Opening Prayer and Scripture Reading

Continuing our series through Revelation this morning, still in Revelation 1. I’d like to turn there and copy the scriptures. I will pray before we do so, before I read and we hear and the preaching is received, asking the Lord’s blessing on those very things. Let’s pray together.

Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, again, we give you thanks for gathering us here together in the name of Christ and we pray Dear Lord, that now as we are gathered in his name, that we would listen to him speaking to us through the preaching of the word. We do pray, Lord, that you would protect his servant, guard him from error, enable him to hide behind Christ and him crucified. And in the end, that through the power of your word applied by your spirit, that you would conform us more and more into the image of our glorious savior, Jesus Christ, to the glory of the triune Lord. We pray and ask all these things in Christ’s precious name and all God’s people said together, amen.

Amen. Revelation chapter one. I’ll be reading this morning verses four to eight. Please use your full attention. This is the word of God.

Revelation one, starting in verse four. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priest to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Before he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

So far the reading of God’s word, he had his blessing upon the preaching of this word, even at this time.

A Doxology of Praise

Well, as we’ve seen, in the past as we’ve gone through this introduction, gone through these opening verses, we see here in verses 5 to 8 particularly, this is a eulogy, right? It’s a eulogy, not in the sense that we normally think of the word like a funeral. The eulogy simply means, from the Greek, good word. We’re used to the Latin for the word, right? It’s more common to us in this context. The benediction. Which also means good word.

This text is a good word. It’s a doxology which John breaks into as he’s mentioned the triune God and he’s spoken of the majesty and power of Jesus. Paul, as we know, does this often. You’re probably familiar with. He interrupts himself. He breaks out into doxology and praise as does the apostle John here.

He’s just touched on Christ’s kingly and prophetic offices and now he reminds as hearers of the priestly office of Christ. And remember that the sufferings of the present and what they and we will go through are all a result of sin. Christ had remedied that problem, right?

Remember and memorize these truths, right? For your suffering, for your hope, for your comfort, and for your assurance.

Jesus: Faithful Witness, Firstborn, and Ruler

Jesus is the faithful witness. He is the firstborn of the dead. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He preserved and persevered as the faithful witness to the Father in the face of the wicked persecution, even unto his death, which he conquered by raising from the dead the firstborn of the dead, right? And therefore he became the cosmic ruler of all.

And of course, this is exactly what had been prefigured and promised in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament. There is this initial application we see in the Psalm I’m going to quote here was to King David. But even then it pointed to the true and the great king, the one of whom David was just a type and a pointer, right, Jesus himself.

And so Psalm 89, verses 26 and 28 said this. He shall cry to me, you are my father, my God, and rock of my salvation. And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. In my steadfast love, I will keep for him forever. And my covenant will stand firm for him.

In verse 37, he says, And this Jesus, is worth meditating on for the rest of our lives and to memorize this and to dwell upon it and pray it back to God and praise him for it. What does it say? He loves us. He freed us by his blood and he made us a kingdom. Priest to his God and Father. To him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

All Believers as a Kingdom of Priests

And so in Exodus, as we look at this and we’re trying to, we need to remember, we’re told we remember that the priesthood was limited to some from one tribe, the Levites. But in Christ, you see, all believers from all nations are priests. We’re allowed that intimate access to God that before was limited to Israel’s priests.

And we are free to participate in that worship of God, which is acceptable, not on the basis of blood and goats, but on the basis of Christ’s blood, of his priestly work, who’s freed us from our sins, John reminds us in Revelation.

And an outburst of doxology and praise is natural from these truths. Indeed, and it’s the same Christ who loved us, who died, who was raised again. For us, this is the same one who will one day come for us again and receive us to himself as his bride worthy of praise.

Mourning and Glory at the Return of Christ

Indeed, in the verse 7, John brings together these two things that we’re going to focus on this morning. from the Old Testament prophets, Daniel and Zechariah in verse seven, right? And these dual themes that he brings up of mourning, M-O-U-R-N, right? Mourning and glory, right? Remorse and rejoicing. These two things come together in one man, the God-man, Jesus Christ.

And so let’s look at these quotations so we can fill out and understand the richness and the fullness of what John is saying here as he quotes them in verse seven.

Verse seven says this. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen.

The Son of Man in Daniel 7

And there is truly, this is quite a struggle. There’s so much glory and goodness that’s packed behind what he’s saying that it pains me to have to hold back. But I don’t think any of us have the stamina for a two-hour sermon. So I will summarize.

What’s going on here? To summarize, what’s going on in these quotations from Daniel, from Zechariah, that John quotes for us? Daniel. The chapter this comes from is Daniel 7. And in this chapter, what is Daniel doing? He gives, throughout the chapter, he gives a survey of the history, of history’s kingdoms. And then he gives the scene from heaven’s court.

And in Daniel 7, where our quote comes from, 13 to 18, he tells about the son of man’s kingdom. The son of man, of course, is a figure that we should, a title that we should, you know, recognize. It should be significant to us. The son of man is more than a mere man. He’s more than just, a man appearing in human form, and when it says, coming on the clouds, this is clearly a symbol of divinity, because in the Old Testament, God alone does this.

And when the Son of Man comes to the Ancient of Days that we heard right earlier, what happens when he comes? What happens when he comes to the Ancient of Days? He’s given what? Dominion, glory, and a kingdom. Not like human kings are given a kingdom. This Son of Man receives a kingdom that is everlasting. And he receives worship from all. His dominion is never-ending. This is no mere angel being talked about.

And so this Son of Man shares our humanity. and the fullness of deity. In Christ’s earthly ministry, of course, the human aspect was prominent. Hung, pierced, bleeding on a cross, died buried in a tomb. And though veiled while on earth, his majesty was still present. And we see this throughout the Gospels. He taught with unequal authority. He forgave sins. He spoke of having a kingdom. Both divine and human are present because Jesus is the son of man, very man and very God.

This one, this same one who loved us, who freed us and who made us a kingdom, priest of God, this one also is coming for us one day and will come and rescue us to himself, his bride.

The Spirit of Grace and Mourning in Zechariah 12

John says about this one, as he quotes Daniel and Zechariah and speaks of mourning and glory, the glory of his kingdom, dominion, authority, sovereign power, everlasting kingdom, and all peoples and nations and tongues worship him. John brings together that glory with Zechariah’s description of mourning.

In this quote from Zechariah, the flow of what’s going on in that chapter, in that passage, which is the context, It’s a glorious message of hope and cleansing and promise to the people. And so just to summarize the context, Zechariah there has been telling of the people’s restoration and their remorse and then rejoicing. And so the Lord, we see, will defend and restore his people. This is the promise that we see in Zechariah.

And then in verses 11 to 14, we see the remorse of the people, their mourning, that mighty work. The mighty work of the Lord for his people is now matched by the mighty work of the Lord in his people. He has defended, rescued, and restored them, and now he works in them. His outside work will be accomplished by the renewing work inside of them.

And listen to Zechariah 12.10 again, which is our quote from Revelation. It says, and I will pour out on the house of David, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, So that when they look on me, on him who they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

So you see this wonderful promise of God the Almighty that he will pour out on his people a spirit of grace and mercy, where supplication is built into that word as well. And we see this also, Ezekiel speaks of this in chapter 39. Joel, we read about this in chapter two.

And of course, we know that unless the Lord pours out his spirit, unless he gives the gift of grace and mercy, it will not be. And you know this to be true in your own experience. Until the Lord poured out on you his grace and favor, you would not respond, and you didn’t respond. You would not hear or see the truth of the gospel. And I trust that you know, not just for yourselves or others in your lives, who are as hard as steel until the Lord pours out his mercy and grace upon them. And there are those who we still pray for, that this will happen. And when it does, they turn and they fled to Christ.

True Repentance: The Gift of Mourning Over Sin

And this is a matter of the gospel really isn’t the whole thing. Notice what follows as a result of this pouring out of the spirit of grace and mercy. Again, I’ll quote it, it says, so that when they look on me, on him whom they pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and we bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

You see, as their hearts are changed, as the grace and mercy, the spirit poured out upon them, their hearts are crushed, and they’re broken, and they mourn. And the messianic connections here are clear, I would think. Christ is the firstborn, and he is the only child.

And I want you to see the gospel here in this, brothers and sisters. When we consider the many and wonderful works of God, the many things the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, few of them are more important than the sorrow of true repentance for sin and turning back to God. How often have we thanked the Lord for his mercy in giving the gift of mourning bitter sorrow over our sins? How often have you rejoiced that he has such a great love to give us grieving and repentance over our sins? These are significant things, dear Christian.

And so as Zachariah summarized for us, we are rightly horrified when we see our sin in light of God’s grace in Christ. And so may we ever in his mercy receive and acknowledge that, revealing to us our sins, and his great mercy in giving us his son for the forgiveness of those very things that he’s allowed us to see and mourn.

And do you see it, right? Do you understand when we reflect upon the truth of what God has done for us in Christ, the depth of our condition before, pre-Christ, and the glory and the height of the love and forgiveness of God in working our salvation, doesn’t meditating upon this, give you peace and comfort? Isn’t it overwhelming to consider an assurance and drive to live for him in gratitude? I pray that it does, dear Christian. I pray that we would all be changed as we do so more and more, and the Lord reveals to us as he gives us of his spirit.

The Pierced One Brings Living Water and New Life

But in the original context here of Zechariah, of course, the people who look on the one whom they’ve pierced as a response to the Lord’s pouring out his spirit of grace This results in life-restoring fountain of water that purifies from sin. The Apostle Paul brings together these three themes that are there in Zechariah. These three themes in one, right? It’s the pierced one, the pouring out of the spirit, and the fountain of water.

And as we look at John’s other writings, in the Gospel, chapter seven, for instance, during the Feast of Tabernacles, John declares in the temple, remember, very familiar to us, if anyone thirsts, that have come to me and drink. And whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow living waters. And then in verse 39 he says, now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were to receive. For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

And so you see the living water and the outpouring of the Spirit brought together in Christ. And then the third theme that’s brought together here, in the piercing of Jesus, side by the soldier. Again, Zechariah 13, they will look upon whom they have pierced.

In all of this, John brings together the broader context of all the oracle of Zechariah, chapters 13 and 12. And the crucifixion is a sign, you see, John brings them together. It’s a sign to those looking on. But it’s not a sign of defeat, but one of the inauguration of God’s glorious full and final work. The already come, the already here. Through the death of Christ, God purifies a people for himself. All those who look on him in faith, this one who was pierced, they will have their sins forgiven and will receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What a glorious thing to think of, a glorious reality to experience.

But for those who will not and do not recognize the crucified one’s true identity, they will surely mourn when they see him come in his full manifest glory to judge the world. Revelation 1, 7 again, behold, he is coming in the clouds. And everywhere I will see him, even those who pierced him in all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.

So we have like the natural thing to ask is, do you recognize this pierced one? Do you acknowledge your sins and his purifying death, the death that paid for your sins? I pray that you do. I pray that you do and that you are worshiping him even now, even now, as his word is proclaimed.

Because this pierced one, this Jesus upon the cross, had the cup of his father’s full wrath pressed to his mouth, and he was given to drink it down, all of it, down to the dregs. He was forsaken by all. And he cries out, you remember, on the cross, why father, why? And the answer, as we understand the gospel, is why, my son? Because in doing so, I am making my people pure and full of life, new creations, new creations to dwell with us forever in glory, without enemy or fear or pain or mourning or crying, forever.

The Glorious Future in Revelation 22

And so as we close, listen to the last chapter of God’s word, Revelation 21. The glory and promise that is already beginning but we will experience in its fullness. Revelation 22. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no lamp or light or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Remember these things, dear Christian. Remember always, and especially when you were brought low, when you were beat up by the world, and by all the grotesque goings on of the world, but also the black remains of your heart, the darkness of your own sin. Remember in all of that, these very things. Remember who you are in Christ, and all that he’s done in accomplishing your salvation, taking your punishment, taking the wrath of God. And remember the promise of cleansing and purification.

And may these truths, dear Christian, drive us to live lives of gratitude and commitment to the God who gave new life, to live with boldness and passion for Jesus fully, whole soul, this Jesus, this one who was pierced, so that we would be whole. And may we go forth from here with his love for ourselves and for our neighbor and for all of it for his glory.

To the praise of his glorious name, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you. These simple and profound and complex and limitless truths you’ve told, we thank you for the light that you’ve shown us. Continue, Lord, to fill our hearts and to expand our intellects, our ability to grasp these things to the end, not just of the filling, Lord, and the growing. but that we would grow in our affection for you, that we would delight and that our lives would reflect the truths of who we are and all that you’ve done. We acknowledge these things are incomprehensible in their fullness and beyond us. We thank you for, we thank you for what you’ve, what you reveal to us and allow us to experience or even with fear as we come and understand and feel like we’ll be overwhelmed in the glory. We praise you, and we thank you, and we thank you that we are safe, and that our future is certain, because you are sovereign, and you are good, and you are a God who loves his people. Bless us, we pray, for the remainder of his service. We pray all these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.