on his face in front of Elijah and begs for his life. But the theme is God’s protection.

-The second story is an earlier one from Elijah’s’ ministry, actually the first time Elijah is introduced into the story, and he has a message of doom and gloom! He shuts up the heavens so that it doesn’t rain during his ministry. Bookends of Elijah’s ministry, then John goes further back.

-This one is a more well-known story (and featured in 1998 classic The Prince of Egypt): Moses. In Ex. 7 it shares the first plague leveled against Egypt, but that’s just the start! 9 more plagues come, and culminate in the death of the firstborn (for everyone, but it only affected those who weren’t covered by the blood of the lamb, pointing to the ultimate firstborn who would die for them)

-Finish their testimony – who gave them the authority? What time is this referring to? 

-“The beast” (Not beauty and the beast, setting up the stage for what’s to come) those opposed to God and His ways. We see here the same thing we’ll see in 12-13: Satan and his minions fight against God and his people for all history. Satan hates when the church is healthy, he hates when the church is flourishing, he hates when people take their faith seriously, he hates when Christians are faithful in their witness and he’ll do everything in his power to fight against God’s plan. And from an earthly perspective, he’s incredibly successful. It says “conquer them and kill them.” Have you ever heard or read that the church is dead? There’s a phenomenal book that came out recently titled ‘The Great DeChurching’ that says this is the most significant religious shift in our country’s history right now with church attendance declining faster than it’s ever declined before (and faster than it grew during both great awakenings). I’ve read articles from the 90s that said the church was dying then! This reminds us that we have nothing to worry about! If God’s on our side, no one can stand against His plans! (This book is actually very good, I’d highly recommend it, and the biggest take away is most of the time those that left church would go back if someone just invited them, they just got out of the habit)

-Dishonor them:

-Leaving a dead body out was shameful, a way of heaping even more abuse on an already dead person

-Where is this? Great city would be Rome, Sodom was destroyed a long time before this was written, Egypt is an entire country, Lord was crucified is Jerusalem. This is a way of signifying the city of man. Nations, civilizations opposed to God and His ways

-Do you ever feel marginalized as a Christian today? This is taking place all the time! Satan works his hardest to discourage and bring down God’s people! This is why we need each other, we need to be able to encourage each other when we’re getting discouraged. Don’t get out of the habit!

-These people (earth dwellers) go on to celebrate, to party, it’s described the way we celebrate Christmas today! 

-This is painting a picture of Christians viewed as the killjoys, now that the church is gone we can finally have fun and party, we need to throw off the shackles of religion and Christianity.

-How do you view your faith? Do you see it as only rules and regulations, as only difficult and struggling? Or do you see it as life, and life to the full? Friends, this changes your entire way of living! If it’s just rules you become self-righteous and look down on anyone who can’t measure up to your standard. But Jesus doesn’t let you do that, He forces you to rely completely on Him because you can’t ever measure up! At some point you’ll even fall short of your standards! I heard a story this week of a pastor who was taken to the hardest level of a prison (serial murderers) and he prepared a message thinking these people would be struggling with self-confidence, so he began by asking on a scale of 1-10 how good were they? The lowest score was a 10! Friends, don’t look to yourselves to be justified, look to Jesus who will make you more human than you could ever dream!

-After 3.5 days: 

-Remember how John so often uses OT ideas. Here’s another one of them! One of my favorite OT passages, Ezek. 37. Ezekiel is taken to a valley filled with dry bones, “they were VERY dry.” God asks is those bones could live, Ezekiel says only God knows. So God commands him to prophesy over the bones. As he prophesies the bones come together, muscles and tendons form, then skin covers the bones, but that’s not enough, they’re still dead. Prophesy about God’s breath on them. He does and suddenly it’s a vast army. This is what God does: he raises the dead to life until they’re an army! And spiritually, God has brought the dead to life and made them a kingdom of priests who are commissioned to prophesy to the world that they too can be brought to life! This story serves as a picture of what the church has become today – God’s Word brings people back to life, before they’re a useless sack of flesh, but once God saves them they’re made a truly living person who can serve God and witness to others.

-Think of how the world responded to their death. Do you think they would respond similarly to their resurrection? No way! “Great fear” 

-Same description of Jesus’ ascension, or the end of Elijah’s ministry, connecting the ministry of the church all the way back to Elijah! This is a way of validating the message of the church. It might take away for this validation, but it will come!

-Earthquakes are connected to the very end in Revelation, but this judgment is revealing God’s mercy. Yes, even judgment can reveal God’s mercy! Remember: numbers are symbols not statistics. This is alluding back to some previous judgments we’ve seen in the past.

-Isa. Look at the numbers here. How many are left? 1/10, how many are killed in Revelation? 1/10

-Amos: what percentage is left? 1/10

-1 Kings: Only 7,000 were preserved, but here only 7,000 are killed and 63,000 are left. Even in God’s righteous judgment, His mercy is made evident! And this comes about because of Jesus! Jesus has born the brunt of God’s wrath, what’s given to us is grace and mercy!

-There is some debate about this last phrase. They’re terrified and “gave glory to God” is this referring to saving faith or just admitting that they were wrong, as is promised in a place like Phil. 2 that every knee will someday bow to Him?

-At this point I’m leaning slightly toward saving faith, but might change tomorrow! Strongest point I see for that is we’ve seen before in Rev. that even in the midst of suffering the world still refuses to acknowledge God. I lean toward saving faith because otherwise they couldn’t truly give glory to God! So the job of the church is to witness to God’s saving grace, and in response, people are saved! 

-Still not done yet! There’s another woe (trumpet) to come!

  1. Measuring the End (15-19)

-Seventh angel blows his trumpet, and heaven responds: the end is here! Remember, this is the focal point of the whole book (not just Revelation) God’s goal for all of history has been: God’s people, living in God’s place, serving under God’s rule and reign. This last trumpet gets us to that reality!

-And what’s the only right way to respond to God’s kingdom now being seen? Worship. One of the pastors I worked with said the theme of Revelation is worship, and I agree! The Bible opens and closes with worship – praising God with everything we have and everything we are.

-Notice the acknowledgement that the nations were angry: entire nations were upset with God! But God has dealt with them. Not always here and now, but they will one day be dealt with, so Christians should be on the front lines of affirming good nations and standing against evil nations – and that starts with recognizing that the church is called to be a unique nation. We’re not supposed to completely align ourselves with any nation or culture on earth, that’s idolatry. Instead, we’re supposed to live as foreigners and exiles who look for ways to be more faithful witnesses.

-See again that this is referring to the very end: the dead with be judged and entered either into glory or separation from God. Have you ever considered that those who oppose God are destroying the earth? This stood out to me this week as I consider how people talk about earth care today. We’re told that humans are destroying the earth, that it’s irreversible, and that we’ll all die within the next few decades. But they’re focusing in the wrong direction. Those who don’t obey God are the ones destroying the earth. I think connected to that is that Christians should care about the earth. Not abusing or destroying, but seeking to care for it since that’s God’s call on the human race. Lots more that could be said about that, and I don’t think it’s explicitly in this text, so I’ll leave it there! 

-Last piece we see in this section is the temple of God in heaven (not a literal physical temple, referring to the place where God lives as signified by the ark of the covenant)

-John was able to see where God’s presence is contained. This is part of the reason I believe this is the center point of the book, it’s hinting at God’s presence no longer being hidden or removed or far off, it’s now accessible to everyone who follows Him.

-The ark of the covenant in the OT was the place where God presence was made visible. It was completely separated from the rest of the temple, it was only approached periodically and by someone who entered with fear and trembling. But not anymore! Because John can see it, anyone can see it! This is pointing to Rev. 21:3 “Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them.” This is another evidence to me that shows we’re not supposed to read this book strictly linearly or chronologically. Just as other apocalyptic writers will do, he’ll talk about something, then go talk about something else, and then eventually make his way back around to talk about something he talked about previously. Here we’re once again brought up to the very end (as we were with the seals), as evidenced by all these weather phenomenon’s. But we’re not quite done, because we’re only halfway through this book.

-Once again, the question in front of us at the end of this sermon is: what do we do with this text? I think there are 3 things, and I said them at the very beginning.

1) Continue witnessing. It will often feel like our witnessing is pointless, and at times even worse than that because it will lead to persecution! But this text reminds us that even though some Christians will die for our faith, God will continue preserving His church, so we have to be faithful with our job.

2) Truths of the gospel. We don’t preach a message of self-help or how to improve your life, we preach a message that nothing you can do will save you, so come to Jesus and find true life! We don’t preach ourselves, but God sends us as ourselves, so find ways to use your personality to share the truths of the gospel.

3) Increasing persecution. Don’t get comfortable here! I’ve been reflecting recently on some of the alarming things I’ve read about our country, often coming from people who claim to be Christians. Why would we expect anything other than persecution? I think we at times forget that the 1 thing Jesus promises us is suffering, but with that promise He reminds us to be encouraged because He has overcome, and if we’re in Him, we will overcome too!

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by mikethestrand on May 26, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on May 26, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/05/26/revelation-11-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 7 – Sermon Manuscript

-I grew up around farmers, which also means I grew up around farms. Both grandparents were farmers, uncles took over those farms. I don’t remember the exact time, but I know at one point I learned about branding the cows.

-For the uninitiated – cows have a tendency to wander, even going so far as to break down fences to continue their wandering. If your livelihood is connected to your cows, don’t you think you’d work hard to make sure you had them all? Branding became the solution. Each farm had to come up with a brand (and coinciding name) that stood for their farm. And you can imagine that as more people continued building these farms, they would have to come up with some kind of system, right? Here’s what they came up with! Pretty impressive, right?

-Today we’re going to be looking at what it means to be branded by God, to has His name imprinted on us.

READ/PRAY

  1. Sealing the Servants (1-8)

-The next part of John’s revelation, after seeing the undoing of the natural world is 4 angels, standing at the 4 corners of the earth, restraining the 4 winds. Remember 4 signifies the whole thing, just as the 4 living creatures stand in for all of the created order, here the 4 corners are standing in for all the earth.

-But what are the 4 winds? Let’s think back to what we saw last week where we saw another 4. 4 horsemen. Most scholars believe this is referring to that same event, the judgment of God coming down on the earth. A small group of people would argue this is referring to the literal stopping of winds from the earth, which for a 1st cent. Civilization that depended on the winds to sail would have been devastating. The outcome is the same, just different way of interpreting the text

-Another evidence that we shouldn’t read Revelation as linear. That’s us imposing our Western way of thinking onto the text of Scripture that takes place in a completely different time and place. The Bible has a specific context, written by people with personalities, yet guided along by the Holy Spirit each step of the way. It’s our job to (with the HS) figure out what exactly was going on, we’re not supposed to impose our ideas onto the Bible!

-4 angels holding the judgment back, another angel comes out from the east who has something in his hand: the seal of the living God.

-Remember we’d just seen the seals being torn open (at least the first 6)

-Another loud voice (just last what we saw last week)

-Don’t harm any of the creation for a bit. I want us to think about that for a bit. Remember from last week, even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of persecution, even in the midst of difficulty God is still in control. He’s not an absent landlord, He’s not far off and removed, He’s ruling and reigning over everything and only allows evil to go so far.

-There’s this beautiful story that models that for us in the book of Job. Job was called a righteous man, God had blessed him with a big family, lots of wealth, but allowed Satan to test him by taking all his wealth, killing all his kids, and even making him incredibly sick. It got so bad that at one point his wife’s encouragement was: curse God and die. Super helpful! And then his best friends come and try to argue theology with him and try to convince him he’s done something wrong. All these terrible things happen, yet in the midst of that it says Job does not sin. I don’t know about you, but it takes a LOT less than what Job went through for me to jump to sin, blaming God, accusing God, asking God why (and to be fair, Job does finally get to ask God why), but what’s important for us to note from this story is that God’s in control. Satan can’t do whatever he wants, his power is limited.

-What that means, dear friends, is that evil will someday end. Evil is only permitted between the Fall in Genesis 3, and Christ’s second coming. As we’ll see in just a few verses, grace can’t be counted, but evil can. God will only allow a certain level of evil to continue, and then he’ll say “no more.” 

-Another way of thinking about this that’s been helpful for me is like food. When I was growing up I remember my mom teaching my about expiration dates on food, which means I turned it into a game to find the latest date possible on all the food we needed. I would scour the shelves trying to find one that expired later than the one my mom found. Just as our food eventually expires, Satan and evil have an expiration date. They can’t fight it, they can’t beat it, they can only submit to it. It’s the same thing for us – evil can only do so much to us, either Jesus will return and fix it, or He’ll take us home where evil can’t dwell!

-What does it mean to be sealed? Once again, John is picking up a theme from the OT (the knee jerk reaction to what we’re reading in here should be to think there’s some connection to the OT)

–Ezek. 9 – God’s temple was being abused, as we see throughout the OT, God’s people would swear allegiance to Him, then slowly start drifting away and need to be called back to Him. In this case, only some people are grieving the way God’s temple is being treated, so God has a mark put on them so that when the killing begins they’re spared. Once again, that should sound similar to another story in the OT that also has important mark being given: 

–Ex. 12 – The Passover. All these plagues bearing down on the Egyptians to demonstrate who the true God is (just as Revelation demonstrates God’s power over Satan and his followers, look at the way God is described in the seal “the living God” that’s how He’s unique! No other god is alive like our God). The last plague is the death of the firstborn. This is a way of signifying the family line would stop. But there was a way to be saved from this plague: and look at how it’s described “The blood…will be a distinguishing mark for you” Do you see that, even in the OT, God’s people were marked off as different and unique.

-Adventures in Odyssey mark

-We also need to pull in a couple other NT passages to understand what John’s getting at here, both in Eph. When does the sealing of God’s people take place? The moment of conversion, that time where your new life is given and you’re made a new person. But there’s also a future orientation to this sealing, the 4:30 says there’s a coming day of redemption where this sealing will matter.

-This sealing is also brought up again in Rev. 14:1 where it says the sealing is with the name of the Lamb and his Father’s name on their foreheads. The name is a way of referring to all of someone’s being. So this marker means they’re identified with God.

-What about the forehead? I think this is picking up a theme from Deut. 6 (which the 1st cent. Jews would have known) God’s words are said to be so important that we should “Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.” Our entire way of viewing the world should be so saturated by God’s Word that it’s like it’s tattooed on our forehead. People need to see that there’s something different about us, not just that we say something, but that we live differently. This also picks up a theme we see back in Rev. 7 – 144,000

-We then have an interesting section, and one of those that probably reminds you of the sections of the Bible you tend to gloss over or skip: genealogies. I’ll keep saying this through the book, but remember numbers are almost always symbolic, trying to signify or stress something. So in this case we have 12 x 12 x 1000, specifically “every tribe of the Israelites.”

-Weird ordering, because Reuben is the oldest, only 1 of Joseph’s sons is listed and so is Joseph, but Dan isn’t listed. Judah makes sense because the focus of this book is the revelation of Jesus, and he comes from Judah’s line, but no one really knows why the rest are on here.

-To understand what John’s getting at we need to take a look at the next section:

  • Salvation for the Servants (9-12)

-Remember 2 weeks ago we saw a vision of the throne room where John was told about the lion, but looked and saw a lamb. 

-In this section, John is told a number of the sealed, but then he looks and sees what? A vast multitude! This is important, because this means people like you and me can be welcomed in, and it shows the fulfilment of God’s promises all the way back in the beginning.

-All the way back in Genesis 15, God met with Abram (not yet Abraham) and promised him that his family lineage would be so big that you couldn’t count them. And what does John see in Rev? A family so big that no one can count them. Friends don’t miss this: God’s plan from the very beginning has been to bring people from every tribe, tongue, and nation into His kingdom! Whereas it used to be limited to a specific ethnicity, He’s now blown open the limits and welcomes everyone in. 

-But John’s referring to them here as Israelites why is that? It’s a way of saying that God’s plans haven’t changed. Just as He preserved His people in the OT, He’s continuing to preserve them today.

-John is picking up some ideas throughout the rest of the NT. Romans 2: where the sign of being a follower of God was circumcision in the OT, now it’s the circumcision of the heart, which only the Holy Spirit can do! 

-Similarly in Gal. 3: who are Abraham’s seed now? Those who belong to Christ! God’s plan of redemption, while it started with a specific ethnic group, has now gone global! Everyone is now welcome to the family of God, and will be in heaven with Him forever.

-How do you think he can tell there’s all these ethnicities? People look different! If it’s just a glance that John’s given, he can see these different groups of people represented. Think of that. Jesus even talked about the implications of that in Acts 1: Jesus tells his disciples that they would witness about Him: in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Church you’re sitting here today because that’s true! 

-I was listening to a podcast last month that was talking about this idea. If you think in terms of generations, we’re only 50 generations removed from these disciples. Isn’t that crazy? If you take 40 years as an average generation, we could trace our faith lineage back by only 50 generations to the beginning of the church. What Jesus promised would happen has happened! You and I are sitting here today because 50 generations of people have had their lives changed by the coming of Jesus, and have been willing to share that with other people. And the great news that will continue happening until Jesus comes back! Even if it takes 100 more generations it will happen!

-Look at the way this multitude is described: standing before the throne. Think back to last week, which ended with a question: “who is able to stand before the lamb?” Here’s the answer: a multitude of people who were clothed with white robes.

-Remember we saw those white robes last week. They were given by God to the martyrs as a symbol of their purity. That idea first came up in 3, letter to the church at Sardis, those who walk with the Lord will be clothed in white.

-They also have something in their hands: palm branches: connects to palm Sunday – celebration for salvation.

-Think of what the people sing when Jesus enters Jerusalem: “Hosanna (save us) blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” What do the people sing this time? Salvation belongs to God alone, who is seated on his throne, and to the Lamb. 

-This is a celebration! They’re rejoicing that Jesus has come back again, salvation has been accomplished, they’re now able to stand in God’s presence without fear so they rejoice.

-Church, this is the reason we meet each week! We gather on Sunday because it is a reminder to us that Jesus accomplished salvation on our behalf when he walked out of that tomb. This gathering is a celebration because salvation belongs to God alone, and we rejoice at the fact that we can now come boldly into his presence without fear because of what Jesus has accomplished for us.

-But it’s not just the saints praising God, look who else joins in! The rest of the creation: angels, elders, 4 living creatures. 

-This section is unique in the whole Bible: Amen at the beginning and the end. They’re agreeing with everything the saints have said, but they go on to share 7 things they’re praising God for. Because God’s plan is perfect.

  • Sheltering the Servants (13-17)

-Elders asked a question (equal to John, not above, another reason to think of these as angels) 

-GRK John calls him lord. John doesn’t have any idea who they are or where they came from. So he’s given an answer.

-The great tribulation?

-Just like last week, where the 4 horsemen are wreaking havoc on the earth, this is referring to what’s going on now. Doesn’t say anything about limited this tribulation to 7 years.

-Think of WW2 – some of the most intense fighting was when the war had essentially been decided, so Satan will continue fighting up until the very end. 

-“For this reason” what’s the reason? They’ve been washed, saved, sealed. All this is a jump forward to the very end.

-Sheltered by God: live with them. God’s dwelling place will be with His people again (tabernacled)

-No more struggling or suffering (hunger, thirst, heat)

-Lamb as a shepherd

-Wipe every tear: no more grief at all!

-All of this only for those who have been sealed by the Lamb, those who have put their hope and trust in Him, who can have the confidence to stand in that day of judgment.

-Last week I exhorted you if you haven’t put your trust in Jesus as Lord to do that, but today I have an exhortation to those who are saved. What are you doing to pass on that faith to the next generation? Not just talking about little kids (although they’re included too!), but what are you doing to be faithful to be Jesus’ witnesses to the end of the earth? Share the good news of the gospel with others, tell them about how to stand when the day of wrath comes, tell others how God is working in your life, but don’t keep it to yourself!

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by mikethestrand on April 21, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on April 21, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/04/21/revelation-7-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 6-16 – Sermon Manuscript

-Where people start to freak out about how to read!

-I’m going to present my current reading of how to interpret this writing, subject to changing over the course of my life! 

-What I’m presenting isn’t anything new, isn’t heretical, but it may be different than what you’ve currently heard. When we got to Revelation in seminary, my professor regularly said “This is the conclusion I’ve come to, try it on for size, see if it makes the most sense of the WHOLE Bible.”

-Bryan Chappell’s book.

-There are legitimate options for how you interpret this book. But it is probably the most difficult book to get 100% correct. And part of this is because we’re reading an ancient text, this is the last book written, and it’s still written something like 1,931 years ago. This reminds me of a post I saw a few years ago on how to read the Bible literally.

-Please don’t divide fellowship with other Christians who believe differently than you!

PRAY

-What we’ve learned so far:

-Numbers are almost always symbolic. 7 being the most used, referring to perfection. We’ve also seen 12 or multiples of 12 come up (24 elders) signifying God’s plan. We’ve seen 4 come up signifying all creation (4 living creatures, 4 corners of the earth). 10 often signifies completeness (10 commandments, we have 10 fingers & toes)

-Representation. Remember the angels of the churches in heaven, representing them around the throne. Last week we saw the prayers of the saints being like incense around the throne. There are spiritual (heavenly) implications to the things we do on earth.

-Another way of saying this is: what’s seen on earth isn’t always the true picture. I read an article this week titled ‘A Christian revival is under way in Britain’ One of the fascinating things I’ve been reading is the way even atheists are changing their minds about Jesus and Christianity. There were 4 people referred to as the “4 horsemen of the new atheism” One of them, Richard Dawkins, just admitted he is now a cultural Christian. After actively trying to tear apart Christianity for decades, he’s suddenly changed his tune after finally seeing the good Christianity has brought to Western civilization. We’ll get to the reason this is taking place as we work through today’s sermon.

-Last week we saw the centrality of Jesus in everything (God, creation, salvation)

-The way of Jesus is as a slain lamb. It’s not responding in kind, it’s not repay evil with evil, it’s trusting ourselves to a good God who has a plan for us and all of history to lead to His eventual outcome: God’s people in God’s place, serving under God’s rule and reign.

-But before we get there, there are some things that will be happening.

  1. The Seven Seals (6:1-8:5)

-There are 3 sets of 7 that we’ll be looking at, the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. I found the way my professor at seminary explained it very helpful.

-Grand Canyon (or any big hole in the ground), walk right up to the edge. Then you come back and walk a little further but eventually come back close to the edge, then you come back and go a little further and this final time you actually go and look straight over the edge. 

-If that doesn’t make sense, he used another illustration of having 7 seals, then using a magnifying glass and zooming in on the 7th seal to find 7 trumpets, then zooming in on the 7th trumpet to find 7 bowls. 

-This is called recapitulation, that is restating or repeating the same event from different perspectives. 

-One author summarized it this way: “In the seven seals we are seeing things from the perspective of the suffering church. In the seven trumpets we are seeing things from the perspective of the world as it is being called to repentance. In the seven bowls we are seeing things from the perspective of the temple, from the throne of God.”(Discipleship on the Edge, 303)

-4 horsemen of the apocalypse

-White horse – some debate about whether this rider is Jesus, because in Rev. 19 we see Jesus riding a white horse. Also picks up the “conquering” language that we saw with the churches

-Red horse – wars, and these happen regularly

-Black horse – the rich get richer, and the poor can’t survive

-Pale horse – ¼ of the earth dies by plagues, famine, animals.

-Nothing about them is unique to the future, happens over and over again and will continue happening over and over again. Think of what Jesus says in Matt. 24 “You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet.”

-5th seal: martyrs are begging God to end all things, but they’re told not yet. 

-6th Great earthquake, not literally, as the earth we knew it could not continue. Marker of the judgment of God, every person on the earth realizes it. They’d rather die by an earthquake than face the wrath of the Lamb. 

-Again, think of what Jesus says in Matt. 10:28 “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Eternal death is far worse than earthly death.

-Then there’s a big interlude in 7 to the beginning of 8

-Chapt. 7 – The great tribulation, sealing of God’s people. Think of the sealing of the scroll that we saw in chpt. 5. 

-One thing to note about this sealing: John’s using Israel to describe all of God’s people. Just as what John heard about the lion in chpt. 5 didn’t match what he saw (a lamb), here we have 144,000 (12×12, then 10x10x10) then when John looks to see it’s more people than anyone could count from every nation and tribe, people and language. The gospel has gone to the 4 corners of the world, and everyone is now welcome!

-7th: no judgment, just silence: All creation pauses before God

-But God isn’t pausing: the prayers are being brought before God. Don’t forget that prayer changes things. God listens, God responds, they don’t stop at the ceiling. 

-The description of this event will come up again, same wording and phrases for the other 7s.

  • The Seven Trumpets (8:6-11:19)

-Again, the first 4 come out in quick order: 1/3 of the earth burned up, 1/3 of the sea becomes blood with 1/3 of the creatures dying, 1/3 of the rivers and springs, finally 1/3 of the sun moon and stars. Almost as it the creation is becoming undone. What God had done in Genesis couldn’t withstand these terrors. 

-The key fraction is 1/3 – both a lot, yet noticeably less than half. The majority world (or could call it the 2/3 world) could say that these judgments have already occurred, or are already occurring.

-5th trumpet: notice that the pit is opened, these woes are overtly demonic, those who argue this is just helicopters or human warfare don’t acknowledge the spiritual component, just as some argue that Jesus’ miracles weren’t supernatural events

-Believers are still protected (9:4) This tells us that believers will be there in the midst of these events.

-6th trumpet is allowing 1/3 of humans to be killed. We’ll talk about the pictures John is drawing from when we get here, but it is meant to be repulsive.

–9:20 – Still no repentance from unbelievers, meant to lead to repentance. Even God’s judgment is intended to lead people to repentance, so this signifies that people will have no excuse when the final day of judgment comes. 

-Once again, after the 6th event there’s another interlude: 

-Little scroll, similar to a story where Ezekiel was told to eat a scroll, but this time there will be no more delay, and John is commanded to continue to prophesy

–Chapt. 11 we have an interesting story about 2 witnesses, who are they? It’s important to remember that the Bible requires 2 witnesses to make a matter stand. It’s not enough to have just 1 witness, you need 2.

-Vs. 4 describes them as 2 olive trees and 2 lampstands. Olive trees picks up an idea from Zech. 4where Joshua the priest, and Zerubbabel the governor are described as 2 olive trees, the last time we saw lampstands was in Rev. 2-3 describing the churches, so most scholars believe these 2 witnesses is a way of signifying the church. The church is the true witness, who is protected and preserved by God in the time between Jesus’ 2 comings (what we’re living in now) So the olive tree signified God’s people as the new kingdom and priests (we saw that last week in Rev. 5:10)

-There’s some timing listed in this chapter too, that I haven’t talked about before, but there’s a number of ways it’s described: time and times and half a time, 42 months, 1,260 days all signifying 3.5 years. That 3.5 years is half of 7. 7 is a way of signifying the perfection of God (7 churches), 3.5 is a way of signifying it’s not God’s final word on these matters. I get that from the way a 1st century Jew would have thought. For anyone born in the early 90s, if I say 9/11 what comes to mind? The World Trade Center. If I say “4 score and 7 years ago” what comes to mind? Gettysburg address. There are certain phrase that become so embedded in the culture they become shorthand for referring to something bigger. 3.5 years is the time of a major event known as the Maccabean Revolt where a group of Jews fought off the invaders and won! So 3.5 years became identified with a period of extreme suffering that would only last for a period of time and then stop. It also unlike 7 where it’s perfect, it’s half of it saying it doesn’t have the final word.

-This also shows us that things won’t only get worse or only get better as time moves on. I love the way my professor at seminary summarized what we see taking place: progressive polarization in the world. People respond to the gospel message, but increased persecution is also a reality. Both things will be taking place at the same time. And don’t we see that in the world around us? It seems like there’s always little pockets of places where the gospel is flourishing and spreading like wildfire, and then other places where it’s receding and falling away. Rise and fall, but the gospel continues to spread, and Satan continues to fight.

-I’m actually going to jump ahead to chapter 16 now, because I want to conclude in something that blew my mind from the middle section here 

4.  The Seven Bowls (16:1-21)

-Here we see the wrath of God being poured out as from a bowl. There is enough similarities between the events taking place here, and the 7 trumpets to think that they could be referring to the same event.

-Jim Hamilton’s comments.

-But notice this time, there’s no break between any of these judgments. No interlude, no more waiting. We’ve gone back to review it enough, and the judgment is now here! So just as I said at the beginning, we’ve seen the repeats, now John is seeing the whole thing in front of him! And this time we get a loud voice saying “It is done” That should bring to mind a phrase we think about on Good Friday “It is finished.

-One other thing is the increasing severity of these judgments. Where initially it was ¼, then we went up to 1/3, and now there’s no one and nothing left out. It’s as if all creation is coming undone because of the wrath of the lamb! More to come on these, because now I want to look at a couple things from the middle section which explains the way the battle continues to unfold.

  1. The Dragon vs. the Lamb (12:1-15:8)

-We looked at the first 6 verses of this on Palm Sunday: it’s a heavenly perspective on the Christmas story. But John continues, and goes on to talk about the way the war would unfold. The dragon is called the devil and Satan, he is thrown out of heaven, and is described as the accuser and deceiver. That’s literally his job! He is right now doing any and everything he can to fight against Jesus and His followers – the church. 

-Then we have the completion of what’s been called “The Satanic trinity”

-Satan doesn’t have complete power, so all he can do is copy. And that’s what he’ll try to do! Copy everything God has done, but it will always fall short and be insufficient in some way.

-The second part of this trinity is a beast from the sea. John picks up descriptions from Daniel 7 to describe it, which tells us this beast is kingdoms of the earth. Rulers, governments, earthly authorities that refuse to submit to the Lordship of Jesus and instead try to become god. And the beast is the one behind it all! It’s described as appearing to be fatally wounded, but is healed, and how often have we seen that with various forms of government across the world? Think of the 20th century: the rise of Naziism, which dies and has communism take its’ place, and followed by nationalism, and then socialism, and on and on the isms go. This is the work of the best in human history! But it’s not just 1 beast, because then there’s a beast from the earth who supposedly looks like a lamb (where have we seen that before?) but speaks like the dragon! This final beast empowers worship of the sea beast. People using worldly standards, and looking to worldly powers to solve all their problems. Of course the world is going to oppose the work of the lamb, they’re empowered by the devil, and he’s had millennia to hone his craft! 

-vs. 18 has to be one of the most misunderstood texts in the Bible, and I won’t say this is most definitely the correct interpretation, try it on for a bit, think of the rest of Scripture.

666 – Gematria, but doesn’t really make sense because “Six hundred, and sixty, and six” in Greek. I think a better way of thinking about this is referring to the unholy trinity. Just as God’s perfect number is 7, so the trinity would be 777, but Satan falls short every single time. So you can read 666 as Fail, Fail, Fail.

-I want to end with Rev. 14, because I’m still reflecting and processing an interpretation I read from a commentary this week. It’s a section titled ‘Reaping the Earth’s Harvest’

-Most scholars believe there are 2 different reapings taking place. The first section is Jesus reaping out the believers. Think of what Jesus says in Matt. 9 “the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.” So reaping is positive throughout the NT. 

-What I’m still processing is whether or not the second reaping is also positive. Here’s why. There’s enough language that’s the same between the 2 accounts, that they could be referring to the same event. Throughout the Bible, there’s also references to Israel as the vine of the earth throughout Scripture. So the first readers could have heard this referring to the true Israel of God’s people. 

-Then we have anther significant phrase “outside the city.” There’s a pretty significant event that took place outside the city in the Bible: the crucifixion of Jesus. That is the place where God’s wrath was laid out in full. And is there enough blood in that event to cover over the sins of everyone? Listen to what he says:

-Now, it may be true that these connections are just a little too clever, and I wouldn’t say it’s most definitely correct, but it does make sense of the text, it makes sense of the Bible, and it makes sense of the cross.

-Church don’t miss this. Jesus’ precious blood that was shed on the cross is enough to cover every sin you have committed, will commit, and is the only way you can ensure you’re following the way of the Lamb instead of the way of the dragon.

-As we continue seeing our world continually polarized, our command hasn’t changed: make disciples of Jesus. Whether you were alive in the 1st century, the 4th century, all the way down to the 21st century the command hasn’t changed. We faithfully focus on telling everyone the truths of the gospel, and living in such a way that shows that we believe it. 

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by mikethestrand on April 7, 2024  •  Permalink
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Revelation 5:1-14 – Sermon Manuscript

-When I was growing up there were these books at the library and friend’s houses that were called ‘Magic Eye’

-Supposedly, if you stared at it just the right way an image would pop out. I say supposedly because I could never get it to work! Friends would tell me what they “saw” and I’d just have to take their word for it. After years of frustration and honestly a level of embarrassment, I finally figured out how to do it in my mid 20s. 

-I think there’s a tendency for Christians to be viewed like I felt trying to look at the ‘Magic Eye.’ We claim to see the world differently, to interpret world events differently. Just as it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to figure out those magic eye pictures, God doesn’t want us to take that long to figure out how to live in the world He created, and today’s text gives us the way we should interpret everything in the world.

READ/PRAY

-Remember what we saw last week: 

-John was given a glimpse of the heavenly reality that’s taking place all the time. The 4 living creatures around the throne serve as God’s royal protection. The 24 elders reign with God as co-heirs. And day after day without ever stopping they are worshipping and praising God because He alone is worthy.

-One thing for us to realize is anytime we gather to worship (like we’re doing today) we’re joining in to something that’s already taking place. God is being worshipping all the time, and sometimes we get to join in with the elders and the living creatures in worshipping God.

-I say sometimes because we as humans tend to miss out on opportunities to worship God. God has created us to as worshipping beings, you can see this in the ways humans have this desire for something bigger or greater. I watched a documentary onetime called ‘Free Solo’ about Alex Honnold’s climb of El Capitan without any ropes or assistance. As someone who hates heights the documentary made me sick! My palms sweated the entire time I watched it!

-Because we have been created with a sense of something greater than ourselves, we all long to feel a connection to something bigger than us, whether that comes through free climbing El Cap, or driving at fast speeds, jumping out of a perfectly functioning airplane, traveling to the furthest corners of the world, whatever it is we have this desire to worship, and as Augustine reminded us, our hearts will remain restless until they find their rest solely in God.

-Today is a continuation of last week, and sets the stage for the rest of this book. None of the other events that we’ll study the rest of this year would happen apart from today’s text. It shows the reason why we need to worship God, and His purpose in all of history.

  1. Is Anyone Worthy? (1-5)

-The next thing God reveals to John is something God is holding. Last week the focus was on the throne and around the throne, after taking in the big picture view, John sees something in God’s hand.

-A scroll, writing on both sides, sealed with 7 seals. What is the significance of all this?

-Scrolls were the most common form of collecting writings in the 1st century. Contained edicts from the government, could be receipts, personal letters. Books weren’t common, and were far more expensive (although scrolls weren’t cheap either!) Made from papyrus that was stretched out and glued together, which often meant one side was smooth and the other was rough where it was patched together, so very rare for papyrus to be written on both sides.

-The writing on both sides connects back to Ezek. 2:9-10. One of the important things to note about that is the extent of what’s covered by the writing in this scroll. The only reason you would write on the front & back was because you needed to fit everything in. I read someone this week who argued that the reason we have Luke & Acts divided is because they couldn’t fit on 1 scroll. See if the story was divided onto 2 scrolls and you lost 1 you’d end up with only half the story. In this case, because it contains God’s plans for all of history, He wanted to make sure that no one could divide it. 

-Lastly, it was sealed with 7 seals. Just as we seal an envelope with licking the nasty glue, in the 1stcentury the way you sealed something was using wax that would be dripped onto the joint of the scroll, and often imprinted with the royal crest or some other sign to denote who authorized this writing. Then, once the seal was broken it signified that the document was now authorized and would go into effect. Once again, the number 7 signifies the perfection and completeness of the sealing. Just as everything related to God is perfect and complete, even the way He seals His plans is perfect and complete.

-Mighty angel with a loud voice.

-What kind of voice do you think this is like? He’s interrogating all of creation, seen and unseen, on earth and under the earth. 

-A loud voice historically been connected to preaching. Charles Spurgeon (London, 1850s-1892) would measure the chest of anyone who felt a desire to preach. Today he would be sued for discrimination, in the 19th century, this was called “vetting the candidate”. He said “Gentlemen with narrow chests are advised to use dumbbells every morning. You need broad chests and you must do your best to get them.” 

-Ironically enough, with all the writings we have from Spurgeon, we don’t have the size of his chest recorded. We know he had a 52” waist, so you can imagine the chest that accompanied that waist! He was able to preach to a crowd of over 23,000 people without amplification. Could you imagine sitting close to him as he was preaching? My watch gives me a notification when I’m in an environment that’s too loud (Timberwolves game), and I’m sure he would have set off my watch! 

-This angel isn’t preaching to tens of thousands, he’s proclaiming to billions (or as vs. 11 says, “countless thousands”) and asks all of the created order who is worthy or able to open up God’s revealed plan for all of history.

-Who is able? No one. So how does John respond?

-Weeping. When is the last time the implications of Jesus’ resurrection moved you so much that you wept? Just as I mentioned with the scrolls being sealed, if no one is worthy to open them, then all of God’s purposes: both judgment and blessing can’t happen. 

-Remember the churches that John was writing to. Facing immense persecution, widespread martyrdom, if no one is found who can open the scroll, then the judgment they’re facing has no purpose and it leaves them hopeless. Think of the despair that John would have felt in response to that!

-Maybe you’ve felt that way before. That life is utterly meaningly, that there’s no point to the issues you’re trying to face right now, that you’re all alone in the universe and no one cares, no one sees you, and no one will ever be there for you. That’s certainly the way John felt, as well as many of Jesus’ followers throughout history. I’ve felt that way throughout my life! Yet in the midst of that, this story reminds me that I’m not alone and never will be. In the middle of history is the greatest event the world has ever seen – where God became man and dealt with all our sins once and for all on the cross. Which is exactly where this story goes next:

-One of the elders (remember them from 2 weeks ago, the 24 who sit around the throne casting their crowns at God’s feet) encourages John to keep watching. Even when it seems/feels like there’s no hope, God’s still at work.

-A lion is going to appear! This is referring to Gen 49:9

-Root of David comes from Isa. 11:1

-Has conquered, just as the promise to the churches in Rev. 2-3 a reminder that all of this is only possible because of what Jesus has done.

-Before we look at the next section, I need some help from the kids. 

-If I told showed you this picture, what would animal would I be showing you? A lion! 

-And if I showed you this picture, what animal would I be talking about? A lamb/sheep. The elder tells John to look at the lion, but what does he see when he looks? Look at vs. 6

  • He Is! (6-7)

-The lion looks like a slaughtered lamb. Don’t miss this idea here, I would argue that it’s the interpretive key to understand all of the book of Revelation.

-Remember that we saw with all the churches that their status on earth wasn’t matching up to their heavenly reality. The churches that seemed to have it all going for them were spiritually bankrupt, and the churches that seemed to have nothing were the most spiritually rich. And that’s the upside down way God has designed the world to operate.

-The only way the Lion of Judah conquers is by being the sacrificial lamb. This picks up another prophecy from Isa. 53, and seems honestly foolish if you only see things through a worldly lens. In a fight, what would you rather have on your team, a lamb or a lion? Which one do you think would help you win? 

-Or think of this in terms of mascots. March Madness right now, at times it’s funny thinking of the mascots some teams choose. One college where I grew up in ND had the Beavers, how fear inducing is that? Or think of the mascots of various countries: Russia has a bear, Britain a lion, France a tiger, the US an eagle. All of those kill lambs! One swipe from a lion and the lamb’s dead! And that’s the point. 

-Don’t miss this reality, but the only way to truly defeat evil and violence is by refusing to respond with more violence. If you have siblings and get into fights, isn’t the tendency to just escalate? They push you, so you shove them back even harder. They hit you so you hit them back even harder. But what does the way of the lamb teach us? That the only way to truly deal with evil once and for all is by taking the full force of it on yourself. Because notice how John goes on to describe this slaughtered lamb: standing. How is that possible? Because Jesus didn’t stay dead – the grave couldn’t hold Him back, after dealing once and for all with evil, He came back from the dead. 

-Look where He’s standing. I think a better way of translating this is “in the middle.”

-Jesus is in the middle of the throne. Not off to the side, like God the Father has scooched over to make room for Him, literally in the very center of the throne.

-But He’s also in the middle of the four living creatures. Remember from last week that these are stand-ins for everything God has created. At the very center of all of creation is Jesus. Jesus holds all creation together, Col. 1 tells us that everything was created and exists only by Jesus, and John 1 tells us that apart from Jesus nothing will ever come to exist. 

-But He’s also in the middle of the elders. If these 24 elders are representing God’s people in the old covenant and in the new covenant, that means Jesus literally stands in the middle of God’s plan for all of history. 

-Jesus in the middle of the throne as God, middle of the creatures as the center of creation, and middle of the elders as the center of all of God’s redemptive plan.

-7 horns, 7 eyes:

-Talked about horns the past couple weeks now, 7 being perfect and complete meaning He has all the power. Eyes leads to wisdom, He can see everything, nothing catches Him by surprise or off guard. So Jesus is both all-powerful and all wise, nothing can defeat His plans, and nothing can stand against Him.

-Think back to what we studied in Rev. 5, the text made a big distinction between who was ON the throne, and who was AROUND the throne. Does anyone remember anyone else who was able to come straight to the throne? 

-This is another evidence that Jesus is God! No one else is worthy, no one else is allowed to approach the throne except God, so God does what only God can do an He grabs the scroll.

-And what’s the response?

  • Amen! (8-14)

-As soon as Jesus grabs the scroll, which is rightfully His, they respond as they should: they fall down before Him in worship. John is going to give us 3 different responses, each expanding out from the throne. The first is those who are around the throne at all times:

-They respond by singing a new song. 

The normal response of God’s creation to His revelation is singing. This is why we sing every week, because we respond to God’s revealing Himself to us, we gather around His revelation (His Word) and we respond to that revelation by singing praises to Him.

-They use language from the Exodus, where Israel was saved from bondage and slavery, but now it’s a people from “every tribe and language and people and nation.” Now God’s people has no ethnic limitations! Because of Jesus’ work they are a kingdom (not with the same limitations as an earthly kingdom), and priests. Seems like a weird connection, until you realize this was God’s intent for His people from the beginning. Reign over the rest of creation and be in right relationship with God.

-Next group is many angels, numbering “countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands.” Literally more than could be counted! 

-Why do they say He’s worthy? 7 things, which means perfectly worthy of being worshipped! Notice that He’s worthy because He was slaughtered, He wouldn’t’ have been worthy apart from that because God’s plan would have been stopped. 

-Lastly, John gets a glimpse of every creature joining with the angels and those around the throne joining in the praise of God! Either willingly or by force. (Phil. 2) 

-This vision wraps up by the four living creatures saying “Amen” So let it be, we agree with what everyone has said and has done.

-At the very heart of the gospel message is the reality of suffering. The closer we get to the heart of Jesus the more sensitivity we will have to the suffering of the world around us. Prepare for it, and bring it to Jesus when you see it, then work to bring that suffering to an end. 

-The lamb has conquered! We work from that victory, not toward it! Jesus has already won, nothing can stand against us and we have nothing to be afraid of!

-This also tells us that the way of the lamb is sometimes going to look really dumb. If we can’t see things from a heavenly perspective, we’re going to be tempted to use the world’s standards and neglect to be obedient to the way of the Lamb. Think of how Jesus taught us to live: 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the humble,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

Doesn’t that feel backwards to us? We’re taught to look out for number 1, to make sure we get our way! But that’s the world talking, and not Jesus talking. If we actually want to see true wisdom come, if we want to see heaven come down to earth, it must start with us viewing the world the right way, living in the way of the Lamb, and joining with the rest of creation in worshipping Him with all we have.

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by mikethestrand on March 31, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on March 31, 2024

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Revelation 12:1-6 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever read a story or watched a movie that doesn’t really make sense until you get to the end?

-Mysteries do this really well – all these little hints throughout the story until it brings all of them together in 1 cohesive unit at the end. Knives Out, Glass Onion

-Agatha Christie books/movies do this really well. If you know what you’re looking for the as the story unfolds you can see these events taking place, but if you don’t know the ending you’ll be pretty confused by some of what’s going on.

-God does that with the Bible in what is known as progressive revelation His story progressively unfolds, you see little hints and threads of His bigger plan throughout the book, but you need to read all the way to the end to find out how all those little pieces fit together.

-We’re going to be looking today at the work of the dragon in a specific moment leading up to the Palm Sunday story, and see that what Jesus has done is created a way for us to become wise and whole people, if we trust Him, obey Him, and live the way He’s designed us to. 

READ/PRAY

  1. A Woman, a Dragon, and a Child (Revelation 12)

-All sorts of different mythical stories in the 1st century where gods and goddesses fought against dragons (Egypt, Ugarit, Mesopotamia, Greece, Roman)

-Not saying any of those are true, but God often speaks to His people in ways they can understand. He’s trying to communicate things that are incommunicable at all times. If you’ve ever seen an adult hold a baby you’ve seen this! 

-“A great sign”

-Not seen by anyone else, this is just revealed to John.

-Connects back to Isa. 7:14 “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.”

-Unfortunately, God isn’t the only one who gives these signs, as we’ll see in just a couple verses.

-“A women”

-Who is this woman? Mary seems to fit here, but we need to take the bigger context, so look down at vs. 17 – most commentators believe this is signifying God’s people, who had been waiting for generations for the Messiah to come

-God’s people as His bride appears throughout Scripture (Isa. 54:5, Hosea, 

Rev. 19:7-9, 21:9)

-“Clothed with the sun, moon under her feet, crown of twelve stars”

-Beautiful and exalted with the brightest star we can see! This woman is astoundingly beautiful! She takes on some of the characteristics used to describe God: Psalm 104:2 “He wraps himself in light as if it were a robe” This woman is closely connected to God, but it also connects us to a story all the way back in:

–Gen. 37:9 – story of Joseph, who eventually did have this take place for Him. But Joseph isn’t the main point of the story, because Jesus is the even better Joseph who allows us to be saved from the famine of sin and death! Getting a little ahead of myself though.

-“She was pregnant”

-Theme throughout OT of Israel suffering labor pains while waiting for the arrival of the Messiah Mic. 4:10 “Writhe and cry out, Daughter Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you will leave the city and camp in the open fields. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued; there the Lord will redeem you from the grasp of your enemies!” Everything leading up to Jesus’ arrival could be said to be the pain of childbirth, longing for the arrival of the King. But the woman’s not alone.

-“Another sign: great fiery red dragon”

-seven heads, ten horns, a crown on each head. At first glance this is supposed to be absolutely terrifying! Think of a 7 headed dragon, 3 heads have 2 horns coming out and the rest have 1 horn (horns signify strength, think like a Rhino). Every head has a crown on it. Unfortunately for this dragon (and unknown to Him), his role is to be the butt of God’s master plan. He has literally been created for destruction. While at first glance it looks like the left 2 heads, in reality he’s more like the dragon on the right. 

–Dan. 7:7, 24 – dragon manifests himself in and through human rulers and authorities. Blomberg “Since Satan is not omniscient, and since only God knows the timing of the end, the devil must have an “antichrist” ready in every era, lest that turn out to be the time God has appointed for the consummation of all things.”

-The fact that this dragon has crowns on his head shows that he’s trying to imitate Jesus. When we get to this section again in June, we’ll see that this is the first of the unholy trinity. Satan tries to mimic and destroy God’s perfect plan, but he falls short each and every time. 

-But this story is really a tale as old as time. Think back to the beginning of the Bible: Gen. 3:15 the serpent themes throughout Scripture: Pharoah’s headdress, fiery serpents being sent upon Israel (Num. 21), Goliath’s armor. 

-Are you a part of the army of the serpent or the serpent slayer? There’s a wonderful little book on this titled ‘The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer’ that traces many of these themes throughout the Bible, if you’re interested let me know!

-The violence of the dragon: “tail swept”

-Some say this is the fall of Satan with his fallen angels, Others appeal to Dan. 8:10 calls Israel the stars: which would mean this is the dragon’s hostility toward the people of God. I could be convinced of either option, but the point is the dragon is opposed to the work of God.

-Stood in front of the woman while she’s giving birth.

-Is there ever a time that a woman is more vulnerable than during delivery? I haven’t ever experienced the labor pains myself, but I’ve seen it a number of times now and am very grateful that my wife won’t ever need to experience that again! It takes literally everything out of a woman! 

And then in the midst of that pain and struggle, this dragon positions himself to help deliver the baby straight into his belly! This is grotesque, but a true description of Satan’s goal.

-But also think of what happens when Jesus is born: Matt. 2 – Herod kills all babies, just a Pharoah worked to kill all the Israelite babies in Exodus. The serpent hates people, who are created in the image of God, he is opposed to them from birth to death, Literally the opposite of God.

-I thought this was such a cool point from Micah’s last class on Bible interpretation: a correct interpretation of the text will lead to human flourishing. That is God’s intent for His creation! Becoming everything He’s created us to be, worshipping Him with all we have. Not following the way of the dragon.

-The woman gave birth to a Son (notice the capital letter and the description of this son)

–Psalm 2:9 – this is all about the ways the dragon looks to usurp God’s authority, the ways he uses nations and kings to do his bidding and fight against the chosen one, but nothing he can do will thwart God’s plan. What looks like certain destruction for the Son (giving birth into the open throat of the dragon) becomes the means by which the dragon is defeated.

-John then skips over every other event in Jesus’ life (we’ll see him talk about those next week in Rev. 5) and goes straight to his ascension. 

-“The woman fled into the wilderness”

-“The wilderness represents life in the present age” Tom Schreiner

–Hos. 2:14 wilderness is a theme in the history of God’s people: leaving Egypt (God’s provision), Jesus’ ministry. So even as the dragon is waging war against God and His people, God will protect and preserve a faithful people who will serve God instead of the dragon.

-But what does that look like, practically, for life today? How do ensure we’re following the Lamb instead of the dragon? Let’s look at a story from John that sets the stage for the triumphal entry. 

  • A Dragon, a Disciple, and a Messiah (John 12)

–John 13:2

-Some context: Lazarus had just been raised from the dead, Jesus’ notoriety was rising and Lazarus kept spreading the news about what Jesus had done to him. 

-Seems that Lazarus and his sisters were good friends of Jesus. 

-Also coming to the end of Jesus’ ministry & life. This serves as the beginning of the end, is a day before Palm Sunday and leads into the triumphal entry. But as we read it, I want us to notice a couple throwaway comments that John says to give us some background about Judas. 

READ

-All throughout the Gospels the reader is forced to deal with the question: “how do YOU respond to Jesus?” That’s part of the reason they’re so powerful, they draw you into the story and force you to respond.

-Read a story this week of someone who gave a NT to an unbeliever who had  no history with the Bible. He said the stories at the beginning were super repetitive, the middle made no sense, but he really like the science fiction at the end. Yes it is repetitive, but they each have a different goal.

-Lazarus is eating with everyone, Martha is serving everyone, and in comes Mary! How grateful do you think this family would have been? Lazarus had died, had been raised back to life, how would you respond? Wouldn’t some kind of priceless gift have been appropriate?

-“A pound of perfume” a Roman pound is like 12 oz so think a soda can size that gets dumped over Jesus. 

-The best of the best, this isn’t a knock-off, hasn’t been watered down, this is the perfect specimen of perfume, worth a year’s wages. This could have been a family heirloom that had been passed down for generations. Wealth is viewed differently in different times of history, we tend to think only about money, but there wasn’t a common currency or global trade market to track, so items were used as a retirement account.

-This perfume would have followed Jesus everywhere he went for days. Think about that – as Jesus was led to his death this smell would have been accompanying Him, reminding Him of this night of joyful celebration with His closest friends.

-Then who does the focus turn to? Judas, the betrayer. 

-John gives us some back story here about Judas’ character. 

-I’m guessing you, like me, have had this exact conversation before. Anytime you spend money, someone’s going to ask you if you considered the poor children in Africa. Yes, I have no way of getting to them, I do support children all over the globe, and I still needed a car to get around, house to live in, etc. That was a much more effective argument when I was 16 years old!

-Look at vs. 6: Judas stole from the funds. Funds received from people supporting Jesus and His ministry. Have you ever considered how few people in the Bible would pass a background check to serve at church? David was an adulterer murderer, Moses was a stuttering murderer, Peter was an impulsive and seemingly angry man, Judas was a thief liar and betrayer, Paul was a master at finding Christians and killing them. Would any of you trust your kids to those men? No! Apart from Jesus at work in them. Jesus would have known exactly what Judas was doing, He would have known the ulterior motives Judas had for being in charge of the money-bag, but he allowed Judas that opportunity.

-Jesus gives us the freedom and opportunity to choose. Ultimately He knows what we’ll choose, but He will still allow us to be tested to learn that He’s the only thing we need. Yet just like Judas, we so often miss it. We give into the temptation, we refuse to stand strong, we don’t acknowledge that Jesus is all we need.

-Jesus’ response has a tendency to be very misunderstood. 

-Doesn’t mean don’t care about the poor because they’ll always be poor, nor does it contradict Jesus’ other teachings about always looking to care for the poor and marginalized, but just as He tells us that our love for our family must seem to be like hate compared to our love for Him, so our devotion to Him must take precedent even over and above acts of compassion. 

-“Acts of devotion and acts of compassion for the poor are not mutually exclusive.” (Colin Kruse)

-I think this is what James means when he talks about faith without works being dead. Our worship must lead to a transformed life, otherwise our worship is pointless. 

-I was listening to a podcast this week: “The reason is that when you dive deep into biblical wisdom…you start to see the reality that according to the Bible, wisdom is about becoming a certain kind of person, not necessarily knowing what sort of rules to follow. So there’s, there’s always this inward direction with wisdom, wisdom is always kind of pushing toward the heart. And it’s always trying to create certain kinds of people.”

-What we see when we look at these 2 passages is the temptation to become a certain kind of person: one that follows the way of the dragon, or one that follows in the way of the Lamb. One leads to life, and one leads to death. One leads to joyful celebration, and one leads to sorrowful mourning. And every one of us has a choice as to which of these 2 characters we’re going to follow and emulate. 

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by mikethestrand on March 24, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on March 24, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/03/24/revelation-121-6-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 4:1-11 – Sermon Manuscript

-I got forwarded an email this week from one of my uncles of my grandpa’s farm being featured in the local newspaper, and grandpa winning a fairly prestigious award! 

-It’s funny what they emphasize in the article. “electrically heated watering devices” and “The Strands have an ‘all electric’ farmstead”

 -Then grandma called me this week and told me about another article that came out about the same time and described her as a “progressive” woman because of all her electric appliances! 

-It got me thinking though, how would you describe electricity to someone living 200 years ago? Vines connected to large skinny trees that connect all houses together. If your house is connected to these vines you can get a mini sun in your house to be able to see at night! What a gift! That means you can work longer hours, sleep less hours, and get all sorts of mental health issues due to working too much. Do you think they’d have any framework for how to understand what we’re saying? 

-Or imagine trying to describe facetiming or skype to someone just 30 years ago. You get to SEE them and talk to them! My kids get frustrated and confused when my parents call me without facetime because they can’t see them.

-Take it a step further and try to explain Wi-Fi to someone who hasn’t seen a computer, or an iPhone (yes, not an android) to someone who doesn’t know what a computer is (so easy a caveman could do it)

-Now take that and multiply it by infinity and you’ll start to see the tall task in front of John today: trying to explain the infinite using finite words to finite people.

READ/PRAY

  1. The Throne (1-3)

-“After this”

-Not referring to time, just saying the next sequence of visions was moving from the letters to the churches to the next thing God wants to reveal to John.

-This also serves to set the stage for the rest of the book. Think of the first 3 chapters as the introduction, then this begins a new section where God is giving all the spoiler alerts as to how we should view the events of human history.

-“Open door”

-Can you imagine getting a glimpse of heaven like this? What do you think this looked like? Do you ever contemplate heaven? The words in here were written to the 7 churches, yes, but they’re also for us today to be reminded what heaven is like, to understand what God wants from us, and to have our hearts stirred by the reality that God is in control and worthy of our full allegiance and worship, not anything on this earth that tries to distract us. Focus on heaven!

-“The first voice” “In the Spirit”

-1:10 – same voice we read about in here

-“In the spirit” isn’t the first time this happened:

–2 Cor. 12:2-4 “2 I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don’t know; God knows. 3 I know that this man—whether in the body or out of the body I don’t know; God knows— 4 was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a human being is not allowed to speak.” 

-The big difference is Paul wasn’t allowed to talk about it, but John is commanded to! Similar to Jesus’ ministry where He regularly told His disciples to not tell anyone until after He was ascending to heaven, then they were supposed to tell everyone!

-“Throne in heaven”

–Isa. 6:1-4: God’s presence connected to the temple, Seraphim (6 wings), continually call the Lord “holy, holy, holy” The noise literally shook the foundations of the building! 

–Ezek. 1:26-28: brilliant light, rainbow 

-“Jasper and carnelian stone”

–Ex. 28:17-20: the priestly garments. A way of signifying the set apart nature of priests, which turns out was a reflection of God Himself! One of the things we see throughout this book is that God has designed earthly ideas to reflect heavenly realities. That will keep coming up in today’s text and the rest of the book!

-“rainbow”

-Can you see how John’s fumbling with words here? Rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Ezek. 1:4 “there was a whirlwind coming from the north, a huge cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire, there was a gleam like amber.”

-Once again, we need to keep in mind the whole biblical storyline here. Does anyone remember when rainbows were first mentioned in the Bible? Gen. 9, right after the flood! What does God promise to do? Never again flood the whole earth. That is another way of saying God’s preservation of His people despite His right judgment coming.

  • Around the Throne (4)

-24 thrones, 24 elders (subservient to the main throne)

-Numbers are almost always symbolic in Rev. so some people try to argue they’re humans who have earned their crowns and white clothes by being faithful unto death like God promised to the churches.

-Others argue that they’re angels, and the number refers to standing in for the 2 12s God used in His renewal plan of the world: 12 sons of Israel and the 12 disciples chosen by Jesus.

-Another argument is like the 24 orders of the priests (1 Chron. 24:4-5)

-I think this is meant to be similar to the letters to the churches, a heavenly representation of an earthly reality. (We should probably flip that around: a heavenly reality of an earthly representation) Just as the 7 churches had corresponding angels, here the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples have corresponding angels. 

  • The Throne (5-6a)

-Zoom back to the throne. What comes from the throne?

-Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody “Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening”

-Very few things more frightening than a huge thunderstorm. I remember driving with a friend in WY (the part of WY I lived in was flat, literally opposite corner of the pretty Jackson Hole side, more like Nebraska) we saw a big storm coming in from MILES away and he commented “can you imagine people coming here in covered wagons and not being able to pull out your phone and see where the end of the storm is?” These pictures start to show what the part of Wyoming I lived in look like. Close to mountains, but you can’t see them! 

-This ditch was almost dry before this storm came through, this was the aftermath of a pretty good-sized storm. But aren’t storms terrifying? Even today when we can easily see the trail of the storm when it’s passing through the power is incredible! 

-Similar to Isa. 6 noisy, loud, smoke filled the temple, Ezek. 1:4 “there was a whirlwind coming from the north, a huge cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire, there was a gleam like amber.”

-God’s people saw similar things when He met with Moses in Ex. 20

-“Seven fiery torches”

–Rev. 1:4 where the 7 spirits showed up before. Not saying there are 7 literal spirits, referring to the complete perfection of the one true God

-“like a seas of glass” not a sea of glass, closest John can get to trying to describe it

-Separation between the throne and everything else. Often the sea in early times (and probably should today too) is viewed as terrifying, full of chaos

-An impossible barrier for us to cross. But there’s also a significant theme of water throughout the Bible that I think needs to shape the way we think about a sea here. 

–Gen 1:2 Creation, spirit of God was hovering over the water

-Gen. 7 (flood) 

-1 Kings 7:23-26 Bronze sea in the temple 

-Finally seeing the waters of baptism as another picture of the way we approach God (Rom. 6, 1 Peter 3)

-This separation between the throne is only accessible through the waters of baptism, which is the first act of obedience to demonstrate your new faith in Jesus Christ, which means we now have access to this throne! 

  • Around the Throne (6b-11)

-“Four living creatures”

-All sorts of proposals: 4 Gospels, astrological signs, divine attributes. Representative of the created world (again, just as the churches have divine representation, this represents all of creation serving the one true God)

-Midrash (Jewish commentary on the OT) comment on the book of Exodus: “Man is exalted among creatures, the eagle among birds, the ox among domestic animals, the lion among wild beasts.” Taking the “cream of the crop” as a stand in for all creation.

-Similar to what we see in Ezek. 1, 10, specifically we learn that these are Cherubim, angels (Ezek. 10:15). They guard God’s presence, are found in the most holy place where God is enthroned as king, were sewn into the curtains of the tabernacle, carved into the walls, doors, and frames of the temple – so where God’s presence is you find Cherubim. 

-Covered with eyes, 4 directions, signifying that they are vigilant in protecting God and carrying out His commands

-“Day and night they never stop” more lit. never rest.

-This is what they do 24/7. There’s no down time, no breaks. And think of the repetition of this. They never stop saying:

-Why do we think repetition is such a bad thing? My first role in ministry was music, thankfully people don’t have any strong opinions about music! GK Chesterton Orthodoxy

-Did you know that God loves repetition? Do you know that He doesn’t get tired of hearing people worship Him? I think this is hard for us to admit sometimes because we’re the ones that get tired of it. I have a friend who grew up in the Caribbean who told me the reason they repeat words and phrases for so long is because it takes that long for those realities to start to reach into their hearts. If we can’t regularly reflect and be moved by the realities of the gospel and who God is something’s wrong with us, not the repetitive words.

-“Whenever”

-glory, honor, and thanks – acknowledge that God alone has and contains all these divine truths. 

-Elders join in 24/7. It’s not just the 4 creatures, it’s also the elders who are worshiping God all the time, without any breaks. 

-Fall down – prostrate themselves. Just as we need to realize that there are spiritual realities and implications to our lives, we also need to realize that we are complex creatures who are called to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. Or as we see in Deut. 6 to love God with all our “muchness” That means there are certain physical responses that are appropriate to use in our response to God. There’s a reason we stand when we sing, there’s a reason we bow our heads when we pray. These physical responses help our bodies match the reality of what we’re doing, and God intended it that way. There are all sorts of physical descriptions of faithful ways to worship God in the Bible: sitting, kneeling, standing, shouting, crying, silence, raising your hands, raising your head, staring at heaven. All of those don’t always have to be present in worship of God, but if they’re never used I wonder if we’re being faithful to worship God with everything we have and are?

-This gets us to what the elders are doing: Cast their crowns – who gave them the crowns? Rev. 2:8 “Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” 

-This is important: when we worship God, we’re not worshipping Him with anything we earned by ourselves. From the very breath in your lungs, to your skeletal structure, to the muscle and skin tissue covering your body, all of that is a gift given by God. 

-The only appropriate response to understanding who God is, Him revealing Himself is to worship Him. Think of what Paul reminds us of in 1 Cor. 4:7 It’s a rhetorical question because the answer is NOTHING! 2 chapters later he says: how do we glorify God with our bodies? We use them to worship God!

-Look at what they say:

“You are worthy to receive” Roman phrasing used to welcome the emperor or government officials. By referring to God this way, it undercuts the whole imperial cult! Caesar isn’t Lord, Joe Biden isn’t Lord, Putin, Kim Jong Un, Netanyahu, none of them are worthy to receive this glory and honor and power. Why not?

-They don’t reign cosmically. In the scheme of things where there are millions of galaxies, more planets than we can ever know about, none of these countries make a dent in all of the created order. They didn’t bring anything into existence and they will someday die! But not God.

-Weird word order: created and exist logically makes sense, but this is making a theological point that everything only exists by Him, and they only come into being by Him

-Someday, anyone who is in Christ will join with the 4 creatures and the 24 elders in worshipping God 24/7, using everything they have and are to honor, praise, and glorify God.

-Some really bad ideas about what that means. What if I don’t like singing? Are we just going to be playing harps on clouds all the time? 

-There is going to be continuity and discontinuity between heaven and earth, and I think there’s going to be a lot more continuity than we often think about. We have a picture in the Bible of what our resurrected bodies will look like and how they’ll operate in Jesus’ resurrected body. He was able to eat, walk, talk, be touched. His disciples recognized Him! But there were also some unique things, like walking through walls, disappearing. 

-When we get to heaven, we’re all going to have jobs to do! We’ll be able to continue learning new things, practicing new skills, and all of them will be tools that will be used to worship and glorify God. And here’s the best part: we have eternity to explore these things! So if it takes you 100,000 years to learn something, don’t worry, you’ve got eternity to keep learning and worshipping the Sovereign Creator 

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by mikethestrand on March 17, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on March 17, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/03/17/revelation-41-11-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 3:1-22 – Sermon Manuscript

-New classes starting NEXT WEEK at 9AM:
-“Strange New World” how did we get to the point in a generation where the statement “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body” not only makes sense, but has become the norm
-EFCA Denials and Affirmations: social justice, woke, CRT, Christian nationalists, transgenderism, gender roles in the church, annihilationism.
READ/PRAY
1) Sardis: Wake Up! (1-6)
-About the city: one of the most glorious cities in Asia, but it was well past its heyday.
-Almost an impregnable military stronghold. Sheer cliffs on 3 sides, steep approach on the 3rd side.
-Fell in 546 BC because some men climbed up the “unscalable” cliff and just opened the gates to the enemy. “Capturing Sardis” became common language to describe achieving something impossible. Happened again in 214 BC! Another guy climbed up the cliff and opened the gates!
-17 AD a terrible earthquake devastated the town, rebuilt by Rome, who then used the face of the emperor on their currency.
-Special interest in death and immortality, focus on the fertility cycle and bringing life out of death.
-One of the largest Jewish synagogues every excavated was found here, room for over 1,000 people.
-Jesus is the one who has authority and power in heaven, not the strong Jewish community (hold on to that idea, it comes up again at the end)
-Reputation for: literally “name is alive” How would you feel if Jesus’ commendation toward you is: you have a good name. But your name doesn’t match up to reality
-I think this a theme throughout Scripture! Think of the Apostle Peter (Rocky!) yet he might be the most insecure and weak of the twelve apostles because he repeatedly caves in to peer pressure. See Jesus takes what looks useless to us and turns it into something useful. Paul describes the gospel message as a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks. Yet that’s what we believe!
-How can this church turn it around?
-Be alert! Wake up! Just like the city left their backside unguarded, stop sleeping and start shoring up the weaknesses in their lives.
-Strengthen what remains: 2 Tim. 1:6 “fan into flame” think during the summer when you have a bonfire. If you don’t tend to it, it will slowly burn out. Then you’d need to blow on the smolder, throw some grass on it. Similarly, if there are good things happening, and God is working in some small area, feed it! They’re not dead yet!
-Remember what they have received and heard: think back to the truths of the gospel message they believed in. Don’t stray too far from that simple message that Jesus Christ died for you! Hold to that and live a life of repentance.
-If the church doesn’t stay awake, judgment is coming. No one knows when that day is, but judgment is guaranteed. Think of 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”
-The whole church isn’t on the verge of dying: there’s a faithful remnant who are continuing to serve the Lord. Do you have the conviction to be that kind of person?
-What promise does Jesus give to the conquerors here?
-Dressed in white clothes: mark of purity, completeness
-Never erase: “At some point “the curse of the Minim” was added to the 18 Benedictions prayed daily by Jews in the ancient world. “The curse of the Minim” reads, “May the Nazarenes and the Minim suddenly perish, and may they be blotted out of the book of Life and not enrolled along with the righteous.” (Jim Hamilton). This Jewish commitment Jesus says has it backwards! And if Jesus writes them down, nothing can erase them. Matt 10:32-33 Whoever denies Jesus before others will be denied by Him.
2) Philadelphia: Love Jesus First! (7-13)
-The city: called “The gateway to the east” Volcanic soil fertile and ideal for grapes. (city of brotherly love, just like the one in Pennsylvania)
-Youngest city, founded sometime after 189 BC. Biggest issue: prone to earthquakes. Many people lived outside of the city because of that. Walls of the city were constantly cracked, building were built assuming they would fall. The pillars used would show signs of deterioration. While we don’t have any pillars left from the original, this is what they would have looked like (from archway of the church of St. John the Theologian in Philadelphia)
-After a big earthquake in 17 AD, taxes were removed for 5 years, in response the city renamed itself “Neocaesarea” and then also added the name “Flavia” in response to the imperial dynasty.
-Primary allegiance was to Dionysus, the god of wine.
-While Philadelphia was big and impressive, the church there was the opposite.
-Jesus is holy and true: don’t give in to the worldly standards or expectations, and don’t put your hope in the wrong places.
-Key of David: allusion to Isa. 22:22 “I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one can close; what he closes, no one can open.” Entrance into God’s presence. The Jews had kicked the church out, but Jesus won’t.
-No negative word said about this church. They’ve remained faithful and haven’t denied Jesus’ name.
-Similar phrasing from Smyrna, but Jesus promises to be with His people in the midst of the hour of testing.
-“Earth dwellers” (CSB-“those who live on the earth) always refers to unbelievers throughout Revelation
-Remain faithful to Jesus, don’t deny, even unto death.
-Conquerors receive:
-Pillar in the temple: unlike the pillars that were prone to earthquakes, this pillar can’t be knocked over!
-Remember how many times the name of this city was changed? If Jesus writes His name it will never change, and they’ll be a part of a new city: New Jerusalem. Ties to the book of life where the names reside.
3) Laodicea: Let Jesus In! (14-22)
-This city: 2 major trade routes through here, a hub of trade and communications in the province. Allied closely to Rome, administrative and judicial center for the area. Eventually became the banking center adding wealth. Became the home to a textile industry known for producing raven-black wool. And a famous school of medicine that created “Phrygian powder” and eye salve.
-Also prone to earthquakes, destroyed in 60 AD, but refused help from Rome. The citizens paid to rebuild.
-No water supply, piped in via an aqueduct.
-Amen, faithful and true, OG:
-Col. 1:18 “He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.”
-Not that Jesus is a created being, but think of what we learn about Jesus in John 1:3 “All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.”
-Works are neither hot nor cold. I remember being told that God wishes they were either spiritually on fire for him, or cold enough to be done with them, but that’s not the point he’s making.
-Just as He’s done other places, and for the same reason I will use illustrations from movies or events taking place around us to help us understand the text, Jesus here is saying that He wishes the people were hot and healing like the waters at Hierapolis (city 6 miles away), or cold and refreshing like the waters at Colossae (10 miles away), but lukewarm (like the water than came through the aqueducts) which was repulsive. Additionally, the water would pick up minerals as it was transported, so by the time it got to the city it was repulsive, literally vomit inducing!
-So because they are neither bringing the healing power of the gospel to bear in their conversations, or refreshing others with the message of the gospel Jesus is going to vomit them out. Be done with them! It’s because of how they define themselves:
-They think they’re wealthy, and they are! But only on earth.
-Remember, one of the purposes of Revelation is to help us change our glasses, or the way we see and interpret events that are taking place around us. Jesus’ goal with these letters is to give these churches a glimpse of what’s happening spiritually. So because of the immense wealth of this city, this church has started to imbibe that same thinking and think they need nothing. But spiritually, they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. What an indictment!
-Jesus goes on to give them some advice: buy true gold (spiritually), white clothes (contrasted with the black wool or purple cloth that was a marker of wealth), and spiritual ointment to have their eyes opened to the spiritual world instead of only focusing on the physical/material world.
-This is similar to a story in Acts 8 – Simon the Sorcerer thinking material wealth gives you access to God’s kingdom. He actually asks the apostles to give him the ability to lay hands on people and give them the Holy Spirit! Peter responds “May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, your heart’s intent may be forgiven.”
-Despite having all the material wealth they could need, spiritually both Simon and the church at Laodicea are spiritual bankrupt. The only way to get true and lasting riches is to repent of putting your hope and trust in God’s good gifts, and instead put your hope and trust and confidence in Him.
-We then come to one of the most quoted verses from Revelation that has been used in more evangelistic messages than I can keep track of! But it misses the point of what Jesus is saying here.
-Is this letter written to a person or a church? A church! Instead of Jesus standing at the door of someone’s heart, it’s painting a picture of being too wealthy and independent to admit their need for Jesus. It’s a terrifying indictment of a church! This is another way of saying this church has stopped functioning as a church and instead has become a social club.
-But this also paints a picture of an historical reality that the people would have understood. At this point in history, most cities in this area were so safe and secure that they never closed their gates. But that wasn’t the case in Laodicea. They wanted to protect and preserve all the wealth and prestige they’d accumulated so every night they’d close their gates. In fact, when the city was rebuilt, the gates had placards on them noting who paid for it. So the church would have had that image in mind when Jesus is condemning them in this way. Jesus had been shut out of the church the same way the city shuts people out of their gates. They think they have arrived and need no help, even from Jesus!
-If the church finally acknowledges their need of Jesus, and let Him back in (to where He belongs), He will come and eat with them. This is a way of signifying restoration of relationship. Eating together was the sign of close connection and relationship building. (think of the accusations of Jesus who ate with sinners) Jesus wants to be in close relationship with His church, but the church can become so independent that we’ve inadvertently thrown Him out and closed the door.
-The final call to the church is to sit in proper judgment. Don’t assume that because of material wealth that you have spiritual blessings! Jesus is the one who sits on the throne of judgment, and He invites His followers to sit with Him IF they remain faithful to Him
-What about us? Where are we at today? If we were to be given a letter from Jesus, where would we be commended, and where would we stand condemned? In 2014, an author and researcher named Thom Rainer wrote a book titled “Autopsy of a Deceased Church” that had some incredibly helpful information on it! And then he followed it up with “Anatomy of a Revived Church” in 2022. Look at the chapter titles of his first book:
-Let’s think about some of these: “the past is the hero.” Anyone ever heard someone say “we’ve never done it that way before!” That’s a good description of this issue. And because I’d rather talk about issues than dance around them, this has been an issue in our history! We have a tendency to look back on 04-10 as the “glory days” when our halls were filled, when attendance was up, but what we forget it he turmoil that was taking place behind the scenes. The past tends to be viewed through rose colored glasses, but God’s still at work here today! And we know from Revelation that the best is always in the future!
-“The budget moved inwardly.” As of today, 13% of our annual budget is given toward outside ministries, missionaries, or organizations. From a crisis pregnancy center to campus ministries to missionaries in China, our dollars aren’t just being focused on ourselves.
-“The Great Commission Becomes” the great commission is Jesus’ command in Matt. 28 “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” We can summarize that as Make & mature disciples of Jesus. If discipleship isn’t taking place (either new conversions or people growing more like Jesus), then we stop being a church on mission with what Jesus has called us to do and be. Going means going into even our local community, our neighborhoods with the gospel message. (“from the edge of the parking lot to the end of the world”) It means we have to live different from the same worldly pursuits our neighbors are living out.
-“The preference-driven church” As soon as someone starts defining the church based on their preferences we’re going to die. Period. Unless we are willing to die to our preferences we have not hope of being a healthy church. As soon as you find yourself says “I don’t like __” realizing this is what’s happening in your heart. Whether it be the music, the class topics, the LG materials, the kid’s ministry, or even the preaching. When you start viewing the church through what you get instead of what you give you setting the church up to fail.
-“The church rarely prayed together” I read an article a few months ago that was titled “32 Random Thoughts About the Local Church” One of them says “Few people want to be part of a church that doesn’t pray, but few people want to attend a prayer meeting. You should ponder this conundrum.” Do you spend time in prayer for our church, or time praying with other members of the church? One of the commitments I’ve made since coming here is trying to end as many meetings as I can praying. Not every time, but a majority of the meetings I have I try to close in prayer. If we’re not praying, we’re not growing.
-There’s more that could be said, and I’m not trying to say this book is the same as the Bible, it’s not, but it gives us some time to pause and reflect on where we are as a church. Are we too complacent about what’s going on around us to be effective in witnessing to those around us? Are we too blind to the spiritual realities we’re facing because we’re too obsessed with earthly riches?
-Yes, these letters are to churches, but churches are comprised of individuals. So every single one of us needs to ensure that we’re keeping Jesus as the center and focus of everything we do, so that we as a church can move toward that same goal.

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by mikethestrand on March 10, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on March 10, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/03/10/revelation-31-22-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 1:1-8 – Sermon Manuscript

-I’m not much of a gambler (I’ve played the penny slots each time I’ve gone to Vegas just for fun), but I onetime got the better of a friend with a guaranteed bet. March Madness party.

READ/PRAY

  1. Blessing Comes Through God’s Word (1-3)

-Apocalypse = revealing. Opposite of hidden. 

-This is meant to be studied and understood and applied and lived out in our lives. If anyone tells you this has a hidden meaning or we shouldn’t seek to learn and discern this book, point them to the first word of the first verse. The revealing! This book is going to give us a glimpse of what takes place in the spiritual realm, a peek behind the curtain to see things through God’s eyes. 

-Revelation OF or ABOUT Jesus Christ (both) The Greek can be translated with either preposition: the point is the revelation is focused on Jesus. This should be significant to us for a couple reasons:

-First, all of history is centered on Jesus the Christ. Everything that is revealed only comes about because of what Jesus has accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection. Second, that means the focus of this book has to be on Jesus and not our experiences or perspectives on what the great tribulation period will look like. All of those stories must remain in the background as we remember and focus on the revealing of Jesus.

-If you’ve ever taken a picture of someone and you do the new portrait mode on the new phones, it allows you to choose a focal point and the rest of the image becomes blurry. If we focus our attention too much on the background we’ll miss the point of the picture. So as we walk through some pretty fantastical descriptions of events and characters, remember to keep them in the background because they’re not the main event. 

-This does NOT say “The mystery of all the events that will take place at the end of all things” it says “The revealing of Jesus.” Keep that as the focus!

-To show his servants: servants is used 7 times (perfection) to refer to believers (1:1; 2:20; 7:3; 19:2, 5; 22:3, 6). Just as this book was written to reveal, it’s also for all Christians. 

-Soon: (near vs. 3) what does it mean that Jesus is coming back “soon”? How does God view time, how do we view time? 

AT Pierson (Christian missions advocate) in 1886: “Imminence is the combination of two condition, certainty and uncertainty. An imminent event is one which is certain to occur at some time, uncertain at which time. Imminent is not synonymous with impending. It is not exact to say that what is imminent is near at hand, it may or may not be.”

-Think of a verse like 2 Peter 3:8 “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” So it’s only been 2 days since Jesus ascended into heaven, according to the Lord! That’s not long! And what if His return is delayed for 2 more days? Even my kids can tolerate waiting 4 days for a big event!

-He made it known, or signified it by sending: his angel or messenger? Angels are God’s messengers, they’re sent by God to bring messages to His people. This divine emissary speaks on God’s behalf, and we’ll see John interacting with various angels throughout this book, but again they are subservient to God. The angels aren’t the point, the angels don’t accept worship (John at one point will become so overwhelmed that he’ll fall down at an angels feet) Angels just like you and I are created beings. They have a role to play in God’s cosmic plan, but unlike us they’re not embodied creatures. 1 Peter tells us that angels wish they could understand the implications of the salvation we experience, so they have a different kind of relationship with God than we do. This angel is sent to a specific person: John (1 of the 12 disciples who ministered with Jesus during his earthly ministry, go back to last week’s message to hear about him)

-Testified to what? The Word of God. John’s not making something up, not a fanciful story. Cara and I recently watched the new Wonka movie – reused the song from the old movie Pure Imagination that begins “Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination.” I think we can have a tendency to read Revelation like that. When we read this book we’re entering a land of pure imagination. It makes no sense, logic and reason are left at the door, but that’s not true! Since it’s the word of God, we hold to it just like the other 65 books. And what is this testifying about (again) Jesus Christ!

-“See” is an important verb throughout Rev. It’s another way of telling us that John is (similarly to the angel) just a messenger recording what God is revealing to Him.

-We next get to the verse that is the reason I wanted to preach through this, what I’ve heard some people refer to as the Revelation beatitudes, the blessing that comes from reading and keeping the words of this prophecy. 

–7 blessings in this book. Once again perfection, probably signifying a full or complete blessing that comes about through this whole book (1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, 22:14)

-“who reads aloud” one translation adds “in the church” as I had pointed out to me last week. The way the early church received the message of these letters was by having some receive them and read them in the church. Can you imagine how shocking this letter would have been for those first Christians? 

-But it’s not enough to just hear it, it requires us to do something with it. Hear AND KEEP, or obey them. As we work our way through this book, or as you read it, look for the things that we’re supposed to be doing with the message in them. It may take some sanctified imagination, but that’s ok!

-As we just read, this revealing isn’t just for 1 person, it’s for all believers, or you could say this is for the church. We need to be a part of the church in order to correctly live out and receive the blessing God is giving through this revelation.

  • Blessing Comes In the Church (4-5a)

-Author of the book we talked about last week. Seven churches (we’ll dig into those in a couple weeks)

-Numbers are almost always symbolic. This letter is addressed to these 7 specific churches, but these churches also stand in for all churches in all times and places. 7 stands for fullness or completeness. 

-Another reason to think this is the last verse in every letter to the specific church says “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” (We’ll get there soon! Gotta get through this chapter first)

-Grace and peace ALWAYS comes from God in the Bible.

-On our own we can’t have either of these things. Grace is unmerited favor, the fact that God has cast our sin as far as the east is from the west. If you don’t know how far that is that’s the point. God has placed eternity between us and our sin. Because of God’s grace given to us, we now have peace with God and with each other. Without God’s work there is only fighting and disagreement, but now God allows us to have true and lasting peace.

-Just like many other greetings in the letters of Scripture, signifies the “letter” genre of this book.

-The one who is, who was, who is to come: Ex. 3:14 “I am who I am” or “I am the one who is” (Schreiner) 

-He is (he reigns even over the Roman empire), He was (He has always been the sovereign Lord, even over the Egyptian empire), He will be (we will finally see His ultimate rule and reign when He returns)

-These churches were facing a brief but intense season of persecution. When things are difficult, doesn’t it become easier to start doubting that God is working in your life? For a number of these churches, they’re seeing their friends dragged off and killed for choosing to identify with Jesus. For many of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, this is also true for them. I think of the church in Afghanistan that for the first time in their history were able to publicly declare their faith, then that tool because a hit list for the Taliban after we withdrew our forces. If you’re facing death it can be hard to trust that God’s still in control. That’s why we need to have good theology because our experience will train us to neglect this fact that God is, God was, and God will be.

-7 spirits: 

-Once again, 7 refers to completeness, perfection. The perfect spirit. Many believe this is a reference to Isa. 11:2. Notice the 7 descriptions of the spirit here: Lord, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord.

-Trinitarian: and the Son. Dear friends, don’t miss this. The trinity wasn’t made up by the church in the early centuries, the church instead affirmed what God has revealed about Himself throughout Scripture. (3-fold description of Him)

-Faithful witness: the mission of the Father to seek and save the lost

-Firstborn from the dead: “Others were resuscitated (like Lazarus), but they all died again. Jesus, on the other hand, has conquered death forever.” (Schreiner) This will matter when we get to Rev. 21, so keep that in mind as we continue through this – have you ever considered that Jesus, after the resurrection, is the only example we have of what our resurrected bodies will be like? There will be some things that are the same (the disciples recognized him, his scars were still there), but there will also be some things that are different (walk through walls, able to conceal himself from others). We often miss the significance of a phrase like “firstborn” too. The firstborn was the most important child. The one who received all the recognition, a double inheritance, all the privilege and prestige. This also connects to Psalm 89, which gets us to the third description.

-Ruler of the kings: Psalm 89:27 We talked about this politically, went to a conference with Micah this week where I was reminded that every government and leader will someday give an account to the Lord for how they lead (Rev. 6). Even though it seems like the evil government was winning, in the world that really matters (which for now is unseen), they have no power. Jesus is their ruler! It’s already true spiritually, someday soon it will be true visibly.

  • Blessing Comes Only By Jesus (5b-8)

-In spite of the persecution they’re currently facing, that’s not what they’re facing in the heavenly realm.

-Loves, set free from our sins. Church don’t miss this: Jesus LOVES you. All of you. The real you. Not some future you. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more, and nothing you can do to make Him love you less. That’s why Paul goes to such great lengths to tell us that NOTHING can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-Freedom: Galatians 5:1. We are free to no longer sin. Where we used to be bound by sin (could only sin) we can now become slaves to Jesus, which completely frees us to be exactly who God has created us to be. And this freedom makes us: (vs. 6)

-Kingdom and priests: Ex. 19:6

-“The promise of salvation given to Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:15) and to Israel has now been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.” (Schreiner)

-Kingdom has a king, a place, and a people. Our king is Jesus, our place is heaven (which will be coming to earth), and His people is the church. And because of what Jesus has done, we can now be called priests: the people who engage with God. That’s CRAZY! We don’t need a sacrificial system, don’t need magic words, we don’t need to dress a certain way or act a certain way, we can come straight to God.

-Doxology: these realities must move us to praise God! One of my favorite questions to ask those pursuing ministry: “when is the last time the implications of the gospel emotionally moved you?” The fact that we’re saved has implications in the way we live our lives, including how we handle our emotions.

-Amen doesn’t mean “goodbye” it means “I agree” or “May it be so” it’s a way of signifying agreement. It will come up again in just a couple verses. 

-“Look” or “Behold” a way of saying “PAY ATTENTION!”

–Dan. 7:13-14, 

–Zech. 12:10 “The Zechariah text has been altered in two significant ways. The phrases “every eye” and “of the earth” (cf. Zech. 14:17) have been added to universalize its original meaning.”

-Jesus second coming will be significantly different than the first time! This time it won’t by incognito, it won’t be in a humble manger.

Schreiner: “First, “all the tribes of the earth” probably alludes to Genesis 12:3 (cf. Gen. 28:14; Ps. 72:17) and the promise to Abraham that many will become part of his family. John declares that “all the tribes of the earth”—all who have rejected Jesus Christ as Lord—have pierced Jesus. Or we could say that every human being has crucified and pierced Jesus, but those who have repented of doing so are freed from their sins (Rev. 1:5–6).

John responds to what he has written in verse 7 with an affirmation: “Even so” and “Amen.” The salvation of the righteous and the judgment of the wicked are both a matter of joy in Revelation, the latter not because of vindictiveness but as a matter of justice.”

-Remember what I said last week: don’t ever take hell, or the coming judgment lightly. Final justice is permanent. No take backs, no do overs. And everyone at some level wants that. It is fascinating to me that the natural human impulse is to want justice when you’re wronged, but grace when you the one who does wrong. We self-justify and blame others very quickly. And everyone has this impulse to want justice, but the justice is for someone else not for me. Eternity is a very long time. 

-Alpha and omega (Greek letters): like Amazon (A to Z)

-Believers can be guaranteed such vindication because God is “the Almighty.” “Almighty” (pantokratōr) in the LXX is most often a translation of the Hebrew for “Lord of hosts,” referring to Yahweh as the Lord of the armies of heaven. Keep that in mind for later too.

-Church, God is in complete control. It doesn’t matter who’s in the oval office, it doesn’t matter how socially ostracized we become, this world is not our home. Jesus has defeated sin and death, He is currently ruling over the kings of the earth, and we have nothing to be afraid of. That sounds like the greatest blessing I could ever hope for!

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by mikethestrand on February 11, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Sermon, Theology, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on February 11, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/02/11/revelation-11-8-sermon-manuscript/

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