John to the Seven Churches
Suppose you have a close friend who
is going through a personal crisis with no conceivable solution. What words of encouragement would you give
to that person?
In fact, the Book of Revelation is
the Apostle John’s letter filled with the words of encouragement to the seven
churches who were struggling and going through a very difficult time. In the
introduction John introduces himself in this way: “I am John, your brother and
partner in suffering, God’s kingdom, and patience that comes because of Jesus.
I was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony
about Jesus.” (v. 9) John was not in any better circumstances. He himself was exiled
and persecuted on a daily basis. His future was uncertain. He might be executed
any day. But now he was sending out the words of encouragement to his fellow
believers, the seven churches.
Then who are the seven churches? Biblically, the number “seven”
signifies completion or fullness. For instance, God created the
heavens and the earth for seven days. Yes, those seven churches in Asia did
really exist. They were real local churches in the time of John. But at the
same time, in the context the seven churches
represent the whole church. So John’s message is actually for the entire
body of Christ, the church in every age, including our church. The Book of
Revelation is the letter written to us, our church, from God.
Background
John received his vision during the
reign of Domitian (81-96), who was the
first emperor to have himself officially titled as “God the Lord.” He ordered people
to give him divine honors like “Lord of the earth,” “Invincible,” “Glory,”
“Holy,” “Master,” and “God.” And the people were forced to participate in the
imperial cult. Jews and particularly Christians definitely didn’t want to do
it. So many of them were persecuted, exiled, and executed.
Today we may not face emperor worship or physical persecution.
But we are facing different forms of idol
worship (esp. materialism), temptation
(ex. all kinds of addiction, including pornography and substance abuse), and compromise (ex. self-consumed culture). Jesus
says in Mark 4:19, “Some are like the seeds sown among the thorn bushes. These
are the people who hear the word, but the worries of life, and the lure of
wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it
yields nothing.” We hear the word. But we are overwhelmed with worries about
all the things we have to do and all the things we want to get. The stress
strangles what we heard. And we don’t grow. We don’t bear fruit. When we face
such temptation, the message of Revelation puts everything back into perspective. Last time I shared that the
purpose of Revelation is to open the
eyes of our hearts, so that we may see our life from an eternal, heavenly
perspective. No matter how
difficult our situation, Revelation proclaims that God is still in control and that he will conclude this stage of life (history) the way he has promised.
The Lord God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” God is sovereign!
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
Now let’s go back to the very first question: “What
words of encouragement would you give to someone who is going through a
personal crisis?” In addition to that, if that is your last chance to talk to
that person, what would you say? If we ask this question to John, I believe his
answer would be something like this: “Look
to Jesus, who loves you, has freed you from your sins, and made you his people,
his family. He is near. He is on the way. Be encouraged, strengthened, hopeful,
and bold!”
For John, this letter might be his
last words to his fellow believers. So he gets right to the point. He greets and
blesses them in the name of triune God, and encourage them to fix theirs eyes
on Jesus: “Grace and peace to you from God the Father (“who is and who was and
who is to come), and from the Holy Spirit (“the seven spirits who are before
his throne”) and from Jesus Christ.” Here Jesus is described in three ways: the faithful witness, the firstborn from the
dead and the ruler of kings of the earth (5). These threefold title sums up
well the life and ministry of Jesus. It tells us who Jesus is. When Jesus was on earth, he was the faithful witness. He never compromised with the world. He did
always bear witness to the truth and stand up for the truth. Because of that,
he suffered and died for that witness. In Greek martyr and witness share the
same root. Jesus was the faithful witness of God and martyr for God. That Jesus
is the firstborn from the dead. At
that time many Christians were facing uncertainty under persecution. They might
soon face death for Jesus’ name. But here John was encouraging them (and
himself!) to remember Jesus’ resurrection – a sure guarantee that they would
also be raised from the dead; therefore, they had nothing to fear, even death!
That Jesus is now alive, and reigning over all things. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He
is ordering the world for the good of the church. He is working all challenging
situations for our good.
Then, John continues. That Jesus loves you! That Jesus loves us! Revelation 1:5 uses the
present tense, “loves” to give us assurance that Christ’s love for us is a continuing reality. He will never leave
us or forsake us as orphans. And he proved his love on Calvary when he shed his
blood for us. By his precious blood Jesus freed
us from our sins. So now we have freedom and ability to follow him. Jesus made us his people, his family, so that
we may love him back, treasure him, worship him, and follow him.
The Eyes of Faith
But there are times when we feel
like God is distant. We feel like God doesn’t care about us or watch over us.
That moment what we need is the eyes of
faith. The Apostle John encourages us and says, “Look, he is coming!” (7) “Do
you see what I see?” In Acts 7 before Stephen was martyred, full of the Holy
Spirit, he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God. And he said, “Look!
I see the heaven open and the Son of
Man standing at the right hand of God!”
What
is the crisis of the day? It could be the economy. As we think about our
family finance, or our church finance, some of us may have the fear that we
will run out of money before we run out of time. The crisis could be the health
issue. It could be a relationship crisis. Whatever it is, our real crisis is
not all the challenging situations we face today. Our real crisis is that we
don’t see those situations from a heavenly perspective.
Corrie ten Boom lived through the
hellish life of Nazi concentration camps, a place where hope was lost for most
people. She saw the face of evil up close and personal. She saw some of the
most inhumane acts man can do to man. But she was able to keep going because God
opened the eyes of her heart to see things from a heavenly perspective. Corrie
said, "If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within,
you'll be depressed. But if you look at
Christ, you'll be at rest." She traveled around the world to share the
message of hope and encouragement. And she often used the tapestry. First, she
would hold up the back side of the fabric – with hundreds of tangled threads. It
all looked so random. All the strings didn’t seem to make sense. Then Corrie
said, “That’s the whole point. It doesn’t seem to make sense because of our
limited vision, our limited perspective of what God is doing in our lives, that
we question him.” At that point Corrie slowly turned the blue tangled mess
around to reveal a beautiful tapestry – a crown of gold. Then she said, “This
is what God sees… from his perspective … a masterpiece.”
Cultivating a Heavenly Perspective
In our lives we often see the wrong
[back] side, but God sees his side all the time. So we need to cultivate a
heavenly perspective. Last time I shared that one of the ways is to hear the
word and do the word based on Revelation 1:3. Another great way to cultivate a heavenly
perspective is worship. When John is
invited to a heavenly worship in chapter 4, all of the grief over his sufferings
just fade away, and he sees God’s eternal glory and purposes seen from a heavenly
perspective. When we worship, we gain heavenly perspective.
I believe “Week of Prayer” is a wonderful
opportunity to cultivate a heavenly perspective, because prayer is the highest
form of worship. Throughout this week we will take a time to show the worth of
God above all things. I commend you to join me in prayer. If your circumstance
is not allowed, I encourage you to take a certain time (preferably noon time)
and pray where you are. By doing that, we are saying, “God, you are my MIP (Most
Important Person)! You are my treasure! You are my all in all!”
As I close, I ask
you this question, “Where are you looking? What are you looking?” Are you
focusing on all the challenges? Are you gazing at yourself, hoping to find your
own answers? Look to Jesus! Look to Jesus, until you clearly see the One who reigns
over all things.
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