Revelation reading

An excerpt from Full Life Bible Commentary to the New Testament. Tim Jenny's comments on Revelation are some of my favorite.

Since God is eternal and unchanging (James 1 :16- 17), we should expect the same to be true of his Word (Matt. 5:18). His message to his church is faithful and dependable, not erratic or unstable. When we consider what this book said to its original audience, it steadies our interpretation, making it more balanced. Too often we twist Revelation, forcing it to answer questions about each new daily headline even if the book has nothing to say about it. We must learn to care more about what God wants to say than what we want to hear they are often very different! This attitude of submission pleases God and tunes our ears to his voice. 1.2.3. The Greeting (1:4c-5a). John's greeting begins with the traditional "grace and peace" familiar to any reader of the letters of Peter or Paul (e.g., 1 Cor. 1 :3.; 1 Thess. 1 : 1 ; 1 Peter 1 :2). Since the letters in the Bible are inspired by God, the greetings usually include the names of each member of the Godhead.

Their titles are modified in the light of the audience's plight. The title in Revelation emphasizes the Father's eternality, the Spirit's omnipresence, and the martyrdom of Jesus, the Son of God all of which foreshadow the main message of the book. The readers will have to remember them if they are to endure through the upcoming trials.

Revelation is from . . .

1.2.3.1. The Eternal God (1:4c). God the Father is the one "who is, and who was, and who is to come” (v.4; cf. v. 8). This is one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible. The order is not chronological, as one might expect (i.e., "was, is, and is to come"). It deliberately places the present before both the past and the future, emphasizing that God the Father is the God "who is." This title does two things. (1) It reminds us of God's covenant name in the O1d Testament.

He revealed himself there as Yahweh (or Jehovah). That name means "I AM” in Hebrew (Ex. 3: 14). (2) His title foreshadows the real impotence of the "beast" (Rev. 17), which these early Christians found so threatening. Revelation describes this beast as "once was, now is not, and will come” (17:8, 11 ). These Christians thereby recognized that this beast was not an eternal, unchanging God, nor would he ever be a match for Yahweh, the God "who is."

1.2.3.2. The Holy Spirit (1:4d). The Spirit is described as the "seven spirits" or, better, the "sevenfold Spirit” in front of God's throne. He is later described as "seven lamps” (4:5), This image surely comes from a Jewish menorah, a seven-pronged lampstand with seven flames.

Its position in front of the throne reminds one of the interior of the tabernacle or temple.

There the menorah burned continually in front of the ark of the covenant, God's throne in the O1d Testament (Ex. 25:37., 37:23). It reminded the Israelites that God never slept or took a day off. He was always "on duty" and able to defend his people (Ps. 121 ; cf. 1 Kings l8:27).

In the same way, the flame that appeared on each believer on that first Pentecost after the resurrection was a visible symbol of the Spirit's presence (Acts 2).

It is surely no coincidence that there are seven flames one for each of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation. The point is that the presence of the Spirit continues to burn among them (l Cor. 3:16., 6:19). God has not forgotten them, nor is he removed from their suffering. John's vision of Christ walking among the lampstands (Rev. 1:12-13) will reinforce this message.

1.2.3.3. Jesus Christ (1:5a). Jesus has the most unusual set of titles. We would have expected "Messiah" or "Son of God " but the titles listed here reminding us of his earthly life.

Jesus was "the faithful witness"; he testified about God faithfully, even to the point of giving up his life. He was "the firstborn from the dead"; God raised him on the third day. Thus he is now "the ruler of the kings of the earth" (v.5)., he reigns supreme in heaven.

If we want to appreciate these titles, we have to remember that the first followers of Jesus were called followers of "the Way" (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23;24:14,22;cf. John l4:4-6). The titles here describe "the Way" to eternal life in chronological order. First, we must live faithfully, testifying about God even if it means death. Then we will experience resurrection and glorification. This is the path all followers of Jesus must walk.

Unfortunately, many members of these early churches tried to take a shortcut. They wanted to skip the part about a life of faithful endurance, even death. and go immediately to the glorification stage. This change in their theology had been influenced by their booming economy: Asia Minor was experiencing unprecedented regional prosperity. They had been seduced by triumphalism (cf. 1 Cor. 4:8ff ). A theology somewhat akin to the con- temporary doctrine of "Kingdom Now" Some of them may even have believed they would never personally experience death (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13-18). Convinced that Jesus would return immediately and establish his kingdom, they were caught unaware when fierce persecution came from Rome.

The first step is the one those early believers did not want to take: death. “Faithful martyr” is a much better translation of the Greek phrase than “faithful witness," It not only means death to self ("self-denial"), but physical death for the sake of the gospel (“martyrdom"; see "Testify, Testimony, Witness" at 6:9). This translation also helps us to understand better why they would want to avoid death and go right to being "ruler[s] of the kings of the earth” (l:5). Martyrdom is usually painful. Who would not want to escape martyrdom if it could be avoided? Revelation is a call to Christian martyrdom.

With all its fantastic images, its most important message says exactly what Jesus did while he was still on earth: "Take up [your] cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24., cf. Luke 9:23 ). Paul had to remind the Philippians of this truth too, with an early hymn recorded for us in Philippians 2:6-1 1: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore , my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

The cross of Christ has continued to challenge Christians down through the ages, Contemporary American Christians often forget that suffering was the present reality for most Christians in the biblical times, just as it is today. We would do well to remember that it is our own experience that is atypical. Let us never be seduced by the wealth surrounding us or those who connive for power and glory. We must humble ourselves and be obedient to God. The first step of "the Way” of Christ is still humility and self-denial. It is often accompanied by suffering, sometimes even by martyrdom. Power and glory, being a “ruler of the kings of the earth," will come after our death and resurrection (Matt. 20:2l-23:2 Tim. 2:12) just as it did for Jesus.

The great devotional writers of recent times knew this and wove it into their allegories of Christian life. Reading their writings will help remind us of this great truth (see, e.g., Hannah Haurnard's Hinds' Feet in High Places, or John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress) It will also help us to develop a healthy theology, one immune from changes in our economy.

1.2.4. The Liturgical Prayer (1:5b-6). At this point in a normal letter. we would expect a prayer. Considering the persecution of the seven churches, they probably expected to find a prayer for deliverance, the defeat of the enemies of the church, and the immediate return of Jesus Christ. John asked for none of these, tacitly implying that everything was as it should be.

Instead of asking for an easier situation, John prays that God will be glorified through it. His prayer also encourages the churches to be obedient. He reminds them of the past: Jesus loved them so much he sacrificed his life for them. He also reminds them of the future: They will be an eternal kingdom and a priest- hood for God, if they obey. This ancient promise to Israel (Ex. 19:6) had been recently extended to include the church (1 Peter 2:5,9., cf. Rev. 5:10).

The prayer here is more formal, more liturgical, than that of the other letters in the New Testament. This fits with the descriptions of the solemn "high church" rituals that will appear later in the book. John ends the prayer with the traditional “Amen,” though here it may also be a wordplay on one of the titles of Jesus (see "The Amen" at 3:14).

1.2.5. The Liturgical Prophecy (1:7). In a usual letter of the New Testament, the body directly followed the prayer. Here John includes two more liturgical elements: a prophecy (v. 7) and an exhortation (v. 8). These may well have represented elements in the order of service of these seven ancient churches. They too set the atmosphere for the book's upcoming rituals.

The prophecy of Jesus' coming is a blend of two Old Testament prophecies. One concerns the Son of Man's coming with the clouds (Dan. 7: 13., cf. Matt. 26:64., Mark l3:26., Luke 21: 27.,

Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thess. 4:17), the other predicts that people will mourn when they see the one they have pierced (Zech. 12:10., cf. John 19:34).

Revelation proclaims that Jesus is ("coming with the clouds" (v. 7). The association of God with clouds is ancient. A rainbow in the clouds is a reminder of the Noahic covenant (Gen. 9:13-16). God also displayed his presence among the Israelites in the desert by a cloud during the day (Ex. 13:21., see "The Shekinah Canopy" at 7:15). The Old Testament describes God as "rid[ing] on the clouds" (Ps. 68:4., cf. 104:3), clouds that are even more noticeable when he comes to judge on the Day of the Lord (Ezek. 30:3', Dan. 7: 13., Joel 2:2., Zeph. 1:15). Similarly, Jesus will return “with the clouds” on the Day of the Lord.

John's use of "with the clouds" rather than "in the clouds” is unusual (only the Hebrew text of Dan. 7:13 has this expression). The prophecy may refer to the thunderclouds that preceded the fall rains in Israel. The high priests prayed for those rains; as they did for the resurrection of the dead, at the daily dawn drink offerings each year during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7).

1.2.6. The Liturgical Exhortation (1:8).

The last liturgical element in the introduction is an exhortation. It emphasizes God's eternality, his presence, and his power. "Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, "Omega" the last. "The Alpha and the Omega” (1:8.,21:6.,22:13) is another way of saying that God is "the First and the Last” (l:l7-,22:13: cf. Isa. 44:6-,48:l2) or "the Beginning and the End" (Rev. 21:6.,22:13-, cf. Heb. 7:3'). Both of these latter phrases appear in the prophecies of Isaiah, where they describe God's uniqueness and his foreknowledge (see Isa. 44:6-8., 46:10): this is what the LORD says Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last', apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it, Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come yes, let him foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one " I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

The titles remind the reader of Revelation that God has had everything planned, down to the smallest detail, for a long, long time. The Alpha and the Omega here refer to the Father, not the Son, as one can see by comparing the phrase in verse 8, "who is, and who was, and who is to come" with its twin in verse 4. The two phrases balance and enclose this epistolary introduction.

Stewardship series evaluation

Year B – Proper 22-28

This was a challenging series for the disciple we were continually faced with giving up our whole lives to enter the kingdom of God. Yesterday having finished this series, I felt glad it was over. I felt like the Holy Spirit was putting his finger on people’s hearts. In response to the conviction and challenge they were feeling relationships became strained between some of the members and their pastor. That’s why the pulpit is nothing to covet. If you can do anything else do it. If you are obedient to God and faithfully preach his word, there will come a time when you are not popular. Yet I rejoice if that strain in relationship means they were beginning to get it.

This was a great series for discipleship, but I could have done a better job on stewardship what the readings didn’t lend themselves to (or I didn’t figure out well enough) was doing practical how-to sermons showing not only the importance of stewardship but how to make it part of our lives. Perhaps the fall of another year would have a better sense for that. I’ll have to take a look. Once every three years wouldn’t be bad – if its there.

The Kingdom of God

The following is an excerpt from The Dvine Conspiracy.

The Presence of God in Action
Such a response, along with many others familiar from the Gospels, illustrates how Jesus' hearers understood the invitation to base their own lives on the rule of God “at hand" Of course they had no general understanding of what was involved, but they knew Jesus meant that he was acting with God and God with him, that God's rule was effectively present through him.
The familiar stories, traditions, and rituals of Israel enabled them to know the practical significance of this. They were stories and traditions of individual human beings whose lives were interlaced with God's action. Abraham, David, Elijah were well known to all. And the routinely practiced rituals of Israel were often occasions when God acted. Everyone knew that whoever trustingly put themselves in his hands, as this poor scandalous woman did, were in fact in the hands of God. And God's deeds bore out his words.
When he announced that the “governance” or rule of God had become available to human beings, he was primarily referring to what he could do for people, God acting with him. But he was also offering to communicate this same “rule of God” to others who would receive and learn it from him. He was himself the evidence for the truth of his announcement about the availability of God's kingdom, or governance, to ordinary human existence.
This explains why, as everyone saw, he did not teach "in the manner of the scribes” but instead “as having authority in his own right” (Matt. 7 :29) . Scribes, expert scholars, teach by citing others.
But Jesus was, in effect, saying, “Just watch me and see that what I say is true. See for yourself that the rule of God has come among ordinary human beings.”
“Already during Jesus' earthly activity," Hans Kung has pointed out, “the decision for or against the rule of God hung together with the decision for or against himself (italics mine). The presence of Jesus upon earth, both before and after his death and resurrection, means that God's rule is here now “In this sense," Kung continues, “the immediate expectation . . . [of the kingdom] . . . has been fulfilled.”
God's Rule Extended Onward Through Us
From the very beginning of his work, those who relied on him had, at his touch, entered the rule, or governance,of God and were receiving its gracious sufficiency Jesus was not just acting for God but also with God - a little like the way, in a crude metaphor, I act with my power steering, or it with me, when I turn the wheel of my car.
And this “governance” is projected onward through those who receive him. When we receive God's gift of life by relying on Christ, we find that God comes to act with us as we rely on him in our actions. That explains why Jesus said that the least in the kingdom of the heavens are greater than John the Baptist-not, of course, greater in themselves, but as a greater power works along with them, The “greater” is not inherent, a matter of our own substance, but relational So, C. S. Lewis writes, our faith is not a matter of our hearing what Christ said long ago and “trying to carry it out." Rather, “The real Son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as Himself He is beginning, so to speak, to 'inject' His kind of life and thought. His Zoe [life], into you; beginning to turn the tin soldier into a live man. The part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin."
Jesus' words and presence gave many of his hearers faith to see that when he acted God also acted, that the governance or “rule” of God came into play and thus was at hand They were aware of the invisible presence of God acting within the visible reality and action of Jesus, the carpenter rabbi.
Some years of reflection and further experience with Jesus and the kingdom enabled his people to describe him in lofty language as “the icon of the unseeable God” (Col. 1:15). Today we might say photo or snapshot instead of icon. He was the “exact picture” or “precise representation of God's substance” (Heb. 1: 3) . But that time was not yet. It was to still uncomprehending ears that Jesus said, “Those who have seen me have seen the Fathers."

Made to Rule

What a "Kingdom” Is
To gain deeper understanding of our eternal kind of life in God's present kingdom, we must be sure to understand what a kingdom is.
Every last one of us has a "kingdom" – or a. "queendom,” or a "government” – a realm that is uniquely our own, where our choice determines what happens. Here is a truth that reaches into the deepest part of what it is to be a person.
Some may think it should not be so. John Calvin remarked rather balefully, “Everyone flatters himself and carries a kingdom in his breast.” He understood this to mean that “there is nobody who does not imagine that he is really better than the others." Perhaps this is so for human beings as they are. All too easily, at least, we presume to rule others-in opinion and word, if not in deed.
But it is nevertheless true that we are made to “have dominion” within an appropriate domain of reality. This is the core of the likeness or image of God in us and is the basis of the destiny for which we were formed. We are, all of us, never-ceasing spiritual beings with a unique eternal calling to count for good in God's great universe.
Our “kingdom” is simply the range of our effective will. Whatever we genuinely have the say over is in our kingdom. And our having the say over something is precisely what places it within our kingdom.
In creating human beings God made them to rule, to reign, to have dominion in a limited sphere. Only so can they be persons.
Any being that say over nothing is no person. We only have to imagine what that would be like to see that this is so. Such “persons” would not even be able to command their own body or their own thoughts. They would be reduced to completely passive observers who count for nothing, who make no difference.
The sense of having some degree of control over things is now recognized as a vital factor in both mental and physical health and can make the difference between life and death in those who are seriously ill. Anyone who has raised a child, or has even supervised the work of others, knows how important it is to let them do it - what- ever “it” may be-and to do so as soon as that is practically feasible.
Obviously, having a place of rule goes to the very heart of who we are, of our integrity strength, and competence.
By contrast, attacks on our personhood always take the form of diminishing what we can do or have say over, sometimes up to the point of forcing us to submit to what we abhor, in the familiar human order, slaves are at the other end of the spectrum from kings.
Their bodies and lives are at the disposal of another. Prisoners are, in most cases, several degrees above slaves. And, as the twentieth century has taught us, thought control is worst of all. It is the most heinous form of soul destruction, in which even our own thoughts are not really ours. It reaches most deeply into our substance.