All posts in category Worship

Genesis 21 – Sermon Manuscript

-A common proverb today is: “Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.” I apologize to anyone who’s not a Millennial, but I immediately thought of a movie that came out in 2003 (remake of a 1976 film), called ‘Freaky Friday’ 

-If you haven’t seen it, it’s a story about a mom and teenage daughter who aren’t getting along, they fight all the time, have a lot of resent between them, and one day they wake up having switched bodies. One of the best moments is the day they wake up, and Jamie Lee Curtis runs to the mirror and screams “I’m old!” And I’ll be honest, that gets less funny each year! Part of the reason this has been on my mind, is if you hadn’t heard, Freakier Friday is coming out this summer. I know fashion is cyclical, but this is one I didn’t expect a sequel to!

-We’re continuing to follow the life of Abraham, and what this story does is somewhat allow us to walk a mile in his shoes. We’ve seen the ups and downs, Abraham as the hero and Abraham as the villain. People are complex, aren’t they? That’s one of the reasons I love the Bible – it doesn’t sanitize the stories!

READ/PRAY

  1. The Child of Promise (1-7)

-The first thing I want us to notice is who’s doing the acting here? After last week where Abraham doesn’t even acknowledge the one true God, suddenly the first word in this chapter is Yahweh. We’re once again struck with the way God continually upholds His end of the covenant, despite Abraham’s unfaithfulness. This first verse is just between Sarah and the Lord, and remember how Sarah responded to the Lord’s promises to provide a child? Laughter! And how does God respond? Faithfulness, steadfastness.

-The first word in this communicates something to us: who’s in charge of this process? Not Abraham, not Sarah, the Lord. God is orchestrating all these events at just the right time.

-This is one of the main things I hope you take away from this whole series: your life begins and ends the same way this chapter begins: the Lord comes. In fact, I would argue that this is one of the predominant themes throughout the entire Bible: God living and dwelling with His people. 

-Micah just did a brief teaching on this idea at a school this week, but Scripture traces the idea of a temple from cover to cover, the temple is the place where God can live with His people. Eden is created as a temple where Adam & Eve live together with God in perfect harmony, then when that union is broken through sin, there’s only division unless God intervenes, which He does again and again. The ark is built as a temple where God’s creation is saved from the wrath to come, Abraham repeatedly builds altars to the Lord, which serve as a temple. He’s promised a land where God’s people will live in prosperity, where God will dwell with them, and in that land a literal temple will be built where God will live with His people, and then the best part of this story is that God Himself comes into time and space and becomes the means by which a physical building is no longer required to be right with God. We’ll be celebrating that reality in just a few weeks with Easter – the temple who became flesh died and rose again, allowing outposts of God’s temple to be spread across the entire world! We as Christians are now called temples of God. What a glorious picture, beginning all the way back here with Abraham. Our stories can now look like this, where we’ve refused to acknowledge God, God meets us, fulfills all His promises, and makes us His temples forever.

-This time, Abraham is obedient to the Lord’s command. God had told Abraham what the child would be named and what the timing of circumcision was supposed to be for all his descendants. 

-And what’s most amazing is Abraham’s age: 100. Think back to the first sermon in this series from Gen. 12, when did God first come to Abraham? 75. Abraham had been waiting this entire time for this promised son. Do you think you could wait that long? 

-Once again, the theme of laughter appears. Remember I told you a few weeks ago to keep the idea of laughter in mind, because it was going to serve as a minor theme moving forward, all that laughter has built up to today. Isaac’s name will be a reminder of the laugher and joy of the Lord’s provision for His people! But as we know, there’s more people involved in this story.

  • The Child of Flesh (8-21)

-Another theme we’re supposed to trace through the story of Scripture is 2 lines who are opposed to each other: the line of a women and the line of a serpent. After the fall in Gen. 3 God promises that there will be continual fighting between the family of the women and the family of the serpent, and this continues all the way to the end where a giant serpent (actually a dragon) is still trying to fight against the woman. Kids, ask your parents about that story, it’s in the last book in the Bible, Revelation! This story also has a comparison between 2 lines, but it begins as Isaac grows.

-Abraham throws a great feast on the day Isaac is weaned (other ancient documents state this takes place at 3 years old). Why throw a party?

-It was a miracle to make it to 3 years! Many children died very young, remember they didn’t have the same medical advancements we take for granted today! Things that we have medicine for could have been a death sentence here.

-One of the fascinating things about this account is Ishmael is never mentioned by name in this story, first referred to here as “the son,” 

-We’re supposed to begin contrasting these 2 boys: one son of the promise and one son of the flesh. What does this son of the flesh do? Our translation says mocking, the word is the same as has been used repeatedly in this story for laughing, but a different kind of laughing, you can laugh WITH someone or you can laugh AT someone, these have 2 different implications.

-“Drive out” used in Gen. 3:24, 4:14 (Cain) Sarah is pushing here for the disinheritance of Ishmael, forcing him away from Abraham

-Last time, Sarah drove her away by mistreating her, this time she’s making Abraham do it, which is difficult for him because it’s his son. 

-God reconfirms His commitment to Abraham, even to his illegitimate son. God’s promises are far beyond what we could ever imagine! Even though Abraham took matters into his own hands, God will still bless Abraham’s line.

-It seems that Abraham is a morning guy, we saw him up early after S&G, he’ll be getting up early again in next week’s chapter, but I also think that this is demonstrating the similarities between the 2 sons of Abraham (come back next week for more!)

-Hagar and Ishmael are sent off, and I want you to notice how Hagar responds through the rest of this story, because I think it’s a warning for us to not become immune to the way the Lord is working. 

-First, she wanders away from Abraham. Who has been blessed by the Lord and promised to bless everyone else?

-Then she leaves her son, doesn’t look to take care of him, she’s more worried about herself. Don’t want to be too hard on her because I can’t imagine losing a child, but we’re going to see Abraham do the opposite next week when he offers up Issac to the Lord.

-She weeps, but not to anyone in particular, because look at vs. 17, who does God hear? Ishmael, but God talks to Hagar. How many times does God need to appear to Hagar for her to begin trusting in Him? 

-And how many times do we need to hear God’s promises before we start to believe them? Friends, this is why it’s so important to come to church every week! The point of us gathering isn’t just to see your friends, it’s to help us remember God’s promises. I heard a description I really liked of the way many people view church: we come to church to get our weekly steroid shot to get me through the week, but the point of church is to be reminded who God is and then see His Spirit transform us to become more like Him. All week, our gaze is continually pointed back to ourselves, we need this weekly reminder to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus.

-After promising to bless Ishmael, God opens Hagar’s eyes so she sees that she was right near a well so Ishmael is saved, and then blessed. And where does she go to find a wife for him? Back to her homeland. Once again, she’s not trying to stick close to the blessed man, not trying to follow the God who continually provides for her.

-The place that had been his banishment becomes the place where Ishmael creates his life. He settles in the wilderness, creating his home and life there, but still apart from the blessed one – his Father Abraham. Now the Ishmaelites (descendants of Ishmael) come up again throughout this story, particularly in relation to Joseph, who is pulled up from a well and sold to Ishmaelites on the way to Egypt (which becomes the means by which God saves the people of Israel). Then the conclusion of this book (I would argue) is found on the lips of Joseph who says: Gen. 50:20.

-I want all of you today to realize that nothing can change God’s love for you, His commitment to you, and His desire for you to live right! You’re never too far gone, you’re never too sinful, and the Bible promises us that nothing can ever separate us from His love. God demonstrates this reality over and over and over throughout the pages of the Bible, through all of history, and all the way down to today! If you want to hear how God continues working today, just find someone who’s been a believer for more than a year and ask them to tell you how God has provided for them, in most cases THROUGH being a part of a church

-I had 2 opportunities this week to reflect on this reality in my own life (sorry, but I’m up here which means you get my stories). 

-First was I was asked to record a brief video of someone who mentored me in some significant way. When I started preaching every week (2019) a preaching professor agreed to mentor me for a few months and completely changed everything about my preaching. I’d preached a handful of times before that, I’d done a preaching cohort in college and then a preaching class in seminary, but none of that affected me the same way someone intentionally pouring into me over a 3-month period.

-Second reminder was from a class I’m taking this next week where the pre-class assignment is to write a paper on your philanthropic memories throughout your life. One of the most significant came after my freshman year of college. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but college is EXPENSIVE! In order to pay for college, I did manual labor: painting and remodeling, and made decent money doing it! But this summer I also had the opportunity to do an internship at my home church (Northfield EFC) but the church didn’t pay as well as my other job, so I hoped God would provide some way for me to go back to college. At the end of the summer, the church took a love offering and it more than made up the difference, allowing me to continue in college! 

-Friends, God always follows through, always keeps His promises, and always brings about good for His children, even when or as the world falls apart around us. I can guarantee that God will be faithful even when you’re not. Which is where this story goes next:

  • The Child of God (22-34)

-Back to Abimelech, the guy who had taken Sarah into his harem. But last time it looked like Abraham was the one needing something from Abimelech, this time their relationship is reversed: Abimelech is needing something from Abraham.

-Abimelech is looking for a commitment from Abraham to him and his children to ensure they’ll endure even as Abraham endures. Since Abraham is living nearby he’s essentially looking for a peace treaty.

-Yet apparently there’s been an issue: a well Abraham had dug was overtaken by Abimelech’s servants. A small spat between friends, but not something to interfere with their commitment to each other.

-Where Abimelech had previously blessed Abraham, now Abraham returns by blessing him. Think of what God said he’d do: bless Abraham, so that those who bless him would be blessed. What are we seeing with Abimelech is that very promise coming true. Covenant being enacted (similar to what we saw with the covenant between God and Abraham, this time it’s between these 2 men), but 7 ewes are pulled out.

-7 ewes as a special gift to solidify the ownership of the well. It doesn’t say why 7 ewes, doesn’t tell us the significance of this act, just that part of their pact between each other comes from these sheep! Which leads to:

-Called Beer-sheba: literal translation is “well of 7” referring to the ewes, but the Hebrew word for seven and oath is the same, so intentional play on words, by calling it Beer-sheba they’re emphasizing their oath to each other, demonstrated through the gift of these 7 sheep. Every time someone refers to this place, they’d be reminded of their oath to each other!

-Abimelech leaves, and Abraham plants a tree, potentially pointing back to the place where the Lord had previously met with Abraham: under the oaks of Mamre. We’ve seen Abraham near trees at multiple significant moments in his life, connected to where Abraham meets the Lord (Gen 12:6 Abram goes to the oak of Moreh, Gen. 13:18 moves to the oaks of Mamre of Hebron, Gen. 18 Abraham is at the same oaks when the 3 visitors come, here he’s building a tree). And I would argue this is continuing the temple theme from the garden (or if you remember our series on Gen. 1-11, better to call it an orchard) of Eden. Perhaps pointing back to the original garden when Adam and Eve lived in perfect union with God.

-He’s once again calling on the name of the 1 true God, the everlasting God. Abraham’s life in Beer-sheba becomes marked by worship, by walking with God, but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, has it? Very high highs, very low lows, does that ever sound like your life as you look back over it?

-How do you think Abraham would feel if he knew we were talking about his life 4,000 years later? And not just talking about his life, talking about every aspect of his life! The times where he was faithful, AND the times where he was faithless.

-I think the primary thing we should take away from this story is summarized well by Paul in 1 Cor. 6. He begins this little section by talking about who won’t be a part of God’s kingdom, and it’s terrible stuff! Stuff that every Christian knows to avoid. But he doesn’t stop there, in vs. 11 he says: some of you did this! 

-We tend to only see and share the sanitized parts to our story and gloss over or dismiss the negative parts, but friends just as we’ve seen in Abraham’s story, God takes the broken pieces of your life and redeems them. 

-Share your story! 

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by mikethestrand on March 30, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on March 30, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/03/30/genesis-21-sermon-manuscript/

End Time Ethics – Sermon Manuscript

-Spend some time giving thanks together for the ways God has worked among us over the past year, but before we look back, I want to take a minute and help us look forward into the next year. 

-Saw an Apple commercial this past week that was talking about the need to get an Apple Watch to motivate you through “quitting Friday” (the 2nd Friday of January)

-As we look forward to another year, what things has God been impressing on you to focus on in your spiritual life? How are you going to take 1 step closer to Him over 2025? It can be easy to assume your spiritual life because it’s less tangible. With physical health you can tell – you can lift more, you can run further, but how do you measure growth in love toward others? How do you measure being more holy?

READ/PRAY

-Begins “The end of all things is near” we’ve spent the last year studying Revelation together, and this is another reminder that we’re living in the last days, and have been living in the last days since Jesus ascended to heaven. But what do we do with that reality? Peter tells us 4 things we should do because we’re living in the last days:

1. Pray 

-How do we pray? The opposite of “The Gentiles” in the previous verses – self controlled and sober minded.

Juan Sanchez 1 Peter For You “We are not to lose our heads; we’re to think clearly. We’re not to set dates; we’re to be ready. We’re not to withdraw from society; we’re to proclaim God’s excellencies. We’re not to panic.” (148)

That is: to pray more effectively

-How are you planning to grow in your prayer life over the coming year?

-Asked at seminary: how’s your prayer life? I’ve always felt like I’m “supposed” to say “it could be better” here’s the thing: God takes the little and makes it that much better. Think of the 5 loaves and 2 fish. A little lunchable. So don’t give up! Keep praying with all you’ve got! As much or as little as you can, God loves when you engage with Him! There’s always room to improve, but don’t give us just because you’re not where you want to be. Start where you’re at and take 1 more step.

2. Love.

Alluding to Prov. 10:12 “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”

In a sense, it’s true that love covers EVERY sin! 1 John 4:8 “God is love” John 3:16 “For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” It’s because of God’s love that sin our sin is payed for! And it’s only through God’s love that we can be forgiven.

“Above all”…this is the root of everything we as Christians are called to do

-We are commanded to love each other. Period. No ifs ands or buts. 

-These verses are very similar to 1 Cor. 12-14 where we’re reminded that love is the supreme virtue. You can be as gifted/talented/charismatic that you want, but if you don’t love you’re as helpful as a clashing cymbal. 

-We’re actually commanded to love each other in the same way that Jesus loved us. 

-Poster of the “one another’s” Again, no one is perfect at this, but what can you do to take 1 step closer to loving like Jesus loves over the coming year?

3. Be hospitable

-An article I shared before titled ‘Why Hospitality Beats Entertaining’ has been quoted back to me numerous times by people in the church (you should go read it) but the point is that this doesn’t mean our houses need to be perfectly cleaned to be hospitable.

-In the 1st century this would have involved a lot more intrusion into their lives because they didn’t have hotels, so as Christians traveled this was a command for people to open their homes to each other. 

-Friends, hospitality is supposed to be the norm for Christians. Whether your good at cooking or not, whether your house is perfectly clean or not, look for ways to invite people in, because the point is to be involved in each other’s lives. We’re supposed to love each other like family, and engage each other like family. 

-“Without complaining” Individualism leads to complaining. Individualism leads to NOT being hospitable. Individualism is a sin that needs to be repented of. Think of Mary and Martha. What was Martha’s response? 

4. Use Your Gifts

All spiritual gifts are a form of service. Remember, these are done IN LOVE

The point of your gifts isn’t to build yourself up, it’s so “serve one another.” 

My wife has a gift of discernment without being condemning. I don’t know how she does it! 

“as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

James 1:17 “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

You, ALL of you, have been given a gift by God to serve others. How are you doing at stewarding that gift? Maybe you have the gift of encouragement. Maybe you have the gift of setting up tables. Maybe you have the gift of hospitality. Maybe you have the gift of teaching.

Peter specifically mentions 2 gifts: speaking and serving.

“If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words” the message, the words of God. Everything we do is supposed to point people back to God. We’re called the aroma of Christ. I LOVE that imagery

C.S. Lewis “You have never encountered a mere mortal. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”

Every conversation you have either points people to or away from God.

“if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides.”

We’re all commanded to serve in some way! But remember it’s serving from a never ending well that God supplies. 

Proverbs 21:31, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”

Galatians 6:9-10 “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” 

“so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

Benediction (in many letters)

Everything we do is meant to be an act of worship. Our entire lives. 

“through Jesus Christ” Jesus as our only worship leader

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by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024

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Herod, Did You Know? – Sermon Manscript

-I shared 2 weeks ago how I feel like a bit of a Grinch at Christmas because it’s so easy to just become numb to it (especially when they put up Christmas decorations in October) But last night, I had a visit from 3 ghosts and I’m now a new man! If you haven’t watched or read A Christmas Carol, that comment makes no sense to you! The best version is the Muppets, and it’s not even close

-Every good story needs an antagonist, a bad guy. Scrooge, Voldemort, Sauron, Thanos, even the new Barbie movie needed the enemy of “the system” (cleverly disguised as Mattel) to fight against! 

-And the Christmas story is no exception, except this story is real, with real stakes! No CGI was used in this production. This bad guy is Herod, and he’s really a bad dude!

READ/PRAY

  1. Some Righteous Dudes (1-15)

-Last week we saw the righteousness of Joseph, who was thought to be the father of Jesus (Luke 3:23), he took Jesus and Mary’s shame on himself, willingly. 

-We’ll get to Herod after we look at these “wise men.” 

-Magi (where we get magic, sorcery), men who were in the upper realms of society and gifted in astrology.

-“From the east” where is the east? We’ve spent a lot of time over the past year tracing how the Bible fits together and the way it alludes to previous stories that we should hear, so when we come across this phrase, Matthew’s picking up on previous themes.

-Daniel tells the story of siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon. Where’s Babylon? To the east! The Jews were taken into exile into the east, but even when they’re in exile God still blesses them. Daniel 1:17 (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, also known as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Lion’s Den and fiery furnace), 2:2 (additionally, what was a common practice in Babylon? Magi) Many scholars believe these Magi are in the same lineage as what we see in Daniel. After centuries of oppression of God’s people, those nations who were oppressing them are now coming to worship the one true God.

-Balaam was talked about a few times in Revelation, he’s the one who had a donkey talk to him after being beaten by Balaam. Balaam was hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel, but instead of cursing them, the only thing he can do is bless them. Look at what he says to the king of Moab: Num. 24:17. And where does Balaam come from? 23:7 FROM THE EAST.

-And the last thing we need to know about the east occurs all the way back in Gen. 3:23-24. The Bible begins with everything being very good, in harmony with each other and with God but then our first parents disobeyed God, committing treason against Him and were banished from Eden, but notice which way they were banished, drove the man out, and as he was sent out a cherubim was stationed to prevent him from returning into the garden, they’re sent “East of Eden” as John Steinbeck summarized it. So the significance of wise men coming “from the east” is that God is finally bringing harmony to what was broken all the way back in the beginning.

-Matthew writes this Gospel to demonstrate the way Jesus fulfills all of God’s promises, hence so much quoting of the OT here.

-“Star-led wizards” (Douglas Sean O’Donnell), from the east (where the enemies of God’s people are) who are coming to worship the king of the Jews. That’s a reversal of fortunes from what had happened to the Jews! God’s way of saying that even these wizards can worship the one true God.

-Why did they come to Jerusalem? Apparently they knew some of the OT promises, but not all of them, so they came to the capital of Israel

-Contrast the response of these wizards with the response of the chief priests and scribes.

-Religious and political leaders of the day, they had the right answer, but what did they do with it? Nothing. 

-Friends, this is one of my biggest concerns with our world today is ambivalence to the realities of Jesus. I could understand Herod’s response of anger because Jesus means everything changes, what I don’t understand is not caring, and my concern in the church is our hearts aren’t led to worship when we think of Jesus, we check a box that we go to church, or we’re here because our parents made us, but it doesn’t actually affect us. If Jesus came and lived on earth (which he did) then everything in our lives has to change.

-C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity. Something about us has to change, which is true for these Wizard/magicians

-Something different about this star unlike a normal star that we see in the sky: sounds more like the fire that led the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings, something supernatural that God used to guide these people.

-Just as we don’t know much about Joseph, we don’t know much about these guys, but we know they were wealthy, and that they were obedient, they responded with worship. 

-Gifts were kingly gifts! Much better than the diapers and blankets babies get today! Not only did these guys understand the stars, they also understood dreams, and when they left they didn’t go back to Jerusalem.

-Just as we saw last week with Joseph’s obedience to the first angel appearing in a dream, same thing here when an angel appears to him in a dream. It seems that he woke up as soon as the dream was done and fled!

-Don’t miss the humanity of this: left home, vocation, extended friends and family, become refugees to save his adopted son. And how do you think they paid for this move? Most likely with the gifts from these wizards.

-Even when it seems like a powerful ruler can thwart God’s plans, he can’t. (Psalm 2) Nations rage and people’s plot against God and His anointed, but God laughs.

  • An Unrighteous Dude (16-18)

-Did you notice how many times Herod was called a king: vs. 1, 3, 9, contrasted with the king of the Jews

-Herod was a vindictive and jealous man. Killed wives who crossed him, sons who crossed him, as well as any enemies he didn’t like. Was referred to as “The Great” but that was just due to his building programs. Rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem (where Jesus would preach from)

-Look at vs. 3 “Deeply disturbed” better translated as “greatly agitated” or “in turmoil” how would “all Jerusalem” be bothered by this?

-2 proposals: leaders of Jerusalem, or people would be terrified that Herod would go into a rage and kill someone (which he does)

-Herod’s response should have been to actually do what he tells the Magi he’ll do: worship. But that’s not what he does, he responds differently to Jesus: (vs. 16)

-The irony is if Herod was the true king of the Jews, what he should have done was searched the Scriptures and obeyed. See Herod wasn’t even a Jew, so if someone was born who was the in the correct lineage they would have a legitimate claim to the throne – more than Herod would, which is why he flies into a rage, he’s livid!

-So he does exactly what he’s done before – kills any and all potential threats to his power, in this case all boys 2 and younger. Just imagine the implications of that: a city where the little boys who used to run around and play in the streets are gone. Boys ripped from their mother’s arms to be killed.

-Once again, I want to point out that you can often tell who the enemy of God is by how they treat the youngest of us, because God is on the side of most vulnerable, which is who we as Christians should care for as well. Just think of God’s commands throughout the Bible: to not pursue power and wealth, but to look to how we can care for others, literally the opposite of what we see here in Herod! 

-What’s most ironic to me is that he’s known as Herod the Great, and what does Jesus tell us greatness looks like? Greatness is service in God’s kingdom. If you want to be truly great, it means humbling yourself and looking to serve others instead of looking to get from others and how you can be served.

-Because Herod isn’t living as God intends people to live, the response for this part of the Christmas story is weeping and mourning (quoting from Jer. 31:15)

-I understand some of you may feel this way as we approach Christmas. It’s hard to be joyful when you’re weeping and mourning, and part of the reason we have an Advent season is to remember that in between Jesus’s 2 comings is waiting and longing and mourning. Friends, the Lord knows! Trust in the Lord, He hears every cry and knows the mourning that you’re walking through, so bring it to Him

-One of my favorite components of Christmas is it’s the 1 time of year where we listen to music in a minor (sad) key. It’s (somewhat ironically) the 1 time of year where it’s ok for us to admit we’re not ok.

-I often think of Psalm 23 when I’m struggling: “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.” Even when we’re in the depths of despair, God is with us. His rod and staff both protect us from enemies and help to guide us on the right path, but that means we have to trust in His plans for each step along the way.

  • God’s Plan (19-23)

-What happened to Herod the Great? He died. How great is a king who ends us as a footnote in the introduction to the story about the true, everlasting King of kings?

-Herod died in 4 BC, and his kingdom was split among 3 sons and his sister (another Herod Antipas who was around during Jesus’s ministry)

-An angel appears to Joseph again and tells him it’s time to move back to Israel, and once again Joseph immediately obeys, but settles in a different place than before: Nazareth.

-We know from Luke 1 and 2 that this was where Mary and Joseph were originally from, but there’s no OT passage that Matthew quotes here, but what he’s most likely doing is pointing out how despised Jesus would be, he’s taking the sum total of how the prophets talked about the coming Messiah and summarized it as “being from Nazareth.” Nazareth was scorned even by people who lived nearby. No one would willingly claim that as their hometown, kind of like when people show up to churches in MN wearing Packers jerseys, they’re asking for the scorn of the people!

-Remember, God’s plan has always been to take seemingly insignificant people and places and use them for His ultimate purposes. He didn’t choose Israel because it was the biggest and best, He chose them in spite of all their external attributes, and it’s the same for us. God chooses what the world despises and then transforms and glorifies it to magnify His name.

-Think about the Christmas Carol – Scrooge is the one who seems to have everything the world wants: money and power. Yet how does that work out for him at the beginning of the book? Not so well! In this story, Herod is the one who has everything the world wants: money and power. And how did that work out for him? 2 words: Herod died. And despite trying to stamp out his opposition, the king that he was aiming to kill is still alive today.

-What we see in the midst of this entire story is the way God’s perfect plan can’t be stopped. Even when it seems like evil has the upper hand, even when it feels like everything is failing around us, God is still at work. Think of what Joseph says to his brothers at the end of Genesis: What you meant for evil God meant for good. What Herod meant for evil, God used for good, the ultimate good or providing salvation for the world!

-Eucatastrophe – a good catastrophe, everything sad will come untrue. God takes even what is intended as evil and somehow and some way uses it as good in our lives, but only if we’re trusting in and walking with Him. Friends, this reminds us that even when it feels like our lives are falling down around us, keep walking with God, because it’s worth it receive God’s gifts at the end.

-We’ve seen 3 responses to Jesus in this story, and as we come to the end the question in front of us is: which response do you have to Jesus? Anger, apathy, or adoration

-Anger: some people are legitimately angry about Jesus, but that isn’t the trend today. You saw that quite a bit in the early 2000s with the so called “4 horsemen of the new atheism” but even they are far less angry now than they used to be! In fact, one of them (Richard Dawkins) has recently come out saying he is a cultural Christian! He said he appreciates much more of what Christianity has brought to the world than any other religion, and he enjoys the cultural trappings, particularly at Christmas and Easter (hymns, decorations, etc)

-And maybe you’re not angry at Jesus broadly, but are there areas in your life where you harbor a “Herod spirit” against Him? This is more than being a Scrooge, this is an area where you’re not completely trusting that He cares about you and you’re angry at Him for not fitting within your plans, refusing to realize that His plans are far better than yours. Tim Keller. Keep praying!

-Apathy: this is knowing about Jesus but not letting it change anything about you, and I think this is the most dangerous place to be. You can see this with people who have almost been inoculated against Jesus – they know about Him, they’ve read the Bible, but it hasn’t actually changed anything about their lives. They view Jesus as an optional add on instead of the essential component to everything in life.

-Think of the difference between the Operating System and the Apps on your phone. Without the OS your phone is an expensive paperweight, AND without your OS the apps are pointless. Similarly in our life, without Jesus, everything else in life is pointless. It can seem enjoyable, but that joy only goes so far and eventually you’ll need to chase something else to find that same hit of joy. With Jesus, He literally changes everything about us so that we can finally make sense of our lives, of our joys and sorrows, and help us understand what our lives should look like:

-Adoration: this is what Jesus wants from everyone, and will someday demand from everyone when He comes back again. When we understand who Jesus is, this is the only way we can respond! He helps us to appreciate the gifts He’s given us (food, drink, books, nature, friends, family), He helps us understand that those things aren’t ends in themselves, but they help us to understand His love and care for us.

-There can be a tendency this time of year to shame people for enjoying the sentimentality of Christmas with the reminder that “Jesus is the reason for the season” and while that’s true, the way we experience Jesus today is through the gifts He’s given us, so friends, this Christmas season it’s ok to be sentimental and enjoy all the experiences that come with Christmas, but view those as opportunities to adore Jesus because He came to earth for you!

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by mikethestrand on December 15, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 15, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/12/15/herod-did-you-know-sermon-manscript/

Revelation 22:6-21 – Sermon Manuscript

-We did it! We’ve made it through the entire book of Revelation! After having someone tell me I should NEVER preach through this book because no one can understand, I was worried we’d end up with confusion and frustration every week, but I’ve already had a number of people tell me they finally feel like they have a grasp of how to interpret this book, which was my prayer when we started this.

-Today’s text serves as a summary, direct application to our lives, and some final reminders on what we’re supposed to do now that we’ve walked through this whole book, not only that, but it’s the last verse of all of Scripture, the last words God wanted us to hear regarding His plans for the reconciliation and renewal of all things. Because the reality is Jesus is coming soon. Now, it’s going to take us another 30 minutes to understand what that means!

READ/PRAY

  1. Look to the Word (6-11)

-The first thing we need to notice is there’s wording and themes here that should sound familiar. Look at the parallels between chapter 1 and 22. It’s almost like there was a plan, purpose, and direction to this entire book to communicate these ideas! This section also sounds very different from all the stuff we’ve been reading over the past number of months.

-Said this in the first sermon I preached in this series: combination of apocalyptic, prophecy, and letter. We’re back to the letter part.

-Begins with the reminder that these words are faithful and true, exact same phrasing we saw in 21:5. God communicates and identifies Himself through words. Words that come from a God who is faithful and true are also faithful and true. 

-Reflecting on why we have the written Word. What’s the best way to communicate something that can be saved and preserved for centuries? Write it down! Make copies of it! (working on digital stuff, have 3 copies of everything)

-Since God wants us to know Him, He had people write down what He wanted us to know, therefore the mark of a Christian is trusting that His Word is faithful and true. Friends, don’t give up on the Bible!

-God of the spirits of the prophets. What is that? True prophets only speak on behalf of God. John is identifying himself in that lineage. Just as God spoke previously to His prophets, He’s concluded His speaking here to John.

-Sent his angel, just like the beginning.

-Soon take place. Look I am coming soon. How soon?

-Is 2,000 years soon? God looks at time differently, think back to Rev. 6 where the martyrs beg God to return and He says “not yet.” My kids think waiting a half hour is FOREVER, and we laugh! Don’t you think that may be a picture of how God looks at time, even 100 years is nothing to Him! But whether it’s 2,000 or 20,000 years, the next step in salvation history is Jesus coming back. 

-If you just think through the primary events in God’s plan of redemption: creation, fall, redemption, salvation, and then consummation is the only thing left!  

-Blessed: Revelation beatitudes. Jesus gives beatitudes in Matt. 5, things like blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 

-6th of 7 blessings promised throughout this book. Review the blessings:

-Read, hear, and keep the words (remember there’s an end goal for us to DO something with this text)

-If we die in Christ we actually live!

-Alert and clothed: alert to not give in to the way the world works to seduce us, and clothed in Christ’s clothing (19:8: “fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.”)

-Invited to the marriage feast – those saved and washed by the blood of the lamb

-First resurrection, when Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom on earth

-Then here we’re back to the start: keep the words of this book (pointing back to the start), 1 more to come.

8-Reminder of who wrote this book: John! Once again, he’s tempted to worship an angel, one of God’s messengers. This happened once before in Rev. 19. 

-All of God’s creation is meant to have 1 aim and goal in life: worship God. Worship isn’t just what we do on Sunday morning (though it includes that), it’s not a type of music (though it includes music), worship is an orientation to our entire lives, it’s what we do all the time, everyone worships something or someone. The most dedicated atheist worships something, but generally their worship is geared/focused on themselves

-I think this focus of this book is to force us to answer the question: what are you worshipping? Some people worship politics (the beast from the sea) and some people worship the power and influence that comes from politics (the beast from the land) but we’re all tempted to worship in worldly categories instead of heavenly categories, the way God intended us to. The temptation is to worship the gifts God has given that point us to Him, because if we pursue them as an end in themselves we will always be lacking. Augustine: our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. That’s why Revelation is so timely! Do you think anyone is looking to politics for salvation today? Do you think anyone is looking to power and influence for salvation today? Pastors aren’t immune! Why do you think pastors always question how big each other’s church is?

-Friends, what are you worshipping?

-We glance by this: DON’T seal up. Why does that matter?

–Dan. 12:4. God is telling John that the end is now here. It has been the last days since this book was written, 1900 years ago. 

-Vs. 11 seems weird, doesn’t it? Where do we see God encouraging people to sin?

-Once again, John is picking up an idea from Daniel, where it’s not encouraging people to pursue sin, but it’s saying that sin blinds people, and until they are saved they will continue pursuing sin.

-Connection here is unrighteousness leads to being filthy, righteousness leads to being holy. The way you live has spiritual implications, we don’t just work to become a better human, we need a complete transformation. 

-I love the way Jeremiah 31 describes it, it says God will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. He’s saying even a quadruple bypass isn’t enough, we need a transplant, an inbreaking of something completely new and alien to us, we need to be spiritually raised from the dead.

  • Look at Your Works (12-15)

-Once again, a reminder that Jesus is coming soon! While He comes in judgment, He also comes with a reward that’s only given to those who live according to His will and ways.

-This comes about only by a transformed heart. You can’t offer good works to God without His Spirit changing you from the inside out. We talked about this idea in Rev. 19, so if you want to hear more about that go back and listen to that sermon, but the core idea is that faith comes by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, but then as Calvin says the faith that saves is never alone because it’s always accompanied by new good works that God has called us to

-And all of this is possible because in 3 different ways, Jesus identifies Himself with God and as the author of history: alpha and omega (A and Z), first and the last (and everything in between), and beginning and the end.

-Time itself only exists in God, that’s why He can speak with confidence and authority about the way everything is going to happen. 

-Final Beatitude (blessing) in the book: wash their robes. What does that mean? Picking up a theme from the rest of the book.

-Multitude in Rev. 7 praising God, one of the elders asks John who they are, John says that the elder must know, so the elder responds: 

-The way our robes are washed is by being washed in the blood of the Lamb. This is picking up another theme that God spoke about back in Isa. 1. The means by which clothes are washed is through faith in Jesus Christ, the outworking of that is “the right to the tree of life” and “entering the city by the gates”

-Remember back to last week where we saw this odd combination of a city and a garden. Reflections back to Eden with the tree of life and the water of life, but now remade as a city. The perfect place, the new Most Holy Place where God lives among His people.

-I also think it’s significant that we enter “by the gates,” where angels watch over them, and they point to the historical validity of Christianity. One of the reasons I remain a Christian is because of history! 

-Think of this: for Buddhism, what would happen if we were able to definitively say that Buddha didn’t exist? Nothing! Hinduism, too many gods to articulate, but has no reflection in reality. Mormons: take away Joseph Smith and nothing happens to their faith (even when their religion is proven time and time again to be historically unverifiable). What is often called Liberal theology even argues that even if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead they would still be Christians (which honestly is just dumb!). Friends, part of the reason you should be a Christian is because of history. We look back to a definitive event where Satan was defeated, and we look forward to an end point in history where death will be no more! Where the gates will never be closed, where everything will be finally work in perfect peace and harmony.

-But not everyone will be there, only those whose lives are marked by Jesus, who are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, who realize that they can’t do anything in their own strength but need Jesus to work in them.

-For those people:

  • Look to Jesus to Come (16-21)

-Another reminder who’s in control: Jesus. Everything centers on Him, all of History hinges on Him, and the End is held off until He comes back. 

-He’s even in charge of the angels (messengers), notice that the angel’s job is just to serve as the messenger of Jesus.

-Who is the message to? Not to angels, to the churches, the churches which are comprised of those who have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb. Picks up the same idea at the very beginning where John recounts that Jesus sent an angel to John, who recorded everything that was revealed (Revelation) to him.

-Jesus is the root and descendent of David (the Messiah), picking up a theme from Isa. 11:1, Jesus is David’s promised son who sits eternally on God’s throne.

-Bright morning star: Num. 24:17. Balaam’s prophesy (mentioned back in 2:14, letter to Pergamum) Balaam hired by a king to curse Israel, goes to do it, but only blessings come out. Friends, God can use even greedy, wealth-seeking false prophets to carry out His will and plan! And the prophesy here is that some star will come to destroy the enemies of God’s people. What has happened over the course of this book? God’s enemies have been destroyed! All of them! None are left. The descendent of David has won!

-What word do you see repeated in vs. 17? Come! This is to anyone who is hearing this message (all of you), and it gives both a command and a commission:

-First the command: Spirit and the bride (anyone remember who the bride is? The church!) they say to come. Come and align yourself with Jesus, wash your clothes in His blood so that He can bring you near.

-Next, the commission: anyone who hears join with the Spirit and the church to say “Come!” Friends, this is where all of us are a part of God’s reconciling plan to bring all things under His sovereign rule and reign. This book isn’t meant to be us sitting in a room by ourselves trying to figure out if we’re living in the last days, because we are living in the last day, and even if Jesus were to come back tomorrow, it would change nothing about what we should be doing today! We’re supposed to be bearing fruit and inviting others to come to have their clothes washed in His blood. I shared this idea a few weeks ago, but I want to say it again: the point of a sermon isn’t for you to walk away with 3 new things to try to “fix” your life in your own strength, the point of a sermon is for you to behold God and remember what Jesus has done for you! And then we are sent back out into the world to continue inviting others to come!

-Which gets us to the third invitation: anyone who is thirsty. Thirsty for what? John 4 – eternal life. Jesus provides the solution to all the deepest longings of your heart. Jesus’ offer is for any and everyone. So if you’re here today and you haven’t yet trusted Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, why not? Your life won’t have any ultimate purpose or meaning until you do, you won’t find the answer to the deepest longings of your heart until you do!

-Then there’s a warning: do not add or take away from any words of this book, but that could also be extended to the rest of the Bible. If God has spoken, we must respond. This actually picks up almost the exact wording in Deut. 4:2. 

-Tertullian: “Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite errors.” 1 error is adding to God’s Word, this would be called “legalism.” This tells you not only what sin is, but how far you need to stay away from even the appearance of sin. But the opposite error is taking away from God’s word, this would be called “licentiousness” living however you want. We must be completely obedient to God’s Word alone, and the temptation is to lean one way or another and call it the gospel, but Jesus doesn’t allow us to do that, He perfectly embodies grace AND truth, not grace OR truth.

-Once again, we’re remined that Jesus is coming soon (in salvation history), and in response John (and we) respond with “Amen!” yes, we agree, come, Lord Jesus!

-This should be the prayer and cry of every Christian down through the ages. We’re supposed to live as Jesus comes back tomorrow, which means get busy being obedient to Him! Luther was asked if he knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow what would he do? He said he would plant a seed today. Where are you planting seeds today that will bear fruit in eternity? Where is God calling you to be faithful today so that you can be ready to see Jesus face to face? Because the reality is He is coming soon! No one knows when, but we need to faithful today because it’s one day closer to THE day.

-God’s grace (undeserving free gift) be with everyone. Amen. What an appropriate way to end this sermon! God’s grace is freely available to everyone! So come, and come Lord Jesus.

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

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/11/24/revelation-226-21-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 13 – Sermon Manuscript

One of the realities of humanity is that we become what we worship. If you worship money you become greedy, trying to hoard as much as you can. If you worship recognition you become desperate to keep up appearances. If you worship success you become a jerk. All these things demand your allegiance, your devotion, your time, and none of the outcomes are good. 

-Great picture of this in Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Eustace, the antihero and a miserable boy tries to ruin the vacation of his cousins, the Pevensies. He only worries about himself and doesn’t get along with anyone. They’re drawn into Narnia (again) and Eustace finds a hoard of dragon treasure, what he doesn’t realize is the greed that made him want all the treasure corrupted him and turned him into a dragon! His love of the gold corrupted his life.

-Today we’re going to look at what happens when you worship government & politics, and the outcome is beastly!

READ/PRAY (pg. 44, 1097)

-What do we need to remember?

-A letter, written to 7 churches.

-A mix of 3 genres: apocalyptic, prophetic, epistle

-Why are we studying Revelation? To be blessed

-Outline of the book based on 1:19: seen in the past, what is presently, and what will take place in the future.

-I would argue that what the best way to faithfully interpret this book is to understand John is talking about things that will continue being true throughout history until Jesus comes back, not exclusively about future events. Therefore we shouldn’t read it chronologically. Satan will continue fighting, sin will continue wreaking havoc and destruction, and none of that withstand the strength and power of the Risen Jesus! So the primary call in Revelation is for us to understand that God is in control, despite what it looks like in the world, so we must remain faithful in the midst of any suffering and persecution we face.

-Remember that Satan is not omniscient – he has no clue when Jesus is actually coming back, so we should expect to find an antichrist in every stage of history. 

-We’re in the middle of an interlude between the trumpets and bowls. Similarities between all of these 7, but increasing intensity.

–Rev. 12 began recounting the birth of Jesus, the preservation of God’s people, and the dethroning of Satan where he is cast out of heaven and goes to make war against God’s people. We were left in the Spring with this verse.

-The sea for Jews – the place of chaos, terror, uncertainty. If you get far enough out in the ocean it can start to feel flat, but not by the land, the land is constant being hit by waves! 

  1. Ten if by Sea (1-10)

-The dragon calls forth from the sea a beast. We’ve seen the grotesque descriptions of the dragon before, this first beast has ten horns on 7 heads.

-One of the primary keys to interpreting Revelation correctly is to know the Bible, especially the OT, and guess what’s been decreasing significantly in our world: understanding and deep reflection on the Bible which means we don’t know how to study Revelation. In this case, John is referencing a vision from Daniel 7

-Just as in Rev. Daniel recounts that 4 beasts are arising out of the sea (the place of chaos), and these 4 beasts are representative of 4 different governments that will arise in the future: Babylon, Medes/Persians, Greeks (Alexander the Great), and Rome as the worst of them all. When the 1stcentury churches heard this their minds would have immediately jumped to this prophesy in Daniel, what’s different in Rev. is all the beasts are suddenly combined together into a grotesque parody of an animal. 

-Remember: numbers are almost always symbolic: 10 being complete or full, 7 being perfect. This is the dragons attempt at perfect and complete power, but even in that he falls short because one of his heads is wounded.

-This is significant, because what John is seeing here is the continual rise and fall of tyrannical governments who are opposed to God and His people. When John’s writing this that would be Rome, who demanded full and complete allegiance from every citizen, there was no separation between church & state like we have today. To be a citizen meant you bought in completely and worshipped the governmental structures in place. This is where the Jews had so much conflict with the Romans – Jews claimed to worship the 1 true God, which meant worshipping no one else, and nothing else, but doesn’t that make them bad citizens? That’s one of the cruxes facing the early church, who was viewed as a subset of the Jewish faith until about AD 70 when the temple was destroyed. Since this was written after, this is where the church would have started facing increased persecution again.

-But to get more of what John’s saying here, we need to turn to Rev. 17, John sees a woman riding the beast from Rev. 13 (7 heads & 10 horns)

-Notice that it says the beast “was, is not, and is about to come” TWICE! Does that sound like anything else we’ve heard in this book before? Rev. 1:8

-If this was written in the 90s, this is most likely a lull in the midst of intense persecution from the Romans. The totalitarian government seems like it’s gone away, at least a little bit: it was, it isn’t, but it’s coming back! Remember, Satan doesn’t have complete control, he can only mimic what God has done, so he won’t always be in complete control. However, even when it looks like his work is done, get ready because he’ll come roaring back and try it all over again. That’s what John’s getting at here in vs. 3 that even when it looks like he’s dead, he’ll come back.

-How do people respond? They’re all in! The dragon has been defeated twice before (first in trying to eat the child being born from the woman, then he tried to send water to drown the woman but he was defeated again, and then he goes to wage war against Christians), but this time it looks like he’s successful. The whole earth gets in line to worship the dragon because he’s given authority to the beast. 

-Remember, who is this beast representing? Any government that attempts to claim total and complete power, and governmental force that attempts to become god! When they do that, they’re becoming beast like, they’re following the way of the dragon, by worshipping the beast the people will become beast-like.

-Look at how this beast goes about his business: utters boasts and blasphemies, and allowed authority for 42 months.

-Blasphemes God, heaven, and everyone who dwells in heaven. Who allows this? God does. God is still in complete control, even of this grotesque beast. Nothing happens outside of God’s plans!

-42 months: half of 7, not God’s final plan, did a whole sermon on this in the Spring you can listen to!

-Permitted (allowed from God) to wage war against the saints and conquer them. Well that’s discouraging! It’s means that in the short-term, we lose, we’re humiliated, we’re cast-off, we’re beat down. I hate to tell you, but it’s going to happen. Why? Because we won’t be like the earth-dwellers who worship the beast.

-Technical term in John for unbelievers. Comes up regularly, always refers to those who aren’t following Jesus.

-The Lamb who was slaughtered. Another reminder that the way of the Lamb comes about through death.

-Then John quotes from Jer. 15:2, there it signifies God’s punishment for not following God’s commands, but here John is saying this wall fall on God’s people as validation that they are His. Only believers will face this persecution from the beast.

-Finally, John ends with the reminder that despite this persecution, there’s a call for: endurance and faithfulness.

-I want us to think about this for a minute because I think this passage demonstrates to us what’s going on in our world today. What we see is that the work of the dragon is to create complete allegiance to political systems and structures, and to oppress anyone that stands in their way. This is one of the things that historically made USA unique – it was built on the premise that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but I would argue that we’re now just as influenced by the dragon as any other nationality. Just look at the way politics is discussed today, where each side demonizes the other side and demands complete allegiance (worship), otherwise you’re cast off, dismissed from operating in that political sphere.

-But we’re called to operate by a different set of rules where the way of the Lamb reigns supreme, where we lay down our swords and seek to outdo one another in showing honor to each other. 

-Eugene Peterson: This is what we’re seeing play out in the church today, either attempt to takeover various institutions and communities, or abandon any cultural engagement and create a sanctified huddle which doesn’t engage the world for fear of becoming stained. Neither is what God calls us to! I’ve shared this before, what we’re called to is faithful presence! Here we see it worded as endurance and faithfulness. Friends, endure the ridicule, endure the scorn, endure the mockery and be faithful where God has you. Work to be the best employee, the best neighbor, the best friend, the best parent you can be, that’s what faithfulness looks like! And that today is absolutely needed (and rebellious!)

-Christians should work hard to be the best citizens we can, because that’s how we can go about ensuring that the gospel can continue to be spread. And on this side of Jesus’ return it doesn’t look impressive, it doesn’t look powerful, but the call for Christians hasn’t changed: endurance and faithfulness.

  • Two if by Land (11-18)

-To complete his mimicry of the trinity, the dragon calls forth a beast from the land. 2 horns like a lamb. Can anyone think of where we’ve seen that before? Back in Rev. 5 where a slaughtered lamb is seated in the middle of the throne! 

-The characteristic of this beast sound similar to the Holy Spirit: compels worship, performs signs, calls down fire, deceives people, gives breath (like the Spirit) to the image of the beast, compels people to adopt his mark so that his followers can participate in the economic system of the day. 

-Once again, we need to remember that Satan, the old dragon, doesn’t have ultimate power and authority. He’ll keep trying to usurp Jesus, he’ll keep trying to fight against God, but all Satan can do is a poor copy. Notice that fire comes down from heaven, like the fire that came down to rest on the early church at Pentecost, just like the early disciples were given power to perform miracles to validate their message, the beast performs signs, just like the Holy Spirit awakens people in salvation, here this beast “awakens” the image of the beast. Do you see how it’s a poor imitation of God’s work? Satan can’t compete, can’t keep, up, so he keeps falling short, but he doesn’t give up! 

-And what else does he attack? Finances. Did you know that Jesus talks more about money than almost any other topic? Jesus had no problem talking about money, and He went so far as to say that how you spend your money reveals who your God is. Friends, the way you spend your money reveals if you’re following the dragon or the Lamb.

-Not a literal mark, this is yet another lame attempt by the beast to copy what God has done. Think back to Rev. 7 where God seals His people on their foreheads. Seal vs. a mark. A seal is eternal and infinite, nothing can stand against it, and once it’s in place it’s viewed as enacted. A mark can be wiped off, like if you’ve ever gone to a concert or a fair they’ll stamp you to show that you paid, but it washes off after a couple days. This mark is Satan’s lame attempt to draw the battle lines against God, but just as his trinity falls short, so does his mark.

This calls for: wisdom. 

-We need to understand and remember that even though these beasts look impressive and powerful, they’re not. There’s something bigger going on here than the world can recognize, and it only comes about by following the way of the Lamb who was slain.

-Friends, this isn’t going to be a literal mark that people have on their hands or their heads, it’s not a barcode, it’s not a tattoo. This is a way of referring to your worldview, and how you live your life (hand). It’s not enough for us to just have all the right theological answers, Christ demands that we submit everything to Him! Our minds, our hearts, our lives, everything. To be a Christian is not less than having a new worldview, but it’s much more than that. It must affect the way we engage with governments, the way we engage the workplace, the way we engage our neighborhoods, all of it is supposed to be Christ-like.

-There are some accounts of trade guilds in the first century requiring allegiance and receiving a mark in order to participate in them. One of the difficulties the early church faced was in regards to which jobs a Christian could have, because these trade guilds would at times require you to make an offering to their patron deity. Metal had one, wood had one, sailing had one, travelers had one, all these random gods and focuses competing for allegiance, and only 1 God rules over them all.

-Peterson quote.

-Do you think anything in our world today attempts to manipulate us economically? Maybe the entire commercial system we have? If you’re looking for something fascinating to study, look up the shift in America’s economy during the 20th century. “We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture…. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs” Paul Mazur CEO of Lehman Brothers (4th largest investment bank in the US until it went bankrupt in 2008)

-Friends, this is the reason this book is so critical for us today. It helps us to raise our eyes above our problems and issues and reveals to us the ways God is still working behind the scenes to bring His perfect plan to completion, but it requires us to participate! It requires us to remain aware and engaged in the world! It also requires us to worship correctly. If we worship the way the world worships we’re going to end up beast-like, but if we worship God, then John tells us 3 explicit things that will mark us as Christians: endure, remain faithful, and remain wise.

-How do we endure? We surround ourself with others who will help us persevere. We don’t give up! We continue taking 1 step closer to Jesus each and every day, which is the second piece
-Remain faithful. As our world becomes increasingly divided, we cannot give up on God’s call to be faithful every day. That means continually doing the right thing, continually working hard, continually loving and serving others even when it feels like no one else is. God sees your faithfulness, and will reward you for it!

-Finally, remain wise. Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ. True wisdom is found in Him, don’t give in to the dragon’s temptations, don’t play by the worldly rules, don’t look at things through power and prestige. Look to the slain Lamb, His ways are the only way to find true, eternal life and healing. 

-And the best part of this story is that the one we worship became like us. God took on flesh, added humanity to his divinity and then died in our place to allow us to be rescued and redeemed from sin to live new lives through Him, and we get to celebrate that reality. The boy Eustace learned that in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In order to become a boy again he had to rip off all his scales, and it HURT! It took dying to his misplaced worship and worshipping the right way for him to become truly human again.

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by mikethestrand on September 1, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on September 1, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/09/01/revelation-13-sermon-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
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Posted by mikethestrand on May 26, 2024

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

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

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/03/31/revelation-51-14-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 1:9-20 – Sermon Manuscript

-When you think of Jesus, what comes to mind? Is it a nativity, where he lays silently (obviously no crying he makes!)? Or as a movie states is “Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m sayin’ grace. When you say grace, you can say it to grown-up Jesus or teenage Jesus or bearded Jesus or whoever you want.” Or do you picture him with the long flowing locks like this picture that my grandma had hanging in her house? Or the Jesus from the Cru 1979 film? Or maybe the newest rendition of Jesus from The Chosen? Let me tell you, no class at seminary prepared me for the question: “Daddy, is that really Jesus?” 

-Obviously, none of these are a direct representation of Jesus, we don’t have a painting of him, and the Bible is scarce on physical descriptions of him. We know He was a man, where He was born and lived, and someday we will actually see what He looks like. And today’s text tells us what He looks like, but it’s not the way many of us would expect Him to look!

READ/PRAY

  1. John’s Commission (9-11)

-John is chosen by God, but notice how he describes himself:

-Brother: the familial attachments of the church. I don’t know about you, but I love the fact that I get brothers in the church, because I grew up with only sisters! In fact, I still keep up with my guy friends from high school because of the closeness we had, and the faith we shared. And that’s supposed to be true in the church as well. 

-One of the ideas that has just captured my imagination over the past couple years is this idea of the church being a family. The early church realized that we cannot exist as pure individuals: we need others who will encourage us when we’re down, help us when we’re weak, take care of us when we’re sick, bring diapers when we have twins. In a world where everything tries to tell us to focus on ourselves, that we are our own isolated and independent people, the church is supposed to be the place that shows that’s not true. And we see that reality all around us. Loneliness at an all-time high, trust in other people doesn’t seem to exist anymore, and into that world we’re supposed to represent a different ideal where no matter how difficult things get, you have a group of people who love you and will walk with you. And not only is this the relationship John has with other believers, he’s also:

-Partner in 3 things that are expected for anyone in Jesus:

-Affliction (tribulation). We saw last week that John was exiled because of his beliefs about Jesus. The persecution of the church was in full force during the writing of this letter, so John writes this to remind them they’re not alone. I have a friend who was just informed this past week that he was let go from his job, and I texted him and his wife after I heard that we’re with them as they navigate this! I’ve even heard life summarized as: hard, and then you die. And there’s an element of truth to that, right? Even Jesus said: John 16:33. Yes, life is hard, the question is what do you do with that fact? If you have a partner in that reality it gets a lot easier, which leads to the second piece:

-kingdom. This is one of Jesus’ favorite topics. Think of the Lord’s prayer: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Remember, we are now a part of God’s kingdom, even though it doesn’t appear that way by what we see taking place around us. Again, part of the reason we need a partner to remind us what’s truly true! Finally:

-endurance. One of the repeated refrains throughout the NT is to endure! Remain faithful! Once again, we don’t do this alone or in isolation. I ran cross country my Sr year of high school, and one of the best ways to grow in running is to have other people pushing you on! Encouraging endurance until the end of the race. Favorite verses on this topic: Gal. 6:9-10

-Patmos (remember this map) penal colony

-Under persecution most likely for not bowing the knee to the emperor. One of the themes we’ll see throughout this book is the regular reminder to not give in to the civil religions of the world. Emperor worship, idol worship, economic worship are all rampant in the first century, and also remain rampant today. Don’t give in to their allure! 

-“In the spirit” Mentioned 4 times: here, 4:2, 17:3, 21:10 each one a precursor to the next step or revelation of John’s vision. Signifies he’s the next step in a long line of prophets. Jude 20 “But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,”

-“Lord’s Day” only time this phrase is used in the NT. Closest is “Lord’s supper” in 1 Cor. 11:20. Change in worship from before Jesus’ resurrection to after, Acts tells us the early church met “on the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7)

-One of the reasons to believe in the reality of the resurrection! Nowhere in the Bible does it show Jesus or His disciples disobeying the law. LOTS of occasions of disobeying the man-made laws, but never once disobeying God’s revealed law. So why would these law-abiding Jews change the day of their worship, unless something dramatic happened, like Jesus rising from the dead!

-Loud voice like a trumpet: Ex. 19:16 Just as God’s presence is ushered in with the sound of a ram’s horn (trumpet) in the OT, this is telling us that God is coming.

-Contrast this with the way Elijah hears God’s voice 1 Kings 19. God can speak through a still voice, or a trumpet so loud your ears ring! Just like Jesus’ first and second comings can be compared.

-Just like every other prophet chosen by God, John is given a job.

-God is going to be revealing things to John, his job is to write them down, and unlike Daniel’s vision (which John has a TON of similarities to), his job is to share it!

  • John’s Vision (12-16)

-As one does, he turns around to see who’s talking to him. First thing he notices isn’t at person, it’s seven golden lampstands.

-Once again, if our minds aren’t saturated with the words of Scripture this won’t make any sense to us! First is the immediate context: look down at vs. 20, we know these are the 7 churches that have already been talked about a couple times. Since we know this refers to the churches, that leads us to something Jesus said: Matt. 5

-But it also references back to a couple OT passages: 

-Ex. 25:31-37: the lampstand was created to light up the tabernacle. This was the place where God’s very presence dwelt. Keep that in mind, but there’s one more passage that John’s borrowing from:

-Zech. 4:2, 10: the lampstands demonstrate God’s oversight into what’s taking place. So just as in the OT God’s prophecy to Zechariah is accompanied by God’s revelation of His plan, so in Revelation, God is revealing to John His plan.

-Only after seeing the lampstands do we see who was talking, he was standing among the lampstands “one like the Son of Man.”

-Dan. 7:13-14. In the NT, often when the author wants you to think about the whole passage of Scripture, they would only quote a portion of it. People in the 1st century had FAR better memory retention than we do – their culture trained them to hear and retain things. So Jesus on the cross when he cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” people would have connected it to Psalm 22. Jesus only needs to quote the first verse, because everyone would know the rest of the story (it ends with the Psalmist having God’s victory) So when John refers back to the Son of Man, those hearing that would be thinking about the whole passage from Daniel.

-I got a complaint last week about not including any LOTR, so this is the perfect time for another clip! Gandalf the gray was thought to have been killed in the first book, and another wizard named Saruman the White was seen to be leading the forces of evil against the fellowship. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are looking for 2 of the hobbits who had been captured, leading them to this point.

-Robe: think of Joseph who was given a special robe from his father. Also significant in the Greek it says it goes all the way to his feet: different levels of authority had different lengths of robe. Also denotes priestly, Ex. 28:4

-Golden sash: Ex. 28:4 priestly garment, and another reminder of royalty.

-Hair: the less color the more wisdom. Opposite today! Had a chat with a friend last week about letting the gray come in, despite all the commercials telling us to use “Just for Men” and sometimes even kids commenting that “Dad, you need some of that!” Prov. 16:31 “Gray hair is a glorious crown; it is found in the ways of righteousness.” I think this also connects back to the one moment Jesus’ glorified image was seen by the disciples in the transfiguration: Mark 9:3. Jesus is seen as full of wisdom (connecting back to the Ancient of Days, or is and was and is to come), and purity.

-Fiery eyes – as eyes age they become less bright (cataracts), not so with Jesus. Also comes up again in 2:18 and 19:12 connected to judgment. Jesus’ eyes can penetrate beneath the surface and get to the heart of the matter. Like if you’ve ever been in a conversation with someone who suddenly asks the exact question you needed to hear and it feels like they were staring directly into your soul. That’s what Jesus does!

-Feet: Dan. 10:6 denotes strength and stability, as well as complete purity. If the bronze has been polished they’ve had all their impurities removed. Notice as well the description of the voice in Daniel. Now let’s go back to Rev.:

-His voice: think of a hurricane. This also connects to Ezekiel’s vision in 2 places Ezek. 1:24 where we see the angelic beings carrying the Lord, and in43:2 where we see God’s glory finally returning to Israel.

-3 final descriptions of Jesus: 

-Holding 7 stars: Commentary on NT use of the OT quote. And the fact that they’re in Jesus’ right hand signifies that He’s in control of them. Nothing happens to them apart from His guidance.

-Sword from the mouth: Jesus’ second coming brings division. Isa. 49:2 where God’s words become a sharp sword 2 Thess. 2:8 where God’s final judgment and destruction come about through His words, Matt. 10:34-35 where we see Jesus’ arrival is accompanied by a sword. You think it’s peaceful, but He came to wage war against the works of the flesh and the devil.

-Face was shining: Matt. 17:2 another reference to the transfiguration. What the disciples got to see was a little picture of the glorified Jesus. Ex. 34:29-35 This also signifies the connection to the ultimate Prophet from the OT, Moses. Anytime Moses would meet with the Lord he would end up with a glowing face (kind of like when we MN see the sun for the first time in the summer and forget to put sunscreen on, I think there’s been some summers where my face glowed in the dark!) In order to not blind the people, Moses would put a veil over his face. Where this gets amazing is what Paul says about us today in 2 Cor. 3. Just as Jesus’ face in Revelation is said to shine like the sun, that’s what our faces are supposed to do as well. Where we once had a veil covering the us, when we turn to Jesus we now are commanded to shine brightly into the darkness of the world (just like the lampstands signified at the beginning of this section)

-Revelation is a beautiful summary, cherry on top, of the whole message of Scripture encapsulated in 1 book. All these little ideas that have been alluded to before are finding their fulfilment here!

  • John’s Response (17-20)

-Since He sees Jesus, he responds like Isaiah in Isa. 6. Isaiah sees a picture of God and comes undone! He realizes He has no right to stand in before the perfect God so he says “Woe is me for I am ruined!” And how is he able to stand before God? He’s touched by an angel and all his sins are dealt with. In this case, Jesus already dealt with the sins, but He still reaches out and touches John.

-One of the most underrated aspects of Jesus’ ministry is that of touch. Something comforting and strengthening about being touched by someone else. A hug, an arm around the shoulder. Think of all the people Jesus touched, even though He didn’t need to! A leper who hadn’t been touched in years, a women who had been dealing with a bloody discharge for 12 years leaving her unclean, a blind man whose eyes hadn’t worked since birth. All touched by the Savior!

-Jesus’ touch brings comfort and strength

-Why don’t we fear? Connects to the Ancient of Days in 7:9, 13. He’s always existed, He will always exist, so because of that we can trust in His guiding of every circumstance in our lives. Jesus is different than the Ancient of Days in that He died! The different roles of the Father and the Son.

-Defeated death and Hades. What are the keys? Keys signify authority. The church is given keys by Jesus to manage church membership (Matt. 16:17-20; 18:15-20), but Jesus is given keys to manage death and Hades. Death kills the body, Hades kills the soul (the place where the dead dwell)

-John’s commission: seen, is, will take place.

-John’s vision, directly applicable to the 1st century, blessing and connections for churches throughout history, and a picture of what will happen as Jesus returns

-Mystery explained: in the Bible, mystery often refers to something that wasn’t understood before, but is now revealed and has special redemptive purposes.

-Some debate around the angels. A couple options: pastors of the churches (every time angel is used in Rev. it refers to the spiritual beings), guardian angels of the churches, heavenly counterparts of the earthly reality. The last 2 seem the most likely, and ultimately doesn’t matter which it is, because they’re still subservient to Jesus. Remember, keep the angels in the background and Jesus in the foreground.

-Churches as lampstands? Jesus standing among them tells us the significance of being a part of the church. Do you want to be where Jesus is? Become a member of a local church. The church is who Jesus is given the keys of the kingdom to (Matt. 16, 18), and is the place where Jesus currently dwells.

-This week’s blessing: the risen Christ is present wherever His church is. If you’re a part of a church, you get Jesus’ comfort, His touch, and you get to participate in shining as a light into the world! 

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by mikethestrand on February 18, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on February 18, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/02/18/revelation-19-20-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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