In the lectionary reading for today we come to the
triumphant finale of the book of the Revelation and of the Bible.
Like a great composer, John or God, depending on how you
think about it, revisits some of the great themes of his symphony and gives
them one last blast and brings the whole thing to a wonderful conclusion.
A conclusion that demands a response from us: yes, a
standing ovation and cries of “Encore!” and “Bravo!” (feel free after the
sermon!) but much more than that:
A response of our whole heart, soul, mind and strength:
Our intellects, emotions, wills, thoughts, plans, dreams,
actions, words – all are affected by this great anthem.
We too are to echo its themes.
I hope God’s tune will get stuck in your head and you’ll
be able to hum it to yourself this week, and perhaps even to improvise on it.
This sermon is a running commentary on the text.
It makes no pretense to any structure or headings other
than the Bible’s own.
So it might seem a bit less like an incoherent jumble if
you follow it in the Bible.
P1250.
Here are the notes John has laid down for us.
I hope to play them all and some of them I’ll hold for
longer than others and some I’ll give a jolly good bang.
V12 – The Lord Jesus Christ himself speaking:
John has been speaking earlier in v8 but if its not
obvious from the content, look at v16 and you can confirm that this is Jesus
speaking.
“Behold, I am coming soon!”
The Bible talks about various different comings of God
and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
e.g. his birth – his first coming
came to Jerusalem in his earthly ministry
predicted that he would come again to Jerusalem in
judgement
AD 70
Much of the book of Revleation, I suspect, is actually
about that
But Jesus also spoke of his Second Coming
End of the world
“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the
dead”
“soon”
2000 years is not soon in my diary
I might adopt that approach when someone asks me to do
something
“I’ll do it soon” – 2 millenia
AD 70 was soon – within a generation of Jesus, maybe
within a few years of John’s writing
2000 years not long in God’s terms
That’s the blink of an eye to him
Older people’s perspective on time
To them my 35 years are but a moment
The Vicar is still a lad!
Policemen are looking young
(Wedding couples)
To a 90 year old the 2nd world war might feel
like only yesterday even though it was 70 years ago
God eternal, timeless, unchangeable
God never early or late, always right on time
All time is present to him
God is never in a hurry
He always (literally) has all the time in the world
A thousand years like a day
2nd coming “soon”
No one knows the date or the hour
Could be any minute
God showing mercy to a thousand generations
A generation 30, 40, 50, 60 years?
30 000 years
We’re planning for a lot more generations of faithful
Lloyds!
The Second coming might be today but I guess
We’ve only just started
The church is barely out of nappies
It’s not surprising she keeps squabbling and falling out
and mucking things up
She’s a toddler
We’ve all got a lot more growing up to do
Growing pains, teething troubles
Perhaps the Reformation was the adolescence of the church
May God bring us to greater maturity and unity
V12b
Justification by grace alone through faith alone in
Christ alone
A free gift
We never earn or deserve our salvation
Judgement according to works
Above all we will be judged by what we have done with
Jesus
Have we followed him?
Obviously not perfectly, but really?
What has Jesus done in and through you?
In the portacabin where I had Sunday School there was a
poster:
Cartoon judge
“If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there
be enough evidence to convict you?”
A searching question, isn’t it?
It obviously stuck in my mind.
What real difference has Jesus made in your life this
last week?
What difference will he make next week?
Not just secretly in your heart, but the kind of thing we
could point a stick at in a court of law – public observable evidence
And don’t just say you came to church for an hour on
Sunday!
That’s a great start!
Did you read your Bible or pray in between?
Did you speak to anyone about Jesus?
Did your commitment to Jesus change the way you treated
your spouse, or parents, or kids, or neighbours, or even the mother in law?
How did it affect the way you do business?
Where you a Christian builder / judge / teacher / car
park person / carer / housewife / nurse / accountant / … / this week?
(Have you even started to think about what that would
mean? – Good Book Club!)
Or how you treat the gardener or cleaner?
Or your boss?
Jesus really does expect our commitment to him to be
visible in what we DO and SAY.
We should see our Christianity from our diary and our
bank statement but we should also see it running through everything.
For example, on the great final day, you might be able to
say for a decade I photocopied the church notice sheet for you, Jesus.
No one really knew I did it.
I didn’t enjoy doing it.
It wasn’t my gift.
But I knew it needed doing, so I did it happily with a
smile on my face.
I was converted, wasn’t I, Jesus?
No one in their right mind would have done that, except
for love for you.
Works the evidence of a changed heart
Justification by faith alone, but the faith that saves is
never alone
e.g. even the thief on the cross – his words
Not faith + good works = salvation
But salvation = faith + good works
v13
Jesus the A & the Z
Jesus is the beginning and the end.
The originator and the completer.
The creator and the redeemer.
The start and the goal.
The promise and the fulfilment.
All things were created by him and for him that in all
things he might have the supremacy.
Jesus is the whole story.
He’s the underlying principle, the organising genius, the
theme, the motif.
He is the author, the playwright, the producer, director,
choreographer.
He gives the universe its coherence and reason, purpose.
He is all in all.
V14
“Blessed” = “Happy” – truly happy, real fulfilment, joy,
security, the good life
Not… small holding in the countryside or a secure
retirement
Forgiveness – a wash
J b f a again!
Our righteousness as filthy rags
Scarlet stains as white as wool, as snow
There’s an asymmetry:
All those who are shut out deserve it
None of those who are let in deserve it
Yet they are really Jesus’ people, really changed by him
They are sinners saved by grace – and the work of grace
in them is apparent
Do you remember what John Newton, the former slave-trader
who wrote Amazing Grace said:
“I am not what I ought to
be,
I am not what I want to be,
I am not what I hope to
be in another world;
but still I am not what I
once used to be,
and by the grace of God I
am what I am”
Always simultaneously righteous and a sinner having the
alien righteousness of Christ (Luther)
A right
To the tree of life
And to go through the gates of the city
A tree and a city, both
The Bible begins with a garden and ends with a garden
city
Tree of life – Eden
Eternal life
What was forbidden to the 1st man because of
his sin is now permitted to mankind because of the saviour.
The first Adam could not eat of that tree but the Last
Adam has given the sons of Adam the right to eat.
Paradise restored.
Only better!
Eden 2.0
Eden upgraded, mature, complete, full
City – community, people
If you get Jesus you get his friends thrown in!
Sorry about that!
This lot are part of the package!
A city also implies a civilization, a way of life, a
culture
The way we do things around here
Kingdom manners and habits and style
Mature, complete, developed
One degree of glory to another
Christ’s Kingdom come here on earth as in heaven
The New Creation won’t be like the Amish
There’ll be IPads or the latest equivalent!
V15 – Some will be shut out
Not automatic entry
Gates open wide, but you have to show your invite
You have to observe the dress code
Could you do that?
Have you accepted Jesus’ invite?
Have you put on clean robes washed in the blood of the
lamb?
Not literally dogs – dogs will be in! – a term of abuse!
Biblical abuse!
Interesting, isn’t it: the Bible calls people horrible
names!
Dogs – not as in our culture – splendid Caleb the dog! –
scavengers on rubbish tips, pariahs, unclean
Magicians – phew!
Sexually immoral? You? Fantasies? If you knew you
wouldn’t be found out?
Murder in your heart?
Idolaters – mental as well as metal idols
Those who love and practice falsehood – say whatever’s
easiest
V16
Jesus the root and offspring of David
A very odd expression
Both root and offspring:
Root and shoot
The seed and the bud
Ancestor and descendent
Great king David’s greater son
The Eternal Son of God is also the Son of Man, the Son of
David
Jesus the bright Morning Star
The Morning Star is a bright planet esp. Venus that
appears in the East just before sunrise
He heralds the dawn of eternity
This world-order was merely the prelude, the first
movement
First Fruits
1st bluebell in the wood – it’ll soon be full
of them!
V17
The bride – the church
The Bible the greatest love story ever told
A romance, a love affair
God woos his bride
Gives her everything
Wayward, tart, harlot, unfaithful
God should have divorced her
Jesus lays down his life for his bride
The greatest fairy story ever - They turn out to be true!
Jesus is the knight who kills the dragon and gets the
girl
For her it’s a rags to riches story
For him it’s a riches to rags to riches story
She gets a royal name
She gets great wealth
He gets death!
Yet through death he wins the greatest victory of all
He washes and beautifies her
Both a wounded and bloodied, but only Jesus’ wounds
remain, the glorious tokens of his victory
She is made whole by his brokenness
The Spirit and the bride agree
The Spirit teaches us to pray like this
God and the church are at one
V17 – response say “Come!”
Do you want the future this book describes?
Are you willing to entrust yourself to Jesus?
Do you want Jesus?
If I were an American preacher I would say “Can I get an
AMEN?”
That’s the response God is looking for.
Not necessarily vocal but volitional, a yes from our
souls!
Thirsty?
Free drink of the water of life.
FREE!
Really free.
There is some small print!
But it is really free.
What could be easier?
Come, take, drink!
We can all manage that, can’t we?
Jesus is water in a dry land.
Water when all the other cisterns are cracked and dry.
All the other drinks turn out to be poison.
Much that is apparently good water is salty and only
increases our thirst.
We are insatiably thirsty.
V18-19 – a warning
V20 – Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Will you echo those words?
The note on which to end this sermon is perhaps the same
note on which John ends the book of the Revelation:
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
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