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Sermon For 2025-Jul-27

Texts: Virtual Holy Communion Service
Revelation 1:1-20
Revelation 4:1-11
Revelation 5:1-5
Revelation 5:6-14
Click for closing hymn!


In the readings for this first week in the book of Revelation, the apostle John of epistle and gospel writing fame, is given a vision by Jesus himself – a vision of what must take place after this. And over the next five weeks, we will dig into that vision, and pull out of it, all the hope we can find. Because the book of Revelation was written for that purpose – to give hope to Christians who are persecuted, tired, frustrated, angry, demoralized, or just plain bored...


The soldier has been in the foxhole for what seems like months. Every once in a while, bullets whizz past. Every once in a while artillery shells pound the ground not far enough away. Every once in a while, the sounds of a drone flying overhead cause rapid heart rate and frantic searching the skies. The days blur together and the nights crawl by, and the POINT of sitting in this foxhole becomes more and more vague. Thoughts come to the soldier's mind: “Why am I here? What am I doing? What if I just surrender?” What this soldier needs is a vision of the big picture. He needs the general to tell him, “If you and your mates can defend this position from the enemy, this division can attack over here and those aircraft can strike over there and then....we will WIN this war, and you can move on to a much better, freer way of life.” To have enough hope to stay in his foxhole, this soldier needs to know....that there's a plan for victory.


The apostle John, who referred to himself as “the disciple Jesus loved” in his account of the gospel, was having a rough go. In his old age, in around the year 94 AD, John had been arrested for proclaiming the gospel in Ephesus and other parts of Asia Minor, and he was exiled to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. The persecution of Christians under Roman emperor Domitian, the “second persecution” after that of emperor Nero, was in full swing, and martyrs were being made regularly. The pressure to renounce the Christian faith was intense.


Add to that, the church as an institution was now about 60 years old. The hopes of Paul and others, that Christ would return in glory during their lifetime, were fading fast. The kingdom was becoming less about the excitement of something new, and more about patient endurance of persecution.


Add to that, the Christians of the day had many different emotions to process: hatred, anger, and even revenge toward the persecuting regime; grief, survivor guilt, and even envy toward the martyrs who had gone before them; resentment, despair, and even disbelief toward God. This is the background out of which the book of Revelation emerged.


How much has changed between then and now? We live under a regime that is much friendlier to Christianity than Domitian or Nero. Until recently, we have been ENCOURAGED by our society to uphold the Christian faith, unless there is a pandemic in progress. And to my knowledge, not a single Canadian has been martyred for Jesus within the span of time that Canada has existed.


But the church as an institution is now almost 2000 years old. People don't even consider the possibility that Jesus will return in their lifetime, unless they interpret things Donald Trump says through the lens of the book of Revelation! The church today is traditional, and predictable, and ignorable. The problem is not to PROCESS the emotions of Christians, it's to GENERATE emotions in Christians, with the background of sliding attendance, decreasing commitment, and loss of impact in society.



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