When Jesus Shows Up

the little district. And for everyone else, we are starting a new series today. Uh starting a new series called to the church in America. Uh where we'll be looking at the three chapters, the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. Um primarily really looking specifically at the letters to the churches of Revelation. Um but this one's going to be a unique series.

I I I wish I could kind of jump in and do all of Revelation. Uh, but I kind of share a sentiment with one of the greatest theologians, not necessarily of our time, but of the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin, who he wrote a commentary on just about every book of the Bible except for Revelation. And when they asked him, why didn't you write a commentary on Revelation, he commented, "Because I don't understand it." Um, and so I I sort of share that bit of that sentiment. Doesn't mean that we won't ever take a stab at it. We probably will, but uh we are at least going to cover the first three chapters of it.

I also asked I didn't ask specifically a hundred pastors. I asked a few pastors who they thought the greatest theologian of our time, our modern day, at least the last hundred years, who that might be. And many of them said Ji Packer. And I loved I love Packer. Um but he said this about the book of Revelation. is not intended to tickle our fancy or satisfy our curiosity about the future, but to strengthen our faith in the present.

All right, that's a quote from Packer. He goes on to say that misinterpreting revelation leads to anxiety and distraction rather than hope and holiness. And that revelation is not about a timetable, but a throne. Not a timetable, but a throne. Um, John, if you could on my mic. I'm the sound guy, too.

So, um, if you could just tweak the gain down just a little bit. I hear a bit of a ringing. I don't know if you guys hear that or not, but I can hear it a little bit. That's good. Yeah, right there. That's great.

Maybe figure it out. Um, yeah, they always say like the guys in the sound booth never get recognition until something bad happens and then everyone's like, "Fix it." Um, do your job. But here's the big idea for our message for today because today's going to be an introduction into it. So, we're going to be covering uh the majority of chapter 1. And here's the big idea that comes from it.

Jesus is not a concept to consider. Jesus is not a concept to consider. He's a king to trust. Okay. I think our modern day is kind of like dipping their toe into I I'll consider Jesus. I'll think about Jesus.

I'll I like him as an idea. I like him as a concept. I like him as a moral ideology. Maybe he's good enough for improving my life in a better way. I I like his thoughts on helping the poor. I like, you know, we'll we'll consider him as a concept and maybe then apply that to different areas of our life.

Again, he's not a concept to consider. He's a king to trust because the more clearly the more clearly that you see him, revelation, the more fully you'll follow him, transformation. The more clearly you see him, revelation, the more fully you'll follow him. transformation. And so what we're going to see in this study is Jesus is helping us reconnect the dots by having us know the real Jesus who has the power to redeem, to restore, and to renew everything else. And so we're going to dive into it.

And again, just as a heads up, this first chapter is what we call pregnant with truth. All right? There's there's a lot in here for us to to ponder in our hearts and see what the Lord would have us be transformed by. And so my prayer is that it gives it gives birth to just immeasurable understanding for us this morning so that we see Jesus clearly and therefore be transformed by him fully. So Revelation 1, look at the text. We're going to start off in verse one.

the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He Jesus made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. And I want to start with this. Everyone I think has a picture of Jesus kind of in their mind. When you hear Jesus Christ, you picture something.

All right? And it's um I'm I'm typically not like a visual learner, but when I do see something like then it kind of sticks with me, which maybe means that I'm a visual learner. But regardless, when I picture or when I hear Jesus, when I picture Jesus, I think of Jim Cavisel from the Passion of the Christ primarily because when I was in high school was when I got saved, baptized, and started going to church. And that movie came out while I was in high school. And so I picture when I think of Jesus and I know it's not the correct picture but when I think of Jesus I think of Jim Cavisel in that movie where he's kind of stoic and he's quiet and he's contemplative which are true but it's still not the total picture. Maybe some of you who were raised in church your Jesus is gentle, kind, safe, honestly boring but has great hair because they always give them great hair.

Some of you who weren't raised religious maybe like the idea of Jesus just being a good moral character teacher similar to other world religions. He's cool with sinners. He hates the religious. Kind of like a first century Mr. Rogers with sandals. And some, if we're honest, might have struggled with Christianity at first because the Jesus we experienced is from Christians who are judgmental, political, narrow-minded, prejudiced.

And if that's Jesus, then we don't want anything to do with him. But I just want to point out that when we look at Revelation 1, it obliterates all of that. All of that. because none of that really represents the true Jesus. And so what's happening here is in chapter 1, God wants to send a message to John in order to deliver to anyone who's willing to hear exactly who Jesus is and what he wants to accomplish. Just listen to what the book of Revelation is revealing to us because that's what it says.

It is the revelation of Jesus. It's a revealing. The opposite of that would be a concealing. It would be to conceal or to hide. This is to reveal and make known, which is ironic since most people view this book as a mystery, something that we can't understand, something that feels like it's concealed and and hidden, all these different hidden mi mysteries. And I'll just say kind of in in doing a lot of the research on this and the context of it is unfortunately what happens too much is when we read Revelation, we want to take the context of Revelation, not the text of Revelation.

We want to take the context of it and then try to apply it to our context. So when we're looking for all these symbols and imagery, we're like, "Oh, that's what's going on right now in our day and age." And that's not exactly what is going on here. Like again, this isn't a book that's predicting our next election. It's not a book that's predicting how necessarily um the end of times is going to come about when there's this massive earthquake somewhere. Like we that's what I believe ultimately creates so much confusion around Revelation is because we're actually not understanding its original meaning.

We're trying to transport or teleport its context to our context without actually knowing the text in the intended meaning and then applying it to our context. And so we just create more mystery and confusion when we're trying to create this code around it by saying that it's this book of again some sort of prophetic vision for our current context. Now the meaning absolutely is prophetic which is the main reason why we're going to jump into the seven churches and the letters that are written to the seven churches because the intended meaning of what Jesus is wanting those churches to understand about him and about his work and about his purpose and about them and about their work and about their purpose is absolutely timeless. And what I mean by that is where they drift and where he calls them back to is absolutely imperative and important for us when we drift and he calls us back. And so we're able to glean from where these churches were and where they ended up and what he commends and what he confronts and what he ultimately calls back to action.

We are then able to commend things that we are doing as a church, but then to also confront things that we are doing as a church and then to also call to action. And so that'll kind of be the structure that we'll look at over the next coming weeks is a commendation, a confrontation, and a call to action. Every sermon is going to be very similar to kind of that structure and framework. So that as we kick community groups back off in the next couple of weeks, a lot of our discussions are going to be based around this call to action. This is what we've learned about who Jesus is and what he's called us to. And this is also what he is then giving us as a call to action.

How we are to respond to who Jesus is and the purposes that he has created for us. And then are we living those out? Are we believing them? Are we trusting them? Are we actually ordering our lives and orienting our lives around the person and work of Jesus or the person and work of ourselves? What are we doing?

And so that's kind of going to be our road map for the next few weeks as we look at this. But again, we're praying that the book does what the book is intended to do, reveal Jesus to us. That's what we're praying for. All right? And we want the real Jesus. Okay?

We we we don't want the concept to consider. We want the king that we can trust. And so let's keep going in verse four. John to seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth.

And so just kind of snapshot there, Jesus is the faithful witness of who God is, who he was, who he is to come because Jesus himself is God and has been with God for all eternity, past, present, future. Like he's he's a faithful witness because he's always been. At the same time, he's also the firstborn of the dead, meaning he was the first resurrected to glory and will bring to resurrection all who believe in him by faith. He's the firstborn of the dead in regards to that. And then not only that, he's not just the king of the Jews. That was kind of mocked at his crucifixion, but he is the king of kings and he is the lord of lords because he is the ruler of all kings over all the earth.

And the reason why we know that is because he also says it of himself when he's on the mountain and he's giving them the commission right before he ascends into into glory. He tells them, "All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Therefore, listen up. Therefore, get in line. Therefore, obey whatever I'm about to say because he is the ruler of all kings over all the earth. This isn't just some sort of startup organization.

And this isn't some startup ministry. This isn't just some like, hey, let's try some things and see if it works. The the reality is in his context, Jewish historians, even Roman historians say the same thing. There were countless Messiah figures who wrote like rose up in his day, not rose from the dead, but rose up in his day to claim to be the promised messiah who was to come. And they would create kind of followings around themselves. And then when that Messiah figure died, guess what happened?

So did whatever their organization was with them, one after another after another. Jesus on the other hand shows up and is not only the firstborn of the dead and resurrects after he dies but when he ascends and leaves his ministry startup had authority and has changed the world in the last 2,000 years and is continuing to do so because he is the ruler of kings on earth. And then John shares a quick synopsis of of the gospel, the work of Jesus. To him, Jesus who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. This is like a one-s sentence creed that he has adopted from really the the the not only the apostles but just the Christians over the last 60 years because this is written towards the end of the first century. And so this is one of those kind of just creeds that they would continue to say and continue to speak as they were passing down this oral tradition of what Jesus ultimately accomplished in saying he loves us.

And because he loves us, he frees us from our sins. And the way that he freed us from our sins was by his sacrifice at the cross. And and the reason why he's pointing that out is because it's countercultural to not only the the Jewish system that had been established up until that point, which was not a you need a savior to come and forgive you of your sins, but it is a if you do all of these things, you can earn your ticket into heaven or your righteousness and then you will receive the favor of God and you will be accepted. And so you don't have to worry about having your sins forgiven because you can just earn your own righteousness. Same thing with all of the the polytheism of their day and the pagan idolatry of their day and the mythology of their day when it comes to all of the temples and all of the gods and all of the kings that are that are ruling and reigning in that moment. What they are preaching and proclaiming to everybody is essentially this is a survival of the fittest.

If you do enough, understand enough, know enough, you'll be saved or you'll get into heaven. You'll receive righteousness because you've earned your righteousness. So, as long as you're the strongest and not the weakest, you're good to go. You're maturing yourself. But what happens in that belief system when it comes to a survival of the fittest is always at the expense of the weakest. So if you have enough money, those who are poor go to hell and those who with money go to heaven.

If you have enough authority, those with authority go to heaven and those who have no authority are the expense and are cast out. And it becomes an abuse of a system when in reality what he comes to preach and what Jesus ultimately ca came and accomplished for us is a flip of that. The fittest actually enters into our context and at the expense of his riches creates survival for the weakest. The fittest sacrifices himself in order for the weakest to survive and have life. And that's what he's preaching in this moment to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and then made us a kingdom priests to his God and father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

And so John is giving us again a snapshot a snapshot of the credentials of Jesus and why we should listen to whatever it is he's about to reveal to us. And so look at verse seven. And behold, he Jesus is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. And then he finishes with this statement about himself. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Alpha and Omega literally are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Um, but as a phrase means the completeness or fullness of existence from beginning to end. And so it's a phrase in which he would say, I'm God. I'm God. I've always been and I always will be. I'm everywhere at all times in my fullness.

I am the alpha and the omega, the almighty. Now, why is that important? It's important because those who don't see or view Jesus rightly will treat Jesus wrongly. I don't know if wrongly is a word, but those who don't view Jesus rightly will treat Jesus wrongly. Some people who don't know Jesus rightly will say things like, "Well, when I get to heaven, I've got some questions for God. I've got some questions for Jesus.

I got some things I want to say. How could a good do good how could a good God let bad things happen to good people?" Fair question. I always respond to that question saying that's a great question. It's only ever happened one time in all human existence and it was at the cross. Period.

Romans 3 is very clear. There are no good people. No good people. So there's never been a bad thing happened to good people except to Jesus at the cross. But beyond that, we have this posture where we view the world and the events of the the world and then in our finite minds are willing to question God in his infinite wisdom and say why would you or how could you or where were you? and we start kind of viewing him as this um God who doesn't have it all together or who hasn't quite figured it out yet.

When you don't view Jesus rightly, you will create your own concept of Jesus or your own idea of Jesus or your own type of Jesus that you believe you can simply argue with or question whether or not he's actually wise. We'll get up there and we'll say we'll we'll treat Jesus like a manager at Waffle House and say, "We want to speak to the manager here. These eggs weren't cooked right. But God in his patience is kind enough to answer our questions. But there are moments when God reveals himself to us that should cause us to be silent, bow down, and be reverent before him. Like for example, when Job was questioning God at the end of chapter 37 and God answered him in chapter 38, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

What he's essentially saying is when we question God's activity and being and essence and goodness and holiness and perfection and will fill in the blank. When we question God, he's essentially saying you're questioning me without any knowledge. You're questioning me foolishly right now. It doesn't mean that you can't. You read through the Psalms, there's all kinds of honest prayers and honest activity with God, but oftentimes it's not because there's a lack of well, it is because there's a lack of understanding of who God is. And it's more of a view of our current circumstances and reality that we're actually questioning.

But he goes on and says this to Job, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? dress yourself for action like a man, which I I just I love that. It's basically, you want to question me? Well, stand up and take what I'm about to say like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me. Basically saying, I'm going to question you and you you give me a response here.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Tell me if you have understanding. Now in God like God can handle our temper tantrums. God can handle our confusion. God can handle when we pray dumb prayers that Romans 8 tells us the Holy Spirit has to shot block and say, "Keep that one down.

I'm going to interpret and give an actual curt like prayer and send it up." Because Roman, Romans 8 tells us that that there are often times we don't know what to pray for as we ought and so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words. Which thank you Holy Spirit that he does that God can handle our immaturity but that doesn't mean that we should stay there. We need to see God rightly so that when we interact with God, we're interacting with him in a correct way that is actually reverent rather than like my current children view their authority in the household as though they can say whatever they want to say to mommy and daddy and there's not going to be any consequences for it. They don't understand the fullness of honoring your father and mother and being reverent before them and it'll go well with you. You'll live long in your life.

How much more so are we to honor our father and view Jesus rightly and it'll go well for us. In regards to that, listen up. This is one of those revelations where we when we see Jesus clearly, we will respond appropriately. I'll show you as we keep reading. Look at verse nine. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.

Now, I just want to stop there for a moment because he's mentioned John a couple of times. Now, this John is the Apostle John, not the one running our sound booth right now. one of the this is one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus and more than that one of the three close friends of Jesus. You always hear Peter, James and John. Peter, James and John. So Jesus had his followers and then he had his 12 disciples and then inside of the 12 disciples even more access to Jesus and seeing his ministry and closeness and intimacy with him were Peter, James, and John.

John's also the writer of five books of the Bible. You've got the Gospel of John. You've got first, second, and third John. They were very creative in their titling of books. And then you have the book of Revelation, which he didn't get the title because Jesus just said, "This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Write this down."

But he's also referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Now again, that reference is only in the Gospel of John in 1, second, and third John. So he's saying of himself, I am the disciple whom Jesus loved. But we're not saying that's incorrect because it is the inspired word of God. And so there was a closeness and intimacy between this disciple John and Jesus showing just a deep relationship here. Um, and I'll point out why that's important in a moment.

But he's the only disciple to live into old age. meaning this disciple witnessed 11 out of 11 of his fellow apostles and friends tortured and murdered for following Jesus. Now from a collection and I just want to bring this up for a moment from a collection of again scriptural basis as well as church history as well as Jewish and Roman history. Um these are the accounts of what happened to his 11 friends. four of these they're pretty much like this is exactly how it happened. Two to three of them they're like we're about you know about 60 70% sure this is how it happened and and and about the other five or six or so they're like we've heard stories legends that this is how it happened but they're pretty confident um that every single one of them were martyed in this way.

Peter crucified upside down because he didn't believe it would be right for him to be crucified the same way as Jesus. Now, it wasn't his request to be crucified upside down. He requested not to be crucified at all because he didn't want to die the same way Jesus did. And and the the um history goes that they basically said, "Well, we'll prove it to you differently." And it was the Romans who crucified him upside down. James death by the sword.

He was beheaded. Andrew was crucified on an Xshaped cross and preached for two days while hanging there. Philip was either crucified or stoned to death. Bartholomew was flayed before being beheaded. And if you're like, "What do you mean by flay?" It means he was desked while alive and then beheaded.

Matthew also Levi the tax collector was stabbed or speared to death. Thomas was speared to death. James was another James was stoned to death. Thaddius was beaten to death. Simon the Zealot was sawn in half. Uh Matias uh who was the one who replaced Judas was stoned and then beheaded.

We'll throw Paul in here as well. He was beheaded under Emperor Nero in Rome. And then John, who we've come to here, died of old age, but not because he was never attempted to be murdered or tortured. They literally tried killing him by boiling him alive in oil and he survived. Like anybody ever deep fried a turkey at Thanksgiving? Like they did that to him and he survived it.

And so they just thought he's this crazy person. And so the best thing to do with him is to just get rid of him if we can't kill him. And so they exile him to this island. And so here's the thing. I want to bring that up because in view of seeing Jesus rightly, not just a concept to consider. People don't die for something they believe is made up.

People don't die for a lie. They die because they believe it to be true. Now, sure, that can happen in any religion. Muslims are willing to die for what they for Islam, but not because they believe it's a lie. It's because they believe it's true. I say that because then it begs the question, which one is true?

To know which is true, you need to have the truth. And to have the truth, we need revelation of the truth. And that's exactly why the scriptures are provided for us is because God is revealing truth so that we can then be anchored in the truth. And that's one of the biggest reasons why you have these men who were scared and scattering on the night of Jesus's death and crucifixion to then having the truth revealed to them and then witnessing the resurrection of Jesus. changes them and transforms them to now be men who aren't willing to scatter but run into persecution in order to preach and proclaim this Jesus because the confidence they have that he is who he says he is that the truth was actually revealed to them. It molded and shaped everything in their lives to the point that it goes on to say that John, the reason why they even exiled him to Patmas was because he would not stop on account of the word and the testimony of Jesus preaching and proclaiming Jesus.

And so they're like, we got to get him to stop doing this. And so let's just get him away from us and have him go to this island called Patmas on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. And so um the emperor that ultimately exiled him is believed to be the emperor dimmission. And now why is it important that that emperor exiled him was because of that emperor's belief that emperors are divine, emperors are gods. And so a decree that Emperor Deian would would ultimately say is he would request or require that there's this public declaration from all of the people under Roman rule that they are to profess Caesar is Lord. Caesar is Lord.

Sutonius who's a Roman historian even writes that dimmission began his letters dominus etnoster which meant in Latin our lord and our god commands so and so and so in his letters that he would decree out to his people he would start them by saying our lord and god commands self-titling him as lord and god why is that important because what John and what the Christians were doing. We're going around the Roman Empire saying you are required to profess Caesar is Lord. Caesar is not Lord. He is a mere man. Jesus is Lord and that's who we follow. That's who we trust.

That's our king, not this king. And so they were fed up with John declaring this and exile him out. He was not willing to follow the culture, but in his day was being countercultural in showing his allegiance to Jesus. Now, let's pick it up in verse 10. John, while he's on this on this island um in Patmas, he says this, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." Now, charismatics will understand that.

Baptists were trying to catch up to it. Presbyterians aren't even going to touch that. And so we're not we're we're not going to necessarily dive into what he means exactly by the fact that I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. What we will say in regards to that is he's on the Lord's day. He's in a worship gathering. He's in the spirit of God revealing to him this truth.

What we request every single Sunday is that the spirit of God who was sent to guide us in understanding the truth would do that every single time we open up the scriptures. And so you're able then to say the same thing that he's saying is that because we are gathered and the spirit of God is present. We are requesting to be in the spirit of God. Not so that we can run around and dance and do all these crazy things that pull away from the word of God, but rather that it draws us deeper into the word of God to be able to understand exactly what it is that God wants to communicate to us for our transformation. So that when we leave this place, we are able to then transform our societies, to transform our communities because we're bringing the actual essence of what can actually transform. Again, Jesus is not a concept to consider.

He's a king to trust. We are to not go out to just offer concepts for people to consider, but actually offer them a kingdom with a real king who has provided truth to us that shapes and molds the kingdom to be more like Jesus Christ and what he is ultimately creating for us. Let's continue on. And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "Write what you see in a book and then send it to the seven churches." And here's the churches that we're going to be covering. Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thotyra and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Leosa.

Verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And I love this. You remember that picture of Jesus that you had like for me this this obliterates Jim Cavisel. Okay. He doesn't look like this.

This is what Jesus looks like. I turned to the voice that was speaking to me and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands, hold on to that. Remember that. We'll come back to it. 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. And from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When's the last time you tried just looking at the sun? That pels in comparison to looking at Jesus. In other words, you can't look at him long. His reverence, his glory, his radiance. And this is the appropriate response. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

I fell at his feet as though dead. Now, you have to remember something here. This is the same John that the Bible says on the last night before Jesus' death, while they were having the last supper, John reclined against the chest of Jesus. Like, I don't have many friends that I would allow when we're having dinner to recline against my chest. And by by many, I mean any. But this is a closeness and intimacy that John has with Jesus.

But what's amazing and this is why again I think it comes back to this idea of a revelation of Jesus where we mature in our view of him is that the same Jesus that allows us to recline at him is the same Jesus that when we also view him and he reveals himself to us we fall at his feet as though dead. So there is a there is a safness to Jesus where we're able to recline against him, but there's also a severity of Jesus where we should be terrified a little bit. Like we we should tremble as we work out our salvation a little bit. Where we should be a little nervous as to whether or not what he said to us at the end of of Matthew chapter 7 in our sermon on the mount series. Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter into the gates of heaven because I didn't know you. He's the one who possesses those keys.

He's the one who possesses the authority for you to get in or out. There sure therefore we should be a little bit terrified of what Jesus is capable of, of who he gives life to and who he gives eternal death to. too much. Our society wants to view Jesus like the Last Supper. Where it's just safe to recline against him, where it's just safe to argue with him. Don't wash my feet.

Where it's just safe to voice whatever we want to voice against him. And in this moment, there are times when he reveals himself to us and maybe continues lifting that veil and says, "Make sure you view me rightly. Make sure you actually see who I am." And it's going to cause you to fall down, pass out, faint, whatever you want to look at it, as though you were dead. If your view of Jesus does not increase your reverence of Jesus, then it's not Jesus that is the problem. It's you.

It's you. I can show you a picture. Kelsey and I on our um 10th anniversary almost five years ago now, uh four years ago, something like that, doesn't matter. We went to the Grand Canyon. And um this is an actual picture that I took with my phone at the time. And you can look at that picture and there's a point of view that can look at that picture and say that's that's incredible.

That's amazing. But it doesn't do the justice of what I felt in that moment when I'm looking out at this chasm and I'm thinking like one misstep I'm I'm gone. I'm done for. like there was a weight of reverence in that moment. Too much so do we view Jesus like a picture rather than viewing him in his total complete reverence, the visible God. But here's what I love Jesus does when he falls down dead.

Not actually dead. As though dead, he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not. Fear not. I am the first and the last." You're getting me correctly. But fear not.

I'm the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forever more, and I have the keys of death and Hades. So, he's telling John to fear not. This Jesus is different from the Jesus we imagine in the movies, the sitcoms, the paintings. This Jesus, eyes like fire, voice like thunder, face like a sun. Other parts of Revelation say he's got this tattoo on his thigh of a name that no one knows but God.

John, who walked with him for years, sees him, passes out as though he's dead. This Jesus is not a Jesus that you can fit in a box or on an image. This Jesus doesn't follow your agenda. This Jesus is not a genie in a bottle that you can treat every single day. Give me my bread and that's the only thing that you ever talk to him about. Jesus when seen clearly makes you faint in awe and that's a good thing because it's a reverence where he then is comforting us when we view him rightly or in other words as he says similar blessed are you when you're poor in spirit in front of him because you see his holiness and it reveals everything about your unholiness.

You see his perfection and it reveals your imperfection. The reason why he fell as though dead was because he in reality he's witnessing the ultimate essence of life in front of him. And so the actual proper response is to die in view of perfect life because you don't measure up to it. You don't measure up to it. Let's just pause on that for a moment. If you're tired of a faith that feels fake or a faith that feels powerless or a faith that feels performative, you're in the right place at the right time right now because Revelation 1 gives us a picture of a Jesus that is real.

And that calls us to respond by faith, to not die in our circumstances and situations and identities, but to actually find life in him alone. because he holds the keys to that. And that's why again he says at the beginning of this, blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. Blessed is the one who goes around preaching what Jesus is revealing. And blessed are those who hear it and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. So there's the revelation of the real Jesus.

We understand this because you hear me preach and you listen and you learn. But is that it? Is it just me coming up here and preaching so that there's a revelation of Jesus and then you hearing and learning? Is there more to it? What does he mean by those who keep it? because it's not enough for me to just preach it and for you to just hear it.

There must be a keeping of it. And so, let me break something down real quick because I don't want you to walk away with just intellectual ascent that Jesus is Lord. It's not enough for you to just know facts. We need faith that moves us to agreement and trust. And so the Protestant reformers, guys like Martin Luther and John Calvin 500 years ago, they taught that saving faith isn't just believing that God exists. I think that's what a lot of our culture would say.

I believe that there's a God, so I'm okay. I'm okay. It's not just believing that God exists. Instead, it's made up of three things, three Latin phrases or expressions. Noticia, Asentus, and Feducia. They believe that you have to have all three of these categories in order to understand what actual faith in Jesus is.

And noticia is a knowledge. You've got to know facts about Jesus. You've got to know the real biblical Jesus. In other words, you can't go around just saying, "Well, Jesus is inside of me. I'm on this pursuit in this journey of finding the real God. And I'm just going to continue looking inside and seeing what as I perceive reality, as I perceive people and as I perceive events and as I perceive other books and this and that that I'll stumble upon and I'll find the real Jesus.

He'll come out in creation and nature and all these different things. No, that is how you end up worshiping false gods. which are honestly just demons if you want to get down to the brass tax on the matter. We need to know the true Jesus facts about the true Jesus. Secondly, we need to come to an agreement. So when you hear the facts, do you then believe that those facts are true?

Do you agree with reason and rationale? You believe the facts to be true? And then leads to the third one, feducia, which is where we get the idea of fiduciary. Fiducia is a trust. You bank your life on all of it, believing them and following them. You bank your life on I'm allin.

I see the truth. I agree with the truth. And therefore now I'm all in on the truth in the in in in a way that my entire world, my entire my life, my thoughts, my emotions, my heart, my posture, the way I live my life, my relationships, my my resources. I'm banking everything on this thing. And so I'm going to then manage and steward everything around this thing. And when you have all three of those together, they call that sailing faith.

And here's the reality. When we come back to Jesus and Jesus being a revelation of us that is coming to us, we also have to realize that this idea of saving faith is not something that we can just go pluck off the shelves at the grocery store. You know what? I don't have any faith. I just need to go get it. You got to come back and realize that in Ephesians chapter 2, God says that it is a gift of God to us so that no one may boast.

What that means is when you are actually ultimately saved by God, when you are saved, there's not one ounce of your being that gets baptized, resurrected, comes to Jesus, and says, "Man, I'm so glad that I found you. I'm so glad that I walked into church and met you. I'm so glad that I did something. No, no, no, no, no. One boasts. Instead, what we do is we come on the backside of salvation.

We come to God and we say things like, "I'm so glad that I was lost and you found me. I'm so glad that I could not see and you healed me so that I am no longer blind. I'm so glad that you put someone in my path that was either a neighbor or co-orker or whoever it was who invited me to church and then I was revealed the truth when it was preached and proclaimed and then you gave me the ability to be able to by faith be drawn to you and you saved me. You get all the glory for all of it. Not me. I'm not boasting in anything.

I'm just happy that you saved me, Lord, that you forgave me. That whole situation is a saving faith that must happen. But it is going to look like you are responding to the knowledge and the agreement by entrusting your life to him. Let me think about it this way. Last Saturday, I took my sons on a hike through the woods um in Holiday Park and and we actually went down a trail that we we've not not gone down before because I would have seen it when we gone down it. But as we're walking down this trail, we came to this um this tree and it had this I mean 40 50 foot vine hanging off of this tree.

And and you know when you're a boy from Tennessee, you don't see a vine and just walk past it. And so I see this vine and I think, man, I I gotta I got to see if that thing is sturdy enough to see if we can swing on it. And so I do a quick 10-second thorough, you know, yanking on this thing just to make sure it's it's um good to go. And so as a good dad, I say, "Hey, who wants to try this first?" Because I wasn't going to do it first. And so let me show the pictures here.

So here's um Wyatt swinging on the vine. All right. Right. And then we got Ezra also swinging on the vine next just having a blast. And then it comes to Shepherd. And Shepherd's the only rational one in our group.

And so Shepherd's looking at this and he goes, "No." He's like, "I'm not I'm not doing this." I said, "Why not, buddy? You've seen successfully multiple swings and them having a great time." And he's like, "I don't want to do it. I'm scared.

I don't want to do it. And so this is what I did with Shepherd. I said, "Shepherd, I want you to go up. I want you to grab the vine. I want you to hold the vine." I went down to where I could see where he was swinging.

I was right around where that stump is right there. And I said, "Shepherd, I can catch you." He needed a fact. He needed knowledge. I can catch you. And then I asked him the next question.

Do you believe that your dad will catch you? Because I need him to now agree with the facts. But it's not good enough for him to just sit up there. To which he said, "Yes." It's not good enough for him to just sit there and sit and have the facts and then say, "Yes, I believe that you can catch me." Without him actually then letting go and swinging.

too much time we are preaching a message of just knowing facts about Jesus and just believing it to be true without our lives actually swinging into it and like entrusting ourselves to Jesus that what he teaches us and what he's revealing to us actually is shaping and transforming our lives to which the only reason why we don't have a picture of shepherd swinging on the vine is because I couldn't hold it and catch him at the same time. He did end up swinging and I caught him as he was screaming. But one of the beautiful things afterwards was he had a ton of fun and he came up to me afterwards and he said, "Dad," he said, "I I had fun. I was still scared." And let's just be honest, guys, that's still going to be our reality. Faith is not the absence of fear.

Faith is the ability to step into the fear regardless of the circumstances and how it plays out. It's the only reason why right before they were able to cross the Jordan River, they stepped into the fear of this massive Jordan River that's that's overflowing the banks at the time of harvest before they could get into the promised land. They stepped in because they first had Joshua 1:9 that told them to be strong and courageous because there's going to be fear and you're going to need this in order to step into that. The goal of the revelation of Jesus Christ is to inform us knowledge so that it may form our belief agreement and therefore by faith abide trust in Jesus who then conforms us to his image which is making us sons and daughters of him. And when you're a son and daughter of the God of everything, what more do you need? What more do you need?

That's true satisfaction. So again, the big idea, Jesus is not a concept to consider. He's a king to trust. So the last question I'll ask for our intro is this. Why focus on the message to the seven churches? Well, if you remember, I said specifically, don't forget, he says that he's in the midst of the seven churches.

Revelation 1:20 ends with this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. Seven lampstands are the seven churches. Now, I don't know if that means every church gets an angel. That would be awesome. Um, if if it does, the angel to the district church probably looks something like this.

I'm just kidding. Not true. But you can take that down. He probably looks more like, have you seen the movie Angels in the Outfield? You know, where it's just this like it was a terrible baseball team and then they all a sudden start winning. I'm for that kind of angel.

I'm not saying we're a terrible baseball team, but I'm just saying we could use some help. We could use some help. But in verse 13, when you go back to it, it says that Jesus is in the midst of the lambstands um like one son of man again clothed with the robe and and with the golden sash around his chest. The presence of Jesus is among the church, the body of Christ, not apart from it. And so where do I go to find food? I don't go to the closet.

I go to the pantry. Where do we go to find Jesus? Not the culture, but the church. As we work through the seven letters, you're going to hear me talk about two teams. Team Jesus and team Satan. Jesus has a way of doing things on his team.

Satan has a way of doing things on his team. And the earth is where those things are at war. And here's the first play I'll say in regards to team Jesus and team Satan. Jesus is saying, "I'm among the church. So come to it, be a part of it, and devote yourself to it." For 2,000 years, there's never been a belief in church tradition or doctrine that following Jesus is to be done individually and in isolation.

That is not Christianity. But yet, church attendance has been in decline. People deconstructing on the rise. People saying, "I'm a Christian, but don't attend church." is almost normative now. Team Satan has been winning that play.

They don't want you to believe where Jesus is or they don't want you to be where Jesus is. So, he's going to get you to believe something else. And so, there's a modern cultural sentiment right now that has been spreading. I love Jesus, but I hate the church. And maybe that's because of personal negative experiences with the institution of the church or relationships with individual members of the church. I'm not saying that that never happens.

The Bible actually tells us that that happens, that there's divisions in the church and so forth. But it does not. The Bible addresses it in order to kill it, in order to strengthen the church so that it continues being effective for the ministry that God has given to it. You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's actually an anti-gosspel or antichrist posture to say, "I love Jesus but hate the church." Because that's exactly what team Satan would promote.

That'd be like saying, "Dwayne, I love you, but we hate Kelsey. I punch you." If that is said, that's how that plays out. Jesus is the same way. He's gonna punch you if he say if you say I love Jesus but I don't like your church. It's his bride.

It's his bride. Messy. I think that's why we have those images in in the Old Testament with Goomemer who is a prostitute married by a prophet who continues to live a life of prostitution. How often should you forgive? Who's the c who's the Christ figure and who's the actual church figure in that the role of of Satan in our day and age is to get people away from the church because that's where Jesus says he is. And his reason for doing that is because of 1 Peter 5'8 where it says your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Lions don't attack the herd. They wait until one sheep drifts away alone. Similarly, Satan is loves when a believer walks away from the community of the saints where accountability, encouragement, teaching, spiritual formation are found. And so there are there are countless studies out there about the effects of of regular church attendance on Sunday so that you're under the word of God. you're under the accountability of of other believers as well. You're in the presence of Jesus.

There are there are countless studies that say the more people attend Sunday gatherings, they they're I mean I I'll throw the category. They're happier. They're more satisfied. They're less likely to sin on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc. Because where the church is, Jesus is. Now, what does Jesus say about the church?

And we actually will close with this. Ben, you can come up. Where does what does Jesus say about the church? Number one, Jesus loves the church. Jesus loves the church, which is why we're going to talk about the church for the next seven weeks. Ephesians 5:25, Christ loved the church and he gave himself up for her.

Number two, uh, the church is his body. 1 Corinthians 1 or 12:27, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And number three, to belong to Jesus is to belong to his people. The New Testament knows nothing of solitary individual Christianity. Everything about the New Testament is a communal people getting together to grow in Christ. And so because Jesus is among the churches and the churches are the influential and transforming presence of Jesus on earth, they are the team executing the mission of God.

And so Jesus is going to make sure that they stay the course. And it begins with them seeing, knowing, believing, and trusting the real Jesus. And so here's my question for you. Do you actually know the Jesus of the Bible or do you know the Jesus of mythology, pop culture? Do you know the real Jesus? Do you believe what he says about himself?

Not what you think he is. Do you believe what he says about himself? And have you entrusted your life to it? Have you entrusted your life to it by faith? Are you saying your way, not my way? Your way, not my way.

again. When Shepherd finally swung on that vine and I caught him, he said, "That was fun. A little scary, but he said, "I knew you would catch me." That's joy. That's joy in this life, Lord. We we we see your way and your will and it looks awesome.

Little scary. little scary, but we're going to entrust ourselves to you because we see and we know rightly that you will catch us. That you will catch us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for this opportunity to come to you to hear from your word and be able to see your son Jesus rightly.

to be able to see him say things like, "I am the door that if anyone enters me, he will be saved and he will go in and out and find pasture." The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus, we thank you for being the good shepherd, for laying down your life for us and for revealing to us who you are and what you've come to accomplish and what you continue to accomplish through us. May we fall down at your feet as though dead knowing that you will comfort us and give us life.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you go and stand with me as we come to this time of communion? Again, as it says in John 10:9 and 11, Jesus is the good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That's what we celebrate in this meal every single Sunday.

The good shepherd did not look out at the sheep and say, "Sacrifice yourself. Bring your sacrifice to me. offer it to me and then I'll forgive you of your sins. The good shepherd said, "You're sinful. There's not one of you that's good. I'm going to pay your punishment for you.

I'm going to lay down my life and die in your place so that you don't receive death, but instead you receive life and have it abundantly." Have it abundantly. And so if you believe Jesus accomplished that for you, you know who he is, you agree with who he is, and you've entrusted your life to him, we call that saving faith. You believe that, then we invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seat. As we are done worshiping through this song, meditating on who Jesus is, and rightly worshiping him in reverence, we will come and we will then partake together at the end of the song. So come on down front and grab the elements.

I was [Music]