Revelation 1: 4-8

During the past weeks we’ve looked at Christ from the perspective of His being our high priest, not of an earthly nature, bound by earthly confines but rather of a heavenly nature, having paid the price for our sins through the shedding of His blood. This morning we are going to move to the book of Revelation where John introduces us to our high priest, Jesus Christ, who stands at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us as we come before the throne. The book of Revelation can be a very confusing book if you attempt to figure out what all the symbolism means. I know that many books of interpretation have been written in an attempt to help us understand it, but know for a fact that most of them are theory and require a bit of literary license in order to make everything fit according to the way their author’s want us to understand it. So in an attempt to make sense out of what John wrote down, as given to him by the Holy Spirit, I would say that the best way to understand this Revelation is to know that if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, then everything will be ok. Now this is an over simplification but yet it lays a solid foundation upon which one can stand as you attempt to grow in your knowledge of what Christ has in store for you. As our text begins this morning the apostle John identifies himself as the one who is writing these words down and he tells us that the letter is to be sent to the seven Christian churches that were in the province of Asia Minor or what we know today as Turkey. The churches formed a very small circle and included the towns of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Each of the churches most likely had a connection with Paul and his ministry to the Gentiles but at this point in time their spiritual lives had begun to deteriorate as they had become lax and in some cases apathetic about their relationship with and service for Christ. While all of this information has been recorded for us in historical records, it would serve us well to be reminded that this problem plagues all Christians from time to time, that of the depth of our spiritual relationship to God. And it for that specific reason we are encouraged to remember Advent, which begins next Sunday, and take the following 4 weeks to ponder what it is that we are doing in our own spiritual lives and maybe respond to the call of Christ to renew our baptisms and renew the passion of our need to serve, not just a God but a risen and reigning savior. Sometimes our need for renewal gets lost in the hustle and bustle of the season. While I stand here speaking of the coming of Advent, you are sitting there thinking about Thanksgiving. Unfortunately it seems that the days fly by far too quickly but then that is why I’m reminding you. Enjoy Thanksgiving, take time to be Thankful, but at the same time realize that our Thanks cannot be complete without the birth of Christ. While our pile of things to be thankful is great, they all pale in comparison to our salvation, for without Christ all else is really meaningless. Listen again to the words which John writes here in verse 5 that Christ is the first of the resurrection and that He is the king of kings and lord of lords, and that our Father in heaven loved us enough to free us from the burden of our sins by sending His one and only Son to die in our place. The point that John makes for us this morning is that if we reserve our thanks for only Thanksgiving and our emotional connection to Christ for the Christmas season we are really short changing ourselves. Understand that we don’t have to put away the emotional connection to holiday season when we put away the Thanksgiving decorations or when we take down the tree and fold up the stockings, because that isn’t what the season is all about anyway. What the season is all about is celebrating with thanks the new life that was granted to us through the coming of Christ as an infant, who, while fully God chose not to avoid the struggles of humanity but rather deliberately chose to walk the same journey that you and I walk every day. And why did he do it? Look to verse 6 ,so that we could not only become children of the King but a part of the priesthood of believers, not waiting to be served by Him but to willing to serve Him as we carry on the work that He began. While none of us can save anyone from anything, it is up to each and every one of us to be the door way by which others find salvation. How do we do that, by our service to Him, our service in the church, our service in the community, and our service within our own families. While Christ died once and only once for the sins of all mankind, He has asked us to be His voice, His arms, and His legs to share that message with all whom we meet. In verse 7, John reminds us that just as Christ ascended into the kingdom, one day He is going to return and He is going to gather His own about him. But unless we are ready, and unless we’ve undertaken to tell others, that group who will meet Him will be very small. This is the point of what John is getting here. While the churches to which this letter was written started off with power and strength they had allowed that power and strength to diminish and as the result those who could have or should have responded to the coming of Christ might well miss it. In verse 7 John writes, “and every eye will see him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.” When Christ comes again in the clouds, it isn’t going to be like it was in Bethlehem, for there only the Shepherds came to see the gift which God had sent. The next time Christ appears everyone on the face of the planet will see Him, and at that very moment there is going to be a great sense of mourning because those who thought that this God stuff was a lot of baloney will understand that every words spoken was spoken in truth. And while there will be an opportunity for those present to open their hearts and receive Him, those who have all ready run their earthly races, will not have a second chance. Christ is not going, as He did at the time of the first resurrection, to Paradise to set the prisoners free, this time He will only come to claim those who still remain behind. That is why it is so important that we be busy about the task of evangelism, the task of telling everyone we meet that they need to accept Him while they can. And so that we might know that this is going to happen, look to the end of verse 7, for it doesn’t just end with one amen but rather two. So shall it be! Amen! As we look now to begin that journey to the manger once again, know that Christ is king, and not only king but the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the one who is, who was, and who will be. If you leave here this morning, not having made a decision for Christ in your life, know the risk, and know that tomorrow could well be too late. You want something to be Thankful for this Thursday; this is it, eternal life. Hear the word of God and allow it to fill your hearts with a great and gentle peace.