Message

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Thank God for helping us to have a chance to study the book of Revelation. The author of this book is Apostle John and it was written around 95 A.D. This book is called sometimes the Revelation and sometimes the Apocalypse. The Greek word for revelation is apokalupsis. This Greek word is composed of two part, apo meaning away from plus kalupsis, a veiling. Apokalupsis, therefore, means an unveiling, a revealing. The revealing of the future can make people frightened and fearful. But it can make us his people awakened and assured of the future victory and glory in this uncertain and turbulent world. With this prayer may we study the book of Revelation, beginning with the first lesson entitled, “Look, he is coming.” Look at verse 1. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.” This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, not about Jesus Christ. God gave this revelation to Jesus. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. Then John testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. (God -> Jesus -> his angel -> John -> all other servants). All other Bible writers wrote the 65 books of the Bible by God’s inspiration. But this book of Revelation is what John saw in the Spirit. He did not write about certain events or stories. He wrote testifying to everything he saw. That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. So, we can say that the book of Revelation is the most reliable, although all the books of the Bible are 100% reliable; and as flawless. That’s the way it is specifically written in Revelation 22:18,19, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” The reliability of this book had to be protected. We know that all those who read and study the Bible are blessed people. Yet, the blessedness of those who read the words of this book of the prophecy is specifically written from the beginning of this book. Look at verse 3. “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” The blessing is doubly guaranteed. Generally, people have unpleasant feelings when they try to read this book, maybe because of the number 666, the appearance of dragon and beasts, the death of a third of mankind, the war of Armagedon, or the fiery lake of burning sulfur. But may God help us to have the assurance of blessedness as we study this book of Revelation. First, he has freed us and made us a kingdom and priests (4-6). Look at verse 4. “John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia…” Now the writer and the recipients of this book come. This book is a sort of letter because the recipients are clearly written. However, the sender and the receivers are written in verse 4, after the head description of “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So this is John’s letter, not a personal letter, but concerning the revelation of Jesus Christ. This letter is sent to the seven churches in the province of Asia. They are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea (perfect number, completeness, to the whole church). Look at verses 4b,5b. “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ…” This greeting of grace and peace is from the triune God, the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son Jesus Christ, while most of the letters in the New Testament send the greetings of grace and peace “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” For the churches the role of the Holy Spirit is obvious (2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22). And Jesus is introduced as the one “who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” Jesus is the faithful witness. “Faithful” is in Greek, “Pistos” that includes the meaning of “trustworthy”, and witness, “martus.” In the Old Testament God spoke through the prophets (Heb 1:1), but in the New Testament God has spoken by his Son (Heb 1:2). A witness is essentially a person who speaks from first-hand knowledge. No one can be the witness of God and heavenly things but Jesus the Son. In his night conversation with Nicodemus Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen...No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man” (Jn 3:11,13). And at the time of trial he said to Pilate, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth…” (Jn 18:37). What a blessing it is to mankind that we have the faithful, trustworthy witness of God and the heaven! And Revelation 19:11 says, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True.” He is so faithful and true that his name is the Word of God (Rev 19:13). We live in this deceptive and confusing world. But people must know that Jesus is the faithful witness. Next, Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. No man was raised from the dead, but Jesus. He is the firstborn from the dead. He is in the first place of glory and honour because of his resurrection from the dead. Jesus said in Revelation 1:18, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!” And so he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Kings of the world are great. Yet, there is a ruler over the kings of the earth. At that time the Roman Empire was magnificent and emperor worship was heavily imposed. As a result Christians were so persecuted and was banished with no place to go. But Jesus’ people had to know that he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. His name is “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev 19:16). Then how is he related to us? Look at verse 5b,6. “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” First and of foremost importance, he loves us. In love the subject is important, that is, “who loves us”. Human lover’s love is beautiful and comforting. Yet, that love is limited and human loves temporal and diminishes at difficult situations. However, he who is the faithful witness and the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the world loves us. His love is all powerful, and always present. His love is shown in the gospel story and in Revelation we see again his love. His love is true, especially at difficult times. His love is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb 13:8). Then, in his love what did he do? He has freed us from our sins by his blood. Nothing could save and free us from our sins. We groaned in our sins day and night. But when we heard of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that he died on the cross for our sins shedding his precious blood, we were freed from our sins which annoyed and tormented our souls night and day. He groaned on a tree in our place, shedding all his holy blood to free us from all our sins. Even now the blood of Jesus frees us from our sins at each moment. Whenever our sin binds us, we must look at his shed blood on the cross. In this grace we now live by faith, which was impossible before and which is now a truly free life. We praise God for this wonderful grace of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ goes further. He has made us to be a kingdom and priests. Jesus’ grace of freeing us from our sins by his blood is truly marvelous. But it is not enough. He made us a kingdom and priests. The kingdom he made us is not like a worldly kingdom, though worldly kingdoms such as Roman Empire looked so great and glamorous. This kingdom is the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of love and light and truth, which would conquer the whole world. Revelation 11:15 says, “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.’” (And we will reign with him.) He has made us to be a kingdom and priests. In the Old Testament priests were really chosen privileged people. They were those who would bring people to God through the sacrificing of lambs in the Temple of God. Now each of us has been made a priest, who brings people of this world to God in prayer. Since Christ Jesus died for the sin of the world as the Lamb of God, now we can bring people to God for the forgiveness of their sins and the new life in Christ. People’ problem is more than merely psychological and psychiatric in this world. In a radio broadcast, it is good for me to hear the words, “beautiful music for a crazy world.” Listening to beautiful music soothes our souls. But we cannot stop there. Many people in our society were disappointed at the decision of the judges regarding Vince Li. It is because people do not recognize the existence of evil spirits and the devil’s rampant work of merciless killing and destroying. As long as they do not recognize the spiritual war between the Holy Spirit and evil spirits, there will be more and more victims of the devil’s work. People must come to Christ, who can solve man’s sin problem and drive out evil spirits from men. For this work of God we are made to be priests. Truly this is our wonderful identity, a kingdom and priests. In the Old Testament form, it is written in Exodus 19:6, “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In the New Testament St. Peter wrote this way, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God…” (1 Peter 2:9). And it is written in Revelation 2 times. Revelation 5:10 says, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” And here in Revelation 1, the three specific graces are interwoven together, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” May God help us to keep this wonderful identity and serve the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. Third, “Look, he is coming” (7-8). A truly great and amazing thing is to come. The grace and glory of Jesus Christ is far beyond what we can imagine. Look at verse 7. “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.’” Wow! History is not a random process of unpredictable events and happenings. It is heading toward the second coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to this world from above. He was born in a manger and died and rose and was ascended into heaven. While on earth he promised again and again that he would come back. The promise of Jesus’ coming again is written in all four gospels. In Mathew’s gospel it is written: “For as the lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man…At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory” (Mt 24:27,30). Mark 13:26 says, “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” Luke 21:25,26 says, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” In John’s gospel Jesus said of his coming again to his disciples very gently in a personal way in the upper room dialogue: “In my Father’s house are many rooms…I am going there to prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” Jn 14:2,3). The ascension of Jesus is vividly written in Acts: “After he said this, he was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight” (1:9). At this fantastic sight of Jesus’ ascension his Galilean disciples were stunned and were looking up intently the sky as he was going. Then suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (1:11). The second coming of our Lord Christ Jesus is an unambiguous, crystal clear promise of the Bible. And this is one clear point of Revelation. Revelation 22:7 says, “Behold, I am coming soon!...” And Revelation 22:12 says, “Behold, I am coming soon!...” And the last words of Revelation and the Bible excepting the final greeting are, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20). Jesus’ coming again is the climax of God’s redemptive work and the climax of the history of mankind. At the first coming of Jesus only a few eyes saw him, the baby in a manger. But at the second coming, every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him will see him. All those who pierced definitely include all those who denied, rejected him, or persecuted his people. Since every eye will see him, there will be no need of preaching that Jesus came back to the earth. Everyone will be his or her own witness, first-hand witness and be the judge over each one’s own destiny. All the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. This will be a world-wide mourning. When angel of death swept over the land of Egypt, there was a nation-wide mourning because of the death of the firstborn son in each family. This time, however, the whole world will mourn and weep. But to his people this will be the day of final victory and great glory, because Christ the Lord has made us a kingdom. It is not because of our own righteous acts and achievements. It is because of what we are in him. He is our Lord and Christ; we belong to him. This coming with the clouds is not like an unknown superman or martian-man’s sudden coming. No. We have known him through fellowship with him. This is what we studied in Colossians, he is our life. When he appears, we also will appear with him in glory (Col 3:4). This will be the victory and glory to his people. This is the first thing to be revealed among all the future events, the first of revelation written in the Book of Revelation. We must look: ” and “Look, he is coming.” So he wants us to stand up and lift up our heads (Lk 21:28). We must know that we are such people with such promise of God. “So shall it be! (“nai” in Greek meaning “verily” or “truly”) Amen (Hebrew for a solemn affirmation)” This promise is doubly assured. Our God wants us to long for this glorious day, living as a kingdom and priests in this world. Look at verse 8. “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘Who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” What a meaningful statement! Alpha is the first letter and omega the last of the Greek alphabet. Our God is the one who sees the end at the beginning, and sees the beginning at the end. In other words to him the Alpha and the Omega go together. He did not say, “I was the Alpha and now I am the Omega.” No. He says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” All of history: past and present and future, are in his hand. He is the one, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Thank God for our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests. Praise him for the sure promise and vision of the Lord Jesus’ coming with the clouds and that every eye will see him. In his measureless grace may we live as a kingdom and priests in this world and be welcomed into his glory when he comes again.

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