How to Navigate the End of the World (Revelation 1:1-3) | Pastor Jake Sweetman

Welcome to a thought-provoking sermon that invites you to journey through the book of Revelation, delving into themes of time, blessing, and vision. In this message, we explore Revelation 1:1-3 and uncover the eternal truths that guide us through life's chaos. 

Discover the significance of "inclusio" and other literary features that biblical authors use to illuminate God's plan for us. Learn how to remain steadfast by understanding time's urgency and the role of God's sovereignty in our lives. Experience the profound blessing of discipleship and obedience, revealing the true path to happiness and flourishing in Christ.

Join us as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the slain and risen Lamb, who offers vision and guidance to navigate the end times. Whether you're seeking empowerment from the Holy Spirit, aiming to wisely use your time, or desiring a closer relationship with Christ, this sermon provides the encouragement and tools needed for the journey.

Subscribe to our podcast for more inspiring messages, and let’s grow together in faith and understanding. #Revelation #EndTimes #ChristianPodcast #FaithJourney

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Transcript

 Did you bring a Bible to church?

Why don't you go ahead and open that to the book of Revelation chapter 1.

We are in the wonderful world of the apocalypse.

And it is a wonderful world, yes?

It's a little crazy, but it's awesome.

 We are in week four and we began the series in chapter 12 of Revelation, did the first three weeks there.

And the purpose for that was to grasp the heart of the plot that Revelation tells and also to get acquainted with the primary characters in the story.

 That is the church, the dragon, who is Satan, and obviously Jesus Christ.

And Revelation is cool.

It's not laid out in a strictly chronological sequence.

So we're able to begin in chapter 12, and now we can circle back to the beginning in the first three verses of chapter 1.

 which say this, the revelation, that word is the Greek word apocalypsis, it is literally the apocalypse, the unveiling from Jesus Christ, or in the Greek literally of and about, the revelation of and about Jesus Christ, which God gave him, that is which God the Father gave to Jesus to show his servants, that's you and I, what must soon take place.

 He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw.

That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and who take it to heart, what is written in it, because the time is near.

Have you ever become physically disoriented?

 like maybe really lightheaded or a bit foggy.

Recently, I was getting some blood work done, which I already don't do well with.

But this time, I really didn't do well with it.

At one moment, the nurse is finishing up and putting a bandage on me.

The next thing I know, I am coming out of a very deep fog with two strange women standing very close to my face, gently saying my name and asking if I'm okay.

 Well, I wasn't okay.

In fact, I had no idea where I was.

If I'm honest with you, I was terrified in that moment.

But I used my context clues.

This looks like a medical facility, I thought to myself.

I don't know these strange women.

I'm pretty sure I know what's going on here.

 And to be honest with you, I'm surprised it took this long for this to happen to me.

I knew this was going to happen to me at some point.

I've been abducted and these women are harvesting my organs to sell on the black market.

That was literally my first thought.

I'm going to touch on the dramatic side.

It took me several seconds to realize that I just passed out and I was very disoriented.

 Disorientation is something that the book of Revelation knows a lot about.

Literally, disorientation is the condition of having lost one's sense of direction.

And Revelation knows a lot about the potential for that to happen in our lives as we navigate the wilderness of this age.

And there are good reasons for that disorientation to happen to you and I. We are being chased by a dragon after all.

 The cultural air that we breathe hangs heavy with the lies that he tells.

The earth beneath our feet feels like it's shifting regularly without warning.

We face temptation and loss and hardship.

Sometimes we even face mistreatment as a result of remaining faithful to Jesus.

Sometimes our best efforts to spread the gospel don't really feel like they're amounting to much at all.

 To navigate the wilderness is to navigate a world that is under the influence of the dragon, the chaos monster.

There are all kinds of apparent reasons to grow disoriented.

And Revelation spends a great deal of time alerting us to heaven's perspective on these things throughout the whole middle of the book so that we will see the world rightly and understand the chaos for what it really is.

 But importantly, on either side of this apparent chaos, at the beginning and the ending of Revelation, we see quite a different picture.

It's a picture of God's sovereign power and His unstoppable plan to make all things new that is good and beautiful and true.

In other words, the chaos is bookended on either side by perfect order.

 And that's really vital that the start and the end of Revelation are like handles to grip as you make your way through the chaotic middle.

In fact, frequently throughout Revelation, these handles will offer themselves up for you to grab onto.

Sometimes they frame a short passage.

Other times they frame a larger section.

There are several of these handles that actually frame the entirety of the book.

But their purpose is to stabilize you and to keep you from growing disoriented as you make your way through the wilderness.

 There's actually a technical term for this literary feature.

It's called an inclusio.

Would you like to try that one yourself?

Let's say this together.

Say inclusio.

Inclusio.

 Yeah, and inclusio is a literary feature that biblical authors use quite frequently.

And their purpose is to start and end a section with the same phrase or the same idea.

Like bookends that frame the section of the story.

And those bookends signify something important to the hearer and the reader.

And it's that this is the lens through which you should understand everything you read in between.

 A simple example is how at the start of Matthew's gospel, Jesus is called Emmanuel.

And Emmanuel means God with us.

God with us.

And then at the very end of Matthew's gospel, in the last chapter and in the last sentence of Matthew chapter 28, Jesus says, Lo, I am...

 with you until the end of the age.

The presence of Christ frames the whole story of Matthew's gospel.

The promise of his presence with you, which is a handle that you might want to grab onto if you're trying to, say, give your best effort to combat the temptation to lust as Jesus defines it in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5.

The idea is that his presence is the power that you need.

 to resist sin as Jesus has defined it.

You see, in biblical literature, the structure of how a text is laid out often holds an immense amount of insight into the meaning of that text.

 And inclusios are particularly important for a document like Revelation, which was to be read out loud, almost like a dramatic monologue to the seven churches of Asia Minor.

And as the hearers listen to the contents of the apocalypse, I mean, imagine being the first people to hear this.

And as they hear the contents, which are often confronting, the inclusios would constantly remind them to understand all of it in light of God's power and plan and promise.

 And so for this reason, Revelation is filled with inclusios.

John has inclusios within inclusios.

It's like inclusio inception in the book of Revelation, which I think really serves to underscore the divine source of this document.

I mean, the structure of this text, the complexity of the narrative is so amazing.

And the meaning that that structure unlocks is beautiful.

I don't think that there's any way a document like this could ever originate in the mind of man.

 To be a bit more specific, there are two main reasons that John uses in Clusias that I think you should be aware of for your own reading of Revelation.

The first is theological emphasis.

That is, by repeating a key truth at the start and the end of a section, John is highlighting to you what is theologically significant.

A simple example is God's self-declaration that He is the Alpha and the Omega.

 At the beginning and the end of Revelation.

And this reminds us as we navigate the chaos of the middle that God is the beginning and the end.

He is the first and the last word in history.

And everything in Revelation from the rise of the beast to the fall of Babylon is framed by this unshakable truth that God holds both the origin and the outcome of all things.

The inclusio emphasizes God's sovereignty in the chaos.

 Secondly, inclusio serve as an interpretive key.

That is that the frame helps to interpret the picture on the inside.

And so, for example, in Revelation 1, as we'll see next week, Jesus is introduced as the ruler of the kings of the earth.

And then from that point on, every single mention of these earthly kings is always negative.

They are always allied with Babylon, with the beast and the dragons.

 But then on the other side of the inclusio in Revelation chapter 22, surprisingly, at least some of these kings are bringing their splendor into the new creation.

The inclusio is meant to communicate something stunning to us that through the faithful witness of the church in the wilderness, God's enemies become God's friends.

That's the kind of truth you might want to grab onto.

 as you face your fair share of God's enemies throughout the course of this life.

The reason I'm giving you this mini seminary lesson, congrats, you're at least 15% smarter now when you read the Bible, is because there are three inclusios that are connected to our text today that start in Revelation 1.

 And each of these emphasizes an important aspect of Revelation's theology and helps us to interpret and apply what God is saying to us through this text.

Let's think about them as three things that we must understand if we're going to know how to navigate the end of the world.

That's the title of our sermon today.

 Let's go back to our main passage in Revelation chapter 1, verses 1 to 3, except this time now with our first inclusio highlighted for us.

John says that he has an apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which is something that must soon take place.

And then he says, I've got this word of prophecy that's been given to me, and it's important that you obey it.

Why?

Because the time is near.

The first inclusio begins and ends this passage itself, and it deals with the subject of time.

 In verse 1 of Revelation chapter 1, John receives something that is described that must soon take place.

And then in verse 3, readers and hearers are told to obey the words of the prophecy because the time is near.

Time is important in Revelation because if you are going to successfully navigate the end of the world, you must be able to tell the time.

 John's theology of time is consistent with the rest of the New Testament, which is that you and I have been living in the last days since Jesus ascended to heaven and poured out His Holy Spirit upon the church.

You see, Revelation is not a book that predicts the last days as though they were strictly in the future.

Revelation is a book that provides a proper understanding of how to live in the last days because they are already here.

 Just like the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, Revelation teaches you what it looks like to follow Jesus faithfully between his first and second comings.

And that's what John is helping us to see with these two temporal descriptions of soon and near that bookend the section which introduces the apocalyptic vision of and about Jesus.

And so our first question becomes really clear.

What does it mean, John, when you say that something is about to soon take place?

What exactly is near?

 And the answer isn't complicated.

John is referring to all the contents of Revelation.

The chaos in the middle, but also the crescendo at the end, the overarching goal to the story that Revelation is telling when evil is finally destroyed and creation is fully renewed and evil is put away and you and I are brought into the presence of God without fracture once and for all.

 What John is saying is that in the grand scheme of things, we are at the end of the ages.

And it won't be long now until the new creation arrives.

The fulfillment of God's ancient promise to judge sin, to complete the salvation project is imminent.

Imminent means it's hanging overhead.

 And John's claim is that the arrival of the kingdom and everything that that entails, including pushback from the enemy and the promise of new creation, all of that is hanging overhead in such a way that it would be absolutely ridiculous for a Christian not to live in light of that reality.

And so John's language of time evokes a feeling of urgency and responsibility.

 Now there's some important Old Testament background here that helps us understand John's point.

His choice of vocabulary in these opening verses, if you look at them in the Greek, deliberately echoes Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel was a Jewish prophet who lived about 500-600 years before the coming of Christ.

And in Daniel chapter 2, Daniel interprets a dream that the Babylonian king had had, Nebuchadnezzar.

 And the dream had to do with the idolatrous kingdoms of the world crumbling and falling because of the arrival of the kingdom of God, which then goes on to fill the earth and endure forever.

And what's significant is that when Daniel interprets the dream about the arrival of God's kingdom, he says that it is something that will happen in days to come.

In Greek, days to come is literally in the eschaton.

 In the last days, eschaton is where we get our word eschatology, the study of last things.

And so for Daniel, the arrival of God's kingdom and the destruction of evil was something that he understood to be a long way off in the future.

It was in the last days.

But now John takes up that same concept of the kingdom's arrival and evil's destruction, and he makes a very important substitution to Daniel's language.

Rather than being in the eschaton, these things, John says, now must soon take place.

 In other words, to quote a great scholar, G.K.

Beale, he says that what Daniel expected to occur in the last days, John is announcing as imminent or beginning to occur now.

The final tribulation, the defeat of evil, the establishment of the kingdom, which Daniel expected to occur distantly in the latter days, John expects to begin in his own generation and indeed it has already started to happen.

 the arrival of the kingdom in this seemingly insignificant form, followed by pushback and its ongoing growth, that's congruent with all the parables of Jesus about the kingdom.

 That the kingdom of heaven is like leaven in dough that permeates the entire lump of dough.

That the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.

It's the smallest of all the seeds of the garden.

But when it is planted and grows, it becomes like a great tree.

And in that tree, the birds find shade.

It's also congruent with the original vision in Daniel itself because the kingdom of God starts as a small rock that then grows into a great mountain and fills the earth.

 And so John wants the church to understand, hey, just because the kingdom of God has arrived does not mean it has fully arrived.

And if the first creation, I'm talking about Genesis chapters 1 and 2, if the first creation teaches us anything, it's that God always does things by seed and harvest through partnership.

 And the seed of the new creation has been planted through the first coming of Jesus.

And Christ's victory over death through his resurrection is the first fruits of that new creation harvest.

But there is still much more harvest to come.

And guess what?

You and I as the church are the gardeners.

 We are the partners in the spread of the kingdom of God.

And so from John's perspective, standing at the end of the first century, exiled on the island of Patmos, an enemy of Rome because of the gospel, the kingdom of God had already arrived to the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

And John had personally witnessed that when Jesus worked his miracles and healed the sick and modeled the character of God with absolute faith.

 And John saw the kingdom arrive and Jesus would say things.

Hey, the kingdom is in your midst.

The kingdom is at hand.

And John's like, yes, I see that in you, Jesus.

And then after Christ ascends into the throne, John now participates in the spread of the kingdom throughout the duration of his life as he watches the church bring the kingdom throughout the Roman Empire in the face of suffering and temptation.

And so to John, the prophet, the seer,

 The kingdom of God is most definitely right now.

But also to John, the prisoner, the kingdom is most definitely not yet.

And you know what that's like, don't you?

To be a prophetic presence to the world around you, but you are also on painkillers.

To be a prophet...

 But you are still fighting with all of your power to break free from a pornography addiction.

To see the kingdom in your midst, but to struggle deeply with insecurity.

The prophet and the prisoner, the tension of the time that we inhabit, the now and the not yet.

And that's why John chooses these words soon and near, not now and here.

 This is John's way of saying we are already in the last days, but we are not yet at the end.

And the reason John can navigate it well, even while exiled on Patmos, is because he knows what time it is.

He knows that the powers of evil waging war against God's people doesn't negate the arrival of God's kingdom.

It proves it.

 The Bible clearly depicts a time of tribulation that follows the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

This is all to be expected of the times that we are living in.

It is not a surprise.

And this explains why the church can stand in the midst of hardship and proclaim the kingdom is here.

 Like, do you stand in your hardship and proclaim such a thing?

Do you see the enemy's pushback in your life as evidence of the kingdom's advancement?

Do you see his pathetic defenses as evidence that the fact that you and I are the ones playing offense in this game?

You see, the church is not meant to hide from hardship.

They are meant to turn it into opportunity to demonstrate the ways of the kingdom of God.

This hardship is not a surprise.

So do not be disoriented by it.

Exploit it.

 expose the lies of the dragon by responding to them in the ways of the land.

Know what time it is and respond rightly.

The churches of Revelation were facing all kinds of crises.

Some were filled with compromise.

We'll get to them in a few weeks.

Some were being persecuted.

Some were living faithfully but feeling immense pressure.

And God wants them to grasp the time they're living in so that they can navigate it well.

You see, if you forget what time it is, you will grow disoriented.

 You will drift into compromise.

Living like this world is all that there is.

Or you will collapse in despair, convinced that evil has had the last word.

But if you tell the time rightly, you can use the time wisely.

This time is not wasted time.

It is a time to bear witness.

 Every day is a chance to show through patient, faithful demonstration of Christ-likeness what the kingdom of God is like and that the kingdom of God has really come in your life and is coming in full into the world.

This is a major part of God's purpose for the church to show that God's way works.

 Paul talks about this same kind of thing in the book of Ephesians.

I love this verse in Ephesians 3.10.

Listen to this statement.

It says that God's intent was that now, that's the now that you and I are still living in, that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.

Friends, your life is meant to preach to heaven and earth so that you can be a part of bringing heaven to the earth.

 We had an example of this happen just this last week.

One of the struggles of our location in Highland Park is, let's call it neighbor management.

 we take up a lot of parking.

And friends, just as a notice, just a specific word for our Highland Park location, we do have a parking lot about two blocks away.

We would love for you to use that.

And we've had some stressful moments with a particular neighbor that reached a bit of a boiling point at the start of the year when we did that fire relief giveaway.

 There were lots of volunteers here, which means lots of parking taken on a Saturday.

And there was a line all day long of cars all the way down the street to receive supplies.

And this caused some tension with one of our neighbors.

But one of the things that we did that day was to go around the neighborhood and to offer prayer and gift cards to anybody who was in need.

And one of those people happened to be this particular neighbor's mother.

 And she was so blessed by that.

And he called one of our team this week to express his gratitude that he wants to show us a different side of himself and that he wants to come to church because of how we've shown kindness and helped his family even after a challenging interaction with him that day.

God's way works.

It turns struggle into opportunity.

And when the coming of the kingdom is your focus, then you will use your time to be a doorway.

You see, the point that Revelation is making is this.

The kingdom is coming.

Will you be a conduit?

 Say, tell the time.

Redeem the time.

Don't waste the time.

Which means you've got to intentionally look for opportunities to participate.

You will not be a part of the coming kingdom by accident.

Paul goes on to say more about this in Ephesians 5.

Be very careful then how you live.

That word live is our favorite Greek word.

Peripateo.

There we go.

Come on, Pastor Ella, let's go.

 Peripeteo is your daily walk.

So Paul is telling you here, hey, be really careful how you spend your Sunday afternoon.

Be really careful how you conduct your daily life.

Not as unwise, but as wise.

Making the most of every opportunity.

Why?

Because the days are evil.

 This is the same as John's theology.

Paul understands it.

We're living in this wilderness age that Revelation 12 made so abundantly clear between the first and second comings of Christ.

We're living in this time of tribulation.

Therefore, don't be foolish, verse 17, but understand what the Lord's will is.

So even though there's a dragon warring against us, ultimately God is in control and God has a will that we're meant to be aligned with.

What's that look like?

Well, don't get drunk on wine.

That's debauchery.

Maybe your translation says dissipation, literally wastefulness.

 Drunkenness was and is still today a common form of wasting your life, but there are countless others.

And it seems that those means by which we can waste our life multiply with every generation as technology improves.

Do not waste your life, your time on sin.

 Don't waste your time on things that make you too sick to make a difference.

Do not fill yourself up so much with junk that you cannot be filled up with God.

No, instead of that, verse 19, be filled with the Spirit.

How?

Paul goes on to say, Christ-centered worship, Christ-centered gratitude, Christ-centered servanthood.

Worship, gratitude, servanthood.

But so often we waste our time with grumbling, with self-importance, with worry.

 And Paul is calling us into these simple behaviors that can help reorient us to use our time wisely.

And what happens is an incorrect reading of Revelation actually amplifies these wrong activities.

Because we read this as a terrifying depiction of the future about barcodes and microchips and Russian helicopters.

And an escape manual for when the tribulation arrives.

 And so rather than turning outward as servants, we cloister in on ourselves.

We hunker down and we build walls.

I do believe the first verse of Revelation is helpful in this respect.

It is the revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.

Friend, you are a servant of God, not a savior of self.

So what opportunities do you have to turn outward this week?

What ways can you begin today turning from the idol of self?

 Telling others about Jesus when the world around you tells you to stay quiet.

Keeping your lamp burning through a constant rhythm of prayer this week when you'd rather sleep in.

Serving those around you when you'd rather stay comfortable.

Holding fast to Jesus when the voice of the dragon comes to tempt you and tell you that compromise would be more satisfying.

 Every opportunity to redeem the time matters because the days are evil, but God's kingdom is coming.

Do not underestimate the ripple effects of seizing the next small opportunity to redeem the time.

And do not waste your time wishing for a different time.

One of the most famous exchanges between Frodo and Gandalf in the Fellowship of the Ring is when Frodo turns to Gandalf and says, I wish it need not have happened in my time.

 He's overwhelmed.

He's wishing the burden of the ring had never come to him.

And Gandalf replies, so do I.

 And so do all who live to see such times.

But it is not for them to decide.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

And that is the tension that so many of us feel.

We wish we didn't have to carry the weight that we carry.

Or face the challenges in our world.

Or live through the difficulties of our generation.

But friends, we don't get to choose our times.

And we don't always get to choose what gets handed to us in life.

It's like what Mordecai said to Esther.

Hey, what have you brought here for such a time as this?

 Don't be thinking you can't make it through this wilderness.

That's the dragon talking.

No, God has you here for such a time as this.

Don't be thinking you can't navigate the landscape of this age.

No, we'll go together.

God has us here for such a time as this.

Don't be thinking you can't persevere through the pain that has come barging through your door.

We'll walk with you.

 God has us here for such a time as this.

Parents, don't think that God has not equipped you to raise your children in this age.

No, God has you here for such a time as this.

So don't be wishing for a different time.

Plant yourself in this time and be a vessel for the kingdom of God to come through.

This is absolutely vital if we are going to know how to navigate the end of the world.

Inclusio number two.

How you doing?

 Do you feel like a scholar?

Yeah.

Put Revelation 1 verses 1 to 3 back up, this time with a different part emphasized.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it.

This is the beginning of the inclusio.

The other side of it is at the very end of Revelation chapter 22 verses 6 and 7.

It concludes like this.

Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy.

 Written in the scroll.

The whole story of Revelation is encapsulated on either side by blessing.

Blessing opens the book and blessing concludes the book.

Which becomes something really important to hold on to as you travel throughout the chaotic middle.

 where the church appears to be meeting another challenge around every single corner, these handles of blessing are essential to begin and end the story because God does not want you to be blinded by the chaos of the age you're living in.

But the key to the blessing as both the opening and the closing of the inclusio make clear is obedience.

 Taking to heart, the scripture says, keeping the words of Revelation.

That is the condition to experiencing the blessing.

And this again signals that Revelation is more about discipleship than it is about decoding the distant future.

That this is about obedience.

This is about discipleship.

And if I practice faithful discipleship as Revelation describes, what I can expect from that is blessing.

 What does that blessing look like?

Well, in the context of Revelation, it certainly is eternal reward.

It's life everlasting in the presence of God.

Something to look forward to in the new creation.

But also, that word blessed in the Greek connotes an additional application.

You see, what this is telling us is that if you're going to navigate the end of the world, then you must know what it means to be happy.

 Do you guys remember the meaning of that word blessed from our Sermon on the Mount series?

It's the Greek word makarios.

 And we actually don't have the perfect English word to capture what makarios means.

And so scholars use all kinds of different words.

They use blessed or happy or fortunate.

One Australian scholar, he translates it with the Australian phrase, good on ya.

Which is like what an Aussie would say when someone is like really killing it at something.

Like, good on ya, man.

That's how he translates the word makarios.

I think the most current version of makarios that maybe we would say today is that like somebody is iconic.

 Or maybe 10 years ago, we would say that someone was gold.

So that would be the phrase that we would use.

So like when you see like the married couple and they're both perfectly fit and they drive matching white Teslas and they got the mid-century modern home with a 2% interest rate, you would look at that couple, you would say that they are Makarios.

Exactly.

You'd say that that couple is Makarios.

They are living the good life.

 My favorite translation of this word comes from a biblical scholar named Jonathan Pennington.

And he translates makarios, as I heard someone say over here, flourishing.

That God's, hear me, God's prescribed way of being in the world leads to a flourishing life.

And that's the picture that the word blessed paints.

Not just reward at the end of the race, but a real sense of happiness in the midst of the race.

Now the irony is,

 of the Sermon on the Mount and certainly of Revelation is that the happiness being promised is found along a very unexpected path.

It's not the path of autonomy.

It's not the path of a pain-free life.

It's the path of faithfully following and loving Jesus and embracing the cost that comes with that.

Which means a life marked by servanthood,

 and generosity and hospitality.

It's a disposition of mercy and forgiveness when you'd rather hold grudges.

 It's a disposition of patience and faith when you'd rather rush off ahead and do your own thing.

Of trusting God through trials when you'd rather grumble.

The idea of blessing here in Revelation shouldn't strictly be understood as blessing in exchange for obedience at the end.

It should be understood as blessing in the midst of obedience in the process.

It's not compensation.

It's the organically occurring outcome of living in alignment with the way of Jesus here and now.

 During World War II, there were two sisters, one of whom became very famous, named Kari Ten Boom and her sister Betsy.

And they were both thrown into the Ravensbruck concentration camp, and their barracks were overcrowded, they were filthy, and they were crawling with fleas.

And Kari, as anybody would, grumbled, but Betsy reminded her sister of the Scripture, give thanks in all circumstances.

 And so against every instinct, they actually began thanking God even for the fleas.

Soon they realized why the guards never entered their barracks.

Because they knew it was infested with fleas.

 The fleas kept them away.

And because of that, Corrie and Betsy were able to smuggle in a Bible, gather the women night after night, and read the scripture aloud without interruption so that in that dark place, women actually came to faith in Jesus Christ.

The fleas that made life unbearable were the very reason that the gospel could be proclaimed.

 That's a graphic example of what revelation means by blessing.

Not just reward at the end of obedience, but blessing in the middle.

Flourishing in the wilderness.

A garden in the desert.

Happiness that no one can take away.

As time progressed, Corrie survived the war.

But Betsy did not.

And Corrie went on to preach the gospel of forgiveness across Europe.

And at one church in Munich, she had spoken about God's mercy...

 And after the service, a man approached her and to her shock, he had been one of the guards at Ravensbrück.

And he told her that he had become a Christian and that he knew that God had forgiven him, but he needed to seek forgiveness from her.

Will you forgive me, Kari?

He asked.

Kari later wrote that in that moment she froze because memories of Betsy's death and her own suffering rushed back.

 And yet she knew that forgiveness is not a feeling.

Forgiveness is an act of obedience.

And so she prayed silently in that moment, Jesus, help me.

And she extended her hand to touch the man.

And as she did, she described the feeling of the love of Christ flooding through her arm into that former guard.

And she wrote, I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

 What is that?

That's in that moment, Corey experiencing that blessing is not only God's promise for eternity, it is joy in the toughest acts of obedience.

And that's the kind of flourishing that Revelation is talking about.

Not always comfort, not often ease, but the supernatural happiness of Christ's life flowing through ours, even in wilderness.

 And this is what God desires for you.

God desires that you would be blessed.

The Inclusio makes it clear that the whole story of the church is a story of experiencing the blessing of following the Lamb, even when everything about the world's economy of blessing screams that you are crazy.

So that you know that you are blessed when you forgive and pray for those who hurt you.

When you honor those who dishonor you, you are blessed.

 When you give instead of take, you are blessed.

When you open your home when you'd really rather keep it to yourself, you're blessed.

When you proclaim the truth of the gospel to a world that is enslaved by lies and you experience pushback from that, you are blessed.

Even when you suffer for the sake of faithfulness to Jesus, you are blessed.

That is, you are experiencing in those moments genuine faithfulness.

 and your life strangely, ironically, actually begins to flourish.

You begin to grow gardens in the desert.

You see, the reward of eternal life at the end of the race, that's not a carrot on a stick.

All that is is inarguable evidence that you are experiencing the real life of Christlikeness all throughout as you experience and encounter the presence of Jesus along the way.

Because in that process, you are possessed by a joy and a peace and a strength and a wealth that nothing in this world can give.

And

 And even though sometimes that might look like sowing in tears, ultimately in those moments, you are reaping a harvest of Christlikeness, which therefore helps you to shine the light of Christ into the world around you.

Listen, if you have the genuine happiness of being like Christ in your hardship, that cannot help but turn that into witness to the world around you and shine like light into the darkness of men.

And I personally have known no greater happiness than the happiness of being like Christ when it seems like I shouldn't be able to.

 But if you lose sight of what it means to truly be happy, then you will sacrifice your flourishing on the altar of quick fixes.

And your happiness will be like patchwork.

 and constantly pulling apart the seams as you try to stitch together enough new experiences and new things to give you some lasting sense of happiness, only to be met again and again with the unhappy verdict that none of it provides you with the lasting happiness, that it's all vulnerable to the dragon.

How many times are you going to move

 before you finally understand that there is no place you reach on this side of eternity that will ever feel like you've really arrived home?

How many relationships are you going to get bored with before you finally recognize that there is no relationship on this side of eternity that will ever give you a constant state of euphoria?

How much more money do you need to chase at the expense of time with your wife or your children or your friends or your church

 before you finally realize that that time can't be bought back, it needs to be used wisely and rightly, which happens by properly understanding what happiness really is.

The ongoing choice to love and serve God produces a happiness resilient enough to withstand the age of the wilderness, and that is a happiness that the dragon can't touch.

And that's the kind of happiness that our world longs for,

 But so often they starve themselves on empty promises.

What are Christians to offer if we appear just as emaciated as the world around us?

You can't navigate the end of the world if you're starving.

You can't pull up a chair for somebody to take a seat if you don't have a table to offer them.

 And so it is up to the church to be truly happy for the sake of the gospel, which starts by defining and pursuing real happiness.

Listen to me, God's intention is not that you collapse across the finish line in exhaustion.

God's intention is that you run through that finish line with joy, fulfilled, accomplished, and surrounded by the laughter of friends.

Too often we imagine our race as something we barely survive, when in reality God means for it to be richly enjoyed.

And ironically, it isn't the sacrificial way of the kingdom...

 that leaves us worn and empty.

It's the self-oriented way of the world, polished on the surface, yet hollow within.

That's what leaves us empty.

I always think it's really funny as a pastor that when Christians feel tired in life, their first instinct is to stop serving, not to quit social media.

 I just think that's really actually hilarious as the loving others sacrificially is more to blame than for the junk you fill your mind with for two hours every single day throughout the week.

Listen, I'm all here for rhythms and boundaries.

Let's just make sure we're prioritizing the right places to draw them.

How about substitute your Instagram feed for reading scripture for a month and then come and tell me how your soul is doing and then we can talk about boundaries in the kingdom of God.

Is that too much?

Great.

 The way of the world leaves you drained and distracted.

The way of the kingdom fills you even as you pour yourself out.

And the upside down kingdom is the only thing that will turn the world right side up.

And that's the kind of joy that can carry us through the end of the world.

Let's look at the final inclusio.

Back to Revelation 1, verses 1 to 3.

John has an apocalypse.

 of Jesus Christ which was shown to him and he testifies, he says what?

To everything he saw.

This is a visionary experience that John has.

That's the opening of the inclusio and the conclusion of it is at the very end of the prologue to Revelation.

The first eight verses are the prologue.

And at the end of it in verse 7, John now turns his attention to us and here what John has to say to you

 Not just to the church 2,000 years ago, but to the church throughout the ages.

Here's what he says to you.

Look, he is coming with the clouds.

And every eye will see him.

Even those who pierced him and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him.

This inclusio centers on seeing Christ.

Because in order to navigate the end of the world, you must keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

 John says that he saw the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Those aren't two separate realities.

The second phrase interprets and clarifies the first.

The word of God is the testimony of Jesus.

Jesus is God's final word spoken to humanity.

And this word comes to us both as an apocalypse and a prophecy.

 Revelation is an apocalypse of Jesus because it unveils the reigning Christ in the midst of a rebellious world.

Revelation is a prophecy about Jesus because it is God's on-time word to his people, urging them to follow Jesus faithfully.

And John, his own self-understanding is that he is a prophet and that he sees the church as a prophetic community.

One scholar put it well that in Revelation, the church aren't just a kingdom of priests, they're also a brotherhood of prophets.

 You and I stand at the climax of a long history of prophetic people in Scripture as God's final prophetic voice to the world.

The church proclaims God's final prophetic word to the world.

And that word is Jesus Christ.

It is no surprise then that John ends the prologue by weaving together two Old Testament passages urging the church, look, the one who comes with the clouds.

Why?

Because prophets are meant to see

 And John's call is simple yet profound.

See Jesus.

That first reference, Jesus coming with the clouds, is from Daniel chapter 7.

It's not actually about Jesus returning at the end of history.

That reference is about Jesus coming with the clouds to be enthroned in heaven after his resurrection.

 And then John layers in Zechariah, where every eye will see the one who is pierced.

A very clear picture of Christ's final coming.

So in one breath, John holds together both moments, the now and the not yet.

Christ is already enthroned as king, and one day the whole world will see him as such.

But here the emphasis isn't on time.

The emphasis is on vision.

John begins the inclusio.

He says, I see him.

 He concludes by getting the attention of the church to ask the question, do you see him?

Why?

Because one day, every eye is going to see him.

The point is unmistakable.

Jesus must be your vision.

 Keep beholding him.

Because as you behold him, you become like him.

And as you become like him, you reflect him to others.

And as you reflect him to others, you give them the choice.

Either receive him or reject him.

So that at the end of history, everybody will either marvel or they will mourn.

If you don't keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, you forget what God looks like.

 And if you forget what God looks like, then your vision will get colored by the chaos.

You'll grow disoriented.

And you'll start to wander the wilderness instead of moving through it with purpose and leading people to Christ along the way.

And some of you know exactly what that's like for your own vision to be seen through the lens of your circumstances rather than through the lens of the cross, the Christ King.

And Revelation wants you to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and in doing so to see God rightly.

 In between the two ends of this inclusio of sight, two things are made clear about Jesus.

And these things repeat again and again and again throughout Revelation.

It's that Jesus is sovereign and Jesus is the slain and risen lamb.

In other words, Jesus is almighty and Jesus is good.

 He's almighty to the degree that He reigns over all of history and reigns over all of creation.

And He's good to the degree that the Most High God became a sacrificial lamb and died on a cross for the sins of a world who put Him up there.

He's sovereign like that.

And He's good like that.

 And when you see that God stepped into history and proved to cross and resurrection that He's good and sovereign, that more than anything else will give you a firm handle, a grip on reality as you make your way through the wilderness of this age.

And that's why if you are going to navigate the end of the world, you must keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

 It's why revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Not the revelation of the rapture.

Not the revelation of astronomical constellations.

Not the revelation of blood moons.

Not the revelation of microchips.

It's why John, when exiled on Patmos, isolated from the seven struggling churches in Asia, what God gives him is not a coat to crack.

 It's not a puzzle to piece together.

Because codes and puzzles will not help you when the chaos ensues.

When the dragon is breathing down your neck.

When that phone call comes.

When the diagnosis is issued.

When you lost what you thought you could never stand to lose.

When you step where you thought you would never allow yourself to step.

In those moments, you don't need puzzles.

You need a picture of Jesus Christ.

You need a vision of the slain and risen lamb of God.

 And there's only one God who can still be seen from the lowliest place.

 from the hardest place, from the scariest place, from the loneliest place, from the place of your hiding, your self-sabotage, your self-induced isolation.

There's only one God who can be seen from that place, and His name is Jesus.

And He's the sovereign Lord of the universe, but He became a suffering servant on a cross.

So no matter how low you've fallen, He knows how to meet you there.

And He can be your vision, your light, your guide.

 Back to where the times make sense.

Where happiness has more meaning than the latest dopamine hit.

And where God himself is your guide to grip.

Who grips you as you make your way through the end of the world.

Let's stand up.

 I have three important responses for you to hear.

Let's close our eyes.

 Let's just give God these last few moments.

First response is about using your time rightly.

Because for some of us, our time is being wasted.

And so just right where you stand right now across all of our locations, this first response is a response for you to repent.

 To repent means to change your mind, to change direction, to change the way you think about the time that you have, and to begin devoting the use of your time towards the glorification of the Lord.

If you know that you need to repent today and change,

 And ask the Lord to come and help you make use of the time that you have in a way that glorifies him.

Just lift your hand right where you're standing.

Wonderful.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray.

Lord, a special prayer for every one of these hands lifted, these hearts opened.

I thank you for them, Lord God.

I thank you for the power of your word, Lord.

The unveiling of...

 who you are and when we are and what you've called us to do and to be and i just pray by the power of the holy spirit right now lord you see every hand and heart would you come and help them with fresh perspective on how they view the time that they have lord jesus that it would not be things to complain about lord god or things to escape from but rather lord a life to step into with purpose and conviction

 Lord, we recognize we can't do this alone.

This is a moment of engagement and decision.

But God, would you bring the right people around them?

And would you open themselves up to vulnerability to invite those people in so that they can walk with Christian community and make use of every opportunity that they have in the name of Jesus?

You can put your hands down.

The second group are those who need empowerment from the Holy Spirit to pursue true happiness.

 and you've been trying to curate a pain-free life and stitch together all the right arrangements in order to feel the happiness that your soul longs for.

And God says, hey, let me lead you to the cross.

I'll be there with you.

Let me show you how to be a seed that dies

 that you can experience the true flourishing that comes with the way of Jesus.

If you'd like to make a shift today in the way that you think about the happiness in your life and you need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to do that, would you lift your hand just across the room?

Every location.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great.

Father, I pray a prayer for these people.

In the name of Jesus, we lay down grumbling.

 In the name of Jesus, we set aside, Lord, the choice to be miserable, the choice to be unhappy or ungrateful, Lord, and we choose worship.

We choose gratitude.

We choose servanthood, Lord God.

That's our commitment to you here in this place.

We're asking, Holy Spirit, come and empower genuine happiness across our church, Lord, that we would know what it is to walk through the wilderness, not slouched over, but rather, God, our heads held up high, that you would receive glory, Father, through how we live.

 Holy Spirit, come, come, fill in the name of Jesus.

And then finally, those of you who need to fix your eyes on Jesus and to ask Jesus today to come and lead your life, to come and be the Lord.

Maybe there's a handful of us who haven't done that before.

 Maybe we've kind of been adjacent to the church, hanging around, checking things out.

But you hear the crystal clear call of Christ to become his own child.

And you know you need to respond to that today.

Maybe for others of us, once upon a time, you did make a choice like that.

 that you haven't followed through with any degree of sincerity or faithfulness.

And today you want to commit yourself afresh to Jesus, to fix your eyes on him.

Every eye closed across all locations.

If you'd like to ask Jesus to come and lead your life, to be your Lord, and to receive the forgiveness of your sins through the shedding of his blood on the cross, would you lift your hand?

You ready?

One, two, three.

Say yes.

Awesome.

Who else is there?

You need to make that decision today.

Thank you.

 South Bay and Nashville, you guys respond as well.

We have prayer teams ready to pray with you.

Thank you.

Praise God.

Amazing.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

 I want us to pray together now as one united body out loud together.

Would you pray this with me?

Say, Father in heaven, thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, who came, he lived, he died, and he rose again so that I could have forgiveness of sins and newness of life.

Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit

 And empower me to live for your glory.

In Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

Let's give the Lord a great big praise.