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We have come to the end of the season of Epiphany. Next Wednesday
evening is the beginning of Lent. We are now ready to move into the season
of the cross. We will end this season in the final revelation, which is the
last book of the Bible. We live in an hour when many in our congregations
can only think of the end of the world when the subject of the Book of Revelation
is approached. Our goal is to remember that it is called Revelation, because
in it, Jesus Christ is revealed. It is important that we listen to the text
and not to our preconceived ideas of what the text concerns.
A quick reading of the first eighteen verses of Revelation will
show that John is on the isle of Patmos. This tiny island is his physical
location, but he has another location—he is in the Spirit. It is in this
state of spiritual existence that he receives his final revelation. The revelation
goes through three phases. The first is the sense of hearing—he hears
behind him a voice. The second happens when he turns to see where the voice
is coming from and who it is who is speaking to him. He then enters into the
revelation of multiple sights, which include golden lampstands, elaborate
robes and costumes, and the eyes and face of the One who spoke to him. In
his hand the One who speaks holds a sharp two-edged sword. All of this is
accompanied with the brightness of light coming from the face of the speaker,
which is said to be shining and full of strength.
The real message of our text begins when John says, “When
I saw him.” This will lay the basis for what we are to get out of the
text. It is important that you listen and soak in the words. Allow yourself
to envision being with John on an isolated island. As you attempt to internalize
what John may have felt and seen, it will also be important that you remember
that he was there as a prisoner of Christ. Perhaps at the moment of his vision
he would have been preoccupied with a burden for the church that he could
not personally pastor. Maybe he was going through the battle of his career.
Eminent death was upon him when this vision came.
The Bible is full of encounters with God. In each of these revelations,
the one who has the vision is usually changed and receives new insight. Jacob
had his revelation at a place called Bethel—it is at Bethel that he realizes
he has been insensitive to the place where he was standing, and now he will
call it the “house of God and the gate of heaven.” Moses had his
vision through a burning bush. At this bush he encounters the holy, removes
his shoes, and gives away the rest of his life in service to the living God.
At a river called Chebar, in the land of Babylon, the prophet Ezekiel sees
a glorious vision of God in the midst of his chariot. The hope for the rest
of humankind comes out of that vision.
It is the spirit of the vision that brings us to this subject
of John. The central theme of the following sermon is that John had already
had many great revelations of Christ. He receives in this moment a vision
so overpowering that his response is, “I fell at his feet as a dead man.”
John had laid with his head on Jesus’ chest. He had been present from
the baptism by John to the empty tomb. He records in his gospel that he himself
had eaten with Jesus by the shores of Galilee after Christ rose from the dead.
Now he has a vision so deep that it strikes him to the ground and immobilizes
him like death. The listener will be asked through this message if there is
a longing in the human heart for a vision of Christ that is deeper than has
presently been given. This is a challenge to the mature believer who has walked
with Christ for many years.
(For a complete preaching outline of this sermon, click here)