Revelation 1:1-8
Let’s hear God’s word together.
This is Revelation 1, beginning at verse 1. It says, The revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the
things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his
angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God
and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads
aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear
and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that
are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who
was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before
his throne, and from Christ Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn
of the dead and the rulers of kings on earth, to him who loves
us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us
a kingdom of priests to his God and father, to him be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with
the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced
him. And all tribes of the earth will
wail on account of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha
and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who
is to come, the Almighty. Amen. This is God’s holy, inspired,
and inerrant word. May he write its blessings. on
our minds and our hearts. Tonight in our passage, in the
first eight verses, let me give you two warnings. One is you’re
gonna be drinking from a fire hydrant, and so you’re gonna
get wet, and you’re not gonna catch everything. That’s one
warning. The second thing is you’re gonna get one of everything.
Some of you go to the ice cream shop and your eyes are bigger
than your stomach. And so you want one of everything,
right? You want this topping and that topping and this scoop
and that scoop. Well, tonight you’re gonna get one of everything.
And what I mean by that is, in this set of verses, there’s a
prologue or a preface, there’s a benediction, there’s a greeting,
there’s a doxology and there’s a prophecy. And so you’re probably
asking, why doesn’t he split this up? Well, I wanna get through
the book of Revelation in a short amount of time. I don’t know,
maybe 12 or 15 weeks. So we want to take some big chunks.
So we won’t say everything about everything, but we’re going to
say a lot. So fasten your seat belts. God always knows what
his children need. He always knows what his saints
need and he provides it. For example, every Sunday, the
first of the month, We observe, we receive the Lord’s Supper.
God gave to his church a sacrament. to remind them, to nurture them,
to encourage them, and to feed them so that they would not forget
who Christ is and what he has done for them. So God gives us
what we need and he knows how to provide it. He does provide
it. And the book of Revelation is
just that. God has written this book, this
revelation, this apocalypse, this uncovering or unveiling,
of things that will soon take place. He’s given it to us so
that we will know that he is the sovereign God who rules and
reigns over history. And he gives us this so that
we will know that, very simply put, Jesus wins. And so whatever is going on in
the world, whatever is going on in your life, whatever is
going on in the missionary movement, the church movement, we know
this, God rules and reigns and Jesus wins. This book is the
back end of scripture. the front end of scripture, the
first bookend, we might say, in the beginning, God, He created. And then here we have in the
end, God. And so we start with God, we
finish with God, and it’s all of God in between. He is the
alpha, He is the omega, He is the first, He is the last. And
so tonight, as we dig into these first eight verses, we want to
look at each of these literary features, the prologue, the beatitude,
the greeting, the doxology, and the prophecy. And we’ll take
them just one by one. We’ll take them quickly. You’re going to
get a lot of interesting little factoids and information, but
look at verses one and two. This is the prologue. The revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the
things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his
angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God
and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Well, what is a prologue? If
you’ve picked up a book recently, it had a preface, same thing.
It tells you at the beginning what it’s about. Or maybe to
put it another way, you go to a play. And before the curtain
opens, the director walks out and says, I want to take you
to a time, to a place, and he gives you the setting. Well,
that’s a little bit of what this prologue is. And so in this prologue,
we get a mouthful. We get the revelation. the unveiling,
the revealing of Jesus Christ. One of the things we think about
in this prologue is we get a revelation of Jesus. It reminds us this,
that God is a self-revealing God. The ladies on Wednesday
morning in the Bible study where they study the confession of
faith, we looked a couple weeks ago at the chapter on scripture. Actually, it was last fall, we
looked at the chapter on scripture. And the chapter on scripture
comes before the chapter on God. And there’s a little method to
the confession’s madness. You can’t know who God is unless
you know that the scriptures are a faithful witness to Almighty
God. And this is, in a sense, saying
God is and he reveals all that is about him. He is a self-disclosing
God. In fact, we saw that in our reading
from Exodus chapter 3, Moses bumps into Yahweh, he bumps into
I am, he bumps into him in the form of a burning bush that is
not consumed and I am or Yahweh self reveals himself to Moses. This is who I am. And so we move
through this prologue, the revelation of Jesus Christ. We’re going
to see in revelation who Jesus is. He’s the son of God. He’s
the savior. He’s the lamb. He’s the redeemer.
He’s the warrior. He’s the judge. He’s the, he’s
the everything. So we’re going to see who he
is. We’re also going to see what he has done. He’s the mediator
of the new covenant. He is the reigning King. He is
the one who ever lives above to intercede for us. He is the
key to the scriptures. So the revelation of Jesus Christ,
who he is, what he’s done, but also a good bit of revelation
is about what Jesus is going to do. Simply put, he’s going
to win, but we’re going to see visions. We’re going to see pictures
of what he’s going to do. But bottom line is this, he’s
going to come and he’s going to win. So it’s the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the
things that must soon take place. Who are the servants? That’s
us. We are, in a sense, stuck here on earth. We are, can I
use this phrase, we’re left behind? But not in that sense. We are
here living on earth until God takes us home, until Christ takes
us home or he comes and he takes us to be with him. We are those
who love and do the will of God. We are in the world. We are serving
God faithfully, even in hard circumstances. And so God makes
known to us these things. Who does he make it known to?
He makes it known to John, his servant. who bore witness to
the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Who is John? Well, he’s one of the disciples.
Several weeks ago in our study of Luke, we saw Jesus go up on
a mountain. He prayed and asked God to give him some apostles.
Well, he gave him 12. John was one of them. John was the beloved
apostle, the beloved disciple, the apostle of love. He was the
son of Zebedee, the brother of James. He was a fisherman. He
was one who was with Jesus on the mountain at the transfiguration,
also with Peter and James. But as an old man, he’s now the
bishop, the minister of the church at Ephesus. He’s in his 90s and
he’s been exiled to a prison island called Patmos, a volcanic,
desolate island. And on the Lord’s day, he sees
a vision. and God gives him this vision
so that he might share it with the church to encourage us. This prologue reminds us that
God sovereignly reveals the things to his children that they need
to know in order to live a confident life. Notice how this prologue I’m getting ahead of myself a
little bit. We’ll move from the prologue up to the beatitude. What is a beatitude? It’s one
of the blessed are statements and we usually think those are
only in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst. Blessed are those who are persecuted. Blessed are. We think those are
only in the Beatitudes, but there are Beatitudes in Revelations. There’s one here in this first
book. You caught me. I said Revelations,
didn’t I? But in verse three, there is
a Beatitude. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of
this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear
and to keep what is written in it for the time is near. What
is a beatitude? Well, it’s God pronouncing his
benediction. Blessed are you when? You’re
persecuted. Blessed are you because you’re
merciful. Blessed are you because? you
hunger and thirst. Blessed are you for picking up
the book of Revelation, reading the book of Revelation, but also
keeping what is in it. Isn’t that a good little three-step
process to reading your Bible? You read it, you hear it, then
you keep it. And that’s kind of the important
part, right? The keeping it, the doing it, the taking it to
heart, and putting it into practice in your lives. We’re living in
a time where there is a famine of the Word of God. It is not
read, it is not proclaimed, it is not preached, it is not heard,
and it for sure is not kept. And at the very outset of this
book, There is a beatitude. Blessed is the one who reads,
hears, and keeps. There’s a church. I can’t remember
where it is. I’ve just heard that they do
this. I think it’s around New Year’s. Every year this church
gets together and around New Year’s Eve, or maybe it’s on
New Year’s Day, they get together and they read aloud the entire
book of Revelation. Why do they do that? Well, because
blessed is the one who reads it, who hears it, and who keeps
what is written in it for the time is near. This is the blessing of God we
want. It can’t be bought. It can’t
be manipulated. It can’t be found in the things of this life. This
life is full of things that are cursed. They’re sinful. They
are not lasting. And so we’ve got to step up to
the things of heaven and seek God’s favor, his provision, his
covenant blessings. And he’s going to show us what
they are in the book of Revelation. So blessed is the one who reads,
hears, and keeps these things. So there’s a prologue, a preface.
There’s a beatitude. There’s also a greeting. This is really the thing in the
book of Revelation that’s a lot like a Pauline letter. Hey y’all,
this is me, I’m writing to you. The other stuff’s kind of weird,
it’s kind of odd, it’s kind of different. What do we do every
single Sunday after we have the announcements, after we have
our little time of silent prayer and preparation for worship?
We have an apostolic greeting and most of the time it’s this
one. Grace to you and peace from him
who is. and who was and who is to come
and from the seven spirits who are before the throne and from
Christ Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and
the ruler of the kings of the earth. John, the apostle, the
beloved apostle, he says this to the seven churches. What does
that mean? It’s the churches who are scattered
around that part of the world at the time, seven being a perfect
number, a complete number. This is a complete message to
the complete church. It includes us who sit here today
in 2019. It is a message for us from John
who really needs no introduction. for we know of his life and of
his ministry. Just a few features of this greeting. I mean, first of all, think of
this. How do you greet people? Hey,
hi, what’s up? How’s it going? We say quick
things. And now with our little textees,
we say even shorter things. How many of you walk up to somebody,
you see somebody from church in the supermarket and two aisles
over at Harris Teeter, grace to you and peace from him who
is and who was, you would look like a lunatic. But it’s a biblical
way to greet. And even worse, if you went and
gave the holy kiss, that would be different. But this is a serious
way of greeting, isn’t it? This is God himself greeting
the saints of God through his apostle. And notice just a few
of the things it says. Who is this greeting from? Him
who is. Him who was. Him who is to come. He’s the Eternal Father, strong
to save. It’s from the seven spirits.
What’s seven? It’s complete. It’s not just
from the Holy Spirit, it’s the Holy Spirit, right? The complete
spirit who are before his throne and from one of the Trinity,
Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? He’s the faithful
witness. You cannot get any better knowledge
of who God is without seeing and hearing from the Son. Jesus
Christ, the faithful witness. Who else is he? He’s the firstborn
among the dead. If he was raised from the dead,
guess what? We who are in Christ will be
raised from the dead. And he’s the ruler of the kings
on earth. Why is that a significant statement? Well, however you
date Revelation, we won’t get into that tonight. But however
you date the book of Revelation, whether it’s Nero’s time or Domitian’s
time, whether it’s 70 AD, before 70, after, we’re in the 90s when
John lived and he wrote it. There you go. There were lots
of mighty kings on the earth and they were bad. They were
awful. They were wicked. And what does
this say? Jesus Christ is the ruler of
all the kings of the earth. And so you skip through just
these three verses. You’ve got a lot of meat. You’ve got a lot
of potatoes. You’ve got a lot of Wheaties,
and that’s a really good one. That’s a very comforting one.
to the original readers, the original hearers of this book,
because Jesus Christ rules and reigns over all the kings of
the earth, even wicked Nero, even wicked Nebuchadnezzar, even
wicked Domitian, even wicked, you fill in the blank. Think
of the Nazis in the last century or those under communism or you
list it. Think of the Christians down
in Venezuela where there’s chaos. Jesus Christ is the ruler of
all the kings of the earth, the good ones and the bad ones and
the in-between ones. So there’s a prologue, there’s
a beatitude, there’s a greeting. There’s next a doxology. We ought to know what a doxology
is, right? Because we sing one every single Sunday after the
collection of tithes and offerings. What is a doxology? Doxos, glory. Doxology, a gloriology, it’s
a hymn of glory. It’s a hymn of praise. And it’s
usually a Trinitarian sort of thing. To him, verse five tells
us, who loves us, and has freed us from our sins by his blood
and has made us a kingdom of priest to his God and father
to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. We’re going to sing that very
set of phrases in just a little bit when we sing all praise to
Christ, one of the James Montgomery voice hymns that’s based on Revelation
chapter 1 verses 5 through 7. But we know what a doxology is
because we sing one every week. It’s the overflow of our heart
saying, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we love you. We adore
you. We praise you. You are worthy of it. And we
recognize it. But there’s something in us that
tells us we can’t help but open our mouths to him who loves us. Why does he love us? Did he gush
back in heaven and eternity past and say, oh, those people at
First ARP on Saddle Club, I’m just gonna love them because
they are so lovable. Absolutely not. But to him who loves us,
and he loves us in a once and for all way because he has freed
us from our sins by his blood. We’ve been washed, we’ve been
pardoned, we’ve been forgiven. He has made us a kingdom of priests.
Oh, go back to the book of Exodus again. What does Moses say? Oh,
that one day all of you would be priests. Oh, that one day
you all would prophesy. You all would speak the word
of God. It wouldn’t just be through the mouths of prophets. special
mouthpieces, but all of the people would have the word of God written
on their hearts. The apostle Peter says, we are a kingdom
of priests. We are a holy nation, a royal
priesthood. And that means that we live lives
like Jesus lived. We live to serve others and we
live to serve God. intercede for others on their
behalf to almighty God to pray with and for and to serve people. And that day has come when we
as God’s children are a kingdom of priests. And then it goes
on to speak of God, the father to him be glory. Praise. To him be dominion or rule forever
and ever. So there’s a bit on the doxology. Now there’s a prophecy. We’ve
had prologue and beatitude and greeting and doxology. Now prophecy.
This is the last one. You can almost take a sigh of
relief. Verses seven through eight. Behold,
he, the Messiah, he is coming with the clouds and every eye
will see him, even those who pierced him. and all the tribes
of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen, I am the
Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was
and who is to come, the Almighty. If you begin with God and end
with God, if He is your Alpha, He is your Omega, He is your
A, your Z, your zero and your whatever infinity number you
can come up with, you’re gonna be in a good spot. This book
was written to the church on earth at present. That’s still
us. Christ is tarried, he’s not come.
And so this prophecy is for us. Behold, he is coming with the
clouds. It’ll be visible. Every eye will
see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the
earth will wail on account of him. This will be a terrifying
event, a visible event, a certain event. The great I am who met
Moses in the burning bush will see to it that every eye will
lay sight on him. The creator, the redeemer, the
king, the maker of heaven and earth, the maker of the new heavens
and the new earth will come and he will be a visible judge and
king on this earth. So what should we think about
all of this? How should these things help
us? The prologue, the beatitude, the greeting, the doxology, the
prophecy. How should all of this help us? Well, one thing we note in the
beatitude in verse three, it says, for the time is near. There’s an urgency here. We don’t
have time to waste. We have work to do. Jesus reminds
us of this when he says, we must work for night is coming. Sometimes we say we’re burning
daylight. We need to get to it. That’s
the urgency here. We need to read the Bible, live
the Bible, keep the Bible and watch the skies for the return
of Jesus. There’s urgency. It’s also a
time for faith. The world outside these doors
may be topsy-turvy. The newscast you have watched
may upset you, but there is a triune God who rules, and we need to
keep perspective in spite of the circumstances that are around
us. There’s urgency. There’s faith. There’s also worship here. I
don’t know how much you caught this, but just in these first
eight verses, There are some really wonderful things about
who God is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What God has done,
he’s powerful, mighty, redeeming, and other things. And then what
he will do, he will come, he will judge, he will fix what
is. broken. And so we praise the risen Christ. In a few moments, we’re going
to sing one of James Montgomery Boyce’s hymns. He wrote a number
of hymns at the last of his life before he was taken quickly by
cancer. We have a couple of those hymns
in our new book, but there’s a little booklet you can buy.
It’s out of print currently, but it has all of Boyce’s hymns
that he wrote towards the end of his life, and they are all
very Christ-centered. Christ-centered on salvation,
Christ-centered on ruling, Christ-centered on the church, Christ-centered
on the blessings of redemption, and they’re a wonderful exercise
to read for your mind, but also get the CD of them. I think they’re
called Hymns… I can’t remember. Hymns for a
new reformation, hymns for a modern reformation, but they are extraordinarily
Christ-centered and even revelation-centered. We should praise God every Sunday.
We might come in this sanctuary out of a dark and dying world,
and we might need to say to ourselves, we have come into a safe place,
a foxhole. The bullets don’t fly in here. And this is where it’s safe to
worship God and to praise his great name. Another thought for
us, urgency, faith, praise. the complete revelation of God.
Everything we need to know about God and about the way of salvation
is in this book. I was stumbling around on a local
ministry, a ministry in our town. So I, all of my free time, I
looked at a video of this person’s message. And the person basically
stood up there. He had a Bible. God told me something
that I want to tell you. Well, right there is problem
number one. God told me something I want to tell you. If the person
doesn’t hold this up and read it and say, this is God’s word,
let’s hear it. I’m just a mouthpiece. I’m just a pass through. You got a problem. The Bible
has everything we need. The revelation we have of God
is complete A to Z. It’s right here for us. We can
trust it. Another thing to think about, truth is truth and it’s
eternally so. What is fixed in the mind and
will of God, what is fixed in the heavens will come to pass.
This earth will pass away. The rulers and people of this
earth are They’re nuts, right? They think they rule. They think
they will last. They think they are building a legacy, and only
what Christ has established will last, and it is eternally so. Here’s the last thing, and we’ve
already said it a number of times, and it’s simply this. You can
trust in your circumstances. I don’t recommend it. Or you
can trust in the truth of the revelation of Jesus Christ. And that’s what John is recommending
to us. So let’s pray together. Our Lord and God, we bless you
for this opening of revelation and how it shows to us many wonderful
things about who you are, what you’ve done, and what you’ve
promised to do. We trust you. We believe you. We want to read
and believe and hear, and most of all, keep your word. So give
us your strength, your spirit to help us. Help us to remember
these things, to treasure them, and to put them to practice in
our lives for your glory, for the good of neighbor. And we
pray for confidence, and we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.