Sermon Tone Analysis

How many of you remember the last love letter you received?

For some of you it hasn’t been that long.

For others of us love letters are ancient history.

I remember a love letter I got from a girl named Polly when we were both in the 8th grade.

It simply said, DEAR MICHAEL, I THINK YOU ARE PURTY.

WILL YOU BE MY BOYFRIEND?

LOVE POLLY.

Since my dear wife is here, I am extremely happy to say that things with Polly never worked out.

I also hurry to add that my wife wrote much better love letters than poor Polly ever did.

And if you ever ask me anything else about Polly, my response from henceforth will be /Polly who? /

            You couldn’t tell it, but some of us were pretty good at writing love letters.

I don’t suppose there is a formula for a successful love letter, but I do know that they are usually the kind of letters that get read much more than once.

Some romantic types keep love letters forever, reading them over and over, and remembering.

Tonight I want to begin looking at a series of love letters from Jesus Christ to His Bride—the church.

We won’t actually read any of the letters themselves, but we will get a look at who wrote them, who sent them, and how these love letters can be so precious to you and me 2000 years after they were written.

Because the truth is, these love letters are also addressed to us.

Let’s begin by reading *Rev.

1:4-20*.

*PRAYER*

/            /You could divide up these verses into two parts, both of which are meant to introduce the human author (John) and the Divine Author (Christ): *vs.

4-8* is a greeting, in which John reviews /doctrinal /revelation of Christ, and then *vs.

9-20*  a description of John’s /personal /revelation of Christ.

You could say that *v.

4* begins with the address labels, with the name /John /on the upper left hand corner, and the address /the Seven Churches of Asia /in the center of the envelope.

Jesus writes these letters through the hand of *John*, whom I told you last week is most likely the apostle John who is probably in his 90s as he writes this book.

He is Jesus’ secretary, recording what Jesus says in this letter which is addressed to the /…seven churches of Asia.../seven actual churches of John’s day.

In the Bible, seven is the number of perfection or completeness, so these 7 churches weren’t chosen at random.

They were churches who needed to hear the message Jesus is sending, but they are also churches who represent the church as a whole, throughout history, who still need to hear Jesus’ message in these letters.

These letters were passed along from one church to another, and later copied and passed along to us because /we still need to hear this message from the Lord.

/

            Open up the letter and the first thing you read is the greeting, which is a little different than the way we begin our letters.

/Grace and peace from the Triune God.

/(*v.

4-5a*).

Most formal letters began with this greeting, but Christians uses it to remind the readers of an important truth:

 grace and peace are more than /formalities/—they are /realities /which come to us from God.

            Who is this God Who gives us grace and peace?

John reminds us He is

            /God the Father …Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come…/The idea here is of God’s eternity, which echoes the Name Moses knew God as /I AM. /

/            God the Spirit …the Seven Spirits Who are before His throne…/= /the Sevenfold Spirit before His Throne.

/The number 7 is the number of perfection or completeness in the Bible, and is used here to reinforce the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

/            God the Son …Jesus Christ…/John stresses the Lordship of Christ with 3 titles:

·         /The faithful Witness//./

The word for /witness= /*μάρτυς*  from which we get our English word

/martyr.

/John reminds his readers Jesus faithfully revealed God to us through His death.

This would be especially important to the believers to the church who were being persecuted and tempted to compromise their faith.

·         /The Firstborn from the dead /The idea here is of pre-eminence.

Jesus was not the first

person to come back from the dead, but He was the first One to be resurrected Who would never die and He was the One Who makes it possible for everyone /else /to rise from the dead.

Imagine how comforting this would be to Christians who were dying because they followed in the footsteps of Christ, the Faithful Witness.

·         /The Ruler over all the kings of the earth/ The Lord of His church is Sovereign over the

whole earth.

Rome seems to be in charge, but John reminds his readers /No matter who sits on the throne, Christ pulls the strings.

/

/            /John doesn’t write these words as dry, dreary dogma—as he writes, he is overcome with praise for the Lord He loves, and in *vs.

5b-8* he can’t help but write out his adoration.

/To Him Who loved us…/ John never could get over how much God loved him, how much God loves /us.

/I imagine him getting misty eyed, and maybe even speaking a little more loudly when he praised Jesus for loving /us./

How do we know He loved us?

John reminds us

/            …and washed us from our sins in His own blood…/The image is not just of cleansing, but freedom.

By His death on the Cross, Jesus cleanses us from our guilt, and frees us from the penalty and power of sin.

John was there at the foot of the Cross, watching Jesus suffer and die.

He saw what it cost Jesus to pay for our sins, and to purchase our freedom.

He is saying /the cost of the Cross is proof of Christ’s love for us.

/

/            …and has made us kings /[a kingdom]/ and priests to His God and Father…/John is reminding us that because of His love, and through His Cross, Jesus welcomes His people into His kingdom, and gives us the job of worshipping God and leading others to worship God.

This was God’s original plan for Israel (*Ex.

19:6*) but which is now extended to all believers.

John is stressing this as both a glorious privilege and a serious responsibility.

/            …to Him be glory and dominion, forever and ever.

Amen.// /This is a God worth worshipping, a God worth talking and singing about, a God worth serving.

/But John, that’s not the way it looks!

The rest of the world ignores the glory of the Lord! /But John says, /one day they won’t.

/(*read vs. 7-8).

*One day the glorious, almighty eternal Lord that John and the rest of the church adore will be seen by everybody.

One day He will come back and they will weep because they won’t be able to deny the wounds on His Body, nor the power in His hands.

John why do you open these love letters this way, with all of this doctrinal stuff?

Because you need to remember that your relationship with Christ is based on truth, not just emotion.

Here is the entire text of a love letter intercepted by a second grade schoolteacher, passed on to a parent, who passed it on to me:

/Dear Billy, if you dont say you love me and walk to the bus top/

/with me I will kill myself and beet you up.

I love you and wan to marry you soon.

Suzy/

The little girl was eight when she wrote that letter.

16 years later, at age 24, Suzy incorporated her letter into her wedding vows to Billy by repeating, “I, Suzy, promise you, Billy, never to kill myself or beat you up.”[i]

It takes love to write a love letter, but it has to be /true love.

/John says /before you read these love letters, you need to review some important truths about the One Who sends it: He is God in the flesh, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity.

He is the Faithful Witness Who reveals God to you by His life and His death, the One Who gives you victory over death, the One Who Rules the Universe.

He is the One Who loves you, Who welcomes you into God’s kingdom, Who calls you to worship.

He is the One Who will return to earth to set up His kingdom that will last forever.

/

/            /It didn’t look like Jesus was King to those 1st century readers, but He was.

It didn’t always feel like Jesus loved them, but He did.

So it is with us today: /our relationship with Christ is not based on how we feel, but on the truths of the Word.

/That is why John begins with this greeting full of the doctrines of the Gospel that promise grace and peace and love and victory.

But after the greeting John goes back and reminds us of the revelation of Christ’s personal presence.

He begins by answering the question: /John, just how did you happen to end up writing these letters?

/His answer begins in *vs.

9* where he calls himself /John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ…/Church tradition says John ministered in Asia for many years, possibly at each of these seven churches before persecution of Emperor Domitian began.

John has probably been exiled by the Roman government to the isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea about 50 miles SW of Ephesus./…for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus…/*v.

9*.

While Rome often executed its enemies, they would often exile those who were elderly.

John says in *vs.

10* he was /…in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.../In some supernatural way the Holy Spirit fills John’s mind and heart so he is ready to receive the Revelation he is about to record.