John, the disciple, the one who was given this
vision by Jesus and recorded it and sent it out
to the seven churches, he had a brother. In the
12 disciples, there were a couple sets of brothers.
Simon Peter had his brother Andrew. John had
his brother James. And John and James were kind
of like bookends in a certain sense when you
look at all the apostles because most of the
apostles died a martyr's death. And the first
one to die was John's brother James, his older
brother. He was the first one, and I believe
it's Acts chapter five. I had to check it out,
but it's very soon. He ends up dying. But John,
he did not die a martyr's death if church tradition.
What people from way back in the first century
wrote and told us, if it's true, John did not
die a martyr's death. He may, however, have wished
that he had, though. According to that same tradition,
the writings of some of the people who were alive
back then and knew John, or at least they said
they did, according to that tradition, he was
boiled in oil by the emperor Domitian, who persecuted
the church, because John and other Christians
would not worship the emperor as God. That was
a very common thing. That even happened all the
way back in the time of Paul, that sort of thing
was going on. So he was boiled in oil by this
emperor. He didn't die. The emperor, persistent,
gave him poison and made him drink poison. He
didn't die. Now rather than the emperor could
have said, wow, that's pretty impressive. Maybe
there's something about you. But no, the emperor
did not let him go. The emperor said, fine, we'll
just stick you on this little island out in the
Aegean Sea called Patmos. You can just. be there,
be out of my hair, stop causing trouble. So that's
what happened to John. That's where we see him
in this first chapter. He's on the island of
Patmos because he was faithful in his testimony
of Christ. Alright, we don't know you can you
can go to Patmos today out of those of you who
are big kind of travelers You like travel might
say oh the Greek Islands. That's a pretty cool
place. That's a really beautiful Whatever. It's
like that's not so bad We don't know and so you
can go to Patmos today, and they have all kinds
of things about John there There's a monastery
and different things and it is a pretty nice
place these days We don't know how nice it might
have been back then or how nasty it might have
been some people said there was like mines that
you had that the the exit it was common for the
Romans to exile people to this island. I have
a feeling it probably wasn't all that nice, but
it would have made little difference to John.
He was being taken away from being the last living
Apostle Christ, serving God's people as he was.
He was doing all that. He was taken away from
that to kicking rocks on a lonely aisle. So he
might even be wondering, why did God save him?
from a martyr's death that all his brethren,
all the other apostles have already suffered
this. Peter crucified upside down. A bunch of
other ones have interesting stories related to
them. He could have joined them. But no, here
he was on an island doing nothing. Wouldn't it
be better to be dead? Isn't that in some ways
a fate worse than death? Being able to do nothing.
It'd be better to be with Christ. We don't really
know what he thought about this or how long he
was there waiting for... He doesn't even know
what he's waiting for. We do know that God did
have a reason for sending him there. That's the
key. The emperor may have ordered it, had it
sent there, but God's hand was upon it the whole
time because here we have... to reveal to John
in a series of visions from Jesus what the glorified
risen Lord Jesus had to say to the seven churches
and to us today. There's a message there. So,
it wasn't pointless that John was placed on this
island, however it may have seemed at the time.
Something great was used by God for that. And
so we have in this, and especially in this little
first chapter here, a message that unpacks for
us what Jesus' resurrection means for us today
and forever. Now, I know you, I would imagine,
you guys know what last Sunday was. It was Easter.
Well, you know what? This is Easter also. There
are seven Sundays to Easter because there's so
much great stuff in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ that it takes a while to unpack it all.
As a matter of fact, every Sunday is a celebration
of Easter. And that's why, for those of you who
know, you know, have been a Lutheran a long time
or get into this sort of thing, that's why the
time of Lent... It's supposed to be 40 days,
but if you actually counted out from Ash Wednesday
to Easter, it's a lot longer than 40 days because
the Sundays didn't count. The Sundays are a celebration
of the resurrection, so whatever, fast or whatever
you were doing those other days, you didn't do
it on Sunday because Sunday always still is about
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we'll unpack
that some more today. As a kid... My grandparents
were wonderful Christian people, just awesome.
And when it was my confirmation time, they gave
me a kid's Bible to have. And this Bible had
pictures in it and so forth. And so, as a junior
high kid, considering the text we're looking
at, guess which book of the Bible was the first
one I went to? Revelation, right to the back,
boom, right to the back. And if you know much
about Revelation, especially what would be shown
on the pictures, the drawings or whatever, as
a kid, oh, that'd be, it's like a comic book,
Revelation is. I mean, oh, it's nice, Jesus talking
to people and doing stuff, that's all nice and
everything, but man, a dragon, frogs coming out
of somebody's mouth, these are all visions in
Revelation. A giant locust, an angel throwing
a mountain, it's just like, boy, this is like,
comic book hero stuff. So I read through the
book of Revelation several times, looking at
the pictures and really getting into it before
I moved on to other things. And so some people
have that kind of fascination with the book of
Revelation. A church I served many years ago,
one of the members, her husband didn't come to
church, but he liked on Sunday to tune in the
TV preachers that talked about Revelation, that
talked about the end times. He wasn't really
all that interested in the church stuff. He just
liked to hear about all the things that were
going on. going on at the time, back in the 90s,
we have somehow had something to do with God's
plan. And I guess in some ways he wasn't totally
wrong there You know it generally if pastors
especially when they're new to a kind of they
kind of put a little survey What would you like
to study? What Bible studies would you like to
do? There'll always be a group of people that
say let's do revelation and because there might
be various motivations Sometimes people want
to know what the future is you know because that's
the kind of thing revelation talks about they
has these visions others Want to understand current
event? What's going on right now? And how does
that relate to what God's doing? And you know,
can we figure out when Jesus is gonna come back
again? And the simple answer to that is, no.
You cannot figure out. Guess who else doesn't
know when Jesus is coming back again? Jesus.
He doesn't even know when he's coming back. The
Father knows, not him. So if Jesus doesn't know,
you think we're gonna figure it out? I don't
think so. So we don't want to disappoint anybody
about the study of Revelation. As a matter of
fact, this morning we're going to have a little
teeny -weeny Bible study on Revelation right
now. Basically giving you a spoiler. This is
what the book, the point of the book... is really
about. You know, it can be the visions and who
the antichrist, all these things can be very
difficult, a lot of different opinions. Nope,
don't worry about that. What's the basic gist,
the basic message? And it's a very important
one. It is God has a plan. from eternity he before
the world was even made he has a plan that he's
already got laid out and Everything that happens
is to him working through that plan to get to
the end And so that's the one that God has a
plan. The second thing is God is Almighty. There's
nobody else like him the devil the dragon. There's
that dragon again He's in there. He's powerful
compared to you and me but compared to God nothing
zero, less than zero. You know, God is in control.
That's a big theme in the book of Revelation
because this was written to Christians in the
days of Rome who were going through persecution.
And the church has already been around, like,
about 60 years after Jesus was ascended and went
back to heaven. Church has been around for 60
years. Well, it's kind of like, what's going
on? Why, you know, we're going through all these
tough times. What's this all about? You know,
what does it mean to be a Christian? Do I want
this? You know, what's what's God's plan? Jesus
left and here we are and it's kind of bad So
it's kind of him his way of saying I know I've
got a plan. We're working it out You know everything
that that's a hard thing for us to understand
and I'm not gonna say I can explain if God has
control over Everything then why do things bad
things happen? You know if God has absolute control
Do I even do anything, or am I just a robot doing
whatever God wants? That's without getting too
deep into that, because God is so incredibly
smart, wise, and almighty. We can do what we
do in our lives. The devil can do what he does.
You know, all those things. God allows a lot
of things to happen, things that we probably
don't like, and yet... God is able to use those
in His plan. When it's all over at the end, we'll
see how it all worked together. Whether it's
things in our life that we don't like, things
in people's lives that we love. Why did God let
this happen to them? Why does this... The Book
of Revelation doesn't have an answer to that
either, other than God has a plan and He's working
it out. He's always moving things. step -by -step
towards the return of His Son, Jesus Christ,
for the final total redemption of His people.
No matter how crazy things are, He guides them.
He's involved. He's in the middle of it. So that
is the basic gist. It's a comfort. It isn't about
weird things that it's hard to understand why
this, what's this all about, but just the fact
that God's going. He's in control. He's involved.
He's in the middle. He's not just way up there
looking down and going, wow, that's kind of crazy.
You know, wow, that's a shame. You know, that
kind of thing. You know, He's involved with it.
He allows things to, just a side point on that,
there's something for our personal life, because
God lets us do things. But I've experienced in
my life, sometimes I'll try to do something.
and it doesn't work. It's like resistance. This
is, I can't get this to work. That's sometimes
a cue. It's like, maybe God doesn't want me to
be doing that. But if I push hard enough, I can
definitely tell you for myself, if I push hard
enough, eventually I'll get to do it. And usually,
almost every time, I wish I hadn't. So that's
the thing. Sadly, I'm still not smart enough
to get that all the time. Sometimes I still do
that and push and push and then find out, yep,
God was trying to help me there and I wasn't
paying attention. So, yes. So, no matter how
crazy things are, He's involved. There's also,
lastly, and this is, I still to this day enjoy
reading the book of Revelation, but now I'm not
that interested in the frogs or the mountains
being thrown into the sea or things like that,
all that kind of comic book stuff. I like this
other thing. In the book of Revelation, there
are several visions. of the people of God all
together from every tribe of every nation all
together before the throne of God singing and
glorifying God just that joy of all you know
all the things that don't work in this world
all finally together working in harmony in God
before his throne and there's a lot we even have
songs in our worship that I can't remember the
names of at the moment, but that come from, there's
a lot of songs in the book of Revelation and
even Christian music today even will pull on
them. I can hear, I'll hear a little chorus where
it's like, oh yeah, I know where that comes from
because Revelation is a book of worship also.
And so it's a great and wonderful book. Just
don't get too bogged down into some of the highly
symbolic parts that probably nobody really knows
exactly what they mean right now. So few things
to help unpack the resurrection of Jesus Christ
that come from this reading first of all we see
Jesus Standing among the lampstands and okay
this vision again the lampstands as we are told
are the churches these seven churches that are
were listed off see standing this shows that
Jesus is present among his people, actively involved
with his people. He's not just sitting up in
heaven and looking back and says, okay, guys,
hope it goes good for you. No, he's down here.
He's a part of it. He's in it. It's easy for
us to forget that, that we're going through life,
that Jesus desires to be involved, included in
every part of our lives. And he has an involvement
in it. If something's allowed to happen to us,
somehow, someway, it can be used for our good
by him. So it's easy for us to get busy distracted
into our daily groove like I do and that we kind
of lose sight of him Although he's always there
always a part of that Sometimes it can take an
issue of life or death or even a solid hit to
our pocketbook to get our attention and then
one of those little smaller hits to my pocketbook
just happened recently the fans going out of
our course always happens on a weekend our refrigerator
the fans gone out so now you know got to move
things around and to get this that's a an example
of crazy little things that happen in life that
are annoying, you know, and it's like, you know,
what purpose could that possibly solve? Well,
I mean, I guess it makes a sermon illustration
for one thing, but it does other things, you
know. What are we going to do? How is this going
to happen? So, God, how are you using this little
thing in our lives? And if nothing else, just
help us not to freak out about it. but just kind
of say, okay, God will help us through this.
He'll help us find somebody to fix the refrigerator.
But yeah, one of my cousins who lives in Arizona,
he wasn't really walking with the Lord too much.
He married to a wonderful woman and had two beautiful
little daughters, but he wasn't really walking
with God too much. He got a rare liver condition.
I don't know what it's called. I remember. I
remember getting tested to see if my liver could
be donated to him, you know, a piece of it to
help him out. You know, but he did. He got his
attention and brought him closer to God. And
to this day, he is still walking closer to God.
Now, that's the thing. His sister is married
is and even was at that time married to a pastor,
but that wasn't enough to get his attention.
But hey, get this liver. The problem? That got
his attention. And so, you know, it seems to
be something that God has used in his life to
help him. And I know it's been a blessing to
his wife and his daughters as he's more walking
with the Lord and being a godly man in his family.
God uses a lot of things, big and small, to get
our attention, to grow us, and to remind us that
he's involved in our lives. And, you know, I
try, when things happen in my life, to see that.
Like yesterday, as I was still writing this sermon,
even though Pastor Jason gave me all month's
notice, here I was on Saturday, still grinding
away at it. There's all kinds of stories and
angles you can go there on that. Believe me,
my wife was not thrilled that it's like, when
did you find out about this? A month ago? So
we were going to a show, we already had a busy,
we're going to a little play, like junior high
kids or whatever, like she knows from homeschooling
or whatever. They have this group that has a
theater. goodness, an hour and a half play on
a Saturday, I got things to do, you know, fine,
I go, because that's, you know, that is again,
you know, God put this in here, so I'm gonna
walk through it and I'm gonna do this for my
wife, be a blessing to her, spend time with her,
and so in the middle of this play, of course,
it's amateur production, all of a sudden, somebody
forgot to bring a cord for the apple computer
that was running everything and it died in the
middle of the play and so here we got a half
an hour so i'm like i'm already kind of tight
on time here god and now a half an hour that
i get to just sit here while they're running
around scurrying you know obviously i I used
that time to get my phone out, looked up the
Bible passages. I was thinking about it and everything.
I didn't have anything to write on, but yeah,
so it's like, why? I mean, that's a small nothing.
It's a small nothing, but I mean, it did, because
I was working, I was like, oh yeah, I don't know
what God had this happen, but it has an irrelevance
in my life. And so... When I get home from this,
okay fine now I can get to work. Oh my son who's
still at home He's going to a HTC spring branched
in the engineering academy He need me to proofread
a paper that he has to turn in for his engineering
and so it's like Okay, yeah, I could just kind
of say to him dude Why did you have to wait till
the day to do this really and you can not do
this tomorrow? You know, whatever but I could
tell it was important to him and that's part
of being a dad is Yeah This is not a great time
or place for this, but again, God, you know,
I can be a blessing to my son. I could just kind
of kick him down, you know, and I'll do this
tomorrow, but I took the half an hour to review
it and everything and he was very thankful. So
just, yeah, again, I guess writing this kind
of made me a little more aware of the little
things that go on in life and how God uses them
even in small ways. to touch our lives and to
touch other people's lives. So that's the thing.
Jesus is here among us. He doesn't sit up in
heaven. He's here with us and He is involved
and desires to be involved in our lives. And,
last takeaway, the more we're aware of that and
see the things in life, especially the things
that... we don't like, but even the things that
are positive, and from a God perspective, or
even people's needs, it's like, okay, it's inconvenient
to have to deal with this other person, but God
doesn't really... One thing God really doesn't
care about is our inconvenience. He just cares
nothing about that. He cares about our character.
I care about my convenience and my comfort. God
cares about my character, and that's how He's
always going to operate. whether I like it or
not, you know, but he does. And I know it's for
my best and all of our best. So, okay, next thing.
Eyes like fire. This is a description. Jesus
that John is seeing you know the hair that's
white not like mine is is really white because
he's he's you know basically Shining like a star
Because he's glorified through his death and
resurrection, but he's got these eyes of fire
now This is not like in superhero movies You
know like sometimes you'll see the who's somebody
bad guy good guy their eyes glow like oh There's
something going on with this person, and it could
be kind of freaky Yeah, that their eyes glow,
but this means of course everything in A lot
of things are symbolic. In the Bible, fire is
oftentimes used of judgment, discernment. And
so the glowing fire means that he can see through
all of people's junk, deceptions, facades, all
of our fakes that we can fake other people out.
He can see right into the core of who and what
we are. You can't hide anything from him at all.
He sees the real deal. We can BS a lot of people,
but we cannot BS Jesus. Sometimes people who
know us, well, we might be able to sneak something
by them. They might not notice. I've been married
to my wife for 26 years, and sometimes I think
I can do that, but I think I get away with it.
Anyway, maybe I'll eat the last cookie, and I
know she's going to be kind of upset. and then
try to hide it so she doesn't see it or or make
a mess and then okay just to sweep it under the
rug or just that kind of stupid little stuff
uh try to try to do that maybe it's like a little
game or something like haha dear i got i got
one past you my guess is i probably didn't she
saw it and she just kind of rolled her eyes and
went whatever you know uh but but even if i can't
get it past her i cannot do so with jesus not
so i could i could sneak things past a lot of
people because Sadly, that's been a character
trait of mine, is I'm a sneaky person, I'm a
two -face. You know, I've always been the good
kid in my neighborhood. Now, my friend, he was
the bad kid in the neighborhood. There should
be some sort of a guilt by association, but somehow
I managed to dodge that, or at least I thought
so. But I've always been, that's really not a
great character trait. And it's to be sneaky.
So I'm always, God busts me on that from time
to time, and I'm thankful that he does. So, but
anyway, not so with Jesus. I can't be sneaky
with him. In the end, it's really comforting
to know that Jesus sees us as we really are.
This is no hiding, none, no place to hide, no
part of ourselves that's gonna be hiding. He
sees us as we are, and yet he's still... loves
us and frees us from our sins. We don't have
to worry. I think there's a thing called imposter
syndrome, like celebrities get this word. You
kind of know, if somebody really discovers the
real me, I am really going to get busted. Bad
things are going to happen if people really knew
the real me. God knows the real me. God knows
the real you. You don't have to worry that that's
going to come out, that He's going to discover
that, and yet He still loves you. and yet you
are still His child, you are still forgiven.
That's a wonderful thing. I mean, it's a little
fearful thing to know that, you know, whatever
I did or whatever, Jesus sees it, but I know
that He forgives it, and He is totally and completely
unconditional. We never have to worry that we'll
ever fall short of Him. So that's a great thing.
Finally, last one. He is the Living One. He died
and now is forevermore alive. He has the keys
of death and Hades. And so for those of you who
are studying the classics or whatever, Hades,
that's basically figuratively like the place.
There's two words in the Bible for life after
death and before the ending resurrection. One's
Hades and the other is the abyss. You might be
able to see the tonal difference between those
two. Hades is just kind of this idea, like, my
dear mother passed away in February. You know,
where is mom now? I know she loved the Lord,
she's with the Lord, and really, kind of, that's
done. You know, we say, with the Lord, you're
done. Anything more you do, you're kind of getting
off. But anyway, so she's with the Lord, and
so that's the idea. The abyss is where the...
demons are that's where the devil and his people
go so you don't want any part of that so anyway
he has he has the keys of death in hades our
life and our death and what happens after our
death always have been are now and always will
be in his nail scarred And again, that's a symbol.
When he says he has the keys, that means he's
got the authority. He's got the full and complete
authority over death and Hades. So, yes, they're
always there. And so, our life is not our own.
It's not now our own. It never has been, and
it never will be. It's been bought with a price.
The life, suffering, and death of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. All our lives. Every second
of them all the way to eternity belong to him
period the end Yes, and are freely given to us
He gives us that gift of our lives our minutes
our seconds our days to serve with him in his
kingdom as priests. All of us are priests. You
know, that is, we are all a connection between
God and the people around us. That's what a priest
is, basically. And just as Jesus is our high
priest, he is our connection with God, the Father.
And so also, we are priests to those around us.
You know, people who don't know Jesus yet, or
even people who do, we are, you know, all can
be a blessing to each other as he has been a
blessing. That sounds wonderful, that we are
priests, that we are God's blessings to people,
and it is, it is very nice. It can also be a
little intimidating if you really think about
what it means to be like. Jesus never never be
perfect about it. This is about but what does
that really look like in our life? It means we
have been blessed beyond measure By a God who
loves us so much that we can be like him and
be a blessing to those who are around us That's
what it means to be a Christian. Guess what?
That's why we're still in this world once I mean
people want you know, once you're once God has
redeemed you in Christ What's left? Well, I mean,
we're still here. We're still around why? Just
to kind of hang around? No. To be a blessing.
Now we are part of God's work in this world.
We get to be a part of God's team, and so we
have things for us. And so this applies both
to the parts of our life that we have to do,
our work, our school, our responsibilities. We
can be a blessing in those places, and to the
parts that we get to do. And that goes back to
some of the things I mentioned, like my son needing
me to do his paper. We're not like when I'm at
work. You know, I got my job to do and everything.
There's always busy and whatever kind of thing.
But it's also like, how can I be a blessing to
people? A, I'm doing a good job. I don't sit
around my work and read the Bible all day. I
mean, it's good to read the Bible, but that's
not why I'm there. I don't go and pigeon people
in a corner. Do you know Jesus is your savior?
That's not what you do at work. But you live
a life. That a is a blessing to people and man
can lead people to ask questions like I even
had that in the break room I may have related
this and one other time I've been here where
some girl said why are you so happy all the time?
And it's like well, and I told her you know because
like we don't talk about religion at work but
you asked me a direct question and we're in the
break room so we're on time out right now so
i just told her in no uncertain terms nicely
and and so i i would talk to you sadly with covet
i really haven't seen her much since then um
but yeah we took you know so that's the kind
of thing and i've related to somebody you know
what a friend of mine who's a good christian
at work and we talk about stuff and he just says
A little odd, because he says, yeah, I had a
dream the other night. When you're in somebody
else's dream, that's always a little hmm. But
he says, yeah, it was in the, if you've ever
seen the show, Amazing Race. And I was doing
really well. And he says, but you were so nice
that people were giving you random shortcuts
and you were beating me. I got so upset I fell
out of bed. And I'm like, whoa, there's a lot
of things to say about all that. But it's kind
of like, in the end. that the person would think,
you know, and even my supervisor said, you're
a very amiable, you know, that means, you know,
friendly whatever person. And so, you know, that's
just, you know, Christ reflecting in our lives.
You know, the best we can ever be is a reflection
of Jesus. But that's a great thing. And so that's
what I have to think about when I go through
my day. I got my stuff I want to do, I got my
stuff I want to be, whatever, whatever, but it's
not really all that important. But being a reflection
of Jesus, being a blessing, does get in the way
of what I want to do. and what I have planned
for the day. And so that's important. That's
again, thinking of what God is doing in our lives
and keeping that and how God wants to evolve
us in our lives. It's a challenge. Boy, I tell
you, I don't remember all the time. Sometimes
I'll look back and go, oh, that was an opportunity
and I kind of blew it because I was focused on
what I wanted to do. I had my own ideas and I
missed it. God still loves us. God forgives us.
And you just kind of put that in the pocket and
kind of say, next time God help me to remember.
All right, John saw in his first vision of Patmos
how much different Jesus is after his death,
resurrection, and ascension. This same John...
This would have been like 60 years before. Here
he is on the island. About 60 years earlier,
that's when Jesus was doing his ministry. He
was with Jesus for like four years. He spent
four years with Jesus. He was the disciple that
Jesus loved. He was kind of the favorite disciple,
at least by the other disciples' way of thinking.
It's thought that John was the youngest disciple,
and he probably was, for what that's worth. But
anyway, he was with Jesus for four years. Even
at the Last Supper, he was the one that was right
next to Jesus. And so when Jesus said, somebody's
going to betray me, the other guy's going, hey,
John, ask him what he means by that. Because
A, you're sitting right next to him. And B, you
have a little more in on Jesus than we do. So
this is that John. And John. even saw him, his
brother James, and Peter, the only three who
saw Jesus glorified in the Mount of Triumphs.
They saw Jesus as he really was. That is a great
vision. And yet, even having seen that, he's
totally and completely blown away by what he
sees here in this vision, such that he said he
fell over like he was dead in the presence. He
was so overwhelmed by the resurrected glory of
Christ. Jesus has said that his father would
glorify him through his suffering and death for
our forgiveness and eternal life John saw how
true that really was I pray that we would see
how the death and resurrection of Jesus Changes
our lives and celebrate Easter all year round
and be a Easter blessing to people all year round
Now the peace of God that passes all understanding
keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our
Lord amen