Revelation's Amazing Salutation (All of Life for God)
Episode Summary:
This week on All of Life for God, Dr. Joel Beeke expounds the glory of Christ’s greeting to his Church in Revelation 1. This sermon is the second in a series of episodes celebrating the release of Reformed Systematic Theology Volume 4 by Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley.
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Our scripture reading this evening is from Revelation 1:4-9, Revelation 1:4-9. Let's hear the word of God this evening to us, which is also our text: "John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne.
"And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
"And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, amen.
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
"I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
[inaudible 00:01:59] reading of God's sacred word. Dear congregation, two weeks ago we began a series of messages on the Book of Revelation. We introduced you to that book, we looked as it were at its title page and its theological shape, what its basic interpretation was. We saw that it concerns things, which must surely come to pass, and we grappled with what that means. And then we looked, in particular, at verse three as well that those who read this book and keep it, are blessed by God.
Tonight, we want to go a step further and look at what we might call the dedication page or the front matter, the preface, the foreword to this book. Many books you read today, you skip over to the first chapter, don't you? The preface doesn't matter much to you, or the dedication page. You take a glance at, and you move on. You want to get into the book, you say.
Well, the Book of Revelation has an amazing salutation, dedication, front matter, and we do well this evening to pause beside these six verses that we've read to you, verses four through nine, and look at this amazing salutation because it actually sets the tone for the entire book. It tells us what the book is about. What its purpose is.
So, we want to look at four things this evening from Revelation 1:4-9, and I'll only read again to you part of verse four and five. "Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne. And from Jesus Christ."
Our theme then is Revelation's amazing salutation. We'll look first at its historical setting, second, its Trinitarian foundation, third, its Christ-centered doxology, and fourth, its eternal security. Revelation's amazing salutation, we'll look at its historical setting, Trinitarian foundation, Christ-centered doxology, eternal security.
The first thing we notice in this, what we call a pericope, a section of scripture that's self-contained, is that John wants to show us the historical setting into which this glorious salutation is poured. It says in verse 4a and in verse 9, "John to the seven churches which are in Asia, who I'm also your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Last time we saw that this book was written by the apostle John, but tonight, John tells us to whom this book is dedicated and addressed. He tells us here in verse 4, and again, in verse 11, he spells it out in detail that this book, in the first place, is addressed to seven churches in Asia. Look at verse 11 Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
These are real churches, and they're on a route, a clockwise route in what we would call today Western Turkey, but then called Asia. John is familiar with these churches. These churches had trusted him. Apparently, they had read, as verse 11 applies, some earlier letters he had written, and he had some degree of responsibility for pastoring these churches even from afar.
Now, these seven churches were under great duress, under great persecution. John wrote these letters in 95 AD, at the beginning of the first general persecution of the church under a man named Domitian, the Roman emperor. Domitian is one of the most despised villains in the Book of Revelation. He's one of the beasts of Revelation. People read all kinds of historical characters into Revelation, sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly, but certainly, Domitian is there. He's one of the savage monsters of the church of Jesus Christ. Even contemporary secular sources from that period describe him as a strong and ruthless savage leader.
He often cruelly abused the most distinguished citizens in the presence of crowds who watched in great fear, and he hated Christians in particular. "Fury was in his eyes," it is said, "towards all those who pledged allegiance to Christ Jesus." He wanted the people to call him Lord and God. He commanded that he be acknowledged as such, and so when Christians refused to do so, he would kill them or imprison them systematically.
Now, Domitian is not the only Antichrist. He's not the only beast in Revelation. There are many false prophets, many Antichrists, but you can't understand the book of Revelation. If you don't realize that its historical origins, its historical setting has already begun under the emperor Domitian. The persecutions Domitian initiated are already among the things that must shortly come to pass.
But happily, we don't need to confine our interpretation of Revelation to the first century AD. There were more than seven churches in Asian Minor, but John draws our attention to these seven churches. Seven being the number of completeness. The implication being, by that symbol seven, that it's a sevenfold church in our society, and this church continues unto the end of the world.
So, these seven churches are types of the kinds of churches that will exist until the end of the age. And because this number seven crops up dozens of times in the Book of Revelation, for completeness, we may understand this to also represent the churches of all ages. Our church also today.
You find the same thing just a verse later, the sevenfold Spirit, the seven Spirits of God meaning one complete Holy Spirit. So, the seven churches represent The Church of All Ages. And it's to this church, really the well-being of the church of God that John addresses and dedicates his book.
Now, when John does this, he's already an old man. He's well into his 90s. He's the last living apostle. His life has spanned almost an entire century. Very unusual to live so long in those days. And Domitian, in the 14th year of his reign, is upset with John's leadership, and he puts John on the remote, rocky, volcanic, treeless, or almost treeless, island of Patmos.
Patmos is 10 miles long, 6 miles wide, and is situated 20 miles off the coast of Ephesus. John is there persecuted for his faith. Most likely he had to work in marble quarries on this island in submission to Domitian. And that's why he calls himself a brother and companion, in verse nine, in tribulation, as he writes to his fellow persecuted churches in Asia.
Now, for us, this may make no sense. We look at the situation and we say John is the only apostle left. He's needed badly in the New Testament church. Why would God put him on a remote island distant from everyone? Why does God allow this? Well, John tells us in verse nine. He says, "I'm suffering," notice what he says, "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
What does that mean? What practical lessons can we learn today from this? John suffering for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and there on the island of Patmos to pass on that word and testimony to us, the sevenfold church today. What sense do you make of that? What does he mean?
Well, I think there's three important lessons we can learn from this today. The first is this: you and I are immortal until our work is done. Why did John live to be such a ripe old age? Some people when they reach a hundred, they get interviewed, don't they? What's the secret? People talk to you about diet and exercise and various aspects of their lifestyle and what they ate.
Well, these things may all be contributory, and we're not here to despise these things. We do need to care for our bodies and so on, but what John is saying is, "The plan and purpose of God in my life was not yet finished. And so, I'm on Patmos, and here on Patmos, I am assigned the task of writing the Book of Revelation. And God has spared me to my 90s that this book may be written and delivered to the sevenfold Church of All Ages."
All the other apostles had done their work and they'd been called home. Their work was done, and John is still in this world because he has this one important apostolic task yet to do. But it's so in our lives as well, isn't it? Quite frankly, when I was assaulted in Latvia and expected to die and could rise from my knees and actually was alive, I was amazed I was alive, and the very first thought that struck me was God must have more work for me to do. My time, my task is not done.
And so it is for you sitting here tonight, particularly if you're a Christian. The fact that you're here tonight, the fact that you're still alive, the fact that all the close calls you've had in your life never was the final curtain is because God has tasks and plans for you yet to do. And how encouraging that is. We are kept safe. We are immortal until our work on earth is done.
But the second lesson we learn from John here is this. To be in the way and purpose of God is to be in the best and safest place in all the world. Think about it this way, John's life is nearly over. He's well beyond what we call retirement age, but in God's strange providence, he finds himself in an isolated place without the comfort of friends and the amenities of home life. He sees no familiar faces. He spends his days in a quarry. All he encounters is loneliness and hardship.
And yet, amazingly, you don't read a single word in this entire verse, this entire book rather, of resentment. No anger, no sorrow, no despair on John's part for his mysterious lot in life. Instead, he says, verse nine, "I John your brother, your companion in tribulation, was in the isle called Patmos. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Nothing negative. He's accepted where he is. He knows he's where God wants him to be, and knowing that, he has peace. It's as safe as the best place in the world for John.
So, what is he doing on this remote island besides writing the Bible? Well, he's worshiping the Lord. You see he's lifting up his voice in doxological praise to his savior. That's the beauty of this salutation. John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace and peace be to you, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits..." Praise be to you, grace be to you from the Father, from the Son, and from Jesus Christ.
This man is worshiping on a remote island the Triune God. He's so much in love with the Lord Jesus Christ that when it comes to verse five you notice, "And from Jesus Christ..." He can't restrain himself. He just spills over. The very mention of Jesus Christ's name moves him to burst into praise.
"... who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father..." Doesn't sound like a man in prison on the Isle of Patmos, does it?
You see when you know you're at where God wants you to be, you can worship Him with peace and joy. And your heart can burst with love and adoration even in prison. So, we don't need to pity this old man. We just need to marvel at the grace of God in him. Too often we drag ourselves to worship. Often on Sunday morning, we don't feel like worship, or Wednesday night perhaps we don't feel like going to another congregational prayer meeting.
And yet we don't want to trade places with John. We like our free democratic society. We're not facing persecution. We get freedom to worship in a warm, nice, comfortable church, and we're grateful for that. But if you look at John's heart and you look at your heart, you see you don't need to feel pity for John. John wouldn't swap places with you. John is where the Lord wants him to be. He's reconciled to that.
And perhaps if we have the experience of the love of Christ that John had on that island maybe, maybe even we would be willing to swap places with John. That we would take that drafty, windswept remote island where Christ was so rich and full and be willing to be there in John's place. But you see what God is doing. God is still deepening John's spiritual life. He's writing the last book of the Bible, the close of the canon in his 90s. God is still using him. He's like the New Testament Caleb. God using him in old age to do the great works of God.
John is being emptied from vessel to vessel. What better place to write the Book of Revelation in the midst of seagulls and water crashing in upon the rocks and alone with God? You see God's ways are above our ways. Oh, how God had worked in the apostle John's life. He had done so much to reshape him already in his young years. In his young years, John wanted to call for fire to come down from heaven and consume those who oppose Jesus and His apostles. And he wanted to be one of the few to be on Christ's right hand.
But God had transformed this young man from a rather ruthless, insensitive, ambitious young disciple into the apostle of love, the apostle of communion with God. And there on that island, John is still growing in the grace of God even in his 90s. And isn't this one reason why, an important reason why God still afflicts us today whether we're 60, we're 70, or 80? Have you ever thought about that, seniors among us, that God afflicts you with various illnesses, various infirmities of old age to bring you closer to Him, to help you grow in grace, to help you get ready for your departure?
You see when you're 85, you shouldn't wish to be 65 or 55 or 35. You should be content with where you're at. This is God's lot for you at the moment. This infirmity, this affliction, this burden. Whatever your burdens are, the question is are you worshiping God in these burdens? And are you saying, "This is where God wants me to be. I will bow under Him and under His ways"? You see God puts us in struggles and trials so we can be brothers and companions, John says, in the tribulation of others. This is God's way to put us in the best and safest place in the world.
And then the third and final thing I mention to you here is that God is in sovereign control of all things and yet not the author of evil. Everything that's happening to John, everything that will happen, a persecution in the seven churches is under God's sovereign control. And yet God is not the author of evil. It is Satan that's doing the persecuting.
God is permitting Satan to do certain things to the church and to the people of God. Much as he permitted, as we've been seeing, Job to come under the sufferings of Satan as well. Just as in Job, behind God's sovereignty, there are principalities and powers, and the devil is always working against the church. So, there's always warfare between Job and the powers of evil, and the church and Satan. God is still in total control.
And that's why God uses even the devices of Satan to help John write a better book, an inspired book. John has to be a suffering apostle so that he can identify with the suffering churches. The old Puritans used to say that ministers usually get more than their share of sufferings in this life because they need to be able to identify with the people they minister to.
And so, what John has to experience, even in his old age, is that even though people, Domitian may mean it for evil, God means it for good, as Joseph said of his brothers. God brings history under His story to do His work. And so, the devil is always overstepping God's line and serving God's purposes against his own desire so that God's work may triumph.
And of course, the best proof of that is Calvary itself. Satan thinking he's about to get the victory of destroying Jesus, but in destroying the devil, Jesus gets the victory even through death. That's what you heard this morning: through death comes life. John must die to live. And so, there on that cross hung that blessed body. Jesus Christ destroying the works of the devil, in order to make us, John says in our text, kings and priests unto God. That we might die to ourselves and be raised to be office bearers unto Him. And so, a poet says this: "He makes the rebel a priest and a king. He has bought us and taught us this new song to sing. Unto Him who has loved us wrests us from sin. Unto Him be the glory forever. Amen."
So, that's the historical setting of this wonderful salutation that comes our way this evening. Now, what about His Trinitarian foundation? Well, the first thing that jumps out at us, of course, is that you have here obvious references to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Only it's in this order: Father, Spirit, and Son.
Let me read it for you in verse 4b and 5a. "Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne. And from Jesus Christ." Well, this is God's greeting to The Church of All Ages. This is really the essence of the Book of Revelation.
And the opening words really are these: "Grace and peace." And there's two important things we need to notice about these words: grace and peace. First, that the Trinitarian salutation, a Trinitarian greeting, that's what the word salutation means, begins with these two words of hope and of joy. Too often when we think of the Book of Revelation, we think of gloom and doom and judgment, fire and brimstone, thunder and lightning, tribulation and wrath. A black, gloomy book. But that is only the backdrop to the book. The theme of Revelation, ultimately, is grace and peace to the people of God. And that grace and peace become all the more vivid against the backdrop of judgment and wrath and persecution and tribulation.
So, here you have the tone for the book: grace and peace. Now, grace and peace, of course, are a common apostolic salutation. But John presents it in a peculiarly beautiful Trinitarian way flowing from Jesus Christ. John is wishing the churches God's free love, God's smile, God's approbation. In simple words, grace and peace really summarize the whole salvation of God, don't they? Grace is God's undeserved salvation, or really you could say demerited salvation. We're not neutral, we've actually unmerited. We deserved hell, but grace opens the door of heaven.
And peace is the reflection upon that salvation that the soul may make as it receives the grace of God and basks in the smile of God that that grace brings. You see by nature God frowns on us. We're under the wrath of God. We're born into this world under sin and condemnation. But through the blood of Jesus, God comes with His grace, and because of the blood of Jesus Christ, God smiles upon us rather than frowns because our sin is paid for in Jesus if we're believers.
And then not because we're lovable or because there's anything to smile at in our lives, but only because of the blood of Jesus Christ. And when that becomes reality for us, a peace sweeps our soul. A peace that passes all understanding. The peace of divine sunshine that smiles in our souls. "Grace and peace be unto you," says the Lord.
And then the second thing to notice about this, the opening words of this greeting, is that there is a particular focus on each person of the Trinity. "Grace and peace be unto you," first is the Father, "from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." That's actually the ancient name of the Father, isn't it? The God of the burning bush. The I Am that I Am, which literally means I was what I was, I am what I am, I shall be what I shall be. Or you can say which was, and which is, and which is to come.
This is the name of Yahweh, Jehovah, the faithful unchangeable God who was what He was, who is what He is, who shall be what He shall be. In the face of Jesus Christ, this holy God can commune from out of the burning bush with an unworthy sinner. So, in the face of Jesus Christ, for what He was and His promises, before He was born in Bethlehem, what He is now is God manifested in the flesh and sitting at the right hand of God. And what He shall be when He comes to judge the living and the dead. God the Father can bless His church with grace and peace.
What a comfort is here. What John is saying is that God always is and what a comfort that is. Francis Schaeffer wrote a book The God Who Is Always There. The apostle tells us that he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Too often we forget the simple fact that God is because we live so much in a time as though God is not. We live so many aspects of our lives by nature. Even after we see grace sometimes without reference to God.
But what John is saying in this salutation is, "I'm going to show you in this book that God always is. God is always our reference point. God is always the center. He's always the one who is." So, we must not get into a routine in our lives that we can go on happily with little consciousness of the reality of God. What we need to understand is what John was conveying here. He was saying to the persecuted churches with all their lives ahead of you, "With the persecution and imprisonment and death and martyrdom that many of you will face, I want you to get hold of this great truth that whatever happens, God is, and He always has been, and He always will be, and He will never forsake the work of His own hands."
The great Scottish divine John Duncan, most commonly known as Rabbi Duncan because he became so proficient in Hebrew that he got nicknamed Rabbi. Rabbi Duncan wrote this when he was delivered from his bondage, his inward bondage of battling atheism, "I danced with joy thrilled by the one great fact that God is. That the cosmos is not empty, the ship is not rudderless, the universe is not throneless or kingless or governmentless. Life is not hopeless because God is."
That's the salutation. "Oh, persecuted church of Ephesus and Smyrna, remember that God is in the midst of all your persecution. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God," Jesus said, "believe also in me." And so, today we can say, "Dear child of God, your God is. The God who was never created. The God who never had a beginning, will never have an ending. The God who has always been and always will be, that God is committed in all three persons to you, through the blood of His son, to keep you, to save you to the very end. No matter what your future holds. No matter what trials you must face. Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." Praise be to God.
So, why are you living so often as if God is not? Remember every moment of your life God is. But then secondly, John greets us in the Holy Spirit, "Grace be unto you, and peace from the seven Spirits which are before His throne." Now, these seven Spirits cannot be interpreted any other way than in reference to the Holy Spirit. There is no indication in scripture that grace and peace can ever come to us in any other way than from God alone, applied to our souls by the Holy Spirit.
So, these seven Spirits cannot be, as some say, seven angels around the throne or seven seraphim. They must refer to the Spirit of God in all His fullness. And you can find that confirmed in other places in the Bible as well. If you turn with me just a moment to Isaiah 11:2. Bear in mind now that Revelation is a book of numbers. Seven is the number of fullness. It will come up dozens of times as we preach through this book.
Look at Isaiah 11:2. Sometimes I think that the seven Spirits here actually refers back to this text. The sevenfold Spirit. "And the Spirit of the Lord," Isaiah 11:2, "shall rest upon him." There's number one aspect of the Spirit. "The Spirit of wisdom," number two, "and understanding," number three, "the Spirit of counsel," four, "and might," five, "the Spirit of knowledge," six, "and of the fear of the Lord," seven. The sevenfold Spirit.
But that's not the only place. Zechariah provides us with a picture, the seven-branched candlestick that represents the Holy Spirit. And God says to the prophet, "Do you know what this seven-branched candlestick is all about?" And the answer is, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." It's a symbol of the Spirit operating through the seven branches, pouring the oil into the church. The sevenfold ministry, sevenfold fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And then in Revelation 4:5, we have another clear reference to the Spirit in these words, "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." And in Revelation chapter three, we have a description of our Lord in the midst of His relationship to His church. We are told, "He hath the seven Spirits of God." The Holy Spirit belongs to Him.
So, this number seven, you see, is another way of saying the Holy Spirit and all the diversity of His ministry. The fullness of the Holy Spirit rests in the church of Jesus Christ in our New Testament age to the end of the world. Oh, church of God, be encouraged. No matter what persecution you face, you have the Holy Spirit in all His ministry to equip you, and help you, and bring you through.
Now, the beauty and the mystery of this statement is that we know, of course, that the Holy Spirit, as the third person of the Trinity, is on the throne. He's coequal with God. But you read here that the Holy Spirit is before the throne as if He were in some way inferior to God the Father and God the Son. But that's not to be understood that way. Rather He's before the throne because He's there to do the bidding of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father to go out into the earth, to go out into the church. He's there bursting with activity to go out and do His ministry. He's before the throne given to the church in His sevenfold Spirit fullness. Ready to go out and be a dispenser of Jesus Christ to the church. Taking the things of Christ and revealing them to the church.
So, these are all resources at our disposal if we're Christians. To be a Christian means that God has actually given Himself to us and put His own Spirit at our disposal. And that Spirit runs as it were from before the throne out into the world, out into the church like a mighty torrent, like a mighty river.
And then we come back to that in the last chapter of Revelation 22:1-2 begins this way, "He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
"In the midst of the street of it, on either side of the river, there was the tree of life, which bear twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." You see essentially the same picture. The Spirit goes out from the throne of the Father and the throne of the Lamb like a mighty river. The grace of God, the peace of God through the Spirit of God is like a river, full and overflowing, coming from the throne of God.
A river that cannot be stopped. A river that sweeps everything before, carries everything along with it. God's grace is a thundering torrent of grace. It comes from the throne. It comes from the Holy Spirit, the sevenfold Spirit of grace. That's the glory. That's the glory of being a Christian. It means that you have this mighty current, this river of the waters of life coming through your life. The Spirit of God carrying you along, sweeping things away from your past, washing away your sin, leaving you in the ways of God to glorify, and to praise Him, and to exalt in His very salutation to you.
And then we read these words, "And from Jesus Christ." Here you have the entire Trinity. And that's why, of course, every Sunday evening we use this very greeting that I'm preaching to you on right now, don't we? As the initial modem and benediction as we come to you at the beginning of the service. We come in the name of the Triune God. Him who is, and was, and is to come from the seven Spirits which are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ. That's how we worship. That's why we begin our worship with a recognition of this glorious Trinity.
The Triune God puts His blessing upon His church in every one of His persons. Each person of the Trinity co-labors for the salvation of the entire invisible church of God chosen from eternity past to life eternal. And that's why Samuel Rutherford says, as I've quoted to you so many times, "I don't know which divine person I love the most, but this I know, I love each of them and I need them all."
We, dear congregation, are called to be Trinitarian believers. Yes, Christ is at the center, and yes, we name the name of Christ in every sermon, but we have to remember Christ comes to us always through the Spirit, and out of the womb of the Father's decree. We're Trinitarian. We exalt a Triune God. Salvation is provided by God the Father, it's dispensed by God the Spirit, and it's merited for us by God the Son.
And the beauty of all this, you see, is what John is saying, "Dear persecuted church, don't worry about all your persecutions, your trials, your imprisonment, even your martyrdom because the entire Triune God, the Almighty is committed to your salvation." So, whatever trials He puts in your path, be it marital trials, be it trials with your children, be it trials with your job, be it trials with sickness, is so designed as part of God's equipment to lead you to praise and to glorify and exalt the Triune God.
And one day in eternity, you will look back from heaven, if you're a believer, you'll look back from heaven, and you'll see the must needs be for every trial you've ever undergone in the hands of your Triune God who's committed to your salvation.
What a glorious thought this is that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would covenant from eternity past and say to one another, "Let us give all the resources we have as God, God, and God, to every single one of our children. To bring them through whatever takes place in their lives to our own everlasting glory." Praise be unto Him who sits upon the throne.
But then, then John goes out and he breaks out. He breaks out when he says, "And from Jesus Christ," into this prolonged, beautiful, glorious Christ-centered doxology. Well, John breaks out into doxology about Christ for four reasons. First, because of who He is. Look at verse 5a, and from Jesus Christ who is, first, "The faithful witness," second, "and the first begotten of the dead," and third, "and the prince of the kings of the earth."
He's the faithful witness. The word witness here in the Greek is the same word for martyr in English. Jesus is not a helpless martyr. He's not a martyr in that sense, but He was a willing witness to lay down His life for the cause of His people. And what John is saying by implication is in the strength of the savior who laid down His life for you, you persecuted Christians of Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamos, you will be made willing, and ought to be willing to lay down your life in martyrdom for the savior today.
And what a lesson that is for us. We are so quick to complain over the smallest inconvenience, much less to give our whole life for something. We are murmurers in the wilderness most of the time. But John is saying, "You have a savior who gave everything for you. Will you not be willing to give your life back unto Him out of gratitude? He's the faithful, faithful martyr, the witness. He's never failed you. He's always been faithful. He's never let you down." Praise be to God.
We worship a faithful witness, and by Him, we can be faithful witnesses for Him. Isn't that what is later said in Revelation 2:13? You see when he writes to one of the churches. He speaks of Antipas, in chapter 2:13, says, "Antipas was my faithful martyr." Same word, faithful witness. God gives grace to reflect the image of Christ for His persecuted church.
But secondly, He is the first begotten of the dead. Now, that has two wonderful meanings. The first wonderful, amazing meaning is it means He's the one who carries authority. We understand it even a little bit today that the firstborn in the family has a bit of authority. In Bible times, the firstborn had a lot of authority. Firstborn got a bigger part of the inheritance, greater part of responsibility in the family.
The firstborn was a kind of second parent or third parent rather. He had authority in the family. Jesus Christ is the first begotten of the dead as you heard this morning. The pro-life risen king. He's got authority and power, and praise be to God that He does, that our older brother is someone we can go to and get wisdom and power and might from Him.
But the second amazing thing about this part of the salutation is that a firstborn, by very definition, always has a second, third, fourth born as it were. He has brothers and sisters. And the beauty of Jesus Christ is that He doesn't do any of this for Himself. He does it all for the family of God. All those whom the Father has given Him. He's got the biggest family. No one has so many children. No one has so many brothers and sisters as the living God and His son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you're a Christian, you belong to the biggest family under heaven and on earth. And so, what the apostle is saying here is that the other sons and daughters of God who are brothers and sisters of Christ whom he's taking to glory, they too shall inherit the same glorious victory over death and every lesser enemy because He is risen from the dead. That's who He is, the first begotten of the dead among many brethren.
But thirdly, He is not only the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, He's the prince of the kings of the earth. Now, this has tremendous, tremendous comfort for the persecuted churches because Domitian, and Nero, and Caesar, they were all strutting around the stage of human history, and they were saying, "We are lords. We are princes of the kings of the earth. You must bow before us. You must call us Lord and God. And the Christians would say no, and so, they'd get thrown to the lions or some other radical form of persecution.
But John says, "Christians stand fast. There's one prince of the kings of the earth, and that is your savior, your lord, Jesus Christ." That's who He is. That's His identity. Andrew Melville, John Knox's successor in Scotland was a fearless reformer, and he had a remarkable influence on King James VI of Scotland, who was also King James I of England. And actually, we have the King James Bible, but King James was not really an admirable figure you know.
And when King James VI was demanding to have the right to rule in Christ's church as well as in the nation. Melville dared to come before him and spoke with authority, "King James, I've told you before and I tell you again," he said. "There are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland. There is the King James who is the head of the Commonwealth, but there is also the King Jesus of whom King James is a subject. He's the ruler of the kings of the earth.
And so, the message to Domitian, the message to Nero, the message to Obama today, the message to every leader on the face of the earth is that leaders tremble because Jesus Christ is king, and he is ruler of the kings of the earth. So, John comes with this wonderful salutation telling the persecuted Christians, "Remember who Jesus Christ is. The first begotten of the dead, the faithful witness, the prince of the kings of the earth."
And secondly, he reminds them of what He has done, verse 5b and 6a. And he breaks out into doxological praise about this as well: "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and His father." John is saying, Dear persecuted Christians, this atoning blood of Jesus is what enables you to face death and persecution.
This gives you strength for everything. You see this is what can appease your conscience. This is what can give you inward peace, "Grace and peace be unto you through Him who loved us and watched us from all our sins in His own blood." Dear congregation, you cannot value a good conscience highly enough. Are we formed... And Puritan forefathers wrote whole treatises on the idea of conscience. We've lost a lot of that today, unfortunately.
They spoke so often about having a good conscience that would give great peace as we journey through this world. We still have some of it, of course, and we say, even in society we say when someone does something very bad, "I don't know how he can live with his conscience." But what John is now speaking about here is not just living with your conscience but dying with your conscience.
And the reason they are to face death and able to be able to face death with peace, and grace, and joy is because Jesus loves them, and washes them in His blood, and brings them to glory. And makes them, secondly, kings and priests unto God to serve Him, to respond to Him." You could also try and say this, "He has made us a kingdom of priests." And the idea of priesthood is sacrifice. Not to merit with our blood, but sacrificially, to lay down our lives for His cause.
That's His ultimate aim is to make a kingdom of priests that is the priesthood of all believers whose lives will be noted for glorifying and worshiping and honoring and praising God and the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. That is what redemption is all about, that is what our lives are all about, that we might worship Him who purchased us with His own blood.
So, every time we come into worship, every time we come into prayer, every time we open the Bible, we've got to remember what He has done. The way we approach Him is through His blood. The way we pray to Him is through His blood. The way we worship Him is through His blood. Without His blood, there is no remission of sins, there's no piece of conscience, there's no priesthood of believers, there's no true religion. That's why we can look a Muslim in the eye, and a Buddhist, and a Sikh, and we can say, "I'm sorry to have to say it, but your religion cannot bring you to heaven. You don't have a savior who washes your conscience in His blood."
But thirdly, John exalts Jesus in this wonderful, doxological praise, not only because of who He is and what He has done but also because of what He will do. Look at verse seven, "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen." You see Jesus is on His way. He's coming, you see Him. You see Him vividly. You see Him inescapably. Majestically He'll come. Oh, persecuted Christians, remember your death is not the end. You'll be resurrected from the grave. The resurrected life, the pro-life savior will raise you from the grave, and you will meet Him face-to-face, eye-to-eye. Also, those who pierced Him.
And then you find this amazing statement: "All kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." Does that mean that somehow when a child of God is raised from the dead, that there will be, before He enters into glory, just a moment of weeping, mourning? What my eye has done, what my sins have done to Him. We don't know exactly what these words mean here, but this we know, that even if there is a sense of mourning, there is no sorrow in that mourning that will not be tempered and overshadowed by profound joy.
When we see Him, there shall be amazing joy in believers. Believers shall rejoice. They shall say, "Even so..." Jonathan Edwards said, "It's like their souls, if they're in Christ, shall take wings to find their bodies, and with joy, enter into their bodies. And with joy, body and soul shall come before the Lamb."
But the ungodly, they are the ones who shall mourn. They shall really mourn. They shall wail. The word wail here is like a mother who... It's the original word used for a mother who's lost a child who grieves and weeps and laments. And my dear friend, you see if you're not saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, if He's not your hope, if He's not the object of your worship, your voice one day will join in that wailing. You'll remember that you've slighted Him in that day, and despised Him, and rebelled against Him, and rejected His offered salvation, and refused to live for Him. And what a tragedy that will be if you stay unsaved until the end of your life.
James Ramsey who wrote a wonderful commentary on Revelation says this, "Christ rejected, an offered salvation neglected, a day of grace wasted. This is the thing that will give the lost sinner his keenest anguish and wring from him at the last a bitterer wail than the devils have ever uttered. Oh, that you would repent of your sin and fly to Christ today so you can be washed in His blood and be clothed in His righteousness."
And then John says, "To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever." End of verse six. He must be praised because He's king, He's lord. He will make all things right on the great day. He deserves all the glory. And then he ends this wonderful doxology in verse eight saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Here is our eternal security because He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The first letter of the Greek alphabet, and the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
He's the Lord of history. He's the beginning of the history of your salvation. He's the one that caused you to be born again, but He's also the end. He'll keep you to the very end. And He's the unchangeable Lord. The Father is the one who was, and is, and is to come, but so is Jesus because the Father is what He is to us in and through Jesus. "He who has seen me," Jesus said, "has seen the Father."
He's unchangeable in His priesthood. He's unchangeable in His mediation, His intercession. He's unchangeable in His love. He's unchangeable in His promises. He's unchangeable in His comfort. And because He's unchangeable, everything that we need, we can submit our lives to Him, we can trust Him. We can set our hope on His promises. We can commit our plans to Him. We can expect eternal blessings from Him. He will not let us down. He will always do us good.
But also, we get eternal security because He is the Almighty. That's the last word of this wonderful salutation. He's not only the unchangeable Lord, and the Alpha and the Omega, but our security lies in this: He's the Almighty. The Old Testament word for that, of course, is El Shaddai. "I'm the Lord God Almighty, Abraham. Fear not, I'm your El Shaddai." The New Testament Greek word is Pantocrator, the All-Powerful One. The one who wields supreme power. The anointed governor among the nations.
He will prevail. The triumph of Christ is good news for fickle sinners. It's good news for weak saints. It's good news for a fearing church. It means the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of God because He is the Almighty. He, dear child of God, is your El Shaddai, your Pantocrator, the Almighty. He will sustain you in this life. He will sustain you in the life to come. He's your eternal security.
So, when you're weak in grace and in peace, remember not Domitian, not any other carnal emperor, but El Shaddai, Pantocrator is your power, is your security. When you're wavering in your witness and you need to be faithful, remember, He is El Shaddai. He is the Almighty, the Pantocrator. When you're spiritually careless and procrastinating, remember He's the Pantocrator. Go to Him, repent of your backsliding, turn back to Him. Trust Him, lean on Him. When you're under great stress and pressure and you think you can't go on, remember, He's the El Shaddai and the Pantocrator.
Confess your sin to Him. Cry out to the heavens. Believe in the Christ of history, the Lord of history, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Let Him be your eternal security. He can take you right to the end.
I was down by my mother, let me close with this little illustration, just a few days ago, and I read her. I read her Revelation 1:4-9 anticipating preaching on it tonight, and her mind is mostly gone, and she repeats a lot. I always wonder what does she understand of the Bible. She spends 20 hours a day in bed. All she does is eat and read the Bible the rest of her life, nothing else.
I said, "Mother, do you understand what you're reading?" "Oh, yes, dear," she said. I said, "Does it still help you?" "Oh, yes, dear," she said. But the other day I asked her this question. I thought she'll never understand alpha and omega. I said, "Mother, what does it mean? What do you think it means that Jesus is your Alpha and your Omega." She said to me, she said, "Meaning He's my first and my last."
I said, "That's it mother, and everything in between. He was the first with you in your 20s, He's the last with you now in your 90s, and He'll keep you to the very end. He's your eternal security. When your mind fails, His mind will never fail." Praise be unto God, the Father which was, and is, and is to come. Praise be unto the sevenfold Spirit, and praise be unto Jesus Christ who is, and who was, and who is to come. Who is your Almighty, your El Shaddai, your Pantocrator. Trust in Him. And for those of you who don't trust in Him, don't wait. Don't risk your eternity. Ask Him for grace to turn to Him, to believe in Him, to repent before Him. To cast you all upon this Almighty. Amen.
Lord, we thank thee for this amazing salutation. For its historical setting, its Trinitarian foundation, its Christ-centered doxology, and its eternal amazing security. Please, Lord, help us to live out of this salutation for many a day in the week to come, and that we might love thee as the Triune God who ministers to us in every way and meets our every need. And that our lives might be known as lives that center upon worshiping thee. All this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
