A Sermon Based Upon Revelation 1: 9-19
By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
April 16th, 2017, Easter Series, 1/9: ‘Jesus Christ Revealed Today’
Happy Easter everyone! As we all know, Easter is the church’s celebration
of the risen Christ. It is also the
celebration to remind us that ‘death’ is not the end and only in Jesus Christ do
we have hope of eternal life. Easter celebration
of worship that, if we take it seriously, should change our perspective on everything
that has or will happen to us in life or death.
Now, that’s quite a revelation, isn’t it? To have your complete understanding of
everything turned upside down! But isn’t
that what happened to the disciples when they first encountered the risen Christ? Seeing Jesus alive after his crucifixion changed
their view of everyone and everything. That’s exactly what I still hope Easter does
for you. I hope this annual reminder of
the true meaning of Easter is the lens through which you view your whole life
and also your coming struggle with death.
Until you face this struggle yourself, as you will, unless you are
taken out suddenly, it will be hard for you to imagine just how dark the world
was, and how hard life was before the disciples encountered the empty tomb and
heard the angels says: “He is not, but
he is risen!” This was the
beginning of a brand new ‘revelation’
of the greatest magnitude.
But we’ve not seen that empty tomb, nor have we heard angels. How do we share in that wonderful Easter
vision of hope? One book of the Bible is
completely written to do just that. This is the last of book of the Bible
called “The Book of Revelation”. Now, many still read this book as a book
that might give us a ‘road map’ to
the end of the world. But this book would
us rather call it, what it calls itself, ‘The
Revelation of Jesus Christ.’ This ‘revelation’
does give us a vision of the end, but even this is not the ‘end’, but a new
beginning. But revelation also gives us
a vision for life right now if we will ‘envision’
in our hearts this one who was raised from the dead. Whenever the risen Christ is rightly
understood and worshipped, our vision of
him can change how we view the world, the end, and it should also change how we
live each day too.
This astounding Revelation
of Jesus was given to John in a vision that took place on the island of
Patmos. I've been there. It's a very small island about 8 nautical miles
from Ephesus, where tradition says John had been the elder pastor. John was not there on Patmos for a vacation,
nor was he touring on a romantic Greek isle.
John was a there as a ‘prisoner
of Jesus Christ.’ He was put there
to die for his ‘testimony’ to Jesus
as his Lord.
It’s not hard to envision what John was going through. There
is no water on that island.
Prisoners only stayed alive as long as the Roman government wanted them
to. John was probably living in a
cave. This is where it is believed he
had the revelation. It’s a place to hide
from the hot, summer sun. Today, many
Greeks still worship in dark, cave like sanctuaries. But the cave John was in was also cold and
damp in the winter. John would not live
long under these conditions. His days
were numbered. This may be why he saw
Jesus. Did I say he was a prisoner? He was a prisoner, not only of Rome, but of
Jesus Christ. Strangely, it was his
imprisonment to Jesus that gave him a vision of hope for all the rest of us.
THE WORLD STILL SAYS
NO TO GOD,
In our free America, we take for granted our freedom to believe in
Jesus in Christ. It’s hard for us to
imagine anyone being imprisoned for speaking the truth, or giving testimony of
the saving power of Jesus Christ. But
that world is out there. Our vision of
Easter hope and Easter truth is constantly under threat.
Back in the late 80s, my wife and I began praying about the
world. We ended up going as missionaries
to eastern Germany where communism said
no to God. It was a challenge to
work where God had been considered enemy number one. Even
after Communism fell apart, people were still hesitant and resistant. For
me, the darkness of that world surfaced in a young boy needlessly thrown by
bullies in a trash can. This is what
happens to people’s lives when a culture says no to God. It happened during Nazism. It happened under communism. It is still happening in our own secular and capitalistic
minded society. When God doesn't matter,
finally people don't matter. When the
world says no to God, the moral center will not hold very long.
Do we see loss of
our moral center in our own culture? One of the proofs of the loss of a moral
center in Nazi Germany was the loss of individual responsibility, as I once
heard explained on a tour of the Nazi concentration camp in Buchenwald. For
you see, many ‘good’ Germans took part of the culture of death, but no one took
full responsibility. When they marched
a person into a room in Buchenwald to exectute them, one person brought the
victim into the room, another performed
a physical examination, another stood
behind a hole in the wall to pull the trigger without seeing their victim,
another came in an removed the body, and
finally another cleaned the room of human blood. They all had a part, but no one saw
themselves as morally responsible. They
were all just cogs in a killing machine.
Today, I see resemblances of such an impersonal machine when I call my
insurance, my banker, or even my doctor’s office and no one knows what's
happening, or has time to care more about me than the ‘system’ they are being
paid to uphold. It's scary to think
where this is leading, even in the churches.
Again, this is not just a world problem, it is also a church
problem. It doesn’t take long for a
church that must exist in the world to start to reflect the culture of the
world. This has happened before. Did you realize why we have Baptists and other Protestant denominations? It was the Baptist vision to challenge the
world's no which was infiltrating the church at the end of the Middle ages. It was the Baptist vision to bring reform and
renewal to the established church that has lost it shining light. But now you and I are part of the
established church. How quickly are our
churches also losing those their calling, their testimony, or their leaders who
will actually lead and assume true responsibility for the witness of the church
in the world? As I saw when attending a large, mega church
near Mooresville; masses still go to church, but fewer and fewer assume
responsible roles. Many love to be
entertained, but fewer and fewer care to take up the towel, wash each others
feet, to the work to serve in their community and be the church who are Christ’s
body in the world. It’s the way it has been
many times before: “Many are called, few are chosen.”
Yes, there are always, have always been, and will always be a
world who says no's to God call, God’s love, and to the work of sharing God’s
grace. That’s the kind of bad news, we
still encounter as we see true revelation of Jesus in the world. We will
always have to be an “Easter” congregation, sharing and living the message of
risen Christ in a “Good Friday” world!
BUT GOD STILL
SAYS YES TO US...THROUGH THE RESURRECTED CHRIST
But it was also in a world of constant and continual ‘noes’ that
John had this powerful vision of Jesus.
In a world that was still saying ‘no’, John very distinctly heard and clearly
envisioned God's yes in Jesus. What
John saw in the risen Jesus, even on that dark, deserted island, coincides with exactly what the apostle Paul,
who founded the church in Ephesus, once wrote to the Corinthians: "...but in Him it is always “Yes.” For in him every one of God’s promises is a
“Yes.” For this reason it is through him
that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.” (2 Cor. 1:19-21).
John's own vision of God's
yes in Jesus Christ is John’s “Amen to the glory of God”, even in a no
saying world. The vision is given to
us in most graphic detail. There’s
a lot to consider in this picture of Jesus with ‘fiery eyes’, but don't over think or interpret it. This is a theological
picture of the risen Christ, the
living Christ, the Easter Jesus and it’s also a vision of the up and coming
Christ. This graphic picture of Jesus with blazing
eyes, bronzed feet, and a mouth spitting sword are visuals of God's vindication of everything Jesus was
and still is. God raised Jesus to
give his “yes” to his Son. And God also raised Jesus to give his “Yes” to
us so that we can still find ‘life’ in
the Son. Let me explain:
In Jesus God
gives his yes to all Jesus taught and said. That's
the sword--the word of truth coming
from Jesus' lips. Jesus told the
truth about who Israel was and wasn't.
He told us the truth about God, and his love. Think of the Sermon on the Mount--- blessed
are the peacemakers, love your enemy, and forgive as you are forgiven. Jesus resurrection says these strange words
are still true. If you live what Jesus
said, you for more than yourself, more than for what is, but you live toward God's
kingdom that is still coming. What broke
into the world as a vision then, is still a viable picture of what can be and
is still coming. If we will follow what
Jesus taught, and what he lived, a new world is coming, and is already here, in
us.
Also, this means
that by raising Jesus Christ, God gives us his Yes to how we should live, now. 'Seek first God
and his kingdom and all these things will be added.' In other words, make you priority God's
priority, and the rest will take care of itself. Leave God's priority out, nothing works out
in the end. You know what Jesus taught
and what Jesus did. He preached good
news to the poor. He touched the
outcast. He challenged the established
elite who could care less. Jesus even
challenged the religious traditions that protected the elite status quo who had
no real concern for the needy. Jesus was
hated for this, and was crucified too, but still God raised him up. God raised Jesus to provide us an example of
how to live too. God still keep raising
up the truth about life. If we neglect
the truth of what matters most, we will bring an end to ourselves, but the
kingdom is still coming.
Most of all, God raised
Jesus to be the living Christ of the church. Do you see that this resurrected Jesus is one
who lives among the lampstands? The lampstands are the churches who are trying
to shine and show the light of Jesus in the world, then, and now. When we do what Jesus said, live with Jesus
as our example, and when we 'let our light shine before others, '
we also experience a God's yes in our
own midst. How have
you experienced God's yes through Jesus?
How are you experiencing this yes through the living Christ who still
walks among his people we call Church?
God's yes still comes. God still
validates Jesus. The only difference is
that now he raises us when we live Christ in the world through the call and
work of the church.
Can I give you an
example of Christ, God's yes, still walking, shining, and living among the
church, today?
You are the examples. “Christ
in you is the hope of glory!” When
you care, love, pray, go, and tell, Christ is walking among the
lampstands. What examples do you see? If you don’t see them, know them, and experience them, it’s because either you
are looking in a mirror and seeing Christ, or you aren’t living as Christ came
to live through us? Recall that
illustration our Revival speaker at Flat Rock, Shane Nixon gave, of being new
and misbehaving in elementary school and having his teacher, Mrs. Wall, send
him walking up and down the hall and saying to him, “Yes, I see you walking
just like your grandfather. Shane could
not stop walking like this grandfather, because his grandfather’s DNA was in
him. That was an image I will not soon
forget.
We live in a secular society.
What this means is that our world thinks it is fact based, rather than
faith based. So, it thinks living faith
is myth. People still put their faith in
something, but today it's more about stuff than people, more about material
rather than spiritual, and more about self, than others. People are more excited about finding life on
another planet, than find life on this planet.
People are more excited about photographing themselves doing something,
than actually doing something that ought to be photographed. So, to share with people like this, who we
believe is the very source of life, we must show
them, more than tell them. People
will not be convinced by words. People
will only be convinced with the words come alive through us.
Some time ago I
was watching a news report.
Today most news shows end with feel good stories. This particular story was about a wealthy
woman who had retired to Florida. But
instead of relaxing in retirement, she was organizing activities and often
using her on wealth to help seniors in need.
Why aren't you spending your
retirement on yourself? They
asked. "I am spending it on myself.
I couldn't exist without working for others. I'm not helping them, but they are really
helping me!
Folks, this is how God still gives us His ‘yes’ in Jesus, and this
is how Christ still works and walks on earth through us. For you see, there is no other way to know
Jesus, than through working, caring, loving,
helping and ministering ‘to the least of these.’ There is no other way, Scripture says for
people to know God than to see us feeding the hungry, giving drink to the
thirsty, showing hospitality to the stranger, putting clothes on the
naked, and visiting the sick and
imprisoned. There is no other way to get close to Jesus
than by getting close to someone who needs someone. This is what troubled Jesus about the Judaism
in his own day. It had all kinds of
politic, all kinds of religion, all kinds of activity, but it also had very little
life, light, and almost no love.
Several years
ago, I got to know Chris Fuller, who was a
campus minister. He is the son of
Millard Fuller who gave away millions and started Habitat for Humanity. One day the father, Millard was working on a
house for a poor family. One of the
young Hispanic children in that family came and asked to help. "Stay
back, kid, you might get hurt."
But the kid kept coming back, again and again until finally Fuller gave
up. "Ok kid, I find you something
to do. But first you must tell me your
name. What's you name? He said that his name was "Jesus". That was a hispanic name that reminded him of
who this boy really was. He was ‘one of
the least of these’ that showed up and became ‘Jesus’ alive and walking among
the lampstands.
For you see, Jesus is not simply a person who once lived in
history, but Jesus is The Spirit that still
haunts us with the truth about life and the truth about us. Jesus confronts us with the ‘truth’ that
really matters about them, and the truth that really matters about you, and me.
It is through loving, and living the being the truth of Jesus, that Jesus still
shines his light of hope through his church, and gives the world God’s ‘yes’.
HOW WILL WE
ANSWER GOD'S YES... WILL WE ANSWER IN HOPE?
The only question
left is about us, here and now. This is Easter. It’s Spring.
It’s a Season of Hope? It’s
putting on new clothes? Everyone likes ‘new
clothes’ except the one who can’t afford them. Can we afford to put something ‘new’ from
Jesus in our lives? There are many, many ways that Jesus offers to
be or do something ‘new’ in our lives, but will we put on God’s ‘yes’ into our
life right now? Can we see the “no”
that confronts us, and the “yes” that Jesus’ love and truth calls us to answer
in our own life?
This is the question Easter brings us year after year: How will we live God’s ‘yes’ in this year of
our life that us just ahead? For John
on Patmos, to ‘see’ and to ‘live’ God’s ‘yes’, was to spiritually look into
Jesus eyes and see hope, not despair.
For us, the need is similar. We
need to more than just how things are, but we also need to see see things as
they should be. But isn’t this what we
are in danger of losing, in our own time?
Aren’t we always in danger of seeing something we want to see, but
losing sight of what really matters?
Coming back from Charlotte, after a post-surgical visit back in
2009, Teresa and I stopped to eat at a popular restaurant. While waiting on our meal, we and observed
parents with their two children sitting at next table who had just ordered. One child, a boy looked to be 10 or so. The other child, a girl was a teenager. As they were also waiting on their meal, both
children starred into space, while both parents were busy on their own cell
phones. Who knows what was really going
on? Maybe I was being judgmental. I wasn’t
trying too. But honestly, I thought to
myself; How could these parents miss this very important time with their own
children? What if they could see what I
was seeing?
It is said that the most important spiritual resource that ancient
people had over us is ‘time’. The time
they had, which we don’t have, and must make, gave them an ability to see God’s
light more clearly. But to see God was not
some strange ability to look up and see a ‘man upstairs’ , but to see God was
cultivating the ability to see, to really see, the person who was standing right
in front of you.
Isn’t this still the greatest spiritual gift--- the ability to
see. Isn't this how we discover God's
yes in our own lives? Like John, we need
to see the risen Christ walking among the lampstands---in our churches. We need to see a vision of how things
are---and how we need to respond. We
need to see Jesus, but we need to see him in someone around us, who needs
us. We need not to be deceived by what
we want to see, but to really see what we need to see. Then we need to act and to follow by
ministering to 'the least of these' as we become the body of the risen Christ,
who is walking and working among the churches, being the church in this world.
Isn't this how Christ is revealed in our world---through us, and
our faithfulness? Isn't this how hope
comes in times like these? We are God's
“yes” of hope in this world. But how
can we be that yes if we keep saying ‘no’.
A religion of “No” will never
hope to the world. As the great founder
of the Methodists, John Wesley said: "Do all the good you can. By all the
means you can. In all the ways you can. In
all the places you can. At all the times
you can. To all the people you can. As
long as ever you can.” If you live
like that, you will see Christ walking ‘among’ the church again and again and
then, every day, will be Easter. He is
Risen! Amen
No comments :
Post a Comment