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The Kingdom of God - “This is certain!” Rev 1:1-19, Acts 4:1-2, John 20:19-31

By Charlie Vensel | April 14, 2007

Already this morning, you have heard two things that have no doubt stirred some emotions. First, our beloved Jon Holland is on well-deserved vacation with his family after a very busy Holy Week. Second, you have heard a reading from the Book of Revelation, and perhaps thought like millions of others this morning, “Is he going to preach on this today?.”

Now, Jon knew the readings for the month of April well in advance, and I don’t think the timing of his absence is a coincidence as there are very few preachers who revel in the opportunity to preach from Revelation. It is a very complicated book, loaded with apocalyptic/prophetic images and one must have a thorough grasp of the whole of Scripture before doing it justice. The mention of the book almost always conjures up excitement, apprehension, misconceptions and more questions than answers. Nonetheless, it is the Word of God, and as the last book in Bible, it serves to wrap up God’s redemptive story; the kingdom of God finally and fully coming to Earth. As such, it “is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16 HCSB) In short, we must hear the words of this book as much as any other.

But as a junior preacher, I tremble at the task of exegeting this passage from Revelation, but proceed we must. And, though I joked about my brother taking his vacation at quite an opportune time, we proceed with Revelation today because Jon will be preaching from it throughout the Easter Season, and today, we need to establish a foundation on which he can build in the weeks to come. All kidding aside, I really look forward to what he will share with us.

Before getting into the meat of the sermon, we must lay a little groundwork. Think for a moment of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10 HCSB) I submit to you that Jesus is here doing more than providing instruction for prayer, but revealing his redemptive plan for the future. He prayed for God’s name to be kept holy, implying that this happens as the Kingdom comes, and that the coming of the Kingdom is God’s will for earth. Jesus had in mind God’s heavenly glory filling the earth; that all people on earth would obey God and honor him in worship as it is in heaven and thus, the primary mission of the Church is to bring heaven down. Again, the primary mission of the Church is to bring heaven down; to make earth as it is in heaven; that is where one day we who believe will be when Christ returns; it will be heaven on earth. It is this vision that gives impetus to the Great Commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…” (Matthew 22:37-40 HCSB) and to the Great Commission, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:18-20 HCSB). Our task is to make white-hot worshippers of God here and now, that will one day stand face to face before the Lord and cry as , “every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say: Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13 HCSB)

Turning to our text, one of the fascinating things about Revelation is that we get a glimpse into the throne-room of God, the daily operations of the heavenly court. Few places in Scripture do we see this. We see it in the opening chapter of Job where the Father is receiving the sons of God and begins his dialogue with Satan regarding Job’s faith. We get a glimpse of God holding court in Daniel 7, while Ezekiel, Zechariah and Isaiah certainly have their say. But by and large, the heavenlies are closed to us until we get to Revelation. The message of this book is that God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. In all of our NT texts today, we get to see this heavenly reality becoming an earthly reality; we get to see the Kingdom coming down marching toward final consummation in Christ. And, like a jumbo jet landing, its wheels have already touched the ground, but upon Christ’s return, all the passengers will arrive safely at the gate.

I propose to you this morning, that Because of Christ’s resurrection, we can be certain the kingdom of God will come to completion. In light of this there are three things I would like for us to look at today. I’ve worked it out so that all three of the points start with the letter “P”. As we move through our lessons please remember these three words: position, purpose and proclamation. We will start with our Revelation text, our glimpse into the heavenlies, and use it as a lens for our other NT texts, to see how the heavenly reality is becoming an earthly reality.

First, turning to Revelation chapter 1: Because of Christ’s resurrection, we can be certain of his position. The content of Revelation takes place after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of our Lord, so our glimpse is of post-resurrection heavenly reality; Christ is ruling.

In verses 1-2, we read, “The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave Him to show His slaves what must quickly take place. He sent it and signified it through His angel to His slave John” (Revelation 1:1 HCSB) Now, if there had been no resurrection, Jesus would not be listed here. For sure, he would have been in heaven in a manner like Moses and Elijah who came down from heaven on the Mount of the Transfiguration, but he would have been only an earthly prophet like them. But no, as the Resurrected One, he is charged with mediating this message of things to come from the heavenly court to the earthly church. This is a task of the Godhead, to mediate through angels to slaves, not of earthly prophets who are salves themselves, slaves do not mediate through angels. Christ is in a position of divine authority.

In verses 4-5, we read, “To the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from the One who is, who was, and who is coming; from the seven spirits before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” Let’s unpack this a bit. John says that grace and peace is from the One who is, who was, and who is coming. This phrase is a reference that stems from God’s name, Yahweh, or “I am.” This is to show the Father’s eternality. That which WAS, is the eternity before time; that which IS, is time itself; and that which IS TO COME, is the eternity which shall be when time is no more. We express something similar when we finish reading the Psalm and say the gloria patra, “…as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever”. Secondly, John speaks of grace and peace coming from the seven spirits before his throne. This is a reference to the Holy Spirit, where the number 7, frequently used in the OT, symbolizes fullness and perfection. Third, John says grace and peace is from Jesus Christ, and explains to us that He is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. So this grace and peace proceeds from the Trinity, each having the attributes of the other, to which the resurrected Jesus belongs. As the resurrected one, the second person of the Trinity, the firstborn from the dead, he is now seated at the right hand of the Father and is the ruler of the world.

By the time we get to verses 5-7, John has to stop and enter into praise for he sees the heavenly fruit of Jesus’ earthly ministry, “To Him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, including those who pierced Him. And all the families of the earth  will mourn over Him.  This is certain. Amen.” (Revelation 1:5-7 HCSB) But from this doxology, where John is alluding to Daniel 7:13 and Zechariah 12:10, he is showing us that it is indeed this resurrected Christ to whom the prophets were speaking. He is the one who’s resurrection makes Zechariah’s prophecy of a spirit of grace and prayer possible; the sending of the Holy Spirit. It is identifying Daniel’s Son of Man who will have an everlasting dominion, with the resurrected Christ. It is also letting us know that we have been set free from our sins because of the resurrection, as Paul says, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17 HCSB) But our sins are forgiven because of the resurrection.

There is more, John shows us in verses 13-17, where he speaks of the experience of Daniel, Zechariah, Ezekiel and Isaiah, of woe before the Holy One and using the same imagery to describe the Lord’s appearance. Jesus is identified as “One like the Son of Man,” “dressed in a long robe with gold,” “head and hair white like wool-white as snow, eyes like a fiery flame”, “feet like fine bronze fired in a furnace,” and “his voice like the sound of cascading waters.” All of these visions of the OT prophets were happening in the present for John. In other words, it is the resurrected Jesus who now sits at the right hand of the Father. What they pointed to is now a heavenly reality, Christ ruling in glory.

But in verses 17-19, if we still had doubt, the resurrected Christ says this, “…I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look-I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.” Brothers and sisters, only the one who was raised from the dead, lives forever and ever and sits on the throne as sovereign over creation can hold the keys of death and Hades, the final judgment at his second coming, and can assure us of “what will take place after this”.

In summary, the resurrected Christ is part of the Godhead, he mediates through angels, dispenses grace and peace, is the ruler of the kings of the world, is the living fulfillment of the OT heavenly visions, made the forgiveness of sins possible, the one who was dead but now is alive and who will preside over the final judgment at consummation. Therefore, we may safely say that the resurrected Christ is now ruling the world, including his church, from his heavenly throne, working through this present history towards final consummation, with his right hand outstretched singing grace and peace over us, erasing the dividing line between heaven and earth. While we have entered this age, that final day will come, “this is certain,” says John in Revelation 1:7.

What does this mean for us? The short answer is that King Jesus is in charge. Do you worry, do you fear, do you doubt God’s promises, do you live like a pagan with no reality of a God in heaven? Brothers and sisters, we have no room for such things, for our King has come and the resurrection has guaranteed that he will come again to fully and finally redeem us. The Scriptures declare, “[The Father] demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church,” (Ephesians 1:20-22 HCSB) We can be sure that everything that happens in our lives is not in vain, but serving his purpose. Even in our pain and suffering, he is working. Why do we suffer? Because Christ suffered, because this world is not yet completely redeemed, because it enables us to better serve others, because it bears witness to the truth and power of the Gospel, because it sanctifies us, and because it transforms us. We learn best when the learning is tough; when things are going well, we tend to forget our dependence upon the Lord. Growth happens in life’s trials. Know this, we will suffer until his return, but it is not in vain; it produces fruit to his glory.

Ah, but now back to safer ground of John’s Gospel (20:19-31), let us thank the Lord that it is not near as complicated as John’s vision in Revelation. It is here that I suggest that because of Christ’s resurrection, we can be certain of our purpose.

The resurrected Christ, as the one who rules his church, gave authority to the apostles. We see this in John 20:23, “…As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. After saying this, He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (HCSB)

A couple of things should be said here. First, with regard to Jesus breathing on the apostles with the Holy Spirit, this is not the same kind of thing as what is yet to come at Pentecost. There was no manifestation like we see in Acts, but a confirmation of purpose. Jesus was establishing the apostolic office; he was appointing them to be the bearers of the Gospel to the world. In a sense, he was establishing the political foundation of the Christian Church. It would be the twelve who would proclaim like John in 20:31, “so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.”

But, establishing the office is more than just sanctioning the message. Indeed, the apostles would have responsibility for that message; for the formulation of doctrine. It would be they who had the authority to proclaim its truth, they who would determine error, they who would discipline those who fell short and they who would lay the groundwork for the future of the NT Church. We see this more fully developed elsewhere in the Gospels; recall Matthew 16:16-19, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19 HCSB)

Shortly after my conversion and watching some television preachers, I used to think these verses meant that I could bind demons and loose angels; it does not mean that. There is no flat-tire demon, no non-winning lottery demon, and no sock-stealing demon, and even if there were, they would not be in my command, neither are there any angels in my command. Regarding another error, Roman Catholics cite this verse for the validation of the Papacy in Peter’s succession; it does not mean that either. While I don’t think we can deny Peter’s primacy among the apostles, we cannot say that he is the foundation of the church or the Vicar of Christ. Peter’s confession that, “Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” was typological of the “rock” on which Jesus would build his church; the rock was faith, not Peter’s faith in particular. The keys that were confirmed to Peter were confirmed to the other eleven as well. They were given the authority to open the kingdom to those who shared Peter’s confession and excluded those who did not receive their testimony to Christ. Through them Jesus revealed his own word of kingdom authority and the apostolic foundation was laid in the completion of the New Testament. The keys of Christ’s authority in the church are the application of of this apostolic authority. In a certain sense, these are the same keys Jesus referred to in Revelation 1:18, “the keys of death and Hades.”

While the office of apostle has ceased with the death of the last apostle, John, these keys are passed on to the clerical offices in the church today. Of course, they do not have the same authority as the apostles as they are not inspired, but to the degree they uphold the accurate apostolic teaching revealed in Scripture, they are exercising Christ’s authority in the church today; continuing the marks of the church: the preaching of the Word, the administration of the Sacraments, and church discipline. Christ is building his kingdom through the Church.

But what does that have to do with our purpose? A whole bunch! As Christ referred to faith as being the rock on which he would build his church, Peter under inspiration, refers to you “as living stones, [who] are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5 HCSB) Your faith has made you a part of Christ’s Church, the Temple of God. You are new creations. You are his representatives and his messengers. You are under the mandate of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission; your purpose is like that of the apostles, to make the kingdom of God manifest on earth. To that extent, you have a stewardship over the keys to the the kingdom, to death and Hades. As his ambassadors, you are to worship him alone and to proclaim his mighty deeds throughout the land.

But what of his mighty deeds? Exactly what is that that we are to proclaim? Turning to Acts 4:1-12: I offer to you that because of Christ’s resurrection, we can be certain of our proclamation.

I recently heard a survey done at a conservative evangelical college where participants were asked to give reason for their faith, to proclaim the Gospel’s certainty. The results were shocking. Here is a sampling:

“The Bible says its the word of God.” But, so does the Koran.

“Because I just believe it, it works for me.” But, Satanists can say this too.

“My experiences seem to line up with the Faith.” But, atheists claim their experience lines up with their lack of faith.

“I can feel it and I know it is true.” Shirley MacLain says this too.

“Religion is not something that needs proof.” But I ask, should we believe anything without reason? Do we ever believe anything without reason? I mean, if Christ were not raised from the dead, keep your tithe money and build that pool, sleep late on Sundays and live as you please. There would be no reason to be here this morning.

“It gives me inner peace.” But, Buddhists say this.

“Christ got me out of debt and sobered me up.” Credit counselors and AA can do this as well.

The problem is that any of these statements could be said about any holy book, any religion, or any self-improvement program. They are all inwardly focused; they are subjective, and inherent in them is the notion of pragmatism and therapeutic deism, “What God has done for me.” Further, Christ did not have to die and be raised to have any of that be relevant. I dare say, you can do almost all of these without Christ, in your own strength. However, I am not saying that such testimony does not play a valid role in our evangelistic efforts; they do. They are just not the primary message we are to proclaim; they come along side and support the objective reasons for faith.

So, what is the reason for our faith? What is our proclamation? Well, let’s look at the apostle’s proclamation; it was not “what Jesus had done for them subjectively,” but what Jesus did in history, outside of them, objectively. In Acts 4:1-2 we read, “Now as they were speaking to the people, the priests, the commander of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them, because they were provoked that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in the person of Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” (HCSB Acts 4:1-2) While the Sadducees were sad you see, because they did not believe in the resurrection, 5000 that heard the message that day came to believe. Simply put, it is the resurrection that they proclaimed! That Christ died and was raised again gives testimony to the truth and power of the Gospel. Here the apostles are fulfilling their kingdom purpose, making worshippers of God, by proclaiming the reality of the heavenlies; a resurrected Christ who rules and reigns from heaven, forgiving the sins of sinners and restoring the whole creation.

Look at Acts 4:9-10, “If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man—by what means he was healed—let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing here before you healthy.” (Acts 4:9-10 HCSB) Here the apostles are fulfilling their kingdom purpose, making worshippers of God, by proclaiming the power of the heavenlies; the power of a resurrected Christ. The kingdom of God is at hand because, like during Jesus’ earthly ministry, after the resurrection it is still the case that,“The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them.” (Luke 7:22 HCSB) The kingdom of God is marching toward consummation. “This is certain,” says John.

So then, our message of proclamation is that, “He is risen!” He is seated at the right hand of the Father and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. And since Christ alone is raised, and Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad are still in the grave, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” (HCSB Acts 4:12) The clarity and certainty of our proclamation is based in a historical event which is only possible by heavenly intervention; it is from objective history and objective miracle that our faith is not in vain. Therefore, brothers and sisters our proclamation is certain and it is this proclamation that makes the heavenly reality the earthly reality.

So, we end where we started, with heaven coming down, the earth being made over in the likeness of heaven and anticipating a day when all will be fully and finally new. We have seen that this will happen because the one who tells us it will is in the position of supreme judge and ruler of creation, the resurrected Christ; all things are under his control. He has made our purpose clear by commissioning the church and its members to cultivate the land, to turn it into the New Garden/The New Jerusalem. And, we do this primarily by the message he has given us to proclaim, the resurrected Messiah who was, is now, and is to come.

Brothers and sisters, if there is anything you take away today, I pray that it is a vision for the resurrected Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, patiently dispensing grace and peace until the Last Day. Grasp a vision of that Last Day, grasp a vision of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, grasp a vision of heaven coming to Earth, and know this, that “This is certain!” (Rev 1:& HCSB) And let us pray as John does at the close of the book of Revelation, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” (Revelation 22:20-21 HCSB)

Topics: Acts, Easter, John, Liturgical Seasons, Revelation |

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