Grace and Peace in Troubled Times
Notes
Transcript
Once again, our Advent Scripture lesson is taken from the book of Revelation. This morning we will focus on the salutation, which means greeting. Please turn with me to Revelation 1:4-8:
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.”
The word “peace” is found only one time in the book of Revelation and it is here in the salutation. It is tempting to dismiss these salutations as insignificant; they are formal greetings that are appended to all letters. Our English equivalents are “Dear...” or “To Whom it May Concern”. However, appearances can be deceiving, in the New Testament, these greetings serve as previews and summaries of the entire book, God, through the pen of John, wants us to know that we can have Grace and Peace in Troubled Times.
This grace and peace are anchored in the firm foundation of the might of the Triune God! Each member of the Trinity gives us the confidence that we can face troubled times empowered by God’s grace and filled with God’s peace. John begins with God the Father and says we can have grace and peace in troubled times because...
The Father “Is”
The Father “Is”
When John writes, “from him who is and who was and who is to come”, he is not simply saying that God the Father is eternal, he is saying that God the Father is self-existent. It is a Greek way of saying what we find in Exodus 3:14:
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
What sets God apart from His creation is that God is dependent on no one and no thing. We as creatures depend upon a multitude of things. For example, we depend on food, air, water and warmth to survive. As important as these things are, our dependence upon God is even greater. The Apostle Paul says, “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
God is not like this at all. He does not need us, nor anything else. In the eternal fellowship of God the Father, Son and Spirit, God is perfect and complete in and of himself. God does not grow, nor change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever!
This is incredibly good news and a great source of comfort and peace to those who understand and believe it.
We live in a world of change. The changes we read of in the pages of the book of Revelation are massive and frightening! Times of tribulation always are. Think of the change we have witnessed in 2020 and the change that 2021 promises. Many are in despair; many are frightened; many are angry, yet God stands above all this chaos; totally unmoved and totally in control of it all!
This is why we can have peace. This is one of the big lessons of the book of Revelation. When the church faces tribulation, God says to us, “Don’t worry, I have got this!”
The second anchor point for grace and peace in troubled times is found in the person of the Holy Spirit. This is because...
The Spirit Sees
The Spirit Sees
Seven is a very common number in the book of Revelation. For example, we see in the very first verse of our reading that the book of Revelation is addressed to the seven churches of Asia. Throughout Scripture, seven is the symbolic number of perfection or completion. Creation was completed in seven days. An Israelite would be freed from their servanthood and debt in seven years. When John writes of the “sevens Spirits of God,” he is not referring to a plurality of spirits, but rather he is making reference to the Holy Spirit, who is called the “sevenfold Spirit” in Isaiah 11.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit is the complete, perfect manifestation of the glory of God the Father and God the Son. In addition, in Revelation 5:6, Jesus is said to have “seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God.” Once again this is an allusion to an Old Testament prophecy, this time Zechariah (Zech. 3:9; 4:10):
For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
“These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.”
What Zechariah and John are saying to us is that the Holy Spirit, is ever present and ever seeing. Much in this life is shrouded in injustice and lies. The voice of the persecuted and victimized is unheard, or if heard, it is dismissed. “If only the truth could be seen, if only my voice would be heard,” the victims of injustice lament! Scripture has good news to all who feel this way, there is One who sees, there is One who witnesses every evil deed and there is One to whom every human being will have to give an account—the Holy Spirit! Moreover, because of the divine unity and simplicity of the Trinity, this same Spirit can be rightly called the “spirit of God” and “the eyes of Christ”. In the book of Hebrews, we read these words:
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
This truly was a word of peace to the early Christians in Asia Minor, who were the first to read this prophecy. Persecution was on the rise, the spirit of the Beast and False Prophet had already manifested themselves in the Roman Empire, and as a consequence many Christians had lost their property, their freedom and even their lives! Moreover, the book of Revelation warns us that many more must suffer and die.
As the years become decades, and the decades become centuries, the number of martyrs beneath the alter in Heaven has grown. The spirit of the Antichrist has manifested itself in tyrannical political rulers in every generation and the spirit of the False Prophet has as well. The Spirit of the Antichrist is easy to identify, Jesus gave us two infallible characteristics:
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Where you see a murderous spirit (especially the shedding of innocent blood), where you see lies, there you will find the spirit of the Antichrist. Many are deceived by their smooth lies, but the Seven-fold Spirit sees through them all and He reports everything He sees to King Jesus. Which brings us to the final anchor point of peace: We have peace because...
The Son Wins
The Son Wins
The Son is called, “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings of earth.” (Rev. 1:5). Each of these titles provide us with a reason to have peace.
The first title is “faithful witness”. Jesus was a faithful witness to the truth, and as a result He was persecuted. This is important, because we too are called to be faithful witnesses and we too will face persecution. In times of trouble, many Christians lose their peace because they think something strange is happening to then, when in fact, this is what we should expect. Peter reminds us of this when he writes:
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
Persecution is not a strange path, it is the same path Jesus trod and it is the path that leads to glory, which brings us to the second title. Jesus is called “the firstborn of the dead” for two reasons: first, He is the first person to rise from the dead and second, He is the first among many. All who have faith in Jesus’ resurrection will share in His resurrection and glory! This gives us confident peace in the face of persecution.
Finally, Jesus is called the “ruler of the kings of earth”. In the book of Revelation we see the kings of the earth and their false prophets running amok. On an earthly level, no force can oppose them, but always remember this: God always gives the Devil enough rope to hang himself. In the pages of the Old Testament we find the examples of Pharaoh and Haman. In the New Testament, we see cross, where Satan and his allies thought they had won the ultimate victory, only to be thrown down in utter shame. Paul writes of Christ’s victory saying:
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do not be frightened or discouraged—Christ wins!
Let us review what we have learned: We have three reasons to have peace in troubled times:
First, we can have peace because the Father “Is”. God the Father is self-existent, the world and everything around us may change, but the Father never does. He is a solid rock that you can count on.
Second, we can have peace because the Holy Spirit sees. All the hidden things will be exposed.
Finally, we can have peace because God the Son wins!
We live in troubled times, but because the Triune God is on our side we can have peace.