What does it mean for something or someone to be glorious? We heard the word from the beginning of our book in Revelation 1.6: “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” The word occurs 19 times in the book. So what does it mean?
The word for glory in the Old Testament originally meant that something or someone had weight to them. For someone to have glory, literally meant they were weighed down with gold. Where did this gold come from? It came from proper ruling of the economic affairs of their country. It came from being victorious over enemies. A king could not be glorious if he had no kingdom. If he had nothing to point to and show that he could be relied upon. One king would show that he had more glory than another. This is what happened between God and Pharaoh when God promised to free his people: “I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.”
Glory meant someone’s reputation. What they claimed they made real. For after being redeemed from Egypt, Israel sang in Exodus 15: ““Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
Scripture doesn’t define “glory” as much as it shows what it is. God’s glory filled the Tabernacle in the Wilderness (Exod 40). His glory filled Solomon’s Temple so much that the priests couldn’t minister (2Chron 5). God’s glory is greater and longer lasting than all other kingdoms. Isaiah 13.19: And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.”
So glory is the effect of what is inherent to the person. That is, glory is the result of the character. Glory is the external evidence of the internal qualities. To say that this king is more glorious than that king, means that the more glorious king is wiser, stronger, more reliable than the less glorious one. This doesn’t negate the fact that Babylon and Egypt and Rome were not glorious. It simply means that God is more glorious. His glory is longer lasting. His glory is of a different quality. My hope is that we will grasp this as we walk through Revelation 21.
Revelation 21.1-4
 God’s Eternal Purposes
In vv. 1-4 we see the temporary nature of what we currently see. John sees a “new heaven and new earth”. This is the same thing God promised to usher in in Isaiah 65 and 66. This is the same new heaven and new earth that the Apostle Peter in 2Pet 3.11-13: Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, {live holy lives now in light of his return…last week} 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Purified by fire. Like a wrinkled shirt—ironed. Like a stained shirt—bleached white.
The pain and problems of this world will be no more. Although they consume the nightly news, they will not even exist. “The sea will be no more”. To the people of John’s time, the sea represented chaos and uncertainty. It represented toil and hardship that had to be endured. Just to make a living, people had to venture out on boats to stay alive. // V.4 What are these former things? The same things Paul has in mind in Romans 8:  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.
When you get sick—labor pains. When you lose a loved one—labor pains. When you suffer any loss or experience any frustration—labor pains. Labor. Pains. Pains because these things hurt. Labor because it is working out an eternal weight of glory. Like Adoption Process. Agonizing. Waiting for final papers.
Vv. 5-8 are the ground—the basis upon which vv.1-4 stand. Where do I get that? Well, because there is someone speaking. Speaking in Scripture typically highlights the point of a narrative. But it’s not just anyone speaking, it’s God. And what does he say? // Vv.5-8 //Notice the verbs. Who is doing the action? I am making all things new. I will give. I will be his God. Even when the action is of the believers—the one who conquers—his conquering is through the blood of the Lamb. Rev 12.11 taught us this: They triumphed over Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
But it’s not as though history is unimportant. That’s not what Scripture means when it says that it’s passing away. The world is the very place that God has revealed himself. He didn’t transport each of us into some portal and reveal himself. He revealed himself through faithful and perpetual and patient activity in the world for our benefit and for his glory.
Passing Away = Served its purpose. Sun & Moon. Temple. —> Shadows of the Eternal.
Vv.9-14
 God’s Proven Record
The OT is not set against the NT. We see here that they complement each other. The twelve tribes of Israel formed the foundation for God’s redemption and presence with his people. The twelve Apostles also form the foundation of redemption. This is what Paul talks about in Ephesians 2.17: And Jesus came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
This is really key to understand God’s purposes in the world to secure a stable and eternal and unshakable kingdom. Paul was at pains to show that God was always in the business of redeeming the world—all tribes, tongues, people, kingdoms, and ethnicities. When God called out to Abraham, he said would be the father of many nations. God is not only the God of the Jews, but he is God over all Gentiles. All the purposes in saving Israel were to point to God’s weightiness. His gravity. His reliability. His ability to do what he said he would do. The point was never to be the God over a few circumcised tribes in the Ancient Near East. The point was much grander. Much larger. Much more glorious.
We begin to see this…
Vv.15-21
 God’s Manifold Generosity & Diversity
The measuring that is being done by the angel with a gold measuring rod speaks of the sureness of what he is measuring. The structure is secure and stable. What is he measuring? He’s measuring the holy city of the New Jerusalem that has just come down from heaven. We don’t build the city, God establishes the city. It is a gift from him to his people. It is perfect. Remember the significance of the number 12 and 1000? They show up here to show that not one of God’s purposes will fail. Not one stone is missing. Not one little bit of mortar is out of place. 1500 miles in each direction. Greenville to Albequerque. Rome to Glasgow. Greater City! Greater Kingdom!
But we see this city is not merely a greater city. Look at its dimensions. V.16: The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. This is a box. But it is more than that too. These dimensions tell us that the heavenly city of God is a Temple. // We see these jewels. They don’t fade. They don’t rust or rot. They are pure and pristine and clear. And its not simply a monolithic temple where everything is the same color. The perfection and beauty of this Temple is seen in the diversity of color.
Isn’t this what makes the redeemed people of God magnificent? If God were only the God of the Jewish people. If he were only the God of the white people. Or only black people. Or only any other ethnicity, then he would cease to be God. Indeed, God has made every color of people. And this beautiful picture of the redeemed people of God is beautiful because the living stones of this Temple (the Apostle Peter talks about) are from every ethnic group imaginable. Every tribe. Tongue. People. And Language. The picture of this redemption is sure because it encompasses every single stone God has created.
No ethnic group has God’s ear more than any other. Every single ethnicity teach us something beautiful about God.
God’s manifold generosity. His glory. Is reflected in these faces and stories. We see this in the last section of the chapter.
Vv.22-27
 The Brightness of God’s Glory
Just like there would be no sea or crying or death, there will be no need for the sun because the brightness of God’s countenance that shines upon us will enliven every dark corner. Every nook. Every cranny. There will be nothing lurking in the shadows any more. No night terrors. No bad dreams.
What is more, we see that God’s glory is great and has overpowered all other rivals to his throne. Kings will stream into the New Jerusalem and lay all their tribute at his feet. Why is God more glorious than the kings of the earth? God’s glory is more glorious because it is evidenced in eternal and invaluable souls.
Haggai 2 - Ezekiel 43 - Isaiah 60 —> Glorious Temple Because of Souls!
Every time we talk with others, we have the opportunity to honor and bring glory to the One who redeemed us. We aren’t simply trying to convince people to believe. We are inviting them into this glorious Temple to behold the One in whose image they were created. And in so doing, they find the longings of their souls fulfilled.
And they, with us, will sing the song of Moses which the Redeemed ones in the New Heavens and New Earth sing:
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
4 Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

A king engaged to a beautiful princess. 
Well, a commoner. 
Actually, not very pretty. // But stole his heart.
King went on a journey. // To a battle.
Warning: Others will try to sit on my throne. Try to entice my people.
BUT I WILL COME BACK…Only after I secure your freedom
The King left. He was gone weeks. Months. Years.
We have been looking at several portraits of Jesus in Revelation these last four weeks. We have done this because in our day and age it’s really easy for people to shape Jesus into who they want him to be. The problem is that these pictures of Jesus don’t come from how he has revealed himself. Instead, people make Jesus soft and gentle and weak. Someone who never demands anything. Surely, he loved everyone and revealed God’s mercy and grace in touching lepers and in healing the sick.
It’s easy to forget that we are in the midst of a battle. A battle for not only our hearts and minds. But a battle for the hearts and minds of those we come into contact everyday.
We have seen that Jesus’ resurrection has won victory over our greatest enemy in chapter 1 as Firstborn of the Dead. That he is worthy to open the scroll of God’s plan from the beginning of time in chapter 5. That he reigns completely and benevolently in chapter 7. And now we are at the end of the book where we see that he is righteous and just in all he does. The great multitude of the redeemed people of God we saw last week show up again here.
Revelation 19.1-10
V.1: After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah!
 Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
 for his judgments are true and just;
 for he has judged the great prostitute
 who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
 and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
After what? Chapters 17 and 18 speak about the great Beast and the Prostitute who is defeated by the slain Lamb of God. Who are they? They are equated with the great and awful city of Babylon. But Babylon was not in power at the time of this revelation to John. So why Babylon? This forces us to go back to the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel and Jeremiah and Isaiah. They were the great prophets during the time of the Babylonian Exile of God’s people.
Because God’s people had broken his law. The law we heard in Leviticus 19. Loving our neighbor as ourselves. Not being greedy. Not looking out for only ourselves, but looking to the needs of others. Because they had found security in the promises of other kings and found their security in their bank accounts. In their relationships. In good things that became more valuable to them than God. God sent them into Exile to cleanse them.
Babylon, therefore, isn’t simply the socio-political entity of Babylon. It had already been destroyed. It represents anything that we would find our confidence in. This was the issue for Israel. They had put their confidence in political alliances with Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. They had fooled themselves into thinking that anything other than God would give them the security and life they longed for. The Church was at risk of this same thing. As it looked around and saw Christians being crucified and burned and torn apart at the hands of Rome, you can rest assured that they were anxious.
They needed to have the veil lifted from their eyes to see not only that God reigns in spite of what they saw. They needed to see his nearness. Though hidden. That’s the great temptation we all have. Egypt and Babylon and Rome were glorious. Their kings ate off plates of gold. Drank from goblets with jewels. They were the epitome of success and power.
We haven’t traveled too far. Scripture makes it clear that we ought never to trust what we see with our eyes. This is what Revelation is at pains to reveal to us. Just consider how many times John says he saw. God wants to drill into our hearts the unseen and hidden reality. We trust our perceptions far too readily.
This is what Satan is depending on to win our attention. And by winning our attention. Winning our affection. That’s what Babylons do. Just listen to Rev. 18.16-17: “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! 17 For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”
Let me ask you a question. Is it wrong for the King to destroy the wicked? Is it wrong for Jesus to wipe out the sin in all the earth? No. In fact, our faith depends on this glorious fact. What hope do we have if evil is not dealt with? Honestly, what hope do we have if the evil we hear about everyday and that which goes on behind closed doors is never dealt with? God is not in the business of turning a blind eye to the evil in the world. He promises that all of it will be dealt with. Dealt with justly. Dealt with eternally.
V.3: “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
Eternal peace depends on eternal judgment. God shows up and is angry. Love gets angry when the object of its affection is threatened. When the king returns to his betrothed, love requires that he be angry!
Until that peace is won by the blood-drenched sword of Jesus, there can be no celebration. This idea is not new to John. This was the very paradigm in Isaiah 34 and 35. Listen to a few representative passages:  1 Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. 2 For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter…For the LORD has a day of vengeance…Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever.
So what happens after the judgment of the evil of Babylon? Isaiah 35.1: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; 2 it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”

Is. 35:5    Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water…

Is. 35:8    And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
9 No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Is this not what happens in our passage? There is a great wedding. The wedding Jesus spoke about in Matthew 25 that we heard. How shall we prepare? By always being ready for his return. By loving our neighbor as ourself. By not being greedy for selfish gain. By not believing that all that glitters is gold that will last. To not trust what our eyes see. But what faith demands from us. To lay down our tendency to put me first. Instead trusting that God is more valuable than anything we could gain in this world.
But let me make this utterly clear. We do not do righteous deeds to earn his favor. All are invited to the feast. And the robes that the multitude are covered in…do you remember why they are white? Because they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.
The righteous deeds we do are based upon the righteousness of Jesus. Day by day we are called to reflect his goodness and grace and love. Listen to what John also wrote in 1John 3: And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
He is Righteous. We are righteous because we have been forgiven. And in being forgiven we are freed from the slavery to Babylon and all its temptations. Temptation to sell our birthright for paltry porridge.
Have you ever considered why Scripture calls the return of Christ a Marriage? I believe its due to the fact that there is no more intimate relationship on earth. No other relationship that angers us more. That changes us more. That accepts us more.
Another marriage in Scripture. God loves the unlovely. Not just a plain commoner. He destroys the Beast and Prostitute in our passage—which represents Satan and his schemes. But we see another prostitute in Scripture. The Prophet Hosea marries a Prostitute. He clothes her. He cares for her. She runs away from him. How does the Lord respond—end at Hosea 14?
4 I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;
6 his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;
they shall flourish like the grain;
 they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
And it is at this Marriage Supper that all the evil in the world will be cleansed and we will celebrate. The righteous judgment on the evil in the world levels the high places of idolatry. And in so doing, we find that all that we longed for was waiting for us as his Table.

The point of apocalyptic literature—of which Revelation is a part—is not to give a play by play game plan for the future, as has often been taught. If you sit down and read the whole book in one sitting, one of the first things you should notice is how cyclical it is. There’s a point and that point shows up again and again and again. For example, chapter 1 spoke about the Throne Room with the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man, then admonitions and encouragements to the seven churches, and then back to the Throne Room, then the Lamb begins to open the seven-sealed scroll in chapter 6, but before he opens the seventh seal in chapter 8, we have our passage.

Revelation 7.9-17

We persevere because God rules.
Have you ever considered that much of your lack of joy and the worry you experience and the disappointment you have in life is due to not understanding that God is ruling right now. But there are two extremes we typically can fall into. Our passage today will help pull us out of either ditch this morning.
God rules completely
One of the extremes we can fall into is that God is that God only rules partially.
I didn’t read the first part of chapter 7, but I want to mention a couple things that help us get our hearts around what we have already read. Revelation 7.1: After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. // I want to clear up a little misunderstanding that has been in vogue lately. The Bible does not teach the earth is flat or that there are literal corners on the earth. When the Bible speaks about “under the earth” or “four corners”, it is trying to convey a deeper reality than the physical through using imagery. This concept of four corners speaks to the entirety of the world. How we say north, south, east, and west.
And then we see this list of the tribes with 12,000 each to equal 144,000. I don’t have time to dissect all the rationale behind this, but let me just say that what John sees is a perfect and complete fulfillment of God’s actions on earth. What do I mean? 12 is a number of completeness. When you multiply it by itself to show completeness, you get 144. Then you multiply that a third time (completeness) with another number representing completeness (1000), you get 144,000. These are not just ethnic Jews, as we’ll see in a moment. God is showing us that his purposes that began with Israel are brought to their completion—with the Tribe of Judah leading the list (which is different from other lists in the OT).
We see this completely redeemed people of God in our passage at v.9: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. // “Multitude” should bring to mind the promise of Abraham that he would be the father of a multitude of nations. And I am sure that this is part of this fulfillment. But the word John uses is not the same in the original language.

So what’s happening with the list of the tribes and then this multitude? We heard a moment ago from the book of Numbers. That book begins with a list of the tribes and their actual numbers. They were getting ready to enter into the Promised Land to take possession of what God had promised them. And as they go into their first battle at Jericho, the word John uses shows up. This word is used in the OT to refer to an army.
But we see this great and complete army is made up of a number that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages. Again, a list of four shows up to show that God’s work was always intended to included the entire population of the world. Yes, it started with Abraham. But we must remember that the work of the tribes was always intended to gather in people from all four corners of the earth.
This is the work that God had called John and the Apostles to be a part of. We have to remember that the Church was under heavy persecution right now. While it grew exponentially in the book of Acts, Rome was not going to continue to let that happen. So they sought to exterminate the Empire of this Rival King’s Army. And that’s where John is.

Look at vv. 13-14: Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.” // John is in the middle of the Great Tribulation that Jesus promised would start once he left. John recorded this in John 16. Jesus told his disciples that he was going away. The Comforter—that is, the Holy Spirit—was coming. And he said this in 16.32: “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

How did Jesus overcome the world? The rest of John’s Gospel tells us. Betrayed into the hands of Caesar. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And he laid down his life. He died. He poured out his very blood to save people from the Kingdom of darkness. Those who have bended their knees to Jesus—submitting their lives to him—have been covered in the atoning blood of Jesus. // This is the song of the redeemed in our passage: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” And then we see the completeness of this salvation with a seven-fold declaration in v.12: “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Some of us may be able to grasp the fact that God is completely in control of all that is. This is one side of the coin. The other side of the same coin that he rules is that…

God rules benevolently. 
I use this word specifically because it helps us understand God’s actions. The word comes from two Latin words meaning good and will. That is, God’s rule is an effect of his will toward you. And that will is always good. This is something John and we need to be reminded of during this time of tribulation before Jesus cracks the seventh seal and returns in power and might. From the time of his Ascension and sending of the Spirit—as we saw in John 16—we will be in tribulation. In a similar way a woman goes into labor before giving birth. And we need to be reminded that we will persevere through many trials because God rules. And he rules benevolently. Going through tribulation never negates this.
We saw this already in the fact that those who have gone through the tribulation are wearing pure, white robes that have been covered in the atoning blood of the Lamb. This is something we can never take for granted…but often do. We can get accustomed to the fact that we have confessed our sin and become a Christian. But the image we should be having is that we are continually covered by the blood of Christ. We can never enter God’s presence on our own merit. We have to realize that we are ever and only accepted by Jesus’ righteousness.
Consider just this week how you have failed to live up to the perfect standard. Your actions. Your words. Your thoughts. If you think you don’t struggle with this, then consider how frustrated you were with someone at work. Frustrated with your kids. Frustrated with your parents. That frustration is our attempt to control others. To have them live according to our rules. In so doing, we seek to remove God from his righteous throne. And this, my friends, is deserving of his wrath. And if we are not covered in the righteousness of another, then we are undone. And until we’re convinced of that. Until we’re convinced that we don’t just need Jesus’ acceptance once to enter into God’s presence…but we always need it to stand in God’s presence, we will never understand the great cost. And this great cost is because of his great love.

But listen to vv.15-17.
Just as the Lord sheltered Israel with his presence in the desert, so also the Lord protects us from so many things we don’t even know about. What he lets into our lives is for our good. What is more, this verse tells us that you are never on your own trying to figure it out. He is always present with you. The question then becomes: Will you reach out to him and find your soul’s satisfaction in him? // Will you find out that he is, indeed, better than that thing—yes, even that good thing—you wanted?

But we also see that, just like the pillar of fire to keep Israel warm at night and the cloud to shade them from the scorching heat during the day and the manna from heaven, God provides for our needs.

This does not mean you will not have difficulty. 
We have already seen that God’s people must go through tribulation. We also see that when we finally see him, it will be with tears in our eyes. Following Jesus never meant that you will not have trouble. That is promised to us. If you don’t want trials and tribulation in life, then follow the marching orders of the world. You will never have to push against the grain. You will never have to be the odd one out. You will never have to sacrifice for the good of others. If you never struggle in life, you’re probably not following Jesus.

Last week we celebrated the beginning of Easter. Yes, I said the “beginning” of Easter because it is a season not just a day. Though we’re not entirely sure of where the word came from, I am prone to believe it comes from the Old German word—which comes from the Latin word—signifying “East” or “the morning light”. This is a 40-day celebration that culminates in Pentecost. We have spent 40 days in the season of Lent thinking about our sinfulness. BUT now the Light has come and we stare at its glory and realize that while we may sit in suffering, we are not governed by it.

Do you remember how I said it is wise and faithful to call sad things sad? To not pretend that there is no struggle in life? Well, the converse is true: It is wise and faithful to call joyful things joyful. Too often we get overwhelmed with our sin and the sin of others. With the way things are and the way things should be—or that we want them to be. And we forget that there is a bright, white, glorious Light that has dawned.
This does not negate the sadness. It’s not that we move on from the sadness. On this side of Christ’s glorious return, there will always be tears mixed into our laughter. But we must never be so overcome with the ways things appear with the way they actually are in God’s Light. We must never let the tears choke out the laughter.

Maybe you’re struggling to laugh. To be joyful. And I’m not talking about a fake joy either. I’m not talking about putting makeup on wounds and saying you’re healed. It is hard to see joy in the sadness. // This is probably the very struggle that the Apostle John had. He was exiled on the island of Patmos. His sandals worn out on the volcanic ground of a seemingly God-forsaken place. He might have wondered what happened to all his friends. He might have been given to despair. BUT God graciously reveals himself to John in the suffering to remind him who he has believed. That the one leaned his head on. The Humble Carpenter is alive and Mighty and holds him in the palm of his hand.

My hope is that this Easter season the Lord would lift up your eyes to see. To see Light. These next 6 weeks we’re walking through several passages in Revelation to see the awesome ways Jesus is portrayed in the book. Too many times the book of Revelation is seen as a prophecy manual or diviner’s tool to figure out what’s coming next. But the book is written to churches who have wavered in their faith. Or they’re undergoing persecution. // The tendency is to forget about Jesus. Or to minimize him. To think that you’re going at life by yourself. Revelation is written to give hope and to remind and to reveal the power and might and love of Jesus. The book is more about Jesus than it is about the mechanics of when he’s coming back.

In every scene between God and Satan, God wins. Every battle scene, Jesus stands over all things victoriously. Whatever you’re battling or will battle, Jesus is able to conquer it. The onus is on us to see it. To see and believe and forsake all other ways of hope.

Consider this in Verses 1-2 of our passage in Revelation 1: The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him(that is, John) to show to his servants…

Many of us know things about God. We even believe things about God. But what we need is to experience the hot, burning Light of Jesus. We need to feel his nearness. We need to be convinced that he stands above all our problems in life and guides the stars and orbits of the planets. He is not an impish god waiting. He is the All-Powerful One who rules and reveals. And so I pray that these next 6 weeks, you will experience Jesus like you have never experienced him before—whether you’ve been a Christian most of your life or still have not repented of your sin and put your faith in him. // So that like we heard from Job moments ago: “5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” I pray you see that he can do all things!

And like Thomas who would not believe unless he touched the wounds of the Risen Christ, I pray with the hands of faith you would be able to see that he does not despise but offers himself to you. To touch his hands and his side and declare, “My Lord, and My God.”

Revelation 1

(1) Firstborn of the Dead
The first thing we see about Jesus is V.5. There are three titles. Faithful witness: He was unwavering in his testimony while he ministered on earth. But it is the one in the middle that informs the other two. Firstborn of the Dead: He was faithful to the point of death even death on a cross. But he was resurrected from the dead. This resurrection wasn’t out of the blue. It was expected.

Remember last week I said that the Resurrection fulfilled the expectations of the OT. Psalm 89 speaks about King David: 27 And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. 28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. // But this psalm was written during the time of Solomon…after David died. And then we see in Psalm 16, David himself writing: “God will not let his holy one see corruption.” And Peter in his great sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2 explains this: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”

The Bible speaks of a King who would live and reign forever. And it’s Jesus’ Resurrection that identifies him as the living and reigning ruler that the great King David foretold and foreshadowed. // This is why this firstborn of the dead makes the third phrase Ruler of the Kings of Earth possible. Philippians 2.9-11 makes this clear. Because Jesus was crucified BUT raised from the dead, he rules over all: 8 Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And again in Colossians 1.17-18: 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent/over all. // Jesus existed before all things. All things continue to exist because he holds them together.

But why the Resurrection? TO HOLD THINGS TOGETHER…BUT EVEN MORE—> V. 20 of Colossians 1: Through him (Jesus) to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. // Jesus was resurrected not simply as a trick. It was so that he lives and reigns forever. What is more, his program—his kingdom priority—is to reconcile all things to himself. The world had been in rebellion and he is in the cosmic business of reconciling every atom to his rule.

How does he do this Reconciliation? Vv.5-6. The result of his resurrection. Made Us to Be: Kingdom. And Priests. Those who have repented of their sins and claimed Jesus as their King have been given the great honor of going out into the world to declare the glories of this King.

You and I too often get bogged down with our issues and we forget the great, cosmic reality we have been called to participate in! We are not called to just pray that God gives us the opportunity to talk to others. Yes, we do that. But he has called us to boldly and graciously go into the highways and byways and tell people to come to him.

When we embrace the truth that Christ has commissioned us to be a picture of his Kingdom on Earth—as it is in Heaven, then we begin to see the great and majestic marching orders we have been given! We don’t shuffle our feet in despair. We don’t pace back and forth wondering if people will bow their knee to King Jesus. We humbly and confidently go to people in love and tell them this great news! May God have mercy on us for our faithless disobedience to his call! His call to be his priests and proclaimers!

(2) What gives us hope? That he goes with us. He is always and ever going before us. // Must not forget this. There is Great Power in his Presence. This past week I was walking around our neighborhood by myself passing our fliers and I was nervous. I hadn’t met anyone in the neighborhood before. // Sense of peace as I remembered he was with me. Power in his Presence. Then I realized, there’s nothing I would not come across that Jesus was not greater than.

The second glimpse we get of Jesus comes in this incredible image of the Son of Man in vv.13-16. This goes back to the book of Daniel, ch.7: The Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. And then we read about the Son of Man: And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

And what did Jesus tell his disciples before he ascended? All authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth has been given to me…therefore go and make disciples of ALL nations. Teaching them to obey all my words I have given you. I am always with you. Until the end of time.

We are called to go out and declare that Jesus is King over all men, women, and children. He’s not a tyrant. He’s gracious and kind and all-powerful. He reigns. We don’t go quietly into the night. We carry with us a blazing torch of Light for others to see and find grace. To find purpose in their lives. To find hope. To find peace with themselves and with God.

The point of the death of Jesus is the Resurrection. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands were crucified in the Roman Empire. But it is the Resurrection of Jesus that makes our faith utterly unique.

Fulfilled
It could be easy to think that the Resurrection were something that just happened and that it was really something unexpected and really new. We live in a day when people are not familiar with the Old Testament.

Elijah and Elisha, prophets in the OT, resurrected kids. Jesus—>Lazarus and a Widow’s Son.

We have heard throughout our service from the beginning of Creation, the Flood, Abraham’s Test and Foreshadowing of the Sacrifice of an Only Son, Israel in Slavery to Egypt, and the Prophet Isaiah foretelling of the Righteous Branch that will be fruitful and multiply.

This is what Peter says in Acts when he says: “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”

Witnessed
// Not Private // Not only was the Resurrection of Jesus foretold centuries before he was born, but once it happened it was not a quiet event. Some say that the Apostles made the story up to start a new religion and gain believers. All of them except John, who was exiled on an island, were killed because they refused to be silent about the Resurrection. If it didn’t really happen, why would they be willing to die? Imagine if they were lying. If you were confronted with the option to say what you were lying or be burned at the stake, what would you do?

And he didn’t just appear to a few people. He appeared to more than 500 people over a period of 40 days. What was going on during this time? Jesus was not only revealing himself, he was eating and drinking and explaining how he fulfilled the expectations from thousands of years ago.

Unites
The resurrection of Jesus is a one-time event to show that he has power over death. He wasn’t resurrected as a kind of trick to get people to believe in him. The Resurrection not only is meant to give us hope that death is not the silent end, it was also meant to show us that Jesus’ Resurrection is simply the beginning of a mass resurrection for all those that believe in him.

If you have made Jesus King over your life, you don’t merely have to place your faith in a once-for-all moment, but you can rest in a present reality. What do I mean? In the passage from Romans 6, we heard the Apostle Paul breathe confidence into the church by letting them know that they are not slaves to sin anymore.

Yes, you may struggle with sin. But, if you are in Christ, you are a new person. You have been born to a living hope. He doesn’t tell us to get our act together because God’s angry with you. If you have repented of your sin and decided to follow Jesus, you are no longer ruled by your appetites. Yes, sin may seem like it’s going to kill you.
The victory we want over the sin that strangles us, that victory is found in the resurrection of Jesus. As Paul said, — “Just as Christ was raised from the dead…so we too might walk in newness of life…For one who has died has been set free from sin…We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

True salvation is not just knowing these things to be reliable and true. It is an action of submitting to God. Saying, “I no longer live for myself—my desires, my security, for others to think highly of me—I live for the glory of someone else.” And in living for the one who made you and saved you, you find that you are truly alive. You will be a slave to someone or something. Whatever you give your heart and life to, that becomes your Master.

And so when we confess that Jesus is Lord of our lives, we know we will be physically raised up with him.

Invites
Some of you may be thinking that this sounds good and all—having hope and peace and all—but that’s just not for me. I’ve messed up too much. The Apostle Paul who wrote so much of the books of the New Testament, friends, he murdered Christians before he became one. This gift of salvation is for anyone, anyone who knows these things are reliable and is able to then repent of having to live life on their terms…repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus.
Maybe you’re afraid of what it will cost. It costs everything you have. It requires that you die to yourself. It requires you to take up your own cross. To die so that you might truly live.
Maybe you prayed a prayer when you were a kid and you’ve lived your life how you wanted. You didn’t give two winks to listen to God. But he’s telling you, there’s salvation for you if you will choose to die today so that you might live today.

In trying to figure out the best way to structure this sermon, I kept coming back to the idea that it is full of conversation. Two voices. But these two voices are different in the experience of the one crying out. That is, we see here that we can know something with our mind. Even believe it in our heart. But it’s when we’re confronted by real choices in life that reveals what we really believe in our guts. As we end our time in this season of Lent, you and I are confronted with these two voices we hear. They encircle us and talk to us to confront us and to comfort us.

Two Voices. Crying. Silent.
V.1
Have you ever felt like there was an iron ceiling between you and God? You have prayed and asked and begged and pleaded…and it feels like all your prayers were unheard. That’s a difficult place to be. // But a more difficult place to be is where you know someone hears you and they do nothing about it. This is the situation David finds himself in. “I know you hear my pleas…but you do not answer.”

V.2
This is why I love the Psalms. It’s easy to hear people talking about a victorious Christian life, but that’s not the kind of reality we find ourselves in. And the comfort you find is that intimacy with God requires silence. Lasting maturity depends on silence. // What do I mean by that? My children ask me for many things. Your children ask you for many things. I try to give them what I can. Those are good days. But the hard days come when I have to say “No.” Or when I don’t respond in the way they want me to. What I am doing as a loving father is putting them in a place where they don’t get everything they want…even the good things.

You and I too often put walls around God’s love for us. We pray and ask God for a relationship. For healing. For comfort. For a job. And he doesn’t answer us. And so we assume that he doesn’t care. The fact is that we have a backwards view of prayer. The main intention of prayer is not to change God’s mind, but to change ours! We box God’s love in in such a way that we want him to respond in a certain way. // What happens when I don’t answer my children in the way they want me to answer? Definitely disappointment. Frustration. But maturity. If I were to continue to treat my 20-year old daughter like I treat my 3-year-old daughter, I would be doing more harm than good. So it is with God. He is silent because he cares. He is shaping you. He is drawing you into himself. Into a fullness that can only be received when your expectations are emptied from your heart.

(2) Two Voices. Belief. Experience.
Vv.3-5: Belief
David knew what God did on behalf of his people. “Our fathers trusted, and you delivered. They cried. You rescued. They trusted and were not shamed.” He knew the answers in Sunday school. You and I know the answers. We read of deliverance and healing and resurrection. But…

V.6-8: Experience: Taunting
Our experience is very different from what we often read in the Bible. We trust…no deliverance. We delight…no rescue.
At least not in the way we want God to deliver us. We want him to ride on a white horse and swoop us out of the pain and suffering.
But God’s deliverance is in the everyday and simple stuff of life. The things we take for granted everyday. It’s easy to forget that you have two legs to walk on. There’s tons of people who would love to have your two legs. We can see. We can hear. You have a job. Quite simply David looks back at his life and sees God’s nearness at every step. He contrasts —>

Vv.9-11: Experience: God’s goodness.
Even when I didn’t acknowledge your goodness, you were good to me. You sustained my life, though I had no clue it was you! He wants to be near to God. The friends. Pleasant conversation. Rebuking conversation. These are all God’s nearness to you.
Vv.12-18: Experience: People’s meanness.

We have seen and are walking toward the light. And friends will not like that you’re changing. Doing things differently. They’re not friends. They’re enablers. They’re not wanting the best for you. They want to make themselves feel better. They encircle David like lions seeking to devour him. Like mangy dogs looking for a scrap of meat.

Your difficulties in life—Anxiety that you’re not the best parent. Condemnation when you realize you aren’t. Fear that you might fail. Condemnation that comes when you realize you do fail. Struggles with the same sins of fear, worry, anger, control, lust. Condemnation when you give in yet again. All of these difficulties are not simply on the horizontal plane. Every one of them has the vertical element. What you do to someone else, you are doing to God.
V.15: “You lay me in the dust of death.” All these difficulties and struggles come from God’s sternness. More than that. His great desire for you to be be starved of all your hopes and dreams that you cling so tightly to, so that you can simply have more of God.
The condemning voice inside you is the voice of God that you have broken his holy law. And you need that same voice from heaven to give you forgiveness. Our last set of voices —>
Two Voices. Judgment. Love.
Even though David looks around and sees all this turmoil in his life…he goes to the only one who can rescue him.

Vv.19-21
We’ve seen, a true sign of maturity in our relationship with God comes when we continue to cry out even there’s silence on the other end. What is more, when we see the pain and suffering as God’s answer to us. Children don’t like to be rebuked. They don’t like to be corrected. You and I don’t like to be rebuked or corrected. People and situations are simply God dealing with us. “You lay me in the dust.” But we see it again in this verse: “You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.” If you see that little footnote in your Bibles, it gives you the literal word for “rescued” is actually “answered.” How does God answer us from the horns of the wild oxen. Sometimes he delivers us from them. Sometimes the horns of judgement many times are his answer.

God is not far. God is not silent. He is nearer than your self-condemnation. He is louder than the dogs that surround you.

//It’s at this point that David turns. He begins to understand that all this suffering is in light of God’s greatness and goodness. God is not good because he gives you what you want. He is good because he does what is best. He does what is more glorious. Our problem is that our gods of comfort and victory are too small.

Once David comes to that realization, he praises God and invites others to praise God with him. He realizes that his joy and purpose in life is under a larger umbrella of the magnificence of God. The greatness of God.

Vv.22-31: The High Point of Our Passage
True we struggle. Anything being built will have struggle. Ultimately seen in Jesus. The very thing we are after is a Joy that will not fade. A City that cannot be shaken. And here we see that Jesus came to usher in this Kingdom by dying. We are familiar with Jesus quoting the beginning of this psalm on the cross when he cried out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” As one author put it:

“Jesus Christ is our mediator, who entered in the presence of God who is a consuming fire and we see that judgement and fire upon the cross. But from the cross too there comes the voice of amazing love: the voice of incredible love and mercy and pardon right in the heart of judgment—that is why it is such incredible love”

He does not wait for us…but has entered into our weakness and frailty and stands on our side.

In the cross, God shows that he was never far from your suffering. He entered into our suffering on the cross. He enters into our suffering everyday. And he whispers words of love to you. We’ve focused a lot on suffering during this season of Lent.

But we need to see that Jesus goes to this psalm one more time on the cross. How does Christ give us the unshakeable hope and city and kingdom we all long for? A place of true rest and acceptance and love? V.31: “Future generations shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it.”

Or as Jesus said on the cross: It. Is. Finished.

And not much has changed. We don’t like to stare at our failures and shame. We want to blame others for what got us where we are. We want to busy ourselves and hide from reality.

We do this in our everyday life because we haven’t accepted the fact that we are meant to be broken. We don’t want to sit in the fact that the world is broken. The beauty of the Christian faith is its willingness to accept this brokenness. // I am so glad that early in my Christian faith, I was encouraged to read the Psalms. I read them out loud and their sound was so different than what I heard at church…what I heard in my head.

Too many times when someone is going through pain and struggle, we want to make them feel better. “Hey, God’s got a plan.” Or “Don’t cry. It’ll all get better.” This is cruel. The Bible shows us that, as one author put it: “It is an act of faith and wisdom to be sad about sad things.” Wisdom because looking at the world through tears acknowledges the fact that this broken world is not as it was intended to be. Faith because it looks up to God to restore it.

Psalms 120-134 are a section of psalms called Songs of Ascent. These were sung when people made pilgrimages to Jerusalem for special holy days. Jerusalem was built on a hill and the Temple was at the top. So as they are walking up to worship in the Temple, they are singing this song. And each song is sung through tears.
Two points. Follow the structure of the song. Vv.1-3

Faith Looks Back at God’s Faithfulness (V.1-3)

In the midst of grief, it is easy to forget that you laughed or smiled or were joyful. The great lie of the Enemy is to heap more guilt and shame where the Lord has restored. It is a good thing to look back at life and see how God saved you. How he delivered you. // Maybe it was a job that sucked life out of you. Maybe it was an overdose that didn’t kill you. Maybe it was a friend that was crazy. Maybe it was a a darkness that would not lift. // Each one of us, if we will have the eyes of faith to see how we are still alive. We’re still breathing. If we have eyes to see that, even now is a gift, it’s a sign of God’s deliverance and that he’s not done with you.

But looking back isn’t fun sometimes is it? We have to come to terms with the fact that too many times it was our decisions that brought harm to us.

After all, this is what Israel had to face. They had been thrown into Exile because of their choice to follow their own way rather than bend their knees to God.

Yet we see that God is not like you and me. They had rebelled, yet they were brought back to a place of abundance. Someone failed us or hurt us or said one thing and did another? We condemn. We despise. We hate. // Praise God (!), he is not like us. Nor does he treat us as our sins deserve! V.1: The Lord restored. V.2: The Lord has done great things. Repeat. V.3: The Lord has done great things.
The tendency in life is to think that “I’m going to fix this. I’m going to double-down and tighten my boots.” But faith looks at God’s faithfulness. The Lord restored his people. When they were in Exile, what did they do to get out of that slavery? They didn’t try to coerce or make it happen. They owned their sin and they cried out to God. As slaves in Egypt…They cried out.
The first step to restoration is repenting. It’s seeing a situation and really repenting. Crying out to God and saying, “Show me your ways and I will walk in them.”

You and I too often run to other streams, first. We put our hope in our ability. I’m gonna be a better parent. I’m gonna be a better husband. I’m gonna try harder. But we must start by crying out to God. //. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good thing to want to be better. That’s what God is seeking to do in our lives. To re-shape us, to restore us to his image that we were created in.

When God created Adam and Eve in the Garden, he said, “Let us make humankind in our image.” So in the image of God he created male and female. In the image of God. You are made in the image of God!

When we sinned against God, the image of God in us was not lost. It was scarred. And God is not simply putting makeup on the scars. He is doing reconstructive surgery on our hearts.

And it’s this reconstructive surgery that is so painful in our lives. Because as we ascend the heights, our hearts still hurt. We remember that we experienced joy, but it seems so far away. That laughter and joy and gladness, seem like a distant memory. A dream.

Faith Looks Forward to God’s Faithfulness (vv.4-6)

If God was faithful to you in the past, why would he stop now? If God was good to you in the past, why would he stop being good now? Our problem is that we look to the streams in our life and assume 1:1 correspondence between them and God. People betray us. People harm us. So we think the same of God. All good things flow from him, but they are not him. What seems like harshness is his severity. Severity because he is committed (more committed than us) to change us…to make us better.

We see again that, while we run to other streams that we think will satisfy, they will always dry up. Family will fail you. Friends will turn on you. That job that was so good, will frustrate you. Because God is leading you into the desert. He’s taking you into a dry and weary land where there is no water…

God is not content to let us live in the clouds. He’s pulling our feet down into the sand. He’s forcing us to see how everyone and every hope and every dream will run dry. He leads us to the desert.

So that we cry out to him. V.4 “Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb—this is the desert region in the south of Israel.” So that we see that he is the stream in the desert. He is the one who satisfies us. He is who we were created to be filled up with.

But it’s only when our other streams run dry and our tears seem to run dry, that brings shouts of joy. When we truly experience the deliverance and restoration of God in our lives, then we shout for joy. We can’t hold back. We may look like a fool to others, but we know who has delivered us and it really doesn’t matter what they think anyway does it? They didn’t deliver us! They didn’t save us! They didn’t satisfy the thirst of our souls. So we shout and declare among the nations—“The Lord has done great things for me!”

But this shouting for joy is not separate from the tears. For those of us who are struggling right now, this may seem so far away from your experience. // The Lord is shaping you even now in the Negeb. He wants to remind you that, although the weight seems heavy and the faucet of tears still drips and flows at times…he is watering the soil of your life. To be able to receive him. To receive his goodness. To receive his power of deliverance. But our eyes of faith have to be washed with the saline of suffering.

Do you remember what we heard in Isaiah 43:
18 “Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.

What is this new thing? Well, we got a glimpse of it in our reading from John’s Gospel.

Jesus came to the town of Bethany to see three of his beloved friends, one more time. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus—whom Jesus had raised from the dead. John mentions this because he doesn’t want us to forget that Jesus was at the tomb of Lazarus when he died and Jesus wept. He wept with Mary and Martha. And he said to them: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Why? Because he came to die for all those who turn from their ways and bow their knees to him. Who submit to him as King of their lives.

While all the pain and suffering we experience now seems overwhelming, we are reminded that we have one great suffering left. Each of us will die. And yet, even this desert is made into a river. A river that carries us to God. For whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.

During this season of Lent we have been spending time in the Psalms. The Psalms are not merely a collection of poems of the Hebrew people, they are a collection of songs that resonate with us because they are unabashedly honest in the struggle of life. They are ecstatic reflections on God’s goodness in the face of man’s sinfulness. They give us a vocabulary and a model for how we can come to terms with the stuff of life. This is the beauty of the Christian faith. We don’t merely worship a God who is entirely otherworldly—as though he flung the stars into space and sits back and watches. This, however, can often be our experience.

But what we will see today is that the Christian faith is one of experience. It’s too common to draw a hard and fast line between the seen and the unseen. What I have been at pains over the last year and half in our existence as a church is to show how the unseen is seen in the the seen. It is not one of separateness. Rather, it is, as the Apostle Paul says, the great mystery of Christ in you. The hope of glory is not distant. It is in you. How is this the case? It happens in every single conversation you have—Christ is there. Every sadness—Christ is there. Every victory—Christ is there. Every moment of everyday—Christ is in you. It is imperative for us to recognize this beautiful and fearful truth.
A couple weeks ago in Psalm 27, we considered how our fears can be defeated. I mentioned two very pivotal pieces: A Surpassing Beauty and A Greater Love. That is, when we see God in the face of Jesus Christ, we are so overcome by his love and compassion for us that we are driven through our fear. We are able to move forward even though we are afraid. Our psalm today gives us a third way to combat fear: A Greater Fear. One of the reasons we are paralyzed with what people think of us is because we have made their acceptance and love of more importance and value than God’s opinion of us and importance to us.
We can talk about grace and love and acceptance, but it’s when we leave this place and talk to other people…that’s when we really see what the motivating force in our lives is.
Psalm 34.1-14
This psalm was written after the Lord saved David out of the hand of the Philistine King named Achish. The name for the Philistine King was Abimelek—which means “my father is king”—like a title of Caesar. You can read more about this in 1Sam 21. And this psalm is one of deep reflection. This psalm is an acrostic psalm. Each verse in this psalm begins with a succeeding letter of the alphabet. Picture David in a cave writing out this psalm. What this communicates is a deep reflection. It signifies completeness. It could also be used to teach others…succeeding generations. More in a minute, but our experiences are meant to be shared.
(1) Not alone in your struggle.
I wish had all the time to walk through this line by line. I’d encourage you to do that at home tonight. Read it out loud. Slowly. Listen to David. Listen to God. This psalm—like the Christian faith—is meant to be experienced. You see this throughout the psalm. When we are struggling, we can often feel like we are alone. In fact, we gravitate toward it. We have to fight the tendency we all have to try to get our life together and then we’ll let people in.
The truth is, letting people in frees you from having to get it together. What we see in this psalm is that we are never alone. What you’re going through. I promise, someone else has gone through it. That never minimizes the struggle. But it spreads out the weight of it. If you try to carry it on your own and think that you were meant to, it will crush you. And you can hear someone in this church telling you—whatever you’re carrying—I have been there. Whatever weight is laying on your chest right now, know that there are others to help carry it…if you will let them know.
(2) Need a Greater Fear
We all are afraid of something. What will drive you through that fear is a greater fear. Picture the great lion Aslan. Our great call is to come to God to satisfy us. Hear this from the Chronicles of Narnia story The Silver Chair:
“Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.
"I am dying of thirst," said Jill.
"Then drink," said the Lion.
"May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
"Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
"Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.
"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.
"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."
"There is no other stream," said the Lion.”
Our call is to recalibrate our fears. We are often afraid of people not liking us. They are bigger than God. We are afraid of death. It becomes more sure than God. We are afraid of starvation or joblessness or poverty. Our comforts have become more important than the call to make Jesus our lasting treasure. Whatever is most important to us, that is what rules us.
(3) Deeper into heart of God
We are called to seek the Lord (v.10). What is more, David commands us to fear the Lord. V.9
We have too often looked around at our lives and say, “I lack! I don’t have the spouse I’ve been longing for. I don’t have the job I really wanted. I don’t have the money I need. I lack!” But God has not promised that. He promises himself. But that’s not enough. I don’ want that.
What God is calling us into is a deeper and more lasting treasure. You see, a spouse will always fail you. A job will always lead you to retirement. External and temporal possessions will never lead to lasting joy. We know that in our heads. But God is lovingly—through experience—driving it into every fiber of our being.
//Alan Gardner, a missionary in 1851, was shipwrecked with others off the coast of South America. He was the last one still living. When his journal was found after his death, it quoted Psalm 34:10: “Young lions so lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” As he was dying of hunger, Gardner wrote his last line: “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.”//
Adversity, difficulties drive us to God. They drive us into the very heart of God. The Lord cares for us too much to give us everything we want. Even good things. He is better than our very life. Until we believe that, life will seem overly cruel. It will seem like a fire that consumes without end.
Vv.15-22
(4) To be brokenhearted and crushed is the call
“The fear of the Lord is indeed the foundation of life, the key to joy in life and long and happy days. But it is not a guarantee that life will be always easy, devoid of the difficulties that may seem to mar so much of human existence. The fear of the Lord establishes joy and fulfillment in all of life’s experiences. It may mend the broken heart, but it does not prevent the heart from being broken; it may restore the spiritually crushed, but it does not crush the forces that may create oppression. The psalm, if fully grasped, dispels the naïveté of that faith which does not contain within it the strength to stand against the onslaught of evil”
Do you hear the anguish in David’s cry? The Christian faith is not meant to make things easier. It makes us come to the end of ourselves everyday and see that Jesus is enough. I don’t say this flippantly. If we’re honest, we want life to be relatively easy. But that’s not life in a fallen world.
If you are seeking the Lord, you will also cry for help. Your heart will be broken. Your spirit will be crushed.
After all, we hear the echo of John’s Gospel in this passage. He draws attention to the fact that at the crucifixion, none of Jesus’ bones were broken. Is he just trying to find a cool prooftext? No. He’s highlighting the fact that the only Righteous One suffered. The only Innocent One was abandoned and condemned so that we will never be condemned.
(5) Experience is only completed when shared with others
As you are pressing into the heart of God, you will find him to be sweeter than life itself. This is our call as those who follow Jesus. Not that he saves us, but that he saves brothers and sisters we don’t know yet. Having experienced the satisfying water, we are compelled to tell others. Not because it’s simply the right thing to do. It’s the natural overflow of deep communion with God.
Throughout this psalm, David is not content to be holed up in a cave and just thanking God. Our praise is always and ever will be intended to bring others into magnifying that praise. 
V.2-3: Let the humble hear // Magnify the Lord with me! Let us exalt his name together! 
V.11: Come, listen to me. I will teach you.
“I have experienced the fearful and severe and satisfying and wrecking love of God. Taste this living water. Taste and see that, not in spite of your difficulties, but in the midst of him revealing his goodness to you in the marred face of Jesus, he is good.”
Do you want to conquer fear? Fear of others. Fear of circumstances. Fear of change. Of the unknown? Declare the greatness and overpowering greatness of God. David might have felt alone in front of the Philistine king. In the cave. But he remembered God’s faithfulness and declared it. Recount God’s good deeds toward you in the past to fight fear and being destitute now.