Sermon from April 30, 2025

Epistle - 2nd Sunday of Easter

Revelation 1:9-18

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen (Psalm 19:14).

Our text for today is a part of the Epistle lesson from this past Sunday, April 27, 2025. We often tend to avoid the Book of Revelation because it is not an easy book, and it has challenging things to hear and understand. Yet it also has encouraging and comforting things to say to us as God’s people. I will read just a few verses at a time and then talk about them

Revelation 1:9-11: “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the Kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.’”

John says that he was “in the Spirit,” being led by God’s Holy Spirit, on the “Lord’s” day, a Sunday, because Christians were moving away from the old Jewish sabbath day, Saturday, and focusing on the day of Christ’s resurrection, a Sunday. In those days, trumpets were not so much musical instruments, but a way of making a loud noise to get people’s attention. The loud voice, like a trumpet, told John, “Write what you see in a book, and send it to the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia Minor (now modern-day Turkey), beginning with Ephesus. John had been the chief pastor and leader of these and other churches and Christian people for many years. But he does not put himself way above them, but says that he is their brother and partner in three ways.

They are all part of the Kingdom of God, first and foremost, by the grace of God and by the gift of faith in God’s Son, Jesus, as their Savior and King, with the promise of eternal life. At the same time, that did not exempt them from the second thing they had in common with John, tribulation in this life, in this very troubled, sinful world.

In fact, as John wrote this Book of Revelation, the last book of Scripture written, in the 90s AD, persecution of Christians was increasing under the Roman Emperor, Domitian, who reigned from 81-96 AD. Domitian strongly pushed the idea that as Emperor, he should be worshiped  - and worshiped as Lord and God. Christians, however, would call no one Lord but the Risen Lord Jesus, to the glory of God the Father and in the power of God the Holy Spirit, as the one true Triune God. Refusal to call the Emperor “Lord and God” could put people under the penalty of death. John himself says that he had been exiled to the island of Patmos, a tiny island (10 miles by 6 miles) off the coast of Asia Minor, away from these seven churches. Close by was another island, Miletus, where many more “disturbers of the Roman peace” - enemies of Rome - were banished. John was on Patmos simply because he preached the Word of God and testified about Jesus alone as Lord to others. He says that he needed the “patient endurance” that is in Jesus and trust in Him as the true Savior and Lord, above all. The need for “patient endurance” is the third similarity to the churches to whom he writes.

We do not have such persecution in this country, but there is still much opposition and indifference to Christ and what the Scriptures teach. There are countries like Nigeria, where thousands of Christians have been killed and their lands stolen in recent years. And there are places where you could be imprisoned just for telling others about Jesus in your own home, still today. We have many joys as Christians, but we all face tribulations of other kinds, too - physical problems and illnesses, family and job troubles, the death of loved ones, worries of many kinds, and on and on. What was John to write to help fellow Christians, including us, to have patient endurance, in these times of difficulties?

As the Revelation passage goes on, John writes (Revelation 1:12-16): “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, One like a Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around His chest. The hairs of His head were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a fire, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

John is seeing and hearing the voice and presence of God the Son, Jesus, who is often called “The Son of Man,” as a true man here on earth, while still being God. We hear, week after week, of Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” who suffered and died on the cross to take away the sin of the world. But here is a picture of a Lamb who was slain, who has begun His reign again in glory and heavenly power, as our Risen Lord. We can’t talk about it all in one sermon, but if you have a Bible with cross references to other Scriptures, look them up, and you will discover these are Old Testament pictures and prophecies, especially from the Book of Daniel, of God the Father, called “the Ancient of Days,” who always existed, combined with pictures of God the Son, the Son of Man, doing His saving work and then returning to God the Father in glory, in what we now call His Resurrection and Ascension. It is the story of the Triune God at work for us and our good and salvation (Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, 10:4-8, 18-19, etc.).

Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Jesus does not literally have a sharp, two-edged sword in His mouth, but His Word has great power and blessing for us, as both the Law that shows us our sins, but also the Gospel that shows us our Savior and His love and forgiveness for us. As Hebrews 4:12 says: “The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” and works in our lives, still today, as we read and listen to it, through the Holy Spirit. And even in His public ministry, there were glimpses of Jesus and His glory, as His appearance dazzled like the sun on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-3). This tells us to look for other “picture images” in Revelation. Not everything is to be taken literally, but guided by other Scriptures.

And the risen, glorious Lord pictured here said after His resurrection, “All power, all authority, in heaven and on earth has been given to Me,” and “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). Here was the help John was to write about to the churches to give them strength and patient endurance in Christ in the troubles and tribulations that they and we have to face in our lives, at times.

John himself had recorded these words of Jesus earlier in his Gospel, “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” And Jesus had added these words, “I am not alone, for the Father is with Me” (John 16:32-33). Jesus, as true man, had His own troubles and tribulations in this world, many of them, and He had to trust His Heavenly Father’s presence and strength to help Him through, as we now trust the Triune God, including Jesus’ saving work.

John knew all this, but we read, as our text goes on (Revelation 1:17), “When I, John, saw Him, the glorified Jesus, I fell at His feet as though dead.” This often happened to people when they saw God in His glory. John, too, when he saw the glorious, victorious Jesus, was even more conscious of his own sins and weaknesses. He didn’t even deserve to stand before Jesus.

And when we’re honest, we know our own sins and weaknesses before the Lord, too, don’t we? We don’t deserve His mercy. And sometimes physical and emotional problems and the struggles of this life knock us down as well. The Christian churches in Asia Minor were experiencing such things, too.

How does Jesus respond to John, fallen down before Him? John writes (Revelation 1:17-18): “But Jesus laid His right hand (His hand of power and authority) on me, saying, ‘Fear not!’ How often did Jesus say these same words - to the frightened disciples on Easter evening, behind locked doors, to doubting Thomas, the next Sunday, and on and on, to us still today. Jesus said to John, “Fear not! I am the First and the Last (the living eternal God), and I am true man, the living One. I died (for your sins) and (I rose) and I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.” I am alive and can help you through this life, and even in death, to eternal life in heaven one day.

And right after our text, Jesus said to John, in effect, "Get busy now!": “Write therefore the things you have seen, those things that are and those that are to take place” (Revelation 1:19) Write down everything I tell you, for you and the churches in Asia Minor need this comforting message in hard times coming, and future churches will need this, too, (as we do, still today).

There are mysteries in the Book of Revelation, Jesus adds, and some things are hard to understand. (He shows that by explaining in Revelation 1:20 that the stars in His hand (v.16) represent angels (messengers) sent to the churches, and the lampstands represent the churches themselves. Watch for such picture images in Revelation.) But above all, hear that Christ is Risen indeed and is “alive forevermore” and can and does come to us personally through His Word and in the Lord’s Supper we soon receive, as He has come to us in our baptism. And He can and will help us through the days ahead and for eternal life to come. There is our hope and confidence. Amen.