Our Returning King

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Now, I don’t know this for sure, but I’m going to take a wild guess. I feel like probably everybody in this room either is or has been a child at some point, right? That’s usually how it works.

I was thinking recently about my childhood and about the times that I would hear the six most sobering words in the English language. Wait until your father gets home. Did any of you ever hear this growing up?

Recently, yeah. My dad drove down from Oklahoma City to spend some time with us this weekend. He was here Friday and Saturday, and I really enjoyed that.

But when I was a kid, wait until your father gets home, had a whole different meaning to it. I did not. Can we make a deal now?

Can we settle this? Can we go ahead and settle this ahead of time? I’ll take a lesser lump sum payment, you know, right now, instead of spreading this out over some time.

Because there’s something about when dad comes home, you know, you know the authority he’s coming home with, and I’m talking about a good dad, some of you may be saying there, this is not my experience at all. But with a good dad, the authority that he steps in with, and he’s going to set things straight, and this even happens at my house, which it has always puzzled me because I mean I’m not saying I’m not a disciplinarian but those of you who know me and Charla I mean let’s be honest I am grace and she is law all right she expects certain things out of the kids and I’m just well you know let’s show them grace this time and and I think God uses both of those I’ve told you before if it was if we were both like me our house would be the wild West, and if we were both like her, it would be East Germany, and God put us together.

I tell, yes, she is not here today, she is not feeling well, but she and I have had this conversation, she’s probably watching, so I’m not saying anything I haven’t said in front of her. God put us together on purpose, because He knew that we needed to balance each other out in that way. But that’s what puzzles me, is even though I am very much the laid-back one, she can still say to the kids, you wait until your father gets home.

And they don’t want to wait until their father gets home. There’s something about that authority coming through the door that we recognize and we respond to, or we should. And when we get to the book of Revelation, there’s very much that sense of the return of that authority that is spoken of in the book of Revelation, wait until Jesus gets home.

We’ve spent the last several weeks, I’ve lost count now, but we’ve spent the last several weeks going over who is Jesus. Because when I introduced this series to you, I told you there are so many false ideas, so many just crazy ideas for that matter, about who Jesus is, so many contradictory ideas. If we listen to every voice in media, if we listen to every voice in the culture, if we listen to every voice coming out of pulpits, unfortunately, about who Jesus is, they can’t all be right.

And I’m not presumptuous enough to stand up here this morning and tell you that I’m the one who’s right. But I am going to stand up here and tell you this is what the Bible says because my opinion means nothing. I mean, I’m wrong frequently, but God’s Word is never wrong.

And so our goal over the last several weeks has been to go through what does the Bible say about who Jesus is? And we’ve talked about His nature. We’ve talked about Him being God.

We’ve talked about Him coming in human flesh. We’ve talked about Him as the one and only effect of sacrifice for our sins. We’ve talked about Him as the risen Savior and the source of our hope.

Today I want to talk about Him as a returning King. As the one portrayed in Revelation as returning to set things to right and what that means for us. And this is also important because it stands in such stark contrast to how he is often seen in the modern world.

A lot of times we are more comfortable with an idea of Jesus where he is just more laid back than me. Where he’s just okay with whatever you want to do. He’s okay.

It’s fine. Jesus is basically a hippie guru in some people’s mind. And listen, Jesus brings peace and Jesus brings love.

but that’s just a part of who Jesus is. If we ignore the authority of Jesus, we miss a big part of who He is. And that’s why it’s important that we’ve spent all these weeks laying the groundwork, laying the foundation here, what the Bible says about who He is in the sense that He’s God, in the sense that He’s Messiah, in the sense that He’s all these other things that help us understand the authority that He brings when He comes back as our coming King.

And so we’re going to be in Revelation chapter 1 this morning. Revelation chapter 1, I hate to disappoint anybody. We’re not in any of the, we’re not too deep into any of the end time stuff.

I know some of y’all always want to hear about that. There’s still so much about that I don’t understand. But the one thing I do know, for sure, from Scripture is that Jesus is coming back.

So that’s what we’re going to look at this morning. Revelation chapter 1, we’re going to look at verses 4 through 8 in Revelation chapter 1. Once you turn there, if you’d stand with me, if you’re able to without too much trouble as we read together from God’s Word, And if you can’t find it or don’t have a Bible with you this morning, it’ll be on the screen for you as well.

Revelation chapter 1, starting in verse 4. It says, John to the seven churches which 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 from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. You may be seated. Now, just a few things that I want to clarify before we dig into what this is saying to us.

some background things we need to understand. This is part of the introduction. And so when it starts out John, it’s identifying the author.

They wrote letters a little differently than we do today. They would write it in sentence form. They wouldn’t just sign their name at the bottom.

They wouldn’t just go by the return address on the envelope. They would introduce who they are, who’s speaking. This is John the Apostle.

There are some people that like to speculate that it’s a different person named John. Historically speaking, I think the best evidence supports the idea that this is John the Apostle. Not only the testimony of early church historians, but the writing style is very similar with the letters and the gospel that John wrote.

So this is John the Apostle. He’s introducing his vision that the Lord gave to him and commanded him to write down. And he’s offering this to seven churches that are in Asia.

That’s the eastern part of what we know as Turkey today, seven specific churches that he was writing to, to prepare them for what was to come. And he wishes them grace and peace from him, from Jesus, who was, I’m sorry, this is from the Father, from him who was and who is and was and is to come, excuse me, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. This is what I want to clarify with you, seven spirits.

This is not saying that there are seven holy spirits. That would get very confusing very quickly, there is a church that I have seen in Oklahoma that teaches that there is not a trinity, there is a nine-part Godhead because they believe there are seven Holy Spirits plus the Father and Son. That is not what this is saying.

This is a reference to the prophet Isaiah who talks about the seven ministries or manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I read that in commentaries this week, and I thought, and most of them were saying the same thing about this, and I felt pretty good about that. I’ve seen that before where Isaiah talks about the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of peace, all these things.

I went back and looked at some of the earliest Christian writers after the apostles and said, how did they understand this? They also said this refers to the book of Isaiah and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And this idea of seven in biblical teaching often refers to completion.

So he’s talking about the fullness of the Holy Spirit, not that there are seven individual spirits. Revelation also gets a little tricky. That’s why people disagree about it so frequently because of the symbolic language that is found throughout the book of Revelation.

So, that’s not necessarily the point of this morning’s message, but I wanted to clarify that because I figured at least one or two people are going to come up to me later and say, what is this seven spirits before the throne? That’s what it’s talking about, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. But the point of this, as we read through this introduction, as John is introducing these seven churches to what he’s about to write to them in the book of Revelation, he failed without hesitation, fulfilled the Father’s plans in his first coming.

And we can see here that it’s all about everything he’s done up to this point. In verse 5, he refers to Jesus as the faithful witness. Now, for him to be a witness, this doesn’t mean that he’s less than God.

It’s not saying witness like you and I are witnesses, that we just happen to see what God is doing and we’re a separate party that then goes and bears witness. It’s just talking about the role that he’s taken on as one that the Father sent to reveal the truth about who he is. Hebrews talks about how God has fully, Hebrews chapter 1 talks about how he has fully revealed himself.

God has fully revealed himself in the Son. He used to hint at who he was through the scriptures, but now he’s spoken to us in these last days, Hebrews says, through his Son. So in Jesus, we see all the truth we need to know about who God is.

Colossians calls him the image of the invisible God. Everything the Father sent him to reveal about who God is, God being the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, everything the Father sent Jesus to reveal about who God is and bear witness about, Jesus did. And so in that sense, Jesus is a witness about the truth of God, a flesh and blood witness, because he’s not just telling us about it, he’s us who God is.

He’s a faithful witness because everything he was sent to reveal he did. And so because of Jesus, because he is this faithful witness, we now know everything we need to know about God in order to have a relationship with him, in order to really know him, not just know about him. And you know the difference, right?

There are some people you know about and there are some people you know, and they’re not necessarily the same thing. Jesus has made it possible for us not just to know about God, but to know God. And he refers to Jesus here as him who loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood.

Now, this is another part of the Father’s plans that Jesus fulfilled in his first coming. He says he loved us and he washed us from our sins. These are not two separate thoughts.

This refers to the sacrifice that Jesus made that we’ve spent the last couple of weeks talking about, his sacrifice on the cross, where he came and took responsibility for our sins. and then took the punishment for our sins on himself so that you and I could go free. It is as though God took those sins and picked them up off of us and laid them on Jesus’ back and then he was crucified and shed his blood and died in our place.

And Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins was not only effective in that one-time offering. He did in one offering, I believe we talked about this from the book of Hebrews, In one offering, He did what all the religious rituals of mankind could never accomplish. And so it was extraordinarily effective in this one-time offering.

But not only that, it was the ultimate expression of His love for us. That’s why He says, He who loved us and washed us from our sins. It’s not two separate things, it’s one thing.

How much did Jesus love us? In what way did He show us He loved us? By dying for us on the cross.

See, even John 3. 16, we can look at it a couple different ways. When it says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, some translations translate that as God loved us so much that he sent his son.

And that’s true. A more accurate translation of the Greek might be God loved us in this way, which, by the way, is still a tremendous amount of love. But it’s saying here the cross is the demonstration.

We ask our kids all the time, If I told you all the time that I love you and I never showed it, would you believe it? And of course they say no. God tells us all throughout the scriptures, he loves us. Tells us throughout the scriptures, he is love.

But how do we know? How did he show us? He showed us at the cross.

He showed us by sending his son. The father sent his son to take the punishment that we deserved. Jesus loved us enough to go and take that punishment.

And then it calls him the firstborn from the dead. He rose from the dead. And when he did that, he validated all of his claims. Because as I say frequently, anybody can claim that, well, I’m dying for you.

I can tell you this is for you and then jump off a building. And it’s not going to do you a bit of good. Because who am I to die for you?

I’m nobody. But Jesus didn’t just say, I’m going to die for you. He died for us and then rose again to prove everything that he’d said up to that point.

Because that’s something you and I can’t do. That’s something we can’t do unless we’re God. And he did it.

And so his resurrection validates all of his claims, but it also offers life to us because it says he’s the firstborn from the dead, meaning that he’s just the first of many that are going to rise. His death opens the doors for us. It’s like throwing open the doors of the prison so that we can follow him out.

And there will come a day for those who believe in him that we will be raised to be with him again. And I’m not getting into the order of that this morning. We can talk about that maybe on a Wednesday night.

I think I’ve got some stump the preacher questions that I’ve been really putting off dealing with. The order, though, doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it’s going to happen. He will raise us from the dead, and he will raise us to be with him forever.

Jesus accomplished all of that through his first coming. And so the consequences of his time on earth, those 30 plus years that he walked here, the consequences of that time continue to be felt, including the fact that Jesus’ first coming established His authority and earned a place for us. This passage talks about the things that have changed.

It refers back to what He did during His time here, but also in the mix there is what has changed for us as a result of what He’s done. Verse 5 calls Him the ruler over the kings of the earth. Jesus, we need to understand, Jesus is the ultimate authority.

whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not. Some things are true regardless of our vote, right? Some things are true regardless of how I feel about it.

Every month through the summer, I have to go renew a tag on a vehicle or a trailer, and I gripe about it every time, because it bothers me that I pay for the vehicle, I pay for the upkeep, the maintenance, the fuel, I pay taxes on the gas, I pay insurance, I pay all of this, and then I have to pay the state for the privilege of operating that. It just bothers me. It shouldn’t be that way.

But me griping about it doesn’t change it, right? If I get pulled over and the policeman says, what do you have to say for yourself? And I say, it shouldn’t be this way, but it is this way, right?

There are certain things that are not going to change because of my vote. Over the last couple of election cycles, over the last several election cycles, actually my whole adult life I’ve been hearing people say, well he’s not my president. I hate to break it to you.

Whether I’ve liked the guy or not, whoever it is, he’s sitting up there at 1600 Pennsylvania and my opinion is not changing it. Jesus is the ultimate authority whether we like it or not. Jesus is the ultimate authority regardless of who has ever acknowledged it.

He always has been the ultimate authority, but what has changed is our knowledge and understanding of his role. See, after he came and taught as he did and acted as he did and died as he did and rose again as he did, we had evidence. We had evidence telling us that he is the king.

We had evidence saying that he is the one who fulfilled God’s promises. He is the one that the scriptures told us about. And as a result of what he’s done, now millions of people confess him as Lord and acknowledge his sovereignty over all things, just like you and I are doing here today.

And he’s demonstrated before our eyes what he already told Pilate was true. Before his crucifixion, Pilate said, are you a king? And Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.

Pilate got it. He said, ah, you are a king then. Jesus acknowledged that he was a king.

He just wasn’t one of these weak little earthly kings who are here for a blip in time and then gone. His kingdom was much deeper, much more powerful, much longer lasting. And he’s demonstrated that before our eyes.

He’s told us in the scriptures that he holds the hearts of earthly kings in the palm of his hands. Folks, you and I are not, I want to be careful in how I say this. We are answerable to earthly authorities.

He’s placed them here for our good. Now, whether they act for our good or not is between them and God. We are answerable to our civil authorities.

We are answerable to those in authority over us, but we are ultimately answerable to Jesus Christ, first and foremost. There is no higher authority. Well, Jesus says this, and the government says this, then we go with Jesus. Now, as long as they’re not in conflict, yes, obey the government.

But we side with Jesus. Oh, well, somebody’s going to be mad at me if I. .

. Doesn’t matter, side with Jesus, he’s the authority, not whoever’s going to be mad at you. The news media is not the authority.

The theological experts on Facebook are not the authority. Jesus is the authority, and he’s demonstrated that. And it says in verse 6, And he’s made us kings and priests to his God and Father.

Now, as near as I can tell, the better translation of that word in Greek is kingdoms. That he’s made us kingdoms. Meaning that he’s made us a kingdom. Not that you and I are going to be in charge. Now, there are things that talk about us judging the angels.

And again, I don’t pretend to understand how everything is going to work in the future. Hopefully that doesn’t inspire less confidence in me for telling you that. Well, he doesn’t know the Bible.

No, the more I study of the book of Revelation, I feel like the less I understand. All the logistics of it and what we’re going to be doing and in what order, I’m not entirely certain. But whether the idea is that he’s made us kings to put us in places of authority under him, or whether he’s made us a kingdom, meaning he’s made us a kingdom unto himself, where we live under his rule and enjoy that relationship with him, The point is that he’s purchased for us a right of access that we would not have otherwise had.

Who in here deserves to be a king in his kingdom? None of us. If that’s what it means, then he did that for us.

But to go even a step further, no one in here deserves to even be part of his kingdom as a subject. Because we’ve started out as the enemies of God. We started out in the kingdom of God and as a species we declared war on God.

We launched this little war of rebellion called the fall. And we’ve been shaking our fist at God ever since with our sin. And God would have, with us declaring war on God, He would have been totally justified to annihilate us.

And yet He hasn’t. He’s offered us peace with Him through Jesus Christ. He’s offered to forgive us and not just bring us into the kingdom as servants, but as sons and daughters. It’s what the story of the prodigal son is all about.

That we don’t even deserve to be servants in the kingdom. We deserve to be outsiders and enemies, but he’s brought us in not just as servants, but as sons and daughters. And folks, we don’t have that because of anything we’ve done good either.

We have it because of what Jesus has done. And then to be, he says, whether it’s kings or kingdom, and he’s made us priests, this means we have an immediate direct connection with God. You do not have to go through any human being to have access to God.

You don’t have to go through me. You don’t have to come confess your sins to me and be forgiven. As a matter of fact, there are some things I don’t want to know, all right?

But because Jesus Christ has given you access, you can go directly to him. You can go directly to the Father, and you should. We should take advantage of that access we’ve been given.

We are priests to the Lord, and all of this is the result of his first coming, and Jesus’ second coming is going to confirm his authority for all to see. There is a moment when Jesus is coming back. I don’t know when it’s going to be.

I wish I did, but then again, I’m probably glad I don’t. I just know we’re closer today than we were yesterday. I had an atheist professor in college challenge me on this one time, and he said, you people have believed for 2,000 years that he’s coming back, and he still hasn’t come back, and you say he’s coming soon.

And I told him, well, it’s even truer today than it was yesterday, isn’t it? I was like, well, that’s a cute little one-liner. That’s what I meant it to be, all right?

I didn’t think it was a convincing philosophical argument, but it is true. We are closer today than we were yesterday. It may be a thousand years from now, it may be right.

Wouldn’t that have been cool? We don’t know, but we know he’s coming back because he’s promised it, and he’s kept every promise he’s ever made. This is what I was talking about last Sunday night about faith.

There’s a difference between faith and blind faith. Blind faith just believes whatever you’ve been told, regardless of any evidence. And that’s not what Christianity is about.

With faith, we have this track record of evidence where God has been faithful and kept His promises all these times up to this point. And so now we step out a little bit and believe Him when He tells us what He’s going to do the next time. That’s faith.

It’s not just, oh, this sounds good, so I’ll believe it. It’s I believe it because I’ve seen how God has worked up to this point. And all the promises of his coming, all the promises of his death, all the promises of his resurrection, of his ascension, he kept all of those.

This is the next thing we’re called to step out in faith and believe. Verse 7 says, behold, he is coming with clouds. He is coming, he is going to return, and when he does, he’s going to return in glory.

It is going to be very different from the first time he came. The first time he came, he came into some backwater of the Roman Empire. He a feeding trough.

He was wrapped in rags. He was as far away from the corridors of power as he could possibly have been. But when he comes again, he is going to come in all of the glory and all the splendor that he deserves.

It says he is coming with clouds. This idea of the clouds in scripture, they convey the glory of God. That’s why when Moses went up on Mount Sinai to meet with God, the mountain would be enveloped in a cloud.

So this idea of him coming with clouds, it’s not just saying he’s coming in the sky, although that’s probably the case. It’s talking about him bringing the glory of God with him. And every eye will see him, verse 7 says.

His nature and his authority are going to be fully unveiled. Again, the first time so many people missed it. The first time when he came, so many people didn’t understand who he was.

So many people deliberately did not understand who he was. As we’ve studied through the book of Mark, we see the Pharisees, they know who he is, But they don’t like who He is. They wanted the Messiah to be somebody else, and so they refuse to acknowledge who He is.

But the next time, every eye will see Him. I’ve heard people say, well, that could only happen in this time of history, because now it can be shown worldwide on CNN in real time or something like that. It could mean that.

It could include that. But I believe what John was going for here is that everybody’s going to understand who He is when He comes back. There’s not going to be any question.

At his second coming, there’s not going to be any question about who this is. We will see him for who he is. We will understand his authority.

It says verse 7, even they who pierced him. His second coming is going to be a time of conviction. This is where I led off with, wait until your father gets home.

There will be a time of conviction. It says even those who pierced him. Those who refused to accept who he was and led him off to be crucified.

They are perhaps going to be the first to realize who He is and what they’ve done. It’ll be a time when those throughout history who have rejected Him will understand who He is and what they’ve rejected. It’s going to be a time of conviction for the wrongs that have been committed in opposition to Him.

And I don’t say that this morning as a scare tactic to frighten you into making any kind of move, but we need to understand in a sober-minded way there is a time, there is a time when God’s offer of mercy that has been extended over and over and far more times than we deserve that offer of mercy will expire and if we persist in rejecting Jesus Christ there will come a time when it is too late and it says here in verse 7 all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him the second coming is going to be a time of judgment and it sounds terrifying I don’t like to be judged I don’t want to be judged but I think in that instance we’ll also know that God is right. And even when he stands in judgment of us, we’re going to agree with the sentence.

And if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, if you’ve turned to him for your forgiveness of sins, we’re not talking here about a judgment for heaven or hell, but certainly a judgment of our works for future rewards. But I think whether we have the biggest crown in heaven or not, or the littlest shack in the corner, I don’t think we’re going to care. I think we’re going to be excited that we made it and we’re there with Jesus.

Jesus and his presence is what heaven is all about. But in his second coming, there is going to be a time of judgment. And his second coming will reflect his status as the ultimate king and judge over us all.

He says in verse 8, I am, this is Jesus speaking, I am the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. The alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.

He’s saying I’m the first, I’m the last, I’m everything in between. I’m the only thing that matters. Which is a pretty tall claim to make unless it’s true.

But it is true. Says the Lord who is and who was and who is to come. The Almighty.

Jesus is our King. He is our authority. He is those things right now.

Whether we like it or not. And by the way, by the way, it’s not just them out there when I say don’t like it. Sometimes even as a Christian, there are things that I want to do or attitudes that I want to have that stand in opposition to the scripture, and sometimes I wish he didn’t tell me to do the things he tells me to do, right?

In the flesh, sometimes I know what he says to do, and I think, oh man, but he’s in charge whether I like it or not. And when I step away from his standards, I’m wrong. He’s in charge.

And the fact that he’s coming again reminds us of that. The fact that he’s coming again reminds us of who he is, reminds us of His authority, reminds us that He calls the shots. And you and I as believers in Christ, our ultimate goal ought to be to please Him every day.

Not because we’re afraid of what He’s going to do to us if we don’t, but because we long to have His approval when we stand before Him one day. But I want to be very clear as I close. We don’t get His approval just by being good, doing religious things, going to church.

Do not take away from this message, well, I need to be obedient to God. If you’ve come in today and you have no relationship with Jesus Christ, you’ve never trusted in Him as your Savior, do not take away from this. I just need to be obedient and try harder and be religious in order to be right with God and get that approval from Him.

That’s not how it works. You and I have sinned. We are separated from God.

We have disobeyed Him. And there’s no amount of good we can do to undo that, to erase that and get the approval. Our sin has to be punished. It has to be paid for.

And either you can do that, either you can take the punishment, and you can spend eternity separated from Him, or you can trust that Jesus already took the punishment for you. And when you do that, God cleanses the slate. He wipes it clean.

He cleanses us of sin. He takes it away from our account. And He sees the righteousness of Christ in us.

And so we are forgiven. We are saved. We are put in a relationship with Him.

We are as saved as we’re ever going to be at that moment. And if you’ve never trusted Christ, that’s where you need to start this morning, is acknowledging that you’ve sinned against God, that you need a Savior and that Jesus Christ is it. And when you believe all that, you can ask for the forgiveness that He promises, and you’ll have it.

This message about obedience is to those of us who’ve a