Our Church Family

Dear church,

If we must be prepared as a church to suffer – and even to be martyred for our faith in the face of the spirit of the antichrist – so we also ought to understand that there is more to the story. Earthly defeat does not necessarily mean eternal defeat. God’s ways are higher than ours.

John saw seven angels with seven plagues. But that vision was interrupted by a seaside chorus. Again, God’s people were singing.

John saw a magnificent kind of sea, like glass mingled with fire. And beside it was a crowd of people, those “who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name.”

These were those who conquered the conquering beast. When the beast emerged in Chapter 13, we were told “it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.” We must understand the reality of this world and the “war” in which we are involved as believers. We have an enemy bent on our destruction. The antichrist wants to destroy the works of God.

But somehow God’s people find themselves standing beside a sea of glass – a peaceful body of water that glistens with fire. And they are singing the song of Moses. We have to go all the way back to the Book of Exodus for Moses’ song, which he also sang beside the sea.

“Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. … Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:30-31).

You can read the song of Moses in Exodus 15. Moses sang about the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, and God leading his people, and the enemies of God trembling in fear.

Then, in Revelation 15, beside this new sea of glass and fire, those who conquered the beast sang a similar song. Yes, God is great, and “all nations will come and worship you.”

This is a new exodus. It might be better to say this is the ultimate or the fulfilled exodus. God’s people pass through the water of baptism in Christ. They emerge from certain death. They are given new life. The “great and amazing” deeds of God are the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “For you alone are holy.”

Back on the far side of the sea was slavery. Here is freedom in Christ. That’s worth singing about.

Chris

Dear church,

After John saw the first and second beasts – symbolizing the antichrist and the false prophet – and after John saw all the destruction and false worship associated with those two figures, John saw something else.

He saw the Lamb. That is, he saw Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the one who died and rose again. Jesus wasn’t alone. With him were 144,000. These are part of the elect of Israel, of the people of God.

That’s what John saw. He also heard something. He heard the sound of singing. John heard “a voice” from heaven that sounded like the roar of water and loud thunder, and like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. It was the sound of singing – “a new song” before the throne and before the inhabitants of heaven.

Do you wonder what that sounded like? Do you wonder what song they sang? John said it was a special song: “No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.”

This is a song for the redeemed, and only the redeemed. This is a song for those who have made themselves holy – ready for spiritual battle? (Deuteronomy 23:9; 1 Samuel 21:5-6) – and who follow Jesus wherever he goes. This is a song for disciples.

You may have noticed Christians are a people who sing. Singing is part of our lives as believers. We are constantly singing. When you walk into one of our gatherings, one of the first things you’ll notice is our tendency to sing together. Even those of us who don’t sing well will find ourselves, after years of listening, starting to sing along.

In a way, we become pictures of this 144,000 who are standing around the Lamb. We are practicing for that eternal day with him. And we sing a “new song” that only is known to believers – to the redeemed.

I wonder whether we view our singing, and whether we view ourselves as holy followers of Jesus, in this way. Even in the middle of a world that’s being overrun by Satan’s deceptive evil, we should be able to hear the sound of singing. Every Sunday when we gather, we should be eager to sing. And when we’re alone in our homes or our cars and those songs of the faith come to our minds, we should be happy to sound out their melodies – at least to hum along with the people of God. What song are you singing today?

Chris

Dear church,

The antichrist and the false prophet are introduced here. The antichrist is the opposite of Jesus, but deceptively like him – a “mortal wound” that had been healed.

The fierceness of the antichrist is obvious. He’s a servant of Satan himself – and looks an awful lot like the “dragon.” The antichrist draws people in to worship him. People marvel at the power and authority of the antichrist.

The church appears here, too. It is a church that loses. Or, at least, it is a church that seems to lose.

“And it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.”

We don’t like the idea of losing. No one does. As Christians, we are trained in the idea of winning – of being “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37).

But there’s something in the walk of faith that we sometimes forget, or omit, or simply would rather not think about. The walk of faith also is about suffering. It is, at times, about losing. We do have opposition on this earth.

The gathered, martyred saints were people who suffered and, in the world’s eyes, lost. The apostles, nearly every one of them, were killed for their faith. The antichrist spirit of the world conquered them in many respects.

And believers in Christ across the world, through the centuries, have suffered injustice, persecution, and death. Many of them were “conquered,” too.

This can be frustrating. We’re Christians. We are “in Christ,” and he’s the ultimate conqueror. Surely, we aren’t supposed to lose. Surely, believers aren’t supposed to suffer for their faith. They aren’t supposed to fall back into sin. Churches aren’t supposed to close. We’re not supposed to get sick. And we’re not supposed to live in poverty. We’re trained in winning.

The apostle Paul, the great suffering apostle, wrote, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25).

This is an encouragement in the face of suffering and of apparent defeat, when the spirit of the antichrist rages like a lion in our lives and when things seem hopeless. Suffering, trials, and tribulation are part of the story of our lives in the faith. But they aren’t the end of the story.

Chris

Dear church,

This chapter seems to start a new section in the Book of Revelation. Since Chapter 4, we’ve gotten two “cycles” that tell about the End – the opening of the seven seals and the blasting of the seven trumpets.

During these chapters, we’ve gotten a few of glimpses of the church. We’ve seen the martyred saints crying out justice. We’ve seen the sealing of the “144,000” of Israel and the gathering of peoples around the throne of God. And we’ve seen the two “witnesses” preaching, dying, and rising again.

The church is chosen by God, empowered by God, protected by God, and preserved for eternity by God.

In Chapter 12, we see why the church needs protecting. Satan shows up. He’s in the form of a seven-headed dragon. He is wearing a crown, as if he were a king. He’s “that ancient serpent” – and we think of Eve chatting with a sake beneath the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent is the “deceiver of the world.”

Satan has a legion of angels. Satan opposes God. And Satan loses in the end. In this chapter alone, Satan’s schemes are thwarted four times – when the child escapes to God, when the woman flees to the wilderness, when Michael and heaven’s angels win the war in heaven, and when the woman is carried on eagle’s wings to safety.

Satan’s task at that point? “To make war against the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

I’m pretty sure the woman represents the people of God – maybe Israel itself. I’m happy just thinking about them as the people of faith. And to those people, Jesus Christ was “born” – the Son of God, a member of the nation of Israel, of the people of faith. He died and rose again and ascended “to God and to his throne.”

We know Satan wanted to destroy Jesus. And now we know Satan wants to destroy the church – more offspring of the “woman” in Revelation 12. Peter said Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Satan failed to devour the ultimate prize – the Son of God. Satan was defeated in the heavenly war. Now wants to wreck the church, the people of God, the offspring of faith.

We ought to be clear-eyed as we walk with Christ. We have an adversary, and he is desperate.

Chris

Dear church,

The two witnesses in this chapter are pictures of the church. These two figures represent who the church has been called to be. For God’s people, facts were established by the testimony of two or more witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1). Here, we have two witnesses.

I’m pretty sure this chapter describes the age of the church, as it goes about witnessing to the good news of Jesus Christ. The church is called to proclaim it. This is our mission.

Of course, some interesting things happen during the ministry of these two witnesses.

They are dressed in sackcloth – a sign of mourning. Do we proclaim the gospel with the appropriate sense of humility? We are saved by grace. We did not earn our position with Christ. It was given to us as a gift.

And our message is for those who are lost – and who will be lost if they don’t repent by turning to Christ. The deadly peril the world faces ought to make us humble.

The two witnesses also seem to have the authority of the Old Testament prophets. Remember Elijah and Moses and the miracles that occurred during their ministries. Elijah’s life was marked during a time by drought. There was no rain. And Moses, of course, saw water turned to blood, along with a bunch of other plagues.

And so we are reminded of these great prophets of old. The church carries on their legacy in the world, as ambassadors for God. Do we think of ourselves in this way? We are part of a long line of those who walk closely with God – and who run after him.

The two witnesses also were hugely successful, and then completely destroyed, and then completely resurrected. It’s a picture of the life of Christ, really. This is the of life the church, too.

And the world feels the witnesses are a “torment.”

I’m not sure what to make of this chapter, how to apply it to life today, other than to recall the way in which the message of Christ is not well-taken by the world. Those who willingly stand outside of God’s grace will not want to hear what we have to say. And the church is opposed by one who comes out of the “bottomless pit” – that’s Satan.

Being the church means something. Do we understand this?

Chris

Dear church,

One of the major themes of this chapter is about the role of God’s prophets. It tells us something about what they are to do and what they are not to do.

For instance, John was told not to write down the words of the “seven thunders.” Revelation is a book of sevens. We’ve had seven seals and seven trumpets. A little later, we will have seven bowls. Here, John encountered seven thunders, but their messages were not to be discussed or even written down.

A prophet of God is subject to the command of God. And some things of God are not for us. They are not to be shared. We recall the apostle Paul had a heavenly vision – in 2 Corinthians 12 – and he said he “heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter” (2 Corinthians 12:4). The prophets are not to run out on their own. Their agenda is God’s agenda.

And so we see something of the role of the prophet in Revelation 10. We also see the disciple John eating the little scroll. And we take this as something symbolic – the ingesting of God’s Word. It is sweet to the taste, like the honey of the Promised Land, but it also brings with it a certain bitterness.

God’s Word is good and just and righteous. It brings life to those who hear it and receive it. But it also brings with it the bitterness of rejection. Not everyone will accept the Word of God. Some will say, “No.” And God’s prophets have a long history of rejection and death. The world’s “No” sometimes is accompanied by a sword.

Revelation 10 has a direct link to Ezekiel 1-3. Read those chapters when you get a chance. There, Ezekiel encountered someone sitting on a throne, in the “likeness of the glory of God.” The figure was human in appearance. From the waist up, Ezekiel saw what looked like gleaming metal and fire. From the waist down, Ezekiel saw the appearance of fire and brightness. The figure was surrounded by a rainbow.

Compare that with what John saw. A mighty angel from heaven, wrapped in a cloud. His face shone like the sun. His legs were like pillars of fire. He had a rainbow over his head. John’s angel was standing, not sitting. The angel was on land and on sea (not in the sea), demonstrating total mastery of the physical elements.

Back in Ezekiel, the figure told the prophet to go and speak to Israel, which the figure said was a “rebellious house.” The figure laid out a scroll in front of Ezekiel. On the scroll were written words “of lamentation and mourning and woe.”

The figure told Ezekiel to eat it. “Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So Ezekiel did. “Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.”

This eating of the scroll from heaven is a picture of the consumption of the Word of God – hearing it in preparation of the speaking of it. There’s no question God would have us think back to Ezekiel as we read about John’s eating of the little scroll. John has some things to say that are difficult to hear. And like Ezekiel, when we hear the words of God in Revelation – whether we accept them or reject them – we will know that a prophet has been among us (Ezekiel 2:5).

And so this chapter is a chapter about the work of God’s prophet. But it also is a chapter that is about us. The angel gave John the little scroll and said, “Take and eat.”

This phrase should give us pause. This is what Jesus said to his disciples on the night he was betrayed, as he broke the bread that was his body. “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). There is something here in this scene to remind us of the Lord’s Supper, a moment in time when we take and eat the body of Christ.

The Lord’s Supper is something the church does together, when we are gathered together. We accept the body of Christ into us. We consume it. We receive by faith what he did for us on a Roman cross, accepting death for our sins so that we could have everlasting life in him. We take and eat. This is about faith. This is about Jesus.

And the Lord’s Supper, too, is about the Word of God. We are the people of the Book, the Word. John already had written, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14) – much like Ezekiel saw the glory of Lord.

This Word dwells inside of us. We are Christians, members of the church of Christ. In reading Revelation, we might understand Jesus to BE the “scroll.” He is its content. And John, like in the Lord’s Supper, took in the Word and then was to live it. This is what we do every Sunday – and every time we open our Bibles to “take and eat.”

Jesus lives in us. And he is sweet in our lives, like honey. We do not fear death. We are promised eternal life. And yet we can experience the bitterness of rejection when the world turns its back on Him, and us. This is part of life in Christ – rejection. We take and eat. We taste the sweetness. We experience the bitterness.

But the promise is as true today as it was true in Ezekiel’s day or in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah or in the days of John. For them and us, we wait for the arrival of the Messiah. God is working out his plan. And we know it is just around the corner. It may even be today.

What is it the voice said? “There would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

And so we take and eat. We get ready.

Chris

Dear church,

Out of the stovepipe from hell – opened by Satan himself – came locusts. God had handed humanity over to those who would destroy it. At least, he handed over those who did not have the seal of God. He handed over those who persisted in idolatry and sin.

The description of the locusts is perplexing. They looked like horses ready for battle. They had crowns on their heads. Their faces were like human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair. Their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings sounded like chariots and horses rushing into battle. And they had tails like scorpions.

If you saw something like this, how would you describe it? What is it? Is it a horse, a human, a woman, a lion, a scorpion – or something else? A locust?

This is a mixed up kind of a creature. Things that don’t normally go together are joined together in this image. It is both confusing and scary.

Maybe a way to look at this is that things that don’t normally go together were thrown together in these “locusts.” Things that can’t happen seem to be happening in these creatures. Things that shouldn’t be mixed together – at least not in God’s good created order – are mixed together. Lines are blurred. It is chaotic. And frightening.

And people are tormented by these things. This is the way of Satan. This is the way of the world.

The horrors of the Apocalypse have a lot to do with God handing the world over to itself and to its leader, Satan. Like in Romans 1, the “wrath of God” seems merely to be God’s permitting Satan to do what Satan wants to do and, of course, permitting humans to continue to do what they want to do. Paul wrote God “gave them up” (Romans 1:24, 26, 28).

Sin, of course, is the taking of God’s created order and his law and breaking it. Our own desires oftentimes create confusion in our hearts and minds just before we sin. We’re all mixed up.

I can’t help but notice how confusing the world can be at times. And this is where my thoughts went I as I read Revelation 9. We are good at bringing confusion into our lives, and the world (under Satan) is good at bringing confusion into our lives as well.

I’ve found this to be something worth mulling over. When have I experienced fear, doubt, confusion in the last day or so? On the flip side, when have I experienced confidence, stability, and certainty? As I look back on those moments, what kinds of spirits were at work in my life in those moments? This might be a good exercise for you today, as well.

Chris

Dear church,

In the middle of the mud and the muck – and asteroids – of tribulation, a person still can find something glorious. Hope.

The seventh seal opened to a half hour of silence. Time and silence are present during the Apocalypse. Perhaps God finds significance in both of these things.

But time and silence are not alone in this era of trouble. They are joined with prayer. “And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.”

We might ask about the value of prayer. What is the point of praying? Well, God hears our prayers. We see that right here. Isn’t that enough? If we need another argument, we might remember Jesus prayed. If Jesus felt the value of prayer and communion, so should we.

And Revelation gives us a picture of our prayers rising like incense or smoke to God. He hears his people’s prayers, even during the Apocalypse.

The first four trumpets brought massive destruction to the earth – the land, sea, water sources, and heavens. And then John saw an eagle flying directly overhead, crying, “Woe, woe, woe.”

It’s all pretty gloomy. But why announce “woe,” if there is no hope of salvation? I take this to mean there is hope for those left on the earth – like when Jesus began his ministry with a very short sermon, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Sometimes we feel like things are hope-“less.” We think there is no hope at all, that our situation cannot be improved, that another person will never see the light, that the slow decline we see cannot be reversed. Revelation 8 is a dark chapter in the Bible. But like all dark chapters in the Bible, it is tinged with hope. Our God abounds in steadfast love. He is full of mercy. He is patient with us.

The crying eagle was offering a bit of hope to the world. The “woes” were coming, so repent. And in heaven, God was hearing the prayers of his people.

Is there something in your life that you’ve given up on? Is there some struggle you have (with sin or circumstances) that you have come to believe is hopeless?

Start with prayer and repentance. See what God will do.

Chris

Dear church,

This chapter takes a momentary break from the description of the opening of the seven seals. Here, we are between seals six and seven. We get a little breather in the midst of cataclysmic events.

Here, we see people – people saved by God. Some are described as “sealed,” and others are “washed.” Scholars are divided on exactly who all these people are. Clearly God has a plan for his people Israel. And clearly the kingdom of God is broad, drawing people from “all tribes and peoples and languages.”

“And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.”

I was interested in the way those in the “great multitude” were holding palm branches. This is a sign of victory. Palm Sunday is about victory. This is a kind of Palm Sunday, too. Instead of Jesus riding by on a donkey, the people were flocking to him.

This chapter is about victory. It is about the victory that those who put their faith in Christ, those who are sealed by God, have even in this moment. We are brought through difficulty in to victory.

People have died for the faith. They have experienced tribulation. Believers in some parts of the world are living in tribulation even now. But they are victors.

“Salvation belongs to our God.”

Victory comes with patient endurance (Rev. 2-3). Victory is a great relief when it is fully realized. Victory in Christ never ends.

Chris

Dear church,

The souls under the altar were not quiet souls. They knew injustice. They’d been killed for their faith. They asked God to bring justice to the earth – to “those who dwell on the earth.”

But it was not time. Not yet. The martyrs were given white robes and told to “rest.” It would be a little while longer. There would be more to come. Their “fellow servants and their brothers” would join them.

I was caught by this mini-scene that followed the opening of the fifth seal and after the trooping out of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Death and destruction pervades this chapter. The sky literally would be slammed shut. The stars would fall. And strife, famine, and pestilence would ravage the earth. It will make 2020 look like a walk in the park.

In the midst of this, we see the martyrs, crying out for justice even as they were told more martyrs were in the making. The time was not yet. “Rest a little longer.”

The way things work in this fallen world is that some will die for the sake of Christ. Some will shed their blood just as he did. If we look out across the carnage of the history of the world, we better pay attention to those who lost all for the sake of the gospel – “for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.”

It is clear God keeps them in mind.

These are treasured people to God. And they are not silent people. They obviously weren’t silent during their lives on earth. Their refusal to be silent surely led to their deaths. And afterward, they cried out to God – “O Sovereign Lord …”

These were not lukewarm, before or after.

They cause me to think about my own passion for the word of God and for my witness to the world about Jesus and for God to bring justice to the earth. And I restless like them? Are you?

Chris