Expectant Faith

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Resurrection creates faith. The Easter proclamation that "Christ is risen!" does not describe a neutral or Passive event. News of the resurrection affected the earliest witnesses, and it still affects us, giving us faith to witness, persevere, serve, and give thanks for God's abundant blessing.

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Proclamation of the Word

Revelation 1:4–8 ESV

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 dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, 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. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Introduction

Expectations

There was one clerk in the large candy store who always had people waiting in line, even when the other clerks were standing around with nothing to do. The manager finally asked her why she was so popular with customers.

“It’s easy,” she responded. “The other clerks always scoop more than a pound of candy and then start taking away. I always scoop less than a pound and then add to it.”

Brothers and sisters, so often we get so intimidated with the book of Revelation because of all the controversy, competing views, and imagery, that we can tend to just avoid it altogether. I have been guilty of it, to intimidated to preach on it that I may not communicate some part of the prophecy or imagery correctly. Then I read the beginning of the book over and over and listened to some lessons on its beginning and realized that God gave this revelation or unveiling to John through Jesus and his messengers to bless its readers and hearers.

Revelation 1:1 ESV

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Revelation 1:3 ESV

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.

Revelation 1:3

it is from this very first verse where the book gets its name. The Greek work “apokalypsis” from which we Get the English word “apocalypse” which is the revelation, disclosure, or unveiling of divine secrets. Just as some great statue is unveiled for all to see. Here we have the unveiling of Jesus Christ our Lord in all of his majesty and glory.

The people standing in that one clerks line were waiting expectantly for the blessing of receiving more candy. We should be running to the book of Revelation and expectantly reading line after line because we cannot wait to receive the promised blessing of the revelation or unveiling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his coming return. When we read the book of revelation there is an expectancy that one feels and remains throughout the whole reading of the book. It is this expectancy that I want you and I to grasp because I believe it translates to our daily walking in faith and our expectantly looking to our Lords return.

There are three primary ways that the book of Revelation has been interpreted over the ages; the preterist, the futurist, and historicist views of the end times. Perhaps we can look at these in more detail in future sermons or on Sunday nights. For right now I would like us to focus on the blessing of the Book of Revelation and what it means for us walking in Faith.

Connection to the Word

We sure had a blessed Holy Week didn’t we? The services were wonderful and the time of fellowship was just as it is intended to be when the body of Christ comes together. I don’t know about you, but did you feel like you hit a wall the Monday after Easter? We were riding that spiritual high of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then we come face to face with our problems and circumstances again Monday morning. Those financial struggles are still there. the sickness, the loneliness, the pain, is still there, and in some ways maybe even magnified. This book was given to John for the persecuted Christians of his day and for all the Christians throughout the ages for encouragement and blessing.

There was a Medieval theologian named Anselm. Anselm described the process of living with faith as a “continuous quest of seeking to understand. I believe that this speaks very well to that expectation that the Christian has concerning the return of our Lord and Savior.

That being said if we are on a continuous journey of faith, we also recognize and admit that we have moments of impatience, moments were we just want to know the “hows” and the “whys” to become clearer and more understandable. Much like the Apostle Thomas in (), we want to be certain of what it is we believe.

John 20:24–25 ESV

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Haven’t you felt that way? There are many that have a craving for the kind of certainty Thomas demanded. However, when we come to the book of Revelation it seems only to make things worse. In the first few verses we are introduced to the kind of symbolism that continues throughout the entire book; where the author writes about Christ’s second coming.

Revelation 1:7–8 ESV

Behold, 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. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 1:

Jesus began the 15 mile journey from Jericho to Jerusalem. This is perilous journey, there are many areas along the road where someone could be jumped or robbed. The Romans had guard posts along this route to keep the peace. As they neared the top of the Mount of Olives Jesus sent two disciples ahead to get a coltThis is the fulfillment of the Prophecy from the Prophet Zechariah.

ESVRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

As he begins his journey down the western slope of the Mount of Olives he gets a glimpse of the City of Jerusalem. The crowd with him begins to praise Jesus, declaring him Messiah and throwing their cloaks down before him a symbol of respect for royalty. it would be like a red carpet welcome in our society.

ESVAnd as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Before this moment Jesus would not allow public praise or declaration that he is the Messiah---Today is different. Everyone in Jerusalem knew that this was a welcome of a KingJesus came to another point along the road where he can see the entire city of Jerusalem and he stops and weeps because they did not know the time of their visitation

ESVAnd when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus weeps for Jerusalem because they did not know “the things that make for peace!” You know I do not think that I realized what a rare and fragile thing Peace truly is. Did you know:“The Society of International Law, in London, states that during the last 4,000 years there have been only 268 years of peace in spite of good peace treaties. In the last 3 centuries there have been 286 wars on the continent of Europe alone.”

Orientation: Living the Word

Such imagery of the return of the risen Christ and the Power of God takes language and stretches it to its limits. However, if we approach our faith walk as a journey, as a continuous quest of seeking to understand. We are reminded of what the Apostles tell the priests of the temple in ().

Acts 5:30 ESV

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

The Apostles are challenging the priests to accept that the God of Israel is the God that raised Jesus from the dead. They are challenging them to accept the claims about God’s redeeming action in and through Jesus Christ based more on faith than on certainty and they did not like it.

What does the testimony of the apostles mean for us today? The apostles gave their lives to ensure that the gospel message of Jesus Christ was spread throughout the world. Jesus was killed; but God did not allow death to have the final word.

Revelation 1:5 ESV

and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

Revelation

As we, people of faith, seek to live in the power of the resurrection seek to understand what this means. We hear in Acts the command to trust the testimonies of those ancestors in the faith; to embrace the resurrection reality as God’s gift to us. To always seek a deeper understanding but until then to trust the testimony of those that came before us, the witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirit that we are children of God, and that we are God’s from beginning to end.

Revelation 1:1 ESV

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

By Aaron Shepard

We see here that this revelation comes from God the Father to Jesus Christ and from Jesus to his servant John through an angel.

Revelation 1:4–8 ESV

My dear sister Janet,It is 2:00 in the morning and most of our men are asleep in their dugouts—yet I could not sleep myself before writing to you of the wonderful events of Christmas Eve. In truth, what happened seems almost like a fairy tale, and if I hadn’t been through it myself, I would scarce believe it. Just imagine: While you and the family sang carols before the fire there in London, I did the same with enemy soldiers here on the battlefields of France!As I wrote before, there has been little serious fighting of late. The first battles of the war left so many dead that both sides have held back until replacements could come from home. So, we have mostly stayed in our trenches and waited.But what a terrible waiting it has been! Knowing that any moment an artillery shell might land and explode beside us in the trench, killing or maiming several men. And in daylight not daring to lift our heads above ground, for fear of a sniper’s bullet.And the rain—it has fallen almost daily. Of course, it collects right in our trenches, where we must bail it out with pots and pans. And with the rain has come mud—a good foot or more deep. It splatters and cakes everything, and constantly sucks at our boots. One new recruit got his feet stuck in it, and then his hands too when he tried to get out—just like in that American story of the tar baby!Through all this, we couldn’t help feeling curious about the German soldiers across the way. After all, they faced the same dangers we did, and slogged about in the same muck. What’s more, their first trench was only fifty yards from ours. Between us lay No Man’s Land, bordered on both sides by barbed wire—yet they were close enough we sometimes heard their voices.Of course, we hated them when they killed our friends. But other times, we joked about them and almost felt we had something in common. And now it seems they felt the same.Just yesterday morning—Christmas Eve Day—we had our first good freeze. Cold as we were, we welcomed it, because at least the mud froze solid. Everything was tinged white with frost, while a bright sun shone over all. Perfect Christmas weather.During the day, there was little shelling or rifle fire from either side. And as darkness fell on our Christmas Eve, the shooting stopped entirely. Our first complete silence in months! We hoped it might promise a peaceful holiday, but we didn’t count on it. We’d been told the Germans might attack and try to catch us off guard.I went to the dugout to rest, and lying on my cot, I must have drifted asleep. All at once my friend John was shaking me awake, saying, “Come and see! See what the Germans are doing!” I grabbed my rifle, stumbled out into the trench, and stuck my head cautiously above the sandbags.I never hope to see a stranger and more lovely sight. Clusters of tiny lights were shining all along the German line, left and right as far as the eye could see.“What is it?” I asked in bewilderment, and John answered, “Christmas trees!”And so it was. The Germans had placed Christmas trees in front of their trenches, lit by candle or lantern like beacons of good will.And then we heard their voices raised in song.Stille nacht, heilige nacht . . .This carol may not yet be familiar to us in Britain, but John knew it and translated: “Silent night, holy night.” I’ve never heard one lovelier—or more meaningful, in that quiet, clear night, its dark softened by a first-quarter moon.When the song finished, the men in our trenches applauded. Yes, British soldiers applauding Germans! Then one of our own men started singing, and we all joined in.The first Nowell, the angel did say . . .In truth, we sounded not nearly as good as the Germans, with their fine harmonies. But they responded with enthusiastic applause of their own and then began another.O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum . . .Then we replied.O come all ye faithful . . .But this time they joined in, singing the words in Latin.Adeste fideles . . .British and German harmonizing across No Man’s Land! I would have thought nothing could be more amazing—but what came next was more so.“English, come over!” we heard one of them shout. “You no shoot, we no shoot.”There in the trenches, we looked at each other in bewilderment. Then one of us shouted jokingly, “You come over here.”To our astonishment, we saw two figures rise from the trench, climb over their barbed wire, and advance unprotected across No Man’s Land. One of them called, “Send officer to talk.”I saw one of our men lift his rifle to the ready, and no doubt others did the same—but our captain called out, “Hold your fire.” Then he climbed out and went to meet the Germans halfway. We heard them talking, and a few minutes later, the captain came back with a German cigar in his mouth!“We’ve agreed there will be no shooting before midnight tomorrow,” he announced. “But sentries are to remain on duty, and the rest of you, stay alert.”Across the way, we could make out groups of two or three men starting out of trenches and coming toward us. Then some of us were climbing out too, and in minutes more, there we were in No Man’s Land, over a hundred soldiers and officers of each side, shaking hands with men we’d been trying to kill just hours earlier!Before long a bonfire was built, and around it we mingled—British khaki and German grey. I must say, the Germans were the better dressed, with fresh uniforms for the holiday.Only a couple of our men knew German, but more of the Germans knew English. I asked one of them why that was.“Because many have worked in England!” he said. “Before all this, I was a waiter at the Hotel Cecil. Perhaps I waited on your table!”“Perhaps you did!” I said, laughing.He told me he had a girlfriend in London and that the war had interrupted their plans for marriage. I said, “Don’t worry. We’ll have you beat by Easter, then you can come back and marry the girl.”He laughed at that. Then he asked if I’d send her a postcard he’d give me later, and I promised I would.Another German had been a porter at Victoria Station. He showed me a picture of his family back in Munich. His eldest sister was so lovely, I told him I should like to meet her someday. He beamed and said he would like that very much and gave me his family’s address.Even those who could not converse could still exchange gifts—our cigarettes for their cigars, our tea for their coffee, our corned beef for their sausage. Badges and buttons from uniforms changed owners, and one of our lads walked off with the infamous spiked helmet! I myself traded a jackknife for a leather equipment belt—a fine souvenir to show when I get home.Newspapers too changed hands, and the Germans howled with laughter at ours. They assured us that France was finished and Russia nearly beaten too. We told them that was nonsense, and one of them said, “Well, you believe your newspapers and we’ll believe ours.”Clearly they are lied to—yet after meeting these men, I wonder how truthful our own newspapers have been. These are not the “savage barbarians” we’ve read so much about. They are men with homes and families, hopes and fears, principles and, yes, love of country. In other words, men like ourselves. Why are we led to believe otherwise?As it grew late, a few more songs were traded around the fire, and then all joined in for—I am not lying to you—“Auld Lang Syne.” Then we parted with promises to meet again tomorrow, and even some talk of a football match.I was just starting back to the trenches when an older German clutched my arm. “My God,” he said, “why cannot we have peace and all go home?”I told him gently, “That you must ask your emperor.”He looked at me then, searchingly. “Perhaps, my friend. But also we must ask our hearts.”And so, dear sister, tell me, has there ever been such a Christmas Eve in all history? And what does it all mean, this impossible befriending of enemies?For the fighting here, of course, it means regrettably little. Decent fellows those soldiers may be, but they follow orders and we do the same. Besides, we are here to stop their army and send it home, and never could we shirk that duty.Still, one cannot help imagine what would happen if the spirit shown here were caught by the nations of the world. Of course, disputes must always arise. But what if our leaders were to offer well wishes in place of warnings? Songs in place of slurs? Presents in place of reprisals? Would not all war end at once?All nations say they want peace. Yet on this Christmas morning, I wonder if we want it quite enough.Your loving brother, Tom

Revelation 1:4-

Revelation 1:4–8 ESV

Revelation 1:

Closing

Brothers and sisters, faith is more than knowledge. Hearing the story of Jesus gives us courage to follow Him. In this beginning to the book of Revelation in the greeting to the Seven Churches twice we hear this description, first as a description of God the Father and second as a description of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ; “who is and who was and who is to come.” It is a description of the eternality of God, that God has always existed He is the eternal one and that Jesus Christ is God, he is the one who spoke everything into existence, the one through his death and resurrection has conquered evil and has freed us from our sins by his blood.

ESVwhich he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

If you remember on Palm Sunday we discussed how God is not finished, he has a plan, the Kingdom of God is not yet here in its completeness. However, it is established in the heart of every believer and we we are reminded of that in (verse 6).

Revelation 1:6 ESV

and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We cannot consider the Triumphal Entry today without looking to Easter and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even though the Jesus Christ is not yet sitting on the Throne of David he did establish His kingdom in the Heart of man. A young seminary student comes home and at the dinner table begins to share his experience and what he has learned. He go on and on talking about his dreams for world peace while his father listened patiently. Finally while he was catching his breath his father said “we will never have peace on earth until we can quiet the wars that rage within our own hearts.” Jesus came so you and I can quiet the wars that rage within our own hearts. We have also seen that he even shows up in the midst of war and brings peace. We will never know the lives that were change that Christmas day in 1914. That is what Jesus and the Kingdom of heaven are all about, placing a new heart in his children so they can experience peace that passes all understanding. Have you make Jesus Christ the King of your life? Is he sitting on the throne of your heart?

ESVAnd he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

In the last verse of our focus scripture we have the encouragement to sustain us and fuel the expectancy of our faith. The expectancy to live our life of faith as if we are on a journey always seeking to increase our understanding but trusting the testimony of those Christians that came before us.

ESVAnd the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Revelation 1:8 ESV

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Let us pray!

UMH 369 Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

Chorus: This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels, descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest, Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.