Revelation: The Antichrist; the Rapture and Other Bizarre Stories

2 John 7, Daniel 7:25-27, Mathew 24:23-26, Psalm 96

This fall we have been looking at the book of Revelation and today we wrap up that sermon series as we address some of the issues, questions and misconceptions people have of this last book of the Bible. Over the course of the last several months we have learned the book of Revelation was actually a letter written by the Apostle John primarily to the churches of modern day Turkey and most biblical scholars believe the letter ended up with the churches in Rome. While all the churches were suffering persecution, the Roman churches were being especially abused by the Roman government and by the Jews. The main purpose of the letter was to give these persecuted churches encouragement and the hope that ultimately the suffering would result in a life everlasting with God.
We cannot fathom what it was like to be a Christian in this first century. The Apostle John is being held on the island of Patmos as a prisoner which was a very difficult life - but gave him the opportunity to write. Jesus gives him a vision of what heaven is like and much of this letter is John trying to describe for us what this place is going to be like - this the streets of gold and the buildings like gems. That is not really what they are but the only human words John could think of that were even close to the splendor that awaits us in eternity.
We learned about what this letter teaches us about Jesus’ vision for his church; we learned about how this letter teaches us about worship; we looked at the good things and the bad things going on in the 7 churches, but when you look at Revelation as a whole, there is a lot more to this book - much of which is really strange and not something we understand and so we get curious and confused and often times jump to conclusions which we are not meant to reach! So today we are going to talk about some of the misinterpreted parts of this letter John has written to the churches in the 1st century.
Let’s talk about some of the bizarre images we encounter when we read through the book. First of all, these images are not meant to be taken literally. There will not be a time when a dragon or a 4 headed beast or a red lizard or a scorpion with a head on its tail will appear on the earth. Using images like this is a technique found in many parts of the Bible to talk mainly about world powers that existed during the time of the writing. Sometimes they are used just to remind us of the evil that is pervasive in our world. John is using examples of strange images that most of the people during his time period would have understood from popular folklore.
I think sometimes we forget the people the scriptures were written to lived in a specific time period and a specific place and there was a culture around them that we have no knowledge of. Think about even in our lifetime when we remember old radio shows or old TV shows and the children around us have no idea what we are talking about. One of my grandchildren came into the room and asked me what I was watching on TV and I said “Barnaby Jones” and they had no clue that was even a TV show. We have no clue of the many folk stories that were circulating during the time of John, but the people John wrote to did and the images from these stories were the basis of what John is trying to explain to them. - which boiled down to the evil governmental powers that were making life almost impossible for anyone who was part of the church of Jesus Christ.
But what we can read in Revelation, is that every one of these evil powers; every one of these horrific beasts is defeated in the end. None of them survive. Do they cause destruction and terror in the lives of the people. Yes they do. But think about the destruction and terror that swirled around the people of God in the churches during this time period. John is saying to them, regardless of this evil; regardless of the destruction; regardless of what you are going through, God will prevail and in the end. Here these words from Revelation 21:
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” 
You see, the point of the story is not to dwell on these crazy pictures, but to dwell on the fact that in the end, Jesus is going to prevail and God will make all things right. That is the message for us as well. How many times have you been in situations in your life where if felt like dragons and beasts were tormenting you? And it is then you lean on the promises of God who says to us in Revelation 21:6 - He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
So what happens in our zeal to try and explain all this strange stuff in John’s letter, we miss what the letter is trying to show us - that God will be with us and no matter what is going on, we will be able to spend eternity with a God where there is no more sadness or tears or suffering.
We also read in the book of Revelation about “The Antichrist”. We associate the Antichrist with Revelation, but actually the antichrist is mentioned throughout scripture beginning in the Old Testament - especially ini the book of Daniel. The word ‘antichrist’ just means - against Christ. Over the centuries this ‘antichrist’ has been interpreted a variety of ways - from Babylon in the books of Daniel and Ezekiel, to Rome, to Nero, to the Pope, to Hitler, to just the idea of someone or a group of someones who oppose the church. Some people think it is a political person - I remember in the 80s when folks were certain Ronald Reagan was the antichrist! Many people think antichrist refers to false teachers who invade the church and certainly that has been going on since the church first existed after the ascension of Jesus.
The Apostle Paul in the first century AD talks about the antichrist being ‘here right now’ talking about the Judiazers who were trying to distort Paul’s teachings about grace.
So what does the antichrist do? He deceives and he persecutes. He’s here right now. His spirit sounds bizarre, but his influence extends right now and is all around us. The idea of an antichrist began in the first century and extends right now through a group of false teachers who are infiltrating the church trying to water down or change or make the gospel something it is not.
Basically what it boils down to - specifically when John wrote the letter of Revelation, much of the antichrist language did refer to Rome and to the Jewish priests who had a massive campaign to destroy the church but over time the term has simply come to mean anyone - political or church who is opposed to Christianity whether it be false teachers within the church or outside forces who just want to wipe the churches out as we see in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia.
One more of the often promoted claims of what Revelation is about - is the idea of ‘end times’ and ‘rapture’ and ‘tribulation’ and that concept of what the end of the world will be like. Actually, this teaching of end times which included the rapture did not come to be part of the church until 1830 when J.N. Darby, an Irish lawyer, began to teach this idea of Christians being called up into heaven before the tribulation where those Christians who were not truly committed will be left on earth and persecuted until this great battle between the Antichrist and Christ where the devil will eventually be defeated and sent to the lake of fire. It was not a popular idea until Cyrus Scofield published his bible in the late 1800s. Scofield’s bible was a Reference Bible which means it contains explanations of many of the passages in scripture and this idea of Armageddon and rapture and such were promoted in this bible and from here slowly became a popular teaching among some denominations.
The whole concept of rapture comes from one verse which is not even in the book of Revelation but in Thessalonians verse 17 in the New King James Version: "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” But if you look at the context of this verse, it comes from a discussion Paul is having about the church in Thessalonica where the highly persecuted church was concerned about the people who had died. There had been a false teaching circulating around that when Jesus came back at the second coming, he would take those who were alive and those who were already dead would come later and have an inferior standing in heaven. In this verse in Thessalonians Paul is simply assuring the people in the congregation of the power of God and how we will all, the living and the dead, be reunited in Christ.
Here we have another of these instances where an entire theology has been based on one verse snipped out of context and turned into something it isn’t - which just reminds us how critical it is to always ready and study the Bible in context rather than a verse here and a verse there. While the rapture theology is wildly popular, it is not something that is supported through our reading of Revelation or any other book of the Bible.
I hope our study of Revelation throughout this fall has helped you in your understanding of what this letter the Apostle John is all about. It is simply a reminder we are the people of God, and throughout all the adversity we will encounter as individuals and as the church, God will prevail and we will live forever in paradise!

Amen.

REVELATION AS A PICTURE OF WORSHIP

Matthew 4:10b, Deuteronomy 12:5-7, Psalm 150, Ephesians 5:18b-20

When I was in 7th grade, it was my first year of Junior High. School systems were a little bit different back then and 7th grade was the first year out of Elementary School. I went to a small school with 2 buildings. One building housed the elementary school, grades 1 - 6 and the other building was 7th grade through 12th. Because 7 - 12 graders were all in the same building, there were several things the junior high students and the high school students did together - like some sports and activities and band. Some of us had taken band classes when we were in 6th grade and so we were able to move into the ‘big’ band in 7th grade. We really thought we were something special being able to be in band with the older kids. Except that year there was a new band director. He was a local boy and decided that he wanted to come back to town, prove himself and in the process have the best band in the state of WV. Lofty goals from a small town high school.He was determined and the band members got the brunt of his determination!
6th grade was over the end of May and a week later, the first week of June, I find myself in the high school band with a bunch of upper classmen. It was pretty intimidating. But if we were going to be the best band in the state, that took practice. And practice we did. Every day for at least 2 hours during the summer. Your parents had to practically have a legal document to get you out of these summer practices. My family didn’t usually go on summer vacations so I was there, every day…. marching, and playing, and practicing formations for the half time show. Since we were going to be the best band in the state, we had to memorize these overly ambitious half time field shows and all our music had to be memorized. It was pretty brutal - and this driven band director often wasn’t very nice or calm about mistakes. When school started the next fall and football season started, we thought we had practiced to the point where we could do this stuff in our sleep. However, practice had not stopped. Not only did we practice the hour of our class during the school day, we practiced 2 hours after school, every day. I do recall one time when we hadn’t gotten our half time show quite right and we had to practice on Saturday as well. But you know what, the next 3 years we were in that school, we were the number one marching band and the number one concert band in the state, every year. And as hard as we had worked and as much as we all complained about it, there was a sense of pride and accomplishment in what we had done. Number 1 in the state three years in a row from this small town school.
Haven’t you heard that old saying, “Practice makes perfect”? Have you ever thought about our worship services as practice - practice for something bigger and better when we transition into that eternal life with God forever?
As we continue looking at the book of the Revelation of John we remember that when John was in prison on the island of Patmos, Jesus took John to heaven and let him see what heaven was like. Along with all those bizarre images that just boggle our minds, and the 7 letters we have just studied regarding the churches, John reports a lot of experiences with worship. Over and over again in the writing of Revelation, John stops and gives us a picture of the worship in heave he witnessed in his vision from Jesus. There is more about worship in Revelation than any other book in the Bible. Throughout the letter is this pattern of worship, then violence and persecution and danger, then worship, then violence and persecution and danger, then worship. This pattern is repeated throughout John’s letter. It is as if John is saying to us, ‘in the midst of whatever is going on, there is always time to worship’.
And John helps us see that the worship we participate now is a kind of practice for the worship we will participate in for all eternity in the actual presence of God.
Here we are. We are in worship. Many of us have been going to worship almost every Sunday, literally, our whole lives. Worship is what we do as the people of God. It is instrumental, it is important and it is fundamental to our lives. But like many things that deal with our faith, we sometimes have to stop and regroup and remind ourselves why we are here worshipping our God. Seems obvious why we are here but that still doesn’t mean we don’t need to stop and think about it and renew our commitment to gather as God’s people and worship!
The word ‘worship’ means to honor and give respect to something. God repeatedly decrees that we are to worship him exclusively. Don’t think of ‘worship’ as only what we do during this time here in the sanctuary. True worship is something we should be doing all the time. God understands us and knows how quickly and easily we are distracted by the things around us - and even though we don’t label it ‘worship’, when something begins to pull us away from God and the church, we are in effect ‘worshipping’ something else - we are giving it our time, honor and allegiance. That is worship. Often as we are reading through bible stories we read that God’s people, or an individual stops and ‘worships’ God. They don’t stop and break out the bulletins and begin a worship service, they in essence just stop for a moment to honor God. It would be as if we stopped after something happened and we looked to heaven and said either in our minds or even out loud, ‘Thank you, God!” That is biblical worship - taking a moment and honoring God for whatever reason.
Then there is the context of what we would think of as worship - formal worship. The Hebrew word for ‘worship’ in a formal context means to ‘willingly bow down to the ground and acknowledging the person before them is a greater power.” When God establishes formal worship in the Old Testament in the days of Moses, this is what he has in mind. His people taking time out of their lives to bow down before him and let him know that they think he is the greatest thing ever and the most important thing in their lives. This is why God has us gather together, because he wants for us to take a moment and say to him - ‘God, you are the most important thing in my life and I acknowledge your power over my life.’ When Jesus tells us we must worship God in spirit and in truth, that is what he is talking about. Gathering together as God’s people and giving God worth; sharing music and praying and just giving our hearts and mind and soul and strength to God for an hour. Knowing that we should be doing that all the time, but we gather to give God glory in a special way as God’s people. In Revelation 4 and 7 and on and on the picture of worship consists of people gathering around the throne of God and just singing praises - the Holy, Holy, Holy hymn we sing often in worship welcomes from these passages because that is what the worshippers were singing. They were singing and bowing and praising God.
So as we gather we need to keep in mind that worship is not about us, it is not for us. We do not gather here to ‘get something out of it’. We do ‘get something out of it’ but that is not the purpose of our gathering. Formal worship is our opportunity to acknowledge that God created us, God cares for us, God forgives us, God gives us the means to live forever with him. And God demands - that is the subject of the first 4 commandments - that we take time out of our week to let him know that we appreciate who he is and what he has done for us. Think about it. There are 168 hours in a normal week - and God only asks us for 1. One hour out of 168 to honor the God who knows every hair on our head, the God who had his son die for us, the God who created the whole universe yet knows our name. And he demands that we gather for this worship together. Yes, you can stop and give God worth anywhere you are, anytime, but God has instructed us to make a time where we come together as the church and worship corporately.
John points out that this worship is going to go on forever. John gives us picture after picture of worship in this revelation of his and it is joyful singing, bowing before God, just praise. This is what giving ‘worth’ is all about. This is what worship is to be. Gathering together to give God value - to let God know that we think he is worthy of our time and our energy and our work and our service. Worship should be a joyful experience - not some formal, serious, sitting quietly in our pew. But a celebration that God has granted us a life in him. We participate in this worship, it is not something we watch, it is something we do.
This may mean we need to adjust our thinking a little about why we are here. We are to gather here because we have a desire to take an hour our of our life to let God know that he is worthy of our praise. Think about that and think whether that is part of your consciousness when you get up on Sunday morning and do what you do to get ready to come and be a part of this assembly. There should be, according to scripture, a feeling of wanting to be here because it is an opportunity to come before God and give him a moment. We come because we want to take this opportunity to thank God just for being who he is. This should be something we look forward to, we desire to do, we make every effort to do because God has made every effort to to make us his - and God enjoys our company and we should enjoy his.
This perspective is what Revelation is trying to teach us as we consider the idea of what worship is all about - and the reason for the band story in the beginning. Which I’m sure you were wandering what that was all about! We were the number one band in the state because we practiced and practiced and practiced and because we kept in front of us the reason for all the hard work - we wanted to be good at what we did. We showed up every day for those often difficult practices because we knew that was how we were going to get better at being a great marching band.
Revelation calls us to think about wanting to be good at what we are called to do as a church - which is to gather and to worship God in spirit and truth. To really in our heart of hearts gather because we want to be here to let God know his value and his worth and because we realize that if we are going to get better at this, we are going to have to practice again and again and again - every Sunday (or whenever we choose to gather) for the rest of our lives.
Until we gather for all eternity in that ultimate worship before our God in heaven.
Amen

Revelation: The Church at Laodicea
“The Lukewarm Church”

Ezekiel 16:49, 2 P Psalm 34 Peter 1:3-10,Luke 9:23-24
So how many of you think that the reason the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their immorality? And yes, that was a part of it but let’s read why God says these cities were blown up. Here’s what God says in the book of Ezekiel about why he chose to level these cities: ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned;”. So God does away with these cities and all the people except Lot and his family because they were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned - it was apathy towards the things of God and the people of God that destroyed these cities - and that brings us to city #7 in the book of Revelation - the church at Laodicea. Listen to the passage in Revelation 3:14-22 regarding what Jesus says to this church:
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning[a] of God’s new creation: “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see.  I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.
 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Jesus is so disgusted with this city of Laodicea that he has absolutely nothing good to say about it - he is so upset that he says to this congregation that he wants to ‘spit them out of his mouth’ - actually that is the nice translation - the actual Greek says, “I want to vomit you out of me”. Jesus is not happy.
Laodicea was located in what is modern day Turkey. It occupied a plateau several hundred feet up in the mountains. It was a prosperous center of banking and commerce. It was famous for clothing made from the wool of black sheep which made a very fine, soft, sought after material and for a popular eye salve produced by its medical school. The wealth in the city had been used to build theaters, a huge sports stadium, lavish public baths and a fabulous shopping center. It was a great place to live: the land of opportunity. You had a good life and plenty of fun and entertaining things to do.
There was pagan worship there - a temple for the worship of the Roman Empire. Their ‘god’ was the city of Rome and they worshipped the leadership and just the idea of the power of Rome. A large Jewish community lived in Laodicea and they exhibited part of the problem with the Christian church - they had watered down their practice of Judaism by integrating into the Greek culture. For example, there are documents found from this city where the Jews had rewritten the story of Noah and the flood to incorporate the Roman myths about this flood.
In sprite of its prosperity, the city had a major strategic weakness - the lack of an adequate and convenient water source. Water had to be piped in using an aqueduct from springs 6 miles away. An enemy could easily cut off the water supply, leaving the city helpless. What made this water problem even more ironic, was the fact that If you’d gone a little way north you could have bathed in the hot springs as people still do today. If you’d gone south you’d have come to the mountain springs with their cool refreshing water. If you’d gone east you would have found cold pure water to refresh you. But in Laodicea they were dependent on the aqueduct, a pipeline that ran above ground for several miles and by which time the water reached Laodicea it had warmed up to an unsatisfying, lukewarm state. So the city may have been very prosperous and a great place to live, but the water was nasty! Remember, this is before the days of refrigeration or bottled spring water!
So Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, you are just like your water - Lukewarm. Hot water is good for drinking hot tea or bathing, Cold water is refreshing and great to drink on a hot day but lukewarm water has no real purpose. It is not good for anything. So Jesus says, hot is good, cold is good, but lukewarm is not worth anything. He says to the church, “You guys are lukewarm. How I wish you were hot or cold. Because hot or cold you would be useful, but the way you are now is worth nothing.” The heart of the problem at Laodicea was that they just didn’t care. Jesus just wasn’t that important to them, there were too many other things that they had to think about, too many other things going on in their lives. They did what they needed to do for the church. They participated when it didn’t interfere with something else but their hearts and minds were far from the commitment Jesus demands of us. Remember ‘love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength’? That means, total, every day, every thing we do, commitment to Christ and that just wasn’t part of the Laodicean church.
Most of you have probably seen the picture of Jesus standing outside a door knocking. Looks like he is in a garden. The big deal about this picture was the fact that if you look at the door there is no door handle. It has often been said that this picture is to represent Jesus asking non believers to invite him into their heart. That is not at all what the picture is about. A little history - it was painted in 1853 by William Holman Hunt and is titled “Jesus the Light of the World” because in the original painting Jesus is carrying a lantern as he knocks on the door. Hunt wanted people to see the overgrown grown garden around the door as if it had been a very long time since the garden was tended or the door was opened. He painted it specifically to represent this passage from Revelation referring to the church of Laodicea.
Hunt knew the true meaning of the words of Jesus to the church of Laodicea “I stand outside the door and knock” was not referring to people accepting Jesus and becoming a part of the church - but was referring to the church itself. Remember, this letter to the church of Laodicea was written to people who were already members of this church; they had already ‘accepted’ Jesus. They were baptized, participating members of that church. What Hunt - and Jesus - are trying to help us see is that this church was chugging along without Jesus. So what does that mean? That really doesn’t make any sense. By definition isn’t Jesus always part of the church?
Not necessarily. This church is doing church stuff. But Jesus is far from their thoughts and minds as they do this ‘church stuff’. So Jesus tells them first that they are so despicable that he is going to spit them out of his mouth. Reminds me a little of how I feel some mornings when I am working at my desk with my cup of coffee. I pour the coffee and it is nice and steaming hot as I go to the desk and I take a few sips and it is really good……. but then I get busy working and working and working and I reach over and take a sip of the coffee and it is now lukewarm and there is nothing yuckier tasting than a lukewarm cup of coffee and I get that screwed up look on my face when you taste something nasty and what I would really like to do is spit out that coffee - fortunately I resist that impulse. Jesus says the church is like that sip of bitter coffee because the church does not have the love of Jesus in their hearts and minds as they participate in the work of the church.
And that picture with the untended garden leads us to believe the church is doing nothing for their community - the church is so internalized Jesus’ call to care for those in need is just not being done. The church is all about the church and nothing about living out Jesus’ mission to the world around it.
The greatest insight into their failure is v20 of that Revelation passage: "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me." Far from being a harsh letter, you see, this is actually a love letter, offering a restoring of the relationship that they’ve let slip. You see we get so caught up in doing ‘church stuff’ that we think we are more than capable to do what needs to be done. We’ve cooked and we’ve worshiped and we have done our fund raisers and we have conducted our meetings and we’ve had activities and we have managed to get it all done and it has done well. And ‘we’ have done it and the more ‘we have done it’ the less participation we allow Jesus because we think ‘we have done it’ and we really don’t need him. The apathy of the Laodicean church was not a ho hum about the church, it was a ho hum about Jesus. We get busy doing church stuff and we forget that we are here to work side by side with Jesus and that Jesus wants to be a conscious part of that work.
But Jesus wants to restore the relationship with us and with HIS church. And he isn’t going to wait around any longer for an invitation. He’s knocking on the door waiting for the Laodiceans to open the door and invite him in. Now in that culture when someone knocks on the door there’s an imperative to show hospitality. So this carries both an offer of intimacy but also a hint of demand. Jesus is insisting that they pay attention to him, that they give up their self reliance and turn back to the relationship that they should have with him.
And in turn he promises that if they’ll repent and turn back to him, he’ll remain with them and help them and guide them and lead them into truly living with Christ in spirit and truth.
So what does this mean for us? It means we need to stop and evaluate. How much of church is just routine? We just do what we need to do when it needs done. What conscious thought of Jesus is there? Is our commitment to Jesus - or to ‘our church’?

Amen.