Please take your copy the scriptures back in hand, please turn to Revelation chapter one. We continue in Revelation. We’ll be looking at just a few verses of this introduction, but I’ll be reading verses one this morning through eight.

Before we hear the word read and preached, let’s ask the Lord’s blessing once more upon these very things. Let’s pray.

Opening Prayer

Our gracious heavenly Father, we do thank you for Your promise and the reality that You have come to us in the power of Your Spirit and enabled us to praise You and to give ourselves to You. We do pray, Lord, even as we turn again to Your Word, that we would receive that Word as Your Spirit works through it, and that by faith we may receive what You have for us, Lord. We thank You for doing this. We thank You for the promise that by it we will be changed. So we pray, Lord, be with us now. Change us, we pray. We ask all of this, dear Lord, for Christ’s glory, for our good, and in his name and all God’s people together said, Amen. Amen.

Revelation 1, starting at verse 1. Please give your attention, this is the word of God.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place, made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near.

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.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him in all 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.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but this word of the Lord endures forever. May He add His blessing upon it as we hear it proclaimed this time.

Revelation Is All About Jesus

We’re back in Revelation. Revelation, you remember, is about Jesus. We’ll go broad as we look through this book, this mighty book. We’ll go a very big picture and we’ll get small as we should.

There’s so much glory and gold and goodness here for us to mine, and we need to see the big picture, but not lose track, not lose the close, personal, for our lives perspective as we do.

The original hearers of this message, of this book, needed to hear these truths. And we, too, need to hear these truths. They are, remember, down, persecuted, with more on the way. They needed perspective. They needed truth. They needed hope for the struggle that they were in.

And we, too, brothers and sisters, we get that way, down, discouraged, attacked. And we, too, need the same perspective, truth, hope for our struggle through the struggle.

Grace and Peace from Our Triune God

And in this greeting, grace and peace from our triune God, the Lord tells us a number of things. He tells us who he is, what he’s done, and who we are and what we are for.

So what is it that God’s word tells us here about life in struggle, in tension, in a fallen world? On this side of the consummation, in the big and the small stuff of life, in the in-between time, the time between Christ’s first and second comings.

Well, he begins with this greeting, telling us this crucial, most important truths that we need to hear and we need to know to have hope and to hold fast and stay faithful and alive in the joy of our salvation in our life in Christ.

And in this greeting, he tells us, because he has done all that needed to be done, we can live in joy, in all things, in service to our King. And that, brothers and sisters, is so crucial and critical and comforting for our lives until he comes.

John Erupts in Doxology

Well, what is it that he tells us about this and for this? We begin in verse five, where we pick up from last week. John erupts in doxology in verses five to eight. It’s very timely for them to hear this. It very much would have hit home for them and for us today what he says here.

In verse 4, he’s told us, it says, 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 then in verse 5, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, present tense, the ruler of the kings of the earth.

And it goes on, to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priest to his God and father. To him, to this one, be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

Verse seven, 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.

Christ’s Prophetic, Kingly, and Priestly Offices

So notice, let’s dig in here just to scratch the surface this morning. He’s talked about Christ’s prophetic and kingly office, and here he reminds us of Christ’s priestly office.

Again, to Him who loves us and freed us from our sins by His blood, He has made us to be a kingdom of priests. Why? To serve His God and Father. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The reason this is so important to say this is because all of the conflicts, all of the struggles throughout history, and surely all that is going to be described here, all of that is a result of sin, a result of the fall. It’s human sinfulness and the curse that we’re cast into by our sin in Adam.

You see that here. The same Jesus who has risen from the dead and whose testimony is true, John says, loves us. He loves us. And he freed us from our sins by his blood.

And I and you need to remember this, brothers and sisters. We need to remember this. Jesus loves you, his people, and he died to free us, me and you, from our core problem. By his death, his dying for us. All that was needed to be done to free you, to make you right with the Father, he did fully, completely, once and for all, for good, forever.

And that, brothers and sisters, is truly good news.

He Loved Us, He Freed Us, He Made Us

He goes on, He loved us, He freed us, He made us. His resurrection and kingship means our resurrection and kingship to follow. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. We too have been raised to newness of life with Him.

We exercise His kingship under Him. We’re not just made a part of His kingdom subjects of this King, but we’ve been constituted kings together with Him, in Him. And share in his priestly office because of our identification with his death and resurrection.

Again, verse 8, he made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father.

Revelation Is Full of the Old Testament

And so let’s look at this again. Remember, Revelation is full of the Old Testament. It’s a revealing, it’s about Jesus Christ, and it’s full of the Old Testament. One of my professors used to say, Revelation is one of the most biblical books in the Bible because of all the allusions and all of the connections and all the quotes from the Old Testament.

And when we look at Exodus, the Old Testament, Exodus 19 verses 5 and 6, then we read this, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

So God’s purpose for his people was that they be a kingly, a priestly nation. And this means that we are to be a people mediating God’s light of salvation, witnessing to the world, to the Gentiles.

And remember, for one example of this, Isaiah 43, we pick up on these themes. Listen to what it says in Isaiah 43, starting at verse 10. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I am he. Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior.

I declare and save and proclaim, proclaimed when there was no strange God among you. And you are my witnesses, declares the Lord. I am God. Even from eternity, I am He. There is none who can deliver from my hand. I work, and who can turn it back?

So here’s the intention for the people, the promise for the people. And the Old Testament prophets come, and again and again, what do they do? They bring the charge against Israel that they have repeatedly failed to fulfill this very purpose.

Like the Old Testament priests, now the entire people of God have free access and full access to the presence of God because of Christ, because he has removed the obstacle of sin by his substitutionary blood, his dying for us in our place.

And I pray that you get this. We must get this. It is the light of God’s presence that God’s people are to reflect to the world. We are in him and he is the faithful witness.

Genesis and Revelation as Bookends

We’ve seen as we looked at before in detail, that Genesis and Revelation provide the bookends for the canon of God’s word. And those themes and those ideas and realities that are introduced in Genesis in the beginning, from the start, are like threads that can be pulled throughout redemptive history, throughout God’s revelation in his word.

And they find their resolution, their completion, their fulfillment, in the book of Revelation that we’re looking at now and going forward. And we’ll notice this as we do so, as we move through the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And when we think about this, for example, in Genesis, it introduces us to many themes. It introduces us to, in chapters 1, 2, and 3, creation, marriage, and Satan. And then Revelation, at the end, wraps up, answers these very things in reverse order in chapters 20, 21, and 22. Satan, marriage, and creation.

And for our purposes today, because we’re looking at who we were made, right? Who we were made to be. He loved us, he freed us, he made us, right? We, because of his living and dying, are new creations, part of the new creation. The new creation, right? Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians.

And as born again, redeemed people of God, loved, freed, we need to look at what man was created, right? As God’s image, as God’s likeness to be and to do in the first place. Because we’ll see that that’s who we were supposed to be from the start all along. That is what is restored in the people of God, made new, made whole.

Man Created in God’s Image

Man was created in the image, in the likeness of God. What does that mean? What is man’s form? What is man’s function? We have clues when we look at Ephesians and Colossians, where it says we were created in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

And all three of these are affected, devastated by the fall, by sin. Paul instructs us to put on the new man according to God, which is what? In righteousness, holiness, and truth.

And these three things correspond to the functions of man, of Adam, as created. So what are the three offices of Israel? What are the three offices of our Lord Jesus Christ? Of course, they are prophet, priest, and king.

Knowledge, righteousness, and holiness correspond to these three offices in Israel, and they also correspond to our great prophet, priest, and king, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so as the head of the human race, what we see early on in Genesis, in Adam, in the prototypical form functioning as the ancient Israels will function, and as the last Adam, Jesus, functions in perfection.

Adam’s Threefold Calling and His Failure

We see these things, so we have these categories as the image of God, knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And we have these offices that correspond, prophet, priests, and kings. And these are part and parcel of the covenant, the covenant requiring these very things, knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

And so we have what? The priests promoting holiness, the king promoting righteousness, and we have the prophets as prosecuting attorneys promoting knowledge, right? The prophets come bearing, bringing God’s word, right? If you ever noticed, they don’t come adding new words to God’s law. They come proclaiming what God’s word is and had been declared and the failure to keep it.

And as we see these offices and functions coming from Adam as created, Israel, as we move forward, becomes a corporate Adam. But through Adam, though he was created and called to perform these roles, mirroring his maker as the lesser king, he falls.

And see how he does so in each of these categories. Adam, as the lesser king, is there, you recall, in Genesis, categorizing, identifying creation realms and creation rulers. And he’s showing his dominion given by God. And he’s showing that he is exercising rule in God’s place as God’s subject, as designed.

Adam is to be a righteous king who can rule. He’s going to have the law of God as a prophet. He’s going to be a priest to guard the holy sanctuary. And he’s to keep the serpent at arm’s length and protect that holy place.

What is Adam doing there as a priest? Should he have entertained anything from the serpent? This unclean, unholy serpent slithering into the garden? No, Adam was to completely reject that. He should have slain the serpent.

And so here’s a test for Adam, which he fails. He’s going to have the law of God as a prophet. He’s going to be a righteous king who can rule. He’s going to a priest to guard and keep the holy place. And you know, in Genesis 3, we know how this unfolds. Adam fails miserably. He falls.

And in the last verse there, what happens? What does the Lord do after the fall? Genesis 3, 24. It says, he drove out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim. Little chubby babies floating around with arrows. No, that’s not what cherubim are. It says, and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

You see the cherubim there are taking up the function that Adam was intended, supposed to perform. They will no longer permit Adam to come into the garden. Why is that? Have you thought about that? The reason is grace, right? Grace prevents him from sealing his faith and all of mankind’s faith in a fallen state.

And if in Genesis three, leaving the garden because of sin is a curse, in Genesis one, we know we have an insight as to what would have happened had Adam not sinned, had he kept these roles in these function as intended. He would have what? Adam would have filled the earth with the glory of God.

And Adam as king would have had the authority to bring everything outside of the garden under submission, under the submission of the great king, the Lord Yahweh himself. The world would have become this cosmic garden of Eden filled with the presence of God. The entire world becomes this cosmic temple where God’s image is seen everywhere. Adam as priest brings the whole world under subjection. And as a king, he rules over it and he rules with knowledge.

The Earth Filled with God’s Glory

And you know, the Psalm has something to say about this in Psalm 72, verse 18, where it says, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen.

May the whole earth be filled with his glory. This is what the scriptures were looking to. This was Adam’s hope in his charge, the whole earth filled with the glory of God.

The New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation 21

And then lastly, as we fast forward to the end of Revelation chapter 21, what does John see there in Revelation 21 at the end of the age when God makes all things new? He sees a new heaven, the new earth.

And in Revelation 21, just a few things here. If you’d like to go to Revelation 21.1, what does John see? Verse one: a new heaven and a new earth.

And then notice in verse two, this imagery shifts, doesn’t it? He begins by talking about the new heavens and the new earth, but then what’s the point of verse two? It starts honing in on the holy city, the new Jerusalem and the architecture that was there. It’s describing this temple, which is taken straight out of Ezekiel 40 to 48, which indeed was a picture of the type, right? The archetype.

In Revelation 18, 21, 18 to 21, they’re reminiscent of the Solomonic Temple. And we can look at 1 Kings chapter five to see this and elsewhere to see these connections.

But what I want you to see is that there’s this progressive unfolding of creation, where it’s moving to and where God is intending to take things. This is where Adam would have taken things, but he falls and he fails.

And so we wait for the promise of a second Adam, a last Adam, to take us to this place. And ultimately the goal of God’s pinnacle of creation is God’s glory in its fullest form and its fullest reach.

And we see that which is from the beginning and what was commanded to Old Testament Israel is taking place. It is real for those who belong to Jesus. Even you here today.

A Royal Priesthood – 1 Peter 2

The Apostle Peter says something about this, too. Listen to what he tells us through the Spirit. 1 Peter 2, starting at verse 1, he picks up on these things of priests and people and witness to the world in God’s greatness and goodness.

1 Peter 2, verse 1. Hear what God’s word says here through Peter. So put away all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by man, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Verse nine, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Why? That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. Why? So that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

There’s a reason for it, and that reason is so that when they do this, they will see and glorify God. Isn’t that just awesome? Isn’t that incredible? It’s amazing and glorious. It’s more than we can handle. If you reflect upon this just for a moment, it’s so incredible.

And that, brothers and sisters, should get your heart pumping. That should warm your soul and encourage you to live, to live for this Savior.

What Are We Here For?

Because you know, as broken people, as sinners saved by grace, we often feel like we just don’t know what we’re doing. We don’t know what we’re for, like we don’t know if anything makes a difference or if our efforts are actually accomplishing or have any meaning at all. What are we here for? What are we doing?

And what we need is not a tailor-made digital pseudo-intelligence telling us what we want to hear or a media guru that says what we think we want to hear or avoids what we don’t want to hear. It’s not a smiling, lying world happily distracting you from the truth. It’s not even our own hearts surrendering, poisoning our hearts and minds with the desires and delights of the flesh.

No, what we need in this state is to be reminded of the objective truths of God’s holy word. What is true about who he is, about what he’s done, about who we are and what we are for.

And in this little introduction, we’ve received just that. Brothers and sisters, believe it. Trust Him. Pray for the faith to believe it, for real, deeply in your soul. And our God will give that faith and strength, and He will strengthen your belief and give that sweet, rich comfort and assurance and joy which these truths carry.

Live for this Savior.

Live for Him Who Loves You

Dear Christian, our king and redeemer, our great high priest, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, live for him who loves you, this faithful one, this firstborn, this ruler of the kings of the earth, who took upon himself in the covenant of redemption to set right the cosmic train wreck that resulted from Adam’s fall.

That thrust creation and all of Adam’s seed, all of his descendants into the ruin of sin. This last Adam, Jesus Christ, by his blood, dying for you, his people, because he loved you and he freed us from our sins and made us gloriously what we are, a kingdom of priests, priests to his father to serve him and to reflect his glory and to tell of his mercy and grace and love.

And the only place, the actual only true place where freedom and love and purpose is found is in the one who says, come, come to me, find rest, find refreshing waters, be filled and be full. Live for me and live forever. Serve me and be satisfied and be safe and have joy, even in all the struggles and challenges of this life before glory.

This is who I am. This is what I’ve done for you. What an amazing Savior we have, brothers and sisters. May we bless and praise and rejoice in this very one for all of our lives.

And reflect upon that and think about, oh, how transformed your life, your thinking, your heart, your doing would be if you truly believe this, if we truly accept what he says, may he strengthen our faith, may he give us that desire of our hearts as he desires to change us and to be reflected in his people in love, even in this world to a dead and dying people, a world all around us that is in such need of this only rescue and hope for life.

Bless him indeed. Amen.

Let’s Pray Our Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for all that you’ve done for us, all that you’ve given us. Lord, it is so overwhelming, Lord, even to reflect, even to believe and to meditate on this, these basic truths. Lord, may we never move away from them. May we never have the sense that we want to move forward from these truths, Lord. This is our life.

May you give us hearts to believe, increase our faith, help us to know the truth that we’re no longer dead in sin, that we’re no longer shackled to these things, but that we’ve been freed. The shackles are broken, the cell door is open, we are freed from the the bondage of these sins, and the guilt of these sins, and the ramifications of these sins.

Lord, You’ve raised us to walk in newness of life. Help us to walk in newness of life for our good, for the love of our neighbor, for our families, and ultimately for Your glory. Help us to know, Lord, help us to know your provision in plenty and in want, and to know Christ’s presence and His love as who we truly are, your beloved children.

Be with us as we continue to worship you now. Change us, fill us, and be glorified in our worship. We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen.