He Is Risen — And He Calls You by Name - John 20:11-18

Summary
Pastor David gives an Easter message on how the resurrection of Jesus assures us that we are not forgotten, overlooked, or invisible. Through the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb, he reminds us that Jesus comes to us personally, speaks our names, and invites us into resurrection life with Him.

Transcript
Good morning, Soli, you may be seated. And as you are, you can turn your Bibles back to John chapter 20, the gospel of John and the 20th chapter. Going to read just one verse for us this morning. John chapter 20, reading verse 16, hear the word of God. Jesus said to her, Miriam, and she turned and said to him in Aramaic, my rabbi, which means my teacher. This is the word of the Lord. Our Father in heaven, we have come to see Jesus this morning. We have not come to hear the words of man. We've come to hear the voice of Christ. There isn't one speak from the ascended enthronement from the right hand of the Father through the weakness and fallibility of a preacher out of an infallible and breathed out word. We have come to behold what Mary could not conceive that she could behold. A savior once dead, now risen from the dead in flesh, resurrected life, resurrected body, a new existence of life eternal, indestructible life. We would see Jesus this morning, but before we do, we would step in the Mary's shoes and traverse the grief that she experienced before you called her by name. May you call those this morning, Lord, by name, who are your sheep, and may they know they belong to you because they hear the certain sound of the voice of their Savior speaking to them. And any who may be dead in trespasses and sins here this morning, Lord, apart from you, we pray that you would call their name and that you would draw them to you. We pray this in Jesus' name, and amen. Who is this Mary of Magdala, the first one who comes to the tomb? Why is Mary of Magdala at the cross during the crucifixion? Why is Mary of Magdala the first witness in the Garden of Burial? Why is Mary of Magdala in such grief at the empty tomb? Why is Mary of Magdala the first person that Jesus reveals himself to after the resurrection? And why is Mary of Magdala chosen to be the first one to carry the impossible news of the resurrection to the disciples? Who is this Mary Magdala, this Mary of Magdala? Well, Mary is from a small fishing village named Magdala, the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. The area where she lived was a hotbed of demon activity, a demon platoon lived there. We might say a legion of demons there regularly, destroying life. The Bible tells us that when Jesus sought out Mary, she was one who had seven demons possessing her. She was a woman possessed by seven demons until Jesus sought her out and delivered her. She was a disordered home for a fullness of demons, seven different demons, maybe wreaking seven different kinds of havoc on her body and her soul and her mind, with dehumanizing affliction, with no escape and no hope of salvation ever possible. Living a life demon possessed, a life of perpetual torture, then Jesus, then Jesus seeks her out and the unthinkable happens. She is delivered from the power and the authority of those seven demons by Jesus. And this deliverance is something that she will never forget. She will never leave it off in any way, shape or form. As a matter of fact, she will attach herself to Jesus. And from the time that she is delivered, she will follow Jesus all the way through his ministry, all the way through Holy Week, all the way to the cross, all the way to the tomb, and all the way to what she is confused about right now. You see, she would even become a patroness of the ministry of Jesus. According to Luke eight, she was part of her funds that funded the ministry of Jesus. She would give her all back to the one who released her and delivered her from the demonic powers that she was under and Mary loved greatly. He who has been forgiven much loves much. He who has been forgiven greatly loves greatly. And Mary loves the savior because she has been delivered from much. And we find her in chapter 20 and verse one, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark. It is not only dark outside, it is dark inside Mary's soul. There is darkness deep inside of her and there is darkness surrounding her the outside. Well, what is the reason for this darkness? Well, she came to the tomb while it was early and still dark and she saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. And she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb "and we do not know where they have laid him." She comes to the tomb and she recognizes with the stone rolled away. She doesn't quite look in yet. She just only knows that there's no way the body can be inside. And so it leads her to great grief and a doubling down of the darkness in her soul. And so we meet Mary in verse 11 after the exchange takes place between Peter and John. And in chapter 20 and verse 11 of the gospel of John says, "Mary stood weeping outside the tomb "and she wept as she stooped to look inside "the tomb four times in our passage." Four times in our passage, it highlights the fact that Mary is weeping uncontrollably because of the circumstances that she's facing. Twice in verse 11, once in verse 13 and once in verse 15, Mary is uncontrollably weeping. She is without consolation. There is nothing that will console her and exchange her grief for anything else. And so she only thinks she knows is simply to weep over the double loss of her Lord. She lost him once on the cross. And now when she loses him again with the absence of his body, here is a storm of tears and grief for love. She was expecting to find a corpse. Was never on her radar, but the possibility of this one Jesus, whatever rise from the dead, that's not even in her realm of thinking. And now the one to whom all her hopes were pinned there is doubly lost. And in verse 12, it says, "She saw two angels in white "as she stooped and looked into the tomb. "She saw two angels in white sitting there "where the body of Jesus had lain one at the head "and one at the feet." Some number of things happening here. The first thing that Mary sees when she looks inside the tomb is not what she wants to see, the body of Jesus so that she can bring spice to it and care for that body that she loves so much. But she sees two angels sitting in white. I don't know about you, but if I'm ducking my head into a tomb where I expect to see a dead man and I see two angels sitting there dressed in white, there's one thing I can promise you, I am setting a new personal record for speed out of there. I'm going. Like I'm racing Peter and John, I'm out. Like I am fleeing the scene and I might be as white as the angels are white. And you know what in scripture, oftentimes when people meet an angel, that's exactly what happens, they freak out. But not Mary. Mary almost like doesn't see them. Her grief is so great that she misses the whole thing entirely the angels are completely lost on her. I mean, she's like, who cares? She's just weeping. But her grief is so great, not only does she miss the angels, she misses the signs and symbols that are before her that speak. You see here is our two angels sitting on a slab, hovering over a slab. Anybody who knows the scriptures knows that if you have two angels hovering over a slab, we've seen this before. It's called the mercy seat. It's called the Ark of the Covenant, where two cherubim hover over the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. And it is the mercy seat where the high priest once a year sprinkles blood onto to sanctify the tabernacle and the temple, and where atonement is made for the sins of God's people. And so when Mary looks inside, here she sees this symbolism of the mercy seat. Jesus is the mercy seat. He is the one great sacrifice for sin. And he's not there, which is actually the best news possible, but she can't conceive of it. And her grief is so great, she can't even see the sign. But like Narnia, it's even a deeper sign. A deeper sign that goes back before Exodus, all the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, where if you remember Adam and Eve are pushed out of the garden. And cherubim are established at the gate of the garden and a flaming sword so that they cannot enter in again and eat the tree of life. But here we have a new Eve that's welcomed into the garden. You see, welcomed by angels, not pushed out by angels. This is the Garden of Eden reversed in Jesus as he stepped out on the first day of the week, steps out as a new Adam into a new garden so he will meet a representative of the new Eve, the church, all taking place in a garden. You see the Bible moves from the garden to the wilderness, to the wilderness, to a garden, to a garden, to a garden city. And our future is the garden city of the new heavens and the new earth. And the only reason we can have that hope of a new creation someday is because Jesus and this garden. Well, what about the sword? What about the cursed sword that kept Adam and Eve out of the garden? Well, that sword had already fallen on Good Friday. The curse that would keep man out of the garden had been answered by Jesus on Good Friday as he received the sword of that curse so that he could open Eden back up again and we could move forward into our new home. You see, not only is Jesus the mercy seat, he's the last Adam that reverses all of the damage that the first Adam himself did. And so it's right that we begin in a garden and that Jesus rises in a garden and meets the first witness in a garden. In verse 13, the angels speak to her and she's unfazed. Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord. Not just the Lord, but my Lord. And I do not know where they have laid him. Mary remains frozen in grief, weeping, fixated on the absence of the dead body of Jesus. And of course it prevents her from seeing everything that's before her to see. But even in the midst of that, there is this faith that she has that this one is her Lord even in a death that she cannot conceive of and a double loss that she's grieving over. In verse 14, having said this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. She turns around and it's dark still and her eyes are swollen with tears and salt and weeping. And she looks and there's Jesus, the last person that she's expecting to see alive so she doesn't see him for who he is. She's looking for a corpse, not for a gardener. But there he is before her and why would she, why would she be able to recognize him with her eyes in the condition that she is with her expectations of the way that they are with the darkness of the morning. And she remembers good Friday. She remembers the flogging. She remembers the torture. She remembers the pulling out of his beard. She remembers him not being able ultimately to carry his own cross. Simon of Cyrene would have to do that as he staggered under the weight. She remembers him hanging there on the cross, crucified. She remembers him dead in the spear, puncturing his side and blood and water pouring out. The Bible says that she followed at a distance as they carried the body of Jesus to the tomb, his limp body. The last thing that she's expecting is anything more than a corpse. And so she does not recognize him. There's also the possibility that she does not recognize him because of the relationship between his pre-resurrection body and his post-resurrection body. We know it's a body, we know it's in fleshed. We know Jesus rose from the dead and he rose from the dead in the body that he died in because the scars were still there and he could eat. And so for that is a real resurrection, not a phantom resurrection. We don't believe and confess that Jesus is raised in your heart. We believe that he was raised physically from the dead. And Jesus speaks and he answers, I asked Mary two questions in verse 15. The first one again is, "Woman, why are you weeping?" I'm right here. Secondly, "Whom are you seeking?" Not, "What are you seeking?" But "Whom are you seeking?" Mary bypasses the questions, not relevant to her and her moment. And supposing him to be the gardener. There's no reason to suppose him to be the gardener because he is the gardener. He is the new Adam in the new creation in resurrection and he has come and resurrected to tend his new creation gardener, which she is a part of. She is the first of the new Eve, the church, the bride of Christ. And here is the capital G gardener raised from the dead in the garden with the beginnings of the new Eve, the church. And she is right to recognize him as the gardener. She's just got the wrong gardener on her mind. She doesn't know that this is the gardener that her soul and her heart craves for to be alive. And notice that she's heard his voice and there's nothing. She heard him speak and he asks two questions and nothing. She's still fixated on caring for a corpse. She said to the gardener, "Sir, if you have carried him away, "I love this. "I don't picture Mary as a six foot 10 woman, "but sometimes your emotions get the best of you. "Tell me where he is and you've laid him "and I will carry him away." Have you ever just thought yourself a little stronger than you are? And then you get to the moment it's like, oops. Right? Well, Mary's like, look, whatever day I will get him, I will take care, I will bring him back, I will do it. Probably speaking beyond her ability right now, though I wouldn't doubt it. Sometimes you give a woman a strength and some adrenaline and they can do some amazing things like have babies. So it's pretty amazing what women can do. But she's convinced that she can do this. And everything is about to change. Everything is about to change in just one word for Mary. She's still weeping. Jesus calls it. Why are you still weeping? Nothing's changed. The empty tomb hasn't changed her. Jesus speaking to her hasn't changed her. But everything is gonna change. Just one word. In just one word, her world is going to change. In just one word, her darkness is going to turn to light. In just one word, death is going to come to life. In just one word, weeping will turn to joy. Just one word, three syllables in the Greek. Verse 16, "And Jesus said to her, 'Mereum, merium, and spring exploded in her soul.' When she heard the voice of her name, in the voice she had heard before." That's all it took was just to hear the shepherd say her name. A name that she had heard him say so many times before. And it always, every time he said it, grabbed her heart. And here it is again, merium. You see the scripture tells us these words in John 10. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name. We hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, the scriptures tell us. And the sheep follow him, why they know the voice of that shepherd, you see, a stranger won't follow. But when a stranger hears Jesus speak, they flee from him for they don't know the voice, you see. But those who are the sheep of Jesus hear his voice and he knows their name and he speaks their name and they follow him in John 10 and 27 says, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them." And they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. You see, that's all it took. That's all it took for merium was to hear her name in the voice of her savior. There's no theothony here. No burning bush, no transfiguration. And Jesus does not tell her, look, I'm the one you're looking for. Jesus could have said right there, I'm alive. I'm alive. I was dead. Now I'm alive, look it's me. He doesn't do that. Of all the options available to Jesus, Jesus doesn't tell Mary who he is. He tells her who she is. Mary, Merium, you're the sheep, you're mine. You're my named sheep. And I am the shepherd, Merium, you are known by name. You are loved by name. Just hearing her name in the voice of the shepherd and the world became a different place. The darkness turned to light, morning came, and she became something new. You see, it's incredible. You know, when I was an older teenager, 16 through 19 years old, my favorite TV show was Cheers. My buddies, we were supposed to go to junior college, sorry mom and dad, we were supposed to go to junior college classes, and instead we met and watched Cheers. Oh well, it happens. We could have been like doing other things. So, but if you know the story of the TV show Cheers, sometimes you wanna go what? Where everybody knows your name, right? Where everybody knows your name. So there's this little church gathered in this pub. Was it in Boston, John? Was it in Boston? In Boston? Yes, in Boston, right? And the reason why those people go there is because it's the one place in the world they're not a number or an it or just a something. It's the one place in the world where who they are is recognized and welcomed and named and everybody knows everybody's name in that little world there. You know, we're living in such a time, we're living in a suicidal culture because people so badly want their names to be known. There's a breakdown somewhere, there's a breakdown somewhere to where people would not be named personally with other persons, and so they push their name out onto social media presentations, looking for the vindication and honoring of their name. I just need someone to heart this or to like this. And then it doesn't happen because it's fleeting and it's fickle and it's impersonal and it's cold and it's created a suicidal culture and the curated character of what people put online anyways is a lie, it's the way they want people to perceive their names, right? If you limit yourself to about three or four pictures, here's a story I can tell you about three men in our church, Denny Deutsch, Chris Jenkins and Jason Webster. If you limit yourself to three pictures on the internet, on the Instagram, I'm not saying you guys have problem with what you put on my Instagram, but if you limit yourself to three pictures on Instagram, here's what it looked like. They left their wives, moved over to Italy and are living the high life. (audience laughing) If you look at three pictures, right? Well, they would tell you that if you looked at the other pictures, there was a whole flock of teenagers with them. It wasn't just the three of them and they weren't just living the high life, they had responsibilities there too and oh by the way, the trip ended. They came home and soul life begins again and it's work and it's all that's right. But what we do, they didn't do that, but people do that because they wanna curate for themselves a life they don't have. They want their name to be known and recognized. They wanna be loved in that way in a personal kind of way. And now we have an electronic way of doing it and they think it's gonna satisfy and it never will. That's why it creates the anxiety and depression and suicide culture that we have, you see. And so Jesus says, "Miri yum." You see, here is Mary, a person with a past and a particular story whose life would have ended in darkness and anonymity and death. And now she is named by the only one whose acknowledgement and recognition matters or counts. Her identity is that Jesus knows her name and he calls her by name and her story comes back to life. And I'm just gonna say this because I know that there are many visitors here this morning, so I'm talking to the sheep of solely. I'm talking to the membership of solely and if you want to spill over, that's great. If our church is not like our savior here and better than a bar in Boston. If you don't know the names of the other sheep in your church that you share life with and cross over out of your little groups, I'm not sure we have a reason to exist. Soley was planted so that people could come here and be found and be named and be loved. To extend to others the naming that Jesus has for us, you see, we're here in our new old digs again and the opportunity opens back up freshly for us to reconsider the life of our church now that we're gonna be able to have meals together and we can see each other this morning. But if we're gonna be a church that's like our savior, we need to know each other's names and we need to name each other in love and grace. And that means everybody. That means the people that you're uncomfortable with. That means the porcupines. That means the people who never talk and the people who never shut up. It means the small people and the old people. It means all of those whom the Lord has grafted into the church of Jesus Christ at Soley, David Gloria Church. This is the place where everybody should have a name and be personally known and loved. And when their world is coming apart, this should be the people that comes alongside of them, like our savior and names them. New light and life and hope reborn comes into people's lives with a word, fitly chosen and spoken. So sometimes we have to get our eyes off of our navels and off those stinking devices and look up and look around. There are some people in this room who are living their best life now, well done you, it's not gonna last. There are some people in this room whose depression and suffering and inner turmoil is so great they can hardly lift their heads. And they shouldn't be suffering alone. Not if they have a church. Not if they have a church. You see, Jesus orchestrated this moment just for Mary so that the tears of grief could be wiped away from her eyes and her response is three syllables in the Greek. Myrium rabonai, my teacher. It's a term of endearment, it's a response of devotion for Mary. And of course she does what anybody would do, right? She just grips him with a bear hug. Jesus said to her in verse 17, "Do not cling to me." It's actually in the Greek it's stopped clinging to me so it's not like you had a problem with the initial hug. It's like we can't stay there in this way. Stop clinging to me, I'm gonna let you hug me for a bit. But then you gotta let go 'cause there's something else going on here. But I want you to feel this. Imagine you take your five year old with you to Disneyland and your five year old gets lost. Not for one hour, not for two hours, but for three hours at Disneyland. Put yourself as a parent in those shoes. I don't know about you, I'm a grandparent and I've been tearing Disneyland pieces, looking for my Nolan. And after three hours, you just don't know if you're gonna see your kid again because there's wicked people in the world. All of a sudden here comes Mickey Mouse and he found your kid and he's bringing your kid to you after three hours. What kind of hug is that gonna be? That's what this hug is. That's what this hug is. But Jesus says you gotta stop clinging to me and notice he doesn't hug a ghost. He's huggable, which means it's flesh. Do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father. So there's something new has to happen, Mary. I have to ascend. My work's not done yet. I still am waiting, my enthronement in heaven as the new Adam, the Pentecostal spirit that I will pour out that will grant my presence and power to you and the church. The promises that still need to be fulfilled and the mode of presence by which I will be open to all, not just you. I must finish this. And then notice how this drips with grace. Jesus, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers. My brothers. What kind of brothers? Oh, you know the men who denied me? The men who scattered? The men who ran for their lives like cowards? The men who were ashamed of me? Go to those brothers. And this is the first time in the Bible where Jesus identifies himself as a brother of the disciples. These are the men who absolutely let Jesus down all the way and you wanna know what he does. He not only names Miriam Miriam, he names these guys my brothers. I'm not done with them yet. They might have failed and ran, but I am not finished with them. Yet they might have been ashamed of me, but I'm not ashamed of them, Jesus says. There is a restoration and a mission that is coming to them. And all of that because he says, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God." In other words, Jesus is saying that because of what I've done, there is a new relationship with the Father. I've always had one, now you have one. He's always been my Father, now he's your Father by grace. And what I'm doing, Jesus says, "I'm creating brothers and sisters so that I might bring them home to my Father and your Father so that you can share in my relationship with the Father." You see, as adopted sons and daughters of God, we don't have secondary status or tertiary status. We are members of the family and we share in all the blessings and privileges that Jesus does, that he shares with us, including his inheritance. When the Father looks at you, he sees you as a brother or sister of Jesus. You are in that family and he is your Father in every way. And he shares, you have the same standing before that Father as Jesus does. The same standing. His is because he's the eternal begotten Son of God. Yours is by grace, but it's a shared life, you see. A shared family. It's incredible, named, owned as family, access, blessing, inheritance, all of it because we're named by Jesus. So go to my brothers and tell them that I'm finishing. But now my God is your God and my Father is your Father. And then Mary, who thought that her duty that day, her commission that day, was guess what? To spice a corpse. Now it's to go tell the truth. Verse 18, "You go tell my brothers, "Berry Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord." And then he said these things to her. See Mary is given a mission, a mission on the other side of being named. She is the first witness to the resurrection. She's given the first mission of the resurrection. Jesus is raised, he is risen, and that means, listen church, that means there is no meaninglessness in life. There's no meaninglessness in life. There's not one part of life for God's people that's meaningless because Jesus is raised from the dead. And he's given us a mission and that is to go. And as we're going to testify to the risen Lord, that there is named life in him, named personal life with God in him because of Jesus and the resurrection. And it is our privilege to carry that treasure and be broken out so that it gets out to other people. And if you are here this morning and you don't know Christ, you have not closed with Christ, you have not sought him out, you have not drawn near to him, he is speaking to you right now through my voice. And he is saying, come to me, I've already come to you in the word. I'm right here in your mouth, I'm right there in your heart. I believe in your heart that I have been raised from the dead and you will be saved right now if you are here and you are not saved, close with Jesus. He has drawn near to you right now, close with him, trust him, say yes to him, receive your name being named by him right now. Do not linger, do not hold off, do not put it off until a better time. Right now is the day of salvation. This is the day of resurrection, close with Christ if you are apart from him. And if you are already his sheep, hear your name as you come to the Lord's table today. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, take your word and seal it unto us for the glory of your name. And may the risen Christ be exalted in our hearts today in Jesus' name, amen.

Gethsemane’s Burning Cup - Luke 22:41-44

Summary
Pastor David preaches on Gethsemane, revealing that Jesus was not asking to avoid the cup of wrath, but praying that after drinking it fully, He would not remain in it forever. He unpacks the depth of Christ’s agony—not in the decision to obey, but in the fear of being eternally forsaken—showing that the prayer was heard and resurrection was assured.

Transcript
Morning, Soli please open your Bibles this morning to the gospel of Luke into the 22nd chapter. Luke chapter 22, we are going to spend some time this morning in Gethsemane on this Palm Sunday. Since we will not, even though we will be together on Friday evening, I wanna direct our attention towards that day. Luke chapter 22, I wanna read beginning in verse 41. "And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if you are willing remove this cup for me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.' And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground." This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Our Father in heaven, as we come to peer into the Garden of Gethsemane on this Lord's day, may we not be found to be like the disciples asleep, either asleep physically or asleep spiritually. May you awaken us this morning, both in body and soul, so that as we peer into the Garden of Gethsemane into the depths of mystery and deep darkness and great challenge and unfathomable things, you would give us eyes to see our Savior, our champion, our hero, saying yes, where the first Adam said no, and saying no, where the first Adam said yes. Lord, this is the other Garden and the other cup, and I pray that you'd lead us to it this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, and amen. As we follow Jesus this morning with his disciples to the Mount of Olives, to Gethsemane, to the other Garden, which is known as the oil press, which is what Gethsemane means, the place where oil from the Garden was pressed out, the Olives were pressed out, and all of oil was made. This is a place that we don't meet for the first time with Jesus. Jesus regularly goes to this Garden. This is a regular part of the life of Jesus. It's his custom to go here and find rest and refreshment and prayer and communion with his Father and his disciples. This is like a home away from home for Jesus. If you have a spot somewhere in your life where you go to to pray, where you go to be quiet with the Lord, where you go to maybe take somebody with you to have a conversation, this is that place for Jesus. If you look at verse 39, it says, "And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives." This is not something new for Jesus. This is a regular place for Jesus to go. As a matter of fact, if you look forward to the Gospel of John and to the 18th chapter, listen to these words. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with the disciples across the Brook Kidron where there was a Garden which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas who betrayed him also knew the place for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So this Garden is something where Jesus has spent a lot of time with his disciples, a lot of time praying with them, a lot of time teaching them, and you'll notice Judas knew the place. When Judas left the upper room, when Judas left the last supper to go make the betrayal, Jesus didn't run and hide. Jesus went to a place where Judas exactly knew where he was and Jesus put himself there because he intended on meeting the moment and not escaping the moment that was coming. And this Garden that had been such a haven now becomes a place of conflict because now the dark shadow of Golgotha hangs over this place. But even though it does, Jesus faces it head on. In the words of R.A. Finlayson, "Gethysmony is not a field for the intellect, "it is a sanctuary for faith." There was, or transacted something that brings us completely out of our depth. As we come to Gethsemane, we're out of our depth. We just can't go here. We can only just peel the surface because it would be too much for us to see if you consider what it was for him to have blood drain from his head. It's incredible. Donald MacLeod said, "This is not the road less traveled. "It is the road never traveled." Never traveled before and never traveled since. This is the cup of one man, the Son of God. Church, please understand, you do not have Gethsemane's. And I do not have Gethsemane's. It is wrong to talk about the Gethsemane of your life. There has been only one Gethsemane because there's only one cup that had to be drunk and it was not going to be drunk by God's people. And so Gethsemane is not about our little struggle moments. It is literally about the salvation of the world is at stake in the garden. There is one Gethsemane and this is it. You see, Jesus had already put a cup to the lips of his disciples in the upper room, a cup that he did not drink. If you'll notice that Jesus passed that cup around the room, he never drank it himself. Well, what he passed around the room that night in the upper room was a cup that he didn't drink but his disciples drank of. It was a cup of salvation and a cup of forgiveness. And Jesus doesn't drink that because he's going to move on to a different cup that he would drink so that that cup that he gave his disciples would have the meaning that it would and carry with it the salvation that it would. But as Jesus is considering this cup and he is here in the oil press, he is here answering for what our first Adam did in the garden as the last Adam. A change comes over Jesus. A change that had begun a little earlier but now is palpable in the face of the disciples. Matthew describes it this way and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. And he said, "My soul is very sorrowful even to death." And he fell on his face. We are not even at the cross yet. And something is so overwhelming, the soul of Jesus at this point that he's on the verge of death before he's supposed to die. He's on the verge of death before the cross itself. Mark says it this way, "Greatly distressed and troubled. "My soul is very sorrowful even to death." And he fell on the ground. So whatever this is is crushing Jesus even before the cross. Whatever this is is pressing like the oil press on Jesus even before he gets to the nails scarred hands. Luke has it this way in verse 41. He went from them about a stone's throw and he knelt down and prayed. And then in verse 44 it says, "And his sweat became like drops of blood "falling to the ground." What must this be that's happening in Gethsemane that Jesus would almost die before he's supposed to die? That the pressure upon him would be so great that his sweat would be like great drops of blood that he would fall on the ground and his soul would cast over as his body casts over where he is very distressed and sorrowful where he is in agony. And all of this in a familiar place that had never brought any of this before. A place that had only brought comfort. A place that had only brought consolation and communion. Now brings this type of conflict and pressure upon the soul of Jesus. Well the answer is because the contents of the cup that Jesus is about to drink are becoming clearer to him. Now that he's handed the cup to the disciples on that night knowing that he must move towards the cup that he must drink. That cup described over and over and over again in the Old Testament as a cup of God's wrath and fury against sin and against sinners. Jesus now having that cup clearly before him must in a sense drink that cup before he drinks that cup. He must say yes to that cup before he goes and drinks that cup. And as we come to verse 42, verse 42, Jesus prays this, Father if you are willing remove this cup from me. It is not my will but yours be done. You see church it is the will of the Father. Not only that Jesus drink the cup but that that cup is to be removed after Jesus drinks it. It is the will of the Son to drink the cup but to have it removed after he drinks it. Jesus is under the full assault of darkness in every way as he enters the garden. And as Jesus faces down the contents of this cup which bring him to the brink of death before the hour we must remember that all hell is in this cup. This cup is on fire. It's a burning cup. It's more than a bitter cup. And as Jesus comes to see this there's something that's obscured for him. And what's obscured for him is how long will he have to stay under this cup? What is the duration of the cup? Will it pass by? Will it be removed? Or will he drink it and remain drinking it? World without end. Will this cup remain and remain and remain? Or is there something out the other side for him? You see in order for us to understand what Jesus is going through here we have to look at some context in some other places so we don't read this passage wrongly. I've heard many, many people unfold this passage and do it in such a way as if Jesus is waffling here and the Father's waffling here and I don't think that's what's going on at all. I think Jesus is resolved here and there's something else going on that we oftentimes miss. And so turn with me over for a minute to John chapter 12, John chapter 12. When we read in John chapter 12 concerning this hour in this moment Jesus is absolutely resolved to drink this cup. He is absolutely resolved to meet this hour. Look at John chapter 12 and verses 27 and 28 echoing the language that we have in Gethsemane. Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. He's asking the question. When the time comes, am I gonna be asked? Am I gonna ask this question? Save me from this hour? No. But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name that a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and will glorify it again. Jesus is resolved to drink the cup. Jesus is resolute in drinking the cup. Jesus will not be asked. He will not ask to be saved from the cup. It is the very purpose for which he has come is to meet this very hour. And now that the hour is upon him, he's not asking for the hour to be removed. He's asking for it to not remain, you see. Not remain is an eternal hour. In Luke chapter 12 and verse 50, it says this regarding the resolve of Jesus to go to the cross. Luke chapter 12 and verse 50 says this, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Jesus recognizes what's before him. A baptism like no other baptism on the cross. And he is in earnest and distress and he must accomplish this. He is resolved to accomplish it, not to ask the Father to save him from that hour, but for that's the reason why he even came. And I think oftentimes we forget these words that come out of Matthew chapter 16. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. I'm setting up a context so that we can see what Jesus is actually saying in Gethsemane. Matthew chapter 16, verses 21 through 23. From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and must suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and rebuked him saying, "Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Peter here makes it clear that maybe there's another way to do this than go to the cross and be killed. And Jesus says that's satanic thinking that would have aid the cross. Satanic thinking that would have aid the cross. So I submit to you based on John chapter 12, Luke chapter 12 and Matthew chapter 16, that what Jesus is not asking in the garden is to not drink the cup. He's not waffling there at all. And as a matter of fact, I think we read things in sometimes that we think are there but are not there. And I wanna remind you of the way that this works because it's difficult sometimes to handle this in relationship to the hypostatic union of Jesus whereby he is both fully God and fully man, two natures united in one person. And it's really, really important. I was talking to my wife about this yesterday at a friend of mine and I'm not gonna say who or where, but just on the web who was saying some things about this very passage. And I would love to have a conversation with him to move him from some of her heresy that he was talking about. Because it's very, very easy for us to deal wrongly with Jesus at times. And it's a challenge and we have to think carefully about these things. But if you remember in John chapter six, Jesus said this, "I have not come to do my own will, "but the will of him who set me." Now when Jesus says that, "I have not come to do my own will, "but the will of him who set me." Do you hear that as Jesus has his own will, the father has a will, they're clashing, but Jesus is gonna go ahead and submit to the father's will. That's not the way we hear that. And rightly so, we shouldn't hear it that way. What Jesus is saying is that in his humanity and the incarnation, he has not come to do his own will. He does not have his own agenda. He does not have his own plan. He does not have his own purpose. In his humanity, it's all about the father's plan, the father's purpose, the father's will. My food, Jesus says, is to do the will of him who sent me. So throughout the life of Jesus, it's not that he has a will that's contrary to the father's will, is that he has a human will like we do. That he consistently and regularly is submitting to the father's will as the father's will is revealed to him. In other words, Jesus can say in his humanity, this is not my plan. This is not my purpose. This is not my gig. I'm getting it from the father. And when I get it, I say yes to it. That's what he means when he says that. And so it's really important when we put all of that together, and the fact that Hebrews 12 tells us that Jesus went to the cross for what? You know? For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. And so when we put all of those passages together, when we come to Gethsemane, all of this is in the mix. All of this is in the mix with respect to what Jesus is saying here. But something's going on because Jesus is suffocating to death. He is resolved. He is in distress to accomplish it. He is going to move through and drink the cup, but he's suffocating to death here. And Jesus has one great concern and it's not drinking the cup. He's resolute. Listen to what Spurgeon said. I figure if I get a good Baptist to back me up on this and give me a good shape, right? Jeremy, thank you. And not just any Baptist, the Baptist, right? Charles Spurgeon bearded and occasionally resembles me. Spurgeon said, "I'm fully persuaded "that such a supposition would reflect upon the Savior "a dishonor. "It does not seem to be consistent "with the character of our blessed Lord, "even as man to suppose that he desired "that the final cup of his sufferings "would pass away from him at all. "It just doesn't seem to be with the character of Christ "that he would look for a way around." The cup, Spurgeon says, and I agree. And so as we come to verse 42 of Luke then, what's being said? "Father, if you are willing, "remove this cup from me." There's two ways to consider this. One, he's asking for it to be removed so he does not have to drink it, which we've already concluded is not possible. He's resolved. The other one is for it to be removed after he drinks it. And the reason for that is, is that Jesus does not want God's wrath to rest upon him permanently. Right? Have you ever asked for something to be removed after the fact I just want this after it's done to go away? We do it all the time. We say it all the time. We go through something and we just want this to pass. We go through something, we just want this to be removed on the other side. This is what Jesus is saying here. And it's in line with the Father's will. If you are willing, in the Greek this is a first class conditional that assumes that what Jesus is praying is being answered by the Father. Father, if you are willing, remove this cup. The Father is going to be willing to remove the cup after he drinks it. Not before he drinks it. John Rogers says, "Jesus willingly drinks the cup, "but asks that the cup passes away after he tastes it." Jesus asked that he not drink the cup eternally, but rather that the Father resurrect him. And it's a request that the Father grants. And so this is a matter of duration, not drinking. Jesus doesn't come to the Gethsemane moment and say, "I'm not sure I want to drink this." He comes to the Gethsemane moment, knowing he wants to drink it, but he does not want to remain under it. Which makes sense. I mean, I want you guys to consider this. Consider how important this is, right? Jesus goes to the cross and he cries out, "Eloi, Eloi, lamosa bactini, my God, my God, "why have you forsaken me?" You think he wants to stay in that condition? Right? You think Jesus wants to go to the cross, receive the forsakenness of the Father and what that means and say, "Ah, I'm good to remain here for the rest of my life, "for the rest of days." No, notice he cries out to the Father. Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. There's no, Jesus is not obscured in terms of his relationship to the Father at this moment in Gethsemane. He's not questioning whether or not the Father is still a Father to him. When you cry out, "Father," like this, notice the cry of dereliction is, "My God, my God." Here in the garden, the filial relationship holds. My Father, he cries out. In this crisis moment, the mutual love of the Father and the Son holds. The love that binds them binds their wills, but the consideration of Jesus, of the indefinite loss of the active enjoyment of his Father's love. You see, that's what happened at the cross. The Trinity was not cracked at the cross. Please, people. When the Father turned his face away, there was not a split in the Trinity. That is troubling doctrinally. It is in his humanity that Jesus experienced while the love of the Father remained for his Son and while the love of the Son remained for his Father on the cross, Jesus experienced a temporary loss of the enjoyment of his Father's love that he had always known his entire life. He experienced a temporary holding off of an active sense of the Father's delight in him as an obedient son, which he had had his entire life. John Owen said that Jesus gave up the comforting influences of God on the one hand while he was exposed to the unmitigated wrath of God on the other hand. And so as Jesus goes under that cry of dereliction, giving up on the one hand, the comforting influences of the Father's delight and love and joy and fellowship that he had with him and his humanity. And on the other side, he's exposed to the unending cup of wrath in that moment. That's what Jesus experiences. He doesn't want to stay there. He can't imagine living without the Father's face, without the Father's love, the enjoyment and active sense of his Father's delight and love in him. And that's what he would give up for a short time on the cross. He who knew no sin would be made sin. So he would be treated as the sinner and not as the son. And that's what he would do for us in the cry of dereliction. And he can't imagine that cup remaining on him and to be cut off from his relationship of Father and son that he had had his life, but he's willing to undergo it for us and he does not want to remain in that position you see. An unending exposure he cannot consider at all. And it deepens what happens on the cross. It deepens what happens against simony for us because Jesus is willing to take it. Jesus is willing to drink the cup. He just wants it to be removed at some point in time and there'd be resurrection on the other side. You see, Jesus embraced his vocation. He said, "No one takes my life from me. I willingly lay down my life for the sheep in John 10. I'm gonna drink it all, but to drink it without resurrection." It's too much of a thought for him. And that's obscured for him in the garden. Craig Blazing, you'll notice I'm quoting a lot of people that you understand that I'm just not the only guy that believes this. I'm doing this on purpose. Either you can group me with the people you don't agree with, but at least I'm with a group. Craig Blazing said this, he said, "Jesus is concerned when the hour comes is that time will stop and he will forever be in that hour. He will forever be in that hour. He does not want to forever be in the hour of forsakenness. He does not want to forever be in the hour of drinking the cup of his father's fury and wrath against sinners and sin." There's a beautiful verse in Hebrews chapter five that tells us that this prayer of Jesus was heard. It's beautiful, Hebrews chapter five and verse seven. I love this. It doesn't say that Jesus was told no. I take this as a commentary on Gethsemane here. And so if Jesus' prayer is answered, Father, if you are willing to remove this cup from me, I think it argues in favor of the interpretation that it's not about whether Jesus drinks, it's about whether or not the cup remains. So in Hebrews five, seven, it says, "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears." That's exactly where we are in Gethsemane. "With loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, but no, the father said, you gotta die." Now that's not what it says. It says, "To him who was able to save him from death, what, to save him from the cross?" No, no, not to save him from the cross, but to save him from a death that remains death, you see. A death that remains death. To save him from death, and what does the Bible say? And he was heard. He was heard because of his reverence. God heard his prayer. Father, if you were willing, save me from this cup. He was heard because of his reverence. He was saved from the cup after he drank the cup. Remove this cup, let it pass by. After I drink it, he was heard. And of course, this is the father's plan, and so he submits his will to it. If we go back to Luke chapter 22, this is exactly what happens. Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. The father is willing, he will remove the cup. After it drinks, it is not my will, but yours that is to be done. This is all your plan, Father, and I'm gonna submit myself to it. I submit myself fully to it in every way. Thomas Weiney said this, Jesus, son of God, as man, always needs to conform his human will to the divine will of the Father, which in his agony, in Gethsemane, in his prayer, he is configuring his human filial will to the will of his Father in heaven. That's exactly what Jesus is doing. I have not come to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the Father's plan, and I'm in full submission to it. Not my will, but the Father's will be done. And so as we move on, the result of this willingness to drink the cup, but this prayer for the cup to be removed on the other side and the submission of the Son's will to the Father's will, it's at that point under the suffocation that Jesus is facing through the clarity of the cup that he sees, that verse 43 happens, and there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. Jesus is at this point where the weight of what is happening is so great that there is the possibility that he collapses before death. And so an angel is dispatched from heaven, just like they were in the temptation, to come and to strengthen him to finish an angel from heaven strengthening him. You see that? That there be no death before death. An angel is dispatched to minister to Christ in his humanity as he himself is bearing under the load of the visibility of the cup that he is saying yes to. It requires an angel to strengthen him, but I want you to notice that when the angel strengthens him, things don't get better, things get worse. Right? Because we don't need strength after the fact. We need strength for the thing. So this is what caught my eye when I was reading this passage in my office one day, and I turned to Lucas and I said, "Lucas, after the angel comes, "it's not as though Jesus goes, oh, and it's relief. "It's absolutely the opposite of what happens. "After the angel comes and strengthening him, "strengthens Jesus, things ramp up, things amp up." Look at the next verse. And being in agony, well, wait a minute, the angel's there, right? Because the angel is not there to relieve Jesus. The angel is there to strengthen him to finish, to press in, okay? Again, I always gotta think of my sister-in-law, Andrea, when I think about things like this, 'cause if she's always doing her running and her marathons and her 10ks and others of you are too, Jen does and other, Courtney and Erin and Lori, others do, I just walk a K every once in a while, somewhere in there, I'm sure I did. But I can't imagine getting to that point where like your body is shutting down. Like it's reached the end, but you are not at the end yet. And so all of a sudden there's just a wee bit of refreshment that comes from whether it's a shot of Gatorade or whatever the honey things you're eating and drinking now on the side. And then the pressing in of the final three or four miles that then puts the body into some type of significant agony and even greater pressure to finish. That's what's going on here. When the angel comes to strengthen Jesus, Jesus doesn't step back, he leans in to what's coming. That word agony there is actually, it is a word from the, it's an athletic term actually. It's a Greek term for the athletic. It's only used here in the Bible. This form of the word is only used in this spot. Jesus takes up an athletic agony of pressing to finish the race. And he does that, notice this by the strength that comes on from the angel, but then he presses in and how does he run this race by praying? It says, "And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly." He went even deeper into prayer, went in even deeper into conflict with what he was facing and the clarity there. So much so that like when the oil press, presses the olives together and squeezes and crushes the olives so that oil comes out, the pressure of the moment of Jesus moving in to the will of God to finish the race that was before him, pressed him so much that it was as if drops of blood fell to the ground, sweat like drops of blood when he was pressed in the olive press. You see, this is humanity at the point of highest strain, pushing through in prayer, tethered to the father's love with an inward pressure that pulsates out as he embraces the cup. It is as if the blood is shed before the blood is shed. And that is Jesus staying there and pressing forward and leaning in to finish the race that you couldn't finish because you can't drink this cup. Because you see at the end of this race is not a cup of salvation for Jesus. And it's not a cup of celebration. It's a cup of judgment and wrath. That's what's waiting for him. Remove this cup from me after I drink it. Why does it work back like that? What is it about the cup that Jesus does not want to remain upon him? Why is it that when he's finished drinking it, does he want it removed? He's not trying to escape the cup, but what's in the cup that Jesus, as he faces it, his body shudders, his soul cowers, and his body possibly bleeds before bleeding? Well, because you see, our, what's in that cup is not an infinity of duration and not an eternity of duration because that's, Jesus is asking not to remain there. Not forever, not durative, not on and on and on. For those who go to hell, I hope you understand this, the reason why hell is eternal, the reason why hell is durative, it remains on and on and on, is because the center in hell can never finally and fully pay the wages of sin. The center can't. And because he can't, sin, which itself is against infinite goodness, infinite holiness, and against infinite majesty, the wages for sin against an infinitely holy God are eternal penalties. That's why they are. And so the weight of the sin is counted against what the sin is against, right? So if I jaywalk, the penalty for that is much different than if I commit first degree murder. I can give you no human language. I have nothing in my language bank that can tell you how awfully, terrible, and horrific one sin is against the infinite holiness of God. I don't have words for it. All I know is that those who will receive the punishment for their own sins cannot exhaust the payment for it, which is why hell is eternal. What Jesus is asking for is for that not to remain that way for him, a durative eternal. But guess what that means he's asking for? He's asking for an infinity and an eternality of weight to be in the cup. He's asking for the cup to be an eternal weight of the fury of God's wrath. Whatever that can be, what can an eternal weight be? What can an infinite weight be? That's what's in the cup. Whatever is in the cup is an eternal and infinite weight to pay for all the sinfulness and all the sins of all of God's people who will ever believe in him and enter the new heavens and the new earth. The single center in hell is dealing only with himself. Christ on the cross is dealing with the sinfulness and the sins and the wages of those sins in their eternal need to be punished eternally in that one cup, not for one sinner, but for all sinners who will come to believe in him. Can you imagine what that cup is like? Van Mastricht said it this way, Christ dies an eternal death, not an eternity of death. He wants the cup removed, he doesn't wanna die an eternity of death, but in order for that to happen, that eternity has to be moved into the cup. It's not a matter of eternal versus not eternal. It's a matter of weight versus durative. And Jesus is asking the dirt of to be converted to weight so that inside that cup, he will drink and exhaust all of it for all of those who will come to believe in him. And that will satisfy the wrath of God and the justice of God. It will satisfy the love of God. And if you are found trusting in Christ, it will mean that you are not held liable or accountable for one sin that you ever commit in your life or your sinfulness by way of punishment because Jesus took your liability to the cross and he exhausted it. And then guess what? He didn't stay on the cross. The cup was removed. And he went into the grave, he died. And he went into the grave and on the first day that we're gonna celebrate next week, he came out of the grave. I think this is a better way of seeing Gethsemane. I think it's a deeper way of seeing Gethsemane, a faithful way of harmonizing the passages on Gethsemane to see that Jesus was willing to drink the cup but simply didn't wanna remain under it. And that the Father heard him but it didn't take away from what was in the cup. It actually exacerbated what was in the cup because it all had to be put in there in that space of time that he was gonna drink it in those three hours on Good Friday. And what that means is there's no cup left for you to drink except for one. You do not have to worry about drinking even one drop of this cup. Is that good news? That's good and you gotta smile right there. That's the best, Mr. Walz are gonna be able to smile. You don't have to worry about even a drop of that cup 'cause Jesus drained it to the dregs. So what do we have? Guess what? If Jesus is still drinking the cup then he cannot say it is finished. Right? If he's still drinking the cup he cannot say it is finished but guess what? He said it is finished. And therefore yours is finished. Yours is completed. And so what that means is that because we don't have to drink that cup, we get to lift the one we lift today. Today when you come to the table you're gonna lift the other cup from the other atom in the other garden. And when you lift that cup and you drink that wine down your throat as sure as that wine goes down your throat and you feel it, as sure as you can be assured in your soul that your sins are paid for. And Jesus pushed through Gethsemane to the cross so that you and I might lift up this morning the cup of salvation. Amen. Amen. And Jesus seal unto us your word today and thank you Lord Jesus for drinking that cup so that we might drink the cup of blessing this morning. And so that we might tell the world about this cup of blessing because we tell them about the cup that you drink. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

The Rider on the White Horse: Our Victorious King - Revelation 19

Summary
Pastor Jeremy preaches out of Revelation 19, declaring the victorious return of Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords, riding in glory to judge and make war in righteousness. He calls the Church to live with urgency, worship with reverence, and intercede boldly, knowing that Christ’s second coming will bring both final justice and eternal hope.

Transcript
We are gonna be in Revelation 19 this morning, Revelation 19. Hear the word of the Lord? - [Congregation] Right here is our open. - Then I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it is called faithful and true. And in his righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called as the word of God. And the armies of heaven are raid and fine linen, white and pure, we're following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God, the almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh, he has written, "King of kings and Lord of lords." That is the word of the Lord. - Thank you. - Take your seat, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We ask you to speak to us that we would align our hearts with yours in every way. Speak to us through your word, may your word speak and not mine, that your mind would be on display and not mine, that your heart would be on display and not merely mine. Father, we ask you to speak in the name of Jesus, amen. - Amen. - What practices, what behaviors, what things do you do to keep your heart aligned with God? What do you think about? What do you pray about? What do you do to keep your heart aligned with God's heart? (sighs) Over the last few weeks, our pastors have decided to go through a sermon series looking at the lamb who was slain in the book of Revelation to align our hearts with God. And as we've looked at the lamb who was slain, we've seen different parts of who this line of Judah is and who this lamb who was slain is. We've seen his humility, his kindness, his compassion. We've seen him open the scroll that no one can open and unlock its seals. We've seen all of heaven shout for joy and say, "Worthy are you who is on the throne and to the lamb who was slain, glory and power and honor and blessing and might." We've seen all these things. We've seen the sides of Jesus, the various sides. There are parts of Jesus that we will never see. Today we are gonna see Jesus as the lion of Judah. (audience murmuring) The second coming, the lion of Judah who comes back again to do what he has always planned to do. I must admit, I was just on the way to church this morning and my daughter, Rowan, said, "What are you preaching on today, Dad?" I said, "The second coming." She goes, "I love that story." (audience laughing) And something in me was like, "Interesting." I don't know if, I believe we pray for the second coming, but I haven't heard a child say, "I love that story before." 'Cause there's something in this story that's terrifying, but yet glorious. So when I heard her say that, it just kinda gripped me. So I'm like, "Oh my goodness, does she really love this story? Do I love this story?" My prayer today is that by the end of my message today, you will be reminded of the fact that the second coming of Christ is one of the practices in your memory that you better keep before you. Because this memory will help you pray for people. It will help you keep your life holy. It will help you keep your lamp lit. The second coming is a real event and it is cataclysmic. The world is a dark place. If you didn't know that, you know, I think about the darkness in this world. There's a few events that come to mind. I think about 9/11. I think about three, really 2,900 people were killed innocently. They were murdered. And they were brothers and they were fathers and there were sisters and mothers and sons and daughters that were killed in innocence. I think of October 7th of 2023 where Hamas comes into Israel, wounds 3,600 people, kills 1,200 people, 40 of which are children, 800 of which are civilians. I think of all these countless stories of people dying every day, wickedness taking sway every day. And it's dark. There's reason to grief. There's reason to mourn until the second coming. In the book of Ecclesiastes, it says that there's more reason to mourn. Like it says, there's like under the sun, there's under the sun and above the sun, kind of a view in Ecclesiastes. And below the sun, it says there's more reason to mourn than to feast. In fact, in Ecclesiastes, it says this, it says, where does it say that? Where we at? It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting. So I bring all these things up because I wonder for you as we start this message today, how often do you mourn for the death of someone that you do not know? How often do you mourn for someone falling into sin and losing their way, someone that you do not know? How often do you lose sleep about people turning away from God and joining darkness? Are we so caught up with entertaining ourselves and watching the world go by that we've forgotten? That Christ is going to return and that our minds and our lives must be oriented toward that end. There's so much going on. I look at looking at all these families raising you, all these kids and all the practices and all the events and all the work that needs to be done and the stock market going down and all the pressures of parents you have to care for and all the things that are going on in our lives we could forget that we must keep our lamp lit for Him. Again, my hope today is that by the end of this message you'll be praying for the lost. You'll be asking God to remove anything in your life that's not of Him. You'll be asking God to help you hate what He hates. You'll be asking God to help you love what He loves. There's so much to say. Let's get into our passage. Revelation 11. Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness He judges and makes war. The last time we saw heaven opened was in the earlier in Revelation. In fact, it's Revelation 4. John looked up and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things." So only one time we see John going up to see what's gonna happen. But now it's totally different. Now heaven's opened up and God is coming down to the earth. Heaven opens up and this one who is coming, he's on a white horse. White is thematically through the book of Revelation as an idea of purity, of righteousness. He's coming and he's called faithful and true. He's faithful because he's the lamb who was slain. We know what he did in his faithfulness going to the cross. We know what he did in his faithfulness to rise from the grave. We know what he did in his faithfulness to open the scroll and begin breaking those seals and releasing judgment on the earth. You see, God sent prophets and priests and mothers and fathers and grandmas and all these people to share good news with the world, to bring them to Christ. God also sent those same people to warn the world that Christ is coming. And so he's been faithful in helping all that work, cultivating all that work, sending his spirit because they had to tell the truth and he's the true one. They could tell no lie. They had to tell the truth, even though the truth would cause people to change their entire lives. He had to do it. So he's the faithful, true one that leads the true ones and he's in righteousness, he judges and makes war. He judges and makes war, makes war. For some reason inside of me, I just, I think part of us, because we are, most Christians, I won't say all of us, but I would say, most Christians spend so much time thinking about, come to me all who are heavy laden. I will give you rest for your souls, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm humble and lowly. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. We see the Lamb who is slain, but we don't often reflect on the judge, Jesus. There's this interesting dynamic that we have to be in touch with as Christians in the world today. And it really, I think we get that from Romans. I'm just gonna go there real quick. You don't need to turn there. But in Romans, it says these interesting words that are so important for us to pay attention to. Beloved, never avenge for yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. So there's this part of us being believers that we, we have a role right now to be those who are not bringing about vengeance, but there's a day coming where the Lord's gonna initiate the vengeance with us. But it's all under his plan and purpose. So back to Revelation 19. So we have this one who's on this horse. And I think it's important for us to recognize, I think David touched on it last week, Pastor David touched on it last week, is that we have to be very good Bible readers when we get to the book of Revelation. And when I mean a good Bible reader, what you do is you read the scriptures literally, right? But you have to understand the genre. This is an apocalyptic genre. This is a vision of John. This is the best version of what he could explain. Is Jesus actually on a horse? Right? I don't know. But what I do know is that the vision that John needed to see was Jesus on a horse to communicate something to us. So let's just take it at face value and keep moving. So here we go. He's faithful and true, righteousness. He judges, he makes war. The war that he's doing right now, there's actually a war right now. And the war right now is between the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. We see in Galatians, it says this very clearly, that the flesh is warring. In fact, it says that they're contrary to each other. And the flesh is evident, sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This spirit is warring even now. But when the second coming happens, it'll go kinetic. You know what that means, kinetic. It's otherwise, it's no longer just actions and feelings that you might have, but it's actually a war that's literally happening between God and wicked people. It's a war. And he's waging war in the spirit and also with lives. Real lives are at war with the Lamb who was slain. Real lives were at war with the Lion of Judah. His eyes, it says, are like a flame of fire. We see the eyes metaphor throughout scripture and the eyes is just simply, this is, I mean, it's really simple is that God is seeing everything on this planet and his eyes are a flame of fire. Now, flame is the idea of judgment, it's a refining, it's a wrath that he's looking at everything with that look in his eyes, that it's time now to make it all right, to judge it according to God's ways. He then says on his head are many diadems. What are diadems? What are diadems? Diadems are crowns, they're crowns, okay? Last time we saw crowns was in a revelation, what was that? Revelation, believe it was in 13. Why don't you guys go there real fast? Go to Revelation 13 real quick. These diadems, he's wearing these crowns, many crowns. So in 13 verse one, it said, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its head. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. And one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. And the whole earth marled as they followed the beast and they worshiped the dragon for he had been given his authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast and they said, listen to these words. This is why Jesus is coming again. They said, who is like the beast? Who can fight against it? So the beast is wearing these diadems to show its authority. But then when Jesus comes, he's wearing many diadems to show his authority to take out the beast. He's wearing these crowns. And on his name is written, and here we go, and it says, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. I've had a lot of people ask me what this name means. But it says here that no one knows it but himself. We don't know what the name is. We know that John could see it. Maybe it was written. We're not sure how he knew, but whatever it was, no one knows but himself, Jesus. He was on to say, he is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. The blood here is not the blood of redemption. This is the blood of vengeance, the blood of wrath. And the name by which he is called is the word of God. Another affirmation of who this one is. The word was in the beginning, right? The word was with God, the word was God. This word of God, Jesus, is the one leading this charge. Doing the work. It says he comes here with armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure. We're following him on white horses. So he's not the only one on a white horse, but you have a whole army. And I believe this is an angel army that's following him from heaven down to earth. And they're arrayed with fine linen, white and pure. This speaks to their righteousness, to their holiness as they work with God in this judging, vengeance, wrathful work of God against the nations. The angels. And so I want to just kind of, I want to kind of take you on a little detour, just to try to tell you why I think it's the angels. I think it might be helpful as you're reading this. If you would go down to chapter 20, go to chapter 20, verse four. So I think it's important that we try to get as precise as we can about this passage, about the second coming of Christ. So verse 20, it says, "Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or on their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." Let me keep moving past that. And then the rest of the dead did not come to life until a thousand years had ended. This is the first resurrection. And so if you think chronologically, the first resurrection hasn't happened. And so if the angel armies would come with, if there were humans or saints with God coming back, the resurrection would have already taken place. But in this case in verse 19, the armies are coming out of heaven to reign and to work with Christ, but then a chapter later we have the resurrection of all the believers. So it's important for us to see, I believe, that the angels are coming with Christ to do this work. And then from his mouth comes a sharp sword, which he will strike down the nations. Strike down the nations means that he is going to strike down the nations. This is a literal, all the nations that have now had opportunity to hear the warning, respond to the prayers, turn from their sins. It'll be too late. They have no more time. He's striking down the nations and then he's going to, it says, rule them with a rod of iron. With his mouth, he has a sharp sword, which is the word of God. It controls, it corrects, it rebukes. It does all these things. And then with his rod, he's now sovereign in his kingly role overseeing the nations. And he will tread, it says here. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God almighty. So a wine press is like a circular object where you put grapes inside the bottom of the wine press, like kind of like a holding tank. And then you put a stone on this wheel that you roll the wheel around to smash the grapes. And so the idea of turning this wine press that he's turning the wrath of God on all the people and all the works and all the darkness, he's unleashing it all and completing it all in this wrath, this fury. He's working it. He is putting his hands on the wine press and he is treading it. What a scene. And on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This scene is between two important moments, very important moments. All of this work he's doing here is an initiate, is a step in a process. And the step before this, if you look with me to Revelation 19 verse six, it says this, we're gonna hear about this. This is, I'll just read it. Here we go. "I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah for the Lord our God, the almighty reigns, let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen and bright and pure." And so this supper of the Lamb where the Lamb who was slain is now gonna be reunited with this church. That's what it's about to happen. That's why the return of Christ is so important for this process. But there's a statement it says here in verse 10. I want you to see actually verse nine. It says, "Write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." So the invitation has gone out, but the RSVP is closed. The invitation has gone out, but you can't get into the party unless you receive the invitation. 'Cause now he's come. Now he's done his work. And there's another scene coming that I want you to see. That's her with me to Revelation 20, verse 11. 20 verse 11. And then I saw a great white throne and he moved seated on it. From his presence catch this, the earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. They're gone. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened. All the books, every deed, every lie, every sin, they were opened. Then another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the book, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. And death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged in each one of them according to what they had done. And so everywhere someone has died in the sea, Hades, death, everyone's now brought before this throne. And all the deeds they've ever done wrong before God, all the unholiness, all the sinfulness, all the wickedness, it's opened up. And it doesn't say that he reads it. All we know is that they know what's there and that God knows what's there. And it says here, "The death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire." This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The second coming of Christ with the lamb was slain in the line of Judah. This is the work that must happen. So a question for you. Who are you praying for right now? That you're praying, you're asking God, may their name be written in the Lamb's book of life? May their name be written in the book of life? You're praying for that? Or maybe you're praying for someone that you just see them living a wicked life and you wanna make sure that their name is not in the other book? Are you praying for that? Is anyone in your mind right now that you've been praying for? That they would not end up at this place before this throne to be thrown in that lake? If your answer is no, that you don't have someone in mind right now, I wanna encourage you to go home today. Get your notebook out, get your favorite pen, and start adding names. John, Robert, Linda, Becky, whoever, whatever names you need to add down, but write those names down and start praying for them that they will not end up at this throne. Because when the time comes, it'll be too late. (congregation sighs) This is the supper of the Lamb that's coming. And to leave you on that note, because I think we have to get there if we're gonna talk about the Lamb who was slain and what Jesus is coming to do, we have to get to this place where as soon as that verse is over in 20, 20, verse 15, it goes right into verse 21. And I'm gonna read this here. Then I saw it, new heaven, new earth, and the first heaven and earth, the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. And neither shall there be any mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And then he was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I'm making all things new." This is what we pray for. This is what we long for. We long for the work that the Lamb who was slain will complete when he comes again. You see, when the Lamb came the first time, there was no room in the inn. When he comes back the second time, he will inherit the earth. The first time he came, he rode in to Jerusalem on a lowly donkey. The second time he comes back on a white steed as a conquering commander and chief. The first time he had a crown of thorns the second time he comes back with many diadems and many crowns to be named King, fit for a King. The first time he came as a lowly servant. When he returns, he will come as a sovereign Lord to rule the nations with a wrought iron. The first time he came, he went to the cross with sneers and slaps. When he returns, he comes with a coronation and a crown and claps and cheers and shouts. The first time he was executed as a suffering servant. When he returns, he will be exalted. In fact, the first time he was executed as a suffering servant. When he returns, he will be exalted as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The first time he stood before Pilate. When he returns, Pilate will stand before him. (congregation murmuring) So at church every single week, we come to this table right here. And at the very end of going through the table, we have a moment where the pastor says, "As long as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he returns again." We say it every single week, "But this week when you hear it, I want you to remember what we're praying for, that we would remain holy, we would remain faithful, and that we could reach the nations as disciples of Jesus Christ, helping them see what no one else wants to talk about." Nobody wants to talk about this. When I hear a child say, "I love that story," I say yes and amen. Because the Lord wants us to love this story because it's the end of our story, not the end, but the continuation of our story with our reigning King, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Pray a blessing on this time today that you would bless us. And Lord, that you align our hearts with yours, that there are still time. There's still time, Father, there's still time. Help us to not get lost in the entertaining focus of this age and all the shallow things that quickly pull us away. And we start to focus on eating, drinking, being merry and living our best life and all those things that can be so prominent in our culture. But help us to find joy, contentment, peace and gratefulness in cherishing what you cherish, which is the lives of people who have not yet heard the gospel, who have not yet become disciples, children that have not yet been built up and raised up in godly homes. Lord, help us to keep your kingdom first in our lives. I pray for our church that we would always remember the second coming as a key part of what is initiated on the cross, the first and the second. Lord, help us to do that, we pray. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Faithful to the End: Worshiping Christ in a World of Compromise

Summary

Pastor David preaches that Revelation calls believers to worship Christ alone, resisting the pressures of a world that demands compromise. He emphasizes that true victory comes through faithfulness to Jesus, who redeems and rewards those who endure.

Transcript

Send to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat. For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to your word this morning because we would see the lamb in the Lamb's womb. The lamb whose blood does not stain but the lamb whose blood washes. The lamb whose blood whitens. The lamb whose blood cleans and releases us and brings us through a new exodus. Lord, we pray that we would look upon the lamb today and believe and trust and worship and serve. That you would grant us to have the hearts of those who are before the throne and then to be sent out with the gifts of God into this world to serve those who have need of the lamb and his blood. Capture us today by your word we pray in Jesus' name and amen. Before we dig in this morning, I want to pastor for a bit, not the preachy's not pastoring, just a little pastoring to the side a bit. G.K. Chesterton once wrote of the Revelation of John and though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators. Do you hear that? So there's a lot of monsters in the book of Revelation but what's even crazier are those who try to interpret the book of Revelation often. We get a little crazier than John himself even was. And my pastoral concern as we come to the book of Revelation is that we will miss chapter one and verse three. Chapter one and verse three says this, "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words "of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear "and keep what is written for the time is near." There is a blessing on those who read aloud this letter and a blessing on those who hear the words of this letter and who keep what is written. And the reason why it's easy for us to miss the blessing of this book is because we skip the next verse. And the next verse says this, "John to the seven churches that are in Asia." We forget that. We immediately run off into Chesterton's monster world after verse three and forget that John did not write a letter for us to run off into fanciful, best-selling fiction. But then John wrote a book that was written actually to seven actual churches who were in a dire situation and that it was written to them. They were the recipients of the letter and the letter being written to them, they were facing the monsters of this letter. They were the ones facing the beasts of this letter. The things in this letter were near at hand to them. And when we remove the letter from them is when we get into the fanciful stuff that we have seen and then the letter becomes nonsensical to us as well. Now listen, if we allow the letter to be written to them like it is, then the letter can be for us because it's in the canon, which means it's for the church, for always, to these seven churches, yes. But in order for us to understand what it means, we have to allow it to be to them so it can be for us. Does that make sense? And John identifies this in verse nine. He says, "I, John, your brother and partner in three things, the tribulation is here." We're in the tribulation now that was promised, John says. Secondly, the kingdom, that's why there's such a problem here. The kingdom of God is clashing with the kingdom of man. And then John says, "And the patient endurance," which is our lot. Our responsibility with the tribulation that is here, the clashing of the kingdoms that is here is for the churches to be patiently enduring what is coming and what is at hand. And that is why we saw last week in chapter two and verse 10, these words, "Do not fear which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you in prison." They didn't have the liberty to say, "Oh, cool, I'm glad this is really not about us." No, it's actually really about them. She's gonna throw some of you in prison that you may be tested and for 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. And then in chapter three and verse 10, he says this, and this is really important as well. He says this in chapter three and verse 10. He says, "Because you have kept my word about the patient endurance," which we've already seen in chapter one and verse nine, "I will keep you from the hour of trial that is now coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth." And so there's a group of them that are gonna be protected from what is actually coming on to everybody else. And if you turn on me to chapter six and look at verses nine through 11, this is the context for the people that we meet and we didn't look at this last week. In chapter six beginning in verse nine, the fifth seal is opened and here's what we see. "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had born." So two groups of people, two groups of people are under the altar. One, those who were martyred and those who were faithful in witness. "They cried out with a loud voice, 'O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth.'" Now watch this. "Then they were each given a white robe." These are our white robe people in chapter seven. "They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little bit longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete as they themselves had been." And so this is written to these seven churches. This is the expectation that they themselves were facing. Some of them would bear witness and suffer and die. Some of them would bear witness and be martyred and be under the altar and have to wait for a bit until Jesus himself moves them before the throne. And you see one of the big pressures that they were facing, one of the huge pressures that there was a constant pressure on the church was whether or not these little, these seven little fledgling churches, whether or not they would remain exclusive in their worship of Jesus Christ. You see, the Roman Empire was fine if Jesus would have been added to the pantheon, right? You have the Imperial Cult worship the Caesar. You have all the Roman gods. And if you want to add Jesus to all of that and worship all of the gods and the Roman ruler and Jesus, we are fine with that. But if you want to exclusively worship the Lamb, to the exclusion of the Roman gods and to the exclusion of the Imperial Cult and exclusively say the Lamb is the Lord, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and reserve your worship for the Lamb alone, that's what got the Christians into the hot water that they got themselves into. And what you have to understand is that all of these seven cities that they were in, they were hotbeds for Imperial and false God worship. They were not centered, atheism did not exist in this day. Everybody had multiple gods, including the Imperial Cult believing that the Caesar himself was a son of God. Every one of these seven cities had cultic worship sites at the city center. It governed the life of the city itself. And the blessing of that city depended on the worship of the Imperial Cult, the Caesar himself, and the worship of the false gods. And so if you had a sect within your city that was deciding not to participate in the city center worship, you were facing the potentiality that the false gods were not going to bless your city, and that was going to be a problem for you and your city in the blessing of your city. In six of those cities, with the exception of Thyatira, they all of them, but Thyatira had Imperial temples, okay, all of them did. Five of them, except for Philadelphia and Laodicea, had Imperial altars and priests. In other words, worship of the Imperial Cult and worship of the false gods was not a tangential thing in these cities. It was a way of life. Worship suffused everything, religious festivals, their guilds, their celebrations. Their life was lived liturgically in these cities with the Imperial Cult and the false gods at the center, which is why the Book of Revelation makes such a big deal about the worship of the beast. We take this and we run off into future nonsensical things. These people were living with the reality of having to worship the Roman beast. They had to. Look at chapter 13 and verses eight through 10. It was their reality. It was the world they lived in. In chapter 13, verse one, the beast rises out of the sea. That's the Roman Empire. And we see in chapter eight, they have this faux authority that mimics the authority of the lamb. And so you'll hear the language that you've heard before. It says, "An authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation." Whoa, wait a minute here. That sounds like the lamb. That sounds like what the authority of the lamb has. But this is now the authority that the beast is parodying. It's a parody of the lamb. Now watch this. "And those who dwell on the earth worship it." Okay? "They worship the beast. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world." You're going to hear this next Sunday, this passage. "Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain. If anyone hasn't here, let him hear." This is what you're, this is, this is your lot. If you refuse to worship the beast, this is your lot. If anyone has to be taken captive, to captivity he goes. If anyone has to be slain with a sword, with a sword he must be slain. You must be willing to die if your name is written in the lamb's book of life. You must refuse the worship of the lamb. And look at the end of verse 10. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. You either worship the beast, the Roman Empire, the Imperial Cult, and the false gods, or you died. That's your, that's what you're facing here. Turn over to chapter 14 and verses nine and following. Chapter 14 verses nine and following says, "And another angel, a third, follow them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast,'" this is what's on the line if you do. "If anyone worships the beast in its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand," this is not a future thing. This is present to these people. Here's what happens. "He will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels." And so if you decide that you refuse the exclusive worship of the lamb, and you worship the beast, you will face eternal judgment in hell. You will drink the cup of God's fury and wrath, which means that which Jesus drank on the cross for us, he did not drink for you. You will drink your own yourself. And Gavin, where's Gavin? Right here it says, "And in hell here, and in the presence of the lamb." The lamb is the problem in hell. He's not absent. He's there doling out his wrath. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night. These worshipers of the beast in its image, whoever receives the mark of its name. Now watch this. Here is the call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. You either endure and trust Jesus and worship Him exclusively, or you worship the beast and you get what's coming to you. This is no small thing. This was clear. You can add Jesus and you're fine. Exclusively Jesus and you're toast. That's what they were facing. That's the reality that the early church was facing. And so when we come to chapter seven, well we have to understand that this is a big deal, this issue of worship. Okay? Who you worship is a big deal on earth. It's the dividing line on earth. Worship Jesus exclusively or worship the beast. Okay? Worship the beast, pay for it in the future. Worship Jesus, pay for it now. You got to choose, right? But it's also a big deal in heaven as well. Because what we see in heaven is the exclusive worship of Jesus Christ and God the Father. And so what happens is, and this is important, because this sets the whole context for our passage. Okay? What happens is that in the book of Revelation, John provides interludes like step backs. Like, whoo. And he opens the veil up and he allows the churches on earth to see into the other side, the reality of heaven, the reality of the other side. And these interludes are there almost as oasis, as respites, to see what's waiting for them as they endure. Almost, where's Andrea? Andrea, you're running your races and your husband is at certain marker points to encourage you on kind of thing. And then there's little drink spots for you, that kind of thing. That's what this is. We're on the long endurance race. And then these interludes are little spots for refreshment for the church that say, here's what's coming in your future. Here's what's waiting for you. And, oh, by the way, here's what you join when you gather together on the Lord's Day. So here's what's going on when you gather. This is what you join. You see, so these interludes, they're important. They're vital. They open the heavenly viewpoint up. They offer perspective and consolation and hope and a pattern of worship. And they encourage these saints, continue on, because this is what's waiting for you. This is what's on the other side for you. If you will endure to the end and remain faithful, this is what will be for you. And this is what happens. This is what you join when you worship on the earth. And so last week, we were right in the middle of this liturgy. And we saw that the Adamic choir stepped forward and took their role and offered this new layer of worship with salvation. The angelic hosts responded by getting on their faces and offered this amazing double amen, seven full blessing. And so this was all in song and in singing. And now we move to a little bit of a spoken word part of the liturgical service. And we'll pick it up in verse 13. Pick it up with me there. And it says this, "Then one of the elders addressed me," saying, or one of the ancient ones, "Who are these clothed in white robes? And from where have they come? I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' And so you have this, first you have singing, and then you have a responsive singing. And then now you have this word dialogue, just like we do in church. It's sing, sing, speak, speak. All of this dialogical stuff that we do on earth, we learn it because it's this way it happens in heaven. And we do on earth what's done in heaven. It's beautiful, okay? And so here we have this ancient one in John. And the question is, in this terms of this choir here, who are they and where did they come from? And this is important because where they came from is going to encourage the very people who are in the midst of the tribulation. What happens to us? The seven churches are facing it. John's facing it. What happens to us if we are faithful to the end? Well, here's the answer. The first we get the answer where they come from and then who they are, okay? So he said to me, first of all, where, where, where, where do they come from and who are they? Answer, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. And so the ones that John sees that are in the white robes that make up this heavenly, Adamic choir are those who are coming out of, notice this, of the great tribulation. Definite article is there, the great mega tribulation so there can be no way around seeing where they're coming out of. These guys are coming out of the thing that Jesus said, what would be the great tribulation like you've never seen anywhere on the earth. Now what's important here is the tents. The tents in the Greek matters here because it's a present participle, which means these are not the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. Okay, past tense. These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation right now. So this group is being added to every day by people who die, Christians who die during the great tribulation and martyrs who die during the great tribulation. This number is not a fixed number. It's an ongoing thing. It's a present participle. Those who are presently coming out of the great tribulation entering heaven, they're not all martyrs. Some of them who are those who have endured the great tribulation though that time of testing that has come on the earth. And so this is an encouragement because this is where the churches are. What happens to us? Where do we go? What awaits us if we are faithful to the end if we are faithful to the end? If we are faithful to give our lives for this, if we remain faithful on the earth exclusively to worship Jesus, have the patient endurance to the end, what awaits us? Is it darkness? Is it who knows? No, it's victory. It's victory. Is it great to know what awaits you sometimes? Don't you guys just wonder like, I just love to see what awaits me, right? God doesn't hide from us what awaits us. They get to see what actually awaits them if they are faithful to the end. And secondly is who are they? Well, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation and who are they? Well, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. This is so beautiful. These are the washed ones and these are the whitened ones. This is so good. These are the ones who are clean. These are the ones who are covered. These are the ones who are pure. These are the ones who are imprisely garb. They're in the wedding garb. They're in victorious garb. They're in glory garb, but they're not horse. They're not in prostitute garb. You have to understand this is the contrast here is important. The white robes, there are white robes mentioned all over the book of Revelation. And we're going to look at some of this in just a moment. But then there's this cat. Turn to chapter 17 with me. And we meet the drunk sexually immoral ho of Revelation. It just is what it is. I mean, that's what John did. It's like, it's not a monster I made up. That's just who she is. You got to, I have to explain this to my, you explain that to your kids when you get home. Senior Bibles, look at chapter 17. Let's just read. Then one of the seven angels said, the seven bowls came and said to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on the earth have become drunk. And he carried me away in the spirit to wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorn with gold and jewels and pearls holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual impurity. And on her forehead was a written name of mystery, babble on the great, the mother of prostitutes of the earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. That godiness, right? That pomp, purple, scarlet, gold, jewels, pearls is given to us in contrast with the simple purity and glory and beauty of the white robe of the saints. That contrast is there for us to see what true beauty actually is. We are not gauded up like a prostitute on the corner. The church is white and ready for the wedding day, you see. Something is completely different. And these white robes are extremely important and I want you to look with me at a few verses. In Revelation chapter three and verses four and five, Revelation three, four and five, it says this, "You have a few names still in sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot them out of the book of life. So to the one who overcomes, the overcomer, the one of patient endurance who remains faithful to Jesus Christ to the end, here the white robe is given as a robe of victory. It's given to the overcomer, the one who stays with Jesus and is faithful all the way to the end. If you look at chapter three and verse 18, chapter three and verse 18 to that lazy spit out of your mouth church, Laodicea, Jesus says, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich in white garments so that you may clothe yourself in the shame of your nakedness may not be seen." Here the white garment is given to clothe the shame of God's people, just like God clothe the shame of Adam and Eve in the garden with animal skins. And so in one sense this is a robe of victory and in another sense this is a robe that covers shame. We've already seen that this is a robe that's given to those martyrs who lost their lives. And then at the very, very end, I just love this. I just love this verse, man. In Revelation 22, just love this. Revelation 22, 14 says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have a right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates outside of the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." There's gonna be people on the outside and they're not gonna get in, right? And like those two cats in Pilgrim's Progress, you can't climb the wall instead of go through the gate and get in, you gotta come in through the gate to get in. Well, how do you come in through the gate? Well, you gotta have a robe on to come in through the gate to get to the tree of life. And what kind of robe do you have to have? You have to have a washed robe. So get yourself a robe and get it washed. But where do you get it washed? Of all places to get your robe washed. You get it washed in blood. The place we would not think about to go, the detergent is blood. That which makes clean, that which makes white is the blood, but not just any blood, but it's the blood of the lamb, you see. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, the blood of Jesus Christ doesn't stain. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses, it cleans, it washes, it covers, it answers, it forgives, it deals with our filthy rags, our sin and our shame. It's sacrificial because it's the Passover lamb. He's sacrificed in the place of. And when you are under the blood, you are brought out of the slavery of sin, death and the devil. And through a new Exodus, you are let out into the new creation and you have access to the tree of life. He brings you home. Through the blood, you move from homelessness to home, from exile to home, right? Everything is answered by the blood of the lamb. Everything is answered by the blood of the lamb. And the only thing, the only thing that can make your garment and robe white is the blood of the lamb. You cannot be found scrubbing your own robe. Can't happen, won't happen. Doesn't matter. The people in hell will scrub for eternity and it won't touch it. But the blood of the lamb, the blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of sins is what makes the robe, listen, white and unstable forever again. You realize that? Nothing can stain that robe once the blood makes it white. You can throw every single thing at that robe, everything at that robe and it will remain white no matter what. Because everything that could have been thrown at that robe was answered on Good Friday. In the three hours of darkness on Good Friday, everything that could have stained your robe after the blood of the lamb was answered by the blood of the lamb inside that three hours. So you and I get promised this, not only a cleansed robe, but a robe that can never be stained again. No matter how up and down our life is, no matter how up and down our faith is, no matter how up and down our sin life is, nothing touches the robe. Nothing can touch the robe because the robe is not our robe. The robe is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which admits of no additions and no subtractions. It is always and forever the indestructible righteousness of Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen? Amen. That is why these people here, that's what they have to look forward to. They don't have to wait to get it. We have it now. It just shows up in its clarity then, you see. It shows up in its clarity then. But then there's this, let me bring it, let me bring this home. There's this beautiful, turn to Revelation 12 for a moment. There's this beautiful segue here. I actually didn't see it until yesterday. And I'll bring this around. Revelation 12, if you remember, we preached this during Christmas. I've been sneaking a lot of Revelation then recently. Revelation 12, 7, this was our Christmas passage. But I want you to see this. He says in Revelation 12, 7, he says, "Now war rose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back. And he was defeated. And there was no longer any place for them in heaven." I want you to see that, right? "No longer any place for the dragon and his angels in heaven. Kicked out, booted out of heaven here." Okay? And the great dragon was thrown down. The ancient serpent who was called the devil and saying the deceiver of the world. He was thrown down to the earth. And his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. And the acu- watch this. And the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God." So there was an accuser. He was at the right hand of the father. And he spent all of his time at the right hand of the father accusing us, accusing God's people of what was true of them. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. Look at that, brother. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. Look at that sin. You know what? Jesus went up and kicked him in the teeth and threw him out of heaven and said, "I'm done with you. Get out of here. No longer do you have access to this place anymore. Day and night in this place has changed." Notice how it says that he used to do this day and night. Who accuses them day and night before our God. And I watch this. "They have conquered him." How? "By the blood of the Lamb." By the blood of the Lamb. "We have conquered him and by the word of their testimony, for they have not loved their lives even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them." Right? Rejoice. Because he's been kicked out and we've overcome by the blood of the Lamb. So what do we find out when we look at our passage? "Therefore" verse 15, "therefore they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night." We're there. He's gone because the blood of the Lamb opened the place up for us and kicked him out. So guess what? There is no accusation anymore. Don't let anybody tell you that the accuser of the brethren is still accusing you before the throne. He's not. It's done. He's been kicked out. He's been kicked out. You want to know the only thing that's before the throne? Is your brothers and sisters singing praises to God? Salvation belongs to the Lord our God. That's the only thing going on day and night before the throne. No accusation is taking place there. So if no accusation is taking place there, don't let any accusation take place here. You don't need to have any accusation. Because God's already dealt with that. Jesus dealt with that by his blood, you see. So the only thing waiting for you is you don't have to go through the fight here and then go, "Oh, man, do I got to face Satan when I get there?" No, you don't. The only thing waiting for you there is a choir to join. And day and night, the replacement of accusation with worship. And here's what's waiting for you. He who sits on the throne is going to shelter you with his presence. And all of the tribulation now, Sianara, no more hunger, no more thirst, no more sun to strike, no more scorching heat. Everything they had to face in the tribulation has been answered. And now this crazy rebirth of images. A lamb who needs a shepherd now becomes a shepherd. The lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. And guess what he does? He grabs the future and he sneaks it in right now. John read the future. We're not there yet. We're not in the resurrection yet. We're in the intermediate state here. But watch what Jesus does. You know how parents are different than grandparents? The fundamental difference between a parent and a grandparent is what? The relationship of yes and no. Right? Parents are like, no. Grandparents are like, absolutely yes. Right? You want a cookie? How about seven? Right? Here's Jesus. Here's Jesus like a grandparent. And he says, how about let's grab some of them as springs of living water from the future. And grab some of that wipe away every tear from your eye from the future. Let's bring it forward a little bit into the intermediate state. Let me let me let you taste what's coming in the resurrection while you're singing here in heaven. And we wait for the resurrection to come. See, that's that's what that's that's the interlude. That's what was waiting for them. That's what's waiting for us. That's what we join every Sunday morning. That that's what we're racing towards is this. It a great in a grand and this is the interlude. So guess what? Carry on. Carry on. Every day move towards the goal because this this is waiting for you and this is waiting for me. And and the Christ who is the shepherd here is the one who's shepherding you there. He's a make sure you get there all the way. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for this rebirth of images in the book of Revelation. Encourage our souls and lift up our hearts and strengthen our faith that we might be faithful to you in each and every day. And we thank you that we have even now the table the gifts of God for the people who've got to feed us for the pilgrimage. And Jesus saying we pray. Amen.

Robed in Victory: Worshiping with the Redeemed - Revelation 7

Summary
Pastor David preaches on the multitude in white robes from Revelation, emphasizing how they stand before God's throne, not because of their own purity, but because the Lamb has made them worthy and victorious. He highlights that this salvation inspires loud, heartfelt worship, where humanity takes its rightful place in leading the heavenly liturgy.

Transcript
Good morning, Soli Church. Open your Bibles to the revelation of St. John, chapter seven this morning, revelation chapter seven. And for the next two weeks, we will be here in Revelation Chapter Seven. And this morning, we will be in verses nine through 12. And then next Lord's day, 13 through 17, a revelation chapter seven, beginning in verse nine, hear the word of God. (congregation speaking in the background) After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the ancient ones and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you and we would behold the lamb. (congregation speaking in the background) It's the only reason we're here this morning, Lord. We would see the lamb. We would behold the lamb with the eyes of faith. Show us the lamb in the scriptures. Show us the lamb at the table. Show us the lamb in our singing. We would see the lamb. We would sing of our salvation. We would be on with the business of worship. We would join from earth what we see in heaven this morning here. The white-robed palm branched priests before the throne of God. Lift our hearts, lift our eyes to this reality that is actually taking place behind the veil right now that we are joining. We would behold the lamb. Let us not leave without seeing him this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. And amen. From these ancient words, my Father, behold the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." These words spoken by Isaac and Abraham bleed and splatter and repeat on altars for thousands of years until the wild-haired baptizing prophet comes and speaks his own behold, answering the behold of Isaac. And John comes onto the scene and he says, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world as he points to Jesus." And as we come to the revelation of John during this paschal season, as we come and see in the revelation of John, persecution and tribulation and martyrdom and colored horses and sea beasts and horns and heads and prostitutes and cities and temples and dragons and devils and incense and eagles and trumpets and wormwoods and bowls and blood and a whole lot of numbers. All of which have their place. But they have their place for one reason only. So that we might behold the lamb who was slain. So that we might behold the lamb that John pointed to, that Abraham promised his son would come and that Isaac asked about. It is the lamb who is the central figure in the book of Revelation. Over 28 times in the book of Revelation, Jesus is referred to as the lamb. And you'd think that with all this other stuff that I just mentioned, earthquakes and wormwood and bowls and blood and angels and devils, that a little lamb would get lost and crushed in all this stuff. But not this lamb. Not this lamb. This lamb emerges from the midst of all this stuff as a lamb slain and just exactly what these churches needed. You see, these churches are facing a nightmare. This is not an easy season in the life of the church when John writes the Revelation. As a matter of fact, if you go back with me to Revelation chapter one, you will see exactly what it is that they are facing. In Revelation one and verse nine, John says this, "I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation." In the tribulation. And that's the tribulation with the definite article, the tribulation. Not a tribulation, but the tribulation. John right now is participating with them as he writes this letter to them in the great tribulation. They are facing the nightmare of the tribulation. And if you look over at chapter two and verse 10, it's highlighted even more to the church there. Chapter two and verse 10 says this, "Do not fear to the church of Smyrna. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested. And for 10 days, you will have tribulation. It's gonna happen. It's on you. The nightmare has come. Be faithful unto death." This is what it's gonna cost you. The tribulation that is coming upon these to whom John is writing is a tribulation in which they are actually facing the reality of martyrdom in their lives. Not something that they will hear about. Something that they will actually experience. Something that they are presently experiencing. So be faithful unto death, Jesus says, "And I will give you the crown of life," you say. And so these churches are facing a nightmare of tribulation and a nightmare of martyrdom. And is there an answer? Is there an answer to the nightmare? Is there an answer to the tribulation? Is there an answer to the death? And the answer is yes. And the answer is found in our passage. The answer to the nightmare, the answer to the tribulation, the answer to the martyrdom that they are facing is found in our passage. And so we begin by looking at verse nine. After this, John says, "I looked." And so this is something that John sees. Doesn't hear it. He's actually able to witness it. He's actually able to see it with his own eyes. This rebirth of images that is here for him to behold. God unfolds it for him so he can witness it with his eyes. And what he sees is astounding. And he wants those who are in the seven churches to be able to see this as well. Because five of the seven churches are receiving severe persecution right now for their faithfulness to witness to Jesus Christ. And these are not huge churches. These are small churches. These are struggling churches. And the Babylon that they are in, the mouth of the beast that they are in is huge. And it looks like they could simply be stepped on at any moment. And they need to see behind the veil. They need to see the greater reality of what is actually waiting for them and what is true. That the Babylon that is before them is a pseudo kingdom. It's a pseudo kingdom. It's not the reality. It tries to wear the crown. And it tries to wear the, have the horns. It tries to make a presentation that it is the true city, but it's not. It's faux in every way. It's fake in every way. It's cotton candy with an edge in every way. But it is not the real thing. But there is a victory for God's people that is real. And John wants these fledgling churches to see what is true for them if they will be faithful unto death. What the lamb who was slain has waiting for them as he carries them through, being faithful during the season of tribulation. And so John sees this. And the first thing that would encourage them is this. And behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. The first thing that they see is that Abraham's covenant has been fulfilled. It's beautiful. It's glorious. God has been faithful. And God's promise that through Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. All the families of the earth would be blessed. That Abraham would have as many children as there are stars in sand. Here they are. Here they are. Here are the peoples from every tribe, people, language and every nation. The Great Commission has been a success. And here they are. And so these fledgling churches can look behind the veil and see that what they are participating in now that looks like it's going to be crushed. What they are participating in now that looks so small and so weak and so inferior. And there's no way that it can make it. And there's no way that it can be victorious. When they get a chance to peer behind the veil, what they see is that it is a enormous church triumphant. That it is truly a triumphant and victorious church that Christ's church has been and will be victorious. And God's covenant with Abraham will be fulfilled. They might be small now, but they will not be small. They will be mighty. They will be mighty when it all comes around. You see, and there's this glorious answer. And then the second thing we see is that we have this Elijah anxiety answered, right? Remember Elijah, what was me? I'm the only one on the earth that's faithful. Nobody but me, Eor, right? Eor Elijah, right? But what does God say? Oh, Elijah, I got 7,000 tucked away over here. I just haven't told you about, right? Well, these little churches in the church militant can be facing that issue. What was me? Here we are, Asia Minor. Nobody knows us. Nobody cares about us. We're just over here doing our thing. And guess what? Here's what they see. A great multitude that no one can number. Isn't that beautiful? Here's the beautiful. Guess what? We can count in this room. We can count the people in this room. But if God were to pull back the veil, we can't count the people in that room. And those are our people. And that's the church triumphant. And so we can't have the Elijah complex, okay? We can't run around as the church militant on earth saying, "Whoa, is us," because we think we have the smaller numbers, all right? We are a part of the church militant that will be part of the church militant and the church triumphant. And that church triumphant has a people that no one can number. And this is the reality. So our numbers are greater than we know, you see. So we don't have to live that way. We don't have to live with the poverty we think we have to live with because we know what is true. God will fulfill Abraham's covenant. God will fulfill the Great Commission. And the church is gonna be filled with so many people that we can't even number it. And so that encourages us who are on this side of things knowing that that will be true when it's all said and done. Regardless of what our eyes can see here, this is what John's eyes can see there. Amen? Let's get on. Next, what we see is that this is a priestly crew. I've already heard a little bit about that this morning in our service. John says, "After this, I looked in behold the great multitude that no one could number. From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. And they are standing." Now this is shocking. This is shocking because of where they're at. They're standing, watch this, before the throne and before the lamb. They are in the holy of holies in heaven. They are in the heart of the universe. And they are standing there. It's incredible to consider of all of the postures that you would think you are before the throne of God. You are before the lamb slain of God. Consider all of the bodily positions you could consider. Is standing even in the top 10? Isn't face down the first 10? And not even looking up, right? But these are standing before the throne. Well, why are they standing? Because standing is what priests do when they're inside the holy of holies engaged in priestly service. Priests don't sit when they're engaged in priestly service. They stand when they're in priestly service. And so they're at the heart of all things of the universe. And they are welcome to stand before the very throne of God and before the lamb because they are gonna render a certain kind of priestly service in that very room there that we're gonna see next week. You'll all have to come back because it's in the next part of the passage that explains the service that they render. But it's amazing to consider the fact that they are actually standing there in service to the Lord and not simply flat out on their faces, not looking up at all or on their knees or running for the door, right? They're actually welcome inside the holiest place in the universe, the actual immediate throne presence of God. You say, well, how in the world could they actually be welcome in there? It's because the clothes they're wearing. They're welcome in there because of the clothes that they're wearing. Look at what it says. And that's very important. They are standing before the throne and before the lamb doing priestly service which we'll look at next week. Clothed in white robes. Clothed in white robes. There will be a little bit more of this next week too because the next week's passage tells us how the robes got white. This week just tells us that they are themselves white which means somehow all of this multitude which no one can number that comes from all the tribes, peoples and languages of the earth, every nation are all standing before the throne and before the lamb. And they're all wearing white robes of purity. White robes of exuberant childlike lightness before the Lord. But here's the thing you have to remember. They didn't, God did not, this is really important. They're not there in white robes because the Lord went and scoured the earth looking to see all of those He could find in white robes. In white robes. Because if the Lord were to go and look and scour to see all of those He could find in white robes that would then be have access to this room to do this priestly work. Not only would it not be a number that no one can number, it would simply be a no one. Because when God would look out to scour the earth to see anybody who has the purity to be in His presence, the white robe to be in His presence, He wouldn't be able to find anyone, let alone you. Because all you would have to offer Him is dirty garments and tattered garments. So they're not there because they were found in white garments. They're not there because they were found in white robes, you see, something had to happen to them because when they were found, they were found unwelcome in this place, not ready for this place without access to this place at all. They, something had to happen to them. Now I sent this out this morning to a few of you from the Sacred Head Now Wounded book because I think it perfectly sets for us what we're talking about here. Peter Vermigli, who's one of the 16th century reformers said this, listen, nobody when he first enters his reign takes a thief or a companion. Hear that? Nobody when he first enters his reign takes a thief or a companion. Christ did just that, listen, and did not contaminate paradise. But rather made it honored that it had such a Lord who could purify thieves and prostitutes instantly so that they were suitable for the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that beautiful? Let me read that again. Christ did just that and did not contaminate paradise. On your own and on my own, we would contaminate this room. We would not be welcome in this room. But Christ has done such a thing that he purifies thieves and prostitutes instantly and makes us suitable for this, you see. These are here, this innumerable number are here because they've been purified by the one who made them suitable to be in this very place serving the Lord here. That's why they have white robes. Not because he found them that way, but because the Savior found them not that way and purified them and made them suitable to be in this place. It's the Lamb alone. The Lamb alone and His salvation makes us suitable to be in the presence of the Lord before His throne. And the Lamb alone is the one who gives us the white robe so that we can be here. When we not only have white robes, there's also palm branches here. They have palm branches in their hands and palm branches are a sign of victory. Cicero said that a great conqueror is a man of many palms. When they were waiting for a king to come home, they would wait for him with palms. And during the inter-testamental period when Israel went in and the temple, when they recovered it and captured it and were cleansing it during the Maccabean Revolt, they went in with palms. And of course we have Palm Sunday when Jesus rode in on the beast of burden and they cried out Hosanna. And this is also connected to the Feast of Boots in the Old Testament. All of it, all of the symbolism here with the palm branches is a symbolism of victory. The palm branches are symbols of victory. So we have this group of people here who are wearing white robes because they were sinners, waving palm branches of victory because they lost. Explain that. (congregation laughing) You're a mess, but he made you clean. You died and were martyred, but you're victorious. How does that work? The lamb, the lamb who was slain. The lamb is the only one, that's why. The lamb is what makes the difference. Because of the lamb and the lamb alone, that is why there is victory. So these guys, they didn't skirt suffering. They didn't skirt tribulation. They didn't skirt death. The issue is simply this. They're suffering, tribulation and death ended in victory. It ended in victory because of the lamb who brought them here. Because the lamb is the undoing of death. The lamb undid death with his own death by conquering it with his resurrection. You see, so they are waving palm branches as those who were martyred in the tribulation. If you look at the previous verses in chapter six, it's unbelievable. It's incredible to consider that these things that we think can actually get us, can't get us because of the lamb. They actually turn around and become the very means and ways of victory for God's people because of the lamb who has overcome them. Do you realize that there's nothing? There is nothing in this world that can ultimately get at you or to you that will not be transfigured for your glory and victory in the next life. It's all, it's all working there because of the lamb. It's amazing. It's incredible. And what's also amazing and incredible is that up to this point, this white-robed palm branch standing priesthood, you'll notice they initiate this stage in heaven's worship. Right next, in the next verse, they're the ones who cry out with a loud voice and begin the singing. They begin the worship. But what I want you guys to see is that this is the first time this happens in the book of Revelation. Up to this point, for all of the first six chapters, all of the singing and all of the worship has been done by angels. No humanity has done any worship yet. It's all been angelic. All of the four living creatures, the ancient ones, the 24 ancient ones, angels, all of the names of those, they are all referred to the angelic host. But no children of Adam. Have ever yet in heaven stepped forward and actually led the liturgy like we were supposed to. You see, this is, you gotta, well, what's so important about that? What's important about that is this, okay? We were created by God, okay? To lead the world. We were created by God to lead angels, to judge angels, to lead the entire world, to be God's representatives. But guess what? We sinned. And so we were put under the tutorial of angels for the entire old covenant period. Angels ran the show up until Jesus came. And then Jesus came and he was made for a little while lower than the angels. But now he's crowned with glory and honor. And because Jesus has gone and he's crowned with glory and honor, he's taken us with him and he's moved us into our rightful place now. And for the first time in the book of Revelation, we see the heavenly choir, the heavenly choir of man move into the forefront and actually begin to show their leadership for the first time we lead in the liturgy. It's absolutely amazing. We finally take our place out in front and the angels step back and respond to us. So we lead with the first song here in this liturgy and then the angels respond with their song for the first time in the book of Revelation. And it's absolutely spectacular and amazing. Now that also means, and we can talk about this after church, I'll take emails, I hate to break your heart. I told my wife, this is why we don't learn our theology from our hymns. That means the group throwing their crowns in the Revelation 4, it's not you. You're not throwing your crowns down someday. It's the angels who are throwing their crowns down. What? I don't get thrown on. No, the hymn is wrong. The Bible is right, okay? That's the angels throwing their crowns down. Why? Because it's a transfer of authority. They're turning their authority over to the Lamb who's gonna turn that authority over to us. It's a transfer of administration, okay? And so that follows the method. You were like, well, I really wanted to throw my crown down. False humility never pays. What if Jesus really wants to give you a crown? What if you were created for glory? What if you were created for glory? What if he wants to give you a crown of life? The best thing to do is say thank you and wear it. And then you'd have a discussion with me later on about whether or not I'm right about Revelation 4. And here we go, all right. But anyways, in two tinnitus is what was it say? Be faithful to death and I will give you the crown of life. Okay, all that's fun. Revelation is so great and I love to create controversy with it. Either way, in this passage, the church initiates the worship and the angels respond. We know that's the case. And so as we move on to verse 11, solely, I'm coming for you, all right? All you who are visitors here, you're off the hook for like the next 10 minutes, okay? But solely you're not. So in verse 11, when we see this choir burst out, the choir is not shy. The choir is not shy. In other words, there is no mumble ramma here. No mumble ramma. Look at what it says. They have palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Church, listen, the book of Revelation is a liturgical book. It is a worship book. And here's what you find in the book of Revelation. It is simply this. You find loud worship. You find corporate amens and you find silence. What you don't find is mumble ramma. All right, so in chapter five and verses 11 and 12, you get this, then I looked and this is angels. And around the throne and the living creatures and the ancients, what do I hear? The voices of many angels, thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, okay? It's loud voice. So you have loudness among the angels. And in our verse, you have loudness among the choir of men. They let it go. Cry out loud voice, okay? Secondly, there are corporate amens. Verse 14, the angels have a corporate amen. And the four living creatures said amen. In our verse 712, there's a double amen, amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power might be to our God forever and ever. Amen, okay? There are punctuated amens. There are crying out and loud voices. And then there is silence. Chapter 8 verse 1, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. What you don't get is to mumble in His presence. So we gotta stop mumbling around this place. Thank you, can I get a double amen? (congregation laughing) Right, so our singing needs to elevate. Elevate needs to move towards loudness. Needs to move towards crying out a little bit more. There needs to be more consideration of our amen participations because it's all over the liturgy of the book of Revelation. And silence is good. But guess what? It can't be forced. So this is, it can't be forced. The reason why this choir cries out with a loud voice, double amens, and is not given the mumble ramma, is because their theme has their heart. That's why. So this is not something I can force or I want to force pastorally from the top down. But their theme has their heart. And they actually introduce the theme here, the human choir does, the Adamic choir introduces a theme that up to this point has not yet been a theme in Revelation. And it makes sense that the children of Adam introduce this because they're the ones who experience it. Up to this point in time, we have not seen the word salvation in the book of Revelation. This is the first time. The first time we see the word salvation in the book of Revelation is right here. And it's in a song. Sung by men and women in the choir, loudly cried out. Why? Because their salvation means something to them. Their salvation is a theme that wells up inside of them and causes them to cry out loudly and offer this song, you say. And so it's not something that's forced. It's something that their salvation, it wells up from it. The theme has to, it creates this, right? The salvation owns, their salvation owns them. They know who they've been saved by and they know what they've been saved from. And so that does not admit of Bumble Ramma. You don't mumble when you've been saved from sin, death and the devil. And you don't mumble when you've been before the lamb or when you are before the lamb. You just don't. And so again, it's not a forced thing. It's just when you've been before, even when you're before the lamb, you just sing. And you're singing a salvation. And so it's wonderful here because the angels could never introduce salvation because they don't get salvation. Angels don't get saved. They're either sinful and done or not sinful. And the angels don't receive salvation. So they don't know what it is like to be saved. So they can sing about men being ransom like they did in chapter five, but they can't sing about being saved personally, like here. And so here, this choir explodes with praise. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And notice what's being celebrated here. It is salvation. It is being rescued by the lamb and it never tires. And you'll notice what he says here. "Salvation belongs to our God." That's unique phrasing. Salvation belongs to our God is unique phrasing. And what that means is, is that when God promises to save us, this is important. When God promises to save us, he's putting his reputation on the line. You understand that? If he promises to save and he doesn't save, he's not faithful. And if he's not faithful, he's not God. So salvation belongs to our God means when God, when God covenants to save and God promises to save, he either saves and keeps his promise in his word and he's God. Because salvation belongs to our God or he doesn't and he's a false God. You see. So God puts his own reputation on the line as God when he saves or doesn't save. Well, this God saves. And so his reputation is vindicated in the salvation of what? All of these innumerable people. You see. He's vindicated in his faithfulness to his covenant promise to Abraham. Salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb. That's how we get saved is through the lamb. You see. But you'll notice it's all of God. It's all of God. We have no part in it. We are simply the recipients of everything that God has covenanted and everything that the lamb has done for us. We simply receive from God everything. You see. Salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb. That's that. And when that's true and you know that in your heart and that owns you, you got to sing it. It comes out in the song. It's coming out in the song here. It's coming out in the song here. And then of course the response then is the angels say, wait a minute, we got to get in on this too. So they respond to the initiation of the Adamic choir. Now they respond and the angels get in on it. Verse 11 says that all the angels were standing around the throne and around the ancient ones and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God. So they get in on it too. Okay, they get in there, but they fall on their faces. But I want you guys to notice what happens. They fall on their faces and they offer a doxology. A doxology that is very similar to the one that they offered in chapter five. They offer a doxology in chapter five. You can look at it with me. It's in chapter five and verse 12. So the doxology in chapter five and verse 12 says worthy is the lamb who was slain. And then it says, no, actually it's 13, we're after 13. Is it 12, two, bless, bless, bless. It's, let me count it, one, two, three. No, it's 12. Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might in honor and glory and blessing. It's a seven-fold doxology. So the angels lift that doxology up. Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might honor, glory and blessing. Here, the same group of angelic hosts are going to respond to the Adamic choirs, salvation belongs to the Lord. And they're gonna offer a very similar blessing. Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen. So it's very similar, but I want you to see it actually is expulsive. It's expansive. Now that the tables have turned and now that the angels are being led by men, their doxology actually explodes even more. And I'll show you how this works. In chapter five and verse 12, there's a seven-fold doxology. And that seven-fold doxology has one definite article. So it would read like this. If you had it in the Greek, it would read worthy as the lamb who was slain to receive the power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Okay. Come to chapter seven and verse 12, some things change. Number one, wealth is dropped and thanksgiving is added. So there's a switch of words for whatever reason. Secondly, there's no amen in five-twelve, but now in seven-twelve, there's a double amen. Now we've amped it up. Okay. We've doubly blessed this with an amen at the beginning of the doxology and an amen at the end of the doxology. Okay. And then if you remember in five-twelve, we have one definite article. And I wish they would do this in the English. I never know why they don't. But in the Greek, in the Greek of seven-twelve, there's a definite article before each one of the blessings. So listen, here's how it would read. Amen. Right? Blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the might be to our God forever and ever amen. So not only does in seven-twelve, do we double amen it, we also add the definite article before each one of the doxological blessings that we offer to God. And so what's happening is, is that this doxology intensifies and it expands and they're down on their faces, you see. There's been a transformation and a change even in the angelic response to the throne and to the Lamb whites because they've led by men finally rightly, you see. The Adam in Christ has taken his place and now things are the way they're supposed to be. And so the angels actually amp up their worship. It's absolutely incredible. It's absolutely amazing. And so all of this is this glorious worship that's taking place on the Lord's day. Right now when we're gathered, this is what's actually happening. We joined this on Sundays when we gather together. This is what's happening. We're gonna see a little bit more of that next week when we come together. But the issue at hand is this. As we gather together to worship on the Lord's day, joining this worship that's here, this is the pattern for us. Now we are not the pattern for that. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so we look to the heavenly worship so that we might learn from the heavenly worship how to worship on the earth. And the lamb is the center. The lamb will always be the center. When we come to church on Sunday, it is to behold the lamb. It is to behold the lamb. It is to see the lamb. It is to worship the lamb. It is to feast on the lamb. It is to receive from the lamb. It is all about the lamb. It will always be about the lamb. It will never be about a man. It will never be about a preacher. It will never, it will always be about the lamb. And you are in what? In Christ, you are wearing the same robe that these are wearing. You are wearing the white robe because you're justified in Christ. And so you're clean and you're pure in Christ because what Christ has done for you. And so this is us on earth. This is them in heaven. We are the church militant. They are the church triumphant. So I just ask you, is not the lamb worthy of more than lukewarm spit? (baby crying) I think he's worthy of our utmost for his highest. I think the lamb is worthy of our utmost for his highest. Not because we have to do that to earn, but because salvation belongs to our goddesses on the throne into the lamb. And he's about to feed us with that salvation. And he's about to show us the washing of that salvation. He is the lamb who is worthy. And I pray that we are people who are not ashamed of a slain lamb, but that we are willing to bear the marks of following and worshiping a slain lamb. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for this passage. Thank you that salvation belongs to you. Thank you that you have made us a part of this mighty church. Thank you that you are victorious, both over sin, death, the devil, and that you are going to be victorious in history. And that no matter what size our churches are, we are a part of something that is guaranteed to see the end and to see it won. So help us to be faithful now, to lift our loud voices up, and to be unashamedly singing as a victorious church, a victorious people who know, who know the lamb has won. Give us hearts to follow you all the way through. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Worthy Is the Lamb: The Only One Who Can Open the Scroll - Revelation 5

Summary
Pastor Jeremy Haynes preaches from Revelation 5, where John weeps because no one is worthy to open the scroll—until the Lamb who was slain steps forward. This sermon unveils the power, authority, and worship of Jesus, the only one who can fulfill God's redemptive plan.

Transcript
Hear the word of the Lord. We are in Revelation 5 this morning. I'm covering the entire chapter. Look with me to verse 6. "And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders I saw a lamb standing, as though it had been slain." Take your seats and let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day, for this morning. Just to be able to be a priest of the kingdom of God, to have access to You, to offer the prayers that Pastor David offered up, Lord, and know that You hear our prayers. And then to turn our hearts to Your Word, to hear from You, and know that You will speak to us, Father. Today we ask You to remind us again about Your Son, and how worthy He is to be praised, to be honored, to be worshiped. Lift up our hearts, lift up our minds unto You, Lord. We're praying in the name of Jesus. Amen. Last week we started our sermon series in the book Revelation. As Pastor David just said a moment ago, we are covering the lamb who was slain in the book Revelation. We meet in this book the Apostle John. John is in a stage, in a season of his life, of great suffering. He's been sent to the island of Patmos, an island right outside of Asia Minor, where he is essentially sent there to die. Nothing is on the island. He's sent there to go to his death. As he sits there, he is experienced a season of great suffering in the church. Thousands of Christians have been dying over the last few decades. Even two decades earlier, you have millions, actually 1 million, 1.1 million Jews are killed when the temple is destroyed in 8070. All this destruction, all this death, he's been seeing it generation after generation. And even now in 8090, he's seen all of the disciples abused, tortured, and murdered. He's seen now in the book Revelation through chapter 3 through 4, he's seen how Jesus has been speaking to him through this Revelation, and he's given a warning to five churches. And the warnings to these five churches are a strong warning because they are in the brink of disaster. To one church, he says, "You're neither hot nor cold. You are lukewarm." Christ God, He will spit you out when that day comes. He even says to another church that you are letting in this prophetess named Jezebel, who's teaching falsehoods in your church. He says to another church, "You think you're alive, but you're dead." So John in his mind is experiencing all of these things that are happening in his world, and also in this Revelation, and it's rather dark. It's rather bleak in some ways. And now we get this message to him. And I think the question that we, not think, but I know the question that we're going to wrestle with today and see today is, and is this, is who is worthy to turn this all around? Who is worthy to complete the plan that God set out from the very beginning? Who is worthy is the question? Look with me to verse one. "Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals." So you have the right hand of God. The right hand is meant to, the meaning behind that is the strength of the Lord, his strong right arm. He's holding the scroll in his hand. And we see also the seven seals. All throughout the book of Revelation, you're going to see sevens. The sevens are meant to represent the fullness of something. So this is a full authority of God. Each seal has been sealed with the authority of God to complete his authorship for the scroll that is intended for a purpose. The author wrote on the front, in fact, in the first century, they would write a summary on one side of the scroll, and the details on the inside of the scroll. So front and back, the scroll is in his hands. He's holding it for a purpose. In this scroll, the contents are heavy. The contents you will find out will unleash judgment, pestilence, wars, and salvation in the scroll. Look at me in verse two. "And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look in it. No one." The angel cries out, not just to be heard in the temple or in the space of worship where John is at, but the angel's voice is heard to the ends of the heavens, all of the heavens. The angel's voice is heard throughout the entire earth. The angel's voice is heard through the depths of the under-earth or beneath-earth, as the passage says. The proclamation of this mighty angel speaks to all who have ears to hear, and no one responds. Moses does not step forward. Abraham does not step forward. David does not step forward. Shirley Ezekiel could step forward. Last time he saw a scroll, he swallowed it. Or maybe John the Baptist could stand forward. Jesus said he was the greatest prophet. Or maybe the bold apostle Paul could step forward. The one he planted churches in started a revival in Gentile culture in the first century. Maybe Peter and his boldness could step forward. But no one could step forward. Not one, no one. On the earth, in the heavens, under the earth, not a man, not an angel, not a woman, not a prophet, no one. Look with me to verse 4. And I began to weep loudly, John says, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. He weeps loudly. And I curious question I was thinking as I was looking at this passage. He doesn't even know what's in the scroll. He's never seen inside the scroll. Why is he so upset? What is it inside of John that makes him so concerned? Well, I just believe, brothers and sisters, that all the saints of God who love God have longed to see God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. They long to see this. They long to see things made right. His weeping is a product of the disorder, a product of the dysfunction, a product of the dead, the broken, the distorted, the seemingly unredeemable things. This is not a cry of joy. This is a cry of horror. No one is able to open the scroll. He's weeping. He's weeping because he's desperate to hear from God. He sees in God's hand the scroll that he's revealed himself in something that needs to be let out. And he knows it. It's in his bones. And he's weeping loudly. Is there no one? Is there no one? Sure enough, the elders speak up. I believe the elders here would represent humans and the church, the elders. And I think it's fitting that in this brother's deep point of mourning and weeping, the church comes to comfort him, right? They come to comfort him and they point him to the source of his comfort. Who is it? It's the Lion of Judah. The book of Genesis says that the Lion of Judah is coming. It's this Messiah figure who's going to come fulfill God's plan. He's the Lion of Judah, it says here. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. And then it's the root of David. Isaiah says that it's the root of Jesse, which is David's father. And this Messiah is going to come from this Lion of Judah, the root of Jesse, the root of David. Now notice the root is before the fruit. The root is before Jesse. The root is before David. So this one who is in the tribe of Judah is before David. But he's also the one who has conquered. He has conquered. Behold, he is here. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the root of David. He has conquered so that he can open the scroll and it's seven seals. He is here. This is the moment they've all been waiting for. The Lion finally is going to come to take his kingdom. What a moment. Look to verse six now. You know, John is in the scene. He's been weeping. Now the elders have encouraged him to look for this Lion who's there. And he looks left. He looks right. He looks up. He looks down. We don't see a Lion. What do we see? Between the throne and the elders and among the creatures, we see a Lamb, not a Lion. And the Lamb is not lying down, but he's standing up. And it says as though it had been slain. As though it had been slain. This Lamb. Obviously being slain means that there's blood shed on this Lamb. He is the Lamb who has been slain. Not only has he been slain, but it says that he has seven horns. The seven horns, all the horns would be a picture of the strength of God. In Samuel 1, it says, Samuel, first Samuel chapter two, it says, "The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn, exalt the horn of his anointed." So these seven horns are the strength of God, the honor of God, the full power these horns are symbolic of. All powerful, this Lamb. And then it has these seven eyes. The eyes throughout Scripture, Metro-represent understanding. The sight. He sees all things. He's all knowing of all things. In fact, it says, which are the spirits of God? Here. Verse nine, it says, not verse nine, but it says, verse six, it says, these seven horns with these seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God. So this Lamb is all powerful and the spirit of God is with him in these eyes. The spirit of God, these seven spirits, we see in Isaiah 11, these spirits, it says, the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of understanding. The spirit of wisdom. The spirit of counsel. The spirit of might. The spirit of knowledge. The spirit of the Lord will be on him. This Lamb is here. This Lamb is all powerful. This Lamb is all knowing. This gentle Lamb was the one who lived a perfect life. Who was gentle. He was lowly. He walked among us and walked among the people's sinless, innocent. That same land went to the cross to be scourged, to be disrespected, to be spit on, to be mistreated, and then to be placed on the cross and to be nailed to the cross. This Lamb shed his blood on that cross. Then the Lamb was taken down from the cross and put into a tomb. And in the tomb, he waited for three days. And on the third day, that Lamb resurrected from that grave so that he could come to this moment to unfold the completion of the Father's plan. This Lamb, here he is, gentle, humble, lowly, the Lamb, being slain. You see, the Lamb was worthy before the cross. The Lamb has always been worthy, but the Lamb had a task that he needed to complete. Turn to verse 7 here. This is the... I mean, I wish I could have been there for all of it, but I really wish I could have been there for this. Well, because what they called out to Lamb, "Look, behold, there he is now!" He's acting, and he's taking a step at a time towards the throne, and he goes to the throne, and it says this, verse 7. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. He took the scroll. In his hand, he took the scroll. He had the power. He had the authority. In his hand to take the scroll. The scroll is like the... the Father is the King. And he hands the air to his kingdom, the will and testament in the scroll. And it has all of the edicts and all of the decrees of his Father's will that he's now giving to the Son. You see, the Son is not only the one who was faithful in the whole process of being the Lamb who was slain, but he's also the one that the full weight and responsibility of his Father's kingdom can fall on him. Because he's the one that will take the scroll and has the authority to break the seals. He's the one who has the obedience that will be required to fulfill every stage of the seals being unfolded. He is the one who is faithful enough and patient enough to make sure it's all completed. He's the one, this Lamb. Now I want you to notice if you would just look up with me to Revelation 4, verse 9. So I want you to notice something that's really important as we look at the next verse in our passage. Revelation 9, what we see is right before this passage there's another worship service happening unto the Father. And it says, "And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the floor who is seated on the throne who lives forever and ever the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and they worship him who lives forever and ever and they cast their crowns before the throne and they say, worthy are you, oh Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created." This is to the Father. Now I want you to notice the shift. Check this out. Verse 8. So he's taking the scroll. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints. They fall down now, not to the Father, not that they're not doing to the Father, but they fall down now directed to the Son, to the Lamb. They fall down and worship to him. Now you notice that they fall down first with, they have these harps, each holding one harp. The harp, if we look throughout scripture, is really connected to not only worship of God's people, but it's also a fulfillment of prophecy. The harp is connected many times to prophetic moments when God is unfolding new things and fulfilling things that he had planned. The harp is this praise. Then you have these golden bowls of incense. Which are, it tells us, which are the prayers of the saints. So all the prayers that all the saints have ever prayed are in these bowls. You think about the prayers you've had for healing, the prayers you've had for a sick child, the prayers you have for a friend who has cancer, the prayers you have for just your financial situation, the prayers you've had for maybe things turning around in your life, the prayers you offered for anything that you ever could have imagined are in these bowls. The ugly prayers and the beautiful prayers. The prayers of the small child with a pure heart to the prayers of the most eloquent orator. All of them are in here. And one thing the Lamb does, He's the sanctifier. He doesn't take the prayers and keep them for Himself, but He gives them to the Father. So these incense are being offered to Him because soon enough they will be a burnt offering to the Lord. An aroma pleasing to God. Christ the Lamb sanctifies our prayers. Like a mother who sends out her children to get flowers for the Father, the children go out and they grab weeds and little bugs and little flowers. They bring all the flowers back to Mom and say, "Here it is for Dad." But then the mother goes through the flowers and she picks out all the weeds. She takes out the bugs and then she adds beautiful flowers into the bouquet. And then she wraps it in a bow, puts it in a vase, and then hands it to the Father. The beautifying, the glorifying that the Father, that the Son does with the prayers of the saints that He's been waiting to receive. He's the advocate. And they sang it says a new song. Not that there was a bad old song, but this is a new song they have never sung before. And this new song, different than Revelation 4 says this, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on earth." Amazing. Amazing. What kind of prayers are you praying? I just want to go back for a second. What kind of prayers are you praying? Are you trusting the sanctifying work of Christ in your prayers? That when this day comes, that you've offered from a bold heart all the prayers that you might be tempted to hold back? Because the day is coming where this worship moment will be accompanied with your prayers. Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe, every language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on earth forever. What a scene to have been there. Awesome. The Son now, his job is to, with this scroll, to reorder his Father's world. Look at me to verse 11, "Then I looked and I heard around the throne the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might." I want to stop there. You think, you see the power, the wealth, the wisdom and the might, those are the resources that the Son received for the task that He has at hand. Because you can have wealth, power, might, and you can have those things without the next line. But for Jesus, He uses the resources, and then He receives, and He's bestowed with what comes next. He not only receives power, wealth, wisdom and might, but then He's bestowed with honor. He's bestowed with glory. He's bestowed with blessing. He's the Lamb who has the resources for the work that He has to do, but He's bestowed the eternal heavenly blessings on His head, on His life, because of what He is going to do, what He has done, and who He's always been. He's worthy. These resources are bestowed on the Lamb. And then verse 13, "And I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever, amen.' For the living creatures said, 'Amen.' And the elders fell down and worshiped Him." The scene is a scene of the one who is worthy. You see, He was worthy to stop the weeping of John by being the one who would unlock and break the seals. He was worthy to be the one who could complete His Father's will in the world. He is worthy to be the one who could hear our prayers and sanctify them for this day. He is worthy to be the one who receives power, honor, glory, and blessing. And then He gives all those things because He is worthy, but then He gives them to us. And somehow now through His worthiness, we have become worthy. And so we stand with Him in this throne room receiving what He received. As He receives the deed to run and unfold this kingdom blessing and all the things that are going to come out of the scroll, we are a part of this story. He was slain so that He could ransom a people to Himself because He was worthy to do that. He makes His people a priesthood to have access to the Father through their prayers. He makes them a kingdom so they could stand at the end of this story celebrating with this King. He's worthy to bring the dark, I'm sorry, to bring the light into this dark world. He's worthy to restore Eden's glory to this planet. We might at times have the thoughts that would lead us to weep, and there is good reason to weep in the world today. But on a passage like this today, this is a reason to worship and to celebrate because He is worthy, you know, in the hearts and the mouths of our little children, and I'm singing this song that I think is so fitting for this amazing message, this amazing message from Revelation 4, and this song goes like this, it's called, "This is my Father's World." This is my Father's World. Oh, let me never forget that though the wrong seem off so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's World. The battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven shall be one. Let's pray. God, we thank You for this day. Thank You for this amazing passage that we just don't want to mess up, Lord. You've unfolded it so clearly to us, Lord. I pray that we would receive it and that we would rest into the fact that now because of this worthy lamb, we are now able to come to Your table as Your kingdom of priests. Father, it is You and You alone that is worthy when no one can stand forward. No one can save besides You. We thank You, Lord. Praise the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Reigning King: Living in the Victory of Christ's Unshakable Kingdom - Revelation 1:4-7

Summary
Pastor Jon Noyes reminds us that despite the chaos in the world, Jesus is reigning now, with all things under His authority, and His sovereignty continues to unfold through history. He emphasized that Christ’s love is personal, unmerited, and infinite, freeing us from sin’s power and commissioning us as priests to reflect His kingdom in our daily lives.

Transcript
This morning we were gonna start our paschal series. We're gonna be in Revelation, uh, for the time. We're gonna just pick up in Revelation 1, verses 4 through 6. Um, so I'll read it. Our, our theme is to see Jesus, the, the lamb who is slain, uh, and then look at the cross, uh, as it appears in Revelation, uh, for the next couple weeks. So Revelation 1, 4 through 6, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you in peace, from him who is and was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood, and he's made us a kingdom, priests, to his God, the Father, to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Uh, imagine with me guys, um, being the apostle John, uh, exiled on Patmos away from every human comfort and including his, his friends and community, the, the church, uh, en masse under persecution, uh, Rome tightening its grip from a human perspective, things I would think look, look extremely bleak. Uh, some of us today might be able to relate in, in a culture that, that seems to want to marginalize, uh, the Christian worldview and, and reduce this holiday, especially Easter to things like, like bunnies and, and, and, and egg hunts and, and candy and, and things like this. Um, makes me want to wonder, is Christ truly victorious? Have you guys seen the news today? I was talking to Sharon, the church in Syria. We should pray for them. Uh, persecution, beheadings. Not 2,000 years ago friends, but this morning, um, makes us wonder, uh, is Christ victorious? You know, and then John in exile, uh, his vision, the vision that we're going to talk about this morning or start our conversation, it, it shatters the darkness. Uh, Jesus appears not as the, the humble teacher of Galilee, but as the glorified King declaring, I was dead, but behold, I am alive forever more. So it's, it's our goal as a church, as an elderboard, as, as your pastors this Easter season to, to see Christ as he is, the risen reigning Lord who transforms everything. Let me pray and then we'll dive into the verses. Lord, we thank you for the morning that you've given to us, not just to us, but to your church universal. We do, we pray for those in Syria that are suffering persecution, those in China who are suffering persecution, those who are finding themselves under, uh, Islamic rule, uh, that are suffering persecution. Would this word be enough? Would it be a lamp to their feet and a light to their soul? And would it be enough for them this morning to stand firmly and boldly, uh, in, in areas of true persecution? Um, even as they are marched sometimes on their hands and knees to their death, would we be reminded this morning through these words that, that the Lord reigns, Jesus reigns. He currently right now presides with you and is whispering in your ear, our advocate whispering in your ear, eternal truths reminding you of who we are, your children. And would this word be found, um, in our hearts and our minds and our souls and would it produce, uh, growth and would change us. So when we leave here, God, uh, through the preaching of your word, the, the eating at your table, the hearing of your word proclaimed, would we be changed more and more into the likeness of your son? And on this day, would you give us the peace that we so desperately need? Uh, we love you. Help us love you more and each other better. Amen. So John opens a revelation with a, a striking greeting really, grace to you in peace, he says, and, and this isn't a mere formality, but a, a lifeline to persecuted Christians. They need a divine favor. They need grace. They need this amid a hostile word, a hostility and, and, and then they need also a supernatural calm, a peace. A mid fear, something maybe we all could use this morning, perhaps a lasal is, I think of you. Many of us in this room who knows what's going on in our lives. Uh, we need these supernatural things. This is what John chooses to open revelation with by asking. And, but this grace and this peace, they, they come from no earthly source. They flow from the, the triune God. John first describes the father as him who is, and who was, and who is to come echoing Exodus three 14, the self existing sovereign. I am. It's the I am who delivered Israel. And that, that he's crying out to and reminding us is there. He's the same God who sustains his people today, who sustained the people back 2000 years ago when this book was written. Next, John speaks of the seven spirits before his throne, a symbolic reference to the Holy Spirit's perfect fullness. The same spirit who empowered God's people then empowers his church today, not by human might or force, but by God's power. And what comfort this would have been to, to John's readers, what comfort it is to us this morning. Before even mentioning Jesus explicitly, he anchors their hope in the triune God. This, this greeting isn't just a formality. It's a theological declaration that Easter is more than a past events. It's the work of the Father, Spirit and Son in redemption, that same redemption that takes had hats of stone today and turns them to had soft hearts of flesh. Having established the divine source of grace and peace, John now shifts our focus to Jesus himself. This we're going to look at is the Jesus of Revelation. This is the Jesus of Easter, the slain lamb, now the risen reigning Lord. And as we journey towards Easter in the next couple of weeks, John's vision in Revelation 1.4-6 calls us to behold Christ in his fullness, not just as crucified Savior, but as victorious King. So who is this Christ who stands at the, at the center of our faith? Good question. In verse five, it says, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead and the ruler of the kings of earth. First, Christ is the faithful witness. Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God. He is the truth, the one who perfectly testifies to the Father. As John writes elsewhere, no one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son who is himself God in his closest relationship with the Father. He has made him known. And when Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus replied, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." Before Pilate, Jesus declared this, if you guys remember, this is actually my favorite scene in the Bible, right? Jesus is standing before Pilate. He's put on mock trial, right? Pilate's charged with choosing Barabbas or Jesus and who's going to be crucified. And then Jesus, he's standing there before Pilate and he asks probably the most profound question anybody could ever be asked. Who do you say that I am, right? And then Jesus tells that the purpose, why he came to Pilate. For this purpose, I was born and for this purpose, I've come into the world to bear witness to what? The truth. To bear witness to the truth. The world rejected the truth then, just as it rejects the truth today. But here's the question. Do we? What do we do with the truth? Consider how Jesus' testimony stood firm even in his dacquest hour. When facing the cross, he didn't recant. When his disciples, they all ran away, they fled. Jesus didn't waive, huh? Even when he cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He's still submitted with, "Into your hands I commit my spirit." His witness remained faithful. To the very end, it remained faithful. A stack contrast to a lot of our tendencies to compromise when faith becomes costly. And I'm always looking for an apologetics angle, maybe just because my vocation, right? But in a world filled with competing truth claims, skeptics always ask us, "How can we trust Jesus?" Well, the simple answer is his resurrection. If Christ had died and stayed dead, he would have been just another leader of a failed revolution. But he's not dead. I'm getting ahead of myself. Hopefully you guys already know the end of the story, right? Have you read that, Pat? He rose, right? And because he rose, we can trust every word that he's spoken. The empty tune validates every claim Jesus has ever made. So Jesus is the faithful witness, but he's also the firstborn of the dead. Easter's about resurrection, but not just any resurrection. Jesus' resurrection is unique. He's the firstborn from the dead, meaning he's the first to rise in a glorified, "Never to die again" body. This points us to the contrast between the two atoms that Paul talks about and describes in 1 Corinthians. The first Adam, the first man Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Where the first Adam brought death through disobedience, the last Adam, the truer Adam, the greater Adam, Jesus, brings life through obedience perfectly. As Paul explains in Romans 5, Adam's sin brought all of us into death. But the obedience of Christ, it's the obedience of Christ that brings all who believe into participation, into new life. Christ is the covenant head of a new resurrection race where all barriers are broken. They're shattered. In 1 Corinthians 15-23, Paul, he clarifies this. He says, "But each in his own order Christ, the first fruits, after those who are in Christ, will be raised." Guys, this isn't just good news for Jesus. It's good news for us because his resurrection guarantees our resurrection. Death, it doesn't have the final word in this world. It's impotent. It's moot because Jesus conquered it. He conquered all sin and death. When we stand at the graveside of a loved one or face our own mortality, we don't simply have a philosophical comfort either. We have historical precedent. Jesus' resurrection isn't a metaphor for spiritual renewal. It's the concrete reality that death has been definitively conquered. Exclamation point, full stop. His empty tomb is the down payment on our own resurrection. So Jesus, he's a faithful witness. He's the first born. But he's also the ruler of the kings of earth. I love this. I'm trying really hard not to get too excited. I really am. This is for you, Nate. It may not look like Jesus is always ruling and reigning. The world is still filled with corruption, with war, with chaos, with persecution. That's the result of having to live in a now but not yet kingdom. That's the result of having to bump into the reality that we still, as saints of God, have to live in a fallen and a broken world. There's consequences to sin. And we suffer them. And some of the consequences are at our own peril. They're our own sin. And then we're naive to believe if we think that we can restrict the consequences of our personal sin to just ourselves, but our sin affects others too. We live in a fallen and a broken world. And sometimes we confuse that with maybe Jesus isn't reigning. Well, that's just not true. Appearances are deceiving. Scripture declares that Jesus reigns now. Now. John says that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Every ruler, whether they acknowledge Jesus or not, is subject to Jesus' authority. And that subjectation starts now. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is reigning. God has put all things in subjection under Jesus' feet. Do you know that phrase appears three times in the New Testament? It appears in Hebrews, in 1 Corinthians and in Ephesians. It's a true statement. Ephesians 1, 10-11 declares that in the fullness of time, God will gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. The time is coming. Christ is even now working all things according to the counsel of his will. He's the ultimate head over all human government. Take heart, Christian. God is on his throne and he is in control. And consider how Christ's sovereignty has played out through history. We aren't the first people that maybe we're thinking, where is Jesus today? I mean, think about, I mean, the Roman Empire that executed him eventually bowed before him. Countless regimes that persecuted Christians have fallen while the church has endured. Even today, in places where Christianity is most severely oppressed, the church continues to grow. And oftentimes in those countries, it's growing at a more rapid rate than it is here in the West. Not only is Christ reigning, but he's on the move. This is amazing. And when we watch the news and see global turmoil, we have to remember, no crisis takes Christ by surprise. No political leader operates outside of his jurisdiction. His jurisdiction falls under Jesus. You see, in no world power rises or falls apart from his sovereign purpose, that the throne of heaven is not vacant. It's not contested. It's occupied by the risen Christ. And the best part is this is true. This isn't just like my empty plat, this isn't just feelings. This isn't just me hoping you feel better when you leave church today. This is the true story of reality. This is what actually is. Christ is not just about personal salvation either. It's about the victory of Christ's kingdom over sin, death, and the powers of this world. The questions that are raised in my mind, right? Do we live as though Christ is currently reigning? Are we taking dominion? Does our anxiety about world events betray our lack of confidence in Jesus' supreme rule? If Jesus is risen and reigning, how should that transform our perspective on the headlines that frighten us? If Jesus is the ruling king, then his reign ought to have a direct impact in our lives, and everything in our lives is touched. But what exactly has Jesus done for you and for me? Well, John now directs our attention to the hat of the gospel, the power of the cross. To him who loves us, to him who loves us, and has freed us from our sins by his blood. My family has largely been antagonistic towards my Christian convictions. I am still the only Christian in my family. My brother's favorite word for me is "deluded." He thinks I'm deluded, which is okay, because he's blind, and he can't see. And this last time I was home, I've been living in California for 20 years, as if it's not home. Last time I flew back east, I got to hang out with my brother and his family, and I took Eva with me, and I got to have a great conversation just briefly alone with my brother in his living room. And where I was expecting normally to get made fun of, which doesn't bother me, it really doesn't. My brother asked me a really great question. Instead of calling me deluded, instead of calling me a name, or making fun of my belief in zombies, which is what my family thinks I believe in a zombie, he asked, "John, why did Jesus have to die?" What a great question. What a wonderful question. And here we find the answer. We find the answer in this single phrase, because in this single phrase from John contains the heartbeat of the gospel. To answer why Jesus came, why he had to die, what he accomplished, and how he did it, it's the declaration of our redemption rooted in both God's love and Christ's blood. You see, God was motivated by his love. Notice the order here, it's significant. To him who loves us comes before and has freed us. You see, the cross is, it's not what makes Jesus love us. The cross is the result of Jesus' love for us. And this is echoed in Paul, and by Paul in Romans 5. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. You see, Christ's love, it's personal. It doesn't say to him who once loved us, but to him who loves us. His love is, it's not just a past event, it's an ongoing thing. It's unchanging. Guys, I was in North Dakota, negative 19 degrees. Kids were coming to school in t-shirts and shorts. What's wrong with your parents? And I taught on suicide my last morning there. And part of my suicide talk, I step back and I just point out, did you know that God's love for you is constant? God's love for you, it doesn't change according to your behavior. You don't earn merit with God. And I explained this to them, and at the end, I had a young man, he was 15, he came up to me, he said, "John, I think I just got saved." Well, you pray with me. Nobody has ever told me that God's love for me is consistent, even when I sin. I thought every day I had to be perfect. And if I messed up, God didn't love me. God's love for you guys is constant. God's love for you is so great that he gave his only son for you. He went to extreme lengths for you. It's personal. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, is what John says in 13.1, his gospel. There's a beautiful tension here worth exploring. Christ's work for freeing us is completed. He has freed us. It's past tense. But his love continues uninterrupted. He loves us. It's present tense. The cross was a once for all sacrifice, but the love that drove him to that cross, it remains constant in action towards us. And he doesn't love us because he saved us. He saved us because he loves us. And that love, it continues unabated today, regardless of our performance. Prince, there is true freedom here. You are children of God. Declared forgiven before a holy and just God. And his love for you is unconditional. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The Bible says that neither heights nor depths, neither angels nor principalities, nor any created thing will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Did you know that? Unbelievable. And not only is Christ's love personal. Christ's love is unmerited. Now this phrase, guys, is scandalous. We are the only religion, the only worldview that believes this. Every other worldview, you spend your life here working your way towards God, meriting his favor. That's not true with Christianity. The true story. Christ merited everything so we don't have to. It's a scandalous phrase. We've got to understand this, that when we understand who we are apart from Christ, where we're enemies of God, where we're dead in sin, we're children of perdition, we're children of wrath, and yet he loves us, not because of who we are, but because of who he is. Christ's love is its personal. It's unmerited, but it's also infinite. And John, Jesus says the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He says greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for who? His friends. And how can we human beings be sure that we're loved? I mean, a lot of us, I think, spend a lot of time desperately seeking, actively looking out for how we can be loved, constantly seeking the affections of other people, and then we die disappointed and sad. Well, Paul, he says he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for all. This divine, and therefore truly infinite love, has made us kings and priests to God. You see, sin's not just a mistake. It's a bondage is what John in his gospel says. But Jesus' death doesn't just forgive us of our sins, it frees us from them. Think about the different forms of bondage that some of us might experience today, right? The addict who says, "I'll never do that again." Only to relapse just a few hours or days or weeks later, the person trapped in shame, unable to believe they could ever be truly loved. The perpetual people, please, are imprisoned by the need for others' approval. The victim of trauma, still captive to the memories and the fears after the event that they suffer. What all these things have in common is the experience of being trapped, of wanting freedom, but being unable to achieve it through mere sheer willpower of the human nature. Just that alone is not enough. And this is the reality of sin that Jesus takes on through his blood. His freedom, it's not just forgiveness that leaves us struggling with the same old patterns. It's true liberation that breaks sins, power on you and me. Yesterday, Rihanna, I mean, Eva and I, we went to a pro-life prayer walk. It was amazing. We joined with what, maybe 50 or 60 other people in Ventura, and we did a little bit of worship and prayer, and then we walked in front of a planned parenthood where every Wednesday in Ventura, across from reality, across from that new church there, every Wednesday, all they do in that building is perform surgical abortions. And we prayed for an hour outside of that building, and then when we went back, we got to hear a testimony of a woman who had an abortion. But through the power of Christ and his cross, she has received healing. There's no shame in her because of it, because she met Jesus. And she knows that she's washed clean of even that grievous sin, and that she's found community and love within the church of God. Friends, this is the power of the cross. There's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. It transforms lives. Paul in Galatians says, "For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery." This is why Revelation refers to him as the Lamb who was slain. You see, in Exodus, the blood of the Lamb entirely freed Israel, ultimately freed Israel from slavery as they painted it on their doorposts, allowing death to pass over the home, saving Israel's firstborn. Do you guys remember this account? Right, well, Jesus, Jesus is the true and better Passover Lamb. He frees us from a more pervasive and greater slavery, the slavery of sin and death. Therefore, there is now, like I said, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death, is what Paul says in Romans. And how do we know that his sacrifice was accepted? The resurrection, Easter, unbelievable. You see, Easter, am I saying Easter? Easter. It's not just a celebration. It's a declaration. The cross worked. It worked. It were unbelievable. The Father's raising of Jesus from the dead was his divine verdict. Payment accepted, debt canceled, prisoners doors opened, chains falling off, the things we sing about. It's true because of the resurrection. And my chains are gone. I've been set free. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me, and like a flood his mercy reigns on ending love. Amazing grace the earth shall soon dissolve, like snow the sun for bear to shine. But God who called me here below will be forever mine, will be forever mine. But Christ, he didn't just redeem us from something. He redeemed us for something. John here reveals the incredible purpose of Christ's work in our lives. He has made us to be, this is, guys, this is so good. He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. You see, the work of Christ, it's not just about personal salvation. It's about restoring us to our true calling. We're a kingdom. We're no longer slaves to sin. We're citizens of Christ's kingdom, for he rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, is what Paul says. This means our allegiance is first and foremost to Christ, not to this world. Remember what James says. James says that that friendship with this world is hostility to God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Exodus 19.5 through 6 provides a background to all of this. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me, above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What was the purpose? This is what he promised to Israel, and it's now fulfilled through Christ and his church. Peter says to you and me now, he says, "But you're a chosen race, a royal priest, and a holy nation, a people of God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellence of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light." But there's more. Jesus' kingdom, it's not just any kingdom. It differs from every world of the kingdom. My kingdom is not of this world is what he said to Pilate. His citizens live in every area, every sector, every segment of life, and these citizens, they seek to live obediently by the rulers, by the ruler of Christ's kingdom. It's these citizens, they pray for those in authority and conduct themselves peacefully in godliness and holiness. They demonstrate the love of the Lord Jesus by helping the poor and feeding the hungry and caring for the widow. They defend the rights of the disadvantaged, the downtrodden, the least of these. They care for needy people, and then they proclaim and they teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to anybody and everybody who will hear. You guys can pray for me this weekend. I'm going down to Palm Springs. If you guys know anything about what Palm Springs has become, it's a very dark place. And on Thursday night, I'll be walking the streets of Angelizing down there. Pray for me. Pray for the people that I'll be talking to as I proclaim the goodness of Jesus Christ and the freedom that comes with falling under His sovereign will. Pray for lives changed. As citizens of the kingdom, we testify to the present reign of Jesus in the world today. So what's this mean practice? I have no idea where I am time-wise. Are you guys okay? Do you guys love me? Are you sure? Nobody answered. You just giggled. You laughed. I love you guys. Do you guys want to know why I love you? It's a good guess. You can talk to me. It's okay. Why? Because Jesus loves us. Good guess. I love you because you're made in the image of God. Every one of you is made in the image of God, and so am I. And because we're made in the image of God, you know what? I'm worthy of your love. I am. There's nothing I need to do to earn it. It's freely given because I'm made in the image of God, but so too is the center. So too is the rebel. So too is the homosexual. So too is the adulterer. So too is the adulterer. So too is the abortionist. They're all made in the image of God. And they're not outside Christ's love. Christ can reach them if we're obedient, if we're willing, if we find ourselves under the Lordship of Christ and follow His instruction to go and baptize and teach, watch what happens. Lives changed. Worlds changed. So what's this mean practically? Being part of Christ's kingdom changes how we make everyday decisions. It means we operate by a different value system. When our culture says success is wealth and status, kingdom citizens measure success by faithfulness and service. Something, know who exemplifies this perhaps more than anybody else is our deacons at this church. Faithfully serving. None of this would happen without them. Coming here early. Kay Lynn, you're incredible. Have you guys noticed her back there? Everybody say hi to Kay Lynn. Hi Kay Lynn. Incredible. None of this happens without her. Made new kingdom. Saint of God. Royal priest. It means we have different priorities. We invest our time and talents and treasures, not primarily for earthly comfort, but for eternal impact. Solely is a good example of this. I don't know if you know this, but you're pastors, we don't get paid a ton. It's part of our model. Because we're not chasing the earthly things, guys. I'm not patting myself on the back. I'm saying that Christ has transformed me. And I love Him. And I'll do whatever it takes. Different priorities. My investments are not here. They're in heaven. It means we recognize different authorities. When laws and cultural pressures conflict with the Christ commands, our allegiance is clear. Our allegiance is to Christ. Peter in Acts 5, we're reminded this as he's preaching, right? Peter in Acts 5, we must obey God rather than man. If we're still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ, is what Peter says. I mean, there's examples of replete in our culture, you know, when your company expects unethical practices to maximize profits. Your kingdom citizenship guides your response. When political polarization demands our ultimate loyalty, our higher allegiances to Christ's kingdom, it helps us to maintain perspective. At the law firm, I bumped into this all the time. All the time. I worked at a really prestigious law firm in Santa Monica, and I worked alongside a woman, she was fantastic. And she was a lesbian. And she would come in to, guys, I just lived by Christ's principles faithfully. And honestly, I was a hard worker, and I did everything unto the Lord, whether to eat or drink, we do all unto the glory of God. So I was respected in the office, just because of my shared effort. And I loved people. Why did I love people? Made in the image of God, even my friend who's a lesbian, she had a wife. I know who she would come to when she had marital problems. Me. And she'd come into my office and I'd say, I understand what you're saying, but you know God's not going to bless your marriage because you're in sin, this is against God's. I didn't placate the truth at all to her. And she's like, I understand that's what you believe, but could you just give me some advice? So I'd pull out my Bible, I'd open it to a section, I'd hand it to her, and we'd go through, I'd give her some practical advice and communication skills through the word of God. And now now fast forward five years, haven't been at the law firm for five or six years. All of a sudden she texts me out of the blue. She says, hey John, can you call me? Sure, so I just called, do you remember this? I just called her right away, and she's like, oh my gosh, you're really busy, I didn't think you'd call me right up. Because I love you, because you made an image of God. What's going on? And she says, well, I'm really concerned. She goes on to explain that her youngest son has autism, severe autism, so he takes everything very literally. She says, my son has come home from school and he says he's a Christian, and I'm terrified. And she says to me, this breaks my heart, she says to me, I'm so fearful that my son is going to read the Bible and come to hate me because of my sexual identity. John, would you be willing to meet with him and read the Bible with him? Yeah? Right? You see what happened though? It stats way back where it's like living consistently, where the world is going to tell us that you're going to be punished and persecuted because of your beliefs. I'm not saying that's not going to happen, but because I was faithful, because I was honoring Christ, it opened up doors that never would have been opened up. And who knows what's going to happen? Christ's followers who make up his kingdom, they honor him as Lord of hosts and the King of kings, and they utter in their daily prayers, may your kingdom come, may your will be done. You see, Jesus, he didn't rise from the dead merely to give us a ticket to heaven. He rose to establish his kingdom. And he did so, and he uses us as citizens here and now. It stats now. We're priests. The Old Testament priests mediated between God and man. Well, now we have direct access to God. We're called to intercede and to worship and to proclaim his name. Being priests in our daily lives means that we're at work. We represent God to our colleagues and our clients through integrity, excellence, and compassion. We also represent our colleagues to God through prayer and intercession. In our families, we create spaces to encounter God through prayer, scripture reading, and spiritual conversations. We intercede for our loved ones, again, through prayer. And in our communities, we stand in the gap between human need and divine provision being channels of God's grace through service and witness. I mean, consider with me the parent who prays over his children every night. That parent, that mom and that dad, they're functioning as a priest. The business person who conducts deals with integrity, even when it costs them, they're functioning as a priest. The neighbor who serves the suffering and points them to Christ, they're functioning as a priest. So this Easter, remember, the risen Christ didn't just save you. He ordained you. The empty tomb is your commissioning ground. And it ends our time here with all glory belongs to him. Our salvation is not for our own glory, but for his Easter is the ultimate display of his dominion. He reigns forever. You see, I'm wrapping up here. That's like promised, just like a paragraph. No more swiping. Revelation 1, 4 through 6 reminds us that Easter, it's not just a historical event. It is that, but it's more. It's a cosmic reality that everything changed. And in it, everything changes. Jesus is the faithful witness that the risen firstborn, the reigning king, and he's freed us by his blood, made us a kingdom and called us as priests. And this is who we dine with at this table. This is who we meet here every weekend. It's so good. So guys, as we approach Easter, let's not merely celebrate. Let's respond. Let's worship the Lamb who is slain, who now reigns forevermore. Amen. Father, I thank you for your word. In Jesus' name, amen.