So what would it be like if you fell?
That would really change that movie, but one of my probably top ten favorite movies,
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, is the exact posture that I want us to take
as we start this journey in the book of Revelation.
That this is in some ways a leap of faith, because as we're going to break down this morning
in the title, The Sovereign Revelation, is going to give us hopefully the next,
today and then actually three weeks from now, will bring us to a good foundation
for what the book of Revelation is meant to teach us for today in 2024,
as it did also in the first century.
In the first century when John had this revelation on the island of Patmos
where he was exiled, that there's a lot going on.
How many of us have studied the book of Revelation in the past?
That's about right. It's a book that we don't necessarily study,
because in some ways we might be scared of it, in some ways we're like,
well, we already know what happened, so why bother?
That's not a good understanding of Revelation.
But as we enter this book, let us take it as a leap of faith,
because the context of this book, who authored it, and all of these things,
means something. That the one thing about the book of Revelation, as we're going to see,
is there are not only some major themes to the book, but there's also characters in the book.
There's also characters that mean certain things.
And so we're going to go over, it's going to be a little bit heady today
for the first start of this sermon, because there's also ways of interpreting Revelation
that we need to do justice with.
If you have anybody in your life that says they are a Revelation scholar,
and they understand every jot and tittle of the book of Revelation,
I'm here to say, I think they're kidding themselves.
Though they may have some good scholarship, they may understand the Greek,
they have apocalyptic language, and all of those things,
that you can't fully understand everything, because it's meant to leave room for faith.
It's meant to leave room for leaning into the importance of sovereignty.
And that's really the key. So as we introduce and move to the important central theme
of the book of Revelation, that God's sovereignty is unfolding,
not only in history, roughly 70 AD, but also to today.
And as reformed believers, we know and we believe that God's Word,
the infallible Word of Christ, for doctrine and life, that the Bible sets out
to do what it says it's going to do, and you and I have no impact on it.
That is something to really wrestle with, because as we're going to go through,
we're going to go through a couple letters over the next couple weeks,
we're going to go over a lot of imagery and visions and all of these things.
It meant something very specific then, it meant something very specific
as people were reading it, it means something very specific for 2024.
That there are four kind of agreed upon interpretations of the book of Revelation.
I'm going to give you those four, and then I want to encourage you to sit with me
in what I call the Munster Church view and interpretation of Revelation.
Okay, we have to kind of work through all of these, because it makes sense
that we start with this. Okay, the first view of the book of Revelation,
the first scholarly approach, is what's called the Preterist view
of the book of Revelation. And so understanding that these letters
were letters written for a specific time in the past and not for the present
church. So the fulfillment of Revelation, as a Preterist would believe,
has already occurred. The Preterist believes that when the temple was
destroyed in 70 AD, that that is when the book of Revelation was coming to be.
That all the stuff that happened in history, that is what the book of
Revelation is, that we don't actually pull anything from today,
which again, a partial reading of Revelation has some merit,
but you can't deny the apocalyptic language for the here and now.
If we stay in this view, there's really no point in studying or reading
this book, because it was meant for 70 AD, it was only meant for 70 AD,
and we don't really need to step into it in 2024. I don't know how you can sit
in this view with all the things that go on. Not only the letters to the specific
churches are very appropriate for today, but also the future understanding of the
second coming of Christ, of the new heavens and the new earth.
All the things will get in more toward the end of it. You have to look at it,
not only the here and now, but also the back then, which on the flip side,
you also have what's called the Futurist verse. That the fulfillment will occur
in a period of final tribulation just before Jesus Christ's second coming,
that a futurist looks at it completely futuristic. Well, you can't go there,
100%, because of what happened in history. We have documentation through the Roman
Empire about what happened in 70 AD. We have writings, we have people that wrote
about the destruction of the temple. History books talk about it. So you can't
just go future and deny the past, just like with the Preterist, you can't just
sit in the past and deny the future. They both kind of co-exist.
Though Revelation looks forward to the great return of Christ and the vision of
the new Jerusalem, we also have to look at the past. The third, Revelation 6
through 19, is what we call the Historiist view of the book of Revelation.
That letters were written in order that they'd be received in by distance from
Patmos. So the understanding here is that Revelation 6 through 19 is a
chronological outline of the church history, from the first century AD to the
second coming of Christ. It is unwise to assume a total chronological nature to
John's Revelation. Why? Because the chronological nature of the letters to
the seven churches can be completely applied to today. That over the next two
weeks, we're going to look at those letters. Those letters were not just for
the seven churches, which now would be in modern day Turkey. Only four of them, or
three and a half of them, I think, are uncovered. They are very much set for
today. So understanding the history of it, understanding kind of the futuristic
nature of the book of Revelation, you then have what's called the Idealist
view. That the scenes of Revelation, most revealing God and is written for all
Christians of all times. So this is kind of like an all-encompassing of those,
which you can't really do that specifically. That the scenes of Revelation
depict principles of spiritual warfare, but not specific events. You can't take
this solely just in the spiritual realm because of the physical nature of
history. You can't deny the history of the church. And a lot of people try to,
and that's where we kind of look back at the church. The church gets a black eye
for a lot of this. But when you go to the first century, when you go to the Roman
Empire and what was happening to the church by the emperors, you can't deny the
death. You can't deny the death of the apostles. You can't deny the destruction
of the temple. You can't deny all of these things in the physical realm and
think of it just as the spiritual realm. Though Satan's methods are always the
same, since God is the same throughout, Satan does his best to be a counterfeit
God. We're going to see in Revelation, Satan's attempts then are the same as his
attempts now. And you can't necessarily look at this just as a hypothetical
spiritual because it looks towards the coming of Christ, the physical Christ
coming back to bring his church home with him. If it's just spiritual
understanding, if it's just devotion, then I think we miss something. So you have
these views, the preterist view, the futuristic view, the historius view, the
idealist view. You have a lot of people speaking in just how to interpret
Revelation. As we get past the letters more into the middle, you're going to get
all of the millennialism, right? You're going to get pre, you're going to get
post, you're going to get ah. I tend to be a pan-millennialist. Everything's going
to pan out in the end. And that's where I want us to sit in the posture, the
Munster Church panelist view. That the four interpretations all have valid
points, but we submit our lives at Munster Church to God's sovereignty and the gift
to us that is the book of Revelation. Friends, because God is good, we believe
that God wins in the end. As it is written, so we journey through this book
and we lean into the fact that all will pan out in the end because, as Lord's Day
1 reminds us, we belong to God. And if you really want to break down all the
interpretational differences, which have split churches into new denominations,
so you have churches that start because you go from chairs to pews or pews to
chairs. I don't know too many churches that go from chairs to pews, but you know
what I mean. People will start churches. You have theological differences as to
why people start churches. Revelation is one of them. But when you break down all
of the theological, when you break down all the historical views, really will
people sit, they write, and they kind of create these theologies that best make
them comfortable, which then I call out suspect. That if I'm going to read
Revelation in order that I, Jim Holland, remain comfortable, I don't think that
is a posture that we read the Bible in. I don't know too many people that read the
Ten Commandments and just sit there feeling comfortable knowing that we're
sinners. That as we work through the book of Revelation, Revelation though it is
written for you and for me and the church, it is not written with a nice
tidy little bow given to us that go, you're going to be fine in all of this.
Though the sentiment is true, we need to work through it. Because God is good and
because we belong to him, we will make it out of this sermon series, barring
Jesus coming again. That would be pretty ironic if that happened. Some major
themes as we go through, just because I'm not going to stop every time, but
kind of the concepts that we're going to go through, the things you're going to
see, first and foremost you're going to see God, right? That God controls the
course of history, he protects his people, and he punishes evil. God is in
control in the book of Revelation. We're going to see it. Worship, we're going to
see that word in many different ways. That Revelation calls us to worship God
with awe, with praise, and with obedience. And I find that so comforting that when
we get called into worship, we are called to give awe and wonder to God, we're
called to give him our praise, and we're called to obey God in worship. That is
what it means to be a believer. That we don't worship ourselves, we don't
worship sports teams, or our professions, or our spouses, or anything. The worship
solely goes to God. That is a little bit of the weight that the worship team has
every Sunday. That their hope is that they are bringing us into the throne room
of God in worship. And you see how that really bypasses our opinions about
worship? That the book of Revelation really doesn't care or have a lot of time
for whether or not we want hymns or traditional worship, whether we want
organ or drums. At the end of the day, what Revelation demands of us is our
posture of worship. Not the style of worship. It's going to get there. And for
a lot of us, we're going to look at this, and I've had people literally say this
to me, so when we get up to heaven, all we're going to do is worship, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God Almighty. We're not going to even get some Tomlin in there.
We're not going to get some elevation worship in there. We're not going to get
some hymns. Like, why can't we go up? Mighty fortress is our God and sing that.
I don't have any answers for you. I've never been there. But understand that
our posture of worship is what brings our spirit closer to God. Not the words,
not the music, but the fact that we are sitting in the throne room of grace with
God himself. You're going to see the lamb. The lamb symbolizes Christ's sacrificial
death, the lamb that was slain for you and for me. Revelation is all about the
lamb. We're going to see that time and again. We're going to see visions,
multiple visions in this one revelation of John, the apostle, which we'll get
there. Visions are symbolic figures and scenes that show God's plan throughout
history. And then we're going to see something that we don't see a lot in
Bible scripture. We're going to see the theological word is...oh, I never know
how to say this. It's supposed to be theopani, but I know that's not the way it
is, but it is what it is. You guys say it how you want. That God actually shows up.
That God steps on the scene. And that is something that we don't see outside of
the Gospels in Christ, outside of a couple of the angel visits in the Old
Testament and the New Testament. God Himself, Yahweh, Creator, steps on the
scene. We're going to see the theme that's going to make us all super
uncomfortable, and that is spiritual warfare. That at the end of the day,
Satan is loosed, that he runs amok. And at the end of the day, what spiritual
warfare brings to us is this understanding of choosing God and Satan.
Now, don't get so caught up in the word choose, but understand that what the
spiritual warfare is showing us in the book of Revelation is that we cannot
serve both God and man, or God and Satan. That what Revelation is doing, it is
demanding of us allegiance to God. I'm going to pause there really quick,
because I know there are some of you that that's uncomfortable, because you
don't want to give allegiance to anything. And I get that, I guess. But
what the book of Revelation should open all of our minds and our hearts to, and
our eyes, is how much God is in control. And I hear it said all the time, people
entering a hard, difficult season of life, or maybe a sickness diagnosis or a
hurt relationship, that they know that God's got this. And I know that people
believe that, probably 99%. But the book of Revelation is going to show us
100% that God does have it, that God is doing God things, that Revelation is what
we can pull, that God, when he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you, I
will be with you to the very end of the age. Well, friends, this is the end of the
age, and God is still on the throne. And finally, witness and martyrdom.
Revelation calls its readers to faithfulness, even to the point of death.
All of a sudden, some of us just got real anxious, because we don't do death
well, and the idea of dying for our faith is something that actually freaks us out.
Now we hear stories, beyond stories, of all the different martyrdoms that we've
seen in history. You can read the books, the voice of the martyrs, that is a, like,
seven-volume series of all the people that have died for the faith. And I look
out at all of us, and I go, ah, we've probably not gone there. How do I know?
Because you're all still here. Martyrdom is being killed, put to death, for our
faith. Now, for some of us, we think we're martyr for Christ when we don't get the
parking spot that we want at Jewel. That is not martyrdom. Martyrdom is not when
you're trying to get to church and you get a flat tire, that, oh, I am being
persecuted for my faith. No, you just ran over a nail. Understand that martyrdom is
brought to a different position in the book of Revelation, because that's part of
the historical view of what we see, the Christians of the first century. The
Christians of the first century that were killed for the faith. How do we know?
We know how most of the apostles, if not all of them, except for John, died for the
faith. Whether crucified upside down, chopped into pieces, pulled apart by horse
and carriage. That Rome did a pretty thorough job of making sure Christians,
those who believed in the way, Jesus, were put to death. So Revelation calls us to
be faithful in that understanding. Now, really quick before I start my sermon.
The author we know, John the Apostle, he authored the Gospel of John, he authored
first, second, and third John. Best evidence we have is that it was about 81
to 96 AD when this was recorded during the reign of Domitian, the Caesar of Rome
after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem of 70 AD. And then finally, what
is the purpose of Revelation? I'm not going to give you that today, and we're
going to get there, because the purpose will, in a lot of ways, show itself to us.
And what's exciting is show us in many different ways. And the book of Revelation
will mean different things for all of you sitting and all of you watching online.
So let's open up God's Word. Let's start with the first three verses. This is
known as the prologue. This is setting up the sovereignty of Revelation. So
Revelation 1, starting with verse 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God
gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made
known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the world 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, for the time is near. One of the only times you're
going to read, and the blessing is for me and for you in this moment in time,
because I am speaking it, you are joining me in hearing it, that this is a kind of
a table set for us. And if there are any other churches that are starting
Revelation, for them. So this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It's the
Revelation of Sovereignty. This phrase indicates that the content is not just
about Jesus, but also revealed by him. The Greek word Revelation means an
unveiling, showing God's plan for history. Again, we have to sit in the history to
also look at what's going to happen. The divine origin of Revelation and the
blessing promised to those who hear and keep the Revelation, that there's an
action that we're all going to be faced with in the book of Revelation. Spoiler
alert, it's to serve God or to serve man, i.e. Satan. So really what this is going
to test us over the next two and a half months is how do we view Scripture? Do we
view it as a divine revelation that governs our lives? Do we view it as, oh,
this is just something Pastor Jim wants us to do? Do we view it as, I don't think
this really pertains to me. If you sit in that third camp, please stop because this
does. Whether you're a believer this morning or not, this does pertain to you.
It has to. We see the phrase which God gave him. This shows the divine origin of
the message. Christ as mediator receives the Revelation from his Father and
communicates it to John. This isn't because John had too much wine the night
before. This is a divine interruption of John's life. John, the one that Jesus
loved, the disciple. This is his Revelation given to him by Jesus. Now it's
interesting about dreams and prophecy that some of us may have had dreams in
the past and it actually comes to bear like whatever we dreamed actually came
through. Could that be a Revelation? I don't know. I didn't give it to you. But
understand that we're not going to interpret dreams as means of a spiritual
exercise. This is the Revelation of John for his church, for the church of
Christ, the church that John was a part of. And as we read that, we need to
receive it as such that it is really a blessing for us to read this, to hear it,
to read it. The importance of hearing and keeping the words of this prophecy will
be highlighted to all of us. Make no mistake. And when we hear it and we read
it, we should have not only a reverence but a relevant understanding that what we
are being spoken to about are the things that were, the things that are, and the
things that will be. So that's the prologue. That's the beginning. Then we
jump in verses four through eight. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia,
modern day Turkey, grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and 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, the ruler of the
kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every
eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will
wail on account of him, even so. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the
Lord God, who is, who was, and is to come the Almighty. That is quite the
greeting. So let's say you invite someone over to your house. You open the door to
them and instead of just saying hi or hey, I brought a bottle of wine or hey,
give me the tour, they went into stuff like this. Maybe it sounds something like
and behold, I crosseth your door. To break bread with you, I come bringing the
mighty, I come that we would understand the blazing love that Jesus Christ has
for all of us and the judgment that will come in the end. Carrie lets out, is what
are you doing when that person says that as they walk through your door? You're
panicking. Jim's closing the door and leaving them outside, right? That this is
quite the start. That this is what we should interpret but also what we should
come to expect when it comes to where we're going in the book of Revelation.
That what we are getting here is grace and peace. And I find that phenomenal.
That we're actually reading grace and peace in this. This greeting reflects
God's covenant faithfulness to us. And it comes from the triune God, Father, Son,
and Spirit. That this should show us the greeting of the triune God that is
synthesized in his role not only in history but also in our salvation. That
you are bought with the blood of Christ that was foretold by the Father and
carried out after his ascension by the Holy Spirit. That this is showing that
every day we are encountering the triune God in all that we do, in all that we
see, and all that we are. And what Revelation is kind of splitting open is
that we better be right in how we live and how we do this. That we understand
that Christ as faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the
kings on earth, this title affirms Christ's role as we see throughout
Scripture prophet, priest, and king, which is actually one of the central
understandings of reformed believers. That in God's sovereignty Christ plays
the prophet, the priest, and the king role in our lives because he has to.
Because that is his role. That he is the prophet speaking into our lives. That he
is the priest overseeing our doctrine and life. And he is the king that rules us
from the day we are born until the day we go to see him. Friends, what do we pull
from this? That we need to recognize God's sovereignty over all aspects of
life and history leading to a posture of trust and worship. So let me ask you, when
it doesn't feel like you have that relationship, when that relationship is
tarnished, when that relationship is hurt, how often do we posture to worship?
When life is not going right, when life gets hard, do we have a posture of
worship? And I think it's interesting why we have to have that posture. Why
worship should be our modus operandi, the operation we live out every day of our
life. Because worshiping recognizes three things. It recognizes that God is
sovereign and Lord over all, that he has invited us to participate in it and it
gives us perspective to even the worst day of our lives. That we are called to
worship. Now how we worship, that is going to be different for all of us. That
when you are in grief and your worship is that of mourning or of frustration or
of just crying out and wailing to God, that is worship. Or you're on a spiritual
high, you're on top of this mountain and God is just glorious and you recognize
that and you're doing your best and you're walking tall, that is worship and
everywhere in between. The book of Revelation is going to find you and find
me in that. Every eye will see him this anticipates the second coming,
emphasizing the visible and public nature of Christ's return. Verses 9 through 12.
I, John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the
patient endurance that is in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of
the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's
day and I heard him behind me, a loud voice like a trumpet saying write what you
see in this book and send it to the seven churches in Ephesus and to Smyrna and
to Pergamum and Thyriata and Sardis and to Philadelphia and Laodicea. So now we
see some of the purpose, which is going to go into the next two sermons. That the
vision begins. That the scene begins. That John is recognizing us as siblings to
him and companions in Christ. What does that mean? That we are companions in his
suffering and in the kingdom patient endurance that is ours in Jesus. Oh come
Lord Jesus. Might be a cry that you've said in your life. Or when you think
about that and go okay this season I'm in is only for a time. Or Lord you can
come back whenever because I give up. However you find yourself, understand
John recognizes that with you. John is in that place with you. What John is
encouraging us individually and as a church is our participation in Christ's
suffering and the kingdom that will be coming. And here's where we check out.
Because let's be honest friends we don't like to suffer. You can't read
Revelation without thinking about suffering. You can't read Revelation to
know that the arrows of the evil one have your name on it at some point in
history. Guess what? Because they've been on there ever since you've been born.
When you've been sanctified in Christ, regenerated and became a member of his
church. That's why whenever we pray, right, the next two weeks we're going to
baptize some babies. We're going to pray over them that as the arrows of the evil
one are being shot at them that they have a community that they understand the
grace and the conquering peace of Christ. All of that comes from the book of
Revelation. From Christ's words to John's Revelation is where we find ourselves.
What I find interesting is John is commanded to write. We assume that of
Paul when he writes his epistles, two-thirds of the New Testament. We're
assuming that Paul is given direction from God. We hear it in his words to write
to all those churches and to all those individuals. Here we see in a very grand
way John getting that Revelation. But here's the rub. You have to trust that
God is in control or else you're not going to read John's words. If you're
going to be stuck in a place of distrust or mistrust, John's Revelation, though it
still has bearing in your life, you will miss it. So what is Revelation doing? It
is testing our resolve and our trust in God. And he's commanded to write. He's
commanded to say and write these things. It's just amazing. Then we move to 12 to
16. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and turning I saw seven
gold lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man,
clothed with a long robe, with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his
head were white like white wool like snow. His eyes were like the flames of fire.
His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. And his voice was
like a 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.
Let's get weird. Here we go. These are going to be the different visions. These
are going to be the things that we go, what in the world? But remember Jesus
already came once. And how did he come? Think Christmas, this isn't hard, came
like a baby. I can handle seven pound, eight ounce baby Jesus, can't you? Right?
He's in a manger. This is great. We're going to worship, not worship the manger,
but Christ is born in a way, oh it's so beautiful. Right? Dwayne, when your kids
were born what were you thinking as you held them on the first day of their
birth? Miracle, right? This is so great. Now what happens if your oldest was born
with flames shooting out of their eyes, right, and a sword coming out of their
mouth? You'd be like, Gwen, what did you do? Right? It would be super awkward.
But understand the story of Christ culminates here. That is we think about
the grandness of revelation, why not? Why not come like this? We don't see it
anywhere else in scripture outside of some apocalyptic visions that Daniel had
in some of the minor and major prophets, but here we see him coming and he's got
a duty, he's going to be doing some stuff. And he comes like this. This is enough
for us to go, and let's just start Advent early. Because I love me a good
Christmas hymn and we can do that for the next four months. No, we got to sit in
it. We have to understand that the lampstands represent the churches, that
Christ's presence among them indicate his authority and the care for his
church. Because what if out of his mouth came a dove? We'd be thinking peace.
Guess what, friends? That already happened. Not that it came out of his mouth,
but it came down at his baptism. That the sword is coming now. The conquering is
going to be done. The war is going to be over. Well, why didn't he just come on
the foal of a donkey? Why didn't he just come to show that he brings peace?
Guess what? He already did. That is what we consider Palm Sunday. He comes in to
show all of these things. Well, then why, Jim? Why? I don't like this. It makes me
uncomfortable. Now I'm going to look at Gwen Recker in a weird way. Like all of
these things, why does he have to come like this? Hopefully that answer is
already culminating in your mind. How else is he going to come? He already came
those ways. And what happened? We missed it. He was rejected. He was despised. He
was spit on. He was flogged. He was beaten. He was deserted. He was lied about.
He was betrayed. And he was strung up on a cross. Is anyone stringing Christ up on
a cross when he comes like this? No. There is no wavering here. This is how
it's going to go. This is how the end scene must be. This detailed description
of Christ's emphasis of His majesty, His authority, and His purity. The sword
coming out of His mouth symbolizes the power over His Word. It's not the first
time that the Word of God is a two-edged sword. He's already told us it is. That's
why we get to use it against the forces of evil and darkness. It is a double-edged
sword. You don't have to be a master swordsman or woman. You just have to swing
it around. You just have to use it. Jesus is coming to say, I have authority and
dominion over all, including my word. Scary stuff. I get it. But we also need
His assurance now. 17 to 20. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.
But He laid me at His right hand saying, fear not. I always find that funny, right?
That John's seeing this and the first thing is fear not. I am the first and the
last, the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of
death and Hades right there for the things that you have seen. Those that are
and those that will take place after this. So if you're John, you're like, there's
more? Like this can't be it? I mean, at this point, one of our boys is already
waking Carrie up three times if they're having this, right? Because they know not
to, because they'll get a real live version of this if they wake me up. But
understand, there's more. Verse 20, as for the mystery of the seven stars that you
saw in my right hand, the seven gold lampstands, the seven stars are the angels
of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So
Christ is reassuring John. He is reassuring John to not be afraid that he
holds the keys of death and Hades, that Christ reassures John and asserts his
victory over death and judgment. So friends, as we go through this, in times
of fear and uncertainty, rest in the assurance of Christ's victory and his
sovereign rule. So that is the end of the first scene. What in the world are we
going to do with this? Well, let's posture ourselves in four ways. First and
foremost, we submit to the authority of Christ. If you're not recognizing Christ's
authority, you're not reading this. Christ's authority over all aspects of
life, including the church then and now and history, submit to his lordship in
your daily living. So not only submitting, we're trusting in God's
sovereignty. In a world of uncertainty and chaos, we trust in the sovereign
control of God, knowing that he is directing history according to his
perfect will. Third, we embrace the call to endurance. Like John who suffered for
his faith, believers are called to endure hardships knowing that they
participate in Christ's kingdom and victory. And finally, friends, and I think
this will get easier as we go, we live in the light of Christ's return. The
promise of Christ's return should shape how we live today, motivating us to
pursue holiness, to pursue our witness to others, and to remain steadfast in
faith. We're in the grand cosmos now. Next week, those letters are not only
being written to those churches, those letters are being written to 214 Ridge
Road. Let's pray.