Scripture: Revelation 1:1-6 Series: 2022
Opening sermon of a four-week Revelation series, preached on Revelation 1:1-6. The preacher dismantles popular end-times readings (Hal Lindsey, Left Behind, Darby’s rapture/dispensationalism) as a modern innovation foreign to the early church, and reframes ‘apocalypse’ as unveiling present reality. Drawing on Richard Bauckham, he argues Revelation counters the Roman imperial worldview and is fundamentally about Christian identity: Jesus as the Alpha and Omega, our beginning and end, Lord of the Sabbath and our coming rest. Communion is a foretaste of the heavenly feast. The sermon closes with an interactive ritual: writing down preconceptions of Revelation and of God’s limits on one’s life, then dissolving them in water to enact God’s offered freedom.
Illustrations: hal-lindsey-late-great-planet-earth, left-behind-series, john-darby-rapture-origin, interpretation-chart-atom-diagram, dropping-curtain-revelation, dissolving-preconceptions-in-water
February 6
Alpha and Omega
A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. Christ made it known by sending it through his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, including all that John saw. Favored is the one who reads the words of this prophecy out loud, and favored are those who listen to it being read, and keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace and peace to you from the one who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before God’s throne, and from Jesus Christ—the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, who made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and always. Amen. Revelation 1:1-6
In your bulletin today, there was a small piece of paper. I hope you still have it. If you don’t, our ushers will be able to give you another one. On this paper, I want you to take some time to write down what you think of when I say the word apocalypse or revelation. Or when you hear the Book of Revelation. What is the first thing that comes to your mind? Maybe an image? Maybe a book? Maybe a series. I want you to pray about it and write this down. We are going to have a brief moment of reflection now. We are also going to do something with this piece of paper at the end of the message. (30 second) Like many, my preconception of Revelation has to do with the end of the world, the end of time. It has to do with the book by Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth, which was a big sensation in the 60s and 70s. I read part of it a few years ago and it is mostly not about revelation but how the Soviet Union was predicted in the book of Daniel, as well as the rise of China, etc. I grew up around the fervor of the Left Behind series of books. A long series with talk of the Rapture and the Anti-Christ and as I studied theology, I learned about Dispensationalist theology which informed the series. The idea that history is fixed with a certain set of dispensations beginning with innocence under Adam, and continuing from the Fall to the Great Flood and on and on until the dispensation of grace in which we currently live, which will be followed by the Millennial kingdom (which is not a kingdom of millennials, though I wonder what that would look like). These ways of reading the book of revelation are found in many places. We cannot dismiss them. If you look at a chart of this interpretation, this is as complex as a diagram of an atom or a protein molecule.
This way of reading Revelation, though, is very modern. It began in earnest in the early 19th century with a man named John Darby. The idea of the rapture comes from Darby, as well as the detailed assumptions of what revelation means. These readings do not go back to the 1st century. This is not how the earliest Christian read this book. Whether you grew up in the church or you are still not sure about this God thing, there is something in this book for you. Revelation is about our identity more than anything else. What is the source of our identity?
Series Intro
My friends, over the next few weeks we are going to have a sermon series on the book of revelation. I am going to try to explain it. It will not be entirely explained. That is a goal. Some people obsess over Revelation. Others avoid it because it seems like a scary book.
This is not a scary book. This is a beautiful book. Over the next four weeks, we will give an overview of the book. I encourage you, if you have a chance, to read the whole book as we go along, but I am not checking your homework on this.
So we are going to look at how the book of revelation is both in the future but already present. It is soon and near but has, in part, already occurred in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This isn’t just about the future but about reality, our reality right now. It is about contrasting true and false views of reality. As Richard Baukham writes, “The book of revelation counters that false view of reality by opening the world to divine transcendence.” It comes back to our identity. Are we primarily citizens of the world, citizens of the US, citizens of Texas, or are we primarily citizens of heaven. There is a destiny beyond the present. And, can we start living into that destiny now. In the Gospels, we see that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and this gets us to the title of this message. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. That is a beautiful phrase but what it means is that Jesus is our beginning and Jesus is our end. The first and last letter of the Greek alphabet. When Jesus says ‘l am the Lord of the Sabbath’ he is saying that I am the one who created. I am over creation. The first sabbath takes place in creation and is practiced by God. God doesn’t need to rest in order to conserve energy. God is the source of all energy and life. When we practice sabbath, we admit this and offer ourselves to our creator. Thus the importance of sabbath rest. Jesus is staking his claim as Lord of heaven and earth. God doesn’t rest on the 7th day to get ready for the week ahead. God rests to enjoy what has been done. The early church also understood Sabbath rest as our future with God. Now, in this life, we labor in the fields of this world, but when we are present with God, we shall have our true sabbath rest. All rest here is a foretaste of that heavenly rest. God is the Lord of our time, our rest, our work. Revelation is not just our future but our present. As Richard Baukham says,
“Revelation is John’s readers concrete, day-to-day world seen in the heavenly and eschatological perspective (eschatological means last things. The perspective of the last things, that is what is going on in this book. Continuing on…) As such, it functions as a counter to the Roman Imperial view of the world.” In the Roman view of the world, you have to give sacrifices to the Roman gods, you have to give fealty as well as to the emperor, the governor, the army, etc.. Let us contrast this with the Christian view of the world. The view of the triune God. The view that you were created in the image of God for something more. Before it mentions anything about Jesus coming again, the Book of Revelation is first a series of letters to seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Here is a map of where this churches were.
Map
So the Book of Revelation is a series of circulating letters, it is also a prophecy of what can happen. It is also an apocalyptic. Apocalypse means what has been revealed. This is the title of the book in Greek. Apocalypse means revelation. It does not mean the end of the world. If I hold a curtain in front of you and then it drops, that is revelation. That is what is going on in this book. It is not just that the time is set in the future, but that our eyes are being open to reality, to the act that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, our beginning and our end, and that the forces of destruction do not have final say over us and offers us that rest.
As well, we are offered the body and blood of Christ at this table. We are also offered the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation at this table. At this table, we have a foretaste of our heavenly feast, as well as food for the heavenly kingdom here. This world is being made new. This world is being made holy. This meal is more than our present. This meal is our future. And over our next few weeks, as we look at this challenging book of the Bible together, each week we are going to focus on a different aspects of worship. What we call the liturgy.
Revelation is full of songs of praise to God.
The basic structure of the book is important. In between a brief introduction and conclusion, there are six vision cycles:
- Christ and the Seven Assemblies
- The Seven Seals
- The Seven Trumpets
- The Dragon, the Beasts, and the Faithful
- The Seven Bowls and the Fall of Babylon
- From the Beast’s Demise to New Jerusalem.1
Each of the visions begins in the presence of God, reveals threats of some kind, and then returns to the presence of God. Almost every vision includes a song.
The timing of revelation is what most people focus on. When is this going to take place? Since the 13th century, many have tried to piece together the precise timing. Most famously with dispensationists and rapture theology, which didn’t exist before John Darby. And yet the desire is there. How long, O Lord, is a common refrain throughout the bibles.
One of the interesting things about revelation itself is that there is no claim about the end of time or the end of the age, like there is in Daniel or even in the Gospels to some degree. In Revelation, stuff is happening soon. John comes right out and says it in the first verse. “The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.” The word translated here as soon is τάχει which could mean speed or haste. These visions are taking place soon. They are taking place soon for the early church that read these letters. They are taking place soon for us. But how can something happen with haste if it hasn’t happened in two thousands years?
Like I said earlier, revelation isn’t just about our future or about predicting the future. What if the book of revelation helps to understand what we are living in today, not as signs of the end but as signs of God.
The very first line of the book is sometimes translated as the Revelation from Jesus Christ. It could also be the revelation of Jesus Christ. The point is not as much the message but the messenger. It is not about John but Jesus. Who God is for us. God is not on the side of destruction but the side of life. In the midst of literal tribulation, God is here for us.
But today we are setting the table. A few minutes ago, I asked all of you to write your preconception down of the book of revelation. Now, I want you to think about a preconception of what God can do with your life. What is a limit that you have put on God in your life? What is a limit Of the expectation? As we close, I want you all to take a time in prayer. On one side we have our preconception of the book of revelation, on the other side we have our preconception of God in our life.
Maybe it is a preconception of how often you can pray. I can’t pray that much. I can’t give that much. I can’t serve that much. I can’t share my faith. I can’t be forgiven for that. God offers us freedom from those limits. God shows us and tells us that those limits are from our head and from the world, there are not from God. That nothing is impossible for God. When you are done, there are two stations with water. After communion, I want you to go as you feel led to put your preconceptions in the water and watch as they dissolve away. God offers us freedom. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. Our end is not in destruction but in the God who is love.
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us in Jesus. Help us to understand our identity in you so that our lives may reveal your love to others. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Footnotes
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Koester, 112. ↩