Elisa and I started dating about four or five months after we met each other as college freshmen. We met about this time 12 years ago as freshmen at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. It took us a while to kind of figure out what our relationship was going to be, but we started dating in January, and then after a couple of years, we realized it was time to kind of push things into an even more official place. So I began to collude with a few people to propose. I got the ring together with the help of her mom and I planned everything out to be a big surprise while I visited her for her birthday that summer before our senior year and there I proposed. I asked her to marry me and everything was awesome and she said yes. Actually her first response was what are you doing and then the next response was yes. And then from there we entered this place called engagement. And nobody told me that the weirdest part of a relationship, if it ends up in marriage, is the engagement. And here's why I'm convinced it's the weirdest part. So, in one sense, we have way more commitment than we've had before. I mean, literally, she's walking around with a commitment on her ring finger on her left hand, right? There's a commitment there. And there are real concrete plans forming, not just for a wedding ceremony and all that's involved there, but because we were college students, we were talking about jobs, and where we were gonna live, and what I was gonna study in seminary, and all these different things. Things were becoming official, and we were beginning to talk about all this. But at the same time, even though there felt like there was this higher level of commitment, we were still kinda just dating. We just had kind of an end point now that was official. And one of the things that I thought about for that entire 11 months as we dated and were engaged and anticipated our wedding ceremony is like, what has actually changed? Has anything changed? Like, how are we supposed to do this thing? What does it look like to have a good and fruitful engagement between a proposal and a wedding ceremony? Well, if we look at the story of the Bible, as we come to the book of Revelation, a similar question begins to emerge for the churches of Jesus Christ throughout the history of the church. Christ has come. There has been an inauguration of his kingdom. He has accomplished our redemption through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave. and yet we are still awaiting his second coming. We're living between the proposal in a sense and the great marriage supper of the lamb. And the question we have to ask ourselves is how do we live in the in-between? As important as it is to figure out how to live in between a proposal and a wedding ceremony on earth, how much more should we be asking how we should live between Christ's first and second comings? What is it that Jesus wants us to do as a church And the wonderful reality of Revelation is all of this book was given so that Jesus could give us an answer to that question so that we would know what it looks like to live for Jesus with Jesus as he is in heaven and as we are on earth and as we are seeking to fulfill his kingdom purpose. How should we live in relationship to Jesus and the church and the world between his first and second comings? I would suggest to you that among a lot of Biblical answers, Revelation is one of the most important that we can study. Not just in the first three chapters, although that's where we're focusing now, but in all of its story of what Jesus is doing. It gives us an answer about how we live faithfully before Jesus as we await His final appearing and the fulfillment of all His promises. Now, here's what we need to say at the outset of this study. I know that like this is my second Sunday officially as pastor. I know that Revelation is one of those books that people debate and dispute and have all kinds of questions about that it causes all kinds of confusion and I'm not so dumb that I would plan to preach Revelation 1 through 22 as my very first sermon series as pastor of Mantee Baptist Church because I don't think that would go very well because I don't even know what to do with a lot of it. But the simple reality is in the midst of all of the questions that we have about what Revelation is actually saying, what the grand story of all that's gonna happen in the future is, what we need to understand is that Revelation isn't first and foremost a mysterious narrative of future events that are only passingly relevant to us. It's not just something that's gonna happen out here that only matters a little bit to us just as we try to understand what's gonna happen to a future generation of Christians. The book of Revelation is a God breathed book just like any other book of the scriptures. It is the word of God and it is the word of God to us. So while it does concern the future and the future that it describes is really important for us to understand we need to understand that Revelation has relevance right now. Not just because of what's happening on the news not just because of what we're trying to understand about the world but because Revelation has always had relevance for the church. And the reason that I want to suggest that to you before we begin to work through the fullness of the text that we have in front of us this morning is that Revelation was written to real Christians and real history. I see no reason to dispute the idea that Revelation was written to seven actual literal historical churches that were dealing with real problems and seeking to be faithful to a real Jesus in the real world. As Jesus begins to unfold his purpose to these seven churches in Asia, he's talking to real Christians just like you and me. And if Romans is relevant to the church, if Ephesians is relevant to the church, if 1 John is relevant to the church, if the Psalms are relevant to the church, if Leviticus is relevant to the church, then Revelation is relevant to the church. And so we need to begin to work through all of the haze and the confusion and even some of the mild disagreements that we might have among ourselves about what this book means to begin to grasp its immediate significance for us. But not only do I think that there's really good reason to believe these are written to real churches in history and so they have relevance for us today, Jesus is very explicit as he leads John through this series of visions and as he communicates his purpose for his church, that the book of Revelation was about events not just way off in the future, but about events that are happening for them in the first century. You notice what he says as John's writing here in the beginning verses. He says, So either John was wrong and these things weren't soon to take place, or Jesus was wrong and these things weren't soon to take place, or something about revelation is relevant for all Christians in all times, in all places. My goal this morning is not for us to get all of that in our minds. My goal is simply for us to establish a baseline that as we go through these letters, they matter for Mantee Baptist Church in 2024. and they can teach us what Jesus wants from us as a church. He continues later in verse three, blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. Listen, what I want to get at in all of this is that the book of Revelation is Christ revealing what he is up to right now and what he intends to do with us as his people right now. This is Jesus's word to us. It's Jesus's book of church order in many respects. For the church living between his first and second comings and seeking to chart a path of faithfulness to Jesus. Now, this morning, I just want to look at some introductory issues here in these verses. You trust me enough to see that these things are relevant for us. These are real things for us right now as Manti Baptist Church. But I want to look at two overarching ideas as we begin to get into these first verses. I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes when you come to read a new book of the Bible, and it's especially like a letter, you kind of rush through the first few verses because you're like, every time Paul writes a letter, he says the same thing. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And you just kind of run on. And sometimes he starts a letter and he starts talking about specific things that are happening in specific churches and we go, I don't live in Philippi. I don't know that this is particularly relevant for me. And there are realities that we have to deal with on that front. Again, if we believe the Bible was written to real people in real history, then we need to get in our minds the context in which people receive these different biblical truths. But at the same time, oftentimes, just like in the things that we say when we write or when we text or when we email or even when we have a conversation, before we get into the meat of the conversation, we give clues about what the whole thing is about. Sometimes one of the most difficult things for me as a pastor is when people don't give me clues about what they wanna talk about. Just full disclosure, sometimes one of the things that happens, and when you're a pastor, you know that this can go a lot of different directions. Thankfully, Mantee is not this way. But one of the scariest things in the world is when somebody calls you or texts you and says, hey, can I talk to you soon? And it's not because you don't want to talk to them, but you're like, oh, that can go a lot of different directions. And you're like, in the back of your mind, you're thinking, what have I done? Have I done something wrong? Have I messed up? You know, you're wondering, what is this all about? But oftentimes, many of you, as we talk together, you say, hey, I would like to talk to you about, and you tell me something specific. And what that begins to do is it begins to let me see the purpose of your heart and to prepare to respond rightly to the things that you have to say to me. That is exactly what New Testament letters are often doing. When we have these introductory verses, the writers of the New Testament, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are beginning to give us breadcrumbs that are going to help us to see the grand vision that all that they're writing is actually about. And that's exactly what happens here. We begin to see, even in these opening verses, the purpose for the entire book of Revelation, including the seven letters that we're going to see together very, very soon. So I wanna look at two overarching things here in these opening verses. Number one, I want to think together about the source of revelation. The source of revelation. As we come into this particular book, before we begin to grasp the details of what Jesus says to the churches, we need to understand who stands behind all that revelation has to say. And the answer comes to us in verse one. The revelation of Jesus Christ. which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. From the outset of Revelation, the Apostle John is abundantly clear that though he is the one who is writing the words, though he is the one who is receiving the visions, he is not ultimately the author of the book of Revelation. This is a word from Jesus to his church. The source of this particular letter this particular extended vision is Jesus himself. Jesus has something that he wants to say. Now as we acknowledge that this letter is from Jesus revelation is from Jesus as the great author of all that is contained here. We also have to confront another thing. What is the letter ultimately about? And I want to suggest to you that when we use the phrase, the revelation of Jesus Christ, we're not just talking about the revelation from Jesus Christ, we're talking about the revelation about Jesus. Revelation isn't just from Jesus, but revelation is about Jesus. And I want to show you why that's so important. As we begin to grasp the significance of all of this sometimes what we can begin to treat Revelation as is a sort of playbook for the end times. And so we can begin to try to mine all of its details to understand times and places and people and to kind of place ourselves in the overarching story of what the last days are going to look like and what they even look like now because the New Testament is clear that we are living and have been living since Christ's ascension in the last days. That's important in and of itself, but it's not the main goal. What stands at the heart of Revelation are not details and events about times and places, but what stands at the heart of Revelation is Jesus himself. The reason that Jesus gives us this book, I believe, at the heart of all that it is, is because he wants us to see him. Do you ever wonder, what is Jesus up to right now? Like, he was here, he did his thing for 33 years, he spent a few days with his disciples after his resurrection, he went up to heaven, he sent the Spirit, and the Bible tells us that he's up there reigning at God's right hand, but like, what is he actually doing? What can we think about our connection to Jesus right now as we're living in this world and Jesus is in heaven? Revelation is an answer to that because it's in Revelation that we see that Jesus is the one who ascended into heaven. And when from the throne the question was posed is there anyone worthy to take the scroll that includes all of the events of God's final purposes for his world and to unseal it and to begin to let it unfold in human history. When the book of Revelation asks for the lion of the tribe of Judah who's worthy to take the scroll what do we see in Revelation 4 and 5? We see a lamb slain from the foundation of the world and all of heaven cries the lamb is worthy and we see the lamb ascend to the throne and take the scroll and we realize that no matter what is happening in the world Jesus is right now ruling as king and he holds the course of human history in the palm of his hands. And he is orchestrating all things according to his glorious purpose for the good of his people and the glory of his name. And what we need to recognize as Manti Baptist Church is that this Jesus is supposed to be the focus of everything that we are and everything that we do. We don't need to be so focused on discerning specific details that we miss Jesus. To go back to the wedding analogy, weddings are a big deal and people do weddings in different ways. But a lot of us, when we get married, there's a little bit of hoopla surrounding the wedding ceremony, right? So there's the proposal, and then you spend whatever time that happens between the proposal and the ceremony planning. And there are all kinds of details to consider. There's a dress for the bride, and there's who's gonna be in the bridal party, who's gonna be in the groom's party. There's flowers to consider, and music, and an officiant, and a venue, and whether you're gonna have a meal for the reception, or you're just gonna have cake and mints and nuts like a good Southern Baptist. You have all these questions you have to answer. and all these things you've got to discern. And in all of that that we're trying to do, all that's important. But what ultimately makes for the wedding? The reception, I'm sorry to some of you, reception's kind of irrelevant. You don't have to have one to have a wedding. The dress, as wonderful as it is, and I hope all of you ladies that are gonna be married get a great one. I'm not saying anything about that. But you can get married without a wedding dress. All those things are wonderful and they're important, but what actually matters at a wedding is one man and one woman joining together in a covenant union that proclaims the glories of Christ and his church before his people. That's what it's all about. And what can often happen in a wedding or anything else in our lives is we can get so obsessed with the details that surround the big thing that we miss the big thing that stands at the heart of it all. And that's exactly what we're at danger of doing with Revelation. I don't want us, in thinking about the details of life for us in the world between Christ's first and second coming, to miss Jesus. Because if we can agree on anything about the end of time if we can agree on anything about God's purpose as he brings all things to their appointed conclusion it's this that Jesus Christ is worthy of the worship of all people in all places at all times. that we have an obligation to make him known to the ends of the earth, so that his glory fills the earth as the waters cover the seas, and so that we will join the sacred throng of people worshiping around his throne forever as the Lamb slain and conquering over all things. Revelation is about Jesus. So my goal for us, as we begin to push into the details of these letters, is that we would keep in the forefront of our minds Jesus. and our desperate need to see him for who he is. That's the source of revelation. Then I want to think about the purpose of revelation. The purpose of revelation. I'm going to move pretty quickly here. Full disclosure, I say I'm going to move quickly all the time. I don't know that that actually is the truth. I'm going to do my best to move quickly here. That's my assurance. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to try. I'm going to try to move quickly here, but I want you to see three things in these first verses about the purpose of Revelation. Why has all of this been given to us? What is it that Jesus ultimately is doing through this book as we see him in it? Three things I want you to see here. Number one, revelation is for our blessing. Revelation is for our blessing. As the book begins, we read the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. God gave this to Jesus to show to us for a reason. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Then verse three, blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. Now, this may seem really weird, because it's like, wait, to get the full blessing, does this mean that every day I need to sit up and read aloud the book of Revelation in order for me to get the full blessing? I understand the context of this. Back in the ancient world, not everybody could read. Not only that, they only had one copy. They didn't take the copies of the letters that were written home with them to study. In order to do that, somebody would have had to sit down and write a handwritten copy of all 22 chapters of Revelation. And that would take a while. And so the way that people receive these New Testament books in their very first giving was somebody would come to the church and they would all gather together and somebody would read all of its contents at one time in one setting to everybody that's there. And so this blessing is a blessing to the one who is reading the scriptures in the presence of God's people, and it's a blessing to those who are hearing it. If we want to be blessed, in other words, in our time and in our place, all that this text is saying here is we need to pay attention to what's said. God is giving this to us as he gives us all his word to show us what it looks like to live a life that is pleasing to him and to ultimately experience his blessing. Now even as I mentioned that I want to make a couple of distinctions here. Number one every time the book of Revelation says blessed are those who it's pretty much talking about the future. And the reason that I want to mention this, I don't think this is something that a lot of us are being tempted by, but it's worth saying, sometimes people will attempt to spin things like this as being about the here and now. If you just pay attention to the book of Revelation, things are going to go really well for your life right now. And in a sense, they will. We'll get to that in just a moment. But have you read Revelation before? People are suffering a lot for loving Jesus. How can we say that they're blessed? The answer is ultimately that the blessing that comes to us is one that remains when we enter into the new heavens and the new earth and experience the blessing that comes to us through Jesus in that context. So our goal right now is not to obtain as much worldly blessing as we can get. We're trying to do what Jesus said. We're trying to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven because that's where blessing ultimately lies for us. But also I want you to see that there is present blessing. And it comes into the form of something that we see in a lot of the New Testament letters. Verse 4, we read, John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dad and the ruler of kings on earth. You see, what we see here is the Apostle John speaking with the authority of God with blessing for the people saying grace to you and peace. Grace is this promise of God's continuing favor in their lives. Even if they're suffering, God is with them and he's going to continue to work out his purpose for their good. Peace is a recognition that where there was once in between us and God through Jesus Christ we have been brought back together so that we can live in peace no matter what happens around us because we know that the God of the universe is on our side and this grace and peace are our present experience because the triune God the one who was and is and is to come being the Father, the seven spirits being the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and then obviously Jesus himself is the eternal Son of God, the triune God in all of his splendor and glory has conspired together for your grace and peace. And that is a present reality for us when we begin to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, we live between two realities. We live between the promise of the future, but we also live in light of what Jesus has actually done. We saw this just last week, but it's my favorite verse in the Bible, so I'm gonna say it again. If God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also graciously with Him give us all things? If you want to be assured of blessing in the future, you look back to the blessing that Christ has already accomplished in the cross, and the knowledge that you now have that the God of the universe speaks to you with grace and peace. Secondly, revelation is for our worship. Revelation is given for our worship. This is what all of history is leading toward. It's this glorious worship service. And some of you are like, worship services can be a little boring or worship services can be a little bit trite. I mean, there have been a lot of worship services in my life, but I promise you, you're not going to want to miss this one. All of our existence will be built around the worship of the triune God who has accomplished our salvation. And in that moment, the glorious privilege that will be ours will be to stand in his presence and to praise him forever in light of what he's done. It will be the same glory that we experience when we get to enjoy fellowship with a friend. But this is the best friend we'll ever have. It's the same intimacy that we get to share with a beloved spouse. Although Jesus is more faithful than any human spouse this side of eternity. This is the glory of us getting to enjoy all the blessed privileges of being God's people in God's place under his blessing. And it's worship even begins in verse five. To him who loves us, Jesus, present tense, loves us. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. He has liberated us from our sin and its penalty through his death on the cross. And he has made us a kingdom. Priest to his God and Father. We are his princes and princesses ruling and reigning over the created order as he continues to accomplish his purpose in his kingdom. And we live as priests to him representing his glorious presence and power to the world and representing the world as we lead them to Jesus to him. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. Listen, the grand goal of human history is worship. Have you ever been in a worship service where you were just like, I don't know how to explain this, I just don't wanna leave. Can we just keep this thing going for a little while? You're disappointed when the last song ends and you know it's not really appropriate in a worship service to be like, encore? Like, can we keep it going? But you want to stay, right? You want to keep lingering in the presence of God and his people and you want to keep singing his praise and you just say, I don't know anywhere else it's better to be. Brothers and sisters, that is a foretaste of what we get to experience forever. The joy of the awareness of God's presence with us and the greatness of his love for us. We're going to be shed of all of the sin that continues to work in us and try to prevent us from enjoying that. Satan and all of his demons are going to be once and for all cast away and never to come again. We're going to get to enjoy this forever. Revelation is given now though so that we can get a taste of this in the present that we anticipate in the future. Revelation is given for our worship. Last thing I want you to see here is that revelation is for our preparedness. Revelation is for our preparedness. Sometimes you write a sermon and you make slides and you put a word like preparedness in it and you go, preparation would have been better. So if preparedness sounds like a little wordy for you, you can say revelation is for our preparation. Revelation is for our preparedness. Revelation is designed to lift our eyes above our present circumstances and to give us an eternal perspective. Notice what we read in verse 7. Behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. I want to stop here. because we read this and a lot of us go great Jesus is coming and that's what we should say even so come Lord Jesus even so come and fulfill your promises and your purposes to us. But one of the things that I have discovered in my reading of the scripture all throughout my life is I've tried to understand God's purpose for me and for our churches and what he's doing. is that there are oftentimes one single event that God performs that elicit two distinct reactions. When Jesus appears with the clouds of heaven, yes, we who belong to him will rejoice, but that won't be the only group of people that sees him. He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. This is important to understand. The second coming of Jesus Christ is really good news for his church. And we rejoice in the expectation of his coming. But for many, many people, who continue to live their lives in the sinfulness of their hearts and of their actions, who continue to resist Jesus and his gospel, or maybe who are seated in churches all around us, maybe even in our church building right now, living a double life. The appearance of Jesus is not good news. It is terrifying. I'm always reminded in thinking about this of the lyrics of a song that I've come to enjoy over the years. It's a singer-songwriter type Christian song. It's based on the old hymn, Farther Along. The last verse, the author says, Yes. Now the question is, when the sky rolls back on you, will you rejoice or will you cuss? We have a choice to make this morning. What are we going to do with Jesus? We're going to sing a song of response in a few moments. And you're going to have four verses to think about what Jesus has done before we come to the last verse as Jacob leads us that says, I can't remember the words anymore. All right, hold on. He shall return in robes of white. The blazing sun shall pierce the night, and I will rise among the saints, my gaze transfixed on Jesus' face. Here's what I want to challenge us to do as we prepare to respond. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ, let today be the day where you do. Do not leave this place without coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But I want to crank it up a little bit. If you call yourself a follower of Jesus today, but you acknowledge, as we all do, that you are continuing to struggle against sin, and you want to acknowledge that you need to repent of particular sin, or sin in general, because you are wandering from the way that Christ has set you on, this is our opportunity to come and to throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus. and to know that he loves us and will deliver us from our sin by his blood and bring to us all the blessings of his eternal kingdom. You come today and be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. But for all of us, for all of us, I've said this before, I hope that in the coming years the best song of the entire Sunday will be the last one. because we have heard God's word. He has spoken to us concerning his son, and we're about to sing about him. And that's what we're gonna get to do forever, so my hope and my prayer is that for all of us, we would exult in the sufficiency of what Christ has done, and in the glory of his coming kingdom, and we would praise the name of the Lord our God, because we're gonna praise him forevermore. And why not start today?