Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
This verse appears in the context of having to stand before the judgement seat of Christ and give an account. We know that our bodies are mortal and that we will eventually have to fold up these tents and move into our eternal dwellings. But this does not mean that it doesn’t matter what we do while we are in the body. We will give an account for what we did while in these earthly vessels. There have been those who teach that the body does not matter, everything is purely spiritual, and so we can do whatever we want with our bodies. But the body belongs to the Lord. He has purchased us, including our earthly bodies, at a great price. So our bodies belong to God and are not to be used for selfish and sinful desires. The body is for the Lord, not for pleasure. Those who live in the body only for pleasure will have to give an account to the Creator for squandering His gifts. So as we remember the death of Christ we must think about the fact that our lives are not our own, to do as we please, but we have been purchased by the body and blood of Jesus. And eventually we must all stand before the Lord who purchased us. We want that day to be one of glory and salvation instead of condemnation and sorrow.
The reality of the coming judgment should be sobering and could be fearful. When our physical bodies and the rest of this physical cosmos have all melted away, we will stand before the Lord naked and completely exposed as we really are. There will be no place to hide from the Lord on the Day of Judgment. Many people spend their whole lives attempting to hide from God, just as the parents of the human race did after they sinned and realized that they were naked. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, a woefully inadequate covering. And so men and women still try to cover themselves, hiding their shame and nakedness. We cover ourselves with material things, entertainment, careers, education, and all of the pleasures and distractions an affluent society has to offer. Not all of these things are inherently wicked. But people use these things to hide from God. Even morality and religion can be a man-made covering designed to make us feel that when we stand before God we will not be completely naked and ashamed. At least we have been nice, decent folks! But all of our righteousness is like filthy rags in God’s presence. The only covering that God will find acceptable is the righteousness that He Himself will provide. And this righteousness cannot be earned, it must be imputed through faith in God’s only Son. Jesus died so that we could be clothed with the very righteousness of God and stand in His presence without any shame.
Being able to stand in the presence of God without shame or fear, having been completely accepted by Him, is to be reconciled. Because we have been reconciled through the death of Christ, we do not have to fear being condemned at the Judgment. This reconciliation was accomplished by Christ on the cross. Instead of just writing off the human race and destroying us as our sins deserved, God sent His own Son to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It was sin that separated us from God and even created enmity. We were all enemies of God, alienated by sin. We are hostile to God by nature, not wanting to submit to God. And we know that it never goes well for those personalities who choose to rebel against the living God! Satan and all of his demonic hosts were cast out of heaven and await the Day of Judgement and the Lake of Fire without any hope of being reconciled. But in His infinite wisdom God has devised means by which those sons of Adam and daughters of Eve who are estranged from Him might be reconciled! Even the angels who are still in heaven have never seen anything like the reconciliation that God has made through Jesus and they desire to look into these things that we remember at the Lord’s Table!
Having been reconciled through the death of Christ we now live for Him. Being reconciled to God means we are at peace with Him instead of being hostile to His will. Before we were reconciled we wanted to go our own way and live for ourselves, not for God. And for those who have not received this reconciliation that God offers in Christ, they still live in opposition to God’s will and are therefore alienated from Him in their minds because of their sinful deeds. These sinful deeds do not have to amount to murder or the base desires of the Flesh. Many of those who are alienated from God might seem moral and may even be religious! But they are not living to please the Lord. The Lord and His will are not the primary thoughts in their minds. They are living for themselves and perhaps they add the Christian religion to their lives just to insure their personal happiness and development. But those who have been truly reconciled no longer think of themselves in this way. We have not been reconciled to God so that we can then just go on our way to live as we please, still separated from God. We have been reconciled to God so that we can have fellowship with Him and can participate in His purpose and work. And so the Lord’s Table reminds us that we are to live for the One who died for us.
We must continue to appropriate the reconciliation that Jesus died to accomplish. To appropriate means to make it your own possession. When we appropriate food we ingest that food so that the nutrition is able to benefit our bodies. I think it is for this very reason that the Lord gave us something to eat in order to remember Him. We must personally appropriate the body and blood of the Lord, which is done through faith, so that His death actually benefits us personally. There are those who teach the doctrine of universalism – that everyone will automatically be saved – and they ignore the fact that the death of Christ must be personally appropriated. No one can be reconciled who does not personally receive the reconciliation. The reconciliation has been accomplished. Now you and I must actually be reconciled to God! Let us not just talk about reconciliation, as if it is some intellectual abstraction. Let’s actually be reconciled and appropriate this peace with God! There are many people who long to have that inner peace but who continue to refuse to appropriate the reconciliation that God offers the world through the death of Christ. But no one will have the peace of God until they have peace with God. As we come today to remember the death of Christ, let us be reconciled to God!
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Revelation: The Gospel of the Kingdom (Revelation 1.4-6; 5.6-10; 11.15; 19.11-16)
Introduction
There is no book in the Bible like Revelation. No other book has created such conflict and confusion in the Church, even though it is, ironically, A REVELATION! A revelation means that something is being revealed not concealed. So this book should make something clear. Yet this book seldom clarifies anything and I think I know why: most people get caught up in the details and miss the message of the book of Revelation. What is the central message or theme of this book? What is the one truth that is being revealed in Revelation? The theme of the book of Revelation is the current reign of Christ.
You will notice I did say the CURRENT reign of Christ not the FUTURE reign of Christ. That is on purpose. I am making an intentional distinction here and am also leaving behind some of the more popular interpretations of the book. It is usual for interpreters of Revelation to treat this book as if everything in it is for the future. Certainly there are things in Revelation that have not happened yet. But this book is not just about the so-called End Times and much of the misunderstanding has come from reading Revelation as a graphic novel about the end of the world.
We seem to have something in our nature that gravitates toward doom and gloom. People are fascinated by the so-called Apocalypse – a word that has completely changed its meaning in modern usage. Apocalypse is actually the word for a revelation and had very little to do with the end of the world, though that is mentioned in the book of Revelation. But that is not the theme. The true Apocalypse or Revelation is not the end of the world, it is the Kingdom of Christ. Revelation is not about the end of something but about the beginning of something. This book is not doom and gloom at all, it is a book of good news and glorious hope – IF we will submit to what God is doing. The only scary stuff in Revelation is for those who will not submit to the reign of Christ. For those who do bow the knee to Christ, in anticipation of every knee bowing, the book of Revelation is the good news of the Kingdom of God!
The Gospel of the Kingdom is not a new theme. Jesus preached the Kingdom. The book of Revelation is not revealing any completely new doctrine. This is a vision designed to inspire hope. To inspire this hope the book of Revelation is helping us to see something that is otherwise unseen.
Modern science has helped us to see things we could not see. With the help of electron microscopes we have seen into the fascinating and surprising world of atomic particles. These were things so small they could not be seen by past generations. The Hubble telescope has helped us see deeper and deeper into space and revealed new galaxies, stars, and even planets. These wonders were previously too vast and far away to see. The tiny subatomic world has always been there. The vast celestial worlds have always been holding their cosmic dance. But we could not see these things until now.
There is more to reality than meets the eye. This is one of the enduring lessons of the book of Revelation. This book opens a door into another world. There is a higher reality we have not been privileged to see. But now someone from that World has opened the Door and invited us to follow Him in!
What John saw was a revelation of Jesus Christ. This was not just a revelation that Jesus gave to John, although that was certainly the case, this is a revelation of Jesus Himself. But the Christ John saw on the Isle of Patmos is not the humble carpenter who walked the shores of Galilee. This is Jesus, the same Jesus who was crucified and raised from the dead, but He has changed. He has ascended. He is in His glory not His humility. The days of His humility have ended.
The book of Revelation picks up where the Gospels and the first chapter of Acts end – He ascended into Heaven. He has begun to reign. That is the revelation of Revelation!
This revelation of the current reign of Christ in heaven is in the form of a vision. This vision is given in a series of ever-enlarging cycles, each cycle consisting of the same structure or pattern. The book of Revelation is a single revelation. There is a unity in the book. It is not a series of revelations, it is a single revelation given in a widening and expanding cycle of visions, all of which relate to this central theme of the reign of Christ. The book is cyclical, not linear or chronological. The same territory is covered multiple times as the cycles keep spinning, each time the scope of the vision getting larger and larger.
The vision unfolds in a series of 4 cycles, each cycle consisting of 7 objects: 1. 7 Churches, 2. 7 Seals, 3. 7 Trumpets, and finally, 4. 7 Bowls. The theme is the Kingdom of Christ. Each cycle gives a slightly different perspective of this theme:
·The 7 Churches show us that the Kingdom is being established on earth in the Church.
·The 7 Seals show us that the Kingdom is being established in heaven by the Lamb seated on the Throne.
·The 7 Trumpets show that the Kingdom is being established even in the midst of conflict with rival kingdoms.
·The 7 Bowls show that the Kingdom is being established by God’s judgment.
Each of the 4 cycles have a similar internal structure containing the following 3 elements: 1. the revelation of enemies that are in opposition to God and to His people in the world. 2. God judges these enemies and destroys the opposition to Christ and His People. 3. The Kingdom is established, and the Saints overcome and reign with Christ.
In human warfare historians can often point to certain battles that were turning points that determined the outcome of the war. In the American Civil War there was a turning point at the Battle of Gettysburg when Pickett’s charge failed to break the Union lines. At that point the tide had turned in favor of the Union and against the Confederacy. In the Second World War the Allies hit the beaches at Normandy to invade Hitler’s European defenses. When a beachhead was finally established, the tide had effectively turned against Germany in favor of the Allies. In both of these examples the war did not end with these battles and there was much more conflict to follow. But there was a decisive moment when the war was all but over.
The book of Revelation shows us a Cosmic Conflict. But the outcome of this conflict has already been decided by a decisive turning point. That turning point was the Ascension of Christ into Heaven and His subsequent enthronement at God’s Right Hand. There will be more conflict before the End but the outcome is not in question: God is setting up a Kingdom in which His Christ will reign forever!
I. At the present time there are rival kingdoms in conflict with Christ’s Kingdom.
The cycles of Revelation culminate in the New Creation when all opposition to God and His Christ is removed forever. But at the present time the enemies have not been removed. What we are seeing is the wisdom of God being displayed in that God is working out His eternal purpose in the very presence of opposition.
In Revelation the enemies of God and His people are unmasked for us to see. Behind the scenes is a vast network of spiritual darkness that has for most of human history exercised its dominion over the world. Under the influence of these invisible forces of evil, the world has set itself in opposition to God and His reign.
The very idea that people are free to do what they want is laughable when we consider the fact that Satan has successfully deceived the entire world into joining his cosmic rebellion against God.
There are a couple of prophetic, Messianic Psalms often quoted by New Testament authors that perfectly expound the message of the book of Revelation. These Psalms are not quoted in Revelation, but the ideas are woven through the visions of the book:
Psalm 2:
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me,
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 110:
The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
Both of these Psalms prophecy the reign of God’s Christ IN SPITE OF THE WORLD’S OBJECTIONS! The role of Christ is something God has given to Jesus. The World did not vote for Jesus as their King. In fact, the world voted AGAINST Jesus! But this does not change the decree of the Lord one bit! Jesus is still the King in spite of all the raging and opposition of the World, which is still going on today.
And God has chosen to bring His chosen people through this world of opposition. Jesus had to come through this world of opposition on His way to Glory, and so do the Saints! Faith must be tested by opposition and adversity just as gold must be refined by fire or an athlete’s body must be strengthened by being afflicted in training. God is using the wicked world to perfect the faith of the Saints.
The World seems to be raging out of control, but it isn’t. God sets limits for the World just as He does for the waves of the sea. Even Satan is God’s Devil and can go no further than the length of the leash God measures for him. The World is afraid that we are going to destroy ourselves, blowing ourselves away in some self-inflicted, fiery cataclysm. Perhaps someone will finally push the nuclear button!! It is a fear depicted in a hundred Hollywood screenplays. The book of Revelation assures us that this world will stand until God accomplishes His purpose and He will dispose of it in His own good time.
II. God is currently demonstrating that Christ’s Kingdom is the absolute authority and cannot be successfully opposed.
The fact is that God has always had a Kingdom because He has always been God. While there may be personalities in the universe who are in rebellion against God or who do not acknowledge God this in no way threatens the reign of God. Every personality must eventually acknowledge and submit to God’s rule, even if forced to submit against their will – which never results in a blessing.
When John saw a door opened in heaven and was invited into the heavenly realm, the first thing John saw was the Throne of God. Jesus first addresses the Church which is in the earth. But the rest of this vision will be given from a heavenly perspective.
To orient us to the heavenly realm we are taken directly to the center of all reality, which is the Throne of God. John saw a throne with someone sitting on it. The Throne is not empty – God is ruling and reigning! This Throne is never vacant and so the Kingdom of God is eternal. Nothing is out of control because God is seated on His Throne, in spite of all appearances to the contrary down here on earth. We must come up higher and see things from the Throne.
John also sees that the Lamb is seated there in the Throne with God. The heavenly worship is directed at the Lamb just as it is directed at the One seated on the Throne. And it is the Lamb who takes the scroll from the One seated on the Throne – taking charge of the purpose of God and unveiling it for us to see. And so the Throne of God and the Lamb is the central fact of John’s Revelation.
The vision of the Throne is the theological center of the book of Revelation. I would even go as far as to say that the Throne of God, which was seen by other men in Scripture before John saw it, is the most foundational truth in all Biblical revelation. God is on His Throne! Is there any personality in heaven or on earth who can move God from His Throne or defy His righteous reign? This book of Revelation will show us that there are those personalities, including men, who will actually try to oppose God. Their failure will be complete and their ruin beyond repair.
Everyone trusts in some absolute – something that they deem to be firm, solid, reliable, and maybe even immutable. We build on lives on what we believe to be absolute. Everyone deals in absolutes, just not the same absolutes. And eventually all of our absolutes will be tested to see if they are everything we believe them to be. Some folks are going to be eternally disappointed! Many of the things people have trusted in all their lives will evaporate underneath their feet, leaving nothing but the yawning chasm of death and eternal despair.
But our Absolute is the Throne of God! “A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary” (Jeremiah 17.12). The Saints will never be disappointed because we have trusted in God’s eternal Throne as our place of sanctuary.
John’s vision into the Heavenly courts is meant to drive home the fact that the Heavenly realm is always superior to the Earthly realm. Heaven rules Earth. Heaven always trumps Earth. Heaven is the real place, the main place.
Heaven is the control-room for the earth and that is where the Savior has gone on our behalf! If you want to make sense out of the earthly realm you must go up into the heavenly realm. The view from the mountaintop is always the clearest.
This is why we must always live from the top down, never basing our understanding of life with the earth foremost in our vision. Until we get this order right – heaven comes first and earth a distant second – we will never live rightly. So it goes with most people in our society.
Too many people are like Nebuchadnezzar, strutting around on his palace like a rooster, boasting and puffed up with pride. It took Nebuchadnezzar seven years of theological training to get his perspective corrected so that he finally acknowledged that the heavens do rule. Many people never learn this lesson. I hope we can learn humility faster than old Nebuchadnezzar, and without eating all that disgusting grass!
Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand! That hand will either squash you into powder or exalt you in eternal glory. God’s people are those who have learned to humbly pray “our Father who art in Heaven.” And then “Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
III. Jesus is currently in Heaven so that He can be both Priest and King.
In the Tabernacle there was a veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. This is an illustration of the separation between the earth, where we dwell, and Heaven, where God dwells. Once a year on the Day of Atonement the High Priest would go beyond the veil into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies to intercede for the people. In the same way Christ, our Great High Priest, has passed beyond the Veil separating Heaven and earth and is now in the presence of God. This is the meaning of the Ascension. Some modern people find it almost ridiculous, as if Jesus blasted off like a rocket into space. But Heaven is not a part of this creation and could not be reached in a spaceship.
Jesus passed beyond this creation into the presence of God. Heaven is the presence of God. Jesus had to go back into Heaven for our salvation to be complete. His work on earth is finished, but His work, or ministry, in Heaven is ongoing.
Jesus has assumed the role of the High Priest. His earthly sacrifice would have meant nothing unless He entered into the Heavenly Places.
Presently, He is our Intercessor in Heaven in behalf of the Saints who are still sojourning in the hostile World. The book of Hebrews lays out this doctrine, which was prefigured in the Law and especially in the mysterious Melchizedek, who was both a king and a priest. Jesus has also assumed the role of King and Priest.
The book of Revelation shows us Jesus the High Priest from the very beginning of John’s vision:
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. (Revelation 1:12-16)
Jesus appears to John as a glorified priest who is walking in the midst of the Churches. Jesus’ first order of business is to minister to the needs of the Churches. As it turns out the Church is very much in need of this High Priest as there were all kinds of deficiencies found by the searching eyes of the Lord. While the Church is still in the world she needs a good priest because the world is a place of separation, impurity, and temptation. Our High Priest knows exactly what it is like to be in the world and to be handicapped by the weakness and limitations of the Flesh and to even be tempted by the Devil. So Jesus is perfectly qualified to be our High Priest. And since He is in heaven He is no longer limited by the Flesh and can minister to His Church in the World without the restrictions of time and space. Jesus is there to make sure we get all of the grace we require to overcome the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
There is an excellent illustration of Christ’s intercessory ministry in the life of the Apostle Peter. We remember how confident Peter was in his ability to follow Jesus even unto death. But Jesus knew that Peter was not as strong as Peter thought he was. Jesus said to Peter:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”(Luke 22:31-32)
We learn from Peter’s overconfidence that it is our tendency to think we can do more than we can actually do. We overestimate our natural strength and ability and therefore we sometimes think we can do things on our own. But there are all kinds of things we cannot do for ourselves and we have to get some help. All of us have been in the position of being blessed by someone’s help. If this is true on a carnal level, then how much more is it true when fighting the good fight of faith! We have to have help from our Great High Priest or we won’t make it through the world with our faith intact. Jesus is praying for you, that your faith will not fail as you sojourn through the world!
Conclusion
Jesus went back to Heaven to be our High Priest. When the intercession is over, the High Priest will come out of the Holy of Holies. Jesus will appear. The veil that separates heaven and earth will be torn asunder and every eye will see Him.
He is not coming back to earth to reign or to fight any enemies. He has already defeated all the enemies and He has already received the Kingdom from His Father. But when He appears every knee will have to bow and every tongue will have to confess that He is Lord. His appearing will mark the end of the Old Order and the fullness of the New Creation in which Heaven and Earth will be one.
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnificent story The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is a king who has not yet ascended to the throne. First, Aragorn must fight many battles and win the war against the Dark Lord’s forces. But when Frodo and Sam reach Mount Doom, and the terrible ring of power is cast into the fire, the Enemy is utterly defeated. Aragorn has no more enemies to fight and returns to his city victorious. But Aragorn must then assume the role of a Healer, restoring his people who had been afflicted with the evil weapons and dark magic of the Enemy. And so when the King returns the people discover that he is not only their victorious Lord but also the only one who can bring healing and restoration. A victorious king who is also a healer!
The Lord Jesus is not coming back to fight another battle, but to bring healing to everything touched by the curse of sin and death. Contrary to what many people think the book of Revelation teaches, the Lord Jesus is not coming back to fight. The world itself will not be able to stand the glory of His appearing. Jesus does not have to fight, He just has to show up and it is all over! He has already won the battle and He could not have been exalted into Heaven if He had not overcome all of His enemies. There is no more enemy for Jesus to defeat when He comes, just the final casting away of everything and everyone that does not belong in the New Creation.
Ultimately, the home of the Saints is the New Earth that John saw. In this New Creation the two realms of Heaven and Earth are merged together and the Saints will reign forever while living in the fullness of the Divine Presence, even seeing the face of God. When that happens then the Kingdom of God will have come in all its fullness.
The Kingdom of God has already invaded and we are awaiting the final stage of God’s eternal purpose. In the meantime we are living in that uncomfortable and sometimes painful period of time in between the Ages. The Wheat and the Tares are still growing together.
I have always enjoyed canoeing and whitewater rafting on rivers. The idea is to slip your boat into the stream and let the current carry you down the river. It takes very little work to go downstream. Trying to paddle against the current is exceedingly difficult and takes tremendous strength and stamina, even on a small river. As long as we are in the Flesh we must paddle upstream, against the current of this present, evil World. There are powerful forces pressing against us. But our King can bring us through. So hold on to Jesus and learn to rest in His everlasting arms.
There is no book in the Bible like Revelation. No other book has created such conflict and confusion in the Church, even though it is, ironically, A REVELATION! A revelation means that something is being revealed not concealed. So this book should make something clear. Yet this book seldom clarifies anything and I think I know why: most people get caught up in the details and miss the message of the book of Revelation. What is the central message or theme of this book? What is the one truth that is being revealed in Revelation? The theme of the book of Revelation is the current reign of Christ.
You will notice I did say the CURRENT reign of Christ not the FUTURE reign of Christ. That is on purpose. I am making an intentional distinction here and am also leaving behind some of the more popular interpretations of the book. It is usual for interpreters of Revelation to treat this book as if everything in it is for the future. Certainly there are things in Revelation that have not happened yet. But this book is not just about the so-called End Times and much of the misunderstanding has come from reading Revelation as a graphic novel about the end of the world.
We seem to have something in our nature that gravitates toward doom and gloom. People are fascinated by the so-called Apocalypse – a word that has completely changed its meaning in modern usage. Apocalypse is actually the word for a revelation and had very little to do with the end of the world, though that is mentioned in the book of Revelation. But that is not the theme. The true Apocalypse or Revelation is not the end of the world, it is the Kingdom of Christ. Revelation is not about the end of something but about the beginning of something. This book is not doom and gloom at all, it is a book of good news and glorious hope – IF we will submit to what God is doing. The only scary stuff in Revelation is for those who will not submit to the reign of Christ. For those who do bow the knee to Christ, in anticipation of every knee bowing, the book of Revelation is the good news of the Kingdom of God!
The Gospel of the Kingdom is not a new theme. Jesus preached the Kingdom. The book of Revelation is not revealing any completely new doctrine. This is a vision designed to inspire hope. To inspire this hope the book of Revelation is helping us to see something that is otherwise unseen.
Modern science has helped us to see things we could not see. With the help of electron microscopes we have seen into the fascinating and surprising world of atomic particles. These were things so small they could not be seen by past generations. The Hubble telescope has helped us see deeper and deeper into space and revealed new galaxies, stars, and even planets. These wonders were previously too vast and far away to see. The tiny subatomic world has always been there. The vast celestial worlds have always been holding their cosmic dance. But we could not see these things until now.
There is more to reality than meets the eye. This is one of the enduring lessons of the book of Revelation. This book opens a door into another world. There is a higher reality we have not been privileged to see. But now someone from that World has opened the Door and invited us to follow Him in!
What John saw was a revelation of Jesus Christ. This was not just a revelation that Jesus gave to John, although that was certainly the case, this is a revelation of Jesus Himself. But the Christ John saw on the Isle of Patmos is not the humble carpenter who walked the shores of Galilee. This is Jesus, the same Jesus who was crucified and raised from the dead, but He has changed. He has ascended. He is in His glory not His humility. The days of His humility have ended.
The book of Revelation picks up where the Gospels and the first chapter of Acts end – He ascended into Heaven. He has begun to reign. That is the revelation of Revelation!
This revelation of the current reign of Christ in heaven is in the form of a vision. This vision is given in a series of ever-enlarging cycles, each cycle consisting of the same structure or pattern. The book of Revelation is a single revelation. There is a unity in the book. It is not a series of revelations, it is a single revelation given in a widening and expanding cycle of visions, all of which relate to this central theme of the reign of Christ. The book is cyclical, not linear or chronological. The same territory is covered multiple times as the cycles keep spinning, each time the scope of the vision getting larger and larger.
The vision unfolds in a series of 4 cycles, each cycle consisting of 7 objects: 1. 7 Churches, 2. 7 Seals, 3. 7 Trumpets, and finally, 4. 7 Bowls. The theme is the Kingdom of Christ. Each cycle gives a slightly different perspective of this theme:
·The 7 Churches show us that the Kingdom is being established on earth in the Church.
·The 7 Seals show us that the Kingdom is being established in heaven by the Lamb seated on the Throne.
·The 7 Trumpets show that the Kingdom is being established even in the midst of conflict with rival kingdoms.
·The 7 Bowls show that the Kingdom is being established by God’s judgment.
Each of the 4 cycles have a similar internal structure containing the following 3 elements: 1. the revelation of enemies that are in opposition to God and to His people in the world. 2. God judges these enemies and destroys the opposition to Christ and His People. 3. The Kingdom is established, and the Saints overcome and reign with Christ.
In human warfare historians can often point to certain battles that were turning points that determined the outcome of the war. In the American Civil War there was a turning point at the Battle of Gettysburg when Pickett’s charge failed to break the Union lines. At that point the tide had turned in favor of the Union and against the Confederacy. In the Second World War the Allies hit the beaches at Normandy to invade Hitler’s European defenses. When a beachhead was finally established, the tide had effectively turned against Germany in favor of the Allies. In both of these examples the war did not end with these battles and there was much more conflict to follow. But there was a decisive moment when the war was all but over.
The book of Revelation shows us a Cosmic Conflict. But the outcome of this conflict has already been decided by a decisive turning point. That turning point was the Ascension of Christ into Heaven and His subsequent enthronement at God’s Right Hand. There will be more conflict before the End but the outcome is not in question: God is setting up a Kingdom in which His Christ will reign forever!
I. At the present time there are rival kingdoms in conflict with Christ’s Kingdom.
The cycles of Revelation culminate in the New Creation when all opposition to God and His Christ is removed forever. But at the present time the enemies have not been removed. What we are seeing is the wisdom of God being displayed in that God is working out His eternal purpose in the very presence of opposition.
In Revelation the enemies of God and His people are unmasked for us to see. Behind the scenes is a vast network of spiritual darkness that has for most of human history exercised its dominion over the world. Under the influence of these invisible forces of evil, the world has set itself in opposition to God and His reign.
The very idea that people are free to do what they want is laughable when we consider the fact that Satan has successfully deceived the entire world into joining his cosmic rebellion against God.
There are a couple of prophetic, Messianic Psalms often quoted by New Testament authors that perfectly expound the message of the book of Revelation. These Psalms are not quoted in Revelation, but the ideas are woven through the visions of the book:
Psalm 2:
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me,
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 110:
The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
Both of these Psalms prophecy the reign of God’s Christ IN SPITE OF THE WORLD’S OBJECTIONS! The role of Christ is something God has given to Jesus. The World did not vote for Jesus as their King. In fact, the world voted AGAINST Jesus! But this does not change the decree of the Lord one bit! Jesus is still the King in spite of all the raging and opposition of the World, which is still going on today.
And God has chosen to bring His chosen people through this world of opposition. Jesus had to come through this world of opposition on His way to Glory, and so do the Saints! Faith must be tested by opposition and adversity just as gold must be refined by fire or an athlete’s body must be strengthened by being afflicted in training. God is using the wicked world to perfect the faith of the Saints.
The World seems to be raging out of control, but it isn’t. God sets limits for the World just as He does for the waves of the sea. Even Satan is God’s Devil and can go no further than the length of the leash God measures for him. The World is afraid that we are going to destroy ourselves, blowing ourselves away in some self-inflicted, fiery cataclysm. Perhaps someone will finally push the nuclear button!! It is a fear depicted in a hundred Hollywood screenplays. The book of Revelation assures us that this world will stand until God accomplishes His purpose and He will dispose of it in His own good time.
II. God is currently demonstrating that Christ’s Kingdom is the absolute authority and cannot be successfully opposed.
The fact is that God has always had a Kingdom because He has always been God. While there may be personalities in the universe who are in rebellion against God or who do not acknowledge God this in no way threatens the reign of God. Every personality must eventually acknowledge and submit to God’s rule, even if forced to submit against their will – which never results in a blessing.
When John saw a door opened in heaven and was invited into the heavenly realm, the first thing John saw was the Throne of God. Jesus first addresses the Church which is in the earth. But the rest of this vision will be given from a heavenly perspective.
To orient us to the heavenly realm we are taken directly to the center of all reality, which is the Throne of God. John saw a throne with someone sitting on it. The Throne is not empty – God is ruling and reigning! This Throne is never vacant and so the Kingdom of God is eternal. Nothing is out of control because God is seated on His Throne, in spite of all appearances to the contrary down here on earth. We must come up higher and see things from the Throne.
John also sees that the Lamb is seated there in the Throne with God. The heavenly worship is directed at the Lamb just as it is directed at the One seated on the Throne. And it is the Lamb who takes the scroll from the One seated on the Throne – taking charge of the purpose of God and unveiling it for us to see. And so the Throne of God and the Lamb is the central fact of John’s Revelation.
The vision of the Throne is the theological center of the book of Revelation. I would even go as far as to say that the Throne of God, which was seen by other men in Scripture before John saw it, is the most foundational truth in all Biblical revelation. God is on His Throne! Is there any personality in heaven or on earth who can move God from His Throne or defy His righteous reign? This book of Revelation will show us that there are those personalities, including men, who will actually try to oppose God. Their failure will be complete and their ruin beyond repair.
Everyone trusts in some absolute – something that they deem to be firm, solid, reliable, and maybe even immutable. We build on lives on what we believe to be absolute. Everyone deals in absolutes, just not the same absolutes. And eventually all of our absolutes will be tested to see if they are everything we believe them to be. Some folks are going to be eternally disappointed! Many of the things people have trusted in all their lives will evaporate underneath their feet, leaving nothing but the yawning chasm of death and eternal despair.
But our Absolute is the Throne of God! “A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary” (Jeremiah 17.12). The Saints will never be disappointed because we have trusted in God’s eternal Throne as our place of sanctuary.
John’s vision into the Heavenly courts is meant to drive home the fact that the Heavenly realm is always superior to the Earthly realm. Heaven rules Earth. Heaven always trumps Earth. Heaven is the real place, the main place.
Heaven is the control-room for the earth and that is where the Savior has gone on our behalf! If you want to make sense out of the earthly realm you must go up into the heavenly realm. The view from the mountaintop is always the clearest.
This is why we must always live from the top down, never basing our understanding of life with the earth foremost in our vision. Until we get this order right – heaven comes first and earth a distant second – we will never live rightly. So it goes with most people in our society.
Too many people are like Nebuchadnezzar, strutting around on his palace like a rooster, boasting and puffed up with pride. It took Nebuchadnezzar seven years of theological training to get his perspective corrected so that he finally acknowledged that the heavens do rule. Many people never learn this lesson. I hope we can learn humility faster than old Nebuchadnezzar, and without eating all that disgusting grass!
Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand! That hand will either squash you into powder or exalt you in eternal glory. God’s people are those who have learned to humbly pray “our Father who art in Heaven.” And then “Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
III. Jesus is currently in Heaven so that He can be both Priest and King.
In the Tabernacle there was a veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. This is an illustration of the separation between the earth, where we dwell, and Heaven, where God dwells. Once a year on the Day of Atonement the High Priest would go beyond the veil into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies to intercede for the people. In the same way Christ, our Great High Priest, has passed beyond the Veil separating Heaven and earth and is now in the presence of God. This is the meaning of the Ascension. Some modern people find it almost ridiculous, as if Jesus blasted off like a rocket into space. But Heaven is not a part of this creation and could not be reached in a spaceship.
Jesus passed beyond this creation into the presence of God. Heaven is the presence of God. Jesus had to go back into Heaven for our salvation to be complete. His work on earth is finished, but His work, or ministry, in Heaven is ongoing.
Jesus has assumed the role of the High Priest. His earthly sacrifice would have meant nothing unless He entered into the Heavenly Places.
Presently, He is our Intercessor in Heaven in behalf of the Saints who are still sojourning in the hostile World. The book of Hebrews lays out this doctrine, which was prefigured in the Law and especially in the mysterious Melchizedek, who was both a king and a priest. Jesus has also assumed the role of King and Priest.
The book of Revelation shows us Jesus the High Priest from the very beginning of John’s vision:
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. (Revelation 1:12-16)
Jesus appears to John as a glorified priest who is walking in the midst of the Churches. Jesus’ first order of business is to minister to the needs of the Churches. As it turns out the Church is very much in need of this High Priest as there were all kinds of deficiencies found by the searching eyes of the Lord. While the Church is still in the world she needs a good priest because the world is a place of separation, impurity, and temptation. Our High Priest knows exactly what it is like to be in the world and to be handicapped by the weakness and limitations of the Flesh and to even be tempted by the Devil. So Jesus is perfectly qualified to be our High Priest. And since He is in heaven He is no longer limited by the Flesh and can minister to His Church in the World without the restrictions of time and space. Jesus is there to make sure we get all of the grace we require to overcome the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
There is an excellent illustration of Christ’s intercessory ministry in the life of the Apostle Peter. We remember how confident Peter was in his ability to follow Jesus even unto death. But Jesus knew that Peter was not as strong as Peter thought he was. Jesus said to Peter:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”(Luke 22:31-32)
We learn from Peter’s overconfidence that it is our tendency to think we can do more than we can actually do. We overestimate our natural strength and ability and therefore we sometimes think we can do things on our own. But there are all kinds of things we cannot do for ourselves and we have to get some help. All of us have been in the position of being blessed by someone’s help. If this is true on a carnal level, then how much more is it true when fighting the good fight of faith! We have to have help from our Great High Priest or we won’t make it through the world with our faith intact. Jesus is praying for you, that your faith will not fail as you sojourn through the world!
Conclusion
Jesus went back to Heaven to be our High Priest. When the intercession is over, the High Priest will come out of the Holy of Holies. Jesus will appear. The veil that separates heaven and earth will be torn asunder and every eye will see Him.
He is not coming back to earth to reign or to fight any enemies. He has already defeated all the enemies and He has already received the Kingdom from His Father. But when He appears every knee will have to bow and every tongue will have to confess that He is Lord. His appearing will mark the end of the Old Order and the fullness of the New Creation in which Heaven and Earth will be one.
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnificent story The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is a king who has not yet ascended to the throne. First, Aragorn must fight many battles and win the war against the Dark Lord’s forces. But when Frodo and Sam reach Mount Doom, and the terrible ring of power is cast into the fire, the Enemy is utterly defeated. Aragorn has no more enemies to fight and returns to his city victorious. But Aragorn must then assume the role of a Healer, restoring his people who had been afflicted with the evil weapons and dark magic of the Enemy. And so when the King returns the people discover that he is not only their victorious Lord but also the only one who can bring healing and restoration. A victorious king who is also a healer!
The Lord Jesus is not coming back to fight another battle, but to bring healing to everything touched by the curse of sin and death. Contrary to what many people think the book of Revelation teaches, the Lord Jesus is not coming back to fight. The world itself will not be able to stand the glory of His appearing. Jesus does not have to fight, He just has to show up and it is all over! He has already won the battle and He could not have been exalted into Heaven if He had not overcome all of His enemies. There is no more enemy for Jesus to defeat when He comes, just the final casting away of everything and everyone that does not belong in the New Creation.
Ultimately, the home of the Saints is the New Earth that John saw. In this New Creation the two realms of Heaven and Earth are merged together and the Saints will reign forever while living in the fullness of the Divine Presence, even seeing the face of God. When that happens then the Kingdom of God will have come in all its fullness.
The Kingdom of God has already invaded and we are awaiting the final stage of God’s eternal purpose. In the meantime we are living in that uncomfortable and sometimes painful period of time in between the Ages. The Wheat and the Tares are still growing together.
I have always enjoyed canoeing and whitewater rafting on rivers. The idea is to slip your boat into the stream and let the current carry you down the river. It takes very little work to go downstream. Trying to paddle against the current is exceedingly difficult and takes tremendous strength and stamina, even on a small river. As long as we are in the Flesh we must paddle upstream, against the current of this present, evil World. There are powerful forces pressing against us. But our King can bring us through. So hold on to Jesus and learn to rest in His everlasting arms.
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